Chronicles of Schofield: January 2010

Thursday, January 28, 2010

visiting teaching

i was asked to give a little mini class for our visiting teaching inservice. i shared six ways to contact and show love to your sisters. the night went great... we had a yummy potato bar & cheesecake, another mini class about making goals for the year, and interviews.

*6 ways to love your sisters*

call

give

write

serve

eat

pray

*anyone interested in the handouts i gave, let me know and i'll email them to you.

*as for the pretzels and candy... see the post below (winco):)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

corn syrup...

in it's finest form.

bulk food candy bins...

salute.

you.

you should have seen me walk into winco,

i almost giggled outloud

when i saw the smorgasbord of sweet trinkets!!

what is wrong with me?

as i skipped along

with my magical silver scooper,

scooping up happiness,

i was singing this in my head...

"who can take a sunrise,

sprinkle it with dew

cover it in chocolate and

a miracle or two

the candy man

the candy man can

the candy man can,

cause he mixes it with love

and makes the world taste good

---

who can take a rainbow,

wrap it in a sigh

soak it in the sun and make

a strawberry-lemon pie

the candy man

the candy man can

the candy man can,

cause he mixes it with love

and makes the world taste good

---

the candy man makes

everything he bakes

satisfying and delicious

talk about your childhood wishes

you can even eat the dishes

---

who can take tomorrow,

dip it in a dream

seperate the sorrow and

collect up all the cream

the candy man

the candy man can

the candy man can,

'cause he mixes it with love

and makes the world taste good

---

and the world tastes good

because the candy man

thinks it should!

---

THANK YOU SACRAMENTO!!

Monday, January 25, 2010

charlie catch up & loving babies

"yo yo homies!!

how's about a little fist bump...

yaaaa, give me some rocks dude!

as you can see, i'm growing up really fast.

soon i'll be able to climb trees and down a reed's dairy ice cream cone in seconds flat, just like my brothers."

***

"my mom likes to put me in cute clothes and pose me to take pictures, but really, who needs to pose when you've got natural good looks like me? sure, some say i look like a wrinkly old man... but watch out ladies, my cheeks are filling out and are becoming even more kissable.

you can't resist me."

***

charlie is a pure delight.

he is an angel of a baby... his sleeping is a little turned around, but he doesn't get super fussy when he's awake. my only complaint is that he's growing too fast. today we carried on a full cooing conversation with eachother. the newborn phase is already over and he is getting stronger with each day.

***

i love my babies because they have all been so different looking, yet they all look like schofield's. i love my babies because they smell good and have such delicious hands and toes. i love my babies because they fall asleep and melt into me. i love my babies because they humble me to slow down when i let life get too busy. i love my babies because when they are sick i turn to prayer. i love my babies because they calm down when they hear my voice. i love my babies because their funny faces and body movements show so much character and spirit.

***

this is charlies "concerned" look...
he's inherited that from his mother.

tade catch up & oy vey

so it is now 3:30pm. my kitchen is riddled with dishes, my laundry is sitting on the couch waiting to be folded, i'm still in a tshirt and purple velour bottoms, and i got up at 5am this morning. wonder why i don't blog very much? because it literally takes me ten hours to write a little post about each child... and what would be the main reason for my distractions, aside from the nursing and diapering of the two month old?

see exhibit A below:

***

between each sentence i write, taders wants juice,

then he needs ice in his drink,

then he needs a bowl,

then he wants crackers in his bowl,

then he wants a movie,

then he needs his diaper changed,

then he spilled his drink,

then he needs to change his shirt...

and on and on goes our dance.

***

ever read "if you give a mouse a cookie"?

tade is the mouse... all day long.

but when he says his cute "thank you mom" after every little task i perform for him, i can't help but melt, and the blogging and laundry and dishes can wait. i do however wish he still took naps, which he doesn't if i want to get him down at night at a reasonable hour. sometimes he will just get tuckered out and make his own schedule.

***

speaking of tuckered out... tucker and tade are best buddies. he always has his arm around him and doesn't mind the hairy outdoor smell or slobbery licks.

to know tade, is to know about his shoe fetish.

and if you won't put on his shoes,

then he'll find a pair of someone elses to put on...

even if they're on the wrong feet.
oy vey.

***

oliver catch up & destiny

how cool is he?

seriously.

this boy,

i tell you what.

watch out world...

oliver is here,

and he is something else.

i don't want to give into pre-destiny, but oliver is the kind of child that will either grow up to host a late night talk show, or perform complicated brain surgery. bursting with personality, he is both witty and eccentric. in the early winter he tried out basketball and now he's going to take a shot at swimming. he is quite cautious by nature, so it will be good for him to gain courage in a pool full of water. as chris left for work the other morning, he told ollie that he plays too much Wii and it's not good for his brain... oliver replied-"welcome to kids life... that's what you need to know dad."

***

don't you agree, that this face is

destined for greatness.

landon catch up & finding your place

there once was a boy named landon,

with gentle heart many girls he had won,

sneaky ninja was he,

barely skinning a knee,

first to do what i say with a run.

the cub scout pinewood derby was last week. hats off to dads and moms everywhere who take a solid brick of wood and transform it into a slick racing machine. there are three varieties of pinewood derby cars...

one- the kind made entirely from professional wood-turning tools and designed by the parent... made to win and blast all the other cars away.

two- the kind where the parent helps by delicately carving the brick and leaving the paint job to the scout... a little yin and yang.

three- the kind where the scouts hands are the only ones to grace the process from start to finish... not the fastest usually, but the most heart, and the most legit.

***

ours was a number two variety

and

a number two pencil.

and

would you believe there were TWO number TWO's?
our pencil wasn't the fastest

as evident by the glares coming from landon,

but it sure was cool:)

landon received a snowboard and lessons for christmas.

during our quest to discover and cultivate talents, he has put traditional athletics such as basketball, football and other ballishness on the back burner. papa bears opinion of these sports was tainted as a child, so he is a little biased in what to push upon our boys. however, we both agree, that if a talent or interest can be found, we will fully support our children as long as it doesn't involve making bombs or looting toy stores. it just so happens, that landon is a natural on the snowy hill, and we are so proud that he has stuck with it despite the sore body and icy patches. i'm already planting ideas in his head about the olympics... moms can be so annoying.

***

addy catch up & a tangent

it is so nice to have an extra set of loving arms around to help with this little guy. addison has been such an amazing big sister... i'm so grateful for her:)

we recently went to New Beginnings which is a night to introduce the Young Womens Program to the new twelve year olds coming up. the theme this year is about courage so that evening they used the motto "GOT COURAGE?" (like, got milk)... the leaders are awesome and all the girls are so sweet and welcoming. Addy is the youngest in her group of friends, but will luckily get to go to girls camp this summer.

man i feel old.

after christmas her cousin stayed with us for a week,

& addy had a little taste of what it's like to have a sister.

they are only days apart in age and are great friends.

girls lunch date

blind make-overs

our school district has a great program called DARE- Drug Abuse Resistance Education, and it's put on by the local police department. at the dare graduation the sixth graders sang "ain't no moutain high enough"... it was really presh. i had a mother panic when the kids walked on stage and i noticed that all her friends had pulled their tshirts back in a very cool manner with a rubber band... i guess so they wouldn't look so frumpy. addy didn't do this with hers, but when i saw her walk on, she too had her shirt fixed. apparently a sweet girl backstage offered her a hairband so she could look like the rest of them. this got me thinking about how funny us girls are. whether you're pegging your jeans like we use to, or jimmy rigging your tshirt to look more hip, you never can tell what the trend is going to be. addy is in the same predicament i was in growing up as the oldest with no older sister to follow. i was always the last to find out about what was cool. in fact, i remember being totally stressed because i didn't know the order of the levels in high school (freshman, sophomore, etc.) all my friends would refer to them and i had to think hard not to mess up the order.

here comes more randomness...

i have had conversations with addy about individuality and the importance of self worth. i've tried to teach her to be her own person and not get too caught up in following the crowd. to illustrate this i told her about when i was in junior high in salt lake and everyone was wearing girbaud jeans... the ones with the little white label across the zipper area. our family of ten was spread a little thin in the money area, and even though we always dressed nicely, my mother did not indulge us in buying name brands. i wanted a pair of these jeans so bad, "everyone" had a pair or two or five, and i felt so left out. we were planning to move to oregon after i finished seventh grade and before i left, my friends all chipped in their own money and presented me with my very own pair of girbaud shorts. i was elated and planned on wearing them on the first day at my new school hoping they would give me some ease in fitting into a new place. on that first day of school i confidently walked into the school in my cute outfit and looked around to realize that not one person was wearing the zipper tagged jeans. i was crushed to find that this must have been a "utah thing" and not an "oregon thing". it was a humbling lesson that i should not get so worked up in what the trends are and not be a follower. so... after the dare graduation, addy and i had a chat about the mcgyvering of the tshirts and how that came about. this led to her sharing a story about her friends days before... she was with a group of girls and they were discussing "how cute" a certain pair of jeans are and how "my sister has like seven pairs... they are so cool...bla bla bla.... i'm totally going to get some... bla bla bla..." and addy said to them "you guys, can you hear yourselves? these are jeans you're talking about. who cares." she was so proud of herself that she could see past the silliness of the expensive fad and stand up to the girls, and she said that my story about the girbauds came to her mind and taught her that it doesn't matter what you wear...

and then she asked me for a shopping spree to Hollister.

the end.

just kidding.

i actually think this will be a life long learning experience... i also think it's okay to follow fads if it's something you genuinely like, but there is no reason to follow just for the sake of following. i have encountered some resistence to my thrift store shopping habits from some of my kids, and maybe they're skeptical because i've brought home a few things that weren't realized to be unwearable until closer inspection... but that's another story.

now,

after this big speech about individuality and frugality, don't judge me if you see me sporting a marc jacobs handbag (fat chance) or if addy is frolicing about in some designer jeans... chances are, we stole them off of a passed out drunk person who didn't graduate from D.A.R.E. and learn the words to "ain't no mountain high enough".