Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

Loved it! So I just read the book entitled Can't Wait to Get to Heaven today. Yes, I read the entire book today. This is why I do not read very often because I cannot put the book down until it is finished which means the rest of my life suffers...my kids, my house, and meals. Anyway, I highly recommend this lighthearted book. The author, Fannie Flagg, also wrote Fried Green Tomatoes. Aunt Elner is hilarious! I found myself laughing out loud for most of the book. Yes, there may be a few tender moments but all in all it is a book that will keep you laughing.

service=sacrifice

Yes, this is not a new concept but it is certainly became very clear to me the other day when I went visiting teaching. Our appts were scheduled for between 2:15 and 4:00 and Reed gets out of school at 3:00. I was hoping Colby would be able to pick him up but Colby was out of town that day. I decided I would just take Reed out of school early so I wouldn't have to go in between appts. We arrived at Reed's school and I ran in and to get Reed. Well, I technically did not run because I had Blue, Beau and Tate to get out of the car. Oh, ya, did I mention I was watching Tate (a friend's two year old) for the day? So ten minutes later my entourage makes it to the front office. We now head to Reed's classroom only to discover that his class is not there but at "the lab". We find "the lab" and Reed is not pleased to see us for I forgot to prep Reed about this change in his schedule when I dropped him off for school that morning. After convincing him to come with us, we finally get in the car. By now, I have gotten a good workout from carrying Beau all around Reed's school and chasing after Tate to make sure he didn't run into any other classroom or the parking lot. My companion and I visit three girls who live in the same apartment complex- I know you're thinking that's a bonus. Yes, except for the fact that there are 20 buildings and none of them live in the same building. While we are visiting the first girl, I discover that Reed has a fever and is being ever so pleasant. At the next girl's place I go ahead and make a fool of myself with every word that comes out of my mouth. Topics of discussion: Building a house and expensive haircuts. I won't go into detail, but pretty awkward. The third sister that we visit lives on the third floor, yes that means three flights of stairs. Do you remember from a previous post that Reed is afraid of heights? I must have been quite a sight to see... I was carrying Beau and holding the hands of Reed AND Blue. Thankfully, my companion was willing to hold Tate's hand. When we were done with all of the appts I was completely embarrassed and exhausted. Is service supposed to be this painful?

forbidden food

This afternoon Reed and Blue were eating popcorn for a snack. Beau was wandering around the kitchen and would beg for a kernel every so often. I was upstairs when I heard Beau start to gag. I ran downstairs, thinking he was choking on a popcorn kernel. Nope! He had a dishwasher tablet (you know the little concentrated pacs?) in his little grubby paw. He was successful at gnawing it open but was very disappointed in the taste of it. Luckily most of the pack was all over the floor and his clothes instead of in his mouth. He has been trying to get one of these from underneath the sink for quite some time now. Hopefully this has cured his curiosity. Nevertheless, I am going to have to think of another place to store the rest of the box.

60%

60% of back up accidents are caused by large vehicles (trucks, vans, and suvs). No, Lance, I did not make up this statistic- but the website I got it from might have. Anyway, I was a statistic the other day. I was trying to make a three point turn and in my second point I backed right into a concrete mailbox! Of course I quickly pulled to the side and got out to assess the damage. Luckily the only damage was to the outer casing of my back lights and a few scrapes to my bumper. I did not cry (until I called Colby to tell him what happened, of course) but I was mostly frustrated. This should not have happened because... I have a back up camera that is supposed to prevent incidents like this. Ironic, I know.
While I am on the subject of driving, let me just mention that I am grateful that we were driving northbound on I-17 today instead of southbound. We noticed traffic was backing up just outside of Anthem (just north of Phoenix) on the other side of the highway. I am not sure if it was an accident or what but the traffic continued to be at a stand still or a very slow crawl past Black Canyon City, through the mountains, past Sunset Point rest area and almost to Cordes Junction. That is a 30+ mile back up! I am soooo glad we were not coming home to the valley but leaving the valley to come home.
Now let me just mention why we were in the valley. Casey came home from his mission Friday night! It was quite a party weekend! We had a dinner Saturday night at Channy's house. Everyone was in attendance, including Jeff and Pam and Cameron. If you can imagine roughly 35 people hovering around you asking lots and lots of questions, I am sure that is how Casey felt. Maybe just a little bit of overload, not to mention the serious jet lag he was experiencing from his flight from Sweden. All in all, it was great to see him... oh and as always, great to see everyone else too:)

m&m's

I usually keep a small stash of candy in my car for emergencies- not for me but for my children. While gassing up this morning Blue found a pack of M&M's I had hidden. He was shoveling them into his mouth as fast as he could before I noticed. I told him that he couldn't eat anymore of them. The pack was actually one of those tubes of mini M&M's, which is a pretty cool toy in the eyes of my boys. So Blue said he wouldn't eat them anymore, he just wanted to hold the tube. By now we were at the bank. Blue stuck the tube in his pocket and I reminded him about no more eating. While I did my banking business at the teller window Blue sat on one of the couches. I would glance over at him every so often just to make sure he wasn't jumping on the couches (which has happened there in the past). He would just wave and smile at me. I was so pleased that he was behaving. Well, as we were walking out of the bank Blue says, "Sorry, mom, I ate all the M&M's. I just couldn't help it. They were so chocolaty!"

it has come to this

So when I started this blogging thing I was sure I would never run out of things to post. But here I am, it has been a week and I can't think of anything to post that I haven't already talked about, such as, the dialog between Reed and Blue when we drop off Reed (it is getting longer each day, which in turn holds up the line of all the other parents waiting to drop off their kids). Star Wars and High School Musical have both been the subject of my posts but here is something a little twist: lately when I ask Blue what he's doing he responds, "Oh, just playing Star Wars-High School Musical." I'm not real sure how it works... Hans finally gets to sing his solo? or Troy's swing is a lot straighter when he uses the force? Only Blue knows. Beau and his crib has also already been a topic. But here we go again. So Beau no longer chews on his crib. He now likes to stick his legs in between the slats to the point of getting them stuck. Sometimes it is both legs and he is sitting there or sometimes he is stuck on his stomach with a leg wedged between the bars. Either way, he is learning that if they get stuck and he screams loud enough and long enough eventually I have to come in and rescue him. I usually feel bad for him and instead of leaving him in his crib to go to sleep, I will take him out and let him stay up a little longer. I had no idea that swindling and scamming could start at such a young age.

what year was it?

You take today’s date and add those two numbers together. With your answer add the number of children Cliff and Cathy have. Then add how many son/daughter in laws they have. Now add their grandchildren. Here comes the tricky part. Count how many different cities they lived in (not how many times they moved, just the number of cities). Add this number and your running total and you get the year Cliff and Cathy were married. Now subtract the first digit of your number from the second digit and you get two. What do you know… All because two people fell in love, (okay, Chea may have already used this line but I was thinking about using it before she did.)
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

finger foods

So many different foods fall into the category of finger foods such as bacon wraps, bruchetta, chicken nuggets and so forth. Well our family has a different view of finger foods. For example, Beau considers anything you place on his high chair a finger food. From spaghetti to waffles (with syrup, of course) to yogurt, he holds a utensil in one hand and then eats with the other hand. It can get pretty messy. Reed isn't a huge fan of finger food mostly because they get his fingers sticky. Now I thought he inherited this particular characteristic from me, not necessarily the clean fingers aspect of it, but more so the compulsive orderliness to it all. Come to find out though, Colby does not like cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, and Cheetos not just because they are junk food but because he doesn't like to get his fingers sticky. This is coming from a man who can devour crab legs, hot wings, and ribs like he is an animal?! Blue, on the other hand, enjoys a good serving of finger food. He has no problem with getting dirty for the good stuff. Today I discovered he enjoys hand-boogers, not to be mistaken for hamburgers. While checking out a the store I looked over at him and he was digging for gold, if you know what I mean. I quickly gave him "the look" and shook my head 'no'. He put his hands at his side. We finished up at the register and headed out. I turned again to look at him and he had struck gold! A whopper! He put it in his mouth just as I called his name sternly. He quickly pulled it back out of his mouth and said "Here, mom" as if I wanted a taste too. So kind of Blue to share his finger food with me.

a distinctly pronounced name and personality

Her name is not pronounced like Shaya,
But for the perfect picture she would go to the mountains of Himalaya.

Her name is not pronounced like Chay,
But when it comes to her opinion, no holding back what she has to say.

Her name is not pronounced like Chia,
But with a kind husband, her life is euphoria.

Her name is Chea, pronounced like estrella,
To us, her family, that is what she is, always trying to save the
day-a.

Happy Birthday Chea!

wendy/wendo

I'm not sure why we said wendy/wendo. Maybe we thought it was okay to call Pierce wendo because we put an "o" at the end for masculinity. Anyway, back in the day, our family thought pierce and I looked like twins. Can you see it in this picture? All I can see it the tanness that is me and I now know where Blue gets his celtic look from. Plus how can you not notice my santa claus eyebrows. Enough about me on this great day... today is Pierce's birthday! Here are my who, what, where, when questions for him:
1. What makes you all that and a bag of chips? Could it be the fact that you carried around and polished off all by yourself a bag of potato chips bigger than you when you were two?
2. Where do you plan on playing major league baseball? I mean, with your current baseball endeavors- baseball practice, fall ball, baseball tournaments, regular season, weight training, traveling teams- surely you have a few major league teams already "courting" you.
3. Who, out of the twelve parents you have, has given you the best/worst advice? Yes, I said twelve parents- you have a mom and dad and then you have ten older brothers and sisters that act like they are your parents. Lucky you. You must be the perfect child with so many people telling what to do and what not to do.
4. When are you going to get your driver's license? You are the big 16 now! Happy Birthday!

cool cat

Yesterday was Blue's first day of preschool. As you can see by his pictures he was a pro at this school thing. No nervous jitters for him, his only complaint was that we couldn't get there fast enough. I'm not sure why I even got out of the car to walk him inside. He took off running to the front door of his school (it is inside a home) and started playing. I had to pry him away from the toys so we could have a "talk". Now Reed is a rule follower. When a teacher says it is time to clean up, he cleans up. When a teacher says it is time to be quiet, Reed listens. Blue, on the other hand, likes to see how far he can go or what he can get away with. So as I am telling him to listen to his teacher and not to go back into the bedrooms, he isn't even looking at me and is already walking away from me. Heaven help his teacher.

Still on the subject of school, I have noticed the beginnings of a routine with my boys when we drop off and pick up Reed. When dropping off Reed this is how our conversation goes:
me: "I love you and be good"
Reed: "Okay, love you too."
Blue: "Wuv you Reed. Be nice to your friends."
Reed: "Okay, love you too." (with a slight roll of his eyes)
When we pick him up from school our conversation goes like this:
me: "How was your day at school?"
Reed: "Good, where did you go today and did you buy me anything?" (All in one breath. Apparently he is afraid that we are going to stores and buying loads of toys without him while he is at school.)
Blue: "Did you miss me?"
Reed: "Ya, did you go anywhere?"

making an identity

For labor day weekend I had some visitors, okay I had a lot of visitors! My mom and dad, Jackie and Pierce, Heidi and her three kids, Channy and Lee and their four kids, Chea and Wayne and their four kids all escaped the heat of the valley by coming to Flagstaff. What a weekend! My story begins with Chea concerned that we weren't making memories by just sitting around and talking, reading, and watching tv. What kind of identity are we making for ourselves if we are just sitting here?, she told us. So much to the dismay of the teens and tweens, we decided we would do something cultural, something that required some sort of physical effort. We were going to give ourselves an identity of a family that is cultured and we were gonna have fun doing it, even if it was forced on us. I mentioned hiking to the Indian ruins at Walnut Canyon. Perfect, it was settled. After stock piling snacks and gatorades into various backpacks and then squeezing all twenty four of us into three vehicles we were well on our way to making memories. Here are a few of the highlights from the excursion:
* The fee to get into the park was $5 for 16 and over, all others was free. Chea and Wayne had 5 persons in their car over the age of sixteen while the rest of us only had two. Sorry 'bout that Wayne.
* There was a Native American weaving a basket outside the visitor center just before you start the hike. We stopped at her table to admire her work and right then Reed asked if we were going to see any dead Indians.
* I could see that Papa (a.k.a. Cliff) was a little less than thrilled about the 240 steps down to the Indian dwellings. But Reed came to his rescue. The path was steep and the drop was far. No persuading was going to convince Reed that he would be safe if he held my hand on the way down. So Papa "sacrificed" his opportunity to see this landmark and stayed at the visitor center with Reed while the rest of us proceeded.
* Trey and Blue, the youngest and most rambunctious hikers of our group, couldn't understand why they had to hold a grown up's hand and not just each other's.
* Wayne carried Beau and Heidi carried Josie and Chea carried Grammy(Cathy). Okay, maybe Chea didn't actually carry Grammy. But Grammy was not so sure on her feet after walking down the steep 240 steps. With her health conditions, she probably should have stayed at the visitor center with Papa and Reed. Her actions might have caused a little scolding from the daughters.
*Beau and Josie were thrilled with the little rooms made by the Indians. They could finally run around. They were not pleased when we proceeded onward with the rest of the hike.
* Pierce and Jessica were very disappointed that there were no walnuts to be seen in Walnut Canyon.
I do believe we made an identity for us... three ring circus.