Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: blessings (Page 12 of 14)

Grandma Camp

February 15, 2009 / / 4 Comments

I’m enjoying the sound of a semi quiet house right now. A house with only 3 kids in it. Three kids who are getting along quite nicely. And I’m thankful for parents who are willing to take a couple of kids for a few days. I asked my mom if she’d like to have some helpers, that she could put them to work ALL she wanted, and maybe give them a lecture or two on attitude and obedience and all that jazz. As it turned out, it worked out nicely because my dad had volunteered to set up the flags for their neighborhood for President’s Day, and he could use some help with that job. Well, There you go! Help for their grandparents and a little sanity for me. Win-win, right? And we didn’t have to make a special trip, because my parents were coming here for a wedding reception Saturday night, anyway.

It was quite nice getting the kids ready for church this morning. Only three kids to dress, do their hair, and help find their shoes. There was no arguing, no teasing, and no complaining. Without the teenagers, the house is such a calm and quiet place. Seriously. We’ve been having a little attitude and conflict and sassy going on, so it’s nice to have just a couple of days without that.

The younger kids were a bit jealous when they found out that the oldest two got to go to “Grandma Camp”, even though I told them they were going to a work camp. Kind of like in the movie Holes, where they have to dig and dig all day. But without the scary Sigourney Weaver character. I told them they would have to shovel snow, set up flags, and maybe even (gasp) vacuum, and that when they come back they’d better have had an attitude adjustment. But I don’t think anyone believed me. They know that their grandparents love them to death, and think they are just the cutest things since new babies, and would NEVER make them do WORK or PRACTICE THE PIANO like their mean old mom does.

It’s good for all of us to have a little bit of time away from each other, I think. The kids have a great time getting to feel special by staying with Grandma and Grandpa, and we as parents get a little bit of a break from the five kid thing, and the siblings get a little bit of a different dynamic by not having the teenagers there. They get to feel like “the oldest” and maybe get to do some things they don’t normally get to do.

Hopefully they are being well behaved at Grandma camp, so that they don’t ruin their chance of every doing this again. So, thanks Mom and Dad! You are the greatest!

The morning breaks, the shadows flee

January 29, 2009 / / 1 Comment

Oh, it’s a rough morning here at the Erickson house.

Wednesday nights are rehearsal, which is great. But it’s exhausting, and I came home with an aching back, partly from ringing bells all night, and partly because I used 8 pound weights in my workout class on Tuesday instead of my normal 5 pounds weights. When I came in the house, I started the dishwasher, and then went to say hi to Ryan in his office. Only he wasn’t in his office. He was in bed.

Seems he’d had a violent reaction to something he ate for lunch at Apolo Burger (let’s hope it wasn’t peanut butter), and he’d been in and out of the bathroom all evening. Enough said? So, he was in bed not feeling happy. Well, I got ready for bed, too, and came to bed to try to sleep.

Here’s the thing. Ryan doesn’t usually go to bed at the same time as me. He is a night owl and I’m usually crashing into bed at the earliest possible moment. Seriously. If we don’t have anything going on that night, as soon as I get the kids in their pajamas, I get in my pajamas, too. Then once they are in bed, I’ll crawl in bed to read or watch tv and go to sleep. I’m not one of those people who say, “I get SO much done after the kids are in bed!”. Nope. After the kids go to bed, I breathe a sigh of relief and say I’m done for the day, and enjoy the quiet. But Ryan is one of those putterers, who works on projects at midnight or 1 am. I’ve tried to convince him that it’s not healthy to stay up so late, and he gives me the story that he’s not sleepy, and why go to bed when you’re not sleepy? Whatever.

At any rate, we’ve gotten into this routine that I usually go to sleep alone. In the quiet. With no one breathing or coughing or changing position to try to get comfortable. Get my drift? I like to sleep in the quiet. And when it’s not quiet, or someone happens to be there sleeping at the same time as me, I can’t go to sleep. I can try. I can pretend I’m asleep and hope that it happens. I can lie there thinking of all the things I need to change or work on in my life while silently hoping I’ll get so bored that I’ll eventually fall asleep. So, that’s what I did. For an hour or so. Until Ryan got up and visited the bathroom.

“Great!”, I thought, “now I’ll fall asleep while he’s in there, and then I’ll be asleep, hooray!” But, no. Sleep didn’t happen. I just lay there listening, wishing I knew where my earplugs were, and wondering how long he was going to be in there.

Eventually I gave up. I said goodbye, that I was going to sleep downstairs, but I would reheat my wheat bag so he could have warm toasty feet. Wasn’t that nice of me? I was sacrificing my own warm and toasty feet so he could have warm and toasty feet. Really, my feet were already warm, and he had cranked the heat up to -like-69, so it was plenty warm. I grabbed some blankets and went to go sleep on the couch. Nice plan that it was, I couldn’t really sleep on the couch, either. I must be getting old and stuffy because I want to sleep in my own bed. Sigh.

I did eventually sleep, but when one of the kids woke up to use the bathroom at 5:30, I decided I might as well haul myself back up to bed, so that when they all get up they won’t come and poke at me. I think I also must have turned my alarm off, so that it wouldn’t wake Ryan up when it went off. Oops.

I woke up at 7:26 with an “Oh, crap.” I hobbled down the stairs hoping that my kids had been responsible without me there telling them what to do. Sure enough, they were all gathered around the counter in various stages of getting ready for school. I told them I was so sorry I had slept in and wasn’t up helping this this morning. “That’s ok, Mom,” Megan said, “you were up late last night.” Wow. I had time to brush some girls’ hair, sign some homework, write a check for lunch money and have a prayer before the first group left for the bus at 7:30. I was impressed that they got up, got dressed and got breakfast without me. At least I think they got breakfast. I hope they got breakfast. The Jr High kids left a few minutes later and I breathed another sigh of relief. They did it without me.

That makes me wonder, what am I getting up for? They could just get ready and go to school on their own while I languish in my nice warm bed, right? Ha, ha, ha, ha! Things do not always go so smoothly.

But today I’m thankful that my kids can be responsible enough to get ready (at least today) without any prodding from mom. And I’m hoping that my sweet husband gets feeling better soon. So that I can sleep.

Welcome, 2009!

January 1, 2009 / / 3 Comments

Happy New Year to you all! Did you stay up late and ring in the new year? We had a casual, fun evening here. We invited our friends, Tess and David and kids over for a low key party. They brought the pizzas, and we turned on the Rock Band and Wii. We had fun testing out our inner rockers, and everyone got a chance to play. The kids also enjoyed some weird bunny games playing Rabbids. We tuned in for the New York New Year’s Eve ball drop at 10, so that some of us who don’t want to stay up all night could go home and go to bed. Perfect!

As we were talking about setting goals and resolutions and things, the kids asked us what we were going to be changing this year. Hubby said, “I’m just going to be doing every things 10% better. Same stuff, just 10% improvement.” How’s that for a concrete goal?

My goals are:
1-spend less. Using coupons, sales, rebates, and will power. I need to track my spending, make a budget and stick to it. Ick, I know, but it has to be done if I’m going to really see a decrease in spending.

2-play more. Spend more time with the kids and less time on the computer, and play with the kids and have fun.

3-weigh less. 20 pounds is my goal for this year. When I kick that 20, then I’ll feel like playing more, right?

4-exercise more. I want to be able to do a 5K this year, and actually jog it, and not just walk and jog. So, I’ve got to hit the treadmill, and go to my twice a week exercise classes and stop making excuses.

5-yell less. Less yelling overall would be nice. I’m not sure how to track and monitor this one, but I’ve got to make a conscious effort to stop the yelling or it won’t go away.

6-Organize more. Which really means be more organized, but I was trying to stick with the little more and less theme I had going there. I’d like to cut out the clutter, get rid of the junk, and clean up this place. I’d also like to be more organized in my meal planning, my time management and my lesson planning, but I’ll just leave it at “organize more”.

So, there you have it, kids–my totally original goals for the New Year. I’ll bet you’ve never heard any of these before, have you? At least I don’t have to quit smoking. That’s one I can cross off my list without much effort.

Happy New Year, and let’s have a healthy and happy 2009.

Christmas Highlights

December 26, 2008 / / 4 Comments

Snow, snow, and more snow.

The snow has been lots of fun to play in, if you enjoy freezing your extremities off, that is. The problem, however, lies in the fact that it takes about an hour to find everyone’s snow stuff, see if it’s dry from the last time they went outside, and get them into it. We’ve had cousins staying with us, and at one point had 10 kids to outfit into snow gear. And once we get them all outside (and lock the door–no, not really), they are only out there about 20 minutes before they are inside complaining of how cold they are. Then they leave all those wet, snowy clothes all over the place to “dry” out, and they demand hot chocolate.

And I’d like it stop snowing sometime, so I can go out and find my after Christmas bargains, thank you very much.

The Neighborhood Party.
We have some neighbors who host a party every year. There’s tons of food, and you get to talk to your neighbors without any kids pestering you. I haven’t been able to go for the past couple of years, but Ryan will go to this one by himself. This year, however, they did it late enough that I could attend, and it was super fun. And even better than a party? Leaving my brother and sister-in-law in charge of the masses at home. They had 10 kids to send to bed, but hopefully it wasn’t too bad. They let them watch movies and play games until bed time. The highlight of the party, of course, is the white elephant game. I thought my gift was cool but kind of weird, but apparently, it was just weird. Not the worst gift, though. I think the pre-flyed fly paper was the worst. Or the viagra. Thankfully we didn’t come home with that one.

The annual Christmas Nativity Puppet show.

The kids enjoy the Nativity puppet show each year. We read the story from Luke and they act out all the parts with puppets. It’s easier than coming up with costumes (or bathrobes, rather) for them to act it out, and they love it.

Screaming Monkeys.

The kids got Webkinz and flying slingshot Monkeys in their stockings. Who wouldn’t love a flying monkey? I think these might be good gifts for the neighborhood white elephant party next year.

Rock Band Surprise.

I was thrilled to give the kids an X-Box and Rock band. It’s doubly nice when I didn’t have to pay for it. Had I known I was going to be winning an X-Box, I might have bought less presents for them. But they were very surprised and pleased, since I would normally never buy such a thing. We finally got it set up today and are rocking out. And just so you know, Tina, I suck. But then, we all suck, so I’m in good company. I’m sure after the kids spend hours playing it and I still have only played it 5 times, they will totally smoke me, but right now we’re on a pretty even playing level. Except for Cole, who’s played guitar hero a lot more than me, and Megan, who actually plays the drums in the band at school. But since there are 5 kids and only three instruments, John is having a total melt down right now.

Chaos. And Mess.

I don’t know about your house, but our house is pretty much a mess after all the present opening. I wouldn’t say the mess is a highlight, really, just an unavoidable part of the eqasion.


Faster, Stronger, Better than it was before.

Ryan got me a new computer for my Christmas/Birthday present. The old one was the “free” computer he got back when he was fired from Intel many many years ago. It was old, slow, and frequently refused to do what I asked it to do. Now it has like eleventy times the memory and ram and all that computer language. So far, it’s working out nicely. Can you tell just by reading the blog how much faster it uploaded? Good job, new computer! And he secretly transferred all my old crap onto the new computer without me knowing what he was doing. He’s pretty sneaky that way. Ryan and I also both got new phones. Yes, you heard right. Ryan now has entered the 21st century and has a cell phone. Or, as he calls it, a leash. So I can call him. And you can call him, too, if you want! Everyone can call him! Hooray for phones. And yes, that does leave one extra phone for the kids to share. We haven’t worked out the details of that, but they haven’t seemed to care, yet.

Giving a Great Gift
We decided to give my sister and her family a gift that they really really needed this year. A van. Our van. They have three kids and can barely squish into their truck, plus my sister was left without a car most of the time when her husband went to work. We had been talking about it for a while and trying to figure out if we can survive with just the suburban and the little truck, and decided it was time to take the leap. We gave them the present a month early, and they have been enjoying it since. It really makes us happy to give something that is really going to be appreciated and used. And we hope it lasts for a long long time and they get many years and miles of use out of it.

Family Time.

We went up to my parent’s house on Christmas day and had the fun and folly of being with the whole family. Except for my sister’s family. Now that she’s got 10 kids we may never see her again. But even without her, we had something like 22 people there, and it was fun. It was actually the quietest Christmas celebration we’ve had in quite some time. Most of the kids stayed downstairs or watched a movie, and we’d call them up one family at a time to get their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. The picture above is my brother actually blowing out his birthday candle that is there in the birthday pie. Yes, his birthday is on Christmas. A fact that I try to remember when I’m feeling picked on by the unfortunate timing of my birthday.

Food, Goodies, Sweets, Temptations.
I think I’ve eaten my weight in cookies, candies, chex mix and goodies. Seriously, people, don’t bring any more yummy food to our house ever again. Or at least until my birthday.

Singing Silent Night
Ryan and I sang Silent Night for our talent portion of his family party, and it was fun to sing with him. He actually played the guitar (my guitar that I don’t play), and I sang, and it was nice to sing to a guitar. I think this year I really DO need to learn to play the guitar. We also sang Silent Night with our family on Christmas eve before the kids went to bed, and then in the morning before we opened presents, John said, “I want to sing the PEACE song”. So, we sang the peace song together and it was nice. It’s one of my favorite Christmas songs, and if he wants to sing it anytime, I’m game.

Since I hadn’t yet watched Rejoice and be Merry with the King’s Singers (last year’s concert), I made the kids watch it on Christmas eve with me. You would have thought I was torturing them with hot pokers or something, to hear them complain. I mean, come on, people! Who doesn’t love the Twelve days of Christmas? You can see the video from that song here. I think I might just watch it every day just to make them crazy. Right after Rock band.

Christmas letters.
I know I was late in getting my Christmas card and letters out this year, and I may have inadvertently forgotten some, and didn’t have addresses for others. I felt very disorganized in my card sending. But I do enjoy getting those letters from friends. For some, this is the only communication we receive all year, so it’s especially fun to see pictures of their families and read what they’ve been up to. And even if I have to hear all about their perfect kids, I still enjoy the cards. (I know that their kids can’t be perfect ALL the time, right?) My sister and brother-in-law actually send out the funniest letter, and I really look forward to reading about their mishaps and adventures.

That warm Christmas feeling.
I love everything about Christmas. And I love the feelings of love and peace that we have each December as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I almost didn’t want Christmas to come because I don’t want Christmas to be over. But, yes, it’s come, and now it’s over. It’s up to us to keep those feelings in our hearts even when we don’t have people telling us Merry Christmas, and we aren’t hearing beautiful Christmas music on the radio. It’s up to each of us to keep Christ in our hearts.

Christmas parties

December 22, 2008 / / 0 Comments

I love a good company Christmas party! It’s a night out with good food that you don’t have to pay for, and there are usually gifts or prizes. And on top of that, there’s a good chance that you’ll get to watch someone else make a fool of themselves when they are drunk! What could be more festive than that? Since I don’t actually have a job, I’ve had to rely on Ryan’s job for my company party fix. For the past couple of years, though, I’ve had choir commitments on the same night as Ryan’s company Christmas parties, so we haven’t gone. I encouraged Ryan to go without me or to “take a date”, but he would have nothing of it, and if I couldn’t go with him, he didn’t want to go alone. If the situation were reversed, I would TOTALLY go without him.

This year was different, though. For some reason Ryan’s company planned their party for a Thursday night when I didn’t have choir stuff, and I was excited to go! But then, with the slow economy, the company had to let some people go, and decided that to host a company party would not be a wise idea. I have to agree that it’s a better idea to not have a party, than to spend a bunch of money on an open bar. But still, then we’re out of a company party! My friend Kristy describes the disappointment perfectly in her post called “The Economy – Stealing More Than My 401K.”

As it turns out, I DID have a choir commitment the night of the party, after all. We had to rehearse for the Music and the Spoken word for this last Sunday. And if you didn’t catch the MSW this week (shame on you! You should have been watching!) you can find it, or last week’s wonderful program, and look for my bright smiling face at the BYU TV site. Yesterday’s program will be on next Sunday at 8:00am or 4:00pm, I think. I was kind of relieved that I didn’t have to try to make it to both a rehearsal and a party that night.

But never fear, we still got to go to the Choir Christmas party. It’s quite a lovely affair at the Grand America. I think they set up for about 1000 people, and the food was great this year, and the company was so much fun.

When I was signing up and registering my guest, I decided to mix things up a little bit. Instead of “Ryan”, I registered that “Dirk” would be my date. Just for fun. A day or so before the party, I did mention to Ryan that he “may or may not have to go by a different name at the choir Christmas party.” He was open minded about the whole thing, and when we got there to pick up our name tags, there was his–Dirk Erickson. “Dirk?” he said to me? “I’m Dirk?!”
“Well, yes, I guess you are,” I replied, “Isn’t that fun?”
“Whatever.” Thankfully we were in party mode, and he didn’t get too annoyed with me.

So, when we sat down to eat and laugh and joke with the people at our table, we wondered if the others at our table would notice my husband’s name change. Maybe they don’t know his real name? About 15-20 minutes into the dinner, Ryan commented to me that maybe no one notices name tags, anyway, because there had been no comments on his new name. But never fear, my friend Maranda was the one to notice.

“What the heck?” she said when she looked at his name tag, “Dirk? Who’s Dirk?”
That got everyone looking and asking why his name tag said Dirk. “Oh, because Paige is just weird,” was the best answer we could come up with. And we all got a good laugh out of it. Maybe next year we’ll Both have different names. We could be Rhett and Scarlett or something like that. Or Bonnie and Clyde, or Lea and Luke, or…. but one of us probably has to be a choir member. Darn. But it was a fun little way to see if people actually notice what your name tag says.
It was a lovely night, with good friends, good food, and the dessert was good this year! And it’s always nice to have President Monson attend the party!

So we still had our “company party”. On Saturday we had two family parties. One with Ryan’s family in the day. There was tons of yummy food, a talent show and some gift opening. It was very fun, of course. Then my family had their party at night. There was lots of yummy food, a craft, a giant twister game, a puppet show, and Santa came. It was probably the quietest family party we’ve had in a long time, since several families didn’t come. It was a wonderful mix of visiting with family, fun for the kids, and presents from Grandma.

This week we have our neighborhood party, which is a WHOLE different atmosphere. I’ve had to miss this one for the past couple of years, too, but this year I am lucky that they scheduled it later, and I can go. Ryan has no problem going to that one without me, by the way. I’m working on our white elephant gift, because that is the highlight of the party! Nothing too personal and embarrassing, like some people do, but I do want something original and fun. One year I gave away tickets to a U of U game that was in SanDiego. I don’t think they got used, but it’s a fun idea. Another year I gave away tickets to some show that was playing in Wendover the next night. I don’t have any quirky tickets to give away this year, but I do have a nice Manheim Steamroller gift basket with Halloween music and light up teeth in it. I think that might be my gift of choice this year. That or some just for men hair color. Maybe both.

What’s been your most exciting white elephant gift? My brother-in-law once took a tarantula to one of these things.

Today brings making and delivering the neighbor’s gifts. Last night we baked up three different kind of treats, and today we need to finish up the packaging and send the kids out to deliver them all (hopefully before the storm comes in). And my brother and his family are coming to stay with us for a couple of days. I hope they don’t mind that the house is a mess. With all the party attending, bell ringing, and baking, I haven’t gotten around to much house cleaning. Oh well, it will just get messed up when they are here, right? So we are just starting out with the house pre-messed!

If I don’t get a chance to wish you all a Merry Christmas, please know that I do wish you all the most wonderful Christmas week. Let’s all try to enjoy our families and the fun and excitement that is Christmas, and not worry so much about the details that we all think need to be perfect. There’s only a few more days to drink in the wonderful feeling of Christmas, so let’s all enjoy it!

We made it

December 15, 2008 / / 3 Comments

Well, it was quite a week, with the Tab Choir Christmas concert.
It was a wonderful experience. If you didn’t get to go and you didn’t catch the mini version on Sunday morning’s Music and the Spoken Word, you can always get the CD and DVD or watch it on PBS next Christmas, or read these reviews Just don’t read the comments left on the article, because you will be scratching your head in wonder at the people who chose to comment and why. There’s a fabulous recap with pictures on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints Website here.

Mr. Mitchell stopped to talk to us for a minute backstage, and I shook Mr.Herrmann’s hand, and they were both gracious and warm. We are so lucky to be able to have such talented performers come and join us each year.

Ryan did a great job of holding down the fort while I was gone every night of the week, although some things still make me laugh. I “glued” up the little gingerbread houses on Friday so that Ryan and the kids could decorate them that night. I figured the kids still need to do some fun Christmas things even if Mom is gone. When I came home Friday night, I was so thrilled to see all the houses (well, all except Cole’s since he was gone to a party that night) decorated so cute! And the big house that Ryan decorated was Much cuter than the one I did last year! They did a great job! But next to the houses was a huge pile of candy wrappers sitting there on the counter. And a great big pile of dishes in the sink. When I asked the kids the next morning why they didn’t throw away their wrappers, they said, “Dad didn’t tell us to! He told us to go to bed.” Well, that sounds like Dad, but haven’t I trained you children at ALL? If I’m not here telling you to put your dishes in the dishwasher or to throw away your wrappers are you not going to do it? At least I’m needed here at home, I guess.


Saturday I took the kids over to our neighbor’s cabin to see Santa and ride the train. It was so well done and magical. And a snow storm came in just then to make it really feel like Christmas, and to make us really appreciate the hot chocolate. Of course we didn’t appreciate the snow a little later, when we had to drive up to Salt Lake in the snow. Thankfully, the worst of it was here at our house, and once we were on the freeway, it wasn’t too bad.

Saturday was long day, as it the taping day, in order to get a clean recording of the songs for the CD or DVD without an audience. But we had a lot of downtime, too. After a fabulous dinner, we had some time to kill and played Spaz Uno, Ziggety and the signs game and I was laughing so hard I was crying. After our performance that night, my friend Maranda and I were happy to not have to drive all the way home. We stayed with my wonderful friend, Marguerite, who had graciously offered to let us stay overnight at her house, which is only a few blocks away from downtown. It still took us about a half an hour to get through the concert traffic, but it was nice to have a warm comfortable place to stay and not have to drive home and then back in the early morning. Thanks, friend!

Sunday, we woke to MORE snow and icy roads. I worried about my family, and how the drive would be for them, but they made it up to the conference center in plenty of time. Ryan brought the three oldest kids up for the broadcast, and the youngest two got to have their own overnight vacation at Julene and Italo’s house! Lucky kids!

The broadcast and mini concert went very well, but what you don’t see from the audience is the show backstage. Imagine 100 plus bell ringers breaking out into a FULL RUN as soon as they get off stage. The thundering sounds of all of those feet on the stairs was a bit scary! We all had to run to where our bells were, put down the bells from one song, and find the bells for the next song (no, we don’t ring the same bells for every song) and then run back up three flights of stairs in time for our next entrance. If I weren’t panting so hard, I would have been laughing. We figured that between the rehearsal, the broadcast and the mini concert afterwards, we ran up and down roughly 24 flights of stairs. So, yes, we were sweaty and tired when we were done.

As we were walking out to the parking garage, I said, “My wish is that the snow has stopped and the sun is shining.” Someone walking near me laughed, and said, “Right, and that there’s only snow on the grass!” Was she mocking my wish? I think not. When we pulled out, sure enough, the sun was shining! The drive home was clear and dry. My Christmas wish!

I have to say it was a marvelous week and a wonderful experience. I am so thankful that I could be involved in such an amazing concert. At the end of the mini concert, when the choir and orchestra all sing “God be with you till we meet again”, tears were running down my face. It was an emotional day, and one I won’t soon forget.

Warm and fuzzy

December 4, 2008 / / 2 Comments

I am almost through my mountain of refl***##**s papers, after calling all the parents who didn’t bother to include the d*** media release form. If I don’t have their form tomorrow when I turn the stack in to the council person, then….oh well. I guess that entry won’t move on. Nothing more I can do, right?

I’m trying to be more Zen like in my attitude. This morning I went to my favorite yoga teacher. Ryan took the day off because he has to take like one day a week off for the rest of the year. Tough, I know. This is what happens when you don’t take a vacation. Because whenever he plans to take the day off, it seems, he’s got a meeting or a conference call or something important that day and can’t take that day off. So, really, he was going to take Friday off, but there’s a conflict, so he took today off. Why am I telling you all this? Because that’s why I was able to go to yoga today. Because Ryan was home to keep an eye on the little boy, and I was free to go to yoga. This yoga teacher is AMAZING! I do things I never thought I could do, and then I watch other people do things I know I NEVER can do, but I don’t feel bad that I can’t do it. “Let it be ok!” She says. She also said, “The only way to take in a new breath is to let out the old one. How can you expect to take in new things if you can’t let go of the old.” Think about that one. And “The only way to be in the moment is to actually BE in the moment. You can’t think about being in the moment or want to be in the moment. Just BE.” Anyway, it was great, and my muscles were shaking when I left. I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but in a good way.

I wanted to also let you know about a little friend of mine.

Parker is a little guy with a big smile. He also has big medical bills, and a family who has no possible way to pay all those bills. Insurance only covers so much, and there are a lot of things that it doesn’t cover at all. Well, some really nice people have set up a raffle for a beautiful quilt.
For a donation of $5, you will get a raffle ticket and a chance to win this amazing Christmas quilt. And even if you don’t win the quilt, there are some other fun prizes, as well. And even if you don’t win anything, you can still have a warm fuzzy feeling that you are helping out a family who could really use a little help. Well, they could use a Christmas miracle, but I don’t know if that’s something we can deliver. But we can help out in small ways.

If you would like to read more about Parker or make a donation, click here. Because we could all use some more warm and fuzzy in our lives, especially at Christmas.

Black Friday? I don’t think it’s that dark.

November 28, 2008 / / 6 Comments

Yesterday we had a fabulous day! Our plans to go and visit my brother and family in Arizona fell through, and I’m actually relieved. That means we can kick back and relax this weekend. On Thanksgiving, we had a large Coleman family gathering at my aunt’s church.

It was complete with basketball playing in the gym, driving some remote control cars around, wonderful food and sweet potatoes with the marshmallows. The turkey was wonderful and plentiful, and it was so much fun to chat with my cousins, who I don’t see nearly often enough. I made the maple pumpkin cheesecake, a pecan pie, an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. We have lots of pie leftovers in the fridge right now. I also made the green bean dish that I had thought I was going to make, and it was FANTASTIC. Really. And I never would have thought I would say that about green beans, but they really were a hit. My husband even said they were the best thing on the buffet, which I have to heartily disagree with, but I think I’ll for sure make these again, even when it’s not Thanksgiving. Want the recipe? Of course you do. Here you go.

Apple Bacon Green Beans

* 6 bacon strips, diced
* 1 small onion, diced
* 1 (16 ounce) package frozen cut green beans
* 1 large tart apple, chopped
* 3 tablespoons brown sugar
* 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
* 2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
* salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large skillet, cook bacon and onion over medium heat until bacon is crisp. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until the apple and beans are tender.

I left out the apple cider vinegar, and I think they were great without it. I also sprinkled pecans on the top. It really was yummy. Oh, and I used canned instead of frozen beans. And No, I can’t follow a recipe as written.

After dinner, there was some drama over a lost coat, but it was found, and my sister lost her daughter for a while, but found her in the nursery room, so all is well. The kids also put together a little play on the stage, which was very cute.

Since we had eaten early, we decided to drop in on Ryan’s family and visit with them, too. They had already eaten and were in the act of Pythoning. (to python (verb)–to lay around and digest after having eaten a large meal, much like a python would lay there after eating a pig. I learned this word from my South African roommate way back when at BYU, and if anyone would know about pythons, I guess it would be her.) So we joined them for some fun, some pie, and even some fruitcake. What? Fruit cake on Thanksgiving? Whatever. I told Ryan to be sure and get some of his mom’s dressing, because he likes hers better, and maybe get some leftover sweet potatoes, because he likes them without the marshmallows. But we didn’t take any leftovers home. Can you believe it? No leftovers–well, except the large amounts of pie we have in the fridge. Maybe I should trade with my neighbors for some turkey and mashed potatoes. I mean, I’ve got a turkey in the freezer, and I can cook up some potatoes, but it’s not the same.

After looking over the ads, I was thinking that I really did want to go out on the craziest shopping day of all crazy shopping days. There were some things at Walmart that were screaming deals, and I decided I wanted to at least try. I’ve never gone to a store at 5 in the morning before, and for some silly reason, I decided I was up to the challenge. I set my alarm, but I did it wrong (why does that always happen?) so I didn’t wake up at 4:25 like I planned. I woke up just a few minutes before 5, and thought, “Oh, I’m too late.” And tried to roll over and go back to sleep. But I was awake already and decided I might as well get up.

So, I got up, got dressed, did almost nothing with my hair and makeup, and got in the car. It was then that I realized that in “setting” my alarm, I had gotten my clock a bit fast, and it was just after 5 am. I drove to the Lindon Walmart, hoping that it might be less of a zoo than the bigger, newer, American Fork Walmart. When I pulled into the parking lot and it was FULL, I knew I was in for some work. I got a cart from some women who were already going to their cars, and they told me “good luck!”

In the cart there was a little map of all the black Friday items and where they were located in the store. I was after a certain item for one of my children. Let’s just call it a “glipslem”, in case my kids (or my kids’ friends) happen to read this entry. I saw that the glipslem was over in the pet isle. But there were all these people in my way. How was I even going to get over there by the pet isle? I cut back to the front of the store, went in front of all the registers to the side, and then did some fancy footwork to make my way to the pet isle. Oh, look! Cars! Put one in the cart. When I got to the general area, I asked a nice Walmart employee, “Do you know if there are any more glibslems?” Please, don’t be out. Please don’t be out.
“Um,” she said, “they were right here somewhere. Oh, it looks like there’s one up here on this shelf.” Hooray! She had to get some help from another employee to get it down off the top shelf, and said, “Is this color ok?”
At this point, I really don’t have much of a choice, so what does it matter? “That’s great!” I said, and stuck it in the cart! Feeling charged by my victory, I went off to see if I could find some of the other great steals. After being stalled by traffic jam after traffic jam, I eventually found my way to the coats and sweatshirt display, and grabbed up a bunch of items for my family. And then I got in line. It was about 5:45 am. Wow. While waiting in line, I ended up leaving for a minute to grab a few more bargains that were right there, but mostly just stayed in line.

I must apologize to the people around me. They probably thought I was a crazy stalker when I said, “I can tell the ages of your kids by looking at your cart.” I mean, it was totally obvious that they had a 4-5 year old boy who was obsessed with Cars merchandise, and a young girl who was getting that dolly, and an older kid (maybe 8-10) because there was the game “Operation” on the bottom. I really wasn’t meaning to invade your privacy, and I promise I won’t follow you home. I just can’t stand that long wait in line without at least talking to someone. If my husband had been awake, I might have thought about calling him to tell him about my big score, but A-he was NOT awake, and B-he doesn’t care. So, I ended up talking to the people in line. The guy behind me was here visiting his parents from California, and on a whim decided to do some early morning shopping. The lady next to me had been there since 2:00 am, in order to score her $88 powerwheels vehicle. Wow! That’s dedication.

Finally, it was my turn at the register. It was self check, but there was a guy there to do all the scanning for me, so it wasn’t really self check anymore. But it was almost as bad as self check. I don’t know if it was his first day, but he definitely wasn’t a seasoned employee. When my glipslem (remember? we’re using a code word?) rang up at $78 something instead of the advertised $45, I was all over it. I showed him the ad, and asked if that wasn’t the right item, and shouldn’t it be $45? Poor Mr. Newguy asked some other guy, “Hey, can we price adjust this for her?” And they guy said that yes, he could. Only Mr. Newguy didn’t know how to do a price adjust, so he had to wait for a manager to help him do that. That’s ok, I’ve got all the time in the world to wait for you, as long as you don’t make me pay full price. He did get it worked out, but there were a couple other items that didn’t ring up as they should have. The worst was a men’s jacket, that I clearly took from the sale area, and it really should have rung up at $8, not $15. But I’m not going to dicker over that amount. If you can’t adjust the price to be $8, then just take the jacket off and I won’t get that. I don’t want it enough to pay $15. It’s black Friday for heaven’s sake. We don’t pay full price on black Friday! When Mr. Newguy tried to delete the item, it kept saying something like “item was not purchased” and it wouldn’t let him change the price OR delete the item. He ended up calling his friend over again, and she tried it, but it was giving her the same problem. She ended up deleting a young men’s jacket that was also $8, and then kept the $15 jacket ON the transaction, so I ended up paying $15 for two jackets instead of $8 each. Hey, that saved me another dollar–Great. And if I decided to return the $15 jacket, that would be an even greater deal. No, I’m kidding. That would be dishonest, wouldn’t it? But the thought did cross my mind.

Anyway, I finally got all my items scanned and paid for, and made my way out through the vast expanse of parking lot to the car. I looked at my watch and it was 6:30. Hmmm. Is it too late to hit any other black Friday sales? Probably. But I wanted to check at Walgreens, because they had some “Schlebfins” on sale–buy one get one free. And you can never have too many “schlebfins”, can you? (Code again, remember?) There were only a few cars in the Walgreens parking lot, and –What?– there were people sitting in the cars. What the heck? I got out the ad, and Walgreens sale doesn’t start until 7 am. Wow! I’m EARLY. So, I waited in my car for another 5 minutes, and then decided that it wasn’t that cold. There were only two people standing in front of the door (well, one guy was sitting on a chair that he brought), and I went to join them.
“What are you here for?” asked the nice lady in front of me.
“I’m here for the schlebfins,” I said.
“Oh! Me, too!” she said. She said she hadn’t even heard of schlebfins until a few weeks ago, when her daughter got one for a birthday present. The guy sitting down joined in about then, “I’m here for the tv.” I checked the ad. Wow, a 10 inch flat screen tv for $99 wasn’t too bad, either. The rest of the people were out of their cars by now, and we ended up chatting with Miss Smoker and her friend, who said, “What’s a schlebfin?” We told her what they are and that they are a fun gift for small people, and she decided she wanted one, too. Great. More competition. But I needn’t have worried. When the guy let us in a few minutes before 7, I went to the schlebfins and got my limit of 8, and then after I had bought those and taken them out to the car, I went back in and got 6 more. What? They make great presents!? And they were 1/2 off!

By then, it was nearly 7:30, and I was done with my shopping. I took a trip through the Sonic drive through for a breakfast sandwich and then was on my way home triumphant. When I got home, the kids were up and wanting breakfast, and Ryan was still asleep. Nobody even missed me!

I took off my jeans, put my pajama pants back on, and climbed back into bed for a little nap!

Later, we dragged up a bunch of Christmas decorations, went to an indoor soccer game, picked up a friend for Cole who’s going to stay for a little while, and Ryan went to go help a friend with thier wiring and electronic gadgets. After dinner we put up and decorated the tree. And listened to Christmas music. The perfect after Thanksgiving day.

Thankful–a list

November 26, 2008 / / 3 Comments

I am so thankful for my many many blessings. I would be remiss if I didn’t list some of them here.

~I’m thankful for my husband. Ryan is in many ways a better person than I am, and he’s a great husband and wonderful father. He’s handy, he’s smart, and he’s funny. He supports me, he encourages me, and he is my partner in all things. And I love him.

~Cole, who is our lawnmower in the summer, our babysitter when we go out, and our resident “know-it-all” teenager. He tries hard to be a good person, and he thinks about things a lot. He’s also a lot of fun.

~Megan, who is either spunky and full of energy and helps out around the house, or the worst grump you’ve ever encountered. We never know which one it’s going to be. But she’s growing up and entering that “fun” teenage time, and becoming more responsible. She’s making my practice my patience.

~Natalie, who even when she was little was always singing or talking. She’s fun to be around, unless she’s forced to clean her room. Then it’s best to just close the door. She likes to bake and wants to help me with our pies for Thanksgiving dinner.

~Jenna, who likes to be helpful, and likes to be nice. She leaves little notes and pictures for all of us around the house to cheer us up. She takes gifts to her teachers just because.

~John, who at 5 is finally a “big boy” and we are proud of him. He is an easy going child who loves to play pretend by himself. I lay on the couch watching him the other day and asked if I could play with him, but he said No, that it was only a game for boys and cars, and not for moms. Ok. I’m ok with that.

~My wonderful group of friends. I really have been blessed with the best friends in the world. I have this group of friends that I’ve known since my early years. We’ve been together to support and help each other for more than 30 years. We’ve celebrated together, we’ve laughed together, gossiped together, and we’ve mourned together. I don’t know why I’ve been so lucky to have them as friends, and why they have loved and stuck with me for all these years, but they have, and I’m so blessed.

~In addition to these long time friends, I have met and grown to love new friends through the years. I am so thankful to live in the neighborhood where I do. I have wonderful friends who are here for me, and help out. I made a comment to one of my friends (as we were arranging carpools and picking up each other’s kids from piano) that together, we make a great mom. I know I can call them in a pinch to help me out, to pick up a child, or loan me an egg or an onion. And they are so much fun! I really do love to hang out with them. It really does take a village to raise children, or at least a neighborhood.

~And my bell choir friends, I can’t forget them. Who would have thought four years ago that I would have a new group of people that I would grow to love so much. During the slow times, we meet once a week, and even though we are rehearsing, and sometimes it is hot and exhausting and frustrating, we love it. It’s so wonderful to get together with people you love, and learn and play beautiful music. We have been set apart as musical missionaries, and that really is our goal–to share the gospel and our love for our Savior through our music. So, even though we are having so much fun, we really try when we perform to “show our testimonies on our faces” and share our love with the people who attend. During the busy times, we are often together every night of the week, and I see these people more than I do my own family. And I love them. And I am so thankful for this calling that is such a blessing in my life.

~I’m thankful for Ryan’s job. He’s been the provider and protector of our family, and allowed me to stay home and raise the children. My job is to save money where I can, and to provide the most comfortable home for the family. I get to be the decorator, the homework monitor, the cook, the cleaning lady, and the mommy. I get to go on field trips and drive carpools. And even though I get tired of those things, I’m so glad I don’t have the added stress of having to “bring home the bacon” AND fry it up in the pan. I’m also the “entertainment budget”. I often drag my family to fun and interesting things because I won passes, and while it’s always unexpected, it is usually fun. I’m so thankful that we’re able to afford our house, take care of our bills and obligations, and that we have enough left over that we can give to others.

I could go on and on here, counting my blessings, but then I wouldn’t get anything done today. And I have a maple pecan pumpkin cheesecake to make, and have to decide on some kind of green bean dish. Maybe this one.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday, and that you don’t forget to take the time to count your blessings, too.

Snot

June 16, 2008 / / 8 Comments

Snot, sneezing and yelling. That would be the title of the past week for me. Really. After reading about my sister’s horrible day and trying to deal with all that with a huge COLD, I thought, I haven’t written about my lovely Friday the 13th, so maybe I’ll do that.

I had this horrible cold all week. I just wanted to lay down and have all the noise go away so I could sleep. For a long, long time. Unfortunately, the kids are out of school, and they have certain demands, like “feed me”, “there’s no bread”,”take me to band camp, pretty please” (only nobody ever says ‘pretty please’), and “why don’t I have any clean clothes?” So, while I tried to ignore their fighting and requests as much as I could, I still pretty much had to get up and do my job, haphazard as it may be. I also have rehearsal three nights a week and Saturday, so I’ve been really dragging. I didn’t even have the energy or the gumption to go shop at Kohl’s, even though I had a coupon for 30% off MY ENTIRE PURCHASE! Now if you know me, you’ll understand that I must have really been wiped out to let that one expire.

By Friday, I was feeling a bit better, and wanted to do something fun with the kids. So, I took them to Thanksgiving point for Dairy Days. They had fun ice cream cone samples, make your own butter and make your own ice cream displays, pony rides, and all the animals. The kids and I were especially intrigued by a Bingo Game where you write your name and phone number in a square, and hope that the cow poops in that square of the grid. It was called Dolly Bingo or something like that. They kept asking to go back and “check the poop bingo!” The kids were well behaved (partially because we brought a friend with us and that seems to make ALL the kids better behaved), and I did ok until we had been there about two hours. My head was stuffy and I felt weak and dizzy. I gave them the heads up that we would have to be leaving, and they actually did ok with that.

When we got home, I asked the kids if they could please just sit together in the family room and watch Disney Channel (I know, what a slacker mommy I am letting them watch such crap!) for a little bit so I could go and lie down. I think I was upstairs for about 45 minutes before I had to get Megan ready to go to a soccer practice. When I came downstairs to check on everyone, John was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s John?” I asked the kids.
“Huh?” was pretty much the general consensus. Nobody knew he had gone anywhere, nobody knew where he was. I made them turn off the tv, and sent them around the house and the yard to find John. When that search was unsuccessful, I sent them to ride around on their bikes, or go knock on the immediate neighbors’ doors, to see if they could locate the missing four year old. I started on the phone. It really didn’t take that long to find him, but it felt like hours. It turns out he was over at his friend, Noah’s house, about four houses away.
“I wanted to show them my new shoes,” he told me. Which in his mind totally justifies leaving the house without telling anyone, and walking ALONE to his friend’s house. I don’t ever let him go anywhere alone, and I thought he knew better than to just take off without telling anyone. He was placed on a time out while Mommy took a few minutes to calm down. I then took away the new shoes (which aren’t supposed to be worn until back to school time anyway), and explained to him the ins and outs of WHY we don’t just go over to a friend’s house without asking Mom. I tried to get it through to him how much I worry about him and all the bad things that could happen to him and that Mommy was very VERY worried because he didn’t tell me where he was going.
“It’s ok, Mom,” he said, “I didn’t get runned over by a car.”
Well, ok, then. That makes it all better.

By now, Megan is severely late for her soccer practice, and I wouldn’t have even bothered with it except that this was the day we were supposed to turn in our registration forms and money for next fall’s season, and I had to do that. So, there we are 15 minutes late, and I’m supposed to run home, feed the other kids and be back to pick her up in 30 minutes so we can go to her softball game. Right.

Dinner consisted of bagel bites pizza and bananas. What a culinary delight. I also stuffed a bag full of pretzels and grapes so we could at least have something to snack on during the game.

I didn’t get there in time to pick her up until nearly 6:00, then encountered a detour on the way to the softball game. She looks at the clock in the car and says, “Mom, we’re LATE!” in her disgruntled way. I should have just shoved her out of the car right then.

As we all piled out of the car and walked to the softball field, the kids are in various states of complaining. There’s nothing to do, I didn’t get enough to eat, I’m thirsty, can we go play at the park over there?
“Nope,” I told them. You will stay within 10 yards of me at all times, and none of you will leave my sight. EVER.” I said. Always the smarty pants, they said, “But what about when we go back to school?”
“Well, you’d better hope I’m over this little incident by then, won’t you?”
Needless to say, there was no playing at the park. They did, however, play in the grass, and run up and down the bleachers, dropping grapes and pretzels on the ground below. I took two tylenol and drank a diet coke, hoping to quell the headache that was threatening to explode in my head.

After the game, the kids and I moseyed back to the car, and I was thinking that maybe I’d take them to Wendy’s or something on the way home. They didn’t have much dinner, after all. Oh, how much things can change in a matter of seconds. By the time I reached the car and unlocked it, one child was crying, two were complaining, and one was whining about something or other. As they got in the car, the teasing continued. This was where they pushed me over the edge. I won’t go into my whole tirade on the way home, but I let them know in no uncertain terms that I would NOT be taking them out to dinner, or for a snack for that matter, and that they would NOT be spending the entire summer lounging around the house expecting me to cook, clean, do their laundry and drive them everywhere they needed to go while they just complained and picked fights with one another. When I finished, we drove in silence. Feeling pretty awesome about my skills as a mom at this point, let me tell you. As we approached the house, I told them to go upstairs, get in their pajamas, and they could fold their laundry and read a book IN THEIR ROOMS. There would be no snacks, no goofing around, and no noise. Well, there was noise, especially the stomping and door slamming kind of noise.

Eventually everyone got in bed and I did actually soften up enough to read John a story and tell each of the kids I was sorry that the night had turned out like it did, and tell them I loved them.

Funny thing, but as I sat there in my horrible mood, feeling guilty for having yelled at my kids, yet still angry at them for their behavior, my mom called. She reassured me that some days are like this, and no, I wasn’t a complete failure. Later, when everyone was in bed, my sister called. My incredibly patient sister with 10 kids. I told her about our bad day, and she could totally sympathize. I didn’t think she had days where she feels like a horrible mother, but she assured me that she does. That made me feel a little bit better. Then I wrote out the job lists for the next morning, and let me assure them that they were not short.

Of course things like this blow over. Kids aren’t constantly monsters and mother’s aren’t always at their wits end and not feeling good, but I still feel guilty about it. I wish I could have handled things in a different way, or perhaps been a little more patient.

When I said my prayers that night I thanked my Heavenly Father for allowing me to be the mother of these kids, and asked him to please please please bless me with wisdom and patience and understanding so that I could do a better job of raising them, and asked for His forgiveness for the way I had treated them. And He did forgive me, and loves me anyway.

Doctrine and Covenants 121:41-43
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—
Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy.

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