Scared to Death

OK, here's the thing. I'll be 40 in a few years, and have been dreading that magical age when I get my first mammogram. I've heard stories. Anyway yesterday the government announced new recommendations about women and breast cancer, and let me tell you, as much as I dread getting a mammogram, I am scared to death of NOT getting one. They have decided that instead of women getting a mammogram every year starting at age 40, they should only get one every other year starting at age 50. Did that news strike anybody else as odd, even alarming? Something like 1 out of 8 women will get breast cancer in their lifetime, and they have been telling us for years that early detection is key. A lot of money is spent on breast cancer awareness to educate women to this fact.

So why are they suddenly telling us that we don't need to be so proactive about breast cancer now? Hello? I'm willing to bet it has everything to do with the government thinking they are taking over health care in the near future. Think about it. If they can change the standard of care now, they won't have to pay for all those silly mammograms later because that isn't the standard anymore. It is called health care rationing and it is scary business. Darn scary!

And yet so many people are out there thinking how nice it would be if health care were free. HA! It won't be nice, it will be a disaster of immense proportions. It is not government's job to be in the health care business. Our founding fathers, who were inspired from God, by the way, knew the government's job was to protect us from our enemies and then get out of our way so we could be free to prosper. We have come so far away from that idea, and the government has gotten their grubby hands into everything. Can you name any government-run program - besides the military - that the government has done right? Welfare? the mail system? Fannie and Freddie? Medicare? Social Security? How about Cash for Clunkers? Nope. Disasters all. Now they want to get get their grubby hands on my breasts. Back off!!!

When we were in France a few months ago, we listened to a lot of BBC radio and watched a lot of BBC TV, because it was in English, of course. Literally all we heard were folks calling in to complain about the government heath care. It was constant! People calling in with horrific and sad tales that they were being denied care or having to wait way too long for basic care. It was really eye-opening and really, really, really scary. I felt like we were listening to our own future (only with a British accent.) We don't hear much about this stuff across the pond, but from what I heard, heath care (or lack thereof) seems to be the biggest issue among the British people today.

Why on earth do we want to do that to our own country and dive head-first into the the cesspool that is socialized medicine when those who are already there are certainly not yelling "come on in, the water's fine"? What's the rush? The rush is that the American people might start paying attention, start asking the folks from other nations, the ones floating in the cesspool who are groping the slick sides trying desperately to pull them selves out, what government run health care is really like.

At 20% of the economy, taking over health care is the ultimate power grab by the federal government, and in the end it is not about helping people, (there are plenty of ways to help the uninsured without the government taking over everything.) Ultimately it is about power and will result in a loss of freedom (and LIVES!) - like the freedom to be proactive in my own health care and get a mammogram when I turn 40.

Oh, and did I mention that they are also recommending that women DON'T need to do self exams anymore. What? WHAT? They don't want us to find a lump and come running to them, I guess. "Research suggests" that self exams and mammograms before 50 are not worth it. Well, I bet that they were worth it to all the women who found breast cancer early and are alive today to tell about it. Just saying.

Please, please people! We need to keep our eyes open and see these things for what they really are. Lets get our voices heard and end this government takeover of our health care before it is too late.

Sorry. This isn't a political blog. This is a family blog. But then again, health care and breast cancer are not, and should not ever be, political issues. They are family issues, aren't they? Ultimately this is all about family, my family, and I am scared to death to turn their health and their lives over to the government to decide what care they should or should not receive.

There, and that concludes my rant... for now.

Calling a Time Out...

Sometimes moms just need to call a "time out!" And that's just what I did last month when Deseret Book was hosting a Time Out for Women event in Riverside. I gathered my favorite ladies with me, booked a hotel, and made a girl weekend of it. I was so excited, and I wasn't disappointed.

It is a favorite tradition that my mom, sisters, and sister-in-law, go to whatever TOFW is feasible. This time we brought some friends along. There were 8 of us in all (plus a few cutie babies that didn't give us any trouble at all!): My mom, my sister Lisa, my sis-in-law Elizabeth with sweet baby Zoe, Shea with sweet baby Isaac, Shari, Tara, and a new friend Julie. She in in the PD ward and just called me out of the blue when she heard we had a extra ticket. But she was darling, and fit right in with the gang. It is so fun to find a new friend!

The Friday evening session was wonderful! This year's theme is "Sweet Assurance," something we all need, I think. We heard from Ardath Kapp who spoke about the gift of personal revelation and how important it is that we keep the lines of communication open. She invited us to think of what course correction we might need to make to improve that line of communication, and gave some suggestions. Her first idea was simply to ask - ask the Lord to help you feel the Holy Spirit and recognize it. Easy enough.

Then Micheal McLean entertained us with some of his songs. They were really wonderful, and I loved how he told us the story behind many of his songs and how they came to him. The stories make the songs all the more meaningful. What a wonderful evening it was.

Shari treated us all to a big tray of nachos. Yumm. Not exactly your typical girl food, but I'm not complaining (there were also multiple stores of chocolate being passed among us.)

After the evening session, since nachos weren't enough to sustain us, we decided to live it up at the Old Spaghetti Factory - a regular girls' night out on the town. I had my favorite pasta with mizithra and brown butter. More yumm! And the company was better than the food.

What a fun time we all had together. I love being with all the ladies. (Somebody kept getting a hold of my camera, becasue I am actaully in some of these pictures.)

On Saturday morning Mary Ellen Edmunds was the start off speaker. She is SO funny. I always get a kick out of her. She talked about how the Lord provided us each with a "life assurance policy" and the "life assurance handbook" is the scriptures.

Following her, Jill Manning spoke on a much heavier subject as she gave us eye-opening information about the dangers of p ornography, and how we as women can fight it in our own homes and in the community. It was really good stuff that she shared with us. There is some great tools and information she left at www.deseretbook.com/jill. I was so impressed and empowered by what she said that I bought her book.

The musical performer and host for the day was Kenneth Cope. His song Gethsemane brought tears to my eyes. He was really wonderful!

Finally we heard from Emily Freeman who spoke on the topic of abundance. Using the parable of the loaves and the fishes to share some principles to help us live more abundantly: 1. Make the most with what you have to offer, 2. give all, 3. learn to be content. Abundance was the theme of Christ's life, and his example is what we must follow to find abundance.

During our lunch break we wandered through a farmer's market that was going on just outside the historic Mission Inn. We sampled, then had to buy the Italian plums, and berries, and dried apples (see, it wasn't all nachos!).

Lunch was at the most fantastic sandwich place, Simple Simon's. The place was packed, but we were wise enough to call in our order early. Very yummy!

And of course we took the "time out" on our Time Out trip to stop and smell the flowers.

And what girl weekend would be complete without stopping at a few of the fun little downtown shops? I wish we had more time to do some serious shopping, but a little bit is better than nothing.

What a wonderful weekend with family and friends, but entirely too short for me (It wasn't really a weekend, hardly 24 hours). Still, I was happy to take what time out I could get. I love all these gals.

Next year TOFW is in Phoenix. Who's gonna needs a Time Out?

Metamorphosis

I have witnessed a miracle - one a long time in coming, but amazing nonetheless.

On Monday night we went to the student-led parent conferences at the middle school (kind of a ridiculous idea to have the parents and kids have to come to the school to talk about their grades. Don't parents already do that at home? Hmmm. Maybe not.) Alex gives us his little spiel that he has prepared, shows us samples of his work, etc., and we tell him what a good boy he is and such. Then we go over to the teacher who hands us the report card. I take one look at it and burst into tears!

Alex had 3 A's and 4 A+'s!!!

That, my friends, was not the miracle. The miracle is the kid behind those grades.

I am not writing this post to brag to everyone about how brilliant my child is. Quite the opposite. You must understand that Alex has all kinds of learning disabilities and has struggled in school his whole life. It has been a VERY TOUGH row to hoe for this kid. Every year, for years, his teachers threatened to hold him back because he just couldn't perform. I wouldn't let them, though, because I believed that the problems he had would not be fixed by having him repeat a grade. In elementary school his grades were always dismal, and school was so tough for him. Those parent/teacher meetings always brought me to tears. I hated them, and needed Dennis there each time for back up.

But academics weren't his only problem. He had severe speech and behavior problems. Though he was usually a sweet kid, he would often throw horrible fits that neither I, nor he himself, could control once he got going. I never knew what would set him off. He was suspended several times for his outbreaks. I dreaded calls from the school. They were always bad news. It was really, really, really hard. He was my oldest child, yet it was always he that caused the biggest nightmares when we were in public. Imagine a 5 year old having the biggest screaming, kicking , out-of-control tantrum at the grocery store while I am trying to manage two grocery carts, a 3 year old year old and twin babies. That was my fairly common nightmare.

We spent a lot of money on speech and academic tutors and tried to find someone who could tell us what was wrong with our child and how we could help him. Once he was professionally tested and diagnosed as ADD, but I knew in my gut that that was wrong, and decided not to pursue that further. Alex just seemed to have so many different problems, and I knew that they must all be related, and if we could just figure out what that one thing was and fix it, we could solve all his problems at once. (Ya, naive thinking, I know). We fasted and prayed, and begged the Lord to help us find the right diagnosis so that we could get him the treatment he needed. I worried and stressed and cried a lot - for years and years.

Then one day in the depth of a worried, stressful, prayerful time I heard the voice of the spirit so strong tell me, "Alex will be fine. Just keep doing what you are doing." That was it. No diagnosis, no answers, no bathing in a river seven times. Just an assurance that he would be fine, and that I didn't need to worry so much. Those feelings were reconfirmed on several trips to the temple. So that was it. I stopped stressing about it so much, stopped putting unrealistic expectations on him, and learned to be happy with whatever I got from him after that. Sure, I still worried, and he still had all his difficulties, but when that happened I would always remember that assuring voice, "Alex will be fine."

And guess what? Now, on the verge of his 14th birthday, he IS fine. He is more than fine. He is one of my greatest helps, one of my greatest joys, and, frankly, the best student in the family.

You see, while I was stressed and fretting about things that frankly were very worth of fretting over, I was overlooking the little strengths in Alex' personality, that looking back now, were the strengths that he has used to pull himself up and out.

Alex always liked school, which frankly amazed me, considering all the troubles he had with it, and he always, always tried, even when he consistently tried and failed. I think most of us would have given up a lot sooner with such continued failure. Not Alex.

Another trait he had, that I didn't put enough stock in, was his determination and focus he could put on something when he decided he wanted it bad enough. I remember in kindergarten they give Super-U's for kids who do something good, that the kids could buy prizes with. Well, Alex spied some prizes that he really, really wanted to have, and figured how to work the system and get those Super-U's. He figured out just what service he could do for the teacher that earned them and was the first to do them for her. He figured out what yard duty attendants were more generous with the Super-U's, and got to know them really well. He would bring a plastic bag everyday to pick up trash in. Before long that kid had more Super-U's than he knew what to do with. He was coming home with all sorts of exciting prizes. After a while, it wasn't even about the prizes anymore. He was giving his prizes away. It was just about how many Super U's he could get in a day or total in a quarter.

Fast forward to 8th grade. The tantrums have shrunk in size and scope to a very nasty scowl, with maybe a storming away, if things are really bad, (not so very different from any teenager, I suppose.) And he still gets a little too rough with his younger siblings, (and seems to enjoy torturing them just a bit more than he should.) But over all, things have improved dramatically. Dramatically!

Alex announced this summer that he was going to get straight A's. "Good for you," I said. "Go for it." But I know how he struggles, and I wasn't expecting it would happen (though I figured he would get close.) I knew he would give it his best shot. And he did! Alex was on top of it from the first day of school - every assignment, every class. Every week he would go online and check his assignments to make sure he wasn't missing anything, ever. He regularly went to every teacher to find out what he needed to do, or re-do for more credit, or what extra credit he could do. Always. For example, one assignment in Language Arts he worked hard and got a 98% A+ on. Pretty stinking good, right? But he asked the teacher if he could re-do it, and got a 100% A+. Why? Because he realized that every single point counts. You see, Alex still really, really struggles, especially with his test taking. Usually we have to study for his tests together, taking turns reading the text book, and reviewing all the notes, and usually, with all the studying he does, he doesn't do well on this tests. He just doesn't, as hard as he tries. But he has learned that the tests aren't everything, and that he can make up for what he misses on the tests by turning in EVERY assignment, and all the extra credit he can find. He figured this all out on his own! Just like with the Super U's! (Leaving me no doubt that he will be able to do whatever it takes to provide for himself and his family one day too.)

And guess what? It worked. 3 A's and 4 A+'s. That is the best report card we have ever seen in this family (including myself, and straight A's were easy for me!)

That is why I burst out in a flood of tears (poor Alex, how embarrassing to have your mom blubbering like that at school!) when I saw that report card. I never would have believed just four years ago. The child who was once gave me some of my hardest trials, was now the source of some of my greatest joy! How on earth did that happen?

After the resource teacher gave me the report card, he asked to talk to Dennis and I alone. When Alex was out of range, he said that he didn't even know how to begin to tell us about Alex, but that in all his years teaching, he has NEVER had a student like Alex, ever. He has never had a student try so hard, be so on top of every assignment, be so polite and helpful. He said that the amazing thing about Alex is that he doesn't miss a thing, not a thing. He pays attention to every assignment, and does it exactly as assigned, before it is due. He continually talks to every teacher to make sure he is on top of things. The teacher just kept commenting on Alex's "total attention to every detail" (attention? funny, wasn't he diagnosed with ADD?). The teacher never told me what a smart kid Alex was, but what a great student he was - and there is a difference. Then again, isn't the way Alex is working things pretty darn smart? The teacher told us that if we could bottle and sell what Alex has, we'd be rich. (I told him, I'd like to bottle it and give it to my other kids.) These were not light remarks from his teacher. He meant every word. Wow. WOW!

Metamorphosis.

By the way, this week Alex also received his Life Scout advancement (which is just below Eagle Scout!) and he is only 13! He has worked just as hard on scouting as he has on his schoolwork, calling merit badge counselors himself, doing all the work, and making the arrangements. Now I have a little heart mother's pin on my lapel to prove just how hard he worked.

And just this morning I went to the 8th grade awards assembly where Alex received the 4.0 Platinum Award for his grades, along with a special Character Award for "Responsibility." The nomination from the teacher said:

Alex is an excellent example of responsibility, respect, and achievement. You set your goals and reached them! I appreciate your commitment to learning and growing as a student. I enjoy seeing you every day at school.

Metamorphosis.

If anyone would have told me this would happen years ago, I wouldn't have believed them. Then again, the Spirit did tell me, didn't he? Turns out the Spirit knew just what he was talking about after all. I should really learn to pay more attention.

Alex, I love you and am so incredibly proud of you! You are such a wonderful example to me! I want to be just like you someday. If I try, really really hard I just might!

Oceanside

This August we had a chance to spend a few days at our timeshare in the Oceanside Harbor. After a day at Legoland (earlier post), we spent the next few day at the beach. What a fun time we had!

My kids love the beach, even Luke, who doesn't venture out into the water much. But that is good, because I can't take too many pictures of the kids out in the water. Yes, my other kids were there too, but somehow I only got pictures of Caleb and Luke.

I love the sandy bum.

Our trip happened to coincide with the annual beach trip of Dennis' Aunt Marlynn and her family who were visiting from Utah. They happened to be staying at a timeshare right by ours. In fact, Dennis' mom happened to be with them, so my kids got to hang out with their grandma. Jeanette's sweet baby was just chubby-wonderful!

What a fun visit we had!

That night, Dennis and I snuck away for the best fish and chips anywhere. YUM!

On the gazebo at our resort.

The Oceanside Harbor is really beautiful, and the boys love all the boats - the marina was just out the window.

We'll be back.

Fly on the Wall

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall at our house full of boys?

These are just a few of the things I have heard myself saying recently:

"Yay! I like your poop! Good job."

"Hey, your brother's head is not a soccer ball."

"Oh, come on. That is not a belch. THIS is a belch..."

"Yes, I really can pee without a penis. No, I'm not going to show you how."

"Can't I just pull those stitches out of your head myself?"

"Do that again, and I'll give you a good spin hook kick to the head!"

"O.K. gentlemen, who put all these snails in my bathroom sink?"

"Hand over the slime, and fold your arms." (that was in sacrament meeting.)

You know how you sometimes find yourself sounding like your mother? Well, I don't ever remember my mother sounding like this. Having all boys is turning me into this creature that I don't even recognize anymore. Yikes!

Top Boyolgists Publish New Findings

Below is a post originally dated 11/9/08 that I was working on when Dylan got sick a year ago, that I never finished, and forgot all about until today, when I was looking back through my posts on Dylan's illness. It is pretty funny, and especially appropriate since Derek just had 6 stitches removed from his head yesterday. Enjoy!

Leading boyologists Dr. Rachelle VanBuskirk and her colleague Dr. Dennis VanBuskirk from the VanBuskirk Institute of Boy Studies and Rearing, in a thirteen-year study, have uncovered some interesting facts about boys and their inevitable head wounds.

Here is what this team of researchers discovered:

Fact 1: Head wounds bleed A LOT, but stop bleeding very quickly.

Fact 2: Boys' skulls are very hard.

Fact 3: Head staples are a status symbol among males ages 3 - 13.

Fact 4: Head staples should only be removed by a professional. Normal stapler removers will not work.

Fact 5: Trips to the Urgent Care and head staples can be avoided entirely by super-gluing the hairs around the head wound together to hold it closed.

*Please note. These finding apply to boys only. Not much is known about the effects of head wounds on girls, at least not to these scientists.

Drs. VanBuskirk and VanBuskirk have been studying six male subjects, ranging in age from 2 to 12, in their research faculty. "We try to study our subjects in their natural environment rather than in a lab setting," reports Dr. V. "We have provided our subjects with a trampoline, toy weapons, and ugly action figures in an effort to make them comfortable in their surroundings."

These boyologists have studied various aspects of boyology in their subjects. "This didn't start out as a study in boys and head wounds..." Dr. V explains, "we just happened to hit upon this research, or at least the boys did - but we have learned so much, and wanted to share what we have learned with the world." Among other things the Institute has studied the direct correlation of messy rooms to tardiness at school, studied the effects of 3 dozen sweaty socks in a hot car, taken readings on record decibel levels of 'indoor voices', recorded hundreds of case studies of what happens when you throw a ball in the house, clocked record speeds that a house can go from clean to a hurricane-level disaster, proven time and time again, that boys' bodies really do have weight, and that things break when boys step/climb on them, and cataloged and indexed gross bodily sounds that most boys are so adept at producing, all in an attempt to understand them better.

Drs. VanBuskirk and VanBuskirk believe that much of their research concurs with the research of their fellow boyologists at the Thatcher Institute, the Crowshaw Institute, and the well-established Broadhead Institute for Boyological Studies.

"Boys are mysterious creatures. Surprisingly, not much is really known about how their brains work, or if they work at all," Dr. V. explains.

Recently these boyologists have been trying to prove the hypothesis that, as the old saying goes, 'one boy has one brain, two boys have half a brain, and three boys have no brain at all.'

"Our studies are showing this hypothesis to be correct, and it is exciting to see what happens when we have four, five, or even six boys together. It is amazing to see how they can function without any brain activity whatsoever. This is one of the great mysteries of science, and we are coming closer everyday to solving it."

So far the Institute's boyology research has concentrated on pre-pubescent males, but they plan to expand their research into adolescent males in the next several months. "That just seems to be the right direction for us to take at this time. The mystery surrounding adolescent males is even greater than that of their younger counterparts. We are excited to see where this research takes us, and what we can learn."

Unfortunately, the Institute is badly in need of funding. "It is amazing how expensive it is to maintain these subjects, and keep them properly fed. This will be an even greater problem when we start studying adolescents in the near future. Perhaps we'll do some research on the mass quantities of food teenage boys can consume, and the health effects of an all Ramen noodle diet. The possibilities for research are endless, really."

There have been disappointments along the way. "Even after all these years of training we still haven't been able to get our subjects to aim into the toilet," acknowledges Dr. V., who also admits great difficulty in getting the subjects to brush the fur off of their teeth, or change their clothes on a daily basis. "But we still hold out high hopes that these behaviors will come in time. Our goal is to eventually produce six fully-functional adult males (though the question if there really is such a thing is debatable.) If we can accomplish this, we can count all these years of research with these subjects a major success!"

One Year Ago...

One year ago today, Dylan got unexpectedly and inexplicably sick, throwing our lives into an out-of-control tailspin for the next six months. Once the fear of losing him was finally passed (thanks to the fasting and prayers of so, so many people!) and he was on the long and rough road to recovery, his doctor promised me that in a year the whole thing would be nothing more than a very bad nightmare. It was so hard to believe at the time. But now Dylan is running around happy and perfectly healthy, and I am sleeping again (mostly) and life is good. Really, really good.

Last night we were rearranging bedrooms and under the bunk bed we found a big box of syringes and other medical supplies left over from the time that those syringes were my life - every few hours, day and night, for months on end. I cringed at the sight of them. I am so happy to report that, a year later, the doctor was right. The whole thing seems like nothing more than the most horrific nightmare.

The Lord is so very good. We have so much to be thankful for today.

I am so glad we woke up!

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! to Halloween We Go!

Guess what the VanBuskirk Clan was for Halloween? What else? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, of course. Last Halloween we realized that we could pull it off, and we all got pretty excited about it, so that is what we did this year? Isn't it perfect? What other family do you know that can do that? I knew I had six boys for a reason.

(You can't see much Nate in the picture above. He was sleeping, and ducking behind Derek. There really were seven.)

I made all the costumes. My costume was more work and took more time than all seven of their costumes combined, and I had a pattern for mine. I had to wing theirs, but I thought they all turned out great.

When I was getting dressed I put on my wig, and Nathan, that dear sweet kid, said, "You don't look like Snow White. You look more like the Wicked Stepmother... um, I mean... not your costume, but because you are so old...um I mean... that's not what I mean." Gee, thanks Nate.

Dennis was Happy (of course he was happy; he is married to Snow White!) I wish he could have been the handsome prince who comes to kiss me to wake me from my spell, but since we only had 6 boys, he got to be Happy instead.

Alex was Grumpy. He has had a lot of practice with the teenager glare that works as good as any look for Grumpy.

Nate was Sleepy. Try as I might, I couldn't get him to rouse for even one picture.

Derek got to be Doc by default, since he was the one with the glasses.

Dylan is Bashful - NOT!

Caleb was Sneezy, but I'm thinking it might just have been hay fever from the scalped lawns. Ah-choo!

And of course, Luke was Dopey (but he called himself Doopy.) He was the cutest little Dopey dancing around and being silly in his floppy big outfit. So CUTE!

Here they are, my Seven Dwarfs! Lucky, lucky Snow White! Who needs a prince when you have Seven Dwarfs like these guys?

Hope you had a Happy(and Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey) Halloween, Doc!

Cabes!

Dear Caleb,

Happy, happy birthday sweet boy!  I am in complete denial that you are already six.  SIX!  When did that happen?

I remember the day you were born.  Boy, that was a tough day.  Hard, hard, hard!  But in the end I got you, and it was all worth it!  When I was pregnant with you I did not know if I was going to have a boy or girl, but I'm sure you can guess that I wanted a girl really bad.  I prayed and prayed that when you were born, if you were a boy, that I would not be resentful or sad to have another boy.  Well, I knew the Lord heard my prayers because the moment I first saw your sweet little face and held all nearly 11 pounds of you in my arms, I was absolutely and completely smitten!   SMITTEN!   I knew I didn't want any girl - I wanted you!- That huge warm creamy chunk of a baby!   I was MADLY in love with that sweet baby in my arms - Caleb Bryce!  

I still am!

Smitten.

You look like your father, which is a great thing, because I love that man!  Lucky you.  But unlike your father, you have the deepest big brown eyes I have ever seen, that look so striking against your bright blond hair.  But it is your smile, Caleb, you terrific wide grin that really pulls at my heart strings.  What a grin!  Especially now with that big grown up tooth right in front, right next to it's neighbor baby tooth which is just dangling there, hanging on for dear life.  That is you Caleb - just like your teeth, half grown up and half baby boy, and I want the baby part to hang on for dear life.  But that baby tooth will fall out in just days, and you are already well on your way to being a big kid. (A BIG big kid!)

But as much as I want you to be my Cabey Baby forever, at the same time I LOVE watching you grow and grow.  You are learning and trying so many new things.  You are reading and writing, learning taekwando and piano, and you LOVE it all and just soak it all in.  I am amazed at how much you want to learn new things, and better yet, you like to try new things.  You are definitely a hands-on kind of learner.  You watch EVERYTHING I do, whether it is art, stamping, cooking... everything.  Then you HAVE to try it yourself.  You can't help yourself.  And you usually do a great job with whatever it is.  You are going to be quite handy, and artistic!  Super artistic.  You can't NOT doodle all over your homework and every scrap of paper you can find.

I love how you thrust your lips forward instead of purse them when you want to kiss me.  I love how you always say "Loud to (allowed to)" instead of  "can", as in "I'm loud to snap my fingers" meaning "I can snap my fingers."  And you certainly CAN snap your fingers.  You have really been practicing, and are the best snapper in the whole family!  You have also really been practicing writing your name in cursive, ever since you decided on your own that you needed a signature.  I've no doubt your signature will be valuable one day, so it is a good thing that you start practicing it now.  

I love that you still love your blankie, even if you have worn out two of them to shreds and are on your third.  You love robots, and building incredible things with your legos.  You have a fantastic imagination, and spend a lot of time thinking.  "You know what, Mom,..." you always say, then invite me into that wonderful world of your imagination.  You can be dead serious about silly things, and purely silly about serious things.  But you are never dull and always a joy to have around.

Sweet Caleb!  I love you so much!  I love just who you are right now on your very first day of being six!  I remember how excited I was to turn six, because in my head, it meant I was growing up.  Well, Cabes, just don't be yanking on that dangling baby tooth today.  Soon enough, sweet boy.  Soon enough.  Give your Mama a few more days before growing up, OK?  Just a few more days!

I love you!

Love, Mom

Lego My Legos!

Back in August we spent a weekend in Oceanside, which included a trip to Legoland.  Now, you must know that Legoland is not my favorite place in the world, but the twins won some two-for-one tickets at school, so we had to go.  It normally costs as much as Disneyland, but at half the price it was doable.  We had fun.

There was a long line at the new adventure ride, and we were in the very back when a pair of lego prize patrol folks came up to us and asked us a Lego trivia question.  Q: What to you call a single Lego piece? A: A Lego brick.  Correct.  We all got to go to the front of the line!  Nice.  I'm liking Legoland a bit more already.  

Luke and Caleb were so excited to really drive and get their own driver's licenses.  They talked about it all day!

A race to the top.  That was a LOT of work.  Whew!

Nate, Dylan, Caleb and I faced off against Dennis, Alex, Derek and Luke in  the fireman race.  The competition was flaming hot, but in the end our team got hosed!

We all got soaked on the pirate ship.

Sir Luke and Sir Caleb rode their royal steeds through the countryside.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

3D glasses are cool, Dude!

King Tut loves his mummy.

NYC, Mt. Rushmore, the Taj Mahal, and a little sneak peak at the Eiffel Tower, just weeks before we saw the real thing.  Nice, but the original was better.

Some of our favorite lego characters.  Dennis got a bit jealous over the way I was cuddling next to Indiana Jones.

Before we left, there was a contest to guess how many legos were in a Volvo - the prize was a new car.  He took over an HOUR counting, measuring, and doing the math while the boys ran in and out of the gift shop with serial numbers and brick counts on little slips of paper.  They had quite a system!.  But he was satisfied in the end that he had the exact number.  If he wins, they would certainly have earned it.  We'll see...

Overall we had a fun day.  I got my fill of  stuff made from plastic bricks to last me a long, long, long time.

We ended the day at the Claim Jumper.  This family of 8 loves their generous portions, even on the kids meals.  While we waited, the guys played checkers and Nathan learned that he is a hunk of BURNING love.  Good to know.