Going back to weekly posts with phone pics

James has been writing in his journal, so I realized I needed to do the same. :) I will go back to weekly posts. It is SO much easier that way! So, what's new?

I snapped this picture of my Dad on Friday night. My mom has been in Utah all week and as I was dropping off Brianna from babysitting. He was outside on the porch swing waiting for her. Way cute huh? He knew she was about to be driving up soon and was sick of being lonely. James and I had gone to do a temple session. We've gone 3 months in a row. It seems so hard to get it all arranged and actually have it happen, but I am glad we are trying harder. At least before this baby comes.

My parents got a phone call from my brother Matt's mission president in Columbia. It turns out he has some cysts that need removed urgently and he needed to come to America for surgery. Poor guy, he's been gone a year and was loving everything. Nothing sounds worse than needing to come home for "medical reasons". He's just sure it sounds like depression- but I guess the plan is not to release him as a missionary and just let him have surgery, recover, and then go right back to Columbia. Crazy! So, he flies in tonight at 5:30 and we are all going to the airport and then a cook out out my mom's pool. I am excited to see him again!

Tommie got eaten alive by mosquitos at the first of this week. Poor guy, couldn't sleep at all- he was miserable! BUT, Dallin AND Tommie AND have Jackson have officially slept 3 nights in a row, without waking me up once. That means, I have gotten at least 7 hours of sleep for 3 nights. Man, it makes such a difference! Here's to hoping it stays that way!

I ordered a big 32 pound box of peaches from Utah this week. I had every intention to can them- but we ate them all! It has been my favorite meal, snack, dessert this week. We haven't even had smoothies or anything- just eaten them plain! Somehow they cured my heart burn for the week! :)


James worked every night this week, so we were on our own for dinners and through the evenings. I loved going to riverview's splash pad to let the kids "calm down".

I taught relief society on Sunday on kindness and love in the home. I loved being reminded the importance of not blaming others for our frustrations, and just eliminating a lot of contention in our lives. I know that I am a big mood setter in the house and sometimes exhaustion just sets in and I am quick to be cranky. But, I am trying harder to just be pleasant and it's working! :) I needed those reminders.

BE KIND- AND BE GRATEFUL THAT GOD IS KIND. IT IS A HAPPY WAY TO LIVE. ~ Elder Holland

Everyday play time

 

That brings us to the dreaded question "What do you do everyday?" Ha! Who knows? I have been trying to spend at least one hour of straight playtime with the boys. No phone, no TV, just playing. I've loved the afternoon rain storms as a chance to get outside and enjoy a little break from the heat. 

Jackson will usually pick to build some sort of gun/armor/shield/launcher out of tinker toys, connector blocks, paper, yarn, or sticks. And when we build them, we just sit and talk about whatever he wants. Boy does his mind go! Most of the time it's facts from the PBS show "Wild Kratts". I'm not sure he has ever seen a full episode because we only have the app on the iPad. But, he's full of knowledge "blue dasher dragonflies can fly up down, right or left." "Only male praying mantis can fly- the girls are too big and can't." "Locusts live under ground as a beetle for 18 years". Most of the time I am fascinated by what his mind retains.  He also has been a great brother to Tommie and Dallin lately. Sometimes he is the only one that can get them to stop crying. 

Tommie will pick to wrestle or squirt things with water. More like dump water on things. So many times he fills up cups and just dumps them on the couch, carpet, etc. Talk about annoying! :) But, he's sneaky about it, so you have to watch him. I bought him a cheap little plastic pool and he'll spend hours just filling it up, cup of water at a time. He talks non stop now. He loves to ask Jackson "you ride the bus?" I counted 20 times he asked that at dinner yesterday. Poor jackson! But, he is obsessed with seeing Jackson get on and off the bus, though he gets scared to death if the driver talks to him. One day, he got all dressed up in pants, shoes and socks (franklins rule), grabbed his own water bottle. And when the bus came, he thought he could just get on with Jackson. It was so sad when he realized he couldn't. Total melt down. Not anger, just sheer sadness. He also says "thank you" for everything- "excuse me" to any burp or anyone else's noises (sneezes, coughs, etc.). He will say it over and over until you acknowledge him.  

Tommie is also incredibly sensitive. I can tell it is a gift he has. One day at the grocery store, the man in front of us was incredibly rude and cranky. He kept cussing at the clerk, throwing things in his cart, just complaining of everything. I watched little Tommie stare at him and say "Hi" over and over. I kept trying to shush him, but he kept getting louder and louder. The man finally looked over and said "What?" Tommie said again "Hi!" Still no response so Tommie keeps repeating it. The man says to me "Can't you make him shut up?" and I said "well actually, he just wants you to say hi back". "Fine, "the man says, "hi" , tommie stops yelling, and then he pushes his cart off. When I exited the store, the man was there waiting. He apologized for his language in front of such sweet kids and said that Tommie's smile had "changed him".  Little stories like this actually happen a lot. 

Dallin is a new boy. He can crawl "normally" now. His "frog-leg-army-crawl" only lasted a few weeks and I never got it on video. I wish I would have because it was so unique. He really is a horrible sleeper some nights, just wanting to sleep with me holding him- standing up. It's miserable. But, other nights, he'll catch back up and sleep 12 hours in a row. When Dallin is feeling good, and sleeps good, he is the happiest. Still he just calms me down so many times. His hair is crazy and won't be tamed, funny how it sticks straight up in the back. But, we love his little toothy grin and how  his eyes can't stay open when he laughs (sound like anyone? -james). I still think he looks the most like James. He totally enjoys eating and is so loud at smacking his food. He fights tommie for binkys (ya, i know, tommie is way too old- i can't even count the number of times I said we'd quit it and then buy more :) ).  Dallin will quietly crawl over and steal them out of tommie's mouth and crawl away so fast. It gets us all laughing.  He is happiest when I let him outside, to roam free, eat rocks, and play in water.

It's official- Jackson started kindergarten!

Well, Franklin West elementary it is, for afternoon kindergarten! He loves it! The bus picks him up and drops him off down the street. I think it is the perfect amount of time for him to be gone and he is just so in to everything he learns. I get full out reports everyday. "Trevor can draw the world's best bananas." "Thrasher got in trouble. Mrs. Jankunas told him 'that's it. You are not listening today." "You have to wear a medal to go to the bathroom, and i got to wear it today!" My favorite story so far is when he told me on sunday, during the sacrament, that jesus is invisible. I was still thinking about that when he said he learned it at school. "Really?" I asked. Jax: "Yes, every day we stand and say 'one nation, under God, invisible...' and I said 'Mrs. Janukunas, is God Jesus?' she said 'sure'. So that means that Jesus is invisible." Ha! I got a really good laugh out of that.

Another day, he didn't get off the bus with Kate and Eliza. He is ALWAYS first, as in runs past everyone else. Turns out he had fallen asleep and Kate had to wake him up! Poor guy, he just gets so excited he wears himself out. I have to teach him how to relax at night. To lay in bed without kicking and going crazy and talking about school.

James' fathers blessing before school reminded him that he learns easily and can be a good influence on his friends. He was promised that he can learn how to choose the right and that school will be very easy for him. So far, it's true! He's lucky to have so many cousins and friends in the same class too.

And no, I did not cry when he left. If it was all day, maybe, but he seemed so excited and I am just totally loving my afternoons lately. I can take a nap and have a little bit of time to myself while Dallin and Tommie sleep. I need it!

Saying goodbye to Grandma Mish

Today was my great grandma Mae Mish's funeral. She was 94 years old. I sang with all her girl granddaughters at the funeral. I feel so lucky to have gotten to know my great grandma all these years. I used to go to her house after elementary school, and just visit and do puzzles. She used to recommend books for me to read, even though I thought a lot of them were boring, and then she'd ask me what i learned. She crocheted me beautiful things and stayed up late every night to watch Jay Leno. As she's gotten sick over the past few years, it's been neat to see that she kept her spunk and sense of humor, even though she didn't always know what was going on around her.

I loved taking Dallin to see her when dallin was just a tiny baby. She sat there staring at him and so amazed that she was so old!

I learned a lot at her funeral. I never knew she was so dirt poor for most of her life. I never recognized that she didn't go to church for 30 years because of social anxiety. I had not stopped to contemplate how hard it was to be married to an alcoholic and still be so supportive in their marriage.  I thought about all those years I saw her caring for my dying great grandpa and how unselfish she was after all she had been through with him.

I loved my great grandma. I feel blessed that my kids even got a few years with their great-great grandma!

Think you are having a crappy day??

So, awhile back, admist all our other problems, we discovered another wall with mold. This time it was from a leak in the guest bathroom. Well, by leak, I mean somehow when the shower was on, it was leaking out the baseboard. (And by somehow, I mean, I think spencer forgot to put the curtain inside the shower when he used that bathroom while the other one was under construction! :) ) ANYWAYS, we started another wall demolition and forked out more cash.  James' car was making noise again (found out it needed ANOTHER new engine...), and the A/C in the house went out. Tommie dropped my cell phone in the bathtub- totally ruining it.  On top of that, we had bought Becca's Yukon- loved it for a week, then found out it needed new repairs and had to quit driving that as well. We went to get the truck ready for Wilford to come and it needed SEVERAL repairs as well. Basically, we were feeling REALLY poor. There was no way to keep making payments on our medical bills, pay for the usual, and fix all our problems. I really just felt I was having a bad week. Make that a bad few months. You know how things seem worse and you just start getting angry at everything?  I was depressed and discouraged and James was just stressed and therefore, cranky. Well that day, the kids seemed extra whiney so I sent them all out in the back yard and cleaned my room really good. As in I organized every closet, drawer, under the bed, everything.  Yes, I always start with my room. I then moved on to the kids room. By that time, the kids had had it, were pounding on the doors to come in, and I put everyone on their beds and took a shower. For maybe what? 5 minutes? I came out to find my room and bathroom like this.

Then, I saw the boys room. (Don't be fooled, they are not sleeping). 

But then, I saw the front room. 

See those purple/gray streaks? There was a bird, flying through the house. Jackson thought it was funny to turn on the fans and scare it. Then, it would poop everywhere. Those few streaks were over lots of walls, the couch, the floor, the kitchen counters, the blinds, etc. I finally started laughing really hard. Really? I thought - bird poop- right now? When I was already feeling like everything was crappy anyways? Anyways, we got the mess cleaned up and I had a change of heart. For some reason, I looked at my life different after that. 

The mess wasn't SO bad. Who cares that we will have to live with broken things for awhile? Reality is, my life is well....awesome! :) (thanks for the word choice jackson!) My kids are adorable and love me. They don't care about any of my so called "problems". And, I felt really strongly that Satan wanted me to be miserable. He wanted me to hate this stage of life and everything about it. And, I knew that a lot of those stressful feelings were a distraction away from recognizing how many blessings I have right now. And honestly, ever since then, it's been a lot better. I guess you could say I am grateful that bird flew in my house and pooped everywhere.