Refresher Course

Lately I’ve been feeling a little discouraged and stretched thin as a mother and a wife. There has been a lot of bickering and contention in our house. It seemed like every conversation no matter how innocuous had the potential to turn into something that could be argued over. I wasn’t free from any blame either. My last nerve was worn to the breaking point. I was feeling pretty bad about it all. After all I have a great family; I know that there is a lot of love between us. So, what’s with all the complaining? As I was praying about it Sunday night, I received and answer; as an activity for Family Home Evening on Monday, I came up with an idea. We had to list the things that we loved about each member of the family. Here are the results—
Caleb
Mom
*Loves me
*Is generous
*Takes care of me

Dad
*Is funny
*Is a hard worker
*Tells me that “even doves have pride.” (That is a quote from a Prince song, Brad says that to Caleb when he tucks him in to get a giggle.)

Rachel
*She cares about me
*She takes care of me
*She loves me

Emma
*She tells funny jokes
*She plays with me
*She’s crazy

Emma
Dad
*Tries to resolve problems
*Always includes everyone
*Can make everyone smile
*Takes me out to do things and brings the family together.

Mom
*Tries to understand how you feel
*Realizes mistakes quickly and corrects them
*You can feel her love for you
*Will really listen when you talk

Rachel
*Is quick to forgive
*Wants to help you
*Is neat and organized
*Will always do her best at whatever she’s doing

Caleb
*Pretty goofy
*Has a refreshing sense of humor
*Just wants to have fun with everyone
*Tries to be fair

Rachel
Dad
*He tries to make us laugh
*He always wants us to be happy
*He likes to do fun things for us
*He finds me good books to read
*He pays for my orthodontist

Mom
*She helps me with problems
*She meets my needs
*She checks to see if I’m up in the morning
*She brings me my homework when I forget it

Emma
*She lets me share her bed
*She lets me wear her clothes
*She knows I try hard to get something even when I can’t (it’s an inside reference between them, I don’t get it either)
*She tries her hardest to be a good sister and she succeeds

Caleb
*He plays games with me
*He takes turns on the computer
*He helps me clean up when it is needed
*He laughs at my jokes

Winnie
Brad
*Gets me a glass of water every night when I go to bed
*He works really hard to provide for his family
*He loves his family very much

Rachel
*She is really neat and tidy
*She helps around the house
*She is conscientious about her work

Emma
*She can be really affectionate
*She has an unusual way of looking at things
*She makes lists and she’s really smart

Caleb
*He always tells me he loves me
*He makes funny noises when he’s happy
*He always tries to do what is right

Brad
Winnie
*creative
*has a strong testimony and a pure spirit
*very pretty

Rachel
*clean and neat
*hard worker/focused
*is a loyal friend

Emma
*likes to laugh (she started laughing maniacally when he read this)
*smart
*likes to watch the Food Network and tries to cook often

Caleb
*always reminds us to pray and read the scriptures
*likes to hike with me
*is friendly to everybody

There you have it. I have to admit that my eyes were swimming in tears when this exercise was over. I’m so glad I was inspired to do this. It’s easy to be nice to your friends and acquaintances, sometimes we forget to treat the people that are closest to us the way we should. Everyone was nice to each other this morning, hopefully this will last. I have a great family!!!

Birthday Man

For Brad's birthday I did absolutely nothing. Okay, I take that back, I did manage to mumble a "Happy birthday Brad" when he was standing by my bed while giving me a hot mug of chamomile tea. I'll make it up to you, I promise. He's 42 years old so, I will tell you 42 things that I love about Bradley.

1. He brings me hot tea when I'm sick in bed; and I didn't even ask for hot tea!

2. After he brought me tea, he went and warmed up Emma's rice bag, got some Advil for Emma and made sure that Caleb was properly tucked in.

3. His ability to make me laugh so hard that I have a hard time breathing.

4. His strange, wonderful mind.

5. How he tucks me in every night when I go to bed (he always stays up waaaay later than me) and says, "I love you."

6. The utter and complete joy on his face when he comes back from a long and challenging hike.

7. Just when I think I have him figured out, he does something to prove to me that I don't.

8. The way his eyes crinkle when he smiles.

9. The sound of his voice (Barry White has nothin' on him).

10. The way he says strange, off-the-wall things to confuse/exasperate the kids.

11. His beautiful blue eyes.

12. The way he can pack a car for a road trip.

13. His organizational skills.

14. The way he puts up with (most of the time) three females' hormonal mood swings.

15. How he is always trying to get the kids to appreciate classic movies (those with Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart)--and they do.

16. How he honors the priesthood.

17. The way he is close with his brothers and sisters.

18. His knowledge of the scriptures.

19. His ability to relate to kids of all ages.

20. When I want to go out with my friends, he never complains and even encourages me to go out more.

21. How he tries to be fair minded and unbiased.

22. His ability to solve most computer problems. (My personal IT guy.)

23. His loud laugh. You should be in a room when he and his brothers are all laughing their loud, very different laughs, it is funny!

24. His stories about growing up in Laguna Vista.

25. The way he and Caleb are so excited to go get haircuts together.

26. He rarely misses any parent-teacher conference.

27. The way he appreciates a clever turn of words.

28. Sometimes he does things differently than everyone else just because he wants to be different from everyone else.

29. He's never complained about my cooking (see previous post about the hamburger birthday cake.)

30. He loves his children very much.

31. His ability to see things from a different perspective than me.

32. How he is always mindful about spending quality time with extended family.

33. The way he deeply loves and respects his parents.

34. His love of traveling.

35. The way he used to talk in the shower after a disappointing BYU game.

36. He calls me during the day to to talk about nothing.

37. The way he smells (when he hasn't been using the stinky corn bag or is slathered in Mentholatum.)

38. The way he gets out of going places he doesn't want to go. When the girls were younger and asked to go to Chuck E. Cheese's with him, he told them he couldn't because he was afraid of giant mice in suits. They believed him.

39. The way he and Caleb quote random lines from different movies.

40. When he kisses me.

41. He keeps in good shape (and what a good shape that is.)

42. Out of all the girls he could have picked, he picked me!

Happy birthday, love.

Birthday Boy

Yesterday Caleb turned (gasp!) eight years old! Holy cats, when did start growing up? He was so excited to go to Cub Scouts for the first time today. I swear, it feels like he should be five, maybe six. The picture below was taken two and a half years ago at Monterrey Bay.

I'm having a bit of a hard time thinking that my youngest is going to be baptized in a few weeks. My baby! My little guy! He's growing up so fast. We had a little party for him yesterday. I've been sick in bed with strep all week so Caleb and Brad's birthday's were very low key. (More on Brad's birthday later.)

Caleb wanted chocolate cake for his birthday cake. I'm a competent baker, I really am. But you can't tell from this cake. Rachel and Emma helped me make the cake. I guess I should have told Rachel that when you grease and flour the pans, it is no time to be stingy; the cake didn't exactly keep its shape out of the pan. The ganache I made added just the right sheen to the lumpy mass. So here it is--Caleb's birthday cake! He wanted it to look like a hamburger patty, yeah, that's it; it's a hamburger patty, a really tasty and chocolaty hamburger patty.
Brad, Caleb, act like you're having a good time. Enjoy the cake. I mean it. I've been in bed for days and this is the first day I've been out of bed. I've been working hard all day. SMILE for the camera, I mean it.
Caleb is a ray of sunshine in our family. That kid has a great sense of humor. He has since he was a baby.

He's a sweet and compassionate person. He is always quick to give someone a hug or a compliment. If you've had a hard day, he's there for you.

He's a snuggler. Even when he's running around and having the time of his life, he will run over, hug me and say, "I love you." Then he's off again.

He's a great friend. He's always trying to be nice and he includes everyone.

I love you Caleb, I love you very much. Happy birthday Bubs!

Halloween

I am so far behind. I've missed blogging about, anniversaries, birthdays and holidays. Well, this week I will try to rectify that situation. Today I will tackle the topic of Halloween. The weather was nice. For the school parade, Emma went as as a boy. She was pretty convincing too, I almost missed her when she walked by. As you can tell, she didn't want her picture taken. Caleb made one of the cutest Harry Potters that I've ever seen (me biased? No way!)

Rachel didn't want to get dressed up even though she won a contest at school the day before for dressing up as a hippy. On Halloween, her friend came over and they dressed up as punk girls complete with the black lipstick and pink streaks in their hair. I thought they made pretty cute non-threatening punks if you ask me. Unfortunately, Rachel left before I could take her picture and when she came home, she was already cleaned up (sigh).

I went trick-or-treating with Caleb and his friend. To prove a point to Rachel that it is possible to pull together a costume with the materials we had at home, I went as a fortune teller. No, of course I didn't think to take a picture of me! What? You think I could be that clear thinking? Cabes and I hit almost every house in the neighborhood and he got quite a haul. After the trading with his sisters though, he had less than either one of his sisters. Hmmm.


Emma the alien went with her friend and her mom but they quit earlier than we did so she didn't go to as many houses. She wanted to join up with us but I didn't have my phone with me. That made me sad. Any time either girl wants to spend time with me nowadays, I jump at the chance. They're such cool girls but I'm not sure they feel that way about their mom.

I have this little bonsai tree that I've had for almost eight years suddenly die on me. I had this stroke of genius and I made it into a spooky Halloween tree. My favorite? The ghostie with the eyebrows.

All in all, Halloween was good. It was a little bittersweet this year because the kids are getting older. I miss dressing my little girls up as fairies. I remember the year I went as The Cat in the Hat and Rachel and Emma were Little Cats A and B. At least I still have Caleb to dress up for a while longer.