Sometimes it sinks in

You know how us moms always feel like we are telling our kids the same stuff over and over again? It seems like I am forever repeating instructions. In fact, while I am typing this I had to yell to Trevor who just ran out of the bathroom, "Come back here and flush the toilet please." (Funny side note that I didn't expect. When Trevor came back to flush, he said, "This is the worst day of my life." When I asked, "Why?" He responded, "Because you make me come back and do stuff." lol Oh, the drama.)

Anyways, when Tanner and Trevor came home from school today, Trevor asked if he could have a cookie. I said "sure." Apparently he asked if he could have two. I didn't hear him and didn't answer. When Trevor tried to take two, because "I didn't say no." Tanner stopped him and said, "No. Mom didn't say you could have two. If you ask her a question and she doesn't answer, it probably means she didn't hear you and you have to ask her again. It doesn't mean yes."

I overheard the last part of what Tanner said, and when I asked him to repeat himself, I was so impressed. It finally sunk in, "If Mom doesn't answer, it means she didn't hear you and you need to ask her again." What a novel idea! lol What a good big brother Tanner is to teach this valuable insight to Trevor. I think he deserves two cookies for that--don't you?

Are you serious!?

Usually I post cute things that Trevor says under the heading "Cute quips," but I'm not sure I can classify this one as "cute"--okay, it did make me laugh and I shared it with everyone as they came home. I made a great dinner tonight, one that I thought all my kids love. It has ribs, potatoes, and green beans. It's even more delicious than it sounds. It's a recipe that I got when I went to a cooking class at the local "we have every cool gadget you can think of for cooking" store. I went with my friend Stephanie and she tried the recipe first and said it was great. Stephanie is a great cook and I like to think I am too, so I tried it. The best thing about this recipe is that you can cook it in 10 minutes in the pressure cooker--I know--amazing.

Well, Thursday's are crazy days for me as I have scouts until 5:15, Jordan leaves for football at 5:30, Chase comes home from football at 5:45 and leaves for piano at 6:00, Tanner leaves for baseball at 5:50ish, and I have to drive some of those carpools. I decided to be a good mom and cook this "great" meal before I left for scouts. I came home from scouts to a delicious smell that I could smell before I even walked into the house. All the kids were very excited at what I made--because it is just so good. I'm trying to quickly make gravy so everyone can eat before they all have to leave and THEN . . .

I hear Trevor in the bathroom and he yells out "It stinks in here." I call back, "Well, you're in the bathroom, hurry and flush and come out." (Hello?!) He then yells even louder,

"No, in the kitchen!!"

W A I T!!! Did he just say that the kitchen stinks? My delicious smelling ribs?! He even went outside when Jerel came home from work and said, "Dad! Mom is trying to make me eat DINNER!" Oh, the horror! I wished I would have taken a picture of his face during dinner. His face varied between horror to utter sadness. To quote Chase, "He looks like you're trying to feed him poison." It was too funny to be offended, but is he SERIOUS!? This was a dang good meal. At least all the rest of the fam said so.

p.s. Tomorrow I am trying the coffee cake recipe on Laura's blog. Apparently it's absolutely addicting. If Trevor doesn't like it, well, then we know that Trevor is the problem--not the food. . . . But wait, if he DOES like the coffee cake, well, my dinner was still dang good!

They're like a bunch of mosquitos, they won't go away!

Last Sunday night, we were having a nice quiet evening while we rewatched the the first half of the BYU/UCLA game. We usually don't watch sports much on Sunday, but come on, this was too good of a game to not watch again. As we were watching, I got a phone call. This is what started while I was on the phone. K, moms out there, don't your kids usually start into something loud just as you get on the phone? (And believe me, this was loud.)



Well, Jerel was right in there with them this time. I'm not sure who started "wrestlemania" this time, but Jerel towards the end said, "Geez. They're like a bunch of mosquitos; they won't go away!" Of course I had to start videoing.

When I replayed the video to the kids, one of them commented, "Hey is this the part where we captured Dad?"

I laughed, "You guys NEVER had him."

Jerel then had to add, "Just let them have their little fantasy. I kept waiting for the real fight to start."

I love a dad that still plays with his kids. And he still beat all 4 of those guys at once. He's quite the man!

Happiness is . . .

. . . getting to lick the bowl when Mom makes a birthday cake!!

A little reward

A lot of my friends have been getting really cool pedicures lately. The place they go to can do plaids and checkerboards and tons of other cools designs. I told myself that if I lost 10 pounds I could get one. I made it right before my high school reunion. So here it is for all of you who haven't seen me lately. Isn't it so fun?! I have to admit that quite a few people at my reunion in Utah had NEVER seen a pedicure like that before and thought it was awesome. I would be proud of myself for being a trendsetter except that . . . it's Utah! (Don't mean to offend my Utah friends and fam, but you know what I mean.) LOL

Quest for Perfection!

That's Bronco's new motto for BYU's football team this year . . . and it's AWESOME! Their season so far has been so much fun, especially Saturday's game against UCLA. BYU handed UCLA it's worst loss in 79 years! I don't know which was better--that we scored 59 points or that we shut them out completely! I'm so jealous of my friends who got to go to the game. There's nothing like being there at BYU for the games!

I'm a Fully Invested fan!

(It's hard to choose one picture when they are all soo awesome.)

Class of 88 is great!

Last month I also went to my 20th high school reunion. I left Jerel at home because he really didn't want to go and it was just so much easier to leave him at home to shuttle all the kids around to all their practises. Plus, we were leaving on another vacation a few weeks after I got back anyways. He seemed happier that way, and much happier than some of the spouses that did end up coming. :)

I had so much fun. I even found some old college friends that I had lost contact with. I really can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had. The best idea was that they had our high school pictures on our name tags. It was really fun and helpful at the same time. We all spent the whole night looking at someone that looked familiar, checking their name on the name tag, and then looking at the picture. That was then followed up by "Oh, my goodness I remember you. Hey, what have you been up too?!" I flew up on Friday afternoon, went to a late lunch with my mom at an Indian restaurant, and then went to my friend Angela's house to go to the "event" with her and her husband. BTW, her house is beautiful. It was fun that Carol came with us too. Here I am at lunch with my mom and then a quick pic right before I left for the reunion on Friday night. The next one I am with Angela; if you look close you can see our "fancy picture name tags." The next one I am with Holly, Jenn, and Carol. I have to admit that after seeing everyone that night that the women aged much better than the men. Honest!

Saturday, my nice mom let me sleep in for forever--a first for me! I felt like a teenager again. My body wakes me up at 6:15 automatically every morning whether I want to or not. But this time, I layed in bed and actually went back to sleep! Then we did a little shopping, went to lunch at a Greek restaurant that I had been craving and then I left to go to the park day with the "old high schoolers" again. It was fun to see everyone's kids. Some of them looked exactly like their parents did when they were "younger." Definitely didn't need the name tags for some of those kids. I really wish my family could have been up there for that day. I had so much fun, that I lost track of time (and it didn't help that I didn't change my watch with the time difference) and almost missed my flight home. I got there with less than 15 minutes to spare. A quick trip, but so much fun! Before I left, I couldn't help taking a picture of the street that my high school is on. I always wanted to steal the sign in high school, but never did. :) Cool sign, huh!

Mom! Michael Phelps is like this . . .

. . . in the lunchroom. (You'll have to read further to hear the rest of this totally cute story.)

Well, I was going to post about how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Olympics, but I never wanted to stop watching them long enough to post. I was thoroughly addicted to watching as many events as possible. I would stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning watching, and then get up with my kids at 6:15 for school to start. After two weeks of that, I am way tired. I'm one of those "fans" that cheers loudly and excitedly as the events are going on, much to my kids' amazement. Chase even replied, "I think this is why your voice is all messed up and you can't sing in the choir anymore." He is probably right. I always tear up whether the athletes win or lose--I know, big surprise from me there. lol I really love hearing our national anthem. And lucky us, we got to hear it a lot.

Funny story: Tanner came in one night and asked Jerel, "Why do they keep playing our national anthem so much?" Jerel responded, "Because every time we win the gold, they play it." Tanner asked, "Well, what do they play when the other countries win gold?" Jerel answered, "That country's national anthem." Tanner then said, "Other countries have their own national anthem?" Jerel and I couldn't help but laugh and wonder out loud "Hello?! Where have we gone wrong that he didn't know that?"

I loved how in one of the first events, we swept the medals. Michael Phelps was amazingly awesome. AND the opening ceremonies were some of the coolest I had ever seen. (And get this--my neighbor's son was actually there, at the ceremonies, on like the 4th row!!! Way cool and I am jealous!!) I loved the drummers and the moving cubes that were all synchronized. And the water cube is totally cool how it keeps changing colors. I could go on and on, and yes, I did cry quite a lot watching it all. lol

But the BEST part was when Trevor came home and said, "Mom!! Michael Phelps looks like this in the lunchroom." Apparently their PE teacher put up a bunch of pictures of the Olympics in the cafegymatorium. Trevor did a PERFECT imitation of Michael Phelps, don't ya think? Definitely!

Cute quips

When Tanner was practicing the piano today, Trevor started humming along. It was a church hymn, but I can't recall which one right now. But then Trevor said the cutest thing, "Mom, it's weird. If you hum, the piano copies you."

Oh well . . .

Okay, I'm back from my little vacation. I had a couple posts almost ready to go before I left and forgot to post them. Oh well, I'll get them posted tonight. So sorry if they are old news, but I already wrote them, and they are getting posted.

I was thinking today about how I am always a step behind on everything I do lately. I am always really busy with my church calling and my kids in sports and school stuff, etc. You know--like everyone else is--so I really don't need to explain. And I have to admit, I am busy, but I do know people who are busier than I am. I then told myself, "It's because I read so much. I get a little disorganized at times because I spend a lot of my free moments reading. That's the problem." . . . But THEN I thought about one of my friends who is truly organized and amazing. Her house always looks put together when I'm there, and you get the feeling that it's clean and organized all the way through--not just on the surface. Plus, she is involved with like so many things--school, church activity groups, going to the gym, her kids, her own business, etc. And she always does a good job--not half way like others do. And her kids are totally involved with sports, dance, etc. like mine. BUT, then I realized that she reads A TON! She not only reads books, but she reads the entire paper every day. So I realized I have really NO excuse for being a day late and a dollar short all the time. (sigh) Maybe my friend can give me some time management lessons, or something--you know, when she has free time. :)

p.s. I forgot to mention another friend that I also thought of today who has 9 kids, blogs every day, exercises every day, makes homemade bread, gardens and does cute crafts with her kids. That's just a few of the things she does. I'm starting to think that I have surrounded myself with amazingly talented friends. :)