Well, we have made it to the middle of May and I have high hopes that we will get through the rest of the month. It almost seems like a dirty trick that at the end of this whirlwind my world will turn upside down and I will have 4 companions all day, every day, and two teenagers trying to share 1 car as they work 4 jobs in between them, but that is my future so I will embrace it.
May 1st started with a bang. Tyler was hosting some clients and put in a couple of 14 hour days between the office, touring with clients, and a big kick-off event for work. In the meantime our neighbors were having their 3 large spruce trees cut down. Tyler is passionate about burying our garden under wood chips every year (it does have some great benefits). I had my own busy day and when Jacob got home from school and said that dad would want the chips from next door, I agreed but was too busy to do anything about it. Bless Jacob, the good son that he is, he went over to talk to the workers. They were thrilled to save money by dumping their chips at our house and were over in just minutes to drop off the first load. Jacob and Drew collected wheel barrows from neighbors and my four youngest and I headed outside to shovel and move a LOT of bark. It felt like we almost had half of it moved when he was back with more, so we took a break while he unloaded again. The pictures do not do it justice - this pile was so big.
We almost never buy soda, but Tyler and Drew both needed several 2 liter bottles for some activities, so we had some on hand. Every day the kids wanted to know if they could have soda and after they worked so hard on this afternoon I finally said yes, you can!!! They polished off one and a half bottles and some kids did more drinking than working, but it was a great team effort. I was really impressed with how hard Emmie and Camden worked. Camden had the best idea of the day, to put the wheelbarrows right up against the pile and just push the woodchips in (the top of the pile was several feet higher than the wheelbarrows). It saved us a lot of time and labor.
We worked hard for 2 hours and then I could hardly move anymore. We packed a dinner and left for Jacob's baseball game. I also reached out to some neighbor boys to see if they could come finish the job because I was out of juice and there was still quite the pile on our driveway. Three of them came over after the game and Jacob spent another hour and a half out there with them and cleaned up. He was so helpful and such a great motivating force to make all of that happen. He has a very happy dad, and while it was exhausting, it was fun to do something for my favorite Tyler.
Fast forward 3 days - Tyler went to pick up a really cute girl from Utah State. She is now a sophomore, but is deferring for two years to serve a mission. She is also still growing - we discovered this week that she is now taller than me. All those fries from Morty's must have helped!
After sniffling through the canyon, she fell asleep and remained that way for the drive home and through several parking lots while Tyler picked up some groceries. I welcomed her home, heard a few stories, threw a list of instructions at her, and then Tyler and I were off on our merry Christmas retreat that we gave ourselves (nothing like telling your girl welcome home, thanks and good luck running things for a few days with your 5 crazy siblings. I wanted to say good luck - this week I have already dealt with a terrible toilet back up, throw up, and two wet beds, never mind all the baseball practices and games, but I didn't - I just prayed hard that she wouldn't have to deal with it and she didn't).
She was actually a very fun sister. She and Emmie went to the pool one day, and they tried to go again with the boys on Saturday but it closed due to a storm. That didn't stop them - they just swam in our bathtub, instead.
She even did some cleaning while we were away!!
Having Callie home so far has been like having an extra me around now and again. I can be working on one thing and ask her to do another and it is wonderful!!! Callie has always been a great girl but she can home from college New and Improved and has been such a help to her mother.
This is what paradise looks like. I enjoyed looking at the bark of these palm trees all weekend. It is beautiful.
Paradise tastes like street tacos at Irmita's, Thai fusion at Benja's, Greek at Mad Pita, and some Mongolian Grill. Bliss.
The clouds were stunning.
This was just a picture that I had to take. It says vacation. He is the hardest worker I know and it put a smile on my face to see him get a break.
Callie's friend asked us the Monday after we got back if we did anything fun while we were away. I told him yes, we sat out at the pool, "Did you do anything else?" Maybe he will understand someday how blissful it is to be able to do absolutely nothing. Okay, not nothing - we read and napped by the pool, and every once in awhile we got in! We also tried out pickle ball, and that was really fun. I feel like someone finally dumbed down a sport enough that I can do well at it, except I didn't - Tyler still smoked me.
I don't know what it is about Sundays, but that is my children's favorite time to wrestle. These two!!
This girl, She and I are BFFs, but I rarely see her anymore. Between having a social life now, wrapping up a demanding school year, and working, she is often gone for 12 + hours a day. She deserved this nap!
We had a couple of days at home before Tyler started packing his bags again, this time to be on staff at Woodbadge. He was looking for a water bottle one evening and Hannah kindly said that he could borrow her cool copper bottle. Tyler took a taste out of it and said that it was super nasty. Then he poured the water out, and what did it look like?
Lime kool-aid. Except it wasn't. Then Hannah remembered that she had put a lime in there a couple of weeks ago and hadn't cleaned it out since. Oh, we laughed so hard. Not Tyler - he was feeling a little green. But Hannah and I had a good laugh.
For some reason, none of my kids were falling asleep before 10pm this week, regardless of when they were tucked. It caught up with one little girl that was rather cranky. I asked her to go to her room for awhile and found her a little later, sacked out. This never happens at my house, so you know that she was TIRED.
Camden perfected his bubble blowing skills.
More laughter on Friday, courtesy of Callie getting her wisdom teeth out. I always wondered why there are so many loopy videos out there, and now I know. Oral sedation can do a number on someone. Callie was still Callie - just a really funny version. In some ways it was like taking care of a toddler again.
It was no small feat to be the driver and caretaker and still try to get video footage for the rest of the family that didn't want to miss out, but I got enough to give us a good laugh.
She kept playing with her lips and tongue.
My favorite was driving her home in the car, gauze stuffed in her cheeks and barely able to keep her eyes open, but she was singing every word to every song that came up on the CD. Loved, It. She kept asking for Red Hot Chili Peppers, but alas, I didn't have any. As soon as we got home she picked up her phone and satisfied that desire. She also started snap-chatting until I caught on and took her phone away.
"Did I get blood on my favorite pillowcase?"
The dentist said that while you can buy a "jaw bra" online, an ace bandage would work just fine to hold the ice packs on.
Nothing says mother's day like having your husband unreachable by phone/text and nursing your girl who just had her wisdom teeth out, and I mean that sincerely.
It's what moms do. I got to clean up throw up, blood, help her to the bathroom, and spoon feed her about every 2 hours. She was a sweet, if forgetful, patient. The laughs now and again made it all worth it.
At one point she sat up, more lucid than before, and wanted me to fill in the blanks. "All I remember is taking some medicine..." I thought she was referring to 2 hours previously when I had given her some, so I said she had been sleeping. "No, I took some medicine, and we were watching Fixer Upper, and they were working on the Giraffe House." I thought she was delusional and frantically started taking notes so that I could remember the conversation.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Do you think I'm saying this just because I'm on drugs?"
"It really was called the Giraffe House."
And then she clarified that this all took place at the dentist's, and she didn't remember anything after that. But it still made for a funny conversation.
