Leaving on a jet plane

I am pretty tired and wired tonight. Today I’ve

• cleaned the kitchen
• and the bedrooms
• and the playroom
• and vacuumed the floors
• and stocked the fridge
• and typed up schedules
• and taught the Cub Scouts
• and picked up Chik-Fil-A for dinner
• and tried to match up kid socks (losing battle)
• and laid out clothes
• and rummaged through backpacks
• and packed my luggage
• and pondered a long day in airports
• and called my mom
• and called Mama
• and talked to Ernie in Wisconsin
• and considered again how lucky I am to be taking such a fun trip.

I don’t know if I’ll blog everyday that I’m gone- but I hope to rope Ernie into guest blogging again and maybe post a few things myself. Good Night!

Little Blessings

I was pondering today all the things that have happened in the last year, and how grateful I am for for the blessings we’ve received during that time.

In the last year we:

• Paid off the van
• Replaced the van at no additional expense to us, after the original van was totaled
• Became homeowners (we appreciated our rental house in Kentucky very much- but love owning a home again)
• Ernie started his job
• I started blogging
• Little Ernie is seeing a therapist who is helping him tremendously with his worries
• Adopted our Percy cat.
• Have a garden again
• Ernie gave me a “Mental Health Weekend” back in October and he took the kids to Atlanta, so I could have a weekend at home. Alone.
• Have made some really good new friends.
• Have been able to have some good visits with our extended families.

It’s been a great year. I am literally overwhelmed at times when I think about all the amazing ways that God has blessed us.

Car Family Home Evening

Ernie’s still in Wisconsin and he won’t be home until Friday. So tonight we had Car Family Home Evening and we drove to the kid requested drive-thrus and then sat at the last one, ate our dinner in the car (how American) and had FHE. We started with a song and a prayer and then Little Ernie gave us our lesson. He wanted to talk about “Our Father’s Love”. He started out by saying that he wanted to tell us all a story. Here’s the story paraphrased into an approximation of his words:

One day I was in the boys bathroom, and there was a group of boys tormenting one boy. I didn’t know what to do, so I went into the bathroom stall and prayed to Heavenly Father and asked Him what I should do. Heavenly Father told me that I had to help the boy that was being bullied. I came out of the bathroom stall and I said, “Hey- stop tormenting that kid! Or I’m going to tell a teacher and I can run really fast!”

The bullies acted like they weren’t afraid and they said things like, “We don’t care!” But I could tell that they actually were scared. And the boy they were being mean to, he was really smart- because I saw his grades one time and I was like, “whoa- this kid’s really smart.” And the bullies were calling him “nerd” and saying lots of mean things and then one of them punched him in the arm. 

At this point in the story, while Ernie had everyone’s full attention- Nigel says, “Ernie, is this a true story?”

Ernie: “Nope. But I have thought a lot about what I would do if that ever happened and I was there to stop it.”

Well, good to know the kid has a plan. And a vivid imagination.

Hoarders

Ernie’s in Wisconsin, the kids are in bed, and I enjoyed a quiet house by folding laundry (blech) while watching TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive. Wow. First, let me say that this is a show that makes me feel better about my housekeeping skills. Second, I was struck by something one of the hoarders said. She apologized to her mother by saying that she was sorry that her particular mental illness had a “physical geography”. There was no way for her to hide her problem.

It occurred to me- again- that some of us have problems that are obvious to everyone around us, while others of us have problems that are known to very few- but we all have problems. I think there’s also a real world application to how the professionals help the hoarders- they work on a huge and overwhelming problem by focusing on small portions at a time. It’s giving me some good ideas for myself.

My Version of Hell

Yep. I was there today. I know you’re wondering, what is Rebecca’s version of hell? It’s this place.

Gattitown. How do I loath thee? Let me count the ways…

We attended a birthday party there today, all 4 of my children were invited and Ernie is working on a Saturday (again) so I was forced to brave the party by myself. Let me paint you a mental picture.

• 8 children with sword shaped balloons- hopped up on Coke and group hysteria- being egged on by the Gattitown person assigned to our room to have a “sword fight” in a 10’x20’ space that already contained a long table, 20 chairs, 7 adults, and 3 bored teenagers. It’s a wonder the place didn’t fall down on top of us.
• The birthday boy insisting on the Star Wars Soundtrack cd blaring at full volume. That particular cd played with so much static you couldn’t even tell what the music was supposed to sound like, and birthday boy refused to change to the Jonas Brothers or Justin Beiber (or any other cd that didn’t have static) because it sounded “just fine” to him. The static. It was horrible.
• The party game- again in this small space with way too many people- organized by the Gattitown attendant that was a relay where each child had to run 5 ft, use a hula-hoop, and then finish by placing a balloon on a chair and popping the balloon by sitting on it. I thought my ears would never stop ringing from the noise of all the balloons popping and kids shrieking in such a small space.
• The bright blue icing on the Sponge Bob cake. I think that Max’s mouth might be permanently dyed blue. I’m praying that all that blue dye comes out of his clothes too.
• The Gattitown Midway. I think this place is the exact opposite of The Happiest Place on Earth. It’s one of those places that spits out tickets from every game you play and is nothing but an arcade. I hate arcades. I really hate the noise and the flashing lights.
• Emmaline crying hysterically at the end because Nigel got 182 tickets by strategically using his $7 card and Ernie got 138 tickets with his $7 card, while Emmaline only managed to get 10 tickets using her $7 card. Emmaline thought it was grossly unfair and cried even harder when I told her that if she didn’t stop crying I’d never take her to Gattitown ever again. That made her sob, “But I love Gattitown! *sob, sob*”. Hmmm. It’s like my kids have Stockholm Syndrome. Gattitown makes them miserable, and yet they still beg me to take them there.

It was over in 2 hours, but I left feeling quite miserable and completely worn out. It’s going to be a long time before I go back there and I will never go back again without Ernie.

Friday Night Movie Night

I worked full time from the time that Emmaline was 18 months old until she was 3. That was the beginning of Friday Night Movie Night. Every Friday night I would pick up a pizza on my way home from work and we would watch a movie as a family. The kids were 5, 3, and 18 months when we started FNMN and over the last 4 years we have watched a lot of family movies.

It’s been 3 years since I went back to being a full time mom, but Friday Night Movie Night still continues. It’s not every Friday anymore but it still happens a couple times a month. It’s actually happening right now, as I blog. And tonight, it’s a doozy. The kids have been begging to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. In case your wondering if you should rent it or not, I found this critic’s review to help make up your mind. Here’s my favorite quote: “Little kids will love it. You’ll need a hazmat suit.”

The funniest thing tonight is that Little Ernie is laughing hysterically. The kids seem to love it. As for me, the high-pitched voices are like nails on a chalkboard (which is why I will never buy this movie). So, it’s a good thing that the movie isn’t the point. The point is that we’re all together as a family.

YMCA (the gym, not the song)

For the last 3 weeks, I have sent the kids off to school and then headed directly to the YMCA. I was hesitant about starting to exercise again (it’s been so long [4 years] and I decided I need to go every day [how will I find the time?]). I’m happy to report, it’s been an extremely positive experience. Apparently I’ve been needing those little endorphins and didn’t know it! Max loves the child care center, which makes my life super easy (Nigel used to fight me hard about the child care at the gym when he was little). I love that this YMCA is laid back and I don’t feel like I need to have the cutest work out clothes or fix my hair before I go or worry about competing (or rather not competing) with the gym rats (ladies that live at the gym). I’m taking classes at 8:15am, Monday thru Friday, and they alternate days between cardio and strength training. The best thing about the classes, besides the fact that I can tailor the class to me by choosing my level of weights, is the fact that I am the youngest one in the class by a good 15 years. There is an 84 year old woman named Miss Amanda who works out in whatever she’s going to wear that day (i.e. jeans). Miss Amanda can hold a full plank position for a lot longer than me, she can do more squats than me, and the class I take with her is her second class of the day! These women have welcomed me in and remember my name and ask me about my kids. They work out in gardening clothes and they are strong. It’s made my mornings a pleasure and it’s been a wonderful way to start the day. I can already tell that I’m getting stronger and that makes me feel good about myself, but it’s going to be awhile before I’ll be able to keep up with Miss Amanda.

Dear Bogart

Dear Bogart,

You have been a faithful companion for 6 years now and I love everything about you (except the hair dust bunnies that you leave for me). I love that you adore the kids as much as I do. It cracks me up that you jump in the car every time you see me leave to take a babysitter home, and that you’ve done this weekly for years now. You were my friend when Ernie was so busy at work and church and I was on bed rest while  pregnant with Emmaline and I needed a friend. You’ve watched 6 seasons of LOST with me. I like how you never sleep on the bed when Ernie and I are both home- you don’t even try it. But when Ernie’s gone, you jump up, find a good spot and curl up and go to sleep. You listen to me better than my kids sometimes. I love how smart you are. Thanks for being the best dog a family could ever ask for.

Clean Room, Clear Mind

I have been horrible at cleaning my own bedroom for pretty much my entire life. After getting married, I found that while Ernie prefers it to be clean- he is not particularly inclined to regularly pick up after himself and I’m not either. So here’s how things go when I’m cleaning the house. I clean in this order:

1. Kitchen
2. Living Room
3. Dining Room (kid stuff accumulates there)
4. Downstairs bathroom
5. Playroom
6. Kids Bedrooms
7. Kids Bathrooms
8. Laundry
9. Master Bedroom

You may have noticed, my room is last on the list.

I cleaned my room a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of my parents visit and I’m pleased to say that it is still clean right now. A complete stranger could come over and ask to see my bedroom and I would let them! Here’s the realization that I came to. I clean all the other spaces in the house (for different motivations) first and I basically pile all the extra stuff- all the junk- in my room. 3 weeks ago I looked around and I thought, “Is this a reflection of how I feel about myself? Am I willing to take care of everything else first, but treat my space like a junkyard?” And that’s when I changed. My room won’t be perfect, to be sure, but ever since I had that thought I find myself making my bed more often and picking up daily. I love it. A clean room = a clear mind.

5 Minutes of Fame

There is a photo that has been on our mantel, proudly displayed, for all of our marriage. It often comes up in conversations about funny family stories and since we move a lot, we’ve told some of these same stories a lot. The reaction to this photo is always the same.

Mild Astonishment. Quickly followed by, “Is that a possum?”

This picture was taken one day when Ernie, his cousin Michael, his Grandfather Reed, and Uncle Reed had come in from working outside. Ernie’s grandmother thought they looked funny so she decided on the spur of the moment to pack them all into the car and drive directly to Olan Mills. Uncle Reed decided to bring his pet possum.

Last 4th of July, Sylvia, Dave, and the kids were visiting us here in Hattiesburg. One evening we all sat around with our laptops (yes- 4 people with 4 laptops) and looked at all kinds of crazy websites and laughed and laughed. That’s when someone had the idea to upload this photo to AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.

Since then it’s been featured on msn.com as an example of the crazy pictures that you can find on the Awkward Family Photos website. If you Google it, there are a surprising number of blogs that link to this picture (my favorite is here on the Comedy Central website). And then this.

Ernie got an email from the guy that runs the AFP website, letting him know that his picture was featured on a show in Britain and included a link to this video clip. We love that Ricky Gervais has now personally viewed and commented on a picture of Ernie.

Here’s the video- but I will warn you, there are 4 pictures shown and the comments on the first 3 are pretty clean, but the comments on the last photo, not so much. You have been warned if you want to stop the video. Ernie’s picture is the second one shown.

Food Wars

Tonight I said something that I swore I would never say.

I told Nigel that he had to eat everything on his plate or he couldn’t get up from the table.

Up until now I have tried to follow the philosophy that requires my children to try new food (the mandatory “no thank-you bite”), going under the assumption that eventually they will learn to like food by repeat exposure and increase their portion size accordingly. We also make it clear that there is no dessert or treats for kids that don’t eat the regular dinner- so that there is an incentive to eat what is served. I have been morally opposed to forcing any of my children to “clear their plate”.

Nigel has confounded me. None of this strategy works with him and he is ridiculously picky and also very thin. He doesn’t mind going hungry if dinner seems to him to be unappetizing.

Which brings us to tonight, force feeding breakfast casserole (baked cheese, sausage, and eggs) to him while he sat and cried like it was torture. There was also fresh honeydew- but honeydew alone does not a dinner make.

Dinner ended with a discussion on health. I don’t want to give Nigel a complex about dinnertime and I don’t want to create an unhealthy environment for him when it comes to food, so we talked about how I go to the gym to help keep my muscles strong and how daddy is eating less so he can lose weight. We talked about how all of the kids are responsible for putting healthy foods into their bodies and making sure that they are not filling up on candy and cookies. We talked about how God gives us one body here on Earth and it’s the only one we get, so we need to take care of it.

I hope that as a family we can take some of the focus off of Nigel and make this a Smith Team effort to be healthier- but I still feel like I am going to have to force feed him to get him to eat anything.

I need some help on this one. Any thoughts?

We will never forget

I gave the announcements in Relief Society last Sunday, so it was my responsibility to announce that SPC Anthony Blount, husband of Amanda Brackman Blount was killed in Iraq. Amanda and her husband haven’t been married all that long and to make the story even sadder, she is 8 months pregnant with their first baby.

The funeral was today. The local paper posted the funeral route, so our Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops stood on the side of the road to hold flags and salute as the funeral procession passed us on it’s way to the church. Ernie is at work today, so I took all the kids.

One interesting thing about the procession was that the grieving family invited the Patriot Guard to attend the funeral. It was incredible and touching to see so many bikers participating in the procession. Neighbors put out flags and posted signs to show their love, support, and gratitude to this soldier and his family. The local fire department, emergency personnel, and sheriffs from the surrounding counties either rode in the procession or parked their vehicles along the route to show their respect.

And tonight’s guest blogger is…

Tonight Rebecca is exhausted, and so she asked me, her husband Ernie, if I would be her “guest blogger” and write her blog for her.  Seeing as I am always on the hunt for “Brownie points”, I quickly agreed to the task.  So now I am in the predicament of trying to decide what to blog about.  If I were Rebecca, what would I blog about today?  Would I blog about why we got to sleep so late last night?  No, my darling wife is too prim and proper to blog about that.

What about Japanese Day at Nigel and Emmaline’s school?  There are certainly a lot of cute photos I could post with Emmaline in her kimono (which she kept calling her kimonio) with her friends like the one below:

 

Or, I could post about how Rebecca totally made my day by kidnapping me from the office and taking me out with little Max for a lunch date.

That’s me by the plotter, and one of my guys, Jason (who looks just like Tim McGraw, by the way) waiting on the copier.  As you can see, Fridays are Jeans Day at the plant.  Fun!

Or I guess I could blog about how I reminded Rebecca that I had agreed to host 6-10 out of town youth from our faith who are here for a conference, and they will be spending the night tonight.  I could blog about how Rebecca has been cleaning, cooking and shopping all day to be ready for them when they get here sometime after midnight.  She made brownies (I redeemed some of my points and had one!) for them when they get here, and she prepared two breakfast casseroles and two pans of home-made, from scratch cinnamon rolls so the can pop them in the oven first thing tomorrow morning.  Yummy!

Well, in the end I think I will blog about something that I know Rebecca would never blog about herself: How amazing a woman she is, and how in love with her I am.

When Rebecca and I were dating, and I was living in Syracuse, New York, I confided in my Stake President that I loved Rebecca so much that I couldn’t stand to think about losing her.  He looked at me and said, “Ernie, I felt the same way about my wife when we were dating, but let me tell you that what I felt then was but a shadow of what I feel for her now.  Someday you will feel the same way.”  He was right.  Rebecca is my very best friend, and my favorite thing about living.  She is smart, funny, creative, a hard worker, and a great mother.  Although I was madly in love with her back then, it was just a shadow of how I feel about her now.

Leaky Faucets

Cub Scouts yesterday had an interesting moment. I am an assistant to the den leader, and each week I work with the Wolves (8 year olds). Our little Wolves are currently working on a conservation badge and yesterday I was telling them 3 stories from my life that related to conservation. Here was the first story:

When I was in 8th grade, in California, we had to do a project on conservation and then present our project in class. At the time California was in a serious drought and there were concerns about having enough water to irrigate the crops and orchards. A girl in my class had a leaky faucet at her house and her dad had been too busy to repair it. So, she pulled the stopper and then let the sink fill up with water so that her dad could see how much water was being wasted. He then fixed the faucet.

The boys were completely enthralled by my story (which seriously surprised me because it’s only mildly interesting) and I finished by telling them that there are probably lots of things that they notice around their houses that their parents may not notice.

What follows are their responses:

Boy 1: Yeah, my parents don’t notice anything. Like, my dad only notices football and my mom only notices cooking.

Boy 2: My parents are really busy and they always tell me, “Not right now.” But it’s okay because I have 4 brothers and so I’m not lonely.

Boy 3: My parents don’t notice me at all.

Me: (to the boy who feels unnoticed) Buddy, I know your parents love you a lot. (feeling heartbroken that this boy feels like no one notices him.)

Boy 1: There’s stuff you can do to get noticed, you know.

Then all the boys started talking about parents not noticing things.

The conversation only took a couple of minutes, but it’s been playing in my head for over a day now. Do my kids feel like I’m constantly telling them, not right now? Or do they feel like they are not noticeable or that I’m too busy with my daily tasks to really see and hear them?

I will say this, these 3 boys come from very good homes. The father of one boy is in the stake presidency, the father of the other boy is a counselor in our bishopric, and the father of the third boy was a counselor in the bishopric that just got released. All of these boys have mothers who stay at home.

It’s been a good reminder for me that I need to actively focus on my parental responsibilities and do the best that I can to pay attention to my kids.

It’s Wednesday

It’s Wednesday, which means busy, busy all day. Bills paid, house cleaned,  RS presidency meeting, Cub Scouts, and High Council meeting for Ernie.

Pleasant surprises came in the form of Ernie having HC meeting tonight over a conference call (instead of at the church) and realizing that I was stepping out this evening to pick up the dry pack canner with no kids in the car with me.

Ernie came home tonight with good/bad news. Orders for lawn mower engines (that’s what his plant builds) are up 30% over what they forecasted. Consequently they are adding another shift and Ernie will be working even more. So good news for the economy, bad news for Rebecca.

Naptime

Max doesn’t think that he needs to take a nap anymore.

I certainly think that he does.

That’s how he ended up falling asleep on the floor in front of my bedroom.

 

To me, he still looks like a baby.

Confessions

Tonight was a night for confessions from little boys. Ernie and Nigel to be exact. Sweet things, they both had serious concerns that they really needed to share with me.

Nigel was first. Family Home Evening tonight was on testimonies. As I started the lesson, Nigel raised his hand and when I called on him, he announced that he didn’t know if he had a testimony or not. (I love his honesty and that he trusts me enough to tell me what he really thinks.) So we talked about it. We discussed what the Holy Ghost feels like, we talked about the kinds of things that the Holy Ghost can tell us. We also talked about how people lose their testimony (this was one of Nigel’s concerns). At the end, after we said the closing prayer and the kids went upstairs, Nigel confided to me that he is “trying to change his life” (his words, not mine) and that he wants to be a better person. Weighty things for a 7 year old to be thinking about.

On a completely different topic came Ernie’s confession tonight. After getting Ernie tucked in, I sat and talked to him for a little while about school and friends, etc. That’s when Ernie mentioned Olivia. He says that he’s “completely in love with her”. He also said that she is so pretty with nice eyes and long blonde hair and that he likes her blue and white shirt. Apparently today he went up to her and told her she was cute. (Bashful, Ernie is not.) Ernie and his friend Ashton both like Olivia and so Ernie and Ashton decided to tell Olivia that at recess they are going to have a wrestling match- the winner of the match will “get the girl”. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m curious how this wrestling match will turn out. I also decided that the conversation about Olivia having her own opinion and the foolishness of boys trying to make her choice for her and a wrestling match not being the best way to get the girl could wait for another day.

Musings

• My Ernie is addicted to taking pictures of the azaleas with our SLR
• Emmaline adores her new Easter dress that Grandma (Ernie’s Mom) made her
• Max is still obsessed with wearing winter gear outside- despite the beautiful weather
• Nigel is incredibly sweet and said that he wants to have a date with me this week
• Little Ernie has a great sense of humor
• Max likes to sing and actually sang with me during the hymns today at church
• My Ernie made me laugh when he told me the joke he told in High Priests today that he said only a few people laughed at
• Nigel and Ernie have collected a ridiculous number of Silly Bandz
• When given a choice this weekend, Max always chose to sit in Poppy’s lap
• Nigel is getting excited about turning 8 in a few months and getting baptized
• Emmaline is a force of nature
• Little Ernie built the fire tonight, all by himself, and it was perfect.

I have pictures to illustrate… but I’m too tired to get them tonight. Well, that will give me something to blog about tomorrow :)

Family Time

Here are some of the ways that we enjoyed family time today:

• Dad, Ernie, Little Ernie, and Nigel drove over to the gravel pit and shot up a bunch of soda cans and an old dummy wearing a santa costume. Dad shot Ernie’s M-1 Garand for the first time and was quite impressed with the way it made the Big Red can explode.
• Mom, Emmaline, Max and I went to the mall and went shopping. Max handled the shopping very well. Emmaline, not as much.
• Mom, Emmaline, Max and I drove to Sonic and I shared all the virtues of Sonic with Mom. Happy Hour (1/2 price drinks from 2-4pm every day) was a major selling point.
• Seeing Larry’s incoming Skype call and answering it. Caroline put Skype on my laptop, but I’ve never actually used it before today. That’s how we found out my laptop doesn’t have a built-in microphone. It was still tons of fun to see Larry and Diane while we talked to them on the cell phone.
• Ernie and I sharing our favorite Thai restaurant with Mom and Dad tonight. Delicious food. As always, I ate too much.

Mom and Dad go home tomorrow and we will all be sad. Little Ernie keeps telling me how much he loves having extra family here. He says it makes him feel like “no one is missing”. I agree.

It’s Friday

It’s been a lovely day. There was weeding, shopping, visiting, and eating. All of those things done in delightful weather!

Mom made it a point today to be there when the kids got off the bus this afternoon.

 

Comings and Goings

I totally, 100%, completely forgot to blog yesterday! I guess April 7, 2010 was the day that I just had too much other stuff to do. Or I clearly had nothing to say, so I never had an “I will blog about this” moment during the day that helped me to remember to blog.

Between yesterday and today I have:

• pushed myself too hard at the gym (in a class that I love) two days in a row. And now- since I haven’t worked out in 4 years- I am super sore. Don’t worry though, I’ll be back.
• assembled bird houses with little Cub Scouts who thought that they knew how to wield a hammer better than me. They were wrong.
• cleaned my house top to bottom. Everything. That includes my bedroom and my bathroom. I should take pictures.
• done a ton of laundry. Seriously, I was pondering the weight of all the loads and I think it must weigh quite a bit.
• kissed Max’s feet because he likes to stick them in my face.
• made another batch of bread (trying to perfect this whole wheat recipe) and a delicious pot of chili.
• helped with a lot of homework.
• thought that my daughter is 1) getting too big too fast and 2) that she is really pretty.
• smiled after my Ernie kissed me in the kitchen and then Little Ernie said, “that is so romantic.”
• talked to Kitty in China. LOVE Vonage :)
• loved it when Nigel announced that he was going to do his homework, since I had told him that he was old enough to be responsible for that on his own.

Mom and Dad will be here in a few minutes, so I’ll be sure to blog tomorrow with lots of pictures. The kids are so excited and Emmaline keeps telling me how much she “loves my parents”. As if somehow, they are only related to me and just acquaintances of hers.

Alfresco

The weather today was to die for perfect. I also made an amazing batch of bread today. So naturally we had to eat outside for dinner :)

Here’s what we had for dinner:

• homemade wheat bread with butter and jam
• cantaloupe
• honeydew
• tomatoes
• avocados

I just cut everything up and set it out on the deck for the kids. It was delicious and the weather was so nice. In a few weeks the mosquitoes will be out of control and it will be almost too hot to eat outside… but for now it’s perfect.

The kids asked me if they could feed the squirrels, which of course I said yes. I didn’t notice this, though, until we started to go inside.

Apparently Max thought the squirrels might enjoy eating tomatoes as much as he does.

Code Blue

I got a phone call from Nigel’s teacher today, asking me if I would give permission for Nigel to be in the school play- and that the first rehearsal was today and could I pick him up at 3pm when the rehearsal finished. She emphasized that there would be a permission slip in his backpack that I would need to sign and send back right away. I gave permission and she told me that Nigel has been assigned a non-speaking role. When I picked up my little actor (with all the other kids excitedly in tow), he proudly told us all that he gets to be a bird that doesn’t talk and that he is supposed to peck at the ground.

When we got home I opened up Nigel’s backpack, looking for the permission slip, but the first thing that caught my eye was a separate note from his teacher. This note was specifically about Nigel’s behavior in class today. Apparently today Nigel was “ignoring the instructor, not following directions, and talking instead of working independently”. (My sweet Nigel, who doesn’t always fit into the “ideal student” mold). The severity of his behavior today was denoted by that fact that he ended up on “blue”. (Nigel starts every day on green, and then depending on his behavior, he can progress to yellow, orange, red and then blue). I’ll be honest- Nigel spends most days on Yellow or Orange. He’s never been coded Blue before. So, feeling mildly horrified that Nigel had such a hard time in class today, I moved on to the permission slip and read this: “We have been closely monitoring the progress of all the children, and your child shows a great love and talent for the arts!” Hmmm. Well, I suppose I can always comfort myself with the knowledge that Nigel can have a career in theatre.

And here’s Max… he ate all his own chocolate yesterday and this afternoon he found Ernie’s stash.

To quote Max: “Mmmmm… chocolate. I LIKE IT!”

Thank Goodness.

I have been feeling super grumpy about Easter. Here in Mississippi, apparently it’s the thing to celebrate Easter- a lot. Having never before encountered requests (from all 3 teachers) for candy filled eggs (12 for each of my children, to be exact) along with notes home about multiple egg hunts and parties- I had no idea that I would react to all this hullabaloo about Easter by feeling pressured, irritated, and grumpy. It’s true I’ve been grumpy (Ernie will be happy to confirm that).

Just to set the record straight: I love Easter. It’s a sacred holiday and I love that it’s not hugely commercialized like Christmas. I love the Easter Bunny too, and my kids get baskets and candy and the whole works. I like Spring Time and flowers and baby chickens and pastel eggs and all the other cutesy things that you can buy at Target this time of year. It’s certainly not that I am against secular celebrations this time of year, either. It’s just that I was starting to feel like my kids were being sucked into thinking that Easter is just a springtime version of Halloween. That it’s only a “candy holiday”.

So I’ll just say: thank goodness for General Conference. It was a blessing and a privilege to listen to the prophet and the apostles share testimony after testimony about the true meaning of Easter. It was so wonderful to be hear again about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I felt like I was living the primary song “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus”. General Conference never disappoints and this weekend it took a grumpy mom and helped her to be a happy mom. For that, my whole family says thank you.

Little Girls

I always said that I wanted all boys. For lots of reasons that I don’t really remember anymore. After Ernie and Nigel were born, I really, really hoped that my next baby would be a girl. (Spoiler Alert: I got my wish.) So along came Emmaline- my sweet, imaginative, adorable daughter. She is probably more stubborn than all my boys put together, but she has a tender heart.

Emmaline went with me to run errands this morning and we ran over to the mall to make some returns. Emmaline and I wandered through Dillards, first looking at clothing that caught our attention and then getting sucked into housewares by some attractive bedding and fabulous dishes. It was hilarious to shop with her, because she has such decided opinions about things. The interesting thing to me was realizing that she has a great eye for clothes and fashion and that she’s already confident enough to like different things than me. We both agreed on the bedding, though. We super loved this:

Swimsuits.

Amy- I feel your swimsuit pain.

My lovely swimsuit from LL Bean arrived, and cute as it was in the picture, it just didn’t fit right.

Today I decided to do something that I haven’t tried in over 10 years. I went to the mall to find a swimsuit. Blech.

You know what, though? I think I might have found one. At the first store, too. I don’t like paying full price so I came home and found the same suit online with free shipping and no tax (tax is 7% in Mississippi). Unfortunately I couldn’t find it for a cheaper price, but no sales tax is definitely better than nothing.

Check it out here:

http://www.swimoutlet.com/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=17612

It’s a cute one-piece and I think it’s adorable. It’s called a swimdress, I’m almost embarrassed to say- since all the swimdresses I saw before this were really unattractive. But I’ll just go with the description on the website:

“Reminiscent of 1940's pinup-girls like Esther Williams, the Dots A Lot Adjustable top Swimdress is a retro classic.”

How can you go wrong with 40’s pin-up?

The dinner dilemma

Poor Nigel. He woke up this morning complaining of a stomachache. Given that Max, Emmaline, and I have all had a stomach virus this week, you can already guess what was wrong with Nigel.

It was a long day, full of vomit.

I forgot that the missionaries were coming over for dinner tonight and when I remembered, I had absolutely no desire to cook. I thought about it. I even googled: what to cook for dinner. Nothing helped. I decided my mental block was a sign and that I shouldn’t be cooking today.

That’s when I called Papa Johns.