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The Trials of a Busy Mom

Author: Superpaige (Page 33 of 180)

Happy Mother’s Day!

May 12, 2012 / / 2 Comments

My son has to speak in Sacrament Meeting tomorrow. They usually ask the graduating seniors to speak on Mother’s day. That way none of the men embarras themselves, and none of the women need to talk on Mother’s day. I won’t BE there to listen to his talk, but I know he will do a great job. I get to ring bells with the Tabernacle Choir in the Sunday morning Music and the Spoken Word Mother’s day special.

As he was working on his talk, I said, “You could probably mention our chicken experiment. There’s probably a funny story in all of that.”
“I wouldn’t dream of leaving it out,” he said casually.
Now I’m a little worried.

Oh, well. At least I won’t be there to be embarrassed or to cry or anything.

In the afternoon, we are having a big to-do with Ryan’s parents and siblings. Since we had my whole family over recently to celebrate my mom’s birthday, it’s only fair to have his family over for Mother’s day. Hopefully I can keep the really pretty potted flower I bought for her alive long enough to give it to her.

I hope that whatever you do on this Mother’s day, you will CALL your mom, and tell her how wonderful she is. We wouldn’t be who we are without our Mothers.

Thank you, MOM!!!

Just a little gift so they’ll know I care

May 5, 2012 / / 1 Comment

One of our friends was heading to St. George for the Iron man competition. Talk about INSANE!

His wife was trying to be supportive, but she wasn’t thrilled about sitting around forever WAITING to see him run by, or bike by, or swim by. So I made them a little “Triathlon Survival Kit”. It’s mostly for her, since he has all his snacks and nutrition specifically planned out, but hopefully it will make her weekend a little more fun.

It’s nothing fancy, but there’s some sunglasses, a squirt bottle, some bubbles, candy, bandaids, trail mix, and even a clown nose and a ‘snickers marathon’ protein bar.

She was excited when I gave her the basket, and I was glad I could bring her some joy. Since I was making one for her, I made one for another one of my friends (I actually visit teach both of these ladies), but made it just a bit different, so it’s a ‘Summer survival kit’. Hers had most of the same stuff, but she had some hydrocortizone cream and nail polish in there and no power bar. When she opened hers, she called me immediately to thank me.

Now we’re working on teacher appreciation gifts for some of the kids’ teachers. It doesn’t take a lot, but it sure is fun to give or receive fun and unexpected gifts, right?

Fun, fun!

PROM!

May 5, 2012 / / 3 Comments

At the beginning of the school year, I informed my son that it was his duty as a man to ask two at least two girls out this year, and one of those dates had to be prom. Whether he wanted to or not.

Unreasonable of me? No. Boys need to practice their social skills and need to know that it’s ok to ask a girl out, not just ‘hang out’ with friends. And if boys aren’t asking out girls, the girls are sitting at home, dreaming of going to prom, but NOT going. I also informed him that I would be financing the operation, so it’s not like he would be spending his own money (I’m laughing to myself as I type this, by the way. ‘his own money’–what is that?)

Once the new year rolled around, I found out when Prom would be, and started to talk it up. We got more serious by the end of March. He would have to ask someone before spring break. I even took away the pressure to be creative, as I said, “Just choose who you want to ask, and I’ll come up with the rest”. I love this creative stuff, anyway. So, once he told me who he was going to ask, I was at the grocery store and saw the giant tub of cheese balls. This could work, I thought.

And if he didn’t like my idea, I knew they wouldn’t be wasted. I told Cole the idea, and he came up with this little poem.

Hidden inside the container was a capsule with Cole’s name on it, so she would have to search or dump out the cheese balls to find out who it was from. Not TOO complicated and not over the top, but still kind of cute. Then, under cover of darkness, the stealthy little brother (who had an encounter with some asphalt that day, darnit. And notice how he’s in his pajamas?)got to leave the package on the doorstep and ring the doorbell and run.

A few days later, this little mouse appeared on the doorstep.

Cute!

So the date was on.

I then spent the next month encouraging him to find a friend who was also going to prom to double date with, since these things are much more fun with a group. After he was done with his big trip to Nationals for Academic Decathlon, we had to get serious.
Time to:
rent a tux –where the guy was totally grumpy and voiced his displeasure that 3 schools in the area were all having prom the same weekend, and where there were only 3 styles of 38 long to chose from

pick a coursage–where I went to the flower shop TOO LATE and they practically laughed me out of the store and told me they would not, could not, make me a corsage for the dance the next night. So shoot me! We have been busy around here and I put it off! I ended up ordering from the Flower Patch in Orem, and called in a favor from my dear friend Robin, who picked up the corsage and brought it to us on Friday afternoon.

Photos--They didn’t want just the plain old dance photos, so I arranged for a photographer to meet them at a park in Draper, after they had picked all the girls up. I was working on Friday, but when I checked my phone at the end of the day, I saw a text from the photographer letting me know that she could NOT make it because her husband was having a kidney stone attack, and she had to take him to the hospital. Always thinking I have to solve every problem myself, I spent the next hour trying to rearrange my life so that I could meet them at the park and take pictures. I finally had it all worked out, including many texts to hubby and friends to see who could help out with baseball and snacks and the other kids, when my son said, “Oh, Ethan’s dad said he could do pictures.” Nice to know, kid.

Cole’s group had planned a fun date for the night before prom, where they went to a dance class and learned the tango. Unfortunately, Cole’s PE teacher had also planned long jumping or pole vaulting or something for PE on Thursday, wherein Cole sprained his ankle. Great. He went dancing anyway, and could barely walk when he came home. Ice and ace bandage time.

The group changed from 6 to 4 when one of the guys was very sick on Thursday, but I guess he got well enough to go by Friday, so they were back to 6. Good thing we had both a car and a suburban at the ready. ( He ended up driving the suburban, which unfortunately had my snacks for the baseball game and John’s mitt in the back. Oops.)

In the end, everything turned out fine. While I don’t have any pictures of his date or the group (yet), I do have pictures of Cole looking so spiffy in his tux.

When he got home, he was happy and excited and said the date had been GREAT. I didn’t get too many details because it was one in the morning and I was asleep. This morning, I woke him up at 7:30 to go take a practice AP test. Even though it’s Prom weekend, the boy still has to study, right?

So, I am glad I stuck to my guns and ‘made’ him go to Prom. It’s the only one he will get to go to, and I hope he always has fond memories of high school and his senior Prom.

Weekend Roundup

April 30, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Robin- a little more than a week ago, my good friend Robin called and told me her plan to come to Utah for a few months to complete spring and summer terms at BYU. She asked, if needed, if she could stay here with us. I told her that I was sure we could work something out. But I kind of didn’t think she could actually make all the arrangements and come to an agreement with her ex about the kids, but she DID it. She arrived on Tuesday night, and stayed here until she found a place that would accommodate both her and her bunnies. My kids LOVE her bunnies, but we just can’t have such attractive allergens around here.

Women’s Conference- Thursday and Friday I traipsed off to Provo myself to be uplifted and spiritually filled with many great talks. I wish I could remember every great word I heard. I wrote so much down, and have many things in my life to examine and hopefully make better. It was really great. By Friday afternoon, though, I couldn’t sit through one more talk, so I was happy to leave campus with Robing to go look at an apartment. That one didn’t work out, but she found a great one on Saturday.

Cole’s trip- Wednesday evening, I took Cole, two of his friends and one of his advisers to the airport, so they could all fly down to New Mexico for the Academic Decathlon Nationals. They have been studying SO hard and SO long, and were ALL glad that the weekend of the competition was finally here. I got a few texts about how things were going, and Ryan watched a bit of the superquiz that was streaming live on Friday afternoon. For their first time ever at Nationals, they didn’t do too badly. Cole earned a Silver medal in speech, and we’re so proud of him. I have no idea how much money he owes from his trip, as they haven’t finished their fundraising, but if any of you would still like to contribute, Cole takes checks. He came home Saturday night, and we were thrilled to hear all about it. You can read his take on it at his blog here.
Here’s my niece wearing some of Cole’s medals.

Chicken enclosure- For a while, now, I’ve been trying to figure out the best configuration of dog runs and coops for our chickens. Well, Saturday we took two separate 10′ x 4′ dog runs (both acquired for FREE, I am proud to tell you) and made one 14′ x 14′ enclosure.
It took almost all of us to get everything moved. One chicken coop in enclosed within the fence, and another is attached to the side. So I can let the chickens out, and they will hopefully have enough space to not pick on each other. I am not quite to the point of just letting them all roam with no chaperone, there is no cover over the run, and we have lost chickens when they were scared and flew up and over the fence, so we really need to get that covered. We’ll work on that this week.

Mom’s birthday-Saturday was my mom’s birthday, so I invited the whole family over for dinner on Sunday. I think we had 32 people over here, and they created quite a cacophony of noise! It wasn’t quite warm enough for everyone to go and eat outside, even though we had worked to get plenty of outdoor seating ready. I did eat my dinner outside and it was so much more peaceful than the chaos inside. But I think my mom appreciated having everyone together, yet not having to have the party at her house. My sister’s little boy started having an allergic reaction to the birds (who live in the corner of the kitchen), so that wasn’t fun. I was just so impressed that they had come, and brought all 13 kids. Yes, I mentioned that it was crazy, right? Between me and my sisters, we have 22 kids. I was outside trying to make sure none of them wandered off. I will admit that I didn’t totally clean up after everyone left. Our family just settled in to watch the Amazing Race (so sad that Mark and Bopper were eliminated) and I put it off until the morning. Messes will ALWAYS wait for you, I have found.

It was quite a week, and a wild weekend. I am personally very thankful for a boring Monday when I can get a little caught up. Well, until the kids get home from school, that is. Then I need to find a tux for Cole, take the kids to piano lessons, help with homework, make dinner, have family home evening….

There’s nothing like a visit from the Police to liven up your night

April 27, 2012 / / 2 Comments

At 2:10 am the phone rang. Since it had been a windy and rainy night, I had earplugs in to combat the noise, so I didn’t hear it right away. But I got up and grabbed it right AFTER the answering machine picked it up on ring 3 1/2 (I still have never figured out how to change that to pick up LATER. It drives me crazy! How am I supposed to get to the phone by the 3rd ring? Who does that?). Anyway, I grabbed the phone, said hello, and a sweet voice said, “This is the 9-1-1 operator, and we got a call from this number. Is everything alright?”
” What?” I croaked.
She very calmly and patiently asked if this was the Erickson residence, and said that she had gotten a call, and was there an emergency? She sounded kind of like my neighbor. Was this a joke?
I fumbled around saying that I don’t think anyone called 9-1-1, but I would have to check. I was still kind of wondering if this was a dream. I said I would check things out.
“I will send a patrol car over,” she said.
By now Ryan’s up, too. He said he had just barely gone to bed, and he didn’t call. So, we made the rounds. I woke up our poor houseguest Robin, asked her if she had been using the phone, checked on each of the kids, and they were all in their beds, and Ryan checked the phones. By now I was awake, and thinking this out. How on earth did they get a call from us? Could it have come from one of the kids’ cell phones? If it had, why would they call the home phone? I climbed back in bed, and then there was a knock on the door. Oh, yeah, the patrol car. I look out the window, and sure enough, there’s a police car outside. We dashed downstairs, and open the door to the police in our pajamas.

“We got a 9-1-1 from this number. Is everything ok?” Said the nice officer.
We then explained our befuddlement at who had called, and thanked them for coming out and said it looked like everyone was safe. They left.

I checked on all the kids again. Really made sure they were breathing.

How in the world was I going to go back to sleep after this? I’m such a worrier at night as it is, and this wasn’t helping.

Ryan and I said a prayer, and then we ‘went back’ to sleep. Or, Ryan went to sleep and I obsessed about every sound I heard. The ‘whatifs’ finally subsided, and I don’t remember much after 4, so I must have fallen asleep. The 6:20 alarm was harsh, I tell you.

So, it is officially a mystery. But things are fine. The house is fine. The foster bunnies are ok. The chickens are ok. Everything seems to be in order.

Maybe I dreamed it all. Except if I did, why would Ryan had had the same dream?

Oh, well, it’ll be a funny story we can laugh about.
Later.
Much. Later.

What the heck?

April 24, 2012 / / 12 Comments

As I was walking out of church on Sunday, I took my sunglasses out of my bag and put them on. In doing this, the frame cracked and one of the lenses fell to the ground. What the heck? Those glasses aren’t even that old!

As a fair skinned person of the blue eyed persuasion, I do not leave the house without sunglasses. I keep a pair in my purse, a pair in the car, and I have multiple pairs of glasses at home. I buy them whenever I can find them on sale. Kohl’s often has sunglasses on clearance, so when I can find them for $5 or less, I will buy a few pairs. I do not buy expensive, fancy, designer sunglasses. What would be the point? I would just scratch, break or lose them within two months, and then I would be out $30-$50 bucks instead of $5-$10. Although if you wanted to send me some really nice shades, I would promise to do my best to take care of them.

Irritated with my dumb glasses and wondering if I could somehow fix them and make them wearable again, I put them on anyway.

My kids thought that was the FUNNIEST thing ever, and that I was wearing them merely to entertain them. Right. I wore them home. Because otherwise I would squinting like a…like a something that squints. The kids roared with laughter all the way home. I wore the glasses inside.
“Hey, these are GREAT!” I said, ” I can wear them inside AND outside, and my eyes just adjust!”
Busting up with laughter, the kids said it looked more like I was a pirate wearing an eye patch. They even HAD to tell Dad all about it when he got home later that day. Ha, Ha, very funny.

Whatever.
So I resigned myself to giving these ones up and wearing my next back-up pair.

Linking up to Jenny Matlock Alphabee Thursday.

Not primary?

April 23, 2012 / / 3 Comments

On Easter I was released from my church calling in the primary presidency. We had been in there together for almost 2 years, and it was time for a change. Our president is dealing with a lot of stuff in her family right now, and she needs to focus on them right now. Since they let her go, they had to cut us all loose. I am sad to leave that job, as I really do love working with the kids. What I won’t miss is trying to keep our primary staffed. It was a constant struggle, with people moving in and out and being called to different jobs, to keep teachers for every job. And now I don’t have to worry about it. I’ve been two weeks without a ward calling, and I like it. Most people don’t remember or even think about that my Bells on Temple Square job is a church calling. And it’s supposed to be my MAIN, if not my only calling. I do spend an average of 6 hours a week on that calling, between travel and rehearsal time. So I’m ok if they don’t reassign me to something right away.

Sunday was my first time being at church and not going to primary. Did I enjoy the lessons in Relief Society and Sunday School? No, actually, I did not. Since Ryan was out of town, I had told one of the other nursery leaders that I would go in there and help. Well, she called and told me she would be out of town, but we could handle it with just the two of us. Little did I know, they would call the main nursery lady to a job in primary. And didn’t call anyone else. So, one was released, and two were out of town. Hmmm. I grabbed Andrea, our former primary president, and asked if she would hang out in the nursery with me. What fun! Two subs muddling through.

One poor sweetie broke out in tears when someone left and shut the door. I held her until her sobbing turned to shudders, and she fell asleep. I eventually handed her off to one of the slacker elder’s quorum members who come into nursery to …..help? NO. to avoid going to class is more like it. He held her for a while, while I fed them all snacks. We had no singing time (someone swiped their cd player), no lesson, and no structure. Go with the flow of nursery, that’s what Ryan always does. I made the rookie mistake of getting a band-aid for one of the little girls who claimed she had an OWIE. Wouldn’t you just know it? Now EVERYONE has owies, and they ALL need band-aids. Sorry, kids. I’ll just kiss yours all better.

It was fun. I can see why Ryan and his nursery buddies love it so much.

Get out of the heat with a movie

April 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

In the official movie rankings of Paige,
Journey 2
Mysterious Island

Is the HOKEYEST movie I have seen in quite some time. I rate it better than Ponyo, but worse than Rango, if that tells you anything.
I did enjoy watching ‘Peta’ in a different setting, but that was about it’s only redeeming quality. I kept expecting Vanessa Hudgins to break into song about how much she missed Troy.

But it was a fun activity for the kids and I to go to on a hot Saturday afternoon. Especially at the end of a long week with dad out of town. We had already had our fill of the sun with soccer games, garage sales, and working in the yard, so many of us were sunburned, and the dollar movie (or sticky shoe, as we lovingly call it) seemed a good option. But even my kids were laughing at how totally over the top and improbably it was.

And speaking of heat, Ryan made it home from India. His pictures look like what you would see on the Amazing Race. And what a coincidence, the Amazing Race WAS in India last night. He was in Bangalore and then flew to Delhi. His thoughts? Crowded and crazy. But he did see lots of cows, and even went to a National Park mini safari thing. He should blog about it!

Vacation memories

April 19, 2012 / / 10 Comments

I’m trying to get myself out of vacation mode, after our trip last week. But there are so many things I want to remember, so I keep writing about it. Of course if the pile of laundry takes longer to get through than the actual vacation, you know you are in trouble.

Things I want my kids to remember from our vacation this year

*Our family is fun! We can have a great time together, even if we don’t have friends with us

*We come from Pioneer ancestry, and those pioneers were amazing people. They worked hard, were inventive and industrious people. They also sacrificed much and left their homes, even, to protect their religious freedoms.

*Grandma and Grandpa love them very much. They would have to, to come on vacation and spend 8 days with us. They even love them enough to let two of them sleep in their hotel room, if needed. Now that’s love!

*Joseph Smith was not only a great man, a dynamic leader, generous and loving, he was also a prophet of God.

*You don’t have to have fabulous adventures to have something to say. Mark Twain wrote about his own hometown.

*It took courage, skill, ingenuity and determination to build the St. Louis arch. And in the building process, not a single man died.

What they will probably remember..
-Cutting our block of cheese for our sandwiches with dental floss because we didn’t have a knife
-Trying to find a place to eat on Easter Sunday and having to resort to gas station food because nothing else was open,

-Caves are dark,

-Mom is a goofball and makes us dress up in all kinds of costumes and clothes,

-Singing “Willingly; because we HAVE to….”

-Playing Rockem Sockem Robots and Flippin Frogs,

-Mom let us swim in every hotel pool.

-That arch is REALLY high, and it was cool to go up and take pictures.

-Playing cards in the airport.

But whatever they remember or don’t remember, I hope they remember all the fun times and laughter we shared on our trip to Nauvoo, Hannibal, and St. Louis in 2012.

Linking to Jenny Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.
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Chicken update

April 17, 2012 / / 3 Comments

Remember those chicks that we got back before Valentine’s day?

They looked like this when we got them.

Soon they were to that awkward teenage phase and looked all gawky, but in a cute kind of way.

When they were about a month old, we started to take them outside for outings. We had to move them from the basement to the garage, because they were oh-so-smelly. Even then we had to change the paper in their box every single day, or we couldn’t stand the smell. They seemed to be more and more chicken like every day.

Although this little girl looks very hawk like, doesn’t she?

Once they were about 6 weeks old, I started taking them outside and letting them stay in the outside coop during the day.
But then I had to put the bigger chickens in a different pen to keep them from picking on the mini chickens. So that involved me carrying all the little chickens outside to the coop, moving the big girls to the run, etc. Then if it got too cold, I had to move everyone back. Spoiled much? Yes. They are.

When we went on vacation, I spent a good deal of time worrying about the best way to house all of my chickens. If I move the big chickens out of their pink coop, then they could use the old crappy red coop with the attached run. The pink coop is a little bit more protected and should be warmer, so I could put the little chicks in there. But what if it snowed? Would the little chicks be warm enough? I realized this is the first time I would be leaving my chickens, since we got chickens! Our last family vacation was last year before we started our great chicken project. I really don’t think I’m supposed to spend this much time and energy worrying about my little feathered friends.

We did get everyone settled, although I didn’t know if my girls would lay in this other coop. They really like to lay their eggs in their OWN box in their OWN coop.

Even if I moved their lay box into the other run, they wouldn’t go in there, and if they did lay an egg, I would just find it on the ground. Ugh.

Well, we DID leave them, and they made it through. Well, most of them did. We came home to find one of the little Americaunas dead in the coop. Not sure what happened because we had a girl coming to feed and water them, and they were apparently all ok the afternoon before our return. We are sad to have lost one, but I am trying to teach the kids (and myself) that these things happen with chickens, and we should be happy that four of the mini chickens and all the big girls made it.

Now my job is to acclimate the two sets of chickens. They have two side by side runs that I can put them in during the day, but I still worry about putting them all together.

Look how big they are getting! Almost like real chickens! And they are starting to sound more chickenlike and less like cheeping chicks, too.

The kids love them, and so do I. Even my husband, who a year ago was anti-chicken, has said how much he likes having them.

Hopefully within the next few weeks we can get things settled, and no more separatism between chickens. And we’ll settle into a summer routine and get back into our egg laying.

Yes, we love our chickens.

(Ok, we’re not to this stage, but we do love them)
And I’m not dressing them up in chicken clothes. Not yet, at least.

Linking to Camera Critters and Fresh From the Farm Friday>

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