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.