Britton's Orange Belt

Last Wednesday Britton got his orange belt in karate. It was so much fun watching him. He's made a lot of progress and he's really enjoying it. We're proud of him.

Conversation with Britton

This is a conversation that I had with Britton a few minutes ago while eating dinner:

Britton (to me): You're not so smart. ( I forget what I said to inspire such a comment from him)
Me: Oh, really?
Britton: Well, not as smart as me.
Me: How do you think you got so smart? (Trying to get at least a little bit of credit)
Britton: From Dad
He thinks for a minute.
Britton: Well, maybe I was just born smart. Do you know who taught me that 2 +2=4?
Me: Who?
Britton: Myself. I just knew it.

Then he went on to tell me that two 10's are 20 and ten 10's are 100 and so on. While I'd like to take credit for his smarts, he may be on to something. He probably was born smart.

Britton's Blog

Britton wanted to start a blog, so I set one up for him and he tells me what to write on it. He even picked the name, "The Chocolate Milk King". He's having a lot of fun with it. There's a link in the sidebar or you can see it here: http://www.chocolatemilkking.blogspot.com

My Week in The ABC's

I haven't written in a while, so I decided to do my week in the abc's. That way you'll get a lot of details that really aren't so blogworthy. Lucky you!

A is for American Idol--I can't believe that Melinda got kicked off this week, she's just too good. Even though I still like Blake and Jordin, I really thought Melinda would win.

B is for babysitting--I did way too much of it this week. Watching the kids downstairs and my nephews.

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me!

D is for daring--Britton continues to amaze me as he learns tricks on the trampoline. He has now mastered the one-legged flip (something he came up with himself).

E is for elderly--for Young Women's we had a dinner with the elderly of our ward. It turned out really nice. The youth had been paired off previously and assigned an elderly couple to visit a few times before the dinner to get to know them. Then, they also picked them up for the dinner. We played some fun games, my favorite one was 2 truths and a lie. It was funny to see what the older folks made up for their lies.

F is for first aid--we had a first aid clinic yesterday for camp certification. It was a good refresher for me on CPR.

G is for Gilmore Girls--I can't believe it's over! The series finale was last Tuesday. I'm really going to miss watching it every week. Good thing there are a ton of reruns on my DVR! Maybe I'll have to break down and buy all the seasons.

H is for Haley's haircut--I trimmed Haley's hair this week. The spots where she and Britton cut it a while ago are finally growing out. They're not quite long enough to be layers, but they're getting there. Luckily, they are in places that aren't noticeable unless you look for them.

I is for island--I wish I lived on an island. Maybe one day.

J is for John and Reed's birthday. The twins are 9! We went to their birthday party Friday night. It was fun. They got a lot of gifts that they were really excited about. And, as always, my mom bought presents for all the kids, so Britton and Haley also made out like bandits with new clothes, legos, and little people.

K is for karate party--Britton had a karate party last night. They invited all the kids and their friends to the karate studio for a big party. So, their were kids of all ages there from all the different classes. It's the first time we've gone to one of them. Britton loved it. They practiced a few karate things and he was really focused and did everything well. Then they played "Gladiator" and ate pizza. It was fun.

L is for Lady Fanny of Omaha (always worth mentioning).

M is for Music and Lyrics--we saw this movie last night. I know it's been out for quite a while, but we don't get a chance to watch movies very often. I really liked it. It was a fun movie with catchy music. I think Hugh Grant makes a great has-been pop star.

N is for nose--my nose keeps running and sneezing because it's hayfever time! Time to get some good medicine!

O is for Oprah--I happened to catch part of Oprah this week when she had the cast of the movie, "Hairspray" on her show. It made me really excited to see the movie. It looked fantastic!

P is for passports--we're still waiting for them to arrive! I can't wait!

Q is for Questar Gas--I called all of my bill companies this week to either cancel my services in August or switch over to email bills for while we're in China. It's amazing how long you are on the phone for simple requests. I had to go through the different menu options and stay on hold, etc. for each one. Who has time for those kinds of things?

R is for reading--Britton's getting to be quite good at sounding out words and reading silent e words. He loves doing it too.

S is for Samuel the Lamanite--I got to dress up and play Samuel the Lamanite for our Primary party yesterday morning. It was fun. The kids got to throw stones (balls of paper) at me while I was standing on a wall. They got a kick out of it.

T is for temple--Tuesday we had a special ward temple night and the temple president spoke to our ward before we all went to a session together. It was nice to be there with so many people I know.

U is for underwear--Haley changes hers about 10 times a day.

V is for very tired--the last few weeks I've been very tired all the time. My eyes burn from the combination of little sleep and hayfever. It's not a fun feeling.

W is for work, work, work--Jason's been working like crazy lately. I'm proud of him, but I hardly ever get to see him. We need him to work a lot so we can afford this upcoming trip to China.

X is for xbox--Kyler, the boy who lives downstairs, snuck in our house while we were gone to play xbox. I was so mad! But, after talking to him about it and his mom talking to him about it, I know he won't do it again. Now, I just think it's kind of funny. And, we'll be checking to make sure all our doors are locked when we leave from now on.

Y is for yard sale--last Saturday (May 12th) we had a big yard sale to try to sell a lot of our stuff before moving to China. It was quite successful. We got rid of most of the things we wanted to. There are a few other's that we'll be listing on Craig's List though. And the rest will be off to DI. I have fun when I do a yard sale, though. I love being outside all day seeing everyone in the neighborhood. And I love when people get something they need at a cheap price. One man was so excited. He bought a lot from us and said, "You're furnishing my whole house!"

Z is for zoo--we went to the zoo with Desiree and kids on Tuesday. It was a great day for the zoo, not too hot. We went around the opposite way that we normally go so we weren't burned out at the same animals as usual. We went at a nice leisurely pace. It was great.

My Haley

Okay, I just can't get enough of this girl. She makes me smile every single day. Right now she is in the livingroom, singing and dancing her heart out for no one but herself. It is so cute. She starts out with "How much is that doggie in the window" and then just makes up whatever words after that. And she's singing LOUD. She's wearing two different shoes, cut-off shorts, a tank top, and her hair is as crazy as ever. She's also wearing sunglasses and a back pack. I'm just glad I can observe her without her noticing so that she'll keep going. She's too funny.

Mug Shots

We got our passport photos taken and I thought it would be a quick, painless process. But, if any of you know Haley, you know she always has to be difficult about things. She completely refused to get her picture taken. We tried everything we could think of--bribes, holding her, threatening that she would have to stay home from China, etc. She would sit down in a ball on the floor. Or turn her head right as he would be ready to take it. Or cover her face with her hands. It was unbelievable. The man was very patient. We finally just gave up and started to pay for the others when we decided to try one last time. Jason held her on his shoulders and kneeled down while I stood behind the photographer trying to get Haley's attention. He snapped one in the knick of time. She has a great face though. One day she'll look back at it and be completely embarrassed that that's what she looks like in her only form of ID. And of course she's wearing some crazy headband as a necklace that I didn't even notice until afterwards. That's Haley for you!

Britton, on the otherhand, was very cooperative and his picture turned out quite nice.

Sleep Deprived

So, I think my kids are seriously sleep deprived. This morning I decided to let Britton sleep in as long as he could. Haley and I went outside and I was doing yardwork, mowing the lawn, etc. while she played. Every once in a while, I'd go in to check on Britton. Without any noise in the house, he sure slept for a while. It was after 10 before he woke up and that was only because I walked in the room to check on him.
Then, later on in the day, I went to check on Haley in the bath and she was dead asleep--in the bathtub! It was a bit scary seeing her laying there and I am so lucky that her face was up out of the water. I knew she was just asleep, but it still freaked me out seeing her in the water like that. Scary moment. When I picked her up, it startled her awake, but she fell right back to sleep as I carried her to her bed. It was about an hour before her nap time, so it's not that unusual that she was tired, but it was a bit early.
I guess I need to be better at getting my kids more sleep at night.

Flips and Fires

Britton ran in this morning from the back yard and exclaimed enthusiastically, "Come watch what I can do!" So, I went out back as he climbed on to the trampoline. He bounced around for a bit and then did a perfect front flip. He was so excited. He taught himself how to do it this morning. I don't think he's ever even seen anyone do one. Maybe he has, but we rarely have older kids over jumping on the tramp, so I doubt it. He is really good at it too. Throughout the day he kept practicing whenever he was out there and then he "performed" for Jason when he got home from work. So, then Jason got on and attempted a few flips. It took him quite a few tries (I won't say how many) until he was able to land on his feet. And then he showed Britton a few back flips. It looked like so much fun that I got on as well. But, once I got up there, I got scared to actually do a flip. I know they are super easy, but I'm so old and out of shape that I could just see me breaking something or hurting my back or something. I finally did try it though, and it was so easy and felt just like when I was a kid. It wasn't awkward and I didn't land funny or anything. I actually landed on my feet quite easily. Haley got up too and started doing really bouncy somersaults. We had such a fun time. We all just jumped around and played for quite a while. I get to play with my kids on the tramp quite a bit, but I don't think I've ever jumped with Jason.

For Family Home Evening tonight, we did a fire drill with the kids. We have been talking about fire safety ever since we went to the presentation the other night. It turned out to be really fun. We tried several different scenarios. We taught Britton how to close the door to their room, climb up and open his window and wait for us to come help them out. And to keep Haley calm. For the first drill we pretended the fire was in the kitchen, blocking the front door. We all got in bed and pretended to be asleep. When the alarm went off, we leapt into action. Jason took the screens and windows out in our room then jumped out. As I was jumping out behind him, he climbed a ladder to the kid's room where Britton was waiting with the window open just like he was taught. Jason lifted Britton out and then grabbed Haley. Haley was still laying in her bed, scared to death, until Jason said, "Haley, there's a fire". Then she jumped up into his arms. I timed the whole thing and it took about a minute for us all to get out. Of course in reality, it would take us longer to wake up enough to realize what to do. I was surprised at how wimpy I am these days. I sat in the window for a few seconds wondering if I should actually jump. I had barefeet (which is realistic if it's night time) and I didn't want to land on anything pokey in our lawn. I guess in the event of an actual fire, I won't hesitate at all. I did scrape my arm on the bricks, but other than that, the jump was fine. Britton had so much fun practicing. The little boy who lives downstairs was in our backyard jumping on the tramp. I'm sure he thought we were all so strange when he started hearing beeping then saw Jason busting out of our window, followed by the rest of us. His reaction to it all was the best. But, he thought it was so cool. He came around to the front to see if we'd get out safely on our second one. The second scenario was if there was a fire somewhere that didn't block the front door. So, we got back into our beds and waited for the alarm again. We all hurried as quickly as possible to get out to our meeting spot outside. That one took us 15 seconds. Of course, again, realistically it would be longer than that when factoring in the waking up and being impaired by smoke, etc. But, it's still good practice. At the presentation, they said, on average you have 3 to 5 minutes to get out is all. So, we're going to keep practicing periodically to get it so our bodies will just do it automatically. We all had a lot of fun, except Haley. It just scared her. But, I'm sure a real fire would be scary too, so she was probably the most realistic of us all. And hopefully, if we practice enough, she won't be as scared and at least she'll know what to expect and what to do in a fire. It's not a fun thing thinking about having a fire in your home, or worse, losing one or all of your kids in a fire. But, I'd much rather be prepared to know what to do and how to get out. We're going to do a lot more than we were before about preventing fires from starting in the first place, but also preparing our family for if one actually happens.

Dumpster Diving, Fire Safety, and Crochet Parties!

For Young Women last night, we had a service project with the Young Men. Like I mentioned in my previous entry, we have dumpsters strategically placed throughout the neighborhood for our spring neighborhood clean up. So, we all split up and wandered the neighborhood helping some of the older people, mostly widows, with their yard work and trash disposal. It turned out to be so much fun. We were helping my neighbor load up a bunch of tree limbs and the dumpster was getting full, so I climbed in to stomp it all down. Everyone pretty much got a kick out of that. Some of the girls even took pictures of me jumping around in the dumpster. But, it actually made so much more room. So, we were able to fit everything in. After finishing up at my neighbors, we headed over to meet up with the other groups. There's an old lady who has a hedge around her entire back yard that is pyracantha. They are very pokey. Although, they are great for keeping her backyard private, they are not the easiest thing to trim. Our ward does it every spring and every fall for her. I was amazed at how much the young men and young women just got in there and went to work. They accomplished so much and we all had such a good time.

This evening, Jason and I went to dinner at Goodwood Barbecue and we had to listen to a fire safety lecture. I knew there would be some sort of sales pitch, but I didn't care because I've been wanting to try Goodwood for a long time. So, this way we got to try it for free. The food was great, but even better, the presentation ended up being very informative and interesting. The presenter was very entertaining and she wasn't pushy or anything about selling her products. Plus we learned a lot about all the things we are not doing to prevent fires in our home. It was good information and now we can be better prepared to deal with a fire if one does happen.

After the presentation, we watched the Jazz game. I'm not nearly the Jazz fan that I used to be, but I do really enjoy the playoffs. Every year around playoff time, my mom starts projects (usually making quilts) so that she has something productive to do while watching all the games. Well, I decided to follow her lead this year and work on some of my unfinished projects while I watched. I pulled out an afgan that I've been working on FOREVER and started crocheting. Soon, Haley wanted to join me. And then Britton. And then Jason even grabbed a hook and started in. Haley weaved yarn in and out of an old project. Britton made everyone yarn necklaces and practiced tying knots. And Jason and I both actually crocheted. It was really fun. It reminded me of the good old days when Jason and I were dating and he always pretended to like crocheting so he could come to all the "girl" crochet parties. I didn't get much done, but it was still a fun way to pass the time together while watching the game.

Random Happenings of the Past Few Days

I haven't had much time to post lately, so I'll just give a brief recap of the last few days, for my own journaling purposes.

*Saturday Jason played in a UVSC outdoor volleyball tournament and he and his partner took first place! It was fun watching them and I love outdoor tournaments so much more than indoor. And I'm always much happier when he comes home with prizes or money from the tournament.

* I went with Nani and her exchange student to see "Night at the Museum". It was such a fun movie. I really enjoyed it and it makes me want to study history more (even though it's not really about history).

*I've been tutoring like crazy a couple hours a day because it's finals week. It's so fun for me. I'm such a nerd, I think, but I really do enjoy helping people study and learn math and science. Right now it's mostly Chemistry which I never really liked very much in college, but I still find myself enjoying it so much. Weird.

*Yesterday Britton read 3 whole books to me all by himself! They are just short, beginning ones with all words that you can sound out. But, he's really loving reading and is so good at sounding out words. It's a fun thing for us to do together.

*It's our neighborhood cleanup this week, so we have dumpsters placed throughout the neighborhood. So, I've been making more time for yard work. And I'm more motivated to go through things and get rid of some things. It's fun.

Other than that, we've just been doing all the regular things like karate, soccer, Young Women's, playgroups, etc. plus trying to get passports and all the other things done that we need to for going to China. So, we've been keeping quite busy. But, it's a fun busy.

Happy Birthday Britton!

Today is Britton's birthday. I can't believe that it was 5 years ago today that I became a mother. It's hard to imagine my life before then, but it still feels like it's gone by so fast. He's grown up so much. He's one of my very best friends and it's such a privilege to get to be a witness to his daily life. I am very blessed. I love him so much.

We had a family party for him at my parent's house last night. He got so many great presents (mostly all Legos). He was thrilled! Thanks to everyone!

We're Going To China!!!

I am so excited. I just sent back my letter of intent to work at Clifford School in China. We will be leaving sometime in the middle of August and be there for the school year. The school is near Ghangzhou, China. Some of our best friends, Melanie and Shane Tanner are there right now and will be there with us next year as well. I can't even explain how excited I am. It's going to be such an adventure for our family. I can't wait! It'll be a busy 4 months getting our passports and visas, renting out our house, buying plane tickets, packing up our things, etc. But, right now it feels like time won't move fast enough. It's all I can think about.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 31st birthday. It's crazy to me how much older 31 sounds than even 30. The past few days I've had several people say almost the exact same thing to me--they all said, "I thought you were younger, you look younger, I thought you were about 28." Okay, first of all, I'm flattered that people think I look younger than I am, but c'mon 28 is not that much younger than 31. I just realize that 31 SOUNDS so much older to people. Because, although, it's only 3 years difference, when people hear it, it sounds like a decade different because one is still in your 20's and the other is in your 30's. Anyway, I don't mind being 31 at all. In fact, I'm excited about it. I just find people's reactions to it somewhat amusing.

The 10 Virgins

Thursday night I went to a Stake Young Women's Fireside. It was so good and I have been thinking about it ever since. The whole thing revolved around the theme of the parable of the ten virgins. They split us up into 10 groups and we rotated around to different classrooms where we heard from someone representing each of the 10 virgins, but a modern day version. The five wise virgins were examples of each of the following virtues: 1) a Christ-like person, 2) Repentance and Forgiveness, 3) Ordinances and temple work, 4) Truth, light, and knowledge/talents, and 5) Charity-service to others. The five foolish virgins were: 1)Vanity and seeking after riches, 2)Sins and pleasures of the world, 3) Addictions and excess, 4) Dark works and idol worshipping, and 5) Unrighteous power and ego (pride). The way it was set up, we alternated between righteous and foolish so the contrast was very obvious. We spent only about 5 minutes in each room, but it was still very impactful. I related to each women in some way, sometimes in many ways. And I related just as much to the foolish as to the righteous. Some of the justifications and excuses that the foolish women were saying were things that I say to myself everyday. It was very powerful and eye-opening. It was a good reminder and powerful lesson that we must be working to "fill our lamps with oil" drop by drop and that we each need to be spiritually prepared because that is not something we can borrow from someone else. At the end, we all went into the chapel and the "bridegroom" spoke to us. There was a door placed at the front and one by one the foolish virgins came in and knocked on the door. As the bridegroom turned them each away, it was again a powerful lesson for me. He said to some that they were too late. To others he said, "I don't know you". Some begged to be let in. Some pleaded to be with their families. It had a big impact on me that not only do I want to be prepared for when that day comes, but I also want all my family to be prepared as well.
I learned so much from each of the wonderful women who participated. Although they were "acting", it still was very real to me. Each one did such a remarkable job. I was inspired to be better by listening to each one of them. And I was definitely humbled by how much I could relate to each of the foolish virgins. I think it's easy for us to let our priorities get mixed up and seek after things that are not important. I hope I can remember how I felt throughout the evening and apply some of the many lessons I have learned.

Hiking to the Y

This week for our preschool field trip we hiked to the Y. It was "Y" week, if you couldn't guess. Only one more week and we've made it through the whole alphabet. It was a such a fun little hike, but when we were up there, Britton had a really good fall that gave everyone (especially me) a scare. We were sitting at the very top of the Y and we started scooting down. It's pretty steep so you have to sit down to scoot. Britton stood up and started walking down. He stumbled and started going pretty fast. We fell down backwards and continued tumbling. He did a complete back somersault and then skidded to a stop. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen. Especially because there was nothing I could do at all. I just kept yelling, "Sit down, sit down". Luckily, he only had a scrape on his elbow. It was pretty miraculous that he wasn't more hurt. He was very scared though. And so was I but I had to just pretend like everything was okay. I just held him and let him cry. Then I held him on my lap and scooted down the rest of the Y. I had to carry him on my shoulders most of the way down the mountain too because walking made his elbow hurt more. I am so grateful that he didn't get hurt more than he did. And that he actually stopped rolling down. It could have been so much worse.
Other than that, we had such a fun time. I'm totally out of shape though. It was much harder for me to hike it than it used to be. There was a man biking up the mountain and I couldn't believe it. It's so steep. And there were many joggers too that totally showed us up. We took our own sweet time. I blamed our slow pace on the 4 year olds, but, truthfully, I was happy whenever they suggested taking a break.

Digging for Worms

The other day I was sick, so I sent my kids to the backyard to play all morning. They started digging in the garden looking for worms. They found quite a few and had such a fun time. Britton always wants to save all the worms as pets. He named his John, Dave, David, and Thomas. I convinced him to leave them outside though because his last pet worm dried up.

Britton's Mohawk

We gave Britton a mohawk for a little while and then shaved it off. He thought he was soooo cool.

Spring Soccer

It's that time again! Time for soccer to start again. Britton had his first spring soccer game last night. The winter break was good for him and he was really excited to be playing again. I must say he is better than he was in the fall, but he still had his moments. (See previous soccer posts from October) At one point, he came running off the field, sat down by me and took off his shoes, socks, and shin guards. He didn't play again until after half time, but at least he did play again. It should be a fun couple of weeks watching his games. They're always entertaining, to say the least.

Fun Memories

Last night we went over to Kiwanis Park to watch Jason play volleyball. Although we have been there numerous times since we moved from the Provo House, for some reason I was feeling very nostalgic for the neighborhood and my college/early married days. There was just something in the air. I really love that park and the feeling that is there. There is always something fun and exciting going on. Yesterday was very typical. There were several volleyball nets set up, a game of ultimate frisbee going on, many sun-bathers, tennis players, and lots of kids on the playgrounds. There was a group of people that had a really neat, expensive looking kite. It was very colorful and they were able to control it somewhat. My kids had a great time watching them fly it. There was also a couple of boys who had secured a tight rope between two trees. They took turns trying to cross the rope barefoot. They had some great balance. My kids were mesmerized by that too.
We mostly played on the playgrounds while we were there. There were two new fun toys for the kids to play on. One was a huge spider web-looking thing that they could climb on. I even climbed to the top which made Britton scream, "Mom, you better get down, you might break it!" The other new toy were some big fake rocks that kids could climb to the top of. That was Britton's favorite. It reminded me of Moab and all the big rocks there are to climb. He had fun just being up there, being the king of the mountain. Haley was happy playing on all the regular old toys--slides, swings, etc. The playgrounds have been updated quite a few times throughout the years, but they still have the old metal balance beam that my sister, Sheryl, broke her arm on about 25 years ago. It still scares me to watch my kids walk on it even though it's only a few inches off the ground. I guess because I know how badly she got hurt on it. She had to have surgery and had pins put in her arm and therapy. I don't remember everything but she was in the hospital for a little while (long enough to miss my birthday party).
It was fun being there and just thinking about all the good memories, from my childhood, while I was in college, and after I first got married. I spent so many days in that park with so many different people. A part of me longs to move back to that neighborhood again.

April Give It Up

This month for my Give It Up Challenge, I decided to give up unnecessary spending. This encompasses so many things for me that I think it will be really hard but also really good for me. It's not just shopping, but eating out, and also all those little treats and dollar toys that I end up buying for myself and my kids. Basically, I have to think about every single purchase and ask myself if I really need it. I've never thought of myself as a big shopper or big spender, but I still think this is going to be really difficult. It'll be hard on my kids too, but good for them, they have become quite spoiled. Yesterday I was already tempted to stop by the store to get some treats and drinks to take to the park while we watched Jason play volleyball. I had almost even convinced myself that it was even a need, but then I refrained. I'm already almost blowing it and it's only the first few days. But, after overcoming that moment of weakness, I am even more determined to accomplish this and not make any excuses. Suprisingly, Britton is kind of excited about it too. I told him about it a few days ago. Yesterday, while we were driving, he saw McDonald's and asked if we could go there. I said no, but then I decided to remind him why. I said, "Remember, I'm not going to spend any money for a month." He was completely satisfied by that and stopped asking to go. Later in the evening he told me that he wasn't going to spend any money for 3 months. How cute.

Girl's Night Out

Friday night I had a girl's night out with the Kemp family girls. My mother in law recently hurt her back so we decided to all just stay up at her house and have a sleepover instead of trying to go somewhere else.
We had dinner at her house then headed out to go to a movie. I haven't been to a movie in a very long time, especially without kids. We saw "Premonition" and I liked it a lot. There were a few inconsistencies in it and I wasn't too thrilled about the ending, but I don't want to give anything away, so I won't say anything else. I was entertained by it though and would recommend it to people.
We stayed up until about 2 just talking and hanging out. It was nice getting to sleep in and being all cozy by myself in a bed. It's amazing how much better I sleep when I don't have kids climbing in bed with me a few hours before I want to get up or other such distractions. I don't think I woke up once in the night. I just slept like a rock.
In the morning, we went to IHOP for breakfast. I love eating out for breakfast, but rarely get to do it, so it was fun.
It was a good time just getting to hang out with everyone. I don't see them often enough so it's always fun to catch up on everyone.

Rollerblading!

Monday night we went to one of our favorite parks (Nielsen's Grove). Haley insisted on wearing her dinosaur costume and Britton and I brought our rollerblades so we could practice a little. (Unfortunately, Britton and I rollerblade at about the same level. I'm sure he'll be better than me in no time.) Jason borrowed by rollerblades for a few minutes just to show Britton how it's really done. He was showing off by skating backwards and fell down hard on his back. My first reaction was to start laughing, then I caught myself to make sure he was okay, and then I started laughing again. Britton and I bladed around for a bit and then went to the fun swing set. There's a round, carousel type thing with swings hanging down and you can push it around in circles and get the swings soaring pretty well. Since Jason was there to push, I actually got to ride this time and it was so much fun. He got it going really fast and lots of kids came running to get on. We had a blast. If I can figure out how to post a video clip, I'll post it in a few days.

Weekly Random Question

Okay it's been a really long time since I did my weekly random questions, so I should probably change it from "weekly" to "biannual" or something.

But, I'm going to try to do it more consistently.

So, here's the question for today:

Tell what you like about your mother.

I picked this one out of the box and almost put it back, not because I don't have anything to say, but because I have way too much to say and not enough time to write it all or even put it into words. There are so many things that I like about my mom, I wouldn't even know where to start. So, I'll just pick one attribute and write about that.

The thing that pops into my mind first is her generosity and willingness to give. She is constantly so willing and happy to help out all her kids and grandkids, both monetarily and with her time. There have been numerous times that she has been an answer to my prayers and probably doesn't even know it. She offers everything she has so willingly. And she does it so naturally. I could list all the things she has done for me and some that she has done for family and friends, but I'm sure that would completely embarrass her because that's not why she does it. And I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of generous things she's done that I'm not even aware of. She is such an example to me and I hope to follow her example. I love her very much.

This Weekend

We had a great weekend with Makiko. She left this afternoon, so we tried to pack a lot in for her last few days here. Friday night, their school had a big closing social for all the host families. We had dinner and they did a program for us. It was lots of fun. They sang songs, played games, did Japanese dances, and a few gave speeches. It was very emotional for all the students.

Afterwards, we took Makiko and her friend, Rina, up to the cabin. It was both of their first times at a cabin. And it was Rina's first time doing a lot of the things we did--building a campfire, roasting marshmallows, sleeping in a sleeping bag, etc. It was fun getting to experience it with them.

Saturday night, at home, we had a special evening with dessert and giving her the presents we got for her. It was quite emotional and special for all of us.

Sunday morning, we took Makiko up to temple square and the Conference Center. We went to the Tabernacle Choir broadcast, then had a tour of temple square. We took a lot of pictures then drove around downtown a bit. We had a picnic at Memory Grove and then drove home through Park City and Heber. It was a nice way to spend our last day with her.

Saying goodbye was really hard. It's amazing how attached we all got after only 10 days. I think Jason even cried as he said goodbye. Rina and Makiko gave us a nice picture frame that had "One Crazy Family" engraved on it. It was perfect. Makiko gave us a lot of other gifts throughout the week. Right before she left, she gave us a card with a Japanese coin in it and she said it represents the bond between a parent and child. We were very touched. It was so much fun being able to share our family with someone. We are going to miss her so much.

Makiko

Last Thursday night, we began hosting a Japanese student. Her name is Makiko. She is 19, studying elementary education, and she's here for 10 days with a program through her school. On weekdays, she spends her mornings at Ivy Hall helping in the kindergarten, then afternoons are spent at Selnate International School. So, she only gets evenings and weekends with us.
It has been so much fun. I am having a blast and I'm already getting sad that she will be leaving on Sunday. She speaks very little English, but we are able to communicate thanks to the help of her electronic dictionary. She carries it everywhere with her. She types something in, then I type back, then we both smile and nod. It's kind of fun. I've been speaking very slowly and in 3 word sentences for the past 5 days that I've started speaking that way to everyone. Or I accidentally speak to her in French which is really bizarre. But, she doesn't really notice since she doesn't understand.
I was really excited to do this, but I'm surprised at how attached I am already to her. I wish she could stay longer. Yesterday she was trying to explain to me that the time is passing too quickly and she's sad to have to go home soon. I told her that she could come visit anytime she wanted. She didn't really understand, so I said, "My house is your house forever" and she smiled and almost started to cry. It has been so much fun to share myself and my family with someone. She is so grateful and kind and helpful. She takes pictures of me doing almost everything which makes me feel really cool and fun :) She says "thank you" to everything probably because it's one of the only things she can say, but it still makes me feel good to know that she is so happy to do everything that we're doing.
We've been doing more organized things than usual to entertain her a bit, but mostly she just wants to participate in American life. Last night I asked her if she wanted to watch "24" with Jason and me after the kids went to bed. She was so happy and excited. She probably didn't even follow what was going on, but she was so happy to be watching anyway.
We have done a lot of fun things together, but everyday I think of more and more things that I want to do with her. I find myself wishing that she didn't have to go to school. It's so fun to have a friend to do everything with me--help me cook, help me clean, play games, play with my kids, just hang out with and she's so excited and grateful to do it.
It's also funny to see her reaction to my kids. They are so happy to have someone around too. The first day, they wouldn't leave her alone. They followed her into her room and dragged her all over the house. She loved it. Yesterday Haley unrolled all the toilet paper in the bathroom and dumped a whole bottle of shampoo into the water while she was taking a bath. It made me laugh more instead of being mad because Makiko thought it was so funny.
I've taken a lot of pictures but I haven't downloaded them yet. I'll post them when I do.
It's been a great couple of days and I look forward to the rest of the week with her. I'm really going to miss her when she's gone.

Center for Change

Yesterday Jason and I were watching some of the March Madness games. During the commercials, Jason started browsing through the other stations and Dr. Phil caught our eye. We ended up watching it instead of the game. His show was about several women suffering from anorexia. The two women that it featured were both around 60 lbs. and were at the point where their bodies could shut down. As I listened to their stories, I couldn't help but think about my girls from Center for Change that I used to teach. I thought of each one of them and how brave they are and how hard it was for them to go through treatment. They are some remarkable young ladies. As I heard these two ladies stories, I kept saying to Jason, "they need to go to Center for Change". I found myself getting choked up many times throughout the program partly because of seeing these two people who were in such need of help and partly because of all the memories of working with people in a similar situation. I remember my last day of work there--I cried the entire way driving home, not because I was necessarily sad to be quitting because I knew it was the right thing, but because I was so grateful to have been a part of something so important. I was just their math and science teacher, so I wasn't involved in their therapy but I was able to see a change occur in each one of them and be a witness to their recovery. I am still so grateful for that experience and still feel drawn to people who suffer from such a complicated disease.
Towards the end of the Dr. Phil Show, they started talking about whether or not these two women were willing and ready to undergo treatment. Dr. Phil said that it is such a complicated disorder and that there aren't many places equipped to really treat it. And then he said that there was one that deals with all the facets of the disease. The cameras flashed to the audience and there was Dr. Barrett from Center for Change! I was so proud! After the show, Dr. Barrett met with each of the women and their families and invited them each to come to Center for Change. I hope that they do a follow up story sometime down the road.
I have so much respect and admiration for the founders of Center for Change and all that they put into it. They are very talented therapists and doctors. And helping women with eating disorders is their life and their passion.

Tag! I'm It!

About a week ago, Beth "tagged" me on her blog. So, I'm supposed to write 6 weird things about myself. (I think that's the rule at least). So, here goes....

#1 I try to find patterns in everything. Whenever I see a group of numbers (like a phone number or something), my brain automatically tries to find a way that those numbers "make sense" together. This makes it really easy for me to memorize groups of numbers.

#2 When I eat M&Ms or Skittles, I always eat them in a pattern of some kind. I like there to be the same amount of each color and then I'll eat one or two of each color at a time or all of one color then all of the next or some other kind of pattern. But, I never just eat them randomly.

#3 Whenever I ate Cheerios when I was little (which was almost every morning), I used to pretend like the Cheerios were people in innertubes waiting in a pool for a ride at an amusement park. I pretended that the spoon picked up the people for the ride and then the ride started in my mouth. I imagined that the ride was a rollercoaster that took the people through all the systems of the body until reaching my feet, where I pretended there was a door that let everyone out. I always wished that there was really a ride like that.

#4 I don't like scratching people's backs but Jason asks me almost everyday to scratch his back, so I do. The reason I don't like it is I imagine all the dead skin particles and dirt that get stuck underneath my nails and it grosses me out. But, it doesn't gross me out to scratch my own back.

#5 I get embarrassed talking on the phone to make appointments or order food or to get information. So, whenever possible, I try to make other people make my phone calls for me. But, if I'm on the phone for a job or while making prank calls (Save the Red Lobster!) with friends, I have no problem talking on the phone.

#6 If I'm trying to watch TV after about 9:30, I can't keep myself awake no matter what. Even if it's my favorite show that I've been waiting all week to watch. But, if I'm playing games or talking to someone, I can stay up all night long without even getting tired.

Now, I guess I'm supposed to "tag" 6 people to do the same. Since there are only a handful of people who read my blog who have blogs of their own, I don't even have 6 people to tag. So, I'll just tag Amber, Aaron (and anyone else in the family), and Meredith.

Haley's Birthday

On Tuesday, March 6, Haley turned 3 years old! It's so crazy to me that she has grown up so fast. She's really a little girl now, not a baby at all. Monday night we had a birthday party with my side of the family. Patricia's birthday is the 5th, so we celebrated them both together. Haley made out like a bandit with all the presents she got! She's so spoiled by her grandparents, aunts, and uncles (and I guess her parents, too). She got an assortment of Little People sets, some clothes, some books, coloring books, crayons, Dora Magic Castle furniture (she got the castle for Chrismas), a make-up kit, and a bike! She loved every one of her gifts. Thanks to everyone!
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures because my camera battery wasn't charged. Maybe I'll have Britton take some pictures of her presents since he seems to like taking close ups of toys. :)

Give It Up

I never reported on my "Give It Up" challenge for last month. Probably because I did horribly. Eating out really is my weakness. I ended up giving in and eating out fairly early on in the month. I still tried keeping it going until about mid-month when I abandoned it altogether. I probably ended up eating out more than usual actually.
I do want to try it again one month though. I'm not ready to give up entirely.
But, March came so quickly and is already almost half over and I never started a new challenge for myself. So, I'm taking this month off and getting ready to go full force next month. I already picked the challenge for next month--I'm going to give up buying anything that is not a neccessity. I read an article today on MSN Money about a group of people who all did it. It was a very good article and really inspiring. Amber is going to try to do it with me, so that will probably help me actually keep it.

Budding Photographers

A couple of weeks ago I let Britton and his friends play with my camera and take some pictures. Mostly they are closeups of toys and stuff. Here are a few of the less blurry ones.

My Little Boy is Growing Up!

Yesterday I registered Britton for kindergarten. I can't believe it's already that time. It goes by way too fast. Although, I'm excited for him to be in school and be able to learn and make friends and all of that good stuff, I'm a bit apprehensive and sad too. I know it's still 6 months away, but filling out all the forms and answering all the questions about him just made it all the more real. I know that intellectually he's definitely more than ready for this step, but emotionally, I'm not so sure. The past 2 months or so he has been VERY clingy to me. And it's not the normal clingy that kids go through. He doesn't like to leave my side AT ALL for anything, even playing with his best friends or being at his grandparents house. I wish I knew what was going on with him so I could somehow help fix it. Hopefully within the next 6 months it will work its way out and he'll be ready and excited for school.
Now I'll switch gears and brag about Britton and how smart he is. He is always amazing me. He has always been really good with numbers and interested in math without me pushing it at all. But, lately he has shown me numerous times just how math-minded he is. The past 6 months or so he has randomly been doing multiplication. He'll say to me, "Mom, four 2's are 8" or different things like that. I've never tried to teach him anything like that so he's just thinking about it on his own.
A few days ago, while Haley was sleeping, I got out an addition worksheet to have him do. I taught him what the + symbol meant and I knew he could count them out on his fingers and do them all. After a few minutes I looked over and he wasn't counting them out anymore, he was just filling in the answers and they were all right. I watched him as he did 4+2=6 in his head. I asked him how he knew that without counting and he said, "Well if 5+1 is 6 then 4+2 has to be 6". I was amazed that he's already thinking like that.
Then, Monday, on the way to karate, as we were driving, he said (out of nowhere), "Mom, three 3's plus 1 is the same thing as two 5's". I was blown away. I can't believe how much he is comprehending about numbers and how they relate to each other. Now I'm just worried that in school if he gets problems like 5+1 he'll put something like "1 less than 7" or something.

Good Deeds, Scary Sicknesses, and Yellow Belts

Today was a busy day.

The morning started off great and I was able to do 2 good deeds before even 7:00. As we were out on our morning walk, there was a car stuck on the side of the road that couldn't make it up the hill by my parent's house. So, Cieanna and I pushed the car out. The man still had trouble turning around, he was sliding all over the place. He tried every possible way to turn around and just ended up backing up the whole way down the hill. Kind of scary. I felt so bad for him. He was driving a BMW and I know how bad they are in the snow because we used to have one. They have rear-wheel drive and it makes it so hard in the snow. I hope he made it wherever he needed to go okay.
When I got home from my walk, I grabbed my shovel to start shoveling my walks. I did my neighbors walks too because he ALWAYS does ours. I was so happy to be out and about before him so that I could surprise him by doing them. Then I did our other neighbors walks because he is not doing so well right now. He's been in and out of the hospital lately.
I was happy to be up so early and be able to start my day in such a good way.

Sunday night, Haley fell asleep really early, but I didn't think much of it because she didn't really take a nap since our church is from 1 to 4. But, about 10:00 she woke up and complained about her cheek hurting and then she threw up. I just thought her cheek was asleep or something, so I gave her a bath and then put her back to bed. She woke up several times in the night and ended up sleeping with us after a while. In the morning, she seemed to be feeling fine, but then, as I was holding her, she threw up again. Then later on, she complained about her cheek again. I realized it probably wasn't that her cheek was falling asleep, so I tried to get a look at it. She wouldn't even let me touch it because it hurt so much. Right next to her ear was a large bulge under neath her skin. I didn't see it before because of her hair. So, I immediately called the doctor to get her an appointment. He couldn't see her for a few hours, so I started looking things up on the internet to see what it could possibly be. The doctor diagnosed her as having infected salivary glands and an ear infection on that side. So, we got some antibiotics and hopefully she'll be back to normal within a week or so. (Except that she doesn't like the medicine and refuses to take it--how do you force a 2 year old to take medicine? Even if I get it in her mouth, she just spits it out.) Anyway, I'm really glad that it wasn't anything more serious.

In the afternoon, I took Britton to karate. Last Friday, he had his first belt review and he got his yellow belt. So, it was the first day of karate for him as a yellow belt. He is so proud, it's really cute. All weekend he would randomly mention something about his new belt. Last night, he was teaching Haley karate. He let her wear his white belt and he wore his yellow one. He made her say, "Yes, sir", "Attention", "Courtesy" and all the other things that they have to see. It was really cute to watch them. She's seen him in class enough times that she can do all the punches and kicks as well. I forgot to take my camera to the belt review, but I'll get a picture of Britton in his yellow belt sometime soon.

Kids at Church

Why is it that kids always act their worst at church? The place where you would hope they would be on their best behavior.

Today we were about half an hour late and I was alone with my two kids because Jason threw up this morning. Fun. We walked in the back doors in the back of the gym and across the floor to the last row of folding chairs. Britton insisted on walking as loud as possible so that we couldn't be discreet. The last row was full, so we sat on the second to last row. I only had one pen and one notebook so Britton and Haley started out fighting over that. Finally I got them to take turns, then Haley had to go to the bathroom. While walking back in from the bathroom, one of Britton's shoes fell off, so he decided to sit down to take the other one off. I left him there to get his shoes while I carried Haley back to our seats. When I turned around, expecting to see Britton following us, instead I saw him in the back of the gym spinning around. I walked back there calmly and he started running, trying to get onto the stage. I carried him back to our seats and held him because I didn't dare let him go. With about 5 minutes left of Sacrament Meeting, he started saying how hungry he was and how he wanted to go home to eat. Of course he didn't say it in a whisper or anything. Instead everyone around us could hear him. And then he started saying things like, "Mom, you never let me eat. I'm soooo hungry. Why don't you ever give me food?" and other over-dramatic things like that. Luckily most people around us know us quite well and know that I'm not starving my children. Most of them just started laughing. Then, the closing hymn started so I was trying to just sing and ignore him. So, he started singing along with the tune of the hymn, but he sang, "I'm so hungry, I want to go home". That one even got me laughing along with everyone else around us. Needless to say, I was very glad when sacrament meeting was over and I could just take them to their classes. I don't even want to begin to relate how hard it was to get them both to go to class though. After about 30 minutes going back and forth from nursery to Primary, I finally got to go into my Sunday school class.

I hate going to church without Jason.

Random Pet Peeves

There are certain things that just get under my skin and I really can't help it.
One of those things is really bad grammar.
I hate it when adults use bad grammar to speak to their kids as if that's some sort of baby talk or something (I don't really like baby talk much either, but that's another story). I realize that kids are going to make some grammatical mistakes as they are learning to speak and that's okay, even sometimes cute, especially when it's your own kids. But, there comes a time when I think kids are old enough to speak somewhat correctly.
For example, the kids that live in our basement both make the same grammatical errors and I'm sure it's probably not their faults. But, I still can't get past it. They both use "her" instead of "she" and it just makes my skin crawl. For example, they say things like "Her's asleep", "No, her's not", "Her wants to do it", etc. And it's not just once in a while, I don't think I've ever heard them say "she" at all. And they are 6 and 3--not really little kids anymore. I think I could probably get past it, except that they are at my house playing almost everyday. And the other day, Haley started using "her" in the same way they do and she never once did that before they lived downstairs. When it starts rubbing off on my kids, that bothers me even more. I wish it didn't bug me so much, but I honestly think it makes me like them less which just makes me sound so mean and shallow. I guess I'll have to work on that one.

New Calling

About a month ago, I got called as the Assistant Camp Director for the Young Women. I am so excited. I love camp and I love the Young Women, so there really isn't a better calling for me. We haven't had to do much of anything yet, but soon we'll know what the theme for camp is and we can start planning.

"I'm Mean At You!"

Haley has the funniest mad face that I've ever seen. She gets her lips all pursed and glares. It's hard to take her seriously when she's just so cute. Then, when she's really mad, she's started saying, "I'm mean at you!" Again, it's hard not to just start laughing.

This morning I tried to get her to do her mean face so that I could take some pictures, but it's nothing like the real thing. I'll post them anyway, just so you get the idea. There's one happy one too at the end.

Nice Day

We have been having such nice weather compared to the cold temperatures of a few weeks ago. Almost all the snow is melting and now when we get precipitation, it's rain not snow. So, it's definitely a lot warmer.

Yesterday we walked over to the park and my kids were so happy. It's been quite a while since they have been to the park. It's so nice when they can just get out and play.

Preschool Fun

Two weeks ago, it was "S" week for preschool. We went outside and made snow letters and colored them with food coloring. The kids had so much fun. Britton made a B in the snow and Michael made an M. It added a little variety to the typical things you do in the snow like building snowmen and having snowball fights.

Gardening

Yesterday I went to my first gardening class. It got me really excited for planting. All we talked about was preparing the soil, but even now that part sounds fun now that I'm sure I know what I'm doing. He also talked about some different crops, but just briefly and he's going to go through each one individually and the different types that do the best here. I got really excited to have raspberries and strawberries and melons along with the tomatoes, corn, squash, etc.
He also talked about the benefits of having a garden and how it's really important to make it a family affair and teach your kids how to work, especially if they are young. They love helping and being outside. It's a fun way to do something worthwhile all together.
So, I'm already super excited to get started. It won't be for a while, but it's warm enough now and the snow has just about melted that we can still play outside and start planning out where we want everything.

Tough Week

This has been a really tough week for me and my family. I'm exhausted and sad, but also very grateful. I have been able to reflect a lot and have been reminded of how blessed I am.

Here are some of the things that I am particularly grateful for right now:

*I am so lucky to have two beautiful, wonderful kids that I love so much. They are my greatest gift and bring me so much joy everyday. I don't ever want to take them for granted.

*My husband is the greatest and always tries to take care of me. He shares my pain and knows all the right things to do and say.

*My family will do anything for me--day or night. And they've had to this week--day and night (the middle of the night). And they are happy to do it. Thank you! I love them all so much.

*I have been blessed with great friends--both near and far. I appreciate all that they do for me--the dinners, babysitting, cards, emails, phone calls, talks, distractions, etc. It all means so much to me.

*I'm grateful for the Spirit that has been with me to strengthen and comfort and calm and teach me. I can be at peace because of it.

Girly Girl

Haley is such a girly girl! I love to watch her and listen to her and see all the things that she loves. I'm surprised by what a girly girl she is because I really am not. But, that makes me like it even more because it's just so her. She loves pink and purple and babies and wearing dresses and tights and high heels.
The latest girly thing that she does is when we go to the basketball games. She ooohs and aaahs and gets so excited whenever she sees the cheerleaders. It's so cute. Even when we're watching the games on TV. As soon as they flash the camera at the cheerleaders, she gets so excited. I think she thinks thats what we're watching for. She does the "Ra Ra Ra, Go Cougars" thing perfectly. And now she has started pretending like she's a cheerleader. I have to call her "cheerleader" or she won't respond. And tonight she made me do all sorts of lifts while she was doing cheers. It was so cute and fun.

Underwear

Haley has the "Days of the Week" underwear (something I never had growing up). Well, I don't ever really pay attention and I just grab out whatever underwear each day. The other day, however, (Tuesday) I noticed that I grabbed the "Tuesday" ones. I was so excited because she could say, "I've got on my Tuesday panties, but I guess you know that too!" (My favorite line from Big Business) It made me happy all day just thinking about it.

Animal Skin

We subscribe to the National Geographic Kids magazine and my kids love it. The last edition had a lot of pictures of different animal skin on the back and you had to try to guess what it was. Haley brought it over to me for me to watch her do it. I was pretty surprised that she could get everyone--except when she got to the cheetah she said "cheeto". I guess she's much more familiar with Cheetos than cheetahs. It was really funny.

Weekend of Sports

This weekend was very fun-filled--mostly with sporting events. Friday night, Jason and I went to the BYU Men's Volleyball game. It was so much fun and reminded of the good old college days when we used to go to every game to watch our volleyball boyfriends.
BYU is doing great this year. They are ranked #1 and they were playing the #2 ranked UC Irvine. We went an hour and a half early and didn't even get very good seats. There were hundreds of people in line already when we arrived. And it sold out before the game even started. It was so much fun. BYU played great and swept them. They have swept every single team this year except for one at the very beginning of the year.
Saturday, we went as a family to the BYU basketball game. They played UNLV who was ranked #25 in the nation. BYU started off strong and took the lead and UNLV never could recover. Mike Rose hit 8 3-pointers and the whole team hit 15 3-pointers. So, it made for a very exciting game to watch. BYU ended up winning by 27 points. I was expecting a really tight game, possibly even a loss for BYU, so it was great.
Then, today after church, we went to the Kemp's house for a Superbowl party. They have a projector, so we got to watch it on the big screen. I didn't care too much about the game this year, so I just kicked it upstairs with girls and the kids. There was a Monk marathon going on, so that's what we watched. I've only seen Monk once or twice but it was fun watching it and just hanging out and talking.