Mother's Day 2009

I had a really great day - I didn't yell or feel frustrated once!

I got pretty pampered, too. Kannon got up with the kids, and had breakfast of cereal on the table. I prefer that to breakfast in bed. It's just too hard to eat in bed and then I end up all alone, no fun. While I was brushing my teeth, Benjamin brought me this strawberry. It's the only one that has grown, so far, on our 6 little bushes. He'd been asking for days if he could pick it and eat it. I told him on Saturday that I was going to eat the first strawberry. It touched my heart to have him offer it to me. It was good, too.

Kannon got the kids ready for church before his meeting and even came back to pick us up. My mom made me a maternity dress - I picked out the material and pattern, but she's a much better seamstress than I will ever be. Plus, she enjoys doing it. She had enough extra material left over that she decided to make a matching one for Sarah. I thought it was fun to have that for Mother's Day. It wasn't pink, but she liked it enough to wear it all day!


After church, Kannon made lunch - sandwiches with meat, lettuce, tomatoes. My favorite kind, just always more work than I want to do. He wouldn't even let me clean up! He then sent me off for a nap and took the kids to their room for awhile, so things would be quiet. Everyone ended up napping, yay! I got up first and was able to make soup for dinner without any interruptions. Another yay! I even had a mostly uninterrupted card-making time. Sarah joined me when I was almost done and made a card for Papa. I think that surprised him.

We had a potluck dinner at my mom's house. My Uncle John and Aunt Mary were there, also my brother Nate and Jackie and my sister Susan and Stephen. Dinner was good - my chicken rice soup was a hit, then came dessert. I knew my mom had made something and Mary brought creme puffs, so when Kannon plopped an ice cream cake from Cold Stone in front of me, I was surprised. I love their ice cream cakes and they are definitely a rare treat. That was my gift from him. We still have half in the freezer - I'm hitting it tonight!

Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jackie are some of the kids favorite playmates. They actually spent a few hours outside with the kids on Sunday.

Ben took pictures of everyone, but I thought that might bore you all. This one, though, is a keeper. My mom wears my dad's old work glasses when she hasn't put her contacts in - for driving or watching tv. Sarah found them and had to try them on. Classic!

And Ben had to have a turn, too. It kind of reminds me of the 80's - my brother had glasses kind of like this! And everyone's glasses were too big for their faces. I've got some scary pictures of me like that, too!

It was a good day. I felt super relaxed and then Monday came. Back to the old grind stone. I asked Ben why he was so good to me the day before but not the next day. He made sure I understood that that was just because it had been mother's day. I guess it would be nice to have his mother's day attitude all year!

I've promised him a "Kid's Day" in August. We'll have to come up with something fun and exciting for them. I know my mom used to do half birthdays for us. And that was always a special day - we got to pick out our favorite dinner. And a treat at the store - usually after some alone time with mom. And we were just treated extra special that day. I wish I thought more to treat my children as special as they are, more often.

What we've been up to.....

For all the days I am a cranky, pregnant momma, I've had quite a few fun experiences with the kids and enjoyed their antics as well. We did the annual Teddy Bear Tea on the first weekend of May. Ben had to throw his bear together quickly. Grandma was coming early to pick him up for his annual Grandma vacation. This is what he came up with for the "bear that most represents a holiday". I thought it was a cute idea. He didn't win, though. And we weren't able to stick around long enough, at the tea, to see who did win.

This is the bear I entered for Sarah - "papa bear". And we won! I don't think there were any other entries for this category, so it wasn't much of a competition. I don't care, though. We won movie tickets! We'll have to use them before the baby is born.

So, Sarah and I had a few days while Ben was with his Grandma and cousins. The last 2 years she has taken the 3 older grandchildren on a vacation - Lagoon and such. This year she took them on a survival campout. They had a good time. And we got to enjoy Kannon's parents for the weekend when they brought Ben back. We always like going to yard sales (although this time I stayed home alone - that was nice) with them and they took us out for lunch, too. Next month she is taking the younger cousins (with Sarah) to the Wilbur D. Mays park and museum in Reno - with a night in the hotel with her. I think Sarah is going to really like that. And Ben is already anticipating our time together. The only really different thing Sarah and I did was to go out for lunch together and spend some time at the park (which I havent' done lately.)

We've been working on our yard/garden. Trying to get a garden planted. Kannon wants to set up a watering line and we're waiting on getting the money to buy some plants, too.

I took the kids to the school on Saturday. We live just a block from one of the elementary schools. I just haven't felt like loading up to go to the park, and I especially don't feel like walking all the way there (even though it's not that far). So, after they begged to go to the park all week, I finally gave in and we went to the school playground. I was hot and I didn't like the sand in my shoes, but we stayed for almost an hour.

This is my old 5th grade classroom. This is where I was when we moved back to Fallon. My teacher was retiring - we were Mr. Cunningham's last class. He was tough. I told the counselor that I liked homework, so she put me in this class. It was the first time I got a C and the first time I forgot to finish some homework. I still remember the shame. (I had a dream last night that I found my locker in the high school, but couldn't remember my combination. When I finally figured it out, I realized that I hadn't been to class in months! And I was going to fail! It was awful.) Anyway, I have good memories, too. That was when I met my first "love". Learned how much I liked soccer. I remember playing double dutch right next to this wall - and 4-square. Lining up after recess. Even the bathrooms and lunchroom are still in my memory. Some of my friends went to school here for 4 years - I just had the one year, but it was important, and I enjoyed the nostalgia of walking around here again.

They have this one fun part on the playground. Ben calls it the "ninja course". It has these bell "phones". One on each side and he and Sarah enjoyed talking to each other through them.

Later that day, Ben was playing in the water -I can't seem to keep him out of it. (As we speak he is soaking his pants in the sprinkler.) They decided the needed swim suits. Sarah didn't really want to get wet (it wasn't THAT hot). But, Ben enjoyed getting her wet. So, I turned the water on him. That was enough. Every day, though, he gets in some kind of trouble with the water. Yesterday he was digging a hole in the lawn, using the water sprayer, and got mud splattered all over Sarah. She even had mud in her hair.

So, some of the things they've said lately have been great - again!

• I asked Sarah to come to me (I was on the couch). She walked over with her head down, hair in her eyes and said, "Yes stepmudder?"
• On Sunday, the primary kids headed to the front to sing songs. Sarah jumped in with them before we could catch her. She went straight to the podium looking for the stool. The Bishop finally pulled it out for her and she stood "singing" with the rest of the kids. When they came back she walked right up to me and said, "I love you Mudder." Gave me a hug, then one for Dad and Ben, too.
• My mother's day card from Ben read: "I don't care if you are meen. I love you so so so so so so so much. I love you." That made me laugh and cry.
• Today I heard him talking to Sarah. He told her she had a baby in her belly. That it was just an egg right now, but when she gets married it will hatch and start to grow. !!!!!!!! I guess I haven't taught that one too well. I don't really care right now, unless she gets scared.