Guilty....

Well, I have a confession to make. I am not a pack rat, I throw out everything because I can't stand to have any clutter around. It really bothers Ryan because I am continually throwing away magazines that he is still reading, giving away books he hasn't finished, clothes he thought were still good, paperwork that we apparently need for taxes (this remains to be proven), etc.
Well, today I had Connor helping me clean up the family room and I asked him to put away a recent art project the boys had made. He picked them up and asked me, "should I take care of them like you do when we aren't looking or should I put them in my room?" Hmmm, didn't quite get what he was asking so I asked him what he meant and he responded, "should I put them in the garbage like you put things away when we aren't looking?" I had no idea he had caught on to this daily practice of mine, here I was thinking I was so sneaky. Oh well, it didn't seem to bother him and he wasn't traumatized so we talked a little about how people are more important than things, which he didn't really care about, he just wanted to know, garbage or book shelf? I said book shelf and then threw them away myself about an hour later. Does this get me a nomination for mother of the year?
Probably not, but neither would anything else I do on a regular basis. Like a few days ago when I hollered at Connor while trying to get out the door for church on time. He point blank looked at me and very quietly told me, "sometimes you really scare me." Well, I got to church on time, humbled and feeling like a manure pile. Only to have the Relief Society lesson be on patience, so another nomination rescinded. I'm not doing so hot, but I really do love my boys and they say they love me, we'll see what therapy they will need as adults.

Living in a world of make believe....

Well, many of you know my boys and their over active imaginations. I have always thought it is a good trait to have in children so I have tried to encourage their use of their imaginations. We have a large costume box that is played with daily and there are new super heroes made up each time. But lately they are only interested in one, Nacho Libre. My nephews, Karli's boys, are infatuated with Nacho Libre right now so my boys chose to buy their dad that DVD for his birthday, of course they needed to watch it right away. I have heard nothing since, it is all about stretchy pants, sweats, orphans, and corn (all with fabulous latin accents of course). I don't know how much longer I can take it, even Gage, our two year old, uses the lines over and over again at the coaching of his brothers. There are continual wrestling matches in my family room, all over the furniture. How else can you body slam someone effectively? So, I want to say thank you to Karli and her boys for instilling a love of such great intelligence in my children.
But I have taken the opportunity to instill the love of a great program in my boys, America's Funniest Home Videos. We watch it on Sunday while dad is at meetings and we laugh our guts out. What is so darn funny about people falling, getting hurt and hit in the privates? I don't know, but it is! We have shared many a Sunday afternoon in front of our television watching AFV. Even Oprah did a special on AFV recently, so now my boys are convinced that she is cool.
I have found one problem with this habit however as I have walked in my boys playing "America's Funniest Home Videos" lately. This entails them playing pranks on each other and trying to hurt each other in a funny way. Hmmmm.... not sure how much I like this, let's just say we have been going through a lot more band aids the past several weeks. At least no broken bones yet. Several times they have asked me to video tape their escapades in the hopes of winning $10,000. I suppose I should oblige them, you never know what could happen. But I do enjoy their scheming to come up with ideas of what to do in order to win the prize money, pretty creative!

Mothers Day....?

Well... happy Mother's Day to all you great women out there. I was awoken today by three boys jumping on my bed singing Happy Mother's Day to you, then smothered in hugs and kisses, which were promptly wiped away, just in case those cooties made them fall in love! Then I was given all the wonderful homemade gifts, thank you primary presidency and kindergarten! I received many wonderful "coupons" from my generous boys. Free kisses, hugs, snuggles, bed making, cleaning rooms, gathering laundry, etc. Only last time I checked, my boys already did all these things for "free", part of their rent for living here. But it was such a nice gesture. They also made "beautiful" bead necklaces at their primary activity yesterday, but both decided only to lend me them today and then I have to give them back because they really like them... Hmmm..somewhere along the line I may have neglected giving the lesson on meaningful giving. Oops, yet another way I have failed as a mother.
Ryan even woke up early to make waffles, his favorite breakfast! Thanks sweetheart. Only to have to leave quickly for a 9:00 sacrament meeting he needed to be at, because he was called into the bishopric yesterday. Happy freakin' Mother's Day. I knew this was coming to, not that I am not grateful for the opportunity, and I know he will do a great job. But yesterday as I was walking through the neighborhood and visiting with neighbors I happened to mention to one neighbor what a great break we were enjoying from being "anxiously engaged" in ward callings, we really loved where we were at and what we were doing.
Add to that Ryan's severe mockery of all things holy! Recently our bishop from my home ward moved and they are now replacing him. So Ryan, being the clever fellow he is,made up a "bishop bracketology", modeled after March Madness, ranking everyone in the ward and putting them in a tournament bracket. Then he forwarded it to our old bishop (who is also a great friend) who was being released, WOW! All fun and games, but his blasphemy caught up to him late last night as we sat in the stake presidents office and he received the call. So here we are again, ready for another life change, ready to tackle sitting by myself with three rowdy boys. Life is beautiful isn't it?

What can I do?

Okay, I know this will not be a popular view by most of you but I just have to get it out. I have been somewhat following the recent news in Texas of the children seized from the polygamist compound and I have such mixed feelings. Now, abuse is abuse and children must be protected against it in all instances. But, are we sure that over 400 children are being abused on a regular basis by their parents? Why is it such a surprise that about 10% of those children have had broken bones? Do any of you have boys? Have they had trips to the emergency room? About 20% of my nephews have had broken bones... hmmmm.. maybe their parents should be turned in. 33% of my children have had stitches, twice! Maybe I am an unfit mother. Why does the government intervene in this case, but not when children are in homes across the country being neglected and abused daily? Is it because of their belief system, their lifestlye?
I don't agree at all with polygamy, I find it to be quite horrific that young girls are married off to older men and begin having "families" at the age of 14 or 15. These girls must be given a choice for their own lives, but also for the lives of their babies. Do those mothers love their children any less than we do? Is it fair that babies are being taken from those young mothers because they are underage? Or is the government forcing all underage mothers or rape victims to give up their babies now? Last I checked there are hundreds of thousands of teenage pregnancies and pregnancies from rape throughout the country and each of those girls are given the choice whether to keep their babies or not. But simply because of lifestyle these babies are taken away. I'm sorry but maybe we should take away babies from other alternative lifestyles then; gays, lesbians, drug addicts, gang bangers, etc. None of those lifestyles appeal to me either, but they have rights. How can we take away children from one "unsafe and debilitating" lifestyle choice and not another?
I have seen firsthand the debilitating effects a lifestyle of drug addiction can have on children, but it is not enough for someone to step in and rescue those children, after all, parents have rights! But what about the children? Why can we take them away from one lifestyle and not the other, neither child chose the lifestyle, they were born into it.
Is it so much better to take these children away from their homes and all they know to be put in foster care? Give me a break, the foster care system is greatly flawed. I personally know foster parents who use that as a full time job and have had their own children taken away from them for two to three months at a time while they spent time in the state mental hospital (multiple times), only to go home and have two more foster children put in their "tender, loving" care.
There has got to be a better way..... I am grateful for loving parents, both here on earth and in heaven above. Our loving Heavenly Father must grieve and feel pained each and every day by the choices we are making here each and every day. The way we treat one another and especially his innocent children he has sent here for us to protect. Are we doing all that we can?

Springtime?

Well, we decided to take spring into our own hands today. I am tired of waiting for spring, , not sure if it is really here or not, but we started without it. We had the boys outside today for several hours while we weeded, watered, cleaned up the lawn, etc. Amazingly, they actually contributed to the work load! They did a great job working together. It was a little scary when you got too close to them with their shovels though, they shovel pretty vigorously and get pretty close to people's heads as they do.
Their favorite part was planting our seeds, of course we just put them in a seed tray in the house to get ready for a few more weeks before planting outside. I will be amazed if any of them sprout and grow because many different seeds were put in the same containers, maybe we will be coming up with a new hybrid plant, we'll let you know how it works out.
To top it off, Ryan BBQ'd tonight and we enjoyed a great time today.

Cruise Pics

Okay, I am finally posting these pics from our cruise. The first is Honduras, where I want to move, the next is one of the beautiful pure bred dogs in Guatemala, okay not really but are dogs blind when they are breeding? One has to ask! Then of course a gorgeous baby in Guatemala at the market place. And the last, Ryan and I on top of one of the Mayan temples in Belize, it was so beautiful and so high up I was terrified, which is why my smile is not so real.

Priesthood or the force?

Well, our boys continually give us some great comments in Family Home Evening. Take last night for example, we were discussing Nephi and how he was always obedient, quick to do what he was asked and he did it cheerfully. Laman and Lemuel on the other hand, murmured, whined and pretty much were pain in the butts, I am sure you can guess what has been going on in our house! Well, the boys wanted to only talk about when Nephi commanded his brothers not to touch them or they would die and then just "shocked" them.

They found this story amazing and wanted to hear more. Then Tate (4) asked, "Dad, do you have the priesthood?" and Ryan answered yes, to which Tate questioned, "Do you think you could shock some people like Nephi did, that would be awesome."

Then the conversation turned and we never got it back on track as the boys talked about who they would like to shock, whether or not they should be shocked, just so they could experience it adn so forth. WOW, nothing gets by those little guys. They think that they have the force at the grocery stores because they can wave their hands in front of the doors and they open. Should I bother telling them yet? They love "having the force" and I don't want to take that away just yet. In fact, their Jedi master often comes in handy when I remind them that when they argue they are choosing the dark side, etc. I guess I will have to decide what urban legend we can really keep around the house.

On another note, Connor lost his first tooth last night. He was very nervous about Mom pulling it out, but he finally consented and came teary eyed with the needle nose pliers. It was out with one little tug and he didn't feel a thing, so he jumped up and down screaming for joy. We found out later it was because the tooth fairy is this incredibly awesome lady who brings any toy you want (lego Star Wars in this case) and $5 per tooth. WHAT? Who the crap started this tradition? Someone with only one child who only has three teeth is my guess. No one can keep up with that! I loathe individuals who do this. What are they thinking? What happened to, oh look a quarter how nice! I suddenly feel very old fashioned and I won't apologize for it!

Anyway, just had to get that off my chest! While I am at, I also hate the PTA, another thing I won't apologize for. Not PTA members, just the whole PTA idea. On that note, hope you are all well.