Embracing My Inner Nerd

Sometimes Nate and I like to pretend we are 82 years old. We play a mean game of Scrabble. Last night, Nate came up with a new version of tournament play. We played two games simultaneously – one on his phone and one on our quality 1976 Scrabble board. To make it more competitive and fast-moving (in theory), we added bonus points for whoever finished their word first. It was fun and we were still mostly friends when it was over. Obviously I won, or I wouldn’t be blogging it. Nate is still searching for some reputable reference book that says “cullings” is a word. Good luck with that.

Retro Post - Baby Ben

Ben was born on January 12, 2001 at 2:54 a.m. I had called the date months before. I was teaching school at the time and I really wanted to finish the semester with my classes before I had him. He was due on the 16th, but I told everyone I was going to have him on the 12th. They laughed. They thought I was silly to think I had control over such things. I showed them (and without the aid of Pitocin). I left school at 3:00 on the 11th, felt my first contraction at 7:30 that night, and all 8 pounds, 14 ounces of Ben arrived 7 ½ hours later. He had a quality cone head and I thought he looked a lot like a monkey, but after a few hours I thought he was the most beautiful baby in the world. I had a really hard time calling him Benjamin. We had called him Herkamer while he was in the womb, and I was so used to it that Herk almost sounded cuter to me than Ben.

Nate and I were typical first time parents. We doted over that boy like crazy and took pictures and videos of every new expression, sound, or move. I remember being pretty overwhelmed with the task of parenting. I had been around babies lots, so I knew all the basics of childcare, but I had never had one of my very own. I felt the responsibility in a big way. Nate was very much a rookie at caring for a newborn. Watching him change a diaper during those first few weeks just about drove me nutty. He has certainly improved with practice.

Ben was a chubby baby. He weighed 20 pounds by the time he was 5 months old. It was a workout to lug that boy around! In the summer he actually got tan lines between his chubs. He tanned up nicely even as a baby, but we could pull apart the fat rolls on his arms and legs and the skin in the creases was pure white. It was very funny.

Mostly, he was just a cute, fun baby. He wanted food when he was hungry and wanted to sleep when he was tired. As long as those two basic needs were met, he was happy. He was a water baby right from the start and loved to play in the water . . . it didn’t matter if it was the bathtub, a lake, or a swimming pool. He was mom’s little buddy 24/7 and got lots of attention. I’ve often felt bad about how much less time my girls have had with me. They didn’t get nearly as many books read to them or songs sung to them or just one on one time to play with mom. People assure me that what they miss out on with their parents is more than made up for by their siblings. I hope that is true.

We love our Ben!

Enough Already!

I woke up at 7:00 this morning to the sound of sleet hitting the window. It quickly turned to snow, and it just kept snowing. All day. It has snowed non-stop for the last eleven hours. We got at least 13 inches of new snow, and it is STILL SNOWING! I love snow . . . in December. Once Christmas is over, I just don’t really see the point. I did get a good winter workout shoveling the driveway four times. I actually love that kind of exercise, but I currently look like Jerry’s “two-faced/bad light” girlfriend from Seinfeld.

Once the kids were safely home (thanks again to Jennie S.) and Nate made it home from work, the snow became more fun. A bunch of kids from our neighborhood came over to play and they all had a grand time. Ben and Emily played until their snow clothes were soaked through. Abby got lots of rides around the driveway on the sled and she loved it. Elise is sick today, so she slept on the couch through the whole party.

Draper Temple

We took the kids down to the Draper Temple open house on Wednesday. We used Family Home Evening on Monday to teach them about temples and I think that made a big difference in how much they got out of it. They needed one or two reverence reminders while we were there, but they were fabulous overall. They were impressed with how beautiful everything was . . . especially the chandeliers. The quote of the day was when Ben was telling me about the three degrees of glory, “the Celestial, Terrestrial, and Cholesterol.” Almost. Abby was determined to climb every stair in the temple without my assistance. It slowed us down a bit, but I figured it was better than having her screaming at full volume if I tried to carry her. I don’t know where she gets her stubbornness from. She did look cute holding on with Nate on our standing room only bus ride.

Blue and Gold Banquet

Tuesday night was Ben’s Blue and Gold Banquet. It was a nice night. They got roast beef from Arby’s for the dinner. Yummy. I think this is the first time we have gone to a church sponsored dinner where all of my kids loved the food and ate until they were full. Our former bishop (Bishop Foulger) shared a couple of military stories. It was a quality talk and made me even more appreciative of this great country of ours. Ben participated in his first color guard and did a great job. He got his basketball belt loop during the award ceremony. One of the boys got his Wolf (months before his 9th birthday) and another got his Arrow of Light. Both of those things made Ben very excited/motivated to get to work earning awards. I think that this summer will be full of lots of scouting projects. It should be fun.

Sunday Artwork

Getting through sacrament meeting with four kids can be a challenge. I can picture the day when all four of them sit riveted by the speakers and completely reverent, but that is certainly years/decades in the future. For now, we are taking baby steps toward reverence. We have long since eliminated treats and toys from our sacrament meeting routine. Now we are down to reading books and coloring. I laughed when I was cleaning out the church bag and saw the quality works of art that Emily has created in the last couple of weeks. Obviously the love of Star Wars and Indiana Jones is not limited to Ben at our house.

Messes and Bed Rest

Abby learned a couple of new skills today. Skill number 1: opening the child safety latch on my bathroom cabinet. Skill number 2: taking the lid off of a bottle of foundation. Silly me to think I could leave her unattended for three minutes. The first picture shows her reaction to my “no, no, no.” The second picture is when she noticed that I had a camera.

The day got better after I had cleaned the makeup out of the carpet and Abby’s clothes. Heidi brought her boys up to play. She is supposed to be on bed rest. She figured hanging out here and letting the boys play would be close enough. I’m not so sure how restful my house was, but it was fun to have them come and visit. Watching Zack and Austin eat pizza made my day. They are hilarious.

Retro Posts

My New Year’s resolution last year was to do weekly blog posts. I think it might be the first time in my life that I have actually kept a resolution. This year, I decided that I would start doing some “flashback” posts. I’m no good at scrapbooking and I’ve never really kept a consistent journal, but this blog thing seems to be working for me. I figured I should start blogging a few things from the black hole between the last scrapbook page I made (six years ago) and the time I started blogging. My resolution was to do at least one retro post a month and I intended to start with Ben’s birthday. Like most everything else that wasn’t urgent, it got pushed to my February list. I’m afraid it’s going to go the way of most of my resolutions, so I’m making a public commitment to make it happen. Maybe having the whole world (or at least the seven people that read my blog) know if I fail or succeed will motivate me.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Yesterday was Nate’s birthday. Now that he is almost 40, he says he doesn’t really care about birthdays. I’m glad. If not, the day might have been a little disappointing. Since it was Fast Sunday, he didn’t get the usual breakfast in bed for his birthday. He still got to teach Primary and help Emily with her talk. It wasn’t exactly a holiday. The Super Bowl saved the day from being a complete flop. Football is fun. Maybe we will have to start watching more than one game every ten years.

In celebration of my favorite list maker’s 36th birthday, I made a list of 36 things that I love about him.

1. He is a fun, patient, and devoted Dad.
2. He makes perfect crepes for breakfast almost every Sunday.
3. He has mad ping-pong skills.
4. He will watch chick-flicks with me and sometimes likes them more than I do.
5. He is a smart boy and has an amazing memory for random facts.
6. He did so much research on home theater equipment that he could have written a book by the time he was ready to buy a system.
7. He wakes up REALLY early and goes to work every day so that he can be home early to hang out with us.
8. He can reach things on the top shelf at Wal-Mart.
9. He takes his church callings seriously and does a great job at anything he is asked to do.
10. He makes all of the phone calls that I don't want to make.
11. He is competitive when it comes to board games and doesn’t mind schooling me (when he can).
12. He laughs at the same parts as I do when we are watching TV together. He can crack me up with one movie quote or one line from Seinfeld that no one else in the world would laugh at.
13. He hugs me first thing when he gets home from work every day.
14. He makes dinner as often as I do and does the dishes more often than I do.
15. He keeps us up to date on technology. He knows how to hook everything up and use all of the special functions on our remotes, cameras, DVR, etc.
16. He indulges my excitement about holidays even though he doesn’t share it.
17. He is strong and can move heavy things.
18. He does cool voices when he reads stories to the kids.
19. He is handy around the house. He has saved us tons of money by learning how to do everything from hanging drywall to replacing the dryer motor.
20. Whenever I am stressed out, he tells me that “every little thing is going to be alright.”
21. He is the one person in the world that loves our kids as much as I do.
22. He can fall asleep in 4 seconds flat after his head hits the pillow. I envy that ability!
23. He changes the oil in our cars.
24. He can sing better than me. (So can most everyone else, but I love that I can sing in sacrament meeting and his nice, loud voice will cover mine up.)
25. He has soft hands.
26. He loves corn on the cob and can easily put away 6 or 8 pieces in one sitting.
27. He makes really good sound effects (lightsabers, jets, wookies, etc.)
28. He has integrity and a strong desire to do what is right.
29. He knows my spoon rules (big spoon for cereal, small spoon for ice-cream, etc.)
30. He fills up my water mug, turns on my electric blanket, and puts toothpaste on my toothbrush every night before bed.
31. He uses our postage scale to measure ingredients when he is cooking.
32. He gets out of bed to help the kids when they wake up in the middle of the night.
33. He emails me from work several times every day.
34. He can still speak fluent Spanish 15 years after his mission (which scores us an extra box of chips from Javier’s every time he orders salsa).
35. He has seen me at my very worst – physically, mentally, and emotionally – and still loves me.
36. He is my perfect match. Our friends and family always say that we were made for each other (usually while they are mocking one of our anal retentive quirks), and it is completely true. I love him with all of my heart! Happy Birthday Nate!

Ben's Baptism

Yesterday was Ben’s baptism day. It was a good day. In my mind, I had pictured it being a little more Norman Rockwell like (if Norman Rockwell was a Mormon.) In the real world, it was pretty much a normal Saturday for most of the day. Ben added to the excitement by deciding at 3:30 that “I don’t want to get baptized.” While this is very typical Ben behavior, it still wasn’t a great thing to hear 30 minutes before the event. He’s been really excited about it for the past few weeks, but yesterday he was suddenly a little afraid. After a bit of discussion, we discovered that he was afraid of making a mistake after he had been baptized and not being able to wash it away. The whole accountability thing was feeling a little overwhelming and he thought it might be best to postpone it another year or two. We told him that it was totally up to him, but a couple of reminders about repentance and the sacrament and he was back on board. I think that kid just doesn’t want parenting to be too easy for us. He wants to make us work for it.

The baptism itself was great. Ben was glad that the water was warm because he got a double dunk. Nate’s tried and true baptism technique is to put his foot on the other guy’s toes so no legs float up. Unfortunately, someone flushed the toilet in the adjoining bathroom right in the middle of the baptismal prayer and broke his concentration. After that, he was so focused on not messing up the words that he forgot all about the foot trick and Ben’s knee popped out of the water.

Ben had lots of family there to support him and witness the big event. Afterwards, everyone came here for some treats. We watched a little slideshow that we had made for Ben and he got spoiled with lots of presents. I think he might go through withdrawals in February after the near constant flow of presents since Christmas.

It was fun to see Ben today. We’ve taught the kids that when they turn eight they can start fasting for one meal on Fast Sunday. He woke up so excited to fast. I was worried that the thrill would wear off at around 1:00 when the hunger hit, but he never complained. He spent a lot of time before church and during sacrament meeting marking the seminary mastery scriptures in his new scriptures and he bore his testimony in sacrament meeting for the first time. I don’t think he really intended to. I was on the stand meeting my “one testimony every three years” quota. Nate told Ben to “look up there” which Ben heard as “go up there.” Up he went. He did a great job.