The Awesome 4th of July

We got up early and drove to Mt. Pleasant for their parade this morning. My MIL treated us to my sweetie's favorite breakfast, Groovy. We got a pretty good look at the fire damage. There were long stretches where the fire had burned right up to the road but never crossed it. I can see why my MIL was so afraid. The ground was just black!

A couple of days ago, my sweetie suggested I see if I could get the banner County Health made for the helmet safety stuff. So I made arrangements to get it. I've told you before that we always walk in the kids' parade, and this time we decided to take the helmet message with us.

Prima Donna and Drama Queen carried the banner and Princess pulled the wagon with Baby Doll and Curly. Crafty wasn't with us since she went to Girl Scout Camp on Monday. Scout, Sport, and the Dog Walker all rode their bikes and Teach and I threw Tootsie rolls even though Baby Doll was shoving them in her mouth as quickly as she could.

Baby Doll loved the Otter pops

After we walked the parade route, we joined my sweetie and the rest of the extended family for the big parade. The kids collected tons of candy and Otter pops and a couple of Frisbees. Then we went back to my MIL's house for lunch.

We had to hurry back since Teach had to be to work at 5:30. But Prima Donna and Princess had another commitment.

They had been asked to sing at the Stadium of Fire! I'll tell you all about that tomorrow.

It was SOOO hot! And I forgot my sunglasses.

Curly's got the parade wave down. See ya tomorrow.

Why I Garden

Pretty sure I mentioned that we spent Monday night planting the garden. We have been married for almost 29 years and we have tried to plant a garden pretty much every year. When we were in school it was hard! One year we signed up for a little 6 x 6-foot plot when we were in the University Village married student housing. With all of our commitments at school it was difficult to keep the weeds out.

In our second apartment we planted a pretty good-sized garden but we ended up moving before we could harvest any of it.

And so it went...

I told you last year that we had traded in our basketball court for a garden plot, but this year my sweetie vowed that would change. He dug up all the grass between the apricot tree and the small garden and now we have a new area for gardening. We even moved the tool shed! (We'll see how long it takes us to pour the concrete for a basketball court.)

The picture on top is a family tradition. These are pictures of my sweetie leveling the garden with a ladder and Curly riding on top of it.  Somewhere in our scrapbooks are other pictures, one of my awesome father-in-law pulling 3-year-old Bossy and another one when my sweetie is the 3-year-old!

Maybe Bossy can pull those pictures for us and I'll post them on the weekend.

There are lots of reasons we plant a garden. I'm pretty sure it usually saves us money (although there have been years when I wonder!). I love going to the store less and being able to pull half my meal from the backyard.

But the number one reason (at least this year) is probably this...you know how normal kids eat apples, oranges, or bananas? Well Baby Doll will pull open the fridge and instead of going for one of the "normal" fruits, she grabs a tomato! I can't wait to let her try the ones straight from the garden!

Love those tomatoes!

Put First Things First

As a mom, I find it is difficult to fit everything into 24 hours a day. Sleep is usually the thing that I miss out on, but sometimes it's other things. 

Have you ever seen that object lesson at church maybe where the teacher first shows a jar of sand or salt and it looks full? Then they dump out the sand and put in several big rocks. Amazingly, they then pour in the sand and it all fits!

The kids decided to illustrate this point just for me. That green basket holds balls and normally it is pretty full. But when we dumped it out and put Baby Doll in first, the balls still fit! Sort of...

Well, maybe it's not the best object lesson, but the pictures are cute.

Have a happy Friday!

Crafty at Play

A couple of weeks ago, Crafty came home with a huge packet of papers stapled together at the corner. She was excited! Her class was going to do a play. Not a big play, just one that would be performed in the classroom in front of other 5th graders and parents. It was about the founding of our country and she had a lead role.

It was based on Survivor...called Reviver...and she had the role of the host, Sally Sassafrass. She spent the better part of an entire week learning her lines and practicing them with her siblings. She had never had such a major role in a production and she was taking the part very seriously. OK, she was pretty much driving me nuts!

Last night when I asked her to verify the time, she said, "You don't really have to come if you don't want to." I was a bit confused. She had been practicing for weeks. "Why wouldn't I want to come?" I asked. "Well, my teacher said if you had to work or something, it wasn't that big of a deal..." she trailed off. "Since I don't have a job (Tupperware doesn't really count), I'm pretty sure I can come," I said. She shrugged her shoulders in that 5th-grade sort of way. "OK," she smiled.

My sweetie stayed home since it was his Friday off and he and I headed to the school just before 10:00. I think she was surprised, but pleased to see us both. She was right, the kids were not really dressed in costumes, but they had signs around their necks to identify who they were. And since they were in the classroom, there wasn't really a stage.

But the show was upbeat and fun, full of song and dance and of course my awesome Crafty. She had every line memorized perfectly! They have one more performance on Monday...I'm sending all the kids who are now out of school...since they don't have to go to work or something...

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...

Weird Texts

 Life is never boring when you live with Autism.

The Dog Walker is constantly sending me random texts and pictures. The crazy thing about it is that he always just assumes I know what he is talking about. Like last night...I'm getting ready for bed and it's late. Suddenly I hear that random ring...

"Kidron? Imla? Ziz? Edom? Eloth? Uzziah? Joash?"

That's it, just like that. Do any of you happen to recognize these names from Chronicles? Well, I'm busy, so I simply ignore the text. Then a few minutes later...

"Ibri? What do you think that name sounds like? Boy or Girl?"

Now I don't know about you, but I NEVER sit around and ponder things like this.

Then I get random questions like this one...

"If they say seminary graduation is on the 20th, what am I going to do for 2nd period the day after graduation?"

My response of course, "Go to seminary."

He's just so silly, but he sees a side of life that in my busyness I would probably miss without him. I was at Sport's baseball game while he and Teach were home making dinner. He sent me this text picture...they were cutting a watermelon and he found a heart shape in it. He was so excited! That heart was so important to him he snapped several pictures just so I could see it.

Most days I love that he is autistic...and that's the heart of the matter...
and the melon.

Scripture Silliness

I think I've told you before that we gather the kids together every night and read scriptures and have prayer as a family before bed. Sometimes it's difficult to get them to settle down and pay attention (even if you have a church pew in your living room!).

So tonight they actually came together pretty quickly and Prima Donna started to read. For some reason, Princess had a bottle of fingernail polish and she decided to paint Baby Doll's toenails bright pink even though she had fallen asleep in my lap. It only took her about three or four verses to transform all those tiny toes, and then she set out to find her next victim.

The Dog Walker was lying on the pew, following along in his own copy, just hoping I would call on him to read. Princess gave me a look and I gave her the nod and she inched her way along the floor until she was sitting next to the Dog Walker's feet. Slowly and carefully she pulled out the brush and got to work.

I looked over at my sweetie and he had noticed the silliness. Both of us were grinning, trying not to attract attention, and above all not to laugh out loud. Soon the other kids caught wind of what was going on, so I quickly called on the Dog Walker to read just to keep him distracted.

By then everyone was silently giggling. I'm pretty sure by then the Dog Walker knew what was up, but he played along. When he finished the chapter, he sat up and gave his toes a horrified look. Then he pretty much screamed like a little girl (sorry Drama Queen, but he's quite the actor), and we were all finally able to let out the laughs we had been holding in.

Yeah...good times...

Tax Relief Tuesday

See the resemblance?

I love a good freebie! Since Tuesday was Tax Day, several local businesses were offering "tax relief" treats. One of them was Panda Express and they gave away a yummy Angus beef entree.

The other freebie we sought out made even the whiny ones happy...an order of curly fries from Arby's. Those of us who were home decided to head over there for lunch. Then, when the school kids got home, Teach took them over for an after school snack. But the Dog Walker was out walking dogs, so he missed the second group. When he got home, I handed him his coupon and told him to head on over in his car and pick up his free order of fries.

Now Arby's is only a couple of miles from our house, so this seemed like a great idea. Then he was supposed to meet up with us so we could ride together to Panda Express. We sent the Drama Queen ahead with her truck full of kids while we waited for the Dog Walker to return. He showed up as expected and hopped in the van. It was only a short distance to Panda Express and since it was mid afternoon, they weren't terribly busy.

credit

We had to wait a few minutes, but eventually we were back in the van and on our way home. When we stopped in the driveway, the Dog Walker climbed out of the van and headed for his car. When he came back, he was carrying a small bag from Sonic.

"What's that?" I asked casually, thinking maybe he had stopped for one of their $1.19 cheeseburgers. The Sonic was only about a block away from the Arby's. He gave me a "duh" look, "That's my free fries." Now it was my turn to be surprised. "You got free fries from Sonic?" I asked incredulously. He just looked at me. "Of course I did," he replied, "you gave me a free coupon."

"That coupon was for Arby's!" Again I got that blank stare. "What did they say?" I asked. "I just told them I had a free coupon for curly fries so they gave me some," he said. I was getting a little frustrated. "Sonic doesn't even sell curly fries!" I nearly shouted. "Did they ask you for money?"

credit

Again, the "duh" look, "No. They just gave them to me." He shrugged his shoulders, "I had a free coupon," he replied. Then he hustled up the steps and into the house, calmly munching on a not-so-curly fry.

So if you are a Sonic worker and yesterday you took an Arby's coupon from a large Autistic kid, "Thank you!" It was probably easier to cough up that dollar from your own paycheck than try to explain it to him...you can see how well I did.

Blog Awards

Can you believe I got two blog awards in the same week? And they were my very first two blog awards? The first one came from the Mixed Up Brains of Lisa Weinstein, and the second one was from Theresa's Mixed Nuts.

I've never been very good at playing blog games. Mostly I just like saying whatever I want on my blog, but these two awards only want me to put up seven random thoughts about pretty much anything so that goes along with my basic philosophy, and then I'm supposed to give you the names of seven of my blogging friends who might be willing to play along.

So here goes...

1. One of my very favorite things to do is read to my kids. We have been through about a dozen chapter books already this year. We are currently reading The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. It's kind of amazing to me how many of my children gather around when I start to read. Even my sweetie likes to listen in.

2.  I'm a night owl. It is typical for me to be up until about 2:00 each night, sometimes writing a post or visiting my blogging buddies, and sometimes folding laundry and watching the food channel. I'm not a big fan of putting the little ones to bed early because then they just want to get up early, and  I'm allergic to early mornings.

3. I love vegetables! I know, a little weird, huh? My sweetie is a fruit guy, but I much prefer vegetables of all kinds. As I'm sitting here typing this, I can't think of a single vegetable that I refuse to eat.

4.  I don't care what kind of car people drive. My sweetie and the Gym Rat think this is terrible! But honestly, I don't even notice...I might remember the color, but probably not.

5.  One of my biggest pet peeves is open cupboards. I guess I've just smacked my head one too many times. Sport has a bad habit of leaving them open lately and it's driving me nuts!

6.  I really don't like to cook. I know, with all these kids, it's part of my life, but I don't enjoy it. My favorite time is the weekend when my sweetie is home and he takes over the cooking (it doesn't hurt that he's around either...).

7.  I've never been the kind of person to spend much time on my computer. I don't do Facebook or play games. Blogging has kind of flipped my world upside down, but I love that all of you are willing to keep coming back every day just to see if I have anything interesting to say. Thanks for spending part of your day with me.

Now, to tag a few of my friends. I hope you will still be my friends...

Don't feel obligated if you don't want to play, but if you do, feel free to grab whichever award best suits your personality (or grab both...go ahead, you deserve it!) and let's hear your random thoughts.

Life Doesn't Have to be Perfect to be Wonderful

 Race & Emma

The Art of Autism
(That's the Dog Walker's Blog)

Lexie Loo, Lily Boo, & Dylan Too

Ockey Family Adventures

Shana's Place

Wanna Feel That Fire

A Little Exercise

You know, I've been a little depressed this week. Maybe it's this sugar challenge thing. In all my 47 years, I don't believe I've ever been four weeks without a single sweet treat. I thought by now I should have dropped at least a couple of pounds, but standing on my scale still doesn't make me smile.

I thought eating more healthy might make me want to exercise more regularly. And it's working for some of us. Teach has suddenly been inspired to try to run a 5K.She ran two miles on the treadmill yesterday! I run a quarter of a mile and I'm huffing and puffing. Even the little ones are excited about exercise.

I was sitting at my desk earlier today and I heard giggling from my sweet little Baby Doll. She and the Dog Walker and Scout were playing Just Dance and the song was Cotton-Eyed Joe. For some reason she thought that was so funny! I snapped a few pictures of them for you. They like exercise.

I'm just having a hard time getting myself motivated. I read an article by the blogging queen, C. Jane, in the newspaper today and, get this, she woke up early in the morning because her body told her she needed to go for a walk! The only kind of walk my body wants to take at that time of day is a quick trip to the bathroom!

Seriously though, any suggestions? I love basketball, but I can't play every day. I know it sounds dumb, but just going for a walk feels like such a waste of time when I have so many other things demanding my attention.

You remember TV back in the 60s? When some of those women wanted to exercise, they stood on on a machine where a huge rubber band shook their entire backside? I want to know if those work. They look way more fun than the treadmill and all of these women look pretty skinny. I couldn't possibly wear the little hat though...

Pic Credit

Family Pictures

Present Day - Family Photos

When I was little, we always got our school pictures taken every year and Mom ordered an 8 x 10. As you know, my parents didn't have much, but they knew family pictures were important. In their bedroom Mom had made homemade frames out of thin cardboard and strong tape. They actually were very nice. The 8 of us were arranged in a circle right above their bed. (I haven't been in Dad's house for a while since he doesn't really live there anymore, but I'm assuming they are still there.)

When I had my own family, I wanted to continue that tradition except that I wanted to keep the pictures out for everyone to see. Here is my current grouping in our family room. Sorry about the glare. That top pic is of us and the others are the rest of the kids. Whatever picture they had as a high school senior will forever stay in their family frame.  The walls may change, but the adult pictures do not (at least so far...)

The Dog Walker has a fascination with these pictures. He hung most of the nails and for some reason he believes himself to be in charge of them. He often moves them around, trying to put all the boys together, or all the grownups in one particular spot. One day he decided that we might forget who was who so he cut up a sheet of paper and labeled each one of them.

One year on April Fool's Day, we all woke up to this...

Do you think you would notice if someone turned all of your pictures upside-down?

If you notice the picture in the middle is not upside down
I'm not sure why he didn't change that one

The Coif

Last night I helped the Dog Walker with scholarship applications until I was ready to tear my hair out! Not really...I don't need to do it myself because I've got Prima Donna to do it for me.

So I'm sitting at my desk and she comes in and plops herself down on my sweetie's chair. Since she is just messing around on the computer, I suggest that maybe she could take a minute and brush my hair for me before I go to bed (I would have made a good princess...I'd like to have several ladies-in-waiting!).

She moaned and complained for five minutes before I threatened to ground her and then she finally stood up and slunk over to my chair. She had a brush in her hand, but she was more interested in pulling at my hair with her fingers.

After a couple of minutes of half-hearted brushing, I finally relented and agreed to the "coif" she had been suggesting this morning. She quickly ran downstairs after hairspray and bobby pins. She was actually excited to do my hair for a change!

I have a lady-in-wating, just like a princess!

She started by alternately ratting and spraying my hair with canned hairspray. Thank goodness I had my glasses on! She sprayed it directly into my face more than once.

Yank, tug...
Yank, tug...
spritz...spritz...spritz

Ready for the comb-out!

Then she whipped out the little curling iron and tried to make a few tiny curls around the base of my neck. At one point I had to remind her that I NEEDED that ear!

Finally she was done. She stepped back to admire her work, but not before she placed a tiara in my extremely tall hair. Then she snapped these pics just for you. That's about the time the Drama Queen showed up in the doorway. "Are you going to sleep in that?" she asked. "No," I responded. "Prima Donna is going to remove it and brush it out when she is done." The Prima Donna's smile faded, but she dutifully started removing bobby pins.

The brush was relentless as she tugged at the snarls created by the ratting. That's about when it dawned on me...what was I thinking? Remember this story?

Scout's New Game

I'm pretty sure I've told you before that we are not big into TV or video games. I like the kids to use their imaginations and come up with their own games and activities. I also want them to be active, not just sitting around all the time.

So Scout and Curly were giggling as they came down the stairs after the shower. They were dressed in clean jammies and big t-shirts, but I didn't think anything of it. Several minutes later, I understood why...

Scout had made up a new game and I think she called it "Bop." They each tucked a large playground ball under their shirts. At first I thought they were pretending to be pregnant, until the first Bop.

They banged their huge "bellies" into each other and laughed and giggled as they continued bouncing off each other until one of them (usually Curly) landed on the ground.

I'm not sure I love this new game...it kind of feels like Sumo wrestling with a twist. I guess I should be happy...at least they are active.

A Real Mom

I've told you that we've been trying to eat a little more healthy (I even had carrot cake for my birthday!). The Bountiful Baskets have helped us work more vegetables into our diet. This is a terrible hardship for Sport who confided in me a few days ago, "I HATE Bountiful Baskets!" Although I've noticed that even he is trying a few more new things.

Salads have started showing up at every meal although sometimes they are passed without appearing on any plates. Greens can get pretty boring around here so Teach has put herself in charge of livening up the salads and making them more interesting. She has added cucumbers, carrots, olives, stuff like that. And they have been more fun...I guess...

So yesterday the Drama Queen and I sat down for lunch. She was hoping for a nice sandwich, but I pulled out the salad. Baby Doll is not much of a salad eater, so I poured her a bowl of Cheerios. She started crunching happily away as the Drama Queen stirred her greens sadly around her plate. Suddenly she said, "I wonder if Cheerios would make good croutons?" I looked at her like she was crazy, then I grabbed a handful and tossed them into my salad. I caught up a big bite on my fork and chewed for a moment. They were actually pretty good!

The Drama Queen just looked at me. Then she solemnly said, "You know you're a real mom when you start putting Cheerios in your salad."

Finally, validation...it's about time!

Nine o'clock Church

You all know I don't love mornings. Our church is set up on a rotating schedule so all of last year we started at 1:00 in the afternoon. In January we changed to the 9:00 schedule. It makes my Sundays a little miserable, but I usually make it work...mostly...

A reenactment...

I set my alarm to go off at 8:10. I know, that's cutting it close, but we are fortunate enough to live about 3 minutes away from our church building so I only have to allow 5 minutes for travel time. I rolled out at 8:10 on the dot and after sending texts to all the older kids, I took a 3-minute shower with Baby Doll. I always have the kids shower on Saturday night so hopefully they are still pretty clean.

I called from my my bedroom door, assigning tasks to each older person. Princess had to get Scout ready, Crafty got Curly, Prima Donna got the diaper bag and toast-making duty. I took care of Baby Doll and me and by 20 minutes to 9:00, we headed down the stairs.

Things were mostly progressing nicely. Curly was still missing his shoes and I had to pull on my boots, but Scout was screaming up a storm. Now this isn't really a surprise to anyone...if there is one person who hates mornings more than me, it's Scout.

A picture? If course Curly wanted in!`

"Who had Scout?" I called above the din. "I did," Princess confessed. "She's ready. I even put on her coat." I peeked in her general direction and saw here bare feet kicking in the air. "Shoes?" I asked. "She has them," Princess remarked, "I guess she kicked them off." I sat down on the pew to put on my boots. My sweetie hollered "Five minutes!" as he headed down the stairs. Kids started pulling on coats and the Dog Walker and Sport left to go save seats. I handed Baby Doll a piece of toast and decided that maybe I'd better escort Scout to the van myself. Her wailing had risen a pitch.

She reached her arms around my neck and sobbed, "Princess put me in this little tiny dress!" I stood her on her feet. It was a size 3T! (She wears a 6.)  I immediately started stripping her down and sent someone for another dress. My sweetie was attempting to scrape the ice from the windshield of the minivan. I pulled a new dress over Scout's head and hurried to button it up. We slipped her shoes back on and headed for the door.

My sweetie had abandoned the minivan idea because the door was frozen shut and now all the kids were climbing into the big van. After we played musical cars and I realized the Dog Walker and Sport were now only about two minutes ahead of us because of his icy car, we finally got everyone loaded.

We did manage to make it into the foyer in time to take the sacrament...barely. Even the best laid plans might need to have a little extra time built in. I guess I'll set the clock for 8:05 next week.

Blog Games

But I do like wii games!

I’ve never really participated in Blog Games. Oh, I’ve followed a linkup once in a while if I thought it fit well with something I happened to be writing that day, but I’ve never done any tagging. And I’m not really sure I want to do any tagging now, but I've been tagged by Alex Tracie and the Wee Ones.

There are rules for the game, but I’m going to change them because I’m afraid you’ll get bored reading all this stuff about me. So all I’m actually going to do is answer Tracie’s questions because that sounds like fun and maybe because I’m a little brain-dead tonight.

When I mentioned I was tired, my sweetie said, “Don’t worry about posting today!” I think he was a little surprised by my response. “What day is it?” I asked. “Sunday?” he guessed, not really seeing my point. “No,” I persisted, “the date.” “January 16?” he suggested. (Actually he was a little off, it was only the 15th then.) I kind of got in a little huff with him. “I’ve been writing a post EVERY DAY for an entire year as of January 19th. I’m NOT going to miss now!”

So he went to bed and I’m sitting at the computer with nothing to say so I’m going to answer Tracie’s questions for you. And thanks for thinking of me, Tracie! Maybe next time I’ll play by the real rules…my brain ought to be working by then…maybe…

Tracie’s questions for me:

1. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

I actually love Utah. I’ve always been a small-town girl and I didn’t know how I’d adjust to living nearer the city, but the suburbs are perfect for me.

2. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

I love vanilla ice cream! (I know, boring, huh?) But I want to cover it with chocolate syrup and chopped nuts…does that help?

3. Where is your dream vacation?

I don’t love to travel. I’ve always been a little prone to motion sickness (I should write about that sometime) so I would rather stay home. That said, I would love to take my family on a Church History tour and we are considering doing that next summer. If I decided to actually fly somewhere, I would like to visit England.

4.What is your most embarrassing moment?

I’ve had lots of embarrassing moments and the worst one I just can’t possibly share, but I walked out of church last week with half the buttons on my blouse still undone from nursing Baby Doll. Does that count?

5.What is your least favorite food that you still make your kids eat?

My least favorite food on the planet is cantaloupe. When I was younger, just the smell of it would make me physically sick. Now I tolerate it and I can even cut one for my sweetie. I don’t make the kids eat it, but since my sweetie loves melons, most of the kids like it anyway.

6. What is your favorite blog post?

Probably the ones about when I was a kid. Most of them have forced me to really think and lots of those stories are not written down anywhere. It’s kind of like Dumbledore and the Pensieve…pulling them out of my brain seems to ease a little of the stress in there. At least I know they won’t be lost now.

7. When do you find time to blog?

I like to blog late at night when everyone is asleep and the house is quiet.

Baby Bossy

8. How long did you date your spouse before you married?

I met my sweetie in June but we didn’t start dating until November. We were married the following September (right after I graduated from high school). Yeah, I was just a baby…and a teenage mom. Bossy was born three months before I turned 20.

9. Do you have any phobias?

I don’t like tight places, but it’s not severe. Does “cantaloupe-a-phobia” count?

10.What is your favorite number and why?

I’ve always loved the number 8 because it is the age of accountability. When you are hovering between a baby and someone who knows right from wrong. And in my church you are finally old enough to get baptized.

I thought this post needed some pictures...

11. Why do you blog?

I love the fact that I am doing family history…recording the small moments that pass and no one remembers. Like today at church…I was helping with Curly’s class. His teacher asked these four little guys who had a baby at home. When they didn’t respond, I tried to help, so I said, “Finn has a baby at home…and Curly has a baby at home.” He looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the planet. “I DON’T have a baby at home,” he responded. “She’s at church!”

That was fun! Maybe I’ll have to participate a little more often. Thanks again, Tracie!