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)