A Tale in NUMB3RS

April 23:   

After 6 weeks of painting, oodles of reorganizing, and having 2 kids displaced out of their bedroom, 

we got a 3 hour window on Saturday for getting  2 new beds and 1 desk delivered.

After the delivery we went to work and spent the next 10 hours moving kid #4 to his own room and kid #3 out of her own room to share with kid #5, after which kid #2 promptly came home from college and displaced kid #4 from the room he'd had for himself for all of 2 hours, so she could take it over for the next 3 months before she goes on her mission to France for 18 months.  It was a long day of being on task and I am a little embarrassed to admit that every single 1 of the 6 of us that were home most of the day were well past our threshold of being well functioning and happy by the end of the day.   In fact, at 1 point, we sneaked away from the work for a quick dinner at a local Italian place, and I may or may not have burst into tears in the middle of dinner when kid #? broached a subject about which I was very sensitive about.   That was the first time I've hard a good hard cry in public in like 43 years, which ironically is how old I turn on April 25. 

Ignore the lack of decorations,  poor quality of picture, sloppily made beds,  and the extra mattress in the middle of the floor.   That's just how we roll around here.   

Weekend in NUMB3RS

I had 13 kids at our house most of the weekend, including 9 that slept over here on Friday night.

Cami was getting paid to take care of 5 of the kids overnight and for most of two days.

4 of the kids were my nieces and a nephew that Ellie had been begged to have over for a night.

3 of the guests had fevers.

I  fed bowls of egg noodles in broth to 2 kids who are allergic to eggs.    Thankfully neither reacted to it.    The mom suspects that it's because the noodles only contained egg yolks and not the more allergenic whites.  I feel majorly horrible, especially since I pride myself in being uber  careful about people's food allergies.   I think I was thrown off because the kids were sick and not eating anything else I served.    

Cami had 1 cupcake order and 1 tutoring job during her babysitting stint, which is why I was feeding kids without her around.

Glen and Spence both completed legs of a 70-mile relay.

Glen ran about 10 miles, Spence about 14.     Two friends did all 70-miles themselves.

I worked on the yard for 2-hours in the heat of the day, mostly to escape the noise on the inside of our house.  The kids found a beautiful white-marked tussock moth caterpillar, while I found that I have the capacity to sweat A LOT.

It was 1/2 hour before the evening session of stake conference was supposed to start and I realized that I hadn't showered, I was wearing my grubbies, still had 13 kids at our house, hadn't made dinner yet, and was covered in grass stains from working on the yard.   I opted not to go.

I spent 20-minutes cleaning up after a little blender "incident" that one of my children had (see picture below).   

 I was fine most of the weekend and it wasn't really until the next day that I got a little overwhelmed....mostly after  viewing the aftermath of this weekend on our house (see a glimpse in the pictures above and below). 

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Here are a few pictures of our crazy weekend...you know, so I can look back at all this with nostalgia someday!

Did I forget to mention that my brother is back from his nearly 3-month European tour and is hoping to find a job here?    

21 Years!

21-years ago today, on a beautiful sunny and cold Colorado morning,  Glen and I were married in the Denver temple.  We were young, but very much in love and so excited to be starting our new lives together.   

December 18, 1993

In those 21-years we've...

earned 3 college degrees

(Lara {BS}, Glen {BS, MAcc})

had 5 kids

(Spencer, Cami, Emma, Adam, Ellie)

lived at 6 different addresses

 (1 in Utah, 3 in Baltimore, 2 in Virginia)

owned 1 house

(where we currently live)

been in 4 different wards 

(C H 1st--3-years, Tow./Luth.--2-years, Hamp.--1-year, Vi.--15-years)

owned or leased 8 cars 

(some of them better than others)

(Dodge Shadow [93-96], Ford Taurus [96-98], Toyota Camry [98-02], Toyota Sienna #1 [02-14], 

Toyota Corolla [03-11], Toyota Sienna #2 [11-?], Lexus [14-?], Honda Accord [14-?])

totaled 2 of those cars

(Glen x1, Cami x1) 

owned 1 Christmas tree

(bought it at a Black Friday sale when we were first married)

lost 6 grandparents

(only my paternal grandmother is left)

had 1 kid diagnosed with a life-threatening illness

(He's 2-1/2 years in remission now!!!!) 

had 1 kid diagnosed with a chronic, life-affecting illness

(Ellie told Cami just yesterday that she was glad she didn't have to worry about driving 

when she was older, because the thought of driving made her nervous.  I hope she feels the same in 7-years.)

had 4 surgeries performed

(Spencer x3 {central line placement and removal, appendix removal}, Emma x1 {eye surgery})

homeschooled each one of the kids for at least one year

(actually we're in the middle of Emma's year right now)

had 5 broken bones

(Spencer x2 {finger + toe}, Adam x1 {foot}, Ellie x1 {ankle}, Lara x1 {toe}) 

had 6+ pets

(2 hermit crabs, 2 gerbils, an assortment of fish, 1 dog) 

been on countless road trips together 

(as a family we're up to 42 states, we only have SC, GA, FL, MS, AL, LA, AK, and HI left)

changed approximately 22,812 diapers

(averaging 5 per day, 2-1/2-years per kid)

21-years later…
we're older, grayer, heavier…

and more in love than ever!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Counting Our Blessings from 2013

Counting our Blessings

2013 in NUMB3RS

Glen and I celebrated 20 years of marriage in December

Spencer is 19 months in remission from leukemia

With Emma's 13th birthday in October, we became parents to 3 terrific teenagers

Ellie turned 8 and was baptized a member of our church

Spence graduated from 12th grade at FCHS and headed to JMU this past fall

I pulled the youngest 2 kids out of school to be homeschooled

We logged 3000+ miles this summer on a road trip to Boston, Acadia NP, PEI, and Quebec City
Lara has the privilege of spending time each week with 26 fabulous young women at church
We join with 5 other families to participate in a fun, educational homeschool co-op that is the key to mine and the kids' sanity this year

Cami left us for 2 weeks at Christmastime to help build houses in Mexico

We spent about 6 weeks without a kitchen, while ours got stripped down to the studs and rebuilt (we still need to paint and refinish the floors)
Glen gets to be the song leader for  100+ primary children each week
Cami is taking 3 AP classes which is about equal to the number of hours she sleeps each night
Emma finished the 6th grade and graduated from elementary school

We finally replaced the deck that sent Glen to the hospital last year to get 7 stitches

Adam won 1st place in the pinewood derby and went on to place 4th in districts
We consider the friendship and love of family and friends to be among our most PRICELESS blessings!

Happy New Year!!!!

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"We turn with hope...to Him who walked the dusty paths of villages we now reverently call the Holy Land, to Him who caused the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the dead to live. To Him who tenderly and lovingly assured us, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life'(John 14:6)." 

Nineteen Years

Here we are on December 18, 1993.
We were young, naive, and very much in love.

In the 19-years since that beautiful day we've....

bought ONE house
ended up with TWO minivans (at the same time)
lived in THREE states
in FOUR different houses
had FIVE kids
said goodbye to SIX grandparents
had our last baby SEVEN years ago
we have EIGHT different medical specialists attend to our family's health
we've held NINE jobs  between us
traveled on at least TEN cross-country road trips together
our average bedtime over the years -- ELEVEN o'clock
we add TWELVE eggs to make our traditional birthday breakfast crepes
we've spent THIRTEEN of those years living in the DC area
Glen and I have run in FOURTEEN endurance events (half-marathons or greater)
our kids have FIFTEEN cousins
we yawn at least SIXTEEN thousand times a day
I swear I was just SEVENTEEN last week
 we've enjoyed almost EIGHTEEN of those years as parents
for NINETEEN amazing years I've been the luckiest girl in the world!

First Day by the NUMB3RS

12th grade for Spencer!  We are so happy that he is healthy and well enough to go to school!  He is retaking physics, but is otherwise up-to-par with the rest of his classmates.  He missed the ACT and SAT testing dates in the spring, so he will be taking those sometime this fall. 

11 things I tried to accomplish while everyone was at school.    Unfortunately my list proved to be a little more ambitious than my energy.  

10th grade means my Cami Rose is a sophomore this year.  In addition to taking a challenging course load, she's also running cross country and trying to keep up her cupcake business (only for Saturday orders). 

9-years-old and way annoyed about posing for  first day of school pictures.  Despite the scowl though he's excited about 4th grade and hopes that he does not have as much homework as he did last year!

8 hours of back-to-school paperwork to fill out (and at least that long for my hands to uncramp)

7:30am--when we wake up the younger kids

6th grader, Emma and her friends, are excited to be the kings and queens of the elementary school.  Out of all of our kids, she was by far the most excited about going back to school. 

5:00am--our new wake-up time around here! 

4--how many miles I ran/walked with Glen today.  Man oh man, I  am out of shape!!!!!!

3 kids in elementary school this year! 

2 high schoolers up at the crack of dawn for the next 9 months or so. 

1 little second grader who was uncharacteristically nervous about starting school this year.  She'd had her first day outfit picked out for weeks, but spent the last few days so nervous about  having to officially let go of her beloved first grade teacher and have her first ever male teacher.   

Thankfully it seems that it turned out okay....

My Life in Numb3rs

10: pm--the time Glen gets home on an average night
9: the average number of kids in and out of our house on a summer day
8: hundred dollars at Costco for replenishing the house after nearly running out of everything--including printer ink, laundry detergent, olive oil, tp, diapers, and various other pricey items...AAAACK! (Disclaimer: I hadn't been to Costco in 4 months and I've NEVER spent even half this amount before!)
7: th grade!!! we have a middle school student living in our house!

6: new conveniences this summer...new computer, high speed internet, new washer & dryer, new bathrooms, new microwave, and new curtains!!!5: number of times per week Cami cooks us up something delicious--pancakes, cookies, cinnamon rolls, French toast, lemon bars, etc. Yummmmm!
4: more days until school starts!!!!
3: the number of weeks this summer Glen has been out of town
2: full loads of dishes (at least) and another 2 full loads of laundry--each and every day!
1: am--the time I collapse into my bed each night