I Heart Flagstaff

For Spring Break, we went to Arizona.  We got to spend the week in Flagstaff, but first we stopped in for a few nights with Jeremy's sister, brother-in-law, parents, dogs, and multiple scorpions in Phoenix.

Easter service..."There's no childcare for your children, but there WILL be an Easter  egg hunt on the lawn afterwards!"   (Thanks, friendly welcoming committee, now my children not only have to wiggle and squirm next to me during church but I have the added pleasure of telling them "Not Yet!" in my fierce mother-whisper over and over as they pester me about the impending Egg Hunt.)

Easter dinner, where my children always excel in the area of manners and Special Holiday Meal Appropriateness.

Oh well, the guys were watching Mythbusters the whole time so whatever!

We had a wonderful visit and got to swim in a pool with rock waterfalls and a sandy beach.  And there were scorpions.  Then it was on to Flagstaff.  

Here are some reasons that I Heart Flagstaff: 

Dinners with friends who don't mind my crazy kids because theirs are just as crazy...

Heartfelt (and sometimes irreverant) conversations with good friends who can pick right up where we left off 10 months ago...

Playing at my college roommate's house in the woods

...and sleeping in a trailer they borrowed just for us to stay in!

I heart Flagstaff because my kids get to hang out with people who have real "toys" to play with...

...and there are animal pelts and taxidermized animals in the kitchen.  (And sometimes we get to eat the animals who formerly lived in those skins!)

It was good to spend time at a house where character is more important than safety (and where the owners have been known to surprise their late night guests with a singing bass attached to a plaque on the wall of the guest room)...

(but having good character means following the rules and loving one another so no one gets hurt, mostly)

My former roommate and kindred spirit, Amanda.  Where did all these kids come from?  Oh, us!

There were so many sweet moments, like my friend Lori reading to and caring for my kids (and opening her home to us even though her husband was out of town all week)...

Evan being reunited with his special girl, Wylie.

She's a keeper (but unfortunately she now lives in West Virginia.  Suddenly, Evan has taken a strong interest in visiting West Virginia.  Uncanny).

Flagstaff has some of the best views...like standing back and seeing a park full of my old MOPS friends and their kids.

If you are my friend on Facebook, you might remember my lament at the lack of open, bumpy dirt for my kids to ride their bikes on without having to pay an arm and a leg and sign a thick packet of waivers.  We got our dirt fix in Flagstaff.  This girl can ride big jumps (across the street from the grocery store...they rode while I shopped...excellent setup)!

A long, full day at our favorite park (just ignore the newspaper reports of gunfire and stabbings--it's really okay during the day, I promise) with friends friends and more special friends.

Sam was reunited with the Fantastic Four.  They really like each other, can you tell?

Look at Sam's smile!  He was so happy!

It's a good day at the park when your friend shows up with his special gloves on (awesome rad time, August)... 

...when you end the day with dirt and snot caked all over your face

...and when you are so played out that you fall asleep in the swing.

Annie had some of her own special reunions, especially our last night when my friend Sarah hosted a sweet party for us and whoever we wanted to invite (well, we couldn't invite everyone we wanted to, that would have been slightly overwhelming).

Another wonderful Flagstaff view...

Sonoran style hot dogs (or as they say in Mexico "Hot Dog Con Todo")...the hot dogs are wrapped in bacon and smothered in every topping you can imagine...sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cheese, onions, beans, lettuce (you get the picture)

My kids love coming to this house (that was completely fixed up by our friends after they bought it), can you see why?

Not a great picture, but the conversation out back around the fire was so wonderful....and this time it was the guys who stayed late talking instead of the women.  It made my heart happy for my husband, who has spent most of the last 10 months finding holes and corners to hide in and study.

I had some pretty good conversations, too :)

And I think the kids did not have one bored moment the entire week...a week of sleepovers and playdates!

I guess kids in Flagstaff love gloves?

Amidst the fun and happiness of the trip was catching up with friends who have experienced many trials and heartaches over the last year.  There were stories of babies who died too soon, losses of dreams, relationship struggles, and serious illnesses.  And yet, there was a deep sense of joy in hearing what God is doing and how he is using these trials to do truly beautiful things in people's lives.  I left with tears on my cheeks but deep, deep joy in my heart...and even though I was EXHAUSTED, I felt refreshed and renewed.  And I could go on about the joyful weeks I have had immediately following this trip back here in CA, where God is showing me many different and equally good things...but my post has been long enough already.

My cup runneth over.

Working-Mom Guilt

For the past 7 months, I've been working here...in customer service.  I have felt thankfulness for the job, sheepishness at re-joining the workforce with a bunch of 18-year-olds (who frankly surprise me with how hard they work), and guilt about leaving my family a few nights a week to go to work.  I know moms are working all sorts of jobs and making ends meet with all sorts of sacrifice, so this has been eye-opening as to how they might feel no matter how much they love their jobs or how much they make.

A month or so after I started working, Annie (who isn't super into babies) came up to me with her Special Baby--holding her so sweetly and gently and whispering so quietly.

"Here is my brand new baby!  We just came from the hospital.  She's brand new.  Isn't she beautiful?"

Me (also whispering, with pride at my daughter's emerging maternal instincts in my voice):  "She IS so beautiful.  What is her name?"

Annie:  "Her name is Special Baby.  Can you hold her?" (tucks her in with a blanket in my arms).

Then, in a much more matter-of-fact and slightly bossy tone:  "Can you watch her for me?  If she cries, give her a bottle.  I'm going to work.  Goodbye."

That was a little unsettling.

But we do what we need to do, and Jeremy and I are a team and this is what we're doing (though we just decided that I would take a break for a little while).  And I just have one more thing to say now that I've worked in customer service doing returns and solving problems in a retail environment...

You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!!!

Fun 'N Games

A while ago (a long while ago...I lament the absence of my blog writing!), my sister came to visit and got to be a guest speaker in my boys' classrooms at school. She is a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy and has flown quite a few different airplanes, traveled the world, landed on aircraft carriers, and currently flies a 737. We had fun visiting the school because it is also where we went for kindergarten through 6th grade.

 

In fact, Evan is a kindergartener in the exact same classroom where Kendra and I both attended kindergarten. 

 

We looked in our old photo albums for pictures of the classroom when Kendra was a student...and we found a few to share with the kids. 

Evan got to introduce his aunt and show the class his flight suit and model aircraft carrier.  I got to squat down in my jeans to help with props and hope that my bum didn't show.

Kendra taught them how to salute and to surprise their parents by answering "Yes, sir!" or "Yes, ma'am!" that night at home...a few of my friends said they were truly surprised when their kids did!

At the end of her presentation, Kendra had the students stand up and state their name before asking a question or making a comment. The kids were so cute because they would get so distracted and nervous about addressing her officially, they would forget their question. One boy stood up, swallowed and sputtered, said his name, and then blurted out, "Your teacher was a very small person!" 

Lt. Commander Kaufman as a kindergartner...with her very small teacher, I guess.

Kendra also visited Sam's class, where the questions were a little more on topic and the students got really into saluting and playing with the toy aircraft carrier.
 

We liked looking through the old photos to find the kindergarten pictures so much that we did more of it later that night just for fun.  There were a lot of first-day-of-school pictures and other milestones.

Awesome scary van in the background.  Awesome scary hair, too.

Cheesy smile, knee highs and wood panelling!  You know you all have pictures just like this one.

There were also a lot of old family memories and awesome t-shirts.  We wished we still had fashionable shirts like those to wear today and be super rad.

Us with our grandparents, my dad's parents...love.

My dad had the awesomest beard and Hang 10 shirts, they would be so vintage now.  Also, it appears that Brad Pitt in disguise is just behind me on this ferry boat.  Thirdly, why does it appear that Kendra has a mullet?  That's just unfortunate.

Some fashion was just downright embarrassing.  And the baskets on the wall?  Glad those aren't in style anymore!

HATS!

Before razor scooters were invented, my dad made us our own homemade scooter.  He attached a handle on a regular skateboard, we added the lawn chair and curly bangs.

Looking at the funny pictures and laughing inspired us to start one-upping each other...finding the worst pictures of each other to laugh at (in true sisterly love). So I started with one like this:

 

Followed with another priceless beauty like this:

Kendra came back at me with this one:

 

And then hit me with this one:

I'm sorry, I know I'm holding a trophy but I sure don't look like a champion...and am I sticking my tongue out a little bit like the effort of holding the trophy up is too much for me?  Wow.  And Kendra's mullet's got nothing on my hairdo here.

I couldn't resist pointing out these unfortunate ones...

It's like bad costume mug shots.

And she laughed at me for being a little too big for Santa's lap.

Many were just bad of both of us...

But I especially liked this one and am contemplating posting it on her Facebook wall...

What was I thinking with the hat bill situation?

BUNNIES!

....(sigh) Puffed Sleeves!  (Anne of Green Gables reference, for those who didn't get it)

Then there was that one that Kendra really did not want me to share, and there were many that I would be mortified if you saw (most during that awkward pre-teen stage...is that called tween now?)....so we'll end with this series of ridiculousness at one of my dad's forced photo shoots with us:

Note Kendra's clenched jaw at her teenaged embarrassment and being subjected to this torture...

Can we like stop this right now before we like both embarrass ourselves?

No, clearly I had no shame.

Okay, that's it.  Let's end this.

Oh, but not without this one.  More BUNNIES!

And more HATS.  Okay, I'm really stopping now.

I hope you really enjoyed that.  We sure did.  Oh, and remember that awesome fashion from the 70's and early 80's?  I might not fit in it anymore but look at who does...

Little Isaac

A couple of years ago, I went to a garage sale. It is not noteworthy that I went to a garage sale because I go to a lot of garage sales...like, I mean my car literally turns on it's own when I spot a cardboard sign with an arrow drawn on it with a sharpie marker...so it's a wonder I would remember this one garage sale so clearly except that I only had Evan with me for some reason, and I let him buy something with some change I found in my purse. He was so sweet and excited and picked out a little stuffed animal that he named "Little Isaac". Something special about Evan is that he loves stuffed animals more than any kid I have known (including myself, which says a lot about how much he loves stuffed animals). They become alive to him and he cares for them and shares his life with them and misses them when they are apart. It's literally like having "The Velveteen Rabbit" acted out in front of me over the last few years...and I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. It can make me cry just thinking about it.

Here's Evan being reunited with some of his animals after a trip a year ago or so

I remember when Evan came home and showed Sam his new friend, Little Isaac, and Sam pointed out (in a "brotherly love" kind of way) that Little Isaac had a pink bow and therefore could not be an Isaac. Evan's face was so concerned as he considered this information and pondered the approval of his big brother, but he stuck to his guns and declared that the animal was still named Little Isaac and that it was okay that he had a pink bow and he loved him anyway. See, doesn't it just break your heart a little?

Here's the only picture I could find of Little Isaac and Evan would probably be mad that she had him so don't tell him, okay?

Well, somehow in our move to CA, Little Isaac got lost...we think he got put in a box that I thought was going to sit in the front of our storage unit so I could come back to it later when we were more settled but Jeremy thought that it would make a good support pillar for all the furniture in the very dark back corner of our storage unit with our entire possessions stacked on it. No marital stress there upon that discovery (not). Evan was so heartbroken when we told him that Little Isaac was not to be found any time soon...he just felt so guilty that he had allowed his special friend to be put somewhere so dark and lonely. Even though I am the first to encourage my children's imaginations, I even resorted to a harsh conversation with him about how Little Isaac is just a toy! and doesn't have feelings! and we can find another toy to replace him (gasp)! but to no avail...Evan just cried and cried...for days, it seems.

And now I can't seem to get poor Little Isaac out of my head. I already went once (with Jeremy, to his credit) to burrow through the storage unit to try to rescue him...we both got sweaty and sore from contortions and straining around furniture to try to reach the box we "think" he is in, with no care for standing with our full body weight on boxes marked "Fragile" that probably contain our most (monetarily) valuable possessions, I might add...just to find a precious used stuffed dog that's a boy but wears a pink bow on his ear that was bought for 25 cents.

 Maybe it's because I look at how fast Evan is growing and that he can read now and that he might start losing teeth soon and he won't be so snuggly and will outgrow his affection for his little toys. Maybe it's because I feel nostalgic about my childhood toys and am sad that time goes by so fast. And maybe it's because my life feels sort of stuck in an in-between place and I don't know when I am going to get all my special stuff out of boxes and I can't be sure that I'll still like all my treasures when I do or if I'll ever be able to see any of them again. And what if the worst-case scenario comes true...that we finally open the boxes and find Little Isaac only to have Evan shrug his shoulders and go back to playing video games without taking a second look. That would break my heart, I think.

So I keep plotting ways to get to that box or racking my brain to think of where else Little Isaac could be hidden, all the while checking to make sure that none of Evan's teeth are loose and finding comfort in each day that he wants to bring his other stuffed animals to bed with him...and reminding myself that stuff is just stuff, even if it is really special stuff.

(I was doing pretty good until my mother-in-law called the other day and she was all choked up because she found a little pair of Evan or Sam's socks behind the bed when she was cleaning and thought about how they won't ever be that little again and how they used to sing the "Careful" song with her in their scratchy little voices...then I got all Velveteen Rabbit-y again)

****

And then there's Annie, who surprised me by putting her dolls to sleep in the refrigerator and I couldn't help but think it looked like they were dead bodies in the morgue and she was the mortician mixing up her potions and smiling at their dead bodies

And here's 3 more pics, just for fun.

.

(Oh no, Evan just came in and saw the picture of Little Isaac. He seems to be holding strong but I, on the other hand...)

(Evan made these on his own one day...for some reason he always spells "Mom" with the letters K-A-C-and I, seriously, he reads it "Mom" but spells it "Kaci" (or Kaiac, in this picture))

Have I mentioned that Evan LOVES raccoons? And that when he was in the womb, Sam called him "Raccoony"?  It's too cute!