Since some of you don't read the beecher girls blog (Brooke's family) and Brooke has written some great stuff, she gave me permission to copy what I want onto our blog so we'll have it in our family history...so here goes...excerpts from the last few days:

Tuesday, Jan 9

Let's see, what to tell you all? Remember the little stuff. That is what my life is full of- Ellyn has been re-enrolled in early intervention. She gets reasessed on Friday. She still only says "momma" and spends much of her time in her own little dream world. I have been praying that this is something that she'll grow out of with a little extra help early on. It worries me but what can I do but fast and pray and know that Heavenly Father has a plan for her. She was sick this past week and we spent the whole week glued at the hip. If I set her down she would scream and cry nonstop until I picked her up again. Yes, I felt bad for me, but I felt worse for her. Poor baby, she was so miserable. She's back to her happy, turkey baster totin' self this week and I'm pretty thrilled about that.

We spent the whole weekend playing with Mike's family again. His brother and his wife were in town. We played lots of card games and went bowling and ate lots of food that I hated writing down in my food journal. It has rained 22 out of the last 23 days here and so all activities are indoors. I feel like I'm going a bit crazy. Mom and Meags and I did get out for a little walk a few days ago. I thought that I was going to go insane if Ellyn and I didn't get out of the house. So we went walking along part of the Lewisville River that we had never seen and there were about two dozen salmon trying to jump up the waterfalls. We had so much fun watching them. I frankly just don't know how those little guys are going to make it to spawn. It looked way too hard. This computer is making me type weird, built in tab in a bizarre spot. Well I have to go get Jane from school. I love you all. Keep on bloggin'. Love, Brooke

Jan 10
Okay, I'm back to posting daily. We'll see if I can keep it up. Today I had to take Jane and Ellyn to the Dr.'s. Jane, because she is back to snoring like a chainsaw and Ellyn for her referral to Early Intervention. Sadie had to tag along because mom had a meeting and Meags had Bennett's ballet class. So the two girls are new patients which meant that I had 6 million pages of paperwork to fill out and Ellyn trying to stick the turkey baster in my ear half the time. Jane is reading her book and doing annoying errands for me like getting kleenex for the faucets over Sadie and Ellyn's mouths. Sadie is in a mad search for candy. I keep a few suckers and smarties in my purse for emergency situations and Sadie was relentless. "Mom, I need candy. I will find the candy. Where is the candy? I just want some candy. Mom, let's just have SOME candy." I thought I was going to lose my mind. She found every piece while I am trying to act like a mother with some control. I fooled absolutely noone. Then in the Dr.'s office she is doing the same thing, while I am talking to the Dr. I kept telling her to be quiet and what I really wanted to do was say "Excuse me Dr. will you please step out of the room so I can beat my child without witnesses?" I decided against that.

It is still raining. Mike reported to me last night that the Northwest has made it on to CNN World because of all the rain. I clicked on the weather last night and my old setting came up and it was for Georgia. Seventy three degrees. I wanted to cry. I clicked on Battle Ground's weather- Tuesday-rain, Wednesday-rain, Thursday-showers (what is the difference? I think they just wanted to use their new Thesaurus they got for Christmas), Friday-rain, and so on for the entire 10 day extended forecast. Then mom has the nerve to tell me it hasn't been too bad. Evidently she has not tried to load two grumpy toddlers into a dripping wet shopping cart anytime recently. And she obviously wears her pants too short because I walk around with constant wet rings around the bottom of all my very cute new jeans. I will not comment on that any further however because I am just happy to have finally found a few good pairs that are long enough.

Oh, this brings me to another tragedy in my life. A few weeks ago I discovered I am not 5'10". Okay, truthfully I always knew I was five nine and three quarters but I fudged and said I was 5'10". But...Meagan measured me the other day and I was only 5'9"-barely. I've shrunk. I didn't believe her but the next day when I went in for a Dr. appt. the nurse actually had the nerve to say I was 5'8" and 3/4. I just about burst into tears. I would have given anything to be shorter when I was younger, but now I need that height to be at the right weight. This is tragic, it really is. Okay, now you have heard all you need to from Shallow Hal. I'm going to go study my German until Mike calls. Don't be too impressed I just barely took the seal off the box. Brooke

Jan 12

I have to say that our regular nightly reading of the Book of Mormon was and is amazing. First of all the girls have calmed down during family scripture time 100%. A few months ago when we started reading the actual BoM with them and not just scripture stories I felt like the last thing I was getting was a spiritual experience. Now- knock on wood- they sit or lay quietly for the entire duration. Then one night as I was reading we came to a part that I thought was for sure going over even Janie's head. Jane stopped me and asked "so does that mean...?" She was right on track, she knew exactly what was being said. I was amazed and then she told me "Mom for a little while now I have been praying to Heavenly Father that I would understand the scriptures better and I really have." I think as a parent those are the moments to live for. We tried to decide what we were going to read next and we decided we are going to start all over. We are going to work on Old Testament stories for FHE to go along with what we are studying in Gospel Doctrine. Anyway, that is what our family is doing and I'm not telling you all to brag but as a way of sharing with you what has been an amazing blessing to our family.

So I don't know if I mentioned this, but I am staying at Mike's parents house for the next week and a half with the girls. We are taking care of Grandma Esther (Mike's dad's mom) while my mother in law, Barb, is back in Ohio with Mike's brother Tom and their new baby girl. Did that confuse all of you? It did me. Esther is 95 and she's a funny little lady. Several times a day she tells me that her youngest son had seven kids- that would be Mike's dad. She loves the girls and laughs at their antics all the time. She knows my name but doesn't remember that I'm Mike's wife. I guess she thinks I'm just a girl that brings her loud kids over to play on a regular basis.

Brooke

Also, for you young mothers...or mothers to be, the beechfamilytree blog is having a very interesting discussion on parenting techniques...I wish I'd had such a tool when I was raising all of you!!

So on to my news, Brooke is right on on Esther. I'm not sure she makes the connection with Mike or remembers it when she is told it. When Kenn came home from Mutual on Wednesday night and Brooke was there, she said to me "Kenn hasn't met Brooke, has he?" I reminded her that Brooke had been over multiple times and had been married to Mike for over twelve years....Oh, well! It almost equals when we were out to dinner with Dave and Adina. She leaned over to Kenn and said "See those kids over there? Those are David's kids." as if Kenn didn't know....we were all at the same table. Anyway, I appreciate Brooke more than I can ever express. It is wonderful to be able to come back with Tom, Tracey, Hayden and Danica. Danica is so-o-o-o tiny and such a good baby. Hayden is amazing for a three year old on the X-box....and basically a little Tom! I know I will need breaks during this challenging time of taking care of Gramma! I appreciate Brooke for helping with this one!

I love you all,

Mom