8 Years Old !

Wednesday Daria turned 8 years old! It almost seems impossible to imagine (not to count the fact that if she is 8 years old that means that I'm 8 years older than I thought I was!). It seems that it was just yesterday that she was 5, or a baby. It does not seem that long ago.

I surprised Daria with a special birthday breakfast of waffles, fresh raspberries, sausage, eggs, and orange juice. Note to self, half of a waffle is really enough for a child. I think they swell once they get into your stomach because Dustin, Daria and I all felt stuffed after eating just a 1/4 of the waffle. Dustin and I also went up to the school and ate lunch with her, and we topped off the day with a small birthday party.

The slogan in our house right now is "It's great to be 8". Daria's looked forward to this day for a long time. She is looking forward to begin baptized later this month. She is also completely thrilled to now attend the Achievement Day program at church which is for girls ages 8-11. I'm excited for her. Even though she had a party on her birthday, she still wanted to finish in time so she could go up to the church for Achievement Days. Can you say "A type personality". It's not a bad thing.

Where does 8 years go? The funnest part has been watching Daria's personality and personal preferences come out. Like her love of animals or her passion for piano, or her enjoyment of drawing. She often tells me she wants to become a veterinarian when she grows up, and sometimes I really believe she will become one.

I've included some pictures of Daria to commemorate her birthday. The funniest picture is the one of the various balls next to my belly. That was 2 days before Daria was born. I went 42 weeks with Daria and we were doing all we could to get that baby to come out. That night Becca, Keith, Ken, and I went walking. The church building was one street behind us, so we stopped in to take funny pictures of the balls versus my belly. Fun memories!

I am so thankful for the past 8 years with Daria!

Missed

It seems that as my kids grow older I often think that I may have missed some important parenting class along the way. Remember when you first wanted to begin having children, all the excitement all the books, magazines, catalogs, and endless conversations about babies? How to give birth, the best deals on clothes, toys, cribs, etc. Your mind seemed to revolve around having the baby as if the baby would always be a baby.

I remember learning that there would be some challenges with new babies, the adjustments, the sleepless nights, feeding, diaper changes, naps, schedules. Sure it was gruelling at times.

But I have come to believe for myself that those first few years are absolutely the easiest part of raising children. I thought back and you know, I never once during that time thought of all the myriad of situations I would find myself in as a parent and doing all the text book things don't always work unless you live in a perfect world. Which leads me back to the feeling that I missed something along the way that may have prepared me better. Yeah, right. If anyone thought that far ahead (when your kids are older than 3) when they begin their families they probably wouldn't have kids for fear of the daunting task. I however am glad I had my kids but often sit perplexed at how unskilled I am as a mother.

Parenting, is a learned art. Unfortunately it may take our whole life to learn it. In the mean time we are faced with the daily surprises that come at us like those moments when you hit your head on the corner of the cupboard. It's a surprise! and boy is it frustrating!

So it has been my lovely task the past several months to instill some sort of civility in my home. For some reason my two children who have oodles of great qualities, have all but forgotten that we are a family and that siblings are actually a blessing. Yes, you guessed it, my little family is not perfect. Lately every day is filled with tattling on each other, storms of "it's not fair", "she gets this or he gets that and I don't", endless comparing with each other, refusal to be kind to each other, and the list goes on.

Now understand that my placement in my family was the peacemaker. I do remember whining a lot (sorry mom and dad), but I don't remember being a tattler or someone who didn't share or who purposefully said "no" just for the heck of saying it. I liked to keep peace, wanted others to feel welcome and was just plain scared to go against the grain. So with that said, my children's sibling rivalry comes as sort of an extra shock. I think to myself "did these kids really come from my me?" Now know that as I'm writing this I'm chuckling at the same time. I mean, it's all I can do, but to look at it with a smile. Otherwise I think I would just lock myself in the bathroom until my kids are grown and parents themselves.

Regarding placement, I know that it is normal for siblings to have some rivalry, it's just how they learn how to get along with others in life. But I began to think that in some respects my kids are both like "first children". Think about it, if you have one then they are the "only child", if you have 3 you have the middle child and the baby, But if you have two you have the oldest child but the youngest child ends up getting what the oldest child got as well. For instance, Daria had me all to herself for 2 1/2 years. Well, when she went to school, Dustin has had me all to himself. I often wonder if the extreme competition between the two is that they both feel they have the "place" in the family. Ken and I have never compared them, you know like "see how nice your sister eats her vegetables", we've always tried to just focus on the kid them self.

At the same time I see a bit of our society creeping into my children's brains. We are a fortunate people to live in the US. At the same time the great blessings of wealth and materialism in this country can really hamper a parents ability to teach their children thankfulness, gratitude, positive attitudes and not being selfish. Don't misunderstand me, my kids for the most part are thankful, but since they've never had to live in want I don't believe they understand that what we have is a privilege not a right.

Now you would think after this long post I would have some huge remedy. But believe me Ken and I have tried so many things and so far to no avail. I'm convinced that the best remedy would be to move to another country so the kids could see what blessings we have here, and to learn to rely on family more. But since the chance of us living in another country is about zero, I have to find creative ways to teach them here.

The contention in our home has been at an all time high with Daria and Dustin, which is alarming in itself, and we have company coming in for Daria's baptism and I shudder to think of what may happen between the two kids when family is visiting!!!

My biggest fear is the knowledge that my kids are only 5 and 8, WHAT IN THE WORLD will teenagehood be like!

AHHHHH, maybe tomorrow will be a better day! Gotta love it!

Wacky Week

I've intended to post, but this week started out so wacky.

Saturday was crawfish day. So we spent the evening at our friend's house for a crawfish boil. The kids played with the crawfish before we boiled them. They transferred the crawfish from a big bucket to the wagon. I didn't think this was to swell of an idea but let it go. About 15 minutes later I hear Daria say "Help, the crawfish are getting away!". Apparently the back gate to the wagon came open. The crawfish were all over the driveway. No problem, they are not that fast. We had them scooped up in no time.

Also on Saturday I came down with the strangest ear ache, you know one of those odd things that in the middle of the dark night your mind begins to wonder and you think you have some strange disease. Well, it hurt terribly, and was gone later in the week.

Sunday, we had ward conference at Church and that means the choir sang. Ken and I joined the choir several months back. Ken's wanted to join the choir for several years but with small kids we just didn't think it would be enjoyable. We are at a stage now where Daria and Dustin can sit quietly while the choir practices. It's not like we have these amazing singing voices, we just like to sing and they don't mind having us. We sang "He is Risen" and "I'm a Child of God". This is actually the second time we sang. The first time was on Easter. We sang a fantastic version of "Behold the Great Redeemer" and "Jesus Once of Humble Birth". The most amazing part of the whole day was actually watching Dustin sit so quietly with our friends down in the congregation. Dustin didn't move an inch. He sat there the whole time, not a word, and right in the same place. Ken and I were amazed and both exclaimed on how maybe that is the trick to getting him to sit calmly on Sunday's, stick him with someone else (not really but the thought did cross our minds)

Tuesday night a storm blew in. I was working on my computer adjusting some pictures I took for some friends' kids who were going to prom. The wind came first and so I had no thoughts of turning off the computer. The lights flickered once. Still, there was no lightning. So I continued to work. The lights flickered a second time and my computer went off. No biggie this has happened before, but this time it did not come back on. Now anyone who knows me that losing my computer would be like my house burning down. EVERYTHING is on that computer. I was in a momentary shock of course. Long story short and the miracle of it was that I prayed my heart out and sure enough Wednesday evening Ken brought this gadget home that can test your hard drive, and I found that the hard drive was intact. Ken said "Karie, you have an external hard drive, don't you have your stuff backed up?" One would think I do, with as organized as I am, but I've been busy and hadn't backed up since January. I think I've learned my lesson.

So the computer was up and running by Thursday night which put me in a pinch. I've got several projects that I was working on, the most important was my nephew's graduation announcements, which by the way are pretty cool. Fortunately I had the announcements all printed out. I couldn't imagine if I lost those. So I've spent the rest of my time catching up.

Tonight was to be the first free night Ken has had home from his EMT classes. So we decided to spend it as a family, dinner and a fun game of tennis. Dustin said his stomach hurt but we didn't think anything of it. This usually means he needs to go to the restroom. So we headed out for dinner anyway. Fast forward to our meal, by this time Dustin wasn't even eating. I looked at him and I said "Are you ok?". He looked horrible and I saw that bottom lip quiver and I knew instinctively what was coming next. I said as I grabbed him as fast as I could "are you going to throw up?", he said no, but then he started to cry which is always a tale tale sign that he is going to throw up. So we rushed to the bathroom but didn't make it. I was the recipient of his release but only because I was shoving his face into my shoulder because I didn't want to risk getting any other patrons messy or disgusted. It was pretty disgusting I might say and a sure way to make one lose their appetite. The amazing thing is once we were in the bathroom and he was done, he felt so much better (who wouldn't). We promptly left, went home and changed clothes. Amazingly enough he is feeling just fine but I'm watching him like a hawk.

Other exciting news is Dustin registered for Kindergarten. He was pretty excited. I had had to fill out a pound of paperwork. There is one sheet where they ask you about your child. Some of the questions were just silly. Like, what is your child's attention span? Hello! he is 5! so I figured for a silly question I would give a silly answer. I wrote something like, "Isn't that relative? give him Legos and he's focused all day, reading lessons 30 minutes". I mean come on anyone can focus on something they like. Funny.

Daria lost her 8th tooth. The Bailey Family Tooth fairy brought her another poem, one dollar and some toothpaste. Along with the 8th tooth Daria will be turning 8 this next week. This means that her baptism will be this month. We are all very excited. She is super excited because all of her grandparents will be coming.

Ken has the top grade in his EMT class so far. It's gruelling!

Me, well I'm always busy with the mom stuff! but no complaints here.

Trading Spaces

What do two parents do when the rain begins at 9:45pm and 2 kids end up in their bedroom because they are scared to sleep in their rooms when it's raining??? (well Daria is afraid of sleeping in her room when it rains. Dustin says he's afraid but only because Daria says she is.)

Ken and I decided to take the opportunity to push their buttons. We were both in a funny mood so we began to talk and tease and make all sorts of noise. Before long complaints from the kids like "can you just go to sleep?", "you're being to loud," "I asked politely mom, and you're still talking." This made us laugh and we just couldn't stop. The more we laughed the more angry the kids got. We reminded them over and over that if they wanted peace and quiet they could go back to their own beds. Screams of "No!" were belted out. So we continued to laugh and make jokes. Daria said "You're not obeying!, now I'm going to be tired and I don't want to fall asleep at school, I've done that before once in 1st grade and it was embarrassing!" "This is the worst night of my life!" (I told her that if this was the worst she ever experiences she is lucky)

This went on for quite some time. Ultimately it was a lot of fun. At times the kids were mad and then at times laughing. I related to Daria that just the other night she and Dustin got the giggles and there was nothing I could say or do to get them to stop and calm down. It was as though the shoe had been placed on the other foot and the kids got a small dose of what it was like to ask someone to stop laughing and calm down.

Eventually we did! The unfortunate side of it was that all 4 of us were tired today.

I just have to say a quick word tonight about our Home Teachers who came by tonight. We've always had pretty cool Home Teachers (for you non-Mormon folk, those are two men who come by once a month to check on the family, see how we are doing, give us a lesson etc.). Well, we certainly have a great set right now. It's a father son team. Brother G. (I don't list last names on my blog for privacy reasons) and his son Ethan are so genuine. I love how they come each month totally ready to just enjoy our family. Ethan is a spectacular young man, ready to graduate, very studious and heavily involved in the Drama organization at school. Tonight he gave a great lesson on prayer and he always has the kids mesmerized. He usually comes with a nifty magic trick. But tonight Brother G. had the magic trick. He stuck a dime, then penny, then nickle, then quarter in Daria's hand. We all saw it. Then he had her close her fist and turn her hand over and back up. When she opened it all the change was there except the dime. With that, they ended their visit and we were left pondering on where in the world the dime went!!!

Anyway, it was a fantastic visit and I really admire this father and his son. The kids look forward to their visits each month.

Another day

There are only ordinary things to post about today. Nothing of monumental value, but all in all it was a very pleasant day.

1. This morning Dustin asked if he could play with his friend Logan when he gets home from school. He said he really needed to play with Logan because they have Army practice. It was all I could do to not bust out laughing. He is a boy for sure. What does Army practice look like? I'm not sure. But tonight he and Logan did get to play. I asked what they did. Dustin said, "we played Legos, then Army, then we played on the treadmill." They are creative.

2. After Daria's bath tonight she wanted some of that apple smelly body spray. When I sprayed it on her I guess her mouth was open and she got a bit of mist in her mouth. She promptly hacked and spit whatever she could out. She said "Yuck, I don't want to swallow it because I might die since there are mechanicals in it." Now this time I did laugh. I said, "do you mean, Chemicals?" We both ended up laughing.

3. While walking Daria to school this morning Dustin like always will pick me a wildflower or two. This morning Daria picked some for me as well. When we got to the school Dustin said "Who gave you those flowers?" I told him Daria. Apparently he did not want anyone else giving me flowers.

4. Lastly, if you notice at the bottom of my page there is a new nifty feature that I just added. Many of you have commented on how you wish you knew when I posted to my blog. Since I post irregularly I added a "Site Feed". All you need to do is enter your e-mail address, which is then sent to Feedblitz. They will confirm your subscription and then each time I post you will receive an e-mail of the post. Check back regularly though so you can view the galleries. If you are leery about signing up, don't be. You shouldn't get junk e-mail. In fact once you sign up you can go to Feedblitz site and make your e-mail private. It's a pretty nifty feature. I tried it on myself and haven't had any problems.

Corteo

Friday night Ken and I went and watched the show "Corteo" by Cirque Du Soleil. I've been trying to find the right words to sum up my feelings but it's almost impossible to find one word to describe it. Let's see if I can try.

Amazing, unbelievable, unreal, energizing, fantasy, whimsical, extraordinary!

I can honestly say that this show was by far the most amazing enjoyable show of any type that I've witnessed so far in my life. Several years ago my brother told me I should see a Cirque Du Soleil show when I got the chance. Now I see why. I was not let down. This was totally worth the money.

I think besides the amazement of the extreme talent these performers had, we came away just in wonderment and amazement of the extreme abilities or potential of the human body. Wow!

If any of you are near a town where this show is coming, make plans to see it!

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/default.htm

Don't let the freaky clown discourage you, he's actually a fun clown. There are no scary parts in this show, it's just whimsical and dreamy.

History of Sewing 101

About 9 years ago I remember telling Ken I wanted a sewing machine so I could learn to sew. I did get a sewing machine. The unfortunate end to that tale is that I never really did much sewing. I made one dress for Young Women's in Excellence at church (for some reason we leaders felt that if the girls had to do a project we should to. That must have been a moment of insanity when we decided that) With the help of 3 other friends I made a simple sun dress for Daria, which she wore only once 3 years later. I also made 3 calendar birthday wall hangings for my parents and Ken's parents. That was about it until a few years ago when my good friend Jenni encouraged me to make Halloween costumes for the kids.

I will never forget her words when Daria chose a pioneer costume. Jenni said "Oh, this is easy, this will be perfect for your first sewing project". Well easy is all relative. With extreme help on Jenni's part (I told her I would need her help, I'm not sure she realized it would be almost every day), and a lot of crying on my part (I really thought my kids would not have costumes, it was traumatic) I was able to produce 2 Little House on the Prairie dresses, and one Jedi Knight costume (I finished about 5:30pm on Halloween evening).

Still a bit leery of sewing the next year I decided to jump on board with Jenni and make more Halloween costumes. This time help from Jenni as well, but it was more enjoyable than the first time. Patience paid off and I ended up with 3 Pirate costumes.

About this time my sewing machine which I was hoping to give to Daria, died, well sort of. It's always been a dinosaur of sorts when it comes to sewing and I think I spent just as much time messing with the settings as I did sewing. I brought it to church to make purses with the Young Women. It was a pretty hectic night. My sewing machine completely died.

One of Ken's talents is getting things done while I'm oblivious to any surprises. For some reason I never noticed that the sewing machine was missing. Around Christmas time he took it to be repaired. For Christmas he surprised me with a new sewing machine and Daria with my old fixed up one. Now here is where it gets funny, well embarrassing really. The technician who fixed my old machine left big notes on the work slip. Things like "Do use the correct bobbins", "Do put the needle in correctly", "use the correct tension", and the list goes on. Who would have known!! I'm assuming that with all the chaos of that night with the Young Women that maybe I shoved the needle in backwards? Who knew!!!

I'm sure the sales person was wondering why Ken was buying a new sewing machine when I obviously had no clue how to use the old one!

Well, to end the story, I LOVE my new machine. In fact it reminds me of an experience I had when I took figure skating lessons. I remember my coach telling me that I needed new skates and a good pair. I thought she was just being snobbish. But you know what, I did get a nice pair of skates and it made all the difference. So the same has been true with this new machine. It's a bit nicer than my old one, it's so quiet that I can sew and talk on the phone if I wanted to. It makes sewing such a breeze!

So back to Christmas when I opened the machine Ken said "I want you to make Easter dresses". Now he really doesn't care if we have Easter dresses, but I believe he just didn't want me to sit on a nice machine and not use it. Luckily I'm still very interested in sewing.

Jenni helped me again, but this time I could muddle through a lot of it on my own. I was able to make a dress for Daria and a matching top and skirt for myself! What fun it was to be able to create something.