Friends, Romans, Countrymen

Today it rained and rained and I wish I could show you a picture titled, "Flustered Mother Entering Car with Umbrella" for your laughter and enjoyment. Unfortunately, I was the flustered mother and was unable to capture the wet moment in all its door-rebounding, umbrella mashing, soaked glory.
You know the funny thing about having three children? (Besides pretending that you've gone deaf when they whine?) Time disappears. Like I said before, this motherhood thing is really sinking its teeth into me and I'm finding less and less time to spend on the computer.

One of the ways that I excuse all the time I spend on the blog/computer is that I tell myself, "This is my family journal." This half-lie is nice and all but here's me reading this blog to Kenzie:
"And we [edit out sarcasm] to the park. [Scan next four paragraphs, edit them out] Boy it was fun."
If I'm going to continue to cultivate my saintly image of Mother of the Year with my girls, I'm going to have to develop a family blog more along the lines of "Everything is Fabulous and We Always Wear Matching Clothes and Have a Loaf of Bread baking in the Oven." Because I'm pretty sure a lovely write-up of our lives will trump our actual memories. So if I pretend that we are perfect, we will be. :) Right? Right.

So, blah, blah, the point of all this is, that the family portion of this blog has gone private. I'm maintaining this particular blog as my personal journey to Sainthood, so go ahead and keep me on your blog roll, or in google reader, or follow me, or whatever it is that you do, but I'm not sure what I'm going to write about, or how often I'm going to write. (It's been pretty sporadic since Ellie was born. Sorry.)

I should come up with a new name for this blog like, "Mother of the Year"  or "The Saintly Mother"  or "How to Raise Children Without Slashing Your Wrists"  all wonderful titles, but I bet they're all taken.

I wish I could make some sort of commitment to you my readers (she says bowing to the imaginary crowd), but I'm not at the point where I can do that right now.

If you like my writing you can always catch me on the Sports page in the Standard-Examiner or in a bi-monthly column in the utahrunning.com magazine.

And if you really want to read sappy (not snappy, sappy) write-ups about our perfect family trips and wonderful life you're going to have to be my Grandma. Okay, okay, if you really care about Ellie's height and weight and want to hear all about Kenzie's brilliance and how Hannah has the best sense of humor ever, then you can email me for an invite. But it's going to be sappy and oozing with cheesy family love. I promise.

P.S. Dear Reader who asked me what size PVC pipe is in the bunkbed tent- I'm sorry I can't find your comment to reply, so I hope you are reading this. It's 1/2" pipe with 1/2" T-joints. Does that make sense?





 

Mother's Day

For years I drove the route past the tree. Its bone-branches scratched the sky--a solitary giant in a barren field. For years I drove by and never stopped, always thinking, "How beautiful. How lovely. I should take a picture." Sometimes I even had a camera in the car as I drove by, but I was always in a hurry, or afraid I would look stupid standing on a busy street pointing my camera at a lone tree in a farmer's field.

One day I drove past the tree and it was gone. A long, burned branch snaked across the ground in its place. I felt as empty as the sky, regretful of missed opportunities.  

Today, I vow to miss less opportunities to love my girls. I vow to make good the sacrifices and service that my mother gave to me. I vow to continue to link the love of my mom, my grandma, my great-grandma, to the mothers of tomorrow that I am raising. I vow to appreciate the people in my life now, not when they are gone. I vow be who I want to be today, not tomorrow.

Mom, I love you! Thank you.

My sister-in-law, Sherrie, took this picture before the tree burned down and she shared it with me when I told her how sad I was that it burned down. Isn't it beautiful?

Hannah's Farm Day

We weren't sure if Farm Day would be rained out, but lucky for us the rain held off and it was just cold. Melissa's dad owns the dairy farm and they bring in a whole bunch of animals for Farm day, and we were lucky enough to get to take our little Joyschool group to see them. Hannah kept asking me if there would be three little pigs. (Yes dear and they will each build a house.)

Kate, Mialee and Hannah on the road to the farm. I must have grabbed my camera by the lens (doesn't everyone do that?) because there is a smudgy look to each picture that exactly correlates with my thumb print. I was thinking that my camera was fritzing, but really it was just me. Typical.

Cows! Hannah said, "It smells worse than stinky socks." We gave her the lowdown on manure.

In front of the baby cows.

Oh, little bunnies. Hannah wanted very badly to hold a bunny, but everytime one got near her, she freaked out if they moved at all. This one was calm enough that she finally got it in her arms. She loved it, but was still fairly terrified if it moved at all. There were bunnies, hamsters, a lamb, horses (a colt too), and the much-anticipated pigs.

After Hannah worked up her courage she held another bunny and showed it to Ellie. Ellie wanted to grab handfuls of fur and eat the bunny, but don't worry we didn't let her.  

This is how Ellie feels about real cow noises.  On the other hand, we have a song by Sandra Boyton, called "Cows," that without fail stops Ellie's crying. I swear it works 100% of the time. I know this song so well by now, that if I were tortured and lost my mind, I'm sure that I would walk around quoting the To Be Or Not To Be speech from Hamlet, interspersed with lyrics from this song. I might occasionally break into a mad tap dance routine as well. I guess that wouldn't be much different from now.

Thanks Melissa's family and Melissa for the tour. 

Oh Sue-Hannah!

My chocolate covered pretzel Hannah had a birthday.
I sure do love that girl and all the opportunities she gives me to learn and grow.

I made and printed her a book, "A Girl and Her Skirt" for her birthday and I love how it turned out. Since Scrapblog no longer exists, Mixbook is my new online scrapping choice. I really like how it turned out and Hannah has enjoyed reading it. (It works better if you click on the link, Grandma.)

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

I also made her a little birthday scrapbook.  Love you Hannah loo!

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Goodbye Ogden Temple

A reminiscence in memory of our favorite LDS temple. . .
When Mike proposed to me he blindfolded me and drove me around wildly (if we were both blindfolded this could be an accurate metaphor for how we raise children).

It was a snowy December 1st, 2001 and to me it sounded like we were driving on a sidewalk or a seamed road. It turned out that we were driving on the sidewalk above Weber State's library. Mike parked the car right there below the gym and where one of the steepest staircases at Weber used to lead down to the library and pulled me out of the car.

When he took my blindfold off we could see the Ogden valley glittering below us in the cold. We could see the library where we were first set up on a date*. We could see the banks of the pond where we first said "I love you," (and made out). And we could see the temple that we had decided to get married in. After Mike romantically pretended to push me down the hill in the snow, he got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. Oh! My beating heart. I crushed him in an embrace before he could even stand up or put the ring on.

I still remember the day we were married in the Ogden temple-- a feeling that I hold close like the softest of blankets-- Happiness was poured into me. It was a feeling of peace and absolute contentment and commitment to the man I love.

We liked the uniqueness of the Ogden temple. It was beautiful in a different sort of way. I'm a little sad that it's getting a makeover, but I'm glad we have such happy memories and that we were able to go and get some pictures with the girls there before the construction work began.

This is the fountain out front. The whole time Hannah and Kenzie jsut wanted to play in the water and rescue ladybugs.

Out front. Tons of families were there taking pictures and a lday offered to take this one for us. Mike and I are still kicking ourselves for not getting a pictures of just us.

At the fountain again.

In front of the temple. When we were married here the spire was orange, so it had a little "fire and cloud" symbolism.

A bench on the side of the temple where the married couple comes out after the ceremony.

The back of the temple.

The tabernacle is also undergoing some changes so we walked over there and took some pics too.

Mike really likes that scroll work that decorates the tabernacle.

Happy Birthday Mike

I've known this man for 10 years now. 10! And he's still as hot as ever. Happy Birthday! You're the best husband in the entire mongscong.

Things Mike is good at:

1. Wiring. Yeah, he's pretty wired.

2. Any sort of sport. He's good at everything he tries. Honestly, this man can do anything, including beat me in every race, even if he's coming off the couch and I'm coming off 6 months of intense training.

3. Being nice. Mike is so nice that birds follow him all around. Because just like me, they long to be, close to him. No really. He's a nice guy, and he always finishes first in my book.

4. Laughing. I love it when I can hear Mike laugh. I love making him laugh too.

5. Daddy-stuff. Mike is good at taking care of his girls. Just tonight he started sewing a patch on Ellie's pajamas, because he was afraid she would be cold if her toes poked out of the holes. (Yeah, these jammies have been through three girls and they're losing the battle.)

6. Husband-stuff. Right now, one of the best things Mike does is take care of the girls while I'm writing a story or off doing church-calling stuff, or out working out.

7. Fixing things. Mike hasn't met a polly pocket, a dishwasher, a laptop, a situation that he hasn't been able to fix.

8. Patience. Mike is a very patient man. He has four girls to take care of. 

9. Speaking Engineering and Doing Engineering. I'm not sure exactly what his work entails, but it's very elaborate and math-involved. And it involves airplanes. And aliasing. And large computer screens. Whenever he speaks of it I have to ask him to please dumb it down a bit. And Dilbert? That comic is written for him.

10. Drawing Homer, from The Simpsons. He has passed this particular talent on to Kenzie, who has adorned our driveway with chalk drawings of Homer ever since.

I made Mike take the day off work for his bday because I wanted to take him to Salt Lake to get some form-fitted ski boots, which he has wanted for-ev-er.

When Kenzie got home from school she asked me where Daddy's present was. I said, "Shhh! You can't tell him but I am going to take him to get some ski boots."  Of course, Kenzie walked right out to the couch and said, "I'm going to whisper what we're getting Daddy to Ellie." Mike was holding Ellie on his lap, and Kenzie's whispering skills are about as good as my cooking skills--sometimes I get it right, but othertimes it's a real doozy. Mike just laughed and said, "What?! You're taking me to get a ski boat?"  So that was the joke of the day.

After a Burger Bar lunch we dropped the girls off at Gmas and we headed to Black Diamond, where they were out of his size :(.   Oh well, that just means we have to have another date!

That night we invited Mike's family and my parents over for some cake and ice cream. Except I forgot to buy ice cream, so it was just cake--the perfect cake for Mike. We call it "Better than Ezra" cake, you know that kind that you pour caramel over chocolate cake and then put whip cream on top with pieces of Heath candy bar.   

Holding a card from my parents.

That night we sang to Hannah and let her open a few presents too, since her birthday was coming in two days. Here is Mike, holding Hannah and a book that I made for her.

Look, doesn't my arm make a nice window?

Sleeping distress

I like sleep.  In fact, I would say that I love sleep. I have wholeheartedly bought into certain sleep concepts including:
"It's the night before the night before that makes a difference in your day."
or
"The hours of sleep you get before midnight are the ones that really count." 
or
"Uninterrupted sleep is necessary for optimum health and happiness."

So it stresses me out to no end that uninterrupted sleep is a rare occurrence at our house. Before Mike and I had children, when we still believed in the tooth fairy and other such myths such as children sleeping through the night, we would hear the neighbors 3-year-old crying in the night and wonder why his parents didn't teach him properly.  Once our children were past 11 pounds and physically able to sleep through the night, they would.

HAHAHAHAHA.  A few months ago, right about the time that Ellie started sleeping through the night, Hannah stopped sleeping through the night. The three-year-old not sleeping through the night started in September. And now it is March. (voice breaking, hands trembling) The end of March.

Three to four mornings a week, Hannah cries loudly in my ear at 4 a.m.  I am always pleasant and cheerful at this time in the morning, and I say quietly, "Sweetheart, let me sing you a song and scratch your back to scare away your bad dreams." Not really. It's more like anger and hatred at that time in the morning. And this is a terrible habit that we've got to get rid of. 

Below is a list of what we've tried. We try to be consistent for a week or two before we switch it up. (Switch it up=throw our hands in the air and swear to not have anymore children/make them sleep locked in the garage.) We want to break her of this habit. I want this habit gone more than I want a free lifetime supply of books and chocolate.

FAILED Attempts at Getting Hannah to Stay in Bed
1. "Did you have a bad dream? I'm sorry." And walking her back to bed. FAIL
2. Saying nothing. Pointing like silent death at the doorway. FAIL
3. "Hannah, go back to bed." FAIL
4. Locking our door. FAIL
5. Taking away a toy every time she leaves her bed. FAIL
6. Saying a prayer with her and tucking her back in. FAIL
7. Threatening death or other tortures if she doesn't stay in bed. FAIL
8. No food after 7:30 p.m. FAIL
9. Magic mush.  This technique was shared by my friend, Sallie. She used it to get her kids in bed at night.. I thought I could try it for when they get out of bed.
So here's my version: If they get out of bed during the night the next morning I make them a bowl of magic mush (oatmeal with nothing in it).  Here's how that goes over with Hannah, "I won't eat it! I will spill it all oveh!"  "Fine," I say. "There will be no food until lunch."  Then she asks me all morning when lunch will be. She lays around on her pillow and sucks her thumb all morning. Her tummy hurts. Everything is a fight. The morning is miserable. I am miserable.  I stress out because she's not eating and miserable and unhappy.  And so am I! FAIL 

I've stuck with magic mush for about 7-9 incidents over the past three weeks, in an effort to remain consistent. Until this conversation,
Hannah wakes up and says to me, "Mommy did I get up last night?"
"No sweetie! Good job! You didn't. You can choose what you want for breakfast."
Visible relief: "Phew!"
Oh yeah, Mother of the Year. Right here.  My child doesn't even know she's waking up at night and I'm punishing her. Awesome. (Or some part of me thinks, "My gosh, this child is a master at manipulating me.)

So here's where we're currently at:
I've given up on magic mush for when she wakes up in the middle of the night (if she gets out of bed when we tuck her in, it's still on). I'm just going to let her crawl into bed with me. I know this is probably making it worse. I know that I am enforcing a bad habit. I know I am setting her up for failure in college with this one small act, and she will probably end up dealing drugs because of my bad parenting skills.  I know! I know!
But people, I'm in survival mode. I've got to assuage my guilt at making her cry by her lonely self at three a.m. because I was sure that would solve it. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Other than that, things are great around here.