I call this one–Cotton Candy Mouth. This was taken at Ryan’s Company party. Unlimited cotton candy and snowcones–Wow!
Category: Uncategorized (Page 93 of 118)
While driving along doing my errands yesterday, a song came on the radio that I just HAD to sing to.
Don’t ask me,
What you know is true.
Don’t have to tell you,
I love your precious heart.
I was standing.
You were there.
Two worlds colliding.
And they could never tear us apart.
(then comes the cool drum part, you know? I really love that song)
Can you picture it in your mind? It just seems I MUST sing out loud to that INXS song. That got me thinking of other songs that just make me want to sing along. I made a little list, which follows:
**My Sherona (you know you sing along to that one, too, don’t you? Just the M-m-m-my Sherona part, though. I don’t know the words to the rest of the song)
**I am a rock, I am an Island
**Big Yellow Taxi
**Baby, I love you (by Martina McBride)
**Don’t go Breakin my Heart
**Crocodile Rock (good old Elton John)
**You’re Beautiful (James Blunt)
**You’ve had a bad day
**Hey, Hey, Hey (Ryan Shupe)
**Don’t know why (Nora Jones)
So, what do you sing along to?
The table is finished. Done. Well, that is, unless I decide to put another couple of coats of varnish on it, which I probably will, but for now–finished. And, in case you were wondering what it looks like now that it’s red, here’s a picture:
Try to ignore all the crap that is on all the kitchen counters and focus only on the pretty red table (and the cute fruit basket centerpiece that I fortuitously found at a garage sale for $2).
I’m happy with the way it turned out! I varnished yesterday and had the whole house smelling of varnish–ick. I put the birds outside for some fresh non-varnish infused-air, and I’m sure they’re thanking me for that.
Well, if I was ever in the running for Mom of the Year, yesterday knocked me out of the running. I may now be up for worst mom of the year. I think if I keep it up, I could be a contender! (It’s good to have goals, I think.)
What did I do that was so bad? Well, first of all, I made my kids work. Yep–work. I asked the three of them that were home and of working age (that would be 5 and up in our house) to pull ALL the weeds in the playground area. Now, the playground area does have weed shield and playground bark covering the ground, but some of those nasty weeds just feel the need to sprout and grown IN the bark. I don’t know why, since we have so many many other dirt or grass covered surfaces for them to grow in–but I digress. It’s really really easy to pull the weeds from the bark, since they can’t establish deep roots. It’s just a matter of leaning over and pulling them out. With the three of them out there, I estimate it should have taken them 1/2 an hour to do the whole area.
Well, after 1/2 an hour, they were out there lounging on the tire swing or cowering under the meager shade of the slide platform. Yes, it was hot, but it was only 9:00 am when they started, so they really couldn’t complain that much. Two of the children are soon inside whining about the work ethic of the other child, complaining that it’s hot, that “she pushed me”–whatever! So, I herded them back outside, shouted at them to get off their BEHINDS and start weeding. After I finished loading another pile of laundry, I went out again to demonstrate how easy it was to pull the weeds (part of their evil plan–get Mom to “show” them how to do it, then finish the job herself) and told them in a not so nice voice that they would be outside until the job was done. None of them could come inside until they were all finished. I went on to explain that they would be coming inside for absolutely no reason–if they were thirsty, they could fill their water bottles from the faucet. If they were out here at lunchtime they would get no lunch. If they were out here at dinner time they would get no dinner. If they were out here at bedtime they would sleep outside. Yes, I know it was overexaggerating the length of the job and the amount of their laziness, but I was sick of their whining and laziness, darn-it!
I went inside, started Tarzan for the little one (lucky child–not old enough to weed) and locked all the doors.
Yes, I’m a bad mother, I know it. I admit it. I was only trying to teach them to WORK and not drag the dumb job out for the ENTIRE day.
At around 11:30, when they had only a handful of weeds left to pull, I tried to redeem myself with popsicles. I took the popsicles outside and held them until they were done, hoping the speed of the weed pulling would be faster than the speed of the melting popsicles. And they did it! They finally got the last few and were able to have the reward (and I let them back in the house).
Throughout the day, there were various other flare ups and some shouting on my part about finding a certain library item. I’m not proud of my behavior, and I’m not trying to justify it–just telling it like it is. By the time we got home from our “outing”, which included:
–taking care of a friend’s birds
–going to the Library (where I complained a little bit too loudly that my kids couldn’t get their own library cards because we dont’ live within the city. I have to PAY $70 for my library card AND my kids aren’t allowed to have thier own library cards? How fair is that?!)
–going to Target to get a new size 4 soccer ball for miss soccer who had a special soccer camp this week and couldn’t possibly use any of the soccer balls we have at home because they aren’t size 4
–going to the bank to cash a few checks and get a large amount of ones and fives so I could pay the kids for their grades ($1 an A) and allowance (for doing such jobs as the weeding–back to the weeds, are we?)
I was about ready to drive off a cliff with myself and the children in the van. Thankfully I restrained my suicidal urges and brought the menagerie inside and gave them fruit snacks.
-Sigh-
We didn’t end up going to Lagoon on Saturday, since we found out the passes are good for ANY day this season.
We DID go up to “family night” at camp Maple Dell. We saw Cole and the other dirty campers, saw some skits, heard some songs, and a nice patriotic program. And Cole came home safe and sound on Saturday. He accomplished 4 merit badges, which I’m proud of, but I know he could have done more. He didn’t pass his swimming test, and blames it on the very cold lake water. I feel kind of responsible that Cole doens’t have any athletic abilities. His parents are not athletic, and I guess we’ve passed that along to him. We’ve got to get out and be more active as a family so he’s not so timid in those situations.
Saturday was dance recital day for the girls, and they did their best. Very cute! Jenna loved her frilly red and white polka dot dress (think Minnie Mouse) and both she and Natalie did great. Even though it was long (an hour and a half), John did quite well sitting through it (thanks to the water bottle I had in my purse). He even watched a lot of the dances, and enjoyed the movie-theater seats there at the Junior High School.
Sunday we had a lovely Father’s Day, and Ryan even enjoyed his presents. The kids (well, me) made him breakfast in bed, and then we had pork ribs for dinner (his choice).
This week is a week to get the laundry tackled, get things organized, and get everyone packed for our trip!
A local radio station sponsored a Father’s Day Contest, where you write an entry about the father in your life, and they will honor the winners with a day at Lagoon on the Saturday before Father’s day. Well, of COURSE I entered. But then I forgot about it. I mean, that was all the way last week that I entered, so I wasn’t thinking about it. Imagine my delight when Scot from Kosy called me and told me that they had picked my entry, and we would be getting Lagoon passes for the entire family. They are even including food vouchers good at certain venders in the park, and there’s a little meet-n-greet for the winners and thier families where there will be drawings for MORE prizes, such as DVDs, Lagoon passports, etc. WOW!
When I told Ryan about it, he asked what I had written about him, lies? Of course not! Just your general schmooze, suck-up letter. I’m pretty good at schmoozing and sucking up when I need to! So, here it is, my entry (all of it’s true, by the way) about my wonderful husband and the father of my children–Ryan.
Ryan is the best husband, father and friend you will ever hope to meet. He loves his children, and has never been afraid to change diapers, bathe kids, or hold babies. In fact, he LOVEs babies and will always find a cute baby at church or family events to hold. He’s great with the kids! He plays with them, teaches them, and reads to them. He’s not the best at doing little girls’ hair, but if necessary he will do his best with a lopsided ponytail.
He’s a great problem solver, especially when it comes to computers. It seems he’s always got someone’s computer over here to debug, dejunk, and speed up their harddrive. At one time we had three extra computers on the floor waiting for him to look at them. He never charges for his services, but does it to be kind.
Ryan also likes to do electrical wiring, and has helped numerous people do wiring for their houses. There is never a charge for his services, except maybe dinner if you offer to feed him while he’s at your house working. He has an affinity for phones, even though he doesn’t really like to talk on them, and can always help you put in another phone jack if you need one.
We have an 85 year old neighbor from a previous neighborhood who calls frequently with computer questions. She tells me all the time what a lifesaver he is in helping her get her computer back to work so she can do her family history. The kids love to go with him to her house (she always gives them cookies), and what a good example of service he is. What would she do without Ryan?
Ryan is also a wonderful son to his parents. He is always available to help them with electrical, computer problems or other fix it jobs. He’s equally handy and helpful to his in-laws, who love him like their own son.
Ryan has always supported our family so that Mom can stay home with the kids, and he is great at supporting all of us in our activities. I recently was in a concert and he brought all five kids (even the two year old) to come to Mom’s concert.
What a lucky girl I am to have such a fabulous husband! We all love him, and would love to honor him at your Lagoon Father’s day Party.
Just don’t knit any of these.
In trying to motivate my kids to finish the Book of Mormon (we’ve done quite well at reading so far in the summer, by the way), I told them that when we finished, we would take them to a Book of Mormon themed restaraunt. They at first didn’t believe that there was a Book of Mormon restarant out there (maybe someone should work on that. There could be Nephi burgers, or Moroni Shakes, maybe Abinidi fries or something like that), but when I told them that the people in the Book of Mormon were actually the early American people, like the Incas and the Mayan indians, they got excited about it.
They were so excited to finish and go this week, that we read 4 chapters yesterday! So, last night (kids’ night–how convenient!) we went to the Mayan for dinner, and everyone had a great time. Everyone except Cole, that is, who is still at scout camp. Megan felt a little bad about going without him, but I assured her that he’s probably having the time of his life right now and hopefully he won’t mind so much that we had a little fun without him.
We’ve also celebrated finishing the Book of Mormon by having a Book of Mormon party and making our own movies of our favorite stories. This time I told them to write the date they finished in the back of their books, but they haven’t yet discovered the joy of marking their scriptures and didn’t want to “ruin” their books, so they didn’t do that.
This morning, when I said it was time to read scriptures, they were a little confused at why we would start reading it again, but they didn’t complain about it. What do you do to make your scripture study interesting?
The Hippy Vanagan just left. Man, that thing is loud!
We had a fun time with Robin and the kids while they were here, and now it’s my job to try to get my kids back into the mindset that they actually do jobs. Hmmmm. Maybe I’ll just let them veg out in front of the tv while I read a book. It sounds much easier.
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