It looks like I'm going to start blogging again. Of course if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, well... you know how that goes. This will be more for me than for anyone else so… The kids are officially grown. They're pretty self-sufficient and we like it that way. For the most part! They are amazing listeners, they learn new things all the time, they surprise us every single day. Samira is seven. She'll be eight in March. She just showed me how to use Siri on the computer. Samira had a project for school that she just completed. And it's pretty fantastic. Things I like most about my kids are things like they love each other they get along they love their Sito. Pierce is one awesome happy soul. Anytime anyone is down or upset about anything you can count on getting a super sweet hug from just about the sweetest boy I've ever met. We are always told were so lucky to have our kids. they are both super well behaved and enjoyable.

Kent has more and more gigs all the time. Constantly surprising me with his ability to manage his own musical career and single-handedly juggle raising the kids while I am at work all the time. I finally love my job. I love everything that I'm doing. And I have a great team. I work for a really good manager who knows exactly what she wants out of our department. It's exciting to be training again. I'm even traveling in November and December so I'm pretty happy about that.

Sophia Elyse

My sister had Sophia on Friday May 15, at 9:35 at night. She weighed 5 pounds 5 ounces and measured to be 19 3/4 inches long. Sophia entered the world as gracefully as i could have imagined. after having two babies, neither of who cried upon being born, it was great to hear her lungs belt out loud, squeaky sounds!! she is perfect. and tiny and amazing. i bet she will be strong and independent just like her mama.

I wanna see her all the time and i hope every day for good things to happen to her in her life to come...

go sophia!

Graduation days

At first, when asked to join the Fujas for the commencement event of the year, i was in disbelief. I am sure i said "shut up". But as the time went on (it was really just moments) and it was true, she was serious, Kaity Mac was asking me if i would be interested in coming to this joyous occasion with her, i did the first thing that i always do when something is the most important to me...i secure childcare. Sam and jess were the logical choice and with their commitment i knew it would be a perfect day!

And it really will go down in my book as a really great, memorable occasion. I was sure it couldn't get better than being offered a seat to witness Kaity graduating and listen to the President speaking but it did. At the last minute, the 4th Fuja (Ben) became directly involved in the festivities and i was then able to spend the whole, great day with my sweetie.

There were many times throughout the day that i felt pretty emotional. being in the presence of all the grads at ND really reminded me of the last days i spent on campus at State. i remember what a love/hate relationship i had with being so far from home. I loved the speech that both Presidents gave that afternoon. both men spoke openly about the difficult journey that they had taken in getting to this day.

Finishing out the afternoon by eating a great burger with great friends, i could hardly ask for much more!




Samira might not go to St. Paul's next year for preschool so the songs and "graduation" festivities that took place on wednesday felt very final to me. samira has enjoyed St. Paul's and we have seen her grown a lot since her start in preschool. she is proud that she can write her name and recognize letters. she counts in spanish and loves to share what she has learned with her brother. In the fall she will likely go to the free preschool program that is offered at the elementary school. We've made friends, though, that we plan to stay connected to for years to come!




go irish

i definitely have movie love

you know like the kind of love that you see in movies. the happy ending love that usually only happens to people who look like meg ryan. i have a great hubby. he is smart and funny and most importantly, to me, he totally takes care of everything. everything that i do not want to take care of that is. i am the most grateful that we compliment one another and yet we have many things in common.

i do not like to smell like gas or grass or anything smelly. and i do like to cook and clean up and do laundry. i hate the vacuum and don't even know where we keep it. whenever i am tempted to think "i wonder if he knows that i even do this for him/us/the kids?" i am reminded that i am sure i don't know half the things that he does for me.

one of my favorite things about kent is that he always has a plan. sometimes, actually more often than not, he doesn't even tell me about the plan until we're already involved in whatever the plan is. he thinks about our family first and takes into consideration all the things necessary to keep us happy and provided for.

Kent has produced four cds. he plays all instruments, records the tracks, and completes every task associated with the production of a disc, without help from anyone. he mostly does everything he does, in the middle of the night. the only time he can seem to get any peace is when the rest of us are sleeping. Kent's not a big fan of tv like i am but he watches shows with me because he knows it's how i like it. Overall, he's a pretty selfless guy, that somehow i hooked up with. i'm a pretty fortunate girl...

go green

things are kinda hectic

and i let them get to me. i try to keep the house clean and the kids clean and recently i have been trying to get to the Y more often. and even though samira only goes to school two days a week for 2.5 hours at a time...things seem to get out of hand. 

and then i see the kids fall asleep in a very easy, effortless way and i wish i were a kid again.

samira has a trike-a-thon on friday and her sito and i are going to help out and be there to cheer her on. of course we were supposed to get donations from others but my mom and i are just going to contribute and call it good. not that sick children are not a good cause but it seems a little wrong to start asking your friends for money for your kids school when they are only four years old. they have the rest of their lives to beg for money...i think we'll wait a while.

this past friday Ron brought over every piece of clothing emily ever wore. from birth to age five, jeni has been saving these clothes in case she had another little girl. when she found out her third baby is going to be a boy she sorted the clothes, labelled them and sent them to me. So saturday morning, stacy, jess, my neighbor staci and i went through the 15 huge bags of clothes to see what we wanted for our own little girls. Emily single-handedly clothed sophia, leila, collette's little girl, hannah, lily samira and sadie for at least a few months worth of clothes each! the best part is, the porch looks like no one touched the clothes yet!

on wednesday and thursdays we trade childcare with my friend michelle. she has samira and p on wed and we have avery on thursdays. it works out so well, giving us both a needed break from our kids. back in the day, our moms didn't need breaks from their own kids but now, it seems like we are those people that have made their lives increasingly complicated (therefore making mini-vacations from our own offspring very necessary).

and what's the deal with bath time? why is it such a ridiculous pain in the a**. pierce loves the bath, no trouble there. samira hates getting into the tub. she whines and goes on and on about being too cold to get undressed. then she gets in the tub and never wants to get out. i add more hot water and beg and plead...hard to get her in...impossible to get her out. Who said she could have an opinion? ooohhh, let me find that person!

go green

spring time

i think you are supposed to like spring because of the warm weather and all the new baby animals. i really don't like to be hot and i like being dirty even less so i think this may be a challenging summer for me. next time i will take a picture of pierce when he does it but you would not believe how much he loves to be outside. he will lean against the door and make a noise like a caged animal until i open the door. and when you open the door, you must be prepared to take off after the little boy (who was born slowly-34 hours of really yucky labor) and that's the last thing he did slowly!

last monday we went to a place called the heartland cafe in chicago to hear some live music. we had the best time together. it reminded me how much i love love love live music. musicians are amazing to me. probably because i can barely understand how they do what they do. great food and Fred sounded better than ever!





we had a play date at our house last thursday and 20 minutes into the "fun" we hear my friend jen's 5 year old, Ella, yell "mom, come see what Owen did!" i was a mess from the second i saw him. he managed to get into the kids play kitchen and stick his head up through the hole where the bowl for the fake sink fits. his head was then stuck. i immediately said i would call 911, to which i was told that was not necessary. and twenty minutes of stomach wrenching, anxiety producing, innocent bi-standing later i did call 911. then as three firemen and a police officer stood on my porch and stared at owen, i finally had to ask where all the good ideas were!


so we lost a kitchen but thankfully not a friend. Jen and Dan thought the whole experience was very "owen" and had a good laugh! i still cringe seeing the empty space on the porch.

anyway, p and mira are getting along very well right now for some reason. they seem to be at ages that they like each other. they love to lay on the couch together, usually on top of each other.

i'd say, for the most part, these are the good times:)

go green

birthday parties and other fun stuff

samira turned four on march 8. i know people always say it's hard to believe their babies grow up so fast but they say it because it's so true. her birthday had her dad and i thinking back to the day she was born. we told her the version of that story that we thought she could handle. samira has really started to seem older lately. and pierce gets bigger and tries new things every day.

we had a small party with four friends on her actually birthday and then celebrated with my siblings yesterday. of course this made it seem like her birthday was a huge event not to be missed by anyone...



the last weekend in february, one of my best friends from MSU came to visit and catch up. we had a great time! kent had a gig in chicago at the westin so darin and i walked to a few bars nearby and had a martini or four. we had great sushi at the start of the day and a yummy pizza at the end of the day. it really made me remember what a great time i had at school. and how far from those days we are right now.

lily and robyn came for a visit on friday march 6 and stayed for the weekend. samira and lily are getting along much better, which makes for a more enjoyable visit for everyone. on saturday morning, lily and samira were making a fort out of pierce's crib when they both stood up at the same time and smacked heads. unfortunately, samira's front tooth was knocked almost out of her mouth. there were a lot of blood and tears and i bravely put the tooth right back in place (before i really thought about what i was doing) we called all the doctor's in our lives and they assured us they would have done the same thing. samira had her first trip to the dentist this past tuesday and Dr. Val assured us she would be fine. the tooth might not even fall out! (say a prayer).

kent and i have been blessed with the best relationship i have ever been a part of (or have even seen around me). at the same time we have been challenged with some of the worst little sleepers that we have ever heard of. we hear about people who have kids that love to sleep and sleep all the time...not the case at the arnsbargers. we are aware that on some level it's our fault that they sleep for shit but we just want to know when it might end.

i had the opportunity to help out at samira's preschool a few time this month. the other kids in her class are very sweet and the along get along so well. i really liked seeing her interact with the other girls and it was great to see that boys are different no matter what their age! samira is really a big help at school just like she is at home and it made me think she is getting ready for real school. which makes me very nervous. we have many decisions to make before real school so i welcome the time between now and then to go by very slowly!

i'm posting a few pics of the kid party and i'll add some pics of the family party when kent puts them on the computer.