30 Celebrations

We had some great 30th birthday celebrations. They just kept on going. We started early on July 5th, with a big 4th of July/birthday bash. Uncle Bill pulled out all the stops with a roast lamb. Roasting a lamb on a spit has been an Benac family tradition for the past 60 years. Joe's grandpa is originally from Croatia, where lamb roasts are part of life. It seemed a little ironic not to have a lamb from out in the country (Bill got it in a downtown Dallas butcher shop) but all the same, it was delicious. Somehow between the carving table and the serving table, only about half of the meat was left.It was great to have a big group of family together. Several Benac cousins came, as well as married-on extended family. We also made some great new friends, since both Bethany and Katie brought some friends. On top of all that family, Lenore and Sean Robinson were visiting from Hawaii. Lenore and Joe go way back. They were in the same ward and high school together, back in 1993. There are some fun stories from back then, but they would need their own post!We enjoyed the pool, good food, each others company, and of course the lake. We love to take our old beater boat to the middle, and jump off the boat for a good swim. I don't think we've ever had that many people in the lake in one dayAnd the boat is good for fishing too!
Of course we celebrated on my actual birthday Saturday. As a family we went to the movie theater, and that night Joe pulled together my greatest birthday dinner surprise. Earlier in the day I had nonchalantly told Joe that all I wanted for my birthday was to go out to dinner with my friends the Morphises and Sparks. It was a long shot, because the Sparks were just driving back from Florida that day. They showed how much they love me by coming home, and running right back out the door for dinner with us. We also had the bonus attendance of cousin Annie from New York.We had dinner at my new favorite restaurant. It's a Thai restaurant called "noodle wave". I'd only been to the other location in McKinney, and when we got to the little strip mall where the restaurant is located, we weren't sure if it was safe to get out of the car. However, the restaurant is very nicely decorated inside, of course the food was delicious, and the company even better. It's so great to be surrounded by people who love me, and accept me for all that I am.

Finally we had our traditional birthday dinner at mom's house on Sunday. She made wonderful roast beef, and we had delicious red velvet cake for desert.

Last week of my twenties

Another week of summer over. I watched grandma, sewed 3 bags for the kids, enjoyed the rain, hosted a humongous 4th of July party, and taught a Relief Society sewing class. I could have blogged about all of these in great detail. But to write blog posts, I like to write smart and witty, and i'm just not feeling it right now.

Tomorrow I turn 30. It doesn't scare me too much, in fact, all my close friends are in their 30s or even 40s. Most of them are wiser, and none of them had their world collapse on them. I look forward to the next 10 years. Hopefully they will be full of change and adventures. I hope to live in Europe for a good chunk of it. I will learn to stand more firmly on my own two feet. And find joy in my family life. It's weird to think that these next 10 years will be crucially important for my relationships with my kids. They won't be babies, toddlers, and small children anymore, but young teenager adults instead. That scared me more than the number 30 could ever scare me!

Electric Theater

The nature and science museum has a special water exhibit, as well as a fun electric theater show for the 4th of July weekend. It has been a few months since I made the trek down to the south of Dallas, so this was the perfect time.

Electric theater was all about electricity and magnetism. I even learned a few things.
Winter got to help on stage
My favorite part was the big conductor that made lightning. I was holding a fluorescent bulb, which lit up!
The kids are still a little too young to read all the placards on the walls, but the nature museum has some handy little sheets to give bits of information about their stuffed animals. Sterling really took an interest in that.

Big change

This is where we will live next year, if we sell our house. You could say it's a polar opposite of where we live today. But that's okay!

The Plaza

living room

kitchen

dining

"master" bedroom

kids bedroom--

Unless I want my 3 kids to all sleep in the same bed together, I've got to figure out how to fit in some sort of bunkbed.

Office/2nd kids bedroom

The fact that this apartment is furnished, takes a huge load off my shoulders. Most Dutch rental houses are bare. And with that, I mean REALLY bare. They often don't have kitchens, or flooring. Another plus, is that everything is included in the rent. I don't have to figure out utilities or internet.

And one fun bit of info: the Plaza is right next to, or above a casino, in downtown Rotterdam.

Doesn't get better than that!

It might not be the best neighborhood for kids, but it is located close to the university. And Joe will need all the extra time get can get, to study.

I'm getting so excited each time I think of the possibility of this really happening.
It seems so unreal to me. And it is.... until we sell the house.

Stress

I'm ready for the stress to end.

Stress each time someone comes to look at the house
Stress that the house won't sell on time, to start school in January
Stress over our vanished $6400 registration fee
Stress about my weight
Stress that the kids make too much noise for Joe to work with
Stress about my failing friendships
Stress of getting old, and my body starting to ache in odd places
Stress that my kids won't grow up to be well-rounded, responsible adults
Stress about bills

One day at a time; that's all I can do. Some days are better than others. A lot of the time, I just try not to think about the stressors.

But sometimes they overwhelm me.
And that's when I get snippy.
I hate being snippy!

So I try to do anything to get my mind back off of them. Like eating, or watching TV, or cleaning. Too bad cleaning is usually the last option on my list. But not this morning. Because someone is coming to look at the house....

Once in a while there's a ray of sunshine that brightens my day. Like when Ginger came to me and said:
"Mom, there's boogers coming out of your nose"
me: "No, that's just dry skin"
Ginger: "Eww. that looks gross."

At least she's always honest with me! I never have to second guess whether she loves me, or when I do something that hurts her feelings. She'll tell me right away. And that's how I tick.

Yes Day

For a while I've wanted to experiment with a "yes day". A day where I say yes to everything the kids want/ask for. I do put limits on things that cost money, so I'm mainly talking about their many simple requests throughout the day. Here's what they got on their yes day:

Chocolate milk with breakfast -with many refills
postpone my exercise time to watch curious George
Ginger saved her breakfast for later
Take pictures with my camera

"Jesus with his children" by Winter -This is the painting my oma "met de poezen" Jansen painted. I'm currently working on finding a framing solution for it

"Lions on the way" By Winter

"Mommy Dancing" by Sterling

"Happy Ginger" by Sterling

Ginger picked "clean 1 toilet" out of the jar, and cleaned 2 instead
more chocolate milk for snack time
watch movies and tv all morning
Winter wears a Sunday dress
Sterling eats all day long
Make sock puppets
Sterling is the first to go swimming
Kids in the pool all afternoon

More chocolate milk with dinner

Ice cream for desert (BTW, I did say NO when Sterling asked for more...)

At 6.30pm I just couldn't do it any longer! They were asking for so many things that I didn't want to do/give them. But overall I would say it was a success. It was amazing to see their happy faces when I said yes to their 8th cup of chocolate milk. Or to making sock puppets, which is something they've wanted to do for over a week. Definitely worth repeating... next year.

Nose dive

We were flying at a steady altitude of 30,000 feet. The skies were clear ahead. Then, out of nowhere, a storms started brewing, all lights started blinking, instruments failing, and the plane went into a nose dive crash. We haven't crashed yet, but the ground is coming ever so much closer. Maybe if I curl up in a ball it will stop coming closer. Maybe when I open my eyes again in a few hours, we'll be back in the air with blue skies as if the storm/crash never happened.

Okay, we were never in a plane. That's just how my day has been so far. We started with some happy kids playing in their rooms. They made the awesomest fort. The house was clean, and I even got some exercise time in. The skies grew grey as we got into the geo to run some errands. The Air conditioning wasn't working very well, but I could live with that. A little sweat never hurt anyone. I was excited to have the geo back. Now it only costs $4 to go to town, instead of $12. At $12 I don't just jump in the car for some window shopping or extracurricular activities. However, halfway down to McKinney the check engine light came on. No! not again! The last time that happened, I blew the engine which turned into a $1000 job. Stopped at the side of the highway, I felt very blessed to have my cell phone. With the help of a nice stranger and Joe on the phone, I diagnosed no major problems. From then on my eye was closely watching the thermostat.

Sitting in a small car is not very condusive the a peaceful ride. Especially when the kids bicker over any and everything. So my nerves were wearing down. My instruments started failing. My nerves getting shorter. Then it started to rain. And the window wouldn't roll back up again. Stupid car! This car should have been condemned! The plan to watch a movie at the theater is out the window. We're starting to nose dive. The kids keep fighting, and asking me 1000 questions, and begging for candy at the framing shop, and touching things they're not supposed to. Then, when I thought things couldn't get worse, Joe calls me to inform me that our $6300 Erasmus deposit never arrived. The ground is getting closer, and closer, and closer. I want to just cry. I want to curl up in a ball, and make the world go away. I can't wait to open my eyes, and figure out it's all been a dream. But it's not. I can pinch myself and it just hurts.