Hard days

Wednesday was one of those hard days. It wasn't a bad day. Often they're the same thing, but this time it wasn't. Stuff didn't go that wrong. There was just a decent amount of stress, especially in the morning, getting Katy's "bonus" bottom tooth removed. Any time we do something scary/hard that's new, I have a lot of anxiety until I see how it's going to go. It's reduced slightly by doing as much as research and preparation about it as I can, but I still think too much and worry too much.
That actually went reasonably well, but I was also worrying about something with Bridget that I wasn't sure what to do with, and then later in the day Katy wasn't feeling very well, Bridget wasn't feeling well, and Shawn got hurt twice. Something was wrong with Jaina too, but I can't remember what... Too many of my kids were hurting, and I had been using so much mental energy trying to deal with these new things. I was wrung out, and needed some support.
Sadly, Jeremy had a rough day too. He came home and could have really used some extra attention, as well as a calm, clean house. He didn't get any of that. :-/ I hate days like that where we both need support, but neither of us have much (if any) extra to give. Those are some of the harder times in a marriage, I feel like. At least now, 13 years in, I know they will pass. Especially if we try not to get dramatic about things (in our heads, you know) and do what we can to help each other. I remember when we first had several of those days (or weeks) in a row, and it seemed a little bleak at moments. We were living in Iowa, 24 hours from any family or close friend support, and we had two babies. Some days/night were so hard, and I wasn't sure what to make of it. That's one nice thing about getting older. The more experience you have and life you live, you have a little more perspective about those hard times, and know they are just times. If you both keep working hard, and try to serve each other, they will probably pass.
Yesterday was better, mostly, and things are good. But hard days happen even when there's nothing really wrong, and you just have to get through them and do what you can with the next day. Anyway, just my thoughts this week. :)

End of School Busy-ness

These last few weeks have been pretty crazy! We've had a choir concert, an orchestra conert, dance dress rehearsals, two mini dance/musical theater recitals, a school presentation including a little musical play Reilly was in at Eagleridge, finishing and proofing the school yearbook, regular scouts, a dr's appt, our anniversary (including a date to dinner and some fun arcade games one night and Les Miserables another), and 3 birthday parties. And Abbie was here last weekend for the girls' recitals and we went to dinner with her, and she took the kids swimming.

Les Miserables at Gammage was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed about 90% of it, and there were som really beautiful moments. The cast did a great job. The 10% I didn't enjoy was some content that I expected and some that they had kind of thrown in, that I felt was distracting. But It was still awesome, and something we've been looking forward to for like a year. (that's how long ago we bought the tickets!)

The last day of school was Thursday, and Jaina and Katy both had some awards to attend, as well as their end-of-year parties. I am so grateful that between Reilly and Jeremy I didn't have to take any little ones to any of that, because though my foot is a lot better, I've still been using the knee scooter for any kind of distances. I have been able to carefully go to the gym some the last two weeks, and that has cheered me up. My foot has improved quite a bit just in the last week or so, thankfully, because these kids are ready to do a lot of swimming this summer!

People have been taking turns over the last two weeks with an upset stomach too, which is not fun.  I had a low fever with mine, which was weird. Reilly was pretty sick with it, but for less than 24 hours. Thankfully Katy waited until the day after school got out to get sick, because she probably got it the worst, and ran a decent fever for close to 24 hours too. Poor kid! In happier news, we have a new nephew! David & Nicole had their baby! His name is Russell Graham, and I'm so glad he's here! Actually, we thought we were going to name Shawn Russell for several months before he was born. :) He's definitely more of a "Shawn" though...


Bridget has been getting up early with the other kids most days lately, which means she has been extra grouchy and extra tired sometimes. She's cute, but I wish she would sleep in until 7:30-ish like she used to instead of getting up between 5:45 and 6:30. It's hard to put her to bed any earlier than she already goes (7:45-8) because Shawn goes to bed at 7 and it works best if he's all the way asleep before I put her down. I'm sure we'll get it figured out. Most days she can take a long nap and help make up for it. She has also been continuing her quest to get into everything she shouldn't, and color on everything in the house. Not really, but she sure is a colorer, and I find it ironic that my 1 year old holds crayons and pens correctly even though I can't get my 4-year-old to yet. I just wish she would stick to crayons and paper... (instead of the sparkle markers and liquid eyeliner she's modeling below)

Here a little, there a little

I really do want to try to write in here more, even if it's little blurbs here and there. I don't think almost anyone still reads blogs, so that should take some pressure off to document everything. But journaling isn't even something on my radar these days, and it really should be. I don't want there to be nothing for Bridget and Shawn to read about from when they were little, since I was pretty good about doing it when the older kids were little. And sometimes I wait because I have the most recent pictures on my phone and haven't uploaded them to the computer yet, but don't want to type on my tiny phone when there's so much to say if I will just try. But I need to stop making those excuses and do some journaling, because even though I update Facebook fairly often, it's just not the same as a journal or a blog.

This week has been interesting. Last Sunday morning I broke my toe. Well, actually, the little metatarsal attached to my baby toe, but I guess technically it's still a toe. I've never broken anything before, so that was interesting. I was watching Phil and Sophie's kids overnight because Sophie was in Flagstaff and Phil had left for London, and I managed to walk into their hope chest at the end of their bed. It hurt a LOT. And then I had to hop all over their house that morning getting kids ready for church to try to get back to our house at 8 AM for our 9 AM church. And then I went to sacrament, because I wasn't going to leave Jeremy on crowd control with -9- children... That night we went to his office and x-rayed it, and David (in his 3rd year of med school) said that little shadowy part was a break. So not badly broken, but still broken.

Jeremy left early Tuesday morning for California. He had his biannual NUCCA conference, in Newport Beach this time. I would have been absolutely sunk this week without Reilly. 

He got out of most of his schoolwork, and has been fetching and carrying and cleaning for me all week. Today is Saturday, almost one week later, and I'm just finally walking kind of okay (still limping pretty bad, and my muscles are sore from moving so weirdly) if I wear my big Croc flip flops. I tried wearing a boot we got on Amazon, but I actually had a lot more pain with that.

So we've been mostly homebound this week. I got groceries Monday at Fry's (with pick up) and yesterday at Wal-mart (pick up again) and took the kids to Arts & Letters Thursday night (Shawn and Bridget went to the Shirleys, thankfully!) Brendl Stapley helped me with dance pick ups, and I bowed out of scouts this week. I've been mostly using crutches and sitting down as much as possible.

Today I -am- walking better, and took the kids to Mercie J's family fun day. Abbie was up here for Mailee's cheer competition thing, and spent the afternoon here with the kids and I. Jaina got to have Hadley Payne over, and that made her happy. My time is up, so that's all! :)

March Facebook-isms

March 5th:
Family Home Evening was more success than fail this evening. That is not often the case lately, so we’ll take it!

March 18th:

Fun little Facebook quiz - 

• Favorite smell - homemade bread, or movie theater popcorn
• First Job - babysitting?
• Favorite pizza - Spinach bacon artichoke with white sauce
• Birthday - July 29th
• Favorite dog - Collies or Golden Retrievers
• Favorite foot attire - flip flops
• Roller Coasters - Yes, but less so than 15 years ago...
• Crowd or solitude - Some of both
• Favorite ice cream - butter pecan
• Ideal vacation - Something Disney-ish
• Shorts or Jeans- skirts
• Surgeries - wisdom teeth, c-section
• Color of eyes - blue
• Favorite holiday - Christmas
• Night owl or Morning - Night owl
• Want to skydive - Some. Less since I had kids.
• Tattoos - No, thanks.
• Do you like to cook? - Not so much
• Can you drive a manual shift - Nope
• Do you like vegetables - Some
• Do you wear glasses - No
• Favorite season - fall
• Favorite vacation - In recent years, San Francisco with Jeremy

March 19th:
Just scheduled well-child appointments and dental appointments for all 5 kids over the next month. Do I get a sticker or something for that? (Or not until I actually get them to all these appointments?)

March 24th:

At Dinner tonight:

Reilly: "Mom, these are my favorite way you have made these."
Me: (thinking he was talking about the chicken fajita meat I had spent an hour preparing/cooking) "Oh, really? The chicken?"
Reilly: "No, the green beans."
Me: "Reilly, I literally just dumped those out of a can and stuck them in the microwave."
#cookingforpickykidslife

Also in March:

We took a trip to Pima, since we had the option of a big place to stay one last time before David and Nicole are going to be living at my parents' house for the next year. It was great to go visit my Grandma, let the kids spend some time with Abbie, and we spent a few hours visit with my cousin Leisel's family at my Aunt Joyce's house, which was really fun. Of course, being Irish (adopted, in my case, haha) we had to break out our St. Patrick's day pride. ;-)

Traditions of our Fathers

My first memory of missing a “holiday” on Mt. Graham (other than a few fire closures) was when I was 15. I was at Disney World for a national school competition over the 4^th of July weekend, and I was excited to be there, but pretty broken up about missing out on everything. For me, 4^th of July has less association with fireworks and barbecues, and more with campfire smoke, huge potluck dinners, cousins, and church services surrounded by pine trees. Until our family got too big and we started splitting the two holidays each summer, there were very few 4ths or Labor Days that we weren’t at the cabin. I did live in Iowa and then Virginia for a few years with my own little family, and we missed a lot of those, but still made a few!  It is such a long ingrained family tradition of spending at least part (if not as much as possible) of each summer at the mountain, that it almost hurts to be anywhere else during those times.

There are so many families that have so many great memories and traditions on Mt. Graham, but of course the ones I know the most about are mine. :)
My great-great-grandfather, Hyrum Weech, who immigrated from England, talks about his experience with Mt. Graham in his autobiography, “Our Pioneer Parents.” In 1882 (exactly a century before I was born) he and John Campbell first went up into one of the canyons of the mountain, looking for a likely spot for a lumber mill. He wrote, “By hard climbing, we went up on top of the mountain and found it to be a beautiful park of groves of pine timber, with open glades of grass and flowers. We camped for the night and found it quite cool to what it had been in the valley.”  They explored along the crest and high peak, where there was a monument of loose stones, and a can with only the names of government surveyors who had been there 10 years earlier. They added their names.  They did help found a mill there, and mentioned building a cabin in “Camp Columbine,” where they spent the summers.

He moved his family to Oregon in 1903, but my great-grandfather, David Henry Weech, soon decided to come back to Pima and continued to spend time on Mt. Graham. Hyrum returned to Arizona around 1918, and mentioned building another log cabin at Camp Columbine so they could continue to summer there.  It was built in 1921, and I think it’s the one that’s still there and in use. “A History of Mount Graham,” (assembled by my grandparents, Bertell and Cherrel Weech) tells about how they kept cows and chickens, made butter and cheese, grew gardens, and lived off the land up in the tops of the mountain, avoiding the heat of the valley.

I was surprised to learn (re-learn? My grandma probably told us about it some point) that the area we have cabins in now, “the Flat” at Columbine, was originally where the forest service headquarters were. The big cabin in the flat (the Bulan Weech family cabin) was built in 1938-9 by David Henry Weech and Bertell Weech.  

David Henry Weech

Bertell, my grandpa, added his cabin, on the hill overlooking the flat in 1947. I have many great memories in that old cabin and can picture its layout and the details of it vividly. My first Labor Day at Columbine was when I was just 6 weeks old! I remember that my Grandpa Weech spent as much time as he could at the cabin every summer, and I also remember how hard it was for him once his health made it too risky to go up much anymore. My other grandparents, Darell and Kathy Cluff, also had a cabin in upper? Columbine, which now belongs to my aunt Sondra and Uncle Reuben, so I had cousins on both sides to spend time with. I have some great memories from their cabin too. I need to take a picture of that one, because for some reason I don't have one, I don't think. 

The old cabin was struggling a little, and in 1994, my dad rebuilt a new cabin in its place that we enjoy today. It had a little more space, and is a little more comfortable, and we love it! 

I appreciate my parents' efforts to take us up so often, and all the hard work (and money) they've put into making sure we had lots of time at the cabin as kids and as adults with our own kids. I have so many great memories and experiences of Columbine and of the surrounding areas:  Building forts, playing (and fighting, haha) with countless first and second and probably third cousins.  Constructing things in the creek and making mud pies and leaf creations. Hiking to the tower at Webb Peak, or down to check out the old Mill machinery. Riding in the back to the truck to Soldier Creek, the ice caves, Rigg’s Lake, the lookout, and down to the Bible Camp to pick raspberries. Hours spent on tire swings. Too many baths in that old four-footed bathtub by lantern light to count.  Most of my fishing experiences (thanks to my mom) happened at Rigg’s, and I think the only times I’ve actually slept in a tent were just behind the cabin when it was over-full.  There were campfires, outside picnics, motorcycle rides, and tours at the telescopes. We had spirit-filled Sunday morning fast and testimony meetings and Saturday night potlucks and dances (with all those cousins…) up on the old LDS church cabin foundation. We ate marshmallows, fried chicken (or hamburgers), pancakes that are somehow SO much better up there, my grandpa’s homemade noodles and dumplings, watermelon, hot cocoa, and homemade ice cream churned at Uncle Carl’s. We battled with rubber band guns, heated card games, and games of Sow. There were explorations and discoveries and snipe hunts, baseball games that went on for hours, and now Frisbee games for the younger generation. There were awe-inspiring close encounters with bears , squirrels, deer and hummingbirds.  In the winter we even got to experience real snow and snowshoeing into the cabin. The sunsets, the smell of pine, the sound of the creek, stars so close you feel like you can reach out and touch them.  So much beauty, and so much history. One of the parts I treasure the most is the opportunity to be with and get to know so many great uncles and aunts, and extended cousins that I probably wouldn’t even know about, much less have memories with if it weren’t for Mt. Graham.

It is much harder as an adult to be the one in charge of packing, (and packing and packing) and coordinating, and –trying- to get my city kids to sleep in the dark and the silence, and to go outside and play. The experiences I’ve had there as an adult aren’t quite as memorable and poignant as the ones I made as a child (except finally getting the experience to hike up Ash Creek with my dad two years ago. That was amazing!)  It isn’t always easy to transmit a piece of that history and family foundation. But I am trying, because Columbine is so much a part of me, and of who I am, and of my experiences.  I feel like a piece of my soul (one of the calmer, more relaxed, more youthful ones) is permanently embedded there. Which is why, on this Labor Day weekend, I am missing it so fiercely.

I didn’t get the opportunity to go up last summer, being hugely pregnant, and partially on bed rest. My wonderful husband (who tries hard to love the mountains and all that it entails, which I appreciate!) took our four small children up for the 4^th, so they could at least make it up once and be with their cousins. This summer we had two trips planned, and I was so looking forward to Labor Day especially. Instead, we had a forest fire. A really big one that left us hoping and praying and worrying for weeks at a time. Our cabins were spared, and we are amazingly grateful. But so much was lost that I’m sad about. Webb Peak may never be the same. So many beautiful trees were lost. I know the mountain will regrow and be fine in the long run. But I think I was really looking forward to visiting in person and seeing the damage, and the undamaged, with my own eyes. I know we should be able to go up next summer, and that many traditions and experiences will continue on unchanged, but until I make it back, something is missing.

Summer wrap-up and School Start

The last few weeks of summer weren't boring. We had a huge rainstorm or two right at the first of August, which were really fun, but weren't good for all the repairs happening on our house. There had also been a handyman restoring some wood stuff on the back of the addition recently. He finished a few days before the big storm, but when it happened, the whole back addition started leaking like crazy! I was actually at the store when it happened, and when I walked in the door, water was streaming off the top of our built in storage cupboards under the window. And the older kids were there watching TV, and totally oblivious. Nothing much was ruined, but it was really a mess. I had to call the handyman that had done the work and ask "what the heck happened?" He had finished it that week! He said sometimes the sealant just doesn't seal, and promised to be there the next day to fix it. Slight eyeroll, but I'm grateful for that way-more-than-usual storm that pointed out the problem so impressively, because a slow leak from normal rain might not have been detected so easily. We haven't had any issue with it yet, thankfully. However, with that same rain, we also had a lot more leaking in the bathroom that we could see. We were thankful we hadn't had someone come to redo the drywall and texturing already! We might not have seen the leaking there, or it might have been ruined. Little blessings in disguise. The roof people came back to try again too, and decided maybe it was leaking around the drainpipe. Fun times!

At the same time as they were trying to work on our kids' bathroom, our toilet suddenly stopped working. The drain in the shower /toilet had been randomly backing up for months, but always worked itself out eventually. Not this time. At which time our other toilet was sitting out back, completely disconnected. More fun times! We ended up using the bathrooms over at the church a couple times that day, (thankfully Jeremy had a key) while two plumbers worked for like 5 hours. And they couldn't fix it. They put the other toilet back on for us to use over the weekend and had to come back Monday. But we had no shower during that time period. Thankfully Phil and Sophie were kind enough to let us shower at their house. It took another 6-8 hours (and a $1200 bill) and a bunch of different snakes and router things before they finally got it working again. They didn't know what the problem was, except maybe the cast iron plumbing had built up a lot of corrosion and things were getting stuck on their way through. They also discovered one of the copper pipes behind the toilet (they had opened up the wall to try to figure out what was up) basically fell apart when the pushed on it. Here's hoping if it has lots of friends, that they don't give up the ghost until after we're out of this house... Every once in a while the shower/toilet still backs up a little. I pray it continues to work itself out, because I don't want it to cost our landlady any more hundreds of dollars, and I don't want us to have to deal with it again!

The bathroom did eventually get drywalled, taped, and textured, and I spent a lot of a week (I'm not very fast, since I've never done it before) painting both bathrooms. It's not perfect, but it looks a whole lot better than it did, and it's so nice to have two working bathrooms.

School started on the 9th, which was a little crazy. Reilly is homeschooling again this year, and going to Eagleridge (a homeschool enrichment program) on Wednesdays. It's kind of nice to have him home for the most part, since it gives me a touch more flexiblity if I need to run somewhere for a few minutes while Bridget is asleep, or leave him and Shawn watching a movie for a bit while Bridget and I run somewhere. He loves Eagleridge and enjoys going there. The girls are still at Franklin and enjoying it. We have been lucky to get great teachers so far! (Shawn's sign lies - he hasn't actually been interested in almost any preschool work so far, though he already knows his alphabet and most of his numbers somehow...

And a few more pictures, just for fun.

"The rain came down and the floods came up"

So, it's been a long month. Jeremy's been working hard getting his office up and running, There have been lots of setbacks and frustrations, and his x-ray equipment is still a headache and not fully functional. It's been exciting, but nerve-wracking and frustrating at the same time. It would probably be easier if he could just concentrate on that, but we've had other craziness going on with our townhouse. (Well, we rent, but still, we try to take care of everything that we can in exchange for really good rent.)

A large branch from the big olive tree out front fell on our roof and within a few days it rained and the kids' bathroom started leaking. The HOA's roof guy said it wasn't the tree's fault and that roof just needed to be resurfaced.

 So they did that, and then last week the kids and I ended up staying at my mom's for 5 days while they expensively and messily removed all the wet sheet rock, which was full of 60's asbestos. And the bathroom has been sitting all torn apart since then, which has been exciting. Really looking forward to it all getting sorted out, but I’m not sure when that will be!

We have had a busy month in general though. Summer life with 5 kids is a little much for me! We have tried to stay busy, though. I was sad to not have the option of going to the cabin on 4th of July with all the fires. We're still worried about those, but hopefully our cabin will continue to be safe. :-/ We didn't do too much celebrating, but went to our ward's 4th of July breakfast at the Melser's, and did sparklers with the kids that night. I just wish it got dark a little earlier. It would be more fun that way, but our kids go to bed pretty early usually. Bridget was already in bed and didn't get to see them.

Towards the beginning of the month we also met up at Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center to help celebrate Chloe's birthday. My kids always love that place, and it's pretty cheap to get in. If it wasn't like a 35-40 minute drive we would definitely go more often!

Abbie was down here visiting when we did our traditional Chik-Fil-A fun.  We went for a pretty early lunch and it wasn't too crazy yet. I'm had to quickly make a shirt for Bridget this year, but otherwise the prep was already done from my sewing last year!

We had the opportunity to attend a double funeral for my great-Aunt Karen and great-Uncle Kent, and it was a great experience. I learned a lot about them that I didn't know before, and it was nice to spend some time with extended family.

We used the trip to Urban Jungle on our POGO passes, and the kids love that place! It was a little crazy trying to pseudo-keep track of all of them, especially with Bridget and Shawn to watch, but they all had a really great time. We should go again sometime!

And then one of the biggest events of the month: Bridget turned 1! So exciting and crazy! We had a fun relaxed day for her birthday, and did cake and candles that night with just family. Jeremy also got some light-up balloons that they all had a blast playing with.

Our second Bridget-celebration was a couple days later, when we were in Pima. It was more of a party then, with some grandparents and cousins. Both times were fun.  It's always nice to spend time in Pima, but with every child we've added, packing has grown more hectic, and... it's just a lot to travel anywhere. I'm hoping that will ease a little as they all grow and can do a little more packing for themselves. What do you think? :)

The other eventful thing that happened during that trip is that we found out Spencer was returning from his mission in Tampico, Mexico. He had some things he decided he needed to take care of better before he continued. That was hard, but good, and it was great to see him. I was glad that I got to be there when he came home, at least for a day or so, since we ended up extending our trip a day or two because of the crazy bathroom stuff. It is just such a mess!

So I spent my 35th birthday packing everything BACK up, and driving home with 5 kids. Not quite what I had hoped for... I tried not be sad about it, but I was a little bummed. When I got home, though, Jeremy sent me to the Gilbert temple (the Mesa one was closed briefly) and I got some (free) dinner at Joe's Farm Grill, which is also super tasty. And I got myself a piece of cheesecake to celebrate my birthday, which was pretty exciting, since I have been trying really hard to start losing this baby/nursing weight the last couple months since Bridget finished nursing. I haven't been having -any- desserts, and that cheesecake was amazing! Between that and the peace of the temple, it was a nice end to a crazy day, and I appreciated it!