Never occured to me...

What never occured to me about being a mom...

1. You should be organized and disciplined (does that mean a "grown up"?)..at least enough to make life smoother. For example, this is not organized: Sleeping till 6:45, then hurriedly getting Jenna up at 6:47. Only to find that all of the jeans in the house are wet in the washer. Knowing that she can't wear a dress because her church shoes are too small for her to spend the day in. Then going to the kitchen and finding that there is about a 1/3 c of milk, no cereal and hard butter. That eliminates the option of cereal and toast that doesn't tear when you attempt to butter it...and we all know that I am not making eggs because there is no time...I turned the alarm off, remember!! Jenna has 10 minutes to eat, get her hair fixed, brush her teeth and get her back pack on (bless her heart). We can all see the ways that that morning went wrong. Ah, planning has become more important because there are three more kids that may or may not be awake and hungry...and I can just forget a shower for the morning. Why is my bed most comfy at 5:45?
2.  The amount of pee...in diapers, sure, but in random corners, on the bathroom floor, in the trash, and occasionally in the unflushed toilet. I am not talking about dog pee...I am talking about little boy pee. Why, oh why? Who knew..?
3. That they will grow up...Which means more clothes, and MORE FOOD. We aren't too far from needing 2 packs of hotdogs for dinner. Fast forward 12 years...we will always be broke. They will also have more activities as they grow...running here and there. More homework, more hormones, more conflict. And LESS SLEEP for mom and dad. Now a baby that gets hungry, a toddler that wants a companion, a 5 year old with bad dreams, a 7 year old with growing pains at night....soon we will be waiting up wondering if we taught them well enough to be safe and make good choices.

 I should stock up on good day planners, clorox wipes and carpet cleaner, hotdogs, diet coke to stay awake and sane, and benadryl to sleep.

Gage

I can hardly believe that Gage is 6 months.

I will add more later, but the the quiet has escaped my house, and it's getting wild while I play on the computer.

Maw Comes for her Spring Break!

The time finally arrived after days of anticipation...mom was here.
I am so glad that she came. I needed to see her. Who said that a grown woman doesn't need her mama? We all loved having her. I know that she had other stuff to do back home, but I am glad that she took her sparse free-time and came out here.
 I worked 2 days while she was here, it killed me. I am so selfish. But I am glad that the kids got to spend a lot of time with mom. I honestly can't say who loves her most. They all do. Gagey gave her the crinkled-nose-smile, Trev thought she should be somehow attached to him, Zac still adores her and Jenna too loves to spend time with her Maw. Mom read a record amount of books to the kids, especially Trevor and added to our "library" of books and dvds- Thank you, Maw! We ate like fat, starved queens! It was wonderful. Except by Monday, we were feeling bad about it, and our bodies were revolting! But Los Hermanos, Se Llama Peru, Cafe Rio and home cooking were quite fun! The weather didn't really participate so we didn't go to the zoo. We did go to the "dead zoo" or the Bean Museum that has lots of animals that are stuffed. That was fun. We went to Trafalga and ate dippin' dots and played put-put. We watched the Return of Nanny McPhee on Sensational Saturday night with the kids- it was a good show. We made watch-bracelets. And perhaps my favorite was when we all went to the park and flew a kite. The big kids, Steve, Mom and I all went to see the Carl Bloch art display at the BYU museum. Mom thoroughly enjoyed it.
When mom is here, it feels like time stands still in that real life stops. Also time seems to fly and the visit is over, and it's time to resume the routine. Not that the routine is all bad. It felt good to get back to normal, I just wish normal and routine had my mom in it.  That is a continued hardship to live on the other side of the country of our families. Nonetheless, I wouldn't have wanted to marry another man.
 I have pictures, but I had to restore the hard drive and some of my pictures are gone. Thankfully, I added my faves to Facebook.