Maybe you should buy a new brain

Jared had a bad night's sleep last night. So he announced at lunch that the kids should try not to bug him because his brain's not working right today. Daniel said sincerely, "Why don't you just go get a new brain?" I asked him where dad should go to get one and he replied "Just go to the doctor and he can cut open your head and take out your old brain and put a new one in." Wouldn't it be nice if it were that easy - we could all ace college and have perfect patience! We had a few laughs over the rest of the conversation as Jared posed some other questions to Dan. "What if my new brain is even worse?" "What if my new brain is too big?"

A Productive Memorial Weekend

Today I finished planting the rest of the garden. It was so nice to have Jared's dad come up and till so I didn't have do use the "double-digging" method which I usually use. I feel such a sense of satisfaction looking out at all of the neatly planted rows, before any weeds have had a chance to take over. I never thought I would be the gardener in the family - because the weeds drive me crazy because of allergies. I always got to do the inside chores growing up because of my allergies. But now I want the fresh veggies bad enough that I just take allegra or suffer through it. I especially love the green beans, corn and tomatoes.
Daniel is still young enough that he just loves the chance to work with dad. He helped his dad and grandpa fix a few sprinkler problems & repair the closet in a room. I love to see him smile as he works. Someday I'll post some recent pictures - but for now you can see him doing his ultimate favorite chore-vacuuming. He gets pretty upset when he sees someone else doing it instead of him.

It was Rebecca's birthday on Saturday. Rather than have a party with friends she chose to go out to dinner with mom and dad. She is becoming a lady too quickly. It's hard for me to believe that her childhood years at home are already halfway over. We had a lot of fun scrapbooking in her new scrapbook (b-day gift) together and for the night she told me her "I was her best friend." But tonight she says I'm not her best friend anymore, because I told her she needs to practice violin. I guess sometimes its more important to be a mother than a friend. (Becca started reading this as I'm typing and her suggestion is to write..."I guess sometimes I'm a little too hard on her:)" I know someday she'll thank me for "making" her practice.

On Sunday I got to experience my first Sunday of my new calling. Things actually went pretty smoothly. Our Sunday morning traditional breakfast is rice pudding. It's almost like dessert for breakfast - but the results are worth it. All of the kids like it so much I just tell them "As soon as you are dressed in your church clothes you can have breakfast" and usually that's incentive enough for them to get dressed on their own quickly. I had presidency meeting @ 9 and let Daniel come to play in the nursery next to us - but when our meeting was over at 10 he had disappeared. I figured he went home since we live next to the church - and fortunately he did. He said some "strangers" came in the room just a few minutes before we ended our meeting (the lady in the other ward came to set up when their sacrament mtg got out) so he ran home as fast as he could. At least he realizes that "strangers" can even be nice looking primary ladies. He used to identify strangers as only men with facial hair and cigarettes. Now he finally gets it that a stranger is anyone you don't know.

Jared gave an amazing talk on the the priesthood and shared a story about the safety and protection and influence a righteous priesthood holder can have as they stand up for true principles. I especially liked hearing him share how he gained an added measure of respect for my dad as they went on a camping trip together and the safety and protection he felt in his presence as he stood up for true principles when challenged about his beliefs in the church.

Good things:
Gardening in the sunshine
Rototillers
Mom-daughter bonding
A faithful husband

My life of ease has ended

I was just released from my favorite calling ever - Activity Days. Last night I had a great time playing General Conference Q&A Musical Chairs with them even though I couldn't keep from tearing up when I told them the stories from President Monson's and Elder Scott's talks. I am going to miss my girls. I've especially loved having Rebecca in with me this year. But I guess I'll still get to see them quite a bit because my new calling is Primary 1st counselor (the most stressful calling I've ever had in the past). I think this time will be different though. After our first meeting last night I know I'm going to love working with the other presidency members and somehow I was assigned to supervise my favorite assignments - like Activity Days and Teacher Development. Already when I went to the school today for lunch with Jacob some of the primary kids came up and tugged on my sleeve to say hi. They are so cute!

Jacob's raspberry fascination

Today I spotted Jacob for the 3rd time lingering around my raspberry bush with a little water bottle. I was wondering what kind of trouble he was up to and asked him what he was doing. "I'm looking at the ants mom. They used to live over here (pointing to one side of the bush) and now they moved their new house over there (the other side). I love to see how happy a child can get about a bunch of ants who are relocating (thanks to him flooding their "home" every day)!

Motherhood Pays Off

Rebecca told me that for Mother's Day one of the gifts she has for me from school was "just a piece of paper." It ends up that she won the "Why I Love My Mom... Essay Contest." Attached to her essay is a certificate for a $300 gemstone for her mom (hmm.. I wonder what kind of strings will be attached when we go to get it). The best gift for me though was reading her essay. Here is what she wrote.
"I love my mom for many reasons. One reason is because she teaches me to do many things. She teaches me how to play the piano and helps when I practice playing the violin. She helps me with schoolwork. One of the most important things my mom teaches me is to be kind to others, even if they're not kind ot me and to respect adults.
Another reason is that she cares about me. Sometimes she comes down to my room at 9:00 just to read with me. When I was taking the ISAT (a very important test) I was worried abou the math part. She had me take some practice tests so I would not be as nervous.
But the most important reason is because I know that she loves me. She teaches me. She cares about me very much. I love my mom."
These are the kind of paybacks that make being a mom so worth it. I was starting to wonder if I was pushing Becca too hard this week in her music because I've been nagging her to practice her violin all week, so she's been hiding from me a bit so she won't have to hear one more reminder. But I'm glad she knows I love her. She is such a great kid, so now its my turn to brag about her a bit. She scored Advanced on all 3 categories of the ISAT and recieved the highest score in her class for both English and Reading. I love how she works so hard at her schoolwork and loves reading as much as I do. She even set her alarm for 4:30 a.m. once just to read a book. Today she was invited to go to a Writer's Conference for a couple of hours after school. Just one child from each class was invited and she is so excited to go. Her stories are so creative and expressive I Love hearing her read them. Here are some of the pictures from when we went on a "date" with Rebecca to hike up to the pillars at ISU.

Family Visits

We loved having my brother Jon and his girlfriend Andrea come to visit us this week. Before they came I asked Emily "Guess who's coming today?" and she said excitedly "Santa Clause?" I think Jon is even better than Santa Clause. He always helps me love my kids more because he is so happy to see them and constantly snaps shots of them just being cute the entire time he is here. We enjoyed getting to know Andrea too - she's definitely a keeper.

We had fun bowling as a family which was a fairly new experience for the kids. In fact Jared was trying to encourage Daniel and he cheered him on my saying "Go up there and kick it, Dan." (Dan loves exercising to Shania Twain's kick-it song.) To our surprise Dan went up the lane, put the ball on the ground and literally tried to kick it like a soccer ball. It actually made it down the lane and hit a bunch of pins- But, he decided to use the traditional approach after that.

Looks aren't everything

Jacob takes a lot of pride in the way he looks. He loves wearing a suit like his dad's to church. Lately he's been a little obsessed about having his hair perfectly combed. He combs it probably 5 times a day and the other day he asked me if I'd get him some hair mousse for his birthday. Then he tried to search a comb at my friends house after using the bathroom. Jared was trying to get him to ease up about his hair the other day by giving him some advice, but after telling him to stop worrying about his hair he accidentally said "Jacob just remember its more important to look good than to be good." Whoops!