Semi-Annual Conference & Croissants

I just have a few random stories this week.

Kate and Jane are in gymnastics again. As Jane and I were watching Kate’s class this week, the older girls in the gym were also practicing. A group of them were doing flip dismounts off the balance beam. Jane loved watching them flip. The next morning I took Jane to her gymnastics class. She did her warm up in the little kids area and then the class lined up to go out to the big gym. As she was walking past her teacher, she grabbed his hand, stretched up on her tiptoes and said, “Coach LE, I want to flip off the balance beam.” He was taken a little off guard and said, “You mean like the big girls!” She nodded. The class went back to the big balance beams and walked forward and backward on them. They went to the short balance beams and practiced jumping off and then somersaulting off. Then the coach took Jane over to the tall balance beam alone and helped her flip off. As she landed I heard a little voice carry all the way across the gym to the observation area, “I did it, Mommy!”

I decided to go and have lunch with Kate at school this week. I waited until breakfast to tell her that Jane and I were planning on coming to meet her at lunchtime. I said, “Kate, I didn’t pack you a lunch today bec--.” “You are sending me MONEY!” she interrupted. She is dying to buy lunch at school like her friends because they have ice cream & popsicles. Jane and I suddenly became the consolation prize.

Kate seems to arrive home from school with the need to be creative. Every day she is coloring and cutting and glueing and making works of art along with a gigantic mess. Oftentimes she prepares “preschool” for me and Jane. She is the teacher and she leads us in songs, crafts, story times, etc. I love it because it gives me a glimpse into how her classroom is functioning at school. Today she prepared an activity for each of us. We had word strips and we had to arrange them like a puzzle into a sentence. Jane’s secret message was this: I love you, Jane. You are the sweetest girl on earth.

We live for weekends around here. We love to have Josh home with us and we love to be able to keep Kate home all day too. The girls play their pretend games together, we have some tasty breakfasts, we stay in our pajamas way too long and we usually get a few things done. This week’s wholesome recreational activity was a family run. The girls wanted to run with us, but we decided to take the chariot along just in case. ☺ They made it 3/4 of the way down Tenison--not endurance athletes yet, but super cute at what they do. We tried a new run and ended up trail running through a construction zone and even carrying the chariot over ditches and pipes a few times. I guess when you live in suburbia you have to find adventure where you can!

This weekend was especially nice because it was conference. This morning we herded the girls to the couch to listen to President Monson speak. Kate disappeared after a few minutes and came back with a blue tie and dress shoes so that Josh could “look like President Monson.” He was a good sport and sat there in his pajama pants, his t-shirt, a tie, and dress shoes while we finished listening to the session. I continued the “Conference & Croissant” tradition. I’m waiting for them to come out of the oven. Somehow they always seem to take longer than I expect. Our house sure smells good, however!

Next weekend I’m flying to Idaho for my cousin’s wedding. Josh is going to take care of the girls for four days alone. Is anyone worried? ☺ Feel free to send a few prayers this way. The problem is that I know they are going to have a wonderful time and won’t miss me a bit, but I am going to miss them terribly.

Reasons to Smile

My heart and soul are torn in two today. Half of me is very happy and half of me is very, very sad. I’ll just let the happy half speak for the next few minutes and keep the other half to myself for now.

Reason to Smile #1 - Yesterday was our 8^th Anniversary! We celebrated by having a fun family day. We ate German Pancakes for breakfast, went for a family bike ride, saw Lion King in the theater, and went out for ice cream afterward.

Reason to Smile #2 - I’m currently eating homemade bread. Josh had a tradition the last year we were in Philly of making whole wheat bread after church on Sunday. Last week we were given 5 buckets of wheat by a ward member and this week Josh got up early to make a batch of bread. Mmmm, Yum, Yummy, Yum! I love fresh bread.

Reason to Smile #3 - Our two car garage has two cars in it. We bought a house with a two car garage, a two car garage with about 6 inches of extra space once those cars are in place. I have noticed that most people on our street use half of their garage for storage and leave one of their cars out all of the time. Yesterday, we took on our garage, determined to get both our cars in. We found a place for everything.

Reason to Smile #4 - Jane started her “Mommy School” this week. I did a preschool co-op for Kate when we were in Philadelphia. We used a curriculum plan given to me by my sister-in-law, Alison, where you read a children’s book and then use the book as a theme for an activity, craft, and snack. Jane has really been looking forward to starting Mommy school, especially with Kate going off to Kindergarten. We were lucky, or blessed, enough to find a group of people in our new ward who were interested in joining us. I hosted the first session this week. It was so cute. We read, Where the Wild Things Are, made monster hangers, and played charades. Jane was a wild thing for charades and ran around with her fingers out as claws, her teeth barred, and roared like only Jane can roar. So cute.

Reason to Smile #5 - We had our first visitor at our new home! Uncle Jon stopped by on Thursday and had lunch with me and Jane. He was driving from Austin to Oklahoma City to do another Ironman. We had a tasty lunch and chatted away. It is nice to have family close enough to drop in on occasion.

Reason to Smile #6 - Robert Woodford had a birthday this week, his 75^th birthday, in honor of which he gave us a gift! He presented to each of his children a copy of his personal history. Let me tell you, it is a treasure! I have spent every evening reading it. I have laughed, cried, learned and loved the fact that I can hear Robert speaking through his writing. I noticed Josh took it to church with him today. I have been hogging it for sure, and I think he saw his chance to get a turn reading.

Reason to Smile #7 - My girls are turning Texan. In their imaginary games now their names are taking on a Southern Belle feel. This morning they were HannahBelle and EllaGrace. And yes, it’s true that every morning at school Kate recites the Texas Pledge: We pledge allegiance to thee Texas, one state under God, one indivisible.

In the Swing of Things

We declared war on our house yesterday and spent the entire day unpacking. Our life here is taking off. With school, gymnastics, cooking, cleaning, laundry, playgroups, preschool co-op, yard work, exercise, and cleaning up after my two little tropical storms, sometimes referred to as Kate and Jane, I am settling into a busy but happy routine. Unfortunately, my progress with unpacking has slowed considerably. I think I only made it through two boxes all week. The remaining chaos was annoying, but not pressing enough to demand my full attention. Josh took pity on me yesterday and together we spent our precious Saturday in a wild rumpus of unpacking and organizing. Our marriage survived and everything looks so much better now! We only have a few boxes of personal junk to sort through and we will be officially unpacked.

Josh’s second case at BCG ended. We were looking forward to some “time on the beach” as they call the days between projects when we could catch up on a few things. Then Sunday night he got an email that said he had been staffed and his case started the next morning--not a single day off. Should I be surprised? The new case is a traveling case in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is excited about it, which makes me happy, and he will start accumulating frequent flier miles and hotel points, which also makes me happy. He’s afraid it is going to be a really demanding project. Again, should I be surprised? Welcome to BCG.

A little over a week ago, Josh traveled for the first time for work. He was sent to Utah to recruit at BYU. It was a quick trip, but he was able to stay at his parents’ house and at least have a few late night discussions with them. When he returned he said he brought me something from his mom. I like presents, so that sounded good to me. Then he proceeded to pull from his suitcase a bag of yellow squash, a bag of tomatoes, and a bag of cucumbers! I have never received such a unique souvenir. We have been in veggie heaven all week. Wouldn’t you have loved to watch the security personnel scan that carry on.

Kate is doing great in school. I have noticed that school here in Texas is quite hands-off as far as the parents are concerned. There hasn’t been a lot of communication with the teacher, although she seems to be a great teacher. You can volunteer in the school, but not in the classroom. You just drop your kiddo off at the door, stay out of the way, and pick them up in the afternoon. As long as Kate is happy, I’m okay with that and so far she is very happy. We had an interesting conversation the other day, however. She told me that each child in the class has a box where he/she can keep the books they can read all by themselves. She said she had one book in her box. “Great,” I said. And then, although I am trying very hard not to force her to be a crazy must-get-110%-person like her mother, I couldn’t help but ask, “How many books do the other kids have?” She answered, “I’m not sure, but some of them might have two or three.” Then I couldn’t help myself. I told her that next time they added books to their boxes I wanted her to look around and find out which of her friends had the most books and then get at least as many books as that in her box.” Josh was listening to this conversation and shaking his head saying I was creating a “Little Sunny.” I’m pretty sure he was thinking along the same lines in spite of his protestations. The next time Kate’s class added books to their boxes, Kate added 6 books and then 3 more the next day. That’s more like it! Kate loves the alphabet songs and the number cheers, but I do want to make sure her teacher knows she can read.

Jane has had quite the adjustment with her Kate going off to school. I take her to playgroups and she just wants to stay with me. She says, “I want to play with the primary kids, Mom.” She thinks the nursery kids are way too little for her. I don’t know why. They are in diapers, just learning to put words together and recognize colors. Jane came down the other day after I had cleaned up the playroom and said with tears in her eyes, “You threw away my beloved dragonfly.”

I am currently reading Once And Future King, the classic retelling of the King Arthur legend. I came across a great quote the other day. Sir Kay is about to become a knight at which point Arthur will become his squire. Arthur is trying to make the most of his transition from days of adventure and learning to servitude and says, “It is not such bad fun being a Cinderella when you can do it in a kitchen which has a fireplace big enough to roast an ox.” Well, our fireplace isn’t quite that big, but we are certainly happy to be in such a comfortable house. And having your own yard and your own kitchen and your own washer and dryer does make the Cinderella roles more enjoyable. We are all so happy and grateful to have a home.

There are so many kids in the neighborhood. Our next door neighbor is 4-years-old and comes over almost every day. My girls love her. Kate wrote her a note the other day that said, “Trista, do you want to be sisters or do you want to stay with your mom and dad. You can think about it. Love, Kate and Jane.” Trista’s mom said she finished reading it and without hesitation said, “I want to be their sister!” It does my heart good to look outside and see the girls playing. Yesterday we ended up with 5 kiddos in the backyard playing games. They were laughing and having a grand time. One of them came in for a drink and said, “We are having so much fun and you don’t even have anything out here.” As Josh put it, “Welcome to childhood!”

We are happy the heat wave has passed and enjoying our new adventure.

Photo Frenzy

I finally have my computer back! Here are photos from our summer: from Philly to Dallas, Utah & Island Park in between.

Meredith Street Girls

Lunch Out Front With Our Ladybug Friends

Favorite People, Favorite Places

Kate & Makenna at the Please Touch Museum

Longwood Gardens

These are "Old Man Cactuses." I have always wanted to give them some googly eyes, so on our last trip to Longwood...

Lilytopia at Longwood Gardens

Waiting For Our Moving Pods

Falling Water, PA

Graerter's Ice Cream, OH

Small Town America

Little House on the Prarie

Cute Girls on the Prarie

Badlands National Park

Piano Lessons with Uncle Alan

Sand Time with "the Roosevelts"

Grace, Kate, & Claire

Story Time with Grandma Shelly

Dance, Dance Revolution

Grandpa Woodford's Backyard

Spinning

Grandma & Grandpa Woodford

Building a Fort with Uncle Alan

Swimming Lessons

Swimming Lessons

Fishing in Island Park with Cousins

Beautiful Jane

Josh & Jane Kayaking on the River

Grandpa Larry's 70th Birthday

All the Staker Cousins

Masterpiece of Perfectionism

Island Park Cyclists

Finding Things to Do in the Bachelor Pad

Sleeping in the Closet at the Bachelor Pad

First Breakfast at our New Home

Bubble Wrap Dance

First Day of School

Filthy Furry Critters

I HATE CATS!!! I am sorry if I offend any of you who like the filthy furry critters, but after this week any inclination to acknowledge the slightest redeeming feature of the species was utterly extinguished in my soul.

The previous owners of our house owned cats. I didn’t think much of that fact except that I was glad they didn’t come as part of the deal. The first day we arrived here as I was hanging some clothes in the girls’ closet I picked some trash up off the floor to throw in the garbage. It must have been a hairball because I had an immediate allergic reaction. After that experience I slowed our move-in process a little in order to get the carpets deep cleaned before we moved anything upstairs. I thought that would take care of the cat problem. This week I became sick. I was feeling worse and worse physically to the point where I would send the girls to play while I was in bed. I thought it was dehydration. I was very careful to hydrate. Then I decided it was a bug Kate brought home in her backpack. I even took some cold medicine, which I never do. That didn’t help either. Then I realized the it was the dratted cats! I girded my loins and spent the most miserable Friday of my life scrubbing the floors and baseboards of this house. My eyes were swollen and running, my airways were congested, my throat was sore, and I was sneezing constantly. I swept, then vacuumed, then scrubbed on my hands and knees and then steam cleaned every inch of floor in this house. I moved every piece of furniture and every box. The place was sparkling when I finished! I still felt miserable for a few days as things cleared out of my system, but it is now getting better. I’ll take a spider, a mouse, a roach, maybe even a scorpion, but don’t you dare let a cat in my house!

We are getting closer to being settled. We only have a handful of boxes left to unpack. Kate is doing great is school. Josh is doing great at work. I found a playgroup for Jane and a group of moms interested in doing a preschool co-op. It will take us a few weeks to get that up and running, but I need a few weeks to be ready. Josh and I received callings at church. I am teaching the 13 &14-year-old Sunday School class and Josh is the counselor in the Sunday School presidency. I guess that makes him my boss, but my job is definitely more fun.

We had a great day yesterday weeding the yard, swimming in the community pool, and doing our part to keep Home Depot in business. This home ownership thing is fun, but it comes with a lot of baggage. We wish you were all around to teach us what we should know.

The quote of the week comes from Jane. We were getting in the car after church and Jane was lamenting her fate. She said, “Dad, it’s so hot it’s like jumping into a fire!” The “hot Sunday car” of my childhood is the fiery furnace here in Texas.