My Vitality Does In Fact Leap In The Autumn

“September has come, it is hers

Whose vitality leaps in the autumn,

Whose nature prefers

Trees without leaves and a fire in the fireplace."

It's September and October that makes me sad that I don't live in a part of the US where there is a noticeable difference in the weather and the leaves actually change colors instead of one day being a vibrant green on the trees and the next dirty brown and dead on the lawn. I try to make the best of it by enjoying every minuscule  drop on the thermometer and reminding myself that cold COLD weather is only fun if you don't have to leave your house. 

It's taken all of August to come to terms with the fact that I have a child in high school and who is also eligible to get her learner's permit in two weeks. School started way back on August 9th. 

Madeline loves high school so far. She's doing home study seminary for a year because of transportation issues. (Getting her set up to do that pretty much required an act of Congress for all the hassle it caused.) Isabella is enjoying 8th grade. By some crazy fluke, she got all of the teachers Madeline had last year. The middle school split into two schools this school year, and Isabella was assigned to the new school, which used to be a former elementary school. She said all of the toilets and sinks and water fountains are very low, so she feels like a giant when she uses them!

James had been under government-ordered sequestration since the beginning of July, but it *finally* ended last week! Hooray! It's a very rare thing that you will hear me complaining about James' job and/or the fact that he works for the government. We went too many years without stable, reasonable employment to complain about anything, really. I have to say though, this furlough with the close to 40% pay cut was a tough one to deal with. But it's over, we survived and all is well. 

Jed has been gone TEN WEEKS today! He's still not in Brazil, though. He's hanging in Pleasant Grove, UT while waiting on that dang visa! I just love how confident and enthusiastic he sounds in his letters. 

I turned 36 last month. That sounds very different from 35. The family I sit for gave me a very generous gift card to a local restaurant, and I nicely took James and the girls with me out to dinner. I just love spending time with them! Mom and Dad came over a few days later and took me out to lunch. Clearly, I like my birthdays to revolve around food. ;)

I love the time I'm spending with "my" boys. They are such a treasure! It's also a good reminder why I personally was smart to have my children while I was still young and stupid. I'd be so lazy as a parent of young kids now! 

Christopher is in school during the day, and I pick him up in the afternoon. He goes to a private Catholic school, and the it was SO FUNNY when he was telling me about his first Mass.

Michael is getting so big- sitting up by himself, eating solid food and trying to scoot around. He just gives the best smiles and snuggles. Nature's Prozac, I'm telling you!

Nic is too funny for words. He's constantly trying to figure out ways of outsmarting me, and only occasionally succeeding. 

I think the best part about getting older is figuring out what you really care about, and ignoring the rest of the busy work. Right now my life is so busy work free and I'm so much happier for it. 

Twelve

We haven't had any babies around here for a long time, and that's been cool. Our family is awesome just how it is. Yesterday, though, I kind of wished we had some short people running around.

You see, my baby turned 12 yesterday.



With her big sister getting ready to turn 14 later in the year, it's clear to me that I might not be ready for these girlies to spread their wings as soon as they might want. In fact, that are both preparing to spend almost the entire summer away from us, their parents. Bella is going to a horse camp in Utah with a friend and Madeline is riding along so she can be dropped off in Arizona with their Sauls side of the family, and then she will FLY HOME ALONE. o_O

I guess I better be getting ready for those girls to fly.

Monday Ain't So Bad

As I was driving home from school today, I realized that unlike most of the industrialized world, I really don't hate Mondays. Sure, I wasn't too keen on getting out of bed this morning, but I pretty much feel that way every morning. I realized that Monday is pretty much the only day of the week guranteed NOT to have any plans other than work and school. Once we all get home, we don't have to leave again unless we want to. And usually we don't want to! So YAY Monday.

I'd also been looking forward to this Monday for awhile now. Once this Monday arrived I knew I would be:

*** past the hardest weeks of preschool

*** done with Madeline's birthday celebrations

*** happy to have received my first paycheck since May

*** looking for cooler weather sooner rather than later

So when I woke up this morning it really was like a breath of fresh air (figuratively speaking, because someone somewhere near our neighborhood had done some major burning yesterday and the air was still smoky this morning).

Speaking of Madeline. Bless her heart. She really is closer to being a teenager than she is to being a kid. She came home from school today, and as she got out her homework she told me all the things that went wrong. Her brand new makeup compact broke, the button on her new Vera Bradley tote fell off, her hair kept coming undone, etc. I gave her a hug and a pep talk and went on about my business in the kitchen. A few minutes later I walked through the living room and found her fast asleep in the chair.



Poor baby! Middle School is HARD!!

Double Digits, again

Isabella turned 10 last week. *sigh*

One of the drawbacks to 1) only having two kiddos and 2) having those two kiddos so close together is that not long after marvelling that "the first one" has hit a certain milestone is having "the last one" hit that same milestone soon after. Don't mind me, I'll just be over in the corner mournfully singing Sunrise, Sunset.

We only do BIG parties for three special birthdays- when they turn 8, 12, and 16. But last year we started inviting a few friends over for dinner and to spend the night. So the ear-busting squealing and shrieking you heard last Friday night was coming from our house.

The weather was nice enough that we ate pizza and cake outside on the patio.


I'm not sure why Bella was wearing her green OZ sunglasses, but it's her birthday, so I guess she can wear what she wants.


Nana and Jed came over to drop cousin Catie off. Jed's choice in sunglass wear was just as odd as Bella's.


Once the mosquitos descended, we came back inside to open presents.






Nana and Jed had to leave after we opened the presents (because heaven forbid Mom drive at night, or worse, let JED drive!). The preteen girls tried there best to keep him, but he finally escaped. I' pretty sure he wanted to to stick around. The girls settled in for the night to watch movies and eat me out of house and home. They all left (except Catie, who was spending the weekend with us) by 11:00 the next morning, and I've spent all week trying to get the house back in order.

The End

Madeline's Birthday

Being the lazy mother that I am, I don't do big birthday parties for the girls every year. We do big parties (i.e. lots of friends and mucho dinero spent) on what we consider THE BIGGIES- 8, 12 and 16. So birthdays around here consist of their choice of dinner and cake and then presents with the family (and which ever extended family happens to be around at the time!).

This year Madeline asked if some friends could come over for dinner and then spend the night. She caught me at a weak moment and I said yes. We ended up with two friends for dinner and one friend who stayed the night on the 11th (the day before her actual birthday).

Madeline requested homemade pizza for dinner and then ice cream sundaes for dessert. On her actual birthday she wanted nachoes and chocolate chip cheesecake. The girl has pretty good taste. ;)

Her big present was a guitar. The music teacher at her school teaches a free guitar class to Fifth graders after school once a week. She actually got the guitar as an early gift because the class started before her birthday. But she also got an American Girl Hair Care Center, which she had been wanting. She told James and I later that her birthday was perfect, and I guess as a parent you can't ask for more than that, can you??

Happy Birthday, Madeline!!

Happy Birthday, Isabella!

Nine years ago today our sweet girl made her way into this world, appropriately on the first day of Spring. She is the sunshine in our family, and we love her so much.

Four months


Nine months


18 months


4 years old


6 years old


7 years old


8 years old


Almost 9 years old

Being The Mom, Part Dos

Picture taken June 2006

So I'm sitting here dipping a metric ton of strawberries in chocolate, all because that is the treat my Bella-Bear wants for her birthday treat for her class tomorrow (third year in a row- the kid has good taste!), when it struck me just how much I love these darling girls. Because I do. Love them to bits and pieces. I can only think of a few things I wouldn't do for them (evidently NOT including dipping strawberries, making a special dinner and birthday cake tomorrow, wrapping presents, etc- all while I'm too tired to even think about it).

Now I'm sitting here, all misty-eyed, thinking about how they are growing up every minute of every day, and they're only going to like me for a little while longer, before they start hating me for a few years, and then maybe if I'm lucky and I haven't done too bad of a job they'll love me again.

That's what being The Mom does to you. You weep over chocolate-covered strawberries because you know it's going to end much too soon. There's nothing to do except keep on dipping, because you hope whenever they eat a chocolate-covered strawberry from now till the end of time they will think of you and know how much you love them.

Because you do.

I do.

Shout Hooray

Today my darling girl turns 10, or as she keeps telling me, "Double digits, Mama! DOUBLE DIGITS!!"

Even though I have earlier memories, the age of ten is where my consciousness really began. I can easily remember that age, and things that happened to me, and I can only assume that it might be the same for Madeline. These first ten years have gone by so fast, and I know that a the end of the next ten years she will really and truly be her own person.

8 months old, with my brother Frodo


2 1/2 years old


3 1/2 years old


5 1/2 years old


6 years old


August 2008