New Phones

So this evening we made the big jump. We all have iPhones. Yes, I know what you are all thinking. However, Dan is only home for three days and he has had enough of Verizon. We all have the same numbers so you can still reach us if you really feel a need to. The home phone is going away very soon so feel free to lose that number if you wish. Needless to say Micah, Anique and I are all sitting here getting phones set up. I think that counts as quality time spent together. Mostly because Anique set up my phone and added some apps to my phone. I am grateful for the games that will now entertain me whenever I need entertaining. Micah loaded some music on his and had it clipped to his belt and says "it's like a digital Walkman" who knew? Yay for new phones that you can read your texts on.

Quotable Quotes by my Kids

Yesterday I heard from down the hall a lot of bickering and then this "so sorry, I meant to punch you in the gut." I knew in an instant it was going to be a long day.

This evening the same kid says, "You know what you need? A breath mint." What a sweetheart I am raising.

Dinner out with kids

It isn't often that we go out to dinner. First, it is expensive, second it is hard work to get that many kids looking acceptable for public viewing and third, it's expensive. When I am trying to keep the food budget below national standards taking kids to a family friendly restaurant does not make the list of to do's. But, last night I decided to take the four youngest out for dinner at a restaurant that shall not be mentioned and it was a nightmare. The girls were actually well behaved considering we had to wait over an hour for our food. After we were seated and ordered drinks, we looked over the menu and made our choices. We placed our order and started the waiting game. We played "I spy", "can you guess who", and colored the kid menus. This is usually enough to get us to the part where they bring out the food and all is well. That didn't happen, instead I got the "I'm so sorry but we have lost the ticket and we have to put the order in again" visit. So we waited longer, good thing I carry colored pencils and paper in my bag. We all proceeded to color and wait longer. In the mean time there was another family out enjoying an evening together. However you wouldn't be able to tell from all of the yelling that was occurring at that table. Sit down, sit still, keep your hands to yourself. Don't get me wrong, I have had and still have all of these "discussions" with my children. But really after the third "That's it you're not getting any dessert and I mean it!" I was ready to turn around and say, really do you really mean it? Both of those kids had dessert. Of course I was then serenaded with a chorus of "if you don't keep your hands to yourself you will not watch TV for a week!" To which my question is Really, are they really not going to watch for a week? It would probably be a good idea to limit their screen time but they did get that ice cream, remember. Honestly parents, if you can't mean it don't say it. Why would he stop, he is going to get whatever he wants. Finally our food came, we ate, we left a tip and finally we went home. Yes, I said nothing of paying for the meal, they were apologetic enough to give us our meal for free. I would have happily paid for it mistakes happen, however the unpleasant parenting that was happening behind us left me wondering how some people ever make it to adulthood and are useful people. I will be the first to say I am not a perfect parent nor are my kids perfectly behaved all of the time in every situation. They however know I mean what I say and there will be follow through.

Old Sturbridge Village

Think way back to May. Do you remember that far back? Well, Papa and Grandma Jubitz came out for a visit and we headed to Old Sturbridge Village. OSV is a living museum. We wondered for hours, the weather was perfect and we had a great time. Highlight of the trip the brand new baby lambs that had just been born a couple of hours before we got there. One of them was being rejected by it's mom and wouldn't let it nurse. The kids were worried and so was grandma. They said one gets rejected every year and they bottle feed them. Well of course we were going to have to go back and find out if that little lamb made it or not. More on that later.

We walked for miles and we enjoyed the weather and the village. We went to the store and saw all kinds of fun things for sale in the 1800's. Sorry some of these pictures are blurry but when you give the kids the camera you sometimes get blurry pictures. It's about the experience and the memories not the pictures. Or so I keep telling myself anyway.

We toured the saw mill, the grist mill, the carding mill, various houses and farms, saw the baby pigs, watched the potter and the cobbler. Ran amok in the school and on the town green, watched them weave fabric, learned how they died wool to make the yarn different colors. In short we had a mighty fine day.

The grist mill (that is grinding grain into flour)

The carding mill. That is the combing of wool to later be made into yarn.

Baby pigs.



You know what else you get when you give a kid a camera?

Butts and noses. Some of which you don't recognize as family members butts or noses.

More on our return trip to OSV later.

If you want to know how old I am, ask my kids.

I have thought about not writing this post, but because I haven't posted in forever I figure I should post something. I have no intention of writing a birthday blog post about myself but instead I will show you what my family gave me for my birthday.

First, do you know how excited you used to get when opening your presents? The thrill of discovering what was inside the box, bag, paper, or under the sheet. Yes the sheet. You know for the gift that was way to big to be wrapped in paper or those times when there was no paper. Well I have to say that my excitement pales in comparison to Torans. She was so funny. I was opening the present and she was crawling out of her skin with excitement. I went slower to drag out that excitement. It was more fun to watch her than to open the clock for my wall that I have wanted for months and months and could never justify buying. She was a hoot to watch. And the clock looks totally awesome.

Next, my super mom box. I made a super dad box for Dan for father's day (big hit) filled with his fav snacks and such. We renamed and labeled everything so it has super hero like. You know, sunflower seeds were x-ray vision drops, bottle of root beer was super hero juice, beef jerky for times when there is nothing to eat at the fortress of solitude, and so on. Well I got my own super mom version for my birthday. P.S. I love the stamp, artwork by Toran.

My favorite are the bars of invisibility, to sneak out unnoticed. Man can you imagine how much we could make if we could actually market that? I'd be rich!

The x - ray vision drops for finding the fib in half the time. Could have used those years ago. I also (already) enjoyed the sanity in a bottle - diet coke. Ya that was tasty.

But as awesome as all of that is, the cake topper is "a night alone away from the fortress of solitude". What mom doesn't want that? A whole night to myself, what to do, what to do. Sleep, watch TV, flip the channels, eat veggies with out rude comments or the kids wanting them. Hmmm, the possibilities. Happy birthday to me!

Double Digits!!



Tessa's new birthday dress

Around here turning eight is a pretty big deal. It is the age of accountability and it comes with the first big decision in ones life. Whether or not to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That is a great choice that has to be made. But after that comes the digit jump. Going from single digits to double digits. At the age of ten one adds a digit to there age it is the only time until one turns 100 that a digit is added, and who really whats to turn 100? Not me, that's for sure. For Tessa however this June marks her digit jump, she turns 10. How does one celebrate a digit jump you may ask? Well, we had our first piano lesson, went swimming with friends, had a BBQ with those same friends and of course had cake (pineapple & toasted coconut cake) and sherbet.

 Oh, she also opened a few gifts.

Not  a bad day over all. Some of you may be wondering why we would start piano lessons on her birthday, well she really wanted to, that's why. She has been begging for some time now to start and I finally saved enough to pay for her and two of her sisters to take lessons. I can honestly say if I never hear "Mary had a little lamb" again, it will be to soon. I look forward to the day when music rings through the house and it is not a nursery rhythm. Tessa loves having her birthday in the summer. Unlike her sibling whose birthdays occur in the cold months, she is free to run crazy (and she is good at it) through the yard, the sprinkler, the neighborhood, the woods, the fields and dells. She loves the freedom of outside, the wind in her hair as she rides her bike in the middle of the street. The sun in her face as she paints or designs some new outfit or dress. And by dress I mean a formal ball gown. She is in the middle of designing a tooth dress for the orthodontist. Who is not female, but will display the final design in the office. Tessa can often be found with a book in her hands and her nose firmly planted between the pages. I think the only thing she does faster than talking is reading. She is finishing the first book of Harry Potter and has already read many other books this summer. She is loving the reading program we started at home. Around the world in 80 days. There are 25 different settings or characters and you need to find a book that matches the setting of character or has that scene in the book. She is having a blast. I think she may go around the world two or three times before the summer is out. This is the first summer that I have decided to take the summer off from school. Usually we keep some sort of school schedule even if it is lighter, but this year we are just playing. What I have found so amazing is how much all of the girls want things to do. And with this new freedom Tessa is crafting, biking, swimming, reading, singing, memorizing scriptures, writing talks for primary (with conference talk research), nature walks and notebooks, bug classification and of course the ever popular mall walk (not my favorite). This girl is just not happy if she is not doing something that she is learning from or teaching something to someone else. She can talk a mile a minute about nothing at all. No really, if she runs out of something to say on any one topic she will continue to talk about how she has nothing to say, until some other thought pops into her head and she starts again. There are times when you hope she will just fall asleep and stop. She is a very social butterfly and make instant friends wherever she goes. She loves forming clubs and planning parties and play dates, she  is great at making sure everyone is involved and included. This is truly a gift given by God. She is a ray of non stop sunshine. She is happy and happy to be a live. She loves to dance and sing through life and is a joy (most of the time) to have in our family.

To choose or not to choose that is the question.

Your choices affect other people. A simple statement that can take a child awhile to understand and grasp. We are each subject to the consequences, good or bad, of our own choices. However, we are also subject at times to the consequences of others choices and others are subject to the consequences of our choices. So, we should really think and consider what it is we are choosing, it may be that someone else has to live with it. The problem comes when the child never grasps this concept and is no longer a child but an adult. An adult who thinks the universe was created for just them. An adult who just really doesn't care what an inconvenience it is to you or anyone else. These people make my head hurt.  What does one do when faced with a person who can't or won't see that they are negatively affecting others? And you can not run away from them. Boy do I have a headache today.