Lagoon 2011

We managed to swing a trip to Lagoon last Friday. To say the kids had a blast is a huge understatement. We had our family, my mom and older brother and my good friend Marja and her three children. We brought lots of food. To be honest, I brought some food and Marja brought everything else with chips and drinks too, lol! Kent loves doing things with Marja's family because she provides much better food then I do and Marja loves doing things with us because as a single mother, it's hard to do trips and stuff when she doesn't have any other adults to interact with. Plus, Marja keeps me laughing non-stop!

That makes it a win-win for everyone!

Kent was a little worried about bringing my brother. However Scott loves to
1. Travel
2. Eat
3. Go on Rides

Which means the amusement park was perfect for him.

When we first entered the park, we lost Greg and Scott. We went one direction, they went another. I think the adults were so busy trying to make sure the tweens and teens didn't run ahead, we lost sight of those in the back of the pack. Scott was spotted quickly and bless his heart he was holding Greg's hand, just waiting to be found. Greg did so good to hold Scott's hand as well.

The twins don't understand yet that Scott isn't really a "grown-up" that you can turn to for help since my 42 year old brother needs so much supervision but in this case, it worked out perfectly.

Here is Scott on the kid's train. When we split up for between the kids stuff and the adrenaline junkies, Scott opted for the kids stuff.



And here is the rest of the kids that didn't want to do more roller coasters (or were to short!)



Speaking of the roller coasters, my two girls are fearless! I'm embarrassed to say that we didn't get a picture of Kate, she was so busy doing the fastest, loopiest, craziest rides she could find! Kent did score a picture of Jane waiting for a ride to start. This is the dinosaur drop, a nice little ride the whole family got to go on.




Could the girl look more like a teenager? She is just so insanely grown-up now! She's by herself because there was just one spot open. Most of us were on the next turn and Kent got some insanely cute shots of Greg.






Isn't he adorable!!!?

Here's David in his own cute shot.



And here's both boys in their favorite little boy boat ride.



Ean and Noah scored, both guys were little enough for the little people bumper cars AND the big people bumper cars.



Kate's shot up enough she couldn't ride the little rides anymore but she MORE then made up for it on everything else!

We hit what we could. Everyone had so much fun. There was some disappointment we didn't get to any of the water rides before leaving. However it was 7:00 pm, everyone wanted dinner, Marja's oldest was reaching his "unmedicated" time of day and his behavior spirals quickly out of control after 7:00, so we needed to get going. To make up for missing the water rides, we let the kids play in the fountain. Oh my goodness! A few really made the most of it!

Dave in the fountain is right at the top of the blog right now, he had so much fun but boy did he get wet! Here he is, looking like he'd gone swimming with his clothes on!



So that was Lagoon. I think we built some great family memories that day. It reminded me of when my family when to "The Great Escape" when we were kids. Those were good times as well.

What I've apparently forgotten to say

It has been brought to my attention by my non-blogging, non journal writing, non recording husband that I've missed a few points from his tales. He would like it recorded that he does take pictures.

The manly camp out. While driving, Greg pointed to a sign with an arrow and asked his dad if he knew what it said. Kent asked him, what it said and he responded "that sign says Go Fishing".

Also, while going through the town of Grace, Ean asked Kent what language they speak there and Kent responded that they spoke English and Ean went into a great shpeel on how if they needed to stop, that meant that they could talk to each other. He also asked when they'd get back into Idaho. Kent let him know that they never left Idaho.

Greg wanted to feed the fish with a fishing pole at the fish hatchery. I don't think that would have gone over to well.

See what happens when don't record your own stories? ;-p

Our Spirtual BackYards

I am not a natural born gardener. I have several and I do mean several, strikes against me. The list begins with some killer hay fever, followed by exercise induced asthma that is acerbated by my hay fever and finally, throw in actually breaking out in hives while pulling weeds and yes, you have someone inclined to put their fingers in the ears and sing "LALALALALALA" when it's time to work in the backyard.

Kent doesn't exactly have a lot of free time either, which means minimal upkeep most of the growing season. We're pretty sure we have neighbors that specifically built their privacy fence so the view from their perfectly manicured lawn wouldn't be marred by our occassional weed fest coupled with dead and drying grass. You see we have a bad habit of watering things that provide food and often forget the other parts of the lawn.

Actually years ago we planted raspberries along our fence. Would you believe those plants sent shoots under the fence and literally left our yard for the other side of the chain link fence, where the neighbor actually waters regularly? Traitor plants. :)

Well, we've had a lot of rain this past month which of course means lots of growth of, well, pretty much everything. Throw in rain Every. Single. Time. Kent has tried to mow and you have a jungle in a very short period of time.

Today, looking across the backyard, it was painfully clear we needed to tend to our yard. Our poor neighbor next to us doesn't own a privacy fence and her yard is looking so incredibly pretty next our green disaster. Her raspberries look especially nice as well.

So the girls started the great dog poop hunt. Kent moved the last bit of cattle panel, a remnant from when our dog was young and strong and use to jump the fence to go play with the neighborhood dogs and I, well, pulled a lot of weeds and grass.

I worked along the two side fences and into an especially weedy section of the yard. I cleaned out around the three grape vines and the fruit trees and cleaned up the fence bordering our raspberry neighbors. I noticed that the weediest section of the yard was an area that Kent had rototilled repeatedly the year before. You see, Kent was thinking he'd try raspberries again in a raised bed. So he rototilled the grass up and kept it clear all summer. We never got the bed built and winter went with that portion of the yard unnoticed.

I hadn't thought before on how the grass helps keep the weeds out and it struck me on the how similar our yard was to spiritual matters. When we have our spiritual self filled with good things, that we tend and care for regularly, it's a lot harder for those awful weeds to get in. This patch of former yard was filled with the most noxious weeds I've encountered, thick and well established. It was very different then the prickly weeds I pull from the established and well tended grass, that are young with little roots, easy to pluck out.

Speaking of easy plucking, when we bought our first house, I was terribly unfamiliar with Idaho weeds. Our front flower bed had a little teeny weed that looked harmless enough and I just didn't bother to pull. Each time I looked, that weed was a little bigger and a little stronger, still I didn't pull it. Before long, I realized how formidable that weed looked and finally decided I'd better get it out of the garden.

I then realized this weed had spines all along the stem, these spines give some of the most painful splinters I've ever experienced. The root also ran very deep and was thicker around then my thumb. I could not even start to pull out the weed. I wasn't strong enough. This ugly reminder of my laziness stayed all summer near our front gate. As fall fell around me, I tried to get all the seeds from the weed before it could spread further and of course my efforts were fruitless. Finally with it's death, I was able to get the shovel and remove this eyesore from the flower bed.

I have since learned that when this weed first appears in the spring, you can easily pluck it out of the soil with just your thumb and pointer finger. I now pull this weed whenever I see it, where ever I may be.

How easy is it to pluck the things amiss out of our lives when the problems are small and haven't had a chance to burrow deep, thick roots into our being? Ignoring may be easier in the short term but I promise plucking Satan's weeds out of our lives will in the end be the easier choice. And if there's nothing good or bad there in our spiritual selves, then it's time to fill ourselves with things of worth, so those bad seeds don't have anywhere to go.

Like the raspberry patch that was rototilled and never planted, if we leave ourselves devoid of the things that invite the spirit, prayer, scripture study, quality time with family, service, love of our Savior and everything he has to offer, then whether we want weeds or not, the weeds will take root. No matter what you believe, you can still fill your life with things of worth, family, charity, love of others, love and care of this beautiful world. I promise your life will be richer should you do so but don't leave yourself blank, rototilled and unplanted.

The weeds are ugly and ruthless if you do so.

If your yard is overgrown and full of weeds, the support of family working together makes taming that yard much easier. Sometimes you just can't shoulder the burden alone and it's surprising how many are willing to help.

So my beautiful children (because, who else am I writing to?), make your spiritual selves bloom. Plant only those things of worth. Pull baby weeds daily and if you miss something, pull that ugly weed out as soon as you realize it's there, before the root is thick and deep and painful to pull out. And if you need to, take benadryl (pray, read scriptures) before you go out in the yard. You'll be a much happier person and when people meet you, they'll admire your inner strength gained from tending your spiritual backyards.

Some Parenting moments are just So Hard

About two months into sixth grade, Jane went through an extremely painful experience of getting dumped by her best friend. For reasons I'll never understand, this girl couldn't just not do things with Jane, but she shunned her and encouraged others to shun Jane as well.

As a mother, it broke my heart. No mother wants to see their child in pain and to know another was purposefully cruel to my beautiful, loving girl just wrenched at my soul. The day this girl announced she wasn't friends anymore, I went over to her house and she tried to run in so she wouldn't have to hear whatever I was going to say. Luckily for me, her brother locked her out and she had to hear me. I let her know that I expected better from her because I knew she was capable of so much more.

I also let her know that I knew Jane wasn't "cool" or part of the in crowd, but she was making a huge mistake because Jane is loyal and kind, the sort of friend that would never let you down and that I felt bad that she couldn't recognize that. Of course I cried buckets too, my heart was wide open in the pain I felt for my child. Then I left, there was nothing left to say.

I struggled with an incredible amount of resentment. Especially when these girls went to actively shunning my child, running in front of her so she wouldn't be near them while walking home. At school, making cruel comments to tear my girl down.

We were also having trouble with Jane's teachers at this point. I blogged about my struggles with Jane and school earlier, so those struggles are already chronicled. With the whole peer thing and my fear of Jane's self worth being torn apart coupled with all the troubles with school, Jane was pulled and for the rest of sixth grade I home schooled her.

It was a difficult period but I felt spiritually guided to help Jane in areas that she struggled with. I know it was the right decision, I saw her improve in areas of her social development, her comprehension and her maturity. That really helped her last year when she went to public school again. Throw in this girl leaving to live with her mom out of state at the end of sixth grade, Jane had a chance to stretch out and thrive without the constant antagonism.

Before she left for her mom's house, I had a chance to wrestle with my own feelings and find peace. I want my daughter to be the bigger person, to be able to forgive others when wronged but I can't teach her that if I'm unable to do so myself.

I ran into this girl at Walmart and grabbed a minute to put my arm over her shoulder and let her know that that there were no hard feelings towards her. That is still true, I don't have hard feelings towards her but that doesn't mean I want my daughter to let this individual back in wholly and completely when she's possibly not changed.

So with less then two weeks back into town, after a full two years of causing Jane so much pain with one of those years out of state with no contact at all, this neighbor has showed up at our door and announced she wants to be friends with Jane again.

To my daughters credit, and in a showing of how incredibly trusting and forgiving she is, Jane is willing to move forward and have a friendship with this neighbor again. At the same time, Kent and I are afraid of this girl crushing what Jane's built while she's been gone. I truly believe forgiving and not putting yourself in a potentially hurtful situation are two different issues. We love Jane for being the person she is but want her to exercise caution with an individual that frankly, hasn't been in town long enough for any one of us to know truly where her heart lies.

So when the neighbor was at our door, I invited her in and spent some time with her and Jane. We visited and at times it was awkward for all three of us. I found out that while gone, this individual had failed to apply herself towards school, essentially flunking the seventh grade. I found this ironic considering how incredibly bright this teenager is with incredible potential that she's apparently not even aware she has.

It's also ironic because Jane has struggled so much with school herself and even with her learning disability which involves math skills, with the support of an incredible teacher pulled an "A" her last trimester of pre-algebra. Yes my heart swells just a bit when I type that. I am incredibly proud of all the effort she poured into school after such a rocky start that first trimester. I'm not only proud of her academics but Jane's made some extremely close friends.

I pointed out to Jane how good her friends are to her. They love and accept her for who she is, the good, the crazy, the smart, the annoying, embracing all of her without criticism or guile. These are the people she wants to lean onto. These are the friends that will continue to love her for who she is. No matter what happens with the neighbor, I want her to continue to spend time with these other friends. We know these other girls aren't reaching out simply because there is no one else to reach out to right now.

So I guess we wait and see what happens. I trust Jane's judgement and we have an open enough relationship, I hope she will come to us if she needs to. As for myself, I will encourage Jane to spend time with the friends that I know will support her no matter what her choice is concerning the neighbor. Forgiveness or not, time is still needed to trust again. I hope Jane knows that.

Kate Might Have Asthma

She's had a non-stop cough for months and it's become noticeably worse since spring set in. My mom observed her wheezing while pulling weeds with her. So we're pretty darn sure.

I scheduled an appointment and took her in to our family doctor. The concensus was, he could order a bunch of tests or we could take into account family history (that'd be me) and assume asthma, treat for a month, and if it's not better go from there.

I'm all for treating and seeing if it works.

So Kate got a prescription for singulair and for an inhaler. While we were there I asked for a prescription for an inhaler as well, since what I have at my house is at least four years old. I also refilled my expensive "more fluoride then you can imagine" toothpaste at the pharmacy. The stuff that strengthens my teeth that fall apart even with impeccable care. A side note, four children out of four had no cavities last week at the dentist. Thank Heavens the kids apparently haven't inherited my teeth!

But back to Kate. The pharmacy was it's usual brand of chaos, so of course I opted to pick up the prescriptions later that night instead of waiting an hour. Of course I promptly forgot until 9:30 at night. Oh dear.

I was already for bed.

In my pajamas.

Time to change I guess. So change I did and Kate decided she HAD to come with me and she opted to stay in her pajamas, so she ended waiting in the car.

It took longer then expected. The pharmacist asked for names, I gave mine, I gave Kate's. He asked a second time, I gave mine with my birthday, he said, okay he had it. He got a bag with several prescriptions and told me how much was owed. While checking me out, he mentioned the other pharmacist wanted to talk to me about prescriptions.

I walked to the other window, glanced down and realized everything was for me. Oh dear, I said you forgot about Kate! He said, "Well, I asked for names again." Oh sheesh.

So onto discussing the prescriptions. I was asked if I'd ever used these before, I proceeded to spit out all the information I knew, I'm very familiar with both the fluoride toothpaste and the inhaler. So back into line I went, I still needed Kate's stuff!

Ten minutes later (Kate was in the car this whole time), I finally get helped and a prescription is pulled out, scanned and I'm asked "Is the inhaler all there is for her?" Uh, that'd be a big fat no. So he looks up Kate's stuff and lets me know that they are out of the singulair in Kate's dosage. G-reat. So after a call to the pharmacy in Chubbuck and a drive by their window, we're finally taken care of, literally minutes before the Chubbuck pharmacy was closing.

What a way to end the evening!

At least we had some fun before that with a pleasant family night discussing "modesty" using the "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" song to illustrate how you can tell if you're dressed modestly followed by a fun trip to the McKees pet store and ice cream for refreshment.

Hopefully Kate's cough clears up now!

The Pefected Sunday Seating Plan

Kent and I perfected Sunday seating earlier in the month. We thought we had a handle on the kids but there are a few snags when we seat everyone on pew.

1. Although Jane is thirteen and she tries to help, she's so busy being the "fun" sister more often then not she causes more mayhem then she curbs. Really and truly she tries but inevitably if there's a boy next to her, that boy is giggling, shouting or climbing on her head in less then five minutes.

2. Ean has to sit next to a parent.

3. If Ean sits next to me, then I end up with all three boys next to me and/or on top of me.

4. Kate's feelings get hurt when she doesn't get to sit next to me. Oh my goodness, if looks could kill!

5. If I leave to track down a child that went for a "drink" five minutes ago, all the boys follow me out of the chapel.

6. Three weeks ago all three boys decided they were best buddies. Oh the problems that has caused!

So earlier in the month, I had Ean next to me, and forced him on the side where he was sandwiched between his dad. We then had one twin on either side of us, with girls at the end. So the perfected order was Jane, Greg, Me, Ean, Kent, David, and then Kate. Of course, the girls and twins are interchangeable with each other as long as we don't have two twins on one side with the girls on the other. That's a recipe for disaster.

Well the perfected seating plan was moot yesterday because Kent was called to give a talk at another Ward. That left me with all the kids together and from Kate on down, well, one person just is not sufficient.

Why was Kent speaking? Well Kent's the Stake (Wards and branches are separate congregations organized in groups, these groups are called Stakes) representative for Emergency Preparedness. The Stake has individuals called called "High councilmen" and they speak monthly at the various wards and branches bringing messages that the Stake presidency believes wants delivered. These High Councilmen ask people to be speaking partners with them and since Kent has a Stake calling, he's on the list to be a speaking partner.

All that to say, from now on, Kent will be gone once a month leaving me with the kids. Alone. During Sacrament meeting. Well at least when our Sacrament meeting overlaps where ever he's speaking at.

He was at the same building my mom meets at, but her Ward meets first. Mom has had issues with Scott walking into the next Ward's Sacrament meeting and going to the pulpit, to get a Kleenex and then blowing his nose in front of everyone and standing there for a few minutes.

So when Kent saw the Bishop lean over and snatch the tissues and hide them during the meeting, it didn't take Kent long to spot Scott in the back of the chapel. For those not up on the latest, mom moved Scott from Vermont to Idaho almost five months ago. He's in a group home here in town and loves living near our mom again.

Kent says he spoke to the Bishop after church, who was very understanding and Kent let him know Scott's his brother in law.

Back to our meeting, with me sitting alone with the boys, who tend to get unruly. Before the meeting started, our Bishop asked me how I was doing and I mentioned that was a loaded questions since the boys are so unruly and I was there alone. He mentioned getting someone to sit with us.

The meeting started and during the opening song, the Bishop remembered us and went down, spoke to a young lady who promptly came over to us and sat in our pew. I sent David over to her and she entertained and helped him the entire meeting. Just being one boy down really made a difference. Jane helped Ean and that left me with velcro boy (that's Greg if you didn't know) and Kate.

At one point Greg joined the couple behind me and I felt like I was missing kids, they must have escaped, it was so quiet! lol

I am very grateful for the Bishop thinking of our family and for the individuals that helped with the boys, between them all, it was a fairly peaceful meeting with only a few meltdowns.

Next Sunday while Kent is there, they'll be lined up in the perfect order again and hopefully, it'll still work. You never know!

The Great Manly Camping Update

This would be so much better with Kent telling the tales, since he was there and I was not. We are the experts on what we personally experienced and otherwise we're just some bloke retelling someone else's tales. Guess I'm the retelling bloke this time around.

Kent was a little sad on the way up. Kent has all the Harry Potter novels on audio, set up so he can listen while driving. Even though no one has touched the audio book stuff, or I should say, no adult has touched the audio books, Kent couldn't find them for his drive. That left him listening to a little music and a whole lot of Ean on the way up. The real entertainment was apparently the twins conversation.

They had a lively discussion about every broken tractor they passed. They discussed how sad it was. How the farmer couldn't use that tractor. What was wrong with it. You get the idea. Real in depth, broken tractor stuff. Kent said that when they finally passed a tractor that was obviously new and parked someplace like the driveway, the twins erupted into cheers for that tractor and the farmer that had fixed it.

If I could have been a fly on the wall for that one.

Then there was the actual drive up the eyebrow of a road to the campsite. David gave his daddy instructions to not fall off the mountain. Actually, first David made sure they were on the road, then made sure they were headed up and then he strongly advised Kent to back down the road where they would be safe. Kent had to break it to him that if he wanted to camp, they had to keep going up. Well, David conceeded that if that was the only choice to camp, they could keep going up, but his dad had better be very careful and not fall off!

Kent's been watching this trucking show on Netflix that takes place in India with extremely narrow roads on thousand feet cliffs. David probably would have been more at ease on that mountain road if he hadn't watched the trucking show with daddy.

They made it up the road and since Kent was sleeping with all the boys in the suburban, All he had to do was park. The stress of finding that "perfect spot" for a tent, was alleviated! Now Kent was searching for a fire. See last "father, son" camp out, Kent just borrowed a fire and didn't worry about building his own. This time no one was building a fire. Kent hadn't brought his own fire building stuff, so this was a problem.

Kent had brought hot dogs for dinner and marshmallows for the boys. Not having a fire really put a damper on his evening plans. Luckily a good friend of Kent's came up with his sons. This friend is studying to be a chef, and to Kent's absolute delight, he was able to feed hot dogs to all the kids and eat a dinner far nicer then he had dreamed of when packing earlier that day.

It was a win-win for all the men and boys involved, lol.

Both the twins did manage to burn their fingers on marshmallows later that night unfortunately. I don't believe the memories of these injuries will hinder the roasting of marshmallows during future camp outs. As far as the boys are concerned, it's just not a camp out without marshmallows!

The boys announced they were tired and ready for bed at ten. However Kent says the movement in the suburban kept going until well past 11:30. On the drive home the next day, there were some exhausted boys that napped in the car.

Kent was extremely impressed with how much ground the boys cover while they sleep. Ean stayed in his section of the 'burb. He was down by the front, with his personal belongings stashed in all kinds of crevices, that he of course lost by morning. However Greg was near Kent's head, okay, so he didn't start out close but he moved right next to his dad several times during the night.

Kent also said that David undid himself from the sleeping bag over and over again.

Now for morning, I didn't get any reports on breakfast, but I assume everyone was fed and happy. There were activities the next day. Someone obviously went into a lot of effort to plan what happened next and it's so painfully obvious the planners were men and not mothers.

Someone had this nifty idea to have Gadianton robbers, an evil group of murderous thieves in the Book of Mormon, attack the camp. For simplicities sake, we will now refer to them as the twins do, Bad Guys, attacked the camp.

Kent would like me to point out that whenever the twins called them bad guys, Ean corrected them and said pretend bad guys.

Passed out to the group of children were wooden swords, extremely long wooden swords, so the children could fight the (pretend) bad guys. This is the part where obviously no moms were present in the planning. The swords are at least three and a half feet long, definitely taller then the twins.

At this point I planned to insert photos to show the wicked looking swords, but photobucket isn't cooperating with me. I may just download Kent's pictures to facebook.

Anyway, the boys all attacked the (pretend) bad guys with the swords. Kent said it looked rather hairy for the (pretend) bad guys, so a little organization allowed each boy to take a turn sword fighting.

At this point there was a problem with all the self starters who felt that throwing pine cones was an acceptable method of continuing this battle against evil, even if it wasn't their turn with the swords. It took the words of multiple adults to multiple children multiple times to stop the assault on the (pretend) bad guys. Ean was amongst the pine cone throwers, I know you're all surprised by this. Yeah right. :)

Kent said that there was only a dozen or so instances where eyes were almost lost but in the end everyone survived including the (pretend) bad guys without anyone needing first aid. I should add, I don't know how many mishaps were narrowly avoided that Kent did not see.

Someone also made real metal tomahawks, which were thrown at wooden targets. Kent filmed both of the twins throwing theirs. I would have had a heart attack on the spot if I realized my five year olds were throwing sharpened metal at wood.

Finally Kent did take his boys fishing. The twins are determined that fishing is to feed the fish. They will be scarred for life if they ever catch anything and witness a fish being gutted and fried for dinner. There was also a stop at the Grace fish hatchery to really feed fish. After Kent lost a quarter in the food dispenser, he was given a huge chunk of fish food which the boys dumped into the water by the fist fulls. Talk about feeding frenzy!

So that's the guys big camp out. They had a blast, obviously. They may be disappointed our next family camp out when we're not attacked by (pretend) bad guys. Oh well.

Kent's New Job

Well this post will be a little different because I'm actually writing it weeks before I can post it. You see Kent has a new job but I can't talk about it. Oh where to start?

Well first, to field all the inevitable questions.

What about the store?

Well the store will close. We are extremely grateful with the Lords blessings and even with the inevitable frustrations that come along with working the family business, we've seen the Lord's hand in all the years Kent's work there. Decisions on what to sell, and to stay there were definitely inspired, especially when I found myself pregnant with the twins. Kent was going to leave and had actually given notice right when I found myself pregnant. We both felt strongly that he needed to stay and the store provided flexibility for our twice weekly trips to Salt Lake, along with the blessing that was pretty incredible insurance that covered most of what would have cost us a quarter of a million for our extremely expensive miracle boys.

That said, there is a season for everything and the season for the store has passed. The others that worked to sustain the store had left leaving Kent alone (occasionally getting a break from his younger brother, but not often). The glory days were over and so were the days of great profit. Truth be told, at best the store broke even and there were times where that did not happen leaving us without a steady income.

It is frustrating to see my wonderful husband pour so much of himself into something that gave little in return.

Since our family was the only one left carving any living out of the store, then Kent leaving means closing is inevitable. This opens other opportunities for other family members that hopefully will leave them better off financially as well.

Why can't I post this right away?

Well I'm writing this on June eleventh, 2011 but I probably won't be able to post until early to mid July. Simply put, every company Kent's ever worked for has stiffed the business their last check and Kent's trying to collect that. Keeping in mind that this is a commissions check of money already earned.

Really it's frustrating to not shout from the rafters about this change in our lives, so if you know me in real life and this takes you by surprise, this is why I didn't say anything. Anyone that knows me knows the extent this particular challenge is. :)

So what's Kent's new job?

In a real career change, Kent is being hired as a loan officer for a company that, well gives loans out.

I hope there are opportunities and stepping stones here for him. I hope and pray it's something he can really enjoy. His new boss is an incredibly nice individual that seems to really like Kent. Apparently Kent was THE only person remotely qualified for the job and his people skills will be put to work in this new career.

Kent initial nervousness over his career change has slipped into a real anticipation and excitement over doing something new.

What's Kent doing until his job starts?

The business has been going for a decade at it's current location. So Kent's been cleaning, dejunking and preparing the building for sale. Kent's still going into work, still making sales when people want to buy but he's putting a lot of effort into cleaning now. He's also getting stuff ready for his new job. He had to take a drug test (the kids asked what this meant and all went "EWWW" in unison when they found out it meant peeing in a cup). There's a ton of paperwork he's had to fill out, not to mention the background check.

Of course he needs training before he can start as well. So there's lots to do the next few weeks.

There's down time as well. Kent's closing the store at five instead of six. There's simply no reason for him to stay late when he could be spending time with his family in the evening. Of course we love having him earlier.

What kind of hours will he be working?

He told me and I can't remember exactly but a few nights a week he'll be late, quitting at seven at night. He'll have an hour for lunch during the day and actual vacation time! His new boss seems extremely flexible given enough notice. Kent's hoping we could actually pull off a trip to Southern Utah over spring break next year, something we've never been able to do in the past because Kent couldn't take the time off on his own.

So that's that. The big huge update of the biggest change in our personal lives since the twins were born. I will proof-read this, probably miss a few grammar mistakes and post this at some later date, mistakes intact. I hope for more positive updates for our family with this career change for Kent. We are excited!

Our Girls Night

Still no word on Kent and how his overnight camping went with the three red headed boys. I assume they're fishing right now. They'll come home when they're hungry and out of food, I'm sure. So I figured I'd chronicle our girls night. I know the girls will want to remember this.

My mom being the sweetheart she is took us out to dinner. Well actually, we said, how about dinner and she treated us. We had fun at sizzler, Kate had chicken strips with fries, Jane had a burger and mom and I enjoyed some delicious fair from the salad bar. I also had a third of Jane's burger, she pronounced herself full after less then half of it.

We had a blast just spending time together and talking. Jane's not always the most talkative girl (unless it's transformers or some other obsession) but even Jane opened up and joined the conversation.

We then went to Walmart and traveled up and down the hair dye isle. Jane decided she really wanted high lights, so we bought a high light kit, I bought some medium auburn for myself, really it's like my own hair on steroids and for Kate we bought pink dye. Mom opted to go home and skip the hair dyeing session. Wimp. :)

So while watching tangled, which Jane and I hadn't seen and Kate's only watched twice (snicker), we did hair. Well I did hair. I put highlights in Jane's hair, and after hers was done, did Kate's hair which was sorely lacking in directions. The most I had to go by was the sentence "for a more natural looking color, apply to unbleached hair..." Well of course we wanted more natural (as if pink is natural) and we did not want a shocking, in your face color. I failed to take into account that Kate is a natural pale blond, and the dye actually adhered to her hair as if it was bleached.

Now Marja has put this pink in Kate's hair before but I had no idea the time frame she had it in, searching my memory this morning, I'm thinking possibly five minutes. I'm thinking I had it in for far longer. So Kate's hair has some shocking pink in it! It's fabulous and it will wash out but I won't make her wash her hair until Monday so she can have the full effect for a few days.

Kate's dad is extremely conservative with hair. Good thing it will wash out, uh, eventually. :)

Our girls weekend ended with all of us sleeping in, except Jane who gets up insanely early on Saturday, but Kate and I had our priorities straight. Then I made french toast with some yummy sausage and we sat together at the table discussing "real" maple syrup vs fake "maple" flavored syrup. I'm pretty most people know where this Vermont born lady stands, now to just teach my Idaho born children, lol.

So when I know, I'll update on the guys but no matter what happened with them, I can guarantee we girls enjoyed our weekend together!

Camping in the June Rain.

Thank Heavens it's not me. lol!

Kent is going on the Father and Son with all three of his sons for the first time tomorrow night. Kent will be cozy and warm in the suburban but I'm thinking that won't work if Ean gets any taller.

Speaking of which, Ean proudly told me, that he is "almost" taller then me. Well, not quite son, he actually comes up to my armpit and he will most definitely be taller then me, probably by early teens. I'll break it to him gently that it's actually not hard to be taller then his mom. :) Now if gets taller then his dad, he's got a shot for some real height. Maybe Ean's got some Papa in him? We'll see. :)

The twins I fear may be Rush through and through. Now my paternal grandfather was an extremely tall man. He was over six foot but my grandmother was a little wisp of a woman and well, my dad took after his mom height wise. So my dad's genes may well be what the twins are channeling, we will just have to wait and see.

So the girls and I need to have an evening of something special. Now to figure out what that will be....

I will retell the tails of Kent's camping after the fact because of course anything said now is just speculation. Everyone knows that those Hill boys often out do themselves then the absolute worst my imagination conjures up.

Report Cards.

Jane: Well we haven't actually received Jane's report card yet, they don't trust the middle school kids to bring them home, so they mail them. However despite a rocky start to the school year, Jane ended very strong. Our beautiful girl started the year with an experiment called "Not turning in any assignments in English".

It didn't go so well.

After an extremely difficult first trimester of having no life except school and homework, she realized that if you work, you can actually see your friends socially. This was a turning point for her. Now in all fairness, Jane was in resource room most of her school career, with an IEP allowing for assignment extensions. So it really was foreign for her, this whole idea that the teacher really did expect stuff turned in, when she told the class it was due.

Jane was also going through this extremely slow and messy process of being put back on an IEP. After much testing, it was confirmed (six weeks before Summer vacation) that she does have a learning disability. She struggles with reading fluency and comprehension and she also struggles with basic math skills.

Now amazingly, Jane was blessed with a math teacher that recognized her struggles and gave her extra time to finish quizzes and tests along with extra instructions when needed. Because of this incredible teacher, Jane was the only student in her class to get an A on the second trimester pre-algebra final. She was carrying an A the whole of the last trimester, so I expect she did well overall. She will also stay in mainstream math with extra help. I'm so proud of the effort she's put into school and am thrilled that her IEP is in place for not only eighth grade but when she starts High School the following year.

Kate: Kate's year was similar to Jane's in that the first of the year was kinda rocky grade wise but with the help of excellent teachers and the diagnosing of learning disability and a brand new IEP, she finished the year with a fabulous run of A's and B's in all her classes. I am so proud of Kate.

School has always been such a struggle for her. She has a really low score in what is called "Active learning", which is the process the brain uses for multi-tasking in the classroom. It looks like she's being inattentive but it's actually her just not being able to process everything as quickly as needed. It's super frustrating for her and I've had issues with teachers believing she's slacking. Very. Frustrating.

Like Jane, Kate's IEP will be in place during a critical transition, for her, Middle School. After that nightmare that was Jane, not having an IEP in sixth grade, I can't fully expressed how relieved I am to have Kate taken care of.

Ean: Well. Things are pretty much the same with Ean. If he didn't score well on something, it was because he didn't try. Every time he put forth effort, he easily breezed through the work. His biggest struggle remains to be his emotional maturity. It's hard for him to interact with other children and he gets frustrated easily when things aren't as he thinks they should be.

Best quote from Ean this year "Make sure the twins don't get Mrs. Ellis for first grade, she's MEAN! She says I get in trouble ten times a day but that's a lie!!!!!! I only get in trouble once a day.

I mean, what do you say to THAT? Bwahahaha!!!

I'm trying to focus on Ean's interactions with others. Trying to help him problem solve verbally and trying desperately to get him to use a nicer tone of voice. I know he'll get the hang of it eventually. I do hope we can find him a close friend. He desperately needs a friend.

Greg and David: Really each boy should have their own report but there's not to much to say that's different at this point. They're going to Kindergarten in the Fall. They've grown so much. Have learned letters, numbers and really have gained valuable skills for school.

They are mischievous little imps that will melt your heart in a moment. They are quick to hug, quick to kiss (me! lol) and quick to blame either Ean or each other when something goes wrong.

Greg is sure that everyone is confused at his identity, even daddy and mommy, so he always makes sure that we know who he is. David rather likes it when people are confused over who's who. :)

So we're headed to a new part of lives. Past babies, past toddlers and pre-schoolers, one a year short from high school and another a year short from middle school and boys taking elementary by storm! Watch out Wilcox! Are you ready for my three red headed boys???

Three days

Do you know what can happen in three days? Okay, unfair question, pretty much anything can happen in three days. Life changing events can happen in far less time. World changing events for that matter.

Or, my children could just elect me warden in that time.

See, three days is exactly the time it took after the last day of school before Kent put a padlock on the pantry door.

Last day of school was Wednesday and by Saturday afternoon, Kent was installing the lock. This was with copious warnings. Dire predictions, all to no avail.

See I spent an extra hundred dollars at the grocery store on Thursday for kids afternoon snacks. Now that they're home, I felt the need to plan ahead. I looked for more nutritious snacks, did not buy pure garbage. Yogurt without dyes and additives, cheese sticks, more apples (I'm always buying apples, lol), Tons of peanut butter crackers, almonds, those kinds of snacks.

They kept getting into them, even with a specific time eating these things was allowed (We'd have snack between 3:00 and 4:00 on weekdays). The proverbial straw was breakfast Saturday morning. Kent made homemade corn beef hash. I had a huge bowl of fresh cantaloupe chunks. There was plenty of food. However when Kent was away from the table, he came back to the majority of the children eating the crackers instead of their breakfast, some even throwing food away so they could eat snacks!

Heck no kids!!!!!!!

So, now there's a padlock on the pantry door. It matches the padlock on the deep freeze, David had been helping himself to chocolate chips and at the rate they're going, the fridge is next.

That really isn't a problem, the fridge is outfitted for a padlock thanks to all the trouble we had with Ean a few years ago. Now to find the lock.

I am SUCH a KLUTZ

I realize it's been a long time and truthfully I've felt kind of down about life in general for various reasons. Sometimes, I just don't want to relive what I've just experienced by writing it down. But I made a goal a while back to be a record keeper, so my June resolution (lol!) is to do just that.

So today, I'm recording my klutz-y-ness. I might as well. I had two five year old witnesses that I'm fairly certain will remind me all summer long. Especially when I hook the bike trailer up to haul them places.

Let me start by saying today was the first day of Lunch at the park and the kids, love getting lunch at the park. It's a federal program providing lunches for children under 19. With my five, that's 25 meals a week. What a blessing!

They were so excited, they pestered me all morning. And I do mean ALL. MORNING. LONG. Finally it was time to go and I let Ean and the girls go ahead of me. I had the boys in the trailer and took off. Now firstly, the guys get really upset when I don't get my foot in my toe clip immediately. We are talking within the first revolution, not understanding I have to get that little thing called "momentum" going before I can put the darn toe clip on.

So I was already hearing that from the back..... "MOooooom, it's Up-SIDE-Down!!! Before you think it's to cute, let me remind you that I have two back there harping on me.

Secondly, my kickstand was off. I don't know what the deal was but my pedal was hitting the kickstand. I glanced down, saw it was up, checked my path, glanced again to make sure I was safe in motion, looked up and creamed myself into the neighbors parked truck.

Humiliating!

Now I did see the truck enough to slow down, so I didn't hit it full on. I managed to not fall over but jammed my wheel under the fender. Oy! It was really stuck. The neighbor spotted me (cause I wasn't embarrassed enough with my five year old twin witnesses), helped me get the wheel out, asked if I was okay and then it was time for me to check my bike out.

Amazingly enough, my tire was still round. My tire still had air. The verdict is still out whether or not I may have put a small hole in the tire, I'll check tomorrow for slow leaks.

So with no reason to stick around, I got on the bike and took off to the park.

Holy heck. The entire way, I heard two little voices back seat driving.

"MoMMMM, don't hit another parked truck." (wasn't planning on it Son)

"Oh no mom, don't hit a park car either!" (Also not in the plans)

"Look look look, there's a car turning on the road, don't hit it!"

You can see where this is going. The entire trip to the park and the entire trip home over an hour later, was filled with these beautiful gems from the bossiest back seat drivers on the planet. I may die.

My only hope is they are still young enough to forget these things so they can't tell stories at family reunions when I'm old and grey.

Camping!

I'm not a big fan of camping however Kent loves it. Adores it! Complained all last winter that we wasted the summer because we didn't camp.

So he picked this last weekend to go out and camp. He was a bit wishy-washy on how long he wanted to go but I pushed for three days mostly because I did NOT want to go through another winter listening to that man (as much as I love him) express more regrets on lost camping opportunities.

So we were a go. Actually we were planning on this trip with friends but they backed out. So it was us solo and Kent throwing possibilities left and right. I told him, I didn't care, I'd pack food and clothes, just take us somewhere.... ANYWHERE.

Friday Kent got off of work at 1:00 and there was still lots of packing to do. We left around three. Traveling north towards Leadore, sometime after six the children were going crazy. We usually eat dinner by six, so they were starving. We realized to the left of us, there was a campground. Picture basic desolation, sagebrush and dried grass with mountains in the distance. Most of Idaho is composed of the Rockies, with the exception of South Eastern Idaho which lies in the Snake River Plain. That's where we live.

So we were still over an hour from where Kent wanted to go, so we quickly changed our plans and pulled into the campground. We quickly found this ideal spot that Kent was able to just back right into. We had a fast moving stream on one side and an irrigation ditch on the other. We were surrounded by water and the sounds was so soothing and lovely.

We quickly let the children know that swimming was OUT. This water was to deep and to fast for them. Thankfully everyone listened and we didn't have to fish anyone out of the creek.

The biggest accident was me of course. Just call me Grace. *eye roll*

Getting stuff for dinner and stepping quickly out of the camp trailer on the cinder block below, I lost my balance and landed on my back. Several oddball scrapes, some terrific bruises and a few days later, sore ribs but overall I am fine. Kent congratulated me on my ability to land without breaking any bones.

As I was laying on the ground, not moving, trying to figure out if I was hurt or not, a desperate Greg climbed on top of me, extremely upset and worried that I was hurt. He would not move off of me until I kissed him on the lips. He asked over and over if I was "Kay" and pursed his lips. I kissed him and he quickly scrambled off completely reassured that I was fine.

We then had a thoroughly enjoyable evening with roasted hot dogs, smores and a rousing game of Yahtzee with the girls.

The next morning, Greg was up at the crack of dawn. I managed to keep him entertained with a yogurt and a walk. David was soon up and Kent got up to fish with the boys. Both little boys jabbered with excitement at "feeding the fish."

I let Kent know that actually catching a fish, followed by gutting and eating just might be traumatic for those two. Thankfully it wasn't an issue.

Eventually even Jane rolled out of bed and Kent made a hot breakfast with sausage, hashbrowns and eggs. David had a rough morning with stuff blowing away and spills of his hot chocolate. Poor guy.

After breakfast we packed up and went to Lemhi and our next campsite. We parked next to a lovely creek that was wade-a-ble and after our lunch up in the mountains along the Lewis and Clark trail we made it back to camp where the kids relaxed and played in the water. Well except Jane who chose to bury herself in a book in the camp trailer for the afternoon.

Dinner was a fiasco, to say the least! I had planned on pizza pockets and had crescent roll dough to use and all the fixings to go with. However the irons needed to make enough pizza pockets for the whole family were in the garage. So Kent and I let the kids eat hot dogs for the second night in a row (with no objections I might add) while we used the one iron we had to make our own pockets.

Kent's first attempt turned out perfect but most of his dinner flew into a bush when a massive breeze threw our camp into a frenzy. My pocket was burned. I wanted it a little more crispy and got black instead. While making another for Kent, my inner spaz took over and somehow I managed to coat myself in pizza sauce. Thus ensuring I would have no clean shirt Sunday and ended up wearing my pajama top all the way home.

It sure tried to storm but we had decent enough weather for more smores and then bed.

I slept great. My husband gave me the "Princess and the Pea" treatment and piled the foam pads up on my bed. With all my achy joints from falling the day before, I really appreciated the show of love!

Our final day before heading home. Jane showing a great amount of tact and gratitude for having food said "yeah, a cold breakfast on a cold morning" when she learned I had cold cereal for everyone. I almost smacked her on the side of the head. I don't know where she gets that sarcasm from.

*cough*

ANYWAY, we tore up camp, called it all good and went and soaked in some hot pools that were fairly near by. Then it was homeward bound.

WHAT?!

Oh homeward bound. Most of that drive was made without a muffler. Apparently towing the trailer uphill did it in. Talk about noisy. I understood nothing when spoken to from the back seat. It could have been worse though. Noisy as it was, the 'burb still made it home. :)

I think I was spoiled.

I really miss "just" being a stay at home mom. I can't work full time, I only work part, sometimes very part time, but my hours in the evening. I'm so tired during the day and my body's schedule is so messed up, when I'm home, I can't go to bed early.

*sigh*

Why am I doing this, what luxuries am I buying? You know the automatic assumption is that if both people are working, it's for the "extras" Well the extras in our house include clothes, you know, fancy K-mart so my kids aren't nekkid clothes. Oh, money for our retirement fund, we are so in trouble there and I HAVE to contribute as much as possible or we'll be working until death. Then there's shoes, the online learning site for the girls, occasionally I decide to cut my wild woman hair and that of course costs money.

I've done everything "right" and we're still in trouble.

Well not trouble trouble. Really I have to pull myself into perspective. I don't think our children feel poor. I don't believe they're are lacking really. Our needs are met! I count blessings daily for food, clothes, being able to pay our bills without having to choose between water and electricity, or mortgage and phone.

Our home actually fits our family. It's a tight fit but the twins share a bedroom and everyone else has their own room. Oh I long for a craft room again. A space of my own because I don't have that and my sewing and crafts are so screwed up right now from kids rifling through everything. I have a dozen quilts scattered now, where they once were all organized. :( I could have picked up any project and just started sewing and now. Well. It's depressing. I don't even know if I'll find all the pieces and that saddens me. Just saddens me.

So perspective is great. It's vital to my happiness, I know this. My mortal side still struggles. My creative self feels stifled. It's calling to come out and I have no place to put it. I use to paint, to create, it's part of my being. And now my energy is spent cleaning toilets.

Part of me wonders if someday will ever come.

I don't have regrets but I do have desires. Human, I believe that makes me. Slightly stressed human.

I could sigh again, but who has the time?

Camping and the Crazy People

This spring Kent has finally bought himself a camp trailer. He's been working on fixing it up, it's older and does need work but he's really enjoyed himself. However we hadn't gone camping in it yet. So Kent decided we should go overnight, a quick trip and really, we've had this thing for months the kids were just itchen to sleep in the thing.

Marja wanted to go out of town, her babysitting job tanked this weekend and she decided to take her kids and just leave however her plans fell through and I invited her along. We gave my mom little choice and let her know she was joining in the fun as well. Kent did chew me out for giving mom a hard time, mentioning that maybe, just maybe, my mom would enjoy a break from us. However when I called, my expressed a desire to go, asking me if I remembered what day Saturday was (my parents anniversary) and said she didn't want to be alone. Just for the record, today, July 3, 2010, my parents would have been married 45 years.

So we had two vehicles, Kent hauling the trailer of course, four adults and eight children and one dog. Because that beast of ours is so darn pitiful we couldn't leave him behind, although we almost did when he ran off right before we were going to leave.

There's a spot on public grounds with free camp sites that's really nice and we decided to check there. We picked a spot, it wasn't the best spot, it was a little tricky to back the trailer into but the kids wanted to get out, we were right by a stream and it was four in the afternoon. Our chances of finding a spot were decreasing rapidly on a holiday weekend.

Kent backed in the trailer, we set up camp. The children had a blast playing in the stream. Kent brought up his BB gun and did target practice with the kids. All the children loved it. Some idget left their old beer and pop cans by the fire so there were lots of targets for the kids to shoot at.

Kent, Marja and Isaiah had their bikes and went biking. Mom, Marja and I went on a walk. Jesse went with EVERYONE and I'm pretty sure he'll sleep for the next 24 hours. The twins played. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, snacked on Pirate's booty and grapes. It was a great evening.

At 9:00, it was getting dark and Isaiah was itching to ride his bike again. Kent said he'd go with him, but he wanted the traffic to die down first. All of a sudden there were a bunch of vehicles on the road right in front of where we were camped. This spot was tricky for Kent to back into and between the 'burb parked four feet in front of the trailer, we were really hidden from the road.

This brunette walks into our camp and loudly says "Okay, what did you guys do with our Tent?"

We had no idea WHAT she was talking about. Of course immediately we were on edge because her tone was very accusatory. She was clearly blaming us for stealing and/or hiding her tent. She says (very agitated) that they had put a tent, some camp chairs and a cooler at that sight on Tuesday (oh HELLO, it's Friday), to save a spot on the holiday weekend.

Wait.

So you left your tent for four days and three nights, so no. one. else. can use this FREE, PUBLIC ACCESS LAND. Well we hadn't seen it and at nine at night, we sure as heck weren't leaving because they called DIBS.

When I reached the spot where these folks were hashing it out with Kent, this blond, extremely upset comments that surely we knew someone planned on being there because of the firewood stacked at the campsite. Well yes, we had noticed but people leave firewood all the time. WE leave firewood if there's any left over and sometimes it's a little and sometimes it's a lot. It means nothing. She started to argue.

This muscle head, obviously lifts weights asked if he could as least get his wood. We told him sure, he was welcome to! The brunette that first accused us of messing with her tent meanwhile searched our camp to see if her tent was tossed in the brush. We could hear the guy throwing the wood in his truck. I think if there weren't children there he may have gotten violent. Marja thought he looked high, I really don't know.

These people had two blond girls, about ten and seven I think that were walking around obviously not understanding what was going on.

They finally pulled out after all the wood was picked up and went up the road where they sat quite a while, apparently they found their tent up there. Our best guess, someone figured out they weren't they, undid their tent and pitched it farther up so they could camp. I'm pretty sure they thought we not only had thrown the tent away but were lying about it. It was obvious from the accusations they assumed the worst in people.

Later that night Kent and I hid everything in the brush and farther into the camp just in case that man came back looking for a little payback. It was a good day to have Jesse with us. A 100 pound dog a good deterrent for someone wanting to cause problems.

I felt bad for the kids. It was obvious since they were pulling in at 9:00 pm at night they planned on putting those kids to bed and booze it up.

Even though we had a late start, our children had a solid five hours of play play play. Oh they had so much fun!

So that was camping. Thankfully that one blip was the only shadow on an otherwise perfect night. Perfect if you don't count all the pills I had to take to keep my hayfever under control.

More Ean

Well after my son's experience with my mom and stealing, I had hoped he would have learned not to steal. Unfortunately he didn't. In his head he basically decided that he needed to lie better so he wouldn't get caught. He stole from the gift shop at Craters of the Moon. He stole from the trailer supply store his dad goes too.

The pocket knife from the trailer supply store he managed to keep under wraps for a week before getting caught. I was at wits end. What we were doing, taking the items away, making him pay for the item with his money, not allowing him to steal and being grounded for the day wasn't working so two weeks ago we played hard ball.

Conveniently we still needed to switch rooms for the boys and the twins had only crib mattresses on their floor to sleep on. So we cleaned up Ean's stuff, put the crib mattresses in the garage and moved the twins stuff in the bigger room.

Ean was allowed one blanket that night. He's earned a few more blankets and a twin size mattress back but he hasn't earned a bed. He's not allowed to spend the night anywhere, not even grandma. He's not allowed to play with friends and he's only allowed to ride his bike if he's going to the park and I'm biking because he has to bike with me.

*sigh*

I hate hard ball.

Really really hate it but what we were doing wasn't working and I KNOW he's a good kid. Once he makes the decision on stealing it won't ever be an issue for him, but he's got to decide. Hopefully he realizes the consequences just aren't worth it and then, he can realize how good it feels to make righteous choices.

So hardball. That's the game. And we the parents are up to playing, but hopefully we won't ever have to play *quite* that hard again.

LaGOON!

We're managing to fit some fun into summer. Even though finances are extra tight and it's not always easy to get our crew ready to go anywhere involving early rising. Well, okay, rising in the early am isn't a problem. Getting them dressed, sun screened, pottied and loaded, THAT's the challenge.

Even though money IS tight, we promised the kids a trip to Lagoon. Now they've never been, unless you count Kate going as a fetus when I was four months pregnant with her. So they really had no idea what was in store and well, they're all old enough to enjoy the experience. Plus my mom found these KILLER COUPONS that brought the entrance fee down to $29.00 a person. Best price ever. My mom pitched in and helped with the entry price and we provided food of course.

To say the kids had a blast is the hugest of understatements, lol.

We Sun screened thoroughly and other then a few misunderstandings, with my cell phone being left home and Kent telling us he'd meet us at one ride while saying another (we went with what he said) I'd call the day absolutely perfect.

A few highlights, the twins loved the carousel. David thought that not being able to ride the swings and the adult bumper cars was just plain MEAN and riding the little bumper cars was frustrating because he didn't know how to move if he bumped into the wall. At 47 and 1/2 inches tall Ean was the perfect height to ride every kiddie ride and almost every adult ride.

Ean road "The Screamer" with my mom and proceeded to scream the second it started moving because his mormor shared the rides name with him. Mom says she laughed hysterically through the whole ride. David giggled so much, his daddy thought he would pee his pants while riding the dinosaur egg drop.

We ended the day with a bang, going on the rapids and all of us, except Kent, rode home soaking wet. How unfair is THAT? A few pictures. First David and Greg on the kiddie boats. Who'd thunk this ride would be as fun as it was for them? And it killed Jane waiting for them to ride it too, lol.



Ean on a car



When we were split up, Kent took the twins on the scrambler, he said they kept hitting heads.



Now here's Kate on the cars



And Jane riding the rapids. We all LOVED this one! We would have gone again except it was incredibly late and everyone was getting very cranky and hungry!



So that was Lagoon. Ean asked me the following day why we didn't live there. Deep words, deep words.

Ean Ean Ean Ean Ean Ean Ean

*followed by much shaking of heads, both mine and Kent*

Last Friday was really a tough day as a parent. It's so hard to teach and teach our children, yet they're still their own persons and have to make their own decisions. The result? Sometimes wrong decisions are made. My roll as a mother, help them understand and correct that wrong decision, help them see the consequence of a wrong decision and reassure them through the process that they are still loved.

Such was my day a week ago.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

My mom and Ean had one last play date planned together before the ending of school. Ean has enjoyed his time with my mother immensely. My mom loves Ean dearly and understands his impulsiveness and challenges because of it. It should have been a special day but while grocery shopping, Ean took some candy. My mom didn't realize it until they were back at her house and he hid in a closet from her. Obviously he knew he was wrong.

Mom hauled him over here, got money from his piggy bank and we talked. We talked about how it was wrong, how it takes a lot of courage to make things right but how he'd feel so much better after paying for the candy. He was able to walk out on his own two feet and he leaned against my mom going into the store, but went and paid for the goods, which promptly got thrown out.

To quote my mom "You don't get rewards for stealing"

Of course his special day with my mom was cut short. Top that off with a wad of goods found in his closet from all over the house (Me, Taking from Jane, Kate or me and dad is just as bad as stealing from the store!)

It was a long and emotional day. I'm not sure how to instill those boundaries he seems so oblivious too. Or maybe, deliberately obtuse would be a better way to say it.

He's a challenge, in so many ways. I do know what a good kid he is. We just have to help him want to make better choices.

Codependent much?

Oh my goodness, am I REALLY prepared for summer? Yesterday the guys hung on me. all. day. long. It was as if they decided to make up for an entire school year apart from me!

They really do a good job separating without undo anxiety but I think me hauling myself off to work before bedtime while they were still two trained them. Greg has a harder time then David.

Actually there were times on the bus when I was really afraid Greg wouldn't get to ride because he wouldn't let himself be buckled in. He'd have to come back to hug me no less then fifteen times! The bus driver only got terse once. We did practice separating at school too, at times I would go in with David after playing outside while Greg would yell, just to practice being away.

As much as I hate hearing him cry, he has to realize that I WILL come back, each and every time. Practice is the only way to ensure that.

I also believe that something else is going on, a bit of trying to out do his twin. They do this at the house too. I know, I know, consistency. :) It does get hard when one gives me a kiss, then the OTHER has to give me a kiss, so then the first needs to hug me and then the OTHER needs to hug me and I spend the next two hours with the two attached to my hip as if I'd velcro'd them there.

That pretty much describes all day yesterday. However I did get rid of David briefly by telling him to go play in the dirt to get ready for daddy coming home. He was very enthusiastic about that! *laugh*

I guess we'll see how the summer proceeds. I suspect the farther along we go, the better we'll be. At least I have hope that's how it'll be, because I won't be sane if I repeat yesterday's clinging all summer long!

Bitter Sweet

Today was the last day of Head Start for the twins. While I love watching them grow, saying goodbye to the wonderful people that nurture, influence, LOVE my children is always hard. Of course the boys don't understand. They're still so young, memories of head start will fade except for little bursts here and there.

At least that's how it is for me. I was a head start kid. I remember making candles in the sandbox. Picking dandelions for the Guinea pig that was in the classroom. I remember the purple dinosaur slide. I adored the purple dinosaur slide.

I asked mom if she remembers my teachers and she said she sure does. We as parents do the remembering of those that give their all to the children.

I love both of the boys teachers and the aids. Pam and Karen, oh my, I was so excited to find out they would have Greg! Of course, four for Ean was very difficult. He's such a good kid but he's easily frustrated, not always able to express himself and STUBBORN. *laugh* He was even more so at four. Really his communication had just taken off the year before, so the beginning of the year was a little hairy. There were some wonderful children in his class that really struggled even more then he did.

However Pam and Karen took them all on, and boy it was fun to watch them grow and mature. So to have them switch ages to the three year olds and then get Greg, who is very much like Ean personality wise, was a blessing. Actually there were a few times when Greg and David were with me and Pam would gaze at them and talk to them while telling me "I want one". Meaning of course, I want one in my class.

Dawn only had this year at head start but I feel awful lucky David got her. Dawn and JoAnn were a wonderful team and the joy they received from working with the kids was so darn obvious. I love that about them!!!

Ean's last day is tomorrow. Ms. Bangs has had all of my children so far in Kindergarten. She has the patience of a saint but is also extremely firm with boundaries and expectations. I'd love both the twins to have her as well when we reach that point but I don't think that's possible.

I really need to do some more planning over the weekend so while the girls are summer schooling, I have appropriate stuff the guys as well. I think if we work hard Ean could well be into reading before first grade. If I can get him to slow down that is.....

So the bitter sweet.

It's been a wonderful year.

I LOVE Dirty Jobs!

The television show that is.

Although it IS an entertaining show, the host Mike Rowe is extremely personable, not afraid to do something he may do wrong or worse ruin and on top of that, has an extremely strong stomach able to handle stuff that would send me hurling in the woods after mere seconds. That is not however why I love the show.

I love the show because of the phone call I received tonight while at work.

You see, Ean is a Dirty Jobs fanatic. He loves ALL that IS dirty jobs. We hadn't realized the true benefit of the show yet.

Kent let me know one of the twins had smeared poop all over the bathroom. It was probably David, he's having a terrible time learning the art of "wiping". (He'll love reading THAT when he's older). Of course Kent was thrilled at the prospect of cleaning the mess.

Apparently Ean readily volunteered. He said he'd clean up the mess. Ean, although sometimes extremely helpful, was really stepping out of his comfort zone, the bathroom isn't usually assigned to him. So Kent sent him in armed with bathroom cleaner and paper towels (I assume, Kent didn't actually say). After a wee bit, Kent went to check on him.

Kent says Ean was busy just scrubbing away. He paused just long enough to tell his daddy, This is a DIRTY JOB, JUST LIKE the TV show and some one's gotta do THE DIRTY JOBS!!!!

Oh my holy heck, how HYSTERICAL is THAT????!!!!!!!!

So we'll keep letting Ean watch Dirty jobs, it seems to inspire him!

Lest I Forget.

A few twin stories.

Last week David and Greg were sitting on the couch. David had a book, opened and was quizzing Greg on his colors. Conversation proceeds as follows.

"Geg, what color this?"

"Dat bwue"

"No Geg, dat is yelwow"

"No Dat is BWUE!"

"No no, Geg, dat yelwow!"

And onto the next color David would go continuing to quiz his twin.

Please note, David was right, the color was yellow. David knows all his colors, and can rote count to 14. Oh my, he's making progress. His head start teacher is now working on getting him up to 25. I say go right ahead. *smile*

Greg's made progress too, it's just slower. He just cannot get his colors right. At four and a half, this shouldn't be the issue it is. If we could get his communication better, I'd like to try to figure out if he's color blind. Blue and black are the only consistent colors he ever gets. Green, red, yellow and purple are hit and miss. Oddly, he doesn't even look really when it's those colors, which adds to my suspicions of not seeing them.

However, his communication is still a good year or more behind his actual age. So I won't be able to figure that out anytime soon.

My other story. A little more then a week ago, I had a horrendous day at church. Kent stayed home sick and I took all five kids. My Sunday was actually ruined when the stress of the Stake Relief Society President dumping a stack of music to some song the Stake presidency decided everyone should learn for a conference next month, in my lap.

I conduct the hymns in Relief Society however, I don't read music. I don't understand anything about sheet music accept that the bars mean my arm should gooooooo DOWN. *eye roll* This was a complicated piece also. Not for the faint of heart. I had an anxiety attack, had to leave Sunday School (and I LOVE Sunday school) because I was starting to hyperventilate and was crying.

It was sorted out but I was feeling rather rough when Sacrament meeting started.

Then the fun really began.

Why, why, WHY do all five children feel they need to sit either on me or next to me. I simply do not have five sides. The moody nine year old who is darn well old enough to understand moves away from (like six feet away), pouting at me when I tell her I can't have her next to me.

The highlight? I thought I'd be clever and hide some smarties in my purse to pull out and help the meeting go smoother. Greg gets big plans to save his, to put in his dump truck after church. That's all fine and dandy except for the other boys that wolfed theirs down. Ean at least had some sense but David. Oh my.

While the Sacrament water was being passed down our row, keeping in mind the only people in our row are me and the kids, David runs and tackles Greg to steal his candy. I'm holding the tray of water and I have to stand up, trying to not spill, to drag David off of his twin. I manage to break up the fight and the young man waiting to take the tray, managed to not break into guffaws watching me.

Kent felt horrible when I told him about the whole thing, but what can you do?

Why Blog at Five am?

*sigh*

Really being up and awake was NOT my idea. Not at all but a little after four am I heard my husband call to me, telling me there was a problem. Looking at the clock, I knew it was bad because obviously no sane person tackles the little stuff at four am.

He'd walked through puke in the bathroom. Oh my. It was terrible. The entire toilet, inside and outside. The floor next to the toilet. The walls behind the toilet. The vanity next to the toilet.

We had no idea who had done this. The child that is sick was a mystery but we didn't jump to find out, we went through the problem of cleaning first. I frankly couldn't do it. I let Kent know that if he took care of the bulky stuff, I'd do the fine cleaning. So we did that. While Kent was doing his thing, I went to check out the child on the couch.

Now out of five, it was easy to narrow the suspects down. Obviously it wasn't one of the twins, they'd cry, be upset and frankly the volume and coverage was more then I'd credit one of the little boys with. It wasn't Jane, Jane would have not only woken us up but been a better shot. We were sure it was Ean. He's our wild card and he doesn't always wake us up when he sick.

Wrong wrong wrong.

It was Kate on the couch. I woke her up and she started to cry, said she puked in her bed and thought it terribly unfair when I made her go get her sheets. At this point Kent gets more gloves (thank heavens for disposable gloves!) so he can load the washer. I'm working on detailing the bathroom. To say it was unpleasant is a vast understatement.

I hear a yell, Kent's discovered MORE surprises all up the stairs.

Kate's in tears. The children have a primary activity in the morning and she's just been told she doesn't get to go. As kindly as we tried to be "Honey, you've thrown up three times, you need to be home", her crushing disappointment comes out in frustration towards us. I know it's hard for her to understand, especially since she probably feels much better after getting sick but there's no way we'd risk exposure or vomit on the rest of the primary.

*more sighing*

Okay, the stairs, I have to stop what I'm doing, deglove, mix more carpet cleaner up and throw in a heavy dose of odor neutralizer for good measure and reglove for more bathroom cleanup.

I do the unthinkable at this point. I take my toilet bowl cleaner, which is more like a little mop then a traditional toilet bowl brush and proceed with LOTS of cleaner to scrub the outside of the toilet. Pretty much every square inch from the tank down. This of course is followed by the cleaning inside the toilet. The follow up is a steady spray of bleach over the whole fixture and a final wipe down.

I had already bleached the vanity, the walls and a bunch of the floor during cleanup. I also made the executive decision to sacrifice some of my old prefolds, now reduced to cleaning rags for the whole job and I threw them out with no desire to add more wash to the linens already lined up for the next load.

I know, I know, how wasteful but when you're feeling queasy from bleach fumes and nasty cleanup, shortcuts are bound to happen.

So Kate is now asleep on the couch. Kent's attempting to go back to sleep and here I am, writing this down for posterity. I'm sure my descendants will appreciate knowing this one.

Teamwork!

I was making dinner yesterday when I looked over and both little boys had climbed up on the dryer. The dryer door was open and the boys were opening the washer. After much grunting and leaning, David climbed in and started fishing out clothes and handing them to Greg. Greg cheerfully leaned WAY over the edge and chucked the clothes in the dryer.

It was both hysterically funny and extremely helpful as well. Would that I could get all my children to go to that much effort on chores not even assigned to them!!

No no, it WAS the Leprechaun...

Today is St. Patricks day. Well at least, what's left of today. We made sure the kids had green to wear to school. And for most of the kids, it was a normal day but David's head start teacher had big plans.

BIG PLANS.

I went to volunteer and spent the day with Dave. After Breakfast and the usual routine of shapes, colors, dates and weather, Miss Dawn talked about Leprechauns. She told the children that another teacher had mentioned seeing a Leprechaun in the cafeteria.

Now before you roll your eyes to much, let me assure you Miss Dawn is VERY convincing. *laugh*

She had the children use their special leprechaun lens, which oddly resembled decorated tp rolls, to help follow the leprechauns path.

Earlier while the children were on the carpet for circle time, Miss JoAnn, the teaching assistant had gone outside and sprinkled a path of gold sparkles for the children to follow. It was a beautiful day and Miss Dawn had all 15 of her lemmings at her heals excitedly following the gold path.

Well, Tiffany and I went to work. We tipped chairs, dumped some toys, made little green footprints on the table, dumped some green dye in the toilet and hid the gold. We barely got done when the children came back. I was laying on the floor and told them I "almost" got the leprechaun but he was to fast!! Off the children went to survey the mess and the green toilet was a hit. *chuckle*

The gold was found and I believe the children were completely snookered. Everyone except my child that is.

As the children played at Stations, David sat next to me and he said very serious "Mom, You made a B I G M E S S in my room. " *blink* He repeated himself three more times, just in case I was under any mistaken belief that he had fallen for game.

He then told Miss Dawn "My mom, she made a BIG BIG BIG MESS in my CassROOM." That's classroom if you don't follow Dave speak. :) Miss Dawn assured him it was the Leprechaun and David promptly corrected her, "No, dat was my mom!"

The funniest was when it was time to go home and I heard David telling Greg how naughty mommy was making a mess in his cassroom. He told Greg about the green "pee" in the toilet, how he fixed (he had flushed the dye out) the toilet, about the books and chairs all over the floor and how some toys were dumped.

My mom suggested that maybe David's surety was because of the emphasis of not making a mess in our home. I personally believe it has more to do with out attitudes about the make believe. We "play" make believe, play Santa, play the tooth fairy but we openly talk about how it's fun to pretend.

Whatever the reason, Dave is no fool.

For my children

I'm not sure why exactly I'm writing this down, but today I had an overwhelming feeling that I needed to write about my children and the inspiration and spiritual guidance we've had in getting them here.

I realize that I may repeat information that I've already shared but for some reason, I need to put it all in one place. And who am I to ignore inspiration?

To start off, when Kent and I first dated and the question of family size came up, we were both on the same page agreeing that expressing a number didn't feel quite right. Especially when we don't know what God has in store for us, individually and as a couple. Of course some would argue (my dad comes to mind) that having children is everything biological and has nothing to do with God.

While I agree with biology, you have sex, there's a chance of babies, I will not deny the divinity of procreation and God's role in creating families.

While I had the desire to be a mother, even more prevalent at the beginning of my marriage was an underlying fear of having children. You have to understand the incredible genetic link to autism and birth defects affecting two of my brothers, uncles, cousins and my nephew. There's always a risk of something going wrong, it's just in my family, it's a little more obvious to the untrained eye.

I really didn't talk about fears but God knew and about a year before Jane was conceived I was blessed with a special experience.

I was laying in bed, Kent was asleep. It was dark, our bedroom window was open and there was light shining into our room from a streetlight. It wasn't directly in front of the window, so it was dim. It provided lots of shadows in our room.

I looked around our room and realized there was a figure standing at the foot of our bed. I couldn't see details, it was more like looking at someone's shadow but I could tell it was a young woman with long hair. Before I could really think, thoughts filled my head and my chest felt on fire with what I recognize as the Holy Ghost witnessing to me that my thoughts came from God and that they were true.

I knew this was our child. I knew her name was Jane. It was not made clear to me when she was to be born but we needed to prepare for her arrival. This time of our life and marriage we were rather selfish with our personal time and didn't devote what we should to God, including regular church meetings. I had a very strong impression that we needed, I needed to get our act together spiritually so this child could receive the blessings that God wanted her to receive.

I had the impression that she would have challenges in this life, and God in his infinite love and wisdom comforted me with the knowledge that we would be able to handle whatever her challenges would be. I had tears in my eyes as my doubts vanished. I knew we'd be alright. I knew we could raise and teach that beautiful child as the Lord wanted us too.

Then she was gone but the love and comfort I felt in her presence stayed with me for a very long time.

We were blessed in knowing it was her that first to term pregnancy. We've been guided to help her with her challenges and I hope as she grows she realizes the divine help she receives because it's there, daily.

After her birth, almost immediately after I felt a child, another baby that was meant to be in our family. It was within hours of my birth and the knowledge that we were going to have another had already been impressed upon me. I sorta freaked out Kent when I told him, and Pat as well. lol. I reassured them that I had no desire to have babies 10 months apart but I wasn't going to deny that we were going to have at least one one.

Kate was so different then Jane. Jane I knew her name, her gender, I felt her personality, I had been given a forewarning of some of her trials. Kate was like flying blind. I knew only that were meant to have another, I didn't even know that she was a girl. But knowing that at some time we'd be blessed again was enough.

When I was pregnant and found out she was a girl, I felt this peace in that it was all as the Lord intended. It was a sweet feeling.

As with Jane's birth, within a few hours after Kate was born I felt another child that was meant to be born into our family. As it was previously, I had no idea when we were to have that child but I tried to trust in the Lords timing. I really struggled waiting for Ean to come. A miscarriage, my dad's death, a depression I had to fight my way through made trusting in the Lord extremely difficult. I knew there was another baby for us and yet it took so long to get him here. At least it seemed long.

He finally came, all in the Lords time May of 2004. A strange thing happened at his birth, I didn't feel anyone else. I felt, nothing. I had known our family wasn't complete within hours of my first two births, I entertained the possibility that we could be done having babies. This lasted for months, this odd ambiguous stage of not feeling done, not feeling like we were meant to have another either.

In the car that changed. I was driving through town and this thought and feeling slammed into me that I was to get pregnant again. I realized today that my feeling that day was specifically about getting pregnant where I'd always felt before that we were having another baby.

The twins were meant to be. Their gestation and birth provided a chance to lean on the Lord in a manner that I had never done before. After the shock of learning that either baby only had a 50% chance of making it after a high risk procedure that would have to be repeated who knows how many times during my pregnancy, I felt the Lords comfort. I don't know if I can describe my experience but slowly I realized that even if we lost one or both babies, we would not be alone and that the Lord would help us through our trials.

Slowly I felt more and more sure that we were meant to raise our boys. Don't get me wrong, I had plenty and I mean PLENTY of break downs, it was such a stressful time but the Lord never left me and when I was ready for his comfort he was always there. Kent gave me lots of blessings at through my pregnancy and I was told repeatedly that I was not alone. Finally about two days before their birth we were told in a blessing that they would make it and we would raise them. We were told that they would be healed from whatever problems their in utero afflictions would cause, and I had an impression that their healing would take time after their birth, it would not be instantaneous.

The night of the twentieth, Kent said prayer pleading with the Lord to let him know if the twins were in trouble and if we needed to go to the hospital. I woke up that night with a HUGE contraction, I watched the clock and counted and had four contraction in less then an hour. That meant we should go to the hospital. I woke up Kent, he confessed later that he almost suggested to me that I should lay back down and we see what happens when he had a thought "You asked to know when to go."

He didn't waste anytime getting me there and the boys were in grave danger showing no movement and with static heart rates. They were delivered via emergency c-section.

We knew the twins completed our family.

Looking back it amazes me how the Lord was there for every step, every child to help prepare us for their arrival, to comfort us as needed, to inspire us to make medical decisions that could have been fatal otherwise. I am so grateful for my relationship with God, I feel his love often and without his guidance I would have been lost at the very least. At the very most, my life would be incomplete without the children that bless me daily with the most amazing unconditional love.