Sunday, June 24, 2007

missing my mom

I have always been really close with my mom. I think part of it is because I am the youngest of the family so when everyone else had left for college or missions, I was still there. For the year or two when it was just us we has a lot of fun together. On Friday nights we would both come home from our dates and sit on her bed and compare notes. We helped each other through heartbreak, bad dates, rough weeks and a million other things. We were more like friends than mother and daughter. Of course, I knew that I could go to her if I needed anything and she would swith into mom mode or counselor mode depending on the issue.
I am so grateful for this time we got to spend together. I had the opportunity to watch my mom meet Dwane and fall in love. I saw the transformation in her from stoic anchor to giddy schoolgirl to purely happy. Not many children get the opportunity to see that.
However, even after all of that, I don't think I truly appreciated my mom until I got married and had kids of my own. She has always been there supportive and loving but it has risen to a whole new level these last seven years. I am a mother myself now but I do not feel like I possess anything close to the wealth of knowledge and patience that my mother has always exuded. I am so grateful she is just a phone call away. Man, I wish she were just a 5 minute drive away! In my 28 years of life I have learned one of life's most crucial lessons: WE NEVER, EVER OUTGROW THE NEED FOR OUR MOTHER.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Seashells

I have neglected my blog lately due to a fun little "trip" to Myrtle Beach. John had a CME conference there so the kids and I decided to tag along. It was a lot of fun!
It is hard to protest spending a week in a comfortable villa, laying on the beach, and playing with the kids at a water park and amusement park. I also spent some of the time with the kids looking for seashells and shark's teeth on the beach. I realized as I was collecting shells that the ones that most interested me were not the perfect, complete shells. The shells that caught my eye were the beautiful shards worn to a polished sheen or small pieces of what you could tell used to be large, unusual shells. I don't know why I am a sucker for these broken bits of shell other than that they leave so much open to the imagination. I like creating my own story of where they came from and how they ended up in broken pieces on the beach.
I'm sure not everyone spends that much time thinking about seashells. Maybe it was the soothing sound of the ocean that put me in such a contemplative mood. Or maybe I am suffering from sunstroke.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Things I never thought I would say to my kids

At the suggestion of my sister, Lisa, I have begun a list of things I never thought I would say to my kids. Her suggestion came after spending a week together chasing after our five crazy children.

1) "Kissing has nothing to do with marriage!" (this was directed to Lisa's older boys who were teasing Emma and Sam - both age 3 - who had decided innocently to get married. The boys were saying things like: "Ewwwww, are you going to kiss?" and "Yucky, don't kiss in front of us." I was trying to get them off the topic of kissing before they put ideas in Sam and Emma's heads.

2) "Don't hit the computer with a baseball bat!" This directed at James who was hitting the laptop with a foam baseball bat he and Sam had gotten for their birthday.

3) "Don't chew on your toenails!" Directed at Sam. Self explainatory and all I can say is... Yuck!

4) "Don't lick your brother!" My kids are animal lovers and frequently pretend to be various animals. The licking thing in particular is from their cousin Emma who was a kitty cat when we saw her at Christmas, it was how she kissed everyone.

I know there are more, but I am too tired to think of them right now. I'll write a take 2 as I add more to my list.