...I'm happy I'm a scrapbooker/crafter/hoarder. Today was bug habitat day. And lucky me, I got to oversee TWO of them, not just one. And double-lucky me that one of them has scorpions and snakes in it. Only double-NOT.

So Kent and Kurt chose an insect, or in Kurt's case, an arachnid, about which they had to research, write a report, and create a habitat.

Kent chose the mosquito - one of the worst insects to deal with where I used to live...humid Missouri. The habitat had to have some of the food chain, so as you can see, the bat is there to eat the mosquitos, and the mosquitos are drinking nectar from the flowers. Kent says mosquitos are mostly nocturnal so of course it had to be night time.

And Kurt chose the scrorpion, THE worst creature to deal with where I live now...Arizona. Did you know that corpions can eat snakes and snakes can eat scorpions? All together now: EEEEEWWWWWWWW!" We used burlap to represent sand - much less messy. And of course, being a house of all boys, it wasn't tough to come by some snakes and scorpions, as well as a beetle for a snack.

Putting these together gave me my Reason #159 (or something like that)...while my friends were out spending lots of money for materials for these habitats, I'm proud to say that I spent under 8 bucks, only for the real cacti. I had everything else in my stash. This is also the reason that I refuse to get rid of my ancient Making Memories letter stickers (have them in every color!), and any papers that look realistic, even if neither of them will ever have a chance to grace one of my scrapbook pages. I'm also grateful for my "experiementation" phases of scrapbooking so I own things such as the glass bubble marbles and the silk flowers, as well as my other hobbies where I picked up things such as burlap and smooth rocks.

This started out as something I was dreading...I actually had to touch those fake snakes and scorpions and they gave me the willies. But having all the fun supplies to create it, including the tools to put it together: spray paint, stapler, and GLUE DOTS; made it so easy we all 3 ended up enjoying it.

Just a note: I'm way overdue in putting up baseball photos, so I'll get to that in the next few days. The season is flying by and we had our first really hot day game yesterday. One hundred degrees and counting!

Long time no update

It always makes me nervous when someone links to my blog from theirs and I haven't updated mine for so long! Ack! Just been really busy...scrapbooking stuff and yearbook stuff and kid stuff and work stuff...you know...that kind of stuff.

Anyway, so since both Kitty and Karen linked to mine, I thought I'd better at least let everyone know I'm alive.

And since they were both posting about AI...I might as well say I'm watching it and kind of enjoying it. I do miss Season 5, however. I don't really have a favorite yet, which is very odd for me, but much, much healthier! I like Blake, and hometown girl Jordin, and I even like Haley and Phil. I predict Stephanie goes home this week. I'm bored with Melinda and have been bored with Lakisha for a long time. Gina is OK, Chris S. is OK...don't like nasally Chris R. much, but he can stay awhile.

I thought this week - British Invasion (I have to put that in case I don't update until, like, well, final 2 or something...) was really good and I can't wait to download the studio versions of these songs at the AI site this week! Loved many of the songs (Melinda and Lakisha = *coughcopoutscough*)

In other Larson news...Little League baseball has started up for us again. Went to the first scrimmage for Wyatt last night and loved it. Can't wait until we start real games next week! Wyatt is in Majors and a Ranger and Kent and Kurt (normally, I'd just put K&K, but in this post, you might think I'm referring to Kitty and Karen ;) ) are doing Farm League again and are once again the Mets.

Grant is doing track at school. He chose to do pole-vaulting (I think because then he doesn't have to run much). I do have to say it's fun watching him do it :

And that's about it for us. Spring is upon us, the tortoises are awake and back in their pen and flip-flops are on my feet. Yay!

Oh, and a quick update...I've finished the first 4 Harry Potter books. I just couldn't put them down! I'm trying to hold off on 5 and 6 for a while, but as when a new HP book comes out...I really can't wait to read them! Maybe I'll watch the first 4 movies first.

Wildlife World Zoo

Since the boys and DH were all home today, we decided to finally do something we had thought about many, many times - go to the Wildlife World Zoo! We regularly go to the Phoenix Zoo with our annual pass and we love it. But the Wildlife Zoo has the animals up close and personal. It's quite a drive for us, and more expensive, so it will never replace the Phoenix Zoo, but it's a fun special treat.

The weather was horrid, however. It rained almost the whole time we were there and dangit, I forgot to bring my jacket! I was so worried about getting jackets for everyone else, I went off and forgot mine. And I paid for it dearly as my teeth chattered and the wind blew and I quickly got wet. Thank goodness my shirt had a hood on it so I could at least cover my head when it rained. Of course, by the end of the day my hair was matted down anyway.

One of the big attractions there is the albino white alligator, one of the rarest animals in the world. It doesn't survive very long in it's natural habitat because it has no way of protecting itself from the sun. So the ones that get past infancy are captive, like this one: Looks like a statue, doesn't it? I stood taking photos of it for several minutes and it never moved a bit. I was beginning to think it was a statue! But later we walked by it and it had changed position, then it moved. So it's real. Heh. It's probably about 5 feet long.

Their entire reptile exhibit was pretty cool. Over the years, being a mom of 4 boys, I've had no alternative but to reconcile myself with looking at snakes and lizards, etc. They don't creep me out quite as much as they used to, but I won't be surprised if I have nightmares tonight!

Goings On

It's been a while since I've updated this thing, so...just the facts and a little fluff:

• Grant started Track last week - apparently he is doing pole-vaulting. Should be interesting.
• We recently found out Grant has an academic ranking of 1 in his freshman class of 752 students. We are very proud of him, to say the least!
• Kent and Kurt just ended their winter soccer season. We get to sleep in tomorrow - YES! They start baseball in a few weeks.
• Wyatt just got drafted to the Majors for Little League. He is very excited because he got on a team with some of his good friends. And I'm very excited because the mom of one of his good friends is my good friend! It's going to be a great season!
• I just got back from a quick trip to Las Vegas, with my sister, this past Monday. Of course, it was for work, not play. ;)
• I've been watching American Idol - have you? I haven't yet picked a favorite, but I'm leaning.....very excited now that it's down to the Top 24!
• On the other hand, I've decided NOT to watch The Amazing Race All-Stars edition that begins Sunday. I came across some spoilers (oh, OK, I went hunting for them) telling who the final 3 couples are and sadly, it's not worth my time to watch it based on those couples. While disappointing, because I had been looking forward to it for years, I'm also relieved not to have that commitment. Besides, Colin and Christie aren't in it - they are having a baby! And it just won't be the same without them.
• Kurt found the first scorpion of the season tonight in our downstairs bathroom. You have no idea how much I HATE those things and am just sick that we've already found one inside and it's not even March!

Also, because of this:

I've started re-reading the Harry Potter books. I just finished the first book - The Sorcerer's Stone. It has been about 7 years since I read it. It brought back some fond memories. Kent and Kurt were about 1 year old at the time and they were going through a phase where I had to sit in their bedroom until they went to sleep at night. That phase started when we were visiting my family in Missouri. The babies were in an unfamiliar room, to them, at my parents' house, and they cried like crazy if we walked out of there after putting them down for the night. They each had their own crib, heirlooms that my uncle, the carpenter, had made when my twin brothers and sisters were babies - my mom of course, had saved them and they had already gone through many grandchildren, just not both at the same time. So DH took to lying down on the full-sized bed (where Grant and Wyatt would sleep - all 4 boys in the same room - OY!) until the twins fell asleep. That phase continued when we came back home to Arizona.

Now with my older boys, I would rock them to sleep and then lay them down in their cribs. But with twins, you can't really do that effectively. I tried it once in a while, but then I couldn't get up out of the rocker without waking both of them up, so I would wait....and wait....and wait...for DH to come check on things and help me. Many's the time that I stomped on the floor, praying someone would hear me. Anyway, I digress. So we would put them in their beds and they would lie down, but one of us would have to sit in the room until they fell asleep. That's when I took to bringing in this new Harry Potter book with me, along with a flashlight. I would sit in the rocker and read, and every so often, either Kent or Kurt, would hear something and JUMP UP quickly, and look over at me, to make sure I was still sitting there. I never said a word, but just kept reading with my flashlight. Eventually the next time they heard something they would only peek out between the rails, then they would just raise their heads, and finally, they would be asleep. I read almost the whole entire first HP book that way. Heh. Very fond memories.

Of course, after that first book, I was hooked and read the rest of them as quickly as they came out. I tried hard to savor them so that they wouldn't be over so quickly, but I rarely held out more than a few days. OK, well, book 4 took me about a week. ;) I am quite sad that this summer will be the last installment of the saga. I so hope it ends satisfactorily. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy reading the story in it's entirety.

Here we go again!

In case you've been living in a hole...American Idol starts tonight. I'm torn! I swore off reality TV or any kind of show that required a big committment. The only show I watch right now is Desperate Housewives and only because I can fold and put away laundry for the week at the same time. But I have to admit...I find myself looking forward to watching it. So I guess I will. And then I'll get sucked into the message boards and blogs about it...then I'll get a favorite that I'll have to vote for...then I'll be disappointed when that favorite gets voted off...then I'll wonder why I watched in the first place! Oy!

On another completely different note...it's cold here. Only I feel guilty even saying that, with all the ice storms in the midwest, specifically in my hometown in Missouri.

But FOR US, it's cold too. Sunday was the coldest day in 16 years! It only got up to 46 degrees (don't hate me...remember the summers, remember the summers). My boys and DH refuse to dress appropriately, giving the ol' "I'm a MAN...the cold doesn't bother me!" excuse for not wearing a coat outside. Even the boys use that when they want to wear shorts instead of jeans. Since I'm outnumbered, I just give up the fight and let them freeze. So what do I worry about instead, in all this cold? The tortoises. They hibernate in a box in the garage sitting on top of the freezer. It's the best place for them because the temperature stays pretty constant and I don't have to worry about rain or cold weather if they were outside. So each year, I save a handled box from the boys' school fundraiser to make it easy to remove it when we need to get into the freezer (which is more than once a day in this family). But I was worried, with it getting into the twenties at night, that the temps might be low in the garage also. Below freezing temps for torts can be deadly. My Bob clock to the rescue! Now I can rest easy because I can check the temperature in the garage any time. Even the other night, the coldest night, when I checked in the morning, it was only 51 in the garage. And the torts stay tucked in and toasty. At least there is someone in this family I don't have to worry about.

More about the holidays

As I wrote below, my family came out to Arizona for Christmas. My mom, oldest sister and her youngest daughter arrived before Christmas and my nieces from my other sister came out on the 27th. All of them stayed through New Year's. We had a full house and created many new memories as we celebrated the holidays with my brother and his family, who also live here.

Our traditional photo of the 4 boys in front of the tree took a slight twist this year when we included G-Ma. My mom wanted me to make her a rosary this year for Christmas. At least that's what she said 3 months ago. She then promptly forgot about it. But I did it anyway. She designed it - each decade was one of her children's birthstones. Since she has 2 sets of twins and me, there were 2 topaz, 2 aquamarine, and 1 peridot. The Hail Marys were sapphire for her own birthstone, and the Our Fathers throughout the rosary was my dad's birthstone, ruby. It came out a bit gaudy like any mother's ring might, but I think it looks a bit like a stained glass window.

We went to 2 movies while they were here: Night at the Museum (great family movie and just a real delight!) and Dreamgirls (what can I say...I'm a sucker for a musical). I recommend both of them.

The rest of the visit was taken up with lots of eating, talking, playing games, and just enjoying each other. New Year's Eve was spent at our house, with more drinking and eating and then at midnight, we went outside to shoot off all the poppers and crackers that DH had bought for the boys and my nieces. What a mess that made on the driveway!

I hated to see them all go home. But all good times must come to an end and the day they left, I took down all my Christmas decorations and got the house back in order. I'm ready to move on to the new year! And as soon as the boys go back to school on Monday...I'll do just that. :)

Merry Christmas!

I had intended on writing prior to Christmas, but it didn't get done. I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We've been spending it with my mom, sister, and niece from Missouri. This is the first time they have traveled here to Arizona for Christmas and I love it! I'll leave you with a photo of our tree on Christmas Eve taken from the stairs, after all the kids are in bed. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's!

A River Adventure

One of Kent and Kurt's favorite things to do is go to a nearby creek. They call it a "river" but it is indeed a creek. There are a few fish in it and some ducks, but what they really like to see is crayfish. Or "crawdads" is what I always called them. This time of year though, you don't really see many of them. At least not alive. But that doesn't stop the boys. They gather up all the parts and pieces they can find and put them in ziploc bags to take home. Oh joy. They usually take them to school the next day to show their classmates.

We always see some interesting things at the river. This time we saw a big bird. Now, I'm not a bird expert, so I don't know what it was, but Kent and Kurt insisted it was a pelican, so I had to agree. Even though we are a state away from the ocean. And it didn't have a big beak. And there is no point to it being at a creek...errrr, river, because the fish are like 3 inches long. In any case, we were able to creep up enough for me to zoom in on it right before it flew away.

However, the most thrilling thing for me was the siting of the very rare Kent-outside-without-sunglasses-guy and I was able to snap a photo right before he put the glasses back on. No one has been able to capture a photo like this for at least 5 years.

This past Sunday was the last time we will travel to the river for a while, as it's finally turned "cold" here (and I use that loosely...just means I must wear socks). When it warms back up (oh, say like in February), I'm sure we will be back over there looking for those live crawdads. Eww.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November is flying by...things we've been doing:

Grant's football banquet - while he didn't get a special football award, he did get an academic award for his 4.0 GPA. We'll take that any day over a football award.

Flag Football: Wyatt continues to play.

Soccer: Fall season is over, but winter season starts today. There is no end to the sports in this family! A few moms and I put together soccer books for all the players:

Stingray Exhibit: New at the zoo. We were there the first day it opened standing in line to get in.

As far as Thanksgiving...it's just us this year so we are going OUT to eat! Woohoo!

Hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving.

And on to November...

...I actually have jeans on! OK, I admit, I had shorts and flip-flops on most of the day. But at least now when we go to a night game, it's cold enough for jeans and close-toed shoes. Sometimes I even wear socks.

Halloween was a blast, as usual. This year I really didn't have the energy to do the 3-hour-trick-or-treating-with-adult-beverage-in-hand deal. All day I was telling myself "ONE hour and we are coming home!" However, when I picked up K&K from school and a friend called out to me "My house. 5:30. Margaritas." I quickly responded "we'll BE THERE!" Oy. I am so weak.

So this year it was 3 1/2 hours out. Perfect weather...I even wore capris. As the kids trick-or-treated for candy, the adults were handed "drinks" at friends' houses along the way. Don't we have such a neighborly neighborhood?

Since DH was off riding in a helicopter that day and didn't get home until late, Grant was designated as the candy-giver-outer. He and a friend manned the door until DH got home and then they headed out to meet up with some friends. He didn't actually trick-or-treat, since he wasn't dressed up. No need though since his brothers brought home gobs of candy.

Wyatt's costume was put together about 10 minutes before we left. It went like this:

Me: Wyatt, what costume are you wearing?

Wyatt: I don't know.

Me: Here, put on Grant's football pads, pants, and helmet and your jersey and cleats.

Wyatt. OK.

Heh.

Kent and Kurt, however are another story. We start deciding on costumes about 2 months in advance. Kurt wanted to be Jango Fett, but I could not find a costume anywhere, even online. So I had to head to eBay and pay way more than I usually do. Kent was easy, when he saw the Bionicle costume, that was it.

Every year I have to tell the boys of when I was a student and going to Catholic school and we always got the day after Halloween off because it was a Holy Day. So my siblings and I got to stay up as late as we wanted. The boys always then ask if they can go to Catholic School. Heh.

I'm loving this time of year...my absolute favorite. Can't wait for all the rest of the holidays.