Memories of Kate

In January 2003, when Kate was a mere 3 years old (a little younger than Rachel is now), I had a very surprising conversation with her. Ruth, Kate and I were painting pictures at the table. Ruth asked about what she should paint and we started talking about magic. I sang some of an old song "do you believe in magic in a young girls heart" Ruth really liked the idea of magic in her heart, but Kate very solemnly declared, "I do not believe in magic." I asked her why, and she continued, "I do not believe in magic because I can see it in my movies, but I never see it in life. So I think magic is not real." Ruth mentioned that fairies are real and Kate said, "I do not believe in fairies because I cannot see them and they are magic. I do not believe in Santa Claus because he is magic and magic is not real. I do not believe in Heavenly Father because I cannot see Him. But I think Jesus is real because he is in my movies." (I know that her logic is a bit skewed, but she was only 3). I felt rather astonished, and secretly pleased with her three year old reasoning skills. I told her that Heavenly Father and Jesus were indeed real and true, but that she was right about magic not happening in real life. (Ruth disagreed on the no-magic point.) That was the end of things for a while.

The Christmas that Kate was 4, almost a year later, Kate asked if Santa Claus was real. Because I wanted to keep Santa Claus alive a little longer I avoided the question mainly by telling her that she could believe in whatever she wanted to.  I think Kate agonized a little over this answer, but with being at Grandma Pardon's house and all of the goodies and presents, she let the topic go and enjoyed Christmas.

The following year, we had moved to Wichita, and Kate was 5 and in Kindergarten. As it got toward Christmas, Kate started asking me if Santa was real again. The same trick that I tried the year before was clearly not going to satisfy a 5 year old Kate. After a few times of the answer, "you can believe what you want," Kate came to me and stated, "Mom, I need to know the truth. Is Heavenly Father real? Is Jesus real? Is Santa Claus real?" Well, given the introduction I told her the truth. I also told her that other little kids believe in Santa Claus and that is a fun thing so she could not tell other people. But the next day Kate brought Ruth to me. Ruth complained that Kate said Santa was not true. Before I could respond, Kate looked me in the eyes and said, "Mom you have to tell the truth." Now Ruth no longer believed in Santa Claus. Then Kate brought Johnny to me and said the same thing. So Santa Claus was all over for us very early  on.

Not too long after this, John came to me and said he was so glad that we were being honest with our kids and that he was glad not to be lying to them about Santa Claus anymore. I was totally shocked because John's family holds Santa Claus in very high reguard. It turns out that John as a 10 year old fifth grader had an argument with his entire class about Santa Claus. He believed still, and the clincher of his reasoning was, "I know that Santa Claus is real because my mom and dad told me he is, and they do not tell lies." Poor John. I guess he still felt a little upset about this whole thing.

Kate did not stop her crusade. She told her entire kindergarten class that Santa is not real. No one believed her, though. That following summer, John and I were confronted with an angry sister Mary because Kate told her 7 year old cousin, Elizabeth, that Santa was not real. I do not know if Lizzy believed Kate or not. Last year when I said to Adam, "Santa Claus is coming to town." Kate said, "Mom!!! You cannot tell lies. Now tell Adam the truth." I said, "Okay, Adam Santa Claus is just pretend." But for a boy who very thoroughly believes in monsters and talking dogs (Scooby Doo), no Santa Claus did not fly for him. Adam very solemnly declared, "Santa Claus is real and so is SCooby Doo." So that is where we are at. I think Kate has calmed down a bit on her crusade to rid the children of the "Santa Claus lie", and no matter what we tell Adam he believes that Santa Claus, monsters, and Scooby Doo are completely real and true.

Thanksgiving 2009

These are cookies Kate made from the left over pie crust.

Video Game DazebakingJohn's second favorite activity

For the first time in years I did not have to make the entire dinner by myself!!! We went to Grandma and Grandpa Robertson's with all of our Utah reletives. There was tons of food and we had so much fun talking that we stayed until after 11pm. We are thankful for a Thanksgiving dinner that we do not have to cook and eat all by ourselves.

Officially Over

It is officially over. The company John has worked for seems to have gone under. A week ago, they "restructered" the company and would only give back pay to those who were still employed and "working for free." So we stayed on. But they did not get any funding with the restucture, instead they have basically died. John is still officially employed because for some weird reason they will not lay you off until you ask to be laid off. I think John will do that today or Monday. Now there is a lawsuit starting to retrieve back wages and other money they took out of the paychecks but did not pay the places they were suppose to. (We tried to find out if they paid the taxes the check stub said were paid, but they never answered that question. They just said they did not know of any laws that would make the employee have to pay the government back.) One would think it would have been better if they were just honest with their employees from the start?

Anything I can ACtually Remember

My brain has been mush this past week. So many times one of my children have said something or did something that I think, "That is cute, I must blog it." Then when I sit down to the computer I cannot think of anything. It must be those outrageuos piles of laundry creeping up the wall extending to my brain, or the unending dirty dishes, or the toys everywhere etc.. Or maybe I just need to get back into running :). It's about time anyway. Joseph just hit the 4 month mark. I am sure pathetic!!!

But since my brain seems to be on vacation I racked my husband's brains a little bit last night and have a few of the things my kids did or said that make me smile to post here.

1. Adam joined his father in the bathroom. Before John washed his hands, he accidently bumped Adam in the head with his elbowed. Adam complained, "Hey Dad!! Now I am going to get sick!"
2. Anya kept getting out cat food and carrying it away through the house. Feeling a bit annoyed I followed her to see where the cat food was going. She was taking it to the cat who was hiding under the couch. So I switched from annoyed to cutified. 
3. We have been playing Age of Empires II a lot-- everyday. We seem to have done this about every two years since Ruth was 6. Then we tire of it and don't play it for two more years. Ruth and John were playing a game together. Ruth got a villager stuck between the woods and the house she built. Since this person was no longer useful Ruth decided to kill her. John, feeling compassion for the computer generated villager and probably some concern that he had Ruth playing a game that was too violent, said "Don't kill her." Ruth then clicked the kill button and said, "Sorry Dad, she died of boredom."
4. John was playing 
   Bach Sonata No 1 in G minor BWV1001: I. Adagio from his laptop while working in our bedroom. Adam came in and said, "This is sad music. This is very sad music. Some one died in this music."
   Joseph spits up a lot!!!!, and not just after he eats. I typically refer to him as a leaky faucet because he seems to just constantly seep spit up. I am not sure he even has sphincter muscles between his stomach and esophogus. So I smell like sour milk a lot right now. On Saturday, John held Joseph a lot while I did a bunch of house work. When Kate came over to John she wrinkled her nose and said, "Dad, you smell like Joseph!" I guess that is my usual perfume these days.
   Saturday night Kate said, "Mom, you have to talk to me tonight.When I was babysitting something embarassing and kind of private happened to me." John and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes because of the demand for a personal night time discussion on a night when we were going out on a date, but we also felt a bit confused at the introduction. Then Kate just came out with it and whispered, "Something funny happened here and here," she then pointed to her armpits, "It was wet there." We felt relieved and humored. Then the next morning Ruth came to me and said, "Kate had sweaty armpits when we babysat. Isn't that funny. It has happened to Kate before it has happened to me."

The Lord's Hands

How things Are:

As I wrote in an earlier post, John's company has not been paying him or any of the other employees. Late last week we found out that not only have we not been being paid, but all of the time that we thought we had health insurance we did not. The company had taken the premiums for health insurance out of the paychecks (until they stopped paying) but then never paid the insurance company. The company also had told us that we did have health insurance. But apparently they have not paid it since July or so. So now we have no income coming in and about $700 worth of unexpected medical bills that we would not have had if we knew that we did not have health insurance. (If I knew that we had to pay cash for the kids vaccinations I would have postponed the vaccinations until we had the money to pay for them.) We do not have any bad pre-existing conditions, so we, unlike other employees with chronic conditions, are okay that way. John has been applying for jobs since the first paycheck in October had not come through. (We are still without any job offers.) John is planning on asking to be laid off and we are going to apply for unemployment. This morning I applied for free lunch for the kids for school. Once John is officially laid off we will consider applying for health aid and food aid, but I think we will wait a couple more weeks and keep living on loans before we go that far. We really feel like God is watching over us and that John will have a job soon.

The Lord's Help:

Besides having a fairly consistent feeling of peace and assurance, many people have been praying for us and helping us in amazing ways. John's parents who are in the same situation that we are in have been sharing their food storage and food from their yard that they worked hard to produce. They have also been allowing us to borrow from their low interest home equity loan to cover our rent and bills. My parents gave us $100 for food last month, bought Ruth and Kate winter coats, and most recently they have bought some warm pajamas and sweaters for the kids. John's sister Emily and her husband Ben have given us $300 for Christmas presents for our children. Our next door neighbor has given us left overs and last night brought over dinner. We are very grateful and very blessed to have so many people help us and take care of us when we have not been able to do that for ourselves. I know that these people have been the Lord's hands in taking care of us during this difficult time for our family. I only ask that we too can be His hands and pass on His blessings.

Ready To Potty Train

Anya is ready and I am not. Before Anya gets into the bathtub, she insists on trying to go potty first. When she can get to her diaper (we try to make it unavailable to her with different clothing) she will take it off as soon as she pees or poops. That can be a very yucky mess! If she cannot reach her diaper, Anya will come to me and say, "It's disgusting." She usually does this when she has pooped. When I was listing off things that she may possibly want for Christmas the only item she said yes to was underwear so she can go potty on the toilet. Should I start????? I guess it will save us about $20 a month on diapers--but I will need to buy underwear.

A Family Home Evening Story

Last night we had family home evening down stairs with our pillow couches, the soft carpeting and toys because Rachel wasn't feeling well and had been laying on the couch. While John was trying to give a lesson, Ruth, Kate, Johnny, Adam, and Anya were tossing the pillows, getting out toys, wrestling, and talking. At one point Rachel said she had to go to the bathroom. I picked her up and took her upstairs to the bathroom. She looked at me when we got up the stairs and said, "I am listening to Dad. No one is listening to Dad, but I am listening. Ruth and Kate are big. They are not listening. I am little, but I am listening."