Sisters, Sisters There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters

Thursday, the first of a joyous round of visits from loved ones over the next handful of weeks began, with the arrival of my sister from Laguna Beach, CA.  It was a wonderful and too-quick four days.  The boys were so happy to play with, show off for, and talk to their Auntie Lili.  As for me, well, all morning Thursday, with my drive to the airport to pick her up ahead of me, I couldn't wipe the giddy smile off of my face.  I was so excited!  It was a blissful visit as she joined us in our busy routine, as it always is, even when she suffered through a stomach bug Friday night.  I think she and I could have had a week more, disregarded sleep completely, and still had things to talk about.  I love this beautiful sister of mine!  Thanks so much for the visit, Leah!  We love you so very much!

Since Easter

Since Easter we've enjoyed using our first new family computer ever.  EVER.  Yes, it is sad, but we've only owned hand-me-down computers since our marriage 14 years ago, and before our marriage neither Adam nor I owned one at all.  What can I say?  We are kind of cheap when it comes to big-ticket items like that!  We did buy a new laptop for Adam when he went back to BYU for his MBA, but by the time it became our family computer it was no longer new.  This new computer is exciting.  It's so new-fangled and fancy, I almost don't understand it.  But I'm willing to learn!  Just for a reference point I have included pictures of both the new computer and our old one.  On the old one you will see the tab key has completely fallen off and the plug is ghetto-rigged with tape.  This is because if the plug was not in the exact position required, it would not turn on, oh, and it didn't hold a charge for more than 30 seconds, so if the plug fell out of it's exact positioning, it just turned off with no warning.  You can see why we are all excited about this new one.

 

Since Easter we have enjoyed some rainy afternoons, jumping on the trampoline in the falling droplets, and one massive thunderstorm that passed through just before midnight one night.  Ben was the only child awakened by the pounding hail, ceaseless thunder and continuous lightning flashes, so he, Adam and I cuddled under the blankets on our bed and watched it out the window and on the doppler app on my phone until it passed.  It was cool!  We love the rain!

Since Easter we have played A LOT of soccer.  We've won some, we've lost some.  We've driven near and far.  We've played well, we've played not so well.  But we're always having fun.

Since Easter we've had tons of sunshine, warm and beautiful, making for happiness and green growing things, to go along with those afternoon rain storms.  And then, of course, since we do live in Colorado after all, we had one morning where we looked out our window and what did we see?  No.  Not popcorn popping on our apricot tree, but SNOWBALLS resting on it.  Ahh, Colorado Springs, I will never get used to your wacky weather!

Since Easter we've found fun things to do with our spare time and our spare empty plastic Easter eggs.  Tommy excitedly finds these empty eggs, hoping he might find just one more full of jelly beans, and after a quick shake, dejectedly drops it to the floor.  Dang empty eggs.  Josh and Ben, on the flip side, are happy for empty eggs and the things they can become!

Since Easter we've cheered Zac on as he completed his 5th Grade Exhibition Project, a product of months of solo and group work wherein all of the skills of the IB program are put to use.  His project was on the pros and cons of technology.  And very well done!  The day after this massive project was completed, we said "goodbye" (even though there is a month-and-a-half of school left) to elementary school along side our sweet Zac and his fellow 5th graders with a night out at the AIES 5th Grade Carnival.  What a fun evening!  I can't believe we have a son headed for middle school next year.  Where did the time go?  How can we be here already?!  Eep!

Since Easter we've had a fun grown-ups only date night up at Dave and Buster's in Denver (a.k.a. "Plumbers and Prostitutes" renamed for the after 10pm crowd's attire...or lack thereof) with our two favorite date night couples, Vern and Jen Maloy and Chad and Adri Murdock, as a last hurrah for us all before the Maloys move on to Utah.  Boo.  The evening was great though, mostly because of the fantastic friends we were there with.  Dave and Buster's is like a Chuck E. Cheese's but for big kids.  Which we certainly are when we are all together, just a bunch of big kids!  It was followed by a harrowing drive through the snowstorm that gave us the snowballs on the trees.

Since Easter we've survived two days where Mom was down and out with the stomach flu, thanks to our wonderful, amazing, heroic Super Dad.  While I alternately became intimate with Sir John and existed in a sleepy delirious stupor for 15 hours, Adam held down the fort.  And then, while I recovered from my misery over another day, Adam took work off and played mom and dad fabulously.  I didn't get any photos of me ill (on purpose), but I did catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror in one of my trips to the toilet and I looked something like this.

That's about it, since Easter. 

Maybe I'm Going Crazy

This photo is a very good depiction of why my posts have been so sporadic recently, several posts and then...silence.  It's not that there haven't been plenty of fun anecdotes.  Like when Zac received a sparkle-painted blown-out egg just before Easter with a secret-admirer message inside that he refused to let me take a picture of or write a post about (this subtle mention of the incident is my passive-aggressive solution to that refusal).  It's not that we don't have a lot going on.  HA!  It's not that I'm never able to find the time, there is usually at least a little bit of time at the end of the day to post if I really want to.

It's that my brain is full.  Really.  Full to the brim.  I sit to post, but then I can't think of anything to say that isn't, "Today the boys had soccer games.  The end." or "Tommy was funny today.  The end."  Not interesting.  Borrrrrrrr-ing.  Not something you want to read; not something my family or I want to read in the years ahead once this year's blog becomes a book for the family record.  My head is too befuddled for creative writing.  Yes, that has to be it.  The brain is full.  I hope that's it, at least.  Otherwise I am pretty sure I am either going a little crazy or I have early-onset Alzheimer's and that is scary.

The inability to write is just the tip of the iceberg.  The reason I think my brain is full, or that I am going crazy, or that maybe I am even facing the scary Alzheimer's self-diagnosis is because I've regularly been doing things like this for the past two months:

I air-popped the corn, and pulled the bowl to melt the butter in the microwave out of the cupboard, but then I unwrapped the butter and plunked it down on top of the popcorn instead of putting it in the bowl.  Wha?

That's just one of many "What am I doing?!" moments I've had recently.  There is also putting the milk away in the cupboard.  Adding twice the amount of butter to the homemade syrup, after I triple-checked the recipe.  Putting my keys into the mailbox instead of pulling the mail out.  If it's not put on the calendar, it is forgotten.  Completely forgotten.  The list could go on for awhile here, folks.  Crazy, no?

This morning I drifted in and out of sleep starting about 6:15am (Adam's allergies are going crazy right now and he was sneezing...a lot...all night long).  About 6:45 I reached over and turned on my alarm for 7:30, because I was nervous, with all the drifting, that I'd fall deeply asleep and miss my wake-up time.  I had to get up to meet a friend for a run at 7:45.  At least I thought I did.  The alarm went off, I got up, got dressed for the run and went downstairs.  All the big kids were there, Ben was even dressed, in a shirt with a collar (which was a little surreal, because he NEVER wears collared shirts if it is not Sunday right before church).  I was so confused.  Why were they all up so early on Saturday?  Why was Ben in that collared shirt?  My brain had skipped over THREE days and I didn't even realize it until AFTER I had said, "Why is everyone up already?"  It wasn't Saturday.  It was Wednesday, and it was class picture day at school.  Alzheimer's, no?

For now, I am going to believe that it is just that my brain is full of Zac, Ben, Josh, Luke and Tom: love, care, stress, frustration, consideration, playing, friendships, faith, soccer, soccer, soccer.  It's full of my dear Adam and his work.  It's full of teaching and preparing for preschool and  worrying about and caring about the Young Women.  It's full of schedules, things to do and places to be.  It's full of meetings.  It's full of vacuuming and mopping and dusting.  It's full of what needs to be done and what could be done.  It's full of errands and grocery visits and quick stop-ins.  It's full of friends and trying to be helpful.  It's full of dinner making and lunch packing.  It's full of school this and school that and end-of-year programs and information for next year.

Please tell me that you have had full-brain periods in your life too (and being pregnant does not count, because I am not pregnant), where you are regularly doing kind-of crazy things like those listed above.  Otherwise I'm making an appointment with the neurologist today.

Images of Easter (and Some Great Quotes from the Day)

Luke:  "Why did the Easter Bunny give me Clay Face in my Easter basket?  He must not be very smart.  Clay Face is a bad guy, and Easter is all about Jesus.  He should have given me a good guy.  But I still love my Clay Face!"

Tommy: "HATCHING!" (shouted as he chucks a hard boiled egg to the ground as hard as he can; all eggs with cracks in them he has declared "hatching" and has made an effort to help many whole eggs along their way to hatching)

Ben: "Ha!  Eight, no, nine eggs found!  I am the Egg-Finder Master!"  

Mom: "If you put the vanilla buttercream frosting for the cupcakes on the orange-cardamom bunny rolls, it kinda tastes like you are eating an orange cinnamon roll...you can thank me for that little tip later."

Dad: "I feel sorry for the primary teachers at church today...oh wait...that's me."

Zac: "You are going to make me sit at that end of the counter?  That means I have to sit by The Yolk-Snatcher!" (said at dinner, Tommy had stolen Ben's hard-boiled egg yolk earlier in the day and popped the whole darn thing in his mouth before Ben even realized it was gone)

Josh: "And we thank Thee for this beautiful Sabbath day, especially for Easter, and Jesus, and His atonement and resurrection, oh, and for my boom ball game and all the candy." (said during bedtime prayers)

President Thomas S. Monson: "I declare my personal witness that death has been conquered, victory over the tomb has been won. May the words made sacred by Him who fulfilled them become actual knowledge to all. ... He is risen."