The Fources of Nature

Next Step Photography and other updates.....

2009-11-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

I'm finally getting around to starting my own photography blog! nextstepphotos.blogspot.com

Ryan was in the emergency room last night with an asthma attack....he thought the room he was in was "sweet" because a picture on the wall slid open to reveal the oxygen and air canisters that are used for breathing treatments.

Kessa said she doesn't feel good, she feels as bad as an octopus.

Poor Penny seems to be having problems with running, we're hoping it isn't developing into something like arthritis.

That's about it for now. I feel as bad as an eel so we're off to go to the photography shop for more paper.

When to start sex ed?

2008-12-29T16:55:00.000-08:00

While looking through the church bulletin this weekend I saw that they were offering "Wonderfully Made" classes geared to 5th and 6th graders. That made me think about my Ryan....he's 10 now and in the fourth grade, thinks girls are gross and kissing is disgusting. I started thinking about when I stop waiting for him to ask and start teaching him about his body and what's to come. Soo....I asked him a few questions just to probe around what he knows and doesn't know and came to the conclusion that he's very book smart but that's about it in this particular area. The questions and answers came somewhat like this...

Me: Ryan do you know what puberty is?
Ryan: Yes....it's the maturing of the sexual organs in boys and girls.

Me: Do you know what sexual organs are?
Ryan: Nope.

Me: Do you know what happens to a boy in puberty?
Ryan: His voice gets deeper.

Me: How are babies made?
Ryan: The mans sperm fertilizes the womans egg and the cells divide into an embryo and then the embryo continues to grow...........(etc...)

Me: Do you know how the sperm gets from the man to the woman?
Ryan: *shrugging shoulders and looking bored with the conversation* I dunno

Me: Do you know what sex is?
Ryan: Yes.

Me: What is it?
Ryan: It's another word for gender.

Me: Okay....thanks!
Ryan: Why are you asking me this stuff?
Me: Just wanted to know how much you knew.
Ryan: Can I play the wii now?

So now I'm off to buy/checkout the book Preparing for Adolescence by Dr. Dobson. Apparently he recommends teaching right before puberty- when the child will still think sex is "gross", but old enough to have interest and understand.

If anybody else has any ideas/thoughts/recommendations I'd love to hear it :)

No time to post....

2008-11-02T19:32:00.001-08:00

or just a lack of desire. Kids are doing fine. Kessa just won her first Cinderella preliminary as a Tot (meaning she went on stage all by herself). Ryan is about to test for his blackbelt....at least he's supposed to, he has no desire to do tkd anymore so I doubt he'll actually pass (is that terrible for me to say?). Brandon is being tested at school to find out why he has such a hard time with spelling and reading. Nathan got an excellent report card for his first quarter in Kindergarten....though the teacher is discovering how much of a handful he is. I'm doing okay, feeling really blah for the last several months, don't want to do anything, photography business isn't moving anywhere because I have no desire for it right now.....no new clients, no old clients coming back.....feeling sad about it, guess my skill or creativity isn't what I thought it was. I guess that's enough of a pity party for me...ttyl

Kylie

A Sense of humor

2008-07-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling very unmotivated when it comes to karate lately....I just flat out don't want to go. So I prayed this morning about it, asking God that if I really needed to go then to give me a sign that I just couldn't ignore. Then I opened my bible.....to Jonah. Enough said....I'm getting my uniform on *sigh*.

p.s. not sure if I mentioned it before but it's official now, I'm the current 2008 Arizona State Champ for Forms and Weapons.

And the men shalt cringe...

2008-03-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

Nathan, in all his exuberance, took to jumping this morning. He was holding onto the doorknobs on both sides of the door and jumping with all his might. Unfortunately, poor Nathan lost his footing on his last jump and landed solidly on the door, one leg on each side. I comforted him the best I could yet, being a woman, had no clear understanding of the amount of pain he was in and called daddy in for a bit more sympathy (admittedly while trying not to laugh). Nathan sobbed out "Mommy....that part I touch is cut in half!!!!!"......(that part being his scrotum). I learned that 'walking it off' doesn't make that particular injury any better as I got an incredulous look from my husband when suggesting it. It's an hour or so later now and he seems to be over the shock, hopefully that will be the last of that particular doorstop for him.

The days where I really want to know, is it worth it???

2008-03-03T19:37:00.000-08:00

It's been one of those days and I'm having a lot of trouble finding any humor in it. Let's start by saying I've got 54 taekwondo photo orders to fill along with two pageant photo shoots and a first birthday shoot......guess when they are all due? Well....I have a couple more days. This afternoon went pretty okay, not too much trouble except for the constant bickering, whining, fussing, crying, pinching, scratching from Nathan and Kessa (on each other of course) not to mention the constant bouncing, jumping, running, and twirling that Nathan has attached himself to the last few days. It comes time to pick up Ryan and Brandon from school so I tell the kids to head out to the car while I pee real quick.....and I do pee really fast. Got the kids in the car and go to shut the garage door....lo and behold it's comming down crooked like someone (named Nathan) decided to take it for a ride. I don't know how to get it through to him not to do that, I've done timeouts, I've done spankings, I've talked and or yelled till I'm blue in the face but I can NOT get it through to him that it is NOT okay to ride the garage door. So we bring Ryan and Brandon home....not too much trouble. We get the typical whining, fussing, and general disobedience of not doing chores or homework....we get through it as usual, not too bad but still on the cranky side. Then I go to fix dinner, an easy dinner....just tostadas. While I was making dinner the toothpaste in the bathroom proved too irresistable for Nathan and or Kessa (along with Ryan and Brandon who seemed to know about it yet did nothing to stop it) and the new tube/bottle type thing was half gone...squeezed all over the counter, the bathtub, in the cabinets covering at least 6 pair of night time pull ups (you know, the expensive ones). I make the kids their plates for dinner (saving the toothpaste for later) and 3 of them manage to drop their plates or somehow spill the contents on the floor. They all get more food....of course we have a magical kitchen where no matter how much food you waste, there is always more to replace it. Yet, they manage to leave the mess of their first course on the floor waiting for the magical clean up fairy to make it disappear.......they were wrong, it took a good 20 minutes of me yelling and generally making their lives as miserable as I felt to get it cleaned up but they did it. Then one more thing was brought to my attention was while I was cleaning up the toothpaste out of the bathroom Nathan was having even MORE fun! (Notice that again everyone knows about it but nobody stops it)... He took the giant bottle of taco seasoning (the big powder monstrosity that you buy at Costco) and proceeded to sprinkle it all over the living room. The table and chairs, the filing cabinet, the safe, the weight bench, weights, and exercise bike (our living room is our exercise area for now) were all a lovely shade of rust along with spots here and there on the carpet. I started to make him clean it up, but the mess just seemed to get bigger and bigger. I sent them all to bed. Then I cried some, and I'm really just praying.....honestly praying very hard that it has to get better. I'm having a really hard time enjoying being a mom right now, I want too......I just don't know how much more of this I can handle. Nathan has his "observation" appointment with the psychologist tomorrow.....Please pray that this doctor can help me somehow, I just honestly don't know what to do anymore. I'm just one straw away from feeling completely broken....and just in time for my birthday tomorrow...yippee (that's sarcasm btw).

Some fun things....

2008-02-27T17:44:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a while (I don't post nearly as often as I have material for)....so here are a few updates.

Nathan turned 5!
Kessa turned 3!
so now the kids are 3,5,7, and 9 instead of 2, 4, 6, and 8.
(that was fast there huh?)

Some funny stuff:
Nathan went on his Grammy Date with my mom (aka Grammy)....she took him to Red Robin's for dinner. When she asked him if he saved room for dessert he started clearing away his plate and napkins......She asks him what he's doing that for and he says while motioning to the now cleared table in front of him "I have room for my dessert!"

Ryan was sitting in the backseat of the van with Brandon, listening to an MP3 player. I have the headphones on a splitter so they can both listen to the one player. Ryan asks Brandon to "turn the volume up one decibel please".

Kessa is a fan of Hannah Montana......I don't know how, why, or where she was introduced to HM but she likes her none the less. Now for those of you not familiar with HM it's a Nickelodeon tv show where Miley Cyrus (Billy Ray's daughter) plays herself as a normal high school teenager and has a secret life as Pop Singer Hannah Montanna (blonde wig and all). Well yesterday we were walking through WalMart and I noticed a book stand filled with HM books. I pointed to one and asked Kessa who that was and she yelled out "momma!!! Dat's Hannah Tanna!!!!" So I pointed to another book and she say's "Dat's Hannah Tanna!" So I thought I'd trick her and point to the one of her with her normal "darker" hair and Kessa looks at it and in a not so impressed voice says "Dat's Miley Cyrus". And here I thought I was fooling her.

Well, it's time to get my 2nd place in forms/2nd place in weapons at ATA Nationals tush off to Taekwondo class tonight :)

Adios!

The zoo (the real one)

2008-01-04T09:29:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've written, so I guess I should catch up a bit.
Yesterday we went to the zoo. All four of the kids and I met up with a friend and her little girl.
The kids loved the sting ray bay and petting the sting rays, it was the first exhibit we visited.
We then went to the giraffes where I discovered that Kessa was NOT a zoo fan...her first comment to see those tall beautiful creatures was 'Mommy...they stink' at which point she backed up from the fence plugging her nose and headed back to the wagon that Renee brought.
Nathan was as usual the handful...he had no problem hunting out his own paths and trails to animals that he wanted to visit that we weren't necessarily headed towards. Right after the monkey village (at which point I had to constantly keep him on the right side of the ropes he decided it would be fun to hop onto the back of a MOVING cart that the zookeepers drive. They apparently didn't see him so didn't stop. I was loading the stroller and it was maybe 10 seconds at the most that he was gone from my side......he will put me in the hospital one day if he doesn't do it to himself first. Ryan's and Brandon's favorite was the Baboons....they thought watching 'monkey butts' was the funniest thing ever. Overall the zoo was a success and I came home with most of my hair intact.

I'll write more later....promise.

He's growing up.....:(

2007-11-26T20:39:00.001-08:00

Tonight on the way home from karate Ryan asked if there really was a Santa. I didn't have to come up with an answer right then because Ryan can't just ask a question and wait for an answer, he has to add his own hypothesis onto the question and debate his own answers, so we ended up discussing whether magic was real instead of Santa. This will probably be the last year he will truly believe. I never really cried with milestones like walking or first day of school so I'm not sure why this one is hitting me this way. Maybe I'm just over tired and emotional, or maybe the thought of my oldest not believing in Santa is too much of a reality dose that he really is growing up.

Santa, in case you're reading my blog, just wanted to let you know that *I* believe, and I'll be looking forward to Christmas morning because I've been REALLY good this year.

Kylie (child at heart)

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting....

2007-11-18T08:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a regional Tae Kwon Do tournament that Paul and I both participated in. It kind of snuck up on us as we were discussing the tournament on monday, thinking it was further away than saturday. I took a private lesson with our instructor to get a new weapons routine....I didn't want to toss my weapon again like I did last time so I switched from the ssahng joel bong (nunchuks) to the jahng bong (big stick). I was definitely more interested in practicing my weapons form than my open hand form which showed in the results.

We dropped Nathan and Kessa off at Mom's house and headed on to the tournament with Ryan and Brandon. Paul and I both got to stay in our own age ring....sometimes if there aren't enough people in an age group they will combine, and usually it ends up being with the 20-29 year olds which is hard for us old 30-39 folk. I had 3 other ladies in my ring this time, one came from California, one from Phoenix, and the third was from my ATA school. Talking before hand we found out that the two ladies I hadn't met before had just come back from Fall Nationals in Orlando. They both did really well there and racked up the state champ points.....not sure I really have a chance anymore but I'm gonna keep trying :D .

First we did open hand form, I went third and I went all out....at least I was on the verge of throwing up while waiting for my score from the exertion (lol!). I apparently didn't do as well as I thought I did though....I got a 6 (out of 10) from the foot judge, 6 from the hand judge, though I did get an 8 from the center judge (overall form) which brought me in third place, disappointing but I know what to improve on now. Only three of us did a weapons form, and I was really nervous doing it for the first time, my hands were shaking and when you have to do something precise with your hands, having them shake is NOT a good thing. I did pretty good, I was disappointed in my propeller move because it wasn't as smooth as it should have been. I must have done something good though because my scores were 7, 8, and 9 placing me in first for weapons. Sparring is my worst area. I'm not very good at it....I'm a very large target and very slow so it's easier for my opponents to get in and out with a score. Since there were four of us I was guaranteed 3rd place since the two that don't move to the next round tie for third, and sure enough....I tied for third. So all in all it was a good day and we had fun.

Paul did AWESOME in his ring. I can't fathom having to spar in a ring with the guys he spars with. Men tend to hit harder and faster than women, I wouldn't stand a chance at all. Paul did really well and placed 2nd in sparring...was only 1 point away from winning first. In forms he tied for second and had to repeat his form, then the judges just pick the winner from those two instead of re-scoring and he won 2nd (other competitor received third). I'm very proud of him, he rocks! I only wish we didn't always end up competing at the same time because I would love to be able to sit and watch and take pictures. This time we were at least in side by side rings so I got to watch a bit of it.

Hope you all have a great week! I'm now off to search for something yummy and gooey to make for Thanksgiving dessert.

The Tea Set

2007-11-11T23:44:00.000-08:00

In September Grammy picked up a little tea set for Kessa while we were in California. I tried to keep it up and out of sight for a while because it's ceramic and my children are not known for being gentle with anything even remotely fragile. This weekend it was discovered again and they have all been having tea parties (even the big boys) with Kessa. The house was filled with the sounds of me hollering out "BE CAREFUL WITH THAT!!!" when the clinking and clanking of the little cups and saucers became more than just background noise. They all seemed to have fun and enjoyed the make believe. Night came and the boys all went to bed, but not Kessa....she took a late nap and was not about to lay down and since she was playing quietly I figured it wouldn't hurt. She sat down right beside my chair and once again had the teapot filled with water. I got a kick out of listening to her....."Dear God, thank you for this water.......(looks up at me) Mom, I don't have any food.....Amen." She is now sleeping peacefully in her bed with her Mermaid, Princess, and Bear blankets and the tea set in it's basket right next to her pillow.

Dance Class....uh oh.

2007-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

I finally gave in to Nathan's continuous requests to take the dance class after Kessa's. I hesitated for a long time because his main goal in taking part in the class was the prize of a piece of candy at the end....

Nathan: Mommy I want to take that dance class!!!!
Me: Why do you want to?
Nathan: Because I waaaaannnnnttttt toooooo
Me: Do you like dancing?
Nathan: No.
Me: Then why?
Nathan: Cause I want the candy!

Today was different though, he stated he wanted to take the class and said it was because he wanted to dance, not because of candy. So I figured what the heck and let him try the class. Miss Lisa had an extra pair of taps for him and he really seemed to enjoy the tap part. He was a bit lost throughout the class since the girls have already had 1+ years of dance. He did manage to follow directions well and only seemed to annoy a couple of the girls while standing in line. I know his behavior was at his best since Miss Lisa didn't walk out mumbling something about 4 year old boys being banned from the studio. I don't see this as a long future for him, but I could be wrong. We'll see what happens next year when soccer sign up comes around again :)

The current focus of destruction.

2007-11-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well, we moved from flooding the bathroom on a consistant basis (although it's happening more again lately) to the destruction of the garage door. Rewinding to a few months ago... Ryan felt it would be a fun thing to ride the garage door as it opened, resulting in a very broken door and a fairly expensive repair bill. Fast foward to a couple weeks ago....Nathan (who has been told pretty much every day since then NOT to hang on the door) decided that the warning only applies to when my eyes are watching him, for he too felt the need to go for a ride on the door. One more call to the garage door repair man, who took pity on me and charged the least amount of hourly labor he was allowed to charge...$95.00 per hour. Fast forward again to 30 minutes ago, granted it is once again my own fault for putting my eyes somewhere other than directly on Nathan, the garage door is once again in disrepair. The black weather strip tubing at the bottom of the door must have been just calling out to him to be yanked, pulled, pushed (but most likely hung on) and is now dangling from the middle of the door. Thankfully, it is a repair that while time consuming and a bit tiring on the arms, I was able to do myself. The day isn't over yet so who knows what else is to come. I'm still smiling...I think.