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!

The latest happenings

It has been awhile since I blogged. The last year has been kind of a blur for me. I have been doing a graduate certificate program at the university here and so everything else has seemed to slip through the cracks. This summer I am teaching swimming lessons and also starting a research project up at school, as well as studying to take the GMAT (Graduate Management Assessment Test). In between all that stuff, I am busy taking care of my kids. We are doing our own summer reading program and it has been really fun. They are also helping to take care of the garden and the yard. So here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately!

We had a piano recital! William and Marissa both take piano lessons and they are really doing well at it. Marissa plays all day long and she picks up songs very easily. She is hard for me to keep up with! William plays beautifully and he really enjoys sight reading from his book.

Here is their teacher, Sue Knutson. I think she is a great teacher!
Some reading time with our cat. I will often walk in and find the three of them together reading. Though, Owen is not reading so much as listening.

This is from last month when we went to the park to shoot off a rocket. It was a great success!

Marissa has been busy losing teeth the last couple of months. I told her to stop, but she said she can't help it.

We have been attacked, well sort of, by cicadas this summer! They are harmless, except for the tremendous noise they make. Apparently they are one of the loudest insects on the planet and when you combine their noise with thousands of others, it is really very loud. They covered the trees for a couple weeks. For several days they were even more packed on to the trees then they are in this picture. It was crazy! Marissa has been picking up their wings all the over the place and she gives me each one to put in her journal. I might have lost a few of them. She actually asked me if I would go pull the wings off the ones that were already dead, but I had to decline.

We also went fishing for the first time ever! William was so excited. He caught so many fish, it was a very successful fishing trip!

We have also had sports camps this summer. William went to a baseball camp. He had fun, but it was really very hot that week. It was a long morning for him.

William and Marissa were both really excited to do soccer camp. Here is Marissa dueling with this kid. It was a great camp and they both learned a lot. The first night they had their shin guards, they slept with them on. And William had his soccer ball with him in bed also. He hasn't stopped kicking it since the camp ended. He loved it.

It was really hot this week also, they had to take water breaks every 20 minutes. We went home everyday and ate a popsicle or two. This is the last day when they got their shirts!

William was really into this one on one scrimmage thing they did. He won this one.

Also this month, I entered two of my paintings into an art show! It sounds way cooler then it really is, but I am still proud of me for doing it. It isn't juried or anything, it is just for show. In the picture, my paintings are the two on the right.

Well, I do have pictures with a baby snapping turtle and us waiting for the International Space Station to pass over our town, but the pictures aren't loading and I have run out of time. Hopefully I will get those ones up soon. Thanks for reading!

Has it really been 8 months?

I haven't blogged for eight months! I really can't believe it has been that long. I guess I need to update cyber space with the happenings in my life over the last long while. Unfortunately, I don't really have time right this minute. Hopefully it won't take another eight months to make a decent blog posting. I hope my friends and family that see this are doing well.

Our summer of fun!

Well, one of the first things that happened when we were in Provo was that William lost his first tooth!! It was very exciting!


The next week, we got settled in Julie and Drew's apartment. It was very hot the first week we were there and we were looking for ways to cool off during the day. The second day we were there we got a pool pass at the pool 3 blocks away. It is such a cool pool. They don't let us bring cameras in, but I did get a picture of it the last day we were there. But here we are on the way to pool riding our bikes. Or rather, on the way back from the pool.


But the more important thing that happened the first time we went swimming was that I got stung by a bee!! I put on hand on it in the grass next to the pool and it stung my middle finger. It hurt! I have been stung by bees before on my hand even, but never has the sting swelled like this one did.

It continued to swell for the next two days and it throbbed also. I couldn't sleep. I had to lay down with an ice pack on my hand. Finally on the third day the swelling started to go down and I got some relief. So we never went back to the pool....
No, that isn't true. We went back, many times and loved it!

This is one of the sunsets out the back window. My camera has a sunset setting on it and I think it turned out well besides all the power lines and such. But the clouds are beautiful! I loved looking out the back window in the evening. I ended up putting William and Marissa out on the couches because it was cooler out in the front room, so I would go hang out in the bedroom while they went to sleep. I got in the habit of writing extensively in my journal every night, which was so great. I really haven't been good about doing that for a couple years. I was happy to reestablish the habit. Also I painted a lot in the evenings and I watched the first two seasons of Chuck also.

Where to begin?

I should be finishing the blog from our summer of fun in Provo, but we have done so much in the last month since being home that I thought I might update the present first.

Well, we got home on August 20th. I had class starting on the 24th, so we got back just in time. I had a little hiccup with school and ended up transferring the first week of class. I was going to school up in St Louis, which ended up being over a 2 hour drive each way. I transferred to the university in Rolla and changed majors and I am so happy and grateful I did. I'm doing a graduate certificate in Psychology in Leadership, which is like business psychology. It is a lot of fun and lots of hard work. My mom makes it possible for me to balance homeschooling, school, swim team, choir director, primary pianist, and a bunch of other stuff! Thanks Mom!

But, there are much more interesting things then my school stuff!! So, let's see. One of the first things that happened was that Marissa made a fort. Lots of forts. Here is one of them.

The next Friday morning we had a homeschooling party at the Kofoed's house. We have a lot of kids in our ward that homeschool, there were 25 kids are the swim part that day. We had a lot of fun!

That night we also had a ward camp out. It is an annual thing and it was so great, just like last year. We bought a new tent so that I could have room to stretch out my legs at night. It ended up being a very large tent. It is actually tall enough for me to stand up in and it can fit 2 queen size beds in it. So after roasting hot dogs on the fire, we got the tent all set up. Usually my kids are in bed at 7 or close to it, but Marissa and William have good friends at church now and they happened to be camping also and were up late. So for once, I let my kids stay up. They had so much fun! It got dark and they were still playing. William ran around with his buddy Zachary and they both had some flashlights with head straps. Marissa ran around with two other 4 year old girls, Kimmi and Alanna. They went in to each others tents again and again, giggling and completely wearing themselves out. They had some glow bracelets that they wore around their ankles so they didn't ever run into each other in the dark and I knew where they were.
Of course, I deeply regretted all this fun the next day when they were incredibly crabby. It reconfirmed to me that it is a good idea to put them into bed early and never let them stay up!

This fun picture is of a hat that Marissa made. Her friend Kimmi made the red part, but Marissa added the veil on the top and put on the dress. She was very proud.
A week or so later, it was Labor Day and we took Dad to the airport to head back to Maryland. We decided we should all go so we could head to the zoo. On the way out the door, I grabbed my camera and took these pictures of my mom's beautiful flowers! I love my camera and these flowers. They were just lovely.
So after I took the pictures, we headed up to St Louis. When we got to the zoo, there were cars backed up for blocks! We decided maybe the zoo wasn't such a good idea and went right instead towards the Science Center. It was also crowded, but not nearly as much. We always love going there. And it was even better this time because Grandpa was with us. Here are some highlights!


Marissa will often get dressed up in her ballet stuff after lunch and she just looked so cute, I had to take a picture. This is my tutu from when I was about 6. She loves it.
Hanging out with friends at the park and riding in a truck!

One day we also found a turtle. William felt compelled to bring it inside and show everyone.

On September 11, we went to a patriot rally at Lion's Club park. It was so great! They had big blowup toys, horses, a bald eagle, and a helicopter even landed right there in the park! Very fun for a free night!

One day Marissa had some free time and came up with this cool thing. She made it all herself and asked everyone else to pull her down the hallway. Very creative!

Also, she decorated this basket for Baby Day to sit in.

And she made this hair thing for herself too. She loves to make things.

A few nights ago, I went in the bathroom and found this sitting right next to the toilet. Mom and I had to draw straws to decide who had to kill it. We ended up accidentally chasing the thing behind the bathroom cabinet with the broom. The next morning it had come back out and mom vacuumed it up. It was huge!! Huge! HUGE!


Well, here is a hilarious picture. Just having fun the other afternoon.

And here is one of the bats that lives on our deck. This is the small one, but there is also a bigger one that lives there too. We have been trying to get rid of them but haven't been able to yet.

Monday morning we had our next ward homeschooling activity. We went to Lions' Club Park and played kick ball. I haven't played kickball since grade school. I've been missing so much! It is so great! I ended up pitching the second half of the game and it was a blast! By the end, I had grass stains all over my jeans, muddy boots (I didn't realize I would be playing), and I had a sore bottom. I loved it! You can see William running into third base in the first picture.

Just a couple more pictures of stuff we do. William doing his piano playing in the morning, Marissa in probably the third outfit of the day, and then the caterpillars we found in the garden this afternoon!

Well, I think is it for September! A busy month, but with great weather and lots of fun!