Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well it’s official.  Our ward boundaries were changed.  The whole stake was realigned because we had two giant wards, and three little ones. I wasn’t too worried about it until last night when we had the big meeting. They began by showing a sense of humor and also their faith in God’s will for our stake by having us sing, “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go.” When the hymn was announced, there was a nervous rumble of laughter throughout the congregation as we all sat in anticipation of what was to follow. It was a great meeting with our stake leaders who were inspired in their decisions. They explained the process, and it is pretty complex, involving matching up the numbers of women, men, youth, children, and infants so that every ward is about equal. That is followed by paperwork and various approvals etc., so it was not an easy process for anyone. On the ride home we went through the names of friends in each of our kids’ primary classes. A large majority of them are in another ward now. Since we don’t live near family members, the church ward becomes like surrogate family, filling in the gaps that are left open between visits to and from family. So we are all sad to know that we won’t get to spend as much time with most of this “family,” but we’re trying to be optimistic about the new friends we will make and how our circle of life experiences will continue to grow.

It seems that no matter how hard we try to get our family in a stable situation, change always catches up with us.  For us it seems to come in two year waves. To brainstorm our history I wrote up a timeline:

1996- Married – Moved into our first apartment in Provo

1998- Moved to a fourplex in Provo – Hunter was born

2000- Moved to a house in Provo – Emma was born

2002- Rob accepted to Law School – Moved to North Carolina

2004- Hannah was born – Accepted a job and moved to Los Angeles

2006- Sabrina was born – Moved 6 houses down the street

2008- Accepted a new job and moved to Orange County – Hunter & Emma started at a new elementary school

Now- Just when we were starting to feel permanent someplace, our ward boundaries were changed, we don’t know our new leaders yet, and we feel like we’re starting over again in many ways. (I’m not complaining, but still am mourning the “loss.”)

If this is what happens on our down year, I’m pretty nervous about what might be coming for 2010…

401

This is post number 401 for Bizzert! Wow, I didn’t think I had so much to say.

As I was vacuuming the other day, I was reminded of a statistic I heard somewhere. Have you ever heard that you’re never more than six feet away from a spider? I don’t remember where I got that from, or if it’s even true, but it got me thinking.

In our house, you are never more than six feet away from:

A plastic hair band – I will buy a package of 100 and somehow they always seem to be all over the house within minutes of walking through the door. I’ve gotten to the point where I can do the girls’ hair in any room. All I have to do is look around and there is sure to be a little rubber band on the floor, or on the dresser, or in a shoe…

Scotch tape – The kids use it for everything: Hanging their drawings on the walls, building inventions out of shoe boxes and toilet paper rolls, pulling off pieces and wadding them into a ball, or just letting them fall to the floor where they must be pulled up every time I vacuum.

A dirty sock – Why do kids like to take their socks off in strange places? I’m finding socks stuffed in the toy box, under the kitchen table, on top of a desk. Crazy!

Some sort of food wrapper – Hunter is an early riser, and not particularly interested in spending time making himself anything to eat before mom finally pulls herself out of bed. But as a growing boy, he wants to eat as soon as we wakes up. So I find granola bar wrappers, fruit snack wrappers, cheese stick wrappers, empty cereal bags etc. every day. (Will someone give me a clue how to get him to clean up after himself without me asking him?) Hunter is not the only offender on this, just the most active one.

Doll or princess related items – Between our three girls we have obsessions with Ariel, Jasmine, (all Disney princesses really), Barbie, and American Girl. At any given time you could do a 360 turn and find some sort of doll, clothing, picture, or book relating to the dolls.

A little green bingo chip – The kids have this nature bingo game that has little green marking chips. Somehow they turn up in the strangest places. We have been finding them pretty regularly for several years now and Rob likes to joke, “We’ll still be finding these things when we’re retired!”

Family Dollars

I found an image of play money that I adopted and printed as our official “family dollar.” Family Dollars are earned by helping out the family. I try to give them out when I notice someone doing something nice or helpful without being asked, or doing chores without reminders. The kids can also earn them by doing little jobs to help out like watering the plants, or washing the sliding doors. Hunter and Emma also earn one family dollar for every paper they bring home from school with 100%.

We keep our family dollars in a binder that has a clear pocket (page protector with their name written on it) for each person. We used to keep them in envelopes, but the envelopes were too easy to lose. I have a “bank” (a jelly jar) of family dollars that I pay them from and they can either turn their family dollars in for cash, or use them to buy things at “Mom’s Store.”

Mom’s Store is in our coat closet. I have a little store of craft projects, notepads, stickers, boxes, little toys; anything that catches my eye as something the kids might like to have. When my store has a good selection, the kids are motivated to do more helpful and nice things so they can save up for something. There is also a list of privileges they can buy in the family dollar binder. Things like: a “date” with Mom or Dad, A family trip to Legoland (this one is a biggie and would require them all to pool their dollars to get it), $15.00 to spend at Toys R Us, a pass to stay up an hour past bedtime…

I have really enjoyed doing the family dollar store with the kids. They are learning how to make buying decisions and have to think, “would I rather have a princess notepad now for $2 or save up and get a date with Dad for $15?”

They are also learning to delay gratification. Sometimes they will see something in the store that they just have to have. If it isn’t too spendy I’ll tell them, “I’ll put it in my store, and you can buy it with your family dollars.”

They have to problem solve. If they don’t have enough to buy something they need to think of something they can do to earn more family dollars. It’s cute to see Hannah run to get one of her dolls that she knows Brina likes to play with, and offer to share it. Of course she’ll give it to her and then turn immediately to me and say, “Can I get a family dollar for that?” I think it’s ok that they are getting immediate rewards for little things. There are other opportunities to teach the idea of service, or doing something good without expecting anything in return. For now, I’m just glad that the younger girls are sharing, and that the older two are thinking about what might make Mom, Dad or one of their siblings feel happier.

We have our ups and downs with the program. Sometimes I forget to give out any family dollars or there are tantrums when someone buys something another person also wanted. And sometimes it takes getting new inventory in my store to motivate the kids to earn dollars, but I think it’s a good start.

An Afternoon at Crystal Cove Beach

While we had family in town for Emma’s baptism, we spent an afternoon down at Crystal Cove Beach with my parents, Mark, Melanie and Wellington. Crystal Cove is a State beach so it wasn’t surrounded by houses or other developments. It was beautiful and not crowded at all. It was so great to spend time with everyone and the weekend went way too fast.

Here are some highlights of our little beach excursion.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9AxxjL6Cxg

My Little Ones

When Hannah was at preschool, Sabrina and I were playing in the backyard playhouse.  I was crouched over in a little chair listening to her chat away on her play cell-phone.

“Who are you talking to Brina?”

“Hannah”

“Oh”

“How is your school?…. Oh, I just playing Barbies with Mommy… Have fun time, I love you… bye!”

Earlier today, the little girls were having a cute exchange about their names:

“I Brina Bel, and you Hannah Brook-in”

“Yes, I’m Hannah Brooklyn, and you Brina Bel. Nana told me my name.” (Over a year ago my mom had a discussion with Hannah about how she got her middle name.  She was named after the place both of my mom’s parents were raised, Brooklyn, NY.)

Moments like this are what makes parenting so wonderful.

Disneyland Slideshow

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7YaV9ZGUIY

Going back in time a little: Rob put together this slideshow from the pictures off our camera and my dad’s.  I just love it!