Poetry

I often say I don't like to read poetry, I just like to write it.  I realized yesterday that this is not true!  I like to read my own poetry.  I like reading my brother Brian's poetry (on the rare ocassion when I can get a hold of some).  I like reading hymns, songs, and nursery rhymes, which are poetry.  I always liked to read a book my Dad and Mom owned by Edgar A. Guest that was poetry.  There are some poems that I like to read very much.  This is a good discovery and I am out to discover more poetry that I like.  Do any of you have suggestions? 

I have a plan to read a poem every day for a month (yes only one, I don't want to commit too much time!) and then to write a poem a day for a month.  I was inspired with this idea when I read a book my sister Tina sent me called The Happiness Project.  I am not ready to do a full fledged happiness project, but this sounds like a good way to expand my horizons and hopefully improve a talent.

So if you have a poem
That you would like to share,
Or know a poet that you feel
Is just beyond compare,
I'd love to hear about it,
So send a note my way,
And you can be certain,
Your note will make my day.

Father and Sons, Mother and Daughters

Friday was the annual Fathers and Sons camp out.  Derek took our three boys, a tent, some food, and blankets and off they went.  I have no pictures of their activities or of the activities I did with my girls so I'll do my best with word pictures.

Derek enjoyed talking to some friends.  They compared wife stories.  The friend's wife doesn't like it when nobody sits beside her in Relief Society.  I wouldn't llike that either.  Derek just compared our dreams.  He has violent nightmares where he needs to protect the family and has a hard time moving.  I have nightmares where people don't like me.

Connor enjoyed playing capture the flag and other games with his friends.

Jake loved the chance to play his favorite game with his friends.  He got up an hour earlier than Derek and his brothers and went out to play tag.

Dan made Derek smile.  They were walking from their tent to the fire.  Along the way they passed several people, adults and youth.  Dan waved at one man and said, "Hi! We're going to the fire."  He passed some youth and said "Hi guys!"  And, sometimes people would say "Hi Dan!" first.  Dan's very friendly and is well liked.  Dan also told the Dad of an African little boy (one of Dan's friends) "He's brown."  The Dad agreed.

In the meantime the girls and I dressed up, yes -- in dresses, and went out to eat.  Kayli ordered a pizza pocket and felt silly about it. The other two girls had some fancy chicken, and chicken fried steak, and I had soup and salad.  Tia was very sun burnt and was having a hard time being warm even though her skin was burning up.  After dinner we went to a wedding reception for Shannon's daughter Chelsea.  I enjoyed it very much.  Trisa enjoyed it very much, Tia enjoyed it except for the hugs because they hurt, and Kayli wished we hadn't stayed so long since she didn't know as many people.

We watched a movie when we got home and then headed to bed.  The next day Tia was up early for school and I was up with her.  She went to school.  I managed to read, go on a walk, and weed the garden before the other girls got up.  I enjoyed the quiet time, they enjoyed the sleep.

It was a good weekend for Father and Sons and Mother and Daughters.

Things I Love to Do

1.  I love to read a light hearted (clean) romantic comedy.
2.  I love to read a books where I learn something.
3.  I love holding hands with Derek (until our hands get all sweaty)
4.  I love to dance.
5.  I love to sit outside and watch the kids play.
6.  I love to watch the birds at the bird feeder.
7.  I like creating beautiful things.  I don't do it often but it gives me a sense of accomplishment!
8.  I love talking on the phone with my family and friends.
9.  I love a peaceful ride / drive through the country (by this I mean no busy roads, lots of greenery or good landscaping).
10.  I love listening to Derek and his brothers banter back and forth trying to outdo each other at being the most funny and clever.  His sisters sometimes join in and I enjoy this too.
11.  I love hanging out with my family (my parents, Derek's parents, brothers, sisters (including the in-law variety, and their kids).  They all have good humor, and wisdom.
12.  I love helping.
13.  I love visiting with (either in person or through technology) extended family that I don't get to see very much.  It is always fun to reconnect, and to discover again what great relatives I have.
14.  I love when I can teach my kids something in a happy way.
15.  I love playing music on the piano or flute, especially with friends.
16.  I love going to the temple.  I can always feel Heavenly Father's love for me there.
17.  I love listening to good music.
18.  I love the times when all of us here at home are busy working together and are happy.
19.  I love swinging.
20.  I love to write poems
21.  I love to vacuum carpet.  It's a rewarding job.
22.  I love it when Derek thinks he's funny.  He usually is right, but it's more fun because he enjoys it so much. (Okay so this isn't something to do, but I still love it)
23.  I love hugs -- therefore I must love hugging.
24.  I love sitting on a warm beach, listening to the ocean and watching the waves or reading a book.
25.  I love walking in the woods in the snow, it's like being in a different world.
26.  I love singing.
27.  I love sitting by the fire.
28.  I love seeing my kids do good and kind things.
29.  I love giving presents that I know someone will like.
30.  I love writing notes to people.
31.  I love wrapping up in a blanket when I'm cold.
32.  I love walking through garden shops and choosing flowers to buy.
33.  I love to look at (and own) musical instruments.
34.  I love walking with Derek.
35.  I love talking to Derek.
36.  I love talking to people about the things they value, especially when I value them too.
37.  I love to smile at people to try to get them to smile too.
38.  I love going to libraries or bookstores -- there's always the possibility of finding treasures.
39.  I love walking in the morning sunshine.
40.  I love reminiscing about happy times.

I made this list because I felt that if I identified the things I love to do, I could be sure to do them more often.  It's good to love what you do!

*I love to point out obvious things like:  This list is not made in any particular order and just because romance novels were listed first doesn't mean I love them better than I love other things -- like visiting with you!  This also isn't an all inclusive list, I'm bound to have forgotten temporarily, or to have not discovered yet some of the things I love to do.

Another Teenager in the House

My first baby boy has long since stopped being a baby.  He is 13 now and is enjoying a happy day.  Today he has spent the morning goofing off with Trisa and Kayli.  They are good friends and have been laughing all morning and being generally silly.  Tia came home for lunch from school so that she could wish Connor a happy birthday, which was thoughtful.  At snack time we had some cousins over for cake and ice cream, and for dinner Connor got Chinese food, including some Honey Shrimp because Connor loves shrimp.

He opened his presents this morning without Tia (she was gone to school but had told us we could go ahead without her).  I suspect his favorite presents were the books.  He LOVES books and gets annoyed if you borrow one and he discovers you are not using a bookmark, or are using a handy sock or some other odd object as a bookmark.

Connor got a backpack so that he will be prepared for all of the camping he will do as a Boy Scout.

His Dad found him a red Darth Vader sucker, and a match box Corvette (Connor drools over Corvettes)

Here are pictures of Connor blowing out the candles on his cake.

 He didn't manage it the first time.

 He didn't manage it the second time.

By then Bennett, and everyone else including Connor were laughing so hard that he didn't really manage it the third time either, but he provided us all with lots of amusement.

This is really his second celebration since on Sunday his Grandma F. surprised him with cake, ice cream and a present.  Lucky Connor!  Aunt Michelle surprised him with a treat today too.  It has been a good day for a very good boy.  I think we will enjoy having another teenager in the house.

Dan Says...

"Bees don't have hearts, they just have stinging powers.  Their wings have stinging powers too, but I've never been stung by one."

Derek tried to convince Dan that bees actually do have hearts, but Dan doesn't really believe it.

Celebrating Memorial Day

This year our celebration of Memorial Day was different than usual.  We decided to have Tia's graduation party at the same time.  We invited all of Tia's aunts and uncles and their families.  We held it at "The Homestead" (Derek's parent's house) because it was rainy and there would be more room.  The weather did stay nice enough to barbeque outside, which I did.

I liked these things about the day:

1.  I enjoyed barbequeing outside because because the grill kept me warm so I could enjoy the otherwise chilly sunshine that was there at noon.

2.  Everyone was good company and was kind.  Nobody even whined when I forgot all of the vegetables that people like on hamburgers. 

3.  Derek had us all sing one patriotic song America in memory of those who have given their lives and service for our freedom.  He also had us sing another song Families Can be Together Forever in memory of the family members that we love who are no longer with us.  What good singers we have in our family!

4.  Derek talked a little about our good Tia and she opened a present and then she taught us all a dance.  Here are some pictures.

Our traditional cemetery visits were postponed due to weather, time, and energy.  We did get a good idea from Uncle Devin (my kid's uncle).  Devin had been with his kids to the cemeteries in the pouring rain.  He told us that it is his tradition to tell his kids a story about each of the relatives whose graves they visit.  We thought that was such a good idea that yesterday, when we finally paid our visits to the cemeteries, Derek told us some of his memories of his grandparents and his brother, and in the car between cemeteries I told the kids a bit about my grandparents whose graves are too far away for us to visit easily.  The older kids did a great job of listening and being interested, and Jake and Dan enjoyed not paying attention.  We enjoyed both days of celebrating Memorial Day.

A Head Start on Summer

I've been wanting to write this since before Summer vacation started and so I'm just going to keep the original title.  Before the kids got out of school I printed out my list of things I want to do in the Summertime and hung it on the fridge.  I decided that there was no real reason to wait until it was officially summer vacation to get started.

So far I have done the following things from my list:

1.  Read on a blanket outside.  Spring has been cold and rainy, but there have been a few sunny, relatively warm days mixed in and I decided that I should be out enjoying any day that was nice.  I ended up reading outside on a Sunday after church.  The only bad moment was when the little jumping spider decided to jump on me, but he jumped back off pretty quickly.

2.  Sew Something.  In Relief Society we planned on making plastic bag holders.  These are the cool kind where you shove bags in the top and then pull them out the bottom.  The nice ladies e-mailed me instructions and I made it here.  It works great! We didn't end up having time for it in Relief Society meeting anyhow.  We were too busy learning other fabulous things.

3.  Go to the Library.  Let's face it, I'll probably do that every week.  I just wanted a few things on the list I knew I'd do!

4.  Paint the bar stools (fabulously of course).  I'm not done with this, but I am half done.  Here are what the stools basically looked like before I started.

Then I chose two colors (because I can't possibly be decisive enough to pick one).  I painted the bottom of one stool black and one green.  I like the black better, but I kind of like the contrast, and let's face facts, I don't really want to paint the green one black after all of the work it took to turn it green.

I painted the top a cream color because my fabulous idea was to make the tops look kind of like one of my Grandma F.'s dinner plates that looked like this:

It was hard to find wheat that matched, and any pictures of the plate printed out too gray and so I finally just chose some wheat that was close enough and the stools ended up looking like this:

A closer look at the top shows you this:

They are darker than the plate but they look nice.  Hopefully they will be great for sitting and cleaning off.  They at least look better than before.

So, I have a headstart on my Summer list and that is good because I spent a lot of the first week of vacation panicking over how to organize the children so that they will have fun, help out, AND learn things, which means I was too busy stressing out to actually look at my list.  Thankfully there is more Summer ahead to do better.

Dan's Other Name

Today Dan said, "My name was Gooloo (Gulu?) before I was born, then you called me a different name.  I was Gooloo because I like painting and gluing."

Derek called him Gooloo a couple of times and Dan answered as if that were normal, but an hour later he couldn't remember what his "real" name was and so he's back to being Dan.  I think, one day, he'll be glad we didn't really name him Gooloo.

Plop Went the Pizza .... etc.

Last week, on Friday, I started making dinner at 5:30.  I think that was the quickest I've ever managed to make pizza (maybe because Derek was helping) and it was ready to come out at about 6:05.  So I reached in, oven mit secure on my hand, and started to pull the pizza out.  Then something happened.  It happened so fast I'm not sure exactly what, I just know that before anything could be done the pizza slid right off the pan onto the bottom of the oven and the door.  Before long the fire alarms were blaring and the windows and doors were being opened to clear the air.  Derek and I worked together with separate spatulas and soon had most of the pizza back on the pan.  Thankfully all of the pizzas were done cooking.  Derek and I ate the plopped pizza and the kids decided they'd go for the more normal looking ones.  Thankfully it was not the "Dan pizza" because there wasn't an extra of those.  Here is a picture of the oven after we had taken out most of the pizza.

Now for the etc. part of the post:

Dan said his night time prayer with Derek the other night. Afterwards Derek hurried into our room to write down what Dan had said so that I could post it later.  Dan prayed, "Thankful that Jesus made us -- with a little help from God".

Another day when I was with Dan during his night time prayer he said "Thankful that Dad's not faster than me at running to my room".  (I guess Derek was very convincing when he let Dan win).

The day after Derek and I had been gone to dinner and Tia had been watching Dan, he said to me, with some amount of surprise, "Mom, Tia can't see without her glasses!"  I told him that Dad and Trisa had a hard time seeing without theirs too.  He's used to me since I am with him every day and I am still blessed to be able to see quite well without my glasses, I just get less headaches with them.  Sometimes though, I can forget mine, or just get tired of them being on my face and I take them off.  Dan said "Tia just takes her glasses off to sleep". 

Dan is working hard at figuring the world out.  He did freak Trisa out a bit when she came to visit because he said "Trisa, we're all going to die soon."  She asked if he was worried about that and he said "No, we'll all live in heaven together and it will be nice." 

My favorite thing that he says though is not "what's tomorrow Mom?" because he asks that a lot and I don't always get the answer right according to Dan. Lately he keeps asking "When is the last day Mom?"  I don't know what he is hoping I'll say, and I usually just say "I don't know".   My real favorite is when he says "I'll love you forever Mom".  That will be nice.

Tia's High School Graduation

Here is one of Tia's senior pictures taken the week before graduation.

The next picture is Tia walking in to start the long trek around the track before graduation.

Next we see Tia right after having received her diploma cover (they picked up their diplomas at the snack shack after the ceremonies).

For those of you who have heard of Darci, who has been Tia's friend for many years, here is a picture of them together after graduation.

My parents, Tia's Grandma and Grandpa F. drove a couple of hours plus some to come sit with us in the sun and see Tia graduate.  They got a little sun burnt.  Oops.

Next you'll see a picture of Tia with her proud parents.  Someone caught me being goofy.  Derek is holding a gift Tia got from a friend.

Finally, we have a picture of Tia with Kayli.  Kayli came to graduation and stayed the whole time.  We somehow missed getting her photo until we were at home.

The day before graduation it poured rain -- really a lot of rain.  We were thankful to have sun because, as far as we know, there was no backup location, there was just the football field.  There are fun things about having graduation outside.  One of the coolest was that they had sky divers come who landed on the field.  One had a big American Flag.  The first flew right by us on his way to land and then it was his job to catch the flag when the other guy landed.  The American Legion did the flag ceremony and, though I'm woefully uninformed about what exactly you call it, they saluted the flag by shooting their guns.  Later someone shot off something that sounded like a cannon.  It was good to have a pretty day and special events to go with it.  Tia did a good job of enjoying graduation.

Later that evening Tia, Grandma and Grandpa F., Derek and I celebrated by having dinner at The Cracker Barrel.  After that Tia went to the senior all nighter.  She managed to stay up all night even though she had a miserable cold.  Somehow Tia keeps going and keeps cheerful.

Congratulations to Tia.

Tia's First Graduation

On Sunday Tia graduated from LDS Seminary.  I had her "stand by Jesus" for her picture.

Seminary graduation was very enjoyable (except maybe not "very" enjoyable for me because I had a horrible cold and just wanted to go to sleep).  Tia said the closing prayer and then came and opened her diploma and said "I did it!  I'm going to frame it.  Only, it's already framed". 

I am thankful that, so far, Seminary (four school years worth of classes where students study the scriptures) has been my girls favorite high school class, even though it's not really a high school class, they are released from high school for one class period to take it.  They love to attend and they love the Spirit that they feel there.

Congratulations Tia!

This is a bit blurry but I like her smile in this one.  She was agreeing that she would be happy to stand by Jesus.

Dan Granduates from Preschool and a Bonus

 Dan graduated from preschool last night.  He has loved his year with Ms. Tonya and, I think, was my first boy to actually participate in his preschool graduation with his classmates instead of sitting beside me.

 Here he is looking to Ms. Tonya to see what to do.  After every segment he would yell to me "Mom!  Did you love it?" There were over 200 people there to help celebrate and I was sitting on the floor in the front to take video.  If he couldn't hear my answer he would yell "Talk louder!".

At one point he yelled to me "I love you Mom!"  He was very cute and I expect that nobody much noticed his yelling because they would have been focused on their own little people.  He yelled that he needed a kleenex once too and Jake took it to him and I went to get it.  Dan really isn't very shy.  He is going to miss preschool.

 Here is the "Bonus".  This is from last Saturday.  The wind came up and was blowing blossoms across the trampoline.  Dan and Jake were playing in falling blossoms and I was trying to capture it.

This was a little blurry, but I still thought it was worth keeping with the pretty tree, two cute boys and a smiling Derek in the background.

Dan Says .....

"Mom, how do I look in these shorts?" (They are new bright orange shorts)
Me:  "Good!"
Dan:  "They look awesome actually on me."