Category: Family Fun (Page 4 of 25)

Here’s to many more years together

August 18, 2013 / Superpaige / 2 Comments

It’s our Anniversary today. August 18th. We have been married 21 years!

Together we have five children.

This week will be our 15th “First” day of school with our kids. That’s about 100 parent teacher conference visits and hundreds of hours of helping with homework.
We have eaten roughly 7,350 dinners together. Some were stellar, some were not so stellar. Some have been downright terrible.

We have been to approximately 1,090 sacrament meetings together. I’m of course estimating here, because some of the time Ryan is out of town, or someone is sick, or I have missed church because of bells. Some of those were before we were married.

Together we have weathered 5 job changes, 8 months of unemployment, we have built two houses, and moved 5 times. We have gone through 45 months of pregnancy.

During our marriage, we have gone through 7 cars. We started with my Mazda GLC and his 67 Galaxy, then bought our 1990 Nissan truck (which we still have). As kids came, our cars got bigger. The Camry that we bought from Vicki and Chuck, then the 1998 Dodge Caravan Van that we later passed on to my sister and her family. Then we got a 2003 Suburban, and finally our “new” car, the 2011(? I think) Kia. (We do also insure an 88 Camry that was gifted us by the grandparents, but we don’t ever drive it, so I hardly count it as OUR car. It’s more of THE KIDS’ car). With those cars came many frustrations and car repairs, but no accidents to speak of.

We have hosted 11 exchange students from four different countries.

We have sent one missionary out. He’s been out almost 3 months now.

We are not perfect, neither one of us, but we are determined. Ryan has been supportive of me through emotional outbursts, angry spats, times of overwhelming stress, and patient with me even when I am determined to follow through with some crazy or wonderful idea. I have tried to also be supportive of him with his work demands, oft times frequent traveling, his wiring and rewiring of the house, the abundance of gadgets and all that is Ryan.

We like to have a good time, and have hosted hundreds of barbeques and parties. 71 birthdays for the just the kids!

He has been supportive of me in my many hobbies and endeavors, which include 6 plays, 7 Christmas concerts with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, 17 concerts of the Bells on Temple Square, and one year so far of teaching the elementary chime choir at school. Of course, I have also taken him on many different trips that I have won, including several with the family to Disneyland, San Diego, Mesa Verde, and two trips for just the two of us to Cancun and New York City.

I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else.

We aren’t real consistent on Anniversary gifts. One year we both got each other watches. We usually try to have a get away or even just a date to celebrate. This year things are quite hectic, as he’s been out of town this week, and I’ve had to do 4 shows this week, so there wasn’t much celebrating going on, but, I came home late last night after our closing night at the Scera to find he had bought me roses and scissors. The roses are so pretty and so sweet, but the scissors are an even nicer gift. Seriously. I was rifling through a drawer on Saturday complaining that we had lost or broken all of our scissors, and I had none. He heard my complaints, and bought a 3-pack of scissors for me. I guess the gift for 21 years is scissors.

I am forever grateful that he loved me enough to be patient while I fell in love with him, and he’s been patient with me from then on. Thank you, Ryan, for sharing these years with me. Here’s to many, many more years together.

Slow down, summer!

July 25, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

Summer is kicking my trash.

Seriously. The two Chinese girls have been here for a week now. What cute girls they are!

Their names are Xiou and Yio, and they are really fun. They have “school” every day where they learn about things in America, and then go off on an activity. Yesterday they went shopping at Park City outlets. They had fun, although said it was TOO much shopping. They came home with quite a few shopping bags, so they must have made the most of their time. This week they also had fun at the Clas ropes course. Today they go to BYU. Some of the days, my three girls also go with them as American buddies. Megan had fun at the ropes course, but she was WAY sore the next day.

They are pretty good about getting up in the morning on most days, but I’ve had to wake them a couple of times. They need to be ready to leave by 7:30. This week I haven’t been driving..yet. But next week I’ll be on mornings, and will have to pick up four other Chinese kids and take them to Orem by 8:15 am.

We have been bowling, shopping at City Creek, went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert in the conference center, hiked around bridal veil falls,
and out to dinner.

We took them to see Natalie’s play, Peter Pan, which ended on Monday, too.

One of them really wanted to cook, and when they saw John making an omelet one day, they were amazed. So, on Saturday, I taught them how to make an omelet.

We took them to church, and a little family party at my sisters. For Pioneer day we did sparklers and pop its out in the front yard and watched the nearby fireworks.

This morning my girls left for girls camp for three days. All three of them!!

Meanwhile, I am gone every night at rehearsal.
We moved over to the outdoor theater this week, and it’s fun to perform on the hill, but so different. I’ve never done outdoor theater before.

When we aren’t on stage, we sit on the grass on our blankets.

The show opens in just over a week!! What?

I had my costume fitting this week, and I LOVE my dresses. Except my peasant outfit, which has this corset thing. Not sure how I am going to get IN and OUT of that thing, but I’ll keep you posted.

I get home from rehearsal between 10 and 11, and then I have to decompress a bit, so I fall asleep around midnight. Then I have to get the girls up around 7 and get them breakfast. Next week I’ll have to drive them to Orem every morning, after later and later rehearsals. By about 1:00 in the afternoon I’m SO tired, I tend to crash and need a nap. Not every day is nap conducive, I tell you.

And have I mentioned our yard work?

It’s mostly Ryan doing it, but the rest of us have helped, too.
Once we got our fences up, it was time to landscape that back fence line.

All 280 (Is that right Ryan?) feet of it.

Ryan tilled it, trenched it, put in sprinkler lines and power outlets, and is digging out the rest of the weeds so we can lay down a layer of newspaper and then mulch. I’ve kind of lost track of the number of truckloads of mulch we have gotten, but I think it’s around 10. Not like dump truck loads, just our small truck filled with compost from the recycle center.

And there’s our tomato plants in the buckets. There are more in the garden area, too. Soon. Very soon, we will have tomatoes.

Silly chickens think I planted these flowers JUST for them to eat. Argh.

And remember this kitty? She’s been with us for a whole year, now! Happy Birthday?

So, yeah, things are crazy busy for me right now. And I’m tired. So tired. But I know it will just get worse next week. If I can make it through rehearsals, then actually DOING the show will be fun. And our visitors will be gone, and I’ll have a couple nights a week off. Just in time for school to start. Slow down, summer! You’re going to fast, and dragging me along behind you!

Family Reunion

July 15, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

This weekend marked our family’s 10th year of family reunions at Payson Lakes.
The group camp site is reserved from Thursday to Saturday, but for most of the group, Friday is the day to come up and play. We hang out at the lakes, fishing, swimming, and canoeing. But some years, the elements do not cooperate. One year there were fires in a nearby canyon, and we spent the day (and night) wondering if they would evacuate us. Last year we took Marie, our French exchange student with us, and she was excited to go camping and catch a fish. Huge rains drenched our tent and we sacked the idea of camping overnight, but she did catch a fish. This year we weren’t even planning on staying overnight. Ryan won’t sleep where he can’t plug in his sleep mask, and Natalie and I both had to get back for our respective plays. Unfortunately, this campout usually coincides with the opening weekend of Alpine Community Theater’s summer play, so that’s been a conflict for the past several years.

Friday dawned RAINY. REALLY rainy. Ugh. Because of the rain, we weren’t quite so quick to pack up our stuff and go, but we did get to the camp site by about 11:00.

With three different canopies set up, it kept us pretty dry so we could play some card games.

The kids were happy to spend some time with cousins, even if it was cold and rainy.

Eventually the sun came out! Ryan and Megan had stayed at home to get some work done, but they brought 12 junior frosties from Wendy’s with them in a cooler when they came.

It’s just fun to get together with family.

Shortly after the sun came out, Natalie and I had to leave. We had to get Natalie ready for her play..Opening night! and her call time was 5:00.

We did some makeup for her and braided her hair (luckily it doesn’t have to be curled or anything difficult like that) and got her some food and took her over to the school. I cleaned up a little bit and then went to my own rehearsal. Thankfully, I didn’t have to stay at rehearsal super long, so I was just getting home by ten so I could pick Natalie up from the play.

Ryan and the kids didn’t get home until nearly midnight, and they brought an extra! Jenna was thrilled to have her cousin Kaylee come and stay with us for the rest of the weekend.

Short, but sweet. No time in the lake, no canoeing, but we still had fun. And since I brought my camera home with me, no pictures of the festivities for the rest of the afternoon and evening, but they came home just as dirty as if they had been there MORE than just a day. (Not sure how that happens)

Just Hang on

July 13, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

JULY.

July is typically the month when things slow down and we languish in the heat of the summer.
Not this year.
Where do I start. Well, Natalie is in Alpine Community Theater’s production of Peter Pan. Tonight is Opening Night! I wish I was in that play with her, but we will go see it tomorrow.

So, for the past two weeks, she’s had a rehearsal every night, with the last three going past 10:00. It’s actually a relief when the show opens because then you just do the show, and you go home. That show runs until June 22.

This week, we pick up two Chinese exchange students. We’ve had fun with this program in the past, and the family was excited to host again, even though I am seriously so busy in July, I don’t know when we’ll do anything fun with them. They will be here from the 18th of July until Aug 5. They have to be to their program in Orem every weekday. We drop them off at 8 and pick them up around 5. Thankfully, I got a call yesterday from another lady in Alpine who wanted to carpool, and we’ve worked it out so that we can take 6 kids from 3 families. Of course, that interferes just a little bit with my three girls who are doing a buddy program with them. They are buddies, and they go 5 different days with the Chinese students. (These aren’t this year’s students, but Vivian and Coco from two years ago)
They get to go to a ropes course, 7 peaks, and also help with a talent show. There’s also a family barbeque closing social that we all can go to. Luckily, Megan could drive the three of them to Orem on buddy days if we can’t squeeze them into the carpool. The last time we did this, I just about went crazy. The girls were nice and sweet, but the DRIVING back and forth to Provo, through the construction EVERY SINGLE day, (sometimes twice a day) was killing me. I didn’t have a good carpool, and that makes SUCH a big difference.
Hopefully we can squeeze in some fun with them.

Meanwhile, I am in full swing rehearsal mode for the Scarlett Pimpernel. That show opens August 2, which is just a couple of weeks away, and I have NO idea how we will be ready in time. But guess where I’ll be every night? Yep, at rehearsal.

To add to that, I have a lesson to teach this Sunday for a class I’m subbing, and then a RS lesson NEXT Sunday. I think if people know you are in cub scouts (my new calling), that means “please call this person to sub for you because they don’t have a Sunday job”. Oh, and cub scout day camp is this week. hooray (said in a dead pan, very small voice).

Oh, and yes, I’m still playing bells. Every Wednesday, although I have to miss one for a dress rehearsal. Thankfully, at the Scera, they don’t do shows on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, so that means I can stil go to bells through the month of August, even though I’m doing a play. Except, did I mention that after we do the show at the Shell, we are also performing it at BYU every night for education week? Yes, we’ll get to do the show in the deJong Theater, so if you are attending education week, COME see the show! I’ll have to miss bells for that week, too.

I heard that we’re performing some song for a Music and the Spoken Word broadcast sometime in August, but since I can’t be there on the Thursday night rehearsal, I think I’ll let someone else take my spot and step aside for one broadcast.

My mother was kind of chastising me for being so busy, and she doesn’t understand WHY in the world I would want to fill up my whole summer with a play. I guess if you don’t do theater, you don’t understand the draw. It is a ton of work, and many times I ask myself WHY I do this, but it really is fun. Talk to me when it’s over and we’ll see if I think it was worth it or not.

So, we are going to hang on for the next month and just hope I can schedule everything just right so that we fit it all in, with no screaming panic attacks and no stress eating. Wish me luck.

This week we…..

June 9, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

This week we gave our gifts to Larissa.

These shoes were a secret project for her, with a whole bunch of things we love about Larissa, or things we did together, or fun memories. It’s kind of like a scrapbook in a shoe.

I think she was surprised and really liked them.

We had also made a photo book of many pictures of the family and the activities we did this year. It’s hard to put all that we have done, and all that we feel into a book. But we tried.

They gave us a gift, too. Like our new cuckoo clock?

This week we played with our new chicks. Yes, we have some new chicks. We actually got them on the last or next to last day of school, and they were about 5 weeks old. So in only 4 1/2 months, they should be laying!

The small chickens have to stay separate from the bigger chickens, so we’ve put them in the old small a-frame coop. It’s not great, and it’s really falling apart, but it works for them right now.

They are already pretty big, but most of that is feathers and fluff, and they can pretty much squeeze through the opening in a chain link fence, and they run really fast, so we have to keep an eye on them.
The kids LOVE playing with them, and they need to be handled a lot so they get used to us, too.

Of course, in order to get new chickens, we have to thin the herd a little bit, and we took the two oldest chickens, who we KNOW are not laying any eggs, and delivered them to a guy who said he had just moved into a new place in Lehi and had a pasture and wanted some chickens to eat bugs. He didn’t care that they are a bit on the old side and not laying anymore. We put them each in a box and took them to Lehi to their new owner.

And don’t think we were too lonely with Larissa and Simone gone. Robin texted on Monday and wanted to know if I could go with her to get a pedicure. Of COURSE! I needed to get my feet ready for summer, but it’s really more fun to be pampered with a friend, so we went together. The next day she and Sarah came over, and Sarah stayed to entertain the troops. They started with some Koolaid dieing of the hair. I did not participate this time around, but John even got into the fun.

Don’t forget the baseball. As stated in a previous post, it was tournament week for John, and how wonderful for him that his team made it to the final, and even won that game.

I have been working on sewing and otherwise acquiring trek clothes for my two girls who will be going on trek. This week I bought the special tick spray, some spf 45 lip balm, and sewed up two skirts and one apron. I found this shirt at a garage sale on Friday, and said, “Wouldn’t that make the cutest trek shirt?” and the lady said, that’s why I made it, for my daughter to wear to trek. Natalie saw it and said, “it’s a cow shirt.” I KNOW! Isn’t it GREAT!? I don’t know if she likes it or not, but if she doesn’t go for it, Megan will probably take it as one of hers.

We haven’t heard from Cole except for that quick phone call on Tuesday, but I pretty much expected not to hear anything until his p-day on Monday. Crossing my fingers that we will get an email on Monday.

Saturday was a day of work. Yard work, washing the cars, and here’s Ryan adjusting the lights on the outside of the house. He even put up speakers outside for our summer party season. I went over to the community theater for a work day. All the parents are required to put in at least two work days, where you work on sets, costumes, or whatever. This time we were moving set pieces and wood from two different storage facilities, and taking them over to the junior high. Then we painted a bunch of “walls” with white primer so they can make them into something else. I would really paint sets again, if they need me to.

Saturday night, our friends Tess and David had invited us to see Ragtime at the Hale Center Theater.

Can you believe this was my first time at the Hale Center Theater? Really. It’s amazing what they do with that small stage. It was a POWERFUL performance with AMAZING singers. Usually there are a couple of powerhouse voices and then one or two that aren’t quite as good. Not so with this show. Such a talented cast.
You can read about it here. It was so nice to get out with friends, and we are so grateful they invited us. Who should I see in the lobby buy my Aunt and Uncle! It was nice to chat with them for a few minutes, too.

Sunday John gave a talk in Primary, and while I was in there, the primary president pulled me aside and told me they were thinking of making a change. I won’t say until it’s official, but it looks like I will be leaving my little friends in the nursery. Ryan will stay there (as least as far as I know), but I’m ok to make a change. I have missed going to Relief Society, and seeing other people in the ward, not just the ones that have nursery aged children.

Yep, it’s been a good week.

Let’s go out to the ball game

June 6, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

My new camera came today…Hooray! I went with the Nikon Coolpix S8200, which is pretty much the same camera I got for Cole, only it’s an older model. It had pretty much the same features but I could find it for about $60 less than the 9100 I was looking for.

I took some test shots just playing around.

And I was super glad that I brought my new camera to John’s baseball game.

John’s team has done very well this season, and even though John hasn’t really liked playing on a team where he doesn’t know anyone and it’s not full of his friends like the past couple of years, it’s been a good experience.

There were three games this week, and tonight was the last of them. The championship game, and as it turns out, they were playing against John’s friend Hunter’s team. Tonight John’s team was hitting great, and quickly outscored the other team. And while I was chatting with someone, all of a sudden it was over.

They had both teams line up for congratulations and trophies.

Then it was John’s team’s turn, and each boy got their treasured trophy.

(I love that this camera doesn’t make me wait forever between pictures! It’s quick and pretty small, and I think we are going to be friends. That is, provided I don’t drop it, spill on it, or get sand or dirt in the lens.)

I’m glad he had a good experience with this team. They did win all their games, so even if it wasn’t a hang out with friends experience, hopefully it builds his confidence and he’ll want to play again.

Great weekend. Bring on Summer!

May 28, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

What a great weekend! I wish they could ALL be this great.

Saturday night we went out to Eagle Mountain for the Pony Express Days Rodeo.

Rodeos are an American thing, and we thought Larissa would enjoy it, so we were glad to be able to find a rodeo so early in the season.

It was windy, but not as windy as it had been the couple of days before. The bad part of the evening was that John really wanted a soda, so I told him he could have a Fresca from the back of the car. He stuck it in my purse, but not before starting to open it. I didn’t think it was open, so I wasn’t worried, but the bouncing around was just enough to make that soda leak all over my purse. And my camera that was in my purse. Ack. I took it out to take pictures, and the light blinked at me, but the camera wouldn’t do anything. Ugh. I took the batteries out and let it dry, but the next day it was still not working. I don’t have the best track record with camera. Probably because I take the camera everywhere, and it often gets dropped, splashed on, and generally abused. Still. With Cole gone, and Natalie can’t find her battery charger, we’re left with only Larissa’s camera and the tiny cheap one I got from a friend. Such is life, right?

The Rodeo was fun. I really liked the clown at this one. There was a scary time when a rider hit hard on the ground, and they had to call out the paramedics. He was on the ground not moving for a long time. I sure hope he is all right. Larissa asked why the horses were bucking so much, and I had to explain about the strap that is placed in an uncomfortable position.

Fun night. Although we were pretty much covered in dust and dirt when we came home. Showers for everyone!

Sunday dawned early for some of us. I had to get up to the Tabernacle by 7:35, so that meant getting up at 6:00. I don’t see the Memorial Day Broadcast on YouTube just now, but it was a really great program. We played America the Beautiful and then played with the choir on a couple other songs. As I was sitting there on the stage, I almost forgot that we were there to perform. I was just so enthralled with watching the amazing orchestra RIGHT IN FRONT of me, with the Choir behind me. I love my calling!

This is a busy week for us in bells. We have our spring concert on Friday, and that means extra rehearsals this week. It’s always nerve-wracking right before a concert when we realize we are not quite ready, and things are not perfect. We do the best we can, right?

After the broadcast, I made it back in time for the end of sacrament meeting, where it was the farewell talk for not one, but two missionaries. I just scooted into the back and heard the end of the last talk before going to nursery.

The rest of the day was nice and casual, no other places to go. I had a much needed nap.

Monday we did some garden work first thing. The kids even found a garter snake and we all took turns holding it and playing with it. It was just a little one, so not too scary. We let it go in the flower beds, so hopefully it will carry out it’s job of eating bugs or mice. We got the tomatoes planted, and Ryan’s bucket system is up and running again. I have also been sorting out Cole’s room. Sheets to wash, clothes to donate or pack away, etc. Larissa’s mom is coming to stay with us this Thursday evening, and that’s the room she will use, so I can’t put it off any longer. Luckily we was only in that room for three weeks after he moved home from school, so it’s not too entrenched with his stuff. Speaking of Cole, though, I’m quite disappointed that I haven’t heard from him yet. Wasn’t he supposed to write to us on that very first day? I even made him a mad-libs type letter that he just had to fill in the blanks, then put it in the addressed, stamped envelope and drop it in a mailbox. But here it is Tuesday, and we still haven’t heard one word from our missionary. This is going to be hard.

After lunch, we piled the kids in the car to go to This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake. I haven’t been there in years, and I think I only had two or three kids when we went, so it’s been a long time, and they have made lots of changes. It was SO MUCH FUN!

We rode the train, toured Brigham Young’s house, bought some candy at the ZCMI, made a craft at the furniture store, went to the leather working store and the kids pounded a little design in their leather.

I don’t have many pictures (see above), but I may add some once I borrow the pictures from Larissa’s camera. When we stepped into the barber’s shop, he had John hop up into the chair for a shave.

After his “shave”, the barber suggested John might need a tooth pulled, or perhaps he wasn’t feeling well and might need some leaches, or other blood-letting. He declined.

We had so much fun there, and it was the perfect day! Sunny, but not too warm, and not very crowded, since it’s just the beginning of the summer season. Since it was only $20 more to purchase a year pass, we splurged on that, and now we can go a few more times and enjoy all the things we missed.

The kids had fun with the pony ride, and the petting zoo. There were even baby emus! And chicks. Of course, there were baby chicks. The kids all went gaga over the chicks! Then they were all BEGGING to get some. Do they not remember what a PAIN it is to have baby chicks? I guess not. Even Ryan was saying he wanted some chicks, and the guy walked by and said, “Oh, these are for sale.” No. We don’t need more Buff Orpingtons, thank you very much. Isn’t 5 enough for you? But we did get talking about buying some chicks….. Can you believe this is the same guy, who merely two years ago did NOT WANT chickens? This is CRAZY!

After we left the park, we went for dinner at Cafe Rio, which pleased MOST of the family. One of them wanted a hamburger, but he was voted down. Can you guess which one that was?

The kids were so sweet, saying, “Thanks, Mom! This was the best Memorial Day EVER.” I don’t know about best ever, but it was a darn fun day.

Success!!

Just a few more days of “school” to get through this week, and then it’s full time summer break.

Eek! I had better get myself organized or the chaos will take over.

Super Sunday

May 26, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

Last Sunday was Cole’s “farewell” talk in church. It was a super meeting, with a confirmation of a wonderful young lady who is currently living in our ward. Her baptism was the day before, and it was a wonderful experience. There was also a fabulous talk by a sister in our ward who was just released from her mission in Salt Lake at the family history library. Her husband died while on their mission, but she was still so amazingly excited about missionary work. Cole also spoke. He did such a GREAT job with his talk, and didn’t get all sappy or make me cry. He spoke on the Atonement and his take on avoiding sin. Some things I remember from his talk are (and believe me, I was kind of emotional and don’t remember all that much), but he talked about harrowing, as in Alma 39:7 And now, my son, I would to God that ye had not been guilty of so great a crime. I would not dwell upon your crimes, to harrow up your soul, if it were not for your good.

Definition of HARROW– a cultivating implement set with spikes, spring teeth, or disks and used primarily for pulverizing and smoothing the soil, so when you sin, the guilt from that sin is like something raking across your middle.

He also said that if you enter into a minefield, you will explode. So stay far away from the mines of temptation.

After the meeting, we were greeted by pouring rain.
Really?
It was sunny when we left, and we had set up 4 tables outside, even putting tablecloths on them, so they would be all ready for our crowd.

Well, we just had to get cozy inside.

Here’s Cole with a bunch of his friends. One of these friends had his farewell talk at 9:00 that same day. So these boys went to two sacrament meetings to hear each other speak.

Lots of people, and this was just the family and friends who came over right after sacrament meeting. Luckily, we were set up in the basement, too, so we could spread out a bit.

We had made an insane amount of rhubarb pie on Saturday. Well, 6 pies. I guess that’s not an insane amount. It just felt like that when we had all of the kids picking, washing and chopping it.

There was actually plenty of food, so that when the ward members started to come over, we just got out something else. I bought too many rolls, but oh, well.

Here’s Cole with my mom. Love them!

Once the crowds left, my parents wanted to play a game, so we played… What was that game called again? King’s something? Anyway, it was fun to play with them.

It was a beautiful day. I can’t believe it was only one week ago!

Temple Time

May 11, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

Saturday we were finally able to go to the Temple with Cole. I had hoped we could go earlier in the spring, but he just couldn’t fit things into his schedule until he was out of school. Saturday night was the best time, so we met at the temple. We were all a bit nervous and excited, especially Cole.

Ryan and Cole went to the temple at 5:30 (Don’t they both look sharp in their NEW SUITS?) and the rest of us met in the chapel at 6:30 for the 7:00 session.

My sister, Amy, was going to bring her kids over at 6:00, but at 6:15, I couldn’t wait any longer, so I left, and told the kids she would probably show up with her kids to be babysat, but I wasn’t going to wait.

Being in the temple with my parents, my family, Ryan’s parents and siblings and Cole was wonderful. I thought I would cry the whole time, but I didn’t. I was just very happy that we have a son who is worthy to go through the temple, and who is willing to the serve the Lord and the people of West Virginia. Happy.

We had originally thought we would go out to dinner after the session, but then we thought twice about that. How about frozen yogurt instead?

So, after the temple, we went back home and got the kids, who deserved a break after babysitting (Megan told me the kids were pretty wild and crazy), and went over to our local frozen yogurt shop, Orange Leaf. It’s one of those serve yourself places, and while I always make sure my own kids don’t load up on too much yogurt and toppings (try not to be greedy, right?) I cannot control how others load up those huge yogurt cups. Ryan insisted we pay for everyone, and I was a little shocked at the price of yogurt for that many people.

But, we had a nice time socializing with the family and friends who had come to share this special evening with us.

So proud of my son and excited for the next two years.

John’s television debut

April 15, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

This week I got a text from a neighbor. She said she was a talent scout for a local informercial company, and they were looking for a boy who looked like John. Would John like to go on a shoot?
Heck, ya!
I told her that sounded like fun, and we worked out the details.
The night before, I casually mentioned to John what was going to happen, that he would get to be checked out of school so we could go to this commercial filming thing, and how fun is that?
“I don’t really want to,” he said.
What? Having already committed to take him, I had to do some quick thinking. “They’ll pay you $12 an hour,” I said.
“What?” exclaimed Megan, “that’s more than I MAKE!”
I didn’t mention that it’s also more than I make as a substitute teacher, but that’s a sore subject, so I wasn’t going to bring it up and get ridiculed.
“Ok,” John said, “I’ll do it.”

We had to get a few clothing options ready, they said “colorful shirts” both long and short sleeved, and two different pajama options. So, I packed a big bag of clothes for John and a couple of snacks, and went back to the school (I had already been there from 8-9 for chime choir) and checked John out of school. We were supposed to be to this place in Springville by 10:30.

We got there in plenty of time, and Kandice at the front desk was super nice, and escorted us to the green room. Wow! It was like a nice, cozy family room. There were couches and a big tv, complete with x-box and cool games. There was also another tv around the corner and movies. John was glad he came. So, we settled in to play x-box for a while. No problem.

I had been told that it was a lot of waiting, so I was prepared with a good book on my Kindle, and I didn’t mind the wait at all. It was a little cold, but there was even a cozy blanket I could use to wrap up in. After a little while, Kandice came in to check out what clothes we had brought, and it seems they wanted a long sleeved blue shirt, which we hadn’t brought, so she went to go buy one quickly. More game playing. After a while, we were beginning to get a little bit bored, and then she came for us again. She had John change into the dark blue shirt and sweat pants, and we went into a big garage like studio in the back.

I forgot my camera, and had to take pictures only with my phone, but I’m having trouble getting those on to the computer, so we may be pictureless for this post–darn.

They brought us in, and told John that they were going to replicate a commercial that they had already done, and that’s why they needed a blonde boy in a blue shirt. You can check out the original infomercial here. This new product, instead of Dream lights by pillow pets, it’s dream WAVES. They had him sit up on a mock bed, with lights all around and green screen. He thought it was cool, except that he had to sit there on that “bed” (which was NOT cushy and comfy like a bed, by the way) for a long time while they worked on getting the lighting right. When they finally said “action”, he just had to push the light, look up, and look around on the ceiling and walls with wonder. No lines, no speaking, just looking. And they only filmed him from the back.

When I asked him if he thought this was fun, he said, “Not really,” but I thought it was kind of fun. Interesting, too.

We were there about 2 1/2 hours, and it’s maybe a 5 second shot. But it was something fun to do with my boy, and he’ll be super excited when they send his check, AND when we can see him in the commercial!

Category: Family Fun (Page 4 of 25)

Here’s to many more years together

Slow down, summer!

Family Reunion

Just Hang on

This week we…..

Let’s go out to the ball game

Great weekend. Bring on Summer!

Super Sunday

Temple Time

John’s television debut

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