Painted Toes

Let's all sing the song from the King and I "Getting to know you….."

I verify that all the facts here are true or were true or will be true eventually.

I have blue eyes, weigh 120 pounds, am 5'5", have long blond hair, can do anything and love my family. (Some of this will eventually be true or was true….see I don't lie.)

I am the sixth child out of seven. Now that sounds like a large family, but in reality I came from a small family. The fifth child is seven years older than I am so what I remember of family was just me and my little brother. Kind of sad when I think about it. We are now all grown and have families of our own, all spread out across the nation. Of the seven siblings, five were boys and two were girls (I was one of the girls if you didn't catch that already). All five of my brothers are doctors (one dentist, one orthodontist, one chiropractor, one audiologist and one physical therapist). My one sister married a computer geek like me. My parents divorced after my little brother graduated from school. My mother is going through some very tough medical problems right now and I'm sure I will blog about that eventually, but I want this to be a light and fun entry.

I grew up in Richland, Washington in the same house from age 3 to when I left for BYU at age 18. I married my sweetheart two month and a few days before I turned 20. (It looks better worded that way instead of saying "I was married at age 19.") We were married in the Bellevue, Washington in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Temple. Yes, I'm a Mormon and have been my whole life. My husband's family found the gospel while he was a young boy. Technically he isn't a "lifer" but he really doesn't remember a time when he wasn't a member of the church. But back to my life…..

Steve (my husband) was just beginning his senior year at BYU when we got married and I was in the middle of my sophomore year. I crammed in as many classes as I could and when we left for the Seattle area (Steve took a job at Microsoft) I was in the middle of my junior year. I was going to go to the UW and finish my degree but money was tight and so I took a job in downtown Bellevue to help pay for the furniture that we needed. (Boy was it crappy furniture, but we really needed something to sit down on.)

We wanted to start a family but medically I wasn't able to conceive without help. We found a great infertility doctor and a year latter we had our first boy. Five years later our family was full of four energetic boys. My wonderful husband was thinking, "This is the perfect size for my family." (He only wanted three kids; I talked him into child number four.)

That next summer, our family got the flu and I couldn't shake mine. It continued for weeks. I wasn't really "sick", just not feeling well. Well a blood test confirmed that I was pregnant. The ultrasound said I was 12 plus weeks along. The doctor was dumbfounded; we got pregnant without any medical help this time. I knew this one had to be a girl, but I was wrong. Boy number five greeted us just after Christmas. (The long version to this story is even better.)

A year later I found out that lightening does strike twice and I was 8 weeks along this time. In late summer our first girl was born. She is the last (so my husband says) and we love her to death. She truly is a princess.

I took all that time to tell you about my family because they are truly what makes me me. I love them dearly and when I count my blessing they are first on my list. You can read an article I wrote about this subject http://lds-nha.org/QB1205.html.

But that isn't all I am; just the heart of what I am. There is a "rest of the story"

I went to school to be a school teacher (just didn't finish) and just after my second child as born was introduced to a silly word: homeschooling. I spent the next few months thinking about it and finally talked to my husband about it. Somehow he said, "Sure, love of my life, give it a try. I completely trust you." (I'm sure those were his exact words.) So here I am 12 years later homeschooling six children, loving every other minute of it and totally learning history, spelling, writing and even math all over again and completely enjoying the education I'm getting. I sometimes think I am homeschooling my kids just so I can learn. We are studying general science right now and for the first time in my entire life I actually am beginning to understand science. Who would of thunk! WOW!

Now let's amaze you even more. I am the President of a state-wide homeschooling organization called Washington State Latter-day Saint Family Educators (WALDSFE) and run an email group and website for that group. http://www.waldsfe.org/ I also sit on the board of the National Latter-day Saint Homeschool Association http://lds-nha.org/ and am one of the contributing authors. http://lds-nha.org/library.html#blanding On top of all that I also have a very extensive website that I use in our homeschool which we have named "Helaman's Academy" http://www.waldsfe.org/Helamans.htm So are you thoroughly amazed yet? If not, let me continue to amaze you.

I am also very active in my church (remember I belong to the Mormon church). I am our congregations party planner. In our church we call what I do the "Ward Activities Chairman." I plan a monthly party for our congregation of 170 people! Thankfully I do have a committee that helps me, but I have NO money to do it. (That isn't entirely true, but it seems like I have no money.) We do have a few major events like a summer camp out, Christmas party and a spring cultural event. Those get to be pretty big and take quite a bit of time. Hopefully one of these days I will put together a website of all the wonderful ideas and parties we planned so that other church members who hold this calling will have some cool ideas for their ward. But that is for another day.

Are you done being amazed? I'm not done typing so the correct answer is "NO!"

I also aspires to be a writer. That is one reason for this blog. Before I began this blog I use to just write in my journal, or more accurately I use to take the emails I wrote to my friends and put them in my journal. I'll still continue to do that as well as put the personal journal entries in that I have been doing over the years, but to perfect my public writing skills (and they need a lot of work) I started this blog. But back to writing. What do I want to write? I want to write a novel or two. I have a couple stories I want to write, but I just don't have the time to do more than just think about the stories. One needs a lot of historical studying done as it is set back in the late 1800's and to do the story correctly I need to do some major research. The other is a more modern piece and closer to be at least drafted out, but I've got kids to raise and teach. I haven't given up that dream, but for now I have put it on the back burner.

I love to cross stitch. I have about 15 pieces that need to be framed. When I'm wealthy (or my husband gives me the money) I will have them all framed and put up around my house. I also want to take pictures of them and make a web page showing the world my craft. Right now I'm not working on anything because nothing is inspiring me right now. I'm kind of at a road block and need to get out of it.

I hate to cook! Nuf said.

I also love to sew, I just wish I had the time. In fact, I use to have a sewing business, but children kind of got in the way. No worries, I still pick it up now and then, mostly to make jammies or mend something. I do have a pile of mending that I wanted to get to over the holidays but I was so spent from planning three Christmas parties that they will have to wait.

I love watching movies with my husband. My husband and I love to watch movies together. I don't remember all the movies we have watched, but I sure like to be with him when I watch movies. Our latest kick is the BBC mystery movies. Sherlock Holmes, Lynley, Dalgliesh, and Inspector Morse. (We belong to Netflix and LOVE it.) I'll watch movies even when he isn't at home. I also love to watch well done documentaries, but they have to be well done.

I hate to clean, but I would rather clean than cook.

I am overweight and need to hit the gym. I'm not what you would call fat, but I do carried five pounds from each pregnancy that need to be taken off and then 10 extra for good measure. (If you do the math that is 40 extra pounds.) But I'm not dieting anymore, I'm just going to eat when I'm hungry, drink more water and hit the gym. (Don't wake me…I like this dream.)

I love to read and collect books. If you were to see my favorite room of the house, our library/den/school room, you would see book shelves lining the room and they are totally full of books. I guess it is a good thing I love to read because being a homeschooling mom I have to read lots of books. I don't have any favorite genres but if I was to pick I would have to say I love historical fiction; tomorrow I might change my mind. I wish I would have kept a log of all the books I have read because it would be so cool to go back and see what I have read. Very few books sit on my shelf that I haven't either read or at least picked up and looked through. One of my favorite dates is dinner and then off to the book store. My husband goes his way and I go my way. What bliss! I'm sure I will write a few book reviews for this blog.

I hate shopping, but I would rather shop than cook.

I love sports. When I was in high school I was a javelin throwing, or "spear chucker" as my brothers use to call it. I went to state four years in a row and placed each year. My highest placement was second my junior year. I threw 134'5". (Last time I checked it was still the school record at Richland High. I set that in 1987.) The gal I threw against the four years became an Olympic contender for the gold in the heptathlon. Now that's impressive if I do say so myself. I also played volleyball and received a scholarship to play for Central Washington, but I turned it down to go to BYU. I was asked to walk on at UW for their track team, but I couldn't afford their tuition so I went to BYU. I also played softball during my grade and middle school years. I would have continued into high school but our high school only did slow pitch and I was a fast pitch pitcher. In fact I brought fast pitch to the eastern side of Washington State. You could say I was a pioneer or you could say I was a decade too early. Now, I enjoy watching my kids play and participate in sports. I even coach my third son's soccer team. They are a great bunch of kids and very talented. I hope to be coaching a few teams this spring and again this fall. It keeps me busy.

I love photography and aspire to be a world famous photographer. But for right now I will be satisfied with just taking pictures of my family. Growing up poor, there aren't many pictures of me so I have gone overboard and have thousands of pictures of my kids. I am trying to catalog them all, but the task is proving time consuming if not difficult. Someday I will get them all catalog and be able to share my bad photography skills with everyone else, so count your blessings I don't have time now. I do take a few good pictures, but they are few and far between. I really would like to take classes, but I just don't have the time nor the money, but I do have the camera, thanks to my husband. (He really does love me.)

I hate being late, but I would rather be late than cook.

I love outdoor activities. I grew up with five brothers (see above) so I was involved in lots of outdoor activities. We went camping every summer and I LOVED it. I still love to camp. I love to hike. I wish I was in better shape so I could take the kids hiking more often. I was looking forward to this time when I didn't have to haul a baby up the side of a mountain so that we could do some back packing as a family, but now I'm injured (I'll tell you about that in another blog) but it doesn't stop me from being outside an enjoying the wonderful creations Heavenly Father has given us.

Which brings us to my next love. I love scouting. With five brothers, I wanted to know why I didn’t get my Eagle badge. I did all the work too! I went to scout camps, worked on the merit badges and broke a nail or two (I'm not talking about finger nails either), but never received a badge! Now I get to receive mom's pins and I love it. I have two Boy Scouts (the oldest of which is just about done with his Eagle) and two Cub Scouts with one just dying to be included as a scout. Even my little girl works on scouts during the day. Not sure exactly what she does, but she does pick up a merit badge book and "reads" after announcing she is working on her "scouts".

I hate taking the trash out, but I would rather do that than cook.

I love music. I know how to play the piano and I love just messing around. I wish I was a better piano player, but that isn't going to happen right now. I also wish I knew more theory but that can be learned later. I played the trumpet and French Horn in school but wish I had played the flute. When I grow up I want to take flute lessons. I love to sing and wish I knew how to really sing. I am learning but lessons would be great--but they just don't fit on my calendar right now nor my pocketbook. I love listening to music, but the choices on the radio are so awful that I often give up. I like country music (I listened to it as a youth just because everyone else wasn't). I love 80's rock. I like classical music but I find it difficult to work when it is it playing in the background so I don't listen to is as much as I should. I like jazz, reggae, funk, blues, and most anything but musak and rap. I love listening to my children play their instruments. All play the piano and the oldest also plays guitar and the second plays the violin and drums. I think there is nothing as beautiful as a six year old playing "Silent Night" on Christmas Eve.

I love to travel, but hate to fly. I'm was getting over that fear and it didn't bother me so much until my auto accident, but I can do it. (You will read about that accident in another blog). I love car trips. In 2003 my family spent a month traveling the Lewis and Clark trail. It was so much fun! http://www.waldsfe.org/UnitStudies/LandC.htm is where you will read about our journey. My wish is to spend a couple month traveling to the East Coast and visiting all the sites. My ultimate goal is to spend a couple years and go to all the states, visit all the capital buildings and all the national parks. Now that would be a trip!

I hate laundry, but I would rather do the laundry than cook.

Since my first pregnancy, almost 15 years ago, I've never gone a week without paint on my toes!

Now you know who I am. Just remember this….I hate to cook and my toes are always painted.

Doreen