OK, so I guess I didn't die. Not really.

(go get yourself a snack, and a good pillow to sit your bataco on, this is a long one.)

Next time you think you have a serious illness just post something about it on your blog and miraculously, the next morning it will be gone.  The good news is, you will feel better, the bad news is, you will feel a little bit like a loser.  No people, I seriously was prepping myself for an emergency surgery.  I have never had that particular kind of localized pain in the gut before and it lasted very consistently for two straight days.  Very strange.  The superb news is that I get to keep my appendix, I didn't waste my time at a doctor's office and I got to do something fun with my family instead today....and I am 90% sure that my neck is not broken, which is good too, I guess.

I just thought that now would be a good time to catch up on the last few days...you know, since my husband passed out at 9:45 tonight and I have seen just about every episode of House Hunters International there is.  You want a house in Nicaragua? I could probably find you one at this point.

In any case.  This is how things went down last week. (Forgive the sketchy quality of some of the photos, taken on my phone.  Sometimes you just take what you can get, eh?)

The snow came in gently enough.  "Oh goody" I thought, "I love a little winter storm.  We are all stocked up on food and have no place to be."

 This is my favorite (or so I am convincing myself) part of the day....working on homework when all three school-going children simultaneously try to fit on my lap while asking me questions at the same time...and stealing the cute pencils from my desk.

 The snow kept coming.  Fast.  It was heavy.  And oh-so-beautiful.  We have a couple of our neighborhood friends over.  They are brother and sister and good friends to two of my girlies.  I adore them.  They are sweet kids.  But I decided that maybe we should take them home and since there is no way that my van would get past our driveway (which you can't see because it is buried in that picture below...) we walked them home.

 And then we went home, hunkered down and got cozy to enjoy our winter wonderland from the comfort of our warm little house.

 What?! That's no fun.  Let's shut off the electricity then cuddle in my bed at 7:30pm with nothing to do but stare at the camp lantern and tell the same 4 interesting stories I have about my childhood over and over again.  I mean, they only want to hear about Aunt Abby being chased by the German shepherd and wetting her pants in the middle of the street, so many times.

 ...so we watched home movies on the (thankfully) charged video camera.  That 2" screen never seemed so tiny.

 (I will leave out the part where it was freezing, I was sweating under the covers with a million children in my bed, no husband, no hot water to shower after waking up next to a first-time-ever bed-wetter and no way to wash the sheets....should I go on or are you catching my drift?...)

 We tried to stay warm by the fire and wondered how long the happiness could last...

 "Oh crap" I said, "we are all stocked up on food" and moved the food to the back porch and prayed that an old blue tarp would discourage raccoons from stealing our soy sauce...

 accepting that this kind of weather just brings this kind of situation...

and then gave up when the roads were actually clear enough to leave without dying.  On the second evening of no power, right about the time it started getting dark, I decided that Spo's apartment was looking like a mighty fine idea.  (And it was.  I wanted to cry when we walked in and we were warm for the first time in a day and a half, I showered and was finally clean after sweating through sledding, shoveling driveways and don't forget the bed wetter part, AND Sho cooked our favorite dinner for us...a little TV didn't hurt either.)

 Don't ask what Hazel is doing or why she is in her underwear, because I don't know the answer to either one of those things.  I just know that it was warm enough for her to be in her underwear (or "wear wears" as she calls them) and for that, I was grateful.

 This is what you get when you tell four little girls to go pack the essentials...

But we eventually came back home and ventured out to play.

 After almost 3 weeks, two pushed back coming home days and one canceled then rescheduled flight, Clark came home.  (This whole snow thing was even more fun for me each time he reminded me that it was 75 degrees in Bahrain.  Poor Baby.)

 He brought the girls gifts.  They posed most bizarrely.

 And then Spencer and Sho came over and we went sledding.

When we arrived, this was laying in the parking lot, just like this.  So I took a picture because I am a little immature like that.  Are you really that surprised? I didn't think so.

 This snow was crazy heavy and wet, so it got  packed down to ice very quickly.  We didn't even need sleds to go down.

 It was mostly fun until we started making each other go off the ramp.  Clark seriously injured Sho's coccyx when he so gingerly shoved her off the ramp against her will.

Mia was just adorable until she refused to walk to the car and laid down in Spencer's path, but even that was kind of cute.

 Which brings me to Spencer.  I am now choosing to blame him for my mysterious pain.  Though it didn't feel like a muscle thing the first day of agony, I am thinking now, that's what it had to be.  Despite what this picture may imply, I did NOT land the jump.

 Neither did Clark.

 We only did it because Spencer made us.  Which is why I then proceeded to take lots of pictures of him trying to get back up the hill.  I either injured some bizarre little isolated stomach muscle in one of my forced trips off the ramp (which consequently is also how I broke my neck) or from laughing so hard each time Spencer got a hold of some part of me and shoved me down the icy hill....I only was able to return the favor a couple of times.

(It was only after we nearly killed ourselves a few times that we realized the pictures could have been so much better if taken from the non-buttocks side of our aerial acrobatics.)

 Segway into part II: This is where I miraculously wake up and not have to take a handful of IB profen.  Since Clark had been gone for so long without meaning to, I begged him to take today off.  After all, snow caused school to be canceled last Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday...and since we already have scheduled teacher workdays today AND tomorrow, something had to be done.

I have had my eye on a lesser known museum in the area for a while that I wanted to check out.  There are a few reasons that the museum is lesser known but we won't really get into that too much besides me telling you that my girls may or may not have been exposed to some human genitalia in formaldehyde, lots of pictures of amputated limbs (and the actual process of amputating) and some (or lots) of pictures of dead bodies.

We went to the Walter Reed Museum of Health and Medecine.

In it's defense, it does have this.  Do you know what this is?  Let me tell you.

It is THE bullet that killed President Lincoln.  Crazy, huh.  The process in which they tried to retrieve it is amazing and gruesome.  The truth is, it wasn't "recovered" until the autopsy, which took place in the white house.  When the surgeon actually picked the entire brain up out of the skull, it just fell out onto the floor.  Gross.  But intriguing.  I don't know why they couldn't find it with their 12" porcelain probe thingy before taking the whole darn brain out.  Surgeons in the mid 19th century, sheesh.  Just in case you were wondering, they also had on display that 12" porcelain probe thingy.

 It had some very interesting things but mostly just really bizarre things that make you feel slightly nauseous.  What it actually said in small print, when examined closer in my book, was "The Walter Reed Museum of Health and Medicine, as pertaining mostly to military history." I wasn't expecting to explain to my tender, young daughters (as found in the entire first room) what the purpose of forensic experts were in retrieving body pieces from excavation sites to identify people.  I was kind of hoping that conversation would happen a little later in life.  Or never.  Whichever.

 However, it did open up lots of eyes, and interesting conversations about our bodies, and war, and sacrifice, and how amazing we are, and bums.  I came around this corner and found that Mia had been standing just like this for over 2 minutes..she is covering a bum.  I suppose I should be glad that this was the most embarrassing thing she saw today.  I want you to be grateful that I spared you the picture I took of the stomach-shaped hairball removed from the body of a twelve year old girl that had been eating her own hair for 6 years....or the amputated body parts suffering from elephantiasis (most of which you wouldn't be able to identify...just ask my sister Abby, she wouldn't have guessed, not in a million years.  You wanna guess? I'll text you the picture.)

 And then we hopped on over to the temple visitor center to see the Joseph Smith movie for Family Home Evening.  We were the only ones in the theater.  It is always wonderful to be there and to strengthen our testimonies about the amazing gospel that we have.  Plus, Hazel was real cute, don't you think?

Here's to another day off tomorrow (with ice in the forecast, I kid you not.) I don't know how I am supposed to top amputated limbs and Mexican food.

I think I might be dying...just a little.

I think I have appendicitis, and a broken neck.  When I go to the doctor tomorrow and he tells me I don't, then maybe I will write about our fantastic mega-long school break because of snow and stuff like that.  Maybe.  We'll see.  So maybe you shouldn't hold your breath just yet.  But you can, if you want to.

Sometimes I really really like my kids.

I just thought I would take a moment to highlight why I love my "littles" so much.  I am sarcastic.  I just am.  And I am afraid that too often, I roll my eyes in that sarcastic way and make fun of how troublesome these little people can be sometimes.  But the truth is that even on the worst of the worst days, I am grateful to be a mother.  I am in awe that I have been given charge of them.  They amaze me.  They  humble me.  They make me feel such depth of emotion that I cannot comprehend it.  They are sweet.  They are unique.  They are beautiful.
I love Haley.  Last week Haley handed me a crumbled wad of small bills and asked me to order a typing program for her.  As in, she wants to learn how to type on the computer.  She sits and does her lessons and feels accomplished and grown up.  She likes to do "reports" on the computer where she simply looks stuff up and writes about it.  Usually it includes pictures too.  This girl can do anything.  She perplexes me the most but I think it is because she is "so much".  So much of everything.  She keeps me on my toes and her potential is immeasurable.  She is good at everything she tries.  She is compassionate and intuitive.  She is beautiful.
I love Abigail.  Abby's teacher has been out since October, taking care of her sick  mother.  Without us talking much about it, Abby has been praying for Mrs. B's mother for months.  She came home from school the other day and said that she had heard that the mother passed away.  Abby was contemplative and sad and then spent the next while brainstorming about things she could do for her teacher.   Abby is quietly good.  She wants to please people not for show, but because she really cares.  Abby is good and she is loving.  She is so funny.  And those dimples, I couldn't live without them.  Abby will accomplish things she never knew she could do.
Mia is fiercely "everything".  She does everything with vim and vigor.  She loves people.  She loves to be with you.  Mia is a worrier.  She will lay in bed at night when I am tucking her in and ask question after question about how safe our house is, and how far up a burglar using suction cups on his hands and feet can climb.  When she says her prayers, she prays for the whole world.  She prays that people will be happy and that no one will steal other people's stuff.  She prays that people in other countries will be healthy and that they will have somewhere to live.  Mia is sweet and she is smart.  Mia will influence people.
And Hazel, sweet Hazel.  I don't know how many times a day I grab her little face in my hands and ask her why she is so cute or silly.  She usually has a whitty reply that makes me laugh.  She is mellow.  She is like each one of her sisters, and nothing like her sisters.  She is content and easy going but also intensely determined.  She is calming.  People will feel at peace just being around her.

As I was driving the girls somewhere in the car the other day I had one of those blissfully happy moments of contentment.  Those seemingly rare views we get sometimes of perfect harmony and joy-those moments when the day to day grit doesn't cloud our view or preoccupy our thoughts.   I was so grateful for the exact thing that I was given.  And then I thought about my husband and how much I love that he has been blessed with these four daughters.  I thought about how perfectly appointed our dynamic was...he wasn't meant to be the father of any other family...not that he couldn't be the father of any group of genders possible, but he was placed with this exact dynamic for a reason, I know it.  And I thought about how much the girls need him, him, as their father.  And how much they need me, and how much we need them.  Each of us, purposeful, specific, intended.  I don't know how "families" were created or why they are appointed the way they are.  But I know there is a reason.  I know there is a plan and I know there is a  purpose to every detail in that arrangement.
I am grateful.

I love my family.

Hm, how to title the title-less post....

I feel so much pressure after my last post....as though finally coming to write it is somehow going to fulfill my great desire last week.  I can assure you, it will not.  I have just been busy enough now to have other stuff to report.
I find myself less than enthusiastic about another weekend.  So soon? Last weekend's holiday fun bled into a snow day on Tuesday, thus making it THE longest holiday weekend ever...one that would have been more fun and less stressful had my husband not been out of town.  We are going on two weeks here and his return date is still "slushy".  I don't need to tell you that him going on business trips evokes some kind of repressed trauma in me.  I naively though we were kind of done with that sort of thing.  And while I do get to talk to him daily, it ain't helpin' put the kids to bed, if you know what I mean.  It has been an exhausting couple of weeks for me.  Just when I thought my brain couldn't get any mushier, yesterday I fell off the treadmill at the gym and today I called tech support for loss of internet (only to find out, sheepishly, while on the phone with the tech guy that I had indeed checked the wrong power cord earlier.  "Yep, the plug had just fallen out.  Thanks, you've been a tremendous help!") The treadmill incident went mostly unnoticed by those around me-I am really good at making it look all casual-like.  I was trying unlock the iPod strapped to my arm and didn't even realize I was moving back until my shin scraped it's way off the back....I liken it to what it must be like to get in an accident while texting on your phone and driving.  I was totally oblivious.  I am so smooth, sometimes it hurts.
One good thing that I can say about Clark being gone is that I sure accomplish a lot.  I finished projects left and right this week.  I guess I have a lot of free time when I am not spending my evenings gazing into his lovely green-blue eyes.  And though I would have loved to discuss Civil War horses, or how awesome each of my sisters is, I will show you pictures, because that's why we all read blogs anyway, right?  Besides, my sisters need a post all their own...you'll get it my little pretties, just wait and see.
Before I get to all that, I have discovered a new blog called "knock off decor" where she showcases projects that people have done, inspired by other things they have seen.  I love to copy instead of spend money where I can.  It is validating and invigorating to create.   My sister Sarah hit it on the head when she said that creating replenishes us as women...creation in all forms.  So I will share what I was copying if you promise to like mine better.


Project #1: I saw this

 

And put our Texas spin on it. (It's brighter when there is actual sunlight in the room.)

I thought it would be appropriate for our "places we have lived" wall, seeing that even though we have lived all those other places, Texas is "where we hang our spurs", so to speak. (We haven't lived in NYC, but Clark proposed on top of the empire state building so it is in its rightful place of honor.)

 (And just for clarification sake, we have South Carolina, Seattle, Virginia Beach, Texas and Connecticut all represented there...many of those places have been lived in multiple times.)

 Project #2: I found this little gem at H&M.  I am a sucker for polka dots and a bargain so when I saw this dress marked $5 I bought it on the spot.

 See that $5 tag? Isn't it adorable?

 However, since I am not 4'9 and 100 pounds, I had to do a little altering.  It was about 4 inches too short as a dress so I made it into a shirt.  Not the cleanest sewing job, but it'll do.  Remember the part where I told you it was $5?

Project #3: I can't really take credit for this one since I ordered it.  But I did put it up, that counts for something, right? I have wanted this saying above our door for some time but my Cricut can't do the connected letters. 
It's a sailor thing and it makes me happy to think it in my mind, as if wishing everyone well as they leave our home.

We'll just call this Project #3.5 since it is not finished.  You see, all of these other projects were super fast...like under and hour fast.  This quilt was started at the end of last summer and has yet to be completed.  But it will.  Oh yes, it will.  It's going to be a huge TV blanket and I love the colors and patterns.

 Project #4: Matching hooded bath towels for the girls.  I was sick of looking (and smelling) all their other really old ones that were not-so-soft-and-cuddly anymore.

 Project #5: Though I am very grateful to have a laundry room that isn't in the basement, it is the least happy looking place in our house.  Think "old ugly 80's wallpaper and disgusting linoleum".  Now combine that with what you actually have to do in that room and it is very unpleasant indeed.  I needed something to happify it just a tad. 

Project #6: We gave Haley bangs.  She's been asking for a while and I caved.  Hey, it's been known to happen in extreme moments of boredom.

 Project #7: My sister Abby sent me a picture of the above board that she saw in a boutique in Utah.  I loved it and felt instantly inspired to do something with the two canvases that have been sitting in the corner of my office for two months now.  I had to alter it some but I am fairly pleased with the finished product.

Project #8: I saved the picture of this pillow a long time ago.  I just love it.  I may still actually do a pillow someday but in the meantime I used the other blank canvas.  I have a thing for lone trees so this was perfect and I had all the supplies on hand.

 How could I resist?

 And this can't really be considered a project since all I did was take down my other arrangement of frames.  I am moving the big pictures of my kids to my bedroom and decided to go with the lines of pictures in my office instead.  I have too many favorite photos and thought this would be a fun way to display as many as I wanted...I am adding to it daily as I come across some of my favorites from the last several years.

And that, my friends, is that.
I'm off to tackle the quilt project some more and try to NOT watch Inception that came from Netflix today.  I promised Clark that I would wait for him...there had better be something else on that is really, really good.