Is There A Doctor?

This last Sunday Dave broke his nose. I think it is ironic that of all the days to break his nose it happened on a Sunday; day of rest and all that. There was no amazing dive for a ball, awesome attempt at a basket, or even (gasp...but it was Memorial day weekend) crazy fight to defend my honor. But it is still a story worth telling. After all noses don't get broken every day.

We had just come home from church and Dave and Chase were headed inside. On their way in though they couldn't resist a few shots at the tennis ball hanging from the ceiling of the garage to prevent me from driving my car into the house. So a header here and a header there and in one fatal swoop (fatal for Dave's nose that is) Chase head butted not the ball but Dave's nose.

There was blood everywhere. Dave grabbed his nose, made a few groans as he crouched near the ground and then let go as blood gushed onto my garage floor. I think I almost passed out. I managed to control my lurching stomach enough to get Dave a towel and witness Chase's mad dash for his bedroom where he commenced in crying. Half from horrified sorrow and terrified fear (he did not get in trouble...but when you're a kid I guess yo never know).

We drove down to the Crawfords (or closest ENT friend), only to knock at an empty house. (that's another story....we drove right passed our poor friends abandoned on the road on our way home. maybe the broken nose was pay back) Next we drove over to the Phillips (our oral surgery friend). Man it's good to have so many doctor friends. Anyway. It's broken just slightly.

What To Do With A Holiday Weekend

Things you really must own if you live in Washington:

* an umbrella which you will buy and then never use once you realize no one else uses theirs.

* a water proof rain jacket, which you actually will use a lot

* galoshes, or lots and lots of waterproofing spray for you pretty suede shoes

* a canoe

If we were staying...I would totally be scouring Craigslist everyday looking for a canoe! We went out with our friends the Huiletts Friday and I loved it. The weather was messing with our minds. We went from going to not going to going again but it was all worth the mental anxiety. We went to Solo Point (our local beach) instead of the pretty mountain lake that we had originally planned on but it really couldn't have been any more perfect I think. It was so cool to be out on the water. Right on the water like there was hardly a boundary between you. Paddling at your own speed. Watching birds, jelly fish and your daughter run her hand over the water's surface. What an afternoon. I guess I really am a romantic. I want to go again and again...until I capsize maybe and don't like it anymore. Thank you Washington for yet another perfect day. (minus the on again off again weather...next time lets just be sunny)

It's A Banana Bird Becuase It's Yellow! - Kate

These were taken with my very favorite lens. My zoom lens is a permanent attachment. And thank goodness for image stabilization. I took this picture inside from my stairway. Love it!

Busy Town

Today we finally went to the Seattle Children's Theater! It has been on my list of things to do since we were here in 2004 and it took my girlfriend planning it all before I made it there. What a waste of great plays we could have seen. Now we will probably move before we have a chance to see another.

Kate and her preschool group and all of the Mom's (my friends) went to Seattle today to see "Busy Town" based on the Richard Scarry books. What classics those books are. I remember loving them as a child. I know my Mom had one of his "word" books. What a crime it is for someone that purports to be a book lover / collector to have never introduced these books to my kids.

We are going to Barnes and Noble tonight (baseball practice canceled) to remedy that problem.

The play was fantastic and perfectly appropriate for Kate. Here is her review:
Everything was cool. I loved when they decorated the cake. The guys cake caught on fire and his house was smoking. There were lots of bunnies riding a bus. A worm goes to the doctor and the doctor checks his size. It was funny that the worm had the hat. I like the captain. He says "RRRRRRR" that's my favorite letter!



Taffy after the show didn't help to make it a really fun day out either ;-)

Potted Plants

I did a lot of gardening this last weekend. I will have to post pictures when everything matures and blooms a little bit. It is going to be beautiful. As I was transplanting the plants I had bought at the nursery I got to thinking about all the hard work that made my little purchases possible. (in the gardening world that is...thanks Dave for the money in the bank) Anyway...I am planting these marvelous plants that all took months of care and attention in order to get to the point of growth they are at. For example...do you know how hard it must be to grow a perennial (say my personal favorites, scented geraniums) when it is still freezing and constantly rainy outside. Thank goodness for greenhouses! But even in a greenhouse and with a green thumb raising plants before their season must be hard work. Just imagine how many times the plant I bought at the store must have been re potted before I actually bought it and put it in the ground. Without being re potted the plant becomes root bound and it cannot continue to progress and would eventually die. But then on the other hand after several careful replantings a plant finally makes it into the ground where it can flourish for many long years (unless it's a perennial). As I thought about all the hard work that made my garden possible I thought how similar it is to missionary work and just spiritual progress in general.

We have all heard the versus from Alma in the BOM where faith is compared to a small seed, that if planted in fertile soil will bear good fruit. But it really isn't that easy. I have two examples to share. One is personal to our family. We struggle with scripture study. We have "planted" that seed many times with at least good faith that we will be able to make it a good habit. However, our little seed never really blooms and if it manages a flower or two it certainly hasn't reseeded itself and become a permanent plant in our garden. But each time we try I think we do better. It is like the potted plant. After each re potting the plant grows bigger and stronger until eventually it will sustain itself without careful watch care. Dave and I have just finished a book on tape about family scripture study by my favorite speaker Gene Cook. It was recommended by my sister-in-law Liz and I loved it. So we are getting ready to try again. Taking a fragile plant and giving it new life in hopes that the pot and the soil that we plant it in this time will be enough to sustain it.

I really like to think of this analogy with missionary work too. We have a great family friend that is investigating religion. For a while she was interested in the LDS church but has since started looking elsewhere. It was hard for me and very sad as we were so excited to have her join the church. But then this last weekend I though of this little plant idea and it has helped. The church statisticians say that it takes most times seven positive encounters with the Church before a person is ready to accept the Gospel. I think my family was only number two with my friend. Each of those experiences with the Church is like re potting a plant. Maybe each time a persons faith and testimony grows until finally, after much tender loving care, pruning, fertilizing, mulching and of course the re potting they are ready to accept the Church. I would much rather my friend take her time to grow and be strengthened so that when / if she joins the "garden" she can stand strong. Thinking in terms of plants I think sometimes people don't ever grow out of their pots. They become root bound around a small little piece of soil. Eventually they wilt away and die. How much better to grow continually, precept upon precept with lots of soil to spread your tender roots. When she's ready she wont need stakes to protect her from the wind. The strength of her fellow garden plants will be enough.

What do you think?

Does the analogy work, or am I pushing it?

Blessed Rain

So I thought this was funny enough to post. Also maybe a little intuitive glace into the mind of Emily and how she at least (if not all of us) will be thinking if we do make it to California. Yesterday it was 93 degrees and today was more of the same. After two days of sunshine and getting to play in the pool, sprinkler and water slide with all of her friends this was Emily's response to the weather forecast. We were looking at the Google forecast on our home page and Emily says, "Sun, sun and more sun. Look Tuesday...BLESSED RAIN!!!!!!!"

Oh clouds and rain...how we will miss you.

I'm reminded of our first day back in California after we had moved into Grandma's house while Dad was in Egypt. We had walked to the neighborhood school to enroll the kids and on our way back home Emily was struggling to put one foot in front of the other. Her response to the over-hyped California sunshine then was, "It's so hot my eyeballs are melting!"

You can always count on Emily to tell it like it is:-)

PS. I can not take credit for the picture:-)

We Could Have Been Rich

For years now Dave and I have told each other...If only we could build an indoor water park. We would be rich and famous (the hero's to all the weather weary Washingtonians)! Well someone else went and did it. We got to go after months of anticipation this last weekend. What an amazing place. The rather hefty room price (it's a hotel/water park) was well worth it. The water park itself was nicer than I had expected. There were two thrill rides (one isn't working yet), two large typical water park slides, two small "kid friendly" slides, a wave pool, hot tub (indoors and outdoors), huge kids water play area and a sports themed water play area.


I personally loved the large bucket that would fill up with 1000 lbs of water and then tip spilling torrential rain on innocent bystanders.

We loved the Tornado thrill slide. We rode together in a large tube for four and plummeted from side to side down a funnel screaming our heads off. It was even scarier when we went back in the evening and it was pitch black. Next time we go I will try sneaking my video camera on the ride. It might end up looking like a shoot from the blair witch project but it will be fun to record the screams at least.

We were there with our friends the Flakes which made it even more fun. And then to make things even more awesome we ran into the Arnetts and the Layer family! What a weekend. It was great to have friends to eat and play with together. Friday night we were up till 1:00am playing Settlers of Catan (which I won...I'm so humble I know!).
The hotel has a really nice arcade that the kids enjoyed while Katie and I had some water free playtime. The Lodge has a "Cub Club" where parents can go to play with their children. They have arts and crafts the kids can purchase for under $10 as well as some themed play time. We did some Jumping with bullfrogs. Kate made a terrarium, played with stamps and made the cutest frog mask ever. But more importantly she had some fun out of the water! We also enjoyed story time and the kind of cheesy musical presentation that the Lodge does ever fee hours. I love having friends to travel with and go on fun adventures with. With have so many awesome friends from the ward here. It is going to be a really great summer!!!!! Then again it didn't hurt to be having fun in the water inside while we watched it rain through the windows outside.

Aquaphobia

What makes someone officially an Aquaphobe? (did you know that hydrophobia is actually late stage rabies? I didn't until I did some research for this post. According to Wikipedia individuals may suffer from an "instinctive reaction" to the water which arises separate from any observable factors. They have a gut reaction that limits their fundamental comfort level in any sort of casual water activities, such as swimming. Sufferers may even see bath water as an immediate threat. Anxiety commonly extends to getting wet or splashed with water when it is unexpected. So is Katie officially phobic? I don't think so...but close. She still likes to play in the bath. But she hates having her hair washed so badly that she refuses to bathe all together. She loves to wash her hands, and with water toys. Maybe true phobics wouldn't do these things either.

But if she's not phobic she is really close. She has never like bathing. From day one in the hospital she screamed during her bath. The poor nurse came running in to rescue her. (all of my babies have enjoyed baths) She never enjoys playing in the kid pools we by every summer to play in. Ask her Grandmas, she hates baths. She screams bloody murder, struggling like a fish on the line for dear life as I attempt to wash her hair. I don't get water in her eyes but she is terrified.

So, as I expected our trip to the Great Wolf Lodge and Water Park was not her favorite weekend get away. She hated it. From the moment we got in the water she wanted out. At one point we were playing with her friends Kelsey and Sophie and she refused to play. Her friends were playing on the water slide and enjoying squirting each other. But not Kate. She sat in three inches of water near tears.

What do you do? Can you cure a phobic person? What will happen when she is too big for me to bathe? Will her hair every be cleaned? Poor little Kate. Next time we will leave her at a friends house.

More Love Less Fighting

It has been a rough couple of weeks in the Wilcox household. The kids are being just miserable mean to each other. I feel like sometimes I can barely make it to the end of the day. Bedtime, even though it in itself is not a painless event, really is all I have to look forward to once the kids get home from school. All I can think about is how I am going to make it through the summer when they are home together all the time. From 4:00 to 8:00 all I hear it seams is crying, yelling and tattling.

Then of course there are the doubts that come when your children aren't living up to your hopes and expectations. Am I a bad Mom? Have I somehow taught them to yell, name call and fight? Why do they do such mean things to each other? All the secret manipulation to make each other mad...

Today I feel pretty miserable. I think of the children in some of my friends families and all I can do is compare. Their children love each other... I never see their children fight... I've never seen their children be impolite with company...

So sad that this "Mother's Day" week, I really don't feel too happy about being a Mom. Sigh...

"Mom, where's Dad" Katie asks this morning. "At work" I reply. "HE FORGOT HIS SHOES" she yells!