Apples to Apples

The other day we played a new game. Apples to Apples. I was the only one who had never played before. Middle Child tried to explain the game in twice as many words as were in the instructions. Baby just laughed and giggled. Olaf finally told Middle Child to just let me read the instructions. Made so much more sense.

We got started. I tried to find appropriate answers for the term we were supposed to describe from my small pile of "answers." It was kind of hard. Seriously, how do you describe 'irrational' with the cards Jacques Costeau, A Locker Room, and Leeches?

I was losing. I don't like to lose. I'm not competitive but I just don't like to come in last.

But then I realized that it doesn't matter which of your cards matches the term best, but which one you think the person looking at that term will find the most interesting and therefore choose.

Then I got clever. It's not often that I can say I was clever! I started thinking about which card would pique the interest of the person in charge of the round the most instead of which was the most correct answer.

I wasn't losing anymore! I started winning rounds! By the end I had the most cards, 15. The next highest amount was only 10. The others discussed how I won so easily. I told them this proves that I know everyone the bestest!

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.

Happy Anniversary! from the Kids

For my anniversary my kids decided to surprise me.

With a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant you ask? No.

With movie tickets to a new movie? No.

With breakfast in bed? No.

With a clean house? Almost, but not quite.

They wanted to surprise me with one of their favorite activities.

Laser Tag! The game of Champions! And Little Boys! and Husband who haven't grown up!

Remember how they surprised me? I wasn't dressed appropriately at all. I had a white t-shirt on. And heeled sandals. But thank goodness no one else was really dressed for the event either.

First thing I noticed were the black socks. "What? Is he trying to be Middle Child on Sunday?" You see MC may change all of his clothes after church but he leaves his black socks on and I laugh. Every Single Sunday. Olaf replied that he is in Laser tag mode.

At least MC's friend is also wearing a white shirt. And he even knew what we were doing! Obviously not a veteran.

And Olaf was just dressed in regular clothing. He must have felt sorry for me and decided not to go all black and beat everyone.

They called our names too quickly for me to have someone snap my pic so I had to do it in the mirror at home. Notice the heel on the sandal? You may think that's nothing but you probably wear heels on a regular basis. I do not.

So they quickly called our names and paired us with three other people. The kids decided that a Kid v. Adult game was in order. There were four of each so it worked out perfectly. After telling us no running, no foul language, no hitting, etc. etc. etc. they let us out! Or should I say in?

I haven't played laser tag in probably 15 years. The sport has come a long ways. No more recharging. Much more flexible shooting. In all, it was FUN!

And somehow Middle Child got First Place. I think it's all those video games. Maybe he can be a fighter pilot one day.

Teenager Wisdom

As you can see Middle child is becoming a Teenager. He's no longer a sweet-faced little boy. He manages to keep growing as I've talked about before.

But as for the teenager aspect of his growing up, his friends have also become teenagers.

He went to play Night Games last weekend with some friends. He called me for a pick-up rather early on Friday night.

"Why are you coming home so early?" I asked when he called, baffled that he was willingly coming home before midnight.

"There's lightning!" duh?

"Yeah, but can't you go inside and do something for a little while?" still baffled at the early hour.

"His parent's aren't home so we can't go inside."

Ooooohh! I understand now. We sometimes instill the same rule: No friends in the house while parents aren't home. But we and these parents obviously have no such rule for outdoors.

I love Teenage Wisdom.

A Peaceful Weekend

This last Friday all the boys headed out on a campout. In Goblin Valley. Now don't be scared. It doesn't get its name from little goblins stealing children. The name comes from the rock formations that were formed in this valley eons ago.

As you can see the formations are everywhere. The boys absolutely love going on this trip every spring. They go in the spring because it's HOT in the summer. When you visit the Southwest in the summer you sweat profusely. Not so fun and comfortable like the spring.

I read that originally it was called Mushroom Valley.

I like Goblin Valley better. Sounds funner.

At night the boys run around with flashlights

and light sticks and play night games.

Then when the finally come in the daylight the next morning

they are always in amazement at what the place looks like.

Well, if they've never been before.

The shapes are one of a kind. I don't think there's

any other place on earth quite like it.

In fact, in the movie Galaxy Quest, they set the crew on an alien planet and it happens to be Goblin Valley! You can check that clip out here.

In the meantime I did some stuff that I've been working on for a while and finally finished. Whew! For Sister's Weekend this year we are making quilts. Everyone is bringing eight quilt squares and we will share them to make each of us a quilt.

This has been quite an experience for me. Once I tried to quilt something and it turned out so misshapen that I threw it away. So this time I chose a pattern that didn't have any exact measurements, it was do whatever you want. And I did. The best part is no one will know if I messed up because nothing is square! This one isn't misshapen, it just isn't trimmed perfect yet. I just didn't want any seams to come undone and ravel. That would drive me crazy!

While my weekend wasn't quite as adventurous as the boys, I got some important things accomplished and that made me very happy.

And to top it off, I made cupcakes. Delicious. I bet you're jealous of my weekend now.

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.

Operator? Any one There?

Olaf and I went on a date tonight. It's rare, but always wonderful. I always thought when the kids got older and could babysit themselves we'd get to go out more. Not so, now we have to watch them even more and we can't really get a babysitter. What 12 or 13 year old girl wants to watch an 11 year old boy? Let me rephrase that: What girl do I want watching my prepubescent son? This can only go in the wrong direction! So a date tonight was nice. I called home to make sure the boys had fed themselves. Despite my best intentions they are growing into men already. Middle Child answered his phone in one of his rare (maybe not so rare) moments.

"Who is this?"

"Hi, it's Mom. Have you guys eaten dinner?"

"May I ask who is calling?"

"Your mother is calling. Did you eat yet?"

"This is an 80-year-old operator and my mother is dead. I don't think you're calling from the grave. Who would you like to be connected to? I can connect you to anyone on the planet."

I didn't know what he was talking about. He's 11, not 80. I tried again, "It's Mom, did you fix yourselves something to eat yet?"

"I am an 80-year-old operator. I can connect you to anyone on the planet."

I realized this was a game. I decided to play along cuz it was kinda silly, "I am looking for CRH."

"Let me look. There is only one CRH in the world. He lives in Spanish Fork."

"Great! Do you think he's eaten dinner?" in hopes that the charade had gone far enough to satisfy the boy. But no. We are not done!

"I don't know if he's eaten dinner. Let me connect you."

Then I was entertained for 30 seconds of Middle Child making fuzz noises while we were 'connected.'

"Hi."

"Hi, Middle Child. That was so nice of the operator to connect us."

"What operator?"

"You know, whatever. Did you guys eat anything yet?"

"Yes we did."

"Great that's all I wanted. See you soon!"

Not for one moment did the child break out of character.

Tagged?

10 years ago. . .

1. I started my homebased daycare
2. Had two young children at home
3. Had just bought a house
4. Lived in Spanish Fork, Ut
5. Had been married for 5 years

5 Things on my "To-Do List" today. . .
1. Make dinner
2. Clean up dinner
3. Take Baby to Soccer
4. Take Middle Child to Guitar
5. Go to work

5 Snacks that I enjoy. . .
1. Diet Coke
2. Chocolate
3. Triscuits
4. Brownies
5. Cookies

5 Things I would do if I were a Millionaire. . .
1. Invest so I could quit working
2. Travel the world
3. Build a house, nothing huge and fancy
4. Donate to something I felt important at the time
5. Buy a Mini Cooper

5 Places I have Lived. . .
1. Ventura, CA
2. Cedar Rapids, IA
3. Ames, IA
4. Spanish Fork, UT
5. Manhattan, KS

5 Jobs I have had. . .
1. Assistant Manager of Copy Store
2. Dough Master at Pizza Hut
3. Phone Operator/Office Employee at Target :)
4. Tastee Freez employee
5. Bar Tender at a local Bowling Alley

I Tag Sister-in-Law Fashionista (Nesha, that's you!)