The Real Story!

Every time I put my camera down Joe picks it up and starts snapping pictures. I am amazed when I go to download my photos how many shots he gets in before I catch him and take it away. I was going through my last download and getting ready to delete them when I realized that these were Joe's life. He took pictures of things he loves from his point of view. So without further introduction. Here is Joe's life. October-ish 2009.

First up. Joe loves Tricia. Here she is at the orthodontist. He could take pictures of models. He really knows how to get their best side. Joe loves his mom and his brother Alex. Here he has captured us during homework reading time! Showing the world exactly how tired I am by this time each day. Not to mention how very tan my legs are by the END of the summer! Good grief. This is Joe looking for his buddy Aaron at a Court of Honor. He found him. Poor Joe is going to have to sit through a lot of these! At least at some point he will be able to see over the chairs. Here is a picture of Joe's favorite blanket in Joe's favorite runway/hall. Also since we are down at his level I found that he has been using his bookshelf as a coloring book! Here is Joe's view of my quilt stand which doubles as a clothes holder. From his point of view you can actually see the quilt! Here is the kichen table looking into the kitchen. If I was a mother who stressed enriching my sons life at every opportunity I would hang pictures under the bar! But here you see how I enrich my sons life. Looney Toones. Extremely close up! He can run any DVD player though! Talented kid. Last but not least you will see his photo collection of his favorite thing in this world. Cars. Notice how carefully he arranges them in the best possible lighting. The logos are placed just so albeit out of focus. This kid has a knack. Does anyone know of a career where you can make money taking blurry pictures of hundreds of cars? Besides NASCAR? Well there you have it. Joe's life as seen through his stolen camera lens!

Grateful!

My days are at times overwhelming and exhausting. I start off great! Kids up, a healthy homemade breakfast, scripture study, teeth brushed, lunches packed, hair brushed, family prayer, and big kisses and hugs as I send them out the door.

14 hours later we end with... a rushed dinner that nobody will eat, a little bit of raised voices there, dishes done by a protesting son, a little bit of raised voices there, calling everyone to family prayer, voices even louder, teeth brushed with lots of loud encouragement, reading time which falls apart quickly to a lot of boys wrestling and me raising my voice. loudly. It all ends with someone coming out of their room to ask to go to the bathroom or get a drink and I completely lose it! You would think that they were coming out to ask me if they could shave their head and tattoo a girls name on their skinny little bicep by the way I overreact.

For the last several nights I have had a little light of peace in this chaos that gives me so much joy I can hardly contain myself. It is this...

You see for this little boys lifetime I have helped him say his prayers. Well he is getting older and a few days ago he told me he could say it all alone so I let him, and folks, I will never help him again. Here is the prayer. Keep in mind I did not help him at all.

"Heavenly Father. Grateful for my blessings. Grateful that I love Mom. Grateful she is my love. Grateful she is my princess. Grateful she is my sweetie. Grateful she loves me. Grateful I love Heavenly Father. Grateful I love Jesus. Jesus Christ Amen."

Grateful indeed.

The question is this is it strange that I have him say his prayers several times a day?

Living the High Life...

Never let it be said that I am not living a high life of full and varied activities! In one week alone. I have been to the boat races... the theatre... where I met a talented actor... I have taken my eldest with a few very colorful friends for his birthday to the racetrack and an amazing golf tourny.... I attended a gymnastics meet... where I met an exceptional gymnast. Then I took my second eldest and a few friends to play at the gym for a few hours. They must have had a great time because the only shots I got were blurred images of children running, jumping, tumbling, flipping etc. The only still shot I got was of kids screaming... So as you can see I am indeed living a life full of varied and amazing events. Between all these educational, cultural and social outings we play in the rain. and the rest of my time is spent hanging out with Super-Heroes. Batman and Superman to be precise. So there you have it folks. The High Life. Or maybe it is You-Have-to-be-High-to-Live-this-Life. I forget which.

Gratitude!

Tonight I was going to go to bed early. I really was. Then I went upstairs and something smelled horrible. I discovered that Joe-Joe had thrown up in his bed. All over his blankets. Which he then apparently threw against the wall. And then out of the crib and onto the carpet down below. He literally stripped his bed down to the mattress. And then threw up again. So I discovered a room that was covered in vomit! So after 1 hour and 15 minutes of both Dave and I cleaning mattresses, blankets, sheets, walls, carpet, bed, pj's and a sad, pale little boy why would I be grateful? This is why.
I am grateful that I have a washer and dryer because if I didn't I would have just had to throw away an entire room full of bedding and clothes. You see I just changed the second load of laundry and the blankets all came out smelling wonderful and didn't have one piece of macaroni or watermelon left behind. I was so grateful that I took out one of my Clorox wipes (for which I am also grateful) and wiped down all the buttons and knobs and shined them up really nice. I think they felt the love. Now I will take the favorite fuzzy blanket upstairs and wrap it around my sweet, pale boy who is now asleep with a pan in his bed!
I hope you had a uneventful night!

Joe Joe!

Happy Birthday Joe! Then

and

Now! Joe Joe turned 3! Therefore I must tell you why I love him. Because I knew you were wondering. I love Joe because he is such a peculiar child. For one thing he is the only one of my children who likes to get his picture taken. I love Joe because he is overflowing with life. Everything is very dramatic. Even the act of raising his eyebrows must be done with great enthusiasm. I love Joe because he loves everyone around him. He feels for them. If they are sad he is sad. For a little kid he feels things very deeply. Heck, for that matter, he feels things deeper than some adults. I love Joe because he makes me laugh. He makes lots of people laugh. One of my favorite moments is when he climbed up on his Uncle Nate and put his elbows on Nate's chest rested his head in his hands and very dramatically asked Nate if he wanted to ride in his car. A silly question but I guess the picture will be forever imprinted in my mind. At that point in time nothing was more important than asking his uncle to go for a ride in the car. The best part was that Nate couldn't help but laugh also. I miss these curls...
But I still have these eyes and this smile!Joe loves to play with the boys. He loves them all and asks about each one every morning to make sure they are where they should be! He sings "I love Aaron. He Loves Me, Happy Family!" and he will go through everyone in the family and I mean everyone. Including Hope and Walter. Hope and Walter are dogs. And they are not our dogs. Joseph loves cars more than anything in the world...
Except for maybe his blanket. Joe-Joe loves his blanket. The one with the fuzzies.
I love how affectionate Joe still is to everyone. He will come up with his blanket (the one with the fuzzies) and ask for a snuggle. He loves to give kisses and has a fun game he plays with his dad because his dad won't kiss on the lips. His favorite kind of hugs are Joe Sandwich hugs where Dave and I squish him between us. I love Joe because even when he pouts it is funny. He does it exactly as he should. Arms folded, lower lip extended, partially hidden. He does it well.

I love my Joe. He loves me. Happy family indeed!

News from Team Rollins!

Hey all! I have been seriously lacking in my blogging duties according to my non-blogger sister, Tricia. She won't ever write one but that doesn't give me the right to not write for a few days! I have missed writing however. Thus you are reading this! Here are some of our going on's and random thoughts.....School started. Or hadn't you heard?

I went with Josh to his first morning of Jr. High. No, I'm not one of those crazy moms but the school is under construction and they wouldn't let anyone in before the first day to find classes or open lockers so most of the 7th graders had someone there helping out. We did go an hour early so nobody would see him with his mommy. It didn't work since all the 7th graders had the same idea! I am happy to announce that we got the locker open. And yes, I did have nightmares about it the night before thank you very much!

Alex started Kindergarten.

I thought he would be a bit more nervous but he was thrilled to be going to school with all the big boys! The first day they have a treasure hunt to find all the different parts of the school. Thanks to so many days working with Mom on PTA stuff he finished that faster than any other child. See! There are benefits flowing left and right for sacrificing a year to PTA! He is going to have a great year especially if the teacher likes NY accents. I'm workin' he'e!

From 6 to 2.

The boys have really missed their cousins. It must have been nice to have a large group of friends/cousins/pals to hang with. They always had someone who was willing to walk with them and laugh with or stick up for them. We all missed those darn kids. I have missed the daily morning phone calls from my mom but I have totally not missed seeing Tricia every day. My kids are the only ones who need someone to talk with , laugh with or stick up for them. Darn those kids. Sniff, sniff. Stupid allergies. Football! Soccer! Basketball! I think that is it besides scouts, YM, piano and viola. Retired president takes on volunteer coordinator, room rep tea and monthly newsletter. I should have just been president again. Sigh.

My Joe! This only one at home punk is such a joy! My mom came to one of Jonathan's soccer games and Joe came running up to give her a hug and after hugging her he looks up at her and says "Grandma, haircut?" OK a couple of things.

1. I was so glad I had already noticed and told her it looked good so I wasn't shown up by my baby. and 2. What 2 year-old notices things like that and comments on it? He has this weird thing with the "fuzzies" (yarn ties) on his blanket. He loves them. He rubs them under his nose when he gets tired. If they fall off the blanket, he stores them in his ear. It is just one of those things that he does. I went to the Stake Enrichment Night where the subject was Avoiding Emotional Burnout. Didn't apply to me but I enjoyed hearing about other peoples busy lives. A few things that the therapist/lecturer mentioned that I liked...

• Our culture must be the only one where not only do we feel guilty for the things we do but the things we don't do!
• Do one thing in your life that brought you joy when you were a little kid.
• Make a Things I accomplished today list at the end of the day instead of just a to do list every day.
• If you have a hard time saying "No" say instead "Let me get back to you" then get up the courage to say no and get back with them.
• We had a fun night with some of our EAT friends. The Hallman's hosted and after dinner we went back to their house for peaches and ice-cream. Dave and I stayed way, way too late and it reminded me of my college days hanging out until all hours of the night after Home Improvement! Thanks Joe and Anita!