It has been way too long!  I regret that because the kids do hilarious things every day!  I am going to forget if I don't write it down.  Just take today for example...I woke up way early and came downstairs.  Usually Saggers beats me up and that is it because she has early morning seminary.  So, I come down the stairs to Jerusha up and baking cookies???  Does she think I was born yesterday?  I suspect there is a boy behind all of this early morning baking.  I am so on to her.
     So, court began for the Portland and Nevada trials earlier this month.  So far I have only been able to attend court one day in Nevada, and I have plans to attend court in Portland three days next week.  I am hoping to catch Ammon's testimony.  Anyhow, life has been crazy, more corruption is being exposed each day that these trials resume, and yet today's post I want to largely focus on the kids.
     So, we have drill team season winding down.  Jerusha had her last performance last night for games, and Jamie is slowing down too.  Drill team review is in a few weeks, and so far, all of the older girls really want to attend.  This causes problems because I decided that taking Mo and Dill is a complete waste of time, not to mention energy.  All I do is chase them around, and when Mo went running out of the gym to the outside world, and I tried to chase him, knocking a trash can full of trash onto the court, I vowed that he would never get to come again.  So, we will be having a knock-down-drag-out fight as to who has to babysit I am sure.
     I made the huge mistake of buying a few bouncy balls at Christmas.  The large, bouncy kind.  I am really tired of those things getting binged all over the house.  Not to mention the fact that we are in someone else's home still, and as I pull Ryan's assets together to buy a home of our own, I would really like to be as quiet and unannoying ( I am sure this probably isn't even a word) as possible.  Those dumb things are bouncing and flying and banging into pictures and causing crashes nonstop.  I was kinda delighted when one of them popped, and I noticed the other day (after being delighted that the noise level went down a bazillion decibels) that the last one had been thrown outside kinda close to a stickery cactus.  I figured that I would just let it stay there for a few centuries and let it rot, but no, Oak found it and brought it back in the house.  Inspite of it's flatness, it is now being binged all over the place again.  NOTE TO SELF-no dumb bouncy balls next year, unless I have plans of banging my head on a wall.
     Dill and Mo have been on a raiding the cupboards mode.  I try to have supplies for school lunches every day, and yet, this seems to be the stuff that Mo and Dill want and cry for.  I have very little patience and energy to deal with their fits, and so I usually let them just have whatever it is, because there are things that I will put my foot down on.  Energy must be saved to fight those fights.  Anyhow, they are constantly raiding my chip stashes.  They get one of those cute little bags of chips, and in order to open it, they jump with all of their might on it to pop the bag and open it.  Mo usually does this with one quick jump, but Dill usually cannot get the job done with one jump.  She usually jumps and jumps, smashing all chips to smithereens until I finally insist on opening the bag for her.  Then of course, the chips are scattered more than usual because of the smallness of the pieces. 
     Dill has also gotten into a show called "Peppa Pig."  I know I am sounding like a Negative Nelly in this post, but I believe that Peppa Pig is hands down, the most annoying kid show that I have ever encountered.  Dill loves it though, and she cannot wait until evening  when I allow the kids some TV time.  Peppa Pig is a female pig that lives with her family.  They go on family adventures, but the biggest problem is just all of the odd noises.  They of course have plenty of pig snorting sounds, but then they are English pigs with English accents.  So, pig snorts, and English humor, and yeah...I miss Bugs Bunny.  They are constantly "splashing in muddy puddles" and playing with "spotty balls."  The worst is when Peppa annoys her little brother "George" and he bawls.  It is the most annoying squeals known to man. Because of this, Dill is always eager to "splash in muddy puddles."  Shockingly, we have gotten some nice storms here in the last few months, which inevitably leads to Dill jumping in a puddle whole heartedly.  This is fun for her for a few seconds, but then she is wet, muddy and sad.  On the way into shrsh it is kind of an inconvenience.  Chlo even went and pulled on Ryan's muck boots the other night, and jumped in the bathtub to "splash in muddy puddles" like Peppa and George.  It did clean Ryan's boots up nicely, so that was good of little Chlo.
     Speaking of little Chlo, she still doesn't dare sleep in her room with her Daddy away.  I finally just put her mattress on my floor, and she always sleeps in my room now.  For a long time, she slept in my bed at my feet, but she hit a growth spurt and it just became too uncomfortable.  Anyhow, I have been watching her.  Each night she carefully selects certain stuffed animals to bed down with her, along with a flashlight that she likes to sleep with.  She keeps the flashlight on, and I usually try to switch it off after she falls asleep.  I notice, though that when she wakes up, she flips it back on, and I leave it.  It is heartbreaking that she feels so scared with her Daddy away.  I just cannot provide the feeling of protection that he did.  She also breaks down and starts crying at odd times, and just expresses how much she misses her Daddy, and how badly she wants him to come home.  I wish I knew how to fix it.  Nothing can replace a man like her Dad.  I do my best, but there is definitely a lack of security with him gone.
     Another source of frustration is our fair animals.  The fair animals have been overall a great thing to do.  But, Sage's steer has been giving her fits along with Jerusha's.  Those big steer's figure out pretty fast that they can jerk those little girls around, and once they figure it out, they do it a lot.  The fix for that is, to get a man (Ryan) to manhandle them a bit and show them who is in charge.  Well, he isn't here, and a lot of days the steers take advantage of that.  Sage has been coming home with bruises from working hers, and I know that Clance will have to tie them up behind the horse and walk them for a few days.  But, it just means their little hearts get broken daily because Ryan was so good to instruct and help them with their animals.  The hole in our household is real.  It breaks our hearts daily.  Time isn't fixing it.  Time isn't healing it.  We just need him back, and the case down here is so completely ridiculous that it is frustrating.
     With Spring hitting the desert, Dill and Mo have been spending many of their hours outside.  Their latest projects consisted of them building a nice pond for the worms that they caught.  Mo was very thoughtful and precise in the construction of his worm pond.  He is so much like his dad.  Oh, how I miss Ryan.  I am so grateful that I have so many happy memories to tap into!  I love that guy so much!