The Birth of A Teenager

Maybe it's because I remember my own feelings of teenage angst. Maybe it's because the sight and sound of teenagers in public throngs always annoys me. Maybe it's because most people I know say things like, "Just wait until you have teenagers." For whatever reason, I have spent quite a bit of my parenting life worrying and dreading the day my own sons become these terrible things.

Now, I officially have one. A teenager. And I find him delightful.

He certainly can be annoying and troubling and worrisome but no more than his six month, two or seven year-old self ever was. Turns out, I really enjoy the almost adult conversations I get to have with him and his sense of humor and his actually helpful and not secretly slowing me down help.

I'm sure that there will be bumps along the road but I'm so relieved that I have a teenager and I still really like him. All that worry was for nothing. I'm sincerely looking forward to these next five years and I'm going to do my very best to enjoy every day. From the way things have already progressed, I know they'll be gone in a flash.

Now, to remember Seth as a brand new thirteen year old.

He:

• loves the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team and especially Kevin Durant (he thinks they must have a lot in common because they are both so skinny)
• is constantly shooting "air" shots. It's not even consciously done. 
• Wears a size 10 shoe
• Is 5 ft 8 inches
• consistently makes the school honor roll (although he should get straight As if he would only remember to turn in all of his assignments!!!!)
• is horribly unorganized and quite messy 
• wears braces
• wants to be a basketball player in the NBA when he grows up
• designs custom basketball shoes for fun on nike.com
• torments his brothers
• prefers milkshakes and pancakes above all
• has been battling athletes foot since November (bleech)
• enjoys scouts and YM
• doesn't grumble too much about piano anymore
• likes to watch NBA game time
• doesn't know a lot of music but likes The Script's Hall of Fame featuring Will.I.am
• has run a mile in 6:18 and is hoping for a faster time during this spring's track season
• likes his social studies and video yearbook classes best.

Yes Day Activities Included: 

Lunch at Denny's.  The morning was really slow and I was worried that he wasn't going to have a fun  birthday because there didn't seem to be anything he wanted to do. Finally, I convinced to go on a date with me for lunch because I promised him pancakes.  Unfortunately, for me, the place I had in mind didn't serve their breakfast menu items after 11 so we ended up at Dennys, which was fine with him.

When we got to our driveway, which is 0.2 miles long, Seth asked me if he could drive. It is a scary, scary thing to be in the passenger seat when your child is driving and we never went faster than 5 miles an hour. You just don't know if they know or will forget about that brake pedal! I'm glad we live out in the boonies so he can do stuff like this and it's not too dangerous. 

Grandpa came over in the afternoon to deliver a birthday card from him and Grandma. I love that Seth gets to be close to his grandparents.

What he really wanted was to play basketball. I had sort of forced Sam to go play with him earlier (Sam hates to play with Seth because Seth cannot stop himself from taunting Sam and telling him what to do so Sam inevitably walks away).  Finally, I got in my sneakers and challenged him to a game. I'm so bad! It's hard to believe I played 2 years in high school.

I can't even look up when I dribble.

You can see the difficulty I had playing defense. I had to watch out for more than just Seth's dribble.

I did get a few good shots off.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Foul!

Fouled him back.

Poor Seth...having to play with his mom.

We got an ice cream cake and Seth wanted to light his own candles.

You can't tell but those candles are in the shape of the KD logo

Good lookin' kid! Ahem...teen.

Doing double duty with my photo taking.

Seth got cards from his grandparents, brother and us. He shows the appropriate amount of enthusiasm when opening each one.

Because this, the thing which enables him to purchase more basketball paraphernalia, was usually inside.

Sam wrote a sweet card.

He got KD Nike Elite socks. I would venture a guess that he owns more socks than any other 13 year old boy on the globe.

He also got a fathead for his room.

Go thunder.  Yes...Seth is kissing his massive bicep.

Peekabo!

Dinner at Abblebees (this was such a nice, easy yes day for me)

Above everything else, he wanted to play basketball at the church on his birthday. We even made sure to be back from Utah in time for him to play. He loves gathering with these men each Thursday night and has improved a great deal by playing with them. I appreciate their willingness to let him play with them and not take it too hard (or easy) on him.

Happy 13th Birthday, Seth!  I love you!

12 of 12 - April

I did not remember 12 of 12 on the 12th until about 3 pm. So, these are not great pictures because many are simply "this is what I did" pictures to capture the chronology of the day. One of these months, I'm going to do this the right way!

I woke up feeling motivated to eat better than I've been eating and thought a refresher read of this book, which is pretty good, might help. I skimmed it for 15 minutes or so and remembered that it is hard.

Still, I went grocery shopping with motivation intact and didn't buy foods that I consistently say are for my kids (oreos) and then eat them myself (animal crackers).

The vast majority of the day, which is probably why I didn't think to take any pictures until 3 pm was because we finally spent time on our yard.  I have taken the past 2 years off (pregnancy and newborn phases) and our grass and trees were in sorry shape. Jay was Mr. Lumberjack and was chainsawing the trees along the driveway that hang too low and the boys and I raked and pruned all day long.

I had a major battle on my hands when I insisted on piano practice. Spring break meant many practice free days in a row and none of enjoyed me being the enforcer once again.

My healthy eating plan included getting some ground turkey out of the freezer to make taco salad for dinner.

This boy loved being outside all day but still managed to find a bit of fun inside. He is making the "vroom" sound of cars.

The FedEx guy dropped off a tank of bull semen in a tank of liquid nitrogen. Of course, Jay wasn't home at the time and I'm like, "What do I do with this?"

Long days and bad habits meant the ground turkey went into the fridge for dinner the next day and Sam, Henry, Daniel and I went to Serious Texas for dinner. Hunger, fatigue and healthy eating aren't always friends in my world.

Jay took Seth to his first PG-13 theater movie - 42.  He's seen a few at home with us but we thought it'd be fun to celebrate his new status by taking him to a decent movie on the big screen. Of course, if he goes, that means our baby sitter goes too so only one of us could go so Jay kept me in the loop with a few texts before the movie started. Sam will be old enough to watch everyone at night in a year. 

During Daniel and Henry's bath time, I noticed Henry saying, "Dammit, dammit, dammit" over and over. I've heard him say, "Damn" once before and talked to him about using good language over swearing (he's seven!!!) but apparently this word has gotten into his brain. So, I told him I wanted him to have a negative association with swearing and if I hear him using unclean language, he was going to get a teaspoon of hot sauce on his tongue. This would not be punishment for me because I love this stuff but it was quite a wrestle before I managed to get that little bit past his clenched teeth. His lips tingled for awhile but he was never in pain. I don't even think Cholula is that hot compared to other hot sauces. Anyways, he's the first kid I've had to discipline over swearing. Daniel still isn't really speaking and now I fear Dammit will be his first word!

OK.  That's only 10 pictures.  Considering how many over 12 I posted last month, I'm working on the law of averages here, I guess.

Israel Souvenirs

I realized as I prepared for the Holy Land fireside I presented last week that I never posted the pics of what I bought. I also realized I never posted pictures of some of the places we stopped at that didn't fit into any post (like the Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, which might be one of the most incredible and haunting places I have ever visited) or follow up stories about the group. Well, I won't trouble with the group post because as funny or irritating as certain tour member's quirks were, it's rather snarky to poke fun at other people (even as I write this...my fingers are twitching to share the harmonica playing/garage band sharing/break out into a solo in a church just because scenes with one particular member but I won't. Gah!) but I will include an update on the low talking married couple because there was a lot interest in them.

They went home. When they both chose to stay behind at the hotel rather than ride a boat on the Sea of Galilee, I felt so annoyed at their young, ignorant choices. The next day, when we drove down through the West Bank and stopped at the baptismal site of Christ, WHICH HAD ONLY BEEN REOPENED TO THE PUBLIC FOR TWO YEARS, they stayed on the bus, and quietly sang to each other while sharing a pair of headphones. I may have rolled my eyes while simultaneously wanting to slap them for not getting the bigger picture. That night, they hired a car to take them back to Tel Aviv from the Dead Sea and flew back to Utah 5 days early, missing the Jerusalem stop completely. What our tour guide explained was that the husband suffered from extreme homesickness and it was his first time away from home. I'm not sure how old he was but she admitted during a group game to being born in 1995, making her 17 unless her birthday had already happened in early January. The trip was a wedding/honeymoon present from her mom and after lots of calls between the parents and the tour guides, the decision was made to send them home and both seemed a lot happier after that. Moral of the story is: DO NOT buy an expensive tour to the Holy Land with a choir for you child and her new husband without knowing if he suffers from extreme homesickness.  It makes my head hurt thinking of all that expense and missed experiences but I wish them all the best.

Now, onto my purchases. I knew I wanted an olive wood nativity so tried my best to stay out of the shops until I had found a nativity. I did o.k. I found a few things I thought the boys would like here and there and got pictures of them all except a panoramic poster of Jerusalem for Henry (he loves maps and posters and pinned it to his wall right away). Without further ado:

Here is my nativity.  It is much larger than what I thought I'd get but they just kept talking me into bigger and more intricately carved sets once they got their hooks in me. Ultimately, I wanted an heirloom set that I'd love for the next 50 years and splurged. Even with the "50% discount" they insisted they were giving our group, I still spent $750 on it. I know. I'm tacky by talking money. Dowager Countess of Grantham would be horrified that I am mentioning prices in polite society but, who knows, maybe in 50 years, that will seem like a steal. Plus, I had no idea how much nativities cost when I started looking and was a little shell shocked at their cost. You can find some really cheap looking ones for around $100 but there are also some mighty grand ones for thousands of dollars. Consider my tackiness a public service announcement.





The reason I liked it so much is because it had an extra shepherd, and I already told you how enamored I am with the shepherd of the nativity after visiting Bethlehem and Shepherd's field, but I also liked it because it included a woman. There is no doubt in my mind after learning so much about life during Christ's time and Judaism that there would have been a woman present at Jesus's birth. Someone would have been there to help Mary. She probably wasn't holding a bowl on her head, but maybe she was carrying hot water. I will never need a wood creche as a backdrop because after seeing where he was born, I believe it happened in a cave. So, when I see a nativity inside a hollowed out rock, then I will be tempted to get the extra piece, but, in the meantime, all I want are the figures.




In addition to the nativity, I really wanted a beautiful olive wood carving that showed Peter and Christ on the Sea of Galilee. Christ was standing on top of the water but Peter was half submerged and both were extending their hands out to each other. I love this scripture story and Peter's faith, then doubt, then Christ's mercy and help and would have loved to get that as well but it was $450 and I was definitely out of spending money.  I found this picture online. It isn't mine.


I wish my table were in better condition or I had thought to put a table cloth on to hide the embarrassing lack of varnish. Oh well.  My furniture is not perfect.




I bought these beautiful blue opal earrings after shaking off the diamond jewelry saleslady in Tiberias. She really didn't seem to get that I didn't have thousands of dollars to spend on gemstone jewelry but seemed pleased when I finally said I could afford these for $40.  It's probably done on purpose and they are not even worth $40 but after looking at so many things out of my price range, they lead you to this kitschy room on the way out that has affordable things. Most anyone who purchased anything did so in this room, although a few people did buy the pricey stuff. One man bought a loose diamond. Fancy.




I bought Jay and myself some camel leather sandals because I was inspired to emulate Jesus down to his footwear. These were super cheap and only cost $15 each. They even put a cigarette lighter up to the shoe to show it was real leather! Jay's sandals are the picture above and mine are below.







Getting something for Seth stumped me. I thought about some arab headwear but it never seemed to be available when I thought of it so when I saw this shirt, I thought, "Perfect." They had them in the old royal BYU blue but it was just a silk screen so I asked for a navy t-shirt instead.




I got Sam a David's sling.




Daniel got this stuffed lamb. It "baaa"s.




I also bought these books that have pictures and drawings of the places we visited.

I brought this back for Patty to thank her for all her help in watching Daniel for three days. I have the best sister-in-law and my kids have the best aunt! I really liked these more contemporary carvings that left the images faceless. Reminds me of Willow Tree and seems more reverent, somehow.&nbsp


Sorry, weird catch up post!