Realistic Idealist

Lazy Bum

2012-01-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

I really am such a lazy bum, which my sister just blatantly name-called me on fb.

Because I linked to her blog.

Where she typed up a beautiful Christmas recap, even WITH pictures!

Since we visited her in Kentucky for said Christmas, I sure love her doing all the legwork for me. To see our trip so far, just go

here, "Christmas morning craziness"
here, "Presents, presents, presents"
here, "Christmas evening"
here, "Fun was had by all"
here, "New Playground"
updated 1/11/12: another one, "Thursday" &
updated 1/12/12: and another one! "Don't Leave" -- this one includes a picture of the van we totaled on the way to Katie's house, and the sweet rental we've been driving ever since [Thank you, Geico!].

Boy, that was easy. The question is, are YOU too lazy to click on the links?*

*Don't worry, if you are, you're no more lazy than me. But if you are, just realize that if you click on the first link, "Christmas morning craziness," you can scroll through all the pics of each post in under a minute.

Hey hey hey! Hellooooooooo, Yeti Town!

2011-12-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

I'm back from the dead long enough to rewrite a facebook post here! (Facebook is so much faster for quick, random comments, and sooooooo much easier to upload, edit, organize, and post pics--especially because on fb I don't have to resize the pics down to smaller files)

I'm so excited about the first game, Yeti Town, that Rob's new company has put out since he's been hired. (I think. I know it's the first one they've put out that Rob has worked on.)

And just so you know, my high score is over 590,000, and was the 3rd top score 3 weekends ago.

Um, don't ask how many hours I played it. (Rob's very first score was about 50,000)

I've played it enough to know that the image posted above was from a very, VERY well-played game, without even looking over to see the high score that's over 700,000.

Woot, woot! Woot, Rob! And woot, Escalation Studios! If you download the game and play it on your ipad, ipod, or iphone, please be sure to rate it! They cranked this game out in only one month, which is GREAT. And did I mention, it's FREE?

Next up, Rob gets to prep the game for the Android platform. : )

Btw, the game is like chess in that you have to think so far ahead, but you also have to be extremely strategic with the very random choices you are given (vs. an opponent's strategic chess moves). Then, you have to increase the flexibility in your strategy when yetis start showing up and move around randomly right in spots where you want to place saplings, trees, tents, etc. And worst of all are those dreaded walruses! I have had more than 7 walruses on the board at once, and it's not pretty!

The game also reminds me vaguely of Settlers of Catan, but only in that you're building a town, just like in Settlers you're building up to metropoles, and you have to be thinking ahead even when you make your very first move--strategy is everything, even from the beginning. At least you don't have to build roads or grow/mine resources in Yeti Town. ; ) (Though I also love doing that in Catan & the expansion, Cities & Knights)

And I thought Rob was the gamer. But when it comes to board and many card games, I am definitely a gamer. (Ok, and depending on the video/computer/smart phone game, I can also get addicted, as long as they aren't completely strategy games)

So if you have anything "I," go download Yeti Town, and be sure to rate it, ESPECIALLY if you like it!

Carter's Words

2011-10-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday Carter started his first interchangeable sentence. In one afternoon I heard him ask "Where's the bah?" (ball), "Where's the key-key?" (kitty kitty) and "Where's the goggy?" (doggy)

Kinda fun. : )

He's spoken words much later than I am used to, so I'm excited he's got 20 words under his belt now (30 words by age 2 is good). He didn't start saying mom or mommy until 18 months (the other boys happened to say mommy and daddy by a year if I remember right), so I love to hear him say that now; of course he said dad and daddy much earlier, to Rob's delight. He also signs a few words, like more, please, eat, all done, and milk.

His very first word was "Uh oh." I think that's rather inventive, don't you? His second word was "Wow," upon seeing some balloons in the grocery store right about time for Valentine's (so he was a little over a year). His third was probably "no."

I remember the morning he said "Where ducky?," which made no sense at all, since we were up in my bathroom in CA; I looked around for a toy duck, wondering if he knew the word duck. But then Rob realized he was looking for Jitterbug, and simply ended up putting the emphasis on the word "the." He was asking "Where the kitty?," and then went around the corner into the bathroom and was delighted to find her.

When we moved here I thought it was cute when he went through a phase of saying "No no no why," meaning "No, no, no way." At first we weren't sure if he knew what he meant, but he did. : )

He has walked around saying "coe-kee" quite a bit, but I didn't see him use it in context, so I wasn't sure if he was actually trying to say cookie. But Monday night we decided to get out cookies for the missionaries after FHE, and when Rob announced it, off went Carter, toddling to the kitchen with all his might, saying over and over "coe-kee, coe-kee, coekee?" hopefully, and was very happy when he was rewarded with the very cookie he wanted.

Another fun one is when he asks, "Where did it go?" It sounds like "Wheredigo?"

Carter's words make me smile. : )

Epic Baby Shower (in my oh-so-humble opinion)

2011-06-13T03:40:00.000-07:00

So. Tami finds out she's pregnant.

Surprise!

She went through infertility with her first son, so this is a wonderful surprise. She immediately schedules a dr. appt. and four days later learns--she's not ONLY pregnant, she's 18 1/2 weeks along, and it's a GIRL!

(Commence much more geeking out)

I immediately tell her to pick a date, theme, and colors for a baby shower, and I get to work. You see, her first shower got cancelled at least three times due to her going on bedrest, being in the hospital, and having her little Nathan at 33 weeks along. We never did have the shower for Nathan.

I wasn't taking any chances this time; I was determined to make sure Tami got a baby shower. And not just any shower, but a pull-out-all-the-stops shower for such a wonderful miracle.

We scheduled it for June 11th, when she would be 26 weeks along, since she didn't go on bedrest with Nathan until 28 weeks. But then she went on full bedrest this time by 24 weeks along, so we held our breath and waited. And she made it! (And our fingers are crossed she'll make it another 6-10 weeks!)

Nathan Kissing Tami's Tummy

So I, um, went all out.

Here it all is, all 63 + pictures:

(I'll come back and add links to all the pics/places I found all these great ideas, so if you're gung ho about using an idea, email me now for the link, or be patient and I'll get them up later. I know how important this is, as I lived by it as I found and used ideas, links, and tutorials from others' blogs for this shower)

Partially Painted Invite

I found two precious poems that I linked together at the top and bottom of her card. They say:

"Tiny yawns and sleepy sighs
nursery rhymes and lullabies...

[Insert invite info here; date, time, place, etc]

...a sweet little girl, to tuck in all snug,
to love and to cuddle, to kiss and hug."

How sweet is that?


I think I had 8 different colors overall that went into each picture.

Invitation-Painting Process

As I painted, I thought how pretty the whole process itself is. All of the colors on the paint palette on the right were so pretty to look at, as was the pile of growing invites, watching each layer of color be added to them. I just loved doing this. It brought me a lot of joy. It's been a long time since I've really sat down and used my artistic talent at great length.

See how pretty they turned out? These are the pre-scrapbooked ones, too. Once I added borders they were just perfect.

This pic of the finished card just doesn't do it justice. Just sayin'.

Once the invites were mailed off, I made a beeline to get the diaper cake done. I had to resist the urge to make it the day Tami found out she was pregnant! Wish I'd thought to take pics of the process, it looks so cool as each tier is added, then the ribbon, the topper, and the painted safety pins.

Diaper Cake

Doesn't it just speak for itself? And how did I manage to take a pic that looks like it's off one of those crafty blogs where people actually know what they're doing? I am so pleased with how it turned out.

I also made some pennants out of two shades of pink and one of green. I didn't think to take pics of the process of sewing them. But you'll see them in the pics of the shower itself. They were also such a nice touch.

My neighbor Hope showed me an Etsy item that was too cute not to make--cupcake onesies. I made 15 of them total; again, forgot to take pics. The onesies were blue, green, and different shades of pink. Soooooo stinkin' adorable.

Sewing Party Favor Pouches

These 'pouches' were the only thing for the shower that felt like a labor of love (meaning everything else was an easy labor of love; these were more of the 'labor' part). Tami showed me a cute picture of this idea of cloth bags for party favors, and I thought they would be so simple to make. Which they were rather simple. But still, all the little steps added up, and they took me many more hours to iron/cut/sew/iron/cut from start to finish than I thought they would. But in the end, they rock, so it was all worth it. I made homemade chocolate chip cookies and froze them ahead of time, then defrosted them the day before and stuffed the party favor bags the night before the shower.

Partially completed

Two stacks of completed pouches. Phew, they're done!

You may notice up close that the diaper pins that hold the pouches closed are also painted. They match some of the flowers from off of the invitations. Yes, I'm that crazy. But wasn't it worth it?

Mini Water Bottles

Tami's mom did a FABULOUS job with the food, and decided to go with a 'mini' theme; everything she made was mini, from mini croissants and sandwiches, to mini water bottles. I added a green linen fabric strip around the water bottles, and then the diaper pins. Aren't the flower-painted diaper pins a nice touch?

They're all lined up, ready to go off to war. Or to a baby shower.

'Annual' Cards--5 Styles

I wish you could see this picture more closely; there are five different card types total. Here's how these cards work. Each card is for one year in baby Langley's life, from age 1-16. The shower guests were invited to pick a 'year,' and write advice, well wishes, or what to expect that year of life. Yet another idea I happened to see online while browsing for shower ideas. Such a sweet idea.

The Finished 16 Cards

Oh, wait. HERE are the real finished 16 cards.

I used pinking shears to cut out little squares of fabric, glued on the Sizzix die cut numbers, and then pinned them on with those adorable itty bitty clothespins you can buy. I love minis of just about everything, including mini clothespins. I plan to take each number now, and glue it to the outside of the corresponding envelope/card. : )

Place cards

Love everything about these place cards. Love the free pink place card tags I found online, love the 'Champignon' font that Tami picked out for her invites (I used it everywhere else as well, including on all these place cards), I love the green backing that makes the pink pop, and I love those place card holders that I finally found at Michael's. The big middle card has the instructions on how to write the notes for baby Langley for each year of her life. The very front card says "Party Favors." The rest of them are the food items, from the Cashew Chicken Salad Croissants and Smoked Turkey Sandwiches and Prosciutto Sandwiches, to the Cheese and Crackers, Poppy Seed Pasta Salad & Cranberry Feta Candied Walnut Salad. I added a card for the fruit and for the veggies so they didn't feel left out. : )

And I'm usually a pretty picky eater (though I already knew I'd love the chicken salad croissants and poppy seed salad), so Rosie, Tami's mom, teased me that she'd put all the food out and then set out some PB&J for me. Hahaha! : )

Cupcake Pops!

Very early on I decided on making cupcake pops. They're from bakerella.com, and you can see a tutorial on marthastewart.com, too, if you just type in 'cupcake pops.' They are so cute. Did I mention I love things in minis? That's why I always loved to look at little miniature Barbie furniture when I was a girl.

So, you cook a cake, and then crumble the whole thing in the food processor. You then stir in about 1/2 can of frosting (NOT the 'whipped' kind). You roll that mixture into balls, or more complicated things like these cupcakes. Then you dip them in chocolate. A sweet addict's new fave.

Sorry for the bad lighting on the cupcake pop pics.

Classy and Cute, right?

Ok, I think those are all the pre-made decorations, plus the cupcake pops that I whipped up two days before the shower.

Now, what you've been waiting for all along--the actual shower--

Eating Area

Tami's yard 1) is cleaner, 2) has a gorgeous view, and 3) has a bigger yard. So naturally, we held the shower at her house. Add the fact that she's technically on bedrest, and we wanted her to stay sitting throughout the shower (which she did except for pictures with her guests), so there's another good reason we did it all at her place. I took this pic standing just outside her gate, looking into the yard.

Backyard Shot

I took this one standing against Tami's back fence. These are four 6-foot tables lined up end to end. A neighbor owns most of these chairs; I only had to rent 2 of them. I did rent the tablecloths and umbrellas, though.

Picture Perfect

A beautiful shot standing at the back of the tables looking out toward the front of the house.

Table Close Up

Those cupcake-looking things on the pink runners? Those are the onesie cupcakes! So, so cute.

White Flowers, Mini Waters, and Cupcake Onesies

We weren't sure the name of those white flowers, but they're very pretty. And you can't really see it from the picture, but we sprinkled little pink plastic pacifiers along the runners as well. From this pic they just look like darker little pink spots on the runner. *grin* But you can see the water bottles and more cupcake onesies. Fun, huh.

Carnations

Don't these carnations speak for themselves? Such a beautiful touch!

Gifts

Too bad I didn't take another pic later on; these are only gifts from the first couple of guests. Who doesn't like to see a picture piled high with gifts, all wrapped just so? If you look in the right bottom hand corner, the gift bag with the lion on it and the long rectangular wrapped gift were the prizes for the games. The wrapping paper I bought ended up matching the bag, completely by accident. And I loved those white daises with the pink centers; I put one on each gift because they were so pretty.

Tami's Patio Table

I ended up with an extra runner, and Tami's patio table seemed the perfect place for it, as well as a couple of leftover flowers. My favorite, though, is the green ribbon around those hanging lanterns. We didn't end up needing the extra seating, but it still looked nice.

Time to go Inside

And now for the inside. Balloons right when you walk in, of course. And pennants.

Stairs

The mantle before we put all the flowers on the tables outside. Soooooo beautiful.

The mantle that was ready by the time the guests arrived.

Black-and-White Baby Pictures

From L to R, Tami, Nathan, and Kevin. This was a last-minute addition to the shower that just made it. Tami gathered the pics the night before, and Rob scanned, grayscaled, cropped, and printed them after midnight. Picture perfect, right? : )

The Diaper Cake. Again. ; )

Need I say more? Look at that diaper cake, sittin' pretty in all its pink and green cuteness with the perfect addition of the diaper pin. Not to mention the flower topper. Mwah. And you get an added bonus of a peek at the pennants hanging up in the kitchen, too. You're so lucky.

The Food

The Spread

Doesn't it all look delicious? I'm salivating just looking at it. I wish I had taken a closeup of the dish on the furthest left that is partially cut off. It was a round white plate with the deep center (perhaps it was a bowl) sectioned in thirds with fresh blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. It felt criminal to take anything from the food table and upset the beautiful balance Rosie had created with all the different foods and the vibrant colors.

Food, Glorious Food...

It may be hard to see, but there on the left, Rose used a flower-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the prosciutto sandwiches. Just another detailed touch to go with the flower-themed shower.

The napkins. Cute touch, right?


The 'other' side of the table; can you see that fresh pineapple on the right? It was DELISH.

The Cake.

The centerpiece of the table. Rosie picked out and ordered this beauty from a local bakery. Five layers of moist heaven, with raspberry filling between each layer, all topped off which a smooth buttercream frosting. Mmmmmm.

Bubbly Pink Lemonade

The carbonated lemonade on the turntable was such a nice touch. Rose said the shower guests deserved pink lemonade because we're 'ladies.' Love it.

Wine Glasses for the Pink Lemonade

Chillin' Sodas.

Yearly Cards for Baby Langley

You can't see from the pic, but there's a candy container right there on the right with the pens for writing notes in the cards. The fun part? I weighted the bottom of the dish with pink and green starbursts. Little things like that make me happy. (So do the starbursts, I might add) ; )

Cupcake Pops and Party Favors

The Guest of Honor--Tami Langley

Doesn't she look radiant?

Baby Game #1

This, my friends, is what we reduced the guests to. For this game we had them put a piece of paper on their heads, then draw a baby without being able to see what they were drawing. Tami picked the winner. I think my favorite part was after the shower was over and her aunt Livvy made sound effects as we went through all the pictures. They were sooooo funny. Among them we had a turtle and a snowman, I kid you not. Ha! Mine honestly looked like it was scribbled by a 2 yr old. (Not that I was playing--I was demonstrating)

Baby Game #2

This game was a riot. So, here's how you play. Two plates are passed around the tables, with two dice apiece. Whenever someone rolls doubles, that person runs up to all the props and has to
1) Keep the cellphone to her ear
2) Put on the hat & sunglasses
3) Put on the gardening loves
4) Diaper the teddy bear baby
5) Swaddle the baby
AND
6) Unwrap the gift all the way before they can claim it.

It was hilarious to watch it evolve. At first people would come up and start putting the things on, and be bewildered when someone else came to take away the stuff from them to put on. But after about 4-5 minutes the ladies really caught on, and the race was on. One person would be rushing to finish putting everything on as two other people were running up to rip it off of them and start the process all over again. The gift got partly unwrapped at least twice before someone finished it off and claimed the prize, with two competitors right on her tail.

Look, someone's almost to the gift!

The race is on!

Stolen once again; notice how part of the wrapping paper is off the gift.

Everyone was laughing. What fun!

Opening Gifts--and yes, the gifts were awesomely awesome, if you're wondering. : )

The 'After' Party

I had to add this one because once the gifts were opened and people stayed to chat, I walked in to the house to find no less than three people using their cell/smart phones to text/look things up, and then walked outside and saw at least two more. It struck me what a technological age we live in. And that there is probably unwritten etiquette about putting away electronic devices during a baby shower. Haha.

Tami and her Momma

Look at that proud Grandma. Nathan Langley calls her "Mah-Moh." So cute.

Tami and Me.

Nathan with his Mommy

So there is Tami's epic shower. I loved using all my creative juices (and by creative juices, I mean ~~stealing~~ finding awesome pictures and tutorials on the web and copying them) to put this together. I believe I may have used them all up for quite some time...

Congratulations, Tami!

All pictures are courtesy of Moi*

Yeah, I'm kind of a control freak that way. And I still missed a few pics I really wanted, like more closeups of the different food items, closeups of the place cards next to their respective foods, a pic of all the gifts once all the guests arrived, a picture of all the guests together before they left, and some better pics of the cupcake onesies.

*Except for the one with me in it.

Babies Don't Keep

2011-04-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

I used to see a poem embroidered and framed in different homes when I was a little girl, similar to the one in the link. It often showed a mom, hair pulled up, sitting in a rocking chair with her apron on, rocking an infant. I didn't think that much about it, but remembered the gist after all these years.

Last year I googled it so I could find it in its entirety (I could only remember something about dust and cobwebs having to wait because the baby didn't keep). I also referenced it in last year's Christmas letter, saying that babies don't keep so we are enjoying all four of our 'babies.'

So it's probably clear that now I think this poem is so endearing and precious. And it is! Especially after watching my 4th baby go from 8 lbs. 9 oz on Jan. 8th, 2010, to a whopping 23 pounds at 15 1/2 months now, who is already trying his feet at walking!

It goes too quickly. This poem is not just an easy scapegoat for poor housekeeping skills. Babies don't keep, so I will rock and play with my baby. I love you, Carter!

Here is the poem:
Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

My own adorable Carter has grown so quickly I can hardly believe it. Here are pictures of him from 0-15 months.

Carter, two days old on the trip home from the hospital.
Give him room, folks. He's thinkin.'
January '10

Holding his head up on the boppy (my mom made that boppy cover)
February '10

In his baby blessing outfit. Sweet, sweet Carter.
March '10

Hanging out with Nathan.
April '10

In his Sunday best (from tia Ana!).
May '10

Carter showing off those startling blue eyes, playing in his exercauser
(which my mom recovered for me, by hand!)
June '10

I took this in Lehi, UT behind some old stores on old main street.
What a handsome redhead.
July '10

Chewing on the steering wheel. He's already chomping at the bit to drive!
August '10

Sitting pretty on a Sunday morning.
September '10

I think this was his first time in a swing.
(Notice how beautiful the weather is in SoCal this late in the year.
And yes, you can be jealous) ; )
October '10

Carter was not huge on the whole camping experience at first.
November '10

Professional pictures thanks to Grandpa Cropper
December '10

I didn't have the heart for that first haircut yet!
January '11

Carter's a pro at my cell phone, the Ipod... Look at his curly hair in the back!

Another reason I didn't want to cut it.
February '11

Jamming with Grandpa Wilson
March '11

First Easter Egg Hunt--in his jammies
April '11

Another April '11 pic--
Notice how adept Carter is with pushing buttons on electronic devices.
This one is a little Connect 4 game that all the kids love.

Yet another Apr '11 pic of li'l Mr. Carter at an Easter Egg party.

Walking. See what I mean that 'babies don't keep'?!?

Long Lost Hello

2011-02-24T23:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I've meant to write about a myriad of things in my life, but clearly, I haven't.

I've also meant to give you pics of Carter, one per month, so you can see his growth since he was a baby. Again, zilch.

In many ways facebook is the new blogger, because it's even *more* ADD than the random posts I can put here, and it handles pictures 100% more easily than the new blogspot format. But still, there are reasons I really like blogging (when I actually do it!). Like taking longer than a quick soundbite to muse over the things of life.

Anyhoo, as many of you know, Rob was laid off recently. We haven't been the first among family and friends to lose our job within the last couple of years, and we won't be the last. It's a tough economy. But, we do LOVE having Rob at home. Still, he's working tirelessly to find a new job; he has over 6 interviews under his belt, 2 callbacks for 2nd interviews, and a couple more interviews in the works.

I have picked up a job as a campus supervisor sub at my kids' elementary school, which basically means I get to monitor (read: babysit) 900 kids during recesses and lunch. Well, not 900 all at once. They're broken up into groups of around 200-300 at a time. I love it.

Rob pointed out today that I've always been a people-watcher (and I readily agree that I am both that and a people person). I love to observe how people interact with each other and their environment. And I love the kids. It's put some zest back into me that reminded me why I majored in Elementary Education, and why I felt so strongly that my role in life, besides mother, is teacher (clearly, they're not mutually exclusive). I really thrive in this school environment, and how fun that I get paid for it, too!

Carter took his first steps a couple of days ago, to all our delight. We practice with him a lot, but any time we get a step out of him, it's very tentative. If we *do* get one step out of him, he won't do any more after that. His first word was "Uh-oh." His second word was "Wow." Which is so adorable when he sees balloons--he goes NUTS over seeing balloons! His third word (according to Rob; I haven't heard him say it yet) is "Bah" for 'ball.'

So that's a bit of an update for us. Maybe the next update will actually include all those pictures of Carter! (I don't know, maybe you better not push your luck) ; )

Helping Hands

2010-12-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I saw a very simple act occur during the third hour of our church. In under 30 seconds the moment had passed, but the impact it had on me is still present and very poignant.

A woman in our congregation stood up to say the closing prayer after the womens' meeting had ended. This woman has a disease that attacked her body about 6 years ago that affects her nerves. Even though she's only in her early 60s she travels around with a walker to prevent ugly missteps since she can't depend on her body to be stable.

When Carol stood up and walked slowly (without her walker) to the front of the room to say the closing prayer, I watched from the back row as women on each side of her instantly stuck out their hand for her to grab onto as she made her way forward. She didn't even need all the hands, but they were there anyway. I don't even think anyone had planned on helping out. It was just in their nature to reach out and offer support. It wasn't that she couldn't walk. She could. And she actually probably would have been fine making it that 15 feet on her own. But it took that much of her burden away to be able to reach out and grab a hand here, a hand there, until she reached her destination.

It struck me how profound this little act of love and service was and is for us as women in general. It's not that we're not amazing, empowered women. We are. But isn't it touching that we are so ready in a heartbeat to reach out and lift each other up, even just a little bit, to help each other along this journey of life? Even when we're struggling ourselves? Compassion and service begets love, friendship, and strength.

I think it's meant to be that we become even better people when we rely on each other, serve, and allow people to serve us.

Shutterfly Christmas Card Giveaway*

2010-11-17T02:26:00.000-08:00

Um.

I may or may not have spent the wee hours of the morning browsing all the Christmas greeting cards on Shutterfly.

But I couldn't help it. There are so many beautiful cards that I was happily imagining my family in all those layouts. Of course, in my lovely daydreams, my children were frolicking about, WANTING to be part of the picture-taking process.

I mean, look at this angelic little girl. Surely she gave her parents no grief as she skipped along looking impish.

And aren't these girls so close? All wrapped up in a warm red blanket, glad to share their air and space with each other (and such lovely girls, too).

But this is my favorite one of all. Especially with the little sister kissing her brother, and in another photo looking up so innocently at the camera. Interesting that this is also my favorite card layout. I love the colors, the fonts, the layout, and the styling of the big family letter.

Maybe I'll just have to go round up my kids and trick them into taking some family pictures. Wish me luck! Once I've herded the kids to a nice photo op spot, and get their adorable faces into print, I can insert the pictures into my fave holiday design, which is the "With Love Blue Christmas" card. I'll use both color and black-and-white photos. I don't think sepia tone would turn out right; it would wash out the card. And matte prints is a must. ALWAYS matte print. Don't believe me, ask my dad. : ) (the photographer)

Well, I guess you can't use matte print if you put the pics on mugs. But you can on pretty much everything else, like on the cards and calendars. I hope.

*To get 50 free prints, post a shout-out to Shutterfly via your blog after signing up here. (And yes, I have most shamelessly used my blog to promote a website to get free stuff.) : )

A Pirate Birthday Party

2010-11-14T22:08:00.000-08:00

After Tami sent me this link, and I browsed a bunch of awesome pirate party ideas, I really enjoyed working with the kids to have a fabulous party. With a TON of help from both Tami and Hope (especially Tami in even just getting me to act on all these cute ideas), we actually pulled it off!

And, (cough cough) I'm only 3 1/2 months late in posting it all.

It started with staining a lot of paper with tea, then letting it dry. Crumpling it up to make it look old, and then using it for various different things, from paper sails and the invites, to name tags for the pirate food.

Bryce made the invites himself. I love how he used the curly font, drew the map going from the ship clipart down, and the pirate lingo he used. They each said: "To Buccaneer [Ryan], Ahoy Matey! Ye are invited to Bryce's Birthday Party if Ye Dare!"

We emptied out a bunch of IBC rootbeer bottles (ahem. We drank them all), washed them out, and put just a little bit of sand in each one. We also made name tags for all the kids with pirate names, which was quite a bit of fun.

Then we rolled up the invites and stuck them in the bottles, corked them, added the name tags and raffia, and I am extremely proud of how cool they turned out!

The cake was another venture all itself, not to mention all the pennants we sewed and the flags we painted. The boys all got to help with each thing we made, at least to some degree (I didn't let them help out much with the cake). I got the cake idea from family fun, and did my own thing to make it look how I wanted it.

I've tried to organize the pictures, but blogger is not being very friendly, so they're in haphazard order below, sorry!

Finished Cake with Shark Bait (fishy crackers), Pirate's Loot (candy), Peg Legs (cheetos), and Cannonballs (whoppers) behind it

The grub

Reading Clue #2

Digging for the treasure where the last clue directed.

Tape the flag on the treasure map.

One of the two pirate flags we painted

Getting into the spirit of things

Pirate ships

Pirate ship ring toss

Reading the first clue; Rob did it all in this great pirate voice. Each clue led to part of their pirate getup, from flags and hats and eyepatches, to swords and loot and such.

Arrrgh Mateys!!

Ye scurvy mates

Walking the plank

Water balloon wars!

Ring toss!

Running to find another clue!

The end of the treasure hunt, where the buried treasure lay hidden

Finding the hats from Clue #2, and reading Clue #3

The squirrelly birthday crew

Walking the plank and into the pool

Water balloon wars

Pirate beanbag throw

Birthday boy is about to "cut" the cake!

Cupcakes

Cannonballs (whoppers) & Peg Legs (cheetos)

A First

2010-07-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

I'm really bad with facts. And by 'really bad,' I mean, reeeeeeaallly bad. It's not just dates and events, it's names, and worst of all, BIRTHDAYS.

I am absolutely horrible about birthdays. Remember year before last? Yeah, it's pretty bad. This year I worked very, very hard to remember my FIL's b-day.

Well, I thought it couldn't get any worse....
(and boy is that an epic cue line)

July 15th, 9 am-ish, cell phone conversation:

My mom: Oh, and by the way, I wanted to be sure to wish you a happy birthday.
Me: What?! Is today my birthday?
My mom: Um, no.
Me: Uh oh--when is it? (Having no clue the date)
My mom: Tomorrow.
Me, genuinely shocked: It is? Tomorrow, really? Tomorrow's the 16th already?
My mom: (Probably hanging her head in shame, or at least trying to stifle a good laugh)

And there it is. It's worse--much worse. I forgot my own birthday. Luckily for me, the following day, there were a lot of other people who did remember my birthday. Thank you all for remembering the information stored in your brains!

Unner the bed

2010-07-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

My 3 yr old nephew, Sean, had his hosting plans all set. When we stayed at his house last night, he told Nathan several times where he was to sleep. "Nathan. You will sleep unner my bed," he'd say, emphasizing the word "under."

We tried to convince him to let Nathan sleep ON the bed with Sean, but Sean was adamant. "No, he can't sleep on the bed. He can sleep unner the bed."

It was so dang cute! You probably had to be there to hear the way he said it, but I loved his conviction. So cute.

Five months and counting the rolls of fat ; )

2010-06-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here is our Chubby McChub Chub. 95th percentile in weight, and off the charts in height. (All our other babies were off the charts--on the other end! Or they were in the 2nd-3rd percentile)

He has discovered his toesies. Sooooo adorable. (Look at those thighs, by the way, in the picture of him in just his diaper. They're so big!)

Notice all the bumbo pictures. I've decided the bumbo seat is one of the best inventions EVAH.

Also notice how he's growing out of his swing and bumbo seat. He's so big and long! We sure love him.

= )

And here are some more random pics for the fun of it:

Chewing on his finger, which he does a lot.

In his Sunday best including button-up collar and vest, an outfit from Tia Ana.

In a baby pool for the first time at friend Lincoln's 2nd birthday party.

Trying to eat me. Again. He loves to get ANYTHING into his mouth. : )

Woweee! Look under the exersaucer and take a look at those thighs again! He's could be a little linebacker! Chunk chunk chunk.

Wow--look at that drool monster! This pic was taken today.

Our neighbor Lauren was holding Carter, end of April

Carter is trying to eat Nathan L.

That's our "little" boy. = )

Controversial Topic!

2010-06-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

A friend, Andrew Cannon, posted in his FB status update: "Controversial Topic!"

Nothing else, just those two words with an exclamation point, but no actual reference to a controversial topic.

All the comments that followed are hilarious if you've participated in many chat forums or online controversial threads, which often include inflammatory comments, fiery rebuttals, hasty generalizations, etc., among some heartfelt and objective comments. I am pasting the entire post below. I didn't get all the references because I'm not often on chat threads, but Rob knew them all and was laughing the whole time he read them. I've bolded the ones that made me laugh out loud :

*****************************
Andrew Cannon: Controversial Topic!
Eliason: I disagree, and I can't believe you would take that point of view.
Jones: I'm sorry, but have you considered this?
Timothy Provenzano: Fiery rebuttal!
Andrew Cannon: Some feelings of hurt at his friends' responses, coupled with a feigned indifference.
John Chapman: Nonsensical statement involving plankton.*
Andy Wilson: What you're saying sounds just like the Nazis.... or Communists... or some other controversial group! Goodwin's Rule!!!!
Elizabeth Grace Cannon Romeril: Hasty generalization, and completely missing the point of the issue, while using examples that don't apply to prove a point that is beside the point.
Andy Wilson: Typical rhetoric coming from someone of your ideology! Ad hominem attack!!!
Andrew Cannon: Setting up a straw man. Knocking him down.
Rebecca Wilson Jones: Now, now. Everyone be nice. Because I'm right and you all know it.
Theresa Merrill: I can see that I, as the [sole] voice of reason, must intervene soon...
Jennifer Hoskisson: BlErG! Bringing Religion into this to simultaneously clobber you over the head with my righteousity and make you feel guilty for attacking my beliefs!
Andrew Cannon: ur dum
John Chapman: Suggestion that this entire argument is causing a vacuum.
Cara Jenkins: non sequitur then sulky withdrawal
Rachel Harris: Inflammatory statement!!!!
Jonathan Cannon: I think I missed something. What we're we talking about?**
Lee Van Duzer: Troll thread then post for the sake of posting.
Lillian Kaye Brough: emoticon
Andrew Cannon: First! Edit: Crap. I so wasn't first.
Kimberly Cropper Wilson: Obvious scathing attack thinly veiled as a curious inquiry.
Rebecca Wilson Jones: Final statement and then silently deleting you as friend and hoping you don't notice.
*****************************

I thought it was pretty funny how this mock argument pretty much nailed a lot of the negative types of comments that are posted when there are controversial topics.

Now, that said, I see a lot of people really make good, thoughtful comments as well on controversial posts, and think there's a lot to be said for discussing things rationally and sharing our opinions, even though it's hard because they're touchy topics. It's some of the trolling*** and flame war**** comments that used to surprise me. People can be really brutal over the internet sometimes. When they start flaming or are trolling, I don't bite (I don't engage with them), and I no longer think they're credible voices to the discussion.

*The random comment about plankton was my favorite! But it really happens! People throw in random things to shake things up a bit or lessen tension, or just to be random. (Or maybe they are just random people!)
**I think Jonathan may have been the only person who thought he stepped into a real argument but couldn't figure out what we were arguing about. = )
***Trolling, for the very few of you that may not know, is making comments specifically to incite reactions, not to contribute meaningfully to a discussion.
****Flaming, again if you might not know, is being incendiary just to be incendiary. "ur dum" is a VERY mild form of flaming as I understand it.

The trick is not getting defensive or taking comments too personally when we discuss controversial items, and also weeding out the incendiary ones from the thought-out points, and feeling like we learn more when we come away from it, even though most of us probably won't see eye to eye since we're already invested in our position on the matter at hand. Keep a thick skin and focus on being objective, IMHO. = )

Four months old and 18 pounds!

2010-05-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, our chunky monkey is already 18 lbs. And he's the cutest chunky monkey I've ever met. : )

Once Upon a Time...

2010-05-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

...there was this girl. She was a very social girl, and when she finally joined the blogging bandwagon, she ate it up. She thought of things to post all the time, and looked constantly for any feedback to her posts, because she loves validation. And she read everybody else's posts the moment they were up, and commented because of the social being she is.

And then that girl got pregnant again with her fourth.

On purpose. : )

And she remembered it was going to be hard, but it's even harder when you're actually in the middle of it, not just remembering it's hard. And her need for sleep seems to just increase more and more. Uninterrupted sleep, mind you. (aaah, how you miss it when you no longer get it)

But even though it's hard, her new baby is so completely adorable, and her other children have such wonderful moments that she relishes. (This song, called "Pachelbel Bedtime," is a good 'ole favorite that demonstrates how hard the whining and crying is, but how you still love those kids and wouldn't change anything for the world)

So, blogging has fallen by the wayside a bit, but that girl hopes that there will be a time and a place where she can keep up a little bit more and start putting up posts of the funny things her kids say. And then maybe she can even start catching up on all of your posts, too!

Uh oh, that little girl's baby just woke up from his nap, and the groceries must be bought, the kids picked up, the dentist appointments completed, and then possible a trip to the pool after some homework and reading time. Time to go. But she'll be back sporadically. ; )

Van-versations 212

2010-04-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

I've just picked up Nathan and his little friend Dani from kindergarten. They are enthusiastically talking to me about class. Then Nathan announces with a very animated face, in a very authoritative tone of voice:

"Didja know? Mrs. [teacher] *doesn't* live in her classroom."

Hahahahahaha! He then followed it up, with the same air of importance, to tell me that she actually goes *home* after school. To which Dani pipes up that she goes to the front office first. Then she goes home. Too cute.

Carterbug

2010-03-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Carter Scott Wilson was blessed at 2 months old, on March 7th. I wish I had had the presence of mind to take pictures of the family that came and shared this special day with us. We had Grandma and Grandpa Wilson, Ana, and three of her kids--Melvin, Emily Jo, and Gracie. It was a wonderful weekend!

Carter has grown so much, and we love his smiles and laughs. Here are some updated photos of our little chunky monkey:

Futbol

2010-03-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

So. Rob and I are watching Bryce and Jeffrey at soccer practice. We can't tell what position Jeffrey is playing, and we're talking about it while we watch what he's doing on the field. While Rob and I are talking, Nathan is toeing the dirt next to us, rubbing his shoes into the dirt to make designs, seemingly oblivious to our conversation.

Me: I'm not sure. He could be playing fullback. Is he playing fullback? Is he playing halfback? I just can't tell. He certainly looks like he's playing defense. I think he's playing fullback.

Nathan: Mom. He's playing soccer.

Rob and me: Hahahahahaha!

Arrow of Light, the Pinnacle of Cub Scouting

2010-02-14T17:58:00.001-08:00

The Arrow of Light award is the Cub Scout equivalent of earning the Boy Scout Eagle.

I'm so proud of Jeffrey for wanting to earn his Arrow of Light, and for doing so at January's pack meeting.

Jeffrey pins on the mother Arrow of Light pin just before the Arrow of Light ceremony.

And to earn it with his close friend Mahesh was a special treat. I am so proud of both of these Webelos! ('Course, I'm also the Webelos leader, so I am always proud, but I'm especially biased about these two outstanding boys)

From left to right: Me, Jeffrey, Rob, Vitthal, Mita, and Mahesh.

Mahesh and Jeffrey hold their authentic indian arrows quite safely and proudly.

Woot! Congrats, boys! You earned it!

Actual answers to a class assignment:

2010-02-09T20:36:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey was assigned one of the original thirteen colonies, and filled out a worksheet to prep for a scrapbook page he created of Maryland. One part of the worksheet asked about Maryland's geographics. Jeffrey answers are bolded & italicized--he's a 5th grader, mind you:

Geographical Information for your colony:
Rivers? Yes.
Mountains? Not sure.
Forests? Yes.
Soil? Yes.

Haaaahaaahaaaahaaaaa! My favorite is the last one. I can picture Jeffrey saying, "Why yes, teacher, I believe Maryland has soil."

(After Rob and I really cracked up about this, Rob helped him go look up actual rivers, mountains, and forests that exist in Maryland. Too funny!)

Bliss is...

2010-01-24T17:05:00.000-08:00

--being able to see my ankles. They look so pretty and dainty to me now!
--being able to breathe. So nice. Really.
--being able to sleep w/out Ambien (though I did love that Ambien).

Oh, and oh yeah---

Bliss is enjoying this new adorable baby!

Carter Scott Wilson joined our family at 3:33 am on Friday, January 8th, less than an hour after my water broke and we dashed off to the hospital. Amazingly enough, he chose to come ON his actual due date!

At 8 lbs 9 oz, 20 inches long, he is absolutely precious. We have all been feeling such joy to welcome our little Carter to our family of strapping boys.

He eats well and sleeps well, the dream baby. How much luckier could I get?

Comatose & still witty

2010-01-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

Day before yesterday, I wake up early enough to help get Jeffrey up and started on his morning routine.

I start tugging on his arm. "Wake up, wake up; come on, Jeffrey. It's time to get up."

Then I hafta go potty. So I do, but there's no TP. I call out to Jeffrey, thinking I'm so smart-- "Jeffrey, I need toilet paper! Please!"

Nothing. No dice.

I figure things out, and then go back to Jeffrey, and start tugging on his arm again, but decide to try the same tactic. "Jeffrey, Jeffrey! You've got to get up! I NEED you to get me some toilet paper!"

The child, who hasn't moved once this entire time, or showed a single sign of coherency, says with his eyes closed:

"If you can make it over to me, you can get to the toilet paper."

Chistmas Gushy-ness

2009-12-26T14:22:00.000-08:00

I know that right now many blogs are filled with sincere posts about the magic and joy of Christmas, but when you've probably already read several of them, you may just want to skip all the sentiment and go right to the pictures (even if you think your kids' pics are cuter).

--My kids' pics are cuter, though. It's just the truth.-- ; )

So, I'll just mention I feel Christmas mush and gush.

Ok, and an extra comment about how much I love looking at the tree.

And then you can move on to the pictures:

Our Christmas Eve candlelight dinner with china. Delish.

Our re-enactment of the navity; we traded parts a lot. Rob started as Joseph because Bryce wanted to be the donkey (see him hiding under that hobby horse?). Nathan stayed the part of Mary for the entire little program. Look at his cute pregnant tummy while he sits on Bryce.

Bryce has now switched to the part of Joseph so Daddy could be a shephard. See how sweetly he looks at the baby Jesus (a stuffed teddy bear this year).

I play the angel.

Pretty fat angel.

Jeffrey stayed the part of the narrator for the entire performance, and did a nice job.

Ok, now I'm trying to act 'kingly' for the part of one of the three kings/wise men that came to worship baby Jesus.

Very portly wise 'man.'

Dad took a picture of us next to the makeshift stable that Bryce made out of chairs.

And then Jeffrey took a picture of us so dad could also be included.

Isn't Jeffrey handsome with his new glasses, by the way? He seems to be able to see so much better, too.

Christmas carols; Bryce played some songs on the piano, then Jeffrey. We sang maybe 6 songs and were all wiped out and ready for bed, even the kids.

Do you notice the matching jammies Nana made for everyone? We opened them on Christmas Eve, after the nativity and before the caroling, and put them on right away.

Aaaah, the christmas tree. The picture doesn't do it any justice.

Santa's plate of cookies.

He must have liked them. They were gone by morning, and the food the boys left out for Santa's reindeer was also pretty much gone (oatmeal sprinkled in the backyard).

Christmas morning, waiting at the top of the stairs to come check out their loot.

Bryce and Nathan looked so cute opening their stockings together, almost back to back.

Which inspired me to take pics of all three of them in front of the christmas tree. Such handsome boys.

We also tried taking a family picture, but the sun was in our eyes, not to mention the boys were MUCH more interested in playing with their new Christmas toys.

A little thing and a big thing

2009-12-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

A Litte Thing:

Last Sunday Rob got the hiccups just before church. For Rob, hiccups are terrible, because they can last up to 3 days.

Having hiccups on top of
1) conducting church hymns to the entire congregation and
2) singing in an acapella quartet during the church meeting

is a VERY bad combination.

As we drove to church, I started quietly praying for him that his hiccups could abate so he could fulfill his calling and contribute to his quartet. I kept praying the entire 10 min. drive to church, while listening to him hiccup the whole time.

When we arrived at church, my thoughts were distracted w/ my three rambunctious kids, and I have to admit I completely forgot about his hiccups during the entire wonderful Christmas meeting on being of Good Cheer.

When his quartet sang a beautiful medley of different Christmas songs like "O Holy Night" and "Silent Night," it was so touching that it brought tears to my eyes and the warmth of the Spirit to the room.

After church as we were returning home, it dawned on me that I hadn't seen him hiccup once during the meeting, though he was hiccuping again on the car ride home. I explained that I had been praying for him, and he told me he had also been praying all the way to church.

Then he told me that after the opening prayer of the main meeting was said, his hiccups stopped, and after the closing prayer of the same meeting was finished, they started again.

THAT is answer to prayer.

Such a little thing, and yet it really touched me that Heavenly Father is listening to us and our little temporal trials, and is prepared to strengthen us if we but ask.

(And if you want to know, Rob's hiccups continued on and off the rest of that evening and into the next day)

A Big Thing:

I have been feeling labor pains off and on for a good week now, and was pretty sure they were productive. Sure enough, my Thursday dr. appt confirmed I was a 3 and 50% effaced. They continued even more after the dr. appt, through Saturday morning, so close together and strong that I was sure I needed to head to the hospital 3 weeks early. A call to the on-call dr. let me know to drink water first to see if the intense contractions were being caused by dehydration, which they were.

A priesthood blessing from Rob also gave me great comfort and peace of mind, and among many touching and personal things, I was told that this baby will come at the "proper time." Whether that means early or on time, I knew that whenever I go into the hospital, it will be the "right" time for the baby.

Since that blessing, my contractions have slowed down, back to where I feel they're probably not even being productive. This is a very big thing to me, and I am grateful my Heavenly Father is aware of me and my personal worries and concerns.

--------------

Both of these experiences bring to mind a craft block I just made at a recent Super Saturday. It reads:

"Today's test is tomorrow's testimony."

Even though the above experiences are both not huge trials, seeing God respond to even little temporal things strengthens my testimony of a loving Father in Heaven.

'Tis the Season... to LIE

2009-12-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

Called my mommy.

She said, "Oh hi, Kimberly! I just finished making your christmas present this very moment!"

Me: "Oh really. What is it?"

Her: "Um. I forgot."

Love you, mom. : )

Later she said, "Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue!," as though she had almost "remembered" what she made me.

That very second.

See, there is good lying and bad lying. My family is good at the former.* : )

*Rob, however, he's not good at lying, period. He just can't do it, even if it's for a surprise party or a game of Balderdash. But then again, neither can my best friend Tami. *Chuckle*

"No dying until you've finished your chores."

2009-11-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

That is what I told Jeffrey last night as we really cleaned up after a DELICIOUS Thankgsiving dinner that Rob nearly made single-handedly.

As Jeffrey was sweeping he woefully declared that his arms were about to give out, that he had a headache, that his hiccups had only just abated, and a couple of other bodily grievances.

At first I applied the "you may not play the victim role" tactic:
"I have a headache, too, Jeffrey, but the work still needs to get done."
"Yup, this is hard work, isn't it? But it's part of being a family."

But when he said his arms were about to give out on about his fourth round of complaining, I laughed out loud and exclaimed, "I think Jeffrey is dying. Hey, you can't die until you finish sweeping."

Ha ha ha, I'm so funny.

But hey, he stopped complaining. Once he sort of collapsed on the floor, and I was quick to remind him, "No dying until you finish your jobs," and he quickly explained, "I'm just sitting for a moment!"

And then I heard it. The sound & action that every mother wishes for. Jeffrey grunted and spoke out loud to himself something to the effect of "Ok. Gotta get my head in the game and just do it."

HE DECIDED HE WOULD PLUG IN AND PLOW THROUGH the chore. And he got up and did it! In a matter of minutes!!*

Aaaaaaaaah. : )

*If only the kids would realize that in the time they complain, drag their feet, whine, etc (see my all-time FAVORITE parenting comic), they could have completed any requested tasks 3 times over and been off to play.

An Interesting Child

2009-11-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

How I love my little children. I really do.

However, I must admit it's quite interesting to have a son who resists so much. You think as a parent that your kids will just love you when you have that spontaneous spark (ok, ok, that ADD spark), and sometimes skip off to the beach, or take them out of school for a little adventure.

But Jeffrey (10 yrs old) fights these things, and is quite put-out about them. A couple of examples:

--Didn't want to go to the beach last week when we had a day off school. Very strongly expressed that. Quite sullen on the drive down (which I politely ignored).

--Didn't want me to take him out of class on Thursday to visit Bryce's 2nd grade Thanksgiving presentation of some reader's theater skits. The entire time I took him out he kept turning to me with a look of "I don't understand why I have to be here." Most kids would JUMP at the chance to get out of class for a half hour.

--When we were at a fall carnival, Jeffrey rode on a 4-wheeled motorized little jeep with a group of kids. They went around a track several times, and because several of the little kids weren't too good with managing their little jeeps, he often was out "ahead" of the pack, separated from them. He called out to us, "Am I winning?"

We assured him he was winning, just for the fun of it. So, when the ride ended and the attendants told the chidren to stop, Jeffrey had arrived at the finish spot first, before the other kids. The attendant told him to go around again, so he ended up coming in behind the other children. He was very upset that they made him "lose."

Only when we went with the little "winning" illusion and told him that he got a victory lap, and explained they gave him a special treat by letting him go around again, did he change his tune and become excited.

Sigh. I do love him. Sometimes I wish that I could teach him that life doesn't have to be so rigid, that it can be fun and enjoyable.

--ps. Once we got to the beach, Jeffrey had a BALL. He loved it.

But, at all our trips to the pool this summer, where he was terrified of getting stung by a bee, he complained the entire 1-2 hours we spent there each visit.

But I did see him smiling at some of the fun poems and skits in Bryce's class this week, even though his body was tense and I could tell he didn't feel like he was in the right place until I let him go back to his normal routine of class.

--------

Then, there's my middle child, Bryce, another interesting child. He is a 100% kind of boy, and very strong-willed. He can be super excited and bouncy and full of energy while he's in the middle of something that interests him, or tearfully sad, or explosively angry.
When he was younger (about age 2-5 1/2), when he was angry he was defiant, and expressed it by hitting, and then his anger would escalate. Sometimes he would start by hitting the air, then the floor or a wall, and then human beings. Many times I didn't catch him and get him to time out before the escalation of anger blew up in my face, and I would have to carry him to his bed when he was in full hitting, flailing mode. I always carried him so he was facing away from me, so I wouldn't get the brunt of his out-of-control anger.

My friend Robin has started a new blog called Parents helping Parents, and I'd really like to hear from all of you. Click on the link and, in the comments, tell us, what has worked? What hasn't worked? What has helped, and with which child? (i.e. what personality types succeed with which parenting tools as far as you've seen?)

Thank you. For as much parenting help as I've received over the last 10 years, I still find myself worrying, doubting, from time to time. Especially this weekend, when Bryce has been crying all day long, bursting into tears over several little things (wait, he was doing this the last two days, too). Is this a case where I should be looking to see what's really causing the crying (I have no idea), or where I need to show tough love and consequate with losing money (2 cents each time, he earns and loses by 2 cents, Jeffrey by 5, Nathan by 1, but I'm the bank, and 1 penny can buy a popsicle, so it all works out nicely) each time he responds with tears instead of being more mature?

Sigh. Again.

Fantastic Owl-Themed Baby Shower!!

2009-11-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

Last night was my baby shower, hosted by my best friend, Tami.

Since I'm due at the beginning of January, Tami had the shower just before the busiest time of the year (Thanksgiving and Christmas).

I just about died, it was all so perfect. Remember the adorable invitations she already sent out? She kept with the owl theme. Which I love, since I fell in love with my Carter's Tree Tops baby bedding because of the darling owl on the comforter.

The pictures simply don't do the shower justice. The time and effort, the detail, all the special little (and big!) touches made me feel SOOOOO loved. Several girls asked Tami if she'll be their friend, too ("Hint, hint, do MY next baby shower!," they were all thinking). : )

But I'm going to try with the pictures anyway.

Welcome table at a local clubhouse:

This "family tree" has pictures hanging from it, and five of them are all of our baby pictures. 2 of them were from Tami's family. People had to guess Whoo was Whoo, knowing 2 of the pictures didn't belong!

This nest contained the cards for the opening game. Look at those beautiful white feathers!

Here are the cute "guessing" cards. No one guessed all of us right, though most people were pretty good at weeding out the pictures that didn't belong. A lot of people thought Rob's baby pic was me and visa versa. : )

My flash was too strong and too close, so it's hard to see these little miniature blue binkies on their brown-ribbon necklaces, but they were cute. They were the other game. If you said "baby," and got caught, you had to give up your necklace. I think the person with the most necklaces at the end had 5 of them. Of course I lost mine in about the first 2 minutes!

Going around the room, from left to right, after the welcome table, was a nice sitting area.

Next, my woodland animals comforter was set up on display next to the cookie bar.

And what a cookie bar it was! Look at all those gorgeous, fresh home-made cookies, and their presentation! There were little bags you can see at the bottom of the picture that had stickers on them with the owl from my invitation, and people could mix and match cookies and take them home in the little baggies as their party favors.

And look at the beautiful diaper cake in the middle, with the rich brown and blue ribbon, and little miniature binkies attached to each layer!

Swinging around to the right were banquet tables set up end to end, with a blue runner, miniature bird's nests, apples, & fresh flowers that had similar blue and brown ribbons wrapped around their vases (I took a new pic of the flowers as they sat on my mantle this morning, so you can see just how pretty they are).

The tables were next to a mirror, and you can see the food table in the background.

And of course the food was DELICIOUS, since Tami served things I'm craving, like chicken salad sandwiches with cashews, purple grapes, celery & chicken, with a twist of ranch dressing mixed w/ mayo. Mmm mmm. I took this pic before everything was set out, though. Can you see that fresh fruit behind the wraps? Happy sigh. I'm still full.

Here is my yummy & pretty chocolate cake. I know you're asking, "Well, what did everyone else eat?" But I was really nice.

I shared.

Some ladies, eating. I loved seeing so many great friends; "school" moms (we meet when our kids are in the same classes, and bond quickly), neighbors (I have an AWESOME neighborhood, it's one of the reasons I never want to move), and gals from church (I also have a great ward/congregation, yet another reason I love right where I live).

Some ladies, chatting (ok, well, a lot of them stopped chatting when Tami snapped the pic).

More chatty ladies. That's what we do best. I loved every minute!

One of my gifts, a home made "rag" quilt from my neighbor Hope, which I took a picture of this morning.

I would also post the picture of the home-made hooded towel my sneaky cousin Shelly sent Tami from Illinois, that Tami quietly nestled in with the rest of the gifts. But it's already upstairs in the bathroom where the boys were quite excited over who got to use it first.

A picture of Tami and me at the end of the shower. Awww. The perfect ending to a lovely night. (And if you look at the cookie bar you can see it was a hit. Even though Tami replenished it all night, pretty much ALL the cookies went home with the guests.)

Well, actually, it was made even better when she came over to my house later that night and we sat and re-lived the shower together, which I always love to do after something memorable.

Again, what else can I say but give a HAPPY, contented SIGH, and cuddle up with some of the baby's new, soft blankets and stuffed animals? And tease my kids about letting them "eat" a piece of the diaper cake???

Life is good.

Preggo Pics

2009-11-10T11:34:00.000-08:00

Ahem.

My mom has been asking for preggo pics.

So, here they are. This was cute, as both Bryce and Nathan came to cuddle up after dinner, and both fell soundly asleep on me.

I think this one was after church. I'm trying to remember to have Rob snap pics here and there so posterity can see how fat I get when I'm pregnant. And FYI, pregnancy clothes that fit me during previous pregnancies are already too small! And I have 2 more months to go!

This pic is also taken on a Sunday ('cuz I actually straighten my hair and wear makeup most Sundays) to show off my new crib bedding for baby #4. I'm in love with this adorable bedding! And look at that precious mobile!

I think this was the weekend of Time Out For Women, which I LOVED!

Do you like my costume? Original, right? (I dressed up as Barefoot and pregnant, of course)

Tami and me at Super Saturday last weekend, in front of the "Sweet Shop" sweets table, so this is the most updated pic. Boy, I'm big. Tami looks gorgeous, though.

And how could I post preggo pics w/out a notable mention going out to Nathan, who one night decided *he* would play pregnant, and fell asleep that way?

The work of a 2 year old. Or a pregnant woman.

2009-11-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

You'd think a little kid would overfill the kitty's food, right?

Wrong. It was me. The one time I have fed the cat in, like, the 7 years we've owned her. The whole lid came off when I was pouring.

I'll leave feeding the cat to Rob.

Thanks, Tami!

2009-11-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

Isn't this the most adorable owl invite?
Can you see the cute glitter she put on the owl's beak, tummy spots, tree branch and leaves?
And look how it's matted with the most perfect bamboo paper (you can feel the texture on the actual card).
And the beautiful brown ribbon!

(Of course I changed the actual address and phone number so the internets can't hunt us down and find out exactly where we live)

; )

Insomnia is getting OLD really fast.

2009-10-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Wonder where I've been? (i.e. very few blog post updates lately) Certainly not asleep.

Sigh.

I'll bet sleep deprivation is a very effective form of torture.

Lost in Translation

2009-10-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

Lost in what translation, you may ask?

The children's translation, of course:

This is my life concisely worded in a two-panel comic strip!

The stuff dreams are made of

2009-09-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

My sweet friend Mita (mee-tah) recently shared with me a vivid dream she had:

**************
In the dream, she and I were sitting together, going through all my baby clothes. She turned to me and exclaimed with great emphasis, "Kimberly, you HAVE to stop buying pink!"

And I replied to her, "But Mita, the baby won't know the difference!"
**************

Bwaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

I LOVED this dream of hers! What Mita doesn't know is that this summer I was joking with friends/family in UT about just dressing this boy in girl clothes for awhile so I could get my "girl" fix.

Vanversations a la Witch: The kid is sharp!

2009-09-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

We were driving somewhere as a family, and something struck me as quite funny. I gave a hearty laugh, which almost sounded more like a cackle.

Rob commented, "My goodness, mommy is cackling like a witch!"

Bryce piped up, "Ok mommy, I'll make you a broom."

You know you're living in 2009 when...

2009-09-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

1. You accidentally enter your pin on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses...
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 40+) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10... You get up in the morning and go online before eating breakfast.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :-)
12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to email this funny list.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

AND NOW YOU ARE LAUGHING at yourself.

: )

Cold feet? After 12 years of marriage?!?

2009-09-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

Last night my husband was lying in bed and turned to me, declaring solemnly:

"Kimberly, I've got cold feet.

And it's your fault."

He had fallen asleep in his Sunday clothes, and in an effort to help him out, I had pulled off his Sunday socks and thrown them in the laundry, but decided that was already too much work, so got ready for bed myself.

Then, without thinking, leaving his feet uncovered, I turned on a fan that blew frigid air RIGHT on his dainty little toesies.

No wonder he got "cold feet!"

But lucky for me, he got up, put on some socks, and was happy again, even with the fan blasting. (I even run fans in the winter when I'm pregnant)

Phew. "Happy Feet," and our marriage is safe. ; )

Too funny not to post!*

*And if you haven't noticed, I love feet. Notice how many pictures of feet I have put in one post.

Being judged sucks

2009-09-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

I wish I could just shrug it off. I wish I weren't already judging myself so harshly anyway. I wish I were not so sensitive and hurt when people judge me in public.*

I wish I could even pretend it doesn't hurt. It's embarrassing to admit it hurts, and I feel quite vulnerable as well for yet another "weakness" of mine.

But it hurts. And even though there's a period where anger flares and I want to reply with a pointed comeback (afterward, of course; always delayed reaction--and I wouldn't say it anyway), my final reaction (after the embarrassment, the guilt, some anger, and then more guilt) is always sorrow.

Sorrow that I'm not being a "good enough" mom. Sorrow that someone else--who doesn't know me, or all my children's ups and downs--is making a snapshot judgment based on maybe a 30 second slice of observation, and from that quick observation, perceives my children to be hooligans and/or me to be a lenient/negligent mom.

Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words (and even just looks and/or whispers) hurt much, much more.

*What happened tonight:
It's the very end of summer, my boys have spent all their time with me while school is out, and being in and out of stores while I run my errands is the last thing that they want to do. Tonight I ran in to Walmart for a handful of items after we had shared a lovely dinner and browsed through BabiesRUs. The boys were bored and bouncy, and I let them each push a cart, which they thought was hilarious to connect the three together by holding onto each succeeding cart.

I didn't see any harm in this, because it kept their attention and they were playing together (key emphasis on PLAYING, not FIGHTING) so that I could focus on my shopping. I did reprimand them several times whenever I thought they were being too boisterous or not courteous if someone else was in the same isle as us. I also let Jeffrey take the other two to the bathroom to buddy system so Nathan could go potty, and they were very playful as they came back.

However, the store was nearly empty, it was almost 10 pm & was our last stop of the evening. (Remember it's the end of summer, and Rob's at work anyway; there was no incentive be home and in bed by 8 pm. Plus, managing time well is certainly one of my HUGE deficiencies)

I paused as we were walking out, and showed Jeffrey a magnifying glass in an office supply isle, and we all enjoyed seeing how cool it was, and I mentioned he could come back and buy it with his money if he wanted to.

Then I said "Come on, we're leaving," and started heading out of the isle. Because my children do not come (clearly another shortcoming of my parenting skills) immediately, and I am impatient, I just start walking toward the checkout, saying, "Well, it was nice knowing you," which for some reason is normally a cue line for them and then they come.

Except they didn't. I got around the corner from the isle, now out of sight, and walked past about two more isles, then paused and turned back when I realized they hadn't followed.

At the same moment two employees passed me and quickly overtook the isle they were in. Apparently, my kids had *just then* decided it was fun to jump in and out of the carts. The employees were swift and firm in stopping the boys, which was appropriate, and I appreciate, even though I was mad at myself they they had to intervene since the children's parent, me, wasn't right with them like I should have been.

I was only 2 feet from the employees & my kids, barely blocked by a middle-isle display, opening my mouth to thank the employees and apologize for having walked away from my kids.

Right then, a woman who must have come closer when she heard the boys being reprimanded, turned to the two employees and said, with much disdain in her voice, something to the effect of "These boys are just awful. I've seen them all over the store," and a few more sentences pretty much saying they were out of control (and inferred that they were completely unattended).

I just caught a glimpse of her hair and clothes, because I didn't step forward enough to see her face or let her see the mom she was scathingly judging (and goodness forbid I was going to let her see I was pregnant with yet another child and think "What's wrong with her? She can't even handle the children she has! And she'll let the next one run wild too!"). But even though I didn't see her face, I know I had not seen her one other time in the store, and can only assume she saw the boys going to or from the bathroom, which I do admit they did quite jovially (which was actually sweet to me; I thought they were cute).

Anyway, her words still shouldn't affect me. I certainly wasn't being an effective mom; if I had been right with my children I would have stopped them immediately if they had attempted jumping into or out of the carts. This woman was a stranger. The employees were in the right, and, in fact, I was quite grateful for their intervention and was embarrassed that not 10 seconds from the time I walked away from them, they were being dangerous. I should have stayed with them, and of course now will not leave their side, nor will I allow them to buddy system to the bathroom without me anymore.

But it does affect me. I'll never see this woman again, yet now I wonder if the other handful of Walmart shoppers were also disgusted with my boisterous children and thinking, "What a terrible mother. What terrible children."

And I shouldn't care whether or not they think that. People are always judging, and I admit that I judge too. We all do. But I also try to stop myself and say, "You know what, I don't know their situation, and it's not mine to judge." Or give people the benefit of the doubt: "It may be that if they knew some effective techniques, they would be so happy to know they have the power over many teaching situations." I know how thrilled I've been every time I learn new tools and techniques in effectively raising my children, and sometimes think, "Oh, if I only knew this last year!"

Regardless, I shouldn't care what other people think. I know when I'm a good mom, and I know where my strengths lie, even if people don't happen to see the snapshots of the effective moments. I am also quite self-conscious of my ever-frustrating weaknesses. And then there are areas I don't consider myself deficient, but where I am quite lax because I don't see them as "deal-breakers" (i.e. dangerous situations) or battles I'm going to pick. I am ok with that, because I know my children, and I know how much they learn from natural consequences, and I try not to let it bother me if others are unapproving of those situations. So why do I care what other people think? And why does it hurt so much?

Maybe because usually I don't hear it spoken out loud, I can only wonder if someone might be judging, and quickly assume that they're probably thinking quite little abt. me and more abt. their own life?

I just wish people would realize that most of us are judging ourselves pretty harshly already and we don't need other people to heap on more judgment so we can feel even more guilty and disappointed in ourselves.

I knew this day would come.

2009-08-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

It happened.

I knew it was coming.

Someone thought that Jeffrey (a 10 year old, mind you!!) dyes his hair. *chuckle*

Btw, in these pics he's holding his new cousin, Samuel Coulam, at a family reunion in Brian Head.

Here's one of the whole family (except me) at a very cool tourist spot in Virgin, UT, just outside of Zion Natl. Park. You can see Jeffrey's *natural* red hair pretty well.

*Notice Rob's dark brown hair.

And here's one that includes me at our Zion campsite
(which was H-O-T!!).

**Notice my brown hair.

* & **Thus, usually people ask where Jeffrey gets his red hair. First I joke, "The milkman," ; ) but then explain it's from Rob's grandpa.

You know you're the younger generation when...

2009-08-27T09:08:00.001-07:00

...you're speaking to an audience and, desiring to know what time it is for the length of your talk, you declare:

"I need a phone."

(As opposed to asking for a watch, all you younguns who are thinking, "What's so funny about that?")

I laughed out loud last night when our young speaker at a church function asked for a cell phone to tell the time. And yes, someone gave her their cell phone, which she referred to throughout her talk to be sure she wasn't going over on time.

It would have been REALLY funny if I had handed her my (*gasp*) non-digital watch and she couldn't read it.

Full transcript of Nathan's Bedtime Prayer:

2009-08-26T16:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank Thee for this day.
Thank Thee for myself.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.

(I was chuckling for days!)

Random Comment

2009-08-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

We were driving from CA to UT on Aug. 4th and had stopped at a gas station one of MANY times for the needs of Nathan's little bladder. As he and I walked hand in hand back to the van, he declared:

"Mom, I'm not actually a real scientist."

Me: Oh, really. How's that? (Extremely amused, as he's never made any comments about being any sort of scientist, real or not)

Nathan: I'm a fake scientist. Because fake scientists eat candy.

Yes, love. It all makes sense now. Perfect sense.

I love being a mom. All the hard times are worth it, just for the funny, random comments that come out of their minds and mouths.

(Well, and the precious cuddly or aha moments that come along once in awhile. And lots of other reasons, too, that I just can't think of right now.)

Adoption

2009-08-01T15:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel frustrated at my trials.

Yet I keep learning that our trials are different. While my trial may to be to parent my children as an emotionally healthy mom, someone else's trial may be how desperately they want to become a mother.

I was frustrated to try for over a year before I got pregnant because it's never taken me that long to get pregnant before. My best friend didn't get pregnant until her 5th IUI (intra-uterine insemination) after already trying normally for well over 2 years, and a friend of mine in Houston tried for 11 years before she had a baby. This week we were grieved to learn that a cousin who did conceive successfully (her first baby), gave birth to a stillborn. Our trials are many and varied. Others among my friends and family members are also still trying to obtain that most precious gift of life.

My cousin, Vaughn, and his wife, Christie, are just one such couple who most tenderly want to adopt a baby. I'll post their letter below. I have bolded some of their sentences for more emphasis. And of course PLEASE contact them if you know of any birth moms who are considering giving a baby up for adoption (or have the birth mom contact them, or contact me if that's more comfortable).

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this letter finds you well. As you may already know, we have felt spiritually inspired to begin the process to adopt an infant through LDS Family Services. We were recently approved as prospective adoptive parents and are so excited. We are now writing to seek your help as we move ahead in the adoption process.

Through the education classes we have attended, we have become much more informed about the adoption process. We have learned the agency typically does not select the adoptive parents. To the extent possible, that decision is left solely to the birth parent(s). Unfortunately, only 1 to 2 percent of unplanned pregnancies result in adoption. Because of this, there are many more families waiting to adopt than birth parents who decide to place their child through adoption. This means that there is no particular time frame in which an infant will be placed with us.

We have also learned about "designated" adoptions where a birth mother selects an adoptive couple before the birth mother visits an agency. Nearly 30% of birth mothers who come into LDS Family Services have already selected the adoptive couple before their first visit. This is not because the adoptive couple and birth mother knew each other, but most often because someone in the adoptive couple's network of family and friends (ward members, neighbors, co-workers, friends in the community, friend-of-a-friend, etc.) was somehow connected to the birth mother.

We have already had several spiritual experiences during the adoption process and have a strong testimony that our Heavenly Father is deeply involved in this important work. We know that the Spirit can work through you to help us match with the right birth mother.

If you become aware of a birth mother who is looking to place her child in a loving home, we would appreciate your help in recommending us to her.

If the birth mother or anyone would like more information, they may go to our online profile, which provides additional photos and information concerning our background, family, careers, hobbies, and interests.

Anyone can also contact us at (801) 663-6115 or vaughnandchristie@yahoo.com. Or contact our caseworker, Deborah Henrie, and LDS Family Services at (801) 979-9128.

We also ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are so grateful to have so many loving and supportive family an friends. Thank you for all you do for us.

Love,
Vaughn and Christie

The trick...

2009-08-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

The only way your child learns is by watching you, so parenting is really about evolving yourself. Doesn't matter if you tell them to be polite; they will be if you are. If you rush, they'll learn rushing is how you live.

The trick is to be the person I want her to be.

Helen Hunt

"150% Pure Boy"

2009-07-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

UPDATED 7/29/09 (daily grats added in at the bottom)

Those were almost the exact words of the ultrasound technician today when she confirmed that we are indeed having our 4th boy, due Jan. 4th, 2010!

I had what's called a routine "first screening" at 12 weeks with a high-tech ultrasound machine to look for the possibility of a down-syndrome baby, and that's when the technician said she was 75% sure it was a boy.

So...there was that 25% hope...even among all my boys (who all want a sister), but today we now know for sure we have another little boy joining our family. : ) Look out world! It looks like we're working on a basketball team!*

*If you say baseball team I may clobber you--I don't intend on having 9 children!

Daily Grats:

1. Bella bands. Best invention ever for pregnant ladies. I've never had one before (they didn't exist when I was pregnant w/ Nathan). It's really helping for the in-between period where you just look fatter but pregnancy clothes would drown you, while your own jeans don't fit if you try to zip or button them.

2. Looking pregnant. Because of my bella band, I can wear my normal jeans and I look pregnant. A vanity, I know, but I have always looooooooved looking pregnant, seeing my little baby bump grow, knowing there's a little life growing in there!

3. Nathan's swimming teacher. After two years of fruitless lessons, I paid more for a private teacher that I was told was strict and very effective. And he is. Today is Nathan's 4th lesson, and he's swimming at least a yard, even though he's still crying about it. A week ago, he wouldn't even put his head under water.

4. Going to my ultrasound yesterday with my best friend, Tami. The best girlfriend outing ever, to look at a precious little baby moving around on the monitor and ooh and aaah like little girls.

5. My husband. How did I get him? And how cool is it that he gets better over time? I mean, he doesn't have to impress me anymore. He caught me. But he just keeps proving his worth, often without even complaining about all my weaknesses.

Nathan's take on bedtime cuddling

2009-07-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

Nathan's perspective is, should I say, most interesting?

Last night reminded me of one of his strong opinions that he has voiced for several months now.

Occasionally I lie down with Nathan at bedtime to help settle him down. He consistently cries with great concern:

"Mommy, if you stay here, in the morning we will be sad. Because you'll break the bed!"

So much for tired little cuddling kiddos pleading, "Don't go yet, mommy!"

The Wilsons and the Angels

2009-07-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

(I am in no way saying the Wilsons are angels. Believe me.)

I don't know if you can tell from this pic, but we had GREAT seats.

We were in section 106, row H. Seriously, we were only 7 rows back, right behind 3rd base.

And could the pic be any better? If you look closely, the pitcher had just thrown the ball, which happened to be right over home base as I snapped the pic, and the Angels batter was in mid-swing. If only Nathan wasn't standing right in front of me as I took the pic, you wouldn't see the back of the top of his hat.

Too bad Rob had to work. : (

The Angels beat the Minnesota Twins 14 to 10.

The Angels got 9 of their 11 runs in the 4th inning!

For some reason we lucked out today, as it was the first time ever that California Pizza Kitchen gave away free ceramic "Rally" coin banks to all the kids who attended the game. So all three boys got one, and they've already added some coins once we got home.

If the free Angels "piggy" banks weren't enough, the Angels scored at least 10 runs, which means the entire stadium 'earned' their wings--buffalo wings, that is. We picked Rob up and brought him to Claim Jumper. With our four tickets, we shared four dishes of buffalo wings for FREE! So we bought a HUGE eclair for dessert that our family could hardly finish!

And do you think the boys didn't have enough fun with the Angels game, the free piggy banks, AND the free buffalo wings at Claim Jumper?

Of course they didn't! At home they're doing what boys do best--wrestling.

Jivin' July Grats

2009-07-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

1. Feeling the baby move. Sometimes every other day, but lately 2-3 times a day. One of the most tender parts of being a mama-to-be. To feel life inside you is indescribable, but we still try because it is so special.

2. Bryce totally getting into being a Wolf Cub Scout, skimming his scout book and then reading and doing portions of it. He is so self-motivated!

3. Jeffrey making the best breakfasts--smoothies are his new passion, and they're pretty yummy.

4. Nathan: "Mommy, the water sounds crooked." Random!

Or, one of his prayers: "Thank Thee for our stuff, and for the things we have, and for more stuff."

Or, a conversation of ours:

Me, at the grocery store, getting out of the van: Come on, Nathan, hurry up!
Nathan: I just want to stay in here. You just go quick.
Me: No. You'd melt! (And by the way, for the record, I don't let him stay while I go in, though he does continue to ask, especially at boring stores like Home Depot or Joanns)
Nathan: What?
Me: You'd melt! It's hot! Come ON!
Nathan: How would I melt?
Me: (Now pulling him out of the van) You would get tired and not have enough water in your body, honey. It's hot!
Nathan: (After a thoughtful pause) Oh, is it a figure of speech?

Too smart, that one. : ) He took me literally at first though. I saw those gears turning at the possibility of humans melting like a crayon on hot pavement.

5. My boys. Did I mention my boys? I love them so much, and thoroughly enjoyed playing "It Came to Pass" with them this evening and reading the scriptures with them. We even enjoy calling Rob on the phone at work and putting him on speaker phone for family prayer since he's often at work when it's bedtime (though of course we would rather he were home.

Anyway, I love my boys' quirky personalities.

Bryce with his go-get-'em attitude (even though the downside of his 100%-involved nature is that when he's mad or upset, he fumes or wails like nothing else for a few minutes), Nathan being sharp as a tack and using his inquisitiveness to figure things out all the time, and Jeffrey's laugh when he finds things funny--he loves a good funny bit, whether it be a joke or a youtube video, a pun, or a family goof, like me (or him!) putting the milk in the cupboard because we're not paying attention.

Lazy Way to Post Pics

2009-07-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Bryce's baptism was wonderful, as were all the friends who came to support him. Of course I haven't even downloaded any pics off my camera yet.

But, never fear!

My mama, who came out 2 weeks early and helped me LIKE CRAZY to get ready, wrote about the weekend and posted great pics already!

http://croppertunities.blogspot.com/2009/07/california-there-i-went.html

Why write a great blog post when you can steal one that's already been done? ; )

Bryce is 8!

2009-07-05T19:21:00.000-07:00

Bryce turned 8 on Thursday, and has chosen to be baptised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I'm so excited for and proud of him!

Here is his invite. You can click on it to see his cutie pics more closely:

Cub Day Camp 2009

2009-06-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Cub Scout Day Camp 2009 was, of course, TERRIFIC! The boys all had such a fantastic time. Jeffrey was a Webelo (10 yr old cub), Bryce a Wolf (8 yr old cub), and Nathan went to sibling camp, dedicated to kids too young to attend the regular festivities (ages 3-7).

I couldn't find my camera this week. So. You get lots of pics, just not of anybody I know. I want to at least present a good snapshot of how many things occurred in 5 days, from 8 am-1:30 pm each day:

The theme this year: The American Adventure.

Webelos, Bears (9 yr olds), and Wolves= light blue shirts (and if you see them in red, those are pics from last year, 2008)

Adult volunteers= royal blue shirts,

Staff= forest green shirts,

Youth volunteers= orange shirts

Siblings= regular green shirts

The "main" meeting place, without all the people. Each flag represents an entire den (4-18 kids), and you can only see about a third of the flags!

The main meeting place, WITH people. Wowsa. And we were the morning session. There's still another whole session in the afternoon, repeating everything we did in the morning. Again, you can only see about 1/3 of the whole group in this pic.

Den flags. Each den paints one. LOADS of fun for the boys.

Several scouts patiently listen to instructions to start off a rotation; each den has 5 rotations a day. (Except that kid in the middle with glasses who's grinning and smiling for the camera while covering his ears!)

This is Sibling Camp, where anyone who's not old enough to join the rest of the stuff gets to stay, so moms can volunteer toddler-free! Bryce attended sibling camp the last two years and loved it, as did Nathan.

I couldn't find a shot of the playground, but I liked how sibling camp was set up, in a shady area with its own crafts and whatnot, right next to a great playground.

Woodworking. Another fave. HUGE fave. This year Bryce made a toolbox, Jeffrey made a boat with a propeller.

Tug-of-War

Go-Carts

Lunchtime! Another fave--the kids would go buy snacks each day, usually candy or ice cream.

The den sits together in the main area eating our lunches. I sign Nathan out of sibling camp to come eat with all of us.

Our GREAT youth volunteers. They are all over the place, and really help camp run. And their energy and vitality is infectious. : )

Aquatics. Only for Webelos, so this was Jeffrey's first year canoeing, kayaking, rafting, etc. Something different every day until water wars on Friday.

And.... here it's Friday. Let the water wars begin! The cubs throw soft balls at each other that sit in a tub of water.

And.... this is AFTER the water wars. Bryce was literally swimming in the mud at the end, wallowing like a cute little piggy! I don't think we'll ever get his clothes clean!

ARCHERY!!! Need I say more? Hands down the BEST part of cub camp. And it's one rotation every single day, so the cubs get to shoot EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Jeffrey's a great shot. He hit a perfect bulls-eye on Friday, and then I also hit a bulls-eye right after him!

Bottle rockets. Notice this dad volunteer getting in on the action. : )

More bottle rockets. Do you see the straight shot of water going up? The youth volunteer is sure getting wet!

And all of these pictures are only a snapshot of the week. I didn't find shots of the games they played, the hikes they took, the raising and on Friday, retiring of an old flag, the entertainment program each day during the final half hour of cub camp, the "caught-being-good" coins they earned and could trade in for small toys, marbles, cooking over open fires, etc, etc, etc!

And then our pack had a huge pizza pool party where we gave the boys all the awards they earned during the week. It was quite the blow-out.

Speaking of which, I'm exhausted!

So. We meet again, Laundry! (i.e. Household Nemesis)

2009-06-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

After a nice chat, my friend was on her way out the door today, saying, "I gotta go do laundry. I swear, my laundry is having babies."

LOL!!

Isn't it true? How is it that no matter how much laundry you do, it seems to grow at a faster rate than you can wash/fold/put away!!

(This deceptive little chick is entirely too cute; he makes doing laundry look adorable!)

Daily Grats!

2009-06-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

1. The sun! The sun came out!

Emo, on a kid who is locked inside all the time: "My parents had one rule. NEVER open the "cellar" door....
But one day, it was unlocked, and I just had to see what was behind that door. I opened it, looked out, and saw--- trees, grass, flowers; the sun--oh yeah, the sun, *that* was nice."

2. My parents got an offer on their home, and both sets of parents may have jobs SOON!

3. Nathan's adorable comments:
--"Mom, what's the elbow on my leg called?" (knee)

--In the morning, when I needed to do several housework items and told Nathan I was not going to play Zelda just so he could watch me:
"Mom, Heavenly Father wants you to play Zelda" (recognizes we consider God to be an authority greater than parents, so when I tell him "no" to something, lately, he'll quite sincerely use God to try and get around my answer. Another example is:
"Heavenly Father will be happy if I get one more drink of water and then go back to bed."

--Leaving a several story building: "Mom, what was the alligator called again? We just came down the alligator."
Me: "The elevator?"
Nathan: "Ohhhh yeaaaaah! The elevator!"

--Going to a well check-up: "Mom, are they going to choke me?" (due to a strep test over a month ago)
Me: "No."
Nathan: "Are they going to choke my ear?" (due to them cleaning the wax out of his ears a few days earlier, a painful experience for him)
Me: "No, honey. They're all done. They won't choke you or hurt your ear."
Nathan: (covering ALL his bases) "Are they going to hurt me at all?
Me: (as I wince) "Yes, honey. Today you get lots of shots." Luckily he was very brave about them.

4. Jeffrey's good attitude when doing homework. He had a good attitude Monday, and it made *such* a difference!

5. Tomorrow's the last day of school! As much as I'm not ready for school to be out due to the extra messiness, I am SOOO excited to have my kids home!

The Gospel, According to Jeffrey

2009-06-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

Adorable Sunday notes--

How can I not share some of Jeffrey's sporadic notes that he has taken during different sacrament meetings? I've tried to retype exactly as he wrote as I transfer most of his written notes to Word, for posterity (or maybe blackmail, hee hee hee, or just teenage embarrassment...). I have italicized what I think are the cutest ways he writes things, the funny ways he thinks:

What I know.
Before you were
born, we were all in heavin.
And lucipher (who is saitin) was a
good man. Then,
he wanted to rule everbody.
they had a fight and god won.

When you die,
it's not actuly
a bad thing.
You get
to go to
heavin, you
get to be
a teenageor,
and heavin
is the
best place
to live!
Well not really,
it's really the cellestial kingdom. [As if the celestial kingdom were something different than heaven.... Ooh, and to get to be a teenager!]

We see faith in
Jesus Christ, and the gospel.
The gospel teaches us
about god and what's
happening with
him. Why do
some people not go
to church? Because
people like to play
twoday instead of just
saterday. Everyone
needs to go
to church. If you
do not go to church,
you will not live a happy way. [That one just cracks me up. We'd better get over being sick and having to stay home from church-I want to live "a happy way"]

We can
all be a good exsample.
You've studyed more
than ever before.
We know that we
live for a long time.
How important
are the things we do
today? Most important.
You need to work
more for your parents
(except sundays). On sunda-
ys, ye shall read
scriptures by working,
especaly when you
are a missionary. [Another one that just cracks me up; "No, mom, I can't help clear the table today. It's SUNDAY. I should be working on reading my scriptures"]

And my very favorite of all:

If ye are idal [idle], ye are crazy. Ye shall not be crazy.

*wipes tears from eyes* What an enjoyable morning. Cute kiddo!

Finding spider egg sacks...

2009-06-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

...is much preferred to NOT finding them, and then noticing hundreds of little itty bitty black widows around.

*shudder*

Even better is realizing the black spider next to said egg sacks is not a black widow. Double phew!

It's the END of the World!

2009-06-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Nathan declared that today is the end of the world.

Why, you ask? Because he cannot STAND taking baths, and today I reiterated that he still needs to take a bath almost every day, even if he's not terribly "dirty."

After that, from the bathtub, he declared multiple times that today is the "last day," i.e. The END of the WORLD!!!,

so he doesn't have to take a bath tomorrow!

What's really funny is that once he gets into the bath for a few minutes, he plays for quite some time. So I don't know what the initial aversion is, but it was the same way with his naps (when he took them, aaah, what nice days those were).

Daily Gratitudes:
1. Telephone. This morning I have ticked off at least four pressing items by telephone. Quick, done, ta da.
2. Friends. I just love my friends. They make life bearable (this doesn't exclude family, who I also consider "friends," not just people that have to put up with me no matter what).
3. Music. My students played fantastically Sat. morning at a nursing home, and shared their talents with at least 30 of the wheel-chaired residents that were gathered in the main dining room. I loved hearing all of them and they did a GREAT job!
4. Sleep. And Rob, who lets me sleep. Right now, I've bumped up from 9-10 hrs to 11-12 if I can swing it. Sweet sleep.

It's time to do some minor EDITING

2009-05-23T11:49:00.001-07:00

You know you're a computer junkie when you look through your mending pile next to the sewing machine and think,

"These clothes need some small edits."

May Day Gratitudes

2009-05-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

Daily Gratitudes:

1. Kevin!
He not only took my recycle bin out to the street for me, he voluntarily took out my stinky, gross garbage bin out to the street as well (and I'm not even sure if he knows that Rob is pulling 14 hour days right now).

And if you thought that wasn't enough (I was really convinced it was), THEN he brought over warm chocolate chip cookies. If only more men knew the way to a woman's heart (which is by doing housework--chocolate is just a bonus). Kevin is my hero today.

2. Tami, Kevin's wife
She was my hero yesterday! Since a pest control guy was coming out, we had to clear the baseboards in our homes, and I put a lot of items out on the driveway in the morning to make room so I *could* get to clearing away the edges of the garage. But by midmorning I had several appts, and only stopped at the house briefly between them.

I had fleeting worries that someone might come by and steal any or all of the stuff in my driveway; the boys' bikes, scooter, wagon, jogger, Little Tykes Car, card tables, a large portable basketball stand, and a sports center that can be used for basketball, baseball, football, hockey, and golf. But I hoped for the best.

The first time I came home I immediately noticed--Hey! The sports center is missing! Now, you may think I would feel robbed, but I was thrilled; the one thing the took was thing I've been trying to get rid of on freecycle and no one wants because the digital part doesn't work anymore.

So later, I asked Tami the story, of which Kevin, my hero today, also has a part. She saw someone drive by my house real slow in a white truck, circle the block, and drive by again, then back up, stop, get out, look, ring my doorbell, look, pause forever, then ring my doorbell again and wait some more. I'm hoping that means they were decent enough not to just steal the stuff, but Tami is more realistic that they wanted to make sure I wasn't home before they took off w/ all our things. She relays to Kevin that the sports center is up for grabs, and asks him to go find out what these people are up to.

So Kevin goes over to see what's up, and they want to buy some of my kids' stuff! He explains how we're getting sprayed for ants today and that I was simply cleaning out my garage to prepare, but that if they wanted something for free, they could have the sports center, which they take!

Yippee! Thanks for getting it gone and protecting the rest of my junk! Thank you for great neighbors and fantastic friends!

3. Humor
So tonight, I'm using these individual "cat" wet wipes that come w/ our kitty litter, some new promotion touting that they're "safe for use around cats." Ok, pretty common sense.

So I use them to clean up the outside of the litter box, and as I'm throwing away the little individual packet I have this habit of reading EVERYTHING, and I scan the directions on the back. You may not think this is so funny, but I laughed out loud at the funniest instruction:

"Do not use directly on cats."

I mean, really? Wet wipes? On a cat? That's like the ironing directions that say "Don't iron clothing that you are currently wearing." You KNOW they only added that label because some moron (ok, LOL I typed "mormon" first, is that a freudian slip? If it is, I would probably be the mormon having an ADD moment) had no common sense and wet-wiped their cat. Or got 2nd degree burns from ironing themself. And probably sued the companies---(insert whiny voice) "...But there was no warning on the label!...."

I can just imagine the wet-wiped cat that gave itself a bath and ended up at the vet for orally ingesting wet wipe chemicals.

4. (Cue hallelujah music!)
A little piece of plastic that you pee on. And believe me, it wouldn't be under daily gratitudes if there was only one line showing up. So I'm excited (and grateful!) for the nausea and exhaustion I'm feeling. And the blood I gave today that should confirm #4 is on the way. After more than a year of trying, all I can say is, "Finally." : )

5. Priesthood blessings*
Late last night, when I was sick with a sore throat (on top of the morning sickness and fatigue), Rob gave me a blessing around midnight, when he finally got home from work. It was like sweet music to my ears.

I felt so comforted, my sore throat has been kept at bay as promised, and I was told some precious things about being a better mother and preparing for this pregnancy. I felt this strength throughout today that left me with peace and honestly I was a really good mom today, and I felt helped. I was humbled that I was told not to get mad at Jeffrey and take out my frustrations with my ADD symptoms on him when he displays the same symptoms, but to make it a common bond between us. It was like a different world today when I apologized to him and interacted with him without having such a short fuse.

6. My blog--
For some reason all the words and links in the right column of my blog got squished down to the bottom of the blog posts for nearly a month, and tonight, the first time I posted this (yes, I'm one of those who re-reads it six or more times only to make more itty bitty edits until it's "just right"), all my stuff showed back up on the right-hand side! Yay invisible blogger fix-it genie!

7. My Mama. (updated because of the comment she left me)

Awww. Thank you for your comment, mom. It made my day. I guess I should actually stop procrastinating and finish these scout awards, but instead I was checking my email and saw that you commented.

*I predict that many who read my blog are mormon (because I know you through family or church), but if you're not, and you ever want to know what the dealio I'm talking about with some words or phrases, like "priesthood blessings," you can email me or write a comment and I'll let you know.

I never want anyone to feel excluded from any mormon jargon I use, but I also don't want to explain everything like I've been doing so far, as I've been worrying y'all might feel like I'm preaching. The truth is, I share what I want to share, when I want to.

A lot of times it's funny, sometimes it's just something that strikes my fancy, a lot of times it's sarcastic, sometimes it's funny because of the religious context, and even sometimes, it's spiritual and/or serious. As you can tell even just with the order of my daily gratitudes, my posts are about as random as my thoughts, so you get what you get, when it comes. *grin* I mean, today I have a couple of whimsical gratitudes sandwiched between some real sincere whoppers (the whimsicals are #3 & #6, of course).

Anyhoo, religion is a part of who I am so it just comes out in a lot of posts. (And no, Kevin, I'm not writing this part just for you.) ; ) It's for people who blog-hop from other blogs that I probably haven't met in person.

A Mommy Minute

2009-05-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were driving to Scout-O-Rama and the boys asked the classic question:

How much longer? (Not far, my little smurfs) ; )

I wasn't sure, so I said, maybe 5 min, maybe 10.

Bryce piped up, "Mommy* minutes?"

Thanks a lot, dear.

Then Rob rubbed lemon into my poor time skills wound by retorting, "Bryce has you figured out!"

*In this context, Bryce meant "mommy" minutes to be minutes that drag out WAAAAAY longer than real minutes. They could mean different things for diff. families. But this mommy isn't good with time management.

I'll pass; I'm good.

2009-05-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

When we take the sacrament (like communion) each week, mormons consider it to be symbolic of renewing the covenants we made at baptism, to repent of any sins we committed during the week and start fresh.

So I thought it was pretty funny today when a friend of mine shared that recently her daughter left her speechless as the sacrament was passed to their row. Her daughter quite seriously said,

"I don't need it this week, mom. I'm good."

Can't say I've ever felt that way! I'm always glad each week for a chance to strive to be a little better.

This same daughter believes that we should have chocolate milk and powdered donuts for the sacrament instead of water and bread. Apparently she has mentioned this to our bishop (pastor) multiple times. LOL!

To Top it Off

2009-05-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

As wonderful as mother's day already was, my friend Stephanie sent me this hilarious "Mother of the Year" news clip that inserts the name you give it. It is 1 minute, 47 seconds.

I think my favorite comment is at the very end when the newscaster says, "Up next, a new study confirms that pulling your hair into a ponytail is NOT the same as taking a shower."

Plus the baby is darling, that "talks" about moms. And the guy at the beginning who says how we selflessly work "52" hours a day. LOL!

Mother's Day

2009-05-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

I got a cute little book from Bryce on Mother's Day titled: "All About My Mother, The Best Person on Earth"

Each page has a sentence that he completed. I wrote his answers in italics, with his exact spellings/grammar.

One of the things I like most about my mother is that she...
takes me to nice places. She also takes good care of me (the picture of the "nice" place I take him is of McDonalds, only he has written "McDogfoods," a family joke).

When my mom has some free time, she likes to...
watch movies on her laptop. Also read. (right on, kiddo, right on)

Some of my mom's favorite animals are:
horses, dogs, and cats

Some of the things my mother loves to eat are...
pizza, apples, and fish! mostly Pizza! (Hmm. I'm not a huge pizza fan and don't like fish)

My mother is...
fun, nice, funny. (Good, good, brownie points for you, dear)

Now Mother, I've told you how special you are to me and just to prove how much I think of you. I'll make your day happier by:
making a cake. (Of course you're making that cake for me, honey. Of course.)

Mother makes our home feel special when she:
Bakes a cake (More cake!)
Buy's a mtt trop carryar. (He means this lovely $100 Star Wars lego set)

It was too perfect. Aww.

I could go on about all the sweet little things my family did for me on Mother's Day, or saved for me for when I got home (I was in Houston on Mother's Day), but I won't bore you. They were precious and I'm glad I'm a mama.

Daily Gratitudes

2009-05-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

1. Opposable thumbs

and especially the thumb grip for the many abilities of the pincer grasp. Somehow yesterday I got a little cut on my thumb and I put a bandaid over it (which feels slippery). Miss the true grip of that pincer grasp!

2. Dynamic email sort.

I am a resource person. My memory is just not terribly reliable, but I'm usually pretty quick at finding answers via whatever resource best fits my needs. How I love being able to quickly dig through particular emails by sorting either by date, name, or subject title.

It's SO much easier than trying to keep track of who sent what crucial information when (well, crucial for that day, week, or month, but maybe obsolete later). Speaking of resources, I also love excel and my palm pilot. : )

Last night I couldn't remember when an email was sent about a particular church activity, and simply "sorted" by sender, then found the info for the activity in seconds. In the last few days I have sorted from my inbox, my "sent" box, and my "deleted" box, depending on what I needed to look up.

3. Jeffrey growing socially.

He wanted to have a little party for his 10th birthday, and had 4 friends over yesterday. It was so great for all of them (including the "big" kid, my neighbor Kevin, who didn't want to miss out on the fun). They played basketball, rode bikes/scooters, and then played Mario Kart on the game cube, as well as shared pizza, cupcakes, and soda. Later, Jeffrey's first real "friend" (that he iniated; he has some friends that I & other parents have helped foster) slept over, and they got up at 5:30 this morning to play more video games!

I'm so, SO happy to see Jeffrey becoming socially aware. : ) It's good to have friends.

Want to get kids excited about folding laundry? (No, Really!)

2009-04-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

This worked for an ENTIRE laundry-folding session!!--

My kids went NUTS!

They folded every single shirt in 6 loads of laundry like they were eating candy!

(Remember, presentation is everything. I basically said, without asking kids to fold laundry, but with all the clean loads sitting out ready to fold, "Look at this video, guys!" Their eyes lit up and they wanted us to show them how to do it. For that moment in time they were not working. They were doing a totally cool 2 second trick. And they even folded other things trying to get to more shirts!)

How to get your kids excited about folding laundry-- (Really!)

2009-04-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

It will be a great day

2009-04-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

when I no longer have to preface most instructions to my children with the words,

"Without complaining, please do xyz...."

Chasing a Mirage

2009-04-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'm an artist. I like looking at pretty things. I psychologically like thinking of myself as the "prettier" me, the one when I actually do my hair and/or makeup (which, folks, is not too often).

But why do we look to the barrage of media to tell us what "pretty" is, when their definition is a mirage? I mean, can YOU BELIEVE this video? She's so pretty to start with, and is drop-dead gorgeous by the time she's done with hair and makeup, and yet it's still NOT ENOUGH for their billboard. They lengthen and slim her neck, change her hair, make her eyes bigger, and of course use the good 'ole airbrushing.

So why do I look at a pretty billboard like that and think, "Wow, I'd love to look that pretty."???

I like the tagline of this video: "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted." I think every parent should show this to their fashion-conscious tween and/or teen daughter/s.

I also like the tagline of another Dove video that shows the onslought of sexually objectified women via the media. It ends by saying, "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does."

With Parents Kind of Weird

2009-04-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

So, we're making ice cream last night for our FHE* activity to teach our boys how important family teamwork is. (Hint, hint, boys!)

(This picture doesn't do our hands justice; they were COLD and RED!!)

Once we finished up and started eating the reward of our hard, freezing cold labor, Jeffrey started humming a child's hymn from our church called "I am a child of God," which starts:

I am a child of God

And He has sent me here.

Has given me an earthly home,

With parents kind and dear....

I was feeling goofy, and sang along to his humming, except I changed the last line, "With parents silly and crazy."

Rob piped up, "No, no, no, no." Then he sang the song from the start, one-upping my word changes about the parents:

"...With parents kind of weird."

The kids laughed so hard I think someone snorted ice cream.

*F.H.E. Family Home Evening, often called family night, that we hold each Monday evening. Usually we have an opening prayer, a song, a short lesson, a closing song and prayer, and on good nights, an activity and/or dessert.

Why does it take...

2009-04-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

...two and a half days of intense packing to go on a 4-5 day camping trip to the Sequoias?

Oh yeah. We have three active little boys.

The Birth and Resurrection of the Savior

2009-04-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

A friend is preparing an Easter talk that she will give Sunday. Via a Facebook chat, she asked me what The Resurrection* means to me.

Today is a very significant and special day for me personally because April 6th is the day Jesus was born, and the day He was resurrected. It is also the day Jesus's church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (my mormon religion), was officially restored on this earth.

We come down to this earth life to gain a body and prepare to return to live with God (a probationary time to prove our worthiness). Without the atonement, we couldn't return to live with God because we all make mistakes and sin, and no unclean thing can enter the kingdom of heaven. So I am deeply grateful to be able to continually repent and seek to be a better person.

But even with the atonement, where all our sins can be washed away through sincere repentance, we would still be stuck when we died, our bodies eternally separated from our spirits. Because Jesus was resurrected, we can be, too. It's the other half of the equation that we need to return to God.

This is what The Resurrection means to me:

1. Victory over death.

Our life doesn't end by being eaten by bugs in the ground. What would be the point if we just die and it's over? It would be like saying my life wasn't worth anything, like anything I did was for nothing.

I know I'll "be" again after this earthly life.

2. HOPE. Purpose.

Knowing that I will be resurrected gives me a reason to keep growing spiritually and intellectually, to strive to improve who I am. Otherwise I would feel so depressed, and think "Why even try? Might as well 'eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die'."

3. Eternal Families.

Being reunited with loved ones that have passed, and those that will pass after me, means so much to me and is very close to my heart.

4. Our spirits being reunited with our bodies.

Only perfected! No more ADD, no more back pain, no more physical/mental illness among us and those we love.

The very thing that Satan and his followers cannot have is a body, the physical likeness of our Father in Heaven and Elder brother, Jesus Christ. We not only are able to receive and live in a physical body, we will get to live in it again, perfected, in heaven. This is a profound blessing in my eyes.

---If you believe in Jesus Christ and the resurrection, what does it mean to you?

*Resurrection:
1. The rising (or returning to life) of Christ after His death and burial.
2. The rising of the dead on Judgment Day (us).

What? What did I DO??

2009-04-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

Whatever I did, it must have been bad. I mean, really, really bad.

Was it the chinese food I picked up for lunch on Saturday, in between selling scout coupon books at the grocery store?
Or the 3 free oz. of frozen yogurt the store next door was advertising? (Peanut butter cup, yum)
Was it the authentic Indian dinner we had with our friends the Aroras on Sat. night? (Parents of twin scouts I used to teach, Akash & Akshay)
Or the chocolate Hershey's bar I dipped into peanut butter for dessert later that night?

It certainly couldn't have been anything after that, because I've hardly touched any real food in 6 days except to swallow down a few bites of toast, applesauce, or banana.

So why is my throat so mad at me? I mean, it's not like he's just irritated or even put out. He is LIVID. He's so mad, he won't get better even with antibiotics, an antibiotic shot, an anti-nausea shot, lots of rest, painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, hot baths and ice packs (for my back that flares up when I'm sick).

I know he's spiting me. He sees all the fresh strawberries and watermelon in the fridge, and my favorite Mighty Mango juice.

Sigh.

Next up: How to lose weight, fast! And how to go off sugar with no temptation whatsoever.... (just get the flu and strep throat at the same time)

Graphic violence...

2009-04-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

...should be outlawed when it comes to our bodies fighting against us. We should get to buy our own TV Guardian to filter out graphic body pain.

A few days ago, Natasha commented on my dental post (and by the way, did nobody notice my Dr. Seuss blog title "Just go Now!" that is a book of his quite blatantly directed at Richard Nixon?) about not being able to talk or think because of excruciating pain from an almost-root-canal. I would have agreed with her a week ago on how bad the pain was.

Not now.

This week has been horrible. I won't count it above an 8 in pain because I reserve 9 and 10 pain to be like actually on fire, etc.

warning: graphic violence ahead

But my throat has been so raw, it's like someone ripped it out, beat it with a sharp, pointy meat tenderizer, put it back in, and then turned on my sensory skills. I haven't been this sick since I got my wisdom teeth out in May 1996 and I reacted terribly to the medicine they used to knock me out for the procedure (though there's a blessing to that nasty, horrible week of my life, and his name is Rob, who came over at the end of that ordeal, and that's the night he first started falling in love with me even though I was emaciated, not-showered, weak, and sick [and did I mention ugly! And it was the first night he noticed I was 'beautiful']).

Please, I just want Strep throat and the flu to both be over.

Daily Gratitudes:
1. A dr. who is WAY smarter than the idiot who saw me in urgent care Sunday night.
2. A lady in my congregation who brought over the last bits of an easter egg hunt to us since we couldn't go. Last night I sat on the lawn bundled up, as did Rob (who also has strep and an ear infection), and we watched the kids hide eggs and find them over and over again, taking turns to be the egg "hider" each time.
3. Darvocet and Ibuprofin keeping the edge off the pain; I usually get to the point where it's very hard to swallow or talk, about every four hours.
4. Sweet Mita, my friend who picked my boys up for me on Monday when I was feeling so worse and questioning the rude Urgent care dr. I'd seen the night before.
5. Kind Tami, who all I could say as I was sobbing on the phone was "check...your...email...," which she did, and agreed immediately to 'watch' my kids from her house by calling in on them every 20 min (so she didn't come over and get exposed to any germs), so I could run down to my own dr. again and ask what gives if I don't have strep.
6. A smart PCP who said I shouldn't be in so much pain if it was viral, and gave me antiobiotic samples.
7. A kind husband who has helped me when I'm at my worst, and I've been able to help him at his worst. I don't think he and I have been so sick at the same time. He took 2 sick days, and he NEVER takes sick days!
8. That Nathan's antiobotics have thoroughly cleared up his strep throat.
9. That there are blessings that always come with the trials. I'm waiting to see what blessing I better be getting.... ; )

Rob and I were wondering...

2009-03-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

...if all our boys wiggled so much when they were four? Or is it just Nathan? Or did we just forget how much they wiggle when they're little?

Sign Damage.

2009-03-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

Recently our local Babies R Us sign wasn't completely lit up. The "I" was dark, completely altering the store's name:

Bab es R Us.

Rob's brother Chris stayed with us this weekend, and his female friend, Sarah, introduced me to Failblog. (This link is for the G-rated version of the blog)

I have compiled my favorites, and they are MANY. I've even categorized them and plan on posting a series on the matter. What is failblog, you ask? Today we'll start with ironic, idiotic, confusing, and just plain funny public signs (Sign Damage. Get it?).

I showed Rob my cache of favorites last night, and we were both laughing so hard we were crying!

MISCELLANEOUS:

Come again? The park bench sign reads: "Seesaw donated by Cambridge Savings Bank." Sometimes you need more than just a spell check.

Sign maker: "Woohoo! The Welsh translator immediately answered my email with the translation for our public sign! Let's get it printed!"

(Note: Translation reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.")

This one cracks me up. You have to admit this restaurant was pretty sneaky at trying to hide their FAIL. Notice the paper with the "C" on it is a different font than the rest of the papers. It actually is a "C" sanitation grade that the Louisville Metro Health Dept. gave the restaurant.

Ya think? It's scary that usually signs like this end up being erected after someone with no common sense complains.

IRONY:

Anyone who has every played WoW (World of Warcraft) will recognize the irony in placing WoW merchandise on shelves labeled "Productivity." Crazyheads.

This one is much worse! The sign reads that since they are sold out of "WoW Battlechest," a perfect substitution is "Paws and Claws Pet Vet: Healing Hands." How in the world could a pet vet be a substitution for Wow??!!??

Oops. The secret is out.

The sign reads "Push the red button of your choice."

Oops again. And they even give you eight buttons to work with.

That are all BLUE.

Those are some, um, active-looking live lobsters there.

Come on, voters. Why won't you take this pole-littering issue seriously?

More self-explanatory irony.

Very funny irony. *chuckle*

This one isn't funny, it's kind of a sad irony. Poor WaMu.

FUNNY:

Employee: "Boss, the competition is creaming us. What should we do? They're open 24 hours a day."

Boss: "We out-do them. If they can stay open 24 hours a day, we'll stay open 25 hours a day. We'll show them!"

Well, Am I?

Well, of course. A gas station is the most logical place to get my beer-hunting supplies. But how does one hunt beer?

My brother is going to love this grocery isle set-up.

Ken: "See, Shiann? Look, this sign says you can too have beer for breakfast."

Shiann: "Would you like some cheese with your whine?" ; )

So, are hot tamales more like a banana, or a strawberry? And the gumballs? They look like little portable oranges, dontcha think?

*Wipes tears from eyes*

Now that's poor sticker placement. Notice how the book touts its dog-cooking recipes as being "safe."

The sign on this rather normal, public toilet reads "IT'S THE LAW Under 18 years of age do not operate this equipment."

Ha ha ha! A man designed this clothing tag.

And the top 5 funny signs are --

Woohoo! If I get towed I'll find $50.

I wonder if the police officer knows why no one appears to speed on this street?

*wipes more tears while laughing*

*Rolling on the Floor Laughing!*

I'll pass, thanks. I'd rather keep my identity. No, really. Give it back!

*Tears are now streaming down my face*

Uh, YEAH. Buying minors will cost you. Like, 25 to life. In fact, buying anyone will cost you!

And, the number one funniest public sign?...

*Barely able to breath I'm laughing so hard*

Clueless customer scratches his head and stares at the sign for awhile, then slowly drawls, "Well, will you take a pig payment instead?"

Go to the Dentist! Just go now!

2009-03-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

Regular preventative dental care= good. Free (or small copays).

Smelling burning metal from your own mouth= bad. (When they have to drill out a huge silver filling to get to the cavity hiding underneath)

Smelling the same acrylic used in fake nails, being put into your mouth= bad.

Getting 3 fillings and a crown = bad. (Especially when one of the fillings is almost a root canal!!)

Spending hundreds of dollars on fillings and a crown= bad.

Class, what have we learned?

1. Floss daily. Really. My grandma always said, "Be true to your teeth or they'll be false to you." Several dentists have essentially told me, "If you want to keep your real teeth, floss."

2. If you have teeth problems, go fix them NOW. No, not next month, NOW. Do not put it off! Not even if your insurance switches and your favorite dentist (what an oxymoron, to put 'favorite' and 'dentist' in the same sentence!) doesn't take your new insurance for a year.

A procrastinated cavity can need a crown instead of a filling. A tooth needing a crown can turn into a root canal. A root canal untreated will result in DEAD TEETH, folks. You'll end up with partial dentures. It's just not worth it. Who cares that it hurts and it's uncomfortable to take care of dental issues. It's better than the alternative of letting the teeth go untreated. *shudder*

3. My dentist also constantly says, "If you take care of your teeth, you get to see less of me. It's a win-win!"

Daily Gratitudes:
1. Dentists. Think about our ancestors and tooth aches and lost teeth. It makes me want to moan in pain just thinking about it. I mean, just remember Tom Hanks in Castaway, having to knock out his own tooth. Blegh.

2. Insurance. At least it helps cover some costs. In my case, preventative maintenance is FREE, but basic and serious dental work is 60% and 40% covered, so my crown was NOT cheap. But at least I didn't have to pay 100%.

3. Flexible people. Both my chiropractor and Jeffrey's piano teacher were willing to change appt. times for me when I remembered my kids have minimum days this week due to parent-teacher conferences. And my visiting teacher stepped in at the last second to watch all 3 of my children for TWO hours while I was at the dentist. AND, my kids' principal happened to have a quick opening for me this morning instead of Thursday, very kind.

The Drama

2009-03-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Never think you've got it figured out.

Why do we like to have this illusion of control? We all do it, don't deny it. We all feel better whenever we feel we're holding on to the illusion of control.

Anyway.

It's kind of amusing to me that despite my best efforts yesterday to teach a nice, organized scout lesson at 4 pm, before 5 pm Bryce ended up hitting and cutting his forehead in the cultural hall while playing with the other younger-than-scout-age-children and the poor babysitter had to run out and get me.

I left my scouts without a single word and went to assess the damage. A 3/8" long cut, but not as deep as we originally thought once the blood was cleaned up. I merged my den with another one and ran him home to put on butterfly bandages. Cross your fingers that I made the right decision (as opposed to getting stitches).

So.

Rob came home early and I had a scout meeting to go to. I go, but not to the right building (Kimberly, double-check your email that contains the address *before* you leave!). By then I had quite a headache and felt a little nauseated, which is sometimes how I react after I've been the primary adult taking charge and giving first aid to bloody cuts. Once I know the person is safe and taken care of, my body allows itself to react to the mini-crisis.

Went to the right building 20 min. away, only to find the scout class I needed to take (that's only offered every 6 months) was cancelled at the last moment. Grr. Whatever. I attended Roundtable and I learned, so it wasn't a lost cause.

Came home, tired, had a LOT going on today. Brushed and flossed, and...

Wait, what was that? When I flossed? A piece of food? No, it's... part of my tooth. Lovely. A filling came out, which has never happened to me before.

So this morning all my plans were altered, calling the dentist, taking care of other things, going to volunteer, I have two parent teacher conferences, some X-rays to "check out" for a chiropractic appt. next week (they just called to say they're in storage, which is NOT organized), and a pinewood derby car to facilitate Jeffrey making.

Updated 3/14/09: Went to the dentist this morning, and learned I need a crown and two fillings besides replacing the filling that popped out. Grr. But the back-dr. office DID finally find my X-rays in storage so I can check them out and show them to my chiropractor.

I'm kinda laughing. Oh well. At least I keep trying.

Daily Gratitude:
1. Overheard Nathan just now, speaking to himself as though he were two different people:
Nathan 1--"Stop talking!" (with energy)
Nathan 2--"Ok. I'll stop talking." (quietly and politely)
Nathan 1--"I said stop talking!"
Nathan 2--"Ok. I'll stop."
Nathan 1--"Don't talk anymore!"
Nathan 2--"Ok, I'll stop talking.

This went on for about 2 full minutes. *chuckle*

Clint Eastwood, step aside!

2009-03-10T10:32:00.001-07:00

Ahem.

And they tell me girls are moodier.

(He was trying to make a cowboy maze, and his brothers wanted to play on the maze because part of it was a horse. They all looked so darling, I wanted to take a picture, but Jeffrey would not smile. You can see how pained he is over the injustice of his thwarted plans)

I've decided to start Daily Gratitudes, because I love reading them on Natasha's blog. Though I probably won't try to keep it to a set number:

1. Online bill pay. *

2. Beautiful skies and such pretty clouds. I've been noticing and thoroughly enjoying them this whole week. Because of all the rain, the smog is gone. At least for a week or two.

*Online bill pay is the BEST! If you don't already do it, and think it will be a hassle, just try it out. It is SO easy and SO worth it! I haven't thought about paying rent in over 3 years, because electronic checks are scheduled to be mailed to our landlady every month, and since it's a set amount, I never have to enter it by hand. In Houston we did the same thing with our mortgage payment, only adjusting it yearly when our escrow amounts increased. I even set it to pay extra on principal every single month so I never had to think about it, but could consistently pay down extra on our loan.

Reflections Awards--"Wow!"

2009-03-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

This post will probably be boring to everyone but grandparents and immediate family.

You're forewarned.

For anyone who doesn't know or doesn't remember, Reflections is an annual fine arts contest at public schools, and its theme changes yearly. You can enter in several different categories, and you can enter as many pieces as you want. Last year our elementary school had at least three students' art that won at District and went on to Regionals. The next winners go to State, then National.

This year's theme was "Wow."

This year both Jeffrey and Bryce won at the school level in the visual arts category, Jeffrey won at the school level twice in the photography category, and Jeffrey's third photograph went on to District, even though it didn't win an award there.

I'm so proud!

Since none of Jeffrey's visual arts entries have ever won at the school level, this was a real treat to have both Bryce and Jeffrey win for their grade levels. It was also amazing that every single one of Jeffrey's entries won an award beyond the 'participatory' award (he entered four different pieces of art). Especially after I learned that this year, the photography category had TONS of pictures, so he was picked 3 times (!) out of all those photo submissions.

If you can't read the text, it says "These are all the Reflections Contest Winners from K-6 grade at our Elementary school. Four of Jeffrey's & one of Bryce's entries are up there!" And I've circled them in white. Remember, the judging is blind; they don't know the students' names when they do the judging. They had no way of knowing that all four of Jeffrey's entries were from one student. So cool.

Bryce's "Candy Store," marker and crayons.

Jeffrey's "Mountains with Reflection" watercolor. (watercolor pencils, they are so cool)

Jeffrey's two school-level photography winners, both taken in our yard one morning when there was still dew on the leaves. Jeffrey did an especially amazing job on the left one, I think.

Jeffrey's district-level photograph that he took of Nathan Danger holding his mommy's hand. He was only 2 months old at the time (he's 8 months old now, that's how long ago we submitted reflections entries).

Jeffrey poses for the Visual Arts winners, grades 3&4.

Jeffrey poses for the Photography winners 3-4th grade; this is before they came back and gave him a fourth ribbon for having an entry that went on to District.

Bryce with the Visual Arts winners, K-2.

THIS is Jeffrey's strength. He was SO happy today, and people complimented him all day long, and, most importantly, the girl he likes was beaming for his accomplishments today. After school he told me, "Today was the best day ever." At the end of school the principal randomly pulled Jeffrey's class name out of a hat, when she was giving out extra recess time, and his entire class got 10 extra recess minutes. So he was one happy camper after school!

Bryce accepts his award. That's his principal over there on the right, in the black shirt.

Proud Bryce. : )

Bryce's "Star Wars" entry, for which he earned a 'participatory' ribbon because he entered. Yay Bryce!

Double Date (Translation: two dates in a row! Unheard of for us!)

2009-03-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

Rob and I rarely go on "real" dates.*

We went on one for Valentine's Day 2008, only because Sarah and Brent were visiting us and thought up the idea, so we did a very fun double date at my good friend Lauri's house while Lauri's girls watched both ours and the Aarons' children.

The next date was our 11 year anniversary, where Rob took me to Red Robin and a movie on May 9th, 2008.

The following was our conversation while ordering dinner--

Rob: I've been wanting to bring you here, since our work sometimes goes out to Red Robin for lunch. Their food is so good.
Me: (While looking at the menu) What?!? $10 for a hamburger?? Holy cow. Ok, ok, how about we share a burger?
Rob: (Assuring me this several times during the ordering process) It's our anniversary. It's ok. Don't think about the money (He was probably thinking 'Helllo, we're at Red Robin, dear, not Outback'). We are each ordering our own thing tonight. And a drink, too.
Me: No way. Water for me please.
Rob: (laughing) Kimberly. It's. O.K. This is our anniversary! (Orders a rootbeer, his favorite)
Me: Yeah, but you know who you married. I don't like to spend money on certain things, and eating out isn't one of them.
Rob: Fair enough.
Me: Ok, you order this one, and I'll order that one, the safer choice (I'm SO picky). Then, if I don't like yours, it's all good, and if I don't like mine, we can switch. Deal?
(And yes, his pineapple chicken burger was MUCH better than whatever I chose. Mmm, mmm good. And yes, of course we went to the dollar theater. I'm me, after all.)
Ok, back to today's title--Double date.

At christmas we were given gift certificates from Super Villain Studios for bowling at a posh singles-type bowling center, Lucky Strike, in Orange. So, from May 9th '08, to Feb '09, no dates. The certificates expired end of February, and we used them once as a family to bowl in January, but decided to use the remaining balance for a date. I even got a babysitter three weeks ahead of time.

Just before we left on the date Friday, Feb. 20th, I double-checked the cards, only to see they weren't good on weekends! Aaargh! And me, dressed up so nice. So, we decided to go on a date anyway. We dropped the kids off at Annie's, decided on a place to eat (after driving up to two diff. places because I'm so picky and not good with instant decisions), and took our food home to eat while watching a Netflix movie. It was nice, even though I was pretty bummed about the change from our original plans.

Now comes the double part. Three days later, we went on ANOTHER date! Two dates, almost back to back. Sweet Tami watched the kids for us, and we went to Lucky Strike on Monday night for a couple FHE.** It was like being young again! SO fun! And the bowling center was so upscale, I was sort of joking, "Oooh, lah-dee-dah, look at us!"

Even the food was like these upscale appetizers. I love orange creamsicles, so sharing an orange soda float was also quite the treat. We had a ball. We played three games and still had time to go browse Borders afterwards, a favorite passtime of ours in our 'early' years. (snicker)

*We do love going to the temple, and usually count that as a date. We also love to have "dates" with our children, and one of our fondest anniversary memories was taking Jeffrey and Bryce to a Houston park and just being together as a family, and carving that time out just for us.

**Family Home Evening

Hope is a funny thing.

2009-03-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

I was just thinking about the nature of HOPE.

Its very nature uplifts-I wish I knew how to articulate my thoughts about how cool hope is.

It sounds cliche, but choosing between hope and despair should be a no-brainer, because when you lose hope (and I've been there more than once), you lose the point, which should be the definition of despair.

Hope gives you a reason to keep trying even when times are tough, be they piddly but irritating daily things, big scary things, or catastrophes. Hope gives you, well, hope!

It's nice to have hope. : )

A cake "success" (as opposed to a cakewreck)

2009-03-05T10:59:00.000-08:00

I made a simple 9x13 cake for our "Wild Wild West" themed Blue and Gold Cub Scout Banquet a few weeks ago.

Sure, I do frosting stars (old-style next to the age of fondant), but that's what I grew up learning from my mom, who is a champ at "star" cakes--she even makes her own cake pans!

I just had to post this after The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from "professionals."

Though it's not perfect (I'll spare you the details if you don't notice the imperfections), it turned out nicely.

Guilty Pleasures

2009-03-03T23:21:00.000-08:00

I've noticed many people post about their guilty pleasures, and I've thought about posting mine.

Well, at least about the ones I'd be willing to post in public.... (admitting that I can accidentally eat an entire bag of Riesen chocolates in an afternoon is highly embarrassing)

So, a guilty pleasure that's kind of funny. Anyone who knows me knows that tv shows are definitely a guilty pleasure for me. I'll sacrifice sleep to catch up on the plotline of a gripping drama (Kevin, thanks a lot for getting me hooked on Burn Notice. No, wait, all sarcasm aside, I LOVE Burn Notice!) .

My guilty pleasure: I often watch just the season finales, because I want to know how a couple of shows turn out, without following the whole season (time consuming and booooring!).

So.... The Bachelor. Yes, I'm admitting that I watched the end of it today, and sort of fast-forwarded through the last few episodes, only watching in places where I was interested. I've done that before, at the end of the "Brad" Bachelor, or Dancing with the Stars, etc.

Ok, so.

1. How does one act like oneself when the cameras are on? I can't imagine, though it appears that Jason was very humble and real about his decisions, just as I saw Rob's turmoil when he realized he was in love with both me and another sweet gal, Kathryn Degaston. Rob never realized that he could be in love with two people at once. At least on camera, Jason appeared to be a good, decent man who really wanted to make the best decisions for his life.

I would never, ever, Ever, EVER put my dating life, or life, for that matter, in the hands of greedy voyeurists. How could I ever be myself or believe that any of my dates were being themselves? I'm telling ya', I'd know those cameras were on.

2. The reason I even posted about this (I crawled out of a warm bed and came downstairs to my laptop to write even though I'm tired and my toesies are cold!):

I am extremely grateful for both the faith and knowledge that I have of God's plan for us, that there is a guidance system in place to help us make life-altering decisions. Both our conscience (the light of Christ in every human being), and the gift of the Holy Ghost/Spirit, are such a great strength and guidance to me when I am making important and/or difficult decisions in my life.

I looked at some of these Bachelor/Bachelorette clips that pop up on Youtube around this time, of people who pick someone, then they end up breaking up, etc, and with Jason regretting that he picked Melissa over Molly, and the grief he went through in the decision-making process. I felt compassion for him (hopefully it's not all just scripted to pull my heart-strings, but who knows).

I feel immense gratitude that when I was trying to decide who I wanted to marry, I had extra help. I didn't have to navigate it all on my own, especially in the 'rough' patches.

As I prayed tonight and then cuddled up to my sleeping husband, the feelings that went through me were so strong and quiet, so much more than lust or even simple love. I feel a deep connection to my husband and truly believe that we are sealed to each other for eternity, something that continues to deepen my love for him even though we're still very mortal and fight hard sometimes. ; )

When I was young and dumb and in love with the idea of love, I also happened to fall in love with Rob. I sort of thought everything would just fall in place, but it didn't (and gratefully so; it gave me a LOT longer to get to know him, and him me).*

As I realized Rob had serious feelings for me in the summer of 1996, and that I was attracted to him (oh. my. gosh. I was so in love it was nauseating to everyone around me), and that he was the man I wanted to marry, I still felt so nervous because it is such a life-long decision to make.

I fasted for two days to know if Rob would be 'the one.' I believe that there are any number of men that I could meet and marry, and live a good life. But I also felt like Rob was the one for me, if he returned my affections. I feel like we fit together, and even though my bad habits drive him nuts, and his social quirks drive me nuts, we fit each other so well.

At the end of the two days, I knelt down and prayed to Heavenly Father, asking if Rob was 'the one.' I felt so giddy and happy I couldn't contain myself, and then after awhile I wasn't sure if that was answer to prayer or me bursting because I was so in love with Rob. So I knelt down and prayed again, explaining that I felt I had received my answer, but I was asking for a confirmation. What happened next was tender and special and very precious to me, as I had a powerful spiritual experience confirming to me that this was indeed my answer.

Once I knew that, I didn't have to worry or regret or second-guess myself. I knew that if Rob decided he wanted to marry me, it was right for me to say yes.

Now, he didn't catch on for several months yet, girls (guys are dumb that way, but that's another post that Rob will cheerfully write for us at one point). But when he did, and when he received his answer to prayer, he couldn't contain himself, either, and we were engaged within the week.

And Rob, I know we often say "I toldja I loved ya when I married ya, and if it changes, I'll let you know," or that we "decided" not to "take each other back" like a simple store-return, but in all seriousness, you're a keeper.

I knew that you were a keeper on the first day I met you in July 1995, when I unwittingly wrote in my journal about you being 'different', and how meeting you opened a new chapter in my life. By month three of knowing you I knew I wanted to marry you.

Thank you for being my dear, darling husband who is truly with me through thick and thin, who treats me with love, tenderness, and respect despite my faults.

Olive juice, honey. Olive juice. Celebrating 12 years in May.

*Tell me if you want me to do a post on our two year courtship etc, but I warn you that I see it in a fairy tale light. : ) .....

Oh, c'mon, just pretend you really want to hear it! : )

Wowsa that's cold!

2009-02-18T18:42:00.000-08:00

My sister Karolyn is serving a mission in Russia for our church. She is in Irkutsk right now, and claims that we shouldn't worry about how cold it is (she reassures us by saying, "Don't worry, I'm alive!").

She says it's "only" -23 degrees in the picture she sent us.

I'm a little worried! Can you see her frozen eyelashes?

(She also says that no, she is not chewing on her scarf)

I'm a Copycat Blogger

2009-02-16T18:34:00.000-08:00

It's so validating reading other moms' posts about how real their lives are. I read these blogs, and often think "I couldn't have said it better myself!" Their words resonate with me.

Jane is so clever in comparing motherhood to blogging (for her full post, click here) with her post, "Why Comments Matter."

And, you're all so lucky--I've pasted most of it below (brackets are my own words to personalize Jane's post to me, but feel I've kept the spirit of her post). Thanks Jane for doing all the work! (And I'm lucky to actually know Jane in person; I would have loved it if some of her brilliance had rubbed off on me when we were in AP Biology together in high school!)

Why Comments Matter

Because I already have one job that often lacks in external validation.

Blogging is similar to...motherhood in some...ways.
[M]otherhood, is, at times, unsatisfying because it doesn’t always seem like a real job. It’s the same with blogging. Which is why...bloggy friends to talk with...are important. (And why the lack [of comments] can be...discouraging)

How Stay-at-home Motherhood and Blogging are Similar

9. No paycheck....

[Not in money, anyway. See #3]

8. You’re never finished.

In motherhood, you might count successes like when your kid [shares instead of blames and tattles, or reads "Sign of the Beaver" and loves it. And then 10 minutes later you're shaking your head as he whines and throws a fit over doing his normal chores].... Setbacks and progress are hardly linear. When do you know you’re patient enough, creative enough, wise enough, loving enough, to be a real mother [or blogger]?....

7. There’s no promotion....

6. You can be as serious as a heart attack or as casual as a Facebook friendship.

You can dabble in your blog on weekends or you can set aside two hours every day of sacred writing time.... With motherhood, [the casual is as important as the moments of substance; and sometimes laughing over funny youtube videos with your kids is what they remember, rather than the detailed family night lesson on the importance of spending time together as a family. Plus, if your kids feel comfortable talking to you about trivial things, they will feel more comfortable opening up to you about true trials/triumphs/fears/hopes in their lives]....

[With motherhood, I also feel like when you have 'bad' days, repentence is a marvelous thing. You can always try again tomorrow to be better, and sometimes it's ok to take a day 'off' and read so that you can be a better mother the next day]

5. And worst (or best) of all, you can be purposeful one week, and a complete slacker the next.
4. You can do both in your pajamas.

3. ...[E]xternal validation is important.

[It doesn't have to be much]; one comment from a reader or one smile from a baby [is] enough....
2. [Y]ou ...don’t have total control over the outcome [scary!]. Your blog may be fantastic but just not fashionable [or just not what someone needed on a particular day]. Your mothering may be splendid, and your kids could still turn out to be like Eve’s [darn that agency!]....Doing a good job, a fantastic job, as a mother or a blogger is important, but in the end, it’s up to other people (your kids or your readers) to bring back a verdict.

[With motherhood, b]e purposeful; read and talk with other people about how to do your very best work.... Focus on what you love about the job, and arrange your life so there are more of those moments.... [I actually think this is where motherhood and blogging are different; #5 & 6 for me as a mom are guilt-ridden with goals to be better, but as a blogger I feel like it's a marvelous no-pressure freedom]

....[T]he give and take, the conversation, (and the writing) are what I like best about blogging.

And because there’s one other big way that motherhood and blogging aren’t your typical job:

1. You keep doing it no matter what, because you love it.

Box of chocolates--except it's really cake!

2009-02-16T10:41:00.001-08:00

Remember the picture I posted of a cake that looks like a box of chocolates? As darling and perfect as the little miniature furniture that you play with when you are a barbie fan as a girl? So perfect and dainty and re-created to look like the real thing, you just want to eat it up? (I didn't even intend that pun, but it works!)

My sister Katie MADE the "box of chocolates" cake! I am so completely impressed, my eyes are still popping. In fact, she made FOUR of them. Yes, my words in all caps should show you all how wowed I am by her culinary talent. But mostly, that she was willing to go to all that work. I went and looked up how to make it, read through everything, and emailed the link to my best friend Stacy (from Houston; Tami is my best friend here in CA. just sayin'), and we both agreed it was way too much work. But Katie did it!

Here are her cakes: