Niece or Nephew?

A few months ago my nephew Peter (now age 5) asked his mom why Heavenly Father didn't give him any sisters. Kristen explained that He sent Eric instead, and Peter and Jacob. Seven boys altogether, in fact. No girls. Since then Peter started praying for a sister at every prayer. Two-year old Eric, who copies everything Peter does, started praying for a sister, too. Soon after that Kristen found out that she's pregnant, due the end of January. Her husband Nathan, the mathematician, can probably tell us the statistical probability of baby #8's gender, but apparently gender doesn't follow the laws of probability. Because although many people have a fairly even mix of boys and girls, some of us tend to keep producing just one gender. There must be more factors involved than a 50/50 chance. So, what do you think? Are they having a girl or a boy? Answer my poll to the right. Her ultrasound is scheduled for September 8th.

Look at what I did!

With our abundance of tomatoes, I decided to try canning. I've never done it before, although I've always wanted to. Last year I bought a canning book, canning pot, and a bunch of jars at a yard sale. First I canned whole tomatoes. Last Friday I started out by reading the book and looking up tips and watching how-to videos online. It took me awhile to figure out a system, and it made an absolute mess of my kitchen as everything was splattered with tomato juices and peelings. And I was so paranoid about killing my family with botulism that it probably took me longer than necessary as I kept sterilizing and re-sterilizing supplies along the way. Then I was beyond frustrated when I couldn't find the metal wire that came with the pot, for lowering and raising the jars from the boiling water. Whenever we can't find something we blame it on Brennan. That's because he spends his life picking up odd things and relocating them to random places throughout the house, and outside, apparently, as I have since found it in the backyard. But I made do without it. I started out with an overflowing bowl of tomatoes and ended up with 3 quart jars. Then today I made tomato sauce. I looked at bunches of recipes, but I decided to keep it pretty simple and used the recipe for Tomato Basil Marinara in my canning book. I started with 30 tomatoes and ended up with 3 quart jars plus enough to put on our spaghetti tonight. It was DELICIOUS. It cooked for 3 hours, and it thickened up quite a bit, but it was still pretty watery. I am more than pleased with myself. Looking back it was a lot of work - between growing and harvesting the tomatoes, cleaning, peeling, chopping, pureeing in the blender, mixing with onions, garlic and herbs from the garden, boiling for 3 hours, putting in jars, and canning for 45 minutes. But it's such a sense of accomplishment! Plus it tastes tons better than store-bought and it uses up tomatoes so they don't go bad. I seriously might do it again.

Preschoolers

One of the best things about school is that the preschoolers get to rule the house when the big kids are gone. Finally they get to choose what to play, what we watch and which dress-ups to wear, instead of taking whatever is left over. When the older boys are home, they naturally dominate. But when the little ones are the only two home, they instantly seem older. Dallin is the big guy, watching out for Brennan and calling the shots. This is always a fun time to watch relationships develop between the younger kids. Now that Brennan is getting old enough to play with, he and Dallin have started playing together more. The same thing happened between Tyler and Dallin when Spencer started school. But it's hard for that to happen when everyone is home together. It really is a good system.

Back to School

The boys were so excited to go back to school today. They woke up at 6:15 and were all ready to go by 7:00 - they don't have to leave until 8:00. They both got the teachers I requested, and they both have good friends in their class. Spencer is starting third grade and Tyler is in first, so he goes all day this year. Dallin's friend's mom just called to invite him to go to the park with them, and she's going to pick him up soon. And then it will just be me and Brennan. Oh, the possibilities...

Goodbye summer

It was a beautiful day at the beach yesterday. The boys wanted to go one last time before school starts tomorrow. Nathan went surfing with his older boys, Spencer and some of his cousins went boogie boarding, and the little boys played in the sand. Everyone was happy and low maintenance, allowing us to visit uninterrupted. It was warm and sunny and not too windy. There were even some dolphins putting on a show for us not too far out in the ocean, doing huge flips out of the water. Afterwards we all went out to dinner at the bay for french dip sandwiches and fish and chips. What a perfect end to the summer.

Date Night

My brother Ben is going to acting school. Anyone who knows him is not surprised by this - concerned, maybe, but not surprised. As the youngest of nine children, he's been entertaining the family his whole life. One thing we love about living here is that we get to see his plays. Last night Dave and I went with Kristen and Nathan to see his play at the PCPA called the Imaginary Invalid. He had a small but hilarious role as the apothecary, and his friend Gwen played the wicked step-mother. We all thoroughly enjoyed the play. Ben's hair was dyed black for a previous play, but Gwen has since cut it off.

Now it looks like this. She did a pretty good job for her first haircut.

Of course it really doesn't matter what his hair looks like in this play because it's under a lovely wig.

Exciting Morning

Some mornings are more exciting than others.

Spencer - "Mom!! Brennan's eating the Jewish Sugar Scones!" I thought Brennan was being too quiet. I made the cookies for the PTA, which is doing a luncheon for all the teachers today. Amazingly Brennan didn't develop a rash, since he's allergic to almost every ingredient in them - flour, butter, sour cream, egg. He must not have eaten much, or else the Benedryl was still in his system from this morning when Dave came home from running and found him sitting on the couch eating a box of Wheat Thins. Luckily I was able to salvage enough cookies and make them presentable again.

Tyler - "Don't go too fast, mom. Remember when they caught you and gave you one more chance?" I got a warning for speeding and not coming to a complete stop over a year ago. It sure left an impression on my kids. They're still bringing it up. A few minutes after he said this, I passed a speed trap. Good thing I wasn't speeding.

Spencer - "I almost had to stop, drop and roll," after burning his pajamas on the gas stove when he accidentally turned it on while climbing up to the microwave to see how much time was left on the timer for piano practice.

Dave goes shopping

Yesterday Dave called and offered to go to the grocery store on his way home from work since I was still a little sick. Dave doesn't do much shopping. It takes him longer because he doesn't know where things are, and he comes home with things I don't usually buy. He was hungry yesterday, so he had quite a few impulse buys. Then he explained that he didn't get the last thing on his list, oats, and that it was a funny story why he didn't get it. He said he wanted kettle corn, but he couldn't find it. So a worker was trying to help him, but he didn't know where it was either, although he thought he did, so they kept going back and forth together. Finally a female worker told them where it was. So Dave got the popcorn, but in the process dropped several onto the floor. Just then a lady walked by and said "Oops" to Dave as he was picking them up. Then Dave, thinking it was the female worker who had helped him find the kettle corn, said "Thank-you for your help." But when he looked over at her, he realized it was just a shopper walking by. He was so embarrassed. She probably thought he was so rude, sarcastically thanking her for helping him pick up the dropped popcorn, as if she should have helped but didn't. She was already gone, so he didn't have time to explain. He just ran to the check-out and left as quickly as he could, not taking time to get the oats. I wonder how long it will be before he offers to go shopping again.

No Sick Days for Moms

I love being a stay-at-home mom. I love making my own schedule and not having to be anywhere (except for the occasional doctor's appointment, which I never schedule too early in the morning). I love that I can do what I want when I want, go somewhere if I feel like it, eat when I want, play with the kids whenever, read whenever, plan my day or not. This all sounds pretty good, except that I can't take sick days. Really, there are things that need to be done. Last night I went to bed feeling kinda nauseous, so I took some Maalox and figured the leftover Mexican Rice didn't agree with my stomach. But then I was up on and off all night until I finally threw up, which was good because then I felt better. Dave did what he could to help out this morning - he fed the kids breakfast and let me sleep in. But then I really had to get up when he left for work. Brennan, for one, is constantly into everything, and now he can open doors and the video/DVD drawers. Dallin spends his time making Tyler cry, so that has to be dealt with. I tried just sitting at the computer because moving made my tummy hurt, but dishes have to be done, diapers have to be changed, and children sometimes need to be physically separated from each other. You don't realize how much you really do until it hurts to do it.

Tomatoes, anyone?

We've been eating the tomatoes pretty much as fast as we pick them, but then all of a sudden there were tons ready all at once. So we chopped some up for my dad's birthday dinner of Mexican Rice last night and gave the rest away. There's still more in the garden.

Then we made some fried green tomatoes. I like the ones that are just a little bit pink - they have such a good flavor. Dallin was causing lots of sadness after church (Sundays can be exhausting), so Dave recruited him to help coat the tomatoes. He loved it. Don't look at my messy counter.

Dinner with the Boss

Last night we had dinner with Dave's doctor. He has an amazing property with a great view and lots of horses. When we first got there we went on a hike around his property and saw tons of deer and wild turkeys, and he pointed out where the rabits and foxes live. It was all very wooded, hilly and gorgeous.

Then we watched him feed all the horses and sat extra quiet so we could see the deer come get their food too. They weren't sure about us sitting there and kept looking up at us - you never know what little boys will do.

Like many doctors we know, this guy likes to collect cars. He had 2 Porsche's, a Ferrari, an old Mustang and two horse-drawn doctor's carriages from about 1905.

After dinner the boys all got a turn riding one of the horses, but the pictures didn't turn out because it was too dark by then. They had so much fun, but by the end of the evening I was totally stressed out. These people are not used to kids, and our boys were having so much fun running around and exploring that I thought for sure they were going to give them a heart attack.

Proposition 8

"The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity." - The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Last month a letter from the First Presidency of the church was read from the pulpit urging all members of the church in California to be actively involved in the campaign for Proposition 8. Usually the leaders of our church do not get involved with politics and only encourage us to research the issues and prayerfully vote. But in this situation, much is at stake. Californians will again be voting to protect the definition of marriage as a union between and man and a woman, as they did in 2000, but this time the initiative will change the state's constitution to protect it from activist judges. So what they have asked us to do is call voters in our community to find out who is for the proposition and offer information if they ask for it. We are not supposed to get into arguments or try to change any one's mind. This morning I picked up our calling lists (75 names for each of us), and Dave and I traded off watching the kids/making phone calls, switching off every half hour. We're halfway done, and I have to admit it hasn't been as awful as I feared. You know how I feel about calling people. I was secretly relieved every time I got an answering machine or busy signal. Although I think that means I'll have to try them again later. There were a couple of rude people, but in general people either didn't know about it and wanted to hear more, or they knew they were for it. One lady kept thanking me for my hard work and wishing me luck. This is definitely something people feel strongly about. And thank goodness we live in such a conservative area, especially compared to the rest of California.

Sisters

My sister Kristen and I are so alike it's scary. She's six years older than I am, but we've always had a lot in common. We shared a room when we were growing up, and I totally idolized her. My mom tells us we were the most strong-willed of all 9 kids. What? Me? Strong-willed? I don't believe it either. When Kristen likes something, I know I'll like it too. It's a bit of a problem when we go shopping together because we want the same clothes. We're both springs, so we look good in the same colors, even. Our favorite color is red. We both have all boys (although she has 7 of them and has an ultrasound in 3 weeks to see if baby #8 is a girl or boy). She would visit us from Wyoming and discover that we had bought the exact same things for our homes - welcome mat, drinking glasses, etc., without even knowing it. Last year she bought a house up the street from us (yay!), but unfortunately we don't see each other nearly as often as we'd like to because we both suffer from the same problem of not wanting to make the effort to call and coordinate. Isn't that pathetic? Ever since they moved here, my kids are always telling me that we talk alike. Anyway, when her opinion of something differs from mine, I start to question my own opinion. Was I wrong? Do I actually feel the same way she does and not know it? I was disappointed by Breaking Dawn, which she read about on my blog and goodreads, so she didn't want to read it. But I told her she had to read it anyway because there were some really good parts. She ended up loving the whole book. Now I'm wondering if I was wrong and really do like it. I just might have to reread it to make sure, but I better wait until the kids are back in school. My house can't handle not having a mom for 2 days again.

Summer evening

The boys have been riding their bikes a lot in the evenings, since it feels so good outside by then. Actually Dallin asks to ride his bike at all hours, but I just don't want to go out there in 100 degree weather. Tyler has been doing great - he can start and stop by himself now.
Brennan had a bad reaction today, although I have no idea what caused it. He had just woken up from his nap and was eating a fruit cup, which he eats all the time. Half his face turned bright red and was covered with white bumps, especially around his eye. Of course it cleared up quickly with Benedryl, but I still hate it when that happens. Especially the not knowing what caused it part. Check out his stained shirt - I'm guessing he got into some plums.

Scary Things

We watched The Spiderwick Chronicles today. I didn't know if it would be too scary for the boys, since the information I read on Neflix indicated it might be. But they don't seem to be afraid of fantastical scary things. They are much more frightened by realistic scary things. For example, they love Harry Potter and have no problem with Voldemort. But last year when we were having a what-to-do-in-case-of-a-fire discussion, Tyler started crying, covering his ears and telling us to stop. He just couldn't handle imagining our house on fire, crawling on the floor, escaping out the window and meeting across the street. I was talking to my sister Jen about it, and she said she read a book (she told me the name twice but I still don't remember what it was - something about fantasies) which concluded that reading fairy tales is actually important for children because it is a safe way for them to deal with their fears. The stories have unrealistic but frightening things like fire-breathing dragons and wicked witches, and then they have everyday people/children overcome them. It's very empowering. Sure enough, the boys loved the movie and are now watching it again. They couldn't wait to show it to Dave.

I am not a scrapper

I was totally planning on going to a scrap booking party tonight, but by the time I made dinner, fed the kids and went to the grocery store, I just didn't have any energy left for socializing. And besides, I don't really scrapbook. This blog is the closest I get to scrap booking these days. I have been known to put pictures in albums, and I even have a couple scrapbooks of my childhood and my family growing up, but I don't get too creative with day-to-day kinds of pictures. So instead I folded laundry, ironed and watched Amazing Grace. As we were shutting down the house for bed, Dave discovered that I left half the groceries in the trunk with the trunk open, including a gallon of milk. See how tired I was?

Star Wars

My kids are on a huge Star Wars kick right now. They've always enjoyed watching the movies, but recently they've gotten hooked on the video game and computer game as well. When I tell them it's time to turn off the electronic devices, they get out the light sabers and go at it until someone cries and I have to confiscate them to the top of the fridge. They've also rediscovered this helmet (have you ever seen such a ruthless Darth Vader??). Last Saturday when we were shopping they found the new Star Wars display in the toy section. They immediately started planning ways to save up to buy them - action figures, clone helmet and space ships - and asked what they could do for money chores. We told them they could wash the cars, so they spent the whole afternoon vacuuming the insides and cleaning the outsides. I've never seen them so motivated to work. Then today when we visited a friend and my kids got out their light sabers, she asked me if they're excited about the new Star Wars movie. We don't have T.V., so they never see commercials or movie previews. We had no idea the movie was coming out already. We looked it up on the internet when we got home, and apparently it starts next week. Of course now they can't wait to watch it.

Time for Change

I was released from my church calling today. I've been in the primary presidency for the past 2 1/2 years - first as the secretary and then as the counselor. And they haven't given me a new calling yet, so I have that strange free feeling. Of course it's bittersweet - I loved the ladies I worked with, and I actually really enjoyed doing sharing time once a month. But it felt like it was time for a change, so I'm glad. The best thing is that now I don't have to be involved with the dreaded primary sacrament program.

Shopping Expedition

Today we went on a family shopping expedition to buy backpacks for Spencer and Tyler and to spend Dallin's birthday money. He's been telling us he wants a "bike to learn on" and he had just enough money for this perfect size, pre-assembled bike from Wal-Mart. He got right on and had no trouble riding it - with training wheels, of course. My only concern is that he likes to go FAST. He rides down the hill next to our house in his little 3-wheeler so fast it scares me to death. I imagine he'll want to do the same thing with his bike before long, and he'll have farther to fall. Sometimes I just can't watch.

Recent Quotes

Spencer - "I just don't want to go anywhere." Sometimes I feel bad that we haven't done more this summer, but honestly, my kids just want to be home. That's one thing I'm looking forward to about school starting back up - I can get out of the house again.

Tyler - "Mom, can you make me some slow oatmeal? I know you can't make it as good as dad, but you can still do it."

Dallin - "Mom, can you invite that nice girl over to play with me?" His best friend is a girl from church, but she is a year older than Dallin and actually prefers to play with Tyler. When she comes over to play, Dallin follows her around while she is following Tyler.

Brennan - "WAAAAAAA!" after being put in time-out for hitting Dallin with a plastic shark. He's probably too young to understand time-out, but how else do I punish a 20 month old? His hitting phase is getting out of hand.

Back to Normal

How can I let a silly little book get to me like this? Here is how my blog-less week has gone:

Monday: I am mad that my preordered book from Amazon is going to take 2 more day to arrive, especially since I saw it at Wal-Mart for just $1 more than what I paid for it. But I just can't justify owning two copies of the book. I try to read about the book online without finding out what happens in it (that's tricky) and listen to the songs on the book's playlist. Then I get a brilliant idea - I call my friend to see if she's read it so I can borrow her copy, but I find out she hasn't had a chance to buy it yet. So she offers to buy my book from me when it arrives so I can go to Wal-Mart and buy it. I read the first few chapters before bed and like them.
Tuesday: I read the book all day but am very disappointed with many aspects. I won't go into detail here. You can read my review on www.goodreads.com.
Wednesday: I finish the book and like the ending, but I'm still mad about not liking the whole middle. I read other reviews on goodreads, which reminds me of all the things I disliked.
Thursday: I am now ready to catch up on housework and get my life back to normal. I guess it's a good thing this was the last book of the series because I can't go through this again.

Sunday morning

We love to play games Sunday morning before church. Tyler ended up beating Dave at this game of Stratego! (yes, Kristen & Nathan, we need to get this game back to you. We need to just break down and buy it since they play it every week).

Dave recently started doing monthly interviews with the boys, and Spencer told him he wants to start getting an allowance. One of the reasons he gave is that he wants to have money to pay tithing. So we thought about it and decided to give them a dollar for each year of their age. Spencer gets $8/month and Tyler gets $6/month. We'll start giving Dallin an allowance next year when he turns 5. The first thing we did after we gave them their allowance and separated out the tithing is find a safe place for them to keep their money. It will be interesting to see how they spend it or save it. I remember when I had a paper route as a preteen and would sometimes spend the whole day's earnings at 7-11 on the way home. Hopefully they'll learn about saving at a younger age than I did.

Yay for prayer

We had an interesting experience today. We took our kids to the water park and had a great time, as always. It was a very hot day and the water felt great, and since it's Saturday, the place was more crowded than usual. As we were getting ready to leave, I took the keys out of my purse (so that I wouldn't have to dig for them when we got to the hot van), rounded up all the towels, and headed home. We came straight home, ate dinner (grilled Mahi Mahi - yum) and made a grocery shopping list. But when I went to grab my purse on my way out the door, it wasn't where I always keep it on the counter. We searched everywhere - in the house, in the towels, in the van - but couldn't find it. I didn't see how it could have been stolen because I never left it after I took my keys out. But it was no where. I put my credit cards on hold just in case. The frustrating thing is that I actually had cash in the dang thing, which I NEVER do. We returned that kitchen faucet today, and they gave me the $100 in cash. The water park had been closed for 2 hours, and when I called over there, no one answered. But when Dave and I prayed about it, we felt like he should go to the water park to look anyway. When he got there he was able to go right in because the cleaning people were there. He went to our chairs, but they were empty. Then he got the impression that he should look in the life jacket bin, and sure enough it was in there, almost at the top, with everything still inside. Yay! Apparently I inadvertently put it in there when I dropped off the life jackets on the way out. It never ceases to amaze me how awesome it is to get answers to prayer.

Timing

Sometimes it's nice to get into something later than everyone else. Then you don't have to wait as long between sequels as other people do. My kids have started watching the Harry Potter movies, and they only have to wait a couple days between each one while we mail them back to Neflix to get the next one. Yesterday they watched the 4th movie, Goblet of Fire, which I was especially excited about because the actor who plays Cedric (Robert Pattinson) also plays Edward in the upcoming Twilight movie. I just started reading the Twilight books a couple weeks ago, and since Kristen owns both the sequels, I was able to read them immediately. I timed it just right, because the 4th and final book, Breaking Dawn, comes out tomorrow. Just think of all those poor people who have had to wait a whole year since Eclipse, wondering if Bella marries Edward and becomes a vampire. I only have to wait a week. And it's killing me.