Halloween

We had a great day today. Mario dropped Eric off at the Stake Center at 6:30 this morning for a merit badge camp. He came home with two completed merit badges. While Eric was gone, Mario took the other 3 kids to the Kartchner Caverns while I grocery shopped and cleaned up the house. Then we had a relaxing afternoon waiting for the real fun---trick-or-treating to begin.

Being Consistent

I couldn't get Dave Ramsey's podcast downloaded to my MP3 player today, so I decided to listen to a Conference podcast instead while I ran/walked. I probably need that more than Ramsey anyway. I took comfort in Elder Bednar's talk where he described FHE in his home while his boys were young:

"As our sons were growing up, our family did what you have done and what you now do. We had regular family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. Now, I am sure what I am about to describe has never occurred in your home, but it did in ours.

Sometimes Sister Bednar and I wondered if our efforts to do these spiritually essential things were worthwhile. Now and then verses of scripture were read amid outbursts such as “He’s touching me!” “Make him stop looking at me!” “Mom, he’s breathing my air!” Sincere prayers occasionally were interrupted with giggling and poking. And with active, rambunctious boys, family home evening lessons did not always produce high levels of edification. At times Sister Bednar and I were exasperated because the righteous habits we worked so hard to foster did not seem to yield immediately the spiritual results we wanted and expected.

Today if you could ask our adult sons what they remember about family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening, I believe I know how they would answer. They likely would not identify a particular prayer or a specific instance of scripture study or an especially meaningful family home evening lesson as the defining moment in their spiritual development. What they would say they remember is that as a family we were consistent."

So, I know I have no control, but I can be consistent. Eric gave his first talk as a Youth speaker yesterday. I got an honorable mention when he talked about reading scriptures. Eric said, "My mom makes it a point to read every night." I looked up his talk to get the exact quote. He wrote the following in his talk, but must have changed his mind about saying it: "Once we were at the table, about to have cake, when my mom pulled out the scriptures and made us all wait to eat until we were finished reading."

I think I am on the right track. Hopefully my kids will look back and say we were consistent (and not just consistently yelling! :)) Honestly, Mario is way more consistent than I am. But I try really hard!

Control Freak

I came to a realization today. It only took me 35 years to figure out I am a control freak. Maybe that's why my twins cause me so much frustration. I cannot, no matter how hard I try, control them. Mario just laughed when I told him this today. Of course, he knew these things all along.

Chocolate Cake

Mario finally got word today that he will officially get IDE credit for his time at Naval Post Graduate School. Don't ask me what that really means, but apparently it is good because he is very excited about it. He says it will make it easier for him to get selected for Lieutenant Colonel. So we are celebrating with his favorite homemade chocolate cake. We had chocolate cake a lot in Monterey (when he finished up his thesis, when he finished all his classes, and when he graduated.)

He claims it is nothing he did to deserve this, just a blessing from Heavenly Father. I know that it was a blessing but I also know Mario worked hard to be worthy of that blessing. We are grateful to Heavenly Father for continually blessing our family.

Love this quote

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." Eleanor Roosevelt

Back to School

The kids are on a year round school schedule so they have been off for the past 3 weeks. I jokingly asked Mario last night if he felt like he needed to give them "back to school blessings" again. Not that blessings are a joke, just the break seemed like as long as a summer vacation. But we had a great 3 weeks and did a lot of fun stuff.

The first week was in San Diego which I already blogged about. We also did the following:

Erin and Zachary each broke their first boards in karate. The karate school was raising money for breast cancer and so they offered 30 minute private lessons. Nathan didn't want to do it and Eric was on a boy scout campout/hike. The instructors let the kids choose what they wanted to learn. Erin chose to learn to break board with a kick and Zachary chose to do it with his elbow. Zachary is so proud of his accomplishment that these are some of the things we here him say..."Whoever broke a board gets to use the bathroom first....I think my karate clothes need washed because when I broke the board, they probably got sweaty." Mario came up with a few of his own that we will probably hear in the near future..."Wow the weather is nice, it reminds me of that day I broke the board...Can we eat the same thing for dinner that we had the day I broke the board?"

Eric finished up his hiking merit badge with 2 -10 mile hikes (70 miles total for the merit badge). He had to forfeit his private karate lesson on Saturday to go on his campout and hike. We are so pleased that he made the right choice. I also talked Eric out of accepting his dad's $20-$25 for each completed merit badge. He should do it because he wants to and not for money. I convinced Mario he was only paying him because of his own fear that Eric wouldn't do otherwise. Give Eric a chance, he almost always makes the right choice.

Erin cut several inches off her hair and it looks adorable. Plus it is much easier to maintain. An added bonus is that she seems to be in a much better mood since cutting it. Mario and I both noticed that.

Nathan overcame his fears and went boogie boarding in San Diego. That was a huge accomplishment for him. He has been our only child with a fear of the water.

We saw two movies at the theater...Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Where the Wild Things Are.

Eric decided he no longer wants to be a doctor after I rented the movie "Gifted Hands." It was about a neurosurgeon who separates conjoined twins and saves both of them (He was the first to discover a way to do it.) It was a very graphic movie showing a lot of blood. Eric couldn't watch the surgery parts and decided maybe Law school would be a better option. Whatever he does, I am sure he will be successful.

I reread Dave Ramsey's book and decided to put ourselves on a tighter budget and start saving 15% towards retirement. We had only been saving 5-10% before. With Mario's pension and our retirement savings, hopefully we will be able to serve lots of missions. Plus I have been saving for a home when we retire. With all this saving, I capped our Christmas budget at $600 this year. I thought the kids might complain when I suggested we split up the $600 and give each person (including Mario and I) $20 to spend on each member of the family (Mario and I don't want anything, but the kids like to buy for us too, maybe I can decrease the amount that they spend on us.) At first there were some groans, but now instead of everyone trying to figure out what they are getting for Christmas, they are making lists of what to get everyone else. None of the kids believe in Santa anymore, so we don't have to worry about getting lots of Santa gifts. But Mario may end up spending slightly over our $600 budget to fund some stocking gifts. I think it would be kind of fun to see if we could really stick to our budget. With all the money we spend on karate and orthodontists, we need not overspend on Christmas. Our kids are definitely not lacking for anything.

Eric chastised me for wanting to watch the movie "The Proposal" with him when our Clear Play wouldn't edit it. It was PG-13 and so I thought I could use TV Guardian to edit out the language and it would be fine. He looked up the reviews and he saw all the sexual content in it and decided to watch a Little House instead. He constantly keeps our family on the right track. In fact, Mario and I were joking that his kids are going to come complain to us that their father won't let them do anything. Our only response would be, yep, he wouldn't let us either.

It was a fantastic 3 weeks, but I am excited to get some time to myself again. Eric and Erin occasionally ask to be homeschooled, but I keep telling them no. I am not dedicated enough, plus they both know more than me. I could never teach them. I guess I should start looking into online homeschools, but I am hoping they can hold off.

First Kiss

The neighbor came over to tell me that Zachary kissed her little sister, Anna, today. Fortunately it was just on her cheek. Zach denies everything. Eric told Zach no kissing a girl until he's 21. Zach asked why not because he could get married at 20. Eric and I explained to Zach that he doesn't get home from his mission until he's 21. That brought a lot of confusion to Zachary because he knew that he would leave on a mission at 19. He had no idea a mission was 2 years. I am not sure he is excited about the 2 years. He looked devastated.