Mother Daughter Bond

In the past couple of days, I have heard two different women lament the fact that they will never get the chance to experience a mother daughter bond because they had all boys. I have often thought on how grateful I am to have four wonderful girls, but have taken the special bond with them for granted. Today I heard it again from Sister Keller at our Stake Women's conference. She was sharing how she had five boys, and loves her daughters in law for the chance to have a mother daughter bond. It brought my special circumstances to light for me and I pondered how wonderful it is to have all these girls. As they are getting older, our bond is changing and getting stronger as I can relate to them on a more mature basis. I know the idea of having a house full of girls is enough to send some people into catatonic shock, but I love it. It is the way God intended for our family to be, and it is perfect for us. I look forward to the future and all the things I will get to do with my girls, and for when they are adults and we have the opportunity to be friends. I look at my daughters and think that they are truly my sisters in God, and that is how I hope our relationship will be when they are grown. And for any of you who are wondering, Jason likes having all these daughters as well. He doesn't deny that he would like a boy, but he doesn't feel like he is missing out. He just does the things he would do with a boy with his girls, and they love it!

The three "ooo" men

A while back, when Michaela was about 5 years old, she called me to her room in the middle of the night because she was scared. When I got there, she told me that there were three "ooo" men standing outside her bedroom window.



Freaky, to be sure.

What I conjured up in my mind was three men dressed in black long sleeved t-shirts and black pants, standing in the shadows so you couldn't see their faces.



Since then, I conjur up a different idea of three men. This is a funny story, after all.


The Three Amigos, a la Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. A very funny movie.


Anyway, back to the story.....




Of course, I opened up her blinds to show here there was no one out there. (Thank goodness, there wasn't.) She told me she could hear them. I comforted her, kissed her, and told her to go back to sleep.



A short time later, she called me again. She was adamant that she could hear three ooo men. Thats what she called it; the three ooo men. I sat down on her bed, and half asleep, prepared to listen for a bit, then tell her to go back to sleep. Surprisingly, I heard it too.

It did sound like three men saying "ooo" on an exhale, with a pause in between:

"ooo" pause "ooo" pause "ooo" pause

Wait, that sounds oddly familiar....



I started laughing. Michaela, who is still scared, looks at me funny. I explain through my giggles that what she hears is her father, in the room directly below hers, snoring away. What she could hear in her room did sound like "three ooo men".



This has been a family joke since then, as you could well guess.



So last night, when I was up one of many times with my sick baby, I heard the three ooo men. Jason has been sick as well, one of the symptoms being a nasty cough. It keeps me up at night, and combined with the baby keeping me up, it was just too much. He has been spending the last few nights in our guest bed, which is directly below the baby's room .



The three ooo men, revisited.

60 seconds

There are a lot of things you can do in 60 seconds. Wash your hands, travel one mile on the highway, say a quick prayer, you get the idea. Something you can't do in 60 seconds; walk or even sprint from our house to the school. Yet lately, Payden seems to think that she can. Let me tell you, if she suddenly becomes capable of making the run from home to school in 60 seconds, we are going to get some serious Olympic training going on. She can earn us millions and we can live large for the rest of our lives. Until then, she is going to have to get ready for school early enough that there isn't 60 seconds left until the tardy bell rings when she leaves the house. I am letting her be responsible for getting to school on time, and as you can tell we have been having an issue. I can look into the future however, and see that if she doesn't learn this lesson now, I will be rousing a teenager from bed and husteling her to get to school on time then. I don't want to do that; so I stand back and let her be late. Maybe soon she will learn her lesson....

Someone should do this better....

I know I am not the only one who hates taking their children into the video store. Some of the pictures displayed would make someone who works at and adult video store blush. And then there are the super scary ones that make me shiver. In between all of this is Space Chimps and Journey to the Center of the Earth (a very cute moive). I have talked to my kids about not looking at the offending covers, but its hard not to see them. Couldn't they place them in a more orderly fashion, R and non rated ones separately? Or at least up high where kids can't see them as easily. They could put all PG and G rated ones lower or in another section all together. Why hasn't anyone done this? I may have to talk to a video store manager to get an answer. What do you all think?

Excuse me?

I was at walmart today, and at the check out I got a wake up call. The pre-pubescent girl behind the counter said
"How are you today MA'AM?"
I have to say, I have been called ma'am a few times before, but the way she said it made me feel older than dirt. I am not that old. It is just that they are hiring younger and younger workers nowadays. Really, the girl couldn't have been more than 12! Ok, if I am honest, I was at walmart during school hours, and even if they would hire a 12 year old they at least couldn't let her work during school hours, so she must have been at least 17 or 18, graduated from high school. But she sure looked 12. And being 12 is the only way she would think I was old enough for the way she said ma'am. Because I am not that old.

I know we are in the minority on this...

I was cooking dinner this afternoon before I went to work. I had cooked some spinach in the microwave for a spinach quiche I was making. Michaela came up the stairs and said:
"Something smells good!"
Me: "You are smelling the spinach."
Michaela and Payden: "Yeah!"
Me: " I am making a spinach quiche for dinner."
Michaela and Payden: " Yummy!"
My girls love their vegetables, and at least for Michaela, any dinner that doesn't have meat in it is always a hit. We eat vegetarian 2 or 3 times a week. These are the girls' favorite meals. How many kids get excited for spinach?

Happy Birthday Michaela!

Michaela turned 11 on Jan. 29th, 2009. I can't get over how old she is getting! Closer to a teenager day by day, and so much fun to be around. She has a great sense of humor and loves to hang out with her family. She is super responsible; she can't wait to babysit! We love you Michaela!

Grandpa sent her flowers, and I took her some balloons when I took her out to lunch yesterday.

Tonight we took her and three of her friends out to dinner at Craigos, then they came home to watch a movie. They are such a great group of girls; Michaela has some wonderful friends. As we were leaving the video store, a man held the door open for us. Each of the girls thanked him; I was so proud and impressed. I love that Michaela has friends that are kind, caring and share our values.

I just realized that I should explain why they are in a bed! We have a big room downstairs that has my craft things, sewing desk, exercise stuff, a tv, and a bed we put guests in. That is where they are. Its great to have someplace like that, so Jason and I aren't relegated to upstairs on nights like this!