Oh my! 15 days until Christmas!

Master S has been playing a roller coaster game on the computer, as of late.  He builds coasters and then virtually tests them.  Funny thing - many times his virtual passengers flip out of the ride and are completely off the track ... but they miraculously get back on to finish the ride.  I'm feeling a little bit like that passenger - like I'm going so fast I'm going to flip out at any moment.  I'm hoping that by some miracle I'll still get to finish the ride :) and that Christmas will come, despite lack of time, money and energy!  To quote a famous book, where Christmas comes despite unfortunate events ...

"But this sound wasn't sad!
Why, this sound sounded glad!

Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Was singing without any presents at all!

He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming! It came!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his Grinch feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling. "How could it be so?

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes, or bags!"

He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!
Yes!  It means a little bit more ... that is why it is good to do the many things we do as a family this time of year, because it is more than what you get at the store.  Those things often make it crazy - but it also makes it real.  We celebrate because of a real baby - that in an of itself is a miracle, aren't all babies?  We celebrate because there was a real Easter morning, a Resurrection.    It is fabulous to celebrate, albeit a little crazy in preparation and excitement - especially when it involves kids and giving, but I keep reminding myself that there is a reason for the season and to focus on that.

Our family got to attend two Christmas performances this year.  One on Tuesday for the 1st graders and one on Thursday for the 4th graders.  Master S failed to inform us that he was singing in an ensemble.  But, luckily we had some good seats and were still able to catch it on the camera.  That is one thing that I love about their school - they sing Christmas songs, religious Christmas songs, mixed in with Santa, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah - but the fact that the reason for Christmas is acknowledged and celebrated is delightful to me.  The real miracle of a baby born in Bethlehem inspires us to remember all the real miracles that happen, even on a small scale, and daily basis in our lives.  Happy, crazy, REAL Christmas season!

Dayton

Saturday we took the day off!  My brother in Pennsylvania was in Dayton and we decided to meet them there for the day.  My little niece, Mia, is 9 months old and I hadn't even met her yet (yes, I am aware that I haven't met another niece, but there isn't an ocean between me and Mia!)  The kids were ecstatic!  Miss Lilly was so excited that she literally was not able to control herself and we had to threaten, repeatedly, to stay home or turn the car around.  She could not contain herself!  Dayton is only a few hours away and has a really cool Air Force Museum that is FREE!  It was incredible, huge, amazing ... I think I could go back tomorrow and spend another two days there and not see the same things.  This is a picture of me and the kids with the Wright Brother's Airplane.

There are three huge hangers with actual full size airplanes, from the early planes, through all the world wars, and space rockets and even a stealth bomber, which was huge and incredibly cool.  My sister-in-law and I decided that there was nothing like this kind of a museum to remind us of how little we know about so many things! 

 Master S.  It was family day at the museum, so they had a lot of demos about torque, gyros, rattlebacks, and a special presentation on boomerangs from a boomerang world champion (who knew?!) ... he ate it up!

 Miss Lilly.  She was disturbed by all the 'pretend' people in and around the air planes.  I don't think they were wax, but she thought they looked real enough!

 This is the airplane that dropped one of the atomic bombs in Japan during WWII.  Apparently it landed in SLC because on the logo on the side it has Nagasaki on one side and SLC on the other (again, who knew?!).

 Cousins -- there just isn't anything in the world as great as cousins!

Big D and his cousin that just turned five ... they are almost the same size!

 Because this was an Air Force Museum, there were lots of things about famous war planes and the people who flew them.  My brother and I have a great uncle who flew in the Vietnam War and it was so cool to see his picture/story displayed in the Medal of Honor display.  I grew up hearing about this story and met Uncle Bernie several times, but it was different to see him honored in a place like this.  Made me realize what an incredible man he was and also remember the incredible people that I come from (yes, that means you Grandpa and Grandma!).

 Even more awesome, was they have the plane ... the actual plane that he flew ... the one that he rescued a fellow downed pilot in under enemy fire .. there at the museum, on display. 

 And the plaque on display tells his story.  Plus, after eating in the cafeteria there, we found a little kiosk that had video of him talking about that experience.  Which was really cool for the kids to see him talk about his experience.  He said more than once that he had a strong impression, despite being in a dangerous circumstances, that he needed to rescue this fellow pilot and that if he learned anything, that it was so important to follow through on those impressions.

It was a great Saturday!  Loved spending time with people that I love and miss.  We need to do that more often!  It was a good reminder that family, those here in our home, far away (even thousands of miles and oceans away) and those passed on (weather I knew them or not), make us who we are and continue to help us become who we are to be.  I am so grateful for FAMILY!

Friends

Friends - I count myself lucky because I have many!  Funny thing about friends is that while they may always be your friend, they may not always be the friends you know.  There are so many wonderful people out there ... you know who you are ... who at one point or another in my life, or at several points in my life have been there, present, listening, aware and involved, but aren't now.  I still hold them close to my heart, but we are either in different locations, or different phases of life and don't have the same connections.  Heavens!  Just the pure insane 'busy'ness of my life right now, keeps me from truly seeing my friends here as much as I want to and some of them live next door or work with me at work/church!   Trying to stay in touch with those scattered all over the world seems so daunting to me and honestly just doesn't happen, except an occasional Christmas card.   There are even lots of people that I consider friends that I don't really know that well, who I want to know better, but because of life it is kind of on 'hold'.  Interesting though, that I don't stop thinking about them - any of them!  I don't stop missing them.  And, most importantly, they don't stop affecting me and changing me.  To me, a good friend is someone who makes you better than you are, who leaves something with you, in your heart that you will never forget and shapes who you are and how you interact with everyone else around you.   There are so many of you that have done that for me and continue to do that for me.  I hope that someday, maybe in the next life, I'll be able to gather my friends both near and far, past and present (or future for that matter) or at least spend time with them and enjoy their spirit and presence again.  Today, I am thankful for friends, for people who see me for who I am, who forgive me, who have lunch with me, who call me on my birthday, who think about me and pray for me, who listen to me ramble, who let me freak out, who have confidence in me, who share, who love, who have taken the time to be a friend.  I am grateful and I will never be the same because of it!

I've been reading a book.  It is about parenting.  There are lots of really good things in it - things that I really struggle to do and be.  The longer I attempt to be a parent, the more I realize that I am not an expert - I'm not even a novice, I'm a full on practicing, learning, mistake making Mom (as with many other roles in my life!).  But, I'm trying.  I hope my kids know that I am trying - that I'm not perfect, but that I LOVE them.  Oh, how I love them.  I was watching a clip about Brandon Flowers http://mormon.org/me/5233/Brandon/ from Mormon.org, who is a rock star, a dad and a member of our church and he said, "There is a chamber in your heart that you don't know exists, when you have a baby ... I'm overflowing with that love that I didn't know was there before." I want my kids to know I don't always display it, or say it (I'm working on that) but they are what keeps me upright most days - they are a part of my heart that I didn't know was there before and it is overflowing.

Life is full of challenge.  Sometimes we are very aware of it in our own lives, or in other's lives and sometimes we are not.  I was talking with a nurse at work yesterday day and we joked that it seems sometimes that our biggest challenges are our spouses or our children!  The people we love the most.  Challenges can come in lots of different packages, many times we don't even see or recognize that others are having them - sometimes I don't realize my own challenges.  Challenges of faith, strength, endurance, sanity, psyche, health - we all have them.  But, we also have blessings - even simple blessings.  Sometimes they come in very little things that just keep us moving in the right direction and having faith even when we are in doubt, or strength when we are spent, or presence of mind when we are losing it.  I am blessed because of my children.  They are often that little thing that keeps me moving.  Today I am thankful for my children.

Halloween 2011

Sick.  Both of the adults in the family.  Too sick to move.  Too sick to eat.  Too sick to even smell candy.  Yuck!  There should be immunity for parents on holidays!  But, we rallied for dinner, kids made their own sandwiches and J.D. felt well enough to go walk the neighborhood.  The kids are having a blast, despite their ill parents ..

Captain America!

 

The Mummy!

 Miss Poodle!

 All three ready to go.

 Pumpkins.

Captain America showing off his loot.  Happy Halloween!

Florida 2011

Florida is beautiful.  J.D.'s parents live very close to the beach - and they have a pool, so it is the perfect vacation spot!  J.D.'s dad recently opened a new building for the veterinary tech school at the community college and gave the kids a tour.  They especially loved the dog kennel and the cat room!

 We didn't get to the beach the day we drove in, so the next day, being Sunday, we took a walk ... the kids couldn't help but get wet.  Gorgeous weather - beautiful water - happy kids.

 On Monday it was overcast, but warm so we spent most of the day at the beach.  The kids are posing for the camera.

 Master S was loving his body board.

 Miss Hailey was loving the sand.

 Big D was happy to just be free.

 J.D. and I got a chance to get away and went to see the sunken gardens in St. Petersburg.  Since I love all things plants, I couldn't help but take a few, well, maybe a whole bunch of pictures.

 Wednesday it was raining, so Grandpa took us to see the movie "A Dolphin's Tale".  You can see a preview here:  http://dolphintalemovie.warnerbros.com/index.html  It was a actually a great movie for the whole family - highly reccomend it!  The kids loved it.  And, apparently 'Winter' the dolphin that the movie is about, is at the Clearwater Aquarium in Clearwater, FL also where the movie was filmed, just about 15 minutes from J.D.'s parents.  So, Thursday Grandpa and Grandma took everyone to see 'Winter'.  If the kids didn't think the movie was fantastic already, they thought the aquarium was AWESOME!  They loved seeing Winter in person and got to see a baby dolphin, 'Hope' up close and personal in a show and through windows.  Here is Big D & Hope saying hi -

They got plenty of souvenirs and their 'Winter' t-shirts were the first things unpacked to wear to school the next week.

 Here is Winter, with her prosthetic fin, part of the 'Winter' show that the aquarium did.

 We went swimming on Thursday afternoon, once the clouds cleared.

 Lucky me - cute kids and good-looking guy to hang with!  And then for a walk on the beach ...

 Friday we spent at the beach again - had to soak up as much sun as we could.  Miss Lilly and Big D digging in the sand.

 Because of the storm that blew through while we were there, the waves were perfect for body boarding on Friday and Master S had a great time 'catching some waves'.  He loved it and got pretty good at it while we were there.

 Playing frisbee.

 Burying Miss Lilly in the sand - she had sand everywhere!!!!

 One last walk on the beach.

 Isn't it gorgeous!  Next year - two weeks, minimum!

the leak to my brain ...

I have some incredible pics to post from Florida!  There really is nothing like vacationing on the Gulf and staying with wonderful in-laws to slow down life a little and see what I want to, not what I have to in my daily life.  But, as with everything, it came to an end and I'm frantically trying to catch up!
My eye even stopped twitching for a few days while we were there - yea!  Now, I need to figure out how to make it stop at home.  But, coming home brings a few challenges to that.  First and foremost is the amount of information that I have to keep in my brain on a daily basis.  I sometimes wonder if I can cram anymore in.  There are schedules for each member of the family to keep track of (soccer, piano, scouts, guest lunches at school, my work, J.D.'s work, homework due dates, J.D.'s meeting days, YM's), information for work, which I firmly believe could very well overtake my whole brain if I let it - protocols, patho-physiology, lab values, aromatherapy scents, procedures, NRP testing, computer charting, safety acronyms, medications, as well as personalities (drs or nurses) to avoid or embrace.  There is R.S. (Relief Society - organization for women at church that I am heavily involved in at this moment) with lots more information on:  people, problems, service, meetings, incredible acts of kindness, incredible moments of difficulty, needs, wants, topics, teaching ....  There are also books that I'm reading, books I want to read and information on the radio, the computer, the Internet on politics, economics, history, art, science, religion ...   maybe that is why my eye is twitching, I'm trying to keep all this information in my brain, but there is a leak through my eyelid!  Which is why I'm going to apologize to Miss Lilly today - I forgot to attend guest lunch day with her ... I'm so sorry!  I'll have to blame it on my twitch ...

Nothing like the Midwest ...

There is nothing like fall in the Midwest.  Nothing.  It. is. BEAUTIFUL!  This year we've had over two weeks of gorgeous 70 degree weather, with blue skies and incredible color.  Even our trees in the front are big enough and healthy enough this year to put on some fantastic color ...

 I keep looking out the front window from the kitchen, as I sweep the floor or wipe the counters for the millionth time each day and every time I do a double take because it looks like I have a big orange paper pumpkin in the window ... but it is just the tree!  Sugar Maples never cease to amaze me with their rich, deep, color!

 There is a park close by that we love to visit.  Every time we go I make a resolution to go more often.  We took a picnic dinner and ate near a playground and then went on a hike.  Here are my boys hiking through the woods ...

 The three smiling for mom's camera under a tree ...

Miss Lilly had to have one all her own ...

Life keeps ticking away - I realized a few days ago that Big D will be the same age, in a few months, that Miss Lilly was when we first moved here.  Where does the time go?  I know where it goes - my time is spent going to work, taking care of moms and babies and enjoying every minute that I get to teach and hold and comfort,  church callings and visits and meetings and getting to know some really incredible women (yes, I am surrounded!), kids homework, soccer practice, games and more practice (this is the last week!!!), trying to think of and fix healthy meals that my children will eat and don't take hours to prepare (ha ha - just can't help laughing at that), figuring out Halloween costumes on a very small budget - amazing what creativity can do when it only has a few dollars, reading parenting books in hopes of figuring out what I really don't have figured out, finding time to squeeze in a little canning to help ease that ever tighter food budget (have you seen food prices lately?!?) ... just being a mom is an all encompassing, ever-expanding, tediously repetitious, time consuming, wonder-moments experience.  Why is it that the minutes seem forever, but the days pass like seconds?