September's Post

Would you look at that, it's the last day of the month. You know what that means, right? It's time to do your visiting/home teaching! It also means that it's time for my monthly blog-a-rama.

First item of business: This whole kid thing is turning out to be quite time consuming. Those little whipper-snappers are busy people. I've never been a real proactive mom with extra-curricular activities. There are several reasons that are boring, but this year they're in stuff. Addie and Aani are in tumbling (which they love), Anders and Addie are taking piano lessons (which they love- What up Heather!), Anders has been doing soccer (oy), and signed up for the ballroom dance team at school. Seriously, who is this child? Here's what happened: a girl in his class wanted to be on the team, but for obvious reasons not many boys just go and sign up for the ballroom dance team. The girls who want to be on the team have to recruit a boy. This girl asked a few boys who said no, but Anders said yes. I was shocked when he told me. Anders gets embarrassed when I catch him singing along to the radio, so it's hard for me to imagine him dancing with a girl in front of an audience. It also means he can't be in chess club because they meet at the same time. So yeah, shockaroonie. But I'm excited to see his moves in a few months.

Anyway, life is busy, and someone always has to be somewhere. Callings are keeping us busy, kids are keeping us busy, and work keeps Nils busy 24/7. Back when he was in school, we used to dream about the day that he could come home from work and just be home. That is hilarious. I don't think that day will come ever. On a happy note, his job is going great and they're growing like crazy. They're up to 15 employees, yizz'all. Too legit to quit.

Alright, so I thought this was cool- for the last several months our ward has been building a temple out of popsicle sticks. Sticks were earned by temple attendance, indexing, having temple related FHEs, visiting temple grounds, writing in journals, having a picture of the temple in your room, etc. Everyone from primary kids on up participated. Over 2,000 sticks were used to complete it. Today the finished temple was revealed, and it's awesome! The High Priest Group Leader had this idea and did all of the work of collecting numbers and constructing it (with the help of primary kids on Sundays). What a great example of going the extra mile and helping inspire everyone to be excited about temple work. Super, super cool. Thank you, Bro. Galloway.

This is a pic of when we took the kids to the Draper temple so they could have a picture of themselves in front of a temple. They were being goofballs as usual. Anders was folding his hands on purpose in this picture to try and look pious and reverent while his sisters were being maniacs. Funny boy.

So in case you missed this on Facebook, Nils and our friend Dusty decided to take on the Sean's Smokehouse challenge this weekend. It is 8 hot wings covered in Ghost Chili sauce. Apparently, a ghost chili is the hottest chili on earth. The challenge is to eat all 8 wings- no wiping your face and no drinking. Then when you're done eating the wings, you have to sit for 5 minutes without drinking, wiping, barfing or dying. If you complete this challenge, you get your money back ($14) and get your picture on The Wall of Flame. Those who can't finish get their pictures on the Wall of Shame. 

Nils ate almost 5 wings before he almost passed out and puked in a bowl. He was sweating profusely, dripping snot, tears streaming down his face and shaking uncontrollably. Doesn't that sound like fun? He told me that it felt like an out of body experience. Yes, so does dying.

Good times at Sean's Smokehouse! But really, their food is delicious, so you should totally go there and get the food that doesn't kill you. 

So as I was holding the bowl that Nils was puking in, I said, "You're so stupid." I know that wasn't very nice, but it was so gross. Throw up makes me say mean things. Especially when the throw up costs $14 and is in the middle of a restaurant on a Friday night. And, I was in the middle of eating my smoked turkey salad, and it made me lose my appetite. But I totally wiped the snot off his face after he was done to make up for my rudeness.

Nils, I love you and I'm sorry I said you're stupid. I don't think you're stupid. I think you're really smart.

P.S. Dusty's picture is on the Wall of Flame. That guy can eat anything and survive.

Peace out.

Stuffnstuff

School:

School started last week for Anders and Addie. Aani started kindergarten on Tuesday of this week. Ava  has cried and cried every day that Aani has left for school. "I go school too!" Super sad.

Anders' 4th grade teacher is very nice, but it's not the party-every-day that 3rd grade was. A lot more homework, a lot higher expectations. I'm fine with that, I just hope that they're able to mix some fun in there so school doesn't become a total drag. Quoth he, "School is so boring now." Fractions and decimals. Shudder.

Addie's teacher from first grade now teaches 2nd grade, and by some stroke of luck Addie got her again! Hoorah! Addie loves to read and talks all the time about  how much she loves to do math. "MORE MATH!", she says. Maybe she was switched at birth. Or, perhaps she got the very recessive math gene that neither Nils or I have ever had access to.

Aani's teacher is nice-ish. Not too sure about her yet, but Aani's excited to go to school every day and hasn't come home in tears or anything, so as long as teach is good with the kids, I don't care if she's a teensy bit awkward with adults. Heh-heh.

Summer:

The kids had a great time playing with friends, eating inordinate amounts of otter pops, playing in water, selling lemonade and cookies on the corner, watching Netflix. They also really enjoyed cleaning up the messes they made. "Thanks, mom! We love cleaning! You're the BEST!"

I made that last part up.

We had a family reunion in Heber which was lovely, then in late July/beginning of August our little fam rented a loft type house for the weekend in Smithfield. We went to Bear Lake and hung out in Logan for a few days; we swam, went to the li'l zoo, ate cupcakes, etc. Mmm, cupcakes.

I took the kids to Kennecott Copper Mine one day. That really is something you only need to do once in your life. I've done it twice now. Yup, it's a big hole. The kids liked it well enough, but they liked stopping at the gas station on the way home to get a donut even more.

Voles:

Our yard has been infested with voles. What is a vole, you say? It's like a big, stupid, ugly mouse that acts like a gopher by digging holes and tunnels in your grass and eating everything it possibly can. They also reproduce at an alarming rate and should be shown no mercy. Our back yard has been ravaged by them, in spite of Nils shooting them with a BB gun, wacking them with PVC pipes, trying to drown them out of their tunnels, etc. We were hesitant to use poison, since the poison will kill lots of things besides voles- like dogs, cats, neighbor kids, etc. Anyway, we have had to resort to it, so here's hoping the voles are rotting. Yay!

Memories:

So in trying to dig information out of my kids about how school was, etc., I was thinking about my elementary years, and have had some funny random memories pop up. Like the time I was in 3rd grade, and there was a girl in the school who all of a sudden had a new sister, but she wasn't really her sister... but you know how 3rd graders have a limited ability to explain things that are somewhat complex... I think she must have been a foster kid or something, because she wasn't around for that long. Anyhoo, we were at recess playing on the field, when this new sister grabbed me by the shirt and gathered it up in her fist so she could get in my face and said to me, "You wanna knuckle sandwich?" and I was like, "Um, no?" The thing was that I was like a foot taller than her and could have taken her to lunch and given her her own dang knuckle sandwich. I've often wondered what happened to that girl. I wish I could remember her name so I could Facebook stalk her. Knuckle sandwich, indeed.

Close to home

We got a sad e-mail from Anders' teacher this last weekend. One of his classmates passed away in an accident while camping with his family last week. It is incredibly tragic, and I can't express how much my heart aches for his family. I was sick to my stomach trying to think of how to tell Anders. He was shocked and cried, of course. Over the weekend a lot of the parents responded to the e-mail, and Mrs. Burgon, their teacher, arranged for the kids to come to her classroom today to be with each other and play and talk about whatever they needed to. It was a great experience for them to see each other, and really quite amazing to hear them talk about their friend Tyler, who passed away. This group of kids spelled out "Tyler Hatch is awesome!" with math blocks, totally independent of any adult interaction, while they talked about him and how they all felt when they found out what had happened.

Since Anders is part of this program, he keeps the same classmates through 6th grade. Mrs. Burgon, being their first teacher in the program, does an incredible job of making the class like a family, helping them learn to include everyone, learning that everyone is special, a hero, a friend, etc. so that they carry that through the rest of elementary school. It's awe-inspiring. I asked her today if she could just move up with this class and be their teacher forever. She said she would, but the 4th grade teacher won't quit. Ha ha! I admire her so much and could tell that she's taken this news really hard. She said that she almost quit teaching the year before last, but gave it one more try and got this group of kids, which she said has been the best group ever and made her realize that she could keep teaching. I tried to express to her how much of a difference she has made in the lives of all her students. I know she has made a difference with Anders. He LOVED 3rd grade. He was challenged in positive ways, was never bored and has made great friends.

The class is putting together a memory book for Tyler's family, and will sit together as a class at his funeral this weekend. We've been praying for them, that they will find peace and healing through this. I hope they will feel the love of the community and friends and that it brings them some comfort.

Nils and Katrina do 13.1... again

Remember last time we did this, and I wanted to quit the last mile (but I didn't, by golly), but then when it was over I wanted to do it again and see if I could figure out how to not want to quit the last mile? You do? Aw, how sweet of you.

We ran the Utah Valley Half Marathon on Saturday. It is a fab race. I use the term "race" loosely, since I don't hope to beat anyone. 7 miles down beautiful Provo Canyon, then six down University Ave. in Provo- pretty nostalgic for li'l ol' me. The weather was perfect, it was shady for 99% of the canyon run, and even running down University was pleasant because of the cool, but not cold temperatures. 

Facts:

• We beat our last time by over 2 minutes. Hoorah!
• At mile 10, my quads started to cramp and charly horse. I really felt good besides that, so I prayed for the last 3 miles. I prayed and prayed that I would be able to keep going and my legs wouldn't knot up. They had spasms the rest of the way, but didn't knot up. Overall, I felt waaaaaay better than last time, I just have to figure out all of these little annoyances that slow me down.
• Gu does not give me a stomach ache! Hoorah!
• Nils felt awesome the whole way. So awesome that when we got home, he signed up for the Deseret News MARATHON on July 24. I will not be participating with him.
• It's dorky to wear your race shirt on race day, but seriously, I'm not going to wear it around town so I don't really get that. Anyway, we're dorky so whatever.
• Nils is nice and runs slow with me, so I'll be curious to see how fast he runs the marathon.
• As we were getting close to the finish line, all these people were cheering like crazy, because the winner of the marathon was coming right by us. It feels good to get lapped by 13.1 miles. No it doesn't, that guy is a FREAK! But really, ya know, good for him.
• I was sick all week with the stomach flu, and Friday night I was cursing myself and my lack of intelligence in doing this stupid thing, having to wake up at 3 in the morning, etc. Why is this sort of thing appealing? Why? Anyway, I didn't want to NOT do it, because I paid 70 bucks to torture myself and roped Nils and my friend Jenny into it. So lame. 

Okay, so overall I'm pretty pleased with how it went. I really felt like complete crap all week, and I didn't do very well training for it. The longest run I did was like 8 1/2 miles, so the fact that I felt stronger and beat the last time is pretty swell. And yeah, I want to do it again, but I really can't figure out why. 

This race is really awesome. It was very well organized and the course could not be better. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in this sort of nonsense.

Right before the start. I like to call this, "We got three hours of sleep and we're idiots!"

Don't know what's going on with my hand, but I was semi-delirious, so I need to not be judged.

Mr. "I don't need to train for a marathon." Unbelievable. 

I get weepy for teachers

Ah yes, another school year has drawn to a close. My goodness, I can hardly believe it. This year has been just plain fantastic. The last couple of weeks of school I kept feeling all weepy and gratitude-filled. Anders and Addie both had teachers who went above and beyond, and I just can't get over it. The time and energy it takes to simply show up and teach every day is astounding, but these teachers obviously spend countless hours outside of school planning, preparing, and investing personally in each of their students for no extra money. Man, it makes me weepy just thinking about it. Thank you to these wonderful teachers, for helping my kids love school and love learning. What a gift they give.

Addie and Mrs. Richins, who sent Addie a postcard during Christmas break, and then dropped by our house the day after school got out to bring Addie her pumpkin plant...I could go on. Seriously, I love her.

Anders with his last day of school mohawk, and Mrs. Burgon with her last day of school colored hair. I don't even think they coordinated that- what a pair! She is the kind of teacher that every child would have in a perfect world.  I can't say enough!

 Here is Aani's preschool class. They're so freaking cute, I can't even handle it.

Off to kindergarten next year. WHAT?!

Now we just have to figure out how to stay happy and busy for the summer! So far the kids have art camp and karate during June. All I can say is they better have their black belts by the end of the month, or I'm demanding a refund from those community ed people. Word 'em up.

The Day I Met My Internet Friend

Over 4 years ago, I met Mary Ann, from Rochester, NY through ye olde blog. She left a nice comment on a post I had written about one of the best books ever written, These Is My Words. I figured that if she liked that book, she had to be a nice person. So we've become friends via blogging for the past few years. Pretty cool, right? She called me a few months ago and told me she was coming to Salt Lake to go to the Family History Library, but I know the REAL reason she came was so we could meet and spend a day together. Tee-hee!

She agreed to let me pick her up in Salt Lake and drive her all over tarnation. I mean, what if I were a psychopath? I picked her up and we went to church. Then she had the guts to go to my mom's house for a Vander Werff family dinner. Wow, what a gal! I have to say, she is one of the nicest, loveliest people I know. I felt totally comfortable with her, like we've been friends for years and years. We chatted away in the car; actually, I'm pretty sure I just blabbed my head off the whole time. Nils and the kidders took to her right away and were sad when I had to drop her off that evening. It was a fun day that went by in a flash.

Thank you, Mary Ann, for trusting that I wasn't a sociopath and spending a lovely day with our crazy family! We look forward to seeing you again and again.

What happened in Aprilish

What? I'm blogging? Yeah, that's right, baby. It has been quite a month. All sorts of junk's been goin' down round here. 

3 things happened to Addie this month: 

• She got her ears pierced. We were at the mall buying stuff for Anders' pinewood derby car, and I said, "Hey Addie, wanna get your ears pierced?" She was like, "Um, maybe?" and I was like, "Okay! Let's go!" Then I told her she didn't have to and it was her decision, of course, but oooh! Look at the pretty earrings! Long story short, she went through with it, but I felt bad afterward because I think I was living vicariously through my child, as I wanted nothing more than to have my ears pierced when I was 7. And the experiment of motherhood continues. She likes her earrings now, and my guilt has eased. 
• She lost her first tooth. Hooray, hooray! Her adult tooth started growing in before the baby tooth even fell out. The tooth fairy gave her a buck.
• She broke her collarbone. She was swinging her legs back and forth, with one hand on the kitchen table and one hand on the windowsill. She slipped and fell forward, landing on her shoulder. She's doing great, she just has to wear her splint for a couple more weeks.

Anders has started the orthodontic process. All of our children are doomed since it seems they inherited my ridiculously small mouth. He's got spacers in his molars now, and will have an expander put in next month, along with braces on his front teeth. All of this is no fun, and he claims that he doesn't care that his teeth are crooked. Yeah, well, you're welcome, future Anders with straight teeth. You are WELCOME.

Aani continues to be her wacky little self. She has to play with friends every day, or the day is an utter failure. She is very lucky to have a plethora of little girls her age around the neighborhood to play with. Her preschool group is ending in the next couple of weeks, which is crazy and sad. My last turn was a couple of weeks ago, and it was really cute to see how the kids have become a good little group of friends, and really have the drill of preschool down. I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids and moms to do this with. 

Ava is a complete nut. She figured out how to climb out of her crib, so now she gets out whenever she pleases. Sometimes this is at 3 in the morning, and I have the bejeebers scared out of me when she's breathing in my face in the middle of the night. She climbs all over the place all day long. She can pull herself up on the kitchen counters and get herself a cup. It's so not cool. She loves chocolate milk and pronounces it "chotnit noot". 

Nils and I got strep throat at the beginning of the month. I was sicker than a dog and thought I might pass away. Nils felt sickish, but he was still functional. How does that work? Anyway, that knocked us back a good couple of weeks. Then we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We ate at Zupas, which is really all I need in life. Nils and Zupas. And our children.

Okey doke, here are some pictures, in no particular order.

Aani and Ava do this pose every time we walk into the gym, and they see the picture of the guy below. It's super awesome when they block the way of other people trying to walk into the gym. It's funny and I refuse to stop them. 

The inspiration for my yoga girls.

Anders finished out the year of chess club with a couple of tournaments. It's funny to watch elementary school kids play chess and talk smack to each other. "Check. Check. You're blocked in. Check mate."

Addie's freshly pierced ears. 

I helped serve cheesecake at a wedding reception. For whatever reason, the powers that be didn't want the cheesecake served until the last half of the reception, and since this is Utah (where you go to a reception, shake hands, get a snack and leave) people were confused. Finally, a 90-year old man got up and served himself a piece of cheesecake. Oh man, it was fuuu-nny. 

Took the kids to Culver's for lunch over spring break. Such cute little stinkers.

Addie getting her x-ray for the collarbone. She was scared and wouldn't open her eyes. She also wore her bunny ears for this entire process.