I Had NO idea (Bee)

'I had no idea'...How often do we say that?  The more I've been thinking about it the more I realize I say it quite a bit.  The other day I wrote about my husband for his Birthday tribute.  It was all about the many 'I had no ideas' since marrying him.  After that post I've had so many other things come to mind.  So that's why I think I'll be writing some 'I had no idea' posts every now and then.

Just the other night we were at the last game of the season for my son's Basketball team.  I happened to get this great picture.

This is my daughter and her friend in the sombrero.  Gracia...lovingly called "Garcia" by some.  Aren't they cute?  And guess what?  'I had no idea' they would ever be at a Hillcrest boys basketball game together! Futhermore they played girls basket ball together too.  See, here's the scoop... Gracia's mom and I met over 28 years ago at the very same school, and became lifelong friends in the process.

Bee (short for Billi Jo ) and I met when I was only 14 and she was 15.  We both attended a Christian boarding school in MN.  I lived at home and she in the dorm.  She spent many an hour at my house eating popcorn, drinking Diet Coke and watching our favorite show ever ...Magnum P.I.!  Oh Tom Selleck how we loved you!!!  Bee was like family...in fact when Bee's parents would drive to town for a visit, they would come over to our house.  The more popcorn the better was my mom's mantra.

Here's my mom on the right holding our dog Herbie, and Bee's mom Grace...hanging out on our (horrendous) floral couch.  In defense of the couch it was 1985 ish...so I guess it was cool.  Kind of like Tom Selleck's super short khaki shorts.

This is Paul...Bee's husband..the day he graduated from seminary.  (that's my mom in the background...I'm sure she'll LOVE this picture)  You see this story is even more interesting.  My dad and Paul graduted together from seminary that day.  We were all friends and had known Paul for years as he was a dean at our school .  I HAD NO IDEA WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT...



Bee and Paul tied the knot!!! (a few years later) ....I was so happy to be a bridesmaid on that lovely September day.  Bee was also the maid of honor at my wedding the previous November.  I really had no idea... :) 

Here's Bee and me at a party before her sister's wedding.  That's a whole other post for another day too.  You see Bee's sister Missi is also one of my lifelong friends...and her kids and my kids also know each other and play sports together.  I had no idea...

In this picture I'm pregnant with our first baby (see the Baby name book)  Never mind my hair.  Can you say 1990, spiral perm? (I had NO idea hair could ever be so ugly)  I had my first child 2 days before her Birthday.  Her first child was born the day after my Birthday.  Our second children are only 3 days apart!!! And our two daughters are 2 months apart.  We still laugh at how that happened.  (Of course Bee was a bit braver than I...she ended up having 2 more kids squeezed in for a total of 5 versus my 3)

Here's Bee with Kiki our first daughter at about 4 months old.  I love looking back on all these fun pictures and saying "Wow, I had NO idea"  No idea that at age 14 and 15 we'd go through school together, drive out to CA and live there together, be in each others weddings, have children at nearly the same times.  I had no idea we'd visit each other often and laugh until we were in pain.  Literally in pain!  We still do!!  I had no idea that one day a couple of our kids could graduate together from the same highschool we did. 

I'm so thankful for the people God has placed in my life.  Today I'm thinking of Bee...but there are just so many.  I may not have had any idea what this friendship would mean for all my life...but God sure did.  He had all the right ideas.  If you're reading this Bee....I want you to come over for some popcorn, Diet Coke and a little hunky Tom Selleck OK?  xo

Home- learnin' aint too bad

Our son Dboy who is 16 and a sophmore this year likes to tell people that he's "home-learned" by his mama when asked about school.  He also says it in this really bad hillbilly type accent.  (can you hear the banjos in the background?)  He apparently has his father's sense of humor. 

We do have people ask us frequently why we've chosen to homeschool so I've made a really
short list and posted a few pictures that convey some of the reasons we homeschool.

Reason 1. 

 The heavy lifting power I now have at my disposal is priceless!  You can tell from the look on his face that he's so EXCITED to be our pack mule.  I know it's 'teaching' him all kinds of important life lessons.  (his dad is behind him with the cattle prod)

Reason 2.

Store bought bread is beneath us, and all kids need a good dose of Home Economics.  She has her own really cute orange apron so she feels special while doing the family baking.  (notice there is no cattle prod in this picture)  I'm standing just outside the frame with the whip.

 



Reason 3.

Well what did you think dishwashers were for?  PARENTS?  Ha!!  We start them on the dishwasher before they are weaned.  Rockstar and I figured that with three kids we'll have been able to avoid the dishwasher for about 28  years total.   When they all leave home we're just going to use paper plates and our fingers. 






So there you have it.  Our homeschool philosophy.  It's all about what's BEST for the KIDS.  If you want to know some other reasons why we homeschool I have posted a tab on the homepage.  It's not required reading, so there will be no testing.  (See I slip into that teacher mode real easily)  Well, I better get busy...I have to warm up that cattle prod...there's bread to be baked and some heavy hauling to be done.  Education is important. 

Sweet Feet (NOT)

"It smells like feet in here!!"  My family is just used to me blurting this out.  That or other versions of the same phrase...."Gross, I smell feet."   "FEEEET"   "I smell feet again people!!" I'm not sure why I think I smell feet so often. Well, actually  no, I DO know why.... it could have something to do with the gym bag collection that gets left in the front entry.  This habit makes me so crazy I've been known to literally foam at the mouth and start things on fire with my death ray vision.  You know how weight lifters have those big veins that pop out of their arms, and necks...?  Yeah, well I'm pretty sure if you looked at my neck closely you'd think I was up for the Mrs. Schwarzenegger pageant.  When we were kids my brothers and I knew if moms' lower teeth showed ('the fangs') we had about 10 seconds until detonation.  When my kids see the neck vein, the foam, and the couch cushions smoldering....they know...."Uh oh. Mom smells feet!" Gross?  Yes.  Very gross.  We are big sports people around here...plus we have a family membership at the Y.  So gym bags, well, they are just part of life.  I have nothing against the bags.  In fact I love a blue Nike gym bag as much as some of my purses. (ok, that might be a stretch)   I just don't like said Nike bags in my entry.  Where they smell.  Like FEET!  I'm hoping that my children work harder at breaking this habit.  It's getting quite expensive to replace the couch cushions and my neck hurts.

The days of Superman & Elmo

I know that I'm not having any more babies. I've known that for quite some time obviously.  However I still wax nostalgic every now and then of the years gone by with my kids.  The days when I loved to kiss their chubby feet, and rock them to sleep while they made those cute little chipmunk squeaks.   The other day I happened to be in the baby aisle at the store for some reason.  I think I got lost while looking for the papertowels when suddenly I saw it.  The bright pink bottle.  I cracked it open and took a long whiff.  Ahhhh Baby Magic.  Suddenly I wanted to buy a cart full of Pampers and a 3 pack of Onesies.  I resisted, but I did buy a trial size of the lotion.  I don't know what possessed me, but it's kind of fun to see it in my purse now.

I loved the days of Superman and Elmo jammies.  The days when the tub was full of boats, squirt guns, and rubber duckies.  I wish I could have known how fast the time would go.  I might have enjoyed the splashing more.  I don't know about the flooding though.  I mean honestly, the amount of water that would end up on the floor was staggering.  There is nothing quite like snuggling with your freshly scrubbed children though.  Their noses so pink and shiny.  Their damp heads against your chest while you sing favorite songs and read favorite stories.  In our house daddy always did the final tucking in.  Usually there would be some squealing too.  A decent goodnight tickle by dad was just as important as the singing and stories.  Even as teenagers daddy still does the final tucking in.  There isn't so much tickling anymore...but every once in a while an arm wrestling challenge is issued and Dboy and dad head to the table.  Much to Dboy's dismay his dad sufficiently whoops him everytime.  Much jeering and hollering ensues.  This has replaced our stories and singing...but that's ok, I'm kind of tired of Good Night Moon.  We'll break it out for the grandkids one day and it will seem like a new story once again. 

No one wears Superman, or Elmo jammies in our house anymore.  No one needs a rubber duckie or toy boat in the tub.  None of them can sit on my lap without causing me to let out an "uff da you're heavy".  Their feet aren't so cute and chubby anymore...and I certainly don't feel like kissing them.  But...if they wanted to use some of that Baby Magic in my purse I might consider it. 

Life's Glasses

I haven't been doing this blog business for long now.  In fact this is only my 4th post in case you've been following.  I got to thinking today that before I blogged much more I should introduce you to someone.  I know him as Babe, Babycakes, Darlin', and a few other names that I'll just keep between us. (and trust me, you're glad for that)  You know him as Rockstar Hubs (RH)  I do call him this as well sometimes.  Like when I see him display amazing feats of strength with pickle jars, and especially when he gets his vacuum groove on.  Now that's HOT!  So why Rockstar?  Well first of all it sounds much cooler than Stoic Norwegian Hubs.  Right? I mean c'mon that ain't exactly sexy.  No offense to the Norwegians out there.  Obviously I'm married to one.  A pure bred 100%  UFF DA Viking man.  And for the record he is the epitome of sexy to me...but that's not where I'm taking this post so relax.  This isn't the adult blogging channel.

When we got married 22 years ago we had our rose colored glasses on like every other couple I assume who gets married.  We were going to live the fairytale. Minus the glass slipper...how uncomfortable is that?  And for those of you who know me better, also know that my parents owned several women's shoe stores for most of my life, so there was NO way I'd be caught in something like that.  Anyway...rose colored glasses...yes, they were intact on that cold day in November.

As life would have it for all people on this planet the rosey picture has had it's less than pink hue some days.  When we were married about 3 years we had our first daughter A, whom we call Ki Ki.  She was and still is the most lovely, beautiful child.  Oh the love love love....she was our WHOLE world.  We jumped into first time parenting with abandon.  There was no moment unaccounted for. Every smile, coo, and burp was admired as the 8th wonder of the world.  And for a time our glasses weren't just rosey they were downright MAUVE.  (It was the 90's remember, mauve was big)

Our Ki Ki at age 4

We noticed some things were "off" around age 2.  She could count in perfect Spanish and yet not seem to follow through on a simple command to get her sippy cup.  She could recognize her letters, numbers and colors, and yet wouldn't make eye contact with us.  She seemed to be in her own world.  Indeed she was....we were told at age 3 that she had a high functioning form of autism.  NO...NO..not our child.  Not our perfect, gentle, sweet first born baby.  Our glasses were no longer mauve, nor even rosey, they seemed pretty grey.  Cold.  Dirty. And very ill fitting.  I wanted to rip them off actually and scream "This is NOT the fairytale!!!"  I want the glass slipper!!  Really I'll wear it...I don't care if my toes turn purple...just make my baby ok.

Rockstar Husband was born that day.  I may have wanted to stay in the grey for a while but my rockstar said no.  He reminded me first of all who our God is.  And that with our God nothing is impossible.  NO thing.  So together we cleaned our dirty glasses, pushed them back up on our faces and focused on to see more clearly.  Our Ki Ki is nearly 20 years old today.  I cannot begin to tell you in this one post all of the many many things we've gone through.  The times of pure joy and elation and some points of severe sadness and grieving.  I also cannot begin to tell you in this one post how big our amazing God is.  I will tell that story one day.  For now just believe me when I say NOTHING is impossible with Him.  It's truer than any true thing.  The miraculous ways in which He has restored her when "they" said she will  'never be'...never be this...and never be that.... We would always leave those meetings and ask the question again...'What does God say?' And His answer was always different, and He proved it time and time again as she conquered this...and conquered that.  Rockstar, he was the optician in all of this.  Kept my glasses on, kept them polished, and helped to bring the rosey color back. 

   Worldly Rockstar status is sought after by so many, but not attainable for most.   Rockstars are the be all and end all of the "good life".  Women, booze, drugs, and a rock and roll band...every man's dream right?  Not my rockstar...he's one for all the other reasons...not women , just woman, one woman.  He doesn't even like the smell of beer, and Advil is his pain killer of choice.  And while he loves a great Van Halen song as much as any good 80's person should, he kinda likes Need To Breathe these days and a little TobyMac.  We've had two more children, the rockstar and I.  We've moved more times than I care to remember.  We've been broke...like dirt down in the mud busted broke.  We've argued until 3:00 in the morning.  We've given each other the silent treatment for far too long sometimes.  And we have shared thousands of hugs, millions of kisses, and trillions of laughs with each other.  I know what he's thinking when he gives me this certain look in the kitchen.  I know what he means when he sends me a text that just says "moo".  (and it's not that he thinks I'm a cow) Even I, who love to joke, would not find that funny.  He is a rockstar every day when he goes and works his ever livin' tail off so I can teach our kids at home. He is a rockstar when I've putzed around on the computer too long, and asks if he can make supper for me.  I don't know if real world rockstars are this selfless, generous and strong.  I guess I don't care, because the word 'Rockstar' has changed for me.  To me it's a Stoic Norwegian man who knows how to keep my glasses clean.  The rosey part...well... fairytales are not real...but most days my vision is clear, and definitely a pretty shade of pink.