A new month, new funny things that happen.

Well, it is April. It hasn't been too terribly long since I blogged last so I guess I'm not doing so bad! I can feel the end of the semester coming, everything is where it should be, and I feel like I can breathe a little and write in my blog.

I think I left off last time right about at my birthday. I had a birthday! I won't say how old, because I'm soo old. No, not really. The day will come when I will wish I was still 32. So to celebrate those days, I'm happy to say that I just turned 32 and it really doesn't feel that different from 31, or even 27, except that I'm so much smarter. And I have the bonus that I'm about to graduate with my master's degree. Overall 32 isn't looking so bad. So my mom made me a birthday cake and here it is:

Here is a picture of my favorite cat helping me with my homework one night.

William and Marissa also started a tumbling class at the local gym. They both really enjoy it, even William, who is the only boy in the class. Here are some pictures from their class:

Marissa is rather crafty, and I mean that in a good way. She often likes to make things and here are some of what she has done lately:

New dress for Baby Day.

Some flowers from American Girls book.

This is Marissa yesterday when she tried to straighten her hair. It is much less curly than usual, but not quite straight. She wanted to trick her gym teacher so she wouldn't recognize her. I told her that probably wouldn't work, but she was determined to try. She tried again this morning also to straighten her hair. Maybe I should stop straightening my all the time, I don't want her to get the wrong idea about curly hair.

Here are some pictures from when we were getting ready for a kid's art show. Marissa entered her painting like Monet's waterlilies and she also made a new one that looks like a mosaic. William entered his blue slug (see picture below) and also he painted a cat. I will put up some pictures from the art show later.

Just looking "Like Mama".

This one is a picture of some clay animals that Marissa and William made. William made that blue slug all by himself and it is sooo cute!! I put it up on his shelf. Marissa made the unicorn with some help from me.

Marissa and William are also doing soccer right now. They really enjoy it, although William is much more into than Marissa is. Here are some pictures from practice, with more to come later from games:

Also the sky has been awesome lately. We went up to the campus observatory to see Jupiter and its moons last month. And also Jupiter was right in line with Venus and the moon for a few days, so we were out every night looking at them. Here is one shot we took:

On Saturday we went up to the new Kansas City temple for the open house. We went on a bus with some other people in the ward. Besides being car sick (or bus sick as Marissa tells me) for the entire trip, it was a great day. We also stopped at the Liberty Jail and took the tour.

This just made me laugh. Marissa was sitting behind me and then started watching a movie in front so she stuck her head in between the seats right next to me.

Last week we also went to our homeschooling skating party. William and Marissa are both getting a lot better at skating. They had a great time, especially since the place was almost empty. They skated right next to each other almost the entire two hours. And I got to roller blade the whole time! Sorry, no pictures.

Okay, last event. Easter!! On Sunday we dyed Easter eggs, aren't they pretty? We get eggs from a farm, so they are brown. They aren't exactly bright, but I think they are lovely. We also made dinner: an awesome ham, my egg florentine, and baked potatoes. Since I had been car sick all the previous day, I didn't eat much, but the couple of bites I had were so good. Then Monday night we went to the bishop's house to have an Easter egg hunt. William and Marissa brought way too much candy home, but they had a great time making crafts, playing bingo, and decorating eggs, not to mention playing with good friends.

Update on the Fairbanks clan

I know I said I would blog and since the person who has been lately taking up a lot of my time happens to be out of town this weekend, I find that I have time to blog tonight. So this is some of the stuff that we have been doing the last few months. I'm sure there are other things I need to add, but this is the most recent stuff.

William has been doing a lot of origami. So much. Here is one picture of what happened when I left him alone for an hour after lunch.

I finally had to put a cap on the origami after they filled at least four grocery bags full of folded paper. They also tried to sell me their wares frequently in an effort to earn some money. I'm glad they learned how to do it, even if they have used so much paper in the process.

So I also finally got around to taking a Christmas photo. One day in February we happened to all wear Christmas-y kinds of things to church, so I did a quick photo session before we ate lunch. It wasn't great, but we were hungry and time was short. Too bad I can't post all of them, some are quite funny.

I know I already posted this picture, but it is worth mentioning again. These are the cookies that my mom helped William and Marissa make for me for Valentine's Day. My mom really excels on Valentine's Day. They always come up with very cute and lovely things for me. Thanks!

Next we come to our brief visit from the winter fairy. We really have had a night mild winter this year, which I appreciate since I have to drive so much. But I was really sad that we didn't get to sled like we did last year. So I was very happy when at last we had just enough snow to build some snowmen, make snow forts, and even sled down a big hill at the park.

This is just a picture of my cute cat, Owen. I actually have a lot of pictures of him sleeping because he always looks so funny. So this is one of him sleeping on my bed.

Here is another one. It reminded me of princess and the pea. How many cushions are under there?

We went to the zoo last month since we have had such great weather. The butterflies were a hit again. William and Marissa were wanting them to land on their fingers, but of course, that was unlikely and there was a sign that said not to touch them anyway. It was a great day though!

New baby elephant back there.
They both used to fit in this hole so easily! When did they get so big?
The hippos were putting on a show.

Several weeks ago William went to a chess tournament. He started playing chess this past fall. I can't remember why exactly he started playing, but he loved it right away. He started doing chess club with other homeschoolers and learned more about how to play. I don't really play, so the fact that he beats me doesn't really mean much. But he is talented at it. This is the last regular game of the tournament before he had to go into a tie breaker.

Yeah, he won! He did really well. The boys in his group were pretty evenly matched, all of them would have beaten me!

He was so proud! And the next week his picture ended up in the local paper. He was so excited! He couldn't stop talking about it.

A couple weeks ago, the planets aligned!! The moon was hovering right around Jupiter and Venus. We went up to the observatory and looked at Jupiter and its moons. The next night we just looked at it with binoculars off the deck. It was pretty cool. You could really see the spots on the moon, not so much Jupiter's moons, but still cool. Even Owen thought it was cool.

So this week, we got some new shirts from Uncle Tyler! William and Marissa were very excited about it!

William has been using the cheese cutter the last couples weeks. He wanted to help in the kitchen with lunch the other day and painstakingly cut these little cheese squares for me!

We went rollerskating this weekend with a friend. It was so fun! Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Well, it is late. Wow, even later than I thought it was. I will more fun adventures to blog about next week, I'm sure! Thanks for reading!

An attempt to put something meaningful onto my blog

I recently realized (just now) that I haven't blogged in a good long while. That isn't to say that I haven't had anything to say, but it is to say that I have been really quite busy. Not that everyone isn't busy, everyone is busy and yet everyone else seems to make time to blog. Not me. I think I'm better at blogging during the summer when I'm not in school. Fortunately, this current semester, which ends On May 4, is my last semester, hopefully, of school. I will officially receive a master's degree on May 4 and I hope to never think about another master's program again.

So just to recap my lame excuse for not blogging for a good long while, I have been in school. Also I have been staying up very late and getting up too early. Also I have been training for another half marathon. Also I have been very involved with homeschooling my kids, as well as working for two of my professors. At any rate, there has been a lot going on in my life. Fortunately, it is awesome.

I now end this silly blog with a promise of future effort in attempting to fill this blog with more meaningful stuff and cute pictures.

MAD LIB!

Today for school, I decided it would be fun to Mad Lib. I really liked doing those in school, and I thought William and Marissa would too. I got a 'How to Train Your Dragon' themed Mad Libs at Borders recently, so I was already to go today. I thought you would enjoy the results.

Welcome to Berk

Looking for the perfect vacation destination for your entire smart family? Interested in fighting tall dragons and living the rough-and-sharp life of a viking? Then come to the sticky island of Berk. Our mountainous home is located just ten miles north of America on the scenic Bathtub Sea. Stay at the quaint Dragon's Nose Inn. Relax and have all the roast puppies you can eat at Cross-eyed Mead Hall. Learn hand-to-unicorn combat to help you fight giraffe-skin, puppy-breathing dragons by studying with Gobber, our famous ear trainer. If this sounds like the ultimate adventure to you, write long letter to our chieftain, Stoick, and book your stay in our pokey village. Make sure to pack your sword and Mommy; the only thing dragons love more than chewing on a char-grilled puppy is terrifying a smooshy tourist!

Hiccup's Ode to Astrid

Roses are red, vikings are blue. Astrid's tough as a puppy and she's sharp too. When we first met, I knew it was love. She was like a baby bottle sent from above! So smart, so strong, a pokey source of power. When she goes into battle, all the babies cower. She smells like milk, did I mention that? When fighting dragons, she's fat as a cat. Her hair, her eyes, her baby-weilding ways- I could watch her fight vicious books for days. Unfortunately, she thinks I'm mad, and I guess that is so. But I'm smart and smooshy and I'll let it show. Astrid is more of a Viking than I, and she makes me feel fluffy when she is nearby. Deep in my head I know this is real. But I fear what she'd say if she knew how I feel. So I watch from Europe and that's where I'll stay. Maybe she'll notice how ugly I am... someday.

Okay, last one.

Gobber's Gossip

Psst...Gobber here. Lend me your ears- because I've got some slow gossip for you! You see, working as a blacksmith, I know all the pointed dirt on everyone in Berk. For example, rumor has it that William the Rotten traded his house's saving for a rare puppy! I also heard that Ruddybum the Smooshy has fallen hopelessly in love with a cat. Can you believe it? I can. Then, just yesterday, a little pony told me that Hagar the Fluffy and Erik the Spiky got into a fight over which Viking was more soft. Hagar got so mad, she elbowed Erik in the eyeball, and he called her a ladybug! It seems like the only person I can't put my feet on is Hiccup. That boy is up to something spiky. But how much trouble could a little baby bottle like that get into anyway? Right?

Mad Libs was a great hit with everyone and we had some big laughs reading them (over and over and over). It was definitely something different from our usual book reading we do in school!

Our 4th of July

Well, I was really wanting to be in Blanding this year, but since I couldn't make it, I thought I would try to re-enact the whole day from last year the best I could.

We (Nana, William, Marissa, and I) started the day with our own "Fairbanks Family Fun Run!" I think it will totally catch on! So we all ran the mile run that was terrible on Saturday, but we ran it much earlier and it was a great success. I even got first place!!

After our nice run, we (William, Marissa, and I) went to the church for our ward breakfast. We got to sit with the Ludlows, who are loads of fun. We ate a nice breakfast and then had a flag raising. Last year, this would have been the parade part of the day. So, not the same, but as close as we could come to it in Rolla.

After the 'parade', it was time for swimming and lunch. We went over to the Picken's house for swimming and BBQ. We had an awesome time. William and Marissa discovered that they are very good at going off the diving board, so they did for about two and a half hours. During that time, I got very sunburned, just like last year! We also ate lunch.

Then we went home and had resting time since we were really all tired from all the swimming. We also watched some of "A More Perfect Union" since it is rather patriotic. After we were done resting, it was time for more swimming and dinner at the Ludlows'!

We had a great time over there as well. There was another almost three hours of swimming, more BBQ, and more friends. It was a little late for more sunburns though. After a great night, we headed home, where, instead of shooting off fireworks, I put my kids to bed because they have swam for almost six hours today. Just like last year, but for different reasons! And then I stay up too late despite my sunburn and watch fireworks laying down because of the pain.

Another successful 4th of July celebration! It wasn't what it was last year, as much as I tried. I realized towards the end of the day that I was missing the most important part and that part was irreplaceable- my totally awesome family. Really it wasn't the 5k, or the parade, the sunburn, the food, or the fireworks that made last 4th of July the best ever, it was being with my incredible family and enjoying all those things together. I hope that we will be able to have another day like that soon.

Marissa's funny things she says and what William reads

I have to write something else tonight because my other blog is a little sad. Have you seen the commercial for pajama jeans? Marissa watched the commercial today while I was watching the news. Afterwards, she asked me if I wanted to buy some pajama jeans because "they are so soft, you can even fall asleep in them!" It made me laugh to see her try to sell me pajama jeans using the commercial's own words.

Tonight was an open house for a friend of mine who was recently married. Marissa really very much likes fancy things; weddings, parties, dresses, whatever. So she was really excited about going tonight. Unfortunately, we had a very long day, hours in the sun, very early morning for her, and she just couldn't handle sitting still by 6:00 tonight. When it was time to get ready, she was all over the place, running, jumping, generally not holding still or listening. So I had to listen to her cry for a bit about it when I told her she wasn't going. Then she settled down a little and asked me in a sad little sobby voice to "call or email Allison and ask her if she can have another fancy party tomorrow night too?" It was just too cute. But after a nice bath and working on a puzzle, she forgot all about the fancy party she missed and went right to sleep.

William is much less dramatic than Marissa. This week William has been reading a third grade American History textbook. He has really enjoyed reading it, two or three times, and I love that he picked it out himself. He has been drilling me this week about the early presidents. We also just got the first level of Rosetta Stone for Spanish and several times this week I have been awakened to William on my computer speaking Spanish words into the headset (he is a very early riser). I am constantly amazed at the things he does!

Worst 'Fun' Run ever!

There was a 5k and a mile 'Fun Run' hosted by the city fitness center this morning. William has been looking forward to this morning's race for weeks now because he did so well at the 5k on Memorial Day. So last night, I put both my kids to bed early so they would be well rested for this morning. We also had to squeeze in one more morning of blueberry picking because it was the last day of the season for the blueberry picking farm near our house. We woke up bright and early at 6:30 and ate a quick breakfast and headed out to the blueberry farm. We didn't get to pick very long, but ended up with a bucket or so. These are such great blueberries, huge and juicy and sweet. It is a fun time if you haven't ever picked blueberries yourself.

About 8:15 we left so we could make it back for the 8:45 start time. We got there just after 8:30 and saw a lot of people finishing the 5k that had started at 8:00. I realized, though, that people I have run with before would not be finishing a 5k in 30+ minutes and that the 5k had started about 15 minutes later than 8:00. No big deal I thought. It wasn't until 8:45 had come and gone and it was getting to be after 9:00 that I suspected a problem. Then I heard rumors at the registration desk that the kid's race would start after all the adults were done with the 5k. So I waited, I walked, I took a child to the bathroom, I walked some more, I found some shade, I found a friend, and this went on for another 30 minutes. All the while, they were watching people finish the 5k and the one lady in charge was frantically at the registration desk hand writing all the times of 5k next to the person's name. Every single one apparently. They couldn't do the awards ceremony until all the times were written on this paper, and they wouldn't start the kid's race until after the award's ceremony was ended. So at almost 10:00am, the award's ceremony was finished, most of the adults were gone, and we are sitting at the place that is shown on the map to be the starting line when all of a sudden, down the hill, the rest of the kids are lined up and ready to start running! So then we run down the hill and I get Marissa and William in line to start running.

All this time, the hour and a half we have been waiting to run this one mile race, these poor little kids have been in the sun, had little to drink, and had nothing to do but annoy the parents about being hot and not having enough to drink and asking when the race will start. So, finally the race is starting, seriously. Oh no, wait, the lady in charge has to stop and make sure of all this other stuff before she will let them run. Other parents by me are complaining to each other as well. So finally they say go and William and Marissa start running. William takes off in his non competitive kind of running, just enjoying the scenery, checking on Marissa, stopping to walk for a few steps, etc. I realize that Marissa is bringing up the rear and run a straight line to head her off at a turn to help her out. There are only about 20 or so kids, and she would've been very much alone if I hadn't gone to help her out. So I run in my flip flops and capris and we start chasing down the little boy in front of us, since we are dead last. William is ahead of us and I'm yelling to him to run, but he thinks I'm waving at him. So he stops to wave back, but I eventually get to him run faster. Marissa just wants to walk and I don't blame her because I also want to walk. Did I mention that we had been out in the sun since 7:30 and that there was a heat advisory today? Yeah, I think I forgot that part earlier. Anyway, it was hot! So hot! So I encouraged her with things like water at the end, shade at the end, food at the end, and going home at the end. I got her to run almost the whole way and even sprint at the end, I think that is her favorite part. I can tell she really gets serious about getting through those cones at the end. So, William was done and cheering us to the end. We were all glad to be done, me especially.

We got some water, because there was none left at the end of the race. But I did have some bananas in the car. But they both got medals and they both had a great time and I got to go home and have a shower and make bacon and eggs for a very late breakfast. Besides almost getting heat stroke and having to wait soooo long to run, it was really turned out to be a lot of fun and worth doing. I'm getting ready to write an email to the center with my suggestions for improvement though, so if you have any thoughts, you who run 5ks all the time, it would be definitely appreciated! I was thinking that they need to run the kids first, I mean, it was only 15 minutes! And earlier, 8:00 is too late in the July to be running, it is already really hot by then! Well, I hope this blog wasn't too painful to read! I do have pictures, which I will post later. If you want to see some now though, you can check out my facebook page!