Little Choices

It was nice of the Drama Queen to bail me out last night. Yeah, I was definitely tired. We knew going in that we wouldn't have Teach to play the game with us because she had not been able to get anyone to work for her and the schedules were made up long before we knew when the game would be. That took us down to six players. Then one of our ladies had a family party and although she was finished just after nine, she didn't have the address to the church and since my phone was in my coat pocket and not on my person, I didn't get her message until the game was long over.

So we were five. I had a Tupperware party across town at 6:00 and I got to my house at 18 minutes to nine. I still had to change and I hadn't eaten anything, so I grabbed one of my sweetie's green biscuits (it was Dr. Seuss day!) and headed out the door. I got to the church about 4 minutes before the game started. For a minute it looked like we might forfeit after all, but our fifth player walked in right after we had the opening prayer.

The first quarter was OK, we held it together and even though we weren't stellar, we finished the quarter 8 - 20. Things went severely downhill from there. We made one basket in each of the next three quarters and finished a dismal 37 - 14. It was pretty pathetic. I only made one shot all night and it definitely wasn't a three although it was outside the key, so I guess that's good. That also means we are out of the tournament.

I'm the one on the left with the apron jersey thing

Honestly, I wasn't even going to tell you about it, but since somebody asked...I guess at my age I probably shouldn't even be playing basketball, but I sure love the game and my body craves (and needs!) the exercise. Did I ever tell you that I played on the high school team for two years? I loved being part of the team although I could have done without the 6:00 AM practices (you know I'm not a morning person). I played my freshman and sophomore years and as part of the Junior Varsity, I got to dress for the Varsity games, although I only got to play in a couple of them.

We weren't an awesome team but we did OK. I wore the number 24. Then when I was registering for my junior year, I had a choice to make. It was to try to earn my associates degree before I graduated from high school or to continue playing basketball. Yeah, you guessed it, I went with the school route. And I did it, I graduated from Snow College and Manti High school at the same time. That was the days before they allowed classes to count for credit at both schools. I was actually on an academic scholarship and a newspaper scholarship at Snow during my senior year in high school. It was like I was a split personality. I tried really hard to keep my two lives separate and basketball just didn't fit.

#24 that's me!

Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like had I chosen basketball instead of school. One thing I know for sure...I would never have met my sweetie. He would have graduated and been gone from Snow before I got there. It's good that things work out just the way there are supposed to...now if I can just figure out why we got trounced in last night's game...

So Did We Win?

OK, I want to confess up front that if you were hoping for pictures of me playing basketball, it's just not going to happen. Nobody but the teams actually attend the women's games. All those kids would be too distracting for the moms on the floor.

Instead I'm sharing pics of my Jr. Jazz team. Crafty is on the bottom right in the pink shirt. The second pic is Scout's cute little team. She is #5.

I know you are just dying to find out about the tournament, right? So half my team got lost on the way to the church. The woman in charge actually called me when we were about 3 minutes away and asked me if we were coming...

I assured her that we should probably stay home, but we would definitely be there before 8:00. And we were...we walked in the door at 7:58. They nicely gave us a couple of extra minutes to put together our roster and warm up. Six of us were there. The only one missing was Bossy. She and I have been sharing the point guard position this year, so that was not a good thing.

We got out on the floor and the Daybreak team took the toss. Things were not looking good. By the end of the 1st quarter we had only thrown three shots and none of them went in. The score was 10 - 0. That's about the time Bossy walked in.

We decided to play the second quarter with both of us on the floor. The first shot she put up missed the mark but I got the rebound and tossed it in. The next two possessions were the same. Then she threw in an awesome three-pointer from about six feet outside the line! I think that shook them up a bit. Suddenly they were only up by three at the half.

Bossy and I met up quickly in the restroom during the break. We might actually be able to win this game, but then we would have to forfeit tomorrow night's game for sure. Teach had to work and I had a Tupperware party at 6:00. That left only five players and that was assuming every one else would be able to come.

The rest of the team didn't realize the dilemma we were in. We played the third quarter with the same intensity except for "yours truly" was the one to throw in the amazing three-pointer! (I think I was more surprised than anyone else...I've never made a three-pointer in a real game before.)

We finished up the third quarter still down by 3. I took a quick breather and Teach racked up a total of six points. With three minutes to go, the game was still close. I called for a time-out and subbed myself back in. That's when Bossy pulled us all into a close huddle and explained the situation...that a win would likely mean a forfeit Friday night.

Always loyal, my team dropped it down a notch and we lost 31 - 22. But the game was so fun! If you remember my whining from yesterday, I expected us to take a beating and it wasn't like that at all. And these ladies were good sports too. The only dose of humble pie for me was when I was fouled on the shot and totally missed both foul shots.

I'll let you know how things work out tomorrow. I may even think to ask Bossy to snap a pic on her cell phone...but I probably won't, that's what I love about basketball, when I'm playing the game, I don't have enough brain cells to think about anything else.

Basketball Tournaments

Today is the start of our Women's Church Basketball tournament. In past years when we've been pretty competitive, I've been very excited about this day. This year I'm just dreading it. Maybe it's my age or maybe it's just that I'm pretty heavy, but the idea of playing a bunch of 20-something-year-olds is just not all that appealing.

As luck would have it, our first game is with the very best team in the league, Daybreak A. We only have 7 players from our entire stake. They have three full teams (at least!) that made it to the playoffs. Now I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because this is not what I wanted to tell you about. I wanted to talk about another basketball tournament when I was a little younger...OK, I was a lot younger...

That's me on the left...the humble one.

It was 1979. I was 14 years old and it was about this time of year. We didn't really have youth basketball except what was sponsored by 4H. My dad was all about basketball, so I thought maybe he would like me a little better if I decided to enter the tournament. I showed up early in the morning at the Activity Center ready to compete in the one-on-one tournament.

I was excited and nervous. I had played some church ball and playground ball with my brothers, but I had never been on a team. I pulled on my shirt and headed for the gym with a girl named Robyn who was a year younger than me. We messed around for a bit, shooting hoops and waiting for the other girls to arrive. She was a much better shooter than I was...

After about half an hour, it became evident that no one else was coming. The 4H ladies crowned us the champs and the newspaper snapped our picture. Robyn and I just sort of looked at each other. Winning had been a little easier than we had expected...

The next weekend we were scheduled to play with the champs from the other towns in our area. The girl from Gunnison had about 6 inches on me and she had actually PLAYED basketball. I didn't stand a chance. In fact, I'm pretty sure I went down scoreless. Nothing like a big dose of humility...

I'll have to remember that lesson later tonight.

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!

What about Baseball?

Bossy said I sounded kind of whiny yesterday so I ran that by my sweetie and he admitted that he hadn't read the blog. So early this morning while I was still trying to get a little shut-eye, he opened the door and agreed that whiny about sums it up.

So sorry about that! I know you don't stop by so you can hear me complain about the crazy life I've created for myself. I'll try to be more upbeat.

I need some advice.

Love this pic of Sport!

You all know that Sport had an amazing football season! His team even won the state championship on their very first try. He just finished up playing basketball with his football friends and even though their team didn't do all that well, he learned so much and now he loves basketball too. He would go out and shoot hoops every day if the weather would cooperate.

A few years ago I swore off spring sports. Oh don't get me wrong, I LOVE softball, but by the time spring comes around I'm just looking forward to taking a break. This year I'm thinking of making an exception. (I know, just after I told you about my crazy life and now I'm thinking about taking on something else...this is what happens when you have this many kids, you start losing brain cells!)

Sport has only ever had one year of baseball and that was t-ball when he was just a little guy. I've been thinking about putting him in baseball to keep the momentum rolling. It would be nice if ONE of my kids really loved sports. When I was a kid, Little League meant you played ball pretty much every day and I'm pretty sure that is still the case. But I don't really want to sign him up in a rec league with one practice and one game each week. It would take him forever to learn to play that way.

So what has been your experience with baseball? The Gym Rat played one year of Little League and hated it but he was older and all the boys had way more experience that he did. The Dog Walker only did rec leagues. Sport is 8 years and still young enough to be teachable, but sometimes he is a little scared of the ball.

I could sure use a little input...

No Time for January Blues

Me and Crafty at halftime

The kids went back to school last Tuesday, so it's time for the January Depression to set in. Except that I've been too busy to be depressed.

Saturday was absolutely insane! My Jr. Jazz team of 5th - 6th grade girls took another beating at 9:00. The final score was 22 - 2. My little point guard was so upset that she was in tears at the end of the game. One of my best shooters forgot to put her contacts in and she couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

We ran from that game to Sport's game. His team wasn't hitting them either and they lost about 16 - 6. Then my sweetie stayed with him while he got his pictures taken and I ran home to get Scout ready for her game and then pictures at 11:30. Sometime that morning my sweetie also picked up the Bountiful Baskets and the Dog Walker played a game at the church (his team managed to win and he made two points...if I don't tell you that I'll be in big trouble).

Sport is #34

Shortly after I left for Scout's game, the Dog Walker got himself to Sleeping Beauty Rehearsal. (I'm so glad he can drive!) The minute I walked through the door again, I grabbed a piece of bread for lunch and headed back out again with Teach, the Drama Queen, and Bossy for my niece's baby shower downtown. We raced back afterward and got home just in time to send the kids to Bountiful for their voice lesson while I drove down the street for a Tupperware party. It was nearly 4:00 and the snow was coming down fast and furious.

Warming up!

I won't go into details on the party except to say that I had excellent hosts who sold a bunch of stuff! But we all got visiting and I didn't get home until almost 7:30. The family was just finishing dinner because Teach had a party of friends coming over. I grabbed a quick bite (thank goodness they served food at the shower!) and rushed to help get everything cleaned up. Sadly, instead of finally getting a minute to relax, I ended up at the computer, inputting about 30 broken Tupperware pieces for the party because the host was going out of town and needed her credits right away. Thank goodness the Drama Queen was in charge of our post!

The only casualty was that Princess totally forgot about a birthday party for one of her friends! It started around noon and by the time she remembered it was half over. 

I fell into bed about 11:00 because we have had trouble getting up for 9:00 church every week this year. But I will tell you about that tomorrow.

And the Winner is...

Sadly, not my picture.

Thanks everybody for your happy wishes and time spent reading my little blog! Somebody asked me if we had cake. Now I have to confess that I didn't even think of cake...but Princess did. It was the first thing she asked me when she got home from school today. I finally relented and let her make brownies. Then while I was at my basketball game the kids lit candles and sang to the blog and then proceeded to eat half of them!

The game was exciting though. Bossy got stuck downtown at work, so we only had 4 players with us, except that Bethany's mom (who has often played with us) came to watch Bethany. So she agreed to stand on the court for the opening tip-off so we didn't have to forfeit. Since she has had some trouble with her knees, I figured she would simply step off the court and return to her seat.

NOT! She had to chase down a girl on a fast break first and their feet got tangled up and she hit the floor, on her knees, of course. I was so worried for her, but she got up and THEN she left the court. I think I forgot to mention that the other team only had four players too, so they got to forfeit. And then they proceeded to trounce us! The final score was 54 to 30, but it was OK. Teach made 10 points and Bethany made 12.

I put up one pathetic basket because I was playing point guard and I don't generally shoot from the outside. Just for fun I put up a 3-pointer in the third quarter, but it bounced up from the rim and then out.

I know you didn't stop by my blog today to hear a play-by-play from my basketball game. You want to know who won the Tupperware, don't you?! OK, OK, my awesome winner is Marci from Life Doesn't Have to be Perfect to be Wonderful. Congrats, Marci and thanks again for all of you awesome readers! Eat a brownie and sing to my blog for me...apparently it's a new trend.

Thin Mints, Anyone? or do you want Free TUPPERWARE?!

I dragged the girls out of bed just before 9:00 this morning and even though it was cold and blowing, we hit the streets to try to drum up some cookie sales. Our neighbors were kind and generous as always and almost every house with someone home ordered cookies. Three basketball games and four more hours of cookie sales later and we are at a grand total of 340 boxes! Yay, Girl Scouts!

We didn't do as well at our basketball game. I think I told you I'm coaching Crafty's Jr Jazz team and while I'm generally a fairly adequate coach, today I felt totally trounced. It wasn't that the scoreboard was the worst I've ever seen (we lost 24 - 8), it's just that the other team was SOO physical and my girls were getting hurt and I couldn't do anything about it. The officials for these games are just kids themselves and most of them won't call a foul or blow the whistle even if there is blood dripping on the floor! These girls are 11 and 12. They don't need to be pushed to the floor over what is supposed to be a rec game! (pant...pant...rave...rave)

Ok, I'm done being negative.

On a brighter note! Today is the last day to leave a comment on the New Year's Giveaway. I'm excited to let one of you try that amazing My Memories software. I'm sure you will love it! My kids are all excited about scrapbooking now...if we could just finish up these cookie sales.

And I want to remind you that my blog is turning 1 year old next week. When I asked for suggestions on how to celebrate, you asked for another giveaway...specifically Tupperware! So that's what I'm going to do! Starting right this minute, you can leave a comment on this post to win this fun set of "I Love You" canisters with a retail value of $47 dollars because without all of you, I would probably have given up on this blog at least 100 times by now. (To see a better picture, you can go to my website here.)

I will also accept entries via e-mail if you can't comment. We will choose the random winner on my Blog's Birthday, January 19, 2012. If you would like to tweet or promote this giveaway on your blog, I will give you extra entries. Just let me know.

Thanks for being there for me!
Sandy

Birthday Coupons

Working on mine

One of my good friends regularly visits a salon to have her nails done. And I have to confess that they look pretty amazing (although they aren’t very practical for basketball). I have never been to an actual nail salon because I have several mostly competent people who live right in my very own house that can take care of that rather tedious task.

If it were left up to me all I would do is give them a quick trim every few weeks. The Drama Queen used to keep my nails in the height of fashion when she was younger, but then she moved out and passed the torch to Prima Donna. Every year the Prima Donna gives me coupons for my birthday detailing the beauty treatments I’m about to receive…hair-brushing (although since last spring I worry a little about that), back-scratching, manicures, pedicures…sometimes even an entire makeover!

Curly was the camera man

My favorite is when she changes my toenail color to match the current holiday. Since November I’ve had alternating red and green toenails. So yesterday was the day for a change. The hardest part of a pedicure at my house is finding the nail-polish remover. Last time it was lost it showed up in the Dog Walker’s room. I assumed it was because he was using it to strip paint from a model car or something. Nope! He had actually painted his toenails pink just to see if I would put a picture of them on the blog! Sorry, Dog Walker, not this time.

Teach's Cute Toes

Once the tools are assembled, I can just sit back and relax…sort of…depending on the procedure. If the Prima Donna is feeling exceptionally benevolent, she washes, massages, and files my tired feet. Sometimes she even tries trimming the nails, but that part isn’t at all relaxing since every once in a while she slips and takes a chunk out of my toe…red isn’t usually my color. So in honor of winter, we are going blue with white snowflakes. Just like a salon, only better. I get to hang out with my kids and it’s free.

PS...Turns out our cute little camera man took about 30 pictures of his fingers over the lens!  Oh well, his services were free too.

"Labor" Day

Pic Credit

Summer is over. But we had so much fun on Labor Day, I just had to share. No, we didn't have a strike, I've done that before. OK, it wasn’t all fun, because my sweetie has this thing about “Labor” in Labor Day, so we had to clean the garage first thing this morning. The Dog Walker was actually up at 6:30 putting up flags as a service project for his young men’s group. Then it was the garage. Teach made French Toast for us while we sorted and swept, restacked and rearranged, trying to find a little more space than we had before. (I guess I should have taken some pics, but you might not be as impressed as we were.)

After our yummy meal, we finished up the garage and tried to put the house back together. At 3:00 we decided to take all the kids to lunch at Famous Dave’s Legendary BBQ. I had never been there before, but the kids had some free passes from school…We stuffed ourselves and then headed toward home.

As we were driving along Redwood Road, Bossy’s family met up with us and motioned us to pull over. Then she handed me a bag of exploding bread dough. Apparently, the Gym Rat’s roommate thought he had to take the frozen roll dough out of the freezer the night before instead of just a few hours before he needed it. Rather than deal with this mess, they headed to the grocery store and bought new dough. The kids were ecstatic! That meant sweet rolls for FHE treat. We stopped by the house and stashed the dough in the fridge. It would have to wait.

We had big plans. With all the kids (who live at home) in tow, we headed to the church. After 20 minutes of folding paper, we had a paper airplane flying contest. I was the judge and my sweetie and all the kids stood on the stage and threw their airplanes. We had five different prizes, distance, accuracy, height…you get the idea. The kids had tons of fun; even Baby Doll enjoyed chasing the planes. Then we played a little basketball (I beat my sweetie at Horse, but he made the first 3-pointer.) 

Baby Doll flyin' airplanes

The kids made up a new game where they tried to fly their paper airplanes through the basket. It worked pretty well until Curly's got stuck...oops! Then we cleaned up (laboring again) and climbed back in the van and headed home.

Basketball or basket-plane?

Time for a little more labor on their bedrooms and then I sent Drama Queen and the Dog Walker to the Carmike to fill the popcorn buckets while my sweetie made the sweet rolls. Since it was Labor Day we had to watch Newsies so our kids could remember the reason for the holiday. Oh, and the sweet rolls were amazing! So how did you spend your Labor Day? Did you “Labor” or play?

Curly rockin' out to the credits

Broken Bones

I woke up Saturday morning and my thumb was throbbing. When my sweetie touched it I nearly had to slug him, so I decided it was time to run over to the Instacare. I drove the three-minute trip about 9:00 a.m. By the time I got there I was pleased to see absolutely no one in the waiting room. I’ve never been through the Instacare so quickly! I saw the doctor, had x-rays, was fitted with a split, given a prescription, and told I’d be fine in a few days, all in about 40 minutes. That’s got to be a record! That’s right; no break this time. The splint is a little annoying, but the swelling is going down, so that’s good.

I’ve told you before that I love basketball! I played for two years on my high school team and then didn’t play for about 20 or so years. Then I got this new church calling that put me in charge of women’s sports. The first day I walked into the church and saw those women play, I turned around and walked back out. The woman who was in charge chased me down the hall and coaxed me back in. I was absolutely terrified! Somebody said, “You can just watch this time…you don’t have to play.” I sat on the fringe of the group. Other than my leader who chased me down, I didn’t know anyone. After a couple of minutes, I pulled on a jersey and announced to no one in particular, “Well, I’m going in.  If I don’t try it, I’ll never come back.” So in I went. And it was fun! I don’t think I made any points, but I got a couple of rebounds and I didn’t fall down or foul out or anything.
After that it was like an addiction. I loved the way the exercise made my body feel. Even though it made me desperately tired, I knew it was the right thing for me. You are probably wondering why I started talking about basketball when I was telling you about my thumb. I’ve been playing basketball for nearly five years now and I break a finger every season! And it’s not usually the same finger either. The first two I broke were the middle fingers, which is pretty logical since I usually end up playing Center. I’m only 5’8”, but that’s tall in our league. Then I broke my ring-finger…twice. First in the upper knuckle, then in the lower knuckle. I figure it’s just part of the game.

And I don't break just my own bones...The Gym Rat is super-tall (about 6’6”), so I was terribly excited to get him to play volleyball with me. The very first time I convinced him to show up he managed to break his finger. But he was too busy working and playing to bother going to the doctor. About six weeks passed and by then I had forgotten all about it. Then he showed it to me. I immediately got on the phone and called my hand specialist. His knuckle was collapsing. The answer was surgery and a pin…the next day!

Actual pin! Nasty!

He survived the surgery OK, but as he was sitting in the recovery room, the doctor told him that working around paint (he works for KWAL Paint) wouldn’t be a good idea and he was going to have to take 6 weeks off until they took the pin out. This didn’t set well with my son. So of course he went back to work within a few days. They let him do the easy stuff since any paint on the pin sticking directly out of the end of his finger would have gone directly into his bone and his bloodstream and he would have died within a few hours! Talk about a little extra stress I didn’t need! But all went well and he had the pin pulled out right on schedule. I’m grateful that I’ve never had to have any of that, but I have a few more broken bone stories I’ll share with you tomorrow.

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!

Teach

Teach

I have eight wonderful and amazing daughters, in fact, Baby Doll finally broke through with her first tooth yesterday! I found it when I went after the piece of paper she was eating. She’s very proud of herself. The kids thought it was so cool I caught them feeding her full pasta shells for dinner. (I put a stop to that in a hurry…). But this post is actually about daughter number four.

Teach is turning 20 today. She has a unique way of looking at life. Her take on it is that she is entering her third decade (not getting out of her teens). She was born in 1991 on a warm spring day (I’ll tell you her birth story another time) with a sunny disposition. She was the girl who always got the citizenship award for being nice to everyone. She and the Drama Queen were the best of friends when they were little. They played on the same soccer teams and the same Jr. Jazz teams (I wrote a story about that once, remember?).

First Grade

As they got a little older, they headed in slightly different directions. Teach started spinning flags for the Marching Band. She spent a year in the Drama Club, but she was better suited to FCCLA. She loved working with kids and it was about that time that she decided she wanted to be a preschool teacher. She taught in her high school preschool for two years and became an officer in FCCLA. She was a super-over-achiever even though she didn’t really want to be. Her senior year was almost impossible, but she pulled it off somehow. Besides being an FCCLA officer, the Colorguard Captain, and the Sterling Scholar for the FACS department, she managed to earn her Girl Scout Gold Award and finish her Associates Degree! That gave her mostly a free ride for her final two years of schooling at any university in Utah.

She applied for 27 scholarships and received several choices. As of this moment, she has actually saved nearly $4000.00 because she chose to live mostly at home while attending school. She was notified just a few days ago that they were renewing her scholarship for next year even though all of her coursework is finished. Now she won’t have to pay for fall semester while she does her student teaching. Yes, she did accomplish that goal and she is almost a real elementary school teacher.

She is extremely goal-oriented, but also a known procrastinator. She is kind and unselfish with her time, talents, and resources. She is a committee member for the Relay for Life group. She has been volunteering with that group for about five years now. To donate click here. She also earned an AmeriCorps scholarship for all of her service work. She got a Cricut (paper cutting machine similar to diecuts) for Christmas a couple of years ago and she actually cried because she was so happy! Last night she stayed up until almost 3:00 am making cards for Prima Donna’s birthday party.

You all know the Dog Walker is Autistic and she has always been very protective and helpful with him. She humors him when he wants to volunteer in his elementary school cluster, and she will spend hours assisting him with homework or whatever he wants to do. Her mode of transportation is a cute little blue Beetle that gives her no end of grief. Our mechanic says it has a gremlin in it…She is my personal shopper…oh, did I mention that she also held down a job while she has been doing all this other stuff? She works at our local grocery store (which I love because I get a discount!) and I am constantly asking her to bring home milk, bread, bananas, whatever. She doesn’t complain and I’m sure she sometimes conveniently loses some of the receipts before I can reimburse her.

She is one of my favorite texting pals and now we are also blogging buddies. (Check out her button!) She and Curly are the best of friends and she has taught him way more than I have. She is one of my bestest friends and closest confidantes. I love her to pieces and appreciate her more than she will ever know. Happy birthday, Teach.

Food for Thought: Broccoli Salad

We live in a charmed neighborhood. Most of us moved in here about the same time, 17 or 18 years ago. Then we all had little kids (not just me) and our Primary group was huge! We were able to arrange a boys’ Jr. Jazz team just from our neighborhood. (That’s ten boys of the same age if you are counting…) My sweetie was the Cubmaster, and he was in charge of a couple dozen cub scouts and their monthly activities. I had a bunch of the girls in my girl scout troop.

It was so fun, but amazingly hard to sell cookies since we all lived so close together. That’s when the neighborhood traditions started…Christmas parties, a barbecue, for a while there was an ice cream party every weekend. At one point we even produced a neighborhood cookbook. I love this book because whenever I want a recipe from a party or potluck, if I just look, usually it’s in there. And often it comes in five or six variations! I’ve also discovered some real gems in there that have become part of our family favorites.

I had never had broccoli salad before I moved here and my brothers and sisters thought it was pretty weird when I set it on the table at our extended family gathering. Then they tried it and it got rave reviews. We made a big batch of it for Bossy’s graduation party (even though she hates raisins!) and I’m pretty sure it was the first one gone. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Broccoli Salad
3 lbs broccoli, finely chopped
1 small red onion (it really needs to be red, white/yellow have a different flavor) (chopped)
1 1/2 cup raisins
1 lb of bacon, cooked and chopped
1 cup shelled sunflower seeds

Dressing:
2 cups mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
½ cup sugar
2 tbsp regular white vinegar

In a large bowl, combine broccoli, red onion, raisins, and bacon.

In a small bowl, combine mayo, sugar, and vinegar.

Just before serving, toss dressing with salad, then sprinkle with sunflower seeds.