Interpretation needed?

Caleb is currently rehearsing to be in his schools musical performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat. 

We've been listening to the songs a lot!!  I am convinced this explains my bizarre dream of the other night. 

Saturday was Duncan s baptism.  All I had to do before 3:00 was print the programs.  

I awoke from my dream in a sweat and had the programs printed by 7am.

In my dream, the time change had somehow had a glitch and we would be losing a day plus an hour.  There would be only one day this weekend and we were couseled to simply participate in Sat and Sun activities in one day to transition into the next week.  So now suddenly we had a baptism in the middle of church time.  How would I make the needed arrangements?  The pianist plays for primary, would she be able to duck out to play the songs for the baptism?  Would the other wards relief society mind us filling the font during their lesson? 

On top of all these new dilemmas I still needed to print the programs.  That seemed like something I could whip off and have off my mind.  I ran into my office to discover such a crowd of people lined up to use my printer.  There were children running amuck, a lady holding a duck, and in line ahead of me was a man with a large bowl of tater tots. 

I waited impatiently for my turn, fielding questions from strangers about where the stapler was, if there was a three hole punch and if their children could draw on the large school wipe erase board.  Finally only the tater tot man was ahead of me.  He slowly began to arrange his tots on the scanner screen in the shape of a banjo.  Then he hit print and a lovely banjo photo was printed out.  This was baffling me when the kid behind me poked me and said, "lady, it's your turn".   This was the first time I had noticed that in my hands I held a bag of cotton balls and some white stockings, not the program form I thought I was holding. 
Those behind me were voicing their upset that I was taking so long.  I was trying desperately to feed the stockings with the cotton balls in some special order into the printers paper slot.  The crowd was becoming more and more upset when Sarah came running into the office.  She seemed unfazed by the crowd of people as she was so distraught that her flute seemed to have vanished as she had opened her case.  Now what would she do, she was to play at the baptism.   The man who had placed the tater tots and printed a banjo suddenly was nearby again and he was cheerfully strumming his new banjo.  He casually suggested she try a bowl of cooked macaroni noodles in the shape of a flute. 

At this point I lost it.   I started shooing everyone out of the office ranting about tater tot banjos and macaroni flutes and just needing to print a simple program.  Could I just have quiet for a moment to figure out my cotton ball configuration?!?!  

That was when I awoke. 

Perhaps something would be lost in interpretation.  Perhaps I would rather not know.   I am just glad I was able to print alone in my office without incident. 

'Puffle'riffic

We were fortunate enough to celebrate Derek's birthday this weekend at our house!  The girls wanted to surprise him with decorations when he woke up on his birthday.  I wasn't sure if it was a ploy to stay up later or not, but I said it was fine.  Little did I know what they were up to.  I expected streamers and balloons.
The next morning I wasn't greeted with any balloons or streamers...  instead there were these creatures in strategic locations around the house. 

They are puffles.  Fortunately I know the lingo, so I already know what a puffle is, but it was the most frequently asked question throughout the day as guests and neighbours came over,

"What's a puffle?" 
~Oh, just a pet on the internet game club penguin.  Each colour represents an activity, typically what they like on the game. 

So today we are participating in 'puffle fun'.  Throughout the day we did an activity for each puffle the girls had made.

 We painted. 

We 'puffle' bowled.  We actually 'puffle' bowled more than a few times.  This was a definite, come back to game!  The girls had even designed puffle pins, and the stuffed puffles were the designated balls.

 We exercised, jump ropes, chinese skipping, trampoline, laps around the yard.  Puffles are very serious about staying in shape.... (round that is, hee hee)

We bubbled.  Once again, a come back to activity.  Whittaker went through three outfits thanks to his new love for bubbles... or I should say bubble solution. 

There were a few events I didn't manage to photograph; Bicycle riding to the school park, Derek's adventures in two wheeling, Basketball tournament, Awakening our dormant volcano so it could erupt for the scientific puffle!, and obviously some ClubPenguin Computer time to check out how the puffles liked the online Halloween extravaganza in Penguinland.... (I didn't photograph that since I opted out of it, they didn't need my help)

Thanks to a cooking blog I had read earlier in the week, I was prepared to tackle home made corn dogs.  They were a HIT!  I, the one who detests hot dogs and corn dogs approved them.  (Who knew a corn dog could be made with sausages, whole wheat flour, ground flax seed as well as oat and corn flour!)

As for dessert,  a party puffle was on the menu.  For the crowd size we also made a disco dance stage, because everyone knows that puffles love to get their boogie on.  

I decorated cakes while the party goers watched a movie (Megamind - not so puffle related, but a winner with a large crew of boys anyway)

We wound the days events down with best wishes for the birthday boy!

Happy 6th Derek.

Cheers!

There is something about summertime, water, boys, and creative imaginations.  At first they were trying to cause the water in each of their cups to collide in air to create one water mass... but it didn't take long for the activity to become a water- throwing - free - for - all!  I'm glad I captured their 'cheers' moment before they succumbed to the drowned rat state. 

Scouts 'r' us

I know, I know... more Scouts!!

Each summer the district has an end of summer event called the White Buffalo Stampede.  The district is called the 'white buffalo'.  It's an evening of games and fun, food and friends.  Caleb and the order of the arrow group was asked to be in charge of the tomahawk and axe throw activity.  That activity alone attracts boys from all over.   I know the boys I brought were all eager to stand in line over and over again to have three throws!

The rocket launch was another big hit.  The kids made decorated, pvc pipe rockets and then had a chance to launch them with a compressor as the turbo boosters.  I'm not sure which boys had more fun; the ones launching or the ones who watched the skies hoping to catch the falling rockets. 

My favourite activity was the portable miniature golf.  I took plenty of photos so there would be every angle necessary for Patrick and the boys to build me a set for my back yard!! 

Whittaker's favourite was the bean bag toss and perhaps the eating.  After a few minutes of bean bag, he would wander back to the table of goodies and find some more munchies. 

Caleb led a ceremony inducting in the newest arrow members into the district.  (The man appearing to be praying to the flag pole was simply filling in as the flag stand since we didn't have one.)  Calebs' responsibilities with scouting are keeping him extremely busy. 

About a week after the 'buffalo stampede', we had a wild, wet and wacky pack meeting.  It lived up to its' name.  It was wild, wet and wacky!  The cubmaster had filled over 200 water balloons.  The boys and most leaders came in their suits and had water squirters of many varieties.  It was an all out water fight!  Almost an hour solid of water play!   Everyone was drenched, including me who tried (unsuccessfully) to stay to the sidelines with the camera as my excuse!  The best toy of the night was the water balloon launcher.  They boys all lined up over and over again to attempt launching balloons at their leaders!

 Ok... so it's true there are some girls in the family... and believe it or not... they totally get to be involved in a lot of the scouting activities also.  They had a blast at the wet, wacky and wild activity and loved showing off their popsicle tongues!

Doesn't this just scream, "I love being a cub scout!"

I wish I had video of the scout activity we had in July!  We played a game of kickball-baseball.  It was a riot!  We played kids against adults.  The adults were laughing so hard we struggled to run to each base!  It was one of those great evenings where the weather and temperature was perfect, just kids and adults out in a huge open field for an hour playing and enjoying one another in such a relaxing and memorable way.  We ended the night with fudgcicles and some great jokes at Miles expense.  (everyone was laughing, especially Miles!)  For some reason his name became the center of attention and everyone was making puns...  How many miles to get home?  Just the one!... What do you call Miles when you visit Canada?  Kilometer? 

They had lots, I'm just terrible at remembering them.

If you think you're sick of hearing about scouting activities, imagine being in the midst of them.  Not to mention that these aren't all the scouting related activities that we're involved in these days.  I happen to be over the scouts in my ward as well, and that is a whole barrel of monkeys that I'm desperately trying to put back in their barrel!  (unsuccessfully thus far!)

Lofty goals

This summer we did our traveling early.  We were going to have half of June and all of July and August stretched out before us to fill with fun, simple, relaxing and lazy days of summer.  I fully intended to make a visit to a park a weekly event, and a splash park was a definite must.  We were going to go on picnics, fly kites, blow bubbles, make popsicles and make it a great memory making summer.

Well.. it's over.  We went to one park. (I never even got the summer tub down with the bubbles, skipping ropes and kites) Thankfully it was a great water park, but it wasn't until late August.  I'd like to blame it on the weather being uncharacteristically unsummerlike.  That only made the days better though.  They weren't scorchingly hot.  They were lovely.  They were also filled with so many other activities and now they are gone. 

I guess we'll have to make up for it with an incredible winter.  Hot Cocoa season here we come!!  (Now that, I know we won't miss!)

Horsin' around

A neighbour with horses invited the kids over one evening to ride for a few minutes.

Miles was the first to embark on the horse.  When asked if he wanted to be led or ride solo, he enthusiastically declared, "Solo!".   He hasn't really had much any riding experience so I was surprised he wasn't even a little bit nervous.  He did well.  (I think it was an experienced horse)  He had one problem when he didn't communicate well to the horse that he wanted to turn and the horse went up on the sidewalk and kept circling around the flag pole.  We had to lead him off the sidewalk and back to the parking lot where we were riding.  He definitely enjoyed the ride.

Next up was Duncan.  He opted for a lead rope, thank you very much.  He was too busy saying things like, "yippee", and "yahoo", and "giddyup", to pay enough attention to actually be in charge of anything riding related! 

I wasn't sure what would happen when we arrived at Cooper's turn.  As it turned out I happened to have the three kids for the day.  I wasn't certain when Channa was expected for pick up so I hadn't mentioned the possibility of a horse ride at all.  But as the time got closer and closer and we were walking out of the house, I casually mentioned that we were walking to a neighbours to ride horses.  I should have known better than to spring something like that on Cooper.  The entire walk of about 15 houses, he was letting me know in no uncertain terms that this was not a good idea of mine.

"Riding horses is serious business and he didn't think it was intended for children.  Do I have any idea the dangers that could happen if the horse moved too quickly or an inexperienced rider gave an incorrect command?"  

I assured him the best I could that I was confident that all would be well.

"He persisted that I couldn't possibly know if it would be safe before hand.  He for one wasn't getting on an unpredictable beast." (his words!!) 

Fortunately after watching the other boys successfully ride without incident he acquiesced that he wouldn't mind sitting on the horse.  He didn't agree to riding, only sitting.  Once in the saddle, he admitted that trying a slow walking pace would be alright with him as long as the man would stay with him the entire time.  

He enjoyed his ride and informed me that, 'it would be ok for Derek to ride even.' 

Good thing Cooper gave his seal of approval, because when Cooper was being lowered from the horse, a very excited and expecting Derek was fairly hopping into the saddle.  He didn't have any reservations about riding the horse!

He even took a page out of Duncan's book, and was calling 'yee haw' every few minutes.

Mackenzie surprised me by being a bit nervous.  She opted to be led instead of riding on her own.  She didn't feel the urge to yell anything excited, but instead had a slow walk around the parking lot. 

After she was finished, she said, "Horses are taller than I remember them."

Sarah finished off the evening with a great ride.  She has had equestrian lessons this last summer and was eager to show off her new skills.  The horse wasn't all that cooperative after so many kiddie rides. (another family was also there with us so there had been almost a dozen rides)  She also couldn't show us how well she'd learned to canter and trot since we were in the parking lot. 

She never climbs down from a ride without wishing that she had a horse of her own.  (We'd have to buy the property next door, and the barn across the canal... and win the lottery, and then hire a stable hand.  Sorry sweetie.  Next dream...)  I'm just pleased we have such friendly neighbours with horses.  It makes squashing her dreams less painful. 

Still the same underneath

Caleb is part of an organization within the Boy Scouts called the Order of the Arrow.  As such, he participates in performing graduation ceremonies for rank advancements and other important achievements.  He enjoys it.  I think I heard him say he likes getting dressed up, especially when he gets to wear the head dress with the horns. 

Whittaker decided that he REQUIRED a scout shirt for all the scouting functions we were attending.  He immediately runs to his closet if anyone puts on a scout shirt and grabs his.  He believes he is a scout of all troops.  However, he hadn't ever seen Caleb dressed for a ceremony before.  He was leery of this tall horned figure.  We did our best to assure him that it was just his buddy 'Lub' in a costume, he was still the same underneath.  He posed cautiously for the photo, but wouldn't let Caleb pick him up. 

Popular

About a month ago, as I was reading a blog of another individual who writes scintillating morsels on a variety of topics, he wrote about a time when a little bird pooped on him.  It reminded me of a time when a bird pooped on me, but that is a whole other blog.  My point is, he wrote about this bird pooping incident and went on to explain how it could be compared to people in essence pooping on you in the way they treat you, and that what really counts, the true measure of our being, is how we react.  (or at least that's what I got out of reading his morsel) So to lengthen this description out further, he went on to include this little you tube treasure.  

This however is not where my story ends.  

I watched the you tube treasure.  I laughed, I caught it's subtle cleverness.  I watched it again.  My children heard.  They watched.  They laughed.  They watched it again.... and again... and again.

We looked up the musical synopsis that said song was from.  We enjoyed it immensely.  We checked out the entire musical score from the library.  We listen in the car, in the kitchen, in the office... we listen to it! 

We looked up the closest location that was performing the broadway musical and gulped at the cost of ordering 6 tickets, traveling to another state and enjoying nose bleed seats to see the incredible show. 

We began to sing along to the songs. 

We sang a lot!

Apparently little ears were listening.  He really gets into it.  He even dressed himself.  (yes my swimsuit top is being adorned with pearls, and a necktie)  He sings the final line "just not as popular... as... ME!" with such gusto.  (of course his version sounds more like.... shus na pola sh MEEEEEE! with his arms outstretched for an added, 'je ne sais quoi')

 

I'm not sure if this is the best outfit for gaining popularity.  

Perhaps he thinks he's auditioning?  

Behind the Scenes

What to do when you find yourself stranded on a 75 mile stretch dirt, rocks and barren nothingness with 6 children.

Absolutely nothing.

Just sit back and enjoy the show.

It was a silent feature... although there were sound effects for those who watched it live so perhaps it was simply a scriptless feature. 

Please write a note Mum.

(Caleb should be careful what he asks me to do.)


To whom it may concern,

Caleb was more than 15 minutes tardy on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011 because there was confusion with his carpool.  He attends seminary at the West Jordan High school at 6:30 in the morning and walks two blocks to where the arranged meeting place is, to be picked up by his carpool.  He was at the designated location in plenty of time and waited 15 minutes after which time he jogged home, 1 1/2 miles.  He was tired, sweaty and very concerned about the time. The carpool had forgotten to come to the pick up area.  He arrived home at 8:00 am.  Fortunately, I had not left to run errands for the day and was able to load his siblings into the car quickly and I drove him to the high school 10 miles from home. However that takes time and he was indeed over 15 minutes late for school.  We are doing all that we can to arrange his transportation to school and thought we had it arranged.  We are still waiting and hoping to get a spot in the early morning seminary at Paradigm, but as time goes on it isn't looking promising.  We have spoken to the others involved in our carpool and are trying a new system that we hope will aid in avoiding this situation in the future. 

Sorry for the long note. (I'm new at this!  Homeschooled until this year)  Caleb is conscientious and extremely careful to be punctual in all areas of his life, and I know would not be tardy or absent if it was within his power to avoid it! 

I'm not sure if this qualifies as an excused absence or not, but now you can evaluate the reason for his absence and mark it accordingly.

Sincerely,

Calebs' mother

Both the good and the bad are worth remembering.  They both shape us into who we are.  We'll never forget the wonderful adventure of the geode hunt.  And to be certain that we don't we found another use for all those geodes we collected!

There weren't enough to write 'moments' in rocks.... just an M.  Miles was flattered that I would make an M for him.  

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Would you say he's showing an interest in pottying or just imitating his older brothers?

Slick!

Mummy, I promise, I didn't know that it would turn out this way.  

It just sort of happened.  I really tried not to enjoy the slippery, sliding fun.  

I just got this inkling to see what happens when I take out the full bottle of vegetable oil and remove the lid.  

 I guess I hadn't noticed that it was almost all gone.  You should be proud of me for noticing that my pajamas were coated in oil, so I took them off.  (By the way, they need to be washed... that's why I put them in the hamper with your clothes!)

If I put the lid back on, it will be all better.  Right?!?

(You can call me 'Slick') 

You do still think I'm cute, don't you?

 Clean up on aisle 2, Clean up on aisle 2

Wait, one of the cleaning crew is missing.

The one who used to get into such impish messes himself. 

 Perhaps all those messes he made when he was two were just to see if the clean up crew would be creative in their methods.  (He designed these 'oil spill on the kitchen floor, clean up shoes', entirely by himself)
 

 I give full marks for effort and efficiency!

I wonder if there is a big market for 'oil spill on the kitchen floor, clean up shoes'?
I do think market research would dictate a catchier name.

As for slick? 
He spent time in the corner after his bath and was given a harsh talking to regarding what he should and shouldn't help himself to in the kitchen.

All in all not a bad day.

A day that begins early with a quick breakfast and everyone cheerfully loading into the van, watching the sun rise behind us as we head west with great excitement propelling us to our destination, and an impulsive romp in a vast field of strikingly beautiful yellow sunflowers is bound to be a day fondly remembered. 

Even if after being on the road for almost 3 hours (took a small detour going the wrong direction) and knowing that we were less than 10 miles from our destination found us stopped in our tracks with a flat tire.  WAIT.. make that two flat tires.  Yes. We heard a sudden noise and discovered that simultaneously, both rear tires were going flat.  The drivers side was already completely flat, but the passenger side was still hissing as it slowly lost air.  Patrick located the hole and the kids took turns keeping their finger in it to keep it from going completely flat.  Not that a child's finger in the hole would make it drivable.  There was just some comfort in knowing that we could control it's loss of air.

When they weren't taking a turn keeping their finger in the hole, the kids and I decided to make it a lunch stop, but someone always stayed on the look out for any sign that assistance might be coming.  We had three cell phones with us.  No service had been detected for the last 45 miles and there wasn't any here either.   We had only seen one other vehicle on the road all morning and it was headed the opposite direction.

We hadn't even jacked up the van yet when a vehicle approaching was spotted.  Now this is a very flat area... and wisdom dictates that you travel slowly along the dirt roads.  You know to avoid flat tires... although sometimes... they happen anyway!  So, although we saw an approaching vehicle, it was almost five minutes before it slowed to a stop next to us.  A big brown pick up truck, and a young couple with their cute little dog 'Kirby', were heaven sent.

Not only did they have a screw driver that made using our jack even simpler, they had an old can of 'fix a flat'.  He said that he had just switched trucks and was surprised he'd tossed this in.  He'd never actually used it before but we could give it a try.  They stopped with us about 10 minutes until we were loaded back up and ready to roll.  We'd see them at the geode beds in just a few miles.  They said they'd be watching for us.  

Although it was only 7 miles to the geode beds, we took almost 45 minutes to get there. 

It is said that in this area, on a clear day, you can look out so far that you can see the curvature of the earth.  We could certainly see for miles and in the distance we noticed the salt flats.  Miles has been wanting to go see the Salt Flats ever since we watched the film, "The Fastest Indian" last spring.  Unfortunately, now, with our current predicament, we didn't dare add any more miles than necessary.  We still weren't positive if we were going to make it home without another incident.  I guess it just means we'll have to return again. 

We approached the 'pits', uncertain what we would face.  We had come in the hopes that we would  be able to successfully, within a short few hours, be able to dig and find a geode.  If all went well, one geode each!  The way the Dugway geode beds operate is that the owner uses his back hoe to dig for geodes.  He can obviously take what he wants from the large pit that he has created.  Then it is available to the general public, who wish to make the journey to the geode beds, to come search for geodes for themselves.  You may take as much as you can carry yourself and without using any tools other than simple hand tools.

I'm not certain what I expected the beds to look like when we arrived but I know I wasn't prepared for how easily the geodes would be to find!  There were discarded geodes and partial geodes all over the ground at the base of the pits.  The little boys searched through what seemed to be rubble finding treasure after treasure.  Their buckets were filling quickly.  The older folks still wanted the excitement of digging and finding a geode and of course hoped to find a large one.  We were not disappointed.

Whittaker even learned a few new words on our adventure.  Itty = Pretty, ocks = rocks and ucket = bucket.  He sat amongst the geodes picking up partial sections of geodes and marveling at the itty ocks, watching them sparkle in the sunlight for a few moments and then he would say, "itty ocks, ucket" and chuck them into the bucket.  We brought home many lovely pieces of broken geodes.

Cooper was also most impressed with the geodes that he found.  He was carefully looking for sparkly specimens.  He was choosing ones to take home for each member of his family.   He found what he needed within ten minutes and then began to ask how much longer we thought we'd be.  Once he realized we were here for a while, he gave up waiting for us and enjoyed the outdoor adventure looking for more geodes.  I learned after getting to the van that he had spent the rest of the hour looking for geodes, showing them to me and then throwing them away.  He only needed five thanks.  Also I learned that he thought we were nuts.
He said, "I only picked sparkly pretty geodes.  I think you guys picked some kind of ugly ones.  I hope they look better when you wash them."

He wasn't aware that what we had were whole unbroken geodes which held the sparkly beauty inside and not only would we be washing them, we would then be purposely breaking them open!  Our life would be so blah without Cooper.  I texted Channa that she couldn't have him back when she and the other kids returned from the east coast adventure they were on.  I even told Cooper that I texted her that.
He told me, "I will have to return to my family you know.  But I want to go on your next adventure with you." 

 "Hey Nova, I got a good one...!!"

 "... in my shoe."

I became concerned about my sanity when I first saw how deep the pits were.  I wondered if I would relax at all while we were there or if I'd be able to let Whittaker out of a safe arms distance at all.  No worries had been necessary.  It was like being in a massive sand box and although yes there were rocks at the base it didn't seem to be a problem.  The kids thought it was great to 'scale' the tall side of the pit and stand on top of the world.  It was like climbing sand, so it was a bit of a challenge but not scary at all.  Of course once they reached the top they were simply back on the ground near the van, so it wasn't the least bit exciting unless you only saw them from the bottom of the pit.  The pit was at least 25 feet deep and at least that across from one edge to the other.  This was only one of a dozen pits in the area.  It appeared to be one of the most recently dug though so we thought it looked most promising!

We had left home at 7am.  It had taken us until almost 1pm to arrive at the geode beds.  We had taken a 40 mile detour, stopped for gas and to smell the flowers.  

We left the geode beds by 3:30.  We knew we had a long drive ahead to get home and we had already eaten our food for lunch and depleted over 2/3 of our water.  We hadn't intended to eat dinner until we returned home.  Now we knew it would be a long drive with tired, and hungry children who were dirty, yet happy.  We limped along averaging 10-15 miles/hour for just over four hours before we reached a paved road.  It was another hour before we reached a gas station with air for the low tire.  We had managed to travel the entire 'old pony express road' from Dugway to Faust with only 10psi in the one tire and a spare on the other side.  Our drive home had found everyone a chance to nap, read, sing and discuss how blessed we had been.  I mentioned that we should say a prayer of thanks for our safety and good fortune of the day and said how if things hadn't happened so quickly during the flat tire fiasco, I would have recommended a prayer then also.  Sarah quietly said, "I already prayed.  And when I said 'amen', Miles yelled that he saw someone coming."  

Out of the mouths of babes... (meaning she is young and can still teach me... not that she is a good looking gal... although that she is as well!)

By almost 9pm we were snarfing down our Subway sandwiches.  We still had an hour to travel home from Tooele, but there was no need to drive that section with empty stomachs.  By 10:15, our adventure was over.  Five of the eight of us were sound asleep at home in their beds.  The others were unloading the van.  I took the opportunity to give the flat tire, that fell out when we opened the trunk, a nice hard kick for being so difficult.  

We never did see our angels in the big brown pick up truck at the geode beds.  And other than the other couple we dug with and the other family in the other pit, we only saw two other vehicles the whole day. 

Thankfully, Monday was a holiday and we took advantage of the day to repair tires on the van and crack open some much anticipated geodes.  There were a few duds... but most were very rewarding!  Even Cooper thought we had chosen some nice ones after all.