Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Please write back........

So tonight when Nate got home from work, Hailey proceeds to tell us about a boy in her class that drew a "U" with a line through it on the board in class.  So she then wrote "BYU Stinks" with smelly squiggly lines around it to get him back.  Nate then joins the conversation and starts to tell her the stats on both teams.  This was getting him all worked up as if he was talking to the poor boy himself! He informs her that BYU is 1 and 4, and that the U of U is undefeated.  Well I guess this got her all excited because when I went to tuck her in tonight, I found a little folded up note that says, (and this is exact wording too)
"To: Tyler
this is poisoness
(Just kiddin)

Dear Tyler,
I know this is weird but Hows Byu doing?  Well if you said good your wrong!  Byu has been defeated 4 times in a row but Utes are undifeated and are in the top ten rankings.  And Byu is so low there not even on the rankings when I checked my fantasy football account so in your face!  I know you've probably got your mouth wide open saying thats not true but my dad told me that so "HA"!
Sincerly, ?
Write back

This is our 10 year little girl for crying out loud!  Girl!  Is this what we pictured our sweet, darling, dancing, dressy, sassy 10 year girl saying or even caring about?  Um NO!   Nate had a huge smile on his face and said that he's never had a more proud moment than this.  Me?  I just can't stop smiling and laughing about the whole thing, and can definitely smell a "Crush" in the air!

It starts......(Big sigh)  I remember these days, let the good times begin!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

To all my girls.... Remember O' remember

I read a book a couple weeks ago called "I am a MOTHER" by Jane Clayson Johnson.  It was a book my mother in law had bought and read, and then passed on to all her daughters and daughter in laws at our last reunion.  She told us that she wanted each of us to read it, and then write down some advice or whatever we feel would help our daughters raise their kids later on when they read this book.

So I read the book.  It was a good book, filled with inspirational words of wisdom, pick me ups, and real life day to day mother issues. I am really appreciating being a mother, and loving and enjoying my kids after I read this book. So many great reminders! Then comes the time I need to write my words of wisdom, and my advice.  It only took me a week to read.  I finished the book on August 28th because that's when Hunger Games final book came out, and I really wanted to start reading that right away.  Today is September 21st, and I still haven't written in it.  I don't know how to decide what I want my girls, and my grands, and my great grands, and so on to learn from me.  This is HUGE!  I only get a little section to write on, so I have really been pondering this for awhile.

So this is what has been on my mind for the last few weeks to write in the book, but I don't know how to word it right.  So here I go on my rough draft.......

Motherhood is hard.  Not just hard, but HARD, HARD, HARD, HARD, HARD and again HARD!  I am only 31, and have 4 kids, a new house, my own business, a dog with puppies, and 2 cats.  I serve as the 2nd counselor in YW's, am a visiting teacher, and a wife too.  Do I love everything in my life? YES!  Would I change it? YES, but only change the balance of it.  If I only knew how to balance everything in my life, that would bring true happiness.  One thing that I have had to realize, and it has only taken me 10 years to, is that there's no "What about me" anymore.  This is the part in my life that I get to NOT worry about me, but worry about everyone else!  And you know what, I don't think I ever see that "What about me" stage again! Weird huh!  Only 31 and am to that point already.  Some girls are getting married at this age, and aren't thinking of having kids for years still.  But that was not my plan and I like that.  I love my life!  I have the most wonderful, sexy, loving husband any girl would be lucky to have!  I knew he was the one when we were dating and  never got sick of him.  He was my first boyfriend because I loved to date a lot, but got sick of guys after the first date or two.  I was done, wanted to see who else was out there.  But not my guy.  I couldn't get enough of him!  You know what, even after 11 1/2 years of marriage, I still can't get enough of him!  Does he do things to irritate me? Of course! Does he always dress the way I like? NO!  He likes t-shirts and jeans, and if they say a name brand other than a band he likes or biking brand that he likes to represent,  he won't touch it with a ten foot pole.  Is he into stupid stuff like biking, jeeping, hunting, golf, fights, and video games? YES!   Do any of those things take precedence over me? NO!  I am always first.  I know and feel that every day .  He has shown me over and over how much he loves to be with me, even though he has lots of hobbies that take him away sometimes.  But if I ever say that I want him to stay instead of go, he would stay.  But because I love him so much, and want him to enjoy other things beside me, I send him on his way.  Do you see the "What about me" stage flitting out the window?  It's not always easy to not worry about yourself, and what your going to get in return, but just take baby steps and it will all balance out the way it's supposed to.

So in a nutshell, if you have the absolute best relationship in your mind  (not the worlds expectations of a good relationship, can't even compare the two) with your man love, then the rest is easier to balance together while experiencing being a mother.  Enjoy them little, I have an 8 and 10 year old now who I swear were just 2 and 4!  I will sound like every older mom out there when I say "They grow up so fast, and before you know it, they will be out of the house!" That's in 10 short years for me.  How depressing to think that.  I love my kids and my husband and  I couldn't ever imagine going through this life without them.  WE are what make our life "FABULOUS" as my 3 year old would say!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

"Accomplishment List" vs "To Do List"

I have a lot to get done today.  In fact, it seems lately that I have a lot to get done everyday!  I have found that in the past if I write myself a "To Do List"for the day, it just sets me up for complete and utter  failure.  At night when the kids are finally in bed and I sit down for a second to rest, I realize that I didn't do one thing on that list today.  The floors weren't mopped and vacuumed, kitchen wasn't cleaned up from dinner, or any of the meals for the day, laundry was not put away, kids are still in their rooms doing homework at 9:30 at night, and that pile of papers has yet to be filed! Then that voice in my head screams out, "WHAT DID I DO TODAY? What?  It's been a whole day and I didn't get anything done? What kind of wife and mother am I? " Then all the frustration sets in and I start getting either mad, depressed, sad, or  most of the time, all of the above.  So I ask, are all these feelings of inadequacies of the day worth a stupid little "To Do List"? I say BIG FAT..... NO!

The solution? To make an "Accomplishment List".  So here's how it works.  I have a little notebook, I write today's date on a page, then start with #1.  Whenever I do something, anything at all, I write it down.  For example, here is today's A-List:

A-List 9/9/10
1)  finished towels
2)  emptied trash for Mason
3)  made bed & picked up room
4)  got ready! It took me until 10:15am
5)  ate breakfast @11:00am, girls had 2nd breakfast
6)  scooped dog poop and picked up trash in the yard
7)  peeled a lot of peaches!
8)  groomed a dog
9)  packed Mase for the hunt
10)  let girls finger paint w/ choc. pudding & then cleaned up that mess. can you just picture that mess?
11)  made lunch & dinner
12)  helped Hayes with her math homework.  Took a couple hours but figured it out. This one is huge!  I'm terrible at math!
13)  bathed kids, cleaned up room, said prayers, put kids to bed
14)  bottled my peaches
15)  Blogged!


Are you overwhelmed at how much I accomplished today?  This isn't even all of it.  This is just the stuff I wrote down.  Sitting down thinking about how my day went, I'm remembering things that should have made the list but never would have been on my "To Do List".  Things like my girls and I dancing for an hour, watching a cartoon together, playing princess and the evil tiger, petting and cuddling our new puppies, reading stories, changing a few big girl accidents (potty training, so FUN), and the list goes on and on. 
Having the A-List, also helps me answer the "o-so-loved" question that every husband asks when they come home from work.  "So Kenz, what did you do today?"  This is when I excuse myself and go get my A-List and start at #1 baby!  A quarter of the way through it you'll see his expression of regret for even asking that beautiful question.  So you see, instead of the negative response I usually give like, " your guess is as good as mine", or "what, you can't tell?" It's much more positive and with cliff notes to help get you through it.

The other good to the A-List is that I'm not being so hard on myself, and seeing the simple yet more important accomplishments of everyday life that the TD-List wouldn't let me reap the benefits from.  Life is what I make it to be, and I choose POSITIVE over the negative, that can creep in so easy if I let.
P.S.    That A- list was totally done with my hubby being gone since Tuesday for meetings, and now going hunting until Saturday. YEAH ME!












Wednesday, September 8, 2010

A name is just a name....

My kids call me Mama Sita. Now in Spanish Mama Sita means "hot babe, or Mexican ho." I'll take the first meaning because it flatters me the most out of the two and I don't think the second one is appropriate. Nate and I don't have pet names for each other. He also speaks Spanish pretty well from serving a mission in Peru, hence where Mama Sita came from. We have tried over and over again to call one another "babe", "hun", "love", "sweetheart", you name it we have tried it at least once, and just end up laughing our heads off of how unnatural it sounds. So Nate and Kenz we are. At least the kids have a pet name for me, and where it came from there Dad's suggestion, I guess you can call it a "pet name" from him in a weird way, right?

I would have to say, that we are a family of nicknames. We really can't just call each other by our real names. Here are a few of the nick names we have for each other:
Hailey: Heome's, Heley O" Meley, Hayes, Haileybug Muhanna (not because she's ugly, but because she can't believe her own mother would call her that! Good laugh every time!!)
Mason: Seuss, Moose, Chino, Quasi (he went through his ugly stage early in life)
Kaycie: Cee-Cee, Sita Marie, The Quace (Aunt Tay Tay, my sister), Cassie (my Gma K thinks that's her name even though I correct her every time. love her dearly)
Eryn: Ernie Bernie, Bernice, Eryn-Baryn-Bo-Baryn, Ernita, Ernie Bernaious, Aowin, Ern (we were at the Dr's, and because I spelt her name with a y instead of an i, they really did call out "Urn Hansen"! Really?!)
Mckenzie: MOM, Mama Sita, Mamita, Keek, Kunta Kinte, Kenz
Nate: Na-than (again Taylor, my sister), Dad, Pops, real name Nathaniel, which I think is hot, so maybe one day he'll go by that!

Our house is a lot more fun with all these different names! I just hope it doesn't confuse the little one's later. Even with all these names, I know that the most important one is the one you represent. Ours is
Hansen and Jensen. We have had a lot of good family go on before us, to help give us the life we have now. There name was everything to them! If I could just remember at all times what stock I come from, and how hard they worked, and what they must have sacrificed to get me where I am now, then my life would be pretty much be straight forward with no detours.

Nate and I have been taking a family history class in place of Sunday School for the last 8 weeks. Originally, I signed us up thinking it would get us out of going to the 2ND hour of church. It ended up being us and 3 other couples is all, so it was a lot harder to sneak home for an early lunch without kids. Gotta love Primary! Well while in the class, we didn't get our family history done. Instead I got that spark of interest in getting to know my ancestors, what their stories where, their hardships, loves, triumphs, and disappointments. Things that I can learn from their lives that will help me along my own journey. We are family, and that's what were here for right? To support and help one another. So now I have the tools and resources in getting started on my own family file. I do have to say that getting a name at the temple with a date of May 3, 1876 has a lot more meaning and determination to work harder and faster to get those families sealed! I can't imagine waiting that long or not being with my whole family forever! That would be my hell.

My first

I would have to say that in my 31 years of life so far, I have learned and experienced quite a bit....

but nothing like I have lived in the last 10 years. I am a wife, and on top of that I am a mother. A mother of 4 to be exact. With that title comes great responsibility that I have just now started to really recognize and to really make a change in myself. Everything I do, whether it be going to church, watching a movie or t.v. program, what I wear or even what I put in my mouth, has an effect on my kids. Life is not about me, funny how were tricked into that so young. Vacations aren't for my play and leisure, it's for the kids, and going on girls trips aren't as relaxing as they used to be because I'm wishing my husband and kids were with me after a day. Life has definitely changed. Was I ready for it to, not in my mind, but my heart has been. My life is not just my life anymore. As hard as I have tried to keep it the same as the past, inevitably I turn another year older, and learn another of life's lessons.

This is my blog of everyday happening in this great life story of McKenzie Hansen. I think of it more as a journey to overcome my selfish desires, and to really find out the person I was before I came to this earth. She must have been pretty amazing to have the story I have had thus far in life.

It starts.........