Dangers of educational books

Today we came home from the store and before I even brought the groceries in John brought me the phone. It was a dispatcher calling to let me know someone had called 911 from our house a moment before.

Turns out Peter read John a book about 911 a couple of days ago and then had a discussion about not calling it unless there is an emergency. John swears it was pure accident, though of course he doesn't know how to call people anyway and so I can only imagine what he was doing.

The dispatcher was very nice and said not to frighten him about calling 911 in the event that he really needed to. I get the feeling this happens a lot. Then she verified my name, address, phone number, and birth date (which was wrong-- kind of a strange thing to have on file I thought. Maybe in an emergency it will be helpful to know I was born in 75 and not in 73?).

I have to admit I'm kind of glad John has learned about 911. It reminds me of stories I've heard about heroic toddlers calling 911 because their dad is having a heart attack or something. You never know--might come in handy.
Or not.

Animals enjoying the drowsy days of summer.

Random Summerness

John: "I'm afraid of rocks. Wait, no I'm not because if I was then I would be afraid of Rockman."

Nathaniel: "Mom! Look! It's 9:13! Exactly one hour since I said, 'Mom! It's 8:13!'"

John: "Don't bug me mom, I have a lot of inventing to do."

I walked in one night about 11:00 to find Nathaniel, Sarah, and her friend Marynda kill themselves watching "The Burbs" on the computer.
This was the night we went to Burger King and waited forever in the drive throu until someone came out to tell us they had accidentally made our order 3x, and then gave it to the car ahead of us. Could we pull into the parking lot for 10 minutes while they started over?

Nathaniel fell from a building the other day and was compressed:)

Crying again

I've never entirely understood parents that were overly protective of their kids. I certainly didn't live a childhood sheltered by a mother who felt overly protective.
I grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood until the age of 12. We were the only whites on the block and people didn't take very well to us. One day I got into my first hair pulling fistfight with a girl named Gina Pina (bummer of a name, I know.) I came into the house crying, which was exceedingly rare as I wasn't a crier. For some irrational reason I was expecting my mom to have an outpouring of concern for me. Instead she yelled and told me it served me right for staying out past whatever time I was supposed to be home. I never went to her for empathy again.
As I've cried through many a situation lately with Rebecca I've decided maybe mom was just saving herself a lot of grief.

A few weeks a ago Rebecca had a sub in primary that pushed her to read a scripture after Rebecca refused to do it. I don't know if it was reading in front of her friends or if she just couldn't read it, but I ended up taking home a devastated child home early from church.
"I was the only one who couldn't do it," she cried.
I signed up Rebecca and Sarah for a pricey sewing class this summer. Today when the girls came home Sarah expressed concern over some of the things the teacher said to Rebecca, such as that compared to her teacher, who is much older, she has a very bad memory. She even went as far as to ask her if she remembered anything from school as she would be surprised if she did.
What?
I took Rebecca in for an evaluation at a learning center today where I will be shelling out $45 for 50 min. sessions with certified teachers specializing in helping kids with learning disabilities learn to read. After I write this I am supposed to be on the phone with BYU for a comprehensive evaluation of Rebecca's memory, attention span, etc.
If the new principal at our elementary doesn't give me the teacher I want for Rebecca I'm pulling her out. I've thought about a charter, or even part time school and part time home schooling. She spends too much damn time there anyway. At this point there is no negotiation. It is just my way or no way. I reserve the right to do that in this circumstance.

I've haven't been able to reach the sewing teacher. Sarah asked me not to yell. I wasn't planning to. I just need her to be aware that my daughter's low self image doesn't need any encouraging.

When I asked her if she felt her teacher had been rude to her she said, "Kind of."
For Rebecca, that means yes, but I don't want to talk about it because it makes me feel bad.
Sometimes I just want to keep her away from all adults. Kids are programmed to believe they know everything.
If only that were true, huh?

Phase 3 complete!

The pergola was finished yesterday!
Landscaping starts on Thursday but we broke our new space in tonight with a BBQ and a marshmallow roast.

Here is the lattice our contractor made for me.
He tried to have me consider diagonal but I wanted everything square.
I love it.

Check out our picnic table. I just stained it on Saturday.

Neighborhood kids join in the fun.
Isn't the fire pit cute?
In case you can't see it very well it has stars and moons punched into the sides of it.

John gets ready to bite into his ultimate smore creation.

Spiritual Development

I made Nathaniel go walking with me tonight because it was dark and I am super cautious about going jogging by myself because of all the freaks out there waiting to attack women.

While we were out I was asking him about how his reading is coming along because all the young men and young women in our stake have been challenged to read the Book of Mormon by September. He informed me that his strategy is to read a whole bunch every once in a while so he doesn't have to read for a couple of weeks at a time. I told him that developing spiritually takes time, like watering a plant. You can't just water a plant for a long time one day and then leave it for two weeks.

Nathaniel said his plan is like the glass bulbs you fill with water and then stick in your plants and then don't have to refill for a long time.

So much for my spiritual analogy.

Baby for Rachel

My cousin Rachel and husband her Patrick are having their first baby (a girl!) after 10 years of marriage. We are all thrilled for them and I made this for her baby shower this last weekend.
It is from a pattern by Mary Hickey called "Baby Bows and Twinkle Toes."

I couldn't decide whether I liked the blanket or not and ended up using
something like 15 different red and white prints in it.

Rachel and Patrick aren't telling anyone the name they have picked out
but I think this blanket deserves a baby named "Olivia"
don't you?

Signs and precautions

"So the aliens can't read my mind!" says John
when he comes in with this.
He insisted on wearing it everywhere--
to the store, to scouts, to the park...
In case you haven't seen "Signs" with Mel Gibson, you really should.
It's a good one.

Phase 3 of backyard overhaul

The steps are in--no more jumping up and down!
(Yes I know, we are going to have to repaint the door...)

View from 2nd story of pergola in progress.

Along the east and west sides we are going to have a kind of lattice.

Lego people having a campfire

So great when John is occupied with something productive!

Pictures from Moab

They all passed the Junior Ranger track test.

Unfortunately this is when the strep kicked into full gear and I felt terrible on this trip. After the first night in the hotel I was ready to go home, but we had already paid for 2 nights so we stayed. We drove into Canyonlands National Park to go hiking but I just wasn't up for it and after the first hike I laid in the car for the 2nd. I think I was a little feverish and it was making me weak and out of breath.
The kids spent most of their time in the pool at the hotel. We did a little shopping down main street and I bought my first cowgirl hat. Peter was the one that kind of pushed me into it. Maybe he thinks it's sexy:)

Animals in our beds

Very rare Charlie gets in my bed but he looked so cute here I had to get this picture. Looks like he is sleeping comfortably with my pillow doesn't he?
One of the funniest things about Charlie is how he sits in the car--
like a human on his bottom with his legs out straight.

Caramel spends the summers sleeping in the guest room all day to escape the heat I guess. She is always in some weird position when I walk in.
I love the Superman pose above. I don't know if you can tell but her arms are actually elevated off the bed.

Then when I took the picture she woke up and did this:


Animals have such sorry lives.
Eat, sleep, play, poop. Repeat.

Miscellaneous John

Alfalfa and ice cream!

John has been my pickiest eater.
Here is a typical example of what he will eat for dinner.
Cheese toast, tortilla with cheese, big pile of grated cheese.
Am I seeing a pattern here?
Things John will eat:
Gorden's brand fish sticks, macaroni and cheese, oatmeal, pistachios, Cheetos & Doritos (when he can get me to buy them for him) Cheese-Its, french fries, baked potatoes and chips & salsa --only the bottled kind-- and bagels with cream cheese.
And of course any type of sugar substance.

Came downstairs and found this sculpture John had made. I had just gone to Costco so here we have a basket, box of pull-ups, Electrosol tablets, gardening book, dvd, scrub pads, another dvd, and an empty carton of lemonade. Now if only he could find a space for his beloved Cheese-its!
Recently they had some off delivery at our grocery store and were selling them for $1 a box. I bought our year's supply.

John worships his daddy and he absolutely loves being with him.
Last night I was wondering why Peter was taking so long to read a book to John when I came upon this scene. They are lying in John's bed playing with the itouch.
And again with the Cheese-Its...

The night before Peter had been on a campout with Nathaniel and John was so disobedient all day by the time he finally went to bed I had long before entered mean mom phase and I refused to read him a book. John was not pleased. and yelled from his room, "If Dad was here he would read me a book!"
Then of course I felt guilt.

Jay & Mel visit

Jay and Mel have made their annual pilgrimage to visit us.

Emily was the only one who would stay still long enough for me to get a good picture!

While they were here I took the kiddies to this park in Provo.
I only brought 2 nets, which was a big mistake! The kids fought and fought over them.

Here is Caleb--who is very happy to be getting his turn with a net.

Jarom, Caleb, and John

I love this picture of Charlie with his tongue hanging out.
He had the time of his life at the park!
He is getting more mature now (he'll be 3 in October) and is calmer and better behaved.

We went to Grand Junction where Sariah was baptized. We were all proud of Sariah and how well she answered the questions her grandparents asked her during their talks.

Sarah turns 12

For Sarah's birthday I took her and a few of her friends to Jump On It. Within the first 10 minutes my exceedingly accident prone daughter did some kind of a flip and landed her tailbone on a bar. She was in some serious pain even though I started the Advil ASAP. I was completely helpless to help her with the exception of holding ice on her bum in the car out in the parking lot, watching her cry in pain while all her friends were inside jumping. She could not walk for the rest of her birthday. It was very disappointing. I had a subtle voice in my head questioning the whole Jump On It thing though we've done it many times before. Maybe should have listened?


This is the big box that has been baffling Sarah for the last month. She asked for an ipod docking unit and a longboard and this just wasn't looking like either one. Do I even need to go into why I decided not buy a longboard for this child? She did get the docking unit though.


I think she was surprised and bonus--she liked it! Rebecca and Sarah are taking a 2 week sewing class this month. The machine does all kinds of stitches and has some cool features. I looked everywhere for what I wanted for a price I wanted to pay. I even watched the classifieds but no used machines came up that I was interested in for Sarah. Costco ended up being the best deal with the most stuff.

I ended up making 3 cakes. One burned and one fantistic chocolate, and one lemon that came out kind of flat. I know that those of you who are familiar with my tendency to burn things would be shocked, but try to hold yourselves together.

Jay gets in on the celebration. I had spent the first half of the day with his son lying on my couch in misery. His throat was swollen almost shut and I was in a panic all day that he suddenly wouldn't be able to breathe and was cursing Jay for leaving him with me and so Nathaniel and I took turns watching him breathe.
Peter was conveniently gone at a seminar in Park City.
Jay and Mel and their other kids had gone to her sister's wedding in Salt Lake.
Turns out it was strep. Their whole family has it.
Guess what?
I have strep now. For the first time I have been aware of.
Oh, and a lovely rash all over my face that Sarah says looks really bad.
I didn't think it looked that bad until I felt Peter staring at me last night
and I turned to him and he said, "Man your face looks bad."
Alrighty then.
Do you know what a strep rash is ?
Scarlet fever!
Yea, I didn't know that either.