New Adventures

Wow!! Seems like I've been waiting for this time in my life forever. But yet here it is right NOW!! That's right, I said I've finally arrived to the point I've always dreamed about.

Don't ask. Okay I'll answer anyways. I've finally found an outlet of sorts and a way to kind of reconnect to the "life of sports" I once had. And a time in my life where I can develop some of my talents more fully.

Okay so in case you haven't heard, I've VOLUNTEERED to be the head volleyball coach at the school my kids attend. Remember it's called Freedom Academy. Well this team consists of 7th and 8th grade boys and girls.

The long and short of it all.... last week we held tryouts. Wasn't quite sure what to do but I had lots of help and support from some of the faculty that have been coaches before but couldn't do it this year.

Day 1 : There were 39 kids that showed up, and they were either in 7th or 8th grade. Lots of boys and girls, and some of the kids really wanted to make the team, but just have fully developed the skills necessary yet, like SERVING. These poor little kids look so fragile that I was afraid they would break. But they really had some heart, so I hope that they practice throughout this year and try out again next year for those that are in 7th grade this year. It was so NOISY. But with the magic power of a whistle, I was able to quickly gain control over these kids. It feels GREAT!! I know I'm lame, but I really am enjoying this.

Day 2: We dropped to 32 kids, and I had a few faculty members help for the first half hour and then I was on my own. YIKES... It was kind of scary, but exciting at the same time.

Day 3: We were up to 33 kids. By this day I had narrowed down my list of choices and had grade reports run on them and discussed the choices and options with a few of the teachers. They gave suggestions, and I really liked their advice. Because they really know these kids more then I do since they have them in class nearly every day. We also announced the TEAM at the conclusion of the practice.

Day 4: First day of practice with just the team which consisted of 14 players. Four kids weren't able to make it that day, because of prior commitments, and that was fine, they let me know.

Day 5: Monday the 20th of September I show up for practice to have one of my supposed players waiting to greet me and tell me that she couldn't be on the team. She had too many other things that she was committed to before the team. She quit. WHAT??!! Are you kidding me, why did you try out then. And I was informed that one of my 7th grade boys quit as well. Turns out he only tried out because his "girlfriend" was trying out and since she didn't make it, and practicing everyday was too much for him ... he threw in the towel as well. So now I'm down to 12 players.

Day 6: Tuesday the 21st of September -- was a great day and I can already see lots of improvement in the team. There are a few people however that I wish were a little more "into" the game. Maybe it'll happen with time. But I'm not counting on it. I know it sounds pretty full of doubt, huh?

The other great thing... I'm coming home in the evening and I'm BUSHED!! I'm so tired and can't stay awake ... it's really getting me worked out too, and I'm starting to lose some of this excess weight I've been meaning to get rid of, but for whatever reason I haven't.


And to end this entry I'd like to post a collage of a recent photo shoot that I did, and I had so much fun during the shoot, and then afterward playing with the photos I captured.

A brief history of high school.

SORRY IT'S a long one!!! 

NO PICTURES THIS TIME.

I came across a friend's blog today that triggered some of my own thoughts on high school.

It seems forever ago now, that I attended high school, but really it wasn't all that long ago.

You have to understand a few things here, I lived in Trona, California --- yeah go look that up see what you find. It is a podunk little desert town. With a "plant" as the main source of employment. They mine stuff from a dry lake bed, and la de da da.

The high school was SMALL. At least it's small compared to the high schools my kids will end up going to in a few more years.

I got teased in elementary because my parents kept having kids, and since I had a large family I got really teased. I just ignored it as best as I could.

I was the only member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints my age that was active in the church. There were others that participated here and there with coming to activities and doing other things like that. That isn't the point here, well a little bit it is, but I was fortunate enough to get involved with high school sports. It actually started with 7th and 8th grade. I was hooked!!

By 9th grade I was moved up to Varsity level and bypassed the JV level. I did have some great 'friendships' that started because of sports, and after the sports the friendships kind of died off. I had FUN playing on the teams I was a part of. Yeah, I wasn't perfect, and I wasn't the best, but I gave my all and worked really hard. I played Volleyball (7-12); Basketball (7-12); Softball (9-11); Cheer-leading 10-11 ( I know who would have thought me to be the cheerleader type)

Now, you could say I belonged to the "jock" group at school, but really I belonged to more than just that. I was also academically gifted and had practically straight A's. When I graduated I was #2 in my class. (Well actually I tied with another student) So I could have been classified as a NERD as well. And mostly I got along with those you would consider nerds. So I belonged to the "jocks", the "mormons", "nerd", "poor" (maybe no-one else really thought that but I did)

I was so surprised to find out every now and then that RUMORS, Nasty rumors were started about me. Like I was engaged in "sexual" activities over the weekend and such. Those rumors hurt and they hurt bad!!! I cried several times after hearing such things.

It really was quite sad to find people felt so bad about themselves they had to get creative and make something up to "RUIN" someone else.

I enjoyed most of my classes, but not necessarily everyone that was in them. There were "cheaters" and "liars" in some of my classes, but somehow they always got away with it. Don't ask me how, because I don't know. This made me feel pretty upset because I was always honest, never cheated, and worked hard for my grades. Whereas these others (not mentioning names) would just gab the copy of the test answers conveniently left out and write down what they wanted to know, and pass it around the whole class. I was devastated. I never touched the paper, for fear of being guilty just touching it. Plus I never wanted to condone such behavior and allow someone else to copy too.

I always got made fun of and told I was the "teacher's pet". Because I was a good two shoe!! Well, that was fine with me. I knew I was doing what was right.

I went through a phase in my sophomore year where I practiced "swearing". Call this my rebellious phase if you will. I thought I needed to talk like that in order to "FIT" in with the other girls on the team. It lasted a few months, and I felt horrible talking like that. So to those of you that heard me talk like that I APOLOGIZE for using such language. It wasn't right on my part, and to this day I still don't talk using those words. (Mostly)

If it wasn't for the high school sports and weekly attendance at the football games I think I would have died!! I didn't go and party on the weekends, because there was drinking and other such activities going on that I didn't want to participate in. I did feel left out now and again, but I'd never go back and just give in to the peer pressure.

I also didn't have the best home life either. We were a large family, not much money but enough for our needs. We lived in a small house, and I never had name brand clothes. In fact I finally owned my first pair of jeans in 7th grade and those were given to me. Crazy, I know.

I did have my "first" kiss while in high school. I had a boyfriend or two...but all of which I would probably never want to repeat. I wasn't ever on any of the "royalty" courts because I wasn't popular and never felt like I was that pretty either. But a lot of my friends did, and I was happy for them. Actually I'm kind of glad it wasn't ever me.

I am glad however that I made a lot of friends in the neighboring town that were members of the same church but attended in a different building. I had some great friends there!! And still keep in touch now. It's great.

I had a few jobs through high school, which would limit how many sports I could play in my Senior year. But I learned lessons then that totally helped me become who I am now.

Would I ever want to go back and do it again?? Probably not. Although the sports part was fun, and the good grades helped, the people there were just on a different life path then myself. We probably don't have much in common anymore, other than maybe having kids and talking about that. Otherwise, I don't know what we'd talk about.

Now college... well that is a WHOLE different and BETTER story. More on that later.

It's fun now, to check in on those I knew back then and see where life has taken them. But honestly, I do wish them well, and don't want to treat them the way I was treated, but really life is so much better for me now, with the wonderful people in my life that I don't want to go back and relive high school.

First toothless Smile for Heidi

Okay so you all have a child you know that has either lost their first tooth, or is about to. You know all those stages that lead up the tooth coming out.

• It gets a little wiggly. 
• After a time ( be it a few days or week or more) they start complaining. 
• They complain that it hurts when they eat.  Biting into something doesn't happen anymore. 
• You tell them to cut up or break up the food they want to eat. 
• Finally they CRY and WAIL over the pain this little object causes.  
• You try and convince them that it won't hurt if they just get it out. 
• They hesitate and may not let anyone touch it, and just keep complaining for days or weeks until the thing just falls out on it's own. 
• They might walk around chewing on a dry rag trying to loosen it some more. 
• They may or may not grab a pair of pliers to pull it out.  
• They may or may not let mom or dad have a stab at yanking it out.  

Well my youngest daughter Heidi who just turned 8 a few weeks ago lost her very first tooth last night (Sept , 2010)   She lost it with help from ME!! That's right the little kid was so different then her two older sisters and actually let me grab her tooth, and I PULLED it.  Yeah, she cried a little, and it bled a little.  But I didn't lie to her, I said it would hurt a little but then tomorrow (meaning today) it wouldn't hurt anymore.  And guess what ... I was RIGHT!!

And we'll have a little hiatus until the 5 - 6 teeth in her mouth that are starting to become loose all fall out. And then she'll complain of not being able to eat AGAIN.  But oh, how cute they are like that!! 

Heidi's Baptism ...

This is what we started our weekend off with....

I asked Heidi just as soon as she came out of the baptismal font how she felt and she replied, "Good" with a cute little smile!!

We followed up with visiting family and friends, and a HUGE BBQ at our house later that day.  We had so many people over it was GREAT.   Let's see we had the following....

• My childhood family (My Dad and Mom, My sister Nicole her husband Rob and their three kids, my niece Sierra) 
• My Family  (All 7 of us) 
• Amy and Richard and their family  (7 altogether here too) 
• Mary and Scott and their 2 kids 
• Ruth and Nick and their daughter
• Jared and Becky and their 4 kids
• Dan and Angela 
• Chris's Mom and Dad 
• Richard's Mom and Dad 
• John and Luma and their 2 boys 
• My neighbor Adam

Did you catch how many that was??? That's right.. .neither did I, but let me go back and add it all up...
8+7+7+4+3+6+2+2+2+4+1=    46 in my backyard or in my house watching the BYU football game that was on that night.  We had great food and good fun.  It went way too quick though.  Sometimes it almost seems like a dream, because my parents were only up for such a short time, and I really didn't get to see much of them at all. 

But we preceded this night with a trip to Seven Peaks and loved the time we got to spend there.  Great times all around. 

My FIRST trip to Seven Peaks!!!

Okay excuse me for a minute while I'm still doing the HAPPY DANCE!!!

Back in March of this year, my children were reading for minutes. (well actually they read for minutes all the time) but this time they were reading to earn a FREE pass to Seven Peaks.

Okay, if you don't live in Utah, or have never been, you might be asking what the heck it is. Well it's this way FUN, AWESOME, HUGE water park that's about a mile or so from my house.

What's the big deal you ask??? Well, I've lived in Provo for about 11 years and have NEVER, EVER gone! I know, RIDICULOUS, right? Yeah, I know.

So yesterday was the last day I could take my kids, (well not really, but that's what I used to go ahead and make a go of it) so they could use this free pass.

I find out ahead of time that I have to pay for parking, so I went prepared to pay cash for that. NO big deal.

I park. We (my five kids and myself) walk up to the gate and stand in line so we can purchase the two needed tickets to get us all in. Kids are standing in line with me, behaving. Thank goodness.

Some random lady walked up to me, and asked if we were doing the Season Pass? Hm. I'm thinking, am I in the wrong line?? I have no clue what I'm doing because I've never been there. I said, No. We're just buying tickets for today. She held up two tickets she wanted to GIVE me. Yeah, that's right GIVE!! I didn't have to pay for the two tickets that I needed anymore. We all got in FREE!!! SCORE.

HAPPY DANCE!!!

So since I have my purse with me, and didn't want to leave it unattended at the pool, decided to rent a locker to keep it in. $4.00 to keep my valuables still valuable. Not bad at all!

After playing in the wave pool and the tadpole place with my boys, we decided it was time to rent a tube or two. Thinking my options out, I decided that doing a triple was the way to go. We traded it in for three singles and everyone enjoyed using them. We went and floated the lazy river first. Ethan was with me and laughing up a storm he thought it was so FUN. Because we were almost crashing into the walls, and then we'd kick off and go gliding to the opposite one. I loved hearing him laugh. After doing the lazy river. We went back over to the wave pool. Kids had a blast playing on the tubes there as well!!

About this same time, I realized that it was the time Kaylee wanted her Dad to come and get her, to take her to a friends End of Summer Party that she really wanted to go to. So we got a hold of her Dad on the phone and he came and picked her up, and Ethan was ready to go home then too. (Found out he fell asleep almost before they got back home)

Whew, now I can really have some fun! Mind you I've never been on a water slide EVER. So we traded the single tubes in for a triple one, and Thomas waited for us at the bottom of the slide and Heidi and Katherine and I rode down the purple tube slide. HOLY FUN!!! We went back up and did it again!! While Thomas was content to just watch. We then went and traded in the tubes for a double and a single. I went up with Katherine while Heidi and Thomas stayed down below and did one of the body slides. I LOVED IT, except when I splashed into the pool at the bottom and got lots of water in my nose.

But I didn't care so much, because I had a blast!!

Now I'm just kicking myself in the butt, wondering why the heck I have never gone before??? Oh yeah. Too expensive!! But we've decided to buy the passes that are on sale right now, so that we can use them next summer!!! No vacation for us, we're spending as much time at Seven Peaks as possible. But not only there, we can go to Trafalga ( a family fun center with unlimited use of their activities too. We also love that place but don't go very often because it costs a lot for our family) So now the girls can go on Dates with their Dad, or heck I can and it's "cheaper" because we pay for this pass. Totally worth it to us!!

So now, we're looking forward to going to Seven Peaks at least twice more before the end of the year. (the swim season for this place ends on Labor Day) I'm excited. So glad I went!!!

INSERT more of the HAPPY DANCE.

First day of school 2010

I think my two boys are so funny.  If you've ever watched iCarly you might get this more 

then someone who hasn't seen it.  But there is a boy who goes by Gibby and loves to go around

without his shirt on.  So lately my boys have discovered the ability to run around without their 

shirts on.  So as long as I'm not going somewhere and they ask to do so, I'll let them. As soon as 

one gets that way the other joins him in removing his own shirt.  So when they don't have their shirts 

on they call themselves "Gibby brothers".  So on the first day of school this year, Ethan wanted to dress just like Thomas so they could still be "Gibby Brothers".  So we found what we could to closely match 

the two in what they were wearing.  And those hugs... they posed like that on their own, and who am I to discourage a hug!! I couldn't resist their cuteness.  And I'm still trying to catch a group picture of all the kids dressed for school because as of now, I haven't been able to get one because they haven't cooperated. But I have a few more page ideas... I just need the pictures to do it.  So I'm crossing my fingers that in the morning (August 26th, 2010) I'll be able to snap a few pictures of the kiddos in all their school glory.

The girls New Bedroom ....

Once again, I've been busy painting in a bedroom. 

Once again, it's not mine. 

Once again I've completed a goal I set for myself.

Once again, the house is a wreck everywhere else.

Once again, dishes are piled up high, 

once again clothes are ALL over the house. 

Once again, school is going to start, and all this is okay ...because I was able to take this:

Which has only gotten this bad since I cleaned back in May.  My kids have way too much stuff!!!  Time to declutter and dejunk. 

So here I've managed after a  LONG, EXCRUCIATING week of clearing out the MESS and equally dispersing of it throughout the rest of my house, yard and garage, and a few trash cans, to finally clear out the room and get it EMPTY!!  Yeah for me.   (With some minor, and occasional help from the kidlets that reside in this humble abode).   The walls were NASTY ... marked up with just about everything one could imagine, and even popper exploded on the wall.  The last time this room was painted and had clean walls was right before I had Heidi 8 years ago.  All this happened in 8 years time... YUCK.

Of course, you can see their lousy place of a closet. And all the work materials sitting up there on top. 

We moved the beds all outside so that we could paint the room.  And paint the beds. So outside they sat for about 3 days. We got so lucky that it didn't rain while they were out there either.  Although on the last day we had several storm clouds above and kept hearing the thunder so we were hurrying to finish up the paint jobs on the bed frames so that we could get them inside before any potential harm from rain.  Luckily it never rained on us though. 

So after a long week... we moved the girls back into their bedroom....   We switched up the positioning of the beds. Actually they were just like this but flip flopped.  I wanted something a little different.

 

A great find of a dresser off from KSL.  I love it!!! So now all the girls share this dresser.  Should help contro the amount of clothing each one of them can have and hold onto.

We didn't have a real border or trim around the sliding glass door so I had to "MAKE" one.  I think I did a GREAT job if I do say so myself.  And I do say so!!  The only problem left is trying to find a good window treatment solution.  Vertical blinds are not it!!  We've tried curtains and rods... and they just get ripped out of the wall.  So now I'm going to try just using some velcro attached to the wall, with the other part on the "fabric/curtain" that I decide to use.

Here's the closet area.... With a MAD pile of books that we had to rush inside for fear of rain ruining them. We're waiting to get the book case painted and then I can organize their books again on the book case that sits inside this closet area.  

I seriously feel we've outgrown this house.... someday we'll find a new place to live that will be big enough to make me feel not so cramped.