Just GRATEFUL to be alive today!!!

Liesl came up for (essentially) a one day trip, to support Kyle as he performs his very first baptism ever--his oldest son Ethan. Yesterday was a great day! Lots of good times.

But this post isn't about that ... This morning I had to take Liesl back to the airport for her morning flight to Cali, since she has to be back at work tomorrow, etc.

So my mom comes over with her car (even though the message I gave Liesl was for her to bring Kyle's old minivan, but Mom didn't listen to that), which I get to drive to the SLC airport (cuz she won't drive more than 5 miles one way) ...

Little do I know, the windshield wipers don't work well (more on that), and the wiper fluid doesn't come out AT ALL. The back one is also crap ...

Immediately after we get on the road I realize I can't see. There is so much gunk getting flecked up by cars all around (including my back window) I can't see out of the sides or anything. I try to make it work, but it's stressful to say the least!

We finally have to get off in Draper and clean all the windows at a gas station. We get back on. So much for that, cuz immediately, gooked again by all the surrounding cars and their flecking muck all over us.

We get to Murray I HAVE to get off, because one of the wipers has now BROKEN and is hanging by a thread off the passenger side (at least it wasn't the driver's side! :P). I clean windows again with snow, using just my hand. Get back on. I'm faking it bigtime, actually driving behind semi's so I can have lots of stuff flecked at my window so I can use that to wash it with my one wiper (thankfully none of them slammed on their brakes!), leaning to use the 2 inch square of visibility in the middle, or on the top left ... Liesl even took a picture it was so ridiculous.



Finally we get to the airport. Liesl's a half hour late (but she makes it). I clean the windows again with handfuls of dirty snow (the little that's on the ground on the road) and head back ...

Instead of taking the I-15, I think to go on the 215, cuz there's construction at the 80 to 15 interchange, and I already have visibility problems. Little do I realize the traffic is backed up on the 215, because of THREE snow plows clogging up traffic, trying to clean up the roads. But the 4th lane is open.

Ok, so I take my turn, waiting to get past them, when a WAVE of muck completely covers the car--and now we cannot see ANYTHING and I'm going 65 mph ... Holy AHHHH!! I'm shaking at this point and my mom's having heart pain, clenching everywhere ... A second wave from the middle truck hits us ... Oh MY gosh!!

We get off at the first exit we can to clean the car again. Finally get on the I-15, and the angle of the freeway means the SUN is directly on us the ENTIRE way back--so now I can't see, AND there's GLARE galore ... Mom is still shaking, clenching her water bottle (that she wanted me to use to clean off the window--which Sylvia suggested to do WHILE driving on the freeway :P).

Last part of the adventure is since the sun is out, the roads are a bit drier, so the muck that gets sprayed up isn't wet enough for me to wipe off ... You know, just to add to the excitement ...

Finally, we get off the freeway at Center St in Orem and my mom says she feels like she's going to puke from all the anxiety ... I'm just in hyper mode, trying to vigilantly get us home in one piece ... I'm REALLY going to need a nap when I get there, I'll tell you that ...

My mom says she knows why we had such a time ... She's a worrier. She thinks God GAVE us THIS mess to worry about so she'd be focused on that instead of worrying about whether Liesl's plane would make it back to Cali ok ... Kind of like if you're nervous about something and someone punches you in the gut--takes your mind off it.

I'm just GRATEFUL to be alive right now. Thought I'd share :P ...

Lars' smile will never be the same again!!!

Well, it's happened. It's finally happened ... Lars, a solid 6 yrs old, glasses wearing, fun-loving boy who is excited to be going into the 2nd grade has, finally, lost his first tooth!

It happened today, 7-29-09 at 1:10pm. He was eating chicken nuggets, watching Inspector Gadget, and messing with his loose bottom middle right tooth when (as he put it), "Crack!"

And then it was gone :(

But the toothfairy has compensated him for his troubles, so all is not lost ;)

Funnies for the day (so far!)

It's just after lunch. I've gotten the kids involved in helping to clean up and work on projects. Lars has the broom. He caused it to stand, completely without help, in the middle of the dining room floor. He starts singing, "I've got the fo-orce, I've got the fo-orce!" How cute is that?

Five minutes earlier (I saved this one for last, cuz of the punchline), Alex was playing with the studfinder, cuz we're going to put up some racks in the garage. He ran it over his hand. It sounded. Alex resounds, "Apparently, I am a stud!" The punchline? I had to explain to him why I was laughing so hard!

Just wanted to share :)

Our glorious bounty is beginning!!

I just spent the last 5.5 hrs outside, weeding, miracle growing, mowing, trimming roses, roping up the tomatoes, all sorts of stuff.
I'm so excited!!!!

As I was hoisting up the tomatoes (I'm not using cages this year, just to try out another way) I noticed zucchinis ... lots of zucchinis ...

So I started picking stuff ...

Just wanted to share :)

2 bell peppers

4 habeneros

7 'pickable' zucchinis

lots of peas

1 Anaheim chile

and my kids, so you can see how big everything is ;)

Alex is in band!

So Liesl and I just walked me through the process of blogging. Not that I couldn't already have figured it out, but she wanted to MAKE SURE I knew how to update my blog ... and then [of course] she wanted me to update my blog!!!

K, sis. This one's for you ;)

Alex has now graduated elementary school. That happened WAY too fast. Course skipping a year didn't make anything slower, but regardless, here he is, summer before [gulp] SEVENTH grade ... Junior high! ... Middle school!!! ... The land of hormones and mistakes and in thinking that one's friends know more than one's parents ...

Sigh ...

Course Alex is smart enough (so he keeps telling me) to recognize if his brain starts to 'turn off' (as I've been telling my kids will inevitably happen once they each become teenagers), plus he says that since he is a year younger than his friends, he will see the signs of what they're doing so he can know what not to do when he gets to be 'that age' ... Uh-huh, we'll see.

Meanwhile, all his best buds have signed up for band. What does Alex do? He signs up for band (it's coming already--cringe cringe--I can feel it!) ...

What things are awesome about his signing up for band are numerous, so since I now have a blog [that I'm going to be better about updating (Yes, Liesl, I hear ya!)] I can list what's awesome ...

Since neither Roine nor I has ever been in band, I went in to talk with the teacher to see what the 'big deal' was, see what expenses and time requirements will be asked of US (not Alex, he just shows up, right? ;)), see if this is something that frankly we'd support ...

Alex's teacher is cool! When I first walked into the band room, here was this very cute and built guy sitting in what looked like the teacher's chair. I went up, and sure enough, Mr. Halverston is 'the man' (I had been told this guy had been the band teacher for years and all the kids loved him--tell me honestly right there, don't you all picture someone more like from Mr. Holland's Opus, or the "Inconceivable" teacher from Clueless; someone a little older, 'fuller', less hair, etc.?). I told him I didn't think he was the teacher, and he asked me if I had 'met' his expectations ... I believe at that point I may have blushed.

So anyway (who's reading this stuff??), Alex will be participating in three concerts this year, one in Winter, one in Spring, and then a themed concert next May. That's it. Besides that, for time constraints it will be like any other class. I can handle that.

He doesn't need to buy any uniforms. They don't do any marching or 'official' orchestration in jr hi. I can handle that.

I would need to provide some kind of instrument. Could be anything, but that part would be up to us. I asked Mr. H what he'd like Alex to play. I mentioned Alex was in ALL (GATE--gifted and talented and all that good stuff) and immediately he interrupted his own thought and asked, "So your son is bright?" I said yes. He said, "Then tell him to play the French horn. It's probably the most difficult instrument to learn, but if he's as bright as you say and can master it, he can get scholarships to pretty much any university he'd want! That's what I did. French horn is 'my' instrument (So now I'm thinking how can I 'convince' Alex to choose this instrument since there's cool potential there, PLUS since this is his teacher's instrument, the guy will be able to help Alex better ...)!" I can definitely handle this!

The only other things he said I'd need for Alex would be a music book, and to sign him up for Summer Band Camp for the next three weeks for $65. Meh. Driving 12 miles every day taking him to and fro for a lousy 50 minutes, paying for it? Ok sure, I'm grumbling, but I can handle it ...

I then approached Alex about what he thought he'd want to play. Mind you, I hadn't said a WORD to him, he'd never met his [dreamy] teacher, anything ... On his OWN, he said he wanted to do the French horn (major phew!). Then I tell him all about what Mr. H said about it, getting scholarships, what else would be required of him, etc. Big smiles all around. He's so excited!

So now to see about finding a French horn ... My brother Kyle's wife Rebecca's grandfather (get all that?) MAKES instruments for a living. She personally owns who-knows-how-many, including a French horn. I approached Bec about using hers (to save us anywhere from $70 to rent from Mr. H up to actually buying one for $3-4,000 ...). She wanted to make sure Alex would take good care of it. I promised he would. She hesitantly agreed.

So now we have a French horn. I took him to get the music book ($9), a new mouthpiece ($41) and a little brush with which to clean the mouthpiece ($1.50) ... Then I take him to his first class ... He walks in lugging this HUGE black case in one hand and his book in the other. I come back an hour later and ask him what he did on his first day. He said he'd show me when we got home.

We get home (here comes the punchline which I will remember for the rest of my life!). He whips out the horn. He says, "Hey, Mom! Wanna see what I learned how to do on my first day? -- Make a noise!" and preceeds to blow: "fffffffffffffffffffff-ooo-a-oo-aaa-ahhhhhh!"

This is going to be a great year :)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Well, the day ain't over yet, but I already have pix I wanted to share.

Happy Halloween!

Ok, so this is MY first post to this blog (thanks, Meli, for setting it up).

Happy Halloween everyone! The day ain't over yet, but I've already taken pix of 3 of my kids (Alex goes to a different school and his costume parade happened--of course--at the same time as the other kids') and wanted to share them so far.


Alex and Sylvia are from Gryffindor house, Lars is a fireman, and Daniel is thrilled to be Thomas the tank engine.

The biggest adventure so far is as the kids were parading around, Daniel thought it would be fun to walk with sister Sylvia, so he went off with her while I stayed behind to videotape and take pictures. When the parade seemed over, I went to Sylvia's classroom to recover Daniel. He was there alright, but the parade was only done for the parents. Lars' class came through on their way around the school, so Daniel took off now thinking it would be fun to walk with his brother ... That was the last I saw of him for about 10 minutes. I followed them out (when there was a quick break in the line of children) and Lars was by himself in line. Where had Daniel gone?

I had the office announce he was missing, I enlisted parents to help ... Finally Sylvia showed up with Daniel in her arms, saying one of the teachers had found him in the boys bathroom playing in the water ... I haven't posted a story about Lars' having done that a month ago, but I think I'll need to go back and do that as the day before we decided to put him in the 1st grade Lars did this very same thing! The story is too funny ... Ah, my kids ...