(Belated) First Day of School

First Day of School 2009!  We had to find a new location, as we are now lacking the redbud tree we'd been using since Hannah's first day of kindergarten.  But not to worry!  We have a baby tree again, and it looks much better than I remembered it did.

My dream tree has always been a sugar maple.  They're gorgeous trees, and they're supposed to have spectacular fall foliage.  Just not in Oklahoma.  I never planted one at our old house, because all the local nursery owners told me I was right--a fabulous tree, just not in Oklahoma, so most of the time, they don't even carry them.

Fast forward 10 years, to when we move into our new home.  There's a sugar maple planted out front, the only tree on the property.  Our builder is quite proud of it: "It's a good tree!"

But it's looked pretty pathetic.  Kind of drought-stricken.  I think Bob may want to rip it out.  I can't bear the thought of ripping out a fairly well-established sapling.  Which is pathetic looking.  But I will tell you: its foliage is much more brilliant than anything I ever saw the sweet gum tree do.

Stay tuned to find out where next year's school pics are....

Crank

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Today's Writing Prompt: Scream

What makes you want to scream?


After the last week of illness at our house, what doesn't???

That's actually a good lead-in to what really makes me want to scream: being cranky.  I hate being cranky.  Being cranky usually makes me crankier than I already was to begin with, and that doesn't make it any easier to "just cheer up."  What's my problem anyway?

Motivation

I'm pretty sure I've had the motivation and goal-realization thing all wrong for a long while now.  Here Rex is in August (I'm still catching up on all sorts of things).  This was not his maiden solo voyage, since it took us completely by surprise.  He explained quite simply, "I just decided I wanted to ride my bike without training wheels, and I did."

Blessed

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Today's Writing Prompt: Peace Prize

Give away your own Peace Prize--to one person, living or dead. What would you say when presenting it?


Haha, funny! I guess this will directly relate to the fact that yesterday the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama. Okay, so I don't really like the guy, but I've made it something of a habit not to bash him too much either. However, I really think this is over the top. What exactly (and that's the key word in this sentence) has he done to deserve it? I would rather give one to Bill Clinton (and I do NOT like Bill Clinton) or Ronald Reagan, than Barack Obama. Argh.

Oddly, my thoughts today focus on mothers. I've spent the week at home with all five of my sick children, and I was sick, too. Truly, it felt like I was frequently negotiating world peace. Not that I did that great a job of it, but isn't that what mothers all over the world do every day? They say "the hand that rocks the cradle rocks the world," and trite it may be, but I would also argue that it's true. Peace begins at home, where parents teach tolerance, love and respect, and then pray that someday the message sinks in, and that nobody else gets to your kids and shreds all your lessons.

There can be no finer words than the Savior's own words for the peacemakers of the world: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

#14: My Favorite Football Player

If you know me, you know I've never really been that into football. I still remember watching as a child and wondering what the big deal was and why the heck boys would play something that dumb. I attended all our high school football games, but only because marching band was fun, and so was hanging out with all my friends in those dreadful uniforms up in the stands. I never really got into the tight-pants thing, or the cool jock phase ... although I did temporarily have a huge crush on John Elway (why????), which was the only reason I watched all those Bronco games with my mom. And I've never been impressed with the Dallas Cowboys. I will admit, though, that Sooner Mania is very infectious, and I will get into a Sooner football game, as long as they're not doing something stupid.

But times, they are a-changin', especially now that there's a #14 in my world. No, I'm not talking about Sam Bradford, even if he is pretty impressive and cute, too. Football has suddenly become much more interesting (obsessive even) to me now that my baby boy is playing. He looks good, doesn't he? And he's waaaaaay more impressive and cute to me than Sam (sorry, but I have to be honest here).
I think some of my newly discovered love for football stems from the fact that Caleb is good at what he does. That's not just the mom in me talking. He's seriously good at football. That's not to say the first few weeks weren't hard--he hated learning to wear the pads and the helmet, but oddly, these are things the mom just wouldn't budge on. But once we overcame that hurdle and the 3 times weekly practices, Caleb really started loving it. He can do just about anything they ask him to do out there. He typically plays safety, but he can run the ball, catch passes, and sack the quarterback. He also played QB a couple of weeks ago, when both of our QBs got hurt.

He's a team captain, if that's what they call it at this age.

And he's a pretty darn good kicker. The first game he kicked, he actually beaned another player in the head. Coach Ryan says the refs were stumped because they weren't sure where to place the ball after that. However, we took him home, and set him in front of Mom's "new" Suburban, and told him to practice kicking WITHOUT HITTING MY TRUCK. It was pretty effective--he never hit my car once. And now just look at my kicker in motion:
But, as with all things we love, there are sacrifices that must be made from time to time. Who knew they did homecoming in the 3rd grade? And that you have to escort a cheerleader? Ugh! (If only he would still feel this way about it when he's 16.)

Back from the Almost Dead

It's been an exceptionally long week. On Monday, Caleb stayed home from school with a fever and a cough. Over the course of the day, Sariah developed the same symptoms, and I started coughing. On Tuesday, a trip to the Urgent Care Center (because there were no more appts at the dr's office) revealed that Caleb had the H1N1 flu, more commonly known as the swine flu, despite the medical community's best efforts. And by Wednesday, they were all running fevers and home from school. We ALL felt like ... well, miserable. Bob flew home early to take care of us, and we've spent the rest of the week in various stages of recovery.

We are not out of the woods yet. Hannah and Rex are still actively running fevers, and all of the other children are still coughing. Needless to say, we will not be spreading our leftover germs at church tomorrow, but Mom is feeling significantly improved, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

On next week's agenda: getting all the kids back to school, and nursing Bob through his run with the flu (he doesn't have any symptoms yet; I'm just assuming).

Meanwhile, I'm feeling up to updating my blog. I have lots of pics to put in and talk about; I just haven't had the down time. But I have it now.... Cyber-hugs to all, as I'm sure nobody really wants the real thing. :)