The Only Thing That's Constant is CHANGE!

This week has been a week of change...and the contemplation of it! For those of you that know me, you know that change isn’t one of my favorite things. In fact, I have a really hard time with it so you know that it’s been a hard week for me. At the same time, the change that we’re making is a good one, so I’m trying to let that outweigh my anxiety about the change. So what is it that is going to change? My kitchen!

The "before" picture (steak anyone?)

Our house was built back in the 70’s and my kitchen has changed very little since then. I think the cabinets were once a dark walnut color and someone somewhere along the way bleached them because they’re now a honey color. When Rod and I first got married, the kitchen was carpeted...and I hated it! So we changed that almost immediately. The one other thing that we did change over the past 15 years was the wallpaper. Beyond an occasional new appliance here or there everything else is the original stuff and I’ve wanted to change it forever...and now we finally get to! It was that or move and I’d much rather stay here and fix the kitchen, but Rod would have preferred to move. I guess that shows just how much he loves me doesn’t it?

The first step in preparing to redo my kitchen is for me to come to terms with parting with all of the old stuff in my kitchen. I’m OK with getting rid of the appliances and the cupboards and the wallpaper (I think), but the one thing that is going to be the hardest to part with is my table. It’s not that I love the table itself, it’s just that that table has lots of memories in it. Like the teethmarks from Jon when he was bored one night while we were reading scriptures when he was only 8 years old, or the place where Hayden has written (or carved) his name into the side of the table, or the paint from one of my many crafting sessions that just won’t come off, or the pencil marks from where the boys pushed too hard when they were doing their homework. All of those things are going to make it hard to let it go, but somehow I’ll do it!

The infamous "table"

Can you see where Hayden wrote his name on the table?

This week we started the “shopping” part of redoing the kitchen...and more than once I’ve wanted to just “throw in the towel” and say forget it! It’s hard to redo a kitchen as old as ours is with new stuff because the new stuff is made for bigger and more open kitchens, not small ones like mine, but somehow we’re going to make it work...even if it’s through a lot of tears! The boys hate it too because they hate shopping and they’ve had to do way more shopping in two days than I usually make them do in a month! They kept asking if they could just stay home while Rod and I went shopping but that wasn’t an option! As much as I like shopping, I was even tired of it by last night!

As much as I dislike change, I also dislike having to make decisions...and I’ve got a lot of decisions ahead of me! I’m just glad we’re not building an entire house because it would be “decision overload” and I wouldn’t handle it well. As it is, I’ll just do well to make the decisions that I have to make so that we can get this process started and then the real hard work begins...demolishing the kitchen and being without one for a few months! But we’ll save that part for another week!

As for the family, Rod is leaving on Monday to spend a few days in Boise, or as he refers to it, the “Motherland” to do some work up there. At the same time, Patrick will be coming home on Monday to spend the next week with us and we’re really excited about that. It has been 2 ½ years since he and Jon saw each other last, so that will be a fun reunion. Since Patrick will be here for a few days, that means we’ll probably be seeing Chris this week too and that will be fun because we don’t get to see him too often. Hayden and Connor will just be thrilled because they love to spend time with their big brothers! And as for me, I’ll be lurking somewhere in the background taking pictures...and still trying to come to terms with getting rid of my table!

Yeah! Patrick is coming home!

Two Funerals, a Party and Some Cookies!

In this past week, as I attended two funerals in our ward and was reminded of my cousin Paul’s funeral only a short year ago, I began to wonder...am I really making the most of every day? Am I taking every opportunity to tell my loved ones how much I love them? Am I doing those things that are most important? Or am I letting those opportunities pass me by because I’m too busy doing less important things? Sadly, if you were to ask my family, they’d probably say that I’m spending too much time doing the “less important things”, although in my mind they’re all still important. After all, how can you say that taking time to keep a journal or cleaning out and organizing boxes of ‘stuff” isn’t important? It may be, but is it the best use of my time right now? So how do you determine what’s important and what’s not? I wish I knew, but obviously I’m still having a problem with it, so I guess I know what I’ll be working on this week!

As I sat here contemplating what we’d done this week that was fun and exciting to share with everyone, I realized that our life has become rather mundane. The kids even had two days off from school this week and I still couldn’t think of much to write. Does that mean we’re boring? I think it means just what I inferred above. I get too busy doing the less important things and don’t take time to find enjoyment in my every day activities with my kids and that definitely needs to change. So I went to my pictures to see if they could help and guess what? They did. There weren’t many, but it’s amazing what just a few pictures can tell.

Since this was a “short” school week for the kids (they had Monday and Tuesday off), Connor didn’t have as much homework as usual, so I was actually kind of relieved because homework time is rarely our favorite time! One of the things that Connor did need to do for homework this week though, was to go on an Alphabet Adventure with the letter C. Now for those of you who haven’t had kindergartners recently, you may not know that that means they have to do something fun and exciting that starts with the letter C, like “clap” out a song, or “count” the number of “cookies” in a “cookie jar”, or making “cupcakes”, or gather “c” items and put them in a “container”…and then write and draw a picture about their adventure. Well since I was going to a party that night and needed cookies anyway, Connor and I decided to make chocolate chip cookies for his C adventure. Little did I know, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of my week!

Connor's Chocolate Chip Cookie Caper = "C" Alphabet Adventure

When we first started to make the cookies, I thought “I just want to hurry and get this done so I can finish doing the other things that I need to before Hayden gets home from school” and my intention was to make the cookies as quickly as possible. Then as we started to make the cookies, I realized that it was something that I had never done with Connor before and my whole attitude changed. I had done it many times with all of the older boys, but never with Connor and I was going to make this a memorable occasion.

Connor couldn't believe that I was actually going to let him mix the cookies by himself

I told Connor to pull his chair up to the counter so he could be high enough to dump all of the stuff into the bowl for me. At first he thought the chair was so he could sit and watch me, but I assured him that I needed his help. We started by adding the butter, shortening and sugars and as I let Connor dump each one of the items into the bowl, I think he couldn’t believe that I was letting him do all of that. He even said he was having fun and when he said “you’re the nicest mom!”, I realized that taking the time to let him help me was way more important than getting anything else done. He even helped me roll all of the cookies into balls of dough, even though we didn’t need to. His favorite part, besides eating the finished cookies was getting to eat the cookie dough. It was a fun experience and it taught me that I need to spend more time doing things like that with my boys!

The final step - making the dough into balls

The party that I was going to that night that I needed the cookies for was a party with all of my “old” 5th ward YW leader friends from when we served together and were all actually in the same ward over 12 years ago. Now we’re in 2 different wards, but there was a time that we were in 3 different wards...and none of us have ever moved, but we’re all still good friends! It was a fun night…and everyone loved the cookies!

My 5th Ward YW friends - Karen Lindsay, Linda Fuit, Michelle Knight, (myself), Sharon Chatelain

On Sunday I attended another ward for ward conferences, and we were blessed to hear from one of our area authorities, Elder Carl Cook. Apparently his wife was a sister to the guy in our ward whose funeral I had attended a few days previously. I’m not sure how he ended up going to the ward that I was attending, but it was a blessing to hear from him in sacrament meeting. Later in YM/YW’s it was only my second time to give the talk that I had prepared for ward conferences and guess who joined us? Brother Cook! Before I realized that, I had been only a little nervous, but when I saw him, my heart fell down into my toes. The only way I made it through my talk without “dying” was to not look at him...and it actually went better than I thought it would! What a relief! Now with two talks down, I only five left to give over the next 2 months...but who’s counting?

Did I say that things around here haven’t change much in the past week? Well just to show how true that is, Hayden and Connor are still sleeping on the floor in their sleeping bags and isn’t that what they were doing last week? It’s their choice, but how comfortable can the floor be? Some good has come from it though...they’re no longer scared of the big scary sliding glass door in the family room! When they first started sleeping out there, they made me cover it with a blanket, but not any more! I’m still hoping that they’ll get tired of sleeping out there soon...but I’m not counting on it!

Hayden and Connor's sleeping arrangements - of their own choice!

Winter Wonderland!

A familiar landmark as you leave Cache Valley

Winter is definitely not one of my favorite times of the year because I hate the cold and I get tired of the ice and snow! Worst of all, I hate the inversion that we always get in January, that makes things even colder and the air unbearable! It’s almost depressing…or at least that was how I was feeling before Saturday, then it all changed! We had been invited to a birthday party in Providence for Cate and Paige’s birthday because they both share the same birthday...which is January 14th! Cate had turned 3 and Paige had turned 2!

Happy Birthday Paige and Cate!

As we entered the canyon leaving Box Elder, Weber and Davis Counties, we climbed out of the fog/smog/haze that had been enveloping the valley for what seemed like forever and we were met by beautiful blue skies. Then as we came over the mountain and started to drop into Cache Valley, we couldn’t help but notice the thick layer of fog/smog/haze that was covering the valley…and the reason that it has been ranked as the number 1 worst air in the nation this past week! It was gross! But at the same time, we also couldn’t help but notice the beauty that the fog had created in all of the trees as it left behind traces of moisture on each individual branch of the trees...and even the stands of weeds along the sides of the road! It was a virtual winter wonderland! All of the trees were boasting a beautiful white coat of frost and it was absolutely gorgeous! Of course, I had to take a myriad of pictures so that I could capture the essence of what we were seeing...and the pictures don’t even come close to showing the true beauty that we saw!

Winter Wonderland

We arrived at Doug and Shari’s house, where the birthday party was supposed to be held, right at noon, which is when it was supposed to be starting...and we were the first ones there! We couldn’t help but wonder if we had come too early or maybe even gone to the wrong house, but Shari assured us that the party really was supposed to start at noon, although we were the only ones there! Fortunately, everyone else showed up eventually and we had a wonderful time! I guess promptness is one of the things that the Carlings aren’t so great at! We also rediscovered today that the Carlings are really good about making sure that nothing gets lost...or thrown away! And we also don’t let just anyone play with our stuff! We love our stuff!

Paige with Grandpa and Grandma Carling

Jana what are you doing down there?

Cate's thrilled just with the box...she doesn't even care what's inside!

We gave Cate one of these dolls...but she already had one just like it! Now she has twins!

Paige loved her presents too!

Most of all, the kids had a wonderful time together…but what’s new? Hayden and Connor love to play anyway, and when it includes cousins or friends, that just makes it even better! Paige and Cate were especially cute as they opened their gifts. It’s fun to see things through the eyes of a child!

The 4 Six year olds - Mac, Tyler, Teegan and Connor

Is that Hayden hiding under that mask?

As though we hadn’t already had a fun-filled afternoon, when we got home from Logan, Grandpa and Grandma Mosher showed up to see us and we got to go to dinner with them. Grandpa Mosher even brought with him a whole big bag of walnuts that he’d shelled for me...and it had taken him 5 hours to do it! I had gathered all of the walnuts from our walnut tree out in front of our house, but he’d taken them and told me that he would shell them and bring half of them back to me...and he did just what he said! Thanks for doing all of that work!

Back to the Same Old Dull Routine!

Connor doing his homework

We’ve obviously settled into the new year rather well, because there’s nothing too exciting to report this week. The boys went back to school on Monday and my house got rather quiet…and actually stayed clean for a few hours! Somedays I have to weigh out whether it’s nicer to have a messy house and the noises of boys running around playing like the pen that they just got at the R.C. Willey Health Fair is a spaceship or if it’s nicer to have the peace and quiet and the CLEAN! Most days the noise and the mess wins out…but that doesn’t mean that I like the messes, I’ve just learned to tolerate them so that I can enjoy the sweet boys!

One of the many things that I did do this week while the boys were at school was to hit the stores to see what kind of good after Christmas deals I could find. On Wednesday I was at Target and found hanging Christmas lights (the kind I put on the house outside) for only 69 cents a box! Now how could I pass up a deal like that? I couldn’t! So I bought about 12 boxes of them…and I would have bought more if they would have had them! It was just too good of a deal to leave behind! I also found some ornaments for only 50 cents a box and even though I wasn’t sure what I would do with them once I had them, I figured I could come up with something. After all, I have a whole year to think about it! Unlike the lights, I only got a couple of those though!

On my endless hunt for good deals this week, I also found some sleeping bags for the boys for 50% off...which made them only $5! I don’t know that we really needed sleeping bags all that bad, but the ones that the boys currently have are pretty thin and don’t keep them very warm, so once again, I couldn’t pass up this deal. Needless to say, as soon as the boys saw the sleeping bags, they decided that they needed to sleep in them…and they did almost every night this week! The last two nights they weren’t so lucky though because they got themselves in trouble just before it was time to go to bed...so their punishment was that they had to sleep in their regular beds! And believe me, that was pure torture for them! Hayden even went to bed with a scowl on his face and woke up the next morning with the same scowl on his face. I’m convinced that it’s soon going to grow like that if he has to sleep in his bed too many more nights!

Is it time to go to bed yet?

Connor is looking pretty tired

Hayden is just excited to sleep in his new sleeping bag

Also this week Connor informed me that he had learned how to distinguish a “b” from a “d”, which is something that Hayden continually struggles with. Apparently Connor’s teacher taught them that with the “b”, the bat comes before the ball and with the “d” the ball comes first. I’m not sure how he’ll keep that straight but somehow I’m sure he’ll figure it out. He did inform me though that one day when he was reading he called a “bat” a “dat” by mistake. I just laughed and said something to the effect that that was an obvious mistake because we all know that there’s no such thing as a “dat”...but I guess I’m wrong! According to Connor a “dat” is a bush...and his teacher told him so! I might have to have a talk with his teacher if she keeps teaching him things like that...but somehow I don’t think that she really is! Connor just has a really good imagination! After all, did you know that “funoxious” means “Christmasy” in Brazil? That’s something that Jon taught him...or so he says!

As far as the rest of us, Rod has kept himself busy doing the thing that he likes the least...which happens to be working! I’ve been busy preparing for one of the first big parts of my calling...speaking at Ward Conferences all through January, February and March! At first I was worried about coming up with anything to say, now I’m wondering how I can fit everything I need to say into my allotted 7 minutes! I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually...even if it is after I’ve given the same talk 4 or 5 times!

Jon has been busy working more than usual this past week, which has been murder on him, but the paycheck will be nice. I guess a lady he works with has had a mom in the hospital so he’s had to cover for her. He just told me, however, that he hopes her mom gets well...but not too soon because he’s enjoying the extra hours! After he said that though, he added that he didn’t mean that to sound mean!

Chris just spent a week down in Texas with Jenny and her family and we have yet to hear how that went! He did call me the first day he was there and he told me that he was in heaven! The “guest” house that he was staying in was apparently bigger than our house and there were TV’s, video games and bowls of candy everywhere in the house. That sounds like Chris’s definition of heaven right there! He said that they had a swimming pool in their backyard too and he was thinking about going out and taking a little swim because it was actually pretty warm down there...probably 50 or 60 degrees! I wonder how that went?

Patrick officially got promoted to his new position as Sergeant this past week and we are so excited for him. I was planning on getting some pictures of the event so that I could share them with everyone, but apparently things didn’t work out because of the weather or something, so we’ll just have to trust that he really did get promoted! JK! Patrick did apologize for not getting any pictures because he knew I would be sad, and I was, but most of all I’m just excited that he got promoted! Congratulations! We also just got word that he’s going to be coming home on February 1st for a whole week and we’re looking forward to that!

This was a picture of Patrick getting promoted while in Iraq, but I'm sure this promotion was similar

I guess the one last exciting thing that happened this past week is that I learned how to make bread with my new Bosch. My friend Carmen helped me make it and it actually turned out really good. In fact, we ate the bread so fast that I had to make another batch on my own on Saturday...and that one didn’t turn out quite as good as the first one did, but I’m still going to make everyone eat it…and I’ll just keep on trying! After all, practice makes perfect right?

Getting ready to make the dough into loaves

The final product...doesn't it look good?

Happy New Year and more!

I’ve never been one that really enjoys celebrating New Year’s Eve because I normally like to go to bed at an early hour...and somehow staying up until midnight just to welcome in the New Year, that’s going to come whether I welcome it or not, doesn’t sound all that exciting! It’s not that I didn’t use to try to celebrate with the older boys when they were younger and it’s not that I haven’t celebrated in years past and enjoyed it, but I enjoy sleeping more. It doesn’t help any that my husband can’t stay awake much past 10:00 either. For a lot of years, I’ve done my best to at least stay awake (or wake up) long enough to see the ball drop and then I roll over and go back to sleep. That hasn’t been the case for the past two years though!

Last year Hayden planned an all out “party” for us to celebrate the New Year, including making a hanging snowman, coloring some name things that he made, playing games and watching the last few minutes of the New Year celebration in New York...and then we went outside and banged some pots and pans and watched a few fireworks going off throughout the valley...and then we went to bed! That’s exactly what he wanted to do this year too...but somehow it wasn’t quite as novel as it had been last year…and by 11:15 we had run out of things to do! Connor only made it until about 10:30, but it’s no wonder because he was up at 6:30 this morning to go spend the day with his grandpa and grandma Mosher!

The snowman that we made

As it was, Hayden and I did our best to stay awake while we watched America’s Funniest Home Videos on the TV (the New York celebration wasn’t exciting enough for Hayden), but it was truly a struggle to keep our eyes open and a few times we both started dozing off...just to be woke up by the other one of us that had stayed awake! Finally it was time for the ball to drop, but we didn’t feel like going outside in the cold and banging pots and pans...so we didn’t! Instead, we watched the fireworks out the back window for a few minutes and then we called it good and went to bed. For Hayden, going to bed consisted of climbing under the cardboard table in the family room that he and Connor had turned into their own makeshift hut and had been sleeping in for the past week! It didn’t look all that comfortable (or roomy) to me, but he and Connor seemed to have fun in it!

New Year’s Day is kind of an anticlimactic day after just celebrating Christmas the week before, but we try to make the most of it by spending it with family. Every other year it is the day that we get to celebrate Christmas with the Carlings, and this was that year…so we got to have a second Christmas on New Years day.

Cate with her new Dora guitar

Paige would literally squeal as she opened her gifts

Nyayla with all of her "bootie"

Vicki, Jan and Mom

The older grandkids in anticipation of opening the gifts

The 4 little boys, Teegan, Connor, Tyler and Mac

Doug teaching Mac how to play his new DSi

The day is actually most exciting for the kids because they’re the ones that get all of the gifts, but the rest of us just enjoy being able to get together to eat and visit. My favorite part of the day, besides hanging out with my brothers and sisters, is the “all you can eat” candy and nut trays that mom puts out for all of us to enjoy...and I usually do! My second favorite part is being able to play games with my siblings...but I usually don’t get to take part in that because by that time of day, Rod is more than ready to go home!

Now that the holidays are over, it’s time to get back to my “normal” routine...whatever that is! And as much as I’ve enjoyed spending the last two weeks having the little boys home with me...it’s actually kind of nice to have them back in school! I’m not looking forward to the homework that comes along with going back to school, but I am looking forward to having a clean house again!

Holiday festivities are fun, but we also had a couple of other fun things happen this week. One of those was our eagle sighting! The boys and I were just getting ready to go to Walmart one day and as we were pulling out of our driveway Hayden said “isn’t that an eagle mom?” Sure enough right across the street from our house at the top of our neighbor’s big willow tree sat a huge bald eagle. That’s something rare to see in Clinton! I immediately pulled over so we could get a closer look at it but I just had to have some pictures of it, so I turned the van around and went back home to get my camera...in hopes that the eagle wouldn’t go anywhere while I was gone! Obviously, the eagle was still there when I came back because I got some awesome pictures!

The bald eagle we saw

Also this past week, I was able to go to lunch with my old R.C. Willey buddies, Sherrie and Melissa and we had a lot of fun “catching up” on the events from this past year. We decided that the best Christmas gift we could give each other wasn’t an actual “gift” but to spend time together, so we’re hoping to make this an annual tradition. I’m just grateful to have such great friends!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!