Category: Uncategorized (Page 16 of 118)

First of all, there’s NO WAY that I’m old enough to have an 18 year old. Let’s just put that out there right now.

Ahem.

But, that said, I want to wish my firstborn a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Sadly, the kid was born before we had a digital camera, so most of his baby pictures are still the old fashioned kinds in a photo album, not the digital kind that I can find on my computer. But what a cutie pie he is!

Cole, as the firstborn, has always been a GOOD kid. He never shouted “I hate you” at me, and has always been quite obedient. That’s just how he is. He tries his best to be the best he can. Which is good for a first child, especially when parents have NO IDEA what they are doing. I have apologized to him several times that he’s my experimental child, and I’m sorry if I’ve screwed up with him, and also thanking him for being the first (experimental) child. But hopefully he’s not too damaged. He seems to be turning out ok.

He’s a GREAT big brother. I don’t think the younger kids know how LUCKY they are to have a NICE brother, who doesn’t tease or torment them.

Cole is SO smart. But I already told you that, right. He is a GREAT boy, a wonderful son, and I am honored to be his mom. My greatest hope for all of my kids is that they can grow up to be responsible individuals, good examples to those around them, and happy well adjusted adults. A friend recently shared a quote with me that the end product of raising kids isn’t the kids, it’s the parents. I know I’m not quoting it right, but we as parents are the ones who are learning and growing through this experience. These kids are teaching us. Thank you, Cole, for teaching me how to be a mother.

I love YOU! Happy Birthday

We have two spring birthdays in our family. Two spring birthdays that are 9 days apart, and usually one or the other is either around Easter or General Conference. When I was complaining to a friend that I have these two birthdays basically a week apart, she said it was pretty much my fault. What? Cole was born two days late, and Megan was born a week early. SO–if we had stuck to the due dates, Cole’s birthday would be March 24, and Megan’s would be April 11th, and they would then be 2 1/2 weeks apart. Oh, well.

Friday night we had Cole’s party. I warned him that this would be the last Mom sponsored birthday party. WHAT? I then explained that when you are in college, Mom won’t be coming over to plan a birthday party. And then on your mission, Mom will send you a present, but can’t plan a party. 18 is pretty much it. You’re getting to be an adult. Deal. So, he thought it would be fun to do a Murder Mystery party. Great. I had given all of my how to host a murder games away, since we had already played them. Luckily, my sister had a few she let us choose from. He invited 4 girls and 3 boys, with Megan as the back up invite. Megan ended up as one of the characters, since one of the girls he invited couldn’t come.

First, I made dinner. Carver’s Spinach salad and rolls, followed by chicken cordon bleu, rice with sauce, and green beans was the menu. Once everyone was here, they started to read their dossiers and learn about the deceased. During dinner they played round one.

Although they told me that there were some inapropriate parts of the game (someone making porn movies, and illigitimate son named B. Astard, and some other such stuff), they had a fun time. It was nice to see Cole’s friends dressed up nice, and I think it went well.

When they finished the game, we paused for brownies and ice cream, and then they broke out another game that one of the boys had brought. After that, one of the girls got some big old foam jousting sticks out of her car (What is this, bring your own entertainment?) and I found them at 10 pm, out on the back lawn, “killing” each other with foam sword thingies. At 10:30, I had to break up the party and tell them it was time to go home.

Exhausted, I went to bed. Only to be faced wtih the task of planning ANOTHER birthday party for the very next Friday night. And Megan was not giving me any ideas. I kept throwing out what I thought were fun suggestions, but she wasn’t really going for any of them. Saturday, I was taking Megan and her friend to the Hunger Games matinee, and afterward, we stopped at Hobby Lobby to see if we could be inspired. She came to me and said, “Mom, what if we did…whisper, whisper, whisper?” Hmmmmm. I can work with that. So, currently we are making up invitations for an “Iron chef/cupcake wars” party that we will put together and throw this Friday night.

Pictures from BOTH parties will follow. Eventually. When I recover.

When I end up sobbing and crying uncontrollably while watching a tv show, it’s a pretty good bet that my hormones are out of whack or that the monthly visitor is coming soon. But in my defense, it was about a woman whose husband died, and it was very sad. So, to cheer myself up, I watched some kid history.

There’s a big bell conference going on in Salt Lake this June. We’ve known about it for over a year, as our spring concert coincides with this event. People in our bell choir have discussed going to the event, but I was deterred by the $420 price tag. Yes, that includes 3 nights hotel accommodations, workshops, classes, and a few meals, but it just seemed like SO much. And who can commit to leaving the family for 3-4 days?

But when our bell director told us that it really would be a great experience, and compared to other conferences she has gone to, this was a bargain, I started to think that it could be fun. She also stressed that we need to have some kind of presence there, and that she was going to go, even if it was for only one day.

I mentioned it to Ryan, thinking that he would agree with me, that that amount of money and time were just out of the question. Instead, he seemed interested, asking questions like, “when is it?” “where is it?” “Won’t you be downtown for your rehearsals and concert anyway?” When he was assured that the timing didn’t line up with his upcoming trip to India, he said, “If you want to do it, you should do it.” WHAT? So, then I figured I had better decide if I was going to do it, or not. I emailed my bell choir friends asking if any of them were going to sign up. I don’t want to be there alone, ’cause I’m not quite that brave. I heard back from a couple of them that they were either thinking about it, one had already registered and was planning on rooming with her sister, and one was planning on registering right away.

Sunday night one of my bell buddies called me. “How serious are you about this bell conference?” she asked. I told her that I was thinking about it, but I would want to register with a friend, since it’s double occupancy. I wouldn’t want to be put with just anybody. She told me that she was seriously considering it, and would I want to room with her?

I told her I would discuss it and then call her back. We looked at calendars, and he said he thought I should do it. “I won’t be able to do a play this year, especially if I do this,” I said.
“No play?” he said, “Who do I make the check out to? If I had realized it was this or the play, I would have told you sooner to go for it.” Hmmm. The truth about how much he loves it when I do a play each summer is coming out. To tell the truth, I had already pretty much realized I couldn’t do a play with Alpine Community Theater this summer, even though I really really love being in a musical. With our concert so late in June, and there are many Saturday rehearsals already scheduled in June, and it’s ‘Annie’, and there really aren’t many parts for women except for Miss Hannigan. Maybe I’ll try out just for fun to see if I could get that part….nope, better not. I might get sucked in. I would like my kids to try out, though, since there are a whole bunch of parts for kids, and it would be fun to be involved as just a parent, not an actor/parent.

ANYWAY….

Can I just tell you what a great supportive husband I have? Not only does he not complain when I’m gone every Wednesday night, some Saturdays, some Sunday mornings, and pretty much a whole week in December, but he encourages me in this hobby/calling. Maybe he feels guilty because he gets to travel to strange countries and leave me alone with the kids for a week at a time, or maybe he realizes that I don’t do all that much and he can manage without me for a few days, but he’s awesome. And look! This conference coincides with the week of girls’ camp! That means it will be pretty quiet around here without two of the girls.

So, I did it. Paid the money, choose my classes and signed up for a ringing level, and I’m excited. Although, after this week, with bells four times this week in preparation for our big numbers on Music and the Spoken word, I realize it’s not just going to be fun, it will be exhausting. But good for me. I need to stretch outside my comfort zone and do more things that are a little scary or hard.

And it’s good for my family to see me interested in hobbies, and doing my own things, not just ALWAYS being the mom that does everything for them.

And speaking of bells, we did great on Music and the Spoken word this morning. We played this song, but not the whole song. It was a cut version to keep in under 4 minutes. Super hard, but we rocked it.

(this video is from our concert in 2008, so we have improved since then, by the way).

Oh, sugar.
How I love thee.
How I miss thee.

But I won’t go into the details of my Lenten sugar fast. It’s the same every year. My friend Robin, (whose birthday is today, by the way) described it like this,
“Sugar is of the devil…at least for me it is. Every year I try to give up sugar for Lent which is for about 40 or so days starting with Ash Wednesday and ending sometime around Easter depending on my willpower and my ability to rationalize when Lent actually ends that year. It is getting harder every year and I have done some serious rationalizing in the past few years.”

Another friend, Jenny, has blogged several times about trying to get the monkey (that is sugar and our addiction to it) off her back.

So, since Wednesday I’ve been wandering the house wondering what I can snack on, since my usual snacking fare consists of….stuff with sugar. I’m trying to get my sugar from fruit, and eat more healthy stuff. The goal really is to kick the sugar addiction, be healthier, and lose weight. So you can imagine my surprise when I stepped on the scale after the first day of grumpiness and hunger, only to see that I had gained 2 pounds. NOT COOL, scale!

But, when we were taking dinner in to a friend who’s going through hard times, my other friend brought over a plate of some kind of delicious cake FOR MY FAMILY, I was pretty proud of myself when I just passed it by. See, I CAN have willpower. Sometimes.

So, let me just share a little ditty that made me laugh today. It’s all about MILK, not sweets. I don’t know if it’s his awesome German accent, or that he’s a grown man who is not afraid to dress up like a cow, but I’m feeling the Flula love.

Now maybe I’ll go have some Milch, Kase, or Joghurt for a snack.

I hate it that my kids are all growing up. Hate it! Why can’t they just stay little and adorable? Maybe I should not ever again look at old pictures of them when they were little. It makes me sad to think that I don’t get to experience that fun babylicious time again. I would pick up stranger’s babies and offer to take care of them, but for some reason people frown on that kind of behavior. Ryan actually gets to get his baby fix in the nursery. Not only does he get to play, sing, and have snacks with the 18 month to 3 year old set, he gets to hold the younger babies that people bring in to drop off for just a little while. The other day, he held one little guy for about an hour while he was sleeping.

How do parents come to terms with the fact that they will not get to snuggle any cute little newborns anymore? I love my kids, and I love the stage they are in right now, but I miss when they were little.

We have a keypad that works as a digital frame, and it picks a random bunch of pictures and displays them for the day. When it’s showing especially cute pictures of the kids, it makes my ovaries hurt.

I saw one super cute picture from when they were little, and I said to Ryan, “I know why we have so many kids–cause they were SO DARN CUTE when they were little. They tricked us into having 5 of them!”

The schedule today goes something like this:

Cole and Megan both stay late after school for various things.

3:45 take Jenna to the school for storytelling.
4:00 take John to cub scouts (pick up a friend along the way)
4:20 is about the time Megan usually texts me to pick her up from the school when driver’s ed is finished.
4:30 take Natalie to piano
5:00 pick up John from cub scouts, pick up Natalie from piano, pick up Jenna from the school, and take Megan to American Fork high for range driving. (yeah, right!) I’m hoping Cole will be home by then to help me at that busy time.

It’s been a super packed weekend around here, with a lot of church responsibilities and meetings.
Thursday, after working all day, we had to hustle to get dinner ready by 5:00 to feed the missionaries. When I found out the day before that we had the opportunity to feed the elders, my daughter said, “WHYYYYY? We’re already members of the church! Why should the missionaries come HERE?”
Oh, dear. But we had a nice dinner, and a nice visit. After dinner, Cole went with the missionaries to their appointments for the evening, and I went to book club (which, by the way, we read A town like Alice, and if you haven’t ever read it, I recommend it. Kind of a slow start, but great story. In case you were looking for something to read right now)

Friday, I was pleased to not have to work. Somehow the day before I had wrenched my back and I have had some twinges of pain when I do things like breathe too deeply or make any sudden moves. But instead of a quiet night at home, we had a Relief Society sponsored activity for couples. Not a fun date exactly, but a night about preparedness. We went (with a skeptical attitude for sure), but it was a worthwhile and productive evening.

Saturday, I had a Stake Relief Society women’s conference,

then lunch with dear friends,


and a Jazz game that night!

Sunday, I had to figure out my sharing time idea for our 9:00 church. After church, we caught small naps, then the home teachers came. Two meetings at night–a fireside for all seminary students at 6:00, and Priesthood Preview put on by the primary at 7.

So much for being a recluse and a hermit, right?