Orbiting Planet Workman

Annual Christmas Letter

2011-12-15T21:22:00.000-08:00

It’s that time of year again when we find ourselves snuggled inside, sipping hot chocolate and working on letters to Santa while the wind and rain outside beat on the window panes. Suddenly, a football goes flying across the table. We all wince for a half-second then return to sipping our chocolate and adding marshmallows as they melt. One parent calmly reminds the perpetrator to please wait until everyone is done drinking so the drinks don’t spill. The other serenely adds, “Please play catch and not dodge ball with the football.” In some households, one might hear yelling about no football in the house, but it’s the price we pay for the beautiful green landscapes that surround us all year -sometimes outside activities come inside for a season. ‘Tis the life we live with three active boys and the growing girls not far behind! We hope our annual letter finds you happy and healthy, full of anticipation for another year of excitement and surprises, or at least the occasional flying football.

Rebekah is fifteen months old and doing what most toddlers do . . . walking all over the place, climbing up onto the kitchen table, pulling milk cartons out of the recycling bin, crawling up and down the stairs and anything else she can find to give her parents a scare. She still ends up with more food on her face and in her lap than she ever gets in her mouth, but still insists on feeding herself. She is saying “Mama”, “beep-beep” (when she honks your nose), “ruff-ruff” and “meow.” She identifies face parts and is especially fond of poking you in the eye, when you ask her to. She is loads of fund and is just big enough to start playing with her big sisters.

Elisabeth is two and her life revolves around being a mom. She constantly totes around one or two baby dolls (all named Sally) or several small puppies (all named Max) every where she goes. She loves to be held and cuddled herself and likes to put on her own music and dance ballet. She takes after her older brother, Matthew, with her wild imagination and frequently tells us, “My other mom said that I could come and play your family!” We are continually surprised and amused by her stories. She is learning all her shapes and loves drawing them on the foggy shower door with her fingers. Elisabeth is also very artistic and can sit for hours with her water colors and crayons.

Abby is five and in kindergarten this year. She is tops in her for reading and, unlike her brothers who simply want to get done with their homework as quickly as possible so they can go play, Abby asks to do her homework! She happily sits at the table, coloring neatly and drawing in great detail, making sure every page is just right before moving on to the next. Rather than with dolls, she prefers playing with little baby spoons, random board game pieces, and toothbrushes and making up games that can last for hours. She also likes to dance and is still quick to jump onto the top of tangled dog pile of rascally brothers. Abby is in gymnastics and wants to play T-ball this spring.

Isaac is seven and is going to a charter school twice a week and is at home the rest of the time. He continues to be a leader in our family and is the champion at Nerf Gun Wars and wins most running races these days. He likes to play computers, jump on the trampoline, and excels at every sport he tries. He is a hard worker and does the dishes without being asked! He played soccer and is in gymnastics and is looking forward to baseball. He also started piano and has grown more then all of the kids this year.

Matthew is eight. He decided to return to public school this year and, in addition to riding his bike to school every day, loves having lots of new friends to tell his stories to. He also dis-covered he had a talent for soccer this fall, even though he really wanted to play football. He continues to practice piano and is trying to decide whether to take up the cello (Jenny’s plan) or the trumpet (Chris’s idea). He’s still the comedian of the family and our tender-hearted peacemaker.

Nathaniel is ten. He also attends the charter school several days a week with Isaac to supplement his homeschooling. Some of his favorite classes are Latin Life, Science, and Scratch (computer animation). He is playing the violin with the Eugene Arts Umbrella, and continues to practice piano with Mom. Both he and Matthew are involved in Battle of the Books, where they read and debate books with other groups. He and Matthew are also involved in Cub Scouts. He excelled at soccer this fall and wants to play baseball this spring, but he still loves reading the most.

Jenny is a human taxi this year. On her busiest day, she makes eight trips between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., taking kids to their various activities! She enjoys homeschooling, teaching piano to the boys, working in the Primary Presidency at church, and attends a book club once a month. She is also expecting our last baby in the end of May.

Chris is working for the City of Veneta, just outside of Eugene. He enjoys not having homework every night (at least not his own) and was glad to find a job where he can put his degree to use. He is teaching at church on Sundays and helps with the ward missionary efforts. He tries to make it to basketball at the church during the week and hosts Wrestle Mania events with the kids most evenings.

Have a great Christmas season and a Happy New Year!

There's no way it's been 11 months...

2010-09-23T07:41:00.001-07:00

okay, maybe it has been eleven months since my last post, so sue me!

Everyone on Planet Workman is doing fine. We are all 11 months older and 5-6 months smarter. I'm back in school and continuing my internship with Spanish Fork City. Jenny has started her pre-labor cleaning frenzy as our 6th and last baby is due exactly one week form today. She thinks it's a boy but I know it's a girl. The children have all taken Jenny's side of course, with the exception of Elizabeth who agrees with me (she isn't old enough to cast her own vote yet so I voted for her).
Jenny has been remarkable throughout this entire pregnancy. She continues to home school the boys, entertain the girls, run kids to practices/games, and still keeps up on all the chores. She feels like things are finally catching up to her this week so maybe she'll slow down a bit for the last few days -though I doubt it.

Here's a photo that Ian took of us during Logan and his visit in August. We took a little hike up to Bridal Vail Falls, went to Lagoon for a day, visited Hill Air Force Museum, played at the nickle arcades, and even found time to just hang out in the back yard.

Next post will probably contain a wrinkly, naked, new little Workman baby...consider yourselves warned...

Visitors From a Friendly Planet

2009-10-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

Penny, Wendy, Gizmo, and Todd all came for a visit to help us celebrate Jenny's birthday. We all had a lot of fun and even got out of having to do school a few days!While they were here, we got to visit the pumpkin patch, play in the backyard, go to several parks, and make two trips to the airport (always a hit with the kids). It was hard to see them leave, but comforting to know we'll see them again in just two months.

Moving to Provo

2009-08-16T18:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a little over a week since our exodus to Provo, and we can proudly say that the boxes are out of the house and the car is getting parked in the garage! The kids love the backyard and spend every day on the trampoline and the swing set (sometimes "day" begins at 6:30 am for them!). They've invented two new games on the tramp, one is called "Poison Bowl" where they place a cereal bowl (plastic) on the tramp and then jump all around trying not to let the bowl hit them. If you get hit, you have to sit down on the tramp until someone else gets hit and takes your place. The other is like "egg" except that rather than curling up into a ball while everyone else jumps around trying to crack the egg, the person sits on a small chair and tries not to get jumped off the chair. It's pretty funny to watch!

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

We had a blast this 4th of July. We went camping at Taylor Park, watched the aprade in Mill City, got to dunk Uncle Jared in the dunk tank, went swimming at Little North Fork, and then went back to Mill City for fireworks to finish out the day. The kids really enjoyed the water and none of them cried during the fireworks display this year (a first for us).

It was a bitter sweet weekend knowing that we won't be around next year because we'll be in Utah, but we look forward to doing it all again in a few years!

Hike to Shelberg Falls

2009-07-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the Sabbath over 4th of July weekend with a hike to Shelberg Falls. I think it ended up being about an hour and a half hike in, most of it on a well-maintained gravel road, but the kids all agreed it was well worth it. We stopped and looked at caterpillars and butterflies all along the way. Jenny had the kids convinced that a crazed cow was going to come charging out of the trees at us at any moment (silly Mommy), but fortunately we were able to complete the hike without any heffer-human confrontations.

The falls were beautiful and Jared got all the boys to take a cold shower under the falls. Chris ended up jumping in the water and got both Matthew and Isaac to join him for a few minutes each. We took the opportunity to teach the kids that sometimes the things that are hardest in life are the things that end up being the most worth while. I think they all got the message, at least they where all doing the bobble-head thing...

What happened to June? and May? and April??

2009-07-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

OK, so there's no way it's been over 4 months since I last posted...or has it?

So much has happened since the Masked Offenders, but I'll just get to today as quickly as possible:

Had a baby, got accepted to grad school, found a house to rent in Provo. I think that's it.

We're excited for our upcoming 4th of July weekend especially with Jared and Krystal visiting for the week. I'll include a photo of the house we'll be renting in Provo. It should be plenty big enough for us, and the kids are thrilled about the in-ground trampoline and the swimming pool in the back yard. It will be nice to have a little more space for them to play, not to mention the extra time Jenny will have to spend with them once she's not working.

I'll try to post again, sometime before next quarter!

The Masked Offenders Attack!

2009-01-18T19:01:00.000-08:00

What do you get when you combine a lazy Sunday afternoon and an endless supply of masking tape? Masking Tape Masks, of course! Now that we have church from 9-12 instead of 11-2 we have a lot more afternoon than we're used to. No, I didn't go to choir and no, I din't have all my home teaching done yet; it just seemed like the perfect day to wrap my kids heads in tape.

The whole thing was really Jenny's doing. As the kids were finishing up their lunch, she suggested making some paper mache figures with Nathaniel and Matthew while she and the younger two laid down for a nap. They headed up to bed I looked online at a few paper mache websites and decided on a recipe: 1 part flour to 5 parts water, boil for 3 minutes, add some salt to increase shelf-life and then just a pinch of cinnamon to cover up the bad smell...no problem. As soon as the concoction started boiling I began wondering just how I was going to keep this sticky gooey mess off the carpet in our dining area. I must have gone on wondering too long and not stirred enough because before I knew it the flour had all clumped together and scorched the bottom of the pan. The entire mess quickly found its way to the sink and in my mind I literally thought (and I'm not even a little ashamed to admit this): home-make mache = broke = need to fix = DUCK TAPE!
I knew I didn't have enough duck tape, but I always have plenty of 2" masking tape we use for painting the town houses. So I first convinced Matthew (much more trusting that Nathaniel) to sit in the high chair while I formed two pieces of tin foil over his entire head and then began running strips of tape every which way. After a few minutes, Matthew informed me that he couldn't breathe. No problem. I just took a little painting brush and poked some nostril holes for him. I was going to give him some eye holes too, but after he complained that I'd jabbed the end of the paintbrush a little too far up his second nostril I decided against the idea. Once his entire head was mummy-wrapped, I took the scissors and made two cuts along the back and pulled the mask off. A few eye holes, a mouth, a little paint and walla! It was about then that I looked over at the scissors and noticed a few strands of curly blond hair, which I of course quickly wiped off before Jenny came back downstairs from her nap.

Not to be outdone, Nathaniel sat up in the chair next and earned himself his own mask. I say "earned" because, based upon all of his complaining, the tin foil was pretty pokey and I'm sure it was difficult to breath even with two nostril holes. Matthew also decided it would be fun to start jabbing Nathaniel's bum with a broken toothpick (once I had his entire head wrapped and he was sitting defenseless -of course). I joined in the fun and went silent, making Nathaniel think I had left the room and that Matthew was really going to have his way with him. After a few seconds of pure panic I spoke up, partly becasue I felt bad but mostly to keep Nathaniel from tearing the mask off in a frustrated tissy and thereby rendering it useless.

It's been about 6 hours sinse we finished our project; the masks are still in good working condition and I'm still laughing at the pictures we took. I guess the only thing keeping this afternoon from going down as a complte success is me being able to convince Jenny that the scorched pan in the sink is all hers tonight.

Seeing Things a Little More Clearly Now...

2009-01-11T22:43:00.000-08:00

Nathaniel finally got his glasses!

The eye clinic called Friday morning after the kids had left for school and told us that Nathaniel's glasses had come in. Excited, we swung by and picked them up as we were out running errands so as to have them for Nathaniel when he got home. "Nathaniel, guess what came today," Matthew teased as Nathaniel came in the door. A huge grin spread across his face. He knew exactly what Matthew was talking about.

I wrote several words on our little chalkboard using larger letters along the bottom and smaller letters in the words towards the top and then had Nathaniel stand back about 10 feet and read the words to me. He could read the bottom 3 words, but by the time he reached the 4th word the letters were too small for him to read. It was then that I placed his new specs upon the bridge of his nose. "Dad, these really help!" he exclaimed!

The doctor told him he only needed to wear them while at school and that whether or not he wanted to use them at home would be up to him. So we bought him a hard case to keep them in while they were at home. The case hasn't been used yet as he hasn't taken his glasses off except to go to sleep! WE think he likes them.

2009-01-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas day at Jenny's folk's place. We had a wonderful dinner and a nice time visiting, after the huge snowball fight out in the front yard that is! I think everyone got hit several times, but only Jason and Chris got hit with balls larger than boulders.

2009-01-04T19:35:00.000-08:00

We got snow early this year and the kids couldn't have been happier!

They ended up only having school 2 of the last 5 days the week before Christmas break. Playing in the snow was fun, but Nathaniel and Matthew were disappointed to not have their Christmas programs.

Isaac's "Bowling" Party

2008-12-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Since my last post, Matthew now has two more loose teeth and his older brother can't be more upset about it. According to Nathaniel, Matthew should have to wait until he is in the second grade to loose his teeth, just like he had to wait...life is so unfair.

Tuesday night we celebrated Isaac's 4th birthday. He told us he didn't want a "birthday" party but a "bowling" party (not to be combined as a "bowling birthday party" under any condition). We had lots of family meet us at the bowling alley for a fun evening: Grandma and Grandpa (my folks), Pippi and Papa Duck (Jenny's parents), Aunt Jenn and Hope, Cousin Robin with Amy, Janae and Tanner. We also picked up Alexis who is in Isaac's primary class. She always says she's going to marry him in the temple one day, so I figured taking her bowling was the least we could do. The kids had a blast bowling for the first 4-5 frames, that's when their attention was captured by the arcade room back behind us. After a few more frames of courting kids out of the arcade room for their turn to bowl, we decided they were done and headed to the house for cake and presents.

Jenny made an awesome ice cream cake with a Spiderman-Dr. Octopus topper to boot, it looked great and tasted even better! Isaac got a ton of new toys including lots of bath figures, miniature animals, a GI Joe type missile launcher, and of course a bowling set (we couldn't help ourselves).

Heavy Metal Sunday

2008-11-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

Pretty typical week...the clouds are back and the rain has been off and on. Yesterday we closed the town house office down early and all drove into Salem for Logan's birthday party at Pietro's Pizzeria. I remember eating at Pietro's a few times as a kid. It was a quiet, mid-sized restaurant with a firehouse theme: fire hoses hanging in the entry, a brass fire pole with the bottom half of a fireman coming down from the ceiling in nothing but his red long johns, and lots of miscellaneous firehouse memorabilia throughout.
I walked in the front door and immediately looked up; there were the fire hoses, just as I had remembered. As I came through the second door I was greeted by the red underwear guy sliding down the fire pole and thought, "I remember really liking this place. This is going to be gr..." It was about then that some little kid coming toward me tripped and just about knocked me over. I got my balance and looked back to see if he had managed to stay on his feet as well when I saw it -the arcade room! A thousand square feet of arcades crawling with hundreds of little kids all racing from pin ball machine to alley bowler touting their long strands of purple redemption tickets. I remember thinking, "OK, so they've added a few things. This will still be nice," as we got caught up in the current of people headed toward the back of the room. I saw at least 10 other birthday parties set up and there were literally kids everywhere! Don't get me wrong, I like kids. I have 4 of my own and one on the way but this was a ridiculous number of kids!
We passed a large sign painted in neon paint that pointed the way toward mini golf and laser tag. Wow, they had really vamped the place up. We rounded the bend and caught Ian's eye. The birthday table was very nicely decorated with party favors, pointy hats and balloons, very cool. It was in the "party section" of the restaurant (though the entire place was packed with parties) and was in the middle of about 6 other party tables swarming with kids, though none of the other tables looked as festive (kudos, Ian).
To make a long, 2 1/2 hours of sheer bliss for the kids short: they got to play mini golf, eat pizza, have cake and ice-cream, and play the arcade games. It was a terrific party, though very loud and a bit chaotic even for a Dad who's used to a pretty rowdy house. By the end of the party, the boys had earned just over 300 redemption tickets at the arcade center, enough for each of them to get an inflatable electric guitar. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and then headed out to the car to make the trek back to Albany. After a little resistance, I agreed to blow up the guitars so they could play them on the way home.
They were really cranking it out but we had to make a pit stop at my parent's place. No problemo! They brought their guitars in with them and began power sliding across the kitchen floor and jumping off the furniture while they jammed like big time rockers. It was quite funny to watch as the sugar buzz completely took hold and had them acting like a heavy metal band on stage. Once again in the car, I cranked up the stereo, hit the interstate and they rocked all the way home.
This morning I was awaken by Johnny Cash in my living room. Apparently, the boys hadn't lost interest in their guitars yet and they thought Johnny needed a few more band members. Matthew found a hard rock station on the radio that I had to turn off at least three times since we got home from church and the guitars somehow went from from instruments of mass commotion to weapons of mass destruction. Matthew got poked in the eye, Isaac’s block house got knocked completely off the table in one giant swoop of Matthew’s guitar, and Isaac’s guitar kept knocking Abby over –though it wasn’t his fault (just ask him). So all three boys are now up in bed, all three guitars are now deflated and up in time out above the cupboard, and I’m left to myself wondering what I'll be waking up to tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

For all the ranting and raving always done about the weather around here, I'd just like to take a moment to give Mother Nature a big THANK YOU. After a week of above average temperatures and no rain, we woke up Friday morning to the smell of wet asphalt and the sound of rain hitting the rooftops. I rolled out of bed and thought of complaining to Jenny, but then remembered, "Oh ya, this is Oregon and today's the 31st." While the rest of the country is out racing through the neighborhoods collecting candy, having costume parties or smashing pumpkins in celebration of Halloween, here in Oregon we traditionally welcome in our first wet and windy storm of the season. This year, it seemed, would be no different.

By mid-morning, a bit optimistic, I hopped online to checked the whether forecast: Heavy rain this morning changing to scattered showers by afternoon, returning to heavy rain by evening. "Just in time for trick-or-treating, great." I thought.

Ian and Logan came down from Salem to go trick-or-treating with us and got to our place at about 6:00. When I answered the door I noticed it had stopped raining and the sun was actually starting to come through. We hurried to get the kids in their costumes and out the door while we had a break in the storm. Jenny stayed to pass out candy and Ian and I followed the kids through the neighborhood. After a hour, the candy bags were full and Abby and Isaac's little legs were worn out so we headed back to the house. Ian felt a raindrop on his head and I had one hit my nose (insert whatever joke you find most fitting here) so we decided to pick up the pace a bit. Ian made the comment that he couldn't remember a Halloween when it didn't rain, not that it had never happened before, just that they weren't as memorable as the ones spent running from covered porch to covered porch dodging the rain.

We made it back safe and dry, sifted through our spoils, danced around the front room with the strobe light going as the sugar rush began to take hold and then said goodbye to Ian and Logan. It was the perfect ending to a perfect Halloween that we will all soon forget about completely.

In the Begining...

2008-10-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who said, "Lost time is never found again." The kids are getting so big so fast it’s hard to keep up with everything that’s going on in their little lives. My hope for this blog is that it will both inform and entertain its reader(s?) as well as document our family's year. I look forward to sharing stories about our day-to-day activities, vacations and other BIG happenings –like Isaac earning 2 Band-Aids on his right index finger by pinching it in the door and consequently having trouble getting to sleep for the past 3 nights because he doesn’t like the taste of any of his other fingers (yes, he tried all nine others).

Hope you enjoy reading as much as we’ll enjoy getting our stories written down.

Chris