I love this picture that John drew at school! Yes, it’s a little crumpled, but it now has a place of honor on my fridge!
Thanks for the flower, John!
Category: Uncategorized (Page 15 of 118)
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!!!
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!
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.
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!
I must admit that I haven’t really given the St. Louis Arch much thought. I have been to St. Louis before, but it was always a passing through. We would fly in, then drive to our house in Illinois. We had also gone to the LDS Temple in St. Louis, but since we had a babysitter with the little ones at home, we didn’t stay around to sight see. Until this week, when we stayed two nights in St. Louis.
We followed the GPS downtown, although it sent us through the streets on a confusing goose chase. Come on, GPS.
But, since it happened to be the opening day of baseball season for the St. Louis Cardinals (did you realize they won the world series last year? They Did!), we got to see some of the celebratory parade and carnival, as well as the stadium.
We finally made it to the parking lot and walked over to the arch. It was just beginning to rain.
We should have taken more pictures there. Darn.
After purchasing our tickets, we had some time to explore the Museum of Westward expansion. It’s a pretty fun museum, but there are creepy automaton people talking and telling their stories. 
The kids also did some fact finding to earn their junior ranger badges.
We watched a film about the making of the arch, and it was FASCINATING! Did you know….
* The Gateway Arch is the tallest national monument in the United States at 630 feet.
* Construction began February 12, 1963, and the last section of the Arch was put into place on October 28, 1965.
* The Arch weighs 17,246 tons. Nine hundred tons of stainless steel was used to build the Arch, more than any other project in history.
* The Arch was built at a cost of $13 million.
*And did you know that not one worker lost his life in the making of this grand monument?
It’s insane! Who even thinks of building a HUGE arch 630 feet high, and then who decides that they can build it? It blows my mind. The project manager of MacDonald Construction Co., Stan Wolf, said that a 62-story building was easier to build than the arch: “In a building, everything is straight up, one thing on top of another. In this arch, everything is curved.”
And even more amazing is that people can GO UP to the TOP!!
You travel up to the top in these little pods. Each pod can seat 5 people.
The pods are constantly readjusting, because the ride is not straight up. It’s kind of like a ferris wheel.
If you’d like to see a video of the trip up (not MY trip up, but some random guy on youtube, you can see that here.)
At the top you can actually walk around in the enclosure and take pictures or look out the little windows. If you lean WAY over, you can see the base of the arch. I did not lean way over. I could barely lean into the window. Yes, I’m squeemish.
For me, it was not a pleasant or wonderful experience, but it was truly and AMAZING experience. I don’t like being up that high, nor do I like leaning way out to see the magnificent view, but, oh what a view.
Here’s our whole group up there in the very top.
When we came out of the monument building, it was POURING rain. No more pictures, sadly, as we dashed to the parking garage.
There were so many more things to do in St. Louis, and at least one other really cool museums we had kind of planned on seeing, but the kids were MUSEUMED OUT. It was almost 3 pm, they were hungry and tired, and didn’t want to walk around and see any more STUFF. We decided to find a Steak n Shake. Yum. In fact, many would say it was the best meal of the trip. It turns out it was happy hour, so we got a few shakes (well, more than a few) to go with our yummy hamburgers. Heaven. Wish we had one of these in Utah.
So, instead of exploring all that St. Louis had to offer or seeing one more fabulous museum, we went back to the hotel and the kids swam in the pool. They were quite happy with that decision.
We are currently in Hannibal, Missouri–Home of Mark Twain.
We went to the Mark Twain museum yesterday, and I was shocked that none of the kids had seen Tom Sawyer or read the book. Remember the old one with Johnny Whittaker? And did you know that was Jodi Foster who played Becky? Yep.
Well, when we get home, we will be watching that movie, for sure.
We had fun exploring a “riverboat”, raft, and other things from the book.
Today we will see Becky’s house, and Tom’s house.
While we were able to find a restaurant that stayed open past 5, all the shops seemed to be closed, so maybe we can catch them today.
We’re having so much fun in Nauvoo. I need to write a few notes so I will remember, then later we can fill in the details of the story.
When we landed in St. Louis, 13 year old said, “How does the luggage get here so fast?” Um, it’s on the plane with us. We all had a good laugh about that one.
Traveling by car to Nauvoo from St. Louis, we stopped to eat at a Wendy’s around Hannibal. We got there JUST at the right time, when there was hardly anyone in the place. Just after we had ordered, though, in came a baseball team from the Kansas city (?) something with a P. While they were all trying to order, in came a women’s volleyball team from the Unviversity of Illinois. For the kids meal prizes, they had games. There were rockem sockem robots (for thumb wars) and flippin frogs. I said to the kids, “I hope we don’t get any of those flippin frogs.” They burst out laughing and we’ve been laughing about those flippin frogs all week.
Our motel in Nauvoo is really pretty roomy. I booked the suite at the Motel Nauvoo, and it’s got two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, and small kitchen. For a family of 7, this is GREAT space. My parents are in the room next door, which is just a normal single room. Often when we are traveling, we put two kids up in my parent’s room, but at this one, we don’t have to. My complaint, though, is with the kitchen. They told me when I booked this place that they didn’t want us
cooking.
There is a microwave, fridge, stove and oven, but the Stove and oven aren’t to be used. I don’t even think they work. But it’s like they don’t want us eating here, either. There are a lot of cupboards in the kitchen. They contain….wait for it……four plates and three cups. Seriously. Not even a spoon or a knife or Not even a spoon or a knife or anything. We bought sandwich making stuff, cereal and milk, so that we could make our own breakfasts and maybe pack a lunch, since the eating places here are limited (more on that later), but we were perplexed when we tried to make sandwiches, and found we had no knife. Spreading peanut butter with a spoon is possible (I DID buy plastic bowls and spoons, luckily), but cutting cheese with no knife? Not so great. And it was Sunday and NOTHING is open in this tiny town. We had to cut our cheese with dental floss, and I do say it worked out quite well.
By Sunday evening, we were getting tired of eating our pitiful floss cut cheese sandwiches and cereal, so we went looking for eating establishments. The Hotel has a dining room, but it’s only open until 2 on Sunday. Every other place in town seemed to be closed. We were getting set to drive to the next town, (about 10 miles away), when my mom must have called someone or looked something up and discovered that the GAS STATION had a little grill in it, where they serve pizzas and burgers. So, we went up the street and into the gas station. A hamburger tasted pretty good, even if it didn’t have lettuce and tomato. But there was nowhere to eat there, so we carted it home and the nine of us ate around our tiny table. I jokingly said, “I hope you enjoy your Easter feast.” We all had a good laugh about that.
After a day of traveling, we made it to Nauvoo.
It looks like I picked a winner in the hotel department this time. Our suite in the Nauvoo motel has two bedrooms, with a small kitchen and living room. Only one bathroom, so the seven of are going to have to carefully time our showers, but I think we can make it work.
I discovered that I left out the one sweater that I had planned on wearing a lot this week. Its a gray cardigan that goes with everything. Blerg. I will survive without my sweater. I guess. Shake it off, Paige.
Update… We have been here two full days. We went to church, then the visitor’s center. We also spent a bunch of time at the family life center, where we learner about pioneer pottery making, weaving, bread making, barrel making, and we even made our own rope. We have visited many of the restored homes and businesses in old Nauvoo. The hardest thing is finding places to eat, especially on Sunday. Our ‘Easter feast ‘ consisted of hamburgers and piazza from the little gas station grill, eaten in our motel suite.
Oh, and I found my grey sweater!
More later!
The other day Hubby staged a COUP!
Okay, maybe it wasn’t a coup, but more like a REVOLUTION, or maybe a Protest.
Yes, a protest against our Tupperware drawer. Alright, so it wasn’t like a sit in or a demonstration. What he actually said was, “I am not taking my lunch ANY more if you don’t do something about that container drawer. I can NEVER find the containers and lids that match!”
Really? This drawer? Oh, he’s just being over dramatic. There are tons of lids and containers that match! On closer look, I could only find one or two lunch sized containers that had their proper lids. Where the heck do those lids all go? They are sneaking out in the middle of the night for secret parties? Well, whatever it was, I had to take care of the situation.
I had one of these Gladware sets, so I brought it up from the basement. And I thought I would put all my mismatched tupperware type stuff in that box. Ha. I had to put all my old stuff in a big garbage bag.
I only saved the new stuff that all matched and a few essential mixing bowls.
So it ended up looking like this. Well, until the dishwasher finished washing, and then there were a few more dishes to add to the mix, but I love my new streamlined drawer! No more fiddling to try to find lids!
If I were really good at purging, I would just throw that whole garbage bag right into the trash. But I’m not really good at purging, so I put that garbage bag full of containers and lids in the basement, as a trial separation. The if we can live without each other, THEN I’ll toss the whole bag in the trash.
Maybe.
I’m linking with Jenny Matlock’s Alphabee Thursday
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