Testimonies and God's Hammer from on High

I love it when my family members remember things from those around us and share them.  Here are a few gems-- 

From Piper:

Occasionally, one of the little kids comes upstairs to join me for online seminary (it starts at 6:30 a.m.). Well, this morning it was Xai. He snuggled up by me and made a lot of suggestions like: "You should turn off your camera," or "You should rename yourself 'I am your best friend!'" Then I had to ask him to be a little quieter because I was turning on my mic and he conceded and scooted closer to me. After I finished and turned off my mic, he bellowed out "I WOULD LIKE TO BEAR MY TESTIMONY..." He is such a cute guy:D

From Quinn: On Saturday I was working outside and Liesl came up to me to tell me she found a dead spider. She wanted me to look at it and I told her in a fearful voice that the wind would blow the spider on me. To which she said without hesitation in her little Liesl voice, "The wind will blow it up and up and God will SMASH it with a hammer." 

Too Hot to Handle

(or more lovingly subtitled: The four hours in which I curse the 4 to possibly 5 males in my home for their sweetness.)

I don't sleep well right now: allergies + heat + pregnancy = no bueno.
So even though I only had about 4 hours of sleep the previous night and fought off the evil nap demon courageously and victoriously during the course of the next 19 hours of semi-comatose "awakeness," despite going to bed around 11 pm, I found myself tossing and turning around 1:30 am.

Zsa-man: 
Well, I tossed and turned myself face to face with a specter.
Enter Zsa-zsa, my cute little recently birthday-ed 5 year old.
"Mommy, I had a bad dream."

This seems to be somewhat a theme of the past three nights and I am sure that when I am again coherent enough to remember what a nice mommy is, I will try and see if I can help him deal with bad dreams.  But for the moment, he just started my struggling-to-sleep body into full alertness.

Fortunately, years of dealing with the repercussions of "horrible middle of the night responses" that have given my older children PTSD from waking up the sleeping momma bear have helped condition me to temper my responses.  It has actually been quite a while since I have gotten up angry.  Well, it wasn't the last time this fateful evening.

Staring blearily into the beautiful cow-like brown eyes of my Zsa-man, I found myself grumbling something about: "go potty first then you can snuggle with me."

Fast forward 2-45 minutes and once again I turn over--again, semi-comatose--and am once again startled into full wakefulness by the 5 year old specter haunting the side of my bed. I stifle my grumbling marginally successfully this time as I lovingly pick him up to set him between Quinn and I.
And then I feel the moisture.  My darling little bed-wetter has soaked through his pull-up once again and the process becomes infinitely more complicated.

The evil, sleep-deprived mom monster is beginning to make itself more asserted as I gently extract him from the bed before spreading anything to my own bed and say somewhat gruffly, "You need to change before you can sleep with us.  Back to the bathroom to change."
He and I go across the hall, bearing new jammies and wipes and he sweetly proceeds to dress, apologizing a few times, bless his heart. I assure him groggily that he is a sweet boy as I try to convince myself to keep the bear in the cage, knowing he is sweetly innocent and just needs a little magic mommy snuggle to scare away the nightmares.

We stumble back through the darkness into the night of my very own room and face the bed.

Enter the baby and Q-dawg's moment to "shine":
I face the bed that despite providing no real deep sleep supplies infinite comfort for my pregnant body. I consider the size of Zsa-man's body. I consider the space left by my husband's sweetly intended snuggling approach to beyond the middle of our queen size bed in his sleep.  I consider the space required for my over-large "pioneer stock" pregnant body to lay down. I whisper Quinn's name a couple times to no avail.  I gently push-encourage his body to return to "his side" of the bed. I lay Zsa-man down right next to his father. I squeeze myself sideways onto the remaining strip of luxury bedding.   For five minutes.  I change my position so my head is at the foot of the bed and my overly large tummy has room beneath the space left by Zsa-man's short body.  I am not left to only grumbling over my (possible) little infant son's ability to emanate large waves of heat and the continual block and flow of my allergy induced mucus in my head.  So grateful to be pregnant...just not appreciating the extra heat of having the snuggling inside and without at the moment.

Fast forward two hours--Spooner's turn!
I wake up to heat.  Lots of heat.  Zsa-man has snuggled away from his father and is making his way down to my end of the bed. I bless the Benadryl I took during my last bout of awakeness that allowed me a blessed few more hours of sleep. I hear quiet little kid breathing behind me.  All mothers know this sound.  The sound of a child waiting watchfully over their parent, eagerly awaiting their wakefulness in a semi-quiet state: quiet enough to indicate they are trying to be quiet to let the parent sleep and noisy enough to not allow that slumber.  Apparently, that is not enough for sweet little Spooner as he crawls onto the bed next to me, snuggling.

Going through my head is how sweet this moment should be, how it is truly special that my 7 year old is so tender-hearted and loving...as he gives me little kisses and puts his arm over and back and over and back and over and back off of my shoulder to snuggle.
Then, he gets the blanket.

I begin to feel the temperature escalate exponentially as he gently lays down a blanket over my pretending-to-sleep-overheating body.  Tucking it up under my chin, draping it carefully over my body and even making sure my toes are under, I hear a happy sigh and  whispered, "I love you, Mommy" as he then gets back onto the bed to snuggle against my back again.

That does it.  After a huge moment of self-restraint to savor the pure sweetness of the moment, I heave the blanket off my body, whisper what is the best "thanks" I can offer at this moment of sleep-deprived raging heat to my darling little boy and stumble into the bathroom, whipping the door closed behind me.  Glancing at the clock I see: 5:26 am.  Super.  Grumbling about "no way I am getting any more sleep tonight!" I deal with an awake momma bear.
The shower beckons.

Enter the final player, Chugger-dude:
As I turn the shower on, I remember a conversation I had with my sweet fifteen year old son just a regretfully short hours before as we both prepared for bed.  He commented on how since he started taking cold showers, doing the Polar Bear Plunge on Jan 1st into Lake Ontario hasn't been as hard.

Inspired, I thought about how refreshing that sounded considering my over-warm, heat-generating current condition, pulled on the shower and stepped in.  "This is horrible!" I exclaimed as I struggled to catch my breath.
Yes, he didn't force me in.
Yes, he would have probably encouraged me not to.
But somehow it was a very fitting "end" to my "night" that I should be cursing Chugger-dude, as I had all the other males in my home...

...and all because they are so sweet.

Dad's Letter to Avot and Lek from December

I think I have mentioned this before, but this blog has one main purpose: to preserve the uniqueness and memories of our family :D.  That being said, here is a randomly inserted letter from December written from Q-dawg to our missionaries.  I try to capture Q-dawg's voice as often as I can on our blog; love that man!

Buenos napot!

I just finished shoveling some snow so the seminary students wouldn't get their little feet snowy walking up to our door. It is our first snow storm of the season. It snowed a couple other times, but it didn't stick. We only have two or three inches, but it is a good start. 

You will both be so proud of me. In Medina we have a tripanionship because Elder Verdine is going home this week. Last week I went on splits with Elder Verdine. We went to Middleport to talk to an inactive member, but they weren't home so instead we tracted the street around the corner from where they live. It was windy and about 20 degrees outside. Brrr. We met someone about to leave for church service at the Mennonite church. She was very nice. We met a lady who was busy, but took a Book of Mormon. We met a lady who, in one smooth move, opened the door, turned, and closed the door while saying, "No." She was later topped by a gentlemen who opened the door then quickly closed it without even uttering a word. It was awesome! 

Elder Verdine did the first few door approaches then I took a few turns. We went back and forth for a little while. Elder Verdine teased me about being rusty and old, But, guess what- I was the only one to get us inside a house where we taught the First Vision. We got the fellow's phone number because he was just house sitting. He is actually from Medina. After a little over an hour we had finished tracting the street and it was past dark so we headed back to our place to meet up with Elder Verdine's companions. Much to the missionaries delight we had breakfast burritos for dinner. Elder Verdine asked that we have them again on Tuesday, his Last Supper with us. 

Here is an excerpt from my missionary journal. (You can skip it if it is boring to you, I am not correcting the bad grammar or typos, which would more accurately be call writos because I wasn't typing)

December 11th, 1992

Well, things are going good again. After I little disappointment period I have returned to my usual journal self. This week has been a terrible week as far as discussions are concerned. We haven't taught very many at all. It has been an enjoyable week though. 

Yesterday E. Hill came with one of the Elders about to go home. We had a csaladi est (family home evening) at the Toth's house. It was fun. Afterward E. Hill come to our house for a sleepover. He brought 5 packages for me. Yeah!! I love Elder Hill.

Tonight we had a member visit with one of the coolest families in Nyiregyhaza, the Haziek. They fed us dinner. It was interesting. Before I write what I ate let me tell about a Hungarian tradition. Every once in a while a family will run out of pig meat so they will kill another pig. They make these pig killings a big celebration. They play games with the pig first then they do things like biting of the pig's ear or something like that. Finally they take a hot, long, sharp knife and slit its throat. Ask the blood pours out it is drinking on the spot and some of it is set aside to clot. They take the clotted blood, mix it with rice and seasonings and make sausage out of it. You might ask, "What holds it together?" Well they take one of the pig's intestines, clean it out, tie off one end of it and stuff the blood and rice in. This is called blood sausage and this is what I ate at the Hazi's house. I also had a sausage similar to that but instead of blood it had liver in it. The liver one tasted okay, actually pretty good. The blood sausage didn't taste very good, but it wasn't bad either. It was very exciting eating blood stuffed pig intestines. (veres hurka) and liver stuffed pig intestines (majas hurka). I also at a fig. 

Isn't that a lovely journal entry? Last night we sang in the Stake Christmas concert where all the ward choirs perform and the congregation sings Christmas songs in between. The concert started with a spiritual message from one of the high councilman. His voice was hoarse and he made a joke about his message being the only non-musical thing we would hear all night. Boy, was he ever wrong. Our choir sounded astoundingly terrible. Poor congregation. I think I actually saw blood coming out of the ear of one of the other choir conductors. It was that bad. Oh well. We helped everyone else sound that much better. 

Thank you both for serving so faithfully. We look forward to hearing from you in a little while. 

Carry on!

Love,

Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappppppppppppppppppppuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. 

(That is padre and apu mixed.)

Football Update: Letter to Lek

Football was way fun this week. (Sorry, I have to tell you about it a little...be happy for me, right :D?)  It was just a good game: 4 missionaries, Dwyers, newly-baptized young man named Scott, Paces and us.  We played for almost 2 hours, with the climax and abrupt end coming when Elder Shaw (low built very physically fit young man from Alaska) was going to get the ball when Patrick comes streaking across in front of him, only to slam into Dad who was on defense. I was directly behind it and got to not only hear the impact, but see Patrick's body rebound off of Dad's.  It was pretty epic...and sad.  Dad ended up with a bruise, a bite and blood on his head. (I am sure he will send a pic...wait.  Here is one just in case:)

What happened to Patrick, you may ask?  A picture is worth a thousand words:

And here was Patrick's update for us:

"Yes I was able to eat some turkey"

Ouch.

I got a good sized bruise on my arm from Patrick's elbow when I was playing the line. (Which I did for the majority of the game.) It was sweet.  Whenever I wanted to get off the line, I would grab someone to take my place, slide off to the side, and most of the time the Elders wouldn't notice I was there. (They were the safeties.)  A couple of times, Levi picked me up and one time I was slammed to the side. (So cool.  Rattled my brain a little.)  But, I think it was three times I made a touch down or a great catch!  It was very fun.  Maybe it was more. I think I only missed one that was actually passed to me. 

Dad was amazing as always.  He had cleats and one play, he was quarterback and zigzagged through a field full of opponents for an almost touch-down. (The Goob tagged him at the end.)  Zy turned to me after Dad had done that and said, "you know, it is nice that he lets the rest of us play and doesn't do that every time."  Too true. :)  He only did that a couple times and had some great interceptions. (You know Dad :D.)  Good man.  Good ball player.  All around awesome.

Liliputian didn't get many passes but did well.  Chugger-dude was the amazing blitz rusher and probably got the most sacks of the game,  on Levi (and some others).  The Goob and Lincoln pretty much shut each other down so they didn't see much action, poor chaps, but they had fun.

Good game.  In two years it will be your turn and you will be all the more awesome for your sacrifice...just look at Dad :).  

There is some kind of animal I keep hearing in the mudroom but can't seem to catch a glimpse of. I am up early, trying to capitalize on the last day of making a calendar for the grandparents for Christmas, wanted to write you for a little while doing so, and so it is super early and a little creepy.  Oh well.  The door is closed.  I am sure Dad will take care of it.  (It is good to have a man around.  Be that man for your wife someday, as I am sure you will be :D.)

Your package is on the way as of last Wednesday.  We had a lot of fun with it.  Not sure how "lighthearted and funny" it is...well, parts are definitely goofy, so hopefully it makes it to you and hopefully it is fun :D!

"Gyakran egy ferfi vagyok" was just a really weird phrase that Dad and I chuckled over.  What context would that be in? Or should we even ask??

How are you doing with everything?  Companion, schedule, etc.  You seem happy. (Although feel free to take more pictures of yourself to show me how happy you are :).  Blame it on your mom when it looks like you are being vain.)  Life is super good here. I need to stop doing so many projects and enjoy the people around me more.  I am doing better with the little ones.  It occurred to me that I have some friends right here in the house that I don't even talk to very much unless we have something planned out or are doing a class.  Too bad!  I hope to spend the holidays remedying that.  

Other holiday plans?  Xai is going to start being potty-trained on his birthday!!  Happy birthday to no one, right? We are getting him a big wooden train track and a set of 12 engines.  He gets one on his birthday and one more every time he goes poop in the potty.  Should be interesting!  Hope it works.  With his soft heart and particular personality, Dad and I are gearing up to show no reaction but encouragement even if he has an accident.  My attempts with doing it the "old way" (oh no!  you are wet!) has just created a paranoia of potty-training in that little guy, so we are trying this way.  We'll see.  Can't be worse than other experiences, as far as I can see.  (Famous last words, right?)  Wish me luck!

As far as me, I am doing well emotionally. It is interesting to be happy with yourself and step back and start seeing your life a little more clearly and gently.  I have a good life.  Good kids, good husband, good friends, good family.  Blessings.  I am getting better and better with accepting that life is a test, and test equals experiences that test you.  Go figure.  I guess I always felt like a failure if things went "wrong" and would fight to remedy it.  But the phrase, "That is my widow's mite" has come to mean a lot.  That and my talk about the "one good thing" Christ tells Martha has made me look at things a little differently.

What would you say that "one good thing" is?  Dad said "Come to Christ for sustenance: spiritual, emotional and physical."  I liked that one.  What do you say?

Better go finish that calendar so I can enjoy the kids today!

Love you!

:) Anyuci

Q-dawg's Trip with the Girls

So fun! Q-dawg took Liliputian and Pipalicious with his brother and some of his daughters on a trip to the Adirondacks for almost a week.

Liliputian will be your tour-guide/narrator for this adventure.  Grab a life vest and a paddle and enjoy! :D

Our way back from grabbing the eggs that we left in the van, that we are going to eat for breakfast.

My AMAZING father

we have a lot of beautiful scenery thankfully 

our dock were we putt all of our boats

a part of our beautiful campsite

AMAZING father and I are making sausage and eggs for breakfast

Zy's shoes tied to the tree(don't ask me why :D)

The tent that held the two men and the 3 little girls(not including Arella :D)

The little tent that held the dog, Arella and I

More Scenery

Suvi the Kayaker 

Piper her partner

Beautiful Scenery

Piper and Suvi

The WOnDeRFuL Zy

Our life jacket line

Inside the big messy tent

Our diet was marshmallows and hot chocolate

Tessa posing 

Arella and I have the privilege to wash the first dish's that were mouse poop infested :S 

Suvi steering Tessa paddling, and Piper sleeping. 

Arella's knot(if you could identify the knot please comment below)that she dragged all the way to camp

my AMAZING father's catch

Sadly I spent the most part of the trio fishing but I did catch two fish!

here are my fellow fishers

Piper the perfect 

Arella the fabulous photo-bomber

this is one of the fishes I caught

oh no he's blinding us

That's better

here is the WOnDeRFuL Zy in his air mattress

there are the little girls who say they are going to go to sleep but actually stay up laughing and talking :D 

there is my AMAZING father found his phone

There we are eating the perfect pancakes that WOnDeRFuL Zy made

there are the little fishers 

it sounds like paper-towel's rolling down the hill
(a little thing we tease Arella about :D)

the Hot chocolate warms up my hands

that morning had beautiful mist on the pond

There is the WOnDeRFuL Zy who is admiring the sunrise 

the bags that are in the tree are being hidden from the mice and other animals

There is the Magnificent Tessa 

there I am fishing again

There is my AMAZING father untangling my knot again

I caught him smiling :D

and there is my knot

here my shots of my AMAZING father

this is the little girls(not including Arella) playing games

My AMAZING father  studying the scriptures 

the beautiful scriptures

here are some pics of mist going off the water

there is the dog

this is the day we go hiking

there is my dad hiding the boats

perfect Piper making faces

there we are ready to hike

the three terrific trio

there we are

there is my AMAZING father's nose

here is the 0.9 mile hike

our first rest stop

our beautiful lunch break

there is magnificent Tessa 

Arella the look out

We got to the very tippy top of the hill!

little monkeys

here are the two travelers 

this is at the end

Arella in the princess seat(Kel)

There is the moon

there we are at the last day with our big bonfire

this is actually when we were leaving to the campsite 

there we are at Denny's

and the travelers traveled all the way home
and they lived happily ever after