Book Report

I just finished reading such a beautiful book! I love to read but there are only a handful of books that I will read again and again (and again). A friend loaned this one to me after we got into a discussion about historical fiction. I hadn't ever even heard of A Lantern In Her Hand before, even though it is actually a classic. I LOVED it! It struck such a chord with me and I was moved to tears more than once. It covers the life of a character named Abbie from her childhood to her death. I related to her so much as a woman who has dreams for her life and as a mother who has dreams for her children, and as someone whose fierce love of family helps to overcome the bitterest disappointments. The rapid passing of time and wishing it could just slow down a little bit is a theme that I seem to be relating to these days as well. I thought several times of my great grandma Lang while reading this book--the old Abbie reminded me of her greatly. I was just profoundly moved by this work. This is a book that I would most definitely read again!

What are you reading these days?

Next up for me is a re-reading of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows for book group. Another great read!

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion

I love blogging. I really, really do. So what the heck is wrong with me these days??? I just can't seem to make myself upload the photos and keep up to date on things like I wish I would. I need to do better because as long as I go between blogging episodes, it's been even longer since I wrote an actual entry in my journal. This blog is pretty much the only documentation of my existence at this point. I have to do better!

Well, as is the case often in Michigan, March came in like a lion and it looks like it's heading out that way too! Both in weather and in the craziness of life. Mom had surgery about 10 days after her accident and so it was kind of like starting all over again. But within a couple of weeks she was doing tons better and had rented a cute little scooter contraption that makes getting around on her own so much easier. So she decided she was ready to move back home. We decided it's too bad she couldn't have a happy medium. Our house is just so loud and chaotic most of the time but over there it's lonely and quiet with her all by herself. Kaya and I usually visit for a couple of hours everyday. Although now we have Susannah and Rebecca visiting so until next week at least, she won't be lonely.

In the meantime, our lives here sure haven't slowed down much. Kalen has been SO busy with work the past few weeks that we barely see him. And when we do, he has work that he's brought home with him or he's so exhausted that he falls asleep in the recliner as soon as he sits down. Thankfully, his summer vacation isn't too far away.

I am still babysitting for one boy everyday after school and another on Mondays plus trying to keep up with my church callings, the kid's schedules and the Etsy shop. Crocheting for that is my therapy though. The more I create, the more I love it. I've had to start writing down ideas in a notebook so that I can keep track of all the new ideas for projects that I want to do. Now if only I could actually sell something...

Taylor has had several major school projects that he's been working on lately, plus Scouts, plus his online Seminary class every day and playing in the band at all the home basketball games. On Saturday the band competed with other schools from all over the region and Albion High School did such a fantastic job. We have a little high school that has so many serious issues, but our band is something else! They have a great teacher who inspires the kids and challenges them to be the best. And they definitely were on Saturday. They played three performance pieces which were amazing--like beyond typical high school abilities. Then they had to play two pieces in the the sight reading room. They were given two unfamiliar songs and seven minutes to learn each song WITHOUT playing a single note on their instruments. It was fascinating to watch the teacher talk them through it with them tapping, singing, chanting along. Then they played each piece and a judge talked to them afterward with only great things to say. They earned straight ones for all their performances that day and qualified to go to the state competition. Unfortunately, though I had remembered the camera, I didn't get any photos. They didn't allow flash photography and the lighting was just too dim to get anything without it. Oh well. Even if I had been able to get a shot, it most likely would have been something like this: That kid hates to be in photos!!!

I mentioned last time that Kendall and Lynnsey were both participating in the Destination Imagination tournament this year. Their competitions went great. In the weeks leading up to the performance, Kendall's group had to research mythology and mythological creatures for many different countries. They didn't know which country they would be assigned until 5 minutes before they were to perform a skit about it. They ended up with Greece and their monster was a Hydra. They had a box with several props in it but they were only allowed to use a couple of them, one of which was a bungee cord. They also were given an envelope with an Unexpected Event in it that they would have to work into the skit right in the middle. (Their event was that someone gets his hands stuck. That would be Kendall). It is so much fun to see how they put it all together on the spot. They did a great job.

Kendall also recently won second place for his Black History Month Essay "I Have a Dream". He was given two gift cards to Subway and McDonald's.

We recently got to visit the Art Center of Battle Creek where a handmade decorative gift box that Kendall made had been selected to be on display with other area school students. Kendall was pretty excited to have something of his chosen, especially by his notoriously tough to please art teacher. Speaking of art, he absolutely LOVED his pottery class. And they loved him. They called us recently and invited him to come back for another session. Unfortunately this one we'd have to pay for, and it was a bit pricey so we told them we'd have to take a rain check. Hopefully we can get him into another session soon.

Lynnsey's little D.I. group did great too. It was the first year for a lot of them. Their group had to perform an original play called "Big Bug's Bad Day." The interesting thing about Destination Imagination is that even though they have a coach, the responsibility is all on the students. They had to write the skit all by themselves and make their own costumes. In fact, when Lynnsey's bumblebee wings tore right before the performance, the coach handed her some tape but no adults were allowed to help her fix it. I think it really gives these kids so much confidence in their own abilities and improves their problem solving skills enormously.

Lynnsey is still my little hat model. She just cracks me up the way she poses for me sometimes--like shes such a professional.

And here's another cute model. Spencer has been learning to read really well lately. He loves to try to figure out what a word is and practice spelling things. He's also very into arts and crafts and is constantly drawing or cutting up paper and giving us all sorts of pictures. Lately he can think of nothing else but the birthday party he his having when he turns six--in 4 months. It might be a long 4 months...

And then there is Kaya. She's still very much two:

I discovered her up on the bathroom counter the other day where she had used my lipstick to draw a masterpiece on the bathroom mirror before washing her hair in the sink and beautifying herself. And she's so cute about it that it's hard to get mad at her. As soon as I walked in she blurted out: "I'm really, really sorry Mommy!" Little stinker. She's such a handful sometimes but just so darn loveable. Every once in awhile she climbs up on mine or Kalen's lap and she'll say: "I yuv you. You my best fwend ever!" How can you resist that I ask you? We sure can't.

A Kinda Rough Winter This is Turning Out To Be

First of all, this winter hasn't been all bad. The kids have been pretty healthy with the exception of Lynnsey's cough that just won't go away. We've all been kept busy with lots of activities. Taylor and Kendall did a fun cooking merit badge for scouts so that was great to be the recipient of their practices. Kendall is participating in Destination Imagination for the third year in a row and is loving it and Lynnsey joined a team this year too and seems to be having lots of fun so far. Kendall also was invited to be a part of a pilot pottery class for kids at a studio here in town. They secured scholarships for all of the kids so it wound up costing us nothing and he is learning SO much and just having a ball. We had our annual candlelight Valentine's celebration on the 12th this year. Kalen and I had planned to have a date that night but the "poor guy" has been forced to eat out nearly every night lately since they have job candidates in town for interviews and one of his responsibilites is to take them out to eat. (Kendall said the other day: "Boy, Daddy sure is going on a lot of dates with people that aren't you!" True story. He was out with two women on Valentine's Day and I wasn't one of them.) So anyway, he just didn't really want to eat out again and we couldn't come up with anything else we wanted to do so we just stayed in and did our family candlelight dinner which proved to be a good thing because Valentine's Day wound up taking a major turn that we hadn't bargained for. (Aside from Kalen being out with two women, that is). The kids also had fun decorating our dessert for the dinner: Taylor made Monument Valley out of sprinkles. Probably no one has ever done that before.

But the rough stuff has also been causing a few problems. First of all the weather has been quite interesting. First we had what they are calling "The Blizzard of 2011". I thought that was a little melodramatic. It was a BIG storm for sure. But the people buying up everything on the store shelves in preparation was a bit much, in my opinion. We've had plenty of bigger storms before. But it got the kids a few snow days, so that was fun. For them.

And then the weather just turned completely frigidly cold. The bonechilling kind that makes you shiver for a few hours after you've been out in it. I dreaded taking the kids to school in the morning and picking them up in the afternoon. Or going shopping. Or doing any kind of errand that involved opening the door and venturing out into the cold. And then, quite suddenly it started warming up. It was so wonderful to be able to go out again. College students could be seen in shorts and flip flops. (I guess 35 degrees feels pretty warm after below zero, but I wasn't quite ready to go to those lengths yet.) The problem was that even though the days were sunny and "warm", at night the temps would drop again and freeze all the meltage (isn't that a word? It is now.) So the next day we'd have to step carefully and try not to slip and fall every few steps. And that is what happened on Valentine's Day. The day was really beautiful and most of the snow was melting away. I could almost see spring right around the corner. That night my mom was planning on bringing dinner over since it was her cooking night. She had just put the food in her car and turned to go back to the house and finish up when she stepped on the lone patch of ice left in her driveway and went down. I got a call from her after she managed to crawl her way into the house. She was very sure that she had badly broken her ankle. Of course, I didn't have the car because Kalen was out on his Valentine's Date With Two Women, so I was pretty helpless. I called a friend of ours and she went over to take her to the ER. But she couldn't get her up again and had to go home to get her two sons to come and help. They finally managed to get her up and in their van. I called several people before I managed to find someone who could go over and give her a blessing. Then I was able to meet her at the hospital awhile later after all the x-rays but before they took her in to reset her most-definitely broken ankle. Turns out it was broken in three places. We finally got her all set and the foot wrapped and we brought her here to our house where she has been ever since and will be until we can be reasonably sure that she can get up and down and around on her own. But that might be awhile yet because she's scheduled for surgery on Thursday and one doctor told her it will probably be like starting over again. She'll be off her foot completely for at least six more weeks and then she'll do physical therapy.

This is her other injury. She didn't even know she had it for a few days afterward because the ankle was hurting so much.

And then our blissful spring-ish days were suddenly over. In moved more snow and this time a bunch of ice. And a couple more days off of school. This time the storm really was bad. Not nearly as much snow, but all that ice downed trees and power lines and made the roads horrible. Kalen had to drive a candidate home from the airport one night and said he lost count of how many cars were off the road. I was happy that we didn't lose power here so we could stay warm inside and appreciate the amazing beauty of outside. Dangerous as it was, the trees were spectacular, especially today when the sun finally came out and shone through all the ice-covered branches.

But now I'm ready for warm again. And healing. And Spring.

Kaya's New Shirt

On Tuesday I went in to the Children's Place to check out their clearance deals. I pulled a little shirt off the rack that had a pony on it. Kaya saw it and snatched it from my hands, hugging it tightly. I knew that I would be buying the shirt. As soon as we got home, she wanted to put it on. And she has worn it every day since for the last 4 days. (It is a battle to get it off of her at night, but we usually manage to convince her that it'll be waiting for her in the morning all nice and clean). I'm now wishing that I had gotten a second identical shirt.

Do any of your kids have favorite items that they just can't live without?

The Bee

Last week Kendall came home with a giant list of words and an announcement that he had signed up to participate in the school spelling bee. It was short notice since the list came home on Tuesday and the spelling be was on Friday, but we spent the next couple of days working on the lists. Everytime we would practice, my anxiety about this thing grew to epic proportions. I found that I would hold my breath every time Kendall would spell a word and I would exhale once he finished. I didn't know if I could handle the actual competition. He seemed totally at ease with it. Which I think is how I was when I participated in the spelling bee as a kid too. At the time it just seemed like no big deal--it's just spelling. When I missed a word at the end placing me in third, there were no tears on my part. (A little frustration, because I knew that word!) I didn't feel like a failure because I mispelled one word. My life went on as usual. It was fine. But as the PARENT of a child in a spelling bee, I was stressed out! I just prayed that he wouldn't get out on the first round.

The big day arrived and we nervously headed over to watch. The classes filed in to watch and the participants came in and took their seats. Kendall was totally fine. Other kids were not fine. The first little boy who got up just completely came apart. He knew how to spell the word, I could tell but stage fright overtook him and he stood there shaking and near tears and finally mumbled a few letters before going to sit with his class. Several other kids had similar experiences. I began to hyperventilate slightly. Finally it was Kendall's turn. He stepped up to the microphone and as calmly as anything, spelled his first word right.

Several rounds later the numbers had diminished drastically but Kendall was still in. I found myself holding my breath for all of the kids and nearly crying whenever one would get out. Who thought up such a torturous event anyhow??? At last there were only 4 kids left and it was Kendall's turn. He was asked to spell the word "Prairie" and when he hesitated briefly knew he was going to miss it. That tricky little "i" after the "a" was what did it. When they said he spelled it wrong he just sighed, shrugged, smiled over at us and sat down with his class. (The funny thing is, Kalen was sure he'd spelled it right. "It's "ai"? he asked incredulously")

The third kid left in the group misspelled his word too leaving two girls who went back and forth for several more rounds. There was some confusion as to the rules of things and how it was supposed to end, but finally they had a winner. We thought they should have called a third place tie with Kendall and the other little boy since they both got out in the same round and the only reason Kendall wasn't third was the order in which they were in line. But they didn't. They gave third place to the other kid. Kendall was fine with it though. He said: "That's okay, the medals were just plastic--like I need one of those!"

Regardless, we all survived the experience. Kendall says he had a great time and is already looking forward to next year's bee. WHAAAT????

January Visitors

One of the best things about Lynnsey's baptism was that we got to have a fun visit from Alison and Mike and all of their cute kids. It was, of course, a very rushed trip since they had to pull the kids out of school but luckily it was the Martin Luther King holiday so none of our kids had school on Monday.

We made sure to visit the sledding hill. We didn't ever get to go last year due to lack of snow on the days we were available, so this was pretty fun for us too. It was freezing cold but the hike up the hill warmed us up pretty quick. Poor Alison just had to sit it out due to her recent shoulder surgery and Mom opted to sit it out this time too. The kids had so much energy and could hike up the hill so fast and so many times. I only went a few times and I was feeling it the next day for sure. Kalen, Spencer and Kaya (and Kendall following behind)

Bentley

Lydia

Kalen, Spencer, and Kaya

Cecily

Me, Spencer, and Kaya

Lynnsey

Isabel

We had a fun game night that night playing Mexican Train dominoes.

And then we spent the next morning getting ready for the big event. It was such a great day. Lynnsey was beautiful, we were able to get everything set up and ready in time, lots of people came to celebrate with us, the program was phenomenal, and we had lots of treats to enjoy afterward.

We continued the celebration that evening by going to dinner at La Casa Mexicana, our favorite local restaurant. Great food and a really fun birthday tradition where the birthday girl (or boy or woman or man as the case may be) gets a free dessert, a portion of which is smeared on the face of the honoree while they sing a fun birthday song in Spanish and take a picture to put on their birthday wall. Lynnsey is dying to go there to eat again so she can find her picture.

We enjoyed another round of Mexican Train that night and then the next morning we all got up for church. After church, Mike napped in preparation for the long drive back to New Jersey and the rest of us enjoyed visiting some more and played Phase 10. After dinner we had our spiritual time and then it was time to say goodbye to the Bramhall's. It was so much fun having them here. We can't wait for the next visit!

A Post About Lynnsey

It's hard to believe our first daughter just celebrated her 8th birthday. I still remember the day she was born like it just happened. We had only been living in Michigan for a few months. Our little Marshall Branch had just been formed and I had been called to serve in the Primary presidency. In many places you get released from your church calling when you are about to give birth. Never here. It was a bitter cold winter and I wasn't actually due to have Lynnsey until the 16th but because of my history of fast labors and the icy roads that we would have to travel to the hospital, my doctor graciously offered to induce me on the 10th. After an uneventful induction and my first epidural, our longed-for baby girl entered the world. She was a princess from day one. She always loved frilly girly clothes and the pinker the better. As soon as her hair was long enough, she loved having it styled, especially when we put it in curlers. She soon learned to dress herself and began changing outfits around 8 or 9 times a day. (Laundry was a nightmare!) For a period of a couple of weeks she wouldn't answer to any name except "Miss Princess Lynnsey Lulu Christina Oswald". But even though she was as girly as they come, she had no trouble keeping up with her two older brothers and could often be found in a princess dress out in the dirt digging for worms. She loves her brothers but the happiest day of her life was when her baby sister Kaya was born. Kaya of course, follows Lynnsey like a little shadow and Lynnsey loves having a little sidekick that she can dress up in her old princess clothes and ballet tutu's. Lynnsey is in 2nd grade now and is an excellent reader. She has such a silly side and the cutest giggle. She LOVES playing with her friends and was so excited that she would be able to have a friend party this year for her birthday.

We first celebrated on her actual birthday with just our family. She got her traditional "Baptism Journal". We give one to each of our kids when they turn 8 and we have people write messages in it on their baptism day.

Webkins have become a big deal in our family ever since we got high speed internet. (Just the other day I heard Kaya playing and she said "Oh, look I won some Kinz Cash!")

Kendall ,with the help of Kalen, built Lynnsey her very own balance beam. Now she stays off the back of the couch!

A few days later we had a visit from the Bramhall's who brought with them Lynnsey's major birthday present: Her very first American Girl doll. She has wanted one for awhile and was leaning toward Felicity when we found out that one of the past girl of the year doll's was named Lindsey. So, naturally, she'd want that one even though it was discontinued and teriffically overpriced in most cases. But Alison went on a Craigslist hunt for us and found one in great shape and at a great price. (Thank you!) Lynnsey has been thrilled with her new doll and spends hours changing her outfits and doing her hair. And she is looking forward to our summertime trip to Chicago with her cousins to the American Girl store. (She did tell me just yesterday that if I felt like buying her the Felicity doll too, that I would be more than welcome to do so...)

On Saturday, January 15th we celebrated Lynnsey's baptism day. (More pictures to come!) It was a beautiful program. Her cousin Isabel sang "Faith". Kendall spoke on baptism. Our friends, the Peterson's sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" accompanied by their daughter on violin. Taylor spoke on the Holy Ghost. But of course the best part was the actual baptism and confirmation by Kalen.

Lynnsey was thrilled to wear the same dress that Isabel wore for her baptism. She wasn't too keen on those jumpsuits!

We had a great turnout too, including some of our nonmember friends from town. It was a really nice day and actually way less stressful than I had anticipated it being.

After the baptism we went to dinner that night at La Casa Mexicana, our favorite local restaurant. Yummy food at great prices. And they do a fun tradition for birthday guests. Lynnsey got to wear a big sombrero and they brought out a big dessert with lots of whipped cream which they smeared on her face before singing to her and snapping her picture for their birthday wall. Lynnsey is already asking to go back again so we can see her picture on the wall.

And finally, this last weekend, she was able to have her friend party. She invited 7 little girls for a party and sleepover. Six were able to come. We had pizza.

And made crafts. (The girls were amazed at how easy it is to make hair clips.)

Opened presents.

And had cake and ice cream.

Afterward we watched Ramona and Beezus. (Such a cute movie that has made me want to re-read all those books I loved as a kid). Then we spent the next hour or so trying to get the girls to settle down enough to go to sleep. Finally, after much giggling and whispering, they finally drifted off only to wake up bright and early the next morning with triple the energy of the night before! But Lynsey had a great time and we figure she's only 8 once! Happy birthday Lynnsey Lulu!