Happy Birthday, Sydney!

Sydney just had a birthday!

Can you believe she is 14 years old?

It seems like just a minute ago she was a little baby...

She was a ham even then!

She cracks me up!

She went fishing this fall - what a catch!

 Last week she was in the science fair (she's the one on the left)

And here she is with her Grandpa and her Dad (she's the one in the middle)

And in the rain

And with a dog

And in the air

 Pheasant hunting last year with her dad and dog.

Thumbs up for a great kid!

In honor of her 14th birthday, here are 14 things about Syd:

1 - She is a smarty, but she doesn't flaunt it.

2 - She is really good at doing hair - her own hair and her sisters' hair.  If you need a fancy 'do, ask Sydney!

3 - She is very athletic - she seems to be able to just jump right in and do anything - volleyball, basketball, running, jumping, waterskiing, tennis, dodge ball, pull ups, etc!

4 - She can do hard things, even if she doesn't want to.  This year as part of her calling as Beehive class president, she has had to make a lot of phone calls.  She hates that!  And she will complain about it (oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth) but then get on the phone and do it, with such a sweet voice!  Yay!

5 - She is very organized.  She likes her things to be just so, and sharing a room with a messy sister is a little rough...

6 - Sydney is the same height as me.  5'2"  She wants to be taller...

7 - It is really hard to get Sydney to smile for the camera - she can always sense with the camera is on her and will hide or make a silly face. 

8 - Sydney could drive now.  14 years old is the legal driving age in SD!  It is a little scary to see some of her 8th grade friends driving! I think we are going to wait a while....

9 - Sydney did drive yesterday in the church parking lot with her dad.  Watch out!

10 - Sydney is a great babysitter.  She is totally fun with little kids, but she is also really selective about who she will babysit for.

11 - She will be a high school freshman next year!

12 - Sydney loves fancy fingernails.  She keeps her nails looking lovely all the time, and is really good at painting them.  She has done several of the fancy nails as seen on pinterest -- like the tie-dyed nails and the newsprint fingernails.  So fancy!

13 - She is crafty - she is good with beads and string and paper and paint and the sewing machine.

14 - For Sydney's birthday yesterday, Nathan and I took her out to lunch at Taco Bell (she had less than 30 minutes and TB is close, plus, I heart taco bell).  We were all enjoying our taco's when I suddenly knocked my drink over.  The lid was doing a fine job holding the soda in until I grabbed the cup and popped the lid off.  My diet coke completely covered Sydney's brand new jeans.  And she just went with it.  She laughed about it and didn't get mad at me for ruining her day.  That's just the kind of kid she is -- awesome! (we did take her home to change before going back to school)

Happy Birthday, Syd!

Snowmobile

It has been so fun to have Nathan home.  The transition back to family can be a little rocky, but so far everything has been great.  Sometimes by the end of his two weeks of leave after a deployment, I am itching for him to get back to work.  He is heading back in to work tomorrow, and I'm not even feeling a little sick of him (yet!).

me - still happy!

We didn't go on a cruise, or take the kids to Disney World, or go to Hawaii.  Those kinds of things are tricky to do when you have school aged kids.  And I think learning how to be a family again, at home, is a good thing.

So, we just stuck around here. Nathan has taken the little kids to school each day, and has rushed out to meet them after school.  John and Emily are loving that (I usually make them walk alllllll the way home.)  He has been a good sport about cub scouts and violin lessons and wrestling meets and band concerts and volleyball.  Whew.  It's been a busy, and fun two weeks.

Nathan and I did plan a little mini get away in the Black Hills last weekend.

First, we took a nice drive from our house, up Nemo Canyon, and on into Deadwood.  Then, we had lunch in Lead at the Roundhouse Restaurant.  It is a beautifully restored roundhouse with a nice menu.  You could even eat in a engine!  Which we started to do, but then our server spilled our drinks while climbing the stairs to the engine, so we decided to sit down on the ground floor.

at the Roundhouse Restaurant

Next, we drove to the Spearfish Canyon Lodge.  It is a lovely log cabin lodge in a beautiful location - towering canyon walls, deep snow, waterfall - beautiful!

We had dinner at the Latchstring Inn across the street.  We also had breakfast and lunch there the next day.  Breakfast and lunch were great, but dinner was a little gaggy.  Who serves a caesar salad with fake powdered parmesan cheese?  So weird....

But dessert was amazing!  We split an Apple Dumpling.  Mmm...  It was so good, we decided to come back and have another one at lunch... and then we had to make a batch when we got home.  Yum!  That recipe is really close to what we had at the restaurant, and the sauce is amazing - it looks a little thin and watery when you poor it in the pan, but it turns into a rich caramel sauce while it bakes.  Must eat with a scoop of ice cream!

I had made reservations for the snowmobiles several weeks before our trip.  It seemed like a good idea at Christmas time, but we haven't had much snow since then, and I really thought I should cancel.  When we got up into the hills (really not far from our home, just 45 minutes or so) there was lots of snow.  And lots of snowmobilers at the lodge.  Trailers of snowmobiles from North Dakota and Minnesota.  And snowmobiles zipping all around.

There are 350 miles of groomed snowmobile trails in the Spearfish/Lead/Deadwood area.  And lots of people enjoying them, but not so many that we felt crowded.

I rented a double snowmobile, mostly because that was all that was available, and also because I am a wimp.  It was fun, but I could see Nathan looking longingly at the wild trails of the cooler and more agile one-person snowmobiles.  Our machine was kind of like a station wagon...

But the trails were great, and we were able to get unstuck both times we crashed!

Lovely views of the back country.  We were even in Wyoming for a while.

It was a cold day, but not too cold.  Most of the snowmobilers we saw appeared to be professionals with their slick snowsuits.  We were looking a little getto in our military issue gear.  But we stayed warm!

It was a fun little get away, and we had a great time!  Yay!

Welcome Home!

Tuesday To Do

I love to do lists.  There is something really motivating about crossing stuff off!  I have so much to do in the next few days that I feel like I just might explode!  (Some of this stuff will be done by my minions kids.)  * updates at the end

To Do:
Make a list
Run (maybe) no!
Clean Shower
Quick bathroom wipe down
Consider going out to the base for "resilient training?"
Dust
Dust mop Upstairs
Vacuum Rugs
Mop
Clean out my closet
Vacuum stairs
Vacuum basement
Think about giving the dog a bath (I thought about it and decided not to)
Find the sign and the staple gun
Practice Violin
Go to the Store
Violin Lessons
Wrestling
Return movies
Charge Camera
Chicken Tacos in the crockpot
Stay off the computer!


I was sitting in bed at 8:30pm, writing this list.  My list got bigger and bigger, and I started to feel nervous, so I jumped up and (quick!) cleaned out my closet, plugged in the camera, moved the laundry along, and found the movies that I need to return!  I think I can sleep now...


* It snowed last night.  Which was not on my list!  Seriously!  So you can just add, start Hannah's car, scrape snow, shovel sidewalk (twice) to that list.  What really stinks is that I just got both my car and Nathan's car washed yesterday...  It's okay.  I decided not to run and not to go out to the base.  That leaves me more time to vacuum...  Have a great day!

* It is lunch time and our house is so clean!  I am going to put the chicken in the crockpot now, and get ready to go to the store.  I can't forget to get dog food...

* Last update - it's 10pm and I am tired.  I have another list for tomorrow, but I think I'll stick to pen and paper.  It's amazing all the things I can do in a day when I really have to!

Writing (and other goals) Update

It is time to write about writing.  I am really enjoying my 34 minutes of writing daily as part of my Round of Words in 80 days, but weekend writing just isn't happening.  We had a super long 4 day weekend last week and I was feeling guilty for not keeping up with the writing, but I've decided that's just the way it is.  I can't write on the weekends. I'm just writing for me, so I get to decide!  I've been playing around with writing some little scenes.  Kind of silly and frustrating and fun.

Last weekend when I wasn't writing, I found a video series on Yahoo called the Failure Club.  I didn't even know there were videos made by yahoo, but this one was really interesting.  In the show, there is a group of adults working toward crazy goals (jumping horses, stand up comedy, writing a famous Christmas song, etc.)  Things they always wanted to do, but just didn't really have time for or didn't really think that they could do.

All year they will be working to do something really crazy and fail and learn along the way.  I think the point of the show is that we often tell ourselves we can't do things because we might fail, when instead we should try to do hard things - that failing isn't the worst thing that could happen - the worst thing is doing nothing at all...

I've only seen a couple of episodes, but it is fascinating, and it made me think about this crazy writing thing I'm trying to do.  I love writing.  I want to be a writer, but I just don't know how, and I am scared to really try.  It is a crazy goal that may not be realistic, but it still worth doing.  Even if I fail.  Just one day at a time!

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In other goal updates,

I am cooking more real food.  I have been planning more meals each week, and finding quick things to fix on days that are busy.  Guess what?  Cooking dinner doesn't seem so terrible.  I can definitely say that I am cooking at least 3 good dinners a week.  I think I can even move my goal up to 5 real dinners a week, now.  Something great about fixing real dinners, is that we do a better job of cleaning up the kitchen on the nights that I cook.  I'm not sure why, but if I pick up pizza, we just don't follow through with our dinner jobs.  But if I fix dinner, then, by golly, someone else had better be washing the dishes and wiping the table!  On the menu for this week is grilled chicken sandwiches, chicken tacos, lasagna, homemade pizza, nacho noche, and ribs.  Everything served with broccoli, because I accidentally bought a gargantuan bag of broccoli at Sam's Club.  What was I thinking!

In running news, last week was cold.  Really cold.  I only ran 3 times.  And all 3 times I was a little worried about frost bite.  Hannah and I went on Monday when my car said that the temperature was 11 degrees.  I'm not sure what the wind chill factor was, but it was really too cold to be out there.  It should be warmer this week, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to run... 

I think I can cross off most of my Organizing goals.  I took a large load of stuff from the basement to Goodwill this week.  It felt good to just let it go.  That was a really cold day.  I didn't have my gloves on while we were unloading the car, and my fingers were aching by the time I hopped back up behind the wheel.  It was like 2 degrees out there and the wind was just brutal!  The basement storage room still needs more work, but it looks a lot better.  I am really glad that I worked on Nathan's shop earlier in the month while the weather was nice!

And my violin practicing goal was not on my original list, but we had our recital on Friday, and I did just fine.  I did not get lost and I didn't run out of the room crying. Yay me!  Being about 30 years older than all the other students is only a little embarrassing!

Fainting

Sydney has a little problem.

She faints sometimes.

She has fainted twice at school this year.  Once in her woodshop class and once off the risers in her choir class.  She has also had several almost passing out episodes, and has passed out other times in the last few years.

Yesterday, Sydney, Hannah and I were shopping at the mall.  She tried on a couple of cute skirts and some jeans, and as I was checking out, Sydney disappeared.


I started out of the store while Hannah went to go find Sydney.  I thought maybe she was just looking at the clothes, but Hannah found her in the back of the shop near the changing rooms, laying down.

She had no color in her face.  She is pale anyway, but she really had no color, except for her freckles.  Her skin felt cold, and she was sweaty.  It was an actual cold sweat.

She didn't think she passed out, but was not sure.  I had her lay down with her knees up, and she rested for a while.

When she felt better, we walked to the food court and bought two different strawberry smoothies to taste-test.

The Strawberry-Julius was the winner.

The problem is, I don't know what to do.  When she first passed out at school this year, I took her to the doctor and they ran a full EKG and did a simple neuro exam.  They also ran a blood test.  Everything checked out fine.  They recommended more protein in her diet.  I told her she should stop wearing her corset!

I'm a little worried, because it is still happening...  On the other hand, when you google 13 year old girl and fainting, it turns out it is a rather common thing.  So maybe I shouldn't worry...

I don't know.  Sydney is not a weak little girl.  She is not afraid of anything.  She is strong and fast and full of energy.

Should I ask for a more thorough physical?  Any thoughts?

Busy Weekend

On Friday, Hannah had a gig.  Her friends were playing at the Dahl Emerging Artists Program, and they asked her to "open" for them.  I just found a short video of her on a local news station.  You can't actually hear her play, but she looks so cute playing the Manta Ray Uke, made by Nathan.

I wasn't able to go watch Hannah's big performance because we had 4 little 5th graders learning how to do the Hoe Down Throwdown for the elementary school talent show over here at our house.  (so cute)  But Hannah came home just dancing around and happy about it.  She was invited to come back and bring her dad, too.

here's the link again:  http://www.blackhillsfox.com/2012/01/13/Dahl-serves-as-venue-for-emerging-artists

I wish I could just put the video here.  Do you know how to do that?

Later on Friday Night we hosted a Seminary Party.  There were about 15 kids from church over here eating pizza, watching a movie and playing games.  The big hit of the night was PIT, and when things got a little out of hand (read LOUD),  I found some sparklers that were left over from the 4th of July and they had a great time with those!

On Saturday, John had his first wrestling match.


I felt entirely out of my element and just about to cry all day.  I really wish Nathan had been there to help John.  It was definitely a dad world.  But John wrestled hard and did a great job.















Here is a video of John's last match:

Mustache, Ukulele, Writing Update #3

Nathan has been working on growing a mustache the last few months.

Hannah's tried out a few mustache styles, herself.

A sliced peach mustache?

Emily has taken the art of mustache to a whole new level.

Huh?

Even Grandpa B. tried it out!

I am trying NOT to grow a mustache.  I hope.  But I think my un-mustache may be chapped.  I went running today and it was cold and windy.  I wore a little muffler around my neck and chin and nose, but it would get too hot and sweaty, and then I'd move it down.  And then the sweat on my face would kind of freeze and now my upper lip area is sore and red.  Hmmm.  

The mustache is just a little bit of deployment fun. 

Nathan has had another project to keep him out of trouble.

Building Ukuleles.

He has built two himself, and helped build another two.

He has had a little workshop in his room.  Do you see that crazy contraption back there behind the uke?  It is used to form the sides of the ukulele, and I had to mail it to Nathan.  It is full of cranks and turning parts and an electric pad and plug.  I was pretty sure I was going to be picked up as the unibomber after I mailed it!

Aren't they beautiful?

Nathan learned how to build these while we were in Hawaii.  I think he's pretty amazing.  

And so is his mustache!

*****

Also amazing, is the 34 minutes of writing that I'm doing daily as part of the ROW in 80 days...  I am enjoying using my time more deliberately each day with writing as a part of that.  I have been writing and thinking about teen parenthood.  Partly because I'm writing about it, and partly because it has been a weird year with Hannah being the same age that I was. 

Sometimes when I am cheering her on at her latest big event, I think about the me that was 17 and I worry about her (me).   When I was 17, I really didn't worry. I felt all grown up.  I felt like I could do anything, and though I had messed up, everything would still be just fine.  

But looking back as the mom-of-a-17-year-old, I can see all the many ways in which things could have gone wrong.  So many what ifs, that I get a little catch in my throat just thinking about it!  

Hannah, Sydney, Emily and John.  Dec. 2011

And then I look at the family we are and I wonder if it is unlucky to say, Wow!  Look at us now!

It's time to start writing about something else.  Tomorrow.  I'm just not sure what....