Another stitch for Adam

We had some more medical excitement around the house last week. As the kids get older (and as we get more kids) events like these are becoming less exciting and more commonplace, but it's still out of the ordinary!

Adam was invited to a friend's house to go bike riding. He was especially excited because this friend lives in a more rural area and has some woods with dirt bike trails near their house.

Unfortunately, on the way to the dirt bike path, they were riding along a gravel road and the gravel got the best of him. I guess, being a city kid, he's not yet learned to ride on gravel. He fell and split his knee open pretty badly. The mom at the house patched him up, but he never made it back out on bikes that day.

Later that evening, we took the bandage off his knee and found quite an ugly sight. We decided we had better get him patched up so we took him to the urgent care place. Good thing we did - there was a good sized hole in his leg full of little rocks and grass and stuff.

Adam seems to never get nervous about anything, but I think I've figured him out finally. I think when he is nervous, he just covers it up very well. He becomes very poised, almost grown-up. He sits with his legs crossed comfortably and has a very serious look on his face - not a look of fear, but a very calm and peaceful, but still alert look. Every time I've seen him sitting like that, it's been before some performance or some other big thing that he should be nervous about. I think he's got an unusual ability to calm himself when faced with a difficult situation so he either doesn't feel the nerves or at least he doesn't show it.

He had the exact same look at the doctor's office waiting for the wound to be cleaned, and I realized he was probably pretty worried about it.

So, we go into the procedure room at the doctor's and Adam was still being VERY serious - answering the questions from the nurse in a very poised and mature manner. Finally the doctor came in and started cleaning and picking at the wound. I could tell Adam was in some serious pain - it was starting to show through and at one point he even gasped and said, "Oh, that hurt!". But he never cried and was just so controlled through the whole thing - I was very impressed.

After the doctor put in the numbing medicine and the pain went away, Adam was very interested in what was happening. He sat up and watched carefully. I could see the look in his eye, "Oh cool, look at all that blood gushing from my leg ... Neat - I can see down inside my skin when he pulls my skin out like that! Oh wow - did you see that rock that was in my knee!" And so on. I was grossed out, but Adam was totally entertained. Like I said, the doc had to pick around quite a bit to get the rocks and grass and stuff out.

Lizzy also went with Adam and I. She was soooo funny. The whole time, she was super talkative. She is our most un-shy child and was talking the whole time, asking the doctor every step of the way what he was doing. She would walk right over to him and stand there right next to him watching him work. The doctor was great - he answered all of her questions very well and wasn't annoyed at all. Lizzy was asking some great questions though so it was hard to be annoyed (such as, "How do x-rays see inside you?" and "Is this the stitches part? Is that a real needle and thread you're using?"

It was a good experience. I don't get to go to the doctor with the kids much - usually that's Tammy's department, but I enjoyed going and was pretty proud of both of my kids for how they behaved and how they are both maturing.

Following are some pictures taken the last couple of days. One with Adam's stitches (3 stitches) and then some of the kids at quiet time yesterday.

Jr. Bix 7 2007

We've written before about a fun event that happens in our community every summer called the Bix festival. The biggest event during the festival is the Bix 7 race which draws nearly 20,000 runners from around the country. Tammy and I have both run the race previously, but this year we're not exactly in the shape we'd want to be running 7 miles!

The night before the big race (tonight), is an event for the kids called the Jr. Bix. A big race for each of the kids, followed by an awesome post race party (free food and a mini-carnival). Here are some pictures...

This is Ben getting ready for his two year old 70 yard dash. He got stuck behind some big people (parents) but still made a good showing and had a lot of fun. This was his first year racing the Bix!


Here's Lizzy lining up for her race. She also ran 70 yards and did super well. Her heat had about 40 four year olds racing and she finished either first or second. She's a speedy one!


Here's a picture of the kids all suited up for the race. Anna decided this year to be a cheerleader instead of a racer. She had a great time cheering her siblings on!


Anna enjoying the post race party!



Lizzy showing off her medal (all the kids got medals).


Adam was worn out after his race. His was a 7/10 mile race through downtown Davenport. He said he thinks he finished somewhere around 15th or so out of about 80 8 year olds. Way to go Adam!!!


The boys at the post race celebration.

Baby and family update

It is almost embarrassing to even write a post having missed so many months. I have given up on the idea of catching everyone up on all the things we have done, but thought I would give a quick update.

First, the baby is due in just one more month. Despite all the warnings and exhortations received before deciding to have this baby, he is doing very well. We count it as another miracle in our life. We have still had to go to Iowa City about every 2 weeks to the specialist hospital so they can continue to monitor him. That is difficult sometimes, but we are glad to have a close watch kept on our baby. We have just one more visit in 2 weeks. It has been so nice having my brother and his wife in Iowa City. Deanna has been so gracious and has watched the kids a few times for our appointments. She even seems to enjoy it! Thanks Deanna! We are still open for name suggestions. Just when we think we are getting close one of us finds a problem with the new promising name. We will not leave the hospital with a no name baby! I am sure it will come to us. Hopefully, sooner, than later.

Next, Ben. I have been wanting to get him potty trained before the baby comes. I like to stay home for about a week and just get it done, but there has not been a week where we haven't had anything. Then he had refused to wear underwear for months now. I was able to convince him to try pullups and we began to make a little progress, and just last week, in a moment of weakness he agreed to wear underwear. There's been no turning back since. He asked for diapers especially the first day, but I have held strong and he is only allowed to wear them to bed now. It has been a busy week with very little time at home so it has made for some interesting experiences (you'll have to ask Greg about bringing Ben to the bathroom at a restaurant). He is really doing pretty well, but we have yet to have a full day of no accidents of any variety, including church, restaurants, etc. It is not the funnest thing to do while I am this pregnant either. It seems like there is a lot of squatting and bending involved in helping him, which are not my favorite positions right now. Other than that Ben is doind great. He is really growing up. He communicates SOOOOO well and is generally a lot of fun to be around. He has a temper too, but his good naturedness seems to make up for it.

I think the kids have enjoyed being home for the summer. We have had several weeks of swimming lessons. Even Ben and I took a class together for two weeks. They all have loved it and made great progress. We have gone swimming several other times this summer too. I don't know why, but it seems kids love swimming. I like how it makes me feel more weightless:) We also went on a short mini vacation, spending one day in Nauvoo and two in Des Moines. We also did some fun things close to home, including sleeping in our family room altogether and a trip to the toy store for no good reason at all. It is always fun to be all together as a family. Adam also enjoyed his first year at Cub Scout Day Camp. He LOVED it. I thinks he wishes it were all summer.

Greg and I were able to have one last shabang before the baby came. Our kids split time with our friends the Jensens and my brother Todd and his wife, Deanna, while we spent a night and a day in Chicago. We went to see "Wicked", on Friday the 13th of all days. It was so much fun. We both loved the show, and even with all the traffic loved being in Chicago together. We slept in and ate at restaurants and went to the temple together. It is so wonderful to get time for just the two of us. I know with a nursing baby it will probably be a good little while before we get to do that again. I highly recommend all of you out there go on a date with your spouse sans children. It so good to focus on just each other.

Other quick news. Our basement flooded the other day when our sump pump quite working. Greg, the superman, fixed it and did most of the cleanup, with little to no help from the kids and I. I got a new calling at church. I am not the nursery leader (much to Ben's chagrin), I am now the Laurel adviser (translation: I teach the 16-18 year old girls). My doctor in Iowa City told us yesterday that I should be induced at 39 weeks so I have about 3 weeks or less until we have this baby. If I do get induced right at 39 weeks, it is the day after my kids start school, how's that for poor timing? Also, some guy in the elevator at the hospital asked me if I was having twins or triplets. Yes, people I am big, but NEVER ask a pregnant woman such a question! Greg and I have been following the presidential race alreday, as we do live in Iowa, and he is planning to attend the straw poll August 11th. Any bets that I will go into labor that day?

Well, I know there is not a lot of details, but hopefully you know a little more what is going on with us. Life is full and busy and wonderful (OK, and sometimes a little tiring). We have felt so blessed over the last few months, especially with the unexpected good health of our baby. We are often reminded of the Lord's love and care for us individually. He truly is aware of all of us.

Wow!

The Finch Family Singers

It's been a little while since I've posted anything. Life just seems to be busy all the time these days.

Last Sunday, the Finch Family Singers made their official debut!

Our primary children (young kids ages 3-11) normally provide music for our church services on Mother's Day. This year, in addition to the large group singing, the primary music leader asked Adam, Anna, Lizzy, and Tammy to sing a group number. Ben decided he didn't want to be left out so he joined in the fun. I didn't want to ruin it, so I let the real singers do the work.

They did a phenomenal job! And I'm not just saying that because I'm proud. They sang one of the sweetest songs I've ever heard with the kids singing one part and Tammy singing the other part. It's called "Mother, do you love me?" (It's really called "Teacher, do you love me?" but you can change the words). You can listen to it here. It goes like this:

Kids singing "Mother, do you love me? Mother, will you care for me? Even if I turn away, or disobey, or go astray? Then will you love me still? Mother, will you teach me? Mother, help me choose the right? When I do not understand the Lord's command, please take my hand and lead me safely with his light."

Mom singing "Oh yes, my child I love you. My child, I'll always care for you. And with the Savior as our guide, I'll share the light, I feel inside, and you will feel his love for you."

There's more to it, but that's some of it. Now picture little Adam (age 8), Anna (age 6), Lizzy (age 4), and especially Ben (age 2) up in front of the whole church singing their part. They were so poised and sang so clearly and so well - I was just so proud. Even Ben didn't grab the microphone or throw the song book - he just stood there on his little stool and sang out.

By the time Tammy got to her part, I think nearly everyone in the congregation was crying they were so touched. That got to Tammy and she got a bit choked up when she was singing, but managed to finish. And she has such a lovely voice - it just added to the beautiful spirit that was felt.

Everyone that was there was so complimentary. I heard comment after comment after comment for this whole week. One dear lady said that she had never in all of her life heard a musical number in church that touched her so deeply. I wish you all could have been there!

That, I think, was the highlight of Mother's Day for our family. We love Tammy and the outstanding mom that she is. She cares for our little ones with such love and tenderness and the love our kids have for her is tremendous. It was wonderful for me to see them all up there together expressing that love through their music.

More Easter Egg Hunt fun

Lizzy smiles big for the camera. How could she not be happy with all that candy? 
Katelyn with her basket. 
Ben chowing down. 
Lauren, who only stayed with us one day and one night, showing how much fun she had! 

Easter Egg Hunt Pics

The six older kids poised and ready to get started on the hunt for eggs (well really we all know it is the candy, not the eggs, they care about). 
Holly eating the goods. She and Ben weren't too interested in finding eggs once they cracked one open and discovered the candy inside. Too tough to wait. 
Anna and Charity inspecting their cache. 
Adam, the only boy except Ben, races in front to be the first to find his 13 eggs (yes, I filled 104 eggs all by myself. I can see now why some folks buy those pre-filled ones). Thank heavens no one fell down in the process. 

Easter week

Well, once again it has taken me a while to get to posting again, but at least it hasn't been 2 months.

We had a great Easter this year. Greg chose not to have bishopric and other meetings before church and had very limited appointments after, so we were all able to drive together, and he was home all morning. Easter sunday is our spiritual celebration of Easter. We had little lesson, a lot a review from the previous weeks FHE lesson. The FHE manual has a nice little program for Easter in it with scriptures and songs. We did a very shortened version for our family, but it is still nice. I really felt the spirit of the holiday and loved the article on the Sacrament, a reprinted talk from Elder David B. Haight, in the April Ensign. I thought so much about that. Easter itself was a very pleasant day. We don't do Easter baskets or eggs on Sunday, but I did give each of the kids (and Greg) a little treat gift at dinner.

The week before Easter was FULL. We watched our friends 3 little girls, ages 7, 5, and 2 for 4 days while they went away for some couple time. Our house was full and noisy and busy, but it was good too. It was great to get to know these girls even better than we already do. Holly, the 2 year old quickly came up with a fun nickname for me. She is in nursery with me at church and her mom generally calls me Sister Finch when talking with her. Holly affectionately calls me "Fincher". It is so funny. Especially when used in the sentence as follows, "Fincher, gotta go potty bad!" She had no problem calling Greg, "Papa", since her own dad doesn't go by that.

We were at home for those four days that week because I had too many kids to fit in my car all at once. Unfortunately the weather was freezing too, so we couldn't even walk to the park. They were all good about quiet time though and Adam went to play with a friend most of one day, which seemed to help. I also tried to have some fun things for them to do. On Friday, we added one more child to the mix when we watched another friends little girl for one night. Eight kids 8 and under! We dyed Easter eggs all together. The older ones really seemed to enjoy it. I hovered over the two 2 year olds to keep a cup of dye from ending up all over the place. Then Saturday morning we had our Easter egg hunt. Again too cold to go out, so we had it inside. The kids loved it, though. We had thought we found all the eggs, but we kept finding them for several more days. Then Saturday night we had our big Easter feast, ham, mashed potatoes, you know the usual stuff. One of the things I love about this meal is all the leftovers! This year I even got some recipes off the internet so I could use all of our ham up. We had some ham casserole on Monday and Split Pea and ham soup on Tues. and Wed. It was a hammy week, even without my sense of humor.

Anyway, we were so glad we could watch our friends, the Jensens, kids for them. They had watched ours for several days 2 weeks previous. When there is no family around, you find people to be your family. I got to love and know their girls more than ever. I am glad to know though, it would be pretty difficult to have that many little ones all at once. I love big families, but I think it is good that they are spread out at least a little more than that. It was exhausting at times! This was a golden opportunity too. I don't know the next time, we, or the Jensens will be able to get away like that. What a great blessing! I know it was weeks ago, but I hope you all had a great Easter and were able to think on the significant gift of the Savior's atonement.

Pictures of the new little one

 
We thought the ultrasound pics turned out great, don't you?

Blog backlog-- the ultrasound

I don't know if there is anyone even checking our blog anymore. I know it has been almost 2 months since we have posted, our longest lapse ever. I hope to become an active blogger again. It's not that our life is THAT boring, quite the contrary, it seems endlessly filled, and when it is not filled, I just want to sleep! How it happens that I feel like writing tonight, I don't know. I am exhausted from a very busy, long day, Greg still isn't home, and I have some sort of head cold or allergies, but .... the thought came to me that I should blog, so here I am.

Instead of starting 2 months ago and filling you in, I will start by letting you know what is going on in the here and now, and then maybe in subsequent posts I can fill you in on the past 2 months.

About a week and a half ago (that's close to here and now isn't it?) we went to Iowa City (about and hour away) to see the specialists at the U of Iowa hospital because they will be monitoring our pregnancy closely (you all did remember we are expecting didn't you?). It was great to have an ultrasound done and be able to see the baby. As always, we wanted to know the gender of the baby. Drum roll please....... we are having another boy! So far he is doing very well. He was moving around quite a lot, but our amazing ultrasound tech was still able to see everything the docs wanted to. To date, he is healthy. The only discouraging thing was they did some blood work on me, and my titer levels (how they measure the amount of antibody in my blood) had gone up, so instead of waiting four weeks to go back, we have to go back in 2 weeks, which is this coming Monday. I think the baby should be well at least for several more weeks, but they just want to be sure. The hardest thing about these appointments is that they are not something you want to bring children to, so I have to leave the kids for 4 or more hours. Not to mention that Greg is essentially taking off a half day for each one that we go to. It's frustrating, but I am glad that it is only an hour away for us, and that Greg's boss, at least right now, seems to be pretty understanding. I really like having him there. Having experienced this with Ben, you just never know when they are going to keep you there and want to do an amniocentesis, and that is NOT something I would want to be alone for. Anyway we will keep you posted. I was SURE the baby was going to be a girl, so we don't have a boy name picked out yet. Any suggestions?

Well I think that is about all I will do for tonight. It is a start anyways. Don't give up on us just yet, we will try to keep on blogging.

Adam is Eight

We had another birthday in our home. This one was a little more special than your average birthday. Adam is now a big eight years old. In our church, most kids are baptized when they turn eight. We believe that by the time they are eight they have developed a good understanding of right and wrong and begin to be more accountable for their actions. Baptism is a time for these young people to make their first covenants with God and to demonstrate a commitment to Him.

As bishop of our ward, I interview each of the young people turning eight to visit with them about their feelings about being baptized and to see that they understand what it means to make a covenant with God. It's always a great experience, but it was really neat being able to talk with my own son about such things in that kind of setting. Adam is an amazing boy. He really understands well much of the gospel - he puts things together in his amazing mind and is able to make connections that sometimes I even miss. Beyond his ability to think, though, he feels! He feels in his heart that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and right and feels that his choice to be baptized is a good and right thing. It was evident his depth of feeling and understanding as I talked with him about his baptism.

Saturday was the big day. About the time we left for the church, it started to rain. Problem was there was a strong cold wind blowing through so the rain quickly turned to ice. By the time it was over, it turned out to be the worst ice storm we've had in this area since we've lived here. After the ice came several inches of snow on top.

Ice and snow notwithstanding, we were able to make the trip safely to and from the church. Several other families braved the slick roads to come and show their support. We were happy for that. The service itself was nice. Adam's great-grandpa was there and spoke to Adam and to the congregation about baptism. I then had the privilege of baptizing Adam. He was very emotional in the font. When it was over, I asked what he was feeling, and he just said, "I feel really really really really good inside." After the baptism Adam's aunt and uncle sang a beautiful song and our good friend gave a brief address after which Adam was confirmed.

Following his confirmation, another of our good friends spoke. She said, "Adam, you are an old spirit in a young body" meaning that Adam's spiritual maturity is well beyond his years (and maybe well beyond many grown-ups years). I thought that was a very meaningful way to say it - he really is an amazing boy in many ways!

After the service, we enjoyed some food and ventured home. Fortunately, we managed to keep our power on through the weekend (many others in the area lost power). Church was canceled so we had just a nice quiet weekend with family.

Following are some pictures of the baptism and also a few of Adam's birthday.

The real reason I haven't blogged a lot lately

OK. I am ready to make a confession to all the blog world as to why I haven't been blogging much lately. I have been super busy and super tired. The reason that I have been so tired is because we are expecting baby #5! That' right folks, there will be a brand new Finch in the world later this year. I am about 14 weeks along (about 3 months). The baby is due August 23. I have really been well besides the fatigue and an occasional flareup of some varicose veins. I hope that now that I am entering the 2nd trimester I will feel even better.

Some of you may remember we had some RH incompatibility problems with Ben. We knew going into this that would be an issue this pregnancy as well. We will start seeing the specialists in Iowa City at 20 weeks. We are very hopeful that things will go well and that we once again will be blessed with a healthy baby. My titer levels (the way they measure how much antibody is in my blood) have been low so far, but with Ben we don't really know when they started to increase, but at 28 weeks they were more high. We will see, but, like I said we are positive and hopeful right now.

We just wanted to share the news. Our family is thrilled, and we want you to be thrilled for us too. Any prayers for our little baby our welcome too.

A transition for Ben

We have been talking it up with Ben, and on Saturday we finally made the switch to a big boy bed. For some of you, you may not consider a toddler bed, a big, boy bed, but anything out of the crib with nothing to contain him anymore is a big, boy bed. He is pretty pleased with himself and the kids have been great at encouraging him. How has he done you ask. Well, he has done really well. The first night or two he was afraid to get up at all after exhortations by both parents, but he has gotten up the last couple of nights, but after he says what he needs to say, and we tell him to get back in bed he does. Naptimes he hasn't gotten up at all. That may be because I close his door all the way at naptime, but not at bedtime. It is fun that he is growing up so much. He is starting to want to be a big boy instead of a baby now, which is pretty tough when your brothers and sisters all call you "baby" instead of using your name. I even got him to wear his church shoes for the first time on Sunday because I called them his "big boy shoes". Now he wants to wear them all the time! He's growing up so much I think in a week or two I will start potty training. He is almost 2 1/2 which is when I started with all the other kids. He is at a fun age, and some of his two year old antics have seemed to die down too. We love Ben!

Anna's teeth

So I mentioned that Anna had lost her two front, bottom teeth. I wanted to post a picture so you could all see. She has not liked us to touch or wiggle them at all. The first tooth she lost was very wiggly for several weeks, to the point where it could have easily been yanked out, but she patiently waited, wanting it to fall out by itself, which it did. I was starting to think it was never going to come out! She is much more patient than me. Her second tooth was getting to that really loose stage, and again she didn't want us to touch it, so we didn't. Unfortunately, it was taken out by a mean piece of garlic bread and promptly swallowed by Anna. At least that is what we think happened. We have never seen the tooth since. No worries folks. The tooth fairy still paid her a visit even though there was no tooth. Anna has loved that she is losing her teeth earlier than Adam did. Her first one she lost about a week before her birthday, and she is proud of the fact that she was only 5 and lost a tooth. Enjoy the picture of Anna. I took it first thing in the morning, so she is still in sleeping hair mode.

Anna's birthday pictures

Well it is about time that I contributed to this blog, so I thought that even though it is 2 weeks after the fact, I would post some pictures from Anna's birthday. She told me she wanted a party, and I said, "OK, who would you like to invite?". Her reply "The Jensens." They are our closest friends here and they have 3 little girls, 2 of whom are close to Anna's age who she adores playing with. We had them over for dinner, spaghetti and meatballs. We played one simple game of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". We had cake and ice cream. We played a lot with each other and with the balloons. It was a lot of fun and each of the kids even got a goodie bag.

Our beautiful Anna is six now! I can hardly believe it. Over the last 3 weeks she has lost her two front bottom teeth. She has also started full day kindergarten and is doing very well. She is ever sweet and caring. I guess we have told her this enough that now she will tell me that her gifts and kindness and love. It is very sweet. She is definitely a peacemaker and helps our family run more smoothly because of it. Her relationship with Adam has been more involved since they have both been going to school together, but she continues to still find time to play with Lizzy, and even Ben. She will often just come up to me and say, "Hug!" and proceed to give me a big one. It is often when I am feeling worn out or frustrated. She is fun to go shopping with (how many kids can you say that about?). She enjoys looking at things and just being with me. She is also a lot of fun. She can giggle and be crazy with the best of them. She is especially good at making Adam laugh. We love our sweet Anna. Happy Birthday!

Where are we???

Tammy is being stubborn and not willing to blog until I do, so I thought I better write something. I'll write what we've been up to and then maybe we'll go back and fill in more and pictures later. We had a nice Christmas - I think we actually made it through the whole holiday break without any illness which may be a first for our family. I spent a lot of the time off working on our little bathroom project that's drug on for three months now. It started out a simple paint job and has turned into a full remodel. It's coming along nicely though and I'll post some pictures of the finished product one of these days.

Just after the New Year, Adam and I went to a college basketball game - Iowa vs. Michigan State. We've mentioned before that Adam likes basketball - this year he is fanatical. When it comes tournament time, I recommend calling Adam for advice before putting together your bracket. He knows every team (even the little ones) and everything about them - their records, their streaks, their ranks, their conference ranks, their high scorers, you name it. He's filled his little photographic brain with everything you ever wanted to know about college basketball. Anyway, he LOVED the game, even though Michigan State lost (he's a big Spartan fan). We had a great time.

The next weekend we headed to Kansas to meet up with all my family. Aside from the weather and a few weather related delays, we had a great time! My whole family was there - all the kids' cousins (14 in all), Grandma (and her new boyfriend), my brother and sisters and spouses. It was a great time ... until .... Adam and Anna picked up a fever. So we packed up and headed home just a littler earlier than we planned. By the time we arrived, Lizzy had the fever too. I picked it up the next day, and Ben came down with it the following. That was a full week ago, and we're all still fighting it. Lots of coughing, lots of fevers, lots of crying and whimpering (mostly me) . Miraculously (and thankfully) Tammy has been spared. We think we're nearly through it now (though Lizzy had a fever again tonight and Adam has an earache now).

Tonight we celebrated Anna's 6th Birthday. Happy Birthday Anna!!! We'll get some pictures of her out soon and will write a post all about our sweet Anna soon.

One last note. If you've read this far, you must be serious Finch Family Blog Fans, so this is for you! In addition to reading our fine blog here, you can now buy our blog! That's right, pay money to read our ramblings! We've published all our 2006 blog entries in a book called - this is exciting - The Finch Family Blog 2006. You can buy it here.

We're going to go back and publish 2005 also soon. We mostly wanted a hard copy of our blog for posterity sake (in case Google's hard drive crashes some day :-). We found this cool publish on demand place called Lulu.com. You just upload your book as a word document or PDF, then create a cover for it and they print one anytime somebody orders it. It's all free unless you want to buy the book. So, you can choose ... keep reading our words of wisdom for free online ... or wait until the 2007 hard copy comes out next year.

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.