My Kids Are Amazing

Tomorrow is our last day working at our current jobs.

I think it's pretty safe to say we have absolutely loved our time working at these jobs.

Tommy has learned a ton about estimating and construction contracting companies and he is a mad pro at excel now too : )

I have spent these past three months getting to know 30+ amazing kids. They are hilarious beyond belief, and I have some things I'd like to share, but sadly, without hearing their voices it won't be as funny, but I'll do my best.

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December 5th:

"One of my 5 year olds wrote out his wish-list to Santa today.

He called me over yelling "Carly, how do you spell 'NAKED'?!"
I walked over wondering what on earth he was up to and he explained that he wanted a naked mole rat for christmas.

After we got through that long one [it took the whole 11 inches of his paper], he said in delight, "Great! Now I just need to spell Copper Head Snake!"

This was his finished product:

Naked Mole Rat
Copr Hed Snake
Rat Mouse Tarantula
Bat


Afterwards he drew which type of bat he wanted so Santa would know.
Then he decided to draw a naked mole rat, copper head snake, rat, mouse, and tarantula too.
Just for good measure.


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One of my 7 year old girls is currently in love with horses.

She has many of them that she rides around constantly. Imaginary ones of course. She is very passionate about them.

November 28th:

Sabrina made a paper horse today. She came over to me so we could brain storm about names for him.

S:
"I know! His name can be Russell!"
Me:
"Russell?"
S:
"No...What do you think would be a good name?
Me:
"...Asher?"
S:
"You're a genius! His name can be DASH!"


I'm glad kids can take our lame ideas, make them sound awesome and think we are still geniuses at the same time : )

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Trevor is another one of my 7 year olds. He is adorable, has a smile 24/7 except when he's bummed about something small that happened 1-7 days previous, or when he thinks his older brother is being picked on. Trevor is tiny. He has huge, blue eyes and glasses that make them even larger and much of the time he just blinks up at you with a huge grin on his face.

My boss has a habit of saying the word "Seriously?" a lot when joking, sarcastic, or when she really can't believe something has happened. Trevor has picked this up and now says it all the time. It always makes me laugh.

Example:
He saw another kids shirt and said.
"A shirt with zippers. Seriously?!"


----
About a month ago I went out on a limb and taught the boys the code of chivalry and let them battle each other with paper towel roll centers. It was a pretty big experiment since they get pretty rowdy without my help. Before starting I went over the rules with them again. Especially the "No stabbing anyone in the back."

Trevor said "We won't stab anyone."

Me: "Thank you Trevor. You've been very chivalrous this entire time."

T: "Yeah, I'm feeling pretty chivalrous today."


I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what chivalrous means. But he's got it down pat.


----


Ruth is 8 or 9.
One day she randomly yelled to me from the other end of the table:

"CARLY! DO YOU WATCH BARBIE MOVIES WHEN YOU'RE BORED?!"

Me:
*stunned stare*
"...Barbie Movies?"

R: "Yeah, Barbie movies."

Me: "...I have never watched a Barbie movie in my whole life-"

R: "I've seen ALL the Barbie movies. I watch them when I get bored. I LOVE BARBIE MOVIES."

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: ) I'm going to miss my kids.

Jobs Galore!

Well Apes, you may have heard. Or you may be hearing here, now, because I am going to tell you.


The Germans Got Jobs.


What?! Yes.

Which ones?! These ones!


This really cute one:




And this cross-eyed drinker [rootbeer!] one:




BOTH OF THEM?? yes. both.




Oh we're just tickled!

Tommy-boy got a paid internship/full time/job thing with a construction company in the area. He sits in a box all day as Supreme Intern Estimator playing fun construction games on the computer and blowing people's socks right off their feet with his mad estimation skills.

It's so supreme, we went out and got him spiffy new [used] clothes from Value Village so that he can look gallant all week long.

I haven't taken a picture of them yet, but judging how good he looks in this, I think you can imagine the rest.




I, on the other hand, will be working/internship-ing in a before and after school kids program for elementary-aged sprites. Thus, I shall be grunging down to fulfill my duties as Frau Teacher-Person in...dun dun dun!.... a bigger box than Tommy's!!

Portables totally beat cubicles : )



So, due to some very lovely people, we will actually have an income this Fall, I will actually get that beautiful piece of paper stating my DEGREE in interesting stuff, and Tommy will get one of his internships done a year early! And that is all cause to celebrate.


We recommend Melanie's cake everytime.



Sincerely,

The Happy Germans

Girl Talk : Girlishness

I've come to notice that many young females bond over hysteria splashed with wit.

It is a language and demeanor constantly filled with and exuding mass amounts of energy.

I think it is the consistency and height of this energy that catches my eyes and mind and perplexes them so much so that I cannot direct my attention elsewhere. It's captivating.

Much like catching a pair of squirrels squabbling high up in a tree, only to find that they're not squabbling, they're just chattering with excitement and then more and more squirrels pop out of nowhere and all of a sudden you have hundreds of jabbering, jumping, perfect-haired creatures, running around hugging each other, squeaking "Oh my gosh!! No way!!" every five seconds!

How do they get this way??

And better yet, how do they maintain it? It's exhausting just to watch!

I think somewhere between shoving my nose in books during first grade reading time and stumbling dazed into summer after my sixth grade year of terror [ahem...school], I was supposed to learn "Girlishness".

Therefore I would have had an effortless transition into late night girl discussions about boys and bras and deodorant with my best girly friends, and I would have bewitched the minds of men with my rocket-paced jabber, and I at least by now would speak and type in shortened phrases of already slanged words, and I would use more exclamation points and be so witty and fearlessly fluent in Girlishness that I could just walk up to anyone and conjure up a friendship in a conversation!


But I missed all of it!
Now how in this world does one make girl friends when people watching is a favorite past time, small talk feels horrendous, butchering beautiful words is criminal, bras are finally understood but aren't really common topics between acquaintances and the only boys I find myself talking about are my husband and God?


Maybe I should climb a tree and ask a squirrel.



post script: My deodorant of late is lovely so you know. Tommy smell-tested the whole wal-mart isle and picked it out for me. It's Degree orange flower + cranberry. Now you can tell me about yours.

Swoon to Honeymoon: A History

The first time I saw Tommy in suit pants, a white undershirt and suspenders; I swooned.

Well, the modern-day version of swooning anyway. I mean, come on, he looked like the sexy, private detective type from the 20's who chases down mob-bosses and probably even does his own cooking.


Anyway, in reality, we were in a super old (and gorgeous) mansion stacking white-picket chairs. He had been hired to be man-labor for the set-up and take-down of my sister's wedding reception. Little did he or my sister know, I had a major crush on him. Hence the swooning.

I could blame what happened afterwards on the suspenders, but to be fair, it's all Tommy's fault. He's just so wonderful.


But first, let me go back.

Approximately one month previous, I had reluctantly decided to do what I had never done before. i.e."put myself out there", "be bold" and "chase down my man". And being extremely shy at the time, I thought I was making wild progress by actually speaking to him on Sundays during church (we both worked in the nursery) and by getting acquainted with his family and even going over to his house to ask craftsy questions of his brilliant mother.

Looking back on it, I can see why he didn't pick up on any of my fearless attempts to accomplish the three aforementioned tasks.

However, this was progress to me and I considered it a major victory when, the day after the reception, he asked me to hang out at his house sometime that week. Which brings us back up to speed on our timeline...

We started a friendship that blossomed around lots of talking, card games, taking walks to the park, late-night Safeway runs for canned pineapple, tours of his high school, and of course, Smallville.

The dating began December 4th 2007.
1 blissful month later I left for college and 7 tough but love-filled months after that he left for Argentina.

I knew I was in love. I knew he loved me. And I was positive if we did everything right in God's eyes, we could be together again.

Mr. Hopeful was sure I'd marry somebody else while he served his mission in Buenos Aires for two years.


Fast forward 24 months and 4 days.


One of the best days of my life thus far: he came home.

He looked like a sunbeam with his tanned skin and his sun-bleached hair and his huge grin. He smelled like dirt mixed with old dirt mixed with foreign dirt shoved in a suitcase. He was beautiful.

The dating began August 4th 2010.

13.04 blissful and packed eons [days] later he proposed. August 16th 2010 in a parking lot at 1am.

7 months and 10 days later we were married and sealed for all eternity in the Rexburg temple. March 25th 2011.

It'll be 5 months tomorrow baby!

We were able to go on a wonderful honeymoon a couple weeks ago. [I'll write and picture-record that later] It was a much needed vacation where we got to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, and had an absolute blast together. It was definitely a wonderful way to celebrate spending our lives together.

People call us newlyweds but I can't hardly remember my life without him, it feels like we've been together forever, and heaven-sakes do we love it that way.

I cannot count the number of times I've swooned or been swept off of my feet (literally and figuratively) by my giant, miraculous, sunbeam of a man.
Nor the number of times I've called him by his full name during our tickle/wrestle/play-fights, nor the number of times I've realized what a huge slice of perfection my life is with him.

Love is love is love is love. Can't get much better than that.

Something Carly Learned This Morning

Shadows don't shed light.

Doubts, mistakes, idiocies cannot be trusted to teach a lesson about light.
Darkness teaches of darkness.
We must know more than where the darkness starts and leads.
We must know where the light beckons and is born.
If we hold the shadows before us to remind us where we've been,
our path is marred, our vision blurred, and steps are sure to stumble.
Render to darkness it's shadows, leave them behind.
Render to light your trust that you can be enough with it, and that your sights don't need to be anywhere else.
Light will show us everything we need to know.

Weekends Barely Tolerate Sitting Next to Mondays

It all began with a bachelorette party.

This was my first since getting married, and let me tell you, when you're no longer single, but you've barely smudged off the "Just Married" sticker on your forehead, you sit in never-never-land with a lot of cookies.

Luckily Becca, Lynnea and Alisa Grace didn't shun me because of marriedness, they only jokingly said I should mingle with all the other married ladies in attendance...who I did not know.

I ended up telling these three friends what I've just recently come to know about marriage only to hear an hour later from a 4 year married woman what she knows about marriage.

You know it's funny, I'd pegged her for a reserved mormon wife at the start but by the end of the night she was telling me all about 'snake bats' and how "They don't care if you're tired, they don't care if you're in the garage, or in your parents house, men. don't. care."

Did I die laughing?


Yes naked apes. Mostly I did. Except for the dying part.


It only took me two more hours, and a re-telling to Tommy to figure out that the snake bat she'd been talking about wasn't the toy, flying, blind, echo-location kind, but the toy, baseball-hitting kind. Duh.

Moral of the story is apes, I'm too young, I'm too old, I'm too naive, and I'm too married, I'm not married enough, and I'll understand when I'm older, meanwhile I'm pretty sure I'm older than I was, and I'm certain I've been around three year olds for too long because I'm losing touch with adults.

All well, Tommy's still young :)

This evening I sat in bed with a carton of milk, eating Chocolate Chip cookies from the package, and when Tommy figured out what I'd done, he actually said I hadn't eaten as many as he'd expected and carried on the festivities with me while we started F.H.E.

In case you are wondering, this is reason 2,000,003 why we fit.



On another note, Naked Apes, I'm graduating from college this Friday.

Do you have any idea how weird that is? I don't have a plan after this. A vague one yes, but not a fill-in-the-cracks one. I know I want to read. Deeply. I want to start somewhere really far back in ancient Greece and Rome and work my way up through the greatest thinkers, creators, dreamers, and artists of all time.

Really, I want to start my education. But I'm afraid I'll lose all my gumption as soon as the responsibility sets in of internships and jobs and getting my baby through college. But it's little plans like this that make taking on all of the new roles and responsibilities not so scary. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter that I don't feel grown or grown up. It doesn't matter that my recipe box has a total of four recipes in it, or that I don't have a single "woman" outfit in my closet.

Tommy's teaching me life is for living. No one up there ever said the greatest thing we'll ever do is grow up. I figure if I end up a little bit wise, wrinkly, imaginative, awestruck and childlike at heart, I'll have done something right.


Oh Nakies, I've got a long way to go.


p.s. Tommy is sleeping right next to me, and has been for the past 2.5 hours. He is so cute. His toes stick off the end of the bed, he's got a blanket wrapped around his middle, he's snuggled his head into his yoda pillow and his hair is sticking up wildly like sunflower leaves yearning for the light of our bed-lamp : ) I would have taken pictures of him at ten minute intervals this whole time if I knew how to charge his camera. Alas, you'll just have to picture him in your heads. Sweet dreams. Don't forget your prayers tonight, as I've recently re-learned, God loves midnight chats with his children.

Marriage is...

...Like synchronized swimming.


...the discovery of just how much toilet paper YOU use! No one else. Because you are the only girl now.


...Like speaking swaheelee when you don't even know how to spell it and your roommate is speaking latin.


...Like trying to exit a door that has a latch on both sides and your darling re-locks it every time you unlock it because the more you try to come out the funnier it gets to him until you're both laughing and you can see the twinkles in his eyes when he finally swings it open : )


...LOVING your morning dose of chocolate milk because he made it for you and it's perfect and perfectly delicious.


...Stealing all the covers, and losing all your pillows.


...Snapshots of perfection blowing by your face so fast sometimes you miss them. But you catch as many as you can and staple them to the walls to watch the best scene you've ever witnessed.


...Getting super excited to come home and go absolutely nowhere.


...Like rowing crew.


...Constantly remembering someone other than yourself.


...Like balancing with a giant on top of a pencil point.


...Realizing your own inexperience and hopelessly flawed nature and then realizing you can become wonderful together.


...Perfect. Like a dance. Difficult, requiring hours of patience, questions, listening, practice, stumbling, remembering, learning.


...Laughing and giggling and snorting and running around the house screaming and rubber band wars and late night chats and snuggling and tricking a giant into taking a nap with you and talking in your sleep and being a sassafrass and being so in love even if you're angry or tired or frustrated or happier than butterflies with mangoes.


...Life and love however you make it.