My Jazzy Birthday

 I know you are all just dying to know how I spent my birthday, but since I didn't get to sleep in much yesterday, I took advantage today and didn't drag myself out until about 10:00. Yeah, my sweetie is amazing! He ran the carpool for me this morning and got the elementary kids out the door so I could just turn off the alarm.

 

So a few weeks ago after one of our Jr. Jazz games, I was handed an envelope with tickets for an actual Jazz game for the team. The first thing I noticed as I pulled them out was that the game was scheduled for my birthday. Since it's a rare day that my family can afford to see a professional sports team, I knew that I would be spending my birthday that way. As the head coach, I got two tickets and Crafty got two tickets. As it turned out, Sport and Scout also had tickets to the same game. Since teams weren't sitting together anyway and my tickets were scattered, I kept six that were together and handed off the others to my team. That meant we could take all the kids living at home except the Drama Queen and Teach since Curly and Baby Doll didn't need tickets. Then yesterday morning, we got two more tickets from one of the girls who couldn't go. Thankfully, they happened to be on the same row as the six I kept.

So just before six o'clock, we piled all twelve of us in the van and

we were off. We left the house in plenty of time to get downtown, but the freeway was packed and traffic was barely moving so we took State street for a mile or so and when we finally got downtown, the game had already started. We were driving our big white van and I didn't want to have to walk very far with all the little ones, so I directed my sweetie to the closest $10 lot we could find. They happened to have ONE parking spot left right in front that could accommodate a van the size of ours.

 

We hustled everyone to the crosswalk and across the busy road. We stood in line at the door for several moments and then got everyone checked in. We tossed our keys and phones into a little plastic box as we entered the metal detector and then we waited for Sport to unload the half dozen Hot Wheels cars he had in his pocket.

I knew that Sport's tickets were for another section, but I didn't realize that they were on the completely opposite side of the arena. I had planned to have the Dog Walker sit with him, but since I had all the older girls, I sent my sweetie to hang out with the boys. We partnered up and climbed the steep stairs to our seats. Baby Doll was restless and unhappy from the get-go. Curly couldn't sit still for 30 seconds at a time. We kept passing the two of them up and down the row to keep them occupied.

Sometime during the second quarter, they were tossing t-shirts into the crowd and I had to grab the Prima Donna's shirt to keep her from falling when the parachute landed two rows in front of us. It's a rare day when the nose-bleed seats get any freebies! Later in the game, the section right next to ours was given little yellow boxes when they were chosen "Lucky Section of the Game." One lady tossed her box to the Dog Walker. He was so excited when he pulled out a wrinkled Jazz shirt. Crafty pulled it on over her shirt since it was too small for the Dog Walker and wore it proudly for the rest of the evening. She even tied her coat around her waist so it was still visible when we were leaving the building.

The Jazz lost the game in a double-overtime and we were late getting home, but the kids had fun and we ate ice cream around the kitchen table while I finished reading them the last two chapters of a book Crafty needed to read for school.

We'll have a real party with cake and everything on Sunday when we can get all the kids and Grandpa here, but for now, this birthday turned out just right.

 

PS. Thanks for all of your sweet birthday wishes! It's so nice to have friends.

47 Years

It's my birthday today.

I'm 47 years old. Where did the time go?

Make a wish!

We've always had chemistry

 


Some days I remember 17 so clearly. I was a senior at Manti high school with an amazing GPA and a small part of myself in half a dozen projects. I was in the chamber choir, a member of the Close Up team, on the youth city council, a writer for the local newspaper, yearbook staff, AND I was also a Sophomore at Snow College leading a totally separate life. I was the Feature Page editor for the school paper we published every other week; on two scholarships while I was still in high school. And I ran myself 20 hours a day...played hard, worked hard, still managed to meet and fall in love with my sweetie, dreamed of running away, and only slept on the weekends.

Me with Little, Snoozin' Drama Queen. 

 
When I was 27, I was working three jobs and had 4 little ones at home. I hardly saw them. I worked for 8 hours in the office, then ran home to grab a bite, say hello to the tiny strangers around my dinner table, kiss my sweetie in passing, and then it was off to a Tupperware party, some training meeting, or a writing class I was teaching. At the very least, I was making cold calls and trying to keep my business afloat and take care of the 50+ consultants who were on my team. We just couldn't risk losing the van Tupperware had given us. Sleep was precious and I loved snuggling with those little ones on early Sunday mornings, still dreaming of running away together, but then the phone would ring...

Look at my teeny Prima Donna!

By 37 I was much older and wiser. I was up to 8 kids and enjoying motherhood, even the teenager part. Bossy was the senior in high school. Crafty was 1. I had shed the jobs one by one and even most of the volunteer positions. My sweetie sat me down and taught me how to say the word, "NO!" when someone asked me to run the PTA, the Reflections program, or the Girl Scouts Service Unit. Involvement was good, but only up to a certain point. My kids were no longer strangers (a little strange, maybe), and we loved just playing and being together. We figured out the running away part and enjoyed our first real family vacations by taking a trip to San Francisco. Sleep was still elusive, but then I wasn't quite so tired either.



And now here I am at 47.


A grandma, momof12, blogger, Tupperware lady (again!), wife, daughter, scout leader, coach, teacher, friend. I think my personality requires many hats and many activities. I still don't know if I'm doing it right, but I'm doing it! I hate dragging myself out of bed every morning, but I'm grateful that I CAN still get out of bed every morning. I love being a mom and I wish I would have learned at 27 that family was the most important thing. I'm pretty sure I always knew, but somewhere along the line my little ones were simply another box to check off on my to-do list. Thankfully that was a short lesson that I have mostly learned. (Although late at night when I am checking in with my blogging friends, I kind of wonder if I've really learned it that well...).

I still dream of running away, but now I always want to take everyone with me. And I still love snuggling in bed on a cold January morning. And I don't care if the phone rings...

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.

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.