For Rylan

Rylan, Kyra, Aaron, Jasine & baby Zaden

My nephew Rylan was baptized into our church on Saturday.   I am not that big on traveling in the car for long periods of time & being in cities where I don't have all the Frozen Yogurt places mapped out, but the kids & I hopped in with my mom to drive to Sacramento over the Holiday weekend to support him.

I know my mom loved listening to me read Time Life for kids, American Girl, the kids fighting over who was taking up the most room in the backseat & hearing us shout out "Cake, Cherries, Cashews, Curry, Cauliflower" while playing the food game for 8 hours.  (My favorite car game.  You take turns thinking of all the A foods, then B foods, etc. What's not fun about that?)

Marie, Margo, Aaron, Mom, & Nielsen         We missed you Netty, Ty, Kyle, Adam & Dad

Aaron's daughter Kyra, my Lila & Emry, Margo's Adelys, my Ethan & Margo's Ezra.  Ethan's sporting the 'saggy pants underwear hanging out' at church look.  Totally appropriate Ethan.

 So I must admit these are stolen pics.  Surprise, surprise I accidentally switched SD cards with my sister so my planned 'Roadtrip' post will be up whenever I get my card in the mail.  If you think I know how to get pics online think again.

So I thought I would take this opportunity to post MORE stolen pictures.  Why not right?  I am pretty sure being embarrassed on my blog is what my family lives for. 

Awwwww, Adelys and her boy friend.  That's two words, Boy and Friend.  This isn't posed at all, they're actually bird watching.

Margo's other son Andrew and his girlfriend Morgan.  One word.  Girlfriend.  So this isn't exactly embarrassing as they both look cute but it was the only pic of Andrew on the memory card. Funny, there were hundreds of the horses and the dogs.

 Margo & Al at the baptism.  This is the story of Women's lives.  We try so hard to explain to our men exactly what they should do to make the photo (meaning us) look good.  We know best of course.

Clearly her advice worked!

Oh Nielsen.  My handsome bachelor brother who spends all his days surfing.  He knows ocean currents like the back of his hand..........babies, well.........

Even Zami's not safe.  Posture is of the utmost improtance Zami, do you wanna be a hunchback when you're old?

Emry my love. I've posted so many darling pictures of her I am sure she won't mind this one.  She's not really believing everyone telling her how good oysters are.

This is the best I could do for me.  Just talking to the horse, I am a modern day Dr. Dolittle, no big deal.

And that's it.  There is far more damage I could do, but I still want a Christmas card and someone to leave my kids to.  They are my family after all & I love them dearly.  I didn't get frozen yogurt the whole long holiday weekend & if that's not love I don't know what is.

Standing Room Only

I never stood up for myself when I was young, way too shy.  You could have taken advantage of me, walked all over me & gotten away with murder as far as I was concerned.  I had no backbone, what was I gonna do?  Internally I knew I was a good person & knew the difference between right &wrong, but I never would have verbalized it, much too scary.

I've come a long way since then and now have a hard time shutting up.   Thankfully others do it for me.

Emry came home from school the other day lamenting the fact that a girl was being picked on at her Junior High for being gay.  Was she gay?  I have no idea.  But that's beside the point.  The point is my daughter knew it wasn't right and went on and on about how mean and wrong these kids were.  How it was none of their business and they had no right to talk about her in any way that was negative.  She was really upset.

I was proud of Emry for sympathizing with the picked on girl, but I had to let her know it's not enough to mentally disagree, she must stand up to anyone that is bullying others.  Standing up to others doesn't mean you yourself become the bully, just reminding people to be decent and considerate of others feelings.

I'll be the first to admit my kids are loud & rambunctious, have no shame or filter (super fun combo), feisty and sassy, and seemingly fearless.   Although it drives me nuts at times I know the same attributes that enabled Emry at 5 to jump off a bridge into water way below that most adults wouldn't attempt & willingly let snakes be wrapped around her neck are the same attributes that will give her the strength & courage to stand up for what she knows is right.

I am sure Emry will be in many similar situations in her life.  Where she has to rely on her gut, her conscious, her instincts and The Light of Christ to guide her.

I know Emry has it in her to step up, to speak for those like me who wouldn't dare speak for themselves.

I have complete faith that she will rely on what she knows is true & what she's been taught.

If I was in need, she's the first person I'd pick to have my back.

Sugar & Spice

Lila's been bugging me for 2 weeks to make chocolate chip cookies.  It's my own fault as I've passed on quite the sweet tooth to all my kids.  Chocolate Chip cookies straight from the freezer are her favorite, she likes em frozen and crunchy.

I have a hard time saying no to Lila because the girl is so darn sweet.  She loves puppies and Nancy Drew, Pet Shops and swinging, stuffed animals and dress up, singing and doing gymnastics all throughout the house, and best of all she's extremely obedient.  I know with Lila I just have to ask once.

Lila is 9 going on 5.  What I mean is she is so young and innocent.  All of her stuffed animals have names and she notices immediately if one of her millions of little toys goes missing from the playroom.  Much to my chagrin she vetoes everything I try and put in the goodwill box.  She loves all of her little toys so much.

She also plays so well with her cousin Kiera who just turned 5.  They love all the same things so it works out perfectly.  Jeannette and I are always so amused how in sync those two are.

She also really, really loves reading.  

Obviously.

Et tu, Emry?

See this cute little Greek Goddess?  She's a taker I'll tell you.  To be honest most kids are until you sit them down and explain in exhausting detail all that you do for them, which is of course what I had to do.

Yesterday as I am dropping Emry off she reminds me for the tenth time to go to Walmart and get a sheet for her toga.  I feel hurt that my daughter doesn't know me that well and tell her I am absolutely not buying a new sheet, I will go to the thrift store later.  I grab one for $3 and am elated when it's 1/2 off.  I've also made stops to get  fasteners for the toga and spent time the previous day helping her make baklava.  It's actually very easy, but a tad time consuming.

The hardest part was having these sticky honey triangles of goodness staring me down for two days before Emry whipped them off to school.  She's lucky there were any left to take, those things are addicting.

So after the baklava, after the thrift store, after taking kids to school and play practice, checking their homework, reading to them, doing their laundry and dinner (homemade rolls, salmon served with homemade mango/avocado salsa and an arugula salad)  I had to dash off to a church meeting. (I kinda wanna point out that their breakfast was french toast made from homemade bread made after I had run 6 miles)

The point to all of this is I have energy in the morning.  I even have some leftover energy in the afternoon.  At night, NO.   I go from a loving mother to evil stepmother before my kids even know what happened.

I came home from my meeting, my, ahem, Church meeting only to have Emry not in bed but waiting for me to put her hair in curlers.  Ethan also came out of his room saying no one ever made him hot chocolate.  I was livid.  I was not sweet or caring or in the mood to homemake anything or do anyone's hair.  I wanted to crawl under my covers by myself and read for 30 minutes before crashing out.

I told Ethan in a firm but scary voice that it was his fault he hadn't asked his dad, his sister, his other sister or the dog to make his beloved hot chocolate.  Then I proceeded to tell Emry how exhausted I was and  ALL I did for her and did I really have to come home only to find yet ANOTHER task?

That answer would be yes.

She's a kid, so of couse she just stared at me with her big blue eyes like 'what the heck is this crazy woman rambling on about, isn't it her job to be at my beck & call?'

I did her hair.

I may have yanked it around a bit to let her know how seriously tired I was.  She has a freakishly hard head like I do so it probably didn't phase her.

One of these days I am going make them suffer and have cold cereal for breakfast.

I'll totally show them.

Boyz II Men

I think I've sorta figured out my obsession with my son.  Why I baby him, let him drink from a sippy cup still at 7, why everything he does is genius, why my heart gets fantastically broken everyday by him and why he just literally lights up my world.

He's going to be a man someday.

He will have to support a family.  He will be a Father.  He will have the responsibilities and stresses of this big bad world.

And before he does any of that he will be expected at 19 to open an envelope sent from Utah telling him where the church has called him to serve a mission for 2 years.  He doesn't get a say.  It could be the suburbs of Ohio or the ghettos of Russia.

Still a teenager he will be expected to serve the Lord and preach our gospel to all those ready to hear.  He may have to learn another language in 3 months like his Father did.  There will be no T.V, music or computers.  For 2 years.  Most likely he will eat food he does not like.  I am sure he will get homesick. 

That's the hard part for me.  I want to make his life wonderful.  I want home to be joyous and safe, with an uplifting and creative environment.  I want him to always want to be here and look forward to walking through our front door knowing there will be a hot meal and a mother's love.

But I also know it's my job to teach him how to work hard and get by without me.  Flourish even outside this home.

I will continue to let him crawl in bed with me after a scary dream and make his oatmeal with strong seeds (chia) just the way he likes it with a pat of butter and a drizzle of honey on top.  Reluctantly I will let Glenn steer me to let go.  To not rush to him when he gets hurt.  To not baby him.  To let him deal with the bullies and live with the consequences of his actions.  To encourage him to stand up for himself and find the words in sticky situations.

I feel time tick tocking away.  Baby him, I hear myself say, his time as a boy is short, his time as a man will last a lifetime.

It won't happen overnight.  But it must be done

And if he turns out anything like his dad.......my job is done.

Typical Wednesday

Glenn gave me notice that we were going to the pool Wednesday night with friends and I was bringing dessert.  Flipping through the cookies and past the cupcakes in my dessert binder I came across these white chocolate raspberry cheesecake bars that Emry loves.  Not the quickest dessert, but really delicious.

We like to pretend that Wednesdays are Fridays.

All the boys love handball.  Is this a California thing?

Emry & Lila

Glenn, my sis Jeannette and Keira.

Ethan : ) : ) : ) : ) : ): ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : )

My gorgeous friend Stephanie who gave birth a few weeks ago to a girl after 3 boys.

And that's a typical Wednesday night around these parts.  My children spend half their life in the pool and they have the bleached, brittle, chlorinated hair to prove it.

Life Stinks

You know when you enter someone's house and it smells great?  That's not my house.  When I make bread it is.  When I scrub my house from top to bottom it is.  But day to day, unfortunately no.

As I type this I have a garbage pail out back waiting to get scrubbed, a shoe basket out front because the kids shoes stink, a knockoff Scentsy from Walmart burning, a load of whites washing filled with grotesquely smelly socks, a dog hiding because he knows he's getting a bath, a 7 year old boy who comes home from school every day with dirt encrusted hands due to a handball addiction and an altoid in my mouth for good measure.

Remember the good ol' days when you loved your baby's breath?  You literally couldn't get enough.  Those days are so long gone for me.  These days when my kids are in my face (always) they barely get a word in before I am telling them to go brush their teeth.  Not for their dental hygiene, which is important, but becuase I want them to have friends.

The whole smelly shoe situation came about because the kids don't want to wear socks.  Why?  Apparently it takes far too long.  So on top of everything else I have to check before they walk out the door to see if they put on socks.  

Oh, and I still have to remind these darling kids way too often to flush the toilet. 

Girls gone (not so) Wild

SHAUNA'S HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I fib.  Shauna's here & I fib.  We're not wild.  We're the exact opposite of wild.

After taking the kids to school we got ready & went to.................. a Bible study class.  Do I now how to show my friend a good time or what?  Seriously though Shuana loved it.  I knew she would.  We could have spent the whole day listening to our teacher go on & on about the Old Testament.  She was that good.

Then we split a turkey & avocado sandwich at Great Harvest before doing errands for my church calling with a stop at CVS to pick up  a prescription for Shauna.  Completely crazy.

Refusing to buy this sweatsuit until the lady knocked it down to $5 at the thrift store.  Radical.

Bringing back 70's Secretary Chic.  $5

 A T-Shirt from the boys department.  $1

 Shauna's books and my other picks, a sweater for Lila $3 & pet shops for Lila $1.

Our dinner (x2).  Water is the crazy person's beverage of choice.

After dinner entertainment was helping the kids do homework & watching Shauna's son play the piano on her iphone.

Out of control.

We did let loose at the yogurt store of course.

But we just couldn't seem to shake these 3.

But the craziest thing of all?  This girl I love until my heart breaks.  Who loves me right back.  Who patiently teaches me by her sweet, kind, patient example.  Who is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful people I know...........

She's pregnant with her 7th child.
 

Cracks

                                                                                           February 1996

Just a group of friends hanging out in the hot tub watching our kids cause a ruckus in the pool.  The kids are on top of each other, throwing balls, yelling and of course running all around the slick pool.  There's really no reason to tell them not to run.  If they don't stop running after being told a hundred times, chances are they won't listen at one hundred and one.  When it comes to the pool there is no such thing as obedience, even at home it's a little iffy.

So back to us.  We're talking about the guys (there's about a dozen who attend) upcoming yearly surfing trip to Mexico where they'll be gone a week.  Will I miss Glenn?  "No", I say, "he's around too much as it is".

Too honest?  Is this marriage and couple who most describe as "perfect" a sham?

I can't be bothered with thinking too much into it, I have 3 semi-obedient kids to care for after all.  But it's true, I won't miss my husband.  I actually love it when he's gone.  There's a different vibe in the house.  There are no expectations that dinner will be anything other than grilled cheese, smoothies or leftovers.   The kids can snuggle in my bed for an all night reading marathon.  I can wear the same outfit 7 days in a row instead of putting forth some effort and changing it up on day 3.  I can watch 'The View' without being shamed.

Plus, I am completely psyched for Glenn.  I am pretty sure the love he has for surfing rivals the love he has for me.  I think I win out, but I wouldn't bet money on it or anything.