Summertime

So the month of June has flown by and we have now been in our house a month.  We have been busy playing hard and celebrating - Father's Day and Birthdays.  Our neighborhood has a connection to the Rillito River hike and bike trail. And it has been really fun to get everyone on a bike - or on the back of a bike in Michael's case - and go for a bike ride. We have take a bike ride to two separate parks near our house. One was a longer ride and the boys were great.   It is so fun to do it all together. Oh, and remember we live in a desert and there is no water in the Rillito River unless there has been a very large rain - ie Monsoon. :). And there has not been one, yet. We saw plenty of lizards and ground squirrels, though. And even a road runner. 

Photos

The living room and entrance to the kitchen with our crazy Jacob. You can kinda see the stairs in the background.

The living room during Family Home Evening with Jeremy pretending to be preoccupied with guitar. Why would he smile for the camera? 

Toy closet with bookcase in the back

Table with view of laundry room door on right and toy closet door on left and of course Andrew :)

The backyard with covered patio

I wanted to post some pictures of our new place. The upstairs still hasn't been documented, but here is the downstairs. We love the backyard. Grass is one of my favorite things about the new place. Something I really took for granted until we moved to Arizona. I love the floors, even though I sweep all the time now. We used to have really bad carpet. :) I love the toy closet. It is really close to the living room, but it can all stay in then when they are done. They do have some toys in their bedroom. I like our kitchen and am in love with our new fridge. I don't know if you can really see it in the picture.  It is one of the french door fridges with the freezer drawer on the bottom. We love the garage and being able to park our car away from the hot Arizona sun. And this way Jeremy doesn't get mad if I forget to lock the door, because I only have to remember to close the garage door.  I love that the laundry room is inside the house, inside of having to go outside. We can stash our shoes and bags in here, it doubles as our mud room, because you walk through here from the garage into the kitchen. Our favorite thing is the AC and the ceiling fans. It really makes summertime in Arizona livable. We are really happy here. 

Another Address!

We have had a roller coaster of a week and I think we finally are on pretty level ground. Last week right before we moved Jeremy accidentally flushed his phone down the toilet. He is so careful with his things, that this really threw him. And it has made communicating really difficult. Funny, now but really annoying. Then the toilet overflowed and had to be broken to get the cell phone out. Which resulted in a half day with no toilet and then a brand new one for a day before we moved.  Then we packed up the crib and a sleeping bag in our van and then Jeremy dropped me off to head to my last show and he went with the boys to pick up the keys to our new place.  He then went to the new place and there were people here cleaning it. So, they had to leave again, but they were able to get in later and set up the crib while frantically trying to keep Michael away from the stairs. My friend dropped me off at our new place - which was thrilling - and Jeremy gave me the grand tour of sleeping boys in their new rooms. Then the plan was to head back to the other place and pick up our bedding and some breakfast items. But, the car wouldn't start. So, we slept on the bamboo floors and one thin quilt. :) The next morning at 6ish, Jeremy takes the bus, which amazingly takes him to a walmart and picks up a new battery for us.  The boys of course wake up starving and I had one nutrigrain bar in the diaper bag.  Michael falls down the stairs. Jeremy carries the heavy battery in his backpack and thinks to pick up a box on nutrigrain bar, too and saves the day. We (Jeremy) gets the battery installed and we start the back and forth of moving within the city. We get  a good amount done with the seats out of our van. And then Emily, Armando, his kids and Lynne all come done to help with a truck and we get all the big stuff moved over. They were a huge lifesaver. Thank you, thank you! After they headed back to Phoenix, we tried to make a few more trips.  Moving is never very fun.  So we tried to take it slowly and not stress, but it would have been nice to have it all done in one done.  I slept many hours cleaning everything and piled all the extra boxes in one room like a trash pile.  One box was full of packing peanuts I had saved just in cased we moved far away.  Jeremy then takes the boys over to help him clean up the backyard and they discover the packing peanuts. Jeremy walks in, expecting a clean room and helpful children, and finds two little rascals diving and swimming in packing peanut pieces. The entire floor was covered. It would have been really funny if we hadn't been trying so hard to finish up and get out of there. And packing peanuts seriously resist being cleaned up! But, the keys are now turned in.  We are officially in the house on Babbling Brook and it feels so nice. We have been loving the backyard and especially the air conditioning. I will post about all our new favorite things with pictures soon. 

When I was early pregnant with Andrew, I was doing a play. It was a crazy, intense King Lear. When I was doing that show, I had no idea it would be seven years before I did another one. I have done a couple films , several commercials and an industrial since having my children. But no plays. Plays tend to be a bigger time commitment, weeks or months rather than days. And then, figure in all the months of pregnancy and then nursing  times three when I couldn't have done a show. And then, Jeremy has been doing shows at least once a semester ( our life is lived in semesters, even now that he is not in school, he's teaching in one ) if not more. Then, I didn't want to sacrifice all that time away from my family and the inconvenience of balancing schedules to play a tiny part. I figured since I was in a new place - Austin and now Tucson - I might have to pay my dues and start small and work my way into good roles.  And then, after all those years away I was starting to forget my audition monologues and then started to worry if I was even good enough to do a play anymore.  And that brings us up to March 2009. Jeremy's play Medea closed and he wanted to take a break from acting for a while and my baby is getting big (He is almost two). I came back from Houston where I went to Time Out for Women with my family and thought that it was okay for me to have these desires. I checked out the Tucson Theatre Blog just to check to see if anything was available that I could play, that wasn't inappropriate for me, that fit our schedules and wasn't too long a commitment.  And amazingly enough, I found something.  I emailed about an audition and a whirlwind of auditioning the next day, being offered the role and rehearsals beginning the day after. It was a little too quick to process it all. 

It has worked out really well. The rehearsals have been pretty flexible, Jeremy was able to watch the kids every time, except the one performance when he came to see the show. It isn't a long run, only four shows. It is a play about women dealing with postpartum depression. My character tries to hold on tight to control after the birth of her second children and then almost commits suicide.  It is a meaty role with a great character arc. On Thursday, we will perform for the last time. We have performed in hospitals and a community center in various cities in southern Arizona. Our audiences are doctors and nurses, women who have PPD or pregnant women, or people interested.  Everyone has responded well to it. I have really enjoyed putting myself out there, finding this character. I have enjoyed being a part of something beyond my little family. The subject matter is close, I never had PPD, but I had some difficult adjustments times after two of my babies.  And one line in the play is : After my son was born, I put my personality in a box and didn't take it out until he was two years old. I think I have struggled with finding out who I am again after these huge changes in my life.  I think that is pretty common.  It has been a great experience. But, I have also remembered all the not so fun parts of performing in a play.  Working with a cast of creative people, can be wonderful, but also hard at times. Dealing with a director with different ideas about your character is hard to solve. Three of our performances have been out of town, which means at least a couple of hours of transit and performance time and set up and take down time. So they tend to take up most of the day, which stresses me out and makes me feel guilty for being gone so long.  This is the first play I have done where I have had to balance a family. It is hard to leave for rehearsals when Andrew was saying, Mama please don't go. I want you to stay home. Jacob, 

with a brave face, Mama I will try to be happy. Michael, crying every time I go.  Overall, I am still glad to have done this. Pulling part of my personality back out of that box after seven years. And although it is not much at all the $200 stipend is helping get a new table for the house we are moving into this week!

And while I was rehearsing for my play, Andrew's Kindergarten class was practicing one of their own. Andrew played Kevin. It was so cute, they performed at the Celebration/graduation last week. Today is his last day of school, I can't believe he will be in 1st grade soon! 

Jacob Thomas Selim

Jacob was born four years ago!  Jeremy likes to tell people it was an easy delivery because we got to the hospital at 9 something in the morning and Jacob was born at 11:30 ish. But, it was a crazy intense one! And it started long before we made it to the hospital! :)

 I am so glad he is our son and he is getting so big and so smart. He made his name out of train tracks, I only helped with the 'B'. 

His birthday was April 16th and it was a bit of a crazy day.  I performed a play for the first time in seven years at a nursing conference in Gilbert

 which is about 2 hours from here. My wonderful sister in law watched the boys for me. She lives only minutes from the hospital where we performed. It worked out perfectly. Thank you so Emily! This way I only had to leave the boys for the time I was at the performance rather than the four hour round trip plus the three hours I was at the hospital.  And Emily made Jacob's birthday fun for him.  We drove back and 

met up with  Jeremy and Andrew and had Taco Bell for dinner. Jacob wanted cheese roll-ups for his birthday. The birthday boy always get to pick what we have for dinner and this made it pretty easy for me. :) He even included it in the birthday wish list: I want a 5 button race cars, a dump truck, a cheese roll up, etc..

They also get to pick what kind of cake they have. At first,  Jacob wanted a circle cake with numbers like a clock and a dump truck in the middle. I managed to convince him that it might be more fun for it to be a big dump truck

cake instead.  Sometimes, convincing him of anything can be a hard job. He has very strong opinions and ideas!  He helped me do the food coloring for the icing and he helped with the black icing details.  He is a really great helper.  We sang him happy birthday and blew out each candle one by one. He told me that when you are four years old that you don't have to eat food anymore. When you are so many years you don't need dinner, you can just have candy and cake. :) He is so funny. 

We gave him a big dump truck and

 he loved it. He loved all his presents and Thank you so much to all his aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpa that gave him presents.  We met Lynne on Saturday at the half way point between us to continue the celebration. We watched Monsters vs Aliens and then went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch. Everyone had a really fun day.

4 things I love about Jacob:

I love to talk to him - his logic gets him out of trouble all the time. I love the way he can explain himself and make me understand what is happening in his brain.

He loves his brothers. He is so good with Michael and loves to play with him and help him. He and Andrew are such close friends. They play together so well - most of the time!

He is a great helper. He tries to help me everyday. I can't make a meal without him      

pulling up his stool to watch and help. He throws away the dirty diapers outside and is pretty good at putting away his toys. 

He is so smart. He is a great counter and is learning to read. He is a pro with the computer games on PBS Kids. He is going to be really ready for Kindergarten.

Easter

We had a great Easter this year.  A little crazy, but still great. I had a rehearsal on Saturday morning and then Jeremy had a last minute meeting, so our great plans were pushed back. It still turned out to be a nice plastic egg hunt and dinner over at Emily's and then over to Lynne's for bedtime. We woke up on Easter and opened presents from Lynne. She gave the boys a movie and a book about Christ's life and resurrection. When Andrew opened the book he said, ' I got Jesus!' That is what Easter is all about, right? I am glad that we all can open that gift and be grateful for our Savior. 

This is a little silly, but I wanted all the boys to match on Easter. So, it took a bit of arranging to have three of everything, ties, shirts, pants, belts, etc for church.  But, I managed it by the time we left on Saturday. So, they were all dressed and ready to go and about to head into Lynne's family room to take pictures when Michael decided he wanted to stand out and be an individual. He had a crazy explosive diaper which thankfully only knocked the pants out of commission.  I did not have a back up pair of navy church pants for Michael or any suitable pants at all, but my ever prepared husband reminded me of the back up clothes we have in the car (we have a complete change of clothes in a big ziploc for each of the boys). It turned out Michael's emergency pants were a little casual, but served in a pinch.  I was a little disappointed about the now not quite matching outfits, but that is how life goes.  No great family picture this year, but I tried to include some so you could see their ties at least.

We decided that the Easter Bunny would come while we were away for church and we would do the secular parts of Easter after we had focused on the Resurrection and Atonement. So, the Easter Bunny left church for a bit to run home to Lynne's house and hide the baskets and eggs.  He did a great job hiding everything and then wrote a note for the boys trying to tie in the Easter egg hunt/Easter bunny with Christ and went outside to put it on her front door for them to find. Unfortunately, the door locked behind him with Lynne's house keys inside. Thankfully, he had his keys still with him and headed back to church.  Emily had a spare key to Lynne's house, so we only had to wait about 10 -15 minutes after we got back from church to make it in for the big hunt. Thanks again, Emily!  The boys had a great time and loved their baskets, thanks Lynne for all your contributions, and even Michael began to get it a little. He certainly understood there was chocolate in his basket and nothing, not even the foil wrappers were going to keep him from eating it. :) We had a wonderful Easter dinner and a fun time all weekend, even with the hiccups. 

We have been talking about Resurrection for a little while, leading up to Easter, reading the New Testament, etc.  We talked about how the spirit leaves the body, the body is buried or put in a tomb or cave like Jesus was and then later the body and spirit are brought back together and then Jesus went back to Heaven with his body.  Over the same period of time we have been talking about, Andrew and Jacob have found two little dead baby birds in our back yard. We have a great big Saguaro cactus that I am sure holds a myriad of nests.  So, we buried the baby birds and talked about how the spirit left the body, etc.  A day later Andrew comes in and says Heavenly Father must not like this baby bird, his body is still here, it is still in the ground.  Why isn't he up in Heaven? At least resurrection is a concept we are beginning to understand. I am grateful for Christ's sacrifice so that we can all be resurrected one day and live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. Hopefully, He will like us. :) I know He will, even if we don't deserve it.

Random Pics

I decided to do the sixth picture of the sixth folder tag, but this computer doesn't store photos that way, so I am going to try to find 6 random pictures to post. :) Then, we had too many pictures, so I had to keep going. I think now there are 10 random pictures. :)