Operation Empty the Storage Unit

We're in the middle of a project. If you look at the title of this post, you'll see what that project is.

A few weeks ago I started having thoughts that we needed to go through our boxes and suitcases that were still packed in the storage unit, seeing what we needed and what we didn't. Bryan came home from campus that very day and told me that he really thought we should sort through the storage unit, maybe even see if we could empty it.

When we independently have the same idea, it means we should listen to it.

So we began the process of emptying the storage unit. We have three reason for doing it. The first is that Bryan's job will move us, but they'll only pickup our stuff from one location, so eventually everything would need to be brought here anyway. This way we can make sure we're only moving the stuff we really want and not just the things we've forgotten about because they've been packed away for so long. The second is that the storage unit costs money that we'd rather spend on things like, you know, rent and food. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we were prompted to do it.

In the last two weeks I've sorted through every box of clothing the kids have outgrown and a few that they haven't grown into yet. I've gone through my own clothes as well. I've thrown out old magazines and reorganized yearbooks and pictures. I've emptied seven twelve-gallon storage bins that we've been hauling from house to house. I kept a lot of those clothes, but I realized we probably don't need to hang on to worn out onesies and duplicate items.

Our little apartment is feeling littler, but not in a bad way. I think once we finish the sorting and find homes for everything we'll be glad we did it. And we've liberated a few items that had been deemed too big and were left in the storage unit, my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and large Crock-Pot among them. We can fit more of our stuff because we hauled over a tall set of industrial-strength shelves and placed them at the end of our kitchen table. My shelf space has increased dramatically.

We still have a ways to go, and there are a few items that we're at a loss as to where we'll stick them. But we'll figure it out. This whole endeavor is kind of exciting, like we're working on a huge puzzle, trying to see what fits where. And I think it's good preparation for the many moves we'll be making in the next three years.

The Pen is Mightier Than the Club

Bryan has a few days off from school this week. It's so the students can go on trips to visit companies and network. Since Bryan has already gone on his share of trips this year, he's staying at home. He put his time off to good use today.

During quiet time Bryan and Cooper went miniature golfing, just the two of them. Bryan said it started well, but quickly devolved. Cooper would swing the club like a hockey stick (Bryan had to explain the difference to me, not between the club and the stick, but between the swings) several times, then give up and say that he was just going to put the ball in the hole. And he would. With his hand. No great golf was played, but great father-son time did happen.

Phoebe found out that Cooper and Daddy were going to do something fun while she was napping. She was not pleased. When Bryan heard he went and picked her up and told her that he would do something fun with her too. What was it? He told her that when he got home he would read five books to her.

A short time later, a grinning Phoebe held up her hand with her fingers spread out and said, "Daddy is going to read five books to me."

Good to know that five books are just as cool as miniature golf.

Movers and Shakers

When I was looking for pictures of Peter's birthday I found this series that Bryan took during Peter's birthday lunch. He took these very quickly, notice how I don't move at all? Now look at how much Cooper and Phoebe DO move.

Seven

We have a seven-year-old at our house! 

Peter's birthday lasted almost a whole week. The day before we went for a birthday lunch to In-N-Out. I think the main reason we did it the day before is that we were out running errands during lunchtime and happened to be near In-N-Out, and we justified going by calling it a birthday lunch. Maybe I shouldn't admit that...

Oh well. He enjoyed it anyway.

In past years I've worked hard to have all the Christmas decorations put away before his birthday arrived, so there would be a clear delineation between Christmas and birthday. When I mentioned this to Peter he told me he actually liked the Christmas decorations. Huh. So this year I compromised. I put away most of the decorations, but left up the tree. I present to you The Birthday Tree!

This picture has two treats (besides The Birthday Tree): you get to see Peter open a present (The Hobbitt, which Bryan got when he turned seven), and you get to see Cooper jumping. I think it's nice that Bryan was able to capture Cooper in his natural state.

Here are a few more of Peter enjoying his birthday treasures. He had been begging for a watch for some time. Bryan found one with Perry the Platypus on it. He spent the next week informing us of the time every few minutes.

I picked out an art set for him, which he put to use almost immediately.

Peter requested a Spider-Man cake complete with tall buildings and The Web-Slinger himself in mid-flight. I actually spent time trying to figure out how to do that until I remembered that I stink at cake decorating. I baked the cake, made the frosting, and applied massive amounts of the sugary red stuff. Then I turned it over to Bryan. He added the cool stuff.

We had planned on going to the dinosaur museum and miniature golfing on his birthday, but Cooper and Phoebe were both feeling lousy, so we postponed. We went to the museum a few days after and had friends that met us there, so that made it extra fun. Then a few days after that Peter and Bryan went miniature golfing, just the two of them. Even though we had to spread out the celebrating, I think he enjoyed the festivities.

I'm going to steal an idea from my friend Beth's blog because I think it's so marvelous (thanks Beth!). She conducts a birthday interview and types up her kids' answers. Here are Peter's favorite things, as of his seventh birthday:

FAVORITE FOOD: Candy (I told him candy didn't count as food.) Fruit. (I asked for a specific fruit.) All fruit. Okay, um... soup.

FAVORITE ANIMAL: Elephant

FAVORITE BOOK: Avengers and Spiderwick

FAVORITE COLOR: Red

FAVORITE SHOW: Phineas and Ferb

FAVORITE MOVIE: Cars 2
FAVORITE SONG: Rockabye Baby (my version)
FAVORITE BOARD GAME: Uno
FAVORITE VIDEO GAME: Wild Kratts, Prankster Planet, and Minecraft
FAVORITE THING TO DO: Watch TV and play video games
FAVORITE MEMORY FROM BEING 6: Riding the Zippin' Pippin' (a big wooden roller coaster at Bay Beach Park in Green Bay, WI)
FAVORITE PLACE: School
FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: Math

FRIENDS: BT, Will, Reed, Luka, Dallin, Cooper, Phoebe, Mommy, Daddy, Brielle, Cat, Kylie, Anna

Happy birthday Peter!

Welcome to the Arctic

Good news folks, it has warmed to 6 degrees outside. That's up from the -5 degrees that greeted me when I woke this morning. I just checked weather.com and the next time we're supposed to see temperatures above freezing is more than a week away.

This is insane.

The Most

Tonight as I snuggled Peter at bedtime, he turned to me and said, "Mom, out of all the things I have, I love you more than all of them." Then he paused and thought, "More than most of them." Another pensive moment, "More than some of them." He took a deep breath, making up his mind, "I really, really love all my stuff. But I love you the most."

I Love to Laugh

Peter and I had a sweet moment that I want to make sure I remember. He finally went back to school today, only to call halfway through saying his cough was getting worse and could he come home. I gathered up Cooper and Phoebe and we retrieved Peter from school.

When he called I asked him to tell his teacher he was leaving (he had left from PE, I think the running they were doing exacerbated his cough) and to get the homework he had missed from the rest of the week. He spent the better part of the afternoon with homework in front of him. I spent the better part of the afternoon telling him to actually DO the work and not just hold it in his hand.

We were still working on it after the others went to sleep for the night. One of his assignments included a job for me. Peter was to write what I consider his first paper, including a topic sentence, and I needed to instruct him on the requirements, then proofread and have him make needed spelling, capitalization, and punctuation corrections. He came home with the first sentence written. It took an hour for him to do it. The first thirty minutes included several reminders from me to stop talking and write, repeated requests from Peter that I just "tell me what to write and I'll write it," which were followed closely by "No"s from me. I'm one of those parents that won't do my child's homework for them, even though it would often make life more pleasant.

I said we had a sweet moment, are you wondering when it will come?

I wanted to set the stage that this writing business was getting tense. We were both frustrated. He finally started writing (though he never did stop talking) and my turn came. I pointed out spelling errors and had him read through the paper again himself until he found each of them. One was the word chocolate, which he had spelled "choclet." I wrote out the word and, because I knew that he had learned a song in Spanish about chocolate in his music class, said it in Spanish so he could hear each sound.

This prompted him to sing the song. I don't know it myself, but what Peter sang went:

Uno, dos, tres, Cho!
Uno, dos, tres, La!
Uno, dos, tres, Co!
Uno, dos, tres, La!
Uno, dos, tres, Te!

I caught the mistake as soon as he sang it, but didn't say anything. He was almost done with the song when he stopped, looked at me, and asked, "What did I just say?" We both busted up laughing. It wasn't that I was laughing at him, or that he was laughing out of embarrassment, we were just laughing because at that moment the thought of "Cholacolate" was hilarious.

Those few minutes of laughter carried me through. Peter finally finished his homework and fell into his bed at 10 PM. That's a whole two and a half hours past his bedtime. I usually would have been stressed out by that point, in need of my own quiet time. But tonight? Tonight, after sharing that laughter with Peter, I was content to sit near him and wait. I was happy to tuck him in, even with the required reminders to "stop talking" and "stop wiggling."

I'm still feeling the sweetness of it.

My Internal Calendar Is Broken

I was at a meeting last night when I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to return a key that I had borrowed. The key was due by 10 AM Monday morning. "I can't believe I forgot that!" I thought. Which was followed closely by "I'll return it tomorrow morning and at least it will only be a day late."

And then I realized it was Tuesday night, not Monday night.

Peter and Phoebe have had croup for the last five days. Prior to my meeting the last time I had left my house was when Cooper and I went to church (while Bryan stayed home and took care of sick children). Wow, I knew the days had run together, but that's a whole new level of mommy brain.

I returned the key this morning. The receptionist was very nice about the whole thing, especially when I mentioned having sick kids and not knowing what day it was.

The kids are feeling well enough that I plan on sending Peter to school tomorrow. Which is Thursday. Right?

Posing

Sometimes I take pictures of the creations the boys make out of blocks. Like this one.

Phoebe has seen me do this, and she likes to see the results on my screen. So it wasn't surprising when I walked in to the boys' room to see what Phoebe was up to and she asked me to take her picture. She showed me her block creation and I pulled out my phone. I'm not sure she actually made this, in fact I'm pretty sure that Cooper made it. But I took the picture anyway.

And I'm adding this one because you can't see her face in the other one, and that face is important.

An End and a Beginning

Today Bryan had his first day of his last semester of classes for the MBA program. This is only the fourth semester, which is much shorter than the time we spent as undergrads, but in some ways it feels like this has lasted so much longer.

I think this semester should be smoother than previous semesters though. Bryan went on six different job-search-related trips last semester. His traveling should go down significantly. The reason? Bryan has been offered, and has accepted, a job. A job! That was one of the scariest things going into this whole MBA adventure. Did it make sense to voluntarily leave a job when so many people were out of work? Would he find another job when it was all over?

Thankfully, he did. The job comes with new forms of excitement. The job is part of a rotational leadership training program and there's a strong possibility that we will move every year for the next three years. I'm focusing on the adventure that will come with the opportunity to live in new-to-us areas of the country. I'm trying not to think about changing schools and wards and homes so much. But you know, after living in Wisconsin for the summer, I think we can live anywhere.

So now we need to get through this last semester and then we can prepare for the next leg of our adventure.