Spring Break with Grandma and Grandpa

All the days of the week of spring break are now mushing together since it was a few weeks ago, but we spent time going on walks, playing at the park, swimming at our neighborhood pool, and hiking through the neighborhood trails. Dad helped me appreciate where we live a little more. Whenever he came up missing we just looked on the deck or the patio to see him watching golfers. He was in heaven. Sometimes he was laughing hysterically and sometimes he was just simply smiling. Joseph and I are not golfers, we appreciate the beautiful view we have, but having my Dad here was fun because he loves the game and really appreciated our surroundings. It was fun to see it through his eyes.

For my Dad's birthday we gave him a round of golf. The kids didn't realize how long a round of golf is, so I had the pleasure hearing this question all day long, "Why is he taking so long?" We live on the 16th hole and they were so excited to get to cheer on a golfer that they actually knew. They set up their chairs on the deck, then they moved to the patio, then they came inside, over and over and over again. Finally about 4 hours after he started, they got to see him on our hole! (Which, according to Dad is the hardest of the course. He told me to be careful when the kids are outside playing because he heard some choice words from a few golfers who didn't have they're A game on).

Dad was probably humiliated as we cheered from the deck while he played. The kids were so happy to see him on the course. I'll appreciate where we live a little more now after having dad here to point out the beauty of it all. Mom went with him for the first half and then came home to sew while Dad finished the rest of the course.

Brynn wrote the cute birthday card below for Dad. Hearing her read it was the best! It really says it all. He is such a great guy! Everytime he comes he looks for things around the house and car that need to be done and puts himself to work. He replaced light bulbs, secured the fence, cleaned up animal droppings, made the random beeping sound go away, took trips to the hardware store, took trips to the grocery store, and I'm sure did many other things that we haven't noticed yet. He quietly goes about doing good. I am so lucky to have such a great dad and my kids could not ask for a better grandpa.

At times I am tormented by the fact that my parents miss so much of my children's lives. There are times I think it nothing of it and then there are times that it really hurts. Just last night, Isaac was squeezing my neck and giggling as I put him to bed, and I thought, "I wish Grandma and Grandpa could see how cute you are right now." I love my kids so much and I know that my parents do too. No one celebrates and enjoys your children like family, atleast that's the way it is with my family. The silver lining of living away is that when we visit each other, we really get to spend alot of time seeing regular everyday life, whereas I know that if we lived closer, we probably wouldn't get to spend that kind of time together. It would just be quick visits here and there. Sometimes I just want it all.

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

During spring break this year, we had a visit from Grandma Rowene and Grandpa Billy! We had a great week with them. They arrived on Saturday, near the end of the second session of our LDS General Conference. Dad and Joe headed off for the priesthood session of general conference at a local stake center, while we hung out with Grandma. On Sunday, we watched the rest of General Conference on BYUtv and then I took my mom and dad on a drive to see the area. It was so nice having them as guests. The week was a perfect combination of relaxation and fun.

On Monday, it was Dad's Birthday and we decided to go have breakfast at Ruby's Diner on the Oceanside Pier. It was a little overcast, but we timed it just right and we were inside eating breakfast when the worst of the rain came down.

After breakfast, we chased the pelicans on the pier, talked to the fishermen, and then played on the beach. The kids loved writing in the sand and drawing pictures of themselves. We then went to do some shopping at the outlets in Carlsbad. After shopping, the rain started pouring again, so we headed south to Old Town San Diego to visit the newly renovated Mormon Batallion Museum. It very entertaining and informative. The church has done a great job with new technology to make it really fun and interactive for adults and kids. When we entered the museum it was pouring rain and when we came out it was sunny and beautiful. Perfect timing!

Mom and Dad treated us to lunch at a very yummy mexican restaurant in Old Town and then we walked through some of the shops. The kids loved the toy store and dancing on the stage to the latin music. It was a perfect afternoon at Old Town San Diego.

Daddy Daughters Weekend

While I was in Utah with the boys, Joseph and the girls had fun playing here at home. They went out to eat a few times, spend some time reading at the bookstore and of course, they enjoyed playing at the beach. At one point, while playing on the beach, Abby said to Joe, "Dad, I love growing up at the beach!" This little affirmation means alot to me because this move has been really hard for me. There are lots of reasons why it's been good for our family, but often, I think of the simplicity of our former life (for me), even though it wasn't perfect, I learned to really like it. I'm sounding really selfish here. I also think it's been hard because I've realized that moving here means that many more years of living away from our extended families.

Enough of the complaining. Joseph loves work and is so happy with the new change. Don't get me wrong, he has to work very hard and be very smart about things, but already it has proved to be more family friendly. To name a just a few pros, his hours are better and more flexible, he is compensated more equitably , he doesn't have to do his own payroll anymore, nor does he have to hand out paychecks in the middle of the night to his p.m. nurses, he has less demanding long-term patients (less psychiatric ones), which means less calls in the middle of the night (none so far) to tell us that someone has scratched someone else, or that someone has stolen someone else's teeth, or that a male patient has propositioned a female nurse, etc. Which in turn means alot less reports to the state and less stress and paperwork for him. Anyway, here I just set out to post some pictures and it's turned into a full-on vent session. All the emotion comes in waves (no pun intended). Next week I might confess that I love it here and never want to leave, but even then I think I'll always wish that we could share more of our lives with extended family.

I need to enjoy the moment more. I know that someday when I am living in the high desert trudging through 6 feet of snow in mid-April, I am going to miss the days when I was living less than 10 miles from the beach and enjoying a year-round temperate climate. There are so many lessons to learn in life. I am so thankful for a patient and loving Father in Heaven who allows me to learn and grow and gives me opportunities to learn patience. I can be a very slow and resistant learner. I know I can be happy anywhere because I really believe that happiness is a choice. I need to make that decision to be happy here as long as we are here.

Utah Trip

The boys and I took a quick trip to Utah to attend a baby shower for Emily and Sara. We had a great time. The girls stayed home and had a girl's weekend with Dad! I was lucky enough to be able to catch two of our niece's in their school play, The Perfect Princess Pageant. McKenzie and Sariah were both so fun to watch. I can't believe how much they are growing up.

Southwest doesn't fly directly to Salt Lake City from San Diego, so I had a quick stop in Oakland and a brush with fame! During pre-boarding in Oakland, a young family walked on the plane and I immediately recognized the woman as Barbara Young, Steve Young's wife, with a few children trailing behind her. Moments later Steve walked on holding another baby. It was fun watching their family during the flight. They have 2 boys and 2 girls.

Emily picked me up and we headed to my friend Tatum's house to pick up the awesome cupcakes she made for the shower. They were so yummy and so cute. I met Tatum during our days in Spokane and I hadn't seen her in person for a few years so it was fun to have a quick visit. She is so talented!

We had the shower at Scott and Annette's house. I loved spending time with family. It was great, but makes me miss them so much! Someday I would love to live closer to them.

Emily and Sara are only one day apart in their due dates (Em has already delivered as I write this and Sara is very close). They both look great and it was fun to finally see them with their full tummies!

One of the highlights for me was getting to visit with the Fish girls again. My mom and Nancy have been friends forever and I always love it when we get together with them. We have so many shared memories of fun times we have had together. From family trips to family dinners, we've had some great times. It's always a riot hearing my mom and Nancy tell stories. I can't think of my childhood without thinking about the Fish family because we did so much with them. Fun, fun, fun memories. I told Nancy that when I was a little girl, I found out that they weren't my cousins, aunt, uncle, etc. and that her mom and dad weren't another set of my grandparents. I was so confused....I remember at that time thinking, "If they aren't my cousins, then what are they?" Now, though they aren't blood relatives, I consider them family.

It was a great weekend. The boys had fun hanging out with grandpa while I had fun with the ladies. They rode the four-wheeler all over the neighborhood and dad's highlight was when he got to change one of Isaac's super-poopers! ;) Now that's the true test of a good grandpa! Thanks Dad, I owe you huge one!

Way to Go Brynn!

After school yesterday, Brynn came to the car with an extra bounce in her step and twinkle in her eye. When I asked her how her day went, she told me it was extra special because she had won the spelling bee! Her final word that she beat everyone out with, was a word that I see many adults spell incorrectly. The word was definitely. Great job Brynn, you are d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y our favorite 2nd grade speller!

A Perfect Match

Isaac has a funny little obsession. He likes to keep things on the tip of his finger. He'll walk around the house with marker lids, legos, math cubes, certain sippy cup stoppers, Barbie and Ken's shoes, small lipstick lids, and any other household object that fits snuggly on the tip. He'll carry the object around on his finger all day long, he takes these items in the car, to the park, they have become his little security object.

Well today, this was taken to a whole new level. We introduced him to penne pasta. We gave him a few before the blessing on the food to keep him quiet. During the prayer he was super giggly and excited. We all looked over to see what was so delightful about this little appetizer...and you guessed it, he has found a food that fits perfectly over his little finger. It was fun to watch him carefully place the pasta on each finger, nibble it off and finish with a huge grin. You can bet that we'll be having penne alot more often at our house and maybe we'll throw a few OLIVES in the dish!

Sisters

Things are more smooth sailing now. No more hives...the new routine is becoming second nature. We even talked Brynn into eating school lunch this week. Abby, on the other hand, thinks school lunch is the greatest thing since headbands. This week while I was doing the girls' hair, the conversation went like this...

Brynn: I'm just nervous to eat school lunch because I don't have a card and I don't know my number.

Abby: Oh, Brynn it's easy, you just walk up to the lunch lady and say, "Hi, I'm new and I don't have a card, my name is Brynn Lee." Got it Brynn, okay let's practice....

After about 20 minutes of walking her through it, Abby had successfully calmed the nerves of her older sister.

The best part was in the car after school. The second Brynn got in the car, Abby said, "Brynn, how did it go with the lunch lady today?"

I love that that they genuinely care about each other. (It makes up for the fighting that also occurs.) Having these two girls so close together has been such a gift. Especially because moving and change have been a part of our lives so far and probably will continue to be for the next few years. I am so grateful that when they were sent to our family a built-in best friend was part of the deal.

TGIF

When I returned home from the gym this morning, Brynn came to me to tell me that her legs itched like crazy! At first glance I told her that it looked like had mosquito bites on the back of her calves. I went to the medicine basket to find some cream to put on them. I had her roll up her pants so I could take a closer look. I realized that they weren't mosquito bites, but HIVES! We figure that she broke out into hives because of the anxiety and stress of all that has gone on in the past week. She inherited this tendency from my mom and me. My mom broke out in hives on her wedding day and I broke out in hives the weekend of my brother Scott's wedding, which also happened to be homecoming week . I was stressed about learning a dance for half-time of the football game.

After a dose of Benadryl and a short time of chilling with me and the boys, the hives completely went away. We had a nice talk about what's been going on and how she's adjusting to things here. She has received lots of positive attention in school and is making new friends, but it's been hard learning new routines and procedures... just learning the way her new school does things in general. She wants to do everything right and gets uptight about doing just that (she gets that from her mom). Generally, she keeps things inside and doesn't verbalize her feelings and so it's really hard to know just exactly how she feels. She misses Miss Reick and without totally putting words into her mouth,I gathered that she just misses the familiarity of our old life and is overwhelmed by all of the new. All things that are completely understandable, I am overwhelmed with all of it too. We had a good talk which I am sure will be continued on many occasions. We talked about the confidence that we can gain in life through doing things that are hard for us.

After we picked up Abby from school, we headed to the park to kick the ball around and play tag together. We then headed to Joseph's facility which is about 15 minutes from where we live. We toured his beautiful facility and then headed to the beach to play.
I learned that we need to wear the right type of shoes to the beach and clothes that sand can easily brush off of....I also learned that while I am not a fan of hot dry sand, cool, damp, hard packed sand feels great on the feet.

Isaac used his newly acquired "climbing-down-the-stairs" skills to make his way to the tide. He crawled backward, until he felt it was safe enough to make a run for it.

He learned quickly, by watching his sisters, how to brace himself for the waves. I loved watching him take his stance.

The feel of the cold sand was delightful to him. He just kept giggling and laying back in it. What a perfect way to end a BIG week.

Stinky Carpet and a Stinky Attitude

Rug Doctor (that didn't quite do the job)... $64.76

Appointment with Professional Steam Cleaning Company...$86.85

Getting every last drop of diarrhea out of the carpet...priceless

My attitude the last couple of days has been about as stinky as that spot on my carpet. I miss the simplicity and familiarity of Woodland. I need to start enjoying the beauty of this new phase in our life. There is so much all around, but sometimes I let imperfections in life get to me. I'm workin' on it. It's Murphy's Law that the week you move into a house with clean light carpets your sons will get the stomach flu, right?

{You can thank me now for posting sans photos....you're welcome!}