For the Last Time

 

 

 

 

This morning I took down the crib for the last time. This is one more symbol of babyhood that is gone forever! I am not realy sad about this. I loved my babies but I love them growing up into the fun, smart, good kids they are. This growing up thing is part of the plan. This crib is our one and only! Amazingly, a $100 crib from Sears lasted for 15 years, through 5 kids and is really in good shape considering these facts. I have slept on the floor with my hand through the slats just lightly touching my baby boy so he would stay asleep. I have peeked in on sleeping babies. I have firmly placed toddlers back in bed. I have placed sick babies in there too. I have had them climb in ready to sleep and climb out not wanting to sleep. There have been several shades of blue blankets with cars and balls and animals and one set of pink with flowers and hearts. This crib has been used as a boat and a cage for wild animals and a trampoline and a bed for my sweetest babies for 15 years. I guess we got our monies worth out of it!

Mother's Day

 

 

 

 

 

With Mother's Day approaching the thing to do on Facebook is to change your profile picture to a picture of your mother. I put one of mom dancing with her father at my wedding. We have several photo albums from my youth at my house right now. It has been fun to look through them and see my family young. My parents were cute and young once! My sisters and I were cute and young once too! I had a really great childhood. I knew that my parents loved me and my sisters and each other. We were safe and secure and taken care of. We had a lot of fun together and were a very happy family. Honestly, not much has changed. My parents are still cute and still love each other and me and my sisters plus our husbands and all the kids. We are still a happy family.

I have been blessed with a remarkable mother. She is beautiful inside and out. She is kind, tender, smart, talented, fun to be around and talk with. She always took care of us when we were growing up. She always encouraged us to do our very best, to be happy, friendly, kind and true. She is the kind of mother I hope I can be. I am still trying, and afraid I am not quite living up to her example. I love my mother and will be forever grateful for her example in all things. I truly hope to one day be just like her.

Recovered!

 

 

 

 

Matt found a way to recover all the dumb and ugly pictures of chairs and stuff and Sullivan's birthday! Yahoo for a husband who knows how to do things with cameras and computers!

We Survived, I think!

This week has been a crazy busy week culminating with a crazy busy weekend. I told Matt it would be nothing short of a miracle if we all got to all our places and home again at some point with only minor damage. I guess this post is a little early since Madsen and Sully are still out. It was performance week of the musical so rehearsals every night that lasted longer than usual kicked it all off. Add in soccer, scouts, and who knows what and mix it all up. Matt and I went to the play on Thursday so the kids were on their own around 6:00 til nearly 10:00. Friday night Waverly and Sully were in the play so I was with them while Matt took the other 3 to a Boy Scout camp out, technically, he was supposed to stay but decided against it. It rained all night so we were kind of hoping soccer games would be canceled. Almost lucky! Only Sully's was canceled, which hate to say it, but that is the game we mostly want to see! But that did leave us with only 2 games.

Saturday happenings: Garage Sale from 7:00 til 12:00, play performance with Waverly at 2:oo( Sully had to be there at 1:00), Madsen arrived home from camping and informed us he was going to the ward picnic with friends, phone call from Mads asking why we haven't picked him up yet, he wanted to go to the play... Matt drives out to get Madsen while I take Sully to play, Wave home for little nap so she can be a happy elephant bird, performance over, drop Madsen off at church for scripture mastery event which leads to youth dance, Sully home for food and cleaning the bathroom! Rotten child! Back to school at 6:00 for final performance. Thought it would be fun to take the 3 kids with us so we stopped at AC Moore. It was not fun. Home for dinner, at which point Cannon informed us he never had lunch. Hmmm, where was he (or where was I) when he needed lunch? baths, dishes, 3 kids in bed, 2 still out. Sully wants to go midnight bowling with the cast. Guess who is way too tired for that one to happen? It has been chaotic and exhausting, but we have survived and now that this weekend is over all the others look like a walk in the park. 3 soccer games in a day, no problem!

Deleted

 

Last night I was sitting at the computer, Waverly was eating ice cream, Cannon was quiet. That should have been my first clue that something was going on. He was not on the Wii or tv or even asking for one of these to be turned on. He came over with my camera and said, " I deleted some of the dumb pictures." Great, I think, what does he consider dumb? "There were ugly ones of chairs and stuff." I am getting ready to put stuff on Craigslist which is why I have ugly pictures of chairs and stuff. So I asked him if he deleted pictures of people, his response, "just the dumb ones, like from Sully's birthday." Oh my heavens child! I looked at the remaining pictures and discovered what this precious child that I love so much had been doing for the past 15 minutes. Taking pictures of himself with his tongue out and/or finger up his nose and deleting EVERY picture that was not him or Waverly!

I did a pretty good job of not completely losing it on the child. No real sense in destroying the child over something that can't be un-done. I did tell him that I was sad, that those pictures are gone and that he can never touch the camera again. He cried. I felt bad-ish. Then we sat down and read the BFG.

I hope a lesson was learned, by both of us.

Sagging Sparkle

We bought a cute book for Waverly last week. It is all about a little girl who believes she is a fairy princess. She always wears pink, a crown and wings. The story is all about how she is a fairy princess and what she does to keep her sparkle. She does a couple of things to keep her sparkle from sagging.

I feel like MY sparkle is sagging. I feel like I do a lot of things but yet, I never DO anything. Nothing ever feels accomplished because I have to do the same things over and over again day in and day out. Some of the things I do can hardly even be noticed once they are done. I just feel a total lack of accomplishment. I feel like I am not doing anything of any worth or value. Yes, I know that taking care of my home and family is the most important and valuable thing I can be doing. And I love them and I love taking care of them. I hear those words and deep down I do believe it. I just don't feel it right now. Even that work won't show its true fruits for many years.

I don't even know what I want to do. Something that has an end and an accomplishment that I can notice. Something that makes me feel good and happy again, like I am more than a lady with kids and groceries in my car. I guess maybe something for me instead of someone else. Is that horribly selfish?

I like to make things look pretty. My house, my yard, my daughter :) I guess I am looking for a change. A change that does not cost a ton of money that I can do with my tag along Fairy Princess.

I feel like I am loosing me in the chaos and mundaness of my life. Can life be chaotic and mundane at the same time?

I want to empty out my house and get rid of all the junk. I want empty spaces. I want less. That would feel good! Can I convince my people? Should I worry about that?

My sparkle is sagging and I need to find away to make me sparkle again.

Frequent Flyers

A few of us have colds we are suffering with this week. Waverly has had a fever for a few days and has been yelling at her ears so I decided to take her to the doctor to check ears. Her appointment was at 10:20. The doctor checked her ears, found a big glob of wax blocking his view so he used a funky little ear wax scoop and cleared it out. Sure enough, infections in both ears. We headed to the grocery store pharmacy for her amoxicilin and yogurt. I put her down for her nap at 1:40 and immediately the phone rings. The elementary school with Cannon in the office complaining about his ear hurting. Cannon tends to whine and complain a lot over nothing. I told him to please be tough, school is almost over and I just put Wave down. I am sure they had me on speaker phone because the office lady ever so kindly, told me that they had had him crying in the office for 30 minutes already and he just needs to go home. Fine! I get to the school and decide to take Declan home with me as well so I won't have a conflict with the bus in case I can get Cannon to the doctor. I called the doctor from the car and after telling her our name she said, "did you have another child in here this morning?" Why, yes I did! So I had time to get Declan and Waverly home and Madsen to get home so I could leave them and head back to the doctor. The receptionist laughed as she asked if my address, phone or insurance had changed since this morning. The nurse asked if I had had so much fun this morning I couldn't stay away and commented how the doctor had been showing everyone Waverly's chart amazed that this was her first sick visit of her life. Then when the doctor came in he also laughed at me for coming back. Checked Cannon and sure enough, ear infection. He had had one in January in his right ear. This one is in the left. I made sure to ask if he was fine to go back to school so Cannon would hear it from the doctor that yes, he could go to school. Back to the pharmacy for round two of amoxicilin. The pharmacist also laughed at me and filled the prescription with a "you know what to do with this, but he needs 2 teaspoons."

At least our insurance is good so the doctor visits and the antibiotics cost me a total of $0!