Easter

Remember last year when I didn't take any pictures of our Easter celebrations and I was lamenting being a bad mom and vowed to take pictures this year?

Well, I give you Easter 2011 in all its finery..... I am SUCH a photographer! Sadly this is the only picture I took!

A few days before Easter, Savannah said to me "Mom, I haven't ever gotten to make colored eggs." WHAT??? She had to be wrong! I was the mom who always did colored eggs! So I started thinking back and realized that I haven't done them in the 4 1/2 years that we have lived here, so if she did them, it was when she was 2 and there is no way she would remember that! When did life get so hectic that I didn't have time to color Easter eggs?!!

So I boiled some eggs and gathered all the kids who were interested (only the 3 youngest came) and we got to work coloring. I don't think Joshua colored any; he was too interested in his book! But Savannah and Samuel had a great time!

BYU Women's Conference 2011

I am not even really sure what happened to these pictures....I left my camera home, so my sister sent these to me, but I think they are posting like thumbnails. Anyway, here's the story...



Four years ago, my husband sent me to Women's Conference as a Christmas gift. It was the most incredible gift I have ever gotten.....to this day, he hasn't topped it! However, I don't think he realized that once I went, I would have to keep going back! (Sorry honey....)



This is the first year we have been able to convince all of our sisters to go. Usually mom would go with us too, but she was serving my youngest sister by babysitting her kids since she just got divorced and her husband couldn't take them.



It was an incredible trip! Spiritually uplifting, emotionally filling and so much FUN! My sisters ROCK!!! I do not know another family that gets along as well as we do. Maybe it helps that we don't live all in the same town to annoy each other with petty differences, or maybe they are just THAT COOL!!!



One night we went to a concert and then stayed late to get pics with all the "celebrities"! Here are Rachel and Krysten with David Osmond We always have fun doing the evening of service projects. Rachel went with me this time and I picked the crown and wand project. Seriously, we were creatively challenged on this project! Rachel and I both made a wand, but it took us about an hour! We didn't even attempt the crown, but something tells me it was probably alot easier! Next year I will let Rachel pick the craft!Here I am with Shannon, Mandy and Krysten at the Marriott Center. It is so cool for me to be back at BYU since it was my old stomping grounds for 5 years. I LOVED being there!

I felt like this year's theme for me was learning all I could learn about the principle of agency. It is funny how we tend to take home the things that we needed most from each conference. I felt like all the classes came together to give me a better understanding and I learned oh so much. Now I just have to figure out how to put it all into practice!

Of course, no sisters trip would be complete without some serious shopping! On the way up to BYU, we saw a billboard for the ModBod Outlet Store and decided to stop in. Unfortunately they were closed (they are currently only open 2 days a week, so call ahead if you want to go to be sure they will be there), so we decided to peek in the windows and see what they had. There we were, all five of us, with our hands up shielding our eyes from the sun and our noses pressed to the window, when all of a sudden we see someone inside waving at us and laughing! We begged her to open especially for us, but she couldn't. After Women's Conference on the way home we decided to drop in. Of course she remembered us....how could she forget! We all had a good laugh about the window incident and then proceeded to shop! Lots of great items and I think we spent enough money between the five of us to make it worth there while. They carry alot of the undershirts that I like to wear and put on the girls to make their clothes a bit more modest and the prices were really cheap. Oh, and I have never laughed so much while shopping! The owners were great and we totally enjoyed hanging out with them....as a matter of fact, if you are reading this, owners (I think I forgot to ask your names, which is terrible since you learned all of ours!), I am now granting you the status of honorary sisters and you can come on our next sister's trip!!!

Random Pictures....

About a month ago, I fell victim to a loose stick in the road.... It was not that sturdy of a stick; as a matter of fact, it disintegrated in my hands as I tried to pull it out, but it successfully destroyed my rear tire in a matter of seconds! Fortunately for me, Sam's Club honored their warranty and replaced it free of charge......unfortunately for me, I had to replace another perfectly good tire at my cost so that they would be balanced! :(


Savannah's school held the "Vocabulary Parade" where each student had to dress up like a vocabulary word. Savannah's 1st grade class was supposed to pick compound words, so I smartly suggested "fairytale" thinking we could use her fairy costume and add a tail on the back.....unfortunately, on the night of the vocabulary parade as I was looking up the word "fairytale" in the dictionary, I realized it was NOT a compound word; just two separate words! Goes to show what 5 years of college will do for you! Needless to say, she was still a "fairytale"!

General Conference was the first weekend of April so we had a lot of time on our hands listening to the Prophet and Apostles speak. The messages were uplifting, as always, but I find it difficult to occupy fidgety kids who may not get as much out of it as me. Savannah has been wanting "bumpy hair" so I decided to braid her hair during one of the 2 hour sessions. This is what it looked like the next morning!
Chris' parents celebrated their 50th anniversary, so the kids threw a "pig pickin" in their honor. It was an awful day weather-wise with tornadoes touching down all over the state, but we were oblivious to that until later that night. All 6 of their kids along with all the grandchildren made it for their special day.

Blah, Blah, Blah.....

I do still want to blog, I promise, I really do! There is just nothing quite like the stress of parenting teenagers that can take the wind out of your sails at a moment's notice. Looking at it from the "glass-half-full" side, there is never a dull moment around here. So, while there is lots of picture taking and blog-worthy (aka journal-worthy, since this is my family journal)experiences going on, I just cannot seem to get it together to put up a blog post. I will try to do better....

The school year is whizzing by and we find ourselves at the final quarter of Shelby's high school career. It is strange to think that she will be leaving home for college in just a few short months. Like any mother, I wonder if she is ready. She is still so young (although she would beg to differ, I am sure!) and I worry about how she will do out there in the world. I know there will be inevitable trials and difficulties and learning experiences, and I can only hope that we have instilled in her the tools that she needs to thrive. She is still frantically applying for scholarship applications in the hopes of being able to come up with the $18,000 she needs for this first year. We joined a gym together....me to work out, her to get free tanning....so we are there several nights a week.

Caleb is slowly regaining the use of his wrists. It has been a bit of a struggle for him to not be able to play tennis this year. He is taking advantage of the extra time in his schedule to look for a job, so we are hopeful he will be able to find something before the college kids come home for the summer and take all the jobs!

Joshua is back to playing lacrosse and loving it! He is such a little athlete! Last weekend he went on a 25 mile bike ride with the scouts then off to his lacrosse game. I didn't think he had it in him to do it, but he surprised me!

Samuel is still swimming like crazy! He was awarded "most improved swimmer" for his year round swim team and the coach told him that he missed being "most valuable swimmer" by a few points (it is judged on their total points earned for the team at meets throughout the year). That was surprising because Samuel has chosen not to swim on Sundays because he thinks it is important to keep the sabbath day holy, so he typically swims 5 events less than everyone else at each meet. I thought he would be a little sad about finding that out but it actually made him feel good and he said that he knew he was most valuable swimmer but he wants to keep the sabbath day holy, so that's all that matters. What a great kid!

Savannah is in "friend-mania"! It is so funny! Everyday after school she is planning which friend's house she will go to or who will come to our house. She has four good friends that she switches between and at the dinner table one night when we were sharing our "good" and "bad" about the day, she said her "bad" was that she only got to have one friend over that day! Such a little socialite! She is losing teeth like crazy! She has lost one of her top front teeth and the other is hanging on by a thread. It is all cock-eyed and she looks like a snaggle tooth! There is another on the bottom that is about ready to come out soon too.

Chris is still working and scouting and helping me coordinate the kids schedules. It is crazy! We are getting pretty close to when his allergies knock him out for about a month, so he is enjoying spring while he can. Work is going a bit better, but still lots of travelling and still stressful. I really wish he would be assigned a new boss!

I have been hit by allergies for the first time this year and they have hit me hard. After a full week of thinking I was sick, it finally occurred to me that it was allergies, so I am starting the meds a bit late and desperately trying to get it under control. Basically, I am miserable! I know people don't die of allergies, but I find it akin to morning sickness where you wish you would die!

Okay, so that's about it with us. I will try to get it together next week over spring break and post some fun pics!

Parenting with Compassion

Have you ever had one of those "a-ha" moments when you read something that strikes you in such a way that it completely changes your outlook on things? One of those moments when you realize that you've been doing it all wrong.....and you hope that you haven't damaged your children irreversibly in the process! (please say I'm not the only one....)

A friend of mine linked to an article on facebook from Meridian Magazine called "Godly Parenting: Compassion for Humanness" by Wallace Goddard. The title intrigued me enough to click over and check out the link, and I was so glad I did. I quickly skimmed through before leaving to pick up a child from school yesterday and I have re-read it three times since then (with a lot of time spent pondering in between).

It is really SO GOOD!

Apparently it is part of a series of articles on Godly Parenting and Compassion, but I feel like I need to absorb and incorporate this one before I start on something new! Otherwise I will get overwhelmed and not make the changes I need to make.

I am in the midst of the battle right now. Parenting teenagers is quite possibly THE HARDEST THING I have ever done! In my zeal to set boundaries and be the tough guy, I am afraid that I have forgotten compassion.

Unfortunately, it is easy to do.

I feel like I am a much more relaxed parent of 7 yr. old Savannah than I was when Shelby was seven. After trial and error, I know there are so many things that just do not matter. This morning Savannah spilled a cup of orange juice all over the counter and down onto the floor. When Shelby was little, I am afraid I would have yelled at her for making a mess. With Savannah, I said "uh-oh, sometimes that happens. Be more careful next time." and then handed her a towel and helped her clean it up.

So what does this say about me as I parent Shelby through the teenage years?

I am sure there will be oh so many things that I will wish I could change by the time I look back on this era through the eyes of a seasoned mother. I wonder if she has spent her whole life under my much too harsh judgement feeling like she can never measure up to my impossible standards and thus, not even trying.

If anyone needed compassion for humanness, it was Shelby.

When I think about the legacy I want to leave her with as she prepares to head off to college, it is simply this...

She is loved.

I can only hope that in my well-meaning, yet blundering efforts, that message has been able to get through.

Age Group Championships

Samuel had the incredible opportunity to participate in State Championships for swimming on Saturday. It is a chance to swim against the best swimmers in the state and with this being his first year competing in USA swim meets, it was an honor for him to even qualify to go. It was a little frustrating that he only qualified in one event, especially considering he was 2/10th's of a second away from qualifying in two other events.....oh well, sometimes that's what happens!

Since his event wasn't until afternoon, Chris drove him up Saturday morning, watched him compete, and then drove home. I wish I could have gone, but someone had to stay home and shuttle the other 4 kids to and from work, lacrosse practice, friend's houses, scout fundraisers, and the grocery store! It was not a stellar meet for Samuel; he swam the 200 IM and came in 45th out of 49 swimmers and did not get his best time, but it was a great opportunity to see what swimming is like at the elite levels. We are proud of Samuel and his efforts on swim team!

On an interesting side note.....swimming has worked wonders for Samuel's asthma this year. Last year he swam at a pool that was not well ventilated, so I didn't see the benefits, but this year is a different story. I have not had him in the doctor's office once this winter. He hasn't even had to use his inhaler or preventative meds at all. Typically I spend at least a thousand dollars on office visits and meds over the course of the winter trying to keep his asthma under control. Our doctor told me that the swimming is strengthening his lungs and helping him to stay healthy. That is worth its weight in gold to me!

Catching up....Again!

I know it seems like all we've been doing around here is breaking bones, but believe me, a lot of noteworthy things have been happening that I haven't taken the time to blog yet! For instance, Samuel participated in our family's final Pinewood Derby. (Chris is so thrilled to be done with this rite of passage!) We attempted to "swirl paint" his car and followed the demo's for swirl painting guitars online and it turned out pretty cool. We didn't quite get the look he was aiming for, but it was cool nonetheless. Caleb participated in All-District Band. This was his first year trying out on the clarinet, so he was excited to make it. In the past he has gone on the bass clarinet and there is a lot less competition.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit and helped celebrate Caleb's 16th birthday. Unfortunately, this was right after he broke both arms, so it wasn't quite the celebration he had in mind. And he found that turning 16 for a boy is somewhat anti-climatic when all our your friends who are girls who you might consider asking out on a date don't turn 16 till summer! Oh well, there is still time....

We took Grandma and Grandpa on a walk down by the river on President's Day. It was fairly nice weather, so it was fun to get outside after all the cold. Of course I was holding my breath because Caleb was all over those rocks and I was afraid that he would end up falling in the river and ruining his casts!

Chris and I went with Savannah to her "Eight is Great" fireside where she learned all about being baptized. She was so excited to go to the fireside because she has always wanted to go to a fireside, but then found it to be not quite as exciting as she had anticipated because there was no fire and we didn't roast marshmallows. No wonder she has been jealous of her older siblings all these years!

Samuel attended two levels of district championships for swimming. He ended up bringing home a gold medal and a 7th place medal (I don't know what color that is). Sadly, it was not a good measure of what an incredible swimmer he has become because he got sick two weeks before district champs, missed a full week of practice, and lost 7 lbs. and he really wasn't back up to par by champs. He was on the verge of qualifying for State Junior Olympics in 5 events but only ended up qualifying in 1, the 200 IM. He goes next weekend to compete in that, so stay tuned for results!

And then there were two.....

We are cautiously wrapping our last boy (Samuel) in bubble wrap since he has State Swim Championships in a few weeks and a cast would not be a good thing!

Joshua apparently broke his thumb last Thursday playing basketball. He favored it a bit and we just thought it was jammed. He practiced lacrosse for 2 hours on Saturday, playing goalie with no complaints. But once it was all done, he was miserable. I went out a bought a little splint thinking if we just rested it, it would get better, but no luck. By today it was still causing him so much pain that we decided to get it looked at.

The orthopedist did a double take when he walked by the room and saw me there. He said "weren't you just here?!!" Then he saw Josh and said "oh, it's a different kid!" Fortunately for Joshua, the doctor is a former lacrosse player, so he gave Josh permission to keep playing and practicing!

The Snow Sports Merit Badge

Sometimes, scouting can be painful.....like when you walk 50 miles and then bike 50 miles and then canoe 50 miles all so you can get the mega-50 miler award....


AND expensive.....like when you have to buy a new bike or backpack or lightweight sleeping bag or ski gear because you don't have the things you need to participate....

But it looks like by far, the most costly, most painful merit badge for Caleb is the Snow Sports Merit Badge!

The phone call from Caleb at ski patrol went something like this....

Caleb: Mom, can you get me Bro. Roberts cell phone number (this would be the merit badge counselor who dragged himself up to the lodge with a fever and chills and curled up on a chair waiting to DIE so that he could be there and support the boys in completing their merit badge! Now that's sacrifice for you!)

Me: Why, did you break something? (totally joking at this point)

Caleb: Um, yeah, I hurt my wrists. (completely nonchalant like its no big deal)

Me: REALLY?!! Are you serious?!!! How bad is it?!! (enter slightly hysterical mom tone of voice)

Caleb: I don't know, their just hurt. MOM, can you just get me his number?

So I give him the number and hang up. We hear nothing for 3 hours, during which time I have assumed that it must be no big deal because no one has called us back. Sometime after midnight, the boys get home from their evening snowboarding session. Caleb has a splint on one arm and nothing on the other. Both are swollen. My assessment is that one is possibly broken and the other is probably sprained. It is in the wee hours of Sunday morning, so I decide the best thing to do is to put a brace on the unprotected arm, give him some ibuprofen and put him to bed.

The next morning we went to church. There have still been no tears from Caleb. He is pretty much solidly stoic about the whole thing. He is able to wiggle fingers on both hands which is encouraging. I go out after church and buy a brace for the other hand so we can take the lousy makeshift splint off (why in the world we have THREE braces in our home and they are all for the LEFT hand, I have no idea!) We decide to wait it out till Monday morning and take him to the orthopedist.

Lest you think I am the bad mother, let me explain. We have been through 4 broken arms up to this point in our family. Two of them happened after hours and two during office hours. Every ER visit ends in an xray, a splint and a referral to the orthopedist the next day.....oh and a bill for about $3000! So, if I have the splints, I just really can't see wasting the time and the money to go in and get the xray (which the orthopedist typically repeats anyway because it is not up to his standards) to know for sure it is broken. So, we waited. Caleb took some more ibuprofen but was not on it around the clock. He even played the piano with his left hand a bit.

Monday morning came and I took him to the orthopedist. It appears that the radius on both arms is broken. His left arm is a straight break which should be easy to heal. He will be out of that cast in about 3 weeks. His right arm has a diagonal break. It is the one that is casted higher in an effort to immobilize the arm and hope that as the swelling goes down the bones don't slip. He goes back in 10 days at which point they will decide whether or not he needs to go into surgery for manipulation. At the very least, it will need to be re-cast because the swelling will have gone down and the cast will be loose.

All I can say is HE BETTER HAVE EARNED THE MERIT BADGE!!!!

Going Back To Work....

A lot has been going on around our house these last few months. Chris has come up against some challenges at work that he felt threatened his job security and I found myself back in the job market in an effort to provide something to fall back on if he were to lose his job.

It was not a comfortable transition for me from stay at home mom to job seeker. Initially, I was scared to death! It is amazing how difficult it is to step out of your comfort zone and go on an interview when you haven't done something like that in 17 years! There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears poured into the job search.....okay, maybe not blood, but definitely ALOT of prayers!

We are so fortunate in our church to have LDS Employment Services. I cannot say enough good things about the advice and help I received from our ward employment specialist. He walked me through writing a resume, filling out online applications and even did a mock interview with me. It went a long way toward helping me feel at ease throughout the process.

I applied for a part-time job with the health department about 30 minutes from here. It seemed like a good place to start since that was my first (and only) job as a dietitian. I was under no illusions that I would be called to interview.....I figured it was just such a huge step to fill out an online application, so that was one hurdle crossed for me. I was shocked 3 weeks later when they called me to set up an interview. And I guess I was a little excited too.

Then all out panic set in! I had always been so sure of myself as a dietitian. I was at the top of my class in college and got accepted for the best internships. My reviews were always stellar. And yet now I found myself feeling incredibly insecure. What if I didn't remember things? What if my vast volunteer experience wasn't viewed as worthwhile? What if I no longer measured up to workplace standards? And what if I *gasp* made a total fool of myself?!!!

The night before the interview, it started to snow....I mean REALLY snow! I am not the type of person who goes out driving in the snow. For years I have been the one who stays home for 3 days till everything melts, and now I was faced with the prospects of a 30 minute drive on possibly icy roads to make a good impression. Add to that the fact that my children were now all home from school due to the storms and it more than flustered me. The interviewer called and gave me the option of doing a phone interview, but I felt like I would make a better impression in person, so I prayed for safe travels, left my kids home to play Wii and headed out into the cold.

The interview was nerve-wracking! I was given several case studies and had to analyze them and make a dietary plan on the spot. My technical skills were absolutely rusty! There were some things that came back easily (like how to chart using SOAP format) and other things that slipped my mind till the next day....at which point I thought "I am such an idiot! I can't believe I forgot that!" But the good news is, IT CAME BACK! I left feeling rejuvenated and realizing that yes, I still really do love dietetics!

I did not, however, think I would get the job. It was a longshot. It was also not a very good fit for our family. The position was a travelling position and the hours were anytime between 7 am and 8 pm. When you try to fit that in with a husband who is travelling and 5 kids in 5 schools with only 2 of them being picked up and dropped off at home, it does not really work.

Christmas came and went and I did not hear back about the job. I didn't even bother to call and check on it. Things settled down some at Chris' work. My children got sick and I found myself cradling Savannah in the middle of the night and thanking Heavenly Father that I didn't have to worry about going to work the next day. We spent all day together with me revelling in the opportunity to serve her and love her and care for her while she was sick. For two full weeks, I had someone home sick every day. What was I thinking??? There was no way I could have gone back to work!

And then today they called....

The job has not been filled and they wanted to know if I was still interested. I didn't know what to say. Was it an answer to our prayers that we would be able to provide for our family? Or was it a test to see if I would compromise my stay at home motherhood? I struggle because I know that eventually I will need to go back to work, and for most of the world, it looks like the time is right when your kids are all in school.

But somehow I feel like my work is not done here at home....there is mothering yet to come. There is something necessary in the simple act of picking your 17 year old daughter up at the bus stop and shuttling her 5 minutes to work. It is a crossroad, and I want to be there, at least for these last few months before she leaves home forever. There is something to be said for sharing warm brownies with a middle school boy when he opens up and wants to tell you about the people who picked on him today, the two A+ grades he got on tests and the one B that he was a little discouraged about. If I had not been there today, I wouldn't have seen his vulnerability and been able to encourage and build him up. There are the moments spent in carpool, the chances to have friends over, the follow up on chores and homework assignments, the presence of a mother in the home. It is still necessary; and maybe even more so now that they are older.

So, no, I don't think the time is right for me to be going back to work. Not this job, not this time. The professional me is a little sad, but the mother in me is rejoicing in the continued opportunity to be at home.

It has been a worthwhile process. I am looking differently now upon things that I need to be doing to maintain my professional knowledge and skill set, ways to build my resume with relevant volunteer service, chances for continuing education that I might not have been able to take advantage of with babies at home are now more doable. For all the stress these last few months have brought, I am grateful for the things I have learned in the process.