Growing

 My Inner Blogging Voice has been talking to me, telling me to get on here and blog about change, and struggling, and life and I have just been putting it off. I just haven't really known what to say.  Especially thinking of something coherent without an excessive amount of whining.   Having a bunch of kids and a new busy calling is a huge adjustment. I have to say that sometimes I feel like I am adjusting to the calling pretty well and other times I feel like I am not.  Like when I come home from our mid-week activity and immediately have to go to the gym and sweat out my stress to avoid a meltdown.  And then come home and have a meltdown anyway.  (I am pretty sure some pms was involved in this one.)  Or when I have to do stuff that I really don't want to do. Like go to tons of meetings, plan ward parties, have people telling me where I will be and what I will do there.  Or when I think that I would have never, ever in a million years signed up for this job.  Or when I kind of feel a little bit mad that I am finally getting a little more freedom in my life and suddenly I have this calling-part-time-job that I didn't sign up for--  That I have been waiting for a lot of years of mom-hood to be able to start doing some of the things I want to do and suddenly I am given this new job that makes me feel like I don't have the brain power or the stress tolerance to do one more thing.  Or feeling like there would be a whole lot of other people who could teach these girls better than I can, or be a better example or just do a better job overall.  So yeah, I  have been picked up and dropped outside my comfort zone and I guess I have some growing to do.

Weekend Trip

We got a letter in the mail a few weeks ago that said that Emilia had won a state award for a Reflections entry that she submitted back in February.  They told us in the letter that we would be invited to an awards meeting and would receive more info in the future.  We heard nothing for awhile and then lo and behold one day (the PERFECT DAY) we got a letter saying that the award would be presented to the winners on Saturday, April 22nd at 7pm.  The reason this was the PERFECT day? The letter came on a Saturday but sat in the mailbox until Sunday, and I got the letter a few hours after someone in the bishopric had desperately asked Kent if we could speak in church the following weekend.  I had to call him and tell him that we would be out of town for the weekend.  (Hallelujah! Dodged that bullet!  I have to admit that there are few things I really don't like doing more than speaking in Sacrament meeting.)  I have been so busy with church stuff with my young women's calling that I really, really REALLY felt overloaded and that was just going to be the last nail in my coffin.  But alas, I was spared the pain and suffering.

We left for our trip on Friday after school and arrived at our hotel after gorging ourselves at Golden Corral.  The kids were awed by the 100 desserts there and of course the chocolate fountain.  They ate and ate and declared buffets to be "the best thing in the world".  We went back to the hotel and the kids swam and wore themselves out.  This was the first time our kids swam at a hotel without either one of us having to get in!  Now that the kids are tall enough, and we brought the life jacket for Adele we just had to "lifeguard" and not get in.  Then we waited for the kids to go to sleep while they kept telling each other to stop talking and be quiet and go to sleep, and stop shaking the bed and stop touching me and on and on.  (Ah, sleeping in a hotel room with 4 kids.)

 I like to swim but it was nice to stay dry for a change.

Saturday was zoo day.  Everyone and their pregnant wife/girlfriend/mother/friend/daughter was there that day. It must have been the first warm day of the season or something.  By the time we left it was unbelievably crowded.  When I travel other places there are a few things that I always notice:

1.  I don't run into people I know everywhere and I almost have to remind myself that I don't know any of these people. I normally see people I know ALL the time when I am out and about, so that is weird.  

2.  There are a lot of "interesting" people in this world. And even though I call my kids "weirdos" all the time, I feel like we are actually pretty normal comparatively.

3.  Full body tattoos don't really look good on anyone.    

4.  Many people should wear more clothing than they do.

I love the eggs they have there

See the cougar?

Funniest picture ever. I had to make it big because it cracks me up!

 After the zoo, some lunch, quiet time, more swimming and a round of ibuprofen for almost everyone, we set out for the Reflection awards.  I was starting to get a headache before we went and unfortunately when I handed out the "vitamin I" as we call it at our house, I didn't give any to myself.  I ended up getting a migraine and being miserable but that's not the important part of this story so I will move on.

Emilia won an award in "theater" for a puppet show that she wrote and performed.  It was funny and cute.  We thought it would go on to nationals but we found out that the categories that don't go to nationals are film and theater.  So that's where it ends.  We were very proud and excited for her to win the 1st place in state award for her theater entry.  They had this little bench area set up where the winners were supposed to sit for a picture after they got their awards but they didn't give us much time so the picture ended up not turning out great. 

The trip ended up being a lot of fun and 1.  The timing could not have been better and 2.  We kind of got a late spring break trip since we didn't go anywhere for our real spring break.  The weather was amazing and wonderful.  Even though family trips are hard work and tiring, they are really fun and we made some good memories.

Revisiting the Past

This is my good friend Jennifer Brown.  Her husband Jim, and Kent used to work together "back in the day" when we both lived in Logan.  We used to hang out together all the time with our kids and we were good friends.  In 2005 we parted ways and both ended up leaving Logan.  We saw Jim and Jennifer about 5 years ago on their way home from a trip but we haven't seen each other since then.  I randomly got a call from Jennifer a couple of weeks ago.  She and her girls were returning home after a spring break trip and she wanted to know if we could visit for awhile.  Of course we wanted to, so we ended up getting together.  Unfortunately, Jim was not with them because he is deployed in Afghanastan right now, working in a combat hospital.  We did get a chance to skype with him for a few minutes.  He was just getting ready to go to work and start his day.
 Before I started blogging about this I was looking on my computer for a picture of us from 8 or 9 years ago.  We went on a trip to Hardware Ranch, and to Bear Lake together but I can't find any pictures. I think it must be because those pictures were from the "olden days" before we all went digital. 
During our visit I couldn't help but think how nice it was to reminisce about the past and actually talk to someone who is in the the same line of work as Kent.  Jim is a fellow Medical Technologist and has been working for Intermountain for a long time too.  They know the ins and outs of the company like we do and it was so good to talk to another "Intermountain Wife".  Kent is kind of the "lone computer lab tech guy" here.  All of his colleagues work 250 miles away.  I have only met 2 or 3 of his co-workers and none of their wives or families.  Kent works alone in his office (well, not alone I guess, he works in a building which houses the hospital business office with about 20 women).  He doesn't really interact much with them so he is kind of just on his own.  Anyway, visiting with Jennifer and Jim reminded me of the good camaraderie we had and how nice it was to have such great friends and also work with them. (Don't worry too much, Kent does have 1 good friend at the hospital here.  He just happens to work in an office across the street and he rarely gets to see him now that he was moved out of the hospital.)

Easter Egg Hunt

The subtitle of this post should be:  "The way my kids dress after Church on Sundays".  I am almost embarrassed to post this picture.  But it is funny, and real, so I will.  'Cuz that is what this blog is all about, people. The good, the bad and the clashing.  And the pajamas in broad daylight.

Fun with Peeps

My kids have been begging for days to do some "Peep jousting" with the Peeps they got in their Easter baskets. If you aren't familiar with Peep jousting you must watch this video.

Here's our jousting.  We let them play doubles.

Ready for battle

The messy results

Here's Kent declaring the winner

Eggs

Spring Break "Fun"

We had to balance out all the spring break fun with some character building yardwork/torture.

working hard

hardly working

Then there was the one who was just chillin, and workin on the tan.

Spring Break Swimmin'

That's some serious ribcage!  Gotta feed that kid more.  Too bad he is Mr. Picky Pants and won't eat anything.