Time Has Slowed

Mario will be home next Saturday. The first 8 1/2 weeks flew by. I mean really flew by. They flew by so fast that sometimes I lost total track of time. I couldn't tell you if an event happened last week or last month. But then last week, time seemed to stop. Now everyday feels like a week. My kids barely have time to hang out with me anymore. Eric is always at work or with friends/girlfriend. Erin's always with friends or doing church activities and the boys always want to play with our new neighbor, Alex.

So I find myself at home by myself a lot. I remember the days that I couldn't wait to have an hour by myself. Now I'm starting to miss the kids. I think I'm going to have terrible empty nest syndrome in a few years.

Last week, I had no kids at home to take to the pool. So I went to my friend Melody's pool all by my myself so I could have adult conversation. The other moms were shocked I'd choose to come hang out. They only go to pool to get their small kids out of the house. I remember those days.

Good thing I've started a hobby and I need to get back to reading more. I've barely picked up my Kindle since I started quilting.

Hooray for Mario coming home soon. Hopefully I can find things to do to distract myself so the days will go a little faster. I think I'll do a lot of classes at the Y, take the boys for hikes, and spend lots of time at the pool this week.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Erin's 9th Grade Artwork

I remember when Erin was in kindergarten, we had a neighbor that was an artist. She also had a son in Erin's class. Carrie studied each students' artwork during open house and then told me that Erin was the only one in the class that had talent. I thought that was funny since Erin was only 5. But if it's true, then I guess she must get it from Mario because I only draw stick figures and connecting hearts when I doodle. I really want to know how she got that bridge to look so three dimensional in the second picture. I know nothing about art, can you tell?!

Erin won't admit she's a good artist and she'd be upset to know I put these on my blog. So Shhhh!

40+ Freezer to Crockpot Meals

I needed to work on food storage this week. I try to keep a months worth of meals on hand in case for some crazy reason we can't leave our home to go to the grocery store. I've been totally slacking lately. So I made the kids take inventory and figure out what we need. In the process, I decided to look up some recipes for some freezer meals. I'm not a fan of casseroles except for lasagna so I don't usually like the recipes online. But I found one website for 40 meals in 4 hours. You put all the ingredients into a Ziploc bags and then freeze them and when ready plop them into the crockpot. I looked through the ingredient list since I'm a picky eater and there was only one ingredient out of all the meals that I don't like-black beans. Crazy, I know since I'm married to a Cuban.

The twins suffered through a Sam's Club visit and a very long commissary run to buy all the ingredients. Then the boys went off to the movie with friends. That left Eric and Erin and a very unlucky friend, that was at my house at the wrong time, to help me with putting together these 40 meals. I thought maybe we'd take about an hour and a half since there were 4 of us but no, 2.5-3 hours to assemble them all. I had some grumpy teens by the end. But Erin had major incentive to keep going. She wanted to get to the pool and she needed me to drive her.

Now my freezer is full and I can enjoy the pool all summer long at my friend's house while dinner is home cooking in the crockpot. I even had Eric help me put together 4 lasagnas today to add to our meals. He asked me if I planned to leave for a very long trip. He couldn't figure out why I would do something like this when I never have in the past.

I'm exhausted now because we went on a ward campout last night too. I made Eric and Erin go too which they weren't happy about either. But they survived.

It feels good to get a lot of work done. Maybe I could get a lot of work done everyday if I didn't quilt. Now I just need to prepare nursery and temple prep lessons for tomorrow and get my house clean before temple prep tomorrow night. But first, it's time for a much needed NAP.

Memorial Day Weekend

What a great weekend!  Mario was able to come home for three and a half days.  We crammed as much as we could in those days.  We caught up on movies including "God's Not Dead' movie still at the theaters.  Mario and I really enjoyed it.  We attended baptisms, taught two Temple prep classes with 4 teenagers preparing to leave on missions in the fall and one new convert, we played lots of Settlers with the boys, took a spinning class with Erin, and took Sophie for walks at the lake. Eric got to stand in his first Priesthood circle while his friend Gage was ordained to be a Priest.  I had no idea that he could do that but his leaders assured me that he could participate in the ordaining of the young men.  Very cool!  

I miss having Mario home everyday.  But I guess the time apart helps us not take each other for granted. Less than 3 weeks and Mario will be home for good (or until the AF sends him somewhere else.) Hopefully not for a long time.  Now we will spend the next year preparing for a move next summer.  I love the excitement of moving.  But it is going to be an extremely difficult year for me as I prepare to say goodbye to my firstborn child as he leaves for college or a mission.  I don't even want to think about it or I will cry.

Moving on to happy thoughts...I have a whole year left to hang with one of my favorite people.  Eric is an amazing young man and I love him dearly.  All I have to say is thank goodness he and Erin aren't twins, and I don't have to say goodbye to them both at the same time. 

Family Picture

Tornado

Last night, Eric left to go attend graduation for the Senior class.  I warned him that I thought the weather may get bad.  He thought about not going but Caitlin really wanted to go so he went anyway despite the weather warnings. Unfortunately graduation was downtown Omaha so about 25 minutes from home.  I made a nice dinner for me and the other kids and then I sat down to play Settlers with the boys.  A few minutes after starting the game, my neighbor, Steve, who has never once knocked on my door came over.  I answered the door and he asked, "You are watching the tv, right?"  and I quickly told him no that I was playing a game with my kids.  He told me to turn on the tv.  I must have looked puzzled and he said, there are tornados in Lincoln and they are headed our way.  He quickly left to go warn the other neighbors.

I didn't know what to do about Eric.  Here he was, almost a half hour away from home.  Do I text him and tell him to hurry home or do I leave him in Omaha to wait out the storm which was predicted to take hours?  I asked Mario and he thought Eric might be safer at the Civic Center where graduation was taking place. But I didn't want my child away from me during this time.  I texted Eric and told him about the storm. He didn't know what to do.  I didn't know what to tell him.  I started clearing my yard so there wouldn't be flying objects to hit my windows.  I asked my neighbor, who is always on her front porch, for advice on what to do about Eric.  She said, if it were her son, she would want him home.  So I ran back inside and saw that the news said the storm was about 45 minutes out from hitting us.  I quickly texted Eric and told him to leave NOW.  So he and Caitlin got up and left and headed home.  I asked Caitlin to text me every few minutes to let me know they were ok.  After a few minutes, I texted them and told them that there were no tornado warnings at this point, so they were ok.  As soon as I said that, the tornado sirens went off.  The twins screamed for me and Erin to get to the basement.  My heart sank, I had put Eric and Caitlin in danger telling them to get home now.   Fortunately Eric and Caitlin got back to her house within a couple minutes of the siren going off.  Caitlin called and asked if Eric should stay at her house or come home.  I looked at the news and they weren't reporting anything yet in our area so I made the decision to have Eric come home.  It was tough, but at a time like this, I wanted my children all gathered together with me.  I guess I knew that he would be ok driving home because now as I think about it, it was probably crazy having him leave her house to come home.

Fortunately the sirens went off pretty quickly and I waited in the garage for Eric to pull up.  As soon as I saw him turn on our street, I cried.  I knew he was safe.  What a relief!

We all huddled in the basement that had been stocked by the twins with all the essentials for a tornado. They brought blankets, pillows, video games, toilet paper, flashlights, bandaids, lotion, water bottles, cell phones, Sophie, and every stuffed animal  they own.  What touched me most, was they remembered to bring their scriptures.  As soon as we all gathered, the twins suggested we say a prayer.  I think it was Nathan that suggested we read our scriptures (I think that may have been first time EVER that Nathan was the one asking to read scriptures.)  We did immediately.

Eric and Erin each brought down their kindles and phones.  You can see what earthly possessions they value most.  I looked around to see what to bring down.  I decided on the gifts that Mario had given me for Mother's Day (a framed picture of the Washington DC Temple with a tulip garden in front and a book by Elder Holland) and my broken wedding ring.   I had passed by my Bernina and thought about bringing it.  But figured it could be replaced.  I was so happy to have all four of my children with me and that was what was most important.  I wish Mario was there with us too, but I knew he was safe in Virginia.  The thought did occur to me what would happen to him, if he lost all 5 of us to a tornado.  To be honest, I don't even want to think about it.

While Eric and Erin read, the boys and I played games and worked on scouting stuff.  Then Erin declared that she was going up to take a shower.  I looked at the news and it looked like we were out of the danger zone.  The worst of the storm went north of us.  So Eric and Erin said goodnight, they were going to bed up in their rooms.  There was no way I was going to convince the boys to go sleep upstairs, so I slept in the basement with them.

It is interesting to see how we all react in an emergency situation and what we value most.  I love my family and I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that allows us to be an eternal family and for the peace that brings.

Last Couple Weeks

The boys had a pioneer field trip where they dressed and ate like pioneers while visiting historical sites. They would come home and tell me all that they were learning about the Mormon pioneers in school. There's a lot of Mormon history here since we are so close to Winter Quarters.  What a blessing to have a Temple so close.  I go as often as I can.  With school getting out, it will be hard to go on Friday mornings.  That's too bad.  But I will enjoy spending my days with the kids and Mario.

Since Mario is away, I have been having date nights with the kids.  The twins and I went to Applebees one night and Jason's Deli another.  It's hard to find gluten-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free stuff at Jason's Deli.  In fact, I don't like going there unless I can have the chocolate mousse, but I stayed true to Erin's diet plan and had a gluten-free chicken panini without the provolone.  Let's just say I won't be returning to Jason's Deli until I can eat flour and sugar again. The gluten-free bread was awful.  Erin and I went to Outback and that was way better.  I don't think the brand new server liked us though when we explained we needed our food cooked without butter, gluten, or sugar.  We told the poor guy that we had no allergies, so if they made a mistake, don't panic.  I'm sure he wondered why in the world we would give up all those things if we had no allergies.  We are pretty sure they added a little butter to our vegetables.  If they did, that's the only butter we've had this month.  We have until Thursday to finish up this diet.  Erin said that she will add dairy back in but no butter.  I am shocked, she is the butter queen.  I think the 3 boys have only used about 2 sticks of butter this past 3 weeks.  Our family used to go through probably 4 sticks a week when Erin was eating it and Mario was home.  Eric and I enjoyed a lunch date to Chipotle one day after his doctor appointment.

Erin wants to plant a garden, so I suggested we take down our old, falling over swingset in the backyard and put one there.  Never mind that it is totally shaded there, see that's why I can't grow anything.  I don't even get the basics.  The boys and I tried to get the fort/swingset apart but without the proper tools (a chainsaw), we didn't succeed.  I enjoyed watching the boys work together trying to figure out how to take it apart.  The neighbor loaned us tools and gave some advice and I really think he wanted to come over and help but his wife was doing lots of yard work so he felt guilty leaving her to come to our house to do some demolition.  He told me he'd prefer the demolition to the yard work.  I told him it could wait for Mario.

Erin had a piano recital.  She did beautifully.  If I can get video to work on this blog, I'll post it.

I barely see Eric or at least Eric alone.  He is always at work, school, or with his girlfriend Caitlin.   We all love her, including the twins and Erin.  They are all begging Eric to marry her.  That may be a little premature since they have only dated a month and he still has a mission and some college and she's Catholic.   Who knows, maybe they'll be the next Billy and Kristen.  Here are pictures that Caitlin posted to her twitter account.  She is a keeper because she enjoys the antics of Zach and Nate.  I wasn't home when these were taken so I'm not quite sure what they were doing but whatever it was, I'm sure they were up to no good since they were on Eric's truck.

The twins and I went to the Nebraska Renaissance Festival that is held within a few miles of our home. That was an interesting experience.  While standing in a long line to get in, we were behind a guy wearing full Renaissance clothing.  I thought he worked there and so was wondering why he was in line.  Nope, visitors come to the festival dressed up.  The boys and I were clearly confused on how anyone could get so excited about a Renaissance Festival, that they would come fully costumed. Whatever.  We went to the jousting tournament, which was equally as interesting.  The crowd was really into it.  I looked at the boys and they both just sat there expressionless (just like me.)  I felt like a snob.  Maybe we are snobby.  I don't know.  Maybe it's because we aren't from Nebraska and we have seen so much.  Maybe we aren't easily amused.  That makes me a little sad.  We would have left after an hour, but I had paid almost $30 for the three of us to get in, so I tried to drag it out.  We ended up watching a juggling show which was very entertaining but way too much adult humor.  The juggler was quite weird.  I would have gotten up and left because of the inappropriate humor but we were sitting in the front row, and I'm sure the juggler would have made us a spectacle if we got up.  But maybe I should have anyway.  Hopefully the humor went over the boys' head.  We dragged out the festival for 3 hours and didn't spend another dime despite them trying to collect money from us at every turn.

 
Mario is doing well in Virginia.  He has been very active in his ward there.  He went to chapel clean-up yesterday and he is giving a talk today in Sacrament Meeting.  I read his talk on Mothers and it was very good.  He sent me a box in the mail so I'm anxious for the kids to wake up so I can open up my Mother's Day gift.  I doubt he went back to the Bernina store, so I'm curious what could be in the box. Mario will be home in under 2 weeks for the long holiday weekend.  We are so excited.

Oh, something I forgot.  I have been slacking with Cub Scout stuff.  I keep getting emails from the leaders reminding me to have the boys work on certain requirements.  A couple Sundays ago, I finally got the book out and started trying to figure out the Webelos Program (I have never done a thing with scouts except help with Eric's Eagle project.)   I made some phone calls to the leaders and then got busy.  In the last couple weeks, the boys finished up citizen, fitness, and traveler badges as well as some belt loops.  They had their Webelos interview and are ready to start Arrow Of Light.  They began working on scholar and athlete badges.  We have been working on Cub Scout stuff every free moment we can and I tell you the boys are teetering back and forth between hating me for pushing the scouting stuff to wanting to complete all 20 badges by their 11th birthday.  But I think I earned the respect back from their scouting leaders.  I think they had given up on me, but nope, I'm on board now and we are accomplishing so much.  It feels good.  I just have to find a good balance.  That's why we took the break and went to the Renaissance Festival yesterday.