1 down 3419 to go

One down, approximately 3419 days to go in Ryan's school career. Kindergarten started yesterday. He has been so excited. While outwardly, like a good mom, I acted excited with him and talked it up real big and everything, but inside I cried for him. Before yesterday he was a carefree little boy who could come and go as he pleased, (or as his mom pleased), he had no homework, no stress, no dress code, no schedule. He could sleep till noon, play outside, watch a movie, go to the park, or play with his friends ALL DAY LONG. There was no such thing as a "school night" to inhibit evening activities. No homework to keep him in on warm spring afternoons. But now all that freedom is gone.

Now for the next 19 years he will be stuck in the rat race of education but it will also be wonderful, exciting and liberating. He will learn to read and write. He will discover the world of science, learn about explorers, wars, and epidemics. He will learn the capital of Kentucky and Zimbabwe. He will learn about the Founding Fathers, read the Constitution and memorize the Gettysburg address. He will learn the Pythagorean theory, pi, and do some proofs. And if he is lucky he will learn to think. And 19 years later he will walk across a platform, be handed a masters degree and will then face the decision to enter the workforce or go after his Phd.

What a long row he has to hoe - of course maybe I only think that because my row is hoed. I've done it and I don't regret it. I don't want to do it again, but I am glad I did it. And as hard as it is to push him out of the nest into that big mean world Ryan is lucky he has the opportunity. Education is a great privilege, I know that and I hope my kids realize it too. But privilege does require sacrifice. A lot of time, effort, stress and hoop jumping will go in to that degree. But life has shown me - its well worth it.

So at 12:00 Ryan and Rachel climbed in our big red wagon and we headed off for Spanish Oaks. I walked real slow because school doesn't' start till 12:15 and it is only a 5 minute walk. But Ryan just couldn't wait any longer. This morning he wanted me to pack him a lunch in a bag like I do for the older kids. We do this sometimes so I didn't think a whole lot about it. At 11:30 I went in to shower and told the kids to eat lunch. When I got out they were covered in Doritos so I assumed they had obeyed. But as we were strolling along to school Ryan yelled, "I forgot my lunch". I reminded him Kindergartners eat lunch at home before school and don't' need to bring it. He just said "oh" and was real quiet. "You ate your lunch, didn't you," I said. He just shook his head and said he wanted to bring it to school. So apparently he just had a few of Rachels Doritos. Good thing we left early I thought and started to turn around so we could head home and I could grab something for him to eat. But he wouldn't hear of it. I guess after waiting so long to go to school he just couldn't handle turning back once we were on the way. So we just kept going - and I said a little prayer that they would have snacks at school and Ryan wouldn't mention to anyone he hadn't eaten lunch. It always seem to make you look like a bad mom when you don't feed your kids before sending them to school. I learned this with Anna who frequently ate lunch at 3:00 when she got home from school. For some reason she felt she should share this little fact with everyone who would listen. She would also always leave off the fact that she ate breakfast at 11:30. So people who weren't privy to her entire meal schedule were left thinking I was a horrible mother who never fed her kids.

But we got to Kindergarten. We turned in his Getting to Know You "homework", hung up his backpack, weighed and measured him and found his name tag. He sat down and started coloring his head band. I hung around watching and taking pictures with all the other moms. This was to be Ryan's first "away from mom" experience since we don't do preschool. I was a bit nervous that Ryan would be nervous. But after a few minutes he looked up from his coloring and and said, "Aren't you ever going to leave." I had been dismissed. So I kissed him goodbye, reminded him where the bathroom was, picked up Rachel and headed out the door. I got all the way to the little red wagon before I started crying. As I put Rachel in the wagon I realized she was all I had left. "It's just you and me babe", I said as we walked home.

We got home logged on to Hulu.com got some ice cream sat Rachel on my lap and we watched three episode of the Donna Reed Show and at a quart of ice cream while I felt sorry for myself that all my kids were leaving me. I held Rachel tight realizing I've only got a couple years left and then I will be all alone. What will I do with myself - taking care of kids all day long is all I've ever done - other than go to school. I guess I'll have to eat of lot of ice cream and watch a lot of Donna Reed either that or go back to school - and that is a thought that terrifies me.

Who do you love the most?

It's time for bed, Rick and I played our nightly game of "see who can-not-put-the-kids-to-bed-the longest-so-the-other-one-finally-gives- in-and- does- it", Rick is the champion of this game, of course he won tonight like he usually does. So I started getting Rachel ready for bed, I was teasing her and razzing her, just loud enough for Rick to hear, about who she loves the most. Mommy, of course, should be the obvious answer. But she said, Kevin. "Kevin", I said "you mean Mommy". She corrected herself, "I love Kevin the best and Mommy the best". What about Daddy I asked. She laughed and said, "I love him the next best." She often says Tess is her best friend ever so I was a bit curious as to why Tess was left out and Kevin moved up to the tip top of "most loved" list. So I asked her why she loves Kevin the best. She looked at me like I was dumb, giggled and said, "because he has a dog." Of course - how silly of me not to know that. I told her but his dog doesn't' even live with him, she lives at Grandma's and Grandpa's. "I know"- she said like this was totally inconsequential, "but it is still his dog." That settled it for her. There is no getting around it dogs and cats are the most important thing to her in the world. She often asks me "when is it going to be my birthday- so I get big and have my own house so I can buy a cat." I am hoping such a simple thing like pet ownership will still win her adoration when she a teenager. Not that I will ever have to stoop so low as to buy a cat so my daughter will love me- but it will be nice to have that option if the need ever does arise.

Arrow of Light

Today I got to experience one of the privileges of being a mother. I got pinned. The experience in and of itself isn't' all that great. I went up in front of a crowd and bent down so Taylor could stick his hand down my shirt to pin the back on my mothers pin. That is something I would be quite happy to live without. The pin was a tiny little gold pin with an arrow on it. Not all that impressive unless you take into account what it stands for. A lot of work, worry, and bribery. Tonight was pack meeting and Taylor earned his arrow of light. He was sure proud of himself I think he realized what it all meant and that he really had accomplished something. Our cub master arranged for a man to come in dressed as an Indian and do a little ceremony - it was the first time something like this had been done in our ward. The boys were very impressed and so was I.

While sitting there watching Taylor stand up front listening to the ceremony I couldn't help but think back over the last couple of years. We have gone to scouts nearly every Wednesday and pack meeting every month for the last three years. I was involved in scouting as a leader for much of that time so I got a pretty good look at what he did. More than a couple pack nights ended with me shrinking out the back door with Taylor by the scruff of the neck-so embarrassed by his behaviour I didn't know what to do. Den meeting were a bit easier I simply sent him in the house when he misbehaved, there weren't many meeting that went by without a word of reproach being said. Then last year he turned 10, left my den and became a Webelos. I frequently warned him about being quite and respectful and hoped he was. Well tonight, maybe just out of habit, I took him aside right before the meeting started and reminded him that this was his last pack meeting and please act appropriately. He looked me right in the eye and simply said, "I know Mom" and he did.

It used to be like pulling teeth to get him to do the character connection discussions - his routine answer was a 'I dunno" with a shrug of the shoulders. Yesterday when I was quizzing him for his review with his Den Leader he listened, gave some pretty well thought out answers, repeated the oath and promise without a hitch and seemed to know what he was talking about. Tonight as I watched him receive his award I was struck by how much older he looks and acts. He is maturing into a very smart and respectful young man. A young man any mother would be proud of.

He was pretty thrilled with the whole experience. I had previously told him that the scout leaders had arranged a special ceremony for him. So tonight when he came back to sit by me, he leaned over and said - "Mom you were right', about what I ask. "The ceremony," he answered, "It was special - it was awesome". Later he told Rick "I'm so glad Mom was a scout leader", Rick asked why, to which he responded, "Well because before she was a leader she didn't pay that much attention to scouts and now she makes me work on all my stuff and well, (he paused looking down at his arrow) now I got this." While I am glad he recognizes and appreciates my efforts in pushing him up the scouting trail I have to contest his claim that I didn't pay attention before I was a leader. I did too - I paid a lot of attention. Anyway that doesn't really make any difference now - the point is he accomplished something and he feels proud of himself. Scouts has made a difference in his life and I am grateful for it.

The Nissan

I was 17 when I got my first job. I cooked, ran the register, took orders and dispatched delivery drivers for Pizza Hut. When I turned 18 I started delivering. It was a good job as far as high school fast food type jobs go. I made some money and probably more importantly a commitment to go to college so that I would never put my self in a situation where a career waiting tables at a pizza joint was putting the food on my table. Not that I didn't like the people I worked with, they were all really nice, I even had some respect for some of them. But what a sad way of life - I promised myself I would never have to live that type of life.

My next job was also waiting tables, at Libby's El Rey. Well I have to say I had a lot more respect for my fellow employees at Libbys - it was a family business. They appeared to enjoy running it, they made great food, had tons of loyal customers and friends and also contributed much to my piggy bank.

Well when my piggy bank was finally full enough I bought a car. I looked around for a while and finally settled on a 1989 Nissan Sentra. If I remember right it set me back about $3500. This was the summer of 1995. Well that little car and I have been through a lot together. Just shortly after I brought it home it took David, Kristin and I down to Mexico. We went on a 2 week adventure driving around Mexico finally turning around a couple hours south of Mazatlan. We had a wonderful time and saw a lot of great things. After a bit of a rocky start in Nogales that little nissan took good care of us. It then accompanied me to BYU and I started married life out with it by my side. I drove it for 6 years then passed it on to Rick when he bought me a pink station wagon for my growing family. Rick drove it for another 8 years till we bequeathed it to my younger brother who drove it for about a year.

It has spent the last year sitting in our driveway. Rick has been pushing me to get rid of it - but I just couldn't. I loved that car, it was my first, and the only car that was ever really MINE. We have been through a lot together, college and dating, marriage and children. It has taken me deep into Mexico and as far north as Yellowstone. It had a lot of little quirks. For most of its life the driver seat wouldn't stay up and you would have to continually put it upright. The back windows didn't close, the vents didn't have covers - both of which made climate control a bit difficult. A few years ago it lost the cover to its drive shaft and the drivers side window fell inside the door.

It sat in my driveway for an entire year, much of which was spent covered in snow - including the interior due to the lack of a window. It was a good car and the time has finally come for me to face the fact that its life is over. I've hung on to it for far too long. Rick had suggested calling the Kars for Kidney people. I agreed, but drug my feet. The car is still useful I thought, there must be someone out there that might want to drive it or at least use some of its parts. So I put it up for sale. I got a few calls - no lookers. Lowered the price still no buyers, so last week I made the call and today the tow truck came to take her away. I'll even admit I was blinking back tears. Rachel and I sat on the front porch and watched as the tow truck driver hooked her up and drug her away. I tried to tell Rachel the story of sentra - but she wasn't too interested. That's to bad because its quite a story.

Later this afernoon I came in and sat down by Taylor. He was playing the computer - usually he gets really into it and is oblivious to everything around him. Well he looked up at me and ask me what was wrong. I admitted that I was a little sad today because my nissan was gone and I really liked that car. He looked at me hard for a moment and then in a very kind and compassionate voice said, "Mom it was very old, you had it for a long long time and now it is someones elses turn." He then went back to playing his game. He was right of course the time had come to say goodbye, I wish I could believe the part about it being someone elses turn- I didn't admit it to Taylor but the fact is that car is as good as squished. No one is going to want it. I didn't send it off to a new owner, I sent it to its death. But Taylor was right - it was old and I did have if for a long time.

Thoughts on feeding and wiping our kids

Apparently there was a discussion in our community recently about the seemingly growing attitude of entitlement. It stemmed, in part, because a family was out of toilet paper. Which admittedly is an important provision to have. So they called up and asked for some help, they said we don't have any toilet paper and we don't have any money to buy some - could you help us out. They were in a bit of a hurry, for two reasons, number 1 they needed to go and when you gotta go you gotta go - that is an understandable reason. The second reason is that the next day they wouldn't have time to go to the store and stuff because they would be too busy going to lagoon. Rick took the boys to Lagoon last Monday so I know that Lagoon is an all day affair. My boys left about 9:00 and go home around midnight. It really does take the entire day. And you've got to be there open to close to get the most for your money - and at 45 dollars a pop you definitely want to get the most for you money.

So some in the community had issue with this - just like they should. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with Lagoon. It is a fun place, builds great family memories and strengthens families. The proclamation encourages us to have wholesome family recreation. But in the world of priorities amusement parks simply should not rank above basic personal hygiene like wiping your tushie. The problem is people, apparently our neighbors, and society in general believe that basic needs should be meet by others so they don't interfere with their luxuries.

I think this can be seen all over society. People believe that it is governments job, and the taxpayers responsibility to provide program after program that takes care of peoples "basic needs". And the list of basic needs is growing and growing. Just this year owning a new car made the basic needs list. Well that is ridiculous. While I do believe that it is our obligation as fellow citizens, brothers and sisters even, to do all we can to make sure there are not starving or suffering children among us, and to help those who truly need our help. But taking care of someones needs so they can afford their wants is not our responsibility. In my book it does more harm than good.

There was recently an interview done on a radio talk show where two people we debating the health care problems. One man argued that health care cost way too much and insurance didn't cover enough. At one point he argued, "What if my kid broke his arm - how should I pay for that, out of my pocket? He was obviously outraged at the idea of paying out of his pocket for a broken arm. The other woman in the debate simply answered yes. As a parent it is your job to take care of your kids. Broken arms happen, it is a common everyday part of growing up. Even with today's outlandish medical costs a broken arm still isn't that expensive. Probably less than we are paying a year for our satellite tv. When we choose to bring children into this world we choose to be responsible for them, to take care of their needs. Needs like toilet paper, food and even broken arms. At least that is how it should be.

In my book feeding your children should be pretty near tippity top of the priority list. It should be way above things like amusement parks, recreational vehicles, vacations, and the like. I even think it should be above "staples" of the common American home such as cable tv, caller id, gaming systems, ipods, computers, cell phones, designer clothes, fake nails, and even a second car. In extreme circumstances, if there was a choice to be made between food and something else, unless that something else was air or water food should pretty much always win. At least that's what Maslow suggests. But fortunately we live in a time and place that that kind of choice need not ever be made. As an American citizen, or even a noncitizen residing in the USA there is always help to be found - there is food pantries, shelters, and numberless other charities available to feed the hungry. That is the way it should be - no one should starve. But I don't think starving is the issue here. I don't think too many of us are actually worrying about starving to death, because we know society has got us covered on that one. So we focus on making sure we have got all the other things we deserve - like tvs, suvs, blackberries, jet skis, laptops etc. We feel entitled to these modern conveniences - why - I'm not sure. Maybe because we want them, our neighbors have them, and simply because they're there.

One program I have big issues with is the school lunch program. Just saying that makes me sound like some cold hearted , tight fisted scrooge, I am sure. Of course no child should go with out lunch. I can't stand to see a child hungry. I can swear up and down my kids won't get anything to eat till morning if they don't eat dinner and then when bedtime hits and their crying in hunger all resolve goes out the window and I make them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I can't stand to know a child is hungry - and neither can any other decent human being. But my issue is that school lunch isn't seen as a last resort for a family who can't feed their children. It is seen as another part of attending public school. It is pretty easy to qualify. My family would have to make less than $61000, a family of four would have to make less than $40,793. While those are no where near high incomes they aren't bottom of the barrel either. A family who is making that much money should be able to feed their children. Now it definitely may not be possible to finance vacations, purchase recreation vehicles, drive new cars, carry a blackberry, listen to an ipod, subscribe to various services and keep our roots up all on 40,000 dollars a year. But we should be able to feed our children. But if someone is willing to feed them for us- why not let them, that way we can enjoy our "well deserved" luxuries. I am afraid that is the mentality that is inflicting way to many of us. There is no shame in asking our friends and neighbors to feed our kids so we can play. And that is wrong - immoral even.

A few weeks ago in primary the primary president talked about how her family was planning a trip to Disneyland. The lesson had something to do with using a road map and following a plan and she related it to the plan of salvation. It was a good lesson. Well she ask how many had been to Disneyland. Hands shot up around the room. You had to look pretty hard to find a family who hasn't been at least once - there are many families who make it a yearly family tradition. I know of a couple who go multiple times a year and 1 even has a season pass. We don't live in California - its a 10 hour drive without stops. So is there anything wrong with this. No - Disneyland is great. My family went last April, we loved it. We all had a great times, made some great memories and came back closer. It was a bonding experience well worth the money spent.


Obviously many families feel this way because going to Disneyland is a common occurrence in our neighborhood -the vast majority have done it or do it on a regular basis. The sad part of it is that more families take their children to Disneyland than feed their children. Disneyland has trumped feeding the kids on our societal priority list. If you stop and work the numbers I could have bought school lunch for all 3 of my school kids every day for 2 years for less than it cost us to go to Disneyland. And that is school lunch, I bet, if need be, I could have packed my kids a lunch from home every school day for close to 4 years for what it cost us to go to Disneyland. Now we are very fortunate, my husband worked hard and sacrificed much to have a job that provides us enough income to do both. At least for now - jobs do come and go and being unemployed at sometime in our career is a real possibility. A possibility that requires us to plan carefully, put away money and food so that we can continue to feed our children if and when this does happen to us.

Unfortunately some of our friends our not so lucky. I just accidentally opened a neighbors mail, it truly was an accident. It was their approval letter for the free lunch program. I was shocked. My first thought was I wonder if something happened, did he loose his job? Will they have to start selling some toys, forgo the next concert, avoid the mall, skip the cruise, or even miss this years trip to Disneyland. To be honest I don't know - maybe something did happen, to be honest they seem like pretty frugal people. Times are tough, they may have very well hit upon some rocky times and need a bit of help. But I think all to often that is not the case. It's not hard times but the entitlement attitude that cause people to think it is ok to ask their friends and neighbors to feed their kids so they can play.

Part of the problem with this trap of entitlement is that is so easy to get into. The programs are out there, right in our face, they are even advertising asking us to join them. I once mentioned my feelings about school lunch to a friend. She said, well if you qualify you should definitely take it - because if you don't you are taking funding away from kids with disabilities. Huh? I said. She explained that funding for special education was allotted partly based on the number of kids who qualify for free lunch. I didn't really believe her. There is no denying that the school district and government in general has some pretty kooky policies. But to base funding for special ed on how poor the community is, is ridiculous in my book. Poor kids are not the only ones born with disabilities. Funding for special ed should be dispersed based on how many children are disabled, the degree of their disabilities and not the income of their parents. So I wrote to the state school board and asked them if this was true. I got two replies. Both of which informed me that is was true, gave lengthy descriptions of how funding was allocated, why and how wonderful the program was. Both ended their letter by inviting me to apply for school lunch and take advantage of it if accepted. I was stunned and outraged. While I do not want kids needing special education programs to be short changed I do not think I should have to sacrifice my level of pride, independence and responsibility by accepting welfare to give them the help they need. I should not have to be on the government dole to help kids with disabilities. I am very happy for my tax money to go to help educate all children, I am even more happy for it to go to feed any and every hungry child. I just don't think I should have to keep kids fed so their parents can enjoy their toys and luxuries. So what are we going to do about this problem - I don't know, but I firmly feel that in order for our society to succeed, fundamental basics like feeding our own kids and wiping our own tushies need to find their way back to the top of the priority list.

A few photos for your viewing pleasure

The Spanish Fork reservoir - we went with Mark, Kevin and families. Mark was nice enough to be the motor for our blow up raft.
The Bean Museum - the kids had a great time looking at the animals, watching documentaries and buying souvenirs.

The Grotto - after our ward camp out we stopped off and hiked the Grotto. It is a beautiful little walk to a very nice little waterfall up Payson Canyon.

The girls doing what they do best - being beautiful little girls.

Ryan loves to shoot people with these little water guns - how he manages to always be on the giving and never the receiving end of a water fight always amazes me.
Taylor and Dallin doing a little kayaking at the reservoir. Dallin is quite the little captain - he can row the kayak all over the lake avoiding fishing line and swimmers like a pro.

Demolition Derby

Rick ask me to buy tickets to the Demolition Derby this year. "Really", I said, "you want to go to that - and pay money for it." Then I remembered my goal to expose my kids to as many things as possible and decided it would be a great idea for Rick to take the older kids and go. Rachel, Ryan and I would stay home and watch movies. Well at the last minute - while standing there in line at Maceys to buy the tickets we decided it would be better to all go. So we went. I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I figured I would have a good time, it would be exciting and fun but I didn't really think a bunch of cars trying to smash each other up would hold my interest for long. I was wrong it was awesome. Maybe, like the rodeo, it's just the crowd, the music and the energy that creates all the excitement and not whats going on in the arena, but it really was exciting. I found myself transfixed, cheering on my car. Cringing with the drivers when the cars collided and genuinely nervous for those who were running out of time to make a hit. I found myself frantically yelling, and mentally willing those spinning tires to catch and the car to go. I laughed with the crowd as tires came rolling off and then cheered as the driver kept the car moving on its rims. I felt the fear and anticipation when a driver slumped in his seat after a hard hit and my heart stopped when he didn't come up. I prayed for the emts who were running over then cheered when they got him up. I'm thinking the demolition derby will be a new Carter family tradition - who knows maybe next year we'll even wear old tractor hats with the netting on top, wife beaters and a pair of billy bob teeth.









Some Photos from the derby - I am not sure what it is but me and this photo tool don't get along the pictures I add refuse to go where I want them and don't download in the same quality as they show up on my computer. Oh well.

The end of Summer

Tomorrow night is the last night of summer. I am devastated. It may sound a bit dramatic but it is true. I love summer and I hate when it is not summer. Not that there isn't good things about the non summer season- there of course are, the problem is all the good stuff gets over shadowed by school. School is great, it is wonderful to be educated, to learn, to be with friends and away from Mom. It is good for me to have some time without so many little shadows. But it is still school, you have to go everyday whether you want to or not. You have to be there at 9:00 whether you were up past midnight or not. You have to do homework, and turn in assignments, and take a lunch everyday. You have to wear clean clothes without rips or holes. You have to do your hair even if it is tangly and eat breakfast before 8:50. You have to go to bed at least by 10:00 if not earlier if you can manage it. Basically you have to follow the rules and be responsible - and I just don't like to do that. (I have to be careful not to let my children see that confession.) I don't like schedules, rules and most of all someone telling me what to do, when to do it and how it should be done. Although I don't mind being the one doing the telling.

I love summer vacation. I get to clean my house as much or as little as I want. I get to take my kids to the park, the pool, the zoo, bowling, hiking, grocery shopping, to a movie, out to eat or wherever the heck I want. Or I can stay home and sit in front of the tv in my pajamas all day long if I want to and guess what-it doesn't matter at all, no one is around to tell me what I should or shouldn't be doing. I am the boss and I like it. We can eat breakfast at noon or have a bowl of cookie dough for lunch. We can wear the same crusty clothes 5 days in a row if we feel like it. We don't have to wear shoes unless we want to. We can put on a baseball cap if our hair is a mess or just let it be messy. But just try sending the kids to school with a tub of cookie dough in their lunch box, a baseball hat on their head, and no shoes on their feet and just watch the phone start ringing.

Anyway so for our last week of freedom we tried to play hard. We accomplished a bit of fun but still have a big long list of things to cram into the next couple of days. I think we will cheat and pretend it is still summer for the first couple weeks of school. This week Rick took Taylor and Dallin to Lagoon, the little kids and I went with Jeff and Stacey to the Bean Museum then to 5 guys Burgers and Fries. We went to the pool with Mark and Amber. We went bowling and then back to the Bean Museum. We went school shopping, to the county fair, and to the demolition derby. We tried to go swimming but got rained out. We went camping, (some of us twice) and played with every friend in the neighborhood.

We still have some camping, hiking, caving and horseback riding to do this summer. There is still 7 peaks, coldstone and a National Park or two to visit. We still have some friends to invite over, some movies to watch and a trampoline to sleep on. Too bad we only have two days.

Family

Fish and Family stink after 3 days? I am not so sure about fish- we are pretty much a fish free home, but as far as family goes nothing could be further than the truth. The last couple of weeks have been family, family family and we have loved it, loved it, loved it. (I sound like the goose on Charlotte's Web huh?) Anyway- truthfully it has been an awesome couple of weeks.


Tuesday (28th) Dallin had his birthday party -luckily Benjamin was in town, or in state I should say, so he got to come. We swapped Ben for Anna and the kids got to have a cousin sleep over. Which was a real treat. We have a rule (I am considering breaking-would appreciate input) that our kids can't have sleepovers except with their cousins. So they had a great time. ( see future post for more on this slumber party dilemma)


The birthday party went well - as well as to be expected when you mix 8 boys with lots of sugar, dye, and a baseball bat. We made tie dye tee shirts, the boys loved it, the shirts turned out pretty good. Which is a good thing because we will always have a reminder of that experience when we look at the table that is also now tie dyed. We had our traditionally pinata. I voted for picking one up at Maceys but Dallin really wanted a big raincloud pinata. Since Maceys doesn't carry raincloud pinatas we got to make our own. A beach ball, can of black spray paint, and 3 weeks of newspaper later we got a big black ball - that Dallin called a raincloud. He liked it and that is all that counts. I learned it is probably a good idea to put some kind of hook or rope inside of the pinata as you are making it. Our pinata held a lot of candy but wasn't so easy to hang. So only a couple boys got a chance to take a whack at it before broke. Oh well their mouths were to full of taffy to complain much. We moved on to the chocolate bar game which all the boys loved. They had to open up a wrapped chocolate bar with a fork and knife while wearing gloves and eat the whole thing. There were two teams the first team to finish their bar was the winner. Thanks to the fact that Taylor has a huge mouth that can fit an entire giant candy bar at once his team won. Dallins team struggled a bit because they were down one boy. Because although Benjamin is an excellent opener and got most of the wrapper off on his turn to open he doesn't enjoy chocolate and politely passed on eating it. The boys then watched a movie, Eragon, and played night games for a few minutes. I took them home about 11:00 - came home and crashed. Taylor, Dallin and Ben were still playing Pokemon when I went to bed.

The next day Ben got to be one of my cub scouts and go bowling with my Den. It was fun - I love watching my kids bowl, they get so excited when they get a strike, even hitting a pin is something to celebrate. I enjoy it too I scored 118- good thing for bumpers!!! To be honest I am not much of a bowler (except for the Wii - I am the Carter Family Wii Bowling champion- and proud of it) but to put it bluntly I have no form and no aim. I just toss it down there, it bounces against the bumpers like a game of pin ball and ends up hitting some pins. The kids do it the same way but they throw the ball - I was really worried they would break the floor- it hits so hard. Dallin accidentally threw it (overhand) a little to early and to the side, it sideswipped our neighbor bowlers ankle as it went down her lane. It hit the sweeper thing too - luckily not too hard and no one saw so we didn't have to pay the $5 fine. I just had a thought while typing this - what if the fine got added to our neighbors bill since it hit her sweeper not ours. Oh boy, would I feel guilty, first we hit her ankle then charged her $5 - that is not what I call doing a good turn daily. Oh well no way to know or fix that. Back to the topic at hand - family.

That evening we went to Island Park, after a very long ride we arrived at the Larson Lodge, the cabin we had rented. It was pretty nice for a cabin out in the middle of nowhere with 1 big room, 1 loft, 5 beds and a mouse. There was a big portrait of old Grandpa Larsen watching over us that seemed to make the cabin even more homey. It actually worked out great. We had a lot of fun. We met Grandma, Grandpa, David, Megan and their kids that night. Jeff, Stacey and Kevin and Tess met us the next night. We hiked around a bit, floated down a river, feed some huge fish, saw some really big falls (Mesa Falls) and had a birthday party for Dallin, Emily and Josh. It was a lot of fun to be all together and watch the kids play.



We all then headed for Grandma's house and had a couple more days there together. We played marshmallow gun tag, Frisbee baseball, went out to dinner and had a great time just hanging out. Sunday afternoon we headed to our house where Mark, Amber and kids were waiting for us. Mom had made us a nice pot roast with potatoes and salad and everything- all I had to do was finish cooking it. So I plugged the crock pot of 1/2 cooked roast in my car adapter and figured it would simmer along all the way from Soda to Spanish. Well I was wrong. Somehow the cord came undone or couldn't support a crock pot or something because it didn't really cook. So I stuck it in the oven and cooked the potatoes and we had stiff rare roast. It was cooked through enough not to be raw or anything but definitely not falling apart as a good roast should. Anyway we all ate dinner and had a good time chatting and catching up. I was wishing I had a bigger house - with 20 people we were bursting at the seams. But it worked out ok.

The next day David had to fly home so his family left just in time for Jeff, Stacey and kids to join us. We were glad they made it we were a bit afraid they would have to walk down from Soda which would be quite the trek. The key to the car had fallen out of Jeff's pocket and was no where to be found. It is one of those "theft resistant" cars some moron with a son in law in the re keying business invented. The car requires a special key with a chip in it to start. The key is between 50-125 dollars (we checked several dealers) and requires the car to be there when they make the key. So we had to find a way to get our spare key to Soda. No one was too excited to drive it up there so Jeff hit upon a plan. He had a meet the Salt Lake express van in the BYU parking lot. We gave the little package to the driver who assured us he would meet up with Jeff in Blackfoot and hand it off. All went well and Jeff got the key and got to Utah. We spent the week just kind of hanging out and playing.

We went to Thanksgiving point for their 2 dollar Tuesday deal. We should have gone Monday and paid the extra. It was packed. We had wanted to go to the dinosaur museum but the line just to get in was hours long. So we went to the petting zoo. Rachel wanted to ride a horse so I stood in line for at least an hour. She stood right by me mesmerized by the horses. She got her ride and loved it. We went swimming, out to the Spanish Fork reservoir, shopping, the Bean Museum and to the new restaurant "5 guys burgers and fries". We had a great time. I loved seeing my kids play with their cousins and interact with their uncles and Aunts. I wonder if they realize how lucky they are to have such good Aunts and Uncles. They don't get to really see them enough to know them really well which makes me really sad.


We were supposed to go boating with Uncle Rex but the weather turned bad and cancelled that plan. I was pretty distraught. My mom told me "no crying aloud" - right before she told me the news. Its a good thing she warned me because tears were welling up but I was able to stay in control. That may sound silly but I really wanted to go. I love water and boating and have been eagerly awaiting an opportunity to do it. We would rent a boat but with just Rick and I it seem unrealistic. With 1 of us driving the other one would have to choose between skiing and watching the kids. And since our kids safety ranks a bit higher than water skiing we haven't been able to go. So we have been waiting for an opportunity where there are more adults present to help out. And honestly this has been the first one that has come up since we've been married, or at least out of school and financially able to do something like that. It kind of goes back to our lack of needy friends thing. For the most part all of our friends have tons of family who live here and if they go boating or camping or something like that they naturally go with one of their families.

Anyway I have to keep reminding myself to stay on target so back to my week with family. Bottom line is we had a great time and were reminded how blessed we are to have such wonderful family. I have recommitted myself to find a way to be with them more often. At times it seems like such a daunting task with all those miles, expensive plane tickets, vacation time and schedules standing in the way. But somehow it will happen.

A little bug

Day camp wasn't all it was cracked up to be this year, or maybe it was- Dallin just didn't get to find out. He was really excited to go -really really excited. He had to be at the church at 7:00am which is like the middle of the night for him so I was a bit worried when he went to bed extra late the night before that we would have a rocky morning. But I woke him up about quarter to 7:00 reminded him it was Day Camp and he bounded out of bed, dressed ate breakfast all with a huge smile and a bounce in his step. He got off to Day camp and the day started out pretty normally. Everyone else was still asleep and I was working on the computer (I call it working but it is really just reading the news, message boards, watching bobcasts and the like), when I got a call. It was Dallin scout leader saying he was throwing up. I had a hard time believing it, less than 2 hours ago he was perfectly fine. But I woke Rachel up loaded her up and headed up the canyon to fetch him. He had indeed thrown up and was feeling awful. He spent the rest of the day in bed. We had the rodeo to go to that night so I was debating what to do about that but figured if he didn't eat anything all day he probably wouldn't throw up while there. Well a little after noon the kids came running up the stairs saying Ryan threw up. The fun had begun. Dallin and Ryan were sick the rest of the day. I got a babysitter so the rest of us could go to the Rodeo. I made the sickies stay in the bedroom and told the babysitter to just watch movies downstairs or something so he wouldn't be exposed to their germs. Well I guess he got bored downstairs because he ended up in the room with the boys playing computer games.

The rodeo was great by the way - I love all the music, excitement and adrenaline that comes with those kinds of things. Those cowboys sure amaze me- winning means a lot of money, but I don't know if that kind of pain would really be worth it. Maybe I'm just a wimp.

Well the next day everyone was fine no more throwing up. Saturday it was Taylor and Rick's turn- Taylor was better by the next day but Rick always like taking a long turn so he was sick the next few days. The girls managed to pass that one by. So we thought the throw up fairy had left our house - it had I think it just moved up to Soda Springs and hit mom and then on to Island Park and struck David and then came back with us to Peter and Jacob. I am not sure if it was all the same bug or not - there was several days between our sicknesses and theirs and the symptoms weren't exactly the same but whatever the case might be there was a lot of nausea, throwing up and diarrhea going around.

The good thing about all this is that I was planning on cleaning my carpet anyway before my family arrived so I didn't have to do anymore cleaning than planned. It was a little grosser than I thought and my washing machine was running non stop for a few days but my carpets were freshly washed. Every scrap of clothing Ryan owned had to be washed, he threw up in his bed which has drawers underneath it. Somehow the vomit found its way in his drawers all over his clothes. So he got nice clean clothes, nice clean drawers and nice clean carpet. I really am glad I owe a carpet cleaner at times like this- although tile and a mop might be easier.

I decided to use a picture of the Rodeo for this post since I didn't take any of the throw up and even if I did a v0mit pictures not to exciting.

Musical Beds

So a few weeks ago I realized we would have several guests coming to town all at the same time. Which really excited me. I love people to come over. One of my biggest wishes is for people to come into my home and feel welcome. I hope they do. Anyway so I had to try and come up with a comfortable way to sleep all of our guests. There would be my parents, Jeff and Stacey and their kids, Mark and Amber and their kids and David, Megan and their kids, all for varying amounts of time. So I decided to push some beds together and arrange some things. I thought about having Rick help me with this but I knew he wouldn't be too thrilled. He doesn't like trying things out to see if they will work. He likes planning it out - measuring it, drawing it, figuring it on paper. I just like to try it, see how I like it. Well his way takes longer and I am impatient. My way takes a few tries to get it right and Rick is well... I could say lazy but that wouldn't be very polite or true since he is one of the most hardworking people I know when it comes to most things just not this kind of thing. Anyway so I decided I better just do it while he was at work and he would never even have to know.

So I started by moving Anna's bed into Ryan's room. Despite it weighing about twice as much as I expected that worked out ok. So then I needed a bed for Anna's room. I decided now was the time to pull that old futon we had been saving in the back of the storage room "just in case". So I tried to pull that out but discovered I had to pull everything out of the storage room to get to it. So got that done and then realized we bought that futon before we finished the basement and our finished basement stairs aren't' quite as big as they were unfinished. So it didn't' really fit very good. Well I didn't want to give up so I struggled with that thing for at least an hour. I made my boys and the neighborhood boys help me. We pushed, we pulled, we tried every different angle, and finally we got it up the stairs. A little touch up paint later the stairs looked about the same as when we started and all was good. Other than the scraped up walls we did have one other little tragedy. We had to have the futon about 1/3 of the way closed to get it to fit. It was a bit tricky to carry it in this position. The springs wanted to snap it open - about 1/2 way up the stairs the springs won - and my fingers lost. At that point I regretted asking the neighbor boys to help - I really wished they hadn't been there to hear my reaction to the futon snapping on my fingers. I've been expecting a call from the Bishop.

Anyway got the futon in Anna room and decided the futon mattress was a bit thin and not too comfortable. So I decided to put my mattress on it. After lugging my mattress over I realized a queen mattress didn't fit too well on a full sized futon. I thought it might fit better on the bed downstairs which is a full sized bed but it didn't have a head and foot board like the futon so I hauled my mattress down and swapped it with the mattress downstairs. That too was a lot of lugging that both my back and the pictures on the wall regretted. Anyway that worked out pretty good. So now I had a "king sized" bed in Ryans room, a full sized bed in Anna's room, and a queen sized bed downstairs and a box spring in my room. Time to pull out the extra long hospital mattresses in my storage room. They kind of fit on my bed with just about 6 inches hanging off both ends. I added the camping egg crates for extra comfort and called it good. Unfortunately the egg crates weren't quite as wide - they only went up as far as the pillows but I figured we could just sleep on two pillows and our heads would be at an appropriate height. Well the next problem I ran into was that queen sized sheets don't fit to well on two extra long twin sized mattresses. So I used two top sheets. We would soon learn that bottom sheets have that elastic on the edges for a reason.

Anyway when I got all done and was satisfied with our sleeping arrangements I was exhausted, dripping with sweat and my squished fingers were throbbing. It had taken the better part of the day. I knew that I really should change it all back since it was only supposed to be an experiment to see if it would work for next week, but the thought of moving it back and then moving it again next week was too much for me. So I decided to just leave it. I knew Rick wouldn't be too thrilled so I tried to be extra sweet and nice to him when he arrived home. I hoped to butter him up enough he wouldn't notice the beds. Well that was pretty stupid thinking really. How was he not going to notice that when he sat on the bed 6 inches of the mattress's was hanging off, or that unless he used two pillows his head sunk down lower than his body, or that his mattress felt like an egg crate. He was very nice about the whole thing - like I knew he would be. But I know it was a trial for him. I told him all about my day and the struggles I had making it sound as pathetic as possible and then sweetly offered to move it all back so he wouldn't have to sleep on camping mattresses for an extra week- I was careful to make sure he could see me icing my hand as I offered this. Of course he said no its fine. I knew he would - he is an amazing guy. He didn't complain once about the bed the whole 2 weeks we slept on it. He did mention a time or two how much his neck hurt and how exhausted he was but the two are probably not related - at least I hope not.

An amusing little sidenote

I just thought of an amusing little thing that happened last night. At least I was amused by it. It was Stacey's birthday so we were having dinner and Tess and Kevin came out. Tess's mom was in town visiting so she came too. When they arrived Tess introduced her Mom to Ryan. She said, "This is my Mom, Julia" Well Ryan's eyes got big and he got excited. I am thinking no one but me caught this - but he ran over to me and said "Mom, does she know Taylor." Maybe just because I am his mom( remember moms know EVERYTHING -just ask my kids they will roll their eyes and confess its true) but I immediately knew what was going on in Ryans little mind. The Taylor he was referring to was not our brother Taylor, but Ryan's hero Taylor Swift. (He likes her "as big as Jesus" he confessed much to my dismay) One of his favorite songs he referrs to as the Julia song. It is Love Story for those of you familiar with her music. The song is about Romeo and Juliet - it sounded like Julia to Ryan so it became know at our house as the Julia song. Well Ryans little mind hit on this and he was sure somehow Tess's mom was connected to Taylor Swift and boy was he thrilled to meet someone who he believed must know Taylor. I have to admit I am a bit worried - 5 seems to young to have a crush on a star. Rick thinks its natural - I am guessing this is just one more way Ryan is taking after his Dad.