Have faith

After I told Ben this story about the cemetery later that day, he said:
-Mommy, I was dead once.
I told him I was pretty sure that didn't happen, because once you're dead, you can't be alive again, to which he answered confidently:
-Yes I can, because Jesus did it!

The will to live

Neal And I were driving past a cemetery and I told him that's where people get buried after they die. Neal, of course, asked "Why?" because that's what he asks no matter what you just said. "Because," I explained - "You would start to smell bad if you didn't get buried." In answer to this Neal curled up in his car seat trying to get as far away from me as possible and said in a pleading voice: "Me don't want to die, me too cute!" (At this point I had to concentrate on staying in my lane, I was laughing so hard.)

Story Time

Merry Christmas, everyone! We're busy trying to get things ready, but the house seems to be plotting against us. We're finally fixing the carpet in the basement, but today the furnace stopped working.

One quick story: Couple nights ago I was reading books to the kids before bed, and I was reading them in strange voices. Ben got fed up and said, "Daddy, just read it with the voice Jesus made you with!"

Fun morning

I've decided all posts posted by a girl on here will be red. Then you readers will know it couldn't possibly be Zilonis (or whatever he calls himself...) posting this. :) By the way, should the dot ending the sentence come before the smiley face or after? Are there rules about this?
Well, we had the funnest morning today. Last night we decided we could go to the zoo if it didn't rain in the morning. When we woke up, it, sure enough, was windy and wet. Not too rainy though, just a bit. So we went anyway. Cause- that's right- we're the boss, not the weather! :) We had the greatest time! We saw the tiger inches away from glass, warming up under the heat lamp, blinking at us lazily; one of the two polar bears put on a show trying to squish a plastic barrel full of water, standing on it with all four feet and making water squirt out of it; the sharks swam right up to us and almost stood on their tailfins, sticking their heads out of the water at us; the walrus pooped as he swam by the underwater glass wall (gross, but very entertaining!); beluga whales waved and moved their mouth at us; it was just generally very interactive today. The kids loved the lunch they packed and didn't whine even ONCE. And I had taken two Slimquick pills so maybe I was a little high from that. I just had the best time ever. We got wetter and wetter as the rain got stronger and stronger until finally we were walking UPSTREAM instead of uphill... :) We were wearing our rainboots, of course. :) And on the way home the kids shared a blanket as they rode in the carseats with no pants, boots or socks on. It was great. Wish y'all were there. :)

Hi!
This is Anda posting (for a change). Here's my version of Ben's allergy story. See, Kevin is just observing the changes... I am the one actually MAKING changes in Ben's diet... I am losing my mind. It's just overwhelming an frustrating to, first, cook ALL the meals from scratch, and, second, use stuff I've never cooked with. Some substitutions were easy - switch from all vegetable oil (it's most of the time soy oil) to olive and corn oil. That works the same, so no big deal. But what about baking without eggs, dairy, wheat, oats, sunflower, soy, almond??? The kid won't have a sandwich for 6 months and very possibly for much longer??? How do you pack a school lunch without some type of bread??? Aaaargh!
On the other hand, I feel like I was not crazy to begin with. I decided to take Ben to a naturopath about 6 months ago. Everyone wondered why. But I had my reasons. To me, it seemed Ben wasn't getting all the nutrition he needed, because his poor baby teeth are in really bad shape although we brush every day and he never sucked on sugary drinks for hours at a time; also, he's had some spots of psoriasis on his knees for what seems like years; and he in general seemed to not have much energy. And he's a very picky eater. Our pediatrician didn't see anything worth fussing over, so I had to ask someone else, right? At first the doctor gave us supplements to improve the teeth and skin. Suggested protein at every meal to fatten him up, cut down on sugar, chew sugarless gum with xylitol, eat yogurt to help his gut... But after 6 months of that there was no big changes, so she suggested a blood thest to check for food allergies. This test tests 99 foods and costs $185. So Ben bravely and tearfully gave up a couple drops of his blood from a finger and Kevin already told you the results. I counted 97 foods in the results of which 33 Ben had a reaction to. He even had a low reaction to zuccini, radishes and cauliflower!! How whacky is that? Anyway, doctor said, it might get better. His gut must be in a bad shape to react to so much stuff, and if it heals it might stop doing that or something. That's the story. Oh, and I also want to get Kevin tested. I think he might be allergic to some things, too. And we know now my intuition is worth something, don't we? :) Well, talk to y'all later! If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen, losing my mind! :)

Allergies!

On Nov 1, Ben went to the doctor and received the results of his allergy test. We were mildly surprised. Here's the list of what he's highly reactive to (mostly off the chart): almond, barley, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, cow's milk, egg white, egg yolk, filbert, goat's milk, mozzarella cheese, peanut, rye, sesame seed, soybeans, spelt, sunflower seeds, wheat, whey, yogurt, casein (a milk protein), gliadin, and gluten. He's only moderately reactive to brewer's yeast, coconut, oats, and sugar cane (they don't test for sugar beets). So we've been having an interesting few days trying to find out what he can eat. There are very helpful books (sarcasm alert!) telling such things as "If your kid is allergic to cow's milk, try goat's milk! If that doesn't work, you've always got soy milk." OK, so we check the list: "let's see ... cow's milk, check ... goat's milk, yup ... soy mi-- darnit!" Ben's drinking rice milk, which I must say is pretty nasty.

We went to the bookstore looking for cookbooks. There are gluten-free cookbooks, dairy-free, nut-free, etc, but VERY FEW that are for multiple simultaneous allergens. Basically, we need a food-free cookbook. The good news: he's not allergic to meat, fish, fruit, and vegetable, just everything you might use to cook any of that.

Some of the stuff Ben is fine without. He never liked milk and eggs anyway. But sugar! He lives off the stuff. And we had to tell him no more candy after he'd brought home a bucketful of trick or treats. And he doesn't get any more yogurt or PBJs. It's half-cute, half-sad to hear him ask, "Daddy, am I allergic to cookies?" But he's doing a great job. He seems happy, and may be filling out some, and the weird callous-type spot on his shin is going away.

Dinnertime has changed a little. We can't just make a box of mac and cheese anymore; all of Ben's meals seem to require hours of preparation. Neal and I had some leftover pizza the other day, and we ate in the bedroom with the door closed so Ben wouldn't get jealous.

One final note on the subject, and then I'll quit. Anda has great intuition/inspiration, because she for a while has felt like there must be something wrong with Ben that makes him so skinny. If I understand this right, his body does not get much if any nutrition from the food he's allergic to. So no wonder he's skinny. Supposedly we restrict the allergens for six months or so and then test again to see if things have calmed down at all.

So anyway, if you happen to know how to bake with rice flour (or one of the other weird and expensive alternatives to wheat), drop us an email!

Halloween Pics

Here are pics of the kids on Halloween. I know it's a few days past already, but we got distracted by the results of Ben's allergy test.

In case you can't tell, the kids are bats. Anda made the costumes. In the 2nd pic (with feet up in the air), they're sleeping upside-down. As for the quality of the photos--it was dark! And their white faces really reflected the flash, whereas black costume did not.

Ben in School

In case you didn't know, Ben is going to school 4 days a week now. He loves it. We've also started teaching him to read, and he read his first word tonight. By Christmas he'll be reading paragraphs, and the book says he'll be reading at a second grade level when we're done. (We're using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," which I think was recommended by Megan.) He seems to be doing well, which I guess could be attributed to the teaching method, but I like to think it's because he's just a smart kid.

PS: he can also do simple addition. He turns 5 in April.

No LASIK for me!

Anda has been talking aout LASIK for a long time, and she finally set up an appointment for us to go in for a free consultation. Long story short, I can't get LASIK (surprise!). The doctor said he won't do it on anyone who needs more than 8 diopters of correction, and no doctor in the country would do it on someone with -10. He says I'm -10.5 in one eye, and -11.5 in the other. He also says that they can't cure amblyopia (lazy eye) with LASIK. They can make the eye as good as it gets with glasses, but the problem is more with the connection between the brain and the eye than with the eye itself. I'm actually a little relieved, because now I won't have Anda bugging me about having someone shoot a laser in my eyes.

Anda can't get LASIK, either. It turns out that LASIK is like refinishing a floor--your cornea has to be thick enough for them to cut stuff away when reshaping the eye. Makes sense, right? Anyway, Anda was born with thin corneas, and there's not enough for LASIK. She can get PRK, though, which although it hurts more and takes longer to recover, sometimes has better results than LASIK. So now we just have the dilemma of not being able to pay for it. I bet we can get a better deal on the procedure in some alley in Costa Rica, right?

Stuff on Your Head

Neal really likes the song by Laurie Berkner about stuff on your head. It goes: "(Name) has a(n) (Object) on his head ... " So tonight Neal came to me with various items on his head and said, "Sing song!"

A while later, Ben and Neal were playing together in their bedroom, and we heard a crash followed by Neal crying. Almost immediately, we could hear Ben start to sing: "Neal has an owie on his head, Neal has an owie on his head ...."

Ben's Favorites

I was asking Ben today about his favorite things (color, animal, game, etc.). Ben says his favorite sound is the sound of rain. I thought that was quite unique, and probably indicates that he is a very thoughtful boy. But then I asked him why he likes the sound of rain. "Because if it's raining outside and there's nothing to do inside, then we get to watch TV!"

More evil laugh

The other day after our LASIK evaluation, Ben went to school and Anda and I thought we should go to lunch before I go back to work. So we drove in separate cars, and Anda and Neal were ahead of me. Anda says that for the first several blocks, Neal was saying, "Faster than you! Mwa ha ha ha!"

Neal the Superhero

The other night Neal was up way too late dressed as a superhero (red cape). He came to Anda and I and said, "Me Hero!" Then he gives his evil laugh "Mwa ha ha ha! ... Hear that? Me Hero!" Repeat ad infinitum.

Not sure why superheroes have an evil laugh, but in Ben and Neal's world, everything has an evil laugh.

Privacy, please?

I'm in the bathroom. Ben comes in with an Xbox controller:
Ben - Look, I want to show you something
Anda-Ben, could you wait till I'm done?
Ben - No, no, I don't need HELP, I just want to show you something...
Anda-I still would like you to wait, I don't like to have others in the bathroom with me when I'm....
Ben-But I won't laugh at you, mommy!

I bet you thoght we were dead

But we're alive and well. Let's see, since we last wrote we have had a great summer. No vacation yet, just mini ones, over the weekend and around here and stuff, you know. Trying to have fun. Even went swimming a couple of times. And now that the summer is over I'm losing some of my excess weight and feeling really good. I know, most ppl do that in the beginning of the summer but i tend to procrastinate.... Have you seen the procrastination poster? It has no picture on it, they were gonna add it later... :) Ben started preschool last week and loves it so far. He pays no attention to other ppl, at least their looks, at least it seems that way. The first day he played with a girl, he told me her name was daniel (or danielle, more likely)... The next day we waited for the teacher to come out and get the kids (that's how they do it, like the elementary school is some sort of secret facility grownups can't enter) and a darkhaired tall girl was waiting, too. I asked Ben if he new her, so he glanced in her direction and mumbled that that's probably Daniel. :) We left it at that. Then a couple other kids showed up , including a short blonde girl, who the teacher was adressing as Danielle! I mean, dude! They look completely opposite! It's shocking, but really that's exactly how I am, too, I don't remember faces OR names. He'll be ok though. He's a smart kid. Neal is a little confused about leaving brother in the big school and just driving off, but then gets really chatty with me. He feels there's some silence to fill up with his brother absent, I guess. He is very adorable and i will never let him grow up. :) No school for him! Actually, one day during prechool I wen't straight to YMCA, dropped Neal off at the nursery and had a good time lifting weights and hot tubbing, heee heee hee.
Kevin can write about himself if he pleases. What can I say, the man is the only unchanging thing in my life :)
Anyway, random thoughts that wen't through my head, now I have lost my train of thought and can't think of anything else. Oh, I read Charlie and the chocolate factory and the sequence charlie and the glass elevator. Cute and very random. The I borrowed the original movie from a friend and found that to be even wierder and randomer. Oh well. Also watched Bringing down the house on TV and was laughing at some parts. What has happened to me? I guess I laugh about the funnyness and about the absurdness of the situations at the same time. Also saw Bourne whateveracy , the #3 and liked it. It felt like there were ppl spying on me on my way to the parking lot after the movie. There probably were!! :)
Goodnight everyone! Love from Andiņa!

Listening Ears

Sorry for the long gap since the last post. I've been really busy at work, and I had to read Harry Potter, and other stuff like that.

I told Ben that he needs to get his pajamas on, and he said, "Oops! I left my listening ears in the trunk of the car." I offered him some listening ears from my pocket, and he tried them on, but they were too big and fell off. I then mentioned that kids who don't get pajamas on won't get to watch Ben 10 tomorrow, and Ben said, "Well, I'm scared of Ghostfreak, so ...." I told him that was fine, just no Ben 10 tomorrow, and Ben said, "OK, maybe I'll remember that Ghostfreak isn't real." He ran upstairs and put his pajamas on. One good thing about Ben's imagination is that his excuses are more entertaining than just whining about not wanting to go to bed!

Fotos

Okei, te mūsu bildes no Jāņiem!

Who will go to the movies?

We had a unique conversation at dinner tonight. I felt the urge to go the movies, but Anne Marie had also been thinking about going out to catch a flick, so we had a little discussion about who should get to go and who should stay home and put the kids to bed. We didn't want Ben to hear what we were planning, though, so Anda and I spoke Russian, and Anne Marie and I spoke (broken) Spanish. Ben listened to us, and asked, "Mommy, why did you say 'perviy'? What is 'perviy'?" Clearly, he's a smart kid. Not only does he understand English and Latvian, but he understands what isn't English or Latvian.

PS: Anda and I won the argument. We saw Ocean's 13, and thought it was pretty good. Thanks, AM!

Līgo!

Happy John's Day! Last weekend we went to the West Coast Latvian Center near Shelton, WA to spend the biggest Latvian holiday of the year with a bunch of Latvians. The basic activities include: drinking beer from bottles, singing songs, giving beer to people named Jānis (John), jumping over the bonfire, and drinking beer from bucket-sized mugs. It was cool to hang out with some Latvians, but when it started smelling a bit too much like a brewery, we retired to our campsite and roasted some pork kabobs and chatted with Anda's Latvian friend who also doesn't drink. The boys enjoyed the chance to camp again, and Satus had fun running up to strangers and licking them. I'd like to post some pictures, but I'm not sure where the camera is, so you'll have to check back in a day or so.

A Ton of Bricks

Also over the weekend Anda found someone on Craigslist selling all of their paving stones for a good price. So I drove out to Auburn and loaded them in the back of our van. The guy selling the bricks generously offered to pump up the tires to max pressure, but as you can see from the first pic, the van was still riding pretty low (Neal's lawnmower wouldn't fit under the bumper). I have not yet seen any indication that I broke the van by carrying 3,500 pounds of bricks. Incidentally, we're planning to create a small patio for bbqs and picnics.

Miscellania

It's been a while since our last post. I was going to post over the weekend, but then we all got sick. I went to work yesterday and got diddly accomplished, so I stayed home for part of today. Here are a few tidbits of the last few days:

We had brownies for father's day. I had two on my plate at once (father's privilege). Ben chastised me, saying that if I ate both of them then I would die and my teeth would fall out. Apparently we've been stressing dental hygiene so much that Ben now equates tooth decay with death.

Ben drew me a card for father's day. There was a picture of me and him, and he was wearing his Ben 10 watch. (See Ben's post a bit further down to find out about Ben 10).

Neal woke us up in the morning a few days ago by playing Anne Marie's dancing Santa who sings Santa Claus is Coming to Town. (He had seen it in the attic previously and forced Anda to take it down). It was cute because he was trying to sing along. I have a video of the boys dancing together that I'll try to post--not sure if it will work. In case I can't figure out how to do it, it is a perfect example of Neal copying Ben 100%. He kept looking over his shoulder at Ben to make sure he was doing it right.

Neal woke up in the middle of the night recently, crying. I went in and asked what was wrong, and he replied, "Monsters!" I have never heard him say that word before (although he's certainly heard Ben say it a gazillion times, and he himself has pretended to be a monster many times). I asked Neal where the mosters were, and he said, "I don't know." I went to get him a drink, and while I was gone he cried about monsters again. He ended up sleeping with us. The event is more significant when you remember that Neal still doesn't like to talk, so it was quite an accomplishment for him to explain what the issue was.

This next story could be considered hearsay. However, since I'm not offering it to prove the truth of the matter asserted, I think it ought to be ok. Last week in Relief Society the lesson was on being self sufficient. One older sister (probably 70 or so) told about how her father had paid for her first year in school, but she had some fun and was not careful, so she had to get a job. She continued, "So I got a job as a stripper at ...." I imagine the collective gasp drowned out the rest of her sentence, and everyone turned to stare at her. Turns out she worked at a biscuit factory stripping the cardboard from the biscuits at some point in the production line.

Neal Squeaks

Neal wanted a drink and was getting a bit whiney about it, so I said "squeak squeak" in an imitation squeaky voice. Neal said, "No squeak, cry." I still wasn't moving fast enough for him, though, so he said, "Squeak!"

Bedtime

Ben was downstairs watching Stargate with Anne Marie. I told him to come upstairs to put his pajamas on, and said, "say goodnight to Anne Marie." Ben's response: "But Anne Marie isn't going to bed."

This reminds me of Ben's doctor visit a few months back. Ben was pretending to be asleep when the doctor came in, complete with fake snoring.

Doctor Coe: "Wow! You must wake the whole house."
Ben: "Houses don't sleep!"

Ben Wants to Post, Too

ben _________________ jhjnhkny

ben ten _________________ ten

1wertyuiop

gwen

kevin 11

Neal's TV Shows

I already mentioned that Neal loves the Pooh movie we borrowed from Mom and Dad. (Anda and I are getting quite sick of it. Half Price Books and Craigslist didn't have any other Pooh movies today, unfortunately.) Anyway, Anda was flipping channels today and saw "Lake Placid 2" (big crocodile, stupid humans). Neal stared wide-eyed and said "Croc!" with wonderment in his voice. When the commercial came on, though, Neal pleaded "Croc?" and glared at Anda.

Our Last Name

Anda's been teaching Ben how he has a middle name and a last name. Ben's friend, Daniel, knows his full name is Daniel Gatlin. When asked "what is Ben's full name?", Daniel replies: "Ben Jamin!"

Ben Tells the Truth

I left the boys alone for a moment while I was washing dishes today and (of course) it didn't take long for Neal to begin crying. I came back into the room and asked Ben what happened. He said, "I'm going to tell the truth." (You see, we've been talking about how he needs to tell the truth. He likes to conveniently leave out his own involvement in Neal's injuries.) He then told me how they were playing a game and putting their hands over their mouths. I asked if Ben had put his hand on Neal's mouth, and Ben began to tell his story that no, Neal had done it himself, and then he thought his hand had become stuck, and that's why he started crying. I asked Ben, "Is that the truth?" and before he thought about it he answered, "No. ... Oh! ... Well, I did it to Neal. And that's the truth, Daddy." So maybe he is learning the difference.

The finished product

This is the new color of our Power wheels car. I like it. I liked the pink too, but it was faded and old... And not all caracter is lost because Ben still calls it his "Barbie car"! :)

Uzbek Update

The Russian version finally loaded. I'll have to get Anda because there's a couple words I don't know, but it's definitely different than the English. Russian has the phrases "on some flights" and "both for one-way and round-trip flights" that I did not see in English. If you know anyone that can translate from Uzbek to English, I might know of an airline that has a job opening.

Anyone going to Uzbekistan?

Anda found out that Uzbekistan Airways has a nonstop flight from NYC to Riga for (relatively) cheap. In checking for terms and conditions, though, she found the following statement on their website:

"There is the special tariff of economy class of service for family not less than two person (the husband and-or the wife and their children from 2 till 18 years inclusive).
Change of date of a departure within the limits of validity of the ticket for flight is supposed. Thus gathering for rebooking places is raised. For untimely refusal of a place penal gathering is raised from passengers."

The sentences appear to be in English, but we can't make any sense out of it. Go ahead, read it again. We thought it was pretty hilarious.

After much thought, we determined that "gathering" must mean "fee." And there's a penalty fee for late cancellations. I would check the russian version, but the page won't load (and there's a good chance I wouldn't understand that, either).

Satus

I thought Satus should get his own intro, too. Here he is, our gorgeous 8 month old mutt. We adopted him right before Thanksgiving last year at the tender age of 8 weeks. He was found somewhere near Yakima, WA, so as his name he got a placename from around there. We found him at a special adoption event in Seattle. The Tacoma Humane society never seemed to have puppies, and we couldn't get an older dog because of the age of our boys, it just wouldn't be safe. I wanted a girl to at least have some balance in the house, but I knew Satus was the one when I saw him in Kevin's hands, all cuddly and soft, so we took him home. He just slept on my lap politely the whole ride home. It was like having a baby again, but much much much muuuuuch easier! He is a perfect match for our family and I just know he was meant to be with us. You haven't met a gentler, milder doggie. His hobbies include chasing Micetro, barking at the doorbell, going to the dog park, madly licking people, visiting his girlfriend boxer Minnie, stealing food from the kitchen when we leave, ruling the back yard and catching frisbees. He dislikes baths, yelling, being bodyslammed and squished by Neal and being left alone. Mostly, though, he lounges around the house in close proximity of his people. He is the guardian of the house and of my sanity. I like him a lot, if you haven't noticed. :)

The cool weekend and other things

We had a great weekend that has unfortunately ended now. Somehow, I wasn't uptight and hardly got upset at my 4 boys. You know, hanging out with Kevin only on weekends is weird sometimes. I'm used to doing or not doing things in my own time and my own way all week long, so on weekends I have to readjust to two people being in charge! But we had a good time, and we painted some stuff. We bought two cans of spray paint and I painted two chairs and Kevin painted a power wheels car. I have to say, if you haven't spray painted anything lately, try it, it's lots of fun! Why two chairs, you ask? The plan was to paint 4 but I ran out of paint. And now I am not even sure I like the new color...

Here is the story behind the chairs. These are dining room chairs, and I got them second hand. We have a cool set that we got for free, the table is cool and round, and the chairs are nice, but very heavy and hard, so the kids never sit on them, because they can't move the stupid things and hurt their legs trying to climb on them. Instead they resort to wandering around the house with food in hand or not eating at all, resulting in damage to the carpeting and my nerves. Anyway, I found these other chairs at this place down the street called St. Vincent DePaul ( I frequent te place) for $3 apiece, and only one of them is slightly broken (I fixed that with a hot glue gun, he he he, I only do useful crafts, you see). They are much lighter and have padded seats, and the kids have been very willing to use them. I am very thrilled. But they are black metal and even I can tell they don't match the light wood color table, so I had to paint them. Weirdly they don't sell "light natural wood color" spray paint at Lowes. The one I got is close but I am not sure it will work. I'll ask Anne Marie in the morning if I catch her before work what she thinks of it. And I am planning on carpet cleaners to come and save the carpet, so all should be well now.

Also, I am posting a picture where you can actually see Kevin.

Neal

Neal, born January 3, 2005, is very different from his older brother. Neal is very stubborn. Ben doesn't eat much, claiming that he doesn't like the food, but Neal will eat a ton as long as it was his idea. If you try to talk him into it, he won't eat a thing. Same thing with talking -- Neal can say quite a lot if he wants to, but if you ask him to talk, he's silent. The other day he wanted to play with cars, and so he pointed at the car bag. I asked him to say "open, please," but rather than comply with the request, he changed his mind about the cars and pointed at the books. I asked him to say "book, please," and he just got mad.

Neal loves animals. He enjoys giving hugs to the dog. Of course, he also likes wrestling the dog and head-butting it, but I think he's just playing. Neal wasn't much of a TV watcher until recently. He saw the Teletubbies for the first time and really liked them. Then he saw a Piglet movie, and now when Ben's watching something he likes, Neal will point at the TV and say, "Pooh" in a very plaintive voice.

Neal does great in Nursery now. He just needs a few minutes to acclimatize, and then he'll point at the door and tell me to go. He has been saying prayers, too, which he enjoys. I'm not sure he likes Sacrament Meeting, though. He has figured out that if he says he has to go to the bathroom, we'll take him on a walk in the hallway. This Sunday he left three times.

Vacuuming ("gauk," as he says) is Neal's favorite activity, but he'll do any kind of cleaning. He'd also drop anything for a chance to go outside. What he enjoys most, though, is copying whatever Ben is doing. Last night at dinner he carefully watched every bite Ben took and made sure he ate exactly the same thing and took drinks at the same time.

Benjamin

Ben was born April Fools' Day, 2003. He is a very imaginative boy, which makes life a lot of fun. (Today, for example, we were superheroes who had to save the town from a bunch of tornadoes on the horizon. He constructed a tornado-catching device, called a "sucklepets", that would suck up tornadoes when properly calibrated.) Ben is often scared to be by himself, probably because he can't turn his imagination off.

He loves TV, especially Spongebob Squarepants, and hates going to bed. Ben also likes to play computer games and "TV games" (x-box -- he likes "the robot game" best). Ben is learning his letters and can't wait to go to school. He's very protective of his younger brother and is careful to make sure that Neal is not left out of anything.

Ben currently wants to grow up to be a doctor so he can find out what is wrong with people like Dr. House. (Sometimes he wants to work at a bank, though.) Yesterday Ben was jumping on the trampoline and landed a little funny. He claimed his leg was broken, and said he would need to walk with a stick like Dr. House.

Today we were driving back from a garage sale (the craigslist posting looked promising, but the actual selection was dissapointing) and Ben said, "Hey, that looks like Daniel's Z-Y-O-S!" Anda and I looked at each other, neither having understood. But he repeated himself, and Anda noticed that the car in front was similar to Daniel's, and she made the connection: "Oh, you mean SUV!"

Anda

Howdy!

I am a mom to two boys I gave birth to (Ben and Neal) and two other boys I just choose to live with (Kevin and Satus). I am so glad that you can see the dog's name written down, because now I don't have to explain - no, it's not Sadist, it's SATUS. Weird name, I know. Well, he's a DOG. He'll be fine.

I am 26, Kevin and I have been married for almost seven years and I am from Latvia. I stay at home, you could say, but really I try to get OUT of home a lot. I have no friends nearby and it seems I'm not good at making new ones. Any helpful tips will be appreciated.

Also, I don't know what language I should use on this blog. I guess I'll use whatever I feel like. Enjoy!

Kevin

Yes, this is a picture of me. I'm underneath all the blankets. This blog is my idea, prompted by various stimuli: Andrea's suggestion that we should have one, Megan's many requests that her friends start blogs, and my desire to record some of the events in our life in a way that is more fun than keeping a journal. Maybe if I let my friends know that we're keeping a blog, it will ameliorate some of my guilt at not keeping in better touch with them.


So, a little about me. I am a very simple person, in a complicated sort of way. All I want from life is to spend time with my family and have a never-ending supply of freshly-baked cookies. I don't have many hobbies, but I'm going to start a new one: camping. I took the boys to the stake father-son campout a couple weekends ago, and we had a lot of fun. I didn't sleep too well, because Neal kept pushing me off the foam pad onto the cold, hard ground. But in the morning we had a great breakfast, played soccer, chased monsters, and went out in a rowboat. I thought it was a much better way to spend the weekend than watching TV and going shopping. Yesterday I bought a tent that is big enough for all of us so we can try it again. I'm looking forward to it.

Hello, World!

This is our very first post on our very first blog. I'm going to post a short description of each of us--Kevin, Anda, Ben, Neal, and Satus. Hope you like us!

Oh, BTW, all text and images posted on this blog are copyrighted, all rights reserved. I know a good copyright attorney, so think twice before stealing!