Making Bread




Jack's loaf wasn't salvageable.

This is a very typical day for me. Notice the arguing and that Jack has to stop what he's doing occasionally and watch TV.

Deep Thoughts, by Tristan Plummer.

In the car yesterday Tristan said,
"Mom, sometimes I think about the bad things that have happened to me in my life,"
"What bad things?" I interrupted to ask.
"You know, like when I broke my arm." (mental sigh of relief. I was hoping it wasn't anything too bad.)
"Right, so what do you think about these things?" I asked.
"I think back on all the bad things that have happened in my life, and I think 'wow, sure am glad that's over with!"

Jack frequently gets "needles" in his eyes (dust or an eyelash) and "snakes" (a hair) in his mouth. These episodes are accompanied by frantic motions to remove the offending object.
Mom was speaking in Sacrament meeting on Sunday when Jack suddenly had a snake attack in his mouth. "Mommy, mommy... there's a snake in my mouth. Get it out! Get it out!"

We went to Disneyland yesterday with Amy and kids. Considering we were two adults with 5 kids, under 5, we did well. Lots of fun was had by everybody. Even baby Mia was good. Tristan got picked to be on stage for "Jedi Training". He loved it. He also loved riding a roller coaster for the first time. He rode all alone in the very front seat of the roller coaster. I couldn't ride with him because I was riding with Jack in the seat right behind him. Jack didn't seem to like the ride as much as Tristan, but joined in with the shouts of "Let's do it again!!!"

It's finally done! After many months of waiting, we have a finished backyard. It's strange, it seems like since we've never had an outside place for the kids to play, they don't know what to do out there. I was dreaming of them running and playing, but it hasn't really happened like that. Turns out, the only time they want to go outside is if I'm with them. I wish there were more kids around us. I remember being a pre-schooler and playing outside all the time with the neighbors. Now, if Tristan wants to play with someone, we have to set up a playdate a week in advance.

This is Jack playing in the shortening. He wanted to "make cake". This happened the same day he squeezed out a whole tube of mom's hive medicine. He smeared the shortening all over the floor, the cupboards and himself.












Day 1- before the work begins




















They tore down the awning the first day.

These are the boys watching the concrete demo.

Day 2- A lot of noise and they started to demo the concrete.

Day 3- They dug a hole in the pool. Now we wait until Monday for the inspector to verify that there is a hole.
Jack told me he loves the "guys". "Guys" is Jack's generic term for any kind of blue collar worker. They wave to him in the window.

My challenging son, Jack

So, yesterday was a banner day for us here at the Plummer house. In the morning Jack was unsually quiet. I went to find him and as I climbed the stairs I was overwhelmed with a minty fresh smell. Jack had squeezed out an entire tube of toothpaste and fingerpainted on the walls with it.

Later, Amy was over for a visit and Jack comes running out of mom's room crying and rubbing his eyes...again with a smell following him. This time the smell was methol. I grab him and ran into the bathroom. He had used a large amount of Icy Hot to rub all over his hands and face and now he was rubbing it into his eyes. The more they burned, the more he was rubbing his eyes. I started furiously washing him. In my haste. I knocked over the blowdryer and it turned itself on as it hit the floor. So now I'm rinsing Jack's eyes, he's SCREAMING and I'm yelling for Amy to come turn the blowdryer off.

30 minutes later, Jack is suddenly very shiny and greasy. I said, "Jack what's on your hands?" He said, "Yotion, mommy's pillow." I ran upstairs to find that he has taken a tub of Aquaphor A.K.A. Vaseline, scooped it out and smeared it all over my ultra-suede duvet and pillow. Ahh...
I sprayed the spots with Shout and put the duvet and pillow case in the wash. I haven't checked it yet. I'm sure it didn't come out.

The lesson of this story... install locks to the outside of each door to "Jack proof" the house.

The following is a picture of the gum I made Jack spit out this morning. The quarter is in the photo for scale. I've never seen such a big piece of chewed gum. It's bigger than a deck of cards. Notice the teeth marks.



Halloween (Better late than never)




Jack getting into grandma's powder.

The Ultimate HotWheels Car Park
as told to me by Tristan, verbatim.
(He was talking about designing the park with his building blocks and insisted I take notes)

1. Start with one red block in the middle
2. You need yellow pipes, just like Tristan had them
3. Ramps by the opening, so the cars can launch on
4. A giant playset with cars, lots of cars
5. Tall ramps with a red block
6. We need to buy lots of HotWheels cars
7. Remember to make lots of tunnels
8. Buy some tracks that the cars can get on in their size
9. Make a loopty-loop gap jump- a sweet one
10. Make a continuous connector so they keep going and going

Ahhh.. the perfect car park.

I passed my test! So, most of you know already, that I passed my Certified Professional Coders exam. It's a little bit of a big deal. Some people take programs as long as two years in order to pass the test. I now am officially, Allison Plummer, CPC.

Anyway, because I've received so many requests, here is a picture of the final Halloween craft that Jack was helping me paint.

We went up to Riley's Farm, just outside of Beaumont, to pick apples. Ever since Amanda took me to that apple farm near San Luis Obispo, I'm addicted to eating fresh apples. The ones you buy at the store are terrible compared to the fresh ones. We picked apples, watched them make cider, went on a hay ride, ate BBQ, listed to the banjo and brought home two 5lb apple pies. Ah... a full day.







I also have to share these pictures of Jack "helping" me paint a halloween craft. I had to prime the pots with white. He thought I said prime yourself. I'm sure it was a miscommunication.

Goofy's Kitchen

Amy took me, Tristan, Jack, Nathan and Tyler to Goofy's Kitchen. The boys had a blast. Here they are eating their "worms and dirt". Nathan was too grossed out to eat the "worm".



The characters come around and visit your table. As you can see, Tyler wanted none of it.



Is this a preview of the future?

We made a trip to the Mt. Baldy fishing ponds. Tristan loved it... except when it came to actually catching the fish. He wanted nothing to do with the fish. The best part was after we caught our first fish, it was flopping around in the bucket. Jeri was feeling sorry for the fish, dying a slow death and begged dad to kill it. So dad gets this rag, grabs the fish and whacks its head on a bench. The sound of it was gross. In all we cought 3 fish. I use the term "we" loosly because I actually caught all of the fish. Jeri provided moral support with the camera and Tristan was the net guy. Though, like I've mentioned, as soon as you actually need the net guy, he's dropped the net and run away. ha ha.

Sometimes dads are just more fun than moms.

Brian's New Office

We moved our medical billing company to a new office. It's right where the 5, 57 and 22 freeways meet. Feel free to visit Brian in suite 725. It doesn't seem like it's a small business anymore. I think we're moving into a mid-size company.

Just like Daddy


Jack loves playing in the shaving cream. He knows just where to put it. I guess he doesn't mind the taste of it.

Summer Fun

These are pictures from Coleman's visit. They set up the slide to go into the baby pool. It provided, and still provides, hours of fun.

Because of the intense peer pressure, I finally made us a blog. I'm new to this, so I haven't got it quite right. These pictures were from the triple birthday party we had on July 28th for me, Coleman and Jack.