I'll tell you the story of Jimmy Jet--

And you know what I tell you is true.
He loved to watch his TV set
Almost as much as you....
He watched till his eyes were frozen wide.
And his bottom turned into a chair.
And his chin turned into a tuning dial.
And antennae grew out of his hair.

That is part of a poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends. It perfectly describes the scene at our house this weekend.

Our TV arrived Friday afternoon in perfect condition. Mark's dad kindly came and installed an outlet behind the TV on the wall so I don't see wires coming down from the TV. We hooked it all up, and it was beautiful. Except Mark was on a boy scout backpack trip and wasn't here to see it. I thought it would be best if we waited for the Blu-ray experience until Mark got home so he could see it with us for the first time, and see the kids's reaction to it.

So Friday night I told the kids we could watch a regular DVD on the big screen, but we would have to save the Netflix Blu-Rays until Mark got home Saturday. I asked which one they wanted to watch. Of all the dozens of DVDs we have, they picked School House Rock. I love my kids. We watched the top 10, and then Jimmy Neutron Rescue Jet Fusion, and went to bed.

Mark came home, and we watched Planet Earth for a while. I have never seen high definition, and I was stunned. It was so incredible. Joel kept saying it looked fake it was so real. Really, really amazing. We watched our 3 Netflix movies all in a row--Waterhorse, Spiderman, and I Am Legend. Wow! I loved I Am Legend. Great story. Mostly I loved every piece of furniture in his house. Now we will mail the movies back tomorrow and get 3 more Wednesday.

My favorite part of this whole thing was when the delivery driver came up to the door and asked me if my mom or dad was home. I told him I was the mom, and he was very embarrased. I was beginning to think I was looking older these days. People are starting to guess I'm 25-27, which is up from the guess of 21 I was stuck at for about a decade. I'll be 36 in just 2 months!

Edward vs. Jacob

I have long held the opinion that the only books worth reading (other than history/biographies and To Kill a Mockingbird) were books with dead authors. Lots of brain candy books have been written in my lifetime, great action adventure stories, but they are just that---stories. Not much deep in symbolism, metaphor, or literary value. A recent reading experience intensified my long-held belief about dead authors.

Many of Mark's cousins were raving about the Twilight books last year. I had to find out just what made this vampire/human love story so enthralling. I needed an easy read, and so I bought the three books. Eagerly I started reading the first one, and I just couldn't get into the writing. Blah blah blah. Boring boring boring. Terrible writing. I adore Mark's cousins, and I did find the storyline interesting, so I kept reading. I wanted to belong to the group of Twilight lovers. I suffered through to the end. The last chase/ballet studio part I will admit had me hooked. But overall, I just didn't get into the story. I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't love it. It was OK. A really interesting story/idea/plot. The writing just left much to be desired.

I realize that many of you think that Charles Dickens leaves much to be desired--although he is my fave.

I just couldn't crack open the next 2 books. However, Aubrey read all three of them and liked them. I do understand that these books were written for a teen audience, so I try to keep that in mind as I try to convince myself to read the next one. I don't think that will ever happen. I will watch the movie when it comes out this December. I think that the story will make a really good movie. Our friend was very involved with the filming of about 25 scenes, and we got to go walk the sets during filming. I don't expect much chemistry between Edward and Bella in the movie, though. According to our friend, there wasn't much there. Mostly what Kristin Stewart did was pout and sit in her trailer.

Abram was given a list of authors to choose 2 books from for summer reading for his pre-AP english class this fall. Out of 12 authors, only 2 are dead. Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Abram picked Charles Dickens. Good boy. I'm starting him off with A Tale of Two Cities and Oliver Twist.

On the live-author good side, I read These Is My Words on the recommendation of Mark's cousin, the beautiful and amazing Allison. I read this book on the plane to and from Belize, and I really, really liked it. I am sure there are more good fiction books by living authors, but I will mainly stick to the dead ones still. And yet, Harper Lee, you are a genius. David McCullough to also belongs on the short list of living author geniuses. 1776 anyone?

a funny moment

Joel kills me. Really I don't know anyone with a quicker wit than Joel. This occurred in our kitchen tonight while getting dinner ready:

Jake: Mom, can I make some pink lemonade for dinner?
Me: Sure, Jake.
Jake (looking in the cupboard where we keep the pitchers): Mom, I can't find the big one.
Me (seeing the pitcher sitting on the counter right behind him): It's right there.
Jake: It's not in here, Mom. I can't see it. Where is it?
Me: On the counter.
Jake (looking at the counter directly over the cupboard): No, it's not here.
Joel (pointing to the counter behind Jake): Jake, that's the problem. I don't think you are looking at the BIG PITCHER!

Abram

Abram is such a good kid. He went out today to weed-eat in the back 40 just to be nice. Actually, he is working on his muscles and farmer's tan, and this was a good way to work on both of those, and get a trail blazed around the property. He cut down all the grass and weeds in the orchard just to make it look better, too. Such a nice boy. He is just genuinely so sweet, and does whatever he sees that needs to be done.

Abram loves to play basketball with Zack. Mostly he ends up chasing the ball for Zack, but he still has fun with him. Zacky LOVES Abram. He snuggles up to him whenever he can, and he loves to help Abram practice the piano.

Abram got the "Principal's Award" at his 8th grade recongnition night. He wore a very cool outfit, complete with a great hat. When he walked into his classroom that night, his teacher said, "Abram, the High School Musical 3 auditions are in Salt Lake City." The chicks liked his hat that night, which is what it was all about.

Bad Luck Charm, part 2

I really wasn't kidding when I wrote my blog post about how bizarrely common it is for me to buy something that is broken, missing parts, or otherwise needs to be returned.

Our TV has been dying for about 7 months. Around Thanksgiving time we started to have to hit the TV to get it to work when we first turned it on each day. Then it would work pretty well for the rest of the day. By Christmas, it was a little more frequently that we needed to hit the TV, as it would black out at random times throughout the day. By April, you got a regular Tae-Bo workout by getting the TV to work. But it would always come on eventually. We looked at LCD tvs last December, but I knew how much they were coming down in price, and I wanted to get as much use out of our 9-year-old set as possible before buying a new one. Yes, we are the only family in the country with one television set.

Well, the old set finally died. So about 2 weeks ago, Mark and I sat down and ordered a new LCD tv from Crutchfield. Not only are they the most highly-regarded online seller of electronics, they also had the lowest price for our television. We were told it would be here in 5-7 days. That is, 5-7 days for a normal human being. I am the perpetual girl walking under ladders, spilling salt, and meeting black cats wherever I go, so I knew it would be a little bit longer. But I could not imagine what would follow.

I was given a phone number of the local office of the freight company that would deliver the tv. I called them after 5 days, and they told me that the tv would arrive in town no later than June 19th, and we should expect a call that day to schedule delivery on the 20th. That was good news for our TV-starved kids.

Nobody called on the 19th, so I called late that afternoon. The guy told me that he was really sorry, but they had "lost" our TV somewhere between Virginia and Columbus, Ohio. By "lost" he meant it had been likely stolen somewhere along the line. They notified Crutchfield, who shipped out a new TV on the 20th.

On the afternoon of the 21st, I got a call from the freight company that they had indeed found the TV, and it was ready for delivery. They said they would be here first thing today (monday) morning. This was VERY good news for our kids. One TV here, and a back-up replacement on its way already.

The delivery guys came this morning. I expected to see a guy with a very big box on the porch. Instead, it was a very big guy with a clipboard, and a funny look on his face. "Ma'am, I want to show you something in the truck." This box had been punctured so bad that it left 2 dings in the back of the TV. The box was completely mangled. Did I want to accept it anyway? Not a chance. Joel was tearing up as I came back into the house and told him that we weren't getting our TV today.

Supposedly, the new one is going to be in town on Friday, and set up for Saturday delivery. That's the plan for now. What else could go wrong?

Mark

I finally have a picture of him to post here. He is the greatest dad to our kids. I love him so much and am so grateful for him being such a fun, loving, hard-working husband. Nobody can make me laugh like Mark. He spends so much time with the kids. People tell me I'm lucky that he is so good with kids. But my dad was the same way, so that's what I was looking for!

He took 6 of our 7 kids backpacking a couple of weekends ago. When Mark backpacks he goes light, but he does save room for his EOS 5D and 70-200mm lens. You never know what you might see to take pictures of! He took some really great ones of the kids on their trip.

Here's Aubrey all outfitted. She is so dang adorable. Breakfast consisted of Cinnabons and hot chocolate.

Joel by the Salmon RiverNoah is the world's best packpacker and hiker. 100% endurance. 110% energy. 200% enthusiastic.Savanna did a great job on her first backpack adventure. Her pack looks big, but it was very light.

Jake with his gear.AbramZack and I had a good time by ourselves that night. He's such a crazy, fun, snuggly boy.

Happy Birthday, Noah!

This little dude is 7. I say little dude, because he is the only one of my kids to ever weigh in at under 8 pounds. He was 7 lbs 12 oz when he was born, which was more than 2 pounds lighter than Joel had been 2 years before. Noah was an easy delivery.

He has pretty much been easy from the day he was born. He would eat anything, sleep anytime, go anywhere. He was just such a happy baby. He started climbing as soon as he could crawl. He loves to climb, and will do so whenever an opportunity presents itself. When I buy new pants for Noah, I immediately iron some patches onto the inside knee of his pants. He eventually wears through the patches, but it gets us a couple months more wear out of the pants.

For Noah's birthday he got a great toy--the Evel and Robbie Knievel stunt set. Oh, yeah. This is the same wind-up motorcyle jump toy that we had when I was young. Those were the days. When he got it out and started cranking, the sound of it took me back to 1977 all over again. Mark couldn't believe it when we got the toy out of the box. He was having flashbacks, too to the boy across the street who had one of these toys and never let Mark play with it. Everyone wanted one of these back then. And everyone should want one now. A few good cranks can send Evel and Robbie across the entire basement over jumps and crashing through blocks. It's fun for the whole family!

Savanna is 5!

We had a fun birthday for Savanna a couple of weeks ago. I'm slow at getting pictures off of the memory card, but I finally got around to it. She was very excited to get a new big girl pink backpack for school (and for packing full of random little things she finds around the house).

Savanna is so much fun to have around. She is such a good singer and dancer it freaks me out sometimes. She's got the moves.

Her newest skill is hula. She picked up a hula hoop on Thursday, and at first she would sort of just drop it and shake her booty in the middle of the circle while it fell to the ground. Within 10 minutes she had it figured out. She can now just stand there forever doing her perfect little wiggle and keep the hula hoop going for minutes at a time. It is so cute! She also likes to walk around the patio while doing the hula. I am amazed. We watched Mr. Rogers do a hula hoop several weeks ago. I was sure that if he could do it, I could, too. Sadly, Mr. Rogers is a much better hula-hooper than I am. When physical dexterity is involved, you can pretty much just count me out.

Got milk?

We drink a lot of milk in our house. I go to Costco about once a week and buy 12 gallons of milk. That lasts us a week. The good thing about Costco milk is it is always consistenly delicious--no strange tastes that grocery store milk sometimes has. The best thing about Costco milk is it is $1 or more cheaper per gallon. This saves us a lot of money. The worst thing about Costco milk WAS the cardboard boxes. They have to be broken down and put in the recyling--just one extra job I have to do when I get home. As if bringing 12 gallons of milk into the house wasn't enough work.

I went tonight for my weekly Costco run. I was astounded to see a completely new package for the milk. There are no more boxes. The gallons are now taller, more square, and in more opaque jugs. 2 jugs bound together by recyclable plastic. And a new freshness seal under the lid!

I am very happy about the new Costco milk packages. I was hoping the new shape of the bottles would let me get 12 rather than only 10 gallons on one shelf in my fridge. Still only 10--but my recyling rollcart is going to be much emptier each week. We usually put out 155 gallons of recyling on garbage day. I am curious how the no-milk-box thing is going to affect that.

Savanna will no longer be able to make her milk-box robot girl after the Costco trip--and before the recyling bin. She used to put one box on each limb, one box around her torso, and one on her head and walk around the house saying, "I am a ro-bot."

What was that punchline?

At the dinner table last night:

Noah: I know a good joke. Do you want to hear it?
Me: Sure.
Noah: Why could the bicycle not stand up?
Me: I know this one. Because it was "two-tired?"
Noah: No. Because it had two wheels!

The last week of school

Things around here are busy. Zack is feeling about 90% back to normal. I knew things were looking up last night when he colored on the kitchen walls with a sharpie marker and was climbing up onto the counters. Zack is back!

Noah's class went on a field trip to a YMCA camp nearby yesterday. They did archery, rockwall climbing, tye-dying and hiking. Noah said that was the order in which he liked things. Not surprisingly, Noah's teacher was amazed at his skills with the recurve bow. But she was more impressed with his rockclimbing skills. She was stunned to see him make it over a very tricky spot that no first grader should be able to negotiate. And then he made it to the top of the wall. She said when he made his way down that everyone should give Noah some applause. I was not surprised to hear this about his climbing skills. He's been carefully honing them since he was 6 months old.

Abram and Aubrey finish school today. Last night was the 8th grade "recognition" night. It was fun to see Abram get all dressed up in his shirt, tie and fedora. He looked foxy. Although I truly detest graduations, this one was almost tolerable. They had a slideshow of everyone, and it was great to hear people scream and holler when Abram's picture came up. Back in my day I would have been one of the kids whose slide was met with silence. He's a step up from his nerdy mom.

The charter school has its last day Friday. The boys are very sad to say goodbye to school for the summer. They have loved every day of their new school this year.

Savanna got her 5-year-old shots this week. I've been through it 6 times so far, usually with the 5-year-old shedding a few tears, but otherwise nothing too traumatic. Things didn't go so well for Savanna. I had to hold her legs down with my legs, and use my arms to pin her arms down. She screamed and kicked. She did not want shots. But then it was over in 30 seconds, and we went on with life. Now she's all ready for school.

Abram and Aubrey are having a big backyard party on Friday, so that's my project for the next few days. Costco, here I come!

Sick bubba

Zacky was not feeling well Thursday or Friday. He had a fever and just wanted to be snuggled. I kept thinking it was just a cold--until Friday night. By Friday at midnight, Zack had absolutely no interest in anything--food, drink, toys. He just laid on the couch and didn't talk or move much. Zack suddently was having trouble breathing, and his resting pulse was around 150. I took him Saturday morning to the doctor, and found out he has pneumonia. His blood oxygen level was down around 90% when we first got there. The reason he had been so lethargic was because his lungs were so inefficient, and he was just suffering from a lack of oxygen. They had him use a nebulizer, and then came back to check about 30 minutes later. His oxygen was back up to 99-100%, but his resting pulse was still around 150. The doctor did an RSV test to make sure it wasn't viral, and then sent us home with prescriptions for antibiotics and albuterol. By the afternoon yesterday he was already feeling better because he was able to breathe.

After vomiting his first 2 attempts at medicine, Zack kept the antibiotic down, and by this evening he is talking and dancing and being silly again. He is still scared of the nebulizer--he thinks it is steam coming out to burn him! I can only do it when he is asleep, because he gets so worked up about it.

I've been savoring his mugga-muggas and booty-shaking dances today--I missed my spunky little guy. It's good to have him back.

My Grandma

My sister posted something on her blog this week that brought back vivid memories of my Grandma H. She died almost 2 years ago after a very courageous 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was such a fun and spunky lady. I was very blessed to be with her for her last 2 weeks. I had so much fun with her growing up. She had a fun house, a fun basement, a perfect apricot tree for climbing, and she was the best dang Yahtzee player this world has ever seen. My sister Nancy wrote this about our grandmother, and I love it. It sums up so well all of the things I love about her.

Lessons Learned from Grandma
by Nancy

If you don’t like something, change it. If your name is Alice LaDean, go by LaDean, but add an e on the end, to make it more feminine. LaDeane.

I learned the sanctity and power of prayer from my Grandma. Every time she was asked to say grace, she would say it in a very soft voice, and cry about 80% of the time. It isn’t something to be mumbled and raced through.

When you are threading a worm on the hook, use a towel to hold the worm still, that way it won’t wiggle free. And, always have a pair of pliers on the boat, so you can knock a Chub on the head with them.

There are amazing things to be read in books. Always have books by your chairs, by your bed, and in the bathroom. Don’t let a day go by without cracking open a book.

I learned to love the outdoors. My grandma was an outdoorsman, when women were not outdoorsman. She had her own hunting rifle and her own fishing pole, and didn’t need a man to fix either of them.

She taught me about magical things, like galindies, and vitamin E.

Don’t fight with your brother about mowing the lawn, someone will lose a finger. However, if you do happen to lose a finger, don’t forget to ask your manicurist for 10% off when she does your nails.

When the grandchildren are over, a great treat is jello powder.

I learned from Grandma that if the fish weren’t biting, I wasn’t holding my mouth right. If I still couldn’t hold my mouth right, she would put some “magic” on the line. And be damned if it didn’t work.

You put meat tenderizer on mosquito bites, aspirin on bee stings, a paper towel in your bag of lettuce, dishwashing liquid on your vegetables, vitamin C for colds, and vitamin E for scars.

She taught me how to play cards, and almost more importantly, to take no prisoners when we are playing card games! If someone offers to deal you in, take it, and then take them to the cleaners.

You have to be on the lake before sunrise if you want to catch any fish.

My Grandma has inspired in me a love of my home state. She had been everywhere in Utah, and had seen more things than most. I always asked her about places in Utah, and she had always been there, but about 50 years ago, before it was “cool” to go to these places, and also before it had become “illegal” to go to them now.

If you save up enough plastic grocery bags, you can make a purse out of them.

I also learned that if I am going to get a trophy to place my “Hole in One” balls, I need to make sure there are more than 3 places to put all my balls.

You put a Canadian nickel on the back of your putter to put down to mark your place on the green.

Most of all, I learned what it meant to be a true companion to your spouse. Not a hand-maiden, not a servant, not a doormat. Every adventure grandpa had, grandma was there every step of the way. But when something was important to her, but grandpa refused to go, she was not afraid to go alone. She cared for grandpa greatly and without complaint, but could be a firecracker when it was necessary.

Love filled every action grandma took, and when Truman asks what she was like, these are a few things I hope to pass on.

We are Siamese if you please

Joel and Noah are experts at bird identification. They each can distinguish between at least 50 bird species. They can tell you the difference between a scrub jay and a stellars jay, and that you won't see a blue jay anywhere around here. This picture of them was taken a couple of weeks ago while they were camping with Mark. Joel got those fantastic binoculars for his birthday to help with his ornithology.

When it comes to cats, they aren't so good at identification. Sure, they can identify a cat when they see one, but as far as what kind of cat, that is another story. This is a conversation I overheard in the car last week while we were waiting for Aubrey at her harp lesson.

Noah: Joel, do you see that black cat over there? I think that is Jenny's cat.
Joel: Yes, that does look like Jenny's black cat, but I wonder why it is at the neighbor's house.
Noah (proudly): I think it is a si-uh-neez cat!
Joel (sternly): No, Noah. A Siamese cat has two heads.

Alberta bound!

I've had this Gordon Lightfoot song stuck in my head all day. Although we are not "Alberta-bound" for the same reason he was, we are, as a family, Alberta-bound for summer vacation. And yes, I LOVE Gordon Lightfoot. Gord's Gold is a must-have for any decent music collection.

We went to Banff 3 years ago with all the kids. We only had 6 kids at the time, and we were a FREAK show wherever we went. We didn't see more than 6 other kids total in the time we were there--let alone 6 kids in the same family. It was a little tricky to get seated in a restaurant with a party of 8, but we did it, and we all loved it. Thanks to Bruno's Bar and Grill for always being so kind to our family! The kids have been begging to go back ever since. They said they didn't even ever want to go back to Disneyland (we haven't been there for 8 years) if we could just go back to Banff.

Last time we stayed at the amazing and luxurious Rimrock Resort. I highly recommend this place, unless you are with a travelling circus. We got snooty looks as we carried in our bags of groceries to our rooms, and paraded 6 kids through the lobby on our way to the pool. We had the BEST view in all of Alberta, however. Ask for room 304 if you ever stay there. And don't plan to eat at their restaurant, either. $100+ a person is a little much. We were happy to find Bruno's and also finally the DQ on our last night there.

This time, with one more kid and all of them 3 years bigger, we are going to stay somewhere else. I found a great place in Canmore that will be a home-away-from-home, where we will have a kitchen and living area along with bedrooms. We're also going to go all the way to Jasper, which we didn't do last time.

I think in a perfect world I would get to live where I do, but spend each spring break in Belize and a week every August in Banff, Alberta. The 3 prettiest places in the world--my backyard, La Isla Bonita, and Banff National park.

I've been dreaming about seeing the Canadian Rockies again. I thought I knew what mountains were--I did grow in up Salt Lake City. However, as we entered Banff National Park, I realized that I had never seen a real mountain before. The Valley of the Ten Peaks is truly the prettiest place I have ever been. I nearly started crying when we saw it before because it was just SO beautiful. The whole drive on the Icefields Parkway is just breathtaking.

I hope this trip will not require my skills as an elbow-relocation technician. Last time Savanna was 2 and she really, really wanted to jump into Lake Louise. Mark was holding her hand so she wouldn't plunge into the 35-40 degree water. But Savanna really, really wanted to get in. She pulled so hard that she dislocated her elbow. Fortunately, Mark's aunt had taught me years before how to re-locate an elbow when the same thing happened to Jake at a family reunion. I put my skills to the test. I figured it was worth a try if it would help me avoid getting entangled in the Canadian healthcare system. I found a cozy rock to sit on, I grabbed her hand in my hand, her elbow with my other hand, a twist and push, and VOILA! Savanna jumped up freed from pain. She gave up her quest for the polar plunge, however.

Alberta bound! Alberta bound! So good to be Alberta bound.