Talkin' about Spring

Picture taken by McKenzie - pretty good, huh?!

Well, the sweat rings don't lie...spring is turning into summer, folks. The temperatures are getting just high enough to remind us of just how uncomfortable these hot, humid summers of North Carolina are. (A note to my family, I'm totally joking...the summers aren't so bad - you should move out here...) (A note to the rest of you, I'm totally not joking - the summers are terrible.)

Here's a bit of what we've been up to this spring:

"Green" Smoothies

What?! Spinach in a smoothie?! And not just a little bit either, but a whole handful for your glass. When I first heard about it, the thought was enough to stimulate my gag reflex. But after a good friend guaranteed that you could not, in fact, taste the spinach AT ALL, I decided to give it a try. As I watched the gloppy green mixture splat around in the blender, I'll admit that my hopes were not high - but after adding the colorful berries, it started to look like something I might actually enjoy. I'll let the picture above sum up the results. :)

Swimming Lessons

McKenzie and her friend, Carolyn

This year, I decided it was time to have my children learn the ways of the water. Perhaps overdue, since we spend so much of our summers in the pools. (A note to my family - wouldn't you love to live in a place where you could swim for so many months out of the year? So refreshing!) (A note to the rest of you - sometimes the pools are so warm they feel more like bathtubs. Not refreshing.)


Carson spent most of his time glancing over to the bleachers to see if he could catch my eye. Once caught, you could count on a thumbs-up from him. This was his most improved area - - - he got awesome at keeping afloat with one hand out of the water.

McKenzie picked it up fast and is now able to get herself across the entire pool with no floaties.

No drowning for us!



Seussical Mussical

McKenzie's 1st grade musical... and this picture cracks me up. One boy sneezing, one boy picking his nose, a girl in back admiring her fingernails, and a boy looks to be waving right at my camera (funny because I was standing at the very back of the auditorium using my zoom lens). The show was cute, the kids were cuter. :)

While we're here, meet Jack. He's the kid that belongs to that pair of eyes down in the bottom left corner of the picture. Cute, cute kid...and McKenzie's new boyfriend. They are, apparently, in love. Definition of 'in love' from McKenzie: I chase him around the playground every day.

Basketball

Brian got a basketball hoop for his birthday this year. The directions said that assembly would take a couple of hours, so Carson and I decided to set it up while Brian was at work so that when he got home he could spend his evening actually playing with it rather than setting it up. McKenzie hopped off the school bus just in time to hang the net.


Now, for a girl, I'd say I'm slightly above averagely savvy when it comes to assembling and building stuff, but there were a couple of times that I worried about death as the top-heavy monster of metal and plastic threatened to crush us. And I feel it is appropriate to brag here, just a little. :) We persevered for hours - and Carson and I felt victorious when, dripping with sweat, we finally shot our first baskets.
























Halfway through the assembly, Carson said, "Mom, dis is taking way too long. I didn't know it would be dis long when I said I would help you." He was a trooper - and there would have been no assembled hoop without him!
























We have had a great time with this hoop - you can find us out there almost every day at some point. Miles has had a great time with his little hoop, too. :)


You know what the best thing about these kids is? How well they get along with each other. McKenzie and Carson play together so well, and when they turn their attention to Miles, he feels like the star of the universe. Just look at these faces in response to Miles making a basket! You are loved, little boy!


It's always a sad goodbye when we wave off the best weeks of spring. But you can be sure we'll keep enjoying it before the temperatures force us to stay in the house or in the water! (A note to my family - I love living in a place where I don't have to do my hair for the entire summer!) (A note to everyone else - I do not love having wet hair for an entire season. At least I can choose whether it's wet with pool water or sweat...)

Let's not do that again...

"Brian?" I whispered into the quiet darkness. We had already said goodnight and the stillness from his side suggested that his mind had already started to drift into sleep. But my mind was not quite settled.
"Hmmm?" His tone was gentle.
"I'm glad you didn't die today."
"Me too," he said after a slight pause. "I'm home, safe and sound. And we had good burgers tonight."
A small laugh escaped through the lump in my throat and I closed my eyes to fight off the stinging tears. It worked pretty well...only one of them escaped and landed on my pillow.



Tornadoes swept through Raleigh yesterday. There are three confirmed deaths so far (just in Raleigh), and many damaged houses and buildings...including the leveling of a Lowes home improvement store just outside the city.

Brian and Carson were 5 meager miles away, stopped in the minivan watching a 2 foot deep river rush down the road they intended to cross. Several compact cars had tried to cross and were sitting in the middle of the river, stuck. "Linds! I've never seen anything like this!" Brian said over the phone, "This is crazy!" Carson called a few minutes later. "Mom, dere was dis guy, and he was stuck in his car, and a big twuck came up, and the man got out of his twuck with a rope, and den the man in his car got out of his car and he was only wearing his socks! Den the twuck pulled and pulled and got all the cars out of the water!"

Clearly they were having a good time.

Meanwhile, I was sitting home watching the news and listening to the announcers say, "You need to seek shelter!" "Do not go into downtown Raleigh right now! If you are listening to us on the radio and are headed for downtown Raleigh, pull off the side of the road immediately! Do not go into downtown Raleigh! We are seeing very dangerous signs that a deadly tornado is forming!" "We cannot stress enough how dangerous we feel this situation is!" The predicted path had the storm passing through downtown Raleigh and then continuing northeast. Brian and Carson were in northwest Raleigh - out of the predicted path by a few miles. This calmed Brian's fears and gave him encouragement that he could finish his errands. But it didn't calm my fears - - - they were still much too close to it for my comfort and I kept asking him to turn around and come home. Thankfully, the storm followed the predicted path, causing the casualties 5 miles east of my life.

I'm trying not to entertain the what-ifs. But my heart went through an emotional roller-coaster yesterday and I realized, once again, how much I love and how tightly I am bound to that man.

And, my Carson, oh!

- I think I'll stop thinking about it now...

Worn and Torn

I sent my 4-year-old son to preschool like this on Wednesday. In the pouring rain. I felt a twinge of guilt as I watched him dance around (but mostly through) the puddles on his way to the car-pool van. The poor boy was trying to walk on only the outside of his foot to keep his big toe from getting drenched. I'm pretty sure he wasn't successful.

Three hours later I sat in the carpool line waiting for him to come bouncing out the door with the rest of his class. My windshield wipers worked constantly to keep my vision clear and I saw a little boy walk out of the building, hand in hand with his mother. He skipped and jumped through the puddles and I watched the water splash up and around his bright green rubber rain boots. His mother pulled him along, most likely anxious for the shelter of her car, but the rain didn't bother the boy a bit...he was already sheltered in a bright green rain coat with the hood cinched up around his face.

And I couldn't help but think, Oh dear. Perhaps my son should have rain boots with a matching rain coat. But of course, I was just feeling guilty that I had sent my son to school with holes in his shoes. And his pants. He's just so dang hard on his clothes! Out of the six pairs of pants I bought for him this season, five of them have holes in both knees.

He and I went on a date last night to get a new pair of shoes and a milkshake, but he'll have to live with the torn up pants for the rest of the season. Is this a boy thing? I'm guessing Miles won't have many hand-me-downs from here on out...

Superhero in Training

Miles has had a rough week.

Tuesday he sent us to the ER after slipping in the bathtub and splitting his eyebrow open, and after much deliberation we decided to DermaBond it together (think superglue) instead of stitch it up. I will not tell you how difficult it has been to not scratch off all that flaking glue... I should have gotten a picture of it soon after it happened - It's amazing how much it's healed in just a week.

Thursday he slipped in the locker room after the kids' swimming practice and split the other side of his head on the corner of a bench. After clearing all the blood I determined that, while deep and messy, it was small in length and hiding under all his red curls - - - not hospital worthy.

Saturday he face-planted on the concrete resulting in a scratched up, pouring, double bloody nose, and a huge, fat lip.

Sunday he tumbled off a picnic bench and landed on his head, gaining another battle wound almost parallel to his scar.

And today I found a small pine-cone piece in the center of a red, swollen, tender patch of skin on the heel of his foot.

I called my dad on the way to the hospital last week and he summed it up nicely, "I kind of think this may be the first of many scars in that boy's life."

Yes, Miles is fearless and determined to master any physical task in which he feels he is lacking.


Well, cut it out, boy. I'm tired of seeing your blood.

Smiler

It's a unique story, I think...

My grandparents met as young missionaries, both serving in Canada, in 1937. After their missions had been completed (my grandpa's a year before my grandma's), they spent only two weeks together before my grandmother wrote in her journal, "Went to assembly with Arvid and then to his place for lunch. Love him, and he loves me. I'll be Mrs. Seth Arvid Dodge someday."

She nicknamed him 'Smiler' in the mission field when her first landlady had said he was the best smiler of all the missionaries. . . and the nickname stuck with him through the end of his life.


















His funeral was both beautiful and inspiring for me. Full of hope, rest and peace. Everyone who attended wore a 'smiler' pin, made by my cousin Heather, to honor his life, his perspective on life, and to help us remember that this was a happy time for him.

I have a lot of pictures of people that most of you don't know, and I won't post them here...but I'll break that rule with the picture above. The two older people above are my grandpa's brother and sister - delightful people who are easy to talk to and who remind me a lot of my grandpa. Look at her smile. :)

Five of grandpa's six sons (the other one had been there earlier in the evening). It was so touching for me to see just how much respect flows in this family. Over the course of one weekend, I gained a greater knowledge for where I came from as our focus was turned to my dad's family. My grandpa, with his eternal companion, raised a wonderful family.

No wonder my dad is such a great guy...

Problems of the Penny Pinching Kind

"Mom - deese flowers smell bad! "
I glanced into the bathroom at Carson who was standing at the sink with his hands frothy in soap bubbles and his nose wrinkled in disgust.
"Yeah," I admitted, "that soap doesn't smell very good, does it."
"I'm glad dere are no flowers awound our house dat smell like dat."

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"You know what this soap smells like?" Brian said as he was washing his hands one night. "Bonfire."

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"Carson!" McKenzie exclaimed. She and I were sitting at the dining room table, entrenched in the middle of a 750 piece puzzle. Carson had just returned from the bathroom and was picking up a small puzzle piece directly under her nose. "Your hands smell like garbage!"
"Oh dear," I said. "You know, I'm thinking we should just throw that soap away. What do you guys think?"
"YES!" came the stereo reply.
"Once," McKenzie added, "I washed my hands with it and then I smelled them and thought that I had gotten some garbage on them, so I washed them again. But it wasn't garbage! It was the soap!"

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Lesson learned: Do not buy soap at the dollar store.

Thoughts of Peace

If I had to choose one room in my house that I love the most, it would be my living room. It's a strange choice, really, because it's the only room in the house that we could functionally live without. Maybe that's what makes it my favorite. I sit in there every morning, sinking into the rocking chair cushion with my favorite blanket wrapped softly around me. I read my scriptures by lamplight and watch through the big windows as the sun slowly changes the colors of the world outside. I sit in there every evening, surrounded by the people I love most. We read scriptures together as a family before kneeling down to close the childrens' day with prayer. It's a quiet room. And when I'm in it, I feel peaceful. Sometimes we wrestle with the kids in there, sometimes we play a game of Memory or Old Maid, sometimes we huddle under blankets and tell stories. But, most always, when we are in that room, we have gone there deliberately to do something. It's very rarely a thoroughfare and, because of that, it stays quite clean and in order. I think I could sit there for hours. Hugged by warm browns and reds on the walls, pampered by thick carpet at my feet, I somehow feel that if the world was crumbling down around me, I could be safe and at peace if I watched from that room.

I taught my children about the Plan of Salvation in that room last Monday night. I brought in the white board and, after confirming that every single dry-erase marker left to the children had been aired out in the open, grabbed a new one from my secret stash. Using pictures and circles we talked about life - where we came from, why we are here and where we are going. Knowing that his time on earth is drawing to a close, we talked about my grandpa and what would happen to his body and spirit after he died.

One of my favorite parts of the night came when we were talking about the Celestial Kingdom, the greatest kingdom, the goal at the end of the tunnel of life that helps me make my decisions today.
"And this one," I said pointing to the top circle in a group of three, "is the Celestial Kingdom." I wrote the words CELESTIAL KINGDOM in the circle and continued, "This is the place you'll go if you make great choices through your life. If you obey Heavenly Father's commandments and try your very hardest to do what He wants you to do. Do you know what the greatest thing about the Celestial Kingdom is to me?" I asked.
Carson's eyes got wide and his smile almost jumped off his face, "You can have as much gum as you want for free?!?!" I laughed a little and said, "Well... maybe. But, this is what I like most about it..." I started drawing little stick figures inside the circle and McKenzie followed my train of thought. "We get to be with our families?" she asked.
"Yep." I glanced at Carson and he didn't even try to hide his unimpressed look. "Don't you think that's cool, Carson? That we get to be together as a family if we go here?"
He shrugged his shoulders with one corner of his mouth up in a sneer and one eye squinted, "Ehh...," giving the slightest shake of his head.
"You'd rather have all the free gum, wouldn't you," I said with a smile. At that, his look remained the same, but the direction of his head changed into a slight nod.

When the kids bounced off with their Daddy to be tucked into bed, I sat on the couch in that peaceful room and pondered Heavenly Father's plan. My heart felt so warm and I realized the corners of my mouth were turned up in a small smile. I recognized the feeling as the Holy Ghost, testifying of truth. And my own testimony swelled. It's true, I thought. I mean, I knew it was true....but, it's true.

Tuesday morning, my dad called to tell me that Grandpa had passed away.

With my dad's soft voice sounding in my ear, I subconsciously made my way into the living room and sat down on the couch. A mix of sad and happy stirred in my heart but by the time we had finished talking about details of funeral schedules and plane tickets, I remembered my Grandma and how much Grandpa has missed her over the past two and a half years, and almost every ounce of sadness left for a moment. This year, come October, they'll be able to celebrate their 71st wedding anniversary together.



This week is not the most convenient time for me to leave my home, but with the help of six wonderful women, a supportive husband, and a sacrificing co-resident, I feel like the support beams are just strong enough for me to pull out for a few days. (Wonderful friends even agreed to be 'on call' with Brian this weekend - so if he has to go into the hospital at 3 in the morning, one of them will come over to sleep with the kids.)

And for this I am grateful. I feel so blessed that I can go celebrate with my family the life of this wonderful man. I feel blessed that I have been taught the plan of salvation, and that my heart is filled with happiness and hope because of it. I don't remember what heaven is like... but if it's anything like my living room, my grandma and grandpa must be happy, indeed.