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The Numbers

This week I thought it would be fun to post by the numbers, so here goes.
Our week included:
Libby having 4 days of school.
Sarah had 2 days of school.
Mom had 10 personal training appointments.
Mom taught 5 classes.
Mom attended 1 yoga class and got 1 massage.
Ben went potty about 30 times!
Derek worked 1 Mariners game & 2 Folklife shifts
Derek had 1 day of shotgun qualifications.
He worked 4 regular shifts.
Mom gave 1 talk in sacrament meeting.
Mom had 1 YW class presidency meeting & 1 adult presidency meeting.
We hosted our last Rhinos board meeting (at least until Ben is old enough to wrestle).
We attended 3 dance classes (one for each girl including me)
We had our 2nd home appraisal in as many weeks (the first one the woman couldn't write the report because apparently I was "pressuring" her....another story)
When the appraisal came through we saw that the $30,000 we have spent on our house is worth $50,000 in equity!
We ate 0 restaurant meals (it is an EAT AT HOME month).
We had 1 home teacher visit (with his son).  Our first home teachers in our new house, and they are moving.
Derek had 1 unexpected cavity filled.
Paige had 1 unexpected cavity filled.
Derek spent $1000 to fix some issues with his truck.
Paige got hit by 1 uninsured driver while she was parked at Fred Meyer.  He did leave a note.  He was shocked to hear the $3000+ total for the repairs.
We went on 1 trip to the outlets in Marysville.
Paige got 2 awesome pairs of shoes for her mission.
Paige and Mom bought the same skirt at the Eddie Bauer outlet.
Libby rejected 1 awesome pair of shoes I wanted to buy her.
Paige worked a double shift.
Mom got 4 stars on a Just Dance song (it was an EASY song--I admit it).
During swimming lessons, Mom and Ben played in lane 4.  Mom dove down and picked up Hulk and Iron Man at least 100 times.
Our gardener has worked 17 hours to help clean up the weeds and stuff in our yard (still more to go).  She found 1 plastic chicken missing its legs and 1 aged Easter Egg.
Ben spent at least an hour chatting her up while she worked.
We went to 1 awesome construction birthday party--Happy Birthday Jed!
Mom has finished 21 chapters of study toward her personal training cert.  Only 1 3/4 chapters of reading left.  (Then hours of review of course).

Mom went on 2 runs with Aunt Maren.

The kids spent all of Paige's quarters

Ben picked out 1 pair of shoes for "Jamesy Wamesy" as he called him.  

Ben got 1 awesome new pair of PJs!  I got trapped in about 1000 spiderwebs this guys was slinging at me.

Libby's First Soccer Practice

She can kick up onto the bar and hang upside down--then get herself back down. I think she is going to be a bar twirler like her Auntie Ray!

I walked up to pick up Libby from her first soccer practice.  It is a fun free soccer practice afterschool, so there were about 80 kids on the field.  I wondered if I would be able to spot Libby.  Before I even got to the field, I spotted some green leggings doing cartwheels.  Yep.  Libby.  She complained to me later that she never got to touch the ball.  I suggested maybe a few less cartwheels?

Ready for dance class!  The recital is only a month away!

Potty Training Adventures

Libby was so easy to potty train.  I knew she was ready because she started removing her poopy diapers herself.  So, I just followed the advice of the Potty Training Queen and used the 3 day method.  Sarah was another story.  She took a year of off and on misery.  I am, understandably I think, a bit leery of trying to potty train Ben.  But he is SUPER motivated by clothing, including the opportunity to wear pull-ups or undies.  So, he has been going once or twice a day for awhile.  I adore it when he goes because he gets SO excited!  Then I let him wear undies over his diaper or pull-up.  Whenever I put on the undies he says, "now I have to shake my booty!"  So he gets down from the changing table and does the cutest booty shake saying, "shake my booty, shake my booty (over and over)."  One of the cutest things he does.  He has also started taking off diapers when they are poopy and/or asking me to change him immediately.  I need to seize the moment.  But I am still hesitating.  HELP!

When the girls want to wear costumes, this is what Ben asks for.  Fix it Felix!

He has been really into his weapons this week.  He also punched dad in the face during one of his naps this week. He was so excited about this.  

Ben wanted to wear socks with his Tevas.  He chose which ones to wear.  

He also chose this outfit.

Love this kid!

An ER Visit--and an almost all-dayer

Derek gets up for work at 2:30 am. Sometimes (often) I forget this.  He comes home at noon and I expect him to stay up until our bedtime, doing things around the house, working OT, etc.  And, actually he does.  Often.  He has been saying for awhile that I should get up with him and stay up all day like he does so I have some sympathy for him.  On Mother's Day night I almost got the chance.  Sarah had been getting croup (Libby & Ben already had it.)  She woke up at 2:00 am Mon morning (Sunday night) and couldn't breathe.  It was scary.  It was like she couldn't get air into her lungs.  I tried doing a nebulizer treatment (that seemed to have helped Libby a bit when she had a similar thing the Monday before).  It didn't help Sarah.  Derek suggested a cough drop.  I said, LISTEN TO HER!  She can't breathe!  So we told Paige we were leaving and headed to the ER.  Derek's alarm to get up for work went off as we were driving to Children's Hospital.  Gave me quite the reality check to think that this is really when he gets up.  Anyway, at the ER they took her right back after listening to her and seeing her "retract" in 3 places in her abdomen where she was trying to get air in.  Then, once she was settled down on a bed and watching "Ella Enchanted" her breathing calmed a bit and they downgraded her condition from a 2 to a 3 (Derek knows this kind of stuff from having to take various victims and criminals to the hospital).  So then we had to wait.  It seemed like forever.  A couple of Derek's coworkers stopped in to see how we were doing--caused a bit of a stir to have 2 cops walk into our room.  But finally the Dr. came in and said she needed some steroids to help open her airway.  Apparently the problem with croup is in the throat not the lungs (which is why the nebulizer treatment didn't work.)  We go the meds and some chocolate pudding (the Dr. first said she could have a Popsicle, but Sarah informed her that she doesn't like Popsicles) and we headed home.  We got home just before my alarm was supposed to go off at 5:05 am so I could go swimming with Maren.  I went back to bed and slept until 7.  I didn't even try to pull off a Derek Norton all-dayer.  And, I was tired all week!  I admire that man of mine for his ability to thrive on so little sleep.  I am also super glad to know that there is something that a Dr. can do for croup!  We always had to sleep with a rag soaked in alcohol around our neck.  A dose of steroids is a way more comfortable alternative.  Sarah improved rapidly (in fact I feel like her recovery went a bit more slowly because of a head injury in the form of a giant goose egg suffered falling into Maren's pond on Sunday afternoon) and was back to herself in just a day or so.

Sarah was the model for Miss Sue to demonstrate how to put on stage make-up for the girls and parents in her class.

Libby's Life Aspirations

I wrote a few weeks ago about how Libby told the girls at a birthday party that in 10 years she would be dating either a thief or a drug person.
Well, never fear, she has thought far beyond that too.   When we went to the open house at her school, all the kids had done a poster of what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Other kids had things like: police man, soldier, ballerina, ice skater, etc.
Libby:  "When I grow up I want to be Queen Elisabeth, because my name is Elisabeth and that is sillye."
This week I asked her what she wanted to do the make the world a better place.  She said, "Rule over it."
She also told Derek that one of her career goals is Queen of the Universe.
Guess she is aiming for the stars!

This weekend one of her aspirations was to have me put up the tent so they could play in it.  She wouldn't let it go.  Begging, pleading, etc.  Finally I gave in.  They have had a good time.  When you have the space to set up a tent in the house, you should do it sometimes.  Even when I means a lot more work for you, right?

Sweet Sarah

Sarah has her moments where she gets really upset.  It is often unexpected and random.  For example, she cried for about 1/2 hour at the mall yesterday because I wanted her to get some Tevas that she didn't like. (In her defense she has the cold, respiratory thing that the other two started with earlier this week.)
But she did the sweetest thing earlier this week.  She had a friend over for a play date.  They were playing My Little Pony Memory.  Her friend was picking the "Pinkie Pie" card for her first draw every time hoping to figure out where the other card was.  Sarah randomly turned over the other "Pinkie Pie".  But instead of turning over the other one (which she obviously knew where it was since her friend was turning it over EVERY turn) she pretended she didn't know where the match was and (without saying anything) flipped a different card.  Then the next turn when her friend found the pair, Sarah was so excited for her.  Later I asked her about it.  She said she just wanted to make her friend happy.  
Made my heart sing!

Sarah got a new haircut this morning.  I wasn't intending to go this short, but it just looks so cute this way!

I need to do a little more shaping, but it looks pretty good considering she was complaining the whole time about sitting on the counter.  It was hurting her legs and knees.  

A Mommy & Sarah selfie from the other day.  

What is Mother's Day?

Mother's day to me isn't about being pampered and taking a "day off" from being a mom. It is about getting up at 6 am to help a kid with a bloody nose and taking an extra second to reflect--"I am so lucky to have these little ones in my life!" My kids challenge me in ways that are sometimes SO SO hard. But they make me better, they make me laugh, they (and their dad) are the best thing about my life.

Benny at about 3 days

Libby at about 3 days

Sarah at about 3 days

Just a few weeks ago...Time flies!

Little Benny Boo

Ben loves to be buried in his stuffed animals, or the sand, or pretty much anywhere.

My favorite Ben quote of the week was when he was searching the clean laundry for his "hulk smash" shorts (all his clothes relate back to super heroes, even if it is only a relative color similarity).  He couldn't find them, so I put different shorts on him.  Later he came down lofting the "hulk smash" shorts high above his head and yelled victoriously, "SCORE BABY!"

On Friday Derek and I were having one of those intense discussions that married couples sometimes have.  Especially when they haven't seen each other much in the last 3 weeks.  (And Derek was pretty tired after having worked 17 hours of OT at the May day "protests").  Anyway,  we were having a hard time hashing things out because Ben kept coming into the room saying, "Just be NICE DAD!"  "BE NICE!"  "MOM, be nice!"  It was so cute and funny.  And, thanks to a little time to talk it out, we are back on the same page.  I am fine with his decision to refinance, and he is forgiving me for spending some time and money on the dining room and asking him to remove the rest of the curtain rods from the living room. (see previous post).  

Ben chose Dad's tie last Sunday so they could be "Captain America".  Then Ben ditched his tie before we left for church.  

We went to a birthday party yesterday and Ben rocked the blowers.  His wind up dinosaur also won the wind up toy race (maybe because I was the only adult helping... but still, I consider it a great feat!)

A Small Dining Room Project

Before..boring, plain, not fancy

My schedule is really full right now.  I have personal training clients, dance class, young women activities at church, kids to shuttle to and fro, a personal training exam to study for, classes to teach, meals to cook, etc.  But somehow the desire to do home projects is back.  Even without HGTV in my life.  So, this week Paige and I painted the dining room wall to match the new curtains I got at TARGET (love).  

Fancy!  I used a Martha Steward Metallic finish paint.  This is not easy stuff to work with.  I did 3 coats and you can still see the lines of my roller strokes if you look for them.  But I LOVE the shimmery effect.  (The girl in the store tried to tell me that maybe I wanted "high gloss".  But I said, NO--I want SHIMMER!)  Painting it so carefully on the 2nd and 3rd coats really hurt my neck (I am still wearing a Salon PAS patch this morning and praying my chiro can get me in tomorrow) but it was worth it.

The orange color connects with the oak of my dining set and makes me like it better.  Which is good.  Because it is low on the list of priorities for changing it out.  

An Herb Garden

I also feel I should comment on her outfit.  All of spring break she planned that she would wear all black on her first day back. She would wear her black leotard since she didn't have a black short sleeve shirt.  She also wore a black bowler hat from my costume bin.  I could not deter her from this choice.  She was doing all sorts of theatrical poses in the mirror before she left for school.  I hope it didn't distract from her learning. This girl is destined for greatness.

For family home evening on Monday, I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and plant some little herb planter boxes.  Derek was at "Man Camp."  So I took the kids on my own to Home Depot.  They didn't quite tear the store apart, but they explored every nook and cranny of the garden area at top speed while I tried to make good decisions about what to buy.  One of my money saving resolutions needs to be to shop only WITHOUT kids.  I can't make logical decisions when I am worried about what they are up to.  So I got the wrong size planters and I am going to have to transplant soon if the plants thrive (it is now back to 50 degrees, so I haven't looked out to see how they are handling it).  Anyway, the kids got really into the experience.  They all helped find rocks for the bottom of the planters.  They helped put the dirt and plants in.  Then Libby rushed to the garage for the....bicycle pump. I gave her a confused look and she explained it was to give the plants some fresh air.  I love it.  I know they have been studying about plants in science.  Guessing they studied about how plants need fresh air.  Applied learning!   

Sarah had gotten bored by this point.  She was inside doing something.  Probably reading or taking advantage of some alone time to play.  She gets pretty tired of playing with Ben bugging her.

After lots of hand washing, we gathered in the office to talk about how faith is like a little seed, if planted it will grow.  It just now occurred to me that we planted plants, not seeds.  But I think they got something out of the evening nonetheless...

Ben also got into the watering.  Unfortunately he was all about watering the dandelions on the other side of the planters.  This side of our yard is a bit of a jungle.  Hoping to find a landscaper to take on our project soon.  Turns out it is hard to find!