Our week in pictures

Looking through my phone, I found a few pictures I thought were blog worthy so here they are.

Adam using self checkout at Smith's

He's a pretty good little cashier!

 


The nice guy in the meat department let Adam watch as he sliced our turkey





Bobo decided to help with laundry today



No more love notes, Mom

Because I suck at being a mother, I try to make up for it from time to time by leaving notes in the kids lunches that say I love you and have a good day.  This morning as Iwas making Adam's lunch, he looked at me with the look that says "I don't want to hurt your feelings, but...." and said (like he was walking on eggshells) "Mom, could you not put notes in my lunch?  It's really embarrassing." 
I pretended that he hadn't just broken my heart, smiled and said "Sure, I don't want you embarrassed!" then he sighed in relief and went to get ready for school. 
My baby boy is embarrassed by me.  Crap.  I just realized I'm not cool.

Peeing in the corner

(pre-note): after that last blog entry, the crap hit the fan.  Apparently he still blog stalks me.  And I thought I was creepy for FB stalking every few weeks.
Ok, so on to me being domestic.  I made jam.  Lots of jam.  Like, 65-ish cups of jam.  It was freezer jam, and although I did it over a period of two days because I had two shipments of fruit, it could have been done in a day because  it was very simple.  40 cups were made one night between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. with my friend Niki and it was freaking hilarious.  Our boys slept in the living room and Adam had a sleep walking episode.  Here goes, I know I'm going to have to delete this entry and most likely put him in therapy if he ever finds out I posted this but I'm just a bad enough mother that I'm cool with that.
Around midnight he woke up.  My home is a tri-level with a split stairway between the front room and living room, one set of stairs leading upstairs to two bedrooms (one of them massively huge), a bathroom and a hall closet, and the other set downstairs to another bedroom, a bathroom/laundry room and the family room.  The boys room is upstairs.
Back to sleepwalking.  Adam woke up and headed toward the kitchen rubbing his eyes.  I asked him if he was ok, he said he's finished.  Finished with what, I asked.  Finished thinking.  Then he walked headfirst into the wall between the two staircases.  I started laughing, he looked up at me like I was crazy and headed upstairs.  Niki asked what he was doing, and I said don't worry, he's asleep.  She pointed out that his eyes are still open.  Don't worry Nik, he's still asleep.  So we continued smashing raspberries.
I started to wonder what he was doing when I didn't hear the bathroom door close.  When Jarom and Dominick aren't around he generally wouldn't volunteer to sleep in his bedroom alone given the opportunity to crash in the living room with Niki's son, Cadon.  So I headed upstairs and at the top, I knew he was in the bathroom because I could hear him peeing.  And the door was open.  Not really cool.  So I reached in to shut the door, but there was no one there. Weird?  My first thought is our wonderful dog, who never ever does anything wrong (except chase cars and bark and stab me with his ridiculously long nails at night) is peeing in my house!  In my disgusting boys room!  I hurry in there and no, it's not the dog peeing in the corner, but my eight year old son.  Super not cool.
Now, I don't know how many people deal with sleepwalkers, but I have learned not to startle them or they freak.  So I put my hand on his back and said quietly... son, you're peeing in your room.  He turned away and finished peeing as I'm telling him, you're pottying in your room... you're peeing on your closet door... eventually he turns around, does up his fly, stares at me... and laughs.  And I started to laugh.  I asked him if he'd been sleeping, he said yes, crawled into bed and fell asleep.  So I went downstairs, knowing I was going to have to scrub carpets in the morning, and smiled because I knew I'd have a great story to tell him.
When I told him, he laughed and laughed until I was finished with the story and asked.... How old was I?  Uh, dude, it was last night.  His eyes about popped out of his head.  How emabarrassing he says and starts laughing harder!!!
It's a great blackmail story and other than the pee on the carpet, I think I'd be willing to make jam every week if I got entertained like that!

Next blog entry... The horrors of canning salsa.  I'm a bit too traumatized for that post just yet.

Kiddies

I am no longer Amber and Company, family of 4 without a daddy but WE are now Amber, George and company, family of 8 with both a mommy and a daddy and a dog named Jack.  So, now I think I will change my blog, play with it a little bit, and add pictures of my wonderful family.  I don't talk much about my children on here and I just noticed that as I was scrolling through past blog posts.  So... here's a little bio on each of my beautiful children:

Seritta Merrell was born August 15 1997, which makes her 14 as of this post. She is quiet, level headed, slow to anger, and just plain sweet. She is tall and beautiful with dark hair and hazel eyes and she takes after George's family when it comes to looks. We've been playing around with makeup (especially eyeliner) and with or without it, the child is lovely. Most importantly, she's been the mother of her father's house. Because of that she's learned patience and kindness and she is an amazing example of true charity. She scrapbooks, journals, talks about boys, takes care of younger siblings like a pro, and reads her scriptures often. I feel like I can relate to her on a level I never expected.

Camilla Jade Hall was born August 17 1998 and is 13. She is short and adorable, looks like me but has her aunt Hillary's cute pouty lips and chin. She has one of those faces that can pull of any look, but with her height (or lack thereof) she looks younger than she is. Throw some makeup on that girl and she suddenly becomes a teenager. Sometimes I look at her and my heart almost breaks at the thought of her in three years when she's 16 because she really does get more beautiful every year. She's so very kind hearted and joined me in donating ALL of her hair a few years ago for cancer victims. She gets her feelings hurt because she is so tender and would never intentionally hurt another person, therefore she has a hard time understanding. She wants to do what's right, loves her family and the gospel, and she is loved by everyone around her.

Jarom Chase Hall was born April 15 2000.  He's so very serious and cautious.  He is concerned about things around him, and worries about his family and friends.  He's smart.  Like, super smart.  He skipped a grade last year and caught up in about 6 months.  He has thoughts that are incredible, often too deep for me to understand.  He has dark hair and hazel eyes like his dad but he looks enough like me that people often say he takes after my side of the family, until they see him next to his daddy.  That child is the clone of his father, with a dash of Sadlier thrown in.  He's so sweet and sometimes has to fight back tears when he sees an injustice.  He's also a little small for his age but he makes up for it in his strong personality (ok, its more like attitude but whatever!).

Dominick Merrell was born April 29 2002 and he turned 9 this year.  He's ALL BOY.  He plays sports, farts, burps, shoots things like prairie dogs and dragonflies (really) and adores his dad.  He's the only blonde and I've been trying to decide who he looks like.  I have a picture of his dad at his age and he does look a lot like a Merrell but I can see some of his mothers side in him as well.  He is into sports and George is wonderful about helping with and going to games.

Adam Stanley Meager was born November 13 2002 and will be nine in a few months.  He is crazy, funny, carefree and intense!  When he's happy, he's hecka happy and when he's sad, the whole world is crashing down.  He's also very much a boy and he and Dominick are best friends.  He tells jokes and stories and loves to play with other people.  He looks like me, with dark hair and eyes and just enough of Steve to look like a Meager.  He's a crackup and sooooooooo fun to hang out with!

Vanessa Merrell is our baby, born March 2004.  She's a diva through and through.  She thinks she rules the house, and she sorta does.  She has lots of attitude and personality and pretty much gets whatever she wants because she's so headstrong.  I fear we may have some clashing with her soon, simply because she's used to ruling the roost, and thats now my job!  I love Vanessa so much for who she is, probably because she's so much like me.  She looks just like her mother with dark hair and eyes, but she loves her daddy.  She and I look enough alike that she could pass for mine easily, and we love each other just like she was born mine.  She can kick her brothers butt when it comes to wrestling, but she pouts and bats her eyes like any princess, which is what George calls her.  Click here to read another post about Vanessa.

I would love to elaborate on the children as a family, and not just individually but I am out of time today.  I must go get my boy from school and pretend to clean my home.  I will just say I love these children and I'm so very happy that I get to mother them :-)