Boulders and Profanity

Tyler and I had a row yesterday afternoon over homework. After a week-long reprieve over Spring Break, homework is the last thing Ty wanted to do. I tried to be understanding.


"I don't like homework. Math is no fun. Maybe in a couple of years I'll like it more."

"I don't think so, Ty. Sit down, please."


"I can't do this right now! Maybe this summer I'll be able to spend more time working on math. I just don't like it."

"I know homework isn't fun and it isn't what you want to be doing right now, but you need to get it done. Please sit down."


"I'm not going to do it!" (Silence)


"You're just rude to me. You make me do my homework on the first day that I have it! I have a whole week to get it done. But you just turn into a boulder and run right over me. And it hurts my feelings! You're so rude!"


I calmly listened to him rage. My heart surged with pride at his ability to describe so uniquely how it feels to be young and full of limitations, rules, parents and homework. I have felt that crushing feeling as a young person. It feels as though you have no freedom. It may be strange, but I am grateful that he can freely (if not quietly) share his feelings and can do so with such imagery.

So, I listened. And then I smiled. And then he smiled. I told him I would try not to be a boulder anymore. And I thought that the worst was over. And then he said the following:

"Well, I'm not going to do this. I don't have to! I can just throw this homework right into the trash if I want. What do you think about that?"

***

Spring Break was also full of name-calling. When Emma was busy creating something on the floor, I accidentally stepped backward and ruined her masterpiece.

"Mom! You ... DISHWASHER!"

"Did you just call me a dishwasher? Ouch, Emma."

Noah also told Emma that she was a "Pocket-Head" during one of their squabbles, which caused a surprising amount of tears. Today, Emma called Tyler "Underpants" and I was unable to intervene without laughing. When I mentioned these moments to Chance's Mom, she commented: "I love their profanity." Me, too.




"Love is saying 'I feel differently' instead of 'You're wrong.'"
~ Anonymous

"If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names."
~ Elbert Hubbard

Easter 2009

I love Emma's focus and Noah's excitement.

Mr. President

http://investigatebarackobama.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/obama_magazine_covers_20081.jpg

Our children are so politically savvy. Here are the latest sound bytes about our president around here:


At the computer:

Noah: "Dad, that's Barack Obama!"
Chance: "Where did you learn that?"
Noah: "On the magazine at 7-11."


"Uh....Barack Obama did this." ~ Emma, after writing on her hands with ink pen.

Longing for The Quad

After the gloomiest March in all my years, Spring is here! And the cherry blossoms are everywhere. Cherry blossoms transport me back to my college days - particularly my first year at UW. I was living in the dorms and walked through The Quad every afternoon. When Spring hit that first year, the trees blossomed overnight. After a long day of classes, I began my weary way back toward the dorm. I stepped into the Quad and stopped mid-step. It was breathtaking. That was probably the first week I skipped classes in my college life. A trend that unfortunately became a habit - especially in the Spring. (Um...my old roommates are not allowed to comment about my class-skipping habits as none of you would find that very interesting in the slightest). It was the perfect place for lunch, a nap or reading a novel instead of your statistics book. See (above) all those students lying about on the grass? I was one of those.

I ran across these pictures online. If you've never seen The Quad in the Spring, check these out and then go have a picnic. And I apologize for all the Quad-envy that will follow if you attended a less-worthy institution. Go Huskies!

Pictures:

http://depts.washington.edu/mediarel/galleries/cherryblossoms/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dseidman/2404376331/

http://photos.fairlyindustrious.com/misc/pages/UW%20quad.htm

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWALa0dtPiLoFoPtfcAPIUPnmA6rJvK2VohLoZfitQK0D9fe-iZWGcjFD_w_a6qzD5O4T-CyLRyPul59GvwBLMVIzIn1J-MUvnl77CnynahdXqczM072R3Y4PFfl4PP1691VXL1PIA-aA/s1600-h/UW-Quad_2004-6056tfk.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVzOaQeh01yEoZjgieWYCbsz1LYEFcDzwwRS42aPwxgMy5pOJfroo5q8iSV-uiYOCkFja_pv_E_5a0RxW1rCvPca6jOO3mA0eS-sXW0vaYE8Rb1BZnGTC7M-bEp8IQ6tRG4urBuNT7yF8/s1600-h/UW-Quad-path_6006tfk.jpg

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems."
~Rainer Maria Rilke, 20th Century German Poet

"Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"
~Robin Williams, Comedian/Actor

Tyler's Baptism

Tyler was baptized last Saturday. We are so proud of him! He was extremely nervous about doing so in front of a crowd of people. Thankfully many family and friends attended, which gave him courage, I think. (Chance was nervous, too.) It was a big moment. Earlier in the month I asked him a series of questions designed to see if your child is, in fact, ready to take this step. He blew me away. I am amazed at how much he understands about the gospel at such a young age. Thank goodness for primary teachers. Here is an excerpt from his journal about it:

"I was bathtized. I was so happy. I got the Holy Ghost, too. A whole bunch of people surrounding me. I was so so so so happy. I got to play with my cousin David at the end. All my friends were there and I was a little nervous at the start ... I was happy when I was done." (Some spelling/grammar corrected)

I have to admit that looking at his journal entry was the first time I realized that Tyler referred to it as "bathtism". I found it thoroughly hilarious that after all these months of discussing his baptism and interviews with the Bishop and primary president, no one picked up on this. I love it.

It is surprisingly stressful to plan and prepare for a child's baptism. I'm glad that I have a few years before the next one.

To learn more about our beliefs, please go to the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at http://www.lds.org/ or visit http://www.mormon.org/ to find answers to frequently asked questions.

One Man's Sacrifice

Over the last five weeks we have visited the auto repair shop several times. The people there definitely know Chance by name these days. Before our vacation, we spent around $2000 repairing the van and the Jeep. Not the best way to start out a vacation, but at least our two vehicles were back on track again in good condition.

Or so we thought.

A few days ago, when Chance was driving home from work, the Jeep started smoking/steaming like mad. Thankfully he was not too far from our friendly repairman and was able to coast over to the shop. The kids were quite distressed to see the steamy billows pouring from the Jeep when we arrived to rescue my stranded husband. It turns out the heat core failed/died/blew up and the repair job would be an additional $800. Our other option was to leave it, bypass the heat core and have no heater in the Jeep. Chance and I discussed it. He mentioned that Spring is slowly arriving and shortly it will be Summer. Surely, we can wait on this heat core repair another few months when things aren't so tight. Surely we can do that. Surely. So, that's what we did. We bypassed the heat core and the Jeep is heater-less.

I phoned him at work yesterday morning to find out if the car held up OK during his commute. He said everything was fine, but he had to stop at Tully's. He said "I needed a hot cocoa. It was snowing on my way to the office." This morning there was frost all over the car when I went out for the day - 2 hours after Chance left. I love this man. I don't know how he is surviving, but he hasn't complained once.

Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do

My blog posting has seriously declined recently. There is so much to write about and not enough time to do it justice. Perhaps that is the downfall of blogging for me. Somehow I have it in my mind that everything I post has to be meaningful to me and possibly to others. I haven't yet resolved this for myself and so instead I've been posting a lot of quotes lately. They are meaningful to me and hopefully at least provide entertainment to my handful of blog readers.


Noah: "When I get big I'm going to play football."
Tyler: "You can't play football, Noah, because you'll get hurt."
Noah: (growling) "Tyler, do you see the look on my face?"


Emma: "Mom, on my birthday when I wake up we'll put up the Christmas tree and then it will snow!"