Soccer Mom

As you may have been able to tell from previous posts.... I took a trip to Utah these last few weeks. The trip was financed by a family in my parents ward. I used to babysit these kids when I was in middle school and high school. They flew me and the kids home so that I could stay with their kids while they went to Costa Rica. They live two doors down from my parents so I was able to spend a lot of time with my family as well.

The kids were ages 8-17. So this was my chance to see what it is like to be a soccer mom. I took them to piano lessons, made sure they did their chores, made lunches for school, cooked and cleaned, and waiting up for the oldest one to get home from social events. It is a compliment to this family that I think I will enjoy being a soccer mom. I liked the busyness of it. I was busy all the time.... in a good way. I liked that I could delegate a little more. Each night as I was making dinner I asked who'd watch Andrew and usually all three of the younger ones would volunteer. They played together, entertained each other and often my kids as well. I didn't even mind driving a minivan. Of course, another day that week, I was so overwhelmed because I needed to pick up 2 kids at the same time, hadn't started dinner yet even though the oldest needed to go to work in 1/2 hour and Lizzy and Andrew were both throwing a tantrum about something. When Aaron called that night... I said... nevermind, maybe I don't love this. Really though it was great and these are great kids. It made me feel old because I became that adult who just insisted on telling these guys how cute they were when they were little. The oldest was about 2 or 3 when I started watching him. He probably was rolling his eyes while I told him about funny things he used to do. He went to the sweetheart dance and when I asked him who his date was, I smiled and laughed because... I used to babysit her too. The other thing that is kind of funny is that I think I am a curse to the family. I did this for them once before about 3 years ago. They have an older son who is now on a mission. At the time he had just barely turned 16 and gotten his drivers license. While I was the primary caregiver, he crashed his car. I of course didn't know what to do. It all worked out, but the funny thing is that the oldest one this time also crashed his car. I was actually at the airport picking up his parents, so technically I wasn't really in charge anymore, but funny that the only 2 crashes they've ever had were while I was babysitting.

Overall, I look forward to my life in maybe 15 years. Hopefully I will have kids as good and responsible as these kids. Thanks for the adventure.