Awesome Christmas Presents

Christmas Eve Olaf ran to the store to get one more gift for the little ones. I had no idea what he was getting them until they opened the Christmas morning.

These were the first presents they opened.

It was practicality at it's best.

Olaf had cleaned bathrooms on Christmas Eve and decided the boys needed new toilet seats.

As soon as all the unwrapping was done he taught those boys a new skill. How to install toilet seats.

It was just what they wanted to do on Christmas Day.

They didn't mind not playing their video games.

Or reading their stack of books.

They were happy to learn a new skill. And now their bathrooms don't scare me quite as much.

When Family & Snakes Collide

This weekend we spent time with some of Olaf's family. Down south in Fillmore, Utah. It's smack dab in the middle of the state and used to be the State Capitol before the founding fathers got wise and made the metropolis of Salt Lake City the capitol. Saved a lot of traveling back before cars were real common.

But we had fun visiting with family, some of which we hadn't seen for a very long time.

The kids had fun playing games.

And the Aunts provided plenty of games for the kids to play. Including a Jack-a-Lope hunt.

Which ended in this tragedy.

I won't mention which Baby broke this really cool snake. Although he may have been trying to save everyone in the search party from any ER visits, never any fun on vacation.

But he might look a lot like this tuckered out Baby.

The Joker Strikes Again

If you'll remember I posted this little story about Middle Child last year. Well, the little Joker has struck again.

Last week we were somewhere important and I turned my phone off. On the drive back home I turned it back on and hopped on Facebook. Just to see if anything interesting had happened while I was away. To see if anyone had done something fun that I'd missed out on, again. To see if life was still the way it was two hours before. And it was.

But I had a couple notifications for comments on a post I had made several hours earlier. Except I couldn't remember posting anything. So I clicked to see what the hullabaloo was all about. And I started laughing!

I had let Middle Child do some homework on my laptop earlier in the day. And here was the result.

Donna McLean Hansen i love mushy gushy stories and mushy dates

August 26 at 5:17pm  · Comment · 

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  Dena Hansen, Abigail Vogler Hansen and Allison McLean like this.
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    Jennifer McLean Allen You do????
    

    August 26 at 5:40pm ·  · 
  • 
    

    April Aagard Hartung since when? ;-)
    

    August 26 at 7:47pm ·  · 
  • 
    

    Donna McLean Hansen Clayton strikes again!
    

    August 26 at 8:30pm ·  · 
  • 
    

    April Aagard Hartung hahahaHAA!!
    

    August 26 at 8:32pm ·  · 
  • 
    

    Jill Hansen Holker You had me puzzled.. Nice work Clayton
    

    August 27 at 7:55pm ·  · 

Hopefully I'll learn my lesson the first time. Or is this the second time? I'm already doomed.

Reasons Why I Will Never Quit Attending Church (and it ain't the preaching)

1. Seeing the Media in attendance to dig up dirt on someone who unfortunately was part of a highly publicized event
2. Children punching one of their siblings at the end of the Mother's Day song (yes, my children)
   
3. Listening to someone discuss the feelings of Darkness and Evil that they felt emanating from the city their plane was descending into which happened to be Pre-Katrina New Orleans (they didn't even make it to the French Quarter)
   
4. Children singing extra loud and out of key
5. Confessions of recent adultery announced over the pulpit while their spouse was in attendance
   
6. A stranger coming in, asking some questions, sitting down on a row obviously saved for a large family, getting up, and fleeing with someone else's purse from that row
7. Checking out who has had the latest boob job
8. Watching random children running all over the chapel, during church, and attempting to plunk out a tune on the piano before the parents can whisk the child away
9. Viewing all the Girls' Prom dresses the day after Prom
   

I'm Finally a Victim of the Nigerian Scam

I finally feel like I am part of the popular world! I got my first email scam that would be considered part of the Nigerian Scam. I first heard about this scam years ago. I've been waiting, faithfully checking my email, but to no avail. Finally, on Friday I got it! I finally feel like I'm part of the "In Crowd"! Here it is. I thought I'd share it with you in case you were excluded also.

Hello,

I'm Ms. Elizabeth Park Fowler of Tampa, FL 33629., I'm a US citizen, I'm 51yrs Old. I'm one of those that took part in the Compensation in Nigeria many years ago and they refused to pay me, I had paid over $38,000 while in the US, trying to get my payment all to no avail.

So I decided to travel down to Nigeria with all my compensation documents, And I was directed to meet Barrister Ben Bruce, who is the member of COMPENSATION AWARD AUTHORITY and a Human Rights Activist (Lawyer), and I contacted him and he explained everything to me. He said whoever is contacting us through emails now are fake.

He took me to the paying bank for the claim of my Compensation payment. Right now I'm the most happiest woman on earth because I have received my compensation funds amounteing to $11,000,000.00 Moreover, Barrister Ben Bruce, showed me the full information of those that are yet to receive their payments and I saw your email as one of the scam victims, that is why I decided to email you to stop dealing with those people, they are not with your fund, they are only making money out of you. I will advise you to contact Barrister Ben Bruce

You have to contact him directly on this information below.

COMPENSATION AWARD AUTHORITY
Name : Barrister Ben Bruce (Legal Practitioner And Adviser)
Email: benbruce6@xpmail.net

You really have to stop dealing with those people that are contacting you and telling you that your fund is with them, it is not in anyway with them, they are only taking advantage of you and they will dry you up until you have nothing.

The only money I paid after I met Barrister Ben Bruce was just $250 for the paper works, take note of that.

Thank You and Be Blessed.
Ms. Elizabeth Park Fowler (Elizabeth)
Trustee/Treasurer, Triad Foundation Inc.
Education: BS, Business Administration

If you've never heard of this before you can read all about it here. My thought as I read this letter was "If this is such an elaborate scam, couldn't they have gotten a person who speaks English to write the letter!" The language alone is a major tip off that this isn't legitimate.

What Do You Do With Your Receipts?

Have you noticed how cash register receipts are getting longer? It's a little mind-boggling. We are using higher tech registers at the store, shouldn't we be using less paper?

When I was in college the first time around I worked at Target, the best store on the planet, as a cashier. I remember most people wrote checks for their items. I remember how to find the Routing Number and Account Number on any check.

We had to hand key all that information into the cash register. (I remember a grocery store in town that still used the grease pencils and the cashiers memorized the weekly ad.) I think I remember (oh the fickle mind!) actually using the old credit card machine with the carbon paper for credit card receipts. But it wasn't long before we were able to "swipe" the card and then the cash register would spit out the receipt the customer signed. People were so leery about this whole change. It was a serious change in the shopping industry and people were very worried about the change. And our slogan during this change was "We're using less paper!"

And now we've come full circle. When some stores, such as Sunflower Markets, are using double sided receipts that are so short I almost lose them, most others are adding coupons and surveys and more coupons onto their receipts. Kmart is one of the worst offenders. Tonight I bought two items. I received a receipt over 12 inches long and two other 8 inch coupons. I don't know if anyone else does, but I find this most annoying. So annoying that I rebel in my nonagressive style. I rip off the actual receipt, stick it in my purse and throw the rest on their floor. If they are going to try and fill up my purse with useless crap, they are going to get it right back. I do the same for fliers left on my car, I throw them to the wind. And I don't even feel bad, paper disintegrates quite easily.

Let the Games Begin

About two or three years ago Olaf decided to pit the two older boys against each other in a race to memorize the Articles of Faith. They were off, out of the gates, running full bore, sure they could whip this easy challenge within a few hours of a Sunday afternoon. They passed one, two, and then three got a little tricky. Middle Child got it pretty quick and moved on to four. Calvin, on the other hand, started getting discouraged he couldn't memorize it nearly as quickly as his younger brother. He finally got three memorized and moved on to four also.

By this time Middle Child had finished four and started on five. Calvin struggled but eventually got four in a relatively short amount of time, it is the most famous and most oft quoted Article of Faith. Calvin started on five which Middle Child had already mastered and was halfway done with six. Calvin started getting upset he couldn't best his little bro at something! The tears started welling up in the eyes and falling. The defeatist attitude showed its ugly face.

Meanwhile Middle Child had polished off six and instantly started on seven, a relatively short one. Now Calvin was spending more time trying to fail than he was trying to memorize. Calvin was upset. He would read a couple words, cover them up in the book, try to remember them, fail, and start crying again. It was quite comical for us parents. We have to find the humor in anything we can in order to stay sane.

During all of this Middle Child is learning something about himself. He is better at memorizing than his big brother! This is new territory for him. After being the younger brother and enduring all the hassles and humiliation that comes with that title, he is reveling in this new found superiority. He is even rubbing it in Calvin's face in his nonagressive style typical of a middle child. Calvin continued to break down while Middle Child sped ahead, eager to win this easy race.

I don't think Middle Child learned all 13 Article of Faith, we were in the car to visit Grandpa, so there was a time limit. When we got to Grandpa's, Calvin got out of the car, sad, dejected, and beaten. Middle Child emerged victorious, and was eager to let everyone know. When he exceeds all expectations he loves to let the world know. He likes that attention. Calvin, on the other hand, didn't want to hear another word about the whole affair, he just wanted to put it behind him and never look back.

One interesting note is that this defeatist attitude Calvin would get sometimes had emerged less and less over the last year of his life. He was growing up and maturing and it was wonderful to see that in his personality as he became more sure of himself.

The Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice happened last week. Somehow I missed the celebrations. Oh wait, I live in a Christian not Pagan part of the world. I don't live 2,000 years ago when the Druids were alive and strong and led everyone in Summer Solstice festivities.

All I can think about is how the days are getting shorter. I'm already dreading going to work in the dark, much less getting up in the dark. It's so hard to get out of bed when it's dark outside. (All you early morning workers can hunt me down now, I know you're sneering at me and my pansiness.) I just hate mornings when I have to get up to an alarm. And if it's before 8am I have to set an alarm.

Today I had a great thought. Maybe some scientist can tell me if somehow our advanced scientists can make it happen. What if the Earth wasn't tilted on its axis and didn't wobble back and forth every year! Just think, the sun would go up and down at the same time every day! I wouldn't have to worry about how late the sun would make its appearance in the winter. And the fireworks on the 4th of July could probably be a little bit earlier.

And an even better consequence would be the unchanging of the seasons. The weather would be the same year round. All you would have to do is pick the kind of weather you enjoyed the most and move to the part of the world that boasted that climate. No more miserable cold winters unless you chose to live in Alaska or Norway. And think of how many crops could be grown with more steady temperatures. You could grow food at its own perfect latitude.

I know that the scientists are shaking their heads. I'm sure this Utopia I have contemplated isn't possible to create. And I'm sure they're astounded at the amount of force that would be needed to stop the wobble of the earth's tilt. And I'm sure they've thought of a million good reasons not to do it. People always want to be the first to spread doom and gloom on new, revolutionary ideas. Mark my words, someone may try to do it one day but just remember you heard it here first.

Working Moms Rule the World

Utah is predominantly Mormon and the religion/culture encourages moms to stay home with their children. This is all fine and dandy but doesn't work for everyone. The average wage for the US is $43,889 but in Utah it is only $36,69 (2007 figures). Try living on that salary with a starter townhome costing over $150,000. You'll never get to go on vacation again. And even though being a stay-at-home-mom is the ideal in this area of the world, Utah actually has a higher percentage of women that work.

"In 2006, roughly 60 percent of women over the age of 16(Utah figures) —were participants in the labor market. Nationally, only 57 percent of women are in the labor force." http://jobs.utah.gov/opencms/wi/pubs/hardatwork/executivesummary.pdf

For reasons unknown, some women in Utah feel the need to push the stay-at-home-mom agenda onto everyone they see in the workforce. There are many reasons why women choose to work; using their education instead of wasting it, complementing husband's income, being a single mom/supporter, to get out of the house for some sanity time, and some women don't like staying home. These are only a few of the reasons to work. I personally work for a couple reasons, the main one is having the ability to support the family if something were to happen to Olaf.

But Sister-in-Law Nurse deals with the public face-to-face and someone always makes a comment about her working. Because she has a picture of her kids hanging from her ID badge she is always asked about them. She is not the only one that has to deal with people telling her she should be home with her kids. My friend also works in the medical field and people are always commenting to her how she should be home with her kids and not out working. It drives her crazy too.

• "What cute kids, wouldn't you rather be home with them?"
• "That's too bad that you have to work."

But then after she explains she only works three days a week and she wants to have a career to fall back on in case something happens to her hubby, she gets the sympathy/understanding comments.

• "Oh, well that's not so bad if you get to be home more often."
• "At least you don't work five days a week!"

I think she should take another approach. I think she should have a couple different stories on hand for know-it-alls like these.

• "I was already going to school when I met my husband. We got married just after I finished school and I was planning on quitting when we had kids. But a few months after I got pregnant with our first child he was in a horrible work accident that left him severely maimed/disfigured/handicapped and he can't work anymore. In fact I need to work to pay for the enormous medical bills. At the time it was so distressing that I miscarried the baby and now we can't get pregnant."
• "These are my nieces and nephews. My husband and I can't get pregnant. We tried adoption but because of a serious condition he has no one will let us adopt."
• "We are both carriers of a genetic disease that kills babies in their last trimester. We've gotten pregnant a few times but they have all inherited this disease and never lived."

Maybe if she told some of the busybodies these stories they'd shut their traps and leave her alone.

The Silver Rush

The other day I caught Baby on the computer after he had finished his chores.

"Go Outside!" I told him. It was beautiful out and he needed to go play.

He went out and promptly started digging in the dirt pile RV Pad. I came out to sit on the porch and enjoy the beautiful weather.

"Mom, today our teacher told us that there's silver at the bottom of Utah Lake! I've ridden over Utah Lake before!"

"Did you see it?" I asked.

"No. But remember I was wearing a life jacket?" He was in a small plane, so maybe he meant a parachute in case the plane lost power.

I thought that was the end of it. But, no, not Baby's one-track mind.

About an hour later. "Mom, I think we should go looking for the silver in Utah Lake."

"Ok. But that would be hard because the lake's pretty dirty. How would you see it?" If anyone's been on Utah Lake they know it looks like a huge mud puddle. I can't bring myself to get into the water.

"Um, you know," to which he waves his hand in front of him like he's holding something. "A flashlight."

"Oh, ok, that might work."

"And we need scuba gear." he informs me.

I must have given him a look of some sort because he tried to reassure me, "You can rent that stuff Mom."

"Maybe you should talk to your dad about this." Olaf has been trying to get me to learn to scuba dive with him, but it's not going to happen. I don't like water, much less sea creatures.

"Yeah! That would be a great Scout Activity! I'm gonna call him now!"

And that was how the Silver Rush of 2009 started.