Preschool Graduation

What doesn't surprise me:

Adam's final progress report shows that while he mastered all the skills in math readiness, practical skills, self-reliance, speaking, fine and gross motor skills, and reading readiness, he is still "working" on the following:

I respect and show concern for people and things around me.
I am learning not to disturb classmates while they work.
I seek only my share of the teacher's attention.
I listen quietly; my attention span is lengthening.

What does surprise me:

Adam sang nearly every word of every song in his graduation program. This is a huge step forward from last year when Aunt Lisa took off work to come watch Adam stare in the general direction of his teachers.

What doesn't surprise me:

Adam has already started asking, "So do I get to go to kindergarten tomorrow?"

What Adam didn't tell me about:

These flags. Adam told me earlier in the week, "I'm not going to tell you about the songs we're going to sing. And I'm not going to tell you about our flags."

What makes me laugh:

Adam's classmates wrote their names in a goodbye book. According to Adam, Colby wrote down his phone number so we can call him. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll reach him at 84118.

What makes me sad:

Adam has gone through preschool with his cousin and best friend, Ryan. I am sad that Ryan is moving to Oregon next month and will not be able to continue on their little side-by-side journey. I know Adam will miss having Ryan in his class.

What makes me proud:

This kid, right here. (Aunt Lisa, this video is for you.)

Ready, Set, Go!

While working on some family scrapbooking, I realized our year starts on Memorial Weekend and goes through Christmas.  I don't know what we do from Christmas to Memorial, but whatever it is, I seem to take very few pictures of it.  I think those are just the months we "get through" so we can get to summer. 

On the docket this year:

- Family pass to the county pools (we'll specifically be frequenting the Magna Pool)
- Free lunch at the parks as often as possible
- Rainy day trips to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum
- San Rafael Swells camping trip with cousins
- 11ish days in Garden Valley Idaho (kids and Mom)
- 10 days in Atlanta Georgia (Mom and baby)
- 5 days for Nelson Norris Family Reunion / Starlight Mountain Theatre trip
- 4th of July camping trip - location to be determined
- Labor Day camping trip - location to be determined
- Random weekend camping trip to nearby Stansbury Mountains
- Playing at the neighborhood park, scheduled for completion by the end of June (fingers crossed!)
- Weekend hikes when we can't go camping
- Playing piano for "The Mikado" - one weekend in July

Oh, and one more:
- Spending less money on air conditioning, because who's going to be home anyway?!

Remember that time when...

...I took the kids to the park, and we all came back with insects in our hair?



Yeah, I'm serious.



Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly about our experience:



Good: The instacare docs say we picked up the bugs at the park. This means they are not in my house! Yay! This makes sense because Alex and I had the most bites (yeah... they bit) and Kaleb, Adam, and Ryan who were wearing helmets got very few. Also, we had no living bugs in our hair anymore by the time we got to the doctors, so it was definately not an infestation.



Bad: They bit. Poor Alex was scratching his head like crazy, and once I gave him a haircut (it was just time - not really related to the bug incidence) I could see all the little bites.

Alex's bites: I tried to kind of fade out the rest of the pic so you can see where to look.



Ugly: The docs pulled out a dead insect from Alex's hair to study under the microscope because they had no clue what it was. They let me look at it, and it was UGLY! It was dark brown, hairy, with stripes on its abdomen, pincers on its butt, and wings. UGLY!



Good: All we had to do was go home and wash our hair to make sure we got any dead bugs out. The docs aren't worried about it at all, and we're totally not contagious.



Bad: My hair was the worst because I was sitting still at the park. The other kids were more of a moving target. I didn't care so much about bugs in the boys' hair. They're boys, and I figured I could just shave it all off. But my hair?! Gross!



Ugly: Seriously, the bug was UGLY! I don't think I'll ever forget what that disgusting thing looked like.



Good: I got a good laugh out of the fact that the docs didn't believe me when I said they had wings and flew. It gave me such great satisfaction when they looked at one under the microscope, and it had wings.



Bad: Even though the kids were cleared to go to school, we spent too long at the dr.'s and would have been late. (Kaleb would have put this one in the "good" category. Adam spent 20 minutes trying to convince me that his teacher wouldn't start school without him).



Ugly: I'm a little bit afraid to go outside. But I'm sure I'll get over it.



What a morning!

Wherever the Wind Blows Us

Last night when I went to bed I had a plan for today.  It went something like this:

1) Let the kids wake up whenever they feel like it.
2) Get everyone fed and dressed.
3) Head out to Pleasant Grove to visit friends.
4) Stay until we feel like coming home.
5) Drive home.

Simple.  Concise.  Flexible.  Something to look forward to!

Today, I wondered why I bother making plans.

9:15
The last of the kids finally wakes up.  We finish breakfast and start getting everybody dressed.  I get everybody excited about going to visit friends.  I pack up the diaper bag for a full day away from home.  I print off directions to our destination.  I load up the kids and we start our adventure.

9:46
I turn out of my neighborhood and head toward the freeway.  I grab my cell phone to call my friend and let her know we're on the road.  (Yes, I talk on my phone while I drive.  Don't judge me.)  I speak with her huband, who informs me she has food poisoning and that today is not the best day to visit.  I break the bad news to the boys, and hearing their disappointment, I call Daddy to see if he has any great ideas.  I decide a trip North to Layton to go see other friends might just be the trick.  I make the phone call (pulled safely to the side of the road this time) and make plans to meet at the Layton Park at 1:45.  Kids are excited, but what to do for the next 4 hours.  Hmmm.  I suggest going home so Dylan can get a good nap.  Adam vetoes that idea.  Instead, at Adam's suggestion, we drive to go visit his cousin, Ryan.

10:05
We arrive at Ryan's house, and I quickly get Dylan down for a morning nap.  As the kids play, I decide it might be fun to go visit Grandma at work.  She works in the kitchen at Granger High School, and whenever we go visit her, we get free lunch. 

11:30
We get to Grandma's school, and she is pleasantly surprised to see us.  The kids eat pizza and chicken nuggets and chocolate milk, and Grandma even sends them away with Creamies. 

12:05
We still have nearly nearly 2 hours until the appointed Layton Park meeting time.  What to do?  A quick text to Daddy, and we've made plans to go steal Daddy from work for his lunch break.  I present options to the kids: walk around stores (Gateway), really big library (The City Library), or Temple Square.  They choose the really big library.  We grab Daddy and drive the 2 blocks to the library.  I recount my day to Daddy and explain that we're "just going wherever the wind blows us."  Then I turn into the parking garage for the library.  Adam says, "Is this where the wind blew us?"  I laugh and respond in the affirmative.  Then he says, "But it didn't really blow us here, right?  You drove."  I laugh again.  We get a ticket for the parking garage and decide our visit must be under 30 minutes, because I don't want to pay to park.  We quickly tour the library, thoroughly enjoying the glass "alligators" (my dad's word for elevator), the outdoor fountains, and the basement level of the library, awesomely outfitted for little ones.  If you've never been there, that place is so cool it can serve as a reward for reading!  We will definately be going back.

1:08
We pull out of the parking garage and drop Daddy back off at work.  We drive down North Temple on our way to the freeway, and the kids expressed their excitement at seeing the temple.  "I know it's the temple, cuz there's an angel on top!"  We hit the freeway and head North, finally on our way to the day's ultimate destination.

1:26
I decide I ought to check my phone for messages since I'd left it in the car at the library.  4 missed calls!  2 messages!  I listen and find out my Layton friend isn't going to be able to make it to the park after all.  Her oldest son broke his glasses on the playground at school and she was going to have to take him to get them fixed.  I break the bad news to the kids.  I am informed that I promised them friends, and can't I call someone else?  Back on the phone with Daddy again, I ask him to look up the number for an old college roommate of mine.  Keep in mind, we've never actually hung out, but we blog-stalk each other and I know she has kids the age of mine.  And I know she lives in Bountiful.  And I'm now in Bountiful.  I leave her an awkward message and explain to the kids that she wasn't home.  "Can we just drive around until we find something to do?"  Sure.  Why not.  Thankfully we quickly found a park. 

By this time, Dylan was asleep for nap #2, and I didn't want to disturb him.  I sat on a stone wall near the car so I could listen for him and watch the others as they played.  When he woke up, we joined the fun.  It may not have been the day we planned, but it was still fun.

3:02
We hit the road to head back home. 

4:02
Daddy gets home and Adam tells him, "Well, we sure didn't get to have any fun today."

Mother's Day

I remember well the Mother's Day of 2003, because it was the first Mother's Day that it hurt to not be a mother.  At the ripe old age of 21, I had recently suffered a miscarriage, and I still felt like most days I could barely keep my head above water.  For me, that Mother's Day was like a fresh wave, crashing down on me.

Seven years later, I have three beautiful boys, and I couldn't be more grateful to Heavenly Father for trusting me with them.  I look forward to Adam singing to me in church today.  I love their rough little Mother's Day hugs.  I am truly so blessed.

But I can't help but think about those women who yearn desperately for the title of Mother.  Those who've suffered a recent loss.  Those who are the middle of a great battle with emotion, who (if they are headed off to church today) are flung seemingly to the wolves as beautiful children across the country sing to their mothers.  My dear cousin, who any day now, will lose her first baby to a rare chromosome disorder, for whom we can only pray that her sweet baby will live long enough for her parents to meet her briefly before Heavenly Father calls her back.

It is those women for whom I'll pray today, that they may find strength in their losses, that they may make it through to tomorrow, unscathed by a simple date on the calendar.  I think Valentine's Day without a sweetheart is nothing compared to Mother's Day without a child.

Caution

To the untrained eye, this may just look like standard-issue caution tape, warning passersby away from the freshly poured concrete.

But I know better.

I know that yesterday, when the concrete was poured, there was no such tape.

I know that while I was mowing the front yard, a certain five year old somehow managed to wander precisely 4 steps into the still-gooey sidewalk.

I know that the construction workers could barely contain their laughter when said five year old was required to apologize for ruining their hard work.

I know that I'm really annoyed with myself for not returning, camera in hand, to grab a few quick pictures of the four suspiciously size 11 1/2 sinkholes left behind to prove his guilt.  Nor did I take pictures of his concrete-covered school shoes.  Sigh.  Missed opportunity.

I know that I did manage to drive home the seriousness of the situation by suggesting that if I couldn't get the concrete off, he'd have to use the money he's been saving for a video game to buy himself new school shoes, knowing the whole time that the still-wet concrete would wash right off.

I know that if you look closely, you can see a color difference between the newly poured concrete and the old.

I know that today, after the construction workers poured more concrete, they put up caution tape.

It seems that everyone learned a lesson.

Classic Me

I'm just sitting here messing around on Facebook when I think,

"Oh crap, I put water on to boil for oatmeal and then forgot about it.  I bet it's boiled completely away."

Then I think,

"And when that happened last week, I'm pretty sure it ruined my pan!"

So I hurry out to the kitchen to check on it.  Instead of boiled-away water, I see

And the really scary thing?

Now, I'm just sitting here blogging instead of paying attention to the water that is now boiling above a burner that is actually on.

I wonder how long it's going to take me to successfully make my 5 minute oatmeal.