AngRoCamp's Xanga

Drawing the line at Porky Pig...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:59:55 GMT

As you can probably imagine, getting into the ol' Christmas Spirit is a bit challenging in the Aloha State, where Frosty the Snowman would melt in 15 minutes flat, where folks dressed up like eskimos have some kind of death (from heat stroke) wish, and where we quite literally can only dream of a White Christmas because we'd never, ever find ourselves dashing through the snow here.

So we do our best to find ways to get into the holiday spirit. We decorate early. We shop. We wrap. We shop some more. We bake. We watch our kids in Christmas pageants and performances. We go to Christmas parties. We find red and green in our closets and wear the holiday colors proudly. But we wear them with slippers. (Not the fuzzy kind worn to keep your tootsies warm. Slippers here are the shoes we used to call "flip flops" until someone said "Oh 'flip flops' huh? You must be from the mainland." And if we're being technical [because why not?] they're actually "slippahs". But I'm getting off topic...)

We do whatever it takes to force ourselves into believing that this 80 degree weather could really exist on December 13th as a rule and not an anomaly. And that palm trees wrapped in Christmas lights aren't just kitschy cuteness, but a legitimate way of decorating for the holidays.

The key to thrusting myself into the Christmas Spirit this year has been tuning in to the all-Christmas all-the-time radio station. I get my daily dose of the holiday mood while I run around town and listen to my favorite classics on the radio. I get downright giddy when something by Johnny Mathis is played. And I'll admit that Bette Midler's version of Mele Kalikimaka moves me in a way that I never thought that ear worm of a song could ever do. Christmas Canon Rock by Transiberian Orchestra is a favorite and I'm learning to love some of the local favorites like the Brothers Cazimero.

Mixed in with the really great, you get some real duds. I'm completely over that Christmas Shoes song, and the many and varied spoofs on the 12 Days of Christmas are aggravating. There are plenty of "artists" who could should have just completely skipped over the obligatory Christmas album altogether. But I can pretty much handle anything the deejay wants to throw my way to help increase my Christmas Spirit. I can chuckle over the irony of such singers as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond singing Christmas carols. I can listen to 3 different versions of Little Drummer Boy in any given hour. I can tolerate the vocal gymnastics of the Pop Star of the Day who has decided to take a classic and "make it his own". I can even listen to chipmunks squeakily asking for Christmas to not be late. I can truthfully say I'll listen to it all!

Okay, nearly all.

I absolutely MUST draw the line at Porky Pig.

I heard THIS for the first time today, and while I'm sure there are fans out there... I'm not one of 'em. Not only was my holiday mood effectively ruined, but I actually changed the channel!

Please! For the love of all that is festive and traditional and fabulous at this time of year... please don't make me listen to Porky Pig singing Blue Christmas ever, ever again.

Catching Mama off guard...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:20:08 GMT

All three of my boys have managed to make my jaw drop today. Thought I'd share how they each caught me off guard in their own way.

Ben has a really cute friend-girl that he has recently pledged his undying like for (Reciprocated! Awwwwwwwwww!) He wants to get her a gift for Christmas and recently asked me how much the shell necklaces with flowers on them are at the swap meet (about $2 by the way, perfect for a 12 year old friend-girl gift, in my opinion) and he decided that's what he would get for her.

But this morning he asked me "Do they make necklaces with names on them?"

I told him "Probably".

"Would they have one with my name?"

"Sure, probably. Ben is a fairly common name."

"Would they have one with Sarah on it."

"I'm sure they probably would. It's also a popular name."

I was thinking it was cute he wanted to get himself a necklace and a similar style for Sarah, and I was totally clueless about his actual plan until he clarified and threw this curve ball at me, completely catching me off guard...

"She can wear the Ben necklace and I can wear the Sarah one!"

AAAAAAARGH! He's 12. Like, Ben. LIKE! No girlfriends. You're too little! (Although saboteur extraordinaire Willy told Ben to ask me how old I was when I had my first friend-boy. Um. Heath Romrell. Age twelve. *sigh*) At least I know I've got a sweet little romantic Romeo on my hands and that maybe I won't have to coach him too much on how girls like to be treated. (Incidentally, he got her a matching necklace, bracelet and earrings. Big spender.)

Brady this afternoon managed to shock me, too. He's the third child in our family this week to get sick. Molly had a high fever and vomiting on Sunday through Monday. Toby got it next from Monday through Tuesday. And yesterday afternoon Brady came down with the fever. Brady is one of those kids who demands attention and care when he's sick. When he's miserable... we're all a bit miserable. There's much moaning and whining and wailing. So it's a little hard to know what to take seriously and what to take as, well, theatrics. He responds really well to ibuprofen, so every 6 hours or so I pump him full of it, his fever drops and everything is hunky dory for a few more hours. When he started moaning and wailing this afternoon at about the 5-hours-since-ibuprofen mark, I was prepared to deal with his misery for a bit and then redose him. But then he went and caught me off guard when suddenly from the other room I heard some violent retching, and then "I'm sorry!! I got it on the carpet!" He darted around the corner with his two hands full of dripping vomit and rushed toward the kitchen sink as I'm squealing "NOT THE KITCHEN!" so after he dumped half the puke in the kitchen sink he ran to the bathroom to get rid of the rest.

So I got to take the puked-on rug outside and hose and scrub it off and send a bona fide sick kid to bed (where he slept for almost 3 hours!) So we currently stand at 3 of 4 kids who've puked in the last 72 hours. I wonder if Ben is doomed? So far he's dodged the fever/aches/pukes bullet. Can he be so lucky to avoid it altogether?

Toby today managed to catch me off guard with his 4 year old vocabulary. He was playing a Nerf dart tag game with Ben (much to Brady's whining and wailing dismay... "pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease be QUI-ET! You're hurting my heeeaaaaad") Toby pinged Ben nicely with a nerf bullet and said in as sinister voice as a four year old can muster "It's all part of my brilliant plan!" He may as well have followed that up with a "MUWAHAHAHAHAHA" for as pleased as he was with himself. Silly boy.

Molly hasn't caught me off guard today. I wish she would. The way she could surprise me would be to go a day without one of these. Alas, she's done this twice already today and we've still got an hour to go before the clock strikes the magic hour. (All you parents out there know exactly why 8 p.m. is magical.)

Update: She managed to SHOCK me after all!! While I was uploading the tantrum video, Miss Molly allowed me to put pigtails in her hair tonight for the very first time ever! And she's even left them in for over an hour now!!! My little "baby" girl looks so grown up. *sniff sniff*

This last shot is her "happy girl" face, which we can sometimes get her to do when she's pitching a fit or sobbing for some reason. We ask her to show us her happy girl face and she'll manage to force this smile out before promptly going back to her tantrum or tears. (Guess I should have tried that last night when I was filming her fit, huh? Duh Mama!)

Three Little Thankfuls - 2009 Edition...

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:17:41 GMT

Well I haven't participated in a Kween of the Queens writing challenge in quite a long time, and honestly I'm not even sure the group is still up and running. But this blog topic was a challenge that I've participated in since 2006, so I feel a bit traditional about it now. The only rule was that you had to name three little things you're thankful for - people, pets, jobs, etc not acceptable because those are BIG things in your life. So without further ado, my 2009 edition of Three Little Thankfuls.

1- Living in a vacation destination. It's hard to live far from family. Calculating time zones so as to avoid an embarrassing call to your sister at 1 a.m. sucks. (So does being woken up an hour earlier than you normally do because someone on the calling end miscalculated or forgot to calculate. The exception, of course, being the morning my baby brother called to tell me that after two beautiful daughters, the ultrasound that morning had shown that he was about to become daddy to a little boy!) Anyway, being far from "home" is hard. We feel very far away sometimes. Y'know, cuz we're out here in the middle of the ocean. Anyway, we have been so blessed to live here for reasons beside the obvious. Living in a vacation destination gives our family and friends extra incentive to save their pennies (by the tens of thousands...) and join us out here in paradise for a week or two. This year alone we've entertained houseguests six times, and had five other friends come to the island on vacation and spare a bit of their time to visit with us. It's made the distance seem much less overwhelming. I'm very thankful to live in a vacation destination.

2- I'm thankful for November in Hawaii. As my father-in-law said after his time here in Hawaii in October, he never felt cooled off until he got home. For this Utah-desert raised girl, Hawaiian summers are a bit suffocating. The humidity and heat are inescapable, and while the ocean is refreshing, contrary to popular belief we don't find ourselves at the beach every single day. (Just every single week hehehe.) During the summer (which is pretty much from April to October) sometimes the only time I feel real relief from the heat and humidity is the few minutes I spend in a cool shower before bed. But November! Glorious November! The air temperature drops just enough to make daytime perfect and "winter" evenings bring an almost-chill which is refreshing and welcome. I still miss sweater weather every now and then, but I'm very content to welcome November when it arrives because it's such a relief from the loooong hot summer.

3- The wall above my desk that is covered in Willy's photography. I like taking portraits and having people as the subjects of my snap-happiness. But Willy takes the most stunning photos of the world around us. I'm so thankful to be able to lift my eyes away from the trash heap clutter zone that is my desk and see the beauty of our world captured in Willy's amazing photos. I printed and framed some of my favorites of his shots for Father's Day and added a few more for his birthday. I'm ready to tackle another wall in the house now because he's taken so many more that aren't showcased yet! Pictures of pictures are never very effective, but my mother-in-law loved the wall too when she was here and snapped a shot of it so I happen to have an illustration for my blog tonight hehehe.

So what are you thankful for? Just three little things please :)

Well that's a huge first...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:58:44 GMT

When we moved to Hawaii about a year and a half ago, we were determined to experience as much of the Hawaiian culture as possible and go and see and do everything we could manage to to go and see and do while we lived here. When we were in Northern California we never took advantage of all the amazing things there are to do there because we expected to be there a very long time and when we left we felt badly that we didn't take our kids to the Redwood Forest, or Lake Tahoe, etc. We've done our best here to make sure we don't leave with any regrets or "We wish we would have..." thoughts and we're not wasting any time experiencing all we can find to experience, because we've learned that you simply never know when or where the Lord will lead you next. We've tried to embrace this adventure and opportunity to the fullest.

One of the things I had in my head right from the moment we got here was a desire to learn to dance hula. A woman at church was a hula instructor and I intended to start taking lessons with her adult class early in 2009, but she had to make the decision to close her dance studio, and I never searched out any other options. But a few months ago the opportunity arose again, and I was able to start taking dance lessons at the Akala Dance Studios with my great friend Michelle, who had previously taken hula from our mutual friend at church. It didn't take much convincing to get me to sign up for the class, because it was something I'd wanted to do since arriving. But I remember before the first day of class having a complete anxiety attack about going forward with my plan. I was terrified of being judged, terrified of having to pour myself into a form fitting Hawaiian dress, terrified of not being able to learn the dances, just plain scared to death of the whole opportunity. I cried the morning of the first lesson. Actually, I sobbed. I had a full-blown panic attack, but forced myself to go to the class, and with the exception of some VERY sore muscles after a few classes, it hasn't been a painful experience at all. In fact, as long as Molly is being cooperative and not clingy during my lessons, my hula time is one of my most relaxing and enjoyable times of the week. So far we've learned two dances and it's been a really cool experience. So fun, in fact, that I went temporarily insane and agreed to participate in the first dance performance of the year.

Saturday night Akala Dance Studios had their first performance with all dancers involved, from the little 4 year olds up through the "Aunties" (my group). I wish I could have watched the younger girls perform but I was backstage in the dressing room practically dry heaving I was so scared. It's ridiculous, as I used to THRIVE on being in the spotlight and on stage. But I've never performed strictly as a dancer before (I've danced on stage in musical theater and such, but that was with acting and singing equally as prominent as the dancing.) and I was downright petrified by the thought. And it's been a looooong time since I did any kind of performing, so jumping back on stage as a dancer this time was just an outrageously scary experience. I cried to Willy that afternoon because I was so scared. I must have practiced the dances 100 times on Saturday to try to convince myself I was ready. I just totally knew I was going to botch it up and forget everything I'd learned and practiced. My confidence was completely non-existant.

Fortunately our dance to the song White Sandy Beach was first, and it's a much simpler song to dance to (primarily because it's in English and I could understand the lyrics and get my clues to helping me tell the story through the hula). I was a nervous wreck as each of the other age groups went out and performed and our turn approached. But when we got out on stage at the Aloha Tower I settled into the enjoyment of dancing hula and remembered everything just fine and really had fun with the experience. Still though, I was shaking like crazy for a good 5 minutes after getting off the stage.

The second dance, Koke'e, was actually the first dance we learned so we've been practicing it the longest, but during the learning process Molly was going through a really difficult stage. During lessons she would SCREAM for my attention. I think she knew I was doing something for myself and she didn't like that my world wasn't revolving around her for that hour. She would sob and wail and throw herself on my feet, etc. It was really frustrating and made the learning process extremely hard for me (and probably my class members... d'oh.) And the dance is much longer with less repetition, so each verse is unique which means there was more to learn with this song. AND it's in Hawaiian, making it harder to get your dance step clues from the lyircs. I LOVE this song and I love the dance though. But come Saturday I realized there were still some parts of the dance that were still really sketchy for me and that I'd just been following along during lessons rather than really learning those parts that I'd missed due to Molly's tantrums. So I was SCARED for the Koke'e performance. But again, it went really smoothly. I did fumble a bit when I spotted my family in the audience and I did have to try to keep my eye on my friend a few times to keep me on track through the parts of the dance that were fuzzy in my head, but it was fun and I really did ultimately enjoy the experience, despite the practically paralyzing fear I'd felt beforehand.

The most important thing I learned from Saturday's experience was that there's no sense in holding myself back from experiences because of my fears. The number one reason for my fear and discomfort with the idea of performing was my weight and appearance. I have a friend who has set a really neat example for me over the last few years of tackling one thing each year that she'd previously said she couldn't do because she was "too fat" to do the thing. I decided I had to get over my self-issues enough to do something that I knew would bring me joy. And hula does do that. I love the movement and the music and the culture of hula. And I can't let being "too fat" stop me from doing something that's almost magical to me. And I learned Saturday night that just because I'm fat doesn't automatically make me unworthy of being on stage doing something I love. Brady must have told me I did a "great job!" at least 10 times throughout the rest of the night. And I even had a random stranger come up to me after the performance and say "You are a beautiful dancer. I really enjoyed watching you dance!" She was so kind and genuine that I couldn't even question her sincerity. (Well I couldn't question HER; I did question Willy though to make sure he hadn't paid her to say that... ) It was a very empowering night and I'm so happy that I've added dancing hula to my life!

I'm still really sheepish about sharing the video of me dancing. When I watch it I see the flaws in my very beginner movement. And I am very VERY critical of my physical appearance. But I still feel joy watching myself participate in something that's good for my body and soul, and I suspect my mom would really like to see these so I'm going to go ahead and share these videos. (Eeeek.) Here's hoping the video works... it was a LOT of drama and frustration to get the files from our new camera and onto youtube which was the only video sharing site that would recognize the video file and blah blah blah. Frustrating! Not sure it was worth the hassle just to embarrass myself by sharing these... Oh and the songs each cut off before the end because Willy tried to snap a few photos too.)

And a few photos of the night...

Willy wasn't in the best spot for photos because of lighting and stuff. But here's the nicest, least grainy shot of actual dance.

And here's my friend Michelle (minus pink hair this time...)

Here are my groupies...

And just a close up shot of the gorgeous lei and haku (ti leaf crown) we wore for the second dance and that made me feel like a princess. (I hated our little flower headpiece in the 1st dance LOL. The angle of the video makes it look even goofier because it just looks perched up there heheh)

Purple...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:29:16 GMT

Willy was in Korea for the last two weeks. It was a loooong two weeks. We've learned that absence does, in fact, make the heart grow fonder, and also it turns out that no matter how many times we have to be apart because of his business travels, it doesn't get any easier having him gone. I was feeling frazzled and a bit restless and frustrated and thought "It's time for something drastic!" I've been wanting to cut my hair for a while now, but haven't followed through on the desire, and decided this week was the perfect week to just go for it. I needed a change and thought it would be fun to surprise Willy when he got home on Thursday. I started searching hair style pictures and I talked with my friend who is a stylist and she agreed to cut my hair. But in hula this week we were asked to wear our hair down long for tomorrow night's performance (yes... I'm not only taking hula lessons but I'm actually dancing in public on stage tomorrow night! What have I gotten myself into?!). After class I was feeling particularly blue because I was really looking forward to a big hair change but didn't want to be the only one without pretty long hair during the dance and I mentioned to my friend Michelle, who happened to be the friend who encouraged me to take hula with her, how very frustrated and discouraged I was about the hair situation. She looked at me and said "Follow me home. I need to give you your Christmas present early."

So I followed her home (crying the whole way) and when we got to her house she ran inside and came back out with her hands behind her back, apologizing that it wasn't wrapped (duh! It's November LOL). And then she handed me my gift... a bright purple short inverted bob wig!!!!!!!!!!!! I laughed like a maniac and sobbed like a lunatic. I don't know if I've ever had a friend be so completely tuned in to my needs the way Michelle is. I told her once about 9 months ago how I had this fantasy of having purple or pink hair but not having the guts to do it because of what people would say/think. How crazy is it that she held onto that little comment I made, thought to make my little fantasy come true in a silly way, and then to actually have it for me this week when I was feeling particularly vulnerable and down. It was such a perfect pick-me-up. She got herself a pink wig so we could both live out our wild hair fantasies together. And then, just to push me 682 miles a bit out of my comfort zone and ensure that I experienced the full purple-haired woman thing, she somehow managed to talk me into wearing my wig to see New Moon at the midnight (technically 12:08 a.m.) screening this morning. And since she already posted a pic of the two of us together on Facebook, I feel like I have to own my insane gutsy actions. We had a blast at the movie (despite the nimrods behind us who couldn't shut up for more then 2-3 minutes at a time...) and fulfilled our crazy hair dream together. There is no way I'll ever color my hair such a vivid (understatement) shade of violet, and I think I've decided that bangs aren't for me, but it was really fun being a dork for the night. And it was especially fun being a dork with such a good friend who, despite the craziness in her own life, went out of her way to help me center mine. Thanks Michelle!

Worst. Houseguest. EVER...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:19:31 GMT

Starting to wonder if there's merit to that old saying "Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."

Ants? Been there done that. More or less conquered the buggers.

Geckos? Cute from a distance. Their movement still startles me and I have no desire to play with them the way my kids do, but they really don't bother me any more.

Rats? Oh yeah there was that one stuck in my car door. Good times.

Mice? I can hear them occasionally in the garage. I've dealt with mice in previous homes. Feel I can handle it.

Cockroaches? The hardest critter for me to get used to, but I don't scream as loudly when I see a big'un any more. And I have actually reached the point where I can even just flick the little brown ones away if I see one on my car door frame or whatever. In getting the ants under control, we got the happy side benefit of somewhat getting the giant roaches under control as well, so we really haven't had trouble with them in the house for a while now.

But CENTIPEDES?!?!?! CRAWLING ACROSS MY TV ROOM FLOOR?!?!?!

Uh. No thank you.

Worst.
Houseguest.
EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta love being terrified in my own house.

The worst part is that Willy leaves for Korea in the morning and now I get to live in complete terror for the next 10 days wondering if I'm going to have to try to conquer one of these things myself. *shudder* *gag* *convulse* I will seriously just curl up and die if I have to face one alone. A giant flying B52 cockroach sounds almost welcome after seeing this thing creep across my floor. ACK!

A close up cuz I know you want to see the detail... *shudder* (Thank goodness for zoom... no way I was getting close to it to get the detail.)

A little better shot to give you size reference. See Willy's giant man fists? I'd say this one's at least 6" long.

And just to make sure you get the full freak out factor... a little video for your viewing torture pleasure.

Sleep well. I know I won't...

Howdy howdy howdy. Happy Halloween...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:09:19 GMT

Once again, we experienced a deep sense of satisfaction as we roamed the neighborhoods begging for candy trick-or-treating and watched lightbulb after lightbulb go on over peoples' heads as they put two and two (and two) together and figured out we were all in costume cahoots together. Halloween 2009 was a success (minus one hat and one wig which caused more drama - and laughter - than could have been expected).

The Campbell Crew, Toy Story style...

Mr. Potato Head and his Missus

Little green army man at least 1000x magnified...

Howdy howdy howdy. I'm Woody.

To infinite...and beyond!

And Jessie the Yodeling Get-this-wig-and-hat-off-me Cowgirl

How sweet and cooperative she was the night before at our church's Trunk or Treat activity! Like a completely different child.

You've got a friend in me...

Happy Halloween!

I NEED to blog...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:39:05 GMT

And I don't mean a blog with the massive photo updates that I know I've promised. I don't mean the huge summary of the great time we had with family who came to visit recently, either. I mean some heartfelt, what-the-heck-is-going-on-inside-my-head kind of blogging. I haven't done it in a long time. I NEED that outlet. So here goes.

I'm having a hard time deciding which is the best word to describe myself: lazy, selfish or unmotivated. Maybe just tired. Or depressed. Scared. Or apathetic. Some days I think I'm shamefully arrogant and other days I'm more insecure than I care to admit. How can I be arrogant and insecure at once? I don't make any sense to myself.

Before you go saying "those words don't apply to you!" let me assure you I've got a whole portfolio of examples to the contrary. Take a walk through my house and you'll see my laziness and apathy illustrated. Watch me play enough games of Bejeweled Blitz in a row to get the friendly little PSA from the makers of the game that says "Wow! We appreciate your dedication to the game and the fact that you've played 20 games in a row. But please remember to look away from your screen and focus on a distant object from time to time." and maybe you'll believe that words like selfish and unmotivated really do apply. (Unless of course we're talking about motivation to rank on the top of the Bejeweled score board. Toss a brainless competition my way and that's apparently all the motivation I need.) I despise my messy house, but I'm perfectly capable of sending the kids to bed at 8 p.m. sharp (because after 8 is my time-selfish example #832) and plopping myself in front of the computer for a few hours, or on the couch to watch t.v. instead of spending even a few minutes rescuing our disaster zone of a house. Eventually it gets disgusting or overwhelming enough that I snap, turn into Monster/Martyr Mom, go on a rampage and get the necessaries done. But then I have to add words like angry, bitter, jealous, and ugly to the list of descriptive words that I apply to myself.

The arrogant vs insecure thing is maybe the most baffling phenomenon to me, and the one that has me scratching my head this afternoon. Somehow in this apathetic, unmotivated self, there's a tiny being who thinks she's capable of ... well... everything. At one time or another (and I'm not talking about childhood dreams... these have all relatively recently been tossed around in my head) I've had aspirations of being:

a singer/songwriter
an actor
a novelist
a children's lit author
a home business owner
a piano teacher
a "real" blogger
at my goal weight
a marathon runner
out of debt
a graphic designer
a school teacher
a photographer
a motivational speaker (BWAHAHAHAHAHA!)

And while I've touched a few of these things with the proverbial 10 foot pole, I haven't actually worked consistently toward becoming any one of my dreams. Because while I'm arrogant enough to think myself capable of everything (?!?), I'm so insecure that at the first inkling that I won't succeed, or the first realization that I'm grossly untrained for such lofty dreams and could never rub shoulders with the best of the best, I toss the idea aside and abandon it, slinking back to Bejeweled Blitz where I can, at least usually, make my way to the top page of the score board and consider myself a "success". (Note to self - uninstall the Bejewled Blitz app from my Facebook account.) Instead of investing time and energy into learning, training, and developing skills to pursue some of these aspirations, I give up with a quick self-reflection of "what were you thinking?!" and I move on. I'm so terrified of failure that I find myself incapable of action. And I am so paralyzed by fear of rejection and the notion that people can't possibly find value in the things I do have to offer, than I end up offering nothing.

I'm sure this sound like some kind of self-flagellation, or worse yet, a desperate cry for praise and encouragement. I assure you it's neither. It's actually just a lead-in to my declaration that I will not give up on the project I'm working on right now. Even though I'm feeling a HUGE amount of self-doubt and I'm going through that all too familiar feeling of "What in the world was I thinking, claiming to be capable of XYZ?!" I will not give up. I may have to just find ways to forgive myself for my lack of housekeeping skills and my all-too-frequent Manic Mommy moments and I'm definitely not going to be taking on any additional lofty challenges right now. But I will absolutely forge ahead with this opportunity I currently have and I will not allow myself to throw in the towel just because it's hard and a little uncomfortable to admit I need direction and help through the process. I'll ask questions. I'll welcome constructive criticism. I'll work through obstacles and I'll figure out how do to what I need to do. I will not quit this endeavor. If nothing else, I'll accept that this is a really good opportunity to open myself up to the learning process. And in the hopeful best case scenario, the experience will open me up to the success that I keep thinking I'm somehow capable of. And then maybe I'll even be brave enough to tackle yet another aspiration down the road and see it through to success!

So I'm still not sure which descriptive word suits me best. Scared but hopeful. Lazy with a dash of stubborn determination. Selfish but desiring to change. In any case, I guess "human" probably sums me up best. I'll accept that description for now. I'm probably a slightly neurotic version of human, but I doubt that I'm alone, so I'll assume I'm in good company and just keep trying to improve.

(Sorry I'm being vague about the actual opportunity I'm focused on right now... I assure you that the very moment it all becomes official I'll be here sharing the news!)

Special October birthdays...

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:48:43 GMT

"This month is such a special one it's birthday time for..." Ben and Brady! (If you're not singing a song right about now, maybe you should listen to THIS and you'll understand my little reference there hehehe.) Brady turned EIGHT on October 5th and Ben turned TWELVE on October 9th. These are really important milestone ages in our church so this has been a pretty exciting month for our family and especially our two birthday boys.

Here are a few pics from the boys' birthdays. Yes, Brady's gifts are wrapped in leftover pink from Molly's birthday. I assure you he was not the least bit offended. In fact he requested it when I was pulling out wrapping paper. The boy heard the phrase "Tough guys wear pink" and latched onto it as his life mantra. He calls it his favorite color, even. For his birthday he got a scrapbook about him, age 6 (yeah yeah... I'm a bit behind), a High School Musical Dance game and mat (!!!!!) and some Pokemon cards, including a Charisard card he's been drooling over for months ( ) He was thrilled with his gifts, and delighted with his cake (must have sprinkles!)

Ben had asked for white cake with cookie dough ice cream. I'd gotten off schedule on his birthday and hadn't picked up his ice cream or wrapped his presents, so I left the present wrapping in Grandma's capable hands (my folks were both here the week of the boys' birthdays!) while I bolted to the store to pick up ice cream. As you can see from Ben's struggle, Grandma is much fancier with her ribbon tying than Mom is. Ben got his scrapbook, age 10 (yeah yeah...), an XBox 360 game and a model airplane kit. He was thrilled. And for cake? No sprinkles please! "I hate sprinkles!" Yes, sir! (Please no praise for my mad cake decorating skillz. I already know how much I rock. )

So the birthdays themselves were super fun and the kids enjoyed their gifts and treats and stuff. But the really special day came for both of them on Sunday October 11th. Ben graduated from the Primary program (children's group) at church and advanced to the Young Men group. Age 12 is an important one for young men in our church. "In the Church today, worthy male members may receive the Aaronic Priesthood beginning at age 12. These young men, typically ages 12–17, receive many opportunities to participate in sacred priesthood ordinances (like passing the sacrament) and give service. As they worthily fulfill their duties, they act in the name of the Lord to help others receive the blessings of the gospel." (From www.mormon.org) Ben was so excited to be ordained as a deacon, and was especially grateful that both of his grandpas were there to be part of his ordination.

Sunday was a very special day for Brady, as well. In our church, we believe that children reach the age of accountability when they turn 8 years old, and at that time they can choose to be baptized as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Brady had been looking forward to this time ever since Ben was baptized! He was so excited that his special day had arrived. We don't take pictures of the actual baptism, but it was very special. He was baptized by Willy in a baptismal font at our church, where he was fully immersed in the water. It was so special to see my second son choose to be baptized and then be confirmed a member of the church. I can't believe I didn't get pictures of it, but I'd made Brady a white fuzzy yarn lei for him to wear. It turned out beautifully (if I do say so myself!) despite being my first attempt at lei making. I'll have to take pictures of it another time. I was really pleased with myself, and he was really excited about it, too.

And if all that weren't enough... Sunday was the first day Molly (who has hit 18 months old!) got to go to the children's nursery for the first time. And she actually stayed there and didn't cry!!!! LOL. So it was a special and exciting day for 3 of our 4 kids (and one especially relaxing day for Willy who usually has to try to entertain Molly while listening to Sunday School lessons and such hehehe)

Still working on playing catch-up, but I didn't want to let this part of the last month get any farther behind. It was a really neat family week!! Thanks for peeking.

In case you were hoping to start your day with a giggle...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:38:12 GMT

A bit of Family Home Evening fun this week. Nana and Papa gave Ben and Brady a barely belated birthday gift when they arrived here in Hawaii this past weekend: An American Idol Double Dance Showdown!! Wooo wooo!! This is how we entertained ourselves on Monday night. Enjoy! We sure did.

Then Ben got in on the action with some moves of his own.

And Willy couldn't let the kids show him up.

I know you're just dying for an evening of fun with the Campbells now! You can only wish you were as cool as we are!