Junior Cheerleaders

Emily and Elise participated in the cheerleading clinic at Weber High last week. They went to practice every day and then performed during halftime at Friday night’s football game. They learned three cheers and a little dance, and they loved it! It made an already busy week a bit crazier, but it was sure fun to watch them when all was said and done.

Retro Post - Surgery Sucks

August 24, 2007 – I had a little surgery. A couple of weeks earlier I had discovered a lump the size of a golf ball on my upper back. It was a Sunday, so I couldn’t call the doctor. I spent most of the day picturing my impending chemotherapy, hair loss, and eventual death. I went to the doctor the next day and was very relieved when he told me that it was a lipoma – a benign tumor of fat – and that I could just leave it alone (and become known as the lump lady of Massapequa), or have surgery to have it removed. We opted for surgery.

I had never been in the hospital except to have a baby, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I found out that surgery is just no fun. I pretty much hated the whole experience . . . fasting for 12 hours before, getting weighed on a truck scale, getting an IV, sitting around for 2 hours in a hospital gown waiting for my turn, waking up with a dry mouth and extremely sore throat from the breathing tube, and the PAIN! When you have a baby, you get to the hospital feeling miserable and leave feeling relatively fabulous. This was the exact opposite. No fun at all!

On the bright side:

We had already met our out of pocket maximum, so our insurance covered the whole bill. It was the first time since I quit teaching that someone in our family had been to the hospital without forking out at least $2000.

Abby did great without me for the whole day. She had never had a bottle before that day, but she took one for my mom and didn’t even miss me.

I was so sick for two days after the surgery that I couldn’t eat anything. Somehow that two day fast triggered something in my body to start losing weight. In the four months since I had had Abby, I hadn’t lost a pound of pregnancy weight (and I had a lot to lose). Surgery was a magic weight loss bullet for me.

A New Beginning

Today was a big day for the kids. We had some boundary changes in the district last year, so today was their first day at a new school. Emily seems fine with the move, but Ben has been pretty nervous about the change. When I dropped them off this morning, I was more than a little worried about how he would do. Luckily both of the kids seem to have fabulous teachers and when I picked them up they both said they had had a great day. I am excited that their school is within walking distance and that now they will be going to school with lots of friends from our ward. I hope it will be a good year for all of us.

Swimming

We skipped swimming lessons this year and just bought passes to the pool. It worked out great. Nate was a fabulous swim teacher for the kids and we have been able to go swimming lots of times. I finally got around to taking some pictures so we can document our fun swimming summer.

Family Camping Trip

We went camping with my family last week. We went tubing, rode bikes, played games, ate mostly good (sometimes burnt) food, and just had a great time! The kids loved playing with their cousins. I loved camping without a baby. This was our first camping trip in years where we didn’t have to take a playpen or stay up half the night with a crying baby. I fully appreciated the change. Camping is certainly one area where I don’t have any sadness about the kids growing up and not needing me so much. It is loads more fun now that they can do lots of things for themselves.

We woke up to a big rainstorm on Saturday morning. I think rain is my camping curse. It always seems to rain on the last day and we have to pack up a wet tent and wet chairs and wet EVERYTHING and take it home and dry it out. The rain put a bit of a damper on our trip, but it made for a memorable day.

Pack Meeting

Last night was Ben’s long awaited pack meeting. He finished all of the requirements for his Wolf in June and has been waiting “patiently” ever since to actually get his patch. He was happy that the day finally arrived. Along with his Wolf badge, he received one gold arrow point, one silver arrow point, three more belt loops, and his swimming pin. I’m glad that he is so excited about scouts. I think he has read both the Wolf and Bear handbooks from cover to cover. The other day I was talking to Nate about what I was planning for our next den meeting, and Ben said “so you’re having them do the What’s Cooking? requirement from the Bear book.” He is a funny kid.

This was also the first pack meeting where I was in charge of coming up with the skit. Cub Scout skits cause me a lot of anxiety. They are all lame, but I wanted a lame one that at least got one big chuckle. My quality husband rescued me and helped the boys do the “classic” lawnmower skit. It worked out great. I’m glad he is on my team.

My Little Alarm Clocks

I don't usually set an alarm clock in the summer. Most days I wake up when one of the kids comes to climb in bed with me or ask me to make breakfast. This morning I woke up to three kids standing next to my bed. Elise was first. “Mom, it’s Bryton’s birthday. Should we call and sing to her right now?” Ben was next in line. He had his Wolf badge in his hand. “Can you sew this on my scout shirt?” Emily was holding a deck of cards. “Will you shuffle these?” It was 8:30, so I can’t complain. Still, it is funny the things that seem urgent to them first thing in the morning.

Cousin Time - Movie

We took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens yesterday. The kids loved it. Of course, they aren’t really all that discriminating where animation is concerned. Mostly they just love being with their cousins. I’m glad that they have so much fun together. My sisters go back to school next week, and I am sure going to miss our summer playdates.

Teach Me to Walk in the Light

The ward music director asked us last week if our family would sing in sacrament meeting. Since God didn’t bless me with a good singing voice, I was off the hook, but I said that Nate and the kids would be happy to sing. Today was the big day. We picked Teach Me to Walk in the Light. Ben, Emily, and Elise sang the first verse by themselves, Nate sang the second verse, and they all sang together on the third verse. I was a little afraid that the kids would get stage fright or forget the words or something, but they did a fabulous job. Abby wanted to go up with them. There was a moment when I thought that it was a big mistake to let her. Nate carried her up to the stand and she started yelling (she wanted to walk up by herself). Luckily when she turned around and saw everyone looking at her she stopped. She knows all the words to the first verse and yesterday when we practiced she sang along. I thought maybe she would do it again today, but there were just too many people looking at her.



I just about laughed out loud when the high councilman who spoke today referred to our family in his talk – “…like that family that sang today; you can tell that they have it all together.” He obviously isn’t around on all the days when the kids are fighting and I’m yelling and things are basically chaotic. Still, it is good that occasionally everything goes according to plan and we at least look like a family who has it all together.

Fun Family Night

Ben had a speech therapy appointment in South Ogden on Monday night (those tricky Rs). We figured as long as we were out and about, we might as well make a night of it. We took the kids to Costa Vida for dinner. We were hoping to watch some surfers on Flowrider, but it wasn’t running while we were there. Then we went bowling at Fat Cats. Everyone had lots of fun. It was Abby’s first time bowling and she really got into it. She paid attention and would jump right up when it was her turn. She also found the little buttons on the ball return that reset the pins. It took us a while to figure out why the pins kept randomly resetting. Ben was a little upset that he never got a strike and that Elise got a higher score than he did, but he got over it . . . eventually. I think I bowled the best game of my life with FIVE strikes. Nate usually kicks my bootie at bowling, so it was fun to get in a win. (He did have an injured finger, but I’ll take what I can get.) After bowling, we went up to watch a couple of guys do iFly. We stopped at Farr’s on the way home and shared a couple of milkshakes. It was a good night.









In unrelated news, Ben started calling me the crazy coupon lady today. I asked him if he saw that on the computer (since I read the Krazy Coupon Lady blog). No; he just made it up. I guess I just think my kids aren’t paying attention to things like that, but we did use a coupon at Costa Vida, and Fat Cats, and Farr’s (not to mention the other 15 coupons that I used at Smith’s and Albertson’s earlier in the day.) I guess he noticed.

Cousin Time - Swimming Party

For this week’s activity we went out to Holly’s and played in their new pool. It was great fun.


This week has been a water week. We went swimming at the aquatic center on Monday, Holly’s on Tuesday, to the South Ogden splash pad with friends on Wednesday, and then back to the aquatic center on Thursday and Friday. It has been lots of fun. Elise and Emily both really improved their swimming skills on our vacation and they have loved practicing at the pool. Abby mostly just likes to go down the froggy slide and play in the 8 inch deep area. Ben just checks in with me every hour or so. I’m glad we are finally at the stage where the pool is less work and more fun. I still don’t love the process of putting sunblock on four kids, but once that is done it is all downhill.