Sharing

It may not be a well-known fact among my brothers-in-law, who grew up in a house full of boys, but this is true: one of the nicest things about having a sister (or a few) is that you can share clothes. For example, whenever I couldn't find anything fitting to wear in my own closet, my sister (who was 2 years younger than me, but everyone thought she was the older sister, and that bugged me, and adults would tell me that someday I'd be glad to look like the younger sister, but I'm still waiting for that to be true) had a closet right next door that came in very handy during the high school years. Even as adults, we have shared our maternity wardrobes. It's a great way to get around wearing the same 2 outfits for three straight months, when it seems ridiculous to buy items you know (hope?) you'll only wear temporarily. (Let's not talk about the fact that I can still wear half my maternity wardrobe 2 months post-baby...The important thing is, I don't.)





But I digress...





The point is, brothers (who needs 'em?) do not share clothes with their sisters. I know this from personal experience: namely, the one time I tried to borrow my brother's shirt (it was flowered!), and he made me pay him ten bucks to wear it to church. (Ok, so possibly I was a sucker, but for sure, he was not a sharer. And don't you think that he should have paid me to take that thing out of his closet?! It was a floral print, remember?!)





Anyway, having 5 daughters, there has been plenty of sharing of the clothes in this household, and I'm positive there will be much more sharing in the next decade. But we hit a new level of clothes-sharing today. Katelyn can now wear my clothes. Ok, so today wasn't the first time. I have on occasion handed down a jacket or a t-shirt to Katelyn. But today, she is borrowing a swim suit from me. Yes, indeed, that is a new level.





Nevermind wanting to look like Jill's older sister. Now I have a new concern: Do I look old enough to be this girl's mother?

We're cookin'

My thermostat reads 85 degrees right now, at 8:30 pm, and that's downstairs. Yes, it feels like summer! I can't count how many people in this community I have overheard complaining about the heat. Seriously. It's the common answer to the question, "How are you today?" : "Too hot!" I guess it makes sense that people who want to live here are those who don't like the heat. They've come to the right place, most of the time.

The girls are cooking dinner again, like we did during Spring Break. It makes it so much easier to come up with a menu and grocery list each week! We plan to continue with each of the 3 older girls being assigned dinner duty once a week, throughout the summer. Hannah doesn't make the cut, because all she ever wants to make is mac-n-cheese, and they usually get that on our date night anyhow.

Date night came early this week. Doug stayed home from work Thursday, and was able to spend most of the day at the stake center with the 8- to 11-year-old girls from church, for the final day of Activity Days Camp. This is the third summer the stake has put this on, and it is a huge hit. Katelyn and Emily love it.

So anyway, since Doug was home, we had our date on Thursday night, because the weekend was booked.

Right now, for example, Doug is at the stake youth dance. (His calling is keeping him busy during the summer months!)

And Friday night he had a date with four daughters, instead of me. Doug had planned last month to take the 4 older girls camping, and Friday was the anticipated event. I forgot to remind him to take the camera, so no pictures. They also forgot pillows and blankets (just sleeping bags on the tent floor), and towels (most inconvenient at the lake after their swim). Even though they forgot a few things, it was amazing to see how loaded down the van was with the stuff that they didn't forget!

While baby Olivia and I were home alone for the night, I decided to do some shopping. (Surprised?) I also warned Doug not to call me on Saturday morning just to check in, because I planned on sleeping as long as possible! No little voices waking me up to ask for breakfast, or permission to watch t.v. or play on the computer, or to complain about a sisterly spat... Since Olivia likes to keep me guessing about how long she'll sleep between feedings, and usually still wakes every 3-4 hours, I'm not anxious to get out of bed in the mornings. Well, my plans didn't exactly work out. Olivia was ready to start her day at 7:00 this morning, so even though she went back to sleep at 8, I decided to go ahead and get some cleaning done. Yes, cleaning. Because I knew that, for at least a few hours until the troops returned home, anything I got clean would actually stay that way! (Unheard of!) So even cleaning was something I looked forward to doing during my alone time.

I know it sounds busy, but if I had to sum up the first week of summer break in one word, it would be "lazy". Because even though I am having the girls help with dinners, that doesn't really feel like work to any of us, and I haven't implemented any other summer chores for them yet. I'll admit, they've been watching plenty of t.v. and playing plenty of electronic games.

And, even though they went camping, I allowed Doug to do 95% of the work involved in getting ready for that trip, and cleaning up after it.

And, even though I have been cleaning my house, it still needs work, and I'm sitting here typing this post! On this "get-the-work-done-day", no less!

Well, if I have been lazy, I blame it on the heat. Which means that next week, I'll probably be much less lazy, because that excuse will no longer be valid.

Photographic Evidence

She smiles.

When she's not sleeping.

It's also evident that she eats well. :)

Summer Came...

...and went.

The first day of summer (which was also the first day of summer vacation, since the last day of school was Thursday) actually felt like summer! It was great! We had a Primary activity at the temple, and then a picnic at the park. The girls even pulled out the Slip&Slide when we got home. At dinner time we fired up the bbq grill.

We're so unused to the sun that I didn't even think to apply sunscreen, and we all got a bit pink (except for the baby, who was under a blanket all day long). Oops!

But we don't have to worry about our burnt cheeks getting any more red today. We're back to the "normal" weather again.

So long, summer. Hope to see you again soon!

Love Notes

I am so proud of Lauren. She has really begun to blossom, academically speaking. Here are a couple of her recent compositions:

I'm sorry

I love you Mom

You are the best

Happy Father's Day Dad

I like you

You are a nice dad

I love you

Commentary on Compliments

Today was Katelyn's celebration for finishing elementary school. The teachers recently had each student write a compliment about each of their classmates. Then each student picked 2 of the compliments they received to be read aloud at the ceremony today. I think I would have picked the compliments such as, "This was my favorite school year because you were in my class," or, "I liked sitting next to you this year, even though you got me in trouble sometimes." But it became obvious during the compliment reading that the highest compliment you can give a 5th grader is, "You are so funny! You make me laugh!" The majority of students chose that as one of their 2 picks. And sometimes it was surprising, because a lot of those students didn't look like the comedian-type to me.

For the Fathers

What made this Father's Day a happy one?





You'll notice that Doug is wearing shorts, and Olivia's wearing a summer dress. Yep, sunshine all day and open windows helped the happiness.


Naps are nice, too.


And if pictures captured scents, you would smell a really yummy dinner that was about to be served when this was snapped.

Speaking of scents, I smelled something today that reminded me of my own dad: It was grape-scented shampoo. As I was washing my daughter's hair, I was thinking about one of my earliest memories...

When I was about four years old, I burned my hand on a barbecue grill at the park. I remember my dad driving me to the store to pick up some first aid items, including burn spray, and purple bubble gum (probaly Hubba Bubba--"no trubba!"). On our way home from the store, I recall sitting in the front seat of our station wagon next to my dad (no car seat/seat belt/front seat restrictions back then) holding my burnt hand in front of the cold air vent, with the A/C on full blast, and chomping merrily on a big wad of grape bubble gum. The cold air helped the pain, but I think the grape bubble gum helped the most. Thanks, Dad!


About ten years later, there was another grape-scented memory with my dad. On special occasions and holidays, Mom always cooked delicious meals, and we always drank sparkling drinks. A family favorite was the sparkling grape juice, which came in a bottle with a cork. I remember Dad popping the cork off of that bottle so hard that it flew up and hit the ceiling, and we all laughed out loud about that. It became a family joke for the kids to hide under the table whenever Dad went to open a bottle. (Even more hysterical was my brother getting his lips stuck in an empty bottle, but that's another story.) Dad was a pretty serious guy a lot of the time, but I have plenty of memories of family laughter and fun times, which still make me smile when I think about them today. Dad made it clear that family time was special. Thanks, Dad.





One of my favorite occasions with my father-in-law took place at his house (one of the best vacation spots!) several years ago. During a family reunion, all the guys took their mom to see a movie (Lord of the Rings?), and the daughters-in-law stayed home to put the kids to bed. Once all the little ones were sleeping, we sat around the table playing games and eating chocolate chip cookies with our father-in-law. For a man who had nine sons and no daughters, this might have seemed like a threatening situation, but no--we had the best time! Thanks, Dad2!





I think there's just a special bond between fathers and daughters, and I'm so glad for my 5 girls that they have the dad they do. He's the greatest! I'm not quite sure how, but somehow I think this is what he was made to do.



P.S. Lauren asked Doug this afternoon, "Is there such a thing as 'Daughters Day'? And he told her, "Pretty much every day is Daughters Day." In our house, that's true!

Brrrr

Yes, the date printed on this picture is accurate. And yes, we still have to bundle up like this to keep warm.

Summer? What summer?

Did you get yours?

My Church magazines came in the mail today. And the afternoon was sunny, and the girls were playing outside, and the baby was sleeping. So I sat in the sunshine and read. That's what I call a priceless moment!

I read this:

Did you see it broadcast earlier this year? I loved the messages then. And I loved reading some of it again today. I love that they sent it to me with my other magazines, because even though you can listen to it here, I like having a hard copy in my house, so I can read it outside in the sunshine, or late at night in my comfy bed, and think about one of my most favorite subjects: FAMILY.

Living La Vida Loca

I'll tell you a little about my crazy life...

Recently I dropped off Lauren & Hannah for a playdate, and started driving home. About half a mile into my drive, I suddenly woke up to the fact that I was singing along with the CD that was playing in my car, "Little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his _____". Yes, it took half a mile, and actually hearing my own voice singing aloud, to realize that I could change it to a grown-up CD.

Today as we were driving home from church, I came to the realization that I was chewing gum. I could remember someone offering it to me (while I was in a conversation), but I couldn't remember who. Thankfully, Katelyn was able to tell me that she was the one. I was a little worried for a second there. (Not so much about my breath, but about my mental health.) How did it sound to my family when I suddenly blurted out, "I'm chewing gum, and I don't know where I got it!"

Maybe they figured it out before I did...the fact that I'm losing my mind. And, for the most part, I don't really mind the loss! I find it quite comical, actually!

Look into your crystal ball...

I need to know the future. Specifically, I need to know the future of airline ticket prices. More specifically, I need to know if I should buy now, or wait. We're planning to fly to a family reunion in November. My most reliable airline source for cheap tickets is currently only booking through October. Other airlines are offering tickets in November at somewhat reasonable prices, but not what I'd call a "good deal". So here's my dilemma: I need to know if ticket prices will continue to go up and up, or if I can get the good deal I'm hoping for in the near future. If I wait for cheaper tickets, I may end up having to buy more expensive tickets when those cheaper prices never come along, and I'll be mad at myself for not buying decent tickets when I could have. If I buy tickets at a higher-than-I-want-to-pay price right now, I'll probably cry if a good deal becomes available next month (because I have to look...it's like a train wreck). But even if a good deal does come along, what if the dates I want to travel are not available at that price?

What would you do?

*6/8/08 Update:
Apparently very few of your crystal balls are functioning properly. With my anxiety mounting, we bought tickets this past weekend. And I feel much more calm now!

Blessed

It's been a long day, and I'm pretty tired.

Today was my blessing day, which means I had to get all dressed up, behave myself at church (for some reason, my mom cried a lot, even though I did not!), sleep a lot, be held a lot, look really pretty, and then pose for a bunch of pictures.

(Yawn...)

I'm pooped!