Oldies but goodies

My Mom has been sending some of the photos from the recently digitalized Staker family photo archives  over email.  These are just couple of my favorites.  I especially like Greg's pants in the bottom photo.  When Ken mentioned how lovely they were she said, "You can laugh all you want, Ken, but we probably just patched them up and handed them down to you!" I can't tell you how many times I've wished they still made Tuff-Skins for Alex!

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!!!