Mr. Bowles

Pounce texted me earlier this week that Mr. Bowles had passed away.  As most would be, I was immediately sad.  My emotion, however, was due to aberrant reasons.

You see, Mr. Bowles was one of the good guys.  A "good ol' boy" as David would say.  He is exactly what I miss about small town Oklahoma.  He was my science teacher in high school for 2 years but he was also a farm and church man.  He was the perfect example of a hard working Christian man that I would have loved to have taught my boys.

This is where the aberrant part comes in.  

I know Mr. Bowles is in Heaven.  I have no doubt of that.  There is no way a good man like that wouldn't be there.  So my sadness has nothing to do with his death.  His death has just made me sad to think of the simple life that my boys are missing out on.

With all our moves, my boys have experienced much and in a lot of ways, I truly feel it has benefited them because of all they have been exposed to.  It has bonded our little family closer than most, in my opinion, because we have to lean on each other.  We can't run to extended family members.  We have had to build a strong family relationship with each other because we know that Heavenly Father's plan and our little family is the only stable thing in our lives.

I can remember coming home for Amanda's wedding.  Levi was 4, Brigham was almost 3, and I was hugely pregnant with Hyrum.  We were at church and they were climbing all around me and both trying to get on my lap (David was in Utah).  I was in the same pew as my mom, grandparents, April, and her kids.  I just happened to look over and see my mom and grandmother's face, well, kinda dumbfounded.  Finally my mom took the boys and told them to leave me alone.  It took me a second but I realized that wasn't "normal."  I wasn't used to a lot of help (except from David) and so really, David and the boys were my world.  They had to be.  I love this about all our moves.

However, I can't help but envy my sister, April.  She and her family have never left Jay, Oklahoma.  Her children may not have made as many friends or been to as many entertaining places as my children have, because of a lack of things to do in Jay, but they have stability.  They know what time Daddy will come home every night.  They know how to find things to do in little Jay, Oklahoma.  They know that worldly things aren't that important, not only to themselves, but also to those around them.  People in Jay, Oklahoma could never be accused of "keeping up with the Jones" and I love that.  There is something to be said about leading a simple life.

I guess what I am saying is that I know both April's path, as well as mine, is good.  Real good.  We are both raising good children.  I guess I just wonder sometimes about choices.

So, I write this journal entry to remind myself that there is good in so many of our life choices...and I also wanted to remember this good man.

My favorite memories:

*Mr. Bowles was a teaser.  But he did it with an infectious smile.  I seriously don't know how anyone could not like this man.  The only time I ever saw irritation in him is when we would take things to far and even then that didn't last long.  He used to always tease me about a certain boy.  I can hear his giggle now....

*He had this mounted deer head that he would bring to school every Christmas and stick a red light bulb where its nose should be and tell us that he killed Rudolf.

*He told us that if we waited until marriage to have sex and took a mason jar and filled it with jelly beans everytime we had sex whithin that first year of marriage, that we would never be able to empty that jar if we started taking one out everytime we had sex after that first year of marriage.   I still love telling people about that because I think there is some truth to that!

*But my all time favorite memory of this man is his live birth video.  He had us watch one once and then rewound it (in a slower motion so that we could still see what was going on).  We watched as this baby went right back up in the mom and then he said something about that being birth control for us all!  See...a good man!  Not afraid to teach (preach) about staying away from pre-marital sex.

All these experiences in his class made me WANT to learn because he made it fun and inviting.  I can only hope that with all the teachers that my children have had, that at least one will have as much impact on their lives as Mr. Bowles did on mine.
 (top: Laura, Alisa, Angie  bottom:  Mr. Bowles, Niki)

The Things You Will Find Little Boys Doing!

Today was a nice day outside, though I don't know that I would say it was swim weather.  That didn't stop my boys thinking that it could be, though.  

It started with Brigham and Sam (our neighbor and classmate of Brigham's) going to the water fountain, filling their mouths with water and then spitting it out all over each other.  This, of course, led to 4 little boys fighting over a water fountain to get each other as wet as they possibly could.  Brigham actually asked if we could go home, get our swim suits on, and then come back to play.

Man, have I changed!  I would have flipped out about that when the older boys were younger.  However, I immediately thought their "water fight" was funny today, ...followed by the rolling of the eyes while I thought to myself, "BOYS!"

They have even changed the way I talk.  A few months ago, I caught myself saying "Dude."  

"Dude, don't do that!"

"Dude, what were you thinking?"

"Dude...REALLY?!"

Bye Bye, Utah...Hello California!

On Friday, the 1st, we started our journey to California.  But it was a very full day before that even happened.

Once a month, Sunset Elementary has a program (before school) called ALL PRO DADS that encourages time spent between fathers and their children.  Chick-fil-a provides the breakfast in the school cafeteria while a short presentation is provided.  They end it with these questions for the children and Dad to ask each other.  Such a wonderful program that I was thrilled to know that this elementary school had.  A father's role in the family is so very underrated in today's world.  It is something that I feel very strongly about so as you can imagine, I LOVE THIS PROGRAM!

And as you can see, the fathers and their children do too!

So, the kids went to school while David, Stephen, and some guys from our ward got everything in the moving truck.  I got things cleaned in the house and ran last minute errands that had to be done before we left.  Peggy watched the boys when they got out of school so we could continue to get things taken care of and then finally...

 ...we were off!  Grandma came up to say goodbye before we headed off for Spanish Fork to stay the night at Stephen and Holly's house.

I sure do love the Adams cousins.  They always seem to love us coming and make me feel so good about being a part of their family.  I love spending time with the girls, probably because I don't have any of my own.  But more than anything, I LOVE watching Levi and Brigham while they are around little Stephen.  They clearly look up to him.

The next morning we headed for Las Vegas to spend the evening with Steve, Barbara, and Uncle Aaron.  They had movies and pizza for the boys that night but I think they really loved going to the park when we first got there.  They REALLY needed to get some energy out and Uncle Aaron was glad to provide some ball time.

Sunday morning we left for California.  This was a stop we had to make that was odd for me.  I felt like I was brought back in time about 16 years ago when I went to Europe.  I was on a bus with our tour group when we would have to go through check points like this one.  Of course, it was different because they wanted passports but it still felt odd as each vehicle was stopped to check if we were bringing in fruit, plants, or animals.  Weird.  But I'm telling you, the longer I am here in California, the more and more I am feeling like we are in a foreign country anyways!  Ha!  It is very different here but I can say that I really love it so far.  I LOVE the diversity here.

I may sound pretty positive in this post, but to be honest, this has been a real hard move on me.  I have learned some things for our next move, though.  It is NOT a good idea to move and the very next day have my husband gone all day at work...in a city I know nothing about.  Being cooped up in a car for so long makes for REALLY hyper boys that just don't mix well in a hotel!  I hurt physically from the moving, I was a little nervous, and to make it so much worse it was a certain time of the month.  I was not handling the boys very well at all.  The one positive thing I can say, though, is that it wasn't depression.  It was from physical pain that I couldn't do anything about.  So, I finally let the kids just get their energy out by jumping back and forth on the hotel beds...yeah, wasn't a good idea.  Levi ended up accidentally trampling on Hyrum which sent him flying into the bed railing.  He ended up with a blood blister on the back of his head as well as a large bump.  I felt so bad for him that I took him to Wal-Mart to find him something fun to play with in the bathtub.

My initial feeling of Tracy was that it is way too big but the longer I am here, the more and more I like it.   I love our town home, our ward has really stepped up with helping us move in and even bringing things over for us while we get settled, but my favorite is probably the school.  It is a large school (1,000 students) but amazingly it doesn't make me nervous to send my kids there.  It probably helps that the staff there has been really good to us so far. California is very picky about everything that needs to be done before a child goes to school.  I am used to the usual vaccinations, birth certificates, and transcripts but they add doctor and dentist visits.  If that wasn't irritating enough for someone who hasn't gotten our insurance cards in yet, we also have to prove our residence.  They want a lease agreement as well as utilities.  Geez!  Another hard thing to get when your utilities haven't even started up yet (we were still in the hotel while waiting for our town home to open up).

The older boys FINALLY got to go to school today while Hyrum has to wait till Tuesday.  

But I am not irratated with the school itself.  I really like the people that work there.  They have been so good to us.  The other day, Brigham and Levi were messing around and ended up pushing Hyrum into the concrete, head first.  Poor baby!  But the staff was right on it, taking care of him and they weren't even students there yet.  Mr. Lopez (the Assistant Principle) needed us to fill out this form because Hyrum was on school property and what I was most impressed with is that he never pressured me to say that it was NOT the school's fault.  He wanted to make sure that if I felt that Hyrum needed to see a doctor that it was provided.  This same man came to my rescue today as I went to pick up Levi and  Brigham from school and I couldn't find them anywhere!  We looked for 15 or so minutes before I left to see if they had walked home (which they had).  Mr. Lopez wanted me to call right away if I found them at home.

The other thing I love about this school is that my boys are part of the minority race.  One thing that I really like about all our moves is that it has placed my children in so many different cultures.  I feel they are well rounded in that area with not a single prejudice bone in their body.  I took Levi into his classroom today and he was one of 3 white children in his class.  The majority of the children are Hispanic so I am hoping the boys will walk away with a few Spanish words under their belt :)

But what I am happiest to report is that while we were moving boxes in, the boys met their first friend.  By the next day, they had another friend.  These 2 boys come over every day now!  I am really grateful for them too.  They are good boys and always listen to me.  They also are keeping my boys happy because they really want to play outside but I just cant take them right now because I am unpacking.

Give it time, boys...

 (Hyrum, Sam, Levi, Brigham and Dushan)

Shovel Time

So the boys have been loving all this snow, to play in it of course, but also because they get paid to remove the snow.  However, Brigham and Levi actually owed me money because of some books that I bought them.  Levi was up to helping with the snow, but suddenly when I mentioned to Brigham that whatever money they made would go right back to me...yeah, suddenly, he didn't want to help.  In fact, he actually told me that I "didn't have any proof" that he owed me money.  Oh my goodness, he is a STINKER!

So, of course he is complaining most of the time that he is out there (listen to him on the video) but then he redeemed himself.  Some people across the street got stuck and Brigham came up to me and said, "Shouldn't we be helping them?"  I was so proud of him!  Daddy wasn't home at the time but Brigham went right over there and started shoveling. 

Still Saying Goodbye!

So today was a very busy day for our family.  We had to get things in order to get our van registered before we left, which led to it not passing safety and emissions test...blah, blah, blah...there will be a new car in our future.  Life really is about one thing happening after another, isn't it?!

But before all that craziness, I met Christine in Farmington to get pedicures.  She wanted us to do this for my birthday but since I won't be here in March she treated me to an AmAzInG relaxing morning.

After our heavenly pedicures (I'm a sucker for anyone rubbing my feet), she took us to get gelato.  I had never had this Italian version of ice cream before, well, mainly because I'm not a huge ice cream fan.  But wow, this stuff is so creamy.  I was just going to put the above picture of Christine's cute feet on here but then she made this adorable face and it had to go on the blog!

 Then came the craziness of the car situation but we were able to break away to have dinner with the Brennan family.  David and I always just laugh and really enjoy the time we get with Ben (Bin) and Laurel but I always really get a kick out of the boys playing with their 3 girls.  

Brigham was groaning about there only going to be girls at this gathering tonight but just as always, we ended up finding him playing with them in the end.  

Dora (I'll never call her by her first name :) and Hyrum loved play fighting most of the night.

So, another fun filled day with old friends.  Looking forward to our future in California but excited for the day we return to see all our dear friends again.

Tomorrow David will be with his best friend growing up.  He passed away September of 2011 and so he is going to visit Jered's mother (David's second mother, growing up) and return home with some of his ashes.  I imagine he longs even more for the day when he will get to see Jered again.  What a reunion that will be.