"Word of the Day"

Lately we've had some funny experiences with some "vocabulary amnesia" episodes from our boys. Chase and Jordan are both well read and good students, but they seriously had a gap in their memories on these words. Both stories made all of us laugh TONS! I only share because we all laughed and they were so good natured about it.

Word of the day #1:
inferior--of poor quality; mediocre; of little or less importance, value, or merit

Story #1:
Chase was trying to block Tanner from coming down the stairs. Chase in the manliest, most "he-man", macho, GI Joe style voice booms, "My muscles are inferior, you will never get past me!" K, now, Jordan, Jerel and I laughed for forever on this. I almost wet my pants. Chase walks in and was like, "What? Why are you laughing." We told him to look up inferior in the dictionary. He knew something was up, finally went and looked it up, shut the dictionary and walked out. He was smiling, but felt kind of silly. Apparently he thought inferior really meant superior.

Word of the day #2:
cadaver--a dead body

Story #2:
Chase was joking around and told Jordan that he was going to turn into a cadaver. Jordan asks, "What is a cadaver?" We all laugh, thinking he's joking. Hello? How does he not know this? Well, he kept asking, and we all kept laughing. The more he asked, the more we laughed. FINALLY we told him and he couldn't help but laugh too.

Encore!

I've had some requests for another song by Trevor's class, so here's a little encore! I love this one because, if you watch Trevor, you can really see him jammin' on his air guitar. At one point he even pumps his hand in the air like a rock star. Maybe we've watched a little too much American Idol in this house. Actually, it was just like Jack Black in the School of Rock. lol Too cute for words! I love how he points out to Jerel and me when he sings "love in my family . . ." I've also added some pictures. I love the ones where he's giving high fives to his friend at the end of the program, and also when he's trying to wink at me in the audience.

YOU can be the judge . . .

Chase has been telling me for a while now that he's as tall as me. I was always like, "Uh, no you're not!" Well, here's the proof. You can be the judge, but I think it's obvious to say that Chase is right. Jerel said it was a happy day when he finally was taller than his mom, so hope you're happy Chase. lol

Who doesn't love Neil?!

Okay, I know I'm a little too into American Idol, but hey, tonight was FAB! (It reminded me of how much I liked the Barry Manilow episode awhile back. Barry is awesome too.) Watching made me want to go see Neil in concert. Anyone else feel that way? (Matt, I know you are!) All I'm going to say is I just LOVE Neil Diamond.

It's a wonderful world

This is a song from Trevor's kindergarten program. I loved the whole thing, but this song is one of my favorites. Notice the sign language they do with it. In fact, his teacher taught them a lot of sign language this year. (Trevor is in the back row with the striped olive green polo shirt.) Another of my favorite songs didn't get recorded, so I'll try to get Trevor to sing it again and post it later. His teacher also has a degree in music, so every time she taught the kids something, she had a song to go with it. Whether he was learning about continents, the days of the week, money, abc's, caterpillars turning into butterflies, how to be patriotic, seasons, etc., it didn't matter--there was a song to go with it. Well, you know how I love music. So I love this about his teacher. Mrs. Dill is the BEST teacher! He is so lucky to be in her class. She truly loves those kids and gives it her all. She retired once and said she "failed retirement" and came back. We are so glad she did!

Laughter really is the best medicine

It's been really hard for me since Randy is gone. I really miss him. I have had good days and bad days. On Friday last week, I had a REALLY REALLY sad day. I even broke down crying in front of all the deacons and leaders as Jordan was going on his campout. Yeah, I know, really embarrassing. Well, Tanner had some friends (Glenn and Mitch) come over to swim and hang out. When Jerel came home, he started cleaning off the pool deck with the hose. Every now and then he would spray the kids . . . "just for fun!" (Mind you, it's really cold water.) Well, you can imagine what happened--WATER FIGHT! Next thing you know Chase got involved and well, you'll just have to watch . . . It felt so good to laugh! You might not laugh as hard as we did, but our family sure thought it was funny. The second video is when it spilled into the front yard. Have fun watching!

(Did you see my favorite part? It was when Chase turned Jerel's hose off, leaving him defenseless, locked him in the pool area and took the key. Now that was "ha-larious.")

Randy Sorenson - father, grandpa, friend

It is with mixed emotion that I inform you of the passing of Randy Sorenson this past Sunday, April 6th. He was a young 62 years old but had fought valiantly against leukemia for the past year. Randy married Camille's mom Bonnie in July 2000 and was a fabulous addition to our family. Although we only were able to know him for a few short years, his witty and humorous personality along with his genuine concern and compassion endeared him to our family.

I say mixed emotion because I feel both sadness and a sense of peace and joy. I'm certain that Randy is happy to be rid of his ailing body. I know he had a happy reunion with his first wife whom he was married to for 29 years. I know that he's busy helping others, telling jokes, drawing light-hearted comics, or in some way tending to the needs of others. He always had time for my children and I can't remember a time when he was impatient with them. He showed a sincere interest in their lives and was always ready with a funny joke or story. He was an amazingly gifted artist and we all loved to see his creations. He went out of his way to make sure our family was comfortable when we would visit them in Utah. He loved to cook for us and fortunate for us, he was an excellent cook. Randy was the type of person you always look forward to seeing.

I am sad that he won't be around to lighten my load. I'm disappointed that my children will not be able to make more memories with him. I will miss observing and learning from his many Christ-like characteristics such as patience, service and humility. However, we have such good and fond memories of the time we did spend together and for that I am grateful. Randy was a blessing in the lives of our family and he had and will continue to have a profound and lasting effect upon our family. We are better for having known him and we will miss him. We love you Randy.

The drawing below was one that Randy did at my request for an Aaronic Priesthood camp. "Courage Under Fire" was the theme for the camp and the design was used for the camp t-shirts. Randy put a lot of thought into this design including not having Samuel with any weapons reasoning that Samuel would not be on the offensive but was a humble servant of God crying repentance to the people because of his love for them and obedience to God. He did this in spite of the danger and the fears he must have had. This is Courage.