Random Thoughts and Other Such Nonsense

• Hudson put a bottle in a lunch bag, said goodbye and headed to the door to go to school with the big kids this morning
• We had a major thunderstorm here last night. With the tornado sirens blaring the kids ran to the basement and locked the door, because tornados and lightning can't get through locked doors ya know.
• I was thinking about our trip to Fairview a few years ago and how we brought all the Rocky movies with us, and how OBSESSED my kids were with those movies when they were 8, 6 and 4. I bet they could have gotten on the news in Philly with their astounding knowledge of those movies...seriously.
• I've been thinking about the kind of house I want someday in Kansas City and I keep finding ones that I really like...too bad they are here instead of Kansas City!
• I felt like I was on a serious emotional roller coaster last week...lots of things happening, lots of stress, but I came to the conclusion that the root of it all was that Lost was over. Dave and I caught the last 15 minutes of the finale the other night when they replayed it and I started crying again almost immediately, but this time Dave was here to make fun of me.
• Softball tournaments start this week. I was thinking of my poor boys having to spend those long days hanging out at the ballpark. Then I remembered spending pretty much all my Saturdays every spring and fall at sisters track and cross country meets for like six years, until I was spending every saturday in the spring and fall at my own track and cross country meets for another four years. I'm not feeling so bad for the boys anymore, they'll survive, now I'm feeling more sorry for myself because I'm going to have to listen to them whine...and that makes me feel bad for mom, who probably had to listen to me whine.
• The first graders are doing a pretend summer camp at school this week. I sent two envelopes to school with Cam...one with a letter from home for "mail call" and one was a self-addressed stamped envelope for him to use to write back. I told him he needed to give them BOTH to his teacher. When he got home the stamped one was still in his backpack. He said "why would I give it to him...it was empty." Ugh!
• Cam's class created a little mexican restaurant for their Kid Biz day at school. They had to apply and interview for the jobs they wanted and then they served their families tacos in the library like a real restaurant. There was even entertainment. Cam was a cook and he got chosen as employee of the month!
• Audrey got a ride home from practice with one of the girls on her team a week or so ago and the conversation turned to religion. They were basically comparing notes...what was the same, what was different etc...She was able answer questions about our understanding of the Godhead, who we pray to etc...better than I probably could now and definitely better than I could when I was 10. I can't take credit for that, but I am glad that my kids are able to make me look like a better parent than I am. It makes up for the times my kids make me look like a worse parent than I am. I guess it all evens out in the end! ;-)
• Braxton ended up getting a 97% on his science fair project that didn't work and his teacher asked him for a copy to use as an example for next year. That made him feel really good after all the frustration that came from things not working out the way we wanted. I was proud of him for how he handled it.
• I have been listed as a speaker in sacrament meeting two weeks in a row and haven't spoken either time. People in my ward have been asking for my secret for getting out of giving talks.

Those are my stories for now!

Has Yard Work Ever...

...made you cry? We had a sunny and warm day today, a rare combination it seems lately. I trimmed back my tulips and daffodils even though I know it is too early and they haven't stored enough energy for next year. I cut down our Japanese Maple that for some reason suffered a mysterious and premature death. We had wanted one of them in Pennsylvania but didn't have a spot so that was our first plant purchase when we got here. We had to buy a teeny tiny one because the bigger ones were really expensive but it had grown quite a bit over the years. I was careful not to squish the Hosta that my neighbor gave me several years ago while I was rearranging the dirt to hide the stump of the tree I couldn't get out. I tried to blend in the remains of the cement garden stones the kids made at the garden park last summer. I checked on the Clematis that I have babied and willed to survive for three years even though I know I didn't plant it in the right spot. I wondered what to do about the paint on the cement by the garage where the kids made a mess painting bird houses over spring break a few years back. I observed that one of the Hydrangeas by the steps is still way bigger than the other despite driving all over central Ohio looking for a matching set, and thought about my friend Susan who talks about how much she loves my hydrangeas every time she stops by and goes out of her way to drive by my house so she can see it in bloom in the spring time. I picked up the plastic hanger things that fell off the roof when Dave hung Christmas lights. I thought about how the very first thing we did the first spring we were here was tear out all the plants and start from scratch. I wondered if the next people would do the same thing. I did this all with tears streaming down my face and that chokey feeling in my throat hoping that the mail lady and my neighbor walking his dog wouldn't notice. I would have stayed here forever.

Quote of the Day

Cameron: Mom, I should know how to play the electic guitar, that would really attract people to a garage sale.

How Many Children Do You Have?

I having been updating money things today and went to check one of our accounts. It has been a while since I checked and after plugging in the username and password it went to a security question. The question...How many children do you have? I answered 4. Wrong! Since we set up the account before Hudson was born, 3. Wrong! Ok fine, 2. Wrong! And now, because I made too many failed attempts, access is blocked until Dave calls customer service and I still don't know the balance, or how many children I have. Grr!

Lessons Learned

Here are a few things Hudson has learned so far today:

Syrup is good to drink, vinegar is not.
If I throw glasses on wood floors, they break.
Mom does not like it when I fill the toilet with wipes.
When I push the right button the TV goes fuzzy and makes a loud noise, all this is utterly terrifying.
I am not quite ready to wear Heelys.

It is only 10:30, so much more "learning" to do!

Quote of the Day

Hudson: Whoa Dude!

We Did It

It took commitment, determination, perserverance, sacrifice, sleepless nights and perhaps a little bit of parental neglect on the weekends...but we did it. We watched all five seasons of Lost in less than a month. What an accomplishment! ;-) I can't wait til Tuesday.

Les Miserables

I love this story. It is one of my very faves which makes the fact that I have never actually read it all the more ironic. I read a kiddie, abridged version once, I saw the movie, I saw the play, twice. At one point a could sing the entire soundtrack, which sounds best driving through the canyon on the way to Fairview with a sister singing along by the way. It has been on my list for many, many years to read the complete, original, non-abridged version. I have started a time or two but haven't made it very far. Then last year it occurred to me that like with most projects and goals in life, especially those that are intimidating or overwhelming (1463 pages!?) it is easier to break them down into manageable chunks. So I broke out the calculator and figured that if I read 4 pages a day, I can finish it in a year. I can handle 4 pages. I did this calculation mid-way through 2009, but you can't start a year long project in the middle of the year, that just makes no sense at all, so I have been patiently waiting until January 1st 2010 to read my first 4 pages. 4 down, 1459 to go.