Nine Hours a Week!

After the first day of school I knew I was in for a long week with Ellie before preschool got started. She was missing her playmates terribly and thought that I could replace all four of them--wrestling and giggling like Spencer, reading books and snuggling like Cami, playing dress-up and dolls like Emma, and playing house like Adam.

On any given day I can hold my own pretty well with any of those activities, but those first few days of school found me a little (okay A LOT) stressed getting everything together for preschool and preparing for my cousin's family to arrive from Utah.

I was distracted enough that when she randomly took her nap in the middle of the kitchen floor, that I did not even notice until I realized it had gotten kind of quiet.

This week I've been a lot less distracted by stressful pursuits, but even still Ellie has been a little lethargic and lonely without her brothers and sisters around all day.

Until today....

there's no need to be sad and lonely with a group of happy faces like these to play with at PRESCHOOL!!!!


I'm not sure who was more excited about preschool, me or her.
For my first time EVER, I don't have any kids at home with me 3 hours a day, 3 days a week!

Already today I finally got some good exercise, got caught up on the 365 blog, cleaned up a bit from my 20-month-old cousin (once removed?) who likes to dump out toy bins, and Ellie magically stopped begging me for food and friends nonstop all day.

Next week my house will be spotlessly clean, I'll have lost 20 lbs., I'll have written a Pulitzer Prize winning blogpost, and Ellie will be reading at an eighth grade level....

Day 258--Back to Preschool!!!

Today is a happy day at our house. After almost a week without any siblings to play with all day, Ellie finally started preschool today!!


She was as eager as can be about going and I won't lie. I was probably even more excited than she was.

I finally got some exercise, got this 365 blog all caught back up so Glen can stop calling me a slacker, and Ellie isn't begging me for food and friends all day! Woohoo!

Day 257--Monday

Ellie really doesn't know what to do with herself when it comes to being home by herself all day. Today we actually had baby Jonas staying with us, but it wasn't quite the same still.

We (Ellie, Jonas, AnnaLisa, and I) walked to our neighborhood park this morning and Ellie really enjoyed her little taste of big sisterhood as she doted on Jonas. Hopefully she's getting her fill, because it's as close as she'll ever get to big sisterhood.

At the park Ellie made it very clear that A) she was lonely and B) she was tired.

For family home evening tonight we tried out some gluten free chocolate chip cookies for Chelise (Josh's wife) who is allergic to gluten. They didn't hold together quite as well as normal gluten filled cookies, but they weren' t too bad either.

Then we had a lesson taught about "Love At Home". Ellie had wanted to help with the lesson, so she was my personal lesson giving assistant!

Labor Day Labors

Most people think Labor Day is a day for picnics and swimming and, in general, resting from your labors. It's all fine and dandy that most people do that, but in our family we have no need for rest and relaxation. Our lives are all about superfluous seriosity.

My philosophy is why in the world would they call it LABOR day if it weren't for laboring?

This year we decided on a task that would test our patience, agility, and attention to details. It was going to be a bucket load of hard work, but we were hoping that in the end that the kids could look past the reddened, prickled hands and slimy worms and truly enjoy the fruit of their labors.

The work was so back-breaking that even Cami had to put her full weight into its efforts...



and Ellie was so over-worked she kept having to take short breaks to rejuvenate her energy level with a quick snack...

And, Spencer, the poor kid! He hadn't even started seminary yet, but we wore him out to the bones and he didn't even notice when Cami lost her balance from the heavy labors and almost dropped our entire day's bounties onto his fatigued body.

It was difficult and back-breaking work, but in the end our superfluous seriosity paid off with a bucket load of joy!

Whew! With that kind of hard work to start off our week, no wonder I'm so dog tired now!

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Cami and Lara

Peanut Oil + Chicken = YUM YUM!

Most of you may remember this post about how they were building our favorite fast food restaurant a mere mile or so from our house? Well, since then we have each gained 935 lbs. and have become among their most loyal customers.

So, the other day I asked someone what they thought about the new Chick-fil-A and they told me they'd never been there and wondered what I thought was so great about it.

After dropping my mouth open in horror that there was someone hadn't tasted their crispy chicken sandwich slathered with Polynesian sauce, I decided I need to summarize my feelings about it here on the blog so that next time I'm prepared with a better come-back than "The food is all cooked in peanut oil".

So why is Chick-fil-A our favorite restaurant?

1. peanut oil is addictive and makes their food taste leaps and bounds better than average fast food fare(I'm going to try deep frying my broccoli in peanut oil next time to see if that helps the kids eat it better)

2. it has a play center for the kids to burn off all the calories they consume there

3. it's closed on Sunday, so we're not even slightly tempted to stop for an easy Sabbath dinner (not that it would tempt us even if it were open, but you know it is nice to support a business that supports good values)

4. their milk shakes are delish and totally worth the horrible indigestion that milk inflicts upon me!

5. their employees actually  make you think they're  glad to help you

6. they have cool give-aways where you can dress up like a cow or wear your team colors and get free food

Speaking of cool giveaways, on Labor day we heard that they were giving away free sandwiches to anyone wearing their favorite sporting apparel. We were still on a high from BYU's miraculous win against OU and weren't about to let an opportunity for free food (and a chance to show off our true blue colors) to pass us by.

We walked in there and just like that they handed over 7 sandwiches to us.

Then we noticed our good friends, the Nielsons, sitting there in all their BYU gear there for their second meal of the day.

Upon a little more looking around we found that our little Chick-fil-A was filled with other Cougar fans and that we probably could have just planned a ward party there and taken over management.

Who would have ever guessed that Mormons like free food so much?

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Day 256--Family Get-Together

We have a monthly tradition of meeting together with my brothers Matt & Pete and their families, my cousin Aaron and his family, and of course my sister AnnaLisa (who lives with us). We each take turns hosting and really enjoy the time to reconnect with all of us East Coast Crains.

We had our gathering today at Pete and Mika's house, which with the visit of my Hepworth cousin Josh, Chelise, and baby Jonas it brought the grand total of attendees up to 26 people (15 of whom were children).

Mika & Pete made a feast fit for kings with their ginormous freshly grilled hamburgers. The kids love spending time with their cousins (and first cousins once removed) and we love chilling with the other adults.

{Please do NOT look at my haggard looking face in this picture. I'm a seminary mom now...remember? I've aged 10 years in the last 6 days}.

I also thoroughly enjoyed snuggling little baby Sammy (Aaron and Trish's son). I can finally say I'm to the point where I can enjoy holding a little baby without even the slightest tinge of baby hunger.

Church Basketball

first concussion

Day 255--Soccer, Soccer, Bo, Boccer

The first games of the soccer season were today.

Adam was so excited to be playing again, that he just couldn't seem to wipe that smile from his face. He was huffing and puffing as he ran up and down the field, but even still he kept that smile the entire game.


While Adam played, Emma was charged keeping baby Jonas (my cousin's son) entertained. Emma thoroughly enjoyed her realm of responsibility and doted on him hand and foot.

Of course, after a while Cami realized she was getting gypped of Jonas time and took over for Emma.

Then it was off to Emma's soccer game. She hadn't played since she was five, so she was pretty nervous getting started. It didn't take too long though before Emma was running full speed ahead and defending that ball!

When Emma's game was done, she got to play with one of her BFF's who plays on the same team with her. Audrey has recently moved away and Emma has been going through Audrey withdrawals lately. But with Audrey's dad as the coach they're ensured three days a week together for the next couple months!

Day 254--Precarious Feats of Balance

It looks like the new order of my days now are going to be "Precarious Feats of Balance and Being in Two (or More) Places at Once."

Thursday nights now consist of Adam's soccer practices, Spencer's freshman football games, Young Women for Cami, and Activity Days for Emma. (That would be three places at once).

While most Friday nights won't be quite as jam packed, this particular one held a Popsicles on the Playground activity at the elementary school, a ward activity at the park, Emma's soccer practice on a far away field across town, and the high school's varsity football games (which Spencer is required to attend).

Thank goodness for a little rain today which canceled the varsity football game and elementary school activity and meant that I only had TWO places to be in at once instead of four. We went straight from Emma's soccer practice to the ward party where we got to enjoy approximately 4.3 seconds of fun in the pitch dark. On the upside, we did have 2 entire pans of O'Henry bars which we got to keep for ourselves.

Here's a picture of Ellie freezing to death in her cat costume, which of course is a natural choice for wearing to your sister's soccer practices.

Day 253--Relief at Last!

Finally! Two huge things checked off my list.

My cousins arrived from Utah last night (and all of the accompanying scrubbing and straightening was done) and today we had our preschool planning meeting (which meant that I finally finished making the curriculum and making the final decisions on grouping {which was much more stressful than usual this year} ).
We met together at Alex's house and scheduled out the whole year. It was a huge, huge burden off my shoulders to finally have the meeting (and have it go well) and be all set to start preschool next week! I was equally relieved to learn that the other group's meeting went well too. Finally I can sleep soundly again, which is a good thing now that I'm waking up at 5:30am.
It's going to be a fun year!

Unbalanced

I'm unbalanced.

There's just no other way to put it. My whole equilibrium is so off-kilter right now, I'm not even sure I have an equilibrium.

It may have something to do with the fact that school has begun again (and way too much homework for it being the first week of school)...

or the fact that I have yet another sick child....

or the fact that I've hardly seen the sun last few days (and that I have a beautiful middle school daughter who comes home and talks about cute guys that look like Zac Efron)...

or that I've spent night and day the past couple of weeks trying to get our ward preschool groups (for 35 kids) up and running...


or that my house is still under construction (no pictures until it's all done!)....

or that out-of-town visitors have come to stay with us for the week....

or that I have three kids participating in Fall sports....

or that I have three places to be at once on Thursday nights....

NOPE!! It's not those.


It's the commencement of early morning seminary.

Suddenly Glen, Spencer, and I are awakening a good hour and a half earlier than we have in a LONG time and I'm lucky if I can keep my eyes open past 10:00, let alone stay up to blog (or comment on anyone else's).

So how tired am I?

I'm so dog tired, I actually told Cami that sheeeeeeee coulllld azhljkalhizzzzzzzzzzzle//jzhoiujzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz andnd seheeh didd itttttttttnnzzzzzkj

Labor Day Raspberry Picking

You may be noticing a change in my blog over the next several months and it won't be for the better.

In the last few days:

School startedI have one baby in high school (no picture), one baby in middle school,


and two in elementary.


And in an effort to get Ellie back in preschool, I've been knocking myself out trying to get our ward preschool groups (for 35 kids) up and running .

{You don't get pictures of this chaos}

Then, in my distraction of above preschool project have bored my youngest (and only one at home with me) to playing princess by herself and sacking out on the kitchen floor.



Have another sick child (missing the second day of school when you're in first grade is NOT as fun as when you're older)


Out of town guests arrived (My cousin Josh, his wife Chelise, and baby Jonas)


And Spencer started early morning seminary for the first time.


Basically this means that

Day 252--09/09/09

With a cool date like this it should've been a super cool, exciting day, but it wasn't.

After a total melt-down the night before, I woke up today stressed about all that I had to do. Not only was I weighed down by some big decisions to make, panicked about trying to get ready for my cousins to arrive from Utah, but I was also completely and totally exhausted with the arrival of early morning seminary into our lives this morning. It was set to be a long day.

Then Adam woke up with a fever. After being so disappointed that he was missing his second day of first grade, he promptly laid down and slept most of the day away.

It could've added to my stress to have him home, but I think it actually helped ground me a little. I didn't have to feel guilty for not running errands and he was so cute with Ellie when he was awake that I think that him being home actually made my life a little easier.