Pictures from the Cooks' Visit

We went to Red Rock, had a dinner by campfire (with plenty of marshmallows for dessert), and the next day strolled around Lake Las Vegas. I loved having them visit!

Maya (4), Cambria (6), and Xochi (20 months). It was so bright I told the girls to open their eyes at the last second for this photo.

Bryce and Cameron.

The Cook family: my brother David, his wife Brooklyn, and their three beauties.

Tyce, the gangster cowboy.

Tyce stayed with Cameron while everyone else explored. Cam was not a fan of the changing elevations.

Brothers.

Tyce climbed onto this rock....

....and then jumped off.

There were lots of cool places to climb and neat things to look at.

Maya and Mary were hiking pals. They are both very sure-footed but it did make me nervous.

Because this shot shows the whole picture! Are your knees weak just looking at it?

How nice of nature to stack these rocks--the perfect playground for climbing kids.

Xochi was a little monkey--agile and not afraid of anything!

We sure are lucky to have Brooklyn in our family--she is a great mom and a wonderful aunt to our kids.

Tower of kids.

More climbing.

Bryce and I. Me. Myself.

Mary pretended to be a mountain lion.

Cute girls in a cave!

I took about 20 of these pictures.

Harrison and Cameron! Harrison was independent and a bit of a punk.

We got a campsite so we could have our gourmet cook-out of hotdogs and s'mores.

It was cold but it was fun!

Glowing with the love of family. And fire.

After church we ate our Indian feast. Then we went to Lake Las Vegas.

Cameron and Maya.

The kids loved throwing rocks into the lake.

Mary in the afternoon light.

Harrison loved throwing rocks and whatever else he could find.

It was a beautiful afternoon.

And it turned into a beautiful night! Dave, Brooklyn, Tyce, and Bryce had a stone-skipping contest. They were all good but Tyce out-threw them all.

We love you, Cook family! We need to get together again soon.

Ephiphany

Some things have been better than expected; some things have been worse. I'm beginning to think that the best strategy is to plan for chaos, because if things do work neatly and tidily it will be a pleasant surprise.

Bonus for you: You didn't expect pictures, and you got one anyway! See how this all works out?

Catch up

What's the blogging hold-up, I'm sure you're all wondering. Well, I want to download pictures. And I have misplaced the camera, so here's another photo-less post in the meantime.

1) The visit from my brother's family was really great. I love them so much. Their girls are so amazingly sweet and lovely that the mere thought of them can bring a tear to my eyes. They played to well with Mary and the twins. It warmed my heart when Maya wanted to hold my hand as we strolled the sidewalks in Lake Las Vegas. I was so glad to get to know them better this trip.

I loved the time spent with Dave and Brooklyn late at night talking. Many conversations were thought-provoking (politics, parenting, and education), and all were worth the limited sleep. It was wonderful to have them here and I wish we lived closer.

If my parents had been able to come we would have had an early Thanksgiving dinner together. But as it was, we had Indian food on Sunday afternoon and was a feast-worthy spread.

2) Thanksgiving day was filled with friends and good food. The missionaries and the Anderson family joined us for dinner. They have a foreign exchange student from China named Kassia, who is in Tyce's Spanish class. Their other two daughters McKenna and Marielle are roughly the ages of our other kids and so it seemed that the kids had a good time. We used our fancy dishes and Mary set the tables (her specialty) and it looked really pretty. Bryce's homemade crescent rolls were especially delicious this year.

The kids have been gathering acorns at school. I'd say that Harrison has about 300 in a bag. After dinner the kids tried using chopsticks to pick up an acorn, and then pass it to another person's chopsticks without dropping it. It was hard to keep that round ball from rolling but Kassia was a pro with those chopsticks!

3) The wards of the Lake Mead stake were reorganized; we lost some dear members and gained quite a few more. Our new bishop is Jim Shapiro, formerly of the Newport ward (our whole development is in one ward now); Bryce is the 1st counselor again; and Aaron Hafen is the 2nd counselor, formerly of the Fairview ward. I don't know how the ward auxiliaries will shake out; we have a lot of new people who are willing and capable to fill in wherever they're needed. I am really thankful for that. I have loved my time in Young Women and I hope I am able to stay--however, I am ready to move on if the bishopric wants a change. Those girls will always be special to me regardless of my calling. And while we did lose four lovely young ladies, we gained 8 new ones! Tonight is our first activity all together and I look forward to getting to know them.

4) Mary still wants me to home school her. I am still on the fence. More of the same. Here headaches are getting under control--I think--but I'm not sure. They're still fairly regular but she hasn't missed as many days in a row as she did before seeing the neurologist. In other news, she recently got an iPod and listens to Taylor Swift almost constantly. When it's not T.S. it's Weird Al, The Lion King, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmarron, Sarah McLaughlin, or Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. But mostly Taylor Swift. She loves to belt out those songs anytime, anywhere.

5) Tyce is working with the special ed kids in choir. He cut his hair again to comply with ROTC and it looks sharp. He and the neighbor boys watched the new Robin Hood movie at our house last night. Since my microwave doesn't have many functional buttons left (now the 2 and all the specialty buttons are defunct) it was quite the experiment to get a bag of popcorn to cook right. And you could smell that some of them got, well, overdone. Haha. I guess the lemonade and chocolate chip cookies helped soften the blow.

6) Cameron spells everything right now. "S-T-O-P spells stop," he'll say. Or, "Can I have some L-S-P-M-D?" which means "lemonade." He constantly says letters and ask what it spells; we ask, "What are you trying to spell?" and he's usually hit the first and last sound of a word. He's very cute and curious when it comes to spelling.

7) Harrison has had fun collecting acorns and then sorting them by size. In school he's proposed to nearly half of the girls in his class. The little red-haired girl is *so* last September. He's very social and loves to play. Both he and Cam are very good in class (most days) and consistently earn a green light (Harrison) or a stamp (Cam) in their daily folders.

8) I have enjoyed volunteering in the kids' classes; the twins on some Wednesdays and Mary's two Fridays a month. It seems like every time I come in, that's the one day a child doesn't bring their folder to school and I feel like the biggest lame-o parent alive. The kids' teachers are all really great and I'm glad to get to know them.

9) Christmas! House is decorated, tree is up, and now I just have to get the rest of my act in order.

And that's all for now.

Tuesday Thoughts

Mary has been to school a little more consistently since she's been on her preventative medication. She would still like to be home schooled though, which is something I'm still struggling with. This weekend she was so incredibly pleasant and delightful that I think it would work; how could it not? And then I recall certain other days and think that this would do us both in.

While I was home with Mary and Cameron (who was also very good), Bryce took Tyce and Harrison to Utah for the BYU game. The Cougars won handily and so everyone was in a good mood. Harrison wasn't very in to the game and so it was a challenge to keep him interested and occupied enough to endure to the end. Grandpa Al and Grandma Judy are remodeling their house. After the game the boys helped move furniture and Bryce said that Tyce was a workhorse.

On their way home Sunday afternoon they got caught in a snowstorm. Traffic was backed up but after the roads were cleared they made it home just fine. Harrison was delighted to report that he peed in a bottle. There's a blizzard slated to hit Utah and I hope that doesn't keep Al and Judy from traveling to our house for Thanksgiving . . . we're really looking forward to having them here.

I gave a lesson in Young Women last week about optimism and this week on gratitude. I really needed both of those reminders that life is what you make it, that things will get better, and to be thankful for what I have.

Trying to Figure it Out

Great weekend with the bro and his awesome family. I was sorry to see them go.

Mary's migraines (diagnosis confirmed by the neurologist) are still a problem. She is missing way too much school and in fact begged me to home school her. Part of me sees that as a viable option. When she's cooperative she is so pleasant and engaging. I can imagine her thriving working at her own pace. A huge draw for her is the lack of distraction here at home, as well as the flexibility for her to deal with her pain here rather than go to the nurse's office. On a good day I can see that working very well.

But on the other hand I can foresee disaster. If she throws a fit about vacuuming the living room because she says I'm bullying her in to it, how is she going to accept re-doing a math paper or completing an assignment she doesn't want to do?????

I also struggle with the two philosophies of "everyone else deals with it--suck it up" and "have compassion on the individual." I do realize that she is different from other kids. Her description of the noise level at school--from kids whispering to the marker on the smart-board to the paper-rustling to the cacophony in the lunch room--really did make me see how miserable she is. Someone like me barely notices those things, but someone like Mary is tortured by the distraction. The neurologist said that he could handle changing up her medication but I think I may need to resume my hunt for a good psychiatrist (which I have yet to find here).

She says that she likes school as much as any kid. I don't think there's a person or teacher she's avoiding. She even told me she doesn't have anxiety about going but that the pain of headaches (which happen about 2-3 times a week) and the constant distractions are making it hard to enjoy it at all. It's really unfortunate because she has an amazing team of teachers this year who are really invested in the students and make learning as enriching as possible. But perhaps she just needs a break from the constant stimulation and noise . . . . I don't know.

My Embarrassing Moment (One of Many)

I got my hair cut a few days ago, and not to be a drama queen...but I really don't like it. It's short and choppy and very dark. It's just hair, it'll grow, and I'm pretty sure in a week it will be more manageable.

Today I was out and about while the twins were at kindergarten. I went to Hobby Lobby with no agenda, which means that either I ended up buying everything in sight or nothing at all. (Today it was the latter.) As I walked back to the car I noticed my shadow--a normal-looking woman-form but with totally stand-up hair from the wind. Curious as to what I must actually look like I caught a glimpse of myself in the nearest heavily-tinted car window. But by then the hair had returned to normal. So I put my hand on top of my head and pulled my hair straight up. I leaned in and peered very hard at my reflection in that driver's side window.

And I was quite a sight.

Which is what the man sitting in the car's driver's seat must have thought too.

Yes, there was someone in the car.

And yes, I ran away. Very fast.

I'm sure he had no idea what to make of a woman coming within 3 inches of his face, looking as bug-eyed as a Maori warrior with her hair pulled straight up.

All I know is that this crazy hair had better grow.

Five-Day Weekend....(!) or (?)

If you're a kid, there's an exclamation point, definitely. If you're a parent there's a question mark. When a state ranks 50th in the nation in education, do kids really need a five-day break around Halloween? But whatever. Nevada Day, teacher inservice, and National Deviled Egg Day are all valid reasons to take a school day off.

So we went to the pumpkin patch/carnival at Sunset Station, the kids and I. We also had the ward trunk-or-treating event and the next night, a family Halloween party.

This post is just a ton of pictures. I'm sorry I don't have more time to caption them but you can probably tell we had a good time.