Instructions from my life the last couple of weeks
September 29, 2007
Filed under Children, Food, LDS Church, Motherhood, Movies to see, Utah Sites
INSTRUCTIONS FROM MY LIFE:
Don’t start painting boys room the day before Super-Saturday. You wont get to it again until at least three days later. (Before and After photos to come.)
Listen to dear husband when he tells you not to push to hard when you are priming. Otherwise, you will have to do two coats.
Don’t tell 6-year-old son that he can pick the color for his new room unless you are going to be okay with the bright green that he chooses.
When you try to convince your 2-year-old that he is a ‘big boy’ and should start to use the potty, don’t be surprised when he yells “I A BABY!” and runs the other way.
Convincing said 2-year-old that he is a boy when is insists he is a “g-earl!” will make you laugh.
When the spirit is telling you over and over again to pick up the Book of Mormon and read, you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find. His love will surround you, and you will feel peace.
Do that second coat of paint, even if you don’t want to.
Don’t believe that the scotch painters tape comes off as easily in real life as it does on tv.
Just because you gave 4-year-old daughter an empty backpack does not mean that she wont take a chain out of it and swing it around at school.
Target does not have shoes in said 4-year-old’s size. What is up with that?
Finding a book on your porch with a sticker from the library on it but no bar code or call number will drive you crazy for days. Who left it? Why? Where did it come from?
Do not buy 2 giant sized Symphony bars just because they were buy 1 get 1 free. You will regret it.
When you go to the store to buy DH some Diet Pepsi, and see that the price for a 12-pack is $5.69 + deposit and the price for a 2 liter is $2.29 you will be glad that you have kicked the caffeine and carbonation habit.
Just because you work out 4 times does not mean that you will lose weight. It doesn’t mean give up, however.
Going to play games with a bunch of couples you don’t know will turn out to be the highlight of your week.
Agreeing to make 5 baby blankets for area humanitarian effort should not be done. You will inevitably sew it wrong, and when you turn it right side out the batting will be on the outside and you will have to unpick the whole thing. Luckily you will eventually figure it out and the other four wont be so hard. You will, however, wish that you didn’t have to give the one with the cute Eskimos on it back. It is too cute.
When you read that Utah county got snow today you will insanely jealous that you weren’t there.
The movie Last Holiday will make you smile every time you watch it.
Handcart Pagaent
July 26, 2007 
We went to the Nephi Handcart Pagaent last night. My sister and her family live in the area and participate in the pagaent each year. My BIL and nephew had “major” parts last night. It started raining while we were eating the “Pioneer Dinner” put on by JC Mickelson’s (The food was okay but overpriced, I thought), and didn’t stop raining until about 45 minutes into the program. I went un-prepared. I took one blanket for T and N and a sweatshirt for me (A was sick, so DH and he stayed home). Luckily my sister had an umbrella in her car so T and I huddled under that while N sat with my brother and Mom under their umbrella. She wore my sweatshirt and wrapped up in my blanket. I froze. The pagaent was neat. It tells the story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies. It is interesting and well done. Once it stopped raining, it was very pleasant. If you live in the area, I recommend you check it out. It plays through Saturday, and is free. Bring snacks and blankets and umbrellas, just in case!
Girls Weekend
July 23, 2007 
My sisters, my mom and I spent the weekend in St. George for a Girl’s Weekend. We went last year to see South Pacific at Tuacahn and LOVED it. It was amazing. They made an ocean on the stage with waves and water and everything. It was so cool. So, this year, we decided to stay for two plays and stay an extra day. We went down on Friday and saw Cinderella. It was pretty good. It was the Rodgers and Hammerstein version which I had never seen. It is hard to compete with the ocean on the stage from last year. They did have the fairy Godmother fly and the costume change that Cinderella made was amazing. I thought that it was cheesy though when the prince and Cinderella floated above the other dancers at the ball.
Saturday we got up and went shopping at the outlets. I LOVE the Children’s Place outlet there. It always has good deals. I got T and N shirt for $2, a pair of shorts for T for $3 and two pairs of jeans for N for $6 each. Very cool. I picked me up a couple of skirts at Dressbarn and some new sun glasses at Old Navy.
After lunch we went to see Hairspray! It was FABULOUS! The best part of our weekend, for sure. The theater was doing drawings. They had dolls, the soundtrack, bags, and of course Hairspray. My sister won some hairspray. The movie was great! I didn’t really know what it was about but I wanted to see it from the ads. It was fun, the music and acting was great and it was clever. See it. And soon.
We went to see My Fair Lady at Tuacahn Saturday night. It was LONG. It started at 8:30 and was about 11:45 when it was over. And they left out a scene. It was in the program. Scene 10. The ball. They left it out! I had never seen My Fair Lady before so I was so confused. It was fun to go (other than the heat) and we had great seats (row 2) but I wasn’t impressed with the play. The actors had great singing voices and everyone knew their parts but it didn’t make sense for someone who hadn’t seen it and it was weird. And, the one actor that played the main part (Higgins, maybe?) came out after the intermission with his shirt unbuttoned. My mom didn’t notice but it drove me nuts because you could tell he hadn’t meant to do that. Oh, well. Next year they have Les Mis and Oliver and Big River. I would love to go down for Big River.
Perfect Day
On Tuesday I decided to be a good Mom and I took my kids to the Freedom Festival (Provo’s 4th of July celebration) Balloon Festival. It started at 6:30, so I wrangled my mom and dad into coming with me. DH had to work. 
He did get us some free tickets for the pancake breakfast though. My goal was to take a fast shower, get the kids up and leave the house by 6:15. I thought that I was doing so well on time and when I got out of the shower it was 6:15. So much for leaving at 6:15. I dragged the kids out of bed and into clothes and out to the van. The balloon fest was crowded but we found good parking and enjoyed the balloons. T’s favorite was the Smokey the Bear, N’s favorite was the Strawberry. My favorite was the gold colored one with the autumn leaves on it. The Brooks and Dunn balloon was cool though. After we watched balloons for a while we ate breakfast and headed home. It was great!
Wednesday: Happy 4th of July! I am so proud to be American. I am glad for the freedoms that we have and am grateful for those who have sacrificed for us to keep these freedoms. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday…by far. I love it! I got up early to get things going for our annual 4th of July breakfast. We served fruit, cinnamon rolls, sausage, bacon and pancakes. We had such a good turnout. All three families from the neighborhood that we invited came, my sister and her husband came. My two friends from high shool came. Some family friends came and my parents came, as did my father in law and his wife. After breakfast we headed for my favorite place on earth….Lily Lake on the Mirror Lake Highway in the Uinta Nat’l Forrest. It takes about an hour to get there but it was so worth it. We took the kayak, the rubber raft and my parents brought the canoe and my friend’s brought their rubber raft so we were able to spend a lot of time on the lake. The kids got to fish and wade in the lake. We took lunch and relaxed and visited and had a great time.
We came home and watched fireworks with neighbors at the end of the street. The kids were exhausted and we were more so. It was a perfect day. Happy 4th everyone!
Update
I’ve been busy the last few days. On Thursday and Friday, I went to the Utah-PTA convention at BYU. I had signed up to be treasurer. Since we will be moving, I can’t be anymore, but I went anyway so that I could get notes for the woman that will take my place. When I agreed to be treasurer they told me that all I would need to do would be count money and write checks. Not so. The treasurer is responsible for insurance, audits, budgets, amending budgets, reimbursing people, filing forms with the state and the IRS, and on and on. So glad that I am not doing this job. It sounds so overwhelming at this point in my life. On Friday, though, I went to a class called Leadership Traits and it was fabulous. It was taught by Ilene Mecham and it was inspiring. Made the whole two days worth it! At the end she showed a video called “Celebrating Life” that I would love to find a copy of.
Saturday we did the yard sale that I have had planned for a few months. We got rid of most of the stuff that I wanted to sell. I was surprised though, because the highchair and exercauser didn’t sell. Just about all the clothes did though (except winter clothes) and toys did too. Friday night I set the tables up in my garage and was able to just pull the tables out Saturday morning which was nice. I saw on some website to price all the clothes for the same price, instead of marking them all individually and that worked really well too.
We took a drive up Hobble Creek Canyon on Sunday evening. It was a beautiful evening and a beautiful drive. Hard to believe that we have had access to so much beautiful camping and fishing for seven years and haven’t taken advantage of it. And now we will be leaving it behind. I told Bryan that he needs to be sure to golf at the Hobble Creek Golf Course before we move.
Also! Met a woman at the yard sale that (I used to play city league volleyball against her team) is involved with a play group for families with adopted African-American children. They meet on Friday mornings and she is going to call me with more info. I am looking forward to that. I see it benefitting all of my children.
Cooks
There is an AWESOME nursery here in Utah Valley called Cook’s Nursey & Green House. It is on 1600 North in Orem. It probably takes 20-25 minutes for me to get there but it is SOOO worth it. I was there this morning and spent way too much money but I got these beautiful Snap Dragons, African Daisies, and some Box Wood bushes. Can’t wait to get them planted and blooming!
Snow Canyon
T had Spring Break this past week and we decided to take the tent trailer out and try it out! We went to Snow Canyon State Park which is by St. George, Utah. It was BEAUTIFUL! It took us forever to get there because there was a bad accident on the freeway and we say on I-15 for an hour and a half. We chose the perfect time to go weather wise because it was nice and cool. Perfect for the hiking that we wanted to do. The park was great for our little kids because there was so many hikes that they were able to do. We were able to see the place on the red rocks where pioneers wrote there names with axle grease. The names date back to 1881 and are still there. We also got to see Johnson Canyon and the Maude Johnson Arch. This arch has a cool history. The pioneers would take their picnics in the canyon and sit at the bottom of the arch and eat lunch and this Maude Johnson would hike up to the arch and stand under it and sing songs to entertain the pioneers while they ate. I think that is so cute!
N’s favorite part of the trip was the snake in the park headquarters and playing games in the trailer before bed. Some friends gave us the Dora Candyland game and we played that a ton. T loved riding his scooter through the campground and playing with his construction trucks in the dirt. I loved the hiking. It was so nice.
Hike the “Y”
Last Tuesday for our combined Young Men and Young Women activity we hiked to the “Y” on the mountain. It was SOO hard! I haven’t done it in probably 13 years and it is so much steeper than I remembered. It was fun though and what a great feeling when we were done! The view from the mountain and the top was FANTASTIC! We saw some deer, too. If you are ever in Utah County, give it try. Be sure to take water!
Farm
After reading Julie’s (at Rarely Home Mom) posts about the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point, I was so exicted to go with T on his field trip to the farm today. Although, I was not looking forward to riding on the bus with 60 kindergarten kids. We got to go on a tractor-trailer ride and then we got to see the cows, horses, ducks, goats, llamas, turkeys, chickens, and goats. The kids got to learn what kind of things the animals eat and glue the food to a paper to take home. It was fun and it was a nice day for it. A perfect day for it.
But, we didn’t see any tulips. I guess we will have to go back!
