Kid's House

A thought that has run through my brain often in the last seven years is "Wow, my parents had to have a lot of patience to raise me, but was I really THIS bad?" The kids are so active and creative, but a messy trail is always left in their wake. As I was picking up millions of barbie hairs from my bathroom counter, floor, sink, and toilet this morning because the girls played hair salon, the above quote was swimming through my mind. Along with "I just mopped this floor!" and "Can they not once clean up after themselves!" Sure they can, if you stand above them with a bull whip. Jared asked me if Karli or myself would please wipe all the walls and doors, they are all dirty. But it was the kids! Here are some other projects awaiting my elbow grease in the kids' house:
Scrubbing off the remains of stickers all over my fridge.

Taking down lovely decorations in my living room from the kids' playing school.

This is why we run out of toilet paper so fast, the kids play doctor to all the stuffed animals.

And see that hand-carved old-fashioned sink-pump by my grandfather? That handle was broken by hands high enough to reach this (Savanna) and placed in the pitcher like a stirrer or something. That needs gluing.

Last Thursday I walked into Fiora's room and she had spread out all her clothes that were once folded in her dresser all over her floor. I asked her what on earth was she thinking and she said, "I was building my nest mom. Me and Lexi are birds." As President Monson says: "If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly." I believe him. I also believe the panic attacks of frustration and episodes of pulling all my faculties of patience into my power will NOT be missed.

spring soccer

We are in the thick of soccer again, despite the freezing temperatures. Weston (#4) is excited each and every time we get ready for soccer. He doesn't do much but run yet acts like it is the greatest time of his life. Today he scored his first goal during a game. I was very excited for him, and so was his coach JD as it is a pretty rare sight. The day of a game or practice he is constantly asking me "did I miss soccer?" "are my friends there now?" "is it 5:00 yet?" He doesn't seem to mind the cold either. We got back about 30 minutes ago from a game and my hands are still thawing out.






Fiora has been astonishing me with her reading skills. I'm not used to her knowing what things say. I can't read a book to her without getting corrected (for I usually paraphrase), and she reads signs on the street and walls, and yesterday said "Don't worry mom!" I said don't worry about what? And she pointed to the clock on our wall that says "don't worry" on it. I still get astonished.


Savanna has been doing the same sort of thing with her math. She knows we go to school at 7:45 AM so while we get ready I'm always asking her to check the clock and she never fails to tell me how much time we have left. Yesterday it was 7:26 and she said quick as a whip "We have 19 minutes left." What? How did you know that so quick, I couldn't have done that. During the soccer game Savanna was chasing down some boys her age and tackling them to the ground to get a soccer ball they kept stealing from her. She is a spaz, no doubt, and a keeper. As I write this she is in the kitchen making the kids soup.

pictures to go with last post

Weston hiding from me trying to take a picture of his hair cut:

Jared's Arctic Cat. (he sold the yellow one and got this, bigger = better right?)

Flower patch:

Schauers reunion at the Mayan:

Fun stuff

So some fun stuff happened last week, and I never got my camera out. Fiora learned to ride her bike sans training wheels last week! Riding on the street by our house was making her cry out of frustration. I remembered back to when Savanna learned way back last summer and how we tried on the street, sidewalk, grass and nothing was helping until we took her to the Big Black Top at the Elementary School. There you can ride and ride and all you have to do is avoid a few basketball poles. So Friday as soon as school was out I took Fiora to the black top and she and I rode bikes for an hour around and around. She hit one pole but otherwise she got it! And she was able to ride home on the sidewalk and loved it.
On Saturday while Jared was spending all day with the Scouts I attacked the flower garden patch in our front yard. The grass had completely overtaken it. I had to remove every one of the 20 pound cement landscaping blocks to dig up the grass underneath them and spray it with week/grass killer and lay tarp. Then turning the soil was like digging up sod! I was cursing grass with every mild word I could think of from 9 AM to 2 PM. I had to run to home depot in the middle and buy some bulbs and a sprinkler head I dug up. Yes I am still very sore. It looked so great when it was all cleaned up, wish I'd taken a picture. Why not take one now? Because it is snowing outside. I loved those 3 days of nice weather!
Weston has been "not caring" about things lately. When we ask him to put socks on with those shoes he says, "I don't care." Or lets cut your hair, "I don't care." Weston, it is Sunday and we don't play on the computer on Sunday. "I don't care." You'll care tomorrow when your grounded from the computer! He really puts a voice to how much the kids don't care for my ideas/rules.
Last week was reunion time with Jared's family. And again, nary a photo. Jared took the kids down to Gunnison Sunday to see Uncle Troy and Aunt Lisa, Jared's sister who lives in Kansas, and their two boys at Grandma Schauers house. Then Monday those Mitchels came up to Utah County and we had a nice dinner all together at Wendy Snow's. Then Chad (Jared's brother) and Robin and their 4 kids came down from Montana and Thursday we all got together at the Mayan for a reunion dinner. It took them an hour to seat the 30 of us on a not very busy night. The kids love to see their cousins. It was fun to be with so many of Jared's family that week.
So I will get the camera out more often this week so I won't miss capturing these fun happenings. We are so blessed.

Blog thievery

I stole this from my friend Peggy's blog, is blog thievery illegal? Because I do it to my friend Sara's blog often too. :) I guess as long as I cite my sources...

Recently, I was diagnosed with C. A. A. D. D.
Child Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests:

I decide to do the laundry. As I start toward the basement, I notice that there are cheerios all over the floor and my car keys are in the cereal bowl. I decide to pick up the cheerios before I do the laundry. I lay my car keys down on the counter, put the cheerios in the trash can under the counter and notice that the trash can is full. So, I decide to take out the trash. But then think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left, my extra checks are in my desk in the office/playroom, so I go to my desk where I find a sippy cup full of juice. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I decide I should put the sippy cup in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the sippy cup, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye-they need to be watered. I set the sippy cup on the counter, and I discover baby wipes that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back in the bathroom, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the wipes back down, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote, one of the kids left it ont he kitchen table. I realize that after school when they go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote as they fight over who lost it, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do. At the end of the day, the laundry isn't washed, the bills aren't paid there is a warm cup of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find the wipes, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys. When I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.

Super (man) back pack

When Weston got his immunization shots I told him I would buy him a backpack for kindergarten for being a brave boy. He was very excited about this and asked for a back pack with superman on it and lets go to the backpack store right now. I was intending to get it closer to actual school starting, but he was so brave and so excited for the backpack I told him we could go to the backpack store on the computer and see what they had. We could only find a superman backpack on Ebay and had to go through the bidding rigamarole to get this super back pack for $6.50.

After we won it Weston said, "Let's go to the mailbox and get my backpack mom!" How sad he had to wait about 12 days, but I was content that he got the mail the day it appeared in the mailbox.

And here are a couple pictures from Karli's 19th birthday. I made her and the rest of the family crepes, it was very fun.

Sad day for mom

This is one of those rare posts I write about a subject on the discouraging side. I usually try to find something humorous or something to be grateful about in my child-rearing efforts. But today is a sad day for the mommy of this house. Savanna officially quit piano lessons. There is no getting around it. I was in denial the first month when she refused to practice unless I stood over her, and then only argued with me about every note on the paper, and ultimately slammed the keys with her hands in frustration. I started thinking maybe this wouldn't work out when there was only one time in 10 months she practiced what she was assigned without complaining, and only a few more that practicing didn't end in tears. Bribes worked for a week, punishment never worked. She would gladly take the punishment over practicing. She started arguing before we even sat at the piano, then started spouting curses at pianos, teachers, me and anything else she could think of. It has been 3 weeks since she touched the piano and when today I reminded her she needs to practice because she has lessons she just burst into tears, ran into her room and shut the door. She skipped the arguing and being sent to her room by me and went straight to the tears. I dejectedly called her teacher Brother Hanks and told his wife Stacy that Savanna needs a break from piano. Since we have a deal to teach each other's kids so we don't have to pay someone, we decided to try and start Fiora on lessons. When I told Savanna that she will be taking a break from piano lessons she was visibly relieved and since she hates to think she "quit" anything, we agreed she is just taking a break and maybe will start again sometime in the distant future. She saw my sadness and gave me a big hug which helped me. I wanted Savanna to learn piano, maybe she still will, but it has to be on her terms and not as an extension of my own ego.

Ouchera

I was doing Savanna's hair one morning and she was yelling about it as usual. This time she was yelling out at different pitches as I brushed so I asked her if she was singing some kind of opera. She replied: "No, I am singing an Ouchera."

Weston got a new superman backpack in the mail. He informed me that now he can go to kindergarten because he got his new backpack. I told him he still has a couple months of preschool. He stated: "But mom, coloring is so EASY!"

Here are some questions from my inquisitive son lately, let me know if you have any simple answers for him:
"Why do girls wear make-up?"
"Why does monday come after Sunday?"
"Why is it called "sun" day?"
"Why do I go to kindergarten in the fall?"
"Why is fall after summer?"
"Why to Jesse, Kelsy, and Karli sleep here?"
"Why does daddy work every day?"
"Why don't you go to work?"
"What is 'power'?"
"Why did we get a new kitchen?"
"When do I get to play soccer???"

Fiora has been doing chores to earn money to buy a wallet she desperately needs. I asked her why she needs a wallet, she said, "To put in my purse." So far she has earned $1.53 doing chores. I asked her if she wants to do a chore today to earn more. She said, "I'll wait until Saturday because Saturday is a special day, we clean the house and we shop at the store, so we don't have to wait until Monday." I laughed and she said, "Not funny."

Real Estate

The West Desert

Our neighbors Bill and Julie Valora offered to take us to the "west desert" where Bill likes to go 4-wheeling. We agreed and took a oportune Saturday to drop the kids off in Eagle Mountain at Gma's and head out there. What an adventure! Bill took us TWO HOURS into the west desert. (We could see the Nevada Mountains.) We had left the house at 8:30 and didn't mount the ATV until 11:20, and that was 6 miles before Bill wanted to stop because our trailer hitch lost it's pin. Some very generous jeepers that passed by gave us one of their hitch pins and saved us. The scenery was beautiful! I climbed some very steep hills and did some advanced off-roading, but never tipped over or flew off. I was able to keep up the Jared and Bill, but did lose them once when they turned off the trail. The copper mines Bill showed us were so neat to see. We had a picnic next to an abandoned stone house and some desert mountain sheep stopped nearby and watched us. The weather was pretty cool but we were dressed warm. We got back to our vehicles about 3:30 but didn't get back to Eagle mountain until 7:30 because we got 2 flat tires on our Yukon from driving it nearly 4 hours on rocky roads. Fortunately Bill was behind us and helped us change the one tire and drove us way back to Lehi to buy another tire, then drove us all the way back to Cedar Fort. We thanked him profusely. The kids didn't seem to mind being at Gma's for 12 hours. Notwithstanding the problems it was a really fun day! I'm glad I can say I have been to the West Desert.