Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Friends (Page 4 of 7)

Summer!

July 20, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Hey, it’s summertime! And we’re not ONLY doing a play around here, we’re doing other stuff, too.

Like go to the farm.

The kids love Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point, so we went there for some fun animal time. We went after dinner so it wasn’t crowded, and the kids had a blast, as usual. They pestered me about wanting to get goats, bunnies and chickens. Maybe someday, kids.

Like camping.

We had our family reunion camping trip last week, and we had a fun time at Payson Lakes. And by fun, I mean we didn’t get much sleep, got really really dirty, and spent about as much time getting ready and cleaning up after the trip as we spent actually camping.

Like playing at the lake.

The kids had a blast at the lake, as they usually do around water.

Like have visitors.

Robin and kids are here visiting from Arizona. They have to do something to escape the heat, and we’re happy to have them come. The kids have so much fun together.

Like hiking.

We decided to hike up to Timpanogos Cave
We started early to avoid the heat, and that mile and a half up is a killer! But we made it, toured the caves, and had a good time, well, let’s just say we made it.

We finished up the show.

Last night was closing night for the Wizard of Oz. It was a full house and we all did our best to put on the best possible show. It was wonderful. I’ve had a blast. I’ve made new friends, I’ve learned new songs and dances, and just enjoyed my time with Alpine Community theater. Natalie also had a very good time with the play, although it was a little sad that we were not in any scenes together. Alpine Community Theater is very professional and does a wonderful job. It’s seriously community theater at it’s best. I’m so sad that it’s over, but I’m relieved and glad to be able to have some free time back.

So, as you can see, even though my life has been consumed with the wizard of oz, we’re still busy with the summer. Stay tuned for more adventures. Things like toilet replacement, more hiking, swimming, pioneer day, and even visitors from China!

Me and Michael? We’re like this (crossing fingers)

April 2, 2010 / / 6 Comments

Last night I went to see Michael Buble in concert, and may I just say it was Awesome!

My dear friend Lisa went with me, and we had a great time. As we were going to find our seats (on the floor), I could hardly believe that our seats were so great. We kept walking forward and forward until we were there on the second row!

The opening band was Amazing. They are called Naturally 7. Vocal percussion and instrumentation at it’s best. You can take a listen HERE.

Then the Man Michael came out, and the party really got started.

It was so neat to be RIGHT there. Instead of just listening and watching on the big screen, I could actually see the band, the piano player, the guitar player, and Michael. He was interacting with the crowd, the people on the first row, and this cute little girl off to my left. What a blast! I knew almost all the songs he played, and it was just so much fun.

Unlike the past few concerts we’ve been to, this one wasn’t too loud. I didn’t even need my earplugs! The sound was perfect. Of course that may have something to do with where we were sitting, who knows?

Oh, I fear I may have ruined my chances for ever enjoying a concert again. It was so NICE to sit up front and pretend I was one of the beautiful wealthy people who pay hundreds of dollars for concert tickets! I may not enjoy the WAY back seats anymore. I have been RUINED. Ruined, I tell you! But it was worth it. To be close enough to see him as an actual person, not just a HUGE face on the screen. OH, it was an experience I’ll remember.

I wish you all could have been there with me. Maybe next time.

Because some days are like that

January 3, 2010 / / 4 Comments

The other day, after a day full of normal Christmastime activities like school parties, wrapping gifts and shopping, I was just the tiniest bit grouchy (“What? You grouchy?” I KNOW!) John had a friend over to play, and they didn’t seem to be getting along to well, either. They kept arguing about what to do. When I was upstairs changing laundry, John came upstairs and said that his friend had got out the perler beads, and John didn’t want to play perler beads today. This kind of ticked me off a little bit, because EVERY time this kid comes to play, he wants to play with the beads. Then he makes something that ends up getting spilled on the floor before I have a chance to get out the iron and iron it for him. I don’t mind if they play with the beads, but the fact that he just went into my office and got it out without even asking irritated me a little bit. I mean, there were presents in there. Plus the fact that it irritated John. So, I went down and asked him to please put away the beads, we weren’t going to be doing beads today. He didn’t really like that idea and did NOT start to put away the beads, and in fact, totally ignored me. I raised my voice a little bit and asked him to PLEASE put away the beads, that we would be doing a game or a puzzle or something else. He finally started to put them away. But not so willingly. I was around the corner, but I could still hear him singing in his little 6 year old voice, “John’s mom is SO stupid. John’s mom is SO stupid. John’s mom is so stupid.” What a nice little song. Do you not realize I’M STANDING RIGHT HERE AND CAN HEAR YOU!?

As he turned the corner and saw me standing there, I’m sure I did not look very friendly. “We do not talk like that here,” I said very firmly. I demanded an apology, then told him to go and put away those beads immediately, and NEVER talk like that in our home again. I had to walk away and calm down.

After that, that kid couldn’t leave soon enough for me. Too bad his mom wasn’t home at the time. When she did call a bit later and ask that we could get him ready so she could pick him up in 10 minutes, I helped him find his shoes and his coat and we were both waiting outside on the porch for when his mom came to get him.

So, yeah, I was feeling a little bit grumpy. Then my other kids came home, and through no fault of their own, they were annoying me. Too loud, too hyper, too excited, too hungry. Really, they were acting normal for this time of year. They were excited for Christmas and all the fun of the season. I ate some more Christmas goodies and went upstairs to do something at least semi-productive, but hopefully away from the noise. I avoided looking into any of the kids’ rooms, and went to my room, which was also pretty much a mess. I decided to call a friend so I could vent. That helped. Robin and I talked. “I hope it’s PMS here, because if it’s not, I just hate everyone,” I said. She laughed, and sympathized. While we talked, I cleaned up my room a bit. I hung up clothes and put things away, which made me feel a tiny bit better. But there’s still so much clutter and crap in there. “I want to throw EVERY last thing that I see away,” I told her. “Then you should!” she said, “throw it ALL away and get it out in the trash before you have a chance to change your mind.” She’s a bit of a minimalist at times. I did NOT throw everything away, but I did get most of the clothes put away. Talking to a friend and cleaning up helped my mood a little bit.

As I look back and laugh a little bit at myself and this experience, it just brings to mind how thankful I am to have good friends.

To all my friends out there–thank you!

the 12 days of Christmas

December 27, 2009 / / 3 Comments

One fun Christmas “service” act we like to do is to surprise a neighbor with the “12 days of Christmas”.

(can you spot me?)

This year, we chose a family that has kids the same ages as our kids, and they are friends. I knew it might be hard for the kids to keep it a secret, plus they don’t have many hiding places in their front yard, so it might be difficult to avoid getting caught. We did some of the usual things,
day one, a carton of eggs (a partridge laid these eggs)
2- “two sided crackers” and we gave them flips.
3-“three french fries” and we gave them a bag of frozen french fries. Of course, this day they may or may not have known what was going on, because Natalie lost the note on the way over. Seeing a bag of frozen french fries on the porch, they may not have made the connection to day 3. Oh well.
4-four pairs of socks
5-five gold fish. This was the day I decided to get really clever. Never a good idea when dealing with sneaky things, but I did it anyway. I gave them 5 packages of goldfish crackers, and instead of just delivering them all at once, I put two in the mailbox, then took 3 to the school. I went into the office, and after bribing the office staff with diet cokes, I asked if they could deliver these fish to each of the three kids that go to that school. They had little notes on them so the kids would know that the fish were part of the 12 days of Christmas. I made sure to say that these were NOT from me, and you had NO IDEA where these snacks came from, that we were being sneaky. They agreed and said they knew all about the sneaky. As I was coming out of the 5th grade classroom an hour later, who should I run into coming out of the office but (care to take a guess?) my friend–the one who we were doing the surprise for. She was right there, coming out of the office, holding ALL THREE of the bags of goldfish. What? That was not the plan! Did I not make myself clear that these were to go to the KIDS? She was checking in her daughter, who had had a doctor’s appointment that morning. She wanted to talk to me, so we walked out together. I tried NOT to look at the goldfish in her hands, and she didn’t mention it, so it wasn’t mentioned. Ugh. This always happens when I involve other people in our sneakyness. One year, we asked one of Megan’s friends to deliver a gift, and she took it to them and said, “This is from the Ericksons.” NO!!!! That is not the plan. Oh, well.
6-On the 6th day, we gave a big bag of potatoes. What? Potatoes? The note said, “These must be SOME special geese to lay these for you. I know, they are dumb. But sometimes I just don’t want to go to the store and I’m all out of ideas.
7- Seven swans a swimming. I had Cole, our resident origami expert, make up 7 origami swans, and then each swan was holding a coupon for a free junior frosty.
8-Eight ways a milky, and we gave them 8 little milky ways. Or we would have if we had 8 milky ways. We could only find 7 among the halloween candy, so we crossed out the 8 and put 7. Like I said before, we’re not professionals at this, it’s just whatever stuff we can dig up.
9-Nine was some foot creme, specially picked out by the nine ladies dancing, because all that dancing can make your feet tired, right?
10-Ok, I’ll admit it, I got really lazy on day 10, and I was not in the best mood, so they got a package of little Debbie’s snack cakes. Sigh.
11-We can’t remember. How sad is that?
12-For the twelfth day, we had a 12 pack of fanta, wishing them a “fantastic” Christmas. This friend actually called and told me they were going out of town, but she was going to bring something by before they left. Great, we thought. They’ll come to us. Then we can sing to them and give them their “12” gift, and we’ll be done. They never came by. Must have run out of time, since they were going out of town. So, we never did deliver day 12 to them, and hopefully they still don’t know. Well, unless they read this post, then they would know. Oops?

Service with a smile

November 17, 2009 / / 4 Comments

I made dinner for a friend tonight. She’s exhausted and run down and emotionally spent after a difficult ordeal, so when I heard about it, I volunteered to bring in dinner. Usually when I take in dinner for someone in the ward, we do it in pairs, as a visiting teaching companionship. But my companion has been sick and is pregnant herself, so I didn’t try too hard to get ahold of her, I just figured I would do it myself.

Last night, while I was preparing dinner, I was watching Food Network (big mistake, I know) and we watched this recipe for Bacon wrapped Turkey Breast stuffed with pear hash. My children all sat with wide eyes glued to the television. “Bacon” they sighed. I had to admit it DID look good, so when I got the phone call later that night from this friend and told her I would bring her dinner, I thought of this recipe. After all, is there anybody out there who doesn’t love bacon?

This morning I went to the grocery store to buy turkey breasts so I could make that recipe. Did you know you can buy a WHOLE turkey for less money than you can buy two turkey breasts? Oh no I’m NOT going to pay $15 for two organic turkey breasts. I bought chicken instead. I came home, put away my groceries, and started on some rolls.

While I was mulling over what to do for dinner, the afternoon kind of got away from me. I was driving carpool pick up from both the high school and the junior high, as well as taking three kids to two different piano lesson locations, and each trip in the car seemed to take longer than it was supposed to. Megan also had her first footsall game, and I had to make sure she could get to that.

But I managed to pull off a pretty amazing dinner, even with all the LIFE that happens.

Bacon wrapped chicken breasts
Brown rice with veggies
Fresh hot homemade rolls
Apple bacon Green beans
Fruit salad

Luckily, I had made a big pan of mint brownies on Sunday, and had a little more than half of them already packaged up, so I took those to them for dessert.

mint brownies

(In all honesty, that’s not MY picture of mint brownies, I just found it on the internet, but really, they were that good.)

As I was trying to get everything done at the same time and package it all into disposable containers (or containers that I don’t really care if I get back), the kids started whining about how nobody ever brings US dinner, and why are we giving them ALL the rest of the mint brownies? I had to remind them that when we give service, we should always give the BEST to the person that we are serving. And I had to remind them that TWO of my friends brought in dinner just over a month ago when I had surgery, and that they were both very good meals, and included dessert. One of my daughters went so far as to suggest that her sister should break her leg again just so that people would bring us meals. Can you believe these kids?

I was quite proud of myself for a)making such a delicious dinner, and b) getting it all done and delivered while it was still hot. I made TONS of food, since they have a big family, and I had to have enough for us to eat, too. We sat down and ate dinner, and I must say it was delicious. Sure, I would have liked a nice mint brownie after the meal, but I can live without it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think that I may have used every single pan in the house, and I have to go and start doing the dishes. But I’ll do it with a warm heart, knowing that I made someone else’s day a little easier, and hopefully taught my family a tiny bit about service.

Birthday guests at 3:00!

September 4, 2009 / / 4 Comments

John’s long awaited Star Wars Jedi training party was yesterday, and I’m happy to say it went VERY well. I’ll give you the run down just in case YOU someday have a demanding 5 year old who insists on a star wars party.
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#1–Jedi training. I gave every member of the family except the birthday boy, of course, a station. At each station the kids had to do some kind of “training exercise” to help them become Jedis. They were actually just things to do, like do a trick on the trampoline, walk frontwards and backwards on the balance beam, crab walk, kick a soccer ball and knock over three stacked #10 cans, go across the monkey bars and down the slide, and fill up a cup with water using a spoon. Don’t ask me what these tasks have to do with the training of Jedis, but at least it kept our little boys busy.

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#2–Laser beam limbo. It’s basically just limbo with a fancy name. We used a mop handle and played Star Wars music.

Laser Beam Limbo

Laser Beam Limbo


When they got tired of going under the stick, we lowered it and made them jump over the stick. Because sticks are versatile that way.

#3–Borrow some cool costumes. When I was complaining about the elaborate star wars party my son was asking me to throw, a friend volunteered that she had some star wars costumes! She said they had used them years ago for her daughter’s party, and we were welcome to use them. Hello! That is awesome! The queen Amadala costume, she told me, had fit her daughter when she was 5. Hmmm. The only person that would fit around here would be John. But wait! My 13 year old daughter, Megan, also happens to be extremely skinny, and what do you know? She fit into the costume just fine!
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Especially if by “fit’s just fine” you don’t care that it’s about a foot and a half too short. She was a good sport and wore the costume, even said the lines I fed to her.

My awesome husband also got into the act. While the boys were limbo-ing, he went inside and put on the Darth Maul costume, and came out in all his scariness. He wielded his fancy double light saber thingy and challenged the young jedis. camera-pictures-094camera-pictures-096
Those jedis attacked with vigor when I said, “go get him,” and he was no match for their strength in numbers.
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We had to call them off before they did any serious damage.

#4–Get a really cool pinata. My brother-in-law Italo has connections. He has a friend who makes pinatas. And not just ANY pinatas, AWESOME pinatas. When we picked little yoda up, we were amazed at the cuteness. And so BIG! camera-pictures-116
Who wouldn’t be impressed with a yoda pinata as big as the birthday boy?
I hated to even let them smack him, but that’s what the pinata is for, right? And for some reason, the little boys think a party’s not a party without either a bounce house or a pinata. They whacked with vigor.
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Soon Master Yoda delivered up the coveted candy, and was but a shred of his former self.
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#5–Feed them. After the pinata, I served up hot dogs, cheetos, and grapes, with special galactic punch (lemon lime shasta with a scoop of lime sherbet). But some kids eat and some kids don’t eat. It’s a party, so we don’t really care if they don’t chose to eat. And after presents, we ate some more.

#6–Easy cake decorating tip. Just get a cake from the grocery store and put some little star wars toys on the cake.
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The kids had a great time, John had a great time, and the party was fabulous. I hope so, after all the stressing I did in the weeks leading up to this birthday party. But it’s all worth it when I asked him if he liked the party, and he said, “It’s the best party EVER, Mom!”

So, there you have it. My 6 easy steps to throwing an awesome Star Wars Party. May the Force be with you.

There’s no business like show business like no business I know

July 18, 2009 / / 2 Comments

Tonight is the closing night of Annie Get Your Gun. It’s the culmination of over 2 months worth of rehearsals. I figured that if we rehearsed on average 15 hours per week, times 10 weeks, that’s 150 hours, and since there’s three of us in the show, times that by three, add in travel time….etc. It’s been a big deal. A lot of work, and a lot of fun. camera-pictures-006

Doing the show with my kids has been quite a different experience than just doing the show on my own, like I did last year. On one hand, it’s been a nice way to connect with my girls, have something in common with them, and experience this whole thing together. On the other hand, coordinating with their softball schedules has been difficult, and listening to their whining and complaining has been even more difficult. And it’s one thing to be at a long and boring rehearsal yourself, but to worry about what your kids are going to do during the long and boring parts and having to plan for that is a lot more work.
camera-pictures-042 One of my friends in the play, Debbie, has ALL her kids in the play. Seriously–all of them. Her daughter who just got married, her other daughter and her boyfriend, and her three younger kids. So when they are getting ready with makeup and costumes, they are ALL doing it. Wow. I hope the girls have enjoyed the experience. I worried about them a month ago because they were complaining every single time we had to go to rehearsal, and I just thought maybe this had been a big mistake to encourage them to do the play. But now, at performance time, I can see that they are really having a lot of fun.
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It’s a different experience being in the chorus as apposed to being a lead last year. I do admit that there were times I felt unappreciated and even ignored.
camera-pictures-055 Since there are a lot of dancing scenes, and without enough guys to include everyone, they would choreograph for couples, often forgetting that the chorus ladies were actually supposed to be in the scene as well. It all got worked out in the end, but there were times where we would sit at rehearsal for two hours before anyone realized we were even there, and figured out where to place us in the scene. camera-pictures-063

The best part of being in a show is the friends. I’ve made lots of new friends in this show, and reconnected with some friends I made from last year. It really is a lot of fun, and worth all the hard work.

I’ll be sad when it’s over tonight, although I’m happy to have my free time back.

There’s no business like show business.

Our Thanksgiving Point Week

June 5, 2009 / / 1 Comment

We’ve gotten an annual pass to Thanksgiving Point for a couple of years now. When you have a family the size of ours, it really makes it worth it, and then we always have something fun to do and we don’t have to worry about how much it will cost, because it’s already paid for. But our pass was expiring today, and I won’t be buying another pass for a while. Money’s tight and all that stuff. So this week became our designated Thanksgiving Point week.

Monday we went to the farm country. Cole didn’t want to come, so I let him stay home and mow the lawn, but the other four kids came. At $3.50 per person, it’s pretty inexpensive, but that still would have cost the 6 of us $21. The kids really love the pony ride that’s included. They all have to “name” their ponies and enjoy their little rides.

On Thursday we went to the Children’s Garden. But the kids complained that it wasn’t as much fun if they couldn’t go with friends, so I called our friends to see if they wanted to come with us. They were sadly stuck with no car for the week, but I said we could squish some of them in. Cole again decided to stay home and play with one of his friends, so me and four of my kids plus my friend and four of her kids squished into our car and off we went. Two adults and five kids got in free with the pass, (would have been $32) so we only had to pay 1/2 price for three of the kids for a grand total of $6. The kids were right. It was much more fun with friends.

Today we went to the Dinosaur museum. My kids have really been there a lot in the past year, especially John, so they didn’t jump for joy when I said we were going. I even made Cole come with us (gasp!). Kids cost $8, and adults $10, so it would have cost the 6 of us $50 to go. That’s $103 for the three activities this week. You can see that having a family pass really IS a bargain, if you do any of these activities more than once in a year. We’ve really gotten our money’s worth out of the pass, and enjoyed the benefits of membership.

And, it gave us something to do for this first week of summer. Of course, the kids are now pretty tired of Thanksgiving point stuff, which is good, since we won’t be going again for a long while.

How’s your summer going?

Go ahead–make my day

May 27, 2009 / / 6 Comments

It’s kind of a blah morning for me. I don’t have anything scheduled for the morning, although I have a million things that need to get done. I haven’t exercised in two weeks, so I’m kind of sluggish, but still not feeling up to anything strenuous. (By the way, I went to the vein Dr yesterday, and while they said things are “looking good”, they said that yes, I might have pain and tenderness and swelling from the schlerotherapy for up to four weeks. Four Weeks? Are you kidding me?) I feel like I really should be getting something DONE, since it’s one of the last days of school, and next week I’ll have a million kids swarming the house (well, not a million, it just feels like it sometimes). So, do I concentrate on the laundry room? The kitchen? The outside? The garden? The flowers? The porch? My bedroom? The kids’ bathroom? Any of these things could take up my entire day and wipe me out. I also haven’t made bread in a few weeks, and we could use some bread, for sure.

Then the phone rang. “Oh,” I thought, “maybe it’s someone calling me wanting to do something fun!” I picked it up excitedly. It was a friend of mine. I had given her some tickets to the Bee Gee’s tribute band concert for Monday, and she had seemed excited about going. I asked her if she had gone. She said that she didn’t go, but that the tickets were used, so I’m not sure if she gave them to kids or friends, but I’m happy that someone used them.

Then we got to the GOOD part of the conversation. The part where she asked if she could bring. me. dinner! Let the rejoicing begin! Someone wants to bring me and my family dinner! Oh, that makes e happy! She asked if we had any allergies or picky eaters, to which I said no. I’m not going to discourage her from making anything she wants–she’s an excellent cook.

So, now there’s a bright spot in my day. Whatever things I decide I must do today, making dinner is not one of them. And with that one phone call, my day is looking up.

That’s nice to know, insurance company. Thank you.

May 16, 2009 / / 7 Comments

I got the mail today and opened a letter from our insurance company, which said:

“We reviewed your request to cover Endovenous ablation therapy of incompetent vein…blah, blah, blah…. AND we determined that the health care service is eligible for coverage.”

Wow. Thank you. It’s nice to know that, since I had the first procedure TWO DAYS AGO.

Ahem.

I’m feeling a bit better now. Yesterday was kind of a “poor lonely sad bruised me, I can hardly walk” day, but I stayed home, watched me some Gray’s Anatomy, and cried. Crying was good. Because after I cried, I felt better.

Today I got to take off the compression stockings and have a shower. And you should SEE the bruises. I was shocked at the grossness. Want to see? Here’s a close up so you can see the bruise better.

But you want to know the best part of the surgery? Besides the sexy support hose, of course. The best part is having meals brought in. Seriously. It’s been a LONG time since anyone’s brought in a meal, and I must say, I like it. And since I’m not really having a baby anytime soon, there really isn’t much meal bringing going on, so this was a nice treat. My visiting teachers brought in a meal on Thursday, and even though Ryan could have probably cooked up something, or I could have thrown something in the microwave, it was just NICE to have that meal brought in. Nothing makes you feel loved like a meal that you didn’t have to cook. Or plan. Or shop for. And if one free meal weren’t enough, my friends took it upon themselves to bring in another meal on Friday, and even though we tried to tell them that we had a soccer party to go to, they brought it anyway. You can just cook this and eat it on Saturday, if you want, they said. Wow! I feel TOTALLY loved! A meal in my fridge!

I’m going to have to remember how great this felt, and take someone else a meal soon. Not because they are having a baby, but maybe if they are having a hard day, or they aren’t feeling well, or maybe just because. Because it really does make you feel loved when someone brings in a meal.

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