Mama

I just found out that my Granny is on life support. She didn't want that and so sometime tomorrow when her family is gathered around her, they will take her off. Although I don't like some of the decisions my Granny made as a young woman and the effect it had on my mama's life, she was the parent and the constant in Mama's life. And I ache to think of the pain Mama is feeling now. I am sure she is remembering her right now and seeing all the good things she did for her. And it has made me remember again why mothers are so important and that no matter what, the deep love you have for them. I want to remember some of the good things my mother has done for me.
I know she loves me and thinks that I am important. And some days when I am not sure if anyone else feels the same way, I can call her and she will listen to me and lift me up.
She has always been my cheerleader. She and I started my journey as an actress together. She was the one who took me to all the classes and auditions and sets. I will always remember her confidence in me and the fun times we had together. Now when I have an audition (very rarely) I have to go by myself. :) She is a part of every one of my successes.
She taught me to be strong. She has taught by example and has turned out five strong women. She is so capable. She can do almost anything. I always had the best costumes of everyone on stage when she was the making my costumes. She makes beautiful blankets and she was telling me of the matching suits she made for Daddy and Bobby when he was little.
She holds our family together. She is the connection between all of us.
When I got married, I subconsciously tried to become her. I knew if I could do all the things she can do, I would be a good mother and wife. I love my Mama and want her to know that I think she is a wonderful woman and I am so grateful for her and that she is so many things to me. And that if she ever left this earth, I would be left with a void in my life. And so, I hope the void for her own mother won't be too painful and too hard to overcome. I love you, Mama. And I love Granny and am glad for the good changes she made in her life and that she did the best she could to make the most of a hard life. I wish her joy and peace.

Beautiful messes

On thursday, Michael had therapy. The therapist pulled out her original report from October 7 and we evaluated the goals we had set for our little Michael. And in 7 weeks he had accomplished all of them! Hooray, Michael! So, now we are celebrating the mobility and thus the messes that Michael can now create. He loves to crawl to the bookcase and pull out all the crayons, pencils, etc. and make a huge mess. And I can't help but smile. And we are working on cruising and standing up on our own. The therapist says she isn't in a hurry for him to walk, because crawling really helps with strength building and he is still weak. 

Testimonies

Last week after church, Andrew told me he wanted to go up and say something at the pulpit. So, since Fast Sunday was coming up we had a Family Home Evening on testimony.  We each practiced bearing our testimonies behind the rocking chairs aided by pictures of Christ, prayer, etc. So, today Andrew told me again he wanted to go up there. Then right before we got up, he told me that he really wanted to bear his testimony, but wanted to wait until he was a little older.

He decided to come up with me anyway, but was too scared. Then tonight he gathered all of his snakes and stood in the doorway and said, hello, everyone. I want to bear my testimony about snakes. He talked for a while about snakes and then said, I am thankful they can be a family and that God created them. I choked up a little. :) Sometimes, it is nice to see when they are really getting something. :) This is his school picture. I can't believe he is old enough to have a school picture. 

5 joys, fears

I am a little slow on this tag. :)

5 joys:

3 little boys

1 big boy

Christmas time

My family

My Saviour

5 little things that make me happy:

crawling

smiles

reading

dragonflies

holding little hands

5 fears:

losing someone in my family

never settling down somewhere

being a bad mother

not progressing from who I am now

giving up

5 surprising things:

I sometimes forget to brush my teeth

I'm scared to have a little girl - if we ever mange it!

I almost like the Arizona weather - the winter is great!

I don't feel like a grown up, even though I have three children, been married for 7 and a half years and am nearing 30.

I don't love jelly beans anymore. I still like them, but in college I might have been a little obsessed!

Ronald Andrew Selim 11/11/2002

Putting together Hungry, Hungry Hippo

He looks so grown up with his cake

T- Rex cake, slightly damaged.

Andrew at the Dinosaur McDonalds

Funny Dinosaur masks

My little Tiger

Andrew, at home in his crib for the first time

My tiger, Andrew is 6 years old! My tiny baby is a big boy. On Monday, we made cupcakes and took them to his school where we sang happy birthday. He wanted chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and dinosaur colored sprinkles. Then, since his birthday is on Veteran's day Jeremy and Lynne had the day off work so we had a bowling party. He has been wanting to go bowling for a long time. So, we all bowled with the bumpers on and discovered that although we are not the best bowlers it was really fun. Andrew came in second place. And even Michael pushed a couple of times. Jacob was so excited whenever any pins fell down and somehow managed to get a strike. 

We had pizza there and blew out candles on his dinosaur cake. The dinosaur cake didn't quite make to the bowling alley unscathed. Oh, well. We opened presents there and Andrew loved everything. Thank you everyone. 

We came home and played games, built a new train track with the new pieces and then ended his birthday with a trip to the Dinosaur McDonalds. It is a McDonalds with a dinosaur theme and of course, Andrew loves it. 

We have played so many games of Hungry, Hungry Hippo and are still watching the ants in the ant farm every waking moment. It was a great birthday for our big boy.

Halloween and random thoughts :)

Our elaborate costumes

Check out his short hair!

Michael pulling up on me and the shell on his costume.

We had a fun halloween this year. Jeremy's show that night was cancelled due to low ticket sales, so he was able to be there. We went to the library where the boys decorated cookies, made blow pop ghosts, spider watches and jack o lantern faces. They had a trick or treat through the library where they accumulated non- candy treats. Then we went to the church party, where we had scary foods. We brought frog eye slime in a witch's cauldron. The boys thought it was so fun to add the green food coloring to the tuna casserole. It looked really gross, but still tasted good. :) Lynne brought down some of her great Halloween decor and we decorated a door for trick or treat down in the primary rooms. They had some fun songs with the bishop and his wife and some games to play.

We had three T's this year - a tiger, a Thomas the Tank Engine and a turtle. The pictures don't quite capture the cuteness of the turtle. I will post individual pictures soon.

Michael is making some strides lately. He can get from his stomach or back into a sitting position all by himself. He can now go onto all fours and takes a few crawling steps. He is great at pulling up to his knees and we are working on getting all the way up. He can say Ball now. I am really seeing more of his personality now and I am excited to see my little guy exploring his world.

Andrew has been coughing for two weeks and last thursday after I finally got him to school (we had a flat tire ) he joined his class outside. After all that running around on his weakened body, it gave up and he threw up all over a couple of his friends. So, we have been dealing with the virus going all through our family. No fun. But, the sad part for Andrew was that Friday was his very first field trip and he didn't get to go. He was so sad. He kept asking me if he could go to school. We rented a movie with a dinosaur in it and let him watch it while his class was at the zoo. Andrew's class also voted for president. He says he almost voted for John McCain, the old man, but decided to vote for Barack Obama, because he was so tall. It seems that was the most important characteristic on voting for the president.

Jacob went to the doctor and he is now 32 lbs and 36 1/2 inches. He seems so big to me, but he is a little small for his age. Fiery, though. He loved being Thomas the train for Halloween. He spent the whole time in costume 'choo-choo' ing everywhere. He always put his hat on sideways or backwards. He is so funny.

When we got to church today, there were protesters with posters on the sidewalk. They were upset about the marriage amendment passing here in Arizona. While it never escalated, I have begun to understand how prophets in the past were stoned to death or imprisoned. Emotions by the opponents to these amendments have surprised me, I didn't expect them to pinpoint our church as much as they have, especially in California.

October

We drove down for about an hour to a pumpkin patch where we could pick our own pumpkins. We had to fight through some overgrowth with spikeys, but it just added to the adventure. :) We picked out a perfect pumpkin and a small baby pumpkin.


I neglected to pack sunscreen and Michael kept his hat on for about two minutes after the first picture was taken. It is October and it is still hot! It was fun, though. They had a petting zoo and a children's maze. The kids loved a baby goat, the picture just shows them swarming it, too bad, it was cute. Andrew did great with the maze. He only climbed over one wall. :) We even had a sack race.
This was Andrew and Jacob playing in the water in Phoenix. We went and had lunch and played in between Conference sessions. We missed Aiden this time, though. We really enjoyed spending the weekend with Lynne. Conference was wonderful and we feel lucky to have grandma around.
After we watched the last debate, Jacob was running around saying 'barackobama, barackobama'. It was all one word and he thought it sounded cool. Then he asked, 'What is barackobama?' Pretty funny. Jacob and I are having fun at home while Andrew is at school. He helps me with Michael and likes to do 'homework' with me. He has some preschool workbooks that I have him work on when I am helping Andrew with his homework, so sometimes during the day we pull them out. We made our own paint with flour, water and food coloring, which was fun and not even that horrible to clean up.
Michael is in therapy and it is going well. The therapist said in just two weeks she is noticing greater trunk control and he is starting to pull up on things and gets on all fours(almost, usually his legs are perpindicular to each other) and has started clapping. I think he is close to crawling.
He is still quite the Mama's boy, but did well when I shot the commercial. Which was fun to shoot and a nice break. But, it was stressful arranging babysitting, someone to drop off Andrew at school, pick him up, getting everything ready so Jeremy could get them ready before he went to work, etc. Everything went smoothly, but whenever I had any downtime, which wasn't much, I was worrying about them. I don't leave them very often, especially Michael. It should air down here in November.
Jeremy's play Loves Labours Lost is up and running, which eases his schedule a bit, we actually had him home Mon, Tues and Wed night this week. His classes are going well and is he is working on job applications for next year.
Andrew is doing well in school and is doing well in his reading. He can read several books all by himself. He has made friends at school and seems to have ironed all those kinks out. He is getting tall and I can't believe he will be six next month. He is a great big brother.
We have had a fun October so far, we even had a short cold spell, but then popped back up into the 90's. Jeremy keeps reminding me we live in the desert. I am sure I left plenty out, but its a start!