Who cares...!?

Well it has been a long time since we have posted anything, I guess you could say I have been waiting for the right stuff to post. Well yesterday it happened! So we didn't go to church because Courtney, Megan, and Jenn were all sick. Courtney was the worst; she had "runny poop" and was throwing up all day. So Hazel and I go to the store (Oh shut up...your not perfect either) to get Courtney some medicine, Gatorade, and 7UP. On the way home Hazel asks "What we were going to have for dinner?" I respond "Homemade chicken noodle soup." Hazel, "I don't want that!" Me, Well Courtney, Megan and mom are all sick and need the soup to help them feel better." Hazel, "Who cares about them, I want pancakes!" We still have a little ways to go in her sympathetic/Christlike caring attribute training.
Well this morning about 7:00 Megan comes running in our room as excited as a little kid can be and DECLARES "Mom, I have runny poop!" I think she was probably excited that now she can have the little Gatorade's I bought for Courtney yesterday. Well the morning went on and I made pancakes, (to appease Hazels request last night.) Megan came and sat down with a rather grim look on her face; it seemed she was realizing the "true joys" of runny poop. I give her a pancake, as a test to see if her stomach could handle it. She looks at her plain pancake, "I want syrup!" Me, "Not today Megan, I don't want your tummy getting more upset." Megan, "I want bacon then." Me, "Not that either Megan, the grease will make you more sick and throw up again." I did give her some 7UP to help settle her stomach. This made her a little happier since none of the other kids got to have pop. She eats one little square and can't handle any more. She sits there with a completely heartbroken expression. I ask her "What else is wrong?" She responds, "My tummy is mad at me. It must have been all the candy I ate!" I love these kids, they are so funny.
By the way our Christmas was awesome. My brother Brandon is the man and hooked me up fat this year. Tom granted one of my wife's wishes by buying her a fabric cutter thingy, and the girls got more toys than they know what to do with. Thanks to all who made our holiday season memorable. All our love and a Happy New Year!

The ward Christmas party

This morning was the ward Christmas party. Everyone showed up in there p.j's and ate breakfast followed by lots of activities. I really enjoyed the idea of having it in the morning. It was a lot of fun. After eating we decorated cookies did some stamping, and made Christmas decorations.
Then came Santa. The first picture is of Courtney. She got on Santa's lap and told him she wanted her OWN computer. Santa asked "Why? What's wrong with your one at home" To which she replied "It's too slow, everyone is on it all the time, and it's not mine! I really need one of my own santa" (The pic is mid explanation justifying to santa all the reasons why she needed her own. How quickly they grow up. What happened to Barbie dolls and blocks?) Then it was Megan's turn. As she walked toward Santa she yelled out "Your not the REAL Santa!" Santa replied "Yeah, I know...but you can still come sit on my lap and pretend. Maybe I will give you a candy cane." Megan, getting comfortable on Santa's lap, blurts out "I just knew you weren't him. You're wearing rain boots, and the real Santa doesn't wear rain boots silly!" Our quick witted Santa replied "And what do you want for Christmas little girl, a bag of rocks?" Megan threw her head back in hysterical laughter demonstrating the thought "Don't you know who I am?" She then proceded to tell Santa, with a huge smile on her face like she is proud of her clever disobedience, that she really wasn't a good girl, "well only sometimes." Like this was the time to brag...on Santa's lap...in front of the ward. Priceless! I don't know what I am going to do with this one! Hazel was next. She is very talkative at home. We can hardly get her to be quiet half of the time. However, when she gets in front of people she seems to have forgotten how to speak. This situation with santa was no exception. I finally got her to go sit on his lap. She sat down and Santa started asking her questions: "What's your name?" "How are you?" "Do you want a candy cane?" "What do you want for christmas?" No sound escaped her little lips. She glared forward with a blank expression of malcontent. With out warning, she uttered as quietly as she could, testing Santa's supersonic hearing, "I want a barbie head and 'Nakeup'," then jumps down and doesnt look back. ( This pic is the look on her face the whole time she sat on Santa's lap) HILARIOUS!! This was Myles first time with Santa and he loved it! I was very surprised. I think at first he was like, "What in the world?" but he soon was laughing and having a great time with "Jolly ol' Saint Nicholas." Maybe it was Santa's incesent teasing with a candy cane or maybe he just had gas. Which by the way he loved as you can see from the first pic. (the cane, not the gas!) Happy holidays!!
Love
The Ritchies

Kids......

We went to the girls little holiday festival thingy at school tonight, after words we went looking at Christmas lights. They loved that and would make comments such as, "Wow dad, they worked hard on this house didnt they!" if the house was very well decorated. If the house was not so decorated, "Well dad, they did the best they could huh!?" I think it is so funny. When we got home I had the kids go in and get thier PJ's on then pick up thier rooms. Hazel (who requests help for everything) goes in and cleans her room. Then she comes in to me and says,
"Dad my room is all clean."
"Is it?"
"Are you going to check under my bed?"
"Yes"
At this point she runs away. about five minutes later she scampers back into the room and says,
"There dad! Are you going to check in my closet?"
"Yes"
Hazel bolting down the hall yelling..."Girls, he's going to check the closets!"
I love kids!

Tis the Season...

So I am sitting around the house not doing much, (which is the case since I stopped student teaching last week), and Courtney and Megan say, "Dad, it doesnt feel like Christmas in our house. We need our tree and decorations." I got to looking and I must say I agreed. So on Tuesday I went down to our storage unit in Moses and picked up our tree and decorations. I spent a couple of hours trying to organize the stupid thing! I have come to the conclusion that fake trees are only good for a couple of years. I start sorting through the jungle in a tote to find the right size branches that go in the right spots. That was freaking ridiculous. The branches are so close in size it was almost impossible. I decided to light the tree as I built in from the bottom up. So about 2 1/2 hours and 600 lights later the tree is up, lit, and a little lopsided around the top becuase I got one row in the wrong spot. Also becuase we are so poor, our tree is about as bare as Tom is when he is in his hot tub! Beautiful!
I spent Wednesday morning putting up the last of our pathetic attempt at seasonal decorations. I cant wait until I have a job and start making money to be able to buy things to clutter up my house for the holiday season. A little to Martha Stewart I know, but that's the way it is! Have a Merry Christmas!

Ritchies

Tamales

I have lived in Othello almost my whole life. I know it is a little depressing but there are perks. Last summer when we were living in the apartments on Ash street I would walk out side and smell food cooking such as fresh tortillas, caldo, mexican rice, and carne asada. I had finally had enough! I wanted some too... not just some but enough to last a life time. I am a huge mexican food fan! So, I went to my neighbors house and asked her if next time she cooked something, anything, if I could come and watch. She agreed. Soon I was making Mexican rice, carne asada, tortillas, and arroz con pollo. It was great, but I really wanted to learn to make tamales. Well...we moved before I got the chance to learn. When we moved to these apartments I was kind of sad. We new everyone in the other apts. and everyone here seemed to look at us as the crazy white people (Othello is about 90% hispanic). but soon enough some of the neighbor kids started coming over and now we can't get rid of them. Our neighbors are really nice. Maria (the mom) dosen't know english but she would always feed our kids anything they were eating if they were over there. One day Kimberly (one of the kids) asked me if I wanted any tamales. I said YES!! I love them!! I asked them if they would ask their mom if she would teach me how to make them. Maria said that she would teach me. So we spent 6 hours making tamales. we made chicken, beef, pork, and cheese.She makes everything from scratch, including the broth and all the sauces! They were alot of work, but sooo worth it. Maria would tell me what to do in spanish then her daughter Karen would translate. It was fun. I loved that she was willing to teach me and talk to me even though we speak different languages. She is a neat lady and they have an awesome family. I asked her if there was anything that I could teach them to make. She said that she wanted to make Oatmeal rasin cookies. random but whatever. So I did and they have made them almost everyday since. I am glad I had something I could offer. I also helped them with there Thanksgiving dinner. I helped them make there first homemade pumpkin pie. and showed them how to bake the turkey and make gravy and stuffing. We are truly blessed to know them. ( I know the picture of the tamales dosen't look very good, but trust me they are great!)

Another Sunday Excursion...

Well it's official, I have done what I never thought I would see at church. Here's the situation. Megan wakes up at about 6:30 (as is her routine during the week for school) and decides that she is going to play; no big deal we don't have church for two and a half hours. Around 7:30 she decides that she is hungry and proceeds to make herself a large bowl of Froot Loops. She eats about 5 bites and tells me she's full. I am not buying. I tell her she needs to eat the cereal quickly so she can get ready for church. Slower and slower she moves, whinier and whinier she becomes. I tell her she is not getting down until her cereal is eaten, and if that means she goes to church in her pajama's, so be it! She kindly responds, "Nuh-Uh!" I walk away and finish getting ready. She tries to get down and play, at which time she gets busted and put back on her chair. The time passes for her to have a shower. I let her know that now she does not get to shower because she has been wasting time. Well the time comes for us to go to church and there sits Megan at the table, Froot Loops the size of golf balls! I tell her to go and get her shoes on because we are going to church. She freaks out yelling and screaming how she's not ready and needs more time, blah blah blah! I tell her she wasted her time and it's time for church. So we get a coat and shoes on her (Her coat had to be zipped and buttoned up all the way)and get into the car! She keeps repeating, "Everyone going to laugh at me!" To which I calmly reply,"Your right Megan, EVERYONE will laugh at you. Maybe next week you'll get dressed!"
So we get to church and I ask Megan if she would like to take her coat off. The wheels started turning and you could see her weighing the pros and cons. She decides to take the coat off. This simple act makes me realize what had really transpired that morning. There is my 6 year old, eyes red and puffy, an embarrassed expression on her face, standing in a mostly torn "Favorite" white Little Mermaid night-gown doing her best to adjust the sleeves and neck line to make her self more presentable. I couldn't help it at all...I burst out laughing...granted I probably shouldn't have but dang it, it was funny! This is one moment in my life in which I can say I truly had no sympathy for her. She made her bed and now she could lye in it. Needless to say she elected to wear the coat throughout church.
We walked into sacrament meeting about 10 minutes late so everyone got a good look. She sat down in our pew and slunk down trying to hide. After sacrament a couple of people sitting around us as a simple question, "Not a fight worth having this morning?" To which we replied, "No." The usual response was something to the effect of "Don't feel bad, I did that once too!" Each was followed by an experience much like my morning went to which helped me feel better about my decision (not that I felt bad about it!) Now for those of you sympathising with Megan, by the end of church, she came running to me telling me all about how much everyone liked her "jamies!"
This week we didn't have the same battle, this time she started to get ready, but stopped after her shower to play. I reminded her that I didn't care what she looked like, she was going to go to church, yes naked if necessary! She promptly got dressed and was ready a good 15-20 minutes early. I think it worked.

Almost Done...

Well it's official, I am almost done with student teaching, how bitter sweet. I have been very blessed in my placement. Warden is a great school district. For one every other friday is an early release; so we rush the kids out because we have a "meeting." Once the kids are gone we go down to the staff room and enjoy a huge potluck...today's theme, Italian. Now for Warden this means Stauffers frozen lasagnas, bagged Italian salad with RANCH dressing, an assortment of take and bake breads (mostly garlic) and then a plethora of pumpkin desserts. A little slice of Italy! They do thier best, Tom has spoiled me.
Warden has been a great placement for me. I found out a few weeks ago, that a kindergarten teacher, whose parents live is Spokane where she goes and visits every weekend, jsut resigned becuase she got a job in Spokane. So that leaves a postion open in the middle of hte year. Sweet, I know. I have been doing my best from the begining of the year to woo the staff and those who matter at the school. When I foudn this out, I took a few more steps to continue the courtship. My cooperating teacher, Melinda LeGrand, as well has been advocating for me as well. She has taken time to point out many reason why Jill, the principal, should hire me, in addition doing the same to the staff and office secretary. I do have things I have to complete before I am able to "get hired," but I am confident if Jill wants to hire me, she will work with me to help me get things done. Now this is all a big "What if" type scenerio, so any and all prayers you could offer would be appreciated. I aplogize this isnt up to my usual standard of comic relief, but I am tired.
All our love