Crush

I just picked up B from school. As I walked in Mikaela said, "Guess what Brigham's mom. Brigham has a crush on me."

My response was, "Does he even know what crush means?" When she nodded I asked, "Who taught him? Did you teach him what a crush is?" She just giggled.

When I later asked B if he liked Mikaela he said yes with his eyes all aglow. What the? His friend told him he should kiss her. That is going a too far. I have extracted from him a promise that he will never kiss girls, "except for you mom." Much better.

These are some more pictures we took at the reunion. I told L it was a potty and she was ready to use it! Cute kids. May I state once again how glad I am that I can stay home with my little monsters. At least until they get into school.

Some fun things have happened lately. I walk 3 miles every morning with my friend Luz. We always wave at people because we see the same people drive or walk by every morning. One little Asian couple drove by on their way home from the cookie factory. (Sometimes they still had their hairnets on... and we've seen them close to the factory.) The husband has always been pleasantly surprise when we wave... Now they wave at us first. : ) The other day they saw us and quickly pulled over, frantically motioning for us to approach the car. "Cookies for you! Cookies for you!" As they handed us a bag, the wife (who always drives... interesting little tid bit) was chanting it over and over. (It kind of reminded me of Alina's "papas fritas" story.) They had brought Luz and I a box of cookies. So sweet.

We have many other "wave at" friends, but my favorite is a girl who used to refuse to look at us. We have now won her over and I'm sure we will soon be swapping addresses.

The other day B heard some program announcing their web address and he told me he wanted to go there. Then thoughtfully he asked, "Mom, what do you think it says at Heavenly Father.com? " That's my boy.

S & B wanted to play in the water and S couldn't find her swimming suit. I put some shorts on her and had to force a shirt on her. She thought she should be able to go topless like B does. A few minutes later I looked out back to check on them. I found S running around topless and B peeing off the balcony. Beauty, eh? I'm sure nobody in the neighborhood thinks of us as white trash... well, mixed trash....

Now to church. I am not used to people not loving me, so this English ward is really throwing me for a loop. I haven't found any soul mates yet, but there are some nice people. There is also a clique of youngish couples that I really don't want to be in... but the women are always in nursery. My girls have decided to scream bloody murder if I don't stay in nursery with them. This is something quite new. I am sure that the three of them got together and planned it as torture for me, payback for leaving the Spanish Branch were they were goddesses... everyone fought over who got to take care of them or play with them. Now I must sit and listen to these women talk about hair and bodies and shopping etc. Every now and then I feebly try to enter the conversation... but I haven't been successful yet. Ick... After an hour of that E came to spell me off.....

Sunday School, I had no idea what the lady was talking about. She tries to share her thoughts but everything came out disjointed... or it didn't make connections in my brain....

Sacrament meeting... The science hater from the previous week in SS gave a talk. The week before he had mentioned that the world worshiped at the feet of science and blah, blah, blah... After church I went up to him to let him know how much I loved science... and that was exactly what I said. I just wanted him to realize that many scientist love God and recognize his power. OK... So, his talk was supposed to be about labor, work... but he spoke about Charles Darwin vs. Joseph Smith. He said many horrible things like only God knew how the earth was created so we should just wait until he tells us instead of wasting time trying to figure it out. At one point he read a quote, which I missed because of a small riot taking place in our bench, and then said, "Did you hear that Sister Castilony? I only say that because last week she accused me of being a scientist hater." Wow, now that was rude.

I must admit that I shed a few tears in the van after church...

Then I had to see his wife last night at scrapbooking. She spoke about how no one in the ward came to see her when she was in so much pain. Last night she kept saying, "She's not talking to me," and she would point at me. However, I had to "talk" to her quite a lot. She trapped me on the way out telling me about her daughters step-son and his abuse, her other daughter's reproductive history, her mom's Alzheimers, her yard... and much much more. Why did we leave the Spanish Branch again?

I must be off to announce the Book Fair at faculty meeting at B's school. Why do I love his school? Uniforms, teachers from Spain and Taiwan, Spanish spoken often everywhere and everyday, 25 kids per class, high expectations. Love it!

Love to all!

Julie

We went to the Evensen Heritage family reunion last Saturday. I was in heaven! The girls who planned it, Carrie and Sheryl, did so much work. They found recipes for chest rub, soap, raisin cake and bread in Great-great Grandma Margarethe's diary.... then they made samples of them all for us to take home! I bought a CD with so many great pictures and histories on it... including the journal of Margarethe. Glorious... I saw Grandpa Slade's brothers Uncle Chester (and Aunt Phyllis) and Uncle Jimmy. Lots of Dad's cousins were there and said to tell dad hello. Joyce, Kay and Vickie.... Sheryl and Brenda, Sandra's daughters (she is the daughter of Mary Fern). I was really sad to have just missed DeLeon and Sandra and Shauna & Dorothy... but I had a great time.

B's school... He is so cute. I guess last Friday was show and tell, but I didn't know until after school. He took a toy out of his back pack and told me he had shown it to his class for Show and Tell. What an independent little guy. Somehow I thought I would be consulted on important matters like these.

This is a picture of B's first day of school. That is S in the back ground checking out a Princess back pack that belongs to some girl in B's class. I couldn't tell you the name of any one in B's class because he doesn't know anyones names. At least he knows who is teacher is.

My sweet B had a great day at school. He said, "I love school!" at least five times on the way home. He mentioned that he didn't have any scissors when Mr. Garcia said, "If you are a boy and you have scissors, put them in this box." Who knows? I am guessing that it has to do with the list of supplies they asked us to donate. We took ours in last week. I am afraid that everything about school from here on out will be a little mysterious. Never knowing what he is really talking about. I well remember some of the stories I heard from parents when I was teaching.... about what they tried to piece together.

He said they played a game during recess with ocean animals. "I was an octopus, no a shark, a good shark. And we killed the bad sharks, ate them up." Hmmm.... that could go either way.

He ate school lunch... I must secretly admit that therein lied my biggest worry. How was he going to get to the cafeteria? Know where the trays were? Get catsup if he wanted some? Open his milk? Find the garbage? Carry everything without dropping it? Stay seated while he ate? Yes, I have been stewing about this all week. All seemed to turn out very well. "I didn't know we would have blue berries and uvas (grapes). My favorite!" When asked what else he ate, "Mac and Cheese." We have never really eaten "Mac & Cheese" at home, and we certainly have never said the words "Mac & Cheese." Who taught him that? Yet, another mystery.

I was excited to do homework with him, alas, there was nothing in his backpack. Mystery? And then there is the mystery of the name tags. B said out of the blue this afternoon, "Hey, the ladies didn't give back my card that I gave them to eat lunch." I certainly hope they kept it.

Thus ends my saga of sending my first child to his first day of school. I shed a few tears as he entered the classroom, but I could hold it together as long as I didn't have to speak. When E asked me what had happened when I talked to the secretary about school lunch, I cried quite a bit. It took him awhile to realize that he didn't have to be angry at the secretary. It was just requisite for me to break down a little watching our little guy grow up. I am crying right now as a matter of fact. Quite therapeutic, I would say.

Love to all!