Gettin' A Ejucashun

First day of school. WE SURVIVED!!!

Well.... some of us did.

(I think the children planned "Pull A Weird Face For First Day of School Pics Day" and didn't tell me. )

Inigo was so excited for the first day, he beat the alarm by 15 minutes. He came bounding into my bedroom bursting with enthusiasm and energy and dragged my sorry rear out of bed. And I'm glad he got up early... with the extra time needed to take photos, we would have missed the bus. However, he didn't get the piano practiced like I wanted him to...

**Note to self: We need to always plan for that extra 15 minutes! Augh! I hate mornings!

Buttercup is an old pro at this first day of school stuff. She got herself up 1/2 hour before the rest of us and quietly and calmly got ready for the day. No drama, no last minutes "I FORGOT's!" She was mortified when I took her to school on the back of the Piglet and made me drop her off on a road by a field where there wasn't a student to be seen.

(First of all: she doesn't really need a ride. We live a 3 minute walk from the high school. She was waiting for friends to walk with and it didn't work out so she was running late .
Secondly: The Piglet is really cool and she loves having rides on it. She was mortified because I was wearing my gym clothes, my hair was barely brushed and I had no make-up on. Silly girl. She needs to turn 40 to realize that things like that don't really matter.)


I was lonely but okay after the kids left.


I was very surprised when the phone rang at 12:15... lunch time. The caller ID doesn't tell me who's calling, but I recognized the number as coming from a school. I didn't know which school. I thought it was probably a recorded message that I'm getting several times a day from the district, giving me information and annoying me... (what happened to sending a note home with the kids?)

I answer: "Hello?"
Small pause. Yes, it must be a recorded call because it always pauses before it plays the message. And then I hear: "Mrs. Valerie?"
Dang!! It is a live person and since they called me Mrs. it means it is regarding one of my children. "Yes! This is Mrs. Valerie."
The person on the other end didn't identify herself. (One of my pet peeves. Not everyone has caller ID and immediately knows who's on the other end.) "I just want you to know...."


I would like to take a minute here and take you into the dark recesses of my mind. I am a conversation anticipator. When people talk to me, my mind anticipates what the person is talking about. I don't think I'm alone. I think a lot of people do this. So while the person is talking, my brain fast forwards to the end of the statement. Back to the story:


"I just want you to know that Inigo had an accident on the slide and busted...."


Brain anticipation moment! When a mom hears the word "busted" over the phone and it's regarding one of her children... what do you suppose she's going to think? YES!!! A busted leg, a busted head, a busted arm .... any number of body parts that can be busted. My brain immediately went to "busted arm or busted wrist."


"I just want you to know that Inigo had an accident on the slide and busted his lip."


His lip? Seriously? Who busts a lip? My goodness! There are a million and one different ways to let me know that Inigo cut his lip on the slide.


"It's bleeding pretty good and we were wondering if you wanted to come over and look at it."


Since we live a mere 2 minutes from the elementary school and since it was the first day of first grade I thought I ought to go look at it. The secretary didn't sound too worried about it, but I did think for a second we might have to get stitches --

I walk into the office and when my boy saw me he broke down and started sobbing again. His mouth was pretty darned sore, but it wasn't too serious.


You can see from the pictures what the damage was. That little cut isn't big, but it was deep. It oozed and bled for a little over 4 hours. He ended up with a fat lip and crooked glasses. There is even a little scratch on the inside of his mouth, in the gum line above his tooth.

He wanted to come home. Part of his tears were over the fact that his teacher actually made him do 5 papers already that morning and that was "soo much work!" Being a mean mommy ;-) I made him stay and he had a great rest of the day.

Buttercup's day at high school was mostly non-eventful. The girl that has bullied her since 9th grade thought she'd get a dig in as Buttercup walked to lunch and yelled something unintelligible, but my girl is getting a thick skin and was able to blow it off. (I turned this girl in last year and she was put on probation. If there are anymore reports of bullying made, she will be suspended.) I gave the girl a buy since it was the first day of school. But if there is anything... anything else done toward my daughter, I will be in the office faster than she can flip her hair and get it taken care of! Grrrrr.....

And thus ends the first day. I think it will be a good year!

(Buttercup has decided to try out for the fall musical. Keep your fingers crossed that she will do well.)

Leaking Eyes

How pathetic am I?

Twice today....

TWICE!!!

my eyes started leaking when I talked about the kids going back to school this week.

I tried to keep them dry. I tried not to get too sappy and sentimental when I talked about the fact that my daughter will be in 12th grade and my son will be in first.

I couldn't help it.

Most moms look forward to getting the kids out of the house and having all that extra time to themselves.

Not me.

I get lonely.

I miss them.

The silence of the house is deafening.

*sniff*

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Chocolate.

I will console myself with chocolate.

Add some peanut butter to the mix and I might survive until 2:15 when the bell rings and they can come home.

I'm Whining!

**Heavy Sigh**

Sunday. It's supposed to be a wonderful day.

Usually, you go to church, take the Sacrament, listen to wonderfully prepared talks and if you have a Sunday calling, fulfill it cheerfully and to the best of your ability. If you have another type of calling, you go to your classes, listen and participate in the lesson and go home feeling uplifted and ready to face the week.

Maybe I have a bad attitude. But it didn't go that way for me today.

I won't go into details about our Sacrament Meeting because I don't want to offend anyone, but let's say there seemed to be a complete lack of spirit there. (We heard the word "sucks" over the pulpit more than once!) For me, the best part of the meeting was listening to my extremely talented next door neighbors share their testimony through song. Maddle Faddle played the violin accompanied by her mother on the piano while her Dad sang beautifully, I Know My Redeemer Lives. Thank heavens for music. It soothes the soul.

On to Primary, which is my new calling. I teach one of three CTR 7 classes. And I was lucky enough to have Sharing Time today.
I was prepared.
I was ready with my visual helps and with what I wanted to say.
But I wasn't prepared in that I forgot that it's Primary not Young Women and anything can happen... no matter how prepared you are!!

It didn't go well.

On to class time. We have a problem in our primary with teachers failing to show up and/or get substitutes. I have taught my class 4 times and 2 of those times I have had to take an extra class because there is no one else to teach them. This makes consistency hard. It kind of gives a party atmosphere to the class.

I felt so mean because I kept saying, "Stop touching her!" "Come sit down!" "Please, can you tell me all about how your grandma went swimming after the lesson is over?" (I allow 10+ minutes before class even starts to share events of the previous week.)

Today I came home and cried.

I'll have to find some other way to find that peace that I look for each week. After all, it was only one Sunday. I'm sure things will be back in order next week.

At least I hope so.

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!!

This just in...


Buttercup, has finally, FINALLY, finished all the requirements for her last two Personal Progress value projects!! She can finally tell the YW President and the Bishop she's ready for her medallion!


She finished reading the Book of Mormon (which thrills me!) and finished her Recipe Book (although she can still add more if anyone feels inclined to send any).


Three cheers for Buttercup!!

Hip, Hip Hooray!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!

To celebrate this grand event, she grabbed her driver's licence and the keys to the car. Ahhh.... feels so good to have her driving privileges back!!

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We have our August family picture of the month:

Tender Heart

Another post today (sorry so many), but I wanted to record this. It's quite sweet.

While we were at my parent's cabin this weekend, it was pretty cold. Cold enough that no one remembered that it's August. It felt more like the end of September (when we got home the thermometer read 47*).

There is no real heat in the cabin yet, so the kids and I were hanging out in the travel trailer my parents are living in while the cabin is being built. Max and my Dad were inside building window casings. Pretty boring stuff.

Earlier that day, my aunt and her husband had briefly visited. While they were there, we reminisced about a dog they owned many years ago. The dog's name was Pushkin (sp) after the famous Russian poet. Pushkin was more human than dog and would have long conversations with my aunt. She always knew when he was happy or sad or feeling disgruntled, because he would lay his head down on her lap and tell her about it verbally. I guess it was quite a sight.

Well, that evening, my mom was telling all this to my kids and Inigo asked her what happened to Pushkin. She said that he got very old and one night, laid down under the kitchen table and just went to sleep. Inigo got quiet and we could see the gears in his brain digesting this information.

I don't know who, but I think it was Buttercup, brought up the dog we owned when Inigo was a newborn. That dog was GREAT!! He was best dog we've ever owned. His name was Bandon and he was a Sheltie. Buttercup, Grammy and I started reminiscing about him and we told Inigo how much Bandon loved him. Inigo was only 3 1/2 months old when Bandon got hit by a car in front of our house. During that short time after he was born, Bandon would make sure he kept Inigo close to him, always watching out for him and taking care of him.

Not realizing that Inigo's emotions were ready to boil over, we kept talking -- remembering this wonderful pet that Buttercup and I adored. All of a sudden, he looked at me, his eyes were big and shiny, his mouth pulled down and he said, "Mom. I'm sad!" And then BOOM!! The dam burst. He started crying. Hard. He climbed up on my lap, put his arms around my neck and sobbed. "Mom, I miss Bandon!" "Mom, I'm so sad Bandon died!"

He cried for about 15 minutes.

This sweet child, who was so young that he only remembers the dog through pictures, made us all cry and miss Bandon once again. Even Buttercup who tries to be so grown-up and stoic had tears running down her face. It was quite a sight when Max and Papa walked into the trailer. Three crying women and a little boy who who has wet his mom's shirt with his tears...

It's silly, but then again... it's not. As a mom, I'm sad when my child's heart is breaking. But I also am thankful that they can feel love to such a degree as this. It reminds me that my children are divine and what they are capable of.

I love my kids!

I'm No Fan

The President of the United States was in my neck of the woods this past weekend.

Oh joy, rapture...

He started off his weekend having a town hall meeting, to try to smooth talk his way into the hearts of the conservative residents of the state. Trying to convince hard working, self-reliant people that it's okay to turn all their healthcare over to the government... but I digress.

While he was blowing hot air, my family and I were 1.5 hours south at my parent's cabin. Our intention was to go to the mountains where it is nice and dark -- away from the city lights -- so we could watch the annual August meteor showers.

(It ended up being too cold to sit outside and watch the stars. The night time temperatures were hovering in the low 40 degree range... coupled with howling wind chills and it was too darned chilly! Bummer!)

Saturday morning, while we were eating breakfast, we could hear the whir of helicopter rotors. Thinking it was a forest service copter, we walked outside to see if we could find it.

Lo and behold, this was NO forest service helicopter!! There were two bona-fide military copters... big behemoth machines built for speed and the safety of its occupants! They were flying low, right above the famous river that is at the bottom of the mountain where my parents are building their cabin. (The copters are not in this picture. I forgot to grab my camera and take a pic of them as they flew by -- can you believe it? I took this picture Friday morning. The fog in this is hovering right above the same river. I would say the copters were just above the bottom line of the fog.)

We figured The Obamessiah was in one of these copters, getting a tour of this famous fishing river, as well as view the area where there was a 7.5 earthquake 50 years ago (coincidentally, this weekend is the 50th anniversary of the quake).

As we were leaving, we thought we'd just drive into the town that borders the National Park that His Highness was visiting that day. We've never been to a town where a President of the United States was before and we wanted to see what it was like...

We were disappointed. No one seemed excited. There were no extra American flags. Hmmm.... We noticed a lot of extra security as we drove past the airport, but that was it.

Since it was "Visit a National Park Free Day," and we knew that B.O. was going there, we thought, "Why not?" and drove through the gates. Our intention was to just drive to the first big intersection, turn around and head home. Then the plans changed to "let's drive down past that River Drive." And then, oh... what the heck? Let's just drive on down to the most famous site in the Park!

Once we got to the road that takes us to Most Famous, we realized that O.B. must have been there because traffic was more dense than I have ever seen it. We sat on the exit for 15 - 20 minutes without moving, seriously regretting the decision to drive this far but we were trapped by cars in front and behind. We could only wait.

All of a sudden, excitement shuddered through the cars around us. Yes, I could feel/sense the occupants in the cars anticipation level rising. Weird, eh? Buttercup is more observant than I am. While I am trying to figure out if we are finally going to start moving, she pointed out a long line of black SUV's with blacked out windows driving down the off-ramp. Yup! I have to assume it was B.O, wife and two daughters leaving Most Famous.

All of a sudden all the cars HAD to move!! Park Rangers were frantically waving us up the road, away from where the SUV's were unloading their passengers. That's when we noticed the great big military helicopters were in the field on the other side of the ramp. (There were too many cars ahead of us. We couldn't see the copters before.) I was driving, so I threw my camera to Max and yelled, "TAKE PICTURES!!" I don't think we got any pictures of Him, but we're pretty sure He was there.

Why did we go? It certainly wasn't in support of this man. But it was exciting. I respect the office of the President of the United States, even though I don't respect this man. I don't know if we'll ever be in close proximity to another president, so I'm glad we played "groupie" for an afternoon. Maybe the kids will remember the day we saw the President's helicopter. Maybe they'll remember that their parents were engaged in political discussions about the president. Hopefully they'll understand how blessed we are that if we don't agree with the policies and the politics of our government, we are FREE to talk about it and oppose it openly.

WE LIVE IN A GREAT COUNTRY!!!

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I had to laugh when I read this quote by Obama-O-Thou-Great-And-Wonderful when he was looking at Most Famous. I saw it in today's newspaper:

"Oh, that's pretty good. Cool! Look at that. That's a geyser there."

Seriously? That's the best he can come up with?

That's pretty un-profound!

Birthday Boy

Last week, Inigo turned 7 years old!!

The day was highly anticipated and couldn't arrive here fast enough. Every day the previous week, he asked me in his best 'canIhaveitplease' voice, "Mom, can't my birthday be on Tuesday instead of Wednesday?" And when that request was denied it turned into a more insistent, "MOM!! I WANT MY BIRTHDAY ON TUESDAY!!!"

"Why do you want it a day early?"

"Because then I won't have to wait any longer!"

Unfortunately for him, I won the battle and we celebrated his birthday on the day he was born, August 12.

(He wasn't just trying to get us to celebrate a day early. He thought we could change the actual date of his birth. Silly boy.)

We took the easy route for this year's birthday: we rented a party room at a brand new business in town that has glow-in-the-dark miniature golf, laser tag, and an arcade. We bought some pizza and some soda and with 5 friends in tow, had a rip-roarin' good time!

Inigo has been on a Peter Pan kick lately, insisting that everyone call him "Peter." He chose to have a Peter Pan birthday cake and this was the best I could come up with. I've never used fondant before. If you don't look too closely, the cake is okay. But that's only if you don't look at it too closely. (I had to photoshop his real name off the cake.)

Happy Birthday, little boy!!

We're glad you are in our family!!

Dare To Be Different

One of these things is not like the others...

One of these things just doesn't belong...

Can you tell which thing is not like the others

By the time I finish my song?

(This is just a funny picture I took while we were hiking last week!)

Freedom!

So here I am, the next morning after the "Big Deactivation."

Can I tell you how good it feels?

Sure, there is a twinge here and there as I think about my Facebook friends. How are they doing? How will I know if Thorny made her cross-country journey safely? (thankfully she commented on my last post, so I know she made it safely!!) My highschool friend's husband was diagnosed with lukemia last week. How will I know how his treatment is going? How will I keep up on the drama of the Scera where Red volunteers on a regular basis?

Newsflash to myself: There are other means of communication!! Facebook is NOT the only way to keep in touch with my friends. Maybe I can reintroduce myself to my email account, which I check only about once a week now. Maybe I can look at a phone and remember how it works!

Life moves on.

Update: As I went to bed last night, instead of thinking of short witty status updates, I started thinking about things I can write about here. I was smiling as I went to sleep.

Brain Dis-Function

I was reading this post of my friend, Yvonne, today and at the end she mentions that she has noticed that people aren't blogging as much as they used to.

I agree! And I'm one of those people. :(

When I started my first blog in November of 2005 (!) and for a few years after, I would fall asleep at night composing my next post. During the day I would create mental lists of things I thought were interesting. I looked for humor in every day situations so my posts wouldn't be boring. After posting something new, I would get online a gazillion times throughout the day waiting to see if anyone had made a comment. (I'm a true blogger. I live for comments. I wish I got more... hint hint.)

And then I found Facebook.

Facebook is a world that's instant. I can post a short, one line comment about my day or something funny my child has done and that's all that I need to write about. Now I find myself thinking, 'What clever thing can I put on my status?' There's no need to worry about grammar. There's no need to worry about sentence structure or if I can carry a cohesive thought for longer than 3 lines. (I still frequently get online to see if someone has commented on that status!)

I have forgotten how to be creative and I am forgetting how to tell a story.

I call it Blogging ADD.

Is there a medication for it? I'm not sure. I could deactivate my FB account, which is something I have seriously thought about. Not only does FB take away from my blog/journal, but it also takes time away from my family and home. Earlier this summer I only got online once a day and it was GREAT!! I was so busy I didn't even miss it! Slowly, I have found myself getting online with more frequency. Who is doing what? Should I change my status? What new pictures have one of my friends posted?

It's sucking the creativity right out of my brain.

I have Brain Dis-Function.

Am I a FB addict? Can I deactivate it? Probably. If you're my Facebook friend, and you don't see my status update for a while, come check my blog. I'm trying to turn my brain back on.

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UPDATE: After publishing this post, I went directly to FB and deactivated my account! I wonder how long I can last?

Fam. Pic.

One of my projects this year is to make sure that we take a family picture every month. One of my requirements is that the photo shows us having fun together. Funding doesn't allow us to go on a big vacation every month, but we've learned we can have fun in our own backyard! Here's a small sampling of some of our family photos for 2009.