Easter 2012

Let's compare Easter over the past few years :-)
2008 (I think):


2010:Not sure why I don't have a picture of Joel for 2011:And now for 2012: I asked Joel to move everything away from the fireplace. The next thing I knew, he was vacuuming without being asked! WHAT?! My teenage son was doing something that needed to be done without being asked???!!!! Weird, but GREAT!
And then for the cousins pictures :-) I have more somewhere, I think, but here's what I could find tonight. 2010:
2011:And 2012:2012 after Seth scratched Luke in the eye because Luke was trying to get Seth to look at the camera by grabbing his chin and turning his face. Apparently, Seth didn't like that. Not sure why we keep putting Seth and Luke next to each other. It pretty much never turns out well.
Our girls sat nicely, though, and posed SO sweetly:Makayla looked BEAUTIFUL :-)Gavin posed very nicely so I could get a picture. He didn't really want to because it was time to eat, but he did it with such a sweet smile :-)

Luke's wrestling tournament

Luke wrestled yesterday and got SECOND PLACE!!! He won his first four matches, but got pinned in his fifth match (and a little bit hurt when the kid pulled on his neck to hold him down -- just like a couple of the kids probably got a little bit hurt when Luke pulled on their necks to hold them down). My camera's memory card was full in the middle of the fourth match, so I didn't get to video him winning that one, but here are the links to the first three:

Luke's 1st match -- a pin :-)

Luke's 2nd match -- a win (after almost ripping the kid's head off -- he really didn't mean to do an illegal, dangerous move). You might want to skip the video from 3:50 to 5:40 unless you really want to see butt cracks of people who don't wear big enough clothes.

Luke's 3rd match -- a pin :-) And of course, I can't let the opportunity slide to say AGAIN that girls should NOT be wrestling. It's just plain WRONG!!!!!

I was SO VERY proud of my Luke!!!! He was quick and sometimes listened to his coach (his dad) :-)

a tooth and two blond cuties

Seth had a loose tooth and apparently got tired of my telling him "sorry" because I am completely unable to pull teeth. I can't even look at loose teeth. So he went to bed and yanked it out himself. Luke got up from bed to blow his nose, so I went to put something away in his room real quick. Seth was sitting up in his bed, and I told him to lie down and go to sleep. He held up his tooth and said, "I did it!" This child is constantly surprising me!

Earlier today, we got to spend some time with these two little blond cuties :-)

Those pictures are from last Wednesday, but they were just as cute today :-) They came over to play with their cousins (Seth took the day off school to join the fun, but my other three didn't have school today). Gavin and Luke played the wii -- both of them were VERY excited. Wednesday when I told Gavin that Luke was really looking forward to playing the wii with him, he ran over to his mom (who was only a few feet away and heard me tell him) and was almost jumping up and down saying, "Mom!! Did you hear that?! Luke is really looking forward to playing the wii with me! And I am really looking forward to playing the wii with him, too!" Those were pretty long sentences for a five-year-old. Makenzie and Makayla watched a Barbie movie and played with Princess paper dolls and magnetic dolls (which Makayla called "maggots" -- lol!!!) in Makenzie's room :-) After play time, we went to the library -- the big library that has TWO elevators. The kids took turns with the button-pushing, which made Makenzie and me laugh SO hard. We didn't realize that pushing a button was such a privilege. Oh, but it IS! For the entire library trip, there were twelve buttons to divide between the three children who wanted to push buttons, so they were all happy.

good kids

Sometimes my kids are monsters, picking fights, whining, destroying things, etc. BUT sometimes, they are amazingly GREAT! Sometimes, Joel lets Seth climb all over him like little brothers want to do to big brothers:
Sometimes Luke and Makenzie play cards and board games without a single argument:
Sometimes, Joel lets Seth lie in his bed with him and watch "Blue's Clues":
These are times that remind me that my children are good, sweet, absolutely lovely people!

wrestling and library

Saturday was Luke's first wrestling tournament of this year. He got third place in his division of 3rd/4th graders who weigh between 69 and 73 (I think I have those numbers correct). His first match, he easily pinned is opponent. His second match he had to work a little harder, but ended up pinning the girl who should not have been participating in this sport to begin with (yep, still on that soap box and will be until girls stop wrestling). He had her in such a tight grip, her face was turning purple. I hate it that boys have to wrestle girls. It's not respectful at all. I always hope, as horrible as this sounds, that the boys seriously hurt the girls so that they can't wrestle anymore since obviously these girls don't have parents with the common sense to teach their girls to be GIRLS. Anyway -- back to Luke. His third match was to the 2nd place boy in the following picture. He lost that one pretty quickly because he was too far away when he tried to take him down. And he lost his fourth match against the 1st place boy because that boy is REALLY good even though he is awfully skinny. I was so proud of Luke, especially in the first two matches when he was listening to his coaches and following their directions precisely.Today I got to spend some time with Makenzie, Luke, Gavin, and Makayla :-) We went to the "big" library (the only one open on Sundays, I think -- and the only one with elevators). We picked out movies, got a couple books for fun, got some books for Makenzie's research paper, and colored some pictures -- and rode the elevators a few times :-)
Before we left, I said it was so sunny that I needed sunglasses. One of Makayla's favorite sentences today was "ME, TOO!" So I found this pair of perfect pink shades that Makenzie had outgrown. SO VERY CUTE!!!

spoiled

I have been blessed with unexpected presents this week! Tuesday, I watched a friend's kids while she worked for a couple hours. When she finished work, we had lunch and playtime. She surprised me with these beautiful flowers (purple tulips are one of my all-time favorites!):
Then today when I dropped Seth off at my sister-in-law's, she gave me this butterfly wax warmer (because she knows I LOVE butterflies and good smells):
It's so exciting to me to see pieces of beauty like this, both the gifts and the spirit of giving from two treasured ladies :-) I'm hoping they know how VERY much I appreciate their generosity!!!

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The reason I was dropping Seth off with Amanda was that I was going to the chiropractor AGAIN. I've gone now six or seven times, and I think it's helping. But then again, I just had a four-day headache/neck ache. I keep blaming it on things like the weather and sleeping on the wrong side. I try to do any little thing to not be in pain. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. Either way, there are still four children who need to be taken care of, laundry, dishes, cleaning, church, a job . . . Someday life will slow down, but I'm determined to enjoy every single event along the way, whether I'm physically comfortable or not. True migraines only happen every two or three months, the kind that send me to bed before I fall down and someone has to drag my overweight self to my bed. It sounds a little strange, but I'm thankful for my physical weaknesses in a way. Because I have celiac disease, I am very sympathetic to people with dietary restrictions. Of all the diseases "available," mine is one of the easiest to deal with. No medicine, no doctors, just a gluten-free diet. Headaches are painful and annoying, but almost every day I can still function and do everything that needs to be done. Some other pains would be completely debilitating, but headaches are usually manageable or at least I've gotten used to them to a degree. They also make me a little more understanding, but also logical, when my kids say they have headaches occasionally. I know exactly how they feel and what they need to make them feel better.

My "overweight self" won't be overweight for too much longer, I'm hoping. Counting calories and walking on the treadmill as often as possible (which won't include today because I have a cold that has settled pretty solidly in my upper chest/throat, making walking fast too uncomfortable) has made ten pounds drop off so far. Unfortunately for the weight loss, but fortunately for the checkbook, Walmart has started carrying gluten-free treats at 1/3 less the cost as the natural foods store. Chocolate covered pretzels, vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies (similar to Oreos, sortof), crackers similar to Ritz (not buttery, but the same shape and texture). YUMM!!!!! I just have to dole them out over time instead of eating them all in a day or two :-) Self-discipline isn't one of my strengths, but I'm getting a little better at it.

Tonight is the first Buddy Walk meeting. I'm nervous to be in charge of such a large undertaking, but I think I'm pretty much all organized and ready to delegate the work to other people in the group. We'll see how that goes if very many "other people in the group" come to the meeting to volunteer :-)

busy busy

I'm not really sure what the stories behind these pictures are, but they're cute :-)


Joel had a jr. high band concert at school. They did a good job.He's the first trumpet player -- right in the middle of the picture.
One night I went into the boys' room to take Luke to the bathroom and found them like this -- Luke, Seth, AND Scooby Doo all in Luke's bed :-)
I haven't been posting lately probably because I'm so scattered. I've been dealing with serious neck pain and headaches for a really long time, so I started going to the chiropractor. I've seen him now five times and thought I was all fixed -- until yesterday morning I woke up feeling like my head was going to explode and like my neck wasn't completely connected to my body correctly. This morning was the same thing :-( This is very disappointing because the chiropractor was my last resort. I've tried medicines, special pillows, herbal rubs (like ben-gay), getting more sleep -- nothing has worked. And now neither is the chiropractor. Oh well, now I have a good excuse for my grouchiness :-)

This last week was a pretty great week. Joel only had one final exam for the third quarter, so we got to spend some time together. We went to lunch two days in a row, went to a movie, and went book shopping. FUN! He's doing such a good job on his grades this first year of jr. high! I enjoy rewarding him for his hard work :-)