Blattman Chronicles

Do you ever get to a point where you just feel stagnant?  Or maybe you feel like being just a little bit of a rebel?  Today was one of those days for me.  I needed a change – I couldn’t take my hair anymore.  My hair was about 4 inches from my waist and was finding itself in a ponytail almost everyday.  And obviously, from my previous sentence; was taking on a life of it’s own.

Anyway, I chopped it and voila this is the final result.  Some of you may be wondering to yourself, “Is that a hint of pink?”  To that question I respond with a resounding, “Yes!”  Just to put the rumors to rest, this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I will be wishing my 20s well next year while attempting to embrace a new decade in my life.  I’ve wanted pink for a long time, but being a teacher for so long repressed that desire.

Annie walking into the kitchen this morning.

Annie: Mom, there is something on your big temple.

Looking at the temple calendar confused I respond.

me: There is nothing on the temple.  That is the San Diego Temple.  There are trees in the front.

Annie: Yes there is. You have a trophy on the top of your temple.

me: No Annie.  That is the angel Moroni.

Annie:  Oh yeah, angel Moroni.

Although I couldn’t help chuckling as Annie asked about Moroni, I feel blessed that she recognizes the temple as something special.  I also got to thinking about her future.  I know she doesn’t understand all the blessing that come from the temple or even why it is so important.  I do know that she tells me she wants to go to the temple.  I hope that as she gets older she keeps that desire to go to the temple so that she may have those blessings that come from it and find the promises given in it’s dedicatory prayer.

“May they find within these walls a refuge from the noise and stress of the world.

In their seasons of trouble, wilt thou here whisper peace and direction. May they come with glad

expectation and leave rejoicing in the spirit found in this dedicated sanctuary.”

I had a, “I totally stink as a parent,” moment as Sea World over the weekend.  I managed to lose Annie.  I thought Will had her, he thought I had her and it was a fairly crowded day.  I took off screaming for her and was close to tears as people stopped me to ask for descriptions to help me find my little girl.  I knew I had about 30 seconds to find her before the search radius increased enough for it to be physically impossible for me to find her.  Of course I lost her by the sharks so she could have wandered into the entrance or exit of the shark exhibit, manitee exit, or off the other 3 sidewalks headed to different ends of the park.  After about a minute of searching, a man yelled for me and I turned to find a large group of people gathered around a woman holding Annie.  My little, sweet Annie red-eyed and sobbing was safe in the arms of a stranger.  I can’t even begin to describe the relief and deep love I felt for her as I held her in my arms again.  Of course waves of inadequacy and guilt left me swimming for quite a bit of the day.  Annie just kept sobbing, “That lady holding me…that lady isn’t my mommy.”  I am glad that she remembered what we had talked about.  That is exactly what I told her to say if someone picked her up and tried to take her.  I’m so grateful for the lady who was kind enough to step in and comfort my daughter when I wasn’t able to.

On a lighter note, we has some friends come visit for the weekend and we had so much fun!  The days were filled mostly with the beach, Sea World and more of the beach.  The evenings had to include Pink Berry, Blokus and Bohnanza (Who wouldn’t love to get money planting stink bean farms?…you’re curious about the game, huh?)  Their cute little kids added some extra fun and Hudson and Annie now keep asking us where we can get a baby like baby Luke.  Hudson wanted to go pick one up after they left this morning.  I told him it doesn’t really work that way, but I did NOT elaborate!  They even still let me hold their baby after the whole Annie incident.

We have started working on the Articles of Faith in our family as part of Family Home Evening. Last Monday Will asked for a volunteer to be in charge of this portion of FHE. Annie waved her hand in the air wildly and started jumping up and down. Will had to let her take charge and this is what we ended up with.  And yes, we are guilty of bribing with M&Ms.

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They seemed to do okay, and not too much got lost in translation.  But, what can you do when your kid has such a thick Eastern accent.

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I should have read the signs. I should have intervened. I should have known that Annie running back and forth across the landing in a swimsuit on a lazy, Sunday afternoon was fishy.  I did holler at Annie a couple of times asking her if she was having fun and of course her response was in the affirmative.  It was Will who finally went upstairs to check on the kiddos.  Flagging me up, he broke up the party.  Hudson and Annie were moments away from stepping into a self made hot tub in Annie’s room.  Toys were scattered around the room and there in the middle stood her pink plastic tub that would, on any other day, hold her toys.   The final measure of water in the tub was 2-3ish gallons.  The final measure of water on the bathroom floor was inconclusive, but is now cleaned up.  I’m not quite sure what kind of life my kids think they deserve with a personal hot tub in the bedroom.  Perhaps they didn’t get the memo that my modeling career completely flopped and Will’s amazing rap album just isn’t quite going to go platinum.

As I retell this story, I can’t help but notice it has a familiar ring.  It has something to do with the cute little boy I pictured in this post.  I once heard about something to do with spray painting basement windows and feeding a garden hose into the basement for a swimming pool of the indoor variety.  You’ll have to ask Will about that one, better yet his mom or dad.