Brainectomy

Tori, Harper, Hayden, Landon. TORI, HARPER, HAYDEN, LANDON! This is what I've been listening to for the past 5 hours. WHY? It's a direct result from lack of homework. The girls are so desperately bored out of their minds that they are now competing over who can say the names of their cousins the fastest. ~Tori, Harper, Hayden, Landon... Toriharperhaydenlandon. They've said it in every possible way. They've stood on their heads, said it backwards while holding their tongues, and even tried to say it with water in their mouth. The water thing ended with Savannah choking and then coughing until she vomited. And still she is so desperately bored that she asked for a redo only to cough and vomit again. Tori HARPER HAYDENlandon. AHHHGGG!

After putting a halt to the 'name your cousins til you vomit game', the girls quickly came up with a more exciting game which they have named 'The Sticky fingers challenge'. This game involves gluing two fingers together with the super glue that came in the 'kid safe' glamour nail set and seeing who can pull their fingers apart the fastest. After they figured out that the glue wasn't coming off anytime soon and the fact that they were quite possibly disfigured for life, they returned to the first game... Tori, Harper, Hayden, Landon...

Meanwhile, Hudson is running around and announcing to anyone that will listen that his poopie has nuts in it (I know~ too much info!) "Poopie nut poopie nut!" and when the girls wouldn't let him join in the Sticky fingers game he called them a poopie nut. So now I am listening to a choir of shouts, "Tori, Harper HAYDEN LANDON" and Hudson shouting in between each name, "Poopie nut Poopie nut." I guess that poopie thing comes with the age. For some unknown reason four year old boys find anything with the word 'poopie' extremely funny. Just about all of Hudson's speech has the poopie word mixed in there. Poopie lawnmower, poopie bedtime, poopie soap, you're a poopie head, I can make a poopie bubble (fart), even during his counting lessons he says, one poopie, two poopie, three poopie... The poopie talk never ends. A few months ago, Hudson referred to the ABC's as the AB-Peepee's after he learned the letters LMNOP. "Peepee, LMNO Peepee!!!!!"

School at the Gibson home will be starting tomorrow! Homework (lots of homework) will be assigned on the first day of school! ***Anyone currently looking for a job should checkout craigslist. I've heard there is a listing for a home school sub teacher needed ASAP. The only requirements are that you find 'poopie' funny!

Featuring: The Bubbling Commode!

This Afternoon as my sweet little boy was sound asleep upstairs in his bedroom I decided to catch up on a few unread emails.
About an hour later I heard the strangest sound. It was a gurgling sound coming from the master bedroom's bathroom. I was somewhat afraid to get up and look. Instead of running in there I stood hiding near the door and took a quick peek. I'm not sure what I was afraid of seeing, but I've seen those TV shows where snakes come slithering out of the toilet when you least expect it (I know

it's an urban legend, but it could happen!) I was definitely not prepared to see bubbles overflowing from the toilet. With each gurgle that the toilet made the bubbles grew larger and larger. I've NEVER seen anything like it before. One thing came to mind...

HUDSON! What did he do and where is he at? I ran upstairs and found the little stinker dumping his third bottle of shampoo down the toilet. The children's bathroom (upstairs) is located directly above the master bathroom (downstairs). Somehow all of the bubbles foamed up in the pipe and had nowhere to go except out the toilet downstairs. It took another hour before the gurgling and bubbles stopped. As for Hudson, well he's proud at how clean he got the toilet and the bubbles were pretty neat too!

Driving school for tots!

Hudson took to driving like a fish to water, but lately he seems to be somewhat of a daredevil. He figured out that he could sit on the hood of his car and use a "STICK" to reach down and press the pedal. So then he is facing backwards and driving down the street. Yesterday I saw him standing on the hood of his car and pressing the pedal with a broom stick. I hope our insurance man doesn't see this. I have a strong feeling that Hudson will be paying very high prices for auto insurance when the time comes. Robert tries to calm my nerves by telling me that "It's totally normal for a little boy to be dangerous and crazy. Just be happy he isn't 16 yet, because that's when it gets really bad!" Thanks honey, I feel so much better now.

Savannah received her birthday present from the GP's early this year. Her old bike had a bad relationship with air and the tires never held any. So she decided she wanted a new one for her birthday. Daddy put slime in the tires, so hopefully maybe the new bike will keep it's tires inflated through summer.

piano

THANK YOU NEENEE & PAPPY

LOVE,

ADDY

5-T Prayer Night

We all love our new piano and we are so very grateful to Neenee & Pappy for providing us with such a wonderful gift. Tonight for Prayer 5-T night we were all very excited to use the new piano for our singing (and dancing,) Addy provided us with the music while Vannie and Azzy performed a dance. Hudson and Weston provided snacks and a tumbling act. Addy and Taylor played a tune together on the piano. Lastly, Hudson gave the prayer and Azzy lead our goodnight song. The piano is Awesome. THANKS NEENEE & PAPPY!

Teaching Headaches

Home schooling has been an awesome experience for my family, but recently one of my students has become very oppositional. This student has a very strong will and would get an 'A' on the debate team (if we had one.) The word, "why" is a favorite with this student and the statement, "I've decided that" usually follows after I've attempted to explain a lesson. It's always been a challenge for me to understand the views of this student, but today I was looking over tomorrow's lesson and now I too am beginning to wonder. Okay, where do I start?

There is no egg in eggplant, no ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write and farmers farm, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?
You can make amends but, not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? How is it that people recite a play and play at a recital; ship by truck and send cargo by ship; have noses that run and feet that smell? Why drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? Your house can burn up as it burns down; you fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm goes off by going on. When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick?" How can a vote be invalid and a person in a wheelchair be the same?

So maybe my student isn't so oppositional, maybe he or she is a genius. And maybe I'm nuts for thinking that home schooling was a breeze.

The Zoo

Our visit to the zoo was part of the bribery (yes bribery, I am 100% for any and all forms of it.) that I used to keep everyone happy during my business trip to Portland. The kid's got much more from the deal then I had expected.

To start, there wasn't any parking at the zoo, not even in the overflow parking area. So I was forced to park 2 miles away (no joke) and push (pull, drag, carry and shove) a stroller with a 50 lb kid, 12 water bottles, extra large tub of antibacterial handi wipes, 8 lb purse, snacks, picnic lunches, 2 umbrella's, 4 raincoats, extra large bottle of sunscreen, camera with extra batteries, change of clothes for Hudson and an extra shirt for me for when Hudson undoubtedly spills his drink on me Again and Again. I was somewhat thrilled with the fact that it was an all downhill walk to the zoo. My attitude changed completely when we left the zoo and somehow managed to add an extra 10 lbs in zoo gift store junk to the stroller and then walk back to the car, which by the way I think had been moved another mile further up the hill by some sicko who was probably watching me nearly kill myself heaving this thing up the hill. Next time double parking will be worth the possible key scratches and traffic tickets.

Once inside the zoo I had to unpack the stroller and all of our bags for a weapons and alcohol search. Apparently there had been a few death threats sent to Herman the giant sea lion and now anyone entering the zoo was subject to a full body search.

Next came the long LONG lines for the mini train ride. The zoo folks are pros when it comes to trapping animals/ people in small area's. The line for the train looked more like a cattle branding drive as people were forced (shoved) down tiny pathways which were marked off with ropes. Everyone was trapped there in fear of loosing ones place if they should exit the line, which could only happen if you were brave enough to really upset the other trapped train riders as you pushed your way through them dragging that 100 lb stroller and 3 exhausted kids all of which have heat stroke. Luckily, Savannah was small enough to free herself by crawling under the ropes and between the legs of the other cattle (train riders.) She managed to locate a pop machine and was about to buy a few lemonade drinks when she noticed that the price for one small can of lemonade was $3.00. So she crawled back to me for more money and then back through the cattle to obtain our only means of thirst quenching liquid gold. Three dollars for one can of soda? These zoo people are really sick in their heads. And by the way, the train ride sucked!

In the end I don't feel so bad about the fact that Hudson filled the sleeping goat's ear with pea gravel at the petting park. Or the fact that he purposely reached into the sea life aquarium exhibit and turned all of the starfish onto their backs. The punishment of "Hudson" was well deserved to anyone or anything at the zoo that day. And one more thing... I lied when I said that I was an Oregon resident and saved .25 off of each ticket. So ha-ha!

Stick Heaven

What did Hudson like most about his visit to the zoo? Duh.... the sticks. He was in heaven when he found a large bamboo stick laying in a pile with a dozen others. Sadly one of the zoo keepers explained that the bamboo sticks were for an exhibit that they were building. Hudson couldn't understand why we just couldn't pay the lady off and keep the stick, he was ready to pay an excessive amount of my money for the stick too. Somehow he managed to find my wallet and pull out a handful of money. I braced myself for the meltdown that I knew was about to come, but then the heavens opened up and saved me from complete embarrassment as Hudson noticed that the entire ground in the play area was covered in tiny sticks. Heaven!

Best Friend's

Addy & Savannah are only 16 months apart in age and I wouldn't want it any other way. It was a little crazy when they were both toddlers, but seeing them today as best friends makes it worth all the craziness. Surprisingly they both have completely different personalities, but somehow they seem to balance each other out. It's comforting to know that they will always have this closeness that only sister's can share.

Savannah the Shark!

Savannah had an awesome swim meet tonight. She took second in the 100 meter breast stroke and fourth out of eight in the freestyle event. Savannah takes swimming very serious and she can sometimes be overly critical of herself. No matter what place she finishes in, she will always be a winner to me.

Addy took 2nd place

Addy had an overall great swim meet tonight. She took second place in the 100 meter breast stroke and fourth place in the 50 meter butterfly stroke. She swam last in the final relay and managed to catch her team up and went on to take second place. We are so proud of her. She hates to do the butterfly stroke (who doesn't?) and she had to swim it tonight. In the end she was dead last and while the other swimmers had already finished, Addy was still in the middle of the pool. She knew that all eyes were on the "poor last place swimmer" but she gave it her all and finished with her pride intact. She never gave up. She could have swam to the side and gotten out, but she went all the way. As I stood watching her I felt so proud of her determination. Sometimes I wonder if it's possible to love her even more then I already do. She's an amazing young woman.

Hudson was a little uneasy about the whole river thing. After learning how to balance on a floating dock, he jumped on board and let the wind blow through his hair. As with the train ride a few days ago, He continuously yelled out, "Faster Faster." He enjoyed staring out the back of the boat as his mommy or siblings were being violently jerked through the water and sometimes face planting into it. I can only imagine what he thought as he watched everyone purposely endanger themselves in the name of fun. He would yell out, "Go Taylor, Yay yay yay... uh oh, Taylor you okay?" Then he would look at me as if saying, 'I'm so disappointed in your parenting skills. My brother is being dragged behind a boat and your doing nothing about it.' This will probably be one of those childhood memories where we have to constantly remind him that things were not as he remembered them to be. (No Hudson, we never tied a rope to your brothers feet and dragged him face down in the water behind a boat!) not yet anyhow.

Addy

This was a great confidence builder for Addy. She is so excited about how well she did today and we are proud too. Addy doesn't want much for next Christmas, she would just like to have her gift early. What gift? A boat!

Savannah

Savannah took to knee boarding like a fish in water. She got up on her first try. She had a blast today and made some wonderful memories that will stay with her forever.

Best day of his life....

Taylor had a blast today out on the river, all thanks to some very generous friends of ours. He hasn't stopped talking about it. Thanks Scott and Nicole!