from the sidelines

Yesterday, Finn was putting on a one-man-show, playing soccer in our backyard. Calvin pulled up some little chairs and decided to watch from the sidelines,with orange kitty as his honored guest.

Finn was on a roll, and so Calvin started clapping and cheering wildy.

"Great job Finn!", he shouted.

And then I heard him quietly say "Wow, Finn is amazing", in most sincere admiration, as Finn scored his 27th goal against himself.

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Calvin pointed to this photo of Ollie and said, "Ollie is wearing a pants-hat".

I'm guessing that's because Calvin has pants in the same camouflage pattern as the hat??

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On hearing Ollie scream from the other room:

"Calvin", I hollered, "Did you hit Ollie?"

"No,  I just tackled him", he said as sweetly as possible.

I've always appreciated Calvin's honesty:) Not that he didn't get in trouble...

However, all this tackling is getting a bit out of hand lately. John has decided that it is alright for Finn and Calvin to tackle each other. Otherwise, they will be pansies, he said.

Ollie is definitely off-limits, and I am not so sure that Finn and Calvin are responsible enough to handle all this tackling business either. Since they began tackling a few weeks ago, the number of kicking and hitting incidences/accidents has multiplied exponentially. Honesty I don't remember them hitting or kicking at all before all this tackling.

pumpkins at last!

I love pumpkin patch posts. I have rather enjoyed looking at all of your lovely pumpkin photos and patiently waited for my turn to come. Day after day I hoped John and I would be able to make it happen amidst his crazy volleyball schedule. I needed John there. I cannot take pictures with 3 boys running in 3 separate directions.

I even laid out the boys' old fall clothes on their dresser, just in case.

We were planning on going camping with our church this weekend. As much as we wanted to go, it was looking more and more unrealistic as the days passed. Our house was/is in shambles and we could barely make it to the grocery store...or the pumpkin patch...let alone camping. We just did not have a peace about going, and so we decided to stay home.

Well yesterday, my big day finally came. The sun lined up with the moon and stars, and we were finally able to take the boys to the pumpkin patch. I was so excited. I even curled my hair for the occasion!

When we got there, I was a bit dismayed at all the throngs of people that decided to join us. It was really crowded. But, I decided that I was not going to let anything damper my spirits. Not even the mass swarms of humanoids.

Calvin found a great pumpkin candidate almost instantly.

Ollie, of course, instantly made a bee-line for the off-limits area. I told you I needed John there.


I found some pretty white pumpkins, and was hoping to entice the boys with them.

As challenging as it was to keep up with Ollie, it was so much fun to watch his face light up over all these glorious, magical pumpkins. He was in awe of God's creation.

Though the boys are wearing old clothes, I must confess that I did purchase them all some new sneakers last weekened. Calvin was not in dire need of a pair, but I could just not refuse these funky-fresh grey converse, complete with orange trim and lime-green laces. They had Calvin's name written all over them. No, I could not resist.

I was having a bit of trouble taking photos with all the people roaming about. The boys looked liked they were struggling a bit too.

We headed over the bridge, in search of more peaceful pastures.

I finally found the perfect little nook, that was out of the way of everyone. It was perfect, complete with a little pond and barn in the background. I gathered my troops and started to set up camp. My kids looked a bit stone-faced, but I figured I had a few more minutes to mix things up before the sun went down.



And this is when things started to go down-hill. Finn and Calvin informed us that they had to whiz. My heart literally sank. All I wanted was a couple of nice family photos. But this was not going to happen. We literally had 10-15 minutes before the sun would go down.

Such is life, when you are dealing with pint-sized bladders. And that is ok. That is our life right now, and so what you see is what you get.

Back we went, over the bridge, fighting the mass humanoid swarms, once again. Out to the parking lot to our new destination. This was our definite low point.

Ollie was a bit of a bear, desperately trying to claw his way into the outhouses. It was difficult to restrain him.

After all the whizzing, we went back to my nook, and John took some photos of me and the boys.





Ollie did not want to take photos with me. He would much rather play with his new pumpkin toys.

As the sun went down, the festive white lights began to twinkle.

I really wished I had paid more attention in my photo class when they were discussing night-shooting. I kind of tuned out once they started talking about tri-pods and special flash apparatus. It really is a pity, because this place actually would have been quite beautiful to shoot at night.

My Squishy

I shall call him squishy,

And he shall be mine.

And he shall be my squishy.

From Dory the fish, upon meeting a baby jellyfish

Calvin is one of the most cuddly, huggable, squishy thing I've ever met.

There is just something about his composition that makes his hugs the best ever. 

And so I shall call him squishy, and he shall be mine:)

When I first started calling him "squishy" a few weeks ago, he said "I am not your squishy. Ollie is your squishy".

No, no Calvin, Ollie is not my squishy. Ollie is 100% solid. No squish there. And Finn? He's very skinny and has no squish-factor whatsoever. I love all my boys' hugs equally, but there is just something extra special about Calvin's hugs. In fact, I cannot go more than an hour or 2 without requesting hugs all around. I pay no regards towards personal space issues.

And he's gotten used to me calling him "squishy" lately. I think he kind of likes it. We still call him GeGe too, but I think squishy may be here for a while. 

Where's Finn?

As soon as Finn hit age 4, he abruptly stopped napping. It was so weird. He went from sleeping long 3-hour naps, to zero naps, overnight. And he seems to function fine that way, for the most part.

Now that Ollie and Calvin both finally go down for naps together after lunch, our afternoons can be very quiet around here. Gloriously quiet. Finn normally comes into my room and shoves his Sparky book in my face and tries to force me into saying verses with him. And sometimes, when this crew just gets too boring and too quiet for too long, Finn finally gives up and joins his brothers in the wonderful world of sleep. Not always. Just sometimes.

One particularly dull afternoon, I noticed Finn napping on his green sleeping bag in my room and I had to dry my hair. So I turned on the blower and disturbed my sweet prince from his slumber, and he walked out of my room.

After drying my hair, I went in the family room to see what happened to Finn.

No Finn.

I checked the living room.

No Finn.

Hm, that's odd, I thought.

I went back to my room and looked everywhere, including the closets, but still NO Finn.

Both Calvin's and Ollie's rooms had their doors closed, so he couldn't be in there.I wasn't panicking yet, but I was getting awfully curious.

I re-checked the family room and living room again, this time calling his name. "pssst Fi-in".

No answer.

And then, I noticed the cushions looked a little "off" in the living room.

Are you sleeping,

Are you sleeping? 

Brother Finn? 

Brother Finn?

And sure, enough, there was my little squirt, all curled up with his beloved nemo, behind the couch cushions like a small animal, fast asleep.

He looked so sweet and meager, I just had to take a picture.

a meme for me(warning--lots of photos)

I was recently tagged by The Things We Do. Thank you!

1)What were you doing 10 years ago?
Oh boy!
I was a bleach blonde that wore ridiculous short-shorts...



as a science geek at CSUF...



as a newly-wed...



that loved puppies(Olive in particular)...



and babies(holding Jessica's firstborn Tacy).



2)Things "to do" list for today.
I really need to finish editing a bunch of photos of my friend's baby girl. Here are a few.










and I need to iron-on Calvin's Luv E. Lamb patch for Cubbies.

and I need to go to the post office. I think I can, I think I can. Who am kidding? The likelihood of me dragging 3 boys into the post office today is slim-to-none.

3. What is your favorite snack?
Fresh home-made salsa with warm restaurant-style chips. Or home-made bread.


4.If you were a millionaire, you would....
Probably not tell anyone, LOL! Ok, that is a loaded question. Of course I hope I would do something extremely selfless and worthy with the proceeds. Truth be told, I am glad I am not a millionaire, because there would be so much temptation involved. I would probably buy some new curtains and some nice-fitting clothes too and that wedding ring. And, and...see, my list is already growing.

5) List 5 places you have lived.
First, I was born and raised in a red house near the mountains.


Second. I lived in various housing arrangments while a student at APU, ranging from dorms with roommates to married housing with John. Here is our first real place as a couple. I just became interested in decorating, and somehow thought sticks and blue foiliage were appropriate for sprucing up the place???




Here are some checkered valences that John sewed, since I did not know how to sew yet. And we stuffed them with newspaper for oomph. LOL! Don't ask about my hat. I have no idea if I actually wore that out in public, with my high-waisted shorts.



Third. Right after graduating APU, I became a *high-powered career woman*, teaching high school. With our combined incomes, John and I were able to afford this cute apartment in Glendora...



...where I soon discovered that I would be forever cursed as a "frequent decorater". Here is our kitchen, with John's little curtains, and lots of daisies. I was obsessed with daisies.

It wasn't long before I hated daisies. I found some new fabric, and it was a "dawing of a new era." Gone, were John's curtains(which I will forever cherish, by the way). Sister Jessica helped me sew my first project ever: slip covers for my folding chairs. Because that is what every new beginning sewer starts with, right?

I was completely overwhelmed by the awkwardness of the project and secretly became very scared of sewing. Jessica helped me sew the first slipcover and I made the rest. She also helped me sew my very first curtains ever.



My old sticks in my new digs...not for for long though.



I soon discovered that I did not like teaching naughty high-schoolers and so I retired after just 1 year of teaching. There went my pay-check, and my beautiful apartment.

Fourth. We moved across the street to a cheaper apartment and I started attending CSUF as a grad student. I figured we would be here for a while and wanted to paint my apartment, but there was a "no painting" policy.

So, I presented the lady/landlord with a laminated petition of my paint swatches and coordinating fabric swatches. How could she say no? Nobody can resisit lamination. We painted the walls perriwinke. Omigosh, I know. Well, John painted, while I studied for qualifying exams. I was devasted that my new kitchen had NO windows for my new curtains that Jess and I slaved over:



So someone got the bright idea(not sure who) to put up some mirrors as fake windows.

Clever, no?

I was back in business, and re-decorated the living room as well. Hideous, I know:(


It actually changed even more when I discovered painting wood, but have I have no photos of this. We were very happy here... aside from the puddle we had to jump over every day to get to our door...and the treacherous parking lot. We lived there till we bought our very first house, which we still live in today.

Fifth. We hooted and hollered the whole drive up to our new house. We were so excited. I have lost count of all the decorating phases this house has been through. Here is our current abode. For now.

























The floral curtains gotta go! I am trying to sell my pool table, so I can convert the area to a music room for the drum sets.


Then I can reclaim my space!


6. Now tag 5 people.
Sister Jessica
Lorieloo
CeCe
Talia
Megan