Ambulances, Fire Engines, Blue Tongues, and the Beach

The first Saturday the weather changed we donned our bathing suits and headed down to Santa Cruz. We love the beach!








Annual Children's Faire at the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose


Thanks to the blue shaved ice, B~ and N~ and I stayed somewhat hydrated. Now, the sunburns... that's a different story. Just kidding. Thanks for the spray-on sun screen Ruth. You saved our skins! :)










"A shark fire engine, mom! That's just cool!"









My crazy boys and three adorable Seagraves girls. Look at the two eldest - now wouldn't they make a cute little couple some day?









B~ in the ambulance. He got to breathe in the oxygen and sit on the gurney. Some day (heaven forbid) if he ever has to take a ride in an ambulance, at least he won't be scared.

REBATE

It's coming! The Accounting Man just told me that mine is in the first group of checks. YES! Government money to "boost" the economy. It's an interesting idea, and I hope that some of those getting their checks in the mail make it worth the effort and do what it was supposed to accomplish. For me, it's money in my pocket... no wait, it's money in American Express's pocket... I already "boosted" the economy by GOING INTO DEBT! Ahh, "debt-free-land" I am on my way. Thank you, stupid government. Ya gotta love America. :)

LDS not FLDS

The other day my neighbor asked me if my church was getting a lot of flack from what's been in the news lately. I told him I hadn't had anyone treat me any differently. I feel horrible for what the women and children in Texas have been going through. I wish there was some way I could help. I am not and have never been the sort of person who thinks it is the best solution to remove children from their mothers except under extreme circumstances. I have conflicting feelings over this situation, because as far as I understand, it is mostly the men of this group who are at fault. (Disagree with me if you want to, but I stand firm in my feelings here.)

UPDATE: After some reflection (and thanks to my sister's comments) I decided to delete the main body of this post. I kept the links of the two LDS leaders' talks, though, and encourage everyone to take time to read them. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I pray for the families in Texas who have been affected by this tragedy.


This woman served as a leader in the Mormon church. She recently spoke to teenage girls worldwide. She encouraged them to stand up to peer pressure, strengthen their families and serve others. (Click here for more.)










This is one of the leaders of the Mormon church. Last Sunday he spoke about honoring women, especially mothers, and gave advice to husbands and children about how to treat the women in their lives. (For the whole story, click here.)

Meetings

Monday:
1. Meet with father of 2nd grader to discuss her failing appendix and upcoming surgery and how this will affect her (and her sister) at school these next couple of months
2. Meet with District Specialist to discuss summer curriculum
3. Drive to Sacramento to prepare for meetings Tuesday
4. Meet "Tall, Dark, and Handsome" for dinner (I liked this meeting)

Tuesday:
1. Meet with state legislators, state secretary of education, state assemblyman, and state senator to advocate for and discuss the importance of preschool
2. Meet friends for dinner
3. Drive back to Sunnyvale, meet babysitter at door w/money in hand

Wednesday:
1. Meet with school representatives to discuss board meeting on Thursday
2. Meet with assistant director to go over staff meeting agenda for next day

Thursday:
1. Director's meeting to discuss and plan summer curriculum
2. Meet with principal to discuss plans for next year and tonight's school board meeting
3. Staff meeting
4. School board meeting to present argument for continuing preschool program at current location

Friday:
1. Follow-up meeting with principal
2. Meet with preschool parent to discuss biting incident last week
3. Meet with 1st grader's parents to discuss classroom behavior
4. Meet mom for the opera (looking forward to this meeting)


Would anyone like to challenge me now that my job is "just babysitting"? I thought not.

Compulsive Beginner

I love to read. I read chapter books, story books, poem books, and scriptures to my kids before they go to bed. I read novels, self-help books, books about raising children, cookbooks, how-to books, historical fiction, books on relationships, books about quilting, books written by the General Authorities of the Church. I listen to audio books in the car almost every day. And I love to BUY new books! But here's the problem. I have a really hard time finishing them. I am currently in the middle of eleven books right now. ELEVEN. And I really do mean I'm right in the middle of them. Some of them I'm completely riveted to, some I've been browsing for a few months. It kind of depends on my mood, I guess. One day my eldest said to me, "Mom, can we finish this book before we read any more of the other one? I'm getting the stories mixed up in my head."

So I'm starting to wonder if this isn't some sort of sign about me. I'm really great at beginning things, but I have a difficult time ending them before I feel like moving on to something new.

Take household chores for example. I have no problem putting dishes in the dishwasher and turning them on. But when they're done I have a tough time getting around to actually putting them away. (That's what my 6-year-old is for, right?) Or laundry. This is embarrassing. I have been known to have piles of clean clothes on my bedroom floor all week - until the next laundry day when I just add to last week's pile. "Mom, I can't find my black shirt." "Have you checked my bedroom floor yet?" Oh they're folded or at least in organized sections, but not put away yet - I had to vacuum the floor first... and what's that toy doing all the way over here? It's supposed to be in that room over there where the computer is. Man, do these boys ever put away their computer games?!

Okay, let's talk about work. I have HOARDS of deadlines. I start working on a project with all intensions of finishing it by the end of the day, only to get to 5:00 with four more "nearly done" projects on my desk.

Music. I love listening to a new cd. But half way through I feel like listening to something else. It's not that I don't like what I'm listening to, or even that I'm bored. I just feel like doing something new. And let's not forget my piano lessons. How many pieces by Chopin and Debussy can one person work on at a time?

Food. I love eating out. But have I ever finished an entire meal at a restaurant? Ask my dates who end up paying for a whole meal that was only half eaten - only to be buying me an ice cream or hot chocolate 30 minutes later.

Maybe this is just typical procrastination. Maybe it's a sign of ADD. Maybe I've repressed something from my youth. I don't know!

Tall, Dark, and Handsome

Not sure what it is about those three words, but boy do I love them! Somehow I just keep getting luckier... I think each guy I date is more handsome than the last! And when things don't work out with the guy I'm with I just KNOW I could never find a man better looking than "he" was.

And then

-- BAM --

before I know it Tall, Dark, and Handsome walks into the room! And of course he's interested in me, because... well, who wouldn't be?!

Looking forward to Monday night!


**Bet you thought I was going to write more details, huh? Well, think again!**

Does this make sense?

Just ranting a bit right now. Needing a sound-board...

Last year my ex-husband got a sizeable raise. We made a mutual agreement that we wouldn't deal with the paperwork and headache it takes to change child support payments, and he agreed to bring extra cash with him each month for the boys when he comes to visit them. Since December, when things started getting a bit strained between us, I haven't seen anything but the normal payments. My checking account has been really suffering these last couple of months. The boys' gymnastics competition season just began and it's pretty darn expensive! And that's on top of their monthly tuition! So last weekend I get this email from him asking me to help pay for one of the boys' plane tickets to Regional Championships (he and his mom will be flying out to meet them there -- I'm not going).

Um... HUH???!! So okay, I admit I should have asked him earlier about the lack of monitary support these last FOUR months, but seriously, talking about money with this man makes my stomach ache. In fact, talking about pretty much ANYTHING lately throws me into anxiety fits. So what do I do? I take 3 days to answer his stupid request. I say, "sure, I can help pay for one of the tickets, but I will have to pay you back if that's okay. I am running low on funds lately."

Does this make ANY sense to you? Either I need to get a backbone or someone needs to run him over with a mack truck. Because honestly, I'm tired of fighting this man. Period.

A 9-Year-Old's Testimony

Six years ago this summer I became a single mom. I had so many serious doubts about my ability to accomplish this feat. How could I teach my boys all they needed to learn to grow into strong men without a dad in their home? What would I do the first time one of them approached me with a serious problem? "I don't know anything about raising boys!" I thought. And raising them alone? Well, that just scared me.

But over the years I've learned that it wasn't as frightening as I had originally thought. And often I've realized that instead of me teaching them, they are teaching me. Take Tuesday night for instance. The boys and I were eating dinner together and I turned on this last General Conference in the computer. I love General Conference, but during this last session I was on a business trip in Southern California, and I missed most of it. So I was trying to catch up a bit and we were listening to the first talk from Saturday afternoon. It was Elder Oaks' talk on Testimony. My younger son finished eating before the rest of us (a miracle in itself) so I sent him to take a shower. Not long afterward my eldest said to me, "mom, I need to talk to you about something." Of course, when your child opens a conversation with that, the first thing you do is LISTEN. So I put the talk on pause and asked, "what's up?" Here's approximately how our conversation went:

B: "Well, I've been feeling this way for a long time now."
me: "What way, hon?"
B: "Like, when we've read the scriptures or when I was watching Conference with grandma last weekend... well, I keep hearing this voice in my head say to me 'how do you know this is true?' And it doesn't feel very good."
(By this time tears were streaming down his face. I had to bite my lip not to join him. I knew he needed me to be strong and help him find the answers. But it was pretty darn hard.)
me: "Does it make you feel sad?"
B: "Yeah, because, you know, I know the church is true and everything, but I keep having those thoughts, 'Well, how do you know?'"
me: "How do we know the scriptures are true?"
B: "Um, because of the priesthood?"
me: "Well, it's even simpler than that. Here, why don't you read something for me."
(I got my Book of Mormon out for him and turned to -- guess where -- Moroni 10:3-5.)
me: "Read these three verses out loud for me. K?"
(He did. I stopped him at every important point. Read. Ponder. Pray. We talked about what all that means and then read Moroni's promise.)
me: "Do you want to try that tonight?"
(He nodded and then climbed into my lap. Okay, I let a couple tears escape.)
me: "Know what, B? You are amazing. You're only 9 years old. Wanna know how old I was when I asked these questions?"
B: "How old were you, mom?"
me: (I paused so he would look at me, and then I said) "I was 21."
(He couldn't believe it. So I asked him to remember what I did when I was 21 years old. He thought for a minute and then ventured, "you went on a mission?"
me: "Yep. And I realized that if I was going to spend 18 months preaching the gospel of Christ, I'd better know for sure if what I was teaching was true. I had always known the church was true because I was taught by good parents, just like you. But I'd never really asked to find out for myself until right before I went on a mission. And you're only NINE! You are so amazing, son. Heavenly Father is so proud of you."

My son was almost literally beaming for the rest of the evening. He couldn't wipe the smile off his face all night.

My Patriarchal Blessing tells me I'll bring some of the choice spirits to earth. Boy did that ever come true! I am so blessed to have these little boys in my life! I can't imagine my life without them.