Oh help!

So, the kids' last day of school is Friday. What on earth will I do with them all summer long? Lots of library visits, and pool visits, and locking them outside with access to the hose and dirt. *sigh* I can throw them food from the window LOL. I guess I'm just bemoaning the loss of any free time I have had during the day. But, on the upside, as they get bigger, they get better at helping with some things!

And this photo of Myles just says "summer" to me.

blah blah blah

Myles is speaking. Cooing, like most babies, but he's added a few twists to the "goo goo gaa gaa" thing. Like he says "Mah-mah-mah-mah" a lot, mostly when he can see me and I'm not holding him. And, I swear, he is also saying, "Blah-blah-blah." *seriously*.

The other day, Morgen tripped over Myles and flipped him from his front to his back. Her calf [the fleshy part, not the bony shin part] hit his head, and whoops! there he was on his back. I think he was surprised, but he didn't cry, and there was no blood or bruising ;) Walker grabbed his chest, and said, "I almost died of fright!" and THAT was pretty funny!

No school tomorrow. But Jared got an early flight, so we're picking him up around noon ;)

fun times

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I went outside today and found the water running in our backyard. Somebody left the faucet on, and it was RAINING. That's an ongoing struggle- to train my kids to shut off the water when they aren't using it. And I've come up with a wonderful consequence: whenever it is left on, they pay me a certain amount towards the water bill for that month. I think that sounds fair!

Love and Marriage

My brother Kyle got married Saturday. He picked a good woman- she's beautiful, kind, funny, and quite outgoing. Plus she's patient with my children [always a plus, as she's now related to them LOL].

We're pretty much done with weddings for a while. Jared's siblings are all married off to people we like, so no midnight assassinations there. And all my married siblings have also used wisdom in choosing their companions [another phew!]. Joy [who is a senior this year], and Alyson [who just turned 9], are still single, but I anticipate they will avoid marriage for a few more years, anyway ;)

And, to honor all these married people that I know, a poem by Ogden Nash, entitled "Marriage Lines"

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.

*grinning* too true...

Did you know?

that pork chops cooked with strawberry preserves are awesome? [Apple jelly also works well with them.] See, my kids each have a day they help me make dinner, and Morgen chose to make strawberry pork chops tonight. Yum!

Oh, and I am slowly killing off my house plants. Really, I water them. I do!!!! But either they're getting too much [doubtful], or not enough, or maybe there's some special thing that people who are real gardeners do with their indoor plants that I somehow missed learning. Hmmph.

Avril Lavigne has an awesome CD out- "The Best Damn Thing"- which rocks.

Fritos are sneaky. You munch on them for 5 minutes, feeling totally empty, and all of a sudden you eat one last chip and =poof! You're completely bloated.

Myles still has no teeth. He is biting, though. Not sure why; maybe because "if you bite things, they will grow" is his new philosophy, similar to the "Field of Dreams" thing.

Macey's grocery store sells ice cream in their deli. Hyrum and I usually get twist cones, and eat them while we shop. So I can now push a shopping cart and hold my shopping list and a pen in one hand, while I hold my twist cone in the other.

Myles believes that all ice cream he sees should be his. He tells us this very loudly, with his mouth wide open to encourage the sharing. Yes, I know, he's too little to be eating dairy products. But I'm not telling *him* that! [and if *you* tell him, *you* get to hold him]

Morgen has no top teeth, so she lisps. When she gets excited and talks fast [happens a LOT], it is very hard to understand anything she says.

I have a neighbor who crochets! And she's my age. Hah!

Hyrum is going to be a monkey when he grows up. Or maybe Spiderman. He is not yet 4, and he can climb our tree, the fence, onto both of our cars, and all over the swing set. I'm amazed he hasn't broken any bones yet.

Walker has read [in the past 2 weeks or so] all 13 books in "A Series of Unfortunate Events," Harry Potter 5 and 6, and a bunch of chapter books from the library. Now to get him working on his math...

Jared got to PA just fine. He's learning about chemistry things. Not the cool blowing up kind, though.

my house is much too quiet- better check for messes...

;)

Happy something...

It's a Happy Mother's Day to all the women in my life. You are loved and appreciated!

I spent the past week stalking my husband. Y'know, hanging out w/him, following him, watching him, snuggling with him, smelling his sweaty shirts, sleeping next to him. All those things that I miss most when he's gone. Well, except for Thursday. He took the day off, and shooed me out the door. I spent all day at the bookstore, renewing my acquaintance with some favorite authors. Then Friday, he took Walker and Hyrum with him on a Father-Son camping activity sponsored by our church. They had a blast, and came back smelling like burnt food and dirt. LOL, that smell means summer to me. Anyhow, Morgen, Myles and I went walking, and got ice cream at Coldstone's, and checked out B&N again, and Morgen talked my ear off. Really. I had to attach it with superglue last night...
And I got my "Mother's Day" on Saturday- steak, salmon, and asparagus [all grilled], and apple cobbler with ice cream. Plus a bunch of cards, a rose bush, and a fountain. Oh, and hugs and kisses ;) which were the best part of the day.

This little creature is now scooting everywhere. Mostly in search of paper, but stairs are pretty interesting as well. He's actually fallen down the stairs already- Jared was coming up them, and caught him partway down. Oh, he's working on the crawling on hands and knees thing- he'll get up on hands and knees and rock back and forth, then lay back down on his tummy and scoot to wherever he's heading.
We went to my parents' house after our church meetings today, and helped my sister cook dinner for my mom. Then we made her sit down during the meal [which, if you know my mom, is easier if you just superglue her backside to the chair]. Usually she's up to get food for people. So we had a good meal [thanks Joy!] and lots of playtime with Alyson, and I was so busy cooking and cleaning up after that I forgot to be unhappy about Jared's 2-week trip. Which reminded me of what we discussed in our women's group at church today- service- and how, when you serve other people, you forget your own troubles. Too true!
And it's way past my bedtime. *yawn*

Sixty-two cents

That's the price of a life lesson that has made a *big* impact on Hyrum. We went shopping a few days ago, and I didn't buy him any treats [pretty normal]. A few hours later, I found some green candy wrappers in a favorite hiding spot of his. We didn't have any candy with that wrapper, and I knew I hadn't bought it. "So," I said, "WHERE did this come from?" "The store!" [like, where do you *think* it came from?] Yep. I sent him to get a dollar from his money, and we hopped right into the car and drove back to the store. It was hard for him to tell the clerk what he did, and hard to give her his dollar, but he did it.
And it made some kind of impression on him, since he now tells me every time we're in a store, "Look, I didn't steal *anything*!" That's good, honey. Keep it up ;) LOL, except I keep wanting to check his pockets when he tells me that. Just in case...

birthday

wow- I'm feeling the love! I got all sorts of things for my birthday ;). Thank you, all of you wonderful people! By far, the best present was waiting at home for me when I got back from running errands with Hyrum and Myles: Jared! He got home about lunch-time. *happy sigh* and then he insisted on taking me out for lunch. But, I also got cards, chocolate, a plant, money, dinner made for me [complete with a home-made chocolate cake], phone calls, a gift card to a bookstore, scrapbook supplies, and the awesome feeling that all these people were thinking about *me*.
In other news, I am working on planning ahead. As in, "Morgen's birthday is in July. If she wants a party, I'd better make the invitations at the end of June." yeah. Normally, I'm super-organized for a week, then it all falls apart. Crossing my fingers that I can stick with it this time. I'm thinking we need to set aside a planning day once a week, during the summer. So I can let them know what we want to do, and take suggestions for additional activities. *you can stop laughing now*
And a big CONGRATULATIONS to my brother, who is graduating from Dental School in May. WAY TO GO BURKE!!!

hello goodbye

Jared still exists, but the signs of his life are currently absent. Except for that phone that keeps ringing at odd times ;) Their team is experimenting with *when* they run practice scenarios, so calling him after dinner may disturb the sensitive scientific thingys that he's messing around with. Plus he's on TDY 'till Friday, so we don't even have his stinky clothes here to remind us of him LOL.

Oh, and he was actually at our house for about 24 hours- picked him up Sat morning, and he left Sun morning. But, while he was here, we:

did laundry- mostly uniforms

played outside

went bowling as a family- pretty cool to see the little kid bowling shoes ;) that my kids rented

took Hyrum to the ER [again!] because he tripped and fell on his bowling ball, splitting his chin open. He got 3 stitches. But hey, Jared was home for this one!

:) my birthday is this week. I'm going to be 33. How cool is that- I have survived with no major catastrophes in my life for *33* years!

Spent most of today shopping for Walker's birthday party tomorrow. We celebrated last week as a family, but I asked if he wanted a party with his friends, since I thought of it far enough in advance to actually plan one ;) Last time he had a big party, it was a dinosaur theme, and that is what he asked for this time as well. Couldn't find any dinosaur pinatas, though, so he'll be swinging at a giant dragonfly. Hey, they existed at the time of the dinosaurs!

Right now Hyrum's watching "scooby-doo" and Myles is pulling the string on a musical toy that makes bubble sounds, then plays "Sailing, sailing..." He's pulling it over, and over, and over... He has been grabbing at all sorts of things lately; mostly papers that I need to keep. I'd forgotten how enthralling it is to watch a baby explore his surroundings. He is intensely focused on everything!

Jared isn't going to WV next week; he'll be headed to Dugway instead. Basically because they had problems with the transport plane [a C-5, I believe]. This happened when they mobilized to LA after Hurricane Katrina, and seems to indicate that this particular model is unreliable. Haven't heard any noises about replacing them, though. I just hope they're using better planes for transport over in Iraq. Anyway, even though Dugway is in Utah, it's far enough away that he won't be coming home at night. But we will be in the same time zone LOL.