Monday, August 29, 2011

Employee of the Year

I try to avoid Wal-Mart for the most part. I get nervous sometimes with all those people and I feel better about spending my money in smaller businesses like our local Harps store. But it also helps when great employees work there.
This is Fay. I don't know her last name and I only know her as a lady who works at Harps but I love this woman. For some time she has tried to win over Hyrum. Hyrum can be shy at times and so this wasn't an easy task. Slowly, however, a bond has been formed. Today as I was in one of the isles I hear, "Hyrum?!" I look all around and see no one but I know it is Fay. Sure enough, I get closer to a register and there she is waiting for her Hyrum hug.
I can remember coming in one day and I was really having a hard time with my boys. I didn't want to be there and couldn't wait to get them back home where I knew their energy could be somewhat contained. Fay was her usual wonderful self and by the time I was leaving the check out I realized she had taught me that my boys just want to be loved. So I calmed down and put things into the right perspective.
Today as we were leaving the store Fay told me that Hyrum had brightened her very hard day. She even got teary eyed as she hugged him.
We all need each other, don't we?...

Friday, August 26, 2011

Post Office Criminals

Back in May, we headed out to gather money and donations for the victims of the Joplin tornado. It was a perfect opportunity to start off Levi's Duty to God badge for Cub Scouts. This is a picture that has been displayed at our local Walgreen's store since then. The lady at the check out was so proud of my boys for raising money and then buying the tornado victims these items that before I knew it the manager was taking pictures of my boys.
Not to long afterwards, Grandma and Grandpa came over and said, "Did you know that the boys' picture is up at Walgreen's?" So every time I go in to Walgreen's I hope that they will offer the picture to me to keep. Today was the day. I was at one of the checkouts when one of the cashiers said to me that one day she had a lady and man go through her line and say, "Hey, those are my grand kids!" I told her that because of her, she had made them famous because I have had plenty of people tell me about seeing them here since then. Then another lady in the checkout said, "It's better to have their pictures up here than at the Post Office!"
True....true.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

SCHOOL, SCHOOL, SCHOOL!!!

Yesterday was Grove School's open houses. Hyrum is in the 4 year old program at Head Start this year. Here he is with his teachers Ms. Michelle and Ms. Julie. We always have a gift for our new teachers each year. This year we gave them bags that were filled with Hershey Hugs and a cute poem inside about "Teacher Hugs."
Last year Hyrum cried often as we dropped him off at school. It wasn't because of his teachers (I absolutely loved Ms. Dayla!), I think he just wasn't ready to be away from Mom and Dad. This year he couldn't be the more opposite!
Here is Brigham with Mrs. Green. I was thrilled this morning when I walked in Mrs. Green's classroom and a boy saw me and immediately said, "Hi Brigham!" Then realized that Brigham wasn't with me (he was in the cafeteria). I love that he has a friend from previous classes and I love that I was able to have some kind of a lasting impression that some of his classmates would remember me!
Here is Levi with Mrs. Glassgow. I had to get her in front of her "In God We Trust" poster that she proudly displayed!
So here we are on the first day of school. As you can see, Levi isn't smiling. I wish I could say that it was a flook but I am sorry to say that he doesn't care to be at school. I have to admit I am a little worried about him. He is very attached to me. He has to be touching me often and gets upset when I am upset or gone too long. We had a date last week and he told me that he really wished I was a teacher. Levi just isn't the typical boy and I worry about him and how he mixes (or doesn't) with other children. Levi is always so good about listening to me but these last few days he has been real angry. This is making me want to start the tradition of David giving the boys a father's blessing before the start of each new school year. We are going to start that tonight.
As I was getting ready to drop Hyrum off at school, I pulled over when I saw this Ridgerunner. Hyrum was super excited to take this picture with our mascot. So since we were parked somewhat close to the Head Start we thought we would just walk from there. Hyrum said, "We follow him!" Since he was going our way I thought that was a great idea. But then he cut in front of a parked vehicle. Hyrum ran to go catch up and by the time he got there the Ridgerunner only had his feathery bottoms on. I wish I could have caught the look on Hyrum's face on camera! He was so confused! He had just had his first life lesson that there are real people under those suits!
I am so very happy with all our teachers. I always dread telling people who the my boy's new teachers are in fear that who I am telling this to doesn't like that teacher or worse had a bad experience with them and their child. I am glad to report that I have heard nothing but praise about all of these teachers!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Jet Ski Joy

Jet Ski

Tonight was our first time being on a jet ski. Katie Lester and her family own them and was nice enough to let us (as well as Becky, Ron, and Jolayne) ride on the Grand Lake near the Dam.
I have to admit that my husband was so attractive tonight. I love seeing him play with our children and well, he just looked good on that jet ski! After telling him so Becky just happened to tell me the same thing about her husband. Those men should take us on jet skis more often!
I didn't really get any good pictures of the boys on the jet ski with David but trust me they had a blast. Even when they were pretty far out in the water I could hear them giggling and telling Daddy to, "Do it again!"
Here we are getting a family shot on the jet ski....right before it tipped over!!!!!
Ron and David tried their hardest to get up on their feet as they pulled each other. They didn't have much luck but they didn't care. They loved it!
It really was a great night....even if my camera fell in the water!!!!!!! So I never got pictures of everyone else with us. I fell over as I was trying to get a shot of Becky and Ron on the jet ski. Jolayne came running to my rescue as I yelled, "Don't worry about the drowning woman....save the camera!!!!!" You know where my priorities are!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Peace

This summer has been a stressful one for me. I never wanted to be that parent that was jumping for joy when school started after summer vacation. I have become that parent and it has made me feel plenty guilty this summer. I can give you all the reasons why I turned into that parent this summer and honestly, as I look at it with a clear head now, I can see how it happened and probably would happen to any mother. However, it is what it is and I am glad to report that this week has been a nice change! I asked for a blessing from David last week and something that stuck out to me was to calm down. Though it didn't come easily, I can say that these last few days have been really great as we have kept very busy with friends. I feel at peace, even though situations around us and even in our family are anything that would promote peace. Being busy is good....so is a change of heart.
Becky and Ron Emro came to visit (from Idaho) their family this past week and so get togethers have been in abundance. Friday night we had a date night at La Casita. The Emros' and us are really the only ones who have a long term connection (Becky and I from growing up together....Ron and David from Rexburg) but through blogs and a day spent together at the pool, instant friends were made with the Bishop and Wilson families. I LOVE that about the gospel!


The next day, most of the Bass, Emro, Adams, Lester, and Wilson families headed off for Little Blue. Rose was so good with all the kids as she was the adult who spent the most time with all the little ones. She was so patient as she let them go "fishing." She took off the hook so no one would get hurt but the water was so clear that the kids got to watch as the little fish played with the plastic bait. At one point I was in front of Hyrum walking with him out of the water. I had a hold of the pole and could feel him pulling on the other end. I was in front of him so I couldn't see him and I just thought the pull was from his hands. But then I hear Rose cracking up while trying to get me to look at Hyrum. Hyrum was letting me pull him out of the water, all right! Apparently, I had caught a Hyrum fish!

We spent 5 hours at Little Blue and then headed off to the Miami pool. Some friends of ours, the Gibsons, have a family reunion every first Saturday in August after hours at this pool. We are not blood related but they have always been so good to us. This is another thing that I just love about the gospel. You really feel like family to so many people in church. I truly love the Gibson family. They have always built me up and I love them for that. Through them I have made a wonderful friend in Kristina. She was always my "summer friend" growing up as she came up from Tulsa to visit her Aunt Tammy. These reunions are usually the only times I get to see her anymore.
I love this picture because of it being Brighams' first time off the diving board but also because of the rainbow in the background. We have been in this horrible drought for so long that it was a wonderful sight. Our time at the pool was cut short because soon after lightening started to beautify the sky.

On the way home I actually called David to make sure we weren't in any type of a warning. The sky was lighting up like crazy but what kind of weirded me out was the dust of leaves flying around everywhere as we were heading home. The leaves flying around is another sign of our drought. It is not fall or even close to it yet many leaves on the trees around here have changed colors and have dropped to the ground because of the lack of water and very high heat. At one point, I drove by what looked like a baseball field. I have no idea what they were doing in that field, even though the lights were on, because so much dust and dirt had picked up. I could see absolutely no people. After our recent tornado scares, you can imagine my worried heart. It turned out to be a thunderstorm and I am very grateful for the rain. I have been praying for rain and just the other day when I said a prayer at the dinner table and forgot to ask for rain, Brigham got on to me. Yes! He is listening!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Happy Birthday, Hyrum!

Sunday was Hyrum's birthday and it just so happened to fall on the 5th Sunday potluck social after church...or as Brigham kept calling it, "pot roast." I decided to contribute cupcakes and have everyone sing to him. He was soooooooooo cute! And even more cute during primary. He kept informing the primary president, Sister Van Ornum, that it was his birthday over and over again. At one point he asked where his cake was! Later, at the "pot roast" his cupcakes were a big hit. They were actually zucchini bread with cream cheese frosting. During this time of year, Grandpa gives us plenty of zucchini from his garden. I love Grandpa's fresh food and it always comes in abundance, which gives me good reason to make new and interesting stuff.
We decided to have his birthday party tonight as a big Family Home Evening. We never did end up having a lesson or anything but we were all together! It was 109 today (not including humidity) and so I tried to do as much stuff inside as possible. We had dinner inside and opened presents but I had to say no to the cake being eaten inside. With 22 people in our little house, I did not want to pick up the little pieces of cake crumbs that are inevitable when it comes to children!
Hyrum was cute with all his gifts but I loved his reaction to his singing card from Chuck and the Pringles. Chuck got him other things but Hyrum just threw all the other stuff out of the bag and only seemed to care about the Pringles. I love it when people give gifts that have special meaning. When Hyrum would go over to MeMaw and Poppy's house, Uncle Chuck would always give Hyrum chips. I blame Chuck for Hyrum's obsession of chips to this day!
Hyrum couldn't decide on a theme for his party. We went to Wal-Mart and he wanted a SpongeBob pinata, Dora whistles, and for Nanny to make him a Mickey Mouse Club House cake. I decided it must be all about his shows on Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel!
As usual, we didn't have candles so I took Minnie and put some of the icing on her head and had him make a wish off this mock candle!
It really was miserably hot but it amazes me how when it is all about your kid, you just kind of forget about it. That is saying a lot coming from a woman who HATES the heat! But as always, the kids could care less about the heat. They just love being outside.....and yes, I am including 2 of the biggest kids here tonight, Wayne and David!

Happy birthday, Hyrum!