Category: Uncategorized (Page 10 of 118)

It shouldn’t surprise me that I have awesome kids. I raised them, I know them, I live with them. I know they are amazing. But sometimes they still surprise me with their awesomeness.

I read Cole’s email today and I just cried. How is it that this kid can be so sweet, so thankful, so nice?

If you haven’t read it, you should take a minute and read his letter HERE.

See? It’s one to make a mother cry, right? He just floors me.

Anytime someone mentions missionaries, the kids turn to me and say, “Is that going to make you cry, mom?” No, you silly kids. I don’ t BREAK INTO TEARS every time someone mentions a missionary. I keep it together. Sure, I miss him and worry about him, but I don’t think about him being gone every single minute. But when he writes sweet stuff like that, yes, I cry. ARE YOU HAPPPY NOW, kids?

I am thankful for the opportunity I have to be a mother. These kids are such treasures, such blessings. They teach us so much about patience, giving of ourselves, and about getting along with people. We are supposed to be teaching them, and hopefully we do that.

You don’t get a lot of pay days as a parent, but sometimes you do, and it’s amazing.

This week was a killer, with 7 Merlin shows, two bells rehearsals for me, four chime classes, cub scouts, two junior high concerts, Thriller with the girls, a quick trip to California for Ryan…. and the list goes on.

ANYWAY, we’ve all gotten a bit behind on keeping the house clean.

And the garage was so full of stuff to go to DI, leaves, trash, bikes, grass clippings, etc, it was kind of a joke.

I came home from a rehearsal on Saturday and found the contents of our garage out on the grass. I was SUCH a beautiful day for it, but I was conflicted. Hooray! Ryan’s cleaning out the garage/Boo! He’s going to want me to help. But actually I didn’t help much at all. Natalie and Ryan did most of it, with a little help from Jenna and John.

I did NOT take a before picture. Really, you don’t want to know. But after they were done, it looked like this.

NICE! So thankful that Ryan took the initiative and that Natalie worked alongside him for the whole morning to get that clean.

I won some tickets to the Josh Groban concert, then immediately chastised myself for using my once a month WIN on concert tickets when I should have been trying to win a Disneyland trip (like Ryan’s brother won the next day). But, since I had the tickets, I wanted to go. I started asking around to see who wanted to go.

Ryan–“Eh. Rather not.”
WHAT? SERIOUSLY? Ok, whatever. I’ll find a friend.

My next door neighbor Serena, who LOVES Josh Groban and went to his concert last year–“WHAT? Are you inviting me? I wish I could, but I think I have Thriller tickets for that same night! ARGH!”

My friend Tess–“Really? I never have plans for Friday night, but we are going to a weekend conference, so I can’t go. Darn!”

My friend Michelle–“Not really the biggest Josh Groban fan. Ask Lisa.”

Lisa–(I asked her if she would rather go see Josh Groban or Michael Buble, since I had already invited her to come to see Michael Buble with me in November) “I would rather see Michael Buble, but if you can’t find anyone, I would love to see Josh Groban, too.”

I thought about who would really have fun at a concert, and decided to offer the ticket to my Bell Choir Friends, and see who wanted to go. Teresa replied right away, then also texted me to make sure I got the message that she wanted to go.

The night of the concert, I met Teresa at her house, in Draper, then she drove up to Salt Lake. We got some dinner at Crown Burger so we could park there for free (and because Crown Burger is awesome!). Then it was a short walk to the ‘Energy Solutions Arena’, which we still call the ‘Delta Center’. Once we got inside, the ticket guy said, “Go over there and exchange your tickets for better seats.” What? Ok. Sure. Our tickets were for section MM or something, so I assumed they would be way up at the top. They were FREE, after all.

The guy gave us new tickets and directed us over to door V or something, and we walked all the way down, and then they directed us down more stairs to go down to the floor.

There we were, 13 rows back from the stage! Because this was a concert in the round, they needed to fill in the floor seats, and really, there wasn’t a bad seat! Josh would go around the round stage, performing for each of the sections, and if you couldn’t see him in person, there were those big screens to see him.

The concert was amazing!

He played the piano, drums…he was funny and charming. He did it all.

Busy week. Our missionary was transferred. He mentioned it here. I was glad to hear from him, because for some reason (technical difficulties?) we didn’t get a letter from him last week. When I sent him an email on Wednesday, telling him that we didn’t get his email from Monday, he replied, “I sent it,” and that was the total of our communication for the week. I hope he likes his new area, in Virginia. I’m sure it’s gorgeous there right now, with all those trees and all those leaves changing colors.

Speaking of colors, our own mountains are going through their annual fall transformation right now, and they are looking oh so pretty. We had such nice weather last weekend, we were able to get quite a bit done. The kids even got to ride on the mini gote a bit.

Ryan let them drive around for a bit. They, of course, wanted to ride on the street, but we kept them confined to the back yard. Jenna asked me, “When you die, can I have the mini gote.” This old dirt bike thing was Ryan’s parents’, and he rode it around when HE was a kid. That thing is OLD. But they still like it. It could use some service and repair, however.

This week was a short week at school, for FALL BREAK. Last year we took a little trip down to Southern Utah for Fall Break. With National Parks closed and rain forecast for the weekend, I’m glad we are staying home this time.

This morning I dragged the kids along to our dress rehearsal for Merlin. They liked sitting up in the balcony of the theater all by themselves, and they took a bunch of goofy pictures.

They had to wait a while before the show starts, since we had to get our mic’s on, get costumes adjusted, and practice the sword fighting.

That’s me in the mushroom hat.

And in my “Lady of the Lake” outfit. I’m trying to do more fairy like makeup, but this was the first day with costumes and hair and such.

We rehearsed Friday, and Saturday, as well. Monday we open with a show at 10 am, and a 7 pm show. 7 shows a week. We will just have to see how this goes.

Friday night I went to see Josh Groban (sigh!) and

Saturday was a beautiful day for Natalie’s pumpkin party!

Hopefully there will be more about these activities later!

I looked out the kitchen window to see some visitors on the back porch.

Are they stalking me? Or just getting closer to see what the humans in the human house are doing, and when is that lady with the blonde feathers going to come out and bring them some more food?

Silly chickens!

It’s so hot, I just saw an elderly woman walk through the sprinklers in the garden section at Target….