Scripture Camp and Girl Drama

This last week Coen and Beckett attended scripture camp at church. They loved it and all the ladies who organized it did such a great job. But my favorite part of the week was the romance drama.  

One day a friend texted me to tell me that her daughter told her that Coen and she were boyfriend and girlfriend. I was excited to hear Coen's version of events when I got home. 

Coen told me that Kennidi asked him to be boyfriend girlfriend. 

Me: what did you say?

Coen: I told her we should definitely NOT consider that. But I don't think she understood because she told people we were boyfriend girlfriend. 

(My opinion knowing this little girl- she understood but just continued on with her plan, she knows what she wants and makes it happen, regardless of others opinions. My kind of girl.)

Me: Are you going to talk with her to clarify your feelings?

Coen: No, I'm just going to ignore it until she forgets. (Already handeling things like a man). 

The next day it was so funny to watch Kennidi try to hold his hand and Coen squirming away. Then her little sister declared her love and devotion to Coen and a territorial hand holding contest began. It was so funny! 

I look forward to the years of pre-adolescent boy-girl silliness ahead of us. 

Just because I feel like I should record it, Coen and Beckett's favorite part of the week was going to the temple and the stripling warrior day. 

Back to School Night

Today was back to school night for the boys. But first they had their playoff games for their basketball tournament. The school did a great job with this. There was a popcorn machine and they blared We Are the Champions after every 15 min game. What more could you want? Beckett very sweetly asked Alma if he could come so Alma got up at an inhuman hour this morning and went to work early. He still didn't make it in time for Beckett's game but surprised us all by showing up for Coen's. 

These two boys LOVE basketball. They play every day for hours in our drive way. Coen is actually starting to get aggressive and really go after the ball. 

After basketball we sat and watched a heated four square game while we waited for the BBQ to get ready. Our school has a BBQ before the classrooms open so every one can eat dry hamburgers and visit and play more vicious four square.

This year one of the fourth grade classes set up a "Wax Museum" in the woods. Anyone could walk around and push the characters buttons and they would talk to you. Mostly famous Californians and a few other random famous people. Some of my favorites: Jack London, Ceasar Chavez, Jauqes Cousteau, Julia Morgan, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, and Dorthea Lange. I was concerned about why the teacher allowed one of the kids to be Larry Flint, but Coen and Alma pointed out that he was Franklin Delanoe Roosevelt not the porn king pin. Which made a lot more sense. But in my defense the kid was in a wheel chair and had his hair slicked back, wearing a bad suit and had a freakish resemblance to Larry Flint. I should have gotten a picture and then you all would be amazed at the mini hustler. And the little girl below was John Wayne. I took the picture for Andrea so she would have hope for public education and future generations. Andrea you can't tell but under her hat that hair was reddish! Now that I think about it I needed a picture of Cesar Chavez too! He had a serious mustache. 

Then my kids insisted we walk through every single classroom at the school. We even checked out the Kindergarden class room. And per usual the decision was made they would be happy with most any of their possible teachers.

Teddy Bear Parade

One of my favorite days of the year is the Teddy Bear Parade. All the children get to march and celebrate reading. Sadly after thirty years this will be the last year for the parade. I think I live in the most beautiful place. 

Marching past the firehouse, Methodist church in the background.

Coen's class did Sarah Plain and Tall, and inexplicably funny hats.

Jr High Band. The best parades have Jr high bands. And that is one of my favorite houses down town.  

Rowen as Davy Crockett. He always has the best costumes. A boy after my own heart.

Coen and Kathryn

Beckett and his buddies on the way to the parade. You see they walk about 1 1/2 miles to walk two blocks down Broad street.

Cute little mice all ready to walk. 

Memories of Mexico

Here I am, trying to plan our upcoming vacation. Did you know there is nothing this family loves more than planning a vacation? We are leaving for New York in a week. And we are in last minute planning mode. As usual we are making our lists of activities, we want to do and comparing everyone's lists, and trying decide what we can realistically do.  So instead of doing that, or my charts, I am looking at pictures on memoir from our vacation 4 years ago. 

Remember that time I introduced the boys to my need to walk every where, and they learned the phrase death march? 

And Beckett was having NONE of it.

Until he got a nice cold drink.

And then he passed out. 

Good memories.

I am looking forward to making new memories in a few weeks. I love seeing the world with my boys. And because they are too cute here are a few more pictures of these sweet boys.

First Day of School

Well I forgot to get the camera- because my brain is mush right now. So here are a couple of low quality pics with the phone. The boys had no interest is holding still for 3 seconds to get a photo taken.

But they sure were happy to be going to school. 

Coen was tired of the mom trying to take pictures.

This year Coen wasn't so happy about the teacher he got. I liked who he got. So we had several discussions about this new transition. At the end of the day he said very seriously "Mom I kept an open mind, and I gave it a try and I already like him." Shortly after that we ran into Annie who told Coen her friends who had Mr. Carr loved him. Coen said "I already love him too!"

I hope we have a good year, even though we were only a few days into the year and Coen was starting his daily whine about wanting to stay home with his mom. 

A little collection of randomness

As part of my commitment to blog a little more I went through the last few weeks of pictures and picked a few to show you a little of what is going on in our life this week. 

There are a lot of great flowers in the yard!

Grandma and Grandpa Conley took the boys camping with Joseph in the Mt Lassen park for a week. It was great to have a kid free week- except both Alma and I got really sick. But before that happened I was able to go out for sushi and a pedicure with my girlfriend Becca. I got this great kelly green pedicure. I loved it. The problem was the lovely lade doing it then put on neon yellow flowers and as a topper she added a red gem. Not really for me. This picture doesn't really give you a feeling for how bright it really was. And as an extra special treat- I took this picture while taking a bath because I was talking to Becky and she wanted the craziness recorded. That being said I got a ton of compliments this week. So I keep getting to say thank you for something I really don't like. 

These are the colors of the chairs for my new waiting room- I am starting to get really excited. This is really the only fun thing to buy. Pictures of autoclaves and vision testers are not as fun to look at.

Now Don't Have a Heart Attack

Yes, folks it is true. I am updating the blog. And I am including random pictures of the kids at the river. this is what summer is all about for me- lazy hot afternoons at the Yuba River. This was just a quick evening run with Becky and her kids when they stopped in town on their way to Oregon. Is there anything better than being in the canyon with the trees and cold river water, the water smoothed boulders? I think this is one of those magical spots that speaks to all Nevada County natives. But the pictures have nothing to do with the update- just included for fun.

 

After months of listening to the guilt trips from Becky for months. I am finally sitting down to write a little bit. This summer I realized that there are several people in my life who this little blog is our primary form of communication. And not just the acquaintances that it would be nice to keep in touch with. It is some of the women I love and value the most. Who live far from home but I wish were a part of my every day life. Women who love me and my kids. I realized I missed our virtual relationship. I missed the comments and sharing of our lives. So I am recommitting to this silly little thing called a blog. But more importantly I am committing my long distance friendships, to sharing a little part of me with those I love (and any stranger who happens across my little corner of the internet).

It isn't that there isn't anything for me to share. In fact the problem may be that I have too much to share. this has been a transformative year for me. In almost every aspect of my life things are drastically changing.

 

The most obvious one is that I have lost 35 lbs this year. I still have a ways to go. But I am happy with my progress so far. I am having a very stress filled summer so my goal is just not to gain any weight until October and then I will shift focus back to the weight. I know Andrea, you want a picture. I will get on that. I think there are some okay ones from Ohio.

But the even bigger change has been that I have started a new medication and it has given me 5-6 totally pain free hours a day. I still need to do my regular massage and exercises. I still need a little vicoden- but I can't tell you how amazing it is to have pain hours every day. After 4 years of almost constant pain I can't believe how amazing life is with a little pain free time every day. It is the first time I have felt hopeful about the future in a long time. For so long I have been terrified of a future with unending pain.  But now I can see a brighter future.

 

An even bigger change it that I have started therapy as well this year. I have had such great success with the medication for my back and it convinced me that this pain is mostly stored anxiety and trauma. So I decided to try some EMDR therapy. This was a good decision. I have had some progress there- but a lot more work to go. A couple of amazing moments have made all the work worthwhile.

There is still more.

 

I have also been in the process of leaving the pediatrics practice I have been at the last ten years. I will go into a partnership with one of the pediatricians I have been working with. The opportunity to own my own business, to make my own decisions about patient care and how the office should run. It is an amazing opportunity. But it is also crazy stressful and terrifying. There is a lot of money invested, a million decisions and things to oversee, and a new working dynamic to figure out. I have noticed that the weeks that are getting more and more stressful are also weeks that my pain is worsening. So you can see why I am putting the weight loss to the side for the summer. I am just happy that with all this stress my weight is just holding steady.

 

I am looking forward to sharing all the fun things we have been doing this year. We have had trips to Texas, Michigan, and Ohio this summer. So I will keep posting so you can all see the great things our family has been up to.