Category: Uncategorized (Page 49 of 118)

Since today (Friday) is the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics, I thought I’d let Ryan do another guest post on his impressions of the Olympics in China (since he’s already seen them). Here’s what he says:

We’ve had a little change of plans, and instead of going from China back
to Hong Kong tonight, we took the ferry from Zhuhai to Shenzhen, where our
contract manufacturer is. We’re staying in Shenzhen tonight, and we’re
going to visit them tomorrow morning, then return to Hong Kong for
tomorrow night’s hotel.

Very cool that I get to see it 14 hours before the US…

Thanks, Ryan! We’ll watch it tonight, but we appreciate your preview. We love you and miss you and hope you get to see more interesting things before you come home.

When you think of a blood clot, what comes to mind? Stroke, paralysis, and death, right? Yeah, me too. So when I woke up on Monday with a painful lump in my leg, I’m trying not to think the worst. It was red, swollen and painful to the touch. When I looked that up, it said that’s most likely a blood clot and to go to the doctor.

Humph. I’ve had vericose veins for a long time, and I remember a similar instance of a blood clot when I was pregnant with John. I panicked, went to the doctor, who sent me to the hospital for an ultrasound of my leg. There they told me that yes, indeed I did have a blood clot in my leg, and to take an aspirin a day and try to keep off of my feet for a while. What? That was it? Isn’t it dangerous? Probably not.

So, this time, I didn’t really want to waste a lot of time and money going to the doctor, so I just dealt with the pain myself. I kept off my feet as much as I could that day, and the next day the pain was a little better. Also less swollen and not so hard. The next day, I felt ok, although, yes, it still hurts to touch it and it’s still swollen. At an activity for the young women and young men last night (did I mention that I’ve got a new calling? Oh, by the way, I’m a young women leader now. Surprise!) I asked our friend, the doctor, if this was something serious and I was going to die from a blood clot. He took one look at my ugly purple swirlies on my leg and said, “yes, it’s a blood clot, but you’re not going to die,” Comforting, isn’t it? “It’s a superficial vein, so that’s not the kind of clot that travels up and kills you.” How nice to know.

So, YES, I’ve got a blood clot. Yes, it’s a pain, and Yes, I hate my vericose veins (Thank you, Dad!). My sister also suffers from extreme vericose veins, but she’s always pregnant, so she can’t do anything about it right now. She’s told me to find out if lasering does the job, then let her know so she can do it once she’s not pregnant. I’m going to do some research on lasering those suckers really soon. But No, I’m not in any mortal danger of dieing from the blood clot, so that’s a reassurance. If you have any experience with those vein centers, please let me know, as I think I’m going to be shopping around.

My sweet hubby is in CHINA this week. China! I can hardly believe it. To prepare for his trip, we watched Mulan on Sunday. Aren’t we the multi-cultural family? Of course, whenever he’s out of town, I tend to worry. Especially when he’s gone so far away. Yesterday while the kids and I were at Classic Skating, he tried to call me. When I checked my phone it said I had three missed calls! Oh No! And no messages. When I tried to call back, it wouldn’t allow me to. I figured it had been him, calling from some far away land. When I got home, there was a message on the machine. It was Ryan, and he was calling from Korea. Thank goodness, I could relax a little bit. He did arrive safely in Hong Kong last night, and called me quickly to say he was fine. It took 24 hours of traveling to get there. This morning I had a couple of emails from him telling me about the trip.

We did pick the *perfect* time to fly into Hong Kong… There’s a ‘class
8’ typhoon over Hong Kong today (Tropical Storm Kammurri). We were still
able to land, although it was a somewhat bumpy landing.

For some reason, some young chinese girls faces remind me of Natalie. I
think it’s because her face is rounder than Megan and Jenna’s.

Now isn’t that sweet? He also said this:

Alan (our ‘guide’) also told us that 8 is a lucky number, and the olympics
are starting on 08/08/08 at 8pm.

Interesting tidbit.

And then he sent me this link.

So, thanks, Ryan, for the interesting blog fact. And take care of yourself!

This morning my son grabbed a pair of socks from the floor of the family room.

Me–Those aren’t clean.

Son–Yes, they are. I got them from my clean laundry basket yesterday.

Me (beginning to shrink in fear from those socks) Yesterday? Was that before or after you marched around in the 100 degree heat for 10 hours at band camp?

Son–Um….before.

Me–And you still think those are clean? (My voice just might have gotten a little bit louder and maybe creeped into the high and squeaky range about then. Just maybe.)

Son–Um…But I don’t have time to go and get a new pair.

Me–Yes. You do. There’s always time for clean socks.

Here’s some random stuff that’s been rattling around in my brain. Perfect for a Friday, right?

**The other night while driving to the freeway, I saw a car with some vinyl lettering that said “Bite Bella”. It took me a minute to register what that meant. I laughed. There was something on the other side of the car, but I couldn’t see it. But I’m wondering what it could be. Doesn’t that next book come out today? I’ll have to borrow it from a neighbor when they are done reading.

**It’s getting harder and harder to win at our local art shows. This week is our city celebration, so there’s a local art show. Tuesday we framed everything and got our 11 entries ready to take in. Last night was the awards night. We didn’t attend the whole awards thing, but just stopped by the city building afterwards to see if we had won anything. Natalie won a 3rd place ribbon in drawing, Cole won an honorable mention in ceramics and Megan won an honorable mention in ceramics. That was it. At the American Fork art show about a week ago, John was the only one of my kids to win anything, and he won a third place in drawing. Either my kids are getting less talented as they grow up, or there are more kids entering art shows these days.

**Kids’ meals are $1.99 at Wingers right now, instead of the usual $3.99 or $4.99. When you have a lot of kids like we do, this is a bargain. Last night we actually took 6 kids, as we are watching a friend of Megan’s while her parents are out of town. Sadly, Cole does not pass for 12 or under anymore, so he got a regular meal, but to be able to feed 5 kids for 10 bucks is GREAT. Maybe we’ll do that again and I just won’t order anything! That would be even cheaper!

**Cole is in the throws of marching band practice. This week he’s been over at the school every day from 8-4. The first day I SENT him with sunscreen instead of applying it myself. When I picked him up that day he was redder than red and burned all over. “WHY DIDN’T YOU PUT SUNSCREEN ON?” I asked him. “I didn’t have time,” he whined. “And your hat? You didn’t have time to put your hat on, either?” We were NOT pleased with his behavior, but I guess he got his own punishment with the old sunburn. The next day I did the sunscreening myself, and gave him a hat with a brim instead of a baseball cap.

Yesterday I went over the school to help out at lunchtime. We set up the food (pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, grape salad, watermellon, green salad, cake and lemonaid, garorade or water. There was no shortage of food, so at least I can know that they are feeding those kids well. I was on drink detail, and ended up sticky all over. My shoes were sticky, my hands were sticky, even my face was sticky (I’m not sure how that happened, but oh well).

They had a trip to Snow college planned for next week, but because they decided to cancel that and just do the band camp next week at the school. So next week he’ll be there every day from 8 in the morning till 9 at night. Not as much fun for the kids, but much cheaper and I’ll not worry quite so much. But of course that means that the parents get to prepare food for lunches and dinners. So far I’m signed up for Monday lunch, but I’m sure I’ll throw in another shift sometime later in the week.

**Tomorrow, for our city celebration, we’ve signed up for WAY TOO MUCH STUFF. Megan and I are doing the 5K run/walk. Somehow I’ve hurt my knee, so that should be fun. I will be in the walking group for sure. Ryan and Cole are signed up to sell pizza at the Marching band booth as a fundraiser activity. Unfortunately, the shift we signed up for is right during the parade. Where will Cole be during the parade? Marching. I signed up to provide a juicy treat like fruit or popsicles at the end of the parade. There’s also a breakfast, games in the park, concerts all day long, then fireworks at night. It’s a full day of fun.

**And did I mention that Ryan is going to China next week? Really. China. Wow! Unfortunately, he’ll only actually be in China for about 4 1/2 days, and those are going to be full of meetings. 18 hours of travel each way. I don’t envy him this trip.

**Monday we had our 4th annual neighborhood bike parade. It was, if I say so myself (since I’m the one who planned it) a great success.

Oh, the proud moment of any mother–when your son finally learns to pee in the grass! And frankly, I’m thankful! It’s taken a long time to potty train that boy, but I can finally say that (knock on wood) we’ve made it. I still let him have a pull-up on at night, just because he’s kind of crabby in the morning and he doesn’t like hearing “go and use the potty” as the first thing in the morning. Yes, he has a few accidents (mostly when we are out and totally unprepared!), but he’s doing well, stubborn little cuss that he is.

Today I took the kids to the children’s garden at Thanksgiving point. They have a wonderful Noah’s Ark fountain where the kids can splash and play to their heart’s content. They all had a great time, and it was all very laid back and casual. I sat in the shade and tried to read my book. But I ended up taking pictures, handing out snacks and drinks, and protecting myself from Megan, who was more interested in the MUD than the water (yes, she’s 12). I even handed out some band-aids that I had in my pocket for a poor little girl who took quite a spill. I guess that’s why you aren’t supposed to climb on those rocks. She got a big scrape on her hip, and her mom was grateful when I walked up with three band-aids all ready for her owie.

When it was time to go, I asked the kids if any of them needed to go to the bathroom. Of course, they all said no. Because no one wants to waste one second of their valuable playing time in the bathroom. Besides, peeling off those wet swimsuits is never fun, right? Well, we get everyone to the car and they are all sitting on their towels like I asked them to do and buckled up. Everyone except John, who is taking his shoes off in the parking lot. Come on, kid! As soon as I get him near the car, he starts doing the “I’ve got to go to the bathroom dance.”

“Mom, I’ve got to go potty!!” he says in a frantic voice. I can tell there’s no WAY he’s going to make it across the parking lot and back to the garden and into the bathroom, so I say, “Great! You are so lucky you are a boy, because I’m going to show you how to pee on the grass!” He seems interested, which is a good sign. I walk him over to the grass, pull his pants down the tiniest bit and show him how to stick out his little thing and pee on the grass. He was still a little bit worried about it, but when I told him to go ahead, it was ok, he let his stream loose. “See, you’re just like a fountain!” I said. He laughed at that. I then told him how only boys can pee outside, and you only pee on the grass if you aren’t near a bathroom. NEVER at friend’s houses. When we got back to the car, he excitedly told his sisters: “I peed on the grass!” He was so proud.

It’s a great, great day when you can finally teach your son to pee on the grass and he doesn’t have a screaming fit about it. It means that we might have finally accomplished “the potty training” with this, our last, most stubborn child. (Where was that wood that I was going to knock on? I’m going to need it.)

The other day when I was grumping at my kids, I wondered what in the world was wrong with me. Was it PMS? Was I just really tired? Were my kids being especially loud and cranky? Then I realized I had a headband on that was squishing my head. Oh, that’s the problem right there!

As a child I was raised in a BYU house. We went to BYU football games, BYU basketball games, and we booed whenever BYU played the University of Utah. BYU blue was the color we supported. We had T-shirts and hats and blankets that professed our loyalty. I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere we had a stuffed Cosmo around. Like many LDS youth, I was taught that Brigham Young University was the Lord’s School, and any good Mormon SHOULD go to BYU. And I did. When applying for schools and scholarships, I applied at BYU. I also begrudgingly applied to Utah State and the U. And I think that was it. I did get accepted to BYU, and also got a scholarship. I think I was also offered scholarships to those other schools, but honestly, I don’t really remember. Those were just fall backs anyway.

While at BYU, I had a great time. I met many wonderful friends, and got to know friends from high school in a different setting. It was a great time in my life, and I think that in college I had the most fun I’ve ever had. I was an ok student and did what I had to do to get by. Elementary Education is not the hardest major in the world, but there’s a lot of busywork. I had a great job which I loved, and had fun roommates and friends. I did also meet my husband there, which is an added bonus.

Last night I dreamed that I went to the U. The Univeristy of Utah. I don’t know why I was going there. Maybe I couldn’t afford to go to BYU, or maybe I hadn’t been accepted–I don’t know. It was a dream, remember. But I felt like a complete failure. I felt embarrassed and ashamed that I was attending that evil school to the North. I felt like maybe I would have to go and confess my school allegiance sins to my bishop.

When I woke up, I was shocked. And I realized I might have to adjust my thinking. I realize that the U is not neccesarily an evil school. Some of my best friends and even my sister (gasp! I know!) attended that school, and they all seem to have come out unscathed. Some day my children might even go to that school. (double gasp!)

BYU is getting more and more competitive and you really have to have good grades and scores to get in now. Of course, now there are more options. There’s Utah Valley University now. Last year it was UVSC, before that it was UV something else. Before that it was Provo Tech or Trade Tech or something like that. It’s been through quite a few name changes, but now it’s a full fledged University. And Salt Lake Community College, and the University of Phoenix. There are quite a few good schools out there that are options for my kids. Oh, yeah, and there are other schools that are out of state, but is that really an option? My kids will want to stay close to home all their lives so they can visit often, right?

The point is, even though I went to BYU and feel loyalty to BYU, I guess I have to have an open mind when it comes to my kids’ education. Or maybe I need to get a job there now, so that my kids can get in when it’s time to go to college.