2013 April General Conference

One of the best weekends of the year - GENERAL CONFERENCE!  You can watch all of the talks online by clicking here.   I promise that it is worth it.

 Wonderful talk by Elder L. Whitney Clayton about marriage.  Best quote ever:   "Marriage is God's gift to us, a quality marriage is our gift to Him."  Another favorite:  "Terrific marriages are completely respectful, transparent and loyal." 

Other fave speakers - Elder Bednar and Elder Uchdorf. 

 I'm still hoping that Elder Holland will speak as he is my favorite.  One of the best General Conference  talks ever was by Elder Holland.  You can watch that talk by clicking here.  My favorite wisdom from Elder Holland during that talk was "Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are."

 After Elder Clayton's talk, I turned to Mr. Wonderful and commented that I thought we were doing great in that department.  He agreed.

 We stay in pajamas to watch conference, pass copious amounts of salt water taffy, and try to make it a fun, peaceful, family tradition.

And doggie girl makes her circuit to get attention from every family member.

We sure miss Firstborn.  It is our first General Conference without him.  But we are grateful that he is serving his mission and wouldn't change a thing.  It is our understanding that he is able to watch conference online from his area, by streaming the conference online. 

Behold - the next batch of missionaries to Romania

Firstborn has been in the MTC for three weeks.  He is loving the people and is working hard to learn Romanian.  His letters home have been fun to read.  Best of all, we now have pictures!  This was taken in front of the Provo, Utah LDS Temple.  It has been awesome to see (and read) how he has changed in the past three weeks.  Poor Love Magnet, she asks every single day if he is coming home.  I always reply "Remember what I said?  How old will you be when he comes home?"  "I know, Mom, I'll be 12."  She also knows it will be right before Thanksgiving.  So last Thanksgiving, she declared that we were going to celebrate her 12th birthday and that Firstborn needed to come home.  It has been hard on her.  But we know Firstborn is where he needs to be.  Please keep him in your prayers.

Going to the MTC

I was told that the drive to Utah to take my son to the MTC would be the most emotional drive ever.  I did not cry once.  I was excited for my son.

 After taking care of banking, buying a backpack last minute, and lunch at the Brick Oven (where, we didn't know until we got there, that missionaries entering the MTC that day eat free), we stopped by the Provo LDS Temple for pictures.  It seemed that everyone else taking a son or daughter into the MTC decided to do the same thing.

 The kids were tired and not looking forward to the hours long drive home.  Firstborn was just excited.

 The day was bright and mild.  Still no tears from mom.

 As we left to get back into the car to head to the MTC across the street.....

 Firstborn couldn't resist teasing Thirdborn one last time.  I think he was theatening to throw his little brother into a snow bank.

 At the MTC, there is no lollygagging.  The luggage is removed quickly and goodbyes are even quicker.  The tears (mine) started to come.

It was a lot like the first day of kindergarten.  All smiles, no tears, quick lean instead of a real hug (all the while talking to the missionary over my shoulder) and then off into the doors of the MTC without even a glance back.  He was ready.

On the way to the freeway, as I dried my tears, The Love Magnet started to cry.  Mr. Wonderful and I tried to console her, telling her that Firstborn was safe and she could email him and that he would email her back.  She replied "I'm not sad about him!  I MISS MY PUPPY!"  We couldn't help but burst out laughing.  It was too funny!  Later that night, The Love Magnet was in her bed and I heard her crying.  I went into her room and wrapped my arms around her.  "Honey, look it is okay.  Doggie Girl can sleep in your room tonight.  Look how happy she is to see you."  My duaghter looked up at me with tears on her cheeks.  "I'm not crying about her.  I miss my brother!"

Yeah.  We all miss him, sweetheart.

The Farewell

 Sunday 11/11/2012 was Firstborn's mission farewell.  He gave a wonderful talk on why he was willing to go halfway around the world to teach the Romanian people about the Atonement.  It was wonderful to listen to his testimony.  Every day I pray that Heavenly Father will help me to see people the way He sees them.  That day I was able to see my son the way his Father in Heaven sees him.  He will be a great missionary.

 There were hundreds of cookies and 4 types of soup as well as a lot of rolls and sliced homemade bread with butter and jam.  We prepped for hundreds of people to show for the open house.  After our extended family left to head back to Utah, the house was quiet.  No one else showed.  We kept posting on FB that we had a lot of food and were waiting for visitors.  The soup ended up being put into the fridge/freezer.  Firstborn and Secondborn put together plates of cookies to take to people.  The rest of the cookies were packed up to take to Utah.

 The night we arrived in Utah, more family and some old friends we haven't seen for seven years since we moved came to my parents to say goodbye.  Good thing we brought the cookies.

 It was fun to see everyone.  The house was noisy with laughter.

Some of these cousins will look very different (and taller) in 2 years.

Firstborn made sure he was done with the openhouse by 9:30 and in bed by 10 p.m. per mission rules.  He was set apart as a missionary Tuesday night and had his dad for his companion until he reported to the MTC.  Whether he slept at all that night is a different story.

The Baptism

 Twin sis (whom the Love Magnet is named after) came to support us.  We also had many of both sides of the family present.  This was a huge weekend.  Not only was it a baptism, but is was a farewell for Firstborn who was leaving to go on a mission to Romania.

 The Love Magnet was so excited.  Her big brother was going to baptize her and her daddy would confirm her a member of the Church and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost.  She was so thrilled that the room was full of people she loved.

 I worried a little about how she would feel about the baptismal clothing.  But it turned out to be soft (and not scratchy as I remembered from my own baptism when I was 8.  Mr. Wonderful had reminded me to bring a white tshirt and white bike shorts for her to wear underneath.  Good thing - with those on, she did not freak out over wearing unfamiliar clothing or over the feeling of the elastic waistband.  As soon as she changed (which was 15 minutes before the ordination), she tried to immediately step (dive) into the font.  I had to stop her more than once and remind her that other things (talks, singing, and prayers) had to happen first.

 This was Firstborn's first baptism.  I love that his first baptism was for his sister.  It is not appropriate to take pictures during the ordination.  The Love Magnet led the music.  Seconborn and Thirdborn gave the opening and closing prayers.  The Grandmothers each gave a talk on baptism and on The Holy Ghost.  The Grandpas served as witnesses.  Firstborn did a great job with the actual baptism.  When the Love Magnet came out of the water, she announced to everyone watching that she forgot to plug her nose.  It didn't bother her.  She just shook her head and kept smiling.  In the dressing room, after the baptism and before the confirmation she kept saying to me "Mom, I feel so AMAZING!"



Love Magnet speaks up. Watch out.

Pensacola Beach, Florida, January 2012

The Love Magnet has been harder to understand this year.  Her speech is somewhat garbled.  I think there must be a disconnect somewhere - is her brain running faster than she is able to express?  Or is it that she hears her peers speaking faster and tries to match their speed at the expense of being understood.  Whatever the reason, I've tried to work more with her on articulation.  It has been an interesting journey.  Mainly due to the reason that I can't be caught at being the teacher - rebellion would ensue.

The boys have picked up on the articulation models I have been using and started using them as well.  when The Love Magnet attempts to articulated /s/, they will point out that they can see her tongue.  "Hide your tongue!  I see your tongue, put it back in your mouth".  Alternately, when she attempts a /th/ sound, she ends up substituting with a /d/.  The boys will model where her tongue goes and then tell her it is her turn.  She complies with much more enthusiasm for them than she shows for me. When her entire sentence is unintelligible, they will let her know.  "Whoa, I didn't understand that.  Say it again, but this time slow down."  She is very willing to clarify to them, particularly if she is requesting something.

I love that the boys have picked up on this without me requesting it of them.  They are also learning to be more careful of what words they say and how they say them.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  Heavenly Father sent The Love Magnet to our house to show us how we sound to each other.  She can mimic tone and inflection in speech with absolute clarity.  It is very obvious who she is mimicking and the offensive party ducks their head in shame when they recognize that they are the ones being imitated.  Worse, she picks up new words with lightning speed, particularly words we don't want her to repeat.  We've discovered that it is more than twice as hard to train her out of a bad word than it was to get my boys to stop saying a new word they learned on the school playground.  Read this post.  It was the most mild of words we didn't want her to say.  It took all the next year to train her out of it.

Here I raise my glass (of water) to old words said with more clarity and new words that aren't offensive.  And most of all to the power of the examples of sibling and friends.

My daughter is watching and listening to you.  Please be kind to each other.

Countdown to grad school

Titres, skin tests, CPR certification. All the stuff I didn't know I needed to have before grad school is now messing up my trip-to-Utah plans before school starts. Grad school also wants my immunization records. As another 40-something classmate has also found out, we can't get those records because they no longer exist. I've had a few booster shots in the past two years that will count, but it looks like I will need a few more.

I've spent over $500 on textbooks for this upcoming semester, including 5 books for neurology alone. I love neurology but I will admit to some apprehension of the seeming insurmountable workload from that class alone. I need to pay tuition this week, too, and give information on my insurance for my SHIP waiver.

Kids school supplies have been purchased as well as most of the school clothes they will need. Still waiting anxiously for information on meet-the-teacher night as I still don't know who they will be.

Slowly things are being checked off my to-do list. I will admit to a small bit of anxiety in the realm of "Can I really do this?" But I know that this goal of grad school is a righteous goal and I will have all the help I need to accomplish it. God is great. He will not leave me alone.

I've been marveling at all the huge milestones our family will see during my two years of grad school:

* Firstborn has an interview this Sunday to be ordained an elder after which we will start marking off the checklist of everything to be done before his mission. He can turn in his papers in November. He'll leave for his mission sometime in February. He is hoping to serve in Africa like his grandparents.

*Secondborn will turn 16, be ordained a Priest which will allow him to bless the Sacrament. He will also start driving and dating (in my church, dating doesn't start until you turn 16). If you ask him which one he is more excited for between driving and dating, he will certainly tell you driving.

* Thirdborn will turn 12 and be ordained a deacon, which will allow him to pass the Sacrament. This is a big deal and he is so excited at the thought.

These are huge milestones in my church and my kids are really looking forward to them. Here is to the next two years. They will be monumental.

Camping at Horsethief Reservoir

We went camping up at Horsethief Reservoir. It was too overcrowded. We were lucky to get the last spot available. Since Mr. Wonderful and Firstborn were coming up later, Uncle Nate supervised Secondborn and Thirdborn in the making of fire. They tried flint and steel. Then they tried matches. Thirdborn spilled matches everywhere. It took a lot of tries but they finally got a decent fire burning.

Uncle Nate was so patient with the young pyromaniacs. He deserved a gold medal.

The boys ran to the lake to try to catch fish for dinner while Nate, Eliza, The Love Magnet and I waited back at camp.

Thirdborn came running back to camp with a huge fish. We were surprised he caught one so quickly. He told us he did not catch it, but that he found it. He thought a boat must have hit it. He wanted so badly to cook it for dinner. Mr. Wonderful and Uncle Nate had to point out that the coloring was off and that it would probably make him very sick if he tried eating it. Thirdborn was so disappointed. He really wanted to have trout for dinner. No way. Not this fish.

Finally it was time to cook brats (my back-up plan for dinner) and s'mores for dessert.

Thirdborn LOVED s'mores!

The Love Magnet loved s'mores!

Did Secondborn like s'mores? Not sure.

We kept the fire going pretty late. It was fun to sit around, watching the stars.

Three of the four tents we had between the eight of us. Plenty of room.

The morning was cold. Good thing we had three Eagle Scouts (Mr. Wonderful, Uncle Nate, and Firstborn) who knew how to build fires.

No, Thirdborn did not have a black eye. That was dirt all over his face. He slept with that all night and claimed he had just washed it.

After Mr. Wonderful's fabulous dutch oven Mountain Man breakfast, it was time to go fishing.

Mr. Wonderful bought a pink and yellow little kid's tube for The Love Magnet to play with. Secondborn decided to commandeer the apparatus for the more worthy pursuit of fishing.

Secondborn got pretty far out on that little tube. No fish were biting, though.

Thirdborn had great fun rescuing dragonflies from the water. When I asked him why he was doing that, he replied so he could use them to bait his fishhook. No fish were caught and we had to head home.

We stopped at Fisher Park in Cascade to see if we could catch something. By this time most of the campers looked like they were ready to head home to hot showers.

I just had to compare height between Firstborn and Secondborn. Yep, Secondborn has almost completely caught up to his bigger brother.

The Love Magnet fully monopolized Aunt Eliza. Poor Uncle Nate was trumped by his more popular wife.

Thirdborn had to try one last time. No fish were biting, not even in a small, fully stocked pond. *sigh* Maybe next time.

I am not ready for this stage...

Parenting a young adult will about kill me.

Yeah, I know. Carrie, you always talk about not having a bad attitude...well blah, blah, blah. Sorry, I should not be directing frustrations at you.

I have a Firstborn/highschool graduate/young adult (now referred to as YA) who hasn't quite figured the important things in life. Like letting your parents know when you will be home, or at least coming home before or at your curfew. He thinks that now he is a YA, he shouldn't have a curfew. Too bad, so sad, my house my rules. And, yes, consequences are fair.

Nor does he think that helping out at home is nearly important as helping the cute neighbor two doors down. Yesterday, he needed to be home, preparing to leave for a competition today. I called him three times to get home and get his stuff done. Nope. He felt it was more important to help the neighbors and then go out to dinner with them. This anywhere-but-home attitude has been a recurring theme, happening daily.

To top it off, he missed his ride to the airport this morning and fully expected Mr. Wonderful to come save him........and he didn't know the time the plane left nor the airline he was flying on. We assume he made it to California because he hasn't called since he left the airport. In the meantime, he apparently expects me to finish his laundry, wash his sheets, make his bed since he left it sitting in the laundry (except for what he dumped in the hall just outside his bedroom door) and knowing that I am trying to get ready for guests tomorrow.

He gave us no itinerary because apparently YA's don't need one. At least their parents don't need to know about it.

How you get through to a YA that there are still certain rules and courtesies that must be adhered to? That family members deserve love and respect as much as friends do? That being part of a family means working together, helping out, and making an effort to get along? That family comes first? Sitting him down and trying to explain only fell on deaf ears.

I always thought the hard challenges in my life would circulate between The Love Magnet's Down syndrome, Thirdborn's learning disabilities, and stress such as the current typical balance-school-and-mommyhood. But at this time the hardest challenge of my life is navigating the uncharted waters of Firstborn's YA-hood. Nothing I say or think or do carries any significance.

Praying for help/knowledge/wisdom/patience/sanity is my only recourse.

Class of 2011

Lots of cheering and a bit of shock that my Firstborn has graduated

And really hoping that he keeps in touch with friends



But the proudest moment. Listening to the seniors of the Acapella choir sing The Star Spangled Banner. My boy can sing. I could pick out his voice anywhere.

Things To Celebrate

ISATs (Idaho Standard Achievement Test) was underway last month. Moms know the drill: make sure you kids get a good night's sleep, a good breakfast, and be sure to send them off with a positive attitude.

I remember taking standardized tests by filling in bubbles on a paper test using a #2 pencil. No longer. My kids take state standardized tests on the computer. They are immediately given their scoring when they are done. Not sure how I feel about my elementary kids seeing that score. At least I wasn't sure until last week.

Thirdborn came running home to announce the news: "MOM! I scored 'Proficient' on my Language ISAT!" My jaw dropped. This is the kid who was diagnosed with dyslexia, disgraphia, Audio Processing Disorder, and a Language Disorder. He has been in language therapy with the school's SLP since he was diagnosed. He just scored 'Proficient' and he wanted to celebrate.

I talked to his resource teacher yesterday. She confirmed that he did indeed score 'Proficient' on his Language ISAT. She took him around the school to let him share his news to all those who have been working with him. This is a very big deal. So tomorrow (when we all have an hour) we shall celebrate ISATs. Thirdborn wants to go get a milkshake at his favorite place.

Firstborn competed at the Idaho HOSA (Health Occupation Student Association) state competition last month as part of his Sports Med program. His PSA video won first place at the state competition and will be taken to nationals this summer. If he wins, the award is scholarship money. He is thrilled just to make it to nationals. Also, Firstborn just got a job(!) as a developmental therapist. Turns out, having a sister with Down syndrome, a CPR certification, and experience from all the volunteer work he has done with DS foundations and Special Olympics makes him very marketable as a DT. He is thrilled to have a decent paying job with benefits. He has no time to celebrate, so that will have to wait when he graduates from high school at the end of the month.

I get to celebrate Mothers Day on Sunday, graduate from ISU on Monday, and celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary on Tuesday. Might as well start the party now. Today is Cinco de Mayo. And my twin sister's 22nd wedding anniversary.

Birthday Celebration of Firstborn

I tried to document Firstborn's 18th Birthday dinner. Unfortunately my broken camera has decided to be really broken or at least contrary to my wishes. Blurry pics. Bleh.

But the memories are there. Secondborn wasn't too thrilled to be relegated to the family table while the other teens sat by themselves.

J, S, A. Oh my heavens, I love these kids. They have been awesome friends.
C, Firstborn, and V. Love these kids. Love, I tell you!

We took everyone out to Brazilian Barbecue. Churrascaria. The best thing (besides the food) is that they make the birthday boy stand up on the bench....

and dance for the entire room. Firstborn was a good sport. 'A' got a great vid of the entire experience and promised to send it to me.

I am thrilled that Firstborn has good friends who keep each other in line.

After consuming mass quantities of meat, and even more mass quantities of pasta salad, beans and rice, and mashed potatoes, The Love Magnet lay back and declared

"Oh, I DONE!"

Firstborn asked if she had a big belly to prove it. She complied. It took some explaining that she shouldn't lift her shirt too high.

It was the boys first time at a Churrascaria. Thirdborn was done, too. Everyone stuffed themselves silly. It was the ultimate carnivore birthday party.