Busy Weekend

There are some weekends that are busy and exhausting. This weekend was busy but not really exhausting. Everything just fell into place. Friday night, even with a booming headache we were able to play a game of Settlers with our good friend Ashley who is visiting. The fun part was staying up until 12:00am talking. That same night Ken surprised me with an early birthday present. A nice sleek new lap top. It’s a very long story regarding the laptop. Especially since I have never liked lap tops…until a few weeks ago when Ino did some kind of salesman circus trick showing me what I could actually do with a laptop side by side with a bigger screen monitor. I was sold. (I’m such a visual person. If you want to sell me something you have to “show” me its benefits). Ken, who is the master of finding good deals found some guy on Craig’s list who won this computer bundle and didn’t need it so sold it for a crazy low price. Ken couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I love how good he is at that.

Saturday morning was our turn to clean the church building. We are the team captains. We are also very lucky as our group always shows up. So it only takes us about 30-40 minutes tops. We went from clean up to Ken refereeing the young women’s volleyball games. I cleaned out the deep freezer. It needs a deep cleaning periodically as ice builds up on the insides. The kids squandered the ice and played with their Playmobil figures on the ice and snow. Very creative. I cataloged what was in the freezer which makes meal planning so much easier. Amazingly even with the cool air hitting my face I was hotter than a frying pan. The joys of living here. My main purpose for cleaning the freezer was not to produce snow for the kids, but because we were getting another order of amazing fruit from Bithel Farms. This is a berry company out of Oregon. I believe they will drop fruit anywhere as long as they get enough orders. So ladies, if you know a bunch of other ladies who want fruit it’s a great deal. I usually always get the red raspberries, individually frozen. Twenty Nine dollars for 14 pounds (it came out to about 12 quarts bagged). Not a bad deal. This time I also ordered dark pitted cherries. For the next 6 months we will have fresh fruit for our breakfast, snacks, and deserts. Yum!

Saturday night I attended an interfaith concert at our church commemorating service men and women of the military, law enforcement and firefighters etc. This is the 3rd year in a row our church has hosted it. After last night I wished I had gone to the previous 2. It was phenomenal and very well put together. I don’t know how to explain it but I become so teary eyed and weepy when participating in events that honor those who serve our country and cities. It’s the same feeling I get when we sing our national anthem or America the Beautiful and Battle Hymn of the Republic. Maybe I’m just a sap. One of the last songs commemorated each of these arms of service and the people were asked to stand when their portion was being sung. Tears were in the crowd as first you would see the police and firemen stand up, then the Navy, then Army, then Marines and Air Force. Very moving! Many in attendance were decorated soldiers, old and young. What a treat!

Sunday the Young Women put on a beautiful Sacrament program. Kat sang a beautiful solo portion of one of the songs. What a powerful voice she has, it was very moving (Kat I know you are reading this so WAY TO GO! You really shined up there and it brought tears to my eyes!) The spirit was so strong. So I would say it was a good day.

We spent a small portion of time this evening at the children’s hospital visiting a friend of ours from church whose daughter was bit by a snake Friday night. She’s only 4. It amazes me that we can transplant hearts, make tissue grow, and do a myriad of procedures but for a snake bite it’s a painful, scary wait. Unfortunately in this situation they did not know what type of snake it was. So no anti-venom could be used. What happens now is the poison just sits, travels, and swells in the body. Her leg is extremely swollen but still has a pulse which is a good thing. As a mother, I recognize the fear and anxiety that would come from worrying and watching over your young child hoping that your child will be ok. Fortunately, I think the visitors made her day and from what we are told that boosted her spirits. We are hoping for a good outcome.

Hey! Good news, we finally have BYU tv. And we didn’t have to go through Dish or Direct TV to get it. We are pretty stoked about that. (Celeste, add that to your 50 reasons why you should move back here)

Here we go with another week of school. Daria seems to have evened out now and is pretty happy about class. She has learned all that crazy information about “addends and subtrahends” because my friend Jenni, who as her husband says “could teach a rock to talk” sat down with Daria and Logan and did some really cool teaching techniques. She really does have a gift of being able to teach anyone something in a way that they will understand.

Dustin seems to live and breathe for school right now. He’s only 5. Here’s how excited he is for school. He picks his clothes out the night before and lays them on his bed. When I wake him up in the morning, he gets dressed and makes his bed (without me asking) and gets everything ready for the day. He complains that I make his lunch for him, he wants to do it himself. It really cracks me up (the making of the bed that is). Could it be that my son has inherited some of my “a type” personality?? Who knows how long it will last but I will enjoy it while it’s here.

Another day

Daria: "Mom you’re the best mom in the whole university." Apparently I’m still in the schooling phase of motherhood. I’m glad I’m the top in my class.

Dustin finally rode the bus today. I think he was more excited to ride the bus than going to school. It was painful for him to wait. He’s asked every day. We have a long tradition of walking to school, which the kids love. Sometimes they walk, sometimes they run. Sometimes they pick berries, other times they play games. Most parents like to get their kids on the bus the first day of school to get them used to it, I wasn’t falling into that trick. The first week of school is always a crazy bus schedule. This year proved no different. I had friends whose kids weren’t getting home until 5pm! That’s par for the first week of school. Dustin felt the wait to ride the bus was unbearable. I reminded him that he will be in school for about fourteen years. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to ride the bus. This idea didn’t help. I did however remind him that most of the day he is sitting and that riding the bus is just more sitting. Walking gets the wiggles out. Our plan is to actually ride our bikes but I have yet to go buy another bike lock. It’s on my list.
When he arrived home today (at 4:20p, as opposed to 3:43 when I can pick him up) he jumped off the bus and did some sort of jiggly dancing yelling hooting and hollering jive, to show me how fun it was to ride the bus. Good for him!

Dariator…..I’m borrowing that nick name from a friend (you know who you are). Daria is such a loving sweet caring, fuzzy wuzzy little girl….usually. Since starting third grade she is Dariator. In fact starting third grade has been an experience sort of like visiting a different planet. She’s been a big blubbering ball of tears, worries, “what-if”, “school is hard”, “what if the bus doesn’t drop me off” you name it. It’s caught me off guard to say the least but I’m sure this stage will pass. Luckily she came home today in a great mood (as opposed to the tears this morning)

I don’t blame her. Kindergarten through 2nd grade is a breeze here. Third grade is intense compared to three years of learning your letters and colors (ha, ha). Thanks to the No Child Left Behind, Daria’s already taken one pre-test for TAAS (I think that’s just for the teacher to see where she is at) and 5 days into school and she’s already received another “practice” test for next week. So teaching to the test has already started! Tell me why a third grader needs to know what a “minuend” and “subtrahend” is already? Hello people IT’S THIRD GRADE!

Dustin is well, slightly over prepared for Kindergarten. That’s ok, it will all even out. Last night at orientation we were given the Kindergarten site words to work on with our children. There are 30 of them. Dustin already knows 28 and the other 12 he can already sound out. I did not teach him the site words, I had no idea which ones they were. I did however teach him how to read which makes all the difference. Ooops! Well, as soon as he turns those in he will be working on the 1st grade site words. It doesn’t seem to bother him. In fact he has no idea he’s ahead of the game and I’m sure not going to tell him. He’s so stoked for class that no matter what he’s asked to do he loves it.

There are a lot of fun things about growing up, most of which I’ve experienced as a parent. There are a lot of things I missed out on as a kid, mainly due to my lack of self confidence or motivation. In this case my huge aversion to balls, or any sport that includes balls. I dislike them and the balls dislike me. When it comes to sports I think of things like mountain biking or figure skating. No balls! I can’t remember a time where I’ve played a ball sport and not been clobbered by the ball. Fast forward 20+ years. The ladies in the Relief Society at church have a volley ball group. Once a week starting at 8:30pm and they play until they decide they don’t want to play anymore. My friend Mary encouraged me to go. This made me laugh. Of all the ball sports volleyball is the one that I really try to avoid. But being an adult now I have a slight sense of control and figured I would try it out. She promised me it was just for fun, no competition. True to her words it was fun. There are a few ladies who played volleyball in college, very good players but they are there for the fun of it. The rest of us are not very good at it but it was worth it. We played until about 11pm. I think we laughed ourselves silly, and all of us got a great workout. For the first time of my life I didn’t run or duck from the ball (well, except when Tia was serving) and I actually scored about 8 points total. The best part about it was the other ladies are so encouraging. They gave me pointers and would always tell me when I did well. Being an adult is much more enjoyable than being a teenager. I like that I can re-live some of those spots from my childhood and live it without all that peer pressure to perform.

Blog Blues

Ok, not really. I’ve intended to blog almost everyday this week but just wasn’t motivated enough to get to it. Each time I got close I hesitated because I felt a bit aloof with wanting to share my feelings about this week.

So exciting news! Dustin started Kindergarten. As usual I go through changes and stages with bags of mixed emotions. I’m almost afraid to admit it for fear of other mothers feeling guilty for “Oh My, feeling different!” (as we mother’s are so good at comparing ourselves and beating ourselves up for having different opinions or feelings), so just know that I admire all of you for who you are and how you live your lives, and especially how you parent. I mean come on, if I didn’t admire you, we probably wouldn’t be friends. With that said this week has been one of extreme excitement and a sad longing for a stage now done. I admit I’m one of those insane mom’s who dreads it when the school year starts. I enjoy having the kids at home, and somehow when I see them walk into school, my lack of memory skills makes me forget all the fighting, whining, complaining, and wild behavior that comes along with having kids at home, and then I become overly sentimental.

I don’t remember going through these emotions when Daria started school. Undoubtedly because she was my “first” and everything is so exciting. In fact I only remember getting sad for Dustin who painfully realized that his constant playmate was now gone all day. He would sit on the stairs with his chin in his hands, elbows on knees and say “I miss my Daria”. I still had Dustin at home to keep me occupied and my mind off of the fact that Daria was at school.

I am excited for Dustin. There was a sense of thrill as I watched him proudly enter his new classroom. It’s always fun to watch your kids face the new stages of life. Right before school started I started to worry, you know the long Guilt List of Motherhood: “Did I do enough with him?” “Did I teach him enough?” “What if he doesn’t do well because he didn’t attend pre-school?” The list goes on. Daria never had any problems starting school. I had her in a little pre-school co-op with some other mothers and home schooled her successfully teaching her to read. She was prepared and confident. I hoped for the same with Dustin. I chose to home school him for preschool which also turned out to be a lot of fun. It’s something I like to do and I recognize it’s not everyone’s bag of tea. I love teaching my kids, for those of you who know me you know I’ve always waffled on the decision to home school or public school. Both I think are great options. Because Dustin was a bit older before going to Kindergarten I had to step up my game and lesson plans, and include experiments and field trips. For us it worked out.

I was pleasantly surprised at how confident he seemed going to school the first day. All my fears kind of washed away. He’s so completely excited he can hardly stand it. On Tuesday he said “Mom, yesterday I liked school, but now I love it”. It is so fun to see him so excited and interested in learning.

With all that excitement I am also left with the residue of gracefully (or trying to at least) moving on to a different stage of motherhood (yeah right). Sure there are a lot of exciting options but I’m still accepting and dealing with my feeling of “missing the kids at home stage of life”. In time it will change but I’m all about validating feelings. I’m not the only one. I think Ken was just as sad as I was. His comment after walking Daria to her class was “they are growing up so fast”.

Monday after walking the kids to school I went to brunch with the girls at Panera, complete with the 50 pack of German chocolates that Betsty brought to celebrate. I abstained of course but enjoyed the aroma. That was a lot of fun. Coming home was odd. I’m so used to getting this routine going with Dustin. So I spent the day digging through closets and preparing things for a garage sale.

Now that my kids are in school I’m finding out a lot of things.

1.I’m still as busy as I was before. I just don’t have the extra dimension of integrating a kid into my lists of “to-do’s”
2.Of course I enjoy being able to do some things without kids, or having a babysitter, but the quietness in the house is deafening.
3.I miss the rustling of kid noises.
4.I like being able to do some things without finding someone to swap kids with.
5.I’m not a very funny person. In fact Daria and I are so much alike. We are very serious people. This can be a negative quality at times. Dustin on the other hand is a lot like Ken, trying to be funny all the time. Dustin is our “glad” boy, no matter what happens he is almost instantly glad or happy afterwards. This is a good quality. So I find that I miss the “positive” vibes that he would spread through the house. I think it was his daily goal to make me laugh. At times it would irritate me (some things he thinks are funny are just not funny to me).
6.I can actually look at my lists of projects or “have to do’s” and create some sort of schedule and feel like I’m accomplishing something.
7.I totally miss putting together school lessons. I’m a sucker for shopping at the teacher’s supply stores.
8.In the past the hours after school were the most harried. My hope was to get things prepared enough to spend some time with the kids when they got home. I’m finding that I don’t function well without a schedule. So far this week (are you ready for this….this comes from me and the kids who can literally go a week without watching TV), when the kids got home we went through backpacks, talked about their school days and then watched Little House on the Prairie….every day. I felt so off balance thinking there must be something I’m supposed to be doing. But I was doing something, enjoying time with the kids.
9.I am totally excited to be able to volunteer at the school more this year. I love that!
10.I’m finding that once you have your kids in school you start getting all sorts of advice or comments like “So what are you going to do now?”, “you are going to be so bored”, “you better get involved in this or that or you’ll go crazy” “now you can live your life!!” (As if I wasn’t living it before?)
11. I’m finding that you get a lot of questions that make you feel like you’re from another planet like “what in the world do you do all day?” “Why aren’t you going to get a job?” “you must love having all that time to yourself” (as if I’m spending all day pampering myself! Yeah right)

At any rate, it takes all of us mother’s to make the world go around, so I’m just going to keep going forward!

The summer ends

Helping the dad

Not something you usually see in your front yard

Meet the teacher day. Can you tell the difference between the 3rd graders and the Kindergartner? Hard to believe

Everybody loves a sharp dressed "man" (zz top)

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Dustin starts Kindergarten. It seems quite unreal actually, not just because it seems like yesterday I was changing his diaper, but quite the opposite. It seems like Dustin should be going into 1st grade instead of Kindergarten. Not only is he tall for his age, but he is smart as a whip and quite comparable to his counterparts who are a year older. If the rules were different, I'd bet my bottom dollar that if he had started last year he would have done great. Of course I didn't push the issue. Everyone knows that having a more mature boy starting school is a blessing.


He is excited and nervous to say the least. With the looks of his camouflage backpack, lunch pack, pants, and socks, he looks more like he's ready to join the military (I'd be nervous too), but alas, only kindergarten. On Friday we "met the teachers". Dustin feels good about his. Her brother's name is Dustin. (immediate connection there) :o)


We will walk to school in the morning. Our yearly tradition. Dustin is excited to try out the bus because Daria told him it's a lot of fun because you don't have to wear a seat belt. What is it about kids that makes "living on the edge" so captivating?


Daria is ready for school. She will have two teachers this year. There is the morning teacher that teaches certain subjects, then in the afternoon they go to a different classroom and the other teacher teaches them. It will be interesting to see what Daria can do this year as she is in a tough class (academically that is). I think she can do it. She on the other hand is more interested in joining choir.


As a send off here are a few recent quotes from Dustin.


1. "I guess I'll just be plain ole' Dustin" (this is after I refused to let him dress up as a firefighter to go across the street. Normally I don't mind him dressing up, but wearing two layers of pants, two layers of socks up to your knee, a sweat shirt, a ski jacket, a face mask and bandanna when it's hot enough to fry an egg outside is just not a good idea. I think he would pass out from heat exhaustion before he made it across the road. So instead of "being" a firefighter he resorts to the reality of just being himself.)


2. After asking if he could go back over to a friends house and me saying "not now" he exclaims with the drama of a Broadway actor "NOW I'M REALLY BORED" (lucky for me to have the great line from my step-mom "bored is a choice")

Persistence Pays Off..

Have you ever had a friend that you've lost contact with and wish you could re-connect? Well, I have. I'm sure some of my other long time friends are tired of me always asking "Hey, have you heard from so and so?" Maybe it's the genealogist in me, maybe I'm just sentimental, either way I think good friendships are hard to find, and thus worth the effort to "find" them again. I had a super great friend in elementary school. There were actually about 4-5 of us who were pretty close, we all lived in the same neighborhood. Elkie was the first one to jump ship, not by her own doing but by her family moving to another state. I remember we kept in contact via letters periodically, and a few times when we got older. The last time we spoke was in 1992 fifteen years ago. After that I lost contact. I've periodically tried various ways to research where she might be but always came up empty handed, until the other night. I came across some old items and just thought "hey, I'm going to do some more research" which I admit I'm pretty darn good at. Unbelievably I was able to find her parents location and the next morning left a message hoping I got the right family. Amazingly it was the right family and as soon as her mother gave her the message she phoned me that same night. We had a totally great conversation catching up on everything in each other's lives.

Now, not only is finding an old time friend fun, but finding that they are still a pretty neat person with a lot of similar interests and qualities is even more of a cool thing. Add to that the fact that even though we have not spoken for 15 years it seemed like time hadn't passed at all. What a great blessing!

Just for memories sake I had to post one of our 5th grade pictures. Ok, I have no idea what was going on with my hair that day!!! except we were at a skating rink, so I'm sure I was thinking I was lookin' cool! Enjoy!

Being better stewards of the world

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7

My dad (who lives in what I would consider the recycling mecca of the world) sent this link to me. It is fascinating but more than that it is sobering the effect we humans have on the world around us. Check it out.

This is completely worth the time to look at each of the depictions of art and read the captions. Makes ya think! The most amazing pictures was the cell phones about the 16ht picture on the page.

I believe that we are so blessed to have such technology to make our lives so much better than those who came before us. Yet at the same time we've become a very gluttonous, disposable world, unable to buy something and make it last or use it for a long time like our grandparents did. Instead we almost so effortlessly go through things without thinking what happens to them when I'm done???

Thanks to my family who have been a great example of doing their best to not make a negative effect on the earth's resources. Thanks to Heather who is a continued inspiration.

Where we live recycling is difficult because there are not a lot of facilities. But we recycle everything we can. The kids and I make our monthly trips to drop off glass, paper, plastic bags. We keep lights off and try not to run water while brushing our teeth, stuff like that. It seems trivial but I do believe that it is teaching Daria and Dustin to be more respectful and more grateful. Recently at the grocery store I asked for paper. It was hilarious! the clerk looked at me as if she had no idea what paper was. They were however polite. I found something very interesting was when I use plastic I come home with about 25 bags. When I use paper I come home with about 10. They are a little more work to carry but I think it's just another great way to be more active. You laugh, but seriously I was ok with it. I may have to invest in those shopping bags that Heather mentioned.

By the way, I noticed at the store the other day these disposable plates that looked like Styrofoam but they are completely biodegradable, made out of corn. Check it out!!

I really believe that one day we will be accountable for how we managed the earth's resources and while I'm not pointing any fingers, well maybe pointing fingers at myself really, I hope we might all slow down and find different ways to appreciate what we have by being more conscious. In the long run it just might save us some money!

Gingerbread Cookies, Ambulances, Halloween

Thankful thought of the day: I'm grateful for a hot running shower. Seriously, almost everyday I think I'm so lucky to be able to just step in a clean shower, turn on a knob and take a shower. Have you ever thought of how fortunate we are to do that? I can't imagine living in a time or place where we didn't have that luxary.

By the title of my post most of you are probably wondering what planet I live on. It's only August, school hasn't started yet, and here I am mentioning gingerbread and Halloween!!!

Chalk it up to the end of the summer scramble to fill up our time. Quite frankly we've been playing so much that I think we are just coming up with funny things to do.

A few weeks ago our family home evening lesson was on "Gracious George the Gingerbread Man". It is a story about a Gingerbread man who goes from house to house doing good. The idea was to get the kids to help each other out more. We have a little felt gingerbread man and when you do something for someone you leave him there and the person who finds him then gets to do something for someone else. Our neighbors joined in (they made a felt man as well). Both George's did a lot of traveling around their respective houses during the week. But, during that particular family night we ended to late to make any gingerbread cookies. Fast forward to this week. 4 kids and 3 adults with nothing else to do (yeah right). After family home evening (our neighbors daughter Kat gave the lesson) we decided to make the ginger cookies. I pulled out my maternal grandmother's gingersnap cookie recipe. I've never used it but thought it was worth a try. These gingerbread cookies turned out so moist and yummy that we made a second batch last night. Only this time we made ginger snowmen and snails. We named them things like "Truthful Trina" and "Service Sally the Snow woman". I think there was just as much sugar, flour, and dough on the floor as there was on the cookie sheets. Either way they tasted good.

As most of you know Ken is now a volunteer EMT. Tuesday was "National Night Out". Ken had to drive the ambulance to a few community events. But first he stopped by the house and gave all the kids a ride around the block. I told them that they can say that they've rode in an ambulance, and didn't even have to pay any co-pay!

This week should have been dubbed "safety week" in our home. Not only did the kids get to tour an ambulance and a fire truck Tuesday night. Thursday was the fire safety day at the library. The kids listened to a fireman speak about fire safety and then get dressed in his full uniform. This really helps the kids not be fearful of a fireman. Once they are fully dressed, they can look like some alien to a small child. No one wants their kid afraid of a fireman when they are in a fire. I never thought of it like this but the first time Daria saw a firemen dressed like this she was a bit alarmed. Of course the Darth Vader sounding voice that comes out of the breathing apparatus doesn't help either. Thus the reason we took the opportunity to attend this event.

Before you know it Halloween will be upon us. Why do I care you ask? As you know my friend and I have been having a blast sewing costumes for our family each year. We really wanted to do Civil War this year but decided to do that for next year as it will take us about that long to make the dresses. It may seem sort of silly but it's a great way to learn to sew and a lot of fun. Add to it my love of history and it's right up my alley to make some sort of historical outfit. The kids love it and the husbands don't seem to mind. So this year we are going to do renaissance.

Jenni, Kat, Logan, Daria, Dustin, and I loaded up for a trip to Joanne's fabric. This is actually a treat for all the kids because they love looking at the costume patterns and fabric. Seriously, my kids are easily entertained. Four $1.99 patterns (on sale from $16.00) and some really awesome Brocade fabric later (also on sale) we left completely satisfied with our upcoming sewing adventure. At first I thought I would post the pattern picture for the dresses I'm making for Daria and myself, but I'll just let you be surprised. I will be going as a noble lady, Jenni I think will be more of a peasant, Kat and Daria will be noble, Ino will be a Jester, Ken and Dustin will be more of a knight. So, let the sewing begin.

Hmmmmm, we still have time to enjoy August.