1 May, 2011

Dear Family,

Well, I intended to write a letter today, but here it is 10 pm and I’m just getting started.  How about a small letter? The best news of the week, however, just barely happened so I don’t feel like I’m too late.  Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead!!! I’m not sure it’s really cool to cheer when someone dies, and I’m not sure that it actually makes the world any safer or any better, but it sure feels good to know that they finally got Osama bin Laden.  It’s interesting when I look back to see how much is different and how much of our every day has changed due to one evil mastermind.  I’m sure there will be a fascinating book about the whole chase before too long.  It ought to make for good reading.  What blows my mind is that he still had a wife living with him while he was on the run.  Bet that was a load of fun.  

The other news of the week is that we have traded in our car.  I’m kind of sad because I loved my 4Runner, but we thought that we’d better trade up while the car still had some value.  I don’t think we were too far away from hitting the intensive car repair phase.  So I am now the driver of a great big, gas guzzling, “Mormon assault vehicle” that seats 8.  Somehow I don’t feel quite as green as I did last week!  

The kiddos are thriving.  Alex is still loving swimming.  He was excited to finally have placed in the butterfly in his last swim meet.  It was really amazing to watch him.  His first 25m were absolutely perfect.  He just runs into trouble when he touches the wall.  The turns and the first few strokes out are a little rough.  I have to keep reminding myself of two things:  he’s nine years old; and he’s already a way better swimmer than I am.  I’m glad he’s found something he loves to keep him active.  He’s growing like a weed and eating like a horse.  

Ryan has made great strides in his reading.  He feels like he’s won the lotto because I finally let him start reading the “Magic Tree House” books.  I can’t stand them because the woman who writes them has no more idea of how to write a complete sentence than fly to the moon.  I make the kids point out the sentence fragments as we go!  They do help the little ones get excited about reading though, and they help them learn to read independently.  

The boys recently had their very first music recital.  Alex has been playing the cello and Ryan the violin for about 4 months now.  Alex played “Ode to Joy,” and the boys played a fiddle tune called “Boil them Cabbage Down” together.  All would have gone well, except that Ryan was nervous and his fingering was off, so they played the rhythm very well together, it just sounded terrible because they were out of tune.  Oh, well, the pictures are still cute.  

Jillian is very cute and loving, and also very naughty.  She loves to be “helpful” so I have to keep an eye on her all the time.  A few weeks ago she “helped” me by wiping off the bathroom counter.  However, she did it while I was in the shower and she left the sink plugged and the water running.  I didn’t notice till about 25 minutes later, but we have learned that the tile contractors did a very nice job of grouting between the tile and the baseboards in the kids’ bathroom.  Other than a puddle to clean up, there wasn’t any real damage.  Once in a while she’ll run up and throw her arms around me and say, “Mom, you’re my best friend!” Somehow it makes all the messes and the clutter seem a lot less important.

I must be tired because I can’t think of anything interesting that Josh and I are doing right now.  What terribly boring people we are!  In a way, I guess boring must be a sign that all is well.  We are looking forward to watching Uncle Greg finish his Iron Man next weekend in St. George.  I am looking forward to a few days away and to skipping out on church on Mother’s Day.  It’s never been my favorite Sunday.  Somehow it always involves guilt and several renditions of “Love at Home,” two things I just can’t tolerate.

Easter seems like a long time ago now.  I’m having to sit down and close my eyes to remember what a great weekend it was.  Somehow, the tank seemed to go from full to empty pretty quickly this week.  I think maybe we’d better go back and do it again next weekend!  

Love to All,

Cheryl

Back to the Blogosphere

Today, I deleted my facebook account.  I've had too many friends losing too many things that are valuable because of facebook: privacy, time, and marriages.  Unfortunately for all of you, that means I need somewhere to splatter the drivel that backs up in my brain and needs to be published!  So, I'm back to blogging.  I'm looking forward to it.  Maybe someday my blog will be as entertaining as Kither's!

I Believe in Curious George...

It has been a long four days. The kids have been passing around some pre-Christmas joy and taking turns getting fevers and snotty noses. Josh has been gone a lot and the kids and I are getting tired of each other. However, tonight we had a virtual miracle. I sat down to read Jill one of her new favorite stories, Curious George Flies a Kite (the one with the bunnies!) and before thirty seconds had passed, the other two were sucked in. They all sat quietly, with no fighting and no whining, for 30 minutes while we read a couple of George stories. Thank you Margaret and H.A. Rey, wherever you are!

Lame Blogger

I just noticed how really boring my blog has been lately. I think I've been spending too much time cleaning or making meaningless comments on facebook! Things are settling down well since the move. If I could find my camera cord, I could download my photos. Maybe if I decide to blog again before six months go by, I can do that. Now we're just juggling the holiday sickies and trying to get healthy before we head North to see some winter.

My post for today is a question. Is there anyone out there who has survived having a strong-willed, energetic, selectively deaf and occasionally obedient 9-year-old boy? How long does this stage of daily battles go on? Any ideas for how to teach him to do the job right the first time and not have to come back 15 times to finish it before mom gets off his case? I dearly love the boy, but sometimes I'm not sure we're both going to make it to his 10th birthday.

On Luke's Fourth Birthday

"A central purpose of the mortal experience is that each spirit should receive such a body and learn to exercise moral agency in a tabernacle of flesh. A physical body is also essential for exaltation, which comes only in the perfect combination of the physical and the spiritual, as we see in our beloved, resurrected Lord. In this fallen world, some lives will be painfully brief; some bodies will be malformed, broken, or barely adequate to maintain life; yet life will be long enough for each spirit, and each body will qualify for resurrection." Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Where's the Beef?

5 November, 2010

Chere Famille,

Welcome to the first official issue of:

“Barefoot and Pregnant, J.D.”

This week Alex and I didn’t have a single argument about homework. I nursed Ryan’s little feelings through his first social disappointment: not getting invited to a birthday party that he wanted to attend. Today, I managed to negotiate nap time with my two-year old without a roof-raising fit. Josh and I have made it through another week of wedded nearly-bliss. I have made two meals for friends in need, babysat kids, cleaned the house, kept up with the laundry, done the grocery shopping and cooked meals for my family, unpacked a few more boxes, paid bills, run errands, gotten the kids to school on time, to swim team and to scouts and worked on my personal history. I made homemade bread and a batch of raspberry jam. I have knitted half a hat for Jane and read my scriptures and a wonderful book called Freedom’s Daughters about the women of the civil rights movement. I have read a Newberry award winner to the boys for 30 minutes every night. I have already run 8 miles and tomorrow I will run 7 more. After that, I will help my husband teach a lesson on virtue and purity to 300 youth at the Queen Creek South Stake Youth Conference. And yes, I am currently barefoot and baking cupcakes!

In case you were wondering, I just received my copy of “Res Gestae” in the mail. It is the magazine sent out by the law school once a year to brag about it’s programs, faculty and students. As I looked at all the things that were highlighted I realized that never in a million years will they ever include anything about those of us who have retired from the practice in order to rear children. Since we are not out fighting for the rights of convicts, saving the planet, battling injustice in Africa or the Balkans, or carrying the banner for gay families, we seem to have fallen through the cracks. So, today I wrote a brag rag about myself and I hope you will all forgive me for sending it to you.

We are moved in to our new house. We owe much gratitude to our friends, especially Matt Rosen, Jeremy Atkin, and Warren Barnhill, Jennifer and Lexi Cluff, the Felt Parents, and Ken and Alison. They all came at different times and helped us do all sorts of lovely jobs. Gary and Debbie worked like field hands for the time they were here and so the move has been relatively easy. Debbie got the whole kitchen unpacked and put away, and Josh and Gary hung ceiling fans in every room and fixed up inummerable odds and ends that needed to be squared away. Funny enough, it hasn’t taken a lot of adjusting for us to feel like this is home. It has been nice to have our parents here to visit. A house isn’t really home until your family has been there. I am hoping that we can get our other little house in ship shape and be able to sell it soon.

I’ve got two great kid stories to end things off. Today I gave the kids a treat and let them have cocoa and raisin bread for breakfast. When Ryan got home he announced to me that today in Kindergarten they had talked about healthy food. “The breakfast you gave me today was NOT healthy and didn’t help me concentrate and learn at school!” He told me that he didn’t think that anything with chocolate in it was an appropriate breakfast food.

This week I splurged and bought myself a copy of Beauty and the Beast, my favorite Disney movie. This morning when I asked Jilly what she wanted to do today she said, “I want to watch ‘Beauty and the Beef’.” So I put the movie on and we started to watch. About 10 minutes in she looked up and said, “Mom, this Beef is a scary Beef. I want to watch Nemo.”

Well, Josh is off at Youth Conference, I have cleaned up after dinner, and the kids and I are going to sit down and watch “Beauty and the Beef!”

Our love to all--

Cheryl

BY THE WAY, THE TITLE OF MY MAGAZINE IS PURELY FOR EFFECT. THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF ANY KIND!!!

27 August, 2010

Dear Family,

I know this is a crazy day for writing a letter. However, today I have time and I finally have a word processing program again. I have lovely new iMac, but it took me a while to get a word processor and get it installed. So, I am back in business. I have also realized that the last letter I wrote was in JUNE. Oops! Time flies when the kids are out of school.

We had a really nice summer. We spent three weeks with our families with visits in Salt Lake and in Jackson. It always leaves me mystified when I come home to Arizona: WHY DO WE LIVE HERE???? We were able to be there for Parker’s blessing, Jillian, Eliza, and Aunt Abby’s birthday parties, and Alan’s baptism. I loved spending time with Sunny. We did projects every day, went shopping, made delicious

food, played games till 1 AM, etc. We had a wonderful time just being able to be outside in the great outdoors.

The advantage of staying away so long turned out to be that Josh

finished the built-in bookshelves and storage in our bedroom and gave me a new computer as a surprise when I got home! He thinks that it will make me less likely to stay so long next time we visit. I think he’s got his logic all twisted up! I feel like I’m walking into Pottery Barn every time I go in our room.

We got home with a week to spare getting the kids ready for school and in time to celebrate Josh’s birthday. I had been to Spoons and Spice in Salt Lake and bought some tart pans, so I had to make fruit tarts for Josh’s birthday. They turned out rather nice, I think! It is so

helpful to have your own personal reference chef. I missed him

when he was unavailable.

In the mean time, our little Jill has turned two, in all senses of the word. Peace and quiet has now become and indication that there is something wrong. In the last two weeks she has unrolled an entire roll of paper towels, filled the sink

about 1/4 full with toothpaste, dumped an entire bottle of hair spray on the carpet, pulled all the drawers out of her dresser and dumped her clothes into a big pile. But, she has also taken to giving really good hugs, singing quite a variety of songs (with correct lyrics and on key), playing really well with her brothers, loving story time, and behaving herself in the baby jogger. So as much trouble as she’s causing, she’s making up for it in cute.

This year was also Ryan’s big year. He started Kindergarten on July 28. I took him up the first day and I was trying to be happy and excited so that he wouldn’t get nervous. We found his teacher and we were lining up to go inside when Ryan said, “Mom, my tummy hurts.” I took him over to sit down and about 30 seconds later, he puked all over. The poor little guy was so scared, but he hadn’t told me that he was nervous at all. Needless to say, I felt like a loser mom, not even knowing that my son was so scared.

Subsequently, he is still working on adjusting. He’s had some times where he just can’t control his little emotions. When we talked about it, he said, “Mom, I’m just not used to being away from home every day.” He’s a tender-hearted boy. I think it will just take him some time to adjust. He hasn’t had any trouble in his class though and I’m glad for that. Today, he told me that his shoes keep coming off at recess. I said, "Ryan, are they slipping off, do they just need to be tied tighter?" Ryan responded, "No, Mom, the white guys keep taking them off when we're playing white guys and Indians!"

The beginning of this school year has been pretty tough with Alex. We spend a lot of time over the summer keeping up and reviewing the things he had learned, so I wasn’t anticipating how challenging the first few weeks would be. He seemed to have lost all motivation for school work. I couldn’t find any way to get him interested or to even get him to care about how he was doing in school. His handwriting was possibly even worse than it was last year. And we had the same struggle that we’ve had every year since second grade--the dreaded, timed math-fact test. We have fought this battle each year and I was hoping that we would have cleared the hurdle by now, but no...

Once I stopped panicking and realized that this year was going to be just as time-intensive as the last two, we buckled down and got to work. I’ll admit, I was hoping that I might be able to spend a little less time riding him to get his homework done this year. I found a couple of things that have helped to move him along: Swim Team, Harry Potter, and playing chess. He can’t do any of these things until his homework is finished an

d neat enough to be read by his teacher.

Luckily, he still has Mrs. Fatka, his wonderful teacher from last year. I told her that when I place the footnotes on his High School diploma, I’ll make sure her name appears right after mine! I just keep reminding myself what a wonderful kid he is. He is happy, he is kind, he is imaginative, and sometimes he’s downright funny. For a woman who values humor as highly as I, he’s a joy to be around most of the time.

After we got home, Josh announced that we were going on a camping trip so he could spend some time away

from work and church and with his wife and kids. So we rented a canoe and drove up to the White Mountains. We camped by Black Canyon Lake and spent a couple of days camping, fishing and canoeing. We discovered that Ryan has real natural talent as a fisherman. He was standing on the shore casting his line and kept getting standing ovations from the old-timers out on their boats. Alex really took to the canoe and by the time we left he was piloting himself around in the canoe. The kids had a great time. Mom left the “food police” part of her personality at home and we ate junk food and stayed up late watching stars and played with fire and rolled in the dirt and all the other things that make camping so much fun.

Now we’re back in the regular swing of things. We’re grappling with some pretty big decisions about our family’s future, so the routine is nice. It gives me something to be absorbed in so that I don’t spend too much time worrying about everything else.

I have decided to train for and run a half-marathon

at the end of January. (NOTE TO MOM: Dad said he would come down and run with me. The race is on January 29, 2011. January is a really lovely time to be in Arizona!) It feels good to be running with a goal in mind again. It’s been a long time since I’ve run a race and I’ve never run one this long. Maybe it will help push me along so that I can run at least one marathon with my Dad. I’d hate to miss out on that. We hope you are all well. Maybe I’ll write another letter in another couple of months! :)

Love,

Cheryl