Stop the Rattling!

I have a gazillion thoughts running around in my brain... so many different things I want to say, but when I sit down to write them I can only come up with one. I'm determined to get them all out TODAY!!!!


We'll see if I can stop the rattling.


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I am very thankful for the great children Heavenly Father has blessed me with. They are not perfect (and I'm far from it!!!) and our time together isn't always perfect. We have our arguments. There are even (rare) times when we don't want to even be in the same room together. But when it comes right down to it, they are good kids.
Recently I was able to attend parent/teacher conferences for both kids. All of Buttercup's teachers said wonderful things about her. As I introduced myself to her teachers, their opinions of her were unanimous. "Buttercup is a pleasure to have in class!" "I never have any problems with her." "She turns her work in on time." "Never causes a disturbance in class." etc.
Today was Inigo's conference. The first thing his teacher said to me was, "Can I just say that he brings joy into my life?"
You know, I think they're pretty terriffic, but it's nice to know that other people feel that way too!


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I know I'm not the first parent to have a child grow up. I know that other parents have had a child in the 12th grade. I know that other parents have had to face the harsh reality that their time with that child is limited and that eventually he/she will leave. I mean -- geesh!! -- that's why we spend so much time with them throughout their lives, isn't it? We're trying to raise productive, good, smart, kind (loyal, trustworthy, virtuous, indeed we may say....) ADULTS who can go out into the world and make a positive impact. Right?
Will someone please tell that to my heart? Will you please tell it that this is the natural progression of things?
Is it extra hard because she's my first? Or is it harder because I don't have a gazillion kids left at home to keep me occupied? Maybe I'm struggling because I am the exact same age my own mother was when I graduated from high school and I thought she was OLD. Certainly I'm not that old... am I?
So as I watch Buttercup in her senior year of high school I can't help think, "This is the last time we'll do this with her." Everything, I mean everything is leading to Pomp and Circumstance.
For instance, tonight's choir concert: No, it's not her last concert. But I kept thinking, "This is her last Fall Concert." Her parent/teacher conference last week "We only have one more PTC!" On the first day of school I said to her, "This is your last first day of public school!" And I about flipped out when she handed me the packet that has the graduation announcement information in it. I can't even go there yet!!
I hope I can get my head and my heart to stop contradicting each other. That I can get a grip on this whole I've got an (almost) adult child thing.

Anyone have any hints/ideas?


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Inigo has a new nickname:

PARTY POOPER

It's not because he's got a bad attitude, or that he's grumpy. Remember, this is the kid that brings JOY to everyone's lives...

We call him Party Pooper because.... well.... every time he goes into the restroom and closes the door, it sounds like he's having a party in there!

Seriously!

We hear singing, and laughing. He talks to himself when he's not singing. We hear foot stomping. And MORE laughter. His bathroom breaks are taking longer and longer as the party gets more and more involved... even though there is only one attendee!

I promise that I will get a camera outside the door and video so you can see what I'm talking about. I guarantee you will enjoy his party almost as much as he does.

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I was going through some pictures the other day and found these of Dave. I took them the day before he died.

Yes, I still miss him, but it's getting easier.

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Tomorrow night (Halloween) is a Girl's Choice Halloween themed dance at the high school. Buttercup is taking one of her good guy friends and is going with a large group of kids. For dinner they have decided to do a Progressive Dinner. Since it was my idea (a-hem) I got to sign up first for what part of dinner I wanted at my house.

Obviously I chose DESSERT!!! (A serious no-brainer!)
I have decided to go with a really gory theme. I'll keep the details to myself but will post pictures when I write my Halloween post.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!! Stay warm and don't eat too much candy!

Are You Green?

I'm flying to it!!!

In 17 DAYS Red and I will be Defying Gravity!!



I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Amusing

I don't have anything of substance to write about right now. Well, I've got lots of little things running around in my brain, but every time I sit down at the computer to write about them, they leak out of my ears and I can't find them until a couple hours later when I'm sitting in the check-out of Walmart or driving up the highway.

I got this email from a friend. I thought it was mildly humorous. Since most of my readers are LDS women, I thought you'd enjoy a little levity today as well.

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Articles of Faith on Mormon Culture

1. We believe in SUVs and Minivans as the form of transportation; and in knee length shorts, which are always nice; and in multi-level marketing.

2. We believe that church ball players should be punished for their own fouls, and not for unsportsmanlike aggression.

3. We believe that through bread crumbs, cheese, creamy soups, and rice, call casseroles can be saved through obedience to ward cookbooks and creativity in the mixing bowl.

4. We believe that the first layers and ingredients of the Dip are: first, beans; second, cheese;
third, chopped tomatoes; fourth, the gift of sour cream; fifth, olives, sixth, salsa; seventh, guacamole, that is... if you have it.

5. We believe that a Mormon should have a distinguished or a cute name, that it is appropriate to name a child after a church leader or a historical figure including an ancestor, that alternative spellings and French prefixes only add to a name, and that when referring to the names of General Authorities, middle initials should be a part thereof.

6. We believe in the same wall decor that exists in many Mormon homes. Namely, framed family proclamations, vinyl lettering, inspirational word signs, family photos, pictures of temples and Jesus, and so forth.

7. We believe in the gift of the re-gift; church books; crafts; family photos; baked goods; emergency supply kits; and so forth.

8. We believe in sparkling grape juice so long as it is nonalcoholic; we also believe in bringing root beer and sprite to ward parties.

9. We believe in all that we have scrap booked, all that we will now scrapbook, and we believe that we will yet scrapbook many great and important things pertaining to our family, friends, pets, and vacations.

10. We believe in the literal mixing of ketchup and mayo and in the generous application of ranch dressing; that CBA's (church based acronyms) will be used to describe YM/YW, PEC, The Y, NCMO, and CTR; that Mitt Romney will get Mormons to vote for him any time he runs; and that the Mormons will enjoy reading Twilight and The Work and the Glory.

11. We claim the privilege of trying to identify common acquaintances with any visitor at church, and allow all other people at church the same privilege. Let them name drop the names of the famous and general authorities, how, where, or wherever they may.

12. We believe in being subject to scoutmasters, pampered chef hostesses and the writers of the U.S. News and World Report Rankings for professional schools, and in obeying, honoring and sustaining Glenn Beck.

13. We believe in being above average, good at crafts, optimistic, and in being ten to fifteen minutes late everywhere we go. Indeed we may say that we follow BYU football. We believe rumors about famous people joining the church, we hope to meet the three Nephites, we have endured many pyramid schemes, and hope to be able to endure all pyramid schemes. If there is anything cheap, free, sold in bulk, or given away when somebody is moving, we seek after these things.

Sluffing School

**Editor's Note: Before you read this post, I feel like I should make a few disclaimers. I never claimed to be perfect as a teenager. I think I was a pretty good kid, but there were a couple -- shall we say -- less than stellar moments in my younger life where I was very "catty" and quite severe to some girls I went to school with. This is a story about one of those moments. Judge me kindly, dear reader.
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Today Yvonne's blog post was from her Memory Journal, and the question was

DID YOU EVER PRETEND TO BE SICK AS AN EXCUSE TO STAY HOME FROM SCHOOL?

This immediately took me back to 8th grade where I faked a terrible stomach ache so that I wouldn't have to go back to school and face my classmates.

Here's what happened: There was this boy named Clark (names have been changed) who was the cutest thing I had seen ever in my life. Seriously. He was dreamy. He was on the football and the basketball teams as well as in student government. We were friends and we were in the same 8th grade English class.

That class was a blast. While we were in the class it seemed that there were no cliques. We all got along equally and helped each other out. Everyone was friends there.

Outside of the classroom, I intensely disliked his girlfriend... Buffy. She was head cheerleader (of course) and everyone was clambering to be her friend. I was completely beneath her notice.

While I was in 8th grade, I learned a new word. It isn't a good word. It's very derogative toward women/girls. (But it's not an actual swear word!) In my own defense, I was extremely naive. I didn't know what the word meant. So I wrote a note to a friend and in it I called Buffy this new word and -- of course -- signed my whole name.

Well, you can imagine what happened next. The girl I gave the note to lost it. Dropped it on the floor in the hallway for someone to find -- which of course happened. And since Buffy was the most popular girl in the school, whoever found it took it immediately to her. And the word spread like wildfire.... "Valerie had the audacity to call Buffy ____!!"

Buffy immediately became the victim and I became the pariah. As I walked through the halls of that school, people muttered horrible things under their breath to me. Some came up to me and yelled in my face. Someone threatened me. Poor Buffy. Someone called her a name!

I apologized. I explained that I didn't know what that word meant, but the drama was just too much for Jr. High. This had to be the scandal for the week and it had to finish its course.

The hardest part was going into my English class where Clark and I had previously been friends. Members of the football team gathered around him and immediately started calling me names the minute I walked into the classroom. To his credit, Clark didn't say or do anything negative toward me. Granted, he didn't stop his friends from saying horrible things to me, but he didn't even give me a bad look.

I was devastated. (And believe me... I learned a very hard lesson!) I couldn't go back to school. I just couldn't face all those people who hated me. So I went home that day and told my mom I was sick and that I had a terrible stomach ache. Actually, it was my heart that hurt, but I felt like it would be easier to skip school with a real medical malady.

But then I had to deal with the lie. I didn't really have a stomach ache! I wasn't really sick. For some reason I didn't tell my mom what had happened at school. I was too ashamed of myself and didn't want to disappoint her. In retrospect, I know she would have understood and forgiven me, but a 13 year old's brain doesn't think like that.

So in order to assuage my guilty conscience, I started punching myself in the stomach. That made it hurt, so I wasn't really lying, was I? I didn't spend all day injuring myself. I would wait until I could hear her coming to check on me, then give a couple good punches so when she would ask, "how are you feeling?" I could honestly say, "My stomach hurts!"

I did this for two days -- Thursday and Friday. I hoped that the two days I missed from school would erase my misdeed from my schoolmate's memories. Then I hoped that the weekend would further remove me from their minds.

On Monday, I prepared to go to school with a sick feeling of dread stuck in the bottom of my stomach -- like a sack of bricks. I didn't want to go, but I couldn't fake sick anymore. I had to face the music. Either my classmates had forgotten, or I would be a pariah for the rest of my school career.

As I walked into the school that morning, I looked in the faces of those I met. No one... not a single person gave me a second look. My friends seemed happy to see me. It was as if the events of the previous week hadn't even happened!! Going into English was different. Clark hadn't fully forgotten and he was subdued toward me in class, but as the days and week went on, it gradually got better between us.

And that was the end of the most traumatic week in my entire school career. I learned extremely valuable lessons about name calling; about forgiveness; about writing notes in school and signing my name to them.

Clark and I remained casual friends throughout Jr. High but as we entered High School, he moved on and I did as well... although I always kept a little crush burning in my heart for him. (Seriously, he was the cutest boy in our class!!!)

Buffy eventually moved. I was glad and hoped not to see her anymore. However, that wasn't in the cards for me: In college, after I met Max and started dating him, I found out that they were working for the same department on campus. Then I found out that Max wanted to take her out on a date!!! Thankfully, he didn't. But you can imagine I was less than happy when I found out. And now, Buffy and I live in the same town. I only see her about twice a year, but that's enough for me.

Twenty-five (or so) years later, I know that there are worse things in life than writing a bad word on a piece of paper and dropping it. But to a 13 year old, it was pretty terrible. The whole incident seems pretty silly and trivial now, but it's these moments that help shape who we are today!

And, finally, Buffy... I'm sorry I called you that name. Oh yeah. By the way, my name is Valerie.

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(Sorry... somewhere in this post I lost my paragraph breaks again!)

Buttercup Rocks!

I love my daughter! She's amazing.

Last week one of her high school friends told her she is pregnant. (This is very shocking and comes as a complete surprise to all of us, mostly Buttercup.)

While Buttercup offered sympathy and support for her friend she was also thinking ahead. She said,

"What are your plans? Are you going to keep the baby or place it for adoption? Because my parents have wanted to adopt a baby for a long time and they would love to adopt yours."

The friend wasn't offended and said that she had thought about adoption at first, but has decided to raise him herself.

Buttercup said, "Okay," and let it go.

Her friend also asked her not to share the information with others and my daughter did not. She held onto it for a couple weeks before she was given permission to tell me. (Buttercup and this girl have been friends since 5th grade. They don't hang out all the time, but the girl was a good friend and very supportive of Buttercup when others were being mean to her. I feel that the girl and I have created a pretty good relationship over the years because of this. And I think that is why she was hesitant to tell me.)

I think it's awesome that Buttercup can keep secrets and not participate in the ugly rumor mongering that can go on in high school. And Buttercup will stand up for her friend and defend her when others start saying nasty things about her. Having been a victim of ugly bullying herself, she has turned into a champion for others.

And that is why I'm so proud of my daughter. For her kind heart, her loving disposition and her willingness to accept others without judgement.

Spud Harvest

Question:

What do you do if you live in an agricultural area, where the schools close every fall for 1 or 2 weeks while the potatoes are harvested? (And no, we don't get spring break because of this.)

Answer:

It's obvious!

YOU GO TO DISNEYLAND!!

Unless you have a teenager that is actually working in the fields, then you're stuck at home cleaning house or canning fruit/veggies... which are still good choices, but obviously not as fun! Also, I don't have a teenager that wanted to work in the fields because that involved putting her hands in dirt, which she refuses to do!

Of course, the School Board does not schedule Potato Vacation so families can go to the Happiest Place in the World -- they schedule it so the farmers can hire good teenage help to harvest the spuds without accruing large amounts of homework and absences.

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This year for our annual Spud Harvest Vacation we loaded up the 'ol Tahoe and headed down the road to sunny Southern CA. -- a mere 950 miles or 14 hours away. (With potty, food and gas stops, it's more like 16 hours... but what's one or two hours when you're sitting in the car all day long?)

Our first day of driving took us to warm St. George, Utah where we were able to reconnect with old and dear friends and family. Our first stop was visiting my very first Beehive -- Kribitistibi. (This is from waaaay back when I lived on the OR coast. I was called as the Beehive counselor in YW in August and Kribistibi turned 12 in October. So she is literally the very first Beehive I ever had!) Even though I haven't gotten any older, she has. She found a great guy, married him in the Temple and last spring had her first baby. I feel like the smelly, old, great aunt to this sweet baby girl, so I was very excited to finally meet her.

As an added bonus, at the same stop we also got to see Kribistibi's siblings: Sunshine and Kgirl and their kids (remember, Sunshine, I use codenames on my blog). It was wonderful seeing them and seeing what great kids they have!

We spent the night at Max's youngest brother's house. It was his birthday that weekend, so we had an extra special treat of partaking of birthday cheesecake while we were there! That was definitely worth the drive! Happy 35th Birthday, A.J.!!! (Dude, you were 12 when I met you!)

Bright and early at 11:00 the next morning we headed down the road to our destination. My parents loaned us their GPS which made maneuvering the LA freeways much easier. We named her Do-Wanda.... Inigo wanted to call it Donna and the rest of us chose Wanda. The funniest journey she took us on was a two mile adventure off the freeway. Max didn't know he had her programmed to "avoid traffic" so she took us off the interstate and on a barren, non-populated road through the middle of nowhere, but parallel to the Interstate. And then, BAM! she said, "take the on ramp to CA 756" (whatever the road # was). We got a good chuckle out of that, so Max reprogrammed her and there were no more intentional detours.

Monday morning we awoke and had our in-room breakfast of Frosted Flakes or homemade cinnamon rolls. The hotel didn't offer breakfast. We brought our own food. We also brought fixin's for lunch. Whatever $$ we could save by feeding ourselves was money we could spend on gas to get home! After fixing our lunch, filling water bottles and grabbing our 3 day pass we headed out the door. Our hotel was directly across the street from Disney, so it made it extremely easy to get there. We used the shoeleather express!

Standing in line that first morning, we ran into family from Florin. They informed us that while we were enjoying sunshine and warmer (not hot) weather, our friends and potoato harvesters back at home were experiencing their first winter snow storm of the year. At that time, Florin was sitting under 1.5 inches of new snow. We wiped the sweat off our brow and said, "Glad it's not us," and marched into the Park.

I won't regale you with each day's adventure. I'll just say it was delightful and such a good time! We knew our friends from our ward were there (not the people that told us about the snow) so we were excited to meet up with them and spend an evening riding some of the funnest rides together.

Rhubarb Bob, Merushka, Buttercup and Max got to go twice. There were no lines!

Keith, me, Inigo (yes he's in there!), The Youngest and Damommachef only rode once. Keith absorbed all the water at the bottom and was drenched. The rest of us were relatively dry. Thanks for the sacrifice, Keith!

Compared to last year's trip:

1) It was much cooler. Last year they had record heat. Each day was close to 100*. This year it was 10* cooler than average. Our days were holding steady in the mid 60's. Of course, that meant the evenings were cooler and we were glad we remembered our jackets!

2) Crowds: Last year Utah schools were out (UEA) and Arizona schools were having their break, so the Parks were much busier! That wasn't the case here. Most of the lines we stood in were 20 minutes or less -- and that included standing in line and riding the ride. The biggest lines were Thursday night (our last night) right after the firework show when some of the lines were up to a 45 minute wait.

3) Space Mtn: Last year, even though we were there in October, they didn't have any special Halloween effects on this ride. This year they did. Can I say that it was phenomenal?!? They scared Inigo, but they were pretty darned amazing. I forgot to get car sick I was so enthralled with the graphics!

4) Villains: Max has an unusual Disney collection: Villains. He has collected them for years. His collection is mainly ceramic figures of characters like Cruella, Ursula, Gaston, Cheshire Cat, Captain Hook, etc. We were thrilled to say the least to find an area where we could actually meet the villains and get our picture with them!

5) Animation Studio in CA Adventure: We didn't even do this last year. We walked in and walked out, thinking it was the biggest waste of time. Give us the big V-8 head slap (you know, "I coulda had a V8!!") It was amazing! We went to a demonstration called "Turtle Talk with Crush" where Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo talks to the audience. It's a big screen where the animated Crush comes on and talks to people in the audience. And, of course, he picked Inigo to chat with. Big surprise there! He also talked to me. It was a blast!

We spent three full days in the Parks and had a glorious time. We got Inigo to enjoy riding Splash Mt and Thundermountain Railroad. The biggest coup was getting him on CA Screamin' rollercoaster. It's the biggest, fastest rollercoaster that he has ever been on. He was as scared to go as Buttercup was excited. But he sacrificed "for the family" and went. (Buttercup went a total of 4 times!)

I know the image isn't great. The sun was glaring on the screen.

To break up our time we spent one day in Downtown L.A. THANK YOU, DO-WANDA FOR GETTING US THERE SAFELY!! I was terrified we'd end up a statistic in East L.A. We wanted to see Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Stars. We also took a short hike up the mountain to the Hollywood sign.

Inigo compares handprints to Jackie Cooper who was 8 when he made his.

We didn't know about all the scary people dressed as movie characters that hang out in this place. They come up to you and ask if you want your picture taken with them. They are working for tips. Some creepy guy dressed up as the Heath Ledger joker walked up to my daughter and started licking his lips and acting all weird toward her. I balled up my fist and was ready to deck him when he finally walked away. I think Max was ready to take him out too.

Finally, sadly, it was time to come home. Bright and early Friday morning we left the hotel. 7:00. Our intention was to drive straight home. Ugh. But we broke the drive up:

♥ We stopped in St. George to pick up the jewelry Buttercup left at A.J.'s house. The temperature was 90*.
♥ We stopped in Vegas at a Walmart to replenish our groceries.
♥ We stopped to eat dinner at Spaghetti Factory. Yummy! The temperature was in the lower 50's.
♥ We pulled into our driveway at midnight. The temperature was 31*. (When we left, it was still warm outside, so we left some upstairs windows open and the fire turned off. The inside temperature was 55*)

Back to school and back to reality on Monday!

Ahhhh.... I love Disneyland!