Camping, Swimming, & Singing

I can tell I’m not going to be terribly productive today.  I got Kate off to school and started the laundry.  Now I’m ready for a nap!  I think I’ll attempt a letter instead.  My body can just sit here and my brain can do the work.

First things first, we are having a BOY!!!  Everything looked good in the ultrasound, so now we just have to adjust to the idea of having a little man around.  Jane thinks it’s cool.  Kate cried when I told her and has been less than enthusiastic.  We had a breakthrough the other day, however.  Kate and Jane were playing an imaginary game, the princess variety this time.  They came to a point in the games and had to pause.  The both stood still looking around the room for a minute, then Kate looked over at me with bright eyes and said, “When the baby comes, we’ll have a prince!”  They found a use for a boy after all.

I tried to come off Zofran this weekend.  I was feeling a little more normal. I could open the fridge without gagging and I hadn’t thrown up for a week.  So, I decided to see if things were better if I were carrying a boy.  I made it 24 hours...then I woke up with my body trying to expel all my innards.  It left me shaking like a leaf and completely wiped out all day.  Lovely experiment.  I wonder if my body thinks it can send the baby out that direction?  It certainly knows something is in there that shouldn’t be.  So, it’s back to Zofran.  Thank goodness for Zofran.

We went to Houston this weekend to watch Mikaela perform in her Spring dance concert.  We didn’t see a lot of Mikaela.  She was off studying for AP exams, putting on a huge dance performance and doing those things you do in High School.  It reminded me of what a fun but busy time High School is and it also made me grateful that I don’t have to go back.  The girls LOVED the dance concert!  They sat on our laps, completely mesmerized the whole time. Each of them took a flower up to Mikaela after the concert, which they thought was super cool and gown up, and then they turned back into little girls and melted down because they were so exhausted.

We had a lot of fun with the rest of the Houston Woodfords.  The girls played with Elise and met all of her caterpillars, they swam most of Saturday with Josh and Carson.  We talked Todd and Pam into buying an iMac, or at least offered moral support and encouragement while they decided to buy an iMac.  We played games, ate delicious food, and enjoyed a low stress Saturday.  It is nice to have some family within day trip distance.  Kate was bawling as we took her out to the car early Sunday morning. “I don’t want to leave!,” she sobbed.  Fortunately for her, we are headed to Houston again next weekend to hear Nathan speak in church before he heads off to South Korea on his mission.

Kate’s soccer season ended.  We missed her last game while we were in Houston.  I don’t think we are quite ready to add weekly practices and games to our schedule.  I have a hard enough time with a school system that tells me when I can and cannot go out of town. I don’t need a sports league adding to the structure yet.  Kate liked playing soccer.  Her favorite part by far was practice.  She is always up for learning whatever form it takes.  Games weren’t really her thing.  So far she has the Grandma Shelly competitive nature.  She came off the field one day really excited and said, “Mom, I was doing shirt math!  That girl is a three, that girl is a five, and that girl is an eight. 3 + 5 = 8!”  Soccer Sunny was speechless.  Mom Sunny nodded with approval.  We all have our strengths.

A couple of weeks ago, Josh took the girls camping.  He heard about a camp ground about 20 minutes from our house and from that moment on there was no turning back.  The girls were so excited.  They took hot dogs and marshmallows, headlamps, and sleeping queens and headed off on an adventure with Dad.  (I opted to stay home and enjoyed an evening of reading without a single interruption.)  The pictures speak for themselves.  It was perfect Daddy Daughter time! Overnight is just the right length for little ones.

I attended my first stake baptism as a member of the primary presidency.  It was on a Saturday morning, but I had to take the girls with me because Josh went to play basketball with BCG.  (I was very supportive and didn’t mention it at all: #%$^%!!!)  As the girls and I walked into the building it smelled like new mulch had just been spread in the gardens.  Jane said, “Oh, I think a hippo lives here!”  We all had a good laugh. I was a little skeptical of the stake baptism format.  Our stake has a lot of children; 17 being baptized that day.  This new mass baptism format seems rather impersonal to me and when they had to list off room assignments for five minutes at the beginning of the program I wasn’t terribly impressed.  It ended up being pretty amazing, however.  I think the Lord pours out his Spirit for those children.  It is not an impersonal ordinance for Him and He makes she they know that. It was a long meeting, but the girls were happy to be there.  Kate really felt the Spirit and identified it a couple of times.  She has a very tender heart.  That’s a good place to be when you are five!

Kate is wrapping up her year of Kindergarten.  First grade seems big.  I’m not sure I’m ready for that.  But maybe you are never ready for these things.  Kate loves school.  She reads amazingly well.  Her favorite subject is math.  She’s always happy when I pick her up.  That seems like a good start to me.  The Kindergarten did their big performance: The Barnyard Moosical.  It was pretty cute.  Kate was a duck. No speaking parts, just one of the crowd--the cutest one of the crowd, of course.   She has now taught Jane all of the words and they act it out at home now.  I’m not sure what Jane is going to learn in Kindergarten.  Kate will have taught it all to her before she goes.

Jane and Trista, our neighbor, just built the Texas version of a snowman.  They piled a big rubber ball, a basketball, and a soccer ball in the mesh laundry basket topped it off with a sun hat a couple of twigs for arms and taped on pompoms for eyes.  I guess you do what you have to do.

Kate gave me a note yesterday that she typed out on the computer.  It reads:

Dear Mom

you have been so kind to me.  But I want to build a palace of diminds and juils that is close so i can see you.  i want to live there.

Then she colored a pretty picture of a house.  I guess that’s my mothers’ Day message this year:  I love you.  I appreciate all you do, but I’m going to move into that palace of diamonds and jewels next door. 

Kate is being thoroughly indoctrinated in school.  She already knows all about Texas: the state flower, the state bird, the state tree, the state motto.  And, yes, they say the Texas pledge everyday.  Last week she came home singing a new song:

I’m a Tex,

I’m a Tex,

I’m a Texas Star!

From way out yonder 

Where the broncos are.

I can ride ‘em.

I can rope ‘em.

I can show you how it’s done.

So come down to Texas 

And we’ll have some fun!

It’s actually pretty cute.  She taught it to Jane and they both sing it now.  I’ll try to post a video.