a valentine from Noah

In Noah's Sunday school class they got to make a valentine to anyone they wanted.

Here's Noah's.

 

i've created a monster

wow. i debated on writing all of this down - mostly because just reading about it will never do the moment justice... there's something about hearing exasperation in an octave-higher-than-normal voice from a 7-year old.


The other night, after a very long day, noah had pushed us to our limits. a lot of whining about homework, cleaning his room, having to take a shower, etc., etc. made us very ready for him to get to bed. At one point we had snapped at him for dragging his feet in getting to the bathroom and brushing his teeth. (why is it impossible for a 7-year old to brush his teeth well? seriously, how can he go brush his teeth and still have food in them? it drives me crazy!) anyway - after about 20 seconds him comes walking into the kitchen asking aaron a question - while brushing his teeth. that was aaron's last straw.


aaron: (in a rather loud voice) NOAH! get your butt into that bathroom RIGHT now and start brushing your teeth!!!

noah went totally still as he looked at aaron and then he took the toothbrush out of his mouth and in this exasperated high voice says: IS THIS IT? IS THIS MY CHILDHOOD??? (pause) is this my childhood where my dad is just going to yell at me all the time????? (now he's staring at aaron waiting for an answer)

aaron - trying with all his might to not start laughing, turns around.

noah: is it dad? is this what my childhood is like?

aaron: no, noah. your childhood is not with your dad yelling at you all the time.

noah: good. (pause) then you should say you're sorry.

aaron: (still trying not to laugh, feels it's best to just end the conversation) i'm sorry noah.

And noah goes to bed happy, with comforts of knowing his childhood will not be scarred for life.



One would think it ends there.... but oh, no. not with noah. the next day, after school noah decides to come up with a punishment chart for the family because we "fight and yell too much".

my favorite is #4 - Getting mad at someone when no one did anything = no breakfast



to finish this post - let me end with tonight's conversation. noah couldn't find his coat and got really mad because it wasn't hung up on his door where he'd put it. instead of asking where it was he began yelling about someone moving it. (i was tempted to ask him if this is what my parenthood was going to be like - him always yelling at me. but, then i remembered it's best not to stoop to their level when you're trying to maintain control.) Aaron immediately put noah on his bed for yelling and that led to quite the meltdown. once noah was calmer, i had a big talk with him and told him that even when we're angry, we can still be respectful. his reasoning was that he would never have had to get mad if we would have left his coat alone and so it was our fault. i then went on to tell him that things will happen in life at home, school, work, etc. and we'll feel angry, but we still need to stay calm and respectful. eventually he said he understood and that was that.


fast forward 2 hours. noah comes out from brushing his teeth to tell me there's a problem. he spilled the whole bottle of mouthwash on the floor. (this is the second time this has happened in the last week). completely irritated, i headed to the bathroom.

me: noah, i'm getting tired of you playing around in the bathroom and knocking things over!

noah: i'm sorry mom, it was an accident.

me: i know -that's what you said the last time - but you NEED to be more careful. now get in your room and go to bed while I clean up YOUR mess. (i know i should let him clean it up, but it's this blue stuff and i didn't want it to stain - part of why i was so impatient with him)

while i'm cleaning up the floor, i look into noah's room and see him on his bed praying.
(for the love!) after a minute, i hear him behind me.

noah: (in this totally calm, quiet voice) mom, i know you're upset - and that's ok. sometimes bad things happen, but you can still handle it in a calm way. I think Heavenly Father would want you to be calm and patient even when you're angry. I think you should think about that for a minute and see if you can handle this situation better.

honestly - i have created a monster.

poor, poor, confused aaron

i recognize the absolute obnoxiousness of this post... but it had to be done. Aaron is under some delusional understanding that he is still blonde. I blame his mother. aaron describes himself as having blonde hair and she only encourages the thought. The other night they were mocking me because i was telling them aaron's hair is brown.

i recognize that it may have been blonde when he was four, and then a dirty blonde in his teens - but it's definitely brown now... dark brown in the back.

Anyway - as i was mocked mercilessly for calling it brown - i decided to put it to a vote. an unbiased, third-party vote. I've included a couple of pictures, so it can't be blamed on "lighting" and then i've included a polling gadget to the right.

i figure if i can let go of the fact that i'll never ever in a million years be a size 4 again, i figure aaron can come to terms with the fact he'll never be a natural blonde again. dang life's hard.

it's been awhile....

It has been a long four months. I actually got on my computer a few days ago and wrote a long post with all my updates, but the next morning when i went to add pictures, it was gone. i have no idea what happened. i have some time today and thought i'd attempt to catch you up -again.

First... Christmas. it was the smallest Christmas we've had, but by far my favorite. funny how that works. As you know, instead of buying presents we did service. (however, Santa is never unemployed, so he did make an appearance. albeit, a small one.) Christmas morning noah woke us up, with all the energy of 20 children put together waited anxiously for reagan to wake up so he could see what Santa brought. Once she was awake, we him wait a few minutes more while we checked to see if Santa had really come. reagan wasn't as excited about what was awaiting for her, but more just feeding off of noah's energy. he has a lot of energy. Once we were ready, they ran into the living room and started opening presents from Santa. Noah got a bumble bee transformer helmet and hand gun and reagan got her first real doll and a little doll bed.

Noah was excited enough about his transformers stuff that he didn't notice there were no other presents to open, which was a relief to us as we were worried he might be upset.

I have no idea why i don't have a picture of reagan with her doll from Christmas morning, so here's a picture of her with the doll from today. depending on what day it is (no rhyme or reason) the dolls' name is either Macie or Sally.

 

After they opened their two presents from Santa, we pulled out the service jar from under the tree and sat in the middle of the room taking turns reading the slips. as each slip was put in secretly, we had no idea what would be on them as we pulled them out. There were at least 20 of them that said "i made noah's bed for him today". between aaron and i, i don't think noah made his bed once the entire month. (January was a rude awakening. it really sucks having to make your own bed when you're seven.) there were other ones that said things like, "i helped mom with reagan" or "i let aaron have the last cookie" or "i let brenda sleep in today", stuff like that. We also started writing down things that others did for us and how that made us feel. In the end, i think my favorite slip was one that noah had put in that said, "I was nice to a bully at school today". how perfectly sweet is that? As Hallmark card as it may sound - it really was the best Christmas. we spent about an hour going over each slip and laughing and sharing stories as we read them. we had such a great time that when it was done and we were cleaning up - no one really noticed that there weren't actual presents to open. i think that in the future, when there will be presents under the tree, we'll always do our service jar.

A few days after Christmas was the anniversary of my dad passing away. one of the things I've really struggled with during this trial is not having my dad here. I wrote in a letter a few weeks ago that for a girl, during a really hard time in life, there's nothing like having your dad tell you that everything will be ok. There's just something about having a father's comfort when times are hard. the anniversary of his death is usually a very hard day for me. I feel angry and sad and lonely. with all that was going on, i knew that day would be an extra tough one for me this year. But then, through some events that could only come from the love and tenderness my Heavenly Father has for me, I was able to wake up that morning with a sense of peace I haven't felt in four years. that morning i only felt the love that my dad has for me and i knew that if he could, he'd wrap his arms around me and tell me that everything would be ok. Oh, how i love and miss my dad.

This is a picture from the last time i was able to see him. i know it's not a very good one of him, as it was towards the end of his illness, but it's my favorite one. Because no matter how sick he was, or how much pain he was in, he would put on a brave face and smile.

ok - i'm going to move on as i need to stop crying.

January... our big event in January was our trip to the Dew Tour. (the Dew Tour is sponsored by Mountain Dew and is a contest for snow boarders and skiers) Aaron entered a contest for a VIP trip to the Tour about six or seven months ago. He didn't win. however, two days before the Tour, the winner had to cancel - so they drew another name and this time it was Aaron's. The package included free hotel, breakfast, VIP lounge and VIP seating to watch the competitions. As it was at the resorts in Ogden, it was a short drive for us. It really couldn't have been better timing with the stress we'd been feeling with aaron's unemployment and the fact that the trip was completely free was perfect. Here are a few pictures from our grand adventure...

Now - for the final update. This morning aaron accepted a job offer. That's right - aaron got a job!!!!!!!!!!!! frankly, i'm surprised you all didn't hear me screaming this morning as it finally sunk in. The job is in D.C. and is in public relations, which is perfect for Aaron. (lets hope that in this case it's 'second time's the charm' because i don't have the mental or emotional capacity to do this again.)
Noah was really upset about the prospects of moving when we first told him. he cried and cried. While he was crying we were trying to tell him all the fun things he'd be able to do there, etc. but nothing worked. Only when we told him we'd take him to New Jersey to see Buddy at Carlo's Bakery (he loves watching The Cake Boss and it's located in NJ) did he completely stop crying and say, "oh, ok. i guess we can move then." for the love.

Well, there you go. it's been a long hard four months, but it seems to have come to a close and we couldn't have done it without all the love and support from friends and family. i love you all!