there is a store in town, jensen books, we love to go to. you can fill a grocery bag of books for $7.00. the people that work there are really friendly and helpful. we just love poking around looking for treasures.
we went there last night. we filled two bags full of books. about half of them were maria's. it was really fun to watch her look for books - she was so excited! she's been reading a few different series, so when she found books in those series she practically squealed with excitement. it was so cute. she enjoys the magic tree house series, junie b. jones, and pony pals. of course, she gets excited when she find any book about ponies or horses.
the rest of this month jensen's has a special sale for families that homeschool: $1.00 off each bag. while we were checking out the lady helping us said, "i accidently only charged you for one bag and i'm too tired to fix it." so we only had to pay for one bag.
we ended up with 75 books for $6.00. that works out to $0.08 a book! not bad, eh?
a powerful message. "mother, father, are you there? grandma, grandpa, are you there?" are we really there?
answer: no i'm not.
funny/traumatic story. traumatic to me. funny to the rest of the world.
today i played the piano for a couple who sang in sacrament meeting. we met in the relief society room 45 minutes before church to practice. ethan, being the ward clerk, was attending early morning meetings, so i had my normal charge of all the little ones. i set lincoln on the table in his car seat (he has to be out of reach of libby), and gave the other kids paper and crayons to keep them busy (never works by the way). we practiced until the relief society sisters started to come in. by this time ethan had come and then left again to attend a stake priesthood session. i quickly gathered up all our stuff: crayons here, paper there, shoes . . . wait, why are the kids shoes off? here's one of libby's shoes, where the other? "hudson get your shoes on now!" sisters filling up relief society room. "libby, i just put your shoes on, where'd they go?" a sister offered to take hudson and maria to primary. i was so grateful for that because i had to take libby to nursery and see if her teachers were there yet. it was time for church to start and i needed to be in the primary room to substitute for the chorister. luckily, libby's teachers were there and i was able to head to the primary room. it was a little crazy but we got our practice done, it sounded good, and i made it to primary in time.
fast forward 30 minutes.
"oh my goodness! i left lincoln in the relief society room!"
oh, ya. i did that. i totally forgot about him. i rushed up to the relief society room to see lincoln on the lap of a sister in the presidency. at least i left him in a room full of grandmother, mothers, and hoping-to-be-mothers. the sister holding him saw me standing in the doorway and i mouthed "i forgot!" she laughed and mouthed back, "he's fine! go." i left him with her. but i came back to the primary room feeling like a, like a, well, like a big poo. sorry, but yes, that is what i felt like. i can't believe i forgot my baby! i never thought that would happen to me. i didn't think i would ever be one of those moms. you know, one of those moms who is so frazzled and unorganized and disoriented and crazy that she'd forget one of her own flesh and blood!
please tell me i'm not alone. now is a great time to share stories of forgotten children. those poor, poor, abandoned children. i'm not the only one, right? make me feel better! please!
so, in answer to elder hales question, "mother, are you there?" sadly no, i am not. i'm in the primary room forgetting about you.
the top ten reasons my life seems* crazy right now:
1. libby
(what the . . . when did she grab my camera?)
2. libby
(why won't you just take a nap?)
3. libby
("maria! you can't leave food on the table!")
4. libby
("i guess we're having corn for dinner.")
5. libby
(libby likes pudding.)
6. libby
(this is the after picture. the before picture is exactly like this but without the diaper. seems she decided to take a nap without her diaper on. luckily i was able to get the diaper on without waking her up.)
7. libby
(girl, if you'd just sleep when i ask you to . . .)
8. libby
(no explanation needed.)
9. libby
(yes, my girl is chewing on the handle of a bucket.)
and the number 10 reason my life seems crazy right now: you guessed it . . .
libby.
(note to self: do not leave butter on table.)
* okay, so my life isn't really crazy, it just seems like that sometimes. and i realize that it's not really because of libby, it just seems like that sometimes. she's actually a sweet girl who loves to play and help out. i realize that she's not really a "crazy" kid, she's just not as well supervised as her older siblings were. it's just a tad difficult to keep a constant eye on a toddler when there are so many other little kids running around. she make life interesting, that's for sure. another thing that's for sure: we love her a lot.
saturday we went to the american west heritage center to see the indians dance. we all really enjoyed it.
performing the "sneak-up" dance.
two little girls doing a dance that represents the mothers.
singing while playing the drum.
waiting to perform her "jingle dress" dance.
the kids got to ride the ponies.
playing an old-timey game. put a tin can on a stump then throw a rock tied to a branch around the can. count how many times the rock goes around the can before it hits it. the person who can get the rock around the can the most times wins.
look, i tried to make her take a nap and she just wouldn't. you can force a kid to stay in their room but you can't force them to close their eyes and sleep. i gave up and gave her a snack, but she couldn't stay awake. figures.
maria helped me make a delicious dinner - new orleans-style shrimp and rice. she did most of it herself so i thought it'd be fun for her to show you what she made.
p.s. my favorite kid quote of the week was hudson saying, "mom, do chicks go 'dock-a-diddle-doo'?"
we've recently had the opportunity to stay three days at a cabin at bear lake. my uncle and aunt have been so generous to share their cabin with my whole family this year and last year. we always have a great time! i could've stayed forever. i love bear lake. it is so beautiful. if ethan could find a job in the tiny town of garden city i'd totally move. set me on the mountain and give me a view of bear lake - it's practically heaven to me. there's nothing much there, though - no work for him. too bad.
i was so excited that it rained a little bit while we were there.
maria relaxing.
hudson and cousin tyson.
cousins lindsey and ellie with maria - looking out at the lake in the rain.
cousins maddy and cartter.
libby with my brother, kevin. she fell asleep there. it was pretty cute.
i didn't get any pictures of the kids playing in the lake; the camera never made it down there. but they had a lot of fun swimming and playing with all their cousins. i love being able to be so close to all my family. my kids' best friends are their cousins and i love that. we all had a great time.
i wish i'd taken more pictures, but i was too busy enjoying the view.
thank you to my uncle and aunt for giving us such a great vacation!
gotta love the occasional yard volunteers. this plant suddenly appeared last summer, although without the big blossoms. three blossoms this year!
i'm so excited. i love hydrangeas. when we bought this house we had no idea it had so many plants in the yard. no one had lived her for a bit and we looked at the house in late summer. there was nothing but fried grass and grasshoppers in the yard. our first spring here a bunch of beautiful big irises popped up and several other things. since we've been caring for the yard a big peony has emerged. like i said, gotta love the volunteers.
life is full of changes. some welcome, some not. our most recent change was not welcome but unavoidable. part of what we've always liked about our yard were all the trees in the yard next door. it was like a little forrest. but the man that owns the lot decided to get rid of all vegetation. he rents out the house and decided it would be easier to care for that back portion of the yard if there were no tree so he could take his mower to it every spring to take down the weeds.
before:
after (this is the exact same spot):
before (the large tree - actually two trees - were in his yard):
after (this is where the two big trees stood):
during:
we were so sad to see all the plant life go. we used to have a large spot in the yard that was constantly shady. not anymore. pretty much constantly sunny now. it's sad, but there is a little good in all that. the two big trees that hung over our property, although they provided much shade, also provided a fair amount of twigs any time the wind blew. also they were very old and a bit sick. it was their time. but we hardly ever go out there anymore. it's just too dang hot now that it's all in the sun.
