Funny Helaman

Quick note about my silly boy. The other day Vilate pointed out the beautiful green sharpie that is decorating the hallway. I investigated and found:












So, being the mom that I am I asked Helaman, who loves to write his name on everything, if he had any idea who might have colored on the wall...coincidently his name starts with an H and has 2 A's in it. He said no with a bit of a guilty look on his face. Then when I asked if he was absolutely sure that he had nothing to do with it, I got the most awesome answer...."Well, will who did it get in trouble?" My response was something like, "I really can't say, but if they are honest, it will be a lot easier." He looked down and then said with a sad face, "I did it."



Cute, sweet little boy!!! I sure do love him. He didn't get in trouble, but he did have to scrub the wall!!!

When it rains...It totally pours!!

Well, today I took Vilate to the ENT (Ears, Nose and Throat specialist). The poor kid has had 5 positive strep cultures since December. Last week she had her 5th one and her doc said that it was time to see about removing her tonsils. I didn't mention to her that they might do that, I just said that we were meeting with a specialist to see how we can stop her from getting strep throat again. The doctor, who was amazingly nice, came in and looked at her throat. She said her tonsils don't look too big, but with that many positive tests, we should remove the darn things. Vilate FREAKED out - she started crying and jumped down from the chair and ran over and sat on my lap, begging me to tell her that we would not take her tonsils out. Then the doctor proceeded to tell us that not only did she need her stupid tonsils out but that she has nodes on her vocal chords and needs speech therapy and behavior modification so that they can go away! WHAT?!?!?!?!? All I wanted was to STOP STREP THROAT!! Then as we are leaving the doc says that she will take a picture of them while Vilate is sleeping during the surgery so that we can show them to the speech therapist. To which Vilate says, "You mean I will just be sleeping during the surgery?" The poor kid spent all that time thinking that she would have to endure them scraping out her tonsils WIDE AWAKE!!! No wonder she was so scared.

I have talked to the speech therapist at school and she said that we need to get Vilate to stop yelling...yeah, good luck with that one! She said that speech therapy is not really going to help, but the behavior modification is where we need to focus. So, Vilate has been trying sooooooo hard to not yell this afternoon and she has done a stellar job. We shall see how this progresses.....

All afternoon Vilate has been asking questions about the surgery...."What if I wake up in the middle of it?" or "How do they know how much medicine to give me to keep me asleep?" and "How will they give me more medicine while I am asleep if they need to?" The poor kid is trying to be brave and she finally came up to me and said, "Mom, why couldn't they just have told you about the surgery and then you could have told me later, when it was better for me?" GOOD QUESTION!!!!

So, now I will endure the endless questions and scenerios that her 6 year old brain will come up with until they finally call to schedule the surgery. Apparently they book 6 - 8 weeks out. Ohhhhhhhhhhh this is gonna be a long 2 months!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

Happy

Ya know what? I live a great life. We don't have a house or a lot of money, but I have all I need. We have a great, safe place to live with the best yard ever...I don't have to mow, rake leaves or water. The kids can ride bikes, play on a playground, practice cheerleading, play golf, play volleyball and just be kids out in our "yard." I have six kids that are healthy and happy, most of the time. Today we got to go to the skating rink with a BUNCH of friends from 3rd grade to celebrate Hyrum's birthday (a few months late). I drive an awesome van...it seats 12 and all seats are captain. The kids don't even sit right by each other - there is an aisle in the middle of the van. I have a new computer. I get to go to school. My kids go to an amazing school that requires a lot of me, so much that I consider regularly leaving, but they learn so much and have such good friends that we are in it for the long haul. I have great friends that I LOVE!! I have an amazing husband that loves our children and me! I am healthy and learning daily how to become more so, especially with my new "stress management" class. (I really am learning a lot in that class!) I have the gospel. I know that my Father in Heaven loves me a TON and that his goal for me is to succeed. He wants me and my family to return to Him. I live really close to a temple and the last 2 times I was able to go, I got to go WITH my husband - THAT is a MAJOR blessing for me. I am sealed to my husband and children. I know about Jesus Christ and what He has done as my elder brother who loves me so that I can return to live with Him and my Father again. I am blessed beyond my comprehension.

Lately I have been feeling really blessed. No, everything has not been going my way, but I have many moments lately of what I will call love. Moments with my kids where my heart is so full that all I can do is grab them and give them a HUGE hug and tell them that I love them SOOOO much. Moments of driving down the street and just seeing the beautiful trees and homes and enjoying the time in which I live. Moments of a clean house, and I do mean moments, when I feel like I can do this...have 6 kids AND a clean house. Moments of love and happiness. I hope you can and do have moments like this. It is those moments that I am striving to look for now. I am trying to brush off the other moments and hang onto these moments!!

Camp Nauvoo

The first weekend in September was our annual trek to Camp Nauvoo. Camp Nauvoo is the church-owned campsite in Placerville (about an hour or so east of us) that we go to with our ward once each year. Every year our ward gets assigned a weekend. It was sooooo much FUN!!!


We got there right before it started getting dark and had to rush to get the tent setup. As soon as we were done, Nephi had a great time inside the tent!!! He is a funny little man - side note here - he LOVES to sit and stand places. Sounds weird, I know! He just goes to obscure places and sits down. He kind of nestles in and then sits there, sometimes until someone acknowleges that he is sitting there and then he gives one of his "I'm having a blast" smiles. It is soooo funny!!!


Okay, back to camping. Helaman and Gloria had a marvelous time throwing rocks in the creek. Helaman's goal was to get it "all the way across" and he was successful most of the time. It does help that the creek was only about 3 feet across...if that!



The kids also had a great time on the "rafts." These are new since the last time we went to Camp Nauvoo. Faith was a natural. Vilate took a little teaching - she kept pushing herself in the wrong direction. Hyrum was a little hesitant at first, but once on got the hang of it and was pretty upset when it was time to go home. Gloria and Helaman loved to ride on the rafts. I think that if our kids were given the choice, they would have stayed there forever!!! But what kid wouldn't?


Just before he left, Brother Ubaldi threated to throw Faith in the creek. The night before he tried to throw Vilate into the fire. What a silly guy! He sure makes the kids laugh, although with Helaman, there is no separation of fiction and reality, so he got a little concerned!! But Faith thought it was pretty cool to hang over the side of the bridge...just so we are clear, Faith could stand in that water...and he did have a really good hold on her!!


Also while we were there Vilate pet the dog! This dog was way cool!! It just laid there, wherever it was and paid absolutely NO attention to what was going on around it!!! It has been there for years. (I don't remember if "it" is a boy or girl...sorry doggie) I am pretty sure it is the same dog that was there when I went to girls' camp years ago!!! Vilate was so proud of herself. She is getting soooo much better!!! Yay Vilate!!!!!!!!


We stopped at Jack in the Box on the way there and the way back for dinner and then lunch. The kids were facinated. This was their first Jack in the Box experience. It was hilarious. You would've thought that we took them to lobster or steaks at the most expensive, top of the line restaurant. Since we have been home they are always asking to go there again!! Kinda funny those kids of mine!!!


So, Camp Nauvoo is done. Summer is really over!!! It was a success and we had a BLAST!!!! Thanks go out to all who helped us and who worked so hard on coordinating the activity! For us...it was a great ward activity and we can't wait for next year!!!!