Life in the TestosterZone #1

Yes, I live with four boys... one I'm married to, and three I deliberately brought into this world (which sometimes causes me to question my sanity).

As I've mentioned, I have NEVER been a "girly girl". Still, boys may live on the same planet, but it's a totally different world. So I thought I'd share a few little moments of "boy-ness" in my life, from time to time.

* The picture is not a recent one, but is a good illustration of how differently boys' minds work. Two of the three boys thought it was a GREAT idea to put a huge albino PYTHON around their necks. (Apparently only the youngest had any doubts about the wisdom of that plan!) This kind of snake, as you probably know, kills its prey by constricting... squeezing! I don't see any large lumps in the snake that would indicate it had recently swallowed, say, a chicken, or a neighbor's yippy dog, or anything else, so for all I know the snake is thinking, "Oooo! Three for the price of one!" This poses no problem for boys.

* After church Sunday I noticed a purple mark on Gunnar's neck. (Nothing alarming, it was from a marker.) I asked him how that happened, and got the classic - and truthful - response, "I dunno." When he took his shirt off later, I realized the purple line extended down the right side of his neck and made a little squiggle out on his shoulder. And he had no idea how it got there! Okay, honestly, I think I would remember if I or someone else (!) managed to get a felt pen under my shirt and do some doodling! Gunnar wandered into the bathroom to have a look in the mirror and seemed shocked. He said to me, in genuine innocence, "How did that get there? Can you get that off? That's embarrasin'!"

* Kerry took the boys out for a walk around the neighborhood while I was making dinner the other night. They came home without him. When I asked them, "Where's Daddy?" they told me, completely dead-pan, "He got mugged. But he told us to run on ahead." Right.

* Then, as dinner wasn't quite ready, I asked them to amuse themselves calmly. That's what I said. What they heard, I have no idea. They headed into the living room saying, "Hey - I know! Let's wrestle!" Great idea.

* This is my current personal favorite. Gunnar needed a bath one evening, so I sent him upstairs to get clean jammies and underwear. This seemed to take a long time, and he came down with just jammies. I asked him, "Gunnar, where's your underwear?" And, as if this were a perfectly ordinary thing to happen, he said, "I dropped my underwear out the window." What, on purpose?

It's All About Me

My friend, Mel-Beth, sent this to me yesterday. I'll post my answers here, and maybe see if the boys will put up theirs later. Might have to change a couple categories for them, to make it more interesting.

So, just for fun...


Two names you are called:
1. Mama
2. Zena, Queen of the Testosterzone

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Jeans
2. My "holeys" - the boys' name for 'crocs' (the rubber clogs with holes in them)

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship:
1. Backbone-of-steel commitment to God and each other
2. HUMOR

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. Vacation with my family
2. Read

Two things you want badly at the moment:
1. Tate's hearing to be miraculously restored
2. The body I had when I was about 20 (sigh!)

Two books you're reading:
1. The Bible (duh)
2. "Family Driven Faith" (Voddie Baucham)

Two things I did last night:
1. Slept
2. Laundry (ah, it's an exciting life)

Two things you ate today:
1. Mongolian Grill (veggies, beef, and noodles)
2. PBJ

Two people you last talked with:
1. Kerry
2. Boys (well THAT was predictable!)

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Taking Wyatt to the orthodontist (I can see our 'economic stimulus check' waving bye bye)
2. Homeschool

Two longest road-trips:
1. Pacific Northwest to L.A.
2. Fourteen days through the Australian outback

Two favorite holidays:
1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving

Two favorite beverages:
1. Vanilla coke (yes, I know how unhealthy it is)
2. Iced Tea (sweetened)

Two things about me you may not have known:
1. Lived a year in Australia
2. Sailed from Portland to Hawaii

Two jobs I have had in my life:
1. Wilderness guide
2. Adventure Camp leader

Two places I have lived in the U.S. (besides current home)
1. Three Lakes, Wisconsin
2. Lahaina, Maui

Two of my favorite foods:
1. Fresh PNW strawberries (not those tasteless California imitations!)
2. Fresh raspberry pie

Chaiten, Chile

This if for the boys, who are intrigued by forces of nature. It may look a bit like a tornado, but it's a volcano called Chaiten erupting in Chile. If you look closely you can see white, purple, yellow and green lightning. Pretty cool!

Laundry Advice?

Do you have one of these?

The one on the left is a Whirlpool Duette, and the one on the right is a Samsung.

After our delicious, take-your-mind-off-your-shots dinner last night, we cruised by the appliance store to do a little research.

You see, my generous husband wants to buy us a new washer and dryer. Frankly, he's more excited about this than I am. My frugal conscience is shouting, "The old ones work just fine!" But why look a gift-horse in the mouth, right?

I think it's kind of a guy-thing... oooo, a new gadget! Plus, Mr. Architect likes the streamlined look of the front-loaders. But, more importantly, he is (probably rightfully) concerned about the Earthquake Simulation we experience every time we run the old washer.

But, hey, every cloud has a silver lining... When the boys were kind of sick, recently, I let them watch a movie - "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" (Chronicles of Narnia). If you've seen the movie, it starts out with London being bombed and shortly after that shows the children traveling by train. Those two scenes just happened to coincide with the two spin cycles for the load of wash I was running. So not only was the sound turned up pretty loud, (due to Tate's hearing loss), we also got a surreal sort of you-are-there effect due to the house shaking along with the washer.

The boys thought this was Really Cool. Kerry was not so amused. So, maybe it IS time for new appliances.

I'm wondering if any of you have either of these, and what you think of them. Especially regarding how much they vibrate. We moved the laundry room upstairs when we remodeled, and I LOVE having it up here, but it is more prone to shaking. The Whirlpool claims it has "Six Point Suspension" (and rack and pinion steering?) and the Samsung advertises its "Vibration Reduction Technology". Which is better?

I don't care about all the tricky features. I don't need to steam the clothes in my dryer to de-wrinkle them when I can throw in a damp towel and get the same effect. I don't need 15 different wash cycles for expensive fabrics we don't wear. I have very simple expectations of my washing machine:

Get the clothes clean
Don't shake my house apart

So, if you have any experience with either of these, or a different recommendation, let me know!

We're definitely looking at front-loaders so we can build the folding counter over the top, and - NO - we're not going to get the Vibration Enhancing pedestal drawer.

PTO Day

Personal Time Off. The boys think PTO days are for them. Okay, sure, they are. Sort of. I love my boys and all their energy, and I’m glad we’re homeschooling. But let’s get one thing straight - Grandma does PTO days for me. Some days I just bask in the silence, but more often it’s an opportunity to do something that requires more than five minutes of uninterrupted concentration.

The boys spent the day up at Grandpa and Grandma’s house in the woods… “helping” Grandpa with his burn pile, riding their scooters, catching lizards, and cooling off (that’s right, I said cooling off!) with “Mt. Tiki-Soki” (a sprinkler/volcano.)

Wyatt, unfortunately, did not enjoy the day as much as he usually would. Right before we left home this morning he was running around the yard and managed to step on a nail. Went right through his shoe and into his foot. Yep, rusty.

Of course, since he’s nearly 12 and due for his next round of shots, I was a little leery of the effectiveness of his last Tetanus booster (what, 6 or 7 years ago?) So was the doctor’s office. Wyatt was almost pathetically hopeful. “But, mom, it didn’t even bleed!” Uh, yeah, I noticed. Bleeding would’ve been good. It washes the germs out.

So all day long he was dreading the 4:45 doctor visit. Like he’s been dreading his next round of shots since his last birthday.


The good news is I was able to convince them even though this wasn’t his official check-up to go ahead and give him whatever immunizations he has coming (DTaP and Varicella) so we could just be done with it. He was a bundle of anxiety, and it took two nurses and me, but it’s all over now. Hallelujah. Amen.

Having worked in the yard all day long, I was pretty tired, so I rewarded him by letting him pick somewhere (anywhere but McDonald’s) to go out to dinner. Double-plus-good.

Homes Cool Advantage #1

'Nuff said.

We were outside nearly all day. :0)

What did you do?

Finally, Spring...

Yep, it's finally spring. Oh, sure, you could be nitpicky and say that spring began almost two months ago, but not so much here - in the Pacific NorthWest. We know spring has arrived at our house for different reasons.

* We noticed just yesterday that the cold rain we've been enduring has turned to warm rain.

* The grass is growing like it's on steroids.

* It got warm enough today for all the boys to play outside in shorts, T-shirts, and sandals - thus beginning the Season of Dirty Feet.

* But, most significantly, Kerry removed the Christmas tree stand from the front porch and stored it in the garage for next year.

Smarty Pants

So I asked my littlest Little if he could tell me what are three of the four types of sentences. (Statement, question, exclamation, and command/request, in case you don't know.)

He thought for a minute and said, "Uhhh, standard, question, and astonishment."

Yep. I'll take that!

Oregon... 2002

Since the weather is still rather yucky here, (in the 50's and raining, last time I checked), we are really looking forward to summer! We have several fun activities planned, but the boys are especially looking forward to going to the Oregon coast with Grandpa and Grandma, Aunt Tami, Uncle Dave, and maybe Ann Marie? (If she's not worried the boys will clobber her, after the Mother's Day Incident!)

Tami dug up these pics of the last big family trip to Oregon in 2002. I thought I'd post a few OLD pics, because look how cute these boys are! (And how much they've grown!) Tate was sharing a treasure with Grandpa.

Wyatt enjoyed the beach, as much as the rest of us, but he REALLY loved swinging around in the stunted pine trees next to the rental house. He had just turned six, that summer, and had an endless supply of energy. Still does. You could light Seattle if you could harness that kid. The trees were perfect... sturdy and not very tall. I think that's where we came up with the rule that you could climb on any branch that was bigger around than your arm. So far so good.


Tate was three and a half, and had just gotten his brand new "Hearry Maids". He wasn't exactly used to them yet, and only wore them part of the day, but the effect was quite dramatic! He could hear the ocean! He could hear a whisper! Wow! Tate spent a great deal of time driving his truck around in the sand, making roads and - his specialty - sound effects.


Gunnar was just a little pickle, at (barely) one year old. He walked like a drunken sailor on dry land, so getting around in the sand was challenging. But he didn't care. He was just happy to have the people he loves all in one place, and would sit contentedly on the beach, occupying himself by sucking the salt off the rocks.

Was it just Mother's Day?

I think it must’ve been, given that my sister hosted the fam for lunch, and not only cooked a ham, but also served my favorite (my recipe!) berry pie for dessert! So that was just grand. Thanks, Tami. :0)

I’m not the girly-girl type, and don’t have any little girls of my own, so Mother’s Day doesn’t conjure up any frilly images of High Tea, wearing silly hats, or having spa treatments. And given that Mother’s Day is supposed to be a day for mothers to relax, guess who is in charge of planning the event?

Yeah.



The ‘highlights’ of this Mother’s Day mark it unmistakably with the fingerprints of the males in this household.



10. Indulging myself with a long shower in the morning before church (in the belief that Daddy would get the kids their breakfast, just this once) was a tactical error. My fragrant bubble burst when I arrived downstairs and found the boys in the playroom having a Lego battle, not dressed or fed, and Daddy asleep on the living room couch. Guess who got everyone ready for church while Daddy shaved?

9. No flowers. No candles. No chocolates. I received two books of cartoons! I do enjoy Calvin and Hobbes, but Zits is a bit depressing.

8. We spent the first part of the afternoon watching a movie…. Disney’s animated “Aladdin”!

7. Daddy spent the rest of the afternoon absorbed in the magazines he brought from home, while the boys…

6. Chased each other around the house with Nerf dart guns,

5. Wrestled with each other, resulting in general stinkiness and one ripped sweater,

4. Played baseball in the backyard, while we sat on the deck and visited (and some read magazines...) until one boy who-shall-remain-nameless hit a ‘foul ball’… right into Ann Marie’s eye, (I’m so so sorry!),

3. Decided baseball was dangerous, and it would be ‘better’ to amuse themselves by either throwing the balls AT each other on purpose, or to throw a ball up in the air and then quickly throw the bat in the air to try to hit the ball in the air… directly over their heads,

2. Then, on being prevented from continuing THIS little stunt, moved on to paper airplanes, a much less exciting form of entertainment,

1. So they revved up the ‘fun factor’ by throwing the airplanes (deliberately) onto Aunt Tami’s roof, so that they HAD to get out the ladder because they HAD to go up there to retrieve the airplanes. And that still wasn’t quite fun enough, so they decided that instead of coming down the ladder, they preferred to jump from the roof. Barefoot.


It’s amazing that we didn’t spend Mother’s Day in the ER!

Actually there were some sweet spots to Mother’s Day… each boy presented me with a handmade card, illustrated, with a list of things he appreciates about me. VERY sweet!

And Gunnar (finally) pulled out his second front tooth. It was about time, as the “big” teeth had actually grown in behind his baby teeth (since he was so reluctant to pull them out!) and we were teasing him that he looked like a shark!

Kerry, absorbed in “The Economist”, missed the whole thing.

But Father's Day isn't far off...