Sunday Walk on the Beach

Our family on Sunday evening at Pacific Beach in San Diego. This is 35 minutes from our house. (Without traffic!)



We went to Ryan and Julie's house (cousins) for Sunday dinner, and then we took a stroll at Pacific Beach at sunset. I can't believe we've lived here for 7 months and we've never done this!! (Probably because our kids ended up going to bed way too late that night!)

But it was still so gorgeous and so much fun.

The kids were just running around with their cousin, Sam, the whole time.

Sophie took a few minutes to warm up to wanting to get down from daddy's arms. The water was practically warm compared to what it is in the winter. (65 degrees compared to 59)

So the real question is, is San Diego worth the insane home prices, gas prices, and everything prices in exchange for this? I think it's all relative with how much money you make, and if you have family close by. So for us, it's great to live here while Trent's in school, but probably not for long after that.

SAHM Again!

When they ask me at work, "Why are you leaving?" The answer is simple. I will point to these three pictures.

I will be officially leaving my part-time job on August 6. I'm so excited! Which is strange because when I first got my job in March, I really liked it and I enjoyed the breaks it gave me in the mornings to step outside the home. (It was my first paid job in over 6 years.) But now that I've been doing it for over 5 months, now that Trent has a full-time job, and now that our student loans are finally coming, I'm happy about returning home.

Sophie is growing so fast each day, I miss her terribly, even though I get home by 1pm. Sometimes when I'm sitting at my desk, I imagine her walking around the corner with her pudgy, tanned arms outstretched to me and her unruly blonde curls, and I get all choked up! When I told them my time was up here and I wanted to return home to my kids, they asked me how much I would need to be making per hour to make it worth it. (They knew my daycare costs were the large majority of my paycheck. ) I told them $20/ hour, partly in jest because what company in their right mind would pay an HR Receptionist $20/hour and also because even if they offered that, I still wouldn't stay. Pretty much no amount of money would compensate for missing out on the 17th month of Sophie's life. Or the 42nd month of Hailey's life. Those months can never be re-lived. Once they are lived, they are gone for eternity. Why should my daycare provider get to see those moments, and not me? (Even though Shauna is amazing, like a sister to me, and my girls adore her--they always want her to hold them at church!) But she's still not ME!!

Working the few short months I did was nice because Trent didn't have a job for the first little while, and then I stayed because of the possiblity of helping Trent get a job at the same company. Now that he's working elsewhere at a good place for him, I can leave.

Money will always be there. Or NOT be there. Money is just money. My children's lives are my children's lives. The same children that I was blessed to give birth to, given the trust to raise them, and teach them, and love them. It's not hard to see which one is more important.

Of course we need occasional breaks from our children--a night out with girlfriends, dates with our husbands, or working out a few times a week alone. Even a special hobby we can work on a little each day. All these things make us better moms. But those quiet (or CHAOTIC) mornings when my husband is at work, and I am at home being my kids' mom (as Dr. Laura would say), are the moments that will get me all bleary-eyed when I'm 60 years old, and admiring my clean house and my quiet house, and missing them terribly.

(Unless of course, I'm like my parents, and every few months another one of my kids comes to live with me and brings their kids with them, so I get to see them and my grandkids every single day!)

Sometimes Kids Do Listen

Well, a couple months ago I posted about how difficult it was for me to convince Cory to do reverent, quiet activities on Sunday and how we've been teaching all our kids about how to keep the Sabbath Day holy. Hailey has been setting a very good example and telling Cory good things we can do on Sunday that will make Jesus happy and how we shouldn't play with our friends outside. It's been really cute to listen to her "preach" to him.

Anyway, so about 3 or 4 weeks ago, his friend came knocking at our door (even though we've told her in the past we don't play with friends on Sunday--I think she keeps "forgetting.") And I was in the kitchen getting lunch cleaned up and I heard Cory say, "I can't play on Sunday, but I can play on Monday!" And then he shut the door. I came out with my jaw dropped. I asked him what he just said and he told me and I just went up and gave him a hug and told him how proud I was of him for making that decision. I didn't make a big deal of it. I didn't even mention it again after that. (When you praise Cory too much or make a big deal with him, it seems to backfire.) So ever since then, he has stayed inside on Sundays. If he goes outside at all on Sundays(which is very tempting living here and how it's still been in the low 70's all summer), it's because he asked if we could go on a family walk or sit outside or something of that sort. Which we do, of course.
So I figured this would be a one-time thing, but pretty much every Sunday for the last month, he's been not playing with his friend outside. Before, when he would sneak outside to play, we wouldn't yell at him or punish him, we would just ask him if what he was doing would make Jesus happy and leave it at that.

I guess setting a good example, giving constant love, and consistent gentle reminders and lessons actually works!

Mothers Day Pictures

I finally have a kid with curly hair!



Sophie was not cooperating for these pictures. She kept running away.

Hailey and Cory were cooperating just great.

Sophie was happy at first.

Then....not so happy.

Happy again, but running away.

The Workplace vs. The Home

I have been working part-time now for 2 months. I really enjoy it. I get projects done, I'm learning new things, I'm remembering computer skills that I haven't dealt with for over 6 years. It's a very good company I work for, with a beautiful work setting and buildings. Anyway, it's all good.

I'm always amazed how happy people are every single Friday. It's a "Happy Friday!" here and a "Thanks goodness it's Friday!" there, etc, etc. They say things like, "This week's been exhausting, I can't wait to get some sleep!" Or, I'm so glad I can just relax this weekend or go to this restaurant or see this movie or go to this show or whatever it may be.

Well, a huge part of this may be the fact that I only work 25 hours a week, not 40 like everyone else here. BUT I don't look forward to the weekend NEARLY as much as everyone else, it seems. First of all, the term "sleeping in" whether it's on a weekend or not, left my vocabulary on Nov. 24, 2003 when Cory was born. And things like "getting away" and "having a fun night out" pretty much left my vocabulary as soon as we moved to San Diego where we don't have family to babysit our kids so we can go on dates. The going rates for babysitters (if you have 3 kids) is $12/hour here. Okay, so we've been out ONCE in 4 months.

Also, what exactly is relaxing about a weekend anyway? Is it our plan to purchase, cut, and hang 5 window blinds tomorrow? Or the fact that we're planning on making homemade pizza to feed the missionaries tomorrow night? And cleaning our whole house?

Or no, maybe it's Sunday, where we get to sleep in until 7am (during the week I wake up at 5:30 on the days I go running, 6:30 on the days I don't go running), frantically get 3 tired kids out the door for 9 am church, after preparing my primary lesson late Saturday night and gathering all my materials, object lessons, and treats for my 8-9 year-olds that I teach. Then attending choir on Sunday afternoon, only to be followed by trying to entertain my children by doing activities in the Friend, singing songs, playing games, reading books, and providing endless hours of stimulating, yet reverent Sunday entertainment in order to keep the Sabbath Day holy and try to keep them from wanting to play soccer outside with the neighbor kid. (Which lately, btw, I have been failing miserably at.) Why is it so physically (not spiritually or emotionally), but PHYSICALLY exhausting trying to get your kids to keep the Sabbath day holy?

Maybe because Cory's idea of a "regular day" is going to Sea World, the beach, the pool, or going to the park and playing soccer with mom for an hour, followed by a rousing kite-flying session with Hailey, followed by an exploration/walk with Sophie around our neighborhood, followed by playing with them outside until 7pm. So Cory's idea of a "down" day is maybe taking out one of those activities. He is so incredibly active and has so much energy that Sundays are SUCH a struggle. He actually does really well (now that he's 6) to sit still and make it through 3 hours of church. Mostly because his best friend, Spencer, is in his class. But after those 3 hours, he can barely sit down to eat lunch much less be expected to reverantly watch a movie (HA!) or quietly play games or read or do other appropriate Sunday activities. Seriously, am I expecting too much from him? Do I wait until he's almost baptized to really start stressing the importance of the Sabbath Day? See, I don't think I should wait, because children can learn when they're very young, but there is a reason they get baptized when they're 8, and not 6.

SO back to my point. What is more draining--emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Being at work where I get PAID, recognized for good work, and get to engage in competent, adult conversation? Or being a mother in the home, attempting to provide an emotionally, spiritually, physically-enriching environment, while at the same time providing healthy meals with lots of variety, a clean living environment, (which includes spraying Lysol on my kitchen tile counters 3 times a day to keep the darn fruit flies away-gross! We keep our doors open pretty much all the time here) and providing intellectually-stimulating lessons--all while engaging in a regular exercise regime, paying the bills, clipping coupons, dealing with occasional sick kids, teething babies, and nightly homework. Well, all I can say, is at least I love my children and Sophie is so dang funny (and adorable with her leg rolls), because that job is not paid. Well, at least not temporally paid anyway.

I do love my kids and being a mother, I'm just saying if people here can say "Happy Friday", then I think on Mondays I'm going to start saying "Happy Monday!"

Easter

Cory looking for Easter eggs around the house.



Sophie on Easter morning.



Hailey looking for eggs.




Don't you love Hailey's Diego pajamas? She is so girly and everything has to be pink or purple--except when it comes to wearing Cory's old pajamas. She loves these.




Cory at the nearby rec center's Easter Egg hunt on Saturday morning.

Sophie really understood that she needed to pick up those eggs! The kids had been having mock Easter egg hunts at our house all week, so she had good practice!

This is the kids before the egg hunt. (Hence the not too happy faces.)

March Fun

This is at the Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Town San Diego. I (Karen) was at work when the rest of them went there. My parents came to visit for my dad's 70th birthday. My sister, Annette, came too with her 3 boys. (Her husband, Frank, is deployed in Afghanistan right now and so she's living with my parents in AZ.)


This is Hailey's very excited face about seeing the walrus at Sea World.




Sophie still likes to get the sand a little too close to her mouth. This is at La Jolla Shores beach. March 17, 2009




Cory and his cousin, Caleb Bigelow at the beach.




These dolphins were out in the water. We had never seen them in the wild like this before. It was pretty neat.

All of us that went to Sea World. Yes, even Grandpa went down this water roller coaster ride with us called "Journey to Atlantis." Annette and Caleb were in the front seat, so they got pretty soaked! Grandma stayed behind with 4 children under the age of 3. I'd say she's the brave one!

Sophie (13 mos.) just chillin in a big 'ole rocking chair.