Happy Birthday Nie and a Happy Sunday

Happy Birthday Nie!

Yesterday we headed out to Provo to but a bunch of the yummy VaNIElla Squared cupcakes that were the special of the day and all proceeds went to her family and to the Arizona Burn Center. The AZ burn center is the same place that saved Parker's life all those years ago. I still have a very hard time talking about that. So many years ago, but still so many emotions.

Sometimes I'll smell something that reminds me of the Burn Untit and the month and a half we spent there and I'll just start crying or shaking. We came so close to losing him. Bad memories, but the boy turned out okay. He cancelled plans with friends to drive down and do his part to help the Burn center. I know eating cupcakes was a HUGE sacrifice on everyone's part,lol.

Can't really explain it, but it was important for us to go.

The kids thought the cupcakes were delicious and we hope the event raised some money for the Nielsons.

To learn more about her, visit her blog: http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

I subbed in Primary for church today, we only had 2 kids in the class and the lesson was about the Publication of the Doctrine & Covenants. We talked about the meaning of the title "Doctrine and Covenants" and how that means- the gospel teachings and the promises. Promises we make to God and promises he makes to us, if we come to know and abide by the gospel. We talked about Joseph Smith and how he got revelation and how others wanted to preach revelations for the whole church, but they couldn't because they were not given the authority to speak for God to the church. We walked about how they will face people who will come to them with messages "From God" for them and how if they are confused, they need to make sure that person has the authority to get actual revelation from them. We went over what people have been called to get revelation for them such as their own Parents and the Bishop, Stake president and apostles of the church and the Prophet. Also, during one event, the stake patriarch. The lesson veered into a talk about what the patriarch does and what Patriarchal blessings are. Both Joseph and Taigen were really interested in that. Joseph and Taigen asked Matt and I some really deep questions about it and it was really cool to watch them hear something they didn't know much about, to tell them some basics of our situations and to encourage them to talk to their parents about this later.

This lesson went better than any other primary lesson I've taught so far, it helped that we only had 2 kids there who knew us really well and weren't intimidated to ask us questions.

Roe got interviewed for her upcoming baptism and Parker had an interview for his Pat. Blessing. All in all, it was a really good Sunday. We've had a few really rough Sundays so it was nice to have a nice, relaxed happy day where nobody was stressed out because it was about to end abruptly due to the custody schedule.

I also felt very touched to watch Matt and Parker passing the sacrament. A few times it's been all 3 of my guys and it's really neat to watch them all exercise the priesthood together and to see them there, in white shirts and ties father and sons doing what good men do. I love and respect them both a great deal. I wish Parker would get as excited for his mission as he is about his band, but he's 16. That's what 16 year olds do, I guess.

Camping Sucks

Every summer we convince ourselves to go camping at least once and within hours of arrival we remember that we all think camping sucks. Even those who go ten times more often than we do, hate it. Half cooked food, bugs and mud are not our idea of fun, even if every year we tell ourselves we'll have a good time. It's not that we are doing it wrong, it's that camping just sucks.

Yesterday was one of the 3 days open for the ward campout, we typically just do the Friday night Saturday breakfast. We have all the right supplies and a really nice tent. Last year the ward campout was cancelled because the site our ward likes was being renovated, so it's been 2 years since we braved the elements with all of our friends & their families.

The kids had a blast playing tag and kickball and doing the arts and crafts. Parker retreated to the truck to read and didn't emerge until dinner.

About 30 minutes into it, Emma asked us to look at the bleeding lumps she found on her head. We took her over to the ward experts and everyone agreed that Emma had 2 ticks in her scalp that had been there awhile. They were bleeding and hurt and Em felt like crap and was mortified to have them. We did some on site triage and were able to remove them, but they are still swollen and icky today.

The evening was fun, the men made fun of all of the women who brought camp chairs over to out site to eat candy and read magazines as they all played catch with the football. Well, I wouldn't call it "catch." I'd call it "throw" because Joe Namath, these guys aren't. Love you tons, but none of you can catch.

Dinner was good and then they prepared for the Fireside with President Tindall. As soon as he started talking the weather turned. The wind picked up and it began to rain, everyone endured it as long as possible, as his words were inspiring and he answered a lot of good questions. Questions like "is it against the word of wisdom to drink Red Bull?" and things people tend to debate and get in silly squabbles over. One think I really like about him is that he leads without even attempting to do all of our thinking for us. He embraces the concept of free agency and reminds us that the more we NEED to be commanded in all things, the weaker we are. It's something I believe but I think it is time to revisit and re-apply this to my life as it is now, with the challenges we have now. We have such good leadership here. I really do have leaders who are inspired and who are guided to help the specific member needs of the stake and ward.

Anyway- the rain got worse and we abandoned the fireside and ran for the tent. We played MadLibs and ate Doritos and licorice for about an hour and it just kept getting colder. At 9:30 we jumped ship. We ran to the truck and drove home, leaving everything there. Our beds were so warm and soft and clean. There were no creepy crawlies and nobody had to sleep on the ground. The PopTarts we enjoyed for breakfast were nice and warm......

We're just not campers. We're not only "not campers' we actually all think camping sucks. We do it because we have all of this equipment and it always sounds like a fun, inexpensive activity, but it always ends up being a hundred dollars worth of food and we're sore, sticky and bored brainless. Ward campouts have lots of activities so we don't get bored, but I think we are going to make the decision that we are only going to attend the ward event from now on, and even then, we're not sleeping over.

Somewhere....our pioneer ancestors are looking down upon us and saying "DUH."

Time with Dylan

Yesterday Sunnie came over and we went to Murray Park with this guy: Dylan cracks me up. When he runs he wiggles his butt and flings his legs out side to side and holds his arms un so that he looks like a marionette.
The kids all ate Happy Meals while we waited for Parker to finish road driving for his Driver's Ed course. Yesterday, he drove on the freeway for the first time and it went well. Who knows, maybe this kid will join us among the driving after all this fall.

Greyson realized the season for long pants has come to an end and today, he ditched jeans and finally converted to shorts. Roe's been trying to wear shorts since February.

Yesterday (and today) we've been doing some re-arranging of the bedrooms, and I'm painting the walls in Zane and Grey's old room. The have a ring of grime on the walls where they would plant their feet as they played Nintendo in their beds and I'm still trying to get that smell of boy sweat out.

For the first time in a long time, Matt and I have felt some real hope about some of the issues our family struggles with. We can see the end of the tunnel finally and those who wish our family harm can reap what the sow and they can do it far, far away from us. It will require letting go of somethings, but that's kind of what life is sometimes about. That whole cycle of breaking things down, stripping them to the bare bones and rebuilding them in stronger ways, making the old weak places strong. This has been an emotionally taxing week, but I have found a place of complete peace, and so had Matt. That doesn't make the road ahead easy, but we know it's the right road.

The atonement applies again. We stumble and we break and then, we are lifted from the low places and we can stand and walk again, taller and stronger.

"You must do that which you think you cannot do." Elenor Roosevelt

We're ready.

Note to self: Don't forget to breathe and ice cream with sprinkles fixes darn near everything.

Happy Father's Day, Yo

Looks like the Father's Day Fairy was reading Matt's diary, what a dream come true.

Weekending

We managed to cram a lot of weekend into the past 2 days before the rain hit the valley once again. It has rained 9 out of the past 13 weekends here in Salt Lake. Noah would have been panic stricken for sure.

Yesterday was the Mother/Daughter dinner for acheivement days and all girls age 8-11 did a special activity with Mom. Roe turns 8 in a few weeks, so they let her participate. Everyone was assigned a theme to dress in costume as and Roe and I were dressed as indains. Jane arrived late and wore her costume I made as well, but none of the pics with her in it turned out. Roe was stinkin cute. Brace yourselves, leaders, Romy is coming.




Today we drove out the sticks and went digging for geodes. We spent a good 50 miles driving on dirt roads, following the old Pony Express lines. We took a pit stop at one of the old resting stations the Pony Express riders use to stop on.

We were worried that we'd get rained out, but we had a good hour of digging and collecting before the weather turned, which was plenty of time. I think the three little ones could have stayed out digging up rocks and crystals all day if we had let them.

We still need to clean them and there are a few we found that were unbroken that we'll open with the saw. The kids were quite proud of their many geode finds and even though it was really far away, we'll probably do that again sometime.

Cub Country day 2

Yesterday was day 2 of Cub Country. We had Sybil weather. It was freezing and rainy one minute and muggy the next. Most of the boys were still pretty tired from the day before, so there was a lot less fighting. If a buddy -heaven forbid- touched them- mostly they just ignored it. Brother Riggs came along with us, and that helped with the threat of "disobey and we take you home" threat. Thanks, Tim who does not read my blog.

The second camp was called "Galaxy Quest" and all of the camp leaders were dressed in Star Trek attire. The kids learned a lot about planets and did space themed activities.

This is Grey and Romy before they started getting really muddy.

The kids played a bunch of new wrestling games. Romy's partner was a 9 year old boy and the goal of this game is to cross the line in the dirt. Check her out totally kicking his butt. He won one out of the dozen or so matches they had against each other. That's some serious girl power in a poweder pink poofy coat. And here is where the mud began. The rope was muddy and the pit below was full of thick black mud that Roe landed smack in the middle of, along with most of the boys. Tarzan of the Jungle, she ain't.

The outhouses were located near the top of a hill, everyone weighed heavily just how bad they needed to go before heading up the steep, muddy slope. Needless to say, they smelled delightful.

And on that pleasant note- Cub Country is over and we all survived. I am stunned at how wiped out I am. We really have some great kids in this pack. They call me "Sister O" except for one kid who continues to call me Mrs. Olson-- which makes me feel waaay too Little House on the Prarie.

They really are a riot and I love the muddy little punks.

Cub Country Day 1

Today was day one of cub country.

What is cub country-- you may ask?....Okay, you probably aren't asking, but it's the lead in for my rant, so play along----Cub Country is 6 hours in the woods with 18 wiggly, excited. adorable, hyper boys who all apparently hate each other. I haven't heard "shut up!!" and "get away from me, jerk!" this many times since my sister's wedding.

Parker was at a friend's house, so Romy came with us, she had a really fun time and loooooved getting to hang out with Nephi and Chase.

Grey buddied up with this little guy who REALLY likes Doritos. Chase was so sly doing the old rabbit ears on him. Cub Scouts and bunny ears on your best pal go hand in hand like ex wives and broomsticks.

The kids panned for fools gold today, shot BB guns and made these sweet headbands. By the time we got home Grey had lost his and Roe had managed to get her feather wet and was bawling. Thankfully every kid in the car offered to give her their feather because all they wanted was the leather headstrap to whip thier friends with.

We survived rain, a rock fight and a screaming match by 2 boys when one isisted saliva was a new drug and if you eat food someone else alreay licked, it's the same as taking drugs. His mom said so. I did my best to assure him that his fellow scout was NOT taking drugs by accepting half a candy bar from a buddy and finally I gave up and said "Fine. He's a drug addict. You have a drug user in your wolf den. You still have to do the skit with him."

Introducing Rocco

Z was tired, but she still had her sense of humor as I obnoxiously insisted on taking a picture of her hours after giving birth. In my defense, it was like 17 hours later there's no excuse for sass like this.

Rocco is a quiet and alert little baby. He's had about enough of those hand covery thingies keeping him from sucking on his fingers, though.

He was yawning, not screaming, I promise.

Welcome to the world baby Rocco!!

Everyone is healthy and safe and adorable. We're so happy that he is here. Great job Aaron and Lindsay. :)

Dear Doubleday Book Club,

If you or anyone else needs me this summer, I'll be out back, in the hammock.

FHE

With the summer schedule we are able to have Family Home Evening with all of the girls again, normally they leave too early on Sunday. Parker wasn't thrilled with his task of leading the song, he was even less pleased when I took a picture of it.

Deal with it kid, I gave you life.

Our lesson was on discernment and about making sure that when you are told something, that if it feels wonky, you check with Heavenly Father first. we used the example of an apple and how apples are good for you but if someone offers you a rotten apple, then they took something that was supposed to be good and made something bad with it. You have to look at things and make sure they really are good, and not just take everything others offer you as good.
It's an issue that has been on my mind lately as recently we had to deal with a person who quoted scriptures to justify wicked and harmful things they were doing. Life is hard enough knowing the difference between good and evil, it gets even harder when people use the language of the good to do harmful things. One has to learn to discern that which truly is good, from that which is simply a perversion of something good.

After we had our lesson on that we enjoyed one of my favorite, totally unhealthy treats, marshmallow popcorn. You make it the same way you do rice krispie treats, only you use popcorn. It makes for a super fattening, buttery delicious ball of goo.

This next week is a really busy one. I have doctor's appointments for Grey and for myself, cub country, a play to attend, & ward lagoon day. It would help if I can squeeze in my visiting teaching, too. It is not a week to sleep in and wear my PJ's until noon.
Bummer.
Oh well, nothing marshmallow popcorn can't cure.

Digital

Digital layout of a picture you will see again in 5 seconds. Ohh, the memories.....

Ew

I found this while cleaning the family room yesterday. What the French is wrong with my children? Honestly. I swear I didn't do drugs while I was pregnant with them and heck, I wasn't even pregnant with half of them. Why do children do things like this? None of them admitted to doing it, all choosing to blame Zane, who is in Arizona and unable to defend himself. Maybe it was Zane, maybe it was the cat, maybe it was a burglar who broke into my house one day, chewed up a bunch of bubblegum and saved it in what looks to be an empty chicken McNuggets container upstairs. All I know is kids are gross and they all deserve to be locked up in a tower until they are 18.
yuck.
Something that isn't yucky is Matt's new Jeep. Parker turns 16 next month and instead of buying the kid a new car, Dad gets one. We shopped around and knew what was a reasonable price and knew what features mattered to Matt and when we found this one, we went ahead and gave Matt his birthday present a month early.
It was important to me that Matt get something he fit in and something he enjoyed driving. There was no reason for him to purchase a "dadmobile" for his long commute of 2 miles each way to work. If we were going to spend money on a car, it needed to be something that brought him joy. Being a "yellow" I'm all about things having a happiness factor and this Jeep has happiness factor to spare. It also has room for his legs, which is difficult to come by.
So, Happy (early) Birthday, Matt- you're my best friend in the whole world and you're smokin' hot too. I fall more in love with you every day and I'm looking forward to forever with you, Schmoop.

Top 5

I swiped this idea from another blog- to list your top five favorite places/resturaunt food you've ever eaten. She had great answeres like crepes in Paris and pineapple in Africa, my favorites are not so exotic, but then Im not much of a foodie.
So here they are in descending order:#5 Jimmy Johns makes subs. I discovered them in Chicago and they have one in Murray now-- they have really yummy bread and they ae my favorite place for subs.

#4 Banana Spring rolls from PF Chang's. They come with a delish coconut ice cream and are so yummy. Order dessert. It's worth it.

#3Raspberry milkshakes from JCW's - or Hires-- they both use the same berry base and they are so good. I choose JCWs because their shake is ginormous and worth the drive over the mountain.

#2 Giordanos Pizza in Chicago. Forget all those other deep dish pizza places, they have the BEST Chicago has to offer.

#1- Another Chicago place- they really have some great food in the city-- I LOVE Cheeseburgers. Love them. Adore them. Fuddrucker's is great, Cheescake factory has a burger to die for, Outback is delish. Sizzler and Black Angus make vile cheeseburgers. Village Inn serves burgers that will make you vomit, IHOP is bad too, but Denny's is pretty good if you get a cook who is in a good mood.

The best burger on the planet, IMO, comes from the Weber Grill resturaunt in downtown Chicago. We waited an hour for a table on a weeknight but it was totally worth it. We discovered them during what would be my last trip to the city and I guess it's a good thing because I spent 20 bucks on that burger and it was so good, I'd want it every night.

So there you have it, my bored readers. The 5 best things I have ever eaten at a resturaunt and my personal assesment of cheeseburgers.

do nothing day

Today was our first official "do nothing" day this summer. I did housework while the kids played outside enoying one of the few sunny days we have had this summer. They played in the sprinkler and at Resse's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream while I cleaned and aired out stale bedrooms that probably haven't had a windo open since we moved here.

Parker especially reaped the rewards of some summer cleaning. I saved him the heartache of having to take down his pictures of the girl who just broke his heart by cheating on him.

buying him a new electric guitar helped, too. I'm thinking a dude version of "Joe Lies" is in order. Poor kid is really hurting, the first one is always the hardest.

Sneak Peek

What is this? It's a picture of Matt driving our new addition home. ....more to come.

Scrapped Again.

I finally felt like scrapbooking again after the LOAD challenge burned me out. The photo quality is crap. I am really hating the camera we bought a few months ago. I took dozens of pictures of Abbie and Dylan last night and not one of them is any good. I'm sick of blurry pictures no matter what I put the setting at and it seems to be getting worse. Next time I will focus on getting a camera that is more camera heavy and less digital feature heavy.

I seriously hate this camera.

Bubbles

Let's see if posting a video works.......


Matt reminded me that my crappy camera takes video and so I got this footage of Abbie the doll baby playing with her new bubble machine.

Caleb and Shell came over and we had ice cream (thanks, guys!) and a fun visit. Abbie enjoyed our petting zoo and pet the kitty and the guinea pigs. Even though it made the floor dangerously slippery she loved playing with the thousands and thousands of bubbles her new toy provided. I hope it brings her some serious fun this summer, she's so cute, we love her to bits.

Zane leaves for Arizona tomorrow, we're glad he got to see Miss Thang before he left for the summer.

I need to figure out how to get video from my video camera uploaded so I can post the footage of Dylan, who also came over doing his hilarious Bubble Jig.

Hapy Birthday Gecko!

Happy 10th birthday, little guy. We celebrated yesterday so that the whole family could be together. He got that scooter he was hoping for, pokemon crap and an ipod. Now he can listen to Wierd Al and watch Strongbad podcasts to his heart's content.

He was a teensy bit excited about that ipod.

I've come a long way, Baby

Lately I have been following this new scrapbooking blog: http://www.writeclickscrapbook.com/write_click_scrapbook/

The team is showing how they have evolved from hose early days when they first started scrapbooking, and because I am always quick to steal a new idea of crap to blog about- I'm jumping on board as well.

I started scrapbooking late 2000. Kristine was working for this awesome scrapbooking company called The Paper Patch here in Utah and she loved the hobby. I didn't get it. For some reason when I got pregnant with Romy, I decided it was time to start and went and bought about 20 dollars worth of loud patterned paper, some gel pens a few pairs of decorative scissors and a good supply of Stickopotamus and Mrs. Grossman's stickers from Micheal's.
I did a few layouts and hated them. I still didn't get it.

One afternoon while driving through Chandler, AZ I saw a scrapbooking store. I had some time to kill and wanted to see if they had better prices on supplies just in case I ever tried again. Holy Sticker displays and letter templates, Batman. As I went to the register I grabbed the current issue of Creating Keepsakes. I remember as my total bill came to abut 24 dollars saying to the cashier "Expensive little hobby, isn't it?" and she looked at me like I was insane. It would take me a few months to know why,lol.

The articles featured the biggest "crimes" one can do on their layouts and fixes. My pages had been nothing but scrapbook crimes! No wonder I hated them! I went home and made my first "real" layout. I can't find it, it's in the basement somewhere but it documented a road trip from SLC to AZ on New year's day, Y2K. I showcased the Utah mountains by cutting my photos into triangles and arranging them like mountains. It was lovely. I was so happy with my "designer" look. I was hooked.

So, just to see how far I have come, I'm going to share with you a few highlights from my early scrapbooking days. I was so proud of these pages and now, even Romy looks at them and says "you weren't a very good scrapbooker back then, were you?" Kid, you have no idea.

I still like prominent titles. I still don't like to hack up the photographs, I still love pictures of my kids and can't get enough of smiling faces.

Remember Paperkins and magic mesh? I was giddy when they came out with the Paperkins punches and I could make as many as I wanted, anytime.

I think I made, um........ three.

I remember that title took me forever to cut out, I had my trusty template and my exacto knife and was so giddy over those new giant Disney stickers. I still have the Minnie Mouse set somewhere that I bought that same day.

We use to call my brother, Silas "Nuckle Sy." and knew I totally captured him in this layout complete with basketball stickers AND that awesome basketball border. I had just purchased my first CK font CD and loved how professional that title looked.

I think this is the most giant paper pieced baby ever made. Yikes. I had plans to do baby books of all of the kids but lost interest on about page 12 of Parker's book. Looking at that massive diaper on the ginormous baby I can't say I regret that. Eek. That baby is giong to eat someone's dingo.

And finally- paper pieceing from hades. I worked forever on my Becky Higgins title copied right from her book and spent hours making the very hip Nintendo Game System background. Since the we have upgraded our Nintendo a few times and I have stopped paper piecing almost completely.


So there you go- a peek at some of my early work. Go forth and create. :P