Tag: Matthew

April Fool’s Day

This is a day that I usually prefer to pass by unnoticed and then pretend to be disappointed when someone remembers we missed it. Most of my family seems to be on the same page with my opinion, with the exception of Allison. She anticipates it for months and has almost the same giddy excitement she has for Christmas or her birthday when it gets close. With the entire Nation on stay-at-home orders I think in general most people paid more attention to it this year, simply because of lack of other things happening. Allison had a long list of tricks ready to go.

She placed a piece of card board in all the toilets. Thank goodness she hasn’t discovered other ‘options’ for this classic trick, that I will not even mention here because she does eventually read this.

She put tape across several doorways. This happened to be the day I did laundry and often was carrying things in front of me so I couldn’t see as well. So I personally ‘fell’ for this one at least 5 times and so did others. She was very pleased with herself.

I also found tape covering the faucet when I turned it on in my bathroom.

The one she did that made me chuckle the most was drawing on Emilee’s arm while she was sleeping. Emilee came in and said, “Mom, I don’t remember drawing any of this on my arm.” She still draws on herself enough that it was a total possibility she did it, but was confused she couldn’t recall it.

Allison’s pride and joy prank for the day was getting a hold of Matthew’s cell phone and changing her contact to “Campbell” who is Matthew’s crush. She then texted him like she was Campbell. Matthew figured out pretty quickly that it wasn’t Campbell but he thought it was her sister. He even told Allison about it and she was giggling while she sat right next to him and continued to text. He figured it out shortly after that. Then I helped him change it back and change the password on his phone so she couldn’t get into it anymore.

The winning prank of the day was by me though. Thanks to my neighbors. They pranked me first with the following pictures.

This is the Governor of Kansas. I was shocked when I saw the schools would go through July.

Once they new they got me they said they were looking it and would send me more info when they found it. A minute or so later she said here is what we found. and send me this.

I was still a little confused and thought it was not very appropriate of the Governor of Kansas to do something like this. Then I saw the subtitle-the Hogan’s are the neighbors that sent it to me. They got me good. Then I decided to pass it forward to my kids.
Allison was mad for a good 30 minutes before she calmed down. 🤦‍♀️

Quarantine Entertainment…Day 2 of SECOND Quarantine

Emilee’s Answers (Age 7)

  1. If you won a million dollars, what would you buy? candy and a new bike and some stuffed animals and more candy
  2. How long does it take to get to the Europe? 10 hours
  3. What do I always say to you? I love you
  4. What job do you want to do when you grow up? Dolphin trainer
  5. What is the capital of America? The flag or the eagle
  6. Where do babies come from? Your mom’s belly
  7. What age do you become an adult? 31
  8. If you could change one rule your family has, what would it be? Eat candy for dinner
  9. If you could be a superhero, what superpower would you have? speed and magic
  10. What would you do to save the planet? pick up trash
  11. If you could eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be? donuts
  12. How much does it cost to buy a house? $1000
  13. Why do you think we should be nice to others? Because it spreads to be kind to others
  14. What does love mean to you? That you love someone with your heart
  15. What are you scared of? The dark
  16. What it so important to you? My family
  17. What makes you angry? When someone sticks their tongue at me and calls me names.
  18. What is your favorite thing to do? Play with electronics and my Lego dragons.

Allison’s answers (Age 9)

  1. If you won a million dollars, what would you buy? Pets
  2. How long does it take to get to the Europe? 1 day
  3. What do I always say to you? Do your job.
  4. What job do you want to do when you grow up? Nurse
  5. What is the capital of America? A
  6. Where do babies come from? The butt
  7. What age do you become an adult? 18
  8. If you could change one rule your family has, what would it be? You can get a phone when you want, or have multiple pets.
  9. If you could be a superhero, what superpower would you have? Fly and invisible
  10. What would you do to save the planet? Get rid of plastic bags and straws
  11. If you could eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be? Pizza and donuts
  12. How much does it cost to buy a house? $24,000
  13. Why do you think we should be nice to others? It is easier
  14. What does love mean to you? caring for others
  15. What are you scared of? Spiders
  16. What it so important to you? Peanut my guinea pig
  17. What makes you angry? When Emilee is annoying
  18. What is your favorite thing to do? Watch You Tube and eat donuts

Matthew’s Answers (Age 13)

  1. If you won a million dollars, what would you buy? House
  2. How long does it take to get to the Europe? 8 hours by plane
  3. What do I always say to you? Listen!
  4. What job do you want to do when you grow up? Play baseball or do something sports related
  5. What is the capital of America? Washington DC
  6. Where do babies come from? Women
  7. What age do you become an adult? 18
  8. If you could change one rule your family has, what would it be? No electronics on weekdays
  9. If you could be a superhero, what superpower would you have? reading minds
  10. What would you do to save the planet? Cure cancer
  11. If you could eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be? Sushi
  12. How much does it cost to buy a house? $500,000
  13. Why do you think we should be nice to others? So we could get along and have a better world.
  14. What does love mean to you? Family
  15. What are you scared of? Suffocating
  16. What it so important to you? Sports
  17. What makes you angry? When Allison is rude.
  18. What is your favorite thing to do? baseball

Parent Teacher Conferences

As I have mentioned part of the reason for our pre-Spring Break is because it is parent teacher conference time.

I went and saw all of the kids teachers and saw how they are doing. Matthew was supposed to come with me and show me a presentation that he had made about how his year has been going. He was sick so I just went myself and his teacher showed me. He is doing great. He catches on pretty quick most of the time and things seem easy. His biggest area to grow in is challenging himself more. Not just doing the minimum and being done. Pushing himself to go above the minimum even if it is uncomfortable (because it will be) and growing more than the ‘requirement’. When I was telling him how his conference went I told him this is a nice way of his teacher saying-don’t be lazy, and I agree. He rolled his eyes and said ‘okay mom’. Then I gave him a hug and told him I am proud of his effort he does put in. I know a lot of moms that have to remind, nag, beg, threaten their kid to not just do homework but turn it in, and even admit they have it. I ask Matthew on occasion if he has done his homework but more so he doesn’t feel like I don’t care than I am worried he hasn’t done it. Since Kindergarten he has come home and done his homework on his own unless he needs help without being asked.

Allison was also supposed to come with me to her conference. She did and showed me her slide presentation she prepared for me. Then we went through some of the papers she had written the first part of the year. She is doing very well and her creativity shows just as much in her school work as it does in other areas of her life. I took a picture of a couple so share. Even her research reports are fun to read. She is a talented girl. She excels in many areas. One of her favorites right now is Math. She seems to have a good portion of her dads engineering brain. I am very proud of her and how hard she works. Her area of improvement is to slow down and take her time. It isn’t a race to finish everything. Then she gave me all the sticky notes she had collected from various teachers on the board of “items needed” for their classrooms, while she was waiting for me to finish Emilee’s conference. When I tried to explain the items are for the kids/parents to get that are actually in that teachers class and picking one was enough she was mortified at my “lack of caring for others and their needs.” When I told her I would split the cost of whatever she wanted to get for the teachers she put a few back and kept a more reasonable amount of sticky notes. 😘

  • Learning about geese was more entertaining then I thought possible
  • All from the head of Allison.

Emilee was the only one that was not supposed to come to her conference. While I enjoy my children’s company this is the way I prefer to have a parent teacher conference-with just the people listed in the title of the event. Emilee has improved her reading a lot this year. I will admit I was a little bit nervous at the beginning of the year. It was a bit of a struggle to get her to even try to read. She has tried hard and is doing really well now. In Emilee’s life in general I feel like she has started to accept the fact that she can do a lot of stuff for herself. While she is the youngest and all of us are guilty of just doing things for her because it is easier-and quite frankly she prefers it that way- I think we have made great strides in her willingness to try doing things on her own and for herself. She has shown it in playing basketball and not taking herself out of the game because she is ‘done’, making her own peanut butter sandwich, and reading books on her own even though she might not know every word. Her teacher said she is a happy fun girl to have in class and I am proud of her too. She had a very good folktale about how guinea pigs learned to run I got to see at her conference.

Matthew’s Basketball

Matthew missed about half of the basketball tryouts because we left for Florida for Christmas. He was nervous he wouldn’t be able to make the team but he ended up getting put on the Junior Varsity team. He has been loving it. He has been getting better each week too. There team is 10-1 so they have had a good season. One of the games they were down by more than 15 points almost the whole game then they came back and won in triple overtime. He loved the excitement of the whole experience. The jersery’s are already made and the bigger the number the bigger the size of the jersey. His usual number he likes to be is 14 butthat jersey was to big so he had to settle for 11. He is very aware of his lack of height compared to almost everyone else on his team but he makes up with it with speed and effort. He is getting really good at darting around and stealing the ball from the other team.

  • They start each game with the National Anthem, which I love.
  • They announce the starting players so they get to run out and line up.

Family Flexibility

The range of flexibility in our family goes from Allison doing full splits and bending over backwards to Ryan and Matthew who can barely bend forward let alone touch their toes.

The past year Matthew has started having issues because he works out so much and then doesn’t stretch enough. On top of his lack of flexibility his muscles tighten up from working out and make him even less flexible and more tight. He has had to do several rounds of physical therapy. Of course Ryan and I have been nagging, harping, reminding, lecturing, begging, threatening, and anything else we can think of to get him to stretch 1-2 times a day. I’ve made him do Yoga with me. He is pretty ornery about it ,mainly because it hurts, he doesn’t like it, doesn’t get the importance of it, he is not good at it, and he is a belligerent teenager.

Our chiropractor gave us a video to use with some basic stretching. Ryan realized he needs to do it just as much as Matthew so the two of them have been doing it together at night. It is so ridiculous watching them. I switch between laughing so hard my eyes water to rolling my eyes as they moan and complain and roll around on the floor supposedly stretching but looking more like they are having a seizure or full body muscle spasm.

Kudos to them for trying though. They get an ‘A’ for effort. Well Ryan gets a ‘B’ and Matthew gets ‘C-‘

Friendsgiving 2019

Last year four families from our baseball family got together for a Friendsgiving. We did it again this year. It is a fun time. The kids like it because there is a group of them to play and all of them have at least one buddy. We are all very different families but we get along really well and enjoy each others company. Everyone brings a few appetizers and we visit and hang out for a few hours then eat a dinner together. Then play games and visit some more.

This year there was minute to win it games that we all did. We divided into five teams and each team rotated between five games. There was potato rolling, apple stacking noodle fishing, cotton ball flipping and cookie eating contests. The winner of each team wrote their name down on a paper. After all the teams finished we went to each game and the five winners from each team played the game. Those people earned a laminated turkey medal. Then the winner of each of those games played against each other in a final championship game. The final championship game ended up being Cam, Matthew, Jake, Allison, and Frank (his mom actually one but requested a proxy for the championship game). They each had a paper plate with 10 candy corns on it that were covered in whip cream so you couldn’t see them. Whoever found all ten and put them on a napkin next to their plate-without using your hands of course- was the winner. The kids loved it. Jake was the winner and he got another laminated turkey medal for his efforts.

It was a nice relaxing enjoyable evening. The friends that have done it every year are moving to Poland this summer for a couple years. One of the rest of us will have to try and live up to the Friendsgiving tradition while they are gone.

I have been waiting to post this post to add some fun pictures to it…long story short-they aren’t coming. So take my word for it, we had a fun time and looked ridiculous doing it.

Halloween Festivities

Usually by Halloween day arrives I am more than happy to be done with it. The kids dress up and it is fun but you can only go to so many parties that the purpose is to get candy before it gets old. The girls school had a trunk or treat, our church had a trunk or treat, there was class parties, we were invited by some friends to go to a community party, our neighbors have a party (its for adults but still Halloween themed). It is all very fun and the kids love it but my small introvert social bucket is over flowing by the time Halloween comes.

We did our usual Halloween tradition with the McDonalds. There whole family came over to have pizza and witch’s brew (home made root beer) for dinner then we go trick or treating together afterwards. Allison invited her friend Hailey and her family to come with us too. Matthew went on his own with his friends. Allison was a little put out thinking she would have to wait for the slow people in our group to go trick or treating and not get as much candy as she wanted. Her costume was a giant rooster that made it a little tricky to get around in so she actually ended up being the slowest person. The amount of candy did not seem to be affected though. She ‘won’ her own prize for the most candy collected when her bag weighed in at 14 pounds. Matthew had a mere 9 pounds and was totally embarrassed he was beaten by his sister. Emilee didn’t weigh hers but I’m sure she had a few pounds as well. I felt like I was going to get diabetes just sitting in the room with all of it. Of course there was a giant trading of candy session when we all got back to get rid of the candy they didn’t like. I think they all thought Halloween was a big success. Ryan has been taking several large handfuls to work since Halloween to help protect our children’s pancreas’. It was a fun night.

We have a TEENAGER in the house!!

Matthew turned 13th this past week! He is an official teenager. I can’t believe it. He is also a wonderful, caring, kind, smart, fun, talented young man.

I have thought a lot about Matthew this week. It really is true how fast the time goes by. The saying, “The days are long but the years or short” comes to my mind a lot. The memories of having him at the hospital and becoming parents for the first time, holding him for the first time, bringing him home. Thousands of little memories from playtime, bath time, snuggle time, all his firsts. His little running waddle, and cute laugh. There are lots of things about him that have changed as he has grown up but lots of things that are still the same. He has been sweet and loving from day one. He has a tender heart and treats people kindly. I have learned a lot from being Matthew’s mom. I am so grateful Heavenly Father trusted me with him. I hope I can be the mom he deserves. I have told Matthew a few times that I think he has an ‘old soul’. Aside from the fact that he likes peppermint and werthers candy and wears his pajamas tucked in with his slippers and housecoat like your typical grandpa, his ability to reason, and ponder, and internalize concepts and ideas is beyond his years. Sometimes beyond my years. The gospel makes sense to him and Ryan says, “Wrests easily on his shoulders.” I hope that continues to grow and develop and be true as he does. You are a good person Matthew. I am proud of you!

Usually about a month or so before his birthday Matthew brings me a list of what he wants to do, who he wants to invite, and what he wants for his birthday. He has it all planned out. This year he didn’t do that and when I asked he kept saying he didn’t have anything he could think of that he wanted. He did know exactly what he wanted to eat though. We had shrimp at home the day before and the day of his birthday we went to his favorite Mexican restaurant- K-machos, followed by a chocolate chip cookie cake. His appetite is definitely getting closer to a teenagers. It has almost doubled lately. He is very hopeful that means his growth spurt is going to start soon.

He did ask if he could have the home phone be HIS phone. Ryan and I decided to let him try it out. I told him I was going to write up a phone contract for him to sign. He also got a throwing net for baseball and a Royals sweatshirt. We watched him play in his last football game of the season before heading to dinner. I think he had a good day.

  • Just found out he can have his own phone.
  • I filled his room with over 150 balloons.
  • The last football game of the season was on his birthday. He is excited that this will be the last time he has to wear jeans for game days.

Matthew’s 7th Grade Football Career.

Matthew is #14 on the right side of the screen. He ends up on the left side of the screen at the end of the play.

Even though that video is hilarious, it does not show the good high lights of his football plays. Aside from getting trucked a few times, he learned a lot, tried hard and did a good job. he scored several touch downs, his longest being a kick return for 70 yards. He intercepted several throws and ran many yards. His tackling improved a lot too. It was fun to watch him and I took a deep breath when his last game ended and he survived without a major injury.