Hikes, messes and other crazy stuff

On Saturday, we went on a Cub Scout hike with Oliver to "Little Yosemite" in Sunol. The hills are always so pretty and green in the Spring in the Bay Area that it was past time we got out hiking. It was a 3.5 mile hike and we were quite the production with Lael and Lulu and Henry in a jogging stroller. As usual, Oliver and Lael couldn't hold their water and had to pee five times each. My favorite quote of the day was from Lael, who said, "I'm grateful for trees, so we can pee."



Oh, Henry. The first thing he still says every morning is "Awba" for Oliver (and Lael). And Erik and I are still "Mama." He also says "Wuwu" for Lulu and he belts "No!" quite often. He also repeats things and jabbers a lot. He loves to tell other babies no and is still figuring out his pecking order in the nursery at church, but he is a pretty friendly guy. His most recent discovery is that he can move chairs around and climb to reach things, which has caused no end of problems. Last week, he got to the water on the front of the fridge and flooded the kitchen a couple times. But his most destructive stunt was to move a chair to our utility drawer and get out a Sharpie, which he used to draw on the wall, door casing, cupboards and Kitchenaid Appliances. I ran out of Magic Eraser trying to clean it up and took a picture of him the next morning, which I've attached.

The sad part is, this happened while Henry was of course being quiet, and I was holed up in the bedroom trying to get the other two to sleep. This is usually Erik's task, but he was on a conference call for work. Erik has been getting up to check his emails, going to work, coming home in time to catch some of the kids' baseball games and then doing a conference call with India at 8 or 9, since it is the beginning of their workday. So it feels like he is working around the clock, with a few breaks. The idea is that the work continues in India after the workday here is done. He says that works great when communication is going well and can be very problematic when it isn't. With a house as small as ours, it's a challenge for Erik to work from home, especially on conference calls. He uses the mute button unless he is speaking. So it's been stressful around here. I just hope it all pays off someday! It is a high-profile job he's doing right now. The director (his manager's boss, who reports to the VP of Adobe) even brought him lunch last week. Of course, that was so Erik could continue working at his desk, but still. I do hope this pace doesn't last forever. He's got a companywide shutdown for Spring Break in a couple weeks. (And two more scheduled: for July, when we're going to Utah, and for October, when we're probably stuck here).

For Spring Break, we're sending Oliver to Tech ID camp, where he is going to learn how to make his own web site and design video games. Erik says it will help him start thinking like a programmer. Oliver is very excited. The summer camps are an outrageous $750, but they offer this Spring beta camp – where they test out tweaks in the planned summer programs – in Santa Clara only for $200, so we thought we'd take advantage of it since for Spring Break 2010 we're off to Las Vegas. This does mean we're stuck here this time, but that's OK. We have lots of home improvement projects to tackle and Erik wants to try to scuba in Monterey one of the days. It's easier to take just Henry and Lael to museums anyway because I can stay in the same areas. The stuff Oliver is interested in is often in a different section and it's hard to keep everyone entertained, so it'll be less stressful for me - and I'm all for less stress! I am really looking forward to the break - just 8 more days of school - because I'm losing it. On Friday, as I was dropping Lael off at school, I realized her whole class was coming out and I remembered it was an early day. You would think I would know this, since it was for an awards assembly - which I make the awards for. Thankfully she wasn't getting an award that day (or I'm sure I would have remembered), but still.

Lael had her last violin lesson Friday, where we turned everything in. She just wouldn't practice and didn't even want to go to the last lesson. It's sad because she was so excited at first. Maybe next year ...

We had the library Book Fair at school and it took me a week to recover. I am finally feeling "normal" - just in time to hold a Pampered Chef party for a friend – let me know if you need anything! – and I'm not doing another party for a loooong time. Last Saturday, I went to a Daughter's of the Utah Pioneers Camp Meeting, where I was the youngest member by about 30 years. The theme was the Ship Brooklyn and they had pulled out all the displays from the 1996 reenactment and sesquicentennial celebration. I am now working on using this for a Fourth Grade assembly for Oliver for next year and I would like to have an Olson family reunion out here with our Pugh cousins who want to come, since we have an ancestor who came over on the Brooklyn and who happens to be buried a couple blocks from my house. Why I'm willing take on these projects, I couldn't tell you. I like to think they are inspired, but sometimes I think it is just some personality flaw. I am also planning to be Boosters President one more year but then I would like a break. Anyway, next year, here we come.

Erik was released from his calling teaching Sunday School to the teenagers (this was ironic, since he was never actually called again after our ward merged and we were all released). But we're waiting to see what calling is coming next for him. His classroom had a broken clock, so he used our ipod as a timer to tell him when time was just about up and during his first Sunday back in adult Sunday School yesterday, a fire alarm sound went off and it took me a moment to realize it was coming from my husband's pants pocket right next to me. I guess he's still adjusting.




I bought the kids some Easter outfits and they wanted to wear them last week, so I attached a couple pictures of that. Lael asked me if I would put curlers in her hair. I guess it had been long enough that she had forgotten what they do and she was very distraught that her hair was so curly but I talked her into leaving it. Lael was also featured in the newspaper last week in a supplemental section put out by the school district about the bilingual program. Of course, they spelled her name Leal, which does pain me greatly as a copy editor, but since we put her into the Spanish program, this happens constantly.

In Olson family news, my sister Angie blessed her baby Alexis Sunday and my sister Sky has decided to go to BYU (yay!) and she has a half-tuition scholarship (congrats!). So say hi to her if you pass her on campus this coming fall. OK, I think that's probably more of an update than you wanted, but there you have it. Hope you all have a great week!

Another crazy week at the Swansons

Monday started out cRAZy with Henry hiding ALL the keys and me walking Lael to school and then walking to pick up both Oliver and Lael (Erik takes Oliver to school in the morning on the way to BART, thankfully). I took pity on poor Lulu, who doesn't get out nearly enough, and brought her along on the walk. Halfway there, while I was picking poop up off a lawn with a bag, she was attached to Henry's bike handle and led him off the curb. He got scraped up and Lael was late for school. So I let Henry play at the park and then came home for his nap and tried to make cookies for the dessert for someone in our ward who just had a baby. I must have added an extra cup of flour because they weren't even edible. At that point, I was ready to call it a day and end the torture and just go to bed. Erik ended up coming home early to find the keys and rescue me so I could get the dinner over.

The rest of the week is somewhat of a blur. Lael finally hit the baseball and made it on base (she's really young to be playing in Minor B and it took her 3 games, but it's so nice to have them both on the same team and she's doing fine). She got the team ball, so she was happy. Oliver got the first team ball on Opening Day the Saturday before. We let him take a one-day training camp taught by professional baseball players a couple weeks ago and he's doing great, so it's definitely paid off. When I told him he needed to work on his throwing arm, he told me, "It's just that I need to fully rotate and follow through on my throw ... something about extension and release ...", so I guess it made an impression! On my birthday on Wednesday, I took two friends up to San Francisco and showed them around Yerba Buena Gardens and took them out to lunch at a neighborhood I hadn't been to but Erik recommended. I took Henry, which worked out great, since both these church friends had babies around 1 year old, but they are in their early 20s (one of them was turning 21 that day too) and they were shocked I am 34. I find it more shocking that Erik is almost 40, but I do find it interesting that I gravitate toward 20-somethings. It's also because there's hardly anyone out here my age to choose from anyway. That night we had a $7.99 Trader Joe's ice cream cake that I had bought that was really good. It was a fun day and reminded me that I would like to spend a lot more time in San Francisco - but it's going to have to wait for summer.

Saturday I did a makeup class for Lael's gymnastics and took Lael and Henry to a Chuck E Cheese party while Erik took Oliver to the batting cages and bought him gum (more on that later). For my birthday I tried a mineral body wrap, which did about 25 percent of what I wanted it to (my stomach still hasn't recovered from having an almost 11-pounder) but I guess I'm going to have to try to work the rest off on my own because I could only afford the one! But I was exhausted the rest of the day and Chuck E Cheese nearly did me in. Oh yes, I remember what else happened Saturday. Our three little monkeys jumped on the bed too much and when Erik sat on the corner, it collapsed, so he had to run to the hardware store and fix it later that evening. The bed was repaired just in time for Lael to throw her gum at Oliver and for him to throw it "just on her shirt" which of course got stuck in her hair so we ended up cutting it out (Erik didn't want to mess with the peanut butter - I don't know why). We have of course found gum all over the house now and it almost goes without saying we won't be having gum again for a long time. Sunday at church I actually started getting pictures up on the ward bulletin board I have taken it upon myself to work on and then we actually rested. We usually go to Erik's parents, but since they are on a cruise, we stayed home, made one of our Dream Dinners meals, cleaned and didn't have anyone over and it was good to have a break. Now onto the next crazy week ...

It's baseball season again!

Opening Day was Saturday and Lael and Oliver had their first games of the season. They are both playing on the Giant's team in Minor B. They have a great coach and hopefully they'll both have lots of fun and improve a lot this season. They are the oldest and the youngest players on their team. Oliver should have a great year - he was able to hit the ball every time he was at bat and got the first game ball. Oliver will definitly move up to Minor A next year. Lael just turned 6, so she's a little young but she's got a great throwing arm and I think she'll do well. Thankfully the park they play at is about 2 miles from our house. There are two games and one practice a week, so it's pretty intense, and hopefully Henry will cooperate and stay off the field cause I volunteered to be our team's Safety Coordinator, and that's going to be a little awkward.

I've also signed them up for the Mission Valley Swim Team. They're going to be Barracudas. We'll try it for this swim season and see how it goes. Practices are every day after school and they should go to three each week and then meets are on Saturday mornings. When school is out, practices are in the morning through July. We'll see how the kids take having to jump in the pool early in the morning. At least they'll get good swimming skills out of it!

And, yes, I've heard all the advice about not overscheduling your kids and I've taken that into consideration. But my kids need to be active, or they become TV junkies. I would be more than happy to just stay home but that just doesn't work for us. And I do tire of the ladies in Relief Society giving their opinions about this issue. Gag me. Really what I'd like to cut out is the homework. We get insane amounts. Anyway, now you know what we'll be up to for the next few months!

Happy Inauguration Day!

We are fresh back from our trip to Washington, D.C., where Obamamania is going on. There were no lack of Obama souvenirs and "I Love Michelle" T-Shirts, though we passed on the shirts. We were in D.C. area over the holidays for our nephew Carl's wedding. It was great and we hope that Carl and Allie enjoyed it - we sure did! It was hit and miss doing things with the family, especially because we drag around three opinionated little people everywhere we go, but we had a lot of fun. The weather for the first couple days was awesome - in the 60s and then it turned bitter cold, with a windstorm to boot. So when the kids became fascinated with the ice in the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial and Lael stuck her foot entirely in the water, we sure heard about it. There were many other misadventures,like missing the family photos at the reception and Lael throwing up in the rental car as we were getting out at the airport (which cost us a $100 cleaning fee by the way), but overall we had a great time. We stayed in Alexandria for the first week, which was awesome. Then we stayed with friends, including the Fennimores. It was great to see them and fun to catch up, even if it was brief. So thanks for letting us stay with you! We saw lots of the national sites and Erik's sister Lynn set up a tour of the Capitol for us. Henry loved the trains at the Arboretum. The kids got to ride a carousel on the Mall on one of the warm evenings. We went to the Spy Museum and saw Ford's Theater and the house where Lincoln died. We about froze to death while watching the changing of the guard at Arlingon Cemetary. We saw the breathtaking view of the Potomac from Mt. Vernon. We visited both Air and Space Museums - Oliver's favorite experience was a simulated flight. Lael got to paint on a real canvas with a real artist at the Torpedo Art Center, which was awesome. One of my favorite events was New Year's Eve at the National Patent Office. We went out to dinner with the Lambs at a funky restaurant in Alexandria and we got to the Patent Office as they were wrapping things up, so the clowns kept shoving balloons at the kids and we ended up with way too many. They even made a leash for Henry's balloon slug and a sword holder that Oliver used around his head (something that would only be a good idea with a balloon sword). Then we went to a magic show that Henry wouldn't sit for and had to walk the 12 blocks back to the hotel since the buses were all full and Lael walked into a post office box and we had to hear about it all the way back. Sorry if we wore you out Melanie! Anyway, it was lots of fun to see the sites but it was even more fun to be with family and friends. Oliver and Lael had fun with the friends we stayed with and can never get enough of their cousin Melanie. So we are headed out to see the Lambs (at least the ones still at home) next month and to go with Melanie to Disneyland for Lael's 6th birthday.

my holiday top 5

The holiday season is upon us and I thought I would post my Top 5 list of holiday things that make me tick and things that tick me off. So here goes:

things that make me tick
1. the feeling of community
2. gifts that are useful
3. well-done holiday parties (that's been awhile!)
4. playing games
5. getting things that I wanted but didn't know about (this happening is very rare indeed)


things that tick me off
1. the greedfest when everyone opens tons of gifts at the same time
2. computers that run out of space while I'm in the middle of designing my christmas cards
3. curmedgeons
4. ungrateful children
5. lawn ornament snow globes

I also hate those blow-up snowman and santas that sit like empty colored sacks on the lawn during the day. These are pure blight, but they still don't top the snow globes. We have a lot of these because people around here shop at Costco and Lowe's, where they are located, and I suppose they are somewhat affordable, but darn they make our neighborhood ghetto. Sometimes less is more. For some reason, we also have lots of icicles. Erik finally had to go out today and buy hooks to drill into the overhang so we could hang our lights. Since we live in a flat-roofed house with no eves and no gutters, hanging lights was pretty darn near impossible. I made an attempt to tape them up but I can't recommend this method, since they all fell down on the ground after one night, where they have been sitting for more than a week. But in my defense, I have been busy - and we've had a cold spell (yes, I know in the 20s isn't that bad for most of you, but I actually had to use my credit card on the windshield this week!). Well, I better get back to designing those Christmas cards which are now going to be New Year's cards. Have a great holiday!

I can see! (and other updates)

These pictures are from Ardenwood Farms, where Henry and I went with Lael on her first fieldtrip last week and had a great time. We all spent two weeks in Utah for Thanksgiving break and had lots of fun with the cousins. I had Lasik surgery there and so far it's been a success! I have 20/15 vision in one eye and 20/20 in the other. Although it still goes in and out sometimes, which is a little disconcerting, and I have the expected dry eye issues, it's still been pretty good. I was able to do Lasik because I used the Hoopes Vision Center and they had the latest lasers, which took less tissue and corrected my vision with an impressive 10 seconds in one eye and 11 in the other (the lasers out here would have been around 45 seconds in each). Also, instead of creating a plateau, with light aberrations around the edges, the new lasers curve with your eye. I think I had better results because of the newer technology, so I am happy I had it done in Utah, even though it was definitely a factory.


We did a lot while we were in Utah, and it was good to have a break! I went to the New Kids on the Block concert with my sisters (yes, again!), we stayed a night in Midway and Erik went scuba diving in the Homestead Crater while Oliver and Lael swam with Grandma Olson (I couldn't swim because of my surgery and Henry was too young). We also stayed two nights in Wolf Creek. We had an awesome Thanksgiving Day at Dan and Clare's. It was definitely an eventful trip. I made a bad call on the way there and we ran out of gas, which put us back an hour because we had to call AAA, but we made it! We watched Clare's family slaughter their turkey, which was interesting. I do want the kids to know where their food comes from, and I guess that was one way to show them. It didn't deter them because that's about the only thing they ate was turkey the next day. That same day we sadly ran over a dog on the way to Wolf Creek. It was running down the middle of our lane and there was nothing we could do, so we were sad and tried to find the owners. But for the most part our trip was very good.

We met Allie, Carl's fiancé and had dinner with them and Caitlyn and Erika at the Mayan. We also got to see other friends we haven't been able to catch up with for awhile. We are back and things are in full-on holiday season (along with the usual craziness of the Boosters, overwhelming amounts of homework, Scouts, the dog ...). So I can't promise I'm going to be great at keeping things up to date but I'll try! We're going to Washington D.C. for Allie and Carl's wedding, so we're excited about that. Hope you are having a great December!

You know you live in the S.F. Bay Area when ...

A couple things have happened recently that have been reminders that we live in a very metropolitan area and made me laugh. First, I just can't seem to stop myself from volunteering. I need to learn to sit on my hands or something. But I was at the library with Henry for their free rhyme time and they announced that they will only be doing their program every other month since they are lacking volunteers. I had talked about having the few people with babies in my ward over to my house or the church and running something similar but this just sounded a lot simpler, so I signed up to volunteer and went to the first training meeting. A mother there said she would be willing to set up a yahoo group for the library volunteers. I said I had had more success with the google group I had set up and I liked using google docs and she said yahoo had something similar. So I asked if she worked at yahoo or something and she said yes. I thought that was very funny. I told her I really didn't care which one if that was the case, but she went ahead and set up the google group.

On Sunday we were at Erik's parents' house for dinner and I was telling them that I just bothered to take a look at Lael's classroom last week and see what the genetic makeup of the class was. I told them Lael was the only white child and there was one black child and the rest were all Hispanic (which is what you'd expect in a Spanish immersion class). And Oliver said, "No, mom. There is one black girl and all the rest of the kids are white." I think it's great that my kids are so integrated that they don't even notice, much less feel intimidated. I've come a long way from Utah, where it was 98 percent white through high school for me, although I doubt it would be quite that ratio now. I guess Oliver was right that Lael is the only one in the "non-Hispanic white" category. I really don't get the point in having to check this "politically correct" box, but it has popped up on many forms lately. Anyway, I think it's great we live in this culturally diverse area and I love that my kids are learning to speak Spanish, with a great accent to boot - although Lael just walks around talking gibberish with a Spanish accent right now. But it has worked out great for us and I know it will serve them well in the future. Now if I could just find the time to learn Spanish ...

I finally lost it

It's taken a lot to get there but apparently I have finally resorted to screaming at random members of the community. This past week after Scouts I took all three kids to Trader Joe's. Shopping with all three children is something I try hard never to do. Lael's chatter alone is enough to blast all thoughts out of my brain but it becomes very difficult when adding Henry, who is currently a menace when he's set free (and I never get more than 5 minutes before I have to walk around holding him or he protests very loudly). And then there's Oliver, who exists just to torture his sister and make her scream, which I admit doesn't take much. Anyway, I survived the store and we were getting in the car. I had the last two grocery bags in my arms and was putting them in the car when an approaching woman said, "Excuse me. You know, that's really not very nice." I looked over and realized my cart had rolled up against her car. I said, "I didn't realize it rolled." And then, as I processed her words and annoying tone of voice, something snapped, and I added, "Lady, you really need to get a life." And then I yelled, "I'm doing tHe BEST I CAN!" Then I got in my car and drove off with my children, who had of course witnessed the whole thing. So in the aftermath of The Incident, I have analyzed how I got to the state where I would yell at random strangers, in an attempt to avoid ever getting there again.

I admit I released my pent-up frustration from several issues onto this woman, but I think what drove me over the edge was her annoying tone of voice and her assumption that I had noticed and didn't care about her precious car. So, really, I think she is one of those people that's a harpie and she deserved it but I still wish I hadn't lost it. There were several contributing factors. The Journey concert we went to was frustrating because it was sold out so the lawn seats were pretty tight. Citizens were righteously indignant that the people in front of them were standing so the only way they could see was to stand. I expect this kind of thing from these events. It's life. What I found really irritating, however, was that when my chair touched the blanket of the party next to me, I was told, "Someone will be sitting there." And when that person finally arrived, he smoked and he kept it low so that it blew right in my face (Note to self: when smoking in crowded, public areas, make sure to put the cigarette higher so that the smoke blows over to annoy other people instead of the person right next to you.) So apparently it was rude to encroach on someone's physical space but forcing someone to eat smoke is OK. Next issue: I have been doing too many unofficial church callings and I need to extricate myself somehow without being condemned. So on Sunday when I said to a sister, "Oh my goodness! I didn't return your phone call." and she said, "No, you didn't." in a very sour tone, I thought, well, there's going to be a lot more where that came from if I continue to do this job, so get used to it or let me out! And then there's the Boosters Club. As my friend Jennette said about her house, it's like having another child, who doesn't love you. I'm working my tail off just to make progress at a snail's pace. I'm not even remotely thinking about giving up but I definitely need to work smarter. I've been doing the work of at least 5 people. I've neglected everything and given up time with my family to get this organization up and running and I will succeed but I am going to take a break. I haven't taken the time to blog or do anything extra because I've been giving it all to the school. Anyway, that's most of how I got to yelling at random people in the parking lot. I just hope no one from the school was there. And now I'm officially taking my break!

Oliver's been baptized!

Oliver's baptism was a big success (thanks to lots of family support!). Thank you to all our family and friends who came out to support Oliver. He had a great day. All my family except Aaron and Joni traveled from Utah to California for the event. Aaron and Joni had a good excuse, since baby Luke joined their family a week ago but we'll have to get the entire family together one day. It was fun to see everyone. I wish we could have spent more time with everyone individually. I was also trying to get the Booster Club started and basically I cut both a little short. I haven't had time to record life these past two weeks because it seems I've barely had time to live it! Thank you especially to Angie and Lynn, who rehabed my backyard in one afternoon and saved me endless amounts of embarrassment. Sarah also helped a lot in cleaning the house. Sorry this has taken so long to post. We had a blackout over the weekend and my computer's power supply bit the dust so a couple days and $185 later, I am finally back in business - and grateful to have a computer!

1st Day of Kindergarten

It was Lael's first day of Kindergarten. She is pictured here with Lulu the dog, our newest member of the Swanson clan (as if we needed more chaos, but she's already part of the fam and she's as good as dogs get). So, the battling to get her to school each day has begun. She picks different issues each day. This girl is just plain difficult. When we got to school, she didn't want to wear her nametag so I took her over to her teacher and said, "Lael doesn't want to wear this but you can make her." It was kind of like throwing down the gauntlet and saying, "Here. This one is your challenge now." She tried on many outfits that morning and finally decided this was the one. It was blazing hot but she insisted on wearing the jacket.


Oliver started third grade and has Mr. Flores, who he seems to really like.



I set up this display outside the kindergarten room for the Booster Club. It was a crazy day and I was up until 2:30 am getting it all done. Of course it didn't help that I decided to make cream puffs for the teachers and was making those at midnight. My friend Monica arranged for me to get Jamba Juice for the teachers and they were a big hit! Thanks Monica!



Lael has the same look of tharn Oliver did when she started school but she seemed to have fun.



This is Henry and me after a very long morning (and a weekend of camping and a very long summer spent entertaining the kids). This is probably the last post I will do for a week or so. My family is coming into town for Oliver's baptism. Plus I have the Booster Club to get going and all that. But I am really, really hoping with the time the kids are in school I can get stuff done. It's been about survival for so long that the house has really suffered and especially the office is a disaster. My sisters Sarah and Angie are coming out early next week and they want to help me finish the ceilings that we never got to (we ripped the popcorn off three years ago when we moved in and haven't done more since). Sarah got back from her mission to New Zealand last night so I'm capitalizing her while she's still in humanitarian mode. I can't tell you what makes me take on way more than is humanly possible, but I do blame it on the genes from my Dad's side of the family. I seem to thrive on the challenge. But I am getting burned out and need to cut back in some areas, like in my church service. Anyway, here's hoping the school year brings a more sane existence to me and the Swanson family (even with the dog)!

Cruisin' along

The summer is cruisin' along with only one week to go and I'm having trouble keeping up - partly because so much of my time is now spent entertaining kids and partly because I have been doing so much for others. I've finally got this one cruise photo posted. Oliver and Lael had a blast on the Disney Cruise. Although there were definitely fun parts for the rest of us and we are glad we went and grateful the rest of Erik's family (with the exception of one niece who was working) came with us, we are definitely ready to take a trip without the kids! We're considering a 10-day Alaska cruise in 2010 with some friends. We'll see ... I will try and get more pictures posted this weekend. Sorry it takes me so long to get to everything! We snuck off to the beach in Santa Cruz with the Englishes Wednesday afternoon and it turned out to be a beautiful day so I was really glad we went. We got there just in time to see the Chinese Acrobats, which was amusing but after watching so much Olympics coverage, I'm a little hard to impress. We're looking forward to Wente next weekend and then summer's over! I'm hoping to get the house under control while the kids are at school. Wish me luck!

The defiant one

Today when we got to the movie theater for the weekly kids summer $1 movie - today was Bee Movie - Lael got out of the car without shoes on. This happens regularly and I am sick of it. If we hadn't had an extra child along (I was helping his mom out), then I would have just sent Oliver in to the movie and I would have sat out in the car with her for the entire movie. As it was, I saw about 15 minutes of the movie because Henry was much more interested in running up and down the aisles and in front of the screen. But I made Lael pay Oliver one point per sock (that's 50 cents), so she wore his socks and he went in with just his shoes and with no socks on. But I'm obviously going to have to make her pay a price soon or this showing up places without shoes on will never end. Honestly, it's this kind of crap that makes me glad to have school coming up so I won't have to spend all day every day with her. It's hard to deal with her without a break.

I've already had to modify so many of my dreams, both because of her choices and because that's how life has worked out. I took these pictures a couple weeks ago on the day I could tell she was going to pull her front tooth out. It made me sad because I really wanted kindergarten pictures before she lost her front teeth. Erik and I have such cute kindergarten pictures and I was hoping the kids would have them too. After our front teeth came in, we both looked a little gangly for awhile. Oliver's kindergarten picture turned out OK, except that someone wetted and combed his hair right before they took the picture so it looks kind of funky. Anyway, so much for that dream.

My current plan for the kids for college is to ship them off to BYU in Provo, UT to be near my family for college. It's really hard to get in now but I think the kids are smart enough. I'm sure I've got quite a few battles to fight with Lael but hopefully she won't choose college as one of them. So far she is quite the defiant child. But darn if she isn't cute!

Heatwave!

I know I've once again neglected my blog, but as always, I have good excuses. We are still recovering from tent camping in an RV camp for the July Fourth weekend. This week brought oral surgery for me, babysitting for ward members who were in need of help, soccer, dance, the beginning of Jr. Giants baseball and scout camp for Oliver, all in the midst of a heatwave. Somehow that sentence doesn't even remotely cover how much stress this week was to get through.

Last night Erik and I went to The Police in concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. I have definitely had my share of second-hand pot smoke for the year between white trash camping and the concert, but the music was good. We have tickets to the Journey concert in September (Heart and Cheap Trick are opening) and I have tickets to go see New Kids On The Block (two sets actually - in San Jose and Salt Lake but I haven't made up my mind which one I'm going to). Calm down - it was the first concert I ever went to with my friend Tamra and I think it will be fun, although I know their new stuff is not that great. We're thinking of coming out in November for two weeks (driving out and flying Erik back and forth to work) so I can go to the Nov. 17 concert and we can spend Thanksgiving with the Olsons. We haven't worked out the details yet and we've been so good for the past three years since Oliver has been in school about not taking the kids out of school that I won't feel bad about doing it. But it does make things hard when they're in bilingual Spanish and we're not fluent.

This weekend we have a Giant's baseball game after the kids' games and Erik has to change the transmission fluid on the car before we drive to LA for the Disney Cruise. Fun, fun!

Two strikes against breastfeeding

Some of you may not yet know about my botched attempt at eye surgery. In December, just after Erik got hired on at Adobe, I decided to look into getting Lasik done. I figure if I'm ever going to do it, I might as well get to enjoy a decade without glasses. So I did my research online and chose Scott Hyver Visioncare. He is the 49ers eye doctor and has several offices in the area. So I went to see him and got the sad news that I would only qualify for PRK, which is like Lasik, but instead of cutting a flap and molding your eye, they mold the top layer, which means you have to regrow the top layer. This takes several days - at least one very painful one. Because I have a thinner than average cornea, I risked having my prescription slip after a year or 18 months with Lasik. The only option if that happens is to wear rigid contact lenses. The reason I don't wear contacts much right now is because my eyes are so dry so this would be horrible for me and wasn't worth the risk. But I was definitely bummed that I wasn't a Lasik candidate. I went ahead and scheduled the surgery for Memorial Day weekend, thinking that would be far enough away to handle things with Henry better, and I arranged for my Mom to come out and help since I wouldn't be able to drive for a few days. I asked about breastfeeding and they told me that wasn't a problem. We put aside the $4,000 in the flex spending account and I was locked in. So the date finally arrived, my mom was out here and I psyched myself up (which was actually really hard) and Erik drove me to the office. I paid my money and had my eye tests and asked the eye doctor if they could prescribe a different medication for after since the one I had didn't look like I should breastfeed with it. She said she would go check with Dr. Hyver and when she came back, she said I would have to reschedule because they had just changed procedures during the surgery a couple weeks ago and several of the drops they used would not be conducive to breastfeeding and they couldn't change back right then, so that was that. They refunded my money and I went home and actually had a fun Memorial Day weekend with my parents in San Francisco. Strike One.

Our latest saga is that Henry has eight teeth and half of them have cavities. The tops are just a rotting away every time I breastfeed him apparently. I took him in because he has a very obvious cavity in the front of one of his top teeth and they told me there are cavities all behind the front top teeth. I am supposed to brush his teeth in the middle of the night or whenever I feed him, which is pretty impossible to do, since one of the reasons we are in this predicament in the first place is because he resists the toothbrush. According to the dentist, since he is under 3 years old, he is "precooperative," a term which Erik apparently finds hilarious and has now used at least a dozen times since he heard it. So they are going to have to sedate him and are recommending four caps on his top four teeth. It is very sad. I am not sure whether to fight to have the cavities filled or not because at his age the chances are they will have to be capped anyway before they fall out. Poor kid has Oliver's teeth, I guess (Oliver got 5 caps at age 3) but in our defense, Lael has yet to have a cavitiy. At any rate, that is Strike Two.

Sadly, the root canal I got last year is failing and I am pretty sure I am going to have to have work done on it again. Between paying for Henry's dental bills, which will be extensive, getting me new glasses (since mine are four years old and I can hardly wait another minute), and another root canal, I'm thinking maybe we'll just put $2,000 into braces for Oliver (since he has an overbite and they are recommending early orthodontic care) and that will pretty much take care of the $4,000. If we do that I'm not sure I'm up for getting my eyes done next year. It was a lot harder to psych myself up for than I thought it would be and I don't know if I want to go through it again and I would have to have help come out again. It's only June and what a year we've already had!

Summer update

So summer has finally begun. The end of the school year was a doozy. Last Thursday night I got myself voted Booster Club (PTA) president but I am essentially the queen of nothing unless I get it organized because we don't even have anybody to be treasurer. So that should be fun. On Friday I put on a movie matinee of Ratatouille, which the whole school was invited to and I was sweating bullets because I didn't know if we would have 40 kids or 400 and I had to arrange popcorn and do everything for it and I was afraid it would be just me and the principal with a bazillion kids, but it turned out OK. We had 60 kids and some parents stayed to help. I really have to get this school web site done so we can communicate! I learned to not give the kids too much water because the spills and potty breaks got crazy! Anyway, on Saturday we had Henry's 1st birthday party and the kids spent all day fighting like banshees so it was hard to get anything done. We just joined a swim club and had the party up at the pool. It was a cowboy pool party so we had a BBQ. But I wasn't as organized as I would have liked because of the aforementioned fighting and we forgot the meat, so Erik had to run home. Then I realized I had forgotten the Henry Trivia game that I had spent all morning on, but I didn't realize it until almost the end of the party. I spent another 20 minutes retrieving that from home and when I got back we were out of time, so we grabbed everything and headed to the parking lot where we served cupcakes and I posted the Henry Trivia game to the car. It was crazy but fun. Sunday was Father's Day so we went to Erik's parents. Monday we had a visit from a friend from Oregon, Mike Christenson. It was fun to see him and catch up, although my house was in quite a state by this time and I as mortified, but he was kind about it. This left me with one night to get Oliver's yearbook done that I had committed to do for his class because the next day was the last day of school, so it meant an all-nighter for me. I finally gave up wrestling with the printer and went to bed from 4:30 - 6:00 am and then got up to get them done and showed up at his classroom with one hour to spare and had the moms finish assembling them. It wasn't my finest work, but they got done. I actually felt OK that day and started getting the house back under control, but I paid the rest of the week and didn't feel good. I tried to nap this afternoon but just ended up getting mauled by Henry. We told Oliver and Lael we would pay them if they played with Henry while we took a nap but it didn't work. He kept coming in and bugging us and then he bit me and dropped a remote on my head so I am going to go to bed now instead of taking the time to make this blog grammatically perfect. Anyway, this week we're onto swim lessons, trips to the library, etc. My kids are both so manic. Within half an hour of getting up Thursday, Oliver declared "summer stinks!" because I informed him he could not turn on the TV until he had done a job, gotten dressed and eaten breakfast. But Friday afternoon after we went swimming, he declared this was "the second day of the best summer ever!" Anyway, here's hoping!

Which child will be the last straw poll

If you chose Oliver, this week you are correct! It started on Thursday when I got the call from Blacow Elementary saying he was out of lunch money and couldn't borrow any more this close to the end of the school year so I either had to bring money now or he would have to eat a cheese sandwich they would give him. This would have been fine with him - he hates that the principal makes them eat their veggies in the school lunch so he usually chooses to bring a sandwich, so I ran the money over.

That afternoon I took my parents to the airport. On Friday morning, he announced his final project, a report on snakes which he hadn't started, was due the day before. I recall seeing a paper about this about the time of my botched surgery (more on that in another blog) but there was so much going on I had forgotten about it. So we knew what we would be doing last weekend.

Sunday night we were at Erik's parents for dinner and he did his report. When we got home, we worked on the diorama that had to accompany the report and presentation. We painted on some trees but I didn't take the time to plastitak the plants and snakes in like we usually do. I got him up early Monday morning to finish the diorama so of course he was running late for school.

Around noon, I got a call from Blacow asking to come pick him up for personal reasons. (I dread getting calls from the school in the middle of the day.) As I was taking him home to get a change of pants, he says to me, "The stuff disappeared out of my diorama." I asked what he was talking about and he said it must have fallen out of the box when he ran into the school. There had been lots of recesses by this time and I thought the chances of him getting his stuff back were slim. The only option I could think of was to make an announcement over the PA system telling any kids who picked up plastic snakes or plants off the ground today to turn them into their teacher. But I said a prayer and took him back for the last hour of school and parked about where Erik usually drops him off. Sure enough, on the grass near a driveway outside the school was where everything dumped out. Then we had to get someone to let him into his classroom because he didn't want to get in trouble for having a handful of toys at recess. Anyway, the kid is going to do me in. Seriously. The only real question up for debate is whether Lael or Henry will beat him to it.

Sam Duzett sighting!

Our very talented and busy nephew Sam Duzett came to San Francisco on choir tour, so we popped up in San Francisco to see him. The choir was very good and I think our kids enjoyed the concert (thank goodness it wasn't too long for them!). I wish we could expose them to more cultural events like this. It was my first time in St. Anthony's church, and I really like going to old churches. It makes me wish we valued architecture more in the LDS church. I sure do miss the Berkeley Ward chapel. Anyway, afterward, we took him next door to Beard Papa's Cream Puffs. It's my new favorite place to visit when going to Yerba Buena Gardens. Then we raced back to Oliver's baseball game so it was a crazy day but worth going!

Baby at the wheel!

Henry is happiest when waiting for the kids in the car while they play sports or Oliver is at piano, etc. He has spent so much time at the wheel that he has chewed on it and I had to get a wheel cover because it started falling apart.



Isn't being a third child tragic? These are some of the looks I get from Henry when I put him in his seat. He hates the carseat but he is generally good natured, so that means he fights it until he is in and then he is resigned to his fate. It helps when the kids are in the car to entertain him. I'm hoping when we get to turn his seat around in a few short weeks (because he will be a year!) that will help. He's got such a cute guppy face. I sometimes get told he looks like a Cabbage Patch baby because of the cheeks but my favorite is when they tell me he's a Precious Moments baby. I wish I had the time to take more pictures to capture the moments because he really is cute (although this is a few months ago and he's gotten so much more blonde).

How it went

So Oliver read Duck for President at Reading in the Park. As he was getting ready, he couldn't decide whether to wear his old falling-apart Heelies or his new Skechers shoes, so he asked me, "Think I should wear one of each?" I told him no, but I didn't realize until I saw the picture that he had actually done it. That's Oliver for ya!



Erik and I snuck out of the Booster Club event for an hour and left the kids at a friends' house to go out to Salang Pass. It's our favorite Afghan restaurant in Fremont and we hadn't been for a year (Ashley, I thought of you!). If you come visit, we'll take you there! I had to cancel our reservations at La Fondue in Los Gatos, but we'll make it there someday ...



It was a crazy week - as usual I guess but slightly crazier. We had two friends staying with us while their parents were out of town, added to the usual baseball chaos and other random events. Rob Duzett was in town for 24 hours, so we dragged the entire crew to have ice cream with him in San Jose. It was fun to see him for a few minutes. Lael said, "I like that uncle!" Thanks for the treat (and for being such a good sport)!


Other recent insanity includes me going to National Scrapbook Day with friends while Erik took our kids and two nonmember friends to a Primary friends activity and then to a baseball game on Saturday. That night we tried to go to San Francisco to see the KFOG Kaboom fireworks but BART was closed (Weird! I guess it was some kind of electrical problem.), so we drove up and then decided to try to see the fireworks from Treasure Island. This has worked for us before, although parking is always stressful because we're never the only ones with this idea. But I won't be trying it again because the fireworks were too far away and we did not have a good view from the places we could park on the island. Anyway, sorry Oscar and Caroline - we'll plan better next year! I've also sold more furniture on Craigslist and if I can just sell the PS2 and games, I'll have the trampoline paid for. Maybe next month ... Now if I could only get to the long-overdue laundry so we didn't have to dig through a mountain of clean clothes for socks every morning ...

Happy 11th Anniversary

It's been



Hi Erik,

I'm sorry I didn't have time or energy to come up with a present this year, but I love you! I am still glad I married you! Thank you for hanging in there with me through the constant craziness that is our life. I've been thinking of all the things we've been able to do together:

Spend Thanksgiving in Hawaii
Experience July Fourth at Mt. Rushmore
Party hard at Spring Break in Las Vegas
Shop the Christmas markets in Prague
Hang out at the Winter Olympics
Visit Yosemite in Winter
Cruise to Mexico

and I thought, what should we do next? Let's do it all again! Love you!

Emily