A little different

Last week I had to work so hard to get everything ready for my family before I left for my little beach trip. Matt left early this morning for a weekend trip to Utah to be with his family as his brother and wife are sealed. He packed his bag. I drove him to the airport. That is that. He did tell me he would leave me the money. I guess he did his part!

I do wish I could go out for this event too. But it is not possible. I am sure it will be a great day for the family and he will enjoy it. I will enjoy this long holiday weekend with the kids.

Heading to the Beach!

I am spending the weekend, ok, Thursday - Saturday, at the beach with 5 other ladies this weekend. I am really looking forward to it.I think the beach will be much more relaxing when I am not constantly worried about someone drowning! I have a good book ready for me! I am amazed at the huge amount of work it is to get ready for me to leave! It would be easier to get the whole family ready to leave without me! Packing my stuff is easy. Making sure everything at home is ready is huge! I had to arrange for Waverly all day Friday, Declan and Cannon to get home from school on Friday, notes to teachers about the change in transportation, lunch money, dinner plans for Thurs. since Cannon has soccer practice at 6:00... Thankfully, Madsen and Sully are old enough and responsible enough to take care of the sibs at home after school. I wrote lists! Lists of things they need to do Thursday and Friday and Saturday including Saturday job lists. Lists for the boys and lists for the dad.I even broke down and bought cell phones for Madsen and Sully so Matt can communicate with them on Saturday during the doubled up soccer game. That will be fun! My bags are packed and waiting, Waverly's bag is packed, dinner is ready for Madsen to put in the oven...

I am off to the beach!

2020

Yesterday during Sacrament meeting, Cannon asked me if we would all be dead in 2020. I told him I sure hoped not since it is only ten years away and he will only be 16. He said, "well, you will be old in 2020, you will be a grandma." My first reaction was I won't be that old and I won't be a grandma in ten years. Then I did the math: yes, I will be 45 (not that old) and I could be a grandma! Madsen will be 24, there is a chance that I could be a grandma in 2020.

Mulch ado about nothing!

Last week we had 15 cubic yards of mulch delivered to our house. It covers the drive way. We are spreading it all along the hill on the side of the house and all the garden beads and around the trees in the yard. Spreading mulch is a big job. I have done most of the work so far. I actually enjoy hard labor outside when I know it has an end and it beautifies my space. I am really glad that this is not my job that I do day in and day out. That would not be much fun. On Saturday, after a very successful day at the soccer fields (Cannon's team tied, but he looked like he knew what he was doing this time and did a good job; Declan's team won 2-1 in the final seconds; Sully's team beat the only undefeated team 2-1, he made a game saving save in goal in the last minutes of the game) we all joined in the mulch spreading fun. The boys were complaining and asking how much they had to do. I just pointed to the HUGE pile and said, all of it. So, we were all happily working with shovels when the neighbor boy who is Madsen and Sully's friend came over wanting to hang out with them. They told him they had to do mulch for a while and he said, " can I help?" What? A teen age boy volunteering to help with such a fun job? He went and got his shovel and got to work. The boys kept asking when they could stop. I told them Yash could stop whenever he wanted, but they could stop when I did. It was 95 degrees on Saturday. We were very sweaty. At one point Sully said something about how much better it is at Yash's house because he has his own flat screen tv and wii and computer in his room. Yash commented about how boring it is at his house and that the Wii and tv and computer get boring really fast. I told Sully he could move in with Yash. Yash said, "then I would not be so bored." I found it interesting that the boy who has everything my boys dream of, would rather be doing yucky yard work with his friends than playing on all his fun stuff.

At dinner I pointed out to the boys that Yash has all the electronic stuff in his room that they wish they had free access to, and what did he choose? They have each other and mulch to spread. Who has the happier home? Who is more blessed? They all agreed that it was them.

To the person who leaves comments in Chinese Characters!

Whoever you are, stop. There is no reason for you to be reading my blog. You are neither friend nor family, so I am sure anything I write here is of no real interest to you. You do not even leave a real comment. I never check your site, so if it is an attempt to get me, or those I love, trapped in some crap, it is not working. I delete every fake comment that is ever posted so no one sees it. There must be things more worthwhile than reading blogs about people you do not know and posting comments in a font or language that no one can read. Either you waste a huge amount of time, or you have nothing better to do, which makes your life pretty pathetic. Go read a book, or climb a mountain, paint a picture or clean up trash in your neighborhood. I can give you a long list of suggestions of things to do if you are bored. Just stay off my blog!

Father and Sons

 

 

 

 

Tonight is our wards annual Father/Son Priesthood commemorative camp out. This has long been a favorite weekend at our house. The boys love it. I love it. Matt loves it! Ok, the first statements are true, the last is maybe a stretch. Matt loves his boys and loves spending time with them. This night is not so relaxing for him, but that is ok, a small sacrifice for his kids. And, he does end up enjoying it. They will be camping at the home of a family in the ward this year with the Deacon's and their fathers and brothers. The HP Group was in charge of reserving the group camp site, which they did, unfortunately, they did not pay much attention and reserved it for JANUARY 7 not May 7, so no one camped in January, the money was spent, and when they checked into it recently, discovered the mistake! The family whose yard they will be in has 15 acres, so it is not like camping in my yard. Cannon is so excited. He has been counting down days all week and wanted to do his packing last night. This morning they asked if it would be a get home, get packed and get on the road day. Waiting for Dad to get home will be so hard!

I enjoy this night by myself. It is a rare thing. In years past I have gone to dinner and movies with other Moms of boys. One year I even went to dinner all by myself. Then I come home and watch a movie that no one else wants to watch and sometimes I do a big project uninterrupted. I am not quite sure what I will do tonight. Waverly is not a lot of fun at a restaurant or movie right now. I have a movie to watch at home. I will probably buy myself dinner and eat at home. I might work on a project, I might not. I might spend the evening alone, I might do something with friends. I will enjoy the quiet, clean house while it lasts.

It won't be too many years until Waverly and I get to have a fun Mother/Daughter night while the rest of them are off camping. I envision fun dinners and pedicures and shopping and girl movies and chocolate.

Turning off the Heat

 

It was hot yesterday. It was also the first day of humidity which makes the hot feels so much hotter. When we were going to bed last night the temperature in the house upstairs was 84 degrees. Remember, it is only now May and I try to hold off turning on the A/C as long as possible! I admit, 84 is pretty hot inside. The boys were complaining about it being hot so I told them to sleep in their undies, not under covers, with windows open and pretend they ar camping. Declan came down and said, "Mom, will you please turn of the heat! It is 84 upstairs and I think that is hot enough."

I decided to turn off the heat today. I hope they appreciate it!