Superhero energy comes from WHAT? And other...uhm....whatevers

Nutrition. Tell me I'm lying. Alright then. Eli and I, on the way to school, discusing random things ran across the fact that I was eating a granola bar. He asks "why are you eating that" (as though it were toxic waste.) So I answer with the first thing that came to my mind before I could think to even stop it,
"Because, I'm on my way to school and I need super amounts of energy."
Eli: "so, you need super energy? Like Thor and Captain America!?"
Me: "yep"
Eli: "so you mean that stuff gives you super energy?"
Me (thinking-ohno): "Let me explain...there are certain types of food that Heavenly Father has made that are like 'super foods'- they have loads of stuff called 'nutrition.' This nutrition helps our bodies as much as water, which is the one of the other most important power sources for our bodies. When you eat these super foods, or nutricious foods, you get lots of energy and your body can do things that it felt too tired or sick or weak to do before you at it. That's why we fuss about you not eating too much junk food and eating good foods."
Eli: "Wow."
Me: "Yep. And there are people that go to school to learn about the best superfoods and how to make them easier to eat without eating too much unecessary junk with them so you get maximum energy, like Sister Cassie Wood, at church."
Eli: "WOW! Give ME a Granola Bar!!" He proceeded to eat it on the way to school, picking the chocolate (lol @ the junk food hypocrisy here...though I did tell him chocolate was junkfood...) out while eating the granola. 5 YEARS OF TRYING TO GET THIS KID TO EAT ANYTHING HEALTHY AND IT TOOK SUPERHEROS!?!  I don't care. It worked. Thank you Thor and Cap'. Tooo bad it was picture day...lol. ;)

Oh, and nothing is more flattering than Ana saying to me, Monday afternoon "Mama, I'm going to turn you into a beautiful princess!" Me, feeling kindof like the ugly duckling while washing dishes when she says this- my response "I don't want to be a princess." Ana, aghast, replies, "okay, I will make you beautiful then!" (luckily for her, bubby wasn't here or there would have been an upset boy...) Me, frustrated and honest, "Ana-Banana, I don't want to be beautiful, I just want to be a mother, like I always have." Ana, quickly responds "so you can deal with the children?" Me, now aghast and blatantly honest- "No! Not so I can 'deal' with the childre, but so I can love my children, raise them to be happy and be good people." Ana's shocking response? A huge tight hug accompanied by a "I love you so much Mama." And I felt it come all the way from the bottom of her heart. Oh how I love that terribly terrorizingly perfect little child....and all of them really.

Love them all so much.

When theres love at home...

Eli was so sweet tonight, he said specific prayers for me to get a passing grade on my test today, to do well on my two tests tomorrow, "but most importantly, please bless Mommy to know she is doing her very best and it is just great!"

Ana had me read a book that is a worn out, well loved favorite in our family, entitled "Without You", about penguin Mommies going off to brave treacherous waters to find food for their unhatched babies and nuturing courageous fathers that brave the elements and stay the steady course to keep their eggs warm until they hatch and mother returns with the food. The kids just love this book. We all do. It makes me appreciate again the importance and my children's understanding of the importance of both parents equality in a marriage.

On a side (Ana) note, she cut her own hair (I swore this would NEVER happen.) So tomorrow I will be going to see if I can get it shaped/evened/fixed. (Sigh) this is a looooooooooooooong week. x.x

Rhyme tyme

Eli: Pasty cake, pasty cake, eat a....
Ana: NASTY CAKE *LOL*
Ana: ew...nasty cake is kinda gross...

Eli: Hey Mommy! Mallen cake, Mallen cake, EAT A ALLEN CAKE!!! Ha ha haaa! Mari cake, mari cake, eat a binkey cake.

All this while trying to eat. Oh my little Huny Bunches of Nuts!!

Sometimes...

You realize just how darn cute your kids are. This is one of those moments. <3 Here are some of those James moments. I will be taking more pics of my other adorables tomorow.

Did she just...

I know that I am not the only mother of a four year old daughter that suffers from the stomping disorder. Or the "ugh!"-ing disorder. You know, they stomp, ugh, screech- whatever they find necessary to have the last word in an argument about how its going down? Well, this is the epitome of Ana this week. *.* Stomp *UGH* STOMP *UGH* STOMP STOMPSTOMPPPP*

Anywho- on a more positive note, she has been quite patient with me this week. Usually when I hit a rough patch of sickness, Ana is the first to act up and throw fits. This week, either I scared her badly or she just decided that Aunt Tracy saved the day(s) enough to make it better. This week began a little rocky, but by Tuesday morning, I was beginning to feel scary bad and I was easily disoriented and confused. Wednesday morning, I woke up and drove Allen to work, and when it was time to drive back home, I suddenly felt overcome by something, like I was exhausted but not, so I decided to just cut the car off and rest for a minute. I set my alarm and went to sleep. Nest thing I knew, I was waking to the alarm, but I didn't feel right. I tried to drive home, but I couldn't focus, my head was so clouded. I decided that as soon as I could get to the next well lit place, I was going to pull over and stay there, no matter what, until I felt safe to drive. I pulled into a church and I don't remember anything until hours later when Sherry called me in a panic because I never showed back up at home. She tells me now that I couldn't talk coherently and that she talked me as I drove home and that when I arrived I was not coherent and I could not talk in any understandable fashion. I remember crawling into bed and that is all I remember until lunchtime, when Sherry gave me chicken pot pie, I remember how warm it was and how freezing I was and how I ached and how I was shaking. I don't remember anything again until Allen told me that Eli was about to get off the bus and that I had just had two seizures. That was most likely the scariest day of my life. Thank goodness, the next day my Neurologist finally decided to start me on some anti-seizure meds, including an emergency PRN that stops seizures underway that someone can slip into my mouth that will dissolve or that I can take when I feel a seizure coming that will prevent it. This has made all the difference. I hope that eventually I will stop having the oncoming seizures and the regular meds will be strong enough in my system to prevent them.

Another busy week down, and another underway. Eli has managed 5's all week again and I am glad. It is so nice to have a teacher that is not so busy trying to meet a quota that she forgets that my child is an individual. She told Mom and Dad at the Grandparent's Day celebration yesterday that he is her little buddy. :D

Hope you are all doing well.

Kix or Kiss?

Allen is terrorizing the house....he keeps asking "Do you want KIX or KISS?!" And no matter how you answer, you are getting a kiss. Of ourse, I have smarty tarty kids who, when they were actually ready for food, said "okay we want cereal now."

I love reduced-stress Saturday mornings. :D

So perfect

I know that I often complain of being stressed out and tired, of the crazy antics of my children and of the tremendous load I feel baring down on me often, but really, my life, in a strange way, is perfect.

For starters, the kids are so darn cute. They really try some wild stuff, such as Ana going under the table, crawling to the point where the glass center inlay is, and standing up with it on her head, while telling me she's a glass head, or Scooter climbing on the kitchen table and discovering the chandelier and attempting to climb it (thank goodness he was QUICKLY intercepted) and Mari telling me today that she wanted to paint her own nails.

Eli has really made me so proud of him lately, the change of schools has really done the trick. He has gotten 5's every single day, he has drawn so many cute pictures at school, he has come home and told me nursery rhymes (of course he was stunned when he realized that I knew them already. ;) ) He told me tonight "OHIO Kazamas?..." nevermind, I can't remember right now, but it was Good Morning in Japanese.  That, my dears, was awesome. I can't say it didn't let him get away with staying up a few minutes extra, because it did. He was so stinkin' cute walking around telling us all how he was going to wake up in the morning and tell us "...". Yeah, I was beaming proud. Then we hit a bump- bedtime prayers. Lately he has been saying that he didn't want to say prayers at night, and honestly, I wasn't 100% sure I was going to know how to handle it exactly, but using the whole free agency thought process, I simply told him tonight in a non-emotional or conflicting voice that this was fine, he didn't have to say prayers. I even went on to say that I didn't want him to feel like he had to say prayers if he didn't want to say them. But then I was honest, and I told him that the only issue was that Heavenly Father loves to hear from him and misses him so much, so if he decides to say prayers, it would make Heavenly Father proud. Judge me if you must, but I honestly did not say it to make him say prayers. I really felt like I never want him to feel persuaded or forced, or like he had to, I wanted him to have an honest and real relationship with his heavenly Father. Turns out, he just wants that same thing and he wanted to know that I would accept him if he decided not to say prayers. He did say them though, he told me "You know what, I want to say them" and boy did he pray! He prayed for his presidential preferences and his classroom, he prayed that Captain Moroni would rescue us and be our superhero to defeat evil, just like, (and yes, he listed these all), Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine, Hawkeye, Cyclops, Iron Man, Thor and the other superheros. (Of course, he doesn't know that his mama is secretly a fanatical Marvel loving geek, I was pretty impressed he knew all these hero name, I had no idea...) My point of this all is to say that from the bottom of his heart, he prayed for so many things, real things to him, he prayed to feel the spirit and to always have a love for Heavenly Father, the spirit and Jesus, to always be loved by and to always love all of his family, and of course, to not miss his Daddy too much and that his Daddy wouldn't miss him too much. He is so full of love, that little Bubb. I couldn't have asked for a better example for the other children. I am just amazed at his spiritual depth, he even knows he doesn't have to pray for Heavenly Father to always love him back, because he knows he will. That Bubb. <3

My Ana and I went on a "hot date" Thursday and got haircuts. It was nice to get to single her out and hear the contents of her brain. I will say this, she is definitely a deep little gal, always telling me how "when it's your birthday..." or "when it's Christmas...." and then adding how many ways she is going to do special things for me. she can be so silly sometimes and then so full of a giving spirit. She loves to play and she loved the time to get all my attention.

As the kids are now sleeping and Allen and I are having our own "hot date" time, I will end there. I hope to get more of a chance soon to update on the munchkins. Until then, know that all is well and they love all of their family and friends so much.

Gute Nacht!