Big Snow

As Tess said, we had "big snow" on Sunday. Fun was had by all.

(Don't let that picture of Josh fool you - not much shoveling was done by anyone other than me...)

New Year, New Calling (Bonus: A Rogue Shoe!)

Okay, so I know it's the first day of March, but in my little blog neighborhood that's the start of a new year. I started this blog in March of 2007, back when Spencer was a toddler and Josh was a ginormous little baby. My blog books always go from March to February. Thus - happy blogging new year!

Anywho, it seems appropriate to blog about Lance's new calling: 1st counselor in the bishopric. It's a pretty big calling that will affect our lives in many ways for several years to come. We're excited and hopeful and a little nervous all at once. (Well, Lance and I are. This kids? Still the wild little hooligans they always are.)

The calling was extended yesterday at 4pm. Lance spoke with President Gibb first, and then they brought me in and told me. I cried. Because I'm a girl. NO! Because I was freaked out. NO!! NO!! Because Lance having this calling means that I will be released from being a counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I have really loved this calling so much, and I LOVE the sisters I work with. I've learned a lot and been blessed in so many ways. So I was selfish and cried about that. (Probably because I only have an inkling of what we're getting into. Give me a year and we'll revisit what I should have been crying about...)

After the interview we went to Bergen Ream's baptism. (Bergen of Ream Family Fame.) It was such a great baptism and it was the perfect thing we needed after getting such big news. I felt the spirit so strongly and felt a swell of love for our ward. I needed that.

Last night I woke up around 3:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. My stupid brain wouldn't stop worrying and fretting and trying to plan for any situation related to how this calling would change our lives. So annoying. I do remember thinking "Well, at least sitting in the congregation by myself with the kids won't be so bad - they're pretty good now! (Ominous foreshadowing...) So I got up and wandered the house a bit and realized that it had snowed quite a bit and was still snowing. A lot. Also annoying. I finally fell back asleep around 5am. This was really unusual - rarely do I lose sleep over anything.

This morning we woke to at least 6-8 inches of snow. It was ridiculous. They didn't cancel church and we felt like we'd be okay driving there, so we did - slowly and carefully!  The congregation was sparse, as expected, but more and more families came in as the meeting progressed.

They announced the new bishopric and Lance went to sit up on the stand.

And that's when Cole decided to turn into a little naughty imp. That child... It's like he just knew that things had changed and that I was definitely outnumbered and that this was a really important sacrament meeting and he was going to totally take advantage of it.

So I only heard bits and pieces of the speakers because I was trying to keep Cole contained. (Seriously, so much energy in that kid. We put him to bed extra early last night because he seemed so tired. MISTAKE. That child is going to be late on Saturday nights from now on!!) ((Kidding.)) (((Or am I...?)))

A few things I do remember:

• While Kevin Asay was speaking (he was a counselor who had been released) Cole said, rather loudly, "I thought this was going to be a short church! This is LONG." (In his defense, I did tell him that it would be short church because they had canceled the 2nd and 3rd hours.)
• Finding a freckle on Cole's finger and whispering to him that it was his "Good Boy Button" and that when I pressed it he turned into an Extra Good Boy. (Extra because he was already a good boy. Ha.) He looked at me, pressed the "button" and said "Now I'm NAUGHTY."
• Cole promised - PROMISED - that he would be good when Lance spoke. He lied. He got even WORSE! I silently wrestled with him for most of it, at one point putting him in a full body hold on my lap - no small feat because that kid is solid. 
• Lance mentioning that the first thing he thought of when asked to serve was "Dang it! Now I have to wear a suit coat every week!" This really is a big deal. Lance hates suit coats. This morning Tess even asked him why he was wearing it.
• Lance mentioning that he was so glad he was married to me. *Swoon* I'm sure there was more, but that's all Cole allowed me to hear.
• Cole just being an ornery cuss. I have already had people offer to help me with my kids during sacrament meeting...
• President Ellis asking Reid Kapapa to sing a song at the close of the meeting. SING. That president Ellis, he's a tricky one. I'm never making eye contact with him during a meeting again.

After Sacrament meeting was over we all met in the Relief Society room for the setting apart. I was really concerned about the kids - especially that dang Cole - but they did pretty well! It was short and sweet. At the end Tess, who was on my lap, said "Okay, my turn!" Fortunately, she wasn't too disappointed when I said "Not this time".

It was still snowing - quite a bit - and Lance had to stay at church. So I was in charge of wrangling all of the kids into their coats and out to the car. I also had to wrangle the church bag, my purse, and a rather large box that contained all of these RS invites that I had been passing out. (Long story.) I finally got everyone down the hall, into coats and out the door. Only I got pulled back for a second, so all of the kids went outside without me. I went out a few minutes later to discover that Cole had somehow gotten his SHOE on top of a rather large snow pile and was hopping around and yelling frantically. 

After I stopped laughing I got Spencer to stand by him so he could put his be-socked foot on top of Spencer's shoe while I tried to get the rogue shoe. Unfortunately, the shoe was just far enough that I wouldn't be able to reach it. Fortunately, a five year old I knew (Ethan H., in case you want to know) was shoveling snow about 30 feet away. I quickly went down to him and asked to borrow the shovel really quick. Ethan did not want to give up his prized shovel. I was a bit more adamant. So was Ethan. I finally used my Mean Mom That Means Business tone and he gave up the shovel.

But now I had a new dilemma: both of my hands were full of other things.  And I didn't want to put anything down on the snowy sidewalk and our car was pretty far away. Fortunately, a ward member came to the rescue, offering to help and nearly falling into the snow pile in the process. The shoe was rescued, Cole put it back on, took a few steps, and then promptly kicked it off again because he was mad that we were laughing at the whole incident and I was calling him "Shoeless Cole Madsen", which I'm sure he didn't get but I thought was fairly clever.

I should also mention that during all of this Tess was trudging through deep drifts of snow. In church clothes, mind you, so dress and tights and little patent leather Mary Janes. Not exactly snow gear. She got very little sympathy when she complained of being cold.

Anyways.

We would have driven home at that point, but remember the baptism we went to yesterday? Well, Spencer had been at the Stake Center all day for a scout thing, so I had brought his church clothes so he could change into them for the baptism. During all the hustle and bustle of leaving the Stake Center, we totally forgot his backpack. I would've just sent him to school tomorrow with a different backpack, but it contained his school shoes. *sigh* So off to the stake center we drove. The roads were pretty bad, but not bad enough that I felt like I should just go home. It usually takes about 20 minutes to get there, so a 40ish minute round trip. This took us close to an hour. Yuck.

But we made it home, and Lance soon followed, and we ate a yummy lunch down in the basement while watching "Earth to Echo", and all was right with the world. 

This is going to be interesting, but in a good way. Like I said, I'm excited and nervous. And sad. But also happy, because now maybe I have a chance to get the best calling in the world: Primary Pianist. Or RS teacher. Hey, I've got some pull now with the powers that be. :)

When I Get Big...

Tess is always talking about what she'll do/be when she gets older.

"When I get big I will be the Mommy and you will be little!" (She's pretty sure we'll switch spots some day and I'll be the kid and she'll take care of me.)

"When I get big I will drive the car."

"When I get big I won't have to go to bed."

"When I get big I will go to school, but no preschool... big school, Spencer and Josh's school."

But one of my favorites came the other night:

"When I get big then I will have blue eyes! Like you, Mommy!"

That's her "Wild Woman" look, in case you were wondering...

Anywho, she totally thought that her eyes would change color when she got older. I mean, it makes perfect (three year old) sense: I'm a girl. She's a girl. I'm big. She's little. I have blue eyes. She has brown. She knows she's going to grow up and be like Mommy, so why wouldn't she have blue eyes? It was kind of heartbreaking to tell her the truth. She wouldn't accept it at first, but she eventually came around.

Blue & Gold Banquet: Minecraft Edition

Last night was the annual Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet, and Josh was pretty excited. Not because he earned a bunch of awards. (Don't even GET me started on how little his pack has been doing in that area lately... Growl.) No, he was excited because his idea for the skit was chosen!

Josh could give you a MUCH more detailed explanation of the plot, but here's my mercifully condensed version:

A scout leader was playing Minecraft. This motley crew were his Minecrafter guys.

There's Josh - the one with the blue and green striped sleeves.

And then the Creeper came and killed everyone. And then they respawned. And then the Cub Scout Bear and Wolf taught them how to make weapons and take care of themselves. And then they killed the Creeper. The end.

In the tradition of Cub Scout skits, it was hard to hear, hard to understand, and took about 10 minutes long when it really could have been done in 2.

**FUTURE JOSH: I love you. So very much. But once you have your own Cub Scouts you'll understand why I say the things I say about Cub Scouts...**

Cole tried to get through the skit by drinking. Unfortunately, the water was all gone.

Yes, that is the skit going on in the upper left corner. Yes, I was paying attention. Mostly. I just found Cole to be more interesting.

He sure entertained himself with that pitcher!

Oh wait - back to the skit! Here's Josh, off to kill the Creeper.

And here's Cole with the pitcher again. In my defense, I'm pretty sure the skit was over at this point.

And here's Daddy and Tess. Having Tess at a late (for her) dinner was about as fun as you would expect.

Okay, I'm a bit snarky. But I am proud of Josh for coming up with that skit and being so excited about it!

The Lion and the Lamb

Cole has taken a liking to this little fuzzy lamb lately. It's really quite cute.

It's also really quite incongruous, given Cole's general super-grouch demeanor. (Made more so by the recent awful cold weather, making outside play non-existent. )

Exhausted Home Evening

It was a long afternoon. Lots to be done, little time to do it. Including a Minecraft head for Josh's Blue & Gold banquet on Wednesday. (More on that later, for sure.) Josh said he wanted to do the head all on his own, but what he really meant was he wanted me to do all of the cutting and gluing and he wanted to sit there and not tell me what he really wanted but certainly tell me what I was doing wrong. The child is already management material... *Ba-Dum Tssshhh!!*

Lance is at a CPR class tonight, so I was on my own for dinner and FHE. Dinner had few complaints, mainly because I deconstructed it so that each child could choose what they wanted on their plate. (It was this really yummy ham and cheese sandwich bake.) Letting them watch tv while we ate also helped.

FHE was on the restoration of the priesthood. We had a quick lesson, during which Cole tried to wrestle and pick fights with Spencer, Tess sat with a glazed "I'm still getting over a double ear infection" look on her face, and Josh kept inexplicably disappearing. They were all well-behaved for this video, though. Still, I was a bit discouraged and felt like I really hadn't gotten through to Spencer, who this lesson was really for. (Did I mention we're doing a priesthood prep lesson each month since he's turning 12 in December? Well, we are.)

Then we made no-bake cookies. They fought over who got to put the ingredients in, who got to stir, who was stirring wrong, etc. While I thought it clever, they all found it highly suspicious that the cookies needed to cool for exactly the length of time it would take for them to put their laundry away. No laundry away = no cookies. Not much weeping and wailing, but there was obnoxious gnashing of teeth. No, literally - Cole likes to snap his teeth at Tess and Josh, who then freak out and run around and yell "COLE IS GOING TO BITE ME!!!!"

The cookies were a little overdone and crumbly, but still gobbled down. Everyone ran around like crazy lunatics for a bit. I finally had enough and sent them all downstairs to play "don't step on the lava" so I could have a few minutes of peace.

And I fell onto the couch, laptop in hand, ready to blog about family home evenings that just aren't even worth all the energy. 

But then Josh left the kitchen and exclaimed "THAT was a GREAT family home evening!"

So instead, I think that family home evenings are probably always worth any amount of energy. 

Prayer