our school year and its delayed start

Our big bang of a start to our school year is kind of...nonexistant. (in a good way.) I had a rather silly goal of starting school this past Tuesday while all of the local kids didn't start school until Thursday. I figured it would make up for us taking next week off to play at Disneyland. The problems with this plan?

•I still am waiting for a few books to show up in the mail.

•My house was a mess.

•We need to pack for said trip.

•I haven't even printed up the girls' schedules

The girls humored me. They get an a+ for effort, but my heart just wasn't in it. There was too much to do. So, like any mom who needs a little bit of permission to be mediocre, I asked Chris to tell me to wait to start school. Like a good husband, he did. Like a tricky mom, I waited to tell the kids until Wednesday around 9. (which resulted in a few more subjects being done. Ha.) Instead of school, we cleaned. I think they would have preferred school, but it feels good to have a clean(er) house. School year delayed. Disneyland, here we come. Lilly is excited to ride every ride except for the "roller coaster with the scary monster" and is pretty sure that the princesses are waiting for her. Elise is tall enough to ride just about every ride and plans on doing just that. btw: Disneyland has a great discounts for groups over 10. It is so great that it is worth doing even if you have a couple short of 10.

home sweet home

This morning I am trying to take some time to tackle a seriously long to do list. It seems that we've been awfully busy trying to enjoy each sunny day that hits and in the process, I've gathered a backlog of things that are begging to be done. So this morning is dedicated to my husband, who tends to be more responsible than I am when it comes to putting the "bleh" before the "yippee". So far? Toilets cleaned, laundry started, bed made and a long list of phone calls made. Ok...not a ton done yet, but I am working on it!

(Rachel started her choice and accountability project today. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't have it. She is attempting to tackle my craft room. Maybe it is because she sees it every time she walks out of her room. Or maybe it is because she wants me to hurry and turn it into a bedroom for girlies. Either way, I'm ecstatic.)

treats in my mailbox

I got a delicious package in the mail today. (delicious as you can get when one has sworn off sweets for the month.) I got a 5 year journal, which was new to me until a few weeks ago. It has questions on each day of the year for you to answer, but it has spots for you to answer it for 5 years. I anticipate it being fun watching my answers vary over the year...because hopefully I change at least a little bit over the years. Right? And the other treat? A well bound book (because I am a sucker for things like that.) that has simple but cute pages for me to record all of the adorable things that my kids say. When you have a memory (or lack of) like me, you need all of the help that you can get in remembering the hilarious things that your kids spout off. So far? All of the pages are filled with Lilly-isms. Do kids stop saying funny things after 3? I hope not because I was hoping for a book capturing all of their cute sayings.

hello.

I have been trying to slowly (extra emphasis on the word slowly) catch up on some scrapbooking over the past few weeks. It has made me a little more appreciative for my blog as the journaling from my blog saved my bacon quite a few times when my memory failed me. I also managed to lose our Halloween pictures from a couple of years ago, but was able to salvage a few of them from my blog. Does this mean my blog and I might start hanging out again? I don't know. I hope so. One of my best finds in my scrapbooking? This picture of all of us siblings together with our amazing parents. Yep, it had been hiding in my hard drive for the past almost 3 years.

house guest, kitties and swords...oh my!

Chris' nephew of sorts is here for the week while he goes to a fencing camp so our week was spent trying to make us look less slovenly that we are. The garage was cleaned, the car was cleaned and the guest room was reclaimed. (it had become a craft room part duex of sorts.) All were disgusting and they look pretty fabulous now. Why do I clean for others and not for myself? Maybe because I just don't care? I should because it sure does make the husband happy.

So our guest arrives last night, bearing the best kind of gifts you can give my girls. Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty and more Hello Kitty. But all of this was not nearly as cool as him showing us all of his fencing gear. And because he fences we, of course, had to show him the infamous sword fight in Princess Bride. He probably thought we were dorks, but we did it anyway. And the icing on the cake? He played our cello (apparently it is a baby cello.) and our piano for us this morning. It is always nice having one more person to serenade us on the piano. 

service

The Savior taught His disciples, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives. Thomas S. Monson

saving lives, one starfish at a time

That pretty much sums up what Amanda over at starfish has committed her life to doing. One afternoon we got to sit down with her and go through pictures and listen to her stories. She showed us a picture of one of the babies she got from a dying room. (Oh, they don't exist, right?) Then we got to see him as a toddler. A chubby, happy go lucky toddler that a year and half earlier was slated for death. We arrived at Starfish shortly after Sam arrived. When I saw him, I immediately thought, "Wow. Now THAT is what jaundice looks like." Nope. That is what serious liver problems look like. He was yellow as yellow can be and Amanda was told by a Chinese doctor that he needed a liver transplant. (Which basically equates to a death sentence since a liver for a baby is hard to come by.) Amanda merrily went on her way, taking Sam to an Australian doc for a second opinion. This doctor had better news. It wasn't Sam's liver, but the bile duct (is that right??) was partially blocked. This still required a serious surgery, but at least Sam had an option. I remember us all being so excited to hear this, that Sam now had hope. And then today started out with an email telling me that Sam had died. Sigh. I honestly don't know how Amanda does it. Falling in love with baby after baby but inevitably losing some along the way as she does deal with a full spectrum of serious medical issues...I don't know how many she has lost, but I imagine that it doesn't get any easier. Oh, Amanda. Just as I heard in a story of Mother Theresa making sure babies were held and loved before dying, I am so thankful that Sam was in an environment that provided plenty of love for the last month in his earthly life. And now he is on to much bigger and *much* better things.

on a lighter note: Rachel has been working like crazy to get her operation starfish shop open. It isn't completely done as she has more projects to upload, but you can jump on over for a sneak peak. 100% of the money from these items will benefit the starfish house. I am also adding a donate button on my blog. Rachel's goal is to not only raise money for her plane ticket to Xi'an next year ($1000), but to also raise $4000 for Starfish. Go, Rachel, go. You're my hero. Give her a week and it will be stocked with all sorts of goodies.