Category: Uncategorized (Page 27 of 118)

Our neighbors are having their yard redone right now. It’s a seriously HUGE project. There are about 10 cars parked out there in front of their house, and there’s a backhoe or a trencher or some other heavy machine running almost every day. Right now it’s a bobcat. They killed a bunch of grass to put other stuff there, then removed trees and cut up the grass and pulled it all away one day to remove the gentle hills that were there. Then they smashed the dirt flat and put the grass back. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I know it will turn out beautiful, however, because this landscaper just redid his own backyard (he lives down the street from us) and it’s now one of the most beautiful yards I’ve ever seen. Seriously–the water feature is so gorgeous, I was wondering if I could just hang out in THEIR back yard all the time. Do you think they would mind? They’d come home from work and there I would be, lounging in their nice patio furniture with my friends, who I had invited over for a barbeque in THAT back yard instead of my own. No, that wouldn’t be awkward at all, would it? (I’ll have to make sure it’s on a weekend when I know they are out of town.
Just kidding.
Kind of.)

Anyway, our next door neighbors are expanding their deck, adding who knows what kind of trees and flowers, and I’m sure it will be just beautiful when they are done. Which actually is a good thing for us, because they are NOT (big sigh of relief) putting in a fence. So if they beautify their back yard, it just beautifies ours in turn. Oh, and they are sharing their swingset with us, too. The landscaper asked if he could stow the swingset in our garden area (the part that’s not actually garden) for a few days. No problem. And now John’s taken to swinging out there. Like it’s our swing set. We do have a swing set, but it’s over on the other side of the yard. I guess this one is better.

Saturday they started putting in the trees. Trees right along the property line, so now it looks like WE have trees. How nice of the neighbors to put in those trees to help make our yard more beautiful! Oh, yes, and their yard, too. It’s coming together nicely.

Maybe when he’s done we can ask him if he has time to take care of the back strip of our yard. Maybe.

The Chinese girls and my two kids are busy, busy, busy. This week they’ve gone to Seven Peaks, hiked to Timpanogos caves, went shopping at University Mall and Walmart, and today spent the day downtown in Salt Lake.

The only down side is, they are so tired when they come home. They don’t really want to interact with us or hang out with the Americans. They would rather go up to their room, read, write in journals, take showers, and just relax without having to think too much. I understand. I remember those first few weeks in a foreign country.

Tonight we’re going to try “make your own pizza night” and see if they open up a little bit more.

Since the big kids are off having fun afternoon, and when I’m not driving three times a day to Provo, I’ve been trying to do fun things with the three younger kids. So WE’VE gone swimming, we went out to lunch at Mimi’s Cafe, and we went to the mall ourselves. We had a BIG talk about how to behave in the mall and how just because we saw something we liked we were not going to be buying lots of things. They (meaning John, mostly) agreed to the rules and behaved much better than the last time we went to the mall. But he was not happy until he had spent his allotted $5 of allowance money on a small overpriced motercycle.
Whatever.

On Saturday, I think we’ll check out Thanksgiving Point, and then go to the Folk Festival in Springville at night. I want to give them the most possible experiences while they are here, but not totally overwhelm them with things to do every minute.

Sunday is church. Do you think we should have them go the whole 3 hours to church, or let them off easy and come home after the first meeting? Hmmm?

My husband assures me that if I have seen this and he’s seen it, that EVERYONE else in the world has already seen it. But it’s too funny to not pass along.

John, barging through the bathroom door without bothering to knock, “Mom?”
“Hey, hey,” I said urgently, “I’m using the bathroom here.” As in, not just using the bathroom, but–you know–using the bathroom.
“But Mom?” he calls, thankfully from outside the door.
“Yes? What do you need?” I asked.
“I need someone to tie my shoes,” he said.
“Can you get someone else to help you tie your shoes?” I asked. The whole family is home, in various stages of getting ready for church, so surely there has to be someone who can help him, right?
“There isn’t anybody else,” he calls back through the door.
“What about Dad?” I said.
He makes that exasperated sound that is part sigh, part “Whatever” noise, and walks off.

My husband is still in Korea. He’s actually coming home Sunday (we hope). In honor of his trip I was watching M*A*S*H. Ok, It wasn’t really a choice. We have no cable channels because Comcast switched something or other on us and Ryan’s the only one who can install the special boxes they sent us. So, there’s nothing on. As I was folding laundry, I turned on the tv, and M*A*S*H was the best I could find. That Hawkeye sure is a character, isn’t he?

And what exactly is Icore?

When I was a kid I used to LOVE the Ramona the Pest books. Love them. I read all those Beverly Cleary books.

They were the thing to read for the elementary aged kid. Well, I picked up Ramona the pest on CD so that we could listen to it in the car. My kids really love to listen to stories in the car, and I’ve found that it keeps the fighting and arguing at a minimum on a long car ride. Even if a child groans when I start up the story or says they would rather not listen, once it starts they pay attention. As we started up Ramona today, I was laughing out loud. Oh, that book takes me back. Susan and her boing boing curls, Howie and his sister Willa Jean in the stroller, Beezus the big sister, the kindergarten teacher Miss Binny. The red boots that she gets stuck in the mud and Henry Huggins has to rescue.

I also realized how much different my school days were from those of my kids. I could relate to the “resting time” in Ramona the Pest because when I went to Kindergarten, we actually did lay down on little mats and “rest”. Kindergartens seem to have so much to do now. Testing, reading readiness, field trips, programs. It seems they don’t have time to rest. And the teacher says “we don’t want you to be tired when your parents pick you up.” Um, yes we do. Wear them out at school! I would LOVE it if my kindergartener came home to take a rest. Most of the time they don’t, but they certainly won’t rest at school.

Another thing my kids have probably never heard of… galoshes. Or the boots that you wear OVER your shoes. Who wears boots over their shoes? And rain slickers. In the book it said that all the boys looked the same in yellow slickers and brown boots. Now if it’s raining, the kids just pull up the hoods on their hoodies and call it good. And when her teacher comes out to help her when she is stuck in the mud, she is wearing a plastic rain bonnet or something like that. Here’s one I KNOW my kids would laugh at. Remember those little plastic cases like a tiny suitcase for Barbie that held a tiny plastic bonnet, all folded up? My grandma used to keep one in her purse, and I think my mom did, too. I don’t know how that thing would EVER fit back into that tiny box once it was unfolded, but I think they were reuseable. Remember those?

Oh the things we can learn (or remember) from Ramona the Pest. Oh, and “I’m the baddest witch in the world!!!!”

and summer overload

My husband left this morning for Korea. He’ll be gone about 10 days. Considering that he went to Japan about a month ago, that’s two trips out of the country in less than a year. He’s now entered the ranks of world traveler. At least in my book. (I seriously need to find out how many frequent flier miles that equals and how all this traveling can benefit me.) I do not envy him at all, however. It will take nearly a whole day to get there, and then he’ll probably be working so much he won’t get to see much in the way of touristy stuff. Jet lag and weird food, plus working long hours doesn’t sound like much fun. But hopefully he will have a productive and enjoyable trip.

Me, I’m stuck here at home with 5 kids, three softball teams, rehearsal almost every night, and I’m the only driver. I’ve already had to call in some reinforcements. Tonight my sweet niece is coming over to take a daughter to her game. Cole will hold down the fort while I go to rehearsal. Tomorrow I’m hoping to send one daughter to her softball game with my friend, who has a daughter on the same team, and I’ve also had to ask my sister-in-law to take another daughter to her game. I’ll be–you guessed it–at rehearsal. The Wizard of Oz opens up in less than a month, and we’re getting to the point that rehearsals are getting serious. Fun, but a huge time commitment.

We’ll be eating a lot of kid friendly dinners, like mac and cheese and corn dogs, so at least the cooking delicious meals is off the list of things I need to do. Do you do that when dad’s out of town, too?

So I might need a little encouragement. If you could send me a “you go girl” every once in a while or just send happy thoughts my way, I’d appreciate it. Or if you wanted to come over, entertain my children and clean my house while I take a nap, I’d be ok with that, too.

One happy thought that I’d like to tell you about is this…remember that contest I asked you to help me with? Well, if you go HERE you would see that our little number 24 is smack dab in the middle of the list of winners. WE WON! I’m so thankful to all of you who took the time to vote for us, even if you thought it was pointless or even if you thought your vote wouldn’t matter all that much. Each vote does matter, and while I do not know how many votes we collected, I’m super thankful to all of you who support me in my crazy quest to win a vacation! It’s two nights hotel and 3 day park passes for four. Now if only we just had two kids, that would be perfect! Just kidding. We’ll take them all.

Again, I thank you for your support! I love the encouraging comments I receive. And if Ryan’s checking in here, we miss you already.

Oh, how I love my man.

Whenever he goes on a trip, especially trade shows–those are the best–he knows to bring home as much “swag” as possible.

He enjoys going out. If I win tickets to some free show, he’s usually willing to come along. I say USUALLY, because musicals aren’t his favorite, and sometimes I do have to coerce him into going to a musical.

He’ll play silly games for Family Home Evening!

He really loves me! Which I find seriously nice.

He knows his way around a hammer. When he has time, he’s going to finish that basement. And I like how he involves the kids in the construction projects.

He’s not too cool to pose with stuffed animals.

He loves babies.

He works at a job he loves, and brings home some cool gadgets.

When I decided I wanted to audition for a play, he was supportive.

Or when I’m gone for many hours preparing for a concert or at Christmastime with the Bells on Temple Square, he’s supportive. In fact, he’s come to every single one of my concerts (except this last one, because I told him he should go to Father’s and Sons instead).

He is a worthy priesthood holder.

When necessary, he will dress up in costume.

He’s secure enough to accept my tiny little crush on Donny.

So, this Father’s day, I send a big shout out to my man. He’s awesome, he’s great, and I feel very lucky to call him mine.

Love you, Ryan!

Like most of you, I have a long list of things I DON’T do very well…learn choreography, dance in character shoes, keep my house clean and clutter free, run, cake decorating, play basketball, find new and interesting ways to serve my families vegetables, lose 10 pounds, win myself a car …and the list goes on. But with all those things (and more. So many, many more. Sigh) that I am not good at, it’s nice every once in a while to enjoy something is easy for me. Something that may be hard for other people, but for me, it’s a piece of cake.

My neighbor called me this week and asked if I could possibly do her a HUGE favor. She had been assigned, because she has access to a silk screening machine, to do a flag for girl’s camp. She had gotten the tiger all done on the flag, but she needed someone to finish the edges and figure out a way to hang it. She brought over a flag pole and a walking stick, unsure of which one to use, or even how to attach the flag, since her flag pole was kind of broken in the attaching department.

“No problem,” I said. Because, honestly, that didn’t sound like a hard thing at all. And, it wasn’t. I cut it straight (even though for the life of me, I can’t find my rotary cutter. Urg.), serged the edges, hemmed it, sewed in a pocket and a little thing to hang it by, “fixed” the little attacher thingy on the pole with a few rubber bands (don’t look at me like that–it works, I promise!) and put the flag on the pole. Done. Silly me, I didn’t take a picture before I took it over, because I thought it really looked good.

I took it over to her last night and she was SO GRATEFUL! Like her gratitude was too much for the amount of work I had done. I told her it was no big deal. But, to her, it WAS a big deal. Because she doesn’t sew, she had NO idea how to get it to stay on the pole, and it was one more thing she had to do to get ready for camp. I’m very happy that I can be of some help. It reminds me that we all have talents and things that come easily to us, and it’s ok to be proud of those things. It’s good to share your gifts with friends. It’s nice to be able to do that thing that for her is a huge problem, but for you, it’s no big deal. Now if I could just find someone who can lose 10 pounds for me, that would be a nice favor, don’t you think?