first day of first grade

first day of kindergarten, first day of first grade

i'm sitting here aghast at how much my little miss has grown. her long tresses are gone, taking the little girl hair ribbons with them. permanent teeth are replacing the babies from last year and those floral mary jane's are now sitting in her little sister's shoe pile. the dress she wore on her first day of kindergarten wouldn't even cover her bum bum today. despite how much miss mia has changed, that nervous first-day-of-school smile has remained undoubtedly the same.

i marvel at what a crowded classroom and overextended teacher were able to instill in her last year. i'm eager to see what a smaller first grade class can accomplish. mia's new teacher is equipped with the sugar of kinder and the classroom management of middle school. it was easier leaving her this time. knowing her teacher and many of her classmates really helped.

custom hairclip made to match her cute new kicks.

in the morning, the first graders form lines on their room numbers in the large playgound behind the school, like all the other big kids. mrs. crossley guided her line of parents and fresh faced students to her classroom where we would say our goodbyes. i held tight to mia's hand while we walked, feeling embarrassed when i realized that the only one this was comforting was me. mia had no qualms about waving us off.

big bug, we're so proud of you!

grateful to call her ours

thursday morning, just before i left to go home

not long ago, i wrote here about my little sister's natural ability to connect my siblings. i called her 'good sticky glue'. if you've read this blog, you probably know that we (that is my family and i) call her a great many things, but today we're simply grateful to call her ours.

like the time following my dad's passing, the traumatic events of last weekend are blurry around the edges. i've pieced together a rough time line of katrice's ordeal that i will share, because i have no idea how the hell else to tell this story.

saturday

9:30pm katrice almost passes out in the bath, taken to the ER ('episode' 1)

sunday

8:00am diagnosed with an infected gall bladder
9:00am her siblings are informed
1:00pm i board a plane for utah
6:00pm more severe 'episode' requiring man and machine to maintain heartbeat
7:00pm ambulance ride with tiff to state of the art heart and lung ICU

monday

12:00am episodes requiring resuscitation start coming frequently. we stand by doing our damnedest to supress our emotions, gain her compliance, sooth, and distract her from the surrounding chaos.
2:00am cardiologist arrives and preforms emergency surgery, floating a temporary pace maker to keep her heart beating through the night. the nurses employ tiff during the surgery to keep katrice calm. she's kept slightly sedated until her scheduled surgery 14 hours later.
4:00pm cardiologist successfully places her permanent pace maker, leading our silly goose right out of the woods!

i'd seen only glimpses of our silly gooey glue before i left for the airport thursday morning. the heart failure katrice had been experiencing caused fluid retention in her liver, restricting its ability to filter the sedatives. for 3 days we'd studied her moniters and watched her restless chemical-induced slumber.

talking to me!

tiff's ringtone sung over my piles of laundry friday morning. tears sprung to my eyes when i was greeted by a vivacious katrice on the other end. to have witnessed the life leave her, and then hear it return in all its giggly glory, was, and still is, overwhelming.

cirque du suggie

there's a few states between my siblings and i, but the same highway connects us all. john & tiff both made their way through the virgin river gorge, down the cajon pass, and into the driveway of our little brown house this week. inside they found three little kids strung out on excitement and a couple adults eager to welcome them.

our fun filled week was kicked off with a short visit from tifftastic and rachalicious. there is no pictoral evidence of their visit. i'm not sure you'd want to look at pictures of grown women in pajama pants playing cards, killing dr. mario viruses, and eating brownies anyway. sleep is expendable whenever tiff is around, so i was grateful for a few days of recovery before john & liz came out with the beautiful izabella.

my kids thought she was the funnest little play thing. they dressed her up, offered her every toy in the house, and raced her around in the walker. their efforts were rewarded with giddy baby noises. katrice called my house just after we'd finished dinner. she was looking for tiff. i informed her that tiff was home in utah, so she talked to john while i text tiff. katrice hung up on john when tiff called her. it was funny chain of events that left me feeling very connected to my siblings. katrice is good sticky glue.

if you live off the same interstate as me, please stop by and visit. you might have to work, but i'll make you this casserole. which will totally make up for it.

 

santa claus is coming to town

and shes bringing my favorite chubby elf with her.

crazy g-ma & auntie tweece should be leaving the timeshare in vegas any minute, landing on our doorstep in three short hours (which means i should be cleaning instead of blogging). while they're here grandma will be able to take in a dance convention and i'll be able to chip away at my 'when moms in town' list. my eyes will get examined, my eyebrows threaded, and my toes painted by someone other than myself.

grandma doesn't mind my escapades- she practically pushes me out the door. its not that she doesn't enjoy my company (i hope), but she understands what its like to mother a gaggle of kiddos with a husband that's gone too much. something i'd never hoped we'd have in common.

there will still be plenty of together time for trips to the street fair, family walks, and games of uno. the toilets are clean and everyone's excited- we're ready for our crazy grandma.

special olympians & stranger kindness

its my pleasure to introduce you to salt lake's special olympic gold medalist in bowling- our very own silly goose! tiff took the day off friday to watch miss katrice compete for a bronze and the whole family (present company very sadly excluded) returned saturday to witness her win gold. to celebrate friday's success mom and tiff treated katrice to a meal at her personal paradise- and that is were a great day got even better.

once at chili's their waitress made a happily huge deal out of katrice's achievement. she brought over other servers and managers to meet katrice- all of whom asked to see her medal and enthusiastically/sincerely congratulated her on her win. tiff said it was all she could do to hold back tears, so much kindness from strangers was overwhelming. many of them asked to take pictures with our special olympian and requested a copy of the prints. all the wonderful attention was topped off with a fat slice of complementary cheesecake and the promise of a free meal if she returned after her final game the next day.

and return she did. this time accompanied by thank you cards, photo prints, and a very grateful miley family.

(as always- pictures compliments of tiff's rad memory catching skills)

miss miley has her day

it was the first week of january- mia had returned to school and our boring household routine had been reestablished. so i asked the middle monkey what she wanted to do one day, expecting a request for cookie baking or park play.

i want to go to school!

i asked her every morning for a week, hoping to get a different answer. no dice. the girl was ready. i had been enquiringly about schools since the incident and mom after mom recommended the same one. i called the escuela fabuloso with my list of questions and found out that a child would have to get through 2 alarmed gates before finding themselves in an unsupervised public place- sold!

before
today, the entire family took the bug to school. she was a bit excited.

during
she got right to work. the teachers were welcoming, enthusiastic, and organized. i am happy to report that today's drop off included no red flags or falling tears. they were present, but they didn't fall.

after
a very energetic miley waved and called to her new friends as we made our way to the car after class, and a very drowsy miley talked about how much fun she had as we drove away.

come on and shine

it feels like it's gone from a thankful giving, to a merry christmas, to a happy new year in a few short days. i enjoyed being thankful, i wasn't prepared to be merry, but i am so ready to be happy. the more effort i put into planning my 2009, the more my mind wants to re-walk the journey of 2008. so please, take a walk with me.

this year started with a surgery. a surgery that fixed my kidney, put me on my back for a month, and led me to rediscover the wonderful man i married. a surgery quickly followed by a 1st birthday, a 5th, and a 3rd. another sudden move. a few days to pack our lives into boxes to be stored for an undetermined duration of time. we then tucked our 5 member family into a small space in my in-laws house- an unexpected necessity that i will be forever grateful for.

one delayed, complicated, and emotional escrow later we were handed the keys. the keys that made us jump, cry, and shake our heads in disbelief. we put those keys in the deadbolt and unlocked the overwhelming generosity of our friends and family. we ground, grouted, planted, painted, scrapped, and spackled a home for our family in the quiet low desert of southern california.

meanwhile, a blog was born. mia matured, made us laugh, and taught me about myself. miley started pre-school and then quickly stopped. tragedy was avoided, and i was given the gift of time with my swirly haired beautiful girl. levi made us all fall in love and showed us what life is like when raising a boy. autumn classes started, work quickened, while home construction slowed.

the whirlwind year ended with overwhelming finals, unforeseen obstacles, and fabulous holiday festivities. the suddenness of everything left me swimming, but i've reached the surface. i'm breathing easy. i've purged the last piece of christmas from the house, and i'm ready for 2009.

thank you for walking with me last year-

i hope this one shines for ya!

the christmas train made its first stop

all pictures shamelessly stolen from tiffer

(now whenever i talk about my sister you can picture her inside her pretty house [the second home she has purchased- i am so proud of her], lounging on her cute red sectional, feet on her big leather ottoman, diet coke in hand, and computer in lap.)

1 interstate, 595 miles, and 1 white-knuckle driven snow storm later, our christmas train safely arrived at its first stop: aunt tiffs house. the kids ripped through some of the gifts she had collected for them: cute cloths, well-written picture books, and educational games. have i ever mentioned how nice it is to have a generous older sister with such good taste!?

happy birthday to our crazy grandma

blog, meet crazy grandma. her tendency to do things like pole dance in a new york subway car is why brian took to calling her by such a name. on her birthday (or the day after) lets examine a few reasons why we wouldn't have her any other way-

• she use to enjoy toiletpapering more than the teenagers she escorted
• she can fix plumbing, hang 2nd story x-mas lights, & hedge a lawn
• she takes things in stride
  
• she travels to cali every april so brian & i can get away for our anniversary
  

• she can't stand seeing her grandbabies in trouble
• she never missed a soccer game, tennis match, or dance recitle
• she only wears pants that contain multiple sets of pockets
• she keeps a post-it in her wallet that reads 'dr. pepper is poison, don't buy any today'
  

• 'dead gum' is her chosen curse of frustration
• she loves where she came from
  
• she does yoga in a room heated to 110 degrees
  
• she should have a license plate frame that says 'i'd rather be on an airplane'

to my mom, i love that you are so full of life. i love that you have remained such an active force in our lives from so far away. i love the memories of being raised by you.
i love you.

sunny so-cal

a few years ago we were debating whether buying a house in utah was the right move for our family. for me, there were many complicated factors involved. for brian, the problem was simple and solitary: it snows there.

our home 12/2008

pan to the week before christmas when our house looked like this. when we purchased in the foothills we were given fair warning about the wind, but snow! i have been assured by neighbors that this only happens once a year. phew- i thought we were going to have to move again. i do realize that my family in utah and my cousin karen in iowa (who went caroling in -4 degree temperatures) are totally laughing at me right now.

the snow fell just before we left for our early morning drive to utah. the white stretched from our door step to vegas. we stopped for a potty break and the girls couldn't resist a little play time in the cold fluffy whiteness.

the babies, who don't like being cold, opted to wait in the car.

i like him!

i blame the wii

g-ma glo & her sweet tenant bob playing wii tennis

for my lack of sleep and sore right arm. crazy grandma (hater of all things television/computer/video games) shocked the pants off her children with a fabulous family christmas gift: a nintendo wii.

when playing the wii some can kick butt with just a flick of their wrist (tiff, brian, ryan, james), while others uncontrollably jump and flail around like fools (me, mom, katy, geneve). see above.

the wii was enjoyed in my moms living room this weekend by everyone from miley (age 3) to uncle reed (age 73). katrice and mia played many a game of competitive bowling, while the rest of us were enthralled in mixed doubles tennis matches. brian admonished me for trying to sneak the wii into the back of the suburban with the rest of our loot. he wisely pointed out that the wii wouldn't be nearly as much fun at our house, it was all the wonderful people we shared it with that made the game a hit.

the stinkeye

this is what we affectionately call the stinkeye. levi offers me this look whenever he's asked to do something he doesn't want to (eat, stop jumping on the counter tops, hand over the knife, etc.). it's alarming how early mr. trouble pants mastered such an expression.

luckily, if you give him the look right back, he brakes out in an uncontrollable smile. i tell ya- if that child wasn't so cute...

the giving of thanks

thanksgiving 2008- click to enlarge

i reluctantly changed my 'be thankful' to 'be merry'- i love being thankful and i'm so not ready to be merry. just as mia pointed out while running around town this afternoon- "everyone except us are getting ready for christmas." so true.

in less than three short weeks these suggies will be celebrating the season in the snow, but for today i'm enjoying my gratitude tree and pretending christmas isn't around the corner. our tree is full of colorful paper leaves covered with the handwriting of our loved ones. i could fill a forest with my leaves of gratitude this season, but i will only bore you with a small family sampling-

mia- books, flowers, bugs, & love
miley- lip gloss, glass slippers, & auntie tweece
levi- electric outlets, light switches, & power tools
brian- diet coke
me- silly people willing to drive 700 miles, sleep on air mattresses, & deal with screaming kids so we can be together on the holidays.

as is their custom brian and tiff mocked my sentimental traditions (it's ok- we all know they're a couple of super secret huge hearted sapps).

miley absolutely loves having her aunt tiff around- miley's quiet (she gets that from me) and tiff always takes the time to really listen to what our cute little church mouse has to say. glo mom christened my kitchen with yummy miley family recipes and katrice kept everyone laughing.

we stuffed months of memories into three short days, and that is something to be grateful for.

27 years ago today

1982 glo mom & baby me

27 years ago today the glo mom gave birth to me in the same orange county hospital where i would later deliver mia. like mia, i was brought into this world by the gentle hands of a mid-wife. a mid-wife that my mother thought had a beautiful name- marisa.

i like it too.

swirly head stinker butt

easter 2007

mia's chatty (just like her father i tell ya). the chatter has progressed since she's been in kindergarten. she's constantly pointing out sets, patterns, similarities, and differences.

during lunch she flipped her golden tresses saying that "some of us have blond hair", then shifting her attention to levi observed that others have "swirly hair". "swirly head stinker butt" she chuckled. this being just one of the many nicknames she has coined for her baby bro .

swirly head stinker butt is sick today. he hasn't even been able to keep water down, but he's still running. always running. get better soon little man!

pretending i was there

katrice had her annual bowling birthday bash this weekend. she looks forward to said event all year- i have no doubt that during the car ride home she was counting down the days until her next fiesta. everyone turned out to help her celebrate- her bus driver, teacher, aids, classmates, & the fam.

blog, meet the fam- uncle reed, glo mom, cute new cuz-in-law james, cuz katy, birthday girl, cuz cassandra, cuz geneve, aunt dot, cuz des, & aunt adline. did you get all that? good- there'll be a quiz later.

cuz katy (who also wrote about the b-day bash) & cuz geneve started blogs- yeah!

wade showing john who's boss.

strike!
this handsome gentleman is the special olympics gold medalist in bowling- go david!

youthful glo (brownie points) with my grown-up baby bro.
seriously though- isn't my ma a fox!

lookin good little fam.

i was very happy that someone had seen to waxing katrice's unibrow in my absence.
this is my favorite picture- my sisters- i love them!

(cute photos courtesy of tiff and her mad picture taking skills- thank you!)

20 years ago today

1989

20 years ago today a lincoln town car parked in the anaheim kiaser structure and unloaded 3 anxious siblings. 20 years ago today those children each selected a toy from the trunk of the town car and followed their dad through opening hospital doors. 20 years ago today i felt the croaking vibrations of the stuffed green frog in my hands as i rocked it back and forth during the long elevator ride. 20 years ago today- i met katrice.

2007

she's all grown up now, but she still has that frog and i will always have that memory. the memory of the day our lives were changed, the day we were completed. thank you katrice for bringing our family 20 years of laughter, light, and love.

dancing in the disneyland high school musical parade 2008

so today let's all enjoy a happy slice of katrice pie. below is her favorite song from her very favorite movie. it is imposable for her to hold still while watching this, so please feel free to shake it!

this ones for you silly goose- happy burgay!

a happy home halloween

little mermaid 5, abby cadabby 3, and baby ninja 1
we have always lived in condo complexes (not trick-or-treat friendly), so on halloween we would load our costumed clan and drive to friend's neighborhoods for candy. this year was a wonderful first- we walked our street, mingled with friendly neighbors, and passed out loads of sweets to the spooky bell ringers.

this halloween marked another first- moms complete loss of costume choice. mia's mermaid pick turned out beautiful, but i had to do some serious manipulating before she would discard the ugly seashell headband that came with the costume in exchange for the adorable flower i made for her hair.

there is no manipulating miley however. her strength of mind will serve her well in the future, but it tends to make parenting more difficult. just before this picture was taken, my little sesame street fairy tried to turn me into a frog with her trusty magic wand. something tells me she didn't want her picture taken.

baby ninja, who seems less and less like a baby every day, didn't slow down long enough to get his picture taken. his big sisters had taught him some cool moves and he was busy running through the house screaming "ha-yah!" he loved trick-or-treating and successfully charmed all the neighbors into giving him more than one piece of candy.

good thursday

i had a good thursday. no- it was great!

the cake mia's teach had made for the luncheon
first- the monkeys and i attended a lunch party thrown by mia's kindergarten teacher. she had delivered notes to all of the adults who volunteer in her classroom, inviting them (and their kids) to a lunch in their honor. the company was good and the babies weren't horrible.

as i surveyed the table i was struck by the fact that only 3 of the 13 guests had children in the class. the majority of those in attendance didn't have any relation to the 5 year-olds they spend so much of their time helping. i was so moved. there really are good people in this world!

frankenstein, abby cadabby, and our blond little mirmaid

then- to alleviate my guilt for not having found the time to carve pumpkins, we went home and everyone made a trick-or-treat bag to match their costume. mia loves being crafty, girl after my own heart, wrapping the paper mermaid hair around a pen to make it curl was her idea. she kept reminding her little sis that "when it comes to glue, a little dab will do," but miley went crazy with the elmers anyway.

late night giggles

finally- daddy came home. it's been 2 weeks since he's had a day off and almost that long since he's had a night off. we were a tiny bit happy to see him. i made dinner and we put the man cub to bed (he refuses to go to sleep without a smooch from every member of the family). the sisters stayed up hours past their bed-time laughing so hard that it hurt. they roughed around enjoying the kind of play that only their daddy provides them.

i soaked in as much of the joyful noise as i could, knowing that life would be buzzing again first thing in the morning.

a birthday wish for my dad

hoping this day brings you a bit of camouflage, a pretty riffle, a tall glass of crown, and some hearty laughter with pop. today, even more than usual, i am feeling your influence, seeking your counsel, and craving your presence.

miss and love. kiss and hug.