Observations

The last two days the neighbor girl has come over to " play", usually because her mother isn't home and needs a place to hang out. She is only 8, not really ready to be left alone.... I am starting to think that you can tell what a child's home life is like by watching what it is that they act out when they play. I already knew that this child was not being raised the same way I am raising mine, honestly I don't think any two parents do it the same way. It was sad to me however to watch the kids play, yes a total of 6 children, in my backyard. I seriously felt drained by the time she left. She is 3 years older than everyone and the game consisted of her chasing people around with a light saber yelling,

" Get back in your room!"
" Get in bed!"
" I didn't tell you to come out here!"
" Get over there!"
" Stay in there!"

And various other phrases that were along those lines. I don't know how the other kids tolerated her. Ok, so Victor didn't. Victor sat out and watched and finally informed her that she was "being Miss Bossypants" and he was going to find something else to do. Sadly she is larger and louder than everyone else so it was hard for them to ignore her and play another game. I couldn't take it any longer and introduced them to Tug-o-War. It kind of makes my heartache for her if this is what she is dealing with all day and thinks is normal. I would like to think that I don't yell at my kids that much, that they spend their play time just yelling at other people.

I also observed my 16 month old sucking Jello off his tray, loudly.

My changing world.

Right now I feel like there isn't really all that much going on, yet if I stop and think about it there really has been some big changes in the works.

A dear friend of mine decided to get baptized out in Colorado, so Ethan and I had the chance to go out there and visit and participate in the service. Very nice. We also got to visit the Denver Colorado temple, beautiful... as all temples are, though I will always have a special place for the Washington DC temple in my heart. We watched a meteor shower in the mountains, I realized that I travel much better even when pregnant then my husband does, got lost trying to find a grocery store, realized that Pittsburgh really does have an incredibly impressive sky line particularly at night, and got to play Zombie Fluxx. Also realised that humidity really does matter and that I can stand dry heat much better than Pa rain forest weather.

My eldest son has been acting very emotional lately. At first all I could think was " what on earth is going on with you, it isn't like your world is changing." Then I realized his world is changing. Mom had been gone a lot in the recent past. There is a new baby coming soon so we have been rearranging things in prep for that. We have been practicing getting up and ready for kindergarten so we can get on the bus in time. That poor kid is having his whole world shaken up. Though I still think growling when asked to unload the dishwasher is unacceptable, no matter what your reason for being emotional happens to be. He has become extra cuddly and has gone back to taking naps with me after a very long period of just playing with toys quietly during nap time. He is such a good kid, I am starting to think that he is having second thoughts about going to school. This was originally his idea anyway. We talked about home schooling, he demanded to go to public school. I just couldn't bring myself to put him in preschool, I just couldn't do it, and most likely won't with any of my other children. I really enjoy having them around.
I sat and smeared tar all over the basement stairwell yesterday ( in a vain attempt to keep the water from coming in that way). My son just sat at the top of the stairs and talked to me while I worked for well over an hour. Granted the conversation included a lot of comments along the lines of... " We should go see Ice Age 3 again. I really liked that movie."," I love the part with the giant plant, plants don't have wires, that is silly."," Buck is a silly name for a weasel, weasels shouldn't have names." ," I think Optimus Prime would like to see that movie." I am going to miss his company.
Sometimes I honestly wonder why some people have children at all. I don't think some parents even like thier children. I do not in anyway mean that they are inspiring conversationalist who understand adult boundries. I am however stating that if allowed they can be so entertaining and fun to be around, at least mine are anyway. I love watching them pick up on new concepts, I really enjoy answering most of thier questions. I love witnessing the thought process when working out a problem. I know that some people have to put thier kids in day care or preschool, but for me, I don't understand why have children at all if you are going to ship them off to someone else to raise, especially at such a young age. Victor is only 5, and I am not sure that he really needs to leave yet.

I would chose my family over most anything, period.

And here we go!

I am really glad I didn't have any serious plans late in August as I just got Victors kindergarten stuff yesterday. They don't give you much notice and suddenly you just have to be there.... even if that is in the middle of peak vacation time. This probably just proves that I haven't had to deal with going to school for a while. School year? When is the school year? They have to go back? I think I am going to end up being one of those moms who is sad when summer is over. I am not even in school but I hate those "back to school" sale signs.

Today we must run to the library to return the ever so stimulating "Thomas the Train" movie we borrowed previously. It isn't due until Saturday, but I get to go to Palmyra New York on Friday. I am excited. I love temples. Plus I am going up early enough that hopefully I will be able to do stuff beside be tired while I am there.

So after returning from my trip on Saturday, I get to repack all my stuff and fly out to Denver! A friend of mine has decided that she wants to be a baptised member of the LDS faith. Ethan has been asked to preform the ceremony, which is quite an honor. And I just realized I really should be practicing piano, seeing as I was asked to play at her baptism. Sadly we can only be out there for like 36 hours of actual visit time. But we are going into the mountains to watch a meteor shower. Plus we get to go to the Denver temple. So within a week I will get to visit two temples. Woohoo! Sadly I really haven't been to any temples yet this year, maybe this will change the tone for the rest of the year.

Oh yea... and then I was just informed that the day after we return from Denver one of my not really cousins is getting married in Ohio and that we are invited out for the festivities. Still up for debate on attendance there. So as I said in the beguining, glad that I didn't have anything going on late in August.

I love traveling.

It seems to get worse with age.

Went to the Clarks concert last night. Man they are awesome. I mean so insanely awesome. I so greatly enjoy them. We even took Victor last year since they are pretty family friendly. Glad we didn't this year though. Opening band not so family friendly.

I have been to a lot of concerts in my short little life. I have been attacked my crowd surfers and mashed my mosh pitters. It was a Dropkick Murphey concert that made me swear off concerts all together. But then there was the Clarks. I just can't swear them off.

The atmosphere is just so different there than at my teenagerhood concerts. If they weren't different I wouldn't be attending.

Sadly, there were a fair amount of teenage boys, standing directly beside me, who can not differentiate between mosh pit bands and the Clarks. Last year at the fair the Clarks specifically said, "Please do not crowd surf, we don't want anyone to get hurt." No, he did not make that announcement this year, but I will always hold that as a standard at their shows.

When I was younger I almost never spoke up for myself, ever. I still have a hard time at moments. Somehow I think I am afriad they will relize that I am very small and easily ignored and thus will ignore me or yell at me back. I really don't like being yelled at. However the older I get, the more concerts I go to, the more perfectly willing I am to tell people around me when they are doing things I do not approve of. Maybe this sounds harsh. Let me point this out to you, I am 5ft 1in. Only 124 pounds while pregnant, I can not and will not try to hold up a crowd surfer.

The boys near me spent 2 songs trying to figure out which one of them was going to be lifted up. I couldn't stand it any more and finally poked a few of them in the back and said in a fairly angry voice, since other people had already come way too close to me, "if one of you really needs to be up there you better go in the other directions because we are really short over here and we will drop you." In my head was added "on purpose". Shortly after that they just started dancing and singing and just enjoying instead of plotting.

I know this story isn't all that exciting, I simply wanted to point out that my backbone seems to be growing even if stature is pretty stunted. It made me quite happy when we got to the point of just enjoying the show instead of the constant worry of having someone thrown on top of me. I was very proud of myself for ending the threat all on my own. I have even recently poked people that moved in front of me and reminded them how short I am and how they should not stand directly infront of me. Me in high school? yea... not talking to strangers I tell you that much. Some times I really wish I could go back and stand up for myself, I seem to have gotten much better at it. Plus I am so small, I am certainly not worth the time to beat up, though it wouldn't take very long at all.

Trying to take over the world.

So about 3 years ago we had this older couple stop by to help us be "reborn". It is nice and sweet of them to be concerned about my personal well being. I have dealt with other churches that due to the fact that I am Mormon kind of just wrote me off as beyond saving. Sadly this couple just doesn't go away. They like to set up lots of points to tell you how wrong and stupid you are for believing what you currently believe.

So yesterday they showed up again. They lectured me about how Hitler and Al Capone were baptised so obviously baptism doesn't mean anything at all. And take a look at this brochure of how big our church is getting, we have had to remodel because so many people are coming. ( We handle that problem by building more buildings.), but anyway. I just smiled and nodded, there is nothing in the world that I am going to say that is going to change their mind that I am not going to hell and I am not going to listen to them because I have a testimony of my religion. Arguing doesn't get anyone anywhere. Luckily Naomi came outside crying and they went on their way.

Then an SUV pulled up beside them as they were going door to door across the street. They decided to come back and tell me all about what the guy in the car had to say to them. ( I honestly don't care, I just assumed he was one of the thousands that go to their incredible church stopping to say hi. ) I guess he was a Muslim trying to get them to read the Koran. So I got a lecture about how dangerous Muslims are and the Koran says to kill everybody. The thing in the conversation that got to me was when he talked about how quickly they are reproducing and how everyone else in the world is not. This is the quote that got me:

Crazy missionary man, : "They are trying to take over the world, and that is how they are going to do it."
Me,( I let so much go by, I just couldn't let that one go.) " Isn't that what Christians are trying to do too?"

Should have seen the look on his face. No, No. Christians are good and they are bad so they shouldn't take over the world. We don't kill people they do.

I can be honest. I really do want Christianity to take over the world. I just don't want it forced on anyone that doesn't agree. I do want everyone in the entire world to have the chance to learn of Christ, but no, not going to kill anyone who decides they are better otherwise.

Just don't demonize them for having the exact same goal. OK if they are taking a tactic you don't agree with, but don't pretend they are trying to do something evil, when it is your goal too. Honestly did they really think they were that different when they go to every single door in Butler, aren't they doing their own little convert the world campaign right here?

Then he told me to tell Ethan "hi". So I told Ethan "hi" I don't know if he meant for me mention it was from the crazy man or not. So I didn't.

Hee hee hee. He also looks at me with a very stern unfriendly face and says," You are looking at the happiest people in the world, Most joyful." We're happy dang it. Don't you see just how stinkin joyful we are!? You want to be like us. US! I tell you!

He also didn't like it when I mentioned we were still Mormons and in fact going out to Colorado for a friends baptism in a month, and that I am even teaching my children Mormon doctrine. You could just see him cringe. Hahahah, makes me laugh.

Milked raisins

Last night we came home from being out at basketball for the evening. Of course that requires sitting back down and getting a snack. A few weeks ago Naomi was given a treat in church that she hadn't eaten yet so we handed that over to the children. Two rice Krispie treats and a bag of yogurt covered raisins. This is the conversation that followed.

Naomi : Yup those are milk raisins.
Me: Milk raisins?
Naomi : Yup they milked those raisins. Milked them out of a cow.

Ethan and I could not stop laughing. Raisins milked right out of the cow.

I have learned alot this week.

I have learned a lot this last little while. Here is an over view of what gathered this weekend while having 8 children 6 years and under in my house.

1. Com paired to some, I am a REALLY laid back mom. I mean REALLY, REALLY laid back mom.

2. I can not stand constant chanting, "No! stop that." ," leave her alone" ," gently" " softly"," not so hard," "Will you cut that out?!" " Get over here!"," I am counting!"," will you just cut it out!?","Listen to me already", "Give that back", " What did you do that for?"

3. Some people just can not let kids be kids. Kids like to get dirty, they wrestle, they get wet, they do not care if their hands are dirty when they eat, they can work out a lot of problems on their own.... if you let them.

4. Boys seem to be viewed as the enemy, girls as precious. Boys can be brutal, but girls can be WAY too manipulative.

5. Boundaries are over rated, at least in the mind of a 6 year old boy, or a two year old girl, or any other child that happens to come over.

6. Pick up truck bed is a great place for a dance party.

7. One baby can produce an awful lot of snot.

8. Children who watch too much TV on a regular basis are really annoying to have around when you need to have a break.

9. Other kids cry too, not just mine.

10. A lobster over 100 years old can grow to be 15 lbs.

11. Only some kids actually want to touch a lobster that large.

12. Ok so this one is one I already knew, but was reminded of, again. The Clarks are possibly the best band in the entire world. I am in no way kidding. I don't know why other bands even play music. The Clarks can write and perform music better than any other band I have ever encountered. If you don't know who they are go now and find samples of thier music. They are awesome! What other band would turn thier new cd release concert into a tribute to the Penguins for winning that Stanely Cup. There was "Let's go Pens" chanting that kept breaking out during the concert, the band was even chanting with us. Seriously the best band ever. Find them. Love them.

13. My sister in law is one of the most awesome people in the entire world. Why on earth does she lives so far away?

Those are my profound thoughts for the moment. I have plenty of stories from the whole deal if you actually want to hear them, though I doubt it. Most of them are me not putting up with one particularly bratty niece. She was much better behaved by the end of the visit....