Sisters-in-Law ROCK!

So today I was at work and got a call from Sara asking if I was going to be home.  She wanted to drop off a book shelf that she was going to give me.  I told her I wouldn't be home until late afternoon.  She asked if she could just let herself in and of course I said sure.  So 4 hours later I arrive home and I walk in to find Sara and Jenn have totally redecorated my entire living room!   

IT IS BEAUTIFUL!  My poor old little room looks fabulous! I LOVE IT!  Sara is such a talented decorator!  I keep walking in and just sighing.  So nice to have a nice room in the house.  What a super surprise!  I felt like I was in a reality show!  Here are some pictures although they don't even come close to doing it justice.  

You should come on by for a visit.  Although you will be limited to this one room.  The rest of the house is a disaster!!  In fact it is so bad that although I appreciate Sara and Jenn I will now have to kill them.  It is that messy.  So, thanks girls!  You ROCK!     

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First day of school!   So here in Davis County we just started school today!  We technically had a summer that was 1-2 weeks longer than normal!  And let me tell you I could feel it.  My kids were out of control.  They wanted a late night every night.  They wanted to hang out every possible moment. They were already wearing out their school shoes...

I was SO ready for school!

This is year is unique because all of my kids are in school full-time!  Someone asked me if it was going to be hard to send them all off.  I laughed.  Are you kidding me?  How many years have I been looking forward to this day?  What will I do with all that wonderful time?  Dream come true, right?  Are you with me here?

So today I send the 2 oldest boys off on their way to the high school and the junior high. (No picture of Josh!  Brain not yet functioning that early in the morning.)

Then I take the 3 youngest down to school and walk them to their classes.  They are all greeting friends and talking excitedly.  Alex first into his 4th grade class, Jonathan upstairs to his 6th grade class.  They are pros! Backpacks in lockers, shake the teachers hand, find your desk, greet your friends with a high five, a shoulder bump or a head nod...  pros.  Joe's class is the furthest away from the front door.

We put the backpack in the locker, greet the teacher, find his desk and then the friends start to arrive.  He yells out his excited greetings.  So thrilled to be back at school.

I leave him in good hands and start to walk home.  And then it hits me.

Remember this?  This new 1st grader still calls me 'My love, my sweet, my darling, my princess!' What I realized is that the clock is ticking on that expression.  The clocking is ticking on all my young mother experiences.  It did make me a little wistful.

I spend so much time getting my children to the milestones that mark their lives just to pass it and think "Hold on now.  Let's slow down.  I don't know if I am ready for this."


Joe said it best as we walked into his classroom he tells me "Mom,  I am excited but kind of nervous."


I know buddy.  Me too.

So Summer is over in a matter of days over here in Davis County and it seems like just yesterday that we were wrapping up the end of the school year with...

Field Trips.  
Funny story.  I went on the field trip with Joe and his Kindergarten class.  I had 4 little boys that I was protecting and guarding while attending the very dangerous zoo.  The funny thing is that I had the Kindergarten full-time helper with me to help with one of the boys that is a bit difficult.  Then I had 2 mothers for whom this boy is their firstborn and they felt the need to drive to the zoo with all their younger children in tow and join us for the field trip.  So basically I was in charge of keeping 4 boys, 3 adults and 3 toddlers and 2 strollered babies all together so we could report back to the bus at the designated time.
What a FUN day.
Once again I realized that I was a horrible mother because I never drove to a field trip just to attend with my little ones.  I would go as a volunteer at times but never just as a tag a long.  The most pleasant part was when we sat down to eat our lunch.  (Again,  the school brought a lunch for everyone but the Mom's supplemented with treats from home)  So we starting talking and next thing I know I am the old lady giving advice.

"How did you get your kids to sleep through the night?"
"When do you find the time to get to the spa?"
"How best can I help my son adjust to 1st grade?"
"How old was your son before you first left the house without mascara and heels on?"

They were shocked to learn that I don't "request" teachers for my boys every year.  I just let them go where they are placed and adapt to their new teacher.  HORRIBLE!  I know.   (I did request NOT to get a teacher 1 year.)  (That's it, though) (And I felt so guilty about it that I agreed to be the PTA president in exchange)

So I start to see the problem the work place is having with their employee's MOTHERS coming in to complain about their hours or assignments or to get time off for them or raises!

Any who.. the point of this story was actually that I felt very OLD after this field trip.  Joe and I still had a great time and amazingly enough I got the other 3 boys back to the bus on time with our large support staff following us! 

Back to the end of the school year...

 Concerts: Josh

 Concerts: Aaron

 Awards Assembly: Alex (Perfect Attendance!)

 Last Day of School: Alex with Mrs. Williamson

 Jonathan with Mrs. Wigren

Joe with Mrs. Menlove.

Welcome Summer! 

We are so ready for this! 

2 Down 3 to Go!

So this last Sunday night was a fabulous night for the Rollins clan!

Josh and Aaron both received their Eagle Scout Awards at a fabulous court of honor.

They were lucky to have four of their good friends get their Eagles the same night so it was quite the party.

  Both of the boys were so excited and they talked about it well into the night.  They even made Dave dig out all his Scouting paraphernalia so they could see the "old" patches and pins.

Speaking of old.  Here are my two boys with a bunch of old guys who also happened to be Eagle Scouts.  B. Rad, Mark, Andrew, Paul, and Nate are pictured here with Dave and my boys.  We are missing Bryan and Mitch who were also Eagle Scouts.  We have a strong scouting tradition in both of our families.  My dad was a scouting enthusiast to put it mildly.  I am sure he is thrilled with his grandsons accomplishment.

It was a delightful night.  When you have 4 families involved you are able to do some fun things.  We had a fabulous video of all the boys in their scouting adventures.  

I loved the giant flag that we used as our backdrop for this event.  

We also had a fabulous Eagle presentation that the boys couldn't stop talking about. 

They got to be up close and personal with the Eagle who was named Liberty.  Josh claimed that it bruised his chest with its beak and Aaron said its wing bopped him on the nose.  These are the stories that I am sure will get bigger and better as time goes on. Someday I will hear them say remember at our Eagle Court of Honor when the Eagle attacked us and tried to peck out our eyes? 

Good Times.

Congrats boys! You pretty much rock!

A Day Off

Today Joe is home from school because of end of year Kindergarten testing.  He has been playing a very extensive game of make believe.

It all started with this line.. "Mom pretend you are a Grandma and I am your son."  OK.  He proceeded to go into the explanation that he has come over to give me a TV for Mother's Day. (Can you tell what Dave got his mother for MD?)

He then also proceeded to tell his wife that he didn't get her anything. (Hmmm. I wonder where he heard that one!!)

I yelled from the other room to get his wife a gift for heavens sake!

He bought her a football and proceeded to tell me she was playing on a women's football team.  I started  laughing and started asking more questions and got an entire family history from this little guy.   Here is my family in 25 years...

• Josh married a girl named Taia and they have 4 kids.  3 girls and 1 boy.  He is a police officer.  They live next door to me. Josh served a mission to Russia.  He graduated from a college in Greenland.? 
• Aaron married a girl named Savannah and they have 5 kids.  3 boys and 2 girls.  He makes movies.  They live next door to Joe and his wife.  Aaron went on a mission to Chicago and he graduated from BYU!  Savannah is a Primary President. 
• Jonathan married a girl named Taylor and they have 6 kids. 3 boys and 3 girls.  He is a computer guy.  They live in China and they don't speak English.  Jonathan went on his mission to Venezuela and went to the U.
• Alex married a girl named Hannah and they have 2 kids.  1 boy and 1 girl.  He is a zoo keeper.  They live in Texas.  But he comes and visits all day every day.  Alex went on a mission to Peru and he went to BYU. 
• Joe married a girl named Grace.  They have 2 boys named David and Andrew and 1 girl named Madison.  Grace is a doctor and Joe is a worker and he works next door to his dad, Dave and they go to lunch together everyday.  He took the day off today to be with me but Dad wouldn't.  (typical) Joe went on his mission to New York.  He graduated from BYU.  His wife went on a mission to Argentina and graduated from BYU.  They are pretty happy right now because they are going to have another baby soon. 
• Dave did take some time off from work to go on a mission with me to Africa.  We are very happy and we love go shopping together and buy flowers. (We hate shopping and we don't buy flower very often so things are obviously going to change.)   We also like to go out to dinner and go to church.

So that is my future according to Joe.  I can't believe how fast time has just flown by!  It seems like just yesterday they were all running around driving their mom insane!

All in all it sounds pretty nice except I don't really want Jonathan to live in China.  Maybe he is just there temporarily.  I miss him and his family.  It makes me a little sad that I don't see them very often.  I appreciate that Alex comes in from TX to see me every day.  All day.

So now you know what Joe does on his day off.

I gotta run.  I am suddenly interested in learning Chinese.

Day by Day.

So a good friend of mine "gently" reminded me that I should probably update my lonely blog.  I replied that I have nothing exciting to talk about.  However I must admit I am sick of seeing my big ole tree on my blog every time I come to my blog.  (It is strange because sometimes I visit my blog to see if someone has written something witty and interesting for me on my blog.  I am sometimes very annoyed nobody has updated it.  Is that strange?)  So I decided that I wouldn't look for something witty and interesting.  I will just write about what I did today.  No apologies for the past 4 months.  (OK I am really sorry). 

So today was an unusual day because today I spent a few hours doing genealogy. Yep today I got wrapped up in the world's 2nd most popular hobby (1st place goes to gardening, FYI).

 I was working with my mom on my dad's side of the family. She said "Wow, you have a lot of work to do on this side of the family."  Then she laughed wickedly because she is like that.   So here are some of the things that I noticed while working with my mom.

One observation to you people who are naming your kids made-up- funny- sounding- one- of- a- kind names.  Be warned. You are setting your child up for pure mockery.  Maybe not necessarily in his or her lifetime but eventually when their great-great-great-great grandchildren find them on FamilySearch.  They will laugh.  No disrespect to my ancestors but let me tell you.....

Nobody should be named Nimrod or Alethestan. Hello Nimrod! (Doesn't that sound insulting?) He does look a bit peeved.

 If you name your daughter Rassemine or  Henrietta nobody is going to use her name as a cute middle name.   Hey Henri!  She was pretty.

I hate to break it to you but Mads is ending with your son.  Here is old Mads now.  Guess what? He had a son named Mads so I lied.  It didn't end with your son.  It ended with your grandson.

Sophronia may be shortened to something cute but I can guarantee that Umpstead is not cute shortened in any way shape or form.  I mean really, Umpy?  Stead?  I guess you could go for Ted.

Speaking of Umpstead.  That poor man is so miss-named on FamilySearch.  Here are a few.  Umstead, Unstead, Upstead, Hempstead, Umpsteel, and my personal favorite Nimpstead. Poor guy.  That wouldn't have happened if his name was David.

Here are some of his children.  Have you ever noticed that people with unusual names usually opt for more traditional names for their children.  Here are Umpstead's children's names, Caroline, James, Mary, John, Peter, Abram, Elizabeth, William, Benjamin, Joseph, Emma, Ammon, Thomas.  Not a strange name in the bunch.   Ok Abram is strange.  But he was my great grandfather so back off.

So that is what I did today.  What did you do?