Mom of the Year

A snippet from my conversation with Todd the other day:

(I was in the basement talking to Todd on my cell phone while the kids were playing Wii and making random loud and obnoxious noises)

Me:  "UPS brought the book you ordered.  I put it next to your side of the bed."

Todd:  "Which book was it?"

Me:  "I have no idea what it was called, but I remember it sounded more interesting than some of the books you order.  I think it was something about parenting."

Todd: "Oh that one. It was called "________" (kids obnoxious and random noises got so loud I couldn't hear)

Me:  plugging one ear with my finger "What?  I couldn't hear you."

Todd: "It's called "__________" (even louder and more obnoxious noise)

Me:  "Sorry, I still didn't hear you."

Todd: "Could you tell the boys to be quiet for a minute?"

Me: (yelling) "Boys! Shut! Up! I can't even hear Dad on the phone!"  

the boys became quiet (We don't usually say "shut up" around here...)

       

Me: "Now, what was the book called?"

Todd: (tentatively)  "It's called...Scream Free Parenting." 

First day of school

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I drove to school today with a 5th grader, a 4th grader, and a 1st grader in tow.  I walked Dillon into his classroom, but the older boys took off on their own.  Apparently they didn't need want my assistance.

Don't worry, Mom.
The spots on Brayden and Caleb's shirts are just water from brushing their teeth.

After taking a 45 minute walk with my cousin, Erin, I went to Walmart. It was nice to go with just one child, who sits in the cart and doesn't touch anything.  He didn't need to go to the bathroom while we were in the middle of the store.  He didn't ask for a toy. He didn't complain about his feet hurting.  He didn't whine that he was hungry. He just grinned and babbled.  And on the way to and from the store?  He slept.

But, even as pleasant as my shopping trip turned out, I have to admit I missed my boys. I was excited to hear about their first day of school. Dillon had the only homework, but when he was talking to Todd on the phone, he said, "It was so easy, it was like kindergarten work!".

I've got one with brown eyes, one with blue/gray eyes, and one with green eyes!
Looking at these pictures, I'm feeling the need to start saving for braces.  Sigh...they grow too fast.

Prayin' for rain...in a cloud of dust

Thanks to my Brad Paisley loving husband, this song played on my ipod this morning and made me cry.

It hits a little too close to home.



This weekend someone told me that there are 17 houses for sale in our town (of 500 people). There are 12-14 in a nearby town, and about 50 county-wide.

And there are no jobs to bring people in.

I know of two houses that sold for about $30,000 less than they should have.

I've been discouraged this week.  All along I have felt such a sense of peace, and hope, and for some reason a few days ago it was just...gone.  And I don't know what has changed.

I am grateful to my friends Kristy and Lacy for their recent blog posts about trials that were perfectly timed.  I have thought about their words several times this week--especially the quote from "The Other Side of Heaven" that says, "Sometimes the Lord calms the storm; other times he calms the sailor...and sometimes He just lets us swim."

I guess that's me right now.  I'm swimming.

I'm not a very good swimmer.  Especially when I can't see the shore.  I don't even know the direction of the shore, and I'm having a hard time choosing which way to swim.

Should we wait around for our house to sell? Should we walk away? How long is our family willing to live apart? Should we rent our house out for less than our payment and then try to rent a place for ourselves PLUS make up the rest of our own house payment? Would it be wise to get a more fuel efficient car? Should we stop paying our house payment for three months so we can qualify for a loan modification?  Is there ANY answer that will allow us to keep our excellent credit rating? What am I supposed to learn from this?

Those are just a few of the questions that are rolling around in my head.  I keep thinking of Dory from Little Nemo saying, "Just keep swimming..."

So for now I guess I'll just keep treading water...

And prayin' for rain through a cloud of dust.

It's time

"Let there be peace on earth public school

...and let it begin with me this week"

I think I'm ready.  Not as ready as other years, but it's time.  Time for a schedule, and a routine.  Time for school lunch. Time for my house to stay clean for 3 hours instead of 3 minutes.

Despite all our craziness this summer, it's been a good one...maybe our best ever.  We've played games, gone to the park, spent hours in the pool, and grown closer as a family.  It was much needed, because our last few summers have gone by too quickly.

But I'm ready to move on.  Unfortunately, we're still in limbo with no real prospects for selling our house.  We'll just have to make the best of our back-and-forth situation and hopefully our fall will be as great as our summer...though it's hard to imagine without Todd around.

I'll miss him when I have to mow the lawn, or start a fire in the mornings, or scrape the ice off my windows, or take the kids to school (he usually dropped them off on his way to work).

The internet at the trailer is not fast enough for skype, but we'll start having scripture study and FHE via speaker phone.  I'm going to try really hard to have all the chores done during the week so that when Todd is here on the weekends we can play.

And when everyone's gone to school and the baby is napping?  I'm going to play.  I've put in a lot of years to get to this point and it's my turn :o)  I haven't worked out my daily schedule yet, but it's going to include time to exercise.  And time to sew...for myself.  At least there are a few good things on the horizon... :o)

thirteen years

Happy Anniversary, Todd!

I'm so glad we can laugh our way through life...together.

I made this tree stump with rings and had it printed on a 12x12 piece of paper.  I hope to add a new ring each year...at least until it outgrows the 16x16 frame :o).  The only problem is that I ended up with fourteen rings, because I have an entire ring for the year we were married (1998), and an entire ring for this year.  I haven't figured out how to get around that.  If you have any idea's, let me know and I'll try to fix it before I have it re-printed next year.  I'd really like the number of rings to match up with the number of years we've been married.

A bunch of random stuff

Grandma G. gave Justin this cool tunnel for his birthday.  So fun! 

We'll have to make it the entrance to a fort soon...

A couple weeks ago I made the mistake of taking four boys to Tai Pan, and Caleb knocked this caterpillar lawn ornament over and it broke.  After $12 (ouch) and some super glue, we were able to use it for Justin's party.

I almost forgot, but I stuck him in the ground at the last minute.  So glad we could get our $12 worth.  (Grr).

About a week before Justin's party I made these "caterpillar in cacoons" with hot dogs and refrigerated breadsticks.  I served them over ketchup and mustard butterfly wings, but they were not a hit, so we didn't make them again.

This little black collared lizard has been hanging around our trailer and entertaining the boys.  If he gets really scared, he'll walk on his hind legs.

This was Brayden's first helping of cereal this morning. In some places it was nearly 1 1/2" higher than the bowl.  We've had to limit him to no more than three servings.  How am I going to feed four boys for the next 20 years?

A few weeks ago, I was tired and lazy and didn't prepare a family home evening lesson.  Todd was out of town and I decided to ignore the fact that it was Monday.  At 9:00 PM Caleb asked me if I had a lesson ready, and I sheepishly told him no.

He told me he would give a lesson.  Fifteen minutes later, I was treated to a unique portrayal of the story of Helaman and the stripling warriors.

This is the Lamanite army:

And the younger and smaller Nephite army:

The war raged on for a little longer than was probably necessary, but none of the stripling warriors were killed.

I'm glad that Caleb made sure we had family home evening that night.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Party

The boys and I have been planning Justin's "Very Hungry Caterpillar Party" since last December when I bought a stuffed caterpillar at Kohl's for $5.  There was no way I was going to try to take the party to the trailer, so we celebrated at home this weekend.

"In the light of the moon, a [deviled] egg lay on a leaf..."

The Saturday night portion of his party was in our front yard

I dipped the sugar cones in melted almond bark, and then rolled them in sprinkles. My favorite part of the party has to be the straws.  I love them.  I found them in St. George and spent a whopping $4.50 for 25 straws.  Ridiculous, but I bought them anyway. I "threaded" a picture of the leaf from the book on the straws, and used those little pearl sprinkles for the egg.

I found the watermelon napkins, as well as the "leaf plate" above on clearance at Michael's.

I bought this polka-dot wrapping paper for the presents, but decided Justin didn't care so I used it for the table liner.  All the kids ate through one (or more) lollipops.

 My friend Kristy posted these cute caterpillars on her blog awhile back, and we made some and clipped them onto a snack bag full of Trix cereal to make "beautiful butterflies".

Todd hooked up our projector outside, and we invited friends over to watch Despicable Me.

We stapled a white sheet to two 1x4's and attached it to our house over the living room windows.
It worked perfectly!  Watching a movie outside with friends has been on my bucket list forever.  Next time we'll haul the Wii out there too :o)

On Sunday, we had our own little family party.

This Jello reminded me of the artwork from the book.  It was actually a lot easier than it looks and it was a hit with the kids.

We also had fruit kabobs, ham and turkey sandwiches (with one slice of Swiss cheese, a pickle, and lettuce "leaves"), and deviled eggs.

My other favorite part of the party, besides the straws, was the bib I made for Justin.  It was so fun to make! I used this "bapron tutorial" that I found online, and appliqued the caterpillar on the front using embroidery floss for the "fringe".

I think he likes it...or maybe it's the swirly lollipop.

And here's the famous "first cake" picture.

8-9-11

Todd was out of town on Justin's first birthday, so the kids and I

 went to the trailer so we could all be together.

After dinner at Olive Garden, we went to a park near the RV resort.

 There was a swing for Justin...

 A climbing wall for the big boys...

 And horseshoes for Todd and Dillon.

 Brayden and Caleb played "pioneer" for a bit,

 And tried out all the slides.

 Dillon carefully tried to blow the biggest bubble

And I tried and tried to get a picture of the bats flying around in the air, 

but all I got was 42 pictures of blue sky.

Justin loved his present from Grandma and Grandpa Salisbury:

twelve months

At twelve months, Justin:

- Doesn't want baby food anymore, he wants what we're eating!
- Signs "milk" regularly, and signs "more" occasionally (but I'm pretty sure he thinks it means food)
- Is starting to throw little tantrums on the floor when he doesn't get his way
- hates wearing shoes and hats and removes them immediately
- giggles when he sees Daddy after a week of him being away
- mimics our sound when we say "hello" to him, and says "ah-oh" back

Published

I told the boys a long time ago that if they wanted to write a book (and take their time on it) 

I would have it printed for them.  This one made the cut because Todd and I laughed until we had tears rolling down our faces when we got to the "brick wall" part.

If you look closely, you'll discover that they took their inspiration from several places, including: Finding Nemo, Webkinz, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Mario Bros.

We scanned the pictures, and used photoshop elements to "touch up" and add things as needed.  I spent way too many hours on it, but they love it, so it was all worth it. They approved the final draft before we had it printed.

The end page was illustrated by Brayden.