Halloween in January?

I can't believe I never posted these gems. I seriously love making family Halloween costumes. . .

Every year the camera manages to catch Ryan with a fabulous look on his face. This year was no exception.

A vacation of sorts

In mid December, Ryan had a work training in Salt Lake City and the wives were invited to come along. Some great new friends of ours, the Yancey family, graciously agreed to host our two little munchkins for four days and three nights. They are an fun young couple eagerly anticipating their first baby, so they said this would be great practice for them. So, every day, Elizabeth took the kids to school and picked them up, packed their lunch

es, and made sure they had their miscellaneous items for that last week of
school before break. At night, Russ and Elizabeth played drums, guitars, playstation, and games with the boys. I'm pretty sure after that fun week, T and B decided we are no longer cool parents. Thank you Yanceys!

But enough about the boys. We had a great, great, great time in Salt Lake. Well, I had a great time. Ryan still had meetings all day. This was our agenda:

Monday: Ryan drives to SLC in the afternoon.

Steph gets the boys packed, finishes last minute errands, etc.

Tuesday: Ryan has meetings.

Steph gets the kids to school, then transports a massive pile of stuff to the Yancey house. (because of course you need guitar for lessons, scout uniform for Wednesday night, church clothes for Ben's piano recital (Yep, we missed it), uniforms for school, pajamas both for sleeping and for Friday's wear jammies to school day for Ben, Christmas books for our nightly Christmas book reading tradition, cookies for Todd's class party Friday, etc. etc. etc.

When all this is done, Steph flies on a plane all by herself. She buys a magazine in the airport newsstand because she can. She wears adorable boots and looks like a grown up.

Tuesday night dinner at the Lion House--Ryan and Steph are the youngest by at least 10 years, but it's fun.

Wednesday: Ryan has meetings

Steph sleeps in, gets ready, wears grown-ups clothes (not one surf T-shirt or pair of ratty jeans in the bunch), has brunch at The Blue Lemon overlooking the Salt Lake Temple and reads in her Kindle. She eats an artichoke and sun dried tomato sandwich with sweet potato fries. She sits there for an hour because she can.

No one tells her the food is disgusting or asks "what are we doing now?" She then treks over to the Family History Library. They have her watch a movie and give her a yellow "Newbie" name tag so everyone knows she is clueless. It is fun. Seriously. She stays there for hours.

Wednesday night Ryan and Steph catch a rushed dinner at Red Iguana (not nearly as good as they hype, in Steph's opinion) and then catch a temple session at the Salt Lake temple with Ryan's co-workers. Fantastic.

Thursday: Ryan has meetings (thought he originally wasn't supposed to)

Steph sleeps in, gets up, breaks a record for looking like a grown up three days in a row, has breakfast overlooking the temple at Hagermann's (She'll fess up that it was a croissant smothered with Nutella and then grilled--nothing healthy but everything delicious). She then heads back to the Family History Library for more fun. She even finds some clues to a mystery in Grandpa Bob's family. So exciting.

Ryan and Steph meet for lunch, then back to more meetings and Family History.

Friday night dinner at Bruges waffles (OK, so it wasn't really dinner--more like a heart attack waiting to happen) followed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. The organ solo was amazing!

Friday: Ryan and Steph oversleep a bit, run a few errands, then drive home. Because of some poor communication on Steph's part, they were only unsure about the whereabouts of their kids for 15 minutes on Friday afternoon. Other than that, everything went off without a hitch.

It sure was fun to enjoy my husband without the pressures of parenting and balancing schedules. The best part of all was that by the time we came back, I missed my kids and was ready to dive back into mothering. We are definitely doing this again soon. Next time, maybe we'll just have to get away without the meetings. . .

Marbles

Todd has been chomping at the bit every morning to get to school this week. You heard me right.

Todd.

Wants.

To.

Get.

To.

School.

My kid who five months ago hated school and would tell anyone withing hearing range. That kid.

Every morning this week he has been counting down the minutes, starting 30 minutes before. He herds Ben toward the door (somewhat nicely) and is so frustrated when Mr. Slow is his usual dawdling self.

What brought about this change?

Marbles.

Marbles are the new craze for the 5th grade boy set. They don't even play by the right rules--they have their own version. Every morning before school and every lunch recess they play. Todd was all excited today because he's playing for 3rd place in the "championships."

There is one boy, Henry (I think), who is the "marble expert." He knows what all the marbles are called and he can examine your marble and tell you its name. He has a gallon bag full of marbles, according to Todd.

This might seem little and silly, but it is another answer to my prayers. Todd's shell is cracking open bit by bit. He is meeting new, good, kind friends. He is expanding beyond his little world. I can see him growing and changing and I love this young man he is becoming.

And guess what?

Marbles are cheap.

Whose Head is it Anyway?

Can you identify this head?

I'm giving myself points for being an innovative mom with this one. Todd wanted a big Elvis head on a poster for his Elvis Presley biography report. I don't own an overhead projector, an opaque projector, or a cool DVD projector. But, I do own a flashlight, a card holder, two card game boxes, a stool, and a plastic bin. Combined with a cut out printable of the Elvis head, and Voila! Traceable goodness.

The poster turned out great, by the way, but did I think to snap a picture of it before he whisked it away to school? Nope.

By the way, you should read a biography soon about someone interesting. It really opened my eyes to see the world through a different set of eyes. (Yes. I read the biography, too.)

We Be Loyal Scouts!

Todd has some great Webelos leaders. . .super great. I am kind of a lame scouting mom (OK, kind of is an understatement. I'm a super lame scouting mom.) But, he has some dynamit scout leaders. Last week Todd earned his Webelos, Arrow of Light, and Religious Knot. Very exciting stuff! It was fun for him to earn this along with two other boys--Caden and Cristian. We're sure grateful for the people around us who help guide our kids. I love that my boys have examples all around them of good men who worthily hold the Priesthood and exercise that Priesthood. Hooray for great scout leaders! Hooray for my own little Webelo who is growing up WAY TOO FAST!

Am I a great artist or what? Todd hates this part of scouting, but he put up with it like a champ this time!

I don't know much

The older I get, the more I realize that I just don't know nearly anything. (This probably will not come as a surprise to many of you). I have clearly in my mind all these preconceived notions about how things should work, and then over and over again I come to realize that the world just isn't all black and white.

Stay-at-home moms, for example. I am so, so, so grateful that I have the chance to be at home with my kids. Even as they are both in school full time this year, I feel like my role is crucial. I love being the watchguard at the gate as they come and go. I love doing their laundry and cleaning the house while they're gone so that when they come home, we have more time to "be" (though I'm still figuring out how to balance this so I don't become a slave and they don't feel entitled. . .we'll tackle that on a later post). I love the ability to spend an entire day at the school every week helping in classrooms.

I was talking with Ryan's mom a while ago and told her how grateful I was that Ryan works hard so that I can stay home. She said something that made me pause, "It isn't just Ryan, though. You work hard so you can stay home, too. You do without some things, you don't spend a lot of money on clothes or jewelry so that you can stay home. It's really both of you." I appreciated that thought.

But here's the other side. I went into Todd's classroom this morning for a meeting with one of his teachers and ended up chatting with all three of them. Two of them are moms. . .great moms. . .and Fantastic teachers. They are just the women Todd needed this year to get him through a kind of rough transition from home school to school school. One of them has a fifth grader herself in Todd's class, and one of them has a first-grader in Ben's class. I don't know these women personally, I don't know their circumstances, I don't really know much about them except that I am so grateful they are where they are.

I have spent hours and hours in the last six months praying that Todd would be blessed with teachers who would recognize his tender sensitive little soul behind his sometimes pain-in-the-bum exterior. Hours. And hours. Praying. And these women are the answer to my prayers.

So, I'm learning. I believe that a mother's place is in the home. I'm grateful to be there. But what if all great, wonderful, caring mothers were at home? Who would teach my boys? Who would help them learn to love history and writing and math (OK, perhaps not love math--just tolerate it). Not to say that men aren't great teachers; they're amazing. But they are few and far between.

And so, I'm learning not to judge, not to presume, but to realize that everyone has her own path. I'm grateful I am where I am and am blessed. I'm grateful for women who do the best they can with what they have and where they are. I believe we all have to figure out for ourselves and for our families just what works for us. We can pray for guidance and be directed. But we can't judge other people, because we aren't in their shoes.

One thing I am certain of is I am grateful for amazing teachers!

We vs. I

So, this is how school drop-off goes for our little group each morning. . .I park at the opposite end of the parking lot from the school and we hoof it. This way we avoid all the traffic and have a nice little walk down the length of the building. Ben takes infinitely more time to just get out of the van than Todd, so Todd bids us farewell and walks in alone (I'm sure it's much cooler to walk in alone as well). Ben and I then have a leisurely walk together. He still lets me hold his hand (and occasionally his backpack), for which I am very grateful.

Our conversation this morning went something like this:

Turning the corner, Ben said, "Wow. Todd is already almost at the door."

"He sure is," I replied, "I think he secretly likes school and is excited to get to his classroom."

To which Ben matter-of factly stated, "No. We hate school."

"You hate school? I don't think so," I said.

Quick response from Ben, "Yes we do. Todd said."

I love the use of the word "we," and the fact that Ben had no input whatsoever into the reasoning. Yet he was quick to assure me that "We hate school." I guess they are like a collective mind.

I actually think they are enjoying school far more than they would care to admit. Todd, particularly has found a lot of satisfaction in seeing the things he is capable of accomplishing. The end of home schooling last year had become something of a battle of wills, and he got away with a lot because I was sick of the fight. So, school has been good for him. He was positively glowing when he came home to report that he had written four paragraphs during class. For my little non-writer, this was a major accomplishment. I was so happy for his hard work. It was very gratifying for me to see him take pleasure in accomplishing something that was challenging.

Ben is actually having a more difficult time with the adjustment. He is just

plumb worn out tired. But I volunteered in his classroom last week and he is a great little first grader. The kids in his class all like him, he does good work, and he has a great teacher (who also happens to be a family friend). I think once he gets adjusted to the new schedule, he'll be happy with his "new life."

Here's hoping "we" can learn to like school.