Christmas All Year

Virtual Vacation

2011-04-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, as I was driving my son to piano at my usual pace, swerving in and out of traffic and going over the speed limit at what I've deemed to be the safest infraction of the law, I found myself caught behind someone going 30 in a 40. Because of the cars around me and the fact that I was going to have to turn right in about a half of a block, I couldn't swerve around this car without getting right back in front of it and putting on my brakes. I may be a bit of a rogue driver but I try my best not to be a rude driver so I had no choice but to slow down by about 14 MPH and stay behind her (I assume it was a her because of the hot pink shell on the white truck although I never actually got a good look at the driver) at what felt like a snail's pace. Sadly, she turned into the same neighborhood that I turned into. As I followed along behind her I felt myself chanting quietly, "Please don't turn right. Please don't turn right. Please don't turn right..." Of course she turned right. But now, because we were in a neighborhood instead of on a main thoroughfare she had slowed down to about 15 MPH, which, compared to my usual pace, feels a lot like a line at Disneyland. Instead of letting this 30 seconds of what felt like wasted life endanger any precious blood vessels, I used it as an opportunity for meditation. For just a moment I pretended as though it were me setting that pace because I didn't have anywhere in particular I needed to be or anything pressing on my schedule. As I carried out this 30 second exercise I found myself envying rather than resenting the driver in front of me. What would it be like to have such little reason to get anywhere that you could actually afford to go under the speed limit? To me, the whole concept is completely foreign. John and I just came back from a much needed, ultra relaxing vacation in Puerto Vallarta. I came home feeling calm and refreshed. For the first week I found myself doing breathing exercises every time I started to feel a little bit frazzled because I didn't want that feeling of serenity to go away. Well, guess what, we've been back for two weeks and that feeling is already fleeting if not entirely gone. What a sucker I am. The lady in front of me yesterday lives on vacation and doesn't even need to spend X amount of money or go anywhere to do it. Her vacation is a state of mind. I realize that I'm being presumptuous in coming to these conclusions because there is a good chance that she was just lost or on drugs. But what if she wasn't? Why, it's revolutionary! This lady could start a following with me as her number one supporter!
Please, hot pink camper shell lady! Teach me to go on a perpetual vacation in my brain! I want to come with you! And can I bring my kids, husband and dog?? And can I have my own bed on a beach where people bring me drinks and food to my hearts content?? Teach me the art of astral projection! When you think about it, the lady could make millions as a virtual travel agent. I would pay good money to get to the place she's at. But alas, hot pink camper shell lady is gone and I may never see her again. I will say that if I ever see her coasting by, I am hopping on my kids' scooter and chasing her down. Until then, I'll just have to look at pictures...

A hump back whale with her baby!!

You can see one of the zip lines we went on right above John's head.

Yoga at 24 Hour Fitness will just never be the same.

We figured the kids should have a little fun on Spring Break too so we topped it off with a trip to Disneyland. Serenity now!

A Visit From The Folks

2010-09-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Recently my parents came for a visit from their home town in California. They came at a very busy time. The beginning of the school year. Which is even more hectic than the rest of the school year and that's saying something. My dad is retired and my mom is semi-retired. Their home setting is quite peaceful and relaxed so I felt bad that they had so much chaos circulating about their heads during their 2 week visit. To illustrate, let me give you an example of a typical morning in our household while school is in session:

Wake up Bryton and Sydney. Pack lunches for 3 kids. Oh darn, we're out of Oreos. No dessert today. Sorry kids, you get boring lunches. Awww mom. Make sure they've got snacks, water bottles, lunches and homework. Feed Captain who is staring at me like I'm the most negligent owner in the world. Beg Sydney to let me help her with her hair. When she refuses, go to wake up Brooklyn and Whitney. Pick out clothes for them (on a good day). Search frantically for my car keys and run out the door bare footed. Wait as Bryton and Sydney run to the car carrying their shoes and socks because they didn't have time to put them on in the house. Did you get your lunches? Wait as they run back inside to get their forgotten lunches. Bring Bryton and Sydney to their school 3.5 miles away. Barely make it to school before the bell rings. Get yelled at by the school traffic directors because I'm "doing it wrong." Fight traffic. Arrive back home. Do Brooklyn and Whitney's hair. Rummage through the shoe bin trying to find two shoes that match. Remind self that I need to clean out shoe bins to get rid of some of these shoes. (Whitney is the youngest of 3 girls so she gets ALL the hand-me-downs.) After dumping all of the shoes from Whitney's bin out on the floor, realize that of the 27 pairs, not one of them is the one we were looking for. Look in basement, upstairs bathrooms/bedrooms, trampoline and deck. Find them on the front porch. Oh, is this P.E. week? Then I need to find a pair of matching tennis shoes and a pair of matching, holeless socks as well. Let Captain outside who is standing at the door staring at me like "Come on woman! Get it together!" Make sure they've got their snacks, water bottles lunches and homework. Find a homework worksheet that someone forgot all about the night before and quickly have them fill it in as I tell them all the answers. At 8:23 (two minutes before the bell rings) send them away with John who drops them off on his way to work. Take a deep breath. After that, the house seems eerily quiet like the calm after a storm and for a brief moment I have no idea what to do with myself. Whatever I'm going to do, I'd better do it fast because I've got to go back to the school to get my kindergartner at 11:15. At least today I got a little break. Two days a week I've got to take Brooklyn to school an hour early for choir.

While my parents were here I was always surprised how each day, my dad would come casually strolling down the stairs at 6:30 A.M. just when the chaos was about to begin. He would make his coffee and sit at the kitchen table and just watch. After the door closed every morning at 8:23, he would linger for a while as if trying to process what he'd just witnessed, and then he'd slowly get up and head back upstairs to his room just as casually as he'd come down.

Around 3:00, when the kids come home again, the madness starts all over as they enter the house like a tornado and head straight for the kitchen, undoing the majority of what I've done during the day in a matter of minutes. After they've had snacks and a little bit of down time, it's time to start homework. Depending on the day of the week and the child, extracurricular activities also begin around this time so it's time to start finding binders, soccer cleats, batons etc. and piling into the car. Again, as all this was going on each day, my dad, joined by my mother now, just sat and watched. Taking it all in.

Tuesdays and Fridays are my favorite day. There is nothing for anyone to do after school on those days. In order to make up for leaving my parents to fend for themselves while going about our craziness on the other days of the week, and in light of the good weather that will soon be fading, we planned outings on these days so that we could have a little "fun" and they could see that we weren't always like this. This plan actually backfired on us, for two reasons:
Reason #1: Everywhere we go, we go with 4 kids and a giant, horse sized dog in tow.
Reason #2: When grandma and grandpa come with us, the four kids have to sit in the very back seat and two of them have to double buckle. That means that Captain has to sit in the storage section and all 5 of them strongly disagree with this arrangement.

It was bad enough that the kids were constantly elbowing, pinching each other or singing too loud for the other's taste. They had to go through all of this while a golden retriever tried his darndest to climb up and over their heads to escape the humiliation of having to sit in the storage section like some kind of animal. When the whole back seat started screaming at once, John and I, experienced parents that we are, sat quietly and waited for the mayhem to take its natural course. After all, the only thing that we could really do was join in the screaming which seemed counter-productive. We sat there quietly and hoped that the kids would learn from example. (Jah, right.) Meanwhile, my parents were seated in the middle section of the car with wide eyes looking like they'd like nothing more than to jump out of the moving vehicle.

On the morning of their departure, as we were saying our goodbyes after the kids had gone to school, one of the last things my dad said to me was, "We enjoy watching all the commotion." That's when it struck me that he must have been purposely getting out of bed in the mornings just so he wouldn't miss out on the free show. I thought that it was pure coincidence that he woke up when he did and that after watching everything, we made him so tired that he had to go back to bed. Really, he was just taking an intermission from sleeping to catch the next act. Between 8:23 and 3:15 was their downtime while they prepared to attend the next vaudeville production. Well, mom and dad, I'm glad we could entertain you. But be warned...next time we might just charge admission. My kids need to start saving up for clown college.

Top 10 of '10

2010-07-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

I just looked back at my most recent post and saw that it was dated November of 2009. That means I have been very negligent to the year 2010 given that it is almost the end of July and the year is more than half over. As I've mulled over some of the things that have happened this year, I've realized that the year 2010 has done nothing to merit this abuse and deserves some recognition. In fact, 2010 may very well have been one of my best years ever. If I were going to give it a name I would call it...well, something good. If I weren't worried about offending the Chinese by stealing their idea, I might call it "The year of __________ (insert animal name here.)" And it would need to be a good animal. An animal that you might look at and say, "that's an animal I would put in my top 10 list of animals I would like to be." In light of the fact that 2010 has remained silent and refused to stoop to my level by backlashing at my offensive behavior, I wish to repent and pay tribute to it by recording a list of the top 10 events that have taken place in this the year of (insert animal of choice here). Please note that these events will be listed in order from least recent to most recent. A timeline of sorts. Also take note that they all fit into the category of "my first time ever" and so while they might not seem so special to some, they are all special to me because here I am almost 40 and still finding new stuff to do. I like that.

1. Snowmobiling. I know what you're thinking. "Big deal." But to me, it was the AWESOMEST! I loved being up in the mountains and taking in the beautiful scenery. I usually like to visit the mountains for the fresh air and peace and quiet but I found that filling them with smog and noise pollution is just as much fun! I also just liked the power of driving them around. I've always been a fan of bullet bikes but am afraid of them now that I'm a mom. Snowmobiles are fast and loud like bullet bikes but not nearly as dangerous. In fact, I didn't even mind taking my girls around on the back of mine. They minded at first. They all wanted to be on John's snowmobile. Why is it that they automatically think that John is a better snowmobiler than me?

2. Attended Sundance Film Festival. No, I didn't actually attend any of the films. But I did have tickets for one if that counts. Winter conditions prevented us from attending but that's okay because that's not why I went. I went for a weekend getaway with my two homegirls from Bako (we don't really refer to each other as "homegirls). It was so fun to hang out with them in the airport playing paparazzi. We were every bit annoying as real paparazzi at first because we thought that's what we were supposed to do. Then we realized that if you ask celebrities for pictures they are much nicer and the pictures turn out much better. (Stick it TMZ) Although we needed to work on our celebrity recall because the real paparazzi made fun of us after Kareem Abdul Jabar walked by and rather than snapping photos we made the mere comment, "That's a tall black man." Thank goodness for baggage claim, because we had time to chase him down. Next time we try to play paparazzi we'd better do some studying up. See if you can recognize any of these people. If not, don't worry, neither did we at first.

3. Became A Lifeguard. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to do this. A midlife crisis perhaps? A good boredom buster during the long winter we had? A change of scenery for a while? Or maybe just a love of water? Did I think that it would help me look more like Pamela Anderson?? Whatever the reason, I enjoyed getting certified despite the fact that all of my class mates were teenagers...including the instructors. (Okay, they were in their 20's but I'm old enough that I can count that as teenager) While I'm not sure why I volunteered to do this, the main thing that prompted me was the fact that they needed one for our church girl's camp. So I went and made up rules just so I would look like I knew what I was doing, put a whistle around my neck for extra authority and blew it a few times for good measure. It was a good experience and I had fun watching the girls play around in the water.

4. Ocean Rescue.
This may very well have been my favorite on the list. While vacationing in California we were in Montana de Oro walking along some tall cliffs overlooking the ocean. We saw myriad sea life on our expedition and were contentedly heading back to the car when John stopped and said he thought he'd heard someone yell for help. Much to my discredit I simply rolled my eyes thinking he was being overly dramatic. He walked past the barrier rope to the edge of the cliff and saw a little boat out at sea. It was so far away he couldn't see it very well but thankfully we had brought my parents' binoculars. Sure enough there was a man yelling for help very faintly and clinging to his little sea kayak. A wave had knocked him into the ocean and he wasn't able to get back into his boat. We were not getting cell service so John ran back toward the parking lot to get help. I stood on the edge of the cliff screaming words of encouragement to him (they teach you to do that in lifeguard school, you know :)). Bryton snapped about a billion photos of the event. We were amazed at how fast the harbor patrol showed up. They were very impressive. They pulled him and his kayak onto their bigger boat and brought him into Spooner's Bay where there were several emergency vehicles waiting for him. Later, while we were in Morro Bay, we stumbled across the Harbor Patrol office and asked how the man was doing. They said that he was a 67 year old man from New Mexico and that he was doing fine. They had already released him. They did say that it was good that they came when they did because it wouldn't have been too much longer before hypothermia kicked in. We loved the whole trip to California. A family BBQ, river rafting with the Maughans, Nilssons and Harts, another BBQ with the Nilssons, Harts, Maughans and Jetts, hanging out with my parents at Pismo Beach, spending a day with Tami and her kids at Avila, and renting a goofy bicycle built for eight. But this was by far the most memorable part for all of us.

5. Attended Grand Gala. Usually, around the time prom rolls around I start complaining about how we never get to wear formal attire. I guess it's just a girl thing but I've been waiting for a chance to slip into a Cinderella style dress and drive off in a "stagecoach". This year, Pat Striker, Fort Collins' wealthiest citizen decided to throw a ball in her private airplane hangar in Loveland. Everyone in the "kingdom" was invited as long as they had donated a specified amount to United Way the year before. I got to go out and buy a formal dress and John got to wear a tux. And thanks to some very generous friends, poof, our 1998 minivan was turned into a shiny black BMW. Bibbity, bobbity, boo.

Notice the fancy invitation we received in the mail. It actually came in a little silver box. I'm holding the lid.

6. Road Electric Bull. Is there a person out there who hasn't always wanted to ride an electric bull? If so, they've never seen the movie Urban Cowboy. Check.

7. Painted, And Painted, And Painted. No, not fun. But remember, this is a list of firsts. Not a list of funnests. I've painted before but never in such large quantity. This is mainly how I contributed to the finishing of our basement. I've never calculated the square footage but I'm going to guess that we finished about 1200 sf. That would have been okay if painting the walls was all I needed to do. But, no, I had to first prime all the walls and ceilings. Then I had to paint the ceilings and then I put the first coat on the walls. Can you say, "Bloody fingers!" How about, "Stiff neck!" Sadly, I'm still not done but am putting off that second coat for as long as possible. I don't want to go back to the dungeon! I feel I've paid my debt to society! Thankfully, I wasn't completely in solitary confinement. I did have some helpers along the way.

8. Took My Girls Tent Camping Sans Machismo. A friend of mine asked if we wanted to go camping with her and her daughter. John and Bryton had decided to go on a backpacking trip and I decided they shouldn't be having all the fun. We had a great time camping and playing in the river up Poudre Canyon. We may not have been stalked by a hungry bear like John and Bryton were, but we felt pretty adventurous none the less. I decided the only comical part of our trip was the fire. That night, my friend went to start the camp fire by holding a lighter up to a log. Don't laugh. It worked! We roasted hot dogs over it and had s'mores for dessert. I wondered why Boy Scouts had been building meticulous teepee fires all these years like suckers. The next morning I decided I was going to build the fire. I must not have had the magic touch like my friend. Every time I got it going, it would go out. I ended up having to chop a log into little bits with a hatchet in order to keep it fed and burning long enough to heat our water. By the time I was done building my fire, I was sweaty, shaky and exhausted. I hope my kids appreciated that hot chocolate.

9. Participated In Pie Eating Contest. Again, who's never wanted to be in a pie eating contest? I'll admit that when the guy on the microphone said they needed female volunteers and I went running over there, I thought it was going to be an all female event. I didn't realize that it was going to be me and a bunch of brutish, pie hungry men. But I think I handled my own out there. I walked away fat, happy and with another check on my list.

10. Sang A Duet. In a microphone. With a guy. Accompanied by a guitar. In front of lots of people. Are you done laughing yet? Again, not a big deal to some of my rockstar singer friends. But for me, it was a first and a last. Unless, of course, I've been discovered. In which case you might see me on the road in a town near you. Keep your eyes peeled.

There you have it. The year of the...gazelle??? Has been good to me. And it's only a little more than half over. The "Top 10 of '10 list might just turn into a top 15. But I sort of hope not because that doesn't sound as good. 2010, you're off the hook.

Wicked!

2009-11-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

I have been really bummed about not getting tickets for the Denver showing of wicked while they're here. They sold out pretty quick and so I had resigned myself to waiting for them to come back in a couple of years. John just bought himself another "get out of jail free" card by surprising me last Tuesday night with Wicked tickets he had bought from someone at work. Loved it.

Balloon Boy

2009-11-07T14:16:00.001-08:00

Another Halloween has come and gone and once again I had to come up with 6 different costumes since my kids are required to wear a costume resembling a character from a book to school and they never want to wear that costume to trick-or-treat in. We stewed for some time about what Bryton could go as until John suggested he go as the infamous "balloon boy" that's been usurping the news channels as of late. That's treading on dangerous territory, I know. What would he have done if he had actually run into the real balloon boy while out trick-or-treating? Awkward. At any rate, we decided to take our chances. In interest of time I checked to see if by chance anyone was selling "balloon boy" costumes on line. Surprise, surprise, they were. I found a web site that was selling "balloon boy" costumes for the low, low price of $13.00 plus free shipping. All the costumes that I'd seen in the stores were selling for around $25.00. To me, that seemed well worth it. There was an instant costume that I didn't have to put together or even spend time looking for. Plus, it was guaranteed to be here by or before Halloween. (I ordered it the Tuesday before.) I started to get nervous when school got called off two days in a row that week due to snow. If the school busses weren't running, how were mail trucks going to fair? What is that saying? "Neither rain nor snow..." Something like that. I shouldn't have doubted but I did.
When Halloween got here I walked nervously down to the mailbox and opened it up with great disappointment. There was a 5x5x5" box inside but it was too small too fit a Halloween costume in. Or was it? I took it home and opened it up and this is what I found:

One balloon that I would need to find a way to inflate with helium
Two 5" pieces of wrapping paper ribbon
One cupcake holder
One clip that I never did figure out how to use
One paper with the instructions on how to scotch tape the costume together

I felt like the giant balloon that was supposedly carrying balloon boy when it landed. Deflated. I wondered if everything having to do with "balloon boy" was a hoax. We didn't bother putting it together. Instead Bryton grabbed a pair of fairy wings out of his sisters' dress up box and went out. I started kicking myself for being cheated out of $13.00. Not to mention letting my 11 year old walk around with fairy wings on his back. If I'd been thinking I would have just bought a package of balloons and taped them all over him. Done. If I'd been really thinking I would have advertised this costume on the internet and sent it to people with a package of scotch tape for twenty bucks a pop...no pun intended.

Snow Day!

2009-11-05T18:56:00.000-08:00

Backyard Pictures

2009-10-27T21:01:00.001-07:00

A Cinderella Story

2009-10-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

I just recently became an advisor to the mia maids at church. This is a group composed of girls ages 14-15. As their advisor, I help them plan activities and teach them lessons and do stuff with them. When I got asked to do this I didn't think it would be that difficult of an adjustment for me since I had been teaching Sunday school to this same age group of boys and girls for about 4 years. Boy was I wrong. It's a completely different world and it's going to take some getting used to.

For example, the other night I got asked to chaperone a dance. I said I would be happy to without even stopping to think, "How does one chaperone a dance?" I just assumed that because I'm an adult it would come naturally. The people who asked me must not know how immature I am or they would never have asked such a thing of me. Just because I'm close to 40 does not mean that I necessarily know how a 40 year old is supposed to behave. For example, if being 40 is supposed to mean that you don't mind walking around alone all night while everyone around you is having the time of their lives then I am SO not anywhere near 40. I could have buddied up with my Bishop since he was the only other adult there that I really knew but I just didn't feel that was the way to go. My other option was to hang out with the youth from my ward. Yeah, right. LIke that's gonna happen. :) I'll tell you, I didn't feel as awkward as I would have as a youth but there was definitely awkwardness going on. I kept calling John at home just so it would look like I was doing something rather than gawking at the youth. He got tired of me calling him so I eventually started pretending to text. Can you say, "Social Anxiety Disorder"?

For a while I decided to just sit and watch the youth dance. They're kind of fun to watch because there are a lot of songs that they have synchronized dances for. I thought that was very cute and fun to watch but I would much rather have been out there dancing with them. I wonder what they would have done if I had just gotten up and joined them. Would the space around me have gotten bigger and bigger until I was out there performing a solo? I'll never know. I did see that happen to one chaperoning couple who got really excited when the song "Shout" came on by Tears for Fears. I secretly got excited about it too because that is a song from my generation but when I saw how nerdy they looked singing along so that everyone would know that they knew the words and how quickly the dance floor cleared out I was glad that I had contained myself.

After a while I decided it might be prudent to roam the halls in search of unruly children. Have you ever seen an airplane that looked like it was about to crash so you kept your eye on it and when you saw that it wasn't actually going to crash felt just a twinge of disappointment? Not because you wanted anyone to get hurt but because if it wasn't going to crash then why did you waste your time watching it? That's how I felt as I roamed the halls. Every time I looked into a room and didn't find anyone being naughty I felt just a twinge of disappointment. Because, what was I doing here if no one was going to be naughty? Not that I would know what to do if I caught anyone being naughty anyway. I only encountered two scenarios that came anywhere near disorderly conduct and I found myself encouraging it. When I found kids trying to suck the helium out of a balloon do you think I said anything about how dangerous this was or how it kills brain cells and brain cells never grow back? Of course not. Instead I offered suggestions on how to get higher doses of helium out of the balloon. I ask you, is that the mentality of a 40 year old? And when I decided to scour the parking lot for juvenile delinquents and found a boy and girl sitting together in a secluded area behind the church do you think I demanded they return to the inside at once. Nope. Instead I walked by, quiet as a mouse, not wanting to interrupt their intimate conversation.

After this I came inside and found a "click" to latch onto. The people in the group all had one very important thing in common. We were old. This attachment didn't last long because soon after, one of my youth came out into the foyer and started engaging me in conversation. As I chatted with her I watched my "peeps" disappear one at a time until I was the last "old timer" standing. The night was growing late and I could see that my mia maid would be happy to oblige me with arm wrestling matches and dinosaur drawing competitions until it was time to go home. As I was just about to add the last two legs and toenails to my stegosaurus and the clock was about to strike 10 I looked up and something magical happened. My prince charming walked in. He had dressed up in his black suit and tie and driven all the way out to Loveland so that he could have the last dance with me. I ditched my stegosaurus and my mia maid as he grabbed my hand and led me into the cultural hall. They had just started playing the last slow dance of the night and he led me out to the dance floor and swept me off my feet. (sigh). It kind of reminded me of that scene in "My Best Friend's Wedding" where she's at the reception alone and all of a sudden her friend shows up and dances with her. MAJOR kudos to John for that one. It's funny how one little gesture can turn a would be disaster into a memorable night.

The Young Women's president in our ward has a saying that she sends out with each of her emails. It reads:

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." ~Mary Anne Radmacher

To me that means "the next time you get asked to chaperone a dance, bring a date!!!" You see, all it will take is a little adjustment, and eventually I should get the hang of this.

Stanley and Vida Petersen Reunion

2009-06-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few highlights from the family reunion.

I am very proud that I can now name all Glen's (John's dad) siblings. In this picture it goes: Glen, Audrey, Jean, Karla, Lareen, Mary Kate. Lester his brother is missing and Beth and Gayle have passed away.

We had fun pretending to run a pioneer day care.

One of the kids' favorite pass times was rolling down the mountain over and over again. They had fun climbing the mountain too until Sydney got tangled up in barbed wire and sliced her skin open in a couple of places. She probably should have had stitches but fortunately Brandon is a CNA and took care of everything. Her wounds are all closed up now. I'm so glad that he and his family came. It was fun to see them.

The wildlife was a big distraction for Bryton. During the baseball game he'd look for mice in the outfield rather than watching for a fly ball. He said he counted about 24 of them. Of course, a place where there are so many mice is going to attract snakes and finding the snake above was 100 times better than the mice. In fact he liked the snake so much that when the airplane came to drop candy down to us he almost couldn't be bothered with it. I on the other hand thought that this was the highlight of the trip. Maybe because I am old and I realize that I'm probably never going to see something like that again in my life time. Laureen was able to get a crop duster to come do this for us. She's been working at an airport for the last 30 years and has connections. About 1000 times better than a pinata if you ask me. She passed out tiny bags to all of the kids to collect the candy but there was so much to collect that they were stuffing their pockets and anything else they could think of with it.
If you look really closely at this picture you can see the candy falling out of the airplane.

After all was said and done though, I think the kids' favorite part was playing with their cousins. Alexa and Whitney bonded as they roasted s'mores and argued about how to pronounce the word "marshmallow". Alexa insisted it was okay to shorten it to just "mallow" to which Whitney strongly objected.

Notice the s'more remains smeared across their faces. :)
It was a really fun trip despite the short stay and long drive. To top it all off, Brooklyn and Whitney had a ball riding home in the car top carrier and it made for a peaceful drive for the rest of us.

Not!

Unnoticed Miracles

2009-06-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Last Monday night we weren't sure what lesson to give for family night so we decided to have one of the kids pull an object out of our FHE grab bag and give a lesson on whatever came out. After we went through all of the torment of reasoning with our other 3 kids and explaining why Brooklyn was going to be the grabber this time she reached in and pulled out a journal. Okay. So the lesson was to be about writing in our journals. I figured I might be able to pull this one off because I kind of sort of actually have a journal if you're allowed to count blogs and so I wouldn't come off as completely hypocritical. The kids were ready to have the lesson as soon as she pulled it out of the bag so this didn't allow for a whole lot of prep time. Fortunately I had just watched the short video posted on lds.org where Henry B. Eyring talked about writing in his own journal. He explained how when he was much younger he decided that he was going to write in his journal every day about how he saw the hand of God at work in his life. ( I know this sounds like something from Oprah Winfrey but apparently she wasn't the first person to think about trying something like this.) I decided this was what I would talk about with the kids. I have always believed that miracles happen all around us every day and sadly go unnoticed. This was confirmed to me at the end of my lesson as I began to try to come up with examples to share of what I might write about for that day.
The first example I shared came from our bike ride to the library we'd gone on. After we arrived we parked our bikes and were in the library for quite a while. When we came back out and I started to get back on my bike I noticed that someone had tampered with my left brake, completely disconnecting it. This wouldn't have been that bad if my right brake hadn't already been completely useless due to a missing pad. As I fiddled with it I started considering whether or not I could get a hold of John at work so that he could come rescue me. I pretty much ruled that out since it's been impossible to contact him at work ever since he became a manager. In the old days I could call him any time of the day however often I felt like to ask him things like, "Hey John, do you know where the remote control is?" "Hey honey, what color do you think I should paint my toenails?" "John, I have an itch, do you think you could come home and scratch it?" I was given a new role along with his. I suddenly had to become a little bit more independent. Which means fixing my own brakes on my bike when stranded at the library. I have to say, there was a time in my life when I knew everything there was to know about my mountain bike. I could take it apart and put it back together again no problem. But since I've been married (and gotten a new bike) there's just never been a need for me to know such trivial things. That's what husbands are for. So as I tried to fix my brake at the library I felt and probably looked a lot like a monkey with a socket wrench. The only person around was a lady next to me preparing to embark her own bike for departure. She heard me lamenting about my brake and came to have a look. Somehow she knew that the doohicky had to be unscrewed and the thingamabob needed to be pulled taut and inserted just so and...voila'. My brake was functioning again. I thanked her and as I rode away I looked back at her once more to consider whether or not she had been an angel. This was fleeting though and I forgot about her and the incident almost instantly and would not have remembered it again if it had not been for my random lesson on keeping journals.
The second example happened on my way home from WalMart that day. As the kids and I were approaching our neighborhood I saw 3 dogs running down the sidewalk next to a busy street without an owner. I felt compelled to stop and pick them up. I had the kids walk down the sidewalk to try to coax them into the car. The two giant ones got in without hesitation and the medium one took off running. I drove the two big ones home and stuck them in my back yard. When I was done wiping the hair and dog slobber off of my gallons of milk I picked up the phone to call the number that was on their licenses. If you are a person that sometimes tries to call me you will not be surprised to know that of my 3 different lines, none of them were working. I can not tell you why for sure but I think it's some sort of conspiracy or practical joke being played on me. If ever one of my phones isn't working all I have to do is hand it to John and it will start working. And it has nothing to do with the "monkey/socket wrench" thingy because I KNOW how to use a phone. Anyway, I started panicking a little bit because I felt like I needed to inform these people ASAP that I had their dogs. After pressing redial on each of my 3 phones over and over for the next 20 minutes Brooklyn came in the house and said that a lady had come for her dogs. She lived about a half mile from our neighborhood and had been driving around asking people if they'd seen 3 dogs go by. She drove into our cul-de-sac at the exact time that Brooklyn went out to get something out of the car. She asked Brooklyn if she'd seen her dogs and Brooklyn said, "Yeah. They're in our back yard." She thanked us and said she wasn't worried about the other one because as long as he didn't have the 2 big ones with him, he'd come straight back home. Again, if not for my family home evening lesson this is something I would have forgotten completely.
One could argue that these were simply coincidences, but I prefer to think of them as miracles. I like to picture angels all over the place helping out whenever they can.
After the lesson I decided that we should start coming up with miracles we saw that day each night before bed. We have done that a total of 0 times which makes me sad because I wonder what kinds of things we have overlooked since then. However, I did have something stick in my memory despite my negligence in writing it down. Last weekend we went to a family reunion where John and I had been assigned to prepare dinner with another family. Since we were going to be traveling a long distance to get there we decided to let them buy the food and we would reimburse our share. When it was time to prepare the taco salad the person who had done the shopping told me that she hadn't bought any tortilla chips or taco shells because she felt like the dinner was getting too expensive. She thought they could just eat the taco fixings off their plates but I wasn't sure everyone would think that was such a good idea. Wouldn't that be similar to eating sandwiches without bread or spaghetti without noodles? I didn't say anything but I secretly panicked about it for a while until somebody opened one of the otherwise empty cupboards and found boxes and boxes of taco shells. We don't know how they got there but we accepted them as a gift from heaven and were able to have taco salad with taco shells for dinner.
What I thought was interesting about this was that while we were discussing our little gift one of the people at the reunion scoffed at the notion that heaven could have had anything to do with it. He made it very clear to whoever he could that he had lost his faith somewhere along the way. What struck me about this was that this person had just recently recovered from lymphoma. Not a miracle that easily goes unnoticed. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter the size of the miracle. It could be the parting of the Red Sea but if you are a faithless person you will find a way to rationalize it away. I prefer to look at everything as a miracle rather than picking and choosing because if miracles really do exist, then everything is a miracle, isn't it?

I Hate...

2009-06-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

...cellulite.
...dumbness.
...rudeness.
...lack of self control.
...junk mail.
...any kind of pain.
...lack of air.
...lack of a housekeeper.
...dead grass spots caused by dog pee.
...broken things.
...infidelity.
...immorality.
...dishonesty.
...gossip if it has to do with myself. If it has to do with someone else I still hate it but I find it interesting.
...TMZ.
...weeds in my garden.
...heights.
...waking up early.
...sitting for hours.
...sand on my wood floor.
...using my ottoman as a computer chair.
...being cold.
...losing contact.
...dust in unreachable places.
...socks with holes in the toes.
...whole milk.
...furniture shopping with John.
...chapped lips.
...buying things that aren't on sale.
...background noise.
...lost puzzle pieces.

I love...

2009-05-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

...Monday Night Special pizza and crazy bread at Little Caesars for 5 bucks.
...summer nights in Colorado.
...robins making nests and laying eggs in my hanging potted plants every spring.
...dollar movies.
...having a Super Target shopping center across the street.
...living 1/4 mile from John's work.
...new stuff.
...having a trampoline.
...cousin camp.
...living across the street from the library.
...the walking path behind my house.
...neighbors.
...our view of Long's Peak.
...the yellow canaries that flutter around in our bushes.
...bike rides with my family.
...going on dates with John.
...digital cameras.
...the internet.
...Big City Burrito.
...rain.
...snow.
...all appliances.
...the garbage man.
...college campuses.
...children's books.
...Spring.
...Summer.
...Fall.
...Winter.
...living in a cul-de-sac.
...my feet.
...bed time.
...firepits.
...thunderstorms.
...life.

Mother's Day

2009-05-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

My family and I went to California over Christmas break. While we were at the beach we met a woman who was scouring the beach for sea glass. She claimed that she had been a successful restaurant owner until she was taken ill and moved near the ocean for health reasons. She said that she made enough to sustain herself by collecting sea glass and turning it into jewelry to sell. For some reason John and I were a little skeptical of her story but learning about sea glass was interesting enough. We had never heard of it but apparently it's somewhat well known because there was a story about it in National Geographic that we read a few months later. Basically what it is - is garbage. Back before everything started being made out of plastic everything was made out of glass. People would dispose of glass bottles and the like into the ocean. The waves shape the glass pieces over many years kind of like a rock polisher and they turn into pretty little stones. My kids had a hey day searching for sea glass with this woman. And they had an advantage because while the woman only looked on the surface of the sand, my kids would get dirty digging down deep in search of the glass. They actually found quite a bit. For Mother's Day John had some of the glass they found made into a necklace for me. Here it is.

I love it because it is sentimental and a one of a kind. Not to mention it cost about 10 bucks. And I'm not saying that to make John look bad because to me it is absolutely priceless. Thanks John. You're a stud.

May Day!

2009-05-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

For my kids, May is always the grand finale of the school year. This is the month where they do their final field trips, their final programs, their end of school parties, their mother's day tea, field day, projects, etc., etc.. Today was one of those crazy days where each of my children had something special going on with their classes, and each event started at 9:00.

After a crazy morning I got to school just in time to see Brooklyn off on her limousine ride to the Fort Collins Lincoln Center to watch "Slim Jim Goodbody". Some sort of program they put on to encourage youngsters to make healthy choices. They got to go in a limousine because one of the parents in her class owns a limousine company. If she's lucky, she'll be in this kids' class throughout grade school.

As I was seeing her off I watched Bryton's class load on to their school bus (how lame) to head over to the Fort Collins Museum. Almost everyone was dressed in Cowboy/Indian/Pioneer attire. I embarked his bus to take a picture of him and his cuteness but when I saw him he was dressed in what he came to school in. When I asked him why he said, "I'm not really a dress up kind of guy." I decided to punish him by not taking a picture of him. (That will teach him.) Although I regret that decision now because, costume or no costume, he's pretty darn cute. And at least I could have gotten a picture of him on the bus surrounded by "dress up kind of kids".
After seeing them off on their excursions I went inside to Sydney's classroom where they were having a Mother's Day Tea. Sydney very appropriately wore her "mommy's girl" shirt. We moms sat with our kids and had a great brunch that the teacher had secretly organized with the dads. It was actually a pretty impressive spread.
If I'd known how much food would be there I would have forgone my Fiber One Pop-Tart and saved more room in my stomach. After our brunch we took turns going up to the front of the class with our kids and reading the poems they had written for us. Before Sydney and I had our turn one of the boys announced that Sydney's poem was the best. I watched Sydney's face turn red as she quietly shook her head in protest. Cute. She really is quite poetic and detailed for a second grader. Here is her poem:

Oh, did I mention that we got to wear princess crowns as we sat on our throne and read our poems?

Time Efficient Mush

2009-05-07T14:55:00.001-07:00

Kids can be so amusing. I just caught Sydney taping tin foil over a cereal bowl. I asked her what she was doing and she proudly told me how she was getting ready for school tomorrow now so that she wouldn't be late. She had poured a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk to have for breakfast in the morning. When I told her what they would look like by morning she just laughed and decided to have them for an afternoon snack instead.

Brooklyn's Candy/Fruit Robot

2009-05-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn came home with this great essay last week.

"My invention is a candy cleaning robot. It can clean up my room and I can just say candy and it will come strat out

"of his moth. It is my favrit candy. My favrit candy is choklet egg those are good. I would biy it because it can never run out of batreas and it can give frit too so that is why my Mom and dad would biy it. I wonder if my

"Mom and dad would like it when I get home. I will ask Mom and dad if they would like it. I bet they would love it because it gives out frite and my favritee candy. So ill just ask Mom and

"shell say no to candy and yes to frite It is my favrite cinde of frute so I love that robot. My mom and Dad will toduly love it too, but they could say no to it. But I think she is going to say yes

"so that is so a asome robot. I wonder if my Dad could make one of them. I''ll just ask him if he can. I wonder if he will. I bet he will say yes I can't wait when I tell him I

"was going to tell him but I forgot to tell him all just tell him tomorow and if I forget agin then all put it on a pies of papper and then I can remeber"

John spent all day yesterday building it with Brooklyn just for fun (how could he not!). She woke him up on Saturday morning asking "when are we going to build it? When are we going to build it?"

It really cleans, it really dispenses fruit and candy. John even rigged it so that it didn't require coins to get the goodies. It was as fun as building a pinewood derby car, with the added bonus that we didn't lose in the end.

6th Sense

2009-04-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today John had a "6th Sense" moment with Whitney. She looked at him and said, "Daddy, dead people can talk." He was worried that her next words were going to be, "I see dead people." "What do you mean?" he asked. Then she proceeded to close her eyes, stick her tongue out sideways and repeat the word "hello, hello, hello".

Denver

2009-04-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

One day, on his way to scouts, the person driving Bryton to his Den meeting was in an accident. Fortunately no one was hurt and as they were getting insurance and police reports settled someone else driving to scouts picked up Bryton and brought him the rest of the way which was only about a block. As soon as they drove into the parking lot they were in an accident. Again, no one was hurt. Just a fender bender. When he got home and told me this I kept waiting for a third accident to happen. You know the superstition that deaths always come in sets of three? I apply that to accidents as well. Sure enough there was another accident of someone I knew. It's been a few months so I can't really remember if it happened that same day or the next day. I also can't remember who it happened to. I'm thinking maybe my sister-in-law but I can't say for sure. I just know that it happened. Well, now I can apply trips to Denver to that superstition as well. We can go months without going down to Denver to visit John's family but once we get the ball rolling again our trips down there seem to come in little clusters of 3.
A little over 2 weeks ago we went down there for Stake temple day. We were fortunate to run into some of John's old friends from school and we went out to dinner with them after. They are living in the Springs. Afterwards we exchanged blog addresses, etc.. For some reason I gave out ours but didn't write down theirs. Tamsen, if you are reading this shoot me your blog address because John and I would really like to keep up with you guys.
Then a little over a week ago was our RV trip to the Sand Dunes that I mentioned in a previous blog. Hmmm. Perhaps I should have gone with my gut feeling. It was raining when we picked up the RV and that rain soon turned to snow. We spent the night at Sterling and Lisa's and decided we would head out the next day because the weather was supposed to warm up at the Dunes. We didn't know that it was going to keep snowing, and snowing, and snowing in Denver. As soon as we headed out our RV started sliding on the road and we ran up onto a curb. That's when we realized we weren't going to make it out of Denver. We drove over to John's mom and dad's house and waited out the snow storm. Probably the longest snow storm of the season. I can't complain about it snowing in April because we've had such a mild winter and we could really use the precipitation. Let me just say that April is really taking that saying "April showers bring May flowers" seriously this time around. Out of 5 scheduled flag football games that Bryton was supposed to play in 3 have been cancelled due to weather and the other 2 should have been.

Anyway, we waited out the snowstorm at John's parents' house. Because his parents were out of town and the only ones there were the Garner family we stayed inside the nice warm house and just let the RV sit at the curb for 2 days. The kids had a ball sledding down the ravine that his parents' house backs up to. Since we didn't anticipate snow April came up with the ingenious idea of wrapping the kids up in grocery sacks so that they could go sledding.

They had a ball sledding and spending time with their cousins. I think they would really rather be hanging out with their cousins than just about anything.
On Sunday the snow had let up so we headed over to the Ivory's house to go to church with them. We took all the kids to church in the RV. It was fun having an RV stocked with snacks that we could retreat to after sacrament meeting. It's probably not a good idea to bring a big RV to church every week because I think Sunday School attendance would go way down. After church we spent the rest of the day with the Ivory's and played a fun game which I did not win.

The last day of our vacation (Monday) we thought we would take the kids somewhere exciting in Denver like a museum or aquarium. However when we woke up in our RV that morning Whitney was complaining of being car sick even though we weren't moving. Not a good sign. (She's so used to getting car sick that when she's feeling nauseous in the house she calls it "house sick". This time we happened to be in a vehicle so the term "car sick" still applied.) That put a halt to proceeding with any play time in Denver so we returned the RV and went home. Since the rental was free, I still feel like we got our money's worth. And then some. :)
Now for the highlight of our Denver trips. Just 2 days ago we returned once more to Denver for Kelsey's wedding which turned out so nice and was just so much fun. Kelsey's lucky that she was the first grand child. By the time my kids get married the novelty will have worn off and everyone will be like "Oh brother. ANOTHER wedding??" (They will have over 30 cousins to compete with.) Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post we just got a new camera and John had so much fun walking around behind the actual photographer and pretending to be THE photographer. He took over 400 pictures. If I could I would post at least a quarter of them on this blog. (They are so photogenic that it's hard to get a bad shot of them.) But, since I can't do that I'll just post a few favorites and then if anyone wants to see more we'll send you a CD or something.

Yay! We Got A New Camera

2009-04-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

This one was taken right before the tree branch broke and he fell on his rump.

Recess

2009-04-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

Have you ever asked a child what their favorite subject in school is? If so, did you ever get an answer that didn't include recess? I haven't. It doesn't matter what kind of child it is. Introvert, extravert, brainy, athletic, artistic and every other kind of child out there will list their preferences which vary greatly except in one aspect. Recess. They may all like to play different things. For some it's boy chase girl. For other's sports. And still for others it's swinging, sandbox, jungle gym, tag, going to the library or staying inside and helping teacher. Everyone has different ideas of fun but the love of recess in general is something that is universally agreed upon by school children everywhere. And just because a person graduates from elementary school doesn't mean that this love comes to an end. I haven't been in elementary school for a good 25 years but recess is still my favorite subject. My ideas of what's fun to do during recess have changed but my love for it has not. My recesses are not as frequent as they once were but every time I see an opportunity to go out to recess, I pounce on it. Usually I go out to recess with my family, but sometimes I still get the opportunity to play with my childhood friends at recess.

In this case It's more accurate to say "friends of my youth" than "childhood" friends. And even though they don't really have recesses in high school some of us took the liberty of creating our own together during Algebra or P.E.. I had so much fun going out to "recess" again with these guys over Christmas break. In the top picture is Amy and me at the beach. (Please do not compare smiles or you will think that I am frowning.) I had not seen her since the cruise that we went on together in 2004. It was great hanging out with her and Brian and being reminded of why John and I like them so much.
The bottom picture is of us at Jennifer's house. Jennifer and Shane are as up to par as Brian and Amy on their hosting prowess. Besides the great lunch Jennifer made, one of the highlights of the visit was becoming acquainted with her many dogs and chickens. Since my kids are all animal lovers they automatically felt right at home and it was fun watching them get acquainted with the (many) other kids that were there.

Another highlight of our Christmas "recess" was going to Disneyland. My kids are still in the stage where they want me to come to their school and go to recess with them. I have no doubt that they will eventually outgrow this but if I am lucky, after they're done with school and married they will start asking me to go to "recess" with them again. I know I was thrilled to have MY parents come along with us to Disneyland. I had never been there during Christmas or taken part in the whole business of using Fast Passes. Not having to wait in lines and seeing how they had decorated it for Christmas made it my favorite trip to Disneyland EVER!

One of my favorite memories of the day was running into the D's who live about a mile from us. We had no idea that they were planning a trip to Disneyland so that was a fun surprise. The park was filled to capacity and yet we still managed to cross paths and have dinner together.

The recesses that I take as an adult are quite a bit longer than the ones I had as a kid. (Not to mention way more expensive.) I guess that makes up for the infrequency of them. I can't wait to take my next one. If you read the entry: RV 101 you know that we're in for an adventure. We're using the free rental that we won and heading down to Sand Dunes National Park. Even though everything in my gut is telling me not to go anywhere near another RV, I ask you, how can I pass up an opportunity to go out to recess for FREE?!?!?

Life: Meeting Expectations

2009-04-06T09:06:00.001-07:00

Now onto more things that we do to keep ourselves occupied. I've posted a few pictures of Bryton's projects that have been assigned to him in the last few months. These are all things that are completely impossible for him to do alone so basically his school and scouts den are subtly giving these assignments to parents. I'm not complaining. (Yet. I'm going to save that for the end.) These are worth while projects. They're fun and good learning experiences. Definitely time consuming though.

The cake that you see up on top was for the annual Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. Every boy is supposed to make a cake going along with whatever theme the leaders come up with. This year it was the "American Alphabet". Bryton was assigned the letter "D" so he had to come up with a patriotic cake that started with that letter. We decided to go with Declaration of Independence. Notice the blueberry topping with a "feather quill" spoon. We decided this year to go for taste because while the Hawaiian Luau cake we made 2 years ago was very cute and the rat cake we made last year was fun to make, both years we ended up taking practically the whole cake back home with us. This year we wrote the Declaration on cheesecake. I'm proud to say that it was the first to go.

On the bottom is the picture of his science experiment he did for school entitled "Wiiflexes". This was a winning situation for Bryton and Sydney because it meant that they had to play the Wii for 15 minutes 5 days a week. Normally they're only allowed to play it on weekends. The experiment was to see if playing the Wii actually improved hand/eye coordination. I was the control. I never played. He tested hand eye coordination by dropping a ruler between a person's thumb and forefinger and recording where that person caught it. As it turns out, I showed the least improvement so as far as this scientist is concerned, yes, it improves hand/eye coordination and is therefore a worthwhile waste of time.

The picture in the middle is of his pinewood derby car. Bryton decided he wanted to make a bowling pin. He did not win anything but that's not why he looks sad in the picture. He looks sad in the picture because he is posing and trying to pretend like he's concentrating on playing with his car.

I'm going to go out on a limb and admit to everyone that pinewood derby is something I just don't get. What's this obsession about? Is it really something that has to be done every single year? (Which to me actually seems like every few months.) Why not let them go out with a bang and have just the Webelos do it? Like a graduation from cub scouts celebration? Really, how many times can a boy stand to lose? More importantly, how many times can parents stand to watch their child lose? It gets old watching the same people win every single year. (I sound more bitter than I actually am.) This year, because John has been so busy and I don't have a clue how to make a pinewood derby car and because Bryton really seemed indifferent about the whole thing we initially decided to opt out of the derby. After all, hadn't John just spent 2 months in the fall coaching Bryton's Lego Robotics Team without the consumption of any alcohol? Because of that, we figured he should be granted clemency for at least a year from anything remotely stressful. We didn't realize that by making this decision we would automatically be inducted into the Parenting Loser's Hall of Fame. We started getting phone calls and emails and comments like, "You didn't do a derby car? How sad." I had to wonder who exactly it was sad for. Certainly none of us were sad about it. In fact we were feeling pretty ecstatic about our decision. Like a giant weight had been lifted from our shoulders. As luck would have it, we had a snow storm the night of the derby. Scout leaders started calling us. "Hey would it help you guys out if we were to cancel tonight and put it off for another week?" If we didn't care so much about what people think of us we would have told it like it is. "No, actually that would be doing the opposite of helping us." Instead we went along with it as though the heavens had been on our side. "Definitely. You can count us in."

You here people say all the time that it's just about having fun for them. They don't care if they win. It's just for the experience. Not so with me. If we're going to have a derby car then I want to win. Otherwise, what's the point? So I sat down in the basement the day of the derby polishing those axles over and over. Even though I pretty much knew from previous derbies what to expect, in the back of my mind I kept thinking, "Maybe. Just maybe." And then the visions of winning district started settling into my mind and I went back and polished those axles some more.

I'm glad to say that out of the 4 races that the bowling pin took part in it did come in first once. And that's all I have to say about it. Except this: to me, so not worth it. So, I guess it's a good thing it's not about me, isn't it?

Life: Little School

2009-03-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

Besides spending lots of time at the older kids' school I teach W's preschool 25% of the time. There are 4 kids in her preschool. I have had a lot of fun with this. I've done it with S and B as well. Never with Bry. That probably has something to do with him being the oldest. I'm a little sad because I only teach one more time before preschool ends this year. I'm going to be teaching "X for..." well, I'll think of something. (That's a letter I think we should just do away with.) I'll have her home with me for one more year after this and then she goes on to kindergarten. I usually put my kids into a professional preschool right before kindergarten but I may just do another co-op with her. It will be my last chance to do something like that.

Life:School

2009-03-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't written in a while for 3 reasons. First, life. Second, I got sidetracked with Facebook which is fun, but definitely a time waster. Third, the last blog I attempted to write was both political and religious and I had a hard time articulating exactly what I was thinking. If I had sat down and thought about it long enough the words would have eventually come. However, it was one of those subjects that is controversial enough that I was worried I might one day have to defend my outlook. It's not that I think my opinion could be swayed by anyone but I am not a particularly skilled orator and no doubt I would lose a debate to anyone who might care enough to challenge me on it. So, I've decided to go on to other things that are a lot more meaningful to me because they have to do with blog inhibitor #1. Life.

Before I proceed, let me put the reader's mind at ease by telling you that I got off scot-free with my last scandal. (If you are in the dark about this and would like to be enlightened you can refer to my last entry.) There were no social repercussions (that I'm aware of) although it's probably ruined any future political career I might have had on the Parent Advisory Board at their school. Not because so many people know about it but because I would be afraid to run for anything with that kind of guilt weighing on my conscience. No harm done. My oratory skills would not have allowed me to run for office anyway. All this talk about school brings me back again to the main focus of this blog. Life.

I have spent many hours of my life at the kids' school lately. Whether it be for volunteering, picking up sick kids, bringing in forgotten homework or sack lunches, carpooling, watching music programs, history programs, Christmas programs or celebrations. Sometimes I feel like I'm there as much as they are. I've posted a few pictures of Bryton's Colorado State History program with him dressed as a mountain man, Brooklyn's colonial days celebration and Sydney's immigration program with her decked out in authentic Hungarian garb.

More on the subject of life in my next entry. Hopefully I won't have to wait for John to be on another camp out with the Scouts in order to get to it.

True Confessions

2009-02-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

Today when I was waiting in a long line to drop my kids off at school I saw a window of opportunity and drove in to the school parking lot through the exit without considering the social repercussions this would bring.

25 Things About Me

2009-02-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

This has been stolen from Facebook but I wanted to put it on my blog.

1. Although I often go skiing with my family it absolutely terrifies me. I fear for my life the whole time I'm there.
2. I like to go on outings more than anyone. I don't care what it is. If it gets me out of the house then I'm there.
3. I love having a giant dog.
4. I love pilates because I like being able to rest and meditate while I exercise. It's like killing 2 birds with one stone.
5. I often get sad thinking about how my kids will some day grow up and move away.
6. I sometimes get excited thinking about how my kids will some day grow up and move away.
7. I almost never cry. My husband still brings up to me the time that I cried when we first got married because he wanted to leave me to go play basketball. That was 11 years ago. He's had nothing on me since.
8. I am so accustomed to having kids that when I am alone and I turn on the television my first instinct is to leave it on the first cartoon that I come too.
9. I mentally and physically can not be in the house if the outside temperature is between 60 and 80 degrees.
10. I check my email way too often.
11. I did a sprint triathlon in September and didn't come in last.
12. I give up sweets every year on Ash Wednesday for 6 weeks for non-religious reasons.
13. When I was 16 I was the honored queen in Jobs Daughters.
14. I am pulmonarily challenged. (I made that word up.)
15. As soon as I have a birthday I start thinking of myself as how old I'll be on my next birthday. I am 37 now so I consider myself 38. I don't know why. Maybe it's just to prepare myself mentally for getting older.
16. A few weeks ago as I was putting my kids to bed, all 4 of them were calling my name at the same time. For the first time I felt a wave of panic that maybe I was in over my head. It's never happened before and hasn't happened since.
17. I served a church mission in Brazil and can speak Portuguese.
18. When I was pregnant I never got sick but loved the smell of comet and wet dirt.
19. Before I had my first child I taught 6th grade social studies.
20. I have almost no sense of smell therefore I can't taste things as well as I should. John gave me a taste test using chocolate, vanilla and strawberry Breyers ice cream yesterday and I answered wrong every time.
21. I hate getting my kids up and getting them ready for and to school every day. Let's see. I have 6 years down and only about 19 years to go.
22. Sometimes I go into fits of laughter where I can't stop and tears will stream down my face. That probably makes up for #7.
23. I am extremely hopeful and optimistic and will always look for a silver lining rather than dwell on the negative.
24. My husband and I were MFEO.
25. I force my children to learn piano even though I never did.

Random Quotes

2009-01-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

Sydney: "When I grow up I want to be a vet. But not a veterinarian because I want to be able to take care of animals but be able to eat them too."

Brooklyn: "Remember the Junie B. Jones ride we went on at Disneyland?" (referring to Indiana Jones)

RV 101

2009-01-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

Though I enjoy going to California to visit my family it becomes more and more difficult to make the long drive. The first day of the drive, everyone does okay. By the second day the novelty has worn off a little but we're not yet completely miserable. Really it's the drive back that kills us. By then everyone is at the end of their ropes and in no mood to be cooped up in a mini van with each other for 20 hours. This year we knew we could no longer put it off and a visit to Bakersfield for Christmas was imminent. Again, I enjoy being there, I just don't enjoy the trip so the anticipation was bittersweet. Just days before the long journey we decided to go the adventurous route and rent an RV. Not just any RV but the monster of all RVs. A 34 footer. After deciding this the drive no longer filled me with dread. Anxiety, yes. Dread, no. The lesser of two evils I suppose. We ended up having a great time but I did learn a few valuable lessons on the trip that I wanted to record for future reference and also share with anyone out there who might be considering an RV trip in the near or distant future.

Lesson #1 So You've Decided To Go RVing
The first thing you should know about renting an RV is that pets are generally not allowed. Make sure you find a suitable place for your pet to stay while you are away. For example Golden Retrievers and pet bunny rabbits DO NOT mix. If the people you are considering leaving your Golden Retriever with happen to have a bunny rabbit it is important to note that Golden Retrievers are hunting dogs and it WILL EAT the bunny rabbit, making it an awkward homecoming along with the possibility of you having to uproot your family and move far, far away for embarassment sake.

Lesson #2 Road Safety
While RVs are easy enough to drive down the road, backing up is an entirely different story. It is important to note that your RV is quite tall. Just because you can't see anything directly behind you doesn't mean that there is not a tree branch furtively swooping down ready to smash in the back ladder. In the unlikely event that this should happen to you, don't worry, the RV that you are in is so massive that you will not feel a thing and probably won't even know that it happened until you are filling up with gas.

Lesson #3 Where Should I Park My RV?
Most novice RVers usually make plans to park in what is known as an RV park. We made this common error twice on our trip and then it became clear that we should pull over anywhere we darn well pleased and go to bed. Truly, any Costco parking lot or residential street will do.

Lesson #4 What Should I Do If People Start Referring To Me As Cousin Eddie?
This is completely normal and should come to be expected by any RVer traveling over Christmas break.

Lesson #5 You And Your Refundable Rental Deposit
It is a common misunderstanding that most people plan on getting most of this deposit back. In reality, no one ever gets their deposit back so before you leave on your trip make sure that you kiss it goodbye.

Lesson #6 Traveling Through Wyoming
Any wise RVer knows that Wyoming weather is extremely windy and what I like to refer to as "undesirable". If you should make the mistake of driving through, your awning will fall off. This is a very important lesson that some RVers tend to forget after experiencing it the first time just 10 years prior.

Lesson #7 Mechanical Failure Troubleshooting
The only mechanical feature on the RV that you need worry about breaking would be the stairs that pop out automatically when you open the door and likewise close when you close the door. You needn't worry too much about this because they won't break until you drive it up to your house at the very end of your trip. No harm done. All it means is that you now have a 3rd deductible to pay.

Lesson #8 What Should I Do If My Husband Inadvertently Locks Me In The Back Room?
Standard protocol states that you should be calm at first, waiting patiently for your husband to hear you knocking on the door despite the fact that he is driving down the interstate or for your children to wake up from their slumbers and rescue you. When this does not happen step 2 would be to lay back down on your bed and try to go back to sleep. When you find that your bladder simply will not stand for this it is now time to start panicking a little and banging on the door a little louder. Obviously, this is not going to help so now is the time to become a little hysterical. Only on the inside however because it wouldn't due to express hysteria when there is no one there to witness it. After hysteria sets in, try laying back down on the bed and staring at the ceiling as though you are in lock down in some mental institution. Of course, this will also do you no good at all so now is the time to let desperation creep in. By so doing, it will cause you to open the back window and pound on the side of the RV reaching your hand out the window as far as it will go and flailing it around as one final attempt at freedom. If this does not work the first time, keep trying until your loving husband hears a quiet banging and happens to glance out his rear view mirror. I assure you, it will bring you great relief to finally feel the RV start to slow down and pull over. When your husband opens the door say to him, "What is this? Your torture chamber?" And all will be well that ends well. Let's review those steps again:
Step 1. Patience
Step 2. Panic
Step 3. Hysteria
Step 4. Desperation
Step 5. Question

Lesson #9 Dumping Your Sewer
Dumping your sewer is never a fun job but if you are lucky you will find someone out in Utah who lets you dump it for free. There's nothing to it, really. Just make sure that the hoses are attached properly and you're set to go. Of course, since the ground is frozen the sewage will have no where to go but on top of the snow. However, you should feel good about this because at least you didn't dump it into the sidewalk sewer at your dad's house like Cousin Eddie would have done.

Lesson #10 Have Fun
The most important thing to remember is to have fun. This, you will not be able to avoid. You will be making many precious family memories on you RV adventure and it is a lifetime experience that you will never forget. Just make sure you bring your camera and a journal so you can record all those events that some day you are bound to look back and laugh at.

One Final Note

If upon your return you should decide that despite the fun you had on your journey RVing is really not for you, don't be surprised when you win a free 4 day rental for the spring in a Christmas drawing you did not even know you had entered. Happy RVing!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-12T19:23:00.000-08:00

I like to write blogs as a stress relief. And this Christmas season has been extremely stressful for me. (Come on blog, work your healing magic.) I have no one to blame but myself for this. Our lives are really only as stressful as we make them, or let them be. I made my life stressful but not because I like stress. Then, "why?" you may ask. I'll tell you. I do it in the hopes that when I die, my kids will remember me for all those gingerbread houses I made for them and their friends instead of the homework nag that I am. I do it so that instead of remembering me as the "Piano Nazi" (which I like to call myself) they'll remember all those great gifts I made them by hand for Christmas. Instead of remembering me as the bedroom cleaning oppressor, maybe they'll remember me as the great mom who threw each of them their own individual Christmas parties out of the kindness of my heart. Maybe they'll remember the trip to California/Disneyland over all those times I woke them up early and forced them out of bed to get ready for school. And maybe, just maybe, Bryton will remember how I pulled him out of school and took him to a matinee and Sydney, Brooklyn and Whitney will remember how I dressed them all up and brought them to see the Nutcracker instead of how I was always telling them to get off the computer and turn off the television. And why does writing this blog make me feel better? Because I know that if I should die tomorrow, eventually my kids will read this out of curiosity and be forced to remember all my "cool momisms". Thus I shall have one last chance to oppress them.

-The Dictator

When I grow up...

2008-11-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

The other day I went (I'm resisting the temptation to say, "I got to go") to the fire station with my daughter's preschool. I'm quite certain that I was looking forward to the occasion much more than any of the preschoolers. How many chances do you get as an adult to go on a field trip to a fire station? This excitement had nothing to do with the crush I've had on the word "fireman" since 9/11. I assure you it was the same type of excitement that a preschooler might show, only magnified because I'm more aware of how rare such opportunities are. I tried to act nonchalant as we walked around the station looking at their kitchen, exercise room, dormitory, etc.. But when they broke out the uniform, that was it for me. As they were letting each preschooler have their turn trying on the mask, the words, "Can I try it on?" escaped my lips. And it didn't stop there. Once I got going I found I couldn't stop. I started asking for pieces of their uniform in the same manner a surgeon might ask a nurse for his/her instruments during surgery. I got completely geared up and ready to go. This got the wheels in my head turning. I started thinking, "Maybe I should be a fireman. I could do this." I started quizzing them on what I would have to do to get to where they are. They started explaining the process and I listened intently. I was pretty discouraged when I found out how competitive it is. But then they told me I could do a ride along any time I wanted. All I would need to do is sign a paper saying that I wouldn't blame them if I died on the way. I was pretty sure I'd found a new career as a "ride-along fireman".

About 3 days later I went to get my hair done. As I chatted with my "hair-dresser-by-day-strip- club-bouncer-by-night" stylist I found myself taking the same sort of interest in his line of work. (Not the strip club bouncing) I started asking him, "So, how much is the tuition for beauty school?" "How long does it take to be a hair dresser?" "What kinds of things do you have to do while you're becoming a hair stylist." As he answered my questions (he seemed only slightly annoyed with his inability to concentrate) the wheels in my head started turning again. I thought, "Maybe I should be a hair stylist." "It wouldn't take very long." "It might be kind of fun."

For some reason I keep having to remind myself that I already am what I'm going to be when I grow up. Just last night I suddenly became alarmed at the realization that I'm going to be 40 in another 3 short years. Not exactly the ideal stage of life for starting up a new career. Although, since the fire station and the hair dresser I've also seriously considered going to med school to be a doctor and teaching Portuguese at CSU. And I am up for suggestions.

A Middle-Aged Shopper's Nightmare

2008-11-10T09:38:00.000-08:00

Saturday I decided to go shopping because I was in the mood, we didn't have anything else going on, and John was home to watch the kids. The stars were aligned just right. It happens rarely. I did most of my shopping at the one and only mall in my town. It is a run down mall that hardly anyone frequents anymore. Many stores including The Gap, Mervyns, JC Penney, and lots of others have recently closed in this mall. There have been many rumors about the mall being renovated but who knows when or if that will actually happen. I'm okay with it though because they do have an Ann Taylor and a Gymboree. On Saturday, apparently the stars aligned for a lot more people than just me. I don't know if I had ever seen our mall that crowded. I would be surprised if we got that many people there on the day after Thanksgiving. Anyway, it made me feel cool to be in such a popular mall even if it was being popular for the first time I had ever witnessed.

Now, just because Ann Taylor and Gymboree are the only places I actually buy stuff at does not mean I don't try to branch out to other stores. One store that I go into every time I go to the mall is Hollister Co.. Why? Because that's the cool store. That's the store that I kept hearing was going to be opening up in our mall. People made such a fuss about it that I almost felt unworthy to receive such an honor. Anyway, as I implied earlier, I like to feel cool so I make sure and go into Hollister Co. whenever I can and every time it proves to me that I am SO not cool. I simply don't belong in that store. For many reasons. The #1 reason being that they simply don't want my kind there so they try to make sure I'll hate the experience. And it works. I hate everything about it.

First, there's fear of the unknown. You can't see into the store from the mall. You have to walk in almost like you would a spook house. You go around the corner having no idea what might jump out at you. Already we are off to a bad start.

Second, after you do venture around the corner something does jump out at you. A teenage girl folding jeans looks up and instead of saying, "BOO!" like they would in a spook house she says, "What's up?" I'm thinking, "Hold on. That's 'What's up, MAAM?' to you." I think I'd rather have a monster jump out at me.

Then there's the lighting. Do they actually want you to be able to see the clothes that you're going to buy or are they just continuing on with the spook house theme?

Last, the loud music. Holy cow. It's like being surrounded by shrieking demons.

When I came home from shopping I complained about all of this to John and he pointed out that they're trying to appeal to teenagers and the only way teenagers will want to go in there is if old people like me don't. That's where I get the last laugh. I'm still planning on going there whenever I have the chance. It's my own little game of truth or dare. Am I daring enough to walk in, go all the way to the back of the store and go back out again? Yes. And I'm going to keep playing this game until my mid-life crisis is over. And by then, my kids will be teenagers. No wonder they're the only store that's actually prospering in our sad, sorry little mall.

The Petersens

2008-11-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

Is this not a nice looking family?? I challenge anyone to tell me that this is not an extremely attractive family. This is all the family that came from Denver and Utah to attend Sydney's baptism. Four of John's 8 siblings and their families plus his parents. We had a great time hanging out with everyone. The kids LOVED going trick-or-treating the night before with their cousins. I'm a little ashamed to admit that John, April and I ditched the trick-or-treating on Halloween night to go to the BYU football fireside. If you read my previous blog on Halloween you might understand why I wasn't sad to miss out. Although it was interesting to observe that the football players were. After the fireside one of the football players was taking us to find Harvey Unga so we could have him sign Bryton's jersey. We were amused to finally find him and some of his teammates across the street trick-or-treating. I'm going to go ahead and attribute their near loss to CSU to too much candy the night before. Maybe I should run that theory by Bronco if I see him.

A "Bone" To Pick

2008-11-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Saturday was my doggie's birthday. He turned one year old. Did you know that you can buy doggie birthday cakes at Super Target in the ice cream section? Poor Captain got no such thing. And that has nothing to do with Super Target proximity now that you can see it from my kitchen window. There was plenty of partying going on due to Sydney's baptism, Halloween, and the BYU football game at CSU (more to come on those later) but Captain had to stay in the backyard for most, if not all of it. As I like to say: "Poooor Dogggggie." So, as a birthday tribute, I am going to write a biography of his first year of life. The events will be listed in chronological order.

1. December 25, 2007 Captain came to live with us. He must have been a little shaken up from all the noise. Brooklyn had not stopped crying from having a stocking holder fall on her head. We would have waited for her to calm down but he was getting a little impatient inside that big box. So out he came and most of the kids were so excited. Even Brooklyn's shrieks grew instantly quieter so you know it must have really been something. Bryton was a little bit in shock but Sydney without hesitation picked him up and started running around saying, "I love him! I love him!"

2. Captain went on his first ski trip. Cousin Keaton came along to baby/dog sit.

3. Captain ate an entire 5 lb. bag of chocolate chips. Since chocolate is lethal to dogs, our neighbor who is a veterinarian gave him an I.V. to try to help flush it out of him. He was badly shaken but pulled out of it.

4. Captain ate rat poison. He was rushed to the animal hospital and had to stay there for 2 days. The vet was very concerned because of all rat poisons, this was the most lethal. Somehow he pulled through. Again.

5. Captain ate a pan of homemade brownies. Kathleen panicked and poured hydrogen peroxide down his throat to try to make him throw up. She later learned that it needs to be diluted so she poured water down his throat as an after thought in order to dilute it in his stomach. Captain pulled through. He is now 3 for 3.

6. Captain went on a trip to Lake McConaghey and was in doggie heaven.

7. Captain ate a red ink pen on our brand new carpet. The carpet turned red and had to be replaced. 4 for 4.

As you can see he is a very active doggie with a dual personality. Half of his personality has a death wish. The other half has a strong will to live. You know the saying, "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." At this rate, he ought to live a very long time. At least we hope he does because in between all those big disasters and the small ones that I didn't mention he has been the perfect companion. Bryton finally has someone to rough house with and share a bedroom with. Whitney has a friend to play with while all of her siblings are in school. I have a walking/jogging/biking companion. John has been training him and some day, if he ever gets a spare minute, hopes to take him bird hunting. Sydney and Brooklyn love to take him out on walks. And he makes a very soft, warm pillow to watch T.V. with.

So yes, he's been a handful, but he's been worth every minute of it. Good boy, Captain! Good boy! (We haven't taught him "happy birthday" yet.)

#7

2008-10-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

My metamorphosis is complete. I am now a morning person.

...#6

2008-10-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

Not to be outdone by my 8 and 10 year old kids, I have become a proficient rip-sticker.

IAMWGIAT Entry #5

2008-10-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

The other day Brooklyn was given 2 plastic pumpkins at the neighborhood Halloween party. She was very fond of both of them so when she lost one of them she was extremely distraught. After she finally settled down, she began playing with her other plastic pumpkin. As she was playing with it she dropped it on the floor and before you could bat an eyelash Captain picked it up and swallowed it. Now she had zero plastic pumpkins and was even more distraught than she had been just 10 minutes earlier. To comfort her I told her he would poop it out and we could find it then. Bad idea. Today she reminded me that I said that and you'll never guess what I just got back from doing.

IAMWGIAT Entry #4

2008-10-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

Today I loaded my 3 year old in the bike trailer and brought my 1 year old golden on a bike ride to the ponds behind my housing development. I sneakily took off his leash and threw him sticks into the pond. I was never apprehended by any ranger.

IAMWGIAT Entry #3

2008-10-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Today I slammed my thumb in the van door and didn't even think to swear.

I'm A Mom Who's Got It All Together: Entry#2

2008-10-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Today I inadvertently matched my outfit to my mini-van.

I'm A Mom Who's Got It All Together: Entry#1

2008-10-28T11:54:00.002-07:00

Today I wore pearls to the grocery store.

Don't say the "H" word

2008-10-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's just one more blog to emphasize how difficult it is to keep up with my kids' activities and then I'll change my blog theme to "I'm A Mom Who's Got It All Together".

I've always found Halloween (as a mom) to be a little bittersweet. Yeah, it's fun to dress up and to dress my kids up and to get "free" candy. But it also means that I need to come up with costumes for 4 kids. And I don't mean 1 costume per kid. I mean 1 costume per festivity. Our ward had a party last weekend with a hero theme. "Come dressed as your favorite hero!" Our school traditionally has a "Come dressed as your favorite literary character!" the day before Halloween. Our neighborhood has a Halloween party the week before Halloween. And then of course there is Halloween itself where the kids go trick-or-treating at John's work in the afternoon and then again at night around the neighborhood.

So, this year, Bryton is going as Huckleberry Finn, a BYU football player and the grim reaper. Sydney is going to stick to just 2 costumes -Princess Leah and Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz". Brooklyn also is sticking to 2. Pippy Longstocking and the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia. Whitney is my easy one. She's going as the "Cat in the Hat" That is a total of 8 different costumes that I have to put on my 4 kids on 4 different occasions. That's a total of 16 times I have to dress a kid up minus one because Whitney's not in school yet. (Of course her Little School teacher for that week might have something different to say as the day gets closer.)

Let's face it "Favorite Hero Day" and "Literary Character Day" are just sneaky ways of having Halloween without having Halloween. I don't have anything against those other parties. I just like that if we were to call all of them "Halloween Parties" I would have half as many costumes to come up with and it would sure make my "H word" a whole lot easier.

Correction

2008-10-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

I need to make a correction to one of my previous blogs. In it I stated that John doesn't believe there is such a thing as ADD. He told me that was wrong and that he believes it is real, he just doesn't believe every ADD situation needs to be medicated.

A Team Player

2008-10-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

This blog is dedicated to my hard working husband. Here is a candid shot I took of him on his way home from work at Intel. You can see my shadow in the picture. Don't know how he didn't see me standing there. Again, it must be the focus thing. He's so excited to be getting home to his family that he just can't think of anything else. The kids are equally excited to see him when he gets home. I've also posted what a typical greeting from the kids looks like when he walks through the door. Just recently he took a trip to Boston and I was home with them by myself for a week. During his absence I realized why they get so excited when he gets home. He is way cooler and way more fun than I am.

I'm ashamed to admit that before he left I was actually kind of excited to have the week to myself. I wouldn't have to cook because we could have mac & cheese or cereal for dinner every night. I would be less distracted and therefore able to get more done. I had all these grand visions of a spotless house, tons of reading being done and the children quietly tucked into bed and sound asleep by 8:30. Since he was gone over a weekend, I also pictured myself taking them out on fun outings, bike rides, etc.. Imagine my disappointment when he got back and I had absolutely nothing to show for it.

It's good that he leaves me every once in a while. It gives me a chance to let reality soak in. I do not function well without him. And here all this time I thought that I was the fun responsible one. Not that I'm saying things would be peaches and cream for him if I left him in charge for a week. But we are definitely a team with different rolls to play. It's kind of like how a quarter back can't function without a receiver. He can always run the ball or hand it off but throwing it is way more efficient.

What Doctors Won't Tell You

2008-10-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

Out of all my children, Sydney is the most like me. She looks the most like me and her personality is similar to mine. She is definitely a day dreamer. I'd like to spend a few minutes in her brain every day just to take part in all the activity that I know is going on in there. In some ways she reminds me of a story book character who, bless her heart, despite her constant efforts to please those around her is always getting into trouble because of her active imagination. I know she must have inherited this trait from me because my husband has made it very clear to me that there is always just one thought going on in his mind at a time. And sometimes fewer. He doesn't get how I can jump around from topic to topic and I don't think that he even knows the meaning of the word "multi-task". So, though I have mostly grown out of the "day-dream" stage I try to relate to her as best I can and often reassure myself that she will eventually grow out of it too.

Last year, her first grade teacher had some things to say about it. When it came time for parent teacher conference (about a month and a half into the school year) she told my husband and me that Sydney reminded her of someone who had ADD. That she had trouble focusing. This news was not surprising to us. We were surprised however, that the teacher felt it necessary to bring this up to us. I mean, she has 24 other 6 year olds that she's with all day, don't they all act like they have ADD? Was she planning on saying this same thing to the other 48 parents she would speak with today? We left the conference only slightly concerned.

The teacher called me in to talk about this a few more times during the year and each time my concern grew until it escalated to full on panic. I decided maybe I should take her to the doctor to see what he would have to say about it. This is where it gets interesting.

I told him what my concerns were. He asked me a few questions about Sydney and immediately diagnosed her with ADD. He even wrote a prescription for her and gave me some samples of a drug called "Strattera" that was supposed to help her focus.

Now my husband who is always a skeptic hardly believes there is such a thing as ADD. He thinks it's a made up illness. He took a test on the internet that was meant to diagnose people with ADD and sure enough, they said he had it. Remember this is the man that always has one thought or less in his brain. How could a doctor possibly know that Sydney had ADD by asking a few questions about her behavior? To think that he so readily prescribed medication is alarming. Needless to say, John was completely against giving her the medication. But I, being in the panicked state that I was in, convinced him that we should just try it and see if anything changed. He agreed to it and we decided that we wouldn't even tell her teacher she was on it. Within a few days I ran into her teacher and she didn't even have to ask. She knew that we had put her on something because the difference was like night and day.

Despite the results, we took her off the medication because she hated swallowing the pills. We decided to look into other options. We found a place that was recommended to us called

"Encode Decode" (or maybe it was vice-versa) She went there once or twice a week and they worked on concentration and cross patterning. She also recommended a program where she listened to classical music 5 nights a week. She also recommended non-synthetic vitamin supplements. By the end of the year her teacher had noticed a difference. She said it wasn't as drastic as it was with the medication but that she had definitely been more focused since beginning the tutoring program.

Just recently I had an awful day. These days happen very seldom to me but it was enough to set me off. If you read one of my previous blogs you know the history of me not dressing Sydney in appropriate clothing for her school concert. Well, a few days later she was supposed to have another concert (according to my wall calendar) where she had to dress up. This time I got her up, dressed her in the right clothes and even brought the video camera so that "daddy could see it". I was feeling good like I was being given a second chance to redeem myself but I suspected something was not quite right when I drove up to the school and the parking lot was mostly empty. I went in and inquired at the front office and they told me I got the day right but the wrong month. Chalk another one up for me. Later that day I got a call from Sydney's teacher asking why she had missed so many days of homework. The teacher explained to me that it was my responsibility to make sure she got it in and that I needed to find a way to be more organized. Ouch. Those two things on top of spending 2 hours at the orthodontist and not being able to find Bryton's soccer shin guards which led to him missing practice were too much to bear. I went strait to the pantry and pulled out some of Sydney's "Strattera" medication that the doctor had given as a sample and proceeded to pop one into my mouth. Maybe it wasn't Sydney that had the problem but me. Plus, this way, I could see for myself what kind of side effects it might have if I ever thought Sydney might need to go on it again.

Here's what I found out. I took the medication two days in a row. Once on a Tuesday and once on a Wednesday. Today is Thursday and I haven't slept since Tuesday morning. Tuesday's night sleep was disruptive but last night's was obsolete. Every time I felt myself drifting off it was almost as though I could feel an electrical current in my brain acting as an alarm clock and waking me up. Even the book on World War II that I've been reading couldn't make me go to sleep. Trust me, I am NOT an insomniac. It is now 2:00 in the afternoon. Usually by this time I am wiped out and ready for a nap. I could not sleep right now if you paid me. This morning before school I asked Sydney if she had a hard time sleeping when she took the medication and she said, "Yes. I tried really hard but couldn't." I never would have guessed that if I hadn't taken the medication myself. To think that a doctor would be so liberal with a medication they know so little about, for an illness they know so little about, with a 6 year old child is unbelievable.

So, if I ever have another "focally challenged" child or grandchild my prescription will be to stay away from the doctor, listen to classical music, take omega-3's and work on concentration exercises like memory match and sudoku. Or, to just let nature take its course and solve the problem on its own. That's what seemed to work for me.

And one more note. Sydney's tutor told her last spring that she should stop coming because Sydney didn't need her. She said, "Sydney is such a bright girl that I'm not worried about her at all. "

General Conference

2008-10-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

This may not be the most attractive picture ever taken of my kids and me, but it couldn't be a more accurate portrayal of what we look like on Conference Sunday. Notice the unlimited supply of junk food sitting out and the pacifier-like ring pops in each of my children's mouths. What you can't see is the bag of Swedish Fish that I'm clinging to behind my blanket like a teddy bear. The best part about it is that if someone spills something on the carpet, we have a very loyal house cleaner that is never off duty.

A day in the life of a MOFO (mother of four)

2008-10-03T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today was my daughter's 50 states program at school. During this program, all the 2nd graders do a presentation where each child talks about one of the 50 states. They also sing patriotic songs. Then after ward the parents walk through the map museum that they have on display in their classrooms. These are maps they've been working on for the last 2 weeks for homework. It is extremely hyped up and all the 2nd graders look forward to it with great anticipation. Today was the big day. I was running late but fortunately made it into the auditorium (A.K.A. cafeteria) before the classes had worked their way in. They all walked in wearing red, white or blue or all 3 colors. That's when my whole week flashed before my eyes and I remembered the note that had been sent home saying, "make sure your child wears red, white , or blue for the program". As they walked in one by one I watched hopefully for the other kids who had also forgotten to wear their patriotic colors. Not only were all the other children wearing their colors, some of them were decked out in ribbons and other ornamental garb resembling the 4th of July. Then I saw Sydney. I had just gone to Gymboree the day before to spend my "gymbucks" and she was wearing the cutest outfit. I had picked it out for her myself before school. Unfortunately it didn't matter how cute it was. I watched her walk in wiping the tears from her eyes. As she sat down she looked out toward the audience and gave a brave smile. She loves to please people and I imagine her teacher had told her and her classmates to "make sure and smile while you're out there!" She did a great job. She recited all her lines perfectly. But she had to keep regaining her composure throughout the entire assembly. I sat there seething. Boy was I gonna tell her teacher off for not letting her call me and ask me to bring her the appropriate clothing. It's one thing to teach responsibility but, come on, she's only a second grader. Fortunately I had time during the performance to think things through and afterwards walked up to her teacher and very politely asked how Sydney was doing. She told me she was doing well and that she had tried to call me to ask for clothes but couldn't get a hold of me. I imagined the light markings of a giant "L" appearing on my forehead.
I walked over to where Sydney was standing displaying her map of Michigan that she had worked so hard on and told her what a great job she'd done. She then asked me if I had video taped it for daddy. (The markings got a little darker.) "No", I said trying to stay positive, "but I took lots of pictures." Again, she had to work to keep her composure. On the way home she explained to me how she'd tried to call and I downplayed the whole thing saying,"it's a good thing you wore pink and gray because that's almost the same as red and blue." She seemed appeased. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and gave a sigh of relief. Somehow I had managed to narrowly escape her resentment and hopefully avoid any permanent scarring.
This was a small, fairly insignificant incident. Unfortunately, the problems get bigger as they get older. How will I manage them? Perhaps all the little incidents that take place when they're little are to prepare us for the bigger ones that are bound to happen when they're older. Baby steps.

2008-10-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

Recently I decided to train for a triathlon. Here is a very flattering picture of me finishing up my swim in the Longmont Reservoir. Please take note of all the people behind me. I was extremely nervous to do this the week before the event but the huge trophy on my mantle reminds me every day of why I did it. (Are you sensing the sarcasm?) Actually, trophy or no trophy it was a really neat experience. I'll probably do another one soon just so I can justify buying a "Triathlete" sticker for my car window. Oh, and also for the exercise.

2008-09-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a recent picture of my family. We're at the Grand Canyon. That may be obvious to some but not everyone would necessarily notice my white knuckles grasping on to the rock behind me. The Grand Canyon is really no place for a mother of 4 little ones with a terrible fear of heights. Especially when her little ones are not afraid. Although I will say it's definitely worth seeing. I just would have preferred to see it a little further from the edge.

Testing...Testing...123

2008-09-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! I never realized how easy it is to post a blog spot.