Great To Be Eight!!!!

                                                  Harrison the day he was baptized.  May 16, 2009

Eight is very warmly welcomed around here.  It's more than a year older.  It's a right of passage.  It's a new beginning.  It's an equalizer age.  It's when we make some big commitments, and receive some big blessings.  It's the age that the Lord has revealed is the age of accountability.  It's the age when we get to be baptized.  It's the age when we receive a very special gift.  This gift that is bestowed upon us, is to help us keep those covenants which we make at our baptism.  It is the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Eight also means that we are accountable for our sins and need to learn how to repent.

Harrison recently made this commitment.  I had the privilege of accompanying him when he went in for his interview with the bishop.  He invited me.  He was so sweet.  He was shining and understandably excited.  Admittedly a little nervous at first, but quickly warmed right up and was comfortable once he figured out what it was all about.  You see, it was all about one of his favorite things: His testimony.  He talked to the bishop about why he wanted to be baptized and what it means to him personally.  He was asked if he believed in Christ and that he died for us.  He was asked if he believed that we have a living prophet on the earth today, who leads and guides the Church.  He was asked a few other questions, too.  He was amazing.  I was humbled.  I didn't coach, prepare or tell him what he was going to be talking about.  And you know what?  The kid knows his stuff.  He knows that God loves him, that Jesus is the Christ and that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today.  Harrison is a spiritual giant and I am so honored to be his Mommy.  He teaches me so much.  I see the Lord shaping and molding him into a fine young man.

Mike baptized him.  That was another sweet, spiritual experience.  I'll have to ask him to write about it here, I will not be able to tell the whole story.

So far we have five people in our family who have been baptized, three to go.  Each one is individual, personal and joyous.  I am thankful that Caleb, Lundi an Harrison have made this step and look forward to the others.

After the baptism we went to get a store bought cake, brought it home so he could decorate it himself.  Surprisingly, he chose a truck theme.  (Imagine that.)

Harrison is funny, sensitive, loud, active, strong, thoughtful, loving, handsome and quick on his feet.  He loves to ride his bike, antagonize his brothers, tell jokes, mow the lawn, hug and kiss his family, bear his testimony, sing, wash windows, jump on his bed, make up recipes( like a peanut-butter, yogurt and mustard sandwich), play with tractors and trucks in the dirt, ski, ride the four wheeler, care for (and read to) Audrey, play baseball and listen to loud music, (especially "Born in the USA" and "We Will Rock You").

He loves to eat most everything....except rice.  

He loves old people and has an exceptional amount of compassion for them.  

His greatest attribute is that he is teachable.  

He has a beautiful smile and big brown eyes.  Infact, Laurette calls him "My boy with the big eyes" and Harrison loves her for it.  They have a special bond.  It's beautiful to witness.

Happy Birthday Harrison.  We love you and are so happy that you are in our family.  You are a special son of God.

KKS

Tuesday....Part Three

Why would we miss an opportunity to go to the beach when we were only minutes away from it?  Especially if we had jackets for everyone in the trunk of the van?  Why would we pass up the chance to......

....pee outside?

(I gotta go!  I gotta go!  Mommy, where can I go pee?)

Ahhhhhh!!

......collect shells and many beautiful pieces of drift wood?

....draw in the sand?

.......give Liam the opportunity to play in ENDLESS dirt?

and run along the pier?

  Well.....you see.....we wouldn't!!!!  Because nothing, I mean NOTHING calms my spirit or soothes my soul like the beach.  And the kids....well, they just think it's more fun than an amusement park, even if it's too cold to get wet.  We only stayed an hour but could have stayed six if the sun wasn't going down.  We'll go back again soon.

KKS

More From Tuesday

After we left the Rehab where Laurette is staying, I needed to feed the baby.  For the kids, this usually means: Stay in your seats, no screaming and don't open any doors.  Lucky for them, we weren't on the side of the road.  At this place there was a big field with rolling hills.  That was music to their ears.  They knew it meant that they could run around and do whatever they wanted.  And they did.......

Notice that in every picture, Lauren has her hand on her backside.  Well, you see....she forgot her belt and these shorts are a little too big.

KKS

A Bitter Sweet Day

Sorry.  I guess I left that ranting post up way too long.  It's O.K.  I'm O.K., I'm over it.  Most of the time, I can handle those days, but on that day, I was hanging by a thread...all day.  I think it had a lot to do with the amount of sleep I got.

Today we went to go see this precious person.....

....and lets just say, she is not doing well.  Since she had her great fall, she has also had a heart attack, been hospitalized three times, and has yet to get out of bed.  She doesn't use the right side of her body at all.  Her right arm is giving her a lot of pain She broke it in two places).  She did recognize us, although we had to remind her of the childrens' names.  She was absolutely thrilled to hold the baby, and Audrey laid in her arm and cooed at her for quite some time.  It was so sweet.  It made Laurette so happy.  It was soooo worth the four hour trip.  The kids can always bring a smile to her face.  As a matter of fact, everyone that lives there smiles when they come around.  I get stressed out about Liam wandering in and out of the residents rooms, but all of the old people just light up when they see him, so I am reminded that children bring sunshine into their lives.  I am also touched by how much compassion my children show to these people.  It really brings out the best in them.  I am so thankful for the lessons that they are learning, which can never be taught.

            The oldest person that I love (95), and the youngest person that I love (5 months).

KKS

What A Day.....

A terrible day, one from hell.  Can I say that if my good husband spent the day at the temple? 

Here are a few reasons why:  Ninety degrees in the house. Resistance from every child when asked to do anything.  Liam was on a path of destruction, and left a mess everywhere he went.  Harrison drank all of his Sobe vitamin water, wanted more so he made sugar water, Liam found it, drank some and dumped the rest on the floor.  Can you say STICKY mess?  Wasp in the house, everyone freaked.  Caterpillar was brought in from outside, put in a glass jar, kids were fighting over it in a game of tug-of-war.....you can guess what happened next.  Freezer downstairs decided to quit working.  I have  another clogged duct, which always leads to Mastitis.  Liam decided to travel around the house with a banana.  Dropped it on the living room floor, needless to say, it got stepped on (at least three times).  Gross!!  Kitchen sink is leaking stinky water from a pipe underneath.  It's 8:30 and NO ONE, let me say it again NO oNE is asleep.  I've heard B.H. call it "arsenic hour", I call this an "Arsenic Day."  No, I don't want to administer it, I want to ingest it.

 After an hour of the bed time battle, I felt defeated.  I retreated to my bedroom to escape into cyberspace.  In order to avoid a mid life crisis, or a mental breakdown, I went to iTunes and purchased a bunch of songs and turned the music up really loud.  I needed an escape.  I was feeling like a rebellious teenager who wanted nothing, but to shirk responsibility.  So I down loaded all of the fitting songs like "Psycho Killer", "Dead Mans Party", "Devil Inside", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Love Is A Battle Field", "Burning Down The House"........among others.  Oh.......and "Delta Dawn" because I missed my sister.

I had been in here for a short time, when one after another they slithered into my room.  It wasn't long before all six of them were in here.  Each came fully equipped with complaints, tattles, needs and sob stories about why they couldn't go to bed.  So I said "O.K., everybody come in here and we're going to have a dance party on my bed."  So after a lot of hoopin' and hollerin', the party began.  They jumped, and jumped, fell off the bed, flipped and crashed.  One nearly fell out the window, but was saved by the screen.  After about a half hour of this, I looked at my bed and saw drip.....drip.....drip.....drip.....drip of red stuff all over my bed.  "Um, is someone bleeding?" I asked.  They all look at each other....I knew the panic was coming as soon as we discovered the source from which the red stuff sprang.  Harrison says "My Toe!!!!!  My toe is bleeding.!!"  So he freaks out, I send him to sit on the side of the tub (in hopes to keep that blood contained) until I could get to him.  I was hoping that while I was containing the other chaos (screaming baby, poopy but that had to be wiped, spilled water, fetching a wash cloth to wipe the toe, finding band aids in the unorganized bathroom closet), that the problem would be starved, or the toe would stop bleeding.  I try to avoid blood.  It really makes me sick.  It literally makes my head spin and I can't think straight.  Of course he didn't stay sitting on the side of the tub, so the drippings went down the hallway, and all over the bathroom floor.  By this time everyone was crowded into the bathroom to check out the gore of it all.  I kicked them all out of the bathroom so that I could have a level head to assess the injury.  By the time I got to it, he had a wet sock wrapped around it (he said it was the first thing he could find) and it wasn't bleeding anymore.  Whew!!!!  So I put a band aid on, wrapped that toe with a piece of bandage tape, handed him a Clorox wipe to clean up the blood off the floor, and sent him to bed.  Sent the others to bed, again.  Went to have prayers with all of them, strongly encouraged them to stay in their beds, spat out some unreasonable threat, like "If you get up again, you will be in your room for three days straight."  Came back upstairs, flipped on the T.V.  Once again, kids started slithering from every corner of the house.  (Oh, and it's 95 degrees in the house all this time, and I hate heat about as much as I hate blood).  Blood and heat together means a very short, exasperated, impatient Mommy.  So I just sat on the couch and nursed the fussy baby (fussy because she was sweaty, but wanted to be held), zoned out on the (stupid) T.V. and every five seconds said "Go to bed" whether they were around or not.  I figured there had to be at least one up at any given moment.  I was right.  They were all still awake when Mike walked in the door at 10:30.  First thing he does, hugged and kissed me, then the baby, then the kids and sent them to bed.  Second thing he did, brought up and installed the air conditioners,  I feel better now.  I had chocolate and my room is 65 degrees.  Everyone is asleep.

Goodnight, then.

KKS

Things Like This.....

KKS

Dear Melissa

My Mom Is a Survivor

My mom is a survivor,
Or so I’ve heard it said.
But I can hear her crying at night
When all others are in bed.

I watch her lay awake at night
And go to hold her hand.
She does't know I’m with her
To help her understand.

But like the sands on the beach
That never wash away…
I watch over my surviving mom,
Who thinks of me each day.

She wears a smile for others…
A smile of disguise!
But through Heaven’s door I see
Tears flowing from her eyes.

My mom tries to cope with death
To keep my memory alive.
But anyone who knows her, knows
It is her way to survive.

As I watch over my surviving mom
Through Heaven’s open door…
I try to tell her that angels
Protect me forevermore.

I know that doesn’t help her…
Or ease the burden she bears.
So if you get a chance, go visit her…
And show her that you care.

For no matter what she says…
No matter what she feels.
My surviving mom has a broken heart
That time won’t ever heal.

By Kaye Des’Ormeaux

We have "Savannah's Song" playing loudly today and have been thinking of her.  We miss and love her.  We love you Hurley's!!

KKS

May 18th

Today is Audrey Rindlisbacher's birthday.  Happy birthday, Aud the Bod!!!

It is also the day that our Audrey turns five months.

We celebrated by letting her do her favorite thing in the whole world.......

As you can see, she is getting way too big for her tub.  She had a well baby visit today (complete with shots....hate those!) and she weighs 17 pounds 4 ounces (85th percentile) and is 27 3/4 inches long, which puts her off the charts.  Yup, we make big and cute.

KKS

I've Missed Him

I love him.

I am thankful for him.  He is a good man.  He is a hard worker.  He loves us.  He loves the Lord and wants to do what's right.  He is a caring and loving Papa to our brood.  He is strong.
He's worked 8 out of the last 10 days(12+ hour shifts)....we're saving for plane tickets (and a d.p. on a house).  I am so glad he has the weekend off.  Looking forward to it, so are the children.

KKS

Blessings Of Spring

This made me smile today.  It's taken through the screen of my kitchen window.  But still charming, none the less.  Wouldn't you say?

Incase you can't tell, it is a ruby throated hummingbird.  

KKS