Bedtime Chats

Time for a brief flashback.  Bringing this one out from the Vault!  I just found this draft from 2007 or 2008 when Ella was three and we must've watched some of Lord of the Rings with her.  (I would never do that now.)  It must've stuck with her because this was a bedtime conversation with her.  P.S. I think it's entertaining what Ephraim feeds their little brains.

Ephraim: "Now, Shelob was the last offspring of Ungoliant who was pure darkness and came from the Undying Lands."
Ella: "And Sam killed the spider with a sword."

Ella's comments, I typed as she spoke:
I know something about Lord of the Rings, about the big spider. Shelob.

Do you know what, I know something, I know what the ents were doing at the tower. Watch my hand. (throw motion) Throwing rocks. That's what the ents were doing at the tower.

Why? Becasue all the orcs were at the big tower. So they want to open the doors so they can get in. Some of the ents were the big guys.
I know something, Gollum climbed down the rocks and the woke up Sam and Frodo. Because they were sleeping. Because he thought that he was part of them.
What did they drop in the volcano...?
That goes on your finger...?
I know something about that.
Frodo's ring
Gollum dropped it in.
Because after he dropped it gollum was gone and the ring was gone.

--I love how tolkien stories provoke thought whether you're 3 or 30.

Linus is One!

A year ago Linus was born.  It was a fast delivery, and he's been a sweet baby.  We are excited to celebrate his first year with us. 

The night before his birthday my elves and I assembled treat baggies with marshmallows, fruit loops, and raisins, which we took to school.

Isaac has afternoon kindergarten, so I take the boys to school from 11-2:30.  Owen and Linus are in the daycare class for lunch, storytime, naps, and snack time.  On this day, his class had a little party for him.

 He wasn't too excited about eating the plate full of treats.  So I ate it for him.

 When I picked him up later, they had given him a bath and since I hadn't packed extra clothes, they put him in this:

 Cute huh.  That evening we had a farewell party for some friends, so we didn't celebrate Linus' birthday until the next day, Saturday.  We ate brownies.

I love Linus for many reasons.  He was my easiest labor and delivery.  He's pretty mellow.  He's very snuggly.  He brightens up when I enter the room.  He laughs when I change his diaper.  He says mamamama and sings when he hears music.  He's patient when Owen tackles him.  He looks adorable when he sleeps.  And he looks the most like his father.  Happy Birthday, Little One.

Sweet Samoan Ride

Remember how our car got damaged?  Well, that was a month ago. Now we have two windows replaced, and we're waiting for our windshield to come on a ship (end of June).  In the meantime, we borrowed a car from our good friends the Monsons.  But they needed it back.  So now, our other good friends the Pili's have lent us their extra car for a few weeks.   And it's a BIG GMC Yukon!

 It's been fun driving this car.  The Yukon seats 9, costs $90 to fill, and was made for people bigger than me.  It's a perfect car for a Samoan family.  When I sit in the drivers seat, my knees don't reach the end of the seat, and I have to scoot the seat up really far so I can reach the pedal.   The Pili's need the car back soon, so we'll be borrowing a smaller car from other friends. We are SO thankful to have a vehicle to use for now.  What would be do without friends?

Beach in the Evening

Last week was super busy.  So we HAD to take a few hours one evening to get sandy and play with crabs.  We packed tuna sandwiches and headed to Fatumafuti.  

 Owen's yelling "I have SAND in my mouth!"

 Skipping stones.

Samoan Phonetic Phun

I like to take notes in church.  But sometimes my notes don't have much to do with the topic.  I like to sketch pretty puletasi designs I see.  And I like to write how people speak.  Among my stuff, I found this list of phonetically-written words and phrases.  I don't have time, knowledge or desire to figure out how to insert proper IPA symbols, and you probably don't have the time, knowledge, or desire to figure out how to read them, so I'll just write them with our alphabet.  Read the vowels in their pure form (as if it were Spanish or Japanese, or Samoan).

1. Asaiwas - As I was
2. Wadafou - Wonderful
3. Pikas - because
4. Wihafpinbleswif - we have been blessed with
5. Laifentef - life and death
6. Tcheujuen - children
7. Fefunes - faithfulness
8. Tisaia - desire
9. Inodofohimdududet - in order for him to do that
10. Fada - father
11. Dalidofings - the little things
12. Kud - good
13. Efitens - evidence

See wasn't that phun?

School Girl

School Girl

Who’s the new girl on campus?  It’s virtually me!  And if you’re taking online classes, maybe we could virtually hang out at the caf.  Or virtually take a road trip on Spring Break.  Or virtually skip class to go virtual cosmic bowling!

I’ll be doing the Online Master of Education degree in Curriculum Studies with a Middle Level and Secondary Level Emphasis

Why I am doing grad school:

1. To actually know what I’m doing at the school
2. To become the cool middle school teacher
3. To better serve those cool middle school kids
4. To understand my future teenagers
5. To get a good job
6. To buy a house in Hawaii
7. To be like my mom
8. It’s so “in” right now
9. Free tuition at UH (Thanks, honey!)
10. I don’t have enough to do.  Ha ha ha.

How I’m doing grad school:

11. Poorly (ha ha ha, I had to put an adverb in there)
12. With my lil’ iBook G4
13. One-handed with a child on my lap
14. At 20 kB/s
15. Every Monday night online (move family night to Sunday)

Before you get too impressed, I should tell you—acceptance was not competitive.  In fact they’re still accepting applications if you’re interested.  And don’t tell the committee, but I’m sure I will be as mediocre with this as I have been with the previous 33 years of my life (divine tender mercies excluded).

I’m sure I will follow my personal productivity equation:

Quality of my work = [(Time I SHOULD spend/2)-(Family time + Dinner/cleanup time + Church responsibility time)] x Prayers¹⁰

So basically, it’s all about the prayers.

So if I blog even less for the next two years, just assume I’m sitting in front of the computer with a baby on my lap, one-handed, being a school girl.

Mad Faces - Dinnertime Entertainment

 Owen started it.  At dinner one night, he gave us the "black look" and it made everyone crack up.  So we all had to try it.