A Shift in Our Kaleidoscope

We have recently been given an amazing opportunity to re-evaluate our lives and determine what is really important.

Working with the PDI program had a bit of that effect on us over the past few years. I would come home after hearing the horrible things the women I talked to had gone through and suddenly any problems in my life didn't seem quite as big a deal.

We are now dealing with something that has allowed us to even more of a chance to condense our lives. And you know what? Nothing is really all that important except the people you love. I don't give a crap if I have piles of baby clothes in the corner of my bedroom (at least they are folded and in boxes) or if the kids' toys haven't been sorted or if the kitchen counter has a million papers on it (it's amazing how fast they collect with four kids in school). I would rather hold Laura and play games with Eva on the computer. Or lie on the playroom floor helping Kylie with her homework while Rob sits next to me playing on the computer and the other kids play around us. I don't care if we all get to bed on time every night because I would rather load everyone in the car in their pjs at 9pm to go get frosties from Wendy's, making sure to put on songs we can all sing along to on the way. Granted the kids get cranky if I do that too much on school nights.

I saw a quote the other day that said "being healthy is simply dying at the slowest rate". My first thought was "well that's a depressing way of looking at things!" Life can change in an instant though. You never know what's around the corner. So I will treasure the good relationships in my life. I will make time for my kids and make sure they know I love them. I will go on dates with Rob and spend every second I can talking to him. I will make time now for the important friendships in my life.

When I was working with the girls' youth group at our church, one mother made a comment that really changed the way I look at things. We ended up cancelling an activity one week for some reason. She thanked us, stating that she was glad we would cancel it rather than try to throw something together. She said that there was so much going on in her kids' lives that she didn't want to waste time taking them to activities that weren't important.

I guess that's sort of how I'm feeling now. If I'm going to give up spending time with Rob and my children, it's going to be for a good reason. Our kaleidoscope has shifted and we are looking at things differently now. I've quoted this before, but I really like the way he puts it - "There comes a time in life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. So, love the people who treat you right. Think good thoughts for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is part of LIFE...Getting back up is LIVING...Have a great life." - JJ. Cohen

Quirks

We always know when Megan's really upset about something because she carries on a conversation with herself very loudly in her room, explaining to the walls why the situation is unfair.

Jack's current favorite phrase is "didn't see that coming!" As in "time to get in the car and go to school!" "Didn't see that coming!" or "pack up your bags for school tomorrow" "Didn't see that coming!"

Kylie: Dad, you're like what? 30? 40?
Rob: Almost 38.
Kylie: So you only have like ten years to go and then you're dead.

Jack spotted me with a clay mask on my face.
Jack: What is that?
Meg: Mud.
Me: Clay.
Jack: It looks like bird poop.

Beth's current favorite phrase is a combination of good grief and holy cow. She says "holy grief!"

One of Eva's favorite movies is the most recently released version of the Lorax. It includes quite a few songs, which Eva has memorized. She now randomly bursts into song throughout the day, especially when we are driving, singing "na na na na!" Her second favorite song is Jingle Bells, which she also sings multiple times a day without any provocation.

Laura has figured out how to crawl, but she hasn't figured out that she can crawl to me when she wants me. She'll scoot around the room (albeit slowly), then decide she's tired of playing, so she collapses on her tummy and fusses until I come get her.

Eva has very little patience with stop lights. When I stop at one, she pipes up from her carseat "GO!" I explain to her that the light is red and I have cars in front of me, but that is not a good enough reason for stopping according to her.

Quote for the day ~
God grant me a vacation to make bearable what I can't change, a friend to make it funny, and the wisdom to never get my knickers in a knot because it solves nothing and makes me walk funny :)

Favorite Movies

My top five favorite movies are:
Amelie
Steel Magnolias
When Harry Met Sally
Life is Beautiful
The Man Who Knew Too Little

Others I really like:
Down with Love
Anne of Green Gables
Play It Again, Sam (best ending EVER)
Hunger Games
Beaches

Rob says he has twenty movies in his top ten. When we compiled it, it turned out there were only ten (if you count a series as one). They are as follows, in no particular order:
Serenity/Firefly (technically a tv show, but he counts it)
The Twilight Samurai
Seven Samurai
Lord of the Rings
Lonesome Dove
The original three Star Wars (unchanged)
Big Fish
Silverado
Indiana Jones
Trinity


These didn't quite make the cut, but they are up there ~
Play It Again Sam
Annie Hall
Love and Death
The Usual Suspects
Cinema Paradiso
What's Up Doc
Clue
The Pink Panther (with Peter Sellers)
Braveheart
Saving Private Ryan
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Princess Bride
Groundhog Day
What About Bob
The Man Who Knew Too Little
Shawshank Redemption
The Hidden Blade
The Three/Four Musketeers (Rob says "the GOOD version", meaning the one with Michael Yorke)
Band of Brothers
13th Warrior
The Wild Bunch
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Spirited Away
Tron

Beth

In the past week, Beth lost 3 teeth. The first was by accident, caused by being voluntarily pulled around the floor by a scarf held by her teeth. The second was pulled out deliberately, using a blanket to repeat the scarf experience. The third fell out while she was eating pizza at school on Thursday. I don't think we'll be serving corn on the cob or anything that requires front teeth anytime soon!

Beth has decided she is very interested in photography. She kidnapped the camera and practiced taking pictures. Here are a few of her favorite masterpieces ~

Kylie and Laura

Beth's wall stickers

Meg on the computer

Eva and Laura

Laura

Eva

Meeting Newton

First a random shot of Jack. He wanted to look at the pictures on the camera, but I had just emptied it, so we took one of him.

Kiki came over for dinner last night and brought a guest, Newton, her new telescope! After dinner and Family Home Evening, it was finally dark enough to use Newton (we forgot to factor in daylight savings time, so it was a bit later than we planned). It was pretty chilly out, so Rob offered to stay home with Laura, who was napping.

Kiki and I climbed in the car with the other 5 kids and we headed off to the playground at the front of our subdivision as there were less lights and more visible sky. We had planned to look at the comet or the moon, but the comet was too close to the horizon to see and the moon wasn't up yet. We looked at Jupiter instead.

6 Months Old!!!

I know this is over a week late, but one of the cats spilled water on my computer and it stopped working for a bit.

Laura is 6 months old! I can't believe she is already that old! She is scooting around, both forward and backwards. She doesn't quite crawl yet; she moves one knee forward, then the other, they launches herself forward. One of my favorite things to watch is when she's on my lap and sees something she wants. She squirms until she's facing it, pushes herself up on her tummy over my leg, then launches herself off onto her face. It cracks us up every time! She is not crazy about baby food, but loves to eat foods that she can hold and put in her mouth on her own like cheerios and animal crackers. She is usually a very happy baby and smiles at everyone. She has the cutest smile and we get lots of comments saying Laura's smile made someone's day :)

I took lots of pictures. I usually try to pick just a few, but she's so cute that I couldn't narrow them down as much as usual :)

Eva, of course, needed to be in the photos. Yes, Eva is wearing a diaper. She has decided she doesn't like underwear. She still goes #2 on the toilet though, so I'm not arguing!

Laura decided she had sat still and smiled for long enough and she took off . . . 

Interview/Internship Update

I was waiting until things were more set in stone, but people keep asking me how things went (yay for having supportive people in my life who care about me!), so I thought I'd provide an update.

A long time ago I made a list (albeit a very short one) of places I wanted to do my internships at. One was the Sante' Center for Healing, an inpatient treatment facility about 15 minutes from our house. The other was LifeSTAR Dallas, which is a treatment program for couples. LifeSTAR is about 40 minutes away from us if we are not driving during rush hour.

I waited to contact the locations until after I had my letters of recommendation because I have very little experience to list on my resume and a resume with nothing much on it does not usually cause potential internship sites to swoon over interns. I spoke to one of my professors shortly after getting my second letter of recommendation and he asked who I was contacting. Thirty minutes later I got an email from him saying he had called Sante' on my behalf and was waiting to hear back from them! A few hours later he emailed me the contact information for the head of HR! I was blown away that he would do that for me :)

I contacted Sante' and was told they didn't think they currently had an opening for an intern, but they would let me know.

I also contacted Mark Bird at LifeSTAR. I was a bit intimidated by contacting him as I've quoted him in several papers and projects. He is awesome! Anyway, he got back to me within a few hours and wanted to set up a meeting. We met a few days later. The interview went really well I think! He is going to talk to his business partner about having me do my internship with them :) He worked at Sante' for several years before starting LifeSTAR Dallas. When he learned that I had contacted them as well, he said he'd talk to his contacts there to see if I might be able to do some of my hours there! If this all works out, I'd be doing my internships at BOTH of my top two choices, including working with Dr. Bird, who I am starstruck by! I'm waiting to hear back and will update when I know for sure what is happening :)

Anyway, so that was Friday. The following Wednesday was PDI (the prostitution thing I volunteer for once a month) night for March. It was slow for an hour or two, so several of the volunteers got to talk for a while. The upcoming John School came up. The prostitutes aren't the only ones who are picked up by PDI. The johns are too. They are made to attend an educational program that teaches them about things like human trafficking and sexual addiction. They pay for it and the funds are used to help pay for treatment for the prostitutes. I found out that the lecture on sexual addiction was being given by Pennie Johnson, who works with Patrick Carnes. For those of you who do not know who Patrick Carnes is, he is the father of sexual addiction studies. There is an award for the therapist that has been most influential in that field. It is named the Patrick Carnes award. He is definitely the big kahuna! I asked if I could go listen to the lecture. Renee', who is awesome and never gets annoyed by me getting all excited about things like this, not only told me I was welcome, but said she'd introduce me to Pennie Johnson!

Rob got all excited for me when I told him and happily agreed to hang out at home with the kids on Saturday so I could go. He is awesome too :) So, I headed into Dallas on Saturday. Renee' not only introduced me to Pennie, but also said all sorts of nice things about me to her and the three of us ended up talking for quite a while. I listened to the lecture, taking lots of notes and learning tons of stuff. Pennie talked to me afterwards and offered to work with me and teach me how to give presentations on sexual addiction!!!

Then the day was made even more unforgettable because the power went out and Renee' and two other women were stuck in the elevator for an hour until the fire department finally got there and pried the doors open.

It blows me away by how many people are willing to help me! It validates to me that we are, in fact, making the right choice and this is where I need to be. Both Rob and I know that I am supposed to pursue this and things like everything that has happened over the past two weeks reinforces our belief. I am so blessed by the people in my life!

PDI

The program I volunteer with was on the news last night. They are expanding the DNA database nationally and are trying to pass a bill that will mandate PDI programs in TX cities with populations over 200,000. Yay for more individuals being offered the tools to escape the sex trade! Below is a link to the story. I was there, but fortunately was not on camera :)

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20130306-dallas-county-pushes-prostitution-diversion-as-model-for-state.ece

Open House Times 4

School open houses were not designed for parents with four children in the same school. The kids had their open house Tuesday night. We managed to make it to Megan's 30 minute long choir concert, Kylie's "living library" presentation, and all four classrooms . . . in one hour.

One of our first stops was the display board at the front of the school. One paper from each grade was picked to be displayed. Megan's paper was the one picked for 5th grade!

Next was Megan's choir concert. This was her final concert for the year. She did an awesome job! She's in the second row from the back, the fourth from the right. 

We stopped by the art room to check out the tiles each child made as part of the school fundraiser. We had planned to buy them, but didn't have time to go get out cash (we almost never carry it), so we settled for pictures.

Beth painted a zebra ~

Jack's tile was a green owl ~

Megan imitated Georgia O'Keefe's style, using a poppy as her subject ~

Kylie chose a bird ~

The next stop was Kylie's presentation. Every year the 3rd grade does a "living library" project. Each child picks a person who has made a difference in the world. They spend several weeks studying their person and end with dressing up and inviting their families in to see what they've studied. Kylie picked Annie Oakley, who showed that women could do the same things men could do. Plus she was a cowgirl, so she was awesome :)

Then we headed over to Jack's neck of the woods to see what he'd been up to. He showed us his locker ~

And his desk, complete with a life-sized self portrait ~

And his paper on display in the hallway ~

Beth's classroom was next. We saw her paper on display in the hallway. It talked about her fond memories of making a cake with me every Christmas. I don't remember ever making a cake for Christmas, but I'm glad it was a good memory!

Beth showed us her locker, which she shared with her BFF Maiya until Maiya moved in December. Beth left Maiya's name up on the locker though.

We checked out Beth's desk. Rather than a self portrait like Jack, Beth's class did presidents. Beth picked George Washington.

"George" came home with us and now sits in my chair at the table when I'm not using it.

Our last stop was Megan's desk ~

Then we walked home and crashed. Fortunately this will be the last time we have four in the same school. The most we'll have in one school from now on is three, although I'm betting having three in high school at once will make life interesting with all the extra activities!

And a few other pictures . . .

Kylie is really into making forts. Eva loves helping her, although, to Kylie's chagrin, Eva also enjoys knocking them down. I snapped a few photos of Kylie, Eva, and Laura in their forts between destruction sessions. 

Beth with her very favorite Dora doll, who is now old enough and loved enough that she looks like she has some sort of wasting disease. Oh, well. According to Margery Williams (the author of "The Velveteen Rabbit"), Dora should be real by now. I wonder if we can get her to do chores . . . 

Beth entertained both Eva and Laura while I was making dinner the other day. The three of them made a car out of a box and happily "drove" around the kitchen floor.

One last photo . . . Eva insists on napping next to Laura each day. They even hold hands in their sleep :) I don't think there is anything as beautiful as a sleeping baby, except two sleeping babies holding hands as they sleep :)