Camps Camp

This weekend we...

Mayday, Mayday!

Have you ever felt like you were hovering over your own body and from a Birdseye view of whatever difficult situation you find yourself in, can see through non-biased lenses?

I know it's self-righteous to admit this, but I do feel like that sometimes. It's like an Omniscient Complex.  And though half of me is feeling one thing--like anger--another half of me is feeling completely ridiculous because I know whatever happened really isn't worth getting in a tizzy over. The situations are nearly limitless: interactions with people who don't share the same idea of what is tactful or not, saying something super unhelpful to my kids, gossiping, etc.

This happens when I'm upset about something breaking too.  For example, today was a day full of shattered glass... literally. Living room centerpiece vase, a second/substitute vase, and picture frame glass, each breaking within a 20-minute time frame... all very minor things in the grand scheme of things; but for some reason my first reaction was to stomp my feet really hard like a 4 year-old. Juxtaposed was this superior feeling that I should shake it off and use calm words with the sweet, however clumsy, little humans I gave birth to.  I think I ended going with a mixture of the two--saying things that would normally put them at ease, but with a totally frazzled attitude behind the words. Not totally effective, but not the worst I could have done.

This week (and probably earlier) has been full of those little moments.  One of my neighbors gives me "lessons" about flowers and horticulture nearly every time I talk with her and I just want to scream, "I know! I have a Bachelor's Degree in this stuff. You don't have to prove how smart you are!" However, I have not yielded to that temptation because the hovering Stacia, just like a shoulder angel, is just shaking her head with a smile at the woman saying, "bless her heart."  (Oh great, now it really DOES sound like I think I'm better than her. Oh well, just being real here.)

And yesterday was a whammie. I received a fairly bold text from one of Siena's friends' moms saying that I needed to have a serious talk with Siena about bullying her helpless daughter.  This was a first for me. I didn't even see it coming and I feel like I have a decent understanding of what goes on because I regularly talk to Siena about her day. They are good friends and play with each other nearly every day and like all kids, they have their disagreements and they're learning about what builds up or puts a strain on relationships.  Siena has mentioned times when they didn't see eye to eye or just wanted space from one another, but always the next day everything is water under the bridge because they are not old enough to care about holding on to grudges.  I felt like a horrible mom... then I felt embarrassed and sad that my daughter was hurting people's feelings... then I quickly turned into Mama Bear and defended my little cub because it just didn't seem like something she would do purposefully and the other girl tends to exaggerate. Juan and I sat down with Siena and after a long discussion I felt even more upset with that mom accusing our daughter so brashly without a speck of another side of the story to guide her reaction.  From everything that Siena had told us in a very remorseful tone (because she knew that she could have acted better that day with her friends,) she had very little to do with the other girl's bad day;  Though she wasn't completely innocent, she definitely didn't commit the horrors the other girl's mom had accused her of.  It was a good thing Juan was there because I was ready for a confrontation (I'm getting to be less and less scared of those, fortunately/unfortunately.). He was the one who prompted the shoulder Stacia to come out and mediate my hot temper.  I could not allow myself to freak out at the mom because I could already see the wildfire it would start.  I acted...hmmmm... mature.  With a response to her text that was both sympathetic as well as serious and purposeful, I would like to grant the win of that difficult situation to the Birdseye.  I think it's over now....

Anyway, the point of all this is that with this double-perspective, I think I may just be finally learning how to keep myself composed after all. Not that I will always listen to my should angel....

Year of Yard

I was ultra-excited to be a homeowner just for the fact that we would probably be able to invest more time, energy and $ into the yard. It never made a ton of sense to go all-out for landscaping in our previous rentals since we knew we were going to be there only a year or two.

Clearly, I had no idea what I was getting myself psyched up for. Yard makeovers are HARD! Especially when I am the one with the most "extra time" to spend out there working. Juan has helped whenever he can, which is rare since he's so busy, but it has been slow-going compared to what I thought it would be.

We started with the South side yard. I wish, I wish, I wish I would have taken a "Before" picture to explain the depth of difference. The previous owner(s) used it as a junk yard.  There were pallets, cinder blocks, tomato cages, bags of doggy doo, and decaying leaves galore heaped in a huge pile up against the fence. When I was clearing it out, I fully expected to uncover a body it was so gruesome.  And although I have grown up doing yard work since I was a wee babe, I still didn't understand how many steps there were, even just to get to a blank canvas. After the junk was hauled off to the dump or repurposed elsewhere, I tilled the ground as much as I could with my little tiller attachment to the weed whacker. Then the kids and I hauled out rocks (quite reminiscent of my own childhood) and I raked it as level as I had energy and patience for. I laid the landscaoing fabric down, cut it, and staked it. We laid a few pavers as a stepping stone-type walkway, then we applied bags and bags of mulch. Just to get it to that point cost us a little over $100 and about 10-15 hours of work. I planted a blackberry bush back there as per Juan's request, so we'll see if that survives. I'm happy it is at least not embarrassing anymore.

The picnic area has been even more of a project since we had to dig to find hidden sprinkler lines, remove about 4" of dirt throughout, "reverse" the reverse slope, artificially raise the window well height, level, lay landscaping fabric, apply mulch, haul in a picnic table, build two benches for a sitting area, paint the table, buy planter pots and plants to fill them and run drip-system sprinklers to those pots. It looks a million times better and once the benches are painted, we will take a long breather from that area. I'm getting burnt out!

Meanwhile, because I'm not distracted enough from being a good mom, I've been refinishing the hand-me-down piano that Brady and Lacee gave to us a little over a year ago. It was in the garage, much to the vexation of Juan, for about three or four weeks since the weather turned poor right before I was about to start. But I'm happy to report that after a good deglossing, masking job, emptying of four cans of spray paint, installation of new hardware, and finishing-off with a gold paint pen the project is complete. I just didn't have the initiative to finish it with polyurethane, like I know I should have. I hope my kids don't inherit my occasional half-heartedness.

But it's done, and that feels pretty okay to me.

Latest and Greatest!

Well, the Ez wet the bed (for the millionth time) again tonight, so I find myself wide awake and unable to fall back asleep at 5 in the morning. What to do, what to do....

Gonna blog.

I really should be grateful he wet the bed and woke me up to tell me about it because I haven't blogged all month long. I was on my way to falling behind on my goal for #StacCha25in2015... or whatever the hashtag was. So here goes:

We found out some exciting news on Monday at my 21-week ultrasound. We're having a GIRL!!! All systems are functioning properly and there was no scary news, so I am not worrying as frequently as I was prior.  Ez was in total denial until yesterday when he finally answered correctly the question of whether Mommy had a boy or a girl in her "fat tummy" (as he loves to point out.) Even at the ultrasound immediately when the tech announced the gender, Ez didn't even look up from the book he was reading to tell her point-blank, "No, it's a boy."  We are all so excited though for more sugar and spice and everything nice.

Ezra Turns 3!

There really is not more to say than what the following pictures already say. Ezra had a manly birthday. He and I took a field trip to Cabela's this morning while his sisters were at school. He loved every second of it! Then we went to lunch at Firehouse Subs, which made his day even cooler. Free kids meal, can I get a woot woot?! After we picked up Siena from school, we all got started on decorating Ez's cake, which is not the one actually pictured. It was covered in literal mountains of chocolate cake with frosting, gum drop pine trees, a little fabric tent and mountain animals from his toy box. The kids loved creating that cake almost as much as I did, though the perfectionist inside me screams for more trees and a river, (I am still learning to let things go.) We invited the family over for cake and ice cream and s'mores later in the evening. It was quite the day for the little guy, and judging by his snoring right now, he is in some type of sugar coma. I am awaiting the detox monster tomorrow....

FHE Tonight

Qiana gave the lesson about scriptures and keeping records. (That girl loves to prepare Family Home Evening lessons, by the way.)

Then, for our activity we painted self-portraits. This was a first for every single person, but it turned out to be quite an interesting and fun activity. We all appreciate artists and their talents so much more now.

Saturday is a Crazy Day

Saturday, in a nutshell:

Skiing at Shanelle's work party at Sundance.

Timpanogos Temple, so we could take some family names and accomplish another #staccha25in2015 goal. (Nearly fainted across the altar in the sealing room... again. Made a big scene, how embarrassing!)

Baby Shower for a sister in the ward.

Tio Jorge's 60th birthday fiesta to finish the night.

Phew! It was a tiring, but great day.

Flashback To That Time I Went To San Francisco

Clear back in January I had the amazing privilege of getting together with some dear friends from our Philly days in the beautiful city of San Francisco. Here are just some of our adventures:

Why yes, we did find a favorite brunch spot pretty quickly.  At Honey, Honey.

Clare, me, Sara, Danica, Jessica, Dani, and Lisa

We had... probably... just finished a meal and were... probably... planning out which places we needed to go to eat at next.  Sounds about right.

My morning sickness decided to make its debut the very weekend I left on this little trip. I was pretty miserable a good half of the time, but hey, if you gotta be miserable, at least be miserable in California. (Here I am at the Museè Mechanique... or spelled something like that.)

We walked... a lot. Like, we're talking miles and miles per day. It was great! Though the picture is blurry, my memory of this quaint alley we stumbled across is not. It was so picturesque with the city in the background, the surrounding lush foliage and quiet escape feel to the place. I could definitely live there!

We made it to Chinatown, but the visit wasn't too notable since we arrived pretty late. Here we are, taking a break on some dirty steps upon which I'm pretty sure someone had recently urinated....

The delicious brown butter smell that permeated the air in the block surrounding Tartine Bakery was almost enough to put me in an early grave it made me so nauseated. Brown butter! The smell I live for! Pregnancy oddities are just sometimes full of dark humor. Luckily, my craving to take part in all things Delicious won over my instinct to flee and I enjoyed the bread pudding and a quiche that my mouth is watering over at just the memory.

The contents of that Holy Grail of baked goodness.

Who can resist a good thrift store? Not us.

Who can resist a good fabric warehouse? Not us.

When in San Francisco, you visit The Painted Ladies, if only to sing the Full House theme song out in full vibrato. (No, I personally didn't do that; there were plenty of volunteers who knew the song much better than me.)

So, did I like the trip? No. I LOVED the trip. Will I ever miss a chance to hang out with these good friends? Not if I can help it. Speaking of which, we're already in the planning stages of the next trip: Savanna, Georgia March 2017!

Okay, let me sum up:

I'm doing dental marionette shows again with the Utah Dental Alliance for elementary schools in Utah County this month. It's been busy, but a good distraction from my nausea.

February has been unseasonably warm, of which we are not going to complain.

Ignore unfinished picnic area in foreground. Back there is Margo's lovely new kennel Chad and I set up one day.

Tea Party at preschool for "Letter T Week"

...but we do some learnin' too sometimes.

Visiting Brother Brätt, post-cancer surgery.

Ezra may have started to understand that he is no longer going to be Mommy's baby. Terrible Two's are going out with a BANG!

Modeling their new Valentine skirts (my only recent sewing project.)

There's a first time for everything. Ez finally got to "officially" go to the dentist.

Grandma Camp turned 80!!! I asked her what her advice to me was and she told me to just enjoy every minute with my family. 

Chad is living with us and it's just too perfect that his dog our dog are friends to let a week-long play date pass us by. (...and yes, they did have fun tearing up the back yard and pulling up old landscaping fabric. So. Much. Fun.) 

These munchkins have put up with a lot of griping and lazy days from their mama lately.  I love 'em to pieces!