Our weekend--part two

Well now that we are half way into the next week, I am finally ready and able to tell you all about the rest of our weekend. Saturday, Adam was well enough to go to his b-ball game. Then he and I and Ben went to the Ward Christmas party. We performed our duet for the talent show. It was a lot of fun. That kid just doesn't seem to get nervous! Greg and the girls stayed home because they weren't feeling well.

Sunday morning, Liz still seemed out of it, so she and Greg, who also wasn't feeling well, stayed home. It was really hard for me to leave her, and she cried. So I was already feeling rotten as I started the drive to church. While I was driving I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, but didn't really think much of it. Well a few minutes later, I definitely noticed something. There was a mouse inside our car right on the floorboards on the passenger side just sitting there looking at me. I FLIPPED OUT!! I started to scream at the top of my lungs. AHHHHHHHH!! AHHHHHHH!! AHHHHHHHHH!! This was enough to get panicked cries from the kids in the back. I just kept screaming. THERE'S A MOUSE IN THE CAR! THERE'S A MOUSE IN THE CAR! My driving was not at its best either. It was all I could do to keep the car on the road and make the 1/4 mile or so to the next turn out. Of course my screaming scared the mouse to death (along with the kids) so he was no where to be seen, which is probably worse than knowing where he is at. As soon as I stopped the car, I jumped out as quickly as I could and got the kids out swiftly as well (by now they were pretty freaked out. Ben and Anna were even crying). I opened all the doors and the trunk. Now what? I know I'll call Greg on the cell phone. Wait, I don't have a cell phone. None of the businesses around were open either. "Adam, do you want to be brave and poke around with the umbrella?" (Can you tell I really don't like mice?). "No thanks." So I go to the back of the car and get the umbrella. Fortunately it is a long golf umbrella. I duck my head down and look gingerly under all the seats from the view in the trunk. I can't see anything. So, I start poking around. Nothing. No sign of the critter. After about 15 minutes, I decide we have to get back in the car and go the 5 minutes or so back home. Adam was great and got back in and promptly put his feet up. Ben was crying, but not unmanageable. Anna did NOT want to get back in (can you blame her?) Finally, through her tears, she got back in. I convinced her it was the only thing we could do. I brought the umbrella up front with me and laid it on the passenger seat for easy access. I tucked my dress up under me and began talking to myself, telling myself I could do this. I told the kids to make lots of noise, so they and I were tapping the seats and stomping our feet. I was literally talking to myself out loud (remind me again why I am sharing this). I know I was not the best, most careful driver, but we made it home safely.

Greg, of course, comes running out to the garage with a bewildered look on his face as he heard the garage door open. I give him the very short version, "There is a mouse in the car." He thinks it's pretty funny, but I still don't. When he sees how shaken up I am, he is much more compassionate. It's good to be home. I need to calm down and relax a little bit. I wouldn't be driving the van that day. No way. No how.

We've known we had a mouse in our garage (thank goodness not the house yet). I had bought those humane mouse traps so you can catch and release them, but we hadn't had much luck with those, so I just had bougt some of the regular kind. Greg got one and set it in the van and one just outside the van. After I had collected myself, at least a little bit, I took the kids to church in Greg's little Toyota. I hoped there were no mice in there.

Well, I will spare you too many of the rest of the details (are you still with me?). Suffice it to say I drove the car for 3 days. Greg has caught one mouse in the van (it was actually running around in there, with the trap stuck on its leg, he got it in a box and brought it to the park to let it go), and two outside the van. This totally creeps me out. Greg came with me the first time I drove the van. Anna was scared to death. She said, "I don't want mom to drive crazy again." As you can imagine it has been the talk around our house for the last several days. I still feel queasy and nervous when I am driving the van, but hopeful that little event will never repeat itself. I asked Greg to keep a trap in there for a while anyhow. Pretty crazy, huh? The crazy thing is, I just vacuumed the van on Friday, so there weren't tons of crumbs and stuff to eat like there often is. Anyway, who knew this could even happen. I have never heard of it.... until now.

Our weekend part one

Hey there Finch family fans! We had an unusual weekend. As probably some of you have, our family has had the stomach flu this past week. On Friday poor Adam threw up at school in the hall. It was right at the end of the day so he just waited and came home at the normal time. Lizzy threw up as soon as we got home from picking Adam up. Well the dilema was that we were supposed to watch our friends' kids so they could go on a date. I called my friend and told her what was going on, but said that we would still be happy to watch their kids. After much deliberation, they decided to go ahead and have them come. After all, they probably are exposed to all that and more at school. For her husband's peace of mind (who had already been sick that week) my friend brought a bottle of hand sanitizer for her kids to use if they wanted to.

Things weren't too bad. Adam and Lizzy did have lots of trouble so there was lots of cleaning up, but the other kids were all occupied playing with each other so that wasn't too bad, and Greg was actually home to help, so that was good too. So, I was upstairs with Lizzy. Greg was downstairs with all the other kids who were watching a movie. All of a sudden I hear Ben crying. I decided I better go see what was happening. I looked over the rail from the loft and one of the girls said, "Ben drank the Hand Sanitizer!". GREAT!! It was obvious that he did NOT like it and it seemed to kind of burn in his little throat. Greg was trying to wash it out of his mouth with water, but I told him to check the bottle first. What did it say you ask, "If accidentally ingested, call Poison Control immediately". Up to this point in our parenting we have escaped that neccesity. Of course it would be egg cracking, water spilling, wall-writing, head-injuring Ben who would need to test this out. I was a little concerned. We didn't even know the number! Isn't that terrible? Greg looked it up on the internet and called. They asked him a few questions, told us to give him some milk and a sweet snack and keep him awake for 30 minutes and just watch him. They took Ben's name and our phone number and said they would call back in an hour just to be sure he was alright (which they did). Well he was alright. I guess you have to drink an awful lot of hand sanitizer to become really sick. Crazy Ben! We were glad he was ok. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that earlier in the week I had to take him to the doctor to get a head wound glued shut. I will have to post about that another time!

Adam and Tammy at the Piano

Adam has continued taking piano lessons and is really getting good! His piano teacher is an older lady that teaches about 30 kids ages 5 to 18. Last week she held a recital and invited all the kids to play a duet with someone (a member of the family or friend or other). So, Tammy and Adam have been practicing a couple of Christmas songs for the recital.

The recital was held at a place called the Butterworth center. Mrs. Butterworth (not the syrup lady) was the granddaughter of John Deere. (As a sidenote, when we told Adam that he asked "How can a company have a granddaughter?") Anyway, Mrs. Butterworth donated her mansion to the community for hosting of cultural events. The use of the facility is free for any group wanting to use it and is a wonderful place for cultural events. It has a library (or parlor or something) with a high domed ceiling. The ceiling is covered by a mural that was imported from Italy. The woodwork in the whole mansion is extravagant. It was a fun place for the recital!

Press the play button below to hear Adam and Tammy playing "Rudolph". Adam is playing the melody and Tammy the bass part.

Listen Now:

Again, there were around 30 kids or so that performed and the whole event took about an hour. After the show was over, a man, a complete stranger came over and bent down to Adam and said, "Let me just tell you young man that I enjoyed your piece most of all." Adam just beamed. He really did an outstanding job (and so did Tammy - she was way more nervous than Adam was)!



Here's The Christmas Song:

Listen Now:

It's fun to watch our little man growing up and learning new skills. He continues to excel at just about everything he does.

Early Christmas presents

I have already received two great presents for Christmas. They are my big ones, so I don't anticipate a whole lot more. The kids think that it is not fair that I get to see all of my presents before Christmas.

First, my dad gave us a flat screen computer monitor. We are thrilled with it. It really gives us a lot more desktop space. It is great. Thanks dad!

The next one is unbelievably awesome. I have been wanting a nice framed religious print from either Greg Olsen or Simon Dewey. We looked for one in Utah this summer, but didn't buy anything (mostly because we didn't think we could fit it safely with all of our other stuff). I have wanted one for years, but as you know they can be pricey. Well Greg kept telling me that he was going to get me one for Christmas this year so I looked through tons and tons of pictures trying to decide which ones I liked. I gave him a few suggestions (I really liked the ones that had the Savior interacting with someone). He went to work and found one for me. As you can imagine by the title of the post, it came just a few days ago. The amazing thing is he didn't just buy me a print, he bought me a canvas giclee (pronounced zhee-clay). These amazing reproductions look like real paintings! They basically use computers and amazing quality ink and print them right on canvas. It is absolutely beautiful and the image size is sooo much larger than those framed prints. It is Simon Dewey's "Living Water" painting. I just love it, love it, love it! Greg happened to be working from home the morning that it arrived, so he hung it up right away. It justs makes our home feel so nice. It looks so good, I told Greg we needed to buy nicer couches to match our painting! I am so thankful for it, and for my good husband for buying it for me. They are more expensive than a print, but ohhh the quality! It's fun to say the word giclee too, now that I know how to pronounce it. To be prounounced with a French accent. Here is a picture of it on our wall! Aren't I fortunate? Merry Christmas to me! Merry Christmas to me! Oh yes, and Merry Christmas to all of you too.

The Christmas tree

Our tradition is to decorate our Christmas tree the Monday after Thanksgiving for Family Home Evening. The pictures are from that event. The kids are getting quicker in their old age and really enjoyed doing it. Christmas is great with kids around! They just make everything so exciting.

So a few days later, I asked Greg to move the tree for me a little bit, which he quickly and easily did. The next day I wanted it moved a little bit more. I thought it looked easy enough, so Ben and Liz and I made the attempt. Well, I guess I am not as good as Greg, because the Christmas tree fell right over! It fell right on the linoleum where some of the ornaments proceeded to break into tiny little pieces. This elicited a cry from Ben and a scream from Liz. Thank heavens neither of them were under the tree when it fell. I hefted it up and then thought, while still holding it, now what am I going to do? I have a three year old and a two year old to help me stabilize this tree. I sent the two year old up to the loft to watch out of the way of the glass since he already had tried to walk through it a few times. The three year old was actually quite helpful. She held the tree up while I went under and readjusted the stand. It seemed a little crooked, but stable enough. I then tried to put the star back up on top. Bad idea. I managed to knock the tree over again! It fell one more time as I was trying to stablize it again (Greg said after having it fall three times he would have just left it on the ground). Finally I got it up in the stand again, but it didn't seem very safe. I sent Lizzy to fetch some very heavy weights (for her). They were 10 lbs. each. She carried them up one at a time from the basement. She was amazing! All the while I am holding the tree and trying to screw in the screws as tight as I can. The poor tree trunk now had several gouges in it. I had to put the 2 weights on the back of the tree stand to hold it down and a folded up piece of paper under one of the other legs, but it finally stayed up! As you can imagine this took quite a little while. Then I still had to clean up the glass and vacuum. Lizzy did awesome and Ben whimpered and watched, but stayed out of the way. Greg came home and took one look at the tree and said, "Oh my." After the kids went to bed we tried to fix things up a bit. Unfortunately the tree stand must have gotten bent in the falls, so despite our efforts the stand is still stabilized by the two weights and a piece of paper. Pretty crazy huh? By the way, we get real trees every year, This year it is between 6 and 7 feet tall, so it is pretty heavy. Merry Christmas. Moral of the story: Ask your husband to move the tree if it's not in just the right spot!