Mother's Day

For mothers day, my kids...

1. Nearly got in the fist fight during sacrament meeting at church and almost spilled the sacrament tray. It wasn't the little kids either.
2. Cried and stormed out of the room more than once.
3. Lost their church shoes.
4. Tattled
5. Fought with each other.
6. Ate all the chocolate they gave me.
7. Then promptly threw their trash from that chocolate on the ground.
8. Left a crayon on my seat in the car which melted in the 90 degree heat and left a yummy black pool of goo on my seat.

Aaah, another day in the life. Good thing I love those kids.

Random fun stuff

We played kick the can for FHE activity this week. It was so stinking fun.

Cyrus bought me 26 cadbury cream eggs. The kids and I ate them all. Gross.

I love Facebook. I have vowed to stop letting it usurp this blog but it has been so fun to catch up with so much of my family. Two of my cousins are heroes and I never would have known but for facebook. One cousin is a medic in the army and he saved an afghan family who had acid thrown on them. The other is an inner city principal who has started a program to make sure kids in his school aren't hungry over the weekends and he has made huge strides in academics in his school. He was a national principal of the year. Plus also, my family is hilarious. Living in Texas has been a really lonely endeavor for me, but every day someone in my family makes me laugh on Facebook.

Sam rides his bike with no training wheels. He learned in about November. He loves it and we ride all over town.

My friend came over to make bread the other day and we yakked the entire day away. It was fun.

The other week at church I spied a deacon checking Carolyn out when he walked by. I almost put my foot out to trip him.

The end.

Jr high

So, I took Carolyn to Jr high for the first time last night. Really it was an elective information night but for me it was a shock to my system. Crazy things about last night:

1. There are almost as many children in seventh and eighth Grade at this school as there were people in my entire town growing up.
2. The kids who do sports have to go to school at 6:30 in the morning then school doesn't get out until about 3:45. That is a long day!!!!
3. I am way too young to have a kid in Jr high
4. Texas has an early graduation plan. If Carolyn does it she will go to college in 5 years.
5. Carolyn was literally the prettiest girl I saw at that school. Cyrus thinks we should home school.
6. Half way through the night, Carolyn ditched me to go hang out with her friends but then ten minutes later she was worriedly hunting for me. At least she still kinda likes me.

My girl is growing up. I love it and I love to watch her grow into a beautiful, confident girl but a big part of me wants to push pause because all of a sudden the days of listening to her pretend are being taken over by days of neighborhood boys showing up at the door to see if she wants to play football with them. I prefer the former but am warming up to the realities of the latter.

So, ready or not Jr. High here we come.

I already wrote this one facebook but just in case you still read this blog..... ok there probably isn't anyone who still reads this blog so this is more for my memory but...

We live by this neighborhood full of mansions. I mean literally. The houses are like 10,000 sq feet and a new one is going up. We drove by and Katie says. "Mom, are they building Hogwarts or something?"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha...

Here is an example of the houses in the neighborhood. The new one has a lot of turrets and towers though.

This is me when I try to cook dinner

This weekend, Sam and Cyrus went skiing in Colorado while the girls and I had a fun all-girl weekend here. Sam had a blast skiing and Cyrus let him eat so much junk food that he puked. It was boy heaven.

The girls all got their hair cut (pictures to come) and we went to see Tangled and ate out for dinner. We also hit the mall... they had so much fun!

Cyrus and Sam are back and we are happy to be together again!

New Years

One of my New Years resolutions was to keep up with this blog better...

FAIL.

I will improve starting today.

The kids and I got sick for the first two weeks of 2011. They were thrilled to be home from school. Probably the biggest difference between TX and OR is my children's reaction to school. There they cried the last day of school. Here they beg me to home school them after every vacation. Alas.

We are still Harry Potter crazy around here. And still happy with daddy working for himself. We've still been playing and reading like crazy. And we've taken up Wii. Man that thing is fun.

Cyrus gave me back my camera finally. He "borrowed" it for about a year when we opened the first practice.

Here are some pictures... the pup is our dog Lucy. She is the best dog in the world. The kids are on the beach in Destin FL.

My boy

This morning my boy and his stuffed dog were sleeping in my bed. I asked my little man why he was in my bed... his reply, "Skittles was scared."

I'm glad I made the stuffed dog feel better.

So I decided to make a mass post... because I keep not posting...

In no particular order.

Hannah is running for student council and thinks maybe she can make it so they do more art projects and get some recess at her school--really she'll get to be in charge of the school service projects and spirit week but she dreams big. I love her go-get-em attitude!!!

The kids have spent the entire year practicing filling in bubbles and preparing to take the big end of the year tests. They finally finished the tests at the end of April and all of a sudden every kid has five big posters and projects due on the same day. It seems the teacher are trying to fill all the real learning experiences into the last month of school since the test is soooooo important here in Texas!!!

The four biggest kids are doing swim team. That means 3 hours a day for mama at the pool. It is long and hot and there is no park nearby. Aaaah the joys of motherhood!!

I miss Oregon less and less everyday but it still pulls at my heartstrings. If only we could make a living there.

Cyrus bought another practice in a town called Humble. It is the direct opposite of the downtown practice. Where the downtown practice is mostly high end professionals, Humble is a working class town. He'll be doing 3 days downtown and 2 in Humble. It is exciting!! Maybe we'll have those loans paid off sooner than we thought!

We took the kids to Disney World... all I can say is it certainly isn't Disneyland. It was fun but we probably won't go back. When we need our Disney fix we'll stick with the LAND...

On the way to Disney World we went to the most beautiful beach on the panhandle of Florida--Destin was the name of the town. It was AMAZING... too fun and beautiful for words.

Sam turned four and is so fired up about reading I can't believe it. He nags me all day to do his spelling words.

Katie is so smart but school here stinks for her. If she doesn't have a better time next year, she is going to come home to school with mama.

Carolyn is playing the flute this fall and Hannah is going to start with the violin. All three girls are going to keep up with their piano. I may start with Sam on the piano this fall--just at home with me. He'll start regular lessons in 1st grade, I think.

We found a beautiful and fabulous house on a cute private lane with 2.2 acres and then someone else bought it.

The fruit here is nasty. We're going to have to grow our own.

Cyrus bought a dog. We had to get one that was hypoallergenic because of his asthma so no rescue pup for us. His hygienist is going to house train it for us. Now we just have to move to a house that allows dogs.

At swim team they were doing this little thing where they had each of the 6 and under swimmers run and jump in the pool when their name was called. All the other kids who couldn't swim just opted to not jump in, but Sam just ran and jumped like he knew what he was doing. The coach pulled him out and Sam says to me, "Mom, I sinked." I told Cyrus that level of fearlessness was dangerous. That kid has got to learn to swim.

Taxes

Last night Cyrus did our taxes.

Today I saw this picture.

Good times.

Why my children's school stinks...

So there has been one over-riding thing that I can't stand about Texas. It is my children's school. It is everything that was/is bad about education today.

Here are my problems:

1. They use a bull horn to communicate with the children. Obviously their method of discipline of shouting children down isn't working very well.

2. Communication is terrible. They are so busy using the bull horn they can't answer email or phone messages.

3. Positive discipline is unheard of... instead of the arm on the shoulder and a admonition to try it again the right way if a child is caught riding their bike or running on campus, they use the old, "GET OFF YER BIKE!!!!"

4. They go on one field trip in five years of school.

5. They use television excessively in the classroom.

6. A kid called Carolyn the B-word on the bus and the response of the teacher was "that is normal for this age." Normal, maybe, something that should go uncorrected, NAY.

7. They are allowed one 10-minute period outside a day. They don't go out if it rains, is slightly cold, there is any dampness on the grass, or a kid talks out of turn.

8. Tests are ***IT*** at this school. They teach to the test, practice for the tests, stress kids out about the tests, tie everyone's worth to the tests.

I could go on and on. This chaps my hide every day.

Here in Texas they salute and pledge allegiance to the Texas flag every day. We, being the blasphemous Texans we are, changed the pledge...

The real Texas pledge:

Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee Texas. One state, under God, one and indivisible.

(funny story: the kids that lead that pledge all say "I pledge allegiance to THE Texas" instead of "thee Texas." We thought that was the right words and that the state of Texas was run by morons. We now know the right words but still aren't convinced on the Moron part)

Our new pledge:

Honor the Kohrville. I pledge allegiance to THE Kohrville. One school, in Texas with no recess.

We say it whenever we pass the school. It makes us feel better.

So does saying, "Boys and girls, it is entirely too LOUD in here" with a heavy southern drawl. It makes us laugh.

Also, we eat a lot of ice cream.

For Christmas, my sister in law took all my parents photos and scanned them into the computer, organized them and sent them to us on discs. There are so many gems. Like this one where Cyrus and I look like we are 12.



And this one that shows that my kids didn't get their fashion sense from strangers...



On this day my mom must have cursed me with the "I hope you have children just like you" because I have seen this exact mess in my own kitchen countless times!!! Sometimes I even make that same mess the only trouble is, now I have to clean it up!!

Then and now...

I have been a very lazy blogger... but I will work on it.. maybe... I hope.. possibly...

Part of the problem is I never take in pictures. The other part of the problem is life has been such a whirlwind with C's new job and calling and the kids new school and most of all with adjusting to living here.

So here are a few brief Q and A's

Question: Why don't you blog anymore?

Answer: I am very lazy and also Facebook is much easier. Alas it is also much less interesting to read.

Question: How is Texas?

Answer: It is growing on me. There isn't nearly as much to do right outside my front door as there was in California and Oregon but someday I will find things that interest me here. The weather sucks but you don't live somewhere for weather right? The kids are not having the best time in school but we are learning a lot and getting closer as a family.

Question: How is Cyrus' job?

Answer: Things are going as well as we had hoped. He is happy in handling things with honesty and doing work that he feels is best for the patients. He is working a lot (after hours) with making sure the business end is going right... all in all it seems like we made a good choice and we should continue to improve day by day. We are never sad that we went back to school. Cyrus loves being a dentist and finds happiness in his job every day.

Question: How often does the garbage man come in Texas?

Answer: They pick the garbage up TWICE A WEEK here. We usually only have two or three bags of trash and a container of recycling when they come. I love it!!

Question: What are the kids doing for fun down there?

Answer: The school day is very long here 8:15-3:15 every day with either one or no recesses (more often than not no recess). They come home with about a half hours worth of homework every day too!! But on the bright side they ride their bikes and skates all over the neighborhood and are making plans with their friends for a fort in our backyard. They were building a fort in the neighborhood "green space" but there are some shady characters hanging around here and one trying to lure kids into his car so we are hanging tight around home. Carolyn, Hannah and Katie are all doing piano and they LOVE LOVE LOVE their piano teacher. They call her Candice the second which is the world's greatest compliment since Candice the first was the world's best piano teacher!!

Question: Why in the world did you put that picture of Sam up?

Answer: My boy who so happily dug his entire fist into his cake and ate spaghetti using his entire body and laid in mud puddles daily now despises getting dirty. He had a minute fleck of chocolate on his finger that required soap and water tonight at bedtime. Granted, maybe it was a stall tactic but he won't finger paint or eat with his hands or anything anymore.

And so it is. Life is so full of change. And I am not good at change. But I'll get there.

This is very funny to me...

Phew I feel better now...

So yesterday, I made a big batch of chocolate cookies with cream cheese frosting in the middle of them. Then I commenced eating half the batch. Now I feel better. Also, my inherent optimism overcame the dark cloud that had followed me from the border of my beloved Oregon.

Things I discovered that helped me feel better (besides cookies):

1. A clean, unpacked house is a fabulous thing and makes life lots easier!!
2. If I walk my children to school and avoid all the road raging parents, we are all happier and it only takes about ten extra minutes!!
3. One of the things I love about public school is it forces my children to work within situations that aren't always ideal... this school isn't ideal and particularly, Carolyn's teacher is nothing short of a battle ax, but she is going to meet battle axes many times in her life and learning to do ones best in the face of that variety of person, is a skill that will serve her well.
4. So, my kids are doing math that they did two years ago in Oregon. At least they get a 100% on everything! Luckily my kids are nerds and like to create more work for themselves in the form of homemade worksheets. They are at least pushing themselves. And quite honestly, that internal drive is most important in the long run, I think.
5. It is lovely to be near the temple.
6. It is fun to be near the city.
7. There are AMAZING homes for sale here.... it will be great to buy one!!
7. There are approximately a bazillion members of the church here. We have a home and a big family willing to wrap their arms around us. That alone makes me feel better.

So, Texas is hard. Oregon wasn't hard a day I lived there (except the days I had to hold up the drywall). My children were happy and thriving in school. We all had friends and life was easy. But easy doesn't teach us much does it?

Texas is hard.

The school is huge, the teachers are grouchy (seriously ornery cusses), the traffic is everywhere, the kids are rude and mean to my babies and recess is one ten minute break a day.

I have some adjusting to do. When I feel better, I'll post a real post!!

On the upside, Cyrus is the proud owner of this:



Not the actual building but the dental practice there-in. He likes it so far and thinks his staff is great. Working for himself suits Cyrus.

On the other upside, I have the cutest and sweetest kids EVER. Here's part of em. Grace won't cooperate with pictures anymore. She's a ninny who doesn't stop running!

The first day of school

My kids schools have big and fun stuff planned again this year... Carolyn will be going canoeing and learning to shoot a bow and arrow as well as restoring a wetland with the help of a local environmental group. She will also be hatching salmon eggs and releasing them into the river and studying elk in the local state parks. Also she will dissect owl pellets.

Hannah will be going to Ft Clatsop and learning about Lewis and Clark, studying coastal birds and tide pools as well as tides. She will learn about native Americans and visit some of the places where the local tribes once lived. She will help plant and care for native plants in the garden that will be transferred to the wetlands.

Katie will be learning to read and write even better and will get to go on a field trip to the river and to see the sea lions. She also gets to walk to and from school (right across the street) all by herself. The crossing guard already knows her name!!

Magic????

So, I have been reading Harry Potter again just for fun. I think Katie may be a wizard trying to be appear as a Muggle... her clothing choices certainly fit the description!

I'm on a diet

Things are not pretty here at the Javadi abode...

Cyrus is in Texas.

I am on a diet.

Neither of those things bode well for me. Cyrus is my friend and my entertainment as well as my sanity. Food is also my friend and entertainment and sanity. I love that stuff (Cyrus and food I mean).

But, Cyrus' job here was awful for him and the muffin top on the top of my jeans was awful for me so now I am off to a brave new world of managing five kiddos solo, watching John Stewart solo AND passing up peanut butter cookies and not pulling out the kitchenaid every time I am bored.

My resolve is set. I am not only going to do it all kids wise, I am going to be thin in the process... now if Pioneer Woman will stop posting things like this...



Now where is that kitchenaid.......

What we've been doing...

I never blog. Partly because of facebook, partly because we have been BUSY BUSY BUSY doing all the stuff we couldn't do when we were fixing this old house!!

We hiked out to the bar and there was this huge pile of the prettiest rocks you've ever seen!! As Sam would say, "It was wowser!" And beautiful!!! The beach was beautiful and full of treasures. Just the kind of place our kiddos LOVE.









Grace particularly loves the beach. Sand is her favorite.




She takes after Hannah...and Sam...and Katie...and Carolyn...







There was a little house built in the sand. All the kids got in it at once but Sam stuck his head in the way and we couldn't get a picture of everyone. That boy loves to have his picture taken!!!



Dad said not to get wet since we were headed to a parade right after the beach. Grace is not a good listener.



We also hiked out to the two lighthouses that are on the bar. It was beautiful!!! Plus it was a jolly good time!







One thing about Astoria (besides that it is cold and rains a lot) is that almost everywhere you go, there is a fabulous view. This is what it looked like from the trail!! FABULOUS.





Lighthouse #1=easy hike. Cyrus wears the baby carrier.





The kids climbed all over the lighthouse. And up any tree they could find. That's just what they do.




Sometimes when we hike Sam just sits on the path or sometimes he decides to hop like a frog. He always adds dimension to our activities. Grace just runs!!!!






Lighthouse #2=much harder hike. I wear the baby backpack.