My baby is all grown up...saving china!

If you haven't seen "Mulan" the title of this post will make no sense to you. But my first baby is all grown up. Finn turned 12 last month and it has been a whirlwind in our house since he turned 12 so I am finally getting to posting about it. He received the priesthood about a week after his birthday and today was the first day he got to pass the sacrament. And I'm not too proud to admit that I got a little teary-eyed watching him. He also got to sit on the stand, being the bishop's right-hand man and every time I caught his eye, he would give me a sly smile. I can't say it enough, he is such a good kid.

He also went on his first scout camp-out this weekend. He was so excited, despite the snowy, cold weather and the fact that the campout was about 10 minutes from our house. He probably asked me no less than 15 times during the day whether I thought it would be cancelled. He had his stuff all packed a few hours before and was the consummate boy scout being prepared for himself and then some. It reminded me of when he was 8 and became a cub scout. He was so excited to go to his first den meeting that he got his blue shirt on with the yellow scarf and then went and sat on the curb by the mailbox with his Cub Scout handbook in hand waiting for his ride to pick him up. I wish I had taken a picture. I only have the mental picture, but believe me- it is pretty darn cute!

On the night Finn was ordained a deacon we had a special dinner with his grandparents to celebrate him. I'm usually not a fru-fru, centerpiece kind of girl, but I wanted to do something special to recognize him. So I decided to put the lego space shuttle he made as the centerpiece along with a picture of him. Then I put some of his hats that represent his hobbies- like one with a fish on it, a camouflage hunting hat, a red Utes hat, etc. all up and down the table. I was so impressed with myself that I took a picture.

Also in honor of Finn's big day, after dinner we went around the table and each shared something we love about Finn. I wrote down what everyone said so we wouldn't forget:

Grandma Shauna- His sense of humor

Grandpa Mike- his acting skills

Katie- that he shares his car mat

Annie- that he plays with her but doesn't tell his friends about it.

Suzie- that he lets her sleep with him

Grandpa Craig- his thoughfulness and tenacity

Grandma Susan- that he says "I love you" back

Dad- that he loves to do the same things his dad loves to do

Mom- that he has always been so obedient and responsible and he is a protector. I tell him that he will be taking care of me when I am 80. (I like to encourage this line of thinking now so it won't even be a question 40 years down the road.)

And even though Finn's 6th grade teacher wasn't at our dinner she did recently share what she loved about Finn too in an email to me. So in her own words, here is what Ms. Allred loves about Finn too:

"He is such a WONDERFUL kid. He is so kind to the other kids and he works really hard to get his work in. I am just really impressed with the way he treats other and how responsible he is. I love ALL the kids. But there are a few that I could clone and mass produce and have a class full of that would make my job stress free and Finn is one of those kids."

Now that I am done bragging about Finn, I am going to do one last thing. I am posting his VERY favorite meal. So now you can try Finn's "Can we pleeeeeeeease have Shepherd's Pie for dinner?" shepherd's pie.

Slice of life

I don't have any big story to tell this week, just some cute stories I don't want to forget.
We actually made it to the library this week. A feat I wish I could make happen more often. One of my favorite sounds, or should I say lack of sounds, is the silence during the car ride home from the library when everyone is engrossed in their new books. During that evening I over heard Katie reading a library book to Suzie. One of the characters in the book had a particularly difficult name to pronounce. So Katie asked Suzie what name she wanted the girl character's name to be, to replace the name she couldn't pronounce. I was expecting Suzie to give a suggestion like Makenna or Sally or Jessica- her usual go-to names when naming her dolls. So i was surprised when she came up with "Suck-ha." I couldn't help but smile every time I heard lines like..."Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Suck-ha." Or "Every night, Suck-ha put up a terrible fuss about going to bed."
One evening this week Eric and I were exchanging some PG, maybe mildly PG-13 texts before he came home from work. I have one of those phones that shows the whole text stream between two people like a conversation with those conversation bubbles. I had left the text stream open, set my phone down and turned around to make dinner. After a minute I turned around and saw that Finn had picked up my phone and was reading the texts between Eric and I. I asked Finn what he was doing and swiftly removed the phone from Finn's hands. He just turned red and started giggling, like only an 11 year old boy can giggle. I was afraid I had scarred him, but apparently all I did was jog his memory because a few minutes later he handed me a note about the 6th grade maturation program next week while saying, "I just remembered you have to sign this."
And if you want to know what those texts said, you'll have to ask me personally!
Another night during dinner the kids started having one of those "How come we never....?" conversations. One of my personal favorite whiny conversation starters where they list all the perceived injustices and deprived aspects of their childhood. The list can include such huge grievances such as "How come we never go on a Disney cruise?" to smaller infractions like "How come we never have chocolate milk?" An interesting phenomenon with these conversations is how they feed off each other. All it takes is one "How come we never...?" statement and the whole dinner conversation is ruined. Kind of like when you find that one moldy berry in the container. You know it won't take long before every other berry is ruined. I don't remember any of the other "How come we never...?" statements from this particular night. (I tend to go to my happy place when these conversations start.) But I do remember Suzie's compliant. I'm sure in an effort to keep up with her siblings and because she has been learning about colors in preschool, she came up with "How come we never see any rainbows?" Well that's a "How come we never..?" statement that though I can't do anything about, I certainly can appreciate. Maybe we should spend more time outside when it rains.

To Be or Not to Be

This past week was the 6th grades' Shakespeare performances at our school. And Finn, being in 6th grade, participated. Now if you had asked me a year ago that Finn would be excited to perform these plays and would even excel at them, I would say (with a Nacho Libre accent) "You're craaazie!" In the past I would never call Finn the dramatic type or the type that likes to draw attention to himself. He can be shy and quiet at times. But Finn has an awesome 6th grade teacher who works all year to help these kids "release their inner dork"- as she calls it. And the Shakespeare plays really highlight all her hard work. These plays are extremely well done. And it isn't a dumbed-down version of Shakespeare- it is the real thing- with costumes, set designs, staging and all. They do shortened versions of four different plays- "Hamlet", "Taming of the Shrew", "Macbeth" and "Mid-Summer's Night Dream" You can tell the teacher and parents who help really work with the kids on expression, dialogue, projection, style and humor. She even encourages them to add their own personality to their parts. Here is Finn as Demetrius in "Mid-Summer's Night Dream". He is fighting with Lysander over Helena. Originally they just fight with swords, but it was Finn's idea to add a light saber.

Soon after this fight, the girls- Helena and Hermia fight and it was Finn's idea to have the boys sit down with a tub of popcorn to watch the "Cat-fight."

And just to prove how much these plays have stretched Finn outside of his comfort zone, here he is begging Helena for a kiss:

Sorry- that would be Pertruchio's hat in the way!

These experiences really help the kids grow. It is awesome to see their humor, personality and confidence blossom right before your eyes.

Earlier last week Finn texted one of his friends who had missed the first day of the performances. This friend was playing Hamlet so Finn was letting him know he really needed to be there. The friend decided to text back right in the middle of scripture reading. I gave Finn "the look" when he got the text. He looked at it quickly and started laughing. I told him since it interrupted scripture study, he needed to share it with all of us. In response to Finn's pleadings for his presence, the friend texted, "I shall come to fulfill my role. Thou needst not worry."

Now you tell me, what other 6th graders would text that and think it is funny if they hadn't been exposed to Shakespeare.

Me thinks I needst not worry about what Finn is doing at school.

Helena, Hermia, Lysander & Demetrius

Heaven Help Us, Not only do we have a persistent cough affecting our house, but we also have a bad case of Bieber Fever!

So I'll start with the persistent cough. It started with Finn about 2 months ago. He kept complaining about his cough, but since he had no other symptoms, I reassured him that it would go away eventually. It was just lingering. Then Annie , then Katie, then Suzie all got it. When Annie got it she also complained about her stomach & throat hurting and she had a low-grade fever too. Since I have been a mother for coming on 12 years, I have finally figured out that if your stomach hurts and your throat hurts, it could be strep throat. The third component in the strep throat trifecta is a headache. So for a few days when I woke Annie up I would ask her how she was feeling, focusing on if she had a headache too. One morning Finn was in the room when I was inquiring Annie about how she was feeling. He said with disgust, "How come you are so concerned about Annie and her cough? When I had that cough all you did was tell me it would go away. Then last year when I had a sunburn, you didn't do anything. But when Annie got a sunburn you rushed out to get medicine to help her feel better." I reminded him that Annie could rattle off a whole list of times we seemed to favor him over her. I mean how many times have I heard, "Dad, ALWAYS does (fill in the blank) with Finn and he NEVER does anything with me!" Needless to say, "Life isn't fair." is a common refrain in our household.

Which leads me to the next part of this post. Another recent common refrain in our house, also much to Finn's disgust, is "I just love Justin Bieber!" So my girls were too young to catch the Britney Spears craze, Hannah Montana was a glancing blow and the Jonas Brothers were just a flash in the pan compared to the case of Bieber Fever we got going on in our house. It began just a few weeks ago when Annie was watching her favorite show, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" with Justin as a guest star. Annie's quick rise in emotions and adoration for Justin mirrored the singer's career path itself: fast and furious. The spark ignited by the Makeover show roared to a blaze when she went to school and soon discovered other girls suffering from the same condition.

Pretty soon "Never Say Never" and "Baby, baby, oh" lyrics were filling our house and Annie was begging me to see the new Justin Bieber movie. I adamantly denied this request until I was talking with some girlfriends who told me they had taken their girls to it and said it was actually good. They even admitted they would see it again. So yesterday I gritted my teeth and took my girls to see the "Never Say Never" bio-documentary of a 16 year old who I am old enough to be his mother. Annie was literally on the edge of her seat with her mouth gaping half open during most of the movie. She didn't even eat a single kernel of popcorn. Katie on the other hand was quite bored by it and said all it was was singing and talking. She also admitted that all the girls screaming gave her headache. But she assured us all after that she still loved Justin Bieber. Suzie did pretty good during the movie. She was rockin out with the rest of the theater, but she did fall asleep during the last 20 minutes of the movie. I guess the climax of Justin getting over his sore throat and being able to perform at Madison Square Garden just didn't enthrall her all that much. (Sorry if I just spoiled the movie for you!)

And even though as an adult all this tween crush stuff can at times seem really silly to me, I do know that it is part of growing up. So I find myself biting my tongue when Annie talks about "how beautiful Justin Bieber is" because I too had a preteen crush. And it wasn't on someone cool like Michael Jackson and I was a little too old by the time New Kids on the Block came around. It was Jack Wagner. Ever heard of him? Don't worry... not that many people had either back in the eighties when I was 9. But my sister and I were big General Hospital fans where he played Frisco Jones. He also sang the one-hit wonder "All I Need." We even went to his concert, my first concert ever. I can't imagine what else he sang to fill the two hour concert, but it didn't matter. Because I too thought he was beautiful.

At this point I wanted to provide you with a little eye-candy in the form of a picture of Jack Wagner with his sweet mullet circa 1984, but I couldn't get the picture to load. So I will just direct you here if you really must see a picture of him. And in my search for a Jack Wagner picture I found a book called "Getting Over Jack Wagner: Love is Nothing like an eighties song." So I guess there are more people out there besides my sister and I who had a crush on Jack. I just wish there had been a cute name for our condition like there is for Annie. But having "Wagner Whooping Cough" just isn't as cool as "Bieber Fever!"

My Recurring Nightmare, Come True.

I believe dreams can be quite powerful. I have had dreams that have conveyed important messages. I have had dreams that have warned me. I have had dreams that have given me comfort. Of course I have also had dreams that have been complete nonsense. But I do have a few recurring dreams and one in particular I consider a nightmare of sorts.

This recurring nightmare goes something like this- I am back in college, it's toward the end of the semester and I still can't remember what my schedule is. I don't remember where my next class is or even what my next class is. Then I realize that I haven't done most of the work for the class and I will probably fail. And if you were me in college, that is a definite nightmare.

I'm not exactly sure what the deeper meaning of this recurring dream is- probably something about not feeling prepared. But I do think it is interesting that I always go back to a previous stage of life. My mom also a recurring nightmare that has varying settings, but she is always having to do something difficult with a bunch of little kids in toe. Which would be a step back in her life too.

Well about a month ago, my step back in time nightmare became my current reality. I am back in college for real. I am taking an Integrated Early Childhood Curriculum course at the U. There are various reasons why I am working on earning my Early Childhood License and renewing my teaching certificate at the same time, but for the main reason I can thank Mr. Obama and how his "generous" healthcare bill affects small business owners like Eric. So I have started on the path toward becoming a part-time kindergarten teacher so we can have reasonable insurance. Which is a reality for a lot of teachers who work for insurance and I'm just grateful I have a degree in a profession where I can get insurance as a part-time employee.

But it has been interesting being back in college as a 30 something way closer to her 40's than her 20's. On the first day I was worried I wouldn't be able to find my class. Where would I park? Where do I buy my books? Should I take just a notebook? If I do, would I look ancient because I don't have a laptop to take notes? But what if take a laptop and I look like a major geek? (In the end I decided it would be better to be "underdressed" rather than "overdressed" and just took a notebook. ) But the point is I found all the "insecurities" I felt in my recurring dream coming out for real before I started the class.

But now that I have been in class for a month now, I have found that being in college at 36 is way different from being in college at 18. It isn't nearly as stressful to me. Granted, I'm only taking one class, but I think I have commented more times in my current class than I did my whole first year of college. I've realized that having 4 children and being a stay-at-home mom for almost 12 years really has been useful when it comes to understanding child development. Obviously my confidence in the class is bolstered from already having my degree in elementary education and having taught for 5 years, but I am honestly enjoying it more than I thought it would.

And good news, since I started my class, I haven't had one nightmare about being in college and not being prepared. But I am a little worried about what recurring dream I could start having now. I'm afraid it may have something to do with being labor!

"I Like Me Too."

My baby turned four this week, so this whole post is going to be about her. So if you don't like Suzie stories, you might just want to move on.
I just love my Suz! She is such an independent, confident, charming, bossy little bugger. She has the mentality of an oldest child combined with all the spoiling of the youngest child.

So the first Suzie story relates to the title of this post. A few weeks ago I was drying Suzie off after her bath. I gave her a kiss on her cheeks as I was drying her face. She said, "Why did you kiss me?" I said, "Because I love you." Then she asked, "Do you like me?" I responded, "Yes." I fully expected a "I like you too." response. But instead she replies with a, "I like me too." Well who wouldn't?!?

Suzie loves, loves movies. She will even quote them. My favorite one she quotes is Nacho Libre. She will say, "Go away. Read some books." Or when I give her hug when she is going to bed she will grab my neck and say, "I give you da squaa-weeze!"

She is also my best eater. She loves most food. I had made some noodles the other day and gave her a bowl. She saw that there were still noodles in the pan and informed me that she wanted ALL the noodles. I told her they wouldn't all fit in her bowl. She said, "Then get a bigger bowl." Well of course. Why didn't I think of that!

She has discriminating taste in clothes. She has a outfit that she calls her "rockstar clothes". It has a ruffly top and pants with a crazy design. And when I wear a sweatshirt and my camouflage pants she will ask, "Why are you wearing your ugly clothes, mom?"

She is voted the favorite prayer-giver by the kids because her prayers last about 2.5 seconds. They usually go something like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the food. Amen." Or "Dear Heavenly Father, Bless that we won't have bad dreams. Amen." One time I suggest she make her prayers longer by thanking Heavenly Father for all the things he has blesses us with. She took this suggestion to heart because her prayer went something like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for all the things. Amen."

She also knows her place in the family. One night Eric and I were in our room discussing some "criminal mischief" that had taken place in our house that day like a shelf in the pantry being broken from being used as a ladder to the top where the "good food" is. Suzie's room is across the hall from ours and she overheard our discussion from her bed. Without being asked if she was the one who broke the shelf, she offered up, "I didn't do it. I'm too small."

She also knows Eric's place in the family. She was naming everyone in the family and ticking them off on her fingers. Like touching her pointer finger and saying, "There's Finn." then moving to her middle finger and saying, "And Annie." After she finished the whole family she turned to Eric and said, "Daddy, you're the thumb."

Her view of Eric as the thumb might also explain the comment she made to him while lifting up her shirt and proclaiming, "Daddy, our tummies match!" (Eric is another one of my best eaters too!)

One day she was playing house with Katie and her friend Ellie. When I walked past them while they were playing she told me, "I'm the mom and these are my two sweeties."

But my most favorite recent Suzie story is when she was giving me a kiss and said, "Mom when I give you a kiss, it means love." Absolutely.

A big dose of reality

I usually blog on the weekends, but this story is too good.. it deserved a midweek post.

Let me preface this story with another story. On Christmas Eve, we saw some neighbors who we lived by when I was in my twenties. They have a son who is in his early twenties who was just a kid when we lived by them. Well his mother, my friend, told me that he had told her,"Kari doesn't look like she is getting older at all. In fact she looks like she is getting younger and younger." I mostly attribute this to the fact that I have grown my hair out longer. But this didn't stop me from fully accepting this compliment and proclaiming it as the best Christmas present of the year, if not ever!

Now fast forward to this week. Suzie is in a 3-4 year old dance class and there is a mom of another 3 or 4 year old in that same dance class who has looked so familiar to me. I have tried and tried to figure out how I know this woman. She is kind of quiet and keeps to her self, so I have never spoken with her. I figured maybe she just works at Costco. (See sometimes when I am at Costco, I will look at the people that work there and think. "How do I know you?" and then I remember that I know them because they work at Costco and I am there once a week.) Anyway I gave up trying to figure out how I know her.

Until this week. After dance class, the little girl of this woman passed out birthday party invitations to all the girls in the class. As Suzie and I opened the invitation and I read the mom's name on the R.S.V.P. line, it hit me like a ton of bricks who this "woman" is.

I TAUGHT THIS "WOMAN" IN 6TH GRADE!

To be sure I went home and pulled out my scrapbook to find my class picture from those years and sure enough here she is in overalls on the front row of my first year of teaching.

Now in my defense I am only 10 years older than these kids, but it still stung. And it didn't help that I later went to the pharmacy and dropped of my prescription to a pharmacist who was a former student too. Seriously, I am suppose to only be 25 and how can I be 25 if these former students are 26!

Then to add insult to injury, I had this exchange with Katie recently:

Katie: Mom, you don't look like you are 36.

Mom: How old do I look?

Katie: You look like you are 28.

Mom: Silent, but smiling.

Katie: (Adding after a moment) Except for the wrinkles.

Mom: Silent, but not so much smiling.