It's all good if you can laugh at yourself

I think I do very well at being able to laugh at myself. I attempted to make a cake today for my friends son. Well it really was a great effort. Don't mind that it looks like Ethan and Rachel did it. I finished it all up and I looked at it and thought it sort of looked half dog and half dragon. :) Caleb had a brilliant idea to put the 5 candles in its mouth and then light them so it looked like fire was coming out of the dogrens mouth. Very cool idea. SO we put the candles in its mouth and we got to the house where we were secretly taking the cake. The two boys checked it out and started eating it immediately. So we didn't get a chance to light the candles. OH WELL. They had fun eating it. When it comes to artistic or anything that takes crafty skills.................I don't have the touch. But hey I have to give myself some credit. I wasn't afraid to try.

Shrek no longer has a diaper rash

OK so I was working on the computer a couple of days ago and it was just WAY TOO QUIET. I turned around to see what Mayah was doing and this is what I found.....................

She had gotten the diaper rash ointment and was trying to put it on Shrek. She got the lid open but so glad she couldn't squeeze any out. Pretty funny that she is putting it on his back. HILARIOUS.

FIRST DAY WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS

YEAH Rachel can ride a bike with no training wheels. I think she has been ready for quite a while now. She has AMAZING balance. But we just took them off today and she got on and took off like she has been doing it forever. There is one picture that looks like she is about to tip but she didn't. The bike looks pretty small but I think it worked great for her to better balance herself. She was sooooooooooo happy and had to show ALL the neighbors. It was too cool. Here she is. Way to go girl. You are growing up. I am getting very sad just thinking about you heading off to Kindergarten. My babies are growing up. :( Reminds me of my new favorite song. If you listen carefully to the first song on my blog it talks about how we are going to miss the times our kids are small. We are going to miss it even though we may not know it now. I know that I have been told by many to enjoy my kids while they are young because they grow up so fast and they really are. Sometimes I get caught up in the busyness of things and forget to enjoy the kids. This song helps to remind me that I need to enjoy the "moment" because it will sooon be gone. We talked about this on Sunday in Relief Society too. Do you think that lesson was for me or what? Is someone trying to tell me something? :)

FUN DAY

The kids had a blast at the water park today. I took Caleb, Zach, Rachel and Ethan and then Sami and Sara (cousins). I put sun block on everyone but we stayed for four hours and I wish I had brought more with us. It was HOT. But still very fun. I am as red as a lobster and so are the kids. It wasn't easy getting pictures of the older kids. They were off on their own. But here are a few of our fun times today.

TO MOVE OR TO STAY? THAT IS THE QUESTION

So yesterday I saw a house that had just been listed. So Don and I went to check it out yesterday. It was at the end of a culdesac and had .35 acres and had a nice big flat yard for the kids. A couple of the neighbors smiled and waved and they seemed quite nice. We got there at are our scheduled appt. time and waited for the realtor. When he pulled up he said that the house was under contract and that there were about 5 or 6 offers on the house already and it had only been listed for 5 days. WHAT? We drove over an hour to hear this? He ended up showing us the house anway and we LOVED it. The kitchen was to die for. And the price? I have never seen such a beautiful house for such a great price. No wonder it was about ready to sell. Even if the first contract doesn't go through they just start going down the list of names they have until they come to one that qualifies. BUMMER. Well we are now wondering if we should just stay one more year. The school is starting to really work well with us now with Caleb. Caleb had an awesome teacher when he was in 3rd grade and that teacher now teaches fifth grade and Caleb will be in the fifth grade. I am hoping and praying that he will get her if we end up staying. And sometimes it is hard to move when you are fairly familiar with the schools and you feel comfortable in the ward. But we really want to buy a home but maybe just maybe we will stay one more year. Or maybe just maybe we will find an awesome deal on a home like the one we saw yesterday. HMMMMM decisions decisions.

Should I get my hopes up??????

I love putting pictures to my entries but this time I think I will pass and I am sure you will be glad I did. About a week ago I was in the kitchen getting some things done and Caleb yelled my name and told me to HURRY. So Don and I went to check out what all the excitement was. Mayah had gone into the bathroom and taken off her diaper and she pooped on the floor in front of the toilet. She has poop everywhere but I was happy that she was trying to get to the toilet. Every once in awhile she tells me "mommy, potty". So we take off her diaper for her and she runs to the toilet and climbs up there and just sits there. She gets pretty mad when we try to take her off. So we let her stay there for awhile. Well this morning she ran down the stairs and said, "mommy, potty". So I had Caleb help her get her diaper off and again she ran to the toilet and jumped on. She didn't want to get off so I left her in there while I was helping do some last minute stuff to get the kids ready to leave for the bus. Mayah got down all by herself and came running into the kitchen. That is when Zach said, "EWWW what is on her bottom?" I looked at it was poop. I couldn't believe it. Had she gone poop in the toilet? We all ran in there and sure enough she had gone poop but it was beside the toilet. I have NO idea how she managed to get it there but still it seems that she is getting a little bit of an understanding on how to do this. NONE of my other kids have ever had an interest in using the toilet this early. I was the one to encourage them but didn't seem like they cared much. Heck, I just got done potty training Ethan about 2or 3 months ago and he is 3 1/2. Mayah isn't even 2 yet. I would LOVE to have all of my kids potty trained by the end of summer. OH no more diapers. That would be a reason for celebration. So what do ya think? Should I get my hopes up? Is this real? I thought about taking a picture but that thought quickly passed. :)

My beautiful niece

OK she is here and we are all sooooooooooooo very happy. Her name is Ashlyn Emily Evers. She weighed 6 pounds 7 ounces (wish I had a baby that small---mine were almost double that!!!!!!). And she was 19 inches long. Here she is with her whole family. We are so glad you are here Ashlyn. Can't wait to see you in person. I am going to post more pictures once more are taken. Congrats Lori and Brad and Jordan.

SO EXCITING

OK so my sister is in labor today and everyone is so excited and a little anxious. Lori and Brad have a 9 year old boy------Jordan. They had a baby girl in July of 06 but little Allison Hope is an angel now. What a blessing that they are pregnant again after dealing with years of infertility and having another little girl. So any prayers would be great for my sis and her family as they await this new little girl into their family. Everyone is praying for things to go well. I am very sad that I cannot be there. I really HATE missing out on things like this. SO us East coasters (my sister in Springfield and me here) get one thing that NO ONE else does. They have kept the baby's name a secret. But since we cannot be there we were told the "secret name" today and it is very pretty. LOVE IT. SO it shouldn't be too much longer. I will post pictures and name once the baby is here. YEAH.

One of the many reasons I love Don being home!!!!!!

So now that Don has been home for four days the kids are still super attached to him ALL OF THE TIME. I love it. They want to sit by him at dinner. They want to climb on him. They want to sit by him during scriptures. It is great. Really gives me a free leg once in awhile and I am not complaining. Plus the last couple of days Don has been amazingly helpful. He changes diapers without being asked. Normally we take turns but if Mayah is poopy I get the "honors". But Don hasn't said a single word. He just gets Mayah and changes her. It is awesome. So tonight when he was doing "daddy duty" this is what I found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Had to take a picture even though Don said NO. His hands were busy so he had no choice. Don't you just love seeing a daddy change a diaper? I DO. But even better is him changing a diaper with kids crawling on him. HEHEHE

Does your child look more like mom or dad?

Ok so I found this on a friend of a friends blog. I LOVE it. But my poor kids. Caleb, Zach, Rachel, and Ethan look more like ME. And Mayah looks like both of us. Pretty fun but if you take one look at our boys you will see that they are a PUHLMAN big time. Can't mistake them. SO try it out for youself to see who your kids look most like.

Mayah

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Ethan

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genealogy research - Family tree research

Rachel

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genealogy search - Family roots

Caleb

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Zach

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Genealogy search

ANOTHER MOTHER

It is great when you have a super mom but it is even better when you have 2. My mother in law is wonderful and has brought a lot of happiness into our lives. These are the words from DON on the 11 things he loves and admires about his MOM.

1. Dedicated to her children
2. Responsible (when she has a responsibility she does it)
3. Independent
4. Her interaction with the grandkids
5. Thoughtful
6. Very creative (has made all of our kids' scrapbooks)
7. Great cook and goes all out during the holidays
8. Caring (always thinking of others)
9. Committed (no, not in an institution...loves doing her church work)
10.Very helpful
11. Has many talents. She sews, she is a great nurse, she decorates beautiful cakes.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM

My mother is amazing. I am so grateful for her and her strength. She has so many great qualities that people around her admire but that she doesn't see in herself. Since today is May 11, I want to write down 11 things I love and appreciate about my mom.

1. She is a very hard worker.

2. Great organizer (wish you passed that down to me).

3. Honest (I don't think she has EVER told a lie).

4. Obedient (she does what she is supposed to do).

5. Her laugh (it is funny when she can't stop laughing once she gets
started).

6. Knowledge (I am impressed with what she knows about church history).

7. She is very unselfish (she has given our family SO much even though
they have so little).

8. Great talker (she can go on and on and on and on). :)

9. She loves to do things. She enjoys family get togethers)

10. I remember my mom always excited for summer break. It seems that
other moms dreaded having their kids home all summer. She loved having all
six of us home. It was sad for her when we all went back to school. WOW.
What an awesome mom.

11. Last and most important........I love that my mom has a testimony of Jesus
Christ. I am so grateful for her dedication to the gospel. If not for her I
would not be in the church today. Her choices have made a huge difference in
my life... and my kids'. You may never know for many years what influences you
have in your children's lives.



THANKS MOM FOR BEING A WONDERFUL MOTHER AND FOR THE EXAMPLE YOU WERE AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TO ME. HAVE A VERY WONDERFUL AND HAPPY MOTHERS DAY. I LOVE YOU.

Tough boys ready to swim

The kids got new swimming trunks for the summer for when we go to Washington. It is one of their most favorite things to do. My parents live very close to a canal and that is where the kids spend ALOT of their time. So they wanted to show them off to their dad. So here you go Don. Here are your cute handsome tough boys in their matching swimsuits. What do ya think?

my little gardeners

Today we cleaned up the back yard. It was in bad shape. Weeds were growing everywhere and it was a mess. The grass is getting a little long but I couldn't get the lawn mower started. OK DAD. I know you are gonna say something about this. I did everything I could think of except calling you. HMMMMM you got any Z-turns you could loan us? But we did fix the rose bush. We trimmed her all up and tied her to a stick so she would stay in place. Now hopefully we will start to see some pretty roses soon. The kids helped a bit. Rachel loved putting some white rocks under the rose bush and she did a little raking. Ethan kind of just dug some holes. But Mayah worked the hardest. You can see her slaving in the picture above. I should have taken a before and after picture but my hands were so dirty when I thought of taking a before picture and there was no way I was going to stop in the middle of what I was doing to get the camera. I love looking down into the back yard and seeing how clean it looks. Now if I could just get the mower working. May have to wait for Don on that one. We might lose a couple of kids in the grass before that. We were going to plant some flowers but Rachel opened them up and I am not sure where they actually ended up. :)

The RACE

OK so I was trying to decide if I should post this or not. I hope Don doesn't mind. But this is sort of like a journal for me. I want to get it bound at one point and I love this letter. I am so grateful for this blog because it helps me to take more pictures of write down some things that normally I wouldn't write. This is a letter from Don. Caleb was the only one who read it but one day as the kids get just a little older I will show them as well. One thing that I really love about Don is that no matter what happens in his life he gets right back up and keeps fighting.

I felt inspired to write something today about how I have been feeling lately. I have been really hard on myself lately. I look back through all the years of one failure after another and at times get really tired. There are times when I feel that I will never be successful in whatever I try to do. The years of being called lazy, space cadet, unmotivated, stupid and a host of other equally malicious names has taken its toll on my self esteem. But then I have days like today. This is what I wish to write about. This is what I want my kids to read; all of them. This is what I want them to remember about me more than my failures and shortcomings. This is what I hope and pray they will take from me and learn to be the same.
One of my favorite stories, the title for which I cannot recall, is about a young man in a race. I cannot recall exactly how the story goes, but the meaning is really all that matters. You see, this young man is not the strongest among his peers. He is weaker and less skilled than some of them. However, there is one thing that makes him equal to or even stronger than the rest, and that one thing is his spirit. He entered the race and no one figured that he could win. The starting gun went off and the race began. For a while the young man was able to keep up with the crowd of other racers, but soon he was left behind. The young man continued to put his all into winning. Unfortunately, he was working so hard that he ended up tripping from the effort. He fell to the ground, depressed and broken. He could hear the crowd’s gasp as he hit the ground, scraped and injured. For a few seconds he lay there wanting to give up, but then something within him cried and told him to get up and run. By now the runners were far ahead of him with no hope of him catching up. Yet he stood up, proud and resolute, and began to run as fast as he could. Again the young man tripped and fell, even more depressed and broken as before.
By now the crowd was no longer watching the racers at the front. Their attention was transfixed on the young man lying on the ground. Again the young man got up, brushed himself off and began to run as fast as he could. By now the lead racers were crossing the finish line. One by one the rest of the racers crossed the finish line when finally the race was over. The race had its winner; or so they thought. Again the young man tripped and fell, by now bruised, bloody and heartbroken. However, this time the crowd began cheering him on. They called for him to get back up again. The young man stood and looked about him and realized that the race was over. What did he do? Did he quit and say, “Well the race is over, someone won already and there is no use for me to run anymore.”? No! The young man brushed himself off yet again began to run. Finally, sweat pouring from his face, blood dripping from his knees where he had scraped them when he fell, he crossed the finish line. With his head down he lamented that he had failed and lost the race. He was all alone on the track, lost in his sorrow for not winning. He could not hear the crowd cheering for him. He did not see the rest of the racers rushing out to the track to greet him when he finished. It wasn’t until the other racers picked him up and put him on their shoulders that he realized what was going on. He looked around confused and realized that the crowd wasn’t cheering for the one who won the race, they were cheering for him, because he had finished the race.
You see, this was no ordinary race. This wasn’t a race that had just one winner. The only losers in this type of race are those that give up and don’t ‘finish the race.’ This race had multiple winners. Every person that crossed that finish line had won the race. Yes, there were some that had run very fast, some that were more athletic than the others; however, the point of this story is that everyone in this race had given everything they had to finish. They never gave up, and in the end they were all winners. You see, sometimes it is those that suffer the most pain and anguish that receive the greatest response from the crowd. They are the ones that seemed to have every reason to quit, yet they continue to get back up no matter how many times they fall.
There are many stories out there that depict this exact scenario. Movies have been made about those people or teams who appear to have no hope of winning. Sonador was a race horse that had broken her leg. Everyone believed that she should have been put down. However, someone believed in her, her leg healed, and she went on to win a big race. The 1980 U.S. hockey team in the Olympics of that year in Lake Placid New York didn’t have a chance to even win a bronze metal let alone a gold. They were going up against the Russian team who it was believed was unstoppable. They proved everyone wrong by beating the Russians and winning the gold. Rudy Ruteger was a small kid who had dreams of playing football for the College of Notre Dame. He had a learning disability and wasn’t big enough to play college football. Everyone laughed at him when he dreamed of going to Notre Dame. Yet he proved everyone wrong and graduated from Notre Dame with good grades, played football and was the only player in Notre Dame football history to ever be carried off the field by his team mates. On a more personal note, I was told that I probably wouldn’t amount to much in life. I wasn’t very good at school. I was told to forget going to college and try to find a good enough job to at least take care of my family. People say that people who have ADD aren’t able to learn a foreign language or will probably not do too well in college. My victories may not be as big and dramatic as those of Sonador, the U.S. hockey team or Rudy Ruteger. They may never be made into a movie, but to me my victories are gigantic. Look what my dreams and victories have produced. I am married to a wonderful woman whom I love dearly. I have five very beautiful and wonderful children whom I am very proud of. I have a great job using Arabic that I was told it would be impossible to learn.
What I want you kids to learn from this is two things. First, don’t ever give up. No matter how hard things get or how futile it appears to keep fighting, never give up. You may fall down a thousand times in life, you may get so discouraged that you will want to quit, but never give up. If you are the one to finish the race first, that means that you go back and support those who are falling behind. Help and cheer on those who are falling behind. Help them to finish the race. Second, dream big! I have told you before that you can do whatever you want to do in this life. Do not ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. As long as it is a righteous dream and you work hard enough, you can be and do anything that you want. When I look at each of you kids I see potential. I see Caleb’s good heart and kindness, Zachary’s sense of humor and helpful attitude. I see Rachel’s excitement for life and great imagination. I see Ethan’s sense of humor and tenacity. Last but not least I see Mayah’s love and fighting spirit. You all have what it takes to dream big and make it happen. Dream big and never give up and always remember that I love you all.



ReplyReply All Move...

WHAT A LIAR

Ok so maybe that is a harsh way to say it but Don was fibbing the whole time. So Don told me he had to stay an extra 2 weeks and I was so bummed. He told me he was coming home on the 13th but that meant we wouldn't see him for quite awhile because we are leaving on the 11th to go back to Washington state. But he said that I looked too depressed to keep it a secret. So he is really coming home on the 27th of this month. YEAH. Only 26 more days. The time has gone so fast too so I can't wait. Don is too funny. He loves to try to surprise people but he can NEVER keep it a secret. He almost ALWAYS tells before hand. And by the way Don, Sue is really mad at you for making her keep that one a secret and then you go and tell me. HEHEHE. You will never live this one down.