The Four Houses of Hogwarts

Shad and I have been having a lot of laughs lately, analyzing our kids' personalities by their Hogwarts houses. Tommy and Katie both took a test online to determine their houses: Ravenclaw and Slytherin, respectively. Dancy needed no test; she is straight up Hufflepuff, no doubt about it!

Pottermore describes Slytherin qualities as proud, cunning, ambitious. Katie likes attention. I can't get her to work independently on schoolwork. There's no praise and glory in that. No, I have to be there with her, giving her the compliments she craves. She is sneaky. I had a jumbo Kit Kat bar open on the kitchen counter one week that Shad and I would snack out of here and there. One day I saw a piece with one bite out of it, set back in the wrapper. I thought it was strange, but also reasoned that I very well could have done that--taken a bite, got distracted, come back later with zero recollection. Plausible. But the next day it happened again and this time I knew it wasn't me, and didn't think the previous incident was me anymore, either. Shad said he hadn't done it. It was easy for us to guess who of our kids would do that. Thora can't reach, Tom and Dancy would've eaten the whole bar, so...Katie. Shad asked the kids who had done it. Tommy was confused. Katie sort of denied it, but then a smile crept up her face and she giggled. Way to sneak candy and try not to get caught, kid.

Ravenclaw: Wit. Learning. Wisdom. Tommy is never not asking questions. He loves learning. He inspires much of our homeschool learning with his wonder and curiousity. Just last week we had an interesting train of subjects. Starting with geography, I had quizzed him on US States. He knew all but five, with North Dakota being one of those five. I taught him Montana, the Spanish word for mountain country; South Dakota, home of Mount Rushmore; and North Dakota, Teddy Roosevelt's refuge from New York City and politics. But then we had to learn about Teddy Roosevelt. We read a book about the teddy bear and why it exists, followed by a biography focusing on Teddy's childhood, followed by an adulthood biography. While reading that, we learned that President Roosevelt mediated a coal miners' strike. In wanting to understand more what coal mining is, we watched October Sky, and came away excited about rockets. It's a good thing I have a cousin who works for Blue Origin in Seattle and can get all the answers we need! And then because we're suddenly excited about rockets and spaceships, we watched The Martian. And Tommy developed questions about growing potatoes. I guess we'll try that this summer and learn. Just to recap, that was geography, North Dakota, Teddy Roosevelt, coal mining, rockets, space, potatoes.

And now Hufflepuff. Loyal. Patient. Fair. Sundance is like Luna Lovegood as a Hufflepuff. Don't get me wrong, Dancy is still smart as can be, being self-taught in colors, shapes, alphabet and now requesting writing lessons. Being a Hufflepuff child brings a whole new set of challenges to a parent. Yes, she's happy, bright, bubbly, charming, and loving, but she's also all those things even while I try to discipline her. During potty training, when she would simply poop in her underwear just because, I would try to impress upon her the severity of that and how she needs to stop doing that 3 days a week. I would tell her how gross it is, and how I have to clean it, and how I'm really, really mad at her right now, and she'd smile back at me and say, "That's okay, I forgive you!" Wait, no. You missed the point. Or with meal times on the occasion when we offer a treat for finishing food, she'll ask to be dismissed with only half eaten food past the half hour allowance we give, but still want dessert. We explain to her that if she wants dessert she needs to finish dinner, but if she's "full" she may go. "Woohoo! Yippee! I'm done!" Here's a more detailed account I texted to a friend on December 18: "We baked gingerbread cookies today. If the kids finished their lunch, they got to pick a cookie. Katie spent a long time looking at the trays, so I asked her which one she was looking for. We had made a lot of different shapes. "The biggest one," said the Slytherin. Dancy was going to get the sparkliest one, but took too long with her lunch. We told her she had to be done and get down. "Hooray!" Yeah, but you don't get a cookie. "That's okay!" said the Hufflepuff."

Forgotten pictures

I hate it when I forget to get pictures from Shad's phone for my posts. These are all from our trip to Wisconsin.

These two putting on a show in the music store. Dancy is singing "Roar" by Katy Perry.

Huge pumpkin tower.

Star Wars hair and an Ewok.

Even Darth Maul is a fan of Superman. 

Shad's table spread at Protospiel to entice game testers.

Shad nearly always had a game playing. Very little down time.

House construction

Somehow I don't think I ever mentioned that last November just before Thanksgiving, a severe thunderstorm blew through Norton (even developed a tornado just a few miles east of us), and wreaked $25,000 worth of damage to our house. Totaled the roof, 3 sides of siding, fascia, gutters, window trim, 2 air conditioners, 1 window, all the screens on the west side, etc. We are so thankful for home insurance.

So I've been dealing with this mess pretty much since then. I got the damage assessment done after Thanksgiving 2015, started contacting contractors in January 2016, and spent several months going back and forth with contractors, assessors, claim adjusters. The air conditioners were replaced in March, the roof was done in June, and then the big headache of all the rest finally started Thanksgiving week. And this is where I'm just so over this crap and ready to be done because I told this contractor back in February that the window with the broken vinyl was drafty and I wanted it replaced as soon as possible. I had wrapped it on the inside with bubble wrap for insulation, but still felt a draft. He said no problem, he just wanted to do the roof first so that they had somewhere stable to stand for it. Well then he put me off until June, fixed the roof and said, "See ya later in September." Um, no, we need the window done. "Oh, right. I'll see what I can do about that." I spent months harassing this guy and you want to know when he finally got it done? Second week of December. And he did it from the inside. Well then why couldn't you have done it last winter when I told you that was first priority? And he was pushing the rest of the work til September so that he could do roofing all summer in the warm weather. But then fall never got cold, so guess who got pushed back to November? And the work still isn't done because somehow, whether my fault or his, the contractor didn't know we wanted to repaint all the trim a different color so that it'd all match. So that we wouldn't have one side with new paint and the rest of the house all chipped and peeling. But now it's too cold to paint. So he'll finish in the spring. And he's going to wait and re-wrap the porch pillars and replace the front storm door until then so he doesn't drip paint on them. But he did at least take down the west side trim and paint that in his workshop. So our west side is the new color (which came out wrong), and all the rest is the old color still. Until spring.

Well that feels good to get out. Ah, but did I mention that this November work took nearly 3 weeks and he just kinda left all his stuff and debris in the kids' fenced yard? So they pretty much couldn't play outside for all those 3 weeks. One day, when Samson wasn't being so fussy and needing a nap (yeah, napping was hell those 3 weeks of pounding and hammering), we decided to make a break for it and head to the park. And then we stepped outside and the wind froze us. Instead, we drove out the the lake to drive around a bit. We even ventured out to throw rocks into the water. That lasted all of 60 seconds and snow flurries started falling in that time.

So we learned to enjoy indoor play. Like water bead baths. Samson still hates baths, but Thora asks for them now. Score!

Here are our lovely new air conditioners. Thank you, Jed Lindsay, with Lindsay Cooling and Heating! Jed is the best and I will forever be loyal to him as long as we live in Norton.

I don't think I ever took pictures of the damaged siding, but it look like someone shot up the whole side of the house. Holes everywhere. The new color of paint that is the same color as painter's tape. It wasn't a mistake--the paint just dried that way. We'll have to go for a darker shade. But in the spring.

There's my new roof. Gray instead of brown, and upgraded to storm resistant shingles, saving us 30% on our home insurance. Oh, and the contractor is holding on to the window trim until spring. So this is what my house looks like.

I could go on and on, but I'll just end with saying I would NOT recommend Sanders Construction.

Oklahoma Visit

We left Dallas and drove to McAlester, Oklahoma the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We couldn't have gone to Texas and not stopped in Oklahoma to visit the Vanderveers! Shad and I played games with Paul and Mallory while the kids jumped right back into being best friends like they hadn't missed a day.

Dancy's hair grew 2 feet.

Tommy and Haddie playing pirates, with Micaiah the Blur.

Dressing up for pirates. Eden, Thora and Katie.

Pouters and pirates: Micaiah, Dancy, Katie, Eden, Haddie and Tommy. Gotta start taking pictures BEFORE it's time to leave...

At least we didn't pout...

Thanksgiving in Texas

This year we drove down to Dallas to visit Shad's cousin Aimme and her family for Thanksgiving. We had planned to do that last year, but cancelled when my pregnancy sucked. Our drive to Aimme's house was a little bit rocky, with Samson throwing up a couple times in the first 2 hours, and then hitting work-holiday-construction traffic in Oklahoma City. Luckily, Samson was just teething and not sick. He cut his first tooth on Thanksgiving, 9 months old to the day! That's a record for our family. All four other kids cut their first tooth after their first birthday.

Shad and I realized we didn't take any pictures. Okay, three pictures between the two of us. So we borrowed the rest from Aimme.

Tommy and Samson, Thanksgiving morning. All of Samson's 9 month clothes ended up looking like this: dirty and holy. 

When you're really happy to be holding your baby brother, but the kid is strong and wiggly.

This picture makes me want to cuddle her, too! Either one. Aimme or Thora.

Coloring time! I always watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade growing up, but none of my kids cared about it a bit. We colored while waiting for the hot tub to heat up, then hit the water.

Aimme's family always goes to Aurthur and Felicia's house for Thanksgiving. Felicia went to Le Cordon Bleu, so she's the one in charge of food. Aimme and I made creamed corn (that was new territory for both of us) and Ken made a salad. Aurthur wore the apron Aimme gave him for Christmas while frying a turkey out back.

Shad creeping on Arielle.

On Friday we went to Friendship Park. Before leaving the house, Aimme told everyone to get bundled up because it was cold outside. It was a warm 60 degrees and Aimme shivered in her puffy coat. We laughed at her a bit. Never listen to Texans telling you it's cold.

Ken only does this for pictures. He and Aimme are standing by the fence that has names of donors on the planks. One plank read "The Bitsche Family." How would you pronounce that?

After the park we found some Thai food for lunch. And now I'm pining for it again.

Shad finally got to test Make a Killing on Aimme. She was a bit tipsy, though, so I'm not sure how much it counted. Cameron, Allyson, Arielle, and Aurthur were able to enjoy it coherently though ;)

Shad and Cameron

Tommy is in the background here with his new Kindle Fire. The week before Thanksgiving, there was a book-signing party at the library on one of the days I drop the kids off for after-school clubs. I didn't know about it until I picked them up. Anyway, there was a raffle for a Kindle Fire, and Tommy won! How cool is that? His name was drawn right after we left, so it was a nice surprise the next day when we went into the library to get books.

Shad and Cameron

Shad and Allyson

Saturday morning breakfast, getting ready to leave.

Allyson, Katie, Dancy, Arielle, Shad and Thora, me, Tommy, Ken and Samson

Ken and Samson

Blurs of November

Samson's mobility increased to allow him to pick up the "snacks" he saves for later under his high chair.

With hand-and-knee crawling fully mastered, he was able to start pulling himself up on his knees to eat chair seats.

Some mornings Samson would be entertained enough with himself to allow me to play with Katie's hair. All three girls are at a point where they'll let me fix their hair and experiment, if only Samson will be compliant as well.

Tommy got his first filling. It wasn't so bad with the laughing gas, and I got to tease him about his goofy smile.

With the goods from Katie's princess party, Thora had a full blown Diva Day. She requested pigtails, then blinged herself out and commandeered the Amazon-box-throne that Katie had set up for herself. What better way to spend morning reading time?

A Princess Party

Ugh! I hate when I have a post almost finished, click save, and then come to find out it didn't save. Fine then. Shortened version: Our water heater broke, life was crazy for a while, three days before Katie's party I overheard Katie tell Miss Patty at the library that her party is a princess party and Campbell needs to wear a dress.

So we Pinterested the heck out of this party and tried to keep my brain put together for three days just until the party was over.

I decorated our ceiling like this, but used rolls of streamer instead of...whatever that is.

Shad assembled the party favors.

Our first activity was decorating crowns. Shad drew and cut out 3 different crown designs and we turned the kids loose with stickers, sticker gems, markers and glitter glue. I turned on my Let It Go station on Pandora and we played "Name That Movie" while crafting. "Name That Movie" was such a  bit hit that we kept it going during the whole party. Cole is a master at Disney songs. As kids finished, we moved to the living room to play the Elsa-inspired Freeze Dance--dance, but freeze when the music gets paused.

When the kids were exhausted and needed a break, we had a castle building contest.

Savannah, Hannah, Seana, and Campbell.

My friend Rachel stayed to help. She cleaned up after activities and cupcakes, and got lots of baby cuddles.

Seana, Dancy, Savannah, Katie, Campbell, and Hannah

Isla, Bridgette, Tommy, Cole and Dancy. Everyone loves Cole!

Seana, Savannah, Campbell, Katie, and Hannah

Cupcake time! Around the table: Dancy (on Cole), Seana, Campbell, Savannah, Katie, Bridgette, Tommy, Isla, and Hannah.

Katie loved this princess dress cupcake cake on Pinterest! I liked it because it wasn't an elaborate castle cake. She can have one of those on a year when I don't have a baby needing me to feed him.

Present time! Katie got bracelets and hairbows (purchased at the Norton Craft Fair that day), chocolate scented body wash, a homemade fabric crown, and nail polish.

We finished the party with some princess-ified version of Duck, Duck, Goose (might have been Princess-Witch, or Princess-Frog, I don't remember) and then hide-and-seek to kill time til the end. Katie loved her party with her friends.