New Beginnings

I did a work out Tuesday morning and have been sore ever since. It's funny you know it involved no weights, yet my back is totally feeling it. I should probably incorporate that class more into my life!!
At bootcamp yesterday I asked the trainer what might happen if you keep working out while you're sore and he said one of two things #1 you'll get crippled, #2 you'll be fine. I woke up today and am still sore, but not crippled sore, so is there a #3? Hahahaha

Last night I fed 7 children like it was nothing. They all sat around the table and ate and used their manners and were great. 4 of them were mine. I said to Dru "This is what it'd be like if we had 7 kids"
He said nothing, but the kids thought it was funny.
I love having my kids mates around. It makes me happy. We also had two other kids around playing.
Takeshi and his two buddies were playing so well together. Then it all went to custard. Takeshi got too rough and got a fat lip and it all went pear shape after that.
Hopefully they'll work through it right?
On the positive side of things though, Yuki played well with all of her friends, without a worry. So go figure man. Here I was thinking I'd have to regulate Yuki when it was Takeshi who had the hard 'friend' day.
Sometimes friendships are tough. We've all been through it. Made me a little sad to watch Takeshi learn from his behaviours. I said to him though "People don't like being hassled bud, you'd be wise to not be so relentless with your hassling"
So hopefully next time is better.
They really do have a little gang of kids around here to play with though. It's really nice. They'll probably all grow up together so it'd be wise to try to figure things out.
I'm a believer in trying to stay out of it as well. My mum never got into our friend drama, we had to figure it out on our own. So I try to just say things here and there but ultimately they gotta work it out. And they usually always do.

So last night was 'New Beginnings' in our youth young women's programme. The girls and leaders have been working to make sure this night went off without a hitch.
We made a sign up sheet for the girls to sign up for assignments for the night. They all signed up and only one didn't show up. She found someone to take over her part though, which work out great.
I think it went well.
There are 3 new young women coming into the programme this year and two were there last night. One was sick and so had to stay home.
Three of the older girls did a spotlight on the three 'newbies' and it was pretty cute man.
We watched a video and the bishop and us pres. talked as well as all of the girls. It was all short and finished at a decent time.
There's nothing like a L O N G programme to make you sleepy lol
The girls did the decorations and the food and did their part to say a YW value of their choice, last night. I'm proud of them. I love them.
I've been trying to do my personal progress. This is a programme the church has put out, for the girls to participate in. I didn't do it in my youth, so I figured I'd do it now, while with the YW.
So I started a couple of months ago.
You have to do a project for each value. There's 8 values. The first one is FAITH. So I've been slowly working through the faith value.
I tried to think of a project to do for faith. I though maybe I'd knit something or draw something, but then I was like "This has to be meaningful and I wanna have it around to remind me and what if my drawing sucks?" Hahahaha
So I surprised myself by deciding to write a poem. Crazy right? Who just writes a poem? Especially when you know you're not a good writer you know?
But I thought and though and decided to give it a go.
This is what I came up with, and what I shared with the youth last night, to prove that the programme helps you to do things, that you wouldn't normally do.
I wouldn't normally write a poem. But I did and I LOVE it and it's a new found treasure I'll keep forever.

Faith Poem

Faith is like a little seed.
It started when I was young,
when dad put out his arms and said
"I'll catch you Melissa, just come".

The trust I had in my father,
the trust he had in God,
helped me know I'm not alone,
in this life that I must trod.

Sometimes it's the size of a mustard seed.
Sometimes it’s the size of a tree.
But faith in my father in heaven,
started on my father’s knee.

So thank you Dad for trusting,
in the God you love on high.
For it's taught me who I am in life,
so I can lift my wings and fly.

Love you Dad
Milz xx

One girl came up to me afterwards and started crying and said she's been having a bit of a faith crisis and being in YW helps her a ton and gave me a hug.

Another girl said that our leadership is the best she's ever had!!

So when I'm feeling sorry for myself about all the meetings and prep and bull crap that goes along with this calling, I remember the girls and tell myself to suck it up, because at the end of the day, it's about them and I love them and it's a privilege to be around them.

Great night.

Latest and greatest

My supergirl.

Notice the shoes? They even have their own capes on them. How cute is that. She wore this outfit so many times in a row I've had to take it and wash it. I'm sure it'll be back on soon.

I went to a mates baby shower on Saturday and decided I'd make her these cute booties from pinterest. Well the pattern was vague at best and so it took me SO LONG to figure this all out.
I went all around Boise and beyond to find soles for the shoes. No one has anything and I couldn't order them online cause they wouldn't come in time so I improvised and figured my own thing out. It worked like a charm.

Then I had to basically make up my own pattern through trial and error. You know it's actually surprising how often I have to do this people. When you get a pattern you presume it'll work right? Wrong. I'm glad I"m getting better at knitting so I can call people on their pattern mistakes but not have to abandon the pattern and am able to figure it out myself.

Now I've figured it out, they're easy and I'm sweet. What a nightmare. Worth it though.

Then I was looking at them and was like, "You know, these need a cute button on them" so up to Joan's I headed and purchased these bad boys.

Finally complete. Pretty cute.

I hope her son can fit them for a little amount of time, at least. You never know if your child is going to have block feet or skinny ballerina feet. Hopefully these will be stretchy enough to cater for both kinds of feet, hence the reason I liked this pattern.

Takeshi woke up one morning and decided he'd show me his muscles. Pretty significant. I'm not sure if he has muscles because he has no body fat, or if it actually has muscles.

Then our mates watched our kids Friday night so Dru and I could head out to the movies together.
She surprized me with this mtb tire mirror. I LOVE it. It was super cheap, probably because everyone thinks it's tacky BUT NOT ME..............I'm putting it up in my craft room and all the tacky haters can hate while I breathe in the satisfaction of a unique mirror that's totally fitting for me.
Also if you look in the mirror at me taking the picture you will notice that I"m wearing an awesome scarf? A gift from another mate. She saw the scarfs and got one for herself then one for me. How nice is that? Actually she also gave me those jeans and my other mate gave me those mittens. So my whole outfit is a gift apart from my top.
Best friends ever!!!
Dru and I decided to watch the last 'Hunger Games' movie. It was good. I'm glad we went. We watched the last one the night before so we could be familiar with what was going on.
I still dunno if I wanna read the book though. I dunno if I want more details. It's kinda sad. Maybe one day.

So the kids are loving where we live. They have multiple mates all over the place. It's been really nice for them. Our back door neighbours have a snake.
Yuki came home and told me how she'd watched the snake eat a live mouse. I almost threw up a little in my mouth when she told me.
I was wondering if she'd be disturbed? Not one nightmare, yet when she watched the PG movie "Goosebumps" she was up all night?
I don't understand it. But whatever man, I'm glad my kids are happy playing with their mates on a daily basis.
It's always nice to have mates close by.

Takeshi giving it a good go.
I'm glad my kids aren't scared of snakes. I'm not and can totally hold them, but spiders are a different story. I don't want all spiders to die or anything, I just want them to stay out of my sight thanks.

Takeshi wanting me to take pic's of his drawings in church.

Hank came over the other day and they decided to blow bubbles. Hank decided he was going to eat the bubbles. It was pretty funny.


He went as far as to hitting his head on a pole, trying to eat one. Poor kid. He had a headache later on but swears it was from the argument him and Takeshi got into over a lego man. Hahaha fighting sucks.

I've been super busy, as always. The weather is getting nice though and I'm itching to get out on my maiden voyage on my mtb. Looks like this week could be it, looking at the weather. I may bust out this Saturday. Dru asked me last night if my bike was ok, and I told him that last time he worked on it he said it was a temporary fix and he still had to work on it. He told me he could sense my 'itchyness' and knew he needed to look at my bike before I take her out into the bliss. We'll see how it goes. I gotta try my new helmet out man. So pumped.

I need to lose a little bit of weight as well. I'm a little on the bigger side, for me, and need to just ease it back a little on the treats and start getting a little more serious.
My brother just lost 15kgs in 8 weeks and looks amazing. The self control he had is amazing to me. His motivation for money is strong though, so he totally won and will be taking his wife out on an epic date.
Everyone else in the comp. we had did alright too though. So that's good. I just need to keep up the good fight. I look better at the weight I was before NZ and I'm in denial about it  and am trying to convince myself that I"m fine the way I am, but with mtb season coming up I know I need to shed some pounds to have a shot at getting better.
Rough road man, it'd be so easy to be naturally skinny, but I like my muscles, I just need to get rid of some fat. Always hard work.

My calling at church is keeping me on my toes man. It's so busy. I have this love hate relationship with it. I love the girls and my team, but being the pres. means busy work and I don't like that. I've been in it almost a year though, so fingers crossed they only keep me in another 2 years or less. I'll cry for sure because of how much I love those girls, but it'll be a relief as well if that all makes sense.

Sometimes I feel like I'm running around constantly and if it'll ever end you know.
I'm going to yoga on Saturday's with my mate and that's good.
Between, exersize, kids, activities, church calling, daily house chores, wife, I'm swamped and have Guilda to blame for it. (what movie?)
I've realized that there's always, always, service to be done. There's always people to visit and serve, dinners to make, kids to look after, baking to hand out, things to support and watch, and it's up to me to figure out how to be at peace through all of it.
I don't want to shut people out, not serve, not be a part of people's lives, so I stay at home and have home days and go out and have out days and it works out just fine.

Emiko totally turns 4 this weekend and I can't believe it. My baby is 4? Where did that go? I'm not too sure either, but it's a little scary. She's growing up and I can't do anything about it.
I always get a little emotional about that, and I think it's because I like my life as is. But that's not how life works. If things work out, my kids will grow up, they'll move out and I'll be onto another journey to try and figure out.

I dont' look back and have regrets, however. I know I did and am doing the best I can with who I am. I've enjoyed my kids, been there for them, cried and laughed with them, watched them grow and learn, and that's all one can ask for.
I realize I'm not perfect and won't ever get mother of the year, but I love my kids and they know it, so I think I'm doing ok.

I'm enjoying Dru. We stayed up late the other night and had a big talk about life. It was really nice. He's really understanding, loving, and he makes sense to me. I'm glad he's my partner in life. I enjoy his company. He's a good person and I'm glad I can call him my BFF. I wouldn't want any other.
He's so good to me. I give him a hard time with his quirks, but hey man, I'm no peach sometimes, yet we totally work and loving him is a privilege.
We were talking about how old we're getting and how there's not much we can do about that and I said "But this was part of our plan babe, to grow old together, and here we are, growing old together"

We attended this Trek Fireside meeting on Sunday night at church and a man who must've been in his 80's talked to us of his experience  in the army. He signed up when he was 17 years old. Can you imagine your son at 17 going to war? It was really good and touched my heart. His sacred experience he had was a blessing to listen to. I can't even imagine the torment for those young boys.
The theme for the Trek is "Angels among us" which I believe. I believe we have angels among us who help out. It should be a fun experience. I need to get some clothing. Anyone have any for me? Otherwise I'll have to make my own I guess and who wants to do that? Hahaha





And to finish off this super long, random post, here's a picture of awesomeness. Just to keep it real.

Presidents Weekend

P

This past weekend we went to Wyoming to our mates Ranch house and chilled for 4 days. Well 2 days were travel but 2 days were super chill.
There was plenty of snow for the kids to snowmobile in and play.
When the cuzzies get together they have a ton of fun.
The MOST impressive thing though is that my sister in law, Brooke, came all the way from CA to spend these 4 days with us. So a huge KUDOS to her man as my girls had so much fun playing with them.
My husband ALSO had a lot of fun playing 'let's make up a pattern' with Brooke as they sewed a piece together that I'll show you one day soon. 

So good to have her with us. What a sacrifice. I thought we had a long way to go!!


Both Brooke and Kristin had these silver and gold tattoos that we all played with. They're actually really pretty and I think almost every girl in the ranch house had something on.
I painted my toes gold, something I've never done before. I think it looks good. See me trying to hide my bunion? That'll be gone by the end of this year.



I'm knitting a blanket for my nephew who was just born last month. I have 8 panels to do and have only done three. I think I'll be finished by the time he moves out at 18!! All joking aside. I hope it's finished sooner rather than later. I also hope it turns out as nice as what I have in my head, cause I'm not taking it undone. I think I picked the wrong hobby man as knitting takes SO MUCH TIME. I should've been smart like Kristin and chose crochet. Way faster and just as good looking. Oh well man, I've chosen my camp and I need to just chill out. I always like it when it's finished.

I also made a HUGE achievement this weekend and totally finished a book I've been trying to read for about 2 years.

I thought it was great. It was an easy book to pick up and put down again and then re pick up and put down again. I'm glad I finished it and I thought it was great.
I've made a goal this year, a REALISTIC, goal of trying to read 8 books!! I know that seems crazy but I miss reading and need to slowly work my way back into it. I figure I can do 8 books, I think. The next one I wanna read is:

Jobecka told me it's great, and I believe her. So onwards and upwards with reading and knitting. These two things are easy to do in the cold. I'm worried once mtb season arrives I'll be adding one more thing and these two will be pushed to the wayside. There's just too much to do and not enough time man.
As it is, right now I'm sitting up to my neck in mess from unpacking that's screaming for me to tidy it up and a 3 year old girl who I'm slightly ignoring to get this all written down.
So much to do and so little time.



We celebrated these three's bday this past weekend.
Luke's was on Monday and Masaru's is beginning of next month and Emiko's is the end of this month. It's a great way to celebrate, with all the cuzzies. It makes it easier for gifts too I think.




Dru was going to make apple pie, but he slept on the couch instead and forgot the recipe and it was all a little too much to deal with so bailed on the idea. Kristin made cookies and we had ice cream so that's what we did. I love this picture.



I dunno what Luke's pointing at.



Oh maybe Emiko couldn't blow it out and had to get serious with her blowing by pulling her hair back?



As always, Emiko was very spoilt by Dru's family. I'm always a little embarrassed at how awesome they are with gifts. They're so amazing and I'm grateful for their kindness.
Emiko got NOT ONE BUT TWO supergirl outfits!!!! And Daniel the Tiger figurines which she's playing with right now downstairs IN her supergirl outfit.



Masaru was in heaven with lego's, money and pokemon cards. All three of his favourite things in life. Well he likes fishing too.........Uncle Llew?!?!!






He made this car up right then and there and was racing it around the cabin. It works pretty well.





Then Luke and Masaru sat there and sorted out all of his pokemon cards in his folder in some kinda orderly fashion.
Ethan also helped him with his lego. Big kids at heart.



There was a lot of food to eat and 4 dogs to all play together and bark at.
Dru and his brother both brought their Japanese 'skirts' and wore them snowmobiling even!! Well maybe just Ryan did that. Nothing like men in skirts to prove that their ok with their manhood.

We watched a couple of movies together and I talked till 5am one night with Kristin. That was fun until 9:30am the next morning!! I had a nap later on, that was nice.
We played a dancing game, that I wish we played more, that was so much fun. We need to own that game, it's great exersize.
It was really nice.

And when it was time to go home, we just paid $25 and let some one else clean up and just packed and left.
Now that's what I'm talking about!!!

I sat and knitted while Dru drove and we talked and the kids watched movie, drew, listened to music and slept for the 6 hours home.



How cute is our supergirl!!!
So much fun. Such a great weekend. I'm glad we get along as a family and all the cuzzies get a long as well.
The older boys are getting old. Ethan is about to turn 19 as well and is at college. Soon they'll wanna marry and have their own kids and I dunno how or if that'll change these trips but, for now, I'm super grateful to all be together.

I forgot it was also Valentines this weekend and so we exchanged valentines as well as cuzzies. That's always fun.
The kids also had a great time at school with their Valentines parties and came home happy.
I got Dru a voucher for him to get his beard trimmed at a place downtown. He thought that was pretty awesome. I also got him some beard oil. So we'll see how that works.
He wrote me a beautiful poem and gave it to me early morning the next day. I know he hates to do it, but I keep telling him, it's free and it's all I want, so he obliges and always blows me away with his talent and abilities.
Love you babe xx

Field Trip

There's my hanging basket that Dru put up. I love it. It only had drywall for it to hang off of so Dru had to make a bracket for it so it could handle the weight of whatever I wanted to put in them. I think it looks great.
He did it while I was out with the youth last night and when I walked in, we both just went to bed. I asked him what he'd gotten up to and he said nothing. Then I got up this morning and saw it and texted him to say thanks.
I said 'Why didn't you say something?' to which he replied he likes to surprize me.
We're so different man. If that was me that put that up there, the minute he walked into the house I would've pointed it out to him and make him tell me how awesome I was.
Dru man, the quiet worker.

Today Nawang watched Emiko while I went on a field trip with Masaru to the Egyptian theater in downtown boise.
I've never been here before.
I was amazing. The theater is really well done and looks like there's been a lot of work done to it.
I tried to capture in in this panoramic picture, but you can't really see anything. Pity.

We were there to watch two silent films.
I didn't really know what to expect.



There was a man, brought in by the theater, who was from New York. He was there for the sole purpose of playing this 1927 organ which this theater was built around. It also was built in 1927.
He explained to us that he was going to watch the movie with us and play whatever he felt like to add sound to the silent film. He taught the kids that, back in the day, they knew how to make film and they knew how to make music, but they didn't know how to put it both together. So there was a man, like himself, or an orchestra, who played for these films.
So we sat and watched these films while listening to him play.
He was excellent and it was all just fascinating. The kids had a wonderful time. I can't believe he just free styled the whole thing. What a talent.
It was really enjoyable. I'm glad I went.

The rest of the day has been busy and I've been run off of my feet. I'll be happy to go to bed here in 15 minutes. I've got two girls sleeping over night here with Yuki and they're having lots of fun together. I'm glad she's got good mates. She can be a little bossy. Masaru can be too, and so we're trying to teach them to chill.
The kids had their valentines parties today and came home with 'loot'. They said their valentines were a hit and no one else did ours, so it was unique and Masaru even said they had drinks at his party so everyone could use their straws. Awesome right?

I went to rotate the tires at the tire shop today and sat down to wait for it to be done and this old man asked why I was here. I told him, then he proceeded to talk my ear off for a good 35 minutes about his life. Hahahaha it was crazy. He was slightly racist and sexist, but it helped the time go by a lot faster.
 He was pleased as punch when the man called for him.
He never told me his name and when he left he said "Thanks for making that 45 mins seem like this" and held his fingers together about an inch apart. Hahahaha
So random.
I often find that people like to talk to me cause I'm not from around here. Luckily I like to talk, so that helps. I could hardly get a word in edge wise with this man, however. He was hard of hearing, so always asked me to repeat myself, and he was totally into himself and his stories and was probably happy for a listening ear. It reminded me of the mission days where we'd listen to old people talk to us for hours cause they were lonely. I need to do better with that actually. I should visit people.

Yesterday was the best day of the week. I did nothing and spent the whole day at home. It was so relaxing and wonderful and just what I needed.
It also made today extremely busy, however. Oh well.
I had a few kids over after school and they were all bouncing outside on the tramp together, having fun and laughing and I sat there watching them (reflection often comes from watching my kids on the tramp now I think about it) and I was thinking about how much I liked my life. I love being a mother of these kids. I love watching them smile and laugh, I love the hussle and bussle of it all. I love feeding them and being with them. I know I"m gonna miss it when they're gone, so I need to love the stage, right now, having them to myself in this house and me being the most important thing in their lives. It'll be sad when it's over, so I have to appreciate it now right?
Yesterday was one of the days where I sat back and was grateful for motherhood and grateful for this stage, right now, in my life and being able to be a mother to 4 kids 10 and under. It's the best.

Here's a couple of video's of Masaru playing the piano. He's getting better and better. I love it.

Girls post

Yuki has some money burning holes in her pockets and so she brought herself this lego set for $29.

She needed to ask Masaru for help, only once, and did the rest herself.

She was pleased as punch with herself and her achievements.

Tight squeeze but I still think it's more room than what we have on our flights home to NZ.

Here's the stewardess welcoming everyone, and their bag,s in.

The backside of her .

Here's someone trying to make it through the machine with a bag. Good luck mate.

Since Yuki was taking pictures of her legos, Emiko needed her picture taken as well.
These two pictures are the exact poses she wanted.
Awesome right.
Showing off her huge biceps and punching us all in the face with her supergirl powers.

I hope these ones always feel like they're super strong. Cute.