He's o.k.

Nathan had 10 stitches put into the top of his foot. It wasn't as bad as I was imagining it since I was worried he might have to have surgery or something. It wasn't a hole all the way through his foot, just peeled off the three layers of skin down to the fascia. Joseph was pretty wiped out. It was pretty gory for him to see. Nathan is in pain, but other than that is allowed to do what he is up to doing. He sang in his choir camp concert today just like a champ.

Thanks for all the support!

Accidents

First accident. A week and a half ago, Sariah slammed the bathroom door. Anyone familiar with my house knows there was a huge mirror mounted there. There was a mirror. Then it landed on May's foot and finally shattered all over into the wall and floor. Joseph took May to the ER where they took x-rays. We still have to take her to the Dr. tomorrow to see if she might need a cast. My feeling is that she probably does since it has continued to hurt all week.

Second accident. Nathan had been bugging me about letting him play behind the fence. Joseph said no, but I wanted him to be able to because he's almost 11 and we need to cut the strings. We decided together that he could go back there as long as he stayed close to the gate. Over the years we have lived here, we've been lazy about cleaning up the yard and tossed and stacked a lot of things back there that we are going to need to clean out. Additionally, the previous owner had put lots of things back there that really shouldn't have been there, like cans of paint, left-overs from projects.

At any rate, Nathan was back there today and I was showering after having planted one of my front flower beds. All of a sudden I hear this loud and wrenching screaming. Joseph was pulling in the driveway that very minute having been out looking for a new van for us. He yelled to me to get some gauze. I threw him the towel I had on. He rushed him to the hospital. I didn't see the wound, but my husband told me that there was a huge hole and lots of skin torn off. (He went back to look quickly to see if there was a piece of flesh to take with him.) It all sounds so horrible to me. I am very stressed and worried. Trying to turn it over to God since the only thing I can do is wait to hear what's going on and be a good parent to the other four who are home.

I have requested prayers from family. Anyone willing to send up a prayer, please do so. That always soothes me some. My maker is in charge here.

The envelope

This summer I bought "Lady Bug Land" from Meijer. Inside there is a small landscaped plastic "land" and also a coupon to mail in for the lady bugs. We've done butterflies and ants previous years and I wanted to do something new. We don 't have any of the pretty red lady bugs around here, just an ugly smelly oriental version (an invading species, I believe).

Anyway, today I opened it up so I could send the coupon in and start the process. As I was putting the check and coupon into the envelope, I looked at the check list on the back which asked the usual questions: Did you remember your payment? Did you put proper postage on the envelope? and the last question really stung me. An unusual one. Have you told someone close to you that you love them? I had just gotten after Sariah for something she was doing at the lunch table. I was going to ignore the question when it just popped out, "Love ya, Sis!" (We call Sariah, Sis, Sissy, Sissy Ru etc.) EVERYONE at the table stopped and went completely silent. Now I always tell the kids "Love ya" at night before bed and when dropping them off for school, but hardly ever just in the moment. A real eye-opener!

Makes me want to see that envelope again.

"I guess you know we've got to heaven."

That's a quote from Enchanted April. When the ladies arrive at a castle in Italy for their month long holiday, the main character says, "I guess you know we've got to heaven."

I was editing my SparkPeople page (check out my page: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=QUETZALGIRL) when I remembered to add in that I had studied Marine Biology in heaven, which to me is Monterey Bay, California. If you've seen The Five People You Meet in Heaven, you know that the author's idea is that heaven after you die, is the place you were happiest on earth. Monterey wasn't quite that for me because I was away from Joseph while I was there. But when he came to visit me, it made it all complete.

I'll post a picture of my favorite place there. There was a huge rock outcrop. I would climb to the back of it and sit and watch the waves come into this narrow place between the rocks. It was beautiful and peaceful and anyone who's been there would probably agree! When Joseph and Nathan visited Monterey in December 2005, they took a picture of it for me. It may not look like much, but I spent countless hours sitting there enjoying the balmy air, watching sea birds and relaxing in the gentle sunlight. I love solitude!

My favorite memory

This last semester, Nathan and May participated in the Prep Choir to the MSU Children's Choir. It was such an awesome experience for them. They had two wonderful choir leaders, Melissa Mills who we knew from our previous ward. She is a doctoral student at MSU. Our kids loved her. The other is Mary Alice Stollak who is also wonderful. She, along with the Children's Choir, have won two grammys for their work.

At the end of the semester, there was a performance in Great Hall of Wharton Center on MSU Campus. The dress rehearsal and the actual concert were magical. The kids were glowing while showing their stuff. I was a very pleased mom watching her two talented kids perform. It left me feeling so uplifted and like the sacrifices I had made to help them were so worthwhile. We all wished ourselves back in time to repeat the concert again!

We hope to continue with choir for a long time!

Whodathunkit?

Nathan and I have had kind-of a rough day, so it was nice to get a good chuckle at something he was doing. I was finishing cleaning up dinner and had some anxiety about what he might be doing. He told me he was playing cars in the living room. "Cars?" I asked, "What do you mean?" Well, he was playing with matchbox cars, creating these incredibly intricate plots involving trucks carrying nitrogen and helium, falling into mine shafts etc. Funny kid! I guess you can never be too old for some toys!

I must be crazy!!

Grocery shopping is bad enough. Well, I should qualify that. I don't think I'd mind shopping for two or three, but shopping for seven is not that fun. If I get to go alone and the store isn't busy, it's tolerable.

I knew Joseph was going out of town and I did stock up about a week before he left. I had planned to buy a few things the night before he left. I didn't do it. He came home from work, we did the family routine and then I was too tired to brave the shopping trip.

So, what do I do? He's gone and I need seeds for my herb garden. Nathan and I dug out a garden of flowers that was overgrown and ugly and landscaped it quite nicely to prepare it for herb seeds. And of course, once in the store, there are always things to pick up with seven (oops! six ) mouths eating up the food).

So, we go through the store this huge parade and of course no one watches where they are going, EVER! I'm referring to my kids here. They walk into things and people all the time. It wasn't too bad a trip as far as them asking for certain foods. Must be because I stayed out of the treat isles. At any rate, things started breaking down in the check-out stand where Nathan got fed up with May and elbowed her in the stomach as hard as he could. May busted out in tears and crying.

I'm not a patient person. Good thing there's someone up there looking out for my virtue development!

Have a nice day!! :)

His n' Hers

We had to have Father's Day a week early this year. Joseph will be out of town next week (who is it that decides it's ok to hold academic meetings on the weekend of Father's Day?) We had a nice celebration and the one gift that Joseph asked for was a personalized license plate. I got mine a year ago for Mother's Day.

At the time I got mine, Elijah was still a preschooler and was my talkative little pal. As we rode around doing errands, etc. he was constantly chatting, trying to figure out the world. After each little statement he made he would end with "Huh, Mom." He seemed to want me to validate what he had just said. It wasn't so cute said hundreds of times per day when I was expected to answer each one, but when I thought of immortalizing Elijah on my license plate, I liked it. Also, I thought it was much cuter when I realized that I ended a lot of my sentences with "Huh, Elijah" or insert other name depending on the circumstances. :)

Ever since then Joseph has wanted to get a personalized license plate. We've turned over ideas in our heads and then one night in a moment of genious (ha!), I hit on just the right thing! It was during a time when I was trying to get Brigham to sleep through the night on his own, so I had plenty of awake time, down in the basement on the futon, listening to him cry. I had hours to work through hundreds of six and seven letter possiblities.

We tried out some new recipes today. I made chocolate tapioca from scratch which was a big hit. Also I tried to imitate a dressing that we tasted last night at Q-doba (that food is yummy; try it if you haven't and you happen to have it in your area). It's called Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette and was sooo tasty. We had hummus. It was my first time eating it and I'm happy to say I loved it. It came from a box though, just mix the water and oil in and you're set.

Spark people

So, since Brigham is our last kid, and he's done nursing AND he's over a year old, it's really time for me to begin getting serious about weight loss. Oh, I dread it.

I've been eating whatever I want, whenever I want plus three square meals a day, and sad to say, it shows.

I considered joining Weight Watchers, but the cost seemed too much to me. I decided to use a website called Sparkpeople (www.sparkpeople.com). It's really great. If you need something like that, check it out. It's totally free and you can track your food and exercise plus other goals. They help you out with a strength training plan. There are message boards for support and you can create your own blog.

Anyway, I'm not posting a picture with this blog for obvious reasons! Maybe an after picture will be ready in the next decade or so. But if there's anyone with an inspiring story or if you just want to commiserate with me, I'd love your company!

Yard work

Today we all headed outside to the yard and WORKED!! It was the best we have all gotten along for a few weeks. Go figure. Everyone was pretty much nice to everyone else.

Joseph planted the garden. He takes care of the vegetables and I take care of the flowers.

I have been trying to answer once and for all the question, "Am I a gardener?" Last week as I was digging in my front flower bed, my visiting teachers came by (They both live right in my neighborhood. Yeah!), and one of them said, "That does not look fun at all." I just laughed at the comment. As I kept on thinking about it though, I was thinking to myself that I DO like to shovel dirt. Crazy as it may sound. So, then, under that definition, maybe I am a gardener. I spent 2 more hours today doing just that, shoveling dirt.

I've got plans for all that dirt, too. The two pictures show my available dirt. If you have a favorite flower, speak now or forever hold your peace! I dug out my old seeds. Hopefully, they'll still grow (2003). It's nice to have dirt with no weeds, no plants, because then I get to be creative.

Eight years ago was the prettiest and probably always will be. I didn't plant until the end of June and in Sept and Oct the yard was plum FULL of blooms. I'll see what I can make of it this year!

Oh, I know, I'm a gardener, unless it's HOT!

T-shirts

One of the things I love to do is draw on T-shirts for my kids for their birthdays. This all started about 2 1/2 years ago when Nathan had a party at the local Science Museum. I was concerned about keeping track of the kids at the party and ordered a yellow t-shirt for all of them. I then drew a picture of the big mouth that sits in the foyer of Impressions 5 and also Gumby in a labcoat with a chemical potion in his hand. I traced that drawing onto all those shirts (I believe I made a total of 25 or so) and colored them. That was a little insane, but I enjoyed it and everyone liked it. Wait...back up a little, about one month before, knowing that I'd be making these t-shirts I threw a George and Martha party for Joseph's birthday and made each member of the family a t-shirt with a scene from a George and Martha story. Those t-shirts still look great to this day. (If you haven't read the George and Martha stories, by James Marshall, you really should check them out of your local library. They are a little silly and sometimes a big hoot.)

Anyway, since the advent of this tradition I have made many t-shirts. I drew Miss Spider for Sariah. That's probably been my best one yet. She's got a Hello Kitty and a couple of ducky shirts too. I have made a rock and mineral shirt for Nathan. Another of Nathan's is a Queen Conch. He loved that one. May has a horse shirt and also a froggy shirt. Elijah has a couple Curious George shirts and also a Mr. Putter and Tabby shirt (Hey, that's another series of books to check out if you haven't seen them Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant) This past birthday party of Elijah's had a penguin theme and so did his shirt. Last Christmas I made all seven of us Nativity scene shirts as pajama tops (Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus). The picture also shows our first ever Jesse tree which was recommended to me by a friend. I'm sooo glad we did that and hope it becomes a tradition.

This year when May's intern left at the end of April, we decided that we would make her a froggy t-shirt to match May's (the mascot of their classroom is frogs). I thought it would be nice if the kids could sign the shirt for her. It worked out wonderfully and so when I was thinking about what to give the teachers, I first thought of... toffee (which I am giving and mostly because I love it so much), but also of t-shirts. The back of the shirt says "Thanks From Your 2006-07 Class!" Elijah's class are the mice and May's the frogs like I already mentioned. Nathan has a male teacher named Mr. Ulrich. I couldn't imagine what to draw on his shirt, but Joseph suggested "Mr. U," which is often how he signs his name and the kids also call him that. So, the front of his T has a giant Mr. U. I didn't get a picture of that one.

My Movie Picks

I thought I would like to mention some of our favorite movies. People are always looking for good movies to watch. Share some of yours too!

When "You've Got Mail" came out we decided to research and watch the film that it was based on called The Shop Around the Corner. It has now become one of our favorite movies ever. Lots of quotable quotes! It's black and white, but well worth it. James Stewart has the leading role (now I'm really bad with actors names, so from here on out I probably won't mention any names).

I can't remember who recommended Enchanted April, but I will be forever grateful. It is an all-time favorite which is very artistic in style. The music is lovely. I think it qualifies as a "chick flick," but my husband loves it as well.

Speaking of artistic quality, the newest Pride and Prejudice gets the award for best movie in that category. Loved it!!

We are always quoting Napoleon Dynamite around here. Most people have probably seen it. As far as I'm concerned, it has a questionable topic as far as kids are concerned and also words like "IDIOT!" My kids helped themselves to the movie when I didn't know about it (ohhh, lazy parenting). But it does give us adults a laugh! I hear you either love it or hate it.

If you haven't seen Facing the Giants, run out and get it. You'll be glad you did. It was put together by a Baptist church and is really wonderful. It's a real feel good movie that isn't afraid to be Christian.

Narnia was amazing. Most people have probably seen that one too. It was so inspiring to me, especially the part about forgiveness. Struck a chord and helped me forgive where I needed to.

We enjoyed Roman Holiday a lot. It's another black and white. Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, need I say more? Nice scenery.

We loved I am David. It had a lot to say about how there are good people in the world and we can have trust in society (combined with trust in God) no matter how bad it gets.

Love Comes Softly is a must see. It is emotional. It is spiritual. (I think I see a pattern emerging here.)

Now for Joseph's picks. He likes The Great Escape. I enjoy that one a lot too. It's a World War II film about soldiers captured and imprisoned in German Territory. Remember the Titans is another good one. We also liked Holes a lot.

On Sunday afternoons, our whole family enjoys Little House on the Prairie episodes since they are available on DVD now. Everyone looks forward to it.

My Payment

Yesterday morning, Joseph asked if I could cut his hair. Feeling full of energy, I agreed to do it before the Mayor's River Walk. This used to be called the Mayor's Family River Walk, but apparently our current mayor...I digress, ahem.

Anyway, I gave Joseph a pretty nice haircut. Still have a hard time blending lines between cut hair and clipped hair, but I give it my best shot. Sorry, I don't have a picture. Anyway, I usually hint that I'd like some chocolate for a payment for the haircut. He usually tries to get away with just thanking me profusely (jk). But I'm on this crazy diet. The first real "diet" of my life because I've never called it that before, but this plan actually has the word diet in it's name so I can't get away from it. Another tangent. All this to say that I can't have chocolate at the moment, perhaps never again :/ BOO HOO!! So, Joseph, thoughtful as he is, still felt like he should do something for me. Since it couldn't be food stuffs, he brought me home some manure! What a nice guy!

Happy Sunday!

P.S. Composted manure for my flower beds.

The girls' haircuts

Jodi has been wanting to see pictures of the girls. May came home from school one day saying that she wanted her long hair cut short and could I take her right now. We had to compromise to go when Joseph got home. May was thrilled the whole time she got her hair cut, wish I 'd had the camera. Once we got home Sariah said she needed her hair cut right then. So, I did it. Here's my first attempt to add pics to my blog.