Harrison Brian Lyman

Last week, Friday, Harrison brought home a note that he had been chosen to be the Star Student for the class. We had to make a poster all about Harrison: his family, things he likes to do, etc. He and I worked on it together over the weekend and had fun, and made a pretty good poster! He took it to school Monday and it has been on display all week in his classroom.

Yesterday was Parent/Teacher conference day for Harrison. Of course she pretty much old us everything we already knew, that he is a bright wonderful little boy! He is doing well in all subjects at school and is also one of only two honor roll students in the class! She talked about what a wonderful boy he is, how helpful he is with the other students, he is a good friend, kind and courteous, and bright. She also mentioned that she is going to be recommending that he be tested for the gifted program, testing in the spring for the program starting in the fall.

Needless to say, Tom and I couldn't be prouder! He is such a good boy and we are truely blessed to have him in our lives!

Thanks Harrison for making Mommy smile! I love you!

Roasted pumpkin seeds

So, everyone, what is your favorite way to roast pumpkin seeds? Leave a comment and let me know, we are always needing new ideas! Last year (or the year before?) Tom wanted me to roast them with some cinnamon and sugar, not too good! I think it was his plan to get to eat all of the seeds himself (insert his maniacal laugh here) This year, as usual, I just baked them at about 425 and sprinkled them with some Lawry's season salt. Yum!

Preschool Halloween Day

So, even though the twins attend a preschool that is through Parks and Rec, I guess there is a bit more freedom in what they observe, compared to the public schools, and today the kids had their Halloween party and then went on parade at the neighboring nursing home. Harrison had a half day since it is Wednesday and they were very welcoming to siblings, so Harrison and Millie got to participate in all of the events of the day (and Mommy too!)

We started out having play time at school, then a potluck lunch for everyone. A couple parents stayed for the festivities, most of the kids were in costume. My boys decided they did not want to be in costume, but I brought Nicks just in case he changed his mind, which he did later. Harrison also did later but I had not brought his costume, so he was out of luck, or so I thought. Seeing as we were in a preschool room, there was plenty of dress up items in the room so he got to borrow the police uniform for our parade to the nursing home.

The home is immediately next door, so we just walked over. It was really nice to see the residents light up when all the kids walked up to them. Nicholas became Mr Social and loved walking into rooms and saying "Happy Halloween" which was a total surprise to me! Abby was more apt to stay in the group of kids and do as they did. She did get pulled aside by one resident and hugged for a few minutes while the resident talked to her. Abby did very well and was fine with it. All in all the kids did very well!

A few pictures, I am just putting the ones in that mainly contain my kids as I don't want to post pictures of other peoples kiddos with out their permission!

We just have the Harvest Party for Harrison's class on Friday and then trick or treating, then we are officially DONE!

Dr Abby, reading the New England Journal of Medicine, board book edition


Nick, hanging out before going into the nursing home

Policeman Harrison, keeping track of all the kiddos on the walk to the home

Abigail having a chat with one of the residents and getting a hug from her

below: Millie doing smooshy face on the glass of the aviary in the nursing home

Carving Pumpkins Mommy's Way

Well, as you might have already read, we grabbed our pumpkins for the year this past weekend, at the patch. So, the much anticipated carving had to happen before Friday, right? Tom has been dreading it, I don't really mind it, and the kids have been beside themselves, wondering when it would happen! Abby had the great idea that they could all wear their pumpkin shirts again

"I know, we tould all wear our Pumptin shirts and look Halloweeny!"

This afternoon we got home from school at 3:20, Harrison did his homework right away and was outside playing by 3:30. I called Tom to see if he wanted to participate in the annual carving or if I could go ahead and get started with out him. See, Tom dreads the carving. It brings out the best of his Type A personality. He gets all uptight, his face turns red, he starts to sweat as he takes the spoon and attempts to get the inside of the pumpkin clean enough to pass the white glove test. Usually be the time the first pumpkin is clean, the kids are crying and so over it, Tom is so frustrated he is bugged with everyone and at this point, it is just no fun for anyone. It only gets worse once the ruler comes out to draw the faces and then the total perfection begins.

I was hoping he would say to go ahead and start, and he did, I think I actually heard him jumping up and down in his cubicle at work! We had four pumpkins cleaned and carved in under an hour, not bad considering I had four kids helping me!

The lesson of the night: four kids are happy with pumpkins carved, they don't notice if the eyes are not perfectly even, if the candle is a bit off center in the middle, or if there is a spot near the face because the pumpkins were all attacked in hail storm. Chill out, relax and have fun with it! Soon enough they won't want to carve pumpkins because it won't be cool!

'Twas the weekend before Halloween...(loooong)

Friday night was our first ever Harvest Festival at Harrison's school! I attended many of these (too many?) at Corrales Elem when I was a nanny, taking my charges, doing cake walks, anxiously wanting to go back and be "off duty" for the night. I grew to dread these each year! I have to admit though, as a parent, the event was different. It was one of the two nights a year that Tom has to work until about midnight, doing inventory, so I took the kids by myself. They had fun 'games' at different parts of the campus, pizza, cotton candy, face painting (stitches, scars, black eyes, gauze bandage etc at the Hawk Hospital) The kids all had a good time! I expected to get there and be done in about an hour, but over 2 hours later, I was having to bribe the kids to leave peacefully!

Pirate Harrison, Fireman Nick and Dr Abby (Millie wouldn't join the picture)

Bumble Bee Millie finally joined in the on picture taking!
Harrison doing the ring toss

Spooky story time in the newly remodeled library.

Mrs Estala (Harrison's teacher) doing the Haunted Hula

Yesterday we decided to have a family day and go to the pumpkin patch. Typically this means our annual trek over the river and through the woods, to the east mountains to McCalls. However, this year a little birdy told me about a great one in Albuquerque that has fun things for the kids and all of the money benefits a great cause! So, my arm was twisted.

We took the kids to the Galluping Grace Pumpkin Patch,(http://www.gallopinggraceyouthranch.blogspot.com/) located in Albuquerque. The kids all had so much fun and it only took about 20 minutes to get there, instead of the 1 1/2 hour minimum to get to Moriarty to go to McCalls. Millie and Nick loved the corn box, Harrison had fun in the hay bale maze, Abby has been asking for months now about when she will get to ride a horse, so that need was also met! The people were all so great and Tom's favorite part, all you pay for is the price of the pumpkin! When it was all said and done, a trip to Sweet Tomatoes was required :)

I tried to get a picture of all four kids, but Nick was having a moment, so 3/4 of the kids isn't bad, right?

Abigail after reaching the end of the Hay Maze, isn't she cute!?


Must be the Cornhusker in the genes, all of the kids loved the corn pit!


Cowboy Harrison roped this cow so well it's head fell off!

Abby riding the horse, she LOVED it!

Nick riding Blacky

Yes Millie, you can even nurse at the pumpkin patch!

Millie was too little to ride the horses, but she did great riding the steer

Mothering

Yesterday I attended a memorial service for my dear friend's mother. Although I had never met her, I think they captured her personality perfectly in the type of memorial they chose to have. I was thinking on the drive home how perfect it had been, given the circumstances, and I am sure Laurie's mom would have been honored and pleased with their choices. So many memorials are about the formalities, the mourning and the mourners but this one was different. It was outside in a beautiful park, in the fall colors, the air was crisp and fresh and the message was simple and pure. Yes, people were mourning the loss of their dear friend, mother, aunt, cousin,neighbor etc, but you could feel that it was more about honoring her and celebrating the new life she has now.

Even though I have never met Lauries' mom, it has really hit home because I know my mom's time is inevitable. Her health is far from good, she works too much, does things her doctors have told her not to, is stubborn and holds on to negativity like no one else I have ever met!

Laurie's mom's death was unexpected, which is a reminder to me that even though my mom drives me nuts some times, I need to let it go and embrace my time with her. I need to let my kids be with her as much as she can stand and let the little things go. Since at least last year, Harrison has been going to Nana's after school on Tuesdays and that is his time with her. He is on the only one of the four that gets that 1:1 time with her and I know he enjoys it. The last couple weeks have been frustrating because she keeps him pretty much until bedtime, so he comes home and is wound up, needing to do homework and read and jump right into bed and go to sleep. Tom and I decided that we will just need to cut out the Tuesdays because it is too much. But, yesterday on my drive home, I had to re-evaluate and really ask, is it THAT big of a deal? When my mom's time does come, is it more important that Harrison was home and in bed by 8pm or that he has the fond memories of eating Nana's chicken noodle soup that she made just for him, memories of helping her plant her bushes in the back yard, running errands with her and stopping along the way to get a Blizzard, even though he just had a slushy when they stopped at Sam's and the candy bar before that, which she always has in her purse for right when he gets in the car at school? It is one night a week, is it really that big of a deal?

I think as daughters, we never fully grasp the importance of our Mother, until we ourselves become a mother. It is then and only then that we realize the sacrifice she has made of her time, energy, life and heart. She may not have mothered us the way we want to mother our own children, she may not be the person we want to be when we are 65, but all of that has a level of transparency because she is our Mother, the only one we get.

When my mom's time does come, I will miss her more than I will ever know at this point. I will not only miss her for me, but for my kids. However, since having moved her to NM and recently moved her across the street from us, I am sure of one thing: my regrets will be few. I am glad that we are close enough now that I know my mom as a person and friend in addition to knowing her as my mom. I am glad that we spend enough time together that I can be grouchy one day and it isn't a big deal because the next morning, she is the one I call when I am leaving the house to go to the grocery, to see if she wants anything or wants to go along. Having her so close, I don't have to be perfect or make sure every moment I am with her is quality and positive, because we have quantity on our side right now. I know she is the one I can call when she is out running around and ask her to bring home decon because I saw a mouse hiding under the fridge in the sun room this morning, but then we can laugh when I call her back, right as she is picking it out at the store, and tell her never mind because Elbert got tired of waiting for her and caught the mouse himself (I can just see the mouse dancing a jig to tease Elbert when he was in his crate and couldn't catch him!)

So, the important lesson I learned yesterday is to remember every day to say "I love you Mom" because it might be the last time I get to say it to her face, but also to be grateful that I am close enough to her to say it to her face daily. Laurie, may your heart heal in time and Susie, maybe your days be brighter now with your four wriggly pugs sitting on your lap where they belong, thank you for this lesson!

We interrupt this program...

Last Thursday we went to Santa Fe to visit our dear friend Beth. We had a wonderful day and the kids are still talking fondly of it, and asking when we will get to go back! When we were leaving, Beth gave me two kitchen trash bags full of clothes from her boys, to pass to a mutual friend of ours. I live about 20 minutes from our friend, I am in that areal regularly, so no problem at all! Well, I have yet to make it over there, so the two bags are still in my car.

Today we went to Walmart to get Millie some Tylenol and being the wonderful Mommy that I am, I indulged the kids with slushies from McDonalds. So, on the way home Harrison announced that he spilled his slushie, my first feeling is total annoyance of yet another colored/sticky stain on the floor of our car. Then he announces "Don't worry Mom, it isn't on the floor" "Um, ok" dare I ask where it landed? "It spilled into these two bags of clothes and soaked all of it up!"

So, we interrupt this regularly scheduled laundry program to bring you two loads of laundry that will then be driving directly to Aidan before it needs to be washed, again!

Puddles of Life

I just logged in, with intentions of blogging about whatever, I hadn't decided yet. I am grouchy today so I am sure it would be nothing that anyone would want to read. Then I looked at my friend's blog (The Morris Family on my following list) and it helped put things in perspective. My husband's job is nothing life threatening, beyond his high blood pressure that he is too darn stubborn to see a doctor for, so unlike her, that isn't a huge concern for me. When Harrison was Millie's age, we used to have the lazy mornings in bed, giggling, waiting for the dogs to make the first move to get up. We had a Sunday ritual that had nothing to do with church, instead we would drive anywhere in the city to a new park and have a Sunday Park Day, maybe grab some lunch along the way and play. It was all about Harrison and all about family. Somewhere along the way we have lost that. Now from the time the first kid is out of bed, it is just a fast pace to get this done and that done and at the end of the day, there is usually nothing to show for it except grumpy kids fighting sleep and grumpy parents wishing the kids would go to bed. But why? Is that what I want them to look back on when they are savoring their moments with their own kids? I was thinking the other day on our drive back from Santa Fe about what a great day we had, the kids all were pretty well behaved, not that I worry that much about that with Beth because she just isn't the type of friend that makes me feel like my kids have to be angels, she is realistic, and that is why we love her. But, on the drive home I was looking back at my own childhood and I don't have that many memories of time spent with my parents. I don't remember the conversations, the routines, the rituals. That is so far from what I want my kids to say when they are my age, with their own kids. I don't want them to remember me being a grouch, but I don't mind the remembering having boundaries and being upset when they weren't allowed to go too far outside of them. I want them to remember laughter, jokes, hugs and kisses, support and warmth, times of being wanted and times of wanting more of it. Home should be a safety net, where you can be grumpy if you are tired or have a bad day, it should be a place you want your friends to come play and know they are welcome.

I think part of why I am frustrated on the weekends is because as a SAHM, weekends are just the same as weekdays, just more people to cater to. On a week day, for the bulk of the day I just have the twins and Millie around while Harrison is at school and Tom is at work. On weekends, everyone is here. It is Tom's weekend away from work, so he should get to veg and do nothing, but in a house of six people, not everyone can do nothing or the house takes over and consumes you! I feel like I am the one who is picking up, cleaning, going about the same old stuff that I do every single day. I sat down this afternoon and watch Biggest Loser and couldn't remember the last time I had sat down for 45 minutes in the middle of the day, with out getting up or being interupted, for the most part. But then I get grouchy when Tom sits and vegs, I feel like why should he if I can't, but it isn't like he is saying I can't, it is me saying that. But, I also know, if I don't keep up, then I pay for it on Monday when I have a weekends worth of dishes, laundry, picking up etc to do all at once. Tom was proud of his big accomplishment yesterday of doing the dishes, atleast the ones that would fit in the dishwasher, the pots and pans all still sat on the counter, waiting for the dish fairy to wash them. I have to ask myself though, why isn't that ok with me? If I could lighten up then I could enjoy these fleeting moments with the kids. I could laugh at the stories they dream up, laugh at them playing with the dog, and be excited for the big mess of forts in the livign room, even though I know they can't fold up the Playhuts by themselves. They have their entire lives to be responsible and mature, for Pete's Sake, they are just kids!

I can make excuses for my grumpy days: I have had pms for 3 weeks now with no period (I had my tubes tied, I am NOT pregnant!) I crossed the year mark of refills on my post partum depression Zoloft and decided to stop taking it because I didn't want to be hassled by going back to the midwife to get refills, clearly that wasn't the right choice :)

So, this week, I am making an effort to be more positive, to embrace my kids more and just deal with the rest! Let them dance in the puddles and have fun because when they are 34 and dancing in the puddles someone might wonder :)

Where does the time go?

I know I haven't posted in a while, I have been super busy although I can't really tell you what I have been doing! The laundry is out of control, the kitchen floor is disgusting, I just did about two days worth of dishes (finished at 10:20) and our day today was just about as chaotic as you can get.

Harrison is on "Fall Break" the last three days of this week. I think it is kind of silly but who am I? Perhaps I think it is silly for selfish reasons. I should adore every moment I get with him because some day he will be asking for the car keys and running off with his friends, calling and asking if he can spend the night with them since he doesn't have school because of fall break. I know, I know. I should cherish his smiles and embrace the whines because some day he won't want to talk to me because I am "just Mom" but, today I wasn't having one of those days. He started picking on the twins as soon as he rolled out of bed, started causing tears, fights and getting them in trouble. Tomorrow will be a better day!

Harrison had a dentist appointment today. The poor kid lost a filling about six weeks ago. At the time, he had his six month cleaning scheduled for two weeks after we noticed it was gone, so they said he should be alright. Well, then they called to say the Dr wasn't going to be in that Friday and we had to reschedule, so it took another two weeks to get back in, then we saw him but had to wait another two weeks to get back in for the filling/cap. So, that brings us to today; appx six weeks after the darn thing fell off. I talked with Harrison in the waiting room and asked him, if Millie got restless, if I could bring her to the waiting room while they did his things, so she wouldn't be screaming etc. At first he said yes, then he changed his mind and said no. Undertandable, I don't know if I could have left him anyway! We were in the "quiet room" so it isn't like anyone outside the closed door could have heard her anyway...We decided to go ahead with the sealants on his molars. He had a new cavity as well as the one needing to be replaced, so we decided sealants would be a good plan. Tom's teeth are prone to issues so perhaps Harrison has inherited that from him. The hygenists painted his teeth and then it was time for Dr Sean to come in and do the fillings. Well, he took one look and said the one was absessed and it would need to just come out. Poor Harrison! He struggled to look up at me, white as a ghost!

About a few days before we noticed the missing filling, Tom was in the process of having a root canal or two done. He, of course, was miserable and suffering greatly, as his Masculin Book of Rights spells out in Chapter 42, paragraph 4, line 17. So, at one point when Harrison asked him for the 900th time how and why and when and where and who, Tom snapped, as we all do, and said "This is why you brush your teeth, because it hurts A LOT to get this type of stuff done!" Ladies, you will be proud of me, at no time during Tom's tooth episode did I roll my eyes or downplay his pain, at no time did I play the "Twins, 38 weeks, 7.4 and 6.5" card! I was very compassionate, very Florence Nightengale.

Ok, back to Harrison in the chair: I immediately had to switch out of my "magazine reading" mode and assure him he would be given medicine, he wouldn't feel a thing, and the tooth fairy pays out big for absesses!

He was so brave! Dr Sean did the injection and left the room for it to take affect. Harrison and I talked about what was going to happen and that he would feel some tugging but no pain. When they came back in, he just layed right back and let them do their thing! I think I cringed more at the sight of the Dr woggling the tooth back and forth to get it to loosen up and come out!

He got a cool little treasure chest for safe keeping of the tooth. They then fit him with a spacer and sent us on our way.

Tonight at bed time, I was tucking him in and telling him how proud I was of him, how incredibly brave he was! I told him all about how some other kids are not like that at all and I bet he was Dr Sean's best patient today! He looked up at me and said the thing all Mom's *need* to hear sometimes..."But Mommy, I couldn't have been so brave if you hadn't been there with me"

Need I say more

My Very Own Punky Brewster

We have friends who have girly girls. We have friends who have tom boys. We fall in the middle of that spectrum. Abby is stuck someplace in the middle, wanting to be have painted nails occassional pretty things, but also can't resist a mud puddle or anything gross. She never thinks twice about picking up a bug or lizard and then letting it crawl on her head once she does catch one.

Today I had some errands to run when Tom got home, so I decided to just bring Abby along with me. Of our four kids, I think she is most often the one who is under my skin for one thing or another. She has a great sense of humor and has this amazing inability to focus on anything. She gets insanely jealous of Millie and so totally bugged by the boys, who get insanely bugged by her because she can generally out do them in most areas of whatever they are competing over at the moment!

So, we went to Target and she was walking into the store in front of me and I stepped back and realized how cute she is, but also to most people how goofy she must have looked! She took a shower this morning and pridefully got totally dressed by herself. Then, a HUGE accomplishment for Abby, she was still in the same clothes when tom got home and I was ready to leave the house at 3pm! Normally she has gotten them dirty in some way or has peed her pants or God knows what, but she changes her clothes atleast 3 times a day as a necessity. In the process of getting herself dressed today, she decided that she wanted two different socks so she took two pairs and then took one sock from each pair. Along with her bright flower capris, striped pink tank and her hair flopping out of her hair clip, it all colorfully just said "Abby!"

Before I had kids I am sure I would have judged the parent walking around the store in such an outfit. Now that God has entrusted me with Abigail Louise, I have a deeper appreciation for kids who have such a great sense of fashion and the lack of concern for what others might think and will wear their fabulous outfits with great pride and nonchalance. You go Girl!

First time Mom vs us with too many kids

Yesterday I took the kids to McDonalds for lunch. I had the twins and Millie. As we sat at the table, in the Playground of the Germs, I watched a mom with two little ones come lugging in her luggage for her short visit to the playground. She had her toddler who was probably a bit over two and then a baby who was probably about 8 months old. First she walked in, set down the baby carrier, diaper bag, high chair cover, purse and sippy cup. She immediately told the little one not to touch anything and pulled out her container of Clorox wipes and proceeded to wipe down the table, and the bench, and the underside as far as the munchkin might be able to reach his short little arms. Then she found a high chair and, you guessed it, wiped it with a wipe, THEN put the seat cover on it and THEN put the baby in the high chair. She then opened a bottle of water and poured it into a sippy cup for the baby to drink. Then her friend arrived with her two kids, one about 2 and one about 4'ish. She assured her friend that she had wiped off the table and seats, as the friend promptly starts to put away HER container of wipes, not needing to steralize the environment first. So Mom A goes out to get their food, comes back in, then Mom B goes back out to get food for her family. Then the food prep beings. They both lay out the burger wrappers, take the burger off the bun and break it into pieces appropriately sized for a gnat (even for the oldest boy) the buns were discarded. Then they open the empty cups from the counter and pour in the apple juices, 1/2 full, and then dilute with water from home. I must admit that I was shocked to see they actually got french fries for the kids.
So, the kids all sit and eat, then get up and enter the Germ Ground. They play. Then they return from the tubes of tiny bacteria and return to the table where Mom B promptly puts sanitizer on their hands before they are allowed to touch anything. This repeated several times through out the meal. The baby lost her sippy because she dropped it on the floor, it was then requiring proper sanitizing before she could have it back, so she went thirsty.
I had to chuckle I remember when Harrison was little, I always though "Oh my gosh, what AWFUL parents! Not only do they feed the kid McDonalds, but they let them actually go into the playground!"Then there were the parents who let their kids go into the playground while they stood out and ordered food! Didn't they realize there was a fire door that someone could take the child out and you would never see them again?? Well, then I had twins and the McDonalds playgrounds became a necessity because it was a great energy outlet for Harrison, someplace that I could have the twins in their strollers, hopefully sleeping, and he could run like a madman. Watching these two young Mom's I had to keep from laughing to myself. I had to realize how far I have come.
Example: I can meet my friend at McD's with her kids, we can send them all into the playroom ("watch Millie!") and we stand and order and fill drinks and occassionally look over our shoulder to make sure no one has snuck out the door and is playing in traffic. Millie ate her food yesterday on a napkin, which sat directly on the table top, it did occassionally touch the actual table, which had not been properly sanitized!
Then, as I watched them get ready to leave, I thought to myself about how my kids are probably healthier than theirs are. My kids aren't the type to catch every little thing and miss a lot of school. I am one of those horrible mom's who lets her kids play in the dirt, occassionally I even have to rinse the tub after bathtime to get all the sand out of the bottom. I let them drink from the hose, play at McDonalds, go to parks etc.
I think the funniest part was the hand sanitizer between bites and playing, that is what got me the most.....

Sixty Two Degrees

Ok, so this is the time of year to freeze, atleast if you are a Lyman. Tom prides himself in how cold he can get the house each night. Each of the bedrooms has a fan in it, for noise etc. We started that when the kids were all babies and it has just worked, so why fix it if it isn't broke? We also have ceiling fans through out the house which are very effective at cooling the rooms on a hot day. Then, there is an oscillating fan in the playroom/computer room, because the heating/cooling system isn't very good at keeping up with that room.

So, this time of year, it gets to be about 80 something during the day and at night it gets considerably cooler, to about 55. My husband loves this time of year and eagerly accepts his personal challenge to beat last years record.

Record? For what you might ask? Well tries very hard to see just how cold he can get the house at night. Yes we have four small kids, that doesn't seem to bother him much. His theory is that everyone in the house sleeps better when they are frozen. I think you could probably prove that theory correct, bodies that are frozen using cryogenics, in fact, do not wake up each morning or possily never.

I don't know how cold the house got last night, but I do not that at 8:30 when we got home from taking Harrison to school the thermostat was reporting 62 degrees. No wonder I used the heater in the van on the way to school!

Please note that I am not a cold person, I am rarely cold actually. I can wear a sweatshirt in the winter and not need a coat, I am fine in a tshirt in the house during the winter. For some reason the past week or so, I have been freezing! Perhaps it is the shift in weather, perhaps I have finally lived in NM long enough that it has permanently affected my internal temperature.

So, to prove my point, I just called Tom at work to see just how cold he has been able to get our house, he proudly said "I don't know, probably only 58 or 59" Did you catch that word... only? As if 58 or 59 is a shameful accomplishment?