Happy Summer!

Have you missed me?

Here's what has gone on this summer so far:

• a trip to Canada where we enjoyed the temple, family, Slurpees, mosquito bites (NOT!), building a fence, and staying for Canada Day!
• we built some retaining walls and a basketball court in the backyard
• we put up the AWESOME trampoline that I have missed terribly
• we've seen TWO missionaries to the MTC
• we've seen another Wood grandchild born (yay, Summer!)
• we've read lots of books from the bookmobile
• we've taken lots of walks to the park
• we've done a lot of piano practicing
• we've done a lot of barbeque-ing
• we've eaten a lot of fruit :)
• we've watched a LOT of TV (boo, hoo)
• we've played a lot with the neighbors
• we've seen a lot of fireworks
• we've stayed up late A LOT!! (boo, hoo again)

And there is still a month of summer left!

Three head?

So Sarah and I were lounging in the living room, and she comments,

"My head is hot."

I murmur something validating (I think).

She persists.

"My three head is burning."

That got my attention.

I puzzled--three head? Then I noticed the placement of her hand.

Oh.

I get it.

It is a numbers thing.

Her three head is burning. Just add one and you're set.

Gotta love that girl!

Going private

Some of the comments on my last post kinda freaked me out, so I guess I am finally going to succumb to the wiles of the private blog world.

Leave a comment with your email (or email me), and i'll give you an invite...

hope to hear from all two of you :)

Taxes

I've been in Quick Books purgatory today, getting ready for business and personal taxes.

Grrrrr.

Flowers?

Aaaaah.

Tulips. And roses.

I got a little bit of both today.

It almost makes up for the taxes.

Yep, I think I've forgotten about them already.

I am grateful

Today I want to make a non-exhaustive list of things for which I am grateful.

The reason for non-exhaustiveness is because counting ALL my blessings would indeed be exhaustive and I still have a full house of kids and chores to do!

1. A husband who loves me.

2. A small gaggle of cute offspring to make me smile.

3. An extended family that loves and supports me and gives me opportunities for belly laughs and mint truffle bars every once in a while.

4. Lovely mountains to gaze at while I am vaccuming.

5. Blogs to help me (a horrible keep-in-touch-er) keep up on friends and family.

6. Three temples that I can see from Redwood Road (and a fourth I can see from my front porch).

7. Yummy food to eat.

8. An amazing home that WILL BE holy ground (once I get my act together :).

9. Music that I can hear, play, sing, and hum any time I want.

10. Lessons from God in many shapes and forms.

11. Knowledge that I am indeed divine, with Heavenly parents and a loving older Brother.

12. A Sacrifice that makes everything possible, forgiveable, do-able, and worth it.

13. Good in the world. Lots of it.

14. Mostly welcome opportunities to learn to sacrifice.


I thought I'd stop there--considering the number 14 has special meaning this month.

I AM blessed. So blessed. I just needed to remind myself today.

Subtle message

So, if one's mother were to say,

"You have a nervous energy. You would rather work on this family history on the computer than, say, clean the bathroom."

How am I supposed to take that?

She has always been very honest with me. I remember when I came home from my first semester at BYU, and she immediately said,

"Wow, you sure are eating well at school."

Ouch.

Maybe not so subtle.

Obviously I need to change something...

(no pun intended)

So during my Sunday afternoon rest, I hear this:

"Mom, Sarah pooped in her panties."

Ugh, I think to myself.

Then I walk into the hallway, and there is my 3 year-old washing her own panties out in the toilet.

Ouch. I think I have been too hard on her. She didn't want to incur my wrath, so she'd thought she would take care of it herself.

(I won't mention the fact that I stepped in the poop on the bathroom floor and unknowingly tracked it all over the carpet upstairs...)

I think I'll ground myself. For a year. That actually sounds relaxing.

Pathetic! :)

On a good note, there weren't any accidents outside of the house today! Thank goodness for tender mercies!

It could be worse...

I won't tell you what I have cleaned up in the last few days.

Let's just say that I am grateful for hand soap and sanitizer.

But at least today there weren't any training pants to wash out in the toilet...

(sorry, i know too much information)

A sister's keeper

I was blessed today with "mother's genius." If only for a moment.

Yesterday, Lauren died every time I gave Sarah a dum-dum for peeing in the toilet. Every time she would ask for a treat. Quite frankly, I was getting sick of saying no, but even more annoyed that she wanted to be rewarded for something her sister had accomplished. I was undeterred. No amount of whining would break my resolve.

Today, however, was a different story. I didn't want to punish her for already being toilet-trained. I certainly didn't want any regression. So I caved.

And in the cave-in moment, the inspiration came to me!

She would become my potty supervisor.

If she could remind her sister to go potty, she would also get a treat. She had a vested interest in her sister making it to the potty. It became a shared venture.

Brilliant, I tell you. (but it doesn't happen very often) :)

Potty Training, day one

Well, it isn't actually day one because we've started this process about as many times as I have read 1 Nephi 1:1.

But it is 11:30 am, and there haven't been any accidents.

I'm not even going to say yet.

I'm positive that today's the first day of the rest of our diaper-free (during the day) life.

Go, Sarah!

Brahms

I love Brahms. I love my piano. I even love to play. Again.

Here's to classical music!!!

Ho-hum

Sometimes I feel like I must be a manic depressive (I know, its not called that anymore, but I just don't identify with bipolar--call me picky). Some days I am up--really up, and then it seems like a day later I am NOT up.

Yesterday was great--piano, getting tax stuff done, etc, etc.

Today--not so much. Maybe I am just getting ready for my monthly visitor (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). That always makes me grumpy, lifeless, ho-hum.

Yay. I have so much to look forward to in the next few days.

I think I'll go take some Advil.

P.S. I hope that my new congregation at church doesn't think I'm a lame-o for only showing up every other week. I think Hadland is coming down with something, and Sarah never sleeps for more than 8 hours at night, so she is always sporting a hacking cough. She has already stayed home from church twice this month. Her Sunbeam teachers won't even know who she is! At least Larry and I take turns staying home. That way I can go at least a couple times a month, guaranteed!

Welcome Home!

This post is for you, Liz L.

We just got our piano back today. Our amazing, beautiful, Yamaha C7.


I just can't believe it is here.

If anyone wants to bring any sheet music over, I'll play until your bum falls asleep!

Chocolate Babies

It is time for another thought from Sarah.

As we lay down tonight to read some stories, we were looking through an Anne Geddes picture book. We opened up to the picture above, and Sarah's first words were:

"Chocolate babies! Chocolate babies!" as she pointed to the non-caucasian baby faces.

Can we say diversity lessons are in order?!

STAT!!

News flash (kinda)

Well, here is a news flash.

We moved.

Again.

I know, very predictable.

It has been 5 times in the last three+ years.

You'd think I would have weeded every superfluous bit of stuff out of my life.

But no.

It just keeps growing.

I've always been a sucker for castoffs. Especially free castoffs.

So I cast off some things in order to make room for new, cooler castoffs.

A problem, maybe?

Hmmmm.

Anyway, I think I may just post in my silent 8am house.

You see, school here STARTS at 8 am. So I get up at 7, get the two school-going kidlets off, and then I wait (usually as I do last night's dishes--shhh! don't tell flylady my sink isn't shiny!) until the rest of the family wakes up. (oops--i spoke too soon. the other two kidlets just came down, bleary-eyed and cheerios-hungry)

I've tried to go back to sleep, but I eventually only waste time and listen to my racing thoughts.

I have done many productive things--
* I've started familysearch indexing. (actually quite fun!)

* I've helped mud and then paint and then wire and finish a downstairs office.

* I've moved what seems like a mountain of stuff to the aforesaid office.

* I've rearranged my bedroom (used to also be the home office) to be an actual bedroom.

* I've made space in the garage twice to fit our van.

* I've fallen on a patch of ice on the driveway, cutting a giant hole in both my only good pair of jeans and one of only two good knees. (i think i cried more for the loss of the jeans than the skin on my knee)

* I've made a few meals.

* I've made COUNTLESS trips to the grocery store for milk. (did you know that my little family can down 6 gallons of milk in 4 days? And I don't even drink it--I used the powdered stuff on my morning cereal because I can't really tell the difference--I know all you dairy lovers are throwing up a little in your mouths, but, on the good side, it is quite budget-friendly!

*I've opened piles of mail which then threaten to drown me in a paper version of quicksand. (does anyone have any ideas for getting rid of paper? would you like to come over and recycle all of mine--just ignore my protests that there is actually something important scrawled on it somewhere)

This is not an exhaustive list, but I am exhausted typing it.

Now, I don't want you to fall on the floor (after you just picked yourself up after seeing 2 posts from me in 2 days), but I am going to post pictures of our new house!

Here you go:

the front of the house
the amazing kitchen (with a pantry and TONS of cupboards!)
the huge backyard with endless possibilities (and a huge layer of snow right now)
A beautiful family room with a great fireplace/mantel and a view of the mountains!
The room that will house the fantastic grand piano! I'll post pictures once it gets back!
Well, there you go. Four bedrooms upstairs, kitchen, family, and piano room on the first floor, and then an office, cold storage, and a possible 2 bedrooms and 1 bath in the unfinished (except for the amazing office) basement.

Lest you should think it still looks this way--why do you think I posted the empty pictures? Because they looked a lot nicer than the ones with boxes all over!

Talk to you soon!

Music to my ears?

9:51 p.m.

I hear singing upstairs.

I know it isn't Lauren or William (they are sleeping, thank goodness!).

The voice is too high to be Hadland.

Then I hear the lyrics...

"Poopy again, poopy again, I'm poopy again." (do-do-do-sol, do-do-do-sol, sol-mi, re-re do--for those of you who solfeg)

Gratefully, I am not mad. Just kind of amused.

It isn't that this is the second poopy diaper tonight.
Or that my 3-year-old is the last one awake on most nights (even without a nap, sniff-sniff).

I think that when you can sing and beautifully enunciate your bowel happenings, your mom REALLY needs to take potty-training seriously.

Seriously.

I think I may need to finish moving in before I tackle that.

I already feel tired by the laundry.

It is good to kind-of be back.

I may post again. Maybe soon. Maybe not.

Resolutions

Hi there!

Remember me?

I think I remember blogging.

I may need some reminders of how to do this...

But I'll be back with pics, explanations, all sorts of stuff!

See ya soon!

Twice blessed

This week I had the AMAZING opportunity to welcome not one, but TWO beautiful babies into the world.

On Monday at 5:47 a.m., I found out the baby Liam was coming. Later that day, I met him. He was a big boy with a healthy head of beautiful curly hair. He weighed in at 9 lbs. 12 oz. and 22 inches.

















Here are a few photos.














Sorry about the fuzziness--Mama and baby!











And there is proud Papa and his boy!



Now some Mama with the other kids!






























Congratulations on baby Liam Scott!


Then my sweet baby sister had her first baby, Olivia, yesterday.
Here is the new mama and her cutie pie!

And the whole family--3 is the magic number!


Welcome sweet baby Olivia! She's no shrinking violet--9 lbs. 11 oz., 22 inches!

We love you both!!!

Our crazy/silly/roller-coastery story, part sixteen

Yep, it was the big day. I was very jittery getting ready, but Laurel saved the day and re-did the mess of hair I had made. I looked great, and I started to feel better and better. On the way to the temple I thought about the journey it had taken to get here. Definitely a roller coaster. But I had learned so much and grown and I was ready to take the big step of marrying my sweetheart for time and all eternity.

I don't remember much of that day, but a few things shine through. I remember Mr. TD&H stepping out of the car to greet me, and promptly dropping his white bow tie on the ground and stepping on it. I just had to laugh. He looked long and deep into my eyes, intense and hopeful, and I once again knew I had made the right choice.

I remember feeling so pampered and well-taken-care-of in the holy temple. I remember being surrounded by those who meant the most to me, especially that great man who was willing to go through this earthly journey with me through ups and downs. I knelt across the altar, clasped his hand, and tried to listen to the sealer without getting lost in those beautiful brown eyes. Every once in a while he would squeeze my hand and his eyes would twinkle. I loved thinking about the blessings and responsibilities that were now and would be mine if I was faithful. I felt an outpouring of love and gratitude that I was there in that holy place, making promises to him and my Heavenly Father. I have felt His help from that moment on. I have always felt that the word "sealed" meant so much more that day. We were now one, leaving our own families to start our own, turning to each other and God to make it through.

I remember exiting the temple doors, my arm around my husband(!!!)'s waist, and beaming at all our friends and family that had come to be with us. What joy! We made it! We took picture after picture, laughing and smiling, being goofy and solemn, just grateful that we took the plunge!

I don't remember much more about the day, a whirlwind of luncheons and receptions, make-up and hair refreshing, and thanking people and receiving congratulations. I do remember being so grateful that the important part of the day had gone so seamlessly, so beautifully.

I am glad to be married to my best friend. Life isn't without its trials, but it is priceless to be able to struggle through it with one who loves you. That has been my greatest gift.

P.S. I will post photos, but right now my scanner is on the fritz. I promise that photos are forthcoming!

Our crazy/silly/roller-coastery story, part fifteen

Mr. TD&H flew out the day before the wedding. The day before that he called me, a little concerned.

"Um, we have a problem with the tux," he sputtered.

I think I was putting up a very heavy piece of wallpaper at that moment, the phone cradled between my ear and my shoulder.

"WHAAAT?" My not-so-calm voice went up about an octave and a half.

"Well, I went in to get my measurements taken, and I gave them the numbers I just got when I ordered my wedding suit. Somehow they got all messed up."

"How?" I demanded.

"I don't think you want to know," he mumbled.

"Oh yes, I do," I sarcastically spat back.

"Let me paint you a picture. The jacket is about 3 sizes too big. The vest is too short. The shirt collar is about two inches too big and the sleeves are about 4 inches above my wrists. At least the pants are long enough but the waist is a size too small. I look ridiculous."

I felt my pulse start to race. You may think that I should have told him to just go and get another tux. The only problem would be that Mr. TD&H is not an exaggeration. Emphasis on the T. 6'8" to be precise. Not an easy body to clothe on short notice.

I think he knew I was starting to panic.

He tried to make me feel better.

"The guy at the tux shop gave me some fake cuffs that we can tape on to my forearms so that it looks like the shirt sleeves are just fine."

Even now I can't help laughing out loud. Really loud.

Taping cuffs to your arms? Are you kidding me? Who does that?

The answer would be: Mr. TD&H.

When he flew in the next day, my first request (after a much needed hug and kiss or two :) was to see the tux. When we walked in the door of my house, I made him put it on to see what we could do.

He looked great. Even in a HORRIBLE tux. I guess it pays to be not only tall, but also dark and handsome. (Emphasis on the handsome!)

I don't think anyone knew that his shirt collar was folded at the back of the neck and held together with his bow tie. Or that I could grab a couple fist-fulls of his jacket behind his back and it would still be loose. Or that we pulled the adjustable neck-part of the vest all the way out to accomodate the beautifully long torso of Mr. TD&H (and that you could see the clasp in only a few wedding pictures).

Oh, and the magic cuffs. He just needed to be sure NOT to take off his jacket.