This is a test...this is only a test...

Watch Sam do a little break dancing here or here.

And Kait taking Eden for a turn on a new bike (back in August--she rides just fine all by herself now).

The "T"

Ez, Ezra T-bone, Ezra T-bone Willy. He actually argued with us once about his middle name--I guess we'd confused him a little. :) "Any way you say it, it means happy birthday to you!"

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Our life has had dramatic and unexpected changes this week. For many years we have homeschooled our children off and on...mostly on.... We're not the super-achiever homeschoolers you read about sometimes, but just the quite ordinary variety. We struggle with motivation, math, motivation, attitudes, motivation. We've been very blessed living here with families that have moved in over the past 3 years that have added to our number and we've had a small but effective, close-knit homeschool group.

Last week, the husband of one of our homeschool moms was hired as the academic director at a new-this-year private boarding school here on island. The school's target market is Korea, China, and Japan--"send your children here and they'll receive an American-style education as well as immersion in the English language and still be close to home." The problem was that they wanted a core of native-English speaking teachers and students and they didn't have any. They had a few island kids who speak English, but it's kind of a pidgin English.

At any rate, Dr. Brown (the new academic director), called last weekend and asked if I would be interested in sending my children there for school (it's K through 6 right now, but potentially through 8). He said that he could make an arrangement where I would work part-time in the office in exchange for their tuition. I would never have to be there when my children weren't there, and it would be great if we could start ASAP.

Casey and I discussed it and thought that it might be a wonderful experience for the kids, so here we are! We started Thursday--me (in the office from 11-3:15), and the three youngest in school. They're expecting 100+ Chinese and Korean students beginning in January, but right now there are only 20 students.

Eden's first-grade class began the day she did and includes her American friends from church! The only "new" person was the teacher! She's having a ball and probably feels like she gets to go to Primary every day.

Ezra's third-grade class consists of him, the director's son, and a Korean boy. Their teacher is a very sweet Japanese lady--on our first meeting she commented that his math was "weak". I agreed and said that was true of our family in general (I didn't mention that I don't worry about math too much until they get older:) She smiled and said to me, very intensely and quietly, "Oh, but I love math and I want Ezra to love math, too!" If she could give him that it would be a wonderful gift. I asked Ezra how his first day went and he said, "ok". Typical Ezra-answer. He did finally allow that, "I guess I would have to say it was good."

Kait's experience was somewhat different. Before we actually began, she had asked if we could just try it...if we didn't like it could we quit? I assured her that if it didn't work for our family we would quit, but we could not quit over a bad day or a difficult assignment. She is in 5th grade and there are (counting her) three girls and three boys in her class. She is the only American and the others are Korean boarding students. After her first day, she was practically gushing. "Oh, Mom! They're so nice! Every classmate was sooo good to me... and so helpful!" She says that her teacher (American) is "brilliant at explaining."

The first night, they had so much homework that I was wondering if this was going to work. I'm not a big homework fan and have been known to send in notes to teachers requesting they excuse my children for not completing a homework assignment because we were having a family activity. I felt better when I found that there is a general school policy for no Friday homework and there are study halls built into the day in which they can complete their assignments. I can live with that.

Okay. So. How do Mom and Dad feel? Well, the first day that Mom came home from Seminary and found her little kids gone she got a little teary-eyed. Dad, on the other hand, said, "It was great! I got so much done!" We'll see how it goes after the fun of new school supplies, etc., wears off. . . .

Happy Birthday Alexa Aoibhe

On her 22nd birthday we gave her a star...

...to remind her who she is...

How Old ARE You Anyway?

Here's a test to determine your biological age (as opposed to your chronological age) that Mal sent to me. It's a pretty good motivator...I hope!

The Beautiful Kaitie-Lynn

As delicate as a butterfly...


She was Levi's 14th birthday present! Sweet, smart, capable, creative, awesome...oh, AND 11! Happy Birthday Suzie:)

...And Levi, too!

Yes, it's that month of months in our household when birthdays come by the week instead of the year! Can it be that our firstborn is 25??!!! Why, yesterday he was running through the sprinklers in his undies pretending to be "He-Man"... and what better way to celebrate?
Levi, we knew from the moment we first saw you that our lives would never be the same--we just didn't know how far you would go to make sure of that! You're our star...we love you forever.

Thinks at 3 A.M.

Life is sooo different than what I had expected. Especially now, living here...I think I'm becoming unconnected with the familiar. Today my baby said, "What are those skinny things that go down mountains?" "Uhhhh...rivers? streams?" "Yeah, streams." And from Kait: "On mountains they use snow-skates." "Skiis." "Yeah, skiis." Weird. They don't know snow or cold or streams, ponds, or lakes. They don't know bluebirds or spring... or autumn... ouch.

But they do know sunsets and tradewinds and ice kekis and flametrees. They know turquoise lagoons and white sands and brown people and things that I didn't know. I love the variety of life and generations and experiences, but I miss what I don't have and what they don't have. Luckily, they don't.

Happy Birthday Malie-Moe!

It's the lips! And all from our newest post-teen (and friends). Happy 20th sweetie--we all love you!
A photo-op with the group Rockapella.

Dressed and ready to dance!

Big Bad Daddy-o

"Big Bad Daddy-o
It's Big Bad Daddy-o"

There's no real tune, but every Conner Kid reading this now has the familiar chant going through their head. He has inspired other names..."Hunky Unky" (he came up with that one himself, but his nieces and nephews would agree I'm sure:)), "Gorilla Head" (Shawn), "Kimmie-Dahlin'" (I think that's Lee's favorite). To me he is husband, confidante, love, and friend. Happy 47th honey.

Announcing the August Birthdays

Here are some pictures of the two birthdays we celebrated this last week--on August 22 Sam turned 17 and the next day Eden was 7.

We had a family celebration with cake, ice cream, and a new bike for Eden's day which was a Wednesday. I realized when I went to post the photos that the only one I had that was useable of Eden was this one. Blowing out the candles on her cake and riding the bike with Kaitlyn were video clips--I'll try to figure out how to post them.

Sam's party was a Saturday night dance with about 25 friends out on the deck (and in the livingroom, the diningroom, down in the family room, running around the perimeter of the house, you get the picture). They had a blast! I love the one of both of the boys dancing.

The Waning of The Babes

Eden lost a tooth yesterday.
"What should I do with my tooth?"
"Just put it here on the counter so I remember to tell the Tooth Fairy that you lost a tooth."
"Why don't you have Dad give me the money and then we can just throw it away."
Dad was sad.
Mom was a little sad.
Eden was glad.

Time for A Change

Well, it's certainly easier than repapering the livingroom (that's what mom always did...).

Kids (really do) Say the Darndest Things

Aren't they great? In fact just tonight Ez told us, "I can't remember how to pronounce "yogurt."" Hmmm. That's right up there with the time he suddenly proclaimed, "I'm feelin' salty." I think I've felt that way before, but since there was no explanation included, I'm not sure.

In a conversation reviewing last year's Halloween costumes, Eden reminded us, "I was dressed up as a witch and I didn't have to go to the bathroom once!" Some things you just never forget. (She should try trick-or-treating in the frozen north where you really have to consider how quickly you can peel all those layers off!)

Welcome Home Elder!

This was so much fun!!! Since we live on a 14x6 postage stamp in the Pacific Ocean our comings and goings revolve around the airport, so it was that a good crowd of us were excitedly waiting at 1:30 this morning to welcome Elder Leimson home from his mission. As a result, many of us were a little bleary-eyed at church this morning, but it was worth it!

Meet "Bounce"

This Marianas Fruit Dove flew into our livingroom yesterday afternoon, greatly arousing the interest of Jack the Cat. The kids saved him (the bird) and we were all amazed how calm it seems in perching on the kids fingers. We haven't found any injuries, but can't seem to get him to fly away, so have concluded that maybe he's just young. We called Fish and Wildlife this morning, but they said that we can either try to release it, try to care for it until it can be released, or bring it in to them and they'll take care of it. As you can see, we've opted to keep it here until release.














He's got beautiful feathers. We googled him and found out that these doves are quite shy and not often seen in the open. They are unique to Guam and the Northern Marianas, but unfortunately are now extinct in Guam due to the invasion of the brown tree snake.



Jacob calls him "Bounce." You can see that he's quite an acrobat!

I'm In!

Here's a little 4th of July test in American Civics for you. Both of my grandfathers were "naturalized citizens" and I assume had to take a test similar to this. Luckily for Grampie A. it's an oral interview because he never learned to read. Would you "make the grade" to be an American citizen?

Volcano!

Ah how much vinegar and baking soda has been used in the name of science! What I didn't realize for a couple of days was that the project was left to greet guests coming to our front entrance...right directly in front of the door. (We usually use the side entrance--you can take the Mainer out of Maine, but....)

Happy Birthday Mom!

At the Movies

I went to two movies this week, one with Alexa and one with Case, and both of them were a waste of time and money. The first one was "The Break Up" and the other was "Poseidon." Terrible both of them. "The Break Up" was a pathetic and unfortunately, true-to-life account of a fictional relationship break-up. The fighting, yelling, selfishness, and pride depicted in the movie depressed me and I found it agonizing to sit through. If I had been with my hubby we would have walked out. I have a pretty simplistic view of movies--if it's real life I want to be inspired. Otherwise, I just want to be entertained. This movie did neither.

I guess with "Poseidon" I just wasn't paying attention--I was focused on a night out instead of what we were going to see, which we decided on the way. About 5 minutes into the movie I remembered that I really hate disaster movies. I have seen some that were tolerable, but this one was poorly done and it reaffirmed my dislike of the genre.

HOWEVER, just when I was thinking that maybe I'd take a hiatus from movies (which is saying something here on island considering there isn't a whole lot to do), in hopes that if I gave it some time one or two films really worth seeing would show up, something really amazing happened.

I rented a movie for us to watch last night and found out after I got home that they had given me the wrong movie. It was too late to take it back, so, a little irritatedly, I sat down with my older children and husband to watch it. The title is "End of The Spear" and if I could only recommend one movie as a "must see" from all the ones I've ever seen in my entire life, this would very likely be it. It's a true story about missionaries in the Amazon Basin; it's a story of sacrifice and forgiveness (remember my criteria for real-life stories?) We don't buy many movies, but we're going to buy this one. I would say more, but it would get redundant and still wouldn't do it justice. It made me want to be a better person...a much, much better person....