A few more weekend tidbits

These two are wonderful together. 

And wonderfully awful. 

Sybil is stuck to Elijah most days after school. 

It's a love/hate relationship.

Iris' first time making cookies all by herself.

Sybil insisted that she wanted to wear her towel like her dad:

We had a food number of people over on Sunday for David's birthday. 

David, as always, cooked a scrumptious Sunday meal.

Festivities:

The birthday boy won all of the arm wrestling competitions, 

but it remains to be seen whether those were birthday gifts to him.

We had the most wonderful dinner at Maple and Ash, 

a new restaurant in town with Hunt and Sarah on Saturday night.

Afterwards, we walked through the cute part of town holding hands 

and talked about how lucky we were to have each other.

Can I please not organize these pictures?

It's been a long weekend and I ain't got no energy for photo organization.

On Friday night we had the elders over for dinner. Then we had a no-TV night. 

We read, cleaned, did scouts, and had quiet time. It was refreshing. 

On Saturday at 1:30am, Claire woke me up bc her ears hurt. I gave her Tylenol and tried to distract her with a movie. Then I turned on my phone light to look at her ear. Before I could shine the light into her hear, I noticed that it looked like little balls were pushing out of her jaw area by her ears. They got bigger as she got more frantic. I woke David up and we drove to the ER. By the time we got there, her whole lower face had ballooned out.

The doc was a turd and transferred us to a children's ER.

Turns out that she had viral parodititis (swollen salivary glands).

The swelling is going down, but she's not completely back to normal yet.

Anyway, here are some pics from David's phone.

This is last weekend. We got some sushi with Elijah.

Here are some professional pics of today's birthday boy. 

They were taken because he was featured in the 

Phoenix Art Museaum's 60th anniversary edition of the magazine.

This is about a month ago from Iris' bday party.

Ice cream pie with unicorn rainbow ice cream.

Have I posted these yet? 

David took E and C shooting with Fernando to celebrate Fernando's bday a few months ago.

David and Hunt climbed My Rainier a few weeks ago.

David said it was the second most challenging hike he's done.

The most challenging was Grand Canyon, running on a shrined ankle R2R2R with Brad Schmitt.

The hiking group:

For Labor Day, David and the older 3 kids were invited to go boating.

Those pictures were an intermission, bc here are more Rainier pics:

I moved this picture halfway up.

Just can't do the rest.

Another intermission. 

I'm sure this is from one of the times David took the kids to ice cream without me.

He is the really fun parent. 

I'm always happy to stay home and study or cut the grass.

Actually, I prefer those things to ice cream and movies.

Yeah! 

This one is from another bday celebration for Clayton and Iris.

Rainier!

ok, I gotta go to sleep now.

peace out

A late night is always followed by...

A late night is always followed by...

an early morning.

Now that the first 3 weeks of nursing school are behind me, there's a bit of a break.

I don't have classes every day (although the reading is astronomical).

And now that my classes don't start at 8am,

Sybil and I get a full hour together after the siblings' schools start and before hers.

We eat cereal together, bathe, and read at least 1 book.

One-on-one time is precious.

Now we know why Claire is the favorite:

It's the gumball jar.

"I don't know how he, he, she save them!"

This is how she went to school

Late night

It's almost midnight and I'm up way past my bedtime. David isn't here to tell me to go to sleep. And Elijah and I got back from a rowdy night of soccer about 45 minutes ago. E is the youngest player by far and I'm the oldest by far. I wasn't too shabby for an almost 40 year old.
I like sweating profusely.
And showing off.
But most of all, it's nice hanging out with my boy.

Wrote this earlier this evening. The kids had recently gotten out of the pool:

It sounds like there is a war going on in the bathroom. Lately, this is a common nighttime ritual. The first time I heard it, I knocked on the door to ask E if he was alright. I thought he had fallen in the shower.
Nope, he was a-okay.
Better than ok.
Just bowling in the tub.
Rules: At least 6 empty and semi-empty shampoo bottles lined up with 3 throws to knock them down.
At least that was the latest version. There are levels. Every day is a new level with different challenge. Every day a new adventure.

Came across this pic of him today:

Forgot to post these

The Nature Club had an outing after camp LoMia

crawfish

pizza

Iris has been talking about this moment for awhile...

The domesticated wild squirrel:

My first patient

My first patient was a green orange.

I punctured him so much that he squirted out of all kinds of holes.

He gurgled and squeaked in protest.

Then I threw him away.

I'm 3 weeks into nursing school (if you don't count the online portion this summer). It's been intense with classes most weekdays, at times from 8am-5pm. I was nervous to the point of tears for a few weeks before classes started:

• not because I'd be a few decades older than other students, 
• not because the majority of my pre-requisite classes are over 15 years old,
• not because the material would be challenging (I told myself I'd be happy with any passing grade, which is easier said than done--I got an 89% on my first test),
• not because I don't know whether I will enjoy wiping butts and sticking people with needles.

It's mainly my fear of how nursing school will affect my mothering: 

• What happens if I am too stressed to be supportive?
• What if my kids have to be raised in childcare?
• What if the course load is so intense that I have to ignore the kids just to pass?
• What if we eat frozen chicken nuggets and french fries every night?
• What happens if Im not emotionally present when my kids need me most?

I'm not going to say that none of those things have happened. 

But now I'm informed enough to see the positive side. 

• For my first few days of class, I had to sacrifice scripture study in the morning. This is always more trouble than it's worth. I started reading scriptures during my first break, a few hours after class started. Revelation was pouring in, so much more than when I had been studying in the early morning. 
• And then I started something else new that has worked wonders for peaceful mornings. On the way to school every morning, we have 2 minutes of silence. We turn off the radio  and I tell the kids to pray about their day and think about all the wonderful things that will happen. 
• I have been praying more intensely and making the most of the time I do have with the kids. 
• And I feel more fulfilled.

To laugh later

I just went into the girls' room.
Sybil was pouring "tea" from her teapot into a tiny cup.
I asked her what kind of tea it was.
She replied,"pee."
"You mean apple juice?"
"Pee."
I smelled it.
She wasn't lying.
The diameter of the teapot opening is about 2 inches.
How?
Why?

David said I can't laugh about it because then she'll try to one-up it next time.

So, I'll document
and laugh later.