The Gene Pool

(that's him on the left...he wasn't so gray when I left home, must have been the younger kids that did that to him)

My dad is a creature of habit. Seriously, you could tell time by dad's unfaltering routine. He gets up at some ridiculously early hour of the morning...like 4:30 or something. Then he has the whole exercise routine that takes probably over an hour and then at least an hour of scripture study/prayer and then we'd all have breakfast and then he'd run upstairs, brush his teeth, give everyone around the table a kiss (or a handshake in one particular case :) ) and then he'd leave for work. He always called mom on his lunch break...ALWAYS! He always was home by 5:30..we'd line up for high pushes on the swing (that hung from a tree that is no longer there) and then he'd go in, change his clothes talk to mom and we'd have dinner. His days, weeks, months are all planned out and executed with exactness. He's an engineer...he can't help it! But I have to admit I admire his discipline. I remember practicing piano with dad in the other room in the mornings studying his scriptures. I wonder if he ever read/wrote in time with the music. I am certain that obnoxious songs ran through his head all day...but he still did it. There was no excuse for missing any part of the routine...vacations, holidays, sick days, snow days...nothin'! I think the first time I ever remember dad not completing the routine was probably the day he ended up in the hospital...that was a strange phone call! Dad, in the hospital? Of his own free will??

This is part of my gene pool. I like order, I like to have a specific time to do things so I always know what I'm supposed to be (but obviously NOT) doing. My schedule goes something like this: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I get up around 5:45, go downstairs and do the treadmill for 45 minutes while I watch one episode of Desperate Housewives. Tuesdays and Thursdays I sleep in a little and then do 1/2 an hour of WII active. Then I come upstairs, make breakfast and lunches. I get the kids up and start getting everyone ready for the day. After I take the kids to school, I shower and study. Then the rest of the day can begin. I used to do laundry on Mondays, bathrooms on Thursdays and a complete pick up and clean floors on Fridays. I used to always go to story hour on Thursday mornings...see, I got the gene that makes me want to schedule everything. The gene that I missed is the one that makes me actually do it. I am SO good at talking myself out of doing the things that I should be doing. The conversation goes like this: "GoodSelf, you need to get those bathrooms cleaned today". "BadSelf: I will." An hour later Good Self: "What are you going to do about those bathrooms?" Bad Self: "I'll get there, just gonna check facebook, email, blogs first" Good Self "You checked everything you can possibly check, now go do the bathrooms!" Bad Self "Why bother, no one is coming to visit this weekend...I cleaned them two weeks ago...they aren't so bad!" Good Self "good point...where else can we waste time?" It happens with the laundry too...and cleaning the house and pretty much all the chores I don't enjoy doing. It's a problem for me. My dad who never took a sick day until after like 20+ years with the company...me, I feel a little tickle in my throat and I don't have to get up an exercise 'cause I'm sick!

yeah, I got the compulsion to plan--thanks daddio, I just lack the discipline!

Don't you just LOVE it?

I was just thinking about our kite flying experience. I'm not the kind of mom who takes the kids all over town. We mostly hang out around our neighborhood...why not there is like a hundred other kids to play with! Anyway...every once in a while I get the notion to "be a cool mom" and do something out of the ordinary with my kids, like flying kites. I get it on the brain that this is going to be a great time. We are all going to have fun. Everything is going to just be perfect. In my mind, the sun is shining, and the kids are laughing. I envision them running up to me and telling me how much fun this is and what an awesome mom I am. I think, "Cool. This is going to be great. We'll bond and we'll be a better family for it!"
Then we begin the activity...whatever it is...and not 10 minutes into it I'm thinking, "What happened?" The kids are fighting, the sky gray, the stupid kites won't fly...whatever! Then what i thought was going to be this great experience ends up like a really bad dream.

WHY IS THAT?

and then last night chris had to work late so we got some hamburgers and watched a movie before bed. And those kids, those very same ones from the kite experience, all want to sit on my lap. They all want to snuggle next to me...and for the first time in his entire life, Payton gave me an unsolicited kiss on the cheek!

KIDS!

Let's Go Fly A Kite

payton enjoying the fresh air (and the last few sucks of the binky)

So the kids got some new kites for easter...they were a dollar at wal-mart. Jaxon got Storm Shadow (from GI Joe), Jayden got Bumblebee (from Transformers) and Kenzie got a barbie kite. So one afternoon they wanted to go fly them. It was really cold outside and looked like it might rain, but we headed over to the school anyway to give it a try. OH MY GOSH! I think total flight time we got up to like 15 minutes combined! I kept telling jayden that he couldn't fly his kite by everyone else...they needed to all spread out or they would get tangled.

jaxon brought his friend and they took turns flying his kite

Shortly after that, Barbie...who had been just fine starts having drama and won't stay up in the air. There was plenty of wind but she just kept crashing. I was trying to help Barbie get off the ground when Jaxon starts yelling that he's having problems. I turn around and see Bumblebee and Storm Shadow fighting in the sky. Jayden hadn't listened to me and had tried to hang out with jaxon and his friend, but had got the two kites all tangled up.

While I left kenz to figure out the barbie drama, to help jaxon and jayden, kenzie decides she's done with barbie drama and tries to throw the kite away. The wind keeps whipping the kites around so that the tangle is just getting worse. that was the quitting point for me...
Kenzie took barbie, I took payton, jayden ran ahead and jaxon dragged bumblebee and storm shadow home......
as we left the field, big ol' cold rain drops started to fall. Yep, it was that kind of experience!

Easter Morning

Payton scoping out his easter basket...and adding to it!


kenzie getting out her stuff






new ties

new dress
trying out the new bubbles

we had a great easter...we did the traditional jelly bean hunt (laree has all those pictures). we colored eggs and we found easter baskets. we rolled our eggs down the hill and we had an easter egg hunt at grandmas....and we got to listen to conference and enjoy the LaPierre side of the family for the weekend! (thanks for coming, guys...we had such a blast with you all here!)