Spring Break

What a week. It's funny that as I think back on it, the days passed by quite slowly which is rare when you are in vacation mode. My theory of why it felt like we had a longer break is because we had two days packed into one. We started the morning off slow, did jobs around the house and yard, let the girls nap and then had fun filled afternoons. Perfect for this girl who loves to stay up late and sleep in (though early mornings still rule my life 99% of the time). I'll just share a few highlights of the week through pictures.

MONDAY: In the morning I still had my normal "catch-up" from the weekend day. Did laundry, had the boys mop the floor, washed sheets. Their reward: that afternoon we hit the mall and got another hermit crab (we are up to three) and feasted on Chick-Fil-A. Josh and Matt were supposed to have baseball practice in the day but it got rained out. They did have practice that night indoors.

TUESDAY: Morning: Yard work. I loved getting out the lawn mower for the first time this year. Matt happily gathered dandelions and put them on the kitchen window sill for me. Very cute. Afternoon: Chuck-E-Cheese. My kids love this place as much as I love Disneyland. They would spend every day there if they could. Thanks to Greg and Kate's generous Christmas gift card we ate and partied for 2 hours for free. Thanks guys!

WEDNESDAY: Our first big event. Left for Cincinnati just before 1 PM. After getting stuck in construction traffic for 25 minutes finally arrived after two hours of driving. Brynn screamed for a good hour of that. She was not pleased she was "stuck" in her car seat. Ah sweetie, that's the whole point. Went to the Newport Aquarium. It's on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, but we did enter Ohio as we crossed the bridge to get back on the freeway. It was my third visit. We went with the Alcorns in February 2001. I was pregnant with Josh and Matt. Three years later I met my cousin Tricia who lived in Columbus, Ohio at the time. It was the half way point between the two cities. Since we hadn't been back for years, they boys couldn't remember any of it. It's a great place and well worth the drive.The girls were loaded and set.Trey touched a Horseshoe crab.The girls dig for bones while the boys try to find an otter in its cage.We took a quick break in the Jellyfish lounge.The shark tunnel.When the boys saw the sting ray they shouted, "That's what killed Steve Irwin!"Very cool sharks. Brynn was TERRIFIED of everything! She just kept saying, "no, no" when something passed by.The boys got to even pet a few smaller ones. Good job guys!And to finish it off, they used their own money to purchase a small souvenir. Capped off the night with Wendy's food and McDonald's ice cream. Got back to Lexington at 6:45 PM. Perfect afternoon!

THURSDAY: The boys had a little picnic in my room and watched a movie while the girls slept. Then we went to the Lexington Explorium downtown. Love that my Louisville Science Center pass got us in for free! Spent just over an hour there. That was plenty of time since we had been before and their isn't tons to see and do. A nice event, but not too crazy. Had Wendy's for dinner and rented Alvin and the Chipmunks from Redbox. They boys watched it all night over and over again. Well worth the one dollar we paid to view it!

FRIDAY: Rich was on call that night so he went in to the hospital just before noon. We left for Louisville when he headed to work.Nearly didn't get to Louisville after finding Versailles, KY (my cut through city to the freeway) underwater.

After an insane detour we tacked on 20 minutes of driving through horse country (horse farm after horse farm) which is lovely when you're on a scenic drive and not searching for a freeway sign. Made our way to Midway and finally I-64. The Louisville Zoo!Met up with Kristi and girls and Tiffany and kids. Later Traci and kids arrived too.The rain kept everyone away. That is exactly why I prefer to go when the weather is poor. The Herp Aquarium was empty which allowed me to let the girls roam free. They actually could see the animals. What a novel idea at a zoo....Trey and his best friend Trevor. The #1 thing he misses in Louisville.The rough and tumble bunch.
Partied with Traci, Mallory and the dudes at their lovely home. Boys were hyperventilating from excitement. They love Boston, Trevor and Gage and their Wii. Perfect day!

SATURDAY: Let the girls play while the boys and I cleaned the house and listened to general conference. Rich got home from the hospital around 11 AM. Tried to keep the house quiet while he slept. Later tried to find Josh's baseball practice (Matt needed some down time and had a headache), but after getting some wrong location information, ended up with Josh and the girls at Wal-mart and the mall. Josh was an excellent helper with the groceries and girls.

SUNDAY: LDS general conference. Rich was on call again. Had our home teacher and his family and the Rosenhans over for lunch. A perfect way to wrap a very memorable week. Here's hoping that Rich can get vacation time next year during spring break. He was sorely missed during all our events!

Tuesday Tell All: Livin' on the Edge

If you could do something dangerous just once with no risk what would you do?

This is a fun topic for me. I am a girl that LOVES a thrill. I have never met a roller coaster I didn't love, went bungee jumping off a very tall crane in a gas station parking lot when I was 16, crawled and slithered through dark caves in high school, dove head first off tall bridges into ponds, have been repelling, jumped out of an airplane at 18 (my mom didn't talk to me for a few days after that one...). I certified scuba my freshman year in college and even hitchhiked with friends a few times in Hawaii (not too proud of that one...). I can't think of too many things (within reason, of course) that I wouldn't try once. Sure, I've mellowed a bit with age and kids, but I still love to get my heart racing.

So, after very little thought I happily declare that if I could do something dangerous just once with no risk I could climb Mt. Everest. Yup. I would. It's crazy, I know. I have read countless book about her. The best being Into Thin Air. Amazing book. I recently followed the Discovery channel show about Everest and years ago watched a powerful IMAX movie that documented the dangers and sufferings of the climbers, but I am still fascinated. Just to stand on the top of the world, not matter how cold or delirious you were would be an accomplishment few in the world would share. In all honesty, I know I never will. I don't think my body was made for strenuous mountain climbing. If I even try to lift weights I always end up with some strange random injury. But if I knew I wouldn't get hurt and would make it to the summit, I would be tempted. Very tempted.

The other thing I would love to see is a tornado. OK, that seem totally strange coming from a girl who has huddled in a closet with her kids while the sirens blasted and the house shook. That was scary. Really scary. But I would love to see one IF I knew it wouldn't hurt my house or other people. Like if I was driving along on some country road and there it was right in front of me. That would be awesome. In some ways I feel like I have seen one. In my years here in Kentucky I have had many vivid, very real dreams that I was surrounded by tornadoes. Some were scarier than others, but I was never hurt by them. Usually I am in a house or some place and I go outside and there they are all around me. It really is a sight to see, even if its not quite real.

I have been able to experience a few poweful forces of nature. I have been in an moderate earthquake (southern California 1994) while at Six Flags. They shut down the park. Not a good day for amusement rides. I have felt category 1 hurricane force winds (Louisville, KY 2004) while at Julie Martinez's baby shower. Yes, I was still inside the garage, but it was very, very cool to see the power of the wind. Oh and it took me an hour to get home with all the damage. No fun there. So I guess a tornado would fit right in with the other things I have loved experiencing.

What would YOU choose?

The good and bad of spring

This time of year seems to bring out the best and worst of the world. I decided to document a few that came to mind and were part of my reality this past week....

The Good:April brings DERBY celebrations. I love them all. At what other time can you find a full size horse in Wal-mart? Really. Also, Thunder Over Louisville is Saturday. If you are even remotely close to Louisville, head to the riverbanks of the Ohio for the best firework show of your life. Promise. I cannot get enough of the gorgeous flowering trees and plants I see everywhere I turn.
Bright yellow bushes.White treesDaffodilsPale purple Azalea's

And what I call popcorn trees. Our neighborhood is full of them. I start humming the song every time I see them.Spring has also brought back the birds. Their songs were so loud when I went out early this morning. What a happy start to the day! This shot shows my mom and dad robin in the neighbors yard. I spied them today when I was out digging weeds. I knew it was about time. So I crept up to the top of the deck and peered through the slats. A perfect blue robin egg lay just below in the nest tucked under the floor. Hurray! The only bad part is now the worry will set in. I just can't let myself get so attached this year. I was a basket case last year worrying that these sweet babies I watched grow would end up dead in my yard. No problems last year with 3 different families. I'll hope for a repeat performance! This nest in the front held two sets of baby robins last year (5 birds total). It seems some insane sparrow type birds took over today. They kept piling all this trash on top. We'll see how it all turns out.April means LDS general conference. When we first moved to Louisville we listened to April conference on the computer with our dial up service. It was rough listening to 8 hours with an 18 month old Trey crawling around and a very pregnant me on the floor. We decided then and there to sign up for Dish Network because they have the BYU channel. What a blessing that has been to hear talks, conference, devotionals, and many more great programs the past 7 1/2 years. One of my favorite parts of conference is inviting different families over to watch it with us. For years and years we would have the Madsen's and Hamilton's and other 'Ville families over for lunch and then viewing conference. Yesterday, even though Rich was on call, I invited our home teacher and his cute family and the Rosenhan's over for some Cafe Rio type food and then watched the last session together. Such great times. This is a tradition I will always keep.

The Bad:
Last week I found this awful little critter in my laundry room. Yes, that is one ugly tick. I just felt grateful that I didn't find it later buried in one of our scalps. I had never seen a tick up close before, so after calling my dad and taking some shots and emailing them to him, and googling the word TICK I knew for certain that I had indeed found one. Don't worry, after the camera clicked this shot it was a quick whack, whack, whack with the cup and the creature was no more....Dandelions. To say I hate these weeds would be such an understatement. Even the word despise might not be strong enough. I dug this whole bucket full just this morning. Gotta love my handy knife. Anyone who has lived by me will have seen me on a near daily basis digging those nasty weeds out of my yard. Growing up I had to dig a bucket of weed often as a summer time job. Good idea on my mom's part. It rubbed off on me and I can't stand a yard that looks ragged. I have even been known to dig my neighbors weeds, but only if I know they can't see me or are not home. Really, if those things go to seed, they soon be new ones on my side of the lawn. I really am turning into my mother- who I once watched as a child pour gasoline (that was before Roundup came along folks...) on our neighbors sidewalk in the dark of night with hopes of killing their massive amounts of unsightly weeds. I too would do the same. No joke. I discovered the ants were back today. When we went to visit Utah in August we came home to an ant attack in our kitchen. All the warm weather seemed to call them back. Today I watched them crawl out of this tiny crack by the window in the computer room. So gross and creepy. I quickly found my incredible Terro liquid ant killer. They eat it up, take it back to their nest and poof- dead ants. Love the stuff. I haven't seen any since 5 PM. The poison is awesome.Flooding. We had MAJOR rain this year. I looked in the paper on Sunday and it said we have had 21 inches of rain in 2008. Wow. No wonder everything has stayed wet and muddy for weeks. As I left Lexington on Friday headed for Louisville I found the main road in Versailles, KY had a river through it. After some insane detour through an industrial area I ended up being quite lost in the middle of horse country. Half of the horse farms were under water. It was a mess. Thankfully we finally made it to the freeway after passing through Midway, but took a different route home later that night.And I had to throw these photos in. The girls were out with me while I dug weeds and Kaitlyn was soon asking for a drink of water. Not wanting to turn on the hose and create even more mud I told her I'd get a drink for her from inside. I turned my back and soon heard a funny sound. I turned back saw her spitting water out of her mouth.No way did she really put this filthy water in her mouth. I wouldn't be surprised if she has diarrhea in 24 hours.She was quite unfazed and just laughed if off. What a silly, silly girl.

*Update 4/8/08

- Spied two baby robin eggs in the nest today. Gotta love twins!

- And thankfully Kaitlyn's dirty mouthful of water didn't give her dysentery. Yeah!

Random bits of life...

School is back in session today. It was really hard to get up so early this morning since we got the luxury of sleeping in yesterday since conference doesn't begin here until noon. OK, so I slept in nearly every morning this past week. It was heaven. Really. The only one who was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:45 AM was Josh who was thrilled about going back. He was pushing ME out of bed and hopped in the shower before my mind was fully functioning. He also reminded me 50 times that they were now going to be left turn walkers now. Love that I don't have to wait in carpool line forever. Now I can just swing by and grab them at the bottom of the hill. Easier set up for me. One thing I am not loving is all the homework we have spent the last hour doing. I'll be happy when summer comes and I am not stressing about reading charts and spelling tests every night.

We had a great spring break (pictures to follow). While our days were filled with little trips, we loved getting to see Rich most nights. I only felt bad that he couldn't join in more of our fun. I had a blast thinking about places to visit and enjoyed going to them as much as the kids did. Even though we saw and did a lot it was not exhausting. You see, I am not a morning girl, so we had slow sleepy mornings, let the girls have their nap and then we would have fun in the afternoon. This made the girls were very pleasant which made everyone happy. And lets face it isn't that what it's all about anyway... seeing their happy faces. Priceless.

After all the go, go, go I was a bit relived when it came to an end. I was seriously out of ideas. But when I took the kids to school and heard Matt telling a friend while walking in that he had a GREAT spring break. Just that one little phrase made the 10 plus hours we spent in the car together worth all the effort. Good days.

I loved having the kids home and while it does make the house cleaning a bit more difficult, we all pitched in on Saturday and the place was better than it had been in awhile. I love cleaning while I listen to conference. I can think about the talks while I scrub the bathrooms, kitchen table and floor. Two good things at once.

General Conference was such an uplift. I really needed it. I remember when I was young and I thought sitting through 4 sessions would kill me. Usually on Saturday I would try to clean my room or put photos in albums to help pass the time. Now it just doesn't seem long enough. To participate in the Solemn Assembly with Rich and the kids on Saturday morning was touching. It was powerful to stand with millions of members and pledge my love and faith. At the same time I missed President Hinckley. I missed seeing him on the stand, hearing his calm and reassuring voice. It made me just a tiny bit sad. But then to hear President Monson with his quick wit, gentle story telling and testimony soon filled that void. When he asked for member to pray for him, it made me realize even more the magnitude of his calling. For him and all of the general authorities it's a lifetime of selfless service. A lifetime spent sharing God's message of hope and love. What a blessing they are to us all.

Oh and I LOVED Elder Ballard's talk. So perfect for me right now. I told my dad last night that I loved that talk and he told me that I was doing exactly what he said, enjoying each stage. I nearly started crying right then. It's a tough road at times, with constant detours, construction zones and speed bumps, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Ever. And how nice to hear it from someone else too. Made my day. Thanks Dad!

Everything that spring brings is back- for good or bad. The temperature outside is currently reading 80 degrees. I am actually hot right now for the first time in ages. I talked to my grandma and mom on the phone today and they told me it rained, then hailed and then snow 3 inches in Utah. What strange weather patterns. Watch, we'll be back in the 30's in less that 4 days. Promise.

When I swung by the hill after school today to get the boys only then did I remember that Trey had to stay until 3:05 PM for chorus. The girls and Rich were home sleeping so Josh and Matt and I did a quick food run to kill the extra 10 minutes. I got a good laugh when I spotted a Chick-Fil-A hummer behind us in the Burger King drive thru. Good for business? Probably not.

Matt has a new catch phrase lately. He is constantly shouting, "Check it out." You would like he and Randy from American Idol were brothers, which makes me laugh since I only watch random bits from AI on youtube. Not really sure where he picked it up. Also, a few days ago he told me that when he can't think of what he was going to say he is just going to say "I love you Mom." Talk about a sweetheart!

Josh is such a good kid. Saturday afternoon I took him and the girls over to baseball practice. Matt wasn't feel to hot so he stayed home. When we pulled up to the designated spot, it was quite obvious that we weren't in the correct place. After a few unanswered phone calls to the coach, Josh headed with the girls and me to the Super Wal-mart to stock up for the week. Brynn was a demon shopper. And that's putting it nicely. She thrashed and screamed most of the time if she wasn't either walking alone or eating a "popsie" as she calls them. Josh just pushed the cart with Kaitlyn in the seat, helped me check out, load the van and then even agreed to head over to the mall so I could get a new watch battery. He was a lifesaver. I think I'll have to talk him into coming shopping with me more often!

Brynn's new obsession with PJ's is killing me. Seriously. I need to hide them away in some top closet with hope she can't push a chair over to it and climb up to retrieve them. The second her feet touch the floor after her bath she's rummaging through drawers finding the perfect look. I give in for a bit, but then put proper clothes on her before long. Soon I find her back in her PJ's! Crazy girl. I hate it. They both did make me laugh when I told them the other day the were nuts while driving in the car. I heard this cute echo of two small voices repeating the word "NUTS, NUTS" over and over again. Seems that they were in agreement!And from Kaitlyn recent bouts with her own fashion follies, you can see they really are nutty girls!

I pulled in our little kid picnic table yesterday for the kids eat on during conference. Soon after, Brynn decided it was the perfect size to jump from. Without any hesitation, she would just leap off the table onto the floor. I was talking to my dad on the phone while she soared through the air and laughing as she did it. She is so fearless. (A bit like me it seems.. TTA tomorrow...) My dad told me not to let her jump so just as I went to grab her she hurled herself into the air and crash. She went down in tears. Poor thing injured her foot and has been limping on it all day. I don't think it's anything serious, but with each tiny painful step I have a total guilt trip for not intervening. Here I was laughing. Good lesson for mom. Stop them while they are ahead.

So my brackets are dead. Actually they are in the trash can. Literally. After weeks of hanging proudly on the fridge, highlighted games of victory and recently showing my perfect final 4 picks I threw them out last night. UNC and UCLA had to go and mess them up. I mean come on. It wasn't even close. It was a joke. This for trip to the national championship game for heavens sakes fellas. It was within your grasp and you didn't even hang on for a few minutes. Painful. Very painful. I don't even know if I'll watch the game tonight. (Of course I will, but still). Memphis and Kansas. Not what I'd hoped for.

Even worse, Rich's old Stanford coach Mike Montgomery became the PAC-10 Sith Lord. He went AWOL and joined the Dark Side. Really. He was named as the new head coach for Cal a few days ago. Talk about fraternizing with the enemy. I guess his soul was for sale for $10 million over 6 years. Sad. Rich was in denial at first. Now he's just depressed. How can you throw away 18, yes 18, years with a college and then go and coach their mortal enemy? Truth is stranger than fiction folks. Stranger than fiction.

Trey is thrilled to be headed down to Kentucky Down Under with his class on Friday. I wish I was going with him. He'll explore some caves, see animals and have a very long day returning to the school at 5 PM. What fun.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Grandma Nance today. She is a beautiful person inside and out who has blessed my life with her friendship and love. I hope it's a lovely day, just like you!

My recent absence....

Spring break here.

I think I'm treading water. These past few days have reminded me of what my life used to be like when I had 3 littles under 2. Back then could just barely I keep my head above water and it lasted for two years. I think I'm being reminded of what it feels like to swim once again. Matt simply doesn't know what the word "pick up" means and the girls, oh man, where to start. If I don't spend a good hour and a half in the morning bathing kids, folding laundry, trimming fingernails, doing dishes, we are sunk. And even then, by the time Rich gets home in the evening all the daily chores have undone themselves happily waiting to be redone for the umpteenth time, which will probably be the next morning if I'm lucky.

It seems like every time I stop moving I find a huge new mess waiting for me. The girls turned 2 and now they seem to be able to make twice the messes. Go figure. (Joke there...) I shouldn't be surprised since it's like this everyday, but it's worse when all the kids are home. I love it, but I love school too. I kind of feel like I'm the mom who loves them more when I get to miss them for a few hours everyday. With that said, I say bring on spring, but I'm not quite ready for full blown summer break here. Seems that all those make up snow days might end up being a good thing?!

When the boys were young, I had to mop the floor when the kids were napping because I didn't want 3 kids soaking wet after one minute of helping. I had the boys mop yesterday, but it was BEFORE they got dressed. I had planned on them helping me clean my bathroom (a slight punishment for not going to bed- but that happens every night) but realized I didn't dare hand over the toilet bowl cleaner to two rambunctious kids. Nope. Smarter than you thought. Still, by evening the floor was a mess with smashed corn and globs of ketchup and you never would have known the work that was done just that morning.

I spent 2 hours today out in the yard. The grass on the back hill was jungle like so I revved up the lawn mower and got busy. Of course so did the girls in the mud pile next to the swing set and the boys practically mud wrestled with the neighbor kids. One partially mowed lawn= one load of muddy laundry and grass in the kitchen and family room.

I guess it's just a give and take type situation. I give 100% and seem to only get 50% results. Not the best payoff, but I've learned it's better to at least try that to simply give up because soon you'll find yourself at the bottom of the pool with an empty tank of air. No fun.

BUT we have hit the mall and Chick-Fil-A, was crazy enough to take the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese alone today, am planning to go to the Newport Aquarium tomorrow, the Lexington Explorium on Thursday and the Louisville Zoo on Friday. Toss in baseball practice and scrimmage games plus cub scouts and you have one very full spring break week. And you know what, I know my kids are having a great time. I know that they are loving being home, even if they have to help watch the girls, empty the dishwasher and hang up their clothes. Why? Because memories of good times don't smudge as fast as my just clean glass door. Those memories stay fresh for a lot longer than my girls' diapers.

I guess that my point is, I will NEVER win when it comes to having a perfectly clean house, the laundry alone is unbeatable. The bathrooms will never stay clean for more than 10 minutes. I will never be the most punctual person even if I make it my New Years Resolution. I will never be on a cooking show and win an award for my stupendous culinary skills, just ask Rich. He might actually ask you if he could have dinner at your house, where people eat more than microwaved burritos and nuggets. Poor guy.

But my kids know I love them. They know that they matter. They know they are my world. They make me happy. And that makes it all seem better. All of it. The exploded downstairs, the newly spilled milk in my just washed sheets, the crumbs in the just vacuumed car. It changes things. It changes me. Sure it doesn't get the toothpaste out of the carpet, but it makes me love them so much, that I don't mind cleaning it up. (Where is that SpotShot anyway...)

Yup. They've won me over, and it's only Tuesday...