You'll never believe this one...

If you've read this blog, you've seen pictures of Noah sleeping in strange positions and different places, 

but this one I wouldn't have believed if I just heard it.  This is truly a "seeing is believing" moment.

Here he is in the back of the Suburban, on Jason's baseball equipment bag during a Mudhens practice.

I don't know if I should feel sorry for him or laugh that he really does this.

Spanish & ISIS

Ten days ago, our Faith-y turned 10 years old.  She had a sleep over with a couple of friends and a party the next day with more friends.  They had fun running around and we even made an attempt at tie dying socks.  (I say "attempt" because they didn't hold the dye because this Mommy forgot to make sure the socks were 100% cotton.)  We'll try again next year, but maybe we'll do headbands instead.  Here they are eating their ice cream treats.

 

Being 10 comes also with it's share of downs to go with the ups, with most of that falling into the category of homework and added responsibilities.  If you didn't know, Faith has only one other classmate in her actual grade, so they are combined with the grade above them.  They all get along great, but some days, the pace of early 'tweens gets to a sensitive girl.

Last week, she was having a hard time getting to sleep and I usually realize that she's got lots on her mind and just needs to release some of the stress before she can get any rest.  After a couple nights of bedtime routine stalling, I sat down to ask her what was up.  The proceeded to tell me her worries about not knowing as much Spanish as she thought Fr. Zach thought she should know.  I know, she worries enough for most of us.  This is her first year learning Spanish, and to Fr. Zach's credit, he is immersing them in it, and they are stressing about it.

As we continue on, she then mentions that Fr. Craig was in their class that week also.  (Yes, we are blessed to have 3 priests in our area that are great with kids!)  So he was talking about Christian persecution.  I don't know if someone asked a question or what, but what he said sunk right to her heart, and she started telling me, "He was telling us about these people that go around killing people (*begins to wail) THAT LOVE JESUS!"  So at this point, she was crying hysterically and I had to reassure her that ISIS was not coming to our house (hopefully not anytime soon anyways) and that even if they did, we would just have to pray and trust that God would protect us. 

What was so beautiful about it, was that her fear was real BECAUSE she loves Jesus, and although I would never hope that my children would die because of their faith, my prayer is that they have a faith strong enough that they would not be afraid to die proclaiming it.  That they love God so much, that no evil could convince them to turn from Him ever, even in the face of death.  As a parent, I hope that that death is only one of death-to-self and not a physical one.  I truly had a God-filled moment when I heard her innocent but mature 10-year old love of Jesus and witnessed her live up to her name.

Hair raising issue

Well, the good news is that lice shampoo smells pretty good.  The bad news is that I now know what lice shampoo smells like. 

It's the call any parent dreads..."You need to come pick up so & so, because we found evidence of lice."  EW!  I'm just itchy and squirmy thinking about it! 

Luckily, only 1 of the 4 in school had it in their class, but unfortunately, you still have to treat them all as if they actually have it.  So after I got home from working this morning, I had to set out in search of lice treatments.  To save myself possibly an hour of driving to Marshall, I headed to our little grocery store to find out if they had any.  After a short visit in the aisle, I QUIETLY asked the cashier, (because there were 2 people in that aisle, which is usually empty every other time I'm in there!), if she knew if they had any.  She briefly looked and then to my dismay, went to the register and uttered into the microphone, "Brad, do we have any lice treatment?!"  (NOT quietly I might add.)  Now not only am I fidgety because my kid has lice, now it's being announced over the loudspeaker and now everyone else in the store knows that I'm looking for cootie treatment!

I quickly set out to my next destination, to buy more than enough treatment to delouse the entire block.  I had to make sure I got enough to treat everyone initially, plus some spray to treat things that I couldn't put in the washer, not to mention another spray that you could put directly onto hair (just in case the shampoo didn't work the first time) and a preventative shampoo to keep the critters away until this all gets under control.  Can you say "overkill"?

As if going through lice treatment isn't enough, adding insult to injury is washing everything that your child has come into contact, pretty much EVER!  Every single bed was stripped of all the blankies, mounds of pillows and stuffed animals and hauled to the laundry room.  Every blanket that was used that I could find had to get washed, and unfortunately it was nearly every one.  My laundry pile looks like Mount Everest and I will be washing well into tomorrow, and if I'm lucky, I might actually get to my "real" laundry on my day off!

Let's just say that today has been "a case of the Mondays" so I will be glad when it's over.  For now, we all have clean heads and clean sheets.  And even though I wasn't a hero, because all of the pillows and blankies were not done by the time bedtime came, I know that I battled the bugs and hope to come out victorious.  If anything, we'll all at least smell good in the process!  So, I'm at least happy that we don't smell like medicine cabinets, but it's also a smell that I hope I won't have to experience ever again!

Noah..."The Cuteness"

 I know I'm biased, but this kid kills me with his cuteness on a daily basis!  After 5 kids, I think I finally started really embracing the toddler age, and just wanted to share a few of his adorable moments.  Like...

...falling asleep wherever he is....

...rockin' the tie...(He just loved it & would have slept with it on probably!)

First day with his new shoes...just couldn't stop touching them, even when he fell asleep!  A year ago, I couldn't get him to keep shoes on, and he wore these all day until I finally convinced him to take them off before bedtime!

Here are 2 videos (sorry the one is sideways...that's what I get for trying to video with a device different from my usual!) 

This is him displaying his hopscotch skills. 

 

The next is him at the Children's Museum.  An assistant saw him having so much fun with stuffed dinosaurs, she mentioned that they had a costume.  Here's how it transformed him...

Myhre family continues to grow!

 Here is an updated picture of the Myhre cousins and how much they've grown.  We realized how much they are growing up when, after we took this picture, noticed that it only took a minute to get the desired picture, and finally, with not a one of them asleep or crying!  (Timing can be attributed, but the fact that most of them are now school-aged, helps quite a bit.)  This is taken at our yearly trip to Lake Cocharan in SD.  Lots of fishing, tubing, swimming, playing and eating & most of all laughing and having a great time together!

 Growing up, I didn't have any sisters and didn't have a girl cousin to play with until I was 13 years old.  Now I have 6 beautiful sister-in-laws, 2 on my side and 4 on Jason's side.  Bridget is our most recent addition with her and Jason's youngest brother, Craig, getting hitched on June 20th.  This picture was taken with Jason's mom, Mary, at a cousin's wedding.  We realized we were all "color coordinated" and it would make a neat picture.  Mom brightens us up in the picture just as she does in life.  So blessed to have so many wonderful sisters in my life and I love every one of them and we all get along like we've spent a lifetime together.

Oh, and speaking of growing family...Teresa & Seth are expecting baby #4!  You can't really see her baby bump because of the black dress (and because she's tiny anyways!), but we know soon there will be a new little Myhre to hold.  Picture L-R:  Teresa, Bridget, Stephanie, Mary, Janice & me.

Reno 911

No, not the show...these are renovations to our home and even though they were not emergencies, they have been projects that had been put aside since we moved in 15 months ago.  Not only did we finally get the time to do them, the desire to tackle home improvement projects has emerged again.  The patio deck was one of the many things I noticed that needed attention when we bought the home, but it's one of those projects that requires the right conditions for it all to work smoothly and quickly.  Fortunately, the weather (and the kids) cooperated well and I was able to get this one tackled in a few days time.

  

 

 The next step will be to re-paint all of the posts...not really excited to dig into that!!

So this unfinished built-in is right in our front entryway, so there's no hiding this.  There were unfinished shelves and it had become the catch-all area for everything I needed handy, but didn't know where to put yet.  My goal was to build it into a bench/basket holding/coat hook hanging area, but as we started to take the shelves off, we realized that it was going to be more work to sand it all down and it really wasn't going to turn out like we wanted, (OK, how I wanted!)  

So after staring at the bare wall for a day, I re-vamped my plans and changed it into an area for my Dad's old buffet cabinet and shifted my organizational wall to the other side of the door, making for a better flow into the living room.  We haven't quite finished making the hanging shelf to put above the bench that we re-claimed from the school. 

Once again, this was a project that consumed more time that originally planned because when we took out the plywood, we discovered that it was glued to the sheetrock.  Well, anyone that knows what happens to sheetrock when you pull off things attached with glue, is that it usually means you have to replace it or patch it.  Luckily it was only on one wall and Jason was able to patch it beautifully so you could never tell what was there before.

Of course, when you uncover things, you find other things that need attention, and in this case, it was unfinished baseboard trim and flooring that didn't go close enough to the wall to be covered by average base trim.  More monkeying around with that, but Jason worked his magic and made it look great.

 

I love the new look and am excited to get the other shelf up before backpacks and coats start piling up as school starts.  Updates to come!

Record setting

It's not one I'm proud of, but I think 2 months between posts is a new record for me.  I must say, the month of May was crazy-insane, and June was spent decompressing from that.  Now that we're in July, it's starting to feel like a summer.

In May, we had the end of school for the kids.  Jason finished his classes for his Masters in Administration, (well, so we thought...his advisor missed one of his classes before Jason's exit interview, so he is in the process of taking that one...last...class.)  He also transitioned out of his Principal job, caught up with scheduling and stuff in his Athletic Director job and now started his Area Faith Director of Religious Education, which is a fancy way of saying he's in charge of catechesis programs for Catholic kids not in Catholic school for the 4 parishes in our area.  He's done this job in the past, but just not for several parishes.  It fits into his schedule better and we are hoping it is something that will work out for a while.  Transition is not always easy.

AJ was cleared for normal activity 4 months after his ACL surgery.  He went through the rehab program wonderfully & he's now working hard with the school strengthening/weight lifting program to get to his top strength.  Even though his knee is as strong as the other, he was told that even the good one is lacking in strength, so to protect from further possible injuries, he needs to work on certain muscles that protect his ACL.  (That information would have been beneficial to me back before I had 3 ACL surgeries myself!)  He is looking forward to football season, which will be here before you know it!

Laney has been busy immersing herself in books, time with SuzyCat and friends.  She is mesmerized with cooking shows and has taken many opportunities to cook meals.  Yesterday morning she made pancakes from scratch and used fresh blueberries to make smiley faces in them.  She definitely has a creative side and I love to see that come out in her cooking.  If I need anything artsy, I just call on her.  She also blesses us often with her piano playing.

Faith is right where AJ left off regarding sports and activities.  She went to an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) basketball camp, played softball, and has volleyball camp this week.  She enjoys spending most of her time playing with friends or being at the pool.  Her tan lines can prove that!  Both girls also attended a week-long girls camp at Schoenstatt.  It involves spending time with the Sisters there and growing in friendships and faith.  Many of their friends from church and school went as well, and they made new friends and connected with old ones.  It's a camp that I think they will continue to be long-involved with and I really like that.

Ian is also a busy bee and will be a go-getter like Jason.  When he's not with Jason when he's playing for the Mudhens, he's either hitting or throwing a ball.  I joke that he would sleep on the baseball field if I let him...he never tires of being out on the diamond!  He never misses an opportunity to be at any of the home games, and is usually there from the moment Jason gets there to get ready (usually and hour or 2 before the game) until the last light goes out (usually an hour after a 3-hour game).  When most people are tired and ready to go home, he's out there running the bases and sliding into home.  Of course he played on his own team, but they didn't get any games in with other teams, so he probably got more experience playing with the Mudhens during practice.  He also, like Faith, enjoys playing with friends and being at the pool.

Noah is starting to come out of his shell and finally let me leave his side at the last ECFE class.  He enjoys going to the pool, but doesn't get too wet yet.  He finally started putting his face in and blowing bubbles and doesn't completely lose it when he gets water splashed on his head.  He loves being around Daddy and has enjoyed just-the-boys fishing trips.  He actually caught the biggest fish the last trip.  He loves playing with his brothers, but they usually get crazy and he ends up getting hurt, so he usually plays with Faith.  She has a great imagination and they can play for hours.

I have been trying to keep up with these 6 and still find some time to clean and have some quiet reflection and prayer time.  I need both to keep me somewhat sane.  With Jason's new job, we needed a little income to replace, so an opportunity came up for me to help part-time with the preschool program for the upcoming school year.  This will be the first paying job for me since I left my vet tech job over 10 years ago.  I have certainly kept busy with volunteer opportunities, but they don't require resumes, applications and interviews.  It has been months of discerning God's will for me and He has definitely put the pieces together for us.  It hasn't always been easy waiting for Him to open up doors, but the peace that comes from allowing Him to present His gifts to us is so rewarding. 

Noah will have one more year at home before he starts preschool, so this opportunity filled my desire of being able to work but not have to put him into daycare.  Jason's new job gives him the flexibility to work from home, so we will be at home in the mornings while I work.  I will be home by lunch time and after that, he will start his workday at the public school.  Since his AD job has him working mostly afternoons and evenings, this shift in jobs and schedules will work out nicely, (at least it looks like it will on paper!  We'll see how this year goes!)  But, either way, we trust that this is the path that God has put us on for now and we look forward to starting a new school year...that is, after we enjoy the last few weeks of summer!