These Little Wonders

I debated about whether or not to post this here. It seems a little personal to share here, but this is my only record of the things that go on in the Jackson family and I thought this was pretty important to record somewhere, so I guess it will be here.

Everyone knows that Nathan is pretty funny. Nathan is also pretty sensitive, but struggles sometimes with how to deal with that. He doesn't always know how to express it.

I made a playlist on my ipod for the primary songs they are learning for this years program. (I know, I've really reached a new level of "momness" or something) As we were listening Nathan had been singing along and we were talking about the songs and trying to learn the words. The next song that came on was Families Can Be Together Forever. I started to sing and when it reached the chorus my eyes filled with tears. I also noticed at that time that Nathan wasn't singing. I turned around to see that his eyes were also filled with tears and when he saw me looking he seemed a little embarrassed. I asked him why the tears and he said "I don't know mom, this song just makes me feel kinda funny in my chest and my eyes just started having tears." I told him that I had felt the same way as I was listening to the song. I told him that was the Holy Ghost letting us know that the words in that song were true. He seemed pretty pleased with this explanation and a big smile spread across his face. When the song was over he asked if I could play the "Holy Ghost" song again. I didn't correct him on the title. That seemed like a pretty good title to me.

Sometimes the kids are the teachers. More often than not their methods are nontraditional, but we have a lot we can learn from them. I just need to remind myself of that more often. Nathan didn't know that moment with him was exactly what I needed today, or maybe he did.

Having Two Finally Pays Off

I'm not gonna lie. Most days having these two boys in the same house makes me crazy. They are 5 years apart so you would think that they wouldn't find much to fight about. But you would be wrong. Whatever Nathan has Sam wants it. Whatever Sam has, Nathan doesn't want him to have it. Nathan never puts his stuff away, Sam gets it, scuffle ensues, Nathan is too rough, Sam delivers a blood curdling scream, I resist bolting out the front door and staying gone for a few hours. They wrestle, they are LOUD!

And sometimes it is all worth it. Sam hates the car wash. It's really quite sad. I usually go when Nathan is in school. I try to console him, but he just ends up screaming until we come out the other side away from the scary foam and brushes. The other day Nathan was with us. He was very concerned when Sam started to whine as we approached the entrance to the car wash. Once we got in and Sam started to cry Nathan got out of his seat and went to Sam. He held him like this through the whole thing assuring him and saying "it's okay, shhh, shhh". Of course I cried. This is why we wanted two. This is why everyone needs a sibling. When I dried my tears I took a picture to look at later; when they are wrestling and screaming and I want to run from the house and never look back.

I guess I could load them in the car and take them to the car wash!

Sam Walks The Dog

Sometimes the dog just must be walked.

Another White Dash

Another White Dash is a song by Butterfly Boucher. The lyrics are:

There is something exciting about leaving everything behind.

There is something deep and pulling leaving everything behind

Something about having everything you think you'll ever need sitting in the seat next to you.

And I watch another white dash, another white dash, another white dash, fly beside us.

I think about this song every time I get in the car with my family. I love to go on road trips, just the four of us. And it doesn't really matter where we go. Okay, it does matter where we go. It has to be somewhere a few hours away. I do not relish the thought of packing up and driving to Utah, Florida or even Mississippi. All too far. But a few hours in the car on our way to discover something together is fun.

We took one of those little trips in February. We went to Chattanooga. Perfect distance. Kids don't' get too cranky. I don't' get too anxious. Dave and I don't' run out of things to talk about. Perfect. We visited the Incline Railway, The Aquarium, Red Robin (mmmm), and the Vandeheis.


Incline Railway - Overrated.
Aquarium - Loved It.
Red Robin - mmmmm.
Vandeheis - easy

Time in the car with everything I will ever need...priceless. Afterall, I did have my iphone. ;)

Sam = Funny

I think my last post about Sam was about his "sweetness". He is still sweet. It's his nature. But now, if someone asked me to give them one word to describe Sam, I would say "funny". Everything about him is funny. The way he walks. The way he talks. And especially his facial expressions. He has two famous faces. The "stink eye" and "big lips". At some point the two became one and we couldn't get enough of it. Anytime I needed to relieve some stress or just have a good laugh I would get Sam to give me the face. This was taken on the way back from Mississippi after Christmas. He had been crying. Hates the car. I was trying to entertain him. I was failing. I got the camera out to capture the moment. This is what I got. Sweet Sam. Sweet, funny Sam.

Christmas In Mississippi

We spent Christmas this year in Mississippi. (Dave's comment to that would be "this?" Christmas?) There were lots of kids (can someone say Valium?), and TOO much food. Oh, the food. On and on with the food. Actually the picture here should just be a truck load of food, but it didn't stay around long enough to take any pictures of it.
Most years thinking of something to get Dave for Christmas leaves me with a massive headache and him with a new tie. This year I came up the the perfect gift. I was so excited! I started working on it months before and I had to be really sneaky to get it done and to my mom and dad's without his knowledge. It was so much fun! Tis really better to give than to receive. (when you're not giving a lame present that you are ashamed of) Who'd a thunk it?
This double seater tricylce is one that Dave and his brother got back in 72. His parents bought it in Australia. And thanks to them for holding on to it all these years! His mom even had the assembly instructions and bolt etc. taped to the handlebars. We've been talking about having it restored for years, but never got around to it. Okay, when I said "working on it" before, let me clarify. I looked through the phone book and found someone else to "work on it" and took it to him. He did a great job. To add to the "excitement" for me, we were coming up on the week before we were to leave for Mississippi and it still wasn't finished. I had yet to work out the tiny little detail of how to get it there. Traditional shipping at this late date was going to cost me one of my children. I considered taking it with us in the van but couldn't think of a clever enough story to explain the huge box in the back. My dad rescued me by telling me that Greyhound will ship packages. Greyhound, you say? Yes! It cost me $40 bucks and got there the same day.

It was also a surprise for the kids. It was Dave's gift, but he has grown quite a bit since 1972, so I doubted that he would be able to actually "use" it. That would be up to the kids. I knew he would enjoy seeing them enjoy it the way he and his brother had. I also presented him with a picture of he and his brother Darrell on in back in 72 as the tricylce was rolled out. He may or may not have teared up a bit. It doesn't happen often, but I felt pleased with my offering. I had found something he would remember getting. Incidentally, he did think he was getting a XBox 360. I had been telling him that he was getting a big surprise. So the tears might not have been the sweet, happy kind. They might have been the "my wife tricked me" kind, but I prefer to think that they were the happy kind of tears you have when you know that someone loves you by the thought they put into a gift. Anyone can buy an XBOX....and HE did.. for himself.

"Back" Bloggging

So I have been a bad, bad blogger. Like every other area in my life, I struggle with consistency. But after a lot of reprimanding and peer pressure I feel like I can tackle this thing again...for today.

So I am "back" blogging. As I searched through pictures to remind me of the eventful things that have happened since my last entry, I found my first tasty little nugget. My family's personal history could not be recorded without this.

The story behind this is that I asked Nathan to get dressed. This means that he needed to take the long, long trek upstairs. ALL the way upstairs to find some pants. Nathan has many great qualities, but Nathan is very, very lazy! I have a basket on the stairs where I put things that need to go upstairs on my next trip up there. (hey...maybe he came by the lazy thing naturally, I'm not saying he didn't) Anyway, he found Sam's 12-18 month jeans in this basket and managed to squeeze his 6 year old body into them. The frightening bit of this story is that he was serious about wearing them. He just went back to what he was doing. It took me a few minutes to figure out what he had done. (I didn't recall buying him knee length, crotch hugging pedal pushers) It took some convincing to get him out of those things, but I did seize the opportunity for a few photos first.