How does one put into words the expression of love and admiration for a mother. The person who clothed, fed, diaper changed, let you hug her when you threw up, held your hand on the first day of school, told you to get beck and try again and then cheered the loudest when you finally got it, held you when someone did or said something unkind. My mother went through the destructive years of young boys and the tempestuous years of teenage girls. She went without many "comforts" so that my brothers, sisters and I could have them. I grew up in a military family, my dad was often away or had a crazy schedule but my mom was always there.
As a mother I now find myself becoming more and more like the woman I swore I would be nothing like(tempestuous years)and wishing to be even more like her. I now drag my kids all around the place following my military husband and trying to be the stabilizing factor my mom was for me.I hear myself singing "Love at Home" when my girls start arguing.
I grateful to more mothers than just my own. My husbands mom is an exemplary woman who raised three wonderful boys. Both of my grandmother's were and are great women who struggled to do the best for their children when they were in difficult situations. My sister-in-laws mother, who, when I was a teenager taught me many things, the least of which is to be grateful I came from the home I came from.
And so here it is my deeply flawed and inadequate tribute the mothers in my life. Thanks you and I love you all.
NINA

Here is a quick kiddie Quip from the dinner table tonight.
Mara - Teia you want to be a pilot like daddy
Teia - well actually now I want to be a dolphin trainer
Becca - I change every week

A Book Review

Today I thought I would blog about a book series that our family has recently been listening to on CD, The sister's Grimm, by Michael Buckley. The sisters Grimm are the great, great, great... grandchildren of the youngest of the the famous brothers Grimm who wrote the "fairy tales" only they weren't really fairy tales they were histories.After the kidnap of their parents, Sabrina and Daphne, the sisters Grimm are thrown into the world of fairytale mysteries. The two sisters along with their Granny Relda solve the town of Fairy port Landing's fairytale mysteries. The books are a collection of funny and twisting convolution of fairy tale's put together. Our girls hang on every word. Nathan and I find them very enjoyable as well.There are eight books in the series and here they are in order.
The Fairytale detectives
The Unusual Suspects
The Problem Child
Once upon a Crime
Magic and other Misdemeanors
Tales from the Hood
The Everafter War
The Inside Story
Book eight is only out in book and not in CD yet.
Hope all is well and you are enjoying life.
NINA

"isms"

Becca - Why did the cow jump over the moon?
Teia - To get exercise.

Mommy - Mara you are impertinent.
Mara- What is impertinent?
Daddy - not pertinent
Mara - oh.... is daddy being Fasheshioush(facetious)?

The girls learned about estimates today and we tried to estimate how many pieces of broccoli were in the bowl. Mara- 20, Teia- 40-50, Becca- 30, Mommy - 68, Daddy - 75, Actual - +100.

disclaimer on the last post

You can really tell I was struggling yesterday. I apologize for my lack of spelling and grammar in my last post. I blame it on the migraine. I felt pretty lucky to get my thoughts out in any coherant form.

a legitimate excuse

I really do have a legitimate excuse for missing my post last week. Nathan was working with the Japanese during the recent Nuclear summit and we were TOLD that we couldn't post electronically all week long for security reasons. That being said I really don't have a lot to say about the last 2 weeks except that I am exhausted. Here is the basic brake down of my schedule

April

1- on an airplane or in the airport for 12 hours total, I am not a fan of flying!I went to my baby brother's wedding in Washington state

2-helped with preparations for wedding
3- went to wedding. It was very pretty and nice

4- spent the day touring Yakima WA stuffed into the back seat of a Chrysler 300 with my 300+ lb baby brother and his new wife. I got to see a tea pot shaped convenience store though so it was all worth it.
5- Saw the U.S version of Stone Henge(bet you didn't know we had one, me either) and way too many hours on a plane again

6- landed around 1:30 in the morning by 2:30 Nathan had a deer and seriously damaged our mini van. cleaned carpets and picked up rental van.

7- cleaned more carpets, went grocery shopping, and did laundry.

8- picked up new couch(hooray), got in-laws from airport, did more cleaning

9- Nathan went to work and the rest of us had an easy morning, met Nathan for lunch and then took in-laws to arboretum

10- Luray Caverns, seriously cool, got lost on the way out there, dang tom-tom! 2 hour drive from home but worth every minute.

11- church, and Cherry blossom festival concert for Mormon Orchestra of Washington D.C

12- Nathan went to work for a very LONG day of standing on the flight line and the rest of us went to the National mall and walked and walked and walked a..n..d.. walked through the Jefferson memorial, 2 Smithsonian's, by Washington memorial, through FDR memorial, and in Lincoln memorial.

13- Baltimore aquarium

14- out to Virginia to visit Nathan's dad's old high school and old house and the woods he used to play in. We also took in the Air and Space museum near Dulles. I got the girls space ice cream:)

15- out to St. Mary's City the first Catholic settlement in the U.S and an unexpected connection was found. Nathan has a great...... Grandfather who was one of the first settlers of Maryland.

16- STAYED home. Nathan and his dad started the process of killing all the poison ivy in our back yard trees.

17- Took Nathan's parents to the airport. Everyone was sad they had leave especially Teia. I was supposed to go on a helicopter flight over D.C again but decided I would rather not be social. So instead we went and picked out the paint for the great room!
18- Spent most of the day in bed with a migraine. I guess I just had too much fun!
here are a few pics to get you started. It may take months to get them all on here.

Love to you all

Have a great week

NINA

While the cat is away, the mice will play.

While Nina was gone over the last few days, the Girls and I (Nathan) went out and had some fun.
First, We went to the National Zoo.
We saw one of the panda's out playing.
Then we got to get up close to the zebra.

The next day, we went to go se the cherry blossoms in downtown DC.







More to follow?

Sing thine Oblations

Having grown up watching the Mormon Tabernacle choir perform at least twice a year for General Conference I sometimes think its easy to forget that there are people up their singing. They are so precise and well trained. The Mormon choir of Washington D.C was not so tonight. The concert was amazing! That being said there was such a showing of human frailty that it was thought provoking for me. This is a good thing, I think. From the old gentleman who was so bent over he took up two people's worth of space to the women who could no longer stand, whether from age or pregnancy. My heart soared when I watched the faces of the singers who knew they had gotten it right! To some people, myself included generally, it would have been a flawed performance. They had to stop and start one song twice because the pianist got ahead of the chorister and then vice versa. This only seemed to add to the performance.As the choir sang of the resurrection of the Lord I saw human nature grasping toward a loving Father in Heaven as if to say "Thank you." Like a child bringing home a picture they drew of home just for mommy and daddy. I can't wait for the next concert at the Visitor's center in two weeks, "A celebration of Cherry blossoms." Till next week
NINA