Sunday, Oct. 7

Sunday, October 7:

I'm back.  Hooray.  I am really enjoying writing this, although you might be surprised how long it takes for a one page summary of our lives each week.

When Presidend Uchdorf talked about facebooking less and doing meaningful family things more, I was beyond happy that I had just chosen to do this.  I think facebook has its place, but really pondering our blessings and journaling them feels right.

Our top moments:

1. We can't believe we have lived in our house over a week.  The painting is going slow and grossly over budget. Watching it slowly turn into a home, is satisfying.

2. The boys would list their indulgent, stock-the-fridge-with-frozen-foods-since-we-can't-cook, shopping trip as a highlight of the week.

You may be surprised but we have never had frozen corn dogs in our freezer.  EVER.
Each boy got to pick whatever they wanted.  Did I mention Dave took them shopping.

When my visiting teachers brought over a dinner, homemade enchiladas, and told us another night some other sisters would bring something too, well I wasn't just touched, I was relieved.  My family got a couple of nourishing meals this week. 

On fish sticks night we ate on the patio and attempted family scriptures.  Apparently Seth, who would be a junk-a-holic, if I let him,was still hungry and took to eating the ketsup with a spoon.  The same plastic spoon that then became a "pea-catapult".  When I removed the ketsup and forbid the pea throwing, Seth actually got desperate enough to keep eating the peas.  I think he even finished them off.  Frozen peas aren't so bad.  They quite sweet, even for a sweet tooth.

3. Seth had most of the adventures this week.  He us most pleased with his right-of-passage moment when getting his first stitches.  While I was driving James to basketball, Seth was playing with friends around our pool construction site.  He slipped and tumbled over the wooden border that is secured with rebar posts and thick metal wire.  We think it was the metal wire that sliced his foot open as he tumbled over.  The hero friends rode their bikes to a neighbor who came over and helped Seth by bandaging him up.  I was about 10 minutes away and of course was horrified when I got the call from Julie Olsen, mother of 6 boys.  She wasn't fazed by the experience and gave me tips as to where to take him.  It wasn't deep but it was long.



before

The real relief was finding Seth, smugly propping his foot up, a gleam in his eye.  He was going to be the center of attention for a while.  He was basking in it.  We shooed the very concerned neighbors friends home and took him to the Kids Urgent Care about 15 min. from our house.  2 1/2 hours later, and this was with no one else in the CLINIC!!! Seth is sporting 9 stitches.  He never cried, he never flinched.  He watched them sew it up.  And truly this kid was THRILLED to have his stitches.  He might have sung a different tune if the injury had been worse.



after

To Seths dismay, his teacher was so careful with him the next day at school that he was bored to death and in Seth's own words "I was treated like a Prince Mom, and I couldn't stand it."
Trying to keep him mellow on that foot is the hardest part about the experience.  A whole week without soccer is rough. 
James and Dad were very concerned and one of the highlights of my weeks was James' tender concern for the brother he is usually torturing.  James even gave Seth his turn to sleep with the dog, as a comfort for Seth his first night with an injury.  Seth did wake us up in a little pain that night so it wasn't all fun and games to get stitches. 



4. I mentioned Peter has been having a rough time at school and we have been having a rough time parenting him.  We have been so worried about him in so many ways.  This is our first 14 1/2 year old teenage boy after all.  They are CRAZY.  This morning I strongly encouraged Peter to come on our Sunday walk the dog walk.  This was a sacrifice for me, because I love every second of alone time I get with Dave, and I have an unending list to discuss with him in those uninterrupted moments.  But  I knew Peter would have a nice time once we got him outside and with us.  We didn't talk about much.  We listened once again to many football facts.  But its beautiful to walk in the wild "wash" that runs through our neighborhood.  Its entertaining to watch our silly dog chase rabbits and quail.  When Peter walked up between Dave and I and put his arms around our necks on the way home,walking affectionately between us,  I knew he had felt a little deposit into his "you are loved" bank account. 

Then to have him later, pick up on two scriptures in conference, as call out "that's a scripture mastery!"  well, it doesn't get much better than that.

5. I'm a Christian Rocker.  Definition: car windows rolled down, cool evening breeze blowing, blasting Christian rock/pop stations down the highway.  Don't knock them til you've tried them.  I have my limits too.  Some of the songs are just too rock for Jesus lyrics but most of them are so uplifting.  We have KLOVE here and at least 5 other stations.  But I love classic praise music the most.  See post below:



6. General Conference.  Dave and I get "after conference blues" sometimes because it is over so fast.  Is is just me, or are conferences getting more profound and life changing.  Very, very quickly, some highlights:

• Peter and James going to Priesthood session.  Dave reports that James actually listened.  You can't know how big of a milestone this is.  I'm not sure if James' has ever listened to more than 30 seconds at a time of a church meeting, ever.  He had plenty to share at "Souper-Salad" after.  (why not Mexican.  We had Mexican every night except fish sticks night, this week). 
• Seth sharing his favorite moment of conference was Elder Hollands talk about Peter and the Savior asking him "Do You Love Me".  I knew this talk was one of the most profound for me but for my almost 12 year old.  I was amazed that he was so affected by it.
• The boys got along for 3/4 of the broadcasts today. (the 1/4 they didn't was ugly.  I don't have the energy to write about it)
• Going to some new friends house tonight, the Robisons, to recap conference.  They have 8 kids, ranging from 16 to 18 months.  They have 4 adopted, and 4 biological and they are the greatest, and a very real, family.  I call it the post-conference chaos night, but it got our kids to talk about conference and hear their friends talk about conference.  I made homemade fudge sauce and homemade pineapple sauce for ice-cream.  Yummy.  The honey-vinaigrette salad I made was just okay.
• I think Daves highlight was Priesthood Session
• We are as excited as everyone about the missionary age.  Except that Dave was my Knight in Shining Armor and I wouldn't have missed him for anything, I kind of want a do-over so I can go on a mission at 19. 

• For me one of the most tender moments was the performance of "Does the Journey Seem Long".  I could feel the spirit of our Savior so deeply during that moment.  If you didn't have a quiet house for conference, listen to it again, alone, sometime.  It makes your soul remember where we all want to return after this long journey.

The less pleasant moments:

1. Ants.  Grrrrr.

2. Pool builders did not come this week as scheduled!



3. Finding out you don't want a yellow wall (luckily we figured it out from painting a sample and not waisting a whole gallon and an hour)

4. Worrying about your kids

5. Watching your kids suffer.  Dave says it's part of life, but I never read that in the users manual.  Oh wait THERE ISN'T A MANUAL!!!!!  Okay fine, yes there is, the scriptures, but I could have used the "raising kids for dummies" version.

6. running out of money



7. Working out 1 day, yes you heard me right, that was 1dumb day, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, this week

8. Ruining your first, triple batch, of chocolate sauce.  But talking to your sister on the phone at the same time was worth the waisted ingredients.

9.  Missing Autumn

10. Missing your family

We cannot complain, even though we do to often, and we are truly happy here, but every life moment that passes here in a new place, reminds us how much we do miss home.