News Flash: Mormor is retiring after 48 years!

This is a picture of my mom (Mormor) who is retiring after 48 years in the nursing profession. I have honestly never met someone who works as hard as my mom--her capacity to work full-time at age 70, serve at church (she was released in the last year as the president of her congregation's group in charge of all the girls ages 12-18), serve with the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, serve with her political party, baby-sit her grandkids at the drop of a hat, and still send packages to us for every holiday she can come up with is absolutely MIND-BOGGLING. And I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something! She is seriously my hero.

I'm not going to say I've never heard her complain--she's nothing if not straight-forward :) but her complaints have more to do with people not fulfilling their potential--people who don't seize the opportunities given to them. She's a home-grown farm girl with no patience for whiners. Just Do It was her motto long before it was Nike's.

Lately I've been thinking of how grateful I am for all that my family has. We're healthy, Superman and I both have good jobs, we've got great (active!) kids, we have a safe place to live, etc., etc. Listing everything made me realize what I'm really grateful for is the hard work ethic both Superman and I have had instilled in us. We both know how to do what needs to be done--yes, there's occasional whining :) but in the end, we get up and do it. Past experience has taught us that when something happens that's not so peachy, we can depend on each other and all that we've done thus far to prepare ourselves and our family.

I love you, Mormor! You'll take a chunk out of the nursing profession by leaving, but know that you've taught many people that they're able to do far more than they first thought.

I'm just sayin'

Mormor is a bad influence. We've always known it, but here's my proof--Buddy has started adding "tootie" or "poopie" after everything he says. Thank you, day-care-best-friend. Anyway, we had several chats about it this weekend, culminating in him getting mad and saying, "Well, Grandma said I could say it!" HUH?! And then last night, he told me he'll just wait until he goes to Grandma's house and say it there.

He also decided to try and open a Christmas present because "Grandma told me I could!"

And then last night, after we made our gingerbread house and family, I asked him if I could have a bite of his gingerbread man (which he was busily chomping). He said, "Sure! Eat Sissy's." Nice.

As CBC put it, he's full of it, "literally." (Her favorite new word :) )

And then my dear, sweet daughter asked me, "Do you think Santa is going to bring me what I want this year?" She has written a nice letter to Santa and taped it to our living room wall for all to see. I said she'll have to wait and see, to which she added, "'Cause last year, he just gave me random things." HA! Good one, Santa :)

Summer, we will miss thee

How can summer be over already? School starts in one week, and I think we're about ready to get back into the learning groove. It's been a really fun summer, even though the weather in WA hasn't really cooperated. We had about a week of extremely hot temperatures when we all slept in the master bedroom with the a/c in the window, but other than that, it's been off and on rain. I'll have to post some pictures soon, but I wanted to get caught up before procrastinating this any longer.

In July, we combined a work conference in Anaheim, CA with a family vacation by driving to Utah first. We visited Superman's parents and mine, and then Morfar and Mormor traveled with us to California, where we went to the beach and Disneyland, visited some good friends, and absolutely loved every minute of it. My conference was really good, too! Everyone at the beach forgot sunscreen, with CBC and Mormor getting the brunt of the sunburn. CBC's was so awful because she body surfed for 4 hours straight without coming in. I forget sometimes how much she loves water. Buddy had to re-learn grandparents' names, because once again he called them all Grandma. So we have officially switched over to Morfar (literally, mother's father) and Mormor (mother's mother). That seemed to help :) Morfar and Mormor took CBC home with them for two weeks, which proved to be very difficult on Buddy, but she had a great time.

On the way home from Anaheim, we stopped in San Jose to visit my brother and his family, which was an absolute blast. I wish they lived closer so we could see them more often! Two weeks later, Morfar and Mormor drove from their house in UT to our house in WA with CBC, carting a U-Haul behind them filled with furniture and a piano for us. If I haven't mentioned it a million times, my parents are so good to us! While they were here for a few days, Morfar helped Superman put a hardwood floor in upstairs (no rest for the weary!).

Since they've left, CBC has gone back to camp and enjoyed a Mariner's game, bounce houses, laser tag, swimming, etc. Buddy switched daycares, which went a little easier than I had feared. We miss our old school, but now I can pick him up earlier than before, which makes his day a little shorter. He told me he was sad on Friday after I picked him up, and when I asked him why, he said, "I miss Mormor! I want to go to her house." We're glad we'll be seeing them again at Christmas!

We've enjoyed the lake with family, gone to the fair, ridden bikes, played at the park, and did yard work like nothing else. Summer has also shown us what a big boy we have living with us--Buddy's vocabulary constantly surprises me ("Mom, that is so lame!"), he was potty-trained in May, and was bottle-free by July (and, yes, that was painful for all of us). Ever since CA, he is absolutely obsessed with Buzz Lightyear and Woody, and is always shouting, "To infinity and beyond!" while jumping off various items of furniture.

CBC has grown another million inches and made new friends everywhere she goes. She is reading like a champ, too! We have really enjoyed this summer, and I'm a little sad to see it go, but I'm excited to see what 2nd grade in our new school brings us. I especially can't wait to hear CBC play her violin :)

Crazy blogging

Should I explain the nicknames I gave us? A friend of mine said that you should use psuedonyms to protect your kids' identities online. So I spent all of 2 seconds to think of ours, but they make me laugh every time I type them. The kids' nicknames--CBC and Buddy--are real, but no one really calls me Lois, nor the spouse Superman (although it is appropriate). In case you don't know, Morfar and Mormor are Norwegian for Grandfather and Grandmother, and so refer to my parents. Blogging is really pretty fun! (And, yes, I get carried away with the labels!)

Also, does anyone know--since I am a perfectionist, I go back and edit these posts repeatedly. I also add several posts at a time. If anyone is "following" this blog, will they get repeated emails from me saying I entered a new post? Sorry!

Puppy Dog Tails

Everyone who knows us knows this, but CBC wants a dog more than pretty much anything else. (She's been pushing for a little sister lately; when asked if she would rather have a little sister or a dog, she thought about three seconds and then picked the dog!) So when a puppy was brought to our house for an Easter visit, she was pretty much in heaven. And when Superman allowed the puppy to inhabit CBC's room during its visit, it just got that much better.

A little history here--we actually have a dog. But it lives at Mormor and Morfar's house. We bought Sprinklers (CBC picked the name) when we lived in Arizona--she's a toy poodle and maybe the dumbest dog I've ever met. Plus, she's afraid of almost everything. So combine an over-enthusiastic CBC and a fearful Sprinklers and you get a lot of shaking and hiding from the dog, and a lot of dragging and pulling from the kid. So when we moved to an apartment in Washington, we asked Morfar and Mormor to keep the dog for us "until we moved into a house." Well, the dog still lives with them and we live in our house. (They are VERY patient and loving grandparents.) CBC misses Sprinklers something fierce, while Superman and I definitely don't. But I do love dogs, so we're working on Superman to see if we can find a labradoodle or a goldenoodle (sp?) that doesn't upset his allergies but has enough energy to keep up with CBC and not drive me crazy. This will be the perfect dog :)

Okay, back to the story. So she loved this puppy that came to play, and came running over to me crying about how she really wants a dog, and gave me an ultimatum--"you can either buy me a dog tomorrow or on my next birthday!" I told her to go ask Superman and see what he says since he's the hold out, which she did. She came running back out to me, still crying, and repeated the ultimatum. I asked her what Superman said. She said, "I can't remember what he said, but it was 'something something no'!" Just about fell over laughing--I'm pretty sure if "no" was included, his intention was definitely no :)

To explain the title of the post--Superman told me later that I needed to wash her sheets because they smelled like puppy. I thought they smelled like little boy, which reminded me of the nursery rhyme about little boys being made of "frogs and snails and puppy dog tails." To add to the funny--Buddy is pretty afraid of dogs, ever since one jumped our fallen fence and came running over to him, and CBC deserted him while running as fast as she could from the attacking monster. But even HE loved that puppy :)