Christmas in September for Will

Will woke up bright and early (about 6:30 AM) on Saturday morning all dressed and ready for his first little league baseball game.

But first things first.

"Dad, We haaavvvveeee to get me a cup today!" he insisted.

"Yeah, ok, buddy, time to sleep now," I said.

"Dad, My coach said we can not play unless we have a cup today," he continued unconvinced by my response.

"OK Will. When the store opens, we will go get you a cup, I promise." I replied.

So after checking a couple of stores we found the perfect cup (just the right size, more the boxer brief model than the old school jock strap -- I mean we are talking Will here, not just any old cup will do).

And then we found it, for all of $14.99. After we purchased it, he immediately went to the store restroom and tore all of his clothes off. He ripped open the box and put it on. It was everything he had imagined and more.

With a couple of knocks with his knuckles on his cup for good measure, he looked up at me and said, "Dad, this is the greatest thing you have ever got me. Thank you soooooo much."

"No problem, Buddy," I said. I gave him a good shot to the groin as well for good measure.

"Did that hurt," I asked

"Nope," Will responded.

"Yep, she looks like a good one Will," I agreed.

Anyone Want to Make a YoYo Necklace?

I really want to make a yoyo necklace and I know you guys want to also. They even have a similiar necklace on Anthropologie for all you skeptics out there. Come along, it will be fun!

The Power of Fasting

Today my brother-in-law Sean is going in for a job interview after 11 months of searching and interviews and we have decided to fast as a family that he may get this job. By the way, Sean has always been very successful - he is smart, fun to be around and great with people. Unfortunately his field is in recruiting and when the job market is down, not so many people need recruiters, or managers or recruiters, or trainers of recruiters, etc.

Austin's Mom's call for a family fast sparked the strong feelings I have gained about fasting and I wanted to record them. I had a rough summer. We had fun, but having the three kids was hard. I'm not belittling any other mom's job or moaning that mine is so much harder than anyone else's, but I just don't seem to handle stress well. Once a long time ago my mom told me that she never thought I would have three kids because I'm fragile. I get overwhlemed, I cry, I scream, I throw tantrums right back at the kids, I throw things, I hide in my bedroom. I never thought that I would be a good mom, when growing up, I didn't look forward to it because I didn't think I could handle it and thought I would yell at them and not be the mom they needed.

Toward the end of the summer, I really felt like I was getting out of control. Not that I was going to beat them, but just screaming a lot and feeling like giving up. I decided that I needed to fast and to have Austin give me a blessing. I decided to make my fasts a weekly thing for a few weeks to gain the strength and patience and consistency that I needed to be a good mom and a good example to them.

I know that fasting works. I have seen miracles happen in my life and have felt much more in control and have realized that my screaming doesn't help anything, it just escalates the situation and teaches them to scream about their problems. I have found different resources to help me and the fact that Heavenly Father had school start up about the time I started fasting is no coincidence. :) I am grateful for our Savior and our Gospel and the teachings we have that show us we can keep trying and we can ask for help and receive it. I am thankful for fasting and the testimony I have gained of its power.

Indexing or Extractions in the Old Days

My grandparents on my dad's side have both passed away but they were wonderful people. I remember them constantly working in their yard or garden and then canning wonderful food and sharing it or trying to do something good for someone. One memory I have of them is both of them in their office diligently working on extractions for hours.

So I have a new and convenient service project that brings me back to Grandma and Grandpa Murray. It is doing family search indexing online. It's easy, you just go to the website and register as a volunteer and then they guide you through the process of looking at old documents and transferring the information to what will become a searchable database. Plus you can do as much or as little as you want and can work on it anytime of day or night. It's also really cool to see the old documents and old handwriting styles and the old names. Believe me, I have an appreciation for neat handwriting now!

Check out this link for more information -

www.familysearchindexing.org

Supernanny

Many of you have probably seen the show Supernanny and have opinions about it. i personally like it, plus my mom is always saying," Did you see that episode last week?" Probably trying to tell me something right? That's OK, I can admit when I need help with the kids. So this last weekend I watched a few episodes while the kids were napping and inevitably the episode included getting the kids to go to sleep by themselves.

So I have gotten into a bit of a bad habit of snuggling Paris until she falls asleep or else she will scream and cry. So tonight is the night I decided we are getting done with that. We are currently nearly an hour into the put-them-back-in-their-bed-without-looking-at-them-or-talking-to-them-plan and I am heartily sick of it. I don't really see an end in sight but am determined to follow through with this so we don't have to do it again.

But to kill time between Paris getting out of bed and putting her back in again, I thought I would record some of her responses.

When we first started:

Lots of screaming and crying and shouts of "I want you Mommy!" "Please sweep with me Mommy!" "I need you Mommy!" and other such delights.

Now we have moved into the more quiet stage where she says (in a stern voice) "I don't want to Mommy!" "You're mean Mommy!"

Also, she noticed Cooper is downstairs and said,"That is my brother, I love my brother mommy!"

Now coming out and just saying, "Can I come downstairs mommy? Is that Ok?" in a sweet little voice. I never knew Paris knew all these manipulation techniques already!

She is out again, gotta go for round 157.

Will is back in Jesus World

Austin has been gone this weekend, traveling several hours by car and plane just to see the BYU-Oklahoma football game yesterday so needless to say, it has been a delightful Sunday morning. Lucklily there hasn't been any screaming from Mom, mostly because I am just so appalled at the children's behavior that I am speechless.

The priesthood came to our door to collect fast offerings and they were greeted with loud screams and jumping off of couches and a delightful two-year-old girl wearing nothing but white sandals. She doesn't want to get potty-trained, but doesn't want her diaper either. That's great.

Another issue is that Will is giving a talk in primary today. Usually Austin takes care of the preparation for the talks. He has a special way to illustrate the talk notes that make it easy for a budding reader like Will to give the talk independently. Unfortunately, it will just be a talk that I whisper in his ear today because Will can't calm down enough to sit and work on the talk. Of course, if I would have remembered to prepare him earlier than today at 10 am that would help.

So I just invited him into the office for some quiet time to work on his talk. I asked him if he remembered the scripture that talks about the prophet's words being the same as Heavenly Father's. "No Mama, I don't like Jesus," Will responded very saucily. Knowing that this was a very blasphemous thing to say, he quickly bowed his head and asked Heavenly Father to forgive him.

Then he put his arm around my neck and said, "Don't worry Mom, I'm back in Jesus World!"

It's clear that I am providing a fantastic example to my children of how to be reverent, humble and draw closer to the Lord.

Things I love that Paris is saying lately . . .

"Mommy, I want to nuggle (snuggle) you."

"Mommy, I want you to sweep me. (sleep in my bed with me)"

It's really fun having a little girl who says these fun things and flits around happily all day.

Maybe my little bookworm?

I've loved reading ever since I can remember. Austin always claims that I read 20 books a week - which is definitely an exaggeration. But it is definitely my favorite pastime. So I've been hoping that one of my kids would enjoy reading just as much as me. So far, Cooper likes it, but doesn't get quite as excited as I did. Will could care less, I think, only reading when under force with sudden bursts of screaming and "I hate reading!"

But I think Paris might be my little reading buddy. She loves to get any books she can find and will climb up in bed or a chair and open the books and read them to herself out loud. Also, and this is one of my favorites, when I am sleeping and she comes down to wake me up in the morning, she'll get a stack of 20 books and climb up next to me. Then she'll look at me and say, "Mommy, read!" meaning, that I need to get my book out and read to myself also. If I sneak a look over to see what she is looking at, again she will command, "Mommy, read!" What a dream come true for me! She wants me to keep reading! The boys usually will just climb all over and pull at my eyelids until I open them and then drag me out of bed.

Yesterday at library reading time was my favorite. I told Paris she could go up to the front to see the pictures in the book being read. After every line the librarian read, Paris would look back at me and paraphrase. It was adorable.

Librarian - "Wemberly was worried about the first day of school."

Paris (not so quietly) "Worried about school, mommy!"

Librarian - "So she took her doll petal and would rub her ears when she got nervous."

Paris - "Petal, rub ears nerbus, mommy!"

Loved it.

My New Favorite Website

I just found the greatest blog about repurposing clothes to make adorable kid's clothes. And it's easy too! Here it is for my fellow sewing buddies . . . uh, I don't think I have any actually, but maybe this might win me some! I'm talking to you Tricia with your boxed up brand new sewing machine!

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com

Second Morning of School 2009

Started with wailing and knashing of teeth from Will who did NOT wear his school clothes to bed this time.

But ended with two sweet boys on the porch who wrapped hugs around me and kissed me both at the same time, starting my day with happy, loving feelings.

First Day of School 2009

Still posting without pictures due to our lack of a camera right now but here are some special moments from the first day of school this year.

*Will decided that it would help if he wore his school clothes to bed the night before, this included socks and shoes.

*Will was happy when he woke up because "he had already been to school and knows it is fun."

*The sweet, happy chatter shared with Mom, Cooper and Will as we sat on the porch at 6:30 am waiting for the bus to come.

*Our excitement when we found out that Ms. Helms (the saint of a bus driver from last year who waited multiple minutes multiple times for Will to get his buns out the door) is the bus driver for this year too.

Good Example from little Paris

Today in sacrament meeting I was whispering to Austin about something while they were passing the sacrament. I knew that I shouldn't be doing that, but did anyway.

Paris looked up at me and said, "Quiet Mommy, Quiet Mommy" and then put her finger to her lips just like I probably always do to her.

It was a good reminder from the girl who a few minutes later was laying on her back and kicking the front of the podium where the bishopric was sitting.

Cool Sequence of Action Shots at Cooper's game

There is a play at the plate!

The Throw is a little late...

Coop tries to block the plate, but the tag is not in time, but what is this...

The runner on second is trying to go to get third!

This throw is in time and a nice tag by third!

"He's out!" says the Umpire!

Coop gets a high five from his coach for a nice throw!

Publish Post

A Fleeting Moment of Glory

So I never really was that good of a basketball player. Church ball was the height of my basketball prowess, but at the age of 34, it keeps me exercising and I enjoy it. So anyway, my buddies & I recently joined a city league thinking it would make the church league seem like a walk in the park. We are currently 0-8 in the city league, our team name is Fat & Slow, and last week we got alley-oop dunked on three times in our game.

However, tonight was a magical night (Yes, I am about to brag about myself here). I had my best game in about 3 years going a perfect 7 -7 from the field (2 - 2 from 3 point land) and 1 - 1 from the free throw line. I think my season average is about 4 points a game. I played way over my head. I was feeling good. I brought my kids to the game.

We got in the car. I was waiting for the praise to come.

Instead Will had just one question.

"Dad, how do you get your hair like that?" Will asked.

"Like what?" I answered.

"You know, with that spot in the back, where you don't have any hair."

I had officially been knocked off my cloud. Defensively I answered,

"I decided to have kids and started stressing out over how I was going to provide for them."

Cooper then decided to join the conversation.

"I doubt that, I mean seriously. Stress can not cause your hair to fall out Dad."

"Go Google it, kid," I responded, but the damage had been done and the magical night forgotten and instead I was reminded of my balding head instead of my game.

You know your life is awesome (or seriously lame) when . . .

1. Your husband tells you to go ahead and buy the carpet steam cleaner on sale at Costco and you are super excited like it is Christmas morning.

2. Your daughter yells out during sacrament meeting - "No Daddy, No boobies!" several times, after recently learning who has boobies and who doesn't.

3. Your 8-year-old tells his friend that there won't be any more kids born in his family because "my dad got some stitches in his balls."

Ode to Coop and the Yankees -- This is Why I love Little League Baseball

One of Cooper's teammates was a photographer by trade and took a lot of pictures of the team throughout the season. So here are some fun pics of Coop through out the season.

A few cute baseball shots

Rob "MacGyver" Murray -- A tribute based on real life stories

Rob "MacGyver" Murray is one of those guys that can solve any problem if he wants to. He built radios at age 8, takes car engines apart and back together again for fun, and likes to do anything once, just for the love of the challenge. And, he also designed and patented most all the pentium chips that make all your computers go. So basically, Rob MacGyver Murray also invented the Internet.

OK, so the naysayers may agree he is a genius in the technical world but demand practical application of his brain power to mention him in the same company as the beloved MacGyver. At to that critique, I give the following examples:

1) My front door had been hanging on a tilt for over a year, but recently, it got considerably worse. I tried to tighten the screws, but they were stripped completely. I then was ready to throw in the towel and get longer screws another day.  

Enter -- Rob MacGyver Murray. 

He was at our house celebrating my birthday, and, as per usual we had no tools to work with to solve the problem. Or so it seemed to the untrained eye. 

"Got any matchsticks," he said. 

"Yep" I said not knowing where this was going. 

"Glue?"

"uh Yeah..." Again, not knowing where this was going. 

Within 3 minutes he had snapped off the tops of the matchsticks (for our protection, no bomb in this episode), took out the screws, shoved the matchsticks in the screwholes with some glue, and put the screws back in. 

The result -- The door hung like a champ, better then when we got the house new. It was amazing.  Less than three minutes later and over a years worth of pain and frustration lifted from my shoulders. 

Exhibit 2: On the same night (it was my birthday, so I was pushing my luck after such a quick victory with the front door and asked for help with a second, less desirable project). 

Our back yard drain had recently flooded over in the rain storm and all the neighborhood decided to use it as a swimming hole. This was hilarious at the time. Shanda took pictures of the kids doing cannonballs in our back yard etc., except that afterwards the drain never drained any more. 

I was not made aware of this until all the sudden, the entire neighborhood stunk due to our still water, Mosquito breeding, Oil refining, grass killing, pond of absolute nastiness in the back yard.  I had no idea what to do. My kids has already got a horrible rash from playing in it and it was on a hill so to get the water would be a chore get rid of, and it stunk horribly.  I touched the water and washed my hand ten times afterwards, but could not enjoy my birthday cake because all I could smell was nasty smells when I tried to take a bite as my hand drew close to my nose.

My thoughts: I could try to scoop it out bucket by bucket, but probably get the horrible rash my kids got, smell for a year and have to spend my entire birthday doing arguably the worst job on the planet. 

Enter Rob MacGyver Murray

 

"Well we could siphon it out with a tube or hose," he said.

I kind of thought about this option, but two problems. 

First -- I envisioned me having to suck the hose with the nastiest smelling liquid known to man coming out of it (I mean this was the equivalent of used portapotty smell from the last day of summer camp) and I did not want to do that! And please, if someone had to do that, I knew who was going to have to do the grunt labor in this operation.

Second -- The fluid would have to go up a fairly significant, long hill and drain into the wooded area.  I understood a little about physics, but it seemed like asking too much for the water to syphon out and climb a steep hill. 

Better call the professionals I thought.

But not so fast my friend, MacGyver Murray was muttering something! 

"If we just start the hose, cinch it, capture the torque and then place one end in the water, we should be able to drain it all out via a modest flow through the hose and into the forest."  

I have learned not to question these ideas. When I realized I would not have to suck the hose to get the nasty water drained, I was all for the idea.  

And it worked like a charm. The next day I woke up to a drained pond. MacGyver Murray had struck again.

It was truly unbelievable. I went from thinking this is going to cost me hundreds to get someone to fix this to "Wow, MacGyver Murray strikes again!" in a matter of minutes. 

But I should clarify one admirable trait about MacGyver Murray -- He really has two motivations, not just one for all his miraculous, physics defying feats. 

1) He does love the challenge (and to be in charge :)) but 2), and probably more importantly, he likes to help people. 

Pretty good motivations if you ask me. 

Until the next episode...

Can I please have a Band-Aid?

So after you become a mom,  your personal space is pretty much gone.  The kids follow me everywhere including the shower and bathroom.  Consequently they've asked what tampons are.  I just told them that they are kind of like a band-aid that sometimes girls have to put on an owey on their privates.  So today Austin was asking Paris if she could bring him a band-aid  - and you guessed it, she sweetly and helpfully brought him a tampon. 

The Walk Off Hit

It was Yankees vs Rays in the AAA MARA Little League battle of the top two teams for the regular season title. I am the official scorekeeper for the Yankees and so, yes, I can tell you the trends of just about every hitter in MARA little league baseball. I would like to think I help the team win due to my mad scorekeeping and statistical analyses; However, something magical happened on Thursday night and it had nothing to do with my scorekeeping.

Since our blog followership is like 6 people and most are all Shanda's girly friends I feel compelled to explain something briefly. A Walk-off hit is a hit that wins the game so that everyone literally walks off the field after you hit it because of the time and circumstances of the game. It is one of the most dramatic and exciting things that can happen in baseball, let alone sports.

Yesterday, with the regular season championship on the line, the score was tied 2-2 in the bottom of the last inning and Cooper was up to bat. There were two runners on base and I was vomiting behind the bleachers with anxiety (Just kidding, but seriously, more nervous than if it was me). The opposing team's coach iced Cooper and used his one and only allowed time out per game after Cooper entered the batter's box.

But like most good hitters, Cooper has a routine. He put the edge of his toe right up to the plate, made his footprint, and then drew a line right behind the heel of the footprint with his bat to make sure he had proper spacing at the plate (just like I taught him). He took a few practice swings and then waited. He choked up a little bit (wanted to make sure he made contact). And then he waited some more. And did it all over again.

Finally, we were ready to play ball. And when the pitch finally came and after all the waiting, Coop was ready to hit. He smacked the ball in between short and third. But the shortstop somehow gets to it in shallow left field. But the Yankee's fastest runner was on second and he was going all the way. The speedy Zach Budzik came wheeling around third. The throw to the catcher is ........not in time. Little league Madness! Kids swarm the field. Cooper walks off first base. The game is over. Yankees Win -- Yankees win. Cooper has just hit a walk-off base hit.

Dad was feeling good he got on the earlier flight home from New York and did not miss this game. For my money, little league baseball is the greatest entertainment on earth.