O.....possum

Dearest Marie.....I thought of you the whole time while this happened......

David was out with the missionaries tonight visiting families in our branch (church) as well as the doctor....and harassing opossums! Ok, before I tell you about these boys - and I'm putting my husband in this same category as these 19-20 year old missionaries- playing they did get much done tonight. David was very grateful for their help tonight. They even assisted in a blessing for Hyrum before going with David to take Hyrum to the Rapid Remedy just a few blocks from our house. After finding out that Hryum has an ear infection and coming back from Walgreen's to get medicine, the missionaries waited outside while David came in to tell me all that I needed to know about Hyrum. David opens the door outside and one the Elders informs him that there is an opossum in our trash can! Of course I had to run and get the camera! Just the other night I heard something outside and figured it was a dog or cat getting into our trash cans (unfortunately, we have all kinds of animals digging in our trash.....during the summer we get to add skunks and groundhogs to the mix) so I opened up the door to scare it away and noticed it was an opossum. He wasn't scared one bit and just kept going on digging in the trash he has knocked over. So I turned on the porch light hoping that would do the trick and....nothing. I was starting to think that the thing was blind and decided to bang on the side of our house to get it to run when it finally stopped and kind of hobbled away. It was so slow and didn't act like he was scared of me one bit! After he left I actually hoped he would come back so I could get a picture and send it to Marie (that is a whole other story of it's own!). He never did come back so I was on that camera in no time tonight to get the perfect picture.

I learned a lot about opossums tonight. This guy definitely did the "playing dead" thing that they are very well know for. For as many times as David and Elder Sattler messed with that trash can, the opossum didn't budge. Elder Sattler was hilarious with his being very willing to kill the thing for us! I, of course, was not going to have any of that!Here is Elder Sattler keeping his stance just in case that thing jumped out or something and Elder Morrison looking on from higher ground....I'm still not sure if he was getting a better view or keeping a safe distance :)

Ok Grandma, if you are reading this post you might not want to look at these coming up pictures.
Ok, so I wanted a picture-yes-but that was as close as I wanted any of us getting to the opossum. Of course, I imagined that thing jumping up and attacking us and the latter complication of rabies! But before I know it David is using a stick to poke the thing to get a better look at it's face! After trying to get him to leave the thing alone and to go back out with the missionaries to visit families in our branch I finally gave up. If he was going to mess around then at least I was going to get a good picture of the thing!

I'm looking at these pictures now and thinking of how stupid we are getting this close to the darn thing!

I finally convinced David to leave with the missionaries and sometime in between them leaving and David returning the opossum got out of the trash and left us. Hopefully, he had a big enough scare and won't come back.

I have to say that the nasty guy made me wonder though. I looked up opossum on the Internet and thought I'd share a few things with you.

-they are immune to most snake venom

- female opossum have pouches that they keep their little ones in until the young are weaned

-I always thought that opossums played dead to trick us and its predators but they actually can't help it! The "playing dead" response is actually involuntary and can actually take up to an hour for them to become conscious again.

-And my favorite fact is that of roadkill. Around here, if you see roadkill it is a good chance that it is an opossum. I find that humorous considering that I learned tonight that the reason they are roadkill is because of their diet and pretty much, laziness. They seek out trash cans and roadkill (easy food) and thus become roadkill themselves!

Now that you all are very educated on the likes of opossums; try having sweet dreams tonight after seeing that last picture I posted!

Pinewood Derby

Saturday was Levi's first Pinewood Derby. Throughout the week, prior to Saturday, David and Levi had been working on his skateboard...yes, I said skateboard. Before they started, David got online and let Levi pick out the style of his car. Well, that is what he thought would happen but out of all the cars there had to be one skateboard and of course that was what Levi picked! Earlier that week, David used a friend's scroll saw (THANK YOU Alex Andrasko!) to get the block of wood the shape that it needed to be and Levi did the rest....well, with the help of Daddy guiding him along the way. Look at those dirty boy nails!

I didn't get that "final look" picture but his is the first one in the box (the gold one....and only skateboard!)
I have to say that I was very proud of Levi on Saturday. First, he was in the running for "The best of Show" award. He didn't win and after what happened to the poor kid while the actual racing started, I really wish that he would have. But this is where I was proud of him. I'm sure he was embarrassed and was confused but he made it through it without getting mad or sad....though, maybe he was sad in his heart and just didn't show it. He went up to the top of the track to race his car with his opponent and one of his wheels fell off before they even started the race! To make it worse, when they got the wheel back, they realized that the wood had chipped away from where the nail and wheel would go! As you can imagine, it pretty much made it impossible for him to race. Each time he tried, his skateboard just fell off the track....each time in front of everyone. But everyone was gracious about it; even the little boy racing him. That boy could have made a big deal out of winning against Levi but he didn't. This picture below is of Marcy (Levi's Den leader), Levi, David, and Laramie trying to hurry to get it fixed before the "loser's round" began. Laramie is the son of a good friend of mine, Robin. Just like my friend, Laramie is a good example of wanting to help and doing what is right. I was proud of Laramie as he tried to hurry and help David even without being asked.

So, it came time for Levi to race once more time but it didn't even make it to the end of the track. But like our ever-so-positive den leader said, "Hey, at least it stayed together this time!" (as she yelled cheers for him) we finally found some success! However, Levi was ready to leave after that. Poor kid....and poor Daddy. I don't know who felt worse. He felt bad about it breaking in front of everyone. Not bad for himself, he felt bad for Levi. But we dusted off the yucky feelings and let Levi pick where he wanted to eat for lunch after the derby and let him play his little heart out on the PlayStation!

I kept thinking throughout the day, after the derby, about how many times I will see things like this happen throughout my experience as a parent. How many times will I want to swoop in and take my children out of certain situations? Will I be wise enough to NOT swoop in and let them learn from their own experiences and consequences or will I not be able to take it and jump right in and bandage up the wounds? Either one is not an easy choice, I guess.

Role play

I love my children. They are not perfect, but I love my children. Yes, they argue with each other but I'm happy to say that I'm not one of those parents that say things like, "My children are always fighting with each other!" Maybe they are not old enough to be at that stage yet but I'm hoping that it just means that they are special boys.

Last night I watched as Brigham and Levi were role playing. I had just gotten out of the shower, so I couldn't tell you how this all started but what I walked in on was Brigham pretending to be Jesus. David pointed it out to me pretty much the second I walked into the living room. It took all that I had not to let them see that I was watching them. I didn't want them to stop and I didn't want them to say or do certain things just because I was watching them. It also was hard for me not to grab them up and give them big fat kisses! These are some of the phrases I heard them saying:

Brigham - "Pretend I was over here and I died and I flew over here to be with my family (he is the one playing Jesus).

Brigham - "Pretend I have holes in my hands."

Brigham - "May I take your order?"

Levi - "I would like a thousands bread!"

This is a picture of Brigham "reading" to Hyrum. He told me that he was reading to Hyrum "because I was Jesus." I said, "Oh yeah? Is that what Jesus would do?" Brigham tells me, "Yeah, because He is nice."

Once again, I really love my boys!

Sisters night out....with a side of Glenn

So, April called me last night and told me that she was going to take me out for an early birthday present tonight. She wouldn't tell me what we were going to be doing other than that we were going to Joplin, MO. I have to admit that for just a little bit last night I was a little, I guess, not looking forward to it. For someone who used to be so ready for a laugh pretty much anytime, it still catches me off guard how I've changed so much. These last few years I have watched myself change into someone I've barely recognized and for a second last night when April called I worried. I worried about the "surprise." But I'm happy to say that all day today I was excited for my sister to come and take me away somewhere fun! I love this change in me. I'm still not that same person that I was growing up and I suspect I never will be but I think I just may be finding that "happy medium." I am a true believer that there is a positive and a negative to everything. EVERYTHING. And like this new me, I positively love that I don't care about things so much anymore. I don't stress about looking perfect, being perfect and so on ...but on the negative side.....I don't really care about what I look like anymore. April knows me way to well and so part of my present was for her to come over early and fix my hair for me. She knows that otherwise it would be up in a ponytail! I love that my sister would serve me in this way. So after my hair was fixed and I graced her with makeup (another oddity! So sad, huh?! But growing up, I wouldn't leave the house without makeup on and I'm not sure I knew what I ponytail holder was until I got my first real job and had to pull up my hair!) off we went to Joplin. The trip was full of laughter and never finishing a single story! I felt like a silly girl laughing at us and our constant change of stories. First she took me to Johnny Carinos...oh so yummy. Then she took me to a movie......to see the Glenn Beck/Bill O'Reilly Bold and Fresh Tour! Yes, I am a nerd and was soooooooooooo excited! Ok, so they were not there in person but who cares! Once again, I am a nerd but I LOVE GLENN BECK! Here I am "kissing" my Glenn Beck ticket! On the way home we had calmed down just a bit....so that we could actually finish some of our stories. I had such a wonderful early birthday present, Apeeee. I love you!