Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: blessings (Page 9 of 14)

Concert week

November 20, 2010 / / 1 Comment

It’s concert week this week.


That means a lot of rehearsal, a lot of time away from home, and a lot of stress. If you could heard the thoughts running through my head, most of them would be music. I go to bed with songs in my head, and I wake up to songs in my head. Or I wake up to counting those songs in my head. “One and two and three and four, five, six…” One of my bell choir friends said that she dreamed that her life was in 6/8 time and her daughter refused to come in on four. I know that makes no sense to most of you, but I thought it was funny and I totally understood where she was coming from.

We only have one performance this year, and that means one time to get everything right. Add to that pressure that we have people recording parts or all of the concert, and our director expects each song to be perfect. I know that I have the ability to play all the songs perfectly. While I may not have played every song perfectly without mistake, I have played every part of each song correctly at one time. If I could just edit together all of my BEST run throughs of each song, I’d have it all done perfectly. And it’s not just me, there are 29 of us all attempting our very best performances. Oh, and many of the songs we will be playing have been arranged by our director. No pressure or anything.

But I know that I have done everything I can do to prepare. We have rehearsed and rehearsed and I have put in my time. Now it’s a matter of being THERE, in the music, and not getting distracted during the performance. And praying. Lots of praying.

I LOVE playing bells, and the experience is absolutely wonderful. I treasure my association with my fellow choir members, and we work together to make the best music we can. But the pressure. It’s still there.

If you want a sample of one of the songs we will be playing, you can take a listen to this one right here. This song, Holiday for Strings, has given us our share of headaches and stress, that’s for sure. (Click on the link, then click on “listen”. Or, if you want to see the sheet music, you can click on “View”)

We will also be playing the Overture from the Nutcracker Suite. I just searched on you tube and found this absolutely AMAZING performance by a bell choir playing this song.

The choregraphy! 6 ringers all sharing and playing all those notes! WOW! Now I’m feeling like I can TOTALLY play our version of the song. At least I don’t have to do that!

On Sunday morning, our bell choir will also be performing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. We will be playing two songs with the Choir and one song on our own. None of those songs are songs from the concert, by the way. Tune in if you can! My sister’s artwork will also be featured during the spoken word!

Amid this week of rehearsals and stress, last night was another BRIGHT spot of fun. My book club was meeting for their holiday dinner, and I had hoped that I could stop by after rehearsal and say hi and maybe sneak some yummy dessert. We were excused from rehearsal at about 8:30, and I hurried as fast as I could to my friend Melinda’s house, and made it there by 9. I was SO delighted that many of my book club friends were still there. I haven’t been able to attend our monthly book club meeting in several months, and I really missed my connection with these friends. Even though it was late, they fed me dinner, and it was FABULOUS! Butternut squash lasagna! Can you say Yummy? I knew I shouldn’t be snarfing dinner so late and so quickly, but it was all so yummy (and I really was hungry. I had only eaten a granola bar before rehearsal in anticipation of at least a yummy dessert later), and I was so happy to be with these friends. I am so lucky to have such wonderful and talented people in my life, and I bathed in the bright smiles and conversation with my friends.

I am truly blessed.

Hello, y’all

September 25, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Hello from Atlanta, Georgia!

I did actually make it to Georgia, and I’ve been having a nice time. While Ryan works and schmoozes and talks and explains endless at the trade show, I’ve been having a nice time. On Thursday, one of my former BYU roommates met me at my hotel and we went adventuring together. We got our map and set out on foot to find the CNN building. We had an interesting tour. Did you know that the CNN building is home to the world’s largest freestanding elevator? The Building once housed an indoor amusement park built around the theme of the old H.R. Puffenstuff cartoon show. It was called the World of Sid and Marty Croft. When the Amusement park went out of business, Ted Turner soon bought the entire complex and renamed it CNN Center. Who knew?

Unfortunately, they did not allow us to take any pictures while on the tour. One of my favorite parts of the tour was when they let us sit at a mock anchor desk and read “the news”. Their photographer took a picture of the two of us at the news desk which we could purchase for a mere $20. Cough. No, thanks.

We walked through the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park, and then looked for someplace to have lunch. Honestly, it was SO hot that all this walking was making me so hot and sweaty and tired, I just wanted to sit ANYWHERE that was inside and air conditioned. We chose the Hard Rock Cafe. We had a super fun waiter who was sweet and charming, even though he called me “Mama”. I’m not used to THAT. He said he wanted to be a motivational speaker. Laurie and I had a fun time catching up and discussing our lives, our kids, and all that has been going on.

After lunch, we walked and walked and actually got a little bit lost trying to find my huge hotel. Once I looked up, there it was. We just adjusted our course and found our way back. It was so much fun to visit with her, and I’m so glad she braved the traffic to come and visit with me.

I then called Ryan and asked how his day was going at the show. I told him where I had been, and he said, “The convention center is a block away from the CNN. You should have just taken the shuttle to the show and then walked a block down hill.” Well, then. So, I put on more deoderant, powdered my sweaty face and took the shuttle bus to the show to say hi to Ryan. I finally found the Control 4 booth and found him. He was busy talking to everyone, so I just set out on my own to peruse the show floor and look for cool “stuff” for my kids. I walked around for two hours until I could take no more. My feet were killing me. I found a place to sit down, drank from my water bottle and called the kids.

When Ryan was done, we came back to the hotel, dumped our stuff, and then met some of Ryan’s work buddies to go to dinner. We had a fabulous dinner at Ted’s Montana grill. It was fun to get to know some of the people Ryan works with, and hear their praise for his knowledge and abilities. And the food was GREAT, too.

The next day Ryan went off to the convention center, and I slept in a bit. I had a meeting planned with another of my BYU roommates who also lives near Atlanta. Lisa picked me up at my hotel and took me to the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum. It was FASCINATING! This HUGE painting depicting the battle of Atlanta has been made into a diorama.
*The circumference of the painting is 358 ft.
*The painting covers 15,030 sq. ft.
*The depth of the display is 30 ft.
*The painting alone weighs more than 10,000 lbs.
While the history of the battle was interesting, I really was drawn in by the history of the painting! It was commissioned in 1885, traveled with the circus, and eventually was donated to the city of Atlanta. You should read about it. Amazing!

I loved looking at the old lovely houses as we drove. I would love to spend a few more days exploring. We decided to go to “the Underground” for lunch.

We laughed as we walked, turned around, asked for directions, and walked some more. We found the underground, and I felt conspicuously white. I was glad I was with Lisa, because she’s used to being a minority, but we were seriously the only white people there. We had fun, though, eating, laughing, and looking around the shops. We both tried on some INSANELY high shoes that I can only classify as “hooker heels”. We didn’t walk in them, we could barely just stand there without falling.

Lisa dropped me off at the convention center, where I met up with Ryan and managed to pull him away from work a little bit early. Even though it was hot and we were sweating, we walked the long few blocks over to the world of Coke museum.

It was fun! We saw all the coke memorabilia, there was a 4-d movie experience that was hokey. Our favorite was tasting all the flavors of soft drinks from around the world. “Beverly” and “Stoney” were both NaSTY!! Who would drink those? And so many of the flavors were SO sweet and fruity.

After all those weird flavors, when we sampled the regular coke flavors that we know, it tasted weird. It was a fun tour, and something I wanted to see (Ryan joked that it was the “mother land” for me), and I’m glad Ryan could get away to see it with me.

That night we went to a private party for Control 4 at some trendy club. It was loud, but the food was good and even though I didn’t know anyone, it was fun. We were both exhausted by 9, so we decided to bow out. We took a taxi back to the hotel and pretty much fell into bed.

Saturday Ryan went to work and I decided to take the day off. I stayed in bed until I felt like getting up. After showering, I decided to explore the hotel, and found there’s a connecting “mall”. It’s really just a glorified food court with a few stores, but they call it a mall. And you can go through the skywalk from this hotel. After lunch I found the hotel pool. I spent the afternoon reading my book by the pool. When I got too hot, I would swim for a bit, then get out and read some more.
There was no work to do, no emails to answer, no PTA stuff to worry about, no kids to take care of, nothing. It was wonderful.

Except that I didn’t bring any sunscreen (who thinks about sunscreen at the end of September?) and my shoulders and chest seem to be quite burned.

When we get home, I’ll post more pictures and tell you about the rest of our adventure! Bye for now.

Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.

September 17, 2010 / / 3 Comments

September. It’s a month of changes, isn’t it? Kids go back to school.

We try to adjust to the new schedules and be efficient with the time we have.
The garden rewards us for our hard work during the summer.
The fruit trees also.
The air starts to cool off and the weather is beautiful.

With all the changes, I realized I needed to change it up, too. I went for a haircut–it had been WAY too long since I’d visited my friend, the stylist. I asked that she put some red in my hair. We had tried to do a little bit of red last time, but it didn’t take, so she went bolder this time. Since I’m not really one to do BOLD in any way, the end result was a bit of a shock to me.

I’ll show you some pictures, but please understand that this is just me, taking one handed pictures of my head while sitting here in my office. Nothing portrait worthy or anything, ok?

Here’s the basic cut. It’s a bit shorter than I was expecting, but nothing I can’t live with. I like how it’s stacked in the back, and I LOVE the color variation in the back.

I don’t know if you can see the different colors, but there’s some pretty strong reds in there.

My 14 year old said, “Mom, those are not natural colors. You would not be allowed to wear your hair like that to school.”
“They ARE natural colors, my dear. It’s not just all MY natural color.” Take that, know it all teenaged daughter.

Anyway, I think it looks really cool, and I love the red underneath, although you can’t really see it in my high quality self portrait.

Speaking of portraits, my sister needed models for a music and the spoken word painting she was doing, so I conned two friends to come and POSE with me. She needed some soccer moms for this story:

Three mothers were sitting together at a school ballgame. Two of them were gushing about their children’s talents and latest achievements. One’s son had just won an athletic scholarship, and another’s daughter had just been chosen as valedictorian. The third mother’s son had no such accomplishments, but she seemed unruffled, even happy about the success of the other two. She almost sounded as proud of those children as their own mothers were.

Later, when asked why she hadn’t felt jealous, she simply explained that it was much easier to celebrate than to compete. She certainly wanted success for her child as well, but she knew that victories for others don’t mean failures for us. She felt confident that her son would excel in his own way and in his own time.

The ability to forget oneself and praise another’s achievement is a key to contented living. It’s natural to feel pangs of envy at another’s success—as if their success cancels out our own. But, in reality, life is a roller coaster, and we each have our ups and downs. When we remember and cherish our own values and growth, we realize we wouldn’t trade places with anyone else. When we are confident in the motives of our own hearts, we can then reach out to commend others for a job well done or good fortune that comes their way.

It was fun, although I think I ended up looking kind of like a spaz. I was not chosen to be the serene mother happy for her friends. If you want to see the finished product, that Music and the Spoken Word will be rebroadcast on KBYU this Sunday at 8, I think.

I also went last week and gave my wedding ring a makeover. When we were getting married, everyone got gold wedding rings. I don’t think there were that many other options. Gold. But I don’t really wear gold jewelry. My watch, my earrings, my other rings are all silver. So for about a year, I’ve been looking for a nice ring I could get as a replacement. Then a friend told me I could just go and get my ring “dipped” or rhodium plated. So easy! I took it to the jewelers, waited 3 days, paid them $36 and got my ring back all shiney and sparkly in white gold.

Again, I apologize for the quality of my pictures. You can’t really see the silverness of the ring, or the sparklyness of the diamonds. But trust me, it’s beautiful. I love it because it’s still my wedding ring, but now it’s silver. It feels like a new ring, and I’m happy with it. Now if I could just keep those diamonds shiney ALL the time. Avoid hand lotion? I don’t think so.

Tomorrow we’re hosting the first ever “day of birthday parties” here. I’ve rented a velcro wall

and we’re having John’s party in the morning and Natalie’s party in the afternoon. So, I just need to go and buy large amounts of food and snacks, and hopefully the kids will entertain themselves!

Warning, Mormon lingo ahead

August 8, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Sunday morning I got a phone call from Brother N in the bishopric asking if he could meet with me before church. Don’t you just LOVE phone calls like that? He said he could come over to our house, or I could come to the church, whichever was more convenient. What? I was busy trying to get people ready, also putting the final touches on my Relief Society lesson, but I told him I could come about 15 minutes before church started. Hopefully he’s just telling me I’m doing a great job in my calling, and maybe to ask me how things are going. Maybe they were really calling RYAN (who hides out in the nursery playing with little kids each week) to a calling and were asking me if I could support him. They couldn’t be releasing me from my calling yet, though, because I’ve barely been in this presidency a year, and I’m just getting the hang of things.

Well, I was partly right. They didn’t release me. They did CALL me to a new calling. Seems they were reorganizing both the Primary Presidency and the Young Women’s, and they would like for me to serve in the Primary Presidency as the 2nd counselor. What? Of course I said I would. While I’m thinking it will be more work than the Relief Society gig, I’m looking forward to working in Primary. It’ll be fun, right?

I still had to teach my lesson, since it was my month to do the Presidency Message. I had a lesson on faith all planned out, and I was going to show this video clip. It went so well with the message I was giving on having faith in times of trial.

Well, that video combined with this being my last lesson to teach in Relief Society for a while, and my last Sunday working with this amazing presidency who I have grown to love so much in the past year got me crying. I could barely see the words on the page. I tried to hold it together to get through the lesson–I’m really not usually a crier, dangit– and somehow managed to finish. I will miss working with those ladies. I’ve learned a lot from them and I love them, and I will miss them.

But I seem to be getting a little bit of a reputation in our ward. For the past several years, I’ve been bounced around from calling to calling. I was in activity days for a short time, just getting to know and like that calling, when they called me to Young women’s. I was getting used to that and having a grand time, when they called me to the Relief Society Presidency job. Then I do that for a year and get drafted into the primary. Maybe they think they want to work with me, then they realize I am not all that great and they want to get rid of me. Maybe they know I get bored easily. What they all seem to be forgetting, however, is that I already have a pretty major church calling. One that I devote at least four hours a week minimum to. Yes, playing bells IS a calling. A pretty great calling, if you ask me, but still a calling.

The funny thing is, they haven’t released me from the RS job. I expected them to call someone new and release me today, since it’s been a week, but they didn’t call anyone.

As a primary presidency, we are now scrambling to fill a whole lot of holes. Our president and one counselor were teachers, our music leader got called to be YW president, activity day leaders and scout leaders were also called into YW. So, we’ve got some shoes to fill.

Today we managed to pull together a quick sharing time, but that will be fun–coming up with sharing time lessons and all that. Oh, and writing and putting together a program, and quarterly activities. Fun, fun, fun.

Since we’re talking about church and all that, I went to my mission reunion last night. It was the Duesseldorf Germany 20 year mission reunion. Has it really been 20 years? ACK? I served from fall of 1990 to spring of 1992, so I guess it’s *almost* been 20 years since my mission. I guess they were speaking of President Wolfert’s 20 years, since he was called to that mission in 1990. It was fun to see many Elders and Sisters from my mission. Sadly, not one of my companions was there, although I did know many of the sisters that were there, and a few of the Elders. As a sister in the mission field, you have a little bit of a disadvantage because you don’t get to know as many of the Elders. After all, the guys have an extra 6 months. But it was fun hearing the mission stories, hearing what people are doing now, how many kids they have, and just seeing them. I missed out on my informal high school reunion that was also going on this weekend, but I’m really glad I got to go to the mission reunion. It brought back a lot of memories of what a fabulous experience serving a mission was for me, and also my love of the German people. I need to take my family over to Germany! I’ll have to work on that one.

Today I took Cole, Megan, Natalie and our two Chinese girls up to see Music and the Spoken Word. You can’t visit Utah and not at least try to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, can you? Ryan stayed home with John, who wasn’t old enough to go, and Jenna, who complained of a headache last night and an earache this morning. We got there early enough to get great seats, and listened to the run through. After the run through, there were some announcements and introductions and then they explained that we would have to be very quiet while the broadcast was recording, since this is a LIVE broadcast as well as being recorded for rebroadcast. One of my girls said, “you mean they are going to do that AGAIN?” Way to enjoy the beauty of the music, kiddo. One of my girls was complaining that it’s too cold, and the other one kept whining that it was too long. *Sigh*. I’m doing this for my two Chinese girls. This whole time we’ve been trying to give them new experiences, take them new and different places and have fun.

After it was over, I asked the girls what they thought of the whole experience. One of them told me, “We saw this with the school already.” I’m sure she didn’t mean to deflate my bubble, but I seemed to lose all my enthusiasm at that moment. “Yes”, I said, “you’ve already seen the building, but you hadn’t see the choir.” I said. I guess I was fishing for some kind of comment, but I didn’t get it. We drove home in relative silence. When I got home and Ryan asked how it was, I whined something like “why do I even try? You know how much the kids LOVE (I was saying this sarcastically, by the way) going to Music and the Spoken word? Daisy and Vivian seemed to love it just as much.” I was a little down and wondering why I try so hard. I mean, I would have enjoyed sleeping in this morning, too. I could have done without the two hours of driving up to Salt Lake City and back. I could have done without listening to the complaining. But I did it because I want to give them experiences. All of them. I hope that they did enjoy the experience. They just aren’t big talkers, so I guess I shouldn’t expect gushing enthusiasm, right?

So, it’s been a big week. New calling, lots of activities with the exchange students, Mission reunion. This week should be good too. Hopefully we’ll get ourselves organized as a Primary Presidency this week, and we can start to feel more confident in that. Oh, and hopefully soon they’ll release me. Because being in the Primary Presidency AND the Relief Society Presidency? That’s a little much.

If you need me, I’ll be in the laundry room. Just sitting there watching it spin.

August 6, 2010 / / 3 Comments

My new washing machine, it’s here!

Thursday was my scheduled delivery date, which meant I had to arrange all my carpools to NOT be driving so that I could sit around home and wait all day. You know how it goes….they say they will give you a ‘three hour window’ of when you should be home and wait for delivery, and then it may or may not happen during that time. Yeah, we’ve all been there.

The night before I got a call informing me that my ‘window’ was between 7 and 11 am. And then in the morning, I got a call at 6:55—no joke–telling me they’d be there within 30 minutes to an hour. Wow! I was in the middle of making breakfast for the kids, trying to make sure the Chinese girls were up and moving, and all that morning stuff that I do so groggily. I had wanted Ryan to unhook the washer first so that I could get back there and clean that area, but now that wouldn’t be possible. I hurried up to the laundry room to at least corral all the clothes that seem to find their way OUT of their baskets so the floor was relatively clean, at least. I grabbed the vacuum, but really didn’t have enough time to do much good.

Then at about 7:30, right when the carpool was due to arrive to take my Chinese girls to their school in Provo, the doorbell rang, and it was Jeff. I opened the door and he said, “Good morning. It looks like we’ve got a washer for you.” I said, “You are my favorite person today!” I took him upstairs to the laundry room, and he and Tony got right to work unhooking my old Whirlpool machine.

In just a few minutes, they had disconnected that machine, and were whisking it away.

Here’s the “hole” left when they took that away. You’ll notice that when I painted that room, I didn’t bother moving the appliances. I think husband was out of town when I decided I was going to paint (and it’s NOT my best paint job, can I just say? I’ve gotten so much better and I really do care more about the rooms I paint now. I’m embarrassed to even show you this hideous paint job!), and I did a quick and dirty job. It’s just the laundry room, right? Little did I know that people actually decorate their laundry rooms with coordinating accessories. WHAT?

There on the floor, that’s 9 years of dust and grime that’s been hiding under that machine. I was feverishly vacuuming, sweeping and wiping, trying to get it at least dusted and cleaned up a little bit while they hauled one washer down the stairs and out to the truck and brought the new one up the stairs. Those two guys were remarkably fast! I could barely get the STUFF that was stuck behind the dryer out before there they were with the new machine.

As they came back and I was still on my hands and knees scrubbing like a crazy person, Jeff asked me, “Do you need another minute before we install this one?” I automatically started to say ‘no’, just to be polite, but then I changed my answer. If I didn’t clean it now, who KNOWS when I’d have another chance, so I said quietly, “Yes.” and kept cleaning. Just for a minute. Then I got out of the way and let them work on installing my new, beautiful washing machine.

Yes, those are my cleaning supplies all lined up on my (gasp) windowsill. And there’s a pile of crap on my dryer. I’ll admit it. I’m NOT the cleanest person in the world. I do have dust and clutter and messes in just about every room in my house (double gasp). Especially the room that is dedicated to dirty (and clean clothes).

But look how happy it looks there in it’s new home. No, we did not get the pedestal or the matching dryer. Maybe someday.

As soon as it was done with it’s test run, I fired it up. Wow–you can put SO MANY clothes in there! Of course, with a full load, it takes my old dryer a LONG time to get them all dry, but that’s ok. And it’s so quiet!! There’s no thumping or whirling sounds. It’s wonderful. After I did all the whites I could find, I did a load of towels and a couple of rugs. Still no noise! And it uses like 1/4 of the water that the old machine used. I’m thrilled.

Is it sad that a new washing machine makes me so happy? Kind of. But when you have as many people living here as we do, you really should have a washing machine that works. I’m sure the newness and the excitement will wear off soon. I mean, it’s still laundry, and it doesn’t fold or put away itself, now does it. But for now, I’m going to go upstairs and happily wash another load.

Even a miracle needs a hand

July 13, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Last night we had another performance of Wizard of Oz. We have a cast meeting at 6:30 where we get notes, warm up, have a devotional and prayer, and get ready to perform. At 6:45, the director still wasn’t there to begin the meeting. When she came in, she looked very upset. Somehow the lighting cues had been wiped out. And when they tried to run the light board manually, the numbers weren’t corresponding, either. Light #2 would light up as #5, and so on. They were keeping the audience out of the auditorium while they tried to get things figured out, and were going to try to start 1/2 hour late, at 7:30. If they couldn’t get things working, they would have to send everyone home and hope they would come back for a different show.

She asked Bill, who was doing the devotional and prayer, if he could please ask for a special help and if we could use our combined faith to ask for heavenly help. He gave a beautiful prayer, asking for help with our technical difficulties, so that we could perform for friends and family who were in attendance. He asked that we could put on the best show that we could possibly do.

The director disappeared, and we continued getting ready. At 7:30, the show started, so we assumed they had gotten it worked out. During the show, I didn’t notice any extremely awkward dark spots or light spots, although I’m not on stage all that much, so maybe there were some. I did hear from someone that the stage crew were moving scenery and it wasn’t all the way dark, but generally it looked like they had somehow managed to either manually operate the lights, or program them in time.

I am thankful for small miracles.

After the show, the cast goes out into the cafeteria/auditorium they call the cafetorium and greet the audience members. It gives people a chance to meet or take a picture with their favorite character, and gives the cast a few more minutes to bask in the after show glow. The director walked up and I said, “You must have gotten things figured out, right?” She gave me a hug and said, “That was the worst show of my life. I don’t ever want to go through that again. But we made it through.” I’ve seen her rattled and I’ve seen her stressed out, but I’ve never seen her as emotional as I did last night. I told her that my wish for her was to sleep in the next day and enjoy her day off. I don’t know if she was able to do that, but I hope so.

As actors, we often forget ALL the work that’s going on behind the scenes. Sure, we know of scenery changes, and we help with all those things back stage. I myself spend a few scenes behind the witches castle just to help open and close the window curtains so the witch can make it through. One of my friends climbs underneath the castle to help the witch unhook her skirt to help with the melting. But we don’t realize the magnitude of the technical aspect of the show. We can be as talented as Broadway stars, but if the audience can’t see us, or can’t hear us, it won’t matter.

It’s like that in life, too. Each of us has a support staff to make us “look good on stage”. We have teachers, parents, spouses and friends who keep us in the spotlight. Friends who rescue us from stupid mistakes or unfortunate experiences. People who help us laugh at ourselves when things go wrong and help us make the best of our experiences. But more than that, we have heavenly helpers. Angels who are there to help us look better or sound better than we actually are. Angels who help convey the message that is in our hearts when our words are not doing a good enough job. We have a Heavenly Father who rescues us from our own stupidity and an older brother who paid the ultimate price so that we can repent of our sins and make it back to live with him some day.

I’m thankful for my tech crew–those that I know about, and those unseen. And for all the miracles in my life.

Personal Progress–now the whole family can get involved.

July 5, 2010 / / 7 Comments

Can I tell you how much I love the new Personal Progress program for the Young Women?

When they changed to the new program with the new books and the cute ribbons and bookmarks, it really helped to motivate Megan. She has been working hard on her requirements and her value projects in the last 3 or 4 months, and I love it! For her faith project she’s helping with the garden. That means that when I ask her to go out and weed for 1/2 an hour (as I do on most weekdays in the summer) she does it. She helped plant and even helped make some new boxes this spring. And when it’s time to pick, hopefully she’ll help with that, too.

Soon Natalie, my middle daughter, will also be 12 and she can start working on her PP program, too.

I also started my own personal progress book on Sunday. With the new program, moms can get their awards along with their daughters. So I started working on mine. The nice thing is that as moms, we are already doing a lot of these smaller requirements. Plan and cook meals for your family for two weeks? Check. Memorize two hymns and then lead the music in your class or at a Family Home Evening? Well, it just so happens that I lead the music in Relief Society on Sunday, and I have more than two hymns memorized. Check. Be in a play or musical? Check. Pay tithing for three months? Check. Megan was a little irritated with me that I was checking things off so quickly, but I will actually have to work on a lot of these things. I’ll let you know how I do, and how I progress.

Last week, she said, “I need a 10 hour organizing project.”
“Well,” I said, trying not to sound too eager, “you could clean and organize the pantry.” I practically held my breath with anticipation. The pantry is a DISASTER! There’s spilled cereal, jam packed shelves, stuff everywhere, and I really don’t want to spend my own 10 hours on something like that.
“Ok!” she said, and went to work.
This child really likes to organize things. And she’s a hard worker, too. It took her all week to do, and there was a lot of stuff on the counter as she was doing it, but she got it done. Besides, the stuff on the counter wasn’t that bad since Ryan was out of town and I wasn’t really cooking all that much in the way of dinners, so I could stand the extra chaos.

It started out something like this. I can’t believe I’m showing the horrible before pictures. You must all think I’m SUCH a total slob and a horrible housekeeper.

I won’t show you all the pictures she took, but you get the general idea. Yes, we’re slobs. All of us.

And lots of people in this house don’t know how to put things away.

BUT, the mess has been averted. Now it’s all nice and organized, and we have a large garbage bag of expired, moth filled, or otherwise icky food that we will not be eating to give to our friend’s chickens. That will certainly brighten up their day, especially the bug part.

After 11 1/2 hours of Megan’s hard work (thankfully not MY hard work) it looks more like this.

and this

done by this kid.

Thank you, Personal Progress!!!

It’s not a tumor (say it in your best Schwarteneger voice)

June 29, 2010 / / 8 Comments

A few weeks ago, I walked into my bedroom and smelled a smell. Kind of a dusty-electrical kind of smell. Like when the curling iron heats up or you turn on the heat for the first time in the fall. That’s the best way I can describe it. I sniffed around the room a bit and couldn’t figure out what it was, but decided that the telivision area was the culprit. It’s not just the tv, but a DVD player and some other random “equipment” that I don’t really know what it is or what it does. Not wanting to come home from my errands to find the house in flames, I turned off the power strip. It probably messed up some kind of settings, but I thought it was best.

I smelled a similar ‘burning electrical’ smell in the bathroom a day or so later. After sniffing around and finding no clear culprit, I unplugged the hair dryer and curling irons. I asked my husband Ryan if he could smell it, but he couldn’t smell anything. But that’s not unusual. I seem to have SUPER smelling powers, and can smell a rotten potato from 30 feet. Ryan, on the other hand, tends to suffer from allergies, and can never smell the offending smell, UNLESS, of course, it is lotion worn by me.
nose
If I happen to put on lotion and then (gasp) use his computer or walk by his office, his ‘stuffed up’ nose immediately perks up and stages a revolt. He claims my lotion smells
a-make him sneeze
b-give him a headache
c-just about cause him to break out in hives
While he can’t prove anything, I think he would blame ‘smelly lotion’ for wrinkling his shirts, causing weeds to grow in the yard, and leaving streaks on the windows as well.
But I digress.

As the days went by, I was smelling the burning smell with increasing frequency, and in more and more places. In the family room, in the kitchen, and in the laundry room. Yes, all of these areas have lights, electrical appliances and other things plugged in, and the heat could have come on. When I smelled it in the car, I knew something strange was up. I smelled it at rehearsal one night, and asked my friend Diana, “Can you smell that burning smell? Like a hot curling iron or something electrical?” She did NOT smell anything.

So I resigned myself to the fact that I was either
a-crazy or
b-had a brain tumor

While it’s not burning feathers, it is a burning smell, and I seemed to be smelling it with more and more frequency. I stopped asking other people if they could smell it, since I was pretty sure they could not, and I didn’t want to SOUND like I was going crazy, even if I felt like I was.

Curious, I consulted “dr Google” to see if there were other people out there having strange smell issues. Well that was less than reassuring. I read: This symptom, which is known to doctors as an “olfactory hallucination,” is potentially very worrisome. Olfactory hallucinations are occasionally a symptom of a brain tumor, so you need to bring this problem to the attention of a neurologist immediately. Olfactory hallucinations may also be a symptom of epilepsy; once again, you would be best served by consulting with a neurologist. While I was reassured that I was not the only person in the world who was smelling things when other people were not, all the “answers” or advice I read suggested brain tumors or worse. And how could I go to my doctor and say, “I just keep smelling this burning smell that nobody else seems to smell”? I’m pretty sure he would laugh at me. Seriously. So, I kept my little neurosis to myself and just silently thought, “I hope I don’t have a brain tumor. Or worse.” whenever I smelled that smell.

Well, it’s been over a month of the on again off again smelling of the smell. Today I was walking to the bathroom and I smelled that smell. Walked a few feet and it was gone. Back up–smell it. Walk forward–don’t smell it. I looked down, and saw an innocent looking pair of sandals on the floor. Could that smell be connected with….? I picked them up, and smelled the smell.

Seriously? This smell is coming from a pair of sandals? It makes sense. I could smell the smell in the car, at rehearsal, at a friend’s house, even outside because I had been wearing the sandals! The sandals were causing the smell!

I don’t have a brain tumor!! I’m not going to die! Well, at least not from that silly phantom smell. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to find the source of that smell! Big old sigh of relief here, folks!

And what have I learned from this situation? A couple of things.
First–Never consult google with your own symptoms. Unless you want to spend days deliberating about all the reasons you are going to be dieing very soon. Especially if you tend to have a touch of the hypochondria. I’m not going to mention names here, but I have told one friend this more than once, so I don’t know why I couldn’t follow that advice.

Second–Smell your shoes before you buy them. This whole mess could have been avoided, had I taken a whiff of these cheap sandals from Target and noticed that they had a smell before I bought them and brought them home into my house.

Third–Enjoy life. Enjoy every day. Because you never know when something bad really IS going to happen, and you really don’t want to waste time worrying.

Adventures at Camp

June 22, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Cole, my 16 year old, had the wonderful opportunity to go to our stake’s “Camp Helaman” last week. It’s a camp just for those boys 16 and older, and it’s like a mini missionary training center camp. They had devotionals and talks from the Stake Presidency, and other incredible men. They had a wonderful time, with both fun and spiritual experiences. I’m so glad he was able to go on this camp, and very thankful for all the time and preparation that went into making it a success.

When Cole came home on Saturday, I didn’t see him immediately. After his shower, I asked him how the camp was. “Great,” he said casually, “I got some stitches.”
WHATCHUTALKIN BOUT, WILLIS?
“Stitches?” I asked, trying to not sound too alarmed, “What happened?”

He proceeded to tell me how he was doing this ropes course type activity, and one of the challenges was to get across a certain distance only stepping on wooden blocks. Since there were only a certain number of blocks, they would have to be passed back through the line so that everyone could make it across. One of the boys was in the act of tossing a block while Cole was in the act of standing up. That’s when the block and Cole’s head collided.
(gasp from mom at this point)
Stitches in his HEAD? Where? He didn’t look like he’d been injured at all!
Cole calmly told me how he realized he was bleeding and that someone helped him over to President Cosgrave, who is not only a member of the Stake Presidency, but also a family practice physician. “I didn’t like the needle,” Cole said. “He said to take out the top stitches in about 10 days, but the deeper ones will just dissolve.”
(deeper ones?)
Cole missed out on the rest of the ropes course activities that afternoon, but he still enjoyed the rest of the camp.

I guess I should be thankful that I have a very mellow son with no flare for the dramatic. He told me what had happened very matter of factly, so that it didn’t sound like any big deal at all. He lifted up his great mass of bushy teenage hair and I could barely see the stitches.

The next day at church, however, more of the story came out.

After the meeting, one of the leaders came up to me and told me that Cole was quite the talk of the camp over the weekend. “When he came walking up, I couldn’t even tell it was Cole! His whole face was covered with blood!” Oh, joy. I’m glad I wasn’t there. I would most definitely have freaked out. Then, our neighbor came up and told me more of the story. He said that Cole kind of freaked out when he saw the needle that was going to be used to numb the area. Kind neighbor held on to Cole and talked to him, asking about his plans for the rest of the summer. He kept asking him questions and talking to him calmly. He told me that Cole lamented, “Why is it always me that gets hurt or gets sick at these camps?” Yes, he’s gotten sick at camp before, but he’s not the only one. The one time he came home early from a scout camp, he was one of about 1/2 of the scouts who ended up throwing up for days and came home from camp. One other time he got dehydrated, but that’s because he didn’t drink enough. I think he was just feeling sorry for himself in the moment.

Then the Young Men’s president came up to me and said, “I’m sure glad you signed that medical release form!” I asked if any of these men had taken pictures, because once I got over my motherly panic, I think ahead to how I could SO blog about this. I haven’t tracked down any pictures yet, but if I get some, I’ll be sure to post them.

As I thought about this experience, I realized how lucky Cole was. Lucky that the block hit him in the head, and not in the face. His eyes, ears, nose and face are unharmed. He was lucky that there were competent medical professionals there to take care of him. He was lucky that there were caring friends and neighbors to help calm him down and keep him from freaking out. I am lucky that I won’t be seeing a bill from the emergency services provided (at least I hope I won’t). And he’s lucky that he was feeling well enough to stay for the testimony meeting and that night and the rest of the camp. And now he has a great story to tell!

Whatchu been up to, there?

June 14, 2010 / / 4 Comments

My posts have been a little bit sparse here lately. That doesn’t mean there’s been nothing going on, it means we’ve had so much going on I haven’t had the energy to compose a string of words into a coherent sentence.

But it’s summer, Paige, the time to relax. What have you been doing?

Cough, cough. Well, for one thing, last week was concert week. So that meant four trips and about 15 hours in Salt Lake for costume fittings and rehearsal and a concert. Our concert was Friday night.

I’m pleased with how we did, although we tend to make brand new and different mistakes during a concert. Nerves, I guess. I don’t know if we are trying so hard to watch the director and smile that we lose track of which measure we are on, or what, but I heard from several people that they made mistakes in places where they have NEVER made a mistake before. That’s frustrating, because we really want the songs to sound the very best that they can, and we only have one chance to get it right.

But I am generally pleased with our efforts.

Ryan and the family did not come. Yes, he was out of town this week, but he was so kind to arrange his travel into one REALLY LONG day instead of being gone for two days, so he was back by Friday. But it was the Father’s and Son’s campout! John was so excited he wanted to pack his bags on Tuesday or Wednesday. But Friday loomed cloudy and threatened of rain. By the time I went to pick up Natalie from her week at Clearcreek camp at 3:00, it was POURING RAIN. I was seriously wet and my curly hair was no longer curly. When I got home and it was still raining, I was worried about how wet my sons and their father would be on this campout. But I didn’t have to worry about that anymore, because we got a phone call telling us that they had canceled the campout. John was very disappointed, but Ryan was relieved. I mentioned that they could now come to my concert, but since it was so late and we hadn’t planned on that or made arrangements for a babysitter, he decided to just take all the kids somewhere and miss the concert. He has been to every single other concert we’ve done in 5 years, so it’s not like he’s unsupportive.

And when I wasn’t at rehearsal for the concert this week, I was at rehearsal for the Wizard of Oz.
I know, I know. I said that there was NO WAY I could fit a play into my schedule and that I was way too busy this year to do Community Theater. But I’m going to make it work anyway. No, I didn’t get the part I was going for, but I do get to play an Apple Tree, which makes me excited. I’m also an Oz beautician. My lovely daughter Natalie is playing a munchkin. It’s fun. Fun, that is, except for these darn dance rehearsals that go on FOREVER. Oh, I’m so not a dancer, but I’m trying. This week we rehearsed Thursday night and Saturday morning for one large dance scene. Thursday night I went home and my feet ached SO BAD from four hours of learning this dance. Seriously. Four hours. Thankfully, there was yoga on Friday morning so I could stretch and hopefully help those muscles to not freak out on me. Saturday we rehearsed that same dance number again. And again. And again. Not four hours worth, but enough to hopefully learn it.

Besides these wonderful experiences in the arts, I’ve been trying to keep the kids happy. We went to summer movies, softball games (when they weren’t rained out), made cookies, and played with friends. This week we’ve got a Scout camp, more softball games, a trip to the library, summer movies, and maybe some miniature golf at Boondocks.

How’s your summer shaping up? Busy? Relaxing? Vacation? Well, whatever you are doing, I hope you are enjoying spending time with your kids and family!

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