all is well.

it’s been a while.  i think it’s the after-glow of hawaii.  i really liked doing things just because i wanted to and not doing things because i didn’t want to.  it’s a nice way to live, that hawaii-lifestyle.  i have been quite content in my string of no-blogging- days.  after all, i had nothing to say so why try and figure out something to say about how busy it was to come back and be bombarded with laundry and dishes and waking up at 6:20 (3:20, hawaii-time) to make breakfast AND clean the kitchen and then do it all over again at lunchtime.  is that what i was so happy and content doing before i went to hawaii?

and then, yesterday morning, my brain was ready to explode with information that all of the sudden seemed critical to publish on my blog.  i was burning with an intense desire to blog. 

but then it was time to get out of bed.  and shower.  and make breakfast again.  and clean the kitchen.  again.  and do laundry.  and go to a baptism.  and make lunch.  and do more laundry.  and build ikea furniture.  and clean out a daughter’s 11-year-stockpile of absolute junk treasures. 

and the burning within my heart quickly fizzled out as the day got away from me, and i was preparing my sunbeams lesson post-midnight last night. 

but, here i am, a little less-desirous to bear my blogging soul, but still feeling the need to unload my brain of so many details of life that i’d like to capture. 

here goes:

• Emma’s eleven.  She’s growing up on me, too.  Soon, I will write that girl her birthday letter.  not today.
• I needed Emma  to have a cell phone; there were just too many times that i’ve needed to contact her in the last several months with some important piece of information (namely, why i needed her to do something for me at a precise moment when i wasn’t able to get in touch with her).  so we added that sweet child to our phone plan.  for the 4 days she was on our billing cycle for the month of May, she sent/received roughly 500 texts- most of which were to me and damon with really critical  information like “i luv u sooooooooooo much!!” and “luv u more!!!”  it is quite different than the 29oo texts that elli used for the May billing cycle.  most of those were “fine!”  and “whatever.”  and “really, mom?”  so it’s a bit of an adjustment for us.  i mean, why does emma love us so much?  we’re her parents, for crying out loud.  weird.
• what’s even weirder than emma growing up is that savannah is growing up, too.  at almost seven-years-old, savannah has finally lost her first tooth.  and, it’s a good thing, because the other tooth is almost fully grown in- right behind the tooth that came out.  savannah is quick to show anyone just exactly where the tooth belonged that fell out, since it’s really hard to tell- what with the big gap in her bottom row of teeth.
• also in the news:  savannah is doing awesome in home-adjustment life right now.  what’s even better: I am doing awesome in that department right now.  I think they might actually be related.  oh- the things hawaii can solve. 
• On Friday night, Elli was supposed to babysit (unbeknownst to her) for us, but she fell asleep before we left (and before we could ask her to babysit).  As we were walking out the door, we told Nolan that he was in charge while Elli was sleeping and we encouraged him to not wake her up because it wouldn’t end up in his favor if he woke her up to ask her a dumb questions.  So we told him to feed himself, Ray, and Savannah dinner, and then put a movie on the projector, and to have Elli call us when she woke up.  Elli never woke up.  Nolan ended up babysitting the entire 5 hours we were gone.  He fed the kids and cleaned up after dinner, figured out the technical issues with the projector and got a movie going, brushed teeth with the ray and savannah, read books with them, fed the cats, locked the house down, and had everyone asleep (including himself and elli)by the time we got home at 10:15 that night.  seriously awesome, that kid.
• elli is a full-blown teenager and is capable of sleeping for 20-hour stretches.  i think some of my delirious friends with newborns might actually be willing to trade their infants for a teenager at this point.  do not be fooled, my friends.  they do wake up.
• emma’s friends surprised her and made a cake for her birthday. 
• savannah got her hair cut.  i am loving not having that tangly mess to battle with.  it also happens to be adorable on her.
• hawaii may be over, but the spirit of hawaii lives on in our marriage.  we like to be super cheesy and say “aloha” and “mahalo” every chance we get to each other. 
• post-hawaii, i’m feeling very capable as a mother.  i can mother with holiness.  i might even be happy.
• my thyroid is off again.  my levoxyl medication has recently increased.
• somewhere, the kids have picked up the phrase “get a room” and have been saying that to damon and me all week.  i take that as a sincere compliment.  i never had to tell my parents to “get a room”. 
• damon’s work deadline still looms- no further comment
• tokyo is super expensive
• damon’s audi is starting to be a hassle to maintain (financially).  we are looking into (possibly) replacing it.
• spring soccer for emma and nolan is over!!!  which means ( a little more) freedom monday thru thursday evenings
• nolan is anxious to start a new sport to build his trophy collection.  i am not.
• ray has 2 more games left in his rookie t-ball season.  he loves being part of team and asks every single game why his coach hasn’t given him his trophy yet.  he’s speedy quick and loves playing ball.  and yet he cries before every practice and game because he “doesn’t like it”. 
• ray has been referring to his time at mandy’s while we were in hawaii as “when he was living at mandy’s”.  “remember when i was living at mandy’s, mom?”
• starting with ellison’s birthday in march of this year, we have taken on “children’s room improvement” as their birthday gifts.  each child- including elli, nolan, and now emma- has been taken to ikea the night before or the day of their birthday to buy furniture/accessories for their bedrooms.  and then had the entire next day devoted to building furniture and de-cluttering and creating the perfect bedroom, just for them.  it seemed like a grand idea back in march, but quickly got super expensive when we had 3 birthdays between march and may.  however, it has been a great way to have a deadline and focus on each child, one at a time. 
• for ellison’s birthday, we actually did an entire bedroom shake-up and everyone ended up in a different bedroom.  elli got her very own bed, but still shares a room with emma.  she got a new bed, desk, nightstand, shelving, bedding, accessories.  the whole shabang.  the modern design of her space is very elli. 
• when nolan’s birthday rolled around, his only expectation was a glass display case for his legos.  and a zune.  that was easy.  he chose a tall glass display case with a lock and key that he actively keeps under his control.  the ikea line is called “biby”, which is what nolan has named his case.
• emma’s birthday was friday, and her shopping spree was just as expensive as elli’s, complete with a new bed, bedding, desk, shelving, and chair.  elli’s modern simplicity style is as different as emma’s fancy feminine flair.  in the same room.  but both girls are happy.  both parents are wondering how we spent so much money in such a quick time period.  dumb ikea.
• the little kids had their own little makeover in their room with the ikea boxes. 
• i have mixed emotions when mandy tells me,  “ray is such a great helper and cleaner!  i loved having him at my house!”  mixed in that i am proud that he is such a great helper, but also baffled.  wha?  he actually listens to mandy when she tells him to clean?
• since we’ve been back from hawaii, ray has been ever by my side.  he feels the need to give me lots of extra hugs and kisses- especially when i am leaving without him.  he even sits on my lap for meals, which is really lovely.  my personal favorite way that he has overstepped his bounds for getting in my personal space is that he has taken it upon himself to rip my toilet paper for me and hand it to me and then run and turn the water on at the sink so i can be really efficient when i use the bathroom.  we’re tight, me and ray.
• for the past several weeks, elli has been a delight.  and- surprisingly-  i’m not even being sarcastic.  she has been making a consistent effort to have a pleasant attitude and help out more willingly around the house.  she is even being nice to me and others in our very own family.  what a lovely shift has occurred in our family because of one thirteen-year-old girl. 
• emma is having girlfriend troubles.  girlfriend troubles are hard. 
• back in october, (elli’s bff) jillan’s family bought a japanese maple bush for our family in honor of calvin.  we didn’t have any idea where to plant it and we just left it on our front porch instead of planting it in our yard because we’re lazy like that.  it lost all of its branches in the winter and we were pretty sure it was a goner.  but, because we are lazy, it still sat on our front porch.  it welcomed us back from hawaii with a beautiful growth spurt.  it bloomed where it was planted.  {whenever i say that phrase, i think of a primary program many, many years ago that my mom was in charge of and had the words, BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED taped across the chapel wall behind the podium.}  it makes me smile when i look at it.  it will make me smile even more when we actually plant it.
• speaking of our deck, i have slipped and fallen on it no less than 8 times this past week.  i feel like an old lady.  who slips on their front porch 8 times in the same week?  damon claims it wouldn’t have happened if i’d have just let him scrub it back when he added “scrubbing the deck” to his to-do list hours before we had company coming several months ago.  i still say cleaning the toilets and kitchen was more important than scrubbing the deck. 
• my nieces (matt’s daughters) holly and andi are coming to visit us this summer.  holly will even get to go to girls’ camp with elli.  my brother, matt, owes me $95 for holly’s girls’ camp fees.   i may be confiscating elli’s camera during holly’s visit.
• it is very amusing to me that my brother, brett, had 6 children on the morning of may 15th, but- after he was married later that day-now has 13 kids.  
• ellison just ended her rookie volleyball season at the junior high.  she improved her volleyball skills immensely over the course of the 2-month season.  she had a winning season.  and she can now serve the ball over the net (sometimes).
• ellison’s shorts for volleyball were ridiculously short.  the argument for them was that when you wear regular nylon athletic shorts, you run the risk of having them slip off when you dive to save the ball, revealing your underwear.   my argument against them is:  why are you worried about your shorts falling off if you don’t mind wearing the short spandex ones that cover the same amount of skin as your underwear would?
• we really did give molly, the dog back to the animal shelter.  we had her for about 3 and 1/2 weeks.
• nolan and emma both played the position of goalie for about half the game time.  nolan takes his job very seriously and gets emotional when the other team scores a goal off of him.  nolan also does some fancy footwork that makes it easy for the other team to steal the ball from him.  and he has us both stumped with his backwards offense skills (he turns around and has his back to the ball and backs into position to try and get the ball).
• the tooth fairy remembered her job last night.  whew.
• emma was thrilled to receive so many phone calls, text messages, and voicemail messages for her birthday on her very own phone.
• it rains a lot in seattle.  it’s way different than hawaii.
• ray’s current songs that he plays on repeat all day long:  eye of the tiger, the final countdown, and ghostbusters. 
• i have rather enjoyed being disconnected from my computer and online life the past couple weeks.  i used to love checking my e-mail; now not so much.
• i am really loving {on} damon right now.  he has agreed to always love me just a little bit more than i love him.  we are ready for some time alone again. 
• of the 5 home phones that we have in our house, i was only able to find one of them and put it on its charger before i left for hawaii.  since we’ve been back, we have found 2 more phones, one of which had been left out in the rain the entire time we were gone.  we are now down to 2/5 phones.  it’s very annoying when i need to make a phone call, but it gives me a great excuse when i can’t find a phone when someone is calling and i really have no desire to answer it anyway.
• i have 21 voicemail messages that are waiting for me to listen to right now.  it’s not even on my list of things to do.
• nolan earned his bobcat while we were in hawaii.
• nolan has just discovered that his backpack has a special pocket made for holding a cell phone.  he is convinced that it is completely wrong for him to be carrying that backpack when the cell phone pocket doesn’t have a cell phone in it.  poor nolan.
• elli is being nice to emma and emma’s friends.  weird.
• i’m really proud of my 13-year-old daughter right now.  it’s hard to be 13.  and beautiful.  and have a boyfriend.  and have a cell phone.  and have a facebook account.  and be in junior high.  and still stand strong.
• laundry.
• gogos crazybones are go-going to drive me crazy.
• savannah is thrilled to have “new clothes”  that i dragged up from the crawl space that emma used to wear.  she has no concept that the clothes emma wore when she was 4 completely drown savannah at 6 3/4.
• elli is baffled as to my new clothing purchases:  “mom, why are you buying all these cute clothes for yourself?  it’s not really your style.”
• ray is no longer snoring.  period.  and he is pretty good about keeping himself dry at night, though he still wears a pull-up because he has an occasional accident. 
• it is tradition in our family to begin fasting when you turn eight.  the first fast sunday after nolan turned eight was a crazy one, with company visiting and damon and i both out of town for the weekend.  needless to say, i forgot to remind nolan it was fast sunday.  he was devastated when he discovered he had already broken his fast, without even realizing it.  he has been asking every sunday since then if it is fast sunday.  he is thrilled that next sunday is finally fast sunday again.  what kid actually looks forward to not eating for 2 consecutive meals (besides eli shaw)?
• ray is less ornery and cranky, but is still not a very prompt listener
• even though emma ditched us halfway through the day yesterday (mid-remodel), elli worked her heart out to make emma’s (side of the) room just right for her; meanwhile she re-designed her own (side of the) room during sacrament meeting today.
• nolan is in a delightful phase of learning and speaking everything in pig-latin.   {sarcmark}
• elli likes to hide her student id in different places all around the house for me to find everyday.  it’s a fun little game we play.
• usually i back up a teacher 100% when my children complain about the unfairness or harshness of a teacher, but when your child works really hard on an extra-credit assignment (for several hours) and gets all the answers right and has breakthrough learning moments and actually understands the process of something rather than just being concerned with getting the right answer and then is denied the extra credit points because her work is not shown in chronological order, it makes me a little annoyed.  actually, maybe a lot annoyed.  i heart teachers, but i don’t heart when the teacher completely misses the of education:  to learn. 
• i also heart mystery notes left on my pillow with handwriting in the likeness of a certain 13-year-old girl
• i am now on a mission to find a new “happy something” to look forward to and focus on. 

    one big happy family