Evening The Score

It's just occurring to me that Summer is officially over. Sad. Very Sad. After picking up Camp today, I drove over to the Tuesday produce stand to pick up some peppers and tomatoes, only to see a deserted gravel lot. No peppers. No tomatoes. No peaches. The season is over, and I'm not happy about it. It's a dang good thing that all the best holidays land in the fall and winter seasons, because otherwise they'd have no redeeming value. I've always said that the colder months are better because winter clothes are cuter than summer clothes, but now that my whole clothing sitch-e-ation has changed--not to mention the horrible things that added humidity does to my hair--my attitude about the fall and winter months has changed. Like I said--thank goodness for the holidays.
So far, Camp is really enjoying school. He gets annoyed by my asking for too many details, and he never says things are wonderful, but he always comes home happy and hasn't expressed any concerns, so I'm assuming all is well. I'll get to start volunteering in his classroom at the start of October, which I'm really excited about.
Jane and Dan are in swimming lessons again and Janey had her first soccer game on Saturday. Man, that girl is darling. She was a little timid at first, but soon enough, she was running all over the field--looking back every now and again to revel in Camp's cheering for her. Soccer will have been a huge blessing if for nothing else, just as a reinforcement to Jane that Camp really does love her.
And guess what? I got to do a little decorating recently. Nothing big, but exciting still the same. My friend Kim is in the middle of moving and was getting rid of a bunch of stuff, so she gave me some fabulous contact paper that she was done with. At first, I considered covering the backs of my bookshelves with it, but because I'm not sure it wouldn't harm the wood, I decided to just cover some books instead. I know it is totally lame to not be able to read the titles of the books, but it sure looks good. By the way--have I ever posted pictures of my family room after having painted it blue? Well here it is. I swore I'd never decorate with blue, but I'm eating my words now. I can't seem to get enough of it--although I 'm still accessorizing in green and red. (By the way--these are the new toss pillows I'll be asking for for my birthday. What do you think?)

I had a showing the other day, so I decided to take some pictures while the pillows were still fluffed and the lines were still in the carpet. Those things don't last long, you know. Man, I love it when my house is clean. I almost want to just move out onto the porch.



Brian ran a half-marathon trail run on Saturday in the rain after having worked through the night like half the week, and he still kicked fanny big time. So big time that I didn't even make it to the finish line in time to cheer for and congratulate him. Yikes. And he's just signed himself up for a marathon trail run for the weekend of his birthday. Can you imagine running 26.2 miles of trails?! I think I'll grab my next opportunity to go through his truck for illegal stimulants. The guy's obviously lost his marbles.
So anyway....


It's a good thing I just previewed my post because I almost forgot to explain the title. We're having a boy"! Final score (most likely): boys--2, girls--2. Tie game.

Chapstick

Have you guys all seen Napolean Dynamite? A couple months ago I put it on for my kids to see what they would think of it. They loved it. Isn't that funny?! So they've watched it several times now....Well yesterday, out of the blue, Camp said to me, "Mom, will you bring me some Chapstick?"
"No, buddy, but you can go get it yourself," I replied.
"But my lips hurt real bad," he quoted in Napolean's voice. It wasn't until then that I realized that Camp didn't want Chapstick at all. He just wanted to engage me in a fun Napolean Dynamite dialog. I was totally impressed and laughed for a second before I replied (the best I could in Kip's voice),
"Just get some from the nurse. I know she's got a bunch of them in her drawer."
Camp finished it off right on target with
"I'm not using hers, you sicko!"

Oh, man. What a cool kid I have. That kid's got a memory just like his dad's. I couldn't believe his timing and wit.

Speaking of Camp--his first day of first grade is tomorrow and I'm totally stoked about it. I'm stoked for him and I'm stoked for me. I get to go with him tomorrow for the first couple hours, and I'm feeling like it's my first day of school all over again, too. I wish I had a cute new outfit to wear. Do you all remember all of your first days of school? I remember how exciting it was for me to get a few new outfits for school over the summer and although I would never officially wear them before the start of school, I would line them up on my bed nightly and try them on often... Over several years, most of our school shopping was done at the University Mall in Orem--during our visit to our Grandma Hatch's house. Later on, I remember getting stuff at Contempo. I remember this pair of navy blue Squeeze brand (is that what those things were?)shorts that had white and yellow daisies all over them. I loved them. They were just BARELY long enough to gain my mom's approval, and I wore them with a matching navy v-neck. I was thinking they'd change my life. They didn't.
I have so many memories of being so excited to get new clothes. I remember this one time in elementary school when I was lucky enough to have my mom take me to K-mart to get a new outfit. I chose this ruffly white skirt with stretch pants attached and a baby blue t-shirt. I kid you not--I was so excited to wear that outfit the next day at school that I did not sleep a wink that whole night. I felt sure people were not going to be able to take their eyes off me. Oh, boy...
All growing up, I spent ALL of my money on clothes--I never spent a dime on CD's or fast food or anything else. I just loved getting new clothes. When I worked at the GAP in the Fashion Show Mall my senior year, I'd go over to the neighboring hotel on pay day, cash my check, and head back into the store to spend it on clothes. I didn't make much money working there--or I didn't keep much money, rather. But I got new clothes a lot.
It's interesting how my shopping habits have changed over the years. These days, when I am lucky enough to have a little money to spend on myself, I almost always spend it on something decorative for the house. I care much more about how the house looks than I do about how I look. I would still love to look stylish, but I just don't have the money or time to realize that dream. I shouldn't say that. If I never bought anything for the house, I'd probably be able to dress a lot cuter. But it seriously baffles me when I see other mothers here in Florence who always dress stylishly, because I'm thinking, Aside from anything else, how in the heck are you able to find the opportunity to go shopping to buy those clothes when you have kids? Where are your kids when you are shopping? The few times I have attempted to shop with my kids, I have become so exhausted and overwhelmed so quickly that I've been lucky to get out with a new pair of sweats.
ANYWAY...I'm excited for tomorrow, new clothes or not.

Oh, just one more thing about clothes before I shut up about it, I promise. On Sunday at church, a friend of mine commented to me that her mom had commented to her (did you get that?), "Ann shouldn't wear that shirt she's wearing because it makes her look pregnant." So funny. Luckily for me, I AM pregnant....almost 20 weeks along. Yep. Luckily for me, I am pregnant... :)

A First

Have any of you ever seen one of those medical mystery shows where they tell you about some crazy medical condition and then you (as the viewer) are supposed to try and guess what the medical condition is? Well I've got a mystery of sorts (not medical, though) that I'd love for you to figure out. Here it is:

Almost all of my shirts (like all four of them) have the same little cluster of rips right in the same place--a couple inches below my belly button. Any ideas about how in the heck this could keep happening to all of my shirts?

I'll just tell you because I don't want to ask the question and then likely have no one answer me. The fact is, when I stand at the kitchen sink--which I do for like five hours of every day--it just happens that the counter hits me at exactly the height of my pants' button. So the friction caused by my shirt constantly getting rubbed in between and metal button and a stone counter results in holes in the same place on every shirt. Isn't that horrible? It's horrible, alright.
Anyway, so partly because of that and partly because I hate to have stuff that stains splatter on my four shirts when I am cooking, I really like to wear aprons. I have several of them and I wear them often. And I've found that once I have one on, I usually wear it for the rest of the day. I love being in an apron for some reason. It makes me feel domestic and I feel like it's flattering, and I just feel protected or something. One of the aprons I often wear is a red one with the name Jurgen embroidered on it. Who's Jurgen? I don't know. This particular apron is one of those reject items that was sent from Pottery Barn to DownEast Home because it had a flaw or had the wrong name embroidered onto it. Anyway....

And guess what? Something really remarkable has happened in my home--and more specifically, in my shower. My shampoo and conditioner will be running out at almost the exact same time. Have you ever had that happen? I haven't either! What an amazing first....

I guess it's been a while

Yikes. I'm not sure I've ever gone this long without writing before. And now I feel journal guilt. I hate rewinding.

We went to Vegas and Utah for a few weeks. It was a great trip, as always. The kids had a ball with their cousins and in the water, and I LOVED (and always do love) getting to spend time with my sisters and brothers and sisters and brothers in law. My favorite times with either family are when everyone is together, sitting around talking or playing games or whatever.

There was one night at my parents' house when a bunch of us sat around for a while playing Balderdash and laughing and telling stories, and I was so happy to be a part of it. I think it was the next night when a few of us were still up-- trying (unsuccessfully) to get another fun night going, when Laura slid the following note across the table to Audrey.

So funny. I still laugh when I think of it. (I kept the note and now use it as my bookmark. I'm currently reading The Book Thief. Any of you read it?)

Anyway, during the trip, I even got to meet relatives that I'd never gotten to meet before--Brian's grandma Gigi and uncle Chuck, and nine new cousins on my mom's side. My aunt Becky adopted nine Haitian boys several years ago, and I finally got to meet them.

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to spend the last four days at Sarah's house. It was the perfect end to my trip because no matter how wonderful a vacation is, after about 2 1/2 weeks, it becomes hard to be away from home. The day before going to Sarah's house, I had gotten to that point. I called Brian sobbing. What was so wrong? Oh, who knows? I was just at that point; you know what I mean? But anyway, being at Sarah's house couldn't have been more relaxing. The kids played and Sarah and I just enjoyed one another's company. One of the days we were there, we were able to go to my cousin Ben's wedding reception. It think it was the most unique reception I have ever attended. It was up in a canyon and they had a tin foil dinner buffet. My other two cousins were dressed as hobos and just hung around the fire all night, tending the dinners. Pretty fun.
Anyway... upon arriving, Sarah and I realized that we hadn't put together anything in the form of a gift (we had been running errands and taking the kids places all day). No matter, though. I just scavenged around my endlessly messy van and found a homemade but blank-inside-thank-you card that Camp had made in church on a previous Sunday, wrote a quick note inside and stuffed it with the few dollars we had on hand between the two of us. Bet none of you got a child's thank-you note for your reception. We were so proud of our cleverness. We sat there in the van laughing at our gift and the note inside for at least five minutes. Like Brian always says--no one really cares about the card, anyway. It's all about what's inside that matters. Brian and I are always calculating how much more money a couple could collect if people just forewent the lame little lovebird cards in lieu of a simple envelope from the junk drawer, and just gave the couple the 3 bucks they would have spent on the pointless card. But anyway....

Now I'm back to real life, and to be honest, real life isn't super wonderful right now. But don't you worry. The silver lining to this little rain cloud is that our circumstances have allowed me to come up with the idea for this year's Christmas letter. What more could a girl ask for?
P.S. Oh, and guess what?! While Laura and her husband John were in Vegas, John tried out for the Blue Man Group and made it!! He starts training at the Blue Man headquarters in New York in September and then after two months he'll be assigned a location. See Laura's blog for all the details.

As You Wish

You know what's awful? So many times, I find myself being tempted (and giving into the temptation) to teach my kids things that really aren't appropriate. For example, last Halloween I couldn't help teaching my kids the rhyme that had such an impact on my childhood: Trick or treat? Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat... and you all know how it ends. But I just couldn't help myself. I knew my kids would love it, and they did not disappoint. I wondered at my discretion afterward, but the reward was so great....And then several months ago, as my kids engaged in constant boys-vs.-girls battles, I couldn't stop the words from coming out of my mouth: Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider! Girls go to Mars--to get more candy bars! Oh, the vindication! But really?! As mothers we often worry about what naughty things our kids might pick up from other little rascals, but at the rate I'm going, kids won't be allowed to visit our home for fear of what they might learn from me. I hit an all time low recently when I taught Camp the words to I Like Big Butts (not all of them, mind you--yikes!) Camp was watching Bill Nye the Science Guy on which they had some kind of parody of that song, and I just couldn't resist educating him on its origin. Why did Bill Nye of all shows have to choose that song to parody, anyway? It's not like they don't know it's going to be a throw back to any moms in the room who will then surely be tempted to start reminiscing with their children. Ahhh!
But anyway, the point is--I'm getting out of control. I'm thirty-one years old. This shouldn't still be an issue. At least I didn't teach Camp to ask someone to pull his finger. He learned that on the bus. I just explained it later. So I'm not beyond hope.
Other than that....
Brian completed his second marathon a couple weekends ago--this time up in Newport. Two years ago, I couldn't get him to run the Rhody 5K with me and now he's doing marathons. Crazy.
Janey Mac Darling graduated from her first year of preschool on Thursday--hopefully not the greatest of the achievements of her life--but seriously fun all the same. She sang and clapped and looked adorable the whole time. And she got straight A's on her report card--mostly A+'s even. What can I say? The girl knows how to write her name and draw circles. But that's not all! As of last Saturday, Janey is officially riding her bike sans training wheels. I came home from my stake meetings to her cruising down the road all padded up with a big, giant smile on her face. And oh, man! It took everything in me to not just jump out of the car and eat her!
And Dan got her first big-girl bike with streamers and all that, and she's just as delighted to be riding for the first time with training wheels. It's so fun to helmet each of my kids and send them out the door to go around the circle by themselves. And Danin has said some funny things lately. The other day she came up to me and asked, "Mom, do you know where the heck is Janey?" And then she added, "Mmmm...I smell something delicious!" And when I noticed her picking her nose recently and asked her what she was doing, she replied, "Just looking for the treasure." Well then, by all means...
And Camp? Sigh.....Well, the battle continues... but I'm not going down without a fight--or with a fight, rather. I WILL figure this out. I think it is getting better--even if it is just my losing control that is happening less often. That's the biggest part, really. But I've had lots of wonderful moments lately with Camp, too. We went for a picnic lunch the other day, and while at the park, I assisted Camp in his first running catch completion. (What would they call that? I threw him the football while he was running, and he caught it...hmm...anyway...) And he was thrilled and insisted I take a picture of the victor. And last Friday I got to attend his end-of-the year field trip to Sand Land Adventures where we got to enjoy a dune buggy ride all over the dunes. He loved it and he was excited to have me there, which sure made me feel good. Maybe I haven't screwed everything up quite yet. And his end-of-the year program wasn't any less wonderful. You know that little "Fingerprints" poem kids always bring home during their first years of school? Well, his class sang its equivalent--with actions and everything--"remember that you were once small like me"...and I was left feeling sufficiently humble and grateful to have my boy. And tonight was a special night for Camp and me, too. We and the girls went over to the tennis courts after dinner and then we went home and dragged pillows and blankets into the family room to watch The Princess Bride. I thought of it recently and just knew Camp would love it. And you know that feeling you get when your kids are just about to run out to see the booty on Christmas morning? Well, I got to experience that feeling all over again throughout practically the entire movie. Camp was loving it so much, he couldn't even keep seated. Toward the end, my heart even got caught up in my throat as I watched Camp watch the last of the sword-fighting scenes. He AB-solutely loved it. As the credits rolled and the music played, he ran to his room for his carrot bats to challenge me to a duel. So fun...
So that's it. Mostly. There will be more news later.
We're headed to Vegas next Wednesday for a dose of some much-needed vitamin D. And we're driving this time. Wish us luck.

Religious Education

I've had a good day today. We were on time for church today even with me having to make a dish for the linger longer ( I made vegetable bow tie pasta), and finish up the Relief Society newsletter. One of the fun things about living in a tourist town is that we get a huge influx of visitors on holiday weekends. The visitors today literally doubled the size of our congregation. And we had all planned ahead so as to be able to feed them all at our linger longer. I love visitors. My primary class of five grew to twenty-one--and they were all really well behaved. Our lesson was on Moses receiving the ten commandments, so I felt it appropriate to end our lesson with an outdoor game of Simon Says. Loose tie-in, I realize. But still...
Speaking of my class--a couple weeks ago, our lesson was about Joseph and Potiphar's wife. We discussed how Joseph set a good example for us by fleeing a bad situation. I asked my kids if any of them could remember a time when they were in a bad situation where they had the feeling they should leave. Samantha quickly raised her hand and shared with us a time when she was with a friend who wanted to kill a caterpillar. Samantha told how she shouted, "No! Don't do it!" and then ran quickly away. Then she added, "Actually, I galloped away because we were playing the horse game." Oh, man. I love that girl. Let's just hope killing caterpillars is the worst temptation she'll have to face.
And I wore pantie liners in my shirt again--cute lime green shirt, but we all know what happens to a cute lime green shirt when it gets wet. It turns dark green. No good. So I wore pantie liners and a navy blue cardigan. You know what color navy blue turns when it gets wet? Navy Blue.
O.K. For anyone who's interested, I'm willing to let you in on the business opportunity of a lifetime. I have the most amazing idea. I'm in the process of designing armpit liners. They will be skin colored and will be for the purpose of preventing sweat rings when someone is perspiring. Brilliant, right? I mean, if we have diapers for old people, and medication for over-active bladders, and girdles to hold in our bulges, the world is definitely ready for some legitimate confidence protection. The pantie liners just aren't cutting it. They are made for panties, after all. So I'm working on my prototype. Brian has suggested using mole-skin. He's so smart. But anyway...I'm in need of a business partner who would be good at the whole advertising/patent part of it all. I'm thinking we'll start by calling all the deodorant and adult diaper companies--maybe even some sports product companies--to pitch the idea and then offer to sell them the patent. What do you think? I figure that none of you can try to steal my idea because this is being eternally recorded on the world wide web. It will be easy to prove who thought of it first. So...anyone specializing in marketing out there? I'll be willing to split the millions with you 70/30 or maybe even 60/40 if you're really good. So let me know.

Other than that...I read an article recently which encouraged parents to teach their children to value and respect other religions. I think that's really important, so tonight we're watching Nacho Libre. Nachoooooooooo!!!!

Flat Chested

Last weekend, the Lintons treated Brian and me to an overnighter in Portland. We went to the temple (the purpose of our trip), out to eat, enjoyed a handful of Sees Chocolates (Brian likes the vanilla and maple creams and the caramel squares and I like all the ones with nuts and caramel and the California Brittle), went to Jamba Juice and topped all the fun off with a trip to IKEA. Up till now, I haven't been a huge IKEA fan (although I've gotta say that the organizational stuff totally excites me) but this time around, I saw like a hundred things that I want. My birthday and Christmas lists have begun...

You may be wondering why I am wearing my dress backwards in the picture below. Oh, no. I'm not. It just looks that way because I am so incredibly flat chested these days. Sad, I know.