Stranger Danger

This is a little embarrassing, but I'm posting this because I know there are other parents out there who will sympathize.

We took the kids shopping at Lowe's the other day for various kitchen remodeling pieces. While in the faucet aisle, the kids seriously just disappeared. Joe and I turned around, and AJ and Natalie were both gone. So we started looking around a few aisles thinking they couldn't have gone far and couldn't find them. We had to call a Code Adam. As soon as it was called, they emerged from behind some big items in between the aisle, and a store clerk found them. They thought it would be funny to hide from mom and dad.

So we decided it would be a good idea to have a family home evening lesson on stranger danger. We spent the evening playing out scenarios of how a stranger could get them if they're not careful and explained further why they have to stay with mom and dad in the store. The kids thought it was so funny to play "Stranger Danger" that Natalie has been asking me to pretend to be a stranger all day, so she can run away screaming, "You're not my mom!"

Last weekend, we attended Moses Lake Stake’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” with Joe’s family. The stake spent quite a chunk of change on the musical, and it turned out pretty decent. There’s talk that they want to do “Les Miserables” next year, but the orchestra said, “No way!” They had a hard enough time playing the music for this play. The costumer vetoed “The Lion King”, and the set-designers balked at “Phantom of the Opera”. There are evidently not enough black people here to do “Hairspray,” so who knows what they’ll do? Someone suggested “Grease”, but the Mollies and the Peters thought it was WAY too racy. In fact, the high school did “Grease” a few years ago, and apparently a big part of the Mormon community here boycotted it, of all the ridiculous things.

Jeremy and Dyana came up for the play and stayed through the weekend. So we spent quite a bit of time Saturday and Sunday over at the in-laws playing games, hanging out, and eating a lot of really good food. Joe’s mom was kind enough to let our kids hang out at her house on Saturday afternoon while Joe and I took in a game of golf. Thank you!

I went to parent-teacher conferences on Monday. AJ is doing very well academically. His teacher says he continues to explode periodically when things don’t go his way, but he hasn’t been violent or disruptive. He just needs to figure out a better way of dealing with his temper.

We started ripping apart our kitchen. It’s going to be a HUGE project, but I’m really excited to see the end result. I got a request to go into more detail, so here goes. So far, we've cut off the peninsula and made it an island. We're adding a 18" drawer base to make the island bigger and expanding the cabinets along the wall by where the island used to connect with another 24" base cabinet. We are raising every other upper cabinet and adding trim for detail. Then, all the cabinets are going to be painted (white) and glazed (with a light brown). We replaced the light fixture, and we're adding under-cabinet lighting and pendant lights over the island. We're replacing the counters with granite/concrete, replacing the sink and fixtures, and redoing the backsplash all the way up to the cabinets in tile. Oh, and we're tiling the floor as well.






Here's Captain Underpants. He thought he was so funny.

Brooklin videos

Brooklin - Happy

Brooklin - Sad
If you're thinking to yourself that Brooklin wasn't really crying, it's because she never really cries. She is the best baby! I don't know what we did to deserve her, but I hope we keep it up.

Easter egg hunt

Easter

It seems like I let one week go by because we didn’t do anything, and then it’s been three weeks all of a sudden.

Conference was wonderful. We spent Saturday shopping in Tri-Cities, so we were late listening to all of the sessions, but we did listen to it all. The beauty and downfall of not being able to watch it live on tv is that you can watch any time, but you have to make sure to do it.

AJ and I have been sick. He had a fever that kept him home from school a few days. I know he’s well enough to go now, but he would really like to stay home, and he’s been pitching a fit every morning when the bus comes. He’ll be out of school again Monday and Tuesday for conferences, so that doesn’t help anything. I just have a little cold.

Easter was also wonderful. We colored eggs the night before and had an Easter egg hunt outside. Joe mowed the lawn yesterday and found a missing egg – at least there was only one! We had a big dinner at Joe’s parents’ house for Easter. It was delicious, as always. The kids are still finishing off their Easter candy, or rather; Natalie is finishing off everyone’s Easter candy when we’re not looking.




Testimony meeting is always interesting. I was in the mothers’ lounge with the baby where it was quiet, so I actually got to pay attention. I have no idea who it was, but one man’s testimony went something like this, “You know, my son is a big football fan like me. And he always goes for the quarterbacks. But I really like the guys nobody knows about, like the linemen and the defensive guys. And in the church, the prophet is kind of like the quarterback. Like Joseph Smith is great and all, but I really like the twelve apostles, you know. And in the New Testament, Jesus is wonderful, like the quarterback of the team, but I just find myself rooting for His disciples. And I just think it’s great that we have a new apostle in the Twelve…” Wow!

Joe and I splurged on golf passes to the course next to our subdivision. Joe has been playing really well lately. I’m not as bad as I used to be! We can take Natalie and AJ with us, now that they’re a little bit older, but Brooklin is technically not welcome. We’ll have to figure out what to do with her while we go. Last time we went, we just pushed her stroller through the course, but I’m pretty sure that we’re not supposed to do that. Lots of fun though!

I went back to work on Sunday night. Ugh… It wasn’t as bad as I was afraid, but I survived, and so did my patients.