The Goal

Generally, when coloring easter eggs, the goal is to have beautifully colored oval orbs to delight family and friends......

We learned some new things the other day when having an easter egg coloring-fest.....

Easter egg dye water tastes mighty fine.......

Easter egg dye water colors human skin real good too.....

How to Have a Photo shoot With Six Children Five and Under

First you give them cool props like bunny ears. No, you didn't count wrong. There are five. No way was #6 going to put on dumb bunny ears for a photo. The guy's got a little pride, ya' know?

Then you try all kinds of tricks to get them to look at the camera, including dangling a floating foot in front of them. Notice how it doesn't work.

Then you make weird noises with your mouth, whistle, trill, scream, then clap and jump....do weird contortions...do they stay put and smile perty for the camera?

Nope.

So then you give up and take photos one at a time....of the ones that will sit still long enough to pose.

Uh, well, that sorta works.

Ahh, finally one who knows how to sit still and look at the camera.

A Special Day

First off, thanks to all who wrote comments on my last post. I honestly didn't write it to get pats on the back, but hey, they are always appreciated and serve to lift me up (which is great right now because we are living in a house of hormones at the moment)

Today is a Special day. Why? Because today at 1:15 am.....ahem...well a few years ago I became a mother for the first time!

Isn't she the cutest??? This was my sweet little guinea pig. I was not much more than a child myself when she was born so she really got the brunt of my experiments and boo boos. She is the one on whom I cut the teeth of motherhood.....And she has turned out pretty amazing despite myself!

I wanted to document the story of her birth since in those days whenever anyone in the family gave birth, life as we knew it at the time came to a grinding halt. We were hog & cattle ranchers with a family farm in a small community and were pretty tight as a family. So when the first labor pains started, the forces were marshalled, everyone rallied and gathered to observe, coach, time contractions and cheer the laboring mother. For me it took about 2 1/2 days to get this child born...so we had quite a coaching,timing and cheering staff going. She is the first grandchild of my parents so of course they dropped everything and came over with my sisters. (they lived 2 hours away) The first day my 16 yr old sister with a brand new driver's license drove me to the doctor's office to get checked out (she's the one who drove through the wall in the garage)........ My sister in law always stepped in to time the contractions and by the end of the 2nd day we had quite a large group gathered at my mother in law's house to watch me huff my way through the Lamaze breathing. We lived aways from the hospital so her house became labor central. The guys were camped out watching some cowboy movie...the ladies were observing me....(I am not exaggerating when I say that I had quite an audience) I went to the hospital twice and the nurses would just say, "honey, it's not time yet." We decided after the last visit that we were just going to wait until after midnight to go back to the hospital since we didn't want to get charged for another day. We drove back to my mother in law's house for round 3 of the huffing, observing, coaching, timing, etc. By this time I was getting really annoyed with the audience (not realizing that my contractions were progressing VERY rapidly). The guys pretty much gave it up (since the movie was over) and went to bed, all except TL of course and the long suffering ladies. At the stroke of midnight we headed back over to the hospital with our entourage and I was really feeling desperate. The nurses saw me and conceded to admit me-not bothering to check my progress. I'm not much of a screamer but I had to finally admit that I was REALLY uncomfortable and so when they finally decided to check me, panic ensued when they realized our little baby was finally coming and coming fast......

So she came, she's here and she is great!

Her code name originally started out as M.A.....(Madwomen apprentice) since she is a mommy herself but since she is in the blogging world now, she's not so anonymous-go see her blog here.

Have a happy, happy birthday! Thanks for making me a mommy today!

Mother Guilt

I have been pondering this for the past few days, ever since I read an email (that I probably shouldn't have read) that a nice lady had written expounding the details of her incredibly gifted and highly accomplished family....children and grandchildren. Tales of foreign service jobs, fluency in Russian, music prodigies.. yada yada yada. Ever since then I have been in sort of a funk....feeling guilty about my mothering skills, or lack thereof. This seems to be happening to me more as I get older and I see the fabulous things my children are doing with their children...and hear about other people's fabulous children.....and I think-why didn't I do that??? or gosh-I shoulda done that....

I guess it's because in all those years I was either gestating, lactating or having financial problems and working my butt off to provide for our thundering herd-and between having numerous ankle biters and hormonal teens, well, some days it was just all I could do to get decent food on the table, keep the laundry semi-current and get everyone where they needed to be....on time! And mostly doing all that stuff at the same time....

So apologies to my seven offspring:

I am sorry we had to quit the music lessons because we couldn't afford them.

I am sorry we didn't speak Spanish at home so that you all grow up to be fluent speakers-or any other foreign language for that matter.....

I am sorry we didn't study geography at the dinner table and then go to the places we studied.

I am sorry I didn't stay up until midnight having meaningful spiritual conversations with you after you returned home from dates, etc.

I'm sorry we didn't choose exotic careers so that you could see the world.

I'm sorry we didn't send you to Harvard, Princeton, Berkley..BYU...whatever......

But let me share with you what these fabulous people do:

They all speak and read English fluently.

They know how to dress and groom themselves.

They all have nice straight teeth.

Not one of them has ever aspired to a career at McDonald's.

They have all managed to get above average grades-and mostly way above average!

My girls know how to cook and do it daily.

The ones who are reproducing make incredibly beautiful babies! (and I have no doubt that those who will be reproducing soon will do the same!)

Perplexing questions and Photos

I was actually going to post about something else today-but you know how it is...something else pops up....

Perplexing question #1:

Who always leaves the cap off the milk jug?

Perplexing question #2:

Why is this empty plate taking up room in the fridge?

Somehow today has been a parade of my adult children popping in and out.

Photo #1:

This big boy has lost 45 pounds! That's right- FORTY-FIVE pounds! Good job....Look how skinny he is Grandma!

Photo #2:

I know they are just using me for my high speed internet.....{sniff sniff}..(and easter candy)

Think Green

Taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day...

I ♥ Parakeet--favorite green scrapbook paper color.

I ♥ the green grass of Utah in the summertime.

I ♥ split pea soup....but the family doesn't. (i'm very bitter over this)I ♥ these green cleaning slippers.

I ♥ green peas...but most of the family doesn't.

Today is the official start of our school spring break. Bubba D will be in a coma until nearly noon. Boofus the Tortured Teen is spending the night at cousin's house-anticipating the swimming party which will have TONS of cute boys from a neighboring middle school (the grass is always greener..) Me? I get to go to school. Who was the genius that planned the school calendar for this year???

Par-Tay House

Yep-we have a par-tay house. Birthday parties, family parties, surprise parties, bridal showers, baby showers. You name it-we have par-tayed.....This weekend was the Kute Kassi baby shower, niece extraordinaire.

The following are some par-tay photos for the benefit of the fam that is out of town:

Kassi being crowned the "Mom to Be."

Diaper cake-decorative yet functional.

Grandpa L. appropriately wearing a pink shirt-the only male in a sea of estrogen.Honey-that's the last time that burbie cloth will be clean........

Pink seemed to be the dominant color-

The reason why we have a par-tay house-a large open area to hang out.

If you haven't guessed-she is having a girl-due May 17th-no name yet.....

Well...On to the next par-tay........(after a short recovery period)