Bah Humbug?

I just walked in the bedroom to find the cutest scene ever; I was moving my clothes off the bed and getting in when I spotted the baby sleeping on Shawn’s chest.  Wish I could take a picture of them both sound asleep like that but I’m sure it would wake at least one of them up.  I love that my husband loves his baby so much!  My life feels like an ABC family movie today.  At least that’s what I was thinking tonight…after all the kids were in bed and Shawn and I were stringing up lights.  I’m sure that during the day I was frustrated with the children, but I couldn’t remember what I was mad about after they were in bed :).   

I usually have a pretty bad attitude about Christmas- including this year, but I decided today to make a little more of an effort.  We bought a bunch more lights and I decorated, bought all the stuff for gingerbread houses (good thing ‘cause I spontaneously invited all the neighborhood kids over for a gingerbread house making party tomorrow), I’m digging out my Christmas music (which I never listen to), and I even went on the hunt for some cute wall decals and a nativity scene.  I guess what really makes the holidays is your attitude about them. 

Memory Lane

I was writing in my journal tonight and my mind wandered to childhood years.  I just thought I'd post a little section of it that some of my siblings might remember or at least find interesting...

When you become a mom you also realize as you tell your children things that you don’t want them to do, that you did exactly those same things when you were a kid.  And you might feel a little guilty…but not enough to not tell them those things.  The tricky part is when there’s proof and the kids find it.  I remember this picture we used to wave in my mom’s face sometimes when she’d tell us our shorts were too short and to go change.  It was her and her best friend in these super short white shorts and we’d start a little campaign with “What I’m wearing is NOTHING like what you used to wear!”  You’d have to know my mom to fully get this because she’s so modest and sweet but this one would really get her going and we knew it… “That was a MARCHING BAND UNIFORM!” Followed by us saying something like, “Oh so if I join the marching band I can wear-“ but we didn’t get very far with that because she’d interrupt with, “Ha! Yes, if you joined the marching band you can wear whatever you want.  I’d sure like to see that.”  Yeah that argument fell flat real fast.  It was pretty safe for her too. We didn’t even have a marching band…

            You know eventually that picture went missing.  Couldn’t find it anywhere.  I just liked to get my mother fired up sometimes, it was fun to tease her because she is so patient and it was so hard to make her mad.  There isn’t a mean bone in her body. Even when she was really fed up we knew she didn’t mean it.  One of the things we really liked to do was play tag with my Dad in the evening.  This was in the house, and it was just this ongoing little game that wasn’t too rowdy, the whole point was you didn’t want to be “it” when you went to bed.  Well, okay, sometimes it really did get rowdy, but not always!  Dad would lay on the floor near the doorway and we’d have to get past him to get to bed so there were always various tactics in use like pretending you weren’t playing anymore and nonchalantly strolling past, waiting to see if he’d fall asleep or forget, or run through when he wasn’t looking, etc.  Sometimes these games would stretch quite some time past bedtime and mom was ready to go to bed.  She couldn’t sleep unless the entire house was quiet so she’d have to wait for everyone else to go to bed too.  When she got REALLY tired of waiting and telling us we needed to be done and go to bed now, she’d eventually get the broom out (that’s when we knew she was serious and we needed to end the game quick) and start chasing us around the living room.  While we knew that meant we needed to go to bed it was just the most hilarious thing to see and we’d be laughing uproariously still trying to get one last “tag” in on the way to bed.  It was so funny ‘cause what was she going to do once she caught us with the broom?”  She wasn’t going to hit anyone with it, it was more like she was trying to sweep us out of the room with it :).  I guess you just have to know her.  And when she was mad at us she’d call us names like, “You little stinker!”  That was the most common one.  Or, “You little munchkin.”  It didn't engender much fear.  

I actually said that to my husband the other day.  I had cleaned the closet and done this really awesome job of organizing everything, and he went through it and pulled out all this stuff I had just put in there and LEFT it on the living room floor.  When I went to clean the living room and saw what he'd done to it I hollered, "You little stinker!" and started on this mini rampage. He didn't even know I was talking to him.  Eventually he went, "What, oh, you mean me?!"  Yeah, thanks mom :)

Traditions

Family Traditions: Something mentioned today that I’ve thought about before, is that sometimes we do something once, and then kids remember it forevermore as something we “always” used to do.  I think everyone does it.  Things are cemented in our minds as things we just “did” in our families, not accounting for freak accidents or chance.

Some things I remember in my family, that really stand out to me right now.  Mom making her own cheese, carrot juice, butter, sprouts, and always experimenting with new foods or recipes (usually to make them healthier).  Cutting up deer together.  Going huckleberry picking.  Getting firewood together.  Camping.  Wrangling cows.  Hunting mushrooms.  Dad picking the first water lilies of the season for Mom.  Water fights!  Tubing down the river. Tunnel Beach.  Family reunions. Hot dog roasts and piling slash together.  Canning fruit. Gardening.  Family Home Evening.  Family Scriptures.  Sleeping on the trampoline or back porch.  Quilting with Mom.  Baking bread.  Fishing with Dad.  Potato Salad.  Healthy pies.  Pot roasts on Sundays.  Family prayer at night.  Bedtime stories.  Singing! Sledding parties at the Lloyds.  Tea.  Picking herbs for Mom.  Staying up stuffing stockings for the other kids on Christmas Eve.  Picking out the tree Christmas Eve with Dad.  Dad always telling us we were going to “Timbuktu” whenever it was supposed to be a surprise. -Surprise trips to Grandma’s.  Picking what’s for dinner on your birthday. Going to ward choir with Mom.  Circle games.  Family pictures.  Cleaning out the attic.  Sliding down the barn roof in winter.  Tag on the hay bales.  Harvest Parties and Extension Club meetings at the old schoolhouse.  And so much more.

I was listening to a program that talked about traditions as the glue that holds families together, and intentionally establishing them.  I think I need to do that.

Our 4 day weekend. Happy Veteran's Day

Current Events- Demetri’s bike and scooter were both stolen from our fended patio, in the light, while we were home.  Unhappy.  But he took it well.  I think he knows we’ll try to make it up to him.  It was put away where it goes and the other boys’ toys weren’t stolen.  Strange.  Three scooters and two bikes and they only picked his– they weren’t even the nicest.

-My phone is broken.  Love having a computer/electronics geek for a husband.  What I need is ordered and it should be fixed by next week.

-Household goods arrived early!  They come bright and early in the morning :)

-The pipes under the kitchen sink busted over the weekend but are now fixed. 

And we had gymnastics trials.  That was interesting.  Olie loved the first place we went to.  Demetri thought the teacher was too strict, haha.  However, the second place, which we’re leaning toward for many reasons, was a sad experience for both boys.  Olie accidentally went to Demetri’s class, which was first.  The teacher worked them much harder than Olie’s class would have been, and didn’t put in the “fun” activities for little kids. Olie hated it, and came back early to sit with me, saying he didn’t like gymnastics anymore.  But at the end the coach came up and told me how great he did, found out he was too young, and was surprised but recommended him for the long and more advanced class.  There’s no way, because Olie’s really just in it for the fun, not to work hard, but it’s amazing what we can do when it seems to be expected of us.  Of course, Demetri went to pieces because he didn’t get to go to his class, but we rescheduled, and it will be just fine.

A Long Day

Today is election day.  Also a holiday for all the children in the neighborhood- which means I had little success getting mine to stay inside and do their schoolwork today.  They did a little this morning.  But right now, there are about 8 children on my porch playing with Demetri’s CSI forensic entomology kit.  What does a bug kit have to do with CSI?  As nearly as I can tell, nothing...just hype to help make the kids want to buy the product.  Anyway, my kids, and all the neighborhood kids, seem to love it!  They’ve been catching insects and studying them for days now, from the time everyone gets home from school till dinnertime or dark, whichever comes first.

Okay, yeah, that was this morning.  As for this evening, I don’t have anything nice to say about the election, fellow Americans, etc.  Really. Nothing.  So we’ll end it there. Oh, except that Olie said to me this morning, “I vote for Jesus!” High point of the day.

Xander is teething.  His gums are swollen, he has a high fever, and he alternated between crying and sleeping on my lap all day.  Well, this is the second day.  Poor baby.  No sleep, getting nothing done, all the normal stuff for teething time.

Demetri made dinner, mostly.  They are going to learn how to cook if they have to live at home until they are 30.  Okay, so I’ll probably kick them out before that.  But they will know how to cook...and launder clothes...and clean, etc.  They each have a night to make dinner again.  Amazing how hard it is to get back into the groove after you’ve been traveling for a while.  We’re getting there.

I’m winning the war.  Every cockroach I’ve seen in the last 2 days has been dead.  That puts a smile on my face.  But, lest they should break through the ranks, I must not become complacent and slack off!  At least it keeps the house clean.

I have been called to cub scouts.  Again.  For the third time- and so far, in every place I have lived in the past 4 years. I should give in and buy the uniform this time, and accept that I’ll probably be in cub scouts for the next 10 years or more. 

A Once-lazy housewife turned Neatfreak...for all the wrong reasons :(

Okay this post was written a few days ago...I will update again tonight if it kills me!  Well, if it maims me?

Since last I wrote life has been full of...well, life.  I shall expound.  First, we moved into our house.  We like it very much.  The one thing I have found that is difficult to deal with (besides the other terrible thing, which will be addressed later) is that we live right off a major road and the noise is unbelievably loud at all times, but especially at night.  Part of that is due to the slat-style windows which make these houses more like huts in my opinion but are great for allowing the trade winds to breeze through your entire domain.  I have been assured that we will get used to the traffic and eventually be able to sleep.  This is encouraging, as I have been contemplating boarding up all my windows. :) Beware, all you who are thinking of coming to visit.  Bring earplugs.

But there are good things also.  My favorite is having a washer and dryer in my house again.  They have been missed terribly.  More than an entire kitchen, or yard, or anything else I can think of that I missed.  I like having a second bathroom.  I like having a yard- even if it is the size of a closet.  I like my neighbors, and that my kids can run around on the huge expanse of grass in front of the house.  I like the friends they are making here.  And I absolutely love living directly across from the church (also the stake center).  My ward is great, and I adore the stake choir I am in.  (There’s an orchestra yo )

Other events have included buying hundreds and hundreds of dollars of food and supplies to stock fridge, pantry, laundry room, etc; surviving our first tsunami warning (complete with the entire stake center full of people from evacuation areas) and learning about the dynamics of the homeless here (whole nother world); and encountering cockroaches for the first time in Hawaii.  In my HOUSE.  The new cockroach alarm is my blood curdling scream, shriek, or whooping and hollering “Kill it! ”  So far I have seen seven. Four of them were alive (someone must have sprayed before we were here).  I am now armed and getting ready for battle.  I am reading everything I can get my hands on about roach eradication, and I have Raid, traps, cleaners, and I’m learning tons more.  This event has marked a serious change in the way life goes around here.  All food is put in the fridge, down to the crackers and cornmeal, unless it is in a sealed, hard container.  No dishes are left in the sink overnight.  The floors are swept and mopped twice a day, after breakfast and dinner.  There is nothing on my counters, and they are sanitized with bleach water morning and night.  All pots, pans, silverware, cooking utensils, plates, etc. are in sealed containers.  Yes, I hate cockroaches that much.  Plus one of the sighted creatures was in my silverware drawer, and I just about gagged.  Then I washed everything, and made a note to buy waayyyy more of those new tupperware sets at Costco.  It’s been keeping me rather busy.

In other news, the baby has picked climbing the stairs as his entertainment of choice, Demetri started cub scouts again, and we have tried four different times to buy a car.  You know, sometimes craigslist can be creepy instead of helpful.  And it’s annoying to have long conversations with someone who never intended to actually meet with you and show you their car.  We have internet :), and decent reception at our house, unlike in California.

Sealed Deal

Yesterday was one of those life-changing kinds of days.  We signed for the house.  It took a long time, and I have a huge “packet” of papers to keep for years to come that I am not even sure I understand.  That’s okay.  I’m pretty sure Shawn understands most of it.

We get to move in on Friday.  All of our belongings will come right around Thanksgiving...and then I will probably have a yard sale.  My furnishings don’t really match the new house.  At all.  The laminate floor is a very dark gray.  My light wood things will clash horribly.  I’m sure I will get it figured out.  I needed an excuse to get a new table anyway, haha.

Apparently my husband loves to run.  I guess you never really know everything about someone, especially when they are constantly changing.  He’s known at work for his speed, and regularly leaves all his coworkers in the dust.  Some people have fun in the strangest ways :). 

I drink tea.  Well, not really.  What I really drink is tisane, since I never use tea leaves, just herbal infusions.  I’m drinking a cup now, anticipating having my own house, with my own kitchen things and herbs, so I can drink 3 or 4 cups of tea at night if I want (I make a large pot of it instead of a mug in a microwave).  Because sometimes one just isn’t enough.

My children are stoked.  They packed everything in their room this morning before breakfast.  They tried to pack the car as soon as Shawn got home too.  There’s been a lot of jumping up and down for joy today as kids counted down days and hours before we go live in our new house.

Embarrassing moment of the week- so far: I walked up to the house to do the final walk-through, stuck out my hand, and addressed the owner as “Brother” instead of “Mr.”  Since the church is across the street and there are several LDS families in the complex he was familiar with the term.  He nicely corrected me- “Oh no, I’m not Mormon, but there are several big Mormon families very close.”  I stammered an apology...not Mormon, he owns a bar in Waikiki :).  Shawn patted me on the back later and told me I don’t get out much.  It’s true.  The only people I’ve talked to much are the ones at church on Sundays.  I think I’ll take up a hobby that forces me out into the community.

Frustration and Raw Fish

No, the two topics in the title aren't actually related to each other.  I am frustrated because I've tried at least four different times to reply to comments on other posts and it won't work.  I'd call in my tech but he's asleep.  Oh well.  I'm not really ignoring people's comments though.

Second topic.  For the record, I actually ate raw fish tonight.  And I didn't throw up either.  Even Shawn was impressed.  Under normal circumstances it never would have happened.  But I failed to plan dinner tonight so we ended up in the hotel restaurant.  There was some confusion over the order, and the waiter was trying extra hard to make it up to us.  So he brought out a special dish that he'd make just for us.  It was lightly seared (meaning raw except on the outside) poke (tuna) with rice.  I politely declined but he was rather insistent and I didn't want to hurt the man's feelings.  So I calmly took a bite, and got most of the way through it with a straight face before my gag reflex kicked in, but I kept it down.  Purely psychological too.  It was much better than canned tuna any day, raw or not.  Not in the least bit "fishy" either.  I think I managed to redeem myself with the waiter.

All Roads Lead to the Ocean

I am posting on my blog, which means I have a computer   My laptop is not yet fixed, but I’m sure my husband will get around to it someday.  I’m typing from a free computer Shawn obtained at a yard sale (free because they weren’t sure all the parts were there or if it worked).  After buying a few cords and erasing all their stuff off of it, he has assured me that it works wonderfully, telling me how wonderful the ergonomic wireless keyboard and mouse are, and how top-of-the-line the computer was when it came out.  I’m just glad that though my husband doesn’t fix things around the house very often, he’s very handy with a few pieces of metal and some cords.  Second, sometimes yard sales pay off. 
And this is several blog posts combined into one.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE OCEAN

We are in Hawaii.  We’ve been here almost month now.  Most of the time, the boys and I have been in the hotel rooms.  The other day, Teddy told me how we were moving to Hawaii.  It’s been pretty hard to convince him that we’re already here.  Guess I should have made a bigger deal about it when we stepped off the plane, but I though they all understood.  I was trying to explain what an island is by telling them that we’re surrounded by water.  If you follow any of the roads on the island long enough, you’ll get to the ocean.  That made me slightly claustrophobic, but I guess any body of land is the same way...it’s just a lot smaller here.

How am I liking Hawaii?  I don’t know yet.  I haven’t seen much of it.  I love the hotel staff :), and the weather is great.  The ocean is warm enough that even I will swim in it.  The people are nice, and though the traffic is horrible, the people are nice enough to let you in where you need to be anyway.  I do not like the restaurant food at the hotel.  That’s okay.  I can usually manage to eat in the hotel room instead.

I’ve been warned about centipedes and scorpions.  Haven’t seen any yet, but I’m sure I will at some point.  Cockroaches are supposed to be plentiful, but I haven’t seen any of them yet either.  I probably need to get out more.  We have, however, seen, caught, fed, and played with lizards.  They are everywhere.  Little tiny geckos.  At least, I think they’re geckos.


HOW TO BUY A HOUSE

I’m still not sure.  But we’re working on it.  I’ve been on the phone a lot, faxed a lot of papers, signed a lot of papers, hunted for the correct papers, and stayed up nights redesigning “my” kitchen in my head.  Still scheduled to close on the 19th.

DAILY LIFE

Every morning the kids do their chores.  Which makes housekeeping happy.  Our housekeeper says we have very well-behaved little boys who don’t run around the room and scream like a lot of the other children.  I think she’s listening outside the door at the wrong times :).  And that they are so good to be so helpful.
We have a devotional most days.  It consists of a song, prayer, scripture or gospel/life topic, and a short discussion of our plan for the day.

We also try to go to the pool for an hour most days.  I know, nothing like the ocean, but it’s what we’ve got close at hand for the moment.  Funny, an hour a day and Teddy barely looks caucasian anymore, haha.  Okay, a little exaggerated.

I’m practicing more in the crockpot and reading up on education (homeschool mostly) and herbs.  I have grand plans but most of them have to wait a little while.  We’re planning a vertical garden (Thanks for the suggestion Miguel ) and several other projects for our new home.

my computer died a while ago and my phone WON'T let me post on my blog! (except in the space for a title). Will have to post after I get a new computer...

Recent Happenings

My little sister is 18! How did this happen?! We had a birthday party for Jana and Tyler at the beach yesterday. Yeah, it was cold. But some of the crazies (Jana and Tyler included) swam across the river. I just enjoyed the watermelon. So did Xander!

My in-law's came up for the weekend, which was pretty cool. Especially since I got to see my newest little nephew :). Uncle Lee took all the kids around on the four-wheeler all morning on Saturday. Olie's response? “Mom, he takes me on more rides than YOU! He's more fun!” Haha, definitely true.

I had a 10 year class reunion over Labor Day weekend too. Interesting to see people after 10 years. I enjoyed visiting for a little while and meeting spouses and seeing their cute kids :).

My youngest brother is going to be baptized this Saturday! So we're staying a little longer- and leaving for Hawaii on Monday.

We made an offer on a house. I think we're nuts. But it would be nice to have a house I think. We'll see how it works out.

There have been tons of other things going on as well, but I think I hit all the major highlights...

Summer

Maybe summer is just a busy time for most people.  I don't know why it should be more busy than the rest of the year, but it sure seems to fill up quick. 

We're all alive, and we're all relatively healthy.  The kids are fun and hilarious, and mostly staying out of trouble.  Demetri is in Terabithia today.  I love that they can build forts here and play outside all day.  They live in their own little world of imagination.  The past week has been spent "building" and playing in their fort. 

Shawn was here, and is now gone again.  It was nice having him around. He leaves for Hawaii tomorrow.  I leave for Hawaii...? whenever Shawn gets tired of me not being there?

I'm back to looking at houses and wondering if we're really going to try and buy one in Hawaii.  Not that I'd really mind I guess if it were possible, but I'd sure hate to get stuck there. 

New Ideas about Food

I believe I’ve recently mentioned that menu planning and food preparation while traveling gets both old and difficult fairly quickly.  If my children and my palate could handle peanut butter and jelly 3 times a day we’d be good, no problem.  But neither are cooperative with this arrangement for long.  I have tried a variety of things I’ve never tried before.  For instance, microwave dinners.  After three nights of them I was ready to go back to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches permanently.  The companies who stock the freezer section even know how to ruin spaghetti.  I didn’t know that was possible- I can even handle seriously overcooked noodles.  So plan B was…well there wasn’t one, or I wouldn’t have resorted to microwave food in the first place.  However, I became very diligent at looking up ideas on the internet.

I found a site called greensmoothiegirl.com.  It seems to be somewhat of a fad diet, but she calls it a lifestyle change and after my diet I was willing to try anything.  The idea of a 60-80% raw diet looked very appealing (as I didn’t have any cooking appliances anyway, after we switched hotels I didn’t even have a microwave), and I started to look up the concept of “whole” foods.  I’m interested!  So the plan at the moment, is to buy a Blendtec as soon as I can muster up the will to push the button that causes me to spend $400, as a birthday present to mwah, and incorporate as many smoothies and salads as I can comfortably handle into our family’s diet, while eliminating most of the junk…and you’d be surprised at what I consider junk.  I don’t expect amazing results while traveling, and we’ve been doing tons of salads anyway, but I hope to continually improve.

I guess I've always had some weird ideas about food, but friends and fam beware...it's getting weirder.  People ask me if I'm a vegetarian.  I guess I'm not officially, but I don't cook meat pretty much at all anymore, I just eat it when I go out.  It's been a gradual process.  I learned what kale is, and arugula, and lots of other types of vegetables that caused the checker at the grocery store lots of grief trying to find out what the items were and then price them.

Anyway, I'm finding it's actually quite fun to eat mostly whole foods, although considerably more expensive.

Becoming a Motel Connoisseur

I’m quickly learning how to pick motels.  I’m learning what “brands” I like and what amenities are higher on the priority list.  I’m learning to weigh costs/benefits such as a fridge and microwave, general neighborhood/environment, carpet or hardwood and other possible cleanliness issues that had never bothered me before (remember, there are cockroaches here!), proximity to base, pool availability, being on the first or second floor (because I have BOYS, who like to play on the railings), bed availability and hotel policies (charging for internet, charging per person, how many people can stay in a room, etc), and so many other little things that didn’t matter when I was only staying for a night and then moving on.  It’s quite interesting really.  I now have chains I like and chains I refuse to stay at.  Amazing the quirks frequent or prolonged traveling can instill.