Two blog posts in one week? Don’t worry I am just making up for lost time, I wrote the Alexander Post two weeks ago when he turned one but then never posted because I was waiting till I took his official one year old picture. Besides I normally try to sit and write on Thursdays. Once again you may be alarmed because obviously it is not Thursday (at least not while I am writing, but who knows when you are reading this) but it feels like Thursday to me because last night I had my last YW activity with my girls. We went to the bishops Storehouse for some service and since the storehouse is only open on Tuesday we moved our Wednesday activity up a day. I had some bitter sweet feelings on Sunday as I was released from my calling over the 14-16 girls. I have been working with the Miamaid group since March 2005. This calling confronted two of my biggest fears, teaching and teenagers. I was at first called as a Miamaid advisor. The very first Sunday I was in the hall with the YW Pres. and 1st counselor and they jokingly asked if I had my lesson ready. They laughed at the shocked look at my face and thought they relieved me when they said they were joking and I wouldn’t have to start teaching till the next week. However I stayed in shock because apparently I hadn’t known when I accepted the calling that the advisor’s main responsibility it to teach the lessons each Sunday.
My other fear was interacting with teenagers and being reminded of my socially challenged days. Over time some of these girls became my friends and I stopped worrying about what they were thinking of my outfits or if I was cool enough. Then last year I was promoted to the 1st counselor and still stayed over the same girls but I was then in charge of the activities every week. It will be nice to technically have my Wednesday’s free; however Scott was called into the Scouts and will now have Wednesday night activities. I have been working on my Personal Progress over the last few years and my garden completed my third project. This last Sunday (about 3 minutes before I was released) I finally received my medallion. Didn’t this post say something about funny stories? I guess I got side tracked, that tends to be a bad habit of mine. The other day Scott helped the kids fill the bath tub for a bubble bath. The week before I had banned bubble baths because of the mess and the slashing, but the kids didn’t let him in on their punishment. By the time I walked by the tub was filled and kids were innocently playing and entertained so I didn’t say anything and let things take their course. Technically, Scott consented to the bathtub so in my mind that meant he was responsible and I didn’t pay much attention and got side tracked (actually I think I was downstairs with Scott). Opps! Well later on when I was on my way to tell the boys to get out, Matthew came running (naked of course) down the hall with a big grin on his face and a big (64 oz big) cup full of sudsy water. He then proceeded to dump the water, and said with excitement, “Look it cleans!”
Luckily I was close enough to grab the cup before he emptied the whole thing. When we went into the bathroom the whole tile floor was flooded and water was soaking the carpets. It was so sweet that they thought they were helping me clean, but they still got in trouble. We soaked up all the water with all the available towels in the house and then threw them in the laundry. I guess I did get a nice mopped floor out of it, which was their intention, but it was the exact reason why I had banned bubble baths the week before. When I went looking for Scott he had fallen asleep downstairs.
Another funny thing happened just this morning. I was watching a few kids and I kept trying to follow them. When they were downstairs, I went down and cleaned up the kitchen but then I realized I was alone. So I took my next project upstairs, and the same thing happened, over time I realized the kids had filtered downstairs. I think I should just use the baby gate and coral them all in one place. I decided to stop following and wait till they came back upstairs. After awhile I noticed that it was really quiet downstairs. Normally I would think they slipped outside in the backyard, but it was really wet outside so I doubted that. I tipped toed downstairs to check on the 5 little boys (that sounds like a lot, but remember 3 of them are mine).
I found the back door open, all the cushions were off the couch, and there was a trail of almonds on the counter. Then I noticed that all the boys were quietly hiding throughout the room and Jacob was hiding pantry with the fly swatter. Apparently my repeated phrase “Shut the door so the bugs won’t come in” came back to haunt me. They were looking for bugs and they were trying to lure the flies in with their tempting trail of food. I love kids and their wild imaginations. They had found the almonds and saw that there were already some nibbles on them so they knew that flies liked them. I closed the door and thought I put an end to that game, but then the next thing I knew they had moved into the garage and were looking for cockroaches.
