There have been various birthdays that have meant particular milestones for me. 8 years old, of course. Then 14 when I was as old as Joseph Smith when he had his first vision. Then 23 when I was officially older than most missionaries, boys or girls. Before then, missionaries had always been older and more mature than I. Now I'm 33, the same age of Jesus when he was crucified. Is it blasphemous to compare myself to Jesus? Anyway, it's what I'm thinking about. I haven't accomplished quite as much in my life as he had by my age. :-)
Also, I'm 2 years from being officially halfway through my 30's which is just plain weird. I guess I don't exactly identify with 20-somethings anymore, but I definitely don't feel like I always perceived people in their 30's. But I guess that's how everyone in their 30's feels. And 40's and 50's, etc., etc. Everyone ages for the first time (and only time), so I guess aging feels just as surprising to everyone else as it does for me.
Anyway, I'm glad to be turning 33. It will be better than 32. And it puts another year between me and 31, which was distinctly NOT a good year for me. Well, it was good, but I'm also very happy to be putting more and more distance between me and it.
Sunday was a good day, although it started out not so good for poor Brigham. He was up first, as he usually is, and was up and dressed in his suit and was combing his hair by the time I finally dragged myself up to turn off the alarm. He told me he wasn't feeling good, but that maybe he was just hungry. I got ready for church, and by the time I came back into my bedroom, he was laying on the bed looking a little miserable. He said his legs felt "heavy." Ben and the boys took a long and hard bike ride last night, so I thought maybe he was sore from his bike ride.
But on the way to church, he said he felt like he was going to throw up. We went into church and sat on the couch in the foyer for the sacrament, Brigham looking white as a sheet. Sure enough he did throw up (we had brought a plastic bag in from the car just in case).
I took him home since Ben has to play the piano in primary. He felt much better, and wanted to stay for Primary (he's such a good boy), but I told him he needed to go home in case he was still sick. We went home and watched "On the Lord's Errand" (I think), the DVD about Thomas S. Monson, and it was really a joy to lay next to him on the bed and hold his hand and watch the movie with him. He is such a good boy. The descriptions of Thomas Monson as a kid reminded me of Brigham. Is that blasphemous, to compare my son to the Prophet? :-)
Anyway, I also had the pleasure of talking to him uninterrupted, which doesn't happen often enough for any of my boys. He's been extremely curious about a few topics lately, especially radios (how does an electromagnetic radio wave actually end up as sound coming out of a radio? I confess, I don't have a very clear idea myself), and energy (how is electricity generated? What is fusion?). He knows about how electricity is generated when a magnet spins around inside a coil of wire, and he's been fixated on how to make this happen without exerting any mechanical force on the magnet itself. I guess like a perpetual motion machine. Anyway, he was trying to explain his idea and I couldn't quite follow him, so he drew me a diagram, and I thought his idea was pretty ingenious, although it does violate the law of conservation of energy, so I don't think it would work. His idea is to put a bunch of magnets in a gear, and then place other magnets around it, so that the magnetic repulsion between like poles would drive the gear around and around. This would spin the magnet inside the solenoid and generate electricity.
I have a feeling that this set up wouldn't work, for the simple reason that if it did, someone would have done it already. But I couldn't explain to him theoretically why it would not work. Can someone smarter than me do it? I told him we'd have to build a model of what he was talking about to see if we could get it to work.
Still, it was a conversation that thrilled me as a mom. How awesome is it to be conversing with my son about magnets and solenoids, and the laws of physics and electricity, and have him be coming up with ideas and questions all on his own that have me stumped? Pretty awesome.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Social butterflies
My boys have had 4, yes four friends over to play in the last two days. See what a good mom I'm becoming? Yesterday afternoon after we finished our lessons and I normally would let them go upstairs and watch a movie (Friday after lessons officially begins the weekend when they can watch movies), we decided to call some friends instead. After 4 phone calls and no one picking up, I gave up. Then one of Joseph's friends, Kenny, just showed up! I guess his dad got the message and Kenny just wanted to come play right then, so he came over. Then three other friends called later in the evening and arranged to come over today. Lots of little boys! It was fun watching them all out there today (6 boys!) swimming and doing little-boy stuff. 6 little bare backs jumping into the pool. Then they played a game that had something to do with a lot of swords and light sabers and running around from the backyard, around the house, through the front door, and then back to the backyard. And no one lost an eye, so it was all good.
Ben introduced the boys to Risk last night. It took them all of about 5 minutes to get hooked. Ben has been playing an online version with his brother and a couple other people. The boys all wanted to play, too, but they had to have email addresses in order to register. So now all the boys have email addresses. They got good ones, too, courtesy of their unusual names, so none of this johndoe14832@gmail.com stuff. Should this be some momentous event? The acquiring of their very first email address? It's some sort of rite-of-passage at least. As a result, Mosey told me today, "Mom, I think maybe I'm going to need my own computer because maybe you'll be using your computer when I need to send an email." You know, those oh-so-urgent emails that 5 year olds frequently need to send. We'll see. :-)
Anyway, they've played a couple of games against each other so far. And so far only 2 episodes of boys breaking down in tears and stomping out of the house in a fury. I guess once per game isn't too bad...
It's interesting seeing how the 3 boys react so differently to adverse situations in games. Joseph either really loves the game, or really hates the game (depending on how he's doing). When he loves it, he really loves it and is hugely enthusiastic. But when things are not going his way... watch out. Brigham keeps himself pretty distant. He was winning a game this morning, pretty decisively, and I heard him talking to himself about it. He was basically killing everyone else in the game, but kept saying, "But I'll probably lose." He's a little like me, trying to expect the worst so it doesn't hurt so much when it happens. But it does take some of the joy and excitement out of things when things go right. But even he gets pretty invested in winning after a while. He had a run of bad luck this afternoon in another game and came stomping into the living room saying, "I NEVER have any good luck. I ALWAYS have bad luck!" Mosey is definitely the most easy going, pretty much having fun no matter if he's winning or losing. I think being the youngest and smallest and therefore not having any firm expectations of winning in anything has contributed to this attitude. I guess there are some benefits in being the youngest!
Mosey said another funny thing the other night. We've been having fun with Spots, our new leopard gecko. Geckos are nocturnal, so the boys and I look forward to putting his crickets into the cage just before bed and watching Spots go hunting. It's a little gruesome, but very interesting. Anyway, after watching Spots a couple nights ago, Mosey said to me, "I think I'm nocturnal, mom." I said, "Oh? Why do you think that?" "Well, because I have really good eyesight and nocturnal animals have really good eyesight." I think he's just trying to bulk up his arsenal of reasons why he doesn't need to go to bed when I tell him to. It ain't working, buddy!
Tonight just before beginning the bedtime routine, Joseph throws himself onto the couch, tears trickling down his cheeks. "What's the matter, honey?" I ask him. "You always wake me up at 5:00 in the morning!" he says. "Baby, I never wake you up at 5:00 in the morning. What are you talking about?" Then I figure it out. It's Saturday night, and church starts at 9:00, so I do have to wake them up earlier than normal. Sundays are the only days I actually have to wake them up at all, thank you homeschooling. And I guess that is traumatic enough to drive Joseph to tears just thinking about it the night before. I tried to convince him that if it is really so terrible being woken up for church, all he needs to do is to go to bed earlier on Saturday nights. My logic wasn't convincing. Poor boy, what a tough life he leads. Still, we'll all be happier when we're finally off the 9:00 AM schedule. We've had church at 9:00 AM for nearly 2 years now, which is just too long!
Anyway, speaking of getting up for 9:00 church, I better get to bed myself. Good night!
Ben introduced the boys to Risk last night. It took them all of about 5 minutes to get hooked. Ben has been playing an online version with his brother and a couple other people. The boys all wanted to play, too, but they had to have email addresses in order to register. So now all the boys have email addresses. They got good ones, too, courtesy of their unusual names, so none of this johndoe14832@gmail.com stuff. Should this be some momentous event? The acquiring of their very first email address? It's some sort of rite-of-passage at least. As a result, Mosey told me today, "Mom, I think maybe I'm going to need my own computer because maybe you'll be using your computer when I need to send an email." You know, those oh-so-urgent emails that 5 year olds frequently need to send. We'll see. :-)
Anyway, they've played a couple of games against each other so far. And so far only 2 episodes of boys breaking down in tears and stomping out of the house in a fury. I guess once per game isn't too bad...
It's interesting seeing how the 3 boys react so differently to adverse situations in games. Joseph either really loves the game, or really hates the game (depending on how he's doing). When he loves it, he really loves it and is hugely enthusiastic. But when things are not going his way... watch out. Brigham keeps himself pretty distant. He was winning a game this morning, pretty decisively, and I heard him talking to himself about it. He was basically killing everyone else in the game, but kept saying, "But I'll probably lose." He's a little like me, trying to expect the worst so it doesn't hurt so much when it happens. But it does take some of the joy and excitement out of things when things go right. But even he gets pretty invested in winning after a while. He had a run of bad luck this afternoon in another game and came stomping into the living room saying, "I NEVER have any good luck. I ALWAYS have bad luck!" Mosey is definitely the most easy going, pretty much having fun no matter if he's winning or losing. I think being the youngest and smallest and therefore not having any firm expectations of winning in anything has contributed to this attitude. I guess there are some benefits in being the youngest!
Mosey said another funny thing the other night. We've been having fun with Spots, our new leopard gecko. Geckos are nocturnal, so the boys and I look forward to putting his crickets into the cage just before bed and watching Spots go hunting. It's a little gruesome, but very interesting. Anyway, after watching Spots a couple nights ago, Mosey said to me, "I think I'm nocturnal, mom." I said, "Oh? Why do you think that?" "Well, because I have really good eyesight and nocturnal animals have really good eyesight." I think he's just trying to bulk up his arsenal of reasons why he doesn't need to go to bed when I tell him to. It ain't working, buddy!
Tonight just before beginning the bedtime routine, Joseph throws himself onto the couch, tears trickling down his cheeks. "What's the matter, honey?" I ask him. "You always wake me up at 5:00 in the morning!" he says. "Baby, I never wake you up at 5:00 in the morning. What are you talking about?" Then I figure it out. It's Saturday night, and church starts at 9:00, so I do have to wake them up earlier than normal. Sundays are the only days I actually have to wake them up at all, thank you homeschooling. And I guess that is traumatic enough to drive Joseph to tears just thinking about it the night before. I tried to convince him that if it is really so terrible being woken up for church, all he needs to do is to go to bed earlier on Saturday nights. My logic wasn't convincing. Poor boy, what a tough life he leads. Still, we'll all be happier when we're finally off the 9:00 AM schedule. We've had church at 9:00 AM for nearly 2 years now, which is just too long!
Anyway, speaking of getting up for 9:00 church, I better get to bed myself. Good night!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Time for bed again??
How can it already be 10:30? This day has flown.
Nothing too eventful today. Lessons, horseback riding, piano practicing. I got a haircut. The girl who cut my hair told me that I could "rock this haircut" just like Victoria Beckham. She said, "She's got nothing on you!" I replied, "No, but I've got about 20 pounds on her!" I do like my hair short.
We keep getting teased for rain. Huge black clouds rolled in this afternoon, complete with thunder and lightning and that enticing ozone aroma. But no rain. It is so sad to see all the dead and dying lawns around here. I think we're supposed to be on once-a-week water restrictions around here. But we're sort of ignoring that. I haven't actually heard any official news. Just what "people" are saying. No notice in the mail or anything. So we'll keep watering our lawn as we have been and then plead ignorance if we get in trouble. Is that awful? I just can't stand the idea of our lawn totally dying and then having to re-sod.
It turns out that Mosey is a great speller! He got out his spelling book we bought yesterday and did a few pages, and then got the CD with spelling games that came with the book, and played spelling games for a couple of hours. Poor Brigham is the only one who struggles with spelling. It's sad and funny. Sad because he gets soooooo frustrated and down on himself. Funny because he's just so predictable in his misspellings. He is a chronic phonetic speller, so most of his mistakes are words that he's spelling the way they sound. Too bad we speak English where every 3rd word is some kind of spelling rule exception. But then sometimes he'll overthink himself on words that ARE spelled the way they sound. For example, he spelled "great" as "grate," but then spelled "grade" as "gread." He spelled "rain" as "rane" and "made" as "maid." Poor kid. He's really amazing in math and thinks up all these mental tricks for remembering his multiplication tables. I'm trying to help him apply this technique to spelling, helping him come up with mnemonic devices and such. Poor kid. He does almost everything else so well, he has a hard time knowing how to deal with something he struggles with. Ben was working with him on his spelling tonight, and Brigham kept telling him that his kindergarten teacher must have taught him wrong, because he was SURE she told him "rain" was spelled "rane." I highly doubt this. Brigham is practically perfect in every way (as his Grandma camp certificate states), but he definitely has a hard time admitting when he is wrong. I can't imagine where he gets that from. :-) He'll blame his mistakes on the fish if no one else is readily available. It's kind of funny, though, because he'll be blaming some teensy mistake on someone else, when it is hardly even a mistake! No one would even blink about an 8 year old misspelling "rain." He doesn't need to blame his kindergarten teacher, no one thinks any less of him. I tried to convince him that it was a good thing he is misspelling these words because it proves that we are on the right level for him in our spelling book, and he isn't wasting time on words he already knows. I don't think he's buying it.
Did I write about Joseph's new pet? I don't think so. On Saturday afternoon (his birthday), we went to eat at Texas Land and Cattle, and then pulled into a parking spot in front of Pet Co (same shopping complex as the restaurant). Joseph got excited about going to Pet Co, so I joked with him telling him we were going to the sewing store instead (a sewing machine repair store is right next door). Joseph said, "Yeah, I thought we were," but then I told him that no, we really were going into Pet Co. He's been wanting another pet for months. He's been going back and forth between a leopard gecko, a bearded dragon, and a snake. Ben and I decided to let him get a leopard gecko since they can live in the same tank as the tortoise. They are way more work than a tortoise, though. They eat crickets which have to be dusted in this calcium powder before being put in the cage. So in addition to the gecko, we had to buy a cricket house and cricket food and cricket calcium powder. It's more like getting a bunch of pet crickets and then buying a gecko to go with them. Anyway, Joseph loves this gecko whom he names "Spots." To go along with the other very creatively-named "Torty." :-) I hope we can keep this guy alive.
Nothing too eventful today. Lessons, horseback riding, piano practicing. I got a haircut. The girl who cut my hair told me that I could "rock this haircut" just like Victoria Beckham. She said, "She's got nothing on you!" I replied, "No, but I've got about 20 pounds on her!" I do like my hair short.
We keep getting teased for rain. Huge black clouds rolled in this afternoon, complete with thunder and lightning and that enticing ozone aroma. But no rain. It is so sad to see all the dead and dying lawns around here. I think we're supposed to be on once-a-week water restrictions around here. But we're sort of ignoring that. I haven't actually heard any official news. Just what "people" are saying. No notice in the mail or anything. So we'll keep watering our lawn as we have been and then plead ignorance if we get in trouble. Is that awful? I just can't stand the idea of our lawn totally dying and then having to re-sod.
It turns out that Mosey is a great speller! He got out his spelling book we bought yesterday and did a few pages, and then got the CD with spelling games that came with the book, and played spelling games for a couple of hours. Poor Brigham is the only one who struggles with spelling. It's sad and funny. Sad because he gets soooooo frustrated and down on himself. Funny because he's just so predictable in his misspellings. He is a chronic phonetic speller, so most of his mistakes are words that he's spelling the way they sound. Too bad we speak English where every 3rd word is some kind of spelling rule exception. But then sometimes he'll overthink himself on words that ARE spelled the way they sound. For example, he spelled "great" as "grate," but then spelled "grade" as "gread." He spelled "rain" as "rane" and "made" as "maid." Poor kid. He's really amazing in math and thinks up all these mental tricks for remembering his multiplication tables. I'm trying to help him apply this technique to spelling, helping him come up with mnemonic devices and such. Poor kid. He does almost everything else so well, he has a hard time knowing how to deal with something he struggles with. Ben was working with him on his spelling tonight, and Brigham kept telling him that his kindergarten teacher must have taught him wrong, because he was SURE she told him "rain" was spelled "rane." I highly doubt this. Brigham is practically perfect in every way (as his Grandma camp certificate states), but he definitely has a hard time admitting when he is wrong. I can't imagine where he gets that from. :-) He'll blame his mistakes on the fish if no one else is readily available. It's kind of funny, though, because he'll be blaming some teensy mistake on someone else, when it is hardly even a mistake! No one would even blink about an 8 year old misspelling "rain." He doesn't need to blame his kindergarten teacher, no one thinks any less of him. I tried to convince him that it was a good thing he is misspelling these words because it proves that we are on the right level for him in our spelling book, and he isn't wasting time on words he already knows. I don't think he's buying it.
Did I write about Joseph's new pet? I don't think so. On Saturday afternoon (his birthday), we went to eat at Texas Land and Cattle, and then pulled into a parking spot in front of Pet Co (same shopping complex as the restaurant). Joseph got excited about going to Pet Co, so I joked with him telling him we were going to the sewing store instead (a sewing machine repair store is right next door). Joseph said, "Yeah, I thought we were," but then I told him that no, we really were going into Pet Co. He's been wanting another pet for months. He's been going back and forth between a leopard gecko, a bearded dragon, and a snake. Ben and I decided to let him get a leopard gecko since they can live in the same tank as the tortoise. They are way more work than a tortoise, though. They eat crickets which have to be dusted in this calcium powder before being put in the cage. So in addition to the gecko, we had to buy a cricket house and cricket food and cricket calcium powder. It's more like getting a bunch of pet crickets and then buying a gecko to go with them. Anyway, Joseph loves this gecko whom he names "Spots." To go along with the other very creatively-named "Torty." :-) I hope we can keep this guy alive.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Back to school
The public schools in our district all started today, so that means we are back full-time as well.
Today went pretty darn well. I was comparing things to a year ago, and, as I've thought about 20,000 times over the past few weeks, am I ever glad it is this year, not last year.
Mosey started on some formal lessons. Not much, but he is working on handwriting and math. And I got him a spelling book at Walmart today because he really wanted it. :-)
And I'm again wondering how in the world it is that I have NO time? The day just flew by. A little laundry, a few meals, some lessons, a trip to Walmart, and here it is, 10:00 PM and I have not had a moment to do any of my own stuff. I have a ton of pictures that I'd like to get edited someday. A great library book I've only read 2 pages of. 3 loads of laundry clean and dry that have not been put away.
This is just life, right?
I have a really big goal of getting to bed earlier (yes, the same goal I've had at the beginning of every school year since about 10th grade), so I'm just going to have to let my list of projects keep expanding.
Today went pretty darn well. I was comparing things to a year ago, and, as I've thought about 20,000 times over the past few weeks, am I ever glad it is this year, not last year.
Mosey started on some formal lessons. Not much, but he is working on handwriting and math. And I got him a spelling book at Walmart today because he really wanted it. :-)
And I'm again wondering how in the world it is that I have NO time? The day just flew by. A little laundry, a few meals, some lessons, a trip to Walmart, and here it is, 10:00 PM and I have not had a moment to do any of my own stuff. I have a ton of pictures that I'd like to get edited someday. A great library book I've only read 2 pages of. 3 loads of laundry clean and dry that have not been put away.
This is just life, right?
I have a really big goal of getting to bed earlier (yes, the same goal I've had at the beginning of every school year since about 10th grade), so I'm just going to have to let my list of projects keep expanding.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
August 22, 2009
Today was Joseph's and Brigham's birthday.
I watched the clock until 8:25 AM and told them the moment each of them, 8 years ago, were born.
It was a really wonderful day. Their baptism and confirmation were beautiful and went perfectly. We had a fun afternoon going out to eat, shopping for special presents for each boy, and then spent the evening eating leftover cookies and building robots and legos.
It was a charmed day.
I have lots of pictures and more details, but they will have to wait for now.
I have two 8 year olds!
I watched the clock until 8:25 AM and told them the moment each of them, 8 years ago, were born.
It was a really wonderful day. Their baptism and confirmation were beautiful and went perfectly. We had a fun afternoon going out to eat, shopping for special presents for each boy, and then spent the evening eating leftover cookies and building robots and legos.
It was a charmed day.
I have lots of pictures and more details, but they will have to wait for now.
I have two 8 year olds!
Friday, August 21, 2009
8th Birthday party
No pictures tonight. I'll have to add them once I get them uploaded.
We had the boys' birthday party this afternoon. My worries and disappointments about not having enough kids come were quite unfounded. I always forget how little boys, when they come together, multiply at LEAST three-fold in activity and volume.
We had 5 kids come, and honestly it would have been insane with more. As it was, Mosey got a little too wound up. He really wanted this one particular piece of cake (the snake's tail, more on that below), and asked me about 7 times if he could have it. I assured him each time that he could. Then he told me to make sure I gave it to him, because I might get confused with another boy, because "we all look kind of alike." (to be fair, 3 of the other boys also have blue eyes/blondish hair.) He told me to check his swimming suit because no one else had a swimming suit like his. Should I be worried that my son isn't confident I will recognize him in a crowd? Then when I actually WAS cutting the cake, one of the boys joked and said he wanted the whole snake, and Mosey about went nuts, reminding me, quite vociferously, that HE wanted the tail. After giving Joseph his piece (the head), I gave Mosey the end of the tail, and he was finally ok. I have no idea what made him so obsessed about it. Most of the time, though, he was mixing it up with the other kids and having a great time.
Ben couldn't get home from work until halfway through, and so Benjamin was a huge help. He supervised games in the pool, an impromptu game of soccer, lifted and threw 50+ lbs of 8 year old boys into the pool over, and over, and over. The dad of the neighbor kids stayed when he took his kids over, and manned the grill. It was so hot and I really couldn't stay outside for long. Ben got home just before dinner and helped to organize the feeding of themob kids. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, Doritos, grapes, and juice.
I had spent the morning making the boys' cakes. Joseph requested a snake cake which turned out pretty well, even though Benjamin thought I was a little over-the-top for redoing some of the orange diamonds on its back. Anything worth doing is worth doing right, right? :-) Joseph told us it was a "Brazilian Boa Constrictor." I was so happy to make a cake to make up for the disaster last year. Benjamin actually made the cake, I cut it out, and he helped me to ice it, so it was a joint effort. Thank you, Benjamin!
Brigham invented his own dessert. We had about half of the 9x13 cake (strawberry) left over from the snake cake, so we cut that into cubes and mixed it with a small amount of whipped cream and pressed it into the bottom of a flat-bottomed glass bowl. Then we blended strawberries and cool whip and spread that on top. Then we sliced up a couple of bananas and layered them on top of the strawberry/cool whip, and THEN we spread a quart of softened vanilla ice cream over all of that. We topped it off with crushed oreos and let it set up in the freezer. This was entirely Brigham's invention, and it was GOOD. I think it will have to become a Turner tradition. Brigham's birthday delight.
After more swimming, we dragged the kids out of the pool, sang Happy Birthday, blew out candles, and ate cake (only one small piece of the snake cake left, and most of the strawberry oreo concoction got consumed, so I'm even happier that we won't have much leftover). Then presents (robotics set, electronic set, solar-powered robotics set (sense a theme?), star wars legos, Scrabble Apple game, Bop It game, and cash from grandma. A good haul. The kids all stayed about another hour after the "end" of the party (another sign of success, I think). Then the boys spent another hour and a half after the party putting legos together, assembling robots, etc. I had to practically chase them off to bed.
So I'm feeling very relieved and really looking forward to the boys' birthday and baptism tomorrow morning.
We had the boys' birthday party this afternoon. My worries and disappointments about not having enough kids come were quite unfounded. I always forget how little boys, when they come together, multiply at LEAST three-fold in activity and volume.
We had 5 kids come, and honestly it would have been insane with more. As it was, Mosey got a little too wound up. He really wanted this one particular piece of cake (the snake's tail, more on that below), and asked me about 7 times if he could have it. I assured him each time that he could. Then he told me to make sure I gave it to him, because I might get confused with another boy, because "we all look kind of alike." (to be fair, 3 of the other boys also have blue eyes/blondish hair.) He told me to check his swimming suit because no one else had a swimming suit like his. Should I be worried that my son isn't confident I will recognize him in a crowd? Then when I actually WAS cutting the cake, one of the boys joked and said he wanted the whole snake, and Mosey about went nuts, reminding me, quite vociferously, that HE wanted the tail. After giving Joseph his piece (the head), I gave Mosey the end of the tail, and he was finally ok. I have no idea what made him so obsessed about it. Most of the time, though, he was mixing it up with the other kids and having a great time.
Ben couldn't get home from work until halfway through, and so Benjamin was a huge help. He supervised games in the pool, an impromptu game of soccer, lifted and threw 50+ lbs of 8 year old boys into the pool over, and over, and over. The dad of the neighbor kids stayed when he took his kids over, and manned the grill. It was so hot and I really couldn't stay outside for long. Ben got home just before dinner and helped to organize the feeding of the
I had spent the morning making the boys' cakes. Joseph requested a snake cake which turned out pretty well, even though Benjamin thought I was a little over-the-top for redoing some of the orange diamonds on its back. Anything worth doing is worth doing right, right? :-) Joseph told us it was a "Brazilian Boa Constrictor." I was so happy to make a cake to make up for the disaster last year. Benjamin actually made the cake, I cut it out, and he helped me to ice it, so it was a joint effort. Thank you, Benjamin!
Brigham invented his own dessert. We had about half of the 9x13 cake (strawberry) left over from the snake cake, so we cut that into cubes and mixed it with a small amount of whipped cream and pressed it into the bottom of a flat-bottomed glass bowl. Then we blended strawberries and cool whip and spread that on top. Then we sliced up a couple of bananas and layered them on top of the strawberry/cool whip, and THEN we spread a quart of softened vanilla ice cream over all of that. We topped it off with crushed oreos and let it set up in the freezer. This was entirely Brigham's invention, and it was GOOD. I think it will have to become a Turner tradition. Brigham's birthday delight.
After more swimming, we dragged the kids out of the pool, sang Happy Birthday, blew out candles, and ate cake (only one small piece of the snake cake left, and most of the strawberry oreo concoction got consumed, so I'm even happier that we won't have much leftover). Then presents (robotics set, electronic set, solar-powered robotics set (sense a theme?), star wars legos, Scrabble Apple game, Bop It game, and cash from grandma. A good haul. The kids all stayed about another hour after the "end" of the party (another sign of success, I think). Then the boys spent another hour and a half after the party putting legos together, assembling robots, etc. I had to practically chase them off to bed.
So I'm feeling very relieved and really looking forward to the boys' birthday and baptism tomorrow morning.
Bob Bullock, Bonnel, Ben's office, and Bats
One of these years I'm going to find time to upload my recent pictures and get them posted. Tonight is not that time.
Yesterday we had such a FUN day!
We went to the Bob Bullock History Museum, watched the Texas propaganda movie (yes, it made me tear up again), perused the museum (wow, the boys were so much better than 18 months ago, the last time we went. They actually looked at things! And liked it!), and then treated my brother (and the boys and I) to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the IMAX, in 3D. Wow! I didn't even know 3D was an option. Now THIS is the way to watch a Harry Potter movie. We had the best seats in the house, instead of the worst (2nd to the very front row the first time).
Brigham and Joseph were very interested in the artifacts from the days of the Spanish colonization of Texas. Lots of intricately carved sword hilts and suits of armor and other such things. They couldn't be bothered before, I guess they were too young. They sat through the movie about the Texas revolution, and even asked to stay at the museum after the movie to look at a few more things and show me this awesome crown up on the 4th floor. We went to the gift shop and managed to escape, not only with no tantrums from Mosey, but also with no cheap merchandise! Miracle of miracles.
Then we drove back home up the Capital of Texas Highway (always an impressive drive for first timers to Austin). After being at home for 30 minutes we got back in the car and headed to Mt. Bonnel to meet Ben. Ben, Benjamin, and the boys hiked up to the top and I drove to County Line (Texas barbecue). By the time the boys got down off the mountain (Mt. Bonnel is as close as Austin gets to mountains, all 760 ft. above sea level, or whatever it is), they were drenched in sweat and had cheeks the color of strawberries. It was HOT. We stuffed ourself with meat, meat, and more meat, then finished it off with Mile High chocolate cake and peach cobbler a la mode. Who's counting calories this week? Not me.
And THEN we drove to Ben's office so we could all admire his new corner office on the top floor of his building. Oooh... It is nice! Too bad his salary didn't improve along with his office when they moved his department last month. :-)
Finally, we drove downtown again, to the Congress Street bridge, to see the largest urban colony of Mexican freetail bats in the world. 1.5 million of these little creatures roost under this bridge over the Colorado River, just south of the Capitol building, and then come flying out all at once in huge black spirals up into the sky over the river. We got there JUST on time, getting to our seat on the grass literally 2 minutes before the bats emerged. It was very cool.
Then home for bedtime for some very tired boys.
It was an awesome day.
Yesterday we had such a FUN day!
We went to the Bob Bullock History Museum, watched the Texas propaganda movie (yes, it made me tear up again), perused the museum (wow, the boys were so much better than 18 months ago, the last time we went. They actually looked at things! And liked it!), and then treated my brother (and the boys and I) to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the IMAX, in 3D. Wow! I didn't even know 3D was an option. Now THIS is the way to watch a Harry Potter movie. We had the best seats in the house, instead of the worst (2nd to the very front row the first time).
Brigham and Joseph were very interested in the artifacts from the days of the Spanish colonization of Texas. Lots of intricately carved sword hilts and suits of armor and other such things. They couldn't be bothered before, I guess they were too young. They sat through the movie about the Texas revolution, and even asked to stay at the museum after the movie to look at a few more things and show me this awesome crown up on the 4th floor. We went to the gift shop and managed to escape, not only with no tantrums from Mosey, but also with no cheap merchandise! Miracle of miracles.
Then we drove back home up the Capital of Texas Highway (always an impressive drive for first timers to Austin). After being at home for 30 minutes we got back in the car and headed to Mt. Bonnel to meet Ben. Ben, Benjamin, and the boys hiked up to the top and I drove to County Line (Texas barbecue). By the time the boys got down off the mountain (Mt. Bonnel is as close as Austin gets to mountains, all 760 ft. above sea level, or whatever it is), they were drenched in sweat and had cheeks the color of strawberries. It was HOT. We stuffed ourself with meat, meat, and more meat, then finished it off with Mile High chocolate cake and peach cobbler a la mode. Who's counting calories this week? Not me.
And THEN we drove to Ben's office so we could all admire his new corner office on the top floor of his building. Oooh... It is nice! Too bad his salary didn't improve along with his office when they moved his department last month. :-)
Finally, we drove downtown again, to the Congress Street bridge, to see the largest urban colony of Mexican freetail bats in the world. 1.5 million of these little creatures roost under this bridge over the Colorado River, just south of the Capitol building, and then come flying out all at once in huge black spirals up into the sky over the river. We got there JUST on time, getting to our seat on the grass literally 2 minutes before the bats emerged. It was very cool.
Then home for bedtime for some very tired boys.
It was an awesome day.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Two Bens in the house
It's been fun having Benjamin here. One of my favorite things about being one of the oldest of a bunch of kids, is seeing each of my siblings turn into an adult. Suddenly I have a whole new friend. Sometimes, as a married woman, I do miss the friendship of other males. Ben and I have couples friends, of course, but it's not exactly the same thing. That is why it is so great when my brothers get old enough to really be my friends. I'm looking forward to the same thing when Abraham gets home from his mission in a year.
Benjamin is great with my boys, and has been so helpful. I really wish I had a full-time assistant, it is so nice. He helped Brigham with math yesterday, helped Joseph with his piano theory today, listened to "Bass Mechanic" about 45 times with Moses this evening while I took the big boys to piano lessons (that's his current favorite song-- a couple of weeks ago it was "Duel of the Fates" from Star Wars), and has provided Ben and I some quality adult conversation. I've been quizzing him on his methodical, scientific efforts in finding a wife (I'm kidding, I just like to tease him), and probably scaring him off of ever wanting to have kids (again, I'm kidding, he will be a great dad, my boys like him better than me).
I'm not-so-subtly trying to nudge him toward possibly coming to Texas after he graduates. :-)
In this effort, we've been trying to do some fun Austin stuff. We went to Barton Springs today (but didn't swim-- I really wished the boys had brought their swimming suits when we got there, it was so hot!), and then toured the Capitol building where Benjamin had the pleasure of physically removing a kicking and screaming 5 1/2 year old from the gift shop when he had a complete melt-down over not being allowed to buy a $6 Texas Wallet (he doesn't even have any money to buy the wallet, let alone any money to put in it!), and then went to Rudy's for a late lunch, where the same 5 1/2 year old announced that Rudy's was his new favorite restaurant (better than Burger King!!!!!), just minutes after whining and complaining that he HATES Rudy's it's the WORST restaurant in the WORLD. (Think someone hasn't adjusted to Central time after being in California for 2 weeks??) The boys have been through the Capitol building several times now, and it was fun to see them kind of giving Benjamin the tour themselves!
Tomorrow morning we're going to see the Texas Propaganda Movie at the IMAX theater at the Texas History Museum (it's not really called the Texas propaganda movie, but that's essentially what it is, I promise if you come see it you'll be all choked up and ready to pack your house up to move to Texas by the time the closing credits come rolling down), and then to Mount Bonnel to see the views of downtown and the 360 bridge over the Colorado River, then to County Line for dinner and catching turtles from the lake, and then hopefully to see the bats fly out from under Congress bridge.
Friday is the boys' birthday party and Benjamin will be here to help me shop for that in the morning, and then help Ben wrangle the kids in the evening.
I feel like a bit of a loser with the boys' party. They haven't had a birthday party since they turned 5. And that one was an awesome party, pirate themed, on the beach in Miami, with a whole bunch of kids. They got nothin' last year or the year before. And this year, we're just doing a backyard swim party. No theme, no games, at least, nothing that I've planned yet. I didn't even make any cool invitations, I just sent emails out to the boys' moms. AND, since it's the last weekend before school starts, I think there are several people out of town on last-hurrah vacations. So only 4 other boys are showing up. I think Brigham and Joseph probably won't care, but I am feeling major guilt for not making more of an effort to cultivate outside friendships over this past year. We have a few homeschooling friends, and a few church friends, but I've done a totally lousy job in having friends come over, and in maintaining their friendships from elementary school. I feel awful. I'm really going to do better this year. Next year they will have an AWESOME party with TONS of friends. Probably not, but I can tell myself that anyway. I guess these are the pitfalls of homeschooling.
Anyway, I'm enjoying my last couple of days of having 2 seven year olds. Time goes way too fast.
Benjamin is great with my boys, and has been so helpful. I really wish I had a full-time assistant, it is so nice. He helped Brigham with math yesterday, helped Joseph with his piano theory today, listened to "Bass Mechanic" about 45 times with Moses this evening while I took the big boys to piano lessons (that's his current favorite song-- a couple of weeks ago it was "Duel of the Fates" from Star Wars), and has provided Ben and I some quality adult conversation. I've been quizzing him on his methodical, scientific efforts in finding a wife (I'm kidding, I just like to tease him), and probably scaring him off of ever wanting to have kids (again, I'm kidding, he will be a great dad, my boys like him better than me).
I'm not-so-subtly trying to nudge him toward possibly coming to Texas after he graduates. :-)
In this effort, we've been trying to do some fun Austin stuff. We went to Barton Springs today (but didn't swim-- I really wished the boys had brought their swimming suits when we got there, it was so hot!), and then toured the Capitol building where Benjamin had the pleasure of physically removing a kicking and screaming 5 1/2 year old from the gift shop when he had a complete melt-down over not being allowed to buy a $6 Texas Wallet (he doesn't even have any money to buy the wallet, let alone any money to put in it!), and then went to Rudy's for a late lunch, where the same 5 1/2 year old announced that Rudy's was his new favorite restaurant (better than Burger King!!!!!), just minutes after whining and complaining that he HATES Rudy's it's the WORST restaurant in the WORLD. (Think someone hasn't adjusted to Central time after being in California for 2 weeks??) The boys have been through the Capitol building several times now, and it was fun to see them kind of giving Benjamin the tour themselves!
Tomorrow morning we're going to see the Texas Propaganda Movie at the IMAX theater at the Texas History Museum (it's not really called the Texas propaganda movie, but that's essentially what it is, I promise if you come see it you'll be all choked up and ready to pack your house up to move to Texas by the time the closing credits come rolling down), and then to Mount Bonnel to see the views of downtown and the 360 bridge over the Colorado River, then to County Line for dinner and catching turtles from the lake, and then hopefully to see the bats fly out from under Congress bridge.
Friday is the boys' birthday party and Benjamin will be here to help me shop for that in the morning, and then help Ben wrangle the kids in the evening.
I feel like a bit of a loser with the boys' party. They haven't had a birthday party since they turned 5. And that one was an awesome party, pirate themed, on the beach in Miami, with a whole bunch of kids. They got nothin' last year or the year before. And this year, we're just doing a backyard swim party. No theme, no games, at least, nothing that I've planned yet. I didn't even make any cool invitations, I just sent emails out to the boys' moms. AND, since it's the last weekend before school starts, I think there are several people out of town on last-hurrah vacations. So only 4 other boys are showing up. I think Brigham and Joseph probably won't care, but I am feeling major guilt for not making more of an effort to cultivate outside friendships over this past year. We have a few homeschooling friends, and a few church friends, but I've done a totally lousy job in having friends come over, and in maintaining their friendships from elementary school. I feel awful. I'm really going to do better this year. Next year they will have an AWESOME party with TONS of friends. Probably not, but I can tell myself that anyway. I guess these are the pitfalls of homeschooling.
Anyway, I'm enjoying my last couple of days of having 2 seven year olds. Time goes way too fast.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Last MRI for 11 months
Left at 3:30 for Houston. Arrived at 6:45. Was in the MRI machine by 7:45, out by 9:00, home by 12:20. A lot of Swedish Fish and Good-n-Plenties eaten on the long, dark drive home.
Very tired. Must go to sleep now.
Very tired. Must go to sleep now.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Diving board!
Today was our last full day in CA. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 1:00. So it was also the last chance for the boys to swim in my family's pool. It has a diving board! I'd been trying to convince Joseph to jump off the diving board all week, and he finally did it today. He was so brave! I got a picture of him in mid air and the expression on his face is priceless.
Brigham wouldn't try the diving board, but kayaked around the pool in my dad's home-made collapsible kayak. Mosey flitted in and out from the pool to the hammock and back. Fun times for little boys.
So tomorrow morning it is time to pack up and head home, back to real life and responsibilities. I hate that. :-)
Brigham wouldn't try the diving board, but kayaked around the pool in my dad's home-made collapsible kayak. Mosey flitted in and out from the pool to the hammock and back. Fun times for little boys.
So tomorrow morning it is time to pack up and head home, back to real life and responsibilities. I hate that. :-)
Friday, August 14, 2009
Home but not home
After spending all of last week childfree, I flew out to LA last Saturday and have spent the past few days at my childhood home with my boys.
First of all, my week last week was pretty good! Ben and I got our new french doors sanded and stained and varnished and they look great! I will not miss that horrid sliding glass door.
I also spent a lot of hours working on a scrapbook. I don't do real scrapbooks, not with pretty paper and embellishments and themes and all that. I'm not creative enough and I take WAAAY to many pictures and can't decide which ones not to include, so I just include all of them. So my scrapbooks are basically a whole bunch of pictures, cut and cropped and glued onto the paper with journaling to say what was happening. I did ones for each of my twins for their first 2 years of life, one for Mosey's first year, and none since then. Well, my boys have been begging me to make more, and it did seem kind of weird that as picture-happy as I am, I have almost no pictures printed.
Anyway, I got 6 months taken care of last week. Only 60 more until I'm caught up. :-)
As I was working on this, I went back to read a bunch of the letters I wrote during that time (before the blog I wrote emails home as my journal), and got really sentimental. And freaked out by how many things I had forgotten. I used to write every single day. It's not interesting blog reading, but I think I'm going to go back to that style because I really loved reading about those days and I really don't want to let the experiences we're having now just disappear into the ether because my memory is so crummy. There are a bazillion blogs out there that are a million times more funny and clever and beautiful than mine, and I just don't care to compete with that, and I'd rather just remember my life anyway. I hesitate to post on my blog when I don't have pictures. So I end up not writing about certain things because I don't have a picture, or the pictures I took are not ready to post, or whatever. That's dumb. So anyway, I doubt I'll update every day, but I am going to try to go back to my daily life chronicles, boring as they may be.
This week has been fun! It was awesome to see my boys Monday morning. They were waiting for me at the baggage claim when I came wheeling over to them, and they all came running. That is such a mommy-rush, to see your babies running to you. They all looked big and tall! And they all wanted to talk to me at the same time, and it's sort of been that way ever since. :-)
Brigham very proudly showed me his certificate he got at the end of Grandma camp. "Practically perfect in every way." Which he is.
It was actually really awesome having Joseph away, not because he was gone, but because for the first time in a long time, he actually became really talkative on the phone. Last year when I was in the hospital and I'd talk to him, it was a little like pulling teeth. He'd either just say silly stuff, or say "nothing" when I asked him what was going on. But last week, HE called ME a few times, and talked and talked, so excited to tell me everything. It was so awesome. This past year has been rough on Joseph. But the last few months I think he's been coming out of whatever the trouble has been, and it's been so wonderful. I've worried about him so much. But my mom told me what a good, obedient, friendly, cooperative, peacemaking boy he was while I was gone, and I almost can't believe it. I hope it lasts!
Mosey is so cute, and he's wanted to sit right next to me at every meal and snuggle up next to me on the couch, and tell me about everything.
So this week we've mostly just hung out at home, but we've done a few things as well. We went to the Norton Simon Museum yesterday, which is an art museum in Pasadena with the largest collection of Degas works of any museum. I wasn't sure how my boys would do in an art museum, but Brigham LOVED it. (Ok, I was pretty sure he would). Joseph liked it for a while, and then was ready to go. Mosey lasted a little longer than Joseph. But over all I was impressed with how they did. When my mom mentioned that they all deserved a treat after the museum, Brigham said, "I don't need a treat. Going to the museum was a treat for me!" Where does this kid come from?? He's way too good to be mine. :-)
My mom and I went to see Julie and Julia last night which was great. I loved it and now I want to learn to cook French food.
Today the boys and I and my mom took a tour of JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) here in La Canada. This was perfect as the boys and I are just about finished with our Space unit we've been studying this summer. JPL is the place that has planned and made and been in charge of all the spacecraft that have gone up to explore the various planets. My mom has a friend who works there and she gave us a personal tour which was amazing. We went through the museum they have their with scale models of a bunch of different space craft, then a movie about the history of JPL, and then our personal tour. The boys got to see Mission Control, the Spacecraft Assembly building (where everyone has to wear gloves and hair nets and masks and coveralls to keep every speck of dust out, and the machine room (more like warehouse) where all the tiny precision pieces are made for the spacecraft. It was an awesome tour, although really hard with my wheelchair. JPL is built up in the foothills, and is really not wheelchair accessible. We had to go up and down hills, around buildings because everywhere is mostly connected by stairways. My mom and her friend helped to push me up the hills, and my arms are really sore now. But the boys had a great time and spent the rest of the afternoon drawing pictures of space ships and building the model space shuttle and eating the freeze dried astronaut ice cream that my mom's friend gave us. She was totally generous. I let the boys pick out some souvenirs and when I went up to pay, she took them right from my hands and paid for them herself. Sooooo nice.
I also raided my parents' bookshelves today and I'm bringing home about 30 books that my boys are ready for. My parents have thousands of books (no exaggeration), including hundreds of really great children's books. It's so exciting to me to see my boys reading and loving the books that I read and loved as a kid. Especially Joseph, he's my book worm.
So that's our week so far. We go home Saturday morning, so one more day at "home" before we go home. The boys are ready to get back, but I'm not! As soon as we get back home, we need to get back into our full-time school schedule. Which will be good but exhausting. At about the time most other parents are getting ready to get some of their own time back, with their kids going back to school, I'm about to not have ANY time again! It's worth it, though, and I'm excited about this coming year.
OK, bed time for me. My dad just came in from his soccer game. My dad is 60 years old and is a star on his over-40 soccer team. They came in 2nd in their league this past season, which is pretty great considering soccer is arguably the most popular sport these days in Southern California. When I saw him on Monday, he had this enormous lump over his left eye, and the worst black eye I've ever seen. An injury from a soccer game he played on Saturday with another team he's on, an all-ages team in which he got headed by an over-enthusiastic high schooler and was lucky not to get a concussion. Yep, that's my dad. The son of my 90-next-week grandfather who recovered from a brain-bleed from a 4-wheeling accident last Thanksgiving. Probably the only 89-year-old out there gallivanting in the Sanpete County mountains on a 4-wheeler. :-)
First of all, my week last week was pretty good! Ben and I got our new french doors sanded and stained and varnished and they look great! I will not miss that horrid sliding glass door.
I also spent a lot of hours working on a scrapbook. I don't do real scrapbooks, not with pretty paper and embellishments and themes and all that. I'm not creative enough and I take WAAAY to many pictures and can't decide which ones not to include, so I just include all of them. So my scrapbooks are basically a whole bunch of pictures, cut and cropped and glued onto the paper with journaling to say what was happening. I did ones for each of my twins for their first 2 years of life, one for Mosey's first year, and none since then. Well, my boys have been begging me to make more, and it did seem kind of weird that as picture-happy as I am, I have almost no pictures printed.
Anyway, I got 6 months taken care of last week. Only 60 more until I'm caught up. :-)
As I was working on this, I went back to read a bunch of the letters I wrote during that time (before the blog I wrote emails home as my journal), and got really sentimental. And freaked out by how many things I had forgotten. I used to write every single day. It's not interesting blog reading, but I think I'm going to go back to that style because I really loved reading about those days and I really don't want to let the experiences we're having now just disappear into the ether because my memory is so crummy. There are a bazillion blogs out there that are a million times more funny and clever and beautiful than mine, and I just don't care to compete with that, and I'd rather just remember my life anyway. I hesitate to post on my blog when I don't have pictures. So I end up not writing about certain things because I don't have a picture, or the pictures I took are not ready to post, or whatever. That's dumb. So anyway, I doubt I'll update every day, but I am going to try to go back to my daily life chronicles, boring as they may be.
This week has been fun! It was awesome to see my boys Monday morning. They were waiting for me at the baggage claim when I came wheeling over to them, and they all came running. That is such a mommy-rush, to see your babies running to you. They all looked big and tall! And they all wanted to talk to me at the same time, and it's sort of been that way ever since. :-)
Brigham very proudly showed me his certificate he got at the end of Grandma camp. "Practically perfect in every way." Which he is.
It was actually really awesome having Joseph away, not because he was gone, but because for the first time in a long time, he actually became really talkative on the phone. Last year when I was in the hospital and I'd talk to him, it was a little like pulling teeth. He'd either just say silly stuff, or say "nothing" when I asked him what was going on. But last week, HE called ME a few times, and talked and talked, so excited to tell me everything. It was so awesome. This past year has been rough on Joseph. But the last few months I think he's been coming out of whatever the trouble has been, and it's been so wonderful. I've worried about him so much. But my mom told me what a good, obedient, friendly, cooperative, peacemaking boy he was while I was gone, and I almost can't believe it. I hope it lasts!
Mosey is so cute, and he's wanted to sit right next to me at every meal and snuggle up next to me on the couch, and tell me about everything.
So this week we've mostly just hung out at home, but we've done a few things as well. We went to the Norton Simon Museum yesterday, which is an art museum in Pasadena with the largest collection of Degas works of any museum. I wasn't sure how my boys would do in an art museum, but Brigham LOVED it. (Ok, I was pretty sure he would). Joseph liked it for a while, and then was ready to go. Mosey lasted a little longer than Joseph. But over all I was impressed with how they did. When my mom mentioned that they all deserved a treat after the museum, Brigham said, "I don't need a treat. Going to the museum was a treat for me!" Where does this kid come from?? He's way too good to be mine. :-)
My mom and I went to see Julie and Julia last night which was great. I loved it and now I want to learn to cook French food.
Today the boys and I and my mom took a tour of JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) here in La Canada. This was perfect as the boys and I are just about finished with our Space unit we've been studying this summer. JPL is the place that has planned and made and been in charge of all the spacecraft that have gone up to explore the various planets. My mom has a friend who works there and she gave us a personal tour which was amazing. We went through the museum they have their with scale models of a bunch of different space craft, then a movie about the history of JPL, and then our personal tour. The boys got to see Mission Control, the Spacecraft Assembly building (where everyone has to wear gloves and hair nets and masks and coveralls to keep every speck of dust out, and the machine room (more like warehouse) where all the tiny precision pieces are made for the spacecraft. It was an awesome tour, although really hard with my wheelchair. JPL is built up in the foothills, and is really not wheelchair accessible. We had to go up and down hills, around buildings because everywhere is mostly connected by stairways. My mom and her friend helped to push me up the hills, and my arms are really sore now. But the boys had a great time and spent the rest of the afternoon drawing pictures of space ships and building the model space shuttle and eating the freeze dried astronaut ice cream that my mom's friend gave us. She was totally generous. I let the boys pick out some souvenirs and when I went up to pay, she took them right from my hands and paid for them herself. Sooooo nice.
I also raided my parents' bookshelves today and I'm bringing home about 30 books that my boys are ready for. My parents have thousands of books (no exaggeration), including hundreds of really great children's books. It's so exciting to me to see my boys reading and loving the books that I read and loved as a kid. Especially Joseph, he's my book worm.
So that's our week so far. We go home Saturday morning, so one more day at "home" before we go home. The boys are ready to get back, but I'm not! As soon as we get back home, we need to get back into our full-time school schedule. Which will be good but exhausting. At about the time most other parents are getting ready to get some of their own time back, with their kids going back to school, I'm about to not have ANY time again! It's worth it, though, and I'm excited about this coming year.
OK, bed time for me. My dad just came in from his soccer game. My dad is 60 years old and is a star on his over-40 soccer team. They came in 2nd in their league this past season, which is pretty great considering soccer is arguably the most popular sport these days in Southern California. When I saw him on Monday, he had this enormous lump over his left eye, and the worst black eye I've ever seen. An injury from a soccer game he played on Saturday with another team he's on, an all-ages team in which he got headed by an over-enthusiastic high schooler and was lucky not to get a concussion. Yep, that's my dad. The son of my 90-next-week grandfather who recovered from a brain-bleed from a 4-wheeling accident last Thanksgiving. Probably the only 89-year-old out there gallivanting in the Sanpete County mountains on a 4-wheeler. :-)
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Quiet, quiet house
I am sitting alone in my house, nothing but the sound of my clicking keyboard to keep me company (how's that for alliteration!).
My boys left Saturday morning for a week at "Grandma Camp."
It is the first time in my life as a mother that I have spent a night at home without my boys (the hospital doesn't count).
My baby sister Eva, 15 years old now, came for the week last week to be my assistant, and then flew with the boys to my mom's house in LA on Saturday. The boys were SO excited, just giddy the night before, to the point where I doubted they would fall asleep! They were so worried about oversleeping, they brought an alarm clock upstairs, and then woke up an hour earlier than they needed to. :-)
They were excited and eager to get onto that plane, but I admit to not having the same feelings. It made my stomach sink to see my 3 boys disappearing down the jet-bridge to the plane. Ben and I waited by the window until the plane taxied away and then we went home to an awfully quiet house.
We celebrated our freedom by going to eat at the Melting Pot that night (very good, and veeeeeery expensive), and taking a long afternoon nap after church on Sunday.
This week I'm trying to get a bunch of projects done that have been piling up. We'll see how far I get.
My boys are having the time of their lives at my mom's house. Barbecues, swimming in the backyard pool, trips to the beach, camping up in the mountains, all sorts of fun.
I'll be flying out to LA on Monday morning to spend a few days in California, before flying home with the boys on the 15th.
My boys left Saturday morning for a week at "Grandma Camp."
It is the first time in my life as a mother that I have spent a night at home without my boys (the hospital doesn't count).
My baby sister Eva, 15 years old now, came for the week last week to be my assistant, and then flew with the boys to my mom's house in LA on Saturday. The boys were SO excited, just giddy the night before, to the point where I doubted they would fall asleep! They were so worried about oversleeping, they brought an alarm clock upstairs, and then woke up an hour earlier than they needed to. :-)
They were excited and eager to get onto that plane, but I admit to not having the same feelings. It made my stomach sink to see my 3 boys disappearing down the jet-bridge to the plane. Ben and I waited by the window until the plane taxied away and then we went home to an awfully quiet house.
We celebrated our freedom by going to eat at the Melting Pot that night (very good, and veeeeeery expensive), and taking a long afternoon nap after church on Sunday.
This week I'm trying to get a bunch of projects done that have been piling up. We'll see how far I get.
My boys are having the time of their lives at my mom's house. Barbecues, swimming in the backyard pool, trips to the beach, camping up in the mountains, all sorts of fun.
I'll be flying out to LA on Monday morning to spend a few days in California, before flying home with the boys on the 15th.
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