Max: (runs to me sobbing...) "I was in the garage and I stepped on something and it flew up and hit me in the face!!!"
Me: "Okay, let me se...WOAH!!! YOUR TOOTH!!!" (Not my best parenting moment.)
Max: "My tooth? What happened to my tooth??? (feels with tongue...) MY TOOOOOOOTH!!!"
(more tears.)
Me: Immediately sends a picture to Doug on his phone. And calls his office and asked the Front Desk to please interrupt him and have him look at his phone.
Doug: "Find the missing piece!!!"
Me: Searched nasty garage floor for 30 minutes and finally recovered missing triangle amidst camouflage "Sport Court" flooring, dust, sand, and popcorn. Placed it in milk per instructions. (Our garage doubles as a play room. That doesn't mean it's clean though...!)
Doug: Finishes work, drives an hour to get home, eats dinner, takes Max to the office, and saves the day and the tooth! (And cleaned and polished M's teeth while he was at it!)
Being married to a pediatric dentist has its perks!!!
Maybe you've noticed I don't blog much any more. I also don't read blogs any more, clean the house, do the dishes, grocery shop, make dinner, or play with Gabe or Gray. That can be blamed entirely on HOME SCHOOL!
Although I think we're in a grove now, and although Max loooooooves it, it is extremely time consuming and at times overwhelming. (At least I don't think I'm making him stupider by the minute anymore...which is what I thought for the first few months.)
Like I said, we're sorta in a grove and I think it's going pretty well. We've switched to a charter school closer to home and they provide the curriculum free of charge (if you don't count my state taxes) as well as providing some structure and deadlines to get things done. This charter school told me "If you're spending more than 3-4 hours a day on school, you're trying to cram too much in." (As opposed to the last school which told me "Regular school day! 6-7 hours!")
The great part is, it's very flexible. If we set a goal that proves to be too much work or too overwhelming, we adjust it the next month until it's doable. Sometimes I think it's worth the pain and effort and that next year we'll pull Sam out and home school the whole family forever. The next day, I pull my head out and decide Max is going back next year. ...then I hear about yet another wacky California public school policy and want to run the other way screaming.
So for next year? Completely up in the air and undecided!
The one thing that has even made home schooling possible for me? Math curriculum from Teaching Textbooks. I don't have to teach math! Max watches/listens to the lecture on the computer. Does the assignment (or quiz) on the computer, and the program grades the lesson and keeps a record of his scores. There are many things I love about it. And Max likes it too! He does two lessons a day no problem! If he misses more than 2 or 3 problems, I can go in, erase those answers, and have him do the ones he missed again. (If you're interested, you can go totheir siteand click on the "sample lesson" button to see what it looks like and how it works. It's pretty genius.)
One home schooling bonus: We got to go to Sea World for a field trip! Sea World has a 'home school day' twice a year where they offer tickets for something like $5.75 per kid!
The boys had never been so I let Sammy ditch school and took all four kids.
It was a lot of stressful fun!
(Next time I will leave Gray with a friend and take Doug instead!)
In just a year, most of the fear from that day has faded. But watching something like this brings it all back in an instant.
This one is pretty long. Something to watch as a family tonight perhaps? (After little kids are in bed.)
This one is pretty fascinating. For all those people who tell me "California has earthquakes too!"
Yep. I know.
Skip to about 1:45 if you're short of time
The first time I saw this (second movie) I started feeling sick as the days clicked past. And then the explosion on March 11th was like being punched in the stomach.
I don't think most people in the states comprehended that the earthquakes never stopped. And with the constant reminders, it's hard to get the fear out of your head and heart. I never felt completely at ease until I left Japan. Which was a sad way to leave a place we all loved so much.
The stress decreased over time, but those constant little earthquakes were constant little reminders. (Some not so little.) My friends there are still living with them.
The thing is, we wouldn't have traded our time there for anything. Although the earthquake was a low point, the great things that started happening after were amazing high points. It was a great experience to be part of the clean-up. To see the amazing pride and grace and resilience of the Japanese people. To see destruction repaired. To see things rebuilt. To see the outpouring of love from other countries including America. It was great to be a part of that.
I mentioned that Kristen broke into my room to decorate it.
What I DIDN'T mention, was what greeted her in my room!
She had to scale a literal MOUNTAIN of laundry just to get to my bed.
I have photographic evidence:
In my defense, all those clothes are clean and were initially dumped on top of the bed--not on the floor. It's just that when they hadn't been folded by the end of the day and Doug and I were dead tired...they got shifted. (And then left for two more days while the pile was added to and subtracted from.)
If Kristen weren't such a good friend I MIGHT have been a little embarrassed.
But I'm too tired for those kinds of emotions these days.
It did, however, remind me of a similar messy bedroom situation from long ago...
{cue going back in time music...}
When I was 16 and still living in Salt Lake City, my first boyfriend was Joe Nelson. (Joseph Nephi Nelson to be precise...! How's that for a good solid Mormon name?)
So anyway, one day, he came over to my house when I wasn't around to ask me to Homecoming.
He filled my room with shredded paper, left a rose and a balloon, and covered the floor in Hershey's Kisses hiding in the paper... (that each had a sticker on the bottom marked with one letter that I had to put in order to spell out a message that led me to my tape player which held a cassette playing the Simon and Garfunkel song "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her" and asking me to the dance).
It was all very romantic.
16 in Salt Lake City
Only one problem: My room was a hideous mess.
Clothes all over the floor, clutter covering every surface.
(And yet my mom let him in to my room. Thanks for nothing Faezer.)
Later, when I thanked him while also expressing my embarrassment about the mess he mumbled something like..."yeah, I kinda noticed that..."
I think my slovenly-ness contributed to our relationship being short-lived.
Adam Something, Julie Adams, Me, Joseph Nephi
*sigh*
Moral of THIS story is some things never change: Once a mess, always a mess.
Good thing (some) people love me anyway!
(For the record, I have one kitchen cupboard and an underware drawer that are so beautifully organized they could be on the cover of "Organizers Weekly". Also, my clothes are in rainbow order and my hangers are all the same color. Just sayin'...!)
My birthday this year has been great! It all started on the 8th when Facebook announced to the world that it was my birthday.
I was getting calls and messages...
It wasn't my birthday.
My birthday was the next day. (Maybe FB thought I was still in Japan where it WOULD have been my birthday...?)
Whatever.
I didn't complain. I'll take praise and adulation whenever and where ever I can get 'em!
I've been celebrating ever since.
BUT, I've also had work to do.
Friday night was our ward Valentines Dance.
I'm the RS activity chair so I was there early and left late.
I think it went well...chocolate fondue was involved...
My friend Kristen came to the activity to teach a swing dancing lesson with her husband Shawn*. (As a favor to me because she's awesome.)
Kristen and Shawn teaching us to Lindy Hop
{We've been friends since I moved to Carlsbad when I was 16. She was great friends with my cousin Wendy so I got grandfathered in. We were in the same grade, same class at church, and we've stayed friends for the last 18 years. (Holy CRAP that's a long time!!!)
I was her bridesmaid. She was my bridesmaid...you get the picture...!
I love her!}
After they taught their lesson, they left.
And snuck into my house.
Actually, they didn't sneak. The babysitter, my niece Ashlin, let 'em in and Kristen toilet-papered my room leaving a beautiful Orchid in the middle of my bed.
Because she's awesome.
Don't mind the laundry piled at the foot of the bed
Partially made bed with part of a broken bubble wand on it for some reason
This isn't the first time she's pulled a stunt like this.
She decorated me 'n Fae's apartment for my 17th birthday and wrote "Emily Rules" in crepe paper on the ceiling. (I believe Wendy and Mindy were co-conspiritors.)
I have mad scrap-booking skills, eh?!
I had only moved to Carlsbad two months before. It had been a hard year.
On my birthday, a few girls went out of their way to spoil me and I felt very loved.
Sorta (but not quite) just like this year!
Moral of this story is some things never change:
I'm a lucky girl and Kristen is an awesome friend!!!
Happy Birthday to ME!
:)
*Shawn's not so bad either. He created our logo, business cards, and website that we get tons of compliments on!!!
I couldn't fall asleep last night.
It happened the night before too.
It was late, I climbed in bed, kissed Doug three times, closed my eyes and....
nothing.
Actually, not nothing. A lot of annoying somethings. My hair was bothering my neck. The sheets were pestering my arms and legs. My body pillow was trying to melt my skin with its heat, but the room was too cold to take the comforter off.
I couldn't stop scratching. I couldn't get comfortable. Couldn't stop THINKING.
What was the problem? I was wearing my cozy socks. (check) No jammies... (check--they just get tangled up.) It was earlier than normal, but not like it was 9pm. (10:30)
Yet my bones seemed to be trying to dig through my mattress.
Doug started falling asleep but my wriggling woke him up.
Him: "Are you going to stop scratching soon?"
(Not very sympathetic to my plight.)
Me: "WHY is our bed so uncomfortable?!?!?"
This has been my complaint of late. I used to love our bed.
I used to love climbing into our bed at the end of a long day. (I used to love rolling over and staying in my bed at the beginning of a long day.)
Now my bed is failing me! Can beds just suddenly one day in Janurary decide to STOP WORKING?
I suppose it's done all it could. It's at least 9 years old and been moved from San Francisco to Rhode Island to Japan to San Diego. Plus it was nothing special to begin with. A regular Queen size mattress from Costco. But we also added a layer of padding with a queen size memory foam topper. THAT made all the difference. Made it so the bed cradled you and rocked you to sleep every night.
But now...
It may as well be Japanese Hotel room bed: Rock hard with a 90 pound pillow lined with pinto beans.
(The only possible way to sleep in a Japanese hotel room--if you're a soft American--is to find the less beany side of the pillow and sleep flat on your back without moving. Consider it part of your Ninja training--then it's not so bad.)
So I lay in bed unhappily pondering: Is it the bed or is it me? Am I falling apart or is the bed?
Sleeping used to be championship talent! I've won Olympic medals for my ability to climb into bed and fall immediately asleep and sleep through anything. (Things I've slept through: Labor. 5 point earthquakes. Numerous episodes of screaming children drama. Alarms of all kinds. And breakfast. (Okay, and lunch).)
But then again I'M almost 34 years old! I've moved from Utah to California to Utah to California to Utah to California to Rhode Island to Japan to California! And I was nothing special to begin with... Just a regular skinny Mormon girl averse to exercise. Now after a very stressful year, I've added a layer of padding--but it hasn't increased my comfort or value.
(Please quit asking if I'm pregnant. I'M JUST GAINING WEIGHT!!!)
(Please stand-by for existential crisis:)
Wait, if I'm not skinny and I can't sleep anymore...plus, my blog hasn't even been funny lately......!!!
WHAT HAS BECOME OF ME??? WHO AM I?!?!?!?! WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!?!?!?!?!?!?
(please stand-by for self-preserving narcissism:)
Neh, it can't be my fault. The weight will magically fall off and we just need a new bed! Plus, YOU'RE not funny anymore.
Of course I'd heard about pinning from a few people before I bothered to look into it and see what it was about. When I finally did, it was love at first pin.
Here's the scoop for those of you who are clueless! (No offense...)
Pinterest is an on-line bulletin board for everything you see around the web, that you want to keep track of.
See a recipe you want to try? Pin it to your "Recipes that will surely make me fat" pin board.
See a book you want to read? Pin it to you "Books I'll never get around to reading" pin board.
Holiday ideas?
Decorating?
Photos?
Crafts?
Pretty much anything with a photo or movie can be "pinned".
When you open your own account, it starts you out with a few popular "Boards", but they are easily changed/added to/deleted.
One of my personal favorite ways to use Pinterest is for pottery.
For the last few years, whenever I saw a cool pot on-line (I read a lot of pottery blogs) I would copy and paste or download the picture onto my desktop. After awhile, the desktop would get cluttered, so I'd drag them all into a "pottery ideas" file. Sometimes I'd organize the photos, sometimes not.
Occasionally, I'd go into that folder, print out the pictures, and put them in a spiral note book I keep in my pottery back pack.
Now, if I see something I like, I pin it to "Pottery Love" and call it good. I can reference it from the Internet any old time. And Doug LOVES the lack of urns on his desktop.
This also works well for holiday ideas, craft projects, or party plans.
I've seen many a young (or not so young) girl use Pinterest to plan her wedding (either real or imagined).
While I became a fan of Pinterest sheerly to control my pottery pictures, as you might imagine, that is NOT the most popular use.
A few other trends I've noticed:
Crafts Project how-to's or step-by-illustrated-step instructions.
Nails. For example, mani/pedi ideas and/or "how-to's" -- Also hairstyle and "smokey eye" tutorials.
Different Font collections and/or Subway Art
Tattoos (Filed under "If I ever have the guts!" or "Ink")
Photography
Travel Destinations
Home Decor
(I used it to pin ideas for our new office decor)
Another great thing about Pinterest is that you can search other peoples boards, collaborate on boards, "follow" others, and be followed. So if one person pins something absolutely amazingly adorable like a picture of their brand new bull dog puppy, you can re-pin it to your "Like, SO cute I'm gonna DIE" board and all your followers will see it and repin it to their boards.
My cousin recently told me Instagram was sorta like Facebook only not lame.
Pinterest is sorta like Instagram only for everyone--even non-photographers.
So now ya know!
And for those who already knew...
What are you pinning these days?
Have you found any good recipes that you've actually tried?
What's the most common "pin" you've seen lately?
Let's discuss!
HAPPY PINNING!
P.S. My pinterest name is Emily Dub and my user name is "emlovesart"--in case you're interested in finding new pottery ideas!!!
:)
Item 1:
Doug: "Sam went and jumped on Max and squirted him with a juice box in bed this morning. Gotta go. Love you!"
Um, WHAT?!?
It is seven a.m.. I can barely get my eyes to open! Seven o'clock in the freakin' morning and my sons have already been making JUICE messes!?!
Yes, it turns out that when Sam asked me last night to set his alarm for midnight, it wasn't just so he could wake up at midnight. He had nefarious plans in mind.
(I should never let these things go without adequate grilling!)
Since I WOULDN'T set his alarm, he woke himself up around 6 a.m., got a juice box, drank most of it, and then went in to prank Max by squirting him with the remaining juice. The thing is, Max wasn't that mad. He was planning the same thing.
Why?
WHY would my children do this?
It came out of a book, of course!
---
Roscoe Riley Rules #1
Never Glue Your Friends to Chairs
Page 13-14
"Roscoe, is your brother up yet?" "Yep," I said. "But I had to use my Roscoe Riley Sneak Attack to wake him. Would you like to try it sometime?"
"I'm listening," Dad said.
"Well, first you knock real polite...
"Then you jump on his bed like it's a trampoline. And you scream, 'RISE AND SHINE, YOU BUM!' And if he still doesn't wake up, you squirt him with your juice box on his nose and toes."
"I see," said Dad. "Crude, but effective."
It is always nice when your dad is proud of you.
---
Hmm..."proud" wasn't exactly my reaction.
Sure, you might blame me for buying the book. But really...how was I to know? When I read about Ramona the Pest squirting a whole tube of toothpaste into the sink, I didn't go and do THAT! And I certainly never pulled any "boing boing curls" on any cute little blonde girls. (Okay, so there was a really cute little blonde girl, Ashley, in Misawa with golden locks and I pulled them just a little bit. But still...)
Item 2:
California just changed its carseat laws. It is now a requirement that kids be in a booster seat up until the age of EIGHT!!!
EIGHT!!!
This means Sam has to go back in a booster. He hasn't been in a booster for YEARS!!!
The new law is based on recommendations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Which would actually prefer kids stay in boosters until age TWELVE!
If you're caught without the required booster, it's a $479 ticket.
Watching the various news stories on ABC, I found this video:
"Do Kids Really Need Car Seats". The Freakonomics guys did their own testing and say seat belts are equally effective.
Another news story I watched featured "The Car-Seat Lady". She says that upwards of 90% of car seats are improperly used/installed. Another story said 85% are installed incorrectly.
So WHY are we forcing parents to continue to use/buy them, instead of changing car and seatbelt design like the Freakonomics guys suggest?!?!?
Do any of the "experts" out there drive a carpool or have more than one kid? Do they realize it's not easy--sometimes not even possible--to fit multiple car or boosters seats into your vehicle? Is there even any POINT (except to avoid tickets) if it isn't installed correctly despite our best efforts?
Yes, I know I sound like an uncaring heartless harpy who hates my children*, but I think our country likes to over regulate many things. And this is definitely one of them. If you show me empirical evidence that American kids, in their incorrectly installed car seats, are safer than kids in other countries, I'll shut up about this. (---but you can't!)
(Sometimes I really really miss Japan and their lack of litigiousness and lack of over-regulation!)
--
Okay, that's all for me. I'd write more, but I have numerous loads of laundry to wash today. Including all of Max's previously clean bedding!
Happy Monday everyone!
Don't forget to buckle up!!!
*Just for the record and before you send me hate-mail, I'd like to state that I DO believe in the efficacy of seat belts and I DO buckle my children up. Even when we were in Japan, driving off-base, and I didn't have to.
The great thing about January is...
Nothing. Nothing is great about January. (Kidding, kidding...)
No, it's that it HAS NOTHING going on. Which means there is plenty of time to blog all the fun things you did in December. Which ALWAYS has stuff going on but is too busy to be bothered with.
So I have like 50 posts to write, but they'll all be pre-dated to fall in December in chronological order. So if you're subscribed to this blog, you'll see 'em all. If not, you'll have to go back and search. There are probably a few you haven't read yet.
But here are a few totally unrelated things I have to say about things RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE.
* It's been EXTREMELY nice weather here. This is my pay-back for living through three HORRENDOUS Misawa winters. I am now experiencing pure, weather bliss! (70 sunny degrees, blue skies, cool breeze.) We had a swim party yesterday. For realzies.
It's supposed to get colder tomorrow. (60's!!!) But I think I can handle it. I never knew January could feel so...happy!
Cut from our yard the other day.
* We're doing our first major marketing campaign starting today. We have a postcard (with coupons) going out to something like 5,000 homes. Hopefully, it brings in some new customers! At the very least, we're hoping it brings in enough new work to pay for itself.
* It should be noted (for historical purposes only) that my youngest son, my angelic Baby Gray, has pre-maturely entered the terrible twos. Yes, yes...he's still extremely angelic and adorable.
But now he shrieks at us.
A lot.
All day long. If he wants a bottle, he shrieks. If he wants attention, he shrieks. If he's just out of bed and he's cranky and you look at him and smile, he SHRIEKS! We all love it very, VERY much.
Play date at the park with neighbor friends!
* None of my kids has ever played with scissors and messed up their hair. (Little Madeleine cut her hair at my house, on my watch, at least three times. But Gabey didn't!) Anyway, that is until now. The other day Max (yes, the TEN year old) had some hair that wasn't cooperating and staying combed. So he cut it off. And he trimmed up his sideburns while he was at it. It was awesome. He spent all of Christmas vacation with chopped up hair and we just left it alone.
* Speaking of Max, how's home school going? Glad you asked!
I'll tell you later.
(We're switching to a new charter school, but haven't gotten our new books yet. I'll let you know how it goes.)
* Speaking of having four boys, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm going to let you in on a little secret:
It's loud here.
It's loud in this house pretty much every minute of every day that we're in it.
It's just obnoxiously loud.
Now you know. (Wanna come visit????)
Sunrise as seen from my bed.
On a rare occasion when I opened my eyes for 30 seconds to see it.
D snapped picture, I went back to sleep.
Last but not least, I have something I'd like to discuss:
* A question about Christmas Cards. I'm still getting a few trickling in. But there are some friends I haven't heard from yet. Some friends skip a year here or there, some went electronic years ago. Some...have just stopped sending cards. And it's been a few years. My question is, when should I stop sending cards to them? When does sending continual cards become harassment? How do I know when my cards are just annoying? How do YOU decide someone gets x-d from your list? ('Cause I would still send cards to every person I've ever met ever ever ever if I could afford it...so I'm a little clueless about this.) Please discuss!
And that's all I've got. It is only January after all!
I have a few rules for our family in regards to Christmas Letters.
1. We send them.
2. We send a family picture. (Adults included. Your old college friends want to know if you've let yourself go.)
3. We take the picture on Thanksgiving day, order the prints from Costco the next day, and send them on the 1st of December. (Okay, so that hasn't happened in like 5 years and 2 kids.)
4. Last and most important, the letter has to be funny.
This year, I got way behind. My famous cousin Wendy of Blue Lily Photography offered to take our photos, but couldn't do it until until the second week of December. (She's a busy lady!) No problem. She's worth the wait.
(See below.)
But then, I waited to start the letter too. Didn't get around to it. And when I DID sit down to write it, it wasn't easy.
I didn't have any great ideas for a "theme".
Nothing clever came to mind.
So I just started writing and ended up with two (TWO) long, depressing, single spaced pages.
Woah.
NOT acceptable.
I started editing and revising.
Finally, I just started over from the beginning.
About three times.
It was a painful process. (It was a painful year.)
I ended up with what you see below. And although it's not my best work, it got the job done. And I got to say "hell" in a Christmas letter.
