Life. (Not the cereal)

Tomorrow I'm off to YW camp. I'm excited, but stressing. I *think* I'm pretty much ready to just load up the car tomorrow and tidy the house, but the nagging fear of forgetting something important is the worst. Will I remember to pack the kids' meds for the sitter? What about everything else I promised I'd send along to help them get through a week with 7 kids? Am I bringing all the camping gear we'll need? It's all on me to remember to get it there.What will I do about all these blueberries I picked but didn't freeze yet? They'll be bad by the time I get back. :-/ Degu-care set? Kids' rides to their activities coordinated? Have I packed all their uniforms and such? When will I send the work document I promised to format and send? Aack! So many people depending on me to have prepared well enough and to remember so much. I know everything will be just fine. I just hate the feeling of forgetting to bring/do/prepare what others were expecting or depending on me for. Hoping I won't feel that too much. ;-)

One of the classes I signed the kids up through Parks and Rec was Brennan and Asher doing Shao-Lin Kemp = karate, kung fu, and jujitsu I believe. I thought, "it's just a fun summer thing, I'm not going to bother purchasing karate uniforms or anything."
We got to their first class and of course they had fun. Then the teacher talked to me about purchasing their uniforms. He started out telling me how much it typically costs, but because I have two boys in it and he knows it adds up, (and also knowing we came in through a parks & rec scholarship which was probably a red flag), he asked if I could do xxx amount. I started to explain that I'm in the process of a divorce and don't really have anything extra right now... so he gave us the uniforms for free. Which was nice. And I'm grateful. But also, in the course of the conversation it felt very much like the expectation is that they'll keep going to this indefinitely. Having accepted the uniforms I feel a little bit obligated too. But these scholarships aren't bottomless, lol. They cover essentially 3 rounds of swimming lessons a year and that's it. Don't know what I'll do when it's over - the boys LOVE it, and I love that they have to do extra push-ups if they can't report that their rooms are clean or that they've done their chores at home. ;-) They're definitely more motivated lately.

Their teacher is an interesting guy. Very... friendly. I can't decide if I find him odd, annoying, or pleasant. Even if I don't go inside when I'm picking up the boys, for example, he'll come outside and talk to me like we're old friends or something. He'll recap how the boys did, he'll laugh about things Asher said or things he told them. He spends enough time talking to me that inevitably Hollyn will hop out of the car and somehow gets herself in a position where I realize he's holding her and she's beaming. We've only been going to Karate for 3 sessions now.

Hollyn wastes no time making adult friends. It kind of concerns me, but I can't keep her from charming people! Our home teacher, who was previously our Bishop, is another current victim of hers. He seems to like it though, particularly as he looks forward to becoming a grandfather within a few years. She manages to end up being carried to primary, convincing him to stick around while she sits on his lap and won't let him go, he carries her to me at the end of church... Whenever she sees Parker Appah, a great young man who recently graduated HS and who once supervised his younger sister babysitting the kids (like, a first time babysitting thing for her), she exclaims, "It's my favorite man!" Yeah, that's what she calls him. Her favorite man. Because she had him wrapped around her little finger within minutes of their first meeting. Going back to the home teacher/Bishop: his companion is his youngest son, a Junior in HS. He's the baby of the family by a large gap, and non of his older siblings have children yet so really, he's had very limited interactions with little kids. On their first visit, Hollyn started climbing all over both father and son's laps, but I could tell the latter was totally unused to it. She knows no boundaries, she just expects everyone to WANT to hold her or pay her attention. I kind of wish people wouldn't enable it so much. I need a "don't feed the bear" sign about her, like "Don't pick up the monkey-child". I wonder, who would Hollyn be if instead of being extra small, she was large of stature? Her whole life-experience would probably be different, hahaha.

Carryin' the Banner!

http://kval.com/news/local/pipeline-to-jobs-in-albany-aims-to-fill-1k-manufacturing-jobs-in-5-years-06-30-2016

My little movie star. The camera loves him!

Brennan had a pretty good time at Manufacturing camp this week. He welded some little knick-knacks, designed something on the computer which was 3D printed, made his own "simon" game (it's that game that plays an increasingly long sequence of sounds/lights and you have to repeat it), listened to guest speakers from businesses that create things like jet parts, and took a tour of a freeze-dried food plant. Brennan was especially impressed with the company Entek - it's his new favorite company besides Amazon and he asked the speaker for his business card so he could contact him or something, lol.

A promotional video had a production crew filming and interviewing the kids and Brennan was one of the interviewees so maybe we'll get to see that too.


Honestly, it just blows my mind the things my kids are introduced to and learn about. At the elementary school they hold after-school clubs, like Lego Club and Gardening Club, Math and Science Clubs... Brennan has done Engineering Club and even Coding Club. He's make little robots and created a video game from these weekly activities. Does anybody else think this is wild? I mean, I'm no longer surprised when my youngsters pick up phone/tablet use and video games faster than me - but they're creating things with circuitry and motherboards for crying out loud. In the video you hear Brennan comment that he decided to add an on/off switch to his game. I don't know how he even knew how to do that (possibly minecraft, haha), but this isn't his first time doing this kind of thing I guess. It just makes me feel old to be one of those people who feels like technology and my ability to understand it has passed me by.

Asher's a lone ranger. He mainly likes to play by himself, especially the specific imaginative playing he does in his room. Brennan often gets Asher to join him in some brotherly play and they're pretty good friends. I'm so glad of that - watching these brothers grow up as buddies.

But what I've REALLY enjoyed witnessing many times lately, is the sweet relationship Asher and Hollyn often share. Over the last 4 or 6 months I've caught Asher on many occasions sitting with his arm over Hollyn's shoulders, in an act of love and protectiveness. This is generally (or always) when they're watching a performance or something of that nature, not just hanging around the house or anything. Being out and about brings out this side of Asher I guess. On one such occasion I'd brought just the two of them to the school's Fine Arts night. The Marimba Band was performing while guests wandered around the gallery and viewed the children's art and auction items. Among that crowd of band watchers, Asher and Hollyn sat on the floor with Asher's arms around his little sister. I kept overhearing nearby adults and others who were pointing and commenting on the sweet brother and sister sitting like that.

Yesterday after swimming lessons the kids talked me into some recreational swimming time in the outside pools. Brennan was the one pleading, mainly, and when I told him that I didn't have a suit with me to watch Kieran he promised that he would watch him himself. I was already giving in as he was exclaiming, "I can be in charge of Kieran and Asher can be in charge of Hollyn!" I don't know if Brennan actually told Asher of that idea/plan, or if it was just a coincidence, but Asher did end up staying with Hollyn the entire time. Not one word of complaint or faltering either way. I stood on the side of the pool a) feeling so glad I didn't have to be in it (it's a wonderful milestone, lol) and b) watching my older children each play with and engage a younger sibling. It brought much joy to my heart witnessing the bonding and enjoyment they can have with each other.

Then we came home and they all played with the train set together. The set usually lives up high in a closet, forgotten about. So it's the current novelty. They created a large track and then began to play on it ALL together. You know how when older kids get involved, there's a delicate balance where they try to include increasingly complex ideas and story-lines and play? And when you have such a variety of ages it can get tricky for those older kids trying to maintain their ideals, right? There was a little bickering after a while, but they actually spent a loooong time playing all together with these trains. Only one was remote controllable and they didn't even argue over it!

I can't take a bit of credit of course. My kids came awesome. :-)

Rated PG for partial nudity. The problem with trying to deal with Kieran's pottying-regression (as in, he keeps having lots of accidents) is that it results in an increase in nakedness. Sigh

Oregon Coast Day

All wrapped up in the Octopus tentacle

OhMyGosh! What's that?!?!

Bunch O' Stevensons

♪♫ Look Down! Look Down! ♫♪

Almost didn't make it out of there alive!

So much fun visiting the coast with Grandma and Grandpa Templeman today. I can't even wrap my mind around the idea that they wanted to spend the day together after how often they already see us - including extra babysitting this last week. I must be either really cute or really pitiful ;-)

Just chillin' in his invisible chair

Every day I get on her case for being "too cute". I demand she cease immediately. I threaten. I shake my finger at her. Not only does she completely disobey my order, she makes it even worse by smiling and laughing about it. Don't know what I'm going to do with her.

Wind blown hair. It's a really problem when you're Mr. Goldilocks

Kieran's pants got wet so I helped him out of them. I was getting some shorts out of the bag but he had other ideas. It started as just this:

But quickly progressed to this:

Kieran apparently mistook this Oregon beach for one in Europe

Perfect kite flying weather. Too good. I had the darndest time bringing this sucker back down.

At Ona Beach, which I'd never been to until today, there's this sweet driftwood hut sitting there. And it was in pristine shape. No trash, no graffiti, no etchings (except for my boys drawing their initials on the sand-covered stump). Lovely place to sit and rest from the increasingly chilly wind.

Selfies with all the kids. I like to think that someday when I'm dead and gone, my children will cherish pictures of them with their mother. It probably won't happen before that though. ;-)

He couldn't be bothered to smile - too busy tasting the sand

I go back and forth on these green pants, Kelly. I suspect that when the winds of fashion blow on, these are the type of thing we'll look back on and we'll all cringe at what "Mom used to wear". That, and I'm just not convinced I can pull off such a strong color. And yet, I kind of like trying.

 I got bored just sitting there in the wind so I turned to selfies. Tee hee.  We were alone at the edge of the beach here, so no people watching, and we never made it past the creek to the ocean itself.

Captain Underpants (hey, it was literally "better than nothing")

Trying to redo the shot of me and Hollyn, but this mysterious goateed man wouldn't leave