Dear Santa

Tonight before bed, Noah sat down and wrote a letter to Santa:

i wunt to get you a tom tom for my Dad

the tom tom is a gps

OK, so he got a couple of words out of order and it is missing punctuation. Only one word was misspelled, though.

The important part, of course, is the incredible thoughtfulness. If you remember, almost five months ago, Sean’s car was broken into and his GPS was stolen. We still haven’t replaced it. We haven’t even been discussing replacing it that I can remember any time recently. So for Noah to sit down on his own tonight and write Santa a letter asking him to bring Daddy a new TomTom? What can I say? I have an awesome kid.

 

Today, I am thankful for:

1. Noah’s incredible thoughtfulness and his desire to do for others. He really does have a good heart.
2. A day off. You would think that the weekends would provide that. Not so. Saturdays are usually a manic effort to accomplish all the things that would be too difficult to do during the week with five children. And Sundays? Wrestling five kids through three hours of church doesn’t exactly feel like a day of rest. So to have a day where Sean was home, I didn’t need to do school, and I wasn’t even half tempted to go grocery  shopping? Lovely.
3. My steam mop. Just because it is cool.
4. The fact that Eli is suddenly speaking in complete sentences (and counting to eleven!). It is just so much fun to hear what is going on in his mind. Turns out, he’s rather hilarious.
5. The fact that I don’t confuse the need for human contact with being a vampire. Sorry, I was just watching 20/20. And you know what? There are some really crazy people out there. So I’m thankful I’m not one of them.

Giving Thanks

Today, I am thankful for:

1. A wonderful day in a house full of family. And LOTS OF KIDS to entertain my children for me.
2. Tons of family members who wanted to hold and interact with the baby. And the fact that Violet didn’t scream at them when they tried.
3. That Noah got to see his cousins’ new brother (who isn’t actually related to him—it’s complicated).  He came running to me and said, “Mommy, Conner is so cute! He’s BLACK!” Lately, the fact that Noah looks different from us has become more of an issue for him. I don’t think that it is a horrible issue, and we have talked about it, but he still makes comments about not looking like anyone else. I think that seeing that his white cousins have a biracial brother like he is maybe made him feel like his family was a little less odd. (For some reason, the fact that he has two Asian cousins in an otherwise white family doesn’t seem to make much of a difference for him.)
4. My education. Even though on some days I feel like my brain will come seeping out of my ears if I am subjected to another episode of SpongeBob Square Pants (oh, WHERE did my resolve to never allow that drivel in my house go???), I am so glad that I had the opportunity to stretch my mind and earn a degree.
5. My support system. Not only do I have a lot of people in my life who I know are there for me, I have a lot of people who I may never even have the pleasure of meeting in real life who respond and support me here. I especially felt that back in January when so many of you offered prayers and well-wishes after our car accident. It was just amazing to know that you all knew what had happened and were wishing us well before we even got home. Really, really amazing.
6. My country, my religion, and my freedom to freely practice my beliefs as I see fit.

Because My Kids are Cool Enough to Get It

I WILL be showing this to my children in the morning:

 

Today, I am thankful for:

1. The fact that my kids are totally cool enough to appreciate the video above. Honestly, Bohemian Rhapsody is one of their all-time favorite songs. And I love that.
2. That Sean has had a good month at work. Traditionally, this time of year gets slow for us. It is nice to have a decent month heading into Christmas time.
3. Going out to get ice cream with the kiddos. And having them all behave.
4. Having no pressure in regards to school tomorrow. I still plan on doing lessons with them, but it is technically a vacation day tomorrow. So if I feel like stopping for the day? No problem.
5. The chance to make my little brother’s several-year longing for a bearded dragon come true. Now, if I can just talk my hubby into letting me make a certain three-year-old little boy’s dream of a lizard also come true with the other bearded dragon that is available…

Maybe the Gratitude is Rubbing Off

Today, I’m thankful for:

1. The opportunity that I have to teach my children at home so we can focus on learning a concept instead of just being graded on how quickly you can pick it up.
2. Finishing our school work for the day before lunch today. That almost never happens, and it is so nice to know that we don’t have to go back to it later in the day.
3. Finishing our school work before the utility worker in the neighborhood shut the electricity off on us for an hour or two. If they had decided to do our house earlier, it would have screwed up our whole day. Instead, they shut it off about 45 minutes after we were finished.
4. Noah’s sweet generosity. Today is my father’s birthday. When Noah signed his birthday card, he also got a dollar out of his own money and stuck it in the card as his own present to Grandpa. He makes birthday cards for just about everyone in our family, and he always puts money in them. How sweet is that?
5. Wyatt’s show of gratitude. My mom gave the boys books that she bought for them this evening. Wyatt asked her for a piece of paper, then proceeded to write a thank you note to her for the book. Again, I’m so impressed with my boys!

National Family Week

Did you know that this week is National Family Week? My church encourages us to really observe this week and use it as an opportunity to devote the hours between 5pm and 9pm to one another. This week, we will be turning off the TV, stepping away from the computer, and trying to really focus on one another in the evenings. This evening, I started a novel with my  older two boys to fill the time they are used to unwinding while watching a show.

Honestly? This is kind of a hard idea for me. Usually, I am so grateful to have Sean come home and give me some relief from focusing on the kids. So the idea of staying focused on them until bedtime sounds a little, well, exhausting. But I believe that it is worth it. And I have faith that it will be a positive experience.

So, I challenge you all to join me. From dinner time to bedtime this week, turn off the TV, shut down the computer, and focus on your family. Then (hopefully) watch wonderful things happen in your relationships. Or, at least realize that you can tolerate each other. 😉

 

Today, I am thankful for:

1. The timing of events that put everything in place for us to be Noah’s parents. I see the opportunity to be his mother as every bit as much of a miracle as the pregnancies that proceeded his adoption.
2. Noah’s protectiveness of his siblings. I know that if I ask him to keep an eye on his brothers, he’ll take it seriously.
3. Wyatt’s interest in and sweetness towards babies. Violet just loves him, and it is because he has worked on building a relationship with her.
4. Caleb’s positive attitude. His older brothers call him weird, and I get angry with them when they do. Caleb is goofy. Caleb likes to make people smile. And it is a wonderful quality.
5. Eli’s attention to detail and helpful spirit. I laugh at his “toddler OCD”. He is always bringing me my cell phone. He always takes the remote to Sean. And he will protest loudly if you don’t let him help you vacuum.
6. Violet’s smiley, snuggly nature. She’s easy to fall in love with.
7. Sean’s willingness to do what it takes to be a good husband and father. Those are the most important things to him, and it shows.
8. Parents who raised me to believe that I can do and be anything. I wouldn’t be who I am if they hadn’t been there for me.

Random Gratitude

Today, I am thankful for:

1. The fact that my cell phone (an Instinct—a phone that I have disliked the entire time I had it) waited until a few days AFTER the phone I have been looking at (the Palm Pixi) came out on the market to go completely toes up.
2. The good buy back price I got on my dead phone to significantly reduce the amount I paid for my new phone.
3. The fact that my new phone is so cool that I was in love with it before I even walked out of the store.
4. Little boys who are not only WILLING to go help clean the church on a Saturday morning, but who come home and tell me how much FUN it was.
5. Scouts who listened and were respectful for our field trip this morning.
6. Fire fighters who were willing to take the time to show a bunch of scouts around the fire station and teach them about fire safety. Oh, and answer every single question. Every. Single. Question.
7. An afternoon at Chuck E Cheese with my kids. Yes, that’s right. It may not be MY favorite place, but the joy it brought to them was enough to get me past my hesitancy to go there. And we all had fun together.
8. Living close to family. We are fortunate to have siblings, parents, and grandparents from both of our families nearby. I love that my children are growing up with those relationships.
9. An awesome sale on ground beef today. Hey, sometimes the little things count for a lot.
10. Caleb’s joy for life. He makes me smile with his joy and humor.

When You Put it THAT Way

Noah: Mommy, what is the party you are going to for?

Me: Well, it is for a bunch of women to get together before most of them go see a movie.

Noah: You’re going to go see a movie?

Me: No, but I’ll probably watch it when it comes out on DVD.

Noah: What’s the movie about?

Me: Well, there is a girl who falls in love with a vampire (no, son, he’s a GOOD vampire). But the vampire is afraid he or one of the other good vampires might accidentally hurt her, so he leaves. But then bad vampires come who do want to hurt her and he isn’t there to protect her. So her best friend has to turn into a werewolf to keep her safe. But then, the good vampire thinks she’s dead, so he tries to get other vampires to kill him because he doesn’t want to live without her. So she has to go to Italy and save HIM.

Sean: You just managed to make it sounds even LAMER.

 

Today, I am thankful for:

1. Friends with the energy and creativity to invite everyone over to talk and laugh and eat and enjoy getting away from it all.
2. The way the sun, moon, and stars all aligned to allow me to finish today’s school work, cook dinner for my family, and make party food and still get where I needed to be when I needed to be there.
3. That we finally had a buyer come through on our stove! Woo Hoo!
4. My DVR. I missed the Project Runway finale to go to a party tonight and I’m dying to see if my hometown girl wins. Of course, I’m not telling you which one that would be.  😉
5. The prolonged periods of sleep that Violet had today that didn’t involve laying on me. Unless that means she’s not feeling well. But, assuming she’s fine…SO grateful to actually be able to do some stuff without trying to balance a baby on my hip or have her screaming at me when I put her down.

Children Are Angels Who Sing Off Key

Once a year, all of the children from three to eleven years old in our church do a presentation during the main part of our Sunday meeting. All year long, the kids practice the songs they will sing. For the last month or so before the presentation, they practice reciting parts that they are each assigned.

Today was the big day. Noah and Wyatt had both been practicing multiple times a day over the past couple  of weeks. Wyatt was to say, “My family and I can serve others.” Noah’s was significantly harder: “The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children,” They both told me they thought they would be nervous saying their parts in front of all of the adults.

They both nailed it.

And me, being the proud mommy, sat in my seat grinning so big that my face hurt and holding back the tears. This mommy gig is pretty darn rewarding sometimes.

 

Today, I am thankful for:

1. How seriously my little boys took preparing for their parts today.
2. The amazing primary presidency and teachers that put forth so much effort in preparing the program today.
3. The special spirit of little kids. A member of our bishopric commented that children are angels that sing off key. Perfect description (even though they weren’t really off key as a whole 🙂 ).
4. The Heavenly intervention that somehow kept my three younger children relatively quiet and well-behaved while Sean was up front helping with the primary presentation. I was really worried that I would have to miss seeing most of it to keep the little ones out in the hall since I was sure they would be too energetic for me to wrangle on my own. But we made it. And I wasn’t even grumpy by the end.
5. Reconnecting with an old friend. Recently, I had been thinking some about a couple we knew early in our marriage and wondering how she was. Today, she found me on Facebook. Just like that, after absolutely no contact for probably six years. How cool is that?

Seeing My Future

January 13, 1993

Dear Me,

This is a letter to myself to let me, in the future, see what my hopes and expectations were when I was almost 16, and to see how my life met up to those dreams and expectations.

In two and a half years I hope to graduate high school and probably go to BYU. I want to get my bachelors in English secondary education. Maybe minor in Spanish.

I would like to be married when I am 20 or 21. I don’t want to have children until I have graduated college and maybe even worked a couple of years. When I do have kids, I hope to be in a financial situation that I do not need to work so I can stay home and raise a large family.

I hope to remain active in the church and serve the Lord. I have given a mission a thought, but I doubt that I will go on one. I want to keep my virtue and stay pure. I want my husband to remain with me forever.

 

I found this letter to myself while I was cleaning last night. I wrote it 17 years ago—it has managed to survive all of those years and several moves. Amazing. Even more amazing is just how closely my life resembles what I envisioned as a high school Sophomore. Really, the only things I got wrong were that I was twenty-TWO when I got married and I didn’t minor in Spanish. Other than that, it all came true (well, I guess forever hasn’t happened yet so my husband had better hold up his side of that bargain!).

Who says that teenagers don’t know what they want? Or that what you do and think as a kid won’t end up affecting the rest of your life?

Today, I am thankful for:

1. The fact that my boys are old enough to turn on the TV and entertain themselves until I get up in the morning when they wake up too early.
2. The obvious and extreme amount of effort that went into the activity for the women at church this evening. My soul was replenished and I am so grateful to all the women who took time out of their lives to give me such a wonderful evening away from mine.
3. Adult female conversation. All of the other speakers in my household are male (and most are kids). ‘Nuff said.
4. The fact that after I asked Noah today how he feels about his adoption (he said there wasn’t really anything he wanted/needed to talk about) and emphasized that if he ever had questions or wanted to talk I am always willing too, he immediately grabbed a piece of paper and drew a picture of him hugging me under a rainbow with hearts and the words “Happy Birthday” (which I interpret as “I love you” given the overall sentiment and the fact that it is nowhere close to my birthday). And the huge, prolonged hug that followed after he gave it to me. A “moment” definitely occurred.
5. My mother’s apparent reelection (not all of the polls have reported, but she has a comfortable lead). That job brings her too much purpose and joy for her to lose it.

 

One more thing for this evening. I am a big believer in the power of prayer, even if you don’t actually know the person you are praying for. I say this because I have a friend who could really use some prayers right now. Her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia a little over a month ago. A couple of days ago, she was put on antibiotics for a staph infection. This evening, she tested positive for H1N1. I know that a lot of people reading this blog are already praying for Candace. But I know a lot of you don’t know her. If you can find it in your heart tonight, say a prayer for her. Then say a prayer for her parents because, wow, I just can’t imagine how hard this is. Thanks.

Losing My Stuff…And the Dog

It had been such a nice weekend. Really, it had. Every year, my community does a big festival the first week of October. Friday night there is a cruise-in, Saturday is a parade, and Saturday and Sunday are a street fair. Since my mother is up for re-election this year, we attended most of it. While wearing “Vote for Nancy” shirts. With the kids handing out campaign stuff and asking passers-by to “Please vote for my Grandma.” Go ahead, say it. Awwwwww…

We missed the parade, though, because Wyatt and Noah had their last soccer games on Saturday. Part of me is sad for them since they really loved playing. Then the part of me that doesn’t have to spend almost every evening at the soccer field throws a big fat party.

So, anyhow, the weekend. It was nice. It was productive. It was even spiritually enlightening. Overall, it was great.

Until approximately 5:45 Sunday evening.

That would be when Sean called me, as I was driving home from helping my mom one last little bit at the street fair, and said “Um, we have a little bit of an emergency here—are you almost home?”

As I wasn’t home to assess damage and daddy apparently gets a little more easily freaked out than I do, an ambulance was already on the way by the time I reached the house. Apparently, Eli had been on a bike with training wheels and Sean had asked Noah to push him for a bit. Sean thought Noah would know to be really gentle. Sean was wrong. One good shove later, blood was everywhere and Eli’s tooth was shoved way the heck towards the back of his mouth.

A visit to Children’s Hospital and an emergency office visit to my (cosmetic) dentist (that man is AWESOME), the poor kid had essentially been through hell having his tooth pushed back closer to where it belongs (but it isn’t wanting to stay there). By the time we got home and tried to put him to be, he was MAD. As in, punching anyone who got close to him. Except Noah. He got a good poke in the eye.

A little after midnight, when we were finally all settled into bed, it occurred to me that I didn’t know where our one dog, Thunder, was. He snuggles up to me in a thoroughly obnoxious way when the nights get chilly. And last night was definitely chilly. And he wasn’t there. And I realized he didn’t greet us with the other dogs when we got home from the hospital. And I couldn’t remember seeing him since, oh, around lunchtime.

We searched the house. We checked the backyard. We looked in both cars. We went into our garage and sheds.

We couldn’t find him anywhere.

I spent a restless night alternately being woken up by a hungry baby, a 19-month-old in pain, and worry. Worry about my son. Worry about the missing dog in the cold air. And COYOTES! Have I mentioned we have coyotes around here? And you know that Jessica Simpson just lost her dog to a coyote. And if it can happen to a celebrity, where does that leave us mere mortals and our mere mortal dogs???

When I left this morning to get Eli’s prescriptions filled, he was still missing. I even did a lap around the neighborhood on the way out to see if he was anywhere out in the open. Or squished on the road (horrible, I know, but I’m just being honest).

As I wondered the store, I got a phone call from Sean. He just wanted to let me know that his car stunk of nervous dog. But Thunder was safe and sound.  He had apparently gotten in there when Noah was getting a sucker out of the car yesterday and, even though he saw him jump in, neglected to make sure that Thunder got back OUT before closing the door. And the fact that Sean and I BOTH checked that stinkin’ car last night (Sean even opened the door!)??? Who the heck knows. I’d like to think the stupid dog learned his lesson but, well…Let’s just say that shih tzu’s aren’t the brightest breed in the kennel.

So here I am—sleep deprived and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Oh, and unable to cook a meal for my family since Sean was in the middle of swapping our old stove for a new one when all hell broke loose. So I currently have two stoves, but they are both in the garage. Which is, of course, incredibly useful.

And my poor little boy, by son with an incredible smile, still has a horribly swollen mouth and a Cletus tooth. And I still don’t know if it will go back into place, fall out, or have to be pulled. 😦 Thankfully, though, he is feeling much better. And what kid is going to complain about living off of ice cream, popsicles, pudding, and applesauce?

So, when it rains it pours. But at least my dog is home—alive and safe. So every cloud has its silver lining. He maybe a stinky, brain-dead silver lining, but I’ll take it.