Beautiful day and a trip to the Silver Reef Mine

It has been over 100 degrees everyday this week, which has been nice since Scotty arranged for a break from his school work and it is my first week of summer break, as well. We spent too much time at the pool yesterday and got sunburned. Today was a wonderful 85 degrees and so we decided to go exploring at the Silver Reef Mine in Leeds which is about 15 miles away. They had a nice little museum there. The boys mostly enjoyed looking at all the old guns. (So predictable, really.)
We came upon some weird plants there. Brought it home and sliced it to see the inside. It looked like a cucumber. Another fun plant was a giant Mulberry tree that was 130 years old. We have never had a mulberry berry before. It was a cross between a black berry and a blue berry and stained our fingers and lips immediately.

Not the most exciting of pictures but it was so nice to have a pleasant, relaxing afternoon. We are enjoying the beginning of our summer. What a relief to our hectic schedule all through May.

Club Mommie

I got a chuckle out of this article today. I have experienced this very thing . . . and my kids saying, "Do you know her?"

Club Mom
By Margaret Anderson

"Mom, do you know that lady?"

"No, why?"

"Then why are you chatting together like you're bestest friends?"

My six-year-old, Kate, asked me this question at least three times today while we ran errands.

My mother used to do this too: strike up conversations with complete strangers in the store, in line at the post office, and in doctors’ waiting rooms. To my young mind, I couldn't comprehend how two strangers could be giggling together like old college roomies after only two lines of dialogue. Now I know. They're all fellow mommies: members of Club Mom.

You see, we're all part of the same sorority. When I see another mom with her shopping cart weighed down with more kids than groceries, I feel like I already know her. We need no introductions. I can just blurt out,

"Hey, have you tried these yet?" or, "How much do you think these will shrink in the wash?" and before we know it, we're swapping laundry tips and recipes and potty training horror stories. That's when Kate looks on and can't believe we're perfect strangers.

Being a member of Club Mom has other benefits too.

"What do you do if you get lost?" I ask my kids each time we go someplace large and crowded.

"Find another mommy!" is their hardy reply. "We look for someone with a stroller and kids to help us!" I teach them this because I know I can trust my fellow mommies more than any other group of people on earth.

I know a fellow sister in the trenches will help my little one find his way back to me no matter how many obstacles stand in her way. She'll probably even have a wet wipe for his nose and a few fruit snacks in her purse. I know this because these are my people. This is my club. Millions join our ranks daily.

But I'll tell you...whew! Club Mom has one heck of an initiation rite!

The Best of Compliments

I have a friend named Tiffany who I think is the most amazing person. Besides being amazingly beautiful, she has so many talents. She can sing, dance, make up programs like nobody's business, take care of nine kids, and yet she is still humble, teachable and faithful. Did I mention she also has style?

I would give anything to be like her.
So, it was the best of compliments the other day when I was trying on a new dress and I came out to show all my guys, and Ian said,"That looks like something Tiffany Nelson would wear."
Perfect.

Well, their family is moving out of our ward. They needed a bigger home for all those adorable children. And so after church I went up to give her a hug and tell her that I was in mourning. I am very sad that they won't be in our ward anymore. Her husband has been the Elder's Quorum president, and he is just rock solid and a joy to work with. But get this, she told me, "You know--- when I first moved into the ward I looked at you and I thought, I want to be just like her." She wants to be like me. I couldn't believe it. That was truly the best and nicest compliment I have ever had.

It was so sweet of her to say that.
I will miss seeing them all in church each Sunday.
I still want to be just like her.

The Rest of the Story

Ian has such a little angel face in this picture, I just wanted to tell the rest of the story. What you can't see is that I am lying on the floor underneath his chair, gripping it as hard as I can so that he can not spin around. The little devil has figured out how to hook his foot "just right" under the stool, and when the photographer gets to "two" he flips himself around so that the picture is of the back of his head. What a clever little stinker behind that adorable grin.


Which reminds me of another story. When Ian was about 4 years old we went on a camping trip to Dinosaur National Park. There was a certain hike we went on called "Echo Canyon" that was an amazing finger of land that jutted out high above the river. So, on the hike I think I am going to teach my tiny son about echoes, and I say, "Holler out, Ian." Instead of shouting "HELLO!" as I expected, he grabs the fence in front of him, and with all his strength he yells, "My mom has diarrhea!" Stunned, I stood there and listened as it echoed all along the canyon, "Rhea... rhea... rhea."
That's my boy.

Ian's Birthday Surprise

Last night Scott took the boys to a Fathers and Sons camp out and I had time to get ready for Ian's birthday. I was pretty sure he thought we weren't going to do much and so I had the chance to give him a good surprise.

I decorated the dining area with what the girls call a "Birthday Shrine". I put pictures in the big window, stuff from when they were a baby and awards that they have won. And then I went to work on his room. I put his birthday money in an envelope and hid it, and then took string and criss-crossed it all over his room. The idea is that he has to follow the string to find his present.

He first tried to follow the string without wrapping it around the ruler I gave him, but he got lost near the end and had to start over. It was fun and cute, and I got a couple of cute smiles out of him. It was a good surprise and he loved it.

After he gets finished with laser tag with his friends, we'll go out for dinner tonight at his favorite: Mongolian Bar-b-que. Tomorrow Tara and Kudi will come over and will have a family dinner with more of his favorites: homemade breaded chicken tenders (we call dragon tongues), macaroni and cheese, jello salad, corn on the cob, watermelon and pineapple. He's pretty spoiled for someone who thought he wasn't going to get a birthday celebration.

This little darling is 13 today.

He's such a cutie-pa-tootie and I love how he always gives me hugs and kisses. I've been telling him for years to stop growing, but he just never listens.

Feeling a Little Sentimental

I was vacuuming Ian's room this morning while he was at baseball practice and I noticed this:
We had to buy a bigger bat this season because he just keeps growing and growing, and he's outgrown the old bat.

His old bat.

Jared's old bat.

Kudi's old bat.

Tara's old bat.

That bat has been around a long time and seen 4 kids in t-ball, bobbi-sox, and little league. And now it is retired. Made me feel a little sentimental, especially since Ian will be 13 next month, the last of my four, and he'll become a teenager. (Sigh)

Oh, the good times we had with that bat. When Ian was in t-ball Kudi helped me coach his team. He did so awesome! And I remember the very last game we played, he was on the pitcher's mound, it was the last inning and we had two outs. The batter popped a line drive headed about a foot above Ian's head - and he caught it! It was so cool. The parents on the side line cheered for him. That was quite a feeling, to see others cheering for your son. What a way to end the season.

I think we need to have a party for the old bat.

Funny story from Scott

Kinda funny today…

I was working in the computer center today and kept hearing a small group of people getting louder and noisier as the minutes went by. They were clear on the other side of the center so I could not hear their conversations but their laughter was a bit over the top and I could feel the tension in the room rise as normally the center is full of busy people and often more quiet than a library. The loud disruption was abnormal and causing some consternation among the customers.

I had to chuckle as I watched one of the computer technicians walk over to the group to ask them to quiet down. The tech got close and was about to say something ( and this is exactly when I noticed also) that the group were all furiously signing each other… yes, we had to tell the group of deaf people to quiet down.

SLC/Eye Doc and traditions

When Ian was nearly 2 years old, he had surgery on his eyes, well, his eye muscles, to be more exact, so that his eye's wouldn't cross and he could see straight. Seeing straight is a good thing. It allows a person to have depth perception. (Something Scott doesn't have - he had surgery when he was 4. His eyes look straight to us, but not quite straight enough for the brain to develop depth perception. We didn't see Avatar in 3D.)
So, about every 6 months or so we go see the Pediatric Eye Surgeon. In Idaho, we went to Pocatello. In Utah, we go to Primary Childrens' in Salt Lake.
We have a tradition of going bowling at the University of Utah Student Union whenever we have to go to Salt Lake to have Ian's eye's checked. Usually we go there to waste an hour after they put drops in his eyes to dilate them. This time, he didn't have any drops. But we went bowling anyway.
The good news is: the doctor finally called Ian's surgery a success, and said we don't have to have another check-up for a whole year. He kept his prescription the same, which is also good news. The Doc's happy. We're happy. See, can't you tell by these pictures how happy we are?


The "boys" really don't like to get their picture taken. This was the best they could do.

When we walked in the Student Union building at the University of Utah, someone made a remark about Jared's shirt. Guess we didn't think that one through.

Papa is the "pro."

They may not look too happy in the pictures, but we had a good time, made even better by the Jamba Juice and Jimmy Johns down the road. It was a good start to our Easter weekend.

The Frozen North

After visiting the eye doctor in Salt Lake we headed a little further north to the Worldmark resort at Wolf Creek. It is about 5 miles from the Powder Mountain Resort. That's where they ski. A lot of snow is required for skiing. There was a lot of snow there. More snow arrived after we got there. It was cold. No one wanted to ski. We wished it was 70 degrees, like it was in St. George. I made these arrangements in January, when skiing seemed like a good idea, and I had hoped to get tickets to Conference, but that didn't work out. Oh, well. The resort was nice, and we enjoyed Conference on TV, with the comfort of couch and blankets to keep warm.

The little town at the bottom of the hill, (Eden, Utah) didn't have much in the way of, uh, amenities, and so we ended up at the Valley Market for lunch on Saturday. We thought we must have landed in a parallel universe because high school kids were having a "bake sale" for Ethiopia in the parking lot, and a sign advertising "Frog Leg Fridays" was flying on the light pole above us. Something a little incongruent about the whole thing.

Happy to be back in good ole Dixie where I was worried about getting a sunburn while watching Ian's baseball game last night. It was awesome-- both the game, and the sunburn! But that is for another post. :-)

Guess I'm Gonna Have to Delegate

So I'm looking at my calendar and I discover I have scheduled myself to be in three places on the night of Tuesday, April 6th. Why do I do that? I have been trying to scale back and not have things be so stressful. There's a wonderful YouTube clip that is just beautiful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw

It really struck me when it said, "Avoid rush and haste..."

This morning a friend posted on Facebook, "Does anyone else feel overwhelmed by all the things we have to do?" I wrote back, "I pretty much just ricochet through life from one panic attack to the next."

She replied, "Sophia -- you are so funny! I feel better already." The funny thing is: I wasn't kidding.

So, I guess I'll see if the girls can help. Scotty is so busy with his Master's program, I am hoping they can fill in. One can take Jared to the concurrent enrollment orientation for Dixie College, and one can take Ian to his baseball game. Actually, Scott could probably just drop him off and pick him up, and not stay for the game.

And me, well, I will be shirking my responsibilities for one evening to go see "Barrage" out at the Tuacahn Ampitheatre with my girl friends from work. Amazingly enough, I think this may be a first for me. I've been racking my brain, trying to remember a time when I've just done something with ladies, other than Relief Society, and I seriously cannot remember a time. There must be something wrong with me. No wonder I am so stressed! Ha! Guess I am finally graduating to a new level. Good for me, eh?