Day One of Single Parenting

Yes, it is the on year for Logan to travel. He has taken a group of students to Costa Rica for 2wks. I thought I would log how my time as a single parent goes since it has been, um, interesting. So, we woke everyone up at 5:30am to take Daddy to the airport. The kids were excited for this early morning ride and seemed fine about him leaving. I had been asked several weeks ago to speak in church on that same Sunday (that Logan left for CR), so I brushed up on my talk and prepped myself for church. When Brother Baldwin asked me to speak I told him I couldn't do it because who would watch my kids unless he wanted to volunteer. Yea, he knows my in-laws, so he just offered their services. Well, they are so nice and always willing, but Ammon didn't even last long enough for me to walk up to the stand. Ken kept him outside until I spoke and he had been so good that Ken thought he could come in and listen to me. He looked away for a moment and Ammon was running up the aisle to get me. Despite that, the talk went well, then the drama started. Parker and Brooklyn did their stuff in Primary and we made it through Sunday School. RS started and we headed back to Primary for Maya's part. Yes, all three kids got called to help out in Primary. I got to Primary and Maya was not there. The leaders told me she was out in the hall crying. I found her and she was sobbing because she missed her dad. Brooklyn saw us in the hall and asked why Maya was crying. I told her and sent her back to class. A few minutes later she comes back out of her class crying because now she misses her dad. They were both sitting on the couch with me crying away when a helper in the nursery came around the corner. Yep, Ammon was poopy! Good thing Brother Brown is so willing to help. He sat and spoke Spanish to my crying girls while I recused the nursery. The rest of the day was fine.

picky, picky tooth fairy

So, Brooklyn fell about two weeks ago and smashed her mouth on the bathtub. Her mouth bled a little, but no teeth were loose. Well, I was talking to her this past week and noticed that one of her front teeth looked a little gray. I called the dentist and they said it was fine for now as long as there is no swelling. Well, she overheard my conversation with the dentist and talks all the time about her dead tooth and how she wants to take it out. Then she started talking about putting it under her pillow. Parker kindly informed her that the tooth fairy doesn't take dead, moldy teeth! After some assurance she is no longer worried about her dead tooth getting moldy.

Alternate use for your cutting board..

We have always joked about Parker and Ammon being twins born four years apart. They look so much alike and Ammon even has the same brown spot as Parker, though he only has one and Parker has nine. They have the same eyes and have both sucked various phalanges where the girls never did.
The most recent similarity to appear is the death defying, I want to go to the ER tendency. Fortunately, we were able to avoid a true incident with Ammon, but it could have been bad. If you have forgotten Parker burned his hand just shortly before he turned one. Right around the time Ammon turned one he was learning how to navigate back down the stairs. At our house he uses the solid wall to tell where he is and when he no longer feels the wall with his feet, he knows he can start sliding backwards.
Not so at Grandma's house. They have live in this house for 30 some years and she swears this has never happened. In an attempt to prevent further death defying stunts that we might not live through, Grandma found another use for her cutting board.

I was up at the top of the stairs on the landing putting toys back in a closet. Suddenly I hear Brooklyn say "No, no, baby!" I turn around to see Ammon slipping between the banisters up to his armpits. Look in the upper right corner of the picture. The white thing between the brown banisters is the cutting board she put over the opening that he was sliding through. The shiny stuff is saran wrap that Grandma put up in case Ammon got curious about looking through anywhere else along the way. I don't want to imagine what that fall would have been like if no one had been up there with him to haul him back up. We are just glad he didn't go through with it.

15 hams, 100# of potatoes.....

It is finally over! After buying 15 hams, 100# of potatoes, 7 Costco cakes, 360 rolls, and 12-16 lbs. of salad, everyone has been fed and sent home. It really is quite the undertaking to feed so many people. We planned for 300, but had about 225 come. Still, that's a lot of people to keep happy. I had lots of good help to cook the food and keep the kitchen running and we were able to use the xtra food at a funeral and a baptism the next day. I would say almost harder than the food portion was the entertainment. Trying to get people with ideas to pick and stick to one song and not take over the whole program was challenging. People seemed to like the whole night and had plenty to eat, so I think it was a success.

The long lapse

Yes, it has been many months since I posted anything on this blog. I kept imagining that I would download pictures to go along with all my stories, and maybe one day I will. But, it hasn't been any of the past 120 or so days. Maybe during Christmas break?
Anyway, I decided to just start from now and share some of the daily things that happen to make me smile. So, I hope the other two posts from today make you laugh and I am going to try to take the time to share more in the future.

Kindergarten

Parker has been spending a lot of time coloring lately. I mean, hours a day. He brought me a few pictures he had finished and I praised him on the neatness. He is making that transition from just getting color somewhere on the picture to actually coloring different sections and now to staying in the lines. He smiled at me and said, "that's quality coloring."

Clarification

We were wrapping Christmas presents a few days ago and I addressed one to Tripp, my nephew. My kids asked who that was and I so I explained. I told them about Tripp's family, mentioning that he has a big brother named Peregrine. It was hard to pronounce, so I added, like a peregrine falcon. Parker corrected me... "No mom, it's the Millenium Falcon!"