June 2014, week 1

June was a WHIRLWIND to say the least as I:

-closed/opened utility accounts in our respective cities
-worked with the third party warranty company regarding roof repairs 
-arranged to get final house inspection items completed
-created a file for the new homeowners with helpful tips, information and paperwork
-took Jake to all his marching band practices to prep for the Rose Parade
-went to a weekly mommy-and-me speech class with JJ
-attended two end-of-year assemblies and a talent show at two different schools, three different times
-emptied out all the food storage from our large freezer, fridge, and pantry to give away
-attended special dinners/visits and going away parties with friends
-attended an office going away party at our friend's beach house on the Oregon Coast
-wrapped up my job as property manager and explained the responsibilities to the gal taking over
-took Jake to Dance Festival rehearsals
-arranged for babysitting and attended Dance Festival
-took kids and myself to final dental and orthodontic appointments
-arranged for JJ sitting and attended Jake's 8th grade ceremony where he had a sax solo
-attended two end-of-the-year band concerts
-created "travel journals" and activity packets for the kids to have on our drive south
-sent "Getting to Know Me" letters/pictures to the children's new Primary teachers in Texas
-worked in one last session of swimming lessons for the kids, JJ included this year
-closed on the sale of the house with Jared
-cleaned the church with the family

And that was just through June 21st!
Somehow, I managed to pack up and clean the house as well.

Here's week one:

*Sunday, June 1st was seriously something out of the Twilight Zone--at least for me. Sundays, before and after church, are challenging, especially with Jared being in the Bishopric, but on this day...I was all.over.the.place. DURING church.

Our meetings started at 9am. Jared is usually out the door by 6 or 6:30 for Bishopric meetings. JJ was up at 5:50am that morning. But at least he was cheerful. It was also Fast Sunday. As any parent, trying to get a small gaggle of kids up and ready to be out the door by 8:30am for church, knows...it often feels like you're walking on eggshells when you go to get your kids up. You hold your breath and PRAY they'll be cooperative if not also happy for the new day with the underlying bustle and focus of getting ready. Calvin's first response--his nose was plugged up and announced he couldn't go to church. Somehow, I convinced him if it didn't get better, I would take him home.

We pulled into the church parking lot around 8:35. After every.single.kid had been unbuckled and unloaded from the suburban, I suddenly remembered Karcyn had been assigned to give the talk in Primary that day. UGH! How could I forget?? (Oh yeah, I'm trying to relocate my family halfway across the country...) I herded the cats kids inside and told Calvin (my loosest cannon) he could help set up the chairs in the Primary room and then I took JJ home with me to find the talk that Karcyn had written all by herself in Sacrament meeting the week before. It had nothing to do with Priesthood ordinances--the June topic--but Sarah Nielsen--super cool and amazing Primary president that she is--assured me that it would be perfect. I said a silent prayer as I drove home that I would find the paper in the organized chaos that was our house. But I didn't. I looked everywhere I could think of. I was so frustrated. There were only so many places it could be. I finally just grabbed the Friend (the children's church magazine) and would have her share something out of there that went with the theme.

Back at the church, while waiting for Sacrament meeting to begin, I was out in the foyer (as usual) with a rowdy and squirmy JJ. He had managed to get down off my lap and went to see Bishop Nelson. Bishop leaned down and extended his hand for a handshake from JJ. Instead, JJ pulled his arm back and took a strong, little boy swing at Bishop, who jumped out of the way moving his hands in front of his crotch with no time to spare. JJ is the perfect height for hitting men in that special place and he got really close to nailing the Bishop. Sooo embarrassing! I guess it's good the Nelsons are done having kids, but still....

That's when I figured I should head back in to the chapel to check up on my other heathens. I went to the far right side of "our" pew/bench. My kids were scattered among the many McCullough family members and "McFoster" teens. Cooper was on the opposite end from where I stood. There was a little bit of commotion and Niki (the 17 year old foster teen) got my attention. She said, "You'll never believe what Cooper just did." I braced myself. She said he had nabbed a fly right out of the air with his thumb and forefinger. Said it was the most ninja thing they'd ever seen. I was impressed too but reminded him church was about to start and to try and be less ninja-y.

During Sacrament meeting, inspiration whacked me up side the head and I knew exactly where Karcyn's talk was. In a certain pile, in a certain drawer. But I was sad because Karcyn would need it immediately after Sacrament meeting. Then it dawned on me many minutes later that Karcyn wouldn't be giving her talk until 3rd block...she goes to class first! I had time to go home and get it. Sweet! So as soon as Sacrament meeting was over, I told Karcyn I'd race home (living 60 seconds by car from the chapel has its perks!) and get her talk that she had written--which wasn't as easy as I had imagined because Calvin flat out refused to go to class. He followed me around, whimpering as he did so. I took JJ to nursery, which is where I was helping out and told the other leaders I wouldn't likely be in there that hour due to Calvin and my errand and wanted to make sure they were okay. They said they were fine, so I continued on my way and Calvin came too. After I got back from the house for the third time in about 2 hours, I found Karcyn's class and delivered the talk to her. Calvin still wouldn't go to Primary. After about 10 more minutes, I was finally able to persuade him to join his class and snuck into Sunday School for the last 15-20 minutes.

I was sitting next to my friend Kathy when Sunday School was over and almost forgot to GO to the Primary room to actually hear Karcyn's talk. She did great. One of my favorite lines from her talk is: "I'm a super star of the world and I can repent and say sorry when I need to. That is my duty to God and his son." After she was done I slipped out the back door and slipped back into Relief Society on the back row next to Kathy. About 10 minutes into the meeting, I was literally in the middle of making a comment on the lesson when the the door opened. It was one of the Primary leaders waving me into the hall. So I announced to the sisters in Relief Society that I was being summoned and wouldn't be able to finish my remark. I quickly moved into the hall and was told the urgency was regarding Karcyn. She was in the bathroom because she didn't feel well. I went into the ladies room and Sarah was standing outside a stall trying to comfort Karcyn. I apologized profusely to Sarah and she said it was no problem, she was just worried about her. I asked what happened as I was just in Primary watching her give a talk. Sarah said a few minutes later Karcyn was complaining that her tummy hurt (ugh...the dreaded stomach pain that could be so many things!) Sarah went back to Primary and I went in to see Karcyn. She was sitting on the potty but nothing threatened to come out either end of her body. She is our most gaseous kid, which is often accompanied with abdominal cramps, but she said she didn't feel that way. I don't know when realization hit me--but all at once, information converged and bam! I knew the problem.

The night before, Jared took me out to see "Maleficent." I made dinner for the kids while Jake babysat. When we came home and got the low down from Jake, he said Karcyn didn't eat much dinner. Fine, no big deal, and we all went on our merry way. Except...the next day was FAST Sunday. Karcyn turned 8 in March and we have our children fast 1 meal (breakfast) until they're 12 and can participate in a 24 hour fast. This was only her 3rd time fasting. Not AS big of a deal when you had dinner the night before. However...she hadn't eaten since lunch Saturday and was probably on her 23rd hour of no food. O.my.gosh!! Relief and worry washed over me. I knew she'd be fine physically. But my biggest fear was that she would never want to fast--ever again!! I rushed her home and got her a bowl of Cheerios with some honey. There were only about 25 minutes of church left and asked her if she'd be okay staying home to rest until we got back. She said she would be, so back I went for the fourth time in less than 3 hours.

That basically "sums" up my Ping-Pong Sabbath. I swear I felt like a chicken running around with it's head cut off. That was the most I've run around during church since I don't know when. And I'm happy to report that Karcyn has forgotten about her extra long fasting experience and continues to fast to this day :)

Later in the evening, I was in the back bathroom off the laundry room and there upon the counter was the base to our blender. What on earth? "Jake! Why's the blender base in the bathroom??" Apparently he was making a smoothie the night before while we were out and didn't want to wake the kids up with the blender noise. Smart. But not. I'm so glad I wasn't missing it. I never would have thought to look in the bathroom!

*Monday, June 2nd--Jake was in the hall at school with no hall pass when he was stopped by security. Jake had a legitimate reason to be in the hall, but I don't remember why. Jake smiled and told the security personnel, "It's okay. My teacher knows where I am." And for good measure he quickly added, "And I don't lie." :) I guess that was all it took. He was free to continue on his way.

*I don't recall the exact circumstances, but on Tuesday, June 3rd I managed to get locked out of the house. The little boys were already in the car so we drove to Jared's office to get his house key because mine was still in the realtor's box. A dumb inconvenience, but luckily Jared's office was relatively close. Two hours later, I hopped off my bed to get something for JJ. As  my right foot came down, I gouged my heel with something super sharp! I had landed right on top of a sewing needle that was sticking straight up in the carpet and the blunt side had penetrated my heel about a quarter of an inch! I couldn't believe it. Talk about the odds of that execution. I grabbed the needle (which isn't so easy) and pulled down as hard as I could! It was a bit of a fight to get the needle out and I was imagining what fun inside parts of my heel the eye of the needle would be bringing with it. Fortunately, a couple more tugs and it was out--and the eye was clean :) But boy, was my heel super sore for a good 24 hours.

*Saturday, June 7th we dropped Jake off at the high school for the Grand Floral Parade. We would not be going. Jared and I both hate parades. Maybe it's just the parking at the parades but either way...Instead, the rest of us had plans to be at the Oregon coast one last time. Supriya Kaushik, one of the other physician assistants at Jared's office, and her husband Shiv were hosting an office farewell BBQ for us at their newly acquired beach house in Cannon Beach.

And this is the view from their backyard. Funny story: After they were finished looking at the house (about 2100 sq ft--yup, bigger than my own Oregon house of permanent residence) with the realtor, Shiv said, "You know, it all looks really nice. There's only one problem. There's a HUGE rock outside my back door." Shiv--such a kidder. Yeah, Haystack Rock is not a problem :)

 

Like every other June in Oregon that I've experienced, it was cloudy, on the cool side, and spitting a little rain. The few times we made it to the coast as a family, we had never timed our trips just right in order to see the tide pools, but that day was the day! We took the kids down to the beach to check it all out.

We found hermit crabs! Karcyn wanted to keep them. We explained she couldn't because we shouldn't take them from their habitat; that they belonged at the beach. I opted not to tell her about the time my dad smuggled a pair of much larger hermit crabs home from the U.S. Virgin Islands back to Utah to have as pets when I was a kid. Or how my little brother Mike, about JJ's age at the time, pulled the bucket of crabs down from the counter and the crabs fell out and landed on top of my little sister Michelle--on her head and in her lap. She was about 6 years old and that was the first time I had ever seen someone a) paralyzed with fear and b) turn a real shade of  green. Ha!

Look at those star fish!! Not just the brilliant colors but the size of those whoppers!!!

 Electric green sea anemones.

Ahhhh, the food--and friends! From left to right...health and wellness counselor, LaFawn Smith (who is also in our stake at church) and one of the best medical assistants, Shirley Hirayama.

Calvin, Karcyn and Cooper enjoying their grub by the fire pit. Nice and warm.

 

The clouds starting to clear a little bit.

Enter excellent medical assistant number 2: Dawn Nielsen, who is bravely accepting Cheetos that JJ wants to feed her.

 

Gracious hostess Supriya--doing her daughter's hair at the end of the table.

 Beautiful!

Supriya doing Tara's hair some more :)

Bratwurst connoisseur and PA extraordinaire: Jared!

 Cute, cute Tara!

 

Master of all things grilled: Shiv! The food was DE-LISH!

Jared and half of "his girls." Medical assistants Elizabeth and Lisa couldn't make it.

Final Hough family picture on the beach--minus Jake.

All four kids plum tuckered out!! That's what I'm talking about! :)