Backwards - Summer's Sixty Surprise

On August 7th, my mother turned 60 years young. The day before, Saturday August 6th, we had a surprise party for her. My sister Kristy and her family were still in town and were able to be there for the party.

Thankfully we live in a place where we could see my mom and Lauren (who was also surprised) coming from a long way away. We had the kids posted upstairs as our lookout. At first sign of their red van, they gave the signal and we all took our hiding places.

SURPRISE!!!!

(nice arm in front of the camera)

DOUBLE SURPRISE!!!

My mom's grill stopped working over a year ago and she has been wanting a new one ever since. Several of us went in on this gift which she loves and uses all the time now.

TRIPLE SURPRISE!!!

My mom's Aunts from Idaho made the journey for the special occasion.

Uncle Buck, Karen, Aunt June, Zac and Steve
Kristy, Scott and Kathy
Addy, Sara and Patrick
Shelley, Derron, Verdene, Darlene, RaeDean, Kay and Carla

Kathy and Amber

The Cake

The whole PAR-TAY gang

Thank you so much to everyone who came to the party and made the day so special for my mom. At the party, we presented her with a notebook full of pictures and letters from friends in far away places. So thank you to everyone who sent your letters. It meant so much to my mom.

What's with the "Backwards" title? Click here.

P8FHE

Last Monday, September 19th, we had a neighborhood Family Home Evening. It was so much fun. I loved getting together with our neighbors and watching all the kids play. I LOVE my neighborhood AND my neighbors. I feel so blessed to live in this place.

After dinner we all gathered around to hear Brother Foster play his saw. It was so awesome. He did a song from Phantom, among others, and the kids and adults loved it! He is quite the entertainer.

Monday Morning Musings - Duck!

We have a bit of rollerblade mania going on around here. It all started a few weeks ago when Aubrey's friend gave her a pair of rollerblades that one of her twin sisters had outgrown. She has been on wheels ever since. Then last week while Zac was mowing my mom's lawn, he found my dad's rollerblades in the garage. So he has been on wheels ever since. Then on Saturday on a whim, I stopped at a garage sale and found a pair of rollerblades in Emily's size. So since Saturday, she has been on wheels. Now Addy and I need our own pair of blades so we can keep up. While I was at the garage sale, I found these cute boots (above) for Emily. They look like they have never been worn and I paid a whoppin' $1 for each pair.

We also have a bit of Duct/Duck Tape mania going on around here. On Saturday I took my sister Lauren and my girls to a class at the library where they taught us how to make an assortment of items with Duck Tape. First, let me say, there are some crazy Duck Tape people out there. There was a girl at the class with a Duck Tape vest on. Another with a Duck Tape baseball cap and one with a Santa hat. Second, let me say, 10 million people, not enough rolls of tape, not enough table room, and me with 3 people who needed my help to make projects. It was a super fun time. Especially when you spent 20 minutes working on something and then the tape got stuck together and you couldn't fix it and had to start over.

On the way home, we stopped at Home Depot and bought some tape and after church yesterday came up with some lovely creations. We made notebooks/journals, cell phone cases, greeting cards, wallets, purses, rings and bracelets.

So when Addy is home alone with me and wants to watch TV, she always wants to watch Sponge Bob. I always tell her no, she has to watch a show that teaches her something (hey, I have to relieve my guilt somehow). So the past few days, she has started telling me it is OK for her to watch S. Bob because it teaches her how to swim and how to breath and talk underwater. Good try Addy, good try.

I am so proud of Emily who has joined a youth neighborhood running group that my neighbor started. She ran her first 5K on Saturday and will run her 2nd next Saturday.

The other day Aubrey was doing her homework and she asked, "What's another name for a donkey?" Emily and Steve and I just looked at each other and started laughing. I was like, what kind of homework are you doing over there Aubrey? The word she was looking for was mule. Mule.

So Sunday was our Primary Program at church. This is where all the kids (100+ in our ward) sing the songs and share what they have been learning all year with the congregation. So I am in charge of the program for our ward. Not the program, program. But the piece of paper that tells you what is happening, program. I finished printing and folding on Saturday night around 11 PM. Usually when I am in charge of a big project or activity, I have nightmares all night the night before that everything goes wrong. For some reason, even though I wasn't in charge of the Program, but was only in charge of the program, I had nightmares all night long that there were all kinds of problems with my programs. At one point, when I was trying to pass them out (even thought that isn't my job) Addy was running down the aisle and tripped and fell and started screaming and crying. I couldn't leave the door and no one else was helping her so I yelled (in the middle of Sacrament Meeting) "Stephen! Pick her up!" Well apparently, I really did yell that out loud in for real life because when I woke up and we were getting ready for church, Steve asked me why I yelled that at him in my sleep.

Today Addy and I were making lunch and she was putting enough mustard on her sandwich to cover about 5 sandwiches. I started helping her and she got mad at me and said, "Don't worry, I know how to make a sandwich mom! I have a license to make sandwiches!"

While we were eating lunch a deer came running through our yard. It comes through every once in a while on it's way to my neighbors house where it eats her garden. I haven't seen it since we put up our fence, so when it got to the fence I was a little nervous. But it didn't even pause, just gracefully jumped right over it.

Backwards - Do Fence Me In

What's with the "Backwards" title? This: I am so far behind on posts so I am going to be working my way backward through my pictures, posting as I go, in an effort to catch up. But, in an effort to not get behind more than I already am, I will also be posting things from the present. To differentiate between past and present, I am calling the old stuff "Backwards". So here it goes with my first backward post.

You know we have (had-speaking from the present) a dog problem. Not that we own a dog and have a problem with it, we just have a problem with other peoples dogs. Especially when they try to eat our chickens. Our property boarders a trail. People like to walk their dogs without a leash on this trail. Dogs - leash + chickens = dead chickens. I was reaching the end of my rope with the chicken attacks and I didn't know what to do. Thankfully someone threw me a new rope.

We have the best Home Teacher, and in August, he took Home Teaching to a whole new level. One morning my kids came running into where I was and said, "Mom! Brother Heberling is out back digging holes in our yard!" I looked out the window, and sure enough, Brother Heberling was out back digging holes in our yard. He was there to put an end to our dog attacks.

Every morning for an entire week he showed up bright and early at my house and he and I worked together to put up a fence between the trail and our yard. I LOVE my new fence! It makes such a difference in our lives. You wouldn't think a fence could make such a difference, but it does. Just being in my yard now, I feel so much more secure. People walk down that trial all day long and now they can't just walk right off the trail and into my yard. And when we see dogs go by without a leash, there is no more panic and mass hysteria like there used to be. My greatest fear was that Addy would be outside playing and a dog would start attacking the chickens and she would be right in the middle of it.

Thank you Mike for going above and beyond the call of duty and for helping make life around here so much safer for humans and chickens alike!

PS: I do have a picture of me wielding a chain saw, cutting off the tops of the fence posts. However I choose not to post because I look especially nasty in the picture. But just know: This chick can use a chain saw!

Monday Morning Musings - Constitutionally Speaking

Saturday night we were able to go to a Constitution Day Celebration. We took Zac and Emily with us. (Thanks mom for watching the other two!) We me our neighbors and friends the Fosters there. Thank for saving us great seats!

We were blessed to be able to hear David Barton (Whom I ♥) from Wall Builders speak.

Here is just one quote from a Founding Father he shared: "[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. " - John Adams

For more quotes from our Founding Fathers on the Importance of Morality and Religion in Government, click here.

To see a portion of a US Capitol tour with David, click here.

Quack!

Ahhh...nothing like being jolted awake at the first sign of light on a Saturday morning by the sound of 10,000 guns going off in your back yard. Yes. It's that time of year again. I knew it was getting close on Friday when I heard the swamp boats all day long. ALL DAY LONG. You know what that sound does to me?

IT MAKES ME

CRAZY!

CRAZY I SAY!!! Why, you might be asking, does the sound of swamp boats make you crazy? I could tell you, or you could just read it in this old post of mine. I've included it below, for your reading enjoyment. If you care to see the original post, clickity click here.


Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Psychological Effects Of The Duck Hunt On A Slightly Crazy Lady

I don't know if today is the last Saturday of the season or not, but there is an over abundance of gunfire in my back yard this morning. It is almost as bad as opening day. I remember opening day. I went for an early morning walk and some people stopped to ask me directions and I was afraid to stop moving long enough to help them for fear of being a "sitting duck". Must keep moving, must keep moving. That's what I kept repeating in my head. A moving target is harder to hit, right?

So for the entire moth of October, I have been hearing gunfire and swamp boats, all day every day. They wake me up every morning. And it really grates on my last nerve to hear it. I'm not kidding you. It irritates the you know what right out of me. So the other day I was digging down deep within my soul to determine what exactly it is about the duck hunt that bothers me so much. Is it the fact that some days I feel like I live in a war zone? No. Is it the fact that I live in a beautiful place surrounded by all kinds of beautiful birds who have a sanctuary right down the street from me and if the poor birds choose to fly over the wrong side of the fence, they are gunned down? No. So then, what is it, you ask? That bothers you so much. Well, to get you to really understand, I first must tell you the story of a grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man. This is his story. It is my story too.

This is our 2nd duck hunting season in our new house. Before we moved here, we lived for 12 years in our old house. And right next door to us lived a grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man. Exaggerate you say? No. No.

This man irritated me every single day for 12 years. He was retired, so he was home all day, and therefore had plenty of time to plan and plot ways to get on my last nerve. We had a little wall that ran down the length of our front yard, separating our lawn from his. It was the perfect height and width for little kids to climb and play on. But only if they didn't have grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man living next door. "GET OFF THE WALL! GET OFF THE WALL!" We would hear if the kids even looked like they might try to scale the thing.

One year, he cut down every deciduous tree in his yard. All he had left were bushes and plants that kept their leaves all year long. We had a tree that was right on our side of the property line. I know that that tree was the bane of his existence (which secretly made me very happy). How do I know? Because I would stand at my kitchen window every fall day and watch his own personal battle with this tree. Every day he would be out there raking up the leaves that fell or blew on his side of the yard. But before he would start to rake them up he would take his rake, hold it up to the tree and try to shake off any leaves that were just barely holding on for dear life and might fall upon his yard later that day. One day, I looked out my window and he had a step ladder and a saw and was actually cutting branches off my tree.

That's what he did to make me crazy in the fall. What was his choice of irritation in the spring and summer? His lawn mower. But it wasn't just him, it was also the grumpy old shirt wearing obsessive lawn mowing man who lived across the street from him. They had this unspoken lawn mowing battle going on between them. The shirtless one (I call him this because he never wears a shirt when he mows his lawn. And he is like 75 years old.) mows his lawn on a perfect diagonal. The shirt wearing one makes 2 passes on his lawn, once going horizontally the next pass vertical. Therefore making a perfect grid pattern. If those things are not enough to get on your nerves when you are lucky if your lawn gets mowed before the grass reaches knee level, they mow like every third day. And it cracks me up to watch it. I will hear one of them start their mower up and like clockwork, within 15-20 minutes, the other one is out there mowing his lawn. The one not to be outdone by the other.

We've covered fall, spring and summer. What about winter, you ask? What about winter....Well, one Christmas I decided that we needed to make an effort to befriend the neighbors we had that we didn't know very well. So I made a little gift bag to take around to them. For Family Home Evening we had a lesson about how we should love our neighbors (even the grumpy old shirtless kind who might behead you if you touch the wall). The kids were all excited and so we bundled up and set out, gifts in hand. We rang grumpy old shirtless man's doorbell and waited for him to answer. I was hoping his wife would answer. But alas, she did not, and there he stood looking at us with his grumpy old man look. We said a chorus of "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" One of the kids handed him the gift bag which he would not take until they shoved it into his hands. He looked down at it with his grumpy old man look and then with his grumpy old man voice said, "What's this?" We said, "It's just a little gift from us to wish you a Merry Christmas". He shoved the bag back at us said, "WE DON'T WANT IT!" and slammed the door in our faces. WELL MERRY FREAKIN' CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO! That's what I felt like screaming, after the initial shock wore off. My kids were so young, they about cried. They had no idea what had just happened.

What exactly does this have to do with ducks? What this has to do with ducks is this. Mr. Grump, he is a duck hunter. And he has a swamp boat. And he would do something with it, clean it or fix it or just start it up for fun and let it run forever. All the time. Right next to my bedroom window. At 6:00 in the morning. If the swamp boats are so loud that they wake me up in this house when they are miles and miles away, how loud do you think that thing was outside my bedroom window? At 6 am? Deafening.

This is what bothers me about Duck Hunting Season. I know, with all my heart, when I hear those swamp boats off in the distance. I know, without a doubt in my mind, that in my brand new home and personal sanctuary, that right out behind me sitting in his boat, is grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man. And in my heart of hearts I know, impossible as it might be, I know that he knows I am here. And he knows that I can hear him. And he knows that it bothers me. And that is what makes me crazy outta my head when I hear it. It's like now, forever for the whole rest of my life grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man will forever haunt me, even after he leaves this earth. Every October. He will be there.

The 5 Day Birthday

Zac turned 14 on September 2nd. He was able to celebrate his Birthday for 5 whole days! It started on Thursday, September 1st. He was leaving that night to go out of town so we woke him up the day before his Birthday by singing Happy Birthday to him. And we let him open his presents that morning before he went to school. That night, after the adults got home from the Temple (click here for that post), Steve and Zac and my brother Sam all loaded up their ATV's and set off with some friends to go to Beaver for the weekend. Here are some of the pictures Steve took while they were there.

Something he caught along the trail
A closer look

Eating dinner after riding 50 miles in a day

The boys got home late Saturday night. The next day in church Zac was ordained a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. After church my family came over and we celebrated his Birthday once again. My mom made him this delicious banana cake with homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting.

The next day, Monday-Labor Day (Zac was born the day after Labor Day and I remember all Labor Day praying that I would go into labor. Just to spite me, I went into labor at 12:30 am, 30 minutes after Labor Day officially ended.), we let Zac have some friends over to play video games for a few hours. We had pizza for lunch. Then we went swimming with Sam and Teresa and then went to my mom's house for dinner. Click here to see that post. It was a fun long Birthday for him.

Monday Morning Musings Take Two

Someone really should come up with some kind of Monday Morning Musings title for me with all T's. Since pretty much every MMM I do is on a Tuesday lately. Totally Terrific Tuesday Talk or something. In defense of this MMM, it did start out on Monday, however that post turned into something else entirely. So here we are on our second go round. I'll try not to be so philosophical this time. So if you read my other post, you know that on Saturday we went to this park and saw this statue. My kids were fascinated with it. The detail is so fantastic. They were getting all up close to it and were amazed at how real and detailed everything was from his gun to his shoelaces that were flapping in the breeze to the stitching on his clothes to the texture of his skin.

My mom and Lauren met us at the park and we had lunch with them there. Some of us even got a little nap in.

Aubrey spent most of her time at the park on this balance board. She is pretty good at it. I think the longest she stayed balanced was 26 seconds. Much longer than anyone else. Some of us, who shall remain nameless, had a hard time staying balanced for more than 3 seconds.

Emily
Zac

Addy, who has the ability to make friends wherever she goes made new best friends at the park. And why climb up the climbing wall on the playground when you can climb real rock walls in the pavillion?

Em and Addy

After we left the park we had to stop by Target to return some running shoes I bought for Emily, which were a whole size and a half too small. (She is in a youth running group that my neighbor started. They run 3 times a week and are training for a 5K in October.) Her feet must have grown since we bought her new school shoes just a few weeks ago. Her feet are officially bigger than mine now! Anyhoo, while Em and I were taking care of the shoe stuff, Steve and the other kids were playing around in the store. We found them pumping iron in the fitness section. OK, little Miss Aubrey has some muskles on her skinny little self!

Trying on bike helmets

All my kids love to read. But Zac is a reading maniac. Maniac I say! He has read all the Harry Potter books several times. Last week he finished the book he was reading and we didn't have anything new for him to read and it was too late to go to the library. So he read a Harry Potter book (for the bazillionth time) just to fill in until he could get a new book. I asked him, why start that book now when he can go to the library tomorrow and get something else. Well, by the next night, he had finished the whole thing. I got him 2 new books from the library and he finished both of those in a day and a half. It reminded me of when I was about his age and I was reading all the time too. I always had a book in my hand. And I would go through them like nuthin'. I have this memory of spending the day with my grandpa and reading (I'm so embarrassed to tell you what I was reading. OK. Sweet Valley High. There, I said it.) like crazy. I finished the book I was on and he took me to the store to buy another one. Later that day I finished that one and when I told him I had finished and asked him if we could go get the next book in the series he just sighed and said, "OK, let's go get in the car". And he took me to the store for the second time in that day to buy the next book in the SVH series.

Addy and I have decided to do Home School Pre School this year. It has really been a lot of fun so far. Here she is painting a picture at school. She explained to me how artists have a paint pallet and how they have to hold it. She then demonstrated and made me go get my camera so I could photograph the demonstration.






A few weeks ago I was sitting at the computer and I was on Facebook. Addy came and this is what she said, I am copying and pasting this from my dad's wall on FB:

"Mom, can you go to Papa's page, I need to text him something" Addy loves Papa. You're the best. Grandma loves you. And I miss you. I love you Papa. You were the best. Love, Addy. Love to Papa. "Hee Hee. Papa's gonna freak when he sees this!"

You know how it's my self appointed job to document all the strange and awesome things I see happening in our neighborhood? So this is something that happened a few weeks ago. It was early one morning. I looked out the window and could see all these hot air balloons. I made the mistake of pointing them out to my kids because instead of getting ready for school that morning, they just wanted to sit and watch these.

So my friend and neighbor April and I have been training for our wards Relief Society 2nd annual 5K by walking the kids to school every morning. I'm just kidding. There is no training going on during those walks, unless you count training for the end of the world. Which we are doing pretty good at that with our "Doom and Gloom" talks we have on a regualr basis. We are thinking about starting a club and having our own newsletter titled, "Doom and Gloom". It's gonna be great! Anyway. We did have a little neighborhood 5K last Saturday in which April and I participated in by walking. OK. It was so much fun. Who knew a 5K could be fun? It was fun thanks in part to our FANTASTIC and ever so HILARIOUS Relief Society President:
So, she and her presidency thought it would be funny to take pictures of themselves dressed in these hot spandex get ups and place them along the route. I thought it would be funny to play a little practical joke on the RS President, so I had someone send me a copy of this picture of her. And since I am in charge of the program for our ward on Sunday I made a real program for everyone else and I made two special ones for her with this picture on the front. I gave them to the boys who were standing at the chapel doors on either side passing the programs out. When she walked in they handed it to her. She happened to walk in the door just as Sacrament Meeting was starting and Zac is the one who handed her the program. She walked a few steps, looked at the program and then turned around and glared at me. It was kinda funny.





Anyway, like I said, the 5K was so fun. But it was more than fun. We had a very special moment along the way. At a certain time during the route, we all stopped and made our way to a sisters home in our ward. Her husband had just passed away the day before. Our group of Relief Society sisters went to her house Saturday morning and we sang the song "As Sisters In Zion" to her. It was a wonderful, spiritual experience as this group of ladies and friends gathered in our sisters house as she was grieving and sang that song to her. It made me so thankful to belong to such a wonderful organization of women that does so much good throughout the world. I was just having a discussion last month with my visiting teaching companion and one of the ladies we visit. We were talking about the Relief Society and how we ourselves can't change the world. But as a part of the Relief Society as a whole, which is a Society that is found throughout the world, if we do our part by helping those around us by giving love and support and help and relief, we can change the world. I was so thankful that I had that opportunity Saturday morning to stand in that room full of some of the greatest women I know and in a small way offer love and support to a sister who was suffering.