I'm still here...

My poor bloggy has been so neglected this last month :(

I just wanted to check in and let you know we're all enjoying our summer break with the kids home. I have been using a point/reward system and it's working fabulously!!!

I reward *points* {they're really pennies - not allowed to be used as money per say} for certain things the kids do or how they behave. I never take points away once they've been earned. At the end of the day or the next morning, then I hand out the points. Each kiddo has a container with their name on it.

Then they get to *use* their points for fun things like xbox time, computer time, candy from the grab bag, sleepovers, etc.

When I first came up with this idea 2 summers ago, Ben called me Hitler. hahaha Said I was being too strict or whatever. But you know what? When I first mentioned it to the kids they were excited! Then when we put it in action, oh my gosh, they were ecstatic!!!

The kids. Love. The. Points!

I can see why Ben may have thought the points were too much because the kids have to do workbooks {to review their school year}, read books, do book reports, chores, and actually behave the way they're supposed to. And they're not allowed to *use* points until they've done a couple *work* type things, like their workbook and reading time. But they dig it & its totally working for us! YAY!!!

I only do points during the summer to maintain some kind of order {I am not a schedule person, I LOVE not having a schedule and get to plan whatever I want to do each day}. You know what's funny? A couple months before school was over, the kids start asking about summer points! Are we going to do points again this summer? Can we add more things to the list to earn more points? What kind of grab bag candy will we have this year? Can we help pick it out? etc etc!

What kind of system do YOU use in the summer? Or do you have something else that's working for you?

Do share.

Ok 'nuff about that. I need to get to bed. Sounds like the girls (Ashley & her friend that's spending the night) are finally quieting down. My clue that I can go to bed now. LOL Did your Mom ever tell you that she couldn't go to bed until YOU were in bed? My Mom did all the time, now I kinda get what she meant. tee heee :)

Tomorrow - going to lunch with my sis & cousins! WOOHOOOO!!! I look forward to these each month!

Friday - bunko with the girls!!! YAY!!! Can't wait!!!

Oh one more thing... do you remember this post about our cool praying mantis?

Well, she laid an egg sac on Halloween night last year. We looked online to find out when it may hatch. Turns out we'd have to wait until spring! Well spring came and went - according to Arizona weather. So we didn't think anything would happen with it. Suddenly, little praying mantis babies started hatching earlier this month! We had about 10 (approx one hatching per day). Nathaniel was so excited and such a good bug papa by feeding them little tiny bugs and aphids (they're favorite), but then some of them started dying. I guess nature weeding out the weakest ones. So now there are 2 left and they're growing every day! They are so cute!!! I'll post pics later.

I seriously need to go to bed. Ok I've updated my pathetic lonely blog. Hopefully I'll be back soon to update more!

What's been going on...

I snapped this pic a couple weeks ago. I had to record Ashley helping to wash dishes! LOL No really, she can be a great helper {when she wants to be}. She was showing Anson how to wash dishes, so they could do it together.


Felicia got rollerblades for Christmas and LOVES wearing them all the time! She loves using them to get to/from friends' houses. One day a couple weeks ago, she fell on the way to her friends' house and skinned her knee.

OUCH!!!! A day or two later, this is how I found her sleeping! Yep, she made a 'sling' for her leg. Pretty creative if you ask me! HAHAHAHA

Ok think we have already hit SUMMER weather. It's been at least 100 degrees for several days in a row. But a couple weeks ago, the weather was absolutely perfect! Especially the evenings, I enjoy leaving our backdoor & our bedroom door {to the patio} open all day. Well, one evening, I left our bedroom patio door open most of the night (the screen was closed). I got up around 2am and closed it. I won't be doing that anymore!

Look what we found in our bedroom the next night! A SCORPION!!! YIKES!!!

This is the FIRST time in my life that I have ever found one of these horrible things inside our home! It may as well be as BIG as these! That's how much I despise scorpions!!!
{remember Clash of the Titans? I hated those huge disgusting scorpions! but totally loved that movie}

Ben carefully picked it up and put it in Nathaniel's bug catcher so we could have a closer look at it. He also decided to get out the black light {we use it at Halloween} to see if it really glows. Those are grasshoppers in the bug catcher with the scorpion.

Now that is pretty cool! We watched it for a little while. Then Ben used the black light and looked around our room and our back patio. Then the scorpion needed to go to heaven {if that's where they even go. LOL}.

Ben went right to bed, I mean after all, it was late and he had to get up early for work. Ummmmm NOT ME!!! I had a hard time even stepping foot into our room. I had to go to the other side of the house {of course, turning on each light before I entered the room} and watched some episodes of my fave shows on the computer (our DVR didn't record them properly). I stayed up til almost 3am. Anson got up at one point coughing, so I let him sleep in my lap for a while. I was so tired, I finally got in bed, but not before I checked the room again. I may sound like a total baby, but I did NOT want to get stung!

Ok, so I finally fell asleep in bed. Ben woke me up a couple hours later when he was leaving for work to let me know that his truck had been broken into and his stereo was GONE! He asked me to please call & report it. I came outside to see his truck and to also see if my van was ok. Whew! My van was fine. Went back to bed. Got up a couple hours later to get the kids up & took them to school. When I got back, I decided to look around the carport and see if anything else was missing. Yep, they took Felicia & Ashley's bikes! Dang thieves!

I called to report everything that was missing. We've had our car stereos stolen before, called to report it, then that's pretty much it.

To our surprise, late that night, the police was at our door! They were asking if the car stereo in their hands belonged to us. What? You actually found it? Ben came to the door, NOPE that's not mine. They caught a couple teenagers (13 & 17) behaving suspiciously near a park. Turns out they had a couple car stereos on them. Well, after talking to them a while, they confessed to stealing several and described where they got them. Led them right to our house. But first, the cops made them tell about the missing girl bikes. They took the cops to the canal and showed them where they had dumped them! The cops made them feel really bad about breaking little girls' hearts! Anyway, the cops went back to the boys' house and retrieved MORE stolen car stereos. They found Ben's stereo! But the bikes can't be retrieved from the very full canal. :(

One of our neighbors is also a police officer, and he tried to help the next day. He saw our report & went to the canal site and called SRP to see if they would send someone to retrieve the bikes. NOPE. They drain the canal once a year in December/January, they can be fetched out then. Darn it. But I really appreciate our neighbor cop trying to help.

I went to see STOMP with some friends. Well, last minute someone couldn't go, so we brought Felicia with us. It was AMAZING!!! Felicia loved it too!

Last week, Ben & I went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was AWESOME!!!!!

Sunday evening, Anson snuck up behind me with the corn holders and told me he was Wolverine! He was cracking me up, so I told him to stand still so I could take a picture. He jumped on the couch {yikes! watch out for the leather! he was careful not to touch anything} and posed for me! Silly kid!!!

The kids really enjoyed the corn on the cob my Mom brought over on Sunday, so I bought more while it was still on sale. Nathaniel helped me shuck it. Awww sweet helper!

Mmmmm it was delicious! We still have some leftover to eat tonight too!

Right NOW & How to get rid of Flies

In case you were wondering...
this is what I'm doing right NOW! {well ok took off my mask to type} Playing Star Wars clonetrooper with Anson. I'm the one in the red mask {because according to Anson...blue is for boys & red is for girls!} LOL Not really sure what the kids have done to the masks but I could hardly see thru mine plus it had a weird smell. Eewwwwww!

Ben was at his sisters' apt a couple days ago and while he was there, look what he caught & brought home for Nathaniel!

A super cool Preying Mantis! Isn't that awesome?!!!! Way to go BEN!!! As soon as Nathaniel saw it, he ran to get his bug catcher while giggling with excitement! hahaha

Oh then yesterday, Nathaniel caught a fly & put it in the bug catcher for the mantis to eat. Nathaniel barely told me of the lunch he gave it, then ran back into my room screaming "MOM!! MOM!!! LOOK!!! LOOK!!! It's HOLDING THE FLY!!!"

He set it down so Anson & I could see, then we saw the coolest thing happen!

HE took a BITE!

I had to run for my camera! This is so picture worthy!

Ben walked in & got to see him take the last bite & lick his *fingers* clean! LOL

{please excuse the not-so-clear photo - the bug catcher is clear plastic but kinda dusty on the inside from the previous geckos! Nathaniel likes to catch geckos, play with them a couple days, then release them. I also cropped the photo so you can see his head better}

You should be able to click on the photo to see it larger! hahaha

Ok I know we're kinda dorks but we think bugs are cool & bugs-eating-bugs are even COOLER!!! tee hee :)

Oh hey, gotta go. Need to pick up kids from school!