That's What Friends Are For

I'm only posting this so that I can brag *cough* I mean share my joy in being crafty

So, I made curtains. Thanks to the tutelage and help of my wonderful friend, Corinne, I was able to make a complete set of lined, panel drapes for my living room. She helped me find the fabric, and inspired me to join Pinterest! I have to say how pleased I was with the outcome. I need to put the images up online, though, so I can pin it to my Pinterest board. I want to be able to see what I have and add images of other things I might like to enhance the space! I hope you don't mind me braggin' on myself, but I'm super proud that I finished them. I was really worried I wouldn't! As Corinne said, "That's what friends are for." True dat!

Inspiration: Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, French Country, Vintage Modern
Fabric from Fabric.com

*feedback sounds*

Is this thing on? Woah. It's been a while, I must say. So here's an update from our little world of happiness.

Kai started Kindergarten this fall, and being the non-trigger happy mother that I am, took no pictures. Sigh. Oh well. He's doing a dual language program where he's speaking Spanish for 90% of his school day. He loves it. He even ASKED for it. What a smart little "sponge", absorbing everything that he can. He's still taking piano from me, ahem, I mean Ms. Holly. He's also interested in doing dance and karate. That's good since Jasper felt he needed to share with me that a boy got beat up for being a cheerleader at his school. Karate is now a must for my son. Oh, and he says he wants to learn to make potions--not really sure where that one came from.

Varick has begun Joy School. He's been waiting to start that ever since he tagged along during the lessons I taught to Kai and his friends two years ago. He's the only boy in the group, and really couldn't care less. He fits right in as his favorite color is pink--or is it purple today. He does tend to let the girls play with the dolls while he looks for all the boy toys at his friends' houses. He thinks he's taking piano lessons, too. They last about five minutes, tops. I'm just gonna roll with it though.

Eman's talking up a storm. We learned that he knows how to say "color" by saying "cowo"-- a new generation of translating toddlerese has begun. He loves people, although has begun playing coy. It still elicits the desired responce from the ladies, though. "Oh, he's so cute!" He climbs like a monkey on everything--me, the counter tops, his brothers, his friends, the table. He'll sit on the counter sometimes so that he can get a "spoo" from the utensils drawer. He loves to play pretend. He's starting to get the whole play-time thing. It's cute.

I've been busy getting the Joy School group going. We've got 9 kids and 8 moms to take care of. It's been a challenge, but a worth while endeavor. I think we're on a roll with that now. I'm still preparing things for our Stakes production of "Savior of the World: His Resurrection" doing the musical aspects for that show. It's also a challenge, but also worthwhile. Thankfully we have a team set up, and it's no longer just be and the artistic director doing everything. Yay!

Did I mention I'm taking voice lessons again? I found a gal out here that is helping me piece together everything that I've learned in the past, plus a few extra concepts I've been missing out on. It's coming together quite nicely. I might even try for the Met auditions next year--not this year, though. Missed the deadline for that, apparently. That's okay. Although, I realized, I might be pregnant by next year... That'd be sweet to sing for that being five months pregnant--and win! (Ha, like I'd win, but it WOULD be a funny image!)

Oh, and the reason I can take lessons is because I'm earning some extra money teaching voice and piano what remaining spare time I have. It's fun. I love it way too much! Woo hoo!

Jasper is: busy. Surprised? I think not. In addition to being a Senior resident (only two more years left!), he's been working with the Young Men at church, and will be helping them with Scouting as well. I'm excited for him. He loves working with the Young Men, and helping them along their teenage way to greatness. He needs to rock climb more, though. I think that might be in our future, to go rock climbing again. Hey, if he can ever get his schedule to work out right, he can take the Scouts climbing too!

Well, that's it for now. Until next time, y'all!

You light up my life

I have to remind myself of how boring my life would be without kids, Varick in particular. He's s good kid, this Varick boy, but he's spunky, too!
For those of you who don't "do" Facebook, allow me to illustrate by sharing a couple of recent status posts I made:

"You think you're job is hard? Try to keep a straight face and tell your son that putting tomatoes in his underpants is yucky and that he shouldn't do that anymore as he keeps pulling out grape tomato after grape tomato... Now THAT'S difficult!" August 11, 2010 -- I couldn't keep a straight face,by the way. I ended up turning the other way to silently chuckle and wash all 7 grape tomatoes from our garden. He was trying to find a safe place for them to keep the away from the baby. I'm not really sure how the baby found them in the first place...

"Happiness is watching your three year old son using the sprinkler outside as a bidet." August 4, 2010 --Jasper was outside watering the lawn, and turns around to go do something else. While his back is turned, the kid takes off his underwear and enjoys a nice spritz from the little area sprinkler. Hey, at least we knew he was well bathed for the night.

Yes, these are both referring to Varick. That boy! He'd live in a loin cloth if I'd only let him. I think that'd be more his style. He seriously cracks us up with the funny three year old things he says--none of which I can remember when I'm actually trying to write them, but it has to be said, he lights up our lives.

Oo! Oo! Wait! I remembered one: while we were at home in the Desert--in the month of JULY--my mom noticed how hot and sweaty he was. She said, "Varick, you look hot." To which Varick replied, "Thanks." She cracked up. Yup! That's m'boy. ;)

Varick: this post's for you, buddy!

The High (Chair) Life

So I now know how Eman's high chair must feel after a meal with him in command.  I don't think it gets quite the affection that I got (i.e. looking up at me to see if he's being cute enough), but I did get a bit of chicken, water, and tortilla schmeared on me. Oh, and let's not forget the ever endearing gag-barf from drinking too fast. I have to say though, I did thoroughly enjoy watching him hold and stab his food with his right hand and shovel food into his little mouth with the other hand. The kid might turn out to be ambidextrous as a result!

And can I just say that I worked like a MOM today? I didn't stop all day, and oddly enough, I was okay--neck ache and all. The neck ache must have been from me shoveling in the back yard first thing this morning. I dunno, just maybe. I'm putting in a mulch-y area around our mature trees to 1) make it consistent with the other landscaping that I didn't have to create (huge sigh of relief!) 2) make it so it doesn't feel impotent for not being able to grow lush grass in that area, and 3) make it easier to mow and weed whack when that needs to be taken care of. I'm digging a trench to make a brick border. At first I thought this task was going to be outsourced to Jasper, but apparently he's busy. That's odd. (Note irony in that statement).

I'm already getting the boys into a groove and being a consistent mom... again. I feel so much better when I'm consistent. How odd that those books I read about parenting have something to them. Maybe that's why people buy them... Naw.

And can I just say that the older my kids get  (and the older I get) the more fun it is to be a parent? I'm sort of getting the hang of this (I'm sorry self if I just jinxed you) and even though my job is a tough one, it's the job I KNOW I'm best qualified for. Any other job for hire is a break for me from my regular job of mother and personal secretary.

Okay, my head really hurts now and I've been promised a neck massage so I'm going now. Jasper rocks. The End.

The BEST Mother's Day EVER

Seriously! I felt loved and appreciated and just enjoyed being a mom. I gave Jasper a clue that I needed to be reminded that I'm an "eight cow wife" and that tokens and gestures to show that would be greatly appreciated. We don't usually go out and buy each other a bunch o' stuff, but this year we indulged Mommy a bit.
First, when the new bathing suit I wanted went on sale AGAIN I texted Jasper to ask if the dollar amount it would cost to buy the suit was in line with how much he loved me. Phew. It was! ;) I'm so excited though. It's not something I would have normally gotten for myself and I've been exercising so the one I just got last year doesn't fit right anymore--a good thing--but normally I'd just suck it up. So thanks Jasper.
Then I got flowers  and Costco muffins Sunday morning. Yay. I got to be a good mom at church with the help of wonderful helpful hands at church, Jasper's included. I played a lot with the boys, and the boys got me some really thoughtful gifts: a My Little Pony (from Varick since he said I like ponies), and Chutes and Ladders (from Kai because he says I like to play games with them), plus Jasper helped them pick a bag of Ghiradelli chocolate squares (something that can be eaten over a long period of time.). If you know me, I've always had a fondness for horses and MLP's worked well enough in place of the real deal as a kid. I just about cried I was so touched by how thoughtful my little ones were. That and their cute cards and the little gift Kai made at school---and the special mother's day nap and not making dinner and not cleaning up and talking to my moms--all added up to one splendid little Mother's day. The best one EVER.

That bad eh?

Wow. Have I fallen off the face of the earth or WHAT?!? What can I say. I'm busy. I've had my dad come out to see us, enjoyed a week of Jasper time only to be followed by the week from H-E-double hockey sticks all in the month of April. Yeah. I'm bizay.  And yeah, last week really was that bad.

Let's start with the day my children lost any trust I had in them. While enjoying some time with my dear friend, we'll call her "Liz", I did my best to keep up on those little ones who love to play and explore so much. Well, they pushed the boundaries a little when they 1) got into the pantry several times without permission, 2) tried to and later succeeded in sneaking food upstairs (at least it was some healthy fresh fruit), 3) injured their friends over at our house (biting & hitting were the culprits... or was it kicking...), 3) filled the wooden box for the blocks with water (Varick=2, Kai=1), 4) went into the room WHILE the baby was asleep--grrrrrr--and woke him up, 5) tore apart the house looking for a stuffed animal, 6) didn't clean up after their toy mess after NUMEROUS courteous requests from yours truly... okay, actually there's more but it's becoming painful reliving the chaos. I think I can feel my butt cheeks clenching a leeeetle too tightly... Anywho, you get the idea.

I pretty much had a meltdown eventually, I really couldn't handle it after all that (oh, and that was just the morning.). After Jasper got home, I rehashed everything that had happened and even HE felt my pain. The next day I tried to chalk it up to hormones, but even he said, "No, I think ANYONE would have felt that way after all that." Now THAT's what I love about my husband. That's a keeper right there. Talk about validation! :)

The rest of the week has been working on our obedience skills (okay, that makes me sounds like a dog trainer more than a mother...). Mommy asks nicely, gives them a chance to do it themselves, sometimes I have to add the "now" in there if it's of a timely nature, and if it doesn't happen, then the parentallly inflicted consequences follow. Now bear in mind this: I've recently read a book that totally blows traditional parenting as America knows it completely out of the water. If only I really knew how to implement that with my small children, and keep it in line with what I personally believe to be true. Insight welcome.

Oh for goodness sakes. I've got to get to bed and I've only talked about the bad stuff. Okay, on a good note: yesterday's family photo shoot was such a delightful experience! There were two parents present. Correlation? I think sp. And I still love my adorable children, even if they said to heck with the consequences all last week. :)

Eman's Party

So Eman's birthday came and went without much fanfare, but the celebration of his birth with some of our favorite people here was a fun evening. We didn't do pony rides or anything cool like that, but the bigger kids did get to frost their own cupcakes, and they had fun with the dads in the backyard, and the parents enjoyed visiting and helping me. :) Eman was a sweetheart, as usual. Actually, all of my children were quite good--I'm going to overlook the one moment of bopping a friend on the head as an oversight.

 

I got several comments from guests wondering what the heck I was arranging the cupcakes into. It was a while before people came around to the other side of it--and the addition of more frosting--to see that OF COURSE it was a bunny. (Okay, so it was a little impressionistic-looking, I'll admit it.) It was for Eman, the snuggle bunny. Cute. I know.








Making a cupcake creation is a tradition for our kids' first birthdays. Kai's was a catarpillar, Varick's a car, and Eman's was a bunny. They each get to pick their cupcake and do with it as they please. And I LOVE seeing the different ways there are for a one year old to eat a cupcake. This boy just picked it up with both hands and put his open mouth on it, like so. What a goofball.



And here's Kai's really cool jelly fish cupcake that he decorated. So fun!

Thanks to all our friends and family for birthday well wishes for Eman. He doesn't know what's going on, but he does know that he's loved. We love you all!