family letter 09/29/2013

Hi family,

This last week flew by.  I had the 5:40 class for seminary this past week.  I think it went OK.  I had some more inspired lessons than others.  I'm having a terrible time getting my kids to read scriptures at home.  I'm not sure what to do about it.  They are good kids, just very busy and it's not in their schedule.  I've been texting them every evening to remind them what the next day's reading is, but it's not really helping.  I had my lowest-ever attendance on Friday-- THREE kids showed up.  I'm trying to think positive and take it as a convoluted compliment-- I had texted the kids the night before to tell them there was no specific reading assignment since we were going to be doing scripture mastery stuff (which they  normally like).  So when only 3 kids showed up, I can only assume it is because the rest of them figured that without my scintillating, educating, and inspiring lessons, it just wasn't worth coming.  Maybe?  :-)

School went OK.  Our routine is going pretty well.  I had a couple of days of some uncooperation which got me down.  I really need to find better ways to handle those situations so they don't deteriorate into lose-lose power struggles.  Getting more sleep so that my patience isn't razor thin would help.  Also there was some fighting and not getting along between Brigham and Joseph which makes me sad.  I still need about 2 extra hours each day so I can really be ready for school the next day-- time to correct work done that day and time to get more prepared for the next day's lessons.  Some topics this year are requiring more advance preparation from me than in the past.  We're studying logic this year for the first time, and the book we're using seemed pretty good until we got to analyzing the truth value of if-then statements.  It gets extremely counter-intuitive and very frustrating.  Shall I try and slog through it anyway?  I don't know.  I need a few hours to go through the book and decide if it gets less or more frustrating.

What else.  Brigham and Mosey went to the symphony with me on Friday night to hear a Prokofiev piano concerto as well as selections from Wagner's Ring series.  It was wonderful.  I love that my boys like to go with me.  I wish Joseph would go, too!  I think he would have enjoyed it (he likes Prokofiev).

We got lots of rain this week.  The problem in Texas is that we tend to get our year's worth of rain all at once.  :-)  The boys had fun running around outside and getting drenched.  Mosey and Brigham went swimming during the downpour-- almost no difference in or out of the pool!  We had some 90's days still this week, but it looks like things will cool off this coming week.  I hope.  I'm ready for fall to arrive.

I hope everyone has a good week.  EVA, I can't believe you are leaving!  Your time in the MTC has gone by very fast for me-- I hope it was just right for you.  I love you and miss you!

Love,

Gabrielle

09/26/2013

Items from the last couple of days:
We went to the orthodontist on Wednesday.  Did I ever write about Brigham's and Joseph's braces?  Well, they have braces now.  It's maybe the one thing that to me has really made them look like middle-schoolers.  :-)  They have been troopers about it, hardly complaining at all.  They are veterans with orthodontics by now, having done spacers and herbst appliances.  It's a long haul.  But they will be done long before high school, which I think will be a great thing.
Yesterday I took Mosey to the park with me to help watch my friend's kids while I met with a woman I visit-teach.  Mosey is a good kid.  He ran around with those kids (all younger) and did a good job looking after the 2-year old.  It was pretty hot-- in the 90's (boy am I ready for these days of 90's weather to be OVER), and he was so cute with his rosy face.
I cut the boys' hair last night, which was sorely needed.  Brigham and Mosey both hate their hair getting long and have been bugging me to cut it.  Joseph still hates getting his hair cut.  He let me do it, but not without very vocally and continuously expressing his dissatisfaction with the situation.  :-)  He looks so handsome with short hair, though!
Today is Friday.  Only 3 kids showed up for seminary.  That's an all-time low.  I'm trying to actually be flattered by it, though, since I told the kids yesterday that we weren't having a formal lesson today-- it would be scripture mastery activities (which normally they love!).  So I'm going to interpret their not coming as deciding that it is only my scintillating and spiritually satisfying lessons that I have had every other day that has kept them coming.  :-)

09/24/2013

Yesterday was not a stellar day for me.  I was sleep deprived, and it shows up by my nearly nonexistent rope of patience with my children.  I'm perfectly fine as long as they are perfectly compliant...  :-(
To be sure, a couple of my boys had some unusually difficult moments, but I should have been able to handle it.  And I was needlessly short with another child.  Oh, well.
One thing that drives me to distraction is when, during piano practicing, my child messes up on something, and then shoves away from the piano and stalks out of the room in anger.  It drives me insane.  SIT DOWN!!!  DON'T LEAVE THE BENCH!!!  I don't care if they make a mistake-- no problem at all.  I DO mind the temper tantrum.  So in response, I throw a temper tantrum of my own.  Awesome.
I have another child who is testing me every now and again with the word "No," another thing that will put me over the edge.  I can't stand it when I ask my child to do something, and I get a flat out "no."  I don't mind, "No, mom, I can't because...." or "OK, but in just a minute, first I have to..." or any variation on that theme-- let me know WHY you are saying no, and if it's reasonable, then there is no problem.  But flat out defying me?  I see red.  And I tend to put down draconian consequences.  "If you don't ____ by the time I count to 10, I'm going to _____."  Which is stupid, and lazy parenting.  It sets them up for having to lose face, even if only to themselves, in order to comply.  It's a win/lose situation (or lose/lose).  After the fact, I can almost always think of ways I could have avoided that situation, or changed it, but at the moment, it really seems like they are driving me to that point, and leaving me no option besides the power struggle.  And when I'm tired, it is 10 times worse.  That kind of parenting can work fine for small children, but for 12 year olds?  No way.  And I should know that since I couldn't stand that kind of thing when I was that age.  (Of course, in my memory, I was always totally reasonable, offering many logical reasons for my position, and my parent was being the unreasonable unyielding one...)
So I'm going to do better today.  No more power struggles like that this week!  No more yelling this week!  I've been doing really well in not yelling, so I'm going to tell myself this was just an anomaly.

09/23/13

Mondays, Mondays.  They are my longest days.  Up at 4:50 to get ready for seminary.  Then get the kids up and out for breakfast and scripture study, then the long marathon of lessons during the day, then orchestra in the afternoon.  Because of Mosey's and Brigham's overlapping schedules, I end up making two trips down there and don't get home until about 9:00 PM.  At least I had an hour or so in the afternoon to prepare for my seminary lesson so I was able to be in bed not long after 10:00.  Which I needed to make up for the 4 1/2 hours of sleep I got the night before.  :-(
Mosey had his chair test at orchestra.  He forgot his music at home-- the music we had marked with all his reminders.  Oh, well.  He borrowed music and said it was OK.  Brigham found out the results of his chair test last week-- 2nd stand 2nd violin, which is perfectly respectable.  Especially since this is his first year in that orchestra!  But I could tell he was disappointed.
School was OK.  Not super, but OK.  I managed to make Brigham cry before school even started.  I'm so awesome.  He is very competitive, and ultra sensitive to any perceived slights.  I'm giving out tickets for participation in seminary, and doing the same thing for my boys during our scripture study.  But Brigham can't help but count how many tickets I'm giving his brothers, especially Mosey, and then get very hurt and upset when I haven't given him as many as he thinks he deserves.
I can't stand this kind of competitiveness.  It pushes all the wrong buttons for me.  I know Brigham needs reassurance and compassion, but I just get mad.  I told him I'm not going to do tickets at all if they're going to cause so much unhappiness and contention.  Then he started crying.  Oh, man.  I struggle with knowing how to handle this part of my boy's personality.  He feels things very personally-- things that are NOT personal at all.  I find it frankly annoying, and so I tend to respond with frustration, which only feeds into his feelings of persecution.  It's tough.
I measured the boys again yesterday-- they were interested in knowing their BMI's so they could see who was the fattest.  Yep, competition again.  Turns out they are all within 1 point of each other, so not much difference.  But I was able to see that Joseph has grown another inch since June, and a good 4 inches since a year ago.  Mosey's grown almost an inch as well, but poor, poor Brigham hasn't grown at all since we last measured.  I know he is sensitive about this as well.  He didn't say anything, just walked off.  I personally love that he isn't growing up so fast!  I'm finding myself very emotionally conflicted about Joseph getting so big-- he's now 5'1" and 92 lbs!!!!!  And his voice is getting lower and lower- I hardly recognize him on the phone anymore.  So I'm loving that Brigham isn't growing up quite so fast, although I know it will be his turn soon enough.  It is hard to be a twin.
OK, time to get the boys up for the day and finish figuring out what we're doing for science today.
Here are some recent pictures.

Oh, man

This school year is proving to be incredibly busy.  And I am really, really resolving to get more sleep, so this blog has suffered.  I may institute a ONE thing every day policy, instead of three.  We'll see.
Yesterday was my last-ever MRI as part of the HALT-MS study.  It was pretty weird coming out of that Children's Hospital building, knowing I'll probably (very hopefully) never be going back.  The MRI was fine, despite having to get poked 3 times to get the IV running...
I may never go back to Houston again, either.  I don't have to if I don't want to!!  It was the least stressful drive out there that I've ever had because I knew it was my last.  I made it there with only 5 minutes to spare (I'm supposed to be there 30 minutes before), and that after speeding as much as I possibly dared.  I meant to get an early start, but then just as I was dropping the kids off at church, Mosey realized he forgot his cello at home (he was playing in the primary program, which I also missed), so we sped home, got the cello, got back to church in time for the primary program, and then I got myself on the road 30 minutes late.  Oh well, all's well that ends well.

09/02/2013

1.  Labor day!  We didn't do school today, although I spent most of the morning organizing stuff for school.  The boys did practicing (didn't get totally finished until 8:40 tonight, oh well), Ben worked from home.
2.  We went to my friend Traci's apartment pool for dinner and swimming in the afternoon.  It was so hot and I got overheated and then couldn't stand up, but it was still fun.  I'm such an antisocial person, it takes a lot to give me the gumption to go and do social things, but I'm glad when I do.
3.  I told Mosey I am pretty well finished with the dramatics during practicing.  Oh, you should see it!  The huffing and puffing!  The groaning and moaning!  The shoving away from the piano and stomping away!  I can deal with hysterics, it's just that it takes so much time.  If he would practice instead of throwing a fit, he'd probably get done with his practicing in half the time, and sign off pieces a lot faster, too!  But really, 9 1/2 years old is plenty old enough to be aging out of the practicing hysterics stage of life, isn't it?
4.  One of my seminary students, Max, brought over the most delicious banana cream pudding I've ever tasted.  Oh, dear, it is so good.  And he brought over a HUGE bowlful.  I am in trouble.
5.  Today is my youngest brother, Isaac's birthday.  Joseph's middle name is Isaac, after this brother of mine.  He was born prematurely 17 years ago today, and I miss him.  He would have been only 5 years older than my boys, and would have been such a great role-model for them-- more of a peer than any of their other aunts or uncles.  I can't wait to get to know him someday.

08/31/2013

Happy Birthday to me!
I told the boys all I wanted was a day of no bickering or whining, and... I think I got it!  Of course, it may have helped that the boys were gone for most of the morning, and I was gone for most of the afternoon.  :-)
Still, they did good.  Brought me home an apple fritter from Crown Donuts this morning, got the house cleaned, outside mowed and watered and swept, and then took me out to eat at Cheesecake Factory.
In the afternoon I got to spend a couple of hours at Target wandering around the store (one of my favorite things to do with no kids, even if there wasn't anything cute on the clearance racks), and then I went with Brigham to a violin shop to look at violins.  We spent almost 2 hours playing instrument after instrument, and finally settled on one that we both love.  It has a very unique looks, and a wonderful sound.  I think I might even be a little envious!
I had lots and lots of happy birthdays on Facebook (I'm never exactly sure what is the proper protocol-- do I respond and say thank you to everyone?  I hope not, but I did read every one of them), several phone calls from various sisters and brothers and parents, and a couple of emails and blog posts that made me cry (in a good way), and so I felt very loved.
It is good to be me on this August 31, 2013!

08/30/2013

One week down, 35 to go.  :-)
It was an OK first week of school.  There is room for improvement, but it was a good start.
Joseph and Brigham got braces on Wednesday!  Oh, were they ever excited.  I took pictures of them just before leaving for the orthodontist-- their last braces-free smile for who know how long.

Of course neither boy likes to smile with his mouth open, so I'm not sure the difference will be that noticeable.  :-)   Poor boys!  The first couple of days with braces was not so fun.  And probably won't be much fun until they are off.  Here's to hoping that will be very soon!

The first week of seminary was something of a mixed bag.  I think I have a better idea of how to put together a lesson, but dang, 5:40 AM is *early.*  The first day (Tuesday) was pretty good.  Lots of kids came, everyone was alert, I think my lesson was pretty good.  Wednesday and Thursday saw progressively fewer students, although not too bad, but the level of alertness decreased dramatically each day.  5:40 AM is *so* early.  And these kids are not getting enough sleep.  On Thursday I asked how many kids got to bed before midnight, and only about half of them had, which meant the other half was working off of 5 1/2 hours of sleep, or less.  And it's only the first week of school.  Of course, I really wasn't doing much better myself, sleep wise, so I'm not one to talk.  But I wasn't falling asleep in class, either.  :-)
I have a 7:00 class, too, for a pair of brothers who don't have any before-school activities.  Shockingly, this class has been far more effective!  I have had a "practice" lesson, there is actual daylight outside, and the boys are awake and participatory.  I'm really looking forward to when we're meeting at 7:00 permanently.  :-)
I'm not sure what my boys thought of our first week of school.  I need to ask them.  I do know that the amount of bickering and picking on each other has not yet started to taper off from the summer...  Man, oh, man.  My mother-in-law has a pillow that says, "Motherhood is like being pecked to death by a duck."  I always thought that was a strange saying, but I get it now. Every little snide remark and passive aggressive jab pecks away at my sanity.
Here are some of the awesome picks and pecks that my boys are so good at:
Clicking pens, tapping feet, flipping papers back and forth, breathing loudly, anything to make annoying rhythmic sounds.
Putting various body parts just close enough to a brother to bug him, but just far enough away to claim he wasn't doing anything wrong.
Going into diva-worthy dramatic hysterics during practicing over the audacity of their mother to ask them to play a difficult section more than one time.
Suddenly having no idea where the book is they have just been reading when a brother comes and asks for it.
"Accidentally" dropping things on the floor, over and over again.
Bickering and arguing among each other over the most inane things in the entire world.
And so on, and so on, ad infinitum.  :-)
Oh, it is sometimes so fun to be a mother.

On the other hand, we have had some good times this week, too.  We are doing logic this year, and it's been fun even with just the first few lessons to be able to joke around with each other about flaws in arguments.  The boys are going to be getting computers and so they've been doing lots of research into various computers, and it's been fun to listen to them talking and debating over all the intricacies of processors and RAM and gigahertz and all the other jargon of computer-buying.  The boys have also been getting up for my 7:00 seminary class, and that is pretty fun, too.  At least I think so.  :-)

Well, tomorrow is my birthday.  I think I'm going to stop counting how old I am.  :-)  All I want from the boys is a day of no bickering.  I think I may have better luck asking for a diamond bracelet, but I guess we will see.

1st days of school

Yesterday was our first day of school.  It was kind of a mixed bag.  I am doing a new curriculum this year-- well, actually going back to an old curriculum, but it is still new because essentially it is a do-it-yourself curriculum in which I purchase all the books and develop all of my own lesson plans.  I think it will be great, but I have been so, so busy that I am not as prepared as I should be.  I thought about waiting a week, but figured there was no harm in starting now, it's not the end of the world if all my ducks are not in a row and we end up making adjustments as we go along.
Anyway, the first half of the day yesterday went surprisingly well.  The last half, not quite as stellar.  A couple of meltdowns from a couple of my boys, and I was feeling discouraged.
But, today went much, much better.  After a couple of heart-to-hearts with various children, it went very well.
Tuesday/Thursday will be science days, and we started off the day by breaking open a chemistry kit I bought online, assembling our alcohol burner, and unpacking some test tubes and other equipment.  We then spent the next 45 minutes satiating my boys' innate pyromaniac tendencies while ostensibly doing some "science."  Science reports were written, so I guess it counts.  :-)
Today was also the first day of seminary.  I was up way too late, of course, as I kept remembering last-minute things that I needed to do.  And then I was paranoid about sleeping in, so I woke up every single hour on the hour.  Oh, well.  At least I did not sleep in.  And I think the first day went well.  It's so hard to judge my own performance.  I will have two sessions-- an early class at 5:40 AM-- yes 5:40 in the morning, and a later class at 7:00.  I have some good ideas for how to do things differently this year, and I hope I can pull it off.

3 things 08/25/2013

I want to reinstate the 3 things on my blog, so here goes:

1.  There is something in our attic.  I have never heard it, but Ben says he has.  Ben and the boys put our traps up there (Joseph has 2 humane traps he has used to trap squirrels, and, on occasion, skunks), and each day the traps remain unsprung, but the bait has gone missing.  We can't find any evidence of animal droppings, which is good, but clearly there is something up there.  It is freaking me out just a little bit.

2.  There is a new family that has moved into our ward with a boy around Joseph's and Brigham's age.  They played with him at the new member meet-and-greet this evening, and Brigham excitedly told me that he is into airsoft, too.  I like this family, and I hope our boys can be friends.  I know my boys are excited about the upcoming airsoft season, as soon as the temperature manages to get down below 95 degrees on any sort of consistent basis...  :-)

3.  Yesterday the boys and I played at the baptism of the daughter of some good friends.  I was touched that Andrea asked us to do it.  We played an arrangement of A Child's Prayer, with Joseph and Brigham taking the two melody lines on the flute and violin, and Mosey and I taking the treble and base accompaniment lines on violin and cello.  It was a little painful getting everyone to agree to participate, then to practice individually, and especially to practice together, but we did it!  Even after a last minute freak-out by one of my boys who shall remain nameless, but who plays a string instrument that is not a violin who decided he was not ready and he wasn't going to play.  He changed his mind, and I think maybe we even sounded sort of good.  I sure love playing music with my boys.

family letter 08/25/2013

Hi everyone,

First of all, congratulations Naomi and Dave on your first house!  I just wrote Naomi a gushing email, but I have to say again how much I LOVE their new house.  When I think back on our first house... well, let's just say that Naomi and Dave have found a gem.  

This past week was our last week of summer vacation.  I thought I was going to be able to really focus on school, getting my lesson's outlined and my books in order.  But I thought wrong.  I did get all of my books reorganized in my schoolroom, which was much needed, but somehow every single day was filled with other pressing things, and other not so pressing things but necessary things like music lessons and practicing and chores.  I had a couple of seminary meetings that lasted several hours each, which were productive, but still I did not make the progress for school that I wanted to make.  But, it's OK.  I don't have to have all of my ducks in a row before school starts.  Maybe it's better to start off a little slower anyway.  After all, in most schools the first week is about getting to know the teachers, getting an introduction on what the class is going to be about, maybe doing some review.  

The biggest news of the week was Brigham's and Joseph's birthday on Thursday!  The night before they went to the church to be interviewed by the Bishop for their priesthood ordination on Sunday.  They went with their suits and ties on, ready to answer any question the Bishop had about D&C section 84.  :-)  They did great.  On Thursday morning, all the boys were up really, really early.  Mosey was just as excited as they were.  We have a little tradition of counting down until their actual birth time, when they are "officially" the next year old.  It works out because they were born at 7:23 and 7:28 AM Utah time, which corresponds to 8:23 and 8:28 AM here.  After that it was birthday breakfast which meant Golden Crisp for Joseph and HEB chocolate filled squares for Brigham.  Brigham went for taste, and Joseph went for sheer sugar content.  Seriously.  He chose the cereal with the highest grams of sugar per grams of serving.  Oh, well.  :-)  They had a pretty good day, I think.  I didn't make them do any practicing at all.  In the evening we had a party with some friends who came over for swimming, pizza, and the first Percy Jackson movie, to get ready for the 2nd which has just come out.  It was a fun night, even if it did start positively pouring rain almost as soon as the kids got into the pool.  :-)  It didn't seem to deter the kids.  

Yesterday we continued the celebration by going to see the 2nd Percy Jackson movie (better than the first), and going out to eat.  I have to record the restaurant decision making process for posterity.  I told Brigham and Joseph they needed to decide together.  I threw out a bunch of suggestions, but every one that Brigham wanted, Joseph said he did not want.  Brigham said he didn't mind going to Carinos (Joseph's first choice), but since Joseph hadn't shown any willingness to compromise at all, he wasn't going to agree to Carinos.  Oh, man...  Finally Joseph agreed that Cheesecake Factory was acceptable. As soon as he said that, Brigham said, "Ok, we can go to Carinos.  I just wanted to make Joseph agree with something else!"  I'm not even sure what I can say to comment on this.  It isn't easy being a twin sometimes.

I think Brigham and Joseph got some good presents.  They got wonderful compasses from Grandma Frandsen, a blow-dart gun from one of their friends (yes, really-- it is very cool, but dangerous.  I told them the first time a dart is aimed ANYWHERE but at the archery target in our garage, the dart gun gets put away for a very long time), and cash from some other friends.  Ben and I got them some camping backpacks they can use for scouts.  When I asked Brigham what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said he wanted to go backpacking!  Sadly, there aren't too many super awesome places to backpack around here... :-)  They also got a good deal from us for buying their own school computers-- we will pay half of whatever they choose.  And then Joseph got a really nice pair of star gazing binoculars with a tripod and astronomy book, and Brigham got an IOU for his own violin, which he was completely thrilled about.  So, it was a *big* birthday for them-- much bigger than we usually do, but 12 years old is a big birthday, after all.

Today was a busy day!  Brigham and Joseph officially graduated from primary and went up on the stand to recite their favorite articles of faith-- Brigham chose #13, and Joseph #8, which I think says a lot about their personalities right there.  I had to speak in church along with the other seminary teachers in our ward, which meant I was up on the stand, so I didn't even get to sit by my boys on their last Sunday before their Sacrament duties take them away from me forever...  As far as my talk went, I was told we would have 6-10 minutes each, so I woke up early this morning and prepared a talk-- a good one, I think, based around several scripture mastery verses we will be studying this year.  But I was 3rd on the program, and the first speaker took a little extra time (it was really a wonderful talk, so I'm not resentful), and the 2nd speaker took a little extra time, and so by the time it was my turn, there were only a very few minutes for me and Kandis.  So I was glad this wasn't a talk I had spent many hours on during the week.  :-)  Then during the 3rd hour, Brigham and Joseph were ordained.  Ben gave a sweet blessing to each boy, and I tried not to cry as I watched them go into Priesthood for the first time.  I am so proud of my boys, and it is exciting to see them growing up, but I really can't think too hard about it.  How do parents stand their children growing up??  After church we went home and immediately got to work getting the house ready for our back-to-seminary meeting at 4:00.  Most of our seminary students came with their parents, and I hope it was a good meeting.  Seminary officially starts on Tuesday morning, bright and early at 5:40 AM!!!!  I better be receiving some serious blessings, that's all I can say.  :-)  Finally, a half hour after that meeting ended, we all headed over to the bishop's house for a new member meet and greet, not getting home until nearly 8:00 PM.  Phew!  I am tired.  I decided to give up on doing any more school prep for tomorrow...

So, that was our week.  I still have not had time to edit any pictures from our trip, and at this point with school and seminary starting, I'm wondering if I ever will...  

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful last week of August!

Love,

Gabrielle

Happy 12th Birthday to my boys!

I love you!

dipping my toes back in

This is the longest break I've taken from my blog since my transplant, I think!  We were gone for 3 weeks, and ever since we've been back, I feel like I've been scrambling to get things organized for school and seminary, plus dealing with a trip to Houston, and an overall feeling of rebellion against the tyranny of the internet.
Anyway, it's been a great summer, although far too short.  Our trip was wonderful and I have an absolutely, crazily, absurd number of photographs to go through.  It's going to take me the next year to get through them all.  :-)
Here's just one.  Aren't we a great looking family?!

My trip to Houston was OK.  It's over, that's the best part!  I have to go one more time for a repeat MRI in September, and then I never, ever have to go back again.  And I just might not.  At least this trip was fairly quick.  My mom came with me which made everything much easier and less stressful for me.  I had a bunch of appointments, but my nurse was able to schedule them into just 2 days.  On Monday I had an echocardiogram, then a full pulmonary function exam, then bloodwork at the fast-track lab (where they made a mistake and only drew half the number of vials, resulting in them calling me back and sticking me again for the rest...), then a check-up with Dr. Popat at the stem cell clinic, then a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (hurt much more this time than last time, but again, it's over, so all is well), and an MRI at night.  Phew!  The next day was easy in comparison-- bloodwork (16 vials!) and questionnaires with Dr. Hutton, then the timed walking test, hand dexterity test, and mental cognition test-- the math test which is my favorite since I can ace it, and finally a general MS physical.  Dr. Hutton is such a nice man and I will miss him.  But I will not miss the anxiety and stress that always surrounds visits with him.  :-)
My mom and I talked seminary, went to the Houston museum of fine arts, ate Thai food, and saw a great documentary about back-up singers-- all things that wouldn't have been huge hits with my husband and 3 boys, so it was really great having her there.
Since coming back, my cousin Deborah has been staying here for a couple of weeks until she can move into her apartment down by UT where she's going to grad school.  I love all of my cousins, and it has been great getting to know her.  She is 10 years younger than me, so I didn't know her as well as her older siblings, but she is awesome.
I reorganized all the books in my schoolroom (a big job!), and have been trying to get things organized for school starting next week.  It's complicated because I feel like now that the big boys are going into 7th grade, I need to be working according to a master plan to get them prepared for college.  So I'm trying to figure out exactly how to organize our studies for the next couple of years so they can be ready for AP exams and such when they are in high school.  I'm not doing Sonlight this year, since I think they need something a bit more rigorous, so it's been a lot more work for me.  But I'm excited and I hope it will be a great year.
The boys have been enjoying their last few days of freedom, doing entirely too little practicing and too few chores, but you know, that's OK.  My sister Rosalynde introduced me to the musical "Mathilda" while we were at our family reunion, and I got the soundtrack and we've been listening to it constantly.  Mosey loves it and has lots of the words memorized, including a big chunk of one of the best monologues I've ever heard onstage.  I need to video him for sure.  :-)  Brigham and Joseph had their last day of Primary on Sunday, since they are turning 12 on Thursday.  I get too emotional if I think too much about that, so I won't.  But it was fun staying up late with Brigham on Saturday night helping him master those last few articles of faith so he could pass them off before graduating from primary.  I have some really good boys.
I'm going to try to get the boys up early(er) tomorrow to start adjusting to our school schedule which is coming up in less than a week now.  Which means that I really need to get myself to bed earlier too.

07/08/2013

Summer is flying by.
The boys had some friends over on Saturday.  They used to be in our ward until the ward split, and then they moved to Utah.  Jacob is 1 month older than the twins, and Andrew is 1 month older than Mosey, so they match up great.  We miss them a lot.  The kids have been in Austin visiting their dad, and so they've been able to get together with our boys a couple of times.  They played airsoft (donning thick jackets and face masks, even in the heat!-- that's dedication), went swimming, and played Tanki and World of Tanks.  Before bed I let them watch an hour or so of Netflix.  Joseph chose an episode of X-files which I hope did not scar the other boys forever.  My boys have a pretty high tolerance for dark drama, being my sons and all...  :-)  Then the Anderson boys chose an episode of  "Jessie" which I guess is a Disney show.  It was a pretty cute show, but I think went largely over the heads of my boys, since it was so full of pop references and jokes that my boys don't really get.  I was kind of happy to see how uninterested my boys were in that show, but it also elicited the familiar anxieties and second-guessings about how we're raising these boys...
Anyway, here is a video of the twins and Jacob sword-fighting in the front yard.  My boys take it extremely seriously.  :-)

Happy Independence Day!

Don't you think this holiday should be referred to exclusively as Independence Day?  It might help us remember a little more of its pretty cool origins.  I mean, we don't celebrate "December 25th," do we?  Anyway, I hope everyone had a fun Independence Day!!  We sure did.
I got up before anyone else was awake (these late summer nights lend themselves nicely to some quiet, peaceful mornings around here!), and ran to Walmart for some groceries.  Back home, I made a 4th of July brunch of bacon (a serious treat at our house), pancakes, and whipped cream, blueberries, and strawberries.  The boys were especially excited about the whipped cream (from a can! also a serious treat at our house).  :-)
Afterward, we went outside to put up our American flags and pose for the yearly obligatory 4th of July pictures.  I managed to offend 2 of my 3 boys during this process.  Maybe next year I'll get all three...  Are the pictures worth it?  I think so.  Being mad at mom lasts a little while, but a picture is forever.  :-)

(Joseph and Mosey are in serious need of a haircut)

Joseph requested that his picture be taken with our Texas flag.  It's red, white, and blue, so close enough, right?  And we are pretty patriotic Texans. :-)

This picture was taken before I really offended Mosey.  I should have just stopped with this one and saved him the aggravation, because it is definitely my favorite of the bunch.  Sorry Mosey!

Anyway, after the picture-taking ordeal, we headed down to Lady Bird Lake to go kayaking.  A couple of my boys were lobbying for the liberty of unrestricted computer-game-playing (hey, it *is* Independence Day!), but I was adamant-- we are doing something *real* today!!  And it was a great success.  Mosey, my main computer-game-playing-supplicant, told Ben and me over and over again how he wanted to buy a kayak so he could go kayaking way more often.  :-)  We rowed almost all the way up to the dam, to where the current got a bit too strong (this is one of several lakes damming up the Colorado River, so the dam was actually the one holding back Lake Austin and releasing water into Lady Bird Lake).  Ben and the boys stopped at one point at what we thought was an island (turned out to be a long peninsula) to swim to shore and take several jumps from a rope swing into the water.  Overall, it was great fun.  Next time I'm going to put my little camera in a waterproof bag so I can take a few pictures along the way.  That part of the lake is incredibly beautiful with sheer limestone cliffs rising up out of the towering, almost tropical trees and lush greenery lining the shores.

Back at home, we had a barbecue, and went swimming.  We discussed the Declaration of Independence and our favorite Founding Fathers, and enjoyed the fairly mild weather we've been having the past several days.  We were pretty beat from kayaking all afternoon and decided to forego making the trek downtown, braving the traffic and the crowds to listen to the symphony and watch fireworks.  Instead we watched Lost, drank root beer floats, and then drove up to watch the Cedar Park fireworks from the roof of the van.  Not as exciting, and the music was definitely not as good, but you can't beat the 5 minute drive to and from!

My fireworks pictures left a lot to be desired this year.  Oh well.

And, that was it!  A good day.

07/03/2013

I've been on a computer strike the past several days, trying to get some "real" stuff done.

Summer is going well.

Brigham loved his strings camp. I only had to go down there once during the week to bring him his dress shoes which he forgot on the bathroom floor. On Saturday we went down to San Marcos to listen to the final concert and take him home. He ended up 2nd chair, 2nd violin in the 2nd highest orchestra, so he was very happy. Yes, this is very mom-braggy, but he deserves it. Most of the kids in his orchestra were much older, and that was also gratifying to him. He took a fiddling class and composition class, as well as advanced theory. His composition was chosen as one of the pieces highlighted at the electives demonstration. But, they didn't give it back to him to take home!! Oh well, it's not like he has any lack of compositions floating around in his brain. He got along with his roommate, told us that the kids at camp were well-behaved and respectful, and that he definitely wants to go again! At least, until he discovered that his brothers got paid (WAY TOO MUCH) for dog-sitting our friend's dog. Then he told me, "If I would have known Hannah was coming, and they'd get paid so much, I wouldn't have gone to camp!" I'm guessing he'll probably re-think that conclusion. Still, it's interesting to see the innate human tendency to resent other people for "unearned" gain.

Joseph and Mosey had a quiet week without Brigham. Not too much practicing and schoolwork got done... This is hard for me. I'm such a productivity-driven person-- I tend to feel extremely grouchy with myself after a day without much to show for it (hence my computer strike). But it's not necessarily fair for me to project that onto my kids. I gave them the choice to do their schoolwork and practicing in return for screen time. If they choose not to do schoolwork or practicing, that's their choice. I guess what really gets my goat is the whining and complaining about doing chores (very simple, easy, fast chores) after a day spent doing pretty much nothing. But, I guess this is pretty normal for kids. And to be fair, there have been plenty of days when practicing and schoolwork have been completed, and chores have been done uncomplainingly. I know I need to relax.

I've been able to accomplish a few things. Not enough! I'm working on seminary stuff most every day. I'm making some new scripture mastery mnemonics. I've been practicing my violin as well-- almost every day. I want to join the Austin chamber orchestra-- the one Brigham's teacher is in, but I'm guessing that would really push me over the edge. Still, it's more fun to have a reason to practice. It's funny how much more enjoyable practicing is as an adult. I try to tell Joseph this, but he's not buying it. :-)

I have several books I was hoping to finish this summer. Not sure it's going to happen. But I need to finish these before I let myself buy more on Amazon! I completely blame my dad for my book-buying addiction.
(Here's the proof:  These are only 2 shelves out of at least 10 that stretch floor-to-ceiling in my dad's "library.")

Like I said, we've done some dog-sitting. Hannah is a great big golden-doodle with oodles of hair, but she is so, so sweet. My boys love her. However, she did not love our cats. Or maybe she loved them too much. In any case, the cats hid out in Mosey's room most of the week, and have just now started venturing out.

Well, here are some pictures from the past few days:

06/24/2013

The house sure is quiet with Brigham gone. It is interesting to see how the dynamics around here change with one of the three of them gone-- Mosey gone last week, Brigham gone this week. We all miss him! Joseph and Mosey and I had a pretty quiet day-- Joseph and Mosey went to tennis in the morning, I spent a few hours doing chores around the house, then Joseph and Mosey got some schoolwork and practicing done while I worked on curriculum stuff for next year. Joseph and I went to the library and the grocery store in the afternoon, and then home again for piano practicing (Joseph) and cello practicing (Mosey), before taking Joseph to archery at 6:30. Mosey took the dogs on a bike ride/jog with Ben (we're dog sitting a great big golden doodle, so it is dog central around here), and then we watched part of an episode of Sherlock Holmes before calling it a night. I had another walking dream last night. This one was particularly painful because it was so vivid. I had myself almost convinced that it wasn't a dream, until I realized it was. :-( All of these dreams are the same-- I figure out some way to move my legs, and suddenly I can walk again! I'm always amazed at how simple it is, and I can't believe I hadn't figured it out before! In my dream last night, I discovered if I stood on my tip toes and took very small steps, I could walk with no stiffness or weakness. It was so wonderful! In my dream I kept walking up and down the driveway, so excited that I was going to get to tell my neurologist that I could walk again! Then I started having a niggling thought that maybe this wasn't real, maybe it was just a dream. But it seemed so real that I stayed in the dream a while longer, so happy for the miracle! But then, I woke up. I'm not sure if I love these dreams or hate them. I miss walking so much, and I love that feeling of walking freely, even if it is just imaginary. But the let-down, realizing it isn't real, that I have to go back to the way I am, is pretty awful. In other news, I completed my book wish-list for school next year. Well, almost completed it. I haven't included any literature yet. My running total on a grand total of 64 items, using the cheapest used prices on Amazon, is $702.32. And that doesn't include the new bookshelf I will need to house all those new books. I think I'm going to have to pare down my wish list. :-) This is the academic equivalent of my eyes being bigger than my stomach, I think. I'm pretty sure my visions for exactly what we will be able to accomplish in a school day are vastly inflated...

Roasted Bananas

Here is a really yummy treat that my family and I have been loving the past few months-- roasted bananas.  Really!
Here's how you do it:
Start with really ripe bananas-- they need to at least have brown spots on them, even riper is fine, too.
Cover a cookie sheet (with edges) with foil and spray with cooking spray.
Cut bananas in diagonal slices 1/2 inch thick.
Put under the broiler and broil until the tops are caramelized and bubbly.
Take out, and turn over each slice using tongs.  Sometimes there is banana "juice" that you can spoon into a bowl and use for syrup over ice cream-- yum!
Broil again until the tops are caramelized and bubbly.

These are so, so, so good.  Even my non-banana-lovers love these.  If you want to be especially extravagant, put a few over vanilla ice cream.  So good, and such a great way to get rid of over-ripe bananas (much easier and lower-calorie than banana bread).  I can slice about 4 bananas onto my big cookie sheet, and they are scarfed down in about 2 minutes.

just some pictures

This is a picture of something in our house. Can you guess what it is?

Here is Brigham practicing intently before his audition today at the Texas State Strings Camp.  He said it went well!  He played Vivaldi's violin concerto in A minor, 3rd movement.  It was fun to hear and watch all the kids practicing so hard in that room.  It gives me hope for the rising generation.  :-)

This is Joseph playing Battleship with one of the little children he and Brigham babysat on Thursday.  Their mom was in the hospital with their new baby sister, and their dad went to go pick them up, so we had a 6 year old, 4 year old, and 2 year old in our home for a few hours.  Joseph and Brigham are good babysitters. They played "Zombies" with them (a complicated game involving going outside into the forest with swords and leaf blowers to scare out and defeat the zombies), engaged in many sword-fights, played Battleship, drew pictures, and washed the dog!  Washing the dog was a particular hit and resulted in our lending them all dry clothes while their clothes went through a cycle in the dryer.  :-)

Yes, another cat picture.  This is Luna who was lying so peacefully hidden under some foliage in the back garden.  Cats have a knack for finding the cutest places to hang out.

family letter 06/23/13

Hi family,
I'm here, and still alive!  It's been a long time since I've written a family letter.  I'm trying hard not to let the computer suck away my time, especially at night.  Sometimes I wish I could just turn it off entirely and go back to the pre-internet days of no email, no ebay, no youtube, no facebook, no blogs, no online games...  But then I log on and get to read letters from my family and see pictures of my nieces and nephews and I'm not sure I would give those up.  I guess it's a good thing I have no choice in this matter.
I spent most of the day in San Marcos today, taking Brigham to the Texas State Strings Camp down at Texas State University.  He will be there for a week of intensive rehearsals, practices, master classes, sectionals, and private lessons.  This is the first time I have ever had a child away from me for more than a couple of nights away from family.  It is also the very first time in Brigham's life that he will spend a night away from his brothers.  
I have had such mixed feelings about sending my children away to sleep-away camps.  But, I think this will be a good one.  I wonder if the orchestra world for young people has changed all that much from when I was a kid?  It seems like maybe not as much as the rest of society.  In any case, my Brigham has a good head on his shoulders, and he can handle himself well in any situation.  
But it was sure a strange feeling to watch my little boy walking off alone into the dorm, turning back to wave at me every 10 feet or so, and stopping to blow me kisses before going in through the front doors, and then to drive away without him.  Maybe it would seem less strange for me if I were used to seeing him off to school every day?  Maybe not.  But I am used to always knowing exactly what he is doing every minute of the day, and now for this week, I won't.  He did call me tonight just before bed to check in.  My boys are not that used to phone conversations.  I need to teach them some phone etiquette.  He basically had a few things to say to me, and then it was just, "Bye!"  :-)
Anyway, it was a long day for him.  We got there at 9:30, stood in line for 45 minutes to check in, went to sign in for auditions, left to check into his dorm room (which ended up being on the 2nd floor of a non-ADA compliant building, so I couldn't go up and get his bed made up and his room set up with him :-(.  Then back to the music building on the other end of campus where we waited for THREE HOURS for his audition.  Seriously, they need to streamline that process.  But eventually he got that finished, then we ate a hurried, very late lunch in the car an I dropped him off at the dorm and drove home by myself!
The past two weeks of summer have gone by very fast.  Last week Mosey had cub scout day camp and came home exhausted every afternoon.  I think next year a 3-day day camp will be plenty for him.  He had a good time, though, canoeing and swimming and bb-gun-ing, and archery and all the fun scouting stuff they do there.  Brigham and Joseph went to a tennis camp for an hour and a half on Mon., Wed., and Fri.  I tried to enforce some school work/practicing, but I'm trying to be laid-back about it this summer.  They have 2 hours of homework/practicing that they need to do in order to get 2 hours of screen time (only 1 hour of gaming/TV/movie watching).  For a few days I tried to get them to do all 2 hours before they got any computer time, but I think it's going to work better to do a pay-for-play kind of thing.  Of course, it's not working that great for one of my boys who is not as motivated by screen time-- Brigham.  He spent most of the day reading, reading, and reading.  It's hard to get too upset with that, however.  That was my favorite summertime activity, too.  He is on a quest to read the whole Book of Mormon in a week.  He got all the way through Mosiah in 2 days, so I think he can do it.  We're not counting this week of music, camp, though.  
We've spent a fair amount of time in our pool.  I really love our pool.  I got sunburned on my first day of summer vacation-- the first sunburn I've had in more than 5 years!  I haven't been able to spend enough time out in the sun to get sunburned until we've had this pool.  The boys have been out swimming almost every day.  
The twins also baby-sat for 3 little kids at our house for several hours on Thursday while their dad went to the hospital to get his wife and baby girl after their discharge.  This is the girl I visit teach with-- she usually leaves her kids with the boys while we go visiting teaching, so the boys have some experience.  It was fun to see my big boys playing Battleship, and "Zombies" and sword-fighting with these little ones.  They'll make good babysitters in a year or so. 
I've also spent a lot of time researching curriculum for next year.  I've liked Sonlight the past two years, but now that the twins will be in 7th grade, I feel like we need to up the rigor a little bit, so I may do a blend of Sonlight and Well Trained Mind.  It's so hard to decide!  I know I always overestimate what is really reasonable to expect from my kids, so I'm trying to stay realistic.  I have begun my book-purchase list, and it's already ridiculously long.  I'm going to need a new book case.  :-)
It looks like my Houston appointments won't be until August.  I'm kind of relieved, because I can push it further away and not stress so much about it now, and also I will have more of an uninterrupted stretch of vacation time, but it also would have been nice to have it all done with before the family reunion.  Oh, well.  It is the last time I'll have to go out there for evaluation, and that is a huge relief, anyway.
Ben is staying busy at work and with Bishopric stuff.  He spent ALL day yesterday finishing our taxes which we deferred back in April.  We are ending up having to send a pretty hefty chunk of change to the IRS.  I guess it's good to be in an income bracket in which we are heavily taxed, but man, is it ever painful to write that check.  Poof.  I have no confidence that this money will be used to any productive purpose at all.  He did manage, after a good bit of finagling, to reduce what we owed by a few thousand dollars, so I guess his time yesterday was well-spent, but it was not a fun day for him.  We went to see Man of Steel in the evening as a sort of reward for him.  If you go see that movie, keep track of how many Christ-references you see.  I wish I had told my boys to do this before we saw the movie!  Afterward we talked about it, and I was able to point out quite a few references that they remembered, but it would have probably made the movie a more meaningful experience if they had been watching for it in the first place.  Anyway, we did enjoy the movie.  Afterward we were walking to our car and Ben discovered he didn't have his wallet.  He happened to have my debit card, plus a few extra corporate cards he generally doesn't keep in his wallet, plus more cash than he usually carries, in addition to all the other stuff-- insurance cards, drivers license, etc..  He couldn't find it for quite some time.  In fact, he had just decided to give up and leave the theater and accept that someone had taken it, when he happened to see the bare edge of it wedged under one of the arm-rests.  The boys and I had said a prayer in the car that he would find it, and so it was very gratifying when he came out with it in hand.  I have to say some of my most consistently-answered prayers have been for help in finding important missing items.  I guess that is one way in which God doesn't mind intervening so much.  :-)  
OK, it is time for me to head off to bed.  I hope everyone has a great week.  I love you!

Love,
Gabrielle