Quote of the Day

"I'm a good leader. I can make decisions for other people, I just can't make decisions for myself." -- Kylie

This one's for Katie!

Katie is sick of reading about how it's "Not a Perfect Day for Soccer"! My life has been so busy in an uneventful way that I haven't felt inspired to write about anything. I guess that's not entirely true; my grandpa passed away last week and I was going to write a tribute to him, but my sister beat me to it and posted a lovely account of her memories of him and my grandma. I didn't want to seem like I was trying to copy her, so I haven't written about it yet. But I guess I will now.

Grandpa Parker was my dad's step-dad. He married my grandma after my dad graduated from highschool My first memories of him are visiting my grandparent's house in San Jose, CA and a rather large man giving me big hugs and telling me he was going to "bite my belly." That became his trademark for years, first with the grandkids, then the great-grandkids. I was very relieved when I got to be about 8 or 9 and he declared I was getting too big for him to "bite my belly" so he would give me "whisker burns" instead.

Grandpa loved going out to eat and whenever we visited he would relate all the restaurants he'd been to lately and what he'd eaten at each one. I don't remember him ever saying that he didn't like the food anywhere. I'm so glad we were able to take him out to the Spaghetti Factory to celebrate his birthday this past July.

Grandpa loved to be with the family, even more so after my grandma passed away 5 years ago. He would get very upset if he found out we had gotten together and not invited him. I'm ashamed to say sometimes we didn't want to go through the hassle of driving to Port Orchard to pick him up and then bring him back home, so we'd "forget" to tell him about a family gathering. For the past year or so, he lived in Bremerton and was able to take the Access bus which helped us to be more generous in our invitations.

Grandpa had a great sense of humor, sometimes a little inappropriate, but he loved to laugh and make others laugh. The last time I saw my grandpa was on my mom's birthday last month. In true form, he put on this clown wig and told us to tell my mom we'd hired a clown for her birthday entertainment.

I feel quite a bit of guilt about not going to visit my grandpa more often. He loved for us to visit and it would have been such an easy thing to do. I always thought I had a good excuse, but really it was just the busy-ness of life that could have waited. I'm so glad that I know he's with my grandma again and not lonely anymore. I'll bet he's sitting with her at the big "all-you-can-eat-buffet" in heaven, just waiting until he can tell us all about it!

Not a perfect day for soccer!

I'm hoping and praying that the absolutely perfect weather we had for the first two soccer games of the season is not over, that today's rain is just a temporary respite from the gorgeous blue skies and just-turning-crisp air. The rain today is of the grey, chilly, dripping-all-day-long, makes-me-want-to curl-up-in-a-fuzzy-robe-and-read-a-book-all-day-long variety, the kind we are so famous for in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Sigh! Our summer weather vanished too suddenly and I'm in mourning.

I was very worried this morning when I woke up and heard the rain. Ben HATES getting wet, to the point that he strips off his clothing if it gets even one tiny drip of water on it. At church, he will hold the sacrament tray out as far away from his body as he can reach and give a sigh of relief if it passes over without dripping on him. So when I heard the rain, terrible images ran through my head of him throwing a huge tantrum and trying to strip off his soccer uniform when he stepped out from under the umbrella to play in his soccer game this morning. He realized it was raining before we left the house, and said "Oh man, is it raining?" When I confirmed that yes it was, he started to get upset. I tried to be very nonchalant about it and said, "You know how when you go swimming and wear your swimming trunks you don't mind getting wet? Well, this is kind of like that. When you're playing soccer in the rain, your soccer clothes get wet, but you can take them off right after you're done." Somehow this made sense to him and he didn't say another word about it. He played the game in the rain, got nice and wet, and didn't complain or try to take off any clothing! Wow! I was completely amazed. He even sat in his wet clothes in the car and waited until we got home to change, even though I had brought a change of clothes with us. Can you say PROGRESS? Of course I forgot to bring the camera with me, so I didn't get any pictures of this miraculous event, but I promise it's true!

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Wow, Nathan's 15 years old today! I'll never forget the day he was born. I had been on bedrest with pre-term labor for nine weeks. When I reached week 36 my doctor took me off Terbutaline and bedrest. A week later I went into labor. Here's what I wrote in Nate's babybook:

"I was making baking powder biscuits when I had a very painful contraction. I could barely stand up. The next one came about 15 minutes later. Vikki told me to go lay down and relax (we were living in Brad's parent's basement at the time) but I wanted to finish dinner before Brad came home form work. (What a devoted wife!) I went downstairs and started making Tuna-Helper (BARF! Did we actually used to EAT that stuff?) The contractions started coming every five minutes at about 5:30. I finally laid down, but they kept coming. Brad got home at 6:10 and I told him it was time! We caught the 7:00 ferry and got to the hospital at 7:45."

After that, I remember begging for the epidural, finding out Nate was presenting "sunny-side up", Dr. Ling (the rent-a-doc, as Brad now fondly refers to him) trying to turn Nate with no success, and then being told I had to have an emergency c-section. Nathan was born at 1:30 am on September 17, 1993.

Discoveries

I had two new discoveries about two of my children yesterday.

I'll start with Nathan. We're driving home from music lessons and he says nonchalantly that he's going to play indoor soccer. I admit, I was stunned. He gave up field soccer three years ago and has never once mentioned wanting to play again. Brad plays indoor soccer every Tuesday, and while Nate sometimes goes to watch a game, he has never expressed any interest in playing. "OK," I find myself calmly saying. (Trying to be a good mom and not jump up and down with excitement or say anything that might discourage him) "I'll check into it." When we get home, I look online for info about indoor soccer at the Zone. Turns out there's a highschool CO-ED league that plays in the winter, spring and summer. Hmmmm...very interesting...now I just have to discover if it's one particular girl, or just the idea of playing on a team with girls that's appealing.

And something about Kylie. I know she's a lot like my dad--she's a hard worker and she likes to always have something to do. Yesterday, I discovered one more thing they have in common.

She needed help with her Algebra homework, so I sat down at the table to see what I could remember. Turns out I knew more than I thought and I actually enjoyed figuring out the answers! After helping with a few problems, thinking she was now comfortable to do the rest on her own, I left the table and went to do the dishes. She started mumbling under her breath and I asked if she needed more help. She said she did, so I went back to the table. It seemed to me that she was getting it on her own and I tried to leave again. Same thing happens.

Then in dawned on me. She's just like my dad. She likes to have someone around her when she works! I remember as a kid my dad was always working on something around the house, adding or remodelling something. He loved to have us kids help him, and I remember times when I thought "This is dumb, all I'm doing is handing him nails, can't he pick them up on his own?" Now I know that he loves to have someone around, not always for the physical help, although sometimes he needs that, but just to have someone there. Kylie's the same way. I've tried in the past to have her do her homework in her room where she won't be disturbed, but she insists on sitting at the table in the middle of everything. Now I know why!

I love little "lightbulb" moments like these!

A Perfect Day for Soccer

Soccer season started today, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! The sun has finally come back and it was warm even at 9:00 in the morning. Days like this, I love soccer. Kylie is playing on the same team she's been on for the past four years. She has two great coaches and her team has really pulled together to become serious players. They won the game 6 to 2. Last year they were undefeated in the regular season and then lost all their play-off games.

Ben is playing for his first time and seemed to enjoy it. When I asked him after his game if he liked soccer or t-ball better, he said, "Definitely soccer!" Yay! That's what we like to hear!

Little Boy Dreams

Every morning Ben likes to crawl in bed with me when he wakes up. If I'm already awake, he'll ask me to come lay down with him for a few minutes. This morning when we were snuggling, he said, "I had a really weird dream." So I asked him to tell me about it. He said there were three monkeys in a tent. One of them had a fart machine and was holding it under its bottom. Another monkey was pushing the button on the machine so it would go "ppppttt". I asked what the third monkey was doing. He said, "Fighting with me."

First Day of School!

This day sure came fast! Seems like just yesterday Nate was starting Kindergarten, Kylie was at Pirate Pete's Preschool at Palatine High School (love that alliteration!) and Jillian was only two months old. Today Nate started High School (gasp!), Kylie's in 7th grade at Woodward, Jillian's in 4th grade at Wilkes and Ben started Kindergarten! I took pictures of them in the yard this morning, hoping to get some good shots so I don't have to take them to get their pictures taken this year. I think I did pretty well!

Ben was only in school for 45 minutes today; they went in small groups to meet the teacher, tour the school, read a story, and find out about their bus routes. Ben's teacher seems very sweet. She's young and petite and enthusiastic. I felt like a giant standing next to her. Ben's class has only 15 kids, 11 are boys! I'm happy about the small class size, and I'm sure the teacher will be, too.

Here's Jill getting on the bus. She was a little embarassed that I was taking the picture, but who cares?!

Ben standing outside his classroom. The bus drops him off right in front. His teacher brought the dress she is going to wear to school tomorrow to show the kids so they would know what to look for. How cute is that?

Ben at his desk. Those little blue chairs sure are small! The parents sat in them and cut out shapes while the teacher talked to the kids. I could only fit about half of myself on one!

Can you tell which one is the teacher? (Oh, and that's the dress she's going to wear, hanging on the white board!)

They all came home with good things to say about their day. I feel so blessed that my kids all love to read and are interested in learning. (Well, Ben doesn't read yet, but he's excited to learn and loves to be read to.) I'm happy to be getting back into a routine again, although I'll probably have to start nagging about homework soon.

Good Question!

Ben: (pointing to his wrist) Mom, is this your brace?

Me: No, that's your wrist.

Ben: Then why is it called a bracelet?

Me: Good question! It should be called a wristlet, huh?

Ben: Or a wristlace.

A little later....

Ben: Mom, what's a baby giraffe called?

Me: I'm not sure, maybe a giraffelet?

Ben: Hmmm...I think it's a affe.

Ben: What's a baby hippo?

Me: Let's look it up.

Turns out they're both called a calf. How boring! Our favorites are baby platapus = puggle, baby dove and pigeon = squab and baby alpaca and llama = cria.