9 YEARS! Wahoo!

9 years ago

I can hardly believe it has been 9 years since we were married. I will always favor our 7pm on a Tuesday "I Do's" with each other. I think randomness from the beginning is the truest sign of everlasting love.

I believe that gaining marital bliss is all in how you interpret it. I choose to interpret them in which ever way is favorable of me and my opinion. It always works well when you think like that. I am of course always right about everything, so it leaves little room for any arguments, disagreements or unhappiness because we already know that no matter what, I am right. :)

I know that we gain our happiness from being each other's best friend. Seriously. Best friends can always be truthful, caring, and a little insensitive if needed without damaging the relationship.

I am not sure how we always survive the trials, the bad days, the "how are we going to do this" moments. But I do know that we do. We always survive. We cling to each other and secretly blame the other so that we can feel better about our self.

Love you C!! Thank you for 9 amazing, sometimes trial some, always comforting, occasionally unfunny, mostly rewarding, usually sarcastic, typically normal, and happiest 9 years so far.

Nine years of nothing but magical and amazing marital bliss!

Maybe next year I'll be a little more serious and sentimental. :)

coloring

If only every day could be this good. Everyone sharing, getting along and quiet. So Sweet!

Air Show fun

We went to the airshow this weekend and had a lot of fun looking at all the planes on display. We only stayed for about an hour of the actual show because the kids were hot and tired, but we had a lot of fun. My favorite part was the singing/dancing Naval officers (did I mention they were in uniform, *wink, wink* ) KD even got out of the stroller so she could dance. Good times!

Summer Cuties

The weather is way too hot to be outside without getting wet. The kids have lived outside the last two days and they wouldn't have it any other way.

A simple message on Fathers Day

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for blessing us with an amazing husband and father. We could not be more fortunate to have a kind, loving, and supportive Man. We love him dearly and thank thee for blessing us with such great humor and leadership at the head of our household.
It is not without notice that we are also loving our grandpa's. Though there is some distance between us, we are grateful for them and miss them. We know that though will be mindful of them and their needs and we ask thee to keep them safe until we can kiss their cheeks and squeeze their bellies again.

Father, we also want to wish a wonderful man whom you have in your possession a special blessing of love. We hope that you will be able to pass this message onto him, as there are no phones in heaven.
With love,
The Howertons

a little of this, a little of that

The blue angel is coming!! The blue angel is coming!!
(this being screamed by Beans up the stairs to Chan.)

I just saw a blue angel - I can't hardly believe it! (Beans)

Momma, I saw a blue angel at Ben's house and now I just saw one at OUR house!! It waived to me! (Beans)

Mom- i need green sungasses for Saturday. Are there Green Angels out there, momma?
(me) you mean blue ones?
No, they are green. (Nooshie)

Green is his new favorite color:)

We are going to the airshow this weekend and there are in fact practice flights flying over us. The kids are excited and all they are talking about is going to see the Blue Angels. The weather is supposed to participate and be nice, so now we only have to worry about the kids being good. We can hardly wait!

In an effort to keep the kids busy and having fun this summer, we have decided to join some friends from church and try the free school lunch program here.
BLECH!!
The food is horrible and while the kids could care less about the eating anyway and just want to play- I have completely made up my mind that I will not be spending $80 a month on the crap they serve and I will in fact be making the kids lunches to take to school everyday.

A couple of days ago, the kids were playing in a puddle in our driveway- I could not resist the photo opportunity. KD has mastered walking and is now proficient in this category, Chan has kept busy by climbing trees and Beans has officially learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. I was telling a friend how she just needs to learn her balance and then she would be good to go. This friend gave me an easy way to have Beans practice and guaranteed that she would be riding her bike by herself in a day. I was hopeful, but shocked when Beans mastered it in an hour!! Thank you Nobody!

personal

The need to scream at the top of my lungs.
Emotionally drained.
The feeling of no where to go.
Not depressed
Just let down.

Turmoil
Maybe a trial
Either way, no fun
What's the lesson I am supposed to learn?
Not patience- I haven't prayed for that in a very long time. I learned my lesson last time.

Love always see you through
The hand of God
Touches your heart oh so gently
The tears begin to flow
The prayers are two hours long
In your mind and while you do the laundry and the dishes

Anger has now passed
Still feeling hopeless
Just less hopeless than I did before

It will get better
Not because you told me it would
Because I believe it will

A heart slightly broken, anger was allowed to seep through
Choosing to hide behind a smile and tell everyone everything is okay
Even if it is not
Learning to see the bright side of everything, again

No matter
What
How
We will get through
Because that is who we are

you
me
and God

3



if this is cryptic and you don't understand - don't worry, its just me feeling a little better about tomorrow. and if you ask me about it, I will deny it. :)

Tidbits

Making cookies is easy. Ten minutes tops (not including bake time). Simple to mix, stir and set.
With kids, it becomes 25 minutes. Arguing over who gets to stir first, who gets to add what egg and who gets to lick the spoon.
I wanted to kick them out of my kitchen, but then I realized. How will they ever learn if I always kick them out of the kitchen? Children are eager to learn and I was so hurried, by the world, not the time, that I almost forgot- it's me that has to teach them.
Even the simple things.

And the cookies were delicious.



Many years ago, I arrived home to a dish on my door step. As I approached I realized it was a cake. I love cake.
It was wrapped in plastic wrap and I could see the words "Happy Birthday" written on top. It was a beautiful jester, just one thing- It wasn't my birthday. In fact it wouldn't be my birthday for 6 more months. I opened a card- it was from my visiting teachers. I didn't have the heart to tell them, so I decided I would eat it. I cut myself a big piece of the chocolate cake and took a bite. There was a hair in it. So I fed it to the kids. I could eat it no more. Nothing personal, well maybe a little- I just have a thing about hair in food.

I made brownies tonight and thought back about this chocolate cake as I baked them in the same dish. I never returned it-oops. Happy Birthday.



I have a tattoo on my ankle. Many of you (if not all of you) have seen it. It says CTR. People who are not LDS ask me if it is C's initials. Um, sure.

Actually, it is my link to my little brother. About 11 years ago, I was not in the best place spiritually. I had just moved back in with my parents. I hadn't been to church in about 18 months, maybe longer. My brother moved into a smaller room to bunk with my baby brother, so I could have my own room. He was planning on leaving soon to the MTC and was only there a short time anyway. One day I happened to exit my bedroom into the hallway right behind him. I noticed something under his white shirt on his shoulder and pressed my hands on his back to get a better look. It was a tattoo! He jumped in pain as it was still fresh and a little sore. He showed me, then explained that mom and dad did not know, but that the stake president had already approved it. Well, as long as it was approved by the church, how could mom and dad not???
I promised not to tell, but I thought it was cool. I made some comment about how I wanted one, but really it was just an in the moment thing.
A few days later, my brother came home from work and was all excited. He insisted we go somewhere. He took me to this scary part of town, I remember thinking that if we don't lock our doors, something bad would happen. He pulled in a parking lot to a bar and a tattoo parlor and then took a piece of paper out of his pocket. It was a very large scale of my soon to be tattoo. How could I possibly say no, we were already there. I chose my ankle, cause I was there with my brother and that is the safest place to put a tattoo when you are with your brother. We shrunk the image and he held my hand. It mirrors his, except he made mine a tad more girly with flowers. It was at that moment that I realized, it didn't matter how long it had been since I had been to church, and it wouldn't matter what people might say, He accepted me for who I was and I knew that my entire family did too. I didn't go back to church consistently for another year or two, but I did make an effort occasionally. This just leaves me a reminder that sometimes it's the little things that mean the most and that can make the biggest difference in peoples lives, even if we don't get to see the impact.



While living in Minneapolis, I had gotten a job as a receptionist at a high tech Internet based company. The CEO was a brother in our ward and probably doing me more of a favor than anything. A few months in to my job, he handed me a lot of business cards and asked me to update his address book online. about 30 cards in, I came across a name already in his book. I knew her. She was my next door neighbor back in Washington state. In fact, my parents were living in her parents old house.
My boss was in a meeting, but I was dying to know. There was a line outside of his office of people, waiting to see him. I cut in front of all of them. I won't be long I said. When his door opened, I walked in and very unprofessionally asked him how he knew her. He paused for a moment and then shared with me that it was his step sister. Of course! I had known of him, just never knew his name or any information about him. So, I moved 2000 miles away, only to work for my neighbors brother? Turns out he was raised in the house my parents were now living in.
He took me under his wing then. He challenged me, and I am a better person because of it. Completely worth the 2000 miles.

Invisible is sounding nice right about now

Day 8 of an 8 day home stand.
I'm drained.
No energy.


No pretending to be happy. I'm exhausted and am doing more day dreaming than cleaning.


The kids are talking and I AM pretending to listen.
The kids are fighting and I am pretending NOT to listen.

Tomorrow cannot come fast enough. :)

My Job

Most of my days consist of laundry, feeding the children, picking up around the house, vacuuming twelve times and playing referee to the arguments between them.

Summer break so far is really no different. Summer break in my opinion is not for mothers to enjoy any time off from anything, in fact it is probably more work.

I have chosen to see the beauty in all of it. The sweet smiles, the glisten in their eyes as we jump on the trampoline together, the little moment that I whisper, you're beautiful, or the surprise hug around their belly.

There are so many days that I wake exhausted and tired and ready to pull the covers over my head, and yet I do not. Some days I feel as though I put in just enough effort to mark that day off my calendar and others, the amount of hours in a day are not enough.
Not enough to enjoy the laughter, the smiles, the glow around their beautiful faces. The way they talk or the length of time they talk. Sometimes so fast you wish you could just finish their sentence for them so they could take a breath.

These are the days I choose to live for this summer. Beans is Five almost six and while she knows how to ride a bike with training wheels, we took the plunge and removed them yesterday. I always had an excuse for another day, when really I just needed to give her my attention and teach her.

So many things change so fast and I was letting all the fun slip right past me. In amongst the piles of laundry, the stacks of dishes and the stuff on the floor. I lost track of what is most important to me. Them.

Summer will not be overlooked. For the third day in a row, I have heard "this is the bestest day ever, mommy."
I had not thought anything special of that day from any other, but if it was to them, than I have done my job.

I want my children to be able to look back and remember all the fun they had with mom. Sometimes I feel as though I am only seen as the discipline, or the means to food. It is not entirely bad, as these things are necessary, but I just don't get near as many good hugs and kisses as dad.
All of that is about to change. :)

Water is the theme for summer

So far in as little as 4 days, my kids have soaked themselves in bodies of water and large fountains while wearing their street clothes and while we have been out doing "other" things.
I guess I'll give in and start keeping that spare set of clothes in the car with us- seems this might be the trend this summer. :)

TODAY




And from Saturday with friends

Just another Monday, or is it?

I deserve a bumper sticker that says My mom is a super star. Or a medal of Honor for tough Mommies, Or a piece of triple fudge chocolate chip brownie or even just a sticker with a smiley face.

Wait, you haven't even heard why, yet...

Yes, I am a terrific person and I work hard and my kids think I am the bestest mother ever, and other people think I am pretty cool too, but you already knew that.

But the whole reason for this post and this little brag session is......

I took my kids to see Curious George at the library today - and I SURVIVED!!!

Yep, That's it.

But it deserves some HUGE kudos.

I despise stuff like this.
There's nothing like a good old gathering of way too many little kids and their even more annoying parents in a small room trying to do crafts and get pictures with a man in a monkey suit. (Totally said with all the sarcasm I can possibly muster through words) and totally not my idea of fun. There are days I would probably rather clean both the toilets with a toothbrush than stand in line so my kids can touch a life sized cartoon character.

I don't mind the cartoon, it is actually preferred over the whiny, bad example of how a child should act Caillou. I just don't like gathering with a bunch of other people who don't know me. I even went late trying to get out of it. I thought maybe I could convince the kids that something else would be more fun- to no avail. Turns out I knew several of the people there and it wasn't so bad. The crafts were decent and we didn't even have one meltdown.

But wait, it gets better. I promised the kids some Ice cream for helping me "clean" the playroom, so I took them to the local Whitey's and the whole time Chan kept telling me that it was the best day ever and how much he loved me. What? who is this kid? Have you met him?
Then Beans kept thanking me for all the fun times and said she loved me, no less than thirty times.

What's the catch? When is the ball gonna drop?
This has to be too good to be true. If summer break is going to be this easy, bring it ON!

And what would be a great post about nothing without a bunch of pictures of some pretty cute kids taken by yours truly??

Summer Break

To my angels from the northwest living in the Midwest, the cutie patooties in the yellow house, the apples of my eye, the giggles for my belly and the reason for the crease in my smile. Even if I gain a few gray hairs every time I take you with me- it's worth it.

School's out for the summer, no big plans have been made. We'll just enjoy it with each other and when you are older, we'll savor these days.

KD walking like it's something she's always known how to do :)

Sunscreen

With the weather changing we are all very well aware that sunscreen is very important, especially for our children.

However, I am sure that they did not mean that the children should apply it themselves and use it has hair gel, face wash, or lotion.
The best part is that Nooshie thought he was applying a glue stick instead of sunscreen. Needless to say, I am now in need of more sunscreen.
I love this kid!

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

A dress that makes you covet your neighbor and green with envy

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Blog Wall

I've decided that I have hit a blog wall when it comes to posting.
I have no flow, no inspiration. I have just simply been blogging pictures. Which is not entirely bad, but not quite as good as reading an excerpt that is comparable to eating a good piece of chocolate cake.

This last weekend we watched a friends 4 kids for her while her hubby attempted to surprise her to a 2 night getaway without children.
She has thanked me no less than a gazillion times and while I only need to hear it once to know I was appreciated, I also want her to know that I was simply paying it forward.
We have had our fair share of others stepping in and helping us with kids or other things and while I cannot always pay back that person, I most certainly can pay it forward. So, although I waived my white flag after the first night and another REALLY Awesome mommy stepped up to the plate, I accept your gazillions of thank yous and remind you that if you never find an opportunity to repay the favor, it's okay. Just pay it forward.

The weather here has been decent. The temp is nice and warm, with a touch of muggy and some rain. Pleasantly Midwest.
I have enjoyed the weather and again, Mr. Howerton and I have decided that we may forever live in Iowa. There is just something so peaceful and down to earth about this place.

I enjoyed a three mile speed walk along the Mississippi River yesterday and I think it is my new favorite place to be. The breeze, the tinge of foul smell, and the spray off the little waves when a barge goes by. I have been able to find every excuse possible to go down there. It reminds me who I am and places me where I need to be, kind of like Yoga without so many difficult and yet enjoyable stretches. :)

Nooshie is home from school for a couple of days. He is not feeling well and I have to admit, it is entirely okay with me. I enjoy his little comments and playful teasing. He is even attempting to help me fold the clothes. I will have to re-fold them, but that is okay with me. KD seems to be happy too. Her playmate has returned and she lets me clean and well, blog. Maybe I just needed my little man.

Here are some pictures I took with the family along the river for our walk and then yesterday of KD in the beautiful weather- enjoy.

KD is starting to look more and more like a toddler instead of a baby, it makes me sad, but it's hard to stay that way, because she is so darn cute.