The many faces of fall

There was much work to be done...


My kids are always very serious about their work...

Some might call it child labor...

But we make him forget about soaking his parents in that lawsuit...


He wouldn't SUE us, would he??

NAH...

It was 100% fun.

Role Reversal

Only from a firstborn...

Often, when the kids all go downstairs to play or watch a video, I'll say to Corene, "Can you keep an eye on Isaac while you're down there?"

(She's actually very responsible in this job, she takes the role very seriously. If Isaac is getting into something, it's a millisecond before I hear her correcting him and redirecting him... and usually, she does it gently, and he responds well. Aaaahh, this is one reason why I maintain that having 3 children is easier than having one child.)

(Behind the usually, of course, there are the times when this doesn't work so well, and I have to come intervene when Isaac is SCREAMING and Corene is "helping".)

Anyway... yesterday I came downstairs and sat on the floor where the kids were playing, and Corene walked up to me and said,

"Mommy, can you keep an eye on Isaac for me for a second while I go potty?"

My Posse

Do you want to know one of my birthday party secrets?

Seriously, I will share the single reason that I enjoyed myself at my girls' birthday party.

Even when my husband was working all day, both the day before the party, as well as the day of.

Even when I did most of the prep, cleaned my house, shopped for the various supplies to make our crazy messy crafts, by myself.

Even when my kids were on a serious Birthday High, having had no less than 4 birthday cakes and 43 presents to open in the weeks previous.

My secret is my Posse.


Firstly, my mom. She is Captain-behind-the-scenes. She ran to Target no less than 3 times in the 24 hours before the party. She washed children's hands and feet, was cook and busser, as well as dishwasher. She was the see-what-needs-to-be-done-and-do-it Posse.

Then there was the overnight help. Auntie Dawn and Uncle Lee agreed to have the girls sleep over at their house the night before (and dealt with the sleepover blues in a certain 4-year old), took them to the beach the morning of the party, took them to lunch, played all afternoon, and delivered them home, precisely 30 minutes before the party started. When they arrived, they were clean, happy, and smiling.

And, their mother was clean (I got a shower!), happy (I had peacefully organized a party and made cakes without 2 girls with the energy of drugged puppies at my ankles all day), and smiling (I was SO glad to see them!).

And as if THAT wasn't enough, when she got to the party, she organized the painting crafts. Remember what I said about how much I don't like to plan crafts? Well, this one, I planned. I just didn't execute it. Dawn did.

Can we all just have a moment of silence for how incredibly fabulous this was.

Thank you.

And she took charge and took the messy shirts and rinsed them out and dryed them in the dryer while we were eating dinner. And... and... and...


You'll have to find your own Aunt Dawn, of course. You can't have her. She's mine.

And her husband is no slacker, either. He helped with at least 22 things as well.

Thanks so much, y'all. I don't know what I would have done without any of you. And I don't know if it would have been possible to have a better Posse.

I pretty much just bossed my Posse around all day.

Actually, that's not 100% true. Dawn did a fair amount of bossing me around, too... which I needed. She's good like that.

We'll call her Sargeant-worth-her-weight-in-gold.


After the party, as I was watching my mom finish cleaning the kitchen, turn on the dishwasher and wipe down the counter, I said, "How in the world do moms put together birthday parties like this without a Posse of people helping them?"

Dawn piped in, "They rent out a room at Chuck-E-Cheese. They do NOT do all of this."

So there's my birthday party tip of the year. If you're in the market to do a birthday party,

Git yerself a Posse.

It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it

It's summer. We are SOOOOOO off-schedule, it's not even funny.

Actually, it IS funny. And fun.

The kids go to bed by 10pm, we all wake up sometime around 8am. Sometimes 9. And then we lay in bed, all 5 of us and laugh and talk. It's some of my favorite times.

And it's times like this that I'm thankful for a husband with a musician/realtor schedule, whatever that is. He works odd hours, and sometimes long hours, and we miss him for dinner more often, but he's around for morning cuddle time.

Maybe I should be embarrassed that I'm still in bed at 8 or 9. But it's only a season, and I'm determined to enjoy it instead of think about what I could/should be doing instead. It's been special.

Matt and I were talking this morning during said cuddle time and one of us made a comment about rich people having servants. So the inevitable question arose. It's a question that I hear at the very least 37 times each and every day. "What does _(fill in the blank)_ mean?"

"What's a servant, Mom?"

"Well, it's someone who serves you. Someone who does things for you."

"Someone who cooks, maybe, and cleans your house." Matt clarified.

"Ohhhhh. Uh-huh. (In ALL sincerity) So you (gestures to Matt and I) are our servants!"

I laughed until my stomach hurt and I had snot coming out my nose.

I realized later that I never told her why we were laughing so hard.

I never told her that I wasn't her servant.

I just laughed and snorted and finally left the room and went and made some coffee.

Concert-goers

How to have fun alone with 3 kids at an orchestra concert:

1)Go to an outdoor concert where the kids can get up and dance if the spirit moves them to. And, have no fear. The spirit WILL move them.

2)Bring food. Lots-o-food.

3)Bring water, both for drinking and extra... well, for dumping. Of course.

4)Remember what color shirt your son is wearing. This will be helpful when your son wanders off into a sea of people while you're talking to Joel, and as you're frantically searching, Joel asks you "What color shirt is he wearing?" and your first thought is "green?". There are like 167 small children in the sea of people around you. Knowing what you put on him not 2 hours earlier would be helpful. Unfortunately, I know not of such things. He was wearing red.

We did find him. Chatting it up with some fellow concert-goers 5 rows back.

5)When you're desperate to take a picture of the hot air balloon that just happened to float by in the middle of a beautiful piece of music, and you need a fast distraction for your son, give him a jumbo marshmallow.

And then another one.

6)And then when he starts coughing and gagging, and people around you start to twitch and look at you funny, discreetly dig it out of his mouth and act incredulous, like you don't know how in the world it got in his mouth. Humph.

7)Pack a balanced meal to eat. If the only "healthy" food you pack is raw unpeeled carrots (We were in a hurry!), and the rest is junk-o-la, your firstborn, rule-following child is likely to tell you "All we ate tonight was junk food, Mom. Please, please, please when we get home, can we eat something HEALTHY?"

"Sure, honey. I think we can arrange that."

(Big Sigh) "Ahhhhhh! Thank you, Mom."

Just call me the best mom evah.

All About My Man

A while back, Missy tagged me for this meme, and it's a really fun one. It's fun, cause, well... it's not about me!! So, brace yourself. It's an unauthorized biography...



1. Who is your man? Matt, aka Mocha Man.

2. How long have you been together? Dating since Aug. 1993. Married Aug. 1997. We were high school sweethearts turned college break-ups turned lifelong partners.

3. How long dated? I guess I'll let you do the math. Minus about 9 months there in the middle.

4. How old is your man? 31. He's 4 months my senior.

5. Who eats more? Ummm. We both eat a lot. But I think he eats more. If this question said "Who enjoys food more?" the answer would be a big fat, ME! But that wasn't the question.

6. Who said "I love you" first? I honestly don't remember the first "I love you", but I can not imagine that I would have been so bold. I am sure he did.

7. Who is taller? He is, by a couple inches.

8. Who sings better? He definitely sings better. No doubt.

9. Who is smarter? Oooh. I plead the fifth.

10. Whose temper is worse? Mine. All mine. He is no fun to fight with, actually. He rarely gets mad. Sometimes I wish he would so our fights would be even. It's no fun fighting with someone who's as calm as a cucumber. Try it sometime. It is NO FUN.

11. Who does the laundry? Depends. Lately since Operation Family Laundry, it's been all me. Before then, he did a lot.

Speaking of OFL, I am happy to report that I have NOT fallen off the wagon (yet)!!! Yay! I have no piles of laundry alternately on my bed and then floor... and then bed and then floor! They're all in the drawers or on hangers! AND, my children were all wearing underwear today! Hallelujah!

12. Who takes out the garbage? Usually him.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me. I've offered to switch places a couple of times for different reasons, and he'll have nothing of it. He says he'd never be able to sleep.

14. Who pays the bills? Me. Almost all of the time. The other part of the time, nobody does. :) Oops.

15. Who is better with the computer? We're pretty matched, but I might be a smidge ahead.

16. Who mows the lawn? He always does. I've never worked the thing.

17. Who cooks dinner? I always do. He can make a mean grilled cheese, though.

18. Who drives when you are together? Depends. If I need to put on my makeup, he does. If he needs to make some business calls, I do. If I feel like driving, I do. If he starts being a backseat (passenger seat) driver, I pull over and he does. :) Kidding, kidding.

19. Who pays when you go out? It doesn't matter. Mi dinero es his dinero.

20. Who is most stubborn? mmm. I think that award goes to Matt. But it's not over stupid stuff like the stuff that I'm stubborn over. It's over REALLY important stuff like how important it is to have a woodburning fireplace in our house. According to my hubby, it's more important than indoor plumbing. Yes indeedy.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I'd like to plead the fifth on this one, too. The short answer is that neither of us like to, but we're learning.

22. Whose parents do you see the most? My mom lives with us in our basement, so we see her the most. Next would be Matt's parents who we see a couple of times a year usually. And least often would probably be my Dad who we see once a year or so.

23. Who kissed who first? Our first kiss could have been in a chick-flick movie script. It went like this:

We were sitting in the car outside of my house after a date, talking, and it suddenly got quiet.

Me: What are you thinking about?

Him: (Leaning in) I'm trying to decide if I should kiss you.

Me: (matching the lean-in) What do you think you'll decide?

Him: I think I will.

Mwaaaaaaaah.

It was beautiful.

24. Who asked who out? Our first actual date was to Junior prom. His mom made him ask someone, and I was the lucky girl. Don't know if he was actually interested in me at that point or not (I think only mildly). Our first real date once he really was interested was to a Padres game.

25. Who proposed? I have proof:

This was back in the day when you could *gasp* go past security at the airport and meet your family/friends at the gate. I was returning home from visiting my family in California. I was... NOT expecting it.

It was New Year's Eve, 1996. The sign reads "Jenny, Will you Marry Me in 1997?"

Dazed and Confused.

"Wha?"

Two indisputable facts:

a)It's hard to kiss while smiling

b)Matt is kissing my teeth in this picture

"OK, I think I know what's going on now."

(check out the people in these pictures! They're hilarious. Especially the guy to the left, he's clapping and he doesn't even know why. He's not even looking at us.)

"Larry! Soon to be Father in Law! Taking my picture!"

Dazed and in Love. But still dazed.

Here's proof that I said yes:

26. Who is more sensitive? Me, of course.

27. Who has more friends? I guess me, again, of course.

28. Who has more siblings? We're even. He has one sister, I have one brother.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? I hate this saying. We both wear pants. Jeans to be exact. The question means "Who is the leader in your family"? Matt is most definitely the leader on all the big issues in our family, and issues that he feels strongly about. I will put in my .02 cents and defer to him to make the decision. It works best that way. Sometimes I have to sit on my tongue. Sometimes I argue my side. He always listens graciously. But our tradition is that he is the leader. We don't generally fight over the big things. It's biblical, and it works for us.

On the other hand, however, on issues of the daily grind, what-makes-the-home-go-round issues, Matt almost always defers to me. Which I appreciate.

I love ya, Mocha Man.

I tag Sarah and Jenna.

The REAL excitement of Easter

Excitement. Suspense.

"Tomorrow's Easter!" 'Lil Sis said. "I get to wear my pretty pretty dress!" Which pretty much sums up Easter's meaning for her. Not much interest in the stories of Jesus or even Easter egg hunts or Easter baskets. Nope, it's all about the dress.

"I am excited to go to church. And for the Easter egg hunt" Big Sis one-upped her 'Lil Sis (who could care less).

I am excited for Easter, too. It's right up there in my top two favorite holidays. And, this year, it's going to be oh, so different from the typical "family gathering" holiday, with 20-30 people sitting around a ping pong table dressed out for an Easter meal at Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma's house.

You see, I will be with a small group of family.

Sitting in an ICU waiting room.

Eating Kentucky Fried Chicken (Which IS open on Easter, in case anyone is wondering).

Visiting Great-Grandma, probably the feistiest fighter they have in that there ICU.

With joy and thanksgiving in my heart. For so many things. God keeps Grandma in His hand, breathing life into her. She is making baby steps forward, or should we call them gramma steps? Little by very little, she is improving. She is still listed in critical condition, going on 2 weeks. Fight, gramma, fight.

Last year on Easter, we were in the process of finding a new church home and I was a brand-new first time visitor at the church that morning. My hubby was playing at another church that day, so I brought 3 kids alone to a new church on the busiest church day of the year. I felt so so alone. A visitor. I missed our old church and the fellowship we had there. I was not in the "mood" to experience Easter. I was terrified of all the changes. Let's just say I was a wee bit fragile.

And THEN, they sang this song. I had never sung it before, and I was a total. wreck. Puddle on the floor. Here are the lyrics:

The Power of the Cross

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev'ry bitter thought,
Ev'ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
"Finished!" the vict'ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

So so powerful, such amazing life changing lyrics. I can't sing it without crying. I can't get through it.

This, my sweet friends, is why I am excited for Easter this year. It is not about my pretty dress. It is not about Easter eggs or chocolate bunnies. It's not about where you spend it, who you're with, or what you eat.

It is about the power of the cross, and the power of the resurrection. This is the power by which Grandma is fighting, the power by which it is possible for Grandma to not fear death. This is the power by which even death can not defeat us, because Christ Himself defeated death.

How do I blog a shout? That's how I feel as I'm writing this.

Have a powerful, Christ-exalting Easter! He is Risen!

Sweet Grandma

My Grandma-in-law, Pauline, is currently in critical condition in ICU. She has been fighting ovarian cancer for several months and doing very well - next week was scheduled as her last chemo.

Being beat up thouroghly from the chemo, she developed pneumonia, a bacterial skin infection, as well as a blood infection, and has been in ICU since Monday afternoon.

This woman is amazing. AMAZING. Faithful follower of Christ, full of life, an absolute child-at-heart. Strong. Strong-willed :) and beautiful.

Will you join me in praying for her recovery? There will also be updates at Aunt Dawn's page, if you'd like to stay updated. Thank you, friends.