Spring Break (official) Day 1

My dad organized a Goodman family breakfast at Usery Park last year, I don't know if two years in a row makes it a tradition yet, but it was fun. Loren had to work since he had missed 3 weeks due to pneumonia and grandma Perkin's death so it was just me and the kids. About a mile from the turn off we saw a deer on the side of the road, we had to slow down as it darted across the road in front of our car. I knew then it was going to be a great morning. We made eggs, potatoes, bacon, and sausage, while the kids played and we all laughed and visited. After we had eaten we hiked the mountain I use the word mountain loosely). I love the beauty of the desert (when it is not hot) and the hike up the mountain was perfect length for me. The kids got good bonding time with their cousins that they don't get to see enough and I got good bonding time with my mom and dad and brothers and sisters. What a great way to start off the break.

Spring Break

I love spring break, it has a feel to it. October break doesn't have the same feel, it is more of a relief that the heat is finally over. But spring break feels great! I go back to when I was in high school and Kelli and I probably upped our hours at DQ so we could go shop for spring clothes to go with our tans we were diligently working on and that I am now paying for with wrinkles and freckles. It meant the annual trip to the zoo that my mom would take all 8 of us kids plus Kelli and Mike and who ever we could fit it in the silver bullet (van). It means orange blossom, one of my favorite smells and softball games. Forgetting a jacket because the nights still got cool. It means warmer weather and freedom, late nights, late mornings, a new pedicure, time off work. I think it is a week (or two if you work in Chandler) to just BE and I am thankful for it every year.

Sunday Thoughts...

As I sat in our usual row in church on Sunday (don't we all have our assigned seats and it feels so strange when someone takes our seats) I watched the family that sits in front of us. They had two daughters home from college and I watched the mother she was smiling interacting and whispering to them, she looked so thrilled to have her daughters home if even for a moment. I then looked down the row ( which is unusual because I am always in the middle with kids fighting who gets to sit next to me, I should be flattered but I am usually annoyed) so I look down the row at my 4 kids, and I almost started to cry, my heart was filled with happiness and peace. I love these four children of mine. Each one unique and each one growing so fast. I thought I only have Taylor for 2 more years then she is off to college and I will be like the mother in front of me.

I am so thankful for these kids of mine, they make me laugh, and cry, they surprise me daily. Some days I feel like a super woman and the best mom ever, while other days we have cereal for dinner. They are slobs some days and neat freaks others, they never do their chores without being asked then you come home from work and entire house is clean. They expect you to jump at a phone call and pick them up at a moment notice, then all the sudden they are driving. I don't even know if I am teaching them anything, then out of the blue they will write me a letter or they will say I learned it from you and I think well I can't be all bad. I just love these kids of mine and I guess I will just have to cherish all the time I get with them because I am learning very quickly it goes way way way too fast.

New Floors ...(finally)

We have lived in this house for nearly 5 years and I have hated the flooring. We had cheap perhaps the cheapest carpet around that was just a dirt magnet, white tile with 24 year old grout and cement in the kitchen. All these while living on an acre off a dirt road. I dust and dust mop and mop and it never ever felt clean. But this was my year, our tax refund was good and the flooring I wanted was on sale hip hip hooray! I came home from work on Friday and Loren and his brother-in-law Kurt had started the hallway. Saturday we did the entry way, Sunday the kitchen, Monday most of the living room, Tuesday the bathroom and finally Wednesday the rest, we just have to caulk and do the base boards, easy I am told.

It looks so good I am loving Backburg Barn Board (name of our flooring) it goes so good with our "cabin red" kitchen. The flooring opens up the house and I am falling in love with the house not just the land. Loren has been so good and patient, I have wanted everything done right away, but who has that kind of money, none of our trees in our yard are money trees, and Loren has said "what is the hurry we've got at least 30 years here." So true so true, but those 30 years are going to be so much happier walking around on cool new flooring (now if I could just get new counter tops:)

2nd Lost tooth

This is the face I saw when I walked in the door. (We had to reenact to get the picture, I don't usually walk in the door with my camera ready, but maybe I should.) I knew immediately what he was smiling about as one of his bottom teeth had been hanging on for dear life for at least a month now. How can you not smile when you are greeted with this messy, toothless (ok only 2) cute grin. He lost his first tooth probably 6 months ago and then nothing. He still has what 16 more to loose but we are on our way.

Speaking of Wyatt, on Sunday the kids were playing then fighting then playing, then fighting really just driving me crazy. First they are laughing then crying and they were so loud. I was trying to read the paper so I was getting a little annoyed when I heard Wyatt say " I AM NOT A PLAY THING, I AM A HUMAN." How can you not laugh, poor Wyatt does he really think he is a play thing at times, and who really talks like that? I love my baby boy.

Rain and Wind...

I don't mind the rain, being from Arizona, I have been taught by my father that you take the rain when you get it and you never ever complain about the rain. It doesn't matter if you are camping or playing ball, rain is good. I like it because it settles the dust and it makes you slow down, practices get canceled, plans get changed and you get to sit cuddled up and read or watch TV, so yes rain is good.

Wind on the other hand is bad. We had some pretty bad wind yesterday, before the rain came. There are still lots of fields and the dust was crazy and of course I happened to be driving, taking Kyely to a friends house. I use to not be scared of the wind but then nearly three years ago ( August 2008), we were hit by two micro-burst in a month period. Since that time I suffer from a bit of post-traumatic stress syndrome. If the wind comes at night I usually curl up in a ball under the covers praying like crazy, I can handle it better during the day.

Look at these pictures. I remember sitting in my classroom and Loren happened to be off, he calls and says stay where you are it is a mess out here. Since I only have little shoe box windows I did not know the extend of the wind. He then calls back and says we have a tree through our garage. What?? Thirty minutes later when I left work I did not know what would greet me when I arrived, it was worse than I thought. How do you get a tree that has speared your garage out and how do you clean up piles of down tree limbs and debris?

Loren's sister and brother-in-law, Jody and Kurt came and helped us tie off the tree so it wouldn't fall further into the house and then we prayed. Loren says he remembers the next morning getting the kids off to school sitting in his truck thinking "how in the world am I going to get that out?" When our neighbor Brother Olsen pulls ups and says, "Looks like you need some help, I already called and I've got some equipment on the way." Sure enough two fork-lifts pull up and got the tree out and then he says, tomorrow for young men/women we will help you clean up. The next day about 30 youth and leaders show up with chain saws and rakes to help us clear our land. It was amazing and definitely a testimony builder: the Lord answers our prayers and it is often through the goodness of other people.

I love our trees, they offer us shade, a home for our owl, an opportunity to teach our kids about work (lots of leaves and pine needles to rake) and they are great protection during soft-air gun wars but when the wind blows that is another story, good thing I don't live in tornado alley.

Good Friends

Taylor and Kyley have the best group of friends. I feel so fortunate that my girls have chosen friends that build, not tear down, that laugh and aren't afraid of being goofy, that have the same standards, value good grades, have supportive families and like sports:) I am sad that Kyley's core group will be going to Williams Field while Kyley is going to Perry. Taylor went through the very same thing and she survived to find a group at Perry. The Lord has clearly answered my prayers for good friends for my daughters. (wow a little teary while I type)

Taylor and her friends were recruited to participate in a fashion show to model modest Prom dresses. Intresting - a prom dress can be modest, not at the few Proms I had to chaperon, they were cut down to there and slit up to here. The girls carried no purse but they always had their cell phones often tucked in their cleavage, I am not making this up. Taylor was excited and I was thrilled to go see. At first I thought I would miss it but things worked out, really it was sick kids, so they couldn't go to basketball on Wednesday so I could go to my class on Wednesday instead of Thursday and then see Taylor strut down the cat walk. I did have to take Ty because I finally called the doctor after 4 days of fever and he had an appointment at 7:30pm, in order to do both he had to come with me to the fashion show, pure torture for a 10 year old boy.

Taylor looked amazing I really think she was the most beautiful one there. She had straightened her curly locks then put a few curls in, she wore a little more make up then she normally does, she had just gotten her braces off a week ago and she looked STUNNING! As I watched her there was something else, she was having fun she was making eye contact with the crowd and thoroughly enjoying herself. Taylor does have the tangible beauty I mean really look at her, but she has the intangible ones as well, a good heart, a hard worker a sense of humor, a strong testimony. I am so proud of her and I love her like crazy. As the oldest she gets the shaft at times, (that is what therapy is for) but she takes it in stride. No worries Kyley your shout out will be coming soon.