April Tid Bits

Winter finally loosened it's grip and spring arrived this month! Some other notable things happened:

I was promoted at work! A rigorous interview process turned into an even bigger process when they decided to create a position for me. Before my final interview I woke up at 2AM and couldn't go back to sleep until 4:15. I dreamed they moved the interview from a Zoom to the lobby and when I arrived late and out of breath, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was standing in the corner with his arms folded looking disappointed. I had lunch before my interview so I tried to shake my nerves by driving by all the girls' schools, thinking of them in their classrooms and remembering I do what I do so I can be an example to them. They were all home when I got the news and Brent ushered them into the car. I told him to pick me up and when I announced I got the job they all cheered for me. My gosh, I legit cried I was so happy!

Saw this one on TikTok- can you go like this?

And then like this?

Here is Brent's attempt:

Liesel asked me to sop singing Wonderwall.

I said, "Maybe..."

This was for a NASA project and everyone had to study a planet and Gita chose Pluto since it's small like her. I asked if it's even considered a planet anymore and she said, "I don't care, I'm studying it!"

Ireland went on an overnight school trip to Springfield, IL. This is a trip Liesel was never able to go on due to the pandemic and she was very vocal about it not being worth it. Ireland ignored her and had a great time. This trip is a great stepping stone toward the DC 8th grade trip!

They visited the House of Representatives Chamber where Reese Witherspoon filmed parts of Legally Blonde 2. Also important Illinois legislation is passed here. And this is where Abraham Lincoln began his political career.

Sydney: What are you watching?
Me: Indian Matchmaking. If you had a matchmaker, what would you say you're looking for in your person?

Sydney: Kindness, Mormoness, handsomeness...

Me: What do you consider handsome?
Sydney: Like Daddy... only with a six pack.

Me: Would you like your significant other to have any special skills?
Sydney: Snuggling.

I asked Gita the same question and she said: Someone tall.

Me: What if he's tall but mean?
Gita: Then NO!
Me: What if he's short but kind?
Gita: Then... no.

I got the Wordle in 1 try! To be fair, Katrina and I use the same starting word and she'd sent me her results so I had a bit of a leg up. Still, I think this is noteworthy!

Ireland was in the middle school's production of The Wizard of Oz. This is the first play the middle school has done since the pandemic. Sadly Ireland missed auditions because we were in Hawaii so she was a little bummed to not even get a dancing role. Thankfully her rehearsal schedule wasn't quite as insane as Liesel's and she performed beautifully! Brent and I put in some quality time with the sets- mostly transporting pieces from the high school to the Raue Center. Needless to say, Sydney and Brigitta are just chomping at the bit to be a part of a musical now!

Here's the full show:

Liesel and Ireland went to Program Aide training camp for Girl Scouts. They met a girl who knows my brother Joey from back when he worked at FedEx- what are the chances of that? Joey lives in California! She said they called him Mr. Joel and I guess he's a friend of her uncle? When I asked the name of the girl or the uncle, Liesel and Ireland said they didn't ask. 

With a teeny, tiny suggestion from me, Brigitta decided to be Princess Diana for her Living Museum project. The Rowing Blazers sweater had just become available again and I couldn't help myself, I bought it. If any of my daughters deserves a sheep sweater with one black sheep, it is my Gita Girl! I also ended up referencing it in a talk I gave a couple days later on Christ being the Good Shepherd. 

Princess Diana always had very short haircuts so we decided to braid Gita's long hair into a tiara.

Here's her little spiel:

She informed me she had 34 people visit her booth to learn more about Princess Diana. The UK was killing it for Living Museum presentations- check out the kid who went as William Wallace in a KILT!!!

At the encouragement of a coworker, I decided to change the orientation of the monitors the girls use. When they came home from school they were gob smacked and asked what had happened. I pretended to not know what they were talking about and told them they had always been like that. Finally I told them I just wanted to try it out and in the end, they decided they like this better! 

I listened to a podcast about Phantom of the Opera now that it closed on Broadway. Musicians from the orchestra pit were interviewed about what it's like to play the same piece of music over and over, for THIRTY years! This all got me on a kick to watch the movie and I realized it's basically a girl who was groomed, drugged and forced into white slavery for her voice. Perspectives change when you have innocent, young daughters!

An old friend from our Iowa City ward mentioned on Facebook she would be in a concert in the Chicago area and could comp tickets. Brent and I jumped on that right away and spent a dreamy Sunday afternoon listening to Beethoven in a chapel filled with pretty stained-glass windows.

I like to think I know something about music until I get around really musical people who start speaking a completely different language. On the way home Brent and I talked about these men and whether they had any faith. Mozart and Beethoven composed masses with religious text and just stunning music to inspire the soul- was it really just a job to them? Could they not have been touched by the gravity of what they were doing? Or were they just motivated by the paycheck?

And with that, we close out April!

Dance Photos

Photo dump! Seems we can't have a dance photo day without someone missing! Ireland was in Springfield, IL on a school trip so sadly we didn't get the nice photos of her in costume. Too bad because these really turned out beautifully! Enjoy!

 

Happy Easter!

Yet again, thanks to Aunt Beck, it seems we have found ourselves a new family tradition! When they were little, Grandma did "magic milk" for Easter. This was back in the day when milk was delivered straight to the house. My dad was able to procure one of the bottles they actually would have used! We had a couple more on hand and decided to do an array of colors which the girls just loved. 

Since Christmas stockings are always filled with Pringles, we thought it might be fun to pair the magic milk with their favorite cereal and that was a huge hit. After digging into their baskets, the girls grabbed their cereal and bellied up to the table to have it along with the magic milk. It really worked out well and we are definitely keeping this tradition for the future!

Along with the milk bottle, my parents also got each of the girls their every own bunny cake!

 They were pretty excited about those as well.

Dad couldn't quite get ready in enough time, but Mom was able to come with us to church. I'm glad I was able to snap a pretty photo of my girls with her.

My own Little Women!

I'm not feeling photogenic these days, but a family photo is a must!

Things were so busy with my parents (my dad got a little sick) that we skipped over doing charades with the parables. After they left, the girls requested to do it and I can't remember when I've laughed so hard. Here they are doing the parable of the lost sheep. Notice the mop handle Liesel is using as a shepherd's crook, the sheep's fleece (an apron) Ireland has on her back, the dog pillow and the squishmallow that are also a part of the flock and the flower lei that makes Gita a sheep as well.

The crème de la crème was the parable of the Good Samaritan. Ireland was the person who was robbed and left for dead. Liesel initially ran in with a pig mask to assault her. Then she returned with various outfits to be represent the priest, the Levite and finally the Good Samaritan. We were rolling!

That's the thing about parenting- you never know which traditions will be forgotten and which ones will sink into them to the point it's not truly a holiday without them. I'm loving that the girls are getting old enough to speak up about which traditions mean the most to them, and maybe even some we might like to start. It's never too late to start a family tradition! 

Liesel is FIFTEEN!!!

Liesel is officially at the age where she gets to straddle the fence a bit. As we push her into adult responsibilities, she lays claim to her vanishing childhood. That's the beauty of being a teen- you can go either way. This year has handed me more moments of stunned realization that Liesel is growing up more than any other. Somewhere in the back of my mind "She's just a Freshman" resided and now and again that got knocked down. She's not just growing up, physically she is almost completely grown. So many major life decisions are nearly at her feet. 

Liesel doesn't get sick often I chalk it up to her early years in daycare where she got every bug under the sun. Recently she got sick and I mean REALLY sick. She looked pale and gray, she couldn't keep anything down including water. We tried Pepto Bismol and her body rejected that. Clearly she needed to let her body rest to try and beat this bug. She was too weak to walk up the stairs so Brent tenderly scooped her up. She's my girl on fire but she's still my baby. 

She needed to sign a YW camp form so I woke her up and told her I needed her to sign this form saying I get 30% of anything she earns for the rest of her life. She groggily looked at the form and said, "Huh? Oh YW camp..." I told her that was a test because Victoria's mother tried to get her to sign away her rights as queen when she was horribly sick and she refused. Liesel didn't seem to see this conversation as the victory I did and after she signed the camp form she rolled over and immediately went back to sleep. 

We enrolled Liesel in a Driver's Ed course- otherwise she would have to wait to take it over the summer through the high school. There are already enough conflicts with Girls' Camp, FSY, Spanish Camp and Cougarette Camp that was going to be a challenge. Not to mention I am hoping against hope she can manage to find a job! So we spent the money for the course and just one week in she was able to get her permit. The next day I had her drive us all to church.

It's worth noting the girls pretty much fight nonstop from the moment we leave the house to the moment we sit down in our pew. Actually that's not true, they fight throughout church as well. This time, the car was completely silent. It felt like every large truck was on the road and after assuring her the huge white one behind us was nice, they honked and she was rattled all over again. We made it, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief:

We believe there are keys to the Priesthood which Heavenly Father has given for us to exercise his power here on the earth. I've spent so much time in the toddler trenches I was not fully prepared for the feeling of the day you hand over the car keys. I thought I would be so cool about it- no big deal. It was something else. I wondered if Heavenly Father felt the same way- reticence, knowing we would screw it up, exhaustion trying to keep us from killing ourselves... I wonder.

Happy Birthday Liesel! Your have a bright future ahead of you!

March Tid Bits

In like a lion, out like a lamb- that's how the saying goes anyway. I've decided for my own mental health to consider March in like a lion and out like a lion. April will get a bit better so just put your head down and get through March as best you can!

A bunch of boys on the bus told Sydney she was dumb so she whipped around and asked them to solve 3X=6. Apparently none of them could do it. 

Doing Gita's hair for school I noticed a little mole I hadn't seen before. I scratched at it and tiny legs flailed and I realized it was a tick. I tried using a heated knife and it wouldn't back out. I tried using olive oil and the tick thought, "Now this blood is even more delicious! Nom nom nom!!!" and burrowed deeper. 

I decided to take her to the immediate care so they could not only expertly remove it, but to also get a prescription to prevent Lyme disease. 

At long last, that sucker was outta there! What are the chances I would part her hair exactly where she had a tick burrowed into her scalp? Glad we caught this one (apparently early on) and she should be no worse for wear.

On the flip side, we did try a cool new braid! Two waterfalls into a French which looked pretty cool.

I love to low-key tease Sydney by asking Alexa to play songs in the most drawn out way possible. She inevitably gets fed up and overrides my request with the actual name of the song. 

The 5th grade musical was supposed to happen a couple of years ago when pandemic lockdowns happened. This year was all about redemption! Gita was asked to fill in for that square dance portion just a couple of days before they performed and she was pretty proud to flex her dance background. LOL- when I saw the choreography I realized it's not that complex but hey, glad she's confident!

Unfortunately, once she finished that number she moved back down to be with her own class and this is all I could see of her for the rest of the performance.

We were able to take pictures before they all left which was great! 

She sure looked cute in her cowgirl get up!

All the girls have had Mrs Mootz who is retiring after this year!

When asked for a name for an order, I never give my since both my first and last names are so complicated. Instead, I try to give a unique but known name. I mean hey- they might work a little harder on the order, right? Brent was a little annoyed with me for this one because he was sure they were all going to be disappointed when he picked it up. I can't imagine why- haha!

Sydney not only leaves me sweet messages in my office, she sprinkles them throughout my notebook so I can randomly come across them in the middle of the day! Lurve.

Liesel kept stealing my cardigan so I searched for one she could have all to herself. The one I found is wonderfully warm but Liesel said she felt like an English teacher in it because they will constantly wrap themselves in their cardigans. Here's her impression:

This is why I say March is in like a lion and out like a lion. This snowfall happened at the end of the month! Spring is nowhere in sight!

Over Spring Break Liesel went to LA and San Diego with her choir. I received two pics from her the whole time she was gone:

She just does NOT get homesick! Fortunately, there was a Facebook group with lots of photos and posts. There was a recording of  their session at USC where they were practicing their pirate song (you can kind of see Liesel in this picture). They also live-streamed the concert they performed at Bel Air Church. Stunning building!

Ireland really wanted to get some street cred by flying as an unaccompanied minor so we sent her down to visit Whitney and Tim. Her flight was in to Nashville and Whitney was so sweet to pick her up. They checked out a bit of Nashville and then snuggled her up to hang with them for the week.

I'm incredibly grateful to have family that will take in my girls and just love them. Ireland needed some separation from her sisters and she really wanted to have an adventure on her own- even though that adventure was mostly chilling at their house.

I thought if I got a flowery wreath it would help bring on the warmer weather of spring. It did not work. The wreath looked really pretty on our front door though!

Another sweet note from Sydney left on my work laptop.

This made me laugh!