Pure Joy

Today was definitely one of the best days of my life. I had the great pleasure of watching Rachel get baptized. It was such an incredible experience. I never knew life could bring so much joy in one single moment. Even now, 12 hours later, I'm having a hard time writing about it because I'm still a little overwhelmed by the experience.

Before the actual baptism, I had the opportunity to introduce her and talk about how wonderful she is. That alone was wonderful. She just glowed the entire time. She had family and friends there to support her, many of whom brought her gifts. She carried around her new scriptures in the cool pink bag from Grandma and Grandpa Texas the entire day, and I don't think she took off her CTR mood ring even to go to bed. The entire experience was smooth and perfect. Nothing went wrong at any point in our morning, and the meeting itself was great. She did have to be put under twice because her foot came up the first time (the whole foot, not just a toe), but she didn't mind at all. She reminded me I had to do it three times. Plus the water was warm, so she liked being in it. The look on her face as she came out of the font was one I will never forget. It was pure joy, and it exactly echoed how I felt.

I really like that we wait to baptize our children until they're 8. This was a decision Rachel made. She wanted to do it. I can't imagine seeing an infant baptized has nearly the same power as watching your child, who's old enough to know for herself, choose to be baptized into the church you hold dear and precious. She chose this, and it means that much more knowing it was her choice.

I'm sure this was a wonderful day for Rachel, but this is my blog, not hers. Today I got to see my daughter get baptized into the kingdom. It was definitely one of the greatest days of my life.

To stitch or not to stitch...

I was at the gym this afternoon when I got called up to the front desk. At first I thought maybe Becca needed me in the kids room, but then I remembered she wasn't in the kids room, she was with my neighbor. I was surprised to hear I had a phone call. Nobody but my neighbor knew I was at the gym. The first words out of her mouth were, "So, don't panic..." Um, what?

They were at Walmart when Becca just turned around to go another direction and walked right into one of the displays on an end cap. She fell back on her bum, and put her hand up to her head. As my neighbor was trying to get her to move her hand away from her face so she could see if she was hurt, blood started spilling out from under her hand and between her fingers. She had two pretty serious gashes; one on her cheek, the other just above her eye.

Fortunately there was an off duty medic near by who was able to stop the bleeding and get her taken care of. I should also mention the employees at Walmart were great with both Becca and my poor neighbor who was seriously freaking out. Becca never cried the entire time. She just sat there and let everyone take care of her.

Of course I rushed her to our doctor's office, calling them to let them know I was on the way with a 4 year old in need of stitches. They "don't take walk-ins" there, and the Urgent Care clinic wasn't open yet, so the best I could do was take an appointment for 90 minutes later. Of course once they saw her they didn't make me wait. We were in within minutes. Faster than if we'd gone to an ER, in fact. We were walking OUT before the time of our appointment.

We didn't see our normal doctor, but the one we did see was great. He decided that the wounds were perfect for Dermabond, basically a medical grade super glue. The skin was easily pinched back together, and the wounds weren't too long or deep. They looked nasty, but they weren't too bad once they got the skin back together. So she was saved the trauma of stitches on her cheek and eye. She lay perfectly still as they applied the glue and did everything they asked the entire time. By the time they were done, she was more than ready to skip down the hall with the nurse to get a handful of stickers. She was really a trooper. I couldn't believe how well she did.

So it turns out the decision was NOT to stitch. But she is going to have a couple neat scars.

EEK!

Rebecca's hair has been in need of some help. She chopped a section off several weeks back, and she won't keep a ponytail in her hair (the only thing that hides it). It was getting so long, the chunk in the back was really obvious. Plus it was just too long. After getting her out of the bath this morning, I decided her bangs really needed to be cut, and while I was at it, I thought I'd at least trim her hair a bit. I didn't stop at a trim. I ended up cutting off about 5 inches! That was never my intention, I just got carried away. I'm not even sure I CAN put it in a ponytail now! But it is pretty cute, at least from the front. And the chunk at the back isn't quite so obvious.

(Becca holding Goldie, Rachel's new puppy.)

Rachel

Today is Rachel's 8th birthday. So following tradition, I thought I'd document a few of the things I love about her.

1. Rachel is the smartest girl I know.

2. She has a love of books that matches Kathryn!

3. She makes friends very easily.

4. She likes to pose for the camera.

5. She laughs easily and often.

6. She's stubborn when angry.

7. She's very sensitive.

8. She loves gymnastics, and she's quite good at it.

9. She has the most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen.

10. She loves art in all its forms.

11. She can shop for hours at a time.

12. She loves to accessorize.

13. She loves babies.

14. Dogs are her favorite thing ever, and she would love to have one.

15. She gets excited to go to school every single day.

16. She already has a good sense of fashion.

17. She loves to sing.

18. She's a great helper around the house.

19. She never wants to leave anyone out of anything.

20. She wants to make people happy.

21. She likes doing homework.

22. She's very responsible.

23. She's a GIRLY girl.

24. She wants to be involved in everything.

25. She is a great example to Tyler and Becca

26. She wants to do what is right.

27. She has definite favorites, and she's not movable on those. At least for this week.

28. She gets so excited to learn new things.

29. She loves to be silly.

30. She is kind, compassionate, and loving.

Happy Birthday sweet Rachel. I love you!

Working Family

I have a job. Actually, I've been doing it for a while, but I hadn't posted on it or even told everyone yet. Our budget was stretched a little tighter than we liked, but I didn't want to take a job that would take me away from my kids. The solution seemed to fall in our laps.



A man in the Elders Quorum presidency with Scott has a company that puts up signs for housing developments. You know, the ones that say "This development this way" with a big arrow kind of thing. They go up on Friday nights and need to come down again Sunday nights. Gary was looking for someone to take over a couple routes, so we jumped at the chance. We took the middle seat out of our van to have room for the signs, then we load all three kids in the back seat and head out. I do the driving and Scott does the placing and picking up. At first it took us about 6 1/2 hours to do the placing, but we've brought that down to 4 1/2, and I think we can get even faster. Picking up has gone from 4 1/2 hours to 3 1/2, but we're getting faster there too. We have just over 200 signs between the two routes we have, and it pays $1 a sign, so for 8-10 hours of work in a weekend, we earn $200. The kids get paid for coming along with us, as well as for loading, unloading, and sorting signs. It's been a fun little job for us so far, and that extra $800 a month is going to be a huge boost to our budget. And we get to do it as a family!

At Last

I've been meaning to post for a while on my kids first day of school, but life keeps getting in the way. Let's hope I get it done today!

My kids jumped out of bed as soon as their alarms went off (7:00) and were dressed within minutes. They'd had breakfast, brushed hair and teeth, packed up backpacks, and were asking to go to the bus stop by 7:25. Think they were a bit excited? Unfortunately that meant I had to hold them off for half an hour until it was time to go to the bus stop. That gave Tyler plenty of time to wake up Becca by yelling all over the house, and it gave Rachel enough time to accessorize her outfit with everything she could think of. We even changed the color of her watch band to match her outfit.

I thought they should have something special for breakfast, but I'm really not a morning person, so we bought Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. My kids love them and think they're a real treat, so it was perfect. Tyler was his typical self, scarfing them down as quick as he could. Rachel, of course, was more proper, getting out a knife and fork to be sure she kept her clothes pristine.

They both had a great time going through their new school clothes to pick out just the perfect outfit for the day. I have a feeling we'll be seeing this shirt on Tyler a LOT. Rachel took quite a bit longer to pick out her clothes. She had to go through all the combinations of pants and shirts to get just the right thing. It's so nice to see her in jeans that are long enough! (Both kids picked the same shirts for picture day too!)

We did have one snafu for the day. The buses are color coded to make it easier for kids to remember which bus they ride. My kids ride orange bus, but Tyler's teacher told him to get on yellow bus. Rachel got off the bus with the most worried look I've ever seen on her face because Tyler wasn't on the bus! The bus driver of yellow bus figured out Tyler wasn't supposed to be on her bus, but not before orange bus was gone. They had to send a little bus back to the school to bring him home. And the first words out of his mouth were, "I don't like school. It's too much work." He didn't even CARE about the whole bus thing!

So they're off on their next big adventure. Tyler will have his first experiences with all day school, lunch rooms, two recesses, and getting up early. Rachel won't be one of the babied first graders anymore. She's a seasoned second grader. More homework, more responsibilities, and someone to be looked up to. So far they're doing great. They've adjusted to the new schedule, they love their teachers, they're making friends, and they still get up right on time, looking forward to the next day of school!

And the wait continues...

The BEA and the school district reached a tentative agreement on Monday which would get my kids in school, but the contract still had to be voted on by the teachers. So my kids may or may not have school tomorrow. We're still waiting to hear. I know the teachers have left the meeting where the voting was taking place, as have the press vans, but there is still no word on either the hot line or the district website on the outcome of the vote. My neighbor talked to a couple of the teachers, both of whom said they voted against the contract, so it's not looking good. But we're prepping our kids like they have school tomorrow. Lunches have been made, clothes have been chosen, and Rachel is in the shower. Let's hope all our prep work wasn't in vain...

UPDATE:
The contract was ratified with 84% in favor. We will be starting school tomorrow!!

Funny!

Amber posted a blog on an ebay listing that was really funny. I clicked on the woman's blog and found it delightful. She has 6 kids and a crazy life and a great sense of humor. If you'd like to check it out, you can find her here: http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/
I also put her blog up in my links to the other blogs I read. I hope you enjoy her as much as I do!

Power

Last night was a cool night. After a rather muggy afternoon, a storm rolled in pretty late in the evening. Normally I don't think of storms as cool, but this one was. There was a lot of cloud cover, as well as rain, so the huge lightening bolts were reflected off the atmosphere and lit up the entire sky. I've never seen such bright flashes. Even with our black fake leather curtains that block out the bright sun we saw the flashes of light. It was so bright, we just had to go sit outside to watch for a while. Even though I was expecting the flashes, there were still several that made my jump for how bright they were. I've heard loud thunder before, but last night was the first time I recall hearing rolling thunder. We could practically feel it moving across the sky, building and rumbling and receding as it passed us. And it lasted much longer than any other thunder clap I've ever heard. It was one of those times I couldn't help but stand in awe at the power and majesty I was witnessing. All I could think was, "Behold the power of God." It was a cool night.