My day

Decided to write about just an "ordinary" day around here so that someday, when I'm reminiscing with my kids they won't say, "It wasn't that crazy," and I can remember to laugh about times that don't seem that funny.

The day began pretty well, getting the kids off to school and trying to spend a few minutes giving Tucker my undivided attention- when Tyler announces that he forgot his dental appointment and needs to leave right now in my van because Jon has his car. No problem, except I was due to leave to visit an older lady in our neighborhood in 15 minutes. I decide to leave right then since it would take me about 20 minutes to walk to her house. We made it there and sat and visited for a bit until I couldn't handle the struggle to keep Tucker out of her millions of knick-knacks any longer. I had forgotten to buy some pasta at the grocery store for dinner, so we stopped there on the way home. Tucker had fallen asleep in the stroller, so I transferred him to his bed and began making dinner. I still do a version of "Once a Month Cooking" so I was actually cooking 4 dinners, but anyway.

Tucker wakes up from his nap and it is time to go and get Oliver from a playdate. This kid lives in a really weird area and I had only been there once, so it took me a while to find it. I was 10 minutes late when I arrived. As I stood at the door, talking to the mom about an easier way to get there, a flower pot fell over on their front porch. In the ensuing chaos, her kids and dogs run out and the front door slams behind them... locking everyone out of the house. I am the only one with shoes on at this point, but I know I've got to have Oliver's help to catch these dogs. I quickly put on his shoes (with no socks- he had stepped in dog poop at some point during the play date) and we chase after the dogs. One has run almost into a busy street and the other is in a large hole dug by a construction crew. Of course, Oliver thought the whole thing was hilarious, but eventually we make our sweaty way back to the house, both dogs in tow. The mom has called her husband, and encourages me to go ahead and get my girls so at least one of us won't be late (she has two older girls as well).

I pick up the girls at school and since Oliver and I are still feeling a bit winded, we decide to stop by 7-eleven to buy Slurpees. We didn't buy one for Tucker, so the kids take turns giving him a sip from theirs. This works well until Emmaline decides she's had enough and claims hers is almost gone anyway- so she gives the whole cup to him. This lasts for a whole 30 seconds until he dumps the entire contents of the cup on himself, and it was NOT almost empty. He starts screaming so loud that, even though I'm only about 5 minutes from home, I have to pull over and take off his clothes (you really can't blame the poor guy). The only spare item we have in the car is Emmaline's pink sweatshirt, so we roll up the sleeves and bundle him up and we're off again.

At home, I begin the final touches on my dinners and have the girls do a few things around the house (piano practice, let the chickens out, etc.). Then I look at the clock and realize that Tyler's not home and he is supposed to go Home Teaching in about 20 minutes. I call him and confirm that he won't be home in time. Even though I am technically his companion, I hadn't planned on going tonight because: a. Thursday is my busiest day and I already told him I couldn't go, and b. I already had to go Home Teaching by myself the night before and didn't want to do it again. Since I don't know these people's phone number and I really don't want to cancel at the last minute, I decide to go. I quickly get the girls ready for soccer, change Tucker into presentable clothes, get Oliver some socks on and head out the door.

With the girls at soccer, the boys and I commence our visit. We leave from their house to go to Savannah's game (Emmaline just had practice). The game goes over a little and I realize that Emmaline will get home before I do. Wouldn't have been a problem except she forgot her house key and cell phone. About the time I realize this, Savannah gets hit in the head really hard with a ball. I see her rubbing her eye and looking at her hand... a sign that she thought it was hard enough to bleed. She gets back in the game (my girls are TOUGH) but I can tell she's hurt and I don't want to leave. The team they are playing had not lost a game this season and they were getting pretty rough in the final minutes of the impending loss to Savannah's team. I decide to hope that Emmaline gets done late too. The game ends and as I try to get everyone into the van I hear, "Special delivery." Emmaline's coach, upon seeing that we weren't at home figured we were at Savannah's home field and brought her there. What a relief!

So we head home to our dinner (don't you love an oven with delayed bake?). The rest of the night was full of the pretty mundane at our house... getting everyone ready for bed, arguing about whether Kumon must be done and eventually ending with me carrying a very grouchy 10 year old to bed (always calms her down- I'm so glad she still only weighs like 50 lbs.) and Tyler and I watching Wednesday's "Lost" on the computer.

Virginia Vacation

First of all, let me apologize to my loyal lurkers. Yes, you who read every week, but never comment. I'm always a little shocked when I look at my counter and see how many of you there are. I know that my family will understand my lack of recent posts due to my being up three nights in a row with Oliver and his earache. (Yes- he broke our record. In 12 years of parenting, he is the first to have an earache. Crazy!) But I always worry that lurkers, after checking back a couple of times and seeing no new material, will never revisit. Obviously doesn't bother me too much since I like to go long stretches without a post... but this is by far the best journal I've been able to keep since I was a kid, so bear with me.

Anyway- it took a while because I didn't have a camera in Virginia. Well, I actually had one, but I couldn't remember the exact sequence of squeezing on the battery cover whilst pushing on the power key whilst nudging the lens cover. You get the idea. I'm in desperate need of a new one, but I usually have such buyers remorse over big purchases... I'm just procrastinating that one.

I've tried to gather a few goodies that I took from Tyler and Judy's cameras during our visit. It really was great. It had been about 10 months since we had seen Judy and LaVar and I think even longer still since we'd seen Micah and Stephanie. One of the first things Oliver did was tell Judy that she moved too far away and it made him really sad that he didn't get to see her. We got spoiled with seeing them so often when they lived in Fallon and when I was on bedrest.

So here are a few pictures to recap.

We had a lot of fun with our egg hunt on the beach.

We spent a day on a boat trip and visited the Nauticus Museum.

This eel was really fascinating to Tucker.

We did D.C. in a day. Seriously! Before we went, I had planned on maybe visiting 2 museums. We lucked out in that all the museums didn't close until 7:30 that day (instead of 5) so we fit in tons. We visited the Museum of Natural History where we loved the butterfly and orchid exhibits.
When we walked back out onto the Mall, Oliver shouted to Emmaline, "Look! Here are more of those really precious rocks like we saw inside." That night I found his pocket filled up with quartz.
The Museum of American History was great for Savannah since she is studying WWII in Humanities. She took a ton of pictures of things like gas masks and army uniforms.
The Air and Space Museum was Oliver's favorite, of course. I couldn't believe how small those first spacecrafts were. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be to hurtle through space shoulder to shoulder with two other guys.
Tyler was really glad that we finally made it to the Freer gallery. Tucker loved the "Peacock Room."
We rounded out the day with a visit to the Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument. Of course we couldn't leave D.C. without a visit to Ollie's Trolley.

Oliver was in heaven.

Overall a great trip- minus the flight in and out.

The future's so bright...

Tomorrow I will write all about what a fun trip we had to Virginia. But today, I just have to write the bad stuff. You know... the joy of riding in an airplane with Tucker. On the way there, I thought he did tolerably well. I mean, at one point one of the flight attendants suggested that I might want to stand up with him, despite the seat belt sign. And I did... after first explaining that I couldn't make any promises as to whether or not he would calm down. If you haven't been around when Tucker screams (I don't know who has had that privilege), but anyway... it is quite a combination of a high pitched shriek and yell that he can continue indefinitely.

I have to give him credit. Yesterday's display topped even what I thought he was capable of. The first flight was just one hour to Baltimore. Emmaline was so frustrated by him that she decided to sit elsewhere the second leg. So Savannah and I sat by a total stranger- who was so kind, I must add. He kept his headphones in and a smile on his face... even when Tucker slimed his arm with animal cracker goo. How this could happen, I don't know... on a flight to Salt Lake there were only 2 babies (the other was a newborn that slept the whole flight) and we were the racial minority. I guess the conversation behind us should have been a premonition. A lady with an "A" group card was saving a spot for her friends in the "B" group. When the friends came, they took one look at us and said, "Why'd you sit by a baby? I don't want to sit by a baby!" I was about to move when I realized THEY should be the ones to move. I was the one with the crazy baby that would have a more difficult time moving! Anyway, Tucker nursed and slept for the first hour and screamed the other four. I tried everything... even standing, but to no avail. Everyone thought it would somehow be helpful to give commentary on the situation- "You shouldn't travel with a baby after his bedtime," "Some people should just stay home," "I'm pretty sure I've never been on a noisier flight." No, they weren't saying it to me... just loud enough that I could hear. The flight attendant even felt bad for me. She said, "People got to know, when you book a flight, there is probably at least one baby. And we were all babies... so...." When the plane landed, everyone clapped and I heard a few, "Thank God that's over," because, amazingly enough- as we bumped to a landing, mid-scream, he fell asleep.

As I stood at the baggage claim, listening to the continued commentary, "Can you believe he kept that up the entire flight," I began contemplating what I possibly could be doing to create a 2nd of such babies (It can't be an accident. One of this kind is a fluke. Two means it's my fault.) And isn't it ironic that somehow Tyler managed to sidestep both the flight out and the flight back (once to finish a project for work and now to stay a few extra days with Ollie)? Anyway- as I was spending those last moments feeling sorry for myself, a woman walked up and said, "I had such an enjoyable flight sitting next to your daughter." Thank goodness they grow up good.

Happy Easter!

from Norfolk, Virginia (visiting Tyler's parents)

Tucker's First Word

(Tucker with our little bantam, "Precious")

You guessed it. "Chicken." He said it about 10 times the first day he said it (it's actually more of a sound than a word... emphasis on "chk") but we can't get him to do it again- the little turkey! I can't remember Emmaline or Oliver's first words (probably because they didn't say much until after "Mama" and "Dada" were fairly routine) but Savannah's first word was "ducky." We have that on video and believe you me- I've got the camera ready for the next time Tucker says "chicken"!

Our Family Hive

Recently, Oliver gave this talk in Primary. The visual aides Tyler made to accompany the talk made it so adorable, I had to share.

In our family hive, each family member has important responsibilities.

My dad is like the WORKER BEE. He works really hard to provide for our family. He is also responsible for helping our family choose the right so we can be together forever.

My mom is like the QUEEN BEE. She is lucky to stay home and take care of our hive and the rest of the bees. She feeds us, plays with us, reads to us, and helps us learn to share and love one another.

I am like the HELPER BEE. Even though I am only four, I have important responsibilities, too. I help the Queen Bee by cleaning my room, putting dishes away, and playing with my brother and sister bees.

My sisters Savannah and Emmaline are like the BUSY BEE. They clean up their rooms, help fold clothes, and help take care of Tucker. They love to sing and dance and keep our hive happy.

Baby Tucker is like our HONEY BEE. He is so sweet. He gives us lost of smiles and is responsible for sharing his love with everyone in the hive.

When all the bees are doing their responsibilities, we have the happiest hive around.

Food Storage Made Easy

I don't usually do this kind of thing... but just wanted to let you know about a little something I've been working on. I'm trying to get together a plan and work on my Food Storage. I found this really great website that helps you get everything together by emailing you a checklist every 2 weeks with things to do. I've really loved it so far because it makes it makes less work for me and give a plan that is very manageable. Today they just came out with an ebook that contains all of their checklists and other various food storage items. I'm hoping to win it for free... thus this blog post =)

Hope you find it helpful... and no, I'm not going to make this a habit (advertising) and I'll post something better soon!

We're not foolin'...

Tucker turned one! We can't believe it's already been a year and we can hardly remember how quiet our house was before this little something joined us =)