Contemplations on Motherhood

I picture my young childless self in my relatively fashionable and unstained clothing pondering what life would be like as a mother. My vision at the time might have included something like me catching my child as he slides down the slide or cuddling under the blankets and reading a story together with all my children. And while I might not have envisioned a white minivan with Cheerios spilling out of every crevice or a pantry stocked with a year's supply of mac and cheese, those things wouldn't have surprised me.

Some things about motherhood have come as a surprise. For instance, instead of catching Deacon as he slides down the slide, I catch him as he jumps off the top of the slide. The following pictures captured in my house today, were not in my original motherhood vision.

I never thought there would be more on the outside of my fridge than in it.

I never thought that that keeping a roll of toilet paper rolled would be a difficulty.

I never thought I would find lunch meat on my stairs.

Blessed, Again

I'm noticing a theme in my life, and that theme is that I have a lot of good friends and family who love me and my family.

This morning we woke up to find a surprise on our doorstep. The surprise was this TV with an unsigned note telling us it needed a new home. I have no idea who gave us this, but if you are out there, thank you. Despite Parker's groggy face in this picture (It was first thing this morning.), he was ecstatic. "Oh, who would be so nice?" he asked. "Today is the best day of my life!"

Check Yes or No

I am going through Parker's backpack, when I find a folded note with a heart on the front. It reads "To Parker." Of course, being a curious, non-privacy respecting mom, I open it up to find the following message: (Typed as written) "Parker you are so funny Will you be my friend? Raegan"

Raegan is about the cutest girl I have ever seen. I was just volunteering in Parker's class yesterday, noticing how adorable she is. So I said to Parker. "I saw the note from Raegan in your backpack. What did you think about it?"

Parker replies, "There were too many staples in it, and I had to pull them all out."

Umm, not what I was getting at. "Did you answer her?"

"Yeah, I said the answer would be either 'no' or 'maybe.'"

Alright. I guess he's not smitten yet.

Stuff I Heard Around My House Today

After Parker spends ten minutes vibrating his hand against his mouth in an attempt to imitate authentic Native American noises, Chris tells Parker, "You know real Indians didn't make those noises."
Parker: "Then why do they do it on Peter Pan?"
Chris: "Because that's a stereotype."
Parker: "Well, maybe they're Stereotype Indians."

Parker to McKay: "Mom's got a migration. That's a bad kind of headache."

McKay: "Mom, when you see me around today could you call me 'Your Majesty?'"

Deacon Does Sacrament Meeting

I don't know what it is about Sacrament meeting. But sitting in a chair and being quiet for one hour is completely impossible for my children. Today I told Parker to sit in his chair, and he told me, "I can hear better down here."

Then there is Deacon. Deacon is by far the squirreliest little boy I have ever seen. I plunk him on his chair, and he is over the chair, under the chair, and through the chair in a matter of minutes. This Sunday, Deacon added a new trick to his routine. He ran two rows up from us and just laid down in the aisle, completely content to stare at the ceiling and kick his legs in the air.

Now normally when Deacon makes a run for it, I send Parker for him. But Parker was on the complete opposite side of the row, so I decided to have McKay give it a try. "Go bring Deacon back to mom," I told her.

She walked up to Deacon and grabbed his hand. When he refused to budge, she started dragging him by one arm. He's apparently heavy, because she had to use her whole body to drag him just a couple of inches. Deacon appeared unconcerned. Without a noise or a worried expression, he simply laid on the ground and allowed himself to be dragged by the arm. McKay made increasingly louder grunts and groans as she attempted to move his heavy body. She finally dragged him back to me, and only when I picked him up off the ground did he make any objections. Evidently sitting on his mom's lap was a lot worse than being dragged by the arm across the gym floor.

Happy Birthday

How hard could it be to blow out four candles?

Rejoicing

Sometimes things don't break in our home, and one of those times is today. Not only that but many of our broken things are now fixed thanks to good people in my life. (Very sappy post ahead.)

My sister, Riki, told me that when you pay your tithing, maybe you don't get rich, but somehow things just work out. And things are working out.

First, the van. I wanted to flush the van down our toilet. But, wait, I couldn't do that because our toilet was broken. We asked our friend from the ward what to do with our piece of crap toilet. He is a plumber, and he knows about crappy toilets. He offered to come look at it, came over last Saturday morning, and fixed our toilet free of charge. Bless you good ward friends.

And speaking of good wards friends, we decided to go out to breakfast that same Saturday. We opened our door and found a pile of goodies from an anonymous friend on our door. When we got to JB's, we randomly pulled in at the exact same time as some other good friends from our ward. We all ate breakfast together and had a great time. Then while we were fattening ourselves up at the buffet, this friend paid not only for his family to eat breakfast but ours as well. When we went to pay, we found that our meal had already been paid for. Thank you friends.

So back to our van. I took it in to the mechanic on Friday. After several hours of running tests on it, they still could not locate the leak. The guy there told me he could charge me for some replacement parts, but he would really just be guessing at where the leak was. So instead, he cleared the check engine code for me and suggested I go retake my emissions test before the check engine light came back on. Here is the amazing part. Not only was he so nice and honest, he did not charge me a cent for all the hours he spent trying to locate the leak on my van. I hurried back to Jiffy Lube and retook my emissions test, and my van passed. I was ecstatic when the van passed, and apparently it showed, because the Jiffy Lube guy told me, "I have never seen anyone so excited to pass the emissions test."

Cost to fix toilet--nothing. Cost to go out to eat as a family--nothing. Cost to make van pass emission test--nothing. Pretty impressive. And I didn't even coupon.

Another One Bites the Dust

This morning I woke up and turned on the TV to do my pilates and something didn't happen. That something is the TV didn't turn on. Why? Because it lives in my house, and things that live in my house break. I am very sad about this, because TV has helped raise my three children, and now I'm going to be forced to parent. Who is going to watch my children while I shower so that my children aren't sitting around watching me? Or in Deacon's case, climbing in fully clothed. What about when I'm trying to load the dishwasher, and Deacon is unloading the dishes as fast as I put them in? What about mommy is going to lay here and read her book, and you are going to leave mommy alone time? Bless you Blue's Clues, Dora, and Bob the Builder. You have been such an important part of our family.

When Parker learned the TV was broken he asked me if I would go buy a new one while he was at school. "No," I explained. "TVs cost money, and mommy's money has to go to paying bills and buying groceries." Tearing up, Parker choked out, "I miss you, TV."

Chris said, "What's going to break next?"

I really wish he hadn't said that, because he jinxed us. Two hours later I brought my van in for its emission test, which it failed. Now I have to pay for hundreds of dollars of repairs to be allowed to continue driving it. Grrr. I want to throw it away with my TV. But instead of throwing anything away, I'm going to go be a mom. Because my TV is no longer around to fill that role for me.

Halloween Pictures

So as you may remember, our camera has been broken for about two months. Hence, all the posts with no pictures. But we finally sucked it up and bought a new one. This one allows us to make movies, too. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting I have a camera again, so I have been forgetting to take pictures. Consequently my kids first year of carving the pumpkins themselves was undocumented, as was our fun Halloween day spent in Emmett, attempting a bonfire and hot dog roast in the rain. The rain refused to dampen Deacon's spirits, as he spent most of the time trying to blow the fire out like it was a candle on a cake. (That would have been a cute movie if I'd only remembered my camera. Dang it.)

So right before we headed out trick-or-treating I pulled out the camera and got a few movies and pictures. (Posted below for your enjoyment.)

Each of my children had a different take on trick-or-treating. Deacon lasted five houses, completely amazed that people were giving him treats or "cooks" as he calls them. The child is a good generalizer. All food are "apples," and all treats are "cooks" (a.k.a. "Cookies."). Then at the sixth house he laid down in the driveway, refusing to move. That was my indication he was done.

McKay reminded me that if we eat too much candy it gives us tummy aches. Looking down at her candy-laden bucket, she added, "But not if it's healthy candy!"

And Parker dumped his bucket onto the living room floor, rubbed his fingers together in his excited way, and declared, "It's mine. All mine."