2009 Year in Review

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Bevans Style

The Grinch and Max
The Narrators

Cindy Lou Who

Cindy Lou Who (in character) with the other Who's

The girls worked for days putting together this play for us. Sophie was in charge of all the set up and costumes. It was very entertaining, particularly the parts that didn't quite go as planned. They had two performances, so the video is a cut and paste job from the best of both performances. I don't expect anyone else to be able to sit through 10 minutes of this, but I'm posting it for posterity's sake:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Did You Know...

that (according to Claire) Christmas is about Jesus' breath :)

Claire's Eye Surgery

Blissfully unaware of what the next hour and a half will bring...

We're very relieved to report Claire's eye surgery went well (thank heaven!) The doctor expects her eyes will align correctly now and the redness should disappear in a week or so.

I was highly anticipating a youtube-worthy reaction to Claire coming out of her drugged state. I was all ready and set with the camera, and got this very anti-climactic response:

Prayers, Etc.

Claire has eye surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning, and as concerned parents, we've been praying that all will go well. The girls also recently had a Sunday school lesson on fasting and decided that would be another good way to seek extra help from the Lord. They had a conundrum, however. The neighbors' dog has had health problems as well. Janelle came to me and very seriously asked what should the purpose of her fast be: for Claire or the neighbors' dog. Hmmm, your sister or the neighbors' dog??? I'll have to think about that NEVER! It's not even OUR dog. He chews up our fence and has been known to poop in our yard. AND had we not had our dog fixed early on, she surely would've been de-flowered by him, quite possibly against her will. So my answer to her, pray for the poor dog and his family by all means, but if you're going to go to the effort to fast, do it for your sister. Or for the neighbors to fix the fence - that would be nice too.

Sophie Takes 1st Place in Essay Contest

Announcing two-time winner of the prestigious Monmouth/Independence Holiday Essay contest.....Sophia Bevans!! She got to read her essay after the Christmas parade and light the giant sequoia tree on WOU's campus. Very exciting :)

Topic: Imagine you work in a toy shop and the owner asked you to create a new toy. What would you call your toy and how would it work?

"I work in a toy shop and the owner asked me to invent a new toy. My toy is called Magic Paper. Anything you draw will pop out of the paper as a real thing!

Have you been begging for a puppy for Christmas? Did your parents say no? If they did, here's your chance. It's simple. Get Magic Paper, and just draw the puppy. You choose the breed, and the tricks it can do! It will already be trained to do the tricks, and it will never go to the bathroom in the house.

If you have been saving your allowance for a really cool toy, all you have to do is draw the toy! Magic Paper is good for adults too. If you hate cooking, you will never have to cook again! Draw your meals instead.

With Magic Paper, get your Christmas shopping done in an hour! Draw a present, and it comes out wrapped up.

If you are bad at drawing, don't worry. This paper makes your drawings perfect, and it never runs out!

To all the worried parents: this product is perfectly safe. Your kids can't draw anything unsafe like guns or drugs. Also, you can't draw money or more Magic Paper. If you do, the paper will disintegrate.

Forget about the price. Remember, your dreams are about to come true! I am only making 20 pieces, so get yours soon! I hope my boss will like my toy!"

Creative Arguing By a Couple of Tooty Dumbo's

When my kids argue, it often manifests in the form of notes. This particular one I found especially amusing. They were arguing about who had to clean the kitchen, and who had to clean the dining room for their chore. Classic example of "you can't con a con man." Here is the translation in case it's not readable:

"Hey Brooke, I have a great idea! How about I get the dining room and you get the kitchen. I think you will love doing it. I hope you have fun doing the kitchen. Love, Janelle Bevans

P.S. Write me back on your paper."

"No way! If you think it's soo fun, why don't you have it?"

"Dear Brooke, I'm trying to be nice to you so you can have the better job. If you don't want me to be nice then you're going to have to deal with it because that's my personality."

"Yah, right. You call that nice?"

"Of course I do. [heart], Janelle"

"Well then you are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo dumb."

[and Janelle, giving up on the nice guy routine]:

"Right back at you, tooty dumbo! Janelle"

Thankful Letters

(I usually like to keep it real and portray the chaos that is our house, good and bad together, but I'm going to get sentimental and try very hard to keep my sarcasm to myself on this one -even while in the background Claire is crying about something Brooke did and Sophie and Janelle are arguing about the rules in Monopoly. We're just focusing on the positive here and being grateful for the good things about each other.)

Brooke and Janelle wrote thankful letters in their class last week. Brooke wrote to Janelle, and Janelle wrote to me. I thought the letters were precious.

"Dear Janelle,
Thank you for being a nice twin. I love you . I remember the time when we performed three plays for mom and Sophia called 'The Giant and the Kid', 'The Lady, the Owner, the Dog and the Monster', and 'The Cat, the Owner and the Monster'. Those plays were soooo fun. I also remember the time that me, you, Sophia, and some friends dug a huge hole at the beach, but then it got ruined. Thank you for being a good sister and twin sister and I love you very, very, very, very much. I will never ever forget those memories. I was thinking about cutting my hair so we would look more the same like you want but I decided to not do that because dad likes long hair better. So I'm just letting you grow your hair long. I love you very much.
Sincerely,
Brooke Linda Bevans"

"Dear Mom,
I am writing this letter to tell you how much I apperciate all that you do for me. Thank you for giving me food and clothing. Thank you for teaching me about the church, having fun with me, and letting me have a good education. I love you a lot and I appreciate what you do for me. I remember the time when we went to the beach. I had fun. I remember that after we went to the beach, we got to get salt water taffy. I also remember the time when you and dad surprised us by giving Phoebe to us. I love Phoebe and I will try to take care of her as good as I am able to. Thank you for giving me all those memories. Thank you for loving and caring about me. I love you.
Love,
Janelle Bevans"

I think they deserve a thankful letter back (Sophie included because,while she had no assignment to write a specific letter, she expresses her gratitude daily in word and deed):

"Dear Brooke, Janelle and Sophie,
I want to thank you for the qualities that make you guys special and add love and joy to our family. I appreciate how helpful you all are with cleaning and housework. I appreciate when you do the things that are expected of you without complaint and without delay. I love the massages you give me when you know I'm tired and achy. I'm thankful for how nicely you play with little kids when they come over to play. I appreciate how hard you each work to do well in school, and I'm grateful that you love each other so much. Sophie, thank you for being so steady and reliable. I know I ask a lot of you, and you are consistently helpful and obedient. Janelle, thank you for being the generous, unselfish, considerate person you are. You must be the best person to have as a twin sister! Brooke, thank you for being my snuggler. It really is a talent you have - I just wish you'd stay little a little longer. And thank you for being the spider destroyer when dad's not home. I REALLY appreciate that! I love each of your individual senses of humor and the silliness you add to our family. I remember all the times we've gone to the Gilbert House, Omsi and places like that and watching you learn and discover new things. I remember watching you play in the sand for hours on end when we go camping making elaborate constructions with all your cousins. I remember all the times you bring home your writing and artwork from school and I marvel at your creativity. I love watching you all learn and grow. You astound me often, and I look forward to watching you develop into lovely little ladies.
Love,
Mom"

6 Months Down, 3 To Go...

I've always been terrible about taking pictures during pregnancy - I guess because I don't hardly take pictures of myself anyway. I have one picture from my pregnancy with Sophie, one from Brooke and Janelle, and about 3 from Claire's, so I decided I should do better this time around. Here's the progress so far:

3 months

4 months
5 months
6 months

The next 3 months might make for scary pictures...we'll see if I'm brave enough to post them

Finding the Balance

This is a topic that I brought up last Sunday during a discussion on budgetting that I'd like to get other peoples' thoughts on, so feel free to share them. If you talk to a financial guru, like a Dave Ramsey type, they'll tell you a good rule to follow is to pay off all debt (or avoid it in the first place), then save up an emergency fund, then if you want to do anything extra, save up for it. Sounds simple enough, but there remains the question of balancing the "uneccessary" things in life: those things that create memories, take advantage of the moment, encourage developing talents and so on. The timing to do some of those things may not be in sync with your financial stability.

I'm the first person who would say "stay out of debt" and "find inexpensive solutions" and so on, but I wonder sometimes if I'm finding the right balance, or missing opportunites to enrich the lives of my children. I would've loved to have all my kids trying out dance lessons, more sports, more music, but I've always felt that it didn't fit into the budget -so while we don't have consumer debt (don't ask about student loans) and have a measly little emergency fund, my older girls are 10 and 8 and have had limited opportunities to explore and develop their talents. Also, Todd and I have been wanting to celebrate the end of his law school - a celebration-worthy event, I think - but have felt like the money needs to be reserved for the great unknown of starting up his own practice. Are we ever going to go on a special trip anywhere or is there always going to be something that will be more important? Even when I make a special effort to save up for something specific, in the end I often opt to keep the money in the bank instead.

Life doesn't always follow the ideal roads, and making decisions about what you value and how to best spend your money and your time can be difficult. When Todd is done with his current job and starts up his legal practice, we have no idea what our income will be. How can I plan a budget on the unknown? I know already how much the mortgage, power bill, insurance and groceries cost, and those costs are already as low as possible, unless we go with the "live in a box and eat dirt" plan B. Reminds me of every time I read an article about saving hundreds of dollars every year, it always assumes that you needlessly spend hundreds of dollars every year on daily lattes, eating out, high energy costs, non-sale items, etc. Believe me, I was born and bred to be cheap and I know ALL the tricks.

Now, I know the ideal answers: Live on less than you earn, so you can have excess money for extras; Find less expensive ways to do things; Don't get in a situation where you're paying money without getting the benefit (i.e. interest); Poor in money can still be rich in happiness, and so on. It's what I would tell myself. But I know there are many opinions out there, and I'd like to hear some of them. How do you make decisions about how to balance being responsible with living and loving life?

Slow News Day

I suspect most days are slow news days in the part of Missouri my brother lives in...He looks great on TV though!
http://www.heartlandconnection.com/news/video.aspx?id=375577

Halloween 2009

The Jack-o-lanterns. Everyone freehanded their own this year (except Claire's little smiley face one). I was particularly impressed with Sophie's spider web one. Nothing but a paring knife and her own raw talent!

The one and only Michael Jackson and the Thriller zombies coming to terrorize your neighborhood

Claire wanted to say hi to her friend, Hayden, but Hayden was a little scared of her :) I was a little scared of Janelle.

My favorite costume of the night: Amanda's new baby, Ruth :) (fun size)

Begrudging Apology

Note I found after the girls were fighting over the clippers when I asked them to help with some yard work:

To: Brooke
Sorry for pulling away the clippers and stomping on your feet and not letting you have a turn. Next time can you not pull it away and ask? If I say no, just accept that.
From: Janelle

A Conversation With Claire

Me: Hey Claire, could you go and get me a cup?
Claire: No. I can't
M: Please, quick!
C: Are you going to throw up?
M: Yes, I think so. Hurry up, I need a cup!
C: I can't. I'm busy jumping like a frog...ribbet.....ribbet.....ribbet

(and for a visual perspective, she had come out of the bathroom and was naked at the time)

No Wonder...

There was an article in Good Housekeeping this month that I found very revealing:

"If you want your husband to rake the leaves, ask him in his right ear. Requests made into that ear, not the left, are more likely to elicit a 'yes.' In an Italian study, a female student asked 176 people for a cigarette in a noisy nightclub. Those asked on the right side were twice as likely (39 percent) to respond favorably as those asked on the left (19 percent). The reason for the pattern? Researchers say it could be the asymmetrical way the brain processes emotions: The left hemisphere (which gets stronger input from the right ear) is specialized for positive feelings and approach behavior, while the right side (more left-ear-linked) tends to be focused on negative feelings and avoidance. So whether it's for a chore or a back rub, try to get on his right side, says Luca Tommasi, Ph.D., lead researcher."

Todd is deaf in his right ear. It figures.

Lesson Not Learned

My friend Maggie came over to visit yesterday afternoon, and in Brooke's excitement to see her, she got a little hyper. As she was on the floor attacking Maggie's leg, I was in the middle of telling her that she needed to display more appropriate and mature behavior when Maggie squatted over her head and passed gas. "Or...you could just be like Maggie forever." :)

Special Day

Brooke and Janelle were baptized today. It was sweet to see how excited they were - I was fighting tears off and on through the day amazed that my little girls were reaching one of these meaningful milestones. I was up early and had a moment to reflect on my own baptism in the Red Sea (since we lived in Yemen at the time). I still remember the warm water, the excitement and anxiety (anxiety about sharks mostly, which my dad assured me was not a concern - only to see a fisherman walking down the beach afterward with all the little sharks he'd caught). My mom made Janelle's dress and Todd's mom made Brooke's (each of their namesakes). Thanks grandma's!!

What I've Learned This Week

We just make girls :)

Pumpkin pie tastes better when you remember to put the sugar in.

My kids are not picky eaters. They liked the pumpkin pie just fine and didn't notice a thing amiss.

Separating Brooke and Janelle at night does not necessarily solve the not going to sleep problem. Separating Brooke from every possible distraction, or making her run laps just before bedtime might work.

Claire is "cute as a butt" according to herself. Question: Is that more or less cute than a button?

Big News #2

As I told Todd, "It's either a girl, or a boy with no weiner." :)

The kids are coming home to a pink party after school!

Big News #1

Todd passed the bar!!!!!!!!! Big News #2 coming Tuesday...

"Talent" Show

Top row: Stephanie, Mandy, Jaclyn, Valerie

Bottom row: Amber, Janica, me, Cori

very front: Maggie

We had a ward talent show today, and Sophie, Todd and myself participated. Sophie did the same clogging routing to "Dancing Queen that she did at the county fair. Todd played guitar and sang "Love of a Lifetime" by Firehouse (but his video wouldn't load up for some reason, and he didn't want it posted anyway). I got a group of women together and taught them "Thriller" - and let me tell you, it was not easy to find maternity red leather(ish) pants, I had to make them maternity by myself :) Enjoy!:

Thriller:

Dancing Queen:

Old Kitchen, New Look

I wish I had a good before picture, but I don't, so imagine this: Green cupboards, mustard-yellow countertops, and torn white wallpaper with little blue and pink flowers on it.

When we were first looking at houses 8+ years ago, the kitchen in this one was a big turnoff for me. The yard and other things won me over, but I've spent the last 8 years not loving the kitchen. I tried to make it work. I figured the countertops were non-negotiable, so I better work around them. So I found a complimentary green to paint on the cupboards (which were previously white) and went over the old wallpaper with a more neutral tan color and a border that tied the green and yellow together. Within a month of so of re-wallpapering, it was ripped, and I had no extra wallpaper to try to repair it. So it stayed. For probably 6 or 7 years.

In my recent home improvement project binge, I couldn't help but tackle the mess I called my kitchen. Several weeks earlier, I'd gotten sick of the wallpaper on the walls and tried to remove it, but found the original flowered disaster was really put on there well. As a result, the walls were covered in pieces of ripped wallpaper in some parts and bare in others. It stayed like that till I finally worked up the motivation to fix it all. Not an easy job! So with the walls finally cleaned and primed, I decided to change the cupboards and counters all at the same time.

My inspiration was this picture of a kitchen I found on the internet:

My very helpful children:

My not-so-helpful children:

My best before picture is just before I started on the counters, but remember, used to be green cupboards and ripped, dated wallpaper:here's another before pic I found:
After a few days, about $50, and every last ounce of elbow grease in me, here is the "after" picture:

Still thinking about doing some kind of decorative thing on the walls and rustic-ing up of the cupboards like in the inspiration picture, but for now I'm tired, so it stays.

A close-up of the countertop treatment (a faux granite look with 6 layers of sealant on it - that was a stinky job!):

Time to take a 3 day nap.

Nesting - Or How I Went From Needing a Bed and Dresser to Re-doing My Entire Kitchen

I'm about halfway through my pregnancy now (there's a formal announcement for anyone who didn't already know) and am feeling the nesting instinct like crazy. It happens to me every time. With Claire's pregnancy I spent the last couple of months hauling big concrete blocks around for some poor-man's landscaping. This time, we're feeling a desire for change. For the last few months I've been nesting mentally in my dream house. But since that won't be near enough in the future for us, we're looking at another house in our neighborhood (Spencer's house, for those who know them). Hoping it would be possible, but we have a lot of financial unknowns lurking with Todd switching careers and all that. But in the meantime, we either have to make it work here, or I'll be sprucing it up for a possible future sale. Anyone know anyone who's in the market for a house in Monmouth - let me know! So here's what I've been busy with in the last little while:

Got a hand-me-down daybed, repainted and assembled it for Claire, subsequently getting rid of the old futon that was in this spot. We passed on the mattress to a friend and Todd gets credit for chopping the frame into firewood.

Got a hand-me-down dresser (thanks Shar!), repaired a broken spot and hauled it down to Sophie's room

Took Sophie's old dresser, primed and painted it and put it in Claire's room/the office

Peeled old wallpaper and primed Janelle's half of their room. Brooke has not felt the desire to clean her half yet, so I'm not going to paint it.

Since I already had the primer out I figured I might as well touch up some trim around the house.

The hallway was looking a little dingy and dirty too, so it needed some priming and painting.

Primed the bathroom door which had previously been painted the same color as the wall - big mistake, it did not look pretty.

Being already in the de-wallpapering and priming mode, I went ahead and did the same in the kitchen, which desperately needed a change.

I was working in the kitchen anyway, so I took the opportunity to clean behind the fridge (for some reason, a clean back of the fridge becomes very important to me during every pregnancy).

If I have the option now to change the wallcolor, I didn't want to be limited by the cupboards, so I decided I should paint them all too. So far I've just removed the cupboard doors, but I've got big plans for them. And obviously I've got to do SOMETHING about my old mustardy countertop.

Still to do: paint in the twins' room (at least half of it), paint over the primer in the hallway, on the trim, and on the bathroom door, paint the kitchen walls and cupboards, and plan and carry out countertop replacement or resurfacing.

Todd suggested if I run out of things to do, I can move all the concrete from the backyard to the front and vice versa :)