One Little Monkey Jumping On The Bed

Ethan has been having a heck of a time going to sleep lately. He's up and down, and bouncing around his bed. He's making it difficult to get Marcus to sleep, and a couple of times he's even woken Marcus up after he's fallen asleep. He hollers for a book or a toy or to be tucked in again after I've gone down the stairs and settled into the computer chair to talk to Brian. He says he needs to "oh ooh a bashroom" even though he's not potty trained, and there's been a couple of times that I've found him in the bathroom, dancing around, naked. Then he gets mad at me when I try to put him back in bed.

About a week ago, when he got in trouble for something really bad (although I don't remember what it was) and I said, "Ethan Daniel Jacks..." he said, "I not Ethan El Acks. I just Ethan, Mommy."

But tonight, when I said, "Ethan Daniel Jacks, you had better get back up to bed right now," he knew exactly who I was talking to.

Open Up Your Mind And See Like Me

We're almost done. Next week is Brian's last week of Rotations. His last week of school - ever. Our last week of being apart. When we embarked on this journey, I didn't think that it would be as hard as it was, or that I would grow so much. Doing everything on my own - the day to day, teaching Marcus how to sleep through the night (which he's doing for the most part now, yea!), dealing with Alyssa's struggles in school - it's all taught me to be calm, patient, and understanding. It's taught me to trust in the Lord and to rely on Him while still maintaining confidence in myself to do the things that I believe will bring our little family happiness. I have grown in so many ways over the last nine months. While I'm thankful for all the experiences and wonderful "growth opportunities" this last year of school has given me, I still don't ever want to do it again!

Marcus is starting to talk. He can say a lot of little things (Mama, Daddy, Lassa, cat, wata, etc) and he repeats a lot of things I say, like this morning when Ethan sneezed, I said "Bless you," and Marcus said "Ess-oo." He's growing up so fast, but he's still at the point where he wants to say so much more than he is capable of saying. This morning he woke up perfectly happy, but when I set him at the table for breakfast, there was something he wanted that he couldn't communicate to me, so we spent the next twenty minutes with him crying and screaming at me and me trying to figure out what he wanted. Not a whole lot of fun for either of us. When Brian called on his way to work, he tried to help over the phone.

"Can you sit with him on your lap and have him eat breakfast there?" Yes, and it worked somewhat, but once I sat down, Ethan needed a refill of orange juice. It's not easy for a mom of little kids to sit down for any reason - someone always needs something.* I was able to get Marcus to settle down enough to eat some of his breakfast, but then when he got down he was angry again. I pulled him on my lap while I checked everyone's blogs while Alyssa and Ethan were finishing breakfast, and luckily he heard the music on Heather's blog. He started dancing to Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours."

I had to remind myself once again, like I've had to do so many times over the last several months, that sometimes I need to slow down and take the time to hold and love my children and just be with them. So we had a dance party to Heather's playlist, and even though I had to kick stuffed animals and discarded pajamas out of the way so none of us tripped while dancing, we had a fabulous time.

*It's taken about an hour to write this post, because of all the interruptions.

For the Literary Minded

My niece, Megan, is hosting a Passalong Story on her blog.  Everyone's taking turns adding a sentence or two, so if you want to have a say in the story "The Princess and the Pea," head over to Small Adventures and add a comment to the story.  Megan would be thrilled to have some extra authors visit her blog.

The Good Old Days

Last week I finally got around to developing a bunch of rolls of film that I have been carting around for years. It was so fun to be surprised by the pictures that were on each roll. I was hoping that one of them would be the engagement pictures that my friend Katie took of me and Brian, but I didn't find any of those. I apologize for any and all bad lighting, funny colors, and unexpected effects. I am not a fabulous photographer, and the film was really, really old.

First off, we'll start with pictures from the band/choir trip to San Francisco.

Guess where this one was taken....(hint: Read the crab)

Brooke Harker, Bridget Esterhuizen, and Daniel Francik

I think this was at Alcatraz.

Sshhh....They're sleeping. (It's Bridget and Brooke, by the way.)

Brooke, I think you look absolutely gorgeous in this picture.

Moving on to my freshman year of college at BYU:

This is my room. It's got a countdown Kissmas tree, a picture of my friends and I at high school graduation (purple paper), a picture of David Duchovny ('cause that was during my X-Files phase), a paper doll set that I'll explain in a minute, a Jesus collage, drawings of my family that I had to do for my American Sign language class, pictures from my high school summer job, and the foil thing by the plant I'd like to have Jamie explain, becasue I can't remember what that was for. Kay, so the paper dolls were the way a guy answered me when I asked him to Preference. Katie Bleazard and I put on tons of layers of clothes all the way up to our rain coats, which we could barely button because they were so stuffed. On each layer of clothes I taped a word from the sentence "Let's take off to Preference," and we danced and jumped around to fabulous music while taking off our clothes. It's called a strip-o-gram, I know. Looking back on it, and knowing what I do now as a sensible adult, we probably shouldn't have done it, but it was all meant in good fun. The last layer was shorts and a t-shirt, and we were just jumping around - it wasn't meant to be sexy in any way at all. If any of my children or grandchildren are reading this, let it be known that I will not condone any such behavior from you. Anyway, he answered by doing the same with a paper doll that wsa actually and truly named Carrie. I have no idea how he found it, but I thought it was very cool. Um, moving on.


These are my roommates from first semester. (I moved in with one of my best friends after Christmas.) Sara, Janette, and...Man, I'm completely blanking on the last one. I have no idea why I don't remember her name right now. I'll fix it when I remember. It's seriously on the tip of my brain.


Okay, this is Katie Bleazard, Jamie Thompson, Wendi Andelin, Bridget Esterhuizen, with Kara Bleazard sprawled out on Katie and Jamie. Bridget went to school in Wisconsin, and she came to visit us a couple of times, and apparently we ate ice cream. This was taken in the kitchen of Jamie's apartment.


Katie, busting some serious moves, with Melissa Mason laughing in the background. Okay, do you see the hanging paper with the big pink "h" thing on it? Katie made a bunch of funky shapes to help decorate all of our rooms. I wonder if I still have mine somwhere?

This is Jessica, after she got a job as a custodian. (A lot of us became custodians after that. I figured if Jess was cool enough to do it, anybody was, and it was so fun.) The toilet papering job and sign was done by Jamie and probably Melissa, too. The signs read, "Clean up this mess, Janitor Jess," and "Wee luv yew Jhes-say-kuh."


Jamie, modeling my bed.


This is everyone from my apartment second semester. Melissa, Jamie, Shannon, Me, Jennifer, and Jessica.


VerDonn, Katie, Me, Shared
Katie's wearing one of my dresses, and I'm wearing one of hers. The purple one is the bridesmaid dress from my brother's wedding. I had so many friends borrow that one. (You picked well, Tallia!)


A different dance. Me, Katie, Melissa, and Jamie.


This was Jamie's boyfriend, Brad. There was one time that Jamie planned a romantic dinner in the basement of our apartment complex, and I was in charge of cooking Brad's steak. The only problem was that I had no idea whatsoever how to cook a streak, and, man, if that poor cow wasn't dead before I got to it, it sure as heck was by the time I was through. That thing was cooked thoroughly and pressed so that any juices it had were completely drained. Now that I know what makes a good steak, I really feel sorry for what Brad had to eat that night.

My Oh So Famous Husband

I was looking through the catalog of classes offered by the city of Richland's Parks and Recreation department this afteroon, when Brian called saying he was getting off of work at the hospital. We've been talking about taking a class together when he moves back home, and before we hung up, I told Brian that I would look into it further before we talked again tonight. So I got online and went to the website listed in the catalog, and immediately called out in wonderment and surprise.

You see, on this website there are rotating pictures on the home page, so that each time you visit or refresh the page, you are greeted with a beautiful, large picture of something in the city of Richland. And when I pulled up the website, staring at me was a picture of Brian, at about fourteen years old, fishing with his dog, Tally. We have a blown up copy of it that was hanging in the boys' room of our Forest Grove house, but we haven't yet hung it up since moving here. I tried to copy and paste it from the website to put it on here, but it wont let me. But if you really want to see it, go here, and just keep clicking "refresh" until you find it.

The story behind the picture is that a friend of Brian's family needed a picture for a brochure for Hanford showing how clean the water was, and they asked Brian to pose for it. He brought along his dog, and the photographer tried a number of different poses but none seemed to be working, so Brian said, "Let me show you what we usually do," and Tally laid down, Brian leaned up against her, and the shot turned out beautifully.

Iwas just surprised that it would end up on the city's website, but most of all that out of all the pictures they have as options, that it would be the very first to be pulled up for me when I checked it today.

Absolute Beautiful Day

Today was gorgeous - absolutely gorgeous outside. The sun was shining, it was nice and warm. We had a great day. We spent the morning building houses and puppies out of blocks. (The puppies were Ethan's idea and design. They were cute.) We also spent the morning cleaning...after Ethan decided to do some business in the dressing room upstairs. And Marcus, being the competitive soul that he is, had to upstage his older brother by taking off his diaper and rubbing the contents of said diaper (and his bum) on the couch. That was fun.

After we took Alyssa to school, we dropped off her registration forms at the Mid-Columbia Parent Partnership in Kennewick, where Alyssa will (kind of) be going to school next year. We've officially decided to homeschool, and that was the first real step in making that happen. MCP is a program that offers classes and activities twp or three days a week to suplement homeschoolers and give them a chance for social opportunities. They have art classes, acting classes, science, Spanish, and a ton of other fun things. We're really excited about it.

We spent the next couple of hours trying to find sandals for the kids, and we found a lot of cute ones, but not in the right sizes.

Then we picked up Alyssa and headed to Christina's house so the kids could play in the sprinklers with their cousins. We had a wonderful time. Everyone got wet and muddy, there were very few arguments, and everyone was happy most of the time.

A New Adventure

We might be a little slow on this, but Alyssa just got her first pair of lace up shoes, and she's learning to tie them. Make an X, put one over and through, pull. Make a tree, send the bunny around and through the hole, pull. That's it, right? I'm afraid that I'll ruin this important childhood milestone by doing something wrong. It's crazy to think that she's growing up and learning new things. She still needs to learn to ride a bike, even though she's gotten extremely good at her scooter. I'm thinking of starting her with piano lessons this summer, and she's definitely excited for ballet in the fall.

You Want To Be Sick At My House

A little while ago I went to Costco and was really tempted to buy an All American Chocolate Cake for no reason at all. Being the practical* person that I am, I didn't buy it, but I ended up wishing that I had bought it the entire drive home. A little less of a while ago, I went to Costco again, and the first thing I did was head back to the bakery section a plop a huge chocolate cake in my cart. Then I added toilet paper and napkins and some other boring stuff. Even though I shared the cake with my family, I ended up eating so much of it over the next few days that I became absolutely sick of chocolate cake. I know, I didn't think it was possible, either. So I wrapped up the last piece of cake and put it in the freezer for a later date, telling myself that I would only eat it if it was truly necessary, and I did a good job of leaving it alone.

Yesterday Alyssa woke up not feeling well, so we kept her home from school and she and the boys watched movies all day long. Around lunch time, my stomach started hurting, too, and my head began to ache. So while Brian was getting showered and packed to head to Portland, Marcus and I went to Blockbuster to get some movies for a Sick People's Movie Party.

We got "Tale of Despereaux," "Bedtime Stories,"and "Penelope," and we watched the first two after we sent Brian on his way for the very last round of Boards, which he is taking right now, as I type, and I'm sure he's doing fabulous. We pulled Alyssa's mattress downstairs for the kids to lay on, but it just became a trampoline for the boys to jump on. We got out some crackers and graham cracker type cookies to eat, but they just became confetti for the boys to scatter about the room.

It was a little crazy with the boys climbing all over Alyssa and me, and jumping from the couch to the mattress, and back again, but overall it was a great time, and we loved both movies. I didn't know anything about "Tale of Despereaux" so I didn't have any preconcieved notions about it, but I thought it was so much better than I thought it was going to be. If that makes any sense. And my favorite part of "Bedtime Stories" is the line "...jumping up and down on the aligator..." - so funny. I laughed so hard, and it hurt my already sore throat.

Anyway, Alyssa and I were going to watch "Penelope" for Girls Night, but she fell asleep while I was getting the boys in bed, so I watched it myself while eating the huge piece of All American Chocolate Cake from the freezer. That was a good movie, such a good movie. I loved it. I want to dress like Penelope. Then Alyssa woke up around midnight to go to the bathroom, and she started heading downstairs for Girls Night.

"Alyssa, where are you going?" I asked, directing her back to her bedroom.

"To Girls Night. The boys are asleep."

"But you fell asleep, too. We missed Girls Night. We'll have it tomorrow."

"I didn't fall asleep," she argued, and no matter how I tried to convince her, she didn't believe me. I was able to get her back to bed, though, and then I went to bed myself.

We're all feeling better today. I still have a headache and sore throat, but it's manageable, and Alyssa seems to be feeling fine. The kids have already watched "Bedtime Stories" twice this morning while I've been getting some laundry done. (jumping up and down on the alligator - ha!) Brian's got about an hour left of his test, and then he has nothing to worry about when it comes to school and tests. Woo-hoo!


*If you want to know how practical I am, ask Brian how many times he's had to tell me, "We don't have to go to Disneyland every year," over the last couple of weeks.

The Final Countdown

For Family Home Evening last night the kids and I made a countdown chain until the time that Brian will be home for good. It's not too far away! This Friday is his very last ever test for Boards, and then he's only got three weeks after that until this rotation is over. Yea!

Early Easter

This year Brian and I decided to start a new tradition of having the Easter Bunny visit our house the Saturday before Easter, instead of on Easter. That way we can enjoy the baskets and egg hunt without having to worry about working it around getting to church, and it helps to have the sugar rush on Saturday instead of right in the middle of sacrament meeting, and the biggest thing is that we can do the "fun" stuff early and focus on the Savior on Easter.

We had the Simms and a couple of neighbor boys over for dinner last night. Alyssa invited the neighbor boys over. When we were trying to send them home so we could eat, Alyssa came to me and said, "But I told them to ask their mom if they could eat with us." Okay. It was a lot of fun, and it was helpful to have the neighbors with us, becasue they became good friends with the Simms son, Justin, who was worried that he wouldn't have any fun since he would be the oldest kid there. Brian won Settlers of Catan, like he always does, and it was really late when we put the kids to bed. Brian and I were both really tired, so we didn't do anything to set up Easter before we went to bed.

But when the kids sleep in, the cat usually wakes me up, so when she started licking my hand and wanting me to fill her water bowl, I went downstairs to put the baskets together. Brian was in charge of keeping the kids upstairs if they woke up, because I was worried that it might ruin the mystery of the Easter Bunny for Alyssa if Brian was keeping everyone upstairs and then all of a sudden I come up and announce that the Easter Bunny had come "some time during the night." She's getting smarter, and it won't be long before she'll figure things like that out. So the whole time that I was dumping jelly beans into the plastic eggs, and filling cake decorating bags with Cheetos, I kept praying that the kids would sleep long enough for me to set the baskets out and hide the eggs. But when I finished everything and went back to bed, the kids stayed sleeping for a while longer.

"Why won't they wake up?" I kept asking Brian.

"Because you want them to," he would say.

Eventually we ended up with everyone in bed with us, and when we were headed down for "breakfast" Ethan was the first one to bounce down the stairs. He came back up with a large purple egg in his hand and said, "An Over Egg, Mommy." And the hunt began.

I can not acurately say how wonderful it is to be a parent and watch the joy in your chldren's eyes when they're discovering the treasures in their easter baskets, and when thet're surprised at all the amazing places the Easter Bunny hid the eggs. I love having children; they're so much fun, and it's so amazing to live the magic of Holidays again through them.

So right now Marcus is sprinkling the milk from his sippy cup all over his tray of Cheetos, Ethan is buzzing a chocolate bee around the room, and Alyssa is giving us a play by play of all the wrong things Marcus is doing. We decided to let the kids have a candy breakfast, and then we'll have a healthy breakfast for lunch.

It's been a wonderful Easter so far, and we still have great things to come.