The tree

Tonight we had our annual setting up the tree FHE. We usually do it on Monday but since Satan runs dental school, Cyrus has to go to school every Monday night so FHE has been booted to a new spot on Sunday. We had so much fun!!! We listened to Christmas music, decorated the tree, hung the stockings, and had hot chocolate and cookies. It was so much fun!!! The kids had a blast!!!!

Sam isn't wearing a goofy tuxedo shirt, he just dumped Katie's hot chocolate all over himself when she wasn't looking. Poor Sam can't even help but make a mess every time he moves. I think he gets that from me. I didn't change him, because I figured, he was sure to make another mess before the night was over and who wants to waste two shirts!!!



I think the girls did a beautiful job on the tree (you can see a little bit of it in this picture). Plus, they patiently put all the ornaments Sam took off, back on the tree.



Of course Sam couldn't really help himself. He HAD to do something really naughty...would it really be a Javadi family activity if he didn't.

Halloween

This blog has been a little Sam-heavy of late...so a quick update on the girls to go with their Halloween pictures.

Carolyn is doing fabulous. She is a little book worm. I often have to tell her to stop reading to go to sleep or to eat. She has read all seven Harry Potter books and is jamming through them for the second time. That girl would read all DAY. She is doing well in school and is currently working on her 3 times tables. She already knows her 1s 2s 5s and 10s. She scored above the 90th percentile in every part of her California standardized tests...she sure is smart. She is doing great on the piano--mom has to practice Carolyn's songs before helping her. Sam thinks Carolyn is smarter than Dad. If Mom's not home, Carolyn is next in Sam's pecking order--he only wants her. Maybe that boy is on to something!!!




Hannah still loves owls. They are her thing. She is fascinated by their silent flight and pellets and anything owl. She doesn't even care that the pellets are pieces of bone and fur that the owls puke up, she still would love to find one so she could try to decipher which kind of owl made it. That kid is so smart!!! She has a great memory and is breezing through second grade. She sure has a silly bug. At church on Sunday a baby came crawling under the pew towards us and Hannah just got the giggles. Her giggle are always contageous so soon our whole family as well as the family owning the baby were giggling...Hannah is so excited to get baptised and thrilled at the idea of getting her own big set of scriptures like Carolyn's.



Katie is in joy school. Joy School is the bane of my existence. I do it every year and I love how much my kids love it every year but every time it is my turn to teach, I rue the day I ever decided to do such a thing. Katie loves joy school though. She thinks it is so very fun. Also, she met her future husband there. Katie told me she was going to marry Benny from Joy School. The conversation went as follows:

Me: Why do you want to marry Ben?
Katie: Because he was a monkey for Halloween (said in a duh mom sort of way)
Me: Oh really
Katie: It was cute (again, duh mom)
So I am glad for joy school. I wish someone had told me that finding a husband was as easy as finding a guy who'd wear a monkey suit. I'd have found Cyrus a lot sooner. Katie loves High School Musical and spends a good portion of every day dancing to the CD's and singing the songs.



Sam was his usual self on Halloween. He wouldn't keep his costume on (cowboy hat, vest, gun) so he had to wear a too big fireman suit that he couldn't get off!




Everyone was too excited to stand around and take pictures so sorry about the random shots but at least you can see how cute they all are!!!

Sometimes a picture says it all

Has anyone ever read their post, days later and been embarrassed by their total lack of writing ability? That just happened to me. Read the first paragraph of the post about Sam...yes, it is true, I dun graduated college.

Little devil....

Doesn't our little man look so cute...dressing up in his sister's pink crocs. Little does you know, behind all that cuteness is an absolute terror. Children like Sam are why the term "terrible twos" was coined. Just a few quick examples:

*Sam is always climbing...onto the table, into drinking fountains, on the back of the couch, on top of his sisters. One of his favorite climbing adventures is to get on the table and chuck all the apples all around the kitchen.

*Sam loves the garden hose and the vacuum. No one can use those two items while Sam is awake--they are his. If you try to water or vacuum, he will scream at you until you give him back his toy.

*Sam can open the door. One day I noticed it was a little too calm in the house so I started to look for Sam. He had opened the front door and was just walking down the street waving at all the passing cars. He sure is a friendly fellow.

*Sam colors on all the walls and floors. I don't know how he finds pens, crayons and markers so well but he does!

*Sam dumps all his food and beverages on the floor and/or table when eating.

*Sam is so loud in church and has been known to chuck his cars at people and he yells a lot. Also, he smushes crackers and drops them all over the floor and he has s tried to dump water all over the pew. Anyone who has ever lived in the San Rafael second ward will understand that we have to pick our seat very carefully--for fear of Brother Salarpi

*Sam loves the toilet. The other day I thought he was playing with his sisters and I heard these shreiks of joy and laughter. I went back to see what was happening and saw my three sweet girls reading books together and Sam in the bathroom. That little monster had put a whole roll of TP in the toilet and was flushing it over and over watching the water run over the edge. He was soaked, there was water all over the floor and wet TP stuck on everything.

Oh that boy.

There was a temporary error trying to upload my photo so you will have to wait and see my little angel.

Guess what we did for break?

Top Ten Things I Hate About my House

Just as a preface, I have loved living in the house we are in. I love the neighbors, I love the school, I love my girls friends, I love my friends. I have met some of the best people in the world right here in this little neighborhood. I really love where we live and am thankful every day that we found this place. However, sometimes a girl has to vent. The only thing I don't love about where I live, is the house I live in, and here are the top ten (ok, i need eleven) reasons why...

11. This old house has no insulation and ancient windows. Sometimes it feels like the wind is blowing in the house. And our utility bill....YIKES!!!!
10. The plumbing is awful. I have to use a plunger on some part of the house almost every day and twice everything I put down the garbage disposal blew up out of the washing machine drain and all over the family room. My landlord did not clean the carpet after that...which brings me to #9
9. This house has the sickest carpet in the world. By the time we had our furniture in, a thousand old black marks had appeared, along with a whole bunch of traffic stains. I clean the carpet nearly every week but it looks bad by day three. WHO HAS TIME TO CLEAN CARPET EVERY WEEK???
8. This house has tile everywhere and not good, new, sealed tile, oh no, seventies bumpy tile that is impossible to clean and even when it is clean it looks like crap. Also, some of it has been cracked in earth quakes so it is all uneven and has big holes that multitudes of crap get in then I have to fish it all out. YUCK.
7. MOLD. EVERYWHERE.
6. The grass (I love the yard) is 100% weeds and those thirsty little buggers cost us $250 one month to keep "not totally dead." We made the mistake of putting weed and feed on the lawn and nearly killed the whole thing. We have been nursing our weeds back to health ever since. We are very bad nurses. Dead grass everywhere. Pray for rain cause we'll never remember to water.
5. Two words--flat paint. I hate flat paint. It is so hard to wash the walls and believe me, my walls need washing. See photo.




4. Bad wiring. Once we had electricity in only 1/4 of the house for four days. We had to move the fridge and couldn't wash the clothes. If I plug the vacuum in the wrong outlet it always knocks out the breaker and sometimes ruins an entire switch of some kind that my landlord hates me to ruin since they aren't for sale anymore (they are obsolete). So I must be very careful where I plug stuff and forget about using the oven AND the Kitchenaid for fear of no lights for a week.
3. The sprinklers in the sprinkler system sit four inches out of the ground and Cyrus is eternally hitting them with the lawn mower and breaking them, then we have to fix them which takes like a month so then I have to water the grass with the sprinkler which I keep forgetting and then the grass burns up...but hey, at least the water bill won't be $250. Oh, and even when the sprinkler system works, it doesn't get all the grass so there are these lovely halos of green surrounded by dead grass, which I have to water by hand, which I forget to do...are you seeing the trend?
2. The roof is going to fall any day now. Pieces of the roof come off every time the wind blows. If the wind is blowing and we are playing outside, we have to be very aware of the flying shingles for fear of losing a limb. It is very dangerous. The other day, a roof inspector coming to inspect a new roof on our street, just stopped by to let me know my roof was exceedingly dangerous and I really ought to fix it. I told my landlord. Still no response. I hope the roof doesn't fall on us. I guess it could fall on me this week since I have to teach Relief Society.
1. Now, all those things are pretty bad but the worst thing is THIS HOUSE DOESN'T HAVE ANY CLOSET SPACE. Or a garage. We do have two sheds but these darn racoons chew on anything we put in there...our old car seat, my bike trailer, a box of old shoes, I mean anything. The closets in the bedroom are only three feet across, there is one long closet in the family room but Cyrus has to keep his clothes in half of it, leaving only one large closet to store EVERYTHING WE OWN. This may not seem like a big deal but we are really bursiting at the seam of that one closet. The stuff could fall at anytime. Very dangerous. Really, we are living in mortal peril every day. Just ask the roof inspector. I am sure he would be horrified by my closet.

So if you ever think your house stinks, just come visit the Javadi's...our's literally stinks...the carpet does anyway and so does the dog poo from my nieghbors disgusting animals they never clean up after, oh and the toilet backing up AGAIN is not too peachy a smell either.. I should take out stock in carpet shampoo, bleach, and Fabreeze.

One more garage sale find

This bed has a footboard that is the same as this headboard only smaller. I got it for $15.00 at a garage sale. I think it is super cute. It is in great condition. One of the little acorns on the corners had fallen off but Cyrus fixed it and now it looks just great!! I just had a matress and box springs so it is cool to have a cute bed!!!

The Lemon

No I am not talking about my stupid car again (see post below), I am talking about this huge lemon my friend Kathy grew. She grows lots of them. They don't taste good but it is cool to see it that big!!! She thinks she'll take it to the fair next year.

Sam thinks anything that is almost or nearly round is a ball so all oranges, apples or other various fruits are in mortal danger all day long in the Javadi house. His favorite activity is climbing on the table and chucking fruit from the basket all over the kitchen. So, when I gave him the lemon to hold so you could see how big it was in relation to something else, he immediately threw it right back at me. I think he will be a baseball man.

Goodbye Old Unreliable...

The car looks kind of pretty in this picture but it isn't. It is a piece of crap. We got a new car. You see, this car has slowly been falling apart. It all started right around the time Cyrus decided to go back to school to become a dentist (another LLOOOOOONNNGGG story). These are all the things that have been wrong with the van in recent years:

Water pump broke

Timing got off when Cyrus tried to fix the water pump himself.

It stalled in intersections and had a hard time getting going when you pushed the gas. They replaced some wires--sound cheap and easy but it wasn't.

A flat tire tore off the place where you put gas in plus tore a big hole in the bumper.

New head gasket

Old head gasket had been improperly replaced so we had to rebuild the whole engine.

Some mechanic had broken off a piece of something in one of the spark plugs which broke something else which we had to fix. I don't know what it was but it cost a lot.

Some mechanic left a tool in the fan and broke the fan. Too bad we had to see about a million different mechanics to finally get the van fixed right so we don't know which one broke it twice.

All hoses replaced.

New brakes, twice (fixed wrong once).

Oil pan replaced.

So the end came when I took all four kids to Walmart (I know, WHAT WAS I THINKING) and we got this cart full of crap out to the parking lot and all the coolant was all over the ground. I went back inside and called Cyrus on a pay phone (since Sam had thrown my cell phone in the toilet). Of course, despite my earnest prayers, Cyrus didn't pick up and I just lost it...(crying, of course) "Hi honey, I was hoping you would answer the phone because I am at Walmart and the car is broken and the coolant is all over the ground and I don't know what to do and I had to use a pay phone so Bye." Meanwhile Sam is climbing all over that thing that they use to round up the carts and dropping his animal crackers our of his little box all over the floor, the girls are running all over--playing tag, picking out which toy they would get out of the grab the toy game, trying to pick up Sam who in turn screams like a girl. It was awful. I went in the store and bought some water,filled the radiator and made it home on a prayer.

We tried our darndest to see if we could fix the car, we had Curt look at it and our neighbor, Don look at it, but in the end, it was going to be another expensive fix so we sold it on Craig's list, made enough to get out of the lease on the Yaris and traded up for a light blue Sienna. Now we are a one car family again but I feel much better. Hopefully no one will ever again see me crying on the pay phone in Walmart while my kids destoy the store!! (Also, I got a new phone!)

Missed (photo) opportunities

I forget things a lot. Lately, I have been forgetting my camera or forgetting to use it even when I have it!!!

Some of the missed opportunities:
...we went to Heart's Desire Beach and on a beautiful hike TWICE.
...we made the trek to Tennessee Valley Cove
...Cyrus took the kids camping and hiking
...Sam got all dressed up in a pink My Little Pony helmet, my high heels. and a hammer. He then sat down and started to hammer the heels. Then he got in his sister's bath with his helmet and clothes.
...the girls first day of school (ok, I took the camera but we had to park like a mile away from school so by the time we got there it was getting late and we had to rush then Sam had to try to get away to get on every toy in the playground and open and close every desk and the girls had to say hi to all their former teacher, when all was said and done there was no more time left...I just had to kiss them and say goodbye)
...riding the bus every day
...the camp out with Alyse and Jasmin in the backyard
...three swim parties with neighbors

The list could really go on and on. The kids do cute and funny things every day and I miss so many of them. BUT I also catch some...here are some good random shots from recent days....

Hannah using a bib to keep her school clothes pretty on the first day of school...boy was she excited when she got to go to school again. She has a lot of fun every day she spends at school.



Carolyn looking pretty for the second day of school...the picture isn't the best but the girl in it is really beautiful!!!



Hannah on day two of school. What a pretty lady. She loves to have her hair curled.




Sam's reaction to the school bus. He gets so excited to see it that I can't let him down or he will run right out in front of it. He loves the school bus and he loves the garbage truck. Friday is an especially great day for him, since he gets to see the bus and the garbage truck. It's little boy heaven. Also, just an aside--we have the nicest garbage man in the world. He is so kind to Sam--he waves at him and talks to him and makes a special effort to have the garbage truck shake the cans a little extra, just for my boy. He is really nice--a father of four himself. I could probably do a whole blog on how great our garbage man is and the funny thing is, I would have never met him if Sam didn't insist on chasing the garbage truck down the road screaming at it every Friday morning. Ahhh, the unexpected blessings of having children.



Katie after dropping the girls for their first day of school. That was an exciting morning! The afternoon however, wasn't as exciting, because by then Kate had remembered how bad Mommy is at pretending and playing.

Mom: "Let's play fold the clothes, Katie."
Katie: "That is NOT a game Mommy, that is work."

My tricks worked much better last year. Katie is catching on to her old mom, it's time for Kindergarten.



Sam and Katie just being cute.

It's official

I have become a Californian. I still don't drive like a bat out of heck and I would never pay a million dollars for a tiny house, but today, I was grocery shopping at my favorite store, Trader Joes (sign #1). When I came out it was probably 70 degrees outside and I was down right COLD (sign #2) so I got in the car and turned on the heat which I kept on the WHOLE way home (sign #3). When I got to my street, I saw that this piece of crap house across the road was for sale so I picked up the flyer--it was $585,000--and I thought, "Wow, that's cheap!" I need to move quickly. California has gotten to me. AAAAAAAAAAAAAK!

Does everyone see....

How handsome my little man is? He is the best little boy ever!!!

Garage Sale Finds

My friend Lainie has introduced me to the wonderful world of garage sales in Marin. I have made some amazing finds and am really and truly addicted!!

I have gotten everything from too many books to clothes for both the girls and I to new sheets, craft supplies, a sterling silver gravy boat (for $6.00!!) pans and games, you name it, I got it!!

I got this dresser off the side of the road. It has beautiful dove-tailed drawers and is in wonderful shape. It was ugly but a little paint and new hardware made all the difference.


My room was too small and my lense too zoomy to capture this dresser but you can sort of see how cute it is. It is low with lots of cute details. I will add a cute oval mirror above it to make it complete. This one was five bucks at the garage sale. Again, it is a good solid old dresser with real wood and dove-tailed drawers and tons of great details. I haven't gotten the new hardware yet but I am excited to do so!!


This is my cake platter. It was five bucks. I think it is pretty.



This cute basket was two dollars.


The best thing I have ever found was my kitchen chairs. They were $140 for a set of six. They are beautiful and brand new. They match the table I got last year for Christmas perfectly. I love them and love the price even more!!!!

High School Musical

I think I have entered the twilight zone and I don't know how or exactly when it happened.

Our house has definately entered the tween era. I am shocked. My girls are in love with High School Musical (and Hannah Montana and Zach and Cody and all other things Disney Channel). High School Musical 2 came out on Friday night and the girls were beside themselves with excitement. They spent the last week playing their one Hannah Montana song over and over and singing the High School Musical Songs (or the four lines they know from them) and asking me to please make surethe movie started at 8:00. I had to check three times. Even Katie was dancing around informing me she was either Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana's other name) or Gabriella, the girl from High School Musical.

At last the movie came on and we had our little High School Musical party. Now the girls can spend their last week of summer yelling over the fence to our neighbor (a fellow tween) about the ins and outs of the movie. Whatever happened to being in love with Belle--wasn't that just yesterday?

Katie's big day

Katie had such a fun birthday!!! We had a royal ball in the back yard. I didn't plan enough activities (I had forgotten how fast little kids burn through things) but it was fun anyhow!!! We read FANCY NANCY then played a game with passing a wand to music, then each little lady decorated their own wand. We had a treasure hunt and jumped on the jumper, played Freeze Dance and did the hokey pokey. And best of all we ate cupcakes and played in the yard. It really was fun. I am always a little stressed because things never go quite according to plan but it is always worth it to see Katie with her friends!

Kinley getting excited to have the magic wand!!

Katie with Aubrey who she loves so well!!

I made each of the girls crowns and the tresure box had rings and necklaces and bracelets so all the girls left looking like real princesses.



Kinley and Taeler swinging.


Madison was the life of the party!!!


And what can you say about Alyse? Never a dull moment with her around!!


Tessa was so sweet and cute--also, I think, a bit overwhelmed by the near chaos but we were so happy to have her come.

Cyrus the clean up crew

I can always count on Cyrus to clean up. He spent most of the party inside cleaning up from the previous evening's "High School Musical II" festivities, only to head out and clean up another mess once the party started winding down. I think we both are about partied out!!!

Cupcakes

I love cupcakes. But apparantly, Lainie, who took all these lovely birthday photos, loves them better since there are about ten cupcake photos on my camera.

The cupcake stand looked way cuter before the wind blew all the little ribbons all over. Oh well. It is the making it all that is fun for me!!!

Open it HARD Katie!!!

Alyse was so excited about the present she got for Katie, she could hardly bear how long it was taking for Katie to get the wrapping off. She yelled, "Open it HARD Katie." Unfortunately, Katie WAS opening it hard so Alyse offered some assistance.

Freeze Dance

One of our favorite birthday games is FREEZE DANCE where the kids dance when the music is on and stop when it is off. Unfortunately, our CD player got broken by this elf that comes to our house and messes up rooms and breaks things, so we had to use dad's computer for our tunes and it just wasn't loud enough.

Tagged!!!

This is a fun blog game. One of my friends tagged me and now I need to post seven random things about myself then tag four others...hmmmmm....

1. I have worked at the worst jobs in the world--one summer I watched wire at a wire factory--all day long I stared at wire making sure it was being made correctly, I moved pipe (once--it was hard), I worked on a potato harvester, I worked making potato flakes, I worked at a fast food place, I worked binding books at the library, and I managed apartments. All of those were bad jobs but they paid for college. However, the worst job I ever had was teaching 8th grade. I would rather work at McDonalds (or poke out my own eyes) than teach Jr High again.

2. Once when I was a missionary, I got chased home by a bunch of men while riding my bike at 9 pm--I don't know how old they were or how many of them there were, because I was afraid to look. A light turned red and they were gaining on us and I screamed a prayer and the light changed. That is the only time I ever yelled in a prayer. Pretty exciting--gotta love Detroit.

3. I love food. Cooking it, eating it, looking at it, watching it on TV. It is my favorite entertainment.

4. I really want all wood floors. I am so tired of dirty, gross carpet I could gag. This house has had dirty carpet since the day we moved in...I clean it every few months and within a week stains are back. I wouldn't care if I never have carpet again.

5. I hate conducting Relief Society. It makes me nervous. Also, I hate calling people to remind them to do their church jobs.

6. I'm a bad driver. Always have been. I would rather not drive. But my husband is worse.

7. I hate the movie theater. It is too expensive, too loud, too dark and I hate the intense parts of movies...so I send my husband to the movies alone. Although, if it hadn't been my anniversary, i might have gone with all the ladies in our ward to see hairspray--THAT looks funny!

Now, I tag Annie B, Kara I, Kathleen Bailey and Kathy Cortez

Happy Anniversary!!!!!

Cyrus and I had our anniversary last week on Wednesday! We have been married for nine years. UNBELIEVABLE!!! Bunco was on Wednesday night but since it is our policy that weeknights make for unenjoyable celebrations, I just went to BUNCO and he rested from a long day at school, oh yes, and he gave me my favorite present...a fully cleaned and vaccuumed home. He really is the best.

On Friday I made a great salad and some scones and strawberry shortcake and we enjoyed a wonderful celebration. Low-key and perfectly quiet and romantic, just the way we like em...Sam joined us because he wasn't feeling the best but that was ok, he went down for the night and we just stayed home and ate and talked.

We spent the first few years of our marriage doing what people traditionally do on anniversaries--trying to go away and trying to have the most romantic night by making everthing perfect--blah blah blah. Then on anniversary #5, Cyrus' dad was flying in on the big night, and we were so busy getting ready for Katie to come, that we just had a barbeque in the back yard together and Cyrus wrote me a poem and made a list of-the top 100 things from each of the first five years of our marriage. We read them and laughed and just felt absolute joy at being with each other. It was our best anniversary ever and it was SOOOOO low stress. It just reminded us of why we love each other so much and why our marriage is so great. And so it has been ever since. We don't try to be elaborate, we don't try to do what everyone else does, we just enjoy each other and laugh and remember, once again, why we love being married to each other.

Pictures

Today I went on a walk with the girls and took some pictures just for fun!!! These are all in my neighbor's yards. They didn't mind though...









Cyrus took this one of Sam and I...I love it!!!