To Start the year out with a bang (smash, crunch)

2010 started out, for us, as a bad word. In the wee small hours of New Years Day (somewhere between 2 and 6am) our beautiful Buick Enclave was violated by a greedy thief. I must mention that we were in California, at the time, on vacation. Sort of a really inconvenient time to have such things happen (as if there is a good a time for this to occur).

Joe woke up with a start, at 7am, with a really bad feeling that something not so good had happened to our car. Not a fun way to wake up. What's even worse than waking up that way, though, is seeing those feelings be a reality. Joe stormed back into our room urgently whispering that someone had smashed in our car and had stolen his work laptop, cellphone, and about 50 DVD's.

What a way to start a new year. We had been so careful, for two weeks, each night taking in our valuables. But New years Eve we had stayed out late at Grandma's house and got back around 1am with really cranky kids and bed on our minds. Totally forgetting about the things in the back of the car. In our defense though, they were in black bags behind and down below a one way tinted rear window. (You can't see in it at all, it is several shades darker than the standard rear window) And I had my expensive digital SLR camera, Ipod, DVD player and cellphone sitting on the front passenger-side seat, in clear view, and the thieves didn't steal them.

The police officer who conducted our report was sure we were the victims of "casing". Where the would be thieves had been watching us and seeing us pull those things out of the back of the car each night and noticed we didn't that night. They knew right where to go and didn't even check out the car for anything else (and being on vacation there was "a lot else" in that vehicle). We were conspicuous in that neighborhood, with a Thule on top and Oregon license plates. A prime target, I am sure.

Look at all that poor glass on the pavement and the lone broken toy. What a sad sight.

They hit our car so hard that they, not only smashed in the window, but broke the rear hatch and smashed the side of the car body in pretty bad. What a bummer. Nothing feels quite so bad as being robbed and vandalized. It kind of makes you sick to your stomach. Especially on a Holiday when feelings of happiness abound and the negative kind really stick out as fiery lashes when they happen.

And so our plans for the day where wildly interrupted with filing police reports, reporting the laptop theft to Joe's work, consulting with insurance claims people, and cleaning up glass from the inside of our car and out of the things in the back. Not a great way to celebrate the New Year. Especially since everything was closed for the Holiday and we had to wait until Monday (New Years was a Friday) to see anything being done about it.

As it turned out, the thieves had caused $3000 damage to our car and we couldn't drive it safely home in its current condition. We were stuck, the boys missing school, and Joe severely hampered in his work capabilities. Luckily for him, he could work in Oakland, since Kaiser is headquartered there. But he was bouncing from one vacant office to the next to be able to complete his business. At least he was able to make due, since we ended up being stuck there for another two weeks waiting for the car to be fixed.

Danielle was so sweet and let us borrow her Quest minivan while we were there, and the boys and I made the most of our "forced" extended vacation. We made grandma and Danielle play with us as we went off to museums and kids places all over the San Francisco area.

In the end it turned out great because everything was covered, we paid nothing to fix the car and were reimbursed for the items that were stolen. Not a bad outcome. On top of that, because the body shop had to take off the entire side panel of the car to fix the damage, they repainted the whole side of the car and preexisting dents and scratches were all fixed up. We got back a car that was better than before. AND we got to play for an extra two weeks. Not too shabby.

Some of the things we did to pass the time:

FINALLY made the gingerbread houses...

Explored the Exploratorium:

Playing with Steam:

The color spectrum wall:

Dancing lights:

The Echo Tube:

The "listening" Room:

"listening" with cow ears:

Apparently, what you are supposed to do with your Exploratorium stickers at the end:

Four Happy boys:

Official "Field Trip" to the San Jose Museum of Science (we had to do some learning since we were missing school!):

Catching bubbles with your shadow:

Building with magnets

(you were supposed to build spaceships, but Kaelan really liked just stacking them)

Learning about aerodynamics and electricity:

Levi as an Astronaut:

(if you can see him in there)

Hiking Angel Island and learning about immigration injustice:

This was an all day experience. We got up early in the morning, took BART into SF, took a trolley to Pier 39, and took a ferry to Angel Island. That was an adventure in and of itself.

we had to get hot cocoa because it was so cold.

Viewing Alcatraz from the ferry

Sharing hot cocoa to keep warm

We got a free tour of the Immigration Station while we were there, because the rangers thought Kaelan was so cute

This was where they put all asian immigrants when they came, most would never be allowed into the country, but they were essentially prisoners here for months before being returned home. Fear was probably the driving force behind this whole situation.

The immigrants would carve things into the walls, or write on the walls. Mostly poetry, and the feelings they were having, not knowing when they would ever be released or sent home.

Not sure what this bell was for, but the kids really liked being able to ring it.

It rained almost the entire time we were on the island, and we were out in it for the most part. Everyone was so Cold. Kaelan was wearing an extra pair of pants on his head and socks on his hands with a towel for a blanket. He was not a fan of hiking in the rain.

Back to BART and warmth

A much happier Kaelan

And, of course, we just hung out too:

Kaelan and Lawrence enjoying the playhouse together:

When the car was finally fixed, Joe was long gone up to Oregon and so I drove the kiddos home by myself. It wasn't too bad, since Aaron and Emily make a good halfway stopping point.

Home, fabulous home.

I just have to mention, though, that ever since that little "event" it feels like I am still playing catch up with those two weeks I left behind.

So, It's been a while......

In my defense, it really is mostly my computer's fault. My old Dell PC crashed for its final time in January. We had it in the shop for weeks in December, but to no real improvement. It still works, sort of. If you don't mind waiting 30 minutes for it to load up anything, and you don't mind it freezing in the middle of things, which it does at least a dozen times a day. Also, forget about uploading anything bigger than a few dozen KB, or having a full head of hair when you are done using it. In a nutshell, the reason why blogging temporarily bit the dust.

However, in April, we finally replaced the old clunker PC with a sleek new iMac desktop. Oh the joy!! I have been wanting one forever. In college that was all I ever worked on in my major, but I ended up buying a PC so I could use it for my other courses. You kind of get strapped down once you buy a PC because you have all these programs that won't work on a Mac, and you think....well, who wants to replace all your programs, it's not like money grows on trees.

This time though, my PC's temperamental behavior put me over the edge. For the last 4 years we have had to replace the hard drive 2 times and spend countless $$$ clearing away viruses the our Antivirus software never seems to eradicate. I can't count how many times I got the blue screen of death, or how many times I lost everything on the computer and had to start over. January was the final straw, I finally got to the point where I thought, " I don't care how much it costs, just get me out of this nightmare!!!"

April came and we bought the iMac. I haven't looked back. This new Mac is beyond amazing. Programs blinking to life in a nanosecond?! Who ever heard of that? A website opening fully as soon as you click the button?? Uploading, downloading happening instantaneously?? Incredible. My life has significantly improved. I no longer have to spend hours at the computer, things that used to take me an hour only take minutes now. *sigh* I am at peace.

In addition to the speed increase and the time saved, one of the best things about a Mac is that it is one piece. You open the box and inside you will find this, and only this:

No wires, no tower, just the screen(computer), keyboard and magic mouse. Simplicity. Beautiful.

Now comes the arduous task of bringing over all of my photos/files etc. from the PC and converting them into Mac friendly files. (Thus, the reason blogging hasn't been happening since the new computer upgrade.) It is coming, slowly, and so, with my cousin Traci's encouragement, I am embarking back into the realm of blogs. An update on the 2010 life of the Seversons, soon to follow.....

New Christmas Traditions and Boy Decorating Hazards

FHE, this week, was decorating the house for Christmas. Always SO much fun! Levi and Joe worked outside on the lights, the younger boys and I decorated inside. (we haven't got a tree yet, and probably won't if we can't find a cheap one-since we won't be here on the actual Christmas Eve/Day.) We talked about Christmas, and I pulled a great little switcheroo stunt from an Idea my personal trainer came across. I just casually mentioned, that we need to write our lists to Santa, but "remember that we only get three gifts from Santa each, because that is what baby Jesus got from the Wise Men, one from each wise man." "Santa helps us to remember why we get gifts on Christmas. He helps remind us that we can give gifts to Christ, of our love and service, and that he gave gifts to each of us." Levi said "I thought we got more than that last year".....and then amazingly finished my job by saying:..... "oh but I bet I am thinking of the gifts from you and dad too." Yes, I say. Smiling hugely. What a smooth transition into a new tradition!! I love this idea because I feel it brings the Santa tradition a little more in line with what Christmas is and has him take on an even more symbolic role!! Just as it should be.

Now after our little lesson, I divided the boys up with different jobs. They were all very enthusiastic, and really helped out a lot. Getting a little Too much into it, as the following pictures suggest. This is what I found when we were all done!!!! It was the funniest/sweetest thing I have ever seen. Apparently Lucasfilms bought the right to decorate at our house for Christmas......

Apparently the wise men also needed storm trooper guards:
“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”

The shepherds weren't left without protection either.... (but maybe they are there to protect the new little family from these guys)

At least these stormtroopers know how to show proper respect...
(this TOTALLY cracked me up seeing this..... it is really sweet though)

Indiana Jones can't help but climb the cross of the Chapel, I guess he is on look out for Santa...

We also have some of Darth Vader's empire lackeys on the lookout from the Christmas Tree advent Calendar:

Is he king of the hill?.... Or just inspecting the Christmas star for imperfections....."“These blast points — too accurate for sandpeople. Only imperial stormtroopers are so precise.”

It's nice to see those evil German Nazi Soldiers chatting with an Angel though.... Maybe they are changing their ways this Christmas. Although she does look a little surprised maybe it isn't a friendly chat afterall.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!
Hope your holidays are giving you all that you need a little bit of laughter and Love!

An old "newly found" poem

Today, I came across an old poem. It was quite the find. I had completely forgotten about it, since it was written in 1987. My grandmother Harrington wrote this poem for me, on the day I turned twelve. Since she is gone now, this poem is especially neat to find, written in her own hand.

My Grandma, May Tippets Harrington:

She was such a special woman, I loved and love her very much. She only received an education through the eighth grade, because she was the oldest daughter and was needed back at home to help out with the family. She taught herself to draw, and would paint murals in her house constantly. It was so fun for me to go to her mural room and admire what she was working on. She drew pictures of us, and I think even did a mural is one of the LDS chapels in Springville. She kept on learning and improving her education and herself all throughout her life. She was sweet and kind and loving. This poem was written on lined paper, and is very tattered and yellowed, but obviously, even as a 12 year old I thought it was special and it somehow survived until now. I thought that I would share it with you.
Just in case you can't read it on the blog, here is what it says:

To Cami, from Grandma H.
Twelve years old

She's twelve years old today, is Cami.
Sometimes she acts fifteen,
but in another moment she may be only eight you see.

Her hair is long and golden, with a rosy glow upon her face
and a smile that catches your heart in every tiny space.

Then off she goes bounding round the room, twirling here and leaping there,
Up the stair and down again with tangles in her hair.

She yells just like a tomboy on a spree,
You look again and there she sits with hands upon her knees.

Looking so demure and sweet
So angelic and petite.

I wonder if I ever saw the girl who yells,
or was it just a dream

"But No" She's off again teasing, squealing. She's a chameleon, a chatterbox, a bossy one and funny too.
A little lady with growing pains doesn't know just what to do.

She'll be this way a few more years through laughter joy and tears,
will Cami who's aged twelve years.

Grandma's are the best, aren't they?!!

Calder, Time Traveler Extraordinaire!!

Calder's 8th birthday was this weekend and he had a friend birthday party on Friday. It was quite the party. Calder came up with the idea all by himself, and all the activities as well.

Here is the party invitation that we sent out:
(Calder helped design it!)
We invited about 15 kids (that includes the Woods and my kids) to the party. Calder chose to have a Time Travel party. He even dressed up in a "lab" coat so he could be the time traveler. Calder wanted to travel to four different times:
Dinosaur Era
Medieval Times
Civil War Era
The future

He wanted to have this happen in four different rooms, and originally wanted to paint the doors. I convinced him that we could just cover the doors with wrapping paper and make it look like a time machine door.
When they first got here I had them make their own time capsules to take home their "booty" in.

In the dinosaur room we put up some palm leaves, draped everything with green blankets, put dinosaurs on them, and dimmed the lights. We told the kids that we came back in time to the exact time the dinosaurs went extinct. The meteor had just hit, there was debris blocking out the sun and volcanoes were going off. Each of the kids made a volcano out of playdough and then we had them erupt with baking soda and vinegar. We also has a fossilization race to see how many dinosaurs they could fossilize in 30 seconds. The got to keep the ones they successfully fossilized (completely submerged and covered in playdough)

The next trip was to Medieval times. We had a utensil free dinner of chicken, french bread and grapes. The kids loved that they got to eat with their hands. Then Joe did some juggling and taught them how. They each got to try and then keep their juggling balls.

The Civil War Era was upstairs in Bonus room 1. It was the battle of Bunker Hill. We had draped the workout machine in green sheets and called it bunker hill. Then we divided the kids into two teams, the north and the south. Levi and Calder had set up two "forts" out of foam blocks and we gave each team foam balls. The goal was to have a battle and the first team to completely knock down the other teams fort won...... It was a tie!! It got a little crazy at the end when I told them to all throw at once (before they were taking turns to throw). The kids loved it.

The final era, the future, was a little different. Levi was in charge and he told the kids "We are attempting to do something we have never done before, we are going to travel to the future, but it is a little rough so we might have to break through the door to get to it." The kids loved that idea. We had taped wrapping paper over the entrance to bonus room two (which has no door) and the kids got to break through it to enter the future. The future was dark, we had completely blacked out the room. We gave each kid some glow in the dark bracelets and nerf dart guns with vests and glasses and had them play dart gun tag/capture the flag in the dark. This was, by far, the big favorite for the boys (which was why I saved it for last!!!!)
I don't have pictures of anything about the last two because Joe decided he needed to get on a call the last hour of the party. I was a little overwhelmed doing the last part by myself.....he owes me big time!!!

Calder got an Ice Cream cake for his birthday cake (since he takes after his dad and isn't a big fan of regular cake)

The downside was that we had about 6 kids that were totally uncontrollable and disruptive. They would be really mean to other kids and say REALLY inappropriate things. Sometimes they made it impossible to continue on with the party. At one point I had to tell one of the kids that if his behavior didn't change right now I would call his mom and have her come and get him. Totally HATE having to discipline at a party, but there are just some things that I won't tolerate in my house and kids will either learn really quickly what those are or they will have to leave. It just isn't fair to Calder to have his party ruined by a few thoughtless kids. (one was even swearing and saying sexually explicit things - at 7 years old I find that totally disturbing) Calder was pretty upset with his friends behavior, and I felt bad for him. But he seemed to have a great time anyway. The kids that I had to discipline I tried to make sure they were still having a good time, it was a party after all! Apparently they did because at the end of the party when their parents came to pick them up they didn't want to leave. I call that a success overall.... just exhausting for me!!

Anselisms and adventures on Columbus Day

Life has been very full the last few weeks with 3 boys in soccer, 3 boys in piano, 2 boys in Cub Scouts, and a boy and a mom in a musical (with lots of rehearsals), a birthday party (with some out of control boys) a mom that very decidedly over-volunteered at the school this year, not to mention the regular stuff around the house and school!! But even though I haven't really had the time to blog here are some recent things that I thought were very blog worthy:

First another great Anselism:

Look at this picture and then read the following exchange between Ansel and Joe:


The weather is now turning crisp, and fall is definitely in the air these days. But, Ansel thinks it is still summer, going outside in his bare feet all the time. One of these times occurred when it was dinnertime and Ansel had been going in and out the back door into the backyard.

At one point Joe said "It is a little too cold for bare feet outside, your toes are going to freeze!" He looked down and said "Yep, look at your toes they are red, that means they are cold!"

Ansel replied, without missing a beat, "Nope, they are just embarrassed!"

An Adventure on Columbus day went as follows:

I had a pretty average morning getting the big kids off to school, paying bills, balancing finances, making a couple online purchases for a school fundraiser, getting Ansel off to Kindergarten, you know the drill. Around 12:30 is when I headed out the door to run some errands: getting gas, washing the car, changing the oil and getting a picture taken of myself, at the school, for my volunteer badge. I started off with the picture, which was done in no time at all, and then headed off to get gas.


In Oregon you aren't allowed to pump your own gas, it is illegal. So, when I pulled into the Chevron that I usually use, I did the usual. I pulled up, turned off the engine, rolled down my window, handed the attendant my debit card and said "Regular fill and a car wash please". He immediately went to the pump and swiped my card through the scanner. "Beep Beep" said the scanner. The attendant tried again "Beep Beep" went the scanner. The attendant came back to me "the card isn't working, do you have another?" "No", I say "It is probably the magnetic strip, just pump the gas and I will have them run the card inside" "Okay," said the teenage attendant, eager to move on.

The gas fills up inside the tank and soon we are done. I hop out of the car and go inside to pay. Remember this is my debit card, going directly out of my checking account (we only use that or cash - we don't use credit cards. We have one stored away for emergencies, we just don't use it). I know that there is plenty of money in the account so I am completely confident that the indoor attendant can easily enter in the card manually and we will be done. There should be nothing to it. Well, the same thing happens inside, only along with the beeps comes the word "denied". "What?!" I exclaim. "This is my debit card" why would it be denied? The attendant shrugs and asks "Do you have another card?" , "no", "Cash?" "no" I reply curtly. "I have checks". "we don't take checks" the attendant says apologetically.

We are at an impasse. I have no way to pay for the gas that is sitting inside my car's tank. Now what do we do. I tell the attendant that I have my cell phone and I will try to get a hold of my bank. I call 411 and get a number to my bank. I call, but they are closed..... That's right, because of Columbus day!! CRAP!! Maybe my Bank's ATM up the hill will take my card? Then I could give cash.

I sign away my life at the gas station so I can leave with my unpaid for gas, and head up the hill wondering, desperately what could be wrong with my card??!! When I get to the ATM I put in my card and get a moments relief. It does it's usual thing and asks for my pin number, that goes through, and then it asks for the amount I want to withdraw. GREAT! Things are going to work out after all. I put in $200 (just in case) and it accepts it,... but then it just spits out my card and no cash!! WHAT??? I try again for a lesser amount and pay closer attention. It does the same thing but this time I see in small writing, up in the left hand corner, the words "card denied". Great. If my card's own ATM won't take it then something is seriously wrong.

I feel a huge pit in my stomach imagining the possibilities. Did someone steal my identification and my card info and go on a spending spree since I last checked my account an hour before?? That doesn't seem possible.

Not knowing what else to do I head home and onto the WWW to see what it says online at my bank. First I check my e-mail. Ahah! A new email from my bank is there announcing irregular check card activity. It tells me to go online and look at my transactions to see if anything looks unusual. I go, ... I look... everything looks fine. I call the emergency number listed in the email. It is automated. GRRRRRRR. The voice tells me that there are 5 unusual card activities that have happened in the last hour and it mentions one for $200 and then asks if I did this one. I pause. I just tried to get $200 out of the ATM, but my card was denied before that so this couldn't be the cause. I push "no" for lack of a better option. I am directed to the "Fraud emergency services". Finally a real person. I tell her my whole story.

She is very sympathetic and looks through everything and verifies a bunch of transactions with me. Everything is on the up and up. The most pressing question I had? What about that $200 I attempted to withdraw? She assures me that it did not deduct from my account. PHEW!

The reason my card got tagged for irregular activity? Who knows, but it got tagged with my attempted purchase of gas! I asked her why, since that gas station is one I frequent. She said that it is a computer that tags the card and sometimes there are glitches. Great. How nice for me!

I mean, I guess I am grateful that they are so on guard so that I don't lose money, but it sure was inconvenient, not to mention embarrassing!! At least I was able to go back to the gas station and pay with my card and explain what had happened, saving face a little!

The lesson I learned was that one can never be too complacent about the ease with which we transact our business! All it takes is one little thing and everything is turned upside down and a person can be left with very few options to choose from! Maybe having a bit of emergency cash wouldn't hurt either!!