Is It Naptime Yet

Saturday I went and did my duty to clean the chapel. Bro. Moe had called Wednesday night while I was at a dinner. He called at 9:09 pm so, he was at least closer to the 9 o’clock hour and it was three days before I needed to be there. Jon asked him to call earlier next time.  I’m hoping I’m not called to clean the chapel for another year or so. I figure we only have the responsibility every other month and we have at least 200 active families. Anyways, I learned who Bro. Moe is, an older gentleman who I would think by now knows not to call late and I don’t know if I could consciously be rude, or firm to him. Somehow it’s easier when you don’t know who they are.

After I returned home I got the girls ready to go to the Springs Preserve with Jon. It was Eden’s date with Daddy and she asked if Lilah could come. They went hiking and had lots of fun. I guess, since I wasn’t there. I stayed home and worked on my lesson and did various tasks around the house and watched part of a movie and enjoyed brownies ala-mode in the afternoon. It was a nice time, but I did miss them towards the end.

Our stake Relief Society Presidency had a dinner before the General Relief Society Broadcast, so I prepared and went to that at 4:00. It was very good evening.

After the broadcast I did some grocery shopping and came home. Once home I noticed Lilah asleep on the couch, which she had been for most of my time gone, Jon informed me.  I felt her head to find she had I fever. Jon suspected, so we took her temperature and she had a fever of 101.3.

Lilah continued to have a fever this morning so only Eden and I went to church. She still appears to have a fever tonight. I’m not sure what’s caused it, because a high temperature is the only symptom she has, besides being tired.  Eden has been doing excellent this week on going to the potty so I really want to take her to dance tomorrow. I think I will go and just not have Lilah participate in her class. I figure she has no other symptoms and if she just stays with me on my lap she won’t spread her odd fever only germs and Eden can still enjoy her reward for being consistent this week. It’s tough when you have two kids and they affect what the other can do.

I’m hoping Lilah gets over the fever soon.

Today would have been Lilah’s class with Beth but we had a change of plans.

While I was at a family dinner Wednesday night Sam called. I got home late, at 9:15, but I called her anyways. I know her, she’s my friend and my curiosity was too strong to wait till morning.  She was up when I called her at 9:20 pm. She called because the children’s singer Jim Gill was going to be at the Clark County Library today. Jim is Sam’s favorite children’s artist and we have a CD that we got through Sam with a few of his songs. The girls love his songs.  He only comes to Vegas about once a year, and it was going to be a free performance so I decided to cancel with Beth and have fun with the girls.

We got there early so we could get good seats, but they let the school kids in before us anyways. We still had nice seats and the girls had fun. Lilah had a total ball dancing to every song. Britta thought it was a little loud and had her ears covered at first and then got into it more later. Eden was a bit of a hermit and only danced when I wasn’t trying to get her to dance or when she really felt the music.

It was very entertaining and fun for us all.

I bought a CD he signed for us and took a picture of the girls with Jim.

Since the Clark County Library is right by UNLV we stopped by Jon’s work. I barely got a parking spot because the man pulling out pulled out in a advantageous way and I slipped in before the other car. We got there at the same time so it wasn’t obvious who should have gotten the spot.  I forgot to get change before we left so I only had 70 cents, which afforded us 41 minutes of parking, 47 with the added 6 minutes that was still on the meter. Lilah really wanted to go to the small museum there but we only had enough time to see Jon’s work cubicle and eat lunch. It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect in the shade and we had a slight breeze. I think I’ll try to visit him a little more often during the fall and we can have picnic lunches till it turns cold, because I am a baby about cold weather and even though I live in Vegas and it’s not that cold here, it’s cold enough for my liking.

After lunch we came home and hung out. I took a short nap, well I took about two short naps before making dinner.

After dinner we went to Cold Stone for free ice cream, which wasn’t completely free since it was for Make a Wish, so we donated what cash we had. After that we tried looking for a new store, Fresh and Easy, but we couldn’t find it. We didn’t see it on the way there, though on the map we checked once home we should have spotted it on the way. Oh well, I’ll just wait till the one right across from my local Smith’s opens up.

Now it’s bedtime and tomorrow I will have a new sister-in-law and all of my parents children will be married. It’s a miracle.

This week Eden had to skip her dance class. Lets just say going in the potty went out the window this weekend, but since she had to miss dance yesterday, she hasn’t had a single accident in the past two days. I’m focusing on staying home, except some special exceptions, and getting her to go to the potty. I think pull-ups at nighttime is the only acceptable thing right now. I know we can do this.

The second thing I’m focusing on is the dress I’m making. I get really absorbed in sewing, as long as it’s going well. I hate having to take out a seam, and I had to do that today. Had I read the directions I would have put the interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric, rather than the right, which was so wrong. I’m to a point where I need to fit the dress before going on because I want to make sure I added enough fabric before I sew in the two side seams.

My mom’s machine has been a dream. It even cuts the threads for you, except when it doesn’t, but I think that’s more because of me than the machine.

I wish I had a sewing room, that way I could just sew and get back to it whenever I wanted and sew til the second I want to stop. Until that day I will continue to sew and then clean up my mess for the meals. I think that’s one reason I try to finish things as soon a possible, to help get the chaos of fabric and sewing machines out of the way. To tell the truth I can’t wait to finish this project so I can make the girl’s costumes and then a robe for myself. I’m really looking forward to my sewing right now.

Lastly, I get to see Zarina tomorrow. Andrea and Brien are coming to town for my eldest brother’s wedding, and they have a dentist appointment, which means Auntie Lacey gets to babysit. Of course they’re staying with Carolyn so I’m a little jealous.

Monday was the first day of dance for the girls. When I was trying to get them going, because they were slow, hearing it was for dance perked them right up and they got ready quickly, at least for two easily distracted girls.

We got there and Eden immediately started acting shy. She was hiding behind me and not wanting to look Sam in the eye. I got her inside and we put her ballet slippers on and she was not wanting to be outgoing. She sat on her piece of blue tape and slumped her shoulders over and would not make eye contact with Sam. She basically stood or sat there the whole time.

At one point she did follow the leader. (I have a video of her participating.)

At another point she stood there while Sam held her arms and tried to dance with her.

It broke this mama’s heart to watch her daughter be so shy and non participative. I almost cried, but Eden wants to go back, so I guess it wasn’t all that bad for her.

Lilah’s class was after Eden’s and I spent a lot of the time in the hall with Eden, Britta, and my friend Emilie, who’s has a daughter Eden’s age and one 6 months younger than Lilah.
Lilah asked for me to be in her class longer so next week another mom, also named Emilie, will be taking Britta to the park during the class so I can sit with Eden and we can watch Lilah more.

I know Lilah really enjoyed herself. I hope Eden enjoys herself more as time goes on.

(I was trying to let Sam be the teacher and let her deal with Eden’s shyness rather then being intrusive. I also want Eden to gain some independence, and since their were no tears and she wasn’t trying to come to me, I figured I’d let her shyness run the course. )

Also Lilah and I were in the hallway during Eden’s class, in reality a foyer outside the class, a work out room, and a door to the gymnasium. Lilah was having fun running circles, taking up maybe a third of the foyer and not making much noise, while Britta ate her snack and we waited for Eden’s class. A woman came out of the gym and gave Lilah a ‘you need to stop that’ condescending look and Lilah immediately stopped running and came to my side.

I knew she was an employee of the rec center because of her badge, and later I found out she’s one of the managers/ supervisors of the rec center. I was really annoyed and if I was a confrontational person would have said something. I was just annoyed that someone would be so stern when a child was just having harmless fun and wasn’t bothering anyone, with the parent right there. It is a recreation center after all. Jon says if it happens again I should calmly respond that I’m watching her and allowing her get her energy out, or something a lot less confrontational than what comes to my mind.

As I think about it I get a little more upset. If she had said thank you once Lilah stopped running I may have forgiven the look . I wish she had approached me and asked me to have my daughter stop running for safety issues, that I could handle.  But to give ‘the look’ and and not even make eye contact with the parent, that really bothers me. I’m the only person who can give my daughter ‘the look’ and maybe family, but I have got to know you if you’re gonna use the look to have my child stop doing something.

After watching Eden be so shy and then to have Lilah’s feelings hurt by a complete stranger I almost cried again. I also didn’t know how I should respond and it just shocked me a little. Maybe it was getting up at 5:30 am, but I was an emotional person during dance class.

On a positive note here are some pictures I snapped and a short video. I mostly took it since Jon’s at work during their classes but Eden’s also really enjoyed watching it. I’m hoping it helps her be a little more herself at the next class.

Shy Eden.

Following the leader.

Hands “glued” to her hips.

Sam’s a good teacher. (Lilah’s the second from the front.)

I guess I’ll need to take more pictures of Lilah next time.

Here’s the video.

I finally went through the pictures from our trip to Idaho.
I took over 100, but I put only around 50 in the video. 🙂

Forgive any misspellings, there always seems to be one I gloss over until I’ve already published and posted it.

The song is Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s Country home. It has a Hawaiian twist, in which I wish I lived by the beach, but I think it was kinda fitting for family reunion pictures. (I was just going to choose any random song I liked and it’s really the random song I liked and chose.)

If you want to read about our trip to Idaho and Ely you can go to these two different posts.

Wednesday we had Lilah’s class. Lilah knows so much that I sometimes have a hard time reading each day with her and having learning time.
Since Beth’s my mentor, and I can call her that since she called herself my mentor, we had a talk and my goal was to set a time to have “school time”. This is kinda against unschooling, but I’m not going for complete unschooling. The thought is if we have a routine we can guarantee some learning everyday or a time to stimulate learning. I have a box of special school things that I’m taking out at our “school time” and I let the girls do what they want.

Beth also gave me lots of cool things so the girls have loved it. One thing Lilah discovered was there are four ways to add six. Beth gave us a set of domino’s. Lilah was counting the dots and drawing pictures and she brought me some domino’s and asked how they could all have six dots when they where so different. So we had a lesson on adding six and the different ways you could add it. I thought it was fun.

So my school time is after lunch. We’re usually running around and doing things in the morning but home by lunch. So after lunch is our school time. It also goes with my reading a story or two before putting Eden down for her nap but I haven’t read to them in days. We go through cycles. All I do is read, read, read and then we go weeks with just reading once or twice. I should be better about that.

I figure we might be gone some days after lunch, but those are usually days we go to the park for the unschooling group, so that can count as “school time” too.

After lunch we went to the park for the unschooling group, or Life learners which I will now refer to them as. On the discussion board our coordinator, or Tara, was sick and a few others said they would still be there, but when I showed up at the park only one other person was there, and this was her first time. She has a daughter who is 6, so that makes me happy, and her daughter, Sarahphina which I’m guessing how to spell, played really well with Lilah and Eden. The mom was really easy to talk to and we had a good discussion which just got better when one other mom showed up. This mom has a teen aged son, he actually stayed home, and had just returned from living in Hollywood while her son was pursuing an acting career.
We left the park around 4 o’clock, and had a regular night.

Thursday was my busy doctor’s appointment day. Sam was kind enough to watch the girls all morning for me. She had them from 8:40 am till 12:45 pm so I could attend my dermatologist appointment and eye appointment.
I had a mole removed on my arm in July, and it too was precancerous, but does not need suturing. This makes 4 moles precancerous, one normal, for the five I’ve had removed. She removed another mole in my right shoulder, so if she doesn’t call sooner to say it needs suturing we’ll find out in six months if it too is precancerous.

My eyes are the same. They haven’t changed since before I had Eden. It seems amazing to me to keep the same prescription. For so much of my youth my eyes changed drastically each year. I was so relieved to learn that your eyes come to a plateau and stay the same. If we didn’t have so many other things to worry about I would so do laser eye surgery, but atlas we do.

I went to a new doctor and he seemed perplexed that I only wear my contacts part time and my glasses most of the time. I don’t think he understood that glasses are a necessity and contacts are a luxury in my life. He mentioned my children pulling on my glasses, but since they’re older they’re obviously past that stage, plus they learned fairly quickly not to pull on glasses since Jon and I both wore them. My doctor is all about contacts and being to the most “natural state”. I guess glasses don’t bother me, though I like the way I look with contacts.
I am getting new frames this year. My current frames are getting too old and breaking in different places, plus I’m looking forward to getting something a little more up to date.

Friday we stayed home. I sewed a blanket for a baby shower I went to today. I didn’t take any pictures though. (If you could Emilie it would be appreciated and just e-mail me one.)
Today we got a leotard for Eden and Lilah and Jon’s date was to the dollar store to choose gifts for Eden and me. Last week Lilah was obsessed with giving me a gift but she had to wait till her date with Daddy.

I had a baby shower this afternoon and then tonight I took the girls to a carnival that was at Anna’s church. They had a small ferris wheel, which the girls loved, a “train”, and a couple jumper things. One was a regular bouncy thing for kinds to jump in and the other was an obstacle course type thing.
Lilah loved it and Eden had fun watching her, since she was just a little to little for the obstacle course. It was a fun night.

Now it’s time for bed, and if you read all of this you must have nothing else to do.

I feel the need to talk a little about Lilah and some of the things she’s been up too, besides home school.

Lately, as in the last two or three weeks, though for four of those days we were gone,  Lilah’s taken to making her bed. Every morning she arranges the sheet to lay over her pillow as neat as a five year old can. For a time she would also place her blanket folded on her bed with her stuffed animal she had slept with. She was sleeping with Jon’s mouse for a while and then two weeks ago she started sleeping with Teddy, her bear. (We have such original names, Eden’s toy dog is Puppy.) I’m not sure where she got the idea to make her bed every morning because, well, we don’t. I’ve just never been much of a bed maker in my life and since it doesn’t bother Jon it doesn’t bother me, unless company comes over and then I pull up the sheet so it looks a little nicer.

I think her bed making is adorable.

Lilah is also obsessed with taking pictures. If I’m taking a picture she wants to take a picture. It’s fun and annoying at the same time. Eden also likes to take pictures now, which just makes it a little more difficult.

Here’s a picture Lilah took of Eden and me on the couch.

Here’s a picture Lilah took of Teddy on the floor. I just resized this one because I love the shadow in the corner because her finger was over the flash and her skirt and toes in the bottom of the frame.

Lastly Lilah has taken to making sure I have something to bring me comfort. A few nights ago Eden offered me Puppy to sleep with but in the end decided she wanted him for herself. Lilah then decided that I should have something to comfort me and gave me her ladybug blanket, which is her favorite of the two she has. She’s done this for a few nights now, except maybe one. Also yesterday on our drive to church she gave me her blanket, while she had Teddy for the drive. She’s also drawn me a picture of Teddy to bring me comfort.

The picture of Teddy. (I think he must have gotten a hold of some Just for Men hair dye and been in a very cold place since his extremities are blue.)

She’s a sweety pie sometimes.

Jon recently had his second annual physical. He’s in a lot better shape than last year. He’s lost 15 pounds, got his cholesterol in the good range and is basically a much healthier person.

He’s changed his diet, but has off days where he eats things that aren’t great for him, but that’s the point of off days. They’re days off from the normal healthy diet. He also exercises on our exercise bike pretty regularly. (Sometimes more regularly than others, but who am I to judge since I call bringing in the groceries exercise. Not really, but in reality that’s my biggest workout.)

I on the other hand do not get physicals, but I can tell you I don’t have breast cancer since my OBGYN is the only doctor I see once a year. Oh, I also don’t have glaucoma, well I may, but I’ll find out Thursday.
I have also gained 5 pounds since buying our scale earlier this year. Yuck.

In an effort to at least try to get healthier and happier I was glancing through some community classes at a rec center my girls will be taking dance at. (No more gymnastics. They want to do dance and we’re also changing rec centers. I’m using the dance class as potty training incentive and so far we’ve only had two accidents in two days.)

Back to the main topic. I was looking for a workout class to take but all the cardio kick and other classes were at night, or on Saturdays.  I didn’t want to take away from my evenings or Saturdays. I looked into the yoga classes and they had a morning class that wouldn’t cause me to need a babysitter since Jon would still be home getting ready for work. I knew my friend Sam took a yoga class at the rec center so I asked her about it. She wasn’t currently taking it but was wanting to sign up again for the session coming up. I decided to take the plunge and signed up for the class.

It’s not a quick weight loss class, like a cardio class would have been since I do zero exercising, but yoga does help with muscle strength and overall health.

The only problem, it’s at 6 am. Like, in the morning and I do not wake up before 7 am, and that’s only on very rare occasions.

I’ve been wanting to change my schedule. I’ve been wanting to wake up early and get my days started. I stay up late and sleep in to avoid house work and other things. I use sleeping as a escape mechanism from the things I don’t want to deal with.

So my new goal is to wake up early and begin my day so I’m ready for my children and they’re not occupying their time with TV or coloring while I catch up on sleep.

I hope to create a more harmonious home and happier place to be. I’m not crazy about housework, but I know I can keep a better home if I devote a little more time.   I often hit walls where I don’t know what to do with the papers that need to be filed or I can’t seem to find a place to store something.
I hate to throw away the girls artwork but I don’t have time to scan or take pictures of everything they draw, especially since we get anywhere from two to twelve pictures from them in a single day.  I get overwhelmed and bored with the gross monotonous jobs, like cleaning blinds and washing down walls that always look dirty.

I know if I successfully want to get up for my early Yoga class I’ll need to go to bed early and wake up early, even on the days I don’t have yoga. This will give me plenty of time to clean since there will be fewer television shows and blogs to take up my time. (I use TV and the computer as an escape mechanism also.) I may even venture to use our exercise bike or my pilates videos that are gathering dust. Waking up early will also give me more time with Jon and time to prepare for my days.

I admit I have a hard time waking up early because I also run out of things to do. I mean there are things to do, but I didn’t want to do them and if I get them done come the middle of the day I have no shows to distract me. I now feel I have more things to do and waking up early is the next solution so there is less rushing. I suppose I could try reading more. Now that I’ve been out of college for nearly two years I should be over my no more reading stage. I think I’ll begin with juvenile fictions that I never read in my youth.

I want to be happier, but sometimes a person doesn’t have the energy to take actions to be happier. It can be hard.
I’ve never had full blown depression, though I know I get down times.

As Fall approaches I want to begin anew. I want to have time to teach Lilah and Eden, rather then leave them to their own devices most of the time.

I don’t want to make excuses anymore. I want to lose weight and have a tidier home.

Most importantly I want to find more joy in my role as a mother. I have joy at times, but I know I can work on it.

I am happy, but I have my unhappy times and they overshadow the good. I want the good to overshadow the bad.

So here’s to waking up for a 6 am class three days a week. I have this next week to adjust to getting up early before the class begins, but I think I might sleep in a few more days. Afterall it’s my last week of sleep before I have to wake up because I’ve paid for a class.

The girls point out different vehicles while we’re driving. School buses are the favorite, city buses are common, delivery man trucks are also fun for them.

Today while entering the freeway I saw a school bus.

Me: “Look girls, to our right, there’s a school bus. Hurry we’re passing it.”
Lilah: “That’s the left.”
Me: “Oh, yeah. That is the left. It’s a good thing you know your directions.”

This is a classic Lacey mistake. For the life of me I cannot get my directions right. I get them correct about 65% of the time,  and the rest I just confuse and anger myself or the people I’m giving directions to.

Countless times I’ve told Jon “Go right” and I’m pointing to the left. I keep telling him that my hands are always correct. Then there are the times I’m not using my hands and I tell him the wrong direction and have to correct myself.  Lastly, there are the times I am telling him the correct direction and he asks me if I’m sure. “Of course I’m sure. I know my left  hand from my right.”  Sometimes.

I’m just glad Lilah has inherited Jon sense of direction, or at least knowledge of the right from the left. I actually have a better sense of direction when we’re driving. It just gets lost in translation.

I have too many pictures to look through so that’s gonna wait, but so I can remember parts of the trip I’m doing the journal post now.

Saturday was the day of the actual reunion. We got to my Aunt Pat and Uncle Don’s house fairly early, or around noon. My father has one whole brother and three half sisters and one half brother. I met a lot of my cousins, many of whom I never knew existed. Most of them are a little older than I, by at least eight years. Some have children just seven years younger than me. Most of them grew up in Idaho, Oregon, or Washington. Places we never visited since they’re so far, and for other reasons such as by the third day of traveling my father would be completely annoyed with all of us kids, there are six of us. I’m sure the thought of being in a car for that long was probably too much. I am slightly grateful because trips to Utah were hard enough on me. I had to sit up front between my parents in our station wagon, since I was the youngest and smallest, until I was around twelve.

Sharma, my cousin Don Jr.’s wife, kept the kids occupied with different crafts. They decorated a folder to put the crafts in, made bookmarks, necklaces, etc. After we ate she gave the kids bubbles and side walk chalk to occupy them. Then even later in the day she organized the egg run races for the kids and adults.
I lost.
Lilah participated in two races. One with all the kids and one with the six and younger children, since the older kids were winning a lot. For the first race they had to run the whole length of the yard. For the second race they only had to run half the length of the yard. She ran the whole length and one of the cousin’s child suggested she get an award for the extra effort, so she got a pen that had both blue and red ink to it.

Eden was doing her own thing for most of the day. She also hung out with Amarah, my Uncle Mike’s granddaughter who is just two weeks older than her. I have pictures of them trading bubbles. They were really cute. She did the second egg run and  lost like her mother.

Each family was in charge of a skit,  song, or some activity. My Uncle Don had a quiz which you matched the fact with a person from his family. We had the girls, and I helped, perform the Wheels on the Bus. (I was going to do Oh Hey Oh Hi Hello, but we needed the CD and the wheels song had actions and more people could join in so I thought it would take the pressure off. ) The girls did really well. I wish I would have had someone record it, but I forgot.
My aunt Mary’s family dance to the Village People’s YMCA. Aunt Marcia’s family did a little skit where a cousin was placing their family members pretending to be trees, birds, the sun etc, and called it the gathering of the nuts. My Aunt Cheryl and her daughter sang to a Judd’s song and Uncle Mike did karate, while two of his grandchildren were to shy to demonstrate with him.

We had Christmas in August so everyone brought an age and gender appropriate gift. My Uncle Don was in charge of that and wasn’t taking any initiative on what or how to trade gifts, so I took the initiative and got them organized for the different ages and genders. He says he’s a good supervisor, but I think he needs to work on how to motivate his workers.

I liked meeting all these new family members and the girls had fun, despite some clinginess they had towards me. I’m sure all the people didn’t help. We had around 26 adults and about 25 children under the age of 18. It was busy.

I felt a little like the odd one out. My cousins that are my age didn’t come up, and everyone else was older than me or younger by at least seven years.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at my Uncle Don’s house and then headed over to the cemetery where my grandma is buried. It was wet from a morning rain and the mosquitoes were out so after a few pictures  my mom and I packed us and the girls back into the car. I had to keep swatting mosquitoes off of Eden’s legs and Lilah had one land on her finger. I got two out of my three bites that morning and luckily the girls were never bit enough to get a bug bite.

We traveled back to Ely on Sunday. We followed my Uncle Mike to Twin Falls, ID and ate Taco Bell with him, my Aunt Robin, and their three grand kids. My Aunt Robin had a new puppy, some very small breed so it was only 4-6 lbs. Lilah adored the dog and since they shared a balcony with us at the hotel so we snuck over there and held the puppy at night. Eden warmed up to the puppy, but since it still liked to nip and chew on people she was weary of her.

My dad hurt his ankle as we were leaving the hotel Sunday morning so we stayed at Andrea’s house while my parents got a ground floor room at the motel in Ely, our original room was upstairs and the only room that had three beds to it.  Eden was not happy and wanted to  go to the hotel. She eventually got over it and was fine sharing a room with Zarina and Lilah.

I stayed up talking with Andrea and Brien till nearly midnight and then slept on their couch. We all got up a little after 8 am, or when Zarina started making noises, and my parents showed up shortly after that.

After getting fed and ready to go we stopped and fed the ducks, geese and swan at a fountain area in Ely. The girls love feeding the ducks.

We took the long way home through Caliente, opposed to going through Lund. We stopped and ate lunch and then let the girls watch another movie for the drive home.

We got in around 4:30 and Eden fell asleep right as we got to town. The little stinker did not want to take a nap. I had her wait 20 minutes before she could draw after the movie was done and since she stayed awake I gave her the items to draw with and then magazines to look at. She was being stubborn, but maybe it was because she missed daddy.

Lilah told Jon lots of things that happened and then once Eden was awake she also told Daddy what we did on the trip.

I think I’m good for any long car rides for a while.