Medical Care on the Cheap

This:
Is supposed to be attached to Adrienne's arm.
Nathan took care of it while "helping" her to get in the car the other day.
I think when it slid off it scared him more than it did her.
And they were all scared of me when I came on the scene.
You know that "deer in the headlights" look they get when they are about to get in trouble?
There were four pairs of eyes looking at me as I climbed in the van with my previously lost keys in hand.

Nathan began by telling me he was trying to help, Kade was trying to stuff her hand back in it, and Annika was busy tattling.

I checked her hand and felt the area that was broken. The doctor told me he was just planning to push on it and move it around to make sure it was healed.

I can do that, right?

So I did. And it was.

And Nathan saved us another visit to the doctor.

Thanks... I guess.

The Choir?

Nathan rarely sings in Primary.
I can see his lips move when there are songs about melting snowmen, or sometimes "Scripture Power"-- when he can swing his scriptures around legitimately.
It drives me crazy, but I understand it is probably a "macho" thing.
That is why you can understand that my jaw dropped to the floor when he asked if he could join the school choir.
Really?
Whatever floats his boat.
(Sarcastic eye-rolling goes here).
I guess singing the Beatles is more fun than singing "Follow the Prophet".

The choir had a mini concert at a local grocery store as a fundraiser for the school. I missed it because I was at Kindergarten Roundup with my baby *sniff*.

Burke was superman and got home from work early, rounded up my other three, and took them up to the store. All the while remembering to grab the camera.

I got there just as the concert ended, but I did get to see the pride in Nathan's face.
It was almost as good.

A Birthday Gift

My mom and dad came to visit Nathan for his birthday. They brought him a gift that he could open and a gift that I don't think he realized was a gift.
His Great-grandpa came with them. And he brought his harmonica.We all had a little laugh about that.
Grandpa always finds an opportunity to play for whomever he can find.My kids loved it.
Great-grandpa loved it.
Annika is still talking about when she can get her first real harmonica.
I think the real gift is being able to appreciate family.
I am so blessed to still have all four of my grandparents. (Got some good genes there).

Nathan really enjoyed the gift he opened though. I have no idea how I have not gotten a picture of it yet because I believe that it was surgically attached to his hand as soon as he got it out of the package.
It was a nerf gun. And he loves it. It has been confiscated more than once for my other children's protection.
We are currently working on getting him to focus on target practice right now.
But it is so fun to shoot it at people.
I got Adrienne the other day when she was trying to sneak up on me.
And it was really fun.
Then she took it away.
Darn.
Guess I should be a better example.

Pretty Girls

I did this on the girls' hair Sunday for church. It turned out to be so cute, but didn't hold up very well. By the time they got home, the ribbons had moved around too much. I have a new plan to try to keep it in place, but I'll have to wait for a while to try it out because the girls weren't impressed with this 'do.
Here is my littlest munchkin's hair:

How about that cheesy smile? Love those girls.

Wanna Play Ball?

Nathan just celebrated his birthday with a fun family party.
I got an opportunity to have a one on one lunch with him since Adrienne was at preschool. I checked him out for the lunch period and we dined at McDonald's. It was fun to spend time with him alone.
We got some donuts for him to take as a class treat and he was the most popular guy around for the afternoon. That evening he got to open his gifts: new scouting items, and a basketball standard.
That was a big surprise.He was so excited, even though he had already unknowingly found it despite Burke's best effort to keep it hidden. Nathan hadn't realized what he found, thankfully. Maybe the best gift would be the two and a half hours Burke and I spent putting it together.Nathan used the new basketball Grandma W. gave him and would have spent all night out there if we hadn't made him come in for bed.

He didn't want a birthday cake, so we celebrated with birthday brownies. It was a nice afternoon spent with family. Happy Birthday to my first born son!
A Birthday Interview is upcoming...

Spring (?) Break

We spent spring break up in the mountains. It wasn't so spring-y, but it was a much-needed break.

The first challenge was getting into the cabin. This picture was taken with Nathan standing at the entrance to the driveway.
We decided to take our chances and try parking on the road. "The Man" left us a nasty note, but by then the neighbors took pity on us in our poor minivan and let us park in their plowed driveway.
Then we had to get all the stuff in our work-horse van into the cabin. It wasn't pretty, and involved some yelling and wet boys, but we finally got settled in and warmed up with some hot chocolate.
After that, the fun began. We played games, watched movies, and went tubing. We tubed and tubed and tubed.
The best part was there was a really long hill where we could drop off the kids and one adult and then meet them at the bottom. We loaded everyone and all the tubes up and drove around to the top to let them go down again. It was so much fun.
One morning we availed ourselves of the local Easter-egg hunt. It was a massive undertaking. There must have been a thousand kids in the events center. For us, it ended up being a moderate success.
Adrienne had a bit of a struggle to pick things up with her cast on, but I let her tough it out. There were many parents who got in there with the 4-5 year olds and grabbed candy, though.
It was a little ironic because the grumpy man who kept telling me to leave my 4 year old daughter there alone felt pretty dumb when I was the only parent who was actually waiting on the sidelines and letting my daughter get her own candy.
Annika seemed destined to "find" all the stupid scraps of paper the organizers spread out as advertisements for the sponsors. She mostly ended up with a bag full of papers. Nathan's bag mysteriously developed a hole in it, so as he was furiouly filling it, other (rotten) kids were coming behind him picking up the stuff he was dropping. The kids had fun though (except for a disappointed Nathan) so that is all that matters, right?

After the big hunt, we went to the city park to play fox and geese, a family tradition on my side. I was appalled that we had never taken the time to play it before. I got to teach the kids and Burke to play. It was hilarious. When Adrienne got tired of running around, she said that she wanted to play fox and squirrels and she was going to be the squirrel hiding in its burrow. She walked away and sat in the snow to rest. After the fun in the park we let the kids play on the playground for a while. We had it all to ourselves, since it was freezing. The kids didn't seem to mind, though.


We finished the afternoon with a stop at the famous local burger joint. I got a turkey sandwich (sigh) but treated myself to a nonfat yogurt shake with Oreos that I'm sure kept it nonfat(YUM).

That night it snowed. A lot.The kids decided to take advantage of the new snow and tubed down the driveway while Burke and I loaded up the van.
We were a little worried we would have to move in until Memorial Day, but our faithful minivan got us out and we headed home to check out the Easter baskets the Easter bunny had left us.
It was an amazing weekend and we had so much fun. Thanks for letting us use the cabin Grandma and Grandpa!

Birthdays

We celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was a nice evening full of family fun and a good meal that I didn't have to cook, although I did have to endure some singing after Annika let every person in the restaurant know that it was my birthday.
All of my children love to give gifts when there is a gift giving opportunity.

Adrienne gave me some of the crafts she has made in preschool, along with her favorite stuffed animal.

The older kids gave me some cards and breakfast in bed. It was thoughtful and appreciated.


I got a mirror from Burke for my bedroom. I have some plans for that room... But I think I will have to wait for a few more months for all my children to be in school.

Trust Me

I learned this morning how much my dad must have loved me even when I was a snotty teenager and he didn't have to.
But in a roundabout way.
We have been working on getting better at reading scriptures as a family lately.
Burke likes to do it in the evening before bed, but wonders why I have such a bad attitude about it then.
(I explained that after a full day of kids, bills, kids, making meals, kids, and shopping I am DONE and ready to fall into bed after we get the KIDS to bed).
We decided to try doing our reading in the morning.
Quite a commitment since Burke leaves for work before the sun rises. (In fact, Adrienne insists we are waking her up in the middle of the night because it is still dark.)
We have tried it all this week and found it to work out much better. They are a bit of a captive--if unconscious-- audience.
What does this all have to do with my dad?

Well, after we finished reading this morning and Burke was gone and we were all lying semi-conscious on the couch, the phone rang.
You NEVER want a phone call at 6:15 AM.
I flew to the handset and learned that Burke was stranded on the side of the freeway. (Remember that post with a 200,000 mile odometer? Yep, it was that car.)
I was to come and pick him up and tow him home in our other registered vehicle (the one with 155,000 miles. It came home from the shop Thursday.)
Grateful that all my children were at least partially awake, I issued instructions for them to be fully dressed, rooms cleaned, and getting their reading done while I was gone.

Then I ran out to the van to head to the rescue of my beloved...
And found an empty gas tank.
Like REALLY empty.
Sigh.
Stopped to get gas...
Then went to the rescue of my beloved.

I found a grumpy and frustrated Burke and a sad, broken-down, previously-faithful vehicle pulled off the road.
Burke hooked up the tow strap and we were just deciding who was going to be in which vehicle when the cavalry pulled up.
Highway Patrol.
With lights on.
AWESOME!
He offered to follow us and make sure we didn't cause any problems as we attempted to get to the next exit.
Gee, THANKS!

Anyway, it came to me to be the "driver" of the vehicle being towed.
A job I had done once before, as I nervously assured Burke this morning.
As a teenager.
My dad had come to the rescue of his stranded and clueless teen daughter.
He told me how to control the brakes and steering when "driving" an incapacitated vehicle as it is being towed.
That was many years ago.

As I climbed in the car this morning and Burke pulled away from the shoulder (with the HP trooper bringing up the rear), I distinctly thought to myself, "I CANNOT believe my dad trusted me to do this as a teenager. What was he thinking? I would never let Nathan do this. I know he would crash into the van. He wouldn't pay close enough attention to what he was supposed to be doing. I can't believe that I didn't crash."

Then I found myself wondering what would have happened if my dad hadn't trusted me, or loved me enough to let me try?

It was a bit of a wake up call for me (literally).
As I teach my chicks how to fly, I frequently find myself clipping their wings. I think of it as protecting them (and maybe my future vehicles ;). But is it really good for them to never make a mistake because they didn't get an opportunity to try in the first place?

Thanks to a loving, trusting father, I was armed with knowledge that I needed this morning at 6:30 AM.
Thanks dad!

Thanks to a loving Father in Heaven, we were able to make it to our driveway before the tow rope broke.
Yes, there was a little prayer of ironic gratitude uttered when Nathan steered the car into the garage as Burke and I pushed from behind.

Intellectual Fun

I just had so much fun Tuesday evening!

So fun!

I went to a political meeting where we discussed candidates for office. Both county races and state races.

Sound like fun?

It was!

I am a delegate to the convention coming up soon. Over the last two weeks I have been deluged with candidates giving me information via phone calls, mailings, and face to face meetings.

The delegates in my precinct met on Tuesday to discuss our opinions on candidates and issues.

It was so fun! (Did I already say that?)

I came home feeling energized, excited and empowered.

It was refreshing to see people who are informed and engaged in the process.

Although they probably should have been before now...

I was able to share the information I had gathered, and express my opinions and feelings about candidates.

We debated issues, and it was a great feeling to recognize that I actually have a lot of knowledge that is useful and thoughtful.

Sometimes it feels good to move out of "Mommy Mode" into something that engages my brain beyond fractions, phonics, and hairstyles.

When I came home from the meeting Tuesday, I was deluged with hugs, kisses, and "I missed you, you were taking sooo-ever!" That information is so fun too.

But...

I'm looking forward to the convention this weekend.

Burke will be home with the kids.

And hopefully the kids will recognize how important political involvement is. And how important it is to keep themselves intellectually engaged throughout life. And how important it is to seek out new experiences that challenge them and help them grow.

Randomness

How do you know spring is on the way? Surely not by checking the weather. Around our house, it is when the trampoline goes back up.
You may wonder why this photo is noteworthy... It is because the plate is Nathan's and he actually ate what was on it. Highly unusual for super picky Nathan to eat any sort of pasta. (He really wanted dessert). We had to record the event for posterity.

What do you do with all that Easter Chocolate?
Build a chocolate palace, of course! Mmmmmmm..... I wanna live there.

Yep, we're on borrowed time.
The other two have 155,000 (and in the shop right now) and 125,000 (currently unregisterable). Just hoping we can squeeze out another year.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to me.
It was a wonderful day of celebrating life.
I look at where I am at this point in my life and realize it isn't where I thought I would be.
But that's okay.
In some ways it is better.
In some, it could be better.
But I am grateful for what I have:
A loving and appreciative husband (who got me a gift I had asked for once, two weeks ago)
Children who are intelligent, sensitive, and loving
A (mostly) healthy and strong body
A home that is welcoming,
A car that starts when I want it to and (even better)--is paid for
A religion that gives me a strong foundation to build a family on

I'm loving life, even when it is not so lovable that is the best birthday gift.
Along with a family dinner I didn't have to cook.