My Dad

This is my Dad. Its his birthday today and well I've been thinking about him.  I chose to put this picture up because its one of my favorites.  This was a few years ago at a family party on the 4th of July ( FYI - We like to light enough fireworks to be detected by overhead satellite). On this particular night I looked over and there was little Brenna all curled up on Grandpa watching the festivities.  I particularly love seeing his hand holding her flip flop.  I don't know why but this detail is tender to me.  My dad still works full time and is very busy with his church assignment, so we don't get to spend much one on one time with him.  But its moments like this one that I know how much he loves my children individually. He is a great dad and grandpa.  Happy Birthday!

Thankful for...

I'm thankful for many things.  Here are just a few.

My Spouse - Peter - Who continues to love me despite my many flaws
My Children - Each unique, interesting, and loving
My Parents -  I admire their actions daily.  The most generous people I know.
My Siblings - My closest friends.
My Extended Family - So lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.
My Community - Friends, teachers, and neighbors who care about us
My Faith - A child of God, with a Savior that knows and loves me
My Home - The place where love and safety reside
My Education - I know that I am very lucky, even though I might complain.
My Capacity - To know that there is so much more that I can/should/will do.
So many more things to be thankful for.

Disneyland

This picture says it all!

A few weeks back we made the P Family trip to Disneyland.  We planned it for about a year and were lucky enough to fly the whole family.  The first day was a little rough.  Everyone in our little family except Brenna was kind of ornery.  Brenna was just soaking it all in.  We cut out a little early to get to bed and it made a world of difference the next day.  Our second day was great.  Kids were happy, parents were happy, and Disneyland really was the happiest place on earth.  The third day, we went to the beach and the kids had a great time getting their feet wet in the water.  Brenna and Adam, well they got a little more than their feet :)  Enjoy the photos.

Its Parker tradition to go in Pirates first thing.

I love Brenna in this one.

The best way to wait in line.

Happy Birthday Serenade to Matthew 13!

The girls loved this ride.

Candids by WTP

The cousins plus one at the beach

A great day,

Halloween 2010

A Snow Fairy, Michael Jackson, A Witch, and A Creepy Guy.
It was a Happy Halloween.

Does it make you a bad mom if you make a family tradition out of a bad habit or quite possibly an addiction?

Have I mentioned that I like Diet Coke?  When you drink it, its like having a shot of hard liquor.  I've never had a shot of any kind of alcohol but from what I have seen on TV, it seems that it must be the same.  You look forward to the diet coke run all morning and when its quite possibly an appropriate hour of the day you hop in the car and run to the gas station. They hand over that fountain of joy (no cans or bottles I only drink the good stuff), and you take that long first sip.  It bubbles and burns on its way down and you have to let out an audible "ahhh".  At that moment I know I can handle the rest of the day.

Now, I realize that this sounds pretty bad in every aspect.  I'm sure the burning is probably just that, burning.  But I like it.  I have been pretty good to keep it to one drink a day.  So hopefully it won't shorten my life significantly.  I know that some of you are "Dew" or "pepsi" or "water" fans and the thought of diet coke makes you gag a just little bit.  Be comforted to know that your "drink" has the same effect on me.

I'm sorry I got a little carried away there, back to the title of this post.  So this past Summer, I was clued in by a fellow diet coke drinker that a local gas station had a 32 oz for 32 cents on Thursday.  I do not let my kids drink soda on a regular basis, except maybe when we go out to dinner.  But this past Summer I had to figure out a way to get my kids in the van to go get me a diet coke.  So I boldly declared one day "It's Big Drink Thursday".  Well, they had never heard of this before so of course they were intrigued.  I explained that on Thursday drinks were on sale and that we were all going to get a 32 oz drink.  You would have thought they hit the mother load.  So off we went and I was NOT the only mother there experiencing the Big Drink Thursday tradition.  They held their cups dazed by the choice of 24 some odd choices.  To help them I narrowed it down to non-caffeinated drinks.  Even then it took along time.  Adam, smart kid that he is, put me in a corner when he announced that he would like caffeine free pepsi.  First of all, nasty..., but I gave in.  We all marched back to the van and thus began our Summer tradition.

It's over now.  I'm not sure if we will continue the tradition next year but it was good while it lasted.  Bad mom, I know.

A little attention please...

Today, Peter and I were having a discussion and Brenna kept interrupting us.  So Peter told her to go play and closed the door.  Brenna felt a little ignored. So she knocked on the door and came in to inform us that she had developed a headache and a side ache and then instructed Peter to carry her to her bed so she could rest. She also added that he needed to bring her a drink of water and 2 oreo cookies.

Just Breathe....

Today I spent hours working on homework and I haven't even started mine yet.  Between school, work, family, and everything else (housework, home taxi service, etc) I regularly feel overwhelmed.  I know there is less than a year of school left for me but it can't come soon enough.  I need to remind myself to just breathe.  I know that I have been neglectful, forgetful, and well probably not a very happy person to be around.  I'm sorry...  Sometimes all you can do is get your head above water to take in some air before going back down again.  One day I will get back to my normal self I hope.  Until then, have patience and remind me to surface now and then.