Review of Phantoms in the Snow

Phantoms In The Snow by Kathleen Benner Duble
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this because my oldest son read it and told me it was one of the few books that made him cry.  For that reason alone I had to read it.

The book follows real facts (some dates of changed) of the Ski Division that helped take back Italy in World War 2.  It follows a fifteen year old who has lost his pacifist parents and is shipped to live with his completely unknown larger than life military uncle.

I think the thing I liked the most about this book is the character development.  I like that they didn't just bash the pacifist, didn't just bash the war effort...they showed how gray life can be instead of black and white and how choices have consequences, good and bad.

I am very thankful my son read this book and I am very thankful I read this book.  If you are looking for a book for your teen son, this would be a great choice.  Be advised, it deals strongly with death.  It is a grown up situation through the eyes of a young teenager.


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Cindy Bultema Giveaway

Some of you recall my recent post about Cindy Bultema and previewing her He Loves Me video put on by RBC.  She was having a massive giveaway and I said that if I won, I would give that movie away here.

Don't remember all that?  Then read the post HERE.

Anyhow, Cindy is sweet enough to have read that comment and say, "Sweetie, if you want to have one to give away, I'll just send one to you."

And so she did.

Because Cindy is sweet like that.

So, without further ado, I give you, a GIVE AWAY!

Just "Like" Cindy's new Facebook Page and tell her you are because I sent you (so she doesn't wonder where all the likes are coming from all the sudden ;) ).

I will give you an extra entry if you tweet this giveaway any way you choose...of course, you have to let me know you did.

But that's it.  Leave a comment letting me know you did and I will randomly select a winner on Monday, June 18th.

And, if you are wondering just who Cindy is, please take a moment to check out her website. Thanks!

Pornography on the School Bus

As the school year came to an end for us, you could just feel the change in the kids at school.  They were ready to be done.

My boys as much as any other school kid.

With less than two weeks of school, S1 arrived off the bus one day and his eyes told me I needed to pay attention to him NOW.

"As soon as my brothers are not around, I need to talk to you and then you need to contact the school," he said.

That got my attention.

I quickly shuffled his brothers outside with food and he informed me very clearly, very calmly, that while on the bus today, a boy had said, "Hey, what do you think of this?" and shoved an ipod or some sort of device in his face.  On the screen was a very vulgar pornographic image.

My heart sank.  I felt sick.

When he informed the boy that it was gross and went to turn his head, a girl ahead of him who he has class with said, "What?  What is it?"

The boy turned his attention toward her.  "Wanna see?"

My son caught the girls' eye and shook his head no.  She didn't.

I emailed our principal and I emailed the other boys principal to let them know what had happened and what information we had.

The principal's got back to me quickly and told me they would take care of it.  What did happen, I don't know;  but I do know that for the next two weeks of school, the boys only rode the bus home once or twice.

The evening of the incident, I told S1 he could wait up for his daddy to get home so he could talk to him.  He did.  I had, of course, already given Jake a heads up.  I was busy cleaning the kitchen when my husband arrived home and the two of them sat at the table, my husband eating and my son talking, about everything but what had happened.

When I went to make the bed in our bedroom, S1 talked with his Daddy about what had happened.  He hadn't wanted me to worry, or offend me, in what he wanted to talk to a man about.  Jake handled the conversation with him well, he is always good at talking at length with his boys.

But what shocked Jake and myself, when I learned later, was that S1 told his Dad that for so long at school he has heard how pornography is so bad, how evil it is.  "But I didn't know what it was," he told his dad, "So I had thought about just looking it up just to see what it is.  If that is pornography, I never want to see it again."

I had never given that any thought.

My husband is sure it was a completely innocent wondering.  He told his son that if he ever wanted to know something, ask him.  My husband has always made it a policy that the boys will never get in trouble for asking him something or talking to him about an issue.  We started when they were young when they would want to know what a bad work meant.  Jake has done a phenomenal job at this.

But when you tell your kids to look up what they don't know (hey, they have to learn to use the computer and look things up!), they don't think that it would be bad to look this up. Just so they know.

Can you imagine?

We tried then to set up some sort of filter on his computer, just to be safe rather than sorry even if we believe him that he would not look such a thing up.  He has a little acer computer he uses for email, Goodreads and looking up garden tractors while he listens to old country on an out of town country music station.  I could not figure it out a filter.  On my Mac, I just click parental controls.  On his, I can't find anything to do and I am not even sure what I need to look for.

Anyone have any ideas for us?

I debated whether or not to share this story.  As a mom, I would have wanted a heads up if my son was wondering why something was evil.  But I didn't want to make my son a target at school either.

On the last day of the school year, of all the boys, my son was given the Principal's Award.  I nearly cried.  I tried to video it, but I was on my iphone and I thought I was supposed to tip it to record it correctly, but I did it wrong.  However, if you want to listen to it, you can.




While I am sick that this happened to my son, it was also a real eye opener.  This boy who shoved this image in my son's face? He was only one grade older than my son.

We have to prepare our kids for the real world, but they are kids and I want to shelter them as long as I can.  We also have to be vigilant, safe guarding them the best we can.

I am proud of him and how he handled this situation.

Any of you with any helpful tips for us or stories to share, I would appreciate hearing them.

But as the school year comes to an end for many of our children and before the new one begins, perhaps a conversation with your husband and son about this subject would be a smart one to have.

A Great Summer Boy Read

Masters of Disaster by Gary Paulsen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you are looking for a fun book to read aloud to your boys, look no further than this book.

Recommended to me by a friend, it was an easy choice to read since my oldest son is a Gary Paulsen fan.

While this book may be a great read for any boy, reading it aloud to my boys was such fun!  We laughed at all the funny parts and whenever I glanced up from reading, they were enthralled, hanging on every word.  Their giggles were my favorite part of this book.

The book follows three boys as they try to become the most un-boring boys and make a world record.  Their plans never seem to go quite as planned, however.  Each chapter is a new mission and each chapter had us laughing.

The three boys, Henry, Riley and Reed, succeeded in becoming one of our favorite book characters.


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Win a Buck Howdy CD!!!

Many of you may recall just what big fans we are of Buck Howdy.

One of my VERY FIRST blog posts (all those years ago) mentioned Buck Howdy.  You can read it HERE.  After that published, Buck Howdy got in touch with us (how he found that post, I don't have any idea) and sent us a bunch of cd's, bandanas and, while sweet, he could have left the harmonica's at home.

Last year, Buck was gracious enough to give a FREE concert at the library I work for.  You can read all about that and the view the pictures of that great event HERE.

This year, on JUNE 21st, Buck Howdy is coming back to play a little concert at the library for us again.  (If you live in my area, email me and I would be happy to send you the details.)

To say I am thrilled would be an understatement.

But there is more.....

Buck's real name (really, did you think his parents named him Buck Howdy???) is Steve Vaus.

Steve has been in the music industry for a long time.

He is just finishing his new Gospel cd, which you can learn more about at his website, and when he is in town for the kid's Buck Howdy concert, he is giving another free concert later that night at a local church with his new Gospel music.

I have not heard the new Gospel cd yet, but I have watched the video explaining his heart on this album.  I have been able to listen to a few of the songs.  One I really liked and said, "Hey, I don't remember hearing that one before but it's familiar too."

He wrote back, "It's because I just wrote it."

Music so good that you think you know it but it is all new.  That to me is a great song writer.

But he also sings a few of my favorite gospel songs too.  He has no idea how thrilled I am over that.

To celebrate the fact that my friend is coming into my little town to do TWO concerts, I thought I would do a give away.

I have Buck's American Dream's cd.  It's filled with patriotic songs that young and old would enjoy.  It IS signed, as well, though the signature is faint.  The cd is open (so it could be signed) but never played.

To win....

Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite Patriotic song, Gospel song or Buck Howdy song.

For an extra entry, "like" Life With Four Boys...Coffee Please on facebook, you can click "like" on the button at the top of the blog or click the facebook highlighted words. (Your friends would probably like this contest being shared with them ;) ).

AND, for one more entry, tweet this... @life4boys has a #GiveAway of a @stevevaus as #BuckHowdy cd. Enter here http://bit.ly/M4EzmS.

Let me know your tweet link in the comments on this blog post.

Happy entering and best of luck to you all! I will draw a winner at random on Friday, June 8th and mail it right out to you.

And, if you are curious about Buck Howdy, just search his new items (as well as his great old ones) on Amazon.  He has a best of kids cd out now, as well as new kids book about a certain man who ate too many baked beans.

Camping in 44 Degree Weather

It has always been an idea I thought fun...go camping, our favorite thing to do, the week we got out of school.

My brother bought a camper, eerily like ours, and we decided to do a quick weekend trip before our annual big camping trip later this summer.  For weeks when we would greet each other it would sound much like this, "Hey! Just a little bit longer and we are going to be camping!"

The day before we left for camping found me, the mama, sick as can be, in bed.  Misereable.

S1 and S2 came to the rescue and cleaned the camper.  They did a surprisingly good job for two boys who have never cleaned a camper before.  The day was cold, dreary, rainy.  We held out hopes for a better tomorrow.

Friday, the day we left for camping, dawned dreary.  And then it began to rain.  It was even colder than the day before.  When I shut the door to the house, our floors were covered in mud.  On the way to the campground, it began to pour.

My brother, who had arrived just before us, forked over the five dollars for the most pitiful bundle of firewood - but it was dry - and we couldn't get that campfire started fast enough.  Bundled in our winter jackets - WINTER jackets - we ate the food I had brought along in crock pots.

Because my husband had figured I would just get filthy muddy setting up the campsite, I had not showered before we left for camping.  I arrived that grubby you get from throwing together a camper after being sick in bed the day before.  So we drove down to the showers that were either not very warm or it was so cold outside that the water couldn't even compete.

It was fast shower.

When we got back to our unheated camper, I dove into bed.  I had made our bed with thermal sheets, two of the thermal blankets my sister in law had made us and the thick quilt that we had gotten for the bed.  I was afraid my hair might freeze so I pulled the blanket over my head.

It was 44 degrees.

The morning dawned sunny.  I didn't want to get out of bed before it was fifty, but it didn't reach fifty and I needed coffee so crawled out of my surprisingly toasty warm bed and into my winter coat.

The day warmed as it went on.  And, really, we were so happy to be camping we just got to being more happy than cold.

 My little nephew, Hunter, wanted to play in the dirt in the worst way.  My brother and his wife gave in.  It wasn't long after that the he began WALKING!  Woohoo! It was so much fun watching him play this weekend!

 This is my handsome hubby and Chloe, the Pomeranian of my sister in law that I may love greatly.  She is the sweetest little dog.  See how little she is?  She will stay that size, a forever puppy right there.  And when Jake said, "Ah, what a sweet puppy," I had to snap a picture.

 S2 spent a great deal of time napping.  We assumed it was because we were all exhausted, recovering from a busy end of the school year.  We realized later that S2 was indeed sick.  Poor boy! He got lots of cuddle time from his Daddy though.

 For entertainment in the afternoon, S1 set out some doritos, sat in his tent with his nerf gun and waited for the crows to come in.  Apparently it is easy to entertain him.

Here is S4 with the other Pomeranian that my sister in law has, Ellie Mae.  While Ellie wanted to play, S4 or some other child was usually carrying Ellie Mae around...a live stuffed animal to cuddle.

 Jake takes our cooking of food over the fire very seriously. He is amazed we don't get sick when he and my brother are not around to take care of the cooking of meat.

At four in the afternoon, the campground offers special activities for the kids staying there.  As you can imagine, there weren't very many people staying in a campground in June when 55 was feeling like a heat wave after the 90 degree weather we had the week before.  Jake took S3, S4, my three year old nephew and my three year old niece to their fishing pier to fish as the park activity.  They arrived home fishless and unscathed...except for Jake.  Rebeka had to go pee and he was the only one there to take her.  He didn't offer to take the little kids fishing again.

While Jake had the little kiddos fishing and S2 was asleep and sick, my brother took S1 fishing.  They were gone a good long time.  But if they were catching fish like this, I can see why.

 S1 was just as proud as could be with this 19 inch bass.  We took a bunch of pictures and then he let it go.

 So, if you go fishing in the lake this fish is in, you may catch it again.  But we won't tell you where the lake is.  He wants to catch it again.

Even though S2 spend most of the weekend like this, and it was chilly - no, downright cold - we had a great time.

There is something about sitting around a campfire with those you love with no agenda.  And it DID warm up nicely.  Sunday, when we left, we were all in t-shirts again.  Because it was cold, I didn't take very many pictures.  I did have my mom snap this one as we were about to pull out of the campground.  Never mind my tangled hair.  I ran out of conditioner.  I will spare you the amount of time it took for me to comb out when we got home...or the amount of no more tangles.

While Jake taking all the little kiddos fishing (he is brave and we loved him for it) could have been the funniest story of the trip, it wasn't.  It was S1.

As we sat at the camp fire, we watched a racoon meander very near us, and S1 came up with his brilliant idea.  He found the cheap marshmallows wadded up pretty good so he wadded up bits of marshmallow and stuck them on trees.  Then he took an uneaten hot dog and strung it up on a little rope connected to the awning.  He laid bread and marshmallows all around him, then he sat in his tent with the flip cam and just waited.  

He didn't wait long.  This video was taken as Jake and I were headed out to shower.

When we returned back to the campsite, one raccoon scurried up a tree next to us and peeked out, one ambled out of view and who knows what was under the camper.  I just dove into the camper to be safe.  In the middle of the night, we realized the raccoons had found the bacon grease we were saving for fire starter in the morning as a huge ugly fight broke out. That S1 slept through.

It was a great weekend, well, other than freezing (but we survived!) and S2 being sick.  He is still sick, poor boy.

It was a great kick off to our summer vacation.

Why Do I Love My Husband???

My washing machine broke.

I will let you just momentarily imagine how many loads of laundry my boys produce.

Okay, enough of that!! You will have nightmares.

The GREAT thing is that our Maytag Bravos washing machine is under warranty from Lowes.  It's a super nice one that I have been super impressed with but it is only seven months old.  It suddenly made a terrible squeaking sound and I limped it along hoping it would not die before the repair man arrived...but it did.

So, I went to the laundry mat.  That was quite traumatic, as I stated last week.  (Read the comment on that blog post, it is the BEST....What To Do If You Find a Dead Man on The Side of the Road.) But it is also super expensive, it cost forty dollars to do my laundry there last week. OUCH!

I could have kissed the repairman when he fixed my washing machine on Wednesday afternoon.  I was so ecstatic!

Two loads later, it broke.

Same exact problem. 

I tried to limp it along.  Two loads later it refused to work again.

I nearly cried.

When I called the help line, the man on the other hand read my email aloud and said, "We will try to rush this. Four boys...you need your washing machine.  But as I see it, you are looking at next Friday before someone can get there."

As in seven days away.

Having used all the quarters I could scrounge up in my entire house and suburban, I was griping to my husband that in this 90 degree heat I was going to be headed to the laundry mat this week.  And I was going to have to bite the bullet and stick a twenty dollar bill in that quarter return thing to have enough to do laundry.

I really should have just gone on about how wonderful it really is to have ALL your laundry done, loads and loads, in less than an hour.  I should have mentioned how I was looking forward to time alone to read my stack of books.  Or wondering what sort of interesting characters I may encounter.

Because my husband said, "Hey! We could use the washboard! Think of the money we would save! You could stay here.  We'd help you, it would be fun!"

I glanced over to the washboard hanging on our bathroom wall.  Then I imagined this scene.....

There is no part of this at all that appears fun to me in any way.

My husband, on the other hand, is going on and on about how it will be a great experience for the boys and everyone can help and so on and so on.  I started to just tone him out.

I did mutter under my breath, "Thanks for the new blog post" though.

Please, go kiss your washing machines for me.