Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Silliness
I haven't posted these before, I think. I bet if I looked on all my photos I could find at least a dozen more of these type of pictures.
Some things are just so cheesy and silly. And yet my boys never fail to run and stick their heads behind them. Still. This last photo was just taken a month or so ago at the zoo.
In Stake Conference today the mission president's wife spoke about the miracles that take place even by boys whose frontal lobes aren't fully developed.
The lightbulb went off for me again.
It reminded me of the moment when I heard a man say that when the brain and body of a boy catch up, good things begin to happen.
I see great growth and development in my boys. Yet for all the wonderful, sweet, loving, hard-working, sensitive things my boys may be, they definitely have moments where I just say to myself - they are so silly and goofy!
Today I was reminded that I am the silly one. What else can I expect?
They are genetically programmed to be this way. Gotta ride the tide here and just wrap my arms as tight as they'll let me, and love 'em good. And be grateful that they still are boys who love the Lord and love each other and love me. And in the end, that's all that really matters to me. The Lord will work his miracles with them and through them when the time is right. He already has. For now, they're still growing up.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Routines
I love summer vacation with all its flexibility and opportunity, but I also love the routines of our life that make us US. MyGirl got back from camp today. All week long she went to bed after 11:30 pm and had to wake up at 6:30am. That is about three hours less sleep than she gets each night, so she came home and slept for five hours. I woke her up for dinner, and then she showered and went right back to bed, and will probably sleep until I wake her up for church tomorrow. She had a good week. But, as her socks and matching nightie say, "I don't do mornings." I'm proud of her for doing what she needed to as a camp youth leader, but we can all appreciate her comment during dinner, "It sure feels good to sleep in a bed again." Its a routine I sure enjoy too!
Three years ago when we were in California visiting Mike's parents, Cowgirl had to leave early to be a bridesmaid for her friend getting married in the Denver Temple. Today she is visiting those same grandparents in Calif, and now we are in Colorado. This time she gets to be a bridesmaid for a friend getting married in the San Diego Temple. She called me and told me what a lovely afternoon she had in one of my favorite cities after leaving the temple that morning. And, she has had a good time to visit with her grandparents too, so I am happy for that. She is so busy with full time school and full time work, so its been nice for her to have a break from her busy routines.
As mentioned last week, we did have another S'more Saturday night, but MyGirl wasn't interested in participating. "I've had enough of campfires this week." However, she did have some new adventures, on the zipline, shooting a rifle, and shooting an arrow at the archery area. She kept saying, it wasn't like Maryland girl's camp, but I still had a good week. Sometimes breaking out of the routine is a way for us to grow and try new things. I'm glad she's had different experiences. She's being stretched and she's rising to the challenge, and I'm grateful.
My boys woke me up this morning for another fishing opportunity. Back to their favorite lake, their favorite spot, with their favorite bait, and each other. Our routines are nothing spectacular, but they are relaxing and enjoyable to us. My neighbor down the street with four children under 12 is busy taking her kids to this camp and these lessons and she told me she barely has time to wipe her counters every morning. I remember those days, and don't miss them at all. I'm enjoying our leisurely routines - books, fishing, s'mores and lots of time to chat and cuddle. Summer will fly past soon enough. I want to remember that tonight we laughed around the fire, hearing BigBuddy tell tales of past Scout camps and Dad reminisce about belly flops off the high dive. We had to keep repositioning LittleBuddy and his dad as LittleBuddy kept accidentally hitting his dad's bad knee with the hot marshmallow sticks. We heard tales again of Dad and BigBuddy's big motorcycle adventure on Thursday. We all loved feeling the warmth of the fire, and realized we need sweat jackets in the summer evenings when the sun goes down now that we live by the mountains. Its a new life for us here with new routines, and while there are things about our old life we miss, we are settling in pretty well to our new routines too.
Three years ago when we were in California visiting Mike's parents, Cowgirl had to leave early to be a bridesmaid for her friend getting married in the Denver Temple. Today she is visiting those same grandparents in Calif, and now we are in Colorado. This time she gets to be a bridesmaid for a friend getting married in the San Diego Temple. She called me and told me what a lovely afternoon she had in one of my favorite cities after leaving the temple that morning. And, she has had a good time to visit with her grandparents too, so I am happy for that. She is so busy with full time school and full time work, so its been nice for her to have a break from her busy routines.
As mentioned last week, we did have another S'more Saturday night, but MyGirl wasn't interested in participating. "I've had enough of campfires this week." However, she did have some new adventures, on the zipline, shooting a rifle, and shooting an arrow at the archery area. She kept saying, it wasn't like Maryland girl's camp, but I still had a good week. Sometimes breaking out of the routine is a way for us to grow and try new things. I'm glad she's had different experiences. She's being stretched and she's rising to the challenge, and I'm grateful.
My boys woke me up this morning for another fishing opportunity. Back to their favorite lake, their favorite spot, with their favorite bait, and each other. Our routines are nothing spectacular, but they are relaxing and enjoyable to us. My neighbor down the street with four children under 12 is busy taking her kids to this camp and these lessons and she told me she barely has time to wipe her counters every morning. I remember those days, and don't miss them at all. I'm enjoying our leisurely routines - books, fishing, s'mores and lots of time to chat and cuddle. Summer will fly past soon enough. I want to remember that tonight we laughed around the fire, hearing BigBuddy tell tales of past Scout camps and Dad reminisce about belly flops off the high dive. We had to keep repositioning LittleBuddy and his dad as LittleBuddy kept accidentally hitting his dad's bad knee with the hot marshmallow sticks. We heard tales again of Dad and BigBuddy's big motorcycle adventure on Thursday. We all loved feeling the warmth of the fire, and realized we need sweat jackets in the summer evenings when the sun goes down now that we live by the mountains. Its a new life for us here with new routines, and while there are things about our old life we miss, we are settling in pretty well to our new routines too.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Grandma Jacobs
I am getting excited for our family reunion coming next week! I've been working on a good creative project, and have used the reunion as a deadline - a scrapbook of my paternal grandmother. I really love both sets of my grandparents. I have been blessed to know them all, but my grandparents in California were the ones I spent the most time with, and was able to see the most frequently after I had my children. However, the first one to pass away was this grandma, Jetta Jacobs. She died just six months after my first child was born, and then not-coincidentally, I think, my youngest child was born exactly ten years after she passed. His middle name is Jacob is honor of that side of my family. So, although it took me fifteen years to get around to creating it, its done. My grandfather gave me a box of photos and papers a few years after she passed away when I went to visit him one time. I was so glad he did. At first I went through it and took all the papers, read through them, and was able to write her life story. It's about twenty pages long. I finished that about fifteen years ago. I just didn't know what to do with the photos, but when I went to my dad's in April, he and I sat through and looked through the few pictures that were actually there. My grandma had written on the back of them with ink pen, and some of the acid from those, are already starting to show on the front, but by creating the book, and taking digital photos of it all, now I have what I hope will be a permanent record of her life. I'm looking forward to sharing it with my family. Its going to be good to make new memories together and to remember our shared history as well.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Girl's Camp
Our Stake Girl's Camp is this week. They do things differently here. Three woman from the ward were called to organize camp that aren't in the YW program. The President and both counselors were going, but I wasn't needed, with six women already up there, so I was happy to volunteer to help drive up girls for a two hour ride on Monday. . . finally a chance to get a photo of MyGirl up close and smiling. The girls were funny, playing the Skittles game half of the way up. . . . making a prediction then calling out the color of a Skittle, and when they stuck their hand in to pick one, and if it was the right color, they thought that prediction would come true. . . lots of laughs and a good way for me to quietly get to know them better.
I brought LittleBuddy to accompany me on the way back, and have a little mother/son time. Little did I know how much time we would have together.
Fortunately I was following a leader from our ward to Camp Joseph, newly bought by the church to use for all of the stakes around here. Its just 15 minutes out of Rye, Colorado, in a beautiful mountain setting. It had been used for the first time last year. We even saw a young elk on the way up.
Well, I was quite surprised, first to realize that the last fifteen minutes were all dirt roads. Second, that each ward was pretty isolated from the other wards. Third, that this was all there was - four gravel tent pads, a small pavillion with a small storage closet for each ward, and a small cooking firepit, with a larger pavillion and bathrooms for the whole group. Where were the leaders going to stay? On the ground, next to the gravel pad in the larger 8-man tent. (Feeling very grateful this was not where I was going to be spending the night for the week.) This was REAL camping. Our ward was assigned the "Jane Johnson Black," site. A little biography of her life as a handcart pioneer quickly reaffirmed to me that this was going to be more sacrifice than the usual girls camp for Mygirl. She's always begging us to take her camping, so I truly hope she gets her fill this week!
In the back of this horse trailer were ALL the gear needed for our ward for a week. The tents came out first, and the girls took one and a tarp, and began setting up their tents. Suddenly it occured to me that I wasn't leaving. The trailer was in front of me and the car of one of the other leader's husbands was behind me, and he was off doing other things. So, since we were going to be here a while, it was just me and LittleBuddy unloading the rest of the trailer. The main leader would help some too, when she wasn't busy doing other things.
We put it all in the pavilion, just as grey clouds were starting to form overhead. See the door on the left. Well, shortly after this picture was taken, the husband, opened it with the key he had gone to get, and I am not exaggerating when I say about 2,000 moths flew out all at once. I was, of course, directly in their path, and they were in my hair, on my back, etc. Ewwwwww! And, there was only 1 large Costco size pack of TP for 42 girls and 6 leaders and 2 priesthood brothers. . . I think they'll be needing to send the Bishop back into town once in a while.
Meanwhile, in all this time, the girls are still struggling to put up their tents. The girls closest were having the hardest time, and I realized why when I got there. The directions only included the last two instructions, not the first two. So, we finally got it set up and then realized all the things to stake it with were torn off. When I pushed against it I could tell it was going to be easy to knock the tent over, so we took it down, found a new tent, and this time it went much better.
This is the tent MyGirl is in. She likes the bright yellow, calling it the circus tent. Only four girls will be inside it, so that will be nice for her, but she was feeling a little nervous at the site of the zipline and archery range we saw when we first drove in. It'll be good for her try some new things and keep building her confidence. Its a beautiful setting, and she'll most likely be fine, although once she heard the leaders take turn on bear patrol each night, I saw her eyes get a lot bigger. When I got home BigBuddy told us a woman was at the garden center buying more koi for her fish pond, just across the street from the local middle school, when a bear walked through it. She was replacing the koi because the racoons had eaten them all. Racoons and Bears and Cougars. Oh. My. And, we're hardly in the deep woods. Guess LittleBuddy may have a few lockdowns at school next year.
So, instead of just dropping off the girls, I stayed over three hours, and once things were settled LittleBuddy and I left. He was a good trooper. He enjoyed taking pictures of the cows outside of Rye on the way home and the Rye Cafe sold lovely muffins which he enjoyed. It was pretty country. We saw the other leaders coming in when we were leaving. It should be a good week. Just praying there are no bears.
I brought LittleBuddy to accompany me on the way back, and have a little mother/son time. Little did I know how much time we would have together.
Fortunately I was following a leader from our ward to Camp Joseph, newly bought by the church to use for all of the stakes around here. Its just 15 minutes out of Rye, Colorado, in a beautiful mountain setting. It had been used for the first time last year. We even saw a young elk on the way up.
Well, I was quite surprised, first to realize that the last fifteen minutes were all dirt roads. Second, that each ward was pretty isolated from the other wards. Third, that this was all there was - four gravel tent pads, a small pavillion with a small storage closet for each ward, and a small cooking firepit, with a larger pavillion and bathrooms for the whole group. Where were the leaders going to stay? On the ground, next to the gravel pad in the larger 8-man tent. (Feeling very grateful this was not where I was going to be spending the night for the week.) This was REAL camping. Our ward was assigned the "Jane Johnson Black," site. A little biography of her life as a handcart pioneer quickly reaffirmed to me that this was going to be more sacrifice than the usual girls camp for Mygirl. She's always begging us to take her camping, so I truly hope she gets her fill this week!
In the back of this horse trailer were ALL the gear needed for our ward for a week. The tents came out first, and the girls took one and a tarp, and began setting up their tents. Suddenly it occured to me that I wasn't leaving. The trailer was in front of me and the car of one of the other leader's husbands was behind me, and he was off doing other things. So, since we were going to be here a while, it was just me and LittleBuddy unloading the rest of the trailer. The main leader would help some too, when she wasn't busy doing other things.
We put it all in the pavilion, just as grey clouds were starting to form overhead. See the door on the left. Well, shortly after this picture was taken, the husband, opened it with the key he had gone to get, and I am not exaggerating when I say about 2,000 moths flew out all at once. I was, of course, directly in their path, and they were in my hair, on my back, etc. Ewwwwww! And, there was only 1 large Costco size pack of TP for 42 girls and 6 leaders and 2 priesthood brothers. . . I think they'll be needing to send the Bishop back into town once in a while.
Meanwhile, in all this time, the girls are still struggling to put up their tents. The girls closest were having the hardest time, and I realized why when I got there. The directions only included the last two instructions, not the first two. So, we finally got it set up and then realized all the things to stake it with were torn off. When I pushed against it I could tell it was going to be easy to knock the tent over, so we took it down, found a new tent, and this time it went much better.
This is the tent MyGirl is in. She likes the bright yellow, calling it the circus tent. Only four girls will be inside it, so that will be nice for her, but she was feeling a little nervous at the site of the zipline and archery range we saw when we first drove in. It'll be good for her try some new things and keep building her confidence. Its a beautiful setting, and she'll most likely be fine, although once she heard the leaders take turn on bear patrol each night, I saw her eyes get a lot bigger. When I got home BigBuddy told us a woman was at the garden center buying more koi for her fish pond, just across the street from the local middle school, when a bear walked through it. She was replacing the koi because the racoons had eaten them all. Racoons and Bears and Cougars. Oh. My. And, we're hardly in the deep woods. Guess LittleBuddy may have a few lockdowns at school next year.
So, instead of just dropping off the girls, I stayed over three hours, and once things were settled LittleBuddy and I left. He was a good trooper. He enjoyed taking pictures of the cows outside of Rye on the way home and the Rye Cafe sold lovely muffins which he enjoyed. It was pretty country. We saw the other leaders coming in when we were leaving. It should be a good week. Just praying there are no bears.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
A Tale of Two Boys
My boys are six and half years apart in age, exactly a foot different in size, and where one is built tall and slim, the other is shorter and stockier. However, when its comes to their interests, they are a lot alike. They each wake up in the morning and the first thing I hear is their footsteps coming up the stairs, then walking over to where the drawer the binoculars are located. It doesn't matter if one is up two hours before the other, they each do the same thing. Friday morning they were excited to see a deer in the meadow right behind us. It was sitting in the shade, all by itself. Around here, we seldom see them alone, but sure enough, an hour later, two of her friends came by and she got up and they all went nibbling along the way.
Since I had the camera out, I thought I'd see what else was in the neighborhood, and to my delight, a beautiful goldfinch flew right onto my back fence. Isn't she pretty? I miss the cardinals still, but love the bluebirds and goldfinches.
Bigbuddy went to work all day, and for the first time, was asked to work on Saturday too, so wanting to have some fun this weekend, he decided to go fishing on Friday night around dusk.
He was feeling sad because Saturday morning was the local fishing derby for all kids 16 and under and LittleBuddy was going without him.
Palmer Lake is set right against the mountains. Its about fifteen minutes from where we live, and has a little town of the same name right there. This was taken on Fri. night. Sat. morning there must have been 200 kids and all their families there. . . . a lot more crowded than this here.
There is a traintrack that runs just west of the lake, and about every hour a train goes by. Most are carrying coal from the mountains down south.
Sadly, neither of my boys caught anything. LittleBuddy had four bites, but his reel got all messed up and after twenty minutes of both of us messing with it, we declared it was just a mess, and we left. To console ourselves, we went to visit Bigbuddy at work, and we also needed some potting soil. I like to be the customer and have my son wait on me at work. I go in every few days just for the opportunity to ask for his assistance to help me. I'm happy to be the anonymous mother around all his friends, but he always breaks into a big smile, and says, "Hi MOM!" Gotta love that boy! Anyhow, I asked him to show me the firepits they were selling, and he was showing me the best and most beautiful ones. . . no wonder his boss loves him. I, of course, being the ever-trying-to-save-a-dollar-if-I-can, mother, asked about one up on a shelf, that only he could reach. It didn't have a price sticker on it, so he checked it out for me, and told me it was half what the other's were. It looked as good as the rest to me, and we decided to give it to our dad for Father's Day. I had timed it so I would be at the garden center when my boy was almost ready for lunch, so then I had him carry the firepit to the car, and when he clocked out, we came home and put it in the basement. Then our dad came home and saw it and wrecked our surprise. BUT, he loved it, and with not much prompting from his children, he concluded we had to use it that evening.
And we did!
And it was so much fun, we've decided that whenever we're home in the summer during the weekend, Saturday should be declared S'mores Saturday.
Since I had the camera out, I thought I'd see what else was in the neighborhood, and to my delight, a beautiful goldfinch flew right onto my back fence. Isn't she pretty? I miss the cardinals still, but love the bluebirds and goldfinches.
Bigbuddy went to work all day, and for the first time, was asked to work on Saturday too, so wanting to have some fun this weekend, he decided to go fishing on Friday night around dusk.
He was feeling sad because Saturday morning was the local fishing derby for all kids 16 and under and LittleBuddy was going without him.
Palmer Lake is set right against the mountains. Its about fifteen minutes from where we live, and has a little town of the same name right there. This was taken on Fri. night. Sat. morning there must have been 200 kids and all their families there. . . . a lot more crowded than this here.
There is a traintrack that runs just west of the lake, and about every hour a train goes by. Most are carrying coal from the mountains down south.
Sadly, neither of my boys caught anything. LittleBuddy had four bites, but his reel got all messed up and after twenty minutes of both of us messing with it, we declared it was just a mess, and we left. To console ourselves, we went to visit Bigbuddy at work, and we also needed some potting soil. I like to be the customer and have my son wait on me at work. I go in every few days just for the opportunity to ask for his assistance to help me. I'm happy to be the anonymous mother around all his friends, but he always breaks into a big smile, and says, "Hi MOM!" Gotta love that boy! Anyhow, I asked him to show me the firepits they were selling, and he was showing me the best and most beautiful ones. . . no wonder his boss loves him. I, of course, being the ever-trying-to-save-a-dollar-if-I-can, mother, asked about one up on a shelf, that only he could reach. It didn't have a price sticker on it, so he checked it out for me, and told me it was half what the other's were. It looked as good as the rest to me, and we decided to give it to our dad for Father's Day. I had timed it so I would be at the garden center when my boy was almost ready for lunch, so then I had him carry the firepit to the car, and when he clocked out, we came home and put it in the basement. Then our dad came home and saw it and wrecked our surprise. BUT, he loved it, and with not much prompting from his children, he concluded we had to use it that evening.
And we did!And it was so much fun, we've decided that whenever we're home in the summer during the weekend, Saturday should be declared S'mores Saturday.
And so it is!
And everyone is happy, even the girl who shall appear faceless in my pictures.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Easy Summer Days
Yesterday we were up Really early in the morning. MyMike couldn't sleep, and because I knew he was going for some tests at noon, I was worried about him worrying, does that make sense?
Little Buddy has had a hard time getting up, because its so hard for him to put these books down. I'm used to him being the early bird in the house. He's finished the first two in a week, and two of those days he didn't read at all. Now he's already 100 pages into Book 3. I love it when he wants to come discuss the book with me. . . if only I could remember more. Sometimes, though, he needs a break from reading, and his activity of choice has been building Legos. The dining room table is plenty big enough for all he's dreaming up. I attribute this to his imagination being stimulated by reading again. His current creations are new space stations for his Star Wars Lego guys. Sometimes he can get his sister to play with him, but she grows weary of it quickly.
He gave me the grand tour - command central, the escape ramps, the door which opens for vehicles, etc.
He's loving this more than the electronics and keeps saying this is the best summer ever.
Turned out all worries were for nothing, everything's fine. Still, since we were up, I got to see the deer, who I suspect are always out early. However, yesterday, they sat under the trees for a couple of hours, in the shadows, and I couldn't get good pictures of them, but when they started to move, I quickly grabbed my camera and caught some pictures of this little group. They were taken at 7:41 in the a.m. according to my camera.
This week has felt unusual. Probably because MyMike was home two weekdays in a row. Today things started to get more back to normal. My main goal today was laundry, the sign of a stress-less, low-key day. BigBuddy is happy at work. He comes home hungry and tired. The ride to work is 3 minutes, all downhill. The ride home, however, takes him ten and when its windy, he's usually riding straight into it, and sometimes can take 15. He comes home out of breath, and when I ask him how his day was, he always says, great, I just have to rest after that ride home. He's required to take an hour for lunch, so he makes this journey twice a day. Its good mission prep and between the bike and being busy in the garden center all day, I think he's down to 1% body fat. I made him cookies today after dinner and he had leftover steak for lunch, and he's none the worse for it.
This week has felt unusual. Probably because MyMike was home two weekdays in a row. Today things started to get more back to normal. My main goal today was laundry, the sign of a stress-less, low-key day. BigBuddy is happy at work. He comes home hungry and tired. The ride to work is 3 minutes, all downhill. The ride home, however, takes him ten and when its windy, he's usually riding straight into it, and sometimes can take 15. He comes home out of breath, and when I ask him how his day was, he always says, great, I just have to rest after that ride home. He's required to take an hour for lunch, so he makes this journey twice a day. Its good mission prep and between the bike and being busy in the garden center all day, I think he's down to 1% body fat. I made him cookies today after dinner and he had leftover steak for lunch, and he's none the worse for it.
Little Buddy has had a hard time getting up, because its so hard for him to put these books down. I'm used to him being the early bird in the house. He's finished the first two in a week, and two of those days he didn't read at all. Now he's already 100 pages into Book 3. I love it when he wants to come discuss the book with me. . . if only I could remember more. Sometimes, though, he needs a break from reading, and his activity of choice has been building Legos. The dining room table is plenty big enough for all he's dreaming up. I attribute this to his imagination being stimulated by reading again. His current creations are new space stations for his Star Wars Lego guys. Sometimes he can get his sister to play with him, but she grows weary of it quickly.
He gave me the grand tour - command central, the escape ramps, the door which opens for vehicles, etc.
He's loving this more than the electronics and keeps saying this is the best summer ever. He has gotten invited to buddy's houses twice this week, for s'mores and jumping on the trampoline. He's happy to live here and happy to be creative. I am happy for him!
MyGirl is getting ready for Girl's Camp and Trek. We were practicing hymns today she's supposed to have memorized and she's working on her devotionals. Its good she can be busy and productive too. If only she'd let me take more pictures of her. . . she hasn't left that phase yet. I told her I'm going to have a whole scrapbook of her with her hands in front of her face. Ugh!
MyGirl is getting ready for Girl's Camp and Trek. We were practicing hymns today she's supposed to have memorized and she's working on her devotionals. Its good she can be busy and productive too. If only she'd let me take more pictures of her. . . she hasn't left that phase yet. I told her I'm going to have a whole scrapbook of her with her hands in front of her face. Ugh!I like these stress-less days.
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