Christmas Day

Christmas Day started with the boys upstairs stomping on the floor. They were not allowed to come down until Ben went up to get them, so we told them to stomp on the floor (right above our bedroom) when they woke up. But it had to be light outside!
They actually didn't wake up until 8:00 AM which was very decent of them. :-)
I was feeling horrible, but I parked myself on the couch and Ben brought the boys downstairs. I had thoughts of having a short devotional before the madness of presents, but I was barely holding it together, so I told Ben to just let them go for it.
So the hits?:
Schleich Castle-- I knew this would be a favorite. The boys have several Schleich knights they've been collecting over the past couple of years to go with it.
Leapfrog Talking Globe-- Ben wasn't so sure about this, and no one really got into it until the day after Christmas or so, but it's been sitting on our kitchen table getting played with many times a day. Ben and I have just as much fun with it as the boys. We're all going to be geography whizzes soon! The one we got is the same as the one I linked to, but we sure didn't pay that much for it!!!
Haba Blocks-- We seriously have SO MANY blocks. But they get played with every single day. This was Brigham's favorite gift (no surprise there).
Watch-- Joseph got a $10 watch in his stocking, and that has ended up being by far his favorite gift. Go figure. :-)
Webkinz-- We have a lot of these, too, but Mosey LOVES them and they do get played with all the time. And all the boys can navigate and play on Webkinz World all by themselves now! (yay!)
DVDs: Scooby Doo, Blue Planet, Harry Potter, Evan Almighty, Polar Express. We've been watching them all.
Legos: I don't need to say any more about these!
K'nex: Ditto! Our relatives know my boys very well.
Transformers (thanks Naomi and Dave-- now, Dave, do you think you can come to our house and tutor the boys on how to get them back into their original positions? I'm seriously not smart enough...)
Ben got me a new set of pots and pans. We just threw away all our old ones. :-) We never had any good pots and pans to begin with-- just cheapo ones we bought at Walmart when we were first married 12 years ago, plus an assortment of Goodwill pans. They were all just awful. I love the new ones. He also got me a car battery charger. Romantic, huh? :-) Actually, I requested and love both of those gifts, they're exactly up my alley. The boys gave me slippers, scrapbook paper, and jewelry cleaner.
I wasn't very creative with Ben this year. He wanted a leather computer case. The boys and I searched diligently but never found anything even close to what he wanted. Ben finally found one he liked and so he just bought it himself. And he bought himself some clothes. I'm the most unromantic one of all! But at least I wrapped them! :-) The boys gave him a ceramic bread pan, flour, and cologne (it was so much fun shopping for cologne with them-- watching them smelling each one and discussing what they thought Ben would like).
Joseph got Brigham and Mosey each a Webkinz.
Brigham got Joseph and Mosey these helicopter spinner thingies and these cool and gross squeezable brain ball things. I can't explain!
Mosey got Joseph and Brigham plastic soldier-type figures (actually policemen and firemen he is quick to point out), plus a blanket for Joseph and The Polar Express movie for Brigham (with mom's help).
So, needless to say, we certainly did our part in stimulating the U.S. economy this Christmas season. :-)
The boys played and ate Lucky Charms and Christmas candy all day. No one changed out of their PJ's. The boys built a great big block and castle city around the Christmas tree, making it pretty much impossible for me to get around in my wheelchair. Which was ok since I stayed in my room trying to sleep as much as possible. The only thing that has any effect in getting me to stop throwing up is to sleep.
We didn't do our Shepherd's dinner because I was too sick.
Anyway, it was a very fun day! I wish I had taken more pictures! It was pretty much all I could do just to keep it together laying on the couch, though. I did take a few in the evening when I was feeling a little more human.


Oops, I guess Mosey did change out of his PJ's into one of his sweaters he got. Here he is playing with his Transformer and eating cinnamon toast and Lucky Charms.



Mosey helping put together the Schleich castle.



Joseph got all of our knights and set up a whole siege scene. After I took this picture, he took my camera and took about 50 more pictures detailing every part.



Joseph playing with Transformers and sporting his new watch which he hasn't taken off for 6 days now. He was thrilled that I was taking his picture.



Brigham beginning what ends up being a gigantic block city with train tracks running through and around it all.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve dawned bright and COLD!! A cold front blew down from somewhere. I heard the wind howling all the night before as it always does when a change in the weather comes our way.
Ben took the boys shopping for moi in the morning. Then in the early afternoon Ben and I went to Walmart for stocking stuffers and last-minute things. Wow, Walmart was busy! It was fun to be together and wander the aisles. As convenient as it was sitting in Ben's office leaning over his laptop perusing amazon.com, it's just fun to be together, discussing each boy and deciding what they would like best. When we came out of Walmart, it was actually snowing!! Really just a few flakes floating around, but boy was it cold.
When we got home, it was later in the afternoon, and time to go shopping for our Shepherd's dinner! Every year for Christmas dinner, we have a shepherd's dinner. We have food the shepherds might have eaten 2,000 years ago. We spread blankets out on the floor and turn off the lights and eat by the light of the fire. It's a tradition from my childhood, and one of my most favorite parts of Christmas. Plus it really beats slaving over a stove for all of Christmas afternoon.
We bought dried fruit, nuts, flat bread (the Naan bread at our HEB is really good), juice (in lieu of wine-- the boys each got to choose their favorite kind), cheese, hummus, and this year we bought some lamb. Did shepherds eat lamb? It seems a little weird for shepherds to eat lamb, but it probably was a pretty common source of meat. Usually I will roast a chicken, but we decided to mix it up a bit this year.
Once home again, I locked myself in my bedroom to wrap presents while Ben made dinner. Almost all of our packages from Amazon came in time for Christmas! Only 2 things didn't make it, but they were minor little toys, anyway. It was ridiculous the amount of packaging we piled up, though. Amazon.com has its "ship these items faster" option where each item is shipped separately as it becomes available. So we had a LOT of boxes.
After dinner it was time for our Christmas Eve program. When I was growing up, our Christmas Eve program was a very big deal. The oldest child at home was responsible for organizing it, and it was always a surprise for our parents. We had "Sunday club" starting right after Thanksgiving in which we would plan the program, choose, write, and practice our Christmas play, and otherwise plot and plan away from the watchful eyes of or parents. In my family growing up, we had the numbers and demographics to really put on a great Christmas program. My little family is different, and they weren't really ready to plan their own program. In fact, Ben has always resisted a tiny bit against having a formal, scheduled Christmas Eve program. But I think he's starting to see the light. :-)
We started off singing some Christmas carols, and then Ben graced us with "Silent Night" on the violin. He played violin for a year in 1st grade. But what he lacks in technique and tone, he makes up for in enthusiasm!

Joseph played a carol on the piano.

Then Mosey and Brigham and I sang "Away in a Manger."
Mosey read "This is the Stable."


Then Brigham accompanied us in a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells."

My mom sent us these cute nativity hand puppets, so instead of a traditional nativity play, we had a nativity puppet show while I read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke.
After that we had our annual Christmas Eve dance party! Fun times.


(if you fast forward to about 2:30 you'll see our cat who thinks we are all totally crazy)


Then it was time for the opening of the first Christmas present (a stuffed animal for each boy to help them sleep), and then bed. We gave each boy a Benadryl tablet to help them sleep. Isn't that terrible? But they did actually fall asleep!

Then Ben and I went to work finishing the wrapping and staging of the living room.
I started feeling not-so-great as the evening went on, and by 10:00 or so I knew I had Mosey's stomach bug. Ugh. At least we were able to finish all our Christmas Eve festivities.

The Days Before Christmas

The past week and a half or so have been sooo busy, I have had no time for journaling at all. So it's time to make up for it a bit.
On Thursday the 17th, I realized that Ben and I were not going to have any time for Christmas shopping. Sad, but true. December has been crazy busy! So Thursday night I stayed up until 2:00 AM or so, putting everything I was thinking about into my Amazon.com wishlist. Friday morning I drove down to Ben's work for my H1N1 vaccine, and afterward Ben and I collaborated in his office and decided on our final purchases. Whew! All done!! Wow, I adore online shopping. Plus you can see all the reviews for different items on Amazon.com.
Last week I put the boys in a gymnastics camp Mon.-Wed. from 9:00-2:00 every day. It was a Christmas present to myself. :-) There were some things I HAD to get done, and I needed the boys away. It was glorious to have the peace and quiet. I adore my boys, but with homeschooling, I don't exactly get much time to myself. :-)
Monday I got all my Christmas cards stuffed, stamped, and in the mail!
On the way home from picking up the boys, I got pulled over. :-( I haven't been pulled over in... almost 8 years! The officer came to the window and asked if I knew why I got pulled over. I said, "I think because I stopped over the line at the stop sign back there?" He said, "No, your driving was perfect. But your inspection sticker is expired!" Yep, it expired back in August. Oops. He was nice, though, and let me off with a warning. The boys and I went straight to a Pep Boys and got that inspection done! I'm good for another year.
Then we went to the mall to try to find some presents for Ben. He ended up meeting us there for dinner at the food court, and he took the boys into some cheap toy stores to buy presents for each other, and I was able to take the boys to get presents for him. Mission accomplished! I don't love the mall.
Joseph and Mosey were being stinkers about going back to the gymnastics camp the next day. "I'm not going!" "You can't make me!" Etc. I said, "You're right, I can't make you. But you know what I can do? I can take all the Christmas presents we've been getting right back to the store!"
They are not used to being in big groups of kids, and there were a few things that really rubbed them the wrong way about the camp. When I came to get them, Joseph saw me and ran out to get in the car. Then the director called him in and told him something. Joseph came back out in tears and said I had to park and come in and sign them out. I should have known they would need me to do that. So I parked and got myself in with my crutches and signed them out. Joseph and Mosey were both upset by this and didn't understand why they couldn't just come out the car. I told them they had to make sure the kids don't go with the wrong person, and that I would have been upset if they hadn't made me sign them out! (Not really true, but I was certainly going to side with the gymnastics place on this one!) Also, they all had to get in a line and go to the bathroom, whether they needed to or not. I know, the horror, right?! I talked to them about how these are how things have to be done with big groups of kids, and if they were in public school, they'd be ordered around all the time! :-) Anyway, Joseph came around and said, "Ok, I guess I'll go tomorrow and Wednesday, but I'm NOT going after that!" Fine with me, since I didn't sign them up beyond Wednesday! :-) But he got to keep face, and that's important.
Tuesday after I dropped them off, I came home and worked on a big project. The twins both have scrap books of their first (and second) year. I had started Mosey's using a computer scrapbooking program, but never finished it or printed it out. I was determined to finish it and print it out and give it to him for Christmas.
When I picked up the boys, they told me they had a great time, and they wanted to go again! And maybe even go next week! Wow, what a difference an attitude change makes. In the morning I walked them in, and the lady at the front desk was very apologetic about the day before. I guess she felt bad when I came hobbling in on my crutches. She said she'd bring the sign-out book out to my car next time. Sometimes I feel a little guilty about taking special privileges because of my disability. But usually not. :-)
Tuesday afternoon and evening was spent making pints and pints (and pints) of homemade applesauce for Christmas treats. My friend Traci and her son Joseph came over and we had a good time. A good, sticky time. :-)
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Mosey woke up vomiting. Oh, great. Ben was my hero and took care of him all that night while he threw up every 30 minutes. I took Joseph and Brigham to gymnastics in the morning, and Mosey pretty much slept all day. Ben stayed home to work. I got Mosey's scrapbook finished.
And that brings me up to Christmas Eve! Which will be another post.

If you have to get sick...

Christmas day isn't a bad day to choose.
On Tuesday night, Mosey started throwing up and he was sick all day Wednesday. Last night after we got the boys down, I started feeling it, too. Happily, Ben and I finished all the wrapping and preparations before the worst of the sickness hit. I dragged myself out of bed this morning (the boys slept in until *8:00*!!!) and lay on the couch to observe all the Christmas present-opening festivities, and then hit the hay for another 5 hours. I'm currently feeling *okay* after not eating anything for about 22 hours. I hope I'm the last one to get it.
Merry Christmas everyone!

It's the tree that does it

The boys have been looking forward to Christmas, but I haven't seen a lot of the super-excited silliness that I remember from being that age. I was worried we'd somehow lost the magic. But this afternoon we finally got around to buying our Christmas tree, and ever since then, it's like the Christmas light got turned on inside each of them.
When we got home from the ward party tonight, they all 3 ordered Ben and I into our bedroom because they "needed to have a secret Christmas meeting" in the kitchen. So cute!!
They're getting excited about buying each other presents, which also makes me very glad.
Ben is at the store buying more Christmas lights (we wrapped our lights up veeerrrry carefully last year in plastic, and STILL, after sitting in the box for a year, 3 of the strands don't work anymore. Why is that?! Anyway, tomorrow after church we'll decorate the tree and make our gingerbread house.
Only 5 more days!!


Here are some recent pictures.

Last Wednesday as I was driving the boys home from art, the clouds in the sky were so unusual. You can't see as well in the picture, but it looked exactly like the surface of a wavy ocean, but inverted. The clouds were in this really unusual undulating pattern. Yes, I took a picture as I was driving down the freeway. But as you can see, there really wasn't anyone else on the road!




Being down South, we don't get the beautiful changing leaves on the trees like other places. Heck, more than half of the trees here won't even lose their leaves! But there are a bunch of these particular trees here and there in Austin, and they are really breathtaking. Every time we pass one, the boys want me to take a picture, so on Thursday, I did! I don't know what kind of trees they are, but they sure are pretty.

A Christmas Carol

We took the boys to see A Christmas Carol tonight (the 3D Disney movie). It was sooooo good!
Audible.com offered a free download of the original Charles Dickens version, and we finished listening to it about an hour before the movie started. I was really impressed because nearly all the dialogue in the movie was word-for-word from the book.
3-D animation is getting so good. This was the first CGI movie I've seen in which the characters were rendered in a realistic way. It was really incredible. And I love the 3D. It's cool to be in the middle of a big change like this-- kind of like when movies went from silent to sound, or from black and white to color. 2D to 3D is the same.
Go see it if you haven't yet!

shopping...

This month has just flown by. Ben and I haven't had a moment to go Christmas shopping together, and I'm not sure when we will! We've had things going on every weekend since Thanksgiving. Ben was gone to Utah all last weekend. Tomorrow night I'd like to go get a Christmas tree (yeah, we haven't had a moment to do that either), Saturday night is the ward Christmas party for which I've been recruited to help. Week nights are too hard-- Ben doesn't get home till 6:45 or 7:00, and the boys have to get to bed and there's always so many things I need to finish up with at night.
So tonight I got on Amazon.com and I now have $690 worth of things in my shopping cart. I'm not buying them all!!! I basically just put in everything I was thinking about, and hopefully tomorrow during the day Ben can look at it all and we can collaborate and get things ordered. I don't think there's really going to be any time at all for us to go to actual stores before Christmas, so this will have to do.
I love Christmas time. I haven't really been stressed, just extremely busy! I wish I could somehow squeeze in another 2 weeks before Christmas. How can it really be in just one week?? Too bad the boys aren't a little younger. I might try to con them into thinking Christmas is really on the 31st. :-)

worried

Brigham went to play at a little neighbor boy's house tonight while I took Mosey to speech therapy. When I picked him up, he told me that he told J about our church. I was a little surprise and asked him more about his conversation. I'm a bit worried about how he came across. Brigham can be a little zealous in his 8-year-old way. We were reading about the "great and abominable church" in our scripture study this week and when I asked him what he thought that church represented, he was quick to say, "all other churches except ours!" Which led to a (I hope) productive discussion on exactly what the great and abominable church is *not*. (i.e. NOT other churches, but instead people and institutions that do not care about God's laws and think that trying to be good is silly.)
He said that he told J that he really needed to go to church and that after he died he would be really embarrassed when he realized that what Brigham had been telling him was right. **Cringe**.
Anyway, I tried to strike a balance between praising Brigham for being a missionary, and also gently giving him some pointers on how to talk to other people about religion.
I sent this email to J's mom, hoping to calm any ruffled feathers that might have occurred. From what Brigham told me that J said, they do not go to church, but they read Bible stories as a family.
Hi M,
Thanks for having Brigham over tonight, he had a good time.
He told me he and J were having a conversation about religion while he was at your house. Brigham tries very hard to be a good boy, and is definitely my most devout child. :-) He's never brought up such topics with other friends, so I was a little surprised to hear what they were talking about.
We have a religious home and so we frequently speak of religious things. I'm not sure how he came across to J, but I know that Brigham can be a little intense about many things, whether about Harry Potter, or multiplication, or God. :-)
It sounded like their conversation was very interesting-- what do angels look like, where is Heaven, what do you do there. I was entertained to hear what some of his answers were. They were not 100% representative of LDS church doctrine. :-)
But I really hope he was not inappropriate and that he did not offend J. I told Brigham tonight that the most important thing to keep in mind when talking to other people about God is to be very sensitive and not say anything that might make the other person feel bad or sad because the thing God wants more than anything else is for all of us to be kind and loving to each other. I told him that he should remember that any time he talks to anyone else about God, his goal should be to make the other person feel good so that he'll want to talk about God again! Brigham said, "I don't really think J will want to talk about it anymore," so again, I'm hoping he wasn't too inappropriate.
Anyway, I hope you understand! Brigham likes playing with J and I will remind him to cool it on the God talk a little in the future.

Was that ok? Too much? Not enough? I would feel terrible if this ends up alienating their family...

reerrereererererererererererererererererererereeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeerrrrrererererererer

Singles wards

I went to the Austin singles' ward this afternoon to play a duet with a friend of mine for their Sacrament Meeting Christmas program.
It is a very talented ward!! Several very good pianists, lots of really good vocalists, an amazing violinist, a beautiful oboist... Really, the talent was extraordinary. Is it just a Mormon thing? If we got another randomly selected group of 20-30 year olds, would there be as much talent?
I was thinking the whole time how glad I am not to be in singles' ward. I was able to really enjoy the beauty and spirit of the program today. I was able to appreciate the talents of others without feeling envious or self-critical. However, had I been one of the single girls in the audience today, I know what I would have been thinking about.
"That girl is more talented than I am."
"She's skinny AND has a good voice."
"Why don't I practice so I can be as good as she is?"
Etc., etc.
I hope the young women in that ward are not as insecure or prone to comparison as I was.
I hope everyone there was able to feel the spirit and enjoy the talents of other people without descending into that dark place of comparison and self-doubt. I hope they're all way more mature than I was. :-)

So yay for not being single! :-)

Let it snow!!

We had a crazy couple of days of weather here in Austin. A cold front blew down Thursday night and Friday it was literally freezing! The forecast even called for some snow flurries. So Friday morning the boys got up and dressed for the day. All the boys put on 2 pairs of pants, Joseph had on 2 of his shirts, one long-sleeved shirt of Ben's and a thick jacket. Brigham had a ski cap on, and all the boys got bandanas/dishtowels for me to tie over their nose and mouth to protect from frostbite. :-) They were so funny.

There was no snow in the morning and I didn't think we'd see any, but sure enough, a few flakes started to fall around lunchtime. I knew there was no point in trying to continue lessons when snowflakes were falling, so I told the boys to go on out. By that time they had shed some of the winter gear they had been wearing, but that didn't stop them from running outside and enjoying the "snowstorm" for the 20 minutes or so that it lasted. Joseph even gathered enough snow from our trampoline to make one whole snowball! :-)
I know the snow is hard to see. But look reeeally hard, it's there! It was a veritable blizzard for Austin! :-)
Thank goodness it warmed up again today. I'm just not a snow girl...

sick day for mom = fun day for kids

We've been passing around a stomach bug around here. Brigham and Moses had it on Sunday, Joseph had it on Monday, and I woke up with it early this morning. Nothing serious, just a serious case of the queasies. No one lost their lunch.
But I am also fighting off a cold, and between the two viruses, I was down and out for most of the day. Which meant no lessons for the boys. Except for piano practicing. That is non-negotiable.
And still, Joseph had the NERVE to say tonight, just before bed, "I didn't have any time to do anything fun today!"
Yeah. Take a look at the playroom right now and you'll see what a big fat fib that is! :-)
I'm feeling better now, though, so tomorrow we pick up that ball again.

I'm working my way through our Thanksgiving pictures.


Here's Miles eating a snack on the riverboat. I love this kid so much.



Mosey and Mara sharing a joke. Aren't her little braids cute?



Another one of smiley Miley. He got this soccer ball and spent about 5 minutes trying to stand up with it. He finally did, then plopped back down, lifted it up, and tried to eat it. Rosalynde and I cracked up, thinking about what must be going through his little mind: "Hmm, maybe I can fit this in my mouth if I try reeeeal hard!"



The two brothers, Jack and Miles. These two look the most alike of Rosalynde's four kids.



Rosalynde's oldest, Elena. She has the most beautiful blue eyes, the exact shade as her shirt. She is so affectionate and volunteered to come to our house as a stand-in-daughter so I could practice my french-braiding.

No solo picture of Mara, she's at that intensely-allergic-to-cameras stage. I took a few family pictures, and when those were done, she was D-O-N-E.

Thanksgiving recap and back to the grindstone

Well, I kind of failed in my NaBloPoMo attempt at a blog-post-a-day, but I got close! Yesterday we left our hotel first thing in the morning, but didn't get home until after midnight, so I had no chance!
We are home from our quick trip to St. Louis.
It was awesome seeing Rosalynde and John and their kids. All the cousins played together well. Going swimming at our hotel was a particular hit. Elena cried when she had to say goodbye on Saturday night, so I guess that meant she had a good time.
Wednesday was spent driving.
Thursday was Thanksgiving.
On Friday we met Rosalynde and her kids at the Magic House, which was every bit as magical as the first time. I wish we had one of those in Austin! We ate dinner at Steak and Shake, played at Rosalynde's for a while, and then took the kids to swim at our hotel.
Saturday morning Rosalynde and I took the kids to a holiday play put on by a children's theater group. It was extremely cheesy, but cute and the kids really liked it. They had all the kids participating. At one point, all the kids went up on stage to sing Jingle Bells. Everyone except Joseph. He doesn't get into performances at all. Sigh... I wish he would just give it a try! Anyway, Elena was the star of Jingle Bells (she is the exact opposite of Joseph and is a natural performer). Later on, Brigham went up to help turn the key in a toy soldier, and then went along with the little dance afterward. I was so impressed with him! He was very serious and watched the other actors to get the dance just right. Go Brigham! I so wished I had my camera with me. I debated bringing it, but decided to leave it in the car at the last minute. Mistake!!!! It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for him. I'll just have to try to remember it.
After the play we drove downtown and took the Tom Sawyer riverboat out on the Mississippi River for an hour cruise which was pretty fun and interesting. Although we parked in the MOST handicapped inaccessible place that we possibly could have. Ben ended up carrying me down about 100 stairs, with John toting the wheelchair behind us. Oh well.
I took pictures of Rosalynde's family after we got back, and then had a Thanksgiving-leftovers dinner and another swim session at the hotel.
Yesterday we headed back, after a brief detour back to Rosalynde's house to claim a missing jacket. Ben was not in favor of going back to get it, thinking the cost of the Walmart jacket wasn't worth the added time to our trip. He said it would be more than an hour before we passed our hotel again heading back down the freeway. It was actually about 18 minutes. So there! :-) Shorter than it would have been to drive to Walmart to buy a new jacket.
The drive back was loooong. We drove through a lot of rain, and then made a poor decision in getting off the turnpike too soon. And then when we got through Dallas we hit traffic. Bad traffic until nearly Waco! It took us almost 3 hours just to get from south of Dallas to 10-15 miles north of Waco. It was a bad combination of freeways merging, and 2 disabled vehicles several miles apart.
We also passed a record number of highway patrol cars up to St. Louis and back. We decided to count them on the way back. We passed 21!!! And that is not counting the several additional cop cars helping with the 3 accidents we passed. But we did not get pulled over. All the cop cars certainly did the job in keeping us from speeding, that's for sure.
Now we're home. The dog is happy to see us. The fish are alive. Spots is back home.
Joseph isn't feeling too well, I haven't unpacked much of anything, and all-in-all it is a bit of a let-down to have to plunge back into real life.

Thanksgiving snaps

Rosalynde made this pretty fall window hanging in her front room. The leaves are cut out of corn husks and dyed red. She is so creative!



Ben goes nowhere with his little laptop. I think John has a little laptop envy. :-)



The cook and hostess extraordinaire. Thank you for EVERYTHING, Rosalynde!



I caught John by surprise, dishing up the mashed potatoes. Thank you, too!!



Mosey is thankful for Orange Crush this Thanksgiving.



And Miley is thankful for his bobby. He is the cutest 9 month old EVER!!



I am thankful for the end of No-Sugar-November. We had apple pie, sweet potato pie, and pumpkin pie. Yes, I had all three.



Joseph is thankful for whipped cream.



Ben is thankful for 3 silly boys. And so am I.

We leave for home tomorrow morning. The holiday went by way too fast, as usual.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brigham (and the rest of us) had an awesome Thanksgiving! We hope you did too!

Backseat boys (All right!)

We drove from Austin to St. Louis to be with my sister's family for Thanksgiving. We love road trips! We listened to (almost all of) The Hunger Games on the way up. Intense.

Smart alec

Joseph got his daddy's smart alec tendencies.
He was typing his science report yesterday morning and I came to check up on him. Here's what I saw:

Egg Membrane Experiment

Purpose:
To see if the membrane of an egg is permeable to water.
Method:
1. We measured the whatever it was 67m. so now we can do the experiment so we put the blue mixture into water and it blew up the house and the house blowing up killed mom isn't that awesome? Well me Brigham and Mosey ran out of the house just in time and we jumped on are bikes and ran away.

Hmmm... I'm just a little offended that he thought it was awesome that I got killed by the exploding blue mixture!

Because our lives are not *quite* busy enough...

Yesterday right after Sacrament meeting, one of our high councilmen came and nabbed Ben, telling him he needed to talk with him for a few minutes, and then with me. We knew what that meant-- a new calling!
Ben's been the primary pianist for the past year, and was a primary teacher for 2 years before that. 3 years is pretty long to be in the primary!
He has been called to be the 2nd counselor in the Elders quorum, which makes our respective callings nicely symmetrical. It's funny because the R.S. 1st couselor's husband is also the Elders Quorum 1st counselor!
So we'll be juggling meeting schedules, that's for sure. At least our R.S. and E.Q. presidency meetings won't be double-booked, with 2 sets of spouses in each! But I do think it means that we'll pretty much never have Sunday evenings with both of us at home, and that probably 3 weeks out of the month we'll be taking separate cars.
Ben's already talking about buying a small trailer to help with all the moves that are inevitably in his future. :-)
I'm excited for him, though. It will be great for him to be able to interact with adults for a change. And I think he'll do a great job.

Weekend warrior

We're trying (not entirely successfully) to get ready for our trip to St. Louis this coming week. This involves laundry, straightening up the house, and cleaning up the back yard. Yesterday I put the boys to work attacking the back yard. It was pretty bad.
Anyway, Brigham needed to dress appropriately for the job, and this is what he came up with. Pretty good, huh?
I wonder if I would be a better housekeeper if I bought a maid's uniform to work in every once in a while? :-)

painting faces and throwing punches

I got another email today from a prospective HALT-MS trial candidate, also fighting insurance. It's really good to be able to be in contact with other people in this clinical trial. I wish that there was a way for all the past, current, and future patients to get in contact with each other. We need to start a stem cell transplant multiple sclerosis support group! It's funny, 16 months out, I'm starting to feel like a veteran!

I have to write about something that happened with Mosey a few weeks ago. It was during his 2nd to last soccer game, during the few minutes of practice that they do before the game. There was another boy on his team, "Miguel" who was quite a handful. Very energetic, shall we say. I was watching from the sideline and see Mosey and Miguel start getting into an argument.
Miguel: "Yes!"
Mosey: "No!"
Miguel: "Yes!"
Mosey: "No!"
Miguel: "Yes!"
Mosey: "No!"
Miguel: "Yes!"
Mosey: "No!"
Miguel: "Yes!"
Mosey: "No!"
Miguel: "Yes!"
Mosey: "No!"
Miguel: "Yes!"
Mosey: "No!"
At first I thought they were just playing, because it was so ridiculous. But then Miguel got right up into Mosey's face and yelled, "AAAAAAHHHH!!" And what did Mosey do? Exactly what he has been trained to do as the youngest of 3 brothers-- he punched him. He punched him in the chest, so it could have been worse (visions of black eyes, bloody noses, and split lips flashed before my eyes), but I was horrified. Miguel started crying and ran to his mom. I yelled at Mosey to get off the field. He came to me, almost in tears himself. He began, "Mom, he was yelling at me and--" but I cut him off and said, "I know, Mosey, I know, I saw him. But it doesn't matter that he was yelling, you NEVER hit another person, no matter what they say to you! It's never ok to hit like that!" We had a quick, extremely serious talk and I told him he had to go over and apologize to Miguel or he wouldn't be allowed to play. Mosey was good and walked over there with his head down and said, "I'm sorry for hitting you," and then ran back.
Afterward, I asked what they had been fighting about. I didn't ask him right away, because I didn't want him to get the idea that it *mattered* what they had been fighting about. Mosey said, "He said that after the game he was going to come and paint my face!!"
Ha! Can you believe it? I had to try not to laugh. I told Mosey that he needed to stop and think about things before getting into an argument. Was there any way that Miguel could paint his face? Would Miguel's mom let him? Would I let someone do that to Mosey? If not, then the best thing to do would have been to ignore him and walk away.
Mosey was pretty upset and defensive for the next few minutes, and almost got into another altercation. A few of the kids on his team were running around and "tagging" each other. Another little boy ran up behind Mosey and "tagged" him, and Mosey whirled around and I was very worried he was going to attack again! But he got control of himself and didn't do it. Good boy.
It's always interesting to me to see how differently my boys react in certain situations compared to how I would have acted. When I was 5, if another little girl had come up and started yelling at me like that, I would have started crying and run away, not hit her! Still, I don't want to entirely squash any instinct that Mosey has to protect himself. If Miguel had started hitting Mosey, I would have been ok with Mosey throwing a punch as well.

Duel of the Turner boys

This is what the boys did today on a gloomy drizzly gray November afternoon. Looks like fun, huh?
My boys really want it to be fall. And it has been a little cool the past few days, so the boys excitedly pulled out sweaters and jackets. But don't let that fool you-- look at Mosey's bare feet! This is one of the reasons I love Austin.
Sometimes I'm just amazed at how *boy like* my boys are! :-)

Favorite

My brilliant boy Brigham is a very... creative speller. He's been working on the word "favorite." He missed it a couple of days in a row, and so he tried hard to memorize the way it looks like it ought to be pronounced. So yesterday on his 3rd attempt with this spelling word, here's what he came up with:
faverright
That's just awesome, I say! Brigham is nothing if not creative.
He did get it right today, and I daresay he will never forget how to spell favorite again. :-)

Rope Swing

Mosey is a lot like Joseph. I think that he and Joseph may be more alike in personality (and certainly appearance) than Joseph and Brigham! (A fact that does not go unnoticed by Brigham, who tells me sometimes he feels left out. This is why I always thought that an ideal family size would be 4 or more children. 1 is lonely, 2 will fight, with 3 one will be left out, but with 4, everyone will probably have an ally.)
Anyway, one of the ways in which Mosey and Joseph are alike is their mutual obsession with the rope swing. I believe we are on swing #3 in that tree in the back yard. My boys swing on it until the plastic literally falls apart. If I can't find Joseph or Moses, 90% of the time I just need to look out the back door and there he is. Brigham likes it too, but if I can't find him, 90% of the time he'll be tucked away somewhere drawing.
I read somewhere that swinging is actually considered therapy for certain types of childhood behavioral disorders. I don't think my kids are particularly disordered (at least, no more than normal!), but the swing really calms them down. And our swing is in the perfect location-- just off the edge of the deck, so the boys can grab the swing and jump off the side of the deck and go swinging through the air. It looks fun, I wish I could try it!

No-sugar November

My younger sister Naomi has been doing "No-sugar November" for a few years now. I've always thought she was nuts (and I still kind of do), but this year I decided to join her. I have very few ways in which to really physically challenge myself. I used to run and work out, and those were great ways of developing physical self-discipline. But now I can't do that and I realized I missed having a physical challenge. So I decided to try it.
I'm not being very strict. Maybe next year I'll be more strict. I've banned myself from all "gratuitous" sugar (desserts, candy, sugary cereal, etc.), but not from other natural forms of sugar like fruit and grains. I did sprinkle sugar on grapefruit last week and felt like I should call my sister to confess. :-)
I hoped I'd be able to report how great I feel cutting out gratuitous sugar, but sadly I cannot. I'd probably have to eliminate all refined carbohydrates and I really have zero desire to do that.
I haven't lost any weight (I haven't been trying to, but I'm too female to ever get to the point where I wouldn't be a little happy about losing a pound or two), and I think it's probably because when I get that sugar craving, I'll try to fill it with something else. But really, I just want something sweet, so I'll end up eating more of the non-sweet thing to satisfy (Weight Watchers says that when you have a craving, you should fill it, but in moderation, because otherwise you will eat "around" your craving and end up eating more points than if you just ate what you wanted in the first place, and I think it is true!). I guess avoiding this trap ought to have been part of the discipline I've been trying to exercise!
My sister gives herself Thanksgiving as a vacation day, and then goes back to no-sugar for the rest of the month. But Thanksgiving is close enough to the end of the month, that I'm calling it quits then. It's one thing to forego all your kids leftover Halloween candy, but leftover Thanksgiving pie? I don't think so! I'll try not to go too crazy, though.
I read somewhere that the average weight-gain over the holidays is 7 pounds. Wow! So even if I have not lost weight, at least I have eliminated the post-Halloween candy gorge from my holiday caloric total.
I admit to being pretty freaked out about gaining weight. It used to not be such a huge deal, because I could just add a 2 or 3 miles to my daily run and in a couple of weeks I could lose a couple of pounds. But now? A pound of fat is something like 3500 calories. So if I want to lose even 1 pound, I can't do it by running for an hour 5 days a week (roughly 3500 calories at my weight), something that used to be no big deal. Now I have to eliminate 3500 calories only by cutting out food, which would be about 1/3 of the calories I eat in a whole week. It's hard to cut down what you're eating by 1/3, and maintain that for any length of time. I'd much, much rather exercise.
I keep reminding myself that it is easier to stay the weight I am than to try to lose it later so I'm trying very hard to stay disciplined.
Ben's lost about 20 pounds in the past year-- impressive, huh? He wants to lose about 5 more, I think, and he's started jogging at night. I'm jealous. Very, very, very jealous.
When I got home from the hospital last year, the reality of my future life began to settle in a little bit. The 2 years previous had been filled with one change after another, and I never got a chance to really adjust and accept my new realities. So after the transplant was over and my life was settling down into something slightly resembling normalcy and stability, my new limitations had a chance to sink in.
Ben took me on some walks in the wheelchair around our neighborhood. We live near a beautiful golf course that meanders around through our neighborhood. There are walking and jogging trails through the golf course, and even just on the streets, the big old shady oak trees and quiet windy roads in our area are ideal for running. It was hard for me to accept that I will never go running again. It still is.
Ok, that is quite enough self-pity for one night! I'm going to go to bed and wake up tomorrow and be incredibly grateful for everything that I *can* do and forget about the things I can't.
And I'm looking forward to one week from tomorrow!!! Freedom!!! Pumpkin pie!!!

Recent snapshots

Here's the gigantic pile of leaves the boys decided to and actually did rake by themselves. Impressive, huh?


We have a lot of these critters up in the trees behind our house. Whenever Mister sees one he goes crazy. Joseph sat out on the back deck with a flashlight (turned off) and waited until he saw movement along the fence. Then he shined the light at it, making it freeze up there long enough for Brigham to run outside with a camera and take this picture.




The boys decided to dress up the dog last weekend. He was wearing my Rice University T-shirt, a dracula cape, Brigham's solider cap, and a pair of 3-d glasses. What a patient dog.



Here are the boys and Ben tonight at dinner, watching Youtube videos while their soup cooled. (I believe this was a Paul Shanklin video).

challenge vs competition

I've been thinking recently about how best to instill in the boys how to have pride in their work-- to gain satisfaction in a goal accomplished, a job well done. So much of the pride people feel in their accomplishments is not necessarily in the accomplishment itself, but in how it measured up to everyone else around them. I'm constantly trying to find ways to drive home to the boys the importance of taking pride in their work and taking satisfaction in a job they did really well.
Did I write last week about how the boys went outside and very spontaneously and secretly decided to rake up the leaves in the back yard? It was very cute. They were extremely proud of themselves, and rightfully so. It was a good moment for them, but I need to find more opportunities to teach them these concepts.
We had a family home evening tonight about not being afraid of hard work, and not letting your feelings get in the way of doing the right thing (i.e. not letting the feeling of boredom get in the way of finishing your math assignment! LOL).
Mosey said, "One thing that made it more fun to rake the leaves was pretending to fight invisible guys!" Maybe I'll use that as a tactic next time I'm tackling a load of laundry. Think it'll work? :-)
So part of the trick with the boys is to make a less pleasant task as fun as possible so that they can get to completion and then experience those feelings of satisfaction.
The boys started a gymnastics class last week. Today was their 2nd class. I'd taken them to a couple of other trial classes, but had been disappointed in the gym and coaches, and the boys had been less than enthusiastic. But soccer is over and I wanted them to be in another sport, specifically one with a male coach because I am always looking for opportunities for my boys to have male mentors. So I found out about this homeschool gymnastics class and took them last week for a trial class. I was very happy with the gym and with the coaches, and the boys seemed to have a good time and were happy to go back today.
We're not a very sports-oriented family, but I do think that sports can play a really valuable role in developing character in that it provides a natural (and hopefully fun) way to work through difficulty to achieve a goal.
(On a side note, it is a little frustrating watching the boys out there and seeing them having trouble with one thing or another and knowing that I could so easily teach them how to do it if I could only show them myself. Hmph.)
I really loved gymnastics when I was a kid, even though I never was that great at it. That's something I really hope to be able to teach the boys-- to love something even though it is very hard and you're not that great! I know that the fact that it was hard for me and I wasn't naturally that gifted were actually the very reasons (or at least 2 of them) why I liked gymnastics so much-- it was a challenge and the triumphs were therefore all the sweeter. I hope the boys will be able to experience some of that in the sports that they try.
It's tricky teaching kids the joy of conquering a challenge. They have to be willing to stick with it even when it's not very fun in order to get the payoff at the end. Hopefully with enough experience they'll learn to take the long view.
I tried to tie in their feelings of pride (the good kind, right?) in raking all those leaves, with the feelings of pride they will have as they accomplish longer term goals. I hope they got a little of it. One of the downsides to homeschooling is that they don't get the payoff of getting the highest grade in the class, or beating their friend on the mad-minute math sheet, or any of the other countless small competitive triumphs that can be experienced in a classroom setting. Teaching the boys to be proud of their work for itself, and not being proud of their work in comparison with someone else's isn't easy. It's probably healthier, though.
Anyway, there are some random musings for a Monday night.

meh

No Torty yet... :-(
We spent a long time looking for him, and Ben and Joseph crawled under the deck and got unbelievably dirty. I really like that little guy and hope he turns up. Joseph asked if I thought he was just in a really long bad dream and he would wake up and Torty wouldn't be lost. That broke my heart a little.
We had stake conference today. Our stake broadcast the meeting to our ward building because there just isn't enough room in the Stake Center for everybody. 2 hours watching a grainy broadcast in a darkened chapel isn't that fun for little boys, but they did well anyway. Afterward, an older lady a couple of rows back complimented the boys on their good behavior. She went on to complain about all the other kids who were not so reverent (it was kind of loud, but I mostly tune that stuff out), and how it showed a lack of respect to God and the failure of parents to discipline their kids. She was nice to compliment my boys, but I thought she was pretty unfair to all the other families who made the effort to go to Stake Conference, which many families take as a "free pass." It's not easy for little kids to be still and quiet for *that* long. Why do people get judgmental like that? Shouldn't church be the one place we have compassion for others and forgive them their weaknesses? Then I have to hold the mirror up to my own face and wonder why I'm being so uncharitable to that poor woman who just wanted to feel the spirit and was distracted by all the kid-noises.
Anyway.
I totally forgot about a presidency meeting tonight. I had my phone off and was in my room folding clothes and listening to my iPod when the RS President knocked on my door to pick me up. Ben was in the front room, but was sleeping and didn't wake up to her knocks. Oops. I hate dropping the ball like that. I really, really hate feeling irresponsible. I constantly have this dread that deep down I really am irresponsible and pretty soon the truth will come out and everyone else will realize it too.
Yesterday I went to the memorial service for a woman in my ward who just died of colon cancer. She was only 2 years older than me and left 3 little kids and a husband who adored her. The service was so beautiful, but so, so sad. She and I had talked a few times about chemotherapy and how hard chronic illness can be for kids (this was her 2nd bout with cancer after having first been diagnosed 5 years ago). I've felt some weird form of survivor's guilt-- just as I was recovering from my stem cell transplant which will hopefully put me in permanent remission, she was finding out about her recurrence, which she knew would be terminal. I've thought about her so much over the past year. During those times when I've felt discouraged or pessimistic or depressed, I've thought about how if she allowed herself to think about it (which she probably did not), she would have traded places with me in an instant and felt like the luckiest person in the world to do so. She was a very brave person. She had 5 younger brothers, and they were all there with their families yesterday, and 3 of her sisters-in-law sang the song I want sung at my funeral, and the whole thing was very emotional for me. I wanted to say something meaningful to her husband on my way out, but barely choked out, "That was beautiful and I'm so glad I got to attend." And then felt like an idiot because what kind of moron would be "glad" to attend someone's memorial? I doubt he registered my idiocy, but I still felt bad. I guess there's nothing good to say in those circumstances.
Anyway, it's been one of those "meh" weekends for me, I guess.

Bound to happen...

A sad thing happened today.
Joseph took Torty outside for a few minutes late this afternoon to walk around and eat some grass. He's only taken him outside a couple of other times because I'm paranoid about him getting lost.
Well, Joseph got distracted and forgot to keep his eye on him, and now we can't find him.
Ben and the boys went in back with a 200 W bulb on a work light searching through the bushes and under the deck, but no luck. They'll have to keep trying tomorrow when it's light.
Torty *is* back there. It's just that he could be under the deck, and if he is, it could be very hard to find him. The boys are all praying that they'll find him. And so am I. Joseph was extremely sad and feels just terrible.
Will you offer a quick prayer that Torty will turn up?

We took the boys to see "Where the Wild Things Are" tonight. I'm not sure what to think of it. It held the boys' rapt attention, though, and Mosey said at the end, "I think that movie was good enough that we should buy it." That's pretty high-praise! He was a little scared in some parts, but over all not as scared as I thought he might be. When we watched "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," during the climax scene when the dam holding back all the leftover food is about to burst and crush everyone on the island, Mosey got really scared and said to me, "I thought this movie was supposed to be funny! It isn't funny, it's scary!!!"
But, going back to "Wild Things," Max sure reminded me of Joseph. Joseph has never been as angry as Max, thank goodness, but there were places in the movie that hit close to home. The closing scene with the mother watching Max as he eats his supper (that was still hot) was very powerful to me.

3 teeth less

Bright and early this morning, Joseph and I headed to the dentist's office.
We were there last week for our 6 month cleaning, and I asked the dentist about what our plan of action should be with Joseph's teeth. The orthodontist took a look and saw that 3 of his canines have not fallen out, and based on x-rays, were nowhere near falling out. This was causing a lot of crowding with his other teeth and could result in impaction.
So this morning those 3 teeth came out! The doctor gave him versed in a syrup, and pretty soon he was very drowsy and loopy, although the cartoons still held his attention. (The doctor said that most pediatric dentists put more stock into their TV systems than their anesthetics! LOL!)
2 of the teeth came right out, but the third was stubborn and broke off at the root and it took the doctor quite a while (well, it seemed quite a while to me, but he assured me it was very common and not a problem) to get it out. I could never be a dentist-- the whole thing just made me shiver!
The hygienist put in some temporary spacers and next week we'll go back in to get molds made so he can get permanent spacers. These are small devices that will keep his teeth from moving into the space now made by the extracted teeth.
He probably won't get braces for a couple of years yet, but this stuff will make the braces process shorter and easier.
Joseph did really great! It was funny to see him so out of it. And he was pretty dizzy when he got up from the chair. The hygienist helped him out and into the car (I wasn't much help there, I'm busy just trying to keep myself from falling over!). He came home and watched movies for a couple of hours and has been fine ever since. He doesn't remember much from the procedure now.
It's weird to see the baby teeth with the root still intact. The doctor told me that when the adult teeth start descending, they release osteoclasts which break down the root of the baby tooth which is what makes it start to get loose, and is why there is no root attached when the baby tooth finally falls out. Interesting, huh? Anyway, the doctor gave him his teeth in a tiny yellow treasure box and he was pretty proud to show his brother when he got home.

Reason #7,392 why I love the Internet

My mom just sent this to me. Isn't it awesomely amazing? Merry Christmas!

Photography 101

These photos are apropos of nothing. I just didn't want to post without pictures! These are from a couple of months ago when we went to see the bats fly out from the Congress Street bridge.


Brigham is giving me bat ears.


Here are the bats! Slower shutter speed...


...and faster shutter speed. They are very cool animals.

I taught a Basic Photography workshop tonight for a Relief Society activity. I hope I was coherent! I spent quite a bit of time writing the outline, and then choosing and printing photos to illustrate the points I was making. Someday when I have time I'll integrate the photos into the text. But for now, I uploaded my handout to Google Documents and you can find it here, in case anyone is interested! The format is a bit wonky, but the text is all there.

Today was a pretty good day, despite the 3.5 hours of sleep I got last night. I am DONE with staying up too late. The last few weeks with Halloween costumes, and massive desk reorganizations and Relief Society activities, etc., have been pretty bad on my sleep schedule. However, it's kind of cool that I still *can* do it, because a couple of years ago I never would have been able to. M.S. flares made me so exhausted, 9 or even 10 hours of sleep still wouldn't be enough. So even though I know it's not good for me, it is so nice to be free of that aspect of M.S.

I took the boys to McDonalds for lunch to play at the play place, something we haven't done for a very long time-- more than a year at least. I used to take them more often, when they were little and I was always looking for places to take them out of the house where they could burn off energy without destroying my house. It's so amazing to me how big they are all getting, now. In another year or two, the twins probably won't even be much interested in the McDonald's play place.

Well, time to put this disjointed blog post to bed, which is where I'll be going in about 30 seconds!

Jackpot!

I've been trying to participate in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month, I think), and post at least once a day. I haven't been able to make it before midnight every night, but I'm posting at least once every day Pacific Standard Time!
I'm teaching a photography workshop at my house tomorrow night (well, I guess tonight), so I took the boys out today to get some examples of do's and don't's in photography, and you know what? That was the BEST ruse I've ever used to get great pictures of my boys! They all cooperated, I was totally shocked. S-H-O-C-K-E-D. And extremely happy because I got some great shots of the three of my boys together, which is very rare.
Here are a few of them:
















I also got some really great pictures during our family picture photo shoot on Saturday, but I'm saving those. :-)

I should have taken before and after pictures of my desk. It's been piling up and I got to the breaking point yesterday evening and spent 4 (yes FOUR) hours cleaning and organizing and putting away and taking care of all the things that have been waiting for me. Whew!! How long will it last? That is the question...