Monday, May 30, 2016

Memorial Day 2016

We went to Ft. Desoto's north beach. Steven got us situated then took Dylan and Isaac on a long bike ride to the  fort and huge flag. We ended up joining the Ross family's birthday party. The 4 Ross brothers and their families cooked hot dogs for us. It was a good day. Then we said goodbye to Jerika and Caden Scott who are moving on in their travels with "Exploring the Homeland." 

Monday, May 23, 2016

Everett's 1st Birthday

What a party! Happy 1st Birthday, #everetttiger !! 🐯 You are now finally allowed to go to ni' night. 😴 You partied hard! You will have your pictures by your actual birthday :) You're so cute!!! 😘

That's what I accidentally posted on Instagram. 
The party was perfect. So much fun! I have always thought someone should do a party there. I wanted to have a family reunion there. The wild and jungle animal prints theme was so cool. So many details!! 

Sunday, May 22, 2016

thoughts

We did silly office team building activity day where the team building facilitator met us at a park and directed us through a couple of activities. One let the team learn about perspective and many people reflected on that and had ah ha experiences because of that. I had one where was something really had to work together and it meant to be about perspective, but in the middle of it, she us stop and think about our role in what we were doing and think about if that was basically the normal role that we played in the office. I realized that I think that my way is the best way to often. I talk the talk talk that I know there are lots of ways to do something, but internally I still seem to think that my way is the best way and not only that, I feel the need to get in there and do it myself. My intentions are good, but I think I really just need to let go. It really doesn't matter if everybody's happy. Some people are quite content not being happy. And they are fine with not getting along with others and they're fine with not being happy at all. I had just done a team building thing myself the previous Tuesday where I worked through the MGE tone scale and went from telling them how I was irritated after he went home from work and said to going through all of the tones with the various attitudes, until I got to the highest tone of enthusiasm and self reliant etc. I had purchased little pull back school buses for everybody and pretended I was Oprah and jumped up and said and you get a bus, and you get a bus, and you get a bus! And now I just feel dumb. Because in the park team building activity, I realized that I was the one sitting down putting the puzzle together and obviously letting other people help etc., but when I noticed people sitting out, I asked if they wanted to switch places and instead of just leaving to allow them to do so, I felt the need to see it through and finish. But now I see I think that I hurt somebody's feelings, and I think I could've helped somebody else get their hands dirty and been able to take a leadership role. It's a struggle between caring too much and just doing my own role.

At work, I see the boss about to fire somebody so I spread cheer and write love notes and give compliments and give ideas on how we can see eachothers' perspectives etc. I get involved making sure not to gossip and just be encouraging and tell people to go talk to the person who they think is not happy with them etc. I tell them that if ever I don't understand Dr. Brayer, I go talk to her and see that her intentions are good, for example.

I think that taking over the morning meeting and doing it my way probably offended the leaders. That's not good. I think my Gille side comes out. My Grandpa Gille used to say "Stand back. Let me show you how it's done." I thought that was awesome taking initiative and getting things done and being efficient. But it's really okay if things aren't efficient! And maybe they need to learn things on their own. And maybe my way is only the right for me. Anyway. I'm going to stop caring so much.

I just posted this: Sometimes I forget to post pictures. This was my field day - an office team building afternoon at the park. Lots of eye-opening games with a good facilitator who let us do our own self discovery. I liked breaking into small groups to discuss how the games related to our roles at the office. Sometimes I have a hard time letting people do things their own way. I am reminded of the story of my great grandpa Gille who said "Stand back, let me show you how it's done." He would show other people a more efficient way of doing things. My dad and his siblings think how wonderful that is - that they aren't afraid to dive in and get dirty and use their brains to accept a challenge while making it an efficient game. I think I have that Gille gene. It's not always an attractive one. So I'm going to try hard to not spill out my ideas at work. I have basically said "stand back. let me show you how it's done" in trying to be fun and efficient and make things a big game that we'll win while learning how to be efficient so we can move on to the next exciting challenge. I'm annoying. If others want to take leadership roles, great, if not, that's fine too. And there are a million ways to lead. People are content without me. They have their own priorities and that's what makes life so cool. Differences. All of our perspectives are important. I have been humbled and appreciate others but it's going to be SO hard because I have ideas in my head right now and can easily get carried away. It's just so fun to have a good time with these people!

My baby girl is growing up

Julia has been ready to potty train for like a year it feels. So I'm really doing it. With me, no diapers. I ran out! (Not really.) the diaper bag was out of them when I went to change her diaper at violin so I told her we were out. Julia found one at home. It wax a dry used one. So she slept in it. The next day, it was wet, so it went in the trash. Julia went to drop off the boys, a volunteer breakfast, then to drop off tyler before she had to go potty. We went to Grandpa's house and she went potty. Then she lasted all of field day. She went potty in her potty chair then took a nap. Dry. Steven found a diaper for her while I went to a team building thingy at work but it came off, dry, when I got home. She slept in s diaper and wire one with Steven on Saturday, but none all day today! We woke up before the sun did and went to the beach to cheer Steven on. He did the swim in a triathlon relay. Julia fell asleep in the sling on the long walk back to the car and stayed dry and sleeping until we got to church. (We had gone home to put church clothes on but she took the sacrament in her swimsuit.) I took her potty and put her dress on and and re-stocked the bathrooms with toilet paper. (The Gladys Knight show was the night before.) she went to nursery with no diaper and took a nap and stayed dry and went to Everett's party and played and played and went potty there twice. She even let Steven take her! So now she is nursing and napping on me. I love it. I feel like she is growing up just fine. She speaks really well, sings, even knows face body parts in Spanish, leaves her pacifiers in her bed, and I am not quite ready to give up nursing. I nourish her. My energy flies to her. We love it. It is hippy or weird or something to mist, but to me, it's more than natural, it is life-giving, healthy, binding, cute, and amazing that I even still have milk and that she loves it still. 

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Florida Orchestra In The Park

Steven did it again. He planned a picnic in the park.
We have never been to an event at Curtis Hickson Park. He got croissants and egg salad, chips and pretzels. He bought me a new camping (soccer sidelines) chair that came in handy.
After awful traffic, we landed a dream parking spot and created an un-crowded place for our picnic. Beautiful weather and happy kids made it such a good outing complete with fireworks. 

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Mom's Day Weekend

Julia looks up to her #bigbrothers and happily climbs up to join them.
After watching Mowgli run through the trees in The Jungle Book movie, my boys busted out of the van and literally ran up our tree, shedding clothes and shoes between branches. Then they helped their baby sister. #socute Steven grilled dinner, @irisjewels brought over gelato, Steven did all of the dishes, and I looked through Lightroom and Photoshop. Did I mention My @igtrophyhusband took the day off to give me a day to myself? I slept in until 9, he did the carpooling and I made myself some appointments, talked to customer support, ordered a new cloud storage hard drive, looked through my Click magazine,
took Julia for a jog where I ran into @genoj62 and chatted a bit,
played with pictures, cleared a pile of papers, and smiled. Steven tried his hardest to get me to get a massage but I refused to leave my productive relaxing day...
Until he took us on a family date to the new fancy theater to see this movie.
Now you know my day. And how I have the best family ever :)👫👨👨👧👧

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Tyler's Talk

Tyler did such a good job on this dress rehearsal so let's pretend this is how it went :)
He came up with the examples of what I taught him and with the little rhyme which was probably from a song he learned at preschool. He had me draw a happy face for "Happy Mother's Day," a finger pointing so he could tell everyone that I am his mom because I stood next to him and he wanted to point that out. I taped a family photo next so he would remember to say that God gave him a family. Under that, I drew a stick figure walking and he drew the legs on a dog that I drew. I drew music notes since I hoped he would sing that part. The last icon in the column was a heart so he would tell everyone he loves me before closing in Jesus' name :) 
In church, 3 of my kids wanted to go up to sing. Since one of them was Julia, we convinced Tyler to go with her. Neither of those two babies of mine sang: Tyler pursed his lips together the whole time and Julia rocked her pacifier.
Dylan gave the scripture in Primary since the assigned girl declined. Tyler stood up there to give his talk and finally whispered one line. 
Then I and 6 other moms were spotlighted and the kids had to guess which mom was behind the partition. I stumped them :) Julia gave me earrings her nursery leader's daughter made me. 
I had delicious left over pizza and a nap. 
#happymothersday #ilovemymom @vickibinstp is not here since she is visiting other kids and grandkids. Sad for me. Her mom is not with her either for the first time since she is with her mom and grandma. I sure am thankful for the plan of salvation and that We have a forever family! Happy for all 😊🌸