dad is great, give us the chocolate cake

I am giving a lesson in YW on Sunday about nutrition/Word of Wisdom and substance abuse.  I am so stoked!  Oh boy, I am going to make those teenage heads SPIN.

what is with all the spiders?

I swear our nine months on/three months off school schedule is inspired, because right about the time I think I'm going to spontaneously combust from the sheer irritation of having my kids around me all the time, fighting and teasing and begging and talking and laughing, boom.  School starts.  Then when I can't take another day of forcing them out of bed, making breakfast and lunch at the same time, and willing them out the door just in time to barely catch the bus, boom.  School's out again.  It's a miracle.  I love those little monsters, and the time we spend both with and without each other is vital.  They were all just as ready as I was for school to start, and now here I sit, practically an empty nester.  They were so cute getting on the bus this morning.  Willa was worried last night about going to school with people she doesn't know, but we reminded her that she didn't know her preschool friends at first, either.  Ugh, girl problems.  It's going to be a party. 


I gave the boys haircuts yesterday so they'd look all fresh and nice for the first day of school.  They're pretty handsome.  I'd love to show you a picture of how cute they all looked this morning, even though Willa's hair wasn't combed yet, but that stupid cord that transfers pictures has gone missing again, of course, so I guess you'll just have to imagine it. 


Last night for our last hurrah we got some shower curtains at Ikea, then picked John up from work and got Real Tacos for dinner and ate them on the lawn at the Utah State Capitol.  Then we went inside and looked around the building, which is old and opulent and gorgeous.  My kids hadn't been inside it before, and they were suitably impressed.  Then we got Nielsen's frozen custard, and all was right with the world.

how dare you try to ruin my education? I am like the family's greatest athlete

Well, I am the new YW president in our ward.  I'm pretty excited about it, not even being sarcastic.  I really like our girls, and I want to indoctrinate them a little bit.  I want them to go out and grab the world by the . . . let's say "tail."  I want them to be smart, capable, confident girls who don't take crap from anybody.  I believe they are our future, and I want to show them the beauty they possess inside or some garbage.  I am going to need a time-turner for this next year, until I'm unshackled from PTA.  But I can do it; all I have to do is manage my time effectively, which is not even a problem for me.

Last Monday we took Grant to the earnosethroat doctor so they could remove his tubes and vacuum out his ears.  We had to give him the silly medicine or he would have fought us all to the death.  They sucked a bunch of pus out of his ear, which was awesomely gross, and he said a lot of stupid things while he was loopy, just like I hoped he would.

Emmett thinks he wants to be on the swim team this year.  I will have to think about it, just because this year is already going to be so hairy.  But he hates any other kind of physical exertion, so it would be good for him.    If I can get him a spot with my high school piano teacher I could kill two birds with one stone.

Ike is going to be baptized in time to go to the Brigham City temple dedication, which is cool.  Too bad Willa waited so long to be born, or she could be part of the fun too. We'll need to make sure we give Ike some good attention for his baptism, so he doesn't feel like the sad, forgotten third child.  I sometimes wonder if that's why he's so huggy.  Maybe he feels a little love-starved.

Willa has her rake in and doesn't suck her fingers, since she can't without getting metal spikes poked into her fingers.  So far she hasn't replaced finger-sucking with a different self-soothing behavior like pulling out her eyebrows, so that's good.  The rake makes her talk funny, like she's wearing a retainer.  "Slurp slurp, can I have some peaches, slurp slurp."  I think we'll leave it in until a while after school starts, so we can make sure that the new routine doesn't make her nervous and start her sucking again.

John and I have been married for almost fourteen years, and last weekend we did a celebratory overnighter in Salt Lake.  We took dancing lessons because we are festive and also sucky dancers.  Normally I try to lead, because I don't trust him, and then we just step all over each other.  We'll probably start competing any time now, and I'll get one of those dresses with the netting and strategically-placed sequins that make you look like you're naked.  Something real classy.

some must push and some must pull

Our ward and the other two wards in our town did a pioneer trek last week, and John and I were a Pa and Ma for it.  We did it once before when we lived in Lehi, and it was such tremendous fun that we jumped at the chance to do it again.  Plus I am descended on two sides from people who were in the rescue party that went after the Willie and Martin handcart companies, so it was a good chance for me to reflect on how I'm doing, and if I've lived my life such that I could be depended on to go after someone who's struggling.  Maybe not, because we got dynamite kids assigned to us.  Maybe Heavenly Father knew if I got weaklings I'd crush their tentative little testimonies.  There's nothing so bad that complaining won't make it worse, and I'd be all, "Here's how it's going to go down.  Shut up.  Stop being a baby.  Start pushing this handcart, or we're going to send you home."  I am not so much with the nurturing, and I cannot abide a whiner.  I mean, it's not like they're eating two ounces of flour and having their hair freeze to the ground or their frostbitten feet chopped off with a butcher knife.  Some idiot kid was prowling around every night throwing dirt clods at tents and stealing stuff (maxi pads, even--just stealing to steal, then, are we?) and of course there were people shouting and carrying on until late at night, and girls trying to sleep in the boys' tents (all of these in other people's families), but all in all we had very few problems.  We walked fifteen miles on the first day, seven miles on the second, and only three miles on the third so we could return the handcarts.  And I didn't die or get dehydrated or get blisters or NUTHIN.  Go me! 

I love treks because it's so interesting to see how adversity, even minimal, manufactured adversity, affects people.  Some people start out as pukes and reform, some start out awesome and turn into pukes, some are awesome from start to finish, and some go home the same puke they were when they left, only they've annoyed way more people than usual.  I was really pleased with our little trek family.  My favorite people in the world are the ones who just do what they're supposed to with a good attitude, and that's what they did.  They pushed the handcart all day long, and as they pushed they sang.

Grant went too, since he's over twelve now, and he seemed to enjoy himself.  Of course he's too young to really grasp what a feat the handcart migration was, but there were enough opportunities to think about why they did what they did, and the importance of eternal families, that maybe some of it sank in.