Moving On

It seems that life has a way of moving on at the speed of light whether we like it or not. Our family faces some big changes, good changes, but changes nonetheless, and I don't do change very well. Jordyn has finished kindergarten, she will be in school all day next year, and part of me will miss my little shadow. I'll be home all alone all day, and while I look forward to that, I still feel a little empty when I think about it.

Matthew graduated from the sixth grade this week. Next year he will be in junior high. He will turn 13 and be a teenager this summer. How is that possible? He's still just my little boy.

Ammon will be in high school next fall. He is already pushing boundaries and rushing to grow up and be independent. He is anxious to drive, and has friends who already do, which makes him think he has more freedom. I wish I could just tie him down and make him slow down a bit. He'll be playing football with the 'big boys', and has already started hanging out with some of the older kids. Ammon can't be in high school because he's only 12, right?

We're coming up on Michael's 'hump' day this summer. It's hard to believe he's been out almost a year. I miss him like crazy, and I hurt when he goes through difficulties, but I am so proud of him too. His mission has gone by much faster than I ever thought it would, but I can't wait to get him home, even though I know things will never be the same as they were before.

At least Jenn and Adam aren't changing anything this year. Thank goodness for that! I do need a little stability in my life.

Jayme has finished her bachelor's degree and is getting married this summer and moving to Cedar City. Talk about change! I am so proud of her for finishing school and getting her degree, it's been a long road, but she hung in there and did it. I'm excited for her to be moving on to a new stage in her life, but I will be a little lonely without her here. I don't know what I'll do if my kids ever move very far away, guess I'll be racking up some frequent flier miles or something.

Change is part of life, and I need to accept it, but I don't like it. I know it means progression and can't be avoided, but I still don't like it. People always say, "enjoy this while you can", but you don't really understand until it's too late. Good thing I'm enjoying the now, and look forward to enjoying the tomorrows. I may have learned that lesson late in life, but I'm grateful to have learned it. Can't I just freeze time for a little while though?

Best Week Ever!!

Last week we went to Disneyland and had a wonderful time!! Jayme and I have wanted to go for a long time, but the boys didn't want to go. Finally we decided to go for a graduation present for her since she graduated from UVU this semester. At first it was going to just be Jayme, Jordyn and me. Then Jennifer felt left out and wanted to come, but she felt guilty because Adam had never been before and she had promised that she would take him. Then, Jayme said, "If Adam is going, I want Cassidy to come" I warned them that we would all be in the same room, that I snore and that Cass would have to sleep on the floor, they still wanted to come. I also warned them that Stone family vacations are always an adventure and one never knows what will happen. They still wanted to come.

We spent five days in the park and had a great time. Jordyn was tall enough to go on everything except for one ride. She loved Indiana Jones, Space Mountain and the Matterhorn. It was more crowded than I expected, but we were able to go on everything we wanted several times, and didn't really have any long waits for rides. It was great to get to know Cassidy better and so nice to see everyone getting along and having fun.

We found our new favorite place to eat. It's at Big Thunder Ranch, and it's an all you can eat barbeque with ribs, chicken, beans, coleslaw, corn bread, and at dinner they also serve sausage and corn. Can you say yum? It was served family style in buckets, and we ate a ton!! I think we had two buckets each of chicken and ribs. That same day, my Aunt Kathleen and her husband Ed came down to spend the day with us. It was great to see them, and we had a super fun time with them.

On Saturday the adventures started. We got up and drove down to the swap meet, and were going to go to the beach for a while. Well, after the swap meet, the car was making a terrible squealing and grinding sound, and I felt very strongly that we needed to get it checked out. We pulled into a Midas store and the guy said there was a bolt stuck in the brake rotor. After four hours and lots of coercion to have more work done, we were finally back on the road, and we went down to the beach. We looked at the tide pools and found lots of sand crabs and hermit crabs. It was Jordyn's first time and also Adam's. We didn't bring swimsuits or anything, but of course we had to get our feet wet. Naturally we all got a lot more wet than we planned on. Jordyn was soaked!!

Jordyn didn't want to come home, and was really sad to leave. I was too if you want to know the truth. Sometimes I really miss California, but what I love most is being at Disneyland. I know I'm weird, but I love just sitting and enjoying the atmosphere. When they decide to open condos above the stores on Main Street, I'll be first in line! Until then, I guess I'll just have to settle for visiting every few years.

Jordyn's Dance Recital

It was the final big week for Jordyn's dance class with their recital. Jordyn did a great job!! She remembered to smile the whole time, and she remembered most of her dances. "Tik Tok" was a favorite, and she loved dancing with the umbrella to "Rhythm of the Rain" Good job Jordy!!!

Confessions of a Real Mom

I saw something similar on another blog, and it was just too cute and too true, that I couldn't resist borrowing and adapting it to my life. There is a quote from the Earl of Rochester, "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories." I didn't have theories so much as the notion that I would raise perfect, well behaved, beautiful children, and I would be the most involved, patient, perfect Mom. I do learn quickly, it only took me about a week after our first child was born to realize that I knew NOTHING, and with each individual child I learned that the rules had completely changed. As soon as I got one thing figured out, there was a new situation with completely new rules. Here are just a few of the ways that I have fallen short of my original plans:

* Sometimes I nod and make noises to pretend I am listening to my children when I am not. Especially before 9 am and after 10 pm. It didn't take the kids long to figure that one out and ask me for things during those times. I would often say yes and not realize what I was agreeing to.

* I gave up on daily baths for me and the kids after the second child was born.

* I do have a one bite rule, but I have become increasingly lax about this. Child number 6 pretty much eats whatever she wants, while a previous child went hungry for three days before he took a bite of taquito. PS, he liked it!

* I like to be around my kids most of the time, but I don't always want to play with them.

* There are days when I'm the one asking if we can just do nothing and hang out all day.

* While I love my children at all ages, there are some stages I have enjoyed much more. I really enjoy my older teenagers and adult children.

* I have forgotten to pick up a child on time on many occasions. Hey, it's good for them to walk home, and it teaches them patience to wait for me, right? I wait for them all the time!

* I readily admit that I do the happy dance on the first day of school. And I didn't cry at all when my youngest went to kindergarten this year.

* I am not organized enough or well enough budgeted to pay an allowance. I will pay for "extra" jobs, and I will bribe my children. Sometimes the lunatics do run the asylum.

* I have become my mother and do many things I swore I would never do to my kids: guilt, yell, threaten to call the North Pole, embarrass and scream uncontrollably. Did I mention that I lose it sometimes?

* Our tooth fairy gets lost quite often. One time it took her a week to find our house. The Easter bunny too. Sometimes he comes Saturday morning, and sometimes he comes Sunday night, or it could be anywhere in between. I wonder why my kids don't believe in fairy tales...

* If a lego or barbie shoe is on the floor, I vacuum it up. If it isn't important enough for them to pick it up, I don't care either.

I feel much better now. Please don't forget that Mother's Day is in two weeks and I'd love breakfast in bed and lots of chocolate!

April Fool's!!

Yesterday when Jordyn came home from school, she asked me to fix her some lunch. I told her that it was Lucky 5 (a local chinese place) Friday, and we were going to lunch with her sisters. Jordyn proceeded to have a complete meltdown as only Jordyn can do (second only to Jayme! ;P), complete with fist banging,stomping and real tears. She didn't want to go to Chinese, she wanted to stay home, blah, blah, blah. After about five minutes of this, she takes a deep breath, wipes her eyes and says, "April Fools!!" Wow.

P.S. Lunch was great, I love spending time with my girls!

Locks of Love

Jordyn has had long hair for most of her life, but lately she's been wanting to cut it off. She hates having me brush out the tangles every morning, she hates letting me curl it or straighten it, and most days we just do a ponytail. She finally decided a couple of weeks ago that she really wanted it cut, and so one day after school I was going to take her to get it cut. Well, she wanted Kari to cut her hair. So, we called Kari and it was going to be a few weeks before we could get in. Finally it was THE day. Someone had suggested locks of love, but I didn't think she had enough to do that. When we got there, Kari asked if we wanted to do Locks of love. She said that she had enough, so yay, we could do it! Jordyn thought it was pretty cool that her hair would go to make a wig for some poor child with cancer who lost her hair. Her hair came out super cute, and we both love it!

Matthew and Basketball

This is a little late getting posted, but better late than never, right? Matthew had a great time playing basketball this year. He had great coaches who really helped him improve and gain more confidence. His team finally came together for the last few games and started winning, but what was more important was that they had fun and learned a lot. Matthew was definitely the big kid on the floor, and his coaches helped him learn to use his size to his advantage. He learned to be more aggressive, and was great on defense. He also got tons of rebounds and gained the confidence to shoot. He scored in almost all of their games, and really helped his team when they needed him. Way to go Matthew!!