Grateful

Today I am grateful for...

...Baby Ibuprofen  (Yum Yum has a fever, poor baby.)
...Dishwashers  (my life is much less busy)
...Refrigerators  (ditto)
...Stoves/Ovens  (ditto)
...Window A/Cs  (ditto)
...Cars  (I didn't want to take my feverish baby in the stroller to school pickup)
...Washing Machines/Dryers  (can you even imagine washing your clothes in the river?  Or even one of those washbasins/baskets?)
...Books  (I love reading about volcanoes, history, and the scriptures...all of which I've read for hours today.)
...Computers  (Well, duh.)
...Internet (Double duh.)

We have pretty amazing lives, don't we?

Waiting for Brother and Sister

Today I'm letting Zee and Em walk across the BIG street by themselves.  With the crossing guard, of course.

We are waiting under a tree across the street.  I'm trying to decide if the kids are big enough to walk all the way home by themselves. Sometimes I think "yes", sometimes "no".   

Yum Yum has finally figured out sippy cups.  This is a very good thing, because it is HOT right now.  Seriously, my Vegas friends, for real HOT.  We hit 101 degrees on Friday.

Hebs brings this kind of excitement to nearly everything he does.  I love my little Hurricane Hebs.

Gee decided to chill on the grass.  Thank goodness for shade.

And there they are!

"Poor" thing

First, read this comic:

(From the August 21, 2011 Doonesbury comic strip, click on image to enlarge)

The basic point of the comic is income inequality.  Rich people are really rich, the rest of us are poor, right?  Except...what does the black-haired man have in his hand?

A tablet computer.  Hand-held.  Connected to the internet.  Able to do amazing things.  No wires or cords.

Forgive me if I don't think he's all that poor.

Yum Yum among the flowers

Earthquake in D.C.

I imagine you've heard that the D.C. area experienced a moderate (5.9 magnitude) earthquake today.  Here's a picture of some of the devastation.  (May not be appropriate for small children.)

Truly, we live in the end times.

(Hat tip to Instapundit!)

First Day of School, Zee and Em, 2011

Walking to school with Daddy

At 6:45 this morning, I opened my bleary eyes to see a most unusual sight:  Em--my night owl, my little sleep-late girlie--was standing in my doorway, completely dressed in her new school clothes, bouncing with excitement.  "It's the first day of school, Daddy and Mommy!  I'm all ready!"

(I could wish that every morning would be like this, but I know better.)

Zee dashed out of his room, full of woe when he saw his sister up.  "Oh NO!" he exclaimed.  "I slept too long!"  Then he glimpsed the clock and relaxed.  "Oh!  It's only 6:50!  I thought I was late."  He then hurried to get dressed as well.

I helped Em brush and curl her hair, and Daddy helped her put on her new sneakers.  (We bought them more than a week ago, and she's been SO excited to wear them.)  Zee, being a big second-grader, didn't need any help, Mom.

With lunches packed, breakfast consumed and backpacks donned, it was time for pictures.

 

I love the toothless grin!

She is getting so big.

Look at the baby face on that kindergartner!  He's really changed.

 So confident and feeling just a little silly about posing down the street.

I can't wait until they get home!

Time to Learn!

Tomorrow the two big kids head off to school. So tonight we had our Back to School Feast.

Our theme this year is "Time to Learn!" and we chose to use clocks to decorate the crowns and dining room. (Why, yes, I am re-using the decorations from the good-bye party last week, except I drew tiny clocks on the cardstock circles.  Yes, they have been up all week.  What can I say?  I'm lazy AND thrifty!)

 Each clock-crown showed the time that child starts school.

The place-markers had the child's initial, the theme and a special message inside.

 Our school-papers baskets.  Last year, we only had one basket for three children, and that was chaos.  This year I've wised up.

This is the closest thing I could get to a decent picture of all four of them.

 I don't know what Hebs is doing, but he's darn cute.

 The feast:  Spaghetti with marinara sauce (aka "spaghetti sauce") (and breaded chicken strips for the adults), red lobster rolls, pears, and apple juice or milk to drink.

 Isn't she beautiful?  And growing up way too fast.

 Savoring his apple juice

Posing for the camera

Zee is off to second grade (with the teacher we wanted!), a veteran of all-day school.  Em is thrilled to pieces over her new lunchbox, excited about all-day school (not with the teacher I first wanted, but we'll make do with what we've got!), and a little stressed out, given the temper she's had all day.  Gee doesn't start his preschool class for another two weeks, and is a little sad about that.  Hebs just wants to go somewhere, anywhere, please-momma-where's-my-shoes???  And Yum Yum just toddles around, grinning like the sweet, mischievous baby that she is.

And tomorrow starts the new school year.  Hooray!

A New and Unusual Tool

My four younger kids watched in fascination as I mopped the dining room floor today.  To my chagrin, my four-year-old didn't even know the name of the tool I was using.

Gee:  Momma, what is that, that you are holding?
Momma:  It's a mop, Gee.
Gee:  A mah?
Momma:  No, a MOP.
Gee:  Oh!  Mop!  That's so neat!

I guess I need to clean my floors a little more often...

Pool Redux

We went to the Payson pool again, just my four oldest children and me (Daddy stayed home with Yum Yum).  It was so much fun.  The two little boys got adventurous this time--we spent most of the time in TWO feet of water, instead of 18 inches.  Gee was especially hilarious--his feet would float up and he would point to them and say, "Look, Momma, gravity!"

And I would say, "No, Gee, not gravity.  Buoyancy."  And then he'd agree and we'd pretend we were "Buoyant Bunnies" or puppies or some such.  He even had me sing a song about buoyancy.  It was awesome. (The fact that he was interested in buoyancy, not the song I made up on the spot and promptly forgot.)

Em and Zee had a wonderful time in the current pool-lazy river, and Em tried out some of her (very minor) swimming skills.  She was more adventurous this time, as well.  Maybe not waiting a month or nine between trips to the pool would be beneficial to my children.

Deserts and the Terrestrial World

Do you think there will be deserts when "the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory"?

I do.

(picture via Google images)

Songs

Today I rocked out to my "fun" playlist on my iPod whilst cleaning the downstairs bathroom.  It took me nearly two hours to scour, scrub, polish, and shine every surface in that little room.  (Two hours.  How embarrassing!)  The fact that it took two hours is important, however, because my "fun" playlist is only 34.5 minutes long.  So I listened to those songs four times each.

Now, I (obviously) enjoy my tunes.  But I need some new suggestions!  I'm not a country gal, nor am I a "let's sing about naughty things" type.  (Although now I wonder about #3 on my list below...)  What are your favorite work-out, clean-up, or dance-crazily songs?

My "fun" playlist
1.  "Firework" by Katy Perry
2.  "Too Late to Apologize" by TJ & The Revo (the Declaration of Independence version)
3.  "All that She Wants" by Ace of Base
4.  "Wunderkind" by Alanis Morissette
5.  "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles
6.  "The Ugly Bug Ball" by Burl Ives
7.  "Don't Stop Believin'" by Glee Cast
8.  "Kyrie" by Mr. Mister
9.  "America" by Neil Diamond

(Notes:
1.  I discovered "Firework" because of the awesome BYU Divine Comedy's "Firebolt" parody. (Link starts playing YouTube video.)
2.  My sister uses this song about the Declaration in her fifth grade class.  I love the music video, too.  (Link starts playing a SchoolTube video.)
3.  Well, apparently the baby she wants isn't a real baby, it's a one night stand.  I'm a little naive sometimes.
4.  From the movie "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
5.  Oh, freshman year memories!
6.  Don't judge.  I got this one for my kids, but I love it myself, too.
7.  I don't even watch Glee, but their version is my favorite.
8.  "Kyrie" is not a song about Julio Iglesias, but if you don't know what the words actually are, it sure sounds like his name.
9.  I feel like I should be about twenty years older than I am, having this song on my playlist.)

Farewell dinner

 It's astonishing what a few cardstock circles hung from the chandelier can do for a room... 

Tonight we had our farewell dinner for David, Sky, Eff, and Lala.  Although they don't move into their new apartment up in the Salt Lake Valley until Saturday, the three kids are leaving tomorrow afternoon to spend the week with their maternal grandmother.  Somehow, the kids latched onto the idea of having a good-bye party, and tonight was the best night to do it.

After decorating the dining room with the aforementioned circles, I set the table with my best dishes and nicely folded napkins.  Each plate had four starburst candies, and three glow sticks to play with when it got dark.  The goblets (sooo fancy, Em and Lala decided) were filled with apple juice and pebbled ice, quite the delicacy.  (At one point during dinner, Em held her glass aloft and said, "A toast for the Tobler kids!"  Where did she even get that?  It was hilarious.)

 These circles spell "goodbye", except they kept flipping around in the breeze from the fan.

The seven older kids of the cousin summer

The actual dinner was a moderate (as ever) success, but the sheer joy of having a "party" smoothed out any sadness over the meal choice.  We "topped" off their juice glasses as necessary, gave extra generous amounts of jello, and had numerous cookies for dessert.

It was messy, loud, loving, and fun:  A perfect endpiece to our cousin summer.

Swim

Yesterday I took the kids to the Payson pool.

Remember the days of biking over the local junior high school (Brinley Junior High, in my case) and paying 75 cents to swim in the pool?  Brinley's pool had a deep end with two diving boards and a "shallow" (three-four feet deep?) end of swim lanes.  And we thought it was awesome.

Yeah.  This is not your mother's pool.

Sky and Eff's favorite part was the really big slide structure.  (To be honest, it was my favorite, too.)

Zee, Em, and Lala loved the lazy river (aka current pool) the most.  (I liked it too, but since Lala wasn't tall enough to go in by herself, I was always carrying someone in.  It was a good workout, I tell ya.)

Gee and Hebs were entranced by the huge bucket atop the children's slide structure.  Every two or three minutes it would dump massive gallons of water everywhere.  (I was under it twice when that happened--wow, that was a lot of forceful water coming down.)

 Eff and Zee in the lazy river

 Em and Lala in the shallow end

Sky in the lazy river (that kid is a fish!)

Gee and Hebs, chilling in the shallow end

I took the five big kids first, starting when Bradley got home at 3:30 (early out because of graduation).  We played until six, and then drove home.  Then I got the two little boys ready, and we went back.  It took Hebs 25 minutes, at least, to get comfortable enough to actually get IN the water, and even longer to want to move around, but before eight he was having a ball.  We stayed until 9pm, and then (even though the pool was open for another thirty minutes), teeth chattering and skin goose-bumpy, we packed it in.  

It was exhausting.

And really fun.  

Bounty from my garden

Last year we placed planter boxes in our front yard, and planted them with flowers, greenery, and strawberries. (You can see them in the photos of the Grand Parade 2010.)  We were so pleased with how everything looked.  This year, however, the plants we chose haven't been as pretty.  Part of it had to do with my choices (turns out Gerber daisies don't get very tall), and part has to do with the weather (we got such a slow start to warm summer that some of my plants just gave up).

But the strawberries!  Oh, they are gorgeous and delicious.  For the first part of the summer, it was Zee's job to water the plants.  He was very faithful, but not very thorough.  The few strawberries we got were sort of sour.  I took over and, with the careful application of much water, the strawberries have blossomed (pun intended).

Yesterday I picked this bowlful, and meant to save the majority of them for Bradley to have when he got home.  I reckoned without my Hebs, though.  An hour later I walked into a (suspiciously) quiet kitchen to find a blissfully happy, and berry-stained little two-year-old.

Oh well.  I'm sure they were delicious.

And now my baby is ONE

We celebrated my Yummy's first birthday yesterday.

(Insert obligatory amazement at the way time flies.  Except, HOLY COW, it does.)

Traditionally birthdays aren't the biggest deal around here.  Often we don't even celebrate on the actual day.  Don't hate, but while our birthdays are fun and mildly exciting, they aren't a huge production.  But with the eight kids in the house this summer, Yum Yum's birthday began to take on mythical proportions.  So, perhaps this birthday was a little bigger than it otherwise would have been.

We bought Yum Yum her first car*.  She loves it.

A lot.

She gave it hugs, squealed over it, and cried when I lifted her out.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who loved it:

Hebs' reaction to being told to let Yum Yum play with her toy.

We took the car out for a spin around the block.  Everyone wanted to take a turn helping out.

This is a girl who is well-loved in this home.

Then we went back inside and had lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting.  Yum Yum made a petite mess with her (unfrosted) cupcake.  When she threw it on the ground, instead of scolding we cheered, and she grinned.  I foresee difficulties with meals today.

Happy birthday to my darling little daughter.

*I love her little car, too, now that it is assembled.  It took me TWO AND A HALF HOUR to put it together, and I hated every minute of it.  I am not handy.

My Little Toddler

A Family Saturday

Today we visited Bradley's Grandma Peters--she's ninety-something and lives in an assisted living center in South Jordan.  After reminding all the kids to give Grandma a hug (Gee hid behind me for the first several minutes), I started to lean over to let Grandma have a look at Yum Yum.

Yum Yum took one look at Grandma and started to wail.  I hastily stood back up and held her close, trying to calm her down.  After a few moments, I tried to sit down next to Grandma.  Yum Yum lurched over in my arms to get as far away as she could, her face crumpling up again.  The entire time we were in Grandma's room, Yum Yum clung to me like a limpet.  She wanted to have nothing to do with poor Grandma Peters.

I think Yum Yum was probably just a little scared and uncertain.  It's been a couple of months since we visited Grandma Peters.  My little chaotic hoard is a little overwhelming to a healthy individual, much less someone as frail as Grandma.  And Grandma's memory isn't very reliable.  I'm pretty sure she didn't have a clue who we were during this visit.

I'm glad we went, though.  After about five minutes, the kids started rocketing around, and I made them say their good-byes and took them downstairs while Bradley stayed behind to visit.  The center has an enclosed courtyard with a fountain, and that is where we stayed until Bradley came down.

There was an sweet old gentleman enjoying the fresh air, and I was a little worried we would disturb him, but he was very interested in the children and we spent the entire time talking.  He told me about his family and the home they raised their family in.  He still owns the home, and his daughter keeps it up.  Nobody is living there, because he won't ever have renters again.  You see, when he was stationed overseas during the war--that would be World War II, mind--he had renters and they really messed up the place.  So he's never going to do that again.

After our visit, we went over to have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Ross.  (Grilled hamburgers, potato salad, fresh fruit, lemonade--it was delicious!)  We celebrated Yum Yum's birthday (can you believe that she is going to be ONE next week?), and generally had a very enjoyable time.  

I do love living close to family.

There, I Fixed It For You

I saw this on Facebook:

There are 5 things in life you cannot recover: A stone...after it's thrown. A word...after it is said. An occasion...after it's missed. The time...after it's gone. A person...after they die. Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile, Enjoy Life ...

And it annoyed me so much I had to modify it.

"There are 5 things in life you cannot recover: A stone...after it's thrown (through a large plate glass window). A word...after it is said, (especially in court). An occasion...after it's missed. The time...after it's gone (unless you are Marty McFly). A person...after they die (falling into an erupting volcano). Life is short, (unless you were Jeanne Calment). Break the rules, (except the ones that will land you in jail). Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly (as long as you aren't late for work). Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably, (except when your sanity is being evaluated). And never regret anything that made you smile, (unless you are a sadist), Enjoy Life ..."

Any other suggestions for it?

Broken Record

"Close the door!"  At least twelve times a day in the spring, summer, and autumn.

"Be quiet!"  Going on twenty times since 8pm alone.

"Eat at the table!"  Five times per breakfast and lunch.  (Not dinner, strangely enough.)

"Please tell your [sibling, cousin] you are sorry."  Nineteen times a day.

"I love you."  Hopefully more times than the sum of the others.  

Patience and Love and Clorox Bleach

I don't mind telling you the last couple of days have been hard.  I mean, I ran out of my favorite lemonade yesterday afternoon and couldn't go to the store until almost eight o'clock that night!

It was really touch and go for a while there, but I pulled through.

Seriously, though, as David and his kids get ready to move up to their new apartment in a couple of weeks, the changes and uncertainty have been difficult on my nephews and niece.  Since the divorce, they have been living first with Grandma and then with us.  Now they are going to be "on their own", and it's hard on their emotions. I think the divorce feels more real to them.  None of us quite know what to expect yet--will they go to daycare after school?  Will they have a sitter at their new home?  How will they get to school?  What will their new ward be like?  What will their new school be like?

If I get nervous just thinking about it, I can't imagine what it is like to be them right now.

My own children have started to pick up on it as well.  More tears, more impatience, more squabbling.

So, I'm trying to parent with a lot of love and patience this week.  I don't know what else to do.

And Hebs spent a lovely couple of minutes in the bathroom, dropping various items (like bath toys and soap) into the toilet.  (Seriously.  None of my other kids even thought about...well, you know the drill by now.)

Pioneer Day, 2011

(This is a scrapbook post:  Long on pictures, short on words.)

We really love the Grand Parade on the 24th of July.  (Or, in this case, the 25th of July.)  Every year, we invite everyone we possibly can to come sit on our (lovely, shady, west-facing) lawn to watch the parade.  Most people bring a breakfast treat to share, and we provide juice, water, cups, plates, and muffins.

It is quite possibly one of my favorite times of year.

The view from my front door

The view from the street (360 degrees around!)

Waiting for the children's race to start.

We're so excited!

Lots of friends--from the ward, the neighborhood, BYU, and beyond.

Hebs loved the parade--except the really loud sirens

Zee took most of the pictures, which worked out pretty well.  Even this slightly oddly angled one is pretty fun.

Proof that I was there!

The children had so much fun, as usual.  Sadly, very little candy was thrown this year.  The rules forbade it, but that didn't stop many floats from tossing a little.  This was more of a problem than no candy at all, though, because a little candy for many children is a recipe for disaster.

Still, fun was had by all.

Mandasaurus Reina and family

And I got to see so many of my good friends from college:  Liz R. came with her children, Emily B. with her husband and baby, and a surprise:  Mandy, Bryan, and their little boy.  I wasn't expecting to see them, so it was very fun.

If you live in the area, come to our party next year!