easter 2011

Sam was born in a snow storm, under comet Hale Bop.  Every once in a while Easter falls on his birthday.  The last time was 1859.

easter hamsters

Saturday's pictures.

Easter preparation.

William at being William.

Saturday was birthday and Easter prep day.  I drove around town, more shopping.  More Costco.  Rain and cold.  It felt like Thanksgiving. Another unfortunate discovery Friday night, by the way, our dwarf hamster died.  She was just curled up sweetly in her little nook.  We were all sad. So Saturday Mary cleaned out the cage, quite earnestly, and I went to pick up two new dwarf hamster friends.  Petco knows me now. 

Saturday night bath.

Grandma came over to watch the little ones and I took Sam out to celebrate his birthday. He has been wanting to go to Olive Garden his whole life practically.  Not so easy to do in a big family.  I had a great time with him. I am grateful for Sam.

next two days

Monday April 19, we were all back to school.  Did I mention that I love school?
Tuesday, I had my first introduction to seated massage.  I love it. It's so communal, energetic, aerobic, efficient.  I can't wait to buy my own chair.

Wednesday, two of my favorite classes.  Acupressure in the morning. I love studying yin and yang.  Wednesday we discussed the Earth element.  Do you know your archetype?  Mine were wizard/peacemaker.  Anatomy in the afternoon, finally to the muscles.

Wednesday after school, Rob's in town this week.  He came to pick up the kids. They were excited.  I had two days and a to do list longer than my arm.  After they left I went to friends house to practice reflexology.  She was going in to the hospital the next day to have her baby induced, her first.  It felt like a priviledge to be part of the night before.

Next I met a friend from school, Sophia--great name, at the mall.  We had cheeseburgers at Five Guys and then saw Source Code.  I enjoyed it but I can see why the boys weren't overwhelmed.  Seemed like a chick flick in disguise to me.  Bourne Identity meets While You were Sleeping. It felt strange to sit in a movie without kids.

Last week Sam asked me what was my favorite movie.  Hard to answer so here's a list of a few.

-You've got Mail --for feel-good, always make me cry at the end, scenes of NYC, Tom Hanks, great cast, cute Golden Retriever, great music

-Life is Beautiful and Cinema Paradiso-- for Italy, incredibly romantic but too heart wrenching to watch on almost any day

-Jason Bourne--for soundtrack, sexy protagonist, violence

-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-- the original, for admonishing

--Nacho Libre-- for serenades, wrestling moves, inspiration.  Friends at lunch told me they couldn't understand why I cry in the last wrestling scene.  Doesn't everyone???

What's your favorite movie? 

Back to the next two days.  Thursday morning I went to the temple.
It was a blessing to have time to sit and pray and think.  Walked out in to a big windstorm. It felt like the last day on earth.  My feeling was that could be good or bad depending on what came next.

Thursday afternoon, started in to Sam's birthday list, had to have it interpreted by the guy at Best Buy.
Had business cards made.  Bought some shoes.  That's all?  Where did the day go?  Bought dinner at In-and -Out.  Over rated in my opinion. Not as yummy as Burger Supreme or even Five Guys.  Met my friend Gina to go to her DoTerra oil party. Interesting. I like lavender, melaleuca, frankincense.  The house felt so lonely Thursday night.

Friday morning, had a volunteer opportunity.  Our anatomy teacher took us to his kids' elementary school to do seated massage for the teachers.  Teacher appreciation week.  I loved it.  Loved being a part of making their day better.

Went back to shopping.  Easter and birthday preparation. Costco was a-buzz.  Brought home Smith's Chinese for dinner and old times. I went down to the Smith's in the hood for that.  Remembered what Amy said about the meat market in the frozen foods section.  Had to laugh when I smelled men's cologne wafting throught the aisles.  Smith's Chinese was on my to do list. Got that in.  William got home in time to eat my chow mien.  It was great to have his company again.

smilish

I love this picture of Caitlin and her beautifully sculpted ice cream.  This was at Chuck-a-Rama last Thursday, my second biannual promise to take the kids out to a buffet if they sit through all four session of General Conference.  We did better last October.  April session I had to add a day of hard labor around the house to the arrangement, since we had some fairly intense fighting among the big kids during more than one talk, no doubt on charity, family relations, or forgiveness.

I love that I could put Sophie in a high chair for the first time at a restaurant so she didn't have to get lost in her car seat under the table or trampled by the kids in a food crazed run to the buffet table.

I love Sophie's personality.  Everyday I pick her up at Grandma's house and put her next to Caitlin in the van.  She kicks her legs with excitement and laughs when she sees her big sister.  Caitlin says that Sophie is smile-ish.

I love when I'm going through my day and I find some random thing that reminds me of how unique and wonderful each one of my children is.  I just saw this in the picture files.

This says "Kyle was here."

Speaking of Kyle, I forgot to mention that one of the parakeets died Thursday morning.  It's so sad to find a fallen bird.  This was the one (I admit I can't keep their names straight) who had really bonded with Kyle.  She liked to walk around on his head and shoulders.  The kids said they wished the mean blue one had died.  We were all sad but then we had a good time going back to the pet store to find another one.  I got a wish list as long as my arm for this exotic animal and that one.  Everyone thinks they need a new pet for their birthday.  As you may know,  I am a problem includer.  Does anyone have any experience with Chinchillas?

Here is our new parakeet friend.  His name is Frank Moses.  I had nothing to do with that.

Here's something.  I have days when I feel remarkably peaceful and happy, and days when I feel like crying all day. I can't remember what I did to entertain the kids Friday, it was spring break after all.  I am afraid that I did nothing but feel sad and wander about multi tasking to the point of not feeling like I had accomplished a blessed thing.

 I do remember that a high point came in the evening when Caitlin shared her artwork with me, of which, at that point, I felt entirely undeserving.

Saturday was much better. We had fun plans, that's probably why.

It was a gorgeous day. We all walked over to the movie theatre where we met Grandma. The big kids went to something that I won't admit I let them see because it was too violent. Grandma and I went to Hop

with the younger set, which I will admit I really enjoyed. Grandma and I both loved the first scene of  E.B.'s passionate, meditative drumming on a cliff over looking the ocean and Easter Island.

I like Russel Brand. Walked home loving the white and pink blossoms on trees.

Here's my very humble flower patch. Hopefully it will look more abundant next year when the bulbs divide.

I love daffodils.

Still waiting for the tulips.

Here's William threatening to rescue that pink bunny from the garden.

Here's a picture of a cookie that Olivia frosted.

Here's Sunday in the kitchen with Bethany.  Olivia and Bethany made peanut butter cookies.  Bethany helped me with dinner too.  That's what happens to mashed potatoes when you boil the potatoes then it gets too late to cook them so you put them in the fridge for two days before you mash them. The bowls are not so elegant.  I agree that I need to work on my presentation.

april

Wednesday April 6, the kids brought home free tickets to the Flash game again.  Olivia, Mary, Caitlin, Sam and the little boys wanted to go. 

Friday April 8, Olivia presented her Curious Cub project at school.  It was about parakeets.

Here's one of the pictures Olivia took of the parakeets Pablo and Pauli.

Olivia's presentation.

Friday was a busy day.  After the presentation I checked Olivia and Mary out of school, drove to the middle school to get Ben and Sam, and took them all to the dentist.  Drove back to the school so I could grab Bethany and Kyle. Drove back to the dentist.  Sat down for a minute.  Realized that it was time to get Caitlin for her appointment.  Took Caitlin in.  Bethany was done and reminded me she needed to be to an after school party (early release day.) Took her to that.  Went back to the dentist. Met Caitlin who was ran  up to me with a big smile, showing off her beautiful white teeth. "I was brave," she said. 

I was grateful that with all those check-ups, spacers for Ben, there was only one small cavity.`

In the afternoon I took Caitlin to the elementary school for Kindergarten sign-up day.

Not much happened over the weekend. I had a couple of classes ending the week of April 11. I'm in a seven month massage therapy program. I spend most of my time studying anatomy. So late Tuesday night Mary was insisting on going to sleep in my bed and wouldn't stop talking.  "This is your butt mom."

"Go to sleep Mary. I'm studying feet," I said.  Reflexolgy final the next day.

Ironically I missed five points for misplacing the rectom.  I didn't know it's reflex was only found on the right foot. I'd pointed to the left.

This week the big kids have been out of school for spring break. Monday they walked to the library.  Tuesday was a big day at Grandma's house, frosting Easter cookies, movies,pizza, playing at the playground.  Grant and Caitlin stayed home for that too.

Wednesday night I was relieved to have two finals out of the way.  We went to the Provo Beach Resort for the first time as a family.