P: Pets

P is for PETS! This is a gratuitous post to introduce you to the other animals in our family. Even though they are strictly outdoor creatures and they do not vacation with us, wear clothes, or eat gourmet food they are still an important part of our lives and we love them! Right now we have four pets in our care.

First is Lily, the buck rabbit. Lily is somewhat androgynous because we really don't know whether to use he or she when talking about him/her. He/she started out as a girl and we loved her and named her Lily. And she loved us! When Lily was about 6 months old I was holding her and petting her and I had her cradled on her back like a baby and was scratching her tummy when I noticed a TUMOR growing on her abdomen. I gasped and thought "Oh no! Not our Lily!" But my fear turned to confusion when I suddenly noticed ANOTHER tumor, exactly the same shape and size right next to the first one. "What?" I thought. And then, "Ohhhhhhh." We didn't tell the kids for about three years. Moral of the story: Don't ever believe the teenage boy at the farm store who says, "Yes, this is a girl." Because what he is really thinking is, "How the hell should I know? Just buy the stupid rabbit already!"

Next on the food chain is Ginger. She is our mommy cat. But due to some promiscuity 2 years ago (once we can understand, but twice in 3 months?? Noooo, ma'am!) she is past her kitten bearing years. She's a good girl though. She has a favorite spot on the window sill outside the family room. She can watch over her domain and her family at the same time.

Here she is with her first litter. She had ONE! Weird, right? But, as I said above, then proceeded to have four more 10 weeks later. They found new homes, but this little guy got to stick around.
His name is Tigger and here he is two years later. He's a beauty. Really! I think his face looks like a bobcat--which I'm sort of partial to. He and his mom are also good mousers. Which is probably the ONLY reason Matt hasn't put an arrow through them both.
Last summer he adopted Claire. Anytime she went outside he was right there with her. It was a mutual love and fun to watch.

Last but not least we have Belle. Her official AKC name is Belle O' the Ball. Because we're Irish. Or Southern. Or she likes to fetch. Or everything else that went with "Belle" was already taken. Or something like that. But for the first few years of her life her name was NoBelle. Like the prize. OH MY GOSH! Do not underestimate anyone who ever tells you that a puppy is a lot of work! She's five now and it's SOOOO nice to finally see some mellowing going on.

But look at that face! So stinkin' cute.
A picture of her first hunting season. She does AWESOME! Never runs out of energy and finds and retrieves the birds amazingly well. (Or so I'm told--you won't find me tromping through the river bottoms on a frosty November morning!)
Here she is looking slim and trim on a little outing we took one evening.

She totally thinks she's a kid. Once I took her for a run and we went past SO many dogs and she never left my side. Then we got to the school and the second she saw the kids she was gone!

We really weren't trying to be mean in this video.

And here she is this morning. In dog years she's about my age now, so I'm not going to judge her too harshly for those extra inches of winter blubber. But she and I have some running to do!

O: Old?? Oh no you DI'INT!

Three months ago I was sitting in church, minding my own business, when I glanced down at the announcements and read, "If you are interested in playing on the Relief Society Basketball team at the Region Tournament please call...". Wait, what?? Relief Society? Basketball? Since when did they let the women play basketball?? I read it again three times to make sure that I had really read it correctly. I was so excited!! Nearly bouncing on the pew, I leaned over to Matt and pointed at the words on the paper. He read it, looked up at me in what seemed to be something like disbelief/mockery and said, "It's been a LONG time since you played basketball." Then looked away as if to say, "end of discussion." Wet blanket, bubble burster, you pick your metaphor. However, because I was in church I couldn't give voice to the response that was quickly forming in my mind, so I placed a few more kids between us and fumed.

In all fairness to Matt, he WAS right. It had been a LONG time since I played basketball. There was nothing but truth in his words. But COME ON, Baby!! Have you not learned yet how and when to lie to a woman??

No matter how indignant I felt, the seeds of doubt had been planted. By the end of the meeting I had convinced myself. He's right. I'm too old. What am I thinking?? But I really WANTED to play. So a week later in Primary, when they read the same announcement out loud and even had little handouts to go with it, I timidly raised my hand. GAH! What if the other women look at me and wonder what's wrong with me? I have 5 kids! I'm too OLD to play basketball. But I squashed those feelings aside and showed up at the meeting two days later. Are you dying yet to know the end of this story? (Or just dying to be at the end of this story?) Well, turns out, there were 8 other women at this meeting, ALL within a couple of years of my age. Some older! I'll skip some of the gory details. Yes, we played at Region. And yes, those younger girls from Logan wiped the gym floor with our sorry hides. But we had fun! And no one needed oxygen.

So fast forward to now. The gals and I decided we liked it and started playing regularly every Thursday A.M. We run hard and trash talk and make fun of ourselves and it's so fun. Given that we all have too many kids to count, we bring them all and try to play around them. It works best when we play full court because then when they come to us wanting something we just run away. It's pathetic! But have I mentioned we LOVE it?

Matt has come around now and seems to think it's great. But last week, one of the gals shared with us that her husband had asked her if maybe she didn't think she was too old to be playing basketball. Well, that just opened the floodgates! In my naivety I really thought Matt was an exception. I pictured all of these other supportive hubbies, but NO! Every single one of us at one time or another has been asked/told in one way or another that perhaps we're too far on in years to dribble anything but saliva. I seriously don't understand it. They want us to exercise and be fit and healthy. But we're too old for basketball? Are they embarrassed? Or just protective cavemen? Granted, we're not Spring chickens. Between Kelly's back, Laura's ankle, Valerie's knee, my shoulder, and Julie's feet we're kind of falling apart. But OLD?? Never!!

N: Nearsighted

N is for Nearsighted. I am nearsighted. I wear glasses and because some eye doctor long ago told me that I have an astigmatism, I've never worn contacts. It's a nuisance. I'd love to have Lasik, and plan to someday, but for now, I wear my glasses when I want to see things. And it works! I put on my glasses and I can see clearly all those distant sights that were so blurry just seconds before. This post isn't about eyesight though. It's about being nearsighted in life. Sometimes it's too easy to focus on what's right in front of us and get distracted from the better, more important future.

Nicole really wants a horse. I mean she REALLY wants a horse. She has saved every penny she's ever earned or been gifted and now has the funds to pay for half a horse. The problem is, the other half will be financed by Mom and Dad, but conditionally. Before we will give the okay for her big purchase, she has to show that she is really ready to be mature and responsible with horse ownership. We're getting closer to an actual realistic date so to help her out with this I made a sign recently:
The arrow moves up and down depending on, well, lots of things. I KNOW she wants this. But the arrow just kind of hangs around the middle. It's a little depressing to me. Frankly, it won't matter to me one bit if the horse doesn't happen for several years. But it breaks my heart to see her giving up on her goal because it's not fun to clean her room or practice the piano. She's certainly not alone. How many chores and projects and piles do I have that get put off and put off because it's just not fun NOW. I need to do better and hopefully by my example and help, all of my kids can learn that deferred gratification--a concept pretty foreign to their generation--is really the only way to reach their goals. And the goals I am most worried about are FAR more important than a horse. I wish we had a pair of glasses that we could slip on and bring those big goals right into focus again anytime we lose sight of the prize. But I guess if it were easy, everyone would do it, right?

M: Musician

M is for Musician. In an attempt to bring more culture into our lives, (and to support our daughter) Matt and I attended the Mountain West Strings Academy South Cache Concert last night. A couple hundred 4th and 5th graders playing their hearts out--it was awesome! I love orchestra music. To be honest I'm very glad my kids play string instruments because I'm just not sure I could find the same enthusiasm for band. (And now I've offended all the band people out there. It's just a personal preference, people!) Anyhoo--Corinne is in her second year playing the cello and she does a great job. Here are some shots of my little beauty with her instrument, as well as 2 of the songs that she played last night. As you can see, we had very good seats!

Wipe Out!

Fiddler's Frolic: Part I

Fiddler's Frolic: Part II

L: Little Man

The daughters had their 15 minutes, so of course I will give equal time to Spencer! He is my Little man. He looks at me with those big brown eyes, and I melt every time. He's such an easy going, happy boy. All trucks and dinosaurs and cowboys. You would think being surrounded by princesses and barbies and butterflies he'd get sucked in. But he holds his own and keeps an even balance in the house. One day I found a barbie in the garbage can and I yelled, "Who threw this away??" He scowled and explained, "They left that dumb girl in my room!!!" He's just such a delight to us all. He loves to play rough and tough and wrestle with his dad, but then at bedtime he snuggles right up with a big hug and kiss.

It's so different being a mother to a boy. When the girls were born I was filled with joy at the thoughts of shopping and talking and friendship for life. But with Spencer it was almost a crazy feeling of panic from the moment I held him. I felt that every minute that passed was one minute closer to him leaving me. Someday he'll grow up and some "girl" is going to take him away from me. I hate her guts already!! It makes me sad, and it also makes me feel deeply indebted to my mother-in-law for letting me steal Matt away from her. Although, if she would like him back, we might be able to work out some sort of joint custody arrangement? Maybe during hunting season?? :) See?? I'm awful! Daughter-in-laws are awful!! They make mean jokes about their husband. What if some bratty girl who knows how to bat her eyes just right at Spencer, makes a mean joke about him someday? UGH!! Not only am I a mean DIL, I'm also going to be a Monster-in-law, aren't I??? No. I'm not. I'm going to get it together and spend the next 15 years coming to grips with the fact that it's not only okay, but it's wonderful for Spencer to grow up and leave his mom and be a great husband and father just like his dad. But maybe I'll start tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to read him a story and when he smiles at me, I'll just fall more madly in love with him. And then in the morning I'll think about growing up.




This last picture just made me laugh. He's trying to be very sneaky and lick the snowman while I take his picture, without me knowing.

K: Kinky

Of all the letters so far, this has been the hardest one for me. I have been completely stumped by "K". Until last night when inspiration struck. No, don't get ahead of yourselves. It was last night while checking the comments on my blog. A friend commented on yesterday's post: "Your posts are always so refreshing and wholesome." Like milk. So I thought, "Do I need to mix it up a little bit? Make sure my readers (all 3 of you) don't get bored?" So today I'm doing away with refreshing and wholesome and I'm going to tell you about a little weekend getaway that Matt and I took. It started out fairly innocent. But when we got to our destination our room was double booked as was the whole city due to the "Wizards & Turtles Fetish Convention" being held in our very hotel. Well, we had two choices: turn around and go back to the kids or...Nope. Just one choice. Long story short, one thing led to another and we found ourselves in the hotel ballroom picking out our wand and shell and...yada, yada, yada...we're now card carrying members of the WTF association. The nightmares and flashbacks only lasted a couple of years.

Now don't get used to this type of sharing. I think I'll probably stick with refreshing and wholesome. It's who I am. It's how I roll. It has to be. My mom reads this blog. But get me alone some time and get a couple of virgin jello shots in me, and who knows what will come out!

J: Just for fun

Yesterday after the kids got home from school I took them up to USU for an Easter Fair that I had seen advertised. The fair turned out to be quite a bit less than what we were anticipating, but Matt came and met us after work and we let the kids wander around campus for a while, Just for fun! Both of us having gone there for school, we love that campus and it was just really nice and relaxing to explore with no schedule or deadline. The kids seemed to love it and were quite impressed that "ALL of these buildings are one school!".

Sitting atop the famous "A". The kids thought it very gross what goes on there.
Claire on the balance beam.
Posing with the statue of the boy who found the severed hand. (10 points if you know the quote!)
They found a "tree fort"
Katniss, I mean Nicole, climbing a tree. (5 points for that source)
Another statue:

In this picture Matt is pointing across the island to the other bench, showing the kids where he grew up.
We ended the evening with Aggie Ice Cream. SOOOOO good!!!