Three Down...Two Can Stay

Avery started Pre-school this morning.

I laid out her clothes before bed last night and when I went to check on her around 11pm...she was fully dressed...socks and all! Apparently she was more excited than I had anticipated :)
Avery woke up early and ate breakfast along side Phoenix. A bowl of Fruity Dino Bites (currently her favorite) with extra milk. Avery always drinks all the milk out first (we have those plastic WalMart bowls with the straw built in) then she asks for more milk and eats the cereal as normal.

Next was the shoes...she was so excited about putting on her new shoes...she had been patiently waiting for her turn to wear her new shoes as she sadly watched as Stone and Phoenix were able to start wearing theirs last week. She was even more excited when she got to school and found out that her friend from across the street had on the exact same pair (only a different color).


She brushed her teeth by herself, got her purple backpack and wanted to wait for me in the car as apparently I was taking too long with the babies...Heaven forbid I actually fed and change them before taking her to school!
I wanted to take her picture too and she was not thrilled with that whole process but I explained that we take pictures of everyone on the first day of school and today was her turn so she reluctantly obliged...Thanks Avery! :)

Finally...We loaded Zion and Cy in the car and off we went!

Avery was chomping at the bit...excited and we met up with Maddie in the parking lot (neighbor friend from across the street) both girls were happy and smiling with anticipation to be at school! Mitchell took the above picture and Avery looked at Maddie and under her breath said something to the effect of "My Dad is so..." we didn't hear the rest but it was in that teenage, rolling of the eyes, he so bothers me tone. We are in so much trouble...the girl is ONLY four!

She took to the classroom like a champ and never looked back...I still got my kiss though!

When I picked her up @ 1pm the first thing out of her mouth was..."Mommy...I love it here and don't ever want to go home...but I am glad you came to get me."

I do believe we are both going to enjoy Pre-school!

Giggles over Lead Vests

Yesterday morning Stone wasn't feeling good. He said his belly hurt. In true Mitchell family fashion...I put him on the bus as he was not throwing up and sent to school.

A call from the school nurse, a trip to the emergency care center, a lethargic 9 year old, Stone and my first trip on an ambulance, and a speedy trip to AI Dupont, Stone lying on a slab of cold, hard steel having an X-ray of his belly while Mitchell and I are dressed in pretty Skittles adorned Lead Vests...

Some couples find connection over a quite dinner for two, others as they share a private joke from their past, Mitchell and I at the local Children's Hospital as we laugh hysterically about how we simply cannot catch a break!

Many of you are aware of my philosophy and the reason I am simply hard pressed to ever be found crying...If I am not laughing I would be crying and I apparently choose to find humor (be it sick or otherwise) in almost every situation!

Usually...this is because I must exercise my Faith in my Eternal Father and keep a positive attitude because when I do not and even sometimes when I do...I am more often than not...being humbled by the fact that my Heavenly Father was ALWAYS in control of the situation and it was my job to trust in His might and enjoy the simple things of life while He does His job. I might need to tattoo the scripture... Mosiah 3:19 to my forehead. Which reads:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. "

It is my belief that my Father is currently on his knees in the Mitchell Family Garden with all His tools at hand, oh so carefully...lovingly, tending to the whole of this patch of land.

I had a dream about three years ago...which was one of those "Chris dreams" that my Father in Heaven took out a huge pair of pruning sheers and LOPPED the complete top off of a pretty large, nice looking green shrub. In my dream...my heart sank as I knew it represented my family. But I was also shown (and remembered from my mother's workings in our front yard in Rockville as a child) that when you take back the top of a plant the roots grow stronger. The shrub's thirst is diverted from feeding its leaves to spending its energy pushing itself further into the earth looking for a quench to it's thirst...Eventually that shrub becomes mighty...unmovable...it finds it's life force and then when the droughts come, and the harsh weather beats upon this tiny shrub...it remains intact because its roots are deep. It does not matter how harshly the Spring, Summer or Fall treated this little shrub because after the Winter this little shrub with it's deep seeded roots always returns more beautiful than the season prior.

Due to these personally picked trials for the growth, development, and eventual eternal exaltation of myself, my Husband and each and every one of my beautiful children by an all knowing, all loving, perfect, Father in Heaven. I am many times left feeling alone...for it is difficult for others to understand unless they have lived these trials themselves or they by the grace of our dear Father happen to be placed into our lives with the gifts of empathy for that specific situation. (which is why I have been so grateful for such great friends recently!)


There is some temptation on my part to specially lay out the trials which we have had as a remembrance for us as a family unit that we may see a clear picture and have a sense of pride in the fact that sometimes things may not be "pretty" but damn it...look how far we have come! But in doing that...I feel that would only drag up old memories of craziness and make others and I am sure myself....uncomfortable :) So for these reasons...I will refrain.

But I would also like to point out that as Our Father has been mindfully watching over and actively working in our families garden for the past three years...the countless blessings which have emerged through the trials are tender mercies...sweet reminders if you will of a loving Father which is ever mindful of our limits, knows the intents of our hearts and is ever working towards giving us the righteous desires of our hearts at all times...even though to us as children it may look as though we may never have that which we desire...

I say to you all...It is my testimony that Our Heavenly Father IS now and has been since the foundation of time....working to achieve YOUR personal desires! You will have that which you so righteously desire...as will I!

It is just a matter of willingness to put off the natural man and have Faith...knowing that the Lord will deliver all that we have been promised by that Spirit, which makes all things known for surety. The Spirit speaks about different parts of the puzzle, to different people, at different times. This is why blind Faith in the Father is so important...No matter how impossible the situation may look...greater understanding of a kind, all knowing, ever teaching, Father in Heaven ALWAYS follows a large....seemingly insurmountable trial.

Nothing is ever impossible for He that is our Creator and our Saviour. As we have seen in countless scripture stories Faith always proceeds the miracle...Faith is a wonderful thing! For if we truly understood it we would have no need for anything in our lives but pure joy.

So....How could Mitchell and I do anything else but giggle as they wheel our son out of x-ray only to be told that he had the beginnings of toxic constipation...lol!

One big poop and a few hundred dollars down the toilet and we are back to "normal" ... :) At least for the "currently being pruned" Mitchell household!

And They're Off...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Phoenix

First day of 2nd Grade

Stone

First day of Fouth Grade

Teshegela

Okay...I have just finished watching the movie: Tyler Perry's...Why did I get married, on DVD.

http://www.whydidigetmarriedthemovie.com/

I loved this movie!

I must say...I am so part Angela, part Sheila (post Mike)~ thanks in part to Mitchell :), and in true Chris style...part Terry (that's right...the man...lol)

Watch and weigh in...I want to know who are you?

ps. If you live close enough to me...it could always be a girl's night in with lots of yummies :)

pps. Props to my mother in law who took my older kids for the day... No I did not clean! I sat, ate popcorn, and watched a movie :)

Same Boat?

How do you know that school is about to start in the Mitchell home?

We are 3/4 of the way through the assigned books and no book reports have been done. Phoenix has tried on many occasions to start her report without the book being completely read and Stone while he is loving to read the book is already refusing to do the required report which is due on Wednesday morning bright and early.

(BTW: Jackie & me by Dan Gutman is an amazing read and in my opinion should be required reading to any 8 or 9 year old. It brought up many interesting topics which Stone and I were able to discuss at the time because we were reading the book together...I was so excited that "I" actually was able to introduce the "N" word to him for the first time and explain that every group of people has a bad name associated with them. Be them: women "bitches", people from Poland "polacks" (in the book), people with disabilities "retards", white people "crackers", and black people "niggers" (also in the book). It got me thinking how far we have come in one generation...I will bet Mitchell's mother was not able to be the first to introduce that hateful word to her son and to have a frank discussion with him about any "group of people" feeling threatened by any other group to which they are not familiar and especially be able to wait until he was age appropriate to be able to correctly receive the message in the way it was intended)

My prized possession...the Grandfather clock from my Grandparent's home...the only thing which if my home was burning down and I my Husband and children were safe I would actually think about risking my life and returning to the fire to save...has not been wound in three days. The weights are sitting on the bottom and it is not running...which means it is not chiming :(

My pool chemicals are newly (two weeks) bought and sitting unopened inside my house. When they really should be...
Cleaning up my nasty, green pool!
My dinning room table has become a school supplies graveyard

I have spent countless hours going through, trying on, packing up, and reading the "updated" version of the dress code only to figure out I still need to go shopping. Did I mention that I hate to shop?
But there really is nothing prettier than a clean, organized, non-cluttered closet!
I have about 20 forms to fill out...Do you think they would be offended if I just wrote "Nothing has changed" at the top and sent them back? I guess I could muster up enough energy to fill out Avery's forms as she has never before attended Pre-school and they would probably need to know where to get in touch with us in case of emergency.

Oh my poor home~ My kitchen...My bathrooms...It is a sad sight to see! I just keep asking Mitchell to bring home milk for the babies...I would rather die than drag 5 children to the grocery store days before school starts. We can eat from food storage. As you can see we still have eggs. We also have food in the freezer but all of that requires work on my part to prepare so quite frankly we have been eating boxed mac and cheese, oatmeal, canned spaghetti products and anything else which takes me less than 1:30 seconds to microwave...lolSo to all those mothers who are in the same nasty backyard boat...just remember its only a few more days and then after a few short weeks of sanity we will be missing them again...well maybe :)

Happy 7th Birthday Phoenix...

So my beautiful little Miss Phoenix turned 7 on the 4th of this month but due to the craziness of our life she was not blogged about until now. Her birthday was a great day full of fun but a bit out of the ordinary routine (for us) so she was actually given the gift of the "birthday which never ended" she thought this was the greatest thing ever and told many inappropriate adults about this gift which any other time would have led me to feel the need to explain but at this time of stress...I just pasted my face with that oh so fake grin and agreed with my excited seven year old :)

Day one: August 4th~ Mommy and all the kids played all day at the Beamer's house. Phoenix got her hair done, played on the water slide and swam in the pool. She was then given a Webkinz from the Beamer's which she was so excited about that she ran around hugging everyone in the house. We then returned home after a yummy dinner from Wendy's and Phoenix was able to open the gifts from her Grandmom, Aunt Rose and Cousin Cylinda which were left for her while they were on vacation in Florida.

Day Two: August 5~ Daddy's home! Phoenix opens her gifts from our family and we find the left over Rice Krispie squares to stick a candle into and sing her the happy birthday song...promising her the Hanna Montana birthday cake she had been asking for and the balloon tied to the birthday girls chair tradition, which would be given to her on another day of her "birthday which never ends" She smiled and told me she was the luckiest girl in the world :) I so love her!

Day three: August 7~ Hanna Montana cake and a hand picked balloon from the world's most patient birthday girl!Here's hoping all your dreams come true...I love you Bean!