Playing and Cleaning with Guests

Our guest from Chile have been with other US friends for the past two weeks, but on Tuesday night (after many days of the little girls asking "When is Angela coming back?!?!") they have returned. The kids were excited and they played out in the back yard too late, so late that we got a text from our sweet neighbor saying they were having a hard time falling asleep with the noise from all their fun. Doh! Kids, back inside! I know it's warm outside, but it's not summer yet!

So, it feels like they cleaned the whole house again. It's so nice to have help, wow. Angela helps with the daily stuff - picking up toys, sweeping, vacuuming. Her daughters picked up the girls' room. The boys' rooms didn't get helped this time (they might be beyond help....) Yesterday I spent most of the day doing a big day project that I hadn't planned on: it was time to clean out the fridge again. We got a refurbished fridge delivered on the day Abi was baptized over a year ago. 3 months after that was when it first began to make the noise, our 90 day warranty covered it being repaired that first time, but a few months later it did it again. Warranty now gone, so I've tried to do my best to fix it. It comes from ice building up around the fan and then the fan hitting the ice. So it still makes the noise every couple of months. When it does I usually just go hit the power switch off and leave it off overnight. I use the breaker box cause I don't want to roll it out and unplug it, cause that's a pain. So defrosting it that way helps and it usually works after one night off. So, it started making it again last night but I didn't turn it off cause it wasn't that bad, but this morning it was full on LOUD, so off the power goes, time to defrost the fan! It's some kind of design flaw since there are lots of people out there experiencing the same irritating noise. Ironically, I had just noticed and eve mentioned to Melodie how nice it was that the the noise hasn't been here for a while. I googled it more this time and did find these troubleshooting instructions here on their customer support page.  I have now properly leveled the fridge, and I know the ice was all gone off the fridge cause I left it off all day (moved all the food to the garage fridges and freezers - I guess it's good I haven't sold our 2nd extra on the classifieds yet), so we'll see how it works. It's a pain, but a good way to make me clean out the fridge every few months.

Tonight they've been dancing to 80s music and some Chilean hits in the front room. It's fun, they are all laughing and having fun and making memories.

The kids have shoved pillows up their shirts and are body slamming each other. Hyrum is "The Red Apple" Wesley is "Purple Plum", Lily was "Cotton Candy"... then Gabriella brought down Owen with a blanket shoved in his pajamas, we named him "Blue Berry Boy".

Sophi, not to miss out on the fun, ran upstairs to plump up her clothes, Her name is "Cherry" - just to keep with the whole food theme.

Body slammin' in the front room to entertain their Chilean audience.

We're going to try to do something short and fun this weekend with them and have plans to take them to Las Vegas for a quick trip spring break in 10 days. :)

Too Much

I read this article today about Simplifying Childhood. The book that that article is commenting on is titled Simplicity Parenting which "encourages parents to keep fewer toys so children can engage more deeply with the ones they have. Payne describes the four pillars of excess as having too much stuff, too many choices, too much information and too much speed. When children are overwhelmed they lose the precious down time they need to explore, play and release tension. Too many choices erodes happiness, robbing kids of the gift of boredom which encourages creativity and self-directed learning. And most importantly “too much” steals precious time." (All the time I spend cleaning! Or more like the time I spend dreading cleaning)

Melodie just mentioned a film she watched that talked about how of two stores that sold ice cream, the one with less choices was more successful. People feel overwhelmed/stressed by too many choices! Again, the four pillars of excess:

1. Too much stuff
2. Too many choices
3. Too much information
4. Too much speed

This article is right in line with what I need to hear right now (again). I haven't done much more to clean out the basement since Angela and her girls have arrived, but I haven't needed to go down there to that mess to still be drowning in too much stuff on the main floors and up in the bedrooms. The clothes problem here at our house is my current kryptonite. I get it all washed, but it does not get folded. I put the clean clothes in laundry baskets in the kids rooms and my room and there it remains. Well, the boys toss everything out all over the floor as they look for the item they want so the rooms are just a mess of clothing on the floor. I get most of ours folded, but then hit a roadblock or get interrupted before I finish sorting through the kids clothes and socks that make it into our hamper. Maybe we need to have just one winter jumper too.

Too much is totally true. I was thinking back on our simple life in Brazil in 2007. We packed light, and the kids each brought a cape, a stuffed animal, and then we also brought some Knex toys and a mega blocks train. The toys fit in a small bin. The kids went deep with those toys, they "engaged deeply", and now I love those toys cause my kids loved those. The stuffed animals are currently are on a shelf in my bedroom closet cause they capture that simple time and those memories.

When we had to simplify again when we went to Costa Rica and Chile for 9 months, the kids went deep again with their one stuffed animal, even making furnished apartments for their toys out of paper. Joseph didn't take one that time, but the rest of them each had a Webkinz toy they liked. We went through stuffed animals and threw out quite a few two weeks ago. We kept more than I thought we should, so we might need to try again with this new article fresh in mind. We have a lot of Webkinz, but the kids remember their Costa Rica ones and their names: Mel had Kacey the bunny, Ethan had Lucas the Lion, Hyrum had the Gecko Ben, Wesley's dog's name was Matthew, and Abi's cat was Scarlet. Lily's bear was one she stole from the church nursery room in Chile there.

Our visitors, Angela and her girls, have been angels in how much they've been cleaning  this house, which gives me a grateful/guilty feeling... grateful for the help, Lord knows I need it, but guilty/embarrassed that we Wrides can't keep on top of it and I'm going to feel like a loser tomorrow when they clean it all again. Our current goal is not to live like pigs. So yeah, going to try to thin out the thick of all our toys and clothes and stuff around here again.

Solo Conferences

Ah, parent teacher conferences. Usually we divvy up the conferences and Corey does the older kids and I do the elementary and middle school. But Corey is gone, as we are all well aware, so guess where I got to go? Back to High School! Oh boy, I had to gear myself up to leave the house again... I've like had to leave the house every day the past week,which I'm not used to doing. So last night Joseph and Ethan were gone at Voodoo in Corey's car, and Angela had borrowed the van, so I wanted to bail out and say I couldn't go in the busted car, but fortunately (though unfortunately for me and my desire to get out of PTCs at this moment) it's still driveable. So off I went. I left Mel and Hyrum in charge and headed over in car with the busted bumper. Daniel fell asleep on the way, woke him up and strapped him on. Got a full bottle, here we go

Walking past the seal from the great class of '94!

I saw some teachers that I took classes from 22 years ago (AP Art history teacher Woods, Health teacher Hymas) and a friend of mine from the class of' '94 was there for conferences for her kids too and we said hi (Allison Hampshire - she hadn't aged a bit, the only difference was she had shorter hair) So it went well at conferences. Mel is quiet, they both have a few grades they need to try to get up. I felt like I totally had to go to Conferences cause we skipped them in September cause we were busy with Daniel being born, and we didn't catch that Mel was struggling and that term didn't go so great for her. So, even with Corey gone, I did it, go me. Positive mindset: I can do this! I went to Churchill after but the empty parking lot clued me in that there weren't conferences going on tonight. Doh, that meant that today was gonna be busy, and it was. I couldn't do conferences tomorrow cause I'm going to be in San Diego with Corey. Blah this is a lot to manage... my brain is kinda used to managing it but not doing all of it. Here we go

I already had conferences with Abi and Lily scheduled for tonight, so first this evening was heading over to the elementary for them at 4:45 and 5. Then to the book fair cause I promised them we'd do it today since I missed books and bagels yesterday morning (that whole "can't do it cause I'm flying solo" thing again...) so after the book fair we headed home to check the status of Owen and Daniel, who I'd left with Mel (Hyrum, Eth, and Joseph gone at band). Owen was ready for a change of scenery so I took him with me for the rest of the evening. Stoller in the back. First to Albion. Wesley wanted me to see like 5 of his teachers. Wasn't too bad, lines were okay, was there for like 45 minutes. Then over to Churchill to finish off the evening. Stroller out of the van, kid out of the van, hoof it up the hill from the parking lot. It was 6:40. There weren't a lot of people there. I walked around, long line for a teacher to see for Ethan, which was the first name I recognized, so I went to say hi to Mr. Arnell since there was no line. I didn't have any concerns with Hyrum in his class, but wanted to introduce myself and tell him that my kids absolutely love having him as a teacher. Mr. Arnell is the teacher I heard all the kids say really positive things about. He also comes from a family of 10 kids so we talked about that for a bit and visited. I like Mr. Arnell and am grateful there are great teachers like that. He was one of the deciding factors to Wes deciding to go to Churchill. Hyrum and Ethan and Mel were all like "You have to go to Churchill or you'll never have Arnell!" Then after that the line for Eth's teacher was down to one so I jumped over. That was also the time that I realized almost all the teachers were leaving. Oh, this ends at 7? Doh. That was a quick visit, then over to Ethan's one request: Peterson. Someone was still there talking his ear off so I waited for a few minutes then talked to him. We were the last ones in the room. Then we were done. I guess that will have to do, I did my best. Now it's time to get home and pack and get ready for tomorrow. Hope I don't lose these notes and papers in my absence before I can go over them with the kids. 

Valentines

Today was Valentine's Day. My #1 Valentine is far away in Brazil, but I shall see him shortly. He did call to wish us all a happy love day. Keeping me company while Corey is gone is my funny Valentine Daniel. He was super cute sucking his thumb two days ago ~

My next Valentine Natalie is a sweet little roommate too. Still sleeping on our floor most every night.

The past few nights she's been sleeping with an old toy that Abi got when we were in Chile 5 years ago. I had it on display on my shelf to remind me of little Abi, now it will remind me of Natalie too. I made Valentine's for the older kids. Some Candy grams - I was inspired by the "Super8" candy bars that Angela gifted us. And this was also an effort to get rid of the chocolate before I ate it all.

Joseph likes Mr. Goodbars. Mel likes KitKats, but they aren't good for candy grams...

Neither are Reeses. So I tried to get creative, but it mostly got lame.

Then I got lazy with Wes and Lily. They didn't seem to mind. I didn't keep track of how many treats each kid got, but since I hid the Valentines on their beds they weren't able to compare to each other.

Abi was excited by the surprise, she loves stuff like this. She used some of her treats from school to make a Valentine for me, cause she is also a major note writer. I've got a whole stack of love notes from my sweet Abi, and now have this one to add to the collection.

Llegaron

Angela and her girls are here!

And we found each other at the airport through our husbands communicating between Brazil and Chile, funny. And what a pleasure to have them, but not just because they've spent the whole day cleaning up my wreck of a home. We cleaned and then we rearranged things and they are settled in now and I got a space heater for the basement and this will be fun! Owen even seems to have lost some of his shyness and has smiled at them and looked them in the eyes a few times. I'm running around a bit and things are busy, so I'll try to catch up here when I can. Parent Teacher Conferences this week and then on Thursday I fly to San Diego and meet up with Corey there on his way back from Brazil. We're going to be there through Sunday. Fun times, and busy, I feel like I'm kinda running around like a chicken with it's head cut off

Cleaning for Company

Today I was in such a funk. (So much for the Devotional talk I was so excited about yesterday!) I was preaching to myself with that anyways. But maybe I'm not a lost cause... maybe being aware is the first step. I was very aware that I was not thinking positively, so that's good. Bad thing was that I didn't want to think positively - the natural man in me somehow enjoyed my bad mood and I thus wanted to continue the miserable wallow in my grumpy attitude. I'll blame the cloudy gray weather. I could feel myself continuing the downward spiral and figured I just best help myself hurry and hit bottom so I could start to come back up again. A few calls to vent friends and family and then I was able to turn around and function again. Yay.

So I think my funk was mostly caused by the basement. And that had become something I had to reconcile with because we have 3 house guests coming for a few weeks (through April) and we had to make a space for them, and that was the only place for it. Our friend Angela is coming to visit. Corey and Angela know each other from his mission days when he was a missionary working in the Santiago West Mission office, where she worked too. Angela saved us when the PDI in Chile wouldn't let me come back to America after our 5 months there. She came to the blessed US of A in October 2012 for a visit and now is returning and this time she's bringing two of her daughters. Here is a picture of all of us from 6 years ago.

All those little kids are bigger now. Her oldest daughter is on a mission for the LDS church in Lima Peru, awesome, so it's just Cata and Gabriella that are coming. they are Ethan and Joseph's ages (I think?)

So, I got out of the funk when I stopped thinking how much I wish the basement was finished and how we don't have a good space to put them, and stopped telling myself we can't host people very well. My overwhelmed bad mood that had persisted all day turned a corner when I told myself I had two choices:

1. Just shove all the stuff out of the way into a big pile of junk and call it good.  OR ~
2. Just get rid of all of it. 

If it's just a pile of unwanted or unused junk anyway, then really, why don't we just be gone with it? Sure, there are a few things in the boxes here and there that are truly misplaced treasures, but most of it's just there to sap my energy! So, a year ago I organized the basement, and all the winter and summer clothes were put into lettuce boxes that took me several Costco trips to acquire. Well, I've moved all clothing into the laundry room, thus now most of those boxes are empty. It's gonna take me a few months to throw them out in the recycling on trash day, but hey! (lightbulb above my head) if I fill them with all this junk, then I can drop them off with the load of donations at the DI! Brilliant, that could be a win win!

So I didn't do my plan A of going to the temple for date night. Instead we cleared out junk and the kids were around to cast their donate or keep vote for different items. Didn't get the van totally full, but did get a lot of unused stuff in there and I'm already feeling lighter.

Toys just don't last long at our house, as you can see from this old post. I even gave away some vintage "My Friend" dolls - like 3 mikeys that I bought for the kids for Christmas in 2006. Poor 6 year old Joseph,.. his mom bought him a doll for Christmas! But I did have my seamstress sister in law make some cute Jedi clothes for it. I wanted Mel and Joseph and Ethan to play together. I don't think it ever happened. I have held on to them for 11 years anyway, but we said goodbye this week, 2 Becky, 2 Jenny. Someone out there who wants to put in the effort might feel like they scored a pretty sweet find at the thrift store - you could get $15 bucks each for those, good luck. As for me, I'm just happy to pass them along and have them gone. Time again to try and help let things that don't matter to me fall out of our life.

Campinas to Florida to Utah

On Wednesday night, our friend Zeb's flight left first around 8, so Corey took him to the airport around 5 and took our luggage with hopes that he'd be able to check it in early. They wouldn't let him, so a friend stayed there and watched it while he came back to pick all of us up. We left around 8. First task - return the cars.

We loaded the kids into the van while Corey talked to the rental people, doing whatever they needed to do for 30 minutes. (Things just take longer here!)

The kids kept getting drinks of water and eating their complimentary candies, and finally they were done and we got in the shuttle to head to the airport. Natalie fell asleep on the drive to the airport, so we carefully placed her in her carseat into the shuttle, then onto the smartcart - she was able to keep sleeping until we had to check her carseat.

We said goodbye to our friends, they all helped us out so much, Thank you! We will miss you!

And now the moment is here, we're on the plane headed home! How does it feel, kids? I think they're excited.

The stewardess' brought around some i-pad type things and the kids watched movies and played games. We enjoyed a nice dinner at 1 a.m, except Abi and Lily were already asleep. Then we told the other kids it's would be good for them to try to go to sleep too. Are you comfortable Wes?

I think all the kids slept pretty well, although Ethan told me later how terrible it was cause he asked for a drink of Guarana but they gave him CocaCola, and then he fell asleep and it spilled all over his shorts and soaked his socks, so he had a miserable night cause he felt sticky and wet. I think he had it better than Corey or I though. I knew it would be bad, so I wasn't surprised, but boy, my ankles got so swollen. I think they're gonna need a few days of elevation to recover. And as for Corey, he saved my life, cause Natalie had a little bit of Coke for dinner when we were at Angela and Felipe's house... and that might not have been a good idea, cause she was seriously awake and full of energy until 3 a.m. Maybe it was the little power nap she had in the drive to the airport, I don't know, but she was on one. There was like no leg room and I would have died if I had to hold her still during the whole night with my pregnant self. Corey saved my life by taking both her and Sophia for our un-restful night's sleep on the plane. Sophi slept on the floor when Natalie was on her high energy kick climbing all over the chair. She finally gave in, but we were going to be getting up early - we landed at 7:30 Florida time / 8:30 Brazil time. That's just five and a half hours of sleep for Natalie - and that's not good.

After we landed, we went though customs and that wasn't bad at all. Although it always makes me laugh to see Corey hand over a 10 pile stack of passports. "School trip?" he was asked. Nope, just our family. After going through there, Corey and the older kids went to check in our luggage for our next flight... but that wasn't until 5:30... yes, this is going to be a long layover. How will we cope? Corey was able to check in the luggage (thanks Delta!) while I stayed with little kids who made a big mess with crackers and drawing papers. And when he returned, he said "Grab your stuff, I got us a room!" What? A hotel room? Wow, brilliant! Yes, there is a Hyatt hotel right there in the Orlando airport.

The view from our room - I love seeing that flag!!

Corey got two pizzas for the kids and they watched tv and Corey and I, well we got to go lay down and sleep!! This was the best idea ever! Natalie didn't eat any pizza, she was too cranky and tired. I went and got her from the kids room and she fell asleep right away.

The kids were thirsty - and were happy when I reminded them that we were in the US now, and you can drink water from the tap here! Drink up!!

After a good nap, we got ready to go catch our final flight.

Unfortunately it said it was delayed for 2 hours. Doh. Wish we hadn't checked out of the hotel yet, but we're not going through security again. So time to sit and wait kiddos.

They did pretty good (with the help of some hamburgers, fries, and chocolate milk). Nice crown Hyrum. Zeb forgot his hat at our friends house, so Wes was in charge of keeping that for him.

Ethan really liked the eye masks from the Azul airline.

The delay turned out to be just 50 minutes, not 2 hours, so that was good. We were on the plane at 6 and soon in the air. Natalie was once again full of high energy. It was a long 4 1/2 hours...

She was just constantly moving - She kicked me out of my chair (wanted equal treatment) so luckily Sophi was willing to sit on Corey's lap and I scooted over by him. Natalie wanted the window seat (open - close - open - close...)

Playing peek-a-boo with Abi in the chair in front of her.

I didn't know if the plane would be landing from the south or coming from the north. But figured it out when I saw the Y on the mountain!

 Kids! There's BYU! We're almost home! 

There is our home! Little Cottonwood Canyon! Although Abi was disappointed she couldn't see her school or our house.

On the planes' decent - that was when Natalie decided to fall asleep. She crashed hard, face down in the seat. Sleep child, sleep.

My parents and Corey's parents and his sister were all there ready to help us load our baggage and transport the kids home. My little sister had decorated our driveway - so nice for America to welcome us back!

We walked in the door and after ooh-ing and aah-ing about the house and how it felt the same as before (it is the same!) they went straight for the Lego room. This chalk writing on the driveway spoke truth - "Home is where the Legos are!"

As they played, we reminded them that it was late, not just for Utah time - but it's like 2 am in Brazil... Aren't you guys tired? Let's go to bed! I'm glad we have a day to recover tomorrow before the 4th of July festivities.

Heading Out

Last night as I packed bins, Corey told me his plan of attack - Let's clear out of here as soon as we can, then we'll go hang out at Felipe's house for lunch, and then go to a churrascuria with all the kids and get a nice big dinner meal before the airport. 

We came pretty close to executing his plan. We did it all except go out to eat. (That sounded pretty painful to me anyway - taking all the kids out to a restaurant? I don't know that we've ever done that!) So, I packed and cleaned and a wonderful friend from church came and helped cook eggs for the kids and then cleaned the dishes for me so we could pack those. She was a life saver. Then I sent her off with a hug and a kiss on the cheek with her car loaded with pillows and sheets and cooking pans and plates and other stuff. Corey had guys from his work come and they took away all the crates. He thought it was poetic justice, that the crate furniture is going to return to become crates again.

We joked how the crates have been in denial - "I'm not a crate! I'm a couch!" You can't change what you are - and you make a lousy couch, we're gonna help you become a crate again. We think they might feel a little snobby around all the regular crates that don't have a coat of paint. 

As the bins and boxes got packed up, Corey put them on the front porch. Eventually we had enough done that we could head out. But we had to wait for the moving van with crates to leave first, since our cars were stuck inside the gate.

But good news - Nathy's car was parked on the outside! She offered to take them over to Felipe and Angela's house. Sounds good - then we can finish the final touches without kids trying to help.

She had 7 Wrides and 2 of her kids in the car, plus her driving. Before Hyrum got in, he looked at me and said there was no room. Nathy assured us "There is room!" He asked me "Is this okay?" (with Lily on his lap)

Nathy said "Not in the US, but here it is ok"

So off they went - 3 Zancas + 7 Wrides. I left shortly after them. My car was loaded with bins and one Natalie and her baby.

At Felipe's house the kids watched movies for several hours. Mel played with their baby boy as Natalie put a pink bow on him. Mel had fun holding the baby, she's excited for our baby to come. I wonder how much pink and girly stuff his 4 little older sisters will subject him to?

The kids watched movies and had plenty to eat - Angela is an angel and made us hamburgers, fries, and we brought a cake that Renata brought us for Wesley's birthday. So that was lunch... (do you like the chocolate on Sophi's face?)

(And her poor crossed eyes, I hope I can change to get an appointment sooner than the one I have for October...) And then they watched a few more movies while I took a quick hour power nap, Corey took Zeb to the airport cause his flight left 3 hours before ours. Zeb will be back in Utah tomorrow around noon. We don't get in until 8:20. But he has two layovers, and we didn't want that. We'd rather do 10 hours in Orlando than have to take another flight. So after taking Zeb to the airport, Corey came back for the rest of us. We ate some pizza and loaded into our Fiats for the last time. And it was off to the airport - to be continued tomorrow!