THE STATE OF THE ESTATE

Thank You. (applause)

Thank You so much (applause)

(gesturing to take a seat)

(clears throat)

Friends, Family, blog readers, 

my fellow Americans. 

Amid deficits, low moral, and a poor blogging record, you have remained a committed reader and so without delay, here are the results of the current state and condition of the Roberts family.

Ahh come on Canyon! every dang time!? 

Currently:

I am googling: "how to get rid of a spilled milk smell in carpet"

and hoping for any solutions other than:

"pour rotten fish juices over area to improve smell"

Currently:

I'm wondering how the groceries that I bought yesterday (equaling the hourly wages of a neurosurgeon) could be all gone by this morning. 

And Currently:

I am still just recovering financially and emotionally from the kids Prom week. 

Oh the drama of finding the perfect thing to wear, 

making sure the hair is perfect 

and the shoes are perfect 

and the whining, and crying and complaining etc. etc.

                  

    ...and that was all just from Brett.

Currently: 

I just don't care.

Currently:

We are living with a pre-missionary man-child.

Brett received his Mission Call to find out where he'll be spending

the next two years of his life in service for our church. 

Before Brett opened the envelope, we all made guesses. 

Quincy said Africa, atta girl      -           Kal was thinking international 

 Canyon was completely certain that Brett is going here on his mission:

Wade was 38 % certain that he was right.

River just wanted to hurry up with my pic so she could go take selfies with all Brett's friends...

Lauren scribbled down a shout out to the local quarterback, 
but changed her mind and threw out a guess.

And Dean and I were not getting along that day, so of course no picture of us existed. 

My guess would've been New York -  Dean's guess was England. 

*stock photo a few days later

and...

drumroll....

Xalapa, Mexico!

kinda has a nice ring to it, eh?

The boy leaves July 9th...I haven't slept a good night since.

Currently:

I am well aware of the short family time with Brett that seems to counting down without mercy and without anyone else recognizing it.  

I feel like yelling sometimes "hey! do you guys even realize this is the last Sunday you'll all be watching dumb movies and laying on the floor together?!"

Promise me a little bit of heartbreak each day is good for the soul.

Currently:

There are Rights of Passage to be had left and...well, right.

All the rights of passage afforded an eighteen year old know-it all.

 The robes and tassels...

 and a "hey we did it bro!"   

Brett has had an urgent sense of "lasts" during his senior year,

And bless his heart, he made the most of every minute.   

(Brett during his last Spirit Bowl as "Spirit Rep.")

                                                                  

He worried about his legacy, he really wanted to leave his mark.

I'd say mission accomplished, wouldn't you? 

(someone took a screenshot live from the assembly and sent this to me) 

fyi, I did NOT forward it to Dean.

Currently:

The kids out number me...
 and I believe they can smell fear.  

Currently:

This girl is gainfully employed, which we're really excited about.

Now she can pay her own medical bills and break her wrist 

trying to impress cute boys whenever she wants -  

Currently:

Kal follows me around telling me about stuff I try really hard to pretend to care about.

"...hey mom, can I tell you 10 facts about rocks?"

"...hey mom! did you know that a spider once digested a cat?!"

It's all I can do not to toss my head back and yell "boooorrrrrinnnng!

Would that be wrong of me?  

Good news though, he seems to be thriving each day in spite of my total lack of mothering. 

Currently:

Canyon and Quincy solve global political strife on the daily.

(world leaders take note)

*conflict

*more conflict

*domination/conflict

*unresolved conflict and finally....

*compromise 

She learned all that in Preschool.

Currently:

Summer is here -  It's pranking us...or someone is. 

Sweet lazy summer nights, and lazy summer days, and lazy summer mornings. 

A welcome change from the school year

September to May I'm exhausted - 

the kids are exhausted -

but more importantly, I'm exhausted.

This is how I would usually find the teenagers when they arrived home from school. 

Poor babies! Too tired to even make it inside the house. 

It's odd though, 

whenever I try to sneak a minute to myself in the car...

it always looks like this:

Currently:

It's important to my ten year old to declare to everyone that she is not boy crazy! 

(by the way, she did all this stretching right in front of the boys relay team) 

Currently:

I am dealing with this kid's fishing obsession.

It's become full blown.

The problem is he's not content just fishing the irrigation ditch across the street.

He requires me to drive him to his favorite fishing hole across town.

And I'm rather lazy. 

Dang...why can't his obsession be girls, or violent video games, or online gambling. 

A mom can only hope. 

~   And finally.....

Currently... 

I am looking at this:

Our new baby due the end of October

uh.....

YEAH 

I know, right!?!

I'm still processing...

and crying,

and laughing hysterically ,

and crying,

and praying,

and you guessed it...crying.

Currently:

I am feeling the guilt of sending one child out the door while welcoming a new one in.

ouch. 

Feel free to send advice and/or laugh amongst yourselves.

Currently:

 I want to apologize to anyone that asked me if I was pregnant and I denied it.  

For a while it's been quite difficult for me to talk to anyone without crumbling into a mess of tears. 

It was for your own good that I lied to your face -  (see I borrowed my teenager's logic)

Currently:

We told our little ones the happy baby news last night...and they took it real well.

 Although hearing my six year old say; "again?"...wasn't really the response I was looking for. 

 Currently:

I'm thinking about a blog post I wrote last year, where I declared that we were done having kids.

*seems a little ironic now, doesn't it.

Currently: 

I am trying to take my sister Brooke's advice that only she-herself could deliver to my worried mind:

"HIL! just own it! who the heck cares about what people think!" 

Currently:

We are excited and overjoyed and reminded of our small little place in this universe.  

and so...

Currently:

The state of the estate is better than we ever thought we deserved.

There is more that unites us than divides us.

And so on that we will remain
                                    and hold true
                                              and thank our God to be given another day to live it all.

- peace.