Saturday, May 09, 2009

And the winner is...

Ryane! Ryane, please email me (briannaheldt@hotmail.com) with your mailing address so I can get the book out to you! Congrats! (Does anyone else think that the random number generator is kind of exciting???)

LOVED reading all your comments! So fun to see your hearts and read your funny/not so funny flight stories!

Jeannett I'm not sure what constitutes a big family. I know of so many people with 8+ kids that I think my point of reference has changed. I feel like 3 kids seems pretty standard these days, so maybe 5 or more? I have no idea. People always think 4 kids is a lot (including myself most days!) but sometimes I wonder if that's more because my kids are so close in age, and people think we're too young to have that many. (Andy heehee, maybe you can explain to me in engineer-speak why I SHOULDN'T be afraid to fly???)

I'm not sure what my craziest airplane story is. I just know that I am terribly fearful and once I'm not pregnant anymore, I'll be using Kristen's idea and having me a drink. Or two. The first time I EVER flew was in high school on a flight from San Francisco, CA to Kansas City, MO for a school-related convention. Much of the flight was other students from all over California attending this same event. Not sure how they assigned seats but out of my three friends and I, me and two others flew first class and our other friend got stuck in coach! We were eating omelets and croissants and she was eating cold cereal with a plastic spoon. We got warm cookies, and she got peanuts. Ah, good times.

Paige asked me what my secret is in terms of raising four kids, and just this week I've been thinking that whatever has become your normal routine just feels, well, normal, and like no big deal--whether it's housework or childcare or something else. SO, in the beginning, it may take awhile to adapt. But at some point, it just becomes life and doesn't feel like extra work. Case in point: Shortly before we moved to Denver, Kevin, Kaitlyn and I flew out here for our home inspection. In the beginning, it felt like a vacation being away from the other three kids. By the end of the weekend though, I was feeling like Kaitlyn ALONE was a ton of work and was unsure how I'd managed to care for four kids so far. So I think that generally speaking, people who could never see themselves having, say, six kids, could do it. Truly. You don't have them all overnight, and you adjust, and life is just life. You're still parenting, doing all the same things, there are just more children. If you find parenting two children to be rewarding and fulfilling, you'll find parenting six children to be rewarding and fulfilling. I really DON'T have a secret and I think I fail more than I succeed, but I love my kids and I count it an honor to be a mom. We're experiencing God's blessings in our life and it's wonderful.

Finally, I wish I could give away a book to each of you!!!!!!!!!!!! It really is fabulous and I hope you each read it and are inspired and encouraged like I was.

6 comments:

Rachel said...

Anything more than 4 kids seems big to me, so you almost have a big family. :) And really big families need to buy custom cars and get a separate driver's license to cart them around town.

Ryane said...

Wahoo! Emailing you now! Thanks Brianna (and Mary!)!!

Brianna Heldt said...

Rachel you know what's funny, the length of those big passenger vans is roughly the same as the length of Kevin's old Lincoln Towncar. Seriously.

Kristen said...

I loved reading all the airplane stories - so fun! And thanks for dedicating a post to one of my questions. :) As far as drinking booze on a plane - just be careful! Flying can cause terrible hangovers. I had one & a half glasses of wine on my last flight to Chicago, & felt awful afterwards. Just being in a plane can be very dehydrating b/c of the thinner air/higher altitude, but when you add some alcohol in the mix...bleh! Plus, crossing a couple of time zones doesn't help anything.

If you have a real fear of flying, most doctors will give you a low dose of xanax to calm those jitters...the feeling is equivilant to having a cocktail or two. :)

Tracy Regusci said...

After I read your post I order a copy of the book from amazon, I am already halfway through it! LOVE IT!

Thanks for the suggestion Brianna

Rachel said...

My college job for City of Irvine was working in a after school program. I got promoted at one point, and part of the promotion was getting my class B license to drive the ten seater van. I delayed, delayed, delayed and managed to get out of there without it. I was terrified of driving other people's school age kids all over Orange County. I think it was in everyone's best interest. :)

I hope you are having a GREAT day with the family!

 

Blog Template by YummyLolly.com