Escape from Africa

This post is dedicated to my nephew Jeremy and to my parents... now superheroes in Tess's eyes. I'll tell you why by giving you a glimpse into a conversation I just had with her: 

Tess: Mom what’s a cannibal?

Me: A person who eats other people.

Are they real?

Well, yeah, I guess they are real.

Where do they live?

Um, a place where not very many other people live.

Like Panama?

Hmmm, maybe there are cannibals in Panama.

Or Africa?

Yeah, probably some cannibals live in Africa. You know, Grandma and Grandpa went to Africa a few years ago. And Jeremy went on his mission to Africa.

Really?? And they didn’t get eaten??  How did they escape?

WARNING: I expect all three of you to regale Tess with some stories of bravery and heroism during your escapes from Africa when we see you next week!!

Baptism by fire

Our scripture study this morning was in 3 Nephi where Christ is talking about being baptized of water, and then of fire and the Holy Ghost. Emma, smart aleck that she is, piped in:

Wouldn't it make more sense to do the fire first, THEN the water? 

Which then sparked a discussion about baptism by immersion that put it in a whole new perspective for me. I mean, why wouldn't you think that if someone goes into the water to have their sins washed away, and then someone else uses the same water to be baptized, won't the sins from the first person stick to the second person? I mean, really, why wouldn't you think that as a 9 year old? I'm starting to see the wisdom of the water-sprinkling baptism idea.

I just love the brains of these kids.

I haven't written much lately -- again -- but we have had a lot going on that's worth writing about! Since my last post we have had Fisher's birthday (aforementioned 9-year-old); Jarad's birthday with a fun April Fool's surprise; Emma's big Battle of the Books win for the school, then 3rd place finish in the district and on to regionals they went; Emma and Fisher BOTH placing first in the district's writing contest for gifted students; oh! and my first century ride. So yes, lots going on. And tomorrow is the last day of school, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of extra time on my hands to write about it all. But really, I do plan to. And I plan to post a picture or two too.

Until then...

Reality Check : Is this my future?

Case has had a stomach bug since last Saturday night. Poor guy complained of a tummy ache after our Saturday night treat of Klondike bars. But this was coming from the kid who complains each and every Sunday morning that he doesn't want to go to church. That he doesn't like church. But who also comes home every week talking and talking about what happened - he really does like church, it's just the getting there that's rough with him.

So when he was still complaining of a tummy ache Sunday morning, I didn't pay much attention. It wasn't until I had gotten myself ready, the girls' hair done, checked teeth and gathered all the scriptures that I noticed Case was lying on the couch with the "barf bowl" next to him. Thankfully, Jarad had taken him a little more seriously than I had, so **we** were prepared when he got sick. I did what any mommy would do as my boy was barfing into the bowl... I rubbed his back, got a warm washcloth for his face and a cup of water for him to rinse his mouth, cleaned out and sanitized the barf bowl and made up a little bed for him on the couch before heading out to church. (As luck would have it, I had stayed home with Tess the Sunday before when she had pink eye, so I got to go to church while Jarad stayed home with sick boy.) Unbeknownst to me, my girls were watching.

Sunday wore on and his fever spiked, a few more sick stomach episodes came and went and I dutifully cleaned up after him each time. Monday, the last day of Spring Break, he still was feeling sick and began having issues on the **other end** of things. A few cleanups were necessary and were taken care of with no ceremony whatsoever. And yet my daughters noticed.

So it came as a total surprise to me that both my girls, on separate occasions, came to me, and the conversations went something like this:

Them - Mom, I feel so sorry for you!

Me - Why do you feel sorry for me? Case is the one who's sick!

Them - Because you have to clean up his puke and poop.

Me - Oh, it's not so bad when it's your own kid's. Moms don't mind because they love their kids so much.

Them - Walk away, shaking their heads with wrinkled up noses and disbelief on their faces.

My poor girls got a glimpse of what's in store for them as moms. I don't think either of my girls has ever really acknowledged the hard work that we mommies do. At least they have never expressed it to me other than to say "thanks for dinner Mom" when prompted by their dad.

I hope that all the other good moments and fun times we have outweigh the sometimes not-so-fun realities of being a mommy, but I'll admit it was a bit of validation to receive even the slightest indication from my daughters that they appreciate me. If only because it means they aren't the ones who have to clean up after their brother!

Sunday Afternoon Pastime...

Well, my Pintervention worked... to a degree. I'm not spending nearly the time on Pinterest that I was before. BUT (isn't there always a but??) now I'm doing something with all those fun things I found when I was in the pinning-more-than-anyone-could-imagine phase of my addiction.  For the last few weeks we have been trying out recipes from Pinterest on Sunday afternoons...

A typical Sunday brings us home from church at 11, quick lunch and choir practice from noon to about 1, after which the long Sunday afternoon begins. Today's choir practice ended with a snowball fight in the cul de sac! What? Snow in Arizona? In March? Yep it's true. Well, it was really hail, but by the time we got out of choir practice the hail had melted into a snowy substance perfect for throwing. And lest you get some unrealistic ideas of what the snowball fight entailed, picture tablespoon-sized balls being scraped from windshields of about four cars and tossed from fingertips. It lasted all of one minute.

Anyway, back to my Pinterest experimentation...  Some of our recent Sunday afternoon goodies have included:

Cinnamon Roll Cake (um seriously don't make this if you're trying to stay away from sweets. You won't be able to).

Source: pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

Sugar Cookies (just OK -- I didn't love the texture and they needed more salt IMHO)

Source: abountifulkitchen.com via Katie on Pinterest

And today's adventure... Mall Pretzels

Source: leecooks.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

I'm sure there's some correlation between my proliferating posterior and my discovery of Pinterest. We will explore that correlation, though, at some other time. After I dip my soft pretzel here in some Cheez Whiz.

A Healthy Fear of Hobos

Tess has a nasty case of pink eye right now, so we kept her home from church today. While everyone else was gone, I figured I needed to have some sort of sabbath discussion with her, and we got to talking about why Heavenly Father wants us to be a part of a family.

Her answer: So we don't have to be hobos!

True enough, I suppose.

Have I told you about my children's fear of "hobos?" At some point in the last year or two, one of their cousins told them a story about homeless people who live in trash cans, and who kidnap little children right out of their beds. Tess sleeps on the bottom bunk, right next to her bedroom window, which looks out onto the spot where we keep our trash cans. So you can imagine her horrifying imaginings when she thinks of the hobos who surely come to sleep in our trash cans every night.

Every so often the hobo fears re-emerge, and today we spent another 30 minutes of our day reassuring Tess that she is perfectly safe in her bed and that no hobos are going to escape the garbage can to kidnap her.

I've locked them tightly in the trash bin.

Wicked Awesome!

I can't tell you how awesome Wicked was! Emma and I had a great mommy-daughter night, thoroughly enjoying the music and story of Wicked. There were a few parts of the plot we hadn't figured out from listening to the CD, and I'm so glad we left some element of surprise. We both want to go again!

We were lucky to escape unscathed from the ushers who were confiscating cameras and phones to delete photos taken inside the theatre! Not kidding! We took a few "surreptitially" (when in Oz, speak Ozian, right?).

You can't really see the stage, but there's a big bat/dragon thingie and a map of Oz. You also can't see the carefully selected shirt Emma is wearing, boasting that "Green is Good"

There it is a little closer - what is it?

Emma with the head monkey after the show.

Unfortunately Santa didn't coordinate with our Relief Society President and my Book Club schedule when he ordered the tickets, so I ended up missing our Mother/Son activity and my monthly ever-so-deep discussion of what I'm sure was a valuable and lasting piece of literature.  Case and Fisher were adopted for the night by the nice mom of their friends - THANKS Libby!  They were way excited to go and couldn't have cared less if I went or not.

Which left Jarad and Tess home together for some daddy-daughter time. I haven't gotten the report on how that went, but when we left at 6 Tess had grand plans of a movie (Barbie something or other) and going out for ice cream. I'm sure Jarad was more than happy to oblige.

Once again it's midnight and I'm posting on my blog. I really need to get a life. And some sleep!

Late Night Ramblings

Can't sleep. So excited to see Wicked tomorrow night that I can't shut my mind off! Which means I'll probably be asleep in my seat at Gammage before Elphie defies gravity.

Couple of thoughts ...

1.  Ladies. Please. Do NOT ever, EVER put on self-tanner before you go to the temple. Pretty please? It reeks and is super distracting to the person sitting next to you. Especially when the room is full and hot. Thanks!

Best regards,
Your still-pale yet sweet-smelling seat mate.

2. This morning Emma was telling me that she has changed her college goal from ASU to BYU. Why? Because ASU will take pretty much anyone, while you have to be smart and get good grades to get in to BYU (note: Jarad is an ASU alum. Ahem, I happen to be a BYU alum). Can't imagine where she got those crazy ideas!

The conversation's kicker was when Tess piped in and said "I want to go to college on the COMPUTER!! You CAN you know?!?"

Ah, we teach them young to aspire to greatness.

3. Speaking of Wicked and Tess's cuteness... We have been listening to the soundtrack lately in preparation for tomorrow's trip to Oz. Tess got her "pretty" voice on last weekend and was walking around the house singing "I just can't wait... to fi-ind... gravity." (the words, for you non-Wicked fans, are It's time to try defying gravity)  I was just waiting for her to trip and fall while singing it...

OK I have to be up in six hours. You might want to steer clear of me tomorrow, since I'm an eight-hours-of-sleep kind of gal...

February, Wrapped Up

How is it already March? Well, I suppose it's March already because there are only 29 days in February. But we crammed in a lot of fun in those 29 days!

 First up, Fisher's PineWHEEL Derby (that was for you Jarad... and Cami). His first! Jarad was really good about letting him design it, and he did pretty well! He made the top 8 (out of 30+ scouts) but didn't podium. He didn't even care. He had so much fun making the car and working with his dad on it, that every time he got to race it was just icing.

The following Saturday was the Girls Gone Riding 62-mile (100 kilometers) ride with my riding buddies Andrea and Danielle. We started out before the sun was up and with a few extra layers to ward off the (Arizona) cold. Up and over Usery Pass and back down to Discovery Park. The best part of the day, though, was coming home to a totally clean house (I have the best husband and kids!) and a looooong hot bubble bath. My kind of Saturday!! Next up: 100-miler in St. George at the end of April. My 8-week training program began today!

 At the start...

Still standing at the finish!

And to round out the month was Jarad's Ragnar the following Saturday. A 205-mile relay race in 33 hours with 11 other people. Funny story: when Jarad signed up on the team it was 11 women and him. They got together for the first team meeting to discuss, among other things, their team name. I'm not sure why they didn't like my suggestions of The Fundamentalists or Big Love... I thought that would be hilarious! Jarad was on the team with some friends of ours who have kids the same ages as our crew, so all the kiddos and I had a big pizza and movie party Friday night, then drove out to cheer on the Pacemakers as they crossed the finish line. Well, truth be told, I put the pizza out, turned on the movie, closed my bedroom door and caught up on my Hulu queue. I paid for it the next day, though, when I had to clean up the mess :).

Here are the kids enjoying some free Jamba Juice.

And Jarad and the twins crossing the finish line. I missed the team photo op, so hopefully someone will send me a copy sooner or later!

I am not even kidding you...

Have you ever felt like you were on one of those candid camera shows? I'm walking down the aisle at the grocery store today and saw something that first made me think I was being caught on camera to see what my reaction was, and then made me wish I had a better camera on my phone...

There was this nasty guy walking in front of me who looked like he needed a good shower and shave, as well as a new pair of pants. His pockets weren't quite attached. No, that's not exactly painting the right picture... the fabric to which his pockets were attached was not attached to the rest of the jeans. Leaving gaping holes in the arena of the buttocks.

It gets better.

HE WAS GOING COMMANDO.

Yep. He bent over to pick up some microwave popcorn and I got an eyeful of crack. Don't ask me why I was looking. It was a train wreck people. I was just trying to wrap my arms around what I was witnessing when BOOM, he bent over. How unfortunate for me.

I nonchalantly continued on my way trying not to bust out in laughter -- just in case the cameras were in fact rolling. But once I got around the corner and didn't see John Quinones and his camera crew, I lost it.

I know a picture is worth a thousand words... So if Jarad asks anyone what I want for my birthday this year, please mention that I'd like an iPhone so I can capture these choice moments to share with all of you.

A tale of barf, burns and brilliance

First: Barf...
Fisher and Emma were invited to a movie with some friends yesterday. I gave them money to buy tickets and a few treats. They spent ALL their treat money on a massive bucket of movie-theatre popcorn, doused in butter. Between the two of them, they consumed the entire thing (along with the candy their friends shared with them and the 32-oz Root Beers the friends' mom purchased each of them). Needless to say, come 6 pm we had two belly aches on our hands. Emma dashed off to a birthday party with the understanding that if she got too queasy she could call and I'd come get her. Fisher sat green faced at the dinner table and refused to eat anything except one piece of Dove Valentine's candy (mom of the year nomination for me). As Fish was heading to bed he mentioned yet again that he felt like he was going to barf. We sent him to his room with a bucket and hoped for the best. He made it across the threshold and puked. Thankfully into the bucket! I won't get into too much detail, but you can imagine the pools of movie theatre popcorn butter that we witnessed. Sorry Harkins, but The Curti won't be eating too much popcorn any time in the near future. Truth be told, we never let our kids have popcorn at movies, so the overload is partly our fault, as well as their oil-unaccustomed bellies. I think the funniest part of this whole story is that Emma came home from the party, which had been a Hollywood-themed birthday, with the most massive popcorn bucket. Guess what they had served at the party? Poor Emma... but you know she soldiered through and ate 1/3 of the bucket anyway.

Second: Burns
Friday night we got together with some friends for a firepit. Case was roasting some marshmallows, and at one point had the inevitable firebomb at the end of his stick. He got a little too close when trying to blow it out. He turned around and we saw his chin on fire! The melted marshmallow had stuck to his chin and it was still burning. Poor guy!



Third: Brilliance (I just needed another B word - seemed to fit)
Fisher has had one last requirement to earn his religious knot for several months now: to write a story, poem or play about a gospel principle. I gave him a deadline, so we finally sat down this afternoon to work on it, and he ended up with four Haiku. Here comes the brilliance...

Faith
Faith you cannot see
You can still believe in it
I have faith in God

Prayer
I can talk to God
When I say my daily prayers
I know He hears me

Fasting
I can fast and pray
Fasting can increase my faith
Does it work for you?

Scriptures
I can read scriptures
Scriptures tell me what to do
Do you read scriptures?

Starting Over : Here's to you Mom

So can I just forget the fact that I haven't written here in eight months and start all over again? OK. Done.

I know my mother, for one, is wondering what I’ve been doing with my time since my last post. Duly noted, Mom. So here I go again. For now I shall give all my dear readers (again, hi Mom and Dad) a run-down of the things I have been doing since my kids went back to school. All of them. Gone. Leaving me home all by myself. With nothing to do. Except for:

Listening to my own music in the car. Whatever I want. Whenever I want. No movies. No Wiggles.

Coming and going without making sure two kiddos have shoes, clean faces, combed hair and seat belts.

Having conference calls without having to shut myself into my closet and lock the bedroom door.

Working out without fighting kids about going to the Kids Club at the gym, breaking up brawls while doing The Firm (laugh it up) at home, or scurrying to finish a workout before picking them up from preschool.

Being able to start a project and keep working on it until it’s done without having to help someone wash their hands, get the crayons down or clean up their mess. (Notice I said BEING ABLE TO. Quite different from actually doing it.)

Life is good! We have quite nicely, thank you, adjusted to being a family of school children, and are keeping ourselves quite busy... This month: Fisher's first Pinewood Derby; Emma's first sewing project complete (she made a super cute skirt and wore it to church!); Katie's first cycling "race" - a metric century ride (62 miles) on the 18th; Jarad's first Ragnar (a 200+ mile relay race) the next weekend.

Pictures and more frequent updates are promised. Promise.