Boys

I am a mom of 2 crazy and very active boys. The first time Max had to get stitches I was alone and realized how unprepared we were. It was a Saturday and I had no clue what offices were open. I quickly found a doctors office that was open and took Max to get stitches right below his eyebrow. After this I got a little more prepared. I made a list of all the local doctors office and the hours of operation (especially weekend hours). That list ended up coming into great use. We used it many times and finally had the insta-care hours memorized. We visited it many more times with Asher's ear infections (always on Sunday) and 2 more sets of stitches.

Asher was at a party yesterday and I had a knock on the door saying he was hit with a bat. I went over to check on him and he was being a trooper. He got hit across the cheek bone with an aluminum bat. I was telling Nelson that he was going to have a good bruise. Nelson said that I can make things sound worse than they really are. I am telling you- I was not exagerating, he got hit pretty good. Here is a picture of Asher and his face (a picture never shows how good it really looks)
















After spending sometime observing himself in the mirror he said "mom I look creepy and I am sure the girls won't play with me at school." That is too funny he is worrying about the girls. Good news is nothing was broken and we will get to watch his face change many colors during the week. Glad to know it will go away. The poor family felt so bad. Thing is it has not slowed Asher down at all.
I am a mom of boys- what else should I expect.

Random things about me

I decided to share a few random things about me:

1. I can't stand sitting still for very long. I get very fidgety and my mind starts to go 100 miles an hour. My personality is not one that loves to sit and relax a lot (although sometimes I wish it was).

2. I can listen to the same song over and over and not get sick of it. If I find a new song I like, I will listen to it a lot (that is not exaggeration.)
I have a new song I love now that I listen to the whole time I work out (crazy I know). I end up listening to the song so much that I eventually get sick of it and then never listen to it again.

3. When I was a little girl I used to lick my brothers deodorant- sad but very true. Who knows what got in my head and made me think that was fun. Luckily this extremely odd habit did not lost for long. Now to think of it makes me sick,especially to think that the deodorant was used- yuck!

4. When Max was in 3rd grade I realized he forgot to brush his teeth. I jumped into the car and made him brush his teeth in the bus line. He then had to spit out his toothpaste in the gutter. He looked at me and said what the heck mom- I did not realize that was a pretty embarrasing moment for him. I guess in the future I had just better let him go with stinky breathe. You would think that would be more embarrasing, but not to an 8 year old.

5. I can count the number of zits I have had in my whole lifetime (35 years) on one hand. Let's just hope it stays that way.

6. I absolutely hate soggy things. I used to only put 3 drops of syrup on my pancake so it would not get soggy. I have gotten a little more lienant with my syrup but not much.

7. I heard someone say the other day that their spirit wants to go 100 miles an hour but with physical limitations they can only go 25 miles an hour. When I heard that I thought it was well put. That is pretty true to me. The difference is I should only be going 75 miles an hour but still think I can do 120. I sure do pay for it with my back and head. Hopefully one day I will learn.

Parenting

Today while I was at church some points of parenting hit me. I sure have my moments where I lose my cool and would say I am less then a stellar parent. But I was thinking of the things that come with parenting that bring just absolute joy:

1. Accomplishment- watching your 9 year old who has not made one basket his whole basketball season. When he finally does, the grin that is permantently glued to his face. I am not sure whose grin was bigger mine or his. It brings great joy to see my kids work hard and feel the rewards and experience the accomplishment. No matter the size of the accomplishment.

2. Warm heart- First time you hear your kids say that their heart feels happy or warm because they were touched by the spirit. You know they are starting to learn and grow more and more in the gospel.

3. Knowledge- It amazes me how my kids can recall scripture stories off the top of their head when I on the other hand have to read the back to remember what is happening. What joy to hold onto hoping it will strengthen them for their teenage years.

4. The biggest joy is watching them grow and learn from their experiences. To grasp and understand pieces of why we are really here on earth.

These joys make me remember/realize how lucky I am to be a mom and most of all how blessed I am to have these wonderful kids in my home. I just hope I can continue to lead them in the right direction without messing them up!!

Card Collection

When Nelson and I were first married we each had our personal belongings. Each got put in different places. One of Nelson's was a medium size box of football cards. Every time I have deep cleaned or we have moved that box has been dusted off and put back in its same place. Well after almost twelve years that box has really been dusted off. That collection has been pulled out and looked at many times by our 9 year old son. It is no longer Nelson's stuff it is now "ours" as Max puts it.

I never realized until last night that card collecting was really a hobby for Nelson when he was younger. That was something he really enjoyed to do. While we were doing our weekly visits to the grandparents Nelson went in his parents basement and found another box of cards. I did not even realize there were more. Now this box is rather large and jam packed with cards. I wish I had a camera at that point to capture Max's face. He was so excited to look at all those cards. We are now not the proud owners of some cards, it is of hundreds and hundreds of cards.

Who would have known that Nelson's hobby 25 years ago would bring true bliss to his 9year old. Max is in heaven and I think has looked at almost every single one of those cards. I just hope I can now overlook my counters that have been taken over by card collections.

This is the latest box that was brought home. Does not include the other collections.

Valentines

Our Valentines started out with a nice warm breakfast made by me. I decided to make pancakes and eggs. It would have been good if I would have stopped there. No I decided in the spirit of Valentines it would be fun to dye the food colors. Instead we had red eggs (which were really suppose to be pink), and pink pancakes (which were suppose to be red). I will say the red eggs were pretty gross looking. I think we will skip coloring the eggs next time, but it was a fun way to start the day.

Nelson and I have never really been into Valentines day. We look at it that we should show our love for our families everyday not go over board on that one crazy day. I have told him that if he spends money on flowers I would not be too happy. I would much rather have a shirt or something that lasts longer.

We spent our day together a bit of a non traditional way. The weather had been nice for a week so we decided to load up the mountain bikes and take the family biking. We thought we were never going to be able to leave because people kept stopping by for church stuff. When we finally headed out we were sad to find the trails were not as dry as we hoped. We were able to bike a bit on the trails but then headed to the park way. We had the kids climb a few hills for practice. We all had a great time being together. The kids decided that when the weather gets better they want to go once a week. I hope we stick to that and actually do it. It was a way fun way to spend our day.

After we stopped at Ogden Pizzaria. It was fun but we spent most of our time jumping up to check on the bikes. We wanted to make sure our bikes did not get stolen. It was one of the best ways we have spent Valentines!!

The kids getting ready to head out on the trails

Talents

I have joked many times that when I was in Heaven and Heavenly Father was passing out talents I was off in the corner goofing off. I am not sure how each of us really got our talents but that is how I like to imagine it. I can just imagine myself off talking to one of my good friends up there not even noticing something was going on. When it comes to talents I am not sure what happened. Especially anything that is domestic.

Cooking- I am not the greatest cook. As Nelson pointed out I cook because we have to eat, if we did not eat we would die. Cooking to me is more like survival of the fittest. My personal motto- if it takes longer than 30 minutes than it is not worth having. I am not a huge fan of spending lots of time in the kitchen.

Musical talent- I am not the greatest singer. We all know that I can't even attempt to carry a tune. When my own kids tell me to not sing, you know it is bad.
When we are traveling Nelson and I play a game where you have to hum a song for the other person to guess. I even resort to singing the words and Nelson still can't guess what I am singing, it is that bad.
I played the piano for many years when I was younger, but don't remember a thing.

Creativity- I am not the craftiest person. I look around and it amazes me how talented people are. Where do they come up with some of these amazing ideas. My brain can't think up things like that. I can copy the ideas of these amzing people but there is no way I can come up with them myself.

As I sit back and think of talents- I would say I don't have the "traditional" talents like most. If it is anything based around domestic- then I am very challenged. But that is ok, it does not bother me. As I think about it one talent I do have is organization. I can organize things well. It helps to keep my day as productive as possible. Maybe that is what I was doing up in heaven- making sure everything was organized as it needed to be ( ha ha).
It will be fun to see what talents I improve or gain over the years.

Blast from the past

Ever since the New Year I have been in a major de-junk mode. Everywhere I look I see extra crap, dust and cobwebs. I have decided it was time to start some major deep cleaning. I have been trying to work on an area a day until the whole house is complete. While working in the basement I ran across some pretty old pictures. Here are some of the treasures or not so treasured pictures I found:

This picture is one of my all time favorites. When Nelson and I were in College we became best friends. There is no better best friend than him. We spent a lot of time talking to each other and hanging out on the weekend. I am not sure all the details with this picture but we had been hanging out and were infront of his house and snapped a shot before we jumped out of my car. I am not sure if the picture reminds me of the deep trust and friendship we have, but I have always loved it. Nelson and I were friends for over 2 years before we even started dating.

Oh man is all I have to say. I am not sure how to even explain what this is a picture of. I can tell you I was in High School but other than that I have no clue what I was doing.
When my kids saw the picture they asked if I was dressed in my Halloween costume. No I wish I could say I was, but that is how I looked back in the day. I used to tease Nelson about the glasses he wore when he was younger but it looks like I can't speak. My glasses were rather large and covered half my face as well. My only comment is I am sure glad that styles have changed over the years. It is funny to think what we will say about our current styles twenty years from now.


Ever since I can remember every Monday after our family home evening we went to the Roy Complex to swim. We had some fond memories of the complex and our time spent there. I performed my fair share of belly flops off the diving board as well as the many dreaded laps across the deep end to ensure we really could swim. Most of all I am grateful for my memories of spending time together as a family. Here is my priceless picture of my complex pass (I would say I am about 10)


I can't wait to continue my deep cleaning to see what other treasures I run across. Now I just hope I find some of Asher's Star Wars guys that have been lost for over a year.

Through the eyes of a six year old

At times my kids like to sit down and color or draw, but don't do it very often. Asher (6) has been in a phase lately that he likes to draw what is around him. His latest has been pictures of us.
At church a few weeks ago he drew a picture of me. He even got detailed to draw the shirt I had on. When he completed his work, he handed it to me with the biggest grin. He was as proud as could be. I could not help to smile. I am thinking if that is what he really sees my hair as- I may need to think up a new hairdo.
As an older lady in my ward pointed out, at least he put a picture of you smiling. I have never thought of it that way but it is so true. Glad he did not draw me with a big grumpy face. There are times as a parent I forget to keep my cool. I sure hope my kids pick up more on my better days then my not so good days. In a way I hope this can be a bit of a reminder to me to make sure my kids see my happy side the most!!