What a nutty week

On September 18, Hawk's grandmother passed away in her sleep. She had a stroke at the beginning of the month, and it was looking like she'd pull through, but alas. The whole family flew in from North Carolina last week and the funeral was on Friday. It was crazy - lots of time spent driving, cleaning, cleaning, driving, socializing, and also driving.

Sparrow did really well at the funeral. He was quiet for the whole service. I didn't take him to the actual burial though, visions of toddlers jumping into open graves and playing leapfrog over tombstones dancing in my head and all. It was nice to be able to see Hawk's family again - some of his siblings we haven't seen since our wedding almost 4 years ago. We got some good family pictures too.

Yesterday for our Family Home Evening, I read The Family: A Proclamation to the World to Hawk and Sparrow. Then we sang "Families are Forever." Then we visited the dinosaur museum. I could probably figure out some way to tie that in, but I'm not even going to try. Instead, enjoy some pictures and a little surprise video that Sparrow prepared for you.



Hawk's siblings and parents.



Three generations. And clearly, Sparrow's life is about to end. Oh the tragedy of being two.



(Psst. You should still go check out my two new friends at their awesome blogs.)

The greatest mission is motherhood.

So let's be honest, there are days when family life is a pain in the butt.

And then there are days when it's the best thing ever. It's kind of like ...life... with bipolar disorder. Hey, I'm a genius.

So, the other day, as I was browsing random blogs, I came across Tale of Our Quest. One of her first entries is about this book she read in college, called "Strengthening Our Families." It's a textbook that basically digs deep into The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and gives ideas for how to really accept the principles and teach them to your family.

Basically, it's incredible. I have renewed it from the library twice and I'm really hoping to get a copy for my birthday in (yikes) a month. As I've read it, I've tried to share the things I am learning with Hawk. We don't talk as much as I would like to about this kind of thing, and this book has kind of been a no-pressure, non-threatening, non-pushy way to talk about church and our family and how we want to do things in our home.

And you know, I just really love the Proclamation. It came out when I was 8, and I kind of made it through my entire youth without ever really noticing it, but since I've become a wife and mother it's been a comfort and a guide in my life.

My mom, upon finding out she was pregnant with me, was talking to her stake president one day and expressed her regret that she wasn't able to serve an LDS mission. The stake president told her, "Anna, the greatest mission is the mission of motherhood." I'm grateful for that wise old guy. I've regretted my decision to get married instead of serving a mission, and whenever those thoughts arise, those words soothe my restless soul.

Anyway, here is the link for the Family Proclamation. You should read it - it only takes about 3 minutes, and it's worth a glance at least.

Here's a couple of great blogs that are having a month-long celebration of the Proclamation.

Round Two

Remember how in March we did battle with the fire alarms?

Last night we battled again. And this time, WE were victorious.

This time, when the beeping started, I happened to stare for a moment at the fire alarm in our hallway. It was blinking green, green, red. I checked the alarm in our bedroom. Green, green, green. AH HA. So we ripped the hallway one off the ceiling and waited. Sure enough, it beeped. But it's the only one that beeped. So we took the battery out and flung the fire alarm into the closet under a pile of clothes, where it sits awaiting fresh batteries.

There were no more incidents. Booyah.

Although I still don't understand why the darn things insist on going off at 3 in the morning.

Greeting cards

Today I was searching for a few greeting cards for upcoming birthdays. I wanted something funny, awesome, and appropriate for the vast (vast, VAST!) age ranges I was buying cards for.

I am shocked and appalled at the downright disgusting images and jokes I read in the search for a decent card. As I looked for a good card to send my dad, I was able to scan most of the cards just on the outside and could tell how nasty and inappropriate it was. On one card, there was a cartoon of a naked woman ON THE OUTSIDE of the card! In plain sight, where my son and any other person walking by could see it.

I had no idea that people thought bathroom humor was an appropriate message to send someone on the day of their birth. One of the cards I saw started out nicely saying "Thanks Dad for the things you taught us," and then followed up with three or four nasty jokes and horrible accompanying drawings. It seemed that if the card-receiver was over the age of 10, the greeting card industry has no problem with cards with curse words, gross out humor, and in some instances pornography.

This is disgusting and I am really disappointed. Who makes up this stuff? Who writes these things and why are we buying them? I can only assume people do buy cards like this, judging from the amount of wading through crap I had to do today.

In the end I was able to find two cards that I felt expressed what I wanted to say in a tasteful manner. I honestly felt sick after leaving the store, knowing that some of those words and images are going to be stored in my brain forever. Yuck. A thought that just came to me is that I still supported the "bad guys" card people, just from buying cards that come from their company. Well, no more. I refuse to patronize businesses like this.

Shame on you, greeting card industry.

(I would tell you which company was the worst at this, but I don't want to stir up any interest in their products.)

Why I am not ready

I can't leave this little booger!




Isn't he handsome in his new church clothes?


Here's the handsome beastie in time-out.


This is my mom, Toby's Nana. She just graduated with her doctorate. We are so impressed and proud of Dr. Nana! (Isn't she beautiful? She looks like she's 20. People are always shocked that she's a grandma.)


It's my EYE!


See? I am much too immature to go to college right now :)

New plans, again

Remember how excited I was about going back to school?

I dropped out.

It's actually been a long slow process. In May I started getting nervous and feeling less than great about going back. In July, my dad got a new job. He had been working at BYU, so I was going to get half-tuition. Tuition still isn't very much compared to normal schools (it's around $2K a semester) but it made me even more nervous. So I dropped my classes down to 2 credits.

See, I had been really worried about leaving Sparrow at day care. An uncle was going to be taking Sparrow and while he would get to interact with his two cousins aged 3 and 4 and he would likely learn Spanish as they are Spanish-speaking, I wasn't comfortable with the idea of Sparrow becoming...well, like other kids. I mean, he's already hyper enough, he already screams enough, and I don't really want to have him scream all the time because during day care time he has to compete for attention. That probably doesn't make sense, but trust me. There was a huge difference in my voice volume and my siblings' when I was growing up - and I was not a day care kid.

Then money got a little tighter. And I visited a few pre-schools and didn't like what I saw. And the pre-schools I do approve of require the child to be 3+ and/or potty trained. And a few of the schools cost more than my tuition would have, which just ain't gonna fly. And I just kept feeling worse and worse about it.

So I dropped out. I'm a little bummed, let's be honest here. I had really looked forward to going back, and I was excited, and I even bought a new back pack and a few supplies so that was really exciting. Now the plan is to wait until next fall, when Sparrow will be both potty trained and 3.5. And hopefully I will be ready by then.

In the mean time, we are going to stay home together. We will continue taking Music Together classes and I will take Anti-gravity Yoga classes. I have a few textbooks I got at a thrift store, two are Spanish books and one is a Nursing Assistant workbook. I am going to utilize those. I am making a goal to read 300 pages a week of intelligent literature.

I am looking forward to going back to school someday. But for now, I will work on my education by myself, and it will be okay. I might take an independent study course, I might get my CNA, I might not. Whatever I decide, it will involve lots of reflection, prayer, and study. But it will work out, because it always does.

Well, usually anyway.