My Missionary Mom

For those of you who don't know, my mother's dream in life for the past few years has been to retire from teaching and serve a full-time mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Since she was retiring this year in June, she started filling out her paperwork in the spring.  It took her a little longer to get the paperwork ready than expected (she's a teacher, people - she was busy!) so she didn't get her paperwork mailed out to Salt Lake City until near the end of June.

Five weeks later at the end of July she got The Letter.  And for any of you who don't understand about The Letter, you need to know that in our church the missionary assignments are made without consulting the missionary applicant.  The missionary department receives the application and assignments are made based on worldwide need and where the leaders of the church feel inspired to send that missionary.  Then a letter is sent out to the missionary and when they receive it they open it up and find out where they are going.  My mother had applied to serve an 18-month mission, and got her mission call to the Riverside California Mission to serve in the mission office.  She had to report to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah on August 23rd - which was only three and a half weeks away.

Fortunately, she had already moved out of her apartment, put most of her things in storage, and had been visiting family in New York for the past few weeks.  She had a few things left to do, and was ready to go a week later.  She spent about a week with my brother's family in Louisiana, then headed up here to Oklahoma for another week-long visit. After us, she was heading out to Orem, UT to spend the weekend with my younger brother's family before going into the MTC.

Since it was such a long drive from Oklahoma to Utah, my mom asked me if I would be willing to drive with her to my brother's house in Orem if she would fly me back.  Of course I would!  And fortunately, my fabulous husband was willing to take time off work to stay with the kids and let me run off with my mom for a few days.  I somehow didn't take a single picture during her whole entire week with us, but I came to my senses on Thursday morning before we left and got a couple of pictures on Thursday and Friday.

~Mom with the kids the morning we left~

~Me and Mom at a rest stop in Texas, posing in front of a metal statue of a longhorn~

~Me and mom in front of our motel room door in Grants, AZ.  We stayed in the cheapest motel we could find - $32/night - and trust me... you could tell.  At least it was clean.  Relatively.  And yes, I know my eyes are closed.  The flash was bright and it was dark outside.~

~Some of the New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah scenery~

~And, finally, some pictures of my crazy brother and his lovely wife~

~My cousin, Natalie, with her husband and adorable girls~

It was such a wonderful trip for me and my mom!  And as a bonus, I got to meet some new members of my family - baby Jackson (Danny & Jessica's son) as well as Natalie's husband and kids - and even an old friend that I really didn't expect to see!  It was great to hang out, even if just for a few minutes, Amy.

Despite my claustrophobia in the Orem, Provo, and SLC area, I would love to get back out there again with my family and spend some real time with these people.  If only I had Scotty at my disposal (beam me up!) I would be there next week.  As it is... we'll have to see, won't we?

And my Missionary Mom?  She has now spent her time at the MTC and made it safely to to Riverside, CA where she'll spend the next 18 months as a missionary.  We're proud of you, Mom/Grandma Crews!

A Big Sissy

I never thought of myself as a sissy before.  Or a soft mom, for that matter.

Now it is time I face the ugly truth.  The question is - what do I do now??

From time to time, we have a problem with Connor's sleeping habits.  The problem is NOT when we put him down to bed at naptimes or bedtimes.  Sure, he may cry a couple of minutes sometimes, but we leave him and he stays and goes to sleep just fine.  The problem is if he wakes up in the middle of the night.

Since it wasn't a regular thing, Ben or I would usually just get Connor and bring him into our bed.  This isn't the best solution since he's not a good bed-mate.  He really does hog my side of the bed.  Ben, of course, barely notices he's there unless Connor gets turned sideways and starts kicking him.  However, in light of our pending arrival in October, both Ben and I feel like this is a habit we need to break.  So we agreed.  If Connor wakes up, we go in and check on him, then leave him in his crib to cry it out.

We were tested on our resolve on Sunday morning around 5:50 a.m.  Connor woke, needed a diaper change (yes, we gave him WAY too much juice before bedtime) and then was put back to bed with an explanation that it was "night-night" time and he needed to stay in his own bed.  He didn't want to hear that and commenced with the screaming and crying.  I was stalwart and unplugged the baby monitor when I got into my room and tried to fall back asleep.  Unfortunately, we have 8:00 a.m. church this year and Ben's alarm went off around 6:00.  By 6:20 I had stumbled into the shower, and when I got out at 6:30 and Connor was still crying, I could go get him because since both Ben and I were up it wasn't "night-night" time anymore, right?

Fast-forward to 2:50 a.m. Monday morning.  (Since I'm typing this at 4:30 a.m. on Monday you can see where this is going, right?)  Baby monitor still unplugged, but I heard him crying anyway.  I go into Connor's room, find ANOTHER saturated diaper (that's it - we're cutting off the juice after 7:00!) and change him.  I explain yet again that it's night-night time and he stays in his own bed.  Yet my resolve is not firm.  Oh, he's not coming into bed with me, but I can hold him for 5-10 minutes on the couch, right?  So out we come.  After 10 minutes I take him back to his room, and put him in his crib.  How can I be so heartless?  Apparently, I can't.  I tell him I'll sit in his room for a few minutes and he stops crying, lays down in his crib and is quiet.  I sit on the floor because there's no chair in his room.  After 5 minutes I realize that I'm 33 weeks pregnant and supremely uncomfortable.  I stand up and and Connor stands up.  And starts to cry.  I get the biggest stuffed animal I can find and sit back down on the floor.  Lay down, actually, using the stuffed animal for a pillow.  I can't believe I'm doing this, and yet here I am... doing it.

After a while I venture a peek into the crib and see Connor's eyes are closed.  I start crawling (yes, crawling!) quietly out of the bedroom.  Connor has some sort of super-sonic hearing, and sits up in bed and sees me sneaking out.  He starts to cry.  I come back and lay down.  After a few more minutes, I try again.  Failure.  After my 3rd try (by now it's 3:30) I give up.  I go to the crib and just tell him I'm going back to bed.  And so I do.  He cries for about 10-15 minutes, and then is quiet.  However, by now I'm awake  since I went to bed at 9:15 last night.  Finally, at 4:00 a.m. I get up and get some things done.

So my question is this: Do I move the recliner to Connor's room so I can sit in there with him in comfort if he wakes up?  He's content if I'm there - I don't have to actually get him out of the crib.  Or should I make him "suck it up" and cry it out every time it happens?

Bubble Fun

Since we are now officially homeschoolers (like, as in I'm homeschooling all the kids with no definite plans of putting them back in school) we decided that we should start school early this year so we could take off extra time around October when the baby is born.  We started the first Monday in August, and spend somewhere between 2-4 hours a day total getting everything done.  So far we are off to a great start, and have only had a few meltdowns as we've gotten back into the swing of things.

Today Kelsey had a science experiment to do.  We were learning about surface tension and bubbles and what happens when you touch a bubble with a wet straw versus a dry one.  (The dry straw will make it pop, by the way.)  What we have ended up with is hours of bubble fun for all of us!

So here's what you do.  Stir together 1/2 c. dishwashing liquid with 1 quart water and pour it into a shallow pan.  Get a straw, and start blowing bubbles.

To make a really large bubble, dip the tip of the straw just under the surface of the water.  Blowing gently, lift the tip of the straw out of the water and watch the bubble grow.

Next, take the straw carefully out of the large bubble.  Dip it again in the water.

Gently put the wet tip of the straw back through the side of the bubble and blow another bubble inside the large one.  This is so cool and will keep your kids (and even you!) occupied for hours...

And yes, I know I need to cut her bangs.  She and I argue about this regularly.

Nosepicker

Digging...

...and digging...

...and digging.

He also likes to put his fingers in his ears, the little monkey.