Sunday November 4 2007

Hello again.
Today we went to church and I (Peter) gave a talk for the primary. It was a good one in my opinion. (Becky writes: He wrote it all on his own....scriptures and everything). It was on gratefullness.

After that Terrie came over for lunch/dinner. It was fun; really fun. We showed her our blog site and showed her the finished pool. After that we started our fast. We forgot that it was fast Sunday until we were in church so we started our fast after our lunch with Terrie. We are fasting that everything will work out ok for us to get a good house (hopefully the one we want) in Italy. We needed to fast today because my mom and dad find out tomorrow if we get the house we want.
Then we mostly just sat around but Becky took Paul for a ride in the car so he would fall asleep for his nap. We also made birthday cards for our friend Terrie because we are going to be in Salt Lake City on her Birthday. Then we made a plan for cleaning the house for tomorrow so that the house can be nice and clean for mom when she gets home.
I am going to bed now....good night!

Saturday November 3 2007

Hi!

Today we had smoothies for breakfast. They were interesting but really good. Then we played outside most of the day, and played on the computer too.

Also we went over all the characters in the pool and made sure that it is finished, and it is!!! We start filling it on Monday. We could start filling it at Four AM but Becky doesn't like to get up that early. We will probably have to stop filling it when we go to Salt Lake City to pick up Mom on Tuesday. We are all excited to see Mom again.

We did have some finishing work we did on the pool today. Paul had not contributed to it yet and so we dunked his feet in paint and let him walk around the pool a little. At first he had so much paint on his feet he slid and couldn't walk without help from Becky. Also, he wouldn't take his knight helmet off or let go of his toy gun. It was a sight to see! Mom and Dad think they found the house we will rent for the next 3 years. We don't really know what it looks like because you know you have to see it first and we are not in Italy. We wont know until Monday if we get it, but we are all praying that we do. Mom and Dad think we will go to an Italian Catholic school. This is because the catholic schools are better than public schools and so we can learn Italian better. We will still do our home school stuff while we are there.
And PAUL IS THE SUCKER KING. No seriously! He ate about ten suckers and didn't finish a single one. What do you think of that? I think he just likes to taste them and make sure they are sweet.
we'll see you next time, the McCollollaum family...

Hello again

Hello again! Today we played outside alot and had lots of fun!

Becky's back hurt a little, so Nicole and Paul helped her out by walking all over her back.

We danced this morning and this evening (well most of the girls and Paul did).

We had a great dinner of pork shish-kebabs that were grilled on the outside grill by me, Peter, the MAN WHO GRILLS! Grilling them really made them taste good! Ashley (my older sisters friend) came over to sleep.

We are having pumpkin ice cream just before bed tonight.

Arrivederci!

Its Peter this time -- 11/1/07

Hi, today we really just sat around and ate candy. Until Becky decided we had eaten too much and put it away. Paul got soooo sticky!

There is lots of Candy!!! Besides this big bag that Becky filled, there is one other little bag that wouldn't fit in.

We also went to Science class today and learned about bones and muscles. We also watched a movie, played outside, and did homework.

Maybe there will be more to talk about tomorrow!

Happy Halloween

Once again, Becky is left to do the blog. Peter is off at a friends house tonight & so cannot do it.

Today was a fun day, but at this time is such a blurr that I don't know if I will get it all.

Jess, Paul and Becky went to Grand Junction today for an Orthodontist appointment. The roads in Colorado are not much like the roads in Utah (in a grid pattern) and so Becky got sort of lost. However, Denise's map helped us to get back on the right road and to the appointment exactly on time. The appointment was really quick and Jess got green/blue elastics in her mouth. Her teeth are hurting her pretty bad now. She couldn't find the gum-numbing medicine, so we dosed her with as much tylenol & ibuprofen that Becky was willing to do and sent her to bed. Hopefully, it will kick in and she can get some sleep tonight.

While we were in Grand Junction we got a cute little outfit for Paul. We didn't have time to get his picture taken as planned, but we might do that tomorrow or Friday. We got the outfit at Ross. I love Ross! The outfit was less than 5 dollars! It was great!

When we got back to Cedaredge we picked up the kids from Famous People class. They learned about Hellen Keller today. They said they had fun and Peter even learned how to do his name in Braille.
When we got home we played around for a little while. We read the letter from mom & dad. Nicole was mildly bummed about the room situation. Peter grinned from ear to ear when he read the comments that mom & dad had posted on the blog. The kids are all very excited about the house and are praying that the family will be able to get it.

We then got ready for the Halloween party at the church. I wish I had gotten pictures of the chaos, as it was chaos getting all of us ready. We sprayed Nicole & Rachel's hair green. Jess and Peter got themselves dressed in their costumes. However, while Jess was putting on her make-up, Buzz Light Year (aka Paul) decided he needed some face paint as well and grabbed a chunk in his little hand and smeared it across his face. Oi! When Becky left the house she looked around at the mess and thought to herself (how does Denise do it!). At the party, our double headed dragon (Nicole and Rachel) needed to use the bathroom right away. That was a challenge. Then they only made it through dinner before they were begging to be removed from each other. So we removed their costume and they were the green faced, green haired girls.
The kids had fun at the trunk-or-treat. They got tons of candy. Becky isn't quite sure how their parents would handle all the candy, but she is going to make them pick their 5 most favorite treats for themselves and then the rest is going in a big bag for everyone (to be dispensed at Mom & Dad's will). When we got home Becky was exhausted. The kids took a bath to get rid of their greenness while Becky cleaned the mess. Oh it was a long day, but it was fun! Oh! I almost forgot. Peter lost a tooth today! One of his molars on the top, left side. He said it wasn't even loose and just fell out (this was before all the candy I must note).

Well, Trick or Treat and Happy Halloween...it is off to bed with me now!

Becky's posting - The pool is FINISHED?!

The kids were up too late tonight, so Becky gets to post for today. Today started a little late as we were all exhausted after the pumpkin carving last night. Even Jess came home and went back to bed after Seminary this morning. And worst of all, we forgot to start the dishes in the dishwasher last night and so alot of the dishes were dirty this morning.

After breakfast and chores the kids started working on schoolwork as I (Becky) started painting the pool. It was soo close to being finished that I really wanted to get it done. After Jess finished her schoolwork she helped me paint and together we think we did it. (Granted, it still has to be approved by the parents before we can fill it with water and start using it).

Peter and Wyeth (a friend) came to help but they decided it was too difficult to paint the skull so close to the bottom of the pool and opted to watch a movie instead.

Rachel helped a little, but more or less supervised the work.

(The video feed of the finished pool was supposed to go here, but I stayed up putting the finishing touches on Peter's costume and thought to myself "I will do this until the video loads"...two hours later I cancelled the video upload and now am going to bed)

Paul did us a great favor by watching a movie instead of trying to help as his little hands and feet probably would have gotten into everything!

Nicole was my steady worker, as in school work. She stayed at it for much of the day and after that was finished she went on to Rosetta Stone to learn Italian. She seems to me to be the most determined to grasp the Italian language of all the kids. However, when she struggles with the spelling she comes to me and asks me how to spell certain words. I really think she would do better guessing as I didn't even know how to say "hello" in Italian until two days ago. But I try to be a good sport and help her spell it by helping her sound it out. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Tonight Terri (a friend) came over and offered to take the kids so I could have an afternoon/evening to myself. She has been so helpful these past few days. I let Rachel, Paul, and Jess go with her. Nicole went to Achievement days (they went to a cornmaze). And Peter and Wyeth and I went to Walmart to get the final stuff for Peter's costume. We also had to get candles as last night after carving the pumpkins we realized that all the candles we had left were birthday candles (which don't stay up very well in pumpkins).

All things considered, I think we had a very good, very fun day today.

So tomorrow we hope for fun & maybe spooky things, because it is Halloween!

Monday October 29

Hello again. well today my sister and I were lucky because we got to spend the whole day at my friends house. So I don't really know what went on while I was away. But I do know that my cousin, little brother, and one of my sisters went shopping for pumpkins. After that we carved them and had pumpkin pie. It was great!

Until next time, you know who.