Category: Uncategorized (Page 28 of 118)

There’s quite a lot of road construction going on in our little city, and most of it involves expansion. There’s eventually going to be a 5 lane highway from the freeway to basically my house. The roads are all filled up with orange barrels and cones– Oh, that reminds me of a joke I heard recently — “There are only two seasons in Utah…Winter and construction.” Get it? Anyway, I was saying something about construction. I knew they were going to take out some houses along the main road to make room for the new road, but I was shocked and surprised when one day they were there and the next day there was a pile of rubble where the day before a house had stood. Then there’s another street where they are also widening the road. Several houses along that street are also slated for demolition. I drive that road about eleventy times per day taking my kids school, soccer, friends’ houses, and to go to WalMart. I’ve watched two houses get moved off of their foundations and hauled off somewhere else. Well, I didn’t actually WATCH, but I observed the progress daily and then one day they were gone. There are three or four more houses that are looking like they might be next to go. The lawn has been left to die, uncut and weedy, the people who lived there have moved out and moved on.

I just wonder how those people feel. They lived in those houses, making them comfortable and lovely places for their families. They worked in and worked on those houses, inside and out. They were their havens from the storms of life, and now they are going to be hauled off or torn down. It’s one thing to sell your house to another family, who you hope will love and take care of your house as well as you would, but to sell your house to the city knowing that it’s going to be demolished is another thing.

It’s hard enough watching other people living in and changing a house. When we sold our house in Lehi to move to this house in Highland, we were pleased to sell our house to a young family. Mostly, we didn’t care who bought the house, as long as we sold it. But now, when we drive by the old house, we notice the changes they have made. They took out the ONE TREE I had in the front yard, the golden chain tree that I LOVED

and put up a flagpole. A flagpole! And I’ve never once seen a flag on that flagpole. But the house is still there. The back yard is still there, and still a great place for kids to play. The maple tress that we planted from spindly little bareroot trees are now big and lush. If I were to drive by and see the the house had been razed or taken out for a road, I think I would cry.

So I wonder what kind of grief those people are going through. Is it like losing a family member, or is it just a place they used to live? Unlived in. Unloved. Unwanted. I wonder.

I just looked at the calendar, and saw…….nothing.

Seriously! No baseball games, no softball games, no play practice for the kids or me, no softball practice, no YM or YW activity!

Oh, wait. I have rehearsal for bells, but I didn’t write it on the calendar. But still–nothing for anyone else!

They can all just stay home and lay around and be lazy.

The one constant among all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

I feel like an old man. Or an old woman.

Yesterday I decided to get off to a good start and went walking. I didn’t overdo it or anything, just two miles at a moderate pace. Then I spent the day weeding, cleaning, shopping, making lunch, etc. I don’t know WHAT I could have done to tweak my back, but after rehearsal, I sped off to watch Megan’s softball game. It was a bit cold sitting on those bleachers, and I wrapped myself in a blanket. All was fine. When I got up from the bleachers, my lower back was very stiff and hurting.

I walked to the car with Megan, who was limping because her heel hurt. Now if anyone has REASON to be sore, it would be this girl. She had a two hour soccer camp in the morning, played kick ball with the Young Women, and then played a baseball game. We made our way painfully to the car. When we got home, I walked into the house like an old woman, and painfully climbed the stairs. My lovely daughter was making fun of me because I was walking funny from my aching back. Thanks, kid. I went to go and get my wheat bag to heat up, so I could put that like a heating pad on my back.

In my room, I looked for the wheat bag. I thought it might be under the bed, so I used my foot to lift up the bedskirt. My other foot must not have been placed right, because at that moment, my ankle turned and ***WHOMP*** I was on the floor. On my way to the floor, I twisted my ankle, smacked my head on my dresser and my arm hit on a dresser knob. Nothing to do but put my head down on the floor and cry.

My daughter heard the ruckus (but strangely, hubby downstairs didn’t hear it) and came in to see what was going on. Oh, the humiliation of being there on the floor. I said I was ok, picked myself up, and went to bed. My back hurt, my shoulders and neck now hurt, my ankle was throbbing and my arm hurt. My hip also hurt from the hitting the floor.

Ryan came up after Megan told him about my lovely accident, and heated up my wheat bag (hidden somewhere on his side of the room) and asked if I was ok. No, I’m not ok. I’m old and falling apart. Oh, how sorry for myself I felt. All night, I tossed and turned and tried to get comfortable and sleep. And you want to know what bothered me the most? Was it the back? The neck? The ankle? No, it was the ripped toenail that kept snagging on the sheet every time I moved.

This morning, I got up slowly and surveyed the damages. The ankle, while a little tender, is not swollen, nor does it hurt too much. The arm really hurts, but there’s only a tiny bruise (what?), the back of the head has a tiny bump that hurts when I touch it, but nothing major. I clipped the snagged toenail, so hopefully that won’t be a problem, but it was quite hard to even reach my toe. The back still hurts.

I’m walking around like an old man. Or an old woman. I might as well make my reservations at the nursing home.

It’s the end of the school year, and that means teacher gifts. Do you give teacher gifts? I asked my 5th grader which teachers she wanted to give a gift to, and she named 5 of them. Five? Really? For just one kid? My kindergartner wants to give a gift to his teacher AND the main helper. The third grader has two teachers to give gifts to.

I love the teachers, and I’m so thankful that they have chosen to devote their days to teaching and loving my kids. But I could use some ideas.

So, my question to you, my peeps, is WHAT do you give for teacher gifts, if you do teacher gifts at all?

(updated to say)
I decided to go with Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD’s. As a member of the choir organization, I can get CDs for a discount, and I had 10 of the new ones and a few others still around. The kids gobbled them up, even my Jr High and High School students wanted to give gifts to some teachers, which surprised me. I’ll have to pick up a few more, because I guess 15 wasn’t enough. I also had some movie passes to the Karate Kid and baked bread yesterday, so I’m giving bread and a CD to the Kindergarten teacher today at preschool graduation. I want the teachers to know I appreciate them without breaking the bank. And Thanks for the ideas, friends.

My fingers. They ache.

Today was Jenna’s third grade carnival at school. All year they earn market money for good behavior, and this carnival is one of the ways they get to spend their reward money. I signed up to man a booth. You know, supervise a game and then give out a prize. But then the mom in charge called me back and said, “Is it true that you do balloon animals?” Hmmm, I knew I should have kept my light under a bushel and never let anyone know I could do that. I was feeling generous, so I said that yes, I do, and yes, I would do balloon animals for the school carnival. I draw the line at dressing up in the clown costume, though. I’ve already got a gig scheduled and I don’t really want to dress up for the 3rd graders. So, today I got to the school by 9:15 to help set up and get ready. It was raining, but we were optimistic.

The day turned out to be nice, and I made something like a bazillion balloon animals for those little third grade rug rats.

(remind me not to hand the camera to my short daughter, who takes a picture from the worst angle, while I’m looking down at a balloon. Double chin shot time.)

My fingers are shot. My nails are damaged and ripped, and my hands were SCREAMING for lotion. But I survived. It was fun, it was for the kids, and they all had fun.

By the end of the two hours, the kids were supposed to go back inside to class, and I STILL had a line of 5-6 kids waiting to get their balloons.

As I walked out to the car, when I was finally freed from my job, my hands felt like they might fall off. I’m not conditioned for this kind of work! Now I remember why I’m not a clown.

Except on Monday, when I will be doing an appearance at the birthday party for my friend’s twins, who are turning 5. Oh, yeah. Because I’m so cool that way.

I’ve been in kind of an organizational/clean out the junk phase lately, and I decided it was time to tackle my office. My office/sewing room/place where kids play computer games/storage area for garage sale finds that I don’t know what to do with/craft area/mending area/place where broken things go to die/junk pile/big room full of clutter. Whew!

I’ve had a desk for my computer, AND a table for my sewing machine. It’s a little tight and crowded in here, but hey, at least I have a room of my own, right? I’m not complaining. But in a quest to streamline and make it a little nicer, I decided to eliminate the desk and put both the computer and the sewing machine on the table. One on one end and the other on the other end.

So far, I’ve got the computer moved, and I thank my lovely husband for hooking everything up for me. I deftly UNhooked it, but as far as hooking things up (especially when I just moved it across the room where there is no jack) I’m pretty clueless.

Does the blog look different? Because instead of facing North, as I have been for the last 8 or so years, I am now facing East. Instead of a view of a lovely wall, I now can look out the East window and see the little swallows who have made a nest in the porch eaves. I can also more effectively “Mrs Kravitz” and spy on my neighbors, watching to see who’s coming and going. Oh the fun.

Unfortunately, I can also get a nice view of the disarray of the office. Shelves need to be moved, the carpet under the desk spot is disgusting and dusty, and the sewing machine is now on the floor. So, yes, I still have a lot of work to do. And a lot of sneezing, from the vast amounts of dust that I’m stirring up.

Yes, I’ll post some pictures when I get it done (or at least when I give up and decide it’s good enough). But I just wanted to know if YOU like the new look. Because, honestly, the blog is now coming from a totally new area of the room. An area that’s never been blogged before! How does it look?

I have a wonderful mom and a super mother-in-law. Who could ask for more? I’ve had great examples to help me with my own mothering career. I also have a fantastic husband and great kids! This morning, in fact, my sweet daughter snuck in to my room oh so quietly to leave me a Mother’s Day card on my nightstand, then she showered and got dressed, AND wrote her own talk for primary this morning! I KNOW!

I asked my dear husband if for my Mother’s Day present he and the kids would plant my hanging baskets with flowers. DONE! I feel very blessed and honored to be the mother of such wonderful kids.

But, lest I gush and ramble on, let me share with you some definitions from the

Mother’s Dictionary of Meanings

Dumbwaiter: One who asks if the kids would care to order dessert.

Full Name: What you call your child when you’re mad at him.

Grandparents: The people who think your children are wonderful even though they’re sure you’re not raising them right.

Hearsay: What toddlers do when anyone mutters a dirty word.

Independent: How we want our children to be for as long as they do everything we say.

Puddle: A small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry shoes into it.

Show Off: A child who is more talented than yours.

Sterilize: What you do to your first baby’s pacifier by boiling it, and to your last baby’s pacifier by blowing on it and wiping it with saliva.

Top Bunk: Where you should never put a child wearing Superman jammies.

Two-Minute Warning: When the baby’s face turns red and she begins to make those familiar-grunting noises.

Whodunit: None of the kids that live in your house.

I hope you all have a wonderful mother’s day!

Happy Friday to you! I’ve got some random pictures to show you. Stuff I thought about doing individual posts about, but let’s face it, who has the brain power to figure all that out? Not me. We had a ward primary talent show last month. Each primary child was invited to share a talent, or to make a display. Once I picked up a ukulele from a garage sale, John decided he wanted to play the ukulele for his talent. Ok. So I tuned it up (it stays in tune for about 4 minutes), and he brought it. But then at the talent show, he decided there was no way he was going to play, so I had to “reward” him with skittles if he did.

Natalie wanted to display something for her talent, so she made this wonderful lemony concoction. It was actually very convenient that we could use this for Megan’s birthday party the next day. Thanks, Natalie!

Jenna played a song on the piano for her talent. I’m proud of her, since that’s a pretty scary thing to play in front of all those people!

Here’s Ryan at that same activity with a friend’s baby. He stole her. And if you think I’m going to let my husband go and see that new baby movie, you are sorely mistaken. Sorry, honey. If you want more babies, you’re going to have to get them yourself.

Changing gears a bit, I held a shoe intervention the other day. I dumped all the shoes out of the baskets in the mudroom. Most of them were on the floor anyway, but this is what it looked like.

Sheesh. I know. It gave me hives just looking at the mess. Then I sorted them out, matching up shoe pairs and figuring out which ones needed to be put away for the winter, and which ones needed to be thrown away, which could be donated, etc. The kids came home to this:

Then I made them claim all their own shoes and put them IN THEIR ROOMS!!! Now the mudroom looks considerably less shoe-ey.

Here are the boys on our new teeter totter. Robin and I went garage sale-ing last Saturday (yes, it was cold, and yes, it was rainy) and we found this teeter totter. Funny thing. It had a price of $30. I liked it, so Robin said, “Will you take $20 for this teeter totter?” I was going to offer, $25, but her request was better. Instantly I realized that I didn’t have that much cash, so I chimed in, “And a check?” Pretty gutsy to dicker down AND ask if they would take a check, but the guy was friendly and nice, and just wanted to get rid of his stuff. He agreed, as long as I shopped around and bought MORE of their stuff. I ended up spending $22 there, but hey, if they’ll take a check, I’m ok.

The kids were thrilled with the teeter totter, and even the big kids were out there riding it in the rain. These are “my boys”. The one in the middle is our part time boy, Robin’s son Jacob.