Who Knew 16 Years Could Pass So Quickly?

Last year, A turned 16. Yes, you read that right. 16. Our first baby is now 16. I am proud of myself for managing not to cry about this milestone!

A little over 16 years ago, I was in a hospital room on the preterm labor unit. My husband had gone fishing with my Dad a few hours away...after all, I had been in the hospital for a few weeks and nothing was really going on...we didn't think anything would happen for a few weeks yet, and poor Mark had spent every night sleeping in my hospital room. And so we sent him off on a fishing trip with my Dad. How could we have known that things were about to change and our baby would be arriving much sooner than planned???

Fortunately, she was not born while he was gone. He made it back with plenty of time to spare. And then, in the early morning on a cool Anchorage morning in late August, our sweet A made her way into the world. Her arrival was not without drama, of course. (We should have known that was a harbinger of things to come...our beautiful, sweet drama girl!) She wasn't crying when she was born...she was bruised from head to toe and having difficulty breathing. Our bishop at the time happened to also be the head of the neonatal unit at the hospital and was on call at the time of her birth and a woman in our ward was her assigned nurse for the first day of her life and kept a close, close eye on her. They were two of several angels who watched over our sweet baby in those first difficult few hours and days. It was a traumatic event for all of us. The first time I held her she was hooked up to IVs and an oxygen mask and a feeding tube. She was so small (well, not compared some of the tiny preemies in the NICU) and I felt so helpless and scared as I held her. But somehow, I knew we would manage. The hardest part came a day or so later when we had our precious baby at the hospital when I was discharged and she wasn't able to come home yet. Never before had I had to do something so difficult (at that's saying something since I did natural childbirth, LOL).

She was a beautiful baby, even bruised and jaundiced and tiny. And she was all ours. She was and continues to be our "guinea pig"...she has suffered more than her fair share "first time parent-itis" mistakes on our part. Like the time her Daddy accidentally dumped her out of her car seat onto the floor...or the time I left the videocamera case out on the floor and she flipped over the top of it (I can't watch the video of that moment because it still scares me!)... She quickly became the center of our lives and before she was ever born she had completely captured my heart.

And last week, 16 years and 2 days after she entered this world in all her dramatic glory, I waited again as a bundle of nerves with baited breath. I wasn't waiting to hear her first cry this time, the cry that took so very long to come. This time, I was waiting for a message from her letting me know that she had made it safely to the school on her first solo drive. Just as it went against bit of my maternal instincts to leave her at the hospital as a tiny, fragile newborn, it went against every bit of my maternal instincts to let her get in the car by herself and drive away from me...alone. Don't get me wrong -- she is an excellent driver. But I can't say the same about the thousands of other people on the road! We have new rules in place...things like requiring her to send me a text message when she arrives at seminary safely, when she gets ready to leave cross country practice to drive home, when gets anywhere safely and is ready to come home.

We are long past the days when we had to carefully scrub up in the NICU washing area before entering to make sure she was protected from outside germs...and yet, as we send her out in to the world on her own, I wonder if we have done enough to protect her...enough to prepare her to protect herself from the influences and dangers of the world.

She is an intelligent, talented, beautiful, strong young woman who doesn't see how amazing, lovely, and incredible she really is. I wish she could see what we see in her...what most people see in her. But more than that, I find myself wishing that I could keep her enclosed in a little isolette and protect her from all of the dangers of the world...dangers that I fear she steps closer and closer to facing on her own every day. Have we done enough to protect her? I can only hope and pray that we have, and then try harder each day to build her up before she goes back out to face another day.

I am eternally grateful for this sweet young lady who first made me a Mother. I know I've made many mistakes along the path of motherhood, and there are many mistakes left to make. I feel bad that she gets to be on the receiving end of those mistakes. But most of all, I'm just grateful that SHE is the person I get to make those mistakes on. That she is mine, forever.

I love you, A. Don't be in too much of a hurry to grow up and leave me.

We Made It!

Mark and the girls are now home...we all survived the separation. I think they were as happy to be home as I was to get them home. I'm so grateful they had the opportunity to go spend a good amount of time with Mark's family and I know they had fun. A also had the opportunity to go on an official tour of BYU and she enjoyed that. It's hard to believe that college isn't that far off for her.

And now they're back and life has resumed its craziness. Mark went back to work the day after coming home, A started cross country practice, and B starts soccer on Saturday. No rest for the weary (travelers) but I think they're all happy to be getting back to their normal schedules/lives.

Interesting timing on one thing...just a few nights before they came home, I expressed gratitude in my prayers that nothing had gone wrong with the house while they were gone. Oops -- spoke too soon! The next day as I pulled out of the garage to go to church I noticed a huge, ugly water spot on the wall/ceiling of the garage. Not good. Dad, Thomas, and Bryan came over to look at it and found that the problem was something simple that had been going on for quite some time, and they were able to temporarily fix it until Mark could get home to do the permanent repair. Mark will have to replace part of the wall/ceiling (inside the garage and our laundry room) but that is within his handyman skill set so it will be fine. At first I was a little put out -- after all, hadn't I just expressed gratitude that nothing had gone wrong with the house while Mark was gone? And then it was pointed out to me that the problem had likely started long before Mark left and that the timing was actually good, because he should have time to do the repair work before school starts...had the problem not been discovered until after school started, it would have been harder for him to find a good chunk of time to work on it because of his work/coaching schedule. So it was still a blessing.

During the last week of their trip I was able to fly up to Massachusetts to help my sister and her husband and daughter move down here (YEA!). It was a very rough flight (not fun) but I made it safely. We had fun in Boston even though it was raining lightly and the start of our day in Boston was delayed by me leaving my wedding ring at the hotel (don't worry -- it was recovered -- another prayer answered!)...I loved Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall...the waterfront was beautiful...the Mother's Walk through the downtown area was absolutely lovely...and the Holocaust Memorial was incredibly touching. I hope to go back and spend more time exploring the city. We made the drive down here in two days -- no sightseeing along the way. I was struck by how beautiful North Carolina was. Mark had told me that numerous times before, but having seen it for myself, I can now say he was right! It was so pretty. Maybe next summer we'll do a vacation where we travel up and then back down the east coast and do a lot of sightseeing. Mark has wanted to do that for a while...and now I want to do it, too. We're so grateful to have Melissa, Bryan, and "Adorable" (not her real name, but very fitting) living down here with us now!!

Wow...a long post... My final news. I had a medical procedure done this morning to try to get answers about my longstanding stomach problems. I have had this procedure twice before but it never turned anything up. This time it did and I am so grateful. I have an ulcer, hiatal hernia, gastritis (already knew about that) and apparently some inflammation of the upper small intestine. I know it sounds strange to be grateful for that, but I am -- because I feel like we're finally getting some answers. Maybe we've finally taken a major step down the road to resolving these problems. I am very excited (and still quite groggy from the anesthesia).

Things I am Not Good At....

With Mark and the girls being gone right now, I'm having to take care of everything at the house by myself. I have discovered a few things I'm not good at...

1. Killing bugs of any kind. Yeah, you knew that already. In the first couple of days they were gone, I had to kill four bugs. Yuck! The bugs need to stay away.

2. Cutting watermelons and cantaloupes. I can't cut straight at all...the pieces come out in funny shapes and I made quite the mess.

3. Getting up early to deal with the dogs. Why do the dogs insist on getting up around 6 am, if not earlier? Especially on days I don't have to get up early?

4. Being alone. That's the worst part. I'm definitely not good at being alone.

1 week down...2 to go.

The Week in Review....

It's been an event filled week! We started off by spending Memorial Day weekend at the beach with some wonderful friends. We spent Saturday morning at the beach and then left the men at home while the ladies and kids went to the outlets for some shopping. We found some amazing deals! Gotta love outlet shopping! After that, we had a cookout together and just enjoyed each other's company. We went to the beach again Sunday morning and then did a little sightseeing and shopping Sunday afternoon, followed by dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant where I had the best pasta primavera I've ever eaten. It was amazing! Then Monday morning we went back to the beach for a couple of hours before heading home. It was a fabulous weekend -- so relaxing, and so much fun. I'm already looking into plans to go back for at least a day trip before the end of summer...if not another weekend!

Yesterday was my ballet recital. Yes, I know -- you didn't know about it. That was intentional because I really didn't want anyone there -- my anxiety level would have been through the roof! Dress rehearsal couldn't have gone any better Friday night...unfortunately, I didn't do as well for the show yesterday (when my parents and Alyssa were there -- I blame them -- I knew they were there and it made me nervous! LOL). But it still went pretty well. To be completely honest, I'm pretty proud of myself for working towards a dream I've had since childhood! I will continue to take classes...although I'm not sure I want to perform in another recital!!

Alyssa is now enrolled in an online driver's training course, which means she is one step closer to getting her driver's license.

Brie is going to Mark's basketball camp this week...that should be interesting since she's never played basketball before! But she's excited about it. I hope she has a good time!

Random Thoughts....

It's time for another edition of random thoughts...and, in no particular order:

1. I went to a leadership class last week where I learned that I am now an ENFJ (I used to be ESFJ), that my preferred conflict resolution style is compromise (I am a people pleaser), and that my FIRO-B scores are 9/9 for inclusion, 9/4 for control, and 9/9 for affection. Yeah, tell me something I don't know! LOL I really did enjoy the class -- I learned a lot about myself and why I do some of the things I do. It's always good to develop new insights about yourself.

2. A woman who is terrified of elevators can convince three seemingly gruff, tough men (one bodybuilder and active duty member of the military, one marathon runner and retired member of the miitary, and one just plain big guy) to go up and down 16 flights of stairs repeatedly over the course of a 2 1/2 day class. And then those men will surprise her by not only offering to go up and down the stairs with her so she doesn't have to ride the elevator and doesn't have to take the stairs alone, but will also willingly offer their arms for her to dig her fingernails into during the elevator ride. Chivalry is not dead.

3. I have a hard time sitting still through anything and everything.

4. The windows in the chapel let in enough sunlight to be able to perform a piano solo when the electricity is off. Darn!

5. I cannot wait to go to the beach this weekend. I so desperately need some beach time. There is something so incredibly relaxing about sitting on the beach, listening to and watching the waves, and just being there in the moment. It recharges me. And being surrounded by friends will be fun, too!

6. Tomorrow is the last day of school. My baby is graduating from 5th grade. I am SO not ok with this. Sixth great definitely needs to be part of elementary school.

And So it Goes...

My last post was my opportunity to reminisce about Brie as she nears a milestone in her life. Now I get to reminisce about Alyssa...

It's so hard to believe that she is done with her sophomore year in high school. What an amazingly successful year she has had! Straight As (actually, straight 100s!) in two AP classes, one gifted class, three honors classes, Spanish 3, and marketing...lettering in two sports...being nominated for a prestigious summer gifted program in four subjects...winning her regional DECA competion, then placing in the state competition, and the competing in the international competition...and just recently being selected for our city chamber of commerce's Youth Leadership Program and for a wonderful summer program for students who want to teach math or science in the future (only 25 students from the entire state are selected!). But what has really filled us with joy this year is her desire to do her best and to really work hard to achieve her goals. She has far outshone any of my high school accomplishments (which I used to think were numerous, LOL). And through all of this, she attended early morning seminary without complaint.

Her teachers have repeatedly expressed to us what a joy she is to work with and how impressed they are with her work ethic, her attitude, and her dedication. She truly is a remarkable young woman.

In the midst of her preparations for AP exams this year, she was getting a bit frustrated, stressed, and down on herself. I ordered her a necklace I found online, with a little silver tag that says "I can do hard things." I wanted to remind her not only CAN she do hard things, but that she can do them well and that she should do them -- that she should choose to do them.

One of the hardest things I ever did was leave her, as a tiny, precious little baby, in the hospital NICU after I was discharged. No new mother wants to leave her baby behind...and I'm so grateful it was only for a few days. But it was so very hard. It was hard to give birth to her only to have her rushed out of the room and away from me, not to see her for hours and hours and hours. (I won't even go into the fact that natural childbirth was *really* hard, LOL.) It was hard to go watch her go through some interesting health scares as a baby...chronic ear infections and a few ear surgeries as a toddler and child...and it has been hard to leave behind each phase of life (infancy, the toddler years, childhood....) and move with her into the next phase of life.

I feel sorry for her at times because she's stuck with rookie parents. She is the guinea pig. We've never had a teenager before and the road has had its share of bumps and potholes, along with rainbows and flowers. But I can honestly say that there isn't a teenager on the face of the earth that I would rather go on this journey with. She is an example to me of strength and determination. The poor girl inherited some of my perfectionist tendencies and it is hard to try to convince her that it's ok to let go a little bit...not that I've mastered that lesson yet.

It will be hard to let her get behind the wheel of a car by herself in a few months...and it will be hard to have her attend a different high school than the one her Daddy teaches at. It will be hard to let her go on her first date...and, when the time comes, I know it will be so very hard to send her off to college. I imagine I'll feel a bit like I did that early August morning almost 16 years ago when she was rushed out of the delivery room and away from me...like a piece of my heart has been ripped out. So very hard. But this is what parenting is about -- about letting go a little more each step of the way.

The fact that I can do hard things doesn't mean I have to like doing them. And letting her grow up is something I don't really like doing.

I think she has taught me, more than I have taught her, that we can do hard things. And that the hard things are worth doing.

In the Blink of an Eye...

Our sweet Brie turned 11 last week. I know a lot of people say things like, "It seems like just yesterday...." and I used to roll my eyes when I heard that. But really, it does feel like just yesterday that this beautiful, adorable, charming, sweet, loving, smart, fabulous little girl joined our family. We prayed and waited and prayed and waited and prayed and waited a long time for her.

Her arrival in the world was a totally different experience from Alyssa's arrival...with Alyssa, there was trauma and risk and danger and all of those lovely (not) things, culminating in her being rushed off to the NICU before I could hold her. It was hours before I was able to see her...and then hold her a few hours later. The wait was terrible, and holding her for the first time was incredible, even with all of the wires, tubes and machines that she was hooked up to.

After all of that, I wasn't quite sure what to expect when Brie finally arrived. In fact, the L&D nurse looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her what was going to happen after the baby was born...but I really didn't know what to expect with a full-term (well, close enough to full-term) baby.

I will never forget the moment she arrived and they quickly handed her to me. Wow. I remember making almost instant eye contact with her, laying my hand on the side of her face and just looking at her, with her looking back at me. It was an incredible moment...one that I have not been blessed to have again. But it was wonderful. And she seemed so peaceful at first...LOL...I guess she was lulling into a sense of false security, thinking that she was a peaceful baby. Oh no -- she was mischievous from the start...and has brought us smiles and joy ever since.

I remember going to church with her on Mother's Day that year -- she was less than a week old and I didn't want to go but my Mom insisted. We left in her in carseat and put it where no one could touch her...I was so nervous about her getting sick. But what a wonderful Mother's Day that was...I remember sitting on the couch just cuddling my new baby for most of the day.

It really does seem like yesterday. The days of infancy and toddlerhood passed so quickly...and now we're approaching the tail end, I suppose, of childhood. Just two more years until she's a teenager. We're approaching the end of elementary school in a few short days...the end of Primary in another year...the beginning of middle school and new adventures.

These 11 years have passed so quickly...literally in the blink of an eye. It's sad...but exciting at the same time.

The Week in Review...

I'm a couple of weeks behind already! *Sigh*

It has been a busy two weeks...mostly due to an injury Brienna sustained at her school sports club. She fell, someone landed on top of her, and she "sprained" her jaw (that's what the pediatrician said -- personally, I didn't know the jaw could be sprained!). It has been quite painful to her and led to follow-up appointments with the dentist, the pediatrician again, and an oral surgeon just to make sure no serious damage was done. The poor girl is still having a hard time moving her jaw, and chewing has been very difficult. It's only been since yesterday that she's been able to eat anything that wasn't very soft, like applesauce, yogurt, oatmeal, soup, and macaroni. It has been very painful and one of the things that is hardest for me about being a parent is watching one of my children suffer. It is torture to the highest degree for me. Fortunately, is is starting to feel better and tonight for dinner we're going to try her with some meat (finely chopped, of course) and see how that goes.

Alyssa has finished her track season and says she never wants to run the 800M again. LOL It is not her favorite event. She really wanted to run the mile this season, and she did a few times, but her coach kept her in the 800M and she didn't like it at all. He has already told her she will be able to run the mile next season so she's happy about that. She is away for a few days at the international DECA competition (after a two hour flight delay...they barely made it to the location in time to register for the competition and take her written exam). Tomorrow is the role play competition, an exclusive DECA only concert by Lady Antebellum, and a tour of the Louisville Slugger museum and Churchill Downs. I think she'll have a great time.

Last weekend we had a formal youth dance at church and our ward was in charge of the decorations. It was a lot of hard work but it came together beautifully! I am glad it's over, though. A couple of pictures...







It's hard to believe Alyssa is growing up so quickly!!!

Synthetic Division

Alyssa brought home her math test the other day and I had to sign it (standard classroom procedure -- don't worry, she got 102 on the test!). In the written responses, I saw the term "synthetically divide". Having never heard the term before, I asked her what it meant. She responded that, even if she explained it to me, I wouldn't understand it. She wasn't being rude or disrespectful -- she was stating a fact. I don't understand math well at all. I would rather do almost anything than work a math problem!

But this little exchange has stuck with me for the last day or so and I've found myself thinking a lot about it. Not about synthetic division itself, whatever that is. But about the fact that there are areas of my daughters' lives where they have, or will soon, far outrun me in knowledge and learning. I think that's the way it's suposed to be. I am proud of my girls and their amazing gifts for learning, particularly in math and science. I want them to do well. I think as parents it is our job to equip our children with the tools they need to learn and succeed and encourage and help them along the way. But in some areas, Alyssa has reached the point where I can no longer help her and teach her...I have to rely on someone else to do that, while I stand by and be the best cheerleader for her that I can be. My children have a love of learning and I am proud of that. Now I just stand on the sidelines and cheer her on.

I hope, though, that I do not allow my spiritual learning, growth, and development to be at a level where I am no longer able to help and teach my children and set a good example for them. I fear that I have allowed too much stagnation to take place and have not set a good example of talking openly and frequently of spiritual things in our home. I need to work on this. I know my girls have testimonies, and I know that Mark and I have testimonies. And while I may not be able to understand synthetic division and help Alyssa with her math homework (truth be told, I haven't been able to help her with her math homework for years!), I can teach them about the gospel and share my knowledge, understanding, and testimony with them. My role as a hands-on teacher in the sense of basic education and skills may be drawing to a close with Alyssa, and Brie is sure to outrun me as well before too much longer, but my role as a spiritual teacher is far from ended.

Another Week in Review....

Another week has come and gone! Last week was spring break for Mark and the girls. We didn't go on any trips, but instead they spent the week at home...relaxing, enjoying time with friends, time with Grandma Cherril, and sleeping in. Sleeping in is wonderful...but me having to get up early and go to work while everyone else is still asleep is definitely NOT wonderful!

We are trying to figure out our summer plans. Part of those plans include Mark and the girls going out to Utah for a few weeks and I hope to be able to join them for part of the trip this year. I missed out on the last Utah trip! We are also looking at some other possibilities so we'll see how things work out.

It seems that the weather here jumped right from winter to summer...a couple of weeks ago it was still cool in the mornings, and the last few days it has been between 80 and 90 degrees -- well above normal for this time of year. Everything is in bloom and there is pollen everywhere. The trees and flowers are lovely...the pollen -- not so much!

This week we resume our normal activities...soccer, piano lessons, track practice, youth group activities, seminary, etc. I think we're all ready for summer and a break!!!

The Week in Review....

This week got off to a bit of a rough start as Brie came down with a cold and missed the first two days of school. Our poor girl, normally a bundle of energy, spent two days on the couch feeling miserable. She is mostly back to her perky self with one exception...her nighttime cough is keeping her (and the rest of us!) up at night. We'll all be very, very happy when the cough is finally gone and we can sleep through the night again! We have yet to find a cough medication that really helps either of the girls when they get a bad cough.

A did well in her track meet this week, placing 3rd in the 800m and 4th in the mile. She was happy with her results. She also turned in two major projects at school and is very happy to be finished with both of those. She's ready for a break from school and is hoping to catch up on her sleep this week and Mark and the girls have spring break this week. Yea! (Personally, I don't think it's fair that they all get to sleep in but I still have to get up early and go to work....*pout*).

We got our new dining table on Monday and it's lovely -- we're thrilled with it! When we built our home, the dining room was the playroom -- literally -- filled with toys and books and games and art supplies. A couple of years ago we decided we really didn't need a toy room anymore and we moved our dining table and chairs into the room...but it wasn't until this week that I feel like we fully graduated from the playroom to a "real" dining room. We bought a new light fixture for the room yesterday and Mark hung it last night. All that's left is to touch up some of the paint, pick out a few favorite family pictures to frame and hang, and find something to hang on one other wall. I saw a framed "Proclamation to the World" in an ad this week and I'm thinking I might order that. I'm excited about the room -- it's the most peaceful spot in our house now and it has inspired me to really work on decluttering and fixing up the rest of the house. I'd better work fast before I ose the desire to work on it!

The new dining table/chairs and light:





The highlight of my week, though, was the General YW Broadcast last night. It was really wonderful. Sis. Dalton made a really cute comment -- looking out on the assembled congregation, she said that "this is what the stripling warriors' girlfriends must have looked like!" That was so cute. I also loved her emphasis on "deep beauty" -- that it comes from within, from righteousness and purity and courage and doing the right thing and knowing who you are, and that no makeup, plastic surgery, or worldy beauty regime could achieve that. She is so right. And I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. It was just what I needed to hear. He talked about fairy tales and how we all want our "happily ever after"...but after "once upon a time" begins the story, the hero or heroine of the fairy tales always has to go through trials and struggles and overcome something in order to get to that "happily ever after" -- Cinderella had a wicked stepmother and mean stepsisters, Sleeping Beauty was poisoned, Belle was imprisoned and separated from her beloved father for several months, etc. But they persevered and overcame and achieved their "happily ever after"...and we need to persevere and overcome and then Heavenly Father will bless us with the most wonderful "happily ever after" that can be imagined. I loved his talk and will definitely be printing a copy of it to read and reread, as soon as it's available online.

I also celebrated my birthday today and I have been touched by the birthday wishes from my dear family and friends. While I don't enjoy getting older, it makes me feel special to be remembered. So thank you all!!

Pathetic...

I really do have good intentions when it comes to blogging. I really do... But then things come up, life happens, and I tell myself "I'll do it tomorrow." And then tomorrow brings more of the same and the blogging slips to the bottom of my ever-growing to-do list. (I think to-do lists have a way of magically growing and growing despite my best efforts to accomplish the items on the list!)

Two of my friends have recently started blogging, though, and they have inspired me to try harder. Knowing myself, though, and how obsessed I can get with things, I have found that I need to exercise moderation. To that end, my new goal is to blog either on Saturday or Sunday each week and post about the things that have happened that week. I hope I will be able to keep up with it this way...I tend to be more successful when I take things in more manageable pieces.

So what's new and exciting in our lives right now? B's soccer team played in a tournament in Florida last weekend and they won their age division! They were so excited. The team has been really great about B not playing or even attending games on Sunday and we appreciate that. This is the first tournament they've won in B's four seasons with the team and it was pretty exciting. Today she is participating in the county Honor Choir so we'll be going to her concert this afternoon. A is staying busy with school and track...she ran her personal best time in the mile in a meet earlier this week. She works so hard on her schoolwork and we were thrilled to find out that she is currently ranked second in her entire class at school. At this very moment, she's laying on the floor next to me working on her AP World History homework. Right now we're trying to decide what schools the girls will attend next year. Hard decisions!

It looks we're going to buy a new dining table and chairs. We've had our current table and chairs since we got married (it was the first furniture we ever bought -- we used money we received as a wedding gift) and I'm a bit sentimental about it...but it's time. That poor table is rather wobbly and the chairs desperately need to be reupholstered again. After 18 years, I think it's time to retire them. I've found a lovely set that I really like and hopefully we'll be buying it today.

Earlier this week I finished the book "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." My sister Melissa recommended it and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I love strong, fiesty female main characters. While I usually have a great deal of difficulty reading anything about World War II and Nazis and concentration camps, I found that I was able to read this book with no trouble at all...I think because the concentration camps are really not the focus of the books in a way that forces you to put full attention on them. It's hard to explain why I have such trouble with that kind of subject matter. I'm not sure I really understand myself. Anyway, the book was such fun to read -- I highly recommend it!

Spring is finally upon us, with blooming daffodils and trees. The temperatures are warming up and the dogs want to spend more and more time outside. I love the sunshine!