a good blog

I don’t have a whole lot to contribute to the blog world these days. A good blog seems to have a decent balance of everyday and serious with a dash of absurd thrown in every now and again.  I’m feeling none of it.  Could be I’ve entered the land of Funkiliciousness the past few weeks and can’t seem to shake it. Therefore every day seems like a march of just….keep….moving…as the laundry and dishes pile themselves to amazing heights.

I’m definitely ready for some blue skies and green poking through the ground.

Some highlights of the past 6-ish weeks:

We had Chad and Amanda with us for a couple of weeks before their semi-permanent home was ready for them. It was a fun time. The kids play and played and played. Now we’re just trying to see them as much as possible before they leave for Peru….and try not to think about the fact that they’re leaving for Peru.

Evan turned four. Four. Ah. It’s killing me. I was bemoaning the fact that we don’t have any babies to Toby and he said, “Think about when they’re grown and we can just decide we want to take a weekend trip to Palm Springs.” I guess that would be fun too. I’m not sure where Palm Springs came from though.

At the beginning of the school year I found out that I’d misunderstood the re-certification requirements for my teaching credential, so I’m playing catch-up and taking 12 credits through the University of Idaho online (mostly) between now and August. Because there’s nothing else I’d rather do….or spend money on. Ha.

We got nailed in the ol’ tax department this year. Usually Toby LOVES doing taxes. This year we both had to sit and stare at the wall for a little while when we realized how much we’re going to have to pay. It wasn’t a HUGE surprise…but it still smarts a little. I know…join the club.

This is Evan and Thomas playing superheroes. (Notice the capes)

This furry little man would be Noah without both front teeth now. He discovered some hats Toby brought home from a trip he took to Russia in high school. Aaand he uses any excuse he can think of  to wear them.

christmas 2009

It was a quiet and fun Christmas for us this year. We stayed home and got to spend both Christmas Eve and Day with Toby’s family. The tradition is to have dinner and make cut-out cookies on Christmas Eve before opening presents. Evan struggled with understanding that we had to frost ALL the cookies before tearing into the presents. (And yes, both of the boys were desperately needing a haircut.)Here they are Christmas morning decked out in Nurf Dart Tag  garb:

Classic. This one will definitely be saved for the wedding slide show someday.

Noah pulled out his own tooth a few days before Christmas:

New jammies from Grandma and Grandma

And now for another installment of Conversations with Evan:

Another tradition for the Schmidts is to read the Christmas story and then go around the room and have everyone tell what they are thankful for in the previous year. Evan listened intently as everyone took their turn and then politely raised his hand. “I love my mom and dad.” he said. He went on to mention a few other things he likes…the pets, his toys…while Noah was frantically waving and pointing to himself as if to say, “Don’t forget to mention me, Ev. Don’t forget to say you’re thankful for me.” Evan stopped. Turned his head toward Noah in acknowledgment and then then continued, “And….I’m thankful for waffles….pancakes…….and my brother Noah.”

ten years and grace

Today is our tenth anniversary. Toby’s parents took the boys overnight last night and we went to dinner at PF Changs (delish) and planned on going to a movie, but couldn’t really decide on anything we wanted to see.  Plus, we’d have had to go to a 10:00 movie. Who can stay up that late?? So, we did some Christmas shopping and headed home. It was so nice to have uninterrupted conversation and not referee any arguments. We need to get out more by ourselves. I am so thankful for Toby’s parents who put on a mean sleepover. The boys always count on taking a bath in Nana’s jetted tub and eating Papa’s chocolate chip waffles.

I cannot express how blessed I feel for being married to Toby. He is my best friend, my greatest supporter, and my sanity. I get to be the person I am today in large part because of him. I’m so lucky. I don’t deserve this life–not that it’s easy every day or won’t pose challenges in the coming year, but  man, am I grateful.

And on that note…in Sunday School last week our teacher led a discussion about sharing our own experience with the people in our lives. He suggested that we ask the Lord to present us with opportunities to share what we know. I can’t say I went so far as to utter those words, but I was given an opportunity nonetheless:

I lead a group at the clinic that started out as a nutrition/wellness group but has taken a turn into focusing on the issues and beliefs that prevent us from being successful in leading a healthy lifestyle.  There are about five core women who come every week and have really formed a cohesive support group for one another. This week the discussion turned to the struggle to get over past mistakes/failures. It was evident that all of the women were very able to extend forgiveness and kindness to everyone else in their lives, except for themselves. Most of them have incredible amounts of trauma and abuse in their past. We kept going in circles about the logical reasons for letting go, etc. but we weren’t going anywhere. I asked them about the concept of grace, which I then had to define as underserved favor. I said something about how it was a crucial part of my life.  I realized how much I take this gift for granted when I saw that the very concept of grace was foreign to most of them. One commented, “Wow…that’s pretty cool.” Another said, “Like….saved by grace.” more to herself than to us.

Maybe sometimes it’s our job to simply remind the people in our lives of God’s prevenient grace. The “little spark of divine grace within us which enables us to recognize and accept God’s justifying grace” as John Wesley said. Perhaps it could also be called hope. Hope that there is truly a way to something different.  Something better.

Again, the scripture that has become my prayer…

preach it, dr huxtable

Dr. Huxtable (from the Cosby Show, of course) frequently talked to his wife, Claire, about how they were in a constant battle with their children. “It’s us against them” I believe he often said. Tonight, it was a close game at our house. I believe we (Toby and I)  ended up winning, but boy, was it a battle.

And someone please tell me why I can’t just be a cat? Seriously, what a life!

the ghosts of christmas past

It’s strange what makes us feel connected. I dragged all the Christmas decorations out a few days ago and the boys found a little bag of small wooden elves/snowmen/santas/trees that somehow became mine after my grandma and grandpa died. I used to put them on a little tree because I like to look at them. I don’t know if they have any monetary value, but I really like them. Last night Evan got a hold of them and started playing “The adventures of Santa and his Crew” or something like that. The ornaments were stuffed into a toy car transporter and skied down the couch cushions all evening with lots of “Ahhhh..Saaannnttaa”s in his high voice used only for making toys talk. I have to wonder if my Grandma Duerre thought,  “Humm..maybe someday my great grandson will spend an entire evening playing with these ornaments” when she picked them up at the drugstore, or wherever they came from.

Probably not, but I sure had her on my mind last night. And I missed her.

I wonder if any of my stuff will make it through the next two generations. I hope someday my grandsons or granddaughters will put some of my special decorations on their tree…and maybe think about their grandma and grandpa.

“huh?”

One thing I appreciate about my life right now is the frequency with which I find myself involved in interesting conversations. Seriously. I say, I can do almost anything for a job as long as there’s a good story at the end of the day. And with that definition, both my in home and out of home jobs must be perfect.

For example, this week my class of seniors was doing some work on a project when one intelligent-but-not-so-rich-in-common-sense boy, Joey, called me over and said, “Mrs. Schmidt, do you know the name of that mormon food that starts with an ’s’?”

“Mormon food? I didn’t know there were any mormon foods.” I answered.

“Yeah, lots of Mormon kids eat it at lunch. It tastes kind of bland….shoot…I totally forgot the name.” He says.  By this time a couple of kids who happened to be Mormon had heard the conversation and said things like,

“At my house, as long as it’s food, we eat it. There are no mormon foods.”

But Joey was insistant. “Yes, there totally is….it starts with an ’s’.”

I tossed out a couple of ’s’ foods that came to mind: schnitzel, saurkraut, etc. But they weren’t what he was thinking of.  After about 15 minutes, he called me back over again exclaiming, “OH, now I remember….QUICHE!”

“Quiche doesn’t start with an ’s’, Joey.” I said.

“Yeah, I know, but that’s definitely the food I was thinking of.” He said.

“Quiche isn’t Mormon…it’s French.” I said.

“Oh…hah….that’s funny.” Was his only reply.

Thankfully class was over at that point.

Or, how about a couple years ago when I was talking to a group of 9th graders about an upcoming assignment when they were supposed to bring in food from home to share with the class. One girl raised her hand and asked, “Mrs. Schmidt, if we’re allergic to something, do we have to eat it?”

Me: Of course not!

Her: Oh good..because I’m allergic to cats.

Me:………..um……(waiting for her to somehow indicate that she was making a joke)………..(nothing)….Well. Everyone, please don’t add any cat or cat bi-products to your food for class tomorrow.

Some kids laughed.

Her: …………..(nothing)………..

Noah has always been reliable for a good one-liner, but as he gets older, he’s little more careful about what he says. It makes me very sad. Although this afternoon while driving in the car he chattered on for a good 15 minutes about the power of the gamma ray as learned in a recent PBS cartoon as well as how he was sure there was an additional state of matter other than the usual liquid, solid, and gas. Then he made a nice segue into the complex emotional relationship between two dog-brothers on the said PBS cartoon. Maybe we shouldn’t have cut the cable?

Finally, this morning I woke up with a intense case of bed-head and am in need of a hair-cut, so I pulled my bangs  out of my face with two rubber bands…one on each side of my head. Evan was scooting on his bottom down the stairs when he noticed me and pinched up his nose and said, “Mommy…what’s with your crazy hair that looks like a bunny?”

This, by itself, was not super unusual, except that he put one finger up and wagged it back in forth in my direction in a very Karen Walker from Will and Grace-esque way, exactly like she did when she was saying  in her high, shrill voice, “Honey….what’s this all about…what’s happening here?”

Ah. Life is funny.

no title

Let’s see…to catch up on the last month…

There has been a variety of work craziness…that I’m tired to thinking about.

The last week of October I ran a 1/2 marathon with Chad and Amanda. They finished significantly before I did, but it was really fun…and I can say I ran the whole thing. I’ d definitely do another one (maybe in the spring/summer) but am not ready to commit to a full marathon. I think 13 miles is enough for me. I’m finding that thinking about 26 miles brings back some of the feelings I had when people asked me if I was going to have any more kids right after I’d given birth. Bleh.

Then later that week I celebrated my 5th 29th birthday. It was a great day. Toby had flowers waiting on my desk at work and there were lots of other little fun things from friends and family waiting throughout the day. It felt very special.

For Halloween we had  church party on Wednesday and then trick or treating and a friend’s party on Saturday. We have enough costumes around here that the boys were able to pick something different for each event. Evan REALLY got into the trick or treating this year. I think he’d do it every day it he could.

 

And…just because…a new feature I’d like to call: Conversations with Evan

The scene: Toby is cleaning the litter box. Evan walks into the room.

Evan: Pew Dad, what is that smell?

Toby: It’s the litter box.

Evan: Oh. It’d be awful if that’s what our dinner smelled like.

 

The scene: Evan has taken a bottle of blue powerade into the living room and spilled it on the carpet. Toby come into the room to see the mess.

Toby: Evan! You can’t take juice into the living room! Now there’s blue all over the carpet!

Evan: It’s okay, Dad. Once when you were little and I was carpet, you spilled juice on me, and I was okay. (he’s channeling his inner buddhist)

 

The scene: Evan is sitting on the couch and I come to sit down next to him.

Evan: Ewww. Mom…something stinks (what is it with smells?). Ish you farted? (Ish you can be translated into do you, can you, have you, etc.)

Me: Nope, Evan, it wasn’t me.

Evan: (laughs) Oh yeah. It was me…(lifts a butt cheek) Smell me, Mom.

vacating

Thanks to a school break and the magic of off-season vacation rentals we were able to vacate our lives for a few days last week. We took off to the mountains about two hours away. We looked at going to the coast like last year, but opted for the closer (read: less expensive) option. It was a good choice. The boys fished a couple of times, we soaked in the hot springs, watched cable television (a huge treat since we don’t have it at home), hiked, and even introduced Noah to the wonders of taking care of business in the woods (Leave No Trace style, of course, John Leavell). It was a good mental health break…much needed.

The boys were given the job of catching our dinner…

But in the end, like all good fishermen, we ended up getting burgers.

Hiking in the woods

I love my life…

parent teacher conferences and rudy

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Anyone else have a feeling of insecurity about these? I LOVE Noah’s teachers. He could not be in better hands, but there’s always that deep down voice saying, “please tell me that my kid is okay…” Noah had a really great report card. His teacher was very positive and encouraging. The things he was marked down on were things like “taking time to finish work neatly”. When I hear that I want to say, “Oh please, Mrs. Edwards…that could be a genetic thing that he can’t help.” I STILL hurry to finish my work without looking over details. Sigh…if only there was a check list of the genetics/characteristics you want to pass on to your kids…there’d be so many I’d leave out.

Rudy: Uncle Andy called last weekend and and asked if we’d be willing to adopt a kitten that he’d found out on their property. The poor thing was doing her best to hide from the great-horned owls, but he didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to hold out…and he told us that she was really cute. So…we bit. Welcome, Rudy. (As in Huxtable…from the Cosby Show.)

“Thanks, but I prefer the dog food.”

The boys made her a house

And she already fits right into the morning cartoon routine.

Please, people…no more unwanted animals.

We seem to be powerless against them…and we’re totally full.

our first race

Last weekend Noah and I competed in our first race together. It was a whopping one-mile run/walk  and we finished with an outstanding time of 13 minutes. It was fun.

I love that he’s such a good sport and is willing to try just about anything. I think Evan will be joining us in these events as soon as he can. He DOES NOT like to be left out of anything. We had to bribe him with a special trip to the donut shop with Dad so that we could go without him.

And…holy cow…has the cold and flu season hit early this year? Seriously, it’s not even October and we’re already on our THIRD round of sickness. Add to that Toby’s broken arm and a mystery injury to Evan’s foot—we’re stimulating the economy with a ridiculous number of co-pays and bulk amounts of  ibuproufen and cold medicine. Ugh.