Happy Birthday Bella!!!

 


It's hard to have birthdays

The birthday girl has been sufficiently caked up. 

 

What started out as an interesting birthday has turned out pretty well, I think.

We are grateful our Bella is so wonderful and sweet, unlike this kid.

Smackdown

I made homemade Oreos today. Aw yeah.

Later we enjoyed another episode of Family Home Evening Role Play Theater.

Topic: COMPASSION

This Soccer Mom's Best Friend

A little warmer this week (check last week's shoe choice).

THE DISHWASHER IS FREAKING FIXED!!!

Hooray!!!  For Paul the Fix Stuff Guy!!

Now comes the fun part.

"Cleaning out the inside of my moldy dishwasher is the funnest thing I've ever, ever done," said Mrs. Lie-y Liarson of Lying Liartown, LA.

Later:
I was just watching The Mentalist and thinking we need a show called "The Emotionalist" where a pregnant woman goes ballistic on bad guys and solves crime whenever her weight gain, parenting or housekeeping come into the discussion

Take Your Many Children To Work Day

Waiting their turns - R on Bella's lap, C, H

This really should be a video game.  For reals.

Seriously.  Hubby and I were the only ones there with four kids.  And you know what?  We rock*.

Every year Hubby and his coworkers, being the law enforcement type, treat the kids to an awesome mock training - everything from gun safety to beating up fake bad guys.  The kids love it and come home tired.  They get to take the day off from school, go out for lunch with Daddy and everything.

I love that the job peeps are so completely accommodating - they pretty much take the day off to do this (barring any arrests or urgent urinalysis needs or court dates or whatever other thing their clients need them to do).

*A lecture, "Everyone else brought one kid - don't make Daddy sorry he brought all four of you," may have been necessary.

And now, Happy Perfect Date Day from Cheryl!

Suddenly, the bane of my existence.

After another unfortunate run-in with a school secretary...

Me: I am fed up to here with people telling me what to do with my kids.
Bella: I don't think you like people telling you what to do in general.

In other news, Hubby received an AARP card in the mail today :)

Climb, Boy

Carter at the Fort

The Soccer Game

Our boy Harrison and his team

So purty, Murphy

Weather forecast: woolly

Hubby likes to handle the soccer games (and honestly I'm fine with that), but he can't be everywhere at once, so Harrison and I were able to take in a little road trip today.  And by "little" I mean "barely outside city limits".  Even so, I enjoyed it immensely.  Apparently I don't get out enough because driving there and back, EVERYTHING was interesting.  I kept pointing things out to Harrison, just dumb random things - "Hey, look at those birds" - and finally he said, "Mommy, you're pointing out everything."

It hit me that I drive the kids up and down the hill to school every day, drive to the church a couple times a week, and drive to WinCo several times a month (or day, depending on the depth of the crisis).  Otherwise I'm usually at home.

Dude, no wonder I'm taking pictures of my shoes.

For Mom's Birthday...

... I went to Office (Max?  Depot?  I know where the store is, just not which one it is)... Store, and had a telegram copied and framed it.

The telegram was sent by Mom's great grandmother to her husband, Mom's great grandfather, in 1902.  I found it just before we moved in December, folded and living inside Mom's Grandpa Keen's copy of the New Testament he received in Sunday school as a child (the telegram was sent from his mom to his dad).  It was in amazing shape for being over one hundred years old.  When I found it, I knew it must be Mom's.

Had another copy made and laminated, and it's now living on my wall in the hallway.  Yay.

Bought a new lawnmower today....

... brought it home in the clown car.
Yeah, the car's dirty. It's been raining.

You Can Learn a Lot of Things From the Flowers...

...things like, "I need allergy pills this instant or I will die a horrible sneezy death" and "Don't open your windows, EVER".  But that's a small price to pay for the chance to live where we do.

Today rocked. After dropping all kids at school, I went to a "parent-partnered education" orientation for Bella's virtual learning academy, and finished all the paperwork, and as of tomorrow she will go to school for her three advanced placement classes and do the rest online at home. YIPPEEEEEE!! We are doing a happy dance over here!!

Came home and while doing some dishes and laundry, I learned of the Boston Marathon attack.    Our ward friends Lance and Brandee H were there.   We later learned that Lance finished the marathon and crossed the finish line ten minutes before the first bomb went off. Brandee had gone in search of food and was not there either. We are so grateful.  Bella made cookies for the H family, who are staying with their auntie and uncle (also in our ward) Cari and Brian F.

After the girls and I dropped off the cookies with Darby and hugged the crap out of her, Carter and I took a little jaunt to one of our favorite places.  What a gorgeous day for it. 

Fort and I-5 bridge

My traveling companion

Heading for the "Jacuzzi" - he meant "gazebo"

Blossoms

Murphy, it's purty

Hi buddy

Looking south

Full of seedy goodness

Now please keep in mind that I normally don't peel sticky crap off the floor of the gazebo and inspect it. But I saw this, and noticed the seeds, and man, it's like a compulsion now. Have seeds, will plant. I lovingly carried this fragile little thing home to see what would become of it if I planted it. Whaaaa? What's happening to me?

Here's this thing in its new home. 

Bye, seeds...

I had a few more recycled water bottles (Happy Soccer Season to me), so I also planted lavender and catnip. What a smelly place my garden will be.

Starting to look like actual plants

Top row: New plants

Hubby came home and took Bella and Rosalind to Roz's soccer practice, and the boys and I ate dinner and watched Wreck-It Ralph (again). Around 7:30ish we needed a treat, so Brennan and Carter and I headed for the corner store.  I love urbanity so much more than I thought I would.

Praying for the people in Boston.

The Fashion Show

This morning my old employer called me with sad news - her aged mother had passed away - and said she had a huge favor to ask: would I go work at an event for her tonight?  It was a fashion show and I'd be giving out samples and selling fudge.

I thought, "Fashion show, eh" and had a hard time deciding what to wear, which is how I ended up walking to Freddy's with Brennan and buying four pairs of tights (and, ahem, a turtle brownie and a lemon bar from the bakery).

The fashion show was fun, and interesting, though I could have smacked my co-worker, a regular at the fudge store.  She was very complain-y and ruffled-feathery and not that helpful.  Aside from that, I loved it - loved watching the show; the clothes were interesting, some quite beautiful.  I loved working with customers and talking to people.  I spoke with a couple of the designers and models and they were really nice.  Watching the whole process from beginning to end was quite entertaining - the makeup, hairstyles, costumes... I love being backstage of anything, it seems.

And, I got paid, so yay.

The Gang's Almost All Here

Everything has sprouted now except the Walla Walla sweet onions.
 

It's sad how excited I am about seeds sprouting in dirt. 

Suddenly, the Wheels are in Motion

Here comes more home school.

She Who Must Not Be Embarrassed on Her Mother's Blog is a bit overwhelmed with all of the responsibilities she has been given over the last few months and it's taking a toll on her health.  As in, missing school a lot.  She's stressed out and tired and dizzy and sick.  Today when I took her back to school after lunch, she had a little weep (she's her daddy's girl, and does not weep) and I said, "THAT'S IT, I'm calling Home School Lady."

And she agreed.  That's how sick/tired/stressed out/overwhelmed she is.  Since it's her junior year and she's taking AP classes, and plans on taking more AP classes next year, we're going to try to severely dumb down the rest of her credits for her and have her complete them at home.

(Please understand: "dumb down" is one of my favorite phrases.  It's not that she's dumb, school's dumb, or she's going to take classes geared toward dumb people, or that home schooling is for people who are dumb - we're just taking the idiot arbitrary-ness out of finishing high school.  Because really, some of it is pretty dumb - like PE.)

I'm excited, not only to have my girl have less stress and heal and rest and feel better, but also because she'll be home more.  I miss her.  There are days when she leaves at 6:00 AM and I don't see her till 9:30 PM.  And now here she is about to leave for college or mission or whatever we figure out comes next.  It'll be my pleasure to have her around during the day.

Praying and hoping this will all go smoothly.

Later, I took Rosalind to dance, then met up with the home peeps and we all drove to the church for Activity Day, Scouts, Mutual, and soccer practice.  I had the very fun experience of having my daughter and her secretary, Kaitlyn B of McWard, formally give me an assignment for young women's camp this summer.  It was cute - they followed their protocol exactly (part of the eavesdropping I did last week was listening to Richie G explain to the girls how to extend callings).

Later at Mutual, we Young Women and Young Men leaders walked with the Laurels and Priests to catch the city bus.  Some of them had never ridden it before and it was ADORABLE (Kelty: "Can I pull the string???").  We got the idea when Bella took the bus to church one day when Hubby and I were both busy and couldn't drive her - the ladies she met with couldn't believe she knew how to ride the city bus.  They'd never done it and had no idea how.  I grew up using Ben Franklin Transit in Tri-Cities, and Brennan and Bella use the bus sometimes if we can't drive them somewhere.  Or just for fun.  Hubby rides it daily since it's right outside the house.

Back to the bus trip: We stopped at Chuck's for baked goods and Frank B and Cari F each gave a little blurb about life skills and using public transit while on missions, and becoming more educated.  Then we caught the next bus back to the church.  Bella and I just rode the old thing on home and had Kelty give Hubby the keys (he stayed at the church with Harrison, Carter and Rosalind).

Bus People

It was so much fun.  We had a great time.

"Jokels"

Today was the first day back to school.  After dropping people off, making sure they had their lunches and all that yap, I came home and slept.  zzzzzz  Best nap ever.

Kinda like this

 Picked up kids, dropped them at home, met Hubby downtown to pick up our new bank cards (SQUEEEEE finally), and then noodled around with whatever until I happened to walk out into the kitchen and see this thing:

It's...growing

And since this seems to be the Year of the Garden, I read up on planting sprouted onions, cut the thing up, put my shoes on and outside we went to plant the dear old rotten thing in the garden. YAY!!! First time.

It's scary to look at!

I didn't plant these.  Gosh they're pretty.
Before I could do any planting, however, I was compelled - FORCED - to do something about the Overgrown Fence de Ivy et Blackberries. "We don't want weeds in our bed."

Off you go, you infernal vines of death

You too, blackberries

Ick.  JUST ick.

In years past, before the seeds ever hit the light of day, I would have spent many fruitless hours toiling in the soil just to get the weeds cleared first. I understand this is usually the accepted method, but that's as far as I ever get - clearing one area of the garden plot before I'm like, FORGET IT.

 

Today I decided, the stupid weeds are just gonna grow back again until I get some mulch out there. So weed away, weeds. I'll just work around you for now.

 

(This is a trick I learned from my Sims who always have wonderful gardens, even in the middle of their lawns, as long as they keep the sprinklers on.)

This is how we do it

Them's my potato-in' tires.

In other garden-y news: The tulips are up and running.

And no garden-y post would be complete without SEEDLING PICS!!!

Marigold - click on it if you don't believe me

Alyssum

This is as far as I've ever come with any gardening exploit, so I'm pretty happy and pleased and impressed with the way things are going. Braggity brag.

 

At some point I should start blogging about my kids again. :)

General Conference: Sunday

More of us doing more of the same stuff we did yesterday.

What, your kids don't interpretively dance to MoTab?

"Kids!  Pay attention!"

I took lots of notes until the last half hour of the second session, when I suddenly became wiggly and started pestering my children and doing sit-ups.  I managed five.

Later I checked the bottle of the Sunkist orange soda I'd had with our snacks - there's caffeine in it! Do you know when the last time was that I had caffeine? Anything?

General Conference: Saturday

Ah, General Conference. Two of my favorite-est weekends of the year. Here we are experiencing the Saturday sessions. Some of us were out doing soccer-related things or whatever.

Found this doll in the bristle blocks.  She wanted to watch conference.

Got these free at Freddy's.  They were good

Not an engineer.

Our feet were dancing.