My answer:

Um, NO! Life just keeps getting better, so why go back? Plus, the teenage years are filled with too much confusion and angst. I got enough the first time around! Besides, that money tree in our backyard is keeping us well funded, so another million would just be overkill.

Youth Conference

I went to Youth Conference today with the teenagers from our ward. We spent the entire day at a 19th century fort building benches, churning butter, making adobe bricks, splitting logs, dipping candles, and blacksmithing. I. am. exhausted. It was long. It was mostly fun. And I love the girls I work with at church.

Which brings up a thought: if someone offered you a million dollars to be a teenager again, would you do it? I'll answer later.....

What do I expect anyway?

I guess that's a question I should really sit down and think about until I come up with a definitive answer. If I play with the kids the house doesn't get cleaned and I stress about that. If I clean the house, the kids don't get played with and I stress about that. Laundry is the bane of my existence....it's a constant presence, like homework and school assignments when I was in college. It just never goes away and somehow I always know that whatever I am doing, I probably should be doing that instead. I love my kids like I never imagined was possible, so don't take my comments here as a complaint about them. They're not the problem. In fact, it's my love for them that makes this so hard. I want to spend time with them and develop a relationship with them, not just clean up after them or shuffle them from one activity to the next. I want us to be close so that whatever they face in the future, they know there's at least one person in the world that they can talk to and trust. I believe in quality time, but I also believe in quantity time too. One can never imagine until becoming a mother how much there is to do in a given day, how overwhelming it can become b/c it never all seems to get done, and how much you agonize over the small things, b/c you worry over the long-term impact they'll have on your precious children. I need to remember my goal in all this: to raise my three children to know and love the Lord. All the rest is peripheral, right? Soccer, gymnastics, school, dance, exercise, housework, yardwork, etc....none of that really matters in the long run. Oh, and I should sleep. Sleep would probably help tremendously.

Some backyard pics....

Yikes! We definitely have a boy! This is what he did tonight after dinner.


I took the rest of these the other night and love them! I have some cute, fun kids

I've been on hiatus...

from my computer, that is, and it has been kind of nice. Things I've been up to lately:

1. I'm teaching spinning again! I've missed it.
2. Painting my kitchen a washable beige. Very exciting.
3. Organizing our photos from the last 10 years of marriage and putting them into photo albums. Holy crap, how did I get so far behind?!
4. Beating Scott in our NCAA bracket challenge. He'll hear about this until the next time I win. Apologies to JoAnn for picking Kansas instead of Carolina, but hey, it paid off in bragging rights.
5. A wonderfully fun visit from my parents, which included a trip to the cold and windy central coast.
6. Both girls in soccer and gymnastics, plus Ava in dance and once a week preschool. We're staying busy.

Here are some pictures and a few highlights from our trip to the coast:

On the ride over, Nate partied out next to Grandma. We discovered Nate's hidden talent. He rolls his eyes as well as any teenager when told he needs to rest. He then further avoids resting by actually crossing his eyes repeatedly until I was in hysterics and laughing so hard that I may have actually expelled pieces of my lungs. I had no idea a 17 month old could cross his eyes, but leave it to Nate, who is always looking for ways to impress and win the crowd.

Nate with Grandpa at the beach. We had fun exploring some small caves and collecting seashells.
Ava posing with her stuffed seal with Morro rock in the background. The Morro bay aquarium where she got her seal was, oh man, there are no words. As Grandpa put it, "The PETA folks haven't found out about that one yet." Here's hoping they do very soon. But Lala the seal is a charming addition to our burgeoning stuffed animal collection and as you can see, the view from Morro Bay is quite pretty.
Brenna, stripped down to her swimsuit in spite of 55 degree temperatures.