He's Alive!

It's so weird to not hear from your son for 6 days! Nothing, no email, no letter, nada.

I had to go with the 'No news is good news' theory on this one. I figured if he was not doing well, they would certainly let us know.

Today, a lovely little white envelope showed up in our mailbox. It was short and sweet, though.
He says he's doing quite well, learning a lot, (quickly and efficiently were his words) and that he likes his companion who is anxious to serve.

After years of seeing his face every day or at least being able to call him or email or text him when he was out of town, this has been really difficult. There are so many things I keep wanting to ask him.

Like: "How in the world do I unlock the screen on your(now my) Ipod so I can use the blasted thing?"

"What do you want me to do with all the clothes you left hanging in the laundry room and in your hamper?"

"HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY?"

I miss him. . . . . .

I am officially a Missionary Mom!

Well, we did it! Finally got all his stuff put together to take, all his other stuff boxed up to store, fed him well, and put him in the MTC. I have been through that experience once before, when Curtis and I went with his brother, Nathan, when he left for his mission to Chile. Let me tell you, it's a lot more emotional when you're there as the mom rather than just a Sister-In-Law. I really didn't want to cry, I didn't even take any Kleenex. But, I did. I guess I wasn't ashamed to let my tears roll down my face for all to see. I'm going to miss him a lot, but I'm so happy that now he's moving on, with a purpose to his life. He's been in such a limboland, playing the waiting game for months now. I'm excited for all the experiences he will have and the spiritual growth he will have. He was quiet and pensive, but he said he wasn't really scared or nervous. He said it wasn't nearly as bad as it would be if he were leaving the country. He didn't cry much, that I could see, (which wasn't much cause I was crying) He's going to be a GREAT MISSIONARY!

Swiss Family Robinson Day~

We finished up our reading of Swiss Family Robinson a couple of weeks ago. We spent a few days planning and preparing for our Swiss Family Robinson Day. The girls were really excited about this and worked hard to make it happen.

(Tree Climbing Contest)

Did you know that in the book the Robinson Family has four boys??

Disney always has to change things.

(making candles)

Did you know that they are never attacked by pirates?

(picnic lunch of bread, fruit and cheese)

This is an action filled book with tons of animals, boys would love it!

(cracking open our coconut)

No one but Mom was brave enough to try the coconut milk, but the fresh coconut was delicious!

(Here is "Fritz", with his eagle, Pounce, on his shoulder)
(Here is "Franz" with his flamingo, baboon and dog)
(Here is "Jack" with his pet, Master Knips, the monkey)
(Archery contest underway)

It was not as easy to make that arrow go where it should as we thought it would be.

(slingshot contest)

We were a little more accurate with the slingshot. At least we could hit the barrel!

Update

Argh! End of year stuff drives me nuts! 

  ~Last Friday we were able to go to the temple with Jordan in preparation for his mission.

SWEET experience.

I've thought for years about how it would be to go with my child and it exceeded my thoughts. It has finally hit me that he is really leaving for 2 years. I didn't think I'd get all choked up about it, but I'm sure I'll be a blubberer when we drop him off next Wed. 

  ~Got to attend Lauren's wedding on Sat. Another fantastic experience, since my son was able to go with us and see what a temple wedding is like. It's always fun to have family in town and of course we had to get together to talk and eat way too much, as usual.

~Our newest niece, Emma, was born on Tues morning, just after her grandparents flew home. This is beginning to be a pattern, as that's what happened when I had my youngest. They had been here for two weeks at Christmas and I had my baby the day after they left. Oh, well. We're happy that our new niece is here safely, mom and baby are doing well.

~Got the Mother's Day song for Sacrament meeting over with. I spaced it off and we only had two weeks to practice. It was a mix of two different songs so it was a bit for the kids to learn, but they did great. We were even in our new chapel and we had a different pianist and it still came off. Whew! I had a nice Mother's Day. There were lots of leftovers from the wedding luncheon the day before so we ate those for lunch on Sunday and I got a nice nap. What more could a girl ask for than to not have to cook and to get a nap in? Cambria got me a darling little figurine of a mother and daughter that says 'Forever My Mother, Forever My Friend'. That really touched me because she and I have our days!

~It finally feels like spring here and we have loved being outside more this week. Yesterday I took the girls to Bicentennial Park and we had a great time looking at the wildlife: ducks, butterflies, dragonflies, birds and we walked on the boardwalk through the wetlands and learned about why wetlands are important and what purpose they serve. I think we will go back often until the mosquitoes come out in full force. The girls have worked really hard this week and have added lots of corn to the corn jar. It will be full soon and we will then have a new trampoline in our backyard! 

~Tonight is the 8th grade's production of 'Much Ado About Nothing'. They have been performing 1 act all week during school and tonight they will do the entire play for the public. I'm looking forward to watching the play, but we will all be glad to have it done. Only one more week of school!

Finally!

Need a surefire way to get some volunteer hours in at the school your children attend?
Volunteer to help sew Shakespeare costumes! After all, you can do them at home!
No matter that you don't have the correct instructions or that the fabric is really fabric intended for furniture, you'll be able to get those hours in, remember????
After finally tracking down the correct instructions and spending a few hours sewing, unpicking, sewing, unpicking and sewing and then sewing some more (by hand), these dresses(?) are FINALLY done! I am not a dunce when it comes to sewing, (except putting in zippers, huh, Mom?) but honestly, it is really helpful to have the right set of instructions. I could not figure out the ones I was given, seemed some pages were missing. I even went to the school and looked at the original and it was still just as confusing. I got a thought, not my own I'm sure, to go to WalMart and look in another pattern to see if we had a page missing. Lo and behold, we just had a misprinted instruction sheet that had one side of instructions for a completely different pattern than the one we were trying to sew. Didn't notice the discrepancy in the pattern numbers until I compared the two sheets at WalMart.
What to do? Didn't want to buy another pattern just for that sheet. Another idea!! Get my digital camera from the car and take a quick picture of the correct instructions. Whew! Problem solved.

Really, things went much better after I got the proper instruction sheet! Really!!

Well, except for the unpicking and resewing! But hey, that's the way I sew....

100th POST!

I was actually surprised to see that this would be my 100th post when I signed in to Blogger.

I have nothing very profound to say in honor of it being my 100th post, nor do I have a give-away. That's okay, though, cause I'd have to pick myself, as I'm the only reader of this blog...hehe!

I started this blog as a way to record the happenings in the lives of my kids and myself. I thought of it as a journal of sorts, never imagining that anyone else would possibly be interested in reading it. However, as I've spent the last year and a half in 'blogdom' I have come to realize that much can be shared, ideas, experiences and testimony, in this very unique way of communicating to diverse people. I personally have learned so much from other bloggers and I am so thankful for their willingness to share of themselves. I have hopes that someday, something I say may be of use to someone who may happen to read this blog. So I'll keep writing and trying to share things I've learned, experiences that have changed me for the better and also all the funny, dorky things that happen when you live in a house full of kids. ;-D!