All eyes on us

They watch us all the time.  Even when we don't notice, they are watching.  Learning.  Thinking.  Deciding how and what they want to "be".  Deciding if they want to be like us.  Or not.

I've always known that my living example to my children, whether good or bad, is more powerful than anything I will ever say.  I am grateful for such amazing kids and so thankful that the Big Man Upstairs had enough faith and trust in me to let me be their mom.  I pray every day - every single day - for help to be a good mother.  And I pray that as I am ever-so-human and make many mistakes along the way, that they will know I am trying, really really trying hard to be the best I can be.  For them.  For me.  For our family. 
It's seems like as of late, parenting has been on my mind so much.  As I've taken opportunities to counsel with my precious peeps about things going on in their lives, trials they are facing, emotions they are reconciling, I've asked myself if I'm doing this right.  Am I teaching them what they need to know to become a successful adult?  Am I helping them develop their faith?  Am I too tough on them? Or not tough enough?  Am I showing them how important it is to stay strong and healthy and fit?  Am I giving them enough opportunties to "choose" and exercise their agency and learn to responsible?

I was firm with the one about a grade that we both felt was unacceptable given her smarts and her gifts and her upbringing.  She knew it wasn't her best and so did I.  We talked a lot about expectations, abilities, and what is means to be our best.  I asked her how she felt about this whole situation, and although she quickly responded that she knew she hadn't been putting her forth her best, she said she didn't feel that bad considering how she was doing in comparison to some of her friends.

Oh no you didn't just say that.
Stop the show.

Bring out the soapbox because my "life is too short to be mediocre" lesson is about to begin. 

I reminded her that there are all kinds of average people out there - people who are content to just get by, content with doing the bare minimum.  In short, content with being mediocre.  We are not those kind of people.  Each of us is born with our own package of gifts and talents and just like the parable of the 10 talents, we are each commanded to work with what we've been given and make the most of them.  The fly on our wall has oft been blessed to hear my well rehearsed, but 100% sincere, speil about doing our best.  I tell my kids that if they work hard and bust their tails and the best they can bring home is a C, then I'd be as happy as I could be.  But they are not C students, and in fact, are not B students.  They are capable of excellence and have shown it over and again, so that is what we expect.  She got it.  I think they all get it and probably always have.  Sometimes we just need reminders.

Monday evening when I got home from work, the two youngest girls had both our yoga mats spread out in the family room and were mimicking Tony Horton and his crew as they worked through the P90X Stretch-X routine.  I couldn't help but smile.  They were so stinking cute.  How many times have they seen Ryan and I pull out those mats and plug in those DVD's over the years?  Apparently, Rowan wanted to "limber up" so she could perfect her splits, and Afton wanted to loosen up her muscles since she's been running a lot.  (BTW - Afton was the fastest in her class and is representing her class in the team relay race at this Friday's Track and Field Day.  She is sooooo excited!)  She's doing the softball throw and cross country event too and wants to be her best.  She wants to be fast.  Hmmmm...I wonder where she gets that?

I know they are watching.  Sometimes when the week seems too busy to steal away for 2 hours to the Big White House down on Main, I think about them.  They need to see me go always.  They need to know that I love that place and that it's important to me to be there every week. 

They watch us work.  They see us run.  They see us sweat and do hard things.  They see us date.  They know we love the Lord and that we think it's important to be kind, kind, kind.  They know that church attendance and softball practice are pretty much non-negotiable.  They know we don't tolerate whining and that anything short of 100% honesty isn't going to cut it in our family.  They know we love them beyond measure and that all their friends are welcome in our home. 

How do they know?

They see.  They watch.  They learn so fast. 

What We Do

I carved a few minutes out of my day and caught up on some good blogs I love.  It's been a month I think since I've logged in.  I've missed the reads.  Lots of inspiration, lots of things to relate to.  Some new ideas now forming in my already packed brain and some new goals for next week.  I think it's fantastic that we write and share and think and struggle and succeed together.  Thanks to my blogging sistas for your inspiration.

It's been a great and busy month for our crew.  We somehow managed to get away to Colorado for our week of skiing after working our tails off and burning the midnight oil the entire week before.  It seems like we have to work double time in order to take vacation, and then work double time catching up when we get back.  Crazy how that works.  But it's always that way with us, especially being dual-career parents and running a business.  But it was so worth it.

Our week in the cold country was wonderful.  Truly, it was the best of both worlds spending the first half of the week with our kiddos on the slopes, creating amazing memories, then skiing the last half with our friends.  I was completely beaming with joy as I watched our two littles cruise down the slopes at full speed on their second day.  They learn so fast.  And the big girls - wow, was I impressed.  This is only their second year skiing and they did so great.  Ryan and I talked a lot about all the fun years ahead we're going to have with our kids.  They are at such fun ages and I know it's just going to keep getting better.  Anyway, the kiddos flew home with Grandma Cindy on Wednesday after being with us in Beaver Creek for 5 days, and then we picked up our good friends, the Binghams, who stayed with us the last three days.  And that was a total blast too.  I can't remember the last time I laughed so much.  The skiing was great.  I did the superpipe 5 times (scary) and played in the terrain park at Copper Mountain all afternoon one day.  Yes, I am a big 40 year old kid.  And I loved it.

I have tons of great pics to share (some already posted on FB), and sometime they might actually make in on this blog.  We'll see.  But suffice it to say that the vaca was nothing short of perfect.  The condo was amazing, the weather was great, the company was unbeatable.

Now we're getting ready for another cool experience.  Ryan and I are leaving tomorrow for Sedona so that I can run in the Sedona Half Marathon. I'm excited and a little nervous for the hills and the elevation.  Looking forward to the time with Ry and the amazing scenery on the runs and the opportunity to chalk up another life experience.  I've been running in the cold and chalking up the miles. Wearing down my treads.  Loving life.  Last night I went running after work, which is not my norm (I'm usually the crack of dawn girl), but since Barrett had her ortho appt at 7:00 yesterday, that was my only option.  It was fun running with Rowan alongside on her bike, keeping me company.  She's so dang cute.  I just wonder what she'll be like when she grows up.  She's excited about ball season, but truly, I don't sense the same "drive" with her as I see with the others.  Maybe it's just too early to tell.  She really wants to do gymnastics and maybe I should just give in and sign her up already.  She'd probably be fantastic with that cute little athletic build and all.

I threw BP to all four kiddos on Tuesday afternoon at the retention basin.  Spring ball is upon us and it's time to get ready.  I must admit that I was really proud of all of them.  They are hitting the ball so well, especially the big girls.  But so was Easton.  This is his first year playing on a team - I hope it goes well.  We still need to play a lot of catch and break in his glove some more.  It's going to be another busy spring for sure with four kids on four team playing 2 games a week at 3 different parks.  But that's just what we do, right?

The Lost 30 Days

I just need to accept the fact that December came and went and I'm never going to catch up on the Mesa Brown happenings in this blog.  So much to write about, so little time.

So, some highlights...

• My husband is walking on two feet again, boot and cast-free, and has even gone on a couple of mountain bike rides.  Woot!  Woot!  But no running yet.
• Caught up with so many good friends at the Christmas party.  Ate lots of Mexican food.  Ate too many holiday treats.  I may or may not have gained a couple of pounds, but I'll never know since I don't get on the scale.  The jeans still fit, so that's a plus.
• Christmas was fabulous.  Kids were a little spoiled I fear. 
• We did our alias gift names from Napoleon Dynamite this year instead of the traditional reindeer names.  We had Pedro Sanchez, Uncle Rico, Kip, LaFawnduh, Napoleon, and Tina the Fat Lard.  Guess who I was?
• Technology is raging at our house with all things "i".  iphones, ipods, ihomes, ipad, iMacs.  Craziness.  We are the iBrowns.
• Just Dance 3 on the Wii is the latest craze at our place.  We are daily breaking into fierce sweats as we bust our moves and try to out-dance the freakishly smooth cartoonish dancers leading us with our Wii remotes on screen.  It is seriously too much fun.
• I'm an aunt again.  My SIL, Lacey, had her baby.  See my one and only December post below for a pic of cute Brody.
• My cousin Cami got married in the Mesa Temple last week and it was wonderful.  Lots of family in town, lots and lots and lots of cousin time.  Bowling, movies, all-day and night play dates.  A cousin sleepover.  Kid fest for two weeks straight.
• We lit up our first ever Brown family fireworks on New Year's Eve.  Weaver and Berrey cousins, our kiddos, and all of Barrett's friends who were over to party had a blast with the fire.  I think Easton might be a closet pyromanic.  He loved it.
• The house was fully de-Christmased by January 2nd - a new record I think (at least a new record in this house).
• In early December, we underwent what seemed like a fairly substantial exterior face-lift on the house and survived.  Overgrown trees removed and replaced, front porch area re-done with new stained stamped concrete (still have to have the distressing coat and sealer done later in January), garage painted, pool fence removed, new pool/patio deck poured to expand for more seating/lounging, 1/2 ton of rock laid, boulders, trees, plants, exterior lights added, sod to patch the tree removal holes, pool file fixed.  Still more work to be done, but it's finally looking good after 7+ years in this house.
• Rowan turned 8 on Dec 29th and is getting baptized on Saturday with her cousin, Lily Berrey.  We're all excited for her.
• It was Black Wednesday yesterday.  I turned 40.  Enough said.
• It will be Black Sunday on the 8th.  Ryan's turn to start his new decade, unless we keel over before then from the ridiculous one car garage fumes from the newly stained floor.  And we still have two coats to go.
• The real 40th birthday celebration will begin in a little over a week when we head up to Vail for a week of Colorado skiing.  So excited!  Pray for more snow.  We're taking the kids and my mom for the first half of the week, then Ryan and I are staying for another 3 days.  I can hardly wait.
• New 2012 church time at 9:00.  Love it.
• Lots and lots of running.  Three big races coming up.  The first is Sedona on Feb 4th and I'm a little nervous about it.  Elevation, hills.  Crazy hills.  More hills.  The pictures better be worth it since I won't be setting any new records on that one.
• Getting excited for the Ragnar.  Our team is meeting this Saturday to choose our legs.  200.5 mile relay,12 people from Wickenburg to Tonopah to New River to Carefree to Fountain Hills to Scottsdale to Tempe.  Feb 24-25.  Crazy fun in store.

Ok, that's enough.  I'm kinda sorta caught up on the highlights.  Life is good. We are healthy.  Ryan is getting busier at RMB and taking on some new clients and new properties, which is fabulous.  Hopefully business is picking up again.  Hope to start posting again.

The Sixth Day

On Saturday night as I drove us home from our date night (dinner at Blue Adobe Grille and stake conference), I told Ryan that today was a fantastic day.  I loved it, loved everything about it, but it sure seemed like it had been going on forever.  I was so exhausted my eyes were blood shot and on fire and the lids were begging to shut.  And it was only 9:15. 

I was hoping that when we got home, the house would be sparkling (OK, maybe not sparkling but at least tidied up), and the kids would have all made it through the wash & rinse cycle and be ready for bed.

Wishful thinking.
Actually, they usually do pretty great on date night.  I rarely have any complaints.

But this Saturday, all but one of my offspring looked exactly like they had when we left them at 5:30. Still wearing the same, dirty play clothes from our crazy busy fun Saturday, still with hair disheveled, not all the dinner mess entirely picked up, and some sort of minor tornado remains in the family room.

But they were happy.

The babysitter offspring, to her credit, had been sidetracked by her grandma's new iPod Touch that she was setting up for her and had sort of forgotten about the kids and the house I'm guessing.  Good thing they are pretty self-sufficient on date nights.  Really, since we have the TV-ban in effect Sun-Thurs, date night is often supervised TV or movie watching for our peeps.  Not really a tough gig.

Just wish they would have bathed.

Anyhow, back to the fantastic day, quick version:

• Left the house at 5:55am for an incredible run.  Amazing red sunrise, felt like a champ, chalked up 9 miles
• Said goodbye to Ry & Barrett at 7:15 as they headed out to Quail Run for her softball games.
• Transported the 3 youngers to Quail at 8:15-ish and spent the next three hours watching the tourney in the most wonderful Saturday morning weather.  Barrett's team won the first game 10-8, and barely lost the second 6-5. She played well both games and was hitting the ball hard.
• Squeezed in some errands and solo shopping (my favorite kind of shopping) for family birthday gifts while Ryan took the peeps home.  Ended up browsing at Kohl's for a little too long and ended up with a few new things for me :)
• Home for a fun afternoon with the peeps.  Everyone was outside all afternoon...scootering, bike riding, skateboarding.  Lots of trips in and out for snacks and water.  The kitchen floor needs a serious mopping.
• Bribed Easton to get back on his bike again (he learned to ride a year ago but had a couple bad falls and has done everything in his power to avoid the bike ever since).  This time, the bribe worked, and he picked the dollar store for his reward if he would get on and ride.  He said, "Can I get six things since I'm six?"  Sure.  You bet.  Just ride.
• And he did.  I helmeted and padded him up (just in case), but as the old saying goes, "It's just like riding a bike."  I ran behind him for a few streets, thinking maybe he needed me, but not even close.  Not even for a minute.  The kid was flying all over the place, up and down the streets with ear to ear grin, not wanting to stop. He was a riding machine.  So after getting completely winded sprinting after him for no reason, I decided to get on my bike too, and all the kids and I enjoyed a family bike ride.  Ry sat in the driveway trying to repair the scooter and change a bike tube since he's still on the DL.
• Then the dollar store.  I was hoping to put it off til Tuesday since I needed to get ready for our date, but the whole instant reward motivation thing was nagging at me so we went.  Hauled all the peeps plus one neighbor friend to one of my least favorite places and let the kiddos pick out their dollar store gems.  Easton ended up buying six stuffed monkeys with velcro hands that can hang on anything (and have so far).  Bunk bed rails, ceiling fans, necks, door knobs, bicycle handle bars.  I guess it was $6 well spent since the boy has been loving his new monkey pals and he's loving the bike.  Finally.

Stake conference was great - all about the family.  My favorite subject.  Speakers were great.  Music was too.  I cried.  That didn't help my red tired eyes at all.  The visiting and pie afterwards were even better.  So many great friends and family to visit with.  Loved it. The night ended watching a movie in bed with Ryan, but I didn't even come close to making it to the end.  Ryan caught me up on the second half on Sunday morning when we woke and it turns out it wasn't that great a flick anyway.

Great Saturday. And I loved that my kids loved it.  Afty told me as I tucked her in that she was so happy today.  She told me that she loved that we just spent the whole day together as a family and that she was glad that she hadn't played with friends because she would have missed out on all of that.

Awwhhhh, how sweet is that?

Status Quo

Scorpion slaying.
Hauling out the trash.
Pumping up bike tires.
Rearranging crap in the garage.
Carrying the ladder upstairs and changing out the air filters.
Saturday dish duty.

Generally husband jobs.

At least at my house.


Sure, I can do them and of course have done them all.   But you know how things just sort of evolve over time and one of you ends up pretty much owning a certain chore?  Just like it sort of evolves and becomes a given that you sleep on a certain side of the bed every night?  It's like an unwritten rule, but it's totally legit.

Well, our world is all shaken up at the Brown house.  Not only did the good husband abruptly decide about a month ago that he now wanted the left side of the bed instead of the right after 15 years of marriage (which was very strange - took some serious getting used to - and we still haven't switched over our night stands because I was kinda hoping it was a temporary thing.  I thought maybe he was just trying to prove a point that his side of the bed is sinking and lopsided and not as comfortable as mine and that we should go buy a new one.) But I've been sleeping great and so has he so maybe I need to move the night stands after all.  I think it might be permanent.

Anyway, I digress....

So this week, today in particular, I feel like our status quo is under attack.  Not deliberately, of course.  I mean really, it's not like Ryan went out and broke his foot on purpose.  It's not like he likes having broken foot.  Clearly, he's in bad shape.  Clearly, we all wish - especially him - that he wasn't going mobile on a green geriatric granny scooter and having to crutch his way around his world.  No doubt about that.  And thankfully, he's got the silver lining outlook on things.

But still, I couldn't help but think as I washed the umpteenth sink of dishes after cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner and changed out the laundry and picked up the daily clutter then funneled the littles in and out of the shower and then helped them prep their clothes for tomorrow and then slayed a scorpion as I was taking out the trash (again) and then hauling the ladder upstairs and then downstairs after changing the air filters and then rearranging the dad gum bikes in the way overcrowded garage to make room for said ladder....that I like the status quo.  I like having a partner.  I like that he is normally super duper helpful.  I like that we have shared responsibilities and that neither one of us has to do it all.

So here's to hoping for a speedy recovery for Ry after he gets his screw inserted into his bone on Tuesday.  May we both be blessed with an increased measure of patience during the recovery :)

Just a glimpse

Sometimes you get lucky enough to catch a glimpse...


Yesterday after school...after the tennies full of sand were kicked off and tossed under the kitchen table and the backpacks strewn across the living room and the pantry raided for the crackers to host the sliced cheese and the crumbs making a nice little pile under the island...(yes, that all happens at my house all too often despite the 1,000 reminders I've issued over the years).  And the shoe basket has never once been moved?  You'd think they'd remember, wouldn't you?


Well, after all that - I caught a glimpse.  


My three youngers all sitting quietly at the kitchen table, each claiming their own side of the 8-chair black square table we all love, each with pencil in hand working...perfectly.  Perfectly quiet.  Perfectly attentive.  Perfectly kind.  Pretty much just perfect.  With sliced apples and carrot sticks and straight pretzels to keep them focused, it was really a little dreamlike.  I almost pulled out the camera to document that moment of serenity.  Like I said - I caught a glimpse.


It only lasted about 10 minutes before we had to kick everything into high gear to make the night routine all play out with dinner and ball games.  


Tonight, remarkably, I caught another.  Just now...with Ryan and Barrett gone to Scouts and Mutual, it was just the three littlest peeps and I -  Rowan up at the kitchen counter with her sweet smelling freshly shampooed golden locks hanging down, coloring what will no doubt be another masterpiece for me to display on the office door; Afton playing "I'll Follow Him in Faith" on the piano in prep for tomorrow's lesson, Easton finishing up his All About Me poster and then tackling Cool Math Games on the computer.  Everyone happy.  Homework all done.  Rowan's dishes too.  Baths all the way around.  Clothes set out for tomorrow.


Like I said...a little glimpse.

A new twist

...on duct tape. Drum roll please...

Presenting the duct tape flower clip. I know, I know. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Never let it be said that my offspring lack creativity.

So if you've been to our house, you know that duct tape is a big ticket item. Big as in the kind of thing that Christmas lists and Birthday wishes are made of. Big as in every kid has their own collection with a rainbow of colors and patterns. Big as in they can't wait to get their allowance and make a special trip to Walmart or Michael's to add to their already cool collections.

We've seen creations large and small, from the ever-popular duct tape wallets (there's gotta be at least 20 at our house and many others in the hands of fine people everywhere who have graciously purchased them from my kids at school or out front in the driveway), the incredibly ingenious water bottle holder, the checker board, the cardboard box forts, and now the flower clip. I'm sure I'm missing a few on the list...

Since the family stash (aka the supply purchased by mom & dad for real life duct tape needs) has long since been secretly depleted, Ryan had to borrow a strip from Easton last night to tape the registration inside the trailer. I think the color of choice was neon orange. Or maybe that was the only color he was offering up.

Oh...and how could I forget the recent duct tape boobie trap? That was quite a thriller. One of our offspring (who shall remain nameless) created a web of robe and duct tape with some sort of spring mechanism so that when you went to pull on that child's bedroom door, it felt like someone was pulling back. It's a little hard to describe but it freaked the begeebies out of me when I went to put the stack of folded laundry on the child's bed. Later that night, when said child went upstairs quite late after watching National Treasure 2 with the fam, said child had forgotten about the trap (which was self-created), pulled on the closed door of the dark bedroom, felt the tug, saw the dresser moving and the associated shadows from the moonlight, and started screaming bloody murder at a pitch thus far unheard of in the Brown house (which triggered a stream of over the top blood pressure and general chaos amongst all the other occupants) until we realized that the source of the immense panic was not, in fact, an intruder but merely a very cleverly designed trap. I swear, my heart didn't slow down for about a half hour.

So, ya. Duct tape. It's a keeper at our place....

Living Life

The blogging universe has been minus one for the past several weeks. Almost a month it looks like from my last posting date. Holy cow. I have no idea what everyone else has been up to since I haven't checked anyone's blogs for weeks. And what the heck have I been doing? Living life, I guess. Many days, I wake up and think, "today I need to blog about such and such," or "I have the best pictures to upload to my blog today." And then the day comes and goes and the next one comes and goes and life takes over.

Really, blogging is an indulgence for me lately. I love to write and think and share my pics. I love keeping a little history of the Mesa Brown crew. And I love being able to check up on all my friends and keep up on their lives - even if it's just from cyberspace. Hopefully with only six more school days to go this year and one more night of softball games, life will slow down just a bit in the summer and the memoirs will start to make their way to the keyboard again.

So...as of late, this is what we've been up to:

• J.R. & crew finished up our master bathroom remodel (I might have already blogged about that. I can't remember it's been so long :) But it looks fabulous-o. Can't wait to find a minute to post the pics. It's like a little bit of heaven in my house. I super duper love it and think they did such a great job. Thanks, J.R. You are the best!




• Barrett and I went up to 6th grade camp at Tonto Rim Camp outside of Payson on April 25-27 with all of the sixth graders from her school and had an absolute blast. I was one of the cabin moms and loved every minute of it. I loved being up there with Barrett and her cute friends. I loved the classes and activities and cool weather and hikes and skits and all the fun. Such good memories. I have a zillion pictures from the trip (no, not really - only about 500). I was the camp photographer too and am working on the camp movie on my Mac, which will be shown to the whole school and parents next week at the awards assembly. No pressure. Super fun. Barrett and I spent a couple hours last weekend going through our music library to pick the coolest, hippest songs for the flick. Left up to me, we would have resurrected the 80's hits for the soundtrack. We all know how good the 80's music was, right? Just kidding (kidding about using it, not about it's greatness). I wouldn't have done that to Barrett. She's a little music connoiseur herself and certainly appreciates a good Sammy Hagar or Alice Cooper hit, but we let the music of 2011 prevail for this sixth grade motion picture extravaganza. Justin Beiber and Katy Perry and Taio Cruz and Usher and The Black Eyed Peas and all their cronies are taking over the scene to provide the background music for the movie.




• Softball season. Enough said. No, not really. Not even close to enough said. We've been doing four games a week since late March and really loving every minute of it. Our girls have been so much fun to watch this year. Rowan finished her season a week ago, and Afton & Barrett are still in the majors tournament. And finally, finally... both Barrett & Afton are off the DL and actually playing at the same time. Barrett got her splint off last Friday and she played on Monday with taped fingers. Hooray! No more broken bones in the Brown house (knock on wood.) Tomorrow is the last night, though. The Diablas (yes, they are the She Devils) went all season undefeated up through the first tourney game, then lost their first game of the year on Monday night to the Vipers. The Vipers were tough. Their #1 chuck was on fire, we had one bad inning, and couldn't get a rally going. Final score was 8-3. But our girls rallied back last night and crushed the Crushers 15-4 (both Barrett & Afton got some sweet hits) so now they have to beat the Vipers twice on Thursday night to take home the title. Can't wait. I love watching them play.




• Working out. Ryan continues to be a running machine, going long a couple days a week. He's building up some serious stamina and shedding the extra cushion. He's not training for any races or anything, just keeping in shape and getting the body ready for the next Rim to Rim coming up in September. He throws in some P90X upper body workouts in the mix and has been very consistent. I, too, am keeping up with the fitness and loving it. I started a new Beachbody workout series a couple of weeks ago (Beachbody is the company that makes P90X, Insanity, Chalean Extreme, Slim in 6, and a bunch of others, including the one I'm doing now). I'd tell you what it is, but my kids grin ear to ear every time I say it and then bust into a giggle. Ya, ya, I know it's a funny name, but it's fun and it's working! Really, working. My whole core was in need of toning since I've just been running and not lifting too often. I was ready to mix things up a bit. So I looked online for some new workout DVD's to help me firm up and get ready for summer. I think I found the answer! I've been working out hard 5-6 days a week (and squeezing in a couple of runs a week, too, so I won't lose the lung stamina) and doing some calorie counting to boot. I've never been a dieter, but counting the calories and focusing on making all of them count with good stuff has really been an eye opener for me. It's crazy how fast you can eat your way through 1500 calories. By lunchtime! So now it's about choices and eating smaller, more often, and staying away from fast food and white stuff and junk and getting enough protein to keep up the fitness. So hopefully it's all paying off. We'll see in another month.




• School projects. In one week, Barrett had to turn in her country report on Greece and her Roman castle project that she and Katy constructed out of cardboard and paint and glue and moss and sticks and all things crafty; Afton completed her desert animal report on the Banded Gecko; and Rowan finished her habitat diorama and report on The Wetlands. Why do the teachers all think it's such a good idea to save the big projects until the end of the school year? Maybe because they think that the recitals and ball games and field trips and end of the year programs and regular school work and all the extracurricular stuff won't be enough to fill our lives. I don't know. Maybe it's just me :) We (and I do mean "we" when I say that) still have to finish up a country poster, create and dress a 2- foot paper doll in "authentic" Greek attire, prepare an Indian costume for the Arizona program, prepare a Greek costume and snacks for the world fair, and make an Easton-sized car from a box for the kindergarten drive in movie day. All before we can officially pack away all things crafty for the summer. Should be another fun week.

I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff that I missed too (like church callings and getting our website up and running and work and converting to a new software system at RMB and all the training that goes with that), yada, yada, yada...But this post is already crazy long and I have long since passed my small window of blogging opportunity. Gotta run. Hope to post the pics that go along with all of this stuff soon. Life is good. The Browns are good. Getting excited for summer vacations and camps and friends and time in the pool.

We're Back!

Happy St. Patty's Day! We're back from the land of Disney where every single other spring breaking family on the planet must have been. Crazy herds of people everywhere. Really, how many people can they let in that place? But we worked it like nobodies business and seriously did so much in our three days there. Really, truly - as much as I have completely loved both our family trips to Disneyland, I am never ever going to go there without someone in a wheelchair, unless we take all the kids out of school in the complete off-season (if there is such a thing as an off-season). Or at least never ever at Spring Break without some one's broken limb. It would so not be worth it to wait in all those crazy long lines.

Thanks again to Afty Cakes for taking one for the team. It was way busier than the last time we went in 2007 for Fall Break, so by 2:00 or so in the afternoon, even the wheelchair accessible lines were getting long. Clearly, not as long as the normal lines, but we were still always waiting. Thankfully, we tackled so much in the mornings when we could just ride and ride and ride over and over with little to no wait.

My very favorite thing about the whole trip was seeing Easton's pure joy on the rides. I'm not sure there is anything better than watching your 5-year old's face light up in raw excitement as he swirls and dips and flies on the coasters, coupled with his contagious laughter and giant big blue eyes. I was grinning ear to ear just watching him. He is a little thrill-seeker like the rest of the Brown family (thankfully, we have no riding wimps in our crew), so the faster the better for him. He wasn't afraid of anything, nor was Rowan. And there was only ride he couldn't do at Disneyland (Indiana Jones) and one ride at California Adventure (Screamin'). Just a few inches shy of the mark. Seriously, it was such a great time. I have a bunch of pics to post after I get them downloaded from my iPhone.

We drove home yesterday after spending about six hours in the park for our final day. We wanted to get home by midnight, so we left the park around 3:00 or so to head back to the hotel, clean up a bit, and pick up the car. After some brutal LA rush hour traffic, a stop at In-and-Out and a couple potty breaks, our home greeted us warmly around 11:30 last night - still standing and smelling a bit like new drywall and tile cement. We joked with the kids as we tucked them in for prayers that we could still be Disneyland (it stayed open until midnight). Even though the kiddos all expressed their gratitude many times on the trip for us taking them there, it was really extra nice to hear each of them independently express their gratitude late last night in their personal prayers. They were so dang sweet.

While we were exploring Disney, the skillful worker bees were busy transforming our master bath into what we hope will be a spectacular new room. A huge thanks to J.R. for being our GC on this job - we are really happy with how it's all coming together. We're closing in on the third week of bathroom construction, but I still think it will be a couple more before it's 100%. But it's looking good - really good. The granite guy is cutting our sink and faucet holes today. Maybe installing tomorrow? Albert, the drywall guy, was back this morning before I left for work finishing the final sanding. Should be a nice, white film over everything by the end of the day :) And then Jose, the tile guy, should be back to finish the last piece in the shower and start the bathroom floor. We're doing a Versailles pattern on the floor - can't wait to see it! He laid the floor liner last night. Tomorrow, the glass guy will be over to measure for the shower glass and I still need to finalize my paint colors...

Getting closer.

Now it's back to work and softball and all the usual with the fam. The kids have a couple more days of spring break, but they're spending today and tomorrow at my mom's since I'm working. Hopefully they'll get in some good play time with friends and maybe a little relaxation after walking a marathon the past few days!

Can't wait to share our pics from the trip. I hope to get them downloaded soon.

The Recap

Just to recap the week - quickly:

1) Afton played in her last basketball game a week ago yesterday. She should have had her season closer yesterday afternoon, but thanks to the broken foot, she was on the DL. We sure had fun watching her play this season, though. She brings so much energy and enthusiasm to the court. And it was kinda cool being back in the Kino Junior High Gymnasium after all these years. I spent many, many hours inside that gym playing both volleyball and basketball for the Kolts in the mid-80's. Good times. Good memories.

And here's our little jockette sporting the cast and crutches. She's ready for bed in this pic, staying up a little too late working her word genius skills on a crossword puzzle with Barrett (an ELP assignment, not for fun.)

2) Let the remodeling begin. The demo crew came out on Monday and removed our shower and tub from the master bath. Then on Thursday, the framer came and knocked out our bathroom linen closet to make room for the new foot longer 6' jetted tub and 2' longer shower. Hooray! We are super excited to get a new bathroom. After 5 trips to Imperial Tile, I think I finally have all the shower, floor, bath and trim tile procured. The granite is purchased. The cabinets are on order and should be here in a couple of days. After significant hunting, I finally found the 24 x 36 vertical opening window we needed since we are taking the existing one out to make room for the bigger shower. All the faucets and valves and drains are finally here. Who knew that you had to order the faucet handles separate from the faucet itself? What a racket. But thanks to overstockdeals.com, faucets.com, Lowes, Home Depot, and Farnsworth Wholesale Plumbing - I think we are finally set. The guys are hopefully coming back either tomorrow or Tuesday to finish the framing and do the plumbing and get ready for the tile guy mid week. Can't wait. It's going to be awesome!!!

3) Rowan lost her second tooth (finally). This time it was her front tooth, so she's sporting the ever-so-fashionable first grade look. And she loves it. The tooth fairy brought her two bucks - in quarters. Just like she wanted.

4) No pics for this, but we did lots of softball practicing this week. Ryan and I helped coach Rowan's team practices this week (her head coach was out of town and Ryan is the assistant). Afton squeezed one in before the break, and Barrett practiced three times. They are all doing so great - can't wait for the games to begin.

5) I realize that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but to me, this is true beauty.

This is our two-car garage that we finally cleaned up and fully purged yesterday after 3 months of full on garage chaos. I should have taken a pic of the one car garage too - it is equally spectacularly clean. We started right after we got home from Rowan's practice, then Ryan had to leave to work security detail at Lehi Days. I was on a roll so I finished it and was oh so proud. We've been parking the suburban in the driveway since early December when we moved a bunch of stuff out of the one car garage to make room for Afton's birthday party and the gingerbread throw down. And life has just been so busy that we haven't made the time to do the full clean up ever since. We decided that before we moved anything back to the one car, we'd purge and simplify. And it just felt so overwhelming that we kept letting other projects take priority. It was getting insane, though, and I am just so thrilled that it's finally clean. I took a suburban full of stuff to DI, threw about 3 big black garbage bags of stuff out, and voila! We're parkin' in again, baby.

Other than that and all the normal life stuff going on with raising four kids who study hard and play instruments and sports like all good kids do, and work work work work, and church stuff and trying to feel better after two weeks of being super sick and a great kidney transplant surgery for Bob & Lacey (both are doing great) and the school carnival Friday night and spending time with the family and squeezing in a great date last night to Mi Amigos and a movie (Unknown - which was super suspenseful by the way) and subbing primary in church today and a bike ride and chocolate chip cookie making and a little Battleship tourney after dinner, nothing much else to report at the Brown house.

Life is good.

Chester & The Foot

Grandma Cheri thought it would be a good idea to have the grand kids come up with a name for Grandpa Bob's new kidney, the one generously donated yesterday by Ryan's little sister, Lacey. They landed on "Chester" a few weeks back, and we've been affectionately calling it such ever since.

Well, the very good news is that the kidney transplant seems to have been a big success thus far. Lacey & Bob reported to Mayo Clinic yesterday morning at 9:00am for an 11:00 am surgery, but the hospital was backed up and things got delayed about three hours. So somewhere around 2:00, they took Lacey back to start her first, successfully harvested her kidney and then started working on Bob. He was only born with one kidney to begin with (which we've learned occurs in about 1 in 750 people, mostly males), and that one failed last year. He's been on dialysis since the fall and it is no fun at all. The implant went well, and as soon as they hooked Chester up inside Bob, his body immediately began producing urine. In fact, the urine output was so great, that his body got depleted on potassium and sodium and he ended up with very painful leg cramps. But as of this morning, they got him largely regulated again and the cramps have subsided quite a bit.

Both are doing really well, although Lacey is super duper sore (like a C-Section I'm sure), but she's getting up a little and moving around like she's supposed to to start the rehabilitation. She's scheduled to leave tonight, if all goes well, and then will have several weeks of home recovery. Bob will be in through Friday, and then his life will be filled with several follow up appointments and therapies, etc. a week for the next month to make sure everything is working.

We are so grateful that all went well and that the countless prayers and fasting efforts were heard.

Now on to the foot...totally unrelated by blog worthy nonetheless...

Our Afty Cakes broke her foot last night and just got it casted this morning. It's blue. She'll be in it for three weeks, then a boot for three weeks, then they'll assess. She was out front skateboarding yesterday before dinner and had just finished up and was going to put it away, but somehow tripped up on it and kaboom....broken.

Again.

She broke the same foot three and a half years ago, jumping out of a swing at the park, the week before we were scheduled for our first ever, long-awaited Brown family trip to Disneyland. I had been so bummed about it because I thought our plans were ruined, but later learned that there is no better ticket for getting around Disneyland lines than a broken foot. Seriously, we had it made. We never had to wait in ride lines - they just have you escort your wheel-chaired person to the exit of every ride and you bypass it all. Amazing.

So it's been the long-standing joke in our family that the next time someone breaks a leg, we'll go to Disneyland again. We often joke about who wants to take one for the team. Now we've got to figure out how to make a quick Disneyland trip work amidst the chaos of March. We'll have to see if we can make something work - it's really too incredible of an opportunity to pass up you know - what with no lines and all. Still, the thought of being there potentially during spring break is almost overwhelming - so many bodies everywhere! Maybe we'll just have to do a long weekend and let the kiddos out of school for a day or two. We'll see.

I'm just trying to keep the glass half full perspective. Broken foot = Disneyland. Yes, we are super duper sad that Afty cracked the bone right as softball season is starting. They've had four awesome practices so far and her team is going to be fun to watch. Great coaching, great team, great #1 pitcher. Afty got drafted up to majors this year, so she and Barrett are on the same team again, which is awesome. Since their first game isn't until March 26th, which is about 3 weeks out, there might be a chance that she'll be able to catch the tail end of the season. We'll just have to see how she heals.

So Chester is good, the cast is blue, and Disneyland might be in our future too!

He, he, he...I'm a poet and don't know it...

Thursday

Day 3 on the antibiotic and my chest is still on fire. Pneumonia? Last night Ryan was feeling tired from his long run, and I told him I wish I felt tired from a long run. He laughed. I joked with him that I feel like I'm a chain smoker or something. I was fully winded after walking up half my staircase and had to pause for breathe on the landing. Pathetic, I know. But sadly, all true. The head cold part seems to be marginally better, though, so there is hope.

My big outing today was walking down the street to pick Easton up from the bus. And it was oh so beautiful out. I totally needed the fresh air and the exercise (if you can call it that).

I was only going to have a 2-day work week to begin with since Monday was a holiday, but it turned out to be a 0-day work week. Lots of catch up next week I fear.

Still, I have so much to be grateful for. I just read my SIL, Shari's, blog post about her sweet Tate and his inability to communicate and I bawled my eyes out. She is truly an amazing mom and doing all she can to help her little guy. I hope he has a breakthrough with his speech sometime very soon.

My two youngers are cracking me up right now. It's just the two of them home with me this evening and they have been running laps around the downstairs for about 15 minutes now. I can't believe they are still going. Normally, I would have run out of patience by now and asked them to stop, but really, they're not even bugging me so I just let them run. Funny. It's good to see them giggling their heads off. I guess there's something pretty hilarious in the kid world about running indoor laps. Maybe I should try it. But not today - surely I'd pass out after one loop around the pool table.

Ryan took the two olders for a few hours to tackle the marathon night of softball to basketball, back to softball then to junior high open house. Holy cow...Barrett is going to junior high. I had planned to do it, and was kinda looking forward to being out with the girls for all that actually, but that's OK. I think Ry will squeeze in a run around the track while he waits and hopefully spend some time out on the field with the girls too.

So life keeps moving, and we are keeping busy as always in spite of our less than stellar health. Yesterday we finished Easton's kindergarten science experiment (a cool balloon hovercraft thing I found on the internet), albeit two days late since we totally forgot about it. He had a blast doing it. Rowan's finally getting her 14, 15 and 16 subtraction facts down (after a zillion flash cards), but still hates it. It's hard to see one of my kids not loving the math. Afty finally found the love of reading, and is on Harry Potter book 4 now. She's totally loving the hoops and is now double booked for a couple weeks with softball starting too. Barrett is Miss Social and still excelling at everything and really enjoying softball starting too.

Well, I've been fending off the requests for dinner from the two youngers for about 30 minutes now (to say my motivation is lacking would be an understatement), and I think they are losing faith that I'll ever feed them again. They just came downstairs and brought me a hand drawn map leading to the Brown house cafeteria (i.e. the kitchen) with a plea for food. Hint taken.

I need some air...

Maybe the weather shift? Maybe some random bug I picked up at the grocery store? Or in the temple Saturday night? Or, maybe, just maybe, it was tending to two super sick kids all last week. Hmmmmm....not sure. But I'm pretty much a mess and I'm pretty bitter about it. I already took a turn being sick this winter. It's someone else's turn. I promise, I've been a good girl. Really - getting plenty of sleep, eating well, exercising tons, taking my vitamins. Apparently, it wasn't enough to fight off the crud.

It came on so suddenly. Saturday morning, I felt fantastic. I ran 9 miles, including some good hill work. Super good training run - getting ready for the Mountain to Fountain 15k in a few weeks. Then I spent the rest of Saturday churning and burning through all our family activities and errands and date night, slept great, went to choir on Sunday morning, and by the end of sacrament meeting on Sunday, I had this weird dry cough thing starting. Every hour I felt worse. Sunday evening I helped my folks finish moving all their stuff out of closets and rooms and plastic-ing pantries and such to get ready for the tile demo crew to start early Monday morning. By bed time on Sunday, I knew it was coming in full force.

Overnight, my cough morphed into that serious burning bronchitis stuff, and my head was pounding from all the hacking. Oh ya - I can't breathe either. Minor detail. Sometimes it's kind of important to breathe. I have crazy asthma, like I'm at 70% oxygen or something. Surely, I must be exaggerating because I'm not really sure you can live at 70% without a machine. I don't know. But I haven't had to use my inhaler this much in I don't know how long. Years? I must have needed a little stronger kick in the pants, though, cause the alternating chills and fever have now kicked in too, so I'm bundled up in the warmest blanket I can find fighting off the latest chill attack.

What the heck? All I wanna do is hibernate and breathe. Breathe. Breathe. I think I'm breaking down and taking something stronger than Motrin and essential oils and vitamins and my inhaler. The girls will be walking in the door in 45 minutes and we're off to the semi-annual dentist appointments that we've had on the books for six months. No chance we're canceling, so I've gotta pull it together. I'm thinking dinner will be Daddy Delight a la mode (aka whatever he wants to make) while mama soaks in a hot shower and sleeps. Doesn't that sound delightful?

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OK, OK, I need a little cheese with my whine...

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On the brighter side, Easton finally went back to school today (Rowan went back on Friday) and although he is certainly not 100%, he's back to smiling and happy and enjoying the normal kid stuff instead of sleeping cheek down on the carpet in the middle of the last room he could stay awake in. So that's always good.

And the girls had their first softball practice last night. We're super stoked that Afton got drafted up into majors so she and Barrett will be playing together on the same team. Seriously - so happy about that. The coaches are fantastic and I think they are going to have a terrific season. We have yet to hear from Rowan's coach, but I'm sure the call will come soon. And we only have two weeks of overlapping basketball and softball, so that's all good too.

Well, I hope the masses are fighting the plague and staying healthy. We'll try not to breathe on you. And just FYI - we don't need any more cooties at our house. We're not used to being sick around here and we've met our quota for the decade, thank you very much.

Happy Tuesday.

I need some grease

We made it through the weekend. Our preparations for yesterday's church meetings were a little more extensive than normal, but it was all good. Singing in the ward choir, speaking in sacrament meeting, and teaching in Relief Society (me) and Deacon's Quorum (Ryan).

Good, because it's over. And good because the spiritual preparation is always worth it no matter how the end product gets delivered. And good, I guess, because I only cried during about a third of my talk instead of the whole thing. We had some great discussion and participation in my RS lesson on Larry Lawrence's conference talk, "Courageous Parenting." I was feeling super humbled and a little inadequate to teach that lesson directed to the parents of teenagers since we don't even have one official teenager in our house yet. She's close, but still not official.

I was grateful for the good women in our class with much more real life parenting experience than I have who offered their thoughts and shared experiences about how they've raised their teenagers in our challenging times. I was blessed to be among such good women.

So now it's on to the next thing: preparing for our stake RS mini conference coming up in two weeks. I've got to get busy on my talk for my class and figure out what I need for my display. I don't think I'm really a display girl when I teach. I never bring my own tablecloths or flowers. I rarely ever have props or pictures. And I never have. How did they let me in as a RS teacher anyway? JK. Just shattering the stereotype I guess. But for this kind of a conference, I guess I sort of need a display. I have a few ideas - very few, but a few nonetheless. But I have an amazing mom who's super good at the display thing, and she's offered her help. Give me a topic like photography or family history or journaling or memory keeping (like I had when I taught at the conference four years ago), and I'm all over the display. Visual aids out the whazoo. But this time around it's a little harder. I am excited that I kept some of the props from our Love Boat Valentine's party last year. I think they might come in handy :)

Anyway, much more importantly...

We had a terrific weekend together. Awesome date night Friday night, a decent run Saturday morning, Ryan doing some service at his parent's house, Afty's first basketball game, lots of outside play time for the kiddos, friends over, dinner out at Lenny's Burgers Saturday night with the peeps, lots of studying, great Sunday meetings, a tasty Sunday dinner of chops, Caesar salad, zuchini, roasted red potatoes, fruit and garlic bread with Grandma Cindy & Grandpa Steve joining us, chocolate chip cookie making, good scripture session with the fam, getting logged into family search and indexing my first few batches of names (totally cool), happy kids, remote control car races, and three good nights of sleep.

Who could ask for anything more?

Actually, if I could ask for one thing, it would be to get my wheels back. Not that my wheels were ever race-winning wheels by any stretch, but they were certainly faster than my wheels of late. I need some grease. Ever since I've been on the mend from my chest congestion crap that plagued me in late December/early January, my running times have been less than stellar. I feel like I'm pushing myself just as hard, if not harder, than normal, but the watch tells me differently. It's like someone poured a little lead in my shoes or something. I don't know. This morning was so hard to run. It was cold and breezy and pitch black in the 5:30 am hour. I had a hard time getting up. I tried to talk myself into staying in bed, but I am glad that from somewhere deep within I convinced myself to launch. And I ran with no tunes - something I haven't done in a long time - but Rowan had borrowed my iPod Saturday night and I couldn't find it anywhere. And being the kind mother that I am, I didn't want to wake her that early to find out :)

Ryan and I are signed up to run London's Run this Saturday out at Schneff Farms and I wish I was feeling more on top of my game. Yes, I know, I'm a little competitive. But...it's in my blood. And if I'm honest with myself, I'm kinda sad that I'm not running the half marathon on Saturday. Up until the week before Christmas I was planning on it, but I never got in a long run more than 8 miles after that, then got sick, so I caved and settled for the 10k. Not that the 10k isn't a good race - don't get me wrong - every race is a great race, especially when you give it your all. But I sort of feel like I cheated myself of the opportunity to push myself a little more and do something hard.

We all need to do hard things from time to time. It keeps us focused and disciplined. It keeps us working and moving and doing and being. I got on the scale today for the first time in quite a while. Why, I don't know. I was even more frustrated that I've let the running slack a bit while keeping the winter appetite in full swing.

Some changes are on the way, though. I've got a feeling. I've got the desire. Working on the plan.

I am happy

I put away the groceries, cleaned up lunch, and just rotated the laundry. Still need to put the clean sheets back on the bunk beds (not my favorite chore), but I have exactly 15 minutes until the Friday afternoon kid-fest begins. Since it's our only no-homework, no music lesson, no sports practice afternoon, all the kids will want to play with a friend. I'll give it about 2 minutes from the time they walk in before I hear it. "Mom, can I play with a friend?"

Today the answer will be a simple yes. The errands are done, the house is in good shape. I'm in a really good mood :)

I am happy today. It's only 2:12, and I feel like I've accomplished a lot. I'm looking forward to date night tonight. Not sure what we're gonna do, but any date with Ryan is a good one.

This morning I had a little "me" time. Ryan left early to go stay with his dad today (he's home from the hospital but still having a lot of issues with low blood pressure and dizziness/vertigo, so he needs someone around).

So I got the three girls to the bus, then came home and finished getting myself and Easton ready, then took him to the bus, then headed out early to make the most of my 3 1/4 hours alone...

After I finished my temple session, I still had an hour left before the kindergarten bus arrived, so I indulged and went to the nail salon. It seems like I rarely ever have an hour unspoken for, so it was a real treat. I've been thinking about getting my french nails put back on for a while now (they've been off for a year and a half and I kinda miss them. Ryan misses them a lot :) But I haven't been able to find a free hour in the last month. Then last week Ryan made some funny comment about how one of my goals for 2011 should be to get my nails done again, so I took it as a sign...

And I just have to say that my hands look beautiful. I know that's not at all humble to say out loud, but I LOVE THEM! My french nails are click-click-clickin away on the keyboard right now and I'm smiling all alone upstairs at my computer. Easton is out in the side yard with his tub of sand, a box, a handful of broken sticks and a bucket of rocks. He's the happiest kid on the planet right now.

OK, 2 minutes till the girls walk in. Better wrap it up.

The other reason I'm so happy is that I finally made it to Fresh and Easy. I know, I know, it's just a store, but really...I've missed it so much. I was spoiled for two years having one just around the corner from my house. When it went out of business last fall I almost cried. It's my all-time favorite grocery store. I finally depleted my huge stock of Fresh & Easy salsa and black beans that I stockpiled before my store closed its doors, and I've long since run out of my favorite fiesta corn chips, garlic tandoori naan bread, fresh squeezed OJ, ultimate cottage cheese, braided wheat pretzels and many other F&E delicacies I came to rely on. I don't know what took me so long, but I finally googled my favorite store and found out that they still had one open about 7 miles away (Recker & Brown). HoOOoooray!

So I gave the green chain my $98.03 today and came home with two cases of black beans, six jars of roasted chipotle tomato salsa, and a cart full of other gems. Ya, I know, it's the small things that make me happy.

Time's up. They're a minute late. Must be walking home slowly enjoying this amazing January weather. It's 70-something degrees outside and just too irresistible. I think I'll go shoot some hoops with Afty to get her warmed up for her first game tomorrow!

Happy Friday.

Monopoly & Bunks

Last night at the Brown house...

Ryan and the girls played a marathon game (two actually) of Afton's new "Build It Monopoly" game that she got for her birthday. It's been updated for modern times. Boardwalk and Park Place have been replaced with the new hip "districts", and you can no longer procure a piece of real estate for $380. Nope, we're talking millions now. The small bill in the bank is $10k. Some things cost upwards of $7 million. There are new hazards like power plants and sewer stations and prisons to diminish the value of your properties and make them "unrentable." You can build industrial or residential. You can pay $1 million to the planning and zoning department and get perks.

Yep, it's Monopoly for the present day. And our kids are diggin' it.

Meanwhile, the two youngers colored more Christmas pictures to add to our already fantastic display of kid art covering the office french doors. And they colored and fully assembled their very own "dream" book using the stash of scratch paper we keep handy for just such crafty occasions. Truly, I was impressed. Each page, illustrated by Easton and narrated by Rowan, expressed things they dream about in pretty amazing detail. Things like chocolate and monsters and Christmas morning and camp outs and bunk beds...

Ahhhh...that brings us to the newest addition to the Brown house. Yes, we got new furniture for Easton's room. Actually, it is now Easton and Rowan's room, and Afty Cakes is beyond stoked to finally get her own room. Rowan & Easton are sharing the new bunks - a twin over full number - plus two new dressers and a cool ladder desk. Their room looks super sharp and they are seriously loving it. All the kids are really. There's something a little magical about bunks. Kids are drawn to them. I about died day one just trying to sheet them up. I broke two nails and skinned my hand. Broke into a full sweat by the time I was done climbing up and down, moving the dang ladder back and forth. Lifting the mattresses. Tuck here, tuck there. Heaven help them to not wet their beds. I don't think I can handle sheet changing more than every few weeks.

But they're great for forts. Most of our linen closet has already toured their room in the tent parade in just three short days. Barrett has managed to sneak in the last two nights to sleep with Easton on the bottom full size bed under the guise that "she forgot to put clean sheets on her bed." Um, hummm....

So the bunks are a hit. We still have some rearranging to do in Afty's room now that she's minus one extra full sized bed. It feels enormous. Hopefully, the troops will be happy in their new digs, and Rowan won't make Easton crazy with her...her, um, everything. Messiness, 'tude, sassy pants. We'll see. So far, so good.

Our Weekend

Ryan took his scout troop up to Woods Canyon Lake
for an overnight this past Friday & Saturday.
They're working on their fishing merit badge.

Ryan is not a fisher.
Good thing his assistant scoutmaster & quorum advisor are.
They had all the gear, and most of the boys caught fish.
They were out on the lake in canoes and kayacks.
Ryan kept busy de-tangling lines, helping them cast,
but he didn't catch any himself.
I'm sure the troop is anxiously awaiting the fish fry
at this Wednesday's mutual activity. Oh, yum...

While he was away with the fish and the boys and the
foil dinners and the campfires,
our numbers were down by three. Right after
we got Ryan
out the door on Friday afternoon, I loaded up
the peeps and drove Afty & Rowan over to their
cousins' house for their much anticipated sleep over.

I almost didn't let Rowan go.
I had such an internal struggle after the week we had,
but decided rather than "punish" her
(and simulateneously
disappoint her cousin who had been looking
forward to their slumber party all week long),
I could maybe turn the whole awful week into
some kind of learning experience. I wasn't sure how, though.
I talked to my mom about it earlier in the day while the
girls were at school. She gave me her best advice
under the circumstances:
"Good luck."

Well, we had a really good, long talk when she came home.
We set some new parameters. We talked about the big picture,
well as much as you can really do that with a six year old.
We came up with a plan. We offered some apologies.
She committed to try harder, be better, be kinder. Me too.

We even designated a new "thinking chair" for those times when the temptation to catapult her body into a flailing tantrum are just too much to resist. In theory, she agreed to go there without coersion should the moment strike.

It's been 2 1/2 days since that talk, and she hasn't visited the thinking chair yet. There was brief mention of it Sunday morning as we waited in the driveway before church and she almost couldn't hold back, but her mood abruptly did a 180.

I think we might have actually had a pivotal moment together in our unceasing battle of the wills. We went two whole days, not only not butting heads, but actually enjoying each other. She accompanied me to the grocery store on Saturday evening, just she and I. As we loaded up our groceries, I complimented her on her pleasant behavior. It was such a breath of fresh air.
She's pretty much been amazing since that talk. Hmmm...how long can this last??

I don't know, but I'm eatin' it up and milking it for all it's worth. Tonight's FHE might be the real test.

Since we were down to three on Friday night, Barrett & I rented"The Last Song" from Blockbuster and had a movie night in my bed. We saw it together in the theatres when it first came out. I cried almost as hard the second time. Barrett's a little less sentimental than me. She didn't shed a tear, but we laughed and drooled over Will together. Easton sacked out early,
so it was just the two of us.

Really, I was the backup plan since her real plans fell through with a grounded friend. But that was OK - I think we both enjoyed spending the evening together.

After my 5 mile run early Saturday morning, the rest of the day was really all about the kids. Drop offs, pick ups, swimming, play time. We managed to get the house pretty clean too.
I killed off 3 of my big "hot spots." You know, those places that are clutter magnets and never seem to go away. When Ry got home, he asked, "So what was the occasion for cleaning
the laundry room?"

He noticed. I conquered the heaping mail pile and already too tall stack of bring home papers from schools that had amassed on my kitchen counter. I also de-cluttered two upstairs hot spots.
I had great visions of knocking out the whole house that day, having a paper-free office desk,
all the D.I. baskets unloaded, bagged and on their way to a new home, all the overflowing dresser drawers freed from the too short jeans and too tight shirts and the mis-matched socks.
Oh, the dreams I had.

Not sure why I dream like that. I know better. Maybe a better word than dream is aspire. I aspire to complete.

But the hot spots, dishes, laundry and bathrooms was all I could tackle in one day. I had the energy to do more, but I was in kid concierge mode and the day flew by.

Saturday night was date night, and a good one at that. We ate Mexican, saw the movie "Salt", which I loved. Angelina Jolie is one tough chic.

Sunday was fabulous as most Sundays are. A double farwell in our ward, followed by a great Sunday school lesson. We played some games together after church, I tried my hand at a new delicacy from my Hershey dessert cookbook, and took it with us over to Mike & Shari's for some supreme Italian food and great company. We visited about the Grand Canyon -Mike has done the hike a few times, so he dished out some pointers and made me even more excited to go. I hope they go next year too. I think they might.

We ended the night with some scriptures & prayer. Easton sacked out on the floor after two verses, and Rowan wasn't too far behind. With 2 down and 2 to go, Ryan suggested a re-match of Ticket to Ride.

We should've just gone to bed,
but we're all so competitive.
We gave in.
One final game before bed,
even though bedtime had passed.
We were rebels.
Afton & I tied (seriously, how crazy is that!)
Tied!!
You know what that means?
Another rematch tonight.

Do-overs

We started the night with good intentions. Really, when do you ever not start out with good intentions? Nobody wakes up and says, “Today I’m going to have a terrible day. Today I’m going to lose my patience. Today I’m going to say things I’ll regret.”

Nope, it doesn’t work that way, but somehow our best intentions sometimes morph into a reality at the other end of the spectrum.

Going a full day without butting horns with my certain trial child would be a miracle. I pray for those miracles every day. Last night, the phrase “piece of work” actually escaped under my whispered breath as the child walked away and the other one smiled in complete agreement. P.O.W. Yes, that was the only kind way to describe her, and hardly kind at that. I know we’re all born with our own unique set of gifts and trials and quirky personality traits and flaws and potential and wonder. I get that. But sometimes I struggle with the package. It’s stronger than I’ve seen in most anyone I know, and truthfully, it’s a little scary. I feel inept at times, challenged much of the time, and perplexed too often.

This followed by more frustrations about instrument practicing. Turn the TV off. Please get in the shower. Are your clothes ready for tomorrow? Stop doing that to your sister. There’s no need to talk to me like that. That couch is not a toy. Please be kind. Be kind. Be kind. Be kind….

Fast forward an hour…

At the end of one of the most restless family scripture reading sessions I can remember – again, a night laced with good intentions - I had used all my love and logic tricks and was at a loss. I could have sworn the kids were on speed, but I know better. It was attention deficit super duper hyperactivity disorder to the max in the upstairs loft of the Brown house. Ants in their pants. The kind of chaos you’d laugh about on America’s Funniest Home Videos. There was intentional tripping, blatant disrespect, sassiness, whining, fatigue, teasing, back talk, threatenings, crossing over the imaginary lines…I told Ryan that I was reminded of Elder Bednar’s classic conference talk about perseverance and consistency. "He's breathing my air!"

I’ve been known to occasionally do a reenactment of a particularly funny tantrum, just so they can see how ridiculous it looks. I almost caved last night and took the stage. But then I thought better of it. It was too funny and I wasn’t sure I could do it justice.

After the third “tuck” of a certain child who couldn’t stay in bed (so not normal), and after providing some much needed counseling to a tearful child who felt incredibly unpopular at school that day, I finally made it back to my room. As the late night finally came to an end, I wished, for many reasons, that I could have do-overs.

Do-overs. Remember those? How do you earn a do-over anyway? I guess you finally shut your lids, wake up with puffy eyes, roll to your knees, and pray even harder for the miracles, for the forgiveness, for the patience, and for the determination to be better. Then you strap on your shoes and let the asphalt absorb your stride as the miles help clear the mind.

Marathon Tuesday

Yesterday felt like a kid marathon day. It just kept going and going and going and...kinda like the Energizer Bunny.

I guess that's to be expected on the day before school starts. Still, I was spent. I'm quite sure that staying up too late a couple nights in a row working on our Mountain View Class of 1990 website and then the stadium trainings had something to do with my fatigue. Maybe the heat a little. Whatever the reason or myriad of reasons, I was tuckered out last night.

The Brown Family's Tuesday, August 10th included all of this good stuff and more:

• Early morning workout with Ryan up at Mountain View. We ran at the track and did tons of stadiums - getting ready for the big hike next month.
• Meet the teacher day up at Hale for the girls. Three new teachers, three new classsrooms, three new school t-shirts, one big lunch check and one big PTO donation. Hooray! (NOTE: We did meet the teacher at Hermosa Vista Elementary on Monday night for Easton. He's starting half day kindergarten there today. We ran into a zillion people we knew there and everyone kept asking us if we were transferring. No, it's just Easton. The girls are staying at Hale. But we loved his new school and are so excited for him. Oh, and we did Meet the Teacher at Field Elementary after that Monday night for Barrett's ELP class. Same teacher for ELP as she had last year, but a new theme. This year they are studying the Stock Market. I'm pretty stoked about that.) We've met lots of teachers!
• Home for quick laundry rotation and potty break.
• Dentist appointments at 11:30 in Gilbert for all the kiddos. Knock on wood, but they all still have perfect teeth. No cavities. No problems. Barrett is still waiting for 3 baby teeth to come out so they can get moving with her braces. Maybe one more year. Afton has five loose teeth and Rowan, much to her dismay, is starting first grade with all 20 of her baby teeth and none even close to loose. Easton's are perfect.
• Errands.
• Lunch and shopping at Sam's Club with the crew. It's amazing how much lunch you get for five people at Sam's Club for $13. Seriously. Kinda helps with the sting of the final bill when you check out from shopping and wonder if you'll ever leave with a bill under $200.
• Home for about 30 minutes for grocery drop off, email checking, and more laundry rotation and showers for all the kids (so they could have freshly washed hair for Jayme).
• Hair cuts for all the kids at Tantrum at 3:30.
• Walmart trip (for the last minute school supplies that we didn't anticipate). Big mistake. Walmart was insane. Half of Mesa was doing the same thing we were. It took 25 minutes to check out. No lie. I was so done with people by the time we came home. Thankfully I love my people and they were all pretty good considering the day we had. But Easton was super done too.
• Finally, home for good and ready to dive into dinner prep at 5:45.
• Kids turned our living room floor into school supply heaven while I prepped food. With supply lists in hand, and Barrett in charge of the chaos, the four of them divy'd up the crayons and pencils and glue sticks and scissors and binders and notebooks and hand sanitizer and tissues and filled their backpacks with first day of school treasures. I could hear the craziness from the kitchen. I only elected to intervene a couple of times when I thought World War 3 might break out about whose package of pencil lead was whose.
• Dinner - all vegitarian. A mish mash of quick and easy favorites: corn on the cob, baked potatoes, salad, fruit, bread (that we picked up at Walmart). My kids wanted to know where the chicken or the chops were. None tonight. We're going meatless today. Barrett kept asking what the entre was. I told her it was the baked potatoe and she smiled. But they all devoured it. Easton told me I make the best dinner ever. He's so good to me.
• More laundry, the final checking of the packs to make sure the lists were fulfilled. I realized today that I forgot the white pillowcase for Easton's painting smock and Afton's dry erase marker. They'll live without for a day or two I'm sure. Hopefully they don't bust out any paints in kindergarten today though. I liked the shirt Easton picked out and would love for it to come home paint-free.
• Baths again to wash off the stray hairs, then father's blessings from Ryan for each of the kids. That was my favorite part of the day. I cried in each one. They have such a good daddy.
• Prayers and tucking. Only 40 minutes behind schedule. Not too bad for getting back into the routine.
• Time with Barrett (my night owl) helping her tweeze her eyebrows back into perfect shape for Day 1 after being neglected for a couple of weeks. And I did the requisite checking to make sure all the outfits layed out on the ledge actually matched and all the shoes had socks to go with them.
• 10:00 - finally done with the day. I'm pretty sure I was out when my head hit the pillow.

Final note: when we were at Walmart, we ran into a couple of friends from the neighborhood, Gail McClure (Easton's preschool teacher from last year) and Connie Shelly (my good friend and our ward Relief Society president). Gail and Connie are best friends. As we laughed and visited with them for a few minutes, they commented that they were having some serious nostalgia watching me trek through Walmart with a full brood of kids in tow on the day before school started. All of their kids are grown now. They reminded me to cherish these days because they are gone before you know it.

So true. I can hardly believe that my little man is in school already. He was just born, wasn't he?