Stages of Motherhood

I've been reading one of my friend's blogs about the chaos and delicate balance that we call Motherhood and how do we really get there. Her aunt chimed in on the discussion and mentioned the youngish stage (new moms oldest children starting school, ready to volunteer with everything....lots of energy), the middlish mom stage (kids in different levels of school, high school and even college, not so nervous when we see our kids start school) I think I am on the cusp of this one since Brady our youngest will start kindergarten next year. And then the oldish mom with college age, married, and even with kids of their own. Both commentaries came to the conclusion that each stage is wonderful, fun, crazy and to be enjoyed. Some days may not go as you think they should but with each new day to start anew - refreshed and clean slate. I so know those days, when one hour I feel like I have the patience of Job and then later I'm coming unglued. I think children always need their moms at any stage they are in. I know I do.

I think I've gotten more relaxed. Today is case in point. Brady, my errand-running companion, was trying to tease me all morning. "Mom, I don't love you ---notice this was said with a BIG smile on his face." Think for a minute, what should I say??? "I love you Brady" was my response and we kept shopping. Later, we got home and he was a trooper because we ran several errands. I'm unpacking groceries and he says (with another BIG smile) "Mom, you're not pretty..." Instantly, one of my mom's common phrase from my growing up came out of my mouth, "If you can't say anything nice..." usually this is when my kids know to repeat the standard phrase...then don't say anything at all! But this is what really happened,
"If you can't say anything nice...(Brady immediately responds) "then just say it." Yep, my parenting skills are working!?!

Our traditional Back-to-School photos

It's our tradition on the morning of the first day of school that you get your picture taken while holding up the number of figures of the grade you are going into. Technically Brady shouldn't be holding any fingers up - preschool - but instead he choose to do 4 fingers for how old he is. Actually he doesn't even start preschool until Jan, but he didn't want to be left out on the tradition. This was such a cute picture of Brady and Jared that I had to include it.

Can you tell how excited Rachel and Luke are??? We switched Rachel and Luke to the late schedule at their school. Instead of getting on the bus at 7:18am, now they get on at 8:52am --- seems like a no-brainer doesn't it. I guess in previous years we were glutons for punishment. Needless to say, Rachel and Luke were ready an hour before the bus came.

Rachel has some neighbor-friends-girls that are in her class with Mrs. Jensen this year. We met her teacher at back-to-school night and she seemed very nice. Luke also has some neighbor-friends-boys that are in his class with Mrs. Nielsen. They can be quite a rowdy bunch at church so I cross my fingers that the teacher is ready for them.

Wednesday was actually Ethan's first day of JR HIGH!!!!!!!! They had all the 7th graders come Wednesday, then the 8th and 9th graders go Thursday, and Friday its everyone. All summer long, Ethan didn't seem to really care or be worried about starting Jr. High. But the night before school and just like Christmas Eve, he just couldn't fall asleep because of the excitement. Wednesday morning was hard to wake him up because he said he didn't fall asleep until 1am! Once the day was done and he got off the bus, Ethan quickly told me of 3 teachers that he likes. One, the art teacher, scored big points because he did magic tricks for the students. Luckily, Ethan also has friends in many of his classes.

Maike was definitely excited about starting this new year, in America, in an American high school as a senior. Our neighbor/teenagers have been very welcoming and she has already made friends. She even got asked out on a date last night --(the boy found out how to ask her in German, very sweet). Because she had to leave around 7:15am, none of the kids were awake to help with the "12" fingers picture so we had to improvise.

So if you caught all of that, we have kids in high school, jr high school, and elementary school. That's just CRAZY!!!!! But it will definitely be an exciting year. As our motto goes, there's never a shortage of excitement at our house...we love it.

Boating Fun

The day after Maike arrived, our good friends/neighbors - the Godwins, invited us to go boating with them on Utah Lake. I haven't been on that lake since college... Why not, sounds like fun. The weather was overcast and we saw a few lighting strikes but nothing too close. The first brave ones were Rachel, Maike, and Mykel.Maike at one point had to cover her ears because Rachel was screaming so loudly. Mykel's Dad took it a little easy on them since it was Rachel and Maike's first time but not too easy because some of the waves almost bounced Rachel off the tube.Next on was Brady. He didn't want to be left out of the fun, so Jared and I also climbed aboard. I was counting on sympathies of the driver (since we had Brady on board) that we wouldn't get too bounced around or flipped off. Luckily, I was right. Brady loved it.The water temp was nice, I was expecting it to be a lot colder. Brady jumped right in as we stopped for a little break to eat sandwiches. The other boys didn't want to get on the float but were glued to the front of the boat because with some of the turns they would get wet. They also loved going very fast in the boat.

The last ride was Mykel, Jared and Maike. They were definitely getting some airtime. I really thought they were going to flip but our driver Jared G. took pity and didn't flip them. I suggested not to since we had only known Maike for 24 hrs and I wasn't sure how she would take it. Mykel is definitely a water daredevil. She said she has been flipped off tons of times. We had a great time and are glad the Godwin's invited us along for the ride.

Maike is finally here!!!

We decided a couple of months ago to host a foreign exchange student for the school year. A couple of summers ago, we did have some 2 students from China live with us for 3 weeks and the kids loved it. So when this opportunity presented itself, the kids jumped right on board. I must admit, I was a little nervous but after I read Maike's letter I knew that she should come and be with our family for a while.

Her plane was supposed to get in to SLC around 10:33 pm but was delayed until 11 pm. We couldn't convince the kids to stay home and get some sleep, everyone wanted to meet her. So we look a little bleary eyed but it is fun to finally have Maike (pronounced MY-ca) here. Rachel made a sign for us to hold up to help Maike figure out who we were but she recognized us immediately because she was already seeing the pictures on this blog.

We got her registered for High School, boy that was an experience, on Monday. I couldn't believe how expense school fees can be. Holy Cow! So much for "free" education. She went to "Back to School" night tonight to figure out where her classes are, meet her teachers, and see if she wanted to change any classes. I laughed when we were registering her and she requested to take AP German. Seems funny but we are required to take English all through school. So after tonight, she decided to change out of the class because she thinks the teacher speaks terrible German. It didn't help that after we registered her, several students told Maike that the German teacher is not good and students only take that class for an easy A.

Nighttime Fun

Isn't that what summer is all about? How late can you stay outside? The kids were begging Dad to come outside and wrestle and run around. About 15 minutes later, Ethan runs inside begging me to take a photo...so here it is. We are grateful for our big backyard.

Circle B Ranch - Chuckwagon Style

This ranch is run by a family. Their dad played many roles, aka pistol shooting instructor, Town Sheriff, Food Server, guitar player. The younger song we think looks like Ashton Kuchter. He was the Biscut Bandit during the nightly town gunfight. It was great. The sheriff comes to the center of "town" and convinces all the kids to help him catch the "biscut bandit". Of course everyone wants this to happen because we are starving and you can smell the bbq. At one point the bandit runs off with all the kids chasing him and then we hear gunshots and the kids come running back. Back comes the biscut bandit and he is being dragged by some overzealous deputy kids who are having a hard time remembering that this is "pretend". I'm sure that young guy can handle a couple of sucker punches from some young punks!

We arrived at Circle B Ranch after spending the day touring Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park. We had been in the car for a while and were ready to get out. The kids choose to try pistol shooting. I must say that Rachel has quite an aim. Ethan of course had a slight advantage from shooting previously at Scout Camp. Luke even had a chance and with the help of the Sheriff, he had fun.

The ranch also had gem panning/aka panning for gold, lassoing, horse/pony rides, and more for the kids. The kids liked the lasso part. At one point, Ethan lasso-ed Rachel.

This is Luke and Uncle Erik waiting for the entertainment. We just finished eating a delicious meal - bbq chicken (Erik tried the buffalo), beans, applesauce, baked potato, biscut and a ginger bread cake.