Dreamin....

  

  

Forget smaller feet and bigger boobs. Now at the top of my wish list.....energy!







      

All in a Shower

I remember the frustration of trying to shower when having my first child. A shower was a luxury. But only luxurious in the sense that it didn't happen every day. Because the actual shower was anything but luxurious. It was stressful, rushed, and always unknown as to whether or not you would be able to finish your whole shower routine. Oh how times have changed. If I want to take a shower, guess what? I go and take a shower. For as long as I want. In fact, I often find myself in the shower giving myself a pep talk to get out. To go get other things done. To be productive. And not to mention- to be responsible. Like- go take care of your kids. But in the shower there is no whining, no requests, no refereeing.  It's nothing but peaceful freedom. And that is a hard state to push yourself out of when not obliged.

This was shower time the other day. Baby girl passed out on the floor. Please notice that I did put a nice, cozy blanket down for her that may or may not have been washed since then. But while she rested, it was a clean surface. Half-dressed? Yes. Because in my mind I was like, "Should I shower her or not shower her?"  "Should I change her clothes or leave her in her pj's?" Can you guess the results? No shower and stayed in her pj's all day long. You win some, you lose some. Just like last Saturday when Kaia found herself in the same position- lounging on the bathroom floor. She's all sprawled out on her back. I go to wash the Deeter Bug off and turn around only to find her Supermanning it on her tummy. Kaia did her first roll over. In this case, I was the loser. Add this to the top of the list of "Milestones Mom Missed." I'm sure there are a ton to follow.

 Deeter showered with me and was then left at the Water Park to be entertained while I got ready for the next 15 minutes. And guess where I found his naked booty about 5 minutes after getting him out? Squatted in his bedroom corner. I'm probably jinxing myself by admitting this but I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to clean up poop and probably throw up too. My kids have me spoiled. Deeter better be lucky it was a fresh, easy clean-up!

 And today while the other two were napping, I came down after my shower to this....

Glad that like to play together. And with it being a game of Monopoloy it looks like I might have gotten trapped in the shower for a good 30 minutes. Teach them young to entertain themselves!

I want to share a portion of an email I received the other day. As a preface to understanding the email, a family- a wife, husband, and four children ranging in age from 8-19- in our ward at Church has shown incredible strength, optimism, and faith as they have gone through a bout with cancer the last 10 months. The mom was diagnosed last year and the whole family was an inspiration as they jumped on board and gave their all to do anything and everything they could to fight. She has been very generous in sharing her trial and journey with others. She has requested help through prayers and has paid us back with periodic updates on her small conquers and how her family has dealt with and grown through this experience. The ultimate reward was when she told us she was declared cancer free either in December or January.

Unfortunately, the last email she sent revealed the shock and devastation that cancer is back. The following part is her words:

"I haven't revealed to many of you how grave my condition was/is because I was focusing on the hope that the initial treatment would miraculously do the trick. I will just let you know now that those who have experienced my particular cancer before, at least those who been documented, simply do not survive very long. I have faith that I was healed the first time and have faith that it can happen again...I just might have to work much harder for it. I ask you, no beg you, to remember me in your prayers, as well as Tom, Dax, McKane, Kieran and Asher as we face this frightening, daunting experience together. I want to be around to raise my beautiful kids and I need your faith, your support to help me do it. I will perhaps be bolder in my requests going forward, as there is no longer any time to quietly or silently push my way through this. I never truly felt as if I was "battling" cancer before since I remained free of it throughout my entire treatment. I feel much differently now that I know many little nodes of mutated cells have taken up residence in my gut and are intent on my destruction.I love you all and as always am grateful for your love, prayers, fasts, and words of encouragement. Please keep them coming and please feel free to share this request with others who might be willing to pray on our behalf."

I read the email and immediately felt crushed and my heart went out to her and her family. While I could only sympathize with most of her words, there was one sentence that I could relate to on the most personal, intimate level. And that is where she says, "I want to be around to raise my beautiful kids." And I understand and feel the desperation in that statement as I think this is something ALL mothers share in common. It cut straight to my heart the threat of that being taken away from her. I think we've all been in the situation where we want to do something to help, but don't really know how. If there were anything I could do to grant her this wish, it would take less than a heart beat for me to do it. In this case, she wants and needs prayers and if all I can do is help spread the word, that's what I'll do. So please keep the Andrus family in your prayers. She believes that will make the biggest difference so I will go off of her faith as I pass this request on.

For more on this family, visit http://www.sixintheworld.com/.

sorry about the formatting, i have no idea what's going on. Hope you still grasp the message!

Follow-up Post

I would hate for this story to be keeping anyone up at night, dying of curiosity for an ending, so here the ending is! Less than a week after the flowers were delivered, I received the following note:

"Dear Gabriela,
You are very kind. Thank you for the lovely flowers. It is I who should be sending you flowers in light of my moot boorish behavior. I would enjoy having you and your children over to swim in our pool some afternoon.

Warmly, ..... (with phone #)"

I think the bad blood has evaporated and we're ready to start anew! Do you think it's too soon to ask for my own personal key to the pool?!!

6 yrs ago

We all have those moments or days or events where life changed and would never be the same. For better or worse. 6 years ago today was one of those days in my life. And a good change, in fact a great change it was. After 39 weeks and 3 days of being inside, my little baby was ready to come out. And when he did, it was official- I was a mom. Something that was hard for me to grasp right away. I remember looking down at that sweet little boy in the first hours, days and even weeks of his life, and consciously telling myself, "Ok, this is your son, your boy." The connection was so deep that it was hard for me to wrap my head around it and my mind didn't catch on as quickly as my heart did. I was in church a couple of weeks ago, and someone described what happens when you become a parent. He quoted "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and referred to the end of the story where it says "And what happened then...? Well...in Who-ville they say That the Grinch's small heart Grew three sizes that day!" And my heart did exactly that. I never cared so much about someone or something before. My own life took on a new,  increased value as I needed to be the best I could be to take care of this sweet little man. I wish I could bottle up the intensity of those feelings from the first few months of being a mom and- you know- spray them on like perfume everyday to remind me of the precious people I have in my life. But I'll take the spontaneous moments when they come and hold on to them. Even if those feelings are inspired from my almost 6 year old declaring that he is going to do Spinnaker Flying and me not knowing whether or not this is a time to let him be independent or step in and save him! 

 

Dallin B's arrival  made the front page of the Nationally Recognized (ok that part was a joke) Deseret News. Little did we know that start would just be perfect for his personality. But now we know- this little man likes to be front and center and does very well with the spotlight. Happy Birthday, B! And now that you've grown our hearts by 3, don't break 'em!

The Help

Yes, I added this to the list of books I've read. And ironically enough, I read it while at an all-inclusive resort on the Mexican vacation. So as I read disgusting accounts of "The Help" waiting on lazy white people, I myself was being served pina colodas and coca cola light by the pool boy. A paradoxical setting to be taking in Ms Stockett's novel. But I loved it. And let's be honest, what's not to love. Without spoiling the book for those of you who haven't read it- and here's my plug....GO READ IT you'll love it- I'll just say that it is a thought-provoking book. I was very pleased with the moral that I walked away with. And that was this: find your niche in life and develop it. Be thankful for what natural ambitions/talents/skills/opportunities you've been given and use those to bless the lives of those around you. Often times when I read books, I find myself envying the character who finds them self in a situation with chances that are slim to none of overcoming their given circumstances, but somehow they find a way. Let's be real though, I'm glad I'm not living pay check to pay check with terrible family tragedies to overcome. For now, that's not applicable to me. Or I find myself envying the character that spearheads a movement or something extraordinary like that. And who doesn't dream of executing history-making changes. Unfortunately, the truth is for 99.9% of us, that's not going to be our calling in life. But as I read this book, somehow I was able to look at it from a realistic viewpoint and scale it down to my life and what small influence I could put in to go towards a greater good. It instilled desire for me to view myself in a more organic state and see who I am and what I realistically have to offer. I loved that because I feel like I'm making small changes in my day-to-day life instead of living with a big dream in my head (as I do after reading these type of books) and making absolutely no advances in the direction of change! Miss Skeeter will be my example as that is who I most related with...but I'll take it down a few notches!

If you're anything like me, this book left you wanting more. My friend, Anneli, introduced me to the series "Refiner's Fire" last year and it did not disappoint. It takes place in the Civil War times and confronts the controversial issues of that time period. I pulled from it a new way to love and get through issues that are present in my life. I loved them! Get ready to hide from kids/husbands/friends and stay up way too late reading! Consider yourselves warned!

No Fighting Words Here

Sunday we were about to sit down for a pleasant dinner with friends when the door bell rang. Thinking it was my friend, Christy, I yelled as loud as I could, "COME IN." And when there was no response, I followed it up with an even louder, "COOOMMMMEE INNN!" The door opened and it was not Christy looking back at me. In fact it was a face I had never seen before. I quickly ran to the door, balancing the 4 Cokes I had in my hand, and said, smiling, "Oh sorry, I thought you were my friend." She replied, "No, I'm Lori, your backyard neighbor. I just had to come meet who this loud family was." I laughed and introduced myself, "Oh I'm Gabrielle, nice to meet you." "You guys are so loud. You are the talk of the whole block." I was a little baffled by her sarcasm but relaxed when she asked, "How many kids do you have?" I prepared myself for some of the typical shocked responses as I told her "4." But she only asked their ages. "6 next week, 4 1/2, 1, and 3 months." She quickly concluded, "Well, it must be the 5 year old." I was once again baffled. This lady was not being sarcastic. She was fired up and here to let me know. I was quite confused as I didn't know if there was an isolated incident that got her fired up or if she thinks we are just obnoxiously loud all the time. "Well my kids go to bed around 7:30......." I said and kind of trailed off as I wasn't sure where this was all coming from and even less sure about where it was going. She started in again, "Well, Saturday I'm having an event," right away I was thinking she was switching tones and must have come to invite all the neighbors to her event- whatever that might be, "so if you could just make sure your kids are quiet, especially during the speaker." At that point I looked at her, I'm sure with my jaw on the ground and said, "Are you serious?" with an absolute shocked look on my face. She thinks I have a loud, unruly family and she was solely here to share her disgust and request reform. She affirmed that she was indeed serious and I simply ended the conversation by saying, "Nice to meet you," and closing the door. As you can imagine my blood was boiling as I was trying to digest this 3 minute conversation. I mean who comes to your door and so rudely approaches you? Right away, I concluded that she was off her rocker and lived in the wrong neighborhood if she didn't want to hear kids laughing and playing (and let's be honest, mixed in with periodic screaming!) That being said, I was still pretty offended that someone had such a jaded perception of my family because I knew we weren't anywhere close to as disruptive as she insinuated! As I replayed the incident in my head way too many times, I didn't even have any of those after-the-fact comebacks. Still just simply baffled. Tonight, as I was sitting in my bedroom after having put all the bebes to bed, I heard lots of laughing and chit-chatting coming from the back and was once again reminded of the encounter. I didn't bother looking to see which neighbor it was but I did enter my fantasy world and imagine myself walking up to the hot-and-bothered neighbor's door with a plate of cookies in hand, catching her in the middle of her party, and simply offering a short nicety, "I hope you're enjoying your evening," as I handed her the token of friendship and walked away. Oh if I could ever have the cajones to do something like that! And that is when I remembered "the event." The event that- no, I was not invited to- but was asked to remain quiet during. And then I knew what I could do. No need for a witty comeback during the conversation. The order is already put in- I think she will be left speechless when she receives these:

with a note that says,

"Hope your event goes off without a hitch!

xoxo Your backyard Fiske neighbors"