Half-full kinda gal

I have little excuse to be unhappy. My family is healthy and doing well. The Mister has a great business that he loves and supports us with. I love my church, and God, and all that he has blessed me with. I get to be a stay-at-home Mom which I LOVE no matter how much I complain about dumb, mundane stuff like the 2 year-old flooding the kitchen drawers numerous times. Despite all the good in my life, I feel my focus lately has been too negative. Endless to-do lists for my other job and tedious tasks that have taken my focus off the idea of giving thanks kinda ruined my attitude this month. I felt that I was always in a state of catching up which made for a grumpy Mom too often. The glass felt half empty for weeks because there were so many distractions the month of November that stressed me out and took me away from what I really wanted to do. I'm going to turn that around pronto! I'm now focusing on my glass as half full. Heck! My glass is over-flowing! The good news is my work load is getting lighter and I am really making a conscious effort to slow down and enjoy life with my family the way they are right now.

It took a short family vacation with no to-do list for me to realize how frazzled I really was. We spent Thanksgiving with my Uncle and Aunt up in farm country near Sacramento. They were such gracious hosts and opened up their gorgeous home to us for a couple days. Thankyou!! We combined traditions, enjoyed delicious food and good conversation, played all day outside on a warm fall day, and came home with more than we left with. The only bummer for me was that my cat allergy really acted up during our stay, but it was nothing a daily allergy pill couldn't fix.

I asked the fam what their favorite part of our adventure was and this is what followed;

TJ: playing air hockey (really?! that's the best you can do?)

J: eating the Thanksgiving feast, playing football, and doing scavenger hunts with Brennah
Coop: NOT eating the feast, and playing football, air hockey and the pool table
Toby: AND playing "ferz-bee" (frisbee)
J: and playing with Simon (Dan & Lauren's dog)
Toby: yeah, and playing with Simon
Coop: and playing with pictures (?)
Dad: Ummm, bacon (as in bacon-wrapped turkey, his pet project, which was fabulous!)

I love this picture because there is so much going on; Lauren passing the football to Toby, Mr. Cooper and Daddy doing their own practice, Tom walking on his hands in between passes, Syd watching it all from the middle, and Simon wandering around the huge lawn waiting for someone to play fetch with him. Thanksgiving morning we did our own mini-Turkey bowl which ended abruptly after Uncle Dan accidentally steamrolled little cousin Brennah. Toby was on my team and he took this new game of football so seriously. He's never been interested before, but our little TJ might just be a running back in training.

I loved it up there. One of my favorite parts was jogging Friday morning through the mist on quiet country roads through orchards and farms while the smell of burning leaves and firewood filled my lungs. I'm pretty sure I could get used to the scenery and pace up there. It was so quiet at night that a car driving on the nearby road sounded like a helicopter, and the stars were beautiful and bright at night.

Syd did not sleep the best while we were away. There was always so much going on that she refused to settle down for a nap. I resorted to taking her on a walk in the stroller down the bumpy road to put her to sleep. I ran inside to get something and came back out to see both uncles turning their sandman magic on. *tangent* Check out that driveway! It's perfect for sending the kids out on bikes, scooters, and crazy-wiggle-board-thingys. She did fall asleep, but woke up as soon as I wheeled her in the back of the house. Instead of sleep Syd played with the puppies and her uncles; two things she talks about often.

Under Uncle Tom's tutelage, Jessie learned to ride the aforementioned crazy-wiggle-board-thingy. She got really good at it and now wants to ride every one she sees. I tried the thing and it is an entirely different beast than a skateboard. Fun though.

We ate a fabulous Thanksgiving meal! The meal itself was so delicious, but it was the company and activities that we did before and after dinner that made it so special. Here is the Mister's long-anticipated bacon-wrapped turkey. We've nicknamed it Hellraiser. It really did have the most delicious flavor and Chef Dave figured out one more modification he will make next time so it will come out perfect. The other turkey (yes, we cooked two!) Aunt Heather and Mom stuffed full of persimmons, sprinkled on some salt and butter and slow cooked it all night. Oh, the meat was melt in your mouth tender. Besides the standard stuffing, mashed spuds, and gravy we ate fresh cranberry/apple/orange relish(my personal fav), Heather's awesome rolls, shrimp cocktail (J's all-time favorite) asparagus, broccoli, corn, etc........ lots of food. I am also pleased to say I did NOT stuff myself and only went back for a second spoonful of stuffing. Of course, I had to save room for Marie Calendar's pies later.

At Ben & Heather's house they have a tradition of playing Bingo complete with dollar-store prizes after Thanksgiving dinner. I was shocked when they laid out a couple boxes full of prizes on the counter, and the excitement level from the kids instantly went up a couple notches. I learned a couple different ways to play Bingo and everyone got multiple turns at the prize counter to pick a treasure. I was amazed at the happiness it brought to my boys to win, pick a prize of bubblegum or gummy candy and share it with everyone. They had as much fun sharing and trying people's treats as playing the game. The Mister wants to incorporate Bingo into our family traditions because we all had so much fun.

We watched Miracle on 34th Street and ate pie while the Mister taught the big kids how to play Munchkin. I took Syd up to bed about 9 o'clock and snuggled her in the bed so she would sleep, but I fell asleep with her. I was totally bummed that I missed out on adult game and fun time. It was all the Mister's fault because he came to check on me and didn't wake me up! ;)

We came home Friday afternoon after more fun games outside and a delicious Thai lunch. Our visit was short, but we had an unforgettable time. Thank you so much Ben and Heather for sharing your home and Thanksgiving traditions with us!

Road trip

Seriously, how do I slow down time? I am almost out of November with another 2 weeks of work that I wanted done during this month. If I didn't need sleep things would progress much faster. I noticed the calendar has been relatively empty this month, but we have been plenty busy.

Two Sundays ago we took an impromptu trip up north to be with my Uncle Ben and Aunt Heather and their family for the day. Uncle Ben was called to be the Stake President the day before, so we left at 6:30 that morning to make the drive up for the 10 AM meeting. Just FYI

for some, being Stake President in our church is a volunteer calling where that person and his two counselors preside over many smaller congregations, or wards. It was fun to hear about Ben and Heather's experiences over the past whirlwind 24 hours. We even learned that one of Ben's counselors is the brother of a long-time friend of Dave's family here in the Bay Area. It truly is a small world and we are all connected to each other. We were happy to see Great-

Grandma Payne again too. She flew out super last minute from Utah to be there for the Sunday

fun. She is an amazing traveler at over 80 years old, and it's always wonderful to catch up with all she is doing and how the family is too. I am so glad we went. Sadly, I have felt that we don't

get together with Ben and Heather as often as we should. They are the closest family on my Mom's side, and I haven't seen them in ages. Thanks for letting us drop in on your big day Ben!

My kids are awesome, too. They sat in the car the three hour drive up and we literally parked the car and went straight into church to sit for a two hour meeting. I was so impressed with their good behavior. The Teddy Grahams and Smarties had something to do with the Littles being good. ;) They certainly earned some fun time and needed to run around afterward, so we headed to Ben and Heather's house for lunch and down time.

They have a beautiful home complete with a pomegranate orchard in the front yard.

It was all I could do to keep the boys out of the orchard because they had their nice Sunday clothes on.

I wouldn't mind having enough land to need a tractor in the back yard one day.

It is so beautiful and peaceful up there.

I couldn't resist taking some family pictures near the trees even though the sun was already down. We will get the chance again because we are going there for Thanksgiving which the kids are really excited about. Jessie was pleased as punch to see her 2nd cousin Brennah again. Sweet Brennah was a gracious hostess to all the kids. She showed them where the fun stuff was and played with Syd for awhile outside when Jessie was unavailable.

We ate a delicious meal, played the piano, tested the air hockey and pool table, kids played while a movie ran in the background, we visited and then it was back in the car to head home. I was supposed to drive home, but it didn't take my tired eyes long to feel like I was floating instead of driving on the road. Dave got a cat nap before lunch so he didn't mind too much that he had to drive home. Next time we do that drive in one day it would be best if both of us didn't get to bed at 2 AM the night before.

Thanks for having us B & H! We will see you for Thanksgiving. :)

What's in a pile?

We are buried in piles around here of late.

Piles of Goodwill stuff.
Piles of clothes too small for kids that need to be sorted and packed away.
Piles of Halloween decorations to be boxed up.
Piles of paperwork to be filed.
Piles of bedding, toys and misc. stuff to be sorted into various bedrooms.
The ever-present piles of laundry and dishes.
Piles of beautiful craft stuff that I don't get time to use.
Piles of mending and sewing projects next to the sewing machine.

*long sigh* Yesterday I looked around at all the piles and became paralyzed. I didn't know which pile to tackle first. Most of these piles came to be because we virtually tore the house apart. You see, we are going through a wonderful change here, and that change includes doubling our living space. We still manage the same apartment complex, but we now have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (which is so wonderful), and a play room complete with couches that the kids can jump all over instead of ruining my nice one. It was getting to the point that our mood at home was frenzied because everyone was on top of each other all the time. Now we can all escape to a quiet part of the house when needed, and have a little more space to spread out. I know God is mindful of us because he put this opportunity in front of us as a way to have more living space and save a little money too. My main complaint about living in the Bay Area is the cost of living. Just renting a house around here will set you back almost 2-grand. It's absurd. We are saving about $500 a month by staying on here as managers and renting part of our place instead of renting a home. As much as I would love to, there is no way we can buy a house here right now. I'm not sure I want to buy a house here anyway. The manager job is getting old, but we are willing to do so for a little longer.

This is what I call the dresser dance. As soon as we knew we were gaining more space we had dear family and friends offer dressers, desks, and I even scored a free couch and loveseat. All of the sudden we had dressers galore, and so I spent a day (who am I kidding, it took me several sporadic days) switching kids clothes around and moving dressers all over the house. That's where the pile of kids clothes that are too small came from. I separated clothes from all four kids drawers that are way too small, yet they seemed to fit them a short time ago. I told the kids they did NOT have my permission to grow anymore. Logan looked up at me and said, "but Heavenly Father said I could grow!" Bah, foiled again. Why do kids have to grow up so fast?

Squid has taken advantage of Mom being more spread out by getting her tentacles into everything. She recently flooded the top two kitchen drawers where all the silverware and kitchen tools live with the water jug that sits above them on the counter. These markers were tame after that. She is moving so fast these days that I can't keep up with her exploratory messes.

Here's those free couches that the kids love to rip apart, jump on, climb over and beat to he&!. So far the cushions make great slides and walls for a mini-fort. I almost have my padded room where I can send the boys to get crazy during those difficult hours between 3 and 6 PM.

My goal is to have all these piles conquered before Christmas so we can enjoy the season without clutter in the way.

Back to work!

Right now

We had a great lesson in Sunday school yesterday about Family History. I took from the lesson that I need to be more diligent in preserving our young family's life as well as my own thoughts and feelings. Some of them I share here because it's stuff that I want our family that lives far away to know. Things that are more personal I find don't get written down because I don't have another place to jot them down. So after dusting off an empty journal on the bookshelf and updating here I am renewed in purpose. There are many things I have been remembering throughout each day that I feel need to be written down. You know the little things that tell a story of right now. Today. So over the next couple days I am going to add to this list of my life right now.

The Mister came home from the men's priesthood meeting at church a month ago inspired to have our family focus on being strong; strong in mind, body and spirit. We talk each night about what one thing we did that day to strengthen our minds, bodies and spirits. One night last week I was heading the discussion at the dinner table since the Mister had a late night at the office. It came time to talk to Mr. Cooper about what he did that day.

Mom: "Did you do anything for your spirit yet today?
Logan: " Mmmm, when I go to church my spirit hears the talking even when I plug my ears."

I had an awful, vivid dream about Toby dying last Thursday night and woke up in tears. I didn't settle down for awhile and finally drifted back to sleep 30 minutes before it was time to wake up. You better believe I kept Toby close to me all day. We played and he was happy to snuggle me in bed that morning. I love lazy mornings.

We are working with Mr. Cooper on staying out of people's personal space when he wants attention. "Stay out of his/her bubble!," is something Mom and Dad say a lot. Mr. Cooper loves his little sister so much that he has a hard time keeping his hands off of her, too. She is starting to get so sassy when he won't leave her alone. When she has had enough of him touching her face she blows up. "(s)Top it, Lo-gan! Go 'way!," she snaps in her adorable, almost 2 year-old voice. It's pretty cute.

Speaking of almost 2- I can't believe my baby is going to be 2 in a couple months. She is sure acting like a 2 year old though. I can't leave her alone for 2 minutes without marker showing up on her body, someone's water they left on the table being spilled all over the floor, or finding a chair she dragged anywhere in the house to explore and make a mess. She is quick these days.

I was greeted by this little gem on my way home last Thursday morning. One of our tenants managed this feat before going to work. Please explain how one's car can go from parked next to a concrete parking barrier, on a generous incline no less, to up and through the fence. I didn't even get an explanation. It's almost better that way. The owners of the two cars he hit with the fence didn't call the cops to file a report for the body damage, so I'm assuming the guys Chinese is really good. Between stuff like this and the owner's other properties, we are keeping Tom and his new contractor's license busy.

Jessie likes to stay after church with me to sing in the choir. Yesterday when we got in the car to come home she asked what we were going to have for lunch. I told her Dad was home getting lunch started. J said, "We're probably going to have chicken strips again then. Why do we always have chicken after church on Sundays?" Because it's fast and easy and everyone likes them, I told her. Then she hits me with this goodie.... "We always have chicken on Sunday. Is it like a sexual Sunday?" Wha-huh?!! "You know, something you do all the time." Oh, a ritual? Nice Freudian, eh?

I don't remember the leaves changing colors so late in the season last year. It's going on mid-November (which I also can't believe) and most the trees here in the bay area are just getting their fall colors. They are beautiful! I love this stretch of road up the street by the Mister's parent's house. Every year I look forward to driving down this road because the entire street is lined with trees that show amazing colors.

Sydney just walked up to me with her hands FULL of 7 pacifiers and squeeled "Binky!" like she hit the jackpot. She somehow found the stash of binkies that Dave had tucked away in one of the little drawers in the roll top desk. I don't even know how she knew they were there, but she pulled a little chair up to the desk to get onto the big chair and up to the drawers. See what I mean about 2 year-old trouble??? We are so close to getting rid of the binks all together (she is only allowed to have them in bed) and she is going to fight it every step of the way. Syd is sitting on my lap with her lap full of binks and taking turns sucking each one as she counts them , "oonne, twooo, fweee." Time to find a new spot for the binks, and Yes! I totally put them back in the drawer and waited for her to go for them again so I could sneak some pics.

Logan likes to call Syd "Gwinny" instead of Squiddy like the rest of us call her. She answers to him too. Pretty cute.

Jessie is a sweet big sister, usually. She loves to step into the Mom role and does so even when Mom is home. When she is happy and willing to show some patience with her siblings they have a really good time together. She shares her Littlest Pet Shop toys with mostly Mr. Cooper and Squid, who love to play with them.

My Jessie is growing too fast. She is very moody and short-tempered lately, a sign that her preteen years are too close. Apparently, I'm getting my payback from when I was a girl. Yesterday Jessie suddenly announced to me that she wished her name was just Jessie because she hated the name Jessica. I didn't tell her that very rarely I wished we had named her something else too. Her name is too common for her age. I didn't realize that when she was born.

The Mister looks mighty fine with his new facial hair. He is growing a moustache this month of Movember to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer. The scratchy smooches are something to get used to, but I like the change. By Saturday morning his face was looking pretty shaggy as he had been growing out a full beard all week. Toby said, "Dad, you really need to shave your face. You look fuzzy."

Toby seems to fly under the radar most the time at home. He is a sweet, tender-hearted, lovable boy who loves to spend time with his Dad. All the kids have been taking turns having a date with Dad late Friday night after the other kids go to bed. Toby and Dad had their turn last Friday when they went to the store to get milkshake supplies, actually milk-less shakes since they are both allergic to milk, and played games together all night. Toby is becoming more interested in big boy things like shoot-em-up video games, Legos and army games and fighting. We are working on improving his reading and spelling which he does not have a long attention span for. He is doing well though and has great handwriting when he concentrates on it.

I am constantly trying to find balance between keeping up with housework, doing fun activities with the kids and fulfilling my need to create stuff on my own. I have started to ban myself from the computer because I inevitably suck up too much time browsing after writing emails. Now that I mention it, I gotta go. There is much organizing and moving to do in Jessie's new room. More on that later......

My Mom list

While I was sewing last night I watched a rebroadcast of Oprah, which never happens because I can't stand the lady. Who has time to watch TV in the afternoon anyway? It was 1 AM and the only thing on to keep me company. The part I watched was about one of Oprah's designer guys, we'll call him Blue Eyes, switching places with his Stay-at-Home-Mom sister. Did that make sense? They profiled Blue Eyes doing his sister's daily routine with 2 school-aged kids and a 2 year-old while Mom went off for a day of shopping and pampering. At the end of the segment, Oprah read off the list of all the things Blue Eyes did the entire day. My first thought was, "Welcome to every day in us SAHMoms lives." It's such a tiring yet fulfilling job!

So in the spirit of that segment about the hardest job in the world I thought it would be fun to write down a list of one of my days. If only I was as productive every day as I was today. I've been kicking stuff off my to-do list all morning. I'm just sitting down at 2:30 to eat a late lunch during nap time, and so far today I have accomplished the following;

Got up with the kids at 7:15 am (I know, woo hoo! but I was sewing until 2 AM so I'm proud of that one).
Made oatmeal for everyone and started lunches for school kids.
Got Syd out of bed and changed that foul-smelling first of the morning diaper (ya'll know that one).
Phone call from the electrician. Their coming at 8:30 to replace outlets/switches in the kitchen. Dang!, earlier than I thought.
Unlock 2 other units for the electrician before I forget.
Smooch J, Toby and the Mister bye for the day.
Sit Squid and Mr. Cooper up for breakfast.
'Hmmm, need to eat breakfast myself.'
Finish dinner dishes from last night instead.
Clean up clutter and move everything away from outlets for electricians to work.
Clean Syd up, sing songs and get her dressed.
'I should go eat breakfast.'
Get dressed myself instead.
Five minute contacts and make-up routine.
Do Syd's hair.
Ask Mr. Cooper to get dressed then play Goldilocks and the 3 Bears at the table so he'll sit and finish his oatmeal.
Log on to Gmail to get list from Dave when he tells me he forgot to drop off J's lunch at school that she forgot this morning.
Make another lunch and take it to J's school.
Make snack and clean off the rocking chair that Syd just drew on with a hidden Sharpie.
Pull out fridge so electrician can replace the outlet and clean the floor and wall behind it. Found some missing toys and lots of Cheerios underneath.
Take a break and lie down on the floor (my back still gives me bad days) where I get piled on by the Littles.
Throw in a load of laundry.
Make lunch and then put Squidy down for a nap.
Decide to finally install the end cap on our new countertop that's been sitting there for months.
Teach Logan to help with the hammer and metal files. An hour later, finished!
'Oh, I never ate breakfast. Maybe I should eat lunch before Syd wakes up.'
Fix a quick PB&J and make Dave's phone calls while Logan and Sam play Lego Batman.
So here I sit typing as fast as I can and Syd just woke up. Later.

It's now tomorrow, but my day yesterday continued with just as much productivity as it started. I'm tempted to chill out today and snuggle my chillies. In fact, I have. It's lunch time and I'm still in jammies. ;) I should get to work.

I am not envious of Oprah or anyone else who lives 'the good life' with a big job and pricey stuff. I love to set my own schedule, slow down if I need to and enjoy my little ones before they don't want to be around me anymore. My job as an at home Mom is the best in the world, even if I do get peed, pooped or puked on every once in awhile.

Wicked cool

I forgot to mention my awesome birthday date with the Mister a couple weeks ago. I found tickets to Wicked for $30 off, so Dave finally agreed to take me the day after my birthday. It's really all I wanted for my b-day; a date with my Man at Wicked. It's been here in San Francisco since January, so I was super excited to finally go. We got stuck in traffic on the bridge (of course), parked and walked over to the Orpheum in time to stop at Burger King for some quality junk food. We had too much time for fast food and not enough time for a sit down dinner, which was a bummer. I joked with Dave that we had never seen so many people dressed up nicely in a BK before. That place probably does well with all the late-comers to events at the Orpheum because they are right across the street.

Wicked was entertainerated and enchantifying! I liked all the funny Oz speak which has since rubbed off at home. My kids think I'm confusifying. Thankfully, the tall girl right in front of me in the theater took off her hat in the first 10 minutes. Otherwise, things might have gotten a little tense. Dave liked Wicked too. We both agreed that Jess, our singer-in-training, would have loved it. After talking to my Mom the next day, we decided to pay for Jess to go see it with her Grandma. I thought Mom had already experienced Wicked, which she hadn't, so she jumped at the chance to take Jess. They had their own Wicked date night the next Tuesday and enjoyed it just as much as we did.

Mom didn't have to fight the weekend traffic so they got into the city with plenty of time to spare. They stopped by the Brannan condos that Dad superintended when they were built in 2000 and took some fun pictures. I got curious and looked up what these condos are going for these days. Huh! You too can own a condo at the Brannan in the city for a mere $1.25 million bucks. The HOA fees alone are $835. Are you kidding me? That's a house payment in parts of the country. Ridiculous.

It's great to live near San Francisco to have access to great events like Wicked. Thanks to Grandma's and Grandpa's for having kids overnight (oh yes! sleeping in and waking up to quiet was so relaxing), and thank you babe for the wicked cool birthday!

Corn Husking X Games

Taken by Mr. Cooper

It's now one of our family traditions to take the kids to the Harvest Festival every year at Ardenwood Farm. I love the fall harvest season and the kids really get into picking corn which is one of the highlights of the day. This year the Festival fell on our wedding anniversary, so I took every opportunity to snuggle and smooch on the Mister during the day.

We took our corn harvesting seriously this year. The farm opens up their popping corn and indian corn fields to the public for the Festival weekend. You can pick all you want as long as you leave half of your harvest in the farm's sheds which feed the animals all year. We got our burlap sack and headed to the back of the field with the wagon ready to fill up. Dave disappeared into the popping corn field with all the kids and returned with his sack filled to the brim. I took Syd with me into the Indian corn field to pick some beautiful multi-colored ears. I love husking the Indian corn to discover what neat colors lie underneath. Toby was the last one out of the field with his collection bag dangling around his waist. It was so full he couldn't get it off. :)

I know the kids are having a good time somewhere when they say, "This is the best day ever!" We heard that phrase from the boys several times throughout the day. After picking corn, we ate our picnic lunch on the lawn with Grandpa Dave and Sam where everyone got a little crazy with and without food. I don't know what it is about cucumbers that makes them such a fun food to play with. It happens almost every time we eat them.

Sydney loved the horse, chickens, turkey and other birds, and she played and snuggled with Dave on the lawn so cute while we waited for the magic show to start. Toby and Logan loved exploring around the tractors and trees, and they ran around until they couldn't run anymore. That's always an added bonus with boys with seemingly endless energy. Boo Yeah This is the secret entry from Dave. I don't think she will find this. So the secret word to Camille is Boo Yeah till she finds this. Jessie liked playing hide-and-seek with all the trees and bushes around, and she got to participate in the magic show as one of the magicians helpers.