There Is Beauty All Around (Other People's Houses)

So did anyone happen to notice this picture in the Ensign (the LDS Church's magazine) this month? I noticed it. Here's when I noticed it... after I stormed out of our family home evening tonight because ALL FIVE kids were driving me INSANE, and I went up to my room to read.

Tonight was going to be a fun night, because after FHE, we had some delicious desserts prepared by Jordan. Sam was having a friend sleep over. The boys were going upstairs to the man cave to watch some Sylvester Stallone garbage. There was even Sprite in our house. Needless to say, no one was really interested in participating in Keola's lesson. Not even Keola. There was bickering, eye rolling, boredom, goofing off... it was UGG-LEE. I was kind and polite in requesting respect and reverence. I was ignored. So I announced I had had enough, and I marched upstairs to read my church magazine and find MY OWN spiritual uplift.

And of course, on page 2... the image of the perfect family studying the scriptures together. Children, scripture markers in hand, are looking attentively at Mums and Father, eagerly awaiting further light and knowledge. I stared at this picture for a good five minutes, allowing my mind to elaborate on the scene. I pictured one boy stabbing the other boy's hand with his scripture marking pencil. In retaliation, the brother reaches over and rips a few pages out of the stabber-brother's scriptures. In an effort to stop the madness, Mums hurls her bible at the boys. Father starts yelling at all the family to KNOCK IT OFF, while little sis stands clutching her picture of Joseph Smith and screaming at the top of her lungs. I really, truly wanted to see that picture in my magazine. I really, truly wanted to read about the REAL side of FHE.

I'm totally bugged. But in lighter news, new fun pictures of the kids and us can be found here.

Peace in the Plan

Sometimes life can be hard. Have you noticed? This has been a tough couple of weeks.

This is my Aunt Dolly. I love her dearly. She has been a wonderful part of my life. Her son, my cousin, was killed in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago. Shortly afterwards, her sister, my Aunt Luana, passed away as well. More than anything, I feel so sad for her loss. I just want to be by her and love her. I went to Aunt Luana's funeral, and while it was sad, it was still a time of rejoicing over a long life full of love and kindness. There was an understanding of a Greater Plan, and our family felt united in an eternal perspective.

In the midst of feeling a little sad about these events, we received notice that my sweet friend Ann's husband was killed in Afghanistan. His name is Conrad. They are so young, with so much ahead of them. It is so sad. They have a 2 year old son that I adore.

I have a deep belief in life continuing. I know that a family unit can continue on forever. We love all of our children, and while I'm not exactly sure how divorce and remarriage all work in heaven, I believe we will all have the opportunity to be together. Today we attended a memorial on the base for Conrad. The grief was overwhelming. There is nothing you can say to console someone in a situation like this. It is compounded by a sense of hopelessness that death is indeed what ends your ties.

I really don't know what else to say. I appreciate all the support and strength my husband has offered me over the past few weeks. Conrad's death has been difficult for him as well, bringing back difficult memories of his last deployment. We have been leaning on each other, and it has brought a renewed strength and love to our marriage.

Missed the Green Monstah, But the Gahlic Fries Were Pissah!

See these people? They went to the RED SOX GAME this weekend!! It was WICKED AWESOME!


I kid you not, there were more Sox fans there than Mariner fans! I was dying! As you can see, I wore my hat, and people were high fiving me left and right. For a brief moment, I almost felt like I was at Fenway. Almost. This was the scene all around us... check it out:


We also happened to have killer seats. Right on the first base line. I was sorely disappointed that Lester pitched almost the whole game, because I really wanted to get my lens on Pap, and I thought Beckett was making his comeback this night. Alas... Lester's mediocre pitching lost us the game and lost me some great photo ops.

Youk was all over first base, which was nice:

And of course, Big Papi hit the only run of the night. Fo'real... check out the fans in the stands- those Bostonians are going CRAZY! LOVE THEM!!

This was the emotional moment where Big Papi nearly hit another home run, but it was caught. See how he's looking at me for reassurance and affirmation? I gave him a wink so he would know he still had loyal fans. We don't expect perfection from him, and we love him unconditionally. I'm sure the moment we shared meant as much to him as it did to me.


Anyway. The Sox lost, but the fam got to eat lots of crap, and I got to watch my boys play. We had a great time, and I think I even heard the kids yell "GO BOSTON" once or twice. Which means I am a good parent. And in the immortal words of Jim Gaffigan... "YANKEES SUCK AND DUNKIN DONUTS RULE!"

That's all.

Cawl Me, We'll Tawk... Nevah Mind. We Won't.

Is there something wrong with me? Let's analyze the facts:

1. I hate talking on the phone.

2. I avoid it at all costs.

3. I seek out any possible alternate mode of communication before I make a call.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my friends. Back in the olden days when a smoke was a smoke and groovin was groovin, I used to write letters regularly. This was primarily because my dad got really mad at me for running up VERY EXPENSIVE phone bills. Remember toll calls on rotary phones? I made many, many of those. If my dad had been a Love and Logic parent, I would have no college education today, as that fund would've gone to pay for the exorbitant bills I incurred with AT&T.

So what happened? When did I go from LOVING to spend hours and hours chatting about... um... honestly, I have no idea what we talked about for hours and hours in 1989... to ignoring almost every ring that presents itself on my phone? We have caller ID on our home line, and I usually don't even bother to see who's calling because I don't want to talk to them anyway. I answer my cell phone for about 4 people. It is completely preferable for me to let it go to voice mail, and then see what they want, and THEN decide whether or not to call them back.

Is it because people usually want something? Maybe. Am I lazy for not wanting to do whatever it is they're calling to ask me to do? Maybe. Is this normal? I find many of my friends seem to feel the same way, and we seem to have all our conversations via chat, email, blog commenting, or texting. Am I contributing to an erosion of healthy social skills? Or maybe it's just me... maybe no one likes talking to me either, and I'm swimming alone in a sea of non-cellular conversations.

Here's a theory. If you talk in person, you have to confront the reality of awkward silences. If you're totally electronic and there's an awkward silence, you can get up, use the bathroom, grab a snack, come back, edit a few photos, and then pop back into the conversation. Or by email- you can draft what you want to say, come back later and make sure you haven't been too offensive... and then hit send. No more foot-in-mouth!

Maybe I'm just a hermit at heart. Who knows. But the whole thing really is pretty fascinating to me. I would love to hear your thoughts on it all... just don't call me to discuss it.

Airplanes, Cars, Jam and Cookies. A Pleasant Mix.

We went to this airshow. It was absolutely unreal. I had no idea how cool it would be to watch airplanes do dangerous stunts. I was very nervous the whole time, and kept hoping we didn't end up on the national news documenting an airshow gone wrong. There were no collisions, however, so in the end I was able to enjoy myself. Check this stuff out:

Four planes, flying that close to each other! Also the cool patriotic tribute... very impressive.

Seriously? I can hardly stand to have a PERSON that close to me, forget another airplane!

The moon and a stealth bomber. Tell me THAT'S not an amazing shot!

And also this weekend, we went to a car show. My husband is IN LOVE with cool cars. He was in heaven. I tried mostly just to watch his face, and when his eyes lit up, that's when I knew I should take a picture of whatever he was looking at. Mostly, I can tell you that we saw cars. Some were yellow, red, green and even purple. They all had tires. Vroom vroom.

The kids and I made strawberry jam. We are dying at how good it is. We made about 15 jars of it. This week, we're trying raspberry. We're eating toast like twelve times a day just so we have something to put the jam on. It is sooooooooo good!!

And we made these. Did you know that they are officially called "Peanut Butter Blossoms"? I think that name is SO LAME! But I couldn't come up with anything better, so we're left calling them "Peanut Butter Cookies with Hershey's Kisses Stuck On Top." Yeah, I know. Equally lame.

We are having a great time with Jordan and Sam. My parents will be out next week, and then my three kids get back shortly after. We can't wait to have our house full again!! Being a parent is probably my favorite job right now. Probably because I miss my kids so much, and I'm forgetting how hard it really is. Also probably because I'm presently otherwise unemployed. But you get the point.

And It Goes A Little Somethin' Like This...

For my son's 12th birthday, we bestowed upon him the gift-of-all-gifts in the tweenage world. The cell phone. We all know my feelings on kids and phones- it's ridiculous. Even at age 12, it is completely pointless. But I also realize we are not living in 1985 anymore, when SOME people I know were 12... and that the times are indeed a'changin. So I conceded. And generally, my firstborn has been relatively responsible with his new gadget.

My kids are visiting their father for the summer. I will admit, the phone has come in handy for keeping in touch. However, please join with me for a moment in reviewing yesterday's text message conversation:

ME: Where's your sister?
HIM: Right here.
ME: Let me text her for a few.
HIM: No. She's being a total brat.
ME: Um, who pays ur phone bill?
HIM: I'm serious. She is blatant disobedient. (I know, incorrect useage of an adjective here)
ME: When u pay the billl, u can make the rules.
HIM: She is bossy and rude and bratty!
ME: Not my problem. Put her on.
HIM: WHY?
ME: Bummer that I'll have to disconnect your phone.

And he never put her on. With just a few simple clicks of the mouse, the phone service was suspended. And at no additional cost to us! How handy is that?!?

The key lessons to learn here:

1. You don't get to tell Mom "no" and expect that to turn out well.

2. When you are financially responsible for yourself, you have much more freedom.

3. Stay in school, get a good job, and support yourself so that you can one day cut those apron strings and tell Mom "no" ALL YOU WANT.

The end.

The View Out My Kitchen Window... and more.

There is so much construction in our neighborhood, that usually when I look out my kitchen window, all I see is lumber and dirt. But today, the lawnboy was at work. Hubba hubba.

So here's the house. They are building across from us, behind us, and to the right of us. They still haven't built to the left of us yet though, which is great because I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have construction going on at 5am every day to wake me up. Looking forward to more.



Here's the kitchen. Obviously, I didn't do a good job of staging my photo since my dish towel is askew. But I like my kitchen. It's a bit small, but I think it's beautiful.



This is that big, open entry hall that has me nervous. We have no furniture for the formal living room yet, so it sits empty. By "empty" I mean "full of boxes and random items that we have yet to find a home for." But do you love the hardwood? I do.



And lastly, we've been spending a lot of time at the beach lately. It's been great. GO HERE to see more. My husband goes back to work next week, and I'm already depressed over it. We have been hanging out for a whole month now, and I hate to see it come to an end.

*Pardon my windblown hair and his farmer's tan. We let our pride go.

Name Those Kids...

You can't see their faces, so they are unidentifiable. But I will give you some clues as to who we have here:

1. They are crazy.
2. They crack us up most of the livelong day.
3. They give us lots of extra loves and snuggles.
4. They DON'T hate it here.
5. They do my chores.
6. They help me cook supper every night, thus cutting my work time in half.
7. They routinely seek out beatings from the man pictured below, and laugh the whole time.


It's nice to have kids around. As much as we love our couples time, we do love these kids.

Guess Where I Been...

We have had a FAAAAABULOUS time. Really. We have been childless for a couple of weeks, we threw all our belongings in a moving truck, and set out for our newest adventure. We moved into our house (pictures to come...), unpacked for a few days, and decided we needed a break. See if you can guess where we went:

This is where we played miniature golf, and my husband beat me by ONE POINT...

The ceiling of said miniature golf place. Pretty cool, huh?

Okay... making it a bit easier here:

We hit the Blackjack tables, and left when we doubled our original money. We know when to kiss a good thing goodbye.

Was it New York? Don't be fooled by the obvious clues...

Yeah. You guessed it. Vegas, baby. We did so much in five days, it was awesome. We used coupons and listened to timeshare spiels so we could afford to do so much. If you work it right, you can do Vegas on a dime. Also, you need to overlook the fact that Vegas is really only about the three B's: Buffets, Betting, and Boobs. We enjoyed two out of three, and tried to avoid all the "hot babes delivered to you" coupons we were offered.

Quick summary: All of these shows were 100% worth seeing, if you're in the neighborhood. Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, and the Bodies Exhibit. Absolutely amazing.

I have tons and tons to catch up on. I haven't had internet access for almost three weeks. Can you imagine my inbox? My Google Reader? We're talking in the hundreds here. (My apologies in advance for Marking All As Read). And I still have more to unpack, kids coming in this week, house guests this weekend, and let's not forget the lounging around and eating of bonbons. How's a girl to fit it all in??

Eh. As long as I have this amazing guy by my side, the rest of it doesn't really matter. Hope you are all enjoying your summer. Let's catch up soon!!

Hasta La Bye-Bye

Moving week is upon us. We are disconnecting our internet, and I am not one who carries my e-life on my phone. My phone number will stay the same for now, and I'll have email until Wednesday. After that, I am taking a cyber-hiatus. Enjoy having one less blog to read, and here's to hoping this all goes off with minimal stress. I'll be sure to send out a big email with the new address update, because I would really hate to miss out on all the Christmas cards. And please don't post too much in my absence, because I already feel overwhelmed at the number I'll find on my Google reader when I return.

HAPPY SUMMER!

Greatest Parental Moment Thus Far In My Life

You know those moments when you step back and feel overwhelming pride at something your child has done? Like offering an arm to an elderly lady; washing the dishes without being asked; offering to hold a crying baby; maybe even being kind to a sibling. Sometimes, I have seen my children do these things, and I feel warm inside.

But this... this tops it all. There is nothing on earth my kids could do that would make me feel more accomplished as a parent. Noe has been dying to have Eric T. come over and play. I ADORE Eric T. I am secretly plotting their future nuptials. This kid is darling. So I finally found a free afternoon, called Mrs. T, and scheduled a time for him to come and play. Before Noe went to bed the night prior to his visit, she asked me for some tape. She wanted to hang her list up on the wall. Her List Of Things To Do With Eric T. Observe:


Just in case any of it is a little fuzzy, here's what she's listed:
-park (as in "go to the park" not "park...a verb involving a vehicle and tonsil hockey")
-eat
-play in tree house
-read
-chalk project
-TV
-video games
-kid's mosaic stone kit
-play kitchen
-coloring

This is all followed by a list of possible snacks, and a random set of tally marks. I'm not even kidding, I got a little teary-eyed when I saw this. I mean, what else is there left for me to teach her? Sure we'll have a talk one day about bras and boys, but frankly, my work here is done.

GAME ON

From this:


To this:

It's still gonna be as good as always. The only thing that makes it sweeter now is being married to a Laker fan. The fun is just beginning. I was actually pulling for the Lakers tonight so I could enjoy the series to follow. We have all kinds of crazy bets going, which frankly...either way you look at it... I can't lose.

Bring it on. Thursday night. Choose your sofa wisely... I'll be sitting on the green one.

Love/Hate Relationships

I love that my son is growing up and making good choices in life. I hate that he is growing up. Go here to see him looking far too grown-up for me to handle.

I love the new house. I hate the thought of decorating it. We took a trip to check its progress this weekend. This is the entry hall. Seriously? What would you do to this? I'm scared.

I love taking pictures. I love our babysitter. I loved taking senior pictures of our babysitter. There was nothing I hated about this. She is darling, loves my children, and knows how to handle them. I guess the hate part would be leaving her behind when we move.

CALLING ALL BRILLIANT HOUSE DECORATING TYPES!!

i need to decorate the girls' room. the carpet is "earthen soil" which is like a nice warm dark-beige color. the walls are "nomadic desert" which is also a warm tan color. the trim is all white. i am not painting any walls. the paint on them will barely be dry as it is when we move in.



samie is old enough not to want something too kiddish. and she doesn't really dig on pink. noe is young enough to want something very kiddish, and is obsessed with pink. there are 2 twin sized beds in their room. i'm thinking something in some shade of purple might appease the palettes. but green is also a winner. some shade of limeish?

i do not enjoy interior decorating AT ALL. some people would consider my situation heavenly: a brand new home with lots and lots of rooms to decorate. i, on the other hand, am begging my realtor to stop asking me to make choices. the boys' rooms will be easy because i already have stuff for their beds. but the girls are going from sharing a queen bed to having their own single beds. hence the need for new bedding.

so gimme whatchya got. i know some of you are really good at this kind of stuff. if you tell me what to buy and where to buy it, i probably will. if you even find fabric, i would be happy to MAKE the quilts. some giant patchwork squares would be nice. i just loathe the process of making the choice.

thank you in advance.

Consider This The Hint of the Century

I had the occasion to spend four hours in the car with my firstborn this week. I took advantage of the obvious teaching moments, and hooked us up with a little ipod playlist that I like to call "Still Livin In High School." Oh, it's classic. Classic. It includes such artists as Bon Jovi, Biz Markie, Salt-n-Pepa, Skid Row, Guns n Roses, Slick Rick, REM, Digital Underground, and I won't lie... a little Wrex n Effex.

I am pleased to report that said child knew many of the lyrics to these richly historical tunes. I felt accomplished as a parent. I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to school him in the fine art of vehicular vocalizing. The rules are as follows:

1. Sing. Really, really loudly.

I cannot understand how it's possible that from day to day, I have difficulty remembering where I put my shoes, when I am in charge of carpool, or whether or not I put on deodorant... and yet... every word from every song comes back to me with a clarity that is not to be believed. And suddenly, I want to dance. I want to shake what my mama gave me, and driving becomes secondary in importance to my performance. I can only think of channeling my inner Axl.

Thank goodness I have that sweet son o' mine to keep me in line. After a few minutes of slack-jawed horror, he finally snapped me back to reality by saying, "Mom. You should probably settle down before you throw your back out again."

And just like that, Axl has left the building.