Another one for the record books...

So things aren't going so well around here. First Justin broke the glass top of the deck table, then Henry broke the mac laptop for good, then someone broke my car window to steal my purse that had all of $10 in it and the rest of my whole life, including my phone photos of my darling children that I will never see again. I had to go down to the bank to get some new cards sent to me and while I was talking to the nice man in his cubicle, Henry was pestering me for one of the suckers they give away, whining,"mommy, I want a sucker" over and over. This eventually turned into, "mommy I have to go pee pee" and holding himself. I asked the man if there was a restroom we could use and he hesitated since there were no public restrooms, but he said we could use the employee restrooms and of course he had to go in the men's room and didn't want help. I went back out to get Bea when I heard Henry freaking out in the restroom. I took Bea with me this time and found Henry trying to pee in the man sized urinal which he could not reach. He was unsuccessfully trying to climb on the urinal with his pants down, which wasn't working. He wouldn't let me help him, and would NOT go in the regular toilet. After a few minutes I was fed up and pushed him to the toilet and smacked him on his naked bum which started his flow and he was FURIOUS! He was looking down at his stream and screaming, "NOOOOOOOOO! I don't want to go in the toilet!!! Ahhhhhh!". I came out with my screaming boy only to notice that while I was trying to deal with Henry earlier, Bea had found the graham crackers and the guy's cubical was strewn with crumbs. I dragged them out of there and continued my quest to get my life back together.

Haircut

Henry has had a haircut for a couple weeks now and I forgot to post a photo. It was the result of a bad trim, but I think it looks good on him, especially for the summer. The story goes...I trimmed the back and sides too short but left the front long which made him look like a punk. All he needed was a little eyeliner and some skinny jeans and his look would have been complete. So, we had to cut the rest off. He really does look different. What do you think?

Now that I have my baby girl whose hair I don't ever have to cut if I don't want to, I think I feel ok about cutting Henry's hair short. I still miss his little curls. Here he is at the zoo riding the jeeps.

What to do, what to say...

So today I invited my friend and her mom who is visiting from Korea over for lunch and we had a lovely time eating, playing with our babies, picking raspberries in the garden and playing music. I also have been feeling the impression to give her a Book of Mormon so I got one in Korean, wrapped it up really nicely and gave it to her with my testimony. I have been praying and looking forward to giving it to her for a while now and I was hoping that I would feel the spirit and that it would go smoothly, but Henry was so out of control that I think he annoyed the spirit right out of me. He took the opportunity to try to get everything he wanted since he knew I was busy with something important. He screamed, hurt Bea on purpose, was acting like a maniac, asking for candy and gum was destroying my house and he also finished breaking our computer which he first started to break as a baby. Now it's completely shot. After my friend left I just wanted to cry because I dion't know if she took me seriously since the spirit was not there. I put Henry up in his room and put Bea down for her nap and lied down for the first time in months. I kind of feel defeated since I was the one who got annoyed and didn't have the spirit with me. How do I deal with him and how do I chill out in those situations? He's getting so wild I don't know what to do with him sometimes. Help!

Fourthed Away

I know the fourth of July was last weekend, but when you make all your food from scratch and there's no food in the house but a freezer full of berries the blog takes a back seat. Sorry Henster. So, for the 4th of July we went to CT to visit the grandparents. It was a really quick weekend. We stayed only 48 hours total which wasn't enough time to even stop by NYC and get anything from our favorite restaurants. It killed us to just drive by without indulging in GROM, Dinosaur BBQ or Saigon Grill.

In CT we spent time with almost the entire family, minus Stef the sickling prego mama and Meg who was in Utah. Gammies sister, Gail, was the special visitor of the weekend and she helped out with the babies and with cooking and cleaning which made the weekend so relaxing and enjoyable. Grandpa took Henry and the rest of the kids fishing in the pond where they caught a nice little fish. Go Gramps! The kids also spent a good deal of time jumping on the trampoline, catching fireflies or flierflies as Henry calls them and even took the boat out on the pond. Roasting marshmallows on a nice big campfire was a nice treat as well. Too bad everyone went in by 10pm to put their kids to bed and never returned back out to socialize. Times aren't like they used to be, that's for sure!

On the morning of the fourth Justin and ran a 5K race where he basically tied Garrett so I think there's going to have to be a rematch sometime in the future. I was left in the dust and ended up slowing down at the end because of many lame excuses and didn't do as well as I had hoped. It was fun though. We headed over to the ward for the ward picnic and Henry got to hit a pinata and collected some candy. When I asked him on the way home what his favorite part of our trip was he said enthusiastically, "getting candy!" I really hope that wasn't true! We then went home, made food for the bbq lunch that was skillfully prepared on a tinfoil covered grill(not sure why)and lynn's famous fruit salad. Delicious! Then it was off to the Saunder's place where they have a swing that is hooked to a branch 50 meters up on a tree. The swing literally goes out over the whole entire yard and it takes at least 15 seconds to do one rotation. After eating many yummy deserts we went to Waveny park for more food and to stake our spot for fireworks. Henry really enjoyed the fireworks and still mentions them now and again. The display was incredibly good and lasted for a long time. I don't know about you but I'm constantly impressed by how good the fireworks are getting. They have shapes, coordinating colors, ones that float down to the ground, and supernova ones that cover the entire planet. Amazing. We had a blast and so did the kids.

Sunday we went to church and during a very tearful testimony meeting hearing about our good friends the Humphreys woes about losing his business, house, reputation, and life and having to move to Utah, we found a deer tick in Henry's tushy. I wonder how it got there? Running around naked perhaps? Taking every opportunity to pee in the woods only following in the footsteps of your daddy? We took him home, researched how to get the little bugger out and successfully removed it. So far there has been no bulls-eye mark so I think there's no lyme disease for now. I HATE ticks and that's on the top of my list of why I don't want to settle in the East Coast. I don't want to worry about running into poison ivy and deer ticks every time I want to venture out into the woods with my kids. The west is a lot safer in that respect as far as I know.

At the end of our trip we went to say goodbye to a wonderful and darling man, Axle Ohrn, who was almost 98 years old when he died 24 hours after we saw him. He finally passed because of esophageal cancer which swiftly blocked his ability to nourish his body and he died. He and I would talk about tomato plants all the time and we had such a sweet connection. He hugged me and kissed me like I was his own granddaughter and I always heard about him asking about me and commenting on how wonderful he thought I was. I will miss him so much!

Then we passed by the city again on our way home and made the long drive home with screaming children in the back. Afternoons are NOT good times for my kids to travel. We made it back in one piece and life is good.