April

Wow! I cannot believe that April is in less than two hours! Where has this year gone?!?!!? April should be fun. . .a different fun than March. . .we are pretty much staying put for the month and I am glad for that (however, if you told me I would have to go back to El Nido again, I wouldn't be too sad). So, here is what our (Braner Party of 7's) month looks like in a nutshell:


I have a lot of fun things to look forward to!

My parents come this weekend and I couldn't be more excited! I miss them so much and I am so glad that they'll be here with us! They rented a house (ski in/ski out--or board in/board out) up at the mountain, so we'll be snowboarding bums all weekend! I just can't wait to be with them! This is the best and worst part of the move. It really makes me sad that we don't live next door anymore, but I really love our long weekends when we have them all to ourselves!!!

Another WONDERFUL thing is that Andy is finally coming home!!! He has been gone since March 3rd. Yes, we have been together some of the time, but these last two weeks have been torture (fun Skype dates, but I would rather him be here in person)! He'll be home Saturday night!!!

Leadership weekend for Camp Kivu will be after Easter.

Then the DREADED triathlon will be here before I know it--just kill me now! I think I'm the only person on this planet who is disappointed when she doesn't break her ankle after a big snowboarding fall. . .it isn't too late. . .maybe this weekend! :) The good thing about the triathlon (besides it being OVER) is that my friend, Jenny Freyman is flying in to "run" it "with" me. She'll finish the whole race while I'm still in the pool, but I am SO excited to see her! It has been too long!

April is also the month of dreaded "previews of change and growing up." This part may be worse than the triathlon!!! We have open house for Middle School for Hays. YUCK. Where did my first baby go?!?!? Then we have open house for Kindergarten for Dax. YUCK! YUCK! Who is taking my baby from me!??!?! I may be a basket case for most of the month (gifts welcome)!!!

And Gabby's birthday will finish off the month. My littlest will be three! When did that happen?!?!?

So there is April for me.

This is the last month before the insanity-filled life of chaos begins in May and lasts for fifteen weeks--camp! I love camp, but I am going to milk this month of normalcy (whatever that is) for all it is worth!!!

Happy April and may you not fall for any April Fool's gags!

P.S. Naomi Muselman, if you are reading this: you crack me up and I really like you! I'm glad I got to know you in the Philippines and I hope that we get to spend more time together in the future! You made my day today!

Technology for Moms

There are so many amazing inventions in our worlds. The Internet and email and fax machines blow me away! (I realize that the fax machine is very outdated, but it still blows me away.) Going to the moon and airplanes in general boggle my mind! So, I'm thinking, why can't someone invent something that every mom would relish? What am I talking about? The luxury loo. I want someone to invent a special toilet room for moms to have in their homes. It would be painted a relaxing shade of blue or green or somewhere in between. There would be a waterfall and relaxing music. It would be two minutes of sheer spa bliss. This special bathroom would silently transport you far far away from toddlers who want to sit on your lap when you're doing your business and from tweens with silly homework questions that could wait a few minutes. It would take you away from five year olds wanting a snack and eight year olds wanting their hair braided. The luxury loo would give moms just a few minutes every day to have THEIR OWN time when their own time is most coveted! And then with the flush of every toilet a beautiful spring lilac scent would fill her senses before she returned to the world where everyone needed a piece of her. There is my day dream for today!

Best Blender Ever!!!

Okay, this blender is amazing! I realize that this blog post could have been found in some 1950s home-making magazine, but I really love my new blender! I just made smoothies for five children in less than five seconds with ZERO big chunks of ice. And then I decided to make a small serving of guacamole for my snack and that took all of about four seconds. I love it! I recommend that you all put your old blender in your garage sales this spring and head to Sam's (or wherever) and get yourself the Ninja Master Prep! You will not be disappointed!

Spring Boarding

We headed up to the mountain yesterday and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! The snow was great and the sun was bright! The day couldn't have been more perfect!

More Pics From El Nido

Okay, so here are a few more pictures that other people took while we were in the Philippines. I thought I'd share them with you all! (That is a jelly fish I am holding in the third picture.)

My Heroes

Okay, this is Gabby, Tiki, Dax and Dax's friend, Jude playing inside on this snowy day. Hysterical that they are all being superheroes and playing so well together!





On another note, I thought of some stories from our trip to put on "paper."

Tiki went through a three day spell where he was talking about his "parents in Africa." It was so strange. Some of the stories were believable and many were TALL tales. So, I'm not sure what of the stories I can hold on to as fact (I know that I can NOT hold on to the story where Tiki met a moose who spoke English and whose name was Dax), but the stories flowed for three days. It was weird how jealous I got of the "other" mother. Weird. That is NOT the reaction I would have guessed that I would have had (I guess it proves that I'm a selfish human). If any of the stories were true, then it makes me think that he may be older than they say he is. Who knows. I hope that as his English improves, I can pursue these stories further and see what he does remember. I sort of think that all of the traveling mixed with the airlines and customs officials using his "other" name made him a bit nervous and insecure and so he may have felt like he needed to talk about his "other" life and make up stories. Its a mystery.

Dax. . .this story is probably not as funny in a blog as it was in person, but it is worth telling, if for no other reason, then I can laugh about it in years to come. So, our over the water hut we stayed in at El Nido had a loft with spiral stairs. Andy and Gabby and I slept downstairs and the other four kids slept upstairs. Well, one night I hear water leaking--a lot of water leaking--I was so tired and I couldn't really figure out what was happening. I didn't know if it was storming outside and the roof was leaking or if the toilet was overflowing. . .I was in this weird jet-lag induced haze and my mind was not putting everything together at all. Well, I started up the stairs and realized that Dax is sleep-peeing. He is standing at the top of the stairs (thinking it is the toilet) and he is doing his business. . .all over the stairs, the floor, the desk under the stairs--everywhere! It was so funny. . .he had NO idea that he had done it either.

Hays & Maggie worked so hard while we were in the Philippines. Hays helped build houses. He built a porch and painted homes. Everyone says that he was such a hard worker. I am so proud of him! Maggie got to work in a medical (dental) clinic and she got to play with the town children. They both really enjoyed the mission work! I am so proud of them!

And Gabby was a resort hit. I think every single honeymooning couple at the resort has at least ten pictures of and with Gabby. Strange. I cannot imagine taking pictures of someone else's child, but they will go home with tons of pictures of my daughter. Hummmm....

**********

Today the schools were in lock down because apparently some elementary (yes, I said elementary) student had "weapons" on one of the buses. It was a student headed to a different elementary school (there are 5 elementaries in the Durango school district), but they put the entire district on lock down. This is the second lock down they have had this year. The first was for a huge bomb threat that threatened all big public places in Durango and at the college. The kids have also been evacuated for potential structural damage due to snow load and they were evacuated for a gas leak. Crazy things happening! But I love it here!!! :)

Andy and I have been having great phone dates (via Skype) every night. It has been really fun! I wait up until ten (seven in the morning for him) and we chat. It is nice to have that to look forward to while he is in the Middle East. He is really enjoying his time there! He went "sliding" yesterday. . .you drive to the top of these huge sand dunes and point your car down the dune and then turn it off and slide down. He had a blast!

Well, that is more than enough for now. . .this post just started as pictures of my superheroes. Oh well.

T Minus 23 Days Until Tri The Rim

Okay, so the triathlon is in 23 days and I am so out of shape! I did absolutely NOTHING for the three weeks I was gone and my body is feeling it. . .I am SO dealtitudeified (nice word I made up meaning not used to breathing in the altitude). YIKES! I swam today and it wasn't too bad. . .however it is the biking and running that I am PETRIFIED of. . .PETRIFIED!!! Training is back on, though. . .we'll see!!!

Colorado Plates & New Bedding

Well, I got my Colorado license plates! I am now about as local as I can be. . .I've got the plates, the license, the address, the ski pass and the bills coming to my home to prove it! The plates on Andy's car expire next month, so soon we will both be total and complete residents!

I also had a minor (major?) splurge today. I decorated my house for spring yesterday and jut got in the mood to freshen some things up. I went to Home Depot (with the brood) and bought new plants. I went to Pier One and bought some new throw pillows for my living room couch to spring up my furniture. And then I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought new bedding! My bed doesn't quite look like the picture (maybe if I would have ironed my duvet cover first), but it is fresh and springy! I'm just going to blame the splurge on missing my husband!


The entire family overslept this morning and all five kids were out cold. I forgot to set my alarm and the jet lag took us well past the school start time! Oops! And of all days, the kids were doing Colorado State testing this morning. Needless to say, the school wasn't very happy that we were nearly two hours tardy!

P.S. I'm going to have to give a shout out to my hubby for blogging so sweetly about me today! (I guess indirectly, I am giving myself a shout out. Oh well.) www.andybraner.com

What a Whirlwind!!!

Oh my goodness...what an amazingly wonderful 18 days we have had!

Hawaii with Andy was just what the doctor ordered! I loved my time with him and no one else! I also enjoyed my alone time while he was speaking at the convention! The weather was beautiful and the time with my hubby was much needed (and overdue)! Unfortunately, I have ZERO pictures from our time. I can't believe it. Oh well.

Tulsa was great. It was fun for everything to be so new for Tiki. The kids were wonderful on the drive. We loved our time with BeBe and PaPa. . .although it was much too short!

SWING JUMPING:





Branson was great! It was weird being a guest in my parents' home for the first time ever. It was weird being the "visitor" to the town that was my home for 35 years. Seeing my Gran'ma and my parents was the best ever! Being the guest definitely has its perks. . .undivided attention for four days! My parents didn't even go to work!!! It was wonderful! One night we had all of our friends over. Tiki loved meeting everyone! It was tough on the kids to see all of their friends for just a couple of hours and then know that we were leaving, but the time was good! I'd give it a perfect TEN!












LA was a blur. We had so much fun spending the day with Uncle Brady! Literally, I think all of my kids think he is the greatest thing since the Wii! They fought over who could hold his hand and there were real tears shed by Gabby when her turn was over! He took us to Downtown Disney and to lunch and then we got to hang out at his apartment. Jen was in Disney training all day, but I got to hug her neck for a quick second before we headed to the airport!




The Philippines was indescribable! It was beautiful and fun and relaxing and the best trip ever! I loved having the Kivu people with us! It was so much fun to share a place I love so much with our extended Kivu family! I loved spending time with the campers and their parents! I'm already counting down the days until next year! (More El Nido pictures on Facebook. . . if you're a camper looking for photos with you in it!)



















That is the quick recap of our March so far. Enjoy the pictures! And please pray for Andy. He is in the Middle East for the next two weeks and he is still in a ton of pain from his fall off of the roof!

Ice Dam & A Leaky Roof

Well, apparently our roof shoveling adventures weren't quite enough in January. We got an ice dam. . . . ? So, Andy had the wonderful opportunity to spend seven hours this weekend with a pick axe up on our roof. . .problem solved!

He did, however, fall off the roof while I was at the spa. Not good. I had the kids all playing their PSP's and Nintendo DS's in my room (under where he was de-icing) so that they could call 911 just in case, but they didn't quite hear the big fall. Thankfully, he is fairly okay--just a bit sore! Thanks, Andy!