I Guess it's Time

Our children have been told.




Our parents have been told.




I guess it's time to tell everyone else.








Due date is November 15. We had an ultrasound 5 weeks ago, and the baby looks great. I'm sick all the time. I can't get enough sleep to shake this exhausted feeling. I've had to give up long distance running. Most days I wonder why on earth I decided to do this again. But, in just over 6 months, we are going to have a tiny little baby to love, and our family will finally be complete. It will all be worth it in the end.

When Dad's Gone

Joshua is my sensitive child. He always has been. He feels things deeper than my other kids and his emotions get set off really easily. And when Scott is gone, Josh falls to pieces. When Josh was in Kindergarten, I used to send a note to his teacher whenever Scott had a trip coming up, warning her that Scott would be gone and asking her to be extra patient with Josh and give him extra hugs. We are only on day 2 of Scott being gone, but this morning Josh had a breakdown. It was all over a spelling word. But first, let me preface....

Aaron is sick--he has a nasty cold. Someone always gets sick when Scott is gone. I let Aaron sleep with me last night because he wasn't feeling well. He had taken a 3 hour nap during the day (because he was sick), so he didn't want to fall asleep last night. I finally got him to sleep at midnight. The whole night he was very restless, struggling to breath through his stuffy nose, coughing, and tossing and turning. At 4 I finally got up and got him some medicine, and then he seemed to sleep a little better. Keep in mind that all his tossing and turning is in bed next to me, so I didn't sleep so great, either. At 6 Nate woke up and needed a diaper change and a bottle. Then at 8 I got up with Josh and Savannah to get them ready for school. I was TIRED and probably not in the most patient frame of mind to deal with Josh.

Everything was fine till about 5 minutes before it was time for them to leave. I sat down in the living room with Josh and started quizzing him on his spelling words. One of the words this week is Chrysalis (they are learning about caterpillars). He very confidently said, "Oh, that's so easy! I totally know that one." Then he proceeded to spell it--wrong. He said C-H-R-Y-S-A-I...I stopped him and said, no it's an L first. He looked a little annoyed, then started again and made the same mistake again. I showed him the word on the page so he could see how it was spelled, and tried to come up with a simple way to remember how to spell it. This just annoyed him. When I asked him to spell it again, he folded his arms, clamped his mouth shut, and refused to spell it. I tried to encourage him, "Josh, I know you know this one, but can you just spell it once right for me so I know you are ready for your spelling test?" And then the tears came.

And by then it was time for them to leave for the bus. When Scott is here, he drives them to school. When Scott is gone, they have to ride the bus. I have three other kids at home (who almost always are still asleep), so waking everyone up to load them all up and drive to school is totally impractical. I also make them walk to the bus (1/4 mile), because I usually have three sleeping kids that I don't want to leave alone and to fire up the suburban to drive to the bus stop and back is costly. So, I make them walk. SO...I explained to Josh that it was time to leave for the bus. He stayed unmoved on the couch. I told him again that he needed to leave, or he would be late for the bus. He just sat silently on the couch with tears rolling down his cheeks. I told him I could not drive him to school if he missed the bus, so he needed to leave now. Again, no movement. I told him I knew he missed his Dad, that I knew it was hard having him gone, that I was having a hard time without him too, but that he still needed to go to school. Nothing. I told him it was a PE day (his favorite) and that I had packed Oreos in his lunch, and that I knew he didn't want to miss those things. Still NOTHING! So, I sent Savannah out the door on her way and told Josh that if he missed the bus, I was not going to drive him to school, but that he would spend his entire day upstairs in his bed. This got him to move--to the stairs, where he started heading up to his bedroom. I caught him by the hand and pulled him back down and told him this was not negotiable, that he had to go to school, and he had to go now. I told him if he hurried, he could catch up with Savannah, and I gave him a little shove out the front door. I felt badly, but I really could not drive him to school. With as sick as Aaron is (and as sleepless a night as he had had), I needed him to sleep in instead of dragging him out of bed to drive Josh to school.

I watched out the window and saw that Savannah was still waiting at the Mason's door waiting for them to walk with her. Josh had gone on ahead and was walking toward the bus stop. After a minute, I saw Amy's garage door go up and Savannah hopped in her van to get a ride to the bus stop (they must have been running late, too, so Amy was going to drive them instead of making them walk). I figured Amy would pick up Josh on her way and then everything would be fine.

About 10 minutes later, my phone rang. It was Melanie, my friend that I go running with (and who also has kids that ride the bus). When I answered, she asked, "Are you having a rough morning?" I instantly knew that she had to have seen Josh, so I said, "Did he make it to the bus?" She told me the story--as she was driving her kids to the bus stop, she saw Josh about halfway there doing a little shuffle-kick step (that's how he walks when he's mad) and crying. Apparently, he hadn't gotten a ride with Amy. She continued on to the bus stop and told her kids to tell the bus driver to wait for Josh. Then, she drove back till she saw him, and told him the bus was there, but was waiting for him. He broke out into a full run (probably scared of what I'd do if he actually missed the bus). But when he was almost to the bus, he stopped and just broke down sobbing. Melanie got out of her car and walked with hem the rest of the way. When he got on the bus, the bus driver Tiger (yes, that's really his name), gave Josh a big hug and wiped away his tears, then let him sit up close to him to have Josh "help" with the bus. And then Melanie came home to call me to assure me that Josh had made it to the bus. Thanks Melanie for watching out for my little boy!

And thus we embark on day two of a 5 day trip. I'm really hoping things don't get any worse. But I can already tell that Nate is about half-a-day away from the full blown cold that Aaron has, and I'm pretty sure that by tomorrow I'll have it too. I have to say that I do empathize with Josh, because right now all I want to do is sit and cry, too.

Another tooth gone for Josh

Last week Josh lost a tooth at school. He got to go to the office and get a special little container to put his tooth in. He was afraid the container might come open and the tooth might fall out, so he put it in his pocket so if the tooth fell out, it would just fall into his pocket. Sadly, by the time he made it home from school, the container was open in his pocket, and there was no tooth to be found in his pocket. So, he wrote a great letter to the tooth fairy explaining what had happened. And she still came! (It was his bottom right tooth--left in the picture)

This morning I got to go with Sara to register for Kindergarten. She did great. She knew everything they asked her. They gave her a book of "homework" that she can work on over the summer to get ready for Kindergarten. She's been working on it since we got home an hour ago. I'm pretty sure she'll have it all completed before the day is over. She's such a smart little thing and is soooo ready to start school.

This last week was a pretty lazy one. We spent a lot of time playing in the yard, doing yard work, doing house work, and just doing nothing in particular. Here's a picture of Aaron and Sara having otter pops yesterday. Aaron is really going to miss Sara when she starts school next year. And one of Nate--he's getting to the point where he plays pretty well with Aaron and Sara during the day (he thinks he's such a big kid).


Tonight I have to teach a class on gardening at our monthly relief society meeting. Hopefully it goes well. And in the morning Scott leaves for Alaska. He'll be gone 5 days (gets back Sunday night). This is the first time he's had to go at this time of the year. He usually goes for a week in July and then the 4 weeks in October, but now they've added on a week in April, too. We'll survive, but will be very happy to have him back home when it's done.

And in very happy news, Scott got a promotion of sorts at work. 5 1/2 years ago, he was brought on as an assistant to one of the two partners in the company. This partner knew he was preparing for retirement and wanted to train someone to be able to take over all of his accounts when he retired. Well, that day came about a month ago, and Ron Kennedy (who I adore) retired and Scott became the sole sales person on all of those accounts. I was really sad for him to retire--I have loved that Scott has been able to work so closely with him. He has always looked out for Scott, and for our family. He has trained Scott and prepared him to be on his own. I've kind of seen him as a second father to Scott these last 5 years. Those two eat together, travel together, are in meetings together, and I'm sure Scott is going to miss spending so much time with him. Anyway, I digress.... So, with Scott taking over the lead on these accounts (instead of being the assistant), his commission scale needed revised. We knew it was coming, and were trying to be patient till he could talk with the remaining partner, to find out exactly what the new commission would be. Yesterday he had the talk. It's a significant raise and Scott gets to move from his cubicle into an office. I'm still trying to let it really sink in. It's going to be such a relief financially for our family. It is truly an incredible blessing and I am so thankful for all of Scott's hard work to get him to where he is now.

Saturday Happenings

Saturday was hair cut day for the boys. We always keep Josh's hair pretty short (a haircut every 4 weeks), but we'd been letting Aaron and Nate's hair grow out into a longer style. And while I loved the look on the boys, it was time for a change.





All three of them turned out very handsome!

(They were watching a nature show about alligators and snakes and things, thus the intent looks on their faces)

(Nate before church on Sunday)




After the haircuts, we put Nate down for a short nap and the rest of us headed outside for some yard work. We took the winter cover off the sandbox, and the kids have been in sand heaven every day since. I hate having the mess of all the sandy clothes, but the kids love digging in it so much, that I just have to grin and bear it.

After Nate's nap, we went to the zoo. The last time we went, we decided to buy a year family pass. It was the same cost as our family paying single admission to the zoo 2 1/2 times, so we figured it was worth it to just get the family pass and then we have a fun, free activity that we can do anytime we want. We spent a few hours at the zoo, then headed home for a dinner of hot dogs over the fire pit. It was a great day filled with sunshine and fun. We need those kind of days to help us stay happy and sane.

Easter Wrap-Up

I realize I'm a little slow with this, but better late than never.

We left for Aberdeen around 5 Thursday evening. We got home at 7:30 Sunday night. And in between the kids enjoyed every minute at Grandma and Grandpa's house. My parents have a cat with two kittens (which aren't so little anymore), that the kids couldn't keep their hands off of. They spent every minute they could outside holding and playing with the cats. The other times (when it was too cold and snowy to be outside) were filled with a trip to the fire station, an Easter egg hunt with Great Grandma Sorensen, eating, playing with Grandma's toys, and very little sleeping.

Friday Scott and I slipped away for a date. First we went to the Aberdeen Public Library to use their internet. My parents have dial-up which doesn't work so well, and Scott needed reliable (and somewhat fast) internet to do some things for work. So, after hanging out at the library for about half an hour, we headed on to Pocatello for dinner. We used a gift card we'd received for Christmas and had dinner at Applebee's. Then we headed back home to the kids. Just getting a little break away is always nice.

Saturday morning we woke to ice and snow covering everything. We scraped the suburban's windows and braved the icy roads and drove to Blackfoot to the assisted living home where my Grandma lives. They had an Easter egg hunt for all the residents' families. My kids haven't seen my Grandma in years, and really didn't remember her. She is their last Great Grandparent still alive, so it was a great chance for them to get to know her again.

On our way home from Blackfoot, we stopped by my Grandma's house. In the 11 years that we've been married, I haven't been there (which means neither has Scott or the kids). I figured it was about time (before it gets sold and someone else lives there). When I was growing up, it was such a fun place to visit. She lives out in the country, and it was always such an adventure to go exploring. There's the old outhouse, the old train box car, and the old chicken house. The kids thought it was pretty fun to see all that. It wasn't quite the same as when I was a kid, because there weren't any animals running around. When I was growing up, there were always chickens, geese, ducks, peacocks, dogs, cats, etc. running around everywhere. After we looked around outside, we went inside and each of the kids got to pick out some "treasures" to take home. My Grandma had packed up everything she wanted and told everyone to feel free to stop by her house and take anything they wanted. Sara picked out some little bead dolls and porcelain cat salt and pepper shakers. Aaron found some old play cars and tractors. Savannah got a wind chime. And Josh decided he couldn't pass up any of the great stuff there for the taking. He came away with a pinecone turkey, a porcelain alligator, a porcelain cow, a porcelain frog, a little plastic horse and buggy, a birdhouse made out of twigs, and several other things that I can't think of right now. When we were loading back up into the suburban, we discovered that our back license plate had fallen off.

We went home, watched a little conference, then Scott and I loaded back up and drove to Blackfoot and back (80 mile round trip) to see if we could spot our license plate. I kept my eyes peeled to the road, searching, but we didn't have any luck (but it did give us some more alone time away from the kids). We ended up having to just buy new plates when we got back home ($6 plate fee and $9 registration transfer fee).

Saturday night my dad got out his guitar and entertained the kids.


Sunday morning the kids woke up excited to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them. My sister Linda came the night before (her husband had the kids) and was there for all the excitement. As the kids were waiting in the hallway for everyone to be ready to go see their baskets, Nate helped himself to some eggs he found in the hallway.




Then they came out to see what was in their baskets.




This pretty much sums up Savannah's reaction. She got some leggings (which she needed), and did nothing but complain about the fact that she didn't get anything "fun" like the other kids. Josh got tennis balls (he loves to play wall ball) and darts for his nerf gun. Sara got a glitter ball and a twirly ribbon baton. Aaron got sidewalk chalk. And Nate got a ball.




Then the egg hunting began. And then the candy eating began. It's still going on. All in all, it was a fun Easter and a good end to spring break. Unfortunately, it wasn't so restful for me. The kids never sleep very well (they don't want to miss one minute of fun) at Grandma and Grandpa's, and then there's all the unpacking and laundry. It's taken me till now to feel like I've starting to get a handle on things again. It's nice to be getting back into our routines again--early bedtime, homework, me running in the mornings, etc. It's nice to have a break from the structure, but then it's always nice to go back to it.