Spousal Wars

Every marriage has their battles, right? Some big, some small. Some important, some trivial and petty. Dave and I have had our share of things to argue over throughout the course of our marriage. In the beginning, they were very insignifcant issues that would turn into a long, drama filled conflict that could take days to resolve. As we have hopefully matured a bit in our marriage, we have slowly evolved into a more civil way to get through our disagreements. We still have a lot of work to do, but progress is definitely moving into the right direction.


Except for one area.


Harry.


That's right. If you know me you know that I love all things Potter. If you know Dave, you know he despises all things Potter. And all things that fall under the creepy-small-creaturish-things that could have orange skin, pointy ears, or giant hairy feet (I'm talking to you Oompa Loompas, elves, and hobbits). He won't have anything to do with them. At all. Even with prodding, pleading, begging and the offering of incentives, my husband just won't budge. I don't know how we got paired up with this polar opposite view, but we did.

I bring this all up to show you the tiny battlefield that has been going on in our house for some months now. A while back, my dear friend Michelle got me this awesome Harry Potter figurine from a book store that was going out of business. He's dressed in his outfit that he wore in The Goblet of Fire during the Triwizard tournament. I thought it was sah-weet. Being a little naive, I placed my new HP statue on my dresser by my bed, thinking that would be an okay place for such an awesome imaginary guy to live. My husband had other plans- the moment he got home and walked into our room and a resounding "NOOO!!" echoed through the house. The battle had begun. Wanting to keep Harry safe, he would gradually pop up in different places arounnd our house in an effort to hide him from any destruction that could come his way. On the mantle, on the bookshelf.

Tonight when I was cleaning up after the kids went to bed, I realized that this war had more breadth and scope then I ever could imagine. Not playing nice anymore, I saw my dear Harry in the military grasp of some little green hands.

I know, it doesn't look good.

Those green men didn't know who they were up against though, and he was quicky freed from their tiny grasp. I have since hid him in another place, and took a picture which I think doesn't give away his location, but gives you an idea of what he really looks like.

Pretty intimidating, I know.

So far, I believe we are still on the offensive and making good progress. I know eventually my husband will break down and come to appreciate all things Harry as I do. For now though, there is a battle to fight and a war to be won. I'll keep you updated as new details come along....

***Edit: Before I even had time to post this blog, he had been found. Apparently the picture did give away his location. Rats. Some tug of war ensued and there was a brief moment when it looked like he might take a swim in the toliet. After I sacrifically intervened, he was then taken away and submerged into the fish tank. The fish didn't like him at all. He's now resting safetly at the hospital wing and will await his next deployment as soon as I can think of somewhere creative....

Cookie Monster

This video has not been manipulated or fabricated in any way. I promise this is how I found my child, completely unassisted by anyone but himself. He found out that I had some cookie dough in the refrigerator and took it upon himself to get some. In fact, he was so determined, he decided that the best spot to eat the confiscated cookie dough was right their on the ledge of the fridge. Only boys, right?

                         

Caught in the act. 

Not to be outdone by her older brother, I figured I would share a picture of my sweet Debly with her first-ever-ponytail. It didn't really last to long as the little wispies (wispys?) of her hair kept wanting to fall out, but darn gonnit, it was a ponytail! Now I am eagerly anticipating the day when I can do a french braid. (Corie, how old was Lily when I did hers? I feel she was this age. Maybe she just has better growing hair than Clara).

Can you tell it's a ponytail?

Fairlawn Way

I always thought that my grandparents had the coolest house. I mean, for starters, it had a pool. As a young kid growing up by no natural water sources (okay, there was the beach, but like I've said, I don't really like the beach), having a pool was a pretty sweet deal. It also was this house that seemed to be stuck in time. The moment you drove up that hill to their driveway and entered that house, it was like you were stepping back into the hey day of the sixties, big hair and all. No matter what age I was, five or fifteen, it always stayed the same. I knew that my grandma would have limeade in the refrigerator and she'd probably serve it to you in those bumpy blue glass cups. If you wanted a snack they would be in that tricky drawer that had the sliding cover on top. I knew that I could always go to my grandma's dressing area, play with her vanity, and look at all her awesome clothes, shoes and accessories. One of my favorite spots was the little nook in the back hallway that not only had a phone in it, but a big chalk board on the wall to write your messages. I remember loving to explore each room, for each held so much character within its walls. (And let's be honest, my grandparents were a bunch of pack rats, so they held a lot of stuff too). My grandpa had the house built with every nook and cranny used for a specific purpose. Even built into one of the walls was a hidden cabinet. If you pushed on the wall in just the right way, it would open, exposing shelves full of glassware and dishes (and to my childhood delight, candy). We called each bathroom by it's color ("the green bathroom", "the blue bathroom...") I think I could go on and on about this house, because there was so much to explore, so many places to go.

Well, I knew this day would come eventually. I mean, it had to. My grandparents passed away a while ago, and I knew that it would make sense for my dad and uncle to sell and put it up on the market. It's just sad once that day finally comes, you know? I know that I live far away so I can't even go see it, but it makes me sad knowing that it is the end of an era. Though it doesn't make sense, I had the thought that it would be with our family forever. I know I still have the memories- spending the night with them and waking up with Grandpa's scrambled eggs,  the kid parties, the high school times of hanging, my joint graduation party with my cousin Stacy, and so on...- but still. It's sad to see it go. Sad that eventually, Fairlawn will belong to some other family, not ours. I know the house is just a representation of every memory had and the physical things in life don't last...but, oh I don't know. I know I'm just rambling now.

This is the view when you first walk in the front door. That couch has always been there. Do you see how perfectly it fits the design? That's my grandpa.

The other view of the living room.

The fire pit. I mean, seriously, who has one of these? The couch was always a little scratchy though...

The kitchen. And do you see the little bronze box in the bottom centerish of the picture? That's part of the intercom system of the house. Again, who has that?

The sun room. And the pool table. Oh, the pool table.

The pool! And in the distance, the Rose Bowl.

This was my Grandpa's office. He had shelves that stored possibly every National Geographic ever printed.

Master Bedroom

The roof and front door. There is a spiral staircase that you can climb up and walk on the roof. Though I'm seriously scared of heights, I'd do it. Also, my brother and his friends would jump of the roof into the pool. Nice.

I'm never good at changes. I like my routine, and I like knowing things will be the same, even if I am not around to notice it. I'm sad that there is a chance the next time I go back to California, this will be different. I'm sad that my kids will never get to experience it like I did. Like I said before though, I know it is just a house. So why is it affecting me so? 

On the flip side, I know that my parents, aunt, uncle and cousins put in a lot of work getting it ready to sell, so I am thankful for all their hard work. Thanks you guys! 

Thanks for letting me share. I'm sure that none of this makes sense, but it feels good to write some of this down. When my dad first sent me the email with the property listing, I just started bawling. Part out of sadness, part out of, well, lets just say I was being a little too emotional for my own good.

(Note: The house hasn't sold yet, it just got listed. But the sentiments are all the same.)

Busy, busy, busy

Whenever I say we're busy, one song that always pops into my head is this Thomas song, "Busy Busy Busy..." It's rather quite annoying because I only know a couple of the lines and the song is sung by little British kids, and I can't recreate their accent at all.



(Even as I was searching YouTube for this video, James heard the music and came running over. We had to watch the whole thing. It's in my head again now! Is it in yours?)

Busyness is a theme around our house though, to be sure. Though fall is my absolute most wonderful time of year, it also exsists as being my absolute most busiest time of year. I don't really understand how that can coexist that way, but it does.

For my husband, fall means of course football. The coaching of it, watching of it, fantasy footballing of it, and perhaps even playing of it himself. Which I love. It is one of his biggest passions. It just means that he's super busy. I was at a baby shower this past weekend, and I met a lady whose husband is both a football and track coach and she has four kids. When we introduced to each other as having football coach husbands, she said "So you don't see your husband until November too?" It was so funny and dear. I feel that a lot of people really don't understand how busy you can be, when your husband is a coach. It's definitely a lifestyle. Though it does take a lot of time, there is nothing better than a cool crisp Friday night sitting in the stands watching my husband do his thang. I'm so proud of him, and proud that he puts himself into whatever he is passionate about. Besides coaching, he has the usual school where he is the teacher and grad school where he is the student. I don't know how he does it all. I have one too many loads of laundry to do and I loose my schmidt- he has 1,800 things to do and keeps his cool.
For me, I find myself busy 'cause my husband is. Does that make sense? I think I talked a little bit about it above, so I don't need to reiterate it here. This past weekend I helped throw a baby shower for one of my dear friends, and that took a lot of time. I think I did my share of baking for the next four months. I've never seen so many mini muffins in my life! The shower turned out nice and I do hope that she felt blessed. We  also have the normal daily stuff with kids.  This weekend I am running the Dances with Dirt in Hell with my husband, uncle, cousin, and a friend of Dave's. It's a 100k relay through woods and swamps and lakes. Suffice to say, we won't be exactly "clean" once we are done running (And yes, the city where this race is held is called "Hell." Go figure).

For James, I don't know when he's not busy. He's busy learning to spell new words, and we recently got some school workbooks to go through the alphabet and such which he gladly does each day. He is of course busy playing with trains, which if any of you are wondering, is still a big passion for him. Lately, I've been okay with that. I'll be honest, at times I thought that trains (more specifically Thomas) were sorta lame and dopey and I would try to encourage him to get into other things like pirate or dinosaurs or something. I realized that this is who my boy is and I only have these couple of very short years when he is into something as dear and sweet as trains. I guess I'll stop trying to change him or to make him like something "cooler" and just let him be, trains, Thomas, British songs and all.

For Clara, she's busy learning new words and colors. She's in the stage where she'll closely repeat any word or phrase that you ask her to repeat. Her vocabulary has about doubled or tripled (I don't really know if that's mathematically true- I just know that she knows alot!). She loves colors too, specifically yellow and blue. (Or as Clara would say, "lelow" and "lboo"). If she doesn't know the color, she's just say "purlpuh" for purple. I suppose any non-yellow or blue color falls into purple into her mind. She loves animals and has a particular fondness for ducks. Luckily, we live mere minutes away from the Bird Sanctuary where there are ponds and ponds full of ducks and geese for her to feed. We do this often, if you're wondering. She loves Elmo, and has been sporting some really cute pig tails lately. As a mom who couldn't wait for my daughter to have long hair so I could do it, I am beyond excited.

That's us in a very large nutshell. I suppose I was very long winded today, no? Well, things are about to get even busier for us, so I thought I'd give ya'll something to read as I don't know when I'll be able to update next!

How is your fall going? Is it busy for you too?

A few photos to share:

Clara, who lined up all her babies and stuffed animals herself. Sweet Delby.

James, painting.

14 kids and counting...

That's the name of my new reality TV show. Like it? It's probably going to be a hit, I just know it. People love seeing a lot of kids on television, right?

I kid, I kid. No, that's how many kids came over to my house for a play date a while back. Crazy, I know! I could even add "...and counting..." because there are two wee ones that are on the way! Crazy! I have a good group of girls who get together on a regular(ish) basis from my old church. (Yes, even though Dave and I changed churches, they still want to hang out with me. I don't get it either. Must be the twenties that I slip them every time we hang out....) Summer was coming to a close and school was just around the corner. I figured that I have a big back yard, and with some help from Mimi, lots of outside toys to go around. It was busy, but so much fun. I'm thankful for all those moms (and kiddos!) who make my life just a little brighter. 

Vicki, Jacob, Lindsay, and James. (Not my James though...)

Michelle's belly, Jes' smile, Lauren's back

Sweet Jovie. She ate lunch here too!

Zaya.

Brave Levi and his adoring fans...

Not so brave Levi and me rescuing from the tree. (His mom is 6 months pregnant. I couldn't let her climb up there, could I?)

David, Max, and a prostrate Eva

Jumping Boys

Michelle's belly again. She (the belly) got lots of attention, I guess....!

Too many kiddos to name!

Again, a lot of kids

Clara and Nolan and a shoe

There you have it. I'm sorry to any of my girlfriends if you/your kids didn't get photographed. I really tried to get some of everyone! There are a couple of others that I took, so if you want to know if you/your kiddos are in them, let me know. Thanks for coming over everyone!

P.S. I'm so glad I don't have 14 of my own! I don't know how Mrs. Duggar does it!