A Decade

I have a problem.
I have been struggling with his problem for almost a decade.
It's really embarrassing to me because usually, the man in the relationship is the one with this problem.
Do you want to know what it is?
OK, come in close and you have to promise not to tell anyone.
I always get our wedding anniversary wrong.
I always think it's 3 days later than it actually is.
Let's be clear, I have never forgotten it altogether, but for some reason it has stuck in my brain as the wrong date.
When our first anniversary approached, I was sure I was right and that Mr Bird was off his rocker.
He had to pull out our wedding certificate to prove he was right.
I put my tail between my legs and admitted defeat.
There have only been a handful of times in the last 10 years when I have actually gotten it right.
So it was no surprise when I got it wrong, yet again this year.
I thought Mr Bird was being romantic and thoughtful when he whisked me away for a romantic anniversary get away earlier this week.
I knew he was running the Wasatch Back this weekend and I foolishly thought he was planning ahead so as not to miss our anniversary while running the race.
I had it in my head that he would be running his race on the day of our anniversary.
So I did what any good wife would do and called him this morning bright and early and sang the lame-o, cheesy Happy Anniversary song to him as he waited to run the next leg of the 188 mile rely race.
I thought, he's going to love that I remembered it right this year and he'll be so impressed that I said it first.
When I finished my song there was an awkward pause on the line.
Then Mr Bird just laughed out loud, the biggest belly laugh I've heard in quite some time.
What? Is my singing really that bad?
Then he asked what today was.
I told him, "June 19, our anniversary!"
Another laugh.
He ever so sweetly reminded me that I was wrong, yet again.
How can I possibly keep making this same mistake?!?
It's really shameful and silly.
From now on I think I'll check the wedding announcement we have hanging in our living room at the beginning of June just to be sure.
For the record, we had a fabulous anniversary.
Mr Bird would not tell me what he had planned, just that I needed to clear my calendar for a couple of days.
We dropped the kids of with my In-Laws and headed to Salt lake.
We shopped for a while, then Mr Bird took me to my all time favorite Chinese restaurant.
Then we went to Hale Center Theater and watched The Wedding Singer.
Hilarious. I loved all the 80's references, ah, the good old days.
Then Mr Bird and I spent the night at the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City.
It's a little bed and breakfast in an old Victorian house.
It was so charming.
My favorite part was watching the magnificent thunder and lightening and rain storm from the turret in our room. Then in the morning the sun was shining and the whole world was green and awake as we ate breakfast (that I did not have to prepare) in the same turret.
By the time we left we were looking at Victorian homes online.
They are so charming and beautiful.
Then reality set in and we came home to our noisy kids and never quite clean enough house with the endless yard work waiting to be done.
We had such a fabulous time while it lasted.
It was so peaceful and perfect. All we had to worry about was if the bath water was too hot or if we'd eaten too many chocolate fudge cookies.
We took our original honeymoon to San Francisco and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast there.
We hardly left the room (ahem), we fell in love with that place.
It was so fun to do the same thing closer to home a decade later.
Thank you Mr Bord for a wonderful anniversary.
I loved every minute of it.
One decade down, eternity to go!

I Just Can't Get Enough

I love Cream Cheese.
There, I said it.
Actually what I should have said was, "Hello, my name is Sara and I'm a Cream Cheese-aholic."
Right under chocolate, there are few guilty pleasures I enjoy more.
Now, you may be thinking, there's nothing wrong with a little cream cheese every once in a while and you'd be right.
The problem is this: when I buy cream cheese, I don't eat just a little smear on my bagel.
As a matter of fact I don't buy it very often because I just can't be trusted when it's in the house.
I will find anything to dip in it or to smear it on top of.
Stale box of crackers no one will touch?
Cream cheese makes it all better.
The key is to load the cracker up with so much cream cheese you can hardly tell the cracker is even there.
The cracker becomes more of a texture ingredient rather than a taste good ingredient.
I have been know to buy cream cheese and not share a smidgen with anyone.
I hide it in the back of the fridge behind the broccoli and sneak it out while the kids are playing outside or after bed time.
Even then, it usually does not last more than 3 days, sometimes less. Much less.
If I could get a way with it, I'd just skip the whole finding something to put it on and just bring the entire brick to my office and pig out while I blog for hours, totally ignoring my children.
It's my drug of choice.
One of these days I'm going to wake up weighing 500 pounds.
I know you just love it when I speak to inanimate objects like they can actually hear me, so here I go again. Just for you.

Dear Cream Cheese, It was so good to see you again, but we have to stop meeting like this. I'm sorry to end it this way, but I just can't have you in my life right now. You'll always be in my heart and I'll never forget Liberty.
Love, Me
P.S. It's not you, it's me :(

Poker Face

Dubs graduated from Joy School a few weeks ago.
It was quite possibly, the funniest graduation I have been to in my entire life.

Dubs does not like to be the center of attention.
He will not give talks or prayers in primary. He cries in the hall when it's his turn until someone has pity on him and lets him off the hook.

As you can imagine, he was a little less than willing to get up in front of all the people and sing the song his classmates had been practicing for weeks.
He sat in his chair trying his hardest to be invisible.
"La,la,la,la,la, I can't hear you!"
When it was his turn to share his talent he slide down deeper in his chair and would not uncurl or even look at me.
We moved on without hearing his rendition of I am a Child of God.
Then I got to speak.
The highlight of the entire event, if I do say so myself.
I'm sure everyone was thrilled!
I took a few minutes to share some of the fun activities we had done during the course of the year.
I did not know at the time that Mr Bird had possession of the camera.
He took a few shots of me during the magnificent, life changing speech.

I decided I look like a complete idiot while I'm talking.
Just call me Fish Lips.
Why has no one ever told me this before?
I must be much quieter from now on.

I thought I looked really cute that day, but as it turns out... not so much.
I think I need to wear my hair down more often.

And apparently I'm quite funny.
At least I seem to think so.

Why can I not decide what to do with my hands?
Ah, the age old question.
They are not in the same position in any two photos yet.

It seems I just flapped them around the entire time.
Watch out, I could take off at any minute.
Oh man, have I got a problem...

Daddy Daughter Dance

Mr Bird and Doodle had their very first Daddy Daughter Dance with Activity Days.
They wore fancy clothes and danced the night away in the cultural hall at the church.

Doodle has been looking forward to this day for weeks.
She even showered this morning without the usual fits of protest.
She had planned what she would wear and had it sitting out on her bed all day long, just waiting for 6:00 to come.

She does not know how lucky she is to have such a wonderful dad.
When I was her age I was borrowing other people's dads for the daddy daughter days.
It was either our home teacher or my best friend's dad.
It does my heart good to see the two of them having so much fun together.
When they got home I asked Doodle how it was.
She looked up and tilted her head to one side and said with a sigh,
"Perfect!"
She would hardly let her daddy go when it was bed time.
I had to tickle her to get her Velcro arms to release from around his neck.
As she headed up the stairs she proclaimed,
"This has been the best night of my life!"

What a dashing couple.
Watch out girl, he's still mine!

What Do You Do in the Summer Time

My Willow Tree.
I love my willow tree.
There is a wooden seated tree swing on the lower limb on the other side.
I like to wear flowy skirts and swing on that swing bare foot in the Summer time, with the cool grass under my toes.
Corney, I know.
It just reminds me how perfect my life is, when I'm feeling like it isn't.
You know, those days when I am short tempered and in a hurry and the kids are complaining and arguing.
Those days when I would rather curl up all alone and read a good book rather than wipe poopy bums and undo massive tangles that the tangle fairies have left in the ever so fine blond hair of my Doodle.
The days when I have a million things pressing on me and Mr Bird and I are both going a million miles an hour in the opposite direction.
And the days when everything I do gets undone by the 2 year old in 1/100 of the time it took me to get it done in the first place.
The days when it all just seems too much.
On those days my 4 children feel like 100 and it gets really hard to breath.
Just when I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew and I want to throw in the towel, I see my tree and it calls to me.
Somehow, looking up at the huge canopy of leaves with the sunshine peering through and twinkling on my skin, with my face lifted to the sky, everything feels all better.
I am ready to face the day and the children with new resolve.
I am ready to make a fabulous dinner and laugh and learn with my children again.
It is my escape.
If only for a few minutes, this divine solitude recharges my battery and brings me back to my beautiful life.
And what a beautiful life it is!

I Love America

Summer Vacation...
When I was a kid I looked forward to Summer vacation all year long.
The first day of school was always torture for me.
I would get so nervous about a week before school actually started that I could hardly eat a thing.
When Doodle was 4 years old and some of her 5 year old friends were starting Kindergarten that feeling was already forming in the pit of my stomach.
Whenever I thought of that big yellow school bus driving away with her in it I just felt sick.
I could not do it.
It has been the best decision have ever made.
It has been, and will continue to be, one of the hardest things I've ever done.
We've had days of frustration and tears and nothing but squabbles with siblings.
Yet, we've had the happiest, most joy filled days as well.
We have laughed our heads off and made yummy desserts in the middle of the day just because we felt like it.
I would not trade this time I've had with my kids for anything in the world, frustrations and all.
All of the local schools are ending for the summer.
The cousins will be home to play with.
Church friends can have play days at 10am.
People ask me all the time if we take the summer "off" from home school.
Honestly, no we don't.
We will continue to follow our routine that brings our lives normalcy.
I'll continue to get up at 6am to work out in the stillness of the morning hour.
Mr Bird will continue to leave for work at 6:45 and we'll continue to wake the children for prayers with daddy at 6:30.
And since everyone will be up anyway, we may as well get the rest of it done.
We have an exciting Summer planned.
We will continue to read and learn and grow.
We will also play hard along the way.
Here are a few of the books on our Summer reading list.

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Constitution of the United States of America
• The Bill of Rights
  
• The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Henry Doughtry
  
• Childhood of Famous Americans (such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, etc. I plan to read as many as I can get my hands on out loud to the kids)
• Landmark Books (another chapter book series on great Americans)
• The Bullet Proof George Washington by David Barton
• Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret B. Pumphrey
• The Making of America by Cleon Skousen

Are you noticing a theme?
I would also like to read The Real Thomas Jefferson and The Real George Washington by Andrew M. Allison , not to mention The Federalist Papers, but those books are huge.
Baby steps.
Maybe by the time my kids are old enough to read them, I'll be ready, too.
I am also reading Shakespeare to get ready for the Shakespeare festival in Southern Utah this summer.
I have just finished Much Ado About Nothing and will start Macbeth tomorrow.
After that comes The Merchant of Venice.

As our family novel I just finished A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Just started Little Britches by Ralph Moody. We read the first 2 chapters tonight.
Doodle is in love with the horses already. She took the book to bed with her, I'm sure she's read a few more chapters by now, too.
So much reading, so little time. Good thing the days are getting longer and longer!
I love reading in the dusk.
Happy Summer everyone! What's on your summer book list?