Oh Donuts

Last week, I thought it would be great fun to teach the girls in my young women's class how to make donuts. I have a recipe that came from my Grandpa Davis for cake donuts. My dad makes them every year at Christmas time. They are wonderfully yummy. I decided to make up the dough ahead of time. I did not think we would be able to do everything in an hour, so I opted to teach them how to roll out dough, cut it and cook it. I have not made them in years. The first batch of dough I made, I forgot the baking powder. That would not work because they would not rise at all without baking powder. So I made it again, and was good to go. My donut cutter was mangled by some children I know. Of course they couldn't have been my children, because they were never destructive at all. A women that works with me brought biscuit cutters. They worked in theory, but they made the donut holes too big, and the donuts too flimsy. So the girls decided just to do donut holes. The idea was that they would make them last week, and we would serve them this week for our caroling activity. I thought it would work, because my dad always made a ton and froze them, and we ate them until they were gone, which was usually several months later. However, by the next day, these donut holes were rocks. I think it was because we had the oil too hot, so the donuts cooked before they were able to rise in the oil.

So, I made a new batch yesterday for the activity. The problem was, I still did not have a donut cutter. I looked all over on Tuesday trying to find one. I found them on the internet, but no one had one in the stores. I finally just improvised. I used a cup for the outside circle and an airbourne tube for the donut hole. It worked remarkably well, and the donuts were a success. Phew! We also had hot chocolate, and mint hot chocolate which was delicious. The funnest part was that we actually got people to open their doors to us in bellow freezing temperatures, as we sang. It was great, and the girls had fun.

What a Tragedy!

Yes, we are all still alive, just very busy. I did have a little funny story to tell. Nathan is home from school today because he is ill. He is on the couch, trying to expel a lung out of his body. The experts think the lung can be saved, and he will make a full recovery eventually.

James was in the kitchen getting breakfast. Here is their conversation.

James: Nathan, I can't find the cereal that I like.
Nathan: What a tragedy.
James: I will share it with you when I find it.
Nathan: No thanks!

I have to say I completely understand Nathan's sarcasm. You see, James' cereal is nothing but sugared cardboard. At least that is what I think it tastes like. So Nathan and I will leave the frosted shredded wheat mini bites to him, and eat real food.

Reporting Back

After telling everyone about the sewing class, I thought I would give a little report. It went really well. I was worried that it would be one of those things that people came to because they should learn to sew, not because they want to. But, there was a lot of real interest, and I am excited to sew with them next month.

That was one major event down, only three more to go. The baby shower is next. I tend to make things more complicated than they should be. Thanks mom for passing that little trait onto me. I have this undeniable urge to do things up right, and by right I mean crazy over the top. I am trying to curtail that a little simply because I will make myself crazy. I have wonderful people helping me on this one, so it should not be too bad. I am determined to have a quilt prepared so that everyone that comes can put in a few ties, and hopefully get it finished by the end of the shower. It is also our young women activity for the week, so I feel like I should have them at least learn a skill, or give service by helping with the quilt. You will be proud of me, I have already scraped one plan. I was going to make these cute little booties out of tp rolls, then you have m&m's or nuts in the top. They are super cute, but I just do not have the time to make them. They take a lot of time. I am still going to make the little pacifiers out of gummy life savors, peppermint patties & jelly beans. Those will take a little bit of time, but not too bad. Others are in charge of the food, sort of. Kerrie volunteered to bring mini cheesecakes, which means I will be helping her make the mini cheesecakes, but other than that, I am not helping with the food.

I keep repeating to myself over and over when I get overwhelmed, "one bite at a time, Jann." I don't know why that makes me feel better, but it does. My kids think I have lost my mind, because I am talking to myself.

Well, I guess I had better get to bed, so I am ready to start chewing tomorrow.

Better Day

I just had to move the post down, as it was making me sad all over again. Yesterday was a rough day, that ended terribly with a dog tragedy and reports to a couple of government agencies. I am not going to give the details, because frankly I don't want to think about it anymore. Let's just say it stunk big time. When things of a disappointing nature occur in my life, I tend to not sleep, which was the case last night. I tried several things to get my mind of my worries.

First was a book, but that did not work. Next was a movie I had just received from Netflix. When I started the movie, the previews were horribly scary. Well at least horribly scary for me. I don't like scary movies. When I was a child I could not watch the Wizard of Oz, because it was scary. See what I mean by scary. Yes, I realize I am a total wimp. The menu button and the fast forward button would not work, so I just muted the sound and tried not to look. It was too late, though, and I needed to be with my hubby. He was sleeping, and I did not want to wake him, so I put the movie into the portable dvd player, with headphones and went up to our room hoping the light would not wake him. Much to my horror, I had to watch the previews again. I thought it was my player downstairs, but apparently the lovely makers of this film somehow disabled the menu and fast forward buttons, and forced to watch the thing again. I will just say, I will not be buying this movie for this reason. This did the trick, and by about 3:00 am I turned it off and went to sleep.

You might think because of my lack of sleep that I would not be any better today, but I am. One of the benefits of the bad event yesterday was that my kids kicked into hyper drive, and helped me clean without complaint. Things were not horrible, but there were chores that needed to be done, and they willingly helped. So I woke up to a clean house, that I had not had to do on my own, or spend enormous amounts of energy getting the kids to do it. It made me happy to know that when it is truly needed, this family sticks together.

After a lovely visit from the health department, and a ten day quarantine order for our dog, I am much more calm. It is not as bad as it sounds, he did not actually bite anyone, but it was bad enough that it had to be reported.

I have spent the rest of my morning preparing to teach a basic sewing class. I am teaching about 20 people who have never sewn some of the basics this month, then we will attempt a project next month. I found a really cute pattern online that uses some basic techniques, and I think everyone will like it.

The sun has not come out, but it is not raining today and there is some color in my world instead of gray. My backyard is full of the spectrum of fall colors. It really is a beautiful time of year here.

Melancholy

It is a strange place to be in my life right now. I am on the cusp of big changes. It will be strange to not have my children in my home, but that is a very real fact to me now. When they were little, I said I could not imagine my home without a baby in it. Now, I can not imagine my home without my children here. It is good for them to grow up, but it makes me a little sad. I guess I should not be sad, because they are growing into such amazing people. I am not sad for them, I know there are great and wonderful things ahead of them, it is for me that I mourn. They have grown from needing my constant care, to being independent in so many ways. I know I am still needed, and will always be, because I need my parents even now, but it will be different.

Maybe every parent feels this way when their oldest is a senior. I am sure it will be even harder when she gets out on her own. I guess I am faced with the fact that in a little over seven years, this home will be empty of children. Maybe it will be a little like the day I sent Amanda off to preschool. I cried to see her go, but after a while, started to enjoy the benefits of having a little less to do during those hours. In fact, by the time Nathan got into school, I was excited because I knew I would have several hours every day to get things done, and that he would be perfectly fine at school without me. I need to trust that it will be the same as I send them off into the next stage of their lives, that they will be fine, and I will be fine.

I apologize for being a little melancholy today. I tend to do this when there have been a lot of cloudy days. I guess the Arizona girl in me has never been able to fully get used to days without bright sunshine. Even when it rains in Arizona the sun still shines. I will shake myself out of this, and hope for a little sun soon. So excuse me while I go and sit under my sun lamp, a poor substitute for the real thing, be better than nothing.

They Should Just Come Already Marked

The title is a direct quote of my dear husband. We were talking about the scriptures. Amanda has 1 Nephi chapter 10 missing from her scriptures. She does not know what happened to that chapter. My comment was that she must have already mastered that material and no longer needs it. She did not much appreciate my humor. James told her she could just get a new set of scriptures. Amanda said it would not be marked with all her markings she has already done. Then James said, scriptures should just come already marked then no one would have to mark them up. There you go, that is pretty big insight into how my husband's brain works. Now he is saying there should be a service that you can just request the scriptures you want marked, then they would send it already highlighted in red.

Perhaps we should not be laughing about this conversation, but it is just completely funny to me. What can I say, he thinks of things in strange ways.

A Lesson & A Talk

I had to come up with something to move that last post down. My model will be happy to see it move down as well.

Well, this post is kind of a jumble of stuff that is my life right now.

So, Sunday I was in charge of teaching the lesson to all of the young women. I ended by showing a video that makes me cry every time I see it. It was shown at the last general conference, young women session. Here is the link. It is the last one on the page titled, Be Strong: I Know Who I am. Go check it out, it is awesome. Oh, and if you want to listen to the best talk given to young women, watch the one titled, You Happily Ever After. It is right above the video.

Next week I am giving a talk in church. This is a scary thing, and the topic is hard. It is fulfilling my parental duty to God. I just hope I can do a good job, and come out of it not feeling inadequate as a mom, or having anyone hold me up as the roll model to follow. I know that others are loving and accepting, and hopefully will not judge a less than perfect mom. I also know that this assignment will benefit me and my family far more than it will anyone else. My hope is that I will come out of this experience a better mom, and maybe share some information that will help others.

This week also is the start of symphony. I guess I am finally accepting that I need to be in the full swing of things. My schedule is going to be crazy. It is a good kind of crazy, but still crazy. School has gotten off to a pretty smooth start. A few bumps here and there, but nothing that can not be handled.

I guess I do have one story that is amusing. Last week for activities, the kids were taught how to swing dance. Nicolaas has never before danced with a girl, other than his mother, in his life. He was so fun to watch. When I was asking him questions about it on the way home, he was very hesitant to give me any answers, so I kept asking more questions. Finally he said, "mom there is a line, and you are crossing it." I love this boy.

Afton's Dress

As promised, here is the dress almost completed. I just have to stitch the hem, which I will finish today. By the way, the model's head has been cropped out to preserve their identity. Let's just say, this child made a huge sacrifice by being my model.

Every dress that I make, I allow myself one major goof. With this dress the goof was not in the sewing, but in the planning. I did not really like the sleeve that came with the pattern I picked, so I found a sleeve I did like and tried to put it on this dress. It did not work. It pulled the smocking funny and just did not work at all, so I had to remove that sleeve, and go back to the original pattern. I actually really love the sleeve now. I think it works really well with the dress. I was also told that my niece does not like things that feel funny or tight. I can not say that I blame her. I am very much the same way. I do not care if it looks good, if I am not comfortable I will not wear it. I think this sleeve will be very comfortable for her.

I am very pleased with how the dress turned out. You will probably notice that I removed the bows from the front of the dress. Sometimes I get carried away with adding little touches, and thank goodness I have people around me that keep me from flying off into excessive accessorizing. I think my mom is right, it does not need the bows.

Homework For Me

In the age of computers and email and technology, can't someone figure out how to make those pesky back to school forms match our current technology? I mean seriously, do I really have to fill out the exact same information on a sheet of paper for every one of my kid's teachers. Let me add a little perspective. That is seven teachers per kid/ five kids. That is thirty five sheets of paper. Then don't get me started on what I had to fill out for the school, times 2 for every kid. There were two emergency cards for every kid. That is 12 forms. Then came the forms about what I wanted to happen in an emergency, the forms that gave permission for them to take pictures of my kids, the walking field trip permission form that I will have to fill out again, whenever there is a walking field trip. Really? Is there not a better way to handle this? Then came the reams of paper of information, that all ended up in my recycling bin. Can't we send that information out on email? Then it is never lost, by me or my kids. We can just go look it up again.

So, millions of forms filled out, three and a half hours of my time, and major hand cramps later, is anyone surprised that I am not in a very good mood?

First Day of School 2010

They are off. My house is completely empty and quiet. Too weird. Last year, when I got the camera out for back to school pictures, the kids ran from me. I was not a happy camper. So yesterday, at our family planning meeting, I informed the kids that they will pose for pictures. Then to ensure that they did so, I told them about what would happen if they did not. I told my high school and middle school kids that I would come to school with them with my camera and take pictures there. They were surprisingly willing to pose this morning. Mmm, I wonder why?

Eating Breakfast

In order of departure time: High School 6:35 am

Senior

Junior

Freshman

Middle School 7:15 am

Eighth Grade

Seventh Grade

The last, first day of Elementary School in Gartside Family History, 8:05 am

Fifth Grade

My First Design

About eight years ago I met a very fun woman, who taught me how to smock. I had been sewing dresses for my girls for many years, but this opened up a whole new creative world for me. I subscribed to a smocking magazine that came with patterns and designs, and I always used that to make the dresses. I fell in love with smocking. In fact, sewing became annoying to me, and the smocking was the thing that made me happy.

I started using this skill to make dresses for my nieces, when they turned eight and were being baptized. It was wonderful, because my own girls outgrew smocking, and this gave me an excuse to smock again. It also was a way for me to be apart of my niece's baptisms without being able to be there. Then I ran out of nieces to sew for, until this year. My brother was married earlier this year, and I was completely excited to find out his new wife had a daughter turning eight.

I went looking for my supplies to make a dress, and I have no idea where all my patterns have gone, but gone they are. POOF as we say at our house. I did not have time to order a new one, so I decided to design my very first smocked dress. I had to modify a pattern to include a smocked front, and then plan out the design of the smocking. It was so fun to get out the graphing paper from my kids math classes, and put it to good use designing a dress.

Tonight I finished the smocking, and I wanted to share my very first design. It is probably not all that original. There are really only so many things you can do with smocking stitches, but it was my combination of those stitches, and I am happy with how it turned out.

The dress has to be done and in the mail by Friday, so I will be making good use of a kids free house next week. Once I am finished, I will update with a completed dress picture. My sister in law has also promised to send pictures of my niece in the the dress, so I will post that when I get it.

Studly Gospelicious

This title is the description that my girls new seminary teacher used to describe Nephi. How lucky are my girls that they will have a teacher that is going to be fun, yet knows and loves the scriptures. I am very excited for them, and even a little envious that I do not get to listen to him every morning. It is a pretty big sacrifice on the part of these kids to give up their sleep, to study the scriptures. I know it has paid off in a huge way for my daughters. Anytime they missed seminary, they would say their day did not go well. I am also really grateful to the teachers who give up their sleep and spend hours in preparation to enrich the lives of my children. Starting the second week of school, our household will be waking up a lot earlier than I would ever choose to be up, but it is well worth it. Even though I will be the drowsy parent driving at 5:50 in the morning, I am so happy to do it.

Announcing....

ASHLEY CUT HER HAIR!

I did not think I would see the day when Ashley would cut a significant length off her hair. Well, she did it yesterday, and she looks totally adorable in her new hair do. She even got bangs and layers. She was three years old the last time her hair was cut. What is even more amazing is even though she cut off about a foot of hair, she still has long hair. Tell me what you think.

Photography

Ashley planted a sunflower garden in our front yard this year. They are all kind of falling over now because of the rain. Today, a butterfly found her flowers and visited for awhile. Ashley grabbed the camera and started shooting pictures. They turned out really well, so I thought I would share some of her pictures.

We Believe....Stuff

Yesterday in church we were talking about the law of the land. My church has thirteen Articles of Faith, that as the Mia Maid teacher said, are the bare bones of what we believe. The teacher asked if any of the girls knew the 12th article of faith. One girl answered, "We believe .... stuff." This just made me laugh. I told her that was going to be the title of my next blog. She is right, we do believe stuff, lots of stuff. For me, it is the lots of stuff that I believe that give me a guide on how I live my life, that makes me very happy. I make lots of mistakes, but I find that when I am living my life by the principles that I have been taught from a very early age, and that I continue to learn about, I am happy.

More than that, it is the guide by which I have raised my kids. What a relief it is as a parent to be able to know what decisions should be made before the stress of the moment. You know what I mean. It is that moment when a child wants to do something, and you are not sure what is right. It is terribly difficult to make the right decision in the middle of pressure from a child. Here is one example. One of my girls came home from school with an advertisement for a school dance. She was in the 5th grade. I was able to tell her immediately that she should not go because we are taught at church that a boy or girl should not go to dances until they are 14 years old. The one exception to that is if it is a family dance that everyone is participating in. I know that there are many that think this is silly. For me, it is protection for my kids. Let's take the above daughter. She has never been put in a situation with a boy that she was not able to handle in a mature manner. It also has protected her from getting boy crazy before she is mature enough to handle a boy. My kids are also not going to date before the age of 16, and at that point only group dating. What amazing protection for a teenager. When the hormones are raging, and they are a little crazy, there is built in protection in numbers. Really, is hanky panky going to be going on with an audience? I think not. It also allows them to avoid adult situations before they are ready. They just get to be kids. When you think about it, childhood is so short, and is a time to be treasured and not rushed. There is time later for relationships, marriage, children and responsibility.

So, I am grateful for the stuff I believe. It has blessed my life and the lives of my family in immeasurable ways.

Eight Kids

What is the difference between six kids and eight? Not a whole lot, when you get two added to your group that are sweet, easy and fun. We have two little girls visiting our house for the weekend. It has been so fun to have them here. They have joined right in with everything we are doing, and it feels like they belong here. I will be sad when they go home.

Teenagers

It is the greatest joy of my life right now to be involved with teenagers. They are just fascinating to me. They do amazing and funny and sometimes silly things. I just had the great opportunity to spend three days with the youth from my church. It is remarkable to me that they choose to be involved in things that their peers would not be. They spend three days of their life to give service, learn more about God and Jesus Christ, and there was some playing involved. On Thursday they played team building games that were really fun. Like, sack races, pop the balloon, bullseye golf, steal the bacon, etc. They were thrown together in groups with kids they did not know, and they just made it fun. The one activity I was not involved in was the dance. I was excused from chaperone duty, so I missed that. On they way home from youth conference today, I asked my girls how the dance went. One daughter piped up and said she danced with 12 boys. It sounded like she had a good time. She did tell me one story of a boy she danced with. He talked almost the whole time about his plans, and universities that wanted him, etc. You know this kind of boy. Her response was to say, "confident aren't you." I started laughing, then Kerrie's comment made me laugh so tears were running down my face. She said, "dance with my sister, get served bowls of sarcasm." I think that will be our new saying.

Overall it was a fantastic conference, and I loved every minute of it. I hope the kids did too.

Nicolaas Is 12

I keep putting off this post, because I have not had time to get the pictures off my camera to accompany the post. I have given up on that and am just going to put down some thoughts I have at this momentous occasion. On Wednesday Nicolaas turned twelve years old. He also got to go to his first young men meeting. It was great because James and I got to go with him. It was an information night for the young men and their parents about the new Duty to God program. I am really excited to see his growth through this program.

One of the things I enjoy so much about Nic is his sense of humor. Boy is he funny. I have been forbidden to write one of the funny things he said, and for once, I am going to honor that request. So, I will write another one. Tonight after dinner, we gathered together to read out of the Book of Mormon, then we said family prayers. Before the prayer, Nic said, "wait, I am not ready, I need to plant my butt." He then proceeded to sit on Nathan. Just quoting him does not do it justice, because the way he said it was completely hilarious. He brings a lot of laughter into our home.

Nic is also a very good boy. He would hate that I said that, but it is simply true. He has been the catalyst of many positive changes in our home. He is the reason that we are regularly reading scriptures together as a family. He is kind to his sisters, even when they are not so kind to him. He is very tender with me. He frequently gives me hugs and kisses and tells me he loves me.

He loves video games and soccer, scouting and playing outside. His favorite subjects in school are math and science, and he has recently discovered a love of reading. You can often find him with a book in his hand. His favorite color is a toss up between blue and red, but if you push him, he would pick red.

It is an amazing experience to watch him mature into a young man. That has been pretty funny too, because he likes to talk about things that I am shocked he will talk about with his mom. I can't even tease him because he is completely comfortable with something that seems to be naturally uncomfortable.

Wednesday was not your typical birthday. It started out with us taking our entire family to the funeral of a wonderful woman who touched all our lives. In fact, she was Nicolaas' cub scout master when he started scouts. Her Dad summed up how we were feeling really well. He said he was not sad for Amy, but for us, because we would not be able to be with her for now.

We had a quiet celebration at home after that, with cake, ice cream and video game playing. Yes, he got a new game, Harry Potter Lego. I hope he felt loved on this day, because he is a very loved boy. Happy Birthday Nicolaas! I can't wait to see what you do next, and hear what you say next.

Dumbest Thing On SYTYCD Ever

I do not want to move my last post down, but I am just too mad to not vent.

Warning, if you have not seen tonight's results show, do not read this post.

This season has been so great with some of my favorites from seasons past dancing with the contestants. The dancing has been some of the best on the show. With that being said, the judges did the dumbest thing. They did not send anyone home tonight. They could not make up their minds. Seriously! So now, two will go home next week. Here is why I am so mad. There were clearly two in the bottom three they could have sent home. Billy, injured his knee, was cleared by the doctors to dance, and chose not to. What? Jose, so yes he has a great smile and a fun personality, but is clearly the weakest dancer on the stage. The judges just like him so much that they will not kick him off, which should have happened before now. To make it worse the choreographers are make the routines easier so his lack of training will not be shown. Robert, there is no way he deserved to go home at all. He danced so well last night, then he was told tonight he was not making progress. Really? They told him he could be a ballroom dancer after last night's performance, and he is not trained in ballroom. He did a dance he had never done before, and did it so well. When the announcement was made that no one was going home, Billy started jumping all over the stage. Maybe he had a miraculous healing and all of a sudden is fine. So I say to the judges, get a spine and move on with the business of this show. Kicking people off.

URRRRG! That is what I have to say about that.

Legal

Ashley passed her drivers permit test. PHEW! On the way home we stopped in an empty parking lot, and she drove for the first time in her life. I tell you, I'm not sure I will survive this. Actually, she did really well for her first time. She actually got on the road and drove us part of the way home. She even handled getting on and off one of those nasty roundabouts with quite a bit of traffic. I think she will pick it up quickly. She was also driving the van, which is pretty amazing. I don't think I would have felt comfortable driving a van as a new driver, but it is one of the vehicles we have, so she must learn. She even managed to get a cute drivers license picture. If you see her, ask to see it. Way to go Ashley!

Nicolaas

This happened a while ago, but I forgot to write about it. It was so funny, and I want to document it, because in a few months I will not remember what he said. So, a while ago, my good friend posted a very funny video on her blog. Watch it here. Nicolaas saw it when I was watching it, and laughing my head off. We are talking about a long time ago, like a year or more.

A few weeks ago, he and I were headed to an appointment together. He is not a big talker, and I enjoy the times we have alone, because he will usually talk to me. I asked him what he was thinking about, and he said, "mom, I've got my nothing box out."

It's 10 o'clock at night, do you know where your child is?

My child is doing this:

You are seeing correctly, that is her working out math problems on a dry erase board. She is studying Trigonometry and Functions.

As a little side note, she is not happy I am blogging about this. I guess I should be nicer and care that she does not want me to blog. Nah! Mean mom alert. Well, what else is she going to complain to her kids about. I can hear it now (imagine smoke filling the scene as we cut to the future) Ashley: "You think you have it bad, my mom blogged." (children gasping in horror)

(smoke again filling the scene as we cut to current times, and a mother laughing as she types this.) I know, mean.

End of School and Summer

In June, Kerrie finished her time in middle school. We went to the 8th grade dance, and enjoyed seeing pictures of all the kids over the last three years. It is amazing to think I will have three kids in high school next year. This next school year also marks a stage change for me. In 2011, I will have an adult child. She is excited, and making plans for what she wants to do. She definitely wants to work with animals. She is going through aptitude tests for careers that would be good for her. I will be really surprised if she ends up doing anything other than working with animals. She would actually love to work in a zoo. She likes the exotic animals. If she had her way, she would live in Australia and work in the Australian Zoo. That is a little too far for her mom, but a visit might be fun.

With the start of summer, comes girls camp. All my girls except Amanda have been in Pennsylvania for the week. Ashley went on the 4th year hike, which is an overnight affair. I have not talked to her, but I hear from friends who are there, that she has had a fun week. Kelsie has had a little bit of a hard time with homesickness. This was kind of surprising because she did fine last year. I think the difference is, I was not up there at all. Last year, I went up for a couple of days. They come home today, and I can not wait to see them.

Nic and Nathan have enjoyed having a little more say in things at home with the girls gone. They pretty much have five mothers most of the time, and this week has been a little bit of a break as they have only had to deal with two of us. Nathan was so funny this morning, when he said, "last day of freedom from girls." Poor boy.

The weirdest part of this week, is I have not had to make a milk and bread run. I usually shop for groceries once a week, then about midweek I have to make a milk and bread run, but not this week. It seemed a little strange.

I have pictures on my camera to post, but I have not downloaded them. As soon as I do, I will post them. I guess I am feeling a little summer lazy. I am allowed right?

Eureka

My title is a pretty good word to describe today. I spent the entire day with my sweetheart, in the Temple, with many members from my stake. Then we decided to go to dinner. Using my handy Droid, we found a fast Mexican food place we like. While we were looking for parking, we came upon a REAL Mexican restaurant. When we were seated, I started giggling like a 12 year old girl, over the menu. I mean, they had everything I love. They even had sopapillas. I was ecstatic. I have looked for YEARS for anything to come close to what they have in Arizona, and we stumbled upon it today. It was just the perfect end to a pretty near perfect day. It was only two miles off the beltway. We will be going back for more. I felt like yelling eureka when we finished eating. I am sure I looked like a crazy loon with my huge smile. What a day.

Understanding Teenage Girls

I am not an expert, but I do have some understanding of teenage girls. I mean, really, I used to be one. My husband on the other hand, not so good at this. Last night, the lens on Ashley's glasses came out. When I looked at it, it seemed the screw was missing. I told her I would see if dad had a lens kit, and could fix it for her. If not, we would take it to be fixed today. When James got home from work, he started working on the problem. Not one to do things part way, he determined there was a lot wrong with her glasses and set out to fix them. He was able to get the lens back in, but then he decided the ear piece was loose, and needed to be fixed. He decided one was bent, and needed to be straightened, so he removed the ear piece. He got it straightened out, but then could not put the ear piece back on. He tried, I tried, we tried together, and nothing worked. We could not get the screw back in.

This morning, Ashley found her glasses in a completely different state that what she left them. James told her just to wear them without the ear piece. As you can imagine, she was not happy with this solution. His reply to her displeasure was to say, "this isn't a fashion show." WRONG ANSWER! Then, we tried to figure out how this could be fixed for now. The suggestion was to sew it together with needle and thread, but we could not find a needle. So I suggested we use a safety pin, just for today, then I would take her to get if fixed after school. You see, she can not go without her glasses. She is completely blind, and she has finals today, and it is pretty important that she see well. James got the safety pin, fixed the glasses, and handed it to Ashley. She put them on, then came over to me. I could not help but laugh. That safety pin is pretty prominent. There is no hiding that her glasses were being held together by a safety pin. She was not happy with this either, but it was the best we could do. The funniest part came courtesy of James. When she was complaining about it, he said, "your future husband is not at that school, so don't worry about it." Again, WRONG ANSWER! It sure made all of us laugh our heads off. I am still laughing about it, and it is hours later. He tries so hard to use his practical logic on the girls, but it is a losing battle, because the truth is, he does not understand teenage girls.

Such Fun

For the last two days, I have had my cousin Gena and her husband Mark at my house. We have had so much fun. In fact, I think all three of us are paying dearly for that fun. They got here Monday night. On Tuesday, we headed to Washington. We rode the MARC train into Union Station, then onto the subway to get us the rest of the way. We walked from the Capital to the Lincoln memorial then back to the subway, with stops at a couple of Smithsonian's, and monuments. I love seeing these sights. I think my absolute favorite is the WWII memorial, although it is hard to pick. The view from the Lincoln memorial can not be matched. I think the reason I love the WWII memorial so much, is all of the patriotic and inspiring quotes that are carved into the stone. This day pretty much wiped us out.

Tuesday, I took them to Mt. Vernon with promises of not much walking. Well, I lied. There is walking. Not nearly as much as we did the day before, but still more than I remembered. I think they really enjoyed this. Mark just kept saying, "this is cool." He is right, it is pretty cool. They also got a taste of traffic around DC. I mean let's face it, they would not have truly experienced this area without that. Then we headed to the BassPro shop. Mark loves to fish, so this was fun. He wanted a t-shirt from there with Baltimore on it. Well, mission accomplished. I also got to see his dream boat. Then we got Philly Cheesesteaks, YUM!

We were all too tired to walk anymore, but they had to see Baltimore. Especially since Mark loves baseball. So, we drove down there.

It was such a blast to have them here. We have not been able to see each other much since high school, so it was so fun to spend some time together. They headed out this morning for the long haul home. They did promise to come back next summer, so I am going to hold them to that. Thanks so much for coming out, and I can't wait to have you back. This was so much fun.

Amanda's 17th Birthday

The hardest thing to do last week was to leave Amanda on her birthday. I did not even see her that day. I do not have a single picture of her with a cake. That is because we did not have time to eat the cake we made for her, so she took it to seminary, and they celebrated with her there. It was crazy the day before we left. I left the house at 7:30 in the morning, and did not walk back in until 9:30 that night, except to dash in and dash back out. I had to do something special for Amanda. So I made an appointment for her to get her hair done. She loved it, and it was so great to spend that time with her. Here are a few before and after photos.

Before

The process. Can you believe she let me take pictures of this?

After

A Perfect Anniversary

The best part of our trip, and the reason we went to Arizona was to be at my brother's wedding. He was married on my anniversary. I think he picked a great day. It has worked for James and I for 18 years. It is so great to see him married to a beautiful, sweet, good woman. They looked so happy. Get ready for a ton of photos of this day.

Craig & Jeanette

My Dad with all my sisters

Mom and her girls

Craig, with mom and all his sisters

My cute nephew London

My cute nieces Audra & Ivy

Fantastic wedding cake

This is my very talented sister Ellen. She made and decorated the cake.

I can not think of a better way to celebrate our marriage than to be at the marriage of my brother. It truly was a perfect day.

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

We got into Phoenix on Thursday morning. When I turned my phone on, there was a message from my sister Carolyn, saying, "we're having fun, where are you?" I was so excited to see them. We got our car and headed to Tucson. We met my sisters at Eegee's, which is one of my favorite places to eat in Arizona. To my surprise, there were four out of my five sisters. I was not expecting Christine to be there, so that was really great. We decided to get our nails done, so we dropped James off, because he didn't want his nails done, and headed off. Here are some pictures of the results.




It is hard to see in the picture, but we all got little flowers painted on our big toes. After our fun, we met up with the guys for some fantastic Mexican food. YUM!

Friday was every bit as fun. We headed to the beauty supply store to buy some fun hair products, then off to the mall. I got my eyebrows waxed. That was a first for me, but definitely not the last. Then back to Eegee's for more yummy food. Our day ended at The Gaslight Theatre, where we saw The Son of the Sheik. The show was fantastic. My favorite was the character called, Ali ur Booty who wanted to be Sheik ur Booty. Say that out load, and you get how funny it is. Every time he said he wanted to be Sheik ur Booty, he would start singing the song, Shake Your Booty. Seriously Funny. My sister told our waitress that is was our anniversary and we got a free hot fudge sunday with two spoons. I forgot my camera, so I do not have any fun pictures to show you.

Today is our anniversary. We have been married 18 years. Kerrie called us at 5:45 am to wish us a happy anniversary. This trip has been such a treat for us. We have not been away without the kids in 8 years. Thank you so much to the wonderful families that are taking such good care of our kids. Every time we talk to them, they sound so happy, and say they are having a good time.

Best of all, is today we get to be at my brother's wedding. I am so happy for him. I will get to see all 9 of my siblings today too, which is pretty rare to have us all together at the same time.

Sometimes You Just Need A List

This week is crazy busy. Well, I guess most weeks are around here. I have to get a lot done, in a little amount of time, so I am going to make a list to help me get going. Maybe I am unique in this, but when I have an overwhelming amount of work, it tends to just shut me down, which does nothing for getting things done. So, I am going to make a list in the hopes that I can see my way through all the work. One bite at a time right?

Day 1
Visiting teachers coming
Call vet to fax test results to dog kennel so the dogs can actually go there
Laundry
Packing
Clean floors in front room, hallway, breakfast nook & dining room
Get glasses fixed
Clean master bathroom
Family Home Evening (luckily Ashley asked if she could teach the lesson, so sweet, no prep time for me.)

Day 2
Three doctor/orthodontist appointments in the morning
Laundry
Packing
Clean floors in Family Room
Shopping for clothes for James (he would actually have a fit about this, but since he does not read my blog, and I pack for him, he won't know until we are on our trip. Sneaky?)
Viola lessons
Clean my bedroom
Help James get his grades done for his classes that are ending this week

Day 3
Take dogs to their new home for the next several days
Grocery shopping
delivery of above groceries to lovely friend who is watching four of my children
Last minute packing
Bake a birthday cake. (I pleaded with Amanda to just let me buy it, but nope, she wants homemade, and since I am actually not going to be there for her birthday, I really could not say no. Yes, she is milking my guilt for all it is worth.)
Another orthodontist appointment
Take Amanda to get her hair done
Prepare refreshments for joint young women meeting. (Not sure what I am going to serve. Any ideas for quick and yummy refreshments?)
Take kids to their new homes for the next several days, or as Kerrie puts it, give the kids away. (Seriously, we have both left them for two days in the whole of their entire lives. Maybe we should have done it more and they would be used to it.)

Day 4
More last minute packing
Take care of cats
Do the dishes
Take out all the trash

There you have it. It is amazing to me how much work goes into getting away for a few days. It should make the fun part of this so much sweeter, right? Let me just say that I am seriously questioning the decision to be a pet owner. Royal pain.

I must explain one thing about James' clothes. He wears nothing but button up "business shirts" well that is what I call them. They are not casual. He claims he must have shirts with pockets. Why, you ask? Well, he can't imagine a time when he would not need to carry around a pen and pencil in said pockets. Seriously, I think he would wear pocket protectors if he could, but he knows he would be severely mocked for geeky behavior by his family. The other thing he does, that I just don't get, is socks with sandals. I just have to take matters into my own hands. I asked him if he was planning on wearing the socks with his sandals on our trip. His kind of gave a non answer, but then told me the funniest thing. Apparently he has been wear his socks and sandals to work lately. His coworkers have been asking him if he has some weird foot fungus. He looked very perplexed with why they were asking him that. I think the socks will be mysteriously missing from his suitcase. What can I say, I just gotta love him, socks and all.

I feel better now and will go conquer my list.

Lots Going On

It seems like my life is crazy right now, so I hardly ever blog. It makes me a little sad, because I know I am not documenting these busy things, so I don't have a good record of the happenings.

It is mostly just my life, with a few special moments thrown in. Ashley had her final youth symphony concert of the season on Sunday. They performed Prelude to Die Meistersinger by Richard Wagner, and Symphony No.1 in D Major by Gustav Mahler. The symphony lasted over an hour. It was stunning to hear these young people play such difficult music.



It was a little bitter sweet because the principal chair violist is graduating, and Ashley is really going to miss her. Her name is Ashley also, which is very funny.



I tried to get my kids to cooperate with a photo, but of course they did not. Here is the best one I got, which is not great. Then one of Ashley's cute face that I just love.



Here is a little video from the concert, where the viola's take over.

Ashley's Sweet 16

Today is my darling Ashley's 16th birthday. I hope she had a good birthday. It started very early with a visit at 5:30 am to her choice of fast food restaurants for a quick breakfast. Then on to seminary. After school, she and I headed to JoAnn's to pick up a wooden treasure chest she wanted for her birthday. While there, we discovered a sale too good to pass up, so we picked out fabric for all of the girls for Capri's for girls camp. It will be a fun project for them to make their own clothes for camp. Then we headed to Daedalus, to pick up some books, which was the other thing she wanted for her birthday. We found some bonus books, because they had several on the history of Brooklyn and the New York tenements, which she needs for her research paper. We walked out of that store with 8 books for only $40. Pretty awesome. Then home for her choice of lasagna, then cake and ice cream. All in all a pretty fantastic day.

On another note, Ashley set a goal several months ago to finish her Young Womanhood Recognition before her birthday. Sunday morning, she finished reading the Book of Mormon, which was the last thing she had to do. Way to go Ashley. Her next goal is to get her learners permit.

Ashley is a joy to have in our family, and I am so grateful to have her as my daughter.

Oh Boy!

We have had lots of quadruple girl activities at our house. So, it was a rare occurrence when the girls meet their match. On Friday, was just such an event. We had two extra boys at our house. My boys were in absolute heaven. All four boys played for a couple of hours outside in the yard and on the trampoline. When I called them in for dinner, the smell of those boys was something to experience. What is it about boys, that has them bringing in the worst smells of the yard in with them? All the girls were complaining about having to sit next to a boy. Those boys were pretty proud of that.

When The Child Becomes The Parent

I have mentioned personal progress a lot lately. Well, it is a big part of our family life right now, with five of us doing the program. Ashley is trying to earn her Young Womanhood Award before her birthday, which is in a few weeks. She is very close. This week she is doing her project in Choice and Accountability. She and Amanda are working on this one together as they both needed a project. One of the suggestions was to look at use of media in the home, and come up with a plan to encourage family members to avoid hurtful, immoral, violent, etc. media. They decided we would have a week of no electronic media, aside from homework, work and journaling. They presented their ideas in family home evening on Monday. This is where the trouble began. Ashley takes this sort of thing very seriously, especially when she is teaching. She had planned a plethora of material. To make this story make sense you need to know that Nathan is off any medication for ADHD because his heart had a reaction to what he was taking. So, as you can imagine, he was not up for a long lesson. James and I have approached his antics with humor. We know he can't help it, so when he is yelling at the dinner table and doing a butt dance on his chair, we choose to laugh. It is pretty funny. Anyway, back to the story. About ten minutes into the lesson, Nathan's attention began to wander. He had a sock puppet on his hand and his puppet started doing puppet pushups along with him chanting over and over, "puppet pushups." James started laughing, well it was more of a giggle. I was trying very hard not to laugh, but then Ashley, very annoyed at this point, says, "dad, you giggle like a girl." I lost it. I wish I could adequately describe the looks both James and I were getting from our girl. It just made it harder to stop laughing. Tears were rolling down my face. At one point Ash said, "who are the parents in this room?" I tried to tell Ashley she may want to adjust her lesson to fit her students, and stop now. She was three paragraphs into a three page talk she was reading. She did not want to stop, and said it was a good article. I am sure it was, but none of us were listening at this point. She finally gave up and moved on to the plan she and Amanda had come up with. All the other kids were complaining about this plan. None of them wanted to do it. After pointed looks from me, they all agreed. At one point, Ashley looked at me and said something to the effect of, mom, you aren't going to watch tv after we go to bed or while we are at school are you?

As the week has gone on, Amanda and Ashley have been great in organizing things for everyone to do. They have been reading to their younger siblings, and playing games and playing outside. Ashley is loving it and says every week should be like this. It has been good so far, and our kids seem to be enjoying each other's company. We will see how we all feel later in the week. It sure has been fun to watch.

Man Hair

Nicolaas is growing so much. I think he is going to be a tall boy/man. I can't quite put him in the becoming a man category, but he is heading in that direction, whether I am ready for it or not.


Probably the most shocking is the beginnings of a mustache. At first I thought his upper lip was dirty. Upon further exploration and me trying to pull on the hair, sure enough it is the beginnings of facial hair for my boy. Nic was quick to put me in my place. He said, "hey, don't pull the man hair." That is now my favorite thing to tease him about. Bring on the man hair.

Easter Evolving

Gone are the days of believing children at my house. So, instead of buying 6 individual baskets, I opted for a family "basket" that looks suspiciously like a large tupperware bowl.



Everyone was very happy with this new basket, and I think we have a new tradition at our house. I got The Blind Side for the basket, and we enjoyed watching that as a family. What a great story.

Tonight we have activities at the church. To make it very fun, we decided to have a game night with goodies. I decided it would be really fun to try these super cute cupcakes. It was so fun to make and my kids all got involved and enjoyed the process. What was super fun was that I got everything on sale since Easter is over. I copied the idea from my very cute niece who made them for her young women. It was also the very first time that I actually made a cake from scratch and not from a mix. They turned out really yummy. If you want the recipe, go here.

A Work In Progress

Ashley is preparing a piece to play at the Tri-M Honor Society meeting in April. She doesn't think it sounds good, but to me it is wonderful. She wanted to make sure I told you it is a work in progress. I hope you enjoy. This is Suite I by J.S.

Just Had To Write About This

I am crazy busy all the time with family and young women stuff. I keep thinking I will get back with blogging then something comes up and I don't have time. I have not blogged about birthdays. Kerrie and Kelsie both have had birthdays. It is amazing to me because at this point, I have four teenage daughters in my home. Life is quite a ride. I will blog about their birthdays soon.

I just had to write about a funny, or I will forget it. Nathan came home from school today and told me he had learned a new song on the bus. Do you all remember the My Little Pony song? Well, he learned a slightly different version. Here is what he sang:

My little pony,
skinny and bony.
Farted on purpose,
and blew up the circus.

Then he described to me the bus ride home. Apparently half the bus was singing the above song, while the other half was singing the ABC song, and someone was trying to get them all to sing the wheels on the bus song. When I asked him if his bus driver laughed, he said, "no, she got mad and told us all to be quiet."

I Love Personal Progress!

I am pretty sure the personal progress program is the instigator of the lovely poem yesterday. The reason I think this is because this morning I got another one. I woke up to this poem taped to my tv.

You're the master of every task
You're a dependable source of comfort;
You're my cushion when I fall.
You help in times of trouble;
You support me whenever I call.

Ashley is working on an experience that has her recognizing the service of others in a meaningful way. I would say she has done a great job doing that. It is so much fun to be her Mom.

AWWWWWW!!!!

When I woke up this morning, a poem was stuck to my mirror. My kids had written it together. Here is the poem:

Super Mom
Mom, you're a wonderful mother,
So gentle, yet so strong.
The many ways you show you care
Always makes us feel we belong.
We love you.

I had a rotten day yesterday, and they were trying to help me feel better. This definitely did the trick. I have pretty terrific kids.

Dinner

We had a funny conversation on the way home from church. One of my kids asked what was for dinner. I said Chicken Crap. Then started some yippees and some noooooos. Kerrie said she liked chicken crap with out the chicken. Then Ashley said, "If you have chicken crap without chicken, wouldn't that just make it crap?" Kerrie was not amused, but I thought it was funny.

I was in a pretty silly mood coming home. We were listening to the youth cd from last year. There is one song on there that is called 'Until Then.' In my opinion, it is a rather corny song. It is a boy singing to his future wife. I grabbed a pen, and using it as a microphone started singing the song. I thought my kids were going to die. At least they were laughing at me. It is just a song that lends itself to all sorts of cheesy moves.

Great News!

This week has been full of good news. Today Amanda had an ortho appointment, and guess what? She will be braces free by this summer. This was such good news that I felt like jumping up and down. I didn't of course, as that would mortify my teenager. She has been in treatment since she was 9 years old. YIPPEE, 2 down, 4 to go.

The other news is actually better than the above news. I got a call from my mom telling me my brother is engaged. I actually did scream about this. He is such a terrific man, and he is marrying a wonderful woman. Although that is through the grapevine. I have never actually met her, but the rest of my family has nothing but wonderful things to say about her. This is such happy news, and I am so excited for my brother.

Hallelujah for Haiti

Kerrie had an assignment for her music class to find an original song, then two different versions. The performance by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris popped in my head. I knew it was used in Shrek, so there was another one. The trick was finding the original, but we did it. Leonard Cohen was the original artist. I thought I would put up the version done for the fund-raiser for Haiti, because I love it. Enjoy.

More Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!

Round two of this amazing winter blast hit on Tuesday night. We got 18 more inches of snow. I have never seen so much snow in all my life. There are whole cars in my neighborhood that are just huge piles of snow. That is a total of 51 inches in just under a week. Amazing. School and work have been canceled since Friday at around noon. We have just hibernated for the most part. We had to get out to buy milk because my kids consume it in amazing amounts. Especially when they are cold and making hot chocolate. I have purchased 22 gallons of milk in one week. That is insane. At least they are getting their calcium. We have been extremely blessed in that we are not dealing with power outages or a caved in roof. It has mostly been an adventure for our family.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The blizzard of 2010 has hit here in Maryland. It is odd, but every year is so different here. Sometimes we have a little bit of snow, and then every about 4-5 years we get a whopper. This year is a whopper. We have had a lot of snow, but nothing tops what started yesterday and is continuing now as I type. We are talking feet of snow. Yes, more than one. At least two at this point. Me, I do not like being cold so you will not find me out in it except to snap some pictures of the heaven my family believes the snow to be. They love it! They have been throwing snow balls, shoveling snow, and making forts. Even our dogs have gotten into it. Bongo was out digging in the snow all morning, and Meggie is so light she can run on top of the snow without sinking in. I hope you enjoy some pictures of the winter wonderland that is Maryland.