In which I start my fourth decade… which makes me sound very old.

Dear Jessa ~

So, my birthday was this week!  I'm old, Jessa.  I'm 30 now.  I hope you still like me.  Haha.  Just kidding.  Unsurprisingly, 30 doesn't feel much different from 29.  Funny how that happens.  I woke up at 6:30 am to Kessa standing by my bed and announcing that there was something hanging from my bedroom door!  I looked over and sure enough there was a ribbon with a paper taped to the bottom.  So I acknowledged it, then tried to go back to sleep.  No dice.  I managed to stay in bed probably 5-10 minutes longer, then knowing I had to get up and go running anyway, I got up and looked at it.  By that time Kessa had fallen asleep on our floor.  Go figure.  :)  The paper said, "1. I love you because you make me feel loved."  For the rest of the day (and ever since) I've been finding papers in random places telling me reasons he loves me.  30 of them, in fact.  It was pretty much adorable.  :)  I'm still missing one.  #20.  I'll have to find that one somewhere…

I took the three older girls (remember I have Jalin's girls?) to the library, then to a park that is right next door afterwards while Abby napped (yay for BJ working from home!)  I love this park, I've decided, because it's under a billion trees and very shady.  haha.  They have a slide that they turned upside down and is carved (well, molded.  It's plastic) to look like a tree trunk.  Kids can climb up or down it.  It's a little nerve-wracking for me, as there aren't any sides like a slide normally has, but the whole time I was there, there were no fatalities.  :D Kessa really wanted to go down, but she wasn't brave enough.  I worked with her for about 15 minutes and I only got her to scoot down maybe 2 inches.  I think it'd be easier with BJ there, because he's taller and could reach her easier.  Next time, maybe.

That evening Nick and Chelsea came and babysit while BJ and I went to dinner at Gloria's Little Italy then went and watched Despicable Me 2.  It was cute, for sure, but wasn't my favorite movie of all time.  I'd rank Monsters  University higher.  But it was still cute.

Overall, it was a very good birthday.  I'd do it again.  (Assuming I could stay 30, of course.  And not age each time.)  Oh, and I got over 100 birthday wishes on Facebook and only one on Google+.  Clearly G+ has some work to do.  :)

Speaking of running (back in the first paragraph), did I tell you that I started running?  Again?  I know, I know, I'm flaky.  :D  My neighbor, Jenna, said she really wanted to start running outside, but needed someone to be accountable to.  I do too!  So we started running together three times a week.  I was nervous about running with someone else, because I didn't want one of us to feel held back by the other, but I think so far we're pretty equally matched.  So that's nice.  We've been doing it for 3 weeks now, I think.  Hopefully we'll be able to run a 5k in about a month.   I'll have to start looking into 5ks.  There's a Color Me Rad in September.  Except… I just checked and that's the same day as stake baptisms.  So that's not going to happen.  Also, Woodbadge.  Which they want me to go to this year.  :/

I started my cake decorating class this week.  I forgot to take a picture of my sugar cookies I decorated. But don't feel too bad.  They were nothing amazing.  It was white icing and we were just practicing stars, so I did three letters (one for each of the girls' first names) and three pictures.  One was a snowflake, one was a spiral, and one was a flower.  This week we're decorating a cake, so I'll be sure to take a picture.  :)

Tuesday and Wednesday my parents were in town for a reunion, so Wednesday morning we took the kids and my Aunt Grace to the zoo!  They loved it.  We didn't have enough time to see everything, though, so we're going again later.  I'm not sure when, though… life is so busy!  Of course, everyone loved the carousel.  I let Abby ride this time and she thought it was the greatest thing ever.  Let the picture be your judge.  Of course, that was before the ride started.  During the ride she was solemn and cautious.  The second it stopped (I didn't even realize it had stopped), she burst out crying.  She was not at all pleased when I made her get off.  She and Kessa definitely have something in common.  Maybe one time I'll buy a pass and let them ride it 5 times in a row.  :)  We got a wagon and pulled it.  I hate those hills.  Aunt Grace helped me for most of it, though.  So that was wonderful.  Towards the end I was doing it myself, which was fine, I need a muscle workout, but that last hill is horrible.  I wanted to die.  Ahhhh!

That night we went to my family reunion (my dad's siblings).  It was fun seeing everyone again.  My brother, James, and his family was there.  We don't get to see them often, so that was fun. It's crazy to see how much his kids have grown.  Of course, Tamra had to test the boundaries of her new guardians.  We told her that she had to eat half of her hamburger before she ate ice cream.  We finally settled on that or 25 bites.  Two bites later she claimed to be done and her hamburger was nowhere to be seen.  She even said it was only two bites.  Forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical.  :)  But I couldn't find it anywhere to prove her wrong.  So we compromised.  She took two bites of hamburger, so she got two bites of ice cream.  Which, then, led to weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  But I knew if I caved she'd just learn that I cave and it'd make the next 2.5 weeks miserable.  So instead we took our ice cream to the car and ate in there until she was ready to be calm.

Logically, I knew it was a legit punishment, that she would hate it, and then she'd put up a fuss.  And yet, emotions aren't logical, so by the end of it, I was drained and trying very hard not to be upset.  On the way home I was thinking not just about that specific event, but about life with kids in general and how this always seems to be the case.  Why do emotions get in the way of logic?  And more importantly, how do I stop it?  I mean, emotions are good, but how do I discipline and handle cranky kids without letting it dampen my mood?  I brought it up to BJ and we had a good conversation about it, but at the end he presented me with a horrifying and very intriguing scenario: "Let's say your boggart is a whiny/disobedient/patience-trying child. What do you do to laugh?"  My reaction to it must have been priceless, because he laughed quite a lot at the look on my face.  But it is an interesting thought.  I just need to plan in advance how to react to the situation and keep my mood chipper.  I need to incorporate humor more often.  And thanks, BJ, for using Harry Potter to teach me.  :D

That night Tamra woke up throwing up.  Hooray for my mom still being here.  Then after I started getting back to sleep, Kessa came into our room.  She had a nightmare that a butterfly was eating her.  (hahaha.  Sorry. I shouldn't laugh.  And I never have to her face.  About that anyway.)  So she fell asleep on our floor.  Then Abby woke up, but thankfully fell back to sleep on her own.  Then just as I was finally falling asleep again, Tamra threw up again.  Blessed BJ got up before I consciously processed what was going on.  So he and my mom cleaned it up.  (I'm glad I got the first one.  The second one got the wall and all the way down to the carpet.  :S )  I was very, very tired the next day.  But we survived.  And Tamra was happy and healthy the next day.  I'm wondering if she got heat stroke from all the time outside the day before.

The freezer repair guy came this week.  Turns out, we have a bad defrost timer.  I learned new things about freezers.  Apparently a frost-free freezer turns on a heater every 6-10 hours, warming up the freezer a little, enough to melt any frost buildup.  And the defrost timer tells it when to turn on and shut off.  Well, ours turned on, and it forgot to tell it to turn back off.  No wonder it wasn't cold!  Unfortunately, he has to order the part.  So it won't get fixed till next week.  :(  Oh well.  We've lived this long.  We can live a bit longer.

We took the girls to the Discovery Gateway last night.  We have a 3-month pass and we got Jalin's girls in for $5 each on a promotion, so it seemed good timing.  THEY LOVED IT.  At first Kristen was always interested in what was next, but after I explained to her that it's better to enjoy what's here now, she stopped looking forward and enjoyed what we were doing.  They loved the balls, building with giant blocks, riding in a helicopter, making their own fossils, etc.  I think my favorite picture we got was of our own mad scientist.  There are just so many things great about this picture.  The magnifying glass.  The Einstein hair.  The white lab coat.  It's. Just. So. Great.  We ran into an old friend, Rusty, which was fun.  I love finding old friends in random places.  Abby found a mini piano in the tiny house and she adored it.  She played on it for probably 5+ minutes.  The three older girls got to be on a newscast.  They're not very good at the green screen.  Mostly they just danced and pulled faces at it.  (video below)  It cracked me up.  Give them a few years and maybe they'll figure out how to be real weather girls.

(video)


Finally, sometime after 7, we decided we really needed to leave.  We hadn't had dinner and we still needed to drive home.  We were definitely going to be late for bedtime.  So, of course, things had to go wrong.  Isn't that what always happens?  We got back to the car to find that some nice person had left us a note telling us our tire was flat.  Sure enough, it was.  So we all sat in the car while BJ changed the tire.  It was taking awhile and the girls were getting frustrated (being bored and hungry will do that) and Tamra finally burst out, "How long is this going to take?  Can't we get a taxi or something?"  Hahaha.  (Jalin, how does she know about taxis?!  Surely you don't have taxis in the middle of nowhere…)

Of course, it was now 7:30 on a Saturday night, so no tire stores were open.  So we drove on the spare to Litza's Pizza, ate dinner, then took the backroads home.  It was a very long drive that led to a late night.  We didn't even get home till 10.  So much for 8:00 bedtime.  :S  Needless to say, they weren't pleased about us waking them up for 9 am church.  So I guess I'll have to get that taken care of tomorrow.  As well as get a new drivers' license (I forgot that it expired on my bday.  Oops!)  And take Kessa to swimming lessons.  While BJ works.  And I have 4 girls.  Fun!

Day One promotion (editor's note: Oops!  I bolded this to remind myself to have BJ talk about this.  And then I forgot.  So… I'll make him write another blog post about it and link to it here.)

In other random news, we've decided to name the cow Voldemoo!  That makes me happy.  We'll go see it again in August when we take our friends who are splitting part of it with us up to the cabin.  (Did I tell you we're probably not going to Lake Powell?  Just not safe with Abby.  She just doesn't have a cautious bone in her body.  So we're going to the cabin a few weeks earlier instead.)  I'm excited.

Having Jalin's girls here have been fun.  Kristen is adorable.  She's 8, the age where helping is fun and she's actually helpful.  I've asked Jalin at least twice if I can pretty please keep her.  I'll put her in school!  I'll be a good mom!  But she won't let me.  :(  Tamra is adorable.  She's got a smile that can light up the whole room.  Of course, she's expert at flashing that smile when she's done something mischievous and if you don't know her, you would never suspect her.  :)  Abby is starting to warm up to her.  Tamra has learned that she has to give Abby more space, and thus Abby is learning that Tamra can be fun, too.  I've caught them several times playing/dancing together.  Which is adorable.  The other day they were taking a bath together and Abby went and sat on Tamra's lap and let Tamra wrap her arm around her.  Then they just played together.  Then when we tried to take Abby off her lap, she threw a fit and wanted to stay.  Hooray!

Speaking of the bath, can I just say that it's totally my favorite time?  We stick all 4 girls in my garden tub with a bunch of toys and they just play forever.  They're (generally) nice to each other and entertain each other.  Which means I get 30-60 minutes to do whatever I want in my room or bathroom.  Read a book (BJ got me a Kindle for my bday!), put away laundry, clean my bathroom, etc.  It's great to have some "alone" time.

I also discovered "My Chore Time".  I help the girls with their chores (we have a fun magnet chore chart on the fridge) in the morning.  Ish.  I mostly make them do it themselves, but sometimes they need help.  But it also means I get nothing done.  So when I really need time alone to get my chores done, I send them outside or upstairs.  They have to stay in one or the other, or they have to help me clean.  It's fantastic.

And now for random misc. things….

This picture just totally cracks me up.  She's reading the zoo map.  And I have no idea how she got the hat in 98º weather...

Here's our up-and coming pianist.  Seriously.  She loved the piano.

Kristen built a robot.  It has two stomachs: one for health foods and one for not-health foods.

And then she built a whole robot family!

I made another wreath for the raffle at my family reunion.  This time wrapped in fabric instead of yarn.  I tried to make it Summery with the butterflies.  And then Tamra won it!

Kiddisms (sorry, the name has to be changed now.  Too many other kids/adults.)

• Kessa was climbing up a rope ladder and her confidence was waning halfway up. I was encouraging her but making her climb it by herself. “That's silly! I'm not scared, but my foot is scared!”
• The girls were awake but BJ and I were lingering in bed, not wanting to get up.
  Kessa: Daddy! You need to come downstairs. Someone needs to come downstairs to make sure we don't get into trouble.
• Kessa: Is today garbage day?
  Me: Yes, it is.
  Kessa: I thought today is a play day.
  Me: It is a play day.
  Kessa: That means you stink.
  Me: Whaaaat?!
  Kessa: If it's a play day [giggle], that means you stink!
• Tamra just told us that it was raining hardly. I don't think that means what she thinks it means. (For context, it is raining pretty hard outside.) :)
• Tamra: I wish I was no one.
  Kristen: Why?
  Tamra: Because then I wouldn't get stung by a bee!
  (Note: she got stung by a wasp in our house!  She went to the bathroom to wash her hands and came back screaming bloody murder.  I had a hard time believing her wild tale about being stung by a bee in the house, but sure enough, she had a big red welt on her leg and BJ found a wasp in the hall (which he thankfully removed to the great outdoors.  The girls now have better motivation to keep the door shut as they go in and out.)
• Kessa: I lost my big girl voice, but I still have my big girl body.
• Me: BJ was probably about your age.
  Kristen (age 8): Did they have cars then?
• Kessa: When I watch shows it makes me lose my patience.
  Kristen: How does that make you lose your patience?
  Kessa: You watch the show and you get tired and it sucks the patience out of you. But now I'm sitting back here {in the back seat of the car}, and the air is blowing on me, and it's giving me patience. There are little balls and they are full of patience. And when they touch me, they get cracks. And then the patience falls on me. {Apparently I need to go sit in the air-conditioned car more often…}