Go-go Transforms!

On Wednesday, Go-go transformed from a 3 year-old into a 4 year-old! It seems impossible that he has been around that long (although sometimes I have trouble remembering life before being a mom, so I shouldn't be too surprised that it's been a while). He's been looking forward to his birthday for about six months now, and (not surprisingly, if you've ever read this blog) has never wavered from his insistence that he will have "a Transformers party, with a big Transformers cake and Transformers game and I'll be Optimus Prime!" (you have to picture this being said with plenty of wild jumping and gesturing).

Who am I to deny a boy his dream?

So, on Wednesday, we had cake:

On Saturday, we had the friends' party. The plan was to do everything in the back yard, but our rainy Buffalo summer put a damper on that plan ('damp'-er, ha ha ha! - sometimes I crack myself up with very little justification!) Luckily, our couches didn't fit into the doorways when we moved in, so we have a big empty room that's just right for decepticon bowling, dance partying, musical pillow flopping, and general merriment-making.

Bowling for Bots

Decorating Cupcakes

Making Personal Pizzas

Pin the Autobot Symbol on Optimus Prime

Opening Presents

And General Merriment

Summer Fun

As you may remember, my children adore blueberries. So, on Saturday, we headed off to the U-Pick farm to load up. We picked about 7 pounds and have been gorging ourselves on anti-oxidant goodness (of course, it's even better when you up the nutritional goodness with whipped cream - yum!). Most of our haul is in the freezer, which is good because the non-frozen ones are starting to get squishy, but bad because by tomorrow, I won't be able to just reach in the fridge and pop a few bites of sweet deliciousness into my mouth. Sigh.







Today, we went to a little beach on a lake for our ward playgroup. I snapped a picture of Go-go paddling a little canoe, but it seems that i didn't save it to my camera. I did, however, save this shot of Mui-mui eating our picnic lunch.



Yes, you can all admire how I massacred her poor bangs this morning. In my (pathetic) defense, she fought me the whole time and refused to sit still. You can all vote as to whether A) I need to get her to a stylist ASAP, B) they're too short and wacked out for even a talented stylist to fix them - I'll just have to wait it out, or C) don't worry about it - if we didn't have funny looking pictures from our childhoods we'd have nothing to laugh about when we got old.

Moving lessons

I've moved many, many times in my life, so you'd think I'd have this moving thing down. But, every time is a little different and I learn new things each time I pack up. Here are a few things I've learned this move:

-Kids are not helpful when packing

-Sending Go-go to YMCA daycamp for 2 weeks so that I could pack/move/clean, etc. was a fabulous idea. I loved it, he loved it, definitely a win-win.

- Everyone should have a 12-year old live at their house. Ruth lent me hers for a week and a half and Elizabeth was a lifesaver. She watched Mui-mui and kept her out of my hair, sorted and packed things, entertained Go-go when he got home from daycamp, and entertained me as well. She made me remember how much fun it was to be 12.

- Professional packers use WAY more boxes than I do. We have the same amount of stuff as we did last year (when we had packers), but we only used about a third of the boxes we saved from that move. But, if I was going to be held liable for any breakage, I might pack a lampshade by itself in a box with a ton of paper too.

- I missed having professional packers, but I did hire loaders. I've been grateful for a lot of Elder's quorum volunteers in my time, but they have enough poor students to move in and out of the wards this summer. And you can't sue them if they break your favorite bookshelf (You may be able to guess that I'm still a little peeved about the big chip out of my bookshelf that happened nine years ago in an Elder's Quorum move).

- I love my new house. I love almost everything about it (although the doorknobs really need some help).

-Being in a house that I love actually makes it easier to get out the door (despite the problem doorknobs). Sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but feeling happier about everything makes it feel so much easier to go to the library, Target, the YMCA, whatever. Not to mention the fact that going to the playground is just walking across the street.

-I love my new dining room table and chairs. I promise to post pics as soon as I get boxes out of the way. It makes me happy just to look at them.

- If Erik has to duck a little when he goes down the stairs, a queen-sized boxspring wil not fit up the stairs.

- On a related note, you can buy a boxspring kit in a box. It's really sturdy and it wasn't too bad to put together at all.

- Older houses also have narrow entryways. Luckily, our huge couches were stained, ripped, old, faded, and gross. So, I didn't mind too much that we couldn't get them in.

- Have I mentioned that I love my new house?

I promise to post pictures of the house soon. In the meantime, if you're in need of visual stimulation, you can check out the pictures I put up in the two other posts (Intense and Family Time) I wrote tonight. Happy reading!

Family Time

After I got to hang out with Ruth in Utah for a week or so, I got to stay with my sister Ellen and her sweet hubby, Justin. Go-go has decided he is going to grow up to be Justin, mostly because of the 70+ transformers in Justin's collection and every posible transformers animated cartoon (from the 80's, 90's, and today!) on DVD. We played, I bopped around visiting random cousins and friends, and we went to see my Grandma. She's 94 and looking pretty great.

Then the whole clan came together. Doug, Amber, and the kids came down from Seattle, Mom and Dad came in from Vegas, Ellen and Justin live in SLC, and Erik flew in from WNY. Mom and Dad rented a big house in the mouth of Millcreek canyon and we had a great time hanging out, watching movies, going to Lagoon, having picnics, seeing the Aquarium (thanks for the tour, Evan!), and enjoying each other's company. Here are a few highlights:

I love my family!

Intense

Or, should I say, "In Tents".

Although I never want to be one of those people who travels around from fair to fair, it is fun to do a show every once in a while. Ruth and I were both going to be in Utah this summer for family reunions, so we did the Provo Freedom Festival over the 4th of July weekend. It was so fun to see two of my old mission comps at the festival (Howdy Simmons and Lucas!) and to meet the moms, sisters, and friends of my friends (I love viral facebook marketing, don't you?)

We sold all of our normal Little Lit stuff, but also added play tents just for fun. Despite many a serger nightmare, we were able to make 20, and we sold every one (except for the one I pinned backwards that was horribly skew-wampus). We have fabric and supplies for 20 more, so we'll need to do another show of some kind next summer; but now we have a much better idea of how to streamline the process. The best part of the process was finding super-cheap, but super-cute fabric combinations. Most were one-of-a-kind (we had two duplicates) and I wish I had pictures of all of them, but these shots will give you an idea. Similar tents sell online for $288-$360 (I'm not just making that up!). But ours have cool portholes to peek out of and sold for only around $60.

The stuff you see in the background is our nextdoor neighbor's booth. They ARE the kind of people who spend all summer traveling around the country from fair to fair. Their winters are spent making the hair do-dads and neck coolers they sell. But, they are experts at making cute princess hair (as evidenced by Emma, Becca, and Mui-mui. Yep, even Mui-mui who won't let me put a barrette in her hair for more than 3 seconds looked sweet in her twisty-bun. And it lasted for about 5 whole minutes - a true record).

We all scream....

Tag team training

My recipe for successful potty training:

1. Make sure that your child and his best friend are struggling with potty training at the same time.
2. Go spend a week at said friend's house.
3. Be generous in the allotment of skittles after each successful toilet experience.
4. The children will take care of gloating to each other that they got a potty treat.
5. Whichever one did not get the most recent potty treat will dash to the bathroom to earn his/her own reward (heaven forbid that Becca has more treats than Go-go! And there is no way that Becca is going to stand idly by while Go-go eats treats without her!).
6. Hope that it sticks after Go-go returns home (so far, so good).

So, should I publish a book, or what? Doesn't everyone have a week to have a giant slumber party with their best friend? And forget the fact that Go-go will be four (!?!) in a few months - aren't I a prodigy (of course it's all about me!)? And, of course, we're also going to ignore the fact that we've only mastered #1 - I'll just write a sequel when I discover the brilliant and innovative method to tackle #2.

And if you're one of those people who just roll their eyes whenever the potty training topic comes up, roll away. I'm rolling my own eyes as I type this post, but can't resist sharing my glee and relief that the silly kid who can tell us the difference between a noun and a verb can finally pee where he's supposed to! Hooray for Go-go (and Becca!) !!

Bedtime Song

As I put the kids down to bed tonight, Go-go asked for one more song.  I started to sing my favorite lullaby, Edelweiss, but he cut me off and said, "No, Mom!  A Jesus song!"  OK, I know more than a few of those, so I thought this was an easy request.  I started off with 'Tell Me the Stories of Jesus' which he listened to politely and then said, "No, Mom!  Not that one."  So I started to sing 'Jesus Once Was a Little Child.'  This time, he only let me get through one line before telling me that I still had the wrong one.  'I Am a Child of God' didn't go over any better.

By this time, I was running out of ideas.  "What Jesus song do you want me to sing?"  

"Oh, you know, Mom.  My Jesus song."

"Well, remind me how it goes, OK."

The tune was eerily similar to the song they play at the beginning of a movie with the dancing soda cups and hot dogs.  You know, the one that goes, "Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, and get ourselves some snacks."

Go-go proceeded to sing with gusto and at the top of his lungs:

"Jesus had a transformer!

Jesus had a transformer!

Jesus had a transformer!

And He likes to fight with it!"

Of Pilgrims and Projects

I was about to start this post with the sentence, "I've always struggled to find my place  in the church and in the world as a woman and as a Mormon," but I realized that, although I liked the sound of it, it would be a lie.  In my early adulthood, I felt perfectly at ease with myself and my church.  Granted, I was a Democrat at BYU ("What!?!  I'm pretty sure it's in the temple recommend interview somewhere that you must vote Republican!"), but my testimony was fairly mainstream and strong.  I'd heard of the feminist organization on campus (VOICE), but somehow never made it to a meeting to check it out.  And I had never considered most of the issues I'm sure they were talking about at the time (long, long ago in an early '90's galaxy far, far away).  I followed a fairly traditional path for a Mormon girl; I went on a mission, got married in the temple, graduated from college (finally), and had some kids (finally).  True, I threw in a little graduate school along the way, but although that may not be typical, it certainly isn't way out there.

Fast forward a few (OK, many) years later and I can say, "I currently struggle to find my place in the church and in the world as a woman and as a Mormon."  Problems with a male-centric hierarchy that seemed normal and natural to me before, now grate on me.  I find it confusing to love a church when I don't love everything it stands for or promotes.  People I meet in the outside world make invalid assumptions about me when they find out I'm LDS, and people in my ward throw out casual comments about those apostate feminists and liberals.  

I was lucky to land in Pittsburgh around the same time that I was growing more into my own sense of self.  There I met a group of amazing women who showed by example that it is possible to navigate the space that includes an awareness about and intolerance of sexism in the church and a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.  A few weeks after I moved to Pittsburgh in 2000, a stranger (now my dear, dear friend Christine) invited me to a mini retreat held at a cabin up in the mountains.  She described it as "a relief society gathering for liberals."  What had I said to blow my cover?!  How did she know?!  Whatever I had done or said, she was right that I needed it.  Here was a group of women who were not afraid to talk about anything and everything.  Nothing was taboo, having questions was not considered a sign of doubt, and having doubts was not considered a sign of unworthiness.  That spring, I attended a similar, but larger gathering in Indiana - the Midwest Pilgrims Retreat.  It's been a good place to work out my frustrations, vent about my pet peeves, explore my doubts, renew my faith, connect with amazing women, and have a good time.

This year, the group from Pittsburgh was in charge of planning Midwest Pilgrims Retreat in Chicago and it has been a great project for me.  I put together the website (which you can check out here if you're interested in the program we put on), ran registration, made a labyrinth (with Michelle - see below), and led one of the workshops.  Having something tangible to plan and to do that also involved coordinating with lots of other grown-ups on a daily basis brought me out of a funk that had me in its grasp all winter.  Yes, spring, sunshine, new house, and new neighborhood to look forward to all helped as well, but I have a renewed belief in the value of projects.  

The workshop I led was a discussion about an article in Dialogue: "How to Worship our Mother in Heaven (Without Getting Excommunicated)".  Right about here is where half of my cousins have gasped and started to worry about my eternal soul (a few of them started worrying back when I talked about being a liberal feminist).  But, don't worry, it was a great discussion and I learned many ways to incorporate this important and unique aspect of Mormon doctrine into my life and mind.  And besides, I have so many questions and concerns about other things that many consider fundamental to salvation that a little speculation about the feminine divine is absolutely not even on the top ten list of things you should worry about with me (and a very special hello to my R.S. president who is probably reading this - Hi, Eliza!)

The retreat itself was rejuvenating.  So many of my friends who are still in Pittsburgh or who have moved away from Pittsburgh were there.  Below is a shot of all the current and former Pittsburghers who attended (and two are missing from the picture).  Twenty-two of the seventy-four attendees were from Pittsburgh (now or at some point in the recent past).  I don't know that I'll ever find another group like this in a Mormon congregation, and I haven't had much luck converting even a small group in my current suburban ward (can't wait to try it in the city ward).

So, to sum up - I love my friends.  I love my Mormon-ness.  I love Midwest Pilgrims.  I love my crazy ideas and ideals.  I love Chicago.  I love Pittsburgh.  I love holding the camera at arm's length and hoping against all previous experience in my life that I'll get a decent shot (see below).  I love a weekend without the kids.  I love my family (liberal and conservative sides).  I even love the struggle to find my place in the world and in the church.  After all, how boring would it be to just go back to being comfortable.