Juni Juni Juni

An absolute delight and joy in every single way..

 

 

Juni's first night out to the theater with Mom and Dad

Juni at church in the blessing dress I wore as a baby, in the fur blanket Grandma Law gave her.

 

Getting snuggled by "Auntie" Debbe

Island Fest Rocks

One of the things we love about Grosse Ile is the Island Fest every summer. This year we took Josh Seager with us and having three adults made it even more fun! Joren was dying to go on the ferris wheel, and that is my kind of ride especially when you get to ride with someone as cool as Joren. Look how much fun he is having!

 

 

Carnival games sure can lure you in, and dissapoint too!

This was WAY fun at first and then as it went faster and higher... well...

The terror rising in Eirik's eyes got us pretty worried, but by the end he had decided to have fun again.

 

 

 

 

Au Sable River Memorial Day Vacation

Mom's version:
Paul took us to his favorite Fly Fishing spot in Michigan this weekend. He went last year with Jake Budd, and Ryan Christensen and this year they decided to bring their families.  In the end, I'm not sure they were all glad they decided to bring us, but we were. :)
The location is amazing. It's an old lodge right on the river that has been there forever. The rooms are small and quaint. The back door opens to a beautiful lawn that leads right down to the bank so you could literally fish out your back door.  The rooms have not been remodeled since the 50's and I mean gold flecked laminate, plastic fake stone walls and vintage 50's furniture and light fixtures.  It was so authentic it was like a time portal. I loved it! You could get lost in another dimension hanging out there.  The people that own the place were awesome. They were super accommodating and friendly. They let us eat at their restaurant the first night, but since the restaurant is small they did not have room for us so they served us in this big board room in a separate building. We could be as loud as we wanted and the kids could get up and run when they were done eating.  It was the most stress free restaurant experience I have ever had, and great food too! Liz and Annie and I split up all the food and we ate all the meals together. We had a lovely breakfast of pancakes Sat. morning, then paninis for lunch and Cafe Rio pork salad for Sunday dinner.
There was a free Orvis sponsored fly fishing class from 9-12 on Sunday. Paul insisted that I go. He really wanted me to learn to love to fly fish so that we could spend time doing it together in the future. Isn't he great? I was not so sure I could ever get into it, but I found it to much for fun than I expected. I like the casting. I'm not sure I how much I could ever love the thrill of the catch or the "hunting" part of it, but I can see the art in all of it. One of the hours of the class was all about the flies. This retired guy who has spent his whole life fishing talked for an hour about the types of flies that live on the river, their life cycles, what fish like, how to imitate them, and what to look for when you watch the river. You can actually see the flies hatching out of the water and identify them. He knows what time of year and what time of day the different types of flies hatch and he knows what will fool a fish and what won't. Fascinating. One of the owners was watching me practice casting with the class and he came up to compliment me afterward. He said I was a natural. That made me feel pretty good.  Paul spent the afternoon fishing by himself and had a great time.
The girls and I spent a lot of time chasing kids and trying to keep them happy. There was a little drama, but I think they all had fun. Eirik wants to be 16 and he's 7 and it drives him crazy.  I think all the kids had the best time when I took them wading in the water. It was cold, but once we all got in, we got used to it.  The water was fast and I enjoyed fighting with the current to stay up and getting completely numb from the icy water. It was very refreshing and I could see myself enjoying fishing to just be out in the water and alone with nature for a while.  It was beautiful. I don't see myself taking that much time for myself for a long time though. My kids need me every minute.
Before we headed home, we stopped at the fish hatchery so the kids could catch a fish. It was the kind of place where the minute your hook is in the water, you have a fish and the kids went nuts. At first Eirik was so excited but as soon as he caught a fish and watched it die he broke down into torrents of tears. He ran to the car and cried. He called himself a murderer and wanted to go home. Joren and Teig thought it was awesome and each caught some. We ended up bringing home 5 and I learned how to fillet them and pan fry them. I thought they were delicious and I was so glad to learn how to do it.  Teig ate some, but Joren and Eirik did not want to.  I just love Annie and Liz. They are two of my favorite girls. You would think that in such an awesome relaxing place we would have had tons of girl time, but we hardly had a chance to talk at all. Our kids are still young enough that we were mostly just cooking, cleaning, nursing, chasing, changing and comforting the whole time. It was really fun to see Paul totally in his element and it was fun to support him in his hobby that he loves.

According to Paul:
Retrospectively this wasn't the easiest trip. And it wasn't very age appropriate. It was setting the stage for a future vision. Long term, I'm hoping our family can go on fly fishing expeditions all around the world to exotic locations. This trip allowed them first hand experiences with a beautiful river and the wildlife therein. Still, with an infant and a 2 year old in arm, we were not able to show the older boys the river as I would have liked. The best part of the trip was that Melody got to learn to fly fish. Our friends were great. The Budds and the Christensens.  And everyone's personality and quirks came through. In the end, it was really fun...

Eirik's Vacation Journal:
Today is Monday. We started on Saturday. We just finished driving the car for five hours. We unpacked and met our friends for dinner. The next morning we woke up and watched some tv in our cabin. It was pretty nice. They said that the next day we could go canoeing. We played with our friends then I went to a fly fishing class. We went on a hike and then went back to the cafe for dinner. After we went back home we built a campfire and had smores. We stayed up late. The next morning we could not go fly fishing or canoeing but we got to wade again. Then we had breakfast and came back to the cabin. We played at the park some more and went tracking down by the stream. Then we got into the car and went to the fish hatchery and caught a lot of fish there- 5 to be exact. It was time to drive back to our house. When we got home it was rainy and we unpacked in the rain and put everything away. The best part of the trip was that I got to have time with my family and friends!!!

Joren:
Once there was a campout. And here come the problem with Amy. She showed us her privates. I felt sad. We were at the playground when it happened. Everyone got in trouble. Then we, after that, there was, when it was lunchtime we did this little game. It was about whoever colored their fish page the nicest got a coin or a penny or a nickel or a quarter. After that we went to bed. The next morning we had another lunch. It was outside. And we with a table and there was some watermelon. And I liked getting wet in the stream. It was really really fun and I liked my family.

Teig:
I liked the playground and playing checkers and playing my whittle tiny checkers and putting them in my bag and Eiriks pocket. Then I put them in my pocket. That's the last thing I did. I saw many many flies and saw them go into the woods. Into the tree with lots of holes. That where the fly house live. I hate those flys. There bug us. I can't fit in the fly house. I can't. I went swim. And I dig last morning. I ate a granola bar in the middle of the night and got messy all over my bed.
There trees are red. They're dancing and smelling the smell of the flies and to the black trees. And there was gone dun dun dun. That's the crudes. The mom come up and the baby come up and they say dun dun dun. That was a movie theater.

Eirik made my day:

Then Eirik said: "you are so pretty. I wish there was a mini version of you that I could marry. "

Anticipa..............................tion

Another day passes. They just keep going by and there's nothing I can do about it. My baby girl gets one day closer to not needing me, and resenting me as I am told all teenage girls do. My boys get one day closer to all those teenage mistakes that keep me up at night worrying about. My face got a new dimple this week. Not a cute one, but a wrinkle dimple in my chin. It made me feel really old. I'm old enough that last night Paul and I spent 15 min reminiscing about some favorite memories and they seemed like a lifetime ago even though they were only 10 years past. I saw a photo of Eirik and Joren from when we first moved into Grosse Ile and they both fit in the kitchen sink playing together! It doesn't seem that long ago. The passage of time is always in the forefront of my mind as the days are checked off before life changes so dramatically in just 3 weeks from today. I keep seeing myself in my mind boarding the plane with three of my kids leaving Michigan for the last time. It's not unexpected. We have planned this exact thing since we started 8 years ago and it has arrived. I know how thing are supposed to go. I know the plan. I have confidence that all will go well and that we are moving to a great place. Yet for some reason I find that I feel numb. I can't really explain it except that I feel like I should be devastated and ecstatic at the same time and maybe i am both so equally that they are canceling each other out and I am just numb instead. I feel like I am following a plan and jumping into the unknown. In a lot of ways this is just out of my control.

Having 4 kids is more overwhelming than I think either of us figured.  We are loving it, but we are running ragged. We knew this would be a trying couple of months, and we are up for it, but we are in deep and we are swimming hard.

Teig loves Tigers

Last morning I saw a real tiger and it got bugers out of its nose and it ate it all up.. Sersly. Real.
Andover tiger I saw at your room yesterday when we went to church and I ride on him.
Once upon a time I got a tiger and he ate all the bear up. He missed the one and run reawwy fast.

Today all my toys disappeared. They're gone. Tigers live in the forest. He said you can ride on my back and hold on reawy tight and he run reawwy reawwy fast.
Today at the tigers game we eat and ride on the tigers.
Today we played in the rain in my raincoat and umbrellas and I spwashed.

God's Hand today

I have been feeling so emotional about moving this week. Yikes.. All of my preparation has not prevented the waves of anxiety, sadness, excitement, fear.. you name it, from rolling over me this week.  My friend Emily taught me the work natsukashi.. a sort of a melancholy or state of reminiscing.  That's how I have been feeling all week.  Everything I do I think, "is this the last time I get to do this?" Everyone I talk to I think, "will I ever see you again?" My bishop stood up in fast and testimony meeting and got emotional about how he will miss all of the families that are moving.  I had to say goodbye to Anona since her family moved first. They left last week and it felt really weird to sit in our row behind her empty row on Sunday.  There is no way to express how much I will miss her. My sister in law Jeanette was in town this weekend and she asked me what I have been doing with my time. I told her that besides taking care of 4 kids and obsessing about moving and packing and getting rid of things I have been spending my time trying to spend quality time with the people I love.  I told her that I wish I could have brought someone to the gospel while I was here. I wish I would have seen someone become reactivated because of my efforts as Relief Society president or visiting teacher. I wish I could have lightened someone's load more while I was here. I would like to think that I am leaving Michigan better than it was when I got here, somehow. It is hard to know who I might have influenced and what good might have come from my efforts. I know I have loved a lot of people here and I have made many memories, but sometimes it doesn't feel like enough.
This weighty feeling has been on my mind for a while and yesterday the missionaries called me and said they had prayed and thought to call me and see if there is anything that I need. I was very surprised but said, "as a matter of fact, I do have a project I could really use your help on." They came right over and I put them to work digging out one of my square foot garden beds into wheelbarrows and they pushed two full wheelbarrows full of dirt over to Debbe's house around the corner and we built a square foot garden for her. They also helped me return some big items we had of hers at our house from the garage sale. They worked for several hours and then they came in and helped me by eating heaping plates full of leftovers of the food I have been making to use up the food in my freezer.  The best part about their visit though was when Elder Martinez said, "Sister Aanderud, Heavenly Father wants you to know that he is thankful for the hard work you have done in this ward. It is time for you to move on and he wants you to know that he will take care of the people here that you care about."  The spirit bore whitness to me that he was speaking as one of Heavenly Father's servants and that those words were really what the Lord wanted me to hear. It was a great blessing. Elder Martinez said that it was great that they got to come do service, but he really came to tell me what the Lord wanted me to hear. God knows us. Isn't it wonderful that He is in the details of our lives.  I was grateful for the whole morning because I was so glad to be able to share my garden and bless Debbe's life, and I was grateful to see God's hand in my life so clearly.  What a blessing!

Teig is two..still

Tonight Teig told me that sometimes I hurt his feelings when I tell him to go to bed and he says no. When I asked him more about it, I realized that he was telling me that he did not want to feel like he was a "bad Teigy". My heart just melted. He puts up such a huge fight about so many things. It was sweet to see him try to explain that he did not want to be "bad Teigy", he just did not want to
go to bed. I wish I could be more lenient with him about things. I just don't see how we can drive without him in his carseat, or get out of the tub with soap in his hair, or let him throw his toys, or stay up all night. He wants so desperately to be a big boy like his brothers. It makes him crazy mad if they leave for school without kissing him goodbye. He hates naps because he wants to be big so bad. He really is a sweetie. His latest manipulation is to say, "I just want you to hold me mommy." even if he is conning me, how can I say no? Please Lord, bless me with patience. He is only 2 for a few more months. Help me be good and kind to him!

Spring weekend

What a fun weekend! On Friday morning we learned we had a buyer for our fish tank. It is a bittersweat moment indeed. I will admit it is a huge relief to me. A woman is coming in two days to buy it as a whole including all of the equipment. We will miss its beauty, but we decided to use the money from the sale to buy a 1968 Ford Truck! 
Paul had Friday off. We spent the glorious morning cutting the grass and weeding. It was a gorgeous day with blossoms in every shade and life bursting all around. The fresh cut grass shaved from its 7" of spring lushness mixed with the sensational fragrance from the lily if the valley was almost euphoric. After lunch and in between business calls and Teigs turbulent tantrums we stole a few precious moments sunbathing on the back porch. This is how I will remember Michigan springs. Abundant in life and rich in quality.

 

On Friday night Paul loaded E and J and two of their friends in the van for the father son campout. they went off to do manly things they do like practice archery, throw their new homemade knives, start fires and roast starbursts, run around with flashlights until the wee hours of the night and finally to sleep in our new spacious 10 man tent. Paul said they were right near a rock festival and the airport so the sleeping was slim to none, but Eirik came home the next morning with the biggest smile on his face of all time.
Friday night was a little weird for me. A week earlier I asked 5 girls if they wanted to come over for a girls night. I only heard back from one of them and she couldn't come so I was feeling a bit lonely. Teig was awful company. For every one moment he is deliciously cute there are 10 where I want to flee from his presence. I made popcorn and watched tinker bell with him; his choice, and then struggled to finally get him to submit to sleep at 9:00. Then I watched movies until I fell asleep. Mercifully Teig slept in. His brothers weren't here to wake him early so he slept until 9:00. I handed him the iPhone and slept until 10!! I didn't tell Paul. It's not really fair after he slept in a tent, but I don't feel too bad. I let him sleep in whenever he can.
When the boys rolled in with slurpies at 11, we all got in the car and headed to a birthday party at an arcade. The kids bragged about going canoeing that morning and playing laser tag, go -carts and bouncy house all in one day. On the way home from the birthday party Paul stopped at Bob Jo's custard shop, apparently a legendary downriver stop. It's been around since 1947 and we all got giant cones. The boys all gorged themselves so we got to skip dinner completely.
Tonight was sort of a big night for us. Teig fell asleep on our way home and Paula and I told E and J to go up and put themselves to bed. They did!!! For the first time ever without having a babysitter, we skipped bed time routine. Weird, and nice.
We only have three more Sundays in our ward.We loved having the Davis boys sleep over a few nights. They all found baby bunnies in our front yard.  Last year when they slept over we found a giant bullfrog so I am glad this year did not disappoint.

Teig's journal May 8th-2 1/2 years old

I wike Wiwy (Lily) He is my fwavworite. And I wike Charlie and Daniel Eirik Joren and mommy and daddy. I pway wif tor and Juni. Juni is my best fwriend. No he is not bigger yet. (Teig says he for all girls still.)
What are your favorite things to do?
Pway wif my toys. I can do wots of fings. I wove aw my stuff. I have dominoes. All my fings are mine and I can't share. They are all the fings I need to play. There's red and green and blue and purple, no there's not purple. Dis is my backpack. Johnny brought it for me. I wove my going going coins. ( gold coins). I put vem in my safe.
I will tew you a stowy bout a dagon! (dragon). Once pon a time ver was a berry scary Dagon. He had sharp cwaws, sharp teef, sharp eyes and a sharp forehead. He went wike zis.. Roar! Ven I ride on his back. Ve end.

May!

The glorious first week of May has finally arrived.  After a lengthy, deep latency, the world is awakening once again.  For years I have referred to it as hibernation because I feel like I am suddenly rubbing a deep sleep from my eyes.  We spent the weekend in the new sunshine running the garage sale, then a glorious Sunday on the back porch just enjoying the sun.  Last night for family home evening we had a hot dog roast and the boys got to collect the firewood for the campfire.  The magnolia trees are out in their glory and the yard is full of giant tulips and daffodils.  The field of lily of the valley is becoming lush around the pond.  The boys took off all of their clothes on Sunday and dipped their legs in the water enjoying the freedom of warmth.  For months it's as if we have been just surviving and now suddenly we are living.  I piled the plates full of vegetables and fruit yesterday on the back porch.  It is glorious.  When so many months separate the late summer from the spring you almost forget how wonderful it is.. almost.  But I remembered well enough that in anticipation I worked really hard during the cold weeks of spring so that now that May has arrived, I can slow down and enjoy it a bit more.

Order and chaos at home

I have spent weeks going through everything we own and trying to weed through it and keep about 1/2 of it. This weekend we will have a garage sale and say goodbye to a lot of our possessions. It has been an interesting process of purging and letting go and doing some serious organizing. I have been through all our clothes, all my art supplies, all our papers, books, binders, toys, costumes, furniture, cards, linens, toiletries, storage, decorations and kitchen stuff. I still have he garage to do but it's so filled with stuff we are getting rid of that it's hard to get to the organizing.
I want a clean fresh start. I also feel weighed down trying to keep so much stuff cleaned up and organized. Partly it's a control thing. In a way I feel out of control in my home because motherhood is a process of letting go everyday. I guess I feel that if I get rid of stuff there will be room for more order. Maybe I am dreaming though. I'm not sure. I organize because I see immediate order where with my kids I feel I can not create order. I find myself nagging and getting nowhere. I really don't understand boys. My poor boys. They must feel so misunderstood. This is a picture of my boys desks. Why do they look like this again?!! We just organized them. They collect so much junk. I can not control their chaos even though I would love to!

Here it is!! Our new Nest. I can't wait!

It's not my style, but we are going to love living here.  I feel very optimisitc and I am putting aside the interior designer in me for at least another year. I love granite countertops and I love stone on the exterior.  Paul says there are frogs in the tiny pond in the front.  The boys will love that.  I can't wait to meet the neighbors.

Eeeeeeeee!!

DD (Dreamy Doc) found us a house today in West Linn!  We were planning that I would fly out in May to look for a house because we assumed it might be still a little too early to secure something for mid June, but it looks like these guys will hold this one for us.  Everyone tells us the market is so hot in WL that you have to jump while the fruit is ripe or it's gone. A realtor friend in the ward called to tell us she found a house that was not even on the market yet. She said, "I found it! It's perfect!"Paul went to see it and is ready to put down a deposit tomorrow. He says we won't find anything better. It is in a great neighborhood, blocks from the church and right in the area with the great schools that we want to be in.  It's within a block form a huge park, meadow with tennis courts and basketball hoops.  There are tons of kids and moms everywhere.  It's on a very non- busy street, and it had enough rooms ie/ lots of space.  It is really nice out front, and its' very new and it looks well made.
We have both been saying for years that we don't want a great big home.
1.  I don't want to have to clean a huge house.
2. I don't want to have to search for my kids for dinner in a huge house.
3. I don't want the kids to disappear for hours and I don't hear from them.
So, why are we choosing a huge house??
I love old houses, and houses with character. I love houses with rustic charm and farmhouse feel. I love being in nature and having big trees around me and having a garden and spending all spring and summer outside.  So why are we choosing a new, vanilla, white box house with no charm or character and an ity bity yard and no spot for a garden? hmm... and paying a lot for it?.... hmm....
We have a huge dog with black fur and this house is all white carpet. hmm......
We have always said that we want to be able to choose who our kids hang out with. So why are we moving to suburia central where we will have every neighbor kid on the block knocking on the door and our kids running to every neighbor kids house every day?  hmmm.....
I want a yard and some land to put the boys to work so they stay grounded and grateful.

Well, the answers to all those questions:
1. I have missed sitting on soft carpet.
2. It will be nice to be so close to neighbors and other mormons and lots of kids and friends and the church.
3. it's temporary
4. We can paint whatever walls we want
5. But the most important reason is that the Lord told us pretty clearly when we prayed that West Linn was the place for us, so we are listening, and this is available, and we have not seen many other options in all the months we have been looking.  
6. I think we are going to really like it.

Teig the terror

The tantrums this week have reached epic highs. I thought no one could beat Eiriks tirades when he was 2, but Teig has demonstrated the same relentless stamina. My blood pressure and anxiety go through the roof when he boils over. In the doctors office this week he exploded over the tiniest thing, screamed his blood curdling scream and threw his head back violently on the floor. I had to help him out of the office by lifting him by one arm because I had Juni in a car seat in the other arm. I have been through it enough to know that this too will pass and I might actually see my Sweet T again someday. I just hope it passes before my plane trip to Utah in June where I will be flying with three of my kids by myself. Managing that kind of tantrum on a plane while helping Juni if she is crying and Joren, if he is demanding, could get interesting... but it will be for 9 hours of travel instead of all the way across the country stopping to nurse every couple of minutes while kids scream about hating their car seats. It sounds a lot more manageable to me and I can't wait to spend time with my family in Utah!  Oh Teig.. we will get through this, you and me.