Nuggets--literally--of thought

Well, I am a ward widow again today. Burke is gone with the youth to youth conference. He is in charge of planning and organizing it. The interesting thing is, we are leaving for my family reunion tomorrow, and youth conference doesn't end until Saturday. Burke made the only choice he could (and remain married) by coming to the reunion and letting the youth conference leaders finish it out on their own. The reunion has been planned for two years, and youth conference has only been planned for about 5 months. Besides, family is supposed to win out right?
Because of my widow state, I thought it would be lots of fun to take the kids to the splash pad again today. We were there for all of 10 minutes when all "heck" broke loose. Kade was running around (after I told him not to) and fell and skinned his knees and elbows. Annika was walking but not paying attention and ran into another little girl who was running (I am sure she wasn't listening to her mom either). Annika sustained most of the impact to her nose and it began to bleed which in turn led to a bout of hysterical crying and dramatic screaming. After I calmed Annika down, Adrienne chose that moment to answer the call of nature and pooped in her swimming "soup"(as she calls it). That was the last straw! We decided to leave and try again another day.
The interesting thing is that in all of this, I was able to make a spiritual point. Kade was lamenting his poor skinned knees and bleeding elbows (he had to emphasize the bleeding portion--at our house we had to make a rule that you aren't allowed to cry unless you are bleeding). I was giving him a lecture that it happened because he was running around after I told him not to. I asked him why he thought I didn't want him to run (I guess this may have been rhetorical, I was a little frustrated). Did he think I just didn't want him to have fun? (Rhetorical again). No, it was because I knew what could happen to him, and I didn't want him to get hurt. I was impressed to tell them that Heavenly Father gives us rules to live by as well, and if we follow them, life will be easier because we can avoid some things that are painful.

Weekending

We have been very busy trying to get in the last of the summer fun. We took the opportunity to go to the drive in on Friday night to see Wall-E and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I liked Journey better. I don't go to movies to be preached to. By coincidence at the movie, we had the opportunity to park right next to the insurance salesman who tried to rip us off a couple of weeks ago. It was a little uncomfortable, as his wife was shooting daggers at us with her eyes. Once the movie started, we munched happily on the candy purchased with the money we had to yell at him to give back.
Saturday we went to visit Burke's parents and see the new babies born three weeks ago. It was so fun to hold them and love them and give them back to their parents. I don't miss the baby thing much. Burke, on the other hand was reminiscing about how wonderful babies are all the way home. Burke's brother and his wife blessed their baby at Burke's parents home so that Burke's dad would be able to participate. It was really nice to see everyone and visit. Adrienne and her cousin of the same age were inseparable the whole evening. We are looking forward to doing it all over again when his other brother and his wife bless their baby in September.
I gave my lesson on Sunday, gratefully getting it out of the way for this month. I didn't know the Stake Relief Society presidency was coming for class beforehand, but that is probably good. It would have just made me more nervous. Now, on to August...my next lesson will happen when school is starting!!! Yay!!!

At the parade

We headed to the parade on Thursday morning. I rousted the kids out of bed as early as I dared for a good spot, but unfortunately we ended up being in the very hot sun for most of the parade. The kids were fine as long as the candy was forthcoming from the parade people, but as soon as the supply dried up, they were ready to go.This picture is of Adrienne crying to leave with red hot cheeks. We were all overheated, but made it until the end. The girls really enjoyed the marching bands and got their groove on when they came by. This is a movie of their moves, but I couldn't get it to flip right side up. It was too funny to leave out, and just demonstrates their personalities so much.

Helpers

The kids went out to pick raspberries the other day. Adrienne came in with a big smile from ear to ear.
"Daddy will be so happy", she said.
We all know how much he loves home grown tomatoes.

That's Not Right

I am a talk radio junkie. I admit it. However, the other day I got sick of hearing about the war, gas prices and the election and decided to flip through stations on the radio (FM band!). I found an oldies station that was playing 80's music! I was happy to hear it again, but quite disgusted that that good stuff is now considered oldies. My kids were shocked that I knew the words to music other than Primary songs and the Little Mermaid soundtrack.
I decided that I would like to bring back the great eighties and put some music on my blog. If you were raised in the 80's, grab your denture cream and cane and enjoy!

Starting Over

I used to go and exercise at the rec center every day...until school got out and then it became too difficult to referee between all the kids while I was trying to keep my heart rate up. Usually, the only thing to go up was my blood pressure, so I stopped going for the summer but then my weight went up. Bummer.
Today I decided to bite the bullet and try to get back to the gym. I went again for the first time in over a month. It felt like I had never been there at all! So frustrating.
I was encouraged by the realization of how far I had come before school got out. I got tired today after doing about a third of what I normally did before. The discouragement came with the realization that I had to start all over again. I am hoping it will come back faster this time though.
Even if it takes longer, I think that exercising helps my mood and patience, so I will try to tough it out until school starts again and I can go sans kids, or at least with only Adrienne.

We made it!

We finished the ward widow weekend with some Karate lessons, school clothes shopping, eating lunch in the park, and more Karate lessons. The kids think I am pretty boring.
Burke finally came home all in one piece, and thankfully, all of us were in one piece as well. It sounds like Burke really had a lot of fun despite having only four boys show up. (Again with the did they reaaaaaalllllly neeeeeed youuuuuu?) They bonded, fished, and ate like kings. He came home sunburned and smelling of campfire, so that is considered a good trip, right?
We were very happy to have him home, especially the kids. They loved him and kissed him and complained to him about how boring mom is. I was just glad they were complaining to someone else besides me.
I have to say how grateful I am that I am not a single parent. You would have to have the patience of Job, and I definitely don't.
This picture is of Adrienne getting her hair done for church on Saturday night. She doesn't like rollers much.
If you could see her pajama top in the picture it says "Miss Independent" on it. She lived up to it today in Sacrament Meeting. At the end of the meeting, when it was time for the closing prayer, I reminded all of the kids to fold their arms in preparation for the prayer. Adrienne perked up and proclaimed that it was her turn to say the prayer. I hurriedly told her that someone else was going to pray, but she was adamant. As the sister in our ward began to pray, you could hear Adrienne, "DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER....THANK YOU FOR THIS DAY!"