Sometimes

I've been reading in the Book of Mormon about Alma the Elder and his followers. As I was reading this time, it stood out to me that sometimes we experience trials and struggles so that we can testify to others that Heavenly Father is aware of us, and He doesn't leave us comfortless.

This past month we had that type of experience. I know that Heavenly Father is close by. He watches over us and He loves us. When trials come upon us, when our hopes and wishes don't come true, we are not alone. We are held by a loving Father who comforts us.  For the past few months, we have not been alone and will not be alone. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are here for us in all of our trails, to mourn with us, to strengthen us and to bring us closer to them.

Cement

This is a story of drama. A story of woe. A story of tears. A story with HEROES who save the Hero Family!

To set the stage:

This morning, one of our really helpful maintenance guys knocks on our door and tells us he is fixing the cement--in the crack right at our door frame. And not to touch it because it's a beast to clean. The Friendly Hero promises him so nicely that he will never touch it, and the Peaceful Hero screams because he's mad that we're not outside. (It was one of those days that Mom couldn't do anything right and ignoring him made the screaming worse.)

Fast forward to the afternoon. We decide to go out to the playground. I lift both boys over the crack, and we head off. I get to the playground and notice that the Peaceful Hero got some cement on his foot, and rubbed it into my pants.....I decide not to care. Because this is the point of the day where enough has happened that I stop caring about everything and decide to start laughing. (When other people are close to tears due to stress and frustration, I am usually on the brink of laughing hysterically....if that doesn't make it better then I start crying.)

We had a great time at the playground. The Friendly Hero decides to ride his friend's bike home and not tell Mom. He also decides to take his favorite friend home, who is also three. I don't notice right away, because we're playing and all feeling better because we're still outside. Well, about 5 minutes later, the best friend comes back, because there is cement on her fingers. She's really upset. We find out that acetone is the best thing to take it off, from another friend who had it all over her one year old daughter yesterday. Well, about ten minutes later I go home, and I find this on my door step.

I carefully go in, and the Friendly Hero has it ALL over his hands and feet. (I didn't get pictures until they were in bed.) I don't have any acetone, so I go and borrow some from a friend. We get part of the cement off of one foot, and Friendly Hero pours acetone over his pants. Off go the pants. I go inside to rinse off the pants and notice cement on the floor, carpet, door knobs, bathroom door, bathroom floor, bathroom counter....everywhere the Friendly Hero has been. (I stop laughing hysterically and try to fight off tears.)

I come outside to tears. The Peaceful Hero dumped water all over the Friendly Hero so he takes off his sopping wet underwear. We're still on the front porch. We move to the back yard. I chase down the Peaceful Hero because he decided that he didn't want to hang around his brother after dumping water all over him. I go to ANOTHER friend's house and borrow her acetone, since we've used up the first bottle. I call the Bug Hero and tell him we have an EMERGENCY.

We go to the back yard and we are working on cleaning up the Friendly Hero. We are half way through one foot, when our Hero shows up in the form of Friendly Hero's best friend's Mom and Brother. They come armed with Non-acetone fingernail polish remover and cotton balls. They start scrubbing and it comes right off! They help the Friendly Hero clean his feet, hands and face. The Brother is 5 and surprisingly a happy, enthusiastic scrubber, he can't get enough of cleaning cement with cotton balls. I go upstairs to get the Friendly Hero some clothes, and change my pants and come downstairs to a clean carpet, floor, door knobs and all else has been taken care of.

We wash our clothes and everything is well again. We haven't used our front door yet tonight. We walk around. I hope the Cement dries soon.

Here are the light spots from the non-acetone cleaner.

The spot on the bathroom door.We're leaving it as a victory mark.

I am very grateful for Friends. This would have been very traumatizing without them to come to our rescue. As it stands, we are laughing about it. At bath time we had to use more acetone, as we found some on the Peaceful Hero's ear.

I have checked the laundry--my pants are fine and the Friendly Hero's pants survived the soaking in acetone they received. I also have eaten an entire bar of Swiss chocolate. I was saving it for a day like today when it is medicine.

Back

I have been at a loss. For the past several weeks. I have still checked the blog and hoped that some one would have let everyone know that we are still doing awesome things. Now that I've updated, I'm feeling better. I hit a writers block or something. We are having fun, and I'm taking pictures more...It's always a good thing!

We bike to tutoring, we are enjoying the random weather we are having (really warm a few days, and then really cold) and we are enjoying each other. Peaceful Hero loves being outside, and pointing out animals. He gets excited about spiders since Bug Bowl, and is constantly trying to catch them.

Friendly Hero loves having friends around. He gets upset when our neighbors are gone and he can't go to their house, or have them come to ours. He loves riding in the bike trailer and loves riding his bike. He wanted ribbons on his big bike so we put them on this week. (We went to a bike store and he LOVED the pink bike with frilly ribbons.) His bike now has manly ribbons.

I am busy. We tutor for about 8 hours a week, which takes up all my spare time, and I'm working on my cross-stitch. I love that I'm making progress and can see it, but it's because I put in 3-4 hours a week. I get interrupted to make bug ties and clothes for a baby doll.

The Bug Hero is our hero. He is busy at school and the semester in over next week. He's got research, scouts, classwork, and us to balance. We can see the stress, but he's not giving up and still is the best Dad and Husband he knows how to be.

Sleepy

Peaceful Hero one morning, woke up an hour early. He was happy and played well. Snack time came and he fell asleep in the chair. I am so happy to have a sleeping in the high chair picture!

Easter

 We had a fun Easter season. I am grateful for the resurrection of our Savior. We went to a ward breakfast in the morning and had an egg hunt then. Friendly Hero was off and running--he knew exactly what to do. The Peaceful Hero spent a long time walking to eggs, and he would pick one up, put it in his basket, walk to another egg, put it in, and take the first out. He did that two or three times. It was really funny!

After nap time we had an egg hunt at our house. We found eggs and we had little prizes with our names one them. The Friendly Hero was a blur as he went looking for all the eggs. This kid is a pro, especially because he knows there is candy involved.

 This was the best shot I got of our just woke up, Peaceful Hero. He was content to lay on the ground and open one or two eggs, and eat the insides.

"Easter is a holiday because Jesus came back!"--Friendly Hero.

Bug Bowl

 We went to Bug Bowl last weekend. It was fun. The boys were in HEAVEN! They loved the animals. We went at 9:30, right when it opened and we were the only ones in this tent. Peaceful Hero has a loud "Animal" scream. He identifies animals, and it's all we heard in this tent...a long with his laughter.

The piglets were sleeping.

The Sheep were interested in Peaceful Hero, and they loved each other.

 Peaceful Hero would touch everything he could. This calf is 5 days old. (Personally, I'm really glad I don't have that big of babies.)

 Then we went to the insect petting zoo. The Peaceful Hero got excited about all the insects except the millipede. I guess it looks too different. He loved the Tomato Horn Worm, the Hissing Cockroaches, and the Tarantula.

He touched the millipede, he just didn't scream at it with a happy face. The boys did their parts and wore their bug ties. Everyone loved how spiffy they looked for bug bowl.

 We explored a few other tents before nap time and found some blocks, and a ball. The boys didn't want to leave that.

 We had a lot of fun!