Almost Christmas (an update)

On Friday I was able to fly out to Utah with Miciah.   Traveling with just one child who is 9 years old is Heaven!  Course she was crying on the airplane about how bored she was.  "I told you that you'd be bored.  I told you to bring a book."  "I don't want to read."  "Then draw."  "I don't want to draw.  I just want to get off this plane."  "Well, at least stop crying so the rest of us don't have to be tortured by you."  See how caring and sympathetic I am?  I learned that at Mom School.

I was able to see lots of family (and I missed some family, too.  There's too many of you!), and that was great.  I went to the Downs Family Christmas Party and was able to be the one who ticks off Grandma.  It's a special place of honor.  I fought off 5 others for the privilege.

Interestingly (to me), I went to BYU campus and felt no love for the place.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't have any positive feelings towards it.  I do, however, have a love for BYU's chocolate milkshakes, and I was able to get one.  I even broke my rule about not eating if you're not hungry.  We'd just gone to Cafe Rio and it's impossible to be hungry after Cafe Rio, but I sacrificed so I could get my yummy shake.

On Sunday my mom and dad and brothers and sisters had a family party at Rob's Aunt Lisa's house.  She has a great big house that's perfect for entertaining, and we were delighted that she let us have our party at her house.  It was great to get together with my family.  I like them all a lot.  ...  Also fun:  My family doesn't really know Lisa, and Lisa is something of a celebrity.  My brother asked what she did to be able to afford such a great house.  I told him that she started a scrapbooking magazine.  My brother just kinda stared at me blankly.  It was awesome. 

The Wedding
Monday was the wedding!  My brother Collin got married to Katherine and I'm so happy for them!  Miciah and Dea (and others) were flower girls, and this is how adorable they were:

Seriously cute, right?  A friend I haven't seen in a long time turned to me when Miciah was walking down the aisle and said, "Oh, Tamra, she's gorgeous!"  It's true.  She's a beautiful girl.  But she's not cocky about it.  Someone told her once that she was so pretty and she said, "People at school tell me that all the time."  It wasn't a snotty comment, it was just a this-is-the-way-it-is comment.  I love that she's beautiful and doesn't really care.  She's just Miciah and it's nice that she's pretty, but she's still just Miciah.  I'm hoping she holds onto that throughout her life.

This is me and my mom and my sister Lori (my only sister) all dressed up.  Or, rather, they're all dressed up and I'm just kinda Tamra dressed up:

My sister is taller than me and my mom, but not THAT much taller.  She's wearing heals and I'm not.  She's about 4 inches taller than me.  It's funny, our girls, who are months apart in age, are keeping the same trend.  Dea is about 3 inches taller than Miciah at any given time.  It's a good tradition.

Another family tradition:  Collin got married in Sambas.  All the best people get married in tennis shoes!  They actually looked really really nice with his tux.  Much better than my white tennis shoes with my dress.  I should have gone for Sambas, too.  What was I thinking?!

I came home yesterday so that I could say Happy Anniversary to Rob.  He was saying, "I'm sure you're really tired," and I was saying, "Are you kidding?  It feels like 8:30!"  We had our traditional cheesecake and sparkling cider, and we'll celebrate further next week when we have a 2 day date.  Hurray!

And Christmas is in 3 days!  I better start actually wrapping the presents, I guess. 

Another Short Update

I'm not sure when Miciah became a grown-up little kid, but she's now a big little girl. :) I've been looking through older photos, trying to see when this magic transformation took place. I can't pinpoint it, but it's happened.

We're counting down days until school starts. It never occured to me as a kid that my mom would be counting down days until school started. Never realized she would be so done with summer, just like the kids. ... Miciah and Elijah are at each other's throats all the time. Elijah is hyper beyond hyper and Miciah, I think, is annoyed that she never has any time away from her brother. ... I told Rob that tomorrow, not only do I need time away from my kids, but we either need to do something as a family, or he needs to take one of them away so they're not with each other all day. Rob likes doing "dates" with the kids. They like it, too. Rob has only done one other date with Elijah. He liked that it was just him. It's a fun concept for him that he might be able to do something that Miciah doesn't also do.

Quick Trip to CA - K Marries S!

Other than being kid stressed (it must be Friday) and ready for school already (is it really still 3 weeks away? ), things are pretty normal. Rob and I did have a fun weekend, though! Friday we flew out to California. We got into my parents' house at 4 in the morning Ohio time and crashed. They let us nap Saturday, thankfully. We helped my brother move back into his place Saturday morning. Sunday we had a fabulous day in Carmel on the beach for my other brother, K's wedding party. K married S and it was a fun party. I thought about how much my kids would have loved being there, but I'm glad we didn't take them. It was a late night Friday and then an early morning Monday to go back home.

Thankfully we have friends who like us, or at least like our kids. The S's have 2 kids the same ages as Miciah and Elijah, so we left our two older kids with them. They had a fun weekend, I think, and hopefully the extra kids weren't too much trouble. Then we found a couple with older kids. They're just starting to have grandkids, so they were more than happy to take Teancom. They love babies and when we went to pick him up they told us we were taking their buddy away! I was glad that Teancom was good (like normal) and that they enjoyed having him around. Their two boys at home (older teenagers), they said, were trying to teach Teancom how to walk. :) Cute. ... She also said that Teancom was such a good sleeper, she should have sent all her kids to me for their first year. I told her that if Teancom's sleeping was MY doing, I would have done the same trick on Miciah.

"I Am Not An Authority As a Parent"

Which brings up a good point about parenting. I have a phrase that I tell myself, and others, often about parenting: I am not an authority as a parent. It's roughly the same phrase as the one I've heard my parents and other say about how you can't take much credit or blame (though I realize there is some in parental responsibility) for what your kids decide to do, or for how they came. Had I had Teancom or even Elijah first, I probably would have prided myself for being a great mom. An excellent baby who sleeps through the night and doesn't cry ever. What a good job I must be doing! But, instead, we had Miciah first. And she taught me to use, and love, the phrase: I am not an authority as a parent. :) Miciah isn't a bad kid, never has been (though she wasn't a good baby, that's for sure), but she does things her way and always has, probably always will. That's great! And I am not an authority as a parent.

Life is good. Count down with me until August 22nd. First day of school!

Tamra and family