My New Trend

I guess by now you've noticed my new trend. I didn't intend to become an every-other-day blogger, but that seems to be how my life is going lately. School starting up and football and now Crafty's play, have made it difficult to get five minutes to sit down at my desk every day.

Teach carrying the torch.

And  I can't believe how much time it takes to win a gold medal!

What? You didn't know I was in the Olympics?

The Curves Olympics I mean. Did I tell you I've started working out with Teach every day? It's been fun and rewarding (I bought some shorts in a whole size smaller!), but it takes a LOT of time! I'm not a morning person so I can't possibly get up at 6:00 AM before the kids get ready for school. So we have to go around 9:00. The Dog Walker can watch the little ones most days unless he has class and then we have to go in the afternoon.


Just this past week I convinced Bossy that she should come with us, so she plunked down her money and is now the newest member. Since the Olympics are over, they have come up with their next ploy to get people excited about working out. It's the Curves Two-Week Triathlon... 26.2 miles of walking/running, 112 miles of biking, and 2.5 miles of swimming.

They must think I have tons of time on my hands.

21 Arrow Salute

Pretty sure I mentioned that yesterday was Pack Meeting. (It was also my sweetie's birthday.) Since it's August, we decided to have a summer picnic and give out all the awards from the camps the boys went to in July. My sweetie is so busy at work that I was immediately put in charge of all the food. He put himself in charge of something else.

The plan was for 120 people. After several trips to the grocery store, I had hot dogs, buns, condiments, watermelon, and plastic tableware secured. Oh yeah, and I was in charge of table decorations and tablecloths as well as dessert.

Just practicing...

Everything came together at the last minute and by 6:15 we had taped down the paper tablecloths and my sweetie started grilling the hot dogs. The families started to arrive at promptly 6:30. Each one brought a salad to share and that rounded out our menu. After about 45 minutes of food, my sweetie pulled out his special project. He had prepared a kit made from pvc pipe, dowels, string, and electrical tape for each kid at the pack meeting...not each Cub Scout...EACH KID!

It took them another 45 minutes to tape and string and tie, but they loved every minute of it. When they were done they headed out to the field to shoot off their arrows while they waited for the others to finish. Bossy and Gamer were the best at bending the bows and they soon had a long line of kids waiting for their services. It was starting to get dark by the time we finally got to awards.

One boy had earned his Arrow of Light which is the highest award for Cub Scouts so my sweetie had all the kids line up with their bows and arrows and shoot them off at the same time in kind of a 21 Arrow Salute to his accomplishment.

Then we brought out the cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to my sweetie. I'm pretty sure the kids had a good time. I saw boys shooting off their arrows in the neighborhood today when I was running errands, so I think they liked them. My sweetie gets all the credit for being awesome and I got to eat two leftover cupcakes. But at least I didn't turn 49 yesterday. Happy birthday, Sweetie!

Not My Fault

Sport's out there somewhere!

First just let me say, "It's not my fault!"

I meant to post on Saturday, truly I did. The football game was awesome! Sport's team won 19 - 6. He did an excellent job knocking over a kid who had about 30 lbs on him. Then after the game I rushed home, picked up Crafty, and took her to an audition. She has been dying to be in a play for a couple of years now, but the timing just hasn't been right. I'm not sure it's right now either, but she really wants to do it, so we will make it work somehow.

After her auditions, we drove home, ate some lunch and headed out again for the store this time. I took Princess with me as a special treat because she actually passed her driver's written test on Friday! First time! I was so proud of her. Now she can drive on her learner's permit for six months before she gets her real license. So her treat was a trip to Sam's Club. (OK, I know I'm a loser, but she was excited...) We were grabbing groceries and stuff for Cub Scout Pack Meeting tomorrow.

Me, waiting at the auditions.

After that we changed and drove to Sport's football team's swim party. The kids loved playing in the water and they didn't want to get out even when it started to rain.

When we got home there was just a little time to get ready for Stake Conference. We had Elder M. Russell Ballard at our conference because they were changing our Stake Presidency. He is an excellent speaker. Then my sweetie, the Dog Walker, Teach, and I all went to the Village Inn for a late supper.

Sunday dawned bright and early and we dragged all the kids up and out the door for conference. We arrived almost an hour early, hoping to get a soft seat, but they were already taken. While we were waiting for the music to begin, the Dog Walker got up and made his way to the restroom. He came back a few minutes later and took his seat. I hardly paid any attention until my friend who was sitting several rows behind me sent me a text.

Swimming or eating?

She had noticed that the Dog Walker had a huge rip in his pants! We were suddenly in a panic. The Dog Walker was being ordained an Elder and that meant he had to stand up in front of about a thousand people while we voted for him! We had 20 minutes before the meeting was to begin, but if we left we would never find a parking place. I started looking for friends who might have a key to the library, but no one had thought to bring them. One of my friends called her daughter to try to locate some pins, but she didn't pick up her phone.

I stepped into the hall and noticed that the stake clerk's office was open. These men had clearly faced this dilemma before and offered me a stapler...a missionary's best friend...

I sent my sweetie to the restroom with the Dog Walker and they re-emerged several minutes later with some success. I returned the stapler and we enjoyed the rest of the meeting. When it was over, the Dog Walker leaned over and complained, "The staples didn't work!" At that point I noticed they were pulling through the fabric. We got through the ordination with someone just walking close behind him at all times...sound like a story I told once before?

After that we drove home to prepare for my sweetie's birthday party. His birthday is really the 28th, but with that being pack meeting, we had to celebrate on Sunday. I still had a cake to make, food to prepare, and gifts to wrap.

All went well and he loved the Ipod I bought for him. But I was tired and I slipped off to bed without writing my post. (OK, maybe it really was my fault that I haven't updated you...)

Then I was planning to get on first thing this morning, but my sweetie decided to work home today since he had a dentist appointment this morning for a toothache he had been nursing all weekend. Unfortunately, his computer wasn't working so he had to use mine. Then the peaches on the porch began calling my name and we worked on those all morning. We finished with somewhere around 60 quarts. I still have a box of small ones left, but I'm thinking maybe some jam. I hope they will make it til Wednesday since I have to pull the rest of pack meeting together, including 144 cupcakes I have to make!

Safety Fair

Red-headed Scout

I swear you guys must think we play all the time! Yes, I have yet another fair to tell you about, only this one was a little different. Remember way back in the spring when Sport's slogan was chosen for the helmet safety contest? Well, this was one of the fairs where they were hoping he would be able to help the cause.

Just a little green...

Every year our city has a Health and Safety Fair as part of their end of summer bash. It's really cool! They bring in all the big fire trucks and the ambulances. We usually get a helicopter and the SWAT team. This year they even had a canine demonstration!

They also have a bunch of booths set up and tons of free stuff. And boy do my kids like stuff! So Sport was asked to help with the Bike Rodeo and the health department booth. We arrived right on time, but we couldn't seem to find our people or their booth, so we walked around a bit and then grabbed a free hot dog and chips. We found an empty spot on the lawn and had a picnic. About that time, our friend Amy found us.

If I were more talented I could turn this cell pic the right way!

Sport was pretty excited to get started, so we set up the spinning wheel and started giving stuff away. We had pencils and flashing reflectors and buttons. We even had a box of helmets for those spinning just the right space!

While Sport and I were running the booth, the other kids were gathering piles of freebies. The Dog Walker would take a couple of kids out for a while and then he would come back and trade for a couple more. Once he left with Scout and Baby Doll and they both came back with colored hair! His own hair was a lovely shade of blue. He promised me it would wash out easily. Seems like I've heard that story before...

After a couple of hours, we had given out all of the helmets and reflectors and it was time to clean up. While people were pulling down awnings and folding up tables, the city blew up their huge screen and set up a movie. 

Spin the wheel and win a prize!

We stayed for about half of the movie, but at 10:30 I convinced the kids we could Redbox it and we needed to get home. Sport has his first pre-season football game in the morning and we didn't want him to be too tired. We are so excited to watch him play! I'll give you a full report on that tomorrow.

First Day of School

Putting on a brave smile.

I sent my elementary-aged kids back to school this week. I can't believe how fast they are growing up! Crafty is now a 6th grader, Sport is in 4th, and Scout is in 1st. Even Curly will be starting pre-school in a couple of weeks!

Let me tell you how my life works. We have been on "A" track since we moved to this neighborhood 18 years ago. I know all the teachers, have the breaks pretty much memorized; my life is arranged around the holidays they are in school and out of school.

So this year Bossy was in transition because they were house-hunting, so she got a permit for Taco and Burrito so they could attend our elementary school. The problem with that was the staple.

Yeah, that's right, the staple.

Because our two track requests were stapled together, they got put in a separate book, and that book got the lowest priority when it came to assigning tracks. My friend who teaches kindergarten on A track gave me the first hint that things were going to be different. She had seen Scout's name on the D track list and questioned it with the administration. They assured her it must have been a mistake and of course we were still on A track.

But then the letter came. Crafty was totally devastated by the news! All the kids she had gone to school with for the past six years were now on a different track. As a 6th grader she was going to have to start over and even though she makes friends easily, she just didn't want to do it.

We put in our request to change back, but the odds were stacked against us. We wanted to move a 6th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader, a 1st grader and a kindergarten student. It just wasn't happening.

Crafty's first day was full of tears. Sport took it like a man. He had at least one friend from his baseball team in his class so that helped, and Scout had two neighborhood friends in her class.

Yesterday was a little better, but we are still struggling. Hope your first days of school were all happy ones!

Camping - Girl Scout Style

OK, I promised you another Girl Scout story. Well, you all know I'm pretty careful with money...all right, I admit it, I'm a cheapskate! But I'm even more careful with money that is not my own. I've been a troop leader for a long time and every year the girls sell cookies to help fund their activities. About 10 years ago, we had built our account up to aroud $800 and my co-leader wanted to take the girls camping, so that is what we did. But that's a story for another time.

This year (and last year) my girls sold tons of cookies! More than we have ever sold, in fact. As we were looking at our financial reports, we realized we had almost $1200 in our account. Normally, if I have $300 to start the new scout year I am ecstatic, so this was an amazing amount of money for the troop.

When I asked the girls what they would like to do, Princess spoke up that she would love to go to Tuacahn. For those of you who live outside the state of Utah, Tuacahn is an outdoor amphitheater in St. George where they put on Broadway-caliber shows. I'd never been before, but I heard their shows were awesome!

No pics allowed in the amphitheater, so we took this outside.

Other girls quickly seconded the motion, and the idea of a road trip was born. Now my youngest scouts are only six years old, so I was afraid that parents might not like us taking them all the way across the state just to see a play (and I was a little right, one set of parents opted to pass this time), but everyone else seemed fine with it. I made reservations at a St. George Best Western and bought the tickets to see
Aladdin.

We left promptly at 2:30 last Friday afternoon. We had three vehicles traveling in our group and we wanted to arrive before 7:00. The show started at 8:45 but we needed to feed the girls and check into the hotel before we took the 20-minute drive to Tuacahn.

Scout

We managed the drive with only one potty stop and one rain storm just outside Cedar City. We rolled into the Little Caesar's and picked up our pizzas at about 7:10. By 7:25 we were checked in and the girls were rapidly filling their tummies with cheese and pepperoni. At 8:05 we piled in the van and headed for the amphitheater. My sweetie nicely drove us to St. George and then offered to take care of Baby Doll in the room while we all went to the show. (That's why I married this guy!)

Baby Doll and Mabel

The tickets were terribly expensive by my standards, but cheap compared to other venues. I know when we saw Wicked in Los Angeles we paid twice the price per seat, but that was my money and this was the troop's money. We sat in the cheapest seats, but they were still great. We were spread out over four areas but all in the same section. Thankfully, we had enough adults to sit with each group of girls.

The show was even better than I was hoping! They had live camels and the part about the Cave of Wonders? It was all done in 3D. They even climbed on a "magic carpet" and sailed out over the audience! The girls loved it!

Princess is always dancing!

We got back to our rooms about 11:45 and sent the girls all off to bed (although I heard they were up half the night...). The scouts were all in two adjoining rooms with Princess and Prima Donna in charge. We were right next door, but they didn't need us.

We woke them for free breakfast around 8:00 and I told them if they hurried there would be time to swim before we checked out. They opted for the outdoor pool with the fun waterfall. Teach and I donned our suits to play lifeguards and my sweetie snapped the pics.

Not exactly pine trees!

After an hour we gathered up our rooms and checked out of the hotel. I thought the girls would sleep the entire ride home but they didn't. We stopped about halfway and picked up some fried chicken and corn dogs for lunch. We dropped off the girls just after 3:00 at their houses and then my sweetie and I went home and took a nap.

Now that's my kind of camping!

Girl Scout Picnic

Every year in August, we tally up all the awards for the Girl Scouts and have a family picnic. That's where they get a few minutes to shine in front of their families and friends. I have been doing this same thing for more than five years now. We change up the menu, like this year we served sloppy joes and potluck salads, and the girls change, but the format works pretty well.

I keep all my decorations easy now. In the past I've had some awesome co-leaders that make invitations, but now my favorite is just covering the tables with butcher paper and setting out crayons. That way the kids can make their own decorations.

After dinner I climb up on one of the tables and present the awards. Even though many of the girls have earned the same things, I always say each girl's name and their accomplishments, and I have them come up one at a time.

This year we were bridging all of our Juniors so Drama Queen and the girls made a paper "bridge" that we walked them in front of. Then we had them all run through it like the football team. Another thing we tried this year was a kickball game with the Girl Scouts against the rest of the families.

It was so fun!

I love being a Girl Scout leader. It gives me a chance to teach my own girls (remember I have four of them in my troop and Drama Queen and Teach are two of my co-leaders) the things I would probably just talk about and never get around to doing. It helps them set and achieve goals and it lets them make new friends.

Just love these girls!

We have had some awesome adventures this year. Tomorrow I'm going to share the best one with you...and it has nothing to do with cookies.

OK, maybe it has a little bit to do with cookies...

They are always so happy!

County Fair

I love the County Fair. Unlike the very expensive State Fair, the County Fair is relatively free (except for parking) and we always walk away with a bunch of freebies. I don't know about your county, but Salt Lake County has a Read n Ride program. Each kid between the ages of 5 and 14 can earn up to three free rides if they read three books. My kids always share their rides so that everyone gets a turn.

They also have a petting zoo. The kids loved it! Except for Baby Doll. She was terrified of the little animals. The Dog Walker brought her back out with the words, "I told you!" I know, I'm a great mom...

Our county fair even offers free craft projects on the hour for kids. The kids made caterpillers out of felt and pipe cleaners. And that doesn't even begin to count all the Tootsie Rolls, suckers, stickers, and pencils. Curly even won a shirt at the Mosquito Abatement group!

It doesn't get any better than that.

Almost Like Vacation Again

Before we left on our vacation, Teach and I went to Smith's (the grocery store where she works) and bought $600 worth of restaurant gift cards for placed scattered across the country. That might seem like a weird thing to do except that Smith's has a gas program that allowed us to save $2 on each gallon of gas up to 35 gallons. And the day we bought the gift cards gave us 4X the points and saved us $70. (I know, you can never get over how cheap I really am!)

Anyway, the gift cards worked great! We used almost all of them, but not quite. My sweetie had recommended cards for Buca di Beppo because it is Drama Queen's favorite Italian place. As we got down to the last days of the trip, it became evident that we were going to have to save some of the cards until we got home. Since the Drama Queen's birthday was only a week away, we decided that it would be the perfect place to have a birthday celebration.

So last Friday we took part of the family (I only had $75 in cards, so we only took those who had been on the trip with us) out to dinner. We had already celebrated her birthday on Sunday so that everyone could have dinner and cake so we didn't feel too guilty.

We had to go late because Sport had football practice until 7:30 and Teach didn't get off work until 8:00, but it was a Friday night so we made reservations anyway.

When we arrived, they didn't have our table set up yet so we had to wait in the lobby for a few minutes. The manager came by to talk with us and he offered the kids' menus with the promise that the first one to finish the word search could have a free piece of cheesecake! That was definitely a motivating factor for several of my children. For several minutes we couldn't even get them to decide on what they wanted to order as they feverishly raced to find the huge list of words.

Even I got caught up in it (annoying my sweetie), but I didn't win. Princess was the coolest and the first one to finish and she nicely shared her cheesecake with everyone.

We had a great time! The kids were all so silly, just enjoying each others' company. It was almost like being on vacation again...

Waiting in Line

Waiting in line...

Cute little dinosaurs!

School starts next week for my elementary-aged kids. I'm not really excited about that. I love having them home! I also love not having to worry about getting up early or doing homework...but I'll whine more about that next week.

So today was really our last day to have a family activity together. I announced "field trip!" last night before bed and we headed out just after 9:00 this morning. That was our first mistake.

I had seen the ads for 2-buck Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point. We went to their dinosaur museum a couple of years ago at that price and you know me, I can't resist a bargain. My sweetie was going to work (somebody had to finance our little adventure...) so we were on our own. Right before we left, Gamer showed up with Taco and Burrito so that added two more to our party making a grand total of 13.

We were thinking if we showed up right when the museum opened, we wouldn't have to wait in line. Yeah, right! We got there about 10:20 and the line was snaking around the building and 100 yards down the parking lot. There were probably about 300 people in line waiting to get in. Thankfully, the line moved relatively quickly and we only stood in it for about 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, the lines didn't go away when we got inside the building. The kids were mostly patient and fine with waiting their turn. They all loved the dinosaur bones and playing in the interactive exhibits. Baby Doll loved touching each fossil replica, but she was a little terrified by some of the bigger skeletons. The sandy water table was their favorite and they were disappointed that we didn't dig in the sand pits, but it was wall-to-wall people in there and by that point all I wanted to do was escape!

We hiked back to the van and the Drama Queen offered to buy everyone lunch. (I know, my kids are awesome!) We pointed the van toward the Salt Lake Valley and started looking for someplace to stop and grab a bite.

As we sailed along the freeway, the Drama Queen and I both saw it at the same time, a huge sign on the side of the IKEA building proclaiming that "kids eat free" on Tuesdays. We pulled off on the next exit and back-tracked to the big blue building. 

The kids love that store! We didn't have a ton of time since the Dog Walker had a class at 2:00, but we figured we could easily get out of there in an hour. That was our second mistake.

When we got off the escalator, we walked toward the food area. As it turned out, we should have turned the opposite way because the line snaked it's way all through the dining area and to within about 30 feet from the opposite side of the food court. There were at least 200 people in line (yeah, it was a little better than the museum but not much).

We thought about leaving, really we did. But the lure of free food kept us standing in that line for another 30 minutes. By the time we finally got our trays, we had to wolf down our food and practically run out the door. Rather than drive home and let the Dog Walker drive to his class by himself, we just dropped him off which meant an automatic second trip to pick him up.

But at least I didn't have to wait in line...

It's a Good Thing He's Cute

Remember the post I wrote about the Awesome Dog Walker a couple of days ago? I started working on it late Thursday night. I was tired and it had been a long day.  I used to always stay up late writing my posts, but since our vacation, I've been going to bed a little earlier and getting up a little earlier. I don't love it, but it has been working pretty well.

We spent a good part of Thursday at the county fair (I have some pics to share with you of that too) and it was hot! When we got home from the fair, Curly laid down on the couch and took a nap...a LONG nap! Then he didn't want to go to bed. He was still dancing around at midnight when I finally convinced him to head upstairs. About 12:30 I sat down at the computer to put together my post. By 12:45 I was almost finished when a sad little voice startled me.

I looked up from the computer. "What's wrong?" I asked. Big tears slid down his cheeks as he mumbled something incoherently. I turned his face up to mine so I could understand his trauma. "There's a Lego up my nose!"  I'm afraid I didn't handle it very well. In fact I sort of came unglued.

I was half yelling, half lecturing as I tried to spot the offending piece while he blubbered that he couldn't really remember how it got there. He got so upset he actually vomited! I was hoping that might bring out the block and I looked carefully before I finally gave up. (I know, but it wasn't that much and I didn't have to touch anything...)

My sweetie woke up about the time I got my shoes on. I was NOT going after that piece by myself! First of all I couldn't see it Second, with his asthma, I was afraid I might dislodge it and send it somewhere much scarier than his nose We were heading for the emergency room.

We got there just after 1:00 AM. The receptionist told us things had just settled down so that was good news. It took us about 10 minutes to check in and then another 10 to see the nurse. I was worried that Curly might fall asleep before the doc came in so we watched the Olympics for another 10 minutes.

It was quick for ER  times. The doc pulled it right out with some long tweezers. He seemed a bit put off when I told him we needed to take it home. Curly was not taking any chances with Sport...it was his Lego.

Teach suggested that maybe he just had to get this one last three-year-old right-of-passage out of his system before his birthday today...

I'm just wondering what we get to look forward to now that he's four!

The Awesome Dog Walker

I think I mentioned this already when we heard about it, but last night the Dog Walker got his award from the Veterans of the Foreign Wars. Every time I have him put on his Boy Scout uniform, I tell him it's the last time he can wear it. I guess I better quit saying that because people keep wanting to see him in it.

So he got dressed an hour early (I'm pretty sure just so he could admire himself in the mirror...) and at 6:35 we headed out the door. It was only a short drive to the West Jordan City Hall. That is where the VFW post in our area meets. We pulled into a parking spot and climbed out of the car.

When we got to the door, we were surprised to find that it was locked! We just looked at each other. I was certain I had the right day written on the calendar...

About that time, a bunch of guys in VFW hats started climbing from their cars. I guess we were in the right place after all. Trouble was, they didn't have a key either. Thankfully, someone opened the door from the inside.

We followed our VFW friends to a small conference room just to the right of the city council meeting that was going on at the same time. They presented the Dog Walker with a beautiful plaque that read "Eagle Scout of the Year, State of Utah."

He made a little impromptu speech. (I'm always amazed at how well he can speak now in front of a group without a script.) I snapped a few pics and we were on our way.

When we got home, he grabbed a hammer and nail and we added this awesome plaque to our wall of fame. And I'm pretty that's the last time he will have to put on his boy scout uniform... but I'm not telling him that.

Ever Been to the Circus?

My grandma and grandpa loved the circus! Grandpa especially loved the trapeze artists. He always thought someone was going to fall. I remember one year as a child my parents actually took us to the circus at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. I was pretty small and our tickets were really high up (we had to use binoculars!), but it was still an amazing memory for me.

There were three rings and so much going on at the same time. I must have been about 4 or 5 (maybe one of my older siblings can correct me if I've messed up the time period) and I was terrified of the big cats. I don't remember seeing another circus until about 8 years ago and it was nothing like the awesome experience of my childhood. It was held at the Equestrian park and the tickets were cheap. I guess when it comes to the circus it's important to remember that you get what you pay for...usually...

That is why I was so excited last week when an email hit my inbox. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus wanted ME to see one of their shows and write a review on it! The show is officially called Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey presents DRAGONS and it is coming to Utah September 19 - 23 at the EnergySolutions Arena.

Now if you live in Utah, there is a way for you to snag a couple of these free tickets for yourself. On Tuesday, August 14, the first 100 families to donate a new/used book to "Eliza's Wish" can receive up to two free tickets!



Eliza is an amazing little girl from Utah who suffers from MLD or metachromatic leukodystrophy. Whew! Say that one three times fast! Anyway, Eliza is trying to raise awareness about her disease and her family started Eliza's Wish, a charity that gives books to doctors' offices and hospitals all over Utah.




All you have to do is bring a book to the EnergySolutions Arena at 7:00 AM on August 14. Now they have asked that no lines form until 6:00 AM (if that's possible!). They will have 100 tickets to give away, but no more than 2 per family. 

 You'll want to bring all your kids anyway though, because the first 300 young circus fans between the ages of 2 and12 in attendance will get to participate in a special Dragon Egg Hunt! These kids will get access to a specially designed “Dragon Cave” inside the EnergySolutions Arena to hunt for one rare golden dragon egg that can be redeemed for some awesome prizes. Circus Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson will also make an early visit to Salt Lake to meet with kids and take them deep into the dragon’s cave to help with the hunt. Eliza's family will even be there to speak about “Eliza’s Wish” book drive.

So add a couple of books to your next shopping list and we'll see you bright and early on August 14. (OK, I might not be there, you know how I hate early mornings, but I will definitely see you at the circus!)

**I am a Feld Family Ambassador, and in exchange for my time and efforts in attending shows and reporting my opinion within this blog, as well as keeping you advised of the latest discounts and offers, Feld Entertainment has provided me with complimentary tickets to Feld shows and opportunities to attend private Feld pre-Show events. Even though I receive these benefits, I always give an opinion that is 100% mine!**