School's Out!

Augh! Today was the last day of school. Actually, it was the last 1 1/2 hours of school. They only had to go for a little while in the morning. So, by 9:30 they were home. By 9:45 Ben had already been in a fight. (Not a real fight - just a hot tempered little boy across the street daily skirmish). By 10:00 I had 7 kids (including my own) inside my house causing havoc. By 11:00 there had already been an incident regarding the rules of soccer (did you know you aren't supposed to push an opponent to the floor, Garrett?). It's now 12:30 and the boys are in the house for a little bit of lunch and quiet time away from friends. Except, as we speak, friends are hanging out on our front porch waiting for our boys to come back out. Do these kids eat? Do their parents even know where they are? Does anyone thrive on routine the way I do? Am I going to survive the next 2 3/4 months?
So, I have a theory about my children. I've said this before. If anyone thinks this is horrible, I'm too frustrated to care. Anyway, individually my children are the most amazing creatures to ever grace this earth. I'm sorry, but it's true. They are intelligent, good looking, funny, interesting, etc. They are just plain awesome. But you put those 4 little boys together (along with the rest of the neighborhood) and I'm not so fond of the clan. I love quiet, peaceful days- and they thrive on chaos. If anyone needs anyone to pray for - add me to your list this summer. We've got some activities planned, so it should go a bit better than today. I guess the excitement of the last day of school is overwhelming.
Finishing up - just a funny story. Ben's teacher sent home a few love notes that she had confiscated from girls who crushed on him this year. She totally read them and then made notes on the parts she thought were funny for me. (She and I are pretty good friends.) Ben is mortified that any girl would ever like him and these poor little girls are not afraid to lay it all on the line. The sad thing is, I know one of them and she's so cute - but a bit unlucky in love thus far. That's what happens when you start as early as she has. No wonder girls get disillusioned and become man haters. Their first experiences are usually with little boys who think girls are annoying. If any of you have little girls, do them a favor and tell them that boys stink and to not even think about them until they are 21. That will make everybody's life easier.

Bye, Bye Crib

It's official - I no longer have any babies. Tonight Tom set up a new bunk bed for Scotty and Jake. We took the crib down and it is now en route to DI. I have mixed emotions about this step. Part of me is excited and ready to not have babies demanding so much. It's fun to set up a new bed and see my little ones get comfy in it. But I've had a crib for almost 9 years now. It's crazy to think that it's all over. It's crazy to think that I'm old enough for it to be over. I will never have a little baby again. I don't know how I feel about that. It's not that I want another one. I just feel sad that such a great chapter in my life is over. I can picture each one of those little boys sleeping in that crib. I can also picture each one crying in the night multiple times and causing me to lose precious sleep. I'm torn.
On another subject - does anyone know where HeatherLee is? I know, she wants to be called Heather now - but she forced the habit onto me. I'd like to see how she's doing. Let me know.

Memorial Day

I have always been the kind of American who never thinks about the price of our freedom - or the price of somebody else's freedom. So, Memorial Day has always been the holiday that marks the beginning of summer. While my parents were good patriots, we never visited cemeteries or talked of ancestors who served during wars. It turns out, we have quite a few - much like most other families. Well, a few years ago I came home from a date with Tom. I flipped on the tv to watch Nightline. They were doing the moment of silence where they show pictures of fallen soldiers from the war in Iraq. I was going to switch the channel but felt compelled to watch. Not too far into it I saw a picture of a good friend from high school. It had his name under the picture but it flashed away so quickly, I didn't know for sure if it was him. I spent a couple of hours on the internet that night trying to find out if it was truly him. Sadly, it was. So, I'd like to talk a bit about him.

Ernie Blanco was in choir with my older sister, Ginger for years. He was always kind to her and friendly to me. When I was a junior I joined the choir. He was a senior and he was always so supportive of me. He kind of developed a crush on me. He would call me frequently and talk forever. I enjoyed him but wasn't interested in anything but a buddy. I regret now sometimes not answering his calls or cutting him off. But he was an amazing guy. In a world of partying and silliness, he stayed true to his Christian faith. He never judged me for my beliefs and I always admired him for sticking to his. He had a beautiful singing voice and played the guitar whenever he had the chance. He went off to Texas A& M to pursue a veterinary degree. While he was there he joined the ROTC or Corp. I don't remember exactly what they called it. But he was so proud of what he was doing. He'd call me and talk about all the work he was doing and the fun of the A&M bonfire and whatever girl he was interested in at the time. Then I went to college and lost track of him. One night when I was dating Tom and he had come down to visit over Christmas break, I ran into Ernie at a barbecue restaurant. We talked a bit but not in depth. I guess he joined the military because he served in Afganistan and then in Iraq. Three days after Christmas in 2003 - and three days after proposing to his girlfriend over the phone, he was killed by an IED. I went on a website to find out any information I could on him. There, I found that he had stayed true to his beliefs and his personality until the end. On Mother's Day of 2005 I was watching CBS Sunday morning and they did a story on his mother and sister in honor of Mother's Day. Anyway, I hope anyone who reads this can feel the reverence I have for him and the other soldiers who couldn't make it back. I don't know how I feel about the war over there, but I know how I feel about the soldiers who are risking everything they are to be there. Happy Memorial Day. Be safe and enjoy your families.

Ikea

All I can say is, "Wow!" Tonight for our date, Tom and I decided to stop by the new Ikea store. Unfortunately, Ikea isn't something you can stop by. It's a whole shopping experience. It opened a couple of days ago so the lines were not as out of control as they were previously, but it was still crazy. It was like parking at an event with people guiding us to our spot. But it was really cool inside. I don't think there is any furniture that I'd really go for because a lot of it is particle board - but the styles were interesting. It's worth taking a picture and then making Tom spend a Saturday trying to copy the design. Plus, I could spend a fortune on just home storage. Everything is so cheap - but nice looking. We will definitely go back when we have more time. But it isn't a store that you can just walk into. They herd you up and escalator and from there you follow floor arrows through a labrynth of merchandise set up in little rooms. Finally you get to the end and then you go back down an escalator to the sales floor where you can pick up whatever you liked from upstairs. While there is lots of furniture, there is also tons of other stuff to fill a house. It reminded me kind of of a "Jib Jab" spoof song on big box stores. Basically, the point of the song is that we are filling our houses with cheap junk - even when we don't need it and then wondering why we are in debt. At Ikea, everything is so cheap, your brain tries to trick you into thinking you need things that you don't even have room for in your house. But really, I'd totally go back.
By the by - if anyone wonders what JibJab is, here is a link. www.jibjab.com

Our new family member

Oh, y'all, I'm in love. This little girl is the sweetest little thing ever. She's potty training well - or at least I've been able to stay on top of it. She loves to cuddle up in your lap or on your chest and sleep. But, she is frisky, too. The picture with my eyes closed (I know, beautiful - but I'm not too vain to show the world my ugly side) is when she was trying to eat my ear and hair. So cute. But my favorite picture is where she and Scotty are asleep together. We're having fun - and Tom is warming up to her nicely. Don't be surprised if she ends up on our Christmas card.

Gracie is here!

After 3 weeks of waiting, we finally brought little Gracie home. I'll post a picture of her tomorrow when she's less traumatized. It took a little while for her to settle down, but once she did, she cuddled up to Garrett and then Ben and fell asleep on his leg. So cute. Oh, for those who don't know, Gracie is a little black schnoodle puppy. She's 8 weeks old and as black as midnight. We love her already. Wish us luck house training her.

Funny Kids

I know, I know - other people's kid stories aren't as cute as your own. But humor me for a second because I have two.
#1 - Yesterday Jake decided he wanted to go potty on the big boy potty. So, we're sitting there and NOTHING is happening. He starts to peer down into the bowl (which is clear of the vomit mentioned in the other blog) when a long string of lovely drool plops into the water from his mouth. He looks down then up and points to it with a big smile on his face and says, "Ta-da!!!"
#2 - Just a second ago Scotty's friend was asking Scotty where he got certain items in our house. Scotty's answers were "the store, Disneyland, a friend", etc. Well, when the origin of the microwave came into question, Scotty's answer was, "We didn't buy that. Jesus created it when he created the earth".
Sorry, but those are two cute kids!

It's Saturday night & I'm nowhere near ready for Sunday

Most of you remember the Primary song about Saturday being special because it's the day to prepare for the Sabbath. My question is, in what world did the song writer live in? In my world, Saturday is the day of baseball practice, 3 soccer games and all the other crazy things that fall on the day. ( By the way, all the boys' teams won. Garrett and Scott each scored goals and Ben made an assist and then played awesome goalie.) Anyway - in my mind, the Sabbath is a day of rest so we can recover from the havoc that Saturday brings. Aside from games, we had to get ready for the dry wallers to come and work on our basement on Monday. Tom spent all afternoon down there putting up insulation. I spent half of the afternoon at Home Depot and Lowe's. You know you are a hard core home improvement chica when you can point someone to the right aisle in Home Depot. But I'm so excited to get moving on this basement thing again. It will be nice having 1000 extra feet to work with.

I just got an email from an old friend. First of all, I love reconnecting with friends from my past - especially when they are doing well. I was so glad that this one was doing as great as he was. Anyway, he knew me in high school when I actually had interests outside of home and family. He asked me if I still ran and what I planned to do with my major - Health Promotion -once my kids were more independent. Umm, I don't run anymore and umm, I don't know what I'm going to do. Actually, while I don't run, I am a beast on my exercise bike. I do 10 - 15 miles a few times a week listening to my ipod and watching tv. (I have total ADD because I get too bored if I only have one or the other.) As for what I want to do when I am less tied down - it depends on what we have saved for college and missions. If we have enough saved, I want to do a lot of volunteer work. There are several organizations that I would like to work with. If we do need a few bucks, I would like to get certified as a personal trainer and do that on the side. We'll see. One thing I'm learning is that nothing is constant. Everything changes.

I know I keep going on and on - but hey, you don't have to read it. In fact, you may want to skip this part all together. Do NOT let your kids see "How to Eat Friend Worms". They get ideas into their heads. When I got home from my errands today, I was greeted by all the neighborhood kids cheering on Ben who had just eaten 7 worms. Really. And he's supposed to be the smart one. But Ben is almost 9 - smart enough to not do stupid things like that. Now he keeps asking me questions about digestion and what the worms are doing in his stomach (he swallowed them whole). The worst part is that Tom actually encouraged him to do this. Ben came down to the basement with a worm on his tongue and Tom said that he bet he wouldn't swallow it. So, what else was Ben to do? And once you've eaten one - why not eat 6 more? I can't leave them alone for one minute - even with their father. All I can say is Ben better NEVER complain about chicken casserole again.

Toilets

3 of my 4 boys are potty trained. Does anyone know what that means? That means I stay really busy cleaning toilets. Most of the time they are pretty good aims. It's the little mishaps that keep me scrubbing. So, tonight I cleaned both of the upstairs toilets for the thousandth time. I spent good time on the one in the boys' bathroom because, well, I needed to. But at the end of it, it was sparking clean. That is until Ben and Garrett got back from Ben's baseball game. As they were getting ready for bed, poor Garrett looked a little panicky. He soon ran to the bathroom and vomitted EVERYWHERE. That poor toilet didn't know what hit it. Neither did the wall or the shower curtain. Does everyone have a visual? Pretty. So, now Garrett is tucked into his bed, the bathroom is clean and the washing machine is running. Tomorrow I hope that there is no evidence of tonight's adventure. Even more, I hope sweet little Garrett is feeling better. Poor kid - maybe we'll listen to his warning better next time.

Weekend of Elena

Any Seinfeld fans out there might be familiar with the "Summer of George." Well, at the Tillman house, it is the Weekend of Elena. Since mother's day and my birthday both fall on Sunday, Tom decided to give me today (Friday) off to celebrate my birthday. I got to go out jeans shopping and whatever else I wanted to do. Seriously, I left the house at 10 and got back at 4:30. In that time I tried on 28 pairs of jeans and found one. The best part is when I took it to the register to pay, it rang up as $12.15. I'm glad I chose those instead of the jeans at Buckle for $94. I just can't do it. Really, $94. I hate jeans shopping. I have short legs with minimal hip bone stick-outage so they just don't usually work for me. I'm glad I found these, though.
Tonight, to celebrate my turning 31 - (yes, ladies, we are old) we went to Tucano's with our friends Jeff and Amy Davis. I was a bit leary to go. You see, I'm more of an herbivore - and Tucanos caters to carnivores. They call it a Brazillian Grill (although I wonder how many Brazillians eat like this). You sit at your table and they just come around with skewers full of meat and give you what you want. Really, it was delicious. Plus, they had a great salad bar. Then Tom and I went to the driving range to hit some balls. I stink, but see the potential for improvement. Tom can hit the guts out of the balls. My man.
Anyway, if I don't blog before Sunday, Happy Mother's Day to all you ladies that I know and love. You are all dear to me. I just wish we could be closer and share our motherhood defeats and triumphs in person. Thanks for all the pictures of your darlings.

Jessica's challenge

I just went on my friend, Jessica's blog. She did a meme (whatever that means) and challenged me to do the same. So, that basically means I tell what I was doing at different points in time. She chose 11 yeasrs ago, 6 years ago, 2 years ago, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Like Jessica said, if you don't read it because it is so boring, nobody will know. So, here we go.

11 years ago I was. . .
-Living in an apartment right off of BYU campus where I was making friendships that have passed the test of time. I still love you girlies.
-At this point I had not met Tom yet (kind of scary since we were married 10 years ago.)
-I was kind of, kind of not dating a guy named Todd F. - sometimes you know when things aren't going to work out - even from the beginning.
-During the summer I was saving money for my Junior year at BYU by nannying for the Douglas family - I especially had a soft spot for little Tyler . If time didn't stand still for him, he's a teenager now. Scary.
-I was getting excited for Jessica because Mike was coming home. I recently found the letter she sent me telling me she was no longer Virgin Lips - you go girl.
-Later in '96 I met Tom - el amor de mi vida.
-I wore shorts that were entirely too short. Good thing I still had nice legs.
-I was thinking about a mission - hopefully to Spain. Maybe one day. . .

6 years ago . . .
-Um, 2001 was so fun. I moved into my first house in SS.
-I had been married to my sweetheart for 4 years. Do I sound 75?
-I had two adorable little boys - Ben and Garrett
-I was trying to potty train Ben. For such a smart kid, he was a doosy to potty train.
-I dreamed of grass in the back yard.
-Tom finished his Master's program and was hired for his principalship.
-Our salary spiked big time from teacher to principal. Yippee!!! Now we could afford the new house.
-In August Tom was called as bishop. I was a 25 year old bishop's wife with two little boys.
-I still thought that there was hope for a girl.

2 years ago. . .
-I was about to deliver Jacob. That would make boy #4.
-We had season passes to Thanksgiving Point. I liked to walk the garden paths. If anyone comes to visit - it's worth every penny.
-During one walk I felt a horrible pain in my pregnant belly. Jacob had turned and was breech.
-After the scare of a breech baby and a c-section, another pain and he turned again. Whew.
-Scotty was two and was my best buddy. We did everything together while Ben was at school and Garrett was at preschool.
-End of May, Jacob was born.
-Tom was called as counselor in the stake presidency.
-Tom's parents moved here. I've gotten to know and love them even more.
-In the fall Garrett started kindergarten. All my babies grow up.

Yesterday . . .
-I took Ben to the Scouting expo. It was so cold. Thankfully his troop's booth was inside.
-Tom took Garrett and Scott to their soccer games. Scotty scored a goal. Garrett played goalie and didn't let anything past the goal.
-Ben's baseball practice was cancelled due to weather.
-Tom took Ben to his soccer game. The other team didn't show. Ben called them wimps. It was really cold and windy.
-Tom's brother, Derick, came to visit Tom's dad who is having some non life threatening health issues. Thanks for the sacrifice, Stephanie.
-I talked to Susie and my mom on the phone - like I do everyday.

Today. . .
-I have all the kids while Tom has meetings all day. You can feel sorry for me, but also feel sorry for Tom who started at 6:30.
-I'll go to church. I don't have to teach Young Women this week so it's kind of like a week off.
-We'll go to Tom's parents' house tonight for dessert and to see Derick.

Tomorrow . . .
-I babysit for a couple of friends for the co-op. Every third week I have to babysit, but 2 of the 3 I get 4 hours to myself!!! Can't beat that.

Now, tag- you are it Susie and anyone else who feels like it. Just let me know so I can read your blog. I'd love to see yours, Emily. I need more of you to blog. In the last few days I've had 4 people say they read my blog, but none that actually blog. It's fun - do it. Then I can keep up with y'all better.

Friday

Okay, so if you are reading my blog, you know that I'm a boy mom. Everything I do, I do it for boys. That includes soccer practice and games for three boys, baseball practice and games for one and piano and scouts for one. In other words, every day except Friday and Sunday I have AT LEAST one sports practice/game to take my boys to. Then there are all the boy clothes. In other words, while I love love love my boys, I sometimes get "boyed out." So, it will come to no surprise to anyone that I bought the girliest dog collar for our puppy. She still won't come for a couple of weeks, but we are getting prepared and reading books. I had so much fun at Petsmart today buying girlie collars and leashes and toys. Now if we could just agree on a name. By the way, Hallie is out because it starts with a soft consonant. Ask Tom about his vowel/soft consonant name issues.:)

Today I was the lucky PTA member who got to provide cookies and milk for 365 kids and parents for the maturation talk. I was also so lucky to hear both the boys' and the girls' presentation. Why is it that I am thirty years old, a mother of four and a wife and I still feel a bit squirmy in a room full of men/boys talking about body changes? Buck up, camper. It's life. I'm just going to have Tom work with our boys. My job will be to keep an endless supply of body wash and deodorant in the bathroom. Now, I have about 30 big, bakery cookies to freeze and eat over the next month.

Puppy!!!

We've been looking for a puppy for the longest time. Actually, we promised the boys a dog after Disneyland. But, I've been looking for months just to see what was out there. We did some research and decided that either a Schnoodle (Schnauzer/Poodle) or a ShihPoo (Shih -tzu/poodle) would be ideal for our rambunctous family. So, tonight we went to a lady's house and picked out the sweetest little black schnoodle. She's still really young so we'll have to wait a few weeks before she is ready for a new home. But she was as cute as could be. We're really excited!
The boys were impressed by the lady's house and all the taxidermy animals. We're talking a bobcat, a cougar, a few bears, a bearskin rug and a few other animals. I made a comment on it and her husband being quite the hunter. Turns out she isn't married and she shot all of the animals. Um, yeah, really. She's this pretty blonde lady who's probably in her 50's but looks younger. I just didn't see her taking out a bear. But, you can never tell by the looks of someone what they are into.
Anyway, wish us luck on our little puppy. We're thinking of naming her Hallie. That may change, though.