One Long Weekend

As if I haven't learned this time and time again when it comes to the sun, spray, apply, repeat....You'd think that after watching over my children and making sure they are buttered up continuously with sunblock that I'd take the time to keep an eye on myself. Nope. So, while reconstructing our yard this yesterday, I completely forgot the task of reapplying the lotion after the first application on me. Fast forward several hours later, with nearly all that time spent in direct sun, and my back and shoulders look as though I've been spray painted red. It's sore, but, surprisingly not bad. Days like these make me wish I could just go bra-less. Not possible with the goods I've been given...But, the idea is nice!

Our weekend was long and eventful. It began Thursday night with a family dinner to kickoff a celebratory weekend for some elder Yasui's who had passed on in recent years out of state, but wanted to have a final resting place in Hood River. It appears that there was a little bit of a misunderstanding on my part about the events, however...and I wasn't the only one! It was our (immediate family here) thought that Friday morning was going to be a gathering at the park for a fun time with the families that traveled from afar to attend the gatherings. It was at a park, and I was informed that there would be music, singing, etc...... What I didn't know  was that it was an actual memorial service and that eulogies were to be delivered and memories of the deceased were to be shared....oh, boy! Well, trying to get my kids to sit through a memorial service is like telling them to go to sleep on a roller coaster. They were restless, anxious and slightly confused at all the people talking and crying. No surprise there. But, so that I could enjoy it, what does this mother do? I give my son my phone so that he can play angry birds. I made sure that the volume was down so as not to disturb the ceremony taking place. Two minutes in to him playing, silently I might add, the phone begins to blare this rock music with screeching birds. OH. MY. LORD!!! My face surely lost all color, as did my son's. I grabbed it from him and fumbled to shut it down as quickly as I could. How could this happen??!! I was sure I had turned the volume down! As I painfully discovered that day there is a volume control for media activities within the actual phone volume, and it was turned up to the max. I SHOULD have known this, but, the phone is still fairly new, and I don't play a lot of games on it! Needless to say, the morning did not go as I had expected.

Fast forward through the rest of the weekend and it was a wonderful time with family, young and old....and the memories shared (and made) were beautiful.

On Saturday, when the gatherings had quieted, Corey and I decided to take the kids fishing. Cooper went a couple of years ago, but the girls have never gone. We went to a little reservoir up toward one of the local lakes. Beautiful, warm evening..it was perfect. It took the children a while to "get in to" the whole fishing thing. There were flies to be chased, birds to be watched and rocks to be thrown. But, when Rayla's pole began to wiggle a little, she dove in like pro! She reeled and reeled as hard as she could, fishing line bouncing and all, to catch her first fish....all by herself! She was so proud of herself, and we, and the the other kids were proud of her, too! She had no fear...she grabbed that trout when it came to shore and proudly showed off her trophy catch. All 11 inches of it! She was the only successful catcher that day. We brought him home and the kids watched while Corey cleaned it. I wasn't sure how they'd handle it and wondered if they'd be traumatized by the removal of a fish head. Not my kids. They watched with an intensity that I have never seen before, especially Rayla. She wanted to be part of every step of what was to be done with her fish. We decided we would cook it yesterday at dinner time for her to eat if she liked. I cooked it and plated it special just for her. She was ready to eat it.....She took a bite, smiled and said "Best fish EVER!!" Then, she offered up the rest to her siblings!! It wasn't that good, but I don't think it was because of the cook. Still, despite not liking how it tasted, they all are ready to gear up and head out to do some more fishing. This makes their daddy a pretty happy man!

It's Monday and though life has returned to normal again, the hectic bustle of the children in the morning is heavenly, and the routine is back on for the day. Only two more days, actually....the kids are out of school on Wednesday and the Summer Vacation begins!!......For them, at least!!

I Didn't Hear You Right

Father's day is coming up, or so I've been told....a time or two. I still struggle with the yearly battle of what to get my husband for Father's Day. I struggle with every other holiday, too, to be honest. More often than not, he will tell me what he wants, then, either before I've had a chance to save up and get him what he wants, or after I've already purchased it, Corey gets that itch that won't go away and ends up getting it himself. I can't even count on one hand how many times that has happened. Or, and I love this one, we'll have a conversation about something and I get a "hint" of something that he might like and stash it in my memory bank for future holidays. Somehow, I usually get the hints wrong. For instance, for his birthday, I purchased him a mandolin. I bought it months ahead of his birthday with pride, thinking that he'd think this was such a cool gift. I could have sworn that sometime in the past year we had discussed different instruments that he'd like, and a mandolin was one of them. Well, he opened it up and said "Huh. A mandolin. I've never even thought about one of these! Where'd you get that idea, Cara?" Haha....Funny. Really, really funny.  Well, it was funny....apparently that conversation we had included some electric guitar that I still couldn't identify if my life depended on it and MAYBE a banjo....but, maybe not even that!! Oh, silly me. Well, although he said that he would be happy to learn to play it, I told him that I would promptly return it and he could pick out whatever he wanted to whether it be an instrument or just money put into the savings pot for his dream golf clubs. It turns out that I didn't read the small print from the site I ordered it from. NO RETURNS. Well, shit. Fortunately, I'm a Facebook junkie and I'm associated with a page on there for a local "online yard sale". It sold in less than a day. He got the cash present and I still have no idea what I got him for his birthday....
Father's day should be interesting.....

They'll Be Fine......I Turned Out Pretty Good

The past few months have been rough. Not bad rough, but kid rough. The twins are coming into their own little persons and have quite different personalities. Cooper is, well, Cooper....just older. And Katie.....Oh, Lord, where to start.

Having four year old twins is crazier than something out of a Yo Gabba Gabba show. No matter how much you enjoy it, or not, the creative differences in each of them is so outlandish sometimes that you can't believe they're twins. Mackenzie is a genius. No, I'm serious. Her math skills are stupid. She reads, she writes, she can count, she can spell and the kid can tell time. SHE'S FOUR! But, the downside of having a genius four year old is that she's overly emotional, she argues EVERYTHING and she thinks she's always right. (wonder where she gets that.) My little bundle of twinkie joy has grown from a crooked headed little smiley delight, to a kid wonder, and I love her.

I have only one word to describe what Rayla has become; Passionate. That child is passionate about everything. Now, this is good, and this is bad. On the upside when she is positively passionate about something it's one of the cutest and most endearing things I encounter. She gets involved in what she's reading, listening to or watching. She analyzes everything and makes her own creative stories or endings to whatever she has dived into. The down side to a passionate person is when that passion comes out in anger, frustration or orneriness. In trouble? You'd think we're nailing her to the floor. Mad at her sister or brother? You'd think they had beat her in the head with a pan. Upset that she can't do something right? Oh, boy.....That takes patience, and I'll be honest with you, I almost lost it a few times. But, she is growing and learning and her passion is a trait that is going to serve her well in her life. And, for those of you who have followed her health issues I can update that, too: Her asthma had gotten so bad that her albuterol inhaler just wasn't enough anymore. She is now on a daily steroid inhaler and, although it wouldn't have been my first choice, she's so much better now. She breathes. She sleeps. And, so do I........

Cooper has had a rough go in Kindergarten. He's been in trouble a few times, mostly for being distracting in class. When the teacher is talking he seems to drift his eyes away from her and focus on something completely unrelated to what he's being taught. But, when asked to repeat what the teacher had said, not thinking he'd be able to do it, he'll recite back what was taught almost word for word. Of course, when he gets distracted with something, it becomes a domino effect, taking down any suspecting children who follow in his footsteps, because, in all reality, most kids will NOT be able to remember what they're being told while looking at something else. So, that, on top of a couple of NON malicious acts of naughtiness, and he's been labeled already. Now, as a mother who is very on top of things in general when it comes to my kids, I see a Kindergartner who is testing boundaries, using creative outlets to get attention and maybe even suffering from a little boredom when it comes to the end of his school day. I never would have thought he would get labeled, and it's a little frustrating that he has been - He's wonderful at home, so it was quite a surprise to get the calls. At the same time, I suppose that his desire to be class clown has been pushed too far, and the teachers have to put their feet down before it gets out of hand. I KNOW kids can be ornery, even naughty. But he's smart, does his work, is loving, helpful and has such a great personality. Cooper has made a turn around and is making efforts not to be so distracting, and we're so proud of him. I never told my husband this, but in Kindergarten I got so mad at my teacher for making me sit with my head down so much that I got up, walked out of the classroom and headed out of the school to go home. The principal saw me at the front door and stopped me. My mom got called and I got in a little more trouble that I would have had I just chilled out. I still turned out pretty good.

He turns 6 next week.

Finally 15, Katie is now old enough to learn how to drive. Unfortunately for her, fortunately for us, her grades aren't good enough for us to allow that luxury just yet. I am confident in my belief that Katie just thought her work would do itself, turn itself in, and it would all be 100% correct. This last report card made it obvious to her that it takes a lot more than wishful thinking to make a good grade happen. She seems a little more focused this past week. As much as I want to say that it's because she's come to a revelation, I do think that some of it has to do with the fact that at conferences last week some of her teachers showed me some secrets to help me keep a closer eye on work that's due that makes it so she CAN'T miss anything. Ever. Teenagers are, for lack of a better word, dumb. Don't dog on me just yet......You all know you wanna say it. I believe this because I was one once, too. They think they know everything and their parents know nothing. They think that their way is right and parents are too controlling. They think that when we take away their electronics their lives are over. Ugh......that's a whole blog in itself. Anyways, as immature as teens are in most decisions they make, I've discovered that they surely aren't stupid. Meaning, they know right from wrong - Katie still makes choices sometimes that makes me wonder what's going on in that head of hers.  And that makes for some interesting conversations in this house.

What have I learned the past few months?
1. I know all about my daughter. Yet, I probably know nothing.
2. 50/50 are decent odds. Unless it's a chance you're taking that could turn out really bad. Then your chances of bad things happening increases ten fold.
3. I never anticipated my children finding other ways to say "I forgot" or "I never heard you say that" once I banned those phrases from our house.
4. No shoes in the house, (kids) has been a rule in my house for years. They actually think I'm stupid enough not to notice when they are clomping mud through the house or flopping on the couch with their shoes on.
5. Speaking of shoes, I've decided that when my children decide to take their shoes off, they place them with the sole intent of seeing if I can fall on them. They usually succeed...Must be my punishment for making them take their shoes off.
6.Morning breath happens to everyone. But, when my children come in my bed, crowd  me in, then tell ME to roll over because my breath smells bad is just not fair. But because I love them, I do it.
......................Or I breathe hard on them and scare em' back to their own rooms. Depends on how I feel.



So, enjoy your children, learn from their curiosity, and hope that whatever you say, do and teach to them will sink in and that eventually they'll know that whatever you've done was always in their best interest.

I hit the Mudder Woad

Hello mudder, hello fahder........

You know the song. I know the song. And that's what my little Rayla calls me and her dad. Mudder and Fahder. It is by far one of the cutest things I hear my kids say on a daily basis. Luckily for me, most of the children have spoken some of their letters a little 'off' at times, resulting in the sweetest versions of whatever it is they're trying to say.

Speech impediments are no stranger to this family. From a young age, Katie had difficulties with the sound 'k'  the sound 't' and differentiating between her R's, L's and W's. One summer, before we were even married, I think, we were driving in to Portland and playing the game 'I spy' with things along the drive. It was Katie's turn, and she had the letter W. I remember her looking out the front window and shouting "I got it!! I spy, with my little eye, something that stawts with W." And, so we began......"Is it Washington?" "No." "Is it the window?" "Nope" We went on and on with guesses until it seemed that she really hadn't figured something out and was pulling our chain. So we gave up. "What is it then" We asked. "Silly mom, it's WOAD! We dwive on a woad!" OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!! We nearly wet ourselves laughing so hard. And, before she called Corey 'Dad,' she had some difficulties with his name that always left us giggling. She couldn't say Corey with a 'k' sound. But, she COULD say the sound. So, for a good two years, we practiced constantly with her; "Say, K - K - K - COREY." She would say "K - K - K - TOWEE." Eventually, she got it. But, we don't let her forget. Woad, load, road.....To her, it was all the same thing!

Now, little kids often have issues with "th" and making it sound right. Most of the time, the replacement for 'th' is 'd'. Which is where Mudder and Fahder come in. Only Rayla does this right now, but, Cooper and Katie both did it, too,  when they were toddlers. Mackenzie went straight from 'mama' to "It's awfully nice to see you mother." Articulate child, she is. But, when Rayla calls me Mudder, it's just a blessing to hear. She's got a little bit of a raspy voice (naturally), and when she actually says the word, it's always in an endearing manner. "Mudder, may I please have a snack?" or "I love you, Mudder!" Just wonderful. It's even cuter listening to the twins talk since they got their hair cuts. Somehow, everything seems cuter with their little bob cuts!!

Corey and I attended Cooper's first school conferences. It didn't quite go as we had thought it would. Smart kid, they say. Does well in math, in reading, and in recalling things he's been taught. In fact, he excels significantly for Kindergarten and is above where he needs to be. But, he just doesn't listen to his teachers!! What?!? Could they really mean my sweet, smart, patient, loving little boy? Apparently so, because, the two different teachers we conferenced with both told us the same thing. Lovely. While we were sitting in conferencing with Mrs. Irusta, a teacher who proudly doesn't give in to the devilish behaviors of these testy little critters, Cooper says "Mrs. Irusta, I love you." Now, as sweet as that did sound and may seem, she was quick to say, "Well, buddy, you're too late. I've already told your parents about your awful behavior." Now, it might not have been those exact words, but you get the gist. And, to top it all off, this was the teacher that he cried over having to give a Valentine to, because she had sent him to the "thinking chair" too many times. Obviously, not enough, though, since his report card, AND both his teachers, verify that he's failing in that area. I know I'm not failing in teaching him at home. BUT, there's room for improvement. And, from here on out, this mudder isn't going to let things slide as easily as before. Now, how to convince Corey to lay the law down a little harder on his one and only son......that's another story.

Those Dreadful Valentines....

Valentine's day is in two days. There are two things that usually cross my mind when it comes to this holiday: 1.) Are we going out or staying in? And, if we go out, who's babysitting?
2.) Oh, those dreadful school Valentines!!

Just kidding about the dreadful Valentines. But, the task is large, especially for younger school age children. It's all about finding the "coolest" box sets of valentines to hand out to friends. Now, I've only in the past had Katie to deal with, so as long as it was frilly and girly it was fine.  But, apparently, boys are different. The box set needs to be "boyish" and even the cards inside must be separated for the boys and the girls. Heaven forbid that a boy gets one of those Spongebob cards that looks like it should have gone to a girl!!! Maybe that's just my son, for he is a perfectionist. Wonder where he gets that from?!? Actually, we sat down Sunday afternoon and had ALL the kids do their Valentines. The girls have preschool Valentines, and Cooper has kindergarten. Katie couldn't care less, probably because she doesn't have a boyfriend.....I'm not complaining.

Watching the children do their valentines is really quite sweet. They are all so different in the way they went about personalizing their cards. Cooper carefully wrote every name clearly, and signed his so that everyone knew that it was from him. He was thrilled to be filling these out. EXCEPT, when it came to one of the four teachers that he interacts with. In fact, we had to convince him, through tears of refusal, that all teachers deserve a Valentine. Apparently, however, Cooper didn't see it that way - According to him, there's one teacher who has no problem throwing him in the "thinking chair" whenever she sees fit. Now, because I KNOW that my son is ornery, I know that every time he's sent there is well deserved. Anyways, we finally convinced him to sign a card for her, and in the end he was happy to do so. But that, was quite the trip!

The girls are nothing alike. Mackenzie signs her name on her cards very carefully and makes an "assignment" out of it. She always finishes what she begins, so this task took a LONG time. Good thing we did this on a Sunday or mama would have been doing this on Wednesday night after everyone went to bed! Rayla is a little more eclectic with her cards. Apparently she didn't understand that you write your name on the back of the cards...a few cards in I realized that she was actually coloring in the Hello Kitty face on the front of the cards. Oh, well...She says that this way everyone will know it's from her, which I'm sure of. A Valentines card with a cool cartoon, colored in with black pen and an empty back side where the names are supposed to go? Yep, that's my Rayla.....spaz extraordinaire!

Thank God Katie doesn't have a boyfriend yet. She isn't really into Valentine's Day, and that's okay with us! She went to the Valentine's dance last weekend with her friends, and she loved "going stag." I was a little leery about this group of girls going to the "Valentine's Dance" dateless, but, they just figured they were all each other's dates. They re-created a picture that they all posed for 8 years ago....that's half their lives! So it was worth just that for them to get out and be together. This whole thing about me hoping that she doesn't find a boyfriend in the near future probably has something to do with the stories Corey has told me about boys this age. It scares the crap outta me! Of course, I think that my husband, back in the day, likely wasn't the best example of how boys should act. But,  if that was the case, he's learned something over the years, cause' he really is the biggest romantic I know!! That being said, I have no idea whether he's planning something or maybe I should!! ha ha. With four kids, though, putting romance into the day is nearly impossible for us. And, it's a school night......ah, parenthood on Valentine's day!!

So to all of you out there gearing to celebrate love, Happy Valentine's Day!

The Blame Game

Kenzie: "Mom, lookit what Rayla did!"
Rayla: "I didn't do it, mom!"
Kenzie in a sing song voice: "Yes she did. Lookit, mom. Ray-La did it."
(tears now flowing)
Rayla: "I did NOT! Kenzie did it."
Me: "Kenzie, did you do this"
(smug smile, ornery as hell)
Kenzie: "Yeah. hehehe. I just blaming Rayla."


All you parents know it. You dread it. You despise it. Not only because it's wrong, but because it's just plain mean. I'm talking about the 'Blame Game.'

In my house there are three little ones who seem to like this game because they play it so often. Anything, everything and anyone is a possible victim in this game. And, always unsuspecting. Luckily for me, I have eyes in the back of my head and can see when these little fibbers are just blowing smoke. My game for them? Who's gonna tell the truth. Cause' mommy's got a nice treat for the most honest one. You'd think that "treat" would be reason enough for them to cut it out. But, my kids are hard headed. They do it again, and again and again, each time causing one or more others to burst into tears for fear that they're going to be unfairly punished. Like I said, though, the eyes in the back of my head see everything and I just love bustin' em'!! Mackenzie is the worst. She is by far the orneriest of all our kids. But, it's because she's so smart. This child has tact written all over her. She calculates everything she does, from the way she dresses herself in the morning, to the way she colors a picture. (She colors in the lines. No kidding.) She knows that if she says something just the right way at just the right time it's going to get a rise out of me. I have to admit, in the early stages of this blame game mastery I fell victim too and punished the wrong child with a timeout a time or two...or three. (Never Mackenzie, however) I think I've finally got it though - how to play the game. So I play back...for a while at least.

Santa has become my biggest alliance in this. Just one simple threat to call him and update him on their behavior sets forth a series of guilt admittance, apologies and declarations of never doing such a thing again. Obviously, since I'm writing this post, that last part has yet to see fulfillment. And, believe it or not, I'm okay with that. Although I hate the fib, I love the routine - The fib, the acceptance, the apology. Taking responsibility for something they've done, or something they've said. It's a learning process. I may use an imaginative person as a threat for completing this process, but it's recognizable, and that's important.

In the meantime I hope I don't see too many more tears over this. I laugh it off as funny in the aspect of the orneriness that I see in my ever blossoming child. One day the game is going to bite her in the butt, and she'll get put in a timeout for something she hasn't done. And then, and only then, will she realize just how much her little fib hurts another......And maybe they'll want to play something less victimizing than the 'Blame Game.'

Git 'r' Done!!

It's 2013. A year for new resolutions and new beginnings......

2012 ended viciously. Nearly every person in our household was sick for one reason or another. Between November 4 and December 21 Cooper missed 14 days of school. Yes, you read that right...FOURTEEN days of school. Viral tonsillitis. Now, I thought that we had seen the highest fever in our kids when one of them had a 104.9 last year sometime. That's nothin'! Try 106.9....I thought we were gonna have to take him to the ER for sure. We did this twice - The illness. He'd get a sudden fever and we'd battle this for 7 days. Up every few hours in the night to bring down his fever, alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and making sure our little man remained hydrated. It was scary, to say the least. And the fever wasn't even the worst part; His tonsils resembled ground beef - Bloody, full of pus and nearly touching. I guess ground beef doesn't really look like that, but...yeah....lol... After what seemed like our 20th visit to see a doctor (because the antibiotics weren't making him any better) a doctor we saw, who we don't normally see, said that "Standard policy with tonsils is we need to see 6 episodes of tonsillitis in a year in order to refer you to an ENT." I wasn't okay with that. We had to do this THREE more times? Over my dead body......So we saw the kids' regular doc and he was convinced it was okay to see an ENT. :) Cooper goes in February for his consult. Corey, the twins and I had bronchitis - mine went viral, literally - I had to go on meds. As did Rayla. Cooper and Mac skidded through with just a couple days of misery. And Katie breezed through the land of nothingness. I like that. I like nothingness. Nothingness means healthy. No bugs. No fevers. No chest congestion. Nothing. Now, why can't that happen with the rest of em'!!?!!

So, on to 2013. I really didn't think that I was going to have resolutions. But, it seemed that my sweet husband and teenage daughter decided I should, and therefore thought of one for me. They say I should see something through. ALL the way through. Okay. At first I was like "Whaaa? You think I don't do anything!!? You think I'm just lazy and don't get things done?!!" Then, I thought about it. What did I resolve to do last year, or say I was going to do, and didn't follow through? Obviously I clean, cook, care for kids, medicate, launder and love as needed. But what was it that I didn't DO...for me? Here's what I didn't get done last year.

Do more singing. Whether by joining a group, a choir, auditioning for some reality show or something along those lines. Nope, not accomplished.
Make more friends. I was a part of a bunco group that dissipated after 12 years in August...I thought I'd arrange for a casual "girls night out" for each month with no obligation for people to be there. Nope, didn't do that either.
Lose weight. Yeah, not going into details on that one, but, I'm still fat.
Eat healthier. I did. For a while. Lost some weight. Felt better. Then I got sad for some reason and just kept on eating crap after I got happy.
Find a hobby. Now, I love to write. My daughter gets that from me. I guess I've considered my blogging to be a hobby. But, I don't do it enough to claim it as so. So, yeah, I didn't do that either.


I didn't resolve to do anything this year...I just figured it was another year for me to make things right. But, I think I need to incorporate the above things into making it right for myself.

I do suppose I need to make some serious changes in me, too, for Cooper seems to think his mother is 300 years old and possibly wears diapers. (Decided in a couple of conversations about age.) I'm on the right track, though..I've already made changes. Git 'r' done!!




Next up: The blame game.