At a barbecue with friends today, I wondered...

...is it a good thing or a bad thing that our kids had to ask how to open a soda can?

Goosebumps...and not the good kind

There are several things that bother me. Not as in annoyance, really, but as in creepola. I know you are dying to know some of them, so I'll mention three just for your inquiring mind. And then tell about a little thing that happened to me last night.

#1 - The ocean. I love to sit and relax at the ocean, I love the beauty of the ocean, I love to play in the ocean. But once the ocean floor drops to a point that you cannot reach it, I'm done with it. The ocean should only be as deep as I am. Nevermind that whales (shivering as I type this) and large mammals have to swim in it. I still feel that the ocean would be best if it were only as deep as your average wading pool. I have huge issues with the depth of the ocean and what is in that depth.

#2 - The jungle/forest. Beautiful in pictures, beautiful in books, beautiful to trolls and fierce animals. Once again, I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I do not have the ability to know what is in there, but I am not a fan of either the jungle or the forest. Such a big space, with so many possibilities, and you have no idea what is around the next corner. Until it is too late (more shivering).

#3 - Dolls. I think I used to like them when I was young, but not such a fan anymore. They are so...so...fake. And yet, every attempt is made to make them look real. But they aren't. And they sit there watching you and you know they aren't real, but their fakeness is almost as creepy as their attempt at being real. Dolls most assuredly creep me out (most shivering yet).

Last night Jacob and I watched another episode of Lost. Would you like to venture a guess as to what it included? It started out with the doctor swimming out into the ocean to save someone else. (Heroic, yet insanely dumb. Do you not realize, Jack Shephard, that after only a few strokes you can no longer touch the bottom?) It then proceeded to show young Dr. Shephard running through the jungle (no longer heroic, just plain dumb I say) chasing what I believe at this time to be a ghost or hallucination, but knowing the insane show, is probably not. And when he finally stopped, what did he find floating in a small pool of water? A doll. Of course. What else would be in the middle of the jungle, floating in a pool of water, but a doll?

Thank you producers of Lost. Thank you ever so much. I'll be sending my therapy bill your way.
And being as I have only watched five episodes to date, I'm sure it won't be the last time.

Asks Matt

"Mom, if 'e' is silent in lots of word, why don’t they just take away it?"

Miscellenous photos from our time outside

Here is the cool bubble blower that Matt made in preschool. Careful how you breathe in
between blows. Just some helpful advice, not from personal experience or anything.

This is how excited Ben's eyebrows feel about being outside.

Help me! I'm falling, I'm falling. Oh wait, that would be my mom's camera inabilities.

This is how Annie feels about three more weeks of school.

This is how Annie feels about water.

This is what Cam spends a lot of time doing. (Playing basketball, not being washed out in photos.)

In all seriousness, can you really beat the trees in our backyard?

In all seriousness, haven't you been waiting forever for a photo
of  our driveway?  I'm sorry you've had to suffer so long.

Yellow flowers...delicate and cute.
Green foliage...awesome to the eye.
Three trees growing close together...ever so friendly.
Pointless picture and my commentary...priceless.

June 25th

I really enjoy reading the blogs of friends and family. And I try hard not to be covetous of the gifts you receive or the wonderful vacations you go on or the delicious meals you make. And I have been pretty successful. Until now.

I am truly happy for all of you who have children that are off school for the summer. I am. But does everyone have to talk about it on their blogs? And mention all you are doing with your schoolless children? Accompanied by photos of your children—making it obvious they are home and not at school? Just so you know, there are mothers out there that do not have their children out of school yet. And I would be one of them. As near as I can tell, I am the only one. And it is not even like we have a day or two or seven left. We have four weeks. No I am not kidding. I wish I was.

Welcome to Massachusetts. Where they pay policeman large amounts of overtime to direct traffic around a construction zone. And where they keep your children in school until it nears Independence Day. Brings new meaning to that particular holiday eh?

Paper airplanes, homework and cereal

My kids really make me happy. Right now I am watching them fly paper airplanes all over the back yard. They are in heaven making them and then testing them out. And if you would allow me to brag for a minute, I think they are geniuses—when it comes to the art of paper airplanes. Impressive to say the least.

Today after school we had homework time, as always. I'm grateful that we have yet to have struggles to get them to do their homework. I know that some of it is because they are just good kids and some of it is because they get a mark on their charts (enough marks and they eventually get a late nighter with mom or dad) and some of it is because they really love to study and learn and some of it is because they get to play and have fun when they are finished. I'll take it all.

But for some reason, I just had to laugh as I watched them do their homework on this particular day.






Every Monday, Campbell man has an extra class during school that he attends and really enjoys. He brought home several pages on figural analogies from this class today. After his regular homework, he started on this extra work and sped through it much more quickly than I thought he should. And when he was finished, as the kids always do, he handed it to me to check. Should I admit it took me almost as long to check it as it did for him to do it? A little embarrassing? Yeah.

Annie girl brought home a worksheet on fractions and worked on it as fast as she could to get it finished quickly. She was more interested in reading. She started reading the first Harry Potter book last week. I thought it was cute that she wanted to be like Cam, but worried that with her being seven and in first grade, it would be too much for her. Doubting mom for sure. She is on page 133 and cannot get enough of it. She and I have talked several times since she started her magical journey and she is definitely comprehending what is going on in the book.

And Matt boy. He certainly wants to be one of the big kids. He takes one of the Harry Potter books to bed every night and looks at the pictures and tries to sound out some of the words. Today he asked if I could print out worksheets that were not so easy. Where he doesn't start Kindergarten until the fall, I have been printing Kindergarten-age work for him to do. Silly me. Today he wanted something more difficult so I printed off some first grade math. That little boy sat down at the table and I watched him do every single problem himself. As you can see if you enlarge the picture, he missed two, but considering the problems, I'm not too disappointed.

Ben baby is not so much a baby anymore. He didn't ask for any preschool worksheets or anything, but he looks more like a little boy and less like a baby every hour. Instead of homework though, he entertained himself, once again, by constantly stealing the cereal boxes out of the pantry and grabbing a handful of honey nut goodness. It no longer has to do with being hungry, but with doing something that mom does not like. He thinks it is the funniest thing ever. And secretly, I kind of do too.

I sure love these kids.

Hero worship

3 and 45

I just realized it has been a while since my last annoying post and it was definitely time for another. I believe this makes three. The first two being this one and this one. I am so kind that I gave you two numbers this time. Have at it.

Oh and someone recently asked how many more days until this is over. Too many for me for sure. It was a seriously doofy idea, but I've got to see it through. So to answer your question, I believe there are ninety-three days left. Which is less than ninety-four. Phew.

Caption please

Memorial Day hike

We spent the day with some fabulous friends slash family at a place called Purgatory Chasm.
Sounds happy doesn't it? Actually it was absolutely awesome. We are definitely headed back
sometime soon. Jacob said he could have spent several more hours there for sure.

And now on to the reason you are here...pictures.

One of the first shots of the hike. This is how the entire hike looked (although this was
one of the calmer spots). Huge rocks and cliffs and crevasses. Kind of like a chasm.
 But only one you would find in purgatory.

Sweet Ben did great. It is a bit difficult to carry around a seventeen-month old, while
traversing huge boulders, but Jacob did just fine. If it tells you his arms or shoulders
were tired, I think he is just dramatic. It really didn't look that hard to me.

Our little GQ mountain goat. This kid is not only cute as can be, but climbed up and
down gargantuan rocks like they were small pebbles. Or his little brother.

This little one is still as sweet as she looks. But don't let her incredible cuteness fool you.
She is tough. Seriously tough. Pink hat, rainbow on her shirt? All for show, folks.

It is a miracle we actually have a shot of handsome Cam (thanks to Jacob) as he was
moving too fast the entire time to photograph. I'm not sure there was a bottomless
pit that he didn't climb into. This boy was just plain awesome.

The kids during snack time. You didn't know climbing over rocks for hours turns your
teeth orange did you? Neither did I. You also didn't know that trying to come up with
funny captions for several different pictures makes you sound like a dork did you?
Neither did I. Until now.

The whole crew, minus the beautiful and talented photographer. But don't worry, seeing my
incredible skills is enough. Actually witnessing a picture of me would take away from my
awesomeness. Not that these people are any less awesome because they are in a picture.
They are really awesome. Truly they are. Ahem, I'm not sure that went very well.

Thanks so much guys! We sure had a great time!

Lost

Do any of you watch the television show Lost? Jacob and I are not huge TV watchers. I have a hard time sitting through it when I have other things to do. (Okay, so Jacob would argue I have a hard time sitting through it in general and he would be right. I don't like to do only one thing at a time and sitting and watching TV or a movie often annoys me.) Jacob will occasionally watch TV, but more often than not, if he has the TV on, soccer is being played. But several years ago, we started watching a show (well, we watched DVDs of a show) that everyone told us was fabulous and we really enjoyed it. If I remember correctly, we watched three or four seasons and liked it super much.

So thinking that would be a fun thing to do together again, we decided to request the first season of Lost from Netflix and tonight we watched the pilot. And now I am curious how many of you out there are Lost fans. Because I'm thinking I might be watching this for a while yet. All I can say is what in the world...?

Balloons, wishes and cuteness

How much do I love our backyard?

In the front yard

Prayer and patience

Rather than our regular church meetings this morning, we were able to watch the broadcast of a meeting that was being held in Salt Lake City, Utah, but came to us by satellite. The first speaker, Elder Bruce D. Porter, gave an absolutely incredible talk. I have no doubt it will remain one of my favorite talks ever. And not just because of the following story he told at the beginning.

A Primary teacher gathered her class together at the beginning of the lesson. One of the young students was asked to give the opening prayer.

The little boy began.

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the letter A. And thank you for the letter B. And thank you for the letter C..."

The teacher, realizing where this was going, wondered what she should do. This could turn out to be a very long prayer. She decided to be patient and let him finish it out. Sure enough, he went through every letter of the alphabet. The teacher breathed a sigh of relief as the letter Z was said.

And then the little boy continued.

"And thank you for the number one. And thank you for the number two..."

The teacher really started to panic. She didn't know how high the boy could count. But patiently, she let him continue and was relieved when he stopped at twenty.
And then these words closed his prayer.

"And Heavenly Father, thank you for my Primary teacher. Because she is the only grown up who has ever let me finish my prayer."

Matt's 5th birthday party

Matt's 5th birthday party finally happened. His birthday was back in March, but we had talked to him about waiting for several weeks until the weather was good enough to use our back yard. I think we were all glad we did as it made for a super fun time!

We are pretty simple in the party department, but I still felt like it was fun for everyone involved. Matt chose to invite all of his friends from preschool and most everyone was able to make it. The general theme was animals and we had a fun animal hunt (choosing to use photos rather than real animals), sticker tag and pin the beak on the toucan. We opened presents from his kind friends and then had birthday cake. There were even a few minutes left at the end for the kids to run around and become completely exhausted before going home with their parents. His little friends were so darling and it was just a happy day for all of us. Thanks to everyone who came and made his day so wonderful!

We sure love you Matthew boy!

Show up

My sweet friend, Michelle, posted this story a few days ago.
It made me cry.

I've thought about it almost constantly in the days since. And it has filled me with profound gratitude.
Because nine, seven, five and one years ago, my babies showed up. And that really is enough.

This man I love

In just a few minutes, I am headed to bed. Only about an hour later that I should be. But I couldn't go to bed until I wrote about the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. He goes by the name of Jacob. And he means everything to me.

Tonight, when my head hits the pillow, I will be lying in an absolutely spotless house. Jacob spent Saturday (while Annie and I were off with the horses) cleaning the house from top to bottom. I mean vacuuming, dusting, mopping, bathrooms, everything. I'm not sure any mama out there could tell you a better gift they have received.

And if that wasn't enough, he spent this entire day making sure I had an amazing breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, and of course dessert, because I definitely needed more to eat. He also insisted I have a nap and take some time to just read. And as I type these words, the dishwasher is going and the entire house is completely clean and tidy. Ready for me to wake up to its loveliness in the morning.

And while I appreciate all of the above, and you better believe I do, guess what is the absolutely best thing he did for me? He married me. And then gave me four incredible souls. I know, overwhelming isn't it? I'm doing my best to be grateful, but there are days like today that I'm just not sure I am even close to there. But don't fret, there is fabulous news.

I have eternity to keep trying.

And seriously, he is super handsome too.
Boy oh boy did I win the lottery.

The reason I celebrate today

Can I tell you why I love this picture?

Because I get to be mom to these four incredible souls. Because they are smiling and happy and oh so very cute. Because not all of them are looking in the same direction, as usual. Because each of the above darling kids came to me separately with something they had made me for my special day. And it was made with their own two hands and with paper, markers and some tape. Because the look of anticipation and happiness on their face when I opened their present, made me both laugh and feel emotional at the same time. Because when I woke up from my Mother's Day nap, each of them had left a message on our answering machine about why they loved me. And they tried so hard to pretend like it wasn't them, but their sweet face couldn't help but give it away. And their messages made me cry.

And one of the reasons I will love this picture forever is because sweet Annie is smiling her best, in spite of having the stomach flu the night before and a fever and bleeding nose this very morning. And this picture reminds me that her sickness didn't ruin my Mother's Day, but truly made it all that more meaningful.

When sweet Jacob came into the bathroom this morning and told me he would take care of it because it was my day off, I wanted to do it. I wanted to take care of my little girl. It was Mother's Day after all and that is what I signed up for nine and a half years ago. The fevers and the bleeding noses and the falls and the heartaches and the nightmares at midnight. And the joy and the happiness and the first words and the first steps and the overwhelming gratitude. I would not trade it for the world. Not a second of it.

Especially this mismatched-looking-two-different-places-some-kids-in-church-clothes-some-in-pajamas-smiling-at-their-mom picture. Because these four sweethearts are the reason I celebrate today.