Choices!

For as long as my kids have been alive, we have lived places that didn't have a lot of options for youth activities. It's not that they weren't busy in Manila, but the activities offered there are generally a take it or leave it situation- if you don't want to play basketball, for example, you just don't play basketball... there is no other option for that time of year. I have no problem with that- the kids did plenty of good things, and had fun. When we moved to the Azores, there were a few more things offered... but everything played games on Saturdays. We chose not to participate so that we could use our Saturdays to explore the island as a family.

When we got here, I found the community recreation guide. It was a little mind-boggling, considering our past history. We decided to let each child choose one activity for this fall. Here are their choices:

Rebekah is playing volleyball. She does have experience from last year, when she played on an intermural team, so she's doing great. Volleyball is also the one sport I ever played in high school. Like mother, like daughter, I guess. She's fun to watch!



Price and Josh chose to play flag football. Their coach is in our ward, and asked Tim to be his "defensive coordinator" for the season. Pretty funny. The boys are having a blast.


Ethan is playing basketball. Yeah, I know... basketball in September? I guess they do 2nd graders now so they have enough gym space in the winter.


Emma and Annie decided to do gymnastics. They have high school/college age teachers who are very cute with them- and the girls absolutely love it.

I was a little nervous about starting all these activities at once. I had enjoyed our year of extra family time, and I wasn't sure I wanted to give it up. I think we have found a pretty good balance right now, though. We have enough to keep busy and have fun, but it's not too much. Ask me again tomorrow night, though... after a basketball game, two volleyball games, and a football clinic. At least when I'm done with that I get to leave the kids with Tim and escape to General Women's Conference!

Weekend Wrap-up

I have always thought those stories about girls swooning and screaming when they listened to Frank Sinatra were silly and highly exaggerated. No longer. I, along with Mom and Dad, Grandma Shipley and the four oldest kids, attended the O.C. Tanner concert at the Conference Center this past Friday. We had such a good time. I was worried that the kids would get bored and restless, but they loved the whole thing. The concert consisted of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Symphony (with guest conductor Eric Kunzel), and two soloists: a woman opera singer (too lazy to get up and look for her name), and Brian Stokes Mitchell, who was the reason for the "swooning".

Seriously. This guy had THE VOICE. I restrained myself from screaming and throwing myself at the stage, but listening to him made me smile... and want him to keep singing. He is a Tony award winning Broadway star, and has such great stage presence. I loved the whole concert. The Tab choir, Utah Symphony and the other soloist were wonderful, too, of course. But "Stokes"...... Wow.


After the concert, as we made our way out along with tens of thousands of other people, we had one of those "tender mercy" experiences. We ran into our friends, the Pateys, who we met in the Azores. They are still there... in fact, they are leaving tomorrow to return after a 6 week vacation here. It was wonderful to see them, and I felt just a little wistful afterwards- because they are going back and we aren't.

I didn't take my camera out much that night, except for these two times: Price and Ethan in front of the Conference Center waterfall,


and walking past the temple on our way to the car. I love temples at night.


In other weekend news, we took a couple of hours today to drive up into the mountains, where the trees are turning wonderful, bright colors. My photos don't show the colors very well, but here they are anyway:

My Day

What I did today:

-Got out of bed (hey- that's an accomplishment in and of itself!)

-Read scriptures as a family

-Helped with breakfast (Tim usually does most of it)

-Practiced the piano with the three boys

-Bathed Emma and Annie and helped them get dressed

-Drove Rebekah and 5 of her friends to junior high (it was my day for carpool)

-Walked to school with the 5 younger kids

-After dropping 4 of those kids off at school, walked back up the hill pushing Annie in the stroller

-Got straight into the car and drove Annie to Joyschool

-Drove home, finally ate breakfast (9:45 a.m.)

-Checked email, blogs

-Took a shower!

-Started laundry, did breakfast dishes

-Picked up Annie from Joyschool and drove her to speech at the elementary school

-Drove Emma and three other kindergartners home (yes, two carpools on the same day)

-Came home, fixed lunch for the girls

-Changed the laundry

-Helped Emma do her homework

-Picked up the junior high crew and took them home

-Took Emma and Annie to gymnastics, waited and watched them for an hour- cute!

-Drove back home

-Supervised homework for Rebekah, Price, Josh and Ethan

-Made dinner (stir-fry on rice, rolls, and cantaloupe)

-Sent Rebekah off to her Beehive presidency meeting and Young Women's activity

And now I'm sitting here at the computer, not doing much. It's kind of nice.

Great Kids

Price and Josh are twins all the way- they are best friends, and they are a part of each other- sometimes it seems that their connection is almost physically real. Today after church they had fight. This happens very, very rarely, but it is always traumatic. They literally can't stand to be mad at each other. It didn't take 10 minutes for them to make up and for everything to be alright again, even though they had both been furious. I'm not glad they fight, but it was good for me to see how strong their love for each other is.


Rebekah got her first church calling today! She is the new Beehive class secretary. Tim got to help set her apart, and I skipped out of playing Primary piano to watch. She is a wonderful asset to our family.

Devious Minds

Emma is pretty quick. And a little scary.

Today, I have been trying, once again, to get Annie potty-trained. She has been really frustrating for me: her problem is knowing how to relax and "let it go" when she's sitting on the toilet. She can totally do everything else. In fact, if I put her in regular underwear and she has an accident, she will go change her clothes, put the wet ones in the laundry, and clean up any mess. But she won't go on the toilet. Aaarrgh!

So when Emma got home from kindergarten this afternoon, she started trying to help. She was very cute- reading books to her, bringing her snacks (okay, that one is kind of gross, but she was trying to be nice), giving her drinks of water, all while Annie is sitting on the toilet downstairs. At one point, Grandma said to her that she thought the helper should get a prize for helping, too- trying to motivate Emma to keep it up. So I said, jokingly, "Yes, Emma- go get Annie to go to the bathroom, and you can have a prize." You know where this is going now, don't you?

Both girls came upstairs approximately 2 minutes later, saying, "Mom, she went potty!" I sat in the bathroom with Annie on the toilet for 1 1/2 hours this morning, and nothing happened. She is capable of holding it almost indefinitely when she wants to. So I was pretty sure she hadn't just gone in that 2 minutes. Plus, I could see it in Emma's face. I told the girls that I needed to see the proof. They had already flushed. I said sorry.

About 3 minutes later, they came back upstairs. "Mom, come see. Annie went potty in the toilet." Yeah, right. I am 100% sure that Emma peed for her little sister so they could both get prizes.

I am so looking forward to their teenage years.

And no, I didn't give in. They are still waiting for those prizes.

Remember to Breathe!

We ended up in urgent care at the BYU Health Center Monday morning- Josh hadn't recovered from our trip to Manila (dust, pollen, hay, and a lot of wind to mix things up). We had to take him back Wednesday, and we're going in again next Monday. Basically, they definitely think he has asthma (not surprising, considering who his father is), and they're trying to decide how severe it is so they will know how to treat it. Isn't Josh cute in his mask?

Go Fly a Kite!

Our week has been full of good things:

Elementary School
Junior High
Joy School
Graduate School
Piano Lessons
Piano practice
Flute practice
Band practice
Gymnastics
Volleyball tryouts
Volleyball practice
Young Women
Webelos
Shopping
Speech
New Graduate Student Dinner
Homework
More homework
Doctor's Appointments
Cleaning and Cooking

But today, while I was in Walmart, I found cheapo kid kites for 25 cents each. In a moment of weakness, I bought six. So tonight, we dropped everything and went kite flying!

There was lots of this:

and this:

(the pouty face isn't really visible here)

But when we finally got working kites and a good breeze going at the same time, it was great!

"Look- Josh's kite is as high as the moon!"

For an added bonus, we got to see this sunset.

Going Home.

This weekend, we finally drove back to visit Manila for the first time since we moved. It had been a year and a few weeks since we drove away, and it was so nice to be back. We had so much fun seeing everyone that I unfortunately forgot to take any pictures. The photos here are from before we moved. I haven't included very many... I was getting too nostalgic trying to choose, so I just left it at a few.

An autumn scene outside our old house.

Going back was so much fun! It was wonderful to see everyone- and it is nice to know that people still miss us! We loved talking, eating, and reminiscing with everyone. Thank you Northcotts for letting 8 wild heathens into your house!

The Manila Ward building.

We feel so much like we belong in Manila- and we are so glad that things there change a little more slowly than things in the rest of the world. Maybe we can keep feeling like we're at home there for a few more years!

The fence that Tim built.

It was hard for me to leave today. We feel so loved and accepted in Manila, and it is so nice to have a place where you have nothing to prove. Six months after we moved to Manila I had the twins- and I was in shock- and I sat on the couch all day nursing two babies... and the wonderful people of the Manila Ward came and did my dishes, held my babies, played with Rebekah, and brought me dinner for AN ENTIRE MONTH. I needed it, too- we wouldn't have eaten otherwise. That was my first introduction to Manila- and it only got better after that.

My kids loved it, too- Price bore his testimony at church, and then asked if he could walk back to the Northcott's instead of driving with us. He took way longer than he needed to... I think he just needed some time alone to remember and appreciate.

This is very long and mushy. I guess I just want all of you Manila-ites to know that we miss you, too! I'm really glad that we have had strong spiritual confirmation that leaving was the right thing to do, because I would be having serious second thoughts right now if we hadn't. I know that we are in the right place now, doing the right things, but it was really nice to have a weekend to reminisce and go home... even if it was just for a day. We'll see you again soon!