Eaten Alive

1.Do you have trouble getting up in the morning?

2. Do you have trouble opening jars?

3. Do you need help getting dressed?

These are just a few of the questions that seem to be on every medical form I fill out dealing with my arthritis.  I was always able to very safely and smugly answer no, no & no!  Sure I have pain, and sometimes it even lasts for a few days, and sometimes it's horrible.  But it goes away or I get my infusion and I am back to normal.  Normal being some pain, some fatigue & some swelling, but not enough to stop me.

Well I've been stopped.  For about a month, maybe more my right foot has been in such pain.  It's swollen and keeps me up at night.  I can barely walk.  Running?  Exercise?  I've worked out my whole life.  If I miss 3 days in a row it's due to Christmas, vacation or an illness.  It's a huge part of my life.  Well I've been jaded by pain and I just don't care.  I don't care that I am out of shape and it will take me months to get back to running where I was.  I don't care because there's literally nothing I can do about it. 

This is my life.  Right now.  I am seeing a specialist tomorrow with my new insurance.  Why did I wait so long?  I thought the pain would go away.  I thought I could will it away. 

I was talking a nurse a while back who said the x-rays of one of her arthritis patients looked as if all her joints had been  gnawed on by rats.  I hope that's not my case.  I hope I haven't waited too long. 

Well, that's what's going on around here.  I hope I feel better very, very soon because I know 3 little kids that have been thankfully much nicer than they've been naughty (& they are naughty!!!)  and we are loving the excitement and anticipation of the season.

Cookies for Breakfast

Lila ran for President of her school.  She lost.  She lost to a girl who made crazy promises she couldn't keep.  Just like real politics. 

Emry woke me at 4:30 am this morning to make cookies for her to take to school.  Couldn't say no.  Made a million cookies and she took them all.  8th graders apparently love chocolate chip cookies.

Ethan and Lila came downstairs this morning for breakfast and wanted cookies.  Couldn't say no.  At least they had orange slices too.

I read all the time.  I am in school and it's taking all the free time I used to have to plan out real blog posts. 

We got a bunny, he's so cute.

Ethan won't tell me what he wants for Christmas, why would he, Santa knows all.  Hope that works out for him.

I haven't used my real camera in months.  Haven't really taken any pics but the ones I post on Instagram. 

Decided not to send Christmas cards out this year.  I am pretty sure people see enough of me on Instagram.  Plus I am too cheap right now to buy stamps. 

I am about to have a teenager.  Tomorrow.  Yikes.  She's having a party tonight.  A swim party.  It's raining.  It better stop or at least not be coming down in sheets because I have no plan B.

Emry did this last night.....

.......... jello hockey?  I am just going hide in the other room while 20 teens stain my walls and carpets.  Emry's full of great ideas right?

Ethan is missing $40 from his money jar and I am pretty sure I am the one who took it.  My memory's shot. 

I am obsessed with 'Replay' by Zendaya.

Tomorrow morning at exactly 10 am I am officially on Thanksgiving break and it couldn't come soon enough.

I have a feeling that at exactly 10:01 I'll be scrubbing jello stains out.

The unbirthday birthday party

{Lila opening her gifts, donut cake, cracker jack favors, birthday girl at breakfast}

This was the year of the 'family birthday dinner'.  You know, the year we skip the friend party.  Well unfortunately for me I saw a groupon for the trampoline park for $32 for 2 hours of jumping for 4 kids.  That's a savings of $70!  So I told Lila that after school on Friday I would take her and 3 friends to jump, no problem.  The day I went to get the groupon it had expired.  But the seed had already been planted and the jumping turned into a play date and then morphed into a full on party for a dozen girls before I even knew what hit me.  Huh?! 

Honestly I don't like planning kid birthday parties.  I don't go on pinterest and make the triangle banners or get the fancy color coordinated paper straws.  What I do is thank my lucky stars that Lila wants a donut cake ($3.75 at Walmart for a dozen glazed) and pizza (also at Walmart, $6.98 for a huge cheese), and am glad I picked up those cute cracker jacks at Costco ($5?) a few weeks ago.  Since I only used half the box of cracker jacks, that brings my grand total for this party to $13.23.  Of course the candles have been around the block a few times.  Waste not want not.  And I served water. 

What I lack in fancy details I make up for in fun!  It's the most fabulous thing to have a creative tween who loves to help with the entertainment.  Emry created the invitations & planned out all the games for the party.  There was a fun scavenger hunt all around the neighborhood, a group dance contest, and lots of trampoline jumping & music. 

So Lila had a fabulously fun party with all her girlfriends in attendance. 

But next year, really I promise, I will not be duped by a sweet little cherubic 11 year old.

Goodbye Academy

{The kids & I joined the Academy for their last workout together, an easy 3 mile run in San Diego}

Well, well, well.......here I am again after one month.  I really didn't mean to stay away so long, it's just I am trying to live a life you see.  I would have thought that with my kiddos back in school I'd have all this free time, but then I went back to school and all my free time is spent reading and writing.

I thought about doing a catch up post but then I just couldn't write a post that entailed pages and pages of our crazy life, so I am going to try and post more often all the goings on.  First up............ Glenn graduated from the Police Academy!!!!

If you follow me on Instagram then you've seen his 15 second graduation video.  He's done!!!! It was grueling and long and we're all glad it's over.  6 months later and 20 pounds gone.  I didn't think he even had 20 pounds to lose, but those daily workouts were intense.  He came home every day with his t-shirts soaked.  Soaked!

So now he has to put in his time at the jails doing corrections for possibly up to a year before he goes on patrol.

{After the run the kids and Glenn took an impromptu swim.  Rode home with a bunch of wet kids, nothing new.}

Life is good and we're excited for this new career and wherever it takes us. 

Birthday Surprise

I am not sure what I did to deserve such nice friends, because really I am not the nicest person.  In fact the whole extreme insecurity issues I dealt with growing up really never let me fully develop any real friendships.  But they must like me dragging them to thrift stores and watching me kiss my dog all day because they left their gaggle of kids for 4 days to make the trek from Northern CA to Southern CA to come celebrate my 40th birthday with me.

They spoiled me with gifts that were so thoughtful it still makes my heart hurt in the best way possible.  They cleaned my house, gave me massages, played board games with me, lavished attention on my kids, and wouldn't let me do any of the cooking.  Seriously?!?!

I have no choice but to get a little sappy here and say I love these two so much.  I love them for having patience with me when I had so many lessons to learn.  For going about their lives being such wonderful examples.  For somehow making me feel like I am completely awesome.

I am still learning what it means to be a friend.  To listen & have patience.  To sacrifice & serve.  To show love and devotion.  To embrace with your whole heart.

Thank you for everything.  Most of all for helping me become the person I want to be.

For Keeps

Every time I go through the house looking for items to donate I inevitable peruse my children's books.  We have about twenty two million so you'd think it would be easy to find some we can give away.

The Berenstain Bears are non-negotiable.  As are the Arthur, Franklin and Little Critter books. I come across ten Patricia Polacco books and I can't help but open them up and feel the love that emanates from those pages. If you give a Pig a Pancake, Rainbow Fish, the Charlie & Lola books, oh and there's no way I can part with Ethan's beloved Froggy books.

I think about reading all these books to my Grandchildren. I'll draw out "Frrrrroooooggggyyyy", just as I always did when I read them to Ethan.  I'll laugh every time Arthur has a problem with Binky Barnes or Mr. Ratburn.

I love these books and I feel like a fraud when I tell my mom she has get rid of 'all that old stuff she never looks at' when I am hoarding children's books years after my kids have moved on to chapter books.

I am pretty good at parting with stuff, just not when there are so many memories attached to reading these stories with one, two, or three little ones on my lap.  I've read them all hundreds of times.  There was nothing more important, nothing that needed my attention more & nothing more fun than finding out if Brother and Sister did the right thing, if Franklin was going to tell the truth & for once and for all finding out if Go Dog Go liked her hat?!?!

To this day whenever we get a McDonalds cone inevitably one of us will say "soft serve ice cream is soft serve ice cream"  quoting Mama Bear talking to Sister, and we'll smile and relish our shared memories.

Garage Sale Saturday

I woke up early Saturday ready to Garage Sale.  I haven't hit a garage sale in months, maybe a year, and I needed to find Ethan a helmet. I nudged Emry awake cause what fun is shopping without a partner in crime?

(Above) Okay, can I wax poetic about this skirt?!  My sister has a similar one and every time she wears it I think "that skirt should be mine, I love it way more than she does". I am not sure if this crazy line of thinking is specific to me, but I was beyond excited when we found this skirt for $2.  The only problem is Emry found it and she loves it and it looks perfect on her which means it probably wouldn't look so perfect on me.  We'll see.

I found this helmet for Ethan and shockingly enough they were only asking 50 cents for it.  I loathe skulls on any type of clothing, especially for kids, but for 50 cents you could say I sold out.

The Garfield books were $1 each, not the best deal, but my kids LOVE em'!!!

(Below) This super soft grey O'neill sweatshirt for Lila was $1, Emry's sweatshirt was $1, Lila's tank set was $1, and this cute hat that I am glad Emry talked me into getting was $2.

Emry's fur vest 50 cents, bag of Polly's $2, five cans of silly string $1, & storage boxes (for my closet) $8 for all.  I realize that's not a steal for the boxes, but I wanted to get some anyway and they were in 'like new' shape so I got em'.  Probably could have haggled down 2 bucks or so, but I hate doing that.  Sometimes I'll ask my kids to do it for me, Emry's super good at it.

That $2 bag of Polly's kept the girls entertained ALL day long.  They had a photo shoot with them all and then made a fashion magazine that took them about 4 hours.  Creative outlet I say. I also say $2 well spent.

Grand total - $21 even.  Nothing I love more than a good deal, makes me feel like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blankies

Every few months for the last year or so when I'd tuck Lila in for the night I'd say "Lila, how about we get you a new blanket?" 

The answer was always no, as she held her blanket, the same one she snuggled up to as a baby, tighter.

Then it turned into weeks, then every few days.  It got to the point where I would tuck the covers up to her chin, give her a kiss, then say "Lila" and she would say "NO!"

The blanket was a mess.  It was paper thin, tearing in parts, missing material, had stains and was mended by me in other parts, which means I folded it over and did a really bad job sewing it up.

Emry had no problem giving up her dee-dee.  But then again Emry is more rational and no-nonsense.  I dangled a fluffy new blanket in front of her, promised I'd pack dee-dee up safe and sound in her box, and she was right on board.

Ethan still has his baby blanket, after 8 years it's in surprisingly great shape.

But Lila.  That girl was not letting go for nothing.

Last night I was putting some old but loved clothes of Lila's safely in her storage box and came upon another blanket of hers that my Aunt made years ago.  I had used this blanket when she was a baby but had forgotten all about it when she got older and only needed one blanket. I was so excited to tell Lila that she had another special blanket just waiting to be loved by her.

Of course she made sure her old blanket was washed and put away in a safe spot.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by their loyalty.  My kids never had binkies or bottles, so their blankets were all they had to soothe them to sleep.

She may be 10 and growing up fast, but seeing her sleeping with  her new blanket snuggled up right in her face every night reminds me that she's still so little.

For now.

Mothers who Know

Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord’s kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power.        Julie B. Beck     Mothers Who Know

I have lots of changes going on in my life.  All Good!!!!  I've had the best most wonderful summer filled with so much love it was almost too much.  Spending every waking hour with my children didn't make me tire of them, just the opposite.  I love those kids dearly and want to be the best Mom I can be so............ I am making changes, because really isn't that what life is all about?

-Glenn is a little more than halfway through the Academy.  He's in the best shape of his life and doing great on all tests, including physcial and shooting, but is anxious for it to be over and see what his life as a Sheriff will look like.

-My oldest daughter Emry was accepted into a very prestigious Prep School in a town close to us.  The commute is a sacrifice but it won't be so bad once the other 2 are accepted and they're all on the same schedule.  Although I am excited about her rigorous academic work, there were a few days my stomach was in knots, questioning if this was the right decision.  Now that she's settled in and is getting to know her teachers and make friends and familiarizing herself with how the school is run, I am at peace and happy.

-As of last night Lila is on the Pre-Team in Gymnastics.  She is beyond thrilled and is ready to learn all the new tricks of the trade.  She works really hard at Gymnastics and takes it very seriously.  One of her dreams came true last night and seeing her excitement makes my heart burst.

-Ethan is busy being a kid.  Reading, playing basketball, starting school, passing off scouting goals, kinda the same ol' same ol', but honestly it never gets old.  Seeing him immersed in a book, or feeling proud of himself for making a basket. It's so fun being his mom, I adore that little boy.

-As for me, it seems ever since the kids started school my job has been taking care of MYSELF!!!  I've spent 3 consecutive Mondays at the dentist, had a Cyst removed for the 3rd and what better be the final time from my leg, getting an eye exam and new glasses because my old ones broke and wearing crooked glasses is no fun and somewhat embarrassing and..........the big news is I am starting school in a few weeks.  I am taking online classes to finish my Bachelors degree started another lifetime ago.

So is my life CRAZY busy?  No.  My life is great and full, homemade dinners are eaten and the dog is fed.  The children have clean underwear and fresh fruit in their lunch.  We have time for silliness and laughter, chores, homework and peaceful nights.  It's just how I want it.

That leads me to the excerpt from Julie B. Beck.  She is a Leader in our church and her talk is so touching.  It makes me want to be a better mother and in order to do that I need to constantly be moving forward.  Making sure GOOD change is happening.  Checking myself.  Am I patient, am I teaching, am I kind and loving, am I the person I want and expect my kids to be? 

That said there will be slight changes in my blogging format, but I am not stopping, no way!  Shut my mouth about those incredibly genius kids of mine?  Impossible.  But I do need to streamline my life in order to make the best possible use of my time. 

I love my life right now.  I am grateful & humbled.  I have more love than I know what to do with.  Thank you to all who are a part of it.

I

I took this picture in L.A. I feel it gives me the street cred I've lost since living in Utopia.
I didn't blog once this summer.  I didn't want to.  I didn't miss it.
I applied sunblock to kids like it was my job.  My job location being the beach.
I saw all of my brothers, sisters & tons of family and friends who are close to my heart.
I visited L.A. and S.F. and would be happy to never return to either.
I didn't get enough sleep.
I watched my kids ride horses, go on roller coasters, surf, explore, laugh and exhaust themselves daily.
I drove to Utah for my cousins wedding and danced all night.
I made tons of crepes & waffles.
I hardly saw Glenn.
I found our swing set covered with graffiti.  My kids did it.  They're looking for their own street cred.
I went weeks without exercising.
I watched my kids fall more in love with their cousins.
I fell more in love with family.  The word, the people, everything it means and everything I feel.
I loved & felt loved.

THIS is Summer!!!!!!!!!

Little Mermaid

Emry has another Play under her belt with the production of 'A Little Mermaid'.  She was cast as a Sailor, a Mer-person, a chef and a princess.  She was basically a part of the ensemble (no speaking part) and had a blast with it.

My whole family went to see the production on a Friday night and we all had a great time watching our girl give it her all up on the stage.

After a week of Girls camp it was a week of the Play and now we're in full on summer-party mode.  I have company and couldn't be happier keeping busy with them.  Hope you all are enjoying your summer and getting plenty of Sun!

Lately We're Enjoying............

* making banana muffins
* sleeping in
* watching an episode of 'Murder She Wrote' every night
* checking out tons of books for the summer
* the beach with cousins

* evening picnics at the park
* the anticipation of  lots of company
* leisurely breakfasts of waffles, pancakes and crepes
* the fact that I survived sleeping 4 nights in a tent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* being together
* bike rides
* no homework
* open gym at the gymnastics studio
* Glenn on Fathers Day

* many helpers to do chores

* grilling

* sleepovers

* letting Brutus in my bed when Glenn's not looking

 

To My Dad

1975  My dad is holding me, there were still 4 boys to follow

Happy Father's Day to my Dad.  The one who worked so hard to put food on the table.  Who expected us to work hard & get along.  Whose love of watching every televised sport put a damper on my opportunities to watch T.V. & thus ended up making me a much more interesting person by all the books I read.  Who loved the Beach Boys.  Loved (and still does) meat & potatoes. 

The summer of 88'  my dad spent recovering from a broken leg.  I was watching my new baby brother Tommy a lot.  We had our routine every day.  It was reading the newspaper over breakfast.  Then onto a Perry Mason, Matlock, Game Show Marathon.  Good times.

Truth be told you were a little impatient and this is how you taught me to drive a stick shift - "Just drive".  Yup that was my lesson.  I was terrified driving down Monterey Highway but it got the job done.

I got my competitiveness from you!  When we play board games watch out.

We all love you Dad!  Thanks for being a wonderful Father!  Love, Marie

1991 at a Father/Daughter Church Activity

Happy Father’s Day Dad! Here are a few of my best memories:

        Your jokes.  I remember you told the best jokes.  The “hairlip” joke was my favorite & I remember once you humored us & told it to us twice even though it was quite lengthy because I incessantly begged you.

       Dancing.  I remember dancing to Beach Boys & Abba with you & having so much fun.

3        Baseball.  I remember how fun it was to play family baseball games with you teaching us how to hold the bat.

4   Advice.  I think I was in 5^th grade when I decorated a pumpkin for a contest at Hillsdale, but then decided it  wasn’t good enough to enter into the contest.  I remember you told me “If you enter your pumpkin in the contest you might win & you might not, but it you don’t enter it, you will definitely not win.”  It was a simple life lesson, but one I have reflected on over the years & passed on to my own children.

 Lots of Driving.  I remember you driving me to work at Great America, school, dances & anywhere & everywhere else I needed to be.  Now that I am a parent driving my children around, I know what a sacrifice this is & can’t imagine how many hours you spent in the driver’s seat between all of us children.  Thanks for the memories, hard work, and many sacrifices. 

I love you Dad. Love,   Jeannette

1989 Painting the House   Dad, Nielsen, Marie, Jeannette

One of the first of my fondest memories of you dad was the year I turned 16. I remember getting a letter in the mail from a secret admirer that wanted to take me out for my first date at 16. There were 2 boys that liked me at the time both accusing the other of being the one and I just had no idea. I remember going to the door when it was time for me to be picked up and there you were in a suit and tie! I remember we went to Kings Table at Oakridge mall, an all you can eat buffet and then we went and watched a movie. I believe it was one of the superman ones.

When I think of my you dad I remember all the times you used to stick up for us when other kids would bully us. I remember you would like to dance and that the beach boys were your favorite group! I remember you could always figure out riddles and really hard math problems! I also remember you helped me cheat on my written drivers ed.............should I say that.....(: I remember our favorite joke you used to tell us about the man who was a cripple.......for years we would beg you to tell us that joke! I know that you were always proud of all that we did and accomplished and would brag about us to your friends. I remember that my you always worked in the back yard and that you would always  help out others when you would get a call from a member who knew of somebody who needed help. I want you to know how much I have learned to appreciate all that you did for us through the years!

 I love you dad!!!! Love Margo

17

To the Birthday Girl

August 2007 Pantages Theater  'Wicked'

I could make this the mushiest post that ever was written, but I won't.  Would Shauna love it?  Yes, but then again is it really appropriate to write passionate love letters for the world to see?  Poets do it, but I am no Poet.  I hate poetry.

So this will be tame.  A watered down version of my feelings for my other half.  The girl I would marry if I could.

Shauna & I met when we lived in the same apartment complex and attended the same ward (church).  My first memory of her is seeing her nursing her son in the Mothers lounge at church and she was wearing a button up shirt with a collar.  I didn't think we'd hit it off because of that shirt.  That's how amazingly awesome and mature I am.

Her oldest and only son Kalen was 1 and my oldest and only daughter Emry was 1.  We did a few things together, the relationship progressed slowly.  One night I was having a family crisis and she dropped everything to be with me.  She was making a very nice dinner that involved a lot of work and she just left it all.  That's the moment I knew.

December 2003  I love this picture, we both had our second babies the year before

She moved down the street and I moved to Southern California.  We kept in touch, talked on the phone & wrote letters.  We sent each other our favorite recipes.  We swapped secrets and war stories, laughed and leaned, shared in each others triumphs and sorrows.  Gushed about our kids because no one else would listen.  I had 2 more kids and Shauna had 6 more.  Yup, there's a dozen of us when we all get together, and that's not counting the husbands.

It was Shauna who taught me how to be a friend.  Because of my insecurity issues I never felt comfortable having close girlfriends.  Add in my tendency to be a homebody and stare at my babies all day and it doesn't really bode well for my chance of having a lot of girlfriends.

Shauna has been the best example ever to me.  I've seen her happily & willingly serve all those around her, whether it was convenient for her or not.  She loves, she gives, she cares and hopes for.  She has a strong testimony.  She loves the scriptures.  She didn't even grow up in our church.  She shouldn't be more righteous than me.  Tone it down Shauna, let me catch up okay?

You can fall in love in friendship and realize you're so lucky because if you didn't have each other, you wouldn't have anyone.  There's no replacement.  Shauna could easily find a million other people to love her but I don't think I would fare as well.  No pity parties please, it's just the truth.  It takes a special person to dig hard enough to reach me, and she did.

May 2012

So thanks for sticking by me.  For loving me completely.  For being patient and making me feel like you think I am the best thing ever!  I love you.  I adore you.  Happy Birthday.

And this WAS watered down.

Sun Soaked

 After working in the yard yesterday morning we spent the rest of our day in the water.

It was one of those nice relaxing days where not enough sunblock was applied, too many chips eaten, and lots of catching up with friends we don't see enough.

And of course the mermaid tail was brought and I think before the day was through most everyone had to try it on and take a swim.  A good friends daughter was cracking me up when her mom was taking a picture with her wearing it she said "can you just order it now, on your phone".  Just a tad excited/impatient to have her own I guess :)

Ones of these days I'll get better about taking pictures of the adults.  I think we were just too busy eating.  And talking.  And not applying sunblock.

Just Love

I have no awesome Southern Californian Beach pictures (but I will soon :) or crazy stories of my kids (although I am sure I wouldn't have to think too hard for that one), just a typical boring breakfast photo from this morning and a heart full of gratitude.

I am grateful that I get to do what I've always wanted to do, be a mom.  I am sure there's not enough money in the world to pay someone to take my kids, they are SO much work.  There's also no way anyone would think they were as brilliant and love them like I do. But to me, getting to spend mornings and afternoons, time helping in their classroom, weekends and soon all summer makes me so giddy.

They are growing up right before my eyes and my heart literally doesn't know if it should be happy or break. These 3 are every thing I've ever wanted.  To have the connection I do with them is the greatest gift.

When I was younger I had this vision of crafting all day with my kids and them listening to me and us just being so happy.

I am not sure what I was thinking because I don't craft, and things are physically and mentally a lot messier than I ever imagined.

But it's also so, so,so, so much better.  I love them.  I have fun with them.  There's no one I'd rather be with.

Second Hand Lions

I am so glad Emry is getting into photography and I've convinced her that candid shots are much cooler anyway.  Like this one............

Ahhh, how is it possible to love a boy so much?!  On our drive home from church yesterday the girls were ganging up on me saying Ethan was my favorite.  Since it's not in good taste to be honest about those things I tried to plead my case by telling them all the great things I do for them too.  But truth be told they had pretty solid points.  Guess I'll have to reign in the baby talk, the catering to him, stop myself from crying every time he says 'I love you Mom' which awesomely enough is always!, hanging on his every word and trying not to melt at just the sight of him.

The subject of this post is not Ethan, but it's easy to get sidetracked when I think of that sweet mug.  So moving on to our other deals.  Emry got 4 cute little summer shirts, clockwise from top L $1.40, $3, $2, $1.40.

Whaddaya know, here's that sweet boy again.  I'll put his scrumptious face up any chance I get. All of these shirts were $1.40 each.  I love that I found him 2 more button up shirts for church, it was getting to be slim pickings every Sunday.  And by that I mean he had one shirt that was getting too small and then we lost it so for a few Sundays we got very creative.

Oh it's fun to have to have your own blog and ramble on and on about how much you love your kid.  What? ........... everyone stopped reading?!?!

Fine, here's the grand total - $17.60 

I am off to clean Ethan's room, organize his Lego's and make sure the kitchen is stocked with his favorite foods.   Aaaaarghhh, somebody stop me!!!!!

Rolling in the Dough

I always knew that someday I would teach my kids how to make bread.  All children deserve the right to have the aroma that only bread baking in the oven can bring burned into their psyche.  After church on Sunday I wanted to make rolls for our Mothers Day dinner, and then immediately thought, "Marie, get Emry in here, she can do this".

I gave her the recipe and just stepped back while I walked her through each step.  We talked about water temperature, proofing, what dough should feel like,  how to love it (not really, didn't want to scare her, her first time out) rising time and finally how to shape those babies.

They turned out perfect.

Kind of like the girl herself.

Splash

My kids spend half their life in the water, so it was bound to happen sooner or later that they'd turn into Mermaids.

A few weeks ago we were swimming as usual when a mom brought her two daughters to the pool.  They put on their mermaid gear and swam around the pool like something out of a fairytale.  My girls were mesmerized.  Their breath was taken away as they longingly watched these girls living out a childhood dream.

As frugal as my girls are, they stood no chance against the mermaid outfit, it HAD to be theirs.  They both pitched in money and 4 days later it was on our doorstep.

Amidst a busy night Emry pleaded with me to take her to the pool that night.  She even opted to go to an unheated pool because it was bigger and she wanted to have maximum room to swim around.  Even when the sun started to set and a light rain started to fall it didn't faze her, she was living out a dream after all.

And sometimes ..................... dreams really can come true.

Amazing Youth

I work with the youth in our church, specifically the Young Women.  Last night my friend Theresa & I were in charge of putting on a combined Young Men/Young Women activity. We planned an Amazing Race theme which included: Hula Hoop race, pizza dough toss, ice stacking, eating disgusting food, finding safety pins in a huge bowl of rice while blindfolded, jigsaw puzzle, scripture fill-in and a fitness test.

There were 6 teams with about 7 youth per team.  They ran around the building looking for the next country and challenge. 

This challenge had some of the kids almost hurling.  If you ate the pig's feet you got to move on right away.  The sardines, wait 3 minutes, and the beets wait 5 minutes. I told Theresa I did not support the kids eating disgusting pig's feet, but she would have none of it, so pig's feet it was.

One of the boys reluctantly ate the sardines and then asked for more!

I am not sure why this challenge is under Mexico as we all know Mexican Food is the BEST!!!!!

 Here is Emry and one of her teammates Devin eating the pigs feet. I almost couldn't watch. I think they're breaking into a cold sweat right about the time I snapped this.

Here are about half the teams.  My camera really tried to keep up with them but those young'uns are fast!

It's really a privilege to be around all these kids.  They're fun, smart and are really trying to do what's right.  I am thankful to belong to a church that puts such an emphasis on teaching these youth correct principals and giving them lots of opportunities for growth & FUN!

These kids got it going on!