5.30.2010

How to Shop with Boys

Last Saturday I did the unthinkable. I dragged my whole family to the big city north of me and spent the day quilt/fabric store shopping. It was awesome! It was an adventure and turned out much better than anticipated.

The morning began with all of us sleeping in until about 9am. The nice thing about fun fabric shops is that the owners are sleeper-inners also, not a single one of the stores opened before 10am! Once we got on the road we (and I mean the man in my life) "needed" to stop at Cabela's, only the largest outdoorsman store in the world or at least state. After an hour spent comparison shopping for walkie-talkie radios in the bargain cave and haggling the clerk down on the price we were finally ready to hit the first fabric store.

Once we arrived at the designated area I got out of the car as Olaf unrolled all the windows.

"Aren't you coming in?"

"No, thought I'd stay out here with the boys." Wow, he sure knows how to keep them little ones out of trouble. I ventured into the store and saw a beautiful array of Alexander Henry Halloween fabrics. After scouring the store I decided I needed a little of that. I peeked out the window at the car and saw Olaf had spread out all the walkie-talkie equipment on top of the trunk. I knew I was safe to spend a little more time if I wanted. So I finished and purchased the fun material and headed out to the car.

Next stop was lunch. Of course Middle Child, pickiest eater in the world, didn't like lunch. So Olaf got two sandwiches instead of one. Bonus for him!

We hit another quilt store while everyone waited in the car but me. This store was split in two, on separate sides of the street! They had some really cute stuff. Boys played Nintendo DS's and didn't even complain.

Then off to the next store. It had some awesome mushroom fabric from Alexander Henry. I had to have it. It was next to a Baskin Robbins. The boys had double scoop waffle cone ice creams. I think Olaf spent more on ice cream than I did on a few yards of material, and it's not cheap fabric.

The next store was Mormon Handicraft. It is inside a Deseret Book Store, which is an LDS book store. I usually avoid DB at all costs. So I headed in and for some reason the family followed this one time. I headed upstairs to check out the material. After a few moments I heard some kids downstairs. I peeked over the railing. My boys were running around the store. With Walkie Talkies in hand. They played some game of cat and mouse while I shopped. While most people were quiet and looking at church books, my boys ran amuck in the store causing all kinds of commotion. I loved it.

We were finally downtownish area. So we decided to tour the Beehive House. Brigham Young lived there and it was decorated in period pieces. It sure was a pretty place.

Then I dragged the boys to two more fabric stores. One was in a village-type, old-fashioned area with lots of cute little houses turned into stores. I headed out to find my store. While shopping in the store I heard my phone turn off. Middle Child had been watching YouTube and drained the battery. No big deal until I decided I was done. Where were the boys? Couldn't call them. So then I opened my ears and listened. I knew I would be able to hear those wild boys eventually. And I did. They had found the Petting Farm! After letting them pet little pigs and goats and all we headed to the very last quilt store. They were so relieved when it was finally over.

And to treat them all we took them to dinner at a place where the entertainment is Cliff Divers. They were enthralled. And to finish the evening we took them to the 9:30pm showing of Prince of Persia. It was good. Lots of action.

When we got in the car at midnight finally, they flipped on their DS's. I made them turn them off. They weren't happy and fought for a minute. And as soon as they closed their mouths for a minute, they zonked. But not before they thanked me for an awesome day. I may get them to go quilt/fabric store shopping again!


Update to The Big Presentation:
A little girl at church ( I guess she's not all that little, she's 8 or 9) told her Mom I'm a Movie Star since she saw me on TV! I got a really good laugh out of that one.

5.25.2010

The Big Presentation


Yesterday I spoke at the Click It or Ticket campaign kick-off. Hopefully a few more people will wear their seat belts. I think it went well. Here's the links to the different news stories that came out of the whole thing.


I didn't have a clue what to do with my hands! At least they didn't film that far down.


Love that he had to get a picture with me being interviewed in the background!


The cows in the Seat Belt Convincer! We got in it too. And since the weather was bad I was wearing a cool trench coat my friend lent me.


It was good to do this but it was really exhausting. I came home and took a three-hour nap afterwards! The Chick-fil-a Cows were there, they're a big sponsor of the whole safety thing. They had a good time playing with Middle Child and gave him some free sandwich coupons. That made his day.

5.15.2010

PTA

I went to the elementary school last week to do my Motherly duty of requesting a special teacher for Baby's next year at school. I asked the secretary for a form.

"How many do you need?"

"One." I didn't feel the need to populate the earth all by myself.

She handed me a half sheet of paper on which I wrote Baby's name. Then as I went to fill in the two blanks for a teacher next year I chickened out. I had all intentions of putting the same name on the two lines meant for two different teachers. But then I decided I'm not well known to the employees at the school and that might make them angry and then we wouldn't get our first choice. We love this teacher and both the other boys had her in 4th grade and I'm praying every day that Baby will get her next year also. But then since I chickened out I had to come up with a Plan B.

So I politely interrupted the other Mom doing her Motherly Duty for her apparently four children attending the elementary school next year to see if I could look at the teacher list. She was deep in conversation with the secretary about her children's personalities and which teacher would be best for each child. She handed me the list without skipping a beat.

I scanned the list and looked at the rest of the paper. It not only had all the teachers but the school schedule; starting times, ending times, lunch times, and recess times. I gasped.

"School starts at 8:25?"

The other Mother looked over at me. "Yes. It used to start at 9, but it was changed a few years ago."

"Yeah, they changed it to 8:30. When did they change it to 8:25?"

"That's a good thing to know before the school year is out. We put a vote to the parents to change it back to 9 but people voted for the earlier time."

Oh, apparently this Mother is not only an overly-involved Mother but a member of the highly esteemed, much coveted, extremely exclusive PTA. The PTA at the elementary school is akin to a high-class Sorority, of which I will never be included, much less invited to any of its functions.

For a person who sits in the back of the class, rarely speaks, prefers anonymity, I have a habit of choosing the wrong moment to open my mouth.

5.02.2010

A Beautiful Tree

Guess What!?! The tree we planted for Calvin made it through the winter!

There are beautiful buds showing. And the leaves are shooting out.
I am so happy because I don't have a very good track record for growing things.


I'm so excited. I think it is going to be beautiful.