Divide and Conquer

What do you do when both sides of the family have their reunions on the same weekend in locations 5 hours apart? You divide and conquer, of course. Fortunately the P family reunion started on Thursday so my kids had about 24 hours to play with their cousins and family in town from China, Florida, Vermont, and Idaho before the C Family reunion started on Friday evening.

Here are the kids before heading out to the other reunion:

It's so hard to say goodbye.

I stayed with my family and Adam took the kids to Idaho for his family reunion which involved a boat (ooooooh, ahhhhhhh). It was our kids first experience with a boat and they decided they liked it. . . a lot.

Here are more cousins on the other side of the family.

All in all I spent 4 days without Adam and the kids. You would think that would give me all sorts of leisurely time but I was so busy I hardly had time to even relax! Saturday night I went out on the town with my sister, Libbie, and my brother Taylor and his wife Jen. It involved being super wild and crazy, (i.e. dancing in the car to stupid songs and coordinating dance moves with my sister in super dorky fashion) getting ice cream, going to a movie, and playing the game "Settlers of Catan." Perhaps I shouldn't tell you that we were all in bed by 10:30 p.m. It might taint my wild image.

Sunday was full of church stuff and Monday I went to a K-1 Crew roommate reunion. We lived together at college 14 years ago but we still get together a couple times a year. (They'll vouch for me and my "wild and crazy" image. . .Ok, so maybe just the existence of my, as my sister puts it- inner dork)

Now it is back to normal and time to get caught up on laundry. If all goes as planned we will be getting sod for our yard tomorrow! Yay. Oh, and you are ALL invited to our sod laying party. :-) I'm very happy to finally have a yard although I might feel differently after we have to mow it for the first time and actually do yard work. It has been kind of nice to have a little break.

Not Dead

We did it, we survived the Wasatch Back! It took the Cho Mamas 27 hrs 38 min. and 45.8 seconds to complete the 188 mile course and that includes a couple of botched handoffs and a 15 min. detour when a volunteer misdirected one of our runners at exchange 22. I had an easy 3.5 miles at about 2:30 p.m., a 7 mile run at 11:00 p.m. and a 6.1 gradual uphill run at about 8 a.m. It was all super duper fun with the exception of a few moments at around 4 a.m. when for a brief moment I questioned my own sanity. My team was awesome. The whole Wasatch Back environment is crazy with costumes and decorated cars and a lot of energy and my team didn't disappoint.

I'm not sure what possessed me to strike a muscle pose for this picture, but I did, and sadly those are not white running tights I am wearing, my legs really are that white! If you want to feel short hang out with an entire team of people over 6 ft. tall. We were missing 3 people in this picture, but the other 3 were just as tall.

Here is our Cho Mama car:

We had a LOT of orange "vintage" clothing and positive energy and we laughed the entire time. I was glad we opted for an obnoxious color because it made spotting each other among the thousands of runners a lot easier. We could literally see Gibbs for miles in his orange get-up!

We finished the race in a downpour of cold rain which put a little damper on the finish line festivities. The only thing I didn't like was that we only saw our Van #1 people for about 15 minutes out of the 27 hour race, but all in all it was a fabulous experience and I would totally do it again which is good because in our car there was a lot of "next year we've got to do this" talk going on. I pushed myself to the max and had the sore muscles to prove it. Hopefully in the future I will be even better trained and ready to do even more relaxing and "cho"ing. :)

Relax and Cho!

In January a good friend of mine from high school contacted me. He was on a quest to get as many members of our old high school cross country team together to run the Wasatch Back Relay on June 19-20. He succeeded in getting 8 of us to commit with 2 additional runners who also ran for our same high school in later years, and another 2 runners are probably going to wonder why on earth they decided to run with 10 crazy ex-MHS cross country runners who seem to have their own vocabulary and spend an inordinate amount of time mocking their eccentric XC coach named Timo. Our facebook group reads like this: "A group consisting of mostly out-of-shape ex-MHS cross country runners that want to prove that they can still 'relax and go'." ("relax and go" being the phrase our coach would yell out at us during races and workouts.) Logically our team name would have to have "Cho" in it somewhere because although the word currently has several meaning and uses when it comes to MHS cross country, it was used so frequently in our every day vernacular that it truly has become synonymous with cross country running itself. When it first came into existence I was a 14 year old freshman and a "cho" was what you didn't want to be. "Don't be a cho!" meaning don't be lazy and undisciplined. Pretty soon all of our team cheers went something like this "Choooooooooooooo! Let's Go Murray!" It was taped on our shirts and the guys used to put "cho" on their backs with sunscreen during workouts. It really took on a life of its own so our Wasatch Back team name became the Cho Mamas. Here is is less than 24 hours before the big event and last minute preparations are under way. Since the Wasatch Back is known for crazy teams who dress up and decorate their cars we decided to draw from the eccentricities of our former coach Timo who would wear the most outrageous running attire in the name of thrift and an attempt at school spirit (our colors were orange and black). Here is a picture of the varsity guys in high school dressing up like Timo for the school Halloween stomp.

I've been going over my check list.

Bright orange shorts and orange hat? check!

Bright orange bandanna to wear while orange hat is taking a break? check

Nose plugs for sitting in a car full of sweaty runners? check

Everything else will be just icing on the cake. A while ago I put together a short inspirational video just for fun. Click here if you would like to see it.

Monopoly Man

What does your kitchen table look like at 7:30 a.m.?

This is what our table looks like at that hour:

The kids are into Monopoly right now. I say kids, but really I mean Britton. He is the moving force behind it all so I wasn't surprised when I walked into the kitchen a full 2 1/2 hours after I took the first picture and found this:

Britton was STILL playing. Not only was he still playing, but he was just as into it as when he started. What really made me smile was that the girls were long gone and he was playing for them. This is what I heard, "Ok, now I'll roll for Jenna. . .six!. . .Marvin Gardens. . .she owes me $250 dollars" After he got money from her pile he rolled for himself and then went back to her. I'm not sure how long this went on, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jenna was absent for more than half of the game and Britton didn't seem to mind in the least. He was still having a great time. I found the girls upstairs trying to get "in disguise." I bet you can't tell who is in the next picture. . .

I told them I thought their disguises were very well done.

Ahhh

We made a quick trip to SL this weekend so Adam could co-host a client appreciation Flag Day breakfast on Saturday morning with my Mom. The girls both fell asleep Friday night on the couch. I love how Korinne has her arm around Jenna. When she first started sleeping in a big girl bed a long time ago she used to crawl into Jenna's bed more often than not and I would find her sleeping with her arm around Jenna. She really loves her big sister.

The rain has really been putting a damper on our plans to get our yard in. I've never known it to rain nearly every day for a couple of weeks before. Oh, and guess what is in the forecast for this next week? You guessed it, more rain. If I didn't know better I would seriously think we had moved to Seattle. Even with the rain summer has been going well. The kids have been doing their daily reading and piano practicing along with their summer chores. Each Monday we are doing "zone trainings" meaning Britton and Jenna learn a new cleaning skill each week. Last week we spent quite a bit of time going over EXACTLY how to clean the mudroom and downstairs bathroom. Tomorrow will be vacuuming and garbage collection and the next week will be the upstairs bathroom, etc. They have both been very receptive to my in depth trainings. They are still kind of young so I don't expect perfection, but I'm determined to get them trained on a lot of new things before the end of the summer. Let's just say my days of feeling like a maid are numbered.

I'm not really sure what happened but it looks like I will be reprising my role as Primary President here in our new ward. So, after a short 8 month break from this particular calling I'm "back in the saddle again." Good times. (Adam still hasn't stopped laughing about it, he's very supportive that way)

Free Tickets

Britton and some of the neighbor kids put together a comedy show and gave out free tickets to all of the parents and other kids in the circle.


Britton didn't make the tickets himself but I still didn't have the heart to tell him the spelling was wrong. About 20 min. before the show began Britton came into the house and said, "Mom, Quinn and T.J. are going to pretend to fight and then London and Brinlie are going to split up the fight. . .is that too violent for me to watch?" I smiled on the inside, "Um, if they are just pretending for the show I guess it is OK this time." Much relieved he thanked me and ran outside again. Gotta love that Britton. He has such a tender heart, it would kill him to find out he was doing something bad.

At the designated time the parents started to emerge and the crowd began to form. Britton warmed the crowd up with knock knock jokes.


The show was about 20 seconds long and just in case someone missed it the first time they did 2 repeat performances.

Here are some of the kids holding up their tickets. Jenna decided to capitalize on the crowd and tried her hand at selling rocks. If you bought 9 you got the 10th free. She had quite the selection of both rocks and leaves. Jenna has always had a thing for rocks. She is the only person I know who routinely describes them with words like "beautiful" and "gorgeous".

Last night at the dinner table we were talking about how all of the kids were born in odd years and both Adam and I were born in an even year. (What? You guys don't talk about this stuff at dinner?!?) I summed it up with a teasing remark, "So that means you guys are ODD and Dad and I aren't." Britton and Jenna laughed but Korinne put her hands on her hips and said, "I'm NOT odd. . .I'm weird." That got an even bigger laugh from all of us so she decided to change it and said "No, I'm not weird. . .I'm funny!" Now THAT is a true statement.


What a character!

Are we there yet?

Warning--Do not read this if you have a weak stomach!

Britton has an amazing ability to be perfectly fine and then randomly and with only a millisecond of warning throw up all over the place, and then be fine again. We first witnessed this phenomenon when we lived in Georgia and were over an hour away from our house driving in the car. He threw up everywhere and being ill prepared to deal with it Adam purchased a new outfit for him to wear at the first store we came to while I cleaned everything up with wet wipes. About a year or so ago we were in Costco right in front of the flowers when without warning he said, "I feel like I'm going to throw up" and proceeded to do so. Let's just say we did not make any new friends at Costco that day. He was completely fine after he threw up and I have no idea what brought it on. Well, today we make a quick day trip to Rexburg, Idaho to attend the baby blessing of my sister's new baby. This evening we were about 40 minutes away from home when I heard those infamous words, "Mom, I think I need to throw up." From past experience I immediately grabbed a plastic grocery bag and tried to get it to him as fast as I could, but it was already too late. He threw up everywhere and over everything! Seriously, how much can come out of a boy that small? And it was another isolated incident-totally fine before and after. I did have a few wet wipes that I used to wipe off his face and hands, but with nothing else to clean up the mess and being a Sunday we felt our best option was to get home as fast as we could (with the windows down, of course) and just deal with it there. I've got to hand it to the girls, Britton was sitting in between them when it happened and they didn't say one word of complaint about being surrounded by puke for 40 minutes. Just another fun family moment. Anyone else have a kid who can spontaneously puke at the most inconvenient times?

The Purging of Papers

The dust hasn't even cleared from the last day of school (in fact Britton is in his last few hours of school as I write this) but already we have had the "purging of the papers". I think it is a rule that children must bring home at least a tree's worth of papers every day at the end of a normal school day. As a bonus they bring home a forest of papers the last week of school. At our house we have a system to deal with the daily onslaught of papers. First of all about 99.5% of them are thrown away (or recycled) by the time the kids are done with reading homework. The kids know that if they want to keep something in particular they must put it in their designated paper spot in the cupboard or it will immediately be thrown away.


At the end of the school year we go through their pile and make a final decision on what items to keep and file away in a well marked folder in the filing cabinet in Dad's office and what items to throw away. Yesterday they came in with all of their end of year stuff and I felt like it was as good a time as any to go through everything and be done with it. I had to laugh at Bitton's "School Memory Book" but only because the day they took the pictures of each student for the cover was when Britton had his black eye.

There is nothing like remembering the 1st grade with a real shiner.

We went through Britton's stuff first and were able to reach a mutual decision on each item fairly quickly. Jenna is MUCH more sentimental. She was sorting papers and had 2 big piles that both looked like throw away piles to me. The only problem was that one of them was her keep pile. After a little negotiation we got it down to something I could live with.

Where, oh where, has my sentimental gene gone? I remember being somewhat sentimental growing up, but somewhere along the line it stopped. Yesterday when Jenna got on the kindergarten bus for the last time the other mothers were kind of getting all emotional and saying things like, "Oh, I can't believe it's their last day of kindergarten! It makes me so sad!" In my mind I'm thinking, "Really? Huh, hadn't really thought about it. Let me think about it for a second. . . .nope, not sad." I didn't say anything out loud, of course, but I love watching my kids grow up and it makes me excited, not sad, to see them moving on. Does that make me weird?

Our daily schedules will change a little now that the kids are out of school. For one thing we won't be getting moment by moment updates from Britton about what time it is. He is a VERY punctual kid and time means a lot to him. He likes to leave for the bus at 8:10 a.m. every morning-- not 8:11 and definitely not 8:12. 8:08 is right out. (Never mind that the bus doesn't even come until 8:25 a.m. and he doesn't really need to leave until about 8:20 a.m.) Britton gets a little stressed out if we are off schedule in any way. "Dad, it is 7:51 and we haven't even started breakfast yet!", "It's 8:09 we have to say family prayer right now! Jenna can you say family prayer and keep it short?" We always know EXACTLY what time it is at our house until Britton is off to school. I can't even count how many times Adam and I have said the following phrase during the school year in a calming voice, "Britton you have plenty of time, it's Ok." Being a punctually minded person myself I kind of like that time is so important to Britton. Jenna is the complete opposite. She isn't so concerned with time and if we are waiting for someone in the family there is a 98% chance we are waiting on Jenna. "I'll be right there (no sense of urgency in her voice)" I'll go upstairs moments later to find her occupied with some inconsequential task. Mostly I think it is funny, but when we are really in a hurry it is a little less endearing. If we are waiting on Korinne it is only because she has made a conscience decision to NOT cooperate. It's all part of that "marching to the beat of her own drum" thing she's got going on.

Britton could sleep in this summer, but he won't. He is always the first one up and when he is unsuccessful at getting Adam and me up (with a lot of quoting the EXACT time and saying 'get up') he tries to find other things to do to occupy himself. His latest thing? Practicing the piano. So, at all hours of the early morning we can hear him plugging away at the piano. I can't exactly tell him to stop even though it is making it impossible for me to sleep. It just wouldn't be a very good Mommy thing to do--"Please stop practicing the piano and developing your talents and becoming a better person so that I can be lazy." It just doesn't sound right. I really wish I was a morning person like Britton. On this one, I'm definitely with Jenna--we like to sleep in. Korinne is in the middle, just like usual. Sometimes she up with Britton, sometimes she is sleeping in with Jenna. Adam gets up at 6 a.m. 3 or 4 days a week to play basketball, but on the other days he will sleep in a little longer.

Ok, this post kind of turned into a novel. This morning as Britton was getting ready for his last day we put on the music from HSM 2 and had a dance in our kitchen. "What time is it? It's summer time! It's our vacation." Britton used all of his classic breakdancing moves. Good times.

Aloha

It's the last week of school for our kids and today the Kindergartners had "Aloha Day". It was 'Aloha' (good-bye) to Kindergarten and 'Aloha' (hello) to summer and 1st grade! Jenna conveniently has a bronze tan to match her Hawaiian outfit. Her amazing tanning ability did NOT come from me, that is for sure. After doing Jenna's hair in a side ponytail Korinne wanted one, too. Her hair isn't nearly as long and when I was finished she looked like she was right out of Napoleon Dynomite. She loved it but I didn't get a picture because she took it out before I had the sense to capture it on film. Bummer.

We are getting excited for summer and already have a lot of fun and exciting things planned.

School's (almost) Out! Scream and Shout!