thir-TEEN

It's official.  My baby girl is now a teenager.

Aaack.

Of course it's not so bad.  (knock on wood) She's still the same sweet girl she always has been.

And (thankfully!) in many ways she's still fighting this business of growing up.  She might not have asked for another American Girl doll, but roller skates were high up on her present wish list.  Boys still fall in the "friends only" category, and she averts her eyes when she sees kissing on TV.  She wants to wear a little bit of make-up, but only mascara and some light eyeshadow. You almost can't tell she's wearing any.

Of course within a month she was begging me to dye her hair red with kool-aid. (I think coloring your hair is a decidedly grown up thing to do, even if you are using what is arguably a children's beverage.)

(The sink method didn't work.  That just gave her a major neck cramp.  What did work was brushing the paste on her hair then wrapping her head up in saran wrap, and then sleeping on it overnight.)

Odd-year birthdays are usually pretty low-key around here.

We celebrated by getting cupcakes. (Instead of baking, I spent the day celebrating my birthday too.)

Her friends surprised her by decorating her room while she was away.

And to cap off the evening we attended a joint orchestra concert with the junior high and high school at the high school. (not really the high light of her day)

Thanksgiving in Texas

We traveled to the Lone Star State to spend Thanksgiving with John's sister, her family, John's dad, and his wife.  We had a lot of fun, and I am sure that my kids would move in with their family if they could. Especially Christopher.   

Sadly Ben, who is only a year older than Nick, wasn't able to make it home for Thanksgiving.  He's away at a special boarding school (Think Hogwarts for aspiring large animal vets) and there are rumors floating around about bribes and skiing, and I never got the full story, but somehow Ben never made it home.  Hence the reason for the picture in the picture.

Corrine slaved away in her kitchen, and I did my best not to feel helpless by cutting up (lots of)potatoes and bothering her with questions like "Where does this go? How can I help? What can I do? Where do I find...? and Can I get that recipe?" (I was probably more of a nuisance. I felt like a little kid trying to "help".)

On one of the days they heated up the swimming pool and the kids headed out for some fun.  We tried to waterproof Christopher's cast, but his arm was just too little and the layers of duct tape weren't keeping out the water, as the special waterproof bag I bought started filling up with water, so we had to make him get out of the pool.  He was SO sad.  He cried and cried and cried.  And then we found out later that he had ear infections in both ears, so he was having a really rough time.

 

The older three kids spent hours out in the pool as uncle Rick broke out the scuba gear and they all got their first lessons in scuba diving.  They loved it.  Obviously they don't take after me, since I learned the hard way that snorkels and scuba masks give me panic attacks.  Rick took a bunch of awesome pictures with his waterproof camera, and supposedly transferred them to the thumb drive like I asked, but although said thumb drive did make it home, I can't find it anywhere. 

Corrine is a big Black Friday nut, so the four of us (me, Maddie, Corrine and Kaeli) went out and braved the crowds.  It was Maddie's first time, and she was having the time of her life one minute, then totally freaked out the next.  (Target was insane).

After all that, we had a little mini Christmas complete with tree and presents and ham dinner.  Corrine is the kind of person that makes you feel lazy because you can't keep up with her even though you got twice as much sleep as she did.  I don't mean that she's judgmental and mean, quite the contrary, she just has twice the energy of any one I know, and it's difficult to not feel that way in her presence.

With as many people descending on her home at one time as there were, we opted to make it a little easier on her and we booked a hotel room for John and I and the two younger boys.  We figured that Nick and Maddie would not want to be pulled away from their cousins, and we were right.  They got along famously.  Fortunately right before our trip Marriott became partners with a pretty cool resort right near their house so we were able to use some of our points and stay there.  The building and grounds were amazing and totally decked out for Christmas, but the beds sucked.  So miserable.

 They even had this really cool ice sculpture exhibit that was supposed to be amazing, but it was pretty expensive and we figured the little boys would be bored within minutes, so we spent that money on tickets to Six Flags.   Zach even went on one of the scariest roller coasters.  He hated it, but we're proud of him for going on it.

And if you're wondering what's up with the BYU shirts and my kids?  That was their idea.  They know how much Corrine loves BYU, and they love their aunt Corrine.  Ironically, her kids have no plans to attend themselves.  Years of being forced to sing the BYU fight song so they could get ice-cream probably back fired a little bit. 

Breaking up is hard to do

No.  I'm not breaking up with my blog.

I've thought about it. It's been nice not having that hanging over my head.

Combine my "I just don't care anymore" attitude with a broken computer that's away at the computer hospital (I'm using the family's right now which makes me cranky)  and a really busy (crazy, maddening) few weeks, (I was seriously debating breaking into my homemade vanilla stash, except I knew that wouldn't actually solve anything) and despite the busy-ness of it all, I didn't feel I really had anything to write about.  

The only thing that kept me from actually typing the words "The End" was the knowledge that my kids love this blog, and they love looking through the annual books I publish every year, and seeing the pictures and reading the stories and being reminded about all the good times and how cute/silly/funny/little everyone was.  I realize the grandparents love reading this too, but honestly, I don't do it for them.  Sorry, but that's the truth.  Just myself, and my kids.  And it's not just fun for me anymore.  What was once a creative outlet is now mostly just another chore. 

Anyways, no, I'm not quitting. Today, anyway. (I reserve the right to change my mind at any given time. Tomorrow...Next week... Next month...Next year...)

But speaking of things breaking....

We had another accident over the weekend.

Christopher fell down a flight of stairs and broke his arm.

It's his left arm right above the elbow, which is better than when Maddie broke hers a year ago, her right arm right below the elbow, but it's still no fun.

He's doing pretty well.  But he gets a little cranky when the ibuprofen wears off, and he tries to use it as an excuse to skip dinner and go straight to the ice-cream.  "I'm broken!"

He picked a purple cast at the orthopedic surgeon, and I was happy to find that they make Sharpies in silver so we can all sign his cast and it will show up.

The good news is that little kids' bones heal fast so he'll get it off in three weeks.  The bad news is that is one week after we go to Texas.  Marriott just acquired a new fancy hotel chain and we are staying in a pretty swanky hotel with both indoor and outdoor pools, a lazy river, and a water slide.  (No swimming for little kids with casts.)

~~~~~~~~

"I beg of you, don't say good bye.  Can't we give our love another try?  Come on baby, let's start anew, 'cause breaking up is hard to do." - Neil Sedaka

Halloween

The stinky part about trying to write a blog post 3 months after it happened is that the details get fuzzy.  I've been putting this off because I didn't get pictures of the oldest two kids, and I've been hoping to persuade them to dress up for me.  But they are teenagers, and a little busy, plus Maddie made part of her costume, so there's a little bit of crafting to be done before any picture can be taken.

Halloween itself was fun and busy.  We had the usual trunk or treat with our church.  Nick participated in a bit of a spook alley at the High School as part of his drama/technical theater class. I heard it was supposed to be pretty scary, but Nick had them tone it down for his autistic 6 year old.  Our awesome neighborhood got together for the annual Halloween potluck dinner party at the park before trick or treating. I made the usual homemade rootbeer with the dry ice and everything.  Then the older two kids parted ways, Nick ran off to a party and Maddie went trick or treating with a friend.  I got the dubious honor of accompanying the littles while they went trick or treating, and John got to stay home and watch movies and hand out candy.  I'm not sure how that worked out that way, I think John must have bribed Christopher or something.

Anyway, Nick dressed up as The Eleventh Doctor from Doctor Who. So, until I get a picture of Nick, this will have to do. 

Not surprisingly, many people had thought he was a Shriner or something like that.  (funny story- all my kids have turned into these little Doctor Who/ BBC fans and at a recent movie party with some girls, Maddie tried to convince all the other girls to watch Doctor Who.  The mom hosting the event said she put up a good fight, but none of the other girls were interested.  I told Maddie I was very proud of my "little geek girl".  She was very adamant in proclaiming that she "Was not a geek!". I argued that since Doctor who was Sci-Fi that meant she was a geek.  "It's not sci-fi, it's just awesome!"  "Yeah, sorry honey, any show about a man from another planet, who travels through time and space fighting off aliens and robots and monsters, is most definitely sci-fi, and your love of it makes you a geek." She still refuses to accept it.

Speaking of Maddie.  Last year she wanted to be a car-hop girl with roller skates and everything.  But if you remember, last year she broke her arm, so I vetoed that idea claiming that if she fell while rollerskating she'd probably break her other arm, and that wouldn't be a good idea.  So this year she was a '50's car hop.  I didn't think that they made car hop outfits, so we just got dolled her up in a generic '50's outfit with the poodle skirt and the pony tail and all that, but then on Halloween I saw a little girl in a '50's diner outfit which probably would have been a better plan.  But I think it worked out fine as she made up a little tray with a burger, fries, a soda complete with her own little diner design on it.  So if you can picture that...

Zach was by far the easiest when he finally decided what he wanted to be.  An "army dude".  I was going to make him a big ol cardboard AK-47 or something (he wanted to take a fake plastic one to school, but there are rules about that, I thought that maybe a cardboard one might be acceptable. Of course you never know these days...) But I ran out of time...

Christopher was actually the hardest, and all he wanted to be was "a white ghost".  They don't sell plain old boring "white ghost" costumes.  You have to make them.  And I can't sew.  Thankfully, Chelsa saved my hide and helped out.   It was a couple simple stitches here and there, and a few rips and tears there, but still beyond my ability. And she found the perfect white hat to go with it.  The school has a rule against face paint and masks, and Christopher wouldn't go for either of those anyway, so I figured my best plan was a hat. Plain white hats are ridiculously hard to find.  They are all cute these days and they look like monkeys or bears or other fuzzy woodland creatures.

 

And finally, I have a cute picture to share.  Christopher has a little girlfriend who goes to our church and was in his school class at the time.  He has a cute little crush on her and loves to give her hugs and generally has a cute, dopey little smile on his face when she's around.  She came running up to him to say hi, but it took him a second to recognize her without her glasses and in her Rapunzel wig. This picture was taken shortly after he realized who she was.

Christopher has already decided what he wants to be next year.  "A white pledge."   (What the heck?)  It took me days to figure out what that was.  I finally figured out what he was talking about when we were at his school and he pointed to a speaker on the ceiling and said, "Look, a pledge. Put your hand on your heart."  I gathered from that little statement that every morning they say the Pledge of Allegiance at school, and he is instructed by means of the speaker to put his hand over his heart.  I took this picture of a "pledge" he pointed out to me at Wal-mart.

Hopefully he will change his mind, or if not, at least I will have a year to figure out how to make it happen.

Song sung blue

Last summer my dad was sharing with me excerpts from his new favorite book by George Carlin. (not suggested reading material for those bothered by profanity) Anyway, Mr. Carlin was ranting about the oversaturation of love songs on the airwaves.  He contended there were enough and wouldn't we like to hear songs about other stuff like colonoscopies and the DMV?  (I'm just making those topics up, I don't think those were real examples in the book, I didn't pay close attention, but his examples were similar)

Anyway, it's only been recently that I have been able to appreciate the wisdom of that little rant of his.

There are A LOT of love songs on the radio.  With this little project of mine, I've been paying closer attention to song titles and their lyrics and trying to match them with topics in my life, and it's harder than you think.   

And up until yesterday, I hadn't used a single Harry Connick jr song.  I know, right?  Most of his songs are romantic in nature. Half of the romantic songs are of the unrequited love variety, or lost love, which don't apply to me anymore.  Once upon a time any one of those songs could have been my theme song, and blessedly it's been a long time since one of those songs fit my life. 

And while I could get all sappy on y'all and write something sweet and romantic every single day, I think I would make myself sick.  I love my husband, but it's not like me to get all sappy and lovey and gush about what a wonderful husband he is to anyone who will listen.  It feels fake and insincere and like I am trying to prove something to someone.  However, I thought yesterday (our anniversary) was a good enough time to use one of those. 

And then there are so many other songs that will probably never fit.  Have you ever noticed how many song titles have the name of a girl in it?  We all live in a yellow submarine? Probably not going to use that one anytime soon.  Walk like an Egyptian? Probably only if I were able to travel to Egypt. 

Some of the other things going on around here that my not lend themselves so easily to a blog post with corresponding song choice.

Sometimes picking the perfect song is easy-peasy. Instantaneous.

Sometimes not so much.

I already mentioned Mindy's birthday party.

And for a month I have been trying to come up with a song.  Besides the standard ♪♫ Happy Birthday to you...♪♫

Maybe the choice is clear to someone else, but I haven't stumbled upon it.

~~~~~~~

My computer broke last week.  Well just the keyboard. But it's kindof an important part.  John was able to hook a wireless mouse and keyboard up to my laptop so now I can use it. (nope. Can't think of a song)

~~~~~~~

Nick hurt is knee in cross country several weeks ago.  We are finally taking him to have it looked at next week.  He's been going to sports medicine after school. (no song here either)

~~~~~~

Basically the mundane pretty much falls into this category.  Nobody sings about the mundane.  Unfortunately my life is about 95% mundane. And some of that I think is still worth remembering even if nobody else wants to sing about it.

Anyway, my point is, I'm not going to strain myself any more.  Heaven forbid this whole blog becomes too much like work and I pretty much flat out quit for a few months. ;)


~~~~~~~

"Song sung blue, everybody knows one.  Song sung blue, every garden growns one."-  Neil Diamond

It had to be you

 

It had to be you, it had to be you.

I wandered around and finally found

The somebody who could make me be true,

Could make me be blue.

Or even be glad just to be sad

Just thinking of you.

Some others I've seen might never be mean

Might never be cross or try to be boss

But they wouldn't do

For nobody else gave me the thrill

With all your faults I love you still

It had to be you

Wonderful you

It had to be you.

 

- Harry Connick, Jr

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

Happy 16th Anniversary to the best guy any girl could ask for.  And who isn't mean or bossy either.  (and only a little cross on occasion) but the rest of the song totally fits.  Thanks for sticking around for the last 16 years, and here's to spending the rest of eternity together. Love you.

random happenings in September & October

 I found Raspberry Schweppes at the grocery store.  Haven't seen that stuff in years. 

 Nick is enjoying his technical theater class.  He made this .  It was supposed to be part of a fundraiser to raise money for a new bass.  But after seeing this, someone actually donated a bass to the orchestra department.

Maddie's first attempt at cupcakes all by herself.  They tasted really good. 

 Zach is having fun in scouts.  Here he is participating in a "rain gutter regatta".

 Maddie had too much fun with her friend and a camera.  She's not really mad, but this picture cracks me up, and she's now a little embarrassed it exists.  She takes pride in being sweet and cheerful.

We got our kitchen fixed. 

Nick tried out for, and was cast as a revolutionary in a local production of Les Miserables.  He's really excited.  He didn't get a main role, but he has lines and gets to die on stage, so he's happy with that.

 I think that covers all the highlights so far.