A Sister or a Mother? What shall it be?

Over the years, I have gotten used to being thought of as younger than I am. When I was 16, many people thought I was 12 and one person actually asked to see my driver's license for proof. (This was VERY insulting for a 16 year old.... Let me tell you!!) When I was 21 I was commonly asked if Brindi and I were twins....she was 13!!! Does that mean I only aged 1 year over those 5 years??? During those years, I very much bemoaned the fact that I looked young for my age. Even later, it was still not too pleasant.

One time when I was 25 and I had a two year old (Levi), my mom came to visit. We, all three (mom, me and Levi) went shopping. At one store, a lady came up and started talking to my mom about how cute Levi was and then asked her how it was to have her kids spaced so far apart. My mom said "oh, this is my grandson". The woman then paused and looked at me... hesitated and finally asked "How old are you?". I told her I was 25, and she looked relieved (I can just see her trying to avoid a young teen pregnancy conversation) "oh!" she said happily "I thought that you were 15!" My mom and I still laugh at that! She looks young for her age too... I guess that is where I got it from. At this same time, I got called to be a Young Women's advisor at church, and when I went into the room, got asked by the stake YW leader if I was a Mia Maid new to the ward --not even a Laurel-- a MIA MAID!! How's that for crazy!!?

Over the years I have been asked multiple times if I was a nanny (at the park), had door-to-door sales men ask me if my mom was home at least a dozen times, been talked to in the "sweet" voice countless times (you know the voice I mean, the one adults talk to kids in!) and, in general, had to state my age more times than I would like.

What I REALLY looked like at 15:

On Monday, it happened again. Levi had a drama camp that he is attending this week (M-F, 9-3) and I took him into the camp that morning. One of the camp instructors (in her very young 20's) came up to me and asked what Levi's name was, to check him in. Then she wanted to know who would be picking him up, and I said that I would be. She then said "And you are his big sister?" I laughed and said "No, I am his mom. But bless you for thinking that!!" Here this girl is, a decade younger than I am, and she thinks that I am half a decade younger than her! Well, that made my day. Because, you see, now I appreciate looking younger than I am, it no longer is a burden I have to bear, it is a treat to be savored and revelled in!!

Me, at the age when I did have a 10 year old sibling,
and then at the age I had a 10 year old son:

I can see the difference! It is HUGE! I am a little more,... ahem.. filled out now, with a few more wrinkles. But maybe being "filled out" makes me look younger??? Who knows.
(can you believe I found a recent photo with me posing the exact same way??? crazy huh!-This was a week before I cut my hair off)

Levi and I, both at age 10.

The supposed siblings:

Wait.....here's a better picture:
Oh! Now I get it....
It doesn't have to do with looks.... it has to do with maturity level!!

Saturday is a special day......

It's the day we get ready for Sunday!!
This past Saturday, while Joe was recuperating from Friday night's trauma, I decided to take all the boys to the mall to shop for Sunday clothes. I used to subscribe to the "stay in your Sunday clothes all Sunday" way of doing things, until I realized that we were burning through church pants like there was no tomorrow. The final straw came when, after just buying Levi a new pair of Church pants, they got a hole in the knee on the first day he wore them. Church pants just aren't like jeans, they can't take the abuse. That was the day I decided little boys don't belong in church clothes longer than the 3 hours it takes to get through church.

Even still, Sunday clothes seem to have a rather short life with little boys. Unfortunately, they aren't easy to find, and aren't really cheap. I usually find myself putting off buying them until it is almost too late. A week ago, when the boys got ready for church I was appalled at the selection of church clothes the boys had on. Levi had on a pair of pants that were above his ankles (he recently had a large growth spurt) and a shirt that didn't reach his wrists. Calder was wearing a pair of pants that had a small hole in the knee (must have just happened the week before) and a shirt that had an obvious "gum" spot marring a pocket (did he put chewed gum in his pocket???). Ansel was okay, except for the belt that was held together by duct tape, and the thread bare condition of one knee (sure to become a hole that day). The two older boys were wearing shoes at least a size to small, and Ansel had on shoes at least 2 sizes too big! How did it get this bad????!! (Kaelan was the only one decently dressed.)

And so we come back to this most recently passed Saturday. Joe pretty much had a date with his bed (minus the two hours that he went to the priesthood leadership session of Stake Conference), and so the boys and I took off on our shopping trip. Now you ladies with little girls, I am sure shopping is a delight, but with little boys it is usually little short of a nightmare. The only reason I took them was because they really needed to try on the clothes to get the proper fit. The sizes are usually way off from regular clothes. To make it through such an ordeal, we usually have a "reward" for good behavior in the form of a treat at the food court at the end of the trip. (a little motivation goes a LONG way) We need a goal to work towards.

The boys were actually really good, considering.... It did get a little harried in the dressing room, with boys dancing and jumping off the bench and Kaelan frequently escaping from underneath the door as soon as my arms were occupied with one of the other boys. I had to remind Levi at least 5 times to put his clothes back on, or to try on another shirt/pants. Ansel kept trying to "help" with Kaelan, which usually resulted in much squealing and hitting by Kaelan. He just doesn't appreciate "help". Calder kept wanting to rip off the tags that were "irritating" his skin, not understanding why we had to try them on with the tags still on. Mom had to keep making deep calming breaths.

We were done and out of there in pretty short order (besides having to wait in an extremely LONG checkout line! UGHH that was the worst part!!) Fortunately we had a great girl ring up our stuff, she saved me over $100 by ringing it up in small groups so that I could get multiple $15 off purchases over all. That is what I call great service!!

There is no browsing or window shopping with boys. It is ALL business, quick decisions, and no nonsense. Shopping is NOT recreation it is a JOB. The quicker you are the more chance of keeping your temper. That is how you gage success for your shopping trip with boys. In the end we wound up with new shirts, pants, belts, ties, socks and shoes for each boy (minus KK). The whole shebang. The stroller was really bogged down with bags as we made our way to Annie's Pretzels for the good behavior reward. (KK really wanted out of the stroller, but he had to stay in, he was the counter balance weight for all those bags!!) The boys excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel. (They enjoy shopping about as much as mom does with them)

As we finally left the mall, I had 4 happy boys, full of pretzels and cheese, who said they had a good time and were happy to be with me. It's the simple things in life that make it great.

Levi, strollering KK and the "goods" to the car:

The boys posing...all ready to load up the car and head home for pizza!

Here they are all fancy shmancy and ready for church:

Cool Cat, Levi:

Stylin' Calder:

Dapper Ansel:

Poor Molested KK:
(No more touchy Ansel!)

The overall experience:
Two thumbs up!

Now, they are ready for Church!!

Can I have my Blood back please???

I wonder why, back in the day, they ever thought that "bleeding" an illness out of a person was the right way to go. Bad blood, you know.... I mean who ever came up with that idea anyway??? Isn't blood going out of the body always a bad thing??

Joe would agree that it is a very bad thing. Especially for him. Guilt got the better of him this week, after constant hounding from the "Bloodies", he decided that he would give blood at an American Red Cross blood drive, at a "New Life" church in West Linn. (appropriate name don't you think?)
His appointment was scheduled for 3pm, so things started out great.......He got to leave work early, he was doing something good for the community, it was a nice day, and he was going to watch a little March Madness tonight. He called me on the way, to let me know he was nearly there and would be home soon.

At about 4:30pm I started to wonder where he was. It can't take that long, can it? At 4:38pm I get a call from an unknown number. The woman on the other end of the telephone says "Is this Cami Severson?" I answer "Yes". "This is Bao from the American Red Cross, your husband Joseph has donated blood today.." At this point my heart starts racing. What is going on???? Why is this woman calling and not Joe? "He has passed out and had a seizure, will you please come down here, he will not be able to drive himself home" I tell her I will be right there, grab Kaelan, tell Levi that he is in charge of the older boys for a few minutes (while I pick up Joe) and head out the door.

I arrive at the church to find Joe laying on a modified dark green "pool" lounge chair.

Like this one:Only imagine the legs about 3 and a half feet high. It was a crazy contraption.

He was flat on his back, with his hand raised holding a brown paper bag over his nose and mouth. He was as white as a ghost. It didn't take long to realize that we weren't just going to hop into the car and go home. Incidentally, Kaelan, who as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, spotted Joe's truck exclaimed "Daddy!! vroom vroom" and as soon as we were in the place, and he saw Joe, he practically jumped out of my arms onto Joe. Not a great idea at the moment.

Joe was so happy to see us. I know that feeling. When you are in a strange place (as he put it: some weird creepy church) feeling awful, surrounded by people you don't know, it feels really great to see someone you love walk in. He told me he almost lost it when he saw me. It felt like such a relief to have me there. Poor guy.....

Apparently, they had just finished up filling up one of these beauties:when he started to feel light headed.
He thought to himself "Good thing that they are done, I was starting to feel a little light headed" And that was the last thing that he remembered. He woke to find 5 nurses surrounding him. The first thing they did (according to Joe's memory) was open a packet of sugar and pour it in his mouth. He remembers, quite vividly, trying to make it go down without choking on it. Weird treatment, wouldn't you say??


Apparently it is common enough that they have their own name brand sugar packets:

The nurse that had drawn his blood, was a nervous sort. When I asked her if he had passed out, her response was a nervous titter, followed by "He might have". She acted like she was going to get in trouble. I asked again "Did he or didn't he pass out" "Yes" she said, he did. Then she finally let me know the whole story.

What had happened, while he was out, was that he started to convulse. Pretty quickly it turned into a full body seizure and they needed 5 nurses to hold him down so that he wouldn't fall of the raised lounge chair. Apparently it went on for over a minute. She said that it wasn't unheard of, to have this reaction to giving blood, but it was very rare.

So, the plan was to take him home as soon as he was feeling well enough to sit up. We waited..... and waited......and waited for him to start feeling well enough to go home. When I had first arrived he had already been waiting an hour to feel better. We waited another full hour on top of that, before the nurses conferred and decided that he needed to go to the hospital. They were worried that he was too dehydrated to replenish his fluids on his own. They wanted to call an ambulance to get to the hospital, but Joe sighed "Can't you just give me my blood back please????" Everyone laughed at that. He sighed, "Alright, but, Cami, can't you just take me?" I looked at him and said "You are crazy! It costs us $5 for an ambulance ride and they will get you right in and taken care of immediately. If I drive you over there, you will be waiting for hours and passing out in the ER waiting room! Besides, you can't even sit up....how are you going to walk out to the car or into the ER??" Finally he conceded to that logic and the nurse called the paramedics.

It only took 3 or 4 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. In walk six 20-something men with crew cuts and uniforms, all looking like they just came in from a gym. I was so surprised how alike they all looked, I don't mean their faces or coloring, there was a black man, a Hispanic man, and 4 white men. But even still, they all looked cut from the same mold. It was weird! They were really professional, and in no time had him in the back of the ambulance and on the way to the hospital. In the meantime, I ran home, called a neighbor to come over and watch the kids, and left for the hospital.

So much for March Madness for Joe, and Levi's No-Camp Camping trip with the Webelos, our Friday night would be spent in the ER. Wahooo.

By the time they let me back there with Joe, he was already feeling so much better. They had given him a full bolus of IV fluids, and that made a huge difference. He had about every wire imaginable hooked to him (except a catheter....for which he was very grateful!!). He could not move. Little sticky nodules where attached to him all over his torso and legs with wires attached to all of them, he had a blood pressure cuff on one arm, an IV in the other, an O2 sensor on one finger and band aids on two others (from blood sugar tests).

Then.....he had to go! That darn IV and its fluids.... Now what??? I went and got the nurse and asked if he could get up to go to the bathroom. The answer was NO. What??? Then how.... wait, maybe we don't want to know.

She goes over to the cupboard and pulls out one of these lovelies:Joe just starts laughing when he sees it. NO way, he says.... well at least it's better than a catheter. "To think," he laments "this morning I was invincible, and now I am an invalid" He eyes the cardboard container doubtfully.... "Won't that leak through?" "Eventually" The nurse says. Great, that sounds....great. Why cardboard? Well, because its the "green" road to disposing of human waste. They even have a special machine that "takes care" of the unmentionables. Go Portland and the green movement!! "So, do you compost here, on site too??" Joe jokes. The nurse shuddered at the thought of that, while laughing heartily. "I have seen plenty of nasty things in my time here, but that is something I hope to NEVER see" she says. Fun times..... I won't even mention how this was all accomplished in the end... and I am sure Joe thanks me for that!

Joe was being tortured by the mere fact that he is in the hospital. Every time the doctor asks him a question, Joe responds with "Will my answer make me have to stay longer??", "I am fine" or "Maybe, just a little - but not bad enough to stay" The doctor can't resist smiling at Joe's antics, but assures him that he won't be in here forever.
Eventually all of the tests come back and everything has stabilized and is registering normal, with one exception. He had a white blood cell count of over 14,000. They diagnose this as "non-specific" because he has no symptoms of illness. So.... the reason for all of this hullabaloo? Well, he was dehydrated, stressed, has a naturally low pulse rate, and apparently is fighting a "non-specific" disease. I guess "little" things really add up as soon as they take a little blood out of you.

After this experience, I can definitely see the benefit of "bleeding" out an illness.... it definitely makes you stronger..... Joe was much better after they bled him a little. (notice the use of strong sarcasm here) I am sure glad we have come a long way since those days!!

And as the above cartoon says "I'm using all mine!" Joe really was.

So, everyone -but Joe, do as the Red Cross says:
"Get involved and save a life".....the life you save may be your own.

An update on Calder's Science Fair experience

It is really great when you get to be surprised by seeing/reading something, done by your child, (all on his own), without your knowledge. It is a little gold nugget for the day. Something that makes you feel proud to be their parent.

Today, the Willamette World Newsletter (the primary school's newspaper), came home with a section on the District Science Fair participants. There were 10 from our school, Calder was the youngest student to attend. In this section were quotes from 5 of the students who participated. Right at the top was the statement made by Calder.

Here is his statement:

Calder Severson (1st grade): From doing my project I learned if you’re looking at a tree the leaves look green. Really they’re every other color except green. The color they can’t absorb bounces back to our eyes, so we see it. I liked the science fair because I got to see other projects like a cardboard that had a hand control with a magnet on the bottom to drive the car around on a track.

It was the longest, most well thought out statement of the bunch. So funny to see a huge paragraph said by a 1st grader, when a 4th grader statement was:
"I got to hold a turtle and a snake from OMSI. There was a bunch of stuff to look at and hold."

I asked him "Did you really say 'absorb'?" He looked at me funny and said "yes" like I was asking him if water was wet.

I was so amazed that he understood that whole concept enough to explain it to someone else. That portion of color theory is something taught in high school and college, and here is my little first grader explaining it to the school journalist. This was something that I had explained to him while we were doing his project, but I didn't expect it to stick or be "absorbed" to that extent!!

Good job, Calder! You ROCK!!!!

Correcting the Teacher....

What do you do when your child corrects the teacher?

We recently attended Levi and Calder's parent teacher conferences at the school. They were filled with the usual praise and encouragement that accompanies such events. But, one of the more memorable things that happened had to do with Levi's big fractions/decimals test that the teacher used as a sample of Levi's work. He used it because Levi got a perfect score on the test, but -as the teacher thought- had missed all of the extra credit. He was trying to point out that Levi should try harder at the extra-credit and challenging himself, since the other work was so easy for him.

Levi, in a very polite, deferring tone said "Mr. Anderson, I don't understand why you marked these wrong.....see here: 3 diamonds does equal .45 and a pearl is .55....so the answer should be 1.00. Why is it wrong then? It's the same with the other ones"

Mr. Anderson flipped the paper around and looked closely at all 7 extra credit and then said "oh, how did I miss that?! Yes, you are right, they are all correct!"

Levi smiled broadly, a light going on in his head .......teachers don't know everything. I can see it now, this is just the beginning..... We now have years ahead of us, with Levi correcting the teacher.

Calder and the District Science Fair

Calder got a special invitation to attend the District Science Fair this year, because they loved his project so much. He was really excited to be singled out. We even had the gifted counselor calling our house to make sure that he would be attending.

His project was on Color and how it functions in our world.

He learned about primary, secondary and complimentary colors, which colors absorb heat better and tricks that colors can play on our eyes. We had a lot of fun with his project and he won an award for it. This is so good for Calder, who needs a healthy dose of confidence injected into him.

His project:

At the district science fair there were projects from all ages up to high school seniors. OMSI was in attendance and they had all sorts of robots you could manipulate/drive, puzzles, scientific discovery zones, and animal/nature areas. It was huge! He got a bunch of gift certificates for free ice cream from Cold stone and pizza from Howie's, free movies etc. He was very excited about that.
Just he and I went. It was so nice to just spend some one on one time with him. I let him lead, at one point he started holding back and I told him that I would follow where ever he went and to just go explore. I would be right there with him. That was all he needed. He took off, exploring the whole fair. It was so fun to see him experience this and feel proud of his accomplishments. We even peaked at people looking at his experiment, and he grinned ear to ear, when he heard someone say "WOW, this is an awesome project. How cool." The gifted counselor came up when we were at his display and told him how much she loved his project and how glad she was that he came. He smiled shyly and whispered "Thanks". Calder doesn't like to show much emotion, so this was almost like strutting for him. He was so pleased! It made me so happy.

Calder looking at a crawdad exhibit:
He really liked these because they are studying lobsters right now, and crawdads look like lobsters!


He was even brave enough to hold a corn snake.

I think that probably his favorite part was driving the huge robot around. He was so intense the whole time, manipulating the gears and figuring what everything did.
Great time! Good experience for Calder! So glad we went.


Just as a side note. Levi's project was really neat too. He studied crystals and we grew several varieties at home. We have a computer microscope and so were able to examine his crystals up close. Here are two photos we took of his crystals up close:

Alum crystal:

Epsom Crystal:
Science! So cool and so much fun!

For the Love of Peanut Butter Cookies

(Levi got negative publicity a few posts back, so I figured I had better make up for it with a more positive Levi post today.)

Yesterday, was a crazy busy day. I spent three hours at the doctor's office because Ansel's pneumonia had come back with a vengeance, and he was really struggling to breathe. Kaelan was a real little stinker the entire time, running around, kicking things, screaming and hitting Ansel. (It was exhausting!!) He was really tired and getting two new teeth, so I guess I won't be too hard on him. This was on top of all the other regular day-to-day stuff going on, piano, homework, reading lessons, art lessons, and taking care of a sick boy. I also was bringing dinner to a new mommy in the ward that night so there was a bunch of prep for that going on as well. At about 4:30pm I started to get panicked that I wasn't going to be able to get it all done before it was time to take the meal over to Juliette. I had really wanted to make peanut butter cookies to go along with the meal, but now it was looking like it wasn't going to happen. Then, I had an idea. Levi LOVES peanut butter cookies, they aren't too difficult to make, maybe he could make them for me!

When I presented this option to Levi he jumped at the chance, he was SO excited. This was the first time ever, he was going to make something complicated (from start to finish) all by himself. He was up for the challenge. I gave him the recipe book and said "You need to double the recipe, so you will be using your math skills, Go for it!". He immediately took off, finding ingredients, getting the measuring cups/spoons and figuring out what the correct amount would be for each ingredient. It was so fun to watch him work. Boy, did the kitchen get messy though! Flour, sugar, baking powder all over the floor and countertop. He kept apologizing for the mess. It just made me smile!

There was only one near catastrophe. Fortunately I caught it before it had gone too far. He had accidently read 1 cup instead of 1 teaspoon of Baking powder and had dumped 1/2 cup (so far) of it into the bowl and then said "mom I don't think that there will be enough baking powder". That perked my ears up in a hurry! We were able to get it all back out (except the necessary 1 tsp) and continue on with no damage done! I was so glad he had so neatly dumped it into the mix. It was in a perfect pile, easy to remove, for the most part.

The cookie dough done, he started making balls, rolling them in sugar, and using a fork to make the crisscross marks in the dough. He even put them in the oven and got them out! What a super chef!! When the first batch came out, he had another ready to put in. Levi was the first to taste his handiwork, and a big smile crept over his face. "They are delicious mom!!" he exclaimed. Ahhh..... the satisfaction of a job well done. ( They were good! I ate a couple myself!) When I took the dinner over, I made sure to tell them that my 10 year old made the cookies for them!

Here is Levi, in the process of making his cookies (well at least the last part.... I was too busy during the actual making part, these pictures are taken after I got home from delivering the dinner):

Levi rolling balls out of the dough:



Serious about his work:

What a sweet boy!



Sample of sugared dough balls:

Probably his favorite part, making the cross hatches:

The finished product!
Aren't they beautiful???
Hip hip Hooray for Peanut Butter Cookies!
Great Job, Levi!
I love you!

They Came!!!!!!

"They Came!! The Leprechauns came!!!"

That is what I heard as I came in the house from a long day of shopping/errand running. Ansel, who was the first to enter, was running around the house, in great jovial leaps, surveying the damage left by those little mischievous leprechauns! There were little green footprints and handprints all over the floors and the doors/cabinets, not to mention the gold coins littering the floor and around the traps! But, alas, No Leprechauns got caught in our tricky traps!

Hand prints on the front door:

Hand prints on the light switches:

This is Ansel's trap that he set up in the Entry Hall,
the Leprechaun has tripped it:
Do you see the footprint on the knife?
They even left a note

The stool the boys left to help the Leprechaun get up to the trap:

The Sprung trap:
The Leprechauns graffitied it
(do you see the "Nice try!"?)

A close up of the top of the trap:

Some of the gold coins even had hand prints on them:

The boys, inspecting the Leprechaun's handiwork:

Collecting coins:

Counting and eating their "booty"

All together, all in green:

My four little Irish boys:

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What a glorious day!
I hope everybody's St. Patrick's Day was as lucky as ours!!