A one time offer

At the end of swim team yesterday Ruby was jubilant.  She told me she wasn't even shivering and that should could have kept swimming longer.  She said, "Why does it feel like we haven't been to swim team in 100 days?"  I told her it was because we had the weekend off, and because we all missed it on Friday.  "Why did we miss it on Friday?"  She asked.  I explained that it was because of the Fathers and Sons campout that the boys and dad went on, and how that gave us all a good excuse to take the night off.  Then she asked:

"Was that just a one time offer?"

Indeed it was, I told her.  That was only a one-time-offer.

In other news, the girls have been busy at school getting ready for the Parent's Day shows.  This meant two different Fridays Darin and I got to go to their classrooms and to be feted, thanked and impressed by how far they have come this year.  To say that I didn't get chocked up both times would be a lie.  They are nearly 1st graders.  How has this happened?!  

Ruby's performance was followed by rainbow sherbet, which she had to serve to her parents (and maybe sample before giving it to them?!).

Jane's performance was the following week, and was followed by lunch out on the lawn.  

To be extra festive we sprung Ruby from her dreary lunch in the cafeteria to join us out on the lawn.  She said she thought she should have been in Jane's class all along.

Do these girls even realize how lucky they are to have a dad who is a PhD student who is "off" for the summer?!  He is ever available to them.  I'm so happy about it all.

Have you heard that Jane lost her two front teeth?!  Also, she got her first pair of dangling earrings (that I'll let her wear) on Friday night while the boys went camping.  I hope you feel excited for her. 

It isn't even June 1st, and yet my kids want to eat watermelon everyday.  I had pulled it out of the fridge and had it on the counter waiting to be sliced, when I walked away.  When I came back through the kitchen, the kids had taken the situation into their own hands.  

Kind of like eating ice cream right out of the carton, only better.  Right?!  They were totally excited about their solution.  I think letting them destroy my watermelon in this fashion was likewise a one-time-offer.

Reminders and notes.

Ruby is in a note writing phase right now.  If she wants to remind herself something, she writes  it down.  See below:

Or sometimes the message is for me.  See below:

After just three days of swim team this was the note I receive.  Here's the translation:

Dear Mom, I do not like swim team.  Will you sign me out?  Please, sign me out!  Please, please, will you sign me out.  By: Ruby. To: Annee Earnest


Reader, do not fear, I am not in the least bit swayed by her note.  She will remain in swim team until mid-July when it will end, and she can thank me for it when she is 23.  Or at whatever magical age you realize how many amazing and wonderful things your mother did for you.  I am patient.  And persistent.

When I asked her why she wanted me to "sign her out".  She told me, it's because the water is cold.  I told her that was an awfully wimpy excuse, and that before she knew it, it would be so hot, she'll be dreaming of jumping into the water at swim team.

It will be in the 90s this week.  I think I might be seeing the "Thank You" note, sooner rather than later...

P.S.  Did you see the girl she drew in her swim team note?  She's smiling.  I think that proves that I'm right.

Sisters Update- Graduation Style

This week, in honor of our recent gathering for Christine's graduation, we decided we'd all dig through the archives and pull out our very own graduation photos.  Some are more vintage than others, ahem.

Here we go (someone tell me if I got the dates wrong):

SARAH 1997:

I spent the last 3 hours going through every photo album and memorabilia box in the basement and had pretty much concluded that there must not be any photographic evidence of my BYU graduation anywhere. But of course in the last box I would have thought to look in, I found a few priceless snapshots. I can't believe how young everyone looks. It's awesome to see Grandpa Z there. I forgot it was at the Provo Tabernacle. In all my searching I also found my old planner which reminded me that John & Stephanie were getting married that same weekend so Scott flew home for the rehearsal dinner and then back for the graduation (which he missed due to delayed flights and an unplanned overnight in Vegas) and then I flew out for the wedding the afternoon after the graduation.

Last week:
1. Supported the boys in their goal to participate in the school-sponsored No TV Week. No TV, movies, computer, video games, iPods - Monday through Friday. I wasn't going to make them do it but the promise of an extra recess motivated them. It was a challenge, but it was really amazing to see the difference it made in our home - more playing together, more talking about their days, earlier to bed, on time to school - how could we live this way forever? It's not practical in our world today to think we could live without computers and the Internet. But I suppose we could implement limits on all of the above, or do our own unplugged weeks from time to time. I was so impressed with their resolve I kicked in an extra $10 incentive mid-week.

2. Recovered from an amazing weekend with all the family visitors and activities. Cleaned up the house, got back to work, ate A LOT of pulled pork leftovers (sadly 6 lbs will still end up in the trash), made a pile of lost & found items (anyone claim the clinique foundation compact in the kitchen?).

3. Started planning details of our upcoming East Coast trip. Plane tickets are in place but need to figure out the New York City days hotels (I'm leaning towards a Central Park location) & activities (got our Statue of Liberty tickets already), and car rentals for the rest of our time.

4. Totally missed the Anthro sale. So sad. Oh well. Guess maxi dresses weren't meant to be for me.


This week:
1. Friday is our first Rooftop Concert. Need to pull it all together and make sure everything is covered. I'm tremendously relieved the weather reports are looking fabulous.

2. Update my blog - need to cover spring break, graduation/oliver's baptism weekend, and various odds & ends. Must update before our trip.

3. Get work project far enough along to be able to do a demo (maybe I'll have to go out to CA soon - it's been a while)

4. More planning of East Coast trip - actually need to pull the trigger on hotels and cars.

ANNEE 1999:

(Three months puffy and pregnant with Henry!  And Sarah is nearly 4 months pregnant with Brenden in the above picture)

Last Week:
-Celebrated Spring Break 2011 for the second time.  This time it was with the kids, and decidedly not with Darin, who is once again fully "Heads Down" wrapping up his semester.
-Took the children to the UNC Planetarium.  I was pretty sure this activity would be a total nerdy bust.  To my utter amazement my kids were way into the "Carolina Night Sky" show.  When it came time for the presenter to ask questions, all four of my kids hands shot up in the air.  They had many sky questions.  Who knew?!
-Sent Jane and Ruby to a day of horse camp.  We thought of Aunt Christine that day.  The girls went with a couple of their friends from school.  They rode horses!  Too bad I didn't stick around to see it.  They want to go back soon.
-Packed up Wednesday night, so that we could depart first thing Thursday morning for Carolina Beach!!  We spent all day Thursday at the beach and hotel pools.  Spent the night at the hotel Thursday night.  Found ourselves back out at the beach by 9am Friday morning, where we stayed until early afternoon.  Then we got hungry.  Found lunch at a cute Beach Shack pancake restaurant, and ended the day at the NC Aquarium.  It was the most delightful spring break trip I have ever taken!

This Week:
-Recover from spring break!  The house is a disaster.  Laundry is everywhere.  I haven't had five minutes to myself in weeks!  (come on, it feels that way to me!)
-I'll be subbing on Thursday and Friday.  I better savor every moment of my quiet Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!
-Finish my quilt.  This is the week.  I just know it is!!!
-Have fun with Darin again.  By Tuesday morning he'll be totally done with this semester.  Everything will be turned in.  I would say we have a few day-time dates worth of celebratory fun coming our way.  He will have a three week break before he takes a summer class.

IE LI 2006:

 Last week:
-Easter Sunday with family in Provo complete with dinner, egg hunt, and family love.
-Monday morning short bike ride with Sarah and kids.
-Monday lunch with Jonathan, Ie Ling, and Ie Ling's boyfriend Blake at Zupas.
-returned to Virginia.
-swimming, T-ball, and preschool.
-finally took down the brass chandelier and replaced it with a paper lantern for the former dining room/present craft room.  Steve did most of the work.
-cleaned up the house only to let it get messy again.
-celebrated Steve's birthday with presents and one of Steve's favorite desserts, strawberry cheesecake.
-bought some gray TOMS for myself.  You were all right.  They are amazingly comfortable and I might have shed a tear or two in Nordstrom as I watched the TOMS video.
-went on a date with Steve.

 This week:

-swimming, preschool, t-ball
-help Steve execute the Elders' Quorum sponsored adult ward social.  Any suggestions for cool, easy, cheap centerpieces?
-a girls' night with friends
-I'm also thinking that I should host a playgroup at my house because it's going to rain a lot this week.
-hang up at least three things on the wall.
-exercise and eat well
-make a decision about doing another Ragnar Relay in September.  The team needs five or six more people.  Anyone interested?
-find a babysitter for the social

STEVE 2007:

RACHEL 2009:

 It's really, really sad to me that my home computer has died and won't turn on (Rachel got her computer back, so I've added this picture!).  I'm sure I can get it repaired, or at least get all my data off of it.  But I haven't been able to use it for the last week.  I thought my graduation photos were on my external hard drive but when I pulled it out to check tonight, they aren't there.  So so frustrating.  The only graduation photo I have is one I put on facebook at the time as a profile picture and the one I've attached.  I really wanted to pull out one of the group photos. Or the jumping photos!!  Ok, I should sleep it off.  

LAST WEEK
--Returned from vacation on Monday night and was glad I only had to make it through a 4 day week!  So sleepy.
--Tuesday - Finally used Macy's giftcard from the wedding to buy fancy sheets.  Just happened to be the first day of the Friends & Family 25% off event (ends Monday) so that was lucky!
--Tuesday - Made one last purchase in the Anthro discount window.  CZ you're right, they did still have the flower bathmat! 
--Got the house back under control post-vacation.  Cleaning, laundry, cleared off bookshelf, reorganized closet, unpacked a random box. 
--Pulled one more all-nighter on Friday night to help Ken finish his last paper for school ever.  34 pages long.  Thank goodness that's done!
--Slept almost all day Saturday, except for when we drove out to Olney, MD to go to the first Cafe Rio in the DC area!!  It tasted great.  They weren't as speedy as the Utah locations, but that will come. 
--Made a homemade pizza on Sunday afternoon as we have done almost every week this year.  (Best dough = whole foods, best sauce = still TBD...) But it is probably the last time we'll be able to do that for the summer.  It's getting too hot! 

THIS WEEK
--I'll be working at a client site out in Chantilly, VA for the next 2 weeks.  A little nervous.  Really need to leave early tomorrow.
--Finalize Mother's Day gift plans and order/mail
--SEE A MOVIE.  (Atlas Shrugged and Jane Eyre - still top of the list)
--Go back to volleyball on Monday night! 
--Cook dinner at least 2 times this week + weekend.  Run at least 4 times this week.  Time to resume these parts of life after the busy season shut down. 
--Possibly head up to PA on Saturday to visit some friends!

CHRISTINE 2011:

Last few weeks (this is a little long since I missed a couple weeks):

- Got locked out of my bedroom, which resulted in borrowing an extra tall ladder from the Wiley's neighbors to use to climb into my unlocked window on the second floor.
- Ran out of gas, luckily in a parking lot, where I was able to safely wait for mom and Brenden, Oliver, and June to come to the rescue.
- Took three finals and completed one final project, all of which resulted in me successfully passing all of my classes so that I could GRADUATE (with the exception of one pesky independent study class that is currently being tackled.)
- Enjoyed a great graduation/Easter weekend with most of my family in town, it really was perfect.
- Went to a Bees game and had a mini BBQ with friends, we try to take advantage of any warm days we have.
- Hiked the Y a few times, it's become a part of my minimal workout regimen.

This week:

- Work at Anthropologie Monday and Tuesday, I'm finally getting some more hours!
- Go riding at least twice and go to yoga three times.
- Make some good progress in my independent study class.
- Apply to take the CPA exam.

I took the children, and went to the beach...

...And this is what I saw

Shades of blue.

The very edge.

Time together.

A blue house.

My boys in the water.

My boys out of the water.

My girls.

Lots of the indoor pool.  It had a hot tub.

Ruby, devine.

Their joy.

His hand...

...In all things.



I seem to have forgotten why we came home.

I went to BYU

My parents have been sending kids to BYU since 1994.  With Christine's graduation last Friday, it represents the end of an era.  This branch of the Zackrison family closes out it's representation at BYU, for now.  We take a little reprieve, and hope to be sending the next generation in a frightening seven years from now!

My mom really wanted us all to put on hats and take this picture.  Here we are pictured making her dreams come true.  

Here was the whole crew, minus my family.  They kindly let me come and have this fun without them. Graduations aren't particularly entertaining for the 11 and under crowd.   

Love any chance I get to spend a few days with my sisters.  It always goes by too fast. 

P.S.  These outfits will be seared in our memories forever.  This was the longest day of my life, and by the end of it, I was ready to burn my black blazer, or at least throw it out the car window.  The day started at the Marriott center at 8am, and ended at the Wileys house somewhere around midnight.

My brother Zack.  He showed up from Boston just three days after running the Boston marathon!  He will also be our next graduate in five weeks, with his MBA from Harvard.  

The Accountants.  Christine's reward for graduating with her master's in accounting is that she gets to join her sibs who work in the Tysons Corner office of Price, Waterhouse, Cooper.  I guess that sounds like a dream come true if you are the geeky accountant type.  

Of course, the best parts of any trip like this are those spend around a dining room table.  Love you guys!

Yep, we made our parents put on the graduation caps and stand with us too.  After all, they were the original BYU grads.  

Just proof that I wore more than one outfit on this trip, and spent more than one day at the Marriott Center.  

And least you think I only had one graduate to congratulate on this trip, I didn't.  I had two.  My newest brother-in-law Ken graduated from BYU Law School as well.  Way to go bro!  Obviously, in light of the jumping picture, I hope you know he's married to Rachel.  I'm not sure if she was more proud of him graduating, or of this most awesome jumping picture ?!

True story.

In my photo library, it tells me that we have only 59 pictures from the entire month of March.  In April (which feels almost over), we are at 44.  25 of those I just imported from Easter.  So, we haven't been commemorating our lives very well or often over the past couple of months.  I guess we're just quietly living it.

Back in early March, a little piece of George's art work was selected to hang in one of our local restaurants.  That required a family field trip to honor his achievement:

Also I guess we're not really carrying our camera around with us that much.  In a pinch the iPhones will do.  But I should remember to bring the real camera along more often.

I thought to bring it when I was lucky enough to chaperon the kindergarten field trip.  There were so many parent volunteers, that I was only assigned two girls to hang out with the whole day:

There were lots of animals, and lots of kindergarten friends to keep us entertained.  But I was mostly distracted by watching my two beauties to care very much about the animals.  When did they get so grown up?!

I did not think to carry my camera with me to the starting line of the Wachovia Tar Heel 10 miler which is an annual running event in Chapel Hill.  It was such a great race to inaugurate my running chapter here in NC with.  It ran us through all of the old downtown neighborhoods.  As a consequence, it was full of hills.  Lame that this is the only photographic evidence that I participated:

Next year I will require more family participation which will surely result in more photos taken.  Next year.  I will also try to run it faster.  I ran under 8 minute miles the whole hilly race, which wasn't bad.  But wouldn't it have been more awesome if those had all been 7:30 minute miles?  Yes, it would have been.  Next year.

Intermixed with the "big" events, we have our weekly baseball schedule.  Our daily crafting...

Ruby's instructions to me one night that she left out on the table for me to finish after she went to bed...

Jane's original design scripture tote bag.  

And of course, I'm frequently found over at my sewing blog MOM.

 Henry zooming through book series, after book series.  I just keep hoping he won't ever tier of reading.   You cannot read as much as he does, and not have it benefit you in some way, shape or form.  Keep it up Henry!!

Of course, a comprehensive March and April update certainly wouldn't be complete without at least a passing mention of the basketball that was consumed by the boys at this house.  These shirts seemed the only suitable option when I was just perusing the BYU bookstore last week.

And so it goes, and so it goes.  It never feels like much, but it's always something.  I'll be back soon with our weekly sister update.  I think it's at my blog again (though it seems unlikely, sisters, that an update will happen this week, seeing how you are all still together in Provo right now)?  A brief summary of my "momcation" to BYU graduation.  And of course, who can resist posting some of the Easter photos?!  Here's a little peek...

Could not resist the squinting at the sun commemorative Easter picture.  Too cute!!

P.S.  I almost forgot, the tornadoes hit about 25 miles away.  For us it was rather a non-event.  But, when driving to the airport I passed the Lowe's home improvement store that was leveled by the force in just moments!  To them, it was rather a huge event:

On the Sidelines...

A shot from the sidelines at baseball game number 2 of 3 for the Chatham County Braves this week:

Our Sportsman

His Cheering Section

At least we cannot complain about the weather this week.

Also, over at MOM I'm dreaming about the next quilt...

I know, update the blog already!

Darin asks me frequently, when he sees me sitting at the computer, "are you updating our blog?"

No, no I haven't been.  I don't know why.  But I have been participating in the weekly sister update, and that's been a hoot and a half.  I love my sisters with a passion.  But we are different and distant, and yet we are so much the same sometimes.  It's so fun to feel us all together in one place, even if only for a moment, even if only once a week, even if only in cyber space.  I dream that someday we will all be in one place frequently, and with ease.  I have no idea if that will ever happen.  If it doesn't, we'll always have the web.

Sarah and Christine do headstands together at yoga class.  Can you say the same thing about your sisters?!

The sister update.  It happens weekly.  It rotates around the blogs, it's at Rachel's this week.  I valiantly contribute.  Check it out every week, around Monday night-ish.  Lots of time, not till Tuesday, but we start emailing requesting updates around Saturday.  That's why my sisters are awesome.

I also contribute on a semi regular basis to the sewing blog Made on Maple, or MOM for short.  I had been entirely too busy and lost to contribute for almost the entire month of March.  But April is like the spring of my sewing seasons.  I feel fresh and new again.  I started substitute teaching my way to a new Bernina sewing machine.  I spoke about that HERE.  I finally bought it last week and that was big news.  I have been sewing ever since, thank goodness.  Most recently with my ladies, and that's a blog post all in and of itself!

The children still haven't had spring break yet!  I guess we haven't had Easter yet either, and our school is really being a tough-guy about linking those two events together.  It means we'll have spring break until May1st, but doesn't it feel like the school year is almost over when it's May1st?!  And indeed it is almost over.  And we've been here in NC for ten months now.  And I really can't explain how it's all gone so fast.  One year ago I was on the trip of a lifetime to China with a group of ladies from Osan.  It almost feels like a lifetime ago.

(Photo of the Great Wall on the day we were there.  Taken by my friend Kathee)

Darin is about to finish the first of three years of his PhD program.  If that doesn't freak him out at all, it kind of scares me!  It seems like we still have such a long way to go, but time doesn't let up.  

Henry is about two months away from graduating from elementary school.  I really can't think about that too much either.  The girls are 6, but it's almost like we all forget that they aren't 5.  The boys are always saying things about how they are 5, and the girls have to correct them that they are 6.  And George is being a valiant Spring baseball player.  Darin takes him to practice twice a week for a couple of hours.  This week he'll have three games!

What's a blog post without a picture?!  I leave you with Ruby helping me with my latest quilting project:

Ruby at home with mom, on her sick day.