brief bouts of insanity

Despite having another intense wedding week ahead of me, and a 50% chance of precipitation, the HSF and I decided to take all our crazy kids to Red Butte Garden and get some mileage out of my membership yesterday.





I can't be certain but it's possible that I spent the entire time yelling at my kids.  Either I am awesome or they are. Must have something to do with vessels of water large enough for children to fall into.





The poor Gentleman was stuck strapped in the entire time, and he endured it as best he could.



We wrangled the kids out the front entrance just as our sanity reached it's limit. And about 45 seconds later we started getting pelted with hail. I will forever be grateful I didn't have to do that wrangling during the hailstorm. Tender mercy? I think yes.

Christos Anesti

Dang, good day.



We woke the kiddos up before the sun so we could attend Mr Renn's niece's baby blessing. It was kind of a bumpy way to start an Easter Sunday, but it bought us a half-hour when we got home wherein we could find hidden baskets and psych ourselves up for our impending 2 hours in nursery. (We had 17 kids yesterday, it was wild)





Then the traditional shin-dig at my Grandmother's house. We call her G.G. (for Great Grandma, it seems to be sticking).





Where my brother made a BIG announcement. I love it when a day ends with family, cake and ultrasounds.

The Bunny Hop

We are wrapping up Easter preparations in our corner today.  Towards the last second I decided we ought to go ahead and color eggs.  At this point I figure I'm more likely to regret skipping it than not.



The boys were surpisingly good and the mess, while certainly existent, was far less impressive than I was expecting.  It must have something to do with having Dad around.  The man's got some familial leadership skills.



I also pulled together an egg-shaped centerpiece comprised largely of leftover flowers from the funeral piece I did earlier this week.  The yellow roses weren't happy, but hopefully they have it in them to last 1 more day.

young people and old people

Today is my mom's birthday.
And Sir O has inherited my celebratory gene.



So he spent much of this morning drawing pictures of birthday cakes and presents for her.
Which inevitably led to a desire to bake her a birthday cake.
So I let him try his hand at a boxed cake mix. (A little lumpy, but passable)
And I let him spread the frosting. (A little lumpy, but passable)



Then when I went to write "happy birthday" on the top, he protested.  So instead he dictated what ought to go on top.  We found ourselves with a tricycle, push scooter, skateboard scooter, motorcycle, and car.



Oh yeah, happy birthday Grandma.  This is surely the birthday cake of your dreams.



Good thing there were other presents up our sleeves.



I hope nobody expects to unwrap their own presents around here.  It just doesn't happen.

forging through

In our corner we're having one of those weeks where mom is lucky if she manages to check a single item off her list by the end of the day.  And since today was already a near-total loss, and I had to wake all my boys up from naps in order to drop my little sister off at a rehearsal, I sort of decided that we ought to go hang out at Arctic Circle and have ice cream cones in the middle of the afternoon.

We had the place to ourselves, and we averted disaster until toward the end when the boys decided to eat their ice cream cones before they were actually finished with their ice cream.

Bedhead, anyone?

Not bad for under $1.50
The entertainment alone was worth twice that.

Homecoming/Passover

Mr Renn's parents survived a trip home from Argentina this weekend.  We're almost half-way through 4 years of having them gone October-April serving a mission for our church.   I think Grandma was pretty anxious to get here and hold some babies.  She hadn't held our gentleman since he was just a few weeks old, and Mr Renn's little sister just had a baby girl a few weeks ago.



So we found an excuse to have a family party post-haste.  Mr Renn's been wanting to re-create the passover meal we participated in last year, and his brother-in-law has a master's degree in Hebrew studies.  So we organized ourselves, divided assignments, and went for it.  I give props to everyone for being willing to try new things.



Although some were more excited about it than others.



Afterward we skyped Mr Renn's sister in Michigan and felt like we were "sort of" all together for a minute.



Then Grandma and Grandpa pulled out some fun surprises - little Argentinian futbol uniforms! (Which both of my boys insisted on wearing today despite the cold and rainy weather).



It was a good, good way to wrap up an otherwise crazy weekend. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins and loving on their grandparents. It is good to have them back.

Weekend Recap: put a fork in me

An awful lot had to happen to get me through the last 7 days. I am still decompressing a bit.

On Wednesday I had to pull some strings and ask a few favors in order to pick up my first "order" from the wholesaler. Then I had to pull some more strings to drive back and pick up the parts of my order they forgot the first time. That's called learning the hard way to double check everything before you drive home.



I got everything soaking in a hydraplus solution and got my workstation set up. I then spent most of Thursday gluing corsages and boutonnieres. (And making a mess of my mother's basement)



I made 4 bouquets, 9 boutonnieres, and 4 corsages. Written like that it doesn't sound like much, but it took a fair number of hours for me to get them done, thanks in large part to interruptions from my littles. (It's okay, that's my full-time, all-the-time job)



I spent Thursday night helping to set up a church gym. I got home super late.





And Friday I woke up to Sir O puking. That is always a lovely way to start one's day. Luckily all I had left for the wedding was finishing touches, and the actual reception. I may have eaten a cakeball or twelve after forgetting to eat dinner. (Hmm..... that sounds good right about now)







Friday was also the day we realized my antibiotics for fighting my sinus infection were also giving our gentleman thrush. Just to complicate my life, really.



Saturday has meant gluing ribbon on the flowers for the temple ceremony/pictures, completing two arrangements for a charity auction, seeing my little sister off on her first date/prom, cleaning up the unholy mess I had made, and attending said auction/carnival. My kids consumed their weight in sugar. And were hilarious and happy until bedtime. Bedtime was sort of like wrestling greased pigs into bed.





This little man attempted his first night in a twin bed tonight.  He makes me laugh every single day.  I wish everyone were so lucky.

the tale of two chicks

There are a great many side-effects involved in being a veterinarian's daughter.  Most of them lead to tragicomedy.  From birth I've been privy to snippet's of my dad's conversations with others about responsible animal care, and occasionally been a listener when he needed to rant about people who really shouldn't have pets.  Not to mention the stream of foster-pets throughout my childhood.  All of this led to me thinking I know more than I do about the ethics of animal stewardship.

I'm full of hot air, folks.

In one instance this led me to attempt to rescue a skunk that had been hit by a car.  Luckily I failed.  But the story has been told and retold so many times that when my little sister brought it up the other day it had evolved into multiple instances, multiple skunks, and a desecrated car trunk.  Heaven help us all.

Most recently I opened my mouth to make sure Nicole Gerulat had a good home in mind for the chicks she had purchased for this shoot:

AND, when she did not, I had to take it upon myself to find them one.  A good one - with someone who actually knows how to keep chicks alive and is committed to the long-term baggage that comes with taking care of them.  Luckily I know some people.  Less luckily, they were out of town until yesterday.  So we found ourselves (um, meaning myself) with some chicks to take care of for almost a week.  

(Because, you know, I need more small dependent beings relying on me for all the basic elements of their survival.  {We're up to 37 sprouts and 3 small boys if anyone was counting}  All this right before the weekend of my first wedding.  Clearly I am insane people.)  

Luckily the chicks did fine.  They ate a lot, pooped a lot, and made a lot of noise.  They also decided that their feathers needed to come in, pronto.  Molting?  Awesome.  They now look like this:

And are happily situated with their new mom:

And in a few months they will be hanging out with these ladies:

Sir O was pretty bummed about losing them.  Luckily they live just down the road and we can visit whenever we want.  There will even be lambs to visit in May.  Consolation?  He was allowed to gather the chicken eggs, and now thinks he wants to live on a farm permanently.