Salad for Sale

Today, after being inspired by some young children with a lemonade stand, my boys decided they would sell some salad. Salad? Who would buy salad? They came and asked me to make a sign for them. I made the sign after they told me it was just for pretend. Then as soon as I handed Zach the sign he went outside and started yelling "Salad for sale." Nathan was nudging him to go down to the street to advertise. I had to stop them at that point. We don't even have any salad in the house to sell. I told them we didn't have any salad and then they pointed down to two salads they have made from the bushes outside. Interesting. Maybe I should bake some cookies or bread and let them have a real stand. Unfortunately for them, we don't live on a high traffic street.

Maybe I have 3 little entrepreneurs in the house, referring of course to Erin and all her little business ideas. I just hope one of them makes a lot of money to support Mario and I in retirement since we are watching our retirement accounts dwindle because of this financial mess our country is facing right now.

Mom and Daughter trip to LA

Erin and I are going to LA for the weekend. We are so excited to break free from a house full of boys! We are going to have lunch at the American Girl Place, ride scary roller coasters at Six Flags, and then visit a mission in Santa Barbara for a 4th grade history project. To prepare for our trip, I made Mario a to do list like soccer practice, games, reading with twins, meetings, etc. This morning he wrote his own list. I will share his list since it is more entertaining than mine.

Dad's To Do List

• Say goodbye to Terri and Erin (try to hold back tears)
• Mope
• Call Terri
• Mope More
• Call Terri
• Make dinner (trying the best I can to hold it together)
• Mope
• Call Terri
• Meeting (try to focus despite depression)
• Call Terri
• Mope
• Go to bed (lie in bed hopelessly missing Terri)

Friday

• Wake up and resume moping

I am sure he and the boys will have a great weekend. But it is nice to be missed so much.

Cheater

Recently Eric came home and said that his friend had cheated on a homework assignment. His friend showed the teacher his twin brother's work because he forgot his at home. Eric tried to convince his friend before he did this that it was wrong and he would get caught. Apparently this boy has done this in the past. Even though Eric and this boy are good friends, Eric alerted the teacher to what was going on.

After Eric related this story to me, I asked him if his friend knew he had told on him. He responded yes, but he isn't mad at me. I was shocked. I had lots of friends in high school that cheated but I would have never told on any of them. I guess Eric has a lot more courage than me. I wasn't quite sure what to say to Eric. I felt bad that he betrayed his friend, but at the same time happy that he knows what is right and stands up for what is right.

The next day, after the mother was given a note from the teacher, Eric's friend was mad at him. He had to face some severe consequences for his actions. Fortunately he only remained mad at Eric for a day or two and they are once again friends. His twin brother hasn't been so forgiving of Eric though.

Eric has a strong moral compass. Mario and I pray that he never loses it! We love him very much and he is such a great example to us.

Most Recent ER visit

As parents of 4 kids, we have been very lucky. We haven't had that many trips to the ER with the kids. No, instead it has been Mario or I going to the ER. Last year I had to go in with a possible concussion from hitting my head while tubing down a river. Then a few months ago Mario had to go in when he was experiencing bad chest pains. Fortunately he was just fine and has had several follow up tests to confirm that he has a great heart.

Last night, Mario was back at the ER. Try not to laugh when I tell you this story. He was at church last night for an EQ meeting. When he left the church about 10 pm last night a moth flew into his ear. He came home and was frantic. "Terri, Terri, I need your help! A bug flew in my ear and I can't get it out. It is still fluttering around in my ear!" If he weren't so panicked, I would have fell over laughing. I tried to shine a light in his ear but couldn't see anything. I quickly googled what to do if a bug flies in your ear. Apparently this happens more frequently than I would have thought. Most of the posts online said go to the ER and not try to get the bug out yourself. You could easily damage your ear drum. So, here it is almost 10:30 pm and Mario was off to the ER. He was lucky though and the dr got the moth out and Mario was home around midnight. I had a good laugh with the kids this morning as I told them the story of a moth fluttering around in dad's ear. I am not sure any of them believed the story.

Soccer

The boys had their first soccer game today. Judging from their personalities at home, I thought they (esp. Zach) would be aggressive on the soccer field. I was wrong. Zachary stood around most of the first quarter. Nathan was a little more aggessive than Zachary and by the fourth quarter, he actually almost scored a goal. Our team completely dominated the game thanks to Jesse, my boys' best friend and the girl who they both want to marry. She scored too many goals to count.

New Hobby

After being home alone for a month and being nearly bored to death, I have taken on a new hobby. I thought once my kids were all in school, I would take up sewing, scrapbooking, biking, or something just for myself. But I just couldn't motivate myself to do any of the above things. I haven't even had the desire to get all my closets or digital pictures organized like I promised myself I would do when my kids were all in school.

It was such a rewarding experience to teach my four children to read. It has been kind of sad for me to finish up my boys' reading lessons. We aren't planning to have anymore children, so it made me sad to know this would be my last time teaching kids to read.

So what is my new hobby? Tutoring. I know it doesn't really sound like a hobby. But I love it. Over the summer I tutored a friend's set of twins. They were going into 6th grade and having a lot of trouble with reading and spelling. I borrowed the Barton Reading and Spelling program from a friend I knew in Hawaii. It gives step by step directions to teach children with dyslexia or other learning disabilities. I found teaching these twins to be very rewarding and the program greatly improved their reading, spelling, and confidence.

I would like to become a certified Barton tutor after I get more experience. So I volunteered to tutor children at our local elementary school. Now I have four new students to work with. I am excited to finally have something to do with all my "free" time. I hope to eventually make money with my tutoring, but for now I will just take another form of payment, the happiness I get from seeing these children finally succeed.

Too bad one was so darn cute!

Eric ran for Student Body President of his school last week. Armed with lots of candy, he set out to do the impossible-- break the streak of an all girl student body presidency for the last several years. He thought he had a good chance to win since there was only one other boy running and there were 5 girls running. He thought that the girls would split the girl votes and the boys would split the boy votes. Unfortunately for him, one of those girls was an adorable little blond girl that apparently half of the 6th grade boys have a crush on. Maybe things would have turned out differently if he could have run in 2nd grade when boys and girls still hated each other.

Anyway, we are very proud of him. He wrote and typed his entire speech himself with no help from us. Then he had to get up in front of several hundred students and give his speech. He did a great job. We are proud of Erin too. She showed Eric where her loyalties lie. She had a friend running for president also. But she became Eric's fourth grade campaign manager. She filled many treat bags, made posters, and tried to get her friends to all vote for Eric.

The following is Eric's speech

Hi, my name is Eric Perez, and I'm running for Student Body President. I'm running because I think I can make La Mesa a better place to be. I am responsible, respectful, and I don't like wasting any time. I also have several ideas. I think instead of class representatives voting on an idea, they should ask the class and the class should vote. I would also like to get a group of kids together to become hosts. They could show new kids where everything is and help them when they don't know what to do on a class assignment. When I was new to La Mesa, a few other students were a big help and I want everybody to have that experience at a new school.

At lunch time, when you finish eating you could go to a table and play board games. For recess I would like to get a big basket with ball, jump ropes, and other playground equipment. Also, I'd like to have a party day, where you have almost a full day of parties. We could also do a wall painting where everybody helps paint. It would be a good time to get to know each other and be creative. Another thing we could do is troop care packages. We could all write letters and draw pictures to send to the troops.

We could also do a mini-Olympics. There could be events like farthest kick, most baskets made in one minute, and other events like track and field. We could also give out prizes for spirit wear. Everybody who participates would get a piece of candy or a similar prize. At recess we could sell Popsicles and other desserts.

I would also like to donate money to fifth grade science camp. Science camp is a great place to learn and to have fun and I want all the fifth graders to be able to go.

So vote for me, Eric Perez and I'll make La Mesa a better place to be.