We found out Friday that Rock n Roll’s brother Mason was in Seattle this weekend and decided to suprise the boys. We were heading up to Whidbey Island to see Rock n Roll’s grandparents which the boys knew about, but we told them we were going to make a stop in Seattle first to pick up a “package”. When Mason walked out of the hotel instead of a box both boys yelled, SAM!!!!!! LOL. Sorry Mason. And then they both proceded to call him that all weekend long. We kept telling them, “Sam is bald, Mason has hair.” It became a mantra. We also suprised Grandma and Grandpa Hymas. They didn’t know what they were seeing when Rock n Roll and Mason walked up to the door both in black shirts and jeans. They look so much alike!!! They were thrilled of course and we had a great afternoon with them, making cookies and catching up.The boys had a blast with Mason, though I’m sure they wore him out. They didn’t want to let him go!

Earthquake
Whew! We survived December, but just barely! 2 feet of snow that kept us holed up in our house for over a week before Christmas and then as if that weren’t enough we then had to endure 3 days of Island Status as our small town on a hill become no longer an ice rink, but an island. All that amazing “We’re having a white Christmas for the first time ever” snow melted and took over all the towns and valleys in it’s way with record flooding. We couldn’t get in our out of Duvall for 2 days. People had to be boated across the valley to ambulances if they were unlucky enough to need one. This is the second time in the four years we’ve lived here that this has happened. It’s only supposed to happen every 10 years. Hmm, someone is not doing the math right. And someone is not doing the road engineering nor the road clean up right either, but that is a topic for another blog. So, we’ve decided…Earthquake is next. Definately.

Christmas 2008
I never did blog about Christmas, so here’s a quick summary.

The Live Nativity on Christmas Eve. Don’t they look… wise? Mr. Pres told his primary teacher a few years back that we didn’t have enough people to have 3 wise men but that “Mom and Dad are workin on it”. Unbeknownst to him we actually were working on it at the time and the 3rd is now in training and should be ready to participate by next year.

Just as we were putting the finishing touches on Christmas at about midnight…and by the way, the reason we were up till midnight when this was actually supposed to be a very easy Santa visit was due to technical difficulties which Santa learned a great lesson from. Always open things well before Christmas Eve to make sure they work right–Cause Costco aint open at midnight. Let’s just say that a VERY patient man and a paper clip saved the night. Who’d a thunk I was married to McGuiver! Anyway, just about midnight the power, which had been threatening to go out all week, actually did go out. We then spent another little while getting the house ready for a very cold night. I’ve never been so happy to see my clock blinking then when I woke up Christmas morning. Turns out we were only out of power for a few hours.
And we had a wonderful WHITE Christmas morning. (Try to look past the fake paper snowflakes to the real snow beyond in the window.)

The New Sister in Law
After Christmas I went down to my parent’s house for my brother’s Open House. It was great fun to get to know Penny. She is a sweetheart and it’s great to have another sister! The best part was seeing how happy Derek is and watching him serve Penny and tend to her every need. He will be a fabulous husband and she is a lucky lady! I don’t know that I could handle someone feeding me, but hey, to each his own! (wink)

The New School Year
Mr. President was supposed to start his first week of school on the 5th, but due to snow on Monday and then flooding on Thursday and Friday he had only a 2 day week! But finally this last week he was able to go all week long and has really enjoyed it. He likes his teacher and had an instant buddy in his class because our next door neighbor is in his class! I haven’t yet been able to see if things at home are “better” with him in school, but I think once we all settle into our new schedule we’ll know. I decided since Go Go would be home alone every morning now that I would put him in a co-op preschool as well 2 days a week. He started this last week and just loved it! I didn’t quite know what to do with myself with both older boys gone and Blue Jeans asleep! Don’t get me wrong, it was great, just a little bit sad. But that went away in about 5 minutes. 🙂
Here’s to a new year. Let’s hope it’s a good one… without any tears….

Admittedly, your imagination is required for this one, but I was surprised to find the boys building this instead of Santa and his sleigh. Interpretation: Yellow Playdoh=manger with baby Jesus. Tools/shape cutter=Mary on a donkey and Joseph. (And this time there was no Earthquake!)

I don’t know whether this just shows how bad a shape our roof and gutters are in, but here are the most amazing icicles I’ve ever seen! These are roughly 2 ft long or longer.
We’re still stuck in Duvall buried under 15 inches of snow and we’re supposed to get more tonight, tomorrow AND CHRISTMAS DAY! This will be my very first White Christmas! We’re just praying our heater keeps working.

Making a Gingerbread house is one of our Christmas traditions. We usually do it from scratch and it is a 3-4 day process. Rock n Roll has always insisted on doing the real thing and has looked down upon the store bought kits. But this year I managed to convince him that a kit would be a great time saver at a very busy time of year. Especially since we haven’t been able to get to this tradition every single year because it’s so time consuming. Rock n Roll survived and the experience took a total of about 2 hours even with with kids stopping to eat/trying to eat/asking to eat the candy every two seconds.
It is actually a torturous experience for them because we then give the house away to someone we know he needs it for Christmas. So this year they are looking forward to making graham cracker gingerbread houses with Grandma that they can actually eat! I’m pretty sure the graham cracker houses will become a tradition. Here’s the finished product for this year.

Happy 1st Birthday Levi! We got about a foot of snow today! We’re crossing our fingers that it won’t melt before Christmas.

Our Winter Wonderland. We are once again stuck in Duvall. The hills in town make it too dangerous to venture out. Good thing I got my Christmas shopping all done! You’d think it was Christmas morning for how excited Rock has been about the snow. He is like a little boy! He walks around the house saying, “Snow! Snow more!”

If you’re reading this blog, then you probably know that we have been homeschooling our boys. And if you are reading this blog, then I would want you to know why we are going to put a hold on homeschooling for a while. And so rather than explain myself fifty times, here is a brief explanation of our decision. Mr. President was ready to learn long before school would let him in, and so we started homeschooling and I hoped we would be able to keep going this year and into the future. However, we want to do what’s best for each child and our family. And right now it looks like a regular Kindergarten classroom is what’s best for Mr. President and our family. To make a long story short, now that Go Go is involved in our schooling, the competition and fighting that occurs between them (and me) is interfering with school and is very hard on our relationships. To reinstate peace in our home we’re going to give them and me some space. We’re also hoping that Mr. Pres. will be able to learn some much needed social skills at school like how to work well with others, how to wait your turn, how to respect authority, and that you don’t always get your way. Oh, and how to be quiet and stop talking and… and… and. We have been doing our very best to teach him those things here at home and though I think most kids can learn those things perfectly well at home, Mr. Pres. is not. I’m just going to have to face the facts. I’m exhausted emotionally and it’s taking a toll on our home and family life. He and I struggle so much because we are both firstborns and because I probably haven’t learned those social skills well enough yet either. I’m reminded of that poster “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”

“Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school. These are the things I learned:
Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup — they all die. So do we. And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: look.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living. Think what a better world it would be if we all — the whole world — had cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”
~ Robert Fulghum ~

The world would indeed be a more peaceful place if we lived by these principles. And so would our home. I have been trying to teach them in my home and will continue to do so. But for now, this mom needs a break. I’m going to let someone else have a turn at teaching my precocious, extremely intense child for part of the day for the sake of our family relationships. This has not been an easy decision. I’ve fought against it for a while. We had such a great year last year and I wanted so much to be able to keep homeschooling him. Most of you know how strongly I feel about homeschooling and it’s benefits. I hope that we can try it again in a few years. But this does not mean that I will stop teaching him all together. We’ll keep exploring all the things he wants to learn as much as we can outside of school. I have a feeling Mr. Pres will be bored in school in a few years anyway and hopefully he will have gained some maturity and learned how to get along with others better by then. And hopefully his mother will have done the same!

Mr. President brought this wood helicopter set home today and when I told him I couldn’t help him with it, he built it all by himself. It was pretty darn complicated and he did it anyway. Quite an accomplishment! Way to go, Pres!