Personally, I love it. Why? I'm not sure exactly, but it's a mixture of an aura of accomplishment, cleanliness, and therapy haha. It's a repetitive ritual, a time where the mind doesn't need to think of anything specific at all. To some people, their shower time is just like this, and I can't say I disagree, either. Because I love showers, too. :D Anywho! Trista claims she hates laundry (who wouldn't if they were a mom? She does like two loads a day!), but I think I caught a short video of what "laundry" really means to her and Sam haha.
Yup! Pretty fun, I think. (; That is what I came home to after running around town and dropping off applications to gyms. I received a ton of great advice and honestly have a great chance of getting a training job at the end of this month! 24 Hour Fitness here only has one female trainer, who is leaving, so they are looking to hire a new one once she's gone. I went in, talked with the head trainer (Joey), and we got along great. Talked a lot, got to know the place...My one downfall? Uhhh yeah, I'm not a certified trainer yet, of course. So my choices were to either pay a nice chunk of money to pay for study materials and take the certification exam OR wait until I get certified through BYU-I with my major and clusters. The certification was a lot more money than I expected, so I decided to let that glamorous opportunity go and keep looking. That's what my day consisted of last Wednesday! Except for one other part...
Chalk art!! Trista walked by my room and said, "I'm feeling creative: I'm gonna go make a masterpiece!"...I was so confused. So I went outside later to find Trista drawing this huge, street-wide "masterpiece" (; It took me a minute to figure out what it was. :P
It's a butterfly!! Saying, "GIMME UR NECTAR!"
I feel like our entire Lybbert family was blessed with some type of drawing/art talent. Except me; I don't draw worth squat. In second grade, I was even told, "No offense, Shelan, but you're not very good at coloring." Yup. What're best friends for? Oh yeah, ruining your coloring confidence. Anywho, yes, West is so detailed in his artwork. Dene' just draws all the time, and I remember her drawings/poetry always being in our room. Christian...well we all know he's got it, too. Hence the pile of artwork in the cement room back home, which used to all cover his wall in his room. Trista? She has paintings and photography of her own around the house, and she is simply just creative in all that she does. Mom and Dad? Oh yes. Artistic, indeed. Whether it's painting little snowmen with all us kids (and hers ALWAYS looking way better than mine), or drawings of one of Dad's new ideas for a Christmas light structure for the highway! But do I ever draw? Nah. I'm no good. But I have recently discovered something! While Trista was drawing her butterfly, we were talking about kids' progression of drawing, art presentations kids had to do, and doodling! Apparently doodling is an art. Alas! I can doodle! (:
The entire time we were outside drawing, the kids and the neighbor kids were out there either scootering or playing with bugs. Once they saw all the fun we were having, however, they jumped in. Trista even made up a game with different colors of chalk and shapes or something. Great fun! And what is chalk drawing if you don't get it ALL over you??
I went to work Thursday morning, bright and early at 6:30! Stephanie left for work, and I was watching baseball highlights from the week until the kids woke up. I've decided I need to take a few pictures of these crazy ones. Well little Nick (NuNu, Noodles, Nicky, Nicholas, etc.) isn't crazy really, so getting a picture was way easy. But Austin? Oy. He is diagnosed with ADD, and believe me, it shows! Haha. He likes to push things sometimes, can be a bully on occasion, and has fits over little things...But what kid doesn't? So one of these days, when he has slowed down a tad, I'll grab a picture. This Thursday morning, while I was making them eggs, Nicky decided he wanted to play and hide-and-seek. No problem with me! (:
Nick and Austin are complete opposites. For example, Austin had a severe meltdown today that I wouldn't let him wear his bedtime slippers to go to his friend's house. He is screaming and bawling, and tears out of the house screaming bloody murder. Oy. After I suggested his racing shirt and flip flops, however, he was totally cool with that. Nick? We went to the park with Trista, Sam, and Brooklyn earlier this week. Nick wanted to play with the drinking fountain some more, but he couldn't reach the button. He is two. No tantrum. No crying. He just runs over to me, says in a sad voice, "Yanny!" (Lanny) He says nothing else, just crawls in my lap and wants to be cuddled. I wish I had a picture, because Trista and I sat with him in my lap for 15 to 20 minutes on the edge of the park. I asked him questions to make sure he was okay, but he said nothing. Just hugged me as I rubbed his back. Gah. I pray for cuddly kids like him haha.
After taking Austin to school and putting Nick down for a nap, Stephanie comes back from work, and I head home. It's always wonderful walking into the house after a long morning at the Johnson's. I am perfectly compliant when Brooklyn says, "Lanny, let's get out the playdough." Okie dokies!
I worked for a couple hours on Friday, and then Trista, Dut, and I were all stoked to get out and go camping with a bunch of other unschooling/homeschooling families! Oh my word, there were so many people! 25 familes, more kids, and a bit overwhelming. One of the funnier moments other than when it was just Sam and I falling asleep in the tent? I was sitting on a bench by the 6 kids attempting to make a fire, and Russ sits down with me, sighing heavily, and saying, "Ahhh, ain't it great to be an introvert?" Baha. Yes, indeed. I am perfectly content sitting there, people watching, and only knowing Trista's family.
The next morning, on Saturday, was the ONLY day of the year Russ's work lets family and friends in! He had even gone so far as to do the paperwork so that I could go in, too! Really interesting, honestly. Afterwards, we got lunch, and they all headed back to camp. I had another baby-sitting job that night, so I stayed, relaxed, sat in the sun, ate, and left early to walk downtown and read next to the water fountain. (:
Sunday was great! Church was relaxing, and we had awesome speakers from 3 people I had gotten to know the previous week. All were to choose an article of faith and speak on it. Oh yes. It was great.
Monday? Insane day of work. Tuesday, though...Berkeley's Hall of Science! Holy cow. It was intended for kids, I think, but I loved it haha. So many cool things! There's even a life-size whale out front for kids to climb on and such, so of course we got a couple pictures. These three pictures are hard to see, but I find them amusing. Sam didn't totally trust that I could pull him up for the picture, I think. So this is him testing his faith in me haha.
"Should I twust hewr? I dunnooo."
"Owkay...Hewe it goes..."
"Ow!! My awms!" Haha.
And here is the quick, final result haha.
One thing here at the Hall of Science was a deal about height. They had life-size cardboard cutouts of a college volleyball middle hitter and another college basketball player who plays post. I look at the girl and think, "Whaaat? No way. I'm not much shorter than that!"...Uh yeah. Apparently I have a You-Are-NOT-As-Tall-As-you-Think-You-Are syndrome. Because I measure myself to the middle hitter and find that I am maybe to her neck haha. But I did measure myself! They doctor was right: I am not 5'4", I am not 5'5".
I am 5 feet and 4.75 inches. SO close to 5'5" haha.
There was also a cool mirror-filled triange you can climb in. So, of course, Sam and I did!
"Wanny, wet's show ouwr butts!"
"Uhhh okay..."
As Sam and I played around, Trista promised to help Brooklyn make a soft block tower. What's the fun of a tower if you can't knock it down, though?
There was a pretty sweet station there where the kids could make "contraptions" and put them through wind tubes on either low, medium, or high. Pretty cool! Well Sam got bored of throwing cups, pipe cleaners, etc. up them, so he climbed in...
Needless to say, it's been another pretty great week. (: Did lots of my own laundry yesterday, and it's covering my bed right now. Yes, I am currently sitting on it. After I did some laundry, Trista was supposed to go grocery shopping for dinner, but she didn't feel like leaving the house. Neither did the kids. So she gave me the list, and off I went. I came home to the house smelling like Trista's amazing granola (LOVE it). She did lots of cooking last night, and I certainly don't mind. :P Granola, crazy good salad that I can't remember the name of (help Trista?), stir fry (with her own homemade sauce), and then after the kids went to bed...Chocolate no-bake cookies! Whoots!! Such a talented, multi-taskin' mama!
No, she does not know I secretly took this picture...Yet.
Trista has been thinking that Brooklyn would really love Harry Potter, so she checked out the first book from the library yesterday morning, and Trista read to all of us out loud. (: I felt like a little kid again, when Mom used to read Harry Potter to West and I on the couch. I was SO relaxed, I even fell asleep on the couch a bit. But yes, Brooklyn cuddled in Russ's arms, while Trista read the first five chapters haha.
I went to work this morning, and the kids didn't even get up until almost 9. Pretty uncommon, but I didn't mind watching a couple of college softball games. (; It was a pretty easy day (minus Austin's meltdown I mentioned earlier). And what do I come home to? Trista teaching Sam some of the Kempo from P90X haha. Great stuff!
Anywho, it's been a nice "Stay at home all day and do nothing but chuckle at Brooklyn, who is watching Tom&Jerry in German, Tarzan 2 in Dutch, and Lion King in Spanish"... (: I'm off to go put on some sweats and listen to some more Harry Potter!
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