Optimism

In giving a nod to optimists, I find they can sometimes crowd out a bit of the pessimism that sometimes speaks too loudly in my mind. So, even though I have my own little golf course inside my house because everywhere the water went the boards have all buckled, and even though I can't chew on one side of my mouth because the other night part of my filling came out, and even though all the kids are sleeping in our room because of the flood so it was our bed that Eva accidentally peed in (she's really been doing fantastic with the whole potty-training thing), and even though the furnace upstairs isn't working and we've all been huddling and snuggling under our blankets, it occurred to me, probably when Naki pointed it out to me, that I could possibly turn on the heater downstairs, that heated most of the house instead of everyone walking around complaining about being cold. Oh. I guess he was right. So, I've really loved hearing everyone walking around this morning, sniffing and smelling and then oohing and ahhhing because they just love the first whiff of the heater. In Malia's words, "I love that smell! It smells just like your blow dryer, Mom." Thanks everyone, for being such troopers and taking all of this chaos in stride. All you optimists really help balance out the pessimist in me.


There really should be a picture of Naki in this post, too. Since he is and has always been my eternal optimist. Thanks, Babe. For all you've been doing to keep everyone around here feeling happy and loved. Here's to optimism!

The Bathroom Flood of '09

Apparently you're not supposed to ask one of your kids to turn on the bathtub during halftime of the BYU football game and then go outside and forget that it's running. It apparently results in Niagra Falls over your banister upstairs and swimming possibilities inside your house everywhere else. I'm just saying...apparently you're not supposed to do that.

Have you seen this?

You have to see this! All of our house wishes that we could have been there to participate. Be on the look out, we just might be starting our own flash mob, and you'll never know when or where it might happen...

Get your business done quick.

There should be some safety latch on the inside of public restroom doors in addition to the door lock already provided. Hypothetically speaking, it could be somewhat of an anxious feeling if say, you're at the mechanic getting your safety and emissions done plus an oil change, and it's just you and your 1 and 2 year old. You discover that you need to visit the ladies room, and have to figure out a way to take care of that without putting your baby on a germ-covered public restroom floor. So you cleverly maneuver all the pulling-clothes-down-business, hold the baby in one arm, and get started. Only to have your 2 year old decide that they want to see how the door latch works. They successfully figure it out, but can't seem to figure out how to relock the latch. Hypothetically speaking, this could be a somewhat awkward and embarrassing experience. Especially if it had happened more times that I care to admit. I mean, hypothetically speaking.

Bumps and Bootie Shakes

So after two weeks of emailing back and forth with our family photographer, we finally were able to mesh our schedules and find a date to take Ane's 1 year old pictures and all the girlies "school" pictures. We decided that instead of footing out the money for pictures that are cute but none the less don't really show any personality of the kids, we would pay less and get pictures we love more from our favorite lady, Suzanne Rackliffe. Of course, after I got her email today finalizing the date and time, Ane fell at the Dance Studio, right into the corner and gave herself a red line from her nose down to her lips, blood was everywhere. Sound like Ginny, Mom?

And tonight when Naki dropped off the big girls at their dance classes our favorite dance teacher in the universe, Gina Eady, mentioned to Naki that she might be considering a Daddy-Daughter dance number this year for the dance recital. He told me that he nervously/awkwardly giggled and quickly changed the subject. Everyone ready to see Big Daddy on the dance stage? He said he would never want to upstage his girlies...c'mon, Big Nox, you know you want to give us a glimpse of those old Bootie Shakes from the good 'ole Ricks College days!!! I am dying from laughter over here...roaring, actually.

perfection...

I just love when our morning routine goes so smoothly that I keep checking to see if I'm missing something. Is it too much to ask that it go this way every morning? Almost no one complained when it was time to wake up, everyone was alert and cheerful at scriptures, and one and all moved from chore to chore without prompting, getting themselves ready quickly and dang cute, all without mother-the-nag getting their cute bums moving. Are all the stars aligned? Can we make this happen on a regular basis, pretty puh-lease????

First Day of School, and the First Day of School, and the First Day of School, again.

So, school is finally here. Well, technically it's been here since August 20th, but we've had several "first days of school" around here. To start, Line is in 4th grade this year and Malia is in the 2nd Grade this year. They were so excited to get back to school and I love that they're excited. Line was just thrilled to get the teacher she wanted, Mrs. Maughn. For those of you who don't know, it was her husband that baptized my parents, and we love her dearly. So fun for Line to have her this year.

It's always interesting to see what the new school year will bring into each of the girls' lives. Line's best friend, who was supposed to be in the same class as her, moved away at the last minute and so she's struggled to discover new friends. It's been a good experience for her, but somewhat painful for me to watch...probably because I see myself in her far too much. Malia is definitely her daddy's girl. She is loving school and loving all the people there that she gets to play with every day. They are a bit on the extremes of each other as far as staying on top of their work and generally just being concerned with that aspect of school. But hopefully they'll be able to help each other find a healthy balance. I would say our biggest challenge this year so far has been hair...but it's definitely getting better. I decided this year that they are getting way too old to have their mom do their hair. As our good friend Laura told Line, wouldn't you much rather go through the awkward stage now of figuring out how your hair works rather than when you're a teenager? Thanks Laura... it definitely put things into perspective for Line, who by far has struggled the most with doing her own hair. It's probably because she has so dang much of it! We cut quite a bit off to make it a bit more manageable. So it's been a biting-my-tongue experience for me to watch them emerge each day with new hairstyles. Aren't they so cute?


The next "first day of school" around here came a week later. In the state of Utah Kindergartners are required to be 5 years old by September 1st. Sadly last year Lose turned 5 on September 9th. It was fun to have her around and be my big girl, but she was most definitely ready to go to school. Naki and I contemplated for some time the decision to put her into 1st Grade this year. For many many reasons, it just seemed the right thing to do for her. In order to skip Kindergarten there was a several step/several day process with several tests that needed to be seen to. So, in the meantime, she got to go to Kindergarten after all! Here she is with her sisses and her skinny Dad on her first day of Kindergarten.


The school Psychologist for our School District, Amanda Clark, was only at our school on Thursdays, which just happened to be the first day of Kindergarten. So we met with her first thing, filled out some paperwork, took more paperwork home to complete, and Lose was able to test with her throughout the morning. Thanks to Mrs. Clark, who really helped try to speed things along. By the way, I was so proud of Lose. We all know that her thoughts come spilling out of her mouth without much thinking involved. So I was so proud of her when she came home after that first day and told me that Mrs. Clark kept taking her to be tested at the same exact time that all the kids would go to recess on the special Kindergarten-only playground, which she had been especially looking forward to. But then she told me not to worry, that she didn't complain. A miracle indeed! It's a wonder to me that she answered any of the questions and was able to focus. The one thing she said she would be disappointed about when we had talked about skipping Kindergarten was getting to play on that playground. Such a big girl to not complain. We made sure we brought her early the next morning so she could get some play time in. Here she is with Mrs. Clark.
This was before all the hovering Kindergarten parents left...

She was running towards me...it always feels so good as a Mom to know that your child is happy to see you.
The fun thing about this whole process is that in Lose's mind she didn't actually have to skip Kindergarten. She experienced it for a week, and loved every minute of it. This is her with her "best friend", as she puts it, who we've known since she was born, Alayla Chase.

So, on the following Wednesday they called me to see if I could come in the following morning to meet with Mr. Jensen, the principal, Mrs. Clark, the psychologist, and Mrs. Vitters, the kindergarten teacher who tested her. It was the most fun meeting, really. Who wouldn't have a blast sitting and listening to adults marvel about your child. And really, although I'm sure as parents Naki and I can take some credit, truthfully the girl has done so much of it all by herself. She is so so so smart and was way above the required scores to advance to 1st Grade. Not only academically, but psychologically and maturity as well. They told me that and I giggled. Mature? Really? Well, okay, for a 5 year old I guess. Enough to hang with the other first graders. She's since turned 6 and is their same age, but the school psychologist asked me, "You do realize that by doing this you'll be sending a 17 year old off to college?". I almost cried because, Hello!, that sounds so scary! But yes, we'd already considered that, if only 17 for a little bit. But we knew that this was the right thing for this little stinker. So here was our 3rd 1st day of school. Her first day of 1st Grade! By the way, I realized later that she wore the same shirt for both 1st days...coincidence? Of course not, not with it being Lose. She totally planned it because it's her favorite shirt!
She felt so big getting dropped off with her big sisters...

I'm so glad I taped this moment...it was so sweet. Happy 1st Day of School to everyone!!