Motherhood

Here is a beautiful quote from Sister Hinckley:

"I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk’s lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden. I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." 

This quote warms my hearts and lets me know that I am doing it right. My priorities are in the right place, I am focused on what is most important.

I had a fun afternoon with the girls today. Becca wanted to play a game, so she got one out of the game closet. It was a puzzle game, with a spinner and 26 cards - each one with a letter of the alphabet and a picture of the word. After getting the puzzle part put together Becca and I were trying to play the game, but Lydia wanted to be involved, but her way of being involved was to pull things apart and scatter things. Becca was getting frustrated and so I improvised and gathered all the letter cards and just started handing them to Becca one by one and asking her what the picture was. She liked doing this and I remembered I had a box full of picture flash cards. I got those out and she loved going through all the flashcards. I would show her the word and then she turned the card over to see the picture. Then I pulled out the cards that had just words and I would show her the words and she would repeat it. Then she started picking  out the letter 'o' on each word with that letter. She was having a great time and I think we did that for at least a half and hour. I had a fun time doing it with her. She turns 3 this week and I was amazed at her attention span.

We had a good family home evening tonight. Tom came home from school today and announced that he is staying home from school tomorrow. This is so not like Tom, he loves school and even when he was sick he wanted to go to school. I asked him what the problem was and he said some kids at recess were making fun of him. He was trying so hard not to cry when he was telling me this. Oh how this breaks a mothers heart. I took it in stride and talked with him, and held him.
Charlie has been having trouble with this too, so for family home evening we talked about loving others.  First we all took a turn to share what we are thankful for. We have a little footstool that each of the kids took a turn standing on to tell us their thankful list. Even little Lydia got up on the stool. It is so cute that even at the young age of one year (15 months) she sees what the other kids do and she does not want to get left out. She was mostly proud of herself that she was able to climb on the stool and stand there without falling off (because she did fall off on her first try). When it was Jeremy's turn he explained that he was glad for a loving family and how that influences us to be able to love others. He explained that sometimes other kids don't feel loved and they act that out by being mean to others. We talked about what we can do when others are mean than we did a little role playing. We sang "Jesus Said Love Everyone" multiple times until the boys could sing it by themself. I am really big on primary songs and helping my kids learn them - it might have something to do with me having that calling in four different wards, but mostly it's because I love the primary songs and think if our kids can have those songs in their hearts they will remember the messages when then need a little extra help.
The name calling seems to be the main issue both boys are having - which I think is probably a common issue for kids that age - I mean, even within our own home I hear name calling going on - I think it just hurts more coming from school kids, especially if others kids catch on and further reinforce the hurt. So we suggested to the boys that if someone calls them a name they could respond, "no, my name is...". We also suggested they could just ignore the remark and then Charlie suggested they could invite that kid to play a game with them. I hope something helps and that it doesn't become a problem that really does make my kids want to stay home from school. At bedtime Tom announced that he is staying home from school, so despite our lesson, he still doesn't want to face recess tomorrow. I'm waiting to see how he feels in the morning.

Twilight

I went to the new Twilight movie on Friday with my new group of friends.  We made tshirts for the occasion that say "Twilight Geek" or "Bite Me Edward". I'm not a die hard fan, but it was a fun outing. Florida has been good for me in making friends and getting out and doing things. Nine of the girls in this picture have husbands in graduate programs and they like to get out and do things. It seems like at least every other week something is going on. I'm grateful that they are so inclusive and thoughtful to invite everyone. It's a large group, but the feeling seems to be, the more the merrier. We all have children, most have two, I have the most with four kids, but Kandis is pregnant with her fourth, so soon I won't be the only one with so many.

Sweet Moment

After school we went on a bike ride with the kids. We have a bike trailer for the girls to ride in and the rest of us have bikes. We rode around our subdivision and then to the park that is in the next subdivision. The park there is nicer than our park. It has wood chips instead of sand under the play equipment and there is a nice large grassy area for running and playing soccer. The kids were having a fun time on the playground and kicking the ball with Jeremy, so I took a walk around, trying to shake off the afternoon blahs (of feeling so tired, all I really wanted to do was take a nap). Charlie came over by me and started walking with me. I asked him how life was going and he said "not very well". I asked him what was going on and he said that some of the kids at school are calling him "puffy pants". That some girl had started calling him that and some of the other kids have caught on and do it too.  I asked him if had told those kids that that hurt his feelings and is not nice to say unkind things. He hadn't. I hope he has courage to stand up to those kids, and that those kids are sensitive enough to stop teasing. We never want it to be our kid that is being teased, but I think better to be teased than to be the agressor.
So, the sweet moment came a few minutes after that conversation. On our little walk we came to a bench and sat down. I was asking him about his turning 8 next year and what he thought he needed to do to be ready to be baptized. "I need to read the scriptures". I asked him if he would like to read the whole Book of Mormon, or have me mark verses for him, and read parts of it. He was certain that he wanted to read all of it.  Then we were talking about his feelings about the gospel and he said he loves Heavenly Father and loves church and wants to be an eternal family. As I was listening to him I recognized this was not just a little boy repeating what he has learned at church, he really feels this and knows this. It was a heart warming moment. Charlie really is such a sweet little boy, although I'm excited for him to be growing up and be his own person, I am already starting to miss the little boy, so sweet and innoscent, I hope he never really grows out of that.

Today

Today's Sunday School lesson was about family history. I usually dismiss the topic of family history thinking, "well my parents have that under control, so I don't need to worry about that". Today, however, I was feeling guilty for my dismissive attitude. The teacher mentioned that one important thing about family history is the stories - getting to know and remembering our ancestors. We need to be sharing those stories and preserving them. I think that is something I can be working on. Gathering stories and sharing those stories with my family. My grandparents (who have all passed on) and my father and mother-in-law in particular are good at sharing stories. Unfortunately I have a poor memory and only vaugely remember bits and pieces of stories they have shared. My hope is to gather some pictures and stories and maybe make little books so I can read them to my kids and so they can look at them on their own.

One Nation

I love our great country and I believe that the founding fathers had great faith in God. This Youtube shows a painting representing the faith of our fathers.

Shall I falter or shall I fiish

Have you ever watched the movie "Rudy"? It is one of my all time favorites. It is a story of a young man who had a seemingly impossible dream, who was able to realize that dream despite insurmountable odds and obstacles. A lesson to learn from Rudy's journey is to never give up. Try, try, try again. Two main qualities that he had were: 1- a positive attitude  2- he always gave his all - he didn't do things part way - he lived with all his heart. We learn from him that a winner is someone who gets up no matter how many times they fall.

I've had chronic fatigue for 11 years. I am much better than I used to be, but I still have my up days and my down days. For years I hoped for some explanation and for some hope of being "cured" so that I could be "normal" again (for those of you who have been pregnant, just think of the days when you were so exhausted and that is what I feel like on a regular basis, a better name than chronic fatigue would be chronic exhaustion, it is so much more than just being tired). I stopped looking for answers from doctors and pills and turned to God and myself. I pray for strength and understanding and then I try to apply what I learn. So many times I fail to live up to the knowledge and understanding I've been given, but I keep trying.
I know I need to get regular exercise and focus on eating nutrient dense foods. I do really well for awhile, start feeling a lot better and then I falter in my good routine, have a bad day and fall off the good habits. The one thing I have to say is I keep getting back up and try again - sometimes I'm down for a long time and pout and whine and don't want to do the hard thing, but then God blesses me with the strength I need to try again. Without God's help I don't know if I could ever generate enough strength for the catalyst I need to start the forward motion. Truly, sometimes I look back and remember how helpless and hopeless I felt one day and by the next day my attitude, outlook and ability had changed and I once again had the strength I needed to try again.

Watching the movie Rudy tonight was a good reminder of why I keep trying. Last week I was having a "wo is me" day and I thought "why should I bother to keep trying, I always end up back down here, so why get up again so I can just fall again?" I am so glad that I don't let those bad thoughts keep me down. I am so thankful that God blesses me and that my perseverance wins out in the end.

Happy Halloween

Jeremy is a golfer, Jenni is a fisherman, Lydia is cute, Becca is a princess, Tom is SWAT and Charlie is a firefighter.




Lydia was a Ladybug for our ward party on Wednesday night.


We had a fun Halloween day. Earlier today we took our bikes to a park with a nice bike path and once we were hot and sweaty we went to the splash pad, to cool down. That was definitely one thing that was very different about today - it was so hot and a bit humid. I don't ever remember sweating while trick or treating before. And, the bugs were out - lots of mosquitoes.

The kids got tons of candy. We only went to part of our subdivision and only a few houses on each street had lights on, yet even from those few houses their bags were filled to overflowing. A lot of the houses gave each child a handful of candy. At the end of trick or treating the kids were complaining that their bags were so heavy, despite the weight, Becca wouldn't give her bag to me to carry, she wanted to carry it.

Bedtime

Tonight as I put Becca to bed I took a few minutes to enjoy her sweetness. "Mommy, tell me a story about Tom and a cow". So I told her a story about Tom and his magic cow and that Tom was going to play marbles with his sister Becca. She sat up and said, "okay, I'll go get Tom" and wanted to go live the story instead of just listen to it. I got her to lay back down and then she wanted a story about Peter Pan and then she wanted a story about a pig. Then she wanted me to sing to her. I asked if she would sing to me. "OK" she said and then sang "I love to see the Temple". She sang most of the song and then couldn't remember the end - "mommy, you sing it to me", so I did. Then she wanted me to sing to her the "church" song, so I sang, "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints". Then she wanted me to sing the "follow" song (Follow the Prophet). By this time I realized she could stay up all night with story after story and song after song, so I asked her if we could sing that tomorrow and get out the musical instruments to do with it. "OK". The way she says "OK" is the cutest thing ever - it's always with excitement and a sing-song tone to it.

Lydia was full of kisses today. She has been sick the last few days and today is doing much better. So as she toddled around this afternoon she kept coming back to the kitchen where I was and made her kissey noise and lifting her face to mine. I would lean down and give a kiss and then she would wander off, a few minutes later she would come back, make the kissey noise, I would kiss and she was off again. Then she gave kisses to each of the kids and then Becca came to get kisses from me - there were kisses all around. It's so good to see her feeling better. Yesterday when she still wasn't quite better at odd moments she would just lie down on the floor, rest for a minute or two and then was up and off again.

"He Lives"

We've moved to Florida

Well, we made the big move to Florida. It was a long five day drive, but we made it and we survived. The kids did surprisingly well on the 2700 mile trip across the country. Jeremy drove the moving van and I drove our minivan. The children tooks turns riding with dad in the moving van. Thank goodness for car tv's and video games, coloring books and snacks. Most days we were in the car 10 plus hours.
Florida is hot and humid. At least St. George was only hot. We took the kids to the beach on the first night we got here. Yesterday and today we have come to the community swimming pool. The kids like the pool better than the beach - they don't like the sand - I don't like it either, it sticks everywhere - the car is full of sand. So, I think we will be coming to the swimming pool much more than we will be going to the beach - which is fine since the pool is closer and has no sand.
I love our townhome we moved into. It is a four bedroom with a two car garage. The two small bedrooms were painted pink and blue - how perfect is that, so the girls got the pink room, which Becca is totally in love with and the boys got the blue room. The master is a golden yellow color - it is a very nice color.
We thought we would be okay to sell off our furniture and get new stuff here, but now that I have been looking around for furniture I wish we had just brought our stuff with us - I remember what a pain it is trying to find furniture that is "me". I get so confused by all the beautiful furniture and overwhelmed by the prices that I just can't make any decisions. I'm going to yard sales tomorrow to see if I have any better luck,

Living Primitively

We sold our house last month and moved in with Jeremy's parents in Pine Valley - 45 minutes north in the mountains. I love it there. It is beautiful and the weather is mild. The kids have lots of room to run and explore. The drawback is living so far from town and having no internet. I am in serious withdrawals. I don't know how to do anything without the internet - it is my connection to the world. I can't even pay my bills without it. I've probably become too dependant on the internet.

A little update on us. This week Jeremy and I are going to Pennsylvania for his interview at Hamot school of nurse anesthesia. I'm excited to go back to Pennsylvania. We are taking the baby with us - on the plane - I'm concerned at how well she is going to travel - she does not travel well in the car, an hour is about her max. She has a set of lungs and can scream a high pitched, bloody-murder scream. We are thinking about having the pilot make an announcement at the beginning of the flight apolgizing in advance. I'm hoping that since we will be holding her she will be happier than when she is strapped in a car seat.

Last weekend my brother Spencer moved to Moscow Idaho to go to Law School and my sister Debbie moved to Columbia Missouri two weeks ago to go to nursing school there. We are all catching the school bug and moving all over.

We are at my brother in laws house, the kids are watching tv while I use his internet to pay bills
and catch up on the internet for a very short time.

Our little adventure

Jeremy had an interview in Florida at a nurse anesthesia school. I went with him and we left all the children in the care of aunt Deb, G&G Taysom and cousin Jacy - they took turns. Florida was beautiful and sunny, a little humid and hot, but the beach really captured my heart. Naples is the city we went to and it is a beautiful city - many rich people live there and the city is well maintained and beautified. We met many wonderful people while we were there. The people's house we stayed at are students there and we had never met them before, but they let us sleep there for two nights and even let us borrow their car. Florida is beautiful and who wouldn't be mesmorized and want to live there - but we weren't convinced that is where we should go to school.

Since our kids were already until the watchful care of many wonderful family members and since Jeremy didn't have to be back to work for five more days we decided to extend our trip and head to Pennsylvania to check out the area and the school where he has an interview next month. Erie Pennsylvania is on lake Erie in the north west corner of Pennsylvania, not the side of Pennsylvania I had always invisioned myself living, but still it was Pennsylvania, of which I have always been enamored with. We are fortunate that Jeremy has so many wonderful friends that offered to have us come stay with them.

We arrived in Pennsylvania Friday night and it was raining - it seemed dreary and cold in comparison to sunny Florida that we had just left that morning. We were so confused at the many emotions and questions and stress we had in trying to compare the two schools and the areas. We felt we needed some distance from it all and a break from thinking about what school to attend. Our friends told us that Washington DC was only 6 hours away and we decided to take advantage of it and go for Saturday and Sunday and not worry about school stuff until Monday when we could go to the school there and meet people.
With the help of our newly purchased GPS we fondly call "Garmina" (it's the garmin nuvi brand, but since it talks with a female voice it needed a female name. I never had any interest in a GPS before, but after this trip I am sold - Gps is the best thing ever invented. We also used an atlas along with the GPS, but without the GPS there would have been much unesscessary confussion in trying to navigate the crazy streets in the big cities.) we safely navigated our way to Washington DC. We walked the loop at "the Mall" which is the area that walks past the Smithsonians, Lincoln monument, the White House, the Capital building, the Vietnam memorial, the WWII memorial and other things. This walk took us four hours to complete. Next time we want to rent bicycles and ride around - maybe do a riding tour with a tour guide who can give us information about the different things there. After staying the night at a Hampton Inn, which I highly recomend - the room rate was reasonable and everything there was so nice, we decided to head to Connecticut - it was only 6 hours out of our way and then we could check out the other school that Jeremy is interested in applying to. We should have gotten to Connecticut early afternoon, but after a late start, a stop in Philadelphia and the bumper to bumper traffic through basically the whole state of New Jersey, we didn't arrive at our destination until 8 pm.
We were just going to drive through Philadelphia, since it was only a little out of our way. Once there it was lunch time and we wanted an authentic Philly Steak sandwich. We asked some locals where to go and they said "Geno's" on 9th and Washington. Jeremy made the mistake of putting the hot sauce on his sandwich. The fact that there was a large "caution, hot" sign posted all over the container disuaded me from trying any, but Jeremy saw others putting it on and wanted to do as the locals and have the real deal. Now that he has experienced the hot sauce he will never use it again - "it burned on the way in and on the way out".
After getting to Connecticut we found the hospital where the students do their clinicals and we were able to talk to a student who is currently in the nurse anesthesia program and ask her all our question. Unfortunately it was already dark so we couldn't really drive around and see much. Despite the late hour we headed half way back to Erie to cut down on the amount of driving we would have to do the next morning on Monday.
We did a lot of driving and saw a lot of trees - the trees grow so dense that most of the time you can't see past the trees that line the freeway and therefore can't see the towns and cities on the other side of the trees. Despite the trees, and because of the trees, we saw much beauty. The lengthly side trip did little to ease our confussion of which school to go to and what area to live in, but I was glad we took the trip - it was a nice diversion, and it was awesome to see some cities and sites I have been longing to visit - even if it was at breakneck tourist speed (I mean doing DC in 4 hours is only a drop in the bucket, and stopping at the Liberty Bell in Philadelpia and not even getting to see Independence hall and driving past New York City and taking a picture of the skyline and thinking that you can spot the Statue of Liberty from the freeway isn't really how I had envisioned my visit back east).
This is a picture of the house that our friends in Erie rent. The vehicle is our wonderful rental, which thankfully came with unlimited miles - we put at least 2000 miles on it in five days.
We picniced at the beach in Erie the night before we flew home. Yes, in case you noticed, that is the same shirt I wore for three days in a row. I only packed clothes for three days, so when we stayed and extra four days I had to make do with what I had.

Despite the 5000 miles we logged between flying and auto travel, despite the late nights and early mornings (the day we flew home, Tuesday, we woke at 2:30am Utah time and didn't get home to Saint George until 8:00 pm) we had a fabulous time. We saw many things, we met many wonderful people and we had a lot of fun. This was our first trip with no kids in four years, so it was a much deserved break.

Now that we are back life is crazy as ever. Next week we close on our house and will be homeless for the first time in 8 years. In the past 8 years we have owned 3 homes, but we have always gone from one house to the next. There is no next house and there will be no next house for many years. It is uncertain how much longer we will be in Saint George so we needed a place to live that does month to month rentals. Today we found a fabulous apartment complex that has that arrangement. It has many wonderful amenities that comes with renting there - 2 swimming pools, one with a splash pad for the kids, a playground area, and an exercise room. I'm going tomorrow to sign a lease. Once we figure out what our next step is that will determine how long we stay there. School doesn't start until January and life is wide open between now and then.

Willey Wonka Musical

A local children's theater put on the production of "Willey Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". I have read this book to the boys and we have watched both movie versions (they think that the new version with Johnny Depp is a girl playing Willie Wonka because of his long hair). This is such a fun story and the music is great. Needless to say the boys loved the play. When I asked them what their favorite part was they said, "all of it". It really was a fun play and the children who performed it did a great job. Actually, for being a local children's production I was really impressed with their acting and singing. Even before it was over the boys were asking if we could go again. I found the music online and ordered it so we can learn the songs and sing them. Tom says he wants to learn the songs and be in the play and do the part of "Charlie".

Tribute to Nurse Anesthetists

Here is a funny little song by the Laryngospasms, a group of nurse anesthetists.
This song is dedicated to my husband - future nurse anesthetist.

Pink socks

A fun primary song that we like to sing is "Saturday" -" Saturday is a special day it it the day we get ready for Sunday". Even Becca will walk around singing "Saturday, special day". The unfortunate thing is I haven't actually implemented the principles of the song very well - particularly the part that says to get our clothes ready.
When we arrived at church today Charlie exclaimed - "where are my shoes?" He hadn't put them on yet, because last minute before we left the house he was trying to find black socks, couldn't find any, so I made him change from his black pants to his tan pants so he could wear white socks (a vanity issue for me, white sock with black pants is not acceptable and not allowed at our house). In the hassle of it all he did get socks on, but did not remember to grab his shoes on the way out the door. Because we were already late I did not go back home to get his shoes, I figured going shoeless to church wasn't the worst thing ever, so in we went. After the opening prayer I glanced down at Charlie's feet and thought his socks looked pink - as if something red had been washed with them. I looked closer and noticed that they indeed were pink - they were a pair of Becca's pink socks. Oh, how I hoped that no one else was going to notice not only Charlie's shoeless feet, but that he was wearing pink socks.
Needless to say, we are going to be more diligent about "Saturday" and making sure we are ready for Sunday.

I feel so blessed

Becca is a joyful child. She if full of life and giggles and smiles. Becca is currently in swimming lessons and she hates the lessons, because she hates her face in the water. But despite her kicking and screaming, she is learning to swim and I'm hoping by the last day of class she won't protest so much any more.
This picture was taken at Disneyland, so of course she was happy, but truly, this is her normal expression - her beautiful smile.

The boys are also in swim lessons and they are enjoying it. We are fortunate to have a kind neighbor with a swimming pool who has a neighborhood swim day once a week. We enjoy taking advantage of that opportunity.

This scrapbook page of Becca is the first one I've done in months. For the first three months of the year I did great in downloading my pictures and getting some of them documented, but the past three months have passed by in a blur. When we went to Disneyland in May I hadn't cleared the memory card on the camera, thinking that there wasn't much on there. Unfortunately it was already more than half full and we weren't able to take lots of pictures of our vacation. Which, really, is probably a blessing, sometimes, with such big memory cards, it's easy to take too many pictures. Some times it is nice to just take a few and not try to document every moment.

My heart is bursting with gratitude. We sold our house today without even having to actively try to sell our house. Jeremy's school doesn't start until January, but we always figured we wanted to get moved by fall. The question was whether we should try to sell the house or just rent it. Jeremy didn't think it would sell, being a buyers market and all, but I didn't want the stress of hanging on to the house for the years that we would be gone. In my heart I always hoped that things would just work for our best good and if it was meant to be it would work out. Well this house must be meant for these wonderful people that are buying our house because basically they showed up on our doorstep wanting to buy our house. They are relatives of our neighbors that live on the street behind us and the husband remembered Jeremy mentioning we were looking to rent our house, but it would be nice to just sell it. Well, last week the neighbor called and said his brother was looking to move to St. George. Anyway, it all came together and today they made an offer and want to move in by the end of July. So for the month of August I think we will find a place here in St George to stay (hopefully Pine Valley, hint, hint, wink, wink, mom and dad Taysom) and then we will know where we are accepted to and we can just move there. I'm excited to embark on our new journey and selling the house just makes it all seem more real - it's really going to happen and it is really meant to be.

Evening in Pine Valley

We went to Pine Valley to visit Grandma and Grandpa Taysom and to go to an Elder's Quorum activity. The Myers have a cabin just behind Jeremy's parents so after visiting with g&g for awhile we went to the dinner at the Myer's cabin. We all had a nice time - there was lots of good food and the kids went on four wheeler rides and had fun playing with the other kids and I had a nice time visiting with friends. Jeremy wasn't there. He is on a motorcycle trip with his brothers and some other friends. Eight of them are on a road trip to northern California. Tomorrow they will be at the Redwoods National Forest. Jeremy is very excited to see the "tall" trees. Tonight he called and said he was looking out over the ocean. I'm glad he is able to have this time to spend with his brothers and to go see the Redwoods. I think he is having a good time and I am glad he is able to go do something he enjoys.

Yea for Me

We finally finished our last application for CRNA school. It only took us three months. I'm surprised at how long we drug our feet. Jeremy took the GRE in March and that was all we needed before we could start applying, but the paper work and writing the personal statement took us forever to do - of course weeks would go by in between doing each part of the applications. We actually finished applying to Hamot (in Pennsylvania) and the school in Florida a couple weeks ago, but the personal statement for Duke University took longer. Probably knowing that they are a more prestigious school and wanting to make sure we had a chance by writing a good enough personal statement. Today when I finished sending it in to Duke I had a wonderful feeling of relief, but also excitement. I think we have a chance of getting accepted to any and all of the schools we applied to. Now it is just the waiting game. Part of the process of getting accepted is to go to the school for an interview if we are a potential candidate. I'm hoping they will let us know sooner than later, but we might not really know anything until August.
I am truly excited for the adventure of moving away for school. Probably I'm crazy for thinking this will be a good thing - all the way across the country away from friends and family, me basically a single mom while my husband is consumed with school, and not least of all, poor, living on loans, but truly, I am excited and I know we are doing the right thing. Many times (even last week, for example) Jeremy will wonder if we are doing the right thing by going to school. On the other hand, I have never wondered, not even one time, I have always felt peace and "known" that this is the right path for us.

This month of June has been absolutely wonderful as far as weather is concerned. It has been mildly in the 80's and 90's. Last Friday we spent a wonderful afternoon at the park. The Nisson park in Washington city (15 minutes away) has wonderfully large cottonwood trees and a large grassy area. It also has a little stream that runs the length of the park and is perfect for the children to splash in.

Tom and Charlie are in summer school this month at Liberty Youth Academy, where Charlie went to school last year. Their teacher, Sister Dale, is wonderful and the boys love her. School is 5 hours Monday through Thursday - just enough to give them something structured to do during the day and enough time for me to enjoy some peace each day. Two boys so close in age can be a challenging thing - they each have such strong personalities, which often leads to competition and fighting.

I am unsure what to do with the boys for school in the fall. I would like to have them continue at Liberty Youth Academy. One thing that adds to the uncertanty is not knowing when we will be moving. Although Jeremy's school doesn't begin until January, we would like to move before then. We have September or October pegged as the estimated time to move.

I have long wanted to homeschool my kids, and I did with Charlie last fall, but the reality of it all was a little overwhelming - especially with a new baby. I'm hoping that as the baby gets a little older and the boys get more warmed to the idea that it can become a possiblity. That is what has been so wonderful about Liberty Youth Academy - it offers exactly what I would like my homeschool to be like - it is focused around God and the gospel, and also offers a good solid foundation in reading and math skills. It also offers one aspect that is more challenging to offer at home school - learning in a group setting. It is true that children can learn well in a group setting, but if done poorly, it can also be detrimental to their learning.
There are some really great homeshcool groups here in Saint George and for the older children (12 and up) there are common wealth groups avaiable for group learning, but for the younger age children they do more of book groups that do activities together.

Don't use Mop and Glo

Just a little heads up - don't use Mop and Glo to clean your floors. Yes, it leaves a beautiful shine and the floor looks so good. But, if you use it for two or three years and don't ever strip it off it leaves behind years of build up that end up making the floors look worse than ever.
I did not realize what I was doing to my floors with years of mop and glo. I usually only used it once a month, but the build up was incredible. We rented a buffing machine and the guy at the store suggested we use the "white" scrubber to clean the floors. After an hour or two and seeing minimal progress we went back and got the "blue" scrubber that was more coarse and made much faster progress. It still took twelve hours of hard work - scrubbing and mopping and wipping up goopy gunk off the floor, and I still need to mop a few more times to get the final layers of white film off.

Time is passing

Days pass and I think of so many things to write down and to share and then I don't and then I forget what I wanted to share.

Two weeks ago Jeremy graduated with his Bachelors degree - I was going to post pictures and everything - but I haven't even got them off my camera yet. Congratulations to Jeremy! He hates school, but he made it. I am very proud of him. We are applying to graduate school for him to become a nurse anesthetist. School starts in January and hopefully we will be going to Pennsylvania or North Carolina. As time gets closer to this reality I realize how much I love Saint George and I will miss it, but I am looking forward to the adventure of living someplace different.

I had a beautiful Mothers Day on Sunday. I love being a mother. At church Sister Murdock spoke and reminded us that all women are "mothers" regardless of child status - we nurture and we love and that is what we as women do. I was primary chorister ( I just got changed to a counselor in the Primary) and for Mother's day we sang the first and third verses to "The Family is of God" (click on it to listen to it) which is a beautiful song that was an optional song for January for the Primary kids to learn.
The third verse says
A mothers purpose is to care, to share
to nurture and to strengthen all her children
she teaches children to obey to pray
to love and serve in the family

the words come from the family proclamation. I thought it was a wonderful song to sing for mother's day - such a wonderful tribute to mothers and what they do for us.

Becca is quite the little shopper. At the store she fills the cart with all the things she wants. She is on to me and realizes that I put back what she puts in the cart. The other day she had put a few things in the cart and then she said "Let's go" and she started pushing the cart to the front of the store. She knew that if we didn't get to the check out quick all of her items would be removed from the cart. Today at the store I took something to the dressing room to try on. Jeremy was out with the kids, but soon here came a little head until the door and in came Becca with a pair of shorts to try on. They say that imitation is the best form of flattery. I hope that I am always being a good example for Becca to follow.

A recent favorite phrase for Becca is "that's awesome"
Jeremy calls Becca "bossy cow" and Becca always replies, "no, you bossy cow, dad".
She really is becoming quite bossy - and so very independent. She does not like to do what we ask her, she only wants to do what she wants to do when and how she wants. She is my challenge right now. Good thing she is so sweet and so cute. She is so cute with Lydia - always trying to make her laugh.

Am I Prepared?

The recent news about the Swine Flu is causing me to ponder if I am prepared if a quarantine were to be imposed. If tomorrow the call came that we had to stay in our house for the next month or two or three would we be okay? Somewhere in Mexico they are not only in quarantine, but they also had an earthquake. Such a thing makes me realize it's not only my food that needs to be saved aside, but also emergency supplies. I've been working the past year on being more diligent in gathering food supply - the problem is we eat it and I'm not keeping up with always maintaining the supply. I started putting together our 72 hour kits last month, but only have most of the food stuff and a couple other things. One post I read today highlighted the fact that you are going to want something to do so yo won't be bored, especially for the kids - books, word puzzles, anything small and lightweight that can go in the backpack is good.
My goal for this weekend is to get supplies on hand for a flu situation: powdered and bottled juice, otter pops, diarrhea medicine, bleach, face masks, applesauce.
I don't have any of this stuff. We don't get sick much at our house and I haven't had need to keep this stuff on hand.
We were thinking about going to Disneyland at the end of May, but yesterday Jeremy said there is no way he is going. I thought he was over reacting but then I saw a map of where outbreaks have been noted and then I too decided that now is not a good time to go to California. Bummer.

Jon Schmidt video

This is a fabulous video that shows what passion meets talent looks like. This music touched my soul and I love music that touches me that deeply. Enjoy!

Hidden Talent

There are ordinary people that can do unexpected and extra-ordinary things. Click here to watch Susan Boyle, a seemingly ordinary woman share something extra ordinary.





The first thing that struck me as I watched this video was how judgmental people are. As soon as she walked on stage people were judging her, assuming that she wouldn't be capable of much. More amazing than her talent is to watch how people's perception of her change as they experience what she has to offer - their opinion of her changes and their respect for her grows and she didn't change anything - they did.

Last Weekend

We started the morning with breakfast on the back deck. It was a little cool out, but overall a beautiful morning. Jeremy made us pancakes and bacon.

The kids were excited to go to the art festival - even though they didn't know what it was. This is the 30th year of the Art Festival in St. George. Nine years ago in 2000 it was held the week end that Jeremy and I were married. That was the first time I attended the art festival. It definitely was more art worthy to go when it was just the two of us, we got to see more of the art, this time around, with four kids in tow, we got to see a different side of the festival - it's not about the art, it's about the food and the face painting and the crafts for kids.
Becca and Lydia in the stroller - this didn't last for long, soon enough we were carrying both of them and the stroller was just something extra to drag along.

"This is just what I was dreaming about"

was what he said after he got his soda and corn dog. We let the kids choose what food item they wanted most - keep in mind that we had just had lunch before we went - I thought it would be cheaper to eat at home and let them get a snack type treat - but low an behold the treat they wanted most was soda and a corndog. Of course it was really just the soda that they waned. Both Tom and Charlie only ate a couple bites of their corn dog, but they drank the whole soda. Soda is a treat for them because we don't ever have it.

Charlie decorated the glasses and hat at the kids craft table.

Aunt Susan visited for the weekend and she met us at the festival after she had lunch with her friend. The kids love when aunt Susie comes to visit - and her trips are less often then they used to be. Every one wanted to ride home with Susan in her car after the festival and Becca was very sad that the boys got to go in Susan's car and she didn't.

Life

I've had a hard time lately finding my groove. My regular routine is so out of whack. This morning we didn't have breakfast until 11 am - I think it doubled as lunch, so that was a time saver. I pulled it together by dinner time - I even made a fabulous dinner - homemade chicken noodle soup, homemade french bread, and homemade strawberry jam -yum! the soup I make is a fabulous recipe from the Lion House cookbook - it is the best soup ever. This was my first time making french bread and it was surprisingly easy and fast - 1 hour start to finish and it made two loaves - I may never have to buy french bread again.
Since I haven't been in my regular routine lately my housework is behind. Tonight I had a burst of energy and got a bunch done. I've decided that night time - with no little ones to interrupt me is a perfect time to do housework - I can get so much more done - the only thing is that is also the only time I get computer time - so maybe I'll have to trade every other night, cleaning night and then computer night, I don't know, we'll see what wins out.
Our day time routine has been thrown off by Jeremy - he works nights so he sleeps during the day. I try to keep the kids quiet, but they still are so loud. We generally go to the park in the afternoon so that he can have silence for his last few hours of sleep. Last week was beautiful and last Tuesday we spent four hours at the park. This week hasn't been as nice. Yesterday we went to Jacy's house for a couple hours where the kids played with their cousins. Today the weather was even worse - only 45 degrees, compared to 75 degrees last week - so we went to the library for a very long time. Thankfully there is story time on Wednesday afternoon - Mrs. Mann does it and she is fabulous - it's more like a mini preschool time.
Usually Becca does not participate in story time. She sits and listens for a minute, but then she wanders around and does her own thing. Today she sat and listened almost the whole time. She came over by me one or two times, but always went back and listened more. After the story there is always a cut and color activity. Becca had some other mom help her with the cut and paste activity - that other mom was so nice to help her, I was holding the baby, who was sleeping.

Lydia has had a fever last night and today and has not been feeling well. I feel so bad when little ones are sick - it's hard to be so helpless. I think the fever is due to teething - I hope anyway, because if it's not, I'm not sure what is wrong with her.
Lydia is crawling like a champ. I think she enjoys being able to get around. Being able to sit up on her own is starting to cause her some problems - at night when she wakes up she sits up and then she fusses because she can't go back to sleep sitting up, so I have to go help her get laid back down so she she can go back to sleep.

Sound of Music - fun video

This video reminds us to take a moment to do something random and fun.
It is just a really fun video and will leave you with a smile. Enjoy.

Two silver dollars

This is a very touching story of two boys who learn the beautiful lesson of giving.

My new blog

For an enrichment class we are having a parenting class that is based on searching the scriptures to find principles and patterns for us to follow and implement in our lives. Go check it out
parentingpatterns.blogspot.com
The plan of happiness diagram shown above is one I found online and I wanted to share it with others, although it's not really mine to share, but is online and available to download for personal use. It is a beautiful diagram. I made a large copy and am going to hang it on the wall and use it often for teaching my children. (Click on the link above of my new blog and you will find a link to the website to download the picture).

So glad that I blog

I've been reading through past blogs of mine - imagine that, reading my own blogs instead of other people's. I found it to be quite interesting. I didn't remember a lot of things that I posted on there. Crazy how I've forgotten stuff from just last year. That makes me very glad that I took time to post those thoughts. I think that is the point of keeping a journal - we forget things too easily and too quickly. Writing things down where we can later go back and re-read them is invaluable. I read some things about my kids that I had forgot about - things that are insightful to their personality and who they are. Things like that will be wonderful for them to be able to read later on when they are older.
Some one recently asked me what I do with my past blogs - well, nothing so far. I need to look into the sites that publish them. I really do want to have these in physical form - not just words and pictures in cyberspace. Has anyone tried putting theirs in book form? Who did you use? Was it expensive? Easy to do? At one point I was cutting and pasting everything into Word and then was going to print it out, but got sidetracked from that.

Here's a moment for me to remember. I took all four children shopping with me to Walmart, we were there for over and hour and I did not get frustrated with them at all - it was a great shopping trip. This is in complete contrast of a shopping experience I blogged about last year when I only had 3 kids. My parenting skills are really improving, and I better not brag too much or I'm likely to be humbled, but it definitely feels good to feel like the puppet master and not the puppet. What is that supposed to mean? Well, mostly that I couldn't figure out a good metaphor, so I just went with the first one that came to mind. But really, with little kids too often it feels like they are the ones pulling the strings and I just react to what they do. As I gain more skill I'm cutting those strings one by one and I'm not so affected by them - I'm able to maintain my cool and stay in control of myself and say things like, "no problem" - those are majic words. I've been reading and listening to cds from "Love and Logic" parenting helps from Jim Fay and Foster Cline. We have a Family Resource Center that has all of their cds and books and I've really appreciated the cds because it's added depth and perspective that I didn't get from just reading the books. Plus it's really reinforced the "phrases" that they use that help build skill in using their techniques. I'd read the book before, but it wasn't until I listened to some of the cd's that I realized my dad uses many of the same phrases that they use. I called him and asked him if he used this parenting program and he said no. This just reinforces to me that this program is based on principles and not just whims of the lastest and greatest. It's all about agency and helping teach and guide the children to learn to be agents unto themself. I already understand that from a gospel standpoint, it's just nice to have extra help in translating that into "how do I handle this situation" or "how am I supposed to maintain my cool when they behave like that".

So, last night, after my Tom and Charlie had been in bed awhile and I was in the kitchen doing dishes, they come wandering out. In previous times I would have ordered them back to bed and expected them to obey. I decided to try something new and offer them a choice. I said, "would you like to go to bed or would you like to do chores?" I thought they would probably choose to go back to bed, usually kids are looking for a way to get out of doing chores, but I was okay with offering chores as a choice because it would benefit me. So the fact that they both immediately said "chores" was a little surprising, but I embraced it. I set them right to work and for the next 30 minutes they were busy little bees helping and asking what they could do next. It was wonderful, except the part where they were arguing over who could help load the dishwasher and Tom ended up in time out until he was able to control his anger better. Now I just need to figure out how to get such enthusiasm in the regular day time hours when it's chore time.

Tom ready for Conference

In preparation for General Conference Tom got a general authority haircut.
Okay, so we didn't really leave his hair like that, we finished buzzing off the rest of it. Tom is our scissor boy and took out a patch front and center on his hair, the only remedy was to buzz it all. Luckily he didn't do this to his sister, I don't think she would look so good buzzed.

Charlie came home from school yesterday all excited about general conference. His attends a private LDS school and they were talking about general conference and the reading in the scriptures about King Benjamin and how the people assembled in their tents and were prepared to listen to the prophet. So Charlie is excited to set up a tent and get things gathered like crayons and snacks and all the necessary things to participate in conference. On Sunday our Primary gave each of the children a conference packet of activities and pages to color.
One page in there shows a picture of each of the Presidency and members of the Quorum of the 12 and has a line next to it where they can write the main message that speaker talked about and then a line where they can write what they are going to do the incorporate the message into their daily life. That is a page I'm going to make a copy of for myself and do that - what a simple way to be able to review conference and see not only what was talked about, but what I am going to do - the goals I set as a result of listening to conference.

temples

Here is a neat website, Temples to Dot the Earth, that shows a map of the world and where all the Temples are located. The church website also has a world map and information on each of the Temples, with an interactive map. Also, here is a link to a video the church has on why we build Temples and lists newly announced Temples.

Our lesson in Relief Society was based on Sister Alred's talk, Holy Temples, Sacred Covenants from October 2008 conference about Temples. The sister who taught the lesson mentioned that four years ago she and her husband set a goal to go the the Temple every week and in those four years they have only missed one week (and the weeks that the Temple is closed for cleaning). What an accomplishment. This motivates me to set a better goal for myself. I have the opportunity to go to the Temple often, with the Temple only being 10 minutes away, now I need to set it as a priority and just "do it".

Funny Kids

Tonight I had family council with the kids (Jeremy was at work, but we needed to have a family meeting anyways) and we were discussing some problems - namely the boys constantly fighting with each other and then running to me to tattle on each other. We were discussing a specific situation that happened earlier trying to re-enact and figure out a better solution. I asked Charlie if he couldn't have asked Tom to help him in a while rather than trying to force him to help at that minute.

Tom: yea, I would have said "I will help you in two minutes"
Charlie: that wouldn't help. I don't know how long two minutes is and neither do you"

That made me laugh so hard. It is true, they don't really understand time yet, so how would it help for Tom to give a specific time frame when neither of them has a point of reference for that.

The other funny;
Last night, in the middle of the night, about 3 am sometime Jeremy, who is at work at the hospital, gets a call from Charlie.
Dad: What's going on Charlie?
Charlie: I can't find mom.
Dad: did you look in her bed?
Char: she's not there, just Becca is
Dad: did you look downstairs?
For a few minutes Jer has Char look around the house and alas, I am not to be found. Then Jeremy says: did you turn the light on in her room and make sure she is not in there?
Char: no, I don't want to turn the light on, Becca is in there and I don't want to wake her up.
Dad: well, just turn the light on and check real quick.

Cut over to me, dead asleep in my bed, bright light in the eyes, Charlie on the phone, "oh, there she is" and I'm wondering why Charlie is on the phone in the middle of the night and who is talking to.

Kids are just too funny. I couldn't figure out how Charlie knew Jeremy's work number to call him at work, but apparently he had called Jeremy on his cell phone, which usually doesn't work in the hospital and on the rare times it does Jeremy doesn't usually answer it. Maybe it was heavenly intervention so a scared little boy could find his "lost" mom in the middle of the night.

Unleashing the Dormant Spirit

I have no words for this video - except that it is powerful and you will be so glad that you watched it.

SUMMARY: In a BYU Devotional, given on May 14, 1996, Elder F. Enzio Busche of the Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (www.mormon.org) gave advice to those listening on how to become a disciple of Christ.

REFERENCE: The speech was entitled "Unleashing the Dormant Spirit" and can be found here.

last day of spring break

Today was the last day of spring break and what a beautiful day it was - sunny all day long and it got up to 82 degrees. This morning we spent some time in the backyard cleaning up and getting the garden area ready. I wanted to plant tomorrow, but then someone told me it is supposed to get really cold this weekend - maybe I'll wait a week. The kids have been looking forward all weak to going to the Cotton Mill Park. It is farther away - only 20 minutes, but compared to the park we usually go to that is only 5 minutes away, it is far - so we don't go very often, but the kids love it so much. It is a fun park, there are some very unusual toys to play on. There is also a great hill for rolling down - one of Tom's favorite things.
St. George is getting more parks all the time, so a favorite thing for many is to try out all the different parks. My kids name them according to their own connections - grandpa's park (the Bloomington Hills Circle Park) near where grandpa used to live, Steve's Park (Hidden Valley Park) because it is near uncle Steve's house, Dallin's park (Vernon Worthen Park) because that is where cousin Dallin had his birthday party 3 years ago, Tylers park (Bloomington Hills north park) near where their friend Tyler lives - and other parks don't have such descriptive names that I remember them, but really there are about 6 different parks we frequent and then there are at least 4 other parks we go to sometimes. One of my favorite parks is by Coral Canyon, which is far from our house, so we have only been a time or two. I guess because my kids are young and the days are so nice in St. George we spent a fair amount of time at the park.

jeremy passed the GRE test

Jeremy took the GRE test on Monday and passed with a score of 1010! Yea! Now we can apply to graduate school for nurse anesthesia. The schools we are considering are back east - Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida. We won't be going until next January - we missed the deadlines for the programs that start in the fall.



This scrapbook page is another stretch out of my comfort zone of design, I'm playing around with more of the trendy design aspects that seem to currently be popular. I really like the effect of the small picture in the lower corner. The tutorial for this effect is on Jessica Sprague's web page (sugar city girls will remember her name as Jessica Bills). She has lots of really neat tutorials. I am currently taking her photo enhancement class and am learning lots.

Here is my spring mosaic - I did not take these pictures - I just put them into a mosaic. I hope my friend Heather doesn't think I'm too much of a copy cat, but she just does so many wonderful things that I want to try for myself - thanks for always inspiring me and then telling me where to go find stuff Heather - you are the best!
Don't these pictures just bring such a feeling of newness and a breath of fresh air - I love it!

Great Conference Idea

Here is a great conference idea. Go to this blog to read all the details.

Spring

Here is a different type of scrap page for me. I usually don't do the cutesy thing - but this kit was too precious to pass up - and the kit was free (from Shabby Princess), it doesn't get better than that - well, except that the photo of Lydia is just way too cute.

hey

Little Lou waking up from a nap. She just had the sweetest face - she is so quick to smile. I really need to do her 6 month photos before she's not 6 months anymore. I've hardly got my camera out at all this past month.

The words on the picture is my copyright watermark. I don't know if is really necessary, but my blog isn't private and usually I don't just post an individual picture, usually only scrap pages. My husband asked why my blog isn't private, I don't know - maybe I should, I just like to think that the world is good and innocent and that there are no problems in blog land.

Why is it that some go private? I need feedback - what are the reasons, what are the pros and cons, if I don't go private what are some cautions I should keep in mind?

just one more

I just had to add one more layout that I did. I love this picture of Becca, and I copied this layout from one I found online. Sometimes I don't like trying to copy someone else's layout because I can't get mine to look the same and I like the original better, but over all I think this turned out well.

Charlie reading

Charlie's reading skills are really taking off. I started teaching him to read last summer using "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons", which is a great book for teaching kids to read. He was a reluctant learner and didn't really want to do lessons very often. We still have never made through all the lessons. I think it was when I started having him read in the Book of Mormon that he got more into reading. He knows his letter sounds really well and can sound things out, but as we all know, most words are not phonetic and can't be sounded out - there are letter combinations that are common, and knowing those helps, but really a lot of words are sight words. As we would read in the Book of Mormon I would just let him choose a verse and then we would go through, him sounding out the words that he could and me telling him the words he didn't know. It really didn't take too many times of the same word until he had it down and I didn't have to tell him any more. We would put a sticker by the verse he had read and then next time we read in the Book of Mormon he would read that same verse again. We haven't done this on a consistent basis at all, but still I'm amazed at his reading skills.

I figure if I'm bored reading the grade level readers he must be too - actually I remember feeling that way when I was a kid - who wants to read 3 letter words over and over and over and over. Kids can learn much more quickly than we give them credit for. Sure, there are foundational skills that they need, but on the other side they need books that are interesting to read - sentences that make sense and that are worth reading.

Today Charlie sat down with a "Magic Tree House" book, which is definately not a Kindergarten level book - maybe 3rd grade or something. He had to ask me quite a few words, but was able to read 8 pages. Again, he only had to ask for the same word a time or two and then started recognizing it on his own. It's so fun to watch the magic of reading come alive for Charlie. Like I said, he has been a reluctant reader, but is coming around and as his skill level develops he is loving it more and more. I think he is too much like me - he wants to do everything well - now, not in time through practice, just instantly do things well now.

Digital scrapbooking

My friend Heather inspired me to make a new chore chart. The last one I made for my kids was just words because I didn't have any cute stickers or graphics (these are from The Lily Pad). I'm going to laminate them and then they can make x's on the empty spaces when they have completed their tasks. I'm really hoping to help them develop some good habits. So far we are hit and miss, which I know is my fault, I'm hoping this will help us all be more consistent.


I am teaching a photoshop elements class for a Relief Society enrichment activity so I have been putting together a class outline. The above page of Charlie was the result of me learning about masking - what an awesome time saving feature that I never knew about. This pink page below of Becca is my sample of what we will learn to do in the class. Since it is a beginning class I made up most of the page and the class will just learn how to add a photo and the text. If any one sticks with the class then I will show more details and skills.


However, today I found a great resource for those of us who are trying to learn digital scrapbooking using photoshop elements. Two Peas in a Bucket (a digi scrapbook website) has free video tutorials which are amazing. On the right side of the page is a section called class lessons and so far they have 7 lessons posted. It is incredible to watch someone doing it rather than trying to read it out of a book, or even someones post online. My skill level has increased much just today from watching some of those videos.

super hero

Tom is a funny boy - very creative and imaginative. The green thing on his face is from a two pack of juice bottles and even when it was still on the bottles he saw the possibilities a green piece of plastic had. He was carrying the green thing around and asked me for some tape. Next thing I knew he had it safely taped to his face and was a super hero - it was just bonus that his shirt matched his mask - made it look like an authentic outfit. He made me take pictures of him from all sides (thus the shot of the back of his head). I was surprised at how well scotch tape held that on his face - it didn't come off until he pulled it off.

Tom really is a super kid - he loves to be helpful. Right now his big thing is his birthday - which isn't until July, but talking to him you would think his birthday is next week. Every day he tells me the details of his birthday party - a pinata, swimming, birthday cake, camping out, cousins, etc. - and that he is so excited that he will get transformers for his birthday.
Tom also really loves his preschool and every day that it is not preschool (Sun, Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat) he is counting down to when preschool is (Tue, Thur). I'm surprised that he is still so excited every time for preschool.

The next big holiday around here is St. Patricks day. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have never really made a big deal out of St. Patricks, but looks like this year we are going to go all out. Last week when were at Target the boys convinced me that they needed green shirts for St. P - they did not want to get pinched and they didn't want a shirt that just had some green on it, they needed green shirts. Target only had one green shirt to choose from - so they got matching green shirts. Today Charlie informed me that he wants to have a party on St. Patricks and have all the cousins come - I'm not much of a party person, so they will have to convince dad to help them put a party together.

Sunshine and warm weather

The sunshine and warm weather has gotten us outside, therefore my house is a mess and I am never at the computer anymore. Tuesday the kids and I spent the afternoon in the "jungle" - an empty lot kiddie-corner behind us. The neighbor next to the empty lot has a trampoline and let the kids jump on it. Today we (except for Charlie, who was at school today) spent the afternoon at the park with my cousin Annie and her baby, Ellie. After we picked Charlie up from school and he found out we had spent the afternoon at the park he also wanted to go the park, so I obliged - I didn't want to go home and have to face the mess - it is seriously bad - tomorrow I'm dedicating the day to cleaning the house (the kids are grounded tomorrow - so they have nothing else to do anyway, except help me clean).
Yesterday afternoon was spent at the dentist. Poor Charlie, who has already had two molars pulled had to have another tooth pulled and a silver cap put on the tooth behind that one. His molars are nothing but trouble. The dentist is doubting how long the silver cap will save that tooth - it might have to be pulled before it's natural time to fall out. I'm hoping the problem is just with his baby teeth and that his permanent teeth won't be so troublesome - but seeing that my molars are all fake or full of fillings isn't a good omen for him.

My sister Susan has been in Hawaii for the past week (hi Sue) - how lovely would that be - a week in the beautiful tropics with no concerns or responsibilities. A vacation sounds very nice about now - except, as much as I love and adore my children it would have to be a kidless vacation. Jeremy and I took a kidless vacation 3 years ago (when I was pregnant with Becca) to the California coast and the Sequoias - it was a great vacation. The year after that we went with kids (and Aunt Deb along to help us with the 3 kids) to San Diego and Sea World. I love San Diego - that was our third time there - and that is still where I would like to go on another vacation. Jeremy thinks he would like to go on our next vacation to Disneyland - I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Last year, as a test run, we took our kids to the Lagoon. It was great and we had a lot of fun, so I'm not sure what my hesitation is about Disneyland - well, except for the cost. I figure, well the kids loved the Lagoon, it was fun, they want to go again, why not just go to the Lagoon - I just have a hard time shelling out so much money for an amusement park. Of course I've never been to Disneyland before, but can it really be worth that much more money?