Team Sanborn

Team Sanborn

Monday, June 28, 2010

I wish I had a "nanny cam"!

The kids have been getting up super early and going to bed a little later (darn you summertime sunshine). So today, by 8:30am the babies were a TRAIN WRECK!!! So we laid down on the couch for a little rest. We all fell asleep for about 10 minutes-just enough to energize them, but not enough to make them less crabby of course. I hear Annabelle say, "Hey Andrew- Mom's asleep, want a snack?". Instead of blowing my cover, I continued to keep my eyes closed. I hear Andrew get the barstool and drag it over to the fruit snacks, pull the canister across the counter, open it and pull our several packages of fruit snacks. Now remember, my eyes are closed, so I have no idea how many fruit snacks are actually being eaten. Annabelle decides to take her fruit snacks to the art table-"I wanna color. Do you wanna color? Mom's still sleeping, so I will have to get the stuff myself." I then hear the crashing of about 16 coloring books as they fall off the art table. Andrew- "Oh no Anbewl, not a good choice. Holy Cow! Want some fruit?" Annabelle- "Yes please, cantaloupe"-good to know they use their manners when they think I'm sleeping! I remember there is no cut melon, just a whole melon in the fridge. I now sink furthur down in the couch so I can supervise this while still looking "asleep". Andrew takes the stool from the fruit snacks to the fridge and gets the melon off the top shelf. Andrew- "Woah, be careful buddy!" He puts the fruit on the kitchen table, goes and gets a cutting board out of the drawer and a Cutco knife out of the knife block. He carefully chooses the best knife for the job, the pointy seraded one-great! He carries the knife, tip down mind you, to the table. Annabelle-" Let me help, I'm a better chef than you." Andrew- "No, I good cutting this Anbewl, watch me". He then cuts the melon right in two. SERIOUSLY!!!! Not exactly even pieces, but in two! Andrew- "Awesome! (takes a bite from half the melon). Takes the knife and cutting board to the sink. Andrew- " So delicious Anbewl, wanna have some Anbewl?" Annabelle- "No thanks, I don't like cantaloupe".

Monday, June 21, 2010

Happy Father's Day Billa!

Yesterday at church we heard a great Father's Day message. The message was powerful for Bill and watching him be impacted was powerful for me. It wasn't anything earth shattering, but listening to my husband worship was. For the first time in a long time, I heard his voice singing above the rest. It was like looking at him with new eyes. He made a few "promises" as his role as dad goes due to the message. He is starting a journal for each of our kids to write to them about what is going on in their lives, and how he feels about it. This is huge considering he has never journaled (except in college where his "journal" was more of a notebook to comment about scripture). He has also committed to a few other things that will help keep our family running smoothly. I have had a really hard time on Father's Day the last couple years, as it's kind of sticky when you don't have a dad. By have a hard time, I mean bawling my eyes out for the whole weekend and not being able to walk down the card aisle. I have been holding Bill to the same standard I held my dad to. Well, guess what? Bill is not my dad. My dad had more practice and more insight, as he was a father for 32 years and Bill has been one for 4. My dad as I remember him (MY HERO) may be different than my mom remembers, or what really happened. Regardless, my dad will always be the measuring stick I use as dads go. So I need to cut Bill a little slack. I got a phone call from a sweet friend today reminding me just how great my husband is. Sure, he works too much and sometimes inadvertently undermines what I do with the kids. GRRR!!! But he loves me, he loves our kids, he is committed to being a dad and a husband. He is faithful and hard working. Although he seems to put too much into his job, he is the primary breadwinner and so his job has to be important (to him and to us). So today I am reflecting about how lucky we are to have him. Happy Father's Day!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Musings of a stay at home mom

HA!!! Yep- that's me!!!!! I'm a stay at home mom!!!! Well, I've been done teaching for about 10 days, so I have a ton to "muse" about! I will say we have had some AWESOME days at home- lazy, busy, what have you. 3 days we stayed in our jammies until swim lessons, had swim lessons and came home and put clean jammies on. I love summer! My kids have also discovered someone interesting this summer. Her name is Dora. Yes, you know her- Dora the Explorer. Thank you Lord for sparing me from Dora all these years. The lists of issues I have with Dora is lengthy. I know all kids shows are kind of S-T-U-P-I-D, but I think Dora may be the worst (or maybe it's that we have one DVD and it seems to have been streaming non-stop for the last 10 days). First of all, Dora's parents wave goodbye to her in the opening credits and THAT IS THE LAST WE SEE OF THEM!!! Really Mr. and Mrs. Explorer?! Nice family values- your 5 year old can just roam (seemingly the whole world) with her pet monkey with no supervision (except her older cousin- Diego is another post). I am estimating Dora's age on the size of her head. Pet monkey? Kind of a bad idea huh- although he seems to be the brains of the operation. Dora has a backpack that contains all kinds of things that would never fit into a backpack (trust me, Andrew has tried). When she takes them out to have you choose what she needs to help her, the backpack eats everything else and says "delicioso"- this mortified Annabelle. "The backpack just ate all of Dora's stuff- Mommy, how will she get the stuff she needs to finish her adventure?" Great question. The map- the only real directions Dora ever receives or follows come from him. He helps her get to her destinations with a song that memorizes the land marks. I do actually like this as it teaches kids to be aware of their surroundings. Although it is a little vague like, "dunes, boardwalk, beach". Really, cause those are super exact. No one would ever get lost following 3 word directions for 30 mins. Then there is Swiper, the sly fox who always tries to steal stuff. "Swiper, no swipping" (3 times)! If this works, obviously Swiper has some sort of moral compass and knows what he is doing is wrong. HE needs to go to rehab and choose another profession. "Paging Dr.Drew"! Often our encouragement doesn't help Swiper make a good choice. To this I say, "DORA TURN AROUND!!!!" Swiper is always RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!!!!!!! Lastly, "DORA-YOU CALL YOURSELF AN EXPLORER??!!!" Make a freaking decision! Don't ask us, a bunch of kids, what to do! You are the "explorer"! You should be able to exercise some Independence and good decision making skills. SERIOUSLY! Isn't that why your parents let you out of the house in the first place to "EXPLORE" everything? Gosh Dora! Get it together!