Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Bored Scout

We have an awesome thing at our house. Teach works in the Customer Service center at Smith's. That means she sells all kinds of tickets for SmithTix. So a couple of weeks ago she called me from work. "Want to go to a Bees (baseball) game?" Now you all know I LOVE baseball, but we usually can't afford to see the real games, even Triple A.

Wiggly Curly

"How much?" I asked, afraid for the answer. "Five bucks each!" she exclaimed, "And that includes a hot dog." The only deal was that it had to be a Monday night in June. Of course we bought tickets right away (OK, I did call Bossy first to see if she wanted to get in on the deal).

Tonight was the big game. The Bees were playing Reno. The game itself was awesome! The wiggling kids were not. Nobody under the age of 8 except for Baby Doll could hold still for more than 20 seconds at a time. And they certainly weren't watching the game (as you can see from the pictures). I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the game. Teach got us awesome seats right on the first base line. We were only 16 rows up. I could have kept score!

Princess...Who wouldn't want her number?

You got me a hot dog???

The older kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Princess was trying to get the phone number of the boy behind us...
Drama Queen spent most of the time texting on her phone....
Teach kept asking me silly questions...I swear she played this game when she was little, why doesn't she remember the rules now?
I think the Dog Walker used every restroom on the lower deck.
And I'm pretty sure Curly drank out of every single water bottle which means we will all be sick with boogery noses tomorrow.

I never get to sit by my sweetie at events like this.

But I'd do it all again in a heartbeat just to watch one play. The Bees player on third was running for home as the ball was coming to the plate. The catcher caught it and we all held our breath as he went for the tag. But I think that runner grew wings because he practically flew around the catcher on his stomach and snagged the other side of the plate before the catcher could get him.

It was so awesome!

Even better than my box of Cracker Jack (I bought them at the grocery store and we ate them in the van for about a tenth of the cost at the ballpark).

For a few minutes I felt like a kid again.

What's for Lunch?

My sweetie works for a large engineering company across the valley and it is too far away for him to come home for lunch, so he packs one every day.  With all these kids, we have several large (OK, there are three) chest freezers in our house. One is only for meat, one is almost exclusively TV dinners bought for lunches when they are on sale really cheap, and the other one is for everything else.

So this morning my sweetie sent Crafty to grab him something out of the freezer before he dropped the kids at school. Crafty grabbed a grocery bag, headed downstairs, and came back with the box tied up and ready to go. My sweetie slipped it into his pack and they ran out the door.

When he got to work, he took the package out of his bag and put it in his little fridge. It was still tied in the grocery sack. His usual mode is to let the dinner thaw during the morning hours and then it doesn't take nearly as long to cook for lunch.

Around 1:00 he sent me a text. "The kids packed my lunch...fish patties...12 pack."

Not exactly your typical TV dinner, unless you're a seal...

My Mother's Day

Wasn't that sweet of Teach to write a post for me for Mother's Day?

I had 10 of my 12 kids around me today. After church in our own ward and then a second Sacrament meeting for my nephew's farewell, my sweetie made dinner while I took a little nap with Baby Doll. When I got up it was definitely a fiesta! We had chicken chimis and chips with queso. We also devoured a huge watermelon and raspberry lemonade with crushed ice like a smoothie. It was all delicious. Teach even made some of her famous guacamole.

When we were finished gorging ourselves, the presented me with gifts...a gift card to Olive Garden, and one for Smiths, candy bars and jewelry, a bag of watermelon-themed goodies, flowered pens and a notebook, beautiful cards and expressions of love. I have some awesome kids! Drama Queen is on a road trip with her friends (she has promised to tell you all about it when she gets home...she is in Santa Fe tonight), and she sent me a little bonsai tree from Flowers.com.  Bossy spent the day with her family, but we shared a phone call and most of the day yesterday and late Friday night. My sweetie spoiled me as always with a small TV to put back by my sewing machine and a new office chair because the Dog Walker broke mine although he swears it wasn't him...

After dinner, we all sat around and played a rousing game of Apples to Apples. Teach and I tied for first place, but I think the kids were just letting me win because it was Mother's Day. They don't realize that I've already won! Just having them here, living, laughing, and loving...that's the best gift I could ever have.

I hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day too.

Love,
Sandy

Family Portrait before Baby Doll was born...Christmas 2008.

A Pair of Jeans - part 2

It was Saturday morning in the fall of 1979, my first day at my new job. If you missed the beginning of this story, click here. I was very nervous, but excited and proud to be an actual employee. I arrived a few minutes early and was escorted downstairs to the tiny office. It took me a while to fill out all the paperwork and agree to hard manual labor for the grand sum of $1.50/hour. Even then it was only about half of minimum wage, but it was small-town Utah and I was only 14 so I don't think any of it was legal.

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I signed on the dotted line anyway because if you remember, we were raised to believe that anything was better than nothing and I was handed my first hideous uniform. It was multicolored polyester so the stains wouldn't show. Saturday morning was prep time and typically slow, the perfect time for training.

The boss's wife, Janice, worked the day shift and to say she didn't like me was putting it mildly...but I don't think she really liked anyone...Her partner in crime was their daughter, Lisa, and she didn't like me either. Thankfully, since I was in school, I only had to work with them on Saturdays.

I survived that first day (barely) and I even planned to come back the next week. I gradually got used to the craziness of fast food. Even when it was slow, the Bossman demanded that we work, cleaning and scrubbing and prepping. I was not even allowed to bring my books with me, let alone open them.

After I had been working there for almost two weeks, I got really sick. Like fever, stomachache, throwing up sick. It was a Friday night and I hated to leave them short-handed, but my mother called in for me anyway and I spent the evening in bed.

Did I mention yesterday that one of the reasons I wanted one of those expensive pairs of jeans was to impress my boyfriend? You remember the guy with the awesome blue car that I was only weeks away from nearly crashing for him?

Little did I know that he had picked that particular Friday night to make the 15-minute drive from his hometown (which also happened to be the Bossman's hometown) to mine. He spent the evening cruising main with his guy-friends and at some point they stopped to see me, only they didn't see me, they saw the Bossman. And worse yet, he saw them.

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On Saturday I was feeling much better and I showed up at 5:00 to work my shift. I hung up my jacket, clocked in and got right to work. There was only one table of customers in the front and when they left, I grabbed my rag to clean up their table. That's when the Bossman decided to pounce.

He yelled at me and accused me of calling in sick so I could hang out with my boyfriend. He told me if I didn't want to work I could leave now and never come back. It was one of the worst tongue-lashings I have ever had and that's saying something.

I tried to tell him that I didn't even know my boyfriend was in town, that I was home sick in bed and he was welcome to call my mother, but he wouldn't listen. After about 10 minutes, he went downstairs to his office and left me alone to dry my tears and decide what to do. So far I hadn't earned a single paycheck and in our small town, jobs weren't easy to get. Besides, I hadn't even done anything wong! I guess it was the injustice of it all that made me stay.

Or maybe I'm really just a masochist...

Today Was the Day

So today was it! I haven't seen the kids this excited since Christmas and I think they counted down more days than they did in December. But not everybody was counting...

Yesterday I had Princess with me when I stopped by the bank. I wrote a check and then waited while the teller passed me 8 ten-dollar bills. "Why do you need all those tens?" questioned Princess. I just gave her a "duh" look.  "Seriously?" I asked. "What is tomorrow?"

She sat there for a minute, confusion evident on her face. "I don't know, what is it?" I counted back the money just to make sure it was right."Now why would I need 8 ten-dollar bills?" This conversation continued for about three minutes until I finally reminded her. "The sugar challenge???"

She giggled, "Oh yeah...there is that."

After six weeks of no-sugar, we are all glad to finally be finished. The thing I missed the most was ice cream. My sweetie went to the store for bananas and he brought home a box of my favorite, Burnt Almond Fudge. Not trusting myself with the ice cream scoop, I asked him to make me a small bowl. Regardless of the fact that everyone told me I wouldn't crave sugar anymore and the chocolate wouldn't taste good...you've heard them all...that was one of the most amazing bowls of ice cream I have ever eaten!

There is nothing like a little absence to make the heart (and the tastebuds) grow fonder!

Pi Day

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Do you know that today is a holiday? It sure is...it's Pi Day! That's because "pi" is numerically 3.14 and that is the same as March 14. Now you all know that I don't love math, but I do love a good reason to eat a nice piece of pie. There's only one problem.

Do you remember the Drama Queen's guest post last week? She mentioned that we are trying something crazy around here. On President's Day, I offered the kids $10 each if they could go without sugared treats for 5 weeks. Most of them grumbled and said it wasn't worth it, but they jumped on the bandwagon anyway. Currently on the challenge are my sweetie and me (we had to set a good example!), Drama Queen, Teach, Dog Walker, Princess, Prima Donna, and Sport. (Crafty has been on and off...today she is on.)

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The first few days were the hardest. We were all a bit surprised how often we are offered yummy treats and we just eat them without thinking. Our idea was to raise awareness so the kids could make better choices, and this was a good time for us because there were no holidays or birthdays or so we thought. We totally forgot about pi day!

This tradition began about five or six years ago. Usually Teach brings us a couple of cream pies from the Village Inn and we split up and have at it. Not this year. The sweet and yummy will have to wait.

Yesterday when the kids were lamenting their loss, Drama Queen offered to make a different kind of pie. This year we will be celebrating with homemade pizza! Happy Pi Day!

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Why I Started this Blog...

For the question of the day I'm pouring my heart out...why did I start my blog?

I was thinking about that when my two youngest were eating dinner. My sweetie came home early today and made an amazingly huge pot of his famous meaty chili. As we gathered around the table, somebody was missing. It was Curly! He had gone with me on a Tupperware delivery and he fell asleep on the way home.  I lifted him from his booster seat and he snuggled against my shoulder. He is getting so big too!

I laid him gently on the couch and then headed for the kitchen to help my sweetie. At that point the only help he needed was tasting and I was happy to assist. As I scooped out big bowls of yumminess, I was grateful it was Monday. Monday is Family Home Evening for us and that meant everyone planned time at home.

After dinner I read the kids a couple of chapters from our latest book and then we all headed to the living room for a lesson prepared by Prima Donna. We were about five minutes into the lesson when Curly's sleepy head raised up from the couch. He was hungry and Dad's chili was his favorite!

I slipped quietly into the kitchen and scooped him a generous bowl topped with shredded cheese. I grabbed a package of crackers and a towel and headed back into the living room with Curly following close behind. I looked around for somewhere suitable for him to sit.

I finally grabbed an empty Girl Scout cookie box, tipped it over, and made him his own little table complete with a kitchen towel tablecloth. He was so excited! It wasn't long before Baby Doll decided to join his little dinner party. Remember, all this was going on while the rest of the family was focused on Prima Donna's lesson.

That's when I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a quick picture. And that's why I started this blog. For all the little sweet moments life has to offer. For too many years they have slipped by into oblivion. Now with the blog I find more reasons to try to record them as they come.

After the kids mostly headed off for bed, I parked myself in the laundry room and folded the half dozen batches I had washed today. Baby Doll came by for a minute and decided to help. Her idea of help usually means climbing in the baskets. This time she picked the dirty ones. That's when I saw it...another sweet moment that needed to be captured and shared.

Yeah, that's why I started this blog...it's certainly more rewarding that doing laundry!

The Blue and Gold Banquet

 As you can see, I mostly managed to survive the Blue and Gold Banquet. There was a short time there when I wasn't sure that was going to happen!

I chased around all day yesterday, trying to pull together the tablecloths (that ended up being white; nobody had yellow) and food together. Then my sweetie nicely took the day off to help with the preparations. We were expecting about 100 people.

Fortunately, there were other scout leaders helping make soup. My sweetie made two extra large crockpots of chili while I headed to Costco with the Gym Rat. He still has a card, and I'm a Sam's Club girl. But the main thing we needed to buy was rolls and Costco has the best rolls (ok, my sweetie makes the best rolls, but there was NO WAY I was going to add that to our craziness).

After Costco, the Gym Rat took off so he could get ready for work and I made three more stops before I finally got home just in time to take Scout to kindergarten.

I was in charge of making the dirt pudding. I had a huge can of pudding we had purchased from the cannery, so I assumed that would be about right for feeding 100. Boy was I wrong.

I mixed the pudding and poured it into cups while the Drama Queen smashed Oreos with a rolling pin and sprinkled them on top. Curly stuck a gummy worm on top and set the cup on the tray. We made a great team...until I ran out of pudding mix.

After searching our storage room and not finding another can, I started calling the neighbors. I didn't want to change brands in the middle and Jello brand is expensive! After half a dozen calls, I finally found a can that one of my awesome neighbors agreed to donate. (Thanks, Modina!) After running to pick it up, we finished the last 30 cups. Then it was time to deliver the reminder fliers to each cub scout's house so they didn't forget.

The Dog Walker did all the running (good thing because I was starting to run out of steam). By the time we were finished, it was time to head for the church and put up the tables. My sweetie drove over in the big van and I took the minivan. I was going to swing by the grocery store first and pick up the ice and balloons. When I walked into the store, it was pretty evident that my pre-order hadn't worked. We waited for about 10 nail-biting minutes. It was nearly 4:30 by the time we got to the church and dinner was at 6:00.

It took us about 45 minutes to transform the gym into a party room. Then we headed back home to get the food. Things went off without a hitch after that. We fed lots of people and the Dog Walker gave an awesome speech. Then he and I slipped out and over to another Blue and Banquet going on at a different church so he could speak there too.

I was a little worried about missing Sport receive his Wolf badge, but I shouldn't have worried. My sweetie just took plenty of time with the cheers and other awards. When we walked back into the gym it was about 2 minutes later that the awards were given. Bean Dip earned his Bear and Taco got his Bobcat.


After many "good jobs" from the parents, we finally got cleaned up and arrived home about 8:30. That was just enough time to get the kids settled before I headed off to basketball practice. I was so tired I could hardly run down the court! It's about 1:30 AM here now and I probably should have waited until morning to write this post, but I knew how anxious you all were to hear how things. went. Maybe now I can actually get some sleep!

A Little Whiny, part 2

At the risk of sounding whiny again, I wanted to give you the conclusion to my horrible awful no good very bad week...OK, it wasn't that bad...I'm still moving, aren't I?! I dragged myself out of bed at 7:00 this morning, jumped into a quick shower and braved the howling winds so I could stand in this very cold warehouse for an hour and wait for my cookies. They had 75,000 to pack, so my 268 cases didn't seem like very much.

Until we got them home, that is! This is what my living room looked like. I quickly got on the phone and within 10 minutes the Girl Scouts started coming by to get their orders. After the wind finally stopped, it turned out to be a very nice day for delivering cookies.

I sent the Drama Queen out at 11:00 with the kids so I could have a little peace and quiet to finish getting my paperwork together for my tax appointment tonight. It would have worked well if the doorbell hadn't kept ringing. One of those rings happened to be my sister and my niece. Here's a look at her pretty dress I finished at 1:45 AM last night. Doesn't she look great? Sorry for the cell pic, my sis just texted it to me after Araineia was all ready to go.


I stacked and packed and loaded cookies, while the Drama Queen managed to get a bunch of them delivered to our neighbors.

At 12:45 the kids all came back so they could get ready for rehearsal for Sleeping Beauty. After rehearsal, this mean mama sent them out again until dark. Then I headed off for my tax appointment and left them to eat frozen pizza and watch a movie.

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty good week! Other than the laundry and dishes piling up, the important things managed to get done, like the dress, the cookies, and the taxes. (I almost called and cancelled that appointment a dozen times.)  I'm even getting a refund!

And a nap...

Sharing Treats

My sweetie and I went to the Stake Valentine's Dance tonight. I told you all about that last year and it was pretty much the same this year except that on the serving table they had thrown piles of chocolate kisses. I was so excited to find some with almonds since they are my very favorite! That prompted an interesting discussion later at dinner. Is it OK for parents to hide treats from their kids and not share?

One day when my sweetie was a kid, he was hanging out in his mom's room and on a whim, he opened the tiny cupboard on the headboard of her bed. Imagine his surprise when he found an entire bag of Danish Wedding Cookies! Surely she wouldn't miss just one...

That was the beginning, and by late afternoon, the entire bag was gone.

It wasn't long before his mom discovered the powdered sugar on her pillowcase and the empty bag in the cupboard. As my sweetie tells it, "She hollered up a storm!" (He doesn't even like those cookies anymore because he was so traumatized by her reaction.) After all, shouldn't parents want to share their good fortune with their kids?

I never knew my mom to keep many treats at the house, but maybe that's just because I was never as curious (or maybe desperate!) as my sweetie. If we wanted chocolate and treats, we just headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. But I do remember going through the China cupboard one day and finding a box with what looked like little square chocolates in it. I didn't figure Mom would notice if I took just one...

I put that tiny brown square in my mouth and tried working it with my jaws. It was hard as a rock and after about 3 seconds, I spit it into the garbage. It was awful! I tipped the lid over and looked at the name again... "Ayds, appetite suppressant candy.". They were diet pills! No wonder they tasted so bad.

The other time I found Mom's candy stash I remember vividly. I had gone down in the basement to get something for her out of our food storage room. For some strange reason, I happened to look up toward the top of the freezer. I must have been at least ten or twelve, or I never would have been able to see, let alone reach, the giant Hershey's candy bar resting on top in all its delicious glory.

I was so excited! I grabbed it down and noticed that obviously I wasn't the first one to discover its existence. The wrapper had been torn and tiny bits of chocolate fluttered to the floor. I carefully pulled off just one square and popped it into my mouth. It's sweetness still lingered on my tongue and tainted my breath as I headed back up the stairs. So good!

It took me about half an hour to realize that if I didn't go for a second piece, I knew I was going to die right on the spot. I sneaked back downstairs without an errand and reached again for the candy bar. As my trembling fingers broke two pieces from the bar, a realization hit me.

What I had assumed was a sibling stealing chocolate before me had actually been tiny teeth marks. My partner in crime was definitely a mouse!

And I was about to be violently sick...

Birth Story: Drama Queen

Such a beautiful baby!

I've told you before that I found out I was pregnant with the Drama Queen just a few days before Christmas in 1988. You really should read that story before this one if you haven't read it before.

We were living in Provo and I was commuting to work every day in Tooele. It was a LONG drive! I left our apartment about 5:30 AM and drove about 25 minutes to catch the carpool van. I didn't get home until after 6:00 each evening. That left me very little time to spend with my sweetie and my two little ones. I hated the hours and I hated the job. I'll give you a little more insight later in the week on that, but for now, just know that I was anxious to find a new job. My sweetie was also commuting to Salt Lake, so we were both driving way too much and spending precious little time together.

I was finally offered a new job when I was about 5 months pregnant. I felt so guilty after the offer was made that I called them and told them about the baby. I didn't want them to think I was just going to quit months after I started. Thankfully, they were still interested and I started work two weeks later. I stayed with this company for 10 years, but that's another story too.

I have not typically had tons of cravings with my babies, but this little one loved Magelby's Carrot Cake muffins! I had to have at least one a week. The baby was due the end of July and the summer was long and hot! I was having trouble finding daycare for Bossy and the Gym Rat and my new job was insane from day one. We moved into the Salt Lake Valley and tried to get our bearings. We had lived in the area before, but only on the University campus. That was much different from the suburbs.

Bossy and baby Drama Queen

Thankfully, I wasn't very sick with this baby. My first two had both come early, so naturally I assumed the same thing would happen with this one. We made several (my sweetie would say a dozen!) trips downtown to the hospital with false labor because I really wanted to be done. We would drop Bossy and Gym Rat off at the Montessori school I finally found for them and then rather than show up at work, we would leisurely make our way to the avenues. About the time we pulled up in front of the hospital, the pains had generally evened out and we never got out of the car.

Finally, when we were 10 days past our due date, the doctor decided he was tired of hearing me complain and he would induce labor. Since we had no one in the valley to help with the kids, we dropped them at the Montessori. I had learned my lesson about food after my first one, so we headed to MacDonald's for a quick breakfast. I was nervous and excited all at once. People had told us over and over that the third child was the hardest.

After breakfast, we drove the 20 minutes to the hospital. We checked in and settled in to wait. The Drama Queen was never in much of a hurry to do anything then and she managed to hold off until about 9:00 that night. At ten days late we were expecting her to be huge, but she just had an over-sized water bed (no wonder she didn't want to come out) and she tipped the scales at 8 lbs 3 1/2 oz.

All was well and uneventful. We even went home the following day since there were incentives for a 24-hour stay. She never had jaundice or medical problems. In fact, despite what everyone said, other than the late thing, I think the third child was the easiest...at least when she was born. Now after that, it might be another story...

Ground Hog Day

Yesterday was Ground Hog Day. We have had such beautiful weather here in Utah, I was just sure that winter must be over. Then I opened the door and I was greeted with this scene.

And I heard on the news that the Groundhog saw his shadow so I guess we get six more weeks of winter.

I had really intended to give you another Food for Thought today. Princess made some delicious Snickerdoodles for us and the Dog Walker swears he took pictures, but no one can find them. Dang. I guess that means we'll have to make more cookies...I hate it when that happens.

After Grandpa read stories to Curly and Baby Doll, he went to the store with the Drama Queen to grab some milk and he couldn't resist the pleading of Curly and they brought home Tootsie Rolls and donut holes. That prompted some amazing creativity from Crafty. Besides the obvious, she also used Kix cereal and little pieces of banana and cookie decorations. I told her she is going to have to teach us all how to make such cute edibles. At least we won't be bored (or hungry) during our six more weeks of winter. 

***The Dog Walker figured Baby Doll needed some different teeth if she planned to eat Crafty's people...