Today I had to face the inevitable. It was time to face my fate and fold the laundry. I had put off doing it for– well—quite some time. It had been so long that even my son Josh (who will wear anything 10 days in a row without a care) asked me if I could please wash his shorts. 

     I prepared myself for the event by first, hauling all of the clothes in front of the TV. I counted this as my daily exercise because it took about an hour and there was heavy lifting involved! Then I armed myself with nutrition and got a 42 oz. Diet Coke and popcorn. I was set! Happily sitting on top of the pile of clothes, I checked out all of the shows on TIVO that I have missed.  I started by watching the new Glee show,  3 days worth of Days of our Lives and 2 episodes of Oprah. This was a productive day. I dieted, worked out, learned who kidnapped who on DOOL, got medical advice from Dr. Oz and Oprah taught me how to better channel my inner spirit.

     Did you know that children can turn your great day around in a flash? I was getting down to the miss matched socks when  my darling daughter Kalia walks by and says. “Oh– I never want to be a stay at home mom like you! When I grow up I am going to have a job that won’t require me to have to do any laundry.” I laughed so hard. I offered to call my friends who work full time to lovingly explain to princess Kalia how they get their laundry done.  Because I am psychic and can see in her future the many loads of laundry she has yet to fold, I gave her the job of putting away the clothes and told her that for now, I was her boss!

 

It has been a long time since I last blogged, I have had quite a few busy months. Here is why: Our family has had some serious illnesses that I have been helping with. Around Thanksgiving, my sweet father in law was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Needless to say, that became a topsy turvy Christmas and January. He has been seeking treatment at a cancer center and is feeling comfortable and we are hopeful that he will beat this cancer with prayers and faith.

In January my daughter Lily, age 11,  began having a severe headache that we just couldn't break . After more that three months headaches and testing, she has been diagnosed with severe migraines. I have mainly been dealing with doctors appointments, neurologists, 4 hospital stays, MRI’s, CAT scans, ophthalmologists, orthodontists, dentists, chiropractors, and more. Lily has missed the more than three months of school.  We have been helping her cope and trying to get the medication to ease the pain. The first medication we gave her was causing depression and we had to stop that.

We think we have found something that is working now but it has been a long road. It is one of the hardest things as a parent to see your children suffer. I just want to fix the problem and get onto the next task. We have certainly gotten closer as a family. It is a real learning experience for your other children to see one of their siblings so sick. At some points they are loving and kind and at others, they just want their old sister back so they can yell at her and make noise like they used too. She is back in school today so I thought I would blog.

I have also done some pretty cool service projects that I think I will film and show others how easy it is to do. It is for orphanages in third world countries. I just need to get on the ball!

I went to camp surf in San Diego last week with the 6th grade classes in our school. It was a really cool experience. But I have been gone for a week. I have to clean my house! It is a mess like no other. You know what it is like after mom has been gone and dad took over the “home”. Jordan took out the wet clothes from the washer and put them on the floor. He then dried one shirt and LEFT the other clothes on the floor. Then my other darling children mixed in their dirty clothes over then clean wet ones. This happened on the first day I was gone so my home smells oh so pleasant! I now have about 8 loads to do. The bathrooms are gross too. Why is it okay to pee all over the seat when I am not home? My son Josh said “OH! THANK GOODNESS MOM IS HOME! SHE WILL BUY US TOILET PAPER!” I think I found the culprit! I guess it never occurred to Todd to go and buy toilet paper. I am sure we had a few boxes of Kleenex floating around the house. I will wash all of the towels in the bathrooms just in case...you moms know what I mean. Great– that makes another load of laundry!

 

We gave Jordan a surprise party when he turned 16. There were about 40 kids who came and they were so much fun. They gave him the funniest gifts. I am convinced they are just as weird as him so I guess the adage it true- Birds of a feather flock together. The real problem happened during and after the party. First of all, I hate to admit to my husband that he was right and I was wrong - especially when it was me who was totally stupid. But here it goes-  I told him I was giving all of Jordan's friends silly string to spray on him when he came in and Todd was like- "Michelle! Honey! I know how you are but DON'T DO THAT! Silly string is the worst to clean up! Seriously honey- don't do that." Of course I looked at him.. that way ...and told him he was a party pooper and completely ignored his warning. Had I known that it would have cost me 5 hours of clean up the next day and that I would scrape all of my fingernails down to callouses in cleaning I would never have done it! (OH-- Here is why I couldn't''t just leave the remnants of the silly string as a yearlong souvenir...I had the party at my brother in laws house to throw off Jordan. So it was not my house or we would still have string everywhere!) Please, I am begging you! Don't use that silly string. It stains and it does NOT come up with the following: Goo Gone, Comet, magic eraser, baking soda, tide, Joy detergent (worked the best) hot water, cold water, swearing, scouring, swearing, mops, towels, swearing, knives, spoons, shovels, the only things that worked were MY FINGERNAILS!!!!!! Imagine all those cans of silly string and my fingernails!!!!!!! Oh-We are going to use confetti at our next party- ha ha haha-just kidding!

Happy Thanksgiving Season! So, for over a month now my kids have been involved in the musical Oliver! It has been a totally overwhelming and time consuming experience. They are gone every night until late, up early and do rehersals over agian. The play was last weekend and this weekend too. I am so excited besause my family is coming to visit us and some are even staying for Thanksgiving. i ahve 26 people coming over for Thanksgiving dinner and I am doing a pretty cute napkin holder that I will try to video if I get the time. Here are some photos from the play...Food Glorious Food

My song Jordan turned 16 and he just got his actual drivers license! It has been a totally scary experience and we have had a fight or two in the car. It usually goes like this:

Me: "Nice driving, Oh!..Whoa... Wait..slow down, oops okay now...if there was a person there in the bike lane, you would have killed them. Okay there pal... you are driving like a grandpa... you can at least go the speed limit...STOP!!  oh wait- no.. you can make the light---oops that was too close...pull in here to get me a diet coke...you have to pay now because you are in the drivers seat....look at that your phone is ringing, oh wait don't you dare text or talk while driving...this is cool I can get all of my texts done while you are driving. Don't pull in so fast into the driveway... don't pull in so far on the right... or left... make sure you leave me plenty of room to back out. We are rolling! Put the car in park!!!!! That was fun...good job... shall we do it again tomorrow?"

Jordan: NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dad will YOU take me driving next time? Mom is psycho.

Wow, where has the time gone? My September newsletter never even got posted. I am sorry for that. We start school in August here in Arizona. With school starting and the daily routines of carpools, lessons, homework, laundry, working, church and all of the other events that came my way, I am just coming up for air.

A good example of my life is what happened last week. I called my friend Chrissy, who I have not seen in a while and I said "Hey! I have the day free, well at least a few hours, let’s go to lunch." I told her I could go right after we got Kaila’s cast off. Wouldn't you know that not only did I end up getting her x-raysan dcast off; I also ended up getting my daughter Lily x-rays because of her sore ankle the same morning. One cast off is good but the other child has starting physical therapy is not. I was home later than I thought and was checking my messages when the school nurse called me and said "Is this the mother of Josh Woods?" I said "Yes, Celeste, you know exactly who I am!" She said that I needed to come to school because Josh had fallen on the play ground and he might have broken his arm. I said, Celeste that is not funny. I just got home from the Doctors. She very seriously told me to come right in!

So, I took Josh to urgent care. I hate going there. I had been there two hours with a six year old before the nurse told me the doctor was at lunch and it would be another hour or so. I ended up walking out before the doctor came. By this time Josh was jumping up and down on the exam table and pushing himself up with both arms happy as a clam and every time I asked him where it hurt, he would show me a different place. Listen, I am no fool, I am experienced with hypochondriacs. This kid was fine. I think he just wanted some TLC and a cool cast like his sister. We left - but not with out a serious lashing from the urgent care nurse and her glaring at me! How dare I leave! She must not have kids. That was a week ago and Josh has never mentioned his arm hurting again. Too bad I missed my lunch with my friend. I guess I will breathe and wait for the next events!!! Such is life with five kids!

 

We had a very sad event happen in our community this past week. There was an 11 year old boy named Jason who died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. As you can imagine there were a lot of tears and talking to our kids about the event. My daughter was in his grade and new him. I was really proud of how our school handled the situation. The students were told in a loving and supportive manner and allowed to call their parents and spent the day writing notes and pictures for Jason and his family. I went to the school to pick up Lily because she was so sad.

Later that day received a call from our principal asking me if I could put together a “Mexican” dinner for the family, students and friends for a memorial on Thursday. I said of course and then I went to work. I had no idea how many people we would be feeding but I immediately emailed and called parents from our school and the response was wonderful. It was a special experience and we ended up with over 600 people there. The cool part was the love, friendship and food that just kept showing up. It really restores your faith in society to see people from all walks of life come together and rally around a family. The family was so thankful. Our hearts and prayers go out to them.

Kalia thought it would be a good idea to stand on a stool and practice her High School Musical cheerleading moves. This, as it turns out, is not a good place to do your cheerleading. As she was a movin' and a shakin' she fell off the stool and broke her wrist. Thank goodness we have three orthopedic surgeons in our family. It is slightly embarrassing that EVERY summer we go up to Utah we have to pull out the "Hi- Remember us? We are your cousins five times removed and can you fit us into your incredibly hectic schedule because we are FAMILY?" card. And- they do!!!!  Thanks to all of the doctors in our family who take care of my kids. And sorry it took soooo long to decide which color caste Kalia was going to have. We didn't plan on the debate over colors vs. school outfits lasting quite so long!

Joshua wants to water ski so bad. But there is one BIG problem. The legend of the Bear Lake Monster. This is a scary story that is older than me for sure and- depending on who is telling it- scares kids into thinking their is a giant dragon like monster that lives in the lake and will eat them!

So, Josh being six and having been freshly retold the story of the Bear Lake Monster by his cousins was a little scared to water ski.

Not going to show fear he begged to be the first one to go skiing. Having had experience with many a child skier, I said- Why don't you wait and watch a few others ski. But no! He was determined. So, we started the whole process of getting the skis on, sizing them and putting him on the back of the boat. (about a 20 minute process) Once he saw the water he said- Uh mom, I don't want to ski right now. I will do it later. The later turned into the next day as none of the kids were particularly successful- he wasn't about to get in that freezing water.

So, the next day he declares that he is going to ski- after seeing many of the cousins get up and ski. We go through the whole process of fitting the skis again, putting him on the back of the boat and with all of the positive encouragement we could muster- and

1.      Promising there is no Bear Lake Monster.

2.      He won’t drown with his life jacket on.  

3.      Fish will not eat his toes.

He made it into the water!

He sat in the water for 10 seconds before he declared. "I am not going to ski today mom!" Back up in the boat he went. My goal for next time is for him to get in the water and at least to the end of the rope…