Our Move to Ohio: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: 

•  I have great friends who love me and support me.  I had some awesome people come in and help me pack, clean, and watch my kiddos so that I could get out of my house in Waldorf. Thank you guys! I couldn't have done it without you!
• The Griesmyer farm is BEAUTIFUL! It is quiet, serene, slow paced, and completely different from the hustle and bustle of the DC area.
• The boys have plenty of room to run and play.
• The weather is nice and warm
• We take trips to the creek and go on walks just to explore.
• Cousin's camp brings all the family together and is a load of fun (and noise, and confusion)

 The Bad:
 
 

• Moving a fully furnished house into a fully furnished house is really hard and..well, impossible. My stuff is stored in 3 different places on the farm and is driving me nuts. I slowly unpack boxes and am constantly searching for things. Actually, I've given up. I'll find it when I find it.
• I broke my truck door. It was SO stupid too. I decided to take the kids to the city pool one day. I sent Zech inside the house to get something and decided to back up the driveway to get him-with the door open. It caught the side of the hill and BAM!!! Broken door! I didn't think anything about it since I supposedly have the best car insurance ever-USAA. I call them to come get my car and fix it when they tell me they have no record of my policy. WHAT THE #$@!!!  2 weeks prior I had changed my policy over from MD coverage to Ohio. Well come to find out, they cancelled my MD and did not initiate my OH! I was out of a car for 2 weeks! Not a fun and easy thing for a family my size.
• A HUGE storm hits the farm as well as my house in Waldorf.  We lose power for 3 days. We have 15 children and 7 adults in the house. Tensions and tempers rise! Our camp's theme was "Survivor" this year! We seriously learned a lot!
• My neighbor's tree comes crashing down on my house in Waldorf causing $8,000+ in damage. Because we rented out our house, 2 weeks before the storm, I had JUST changed my insurance to fire and upped the premium to $2,500!!!
• Gary is still working in VA. I have no friends here. I am in the middle of nowhere. I have no leads for my Premier Jewelry business and I fall into a deep depression.

 

The Ugly:

• Ammon contracted impetigo from the baby pool at the community pool. It was nasty and gross and to make matters worse, we had no power or running water to keep him clean. Thank goodness for antibiotics and antibacterial lotion! Poor baby! :(

 

 



The power of calm

This past week I had the privilege of attending an LDS home school conference in Fredericksburg, VA. It wasn't too far from my home and since my DH has to practically travel all the way down there to work everyday, I just drove with him. My wonderful mother flew out to take care of my kiddos so I could go. And even though she doesn't read my blog: "Thanks Mom! We love you and miss you already!" 

About the conference:

Wednesday- I took a special seminar from Susan Wise Bauer, author of "The Well Trained Mind". It was cool. She was good. I learned a lot. I learned that my expectations for the children are often based on the public school model which, let's face it, is not a great model AT ALL! SO I decided to chill a little. That was good. (I'll blog the highlights of this seminar a little later Lia!) My DH came with me but basically just talked to his brother the whole time because they haven't seen each other in a while.

Thursday-Nicholeen Peck, an LDS woman who has a background working with troubled kids, has developed a parenting program titled "Teaching Self Government". She was a special guest speaker and gave multiple classes on different subjects. I had heard about her last year from this conference but never checked her out until a few months ago. That's where I watched her videos from the BBC show, World's Strictest Parents. I was really impressed by the way she dealt with those kids. I then saw she was going to be at our conference and was stoked! Check out her website here

I am sure you will be surprised to know that I even had an acting debut! I did! Nicholeen asked for a volunteer, I raised my hand along with a few others in the room. She then said to wait because the volunteer had to be able to act and stay in character. My hand shot up again-this time I was alone. (I was also really excited to try!) She wanted to show 3 different things we as parents might face with our kids, how to be calm, and how being calm helps every situation. She had me first rage at her, then be passive aggressive, and finally be the whiner/crier. It was awesome! I felt more alive than I have in a LONG time! Do you realize how much I love to act, direct, sing, perform? I love it! 
I LOVE it!!! I often wonder what I am supposed to do with my talent? (sorry, I digress)

I learned SO much from Nicholeen. I bought her book and came home with a few simple techniques to use and try on my little family. Yeah... Do you know how hard it is to stay calm, never raise your voice, and always have teaching moments instead of critical or correcting ones? YIKES!!! I got home late Friday night so my first real test was Saturday. I had told Gary a little bit about the program on our drive home Friday so he was on board. It took every ounce of energy I had to maintain a calm mind, body, face, and voice. I mean, it was so much work!!! Don't believe me, just try for one day. I'm still working on it. I'll keep you posted...

I believe in her ideology. We are trying to teach our children (and ourselves) how to govern ourselves. How to be in control of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. True self government is obedience to God's laws and commandments. Obedience to God is true happiness and power. When we are disobedient, we have no power or control. We must teach our children how to control themselves. This is tough to do in a world that teaches it is ok to do anything and everything that feels good! I know that I have been entrusted by with raising an Army of God and I could use all the help I can get.

Emma Lee Rose

A few pics of Emma in all her cuteness:

Checking out the trampoline for the 1st time (9mos) Emma desperately wants to play outside with her brothers but I don't want her crawling through mud. The day was nice so I let her check out the trampoline. She was fascinated!

 Passed out after church (9mos) Since church is at 1pm-it really gets in the way of nap time. Gary usually puts her to sleep but the noises tend to keep her up or wake her up prematurely. She always conks out on our way home from church.

 Frenchfries are yummy! (8mos) Emma loves to eat but refuses baby food. She wants to eat what we eat!

 Pretty in pink! (8mos) It is so fun to dress Emma. And it is so fun to see the boys cue at her, "Oh Emma, you look beautiful!" LOVE!

She loves to smile and is so quiet! (8mos)

 She adores her brothers. When she sees them or they talk to her, she kicks her legs and twists her wrists in excitement! (at Great Wolfe Lodge @ 7mos)

Being serenaded by her "favorite" Uncle, Ken! (7 mos)

Easter (finally)

Just some pics from Easter. Gary was out of town which ruined some of my plans for family pictures. My mom had sent me money to buy Emma this adorable dress and I even found matching ties for the boys! I bought myself a coordinating dress and Gary a tie to match! The pics aren't that great because I don't have a real camera-still using the phone. Oh well! Easter was fun and my little princess looked gorgeous!

Soccer Season

Soccer is in full swing. I am honestly read for it to be over. I have 3 in 3 different teams this year.

Ammon's PeeWee team is a joke. They have not had one real practice where the coaches taught them the rules of the game. Ammon just runs up and down the field after his teammates grabbing their shirts until I shout at him "Hands Off!". He is hilarious and he has a blast!

Gabriel has improved so much! He is running faster and has ball control. Being a leftie is really tough in a right dominated world though. He practically runs around the ball in order to kick it in the correct position. Poor guy! He has fun though and his team is winning-which he likes. Next year he wants to try baseball.

Zechariah. Holy Cow! The kid is good! He is fast, he is strong, he is fearless. Zech has gotten better at ball control and can keep it from getting taken away from him and can steal it away from other kids. He is still working on his shooting. He needs power behind his kicks. Other kids his age are lobbing the ball into the air and over the goalie's head. Zech isn't there yet. He hates going to practice but loves to play the games!

More pics to come...

Pee Pee Boys

My 4 and 2 year olds are crazy. C-R-A-Z-Y!  A few months ago after bath time with the 2 crazies, I went into the boys' room (all 4 share a room) to get Elijah dressed. Ammon was butt naked peeing on the floor! "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???", I yelled/gasped! He doesn't pee on the floor! He's 4-working on 5! He just looked up at me with his oh so gorgeous blue eyes and shrugged his shoulders. The expression was angelic. I asked him if he had an accident. He said yes! I made him get the cleaner out and a wash cloth and clean it up (then I cleaned it some more!) And then...every time I went into the room I smelled pee. I called my sweet friend who has a carpet cleaner to come over and attack that spot. She did. I STILL smelled pee! And then....I found out why.

Background: Elijah has decided he wants to be a big boy and wear underwear. He doesn't always make it to the bathroom though and with me packing, painting, and dealing with a fussy teething 10 month old, I am quite distracted and unmotivated to potty train. One day 2 weeks ago, I heard Eli and Ammon running into my room and giggling (also a bad sign) So, I walked into my bathroom to find my 2 year old peeing in the vent! PEEING IN THE VENT! Dawn, recognition, light bulbs, sirens, and a musical soundtrack exploded in my mind as I realized just why I could still smell pee in the boys' room and why Elijah thought it was cool and hilarious to pee in the vent! Ammon had peed down the vent in his bedroom! WHAT THE HECK??? Oh the joy of motherhood. I used to judge. I used to hear these crazy stories from my girlfriends and SIL's and I would wonder to myself, "Where were you?" "How did they get that permanent marker?" etc, etc. I formally apologize for my judgements. Karma is biting my butt with these 2, HARD! If they weren't so dang cute I'd pinch their heads off! :)

Pretty darn cool!

Last Sunday afforded my family and ward an unique opportunity:
Church Public Affairs came and filmed our meetings. The 1st hour, we had a regular sacrament meeting. There was no filming so as not to disrupt the Spirit. I am the choir director in my ward and we were scheduled to sing "Sweet Hour of Prayer". After receiving an email on Thursday informing us about the film crew coming, I asked a violinist from our ward to accompany us along with our pianist. I wanted to kick it up a notch. I am SO glad I did! The P.A. director asked us to do it again so they could film it! They then filmed portions of the sacrament meeting. I felt bad for a particular youth speaker who was asked to give his talk again. He was pretty nervous! I thought everything about the experience was cool. I've always wanted to be in a movie or on film. I just never thought it would be like this! Everyone was given a notice from the public affairs that talked about "Why" they were doing this.
Here's what I gathered:
Many news organizations have/are/do contact the church asking permission to film or take pictures of our "typical" Sunday meetings. Instead of disrupting many services to grant these, the church decided to film 2 wards in our stake for this purpose. The footage can be used in part or in its entirety. It may be released as print, ads, commercials, Mormon messages, etc.
  So look for me in upcoming releases from the church that show a sacrament meeting. You'll most likely only see my back as I conduct the choir-badly I'm sure! Anyhow, it was an amazing, fun, once in a lifetime experience and I am glad it happened to us!
It was also a bit frustrating keeping my little ones quiet and gorgeous and well behaved for 2.5 hours! YIKES! For the most part, they did really well. Until one of them knocked over a water bottle and it poured all over me and the pew. Oh well, I was wearing black and you really couldn't tell. Emma got VERY tired by the end though, was ready for bed, and got a little cranky. All in all, we all survived and I think it is a very cool thing the church is doing! AND I think it is sooo smart considering the political scene that is approaching. 
It was Pretty Darn Cool!