End of Year Wrap-Up

Holy crap, another year is over! Aside from our vehicle drama/trauma, 2013 was a pretty good year for us Rasmussons. We're blessed in many ways.

Here are a few pictures to round out the year:

Thanksgiving Point Pilgrim 5k on Thanksgiving. Oodles of fun! I haven't run a 5k in many years, and I loved how fun it was! Almost everyone wore the ridiculous costumes that were provided, hats & bonnets and all. People were much less serious than in a marathon/half marathon situation. I ran it with my sister-in-law Amy and nephew Jon. Good times, indeed.

Ava turned 4! She got this Sofia the First coloring doll from her cousin, and she would watch the show with her Sofia for a few days. Then Pip ate Sofia's arm off, and that was the end of that.

Love this silly girl.

Christmas piano recital for A's 1-3. They all like piano lessons because they have a fabulous teacher (not pictured), who makes it fun for them. She bribes them with candy and prizes. It totally works!

Addie's class play, "Character Matters". I could sing some of the songs for you if you want.

Addie and her friend, who has the same last name as us, just spelled differently. Whenever I go into their class to help, I pretend like she's my long lost daughter. She plays along, but she probably thinks I'm just really weird.

Anders' class performed "A Christmas Carol", and Anders was Bob Cratchit. It was a lovely, TWO-HOUR long play. The kids did awesome, and I have no idea how their teacher was able to pull it off. Teachers, I tell ya, they're super-human.

I got hit one morning while taking Aani to school. I was really excited when I saw the truck sliding toward me- I had visions of it being totaled, and all of our prayers being answered on how to get rid of this thing. Alas, totaled it is not. However, we're going on week three of it being in the shop, and I've been driving a Dodge Caravan rental. I must admit, I'll be happy to get my Odyssey back. I am a Honda lover, even if this one has given us some trouble.

My little heart swelled with love as I took this picture of the refrigerator in the middle of the kitchen. The water dispenser stopped working, which is kind of a big deal, since I much prefer to drink water out of the fridge. After a couple of days, I asked Nils if I should call a guy to come fix it, as I know he would never permit that sort of nonsense. My own personal Handy Manny had it fixed in a half hour. Swoon.

Nils came downstairs one day to "work out" with me. He's got to fuel those muscles while he's building them. Obviously Coke is a natural accessory to exercise.

Seriously, is this not the most precious Christmas picture you've ever seen? You might be seeing this on a Christmas card next year.

Here's to 2014. May it be a year full of happiness!

This is an update on our amazing lives.

Why hello! The end of November draweth nigh, so a blog post is in order. Thank goodness for phones with cameras, otherwise I probably wouldn't remember anything that has happened. 

A couple of weeks ago, I had a brilliant idea that we should go on a night walk (since it gets dark in the middle of the day now) for FHE. We walked to the park and were having a jolly time, frolicking about on the playground in the moonlight. Nils was chasing Anders, when Anders was suddenly on the ground screaming bloody murder. Turns out he was clothes-lined by a monkey bar that he couldn't see. Because it was dark. He got a black eye, a swollen nose and a nice lump on his neck. The walk home was awesome. Yes, we're good parents.

Anders' latest obsession is with Pokemon cards. I do not understand this at all. I expected it to happen around age 7 or 8, but he didn't even know they existed at that age and I really thought we dodged a bullet. Since school has started this year, something happened to make him love trading cards more than anything else. There are several boys in the neighborhood who are also really into it, and they will spend hours wheeling and dealing. When I pick the kids up from school, he's sitting with a group of kids who are obviously very serious about this business. Yesterday he asked me what I would do if he were to become the Pokemon World Champion. I wanted to say, "cry", but I shrugged my shoulders instead. Please bless that this phase will pass soon. 

He loves school this year. He is like a walking encyclopedia, because his teacher is like a walking encyclopedia, and Anders is just eating it all up. They do all kinds of fun experiments, and the teacher is working magic by letting the kids earn privileges. Anders got straight A's this trimester, which is pretty cool since last year his grades were...not straight A's. 

Addie is learning the ways of being a responsible student. She's learning that doing homework is important. I'm learning that I have to micromanage her to help her learn this. I'm not a natural micromanager, so it drives me nuts. Her grades were not straight A's this trimester. Straight B's are cool, right? She's making lots of new friends in school, and seems to be really happy at the new school.  

She was invited to eat lunch with the principal. She and another girl from her class were both invited, and when I asked her how it went, she told me that when the principal asked them questions, they mostly just laughed. Ah, Dr. T., you must be a patient man.

Her hobbies include playing Webkinz, playing with stuffed animals, writing stories about Bo-Bo McFoe (her signature character) and eating Ritz crackers. 

Aani the little sassy pants is doing well in her Chinese class. She's picking up on all kinds of words and phrases, and loves to demonstrate her ability to count to 100 in Chinese. She needs to look beautiful all the time, and will only wear skirts and dresses ever. She is by far our best eater, and will try almost anything. She also really likes school lunch, which is shocking to me, since Anders and Addie refuse to eat such lowly grub. 

She might be a good eater, but she has been a terrible tooth-brusher. She's the kid that we have to pin down on the floor to brush her teeth while she screams like we're stabbing her. I think she learned her lesson, when at her last dental check-up she had SEVEN cavities. I'm mean (mostly just cheap?) and take my kids to a no-frills dentist, so Aani got to enjoy 3 separate appointments at said no-frills dentist to fill those 7 cavities. She has been an amazing tooth-brusher ever since, letting us brush her teeth for as long as we feel necessary, and she doesn't even scream. Ah, life lessons. As Nils' weird co-worker says, "satisfying times".

 So fun!!

She wanted to be a pink poodle for Halloween, and this was the best this non-crafty mom could whip out. I even sewed, and didn't swear once. 

Ava is going to turn 4 on Sunday. She's a busy little creature. She loves preschool and loves her friend Carson, whom she has informed is going to be her husband. Carson isn't so keen on the idea because he's really busy being a Power Ranger right now, but maybe in a couple of decades they can revisit the plan. They were born on the same day, so it seems that it's meant to be.

Livin' the dream at Menchies.

Halloween 2013

A coupla funnies

Yesterday when the kids and I sat down in church, Ava asked me if it was "happy Mother's Day". I told her no, but a few minutes later she whispered to me, "Happy Mother's Day." I told her thanks. Then during the sacrament, she leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Happy Thanksgiving!" I told her thanks again.

Last night I found my wedding dress at my mom's house, and showed the kids. They wanted me to put it on. I assured them that it wouldn't fit, but decided to give it a shot. Guess what? It zipped up! Granted, I couldn't breathe or move my arms, and it took 2 other people to get it to zip. Ha ha! Aani and Ava then had a great time running around the house in my veil.

Fun fact: My wedding dress cost $65.

The trip we took in July

As you may well know, we took a cross country road trip in July. The catalyst for this trip was to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant, in which my brother and his family were cast members. Since Palmyra is just a 5-hour hop, skip and jump away from Connecticut, where Nils grew up and where his sister lives still, we thought it best to revisit the old stomping grounds while we were in the vicinity. While in New York, we stayed with the wonderful Lockes, whom we met via the interwebs all those years ago. They are the nicest people ever, and put up with our crazy crew with much kindness.

We took tens of thousands of pictures. After 10 days of picture taking, Addie was physically incapable of smiling for anymore pictures. I can't possibly post them here, but if you really want to see some of them, here is a link!

http://flickr.com/gp/82175265@N00/6y83Tg/

Trip highlights:

In CT:

• Stayed with the magnificent Saren and Randy, who were amazing hosts and put up with us for almost a week longer than expected, thanks to our van issues.
• Visited Nils' hometown of Winsted. We saw all of his schools, old house and old haunts, and ate at Kent Pizza- a Winsted classic.
• Visited the little house where Nils and I lived when we lived in Colebrook, CT, which is code for "in the middle of the woods". Going back, I couldn't believe we lived there. 
• Went to Hamonasset Beach, on the Long Island Sound and had a fabulous day.
• Went to NYC for a day, where we saw the Statue of Liberty, Central Park and Times Square, all in the span of 6 hours. We rode the subway and the kids got a great little taste of NYC.

In Rochester:

• Went to Niagara Falls and rode the Maid of the Mist.
• Went to a baseball game in Batavia, where it was Mormon Night.
• Went to the Strong Children's Museum.
• Went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and Sacred Grove.

We had a wonderful time visiting all of these fun places and seeing people we love. However, the one thing that our kids will not shut up about is FRIENDLY'S! Friendly's is a restaurant with greasy food and yummy ice cream, and it is only in the East. We wanted to take the kids there, because it is nostalgic. We had no idea that it would be the highlight of their trip. Aani has said hundreds of times since we've been home that next year for her birthday, she wants to drive to Friendly's. We'll be driving along and suddenly she or Addie will moan, "I miss Friendly's!" 

We went there twice while we were there- once to expose the children, and once on the night before we left, you know, for old time's sake.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. They were so happy to be at Friendly's.

I have titled this picture, "Drowning our Sorrows." This was immediately after we picked up our van, and had just paid the mechanic $3,700. It was a 12-scoop sundae with six toppings. We didn't even come close to finishing it.

It's bigger than my head. Mmmm, peanut butter cups.

As a side note, driving for 36 hours is totally doable. All you need is approximately 50 DVDs, lots of candy and snacks, and an iPad or two... or three. Stopping every 2 hours for bathroom breaks is advisable. Also, we packed a cooler and only stopped twice (each way) for meals- everything else we ate from the cooler, and had breakfast at the hotels we stayed at. The kids were so good and really seemed to not mind the 12-hour days of driving. 

The Story of a Minivan

This is long. LOOOOOONG. 

Earlier in the year, we came up with the crazy plan of driving to Connecticut and New York this summer. One of our main worries was driving in our 2004 Toyota Sienna, which was a good minivan, but very basic and with no air conditioning in the back. The thought of driving for 3 days straight without a DVD player or A/C for the kids was quite daunting. We looked and looked and looked for a newer, nicer van. Particularly a Honda Odyssey, since we love Hondas and have always had good luck with them.

After a few weeks, we found one that had low miles, and was listed well below Blue Book. We looked up the Carfax, which was clean as a whistle, test drove it, and everything seemed to check out. About a week after buying it, it started to shake violently when I drove on the freeway. I figured it was the alignment, so I had that fixed and it seemed to improve, so we assumed it would be fine. We had no idea what we were in for. 

We set out on our road trip, and it started shaking again. It shook and shook and shook. It would get so bad that we would have to pull onto the side of the freeway, put it in park and wait for a couple of minutes, and then it seemed to reset. We did that every couple of hours. By the time we were in Nebraska, we were just praying that we would make it to Connecticut, and then we'd get the problem fixed. We also assumed that it was something minor like the rotors. Near the border of Wyoming and Nebraska, one of the wheel wells was suddenly ripped off, which sounded terrible and scared the bejeebers out of everyone. That also made the bumper come loose, so we were stressed the whole time that the bumper was going to fall off at some point. We eventually made it to CT, but we were hobbling. Nils took it to a couple of mechanics the next day, but they were giving him a major runaround. 

A couple of days after we got there, we had planned to go to NYC for the day. It's only a couple of hours away from where we were staying, so we figured the ol' van could handle a short day trip. In hindsight, this was really stupid, but we underestimated what we were dealing with, and we were determined to have all the fun we had planned on! After a couple of mini breakdowns on the side of the freeway in Queens, (and getting a nice lecture/history lesson on George Washington from a cop, who then escorted us to a safer place to break down), we made it to Manhattan. 

When our visit was done and we were trying to get out of the city, again, on the freeway- at 9:00 at night- in the ghetto, the van stopped accelerating and started to smoke. We just sat there and looked at each other. We said things like, "What are we supposed to do?" and "What are you supposed to do when you break down on the side of the freeway in Manhattan at 9:00 at night in a minivan with your four little kids?" We decided that our only option at that point was to pray. We said a prayer, and not a minute later, this guy came running across the freeway to help us. He led us to a gas station, where he and his buddies got us up and running. I will never forget that experience. It was honestly one of the craziest, most surreal moments of my life. In New York City, in a rough part of the city, to put it nicely. Sitting at a random gas station, having strangers work on my piece of crap minivan, my kids climbing all over stacks of tires, running amok, taking my little girls across the street to use the bathroom in a disgusting deli with a guy at the counter who did not look completely with it or stable. I couldn't believe it was really happening, but I felt like everything was going to be okay and that we were being watched out for. The guys working on the van were a bunch of characters, to say the least. One of them wouldn't tell us his name- he said, "Uh, my name? Well, today you can call me Abracadabra!" They were able to fix the immediate problem of the smoking and all, and assured us we would be okay to drive back to CT. 

We made it back without too much trouble, and the next day found a shop that seemed honest and like they knew what they were doing. I swear, every hour they called Nils to tell him something new they found. The transmission mount was broken, and another motor mount wasn't even screwed into place. Thus the shaking, as the motor was never secured. There was a leak in the steering column, a lug nut that was missing and the post was broken off. It needed two new front tires, and there was the the wheel well and the bumper. All of this was adding up little by little, but none of it was too expensive or difficult to fix, so we weren't too worried.

Then came the kiss of death. They had the van running, and it suddenly stalled. The timing belt had broken, which essentially ruined the engine. As it turns out, the genius we bought the van from decided to change the timing belt himself before selling it. The problem is that he didn't know what he was doing, and did it wrong. He put parts on backwards which shredded the belt. We had to have the engine rebuilt on this minivan we had purchased 5 weeks prior. Our repair costs suddenly went from $900 to $3,700, not to mention the fact that we were across the country and without a vehicle for at least a week. 

We stayed with Nils' sister and her husband, who were beyond amazing. They backtracked in NYC to come find us at that gas station and make sure we were safe. They told us we could stay at their house as long as we needed to. We had planned on going to Rochester, and they let us drive their Highlander there for 3 days. Just unbelievably cool and generous about everything. If it hadn't been for them, this trip would have been such a disaster. 

We made it back to CT from Rochester, and had to wait for 2 more days for the van to be finished. It was so frustrating. We had planned to leave for home on a Wednesday from Rochester, but had to backtrack to CT and wait until Saturday to leave. When we were finally able to head out, the van seemed to be driving a lot better and we didn't really have issues. After three days of driving home, we were in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE in Wyoming- 4 hours from home, when the speedometer started to wig out. The needle was jumping all over the place and again, the van would not accelerate. We pulled off the nearest exit, and saw that transmission fluid had leaked all over the place. It was splattered all along the side of the van, and the wheel was coated with it. I looked under the van, and the fluid was just dripping out. I called roadside assistance, who arranged a tow, but let me know that we would have to take a taxi to the shop, since a tow truck couldn't accommodate six people. This was when I started to cry. Nils called the taxi company, who cheerfully told him that they would be happy to give us a ride, for $8 a person, and $3 per mile, each way. They were 60 miles away. This was when I started to cry harder. I mean, really. How much more ridiculous can this situation get? 

We decided to bag the tow. We drove slowly to the nearest town and found a car dealership that had a shop. They topped off the transmission fluid and told us we'd be lucky to make it 10 miles down the road before the transmission went out. By this time I had stopped crying and was just angry. We called our neighbor and asked him to be on call- we might be needing a ride home from Wyoming. Thank heavens for neighbors who are willing to do that kind of crap, ya know? We were going to drive until the transmission fell out. The kids were praying in the back that we would make it home, and by the faith of our little children and driving annoyingly slow, we did. 

We have been home for a month, now. After much deliberating and praying, we have decided to keep this treasure of a minivan. So far the transmission hasn't gone out, and when it does we will get it fixed. This experience was so horrible and stressful, but there are many silver linings. We were kept safe both going to CT and coming home. We were safe in NYC. The timing belt could have broken anywhere, and we would have been stranded in that spot. It broke in the shop in Connecticut, where we had a place to stay, with family to help us out. We were able to do everything we wanted to and see everything we wanted to see. We went to Rochester and saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant, which my brother and his family were in. We had an awesome time staying with and visiting our friends Larry and Mary Ann. Our trip was a blast! 

While everything was happening, we were very aware of all of our blessings. I admit, I started to despair in Wyoming on the way home, but mama can only take so much! 

And that is the story of how a minivan gave me PTSD.

Sweet back to school story

This school year brings some changes for Addie and Aani. Addie was accepted into the A.L.L. program at the same school that Anders has been attending for the last two years. Addie really didn't seem to care one way or the other, but we've been very happy with our experience with Anders, so we decided she would do it.

We tried unsuccessfully to get Aani into the very popular Spanish Immersion program at our neighborhood school. Not long after we found out she didn't get into that program, the school down the road called me and offered her a spot in their Chinese Immersion program. After giving it some thought for a couple of weeks, we decided to go for it. Why not? Any opportunity for her to learn a new language at such a young age is great, I think. She's been excited all summer.

Last night  when we were tucking everyone in, Addie started bawling. She said she felt scared that she wouldn't have any friends, wouldn't know anything about the school and that she would miss Mommy and Daddy (???), etc. We reassured her that everything was going to be fine and she would love her new class, but she was still upset and crying. I suggested that she pray and ask Heavenly Father to help her to not feel nervous or scared, and that she would have a great first day at her new school.

This morning I took Aani to her new school, and Nils drove Anders and Addie to their school. Before they left, I asked Addie how she was feeling, and she said, "I feel better. I think my prayer helped me." Be still my heart! When they got to the school, there was a red carpet going into the front doors, with the faculty standing on either side of it, cheering and giving the kids high-fives as they walked in. It goes without saying that teachers are grossly underpaid, and Utah gets a bad rap for having under-funded schools. I must say, however, I am constantly in awe of the teachers my kids have had, and what they are able to do with the resources they do have. Teachers are miracle workers and I love them.

Addie had a great first day of school. She said her current 3rd grade teacher is in a tie with the teacher she had for both 1st and 2nd grades. That is really saying something, because she thought the world of her 1st and 2nd grade teacher. I'm so thankful that her prayer was answered and she was able to recognize it.

Aani had a fun first day, too. She has an English teacher and a Chinese teacher, so her day is split between the two. The Chinese teacher only speaks in Chinese. Aani said she was so funny. She said she had a tomato on her head during class. Can you imagine what this teacher has to do to keep the kids' attention while only speaking Chinese? Bless her.

Anders seemed to have a good day as well. His teacher is a man, which is a first for him. Anders seemed pretty impressed with everything he did prior to becoming a teacher. His classmates are mostly the same from the last 2 years, so he feels a little less enthused about starting a new school year, I think. And, since he's getting so old, school is less cool and more drool.

Ava is starting preschool in a couple of weeks. What am I going to do with myself for 4 whole childless hours a week? I'll probably do something really awesome. Like clean.

Halfway to 70

Today is Nils' 35th birthday! The following is an example of why I love him:

On Thursday, I called Nils with a small household concern. This evolved into a small honey-do list involving hanging things on walls, etc., which then evolved into, "While we're at it, why don't we just rip up both bathroom floors, paint the vanities, re-paint the walls, frame the mirrors, get new faucets, tile the floors, and put bead board up?"

So that's what we did this weekend. Friday night after we got the kids to bed, we were both scraping up the old linoleum from the bathroom floor. It was fun. I stayed up until about 3 a.m. painting the vanity out in the garage while Nils worked on tiling the bathroom floor. I had to call it around then, I was pretty delirious. Nils stayed up until 4:40 grouting the floor. We got up at 8:30 and were back at it. We worked all day on painting the vanity, painting the bathroom walls, measuring the bead board and chair rail, feeding the kids, making sure they were alive and accounted for a couple of times, etc. We got the bathroom put back together around 8:00 last night, and it looks awesome. And we did it together! It was fun and exhausting and our house was a total disaster, and the kids were orphan-like, wandering the neighborhood like little scoundrels.

Most things are fun with Nils. I love him. He's my bestie, and I love to be with him. He works hard at making me happy. If things aren't right between us, he's usually the first to acknowledge it to see what needs to change to fix it. Nils is a lot different than me in a lot of ways. He has an inherent need to be productive and creative all the time and always has a project going on. I just need a clean house and a good meal and I'm pretty happy. 

Anyway, I'm really thankful for him and the good man he is. He's so good to me, and I don't think I could have a better match. So thanks for all of that, Nilsy Nils. Happy birthday to you.

P.S. I'm sorry for not getting you a present. Maybe we can eat your cake in our new bathroom!

P.P.S. Aren't you so excited to do the other bathroom next weekend!? 

I can talk about Ragnar like it's a distant memory now.

Nils and I were invited to be on a Ragnar team back in November. Sometimes, when you find out about something 7 months in advance, it sounds like a lot of fun. But then as the time draws closer and closer, the more you realize that said thing might actually cause you pain and discomfort and chafing. Lots and lots of chafing.

I'm pretty sure almost everyone knows what Ragnar is, but if you don't, here's a brief synopsis: A 200-mile relay split between 12 runners. The team is divided into 2 vans of 6 people. Each runner runs 3 legs of the relay. Runners 1-6 (van 1) complete their first legs, then hand off to runners 7-12 (van 2), while van 1 rests for a few hours. And so it continues until everyone has run their 3 legs and the race is done. The Wasatch Back Ragnar goes from Logan to Park City and is beautiful.

We had an awesome team of fun, supportive people. When we weren't running, supporting one of our runners, eating, rolling sore muscles, eating Advil like candy, patching up blisters, or crying about being chafed in places that you should never be chafed (wait- was I the only one who did that?), we were laughing our heads off. 

Nils was runner 1, so he started us off at 5 a.m. in Logan. His legs were 7.75, 8.2 and 5.something. He did great, but managed to get a triple-deep blister as big as his heel. He didn't get any bloody nipples, though.

I was runner 6. My legs were 6.9 miles, 8.2 miles, and 2.1 miles. My first leg was mostly downhill on a rocky, rocky dirt road. My second leg was a lot harder, being uphill most of the way. The first 5 miles were actually amazing. The terrain was not bad at all and it was really beautiful. After that, however I was kind of a mess. My legs were knotting up and I kept getting a charly horse in my hamstrings. When I only had a mile left, I had to squat down on the road and think about what I was going to do, because I really couldn't move. I had eaten part of a GU a few minutes before, and that kicked in in the knick of time and I felt great running the last mile. 

Once I was done with that leg, it was about 10:00 p.m. and time for our van to go sleep. We drove to a high school in Coalville (it's okay, I don't know where that is, either) where we could sleep on wrestling mats on the gym floor. Walking into that gym was one of the strangest things I have seen. I was expecting it to be a party. It was dead silent, with hundreds of people lined up like corpses on the wrestling mats. Everyone was so tired. I was a wreck. I was sick to my stomach and hurt like I have never hurt before. Nils decided to go eat a spaghetti dinner in the cafeteria. He said it was the best food he's ever eaten, but we now know that he was just delirious and starving to death. We got to "sleep" for about 3 hours, and it was time to get up and run again. Since Nils was runner 1, he had to be ready to jump out of the van and start his leg as soon as runner 12 was done. Runner 12 was going a lot faster than we were prepared for, so we were racing to the hand-off location, thinking we were going to miss her. We got there RIGHT as she was finishing. I don't even think we stopped the van before Nils jumped out and was on his way. This was about 3 a.m. 

There were about 6 hours in the middle of that night when I was in a bad place. When Nils finished his 3rd leg, I was wrapped in a blanket in the van and looked like an enchilada. I was sleeping like a baby, and Nils recorded the following conversation: 

Nils: Katrina, are we going to do Ragnar in 2014 or ever again?

Me: (Not awake) Noooooo. NOOOOOO!!!

Nils: Glad I got this on video.

My last leg was an easy 2 miles through Heber, and I was so happy to be done.

Running Ragnar was way harder than running a half-marathon, in my humble opinion. I was really surprised by that. I stupidly figured it would be no big deal. I think I'm getting old and senile. It took about 36 hours to realize that it was actually a lot of fun and that I would totally do it again. I would just make sure to stock up on a hefty supply of Body Glide next time 'round.

Nils, all geared up to start the race at 5 a.m.

Me running after him to give him water in Logan. Such a good wife I am.

In the middle of leg 2

Finishing leg 3, hooray!

Our team, "Wasatch Your Back"

I usually think medals are stupid, but I felt like this one was earned. Then we got home and Aani broke it. Whatevs.

I've never slept so good in a sleeping bag. So. Tired.

Hooray for us!

                                      

It's not that I hate your joy, I just want you to pretend to have a little less of it.

Nils has been in Chicago since Sunday morning, so we're done with day 3, with 3 more to go until he's home. I was talking to my friend the night before he left and said that I was fine with him going on trips for work, I just don't want to have to see pictures of the food he's eating or the cool, fun places he's going to. I want him to pretend like he's miserable and can't stand being away from me, even though I know he's not.

So he's been posting pictures on Facebook all week of the food he's been eating and the cool places he's going to.

He called me tonight and was telling me about the fancy restaurant he went to for dinner tonight, and I said something snotty like, "Gosh, I hope you take some more pictures of your food and post it", and he said, "I know you hate my joy", and I said, "I do hate your joy."

Listen. It's the first week of summer break, and I am far from in my groove. We're all in that post-school year haze, where we don't know what to do with ourselves for the next 2 1/2 months. Yesterday I got to take the kids with me to get emissions done and then to the DMV, if that gives you a flavor of what it's like around here. Totes awesome.

So, Nils (and husbands and fathers everywhere whose wives are indignant, like me). Maybe when you post pictures of your authentic Chicago deep dish pizza, you could caption it with something along the lines of, "I'm in Chicago eating this amazing pizza- but all I taste are my tears, since I miss my wife so much and can't enjoy anything without her."

I think I would really like that.

On Busyness not being Happiness (for us)

Addie and Aani have been in gymnastics/tumbling since August. Initially, they were going down the street to a little storefront for tumbling. It took 3 minutes to get there and was right after school, before dinner. In December, the owner decided to close it down, so I signed them up for gymnastics at the Lehi Legacy Center. It takes about 15 minutes to get there, and it's from 5:45-6:45 on Monday evenings. The girls have really seemed to like it, and I've been impressed with the program there. The classes are full to the max, and unless you already have a spot it's almost impossible register, so you have to take what you can get.

The downside, obviously, is that the timing of the class is horrible and it pretty much ruins Monday nights for dinner, FHE and other togetherness time. We'll either eat something really fast before we leave, or, the majority of the time, wait to have dinner until 7:00 when everyone is home. Then we have FHE after dinner, which is sometimes at 8:00- way too late.

Nils and I generally switch off taking them, but last night I was just not feeling like taking my turn. Nils got home from work and looked tired. All the kids were outside playing hide and seek in the cul-de-sac, having a grand old time, and we decided to ask the girls if they were okay skipping gymnastics. Both of them were more than fine with it. Aani said, "That's fine, I didn't want to go anyway."

As we were eating dinner, I asked the girls if they LOVED gymnastics. Aani said, "No." Addie held her thumb horizontally, to indicate she was neutral on the matter (classic Addie communication method). I asked them if they would be super sad if we decided not to do gymnastics anymore. "No!" in unison. I was pretty surprised. I really thought they liked it.

So this is my dilemma. We want our kids to have opportunities to develop talents, be involved in things, and feel like they can participate in activities outside the house with confidence. The trouble is that doing some of these things is a huge sacrifice to family time. I told the girls that if they LOVED gymnastics, we were more than happy to keep doing it. That goes for any activity for any of them. If they absolutely love it and identify with it, we will do what it takes to make it happen for them (within reason, obviously). But if they're doing it because everyone else in the neighborhood is doing it, or because it sounded like a good idea in the beginning or whatever, then I can't justify the sacrifice. Our weeks are jam packed with something every night. We don't have any evenings when we can just go or do whatever. Between homework, scouts, activity days, bishopric stuff, lessons, date night, school performances and other miscellaneous things thrown in there, we feel spread pretty darn thin.

How do you balance it? How do you find happiness in the crazy? We love just spending time at home with our kids, and we're not very happy when there isn't any time for it. I guess I would like to know if the kids not all being in different activities at any given time is going to be detrimental to their future success in life. Pretty sure they're not going to be professional athletes, dancers or musicians, but I do want them to have happy memories of their childhoods. I expect that those are going to be made both ways- at home and by doing things they love outside the home. Just not sure how to make the two work together.

Easter Wienerbration and April Fool's Poo

It's good to be a Vander Werff on certain occasions. One of those occasions is on Easter, when we have what has become the Annual Wiener Toss. After the kids finish with the candy hunt, Uncle Greg (my brother) throws hot dogs off his balcony at the kids below. They might be raw, they might be cooked- you never know what you're going to get. I don't know if there's anything funnier than watching the kids run after hot dogs being thrown at them from above. We can't decide what to call it: the Annual Throwing of the Meat, the Annual Wiener Toss, the Easter Wienerbration? They all sound so nice, I think we should just use them interchangeably.

See? Some cooked, most not.  It's a bucket o' surprises, I tell you!

Nothin' like an Easter basket full of candy and raw wieners! Look at that happy kid!

On April Fool's Day, the day after the Annual Wiener Toss, I had devised a brilliant April Fool's joke to play on the kids. Since we got a puppy, we have had the pleasure of finding poo in random places in the house. It's gross and I hate it, and I have been tempted to kill the dog, or worse, give it away to someone at Walmart. Anyhoo, it's gotten better, but it did provide a platform for my April Fool's joke.

We had a movie night with our neighbors and I baked some brownies. During the movie, I rolled up a brownie into a few little pieces, and they looked exactly like dog poo. I put the brownie poo in the next room, and a few minutes later "discovered" it, and started yelling at everyone that I was going to kill the dog and so on. Everyone came into the room, and Nils asked, "whose turn is it to clean up poo?" The kids all insisted that it was none of their turns, so I said, "Fine, I'll clean it up." I bent down and picked up the brownie poo with my bare hands and slowly put it in my mouth. The grown-up neighbors knew about it, and Nils was in on it, but all the kids were totally fooled.

It may have been one of the greatest moments of my life, watching all those children with their jaws on the floor, thinking that their mother/crazy neighbor lady was eating dog poo. I said, "Hmm, not bad!" Then Nils picked up a couple pieces and ate them. It was great.

Ava asked me for the next two days why I ate poo. Poor, confused girl. Best April Fool's joke ever.

How to get through Sacrament Meeting

I found this list a few weeks ago as I was cleaning out my church bag. This is Addie's guide to Sacrament Meeting. I'm so glad she was able to check so many off during the course of the meeting. This kid cracks me up. I really wonder what's going on in that head of hers sometimes, and love it when I get physical evidence of her funny self.

(^Jason the Egg on a Minecraft pig. ^)

What I've been watching and reading

TV Shows:

I started watching BBC's Sherlock several months ago. I was completely enraptured. I think it's one of the best shows I've seen. There aren't very many episodes, and even though they're 90 minutes long each, it didn't take very long for me to watch all 6 of them. I was sad when I was done. I've seen stuff on Facebook and Pinterest about Doctor Who, and I know a couple of people who are devoted fans. I was hesitant to watch it, because what I had heard of it sounded weird and nerdy.

In desperation for something to get me through my Sherlock withdrawals, I asked a trusted friend if she had watched Doctor Who and what she thought of it. Her words: "Once you get past the weird crap, and aliens eating people, I kinda liked it." Then she told me about her crush on David Tennant (who plays the Doctor for 3 seasons) and how she's in mourning over him not being the Doctor anymore, and I just had to see what all the fuss was about.

So, over the last 4 months or so, I've been watching Doctor Who while I run on the treadmill, and yes. Once you get past the weird crap, and aliens eating people, I kinda like it. I actually really like it. I don't like aliens and all of that, but I LURVE the Doctor, especially David Tennant as the Doctor. There is a good reason that this show has been on the air for 50 years- there's something weird and unexplainable that sucks you in. It's not the aliens, because they're gross. It's the adorable Doctor and his friends that make you care about them. Endure the 1st season (of the new Doctor Who, which starts in 2005), which is campy and weird, but you get to know the premise and characters; then the 2nd season is when it starts getting good, and when you start looking up David Tennant on Wikipedia to see if he's married. It gets better and better as the seasons pass, I assure you.

Nils and I have been watching Friday Night Lights for a year or so, and we're almost done with the series. It's EXCELLENT. Trust me. It seems like it's about football, but it's not really.

We need something else to watch, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to pass them along- and yes, we have watched Downton Abbey. Dang that Matthew.

Books:

"Stoner" by John Williams. It's about a college professer and his ordinary, kind of sad life, but I didn't find the book sad. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The writing is fantastic. No, he's not a stoner. That's his last name, silly.

"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. I listened to this book, which I recommend, as the narrator does a fantastic job. I really enjoyed it. Read the book before you see the movie.

"The Secret Keeper" by Kate Morton. Very good, mysterious story, and a very commendable twist at the end. It's in keeping with her other books, set in England, goes back and forth between the past and present.

"The Distant Hours" by Kate Morton. Ditto to the above. Good book.

"The House at Riverton" by Kate Morton. I didn't really like this one. When I was 300 pages into it, I started wondering when something was going to happen. Just lots of lamenting, fretting about the past, blah blah blah. Then the book finally ends, and the big "twist" is really anti-climatic.

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. I listened to this one- a lot of language, including the f-bomb, but the story is quite compelling. Set in the future, where the world is basically in shambles- people spend their whole lives in virtual reality to escape it. There's a contest, a teenage kid wins... the story of how he does it. It's really nerdy and video-game centered, but it's an interesting commentary on obsession with the online world.

"The Red Prophet" by Orson Scott Card. This is the second book on the "Alvin Maker" series. I listened to this one, as well. It was pretty good. Nils has finished this series and really liked it. I'd recommend listening to them, as I find reading them pretty tedious. The narrators definitely help with that.

Feel free to send along any book recommendations as well. I like lots of genres, just no vampires, por favor.

Puppy, Pancakes, Baptism

We picked up our puppy on January 19. I was terrified. What the heck do you do with a puppy? The first week or so, I was sure we had made a terrible mistake. Getting up with the dog in the middle of the night was not something I enjoyed. Puppies bite everything all the time, including hands, fingers, feet and toes. I didn't like that. For some reason, it didn't occur to me that I would be the one with this puppy 95% of the time. I don't know why that reality eluded me, but it did. Long story short, we've had the dog for nearly 6 weeks now, and she's still alive, I'm still alive, and I'm pretty sure we'll keep her. Her name is Pip. She stalks me. The kids love her to pieces, which I think is why she stalks me. I rescue her from choke-holds on a regular basis.

On Valentine's Eve, Anders said he thought I should get up and make everyone heart shaped pancakes for breakfast the next morning. I said, "Maybe YOU should get up and make ME heart shaped pancakes in the morning." (I'm so nice.) He did. Isn't that cute? He even colored them pink. Speaking of Valentine's Day, I have drawn a new conclusion about the day: if I want to have any sort of tender feelings for my children on Valentine's Night, I can't do school parties during the day. I did two parties back-to-back for Addie and Aani in their classes, and when I got home, I was totally wiped. Once again, I had hoped to have a love-filled dinner, but I was so tired! I did really well to get dinner on the table.

For the 100th day of school, the 2nd graders are encouraged to dress up like a 100-year old. I sprayed Addie's hair white and put it in a bun. She used a huge shoe horn for a cane, and wore some of Nils' old glasses. She was talking like a little old lady and cracking me up. Addie's always good for a laugh.

Addie was baptized this month. It was very sweet. She acted kind of unsure in the weeks leading up to her baptism, and when we finally got to the bottom of it, she was nervous about everyone looking at her. She did really well and was very happy on her baptism day. She's really a great girl. She's naturally conscientious and responsible. Of all our kids, she rarely has to be asked twice to do something. She hardly argues. It's weird and wonderful. She's a total goof-ball. We love our Addie Paige.

2 Saturdays, 2 Birthday Parties WHAT??

Every January, I mention the extended birthday situation we have here. I mention it because it's traumatic for me. We just get done with Christmas, and 11 days later it's time to start shopping and planning again. I'm not one who loves to plan parties or events. I see these pictures online of people who pretty much plan a wedding reception for their 1-year old's birthday party, and I need a Valium. 

My purpose for documenting this is that I would like to congratulate us on giving Anders and Addie birthday parties on back to back Saturdays. Good job, us. 

Anders' birthday was just a couple of days after the kids went back to school from Christmas break, so he wouldn't have had enough time to pass out invitations at school. We were able to do evites to all his friends, which actually worked out great. 

We had the boys come over for lunch- pizza, what else?

We played Minute-to-Win-it games. It was fun for about 15 minutes, which was problematic, because that's pretty much all we had planned for activities. Heh-heh.

We made a Minecraft cake, due to Anders' obsession with the game. No one was all that impressed with the cake. We tried, okay?

After cake and presents, we still had about 20 minutes until parents started coming, so all the boys gathered together to play Minecraft on our phones, Kindles and iPad. They were all linked together and totally into it, and Nils and I just sat on the couch and shrugged our shoulders.

Anders had a great time and was very happy. Mission accomplished.

The next week it was Addie's turn. Nils made the invitations cuz he's got the skillz. I told him what to say, and he did the rest. Cute, eh?

We had dinner- Hawaiian haystacks, which is Addie's all-time favorite food. 

Then we tried to watch a movie, which we rented from Amazon online. It didn't work. I don't know if it was our internet connection, our TV, or if Amazon's streaming service just isn't that great, but it would play for 30 seconds and freeze up. So annoying.  BUT! Shrinky Dinks to the rescue! We pulled out those suckers, and that kept the girls occupied for over an hour. Tons of fun.

When the girls were done with shrinky dinks, they ran around the house screaming and having pillow fights. Again, we just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.

When I asked Addie what kind of cake she wanted, she said, "Um, could I maybe have a rectangle cake with those candy letters on it?" I was like, "Yes. And you are my favorite child right now." 

I resurrected Heavy Heavy Hangover Thy Poor Head. No one knew what this was. Please tell me you know what this is. The birthday kid has to wish something for each guest after they bonk her on the head with their present. 

We got Addie a new bike, which she can look forward to riding in three months. Ah, the joys of a January birthday. 

By the time the end of Addie's party came, I felt great relief, and we collapsed in bed about 30 minutes later. 

I'm thankful for Anders and Addie. They're great kids. They get along really well and are good friends; I hope that continues forever. Both of their rooms are downstairs, and when I go to wake them up in the morning, more often than not they're both sleeping in the same room. They like to write stories together (Addie is the author and Anders is the illustrator). They like doing crafty junk together and make incredible messes. They both like the same silly books, like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and will read those and laugh and laugh. 

They're also crazy and drive me nuts sometimes, but mostly I love them.