What a serious update

I have been out of the loop for awhile and a half. Our family has been super busy with engagements... Engagements that I should've captured via camera, yet I am a kid stuck in the body of an adult! If I have the chance to go run and play with others, I do so. So my apologies!

July was a SUPER busy month. Leo and I camped for four weekends total, and as a family we camped for three weekends in a row with the kids. On one of the camping adventures we camped for four days straight out in a beautiful forest service area... With tons of cow pies. I luckily found every cow pie that my children might step in, sans the one rebellious cow pie that Leo had stepped in, and sent Koyote looking for me to take care of it. :P Ah well.

The kids LOVE to camp. The four day camping stint was lovely as it was our yearly outdoor music event with our extended family, also known as some of our close friends. I got a kick out of Koyote walking around shirtless, as he followed around other shirtless male friends of ours...
Yote hauled logs to and fro with Robin, threw knives with Uncle James (OKAY I was not informed of this activity until AFTER the fact; yet I trust James and I thank him for letting Koyote try it once but then say that Koyote couldn't throw any more knives until he "improved his ninja skills by listening to his mom, dad and teachers" LOL) and helped set up tents with Kevin, McKenna, and others... Satori twirled glow sticks, Go-go danced on random tree stumps to the music that was playing, and had no accidents while camping! I am proud of the portable toilet I fashioned out of a bucket that I spray painted red. :) Yay.

The second camping trip was supposed to be in Kurt and Jennie's back yard, but we opted for their daughter Claire's room instead! Kurt and Jennie were kind enough to take us boating and swimming up in Sandpoint. I absolutely ADORE when the cousins can get together, and my heart melted when I'd hear Yote and cousin Claire's giggles echo up the stairs into my ears. I hope to get the kids together one more time before school starts, and if not then, sometime in September.

The third camping trip was for the family reunion and I LOVED the area where we camped at. There were clean bathrooms and showers, a laundry facility, a lake AND a river. Our campsite was located 20 feet away from the river, and I was grateful enough to be able to fall asleep to the sound of the river running and to spend time with Leo with such a back ground. :)
The family reunion was fun as always with the annual float trip and consuming tons of food.

So, we zip over into August... I can*t recall what happened the first week of August, oh wait yes. The kids were deported to my parents house for a week! It was a spontaneous move on our part to allow my family to take the kids back with them, but they came back alive.--Plump and slightly more tanned, but at least happy and ALIVE. The week the kids were gone was.... Weird.

I felt like a single teenager with a driver's license! I*d drop Leo off to work and take off on my own adventures: swimming for five hours, riding my bike into town and around town, having a girl's night at the bar, hanging out over at people's houses, playing Wii with friends until 5 in the morning, taking one of my best friends to Sangria to split a pitcher of Sangria and some food--In the middle of the stinkin' day! And in our slightly tipsy stupor we ended up walking our cute little selves to the mall and window shopped at Macy's until we worked out the alcohol from our systems. Oh yeah, and having quiet time with Leo. :) Quiet dinners, lots of naps, and cleaning.

Yes cleaning. I was able to do a bit of deep cleaning and it was LOVELY.

And on to the middle of August, in which we are in at the moment...

My side of the family surprised me with a visit to my home state! My sister and her husband rolled through town and invited us out for pizza in exchange for putting up their kids at our place. Now my sister's kids are like little sisters to me, except for the fact that we tend to act like a pack of misbehaving, rowdy brothers. :P

So the kids ended up going to bed at midnight and I ended up going to bed at two am, left at 10 am to drive to Silverwood and went bucknutty with my family members. The kids and I had SUCH a good time with my family! Jeff, my brother in law really appreciated the barrage of thank yous and hugs and kisses from the kids. :)

At Silverwood, Koyote and Satori rode a bunch of rides, and went swimming for a little bit. Koyote even rode the Panic Plunge with Alexis, Dominique, Savannah, and myself, which carries us to 140 feet into the air and dropped us at around 47 mph! I LOVE YOTE! He didn*t cry, or scream... I couldn*t see his face, but as we got off the ride he was shaking yet smiling at the same time, and wanting to go onto it again!

Dominique somehow got me to go on a ride that cycles in a circular motion, yet the cars that you sit into can be steered left or right, or sometimes upside down. I lost an earring, laughed until my sides hurt, cried from laughing so hard, yelled so hard that I lost my voice later on that night on that ride. The funniest part was that since Dom was heavier than me, I ended up having control of the rotation of the cart, thus squishing her 90% of the ride. :) Alex, Dom, Jaz, Savannah, April, and I just roll like that: making fun of each other, sometimes having heart to hearts, attempting to black mail and get each other in trouble, and sometimes wrestling.--We show love in interesting and unique ways.

And at the end of driving from Moscow to Coeur D'alene to Athol to Spokane to Pullman and then eventually home, we were pooped.--And are still recovering.

Update-a-roonie

Koyote and Satori helping their mama clean our casa ...

Sister and brother before the mayhem began.

Hello!

The Z-Clan has been busy, busy, busy... With summer school, visiting the grandfolks, aunts and uncles, desert camping, and avoiding desert fires :(, going to the local swimming hole, and soon: MORE CAMPING! This month is going to be silly freakin' busy. Starting next weekend we will be doing something each weekend until August... So much for a summer break!

Yote & Tori jamming out on our way to Boise.
Some of the BEAUTIFUL scenes from our drive out to the oregon desert!
This is the fire that was started near the desert camp ground. :( Fortunately the fire only spread to 5 acres and was contained in a five our period.

Update

We've been busy with academics, gardening, cleaning, counting syllables (or beats), helping others, moving away from others, reading books, looking after our new pretend cat named "Basagna", who likes to eat Lasagna (LMAO!), dealing with others, playing pretend, sale shopping, getting plans together for forest parties, rescuing lost cars, spraying ourselves off with the hose, getting prepared for desert parties, getting ready to visit family members, dusting, down sizing our house hold items, and smelling flowers. :)

Yes. Smelling flowers. And smelling perfume on my pressure points. And the smell of moisture returning to the air after after a hot day... And of freshly bathed children. The mixture of musk, cologne, and just enough of your husband's sweat on the nape of his neck... In all I really do love SUMMER!

I shall be back with pictures as soon as I get more homework and quizzes done. :) Promise.

Survey a la Koyote

I saw this floating about some other blogs... So I decided to put Koyote to the test! I*ll have to put Tori up to the test maybe sometime tomorrow. :P

1. What is something mom always says to you? "Clean up!"
2. What makes mom happy? "Listening"
3. What makes mom sad? "When me and my sister don't give hugs, or kisses."
4. How does mom make you laugh? "Tickling."
5. What was mom like as a child? "Like Tori's hair." (I think this question really is a bit hard for kids under the age of 7 :P)
6. How old is your mom? "24" (Pretty close_
7. How tall is your mom? "Um... 45. Or 60. I think it's um... 30?"
8. What is her favorite thing to do? "Homework?" (HAHA)
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "Go up stairs and take a nap." (Wrong. I take a nap whenever :P)
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "Be happy"
11. What is your mom really good at? "Nintendo." (Yep.)
12. What is your mom not very good at? "Basketball." (Ouch. The truth hurts.)
13. What does your mom do for her job? "School." (Yay pup!
14. What is your mom's favorite food? "Mushrooms?"
15. What makes you proud of your mom? "When she wins." (YESSS!)
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "A Clown?"
17. What do you and your mom do together? "Play at the park"
18. How are you and your mom the same? "We're humans!"
19. How are you and your mom different? "We have different hair."
20. How do you know your mom loves you? "Um. Because we follow directions." ?(Um okay :P)

Aw. I love my little man...

Koyote, circa 2003 modeling a shirt at Hempfest

Summer...

It's SNOWING. On one hand this oddity is quite fascinating. On the other hand, the kids and I find it to be a pain in the rear: It's a mixture of wet snow. It's sure cold out side and we can't play in the snow. I am also a wee bit concerned for the state of our garden. When on earth can we have a stretch of decent days to play at the park and to eat ice cream out on hot sidewalks..?

:(

A difference between daughters and sons?

Obviously there's a difference between females and males. It has been studied that women and men communicate and socialize in different manners. I've noticed this in my studies of communication!

What I find very interesting is how different the kids are. Koyote as a baby, was so relaxed, easy going, happy-go-lucky, and fun! He was quite interactive and easy to communicate with. It also helped that he was happy nursing or taking from a bottle, or staying the night with family members.

Satori on the other hand, is an interesting little girl. A peculiar one at that, which tickles Leo and I to the point of laughter as she unfolds her unique personality through her day to day activities. Satori has several split personalities which I will make sure to document via camera. :) These alter egos include: "Casey", "Mrs.", "Faerietopia", "Lucy-ana", "The Librarian", "The Banker","Trixie", "Cinderella", and "Dr. Kayhoop".

I dislike Dr. Kayhoop. Dr. Kayhoop and her assistant Nurse Brother tend to operate on me without administering pain meds until after they are done. The surgical teams then surprise me with this information as they start laughing that I might be in pain.--Weird. But can you imagine getting a Cesarean section without pain meds!!?? :P If only medical savvy children could take this into consideration.

The other alter egos many consist of a higher pitch of voice, and the lack of response if someone calls her by the wrong name. I found this out the hard way as we were grocery shopping with her faerie wings on and she decided to switch her name from "Faerietopia" to "Shosho Shocker".

Here's another example of why my daughter makes me laugh:

After visiting with a former professor of mine that allowed me to bring the children to class at times, Satori and I bumped into Miss Mary. (FYI, I introduce all adults to the children as Mr., Mrs., or Miss.) Following the small chat Miss Mary began to walk away as Satori whispered into my ear...

Satori: "MOOOM. WHAT is that human's name? "
Me: "Say, WHAT Satori?!?!"
Satori: "I SAID: What is that HUMAN'S NAME?!?!"
Me: (Surprised at my daughter's choice of words and curious to see that despite utilizing the term in the correct context... Does she really know what it means?)
"Tor.... Do you know what a 'human' is?"
Satori: "Yeaah Mom. It's a girl."
Me: "Close enough. A human can be a boy, or an adult or kid or even a baby too."

It honestly just makes me laugh to see this cherub faced three year old, who predominately is decked out in pink and playing Transformers with her brother... To switch up personalities in a split second. I enjoy it. She enjoys it. :) I hope to further encourage her imagination to unfold.

Even when she throws humongous fits, which she describes as "MOM. I AM ANGRY WITH YOU RIGHT NOW", amongst the frustration I might experience I still find that I am so very much in love with her.--Ok. That is until she starts throwing stuff around or starts hitting the ground. This happened yesterday after she ate two minuscule pieces of pizza and asked for more Scooby Snacks. (Aka fruit snacks)

*DEEP SIGH* This is the reason why I try to steer clear of supplying the kids with sugary snacks or toys each day. It takes the specialness out of such occasions, and I strongly believe they as children begin to attach themselves to the idea that LIFE CAN NOT GO ON WITHOUT LUCKY CHARMS EACH DAY OR A TRIP TO MCDONALDS.

Well, my dear spawn... It can! And you will appreciate the good eating habits and health by the time you*re my age and you learn that our family is a tad wealthy in predisposed diseases. But I will save this discussion for later, when the kids are cognizant enough to understand such conversations.

Until then, I*ll just chuckle at the memory of Satori sobbing and stomping off towards her big brother for comfort... And her vehemently yelling that "Mom is such a BUNNY." Clearly this was supposed to be an insult... LOL. :)

The many skills of a progressive domesticated diva...

Within each visit we pay my side of the family, my father has a tradition of taking Koyote to the Barber's. Ok, I am telling a half-truth.--It's not really a warm and fuzzy traditional act, but of a necessity in my father's eyes: My father is convinced that the state of Idaho lacks proper Barbers who are knowledgeable in taking care of the "African-American hair." :P (Never mind the fact that Leo has curly hair and tends to cut his own hair.)

To continue on.... My father insists on first raking a sharp and pointy comb (that for at least a decade he has a habit of carrying this comb in his back pocket, next to his leather wallet) through my poor son's hair. He then applies copious amounts of hair grease to "bring out the natural shine and fix the dryness of his nappy hair." And proceeds to brush poor Yote's hair back and forth until the boy has a three to four inch afro, DRENCHED in Crisco--Er, I mean hair grease!

Grand dad than drags Koyote to the nearest Korean barber for a visit. Normally I am ok with these visits as long as I am either A: present to make sure that my requests are fulfilled, or B: without my presence my dad promises to convey in clear English my expectations for Koyote's hair cuts.

So Koyote went from a beautiful mop of curly hair....
To an army hair cut... :(

Thank you Dad, for leaving your grand son alone in the barber chair while you go smoke your tobacco pipe outside. Yote called me a wee bit upset about having his hair cut too short for his own liking. When I saw it I slyly put it to Yote that we could grow a Mohawk out of it--That is until I realized that a Mohawk is a row of hair that extends from the crown to the nape of the neck, and Koyote was lacking hair from the top of his head down to his nape.
Now, there's nothing wrong with an army hair cut besides the fact that it's just not very cute unless you MUST have it. :P So yeah, I decided to fix the situation on my own today by giving my first hair cut to Koyote...

Voila!

You probably can't really tell that his hair is all one length, but let's just come together and applaud my hair cutting skills. :) I was successful in avoiding shedding the blood of my first born child and maiming him. In the end, my son was giddy with the results and I now have a great appreciation for the curly hair that he was born with. I think I*ll lay off the drastic hair cuts for now!

Testing... Testing... 1...2...3

WORMS

Success! I have discovered the way to post pictures on the internet. Kudos for the timeliness of the picture as it was taken in the last two weeks. :)

The above picture features Koyote showing off the pride and joy of our adventures in Worm hunting.--That is until we realized that our newly adopted Salamanders were not interested in a worm diet. Instead, we now probably have two Salamanders and a handful of "pet" worms. Yum.
Those two lovely critters right there are Galigi (this is how Satori pronounces "Luigi" from the Super Mario Brothers) and Toadstool. Sadly, Toadstool became Salamander Jerky as he escaped from our terrarium. Luckily the matriarch of this family has fantastic Salamander catching skills and replaced Toadstool with Princess Peach, who then escaped and hopefully is alive somewhere (outside of our home), who then was replaced by our newest Sally-mander: Mini-me.

I am happy to report that Mini-me, who was the size of a Quarter, has decided to stay with us. He (or she) is now grown big enough to retaliate and hopefully prey upon the crickets in the terrarium. Moving on away from our fascination with acquiring new pets... May I present the Moscow Zimmerman clan:

Koyote Z.
One half of the dynamic Zimmerman worm hunting team. Interests include cars, deep sea documentaries, popping and locking, and the playground. Dislikes include bad hair cuts and eating carbonated drinks.

Satori Z.
Future stylist of the up and coming celebrities (this fabulous outfit was put together by herself). Interests include the color pink, dancing, the outdoors, artistic expression, and playing "pretend." Dislikes include: slimy textures, 99.8% of all bugs, and uncoordinated outfits.

And yes those are Faerie wings. Appropriate for everyday occasions or for the local Renaissance Fair. :)

Leo Z.
The handsome musician you see above moonlights as both the patriarch of the Z-clan and a DJ! Leo Z has played out at shows for WebberX/Marble Productions in Seattle, Infinite Organic Sound desert gatherings, and our very own forest gatherings. Going on eight years, each year our family looks forward to our annual camping adventures. :)

Cina Z.
The colorful gal on the right is the other half of the dynamic Zimmerman worm hunting team; also known as "mom."--Or "Wifey" if you are married to me. :) The striped gal on the left is Alexis, Cina's niece/blood sister and sometime's Satori's adopted mother.
Interests include: Worm hunting, music, copious amounts of snow, fashion, communication, and holistic health. Dislikes include: inequality, dry skin, and hard water.
Kittadoo Z.
I would be a bad pet owner if I failed to mention our evil flying cat. Interests include: hiding from the children. Dislikes include: small children. *cough cough* Satori *cough cough*