Aida

I went to see Aida on Saturday with my family. It was so wonderful! This is the second time this summer I've fallen in love with a musical I haven't seen before. I've always loved old musicals: Singing in the Rain, Kiss Me Kate, Sound of Music....etc, etc. But what fun is it to find new music and shows to love. Especially in this age we live in where so much of what is produced is just "smut and corruption" ;). My favorite newer musicals are Wicked, Secret Garden and now Aida. I guess I'm counting Phantom and Les Mis with my older set of loves because I've loved their music since I was at least in Junior High.

Anyway, I'm kind of getting on a musical kick again, after being a little absent for a few years. What shows do you love? If you don't love musicals I feel for you...

Anyway, if you can go see Aida at Tuachan this next month or so...GO! I've never seen it before, but thought it was so well done and well suited for the setting. Tip of the day: Don't wear long sleeves or pants...it's still over 90 degrees down there right now, even when the sun goes down!

Latest On The Fire

Hey everyone, I just got back from New Harmony at this morning. Here is what I witnessed the past couple of days:

Saturday Night:

I arrived after all the major drama, including a fire wall that was around 200 yards from my parents house. When I got there it was dark. At that time there were over 100 trucks in the town and I could see about 20 of them on the west side of our property. In fact we had a truck and hoses all over our property on 325 n. just north of the main town. The shots Kristy posted were taken as soon as I got to our house. They were taken west and south looking at the mountain. We stayed up until about 1:00 am that night making sure to watch for hot spots.

Sunday

When we woke we saw the smoke settle down and surprisingly all of the houses on the mountain were saved, the fire burned all the vegetation right up to their foundations. You could see damage to the exterior of some of the houses, but the structures looked in tact. We couldn't believe our eyes, from what it looked like through the night we thought those homes were lost for sure. There were a lot of brave firefighters who deserve some recognition for saving those homes. The big tankers flew in as the wind died down in the morning and we sat on our porch and watched them dump thousands of gallons of fire retardant on what was left of the mountain. From our view the massive amounts of water and retardant being poured on the mountain looked like a few drops sprinkled on a camp fire. It made me wonder if it was even worth them doing what they were doing. We watched the fire rise up to the top of the mountain and by the evening the fire had peaked. That night it stared back down the mountain. As we watched the flames consume whole valleys and flames that must have been over 500 feet tall come back down the mountain we became alarmed and started packing up our stuff to be ready if an evacuation was called for.

Monday:

When we woke the fire fighters had held the fire from reaching the town again. The category one team was ready to take over, and the mountain was covered in smoke. I couldn't tell where the fire was, I couldn't see many flames. The smoke in the valley was not too bad, and I am not sure how much of it will remain in the houses due to the perpetual campfire smell both in and out of our house.

I have to many photos to post, so I am going to post them tomorrow on a gallery which at that time I will include a link. Mom and Mel are still there and I am sure Mom will keep us posted when she gets her computer back up. Feel free to call me with any questions.

Thanks,

Joey

The War Zone

Joe took this picture last night. It looks to me like it's the road right off my in laws property. I think it's considerably calmer tonight...that's what they are telling me anyway, but maybe they are just saying that because I haven't seen my hubby for over 24 hours and they don't want me to worry :o)

More pictures probably to come. Joe said he got some really cool ones tonight.

Safe for now

My in laws live in New Harmony. The have had a managed burn on the mountain burning for about a month. Last night it went out of control. At least three, maybe up to 7 or 8 homes have burned to the ground. My in laws are safe for now. This was the image from their home last night. Joe is out there right now with his parents doing what they can. The wind has picked up again today and so we're still praying everyone stays safe. Please keep them in your prayers.

If you are looking for some FUN...

Hey all - just wanted to make you aware of a really FUN event going on in September. It is called the Apple Fest and it will be happening in Fillmore on September 18 and 19th. I took my kids last year and it was such a blast! On top of it all, it's for a really good cause. Any money they make will be donated to Primary Children's Hospital. If you want more information they have a blog at roperapplefest.blogspot.com that outlines all the information. For my Cedar friends Fillmore is only a 90 minute drive from here and it was well worth it!

I unfortunately will not be able to attend as we have a prior reservation to attend Melon Days in Green River and all the family will be there this year :) But I did want to let my blog readers know just in case any of you have the chance to attend. I think it's well worth supporting!

My little Florence Nightengale

So Monday I don't know what happened...but I got SICK! We went to Joey's office after daycare to pick him up for FHE. He recently got a new office so we went up to see it. Joe asked if I was OK and I kept saying I just didn't feel good. I thought it was because I just hadn't eaten enough for lunch (pork ribs weren't sounding good so I stuck to the veggie and bread route...) I thought I'd be fine as soon as we got something to eat. Couldn't wait that long as I lost it just outside the building. I felt better for a bit and we went to the Pastry Pub for dinner. I had half a veggie sandwich and a sprite, but it still wasn't sitting well. We went to the park and sure enough....lost my dinner right next to the playground. My apologies to the lady that was sitting there with her baby...I tried to make it to the bathroom, but it wasn't happening. Then I couldn't stop sneezing (I think the veggies irritated my allergies...). We dropped Joe back off (he had some more work to do) and I headed home. I don't know what the deal was, but I didn't get two blocks down the road before I had to pull over AGAIN! I got home, put a movie on for the kids, took half a unisom, a zrytec and some water. Couldn't keep that down either. I took a bath and was fine, but as soon as I stood up I was sick again. I finally gave up and just layed down.

Kelley was the sweetest little thing all night. She kept coming to check on me, asking if she could get anything and was the best little nurse I could ask for. I couldn't get a hold of Joey at work because his phone hasn't been moved since he has. So she was it. She told me "Momma...if in the morning you aren't feeling good and just want to lay down, just let me know and I can handle the daycare kids until Misty gets here." She also put Tyler to bed for me (story and all!) and picked up the living room for me. She got me water, a hair band, a cold washcloth, the thermometer, tissues and tums. Then this morning about 6:30 AM she came in to see how I was feeling (much better thanks!) I couldn't have got better care if I had paid for it!

Big thanks also to my brother, who ran to the store to get some noodle soup and tylenol for me. Also to my dear hubby who didn't get home until LATE and then had to put away laundry and make the bed as I had been totally unable to do so. You are the best!

So we let Kelley come with us to the ultrasound yesterday and she told the tech "I'm tired because I didn't get to bed until really late last night. I had to take care of my mommy and clean the living room." That sounds a little strange not knowing the backstory ;)

The saddest part of the story is this...I think I must have been "sick" sick (as opposed to baby sick) because Kelley did the same thing all night tonight. Poor thing! She had been invited to a "late night fancy nancy" party and everything. I felt so bad for her! Hopefully she recovers quickly and is fine in the morning.

And it's a....

Baby! Whew! No we didn't find out what it was...true to our plans! I was a little worried Joey would sabatage it and change his mind last minute. I decided a long time ago it would be fun to be surprised in the delivery room. Never wanted to do that before, but now we have one of each...what fun! Joey didn't want to do it that way, but he had agreed to do it because I wanted to. A few weeks ago though he said he wanted to talk to the ultrasound tech "alone" after we were done. Well that didn't fly...he can't know if I don't! So I thought he might pressure me into it in the room, but he didn't. However we both came out of there thinking it was the same thing (which we won't disclose at this time). So won't it be funny if we are both wrong in December! What is funny is yesterday I started to have second thoughts....if Joey would have tried to change my mind today, he probably could have. Oh well!

While we are talking baby news...I just have to say I am SO happy...I haven't gained any weight in at least four months! I gained like 5 pounds the first month and then have stayed steady at just 2 pounds less than that since then. Thanks heavens! I know you are supposed to gain weight during pregnancy, but I gained enough BEFORE I got pregnant to last me for a little while! Don't get me wrong, my belly is growing, but apparently nothing else is for now ;)

Tyler's Life

Best buds!

Tyler at the Gateway Fountains. He had a blast and LOVED it when they went from mild squirting fountains to the big jets!

Tyler is a ball of fire. I have a hard time knowing whether to kill him or kiss him to death sometimes. He has this little sneaky streak sometimes. Like today for instance I found him under the table with a thing of yogurt. So at my house I always have to have the kids ask before they get something, because I can't have 10 kids getting whatever they want out of the fridge whenever they want. So with the yogurt...do I take it as defiance or independence? He wants a glass of milk...he gets one...but quietly while he knows I'm busy with something else. He is getting better at asking most of the time, but not always.

He also has this thing with my erasers and white out pens. If he finds one, he destroys it in two seconds flat. Several months ago I found him with our new batch of pencils...all of the erasers chewed off. He did it again to just a few of them a few weeks ago at which point I threatened him with his life. So I finally just threw in the towel and bought one of those big pink erasers so I could actually use the pencils I have. I left that thing on the couch for seriously two minutes and I come back to it half chewed up! AHHHHHH! He has done the same thing with every single one of the white out pens I have. He finds them and first thing...does he try to write with it, see what it does? No....he pulls the tape out so it's totally unfixable and useless. And it's always when they are brand new. It can be hiding in my desk drawer in the office or buried under all the pens in the pen holder on the counter, totally out of his way. But he still finds a ways to destroy it. It's just a little thing...but it is so irritating sometimes.

He is very sweet though as well. He LOVES "raspberries" and will bare his tummy whenever he thinks about it because bare tummies get raspberries (blowing hard on bare skin). He gets yesterday and tomorrow mixed up all the time. His new way of telling me he has to go potty is "My tummy feel me hurt". If I'm asking him to do something and I repeat the request he will emphatically tell me " I NAM!" He's picked up on Kelley's phrase "I want you mommy" when he's tired or sad. Yesterday it was really cute because he said that, but then added "I want you with my pooh bear blanket" and ran to get it before I picked him up. Yes, he's still attached to that blanket, although not past the point of no return I don't think. He can hold it together if it's in the wash for the night or something, but he does love it. Anyway, he likes to bring the blanket to me and have me lay it over my shoulder while he lays on it...especially in the mornings when he first gets up. I love that about him. And I think we have finally broken him of the habit of crawling into bed with us in the middle of the night!!!!! We would almost get there and then he'd get sick or something and it was just easier to let him sleep with us. But it's been a week or more that he's been in his own bed all night. If he does come in the middle of the night, I just send him to the potty and back to his own bed and he goes without a fuss!

"Can't" and "Don't Want to" are two different things...

This is a phrase I often tell Tyler when he says "I can't!!!" in response to a request (eat your dinner, go potty, clean up time, etc).  The other day someone was screaming and I thought "I can't deal with this!"  It suddenly came to me that "can't" and "don't want to" are different and I could deal with it...although I didn't want to.  Oh to be the perfect parent in the perfect world where this doesn't happen like every day...

In a related thing I think "want to" and "should" are also two different issues.  Do you ever just "want to..." (loose your cool, make a really snarky comment you know you shouldn't, etc)?  Joe shared this with our whole Sunday School apparently while I wasn't there last Sunday...so I'll share my version here.

 Almost two weeks ago we were in SLC for the Oquirhh Temple open house.  We had stayed Friday at a hotel.  We had a good breakfast, but took our time getting out of there.  We headed over to the Gateway Shopping Center and spent a few hours there.  About 3 PM we decided to go to Olive Garden before the open house (5:30 PM).  I knew where it was, but Joe didn't really want to go there because it was a little out of the way.  So trying to be helpful I suggested we could just head out towards the temple and see if we could find one in that area.  Well, we couldn't find one and by the time we stopped and looked at a phone book, it was really too late to go eat there anyway.  By this time I was getting a little annoyed, but it was my fault really for suggesting we just take our chances driving around SLC.  We ended up getting corn dogs for the kids, but I passed on that option and we made it to our temple tour on time.  By the time we got out of the temple though I was really quite mad.  I was mad that things didn't go like I wanted.  I hadn't eaten ANYTHING since about 9 AM that morning and I really just wanted to explode.  I wanted to loose it and just be upset because it hadn't worked out.  But I knew it would get "ugly".  Joey hadn't eaten anything either and he gets really on edge when that happens.  So I chose to do what I "should" do instead of what I "wanted" to do and didn't explode, although I felt a little silly at one point when I started crying over the whole food issue.  But it worked out just fine.  We finally got something to eat and were able to talk about stuff in a civil manner.  

Unfortunately however I too often let my emotions rule and do just what I want to do or what my gut reaction to something is.  You know what is funny is I felt like I was more in control when I was working full time.  I actually thought it might get better when I quit because I thought that I would just have one arena to kind of manage (my home).  But now that I am with my kids all the time I feel so much more short tempered.  It's been a good lesson in self evaluation, but kind of a painful one.  Such is life I suppose.

Really?

I read this article today about an editorial put out by the SL Trib.  The writer suggests that anyone with three or more children should be taxed at a higher rate to pay for education costs.  Something was also said about a study indicating families with more children have a higher carbon footprint.  Hmmm.  

I see so many things wrong with the logic of that that I don't even know where to start.  First of all let me start with one that may not affect most of us...how about adoption?  Some families adopt because they can't have children, but many adopt because they want to help.  So if you decide to adopt a sibling group of 5 kids (heaven bless you!) then you would be bumped into a higher tax bracket.  Some people want to provide a good home for children that otherwise may not have one.  So along with taking on the cost for their care (any help you might get would be minimal), increase in your bills, their higher education, etc.  you want to punish them for that?  

So you have to pay for the education of children.  Well, I think if you looked at the numbers you would probably find that Utah has one of the most educated populations in the nation (secondary education, people that speak foreign languages, etc).  Education is one of those things that a society gets paid back eventually.  So you invest in these young children and they are going to grow up, maybe go to school, get careers and serve society for the greater good.  I'm not sure what the situation is like now, but I know before the major recession hit Utah had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation.  Which meant that people were working, they were giving back. They were repaying society as it were for educating them.  Education is an investment in the future.  Yes, Utah has always struggled having enough money for it.  My dad has been a teacher for 20 years.  I know how it goes.  There just is not enough money to go around.  But we have dedicated people in Utah who want to make a difference.  We have fathers and mothers of large families that teach for pennies because they know the value of it.  Your going to end up taxing the teachers, the law enforcement officers, the social workers that are barely making a living as it is.

To the carbon footprint...I don't know, maybe that's true.  But from personal experience I will tell you that since I've started the daycare and had more kids in my home, I have been a lot more concerned about my carbon footprint.  It's not so easy to ignore when you are producing two or three times the amount of garbage each week.  So since I've started the daycare I've started recycling and composting.  I've switched to (mostly) reuseable shopping bags and reuse as many materials as I can with the kids.  We talk about recycling and things we can do to be nicer to the earth.  Maybe not all busy moms take the effort to worry about it, but I'll tell you what, people with or without kids don't worry about it.  When we lived in Logan they had an optional recycling program.  You could pay I think $6 extra a month to have a recycling bin, just like your trash can.  All you had to do was throw your recyclables in the bin (you didn't even have to sort them) and they picked them up twice a month.  You could recycle ALMOST anything with the exception of glass and it was SO easy.  We gladly signed up for the program.  Well they decided to make it mandatory, but increased the fees for everyone only $3 a month.  People pitched a fit!  I don't have any way to know what type of people pitched the fit (people with families or not...) but I think that's beside the point.  A lot of people in AMERICA (because we are such a consuming type of a nation) have a large carbon footprint and we could all do a little more.  

I skimmed through some of the comments on the article on KSL and was quite surprised.  Many people actually agree with him and there were actually a lot of really (what I felt) were ignorant comments on the subject.  What do you think?

Big Changes

Just when you think your getting good at something...

In the last two days we have:  sold the motorbike, bought our neighbor's car, Joey shaved his goatee and was called into the bishopric.

First to the second most significant: Joey has shaved his goatee.  I am so sad.  I love it and have always wanted him to keep it when he talks about shaving it off.  But he felt it was the thing to do.  No one had said anything to him about it (that knew about the calling), but I guess the bishopric had bets going as to whether or not he'd shave it today.  He does look younger though.  

Next:  He was called into the Bishopric of our ward as the second counselor.  We found out a week and a half ago and let me tell you...not fun to keep a secret like that for that long!  He was sustained and set apart today.  As much as this was a surprise for us, he is really excited to serve.  Joe has a great love for people and a desire to do the best he can.  The Lord will just have to fill in the rest and we'll have a lot to learn together as we go through this.  Joey has been the scout master for a little over two years and has loved that calling.  He has done a lot of training for it and has recently really felt like he had the vision and was doing all he could.  Well I guess when the Lord figures you've learned what you could he decides to mix things up a bit :)  You would think you'd feel prepared for something like this.  But we don't.  I think it will be a huge blessing for us however and am excited to watch as we are taught and guided.

I do have to say though...it was really funny.  The last second counselor is our very next door neighbor.  A few months ago he got a job in Michigan and they decided to move.  The first thing I thought was: Joey's going to get called into the bishopric.  That was followed by...yeah right!  It was really a spiritual prompting or anything, but it wasn't a total shock when Joey got a call from the Stake Presidency and they asked him to come in...with his wife!

I am not so very excited about sitting in church by myself.  Kelley will be fine, but Tyler is my little monster boy.  Oh I hope he settles down a bit before the baby comes...

As far as the busy factor, I actually don't think it will be worse than having him in Scouts.  Seriously...he had meetings on Sundays probably only once or twice a month, but also was gone every Tuesday, the first Thursday of every month and one or two weekends a month.  That didn't include things like Scout Camp and flags and Woodbadge training.  I was already a Scout Widow, I can't imagine the bishopric will be much worse.  Although I think Sundays might get a little lonely for me.  But that also could be an opportunity.  Instead of lazing around my house all day like we normally do, maybe I'll have to find some kind of service or something I can do with the kids.  Hmmm....

Oh and I did the look-alike meters for both our kids.  It said they both look equally like both of us.  I thought that was pretty funny, but I'm not really surprised.  People are always telling us that they look like one or the other of us, but it just really varies which child they connect with who.  Also, one day I'll post some of our baby pictures online.  We actually have a lot in common as kids as well.  Funny stuff.