A Few Thoughts

When I was in Tennessee with my parents they met a very sweet couple (probably in their 50’s)who did the housekeeping at the motel we stayed in.  Actually, the wife works there, the husband just comes and helps her on the weekends when he’s off work so that they can get done earlier and they can enjoy their weekend together.   I can’t stop thinking about that and how sweet it is.

I have a major pet peeve with people who treat people like idiots.  My sister was telling me she heard she needed to go sign her oldest child up at the school because he’ll be in kindergarten next year.  She went in and the secretary was just so unhelpful and treated my sister like she was so stupid when she tried to ask some questions.  How in the world is a mother who has never had a child attend school supposed to know all the ins and outs of the system?  Why does she take so much pleasure in comparing her knowledge with Eliza’s, it’s HER JOB, SHE SHOULD KNOW ALL ABOUT IT and that doesn’t make someone who hasn’t worked there or had children go to school before IDIOTS!  Whew, glad I got that out.

I cannot stop thinking about a book I read, called “Sarah’s Key”.  It’s historical fiction about the holocaust.  Anything about the holocaust is off the charts upsetting, but this author had to go and add this terrible, awful thing to the story.  It’s not just something that described the horrors of what the nazi’s did, this is something she totally just made up and I’m mad at her.   There were so many actual tragedies and horrors from this time why did she have to make one up?  Plus she used a very bad word and I hate it when I have to hear or see that word.  I know someone who loves this book.   I’m anxious to go to bookclub tomorrow night and see if I’m crazy.  It’s very likely that I’m crazy and being completely irrational about this.  We’ll see.

If you haven’t seen “Waiting for Superman” go get it!  I heard about it when it first came out, limited release.  I was so sad because I knew I would never make it to the theatre.  The other day I noticed it at Redbox and was so excited to see it.  I admit I’ve never been a huge fan of unions, specifically teacher’s unions, but now, I’m afraid my head is going to explode when I think about it.  Also, I want the little girl named Daisy to come and live with us.  Her family seems super sweet, but maybe they would let her come live with me and come to our school. 

Update

I just sat down and should have warned everyone that this is kind of a permanent situation.  I won’t be moving for several hours.  Sundays are exhausting, aren’t they?  I can’t seem to figure out that whole day of rest thing.  We currently have church from 2 to 5 pm.  You know it’s going to be bad when you feel like it’s been the longest day of your life before you even get to church and therefore before you’ve had the pleasure of playing Sacrament meeting whack-a-mole.  5 heads bobbing up and down, 5 mouths talking too loudly and Brennan and I just sitting there waiting with our figurative clubs ready to bat the wiggles or noise back down.  Joshua just has no concept of quiet, none.   The good news is Sunday School felt like a date night and Relief Society was a dream because Joshy went to nursery!  Anyway, after church we came home and the girls (who had fasted) tore into anything they could get in their mouths while the boys took off their shirts and put mittens on for a few rounds of boxing (always a great Sabbath activity).  Joshua was still bitter about being dumped into nursery and decided he needed to be held by me and only me for the next hour while I also made dinner.  He also strongly disagreed with my stand on things like touching hot burners and putting hands in boiling water.    He wasn’t shy about expressing his opposing views.  We love Sundays.

Anna’s a good kid, and I’m really enjoying watching her grow up.   For young women’s the other night her leaders arranged to have 8 grandmas in the ward come speak to them.  They ate dinner with them and then each of the older women shared some of their wisdom with these 12 and 13 year old girls.  It really had an impact on Anna.  She let me read her journal entry about it and I was kind of blown away by her insights.   She was with 2 of her friends the other night and they were talking about 2 of their other friends who had been a little offish.  She suggested they invite them over too.  That makes me so happy.  We love Anna.

Abigail has really become determined that she will be a poet when she grows up.  Her friend’s grandpa is a poet and he came to talk to their class.  He suggested that they start reading as much poetry as they can if they want to write it.  She checked out a poetry book at school and devoured it.   Abby is so similar to me in so many ways that it always surprises me how much follow through she has.  I hope to be like her someday.  She sets her mind to something and there’s no stopping her.  I set my mind to something and there’s no need to stop me.   Anyway, everyday when she comes home from school she can’t wait to see Josh and can’t stop telling me how he’s the absolute cutest baby in the world.  We love Abby.

Here’s a little bedhead action from Nate.  It might be time for a haircut.  Nate keeps busy shooting baskets, playing his sports video games, and begging me to let him ride his bike in the street.  He likes to be busy and loves it when friends call him.  He is taking karate currently and loves it and just earned his yellow striped belt.  He has been working on an animal report for school, his animal is the bobact.  I cannot believe how long he can read about animals and how many of the facts he can retain and recall.   We love Nathan and his hair.

Benny takes full advantage of any good weather we get.  He’s always running around with our cute little neighbor kids, riding bikes, jumping on their tramp.   Friday night all three big kids had a late night at their friend’s houses so he was wondering what he was going to do.  I told him he got to have a late night with Brennan and me.  He wasn’t convinced he was getting a very good deal until I told him he could choose something to do with Brennan and something to do with me.  Brennan played a video game with him and I played one of his favorite little board games with him.  He was so thrilled.   We love Benjamin.

Doesn’t he look sweet?  He really is as long as no one gets any ideas that they might be running things.  If one of us challenges his authority, this is what he looks like:

Or he flops onto the floor, or he puts his arms on that little table and buries his head in them.

He’s been climbing up on chairs for awhile now and so we quickly learned not to have anything on the table.  Now he figured out how to move the chairs.  We’re in so much trouble.  He’s already dumped a whole thing of Benadryl out (thank goodness he chose to dump it rather than drink it!!!!), fish some forks out of the drawer and use them to dig the deodorant he found out of it’s container (again, thanks to his binkie he refrained from tasting it), and in his spare time do a little browsing in the pantry.

It’s a good thing we all happen to find him completely irresistible.  He’s talking more and more, but still relies quite a bit on his favorites, “Nooooo!” and “Goooo!”.  He can say “Dos-sey” (Joshy) and it’s cuter that I could ever describe.   We love Joshua.

Womens’ Conference IV

Yep, that time of year again!  This was our 4th annual Bell Women’s Conference.  Good times!!!!

Tiff, Kristen, Me, Eliza, Melanie, Allyson.  Front:  Mandolin, Mom and Liane

My aunt Allyson was in charge this year and did a fantastic job.  Thursday night all of the aunts gathered and 3 of them proved their hardcore-ness by staying up til 4 am!!!!  The next generation got to join in the fun the  next day.  Friday started with about 6 of us, Ally, Mel, Liane, Me, Lize and Mandolin at the temple.  It was so neat to be with these women and after our session we younger girls got to stand around with our aunts and ask them a thousand questions about the temple and what they’ve learned.  That meant the world to me and was a definite highlight. 
After the temple, we joined up with quite a few more (Mom, Becky, Kristin, Tammy, and  Jan) for lunch.  Good food, good company, good fun.
We finished lunch and drove to Ally’s house to unload our things and change our clothes.  We walked down to her church and had a fun surprise.  Ally’s friend was there to teach us some line dances.  Pretty creative idea, and a great workout.  Kristen, Tiff, Tasha, Megan, Diane and Sara joined us there.

my cousin, Mandolin

Tiff and Melanie taking a break

When we were too hot and exhausted to dance anymore, we shifted gears to play some very exciting games of volleyball.  Volleyball is a big deal in our family, it’s serious business and gets very intense.  My uncles and male cousins/brothers are notorious ball hogs so over the years a few of the women have opted out.  This time everyone played and hidden talents were revealed.  Liane, for instance, was our secret scoring weapon.  Eliza, got everything that came her way except when she and my mom couldn’t decide who’s ball it was and did a series of alternating short yells and startled movements. 

We left the church and went back to Ally’s for a great dinner where her husband, Mike aka Jeeves, waited on us most attentively.  Brittany and Ashley joined us there.  After dinner Allyson gave a beautiful presentation on “The Errand of Angels”.   Before we came we were each supposed to write a paragraph describing our personality.  We all put ours into a big bucket and then drew someone else’s out.  We took turns reading each paragraph and guessing who it was.  It was kind of amazing how quickly we knew, but was so much fun to hear everyone’s description of their own personality. 

Next Ally broke out the sparkling cider and fancy plastic goblets for a toast after which we settled in for a long night of chatting and laughing that went all too quickly.   We sprawled all over the basement floor and couches and chairs and mats.  We listened to Melanie describe her harrowing trip to Egypt right when the protests broke out.  We discussed our church callings, marriages, parenting, confidence, dating, personality types and everything in between.

I didn’t look at the clock when I finally dragged myself to bed.  I think it must have been around 3 or 4 (Eliza has reported it was 4:45).  Liane, Ally and Jan had gotten about 2 hours of sleep the night before but still stayed up with us.  Amazing, love them!

Most of us slept in the next morning til about 10 and then went up for a fabulous breakfast.  Some of us got ready and we all tidied up a bit and then started our service auction.  We were all supposed to come prepared with something kind of service to be auctioned off.  We wrote down our service and then we had a sheet with questions having to do with being angelic which we answered to see how much currency we’d have to spend in the auction (things like have you done your visiting teaching this month?  Did you read your scriptures yesterday? etc.).  Megan was our auctioneer and read off all the services we could bid on.  We had things like: crochet a scarf, bring family over for dinner, overnight babysitter, will plan and host a girls’ night, help set up a blog, teach how to use google calendar and docs, help organize a room, lunch and spa, art, sugar cookies, math tutoring session.  It was very difficult to choose.  I won the lunch and spa day from/with Jan! 

Finally, Mandolin shared her beautiful testimony about angels in our lives and beyond the veil.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect womens’ conference.   I feel so blessed to have so many exemplary women to learn from.  I know that sometimes the men in our lives roll their eyes that  these gatherings are just a big excuse to party, which it is in part, but few things motivate and inspire me like feeling understood and loved and like I’m in good company in my efforts as a disciple, wife and mother.   Thank you so much, Allyson, for all your hard work and your amazing hostess skills!  Thank you everyone who was there for such a great weekend!  Major kudos to Bren for holding down the fort 2 weekends in a row!

Some Squash

Have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with 18 month olds/2 year olds?  While I was in Tennessee DYING without my baby Squash whenever I called home Brennan or Anna would hold the phone to Joshy's ear and when I started talking to him he would just start giggling.  It was the cutest thing.  He didn't say one word, just laughed his manly laugh.  It kind of killed me.

Today Eliza and her kids were at our house and Joshy was loving baby Peter.  He wanted to hold him so I held Peter on Joshy's ample lap.  Once again Josh busted up in peals of pure delighted laughter, until he noticed my hand holding onto Peter.  Then in his firmest voice he pointed to my hand and said, "GO!".  He really hates it when we disobey him.

I mentioned I started taking voice lessons.  I practice in the kitchen while I load/unload the dishwasher or make dinner etc.  I have my sheet music and a little CD player in the kitchen so I can play my accompaniment track.  Today Joshua found a piece of blank lined paper, picked it up, walked into the kitchen and started singing.  Then he pointed and grunted at the CD player.  I turned it on for him and he was so pleased with himself.  Anna grabbed her camera, but the moment had pretty much passed.   The video does show about 10 seconds of him singing with chocolate chip cookie smeared all over his face.  He lost interest as soon as he saw the nuts on the table.  Oh, and the video ends with Anna stepping in the cookie dough she dropped while filming.  Some great FOOTage. 



Joshua Singing from Andrea W. on Vimeo.

Nashville, TN

My older brother, Braden, and I are two years apart, and always got along.  We couldn’t be more different, but we had a mutual affection and loyalty and respect for each other.  I’m sure he’s mostly responsible for that because as the oldest, he set the tone, and he always chose to include me.  Even as a very young child, he had a larger than life kind of personality.  He has always been a creative genius (I mentioned we’re opposites, right?) and made mine and my siblings’ lives rich with imaginary towns, governments, battles, and plays.  I remember once we put on a version of “A Christmas Carol” but for some reason Scrooge, played by Davis, was a potato?  Anyway, thanks in large part to Braden, and my parents for encouraging it, we had I think uniquely colorful childhoods. 

By age 15, Braden branched out from coercing and bribing his sometimes less than enthusiastic siblings and neighbors into his productions to a huge production of “Mary Poppins” with the local elementary school kids.  It was a huge success.  He went on to do two more plays, “The Wizard of Oz” and “Fiddler on the Roof” at the ripe old age of 16 and 17.   After his first one, he had the credibility he needed to have an army of moms putting his vision into scenery and costumes.  I believe “Fiddler” was sponsored by our City, and was the beginning of their summer theatre program which my own Abigail was part of last Summer. 

He became the high school drama teacher’s protégé and she was kind enough to mentor him and let him help direct some scenes for the sophomore musical revue’s etc.  In college, he studied children’s theatre and went on to NYU to get his doctorate in children’s theatre.

After graduate school he got a job at a Children’s Theatre in Nashville, TN.  A few years later he was hired by a private middle school to teach chorus and direct a Fall and Spring play.  The spring play includes some of the lower grades as well.  As my Dad says, he was born for this job.   My parents have been able to go visit and see some of his productions and raved about what Braden was able to pull off with 6th, 7th and 8th graders.  I always hated that I couldn’t see them.

A few months ago Braden’s wife, Meredith, emailed us that their daughter, Victoria, was thrilled to learn she was cast in the role of the Wicked Witch for their Spring production of “Wizard of Oz”.  Which she was extra excited about because in an effort not to play favorites, she has to be twice as good as her competition.  Anyway, Meredith mentioned anyone would be welcome and that it would be over President’s Day weekend.  I knew immediately I had to go.  I knew it would be expensive to fly there so I mentioned it to Brennan to see what he thought.  He was instantly supportive and assured me we had miles from our credit card and that I could use them and that he was willing to stay home with all the kids so I could go.  So, I went!  My parents also went which made it so easy and fun.

We got there late Friday night and got to our motel, where my parents stayed.  Braden picked me up on the way home from that night’s performance and I stayed up way too late with Braden and Meredith catching up on everything.  I slept there that night.  Sat. we woke up and hung out, Mom and Dad came over and we played games with my nephews, Zach and Jeff, who are roughly Nate and Ben’s ages.  That afternoon we loaded up and drove to the school for the play.  Meredith showed me and her mom around the incredible school.  It’s an old red brick school that’s happy,  charming and beautiful.  The library was my favorite, evidently the building had been a church and where the library is used to the be the sanctuary.  I thought that was so appropriate. 

After the tour we settled into our seats and the show began. 

I know this is blurry, but it still shows a good look at the Oz set.  The specks are bubbles.  Oh and if you look closely, Todo is a real dog.

This too is blurry, but gives you a feel for the 160 cast members.

 

Glenda and Victoria taking their bows.

I took a bunch of video, but all of the really cool scenes that Victoria was in are super dark and you kind of can’t see anything.  So sad!  Trust me though, there were some amazing effects.  Victoria shot flames out several times.  During the tornado, we see Mrs. Gulch come out and then she gets wrapped into this billowing black cloth and then comes out as the witch, green face and all!  When she melted, that was amazing!  She was on top of this big box, but we could see inside the box and somehow, she melted down into the box unseen with fog coming out.  SO COOL! 

Braden and my proud Mom who happened to be blinking

 

 

Braden and Meredith’s two oldest, David and Spencer

their two youngest, Zach and Jeff

Victoria and her friends.

 

Braden, Meredith and Me.

The play was incredible!  After that we picked up some Tennessee BBQ and went back to Braden and Mere’s to eat.  They live in the country, and it’s just the most beautiful rolling hills covered with woods.  I wish I could see it in a month or two or in the Fall.

Sunday we joined them for church and got to see their ward and meet so many of the people who have become family to them.  We had a yummy dinner at their home afterwards and just enjoyed visiting with all of them.  There can’t exist a sweeter family.  It meant so much to me to see Braden do what he was born to do, and see what an impact he’s having at his school and in their community.  Meredith is so cheerful and is either chatting and laughing with her three teenagers or outside playing football or baseball with her two little boys.  I’m so grateful for her example of motherhood and womanhood.  Two of their kids spoke in church and three of them sang with the youth.   They’re beautiful, good kids.  It breaks my heart my kids don’t get to be around them very much at all.  But at least now I have seen with  my own two eyes how happy and beautiful and good their lives are.  Thank you so much for having us, Braden and Mere!  We love you and are so proud of you!  Thank you, Mom and Dad for letting me tag along and making the journey so pleasant.  Oh how I missed my own little family.  Thank you, Brennan for making it all possible and for the fact that house was cleaner than I left it!    I feel like I’m writing in yearbooks, so let me end with stay cool and URAQT!

Taking Candy From a Baby

Brennan is one of the funnest people I know to mess with. He's not one to hold back expressing how he really feels about, well, everything, so it's always rewarding to provoke him into some colorful commentary. I've gotten him twice this week, once on accident, but still rewarding.

The first and accidental incident was on Monday when we had to get a new garage door opener. For all Brennan's strengths, mechanical ingenuity is not one of them. So every kind of technology holds a kind of mysterious supernatural power in his mind. When he came home from work on Monday he was eager to inspect the new painfully expensive garage door opener. I was busy making dinner and helping kids with homework so I was distracted, but somewhere in my consciousness I was aware of the fact that Brennan kept going in and out of the garage in an increasingly frustrated way and muttering something about a light. I finally heard him say, "I can't get the stupid light on the garage opener to go out!" A few minutes later something the installer told me before he left entered my mind. "Oh, yeah, the guy said that the light is on a motion sensor." For some reason it was so funny to me to then realize Brennan had been opening the door, seeing the light off and then one of the kids would run through and it would turn on. He'd start pushing buttons and everything he could think of but the more he tinkered the more it stayed on. Poor guy, all he got from me was very unsympathetic laughing in his face.

The other night I had taken an antibiotic that I'm supposed to take with a meal. I hadn't eaten much and started getting nauseated. Anytime anyone in our family complains about their stomach hurting, Brennan spends the next hour anticipating them throwing up. Every time they get up or cough or anything he'll say, "Are you going to throw up? Do you need a bucket?" I went into the kitchen for some soda to calm my stomach down. When he asked me why I was stealing his drink I told him why which was followed by his usual stalking and asking me if I needed a bucket. I felt fine after a few minutes so I got up and started putting the laundry I had folded away. When I walked by the chair he was in I couldn't resist my evil impulse so I stopped, leaned over him and started gagging. He instantly started yelling and waving his arms all over. I DIED laughing and he just rolled his eyes and said, "You think you're funny, don't you?" Yes, I totally do.

It’s a Good Thing…

I happen to adore this child.

Because he’s had a cold for a couple of weeks now and evidently it’s of the male variety .  He’s just not himself and I really miss his old self.  Also he’s kind of a hurricane, and while he’s been sick enough to be cranky he’s feeling well enough to make mess after mess after mess.  Isn’t he the cutest though?