Woohoo!

I forgot to write yesterday that the mail I was frantically beating a flaming paper towel with not only contained life insurance info, but also the results of our health exams. It's been over a year since my last cholesterol test, but this test was 32 points lower than my previous personal best, 47 lower than my last test, and was even well below 200 for the first time. Don't know for sure what I did or didn't do but I hope I keep doing it. Maybe the oatmeal and flax seed really do work!

What a Day!

Today has turned into one of those "whew" kinds of days, and it's only 4:45. I started the laundry, got the grocery shopping done (yea!), took Joseph, Steven, and Ryan over to school to finish registering and find out who their teachers are (like we know any of them, anyway), and made it to Cubs only a few minutes late (I'm the assistant den leader). Today we just played in water and had a small birthday party for one of the boys. It was fun. The wind was blowing hard enough that the candles wouldn't stay lit, so we let the boys take their candles home if they wanted. Steven brought home a couple of extra to share. After we got home and unloaded everything, I let Steven and Spencer each light a candle. Take my advise, learn from us and don't ever do that. Spencer tipped his candle too far and caught a paper towel on fire. He tried blowing it out, but it just spread (on the paper towel). That scared Steven who dropped his candle onto a paper towel and, lo and behold, caught it on fire. You know, when paper towels are on fire in a camp fire ring they seem to burn out almost immediately. When they are on fire in your dining room, they seem to burn for hours. I was beating the towel with the mail in my hand (approval of our life insurance of all things!) and Spencer grabbed the spray bottle out of the bathroom and finally put it out. Whew!! All that remained were a couple of soggy brown paper towel fragments, a slight discoloration on the carpet (most of which washed out), and a whole bunch of jittery nerves. We all now understand a little bit more why we don't play with fire! I'm having second thoughts about ever even having birthday candles again.

A few minutes later the mother of one of the scouts called to apologize. Today was her son, Allan's, birthday and she just found Steven's invitation on the table by the front door. The party was starting right then. Could Steven possibly make it? They're going to see Prince Caspian and then swim. They'll be back at 8:30. Why not?! He was still wet from the water activities at Scouts, but he changed into his bathing suit (which was dry because he insisted on wearing regular clothes to play in the water at scouts) and a dry shirt, grabbed a dry change of clothes and a towel, and we were out the door again.

Now, I'm sitting here collecting my thoughts and taking a breather before I head off to start dinner. It's amazing how typing for 10 minutes can calm the nerves and relieve the stress. I guess that's one reason journals are such a good thing. Get all the stress out and onto a piece of paper (or into a million 1's and 0's) and move on. I'm not even going to think about the laundry that's still sitting in the washer. It can't go anywhere and if the machines aren't on, they can't do any damage! I will finish putting the groceries away, though. We're going to eat some of them tonight. Rest time is up. Hope the rest of the day is a little less exciting.

I'm Not Sure I'll Ever Understand

Erica left for Girl's Camp this morning. This camp, unlike our last "resort" has no showers. They'll be there until Saturday afternoon (that's 5 days, glad I'm not riding back on the bus!). The thing here is for the girls to braid their hair in little braids because it apparently looks less dirty over time. Then, they pull it back in a ponytail so it's out of the way. I'm alright with that. So, I've included a couple of "during" shots of Erica and then her "after" picture when she left this morning.




The part that I don't understand is that last week I couldn't get Joseph to smile for a normal, everyday shot at the Bean Museum, but he was more than willing to pose for the following. I just don't get it!

Guess that's what keeps us on our toes!

Picture Attempt

I'm expanding my horizons and trying to add pictures. The kids and I went to the Monte L. Bean Life Museum at BYU today. My goal was to get out of the house, have a semi-educational experience, and get a picture of each child to try posting tonight. Everyone had a great time except Joseph. He informed me that he wanted to stay home and was even willing to be sent to his room while we went. I told him that was fine, but he had to stay there all day and not play at Korey's house when we got home. So, he came, but he wouldn't cooperate on the picture. I had to keep trying to sneak one. I got a fairly decent shot, which he deleted when he found out. It bugged the other kids, too, and Erica got in on the attempts. So, I have two not-so-decent shots and they both get to be posted because, I am, after all, still sort of the boss.

Joseph from the back, courtesy of Erica

Joseph from the side, courtesy of me

Steven the bear (and he really is in Scouts!)

Ryan, who also didn't want a picture, but was pleasant about it

This was a very cool butterfly made out of butterflies, probably at least 3' x 3'

Spence

Erica

So, that's it for this attempt. I'll try again one of these days. As for the trip, there were a bunch of animals that I'd never seen before- like a couple of deer with fangs and a dolphin that looked like a submarine with a sail. Now, adding pictures is one more new thing I've learned today, so I get to head to bed.

New Record

I usually fill the gas tank every week on my way to the grocery store. Lately I've been trying to not let the tank drop beneath 1/2. There's something soothing psychologically when the gas bill is what it used to be, even though I'm only putting in 1/2 as much. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I stopped to fill the tank this week and I hadn't even used 1/4 of a tank. At first I didn't know what I should do, having never experienced this before. Do I fill it so it's full again? Do I give myself (and the bank account!) the week off? I opted for the later, as it was hot outside and I had no real desire to get out of the air conditioned car. And what do I credit with this abundance of gas? I'd love to say it's because I've been making good use of pedometer and walking every where, which the kids would say is the case. But, it's probably that this has been a slow week and I need to get out more. What ever the reason, you've gotta make note of firsts, and this is definitely one of those.

This week I'm MOST Grateful for...

Airconditioning! I know, it's only been in the 90's and Arizona is much warmer, but we've had a little monsoon weather passing through and the humidity has been horrible. Some parts of northern UT had over 3 inches of rain yesterday. West Valley City had 1.75 inches, Kearns and West Jordan had .75" hail stones. Provo had nothing but LOTS of humidity and a few clouds over the mountains. Ugh! So, I don't know what the electricity will cost us, but it's worth every cent and I'll be more than happy to pay it!

Wishes

The other day I filled out one of those getting to know you questionnaires. One of the questions was "What are two things you want right now?" I originally put down "$1,000,000" and "rain", but changed the "$1,000,000" to "school to start". I haven't thought much about it since. This afternoon it got cloudy and windy and a couple of rain drops fell. Joseph, who was out on the deck, yelled, "Mom, you got your first wish. Maybe you'll get your second." I didn't know what he was talking about at first. He reminded me of the $1,000,000 wish. I think he forgot about the school starting wish. He was very excited and planning how he was going to spend the $1,000,000,000 (notice the three extra zeros) that was sure to come our way until Greg and I destroyed his hopes. We pointed out that if the 5 rain drops that fell on our front porch were the result of my rain wish, we really couldn't expect more than about $1 from my $1,000,000 wish (which wasn't the real wish in the first place!) I don't see any way for school to start any earlier, though, so we're both out, I guess. I'll let you know if either arrives.