I'm back

I haven't blogged in a really REALLY long time.  Like long enough to get pregnant, be pregnant (which takes a good long 9 months), and have a now 5 month old baby.  Here's some pictures of said baby. It's not just the pictures-  he really is JUST SOOOO adorable!!!

3 months and so so so so cute!!!!

4 months- he loves those fingers!

He really loves those fingers.

5 months

I have one question for myself- what have I been doing with my time?  Couldn't really say- might be: nursing, cooking breakfast, school, nursing, cooking lunch, school, nursing, cooking dinner...bedtime...nursing...repeat. Occasional baths, stories, laundry, grocery trips, preschool pick ups, and other life's necessities tucked in there too. Such is the life of a mom right?  And the weird part is I enjoy doing it (well most of the time- no one's perfect).  But no where in the there has there been time for mom to blog and catch up on scrapbooking or do other "just for mom" tasks.  Then I realized the other day, it's not like anyone's ever going to say" hey mom, why don't you take a few minutes for yourself this afternoon".  Haha!! Can you imagine?!  So I'm going to have to just take them.  Another thing I realized, is that I find more humor in the mundane tasks and sometimes annoying moments of life when I can think about how I'm going to try to spin it into a blog post.  I've been visiting friends' blogs again and remembering just how much I enjoyed writing about the every day moments.  So....I'm going to try blogging...again.  I know I said this before.  Whatever.  I'm starting over and there's no rules about how many times I can start over again again.  I might make myself a rule to write a new post and then write something from the past 15 months to kind of fill in.  Maybe.  We'll see what happens.  Follow along if you can.

So, to kick off with, here' s a funny moment from the middle of the night last night.  Owen at 5 months is cute, adorable, cuddly, smiley, babbling, oh and he LOVES his fingers.  We often joke that he must have chocolate or strawberry flavored fingers.  So anyway, last night he woke up with just a shrill cry- part of the little temper he's been cultivating lately also.  (It's actually a cute little temper because his cry turns from whiny to shrill as if he's saying "I SAID I WANT YOU...NOW!"  And who can resist being wanted that badly??).  Jared was fast asleep when Owen let out this cry and as I was rolling over to put my glasses on, Jared mumbles (really pretty much still asleep) "he's an angry elf". HA!!!! (That's a direct quote from a favorite family movie- Elf). It was so funny because Jared was pretty much asleep and the comment was so perfectly pertinent.  I just about burst out laughing at 4 am. 

A few weeks ago we were on a trip to Nauvoo to see some friends get married (John & Like Hasek).  Anyway, we stopped at Wal-Mart (because no trip is complete without a stop at the local Wal-Mart).  Jared ran in for some breakfast items (good man also grabbed me some Reese Cup ice cream scoring him definite brownie points).  While I was in the van with the kids we were talking about how Owen's my baby now, and Ethan was my baby before (but he'll always be my baby), and Katie was my baby before him (but she'll always be my baby too) etc. The conversation ended and we moved on to something else.  Then 5 minutes or so later, Hunter whacked Ethan (who knows why- boys in the back seat together), and Ethan says without even a pause, and just dripping with drama, "Mommy, Hunter hurt your baby!"  I just burst out laughing- which was apparently actually not the reaction he wanted from me.   But it was SO funny.

Coleson is very bright.  (This is just to preface because I do use the word dumb (for lack of a better word) a lot in the following paragraph.)  He was on the A/B Honor Roll last semester.  So he's really not dumb.  But sometimes....the questions?? I just don't understand.  I was sitting in my normal spot between him and Hunter at the island while we were working on school work and Coleson looked at me in all seriousness and said, "how many wheels are on a bicycle?"  It'd been one of those weeks full of duh moments for him and I honestly could not answer the question without saying something I'd regret.  So I just looked at him and waited for it to occur to him the silliness of such a question.  And waited.  And waited some more.  All the while he was just staring back at me.  Eventually I had to laugh- more out of frustration at the week of dumb things leading up to the kicker of all dumb questions.   This is not a one time occurrence. Ttoday I told Coleson to come upstairs to take a shower.  He surprisingly came right up and went to the bathroom, but then came out about 2 minutes later- unshowered.  I asked him what he was supposed to be doing and he looked at me very seriously and said he didn't know.  I stared back and waited for it to come to him.  Nothing.  Finally, Katelyn (who was also downstairs when I'd told Coleson to go take the shower) came upstairs and said "Coleson aren't you supposed to be in the shower?"  Coleson says "oh".  Thank you, Katelyn!  Whoever said there are no dumb questions obviously didn't have a 10 year old boy.

To redeem Coleson a little from the last paragraph and using the word dumb a few too many times, I'll also say that Coleson is doing a fantastic job with our chickens lately.  We had always intended for the chickens to be taken care of mostly by the boys.  But the boys were still pretty young when we started chickens.  This past winter Jared has completely relinquished the chickens to Coleson.  Coleson cleans the coop, looks for needed repairs and then does them, and then of course feeds them, waters them, and collects the eggs. It takes him about 45 minutes to an hour every day.  It's been very interesting to see the change that has come over him as he's developed some pride and ownership in his work.  When Jared first turned it over to him, there were a few days Coleson didn't feed them.  When chickens run out of food or water they stop laying eggs.  It can take weeks for them to recoup and start laying again.  Happy chickens= laying chickens.  So during the time they weren't laying, I had to buy eggs at the store.  When I picked up those eggs from the store shelf, Coleson was actually almost offended and asked if I had to buy them.  I did.  Boy, did that hit home.  Every day since, he proudly announces how many eggs he collected from the hens that day- beaming smile and all.  Lesson learned.

Here's one for Hunter and then I'm done for tonight.  It starts out not so funny.  Hunter is in charge of taking out the trash.  And then on Fridays he has to take the trash cans down the lane and on Saturday's (after the trash is picked up) he has to bring them back to the house.  A few Saturdays ago, we sent him out to collect the trash cans before dark.  A few minutes later we heard a blood curdling scream.  Moms know the difference in their children's cries and screams and what each one means.  There's the 'sad', 'mad', 'angry', 'you took my toy', 'I have a not so serious owey', and then there's the HURT cry and the truly scared cry.  Hunter was screaming in both. The second I heard it I was up and running to the window and yelling at Jared who was closer to the front door than me to get outside to help him.  Turns out he was being attacked by a dog.  Of all the kids in the world to be attacked by a dog, why did it have to be Hunter?  He's already so worried and so afraid of so many things.  This definitely didn't help.  The dog was the neighbor across the street's dog (some very large less common breed who we've never had a problem with before).  They had been out playing when Hunter came down the lane for the trash cans.  And he must've looked like fun- because he is.  When he ran away that was even more fun.  Fortunately, his screaming must've scared the dog off because he only got a nip out of his leg.  But obviously he was still pretty upset. Dr. Dad cleaned up the wound and then we let him play a game on the phone for a bit.  Or so we thought.  We got busy with baths and showers and putting kids to bed.  We sent Hunter to bed (but forgot to take away the phone).  Turns out he played quietly in his bed on the phone until we went to bed.  Then he crept downstairs to play.  And that is where I found him when I was leaving for early church meetings the next morning.  He had been awake ALL night long on the phone playing games.  And we have an automatic turn off timer so if the phone is idle for more than 5 minutes it locks and has to have the pass code to turn back on.  So he hadn't let it sit idle for more than 5 minutes.  He was literally awake playing ALL night.  And there he sat on the couch downstairs with his sheepish grin the next morning.  I just stood there completely dumbfounded.  And then I left.  What else was there to say?  It was kinda my fault for not getting the phone back.  But, Hunter sure won't be enjoying any free game time on the phone again for quite some time.

Valentine's Day

Katie & I making cupcakes for her preschool class.

So for Valentine's Day this year Katie and I decided to surprise the boys.  We went to the dollar store and picked up some cheapo decorations.  Then, while the boys were at scouts Wednesday night, we decorated the kitchen and dining room for our girls night (and Ethan).  Every Wednesday is girls night since Hunter turned 8 and is going to scouts now.  We get Ethan and Owen in bed by 7 and spend the evening doing girly things.  One of our favorite activities is putting together princess puzzles.  Katie is really good at puzzles.  Anyway, I digress.  So, Wednesday night we decorated the kitchen.  We let Ethan help because he was just so excited about the whole decorating idea and he had been with us at the dollar store.  It turned out very Valentine's-y.   We put hearts on each person's chair with a love note from one of the 3 of us.  And when the boys came home from scouts I wouldn't let them in the kitchen.  When everyone got up Thursday morning, they came in to see the surprise- plus I had also gotten up early to make a fun breakfast.  We had blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup and apple pancakes with apple cider glaze and bacon and eggs.  Our family LOVES breakfast and it was a fun way to surprise everyone.  Katie had wanted to help with the breakfast, but her bed had some magnetic pull on her that morning and no matter how many times I went to try and pull her out of bed, she was stuck.  Until the bacon hit the pan.  That's when everyone started following their noses to the kitchen :)  I had also put a little gift for each person on their plates.  The boys got a box of chocolates and Katie got a little chocolate and a heart necklace.  It was a fun Valentine's morning.  

Duberstairs blankie FOUND!!!

Today we were all at the church practicing for the Primary Program tomorrow.  Katelyn, Andy, Jared, and I were in the library making copies and piles.  I asked one of them for a stapler and bent down to get it on the shelf when I saw it...Duberstairs blankie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Someone had put it there for safe keeping until its owner came along.  Thank you, special someone, for seeing that it was someone's special blankie who would be looking for it!
I don't know if I've ever seen Katie squeal so much or smile so big. :)
And that's why we have rules- like blankies don't leave the house.

Insights

My parents came for grandpa's funeral and then stayed to visit for a week with us.  It's interesting the differences and changes that happen in a person's life.  The grandpa that my dad grew up with and the grandpa that I knew were almost like 2 different people.  Grandpa was younger then and had a lot of learning to do.  By the time he was my grandpa, he was different with me. 
But aren't we all that way?  My parents are different grandparents than they were parents.  Jared agrees that his parents have changed too.  I can even see a difference in my own parenting from when Coleson was a baby to Owen now.  Isn't that what we're meant to do?  Mature and grow in wisdom.  I guess it'd just be nice if when we die everyone doesn't say that we started out too bad or ended off too bad. 

Last time

They're all gone now.  My grandparents.  I'm really very sad about it.  The feeling of that unconditional love that comes from really wonderful grandparents.  I'm so blessed to say that I've had 4 really wonderful grandparents. 
Yesterday was grandpa's funeral.  I stood there holding his hand and sobbing inside, but trying to stifle my tears so the children didn't see me crying too much.  I miss him.  I miss his annoying mustache that tickles my hear when he hugs me and kisses my cheek.  And I miss him hugging me. 

Not grandpa

Grandma passed away on a Tuesday.  I guess it's fitting that grandpa should too.  Dad called this morning to tell me that grandpa was in the hospital.  They'd taken him there last night and didn't think he'd last through the night.  His heart was barely beating.  But somehow he did.  And dad called me first thing this morning.  I wish he'd called me in the middle of the night.  I'd have left right then.  Since dad didn't have a medical update from the doctor, I called the hospital myself (sometimes I take matter in my own hands rather than waiting for the chain- Jared calls it ram-rod-y and sometimes it gets me in trouble).  I spoke to his nurse who was glad to hear from some family.  So I was glad I'd called.  At first she said she couldn't talk to me about his care (privacy laws and all), but then I explained that I was his nearest (geographically) relative and beloved granddaughter.  I could hear her ask if it was alright with him if she talked about his medical care to me and in the back ground I could hear grandpa saying, "goodness yes," in his 'why are you asking such a silly question' grandpa voice.  She explained that he was dying, but didn't know how long he would be.  She said that it could be a few hours to a day or two.  Just that his heart was slowly winding down and grandpa had asked for no life saving measures to be taken. She also said that he was in and out of coherence. Then she let me talk to him after she explained things. He was practically whispering, but surprisingly perky.  He recognized me right away and told me how much he'd loved me.  I choked out a few "I love you's" between sobs.  I told him I'd be there as soon as I could.  But it wasn't soon enough.  By the time I'd found someone to watch all the kids and packed up the baby and picked up Jared from work (because I really didn't think I could do this trip alone) he was already gone.  We were almost to Kokomo when dad (who was at the airport on his way here trying to get here before he died) called and said he'd just passed away.  I'm not sure if I'll ever forgive myself that he died all alone today.  I should've been there.  Not a hospital room full of nice hospital staff. 

Reporting a lost duberstairs blankie...

Daddy has a "no blankies leave the house" rule.  We did a lot of work for Katelyn and Andy's reception and we were out really late Friday night and had to leave early early again Saturday morning to get back to work at it.  I decided to break the rule and let Katelyn bring her blankie.  I figured it would be safe.  We'd only be at home, in the car, and at church.  At the end of the day duberstairs blankie was no where to be found.  So totally my fault.  Katelyn was crushed.  We've looked everywhere and can't find it anywhere.  Have you seen it??