The Final Wrapup 2011

Joining with some of my blogging friends to wrap up the last three months of 2011...hard to believe it's almost over. So much has happened this year! For the first three months, click here. Second three months, click here, third three months, click here. Last three months, don't click, you are already here!

My Silly Sweetie

We had an amazing October! We shared several stories about Halloweens past including a vintage Cheetah costume worn by all of our kids down to Scout that was originally made for my sweetie. I told you about my first real job and my first speeding ticket. And don't forget the amazing light show put on by the Dog Walker. We also attended my sweetie's 30th high school reunion! The drive down was a little crazy... The Dog Walker was featured in a huge article in the Deseret News' Mormon Times section. But my favorite post was the one about my grateful little Curly and his sweet prayer .

Baby Doll surrounded by Halloween candy.

November was filled with home repairs and an impromptu kitchen remodel after Princess cracked my ceramic cooktop.

New Countertops, yay!

Remember that my sweetie thought that meant we needed new countertops too? We had a bunch of birthdays, Bossy turned 27, Dog Walker turned 18, Scout turned 6, and Taco turned 7. And our Thanksgiving was an amazing time filled with family and fun. Bossy's birth story stretched into three days and the Dog Walker did a guest blog on his Disneyland trip with the Marching Band. Sport's football team won the state championship! But my favorite post was about my silly Dog Walker and a trip to the swimming pool...you just have to read this one.

Fall, leaves, fall!

December was busy and crazy and full of family activities and fun. The girls did an amazing job in the Dance Recital. Scout had her very first visit from the tooth fairy. We shared tons of Christmas memories and traditions.

The Dog Walker put up another awesome light display and our extended family love the annual Christmas party. Christmas Eve meant Christmas jammies, and Christmas day was filled with happiness and love. My favorite post had little to do with Christmas, in fact it was a camping story that couldn't be told until Christmas was over.

This wrap up has been so fun! I love looking back over the stories from the past year. It makes me remember why I started this blog in the first place, to record the crazy happy fleeting moments. It makes me sad that I didn't start years ago. Thanks for sticking with us in 2011. Excited for 2012...Happy New Year!

Football Banquet

So you all knew Sport was playing little league football. Remember our game in the snow? Well, he won his championship game and Thursday night was our football banquet. We climbed into the Suzy-Q and sped off toward Draper. The party was being held at the Airborne Trampoline Arena.

The Snow Game - guess I forgot to share...

By the time we hit Riverton, I confessed that I had not remembered to bring the address with me. I looked at my sweetie expectantly. He usually knew exactly where we were going. Not this time. I frantically started texting my daughter so she could send us the address from the e-mail. The team mom had a surprise planned for the boys and she had specifically forbidden us from being late.

That’s about when Sport hollered from the back seat, “That’s Zack!” He pointed out the window at a little SUV with antlers stuck to the roof. “Follow that car!” Zack is his beloved coach and since we were pushing the clock, we decided to take a chance. The car headed off into an industrial district and we stayed on its tail. Sure enough, it pulled into Airborne right on schedule and we slid into a parking space a few feet away. “I told you it was Zack,” Sport smirked. For once I was glad he was right.


It wasn’t difficult to find the team…we just followed the noise. Nineteen players and their parents were all crowded into a small room full of picnic tables. It was obvious that this had been planned for the boys. They served Chick Fil A nuggets and chips. About the time the boys finished eating, the surprise arrived, chocolate chip cookies carried by two players from the Utah Blaze and the team mascot!



The Blaze are an arena football team that helps sponsor our league. I think the significance was lost on the boys, at least on my son. After they had been signing autographs for about 10 minutes, Sport slipped through the crowd and whispered to his dad, “Are they from Murray?” Murray is a local high school team with the same colors.


After the team video and all the trophies and certificates were handed out, the boys headed downstairs to jump on the trampolines for an hour. And you know what? Those guys from the Blaze joined them in a rousing game of dodgeball ON TRAMPOLINES! It was insane! And those guys showed absolutely no mercy…although neither did the coaches. They would get jumping about 8 feet in the air and then fling that ball as hard as they could at each other. Sport stood in the back and fed the balls to the Blaze player. He was usually one of the last to get out and he had a fantastic time.

My sweetie and I are too old for this sort of thing, grandparents, remember?, so we curled up on one of the leather couches and watched Rocky II with no sound. Not that you really need any with a Rocky movie. At 9:00 we gathered up and headed home. It was the perfect end to a perfect season. And check out that First Place Trophy! It’s almost as big as Sport! Go Bingham!

The Big Dance

About three weeks ago, the Dog Walker came home and told me he had been invited to Bingham Ball and that he had told this cute little trumpet player that he would go with her. “That’s it?” I asked. I’m secretly thinking…is this really a date? There was no amazing invitation or physical evidence of any kind and sometimes the Dog Walker gets confused. “Yeah, she just asked me if I wanted to go and I said yes,” he responded. “Why don’t you ask her the color of her dress?” I suggested.

A few days later he told me she didn’t know yet. So the date still remained a mystery. Just before he left on his California trip, he texted me the word “Silver.” (He always thinks I know exactly what’s going on in his head.) “What?” I asked, confused. “Her dress is silver.” That should have been good enough, but still I worried. I didn’t want to order an expensive flower or get the Dog Walker all excited about a date if he didn’t really have one.

So after he got back from California, I decided it was time to put it all on the line… “Ask her if you are doing a day activity,” I suggested. He punched out a text. Communication is way faster than when I was in school. “She says we are going to the play at the high school,” he commented. He was never worried, he always knew he had a date. I sighed with relief. “Let’s go order a flower,” I suggested.

The next morning I was giving a Happy Birthday wish to my best buddy. Her son also had a date to the big dance. “Where did you order his tux?” she asked. Huh?? This dance was never that formal when my older kids went to it. After we were finished with our conversation, I quickly called the high school. The office lady confirmed that now the Ball was right up there with Prom and yes, tuxes were appropriate.

It was Thursday and the dance was Saturday. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to order a tux that quickly, so I convinced myself that a new tie would be good enough. After school the Dog Walker and I headed for JC Penney and bought him an awesome silver and black tie. When we got home I proudly displayed it for my sweetie. Then, like an idiot, I proceeded to tell him what my friend had said. “You better see if you can still get him a tux,” he remarked. I glanced at the clock. It was too late to do anything.

So first thing Friday morning I was working the phones, looking for a one-day tux shop. I found one just down the street and as soon as the Dog Walker got home from school, we headed over. Seems like everyone else had the same idea. There were at least 30 people in that shop and lined up outside the door, all waiting to check out tuxes. We got through surprisingly fast and the assistant assured me we could pick up the tux on Saturday morning.

When Saturday morning rolled around, we were in the middle of a Volleyball tournament. We had a half-hour between games, so the Dog Walker and I stopped to grab the tux. Unfortunately, the pants were too tight, but they assured me they could fix that problem in about 5 minutes. After 10 minutes they returned the tux to us all bagged up and sent us on our way. We tossed it in the back of the van and headed for our next game. On the way I called the Drama Queen and asked her to pick up the flowers.

After we were eliminated from the tournament, we raced home so the Dog Walker could shower and get ready to be picked up. I pulled the flower from the fridge and noticed that all the white roses had edges of brown! I frantically called the floral department and told them quite firmly that they needed to make us a new arrangement. Then we took off for Sport’s football game.

We grabbed the new flower on our way home. When we were all finally back at the house, it was just after 5:00 and time for the Dog Walker to dress for the dance. He looked fabulous, except that the gray bow-tie was missing! Thankfully, he had a black one that he used for band concerts and it looked fine. I guess at that point I should have just been grateful that he really had a date.

The State Championship

You all know that Sport has been playing Little League Football. This is his first year and he plays on what’s called a Gremlin team. That means the boys are 8 and 9 years old. In August at the beginning of the season, Sport was barely 8 and not all that excited to play. My sweetie is of the opinion that pee-wee football is NOT an option.

So Sport attended tryouts and was placed on the Silver team with 19 other kids with varying degrees of skill. Of the 7 or 8 teams in the league, we were probably number 9. We had two brothers coaching our team and both were barely out of high school. Really, it was a recipe for disaster.

But somebody forgot to tell the team. These little guys played their hearts out every game. And those two young coaches were just the role models these kids needed. They understand the importance of team-building, so they had a pizza party and they took all the boys to the corn maze. August had the boys practicing for two hours 5 nights a week. When games finally started the first week in September, they settled down to three nights of practice and a game on Saturday.

The schedule was grueling for a third grader. Thankfully, Sport was off-track from school for 4 weeks of that time. The team started coming together after about the third game. By the end of league play, they were unstoppable!

The end of October and the final game put them as the number one seed heading into the playoffs. That was last week and it was crazy as we played in 4 inches of snow. In spite of the weather, Sport was finally loving the game…they trounced the other team.

So Saturday dawned bright and early. Sport was playing in the “State Championship.” All of his friends’ teams had already been eliminated and we were the favorite to win. During league play we beat this team 33 – 6, but that was early in the season and anything can happen.

Even though the weather was a bit dicey, we decided to take the kids. The Drama Queen offered to stay home with Baby Doll, Teach had to work, and the Dog Walker had a date to the big dance (I’ll show you pics of that tomorrow), other than that, we were a pretty big group. We screamed our lungs out!
The first quarter was brutal with both teams moving the ball less than 10 yards. Then right toward the end of the quarter, with Sport holding his place as an offensive lineman, they ran it 40 yards right up the middle to score the first touchdown of the game. They even managed to make the extra point! The game went scoreless after that into halftime.

Curly was so surprised and excited to see the “Blue Man” who had become the team mascot. Apparently those coaches have another brother…


The third quarter had lots of pushing, but no score from either team. The other team completed a pass even with the wind and cold, and got a first down, but couldn’t push the ball into the end zone.

About halfway through the fourth quarter, our boys managed a 70-yard touchdown to seal the win. We were so excited! The Gym Rat played 4 or 5 years of football and the Dog Walker played 8 and neither one of them ever won the championship game. And now Sport pulled it off in his very first year!

We celebrated by taking everyone to Chuck A Rama (an all-you-can-eat buffet). Sport refused to take off his pads and wandered the restaurant knocking people out of the way (just kidding)…he only pushed a little when his nephews were trying to get ahead of him in the dessert line. Sportsmanship is important in football, but when it comes to brownie sundaes, it’s every man for himself!

Here's a few more pics from the restaurant just for fun.

Little League Football

I love pee-wee football! You all know I have four boys (and 8 girls, but that’s another story). We started the Gym Rat on a little league football team when he was around ten. He worked hard during tryouts and he made the A team. He was so excited to be on this elect team, even though he didn’t know any of the other boys.

We received a call from the coach later that night and he explained to us that our son would likely only receive his ten plays and no more per game but they were excited to have him learn with the best so he could be a better player the following year. We were flattered and agreed to the ten-play thing. And that’s what he got, exactly ten plays, no more and no less. He learned a lot that year and so did we. My best lesson was “NEVER sign up to be the team mom!”

His second year he made the B team and we were elated. With all his learning the previous year, we were sure that he would be amazing on the B team. We were not disappointed! He played the entire game, both offensive and defensive lines. That was the most fun we have ever had on the football field. We signed all the girls up to be cheerleaders, so it was a real family affair.


When his third year came around, the Gym Rat again made the A team. After a couple of days of practice, he told us he wanted to quit. He didn’t want to go back to playing just 10 plays per game and neither did we. After a couple of phone calls, we were able to get him moved to a B team, and even though he had the same coach, it was different. That was the last year he played. When the opportunity came to join the high school team, he told us he played football for fun and the high school team wasn’t fun.

Dog Walker

So we started on son #2. The Dog Walker HATED football from Day 1. He didn’t understand the game and he wasn’t happy. His first year was when he was 9 years old and he played until he was 17. He got progressively better and by his last year he was playing Center and loving it. We recently got an e-mail from his coach telling the Dog Walker that he was the best Center he ever coached. Yeah…he loved it.

So now we are at son #3. Sport is only 8 and he is playing the offensive line just like his brothers. He has a love/hate relationship with football. Today he loves it…his team won 33 – 6! On Thursday when it was cold and rainy, he was wishing he had chosen another sport (not that he really had a choice…my sweetie could hardly wait to sign him up!) Where else can we freeze our butts off while we watch our son beat up on a bunch of other little boys and enjoy it? Go Bingham!

Lots of Flags

Nate (the Dog Walker) was so excited to be on CNN today! Take a minute and watch it if you missed it. It is the same one shown on FOX news, but different from the one on KSL. We have been so surprised at the media coverage! If you google “132 Merit Badges” you get dozens of stories from all over the United States. I’m thinking definitely famous.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about today. And I don’t want to talk about my Grandma’s funeral either. There will be plenty of time for that on the weekend. The spikes and valleys in my life are so hard right now and I just made them worse. I want to talk about Marching Band.

We have been involved with the Marching Band at Bingham (since you all know our high school now) since Bossy was a Freshman, so almost 15 years now. Everybody had a chance to be in it. Bossy played the sax, the Gym Rat spun a flag, the Drama Queen played the Clarinet, and Teach was in the color guard (including two years as Captain). Now the Dog Walker is working on his second year. And I’m pretty sure I’ve worked on flags for about ten of those 15 years.

Yeah, Teach is a pro!

I started as just a mom helper since Bossy was on the Band Council and in charge of uniforms. Then when she graduated, it became a paying gig. I didn’t charge that much, but the money came in handy right during the days when all the school fees were due. Last year I made 70 or 80 flags and it took me about a month from concept to finished product. Bossy generally draws my patterns and I have to calculate and buy all the fabric. Last year we figured I made about twenty-five cents an hour and I wish I could say it really isn't worth my time. (But I'm a little prideful because I love to see my flags on the field!)

I made all these flags two years ago.

So this year I contacted the instructor in July. I wanted to plan my fall season. He told me that they were having mom volunteers do the flags this year, basically, thanks but no thanks. So I proceeded with my life and did not plan any late nights sewing.

Tonight we attended the Parent’s Night for the band. It’s always fun to see the show before the competitions begin. The Dog Walker did an amazing job! The band itself seemed to be right where they needed to be early in the season for Weber Review tomorrow. But the color guard had issues. It was pretty obvious right away that the flags didn't match. At some point during the evening, the Band Booster president got on the mic and mentioned that they needed 185 flags sewn by Saturday and could anybody help...

This cute little rifle girl in the front corner is Teach.

I texted the color guard instructor right away and offered to do some of them if he were desperate. I gave him a discounted price of $10 each. But that's when I heard that their plan was actually to use the flags as a fundraiser. Each flag was worth $5 toward the Disneyland trip. I know, I'm an idiot. I offered to do some. But let me explain myself. Sewing is usually pretty good therapy for me and right now I'm in real need of some therapy (and maybe a good cry). How many flags do you think I can make between Tuesday and Friday? I might want to sleep a little too...

Kienbock's Disease

I think I’ve told you before that my amazingly cool autistic son, the Dog Walker is trying to earn ALL the Merit Badges. It’s been a crazy ride for the last 6 years. We are down to only 7 left and he will pass off one more this afternoon. One of the most difficult ones for him has been Water Sports. We are not boat people. We have always enjoyed our fishing from the shore on nice stable ground. The kids have been boating several times with the neighbors and they all seem to love it! We have one particular neighbor who has been kind enough to take the kids out several times. He lets them go tubing and he has tried his best to teach the Dog Walker to water ski. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the Dog Walker is a big kid. If he had learned to use the skis when he was 8, he probably wouldn’t have any trouble getting up on them…but trying to learn when you are 16 and 300 pounds is much more difficult.

To make things even worse, the Dog Walker suffers from something called Kienbock’s Disease. That means that one of the bones in his lower arm is longer than it should be, effectively choking off and killing one of the smaller bones in his wrist. We discovered this disorder when he was 16. He was just finishing up his last and most successful (by a long shot) season of pee-wee football. He had been playing Center and without any specific injury, his wrist started to hurt. We figured once football was over, that his wrist would return to normal, but it didn’t.

He complained of random pain all through November and December. In January, his church friends joined a basketball team and invited him to play. He agreed, but each week the pain got progressively worse. By the end of the basketball season, he could hardly dribble the ball. It was time to see a doctor…then a specialist. The diagnosis was made and after several weeks (so he could finish the Scuba Diving badge), they put him in a cast. Nothing was broken, but the cast would give it a couple of months to rest. Then hopefully the swelling would go down and we could avoid surgery that might not work. If the tiny bone collapsed, his wrists would have to be permanently fused. The problem with the surgery was that the doctor would have to go in and shorten that bone which may or may not solve the problem. And if he made a tiny mistake, the surgery could also force him to permanently fuse the wrist. None of the recommended procedures were guaranteed.

Picture Credit

The Dog Walker was born with the extra length in his bone and it was likely that the pushups from football made the problem flare up. The doctor recommended no more football. We were crushed! We all had high hopes of him playing on our amazing high school team. Instead he joined the Marching Band (but that’s a subject for a different post). He wore the cast for six weeks and then a partial cast for six more. When he finally took the cast off, his pain had mostly disappeared. Not that the disorder is gone. He may never be able to do pushups again and he has to be careful when he works out in the gym, but so far, so good.

Just yesterday he passed off one of the Merit Badges that we were particularly worried about, Climbing. They managed it in a climbing gym with the Gym Rat doing the belaying. Now the Dog Walker only has three physically challenging ones left, Backpacking, Water Sports, and Cycling. For Cycling, he is taking advantage of an inaugural program at the Miller Motorsports Park here in Utah. They are allowing cyclists who raise at least $150.00 for their charities to ride as many miles as they want on their 3-mile racetrack that is used for car races. The Dog Walker is so excited! The final requirement for the Cycling badge is a 50-miler! We are excited because he will be able to ride in a safe environment with many people around to act as his support team (since none of us are really capable of riding 50 miles with him).

If you would like to help him reach his goal of $150.00 before the race next Saturday, please click on this link. He is still some short, but hopeful. Any little amount will help. Pretend you can’t see my last name on his page…remember, we are still trying to be just a tiny bit incognito. Thanks!

So Literal

Yesterday I was gathering up wet towels and suits from the living room floor after swimming lessons when I happened to notice Curly. He was sitting on the third stair. One step above him were three toys…a rag doll, a horse, and a dog. He was staring at them intently, first one and then the others in turn. I watched him for a moment. His small body was uncharacteristically motionless. Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer. “What are you doing?” I questioned. Without turning his head, he answered, “Crafty told me to watch these while she changed her clothes.”

We are SOO literal at our house! That’s what happens when you live with an autistic. My favorite story about that was when the Dog Walker was around eleven. He was on a pee-wee football team and it was before he came to love playing. His coach was our high school’s basketball coach, so he knew how to deal with kids…at least normal kids. The Dog Walker loved to tell this particular coach that he was “fired” whenever the coach had them do something hard. Well I guess one day the coach got a little tired of listening to one autistic boy and his method of grousing. To make matters worse, the Dog Walker was slacking and not making much effort.

The coach finally got up in his face (remember, autistics don’t like to make eye contact) and threatened, “If you don’t shut up and get moving, I’m going to make you run ‘til you die!” This may seem a little harsh to some of you, but for the Dog Walker, it was the motivation he needed to improve his attitude. He definitely didn’t want to die and since he didn’t understand the difference between real death and just wishing you were dead, he got moving! He still mumbled under his breath and occasionally “fired” the coach, but running was no longer a problem.

Autism: Growing up "Normal"

This is part six of this story.  If you are new and want to catch up click here.

I stewed and struggled over the best ways to teach my 8-year-old autistic boy. I had heard all kinds of horror stories about anger because communication was hard, other kids picking on these kids because they were different, and just a general sense of no direction or goals. I didn’t want these things for my son. Even though he was now stuck with the autism label for the rest of his life, I wanted him to grow and achieve as much as possible.

Because his first grade teacher showed us that he was perfectly capable of hard work, we started adding his name to the daily job list. He didn’t like that, but he usually did whatever I asked him to do. When the anger started pumping through his veins, I would calmly say, "One hard job…." If he didn’t control it himself, it was "Two hard jobs…." There were times we got to ten hard jobs before he finally pulled himself together. Then I would present him with a list and he would start working. As long as he held it together and started on his list I would take jobs off the other end. I don’t remember him ever completing all ten jobs. Most of the time he would end up with fewer than five things that might include unloading a dishwasher or vacuuming a room. The best part of that was not the clean house, it was that he was learning to control it by himself.

To deal with our second issue, I tried early on to involve him in all kinds of activities with all kinds of kids. Our biggest thing was sports. He played t-ball (although not with the best results), soccer (that was even worse when he was little) and basketball. One of our therapists had suggested that there was a link between learning and exercise for autistics and if we pushed the exercise, his brain might expand along with his other muscles. We figured it was worth a try. So at age 9, we signed him up for peewee football. He absolutely hated it!

In the Gremlin leagues he was forced to try out with about 150 other kids. He didn’t understand the drills or the coaches and just the physical part was way more than he had ever done in his entire life. He was finally placed on the platinum team. It was a rag-tag group of kids that were likely to be the last ones chosen in a neighborhood pick-up game. We were fine with that. He had a couple of coaches who were absolute saints. At the parent meeting I got to give my speech about how he might say something inappropriate or quote movies and to please let their boys know so they didn’t get angry with him.

It was a difficult season. Our little guy spent many lonely moments on the bench, but he did get in his required plays and he learned a little bit about pushing on the line. The most important thing he got from football was friends, and lots of them. He played football for eight years with different boys every year. Because these boys spent so much time sweating together, they look out for each other and help each other. Once when the Dog Walker was in 6^th grade some kids started picking on him on the playground. A couple of his football friends stepped up and told them to take a hike.

I rarely go anywhere with my son that we don’t run into someone he played football with. There are always high fives and "How ya doin’?" My boy usually can’t remember their names (I think I told you before he was about 8 when he finally knew all his siblings’ names) but he knows they were on the same team and who the coach was and what year they played and where. I’ll give you more specific football stories later, but for now, just remember that football was an incredible journey for our autistic boy.

The last part of my huge worries was that he wouldn’t have any goals or hopes or dreams. We watched other kids in the cluster class and their parents seemed to want to coddle them and just keep them babies. They were not expected to be like other kids, so they weren’t. I’m not saying that is wrong, I’m just saying I didn’t want that for my son. Then one night while I was helping the Gym Rat with some stuff he needed to do for a merit badge, my light bulb turned on…the thing that might expose my little guy to all kinds of experiences and skills could be scouts.