girl scout cookies

Perhaps this is late in coming, but this was my first year selling girl scout cookies. We wondered and worried at how well our girls would do, and made it our goal to sell 2000 boxes as a troop. Pallets and pallets of cookie boxes later we ended up selling over 7500 boxes as a troop. It was amazing! We worked like crazy and I am so proud of how well Kate did. She really grew so much from that experience and challenge. Our goal was to hit 750 boxes to make it to the free mom and daughter Cali girl trip. We stopped selling after the first two weeks, there are over six weeks in all, and she sold over 900 boxes. What was the most amazing was the confidence that grew in her as she spoke to people, as she knocked on doors, and how she wouldn't quit when she would visualize her goal. Now this Saturday is our big Cali girl day and we can't wait! I can't wait to spend the whole day with her and I am so glad I became a leader so we have these moments to share. Of course, you should ask me about that again next cookie season...

I had a really good night with my kids! Cameron has been working a second job on occasion and therefore leaves me alone with the kids some nights. It can be quite a job to go it alone some nights, but I wanted to not make this night a nightmare. So, while we enjoyed a gourmet dinner of chicken nuggets I asked the kids what they would like to do tonight. So cute... they each raised their hands declaring their ideas. Cookies, scavenger hunt, hide-and-go seek, and uhh Jane just spoke a string of jibberish. So I said, "Alright! Let's do it all!" (Except for Jane's idea, hopefully we managed okay.) We made chocolate chip cookies, then I hid them along with scavenger hunt clues all around the house. Main rule... MUST WORK AS A TEAM! Everyone has to help find and read the clues. It worked pretty well, and they found our delicious cookies! Then we spent another 30 minutes playing hide-and-go seek. Jane is really catching on how to play! So much fun. We finished the night with toothpaste, scriptures, and the kids reading books to each other. This was a good night! Figure I better write it down before I forget amidst the pandemonium that will inevitably appear again. Tonight... I was a good mom!

So about every two years we decide to post something... yeah i guess our lives are just that exciting! Actually, perhaps not exciting but certainly action-packed! Our youngest is now almost three. I don't know how that happened and then again I've been counting the days as well. I love seeing my kids grow up. I say that confidently because I haven't missed a moment, though some I try to erase from my memory. So we are happy to move on to the next level. Ummmm the next level is just as hard!!! Girl scouts, Cub scouts, baseball, preschool, extra jobs, college courses, etc, we are living in the center of a cyclone! We have agreed to not give up on the important things. Family dinner, family prayers, scripture study. But are averages are paralleled to basball players. Batting a .400 in basball makes you pretty awesome. So I'll go with that! We're doing awesome! Well, we're staying afloat at least! That's all I've got right now. Better go check on kids before I get carried away and only when the fire trucks show up will I realize what's going on!  

There once was a little girl...

There once lived a little girl named Hannah. She was a cute fat little baby and loved by her whole family. She was all their baby and they dragged her around as their little toy and friend. She giggled and cooed, and followed along with the loving abuse. When it was time to eat she got special baby food, finally something of her very own, but when mommy turned her back, the loving sister who was supposed to be helping would instead be heaping all the yummy plums and peaches into her own mouth. Poor Hannah was left with the strained green beans. But Hannah knew she was loved, that this "over-attention" was nothing to resent, she loved her many older siblings and the love they offered her. When it was time to stand on her own two feet, she couldn't, her little feet turned in and walking was hard. But there were so many footsteps she wanted to follow in. She didn't give up, she'd climb up onto her broken little feet and slowly, slowly follow after her brothers and sisters.
That little girl grew up into a beautiful woman, and all the brothers and sisters were in awe. Was this our little baby that we dressed up in silly clothes and dumped mud on her head as she smiled along? She, of course, was still loved by all and quickly and easily a man came into her life. He was struck by this woman, no longer a fat baby with broken feet, and took her into his arms. They married quickly and he stole her up as quick as a wink to the other side of the country. With all her happy memories as a baby, she wanted babies of her own, and her little Emma was born. Not the baby of the family, but the oldest, the one to set an example for the rest. And what an example she set. Sweet warm eyes, beautiful golden hair, and soft and loving to everyone she met. She was patient with the "over-attention" she got from doctors, because they gave it in love and she smiled along. And then both she and Hannah were asked to set an example for everyone. Neither were babies now, though Emma was young. Emma was asked to go and to serve others with an undying love, and Hannah was asked to give up her baby so she could go fulfill this calling. They looked into each other's eyes, both babies, both women as their tears mixed together. They said yes.
The brothers and sisters stood in awe as she grew older than all of them. Her grace and beauty shined like heaven. Could this be our baby? She's so brave, so strong. We want to be like her. As she walks we try to follow, but only on broken feet.

Mommy, Do you like flours?

So Monday morning is always my cleaning day, but when it comes I sometimes need a bit of coaxing. I told myself it would be easier to clean after the babies go to sleep so what's the harm of turning on a movie, dozing for a little while and then clean for the rest of the day. I FOUND OUT THE HARM!!!! I knew for a while they were watching the movie because they'd hit me or sit on my head from time to time, then all of a sudden it stopped. Ah peace, a few minutes sleep won't hurt! After ten minutes I wake up with a start. I haven't been beaten by my kids for a while, what's going on?! They are not in the room with me, so I hop up quickly and try to navigate myself through the delirium. I find Baby Jane in the kitchen on the table tearing all the berries off my holiday centerpiece, but still no Clark. And then I see it... A trail of flour toward the pantry. There he is in all his glory (I mean Naked) basking in a 50 lb. bag of spilled flour. I mean he's swimming around in it, nothing could be more beautiful for this little three year old. I restrained the fury because of the hilarity and quickly grabbed the camera. Once the pictures were snapped I accepted that it was time to get on task, and I was rewarded for my laziness with an extra two hours of cleaning to make up for the ten luxurious minutes my son bathed in flour.

What is irony?

Hello everyone!! Well, I know that butcher block was amazing, but two and a half years is a little extreme... the truth is Cameron started our blog, I was not up for it at the time, so when his interest faded it just sat there waiting for us. After enjoying and reading so may of your blogs I'm finally jumping on the band wagon! Some of your entries are truly touching, and after my sister, Kellie, helped show me how to make it look cute, I've decided to finally take over, as my husband always hoped!
To catch you up... we have had another baby since then, Jane Elizabeth Brown, born May 22, 2009. I'd like to say we're finished in that area, so now that's she's 18 months old, I have time to write a blog!!!
So now to get to the thing that's motivated me to write today, call it a chance to complain to the masses.
What is irony?
Irony is reluctantly taking four children ages 7, 5, 3, and 1 to a craft store, promising them that they will get ice cream if they're good. You race to just what you need, involving your kids in the process so they can feel special and a part of things. Then you run over to the fabric cutting table. Your son grabs a number and noticing that there are people in front of you patiently try to keep your kids happy as you wait. You wander through the aisles, you play hide and go seek. Your sweet son follows your baby around so she won't scream in the cart the whole time. You do this for more than TWENTY MINUTES!!! Noticing that there are many people now (it is Christmas craft time afterall) they are all grumbling about this ONE LADY who has at least twenty different fabrics in her cart and as she's getting them cut, she'e sending her daughter out to get more! I'm trying to set a good example of patience to my children so I don't say a word, though I'm the only one with crying kids. Finally my turn comes up and I race to the front so no one has to wait on me so long. I fly through my cuts, interspersed with calming and chasing kids. I had put my baby in the basket of the cart where I could be nearest to her, but as I try to grab another child who is doing laps around a display she gets up and wiggles. I grab her immediately, while still calmly directing the lady of what measurements I need. So.... the lady next to me, the one who if purchasing half the fabric in the store announces as loud as she could, "you know baskets have seats and buckles for your children!" I am in shock. First I have four children, should I push four carts? Second, the buckle was broken so it would have been more dangerous to have her sitting there. Third, I have kindly entertained my children for over twenty minutes so she could entertain her fabric obsession, and finally WHO DOES THAT?!!! Why are mothers so easy to criticize and ridicule in front of at least 25 people?! So, as my blood begine to churn and I am completely flabbergasted by this clearly neurologically challenged woman I immediately had a choice. I could blast her and I'd probably be cheered on by all the people who have had to wait for her, or continue to try and be an example to my kids. I will tell you I wanted justice so baqdly right then, a voice for all mothers so unjustly accused... but I simply said, " You know... keep it to yourself, you can't talk right now." Her haughtiness shrunk into oblivion, she turned and mumbled to herself. Everyone there was in shock. They were all pining to yell at this woman, and I had the chance, and what did I do? I taught a motherly lesson to all of them.
So my dear friends, this is irony and in the end the best kind of justice. Because I still had four children, that for a quick moment, could still look up to their mother.

Butcher Block Counter Finished

Allison did an amazing job on creating a butcher block counter for our kitchen. The island countertop previously was tile which was chipped and cracked from the multiple times the kids banged the chairs into it. Well, now, it looks like a professionally done counter. Allison loves it and is excited about doing some cooking on it.

For the record, the only thing I did on this project was slice the wood pieces. Allison did everything else. I'm so proud of her for having a vision of what she wanted and then making it happen with no prior experience of building a countertop.

Jacen Graduates!

A special day for Jacen as he is officially no longer a little boy and is now on his way to kindergarten. He had a little ceremony with all his preschool friends and got his little diploma.

Achieving balance with sports

So after Jacen graduated, I went through possibly the most agonizing sports loss of my entire life. It ranks right up there with when the Angels lost the '86 ALCS to the Red Sox. One member of the Angels actually ended up committing suicide over that one. Anyway, the Lakers were up by 24 points in the third quarter, then completely fell apart. The Celtics eventually won Game 4 of the NBA Finals. 24 points!! How on earth do you blow a lead like that? At home?!!! In the Finals?!!!! Well, I didn't sleep all that well that night.

But things balanced out for me on Saturday. My dad and I went down to the US Open at Torrey Pines. We stayed there all day from about 7AM to 7PM and saw every golfer, but most especially Tiger Woods. I sprained my ankle real badly the previous Saturday playing basketball, so it was difficult walking around the whole golf course. But things got really crazy when Tiger got to us on the 17th hole. He hit one into the rough, missing my head by about ten feet. I was then able to stand right next to him as he hit out of the rough. He landed right next to the green which he then chipped in. Then on the 18th, we watched him drive the par 5 in two shots, then hit a miraculous eagle putt from about 40-50 feet away. The place went wild and I got to see it all. What makes it even more historic, he ended up winning the tournament in a playoff, and the next day we learned he was playing with a torn knee ligament and two hairline fractures in his leg. Absolutely amazing.

Going to finally go on that big vacation

So with the new stimulus check in our bank account, we decided that it was time to go on a big vacation...without the kids. Love the kids, but sometimes they just need to go away and spend some time with their grandparents. Next November will be one of those times. We're going to go with Tim and Kara Bell. Tim is a buddy of mine from my mission. We met on a dreary Thursday morning in St. John's, Newfoundland and after spending 4 months in the same apartment in Moncton, New Brunswick we became BOFF...we made matching bracelets and everything. :)

Anyway, we've been trying to do trips to Utah and Seattle to see family, but with gas prices above $4 a gallon. It makes it tough to do those big road trips. So we're just doing the Mexican 7-night cruise out of Long Beach down to Puerta Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. Never been on a cruise before, I'm expecting that we'll have a lot of fun.

Family day at Disneyland

Well, with Allison's family all in town for the wedding on Saturday we all went to Disneyland for the day. Luckily, the crowds were small and the weather was good. Jacen and Kate got to go on most of the rides that they could. Jacen was big enough for the Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Star Tours, and even Splash Mountain. He was really brave! I remember being a little freaked out over the Matterhorn until I was about 8. Of course, it didn't help having to ride the skyway and see the huge frightening snow monster. No wonder I was freaked out. Anyway, it was a long day and someone had the bright idea to get in the Finding Nemo line at 7:50 right before the park closed at 8PM. It was a 45 minute line. So basically we were the last ones out of the park, and poor Kate slept through the entire ride.

The wedding on Saturday went well. Alex and Shauna got married at the San Diego Temple and had the reception back in Temecula. It was a grueling day though - 95 degrees and a photographer who took about 10 minutes between each picture. Sadly, we all missed Vati's 90th birthday EXTRAVAGANZA. Just really bad luck to have to have two of these things on the exact same day. It would be great to have all the kids visit Mercer Island...and plus Jacen needs to redeem himself for the first time he met Mutti and Vati where he immediately vomitted right on their entryway floor.

Kate turns 3/Jacen turns 5

Done with the big parties for Jacen and Kate. I don't have the pictures yet, but I will shortly. Kate had a magical fairy princess party that Allison got all crazy over. She hand drew the invitations and Kate had all her little girlfriends over. Then in May, Allison went crazy again over Jacen's party. It was a dinosaur party and Allison made huge plywood painting of a few dinosaurs including an eight foot tall T-Rex. Jacen had a great time and all his friends came and found the dinosaur egg pinata, and even dug up little dinosaur bones in the side yard.

One more coming!

Well - I just heard from Allison and she's pregnant again. I'm not sure how to feel on this one. We are really pulling our hair out with three, I don't know how we're going to make it with four now. Hopefully, we can have grandparents helping out a little bit more. We're definitely going to need a bigger car. She sent me this picture of the pregnancy test.

PS - April Fool's

Back from Washington DC

So we had a busy week in the Washington, DC area. I was participating in a study with the National Institute of Health regarding my kidney/liver disease. My liver/kidney problems are a long story and one day I'll explain it all but for right now just know that it's not too serious and I'm generally doing very well. For some quick information on it you can look here.

Everything was paid for by the NIH and we stayed in a hotel with joining rooms (I had to beg a little for the extra room as we probably would have gone crazy with all the kids in one room). We stayed in Bethesda, MD which is about 10 minutes outside of DC. I did some various tests in the morning and early afternoon at the NIH and when I got home we got to go out. On Wednesday we went to the Smithsonian Zoo. It's not as good as the San Diego Zoo, but it was free - so actually that might make it better. I don't know. On Thursday and Friday we had all day to ourselves so we rode the subway into DC and wandered around the National Mall. We really liked the Air & Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. Everything was free which was awesome. It was a little hectic trying to herd the kids around, but overall we had a good time. When it got later we went around to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. We really liked seeing those things. Jacen loved all the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

On Saturday we flew home. Luckily we got to the Dulles Airport early. On the cab ride over, Kate "deposited" her entire pancake/bacon/eggs/orange juice breakfast, onto her clothes and my lap. So we struggled into the airport and handed our cabbie a little tip that was a little soggy. I don't think he cared.

So we're going to start blogging now

It took me a while to get this going. Should have started a long time ago, but later is better than never.

I am going to try to use this blog to share news of the family. And when I say news of the family what I really mean is what the kids are doing. As I don't think anyone really cares about what Allison and I are doing. So hopefully, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins and all of our friends can use this blog to keep in touch with what we're doing. So let's get started.