The Never Ending Story

 That was my dad's favorite movie when I was growing up.  You know....ATREYU!!!! (Imagine the white flying dog yelling that), the giant rock man, the princess with her necklace crown thing on her head.  Yep, we watched it a lot but I'm on a tangent here let me get back to what I wanted to start to blog about.

The never ending story....oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.  I like that song.  It's my theme song for the laundry but it doesn't go the never ending story, no, it goes (imagine the tune here), The never ending laundry...oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.  The never ending laundry.

Yep, that's what I sing in my head all the time.  I try to get caught up and sometimes I think I am.  Today I felt like I was.  The laundry room looked pretty good.

Empty baskets, just a coat in the laundry bin...it's looking pretty good.

And then I went to Jordan and Kenzie's bedroom and saw this:

And to the boy's bedroom and saw this:

And to the kitchen and saw this:

 (Which they are not supposed to do by the way because putting wet, dirty rags in a corner and letting them sit festers into a bacterial stink...we have this talk almost every day)

And when I see all that (the dirty clothes messes that they haven't brought to me) I feel a little overwhelmed and begin to sing in my head again...the Never ending laundry...it makes me feel a little better.

You would think that it just overwhelms me because it is such a big chore and that is mostly what it's all about.  However, it leads to other problems in my house.  Teenage problems.  Like, for example, the fight that happened between Ben and Jordan this week, twice.  Fighting over jeans (cause Ben is as tall as Jordan now [shhh, don't tell jordan that cause it makes him mad {BTW all these parenthesis are my math humor coming through }]). 

So, Ben can't find his jeans.  What does he do?  He wears Jordan's jeans.  The first time it happened I was able to find Ben some jeans before the fight went too far.  The second time it happened I was not quite awake though.  I was lying in bed enjoying my last ten minutes of sleep and warmth when all of the sudden I heard two young angry teenage voices accompanied by thumping and bumping.  Of course, my mom instincts kicked in and I went sprinting out of my room to stop whatever was happening and found my two boys in a position similar to this.

Only it was more of a stalemate.  Supposedly Ben had shot on Jordan and brought him to his bad arm side so Jordan couldn't defend himself.  So then Jordan wrapped his legs around Ben so Ben couldn't hurt him further.

So how did this fight start with the laundry?  Well, Ben goes into the laundry room to find his clothes every morning in his clean bin rather than put them away.  Unbeknownst to Ben, someone (me) got sick of his clean clothes being in the laundry room and put them away in his dresser.  So Ben couldn't find clean jeans in his clean bin and just assumed he had no clean ones so took Jordan's jeans.

The never ending laundry, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

And now you are also singing Chelsey's never ending story cause this feels like it will never end.  But I'm ending it now.  And yes, I know I shouldn't start sentences with But or And and cause isn't a real word but I'm my only grammar police and I'm just typing and not worrying about my grammar.  Apparently, I am worrying a little.

So, what else is happening?  Jake had his first peewee wrestling tournament and took 1st out of 5 kids!  Way to go Jake!!!!

Ben went to Rocky Mountain Nationals and wrestled in the 15 and under brackets and won one but lost two.  Man, some of those kids are good!

Kenzie and I got up to six miles in our runs.  Almost half of the half.  Also, she built a trestle for her plants.

 Riley is healing well, but still in a splint.

Jordan got clearance to start using his arm again.  Now he is working on getting back mobility in the elbow joint.  Brad took him out snowmobiling and dirt biking this week.

Oh, and he has been harassing me constantly about the best way to ask a cute girl to prom because I guess he's got one he wants to ask.  So if you have any ideas...

As for me, I really should be getting back to the laundry so that's where I'll sign off for the day.

A picture is worth a thousand words

I have quite a few pictures to go through today.  Pictures are courtesy of this man:

(who finds himself more and more behind a camera trying to capture that perfect landscape or sports shot of our kids for our new office)

and this girl:

(who finds herself behind the camera because she is taking advanced digital photography at school)

and courtesy of my iphone.

We have been busy at our house.  It started snowing in our area recently and Brad has had the opportunity to take the boys out back country skiing.  Of course Jordan has been unable to accompany them due to his broken arm. It was Riley's first time out back country skiing.

The snow has been so nonexistent for us this year and the avalanche danger so high as a result of the poor base that we have, that a day like this was certainly one to treasure.

A picture of Riley with the man that makes all this happen...Dad.  He really is a great dad.  We love that guy!

Dad said that both Ben and Riley were troopers and the boys said they both look forward to more back country skiing next year.

We have been wrestling...a LOT.  Ben, Riley and Jake are currently in season. Ben and Riley have had the opportunity to wrestle together this year on their middle school team.  Jordan has attended every meet and helped coach the two of them.  It is so fun to watch the boys collaborate together.  Here's one of my favorite pictures that a friend of mine captured of Jordan coaching Riley the other day.

Here's another that I captured of Jordan and Ben reviewing his previous match with Riley listening in.

And here's one of Ben teaching Riley a take down that he needs to perfect.

I also caught a picture of Riley, McKenzie and Ben all standing together waiting for Riley's next match.

These kids are all so lucky to have each other and I love how much they support each other. 

Riley and Ben have been having quite a bit of success wrestling.  Riley has to work for every win as a sixth grader.  Wrestling 95 lbs. he is usually coming in 3rd or 4th place which is pretty good for sixth grade.  We told him to expect losing a lot this year so we are pleased when he places and keeps his head up. 

Ben is doing awesome and has placed 1st at every local tournament we've had.

Some matches have been so easy that when he sees his  dad is taking pictures of him across the mat he even has time to pose and smile.

Not so fair for the kid underneath.

Of course, since he's been winning so much, at times he can be a little overconfident and find himself in bad positions like this one where he paused to listen to what Jordan was saying and his opponent took every advantage of his lack of attention.

Which his opponent most certainly should have done.  Of course, after Ben got out of almost being pinned here, his opponent may have regretted using that move on Ben because two seconds later he found himself here:

Watching these two wrestle together has been a lot of fun but has also made for long days.  Many is the Saturday evening when you can find our kids like this, sacked out on the couch.

Not only are we attending the wrestling matches on Saturday we have also been attending singing competitions for Kenzie (she is in the second phase of our local talent show, the voice) and attending dance concerts of some of our friends.  Yesterday at the end of the day I calculated that I had sat for 8 hours straight watching people perform. I was exhausted!

A couple of funny pictures I captured on my phone.  A meme that describes McKenzie perfectly.

At times that girl is so unsocial I swear.

Also this:

It's a warning that pops up on my suburban's media screen all the time.  What's funny about it?  Well, to make it go away I have to take my eyes off the road and my hand off the wheel to push okay.  Really chevrolet?

Finally, there was this that happened this week:

Yes, that is another radial fracture. Riley's radial neck fracture.  The radius was so displaced in Riley's case that he had to have surgery.  Surgery happened Wednesday. Riley pre-surgery.

Riley post surgery.

All is well that ends well.  At least for Riles, he's only a sixth grader and really only missed two tournaments.  By the way, he was doing the EXACT SAME THING that Jordan did when he broke his arm six weeks ago.  Moral of the story....bent elbows kids.  When you post your arm for anything (falling, wrestling, whatever) make sure your elbows are slightly bent...or you'll have a radial fracture and perhaps, surgery.

Riley

Riley,

I've written everyone a letter at the age of 12 and I've yet to write yours.  Sorry it's late.

You were not born at an easy time.  In fact, you were my only surprise pregnancy.  I know you don't like that I say that but please always remember it was my best surprise ever, and I truly mean that.  When I found out I was pregnant with you, Ben was only nine months old, we had just moved to Las Vegas and your Dad was in his first year of Dental School.  I was trying to adjust your dad's rigorous schedule and the reality of the monetary difficulty dental school presented.  I was still fat from Ben's pregnancy and I felt overwhelmed with the responsibility of my three young children.  But when you were born, your sweetness filled our home and my heart.  With you our family felt more complete.

You were a happy baby and well cared for by your siblings as shown in this picture below.  Look how happy you are:

Ha, ha...that was a joke.  You obviously weren't happy here, but in reality, you were well taken care of and loved.

You still are loved by your siblings a lot.

 I don't remember you crying much.  In fact, you were so smiley we called you Riles full of smiles.

You are my quiet one.  I mean even now.  There are not very many times when you let me know what's in your head.  You are slow to speak but I can tell a lot is going on in there.  You are thoughtful and you are observant.  In fact, you are the one who will notice when I am sad and will do your best to comfort me.

You are smart.  You learn quickly and you apply well those things you learn. This makes you a great athlete and an excellent student.

You are very focused.  My favorite thing about you is how I can always tell when you are really focused because you stick your tongue out.

You have a special relationship with your brother Ben.  You have always been best buddies.

I know at times Ben can seem a little bossy, but he will be a great support and example to you.  He'll always be there for you.

Be there for your younger brother Jake please.  Take care of him.  Be a good example to him.  He needs you more than you know.

I want you to know Riley that I love you.  I'm glad you are part of our family.  Again, let me say...best surprise ever.

Love ya,
Mom