Why Everyone Should Have a Chance to be our Hometeacher!

In our church, we have Hometeachers. These are a couple of guys from our congregation (we call it our ward) who basically just check in with us once a month, see how we're doing, share a quick spiritual thought, and are there for us if we need anything throughout the month. Our kids LOVE blabbing their ears off. One of our current hometeacher's, who's a great guy, was here last night and what happened is a typical hometeaching visit to the Walker family. (They've been crazier, but this is the one I haven't had time to block out from my memory yet!!!)....I started rambling because I'm a nervous talker. (If I don't know what to say, I just talk more! My dad used to say, "you're just talking to hear yourself! I don't even think YOU know what you're talking about!".  Shane can be so quiet, it drives me crazy because I feel like I have to keep the conversation going when people are over.) Then I went to have the kids come up from downstairs and Alivia (5 yr. old) started throwing a REALLY LOUD yelling fit. I had to pick her up and carry her up the stairs as she was shouting, "I want to stay down here and play! I NEVER get to play with Emma!, I don't care if the hometeacher is here!". He totally heard all of that. As I was sternly correcting her, I kept calling her the baby's name and everyone would look at the baby like, "what is she doing wrong?". I totally sounded crazy! I took Alivia to her room and told her she could come out when she was ready to apologize for being rude. Lilyanna (13 month old) started demanding that the hometeacher hold her, which he did. So he was holding our baby, and Daniel was going on and on about a dead squashed skunk on the road,  Emma started talking about how bad her school stinks, and Josh tried to gross Emma out by doing weird things with his eyeball. Then I let Alivia come out and she apologized and said she'd be nice.  Then she told him that her mom never cleans at night, takes naps every day, and that her and Emma's bedroom is a MESS.  When he tried to give us back Lilyanna she told him off in her baby voice and demanded that he keep holding her. Emma said that Lilyanna must want to go home with him so Daniel started crying and saying, "HE ALREADY HAS A BABY!". Finally, the poor guy escaped out the door back to his own family who I'm sure seemed like ANGELS. That's why everyone should have the chance the to be our hometeacher!

Positive Motivation

I'm living proof that the reverse psychology mumbo jumbo REALLY works! I'm not sure why every story I share has to have a really pathetic beginning before I can get to the good stuff, but this one is no different.  I mentioned in another post that I've been lacking in the "hot mamma" department. In my defense, it's not that I don't care. I used to be quite prissy, but these 5 munchkins have been wearing me out! On Fridays Shane and I like to have dates and this Friday I decided to not allow myself the usual pony-tail and just slopped on mascera for our date. Unfortunately though, I woke up to one crisis after another and Lilyanna was fussy and clingy ALL day. I ran out the door at noon wearing flannel pajama bottoms, an un-matching shirt, flip-flops, hair not combed.... (you get the idea) with just enough time to get Alivia to the bus. The whole way to the bus I was thinking, "Who is this pathetic haggard woman running down the street?". Even Alivia who's FIVE did her hair! By the time I got back home, I was fed-up with myself, but I couldn't get in the bath until the older kids got home from school. Then with everything they needed, it took Herculian effort to make the time. Finally, I fixed my hair, put on an out-fit I felt great in, and took time to do my make-up the way I like it. I was a bit late to meet Shane, but it was worth it because I felt so great! However, right as I was running out the door,  Lilyanna had a VERY MESSY diaper. I mean the kind men who have changed diapers have nightmares over. Right as I began to change her, another child started yanking my arm to tell me something, the phone rang (Shane wondering where I was), and Lilyanna decided it was a good time to explore the contents of her diaper. Somehow in all of the craziness, what was INSIDE her diaper ended up on my shirt!!!! True story, you can vomit.  I was in tears and thought, "WHY do I even bother!!!!". I let Shane know that I would be REALLY late now and I changed, doing the best I could to still feel like someone's date and not just a mom who gets dumped on. When I got to where Shane was, he made it all worth it.  He told me how amazing I looked. Then he told me again. Then he told me AGAIN (I think he added a WOW that time or something).  I could tell he really meant it and the first time it was so sweet. The second time, I thought, "okay, he has noticed how I've let myself go most of the time". The third time it was like rubbing salt in my wound. Finally I said, "That's it! Don't you dare tell me ONE more time how AMAZING I look!!!! I'm aware that I don't usually look like this!" Thank goodness he's a patient man!   I have to admit though that what he did worked. I've decided to beat the kids at their own game... I get up before they do and get ready before them! I've fixed my hair and make-up for three days in a row.  I know that it was Shane's reaction that finally motivated me to make drastic changes. I love that guy, of course I want him to be happy! Infact,  it worked so well on me, so I've tried this "positve motivation" on my most "strong-willed" child. I tell her non-stop how wonderful she is. I compliment everything she does and guess what? She's been running around helping before I ask and being a really great kid so that I'll keep it up. Shane is an amazing guy for setting the example for me. He never has mentioned that I would look better in something other than flannel pjs or sweats. He still told me I was beautiful on those days, but Friday was different. He could write an article or something about how to motivate an over-whelmed wife, but the crazy thing is, he doesn't even know he's doing it! He would be so embarrassed if he knew I wrote all of this stuff, but I just have to share it. It's so good for me to look at the bright side of some of my crazy times!

Shane (I wonder if I really will keep this post on here?)

This is a cheesy post and I'm admitting it right now, but I have Shane on the brain and just want to write about some of the things that I appreciate about him. Marrying him is the best decision I ever made.  I admit that having honest kids recently about my physical state COULD be hard on my self-esteem, but I really do feel motivated instead of devastated and the reason is....Shane. This guy is amazing.  Keeping up with 5 kids is tough for me and I don't feel like a "hot mamma" on most days (however, hopefully that will change!). I got a phone call the other day from Shane and he told me to hurry up and turn on the radio because a song was on that reminds him of me and I HAD to hear it. This is what I heard.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhCEhWiKXk

I'm not sure how that will post so I'll put the name of the song....Just the Way You are by Bruno Mars.
He's done that before with songs and it always is so sweet to me, but this time I cried when I heard this one.  I know he means what the song says. It makes me want to be the way he sees me.  His love and his ability to see the best in everyone is just one thing I admire about him. I could go on in this post forever about his character, fun personality, the way he's an amazing dad, his faith, work ethic, etc., but I'll make myself stop. And just so you don't think I'm trying to act like we're a perfect couple, we definitely fight at times. Sometimes he pushes all my buttons and I know he gets tired of me being a control freak, but we can't go to bed angry, it's just not possible for us. We have to reconcile at least somewhat, even if that means we agree to disagree. The other day I told him in a heated discussion, "You know what!? There's not another man on this planet I'd rather fight with than you!". That had us both laughing. Let's just say that our marriage is never boring and Shane is just the perfect man to handle me and my high-strung ways! (An old boyfriend actually said before I married Shane that he was just concerned that Shane couldn't "handle" me! What the heck is that supposed to mean? LOL! Well guess what So In So, he not only "handles" me, he plays me love songs  and tells me he's grateful for the opportunity! No wonder I'm crazy about this guy!)

Kids = Motivation! (and just a gross tooth story)

Wellllllll I've REALLY been enjoying the Holidays and all of the food that goes with it since about St. Patricks day of last year! I had a few spurts of motivation here and there, but nothing REALLY lasted. After all, I sort of just had a baby. However, that baby has now turned a year old and even my kids aren't buying my excuses anymore. A couple of days ago while I was doing laundry, Daniel (3) held up a pair of my grey exercise pants and excitedly shouted to the other kids that he had found "Santa's pants" in our living room! They almost fell over laughing as they explained to him that those are "mommy's pants". Then last night he started patting my belly and talking about the baby in there. I replied, "Yeah, well mommy is going to exercise and eat healthy and then that "baby" is going to disappear!". Alivia promptly started yelling, "No don't do it" and crying about losing our "baby". Sometimes as a mom I'm just not that bright! I had to spell out in black and white that there is no baby, just FAT. Daniel wanted to know why so I had to explain that it's there because I eat too much candy and junk. Daniel didn't even let me off easy after that embarrassing explanation. He kept gawking at my stomach and saying, "so you're fat, huh? You eat too much, huh? Too much candy, huh?". OKAY!!!! I got it! I can't hide anymore. It's time to do something or be happy about it and move on. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do something about it, but sheeesh, how do I get the 3 year old to be quiet about it in the mean time? I hope to be grateful to that loud little kid one day when I'm trimmer, but for now, I better buy a girdle!

I think this next story is motivation to Emma to keep her teeth up high when leaving them out for the Tooth Fairy. First of all, can I just say that our Tooth Fairy has about had it with this inquisitive child? Emma writes letters to the Tooth Fairy with EACH tooth she yanks out (and it seems like she'll never run out either!). She expects the Tooth Fairy to write back and the first time, the Tooth Fairy thought this would just be one simple little letter to write to "prove" her existance. She typed out a letter in tiny, tiny print, put a cartoon picture of herself and sprinkled the letter with gold "fairy dust".  The next letter and tooth had specific questions about where the Tooth Fairy lives, if she celebrates Christmas, what kind of gifts she likes, etc. The next letter asked for a return letter in the Tooth Fairy's OWN handwriting with even more questions, like "what do you do with all of the teeth?". Good grief, I need to buy a book about the Tooth Fairy or  something. This always  happens when I'm too tired to think straight and we're not sure where our glitter is, not to mention that I'm not sure what the Tooth Fairy's REAL handwriting should look like. Emma put her tooth out last night on the bathroom counter, but when she went to check on it before bed, it was gone. She was very distraught, but we explained that her tooth fairy knows her so well now and is probably over the time she tried to trick her, so she would just believe her about the tooth. (Emma left the white part of candy corn out for the Tooth Fairy one time, but the Tooth Fairy just left her play money for her "pretend" tooth.)   She didn't have to fret for long because we noticed Lilyanna chewing on something and when we pulled it out, it was Emma's tooth! Gross, I know! It had been knocked on the floor and so it was fair game for our little muncher.