Friends=Love

So... I'm not sure how many people are going to get to read this, because I cannot at this moment log into facebook to do all the sharey kind of things I like to do.  BUT, for those of you who love me enough to check anyway, I wanted to say how grateful I am to all of you.  Friends, family, friends who I consider my family..... framily? You're so great.  I get caught up sometimes in all the junk in my life and feel like I'm just drowning in all of it, and you're so wonderful with your love and support.  You may not think you help that much, but you do.  I read about some of you who have these struggles and trials and you don't stop, you don't quit, you work with all you've got to get through them and still keep up with every day life. Esteban, you're a rockstar, Breezi, you're Superwoman.  Melissa, I don't think you read this, but you're an inspiration.  Those I didn't mention by name, this applies to you, too.  There's so much that I absolutely could not do without each and every one of you.  There's a lot more that I could do, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun.  Anyway.... Love you!

Holidaze

First, last post sounds really kinda whiney in retrospect, feel free to pretend it's not there. I'd delete it, but does that violate some law in blog-land? It's awkward to me to reread it, because there were good reasons behind the whiney tone, but I don't post them all on the offchance that people beyond the ones I know read this which could develop into massive overshare.  From that subject, onward to the next which is Easter and all the fun guests.  My husband's family came out this weekend, so good to see them again.  My camera broke, so I've been at the mercy of others who are equipped with such things or I'd post pictures of the visit.  The first night they were here we went to Gunther Toody's which is a 50's style diner out here in case it's not common knowledge. I mean, for all I know, it may be a massive chain and I may have just said something to the equivalent of: "we went to McDonald's, it's this place with fries and a clown". My kids are all somewhat picky eaters with their own preferences.  Adam's preferences change daily, Mari loves grapefruit, and Asa loves what he can eat on his own with no help from the interfering parent.  There are a few exceptions to this rule, including blueberry pie, chocolate pudding, and added to the list on Friday- chocolate malts.  Those, he will submit to being fed.  I ordered him a kids' macaroni and cheese, and he dug in.  Based on the amount on the floor, chair, and the exterior of my infant son, he actually did get a bit to eat.

Thanks to my mother-in-law, Marti for providing the picture.  The Easter bunny brought everyone an Easter-type book to read in church, some chocolate, and Easter clothes as shown below.

AAAaaaaand the picture I was whining about last time I was online:

Questions Only

Why does everything all come at once?
Why did I get a bill for something I already paid?
Why do kids have energy levels that are consistently as high as their mother's is low?
Why is the last item on a list the hardest to do, regardless of the length of the list?
Why is the working portion of the day so much longer then the playing portion of the day?
Where is my camera when the electric company parks a drill in our backyard roughly half the size of the yard?
Why is bacon bad for you and asparagus good?
Why do all of my "great" ideas usually result in questions three, four and five?
Why isn't life more like a remote control, with "mute" and "pause" options for spills, children, etc.?
Why is it wrong to leave hubby in charge and run away to Hawaii for a month?
Will someone pay for said trip for me?

And the Beat Goes On

It's one of those periods of time where one day just blends in to the next without freckles, moles or other distinguishing characteristics.  Not that it's entirely possible to have a freckle-free day with young kids around, but I jump up to move Asa out of one thing or another more times per hour than I can count, (you can take that as my counting skills are that bad, or that Asa is that active) Mari and Adam are pretty Mari and Adam every day, and aside from about a three-hour stretch while Ben's at work, the day goes by so fast I feel like I no sooner get up in the morning than I'm back in bed again for the night.  Mari and Adam help with the Asa chase, Mari read a book to Asa today, while Adam's still a little puzzled as to why his otherwise decent brother cannot be wrestled with.  Mari, Adam and I walked to what will be Mari's school for now, and Mari walked up to the front desk and said "I was just wondering if you have a first grade for me to be in next year" they do, but it turns out that while Mari's birthday was just after the deadline in Utah, so she was in Kindergarten, by Colorado's deadline, she's in first grade NOW.  I'm kindof glad that we decided to take some time to teach her at home to try to catch her up.  Not only does she have to go from a school district that is a little less advanced to one of the more advanced school districts, but she has to jump a whole grade.  I'm confident that she'll be able to do it, but this transition will be a rough one for her.  Adam will just be starting Kindergarten next fall, and I got him all registered today, too.  Oh, and Asa has six new teeth that have all been coming in at once and causing him a great deal of pain.  They're not all the way in yet, but they've cut through the gum all the way.  Here's hoping the poor baby has some relief, finally.

Long Time No Hear From

So I've been super busy moving to Colorado and getting settled.  Ben's got a new job working for Dish, Mari's can read most things put in front of her, though she does need some sleep.  She spends a lot of time teaching Adam to read and do basic addition.  Adam's doing well with learning how to read individual sounds as long as the teaching session doesn't exceed his attention span, (so about 10 seconds) he sits still better for Mari, or for educational computer programs than he does for a book or flashcards. Asa, being the age he is, adds new discoveries every day.  He stands independently for a few seconds at a time, occasionally takes steps forward if someone's holding his hand and crawls up stairs without expending visible effort.  He's getting big enough now that Mari and Adam can play with toys with him which has been fun for everybody.  Asa likes to imitate sounds and gets really excited when he's told the name for an object.  He, like his older siblings, loves bathtime.  I've been thinking several times a day, "Ooh, I should put that on my blog!" but have not had much luck getting on the computer to do that since moving here.  I can't believe today's post is so short, but I just don't seem to be able to recall everything I've been putting on my mental list.  Oh, Ben and I changed our numbers yesterday, and we're cutting the cell phone plans to bare minimums, but anybody can still email us at Bencarrollfamily@gmail.com

Humanity

I've made a lot of stupid little mistakes in my life.  I call them "stupid little" mistakes because there has never been a point in my life where I have not been trying my absolute hardest to do what is right.  Even when I've made mistakes that are more of the level of "Good Heavens! Is that girl ever going to get anything right?!?" I've been trying my hardest to do EXACTLY that.  Sometimes, my priorities aren't the priorities that other people have.  Being financially responsible and avoiding debt is hugely important.  I get that, I'm working on it, I always have been working on it, and I'm never going to stop working on it.  (This isn't meant to be pointed at anyone, anywhere, it's just a for instance) Stuff just keeps happening and making me look like a bigger disorganized mess than I am.   It sucks fishface.  There seem to be two different types of people in life.  Builders and Destroyers.  We're just people, so sometimes Builders destroy and Destroyers build.  Builders are those people who lift others.  Who bring light to the world and encourage people to be stronger and more true to themselves and their beliefs.  They don't always know it, in fact, it seems that the greatest Builders never do find out just how many lives they change.  Builders leave permanent good behind them.  They may be poor and struggling.  They may have difficulties with relationships, or health problems that consistently make accomplishing their goals harder than it may otherwise be.  Chances are good that when you see a Builder, you will never know the deep hurts they've had to overcome in their lives because they are too busy trying to leave light for others.  I love Builders.  There are others, and they may even be basically good people, who are Destroyers.  A good person can be a Destroyer when they focus too hard on things that don't really matter.  Sometimes they feel like it's their duty in life to make sure that everyone is well aware of their failures so that they can become better people.  Duty Destroyers are horribly frustrating.  I mean, how can you be properly angry at someone you know is only hurting to "help"?  Some people are Destroyers out of insecurity, envy, fear, out of blindly imitating patterns they've seen their whole lives.  Even knowing that Destroyers are people, too, and have their own pains and struggles, it's hard for me to accept the idea that tearing down is justified, harmless, deserved, whatever.  One thing that really sucks, though, about the Destroyer mentality, is that the people most hurt by it, don't usually deserve it.   Those few who really are bad parents, lazy, selfish, greedy, abusive, etc.  generally couldn't care less about the stones lobbed by the Destroyers.   Builders, though, Builders often care so much about people, that these negative sentiments, however innocently expressed, knock them right off their foundations for awhile.  No one is always running at peak performance and no one can always shrug everything off.  A person can succeed in millions of ways, but is it really worth it if that person then makes someone else's life harder to live? I've always tried, (often failed, but always tried) to follow the examples of some of the most wonderful Builders I've been blessed to have in my life.  My determination gets ever stronger every time someone I love has been knocked back in their lives because someone feels they have the right to be a Destroyer.  I may sometimes appear to be a clumsy idiot, but at least I can do my best to make sure that I'm not contributing to someone else's battles.

Mommy just said a bad word!

I've been trying to really watch what music my kids are listening to, and have created a kids music list on my iThingajig.  Today we're having a catch up on cleaning day, and I put the kids music list on so we can all rock out and clean at the same time.  Last summer, I took the kids to the Scottish festival, where Mari fell in love with the bagpipes.  When a bagpipe song came on, she got all excited and started tapping her foot to the beat in a near perfect imitation of what she'd seen in the bagpipe bands.  She looked over at me and said "it's like we saw at that... thing!"  So I suggested she meant Scottish Festival, and she said "yeah! They're playing those... those... those" "Bagpipes?" "Yeah! Bappipes!"  "I think that's all there is in that song, too, is bagpipes and drums.  Nope. There's a Digeridoo" (I tried to get help with the spelling on that, but apparently there are many spellings that are acceptable) Mari looked at me with this horribly shocked expression on her face and said, "Mommy... am I allowed to say that word?"

And a Partidge family in a pear tree

Asa was crying, so I sang the first thing that came to mind. His bib had turned around and was draped down his back, so the first thing that came to mind was " you don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind" etc. Mari and Adam chimed in with "Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down". Rick Rolled by my own children.

Oh, Today, why do you hate me so?

By 10:00 this morning, I already knew today was not going to win many points with me. It's just been one of those days where aside from a couple of high points, (very high points, but... unfortunately not yet open for public consumption) I've spent the entire time watching the clock and anxiously awaiting bedtime. (Mine) However, thanks to a certain someone who shall remain adorable and nameless, <I'm watchin' you, Columbus, Ohio!!> I now have to blog about it first before seeking sanctuary from today in the arms of Morpheus. (Well, not literally, he being all not real and all.) It's my brother's birthday, my mother-in-law's birthday, my cousin's birthday, and I'm still afraid I'm missing somebody in there somewhere... There was a shopping trip with all the girls, which was good, but tiring. Mostly amusing, but a little hard on the ol' ego was when the waiter kept ignoring my mother and I completely in favor of hitting on Anne repeatedly despite the knowledge that she was taken.  At one point, he spilled grated cheese on my mother because he was too busy checking Anne out!  He did joke around with Mari a bit, too, but she was absolutely adorable, so he would have had to been a real jerk to ignore her.  "I'd like root beer, if you have it"  I wish you could have seen it.  She was quite the little lady. :D Then another shopping trip with my husband to buy a little something for my brother for his birthday, (Poor guy spent most of his birthday not celebrating it because of all the extracurricular business, so we're celebrating Sunday) and somewhere in there, the day beat me up! I don't even know how! OH! One of the high points is for public consumption.  Mari read me a little story today! Ayup. Read. So, yeah, she needed a little help, but she did really well except when she had to be reminded not to guess where the story is going but to read it. Asa is so excited about being able to stand up while holding the crib rail, that nap times for him are spent cruising around the crib rather than sleeping, so there's a slight increase in cranky. .... slight. ..... yes...... Not sure how to wrap it up from here, but today's been one heck of a week.

Cruisin' Baby!

I had to throw in an extra today post. Asa reached another milestone today. He started pulling himself up in his crib and walking around it! He loves it and doesn't want to do anything else. He's wanted to stand since we brought him home from the hospital. His legs have always been insanely strong. Go baby, go baby, go!

From this

To this

Trouble

To big, big

Post Number First!

So I'm not really sure how to start this off without sounding like a member of People Who Have Never Blogged Anonymous, (PWHNBA??) so I'll just get that part out of the way right now. I have a wonderful husband, Ben, and three beautiful, brilliant, amazing kids. (Dubbed the Tres Carrollitos as of less than an hour ago) I am excessively parenthetical, so bear with me. Mari's the ringleader of the group. Six years old and way too clever for anyone's good, she doesn't leave anyone guessing on what she's thinking. Or what Adam's thinking, and she's offered her services as an infant translator for Asa as well.  Adam is generally content to let Mari be bossy, but when he's had enough, boy do we all know it! He loves any toy he can build with, and more particularly, break down again.  Asa, well... Asa's got us all wrapped around his little drooly fingers.  At the bottom of the totem pole, but close to the top of the height chart is Coleman. A Great Dane with a lot of love, and oh-so-little brainpower. He's taught me a lot about how little IQ is actually required to breathe, bark and eat. ... Rocks.  I love Coleman more than he is stupid, (and that is devotion, let me tell you) Coleman is Asa's best friend, and then we have the cat, Edgar.  I don't like cats. I've never liked cats except for a few notable exceptions. Edgar has fangs that come down past his mouth far enough that in scratching his chin you're likely to scratch your fingers off, and an attitude bigger than Coleman.  He's secretly a softie, though, and sits on people's laps and purrs when they're having a bad day.  Awwww.... I think that pretty much covers us all.