The Great Saratoga Smokeout

Thursday, June 21st, 2012: Mason had a dentist appointment in the Highland area, which is a good 20 minutes northeast of Saratoga Springs. As we left his appointment in the middle of the afternoon, he pointed to the hills on the western skyline, and asked about the smoke. I could see that it was likely a brush fire but it looked to be a long ways out. I reassured the kids that it was obviously a small fire and far away from us, so there was nothing to worry about. The smoke was pretty light in color, at the very top of the hills, and not covering much area. As we approached Saratoga again, however, I noticed that the fire was quite a bit closer than it had appeared from a distance. It looked to be directly west of our home. It was still at the top of the hills though and still a very "small" fire.

That night, I went to play Bunko at a friend's house. No one even mentioned that little fire. But as we left Bunko, it was dark. It was then that we first saw the flames. At that point, we could tell that little fire was not so little anymore. Here is the picture I took with my phone, as I left Bunko that night.

As you can see, the flames are huge, but the fire was still at the very top of the hills and quite small. We talked about it a little before heading home, but no one was bothered by it at this point. I got online and read an article about it on KSL.com. The article said that the fire had been started by target shooters (in 100 degree weather with record dry conditions? Really?) and had burned almost 600 acres. It said that they had the perimeter under control but they were letting the middle of the fire burn out to lower the risk of future fires in the area.

Friday, June 22nd, 2012: In the morning, I looked out the window to see what had happened overnight, or if I would be able to see the flames in the daylight. The information I had read the previous day left me with the impression that I would probably awaken to find all was well. But I was shocked when I looked out my window and it looked like this:

As you can see, the fire had obviously spread and was no longer at the top of the hill. It had burned a much larger area and had moved much closer to our neighborhoods. The light smoke from the day before was gone and this dark, black cloud hung over us. My neighbor showed up at my door, asking if I thought we should start packing, just in case. I told her no, there were plenty of neighborhoods higher than us, and I'm sure they'd be evacuated first and we would hear about it in plenty of time. I told her that since we were across Redwood Rd, a major road, I thought the chances of the fire jumping Redwood were very slim and we were probably totally safe.

I got back online to read an update on the fire. The tone of the article had completely changed, now saying that the fire was out of control due to 20-30mph winds all night long, and had over tripled in size throughout the night. This was the first moment I thought that maybe the fire could be dangerous after all. I started getting texts from friends in the Salt Lake area asking if we were okay. They were buried in smoke clear up there and were worried about us. The smoke, as you can see from the photo, was actually going up and over us, so the air here was fine, even though it was getting bad throughout the rest of the valley.

As the day progressed, things got scarier. Evacuations started in Eagle Mountain not long after this photo. The fire, it seemed, was headed towards a building that housed explosives. It was within a mile, but they were doing everything they could to divert the fire from the path of that building. Several neighborhoods in Eagle Mountain were evacuated. For those not from this area, the fire was burning along the mountain line that runs directly between Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. Eagle Mountain is on the West side of these mountains, while Saratoga Springs is on the East. I headed outside where I visited with some neighbors about the situation. At this point, the fire was less than a mile from homes and totally unpredictable. We noticed as we were talking, that the wind was blowing Northeast- directly toward our homes. It was obvious, even from just looking at it, that it was moving quickly, and moving right toward us. I was checking KSL regularly to see what the situation was. Within a few hours, they began evacuating all of our neighboring neighborhoods in Saratoga Springs, clear to Redwood Rd. My neighborhood runs right up to, and touches, Redwood Rd. We are on the far East side of the neighborhood, maybe a quarter mile off Redwood Rd. So at this point, we realized that the evacuation line was less than 1/4 mile from our homes. At this same time, the smoke finally began descending on top of us. The ash and smoke were very heavy and we knew we shouldn't be outside for long. Our neighbors had friends and family who had been evacuated that had stopped by and updated us on what the situation was up in their neighborhood. The flames were getting very close. The smoke was terrible, and there were very worried. We headed back indoors. Soon, things got loud. Because we live right on Utah Lake, the choppers were flying from the fire, directly over our homes and refilling in the lake, before heading back to the fire to dump the water.

It was amazing to watch how quickly they would refill (maybe 30 seconds), head back to the fire, dump, and be back- all within just a couple of minutes. But at this point, besides the noise of the choppers, it was like a ghost town outside. The air quality was too poor for anyone to be playing. Where there are usually dozens of small children playing, there was only greenish, ashy air, and dead silence. It was very unsettling. The news was now reporting the fire to have burned over 4,000 acres and continued to grow. Many of our neighbors had their vehicles packed, just in case we were evacuated, as all the surrounding neighborhoods had been.

This photo was taken from my neighbor's rooftop on Friday.

Dan left work early on Friday to come home and check on us. The roads leading into our neighborhood had been closed, and he had to stop and provide his address to the policeman, so they could verify that he wasn't heading back into an evacuated area.

No one slept well that night. I could feel the pressure in my chest from even the short time I had been outside. My kids all smelled like smoke, as did my basement. My eyes were burning, my throat was scratchy, and we knew we really couldn't leave the house. We still didn't know if there would be a knock at our door in the middle of the night telling us we needed to get out.

A plane flying through the smoke.

Saturday, June 23rd, 2012: The first thing I did upon awakening was look out the window. To my surprise, things looked much better. The smoke had somewhat died down, the fire didn't appear to have moved any closer to us, and the air wasn't green and thick with ash as it had been the previous day. I once again checked the news reports. At that time, they said that once the winds had died down, the firefighters were able to get the fire under control to an extent. It was 30% contained and seemed to be moving laterally- north and south- directly between the Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs communities, instead of toward one or the other. This was great news. The evacuations had not yet been lifted for those who had been evacuated, but it didn't appear there would be any more. We were relieved to know that we were likely out of danger.

Sunday, June 24th, 2012: All evacuations were lifted and those that were displaced were able to return home. The miracle of it all was, with 6,000 acres burned, the flames came with 20 feet of some homes- 20 feet. That's like from one end of a room to another. Some came that close to losing their homes. What a miracle that they were able to get control of the fire before it touched any of them.

As of today, the air quality is still poor and we are being told not to exercise outside for the rest of the week. All our kids Tball games and cheer practices were cancelled for the week because of that. The fire still burns but it is now under control. We feel very blessed that our community came out of this situation without any loss of life, or any losses of homes. We know we owe much of that gratitude to the brave men and women who fought so bravely to save our homes and protect our families. This picture is so touching (it is not mine- it was submitted to KSL by a viewer) to those of us who were protected by these heroes. Thank you to each of them.

Firefighters try to get some rest before heading back to fight the raging fire once more.

So thank you to all of those who were concerned about us and kept checking in to see how we were doing. Thank you to all those who offered a home, a room or a couch for us if we were evacuated. Thank you to everyone who offered prayers in our behalf. It appears your prayers were heard. We are safe and sound, and home.

*A quick thank you as well to my neighbors who supplied some of these photos. 

The Neverending Basketball Court Saga....

Less than a year after Daniel and I got married, we bought our first home- a cute little rambler. The sweet little house was 960 sq feet with a one car garage. It was an older home that had been completely remodeled.With 3 small bedrooms, a tiny living room, and a kitchen with just a few cabinets, the washer and dryer were actually IN the kitchen. I was just 18 at the time, so owning a home seemed pretty swell :-)

Well, years have gone by, we've multiplied and replenished, and have been blessed to move into our new home in Utah. When we decided to build this home, we knew we wanted to do things our way. We decided we would do them step by step, one thing at a time, to make sure we did things just the way we wanted.

One thing we knew we wanted was a basketball court. This was very important to Daniel. We have 3 sons. Dan has so many fond (some not so fond ;) memories of playing basketball with his dad and brother when he was growing up. He has always wanted to be able to create those same memories with our 3 boys.

And boy, is there a story behind our basketball court. Our lot slopes up significantly in the front. We knew this would limit the room for a court on the driveway because it wouldn't be flat. Because of this, we asked the builders to slope the driveway as steep as possible toward the road, and then flatten it off toward the house. To make a long story short, they didn't do that. The slope of the driveway made it impossible to use any of it to play basketball.

If you know my husband, you can pretty much guess how it went down from there ;-) In the end, the builder agreed to pour a separate basketball court behind the garage, to make up for the mistake. This was a perfect solution to what appeared, at first, to be a big problem.

The court has been in since we closed in November, but we didn't have a hoop. We had been looking for one, had called on a few, but nothing was quite right. One day, Daniel called me from the sporting goods store. He was giddy. Lifetime had come out with a brand new, regulation sized backboard, in the ground hoop. It was 72 inches of glass goodness. However, it was quite a bit more (like 3-5 times more) than we had agreed to spend on a hoop. But THIS was the hoop of all hoops. I knew how important it was to Dan to have a nice court, so I gave him the go ahead, and he bought the hoop.

The hoop in the store

Now the work began. First, Daniel had to dig a 4 ft by 4 ft hole, by hand. He had some help from the Js though, so that made it easier ;)

Once that was done, he had to build a concrete form, insert it into the hole, back fill the dirt around it, and then fill it with concrete. We thought we knew how much concrete we would need, but we ended up making trip after trip to buy more concrete. I think we ended up using 27 bags, to the 13 we thought we would need! The concrete then had to cure for several days.

After that was all done, he was able to install the monster hoop, with the help of a few friends- Voila! Here it was in all it's glory....

Dan, our friend Rob, and Mason, testing it out.

Mason and our neighbor, Jacob, playing ball.

Well, it seems the story should end there....but nothing is ever quite that simple, is it? A few days later, we had a horrific wind storm. The boys had been playing on the hoop the night before and all was well and good. But the next morning, when Dan went outside, this is what he found:

Our $2,000 hoop made it 3 days. It took almost a week, between buying it, having it delivered and getting it installed, just to be able to play on it. In 3 days, it was shattered. We weren't sure what happened. We wondered if it might have been the windstorm. Upon closer inspection, however, there appeared to be a circular impact mark, just about the size of a golf ball. Since we do live on the golf course, we assume that's what happened.

Dan called Lifetime to see if it was under warranty. It turns out that the rest of the hoop is, but not the glass. Replacing the glass would be about $1,000 *gasp*cough*cry*. The Lifetime employee took mercy on us though, and said that one time only, they would replace the glass at no cost to us.

It was several weeks of waiting for the new glass to arrive. We came up with a plan to protect the glass from future damage. Dan bought some plexi glass from Home Depot and cut it to the size of the backboard. He then bolted it onto the back of the metal frame, behind the glass. This way, if another golf ball comes waaaaay out of it's way and happens to hit our glass again, it will only hit the plexi, and hopefully not damage the glass itself.

After that little task was complete, Dan and his buddies once again worked their magic and installed the new backboard.

 Now we HOPE this is the end of this story- besides many years of good-natured (HA!) basketball between my husband, my boys, and many friends and family!

Things That Make Me Smile- My kids' friends :)

A couple of days ago, I got a text from my friend Melanie. Her son Jag is a year older than Jaxon and they love playing together.

 Her text said,

"Jag said to me this morning,

 'Mom, my favorite friend that I have ever had is Jaxon!"

Cute boys!

"This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you"

Curled up on the foot of my bed, I buried my face into my baby blue comforter and sobbed. My heart was broken. I was all of 13 years old, in 8th grade, and I KNEW that this was the boy I wanted to marry. But he had just dumped me. We'd been "dating" all of 2 weeks. He was in high school *swoon* while I was still in junior high and he was SO cute! I'd even held his hand (a first). He dumped me for my neighbor, who was a junior in high school- with a license! How was I supposed to compete with that? And so I cried. I cried and I cried and I cried. After a while, my mother came into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. She rubbed my back and tried to comfort me. I don't remember the entire conversation, but I vividly remember this one thing: "Honey, you're heart is going to be broken a lot more times before you find the person you're going to marry." I don't remember if or how I responded, but I remember thinking she was crazy because that boy (the only one I'd ever held hands with- I'd still never been kissed) WAS the one. She knew nothing....

I'm sure it took me all of about 4 days to find a new "boyfriend" and forget the hurt that just a few days earlier had seemed so life altering. Looking back, that boy wouldn't even make the list of "Who's Who in Adolescent Anna's Life". Until I became a mother, I never gave a second thought to what my own mom was feeling at that moment. I know that she could clearly see how insignificant that moment would be in my life, yet it's never easy to see your child hurting.

I don't yet have teenagers. Our big hurts are still limited to "he called me a doodoo face" or "She won't sit by me". And yet, as my children get older, and I slowly see the hurts start to grow, I find myself hurting for them more than they even hurt for themselves.

A few weeks ago, my daughter was invited to a birthday party for one of her sweet friends. She was ecstatic about it. We went out and bought the perfect gift, wrapped it, and made sure everything was ready to go. The night before, we had an unexpected late night with family rolling in from out of town, and then an extremely early morning. I was exhausted and laid down for a few minutes. The next thing I knew, Savannah was shaking me awake, "Mom! My party!" I asked her what time it was and she said it was 10:45. The party had started at 10:00. It was a spa party and they were planning to leave for the salon right at 10. For some reason, my phone had been turned to silent and when I checked it, I had multiple messages from people asking if she was coming, if she needed a ride, etc... She had lost track of time and I had fallen asleep. I tried calling but couldn't reach anyone, so she missed the party entirely. She was slightly bummed. I was a basket case. I felt like a failure as a mother. I knew she wanted to go to this party and I had a hard time saying to myself, "It's just a party." And yet, by mid-afternoon, she was right as rain. Why did I let it bother me so much more than it bothered her?

Today, Mason stayed home from school, sick. He had been running a fever and not feeling well for a few days. When I woke up this morning, I took one look at him and knew he should probably stay home. He was all dressed and ready, but it was apparent that he needed to rest. I talked him in to staying home one more day. About 9:15, I got a call from his teacher. She asked how he was doing. I told her he was still sick. She said she was calling because today was the school spelling bee. Mason had won his class spelling bee and qualified for this one. He had been so excited about it, but was unsure what day it was on. I knew he wasn't going to want to miss out, so I asked her to hold on while I checked with him to see if he wanted to go to school just for the spelling bee. As adamantly as he could, he said yes, he wanted to be there. I let her know I would run him right up. We were out the door in 5 minutes flat and he was in her classroom in less than 10 minutes. However, I got a call 20 minutes or so later saying he had arrived too late. They had begun giving instructions already and would not allow him in. Holding back my own tears, I told him I would be right up to get him. My heart hurt for him. I knew how much it would have meant to him to do well. It was something he had been looking forward to. I made plans in my head as to what I would say to make it better for him. I told myself to plaster a smile on and make as light of it as I could to make it easier for him. When I pulled up to the school, he was waiting on the curb. As he hopped in the car, I asked him what happened. He told me, without the least bit of emotion, and then said he was happy to be going home so he could get some rest :) I breathed a sigh of relief. He was fine.

I don't know if all parents get so emotional over every little thing in their children's lives. My guess would be that some are far more rational than I am :) I'm a highly emotional person. That said, I would guess that most parents, particularly mothers, find themselves in these same situations, just perhaps not to the same degree, over things so insignificant. There is something about being a mother that makes you literally FEEL the hurt your child is feeling. You don't just understand it, you actually feel it- and you will do just about anything to make it better for them. Each time I face one of these moments with one of my babies, I can't help but reflect back on my own parents and wonder how they did it. How did they keep it together when we were falling apart? Heaven knows we went through a lot bigger hurts than these (some as consequences of our own choices, some as just part of life). How were they feeling when we got cut from the basketball team? When we made poor choice after poor choice and they had to sit back and watch us face the consequences we brought on ourselves? When our house burned down? When we were in an accident? When someone we loved hurt us deeply? When as much as they wanted to, they couldn't protect us?

My mom and I have talked a little about these sorts of things in the past. She has told me how hard it is to know we are going to crash and burn, but to have to sit back and watch us do it. I'm not quite sure I'll be able to do it quite as well as my own parents. I have a feeling my tendency will be to jump in when I'm not needed, to try and rescue my children when they need to learn to stand on their own two feet. I'm thankful that my parents gave me the chance to learn, to fall and to fail. Because that is how I became me- and I am strong. In these same moments, I can't help but think it must be like this for our Heavenly Father. He loves us so deeply and while He has the power to rescue us from our hurts and pains, He knows that what is best for us is to learn and grow from our own choices, and the choices of others. Sometimes He has to sit back and watch us crash. It must be so hard.

As my children-the loves of my life- grow and make their own choices, I hope I can learn a lesson or two from my own parents and my Heavenly Father. I hope I can be the shoulder to cry on, the words of wisdom, a tight hug, when it is needed. At the same time, I hope I can learn that at times you have to take a step back and let them learn to fly- even though it will mean many falls before they find their wings.

Jaxon's 5 year old Checkup and Stats

Today was a big day for Jaxon! He had his 5-year-old check up and got his Kindergarten shots. I knew he would be tough as nails, like he always is, so I wasn't worried about how he would react. He did fantastic and didn't even flinch when they gave him 5 shots. The nurses said they wish that every 5 year old behaved as well as Jaxon. I actually think he enjoyed the visit.

For the checkup portion, they quizzed him on his shapes, which he aced. They also had him count, asked him how to spell his name and a few basic questions like that. He had no trouble with any of it. Jaxon is smart as could be! Here are his stats:

Alpine Pediatrics

Date of Checkup: Feb 10th, 2012

Age: 5 years old

Weight: 45.4 lbs (75th percentile)

Height: 43 inches (50th percentile)

The doctor brought up that he is quite a bit higher on the charts in weight than he is in height, and said we might want to watch and make sure he isn't eating too much junk food etc. It kind of made me giggle. Jaxon is solid as a rock and strong as an ox. I told him he came out that way at 9 lbs, 2 weeks early. He has the hands and feet of a rottweiler and I have no doubt his height will catch up with his weight at some point in the future. I was actually kind of happy to have one of my children who has a little meat on their bones :) His eye sight was 20/20 which they said was great considering his eyes are still developing. They said it means he will likely have good eyesight in the future as well.

All in all, we found out that he is just as healthy and strong as we thought he was. He is now all registered for kindergarten and ready to go!

Social Sushi

Sometimes it seems as if, when I look back on my life, it's divided into pre-move and post-move. We had a great life in Idaho, but so much has changed since we made the move. I think it's fair to say that as happy as we were before, we have found even more happiness since. It's amazing what happens when you are where you belong, when you belong there.

Over the past several years, I've maintained a pretty active social life. I've considered it a blessing to be able to have that in my life, when I know a lot of moms struggle to find people outside of their family that they are close to. I had a remarkable group of friends in Idaho and was never lacking for someone to go spend girl time with. I am forever thankful to those friends and I love them dearly.

Daniel, however, was not all that social. A big part of that, I believe, came down to the amount of stress he was under at work. He had plenty of friends at work, but when he came home, he often times just wanted to unwind and have a little alone time. He rarely ever went out with guy friends.

Since the move, that has all changed. Once again, I have been so blessed to find such great friends, in such a short period of time. I never imagined I would feel this at home so soon after the move. Dan, on the other hand, has morphed into this social creature which was never before seen :) He often gets together with is guy friends for "Menrichment" (I know you laughed at that!), to see a movie, go out to eat, play some basketball, or whatever else they feel like. Luckily for us, most of his guy friends are the husbands of my girl friends! This makes things that much more fun when we all get together as couples.

This past weekend, my sweet little sister Miriam and her wonderful family, came down to visit us. It was perfect timing since we had a sushi date planned with a few of our friends. Miriam's kids and my 2 older kids are very close so they were thrilled to be able to spend time with each other. We left the kids home and went out to sushi with our good friends the Wycherlys, the Twittys and the McConkies. They are all in our ward and we've grown to love them in the short time that we have lived here.

We went to my favorite sushi restaurant (I should come clean and say I've never liked sushi until recently but after eating at this place, I'm hooked!), Blue Fish. The food was fantastic and so was the company. I got some quality time with my sister and her hubby, that I love every bit as much as I love her.

We had a great time at sushi and the kids had a great time with each other. I am thankful to have found a group of friends that we have so much in common with. It's been fun to see this new social side of Daniel and be able to involve him more in these kinds of activities. He can be the life of the party when he isn't hiding behind an iPhone or computer. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I am once again thankful for the new life we have built here and all the blessings that we have been given. Life is good!

Details of Life- My car :)

Looking back on my childhood, I often wish I had pictures of things and places that hold special memories for me. There are plenty of me and my siblings, in all our mullet and plaid pants-ed glory, but few of our home, schools, cars, neighborhood etc. How fun would it be to look back on our "SUPER COOL NEW '77 DODGE DART" (okay so it wasn't new- it was actually a hand-me-down from- yep, our grandparents :)  -  or our "SOOO awesome Vanilla Ice casette tape that we could play in our boombox!" So in the spirit of looking out for my children's future nostalgic sides (and making fun of what they used to think was sooo cool), I thought I'd post a few of those things here on my blog :) It might be boring to others to see the mundane details of our life, but I keep this blog mostly as a journal and a record of my kids' childhoods- and this is all part of that.

A few months ago, we finally decided to trade in my long ago-paid off Ford Expedition for something a little newer and nicer. We found a great deal on my dream car. I've been wanting an Escalade for a while but it was hard to commit to that kind of a payment when my current vehicle was paid off. But when we found this one, we were sold.

  It's a Cadillac Escalade ESV, Platinum Edition. It is the most comfortable vehicle we've ever had. It's so great for long drives, like our frequent trips back to Idaho.

Some of our favorite features are:
- Two built in DVD players- one for the second seat and one for the third seat with Bose wireless headsets.
- Heated and cooled seats for all 4 captains chairs, front and middle.
-Heated and cooled cup holders in the front and middle seats.
- Built in GPS navigation system
-Bose Surround sound.
- Large amount of cargo space in the back, behind the third seat (the reason for going with the ESV instead of the regular Escalade).

My kids absolutely love it (and so do I). Our road trips are much more fun than they were with our previous car. The captains seats in the middle are very wide and so comfortable. We wouldn't want any trip to be conflict free however, or we might start to wonder if these were really our children. This vehicle even has a solution for that- the kids tease each other by turning on the seat coolers in the middle of the winter :) Our kids are still our kids after all!

A Teacher's Love

When it came time for us to move, one of my biggest worries was how Mason would adjust. Not only was I worried because he is older, and the older you are, the harder it is to start over- but I was also worried because he is so shy. Mason does not adjust to change well at all. He puts himself to bed, right on time, every night. He gets himself up in the morning and does his chores at the same time every day. He thrives on a constant routine. If you need to change things up for some reason, it's best with Mason if you give him as much of a heads up as possible and prepare him for what the change will entail. He's not big on surprises :) So taking all these things in to account, I was worried for him.

In Idaho, Mason had a huge bedroom, all to himself. We lived on 2 acres and there was plenty of room for him to be alone when he wanted, and to play when he wanted. And his life was predictable, just like he likes it. Then we took him out of that life, threw him into a condo where he had to share a tiny little room with his brothers and no longer had a yard he could go out and play on. He had no space of him own- nowhere he could go to unwind. This is something that Mason spends a lot of time doing.

Mason has always been a very good student. He is in 6th grade now and I've never had to worry about how he was doing in school. As this new year started, I hoped that would continue and I prayed he would get a good teacher. My worries seemed to be justified when I found out that just a few weeks into the school year, Mason's grades were already dropping. He was not turning in many assignments. Sometimes he would even complete them and then just leave them sitting on or in his desk while the rest of his classmates turned them in. He seemed lost. At his first parent teacher conference, his teacher expressed her concern as well. Together, his teacher, Dan and I, and Mason came up with some steps that we hoped would help him. His teacher had clued in to the fact that he was not adjusting well to the move. Instead of labeling him as a mediocre student (easy to do in a class of almost 40), she wanted to do everything in her power to help him adjust and succeed. As a parent, when you see a child's behavior change, and not for the better, it's scary. You can't help but wonder if it's the beginning of a long and painful road for your child. You know that you'll do whatever it takes to get them back on a successful path and to save them from any sort of a spiral downward. It doesn't matter if it's just 6th grade grades- you still worry- and you still do whatever you can to help as fast as you possibly can.

To make a long story short, we moved into our house in November and at that same time, we implemented the habits and routines in Mason's day that we felt would help him to better succeed. By the end of the trimester, his grades were once again up to As.

We are now halfway into the second trimester, and he has maintained his good grades. I have seen the efforts that his teacher is putting in, for him individually, to make sure he is successful. She has truly gone above and beyond her job description and has never treated him like "just another student".

Over the last 2 months, not only did his grades raise, but he won his school Reflection's contest in literature for a poem he wrote, he won his class spelling bee and is now going to be competing against the rest of the grade and school, and he also directed a Greek play for his class and did a tremendous job on that. He is a member of the chess club and one of their strongest players. He has started basketball season and is loving that as well. He is truly a different boy than he was just a few months ago.

Today, when I went to get the mail, I saw a note from his teacher. I didn't even read the envelope to see that it was addressed to him. I assumed it was to me since I am also his class mom. I opened the letter and inside was a Thank you Card.

Here is what it says: "Dear Mason,
                                          Thank you for the delicious chocolates- which were quickly consumed by me and my family- and the misteltoe soap- whose fragrance reminds me daily of you and Christmas! I am so happy you moved to Utah AND to my classroom. I know it has been difficult for you, but I am so proud of the way you handled it and of your successes. You have gained the respect and friendships of your classmates. You did a fabulous job as the director of your team's Greek play, and with your Reflection's poem, and the spelling bee and I could go on and on. You are awesome!

Love,

Mrs. Cook "

This note will mean the world to Mason. He is so sensitive to the opinions of his parents, teachers and coaches. As my children have grown, I have seen that there is such a disparity between teachers. Teachers who truly love and care for each individual child are few and far between- and teachers who do so in the midst of budget cuts and overcrowding are even fewer. I know it's not an accident that Mason ended up in the class that he did. This was one of the many tender mercies we received when we took the leap of faith and made this move. I am forever grateful for those, and for this sweet teacher who has changed my son's life for the better.

The gift of Music...

Growing up as the oldest daughter of a piano teacher, I was destined to learn to play. Not a day has gone by that I'm not thankful for this. My mother taught me, and my father impressed upon the importance of being willing to share this talent with those who needed it, particularly at church. My parents knew all too well that there are never enough people willing and able to play :)

I began teaching myself right after Savannah was born. She was the happiest baby and would sit in her chair and just listen. She didn't cry. She didn't squirm. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it. Imagine my surprise when at just 3 years old, my tiny little girl came up to me and told me she wanted to learn. Three year olds do not play the piano. 4 year olds do not play the piano. Most 5 and 6 year olds are still not ready to play the piano. And here was my three year old telling me she wanted to learn. I told her frankly that she was not old enough- she didn't even know her letters- how could she play the piano? Just a few days later, that sweet little 3 year old came to me and told me, "Mom, I've learned A-G and that's all I need to know to play the piano." I was amazed that she had picked that up just from listening to me teach other students, and thought I would humor her a little bit since she had put in so much effort. I told her I would teach her the finger numbers but that was it. She would have to wait until she was older to learn more.


And so I did. And it wasn't good enough for her. She took it upon herself to move along- to go ahead of what I was showing her. She had listened and learned enough just by watching me teach others, that she was able to pick up much more than she should have been. And so, my tiny little 3 year old daughter began reading music. At 4, she played in her first recital. At 4 1/2 she competed in her first piano festival where she got a 97/100. Students aren't allowed to enter unless they can read music on the grand staff and play with both hands simultaneously. You should have seen the look on the face of the judge as I walked her to the classroom to play her songs. You should have seen the smile on that judges face as she walked her back out to me.

I stopped teaching when I had my boys. It was just too hard to teach and juggle 2 babies. They didn't sit there, happy, like their sister had. They wanted my undivided attention. To everything there is a season, right?

My boys are older now. Mason is now old enough to help out with them. I also now have a room with locking double doors where I can teach, in peace, without interruption. And so, after a few years off, I decided to begin teaching again. I initially said I would just pick up 5 students. I don't have a lot of extra time but it's something I wanted to do. I was surprised when word got out that I was teaching, and I was bombarded with phone calls. I ended up taking quite a few more students than I had planned, but I still kept it manageable.

 As I've begun teaching again, and loving every second of it, I found myself reflecting back on my sweet little girl and her amazing ability. If someone told me they had a child that age who could actually play the piano- I'm not sure I would believe them. So I'm sure glad I took videos of that little girl doing her thang :) Here are 2 videos of Savannah playing, right before her first recital in 2008. This wasn't the actual performance and she's kind of in her own little world- she looks around the room and makes a few mistakes, but even so, I love watching these videos :) I can't wait to see what she does in the future!

Sickies

It's been a fun week or two!

It started a couple of weeks ago when Savannah started complaining about not feeling well and started coughing. She is so healthy so she didnt say much and it wasn't bad the first few days. On Friday (10 days ago), Mason started complaining of the same symptoms. By Sunday, Mason and Savannah were both running high fevers and coughing like crazy! Monday it was Jaxon's turn. By Thursday it was Jayden, and as of yesterday, Daniel. It's obviously some strain of influenza (swine flu is rampant around here it seems!) so we all stayed quarantined for most of the week. Daniel left for a business trip yesterday and he's feeling terrible. As of today, Mason and Savannah are back to school and doing well, with the exception of that nasty cough. Jaxon is no longer running a fever but he still doesn't seem 100%. And poor little Jayden is just miserable! It seems to be taking each person about a week or so to kick this. I am praying I dont get sick because I need to be able to take care of everyone else.

Savannah also broke out in a terrible rash today. I am watching it overnight to decide if it needs looked at. It's all over her entire body, even her face. She is itching but not running a fever. Im guessing it's some sort of hives, but figure I'll watch it and see.

So here's to health-wherever it may be ;)

Ashlee and Pete- really?

Bronx Mowgli Wentz?

Seriously people, have mercy on the poor child.

is it ME?

The past week, I've been spending my life on the phone, trying to get other people's stupid mistakes figured out. It must be me because I swear, it's not normal for this many things to be "processed incorrectly".

Last week, I got a statement from my insurance saying that Jaxon's hospitalization was denied because he was not eligible for benefits at the time of service. So I called them to find out what was up. You would think that if you pay $500 a month for insurance that you rarely use anyway, they would be willing to pay when it is actually needed. They said it was their error and they would indeed pay all the claims that they denied (which was the hospital, the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the radiologist etc...).

Then, I got a statement in the mail saying our house payment was late. So I called because we recently refinanced and our old mortgage was supposed to be paid off weeks ago. When I called, I was told they couldn't access that information since they were undergoing system maintenance. I would have to call back another time to find out whether it had indeed been paid off. Here it is the end of the month and Im panicking because if for any reason, they haven't received the funds, they could report it to the credit bureau. I tried to access it online as well but had no luck their either.

Then today I took Mason's lunch money up to the school. I took it straight to the lunch room and paid cash. A couple hours later, he called me to say they wouldn't let him eat lunch because he didnt have lunch money. Apparently they didnt get it put into the computer or something....

After that, I ran to Target to get some birthday stuff for Mason. I wrote a check. He told me my check was not approved. I was confused since I have never had a returned check. I asked for a number to call to find out why it was not approved. He didnt have one, but called the front desk, who didn't know either, and gave me their guest relations number. So I called and explained, and was told, "We're sorry. Our system is having issues and we cannot accept any checks right now. It has nothing to do with your account, we are just asking all guests to pay with another tender until we get it fixed." Would have been nice if the store had known that so I hadn't felt like an idiot when they told me they wouldn't take my check!

Then I got the mail, and sure enough, there is a bill from the hospital saying the insurance has failed to pay and I now have to pay thousands of dollars right away. So I get to call the insurance back, and I get to call the hospital, to see if I can get that resolved before we have anything showing as delinquent.

I also had a battery for my camera go bad. So several weeks ago I called and since it is warranteed, they said they would be sending me a new one and it would be here in 2-3 buisness days. That was 3 weeks ago, and it has not arrived. So I get to call them as well to find out where it is.

Is this normal? I give my money to all of these people and you'd think that would make things go smoothly, but no, apparently it's very common for people to not realize that you are or have given them money. I would have lots more free time if I didnt have to spend so much of it on the phone taking care of these issues. Seems like I need to keep my schedule completely free so that I can spend the day doing nothing except straightening out whatever messes have been made with my accounts :)

Phew...there is my rant for the day!

Before you have kids

No, I didnt make this up. I'm not this witty. But I couldnt resist posting it because it's my life times 4 :)


Follow these simple lessons before you decide to have children...

Lesson 1
Go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
Go home. Pick up a newspaper. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and advise them how to improve:1) Their methods of discipline.2) Their lack of patience.3) Their appallingly low tolerance levels.4) Their practice of allowing their children to run wild.
Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and overall behaviour. Enjoy it. It will be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
To discover how the nights will feel ...
1) Walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag of old lentil soup weighing approximately 4-6kg, with a radio tuned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2) At 10pm, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
3) Get up at 12pm and walk the bag around the living room until 1am.
4) Set the alarm for 3am.
5) As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a cup of tea.
6) Go to bed at 2.45am.
7) Sing songs in the dark until 4 am.
8) Get up. Make breakfast.Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

Lesson 4
Dressing small children is not as easy at it seems.
1) Buy a live octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2) Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 5
Forget the BMW and buy a practical 5-door saloon. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1) Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2) Get a coin. Insert it in the cassette player.
3) Take a family size package of chocolate biscuits, mash them into the back seat.
4) Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.There.... perfect.

Lesson 6
Get ready to go out.
1) Wait outside the bathroom for half an hour.
2) Go out the front door.
3) Come in again.
4) Go out.
5) Come back in.
6) Go out again.
7) Walk down the front path/driveway.
8) Walk back up it.
9) Walk down it again.
10) Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
11) Stop, inspect minutely, and ask at least 6 questions about every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect.
12) Retrace your steps
13) Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbours come out and stare at you.
14) Give up and go back into the house.You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Lesson 7
Repeat everything you say at least, if not more than, 100 times.

Lesson 8
Go to the local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is excellent). If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goat(s) out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 9
1) Hollow out a melon.
2) Make a small hole in the side.
3) Suspend the melon from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4) Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5) Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6) Tip half of the remainder into your lap. The other half just throw up in the air.You are now ready to feed a 12 month old baby.

Lesson 10
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street, Barney, Teletubbies and Disney. Watch nothing else on TV for at least five years.

Lesson 11
Move to the tropics. Find or make a compost heap. Dig down about halfway in and stick your nose in it. Do this 3-5 times a day for two years. Get used to it.

Lesson 12
Make a recording of Janet Street-Porter or Pee Wee Herman shouting "Mummy" repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each "Mummy" - occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 13
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continuously tug on your skirt hem/shirt sleeve/elbow while playing the "Mummy" tape made from Lesson 12 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Lesson 14Put on your finest work attire. Pick a day in which you have an important meeting. Now:
1) Take a cup of cream, and put 1 cup lemon juice in it.
2) Stir.
3) Dump half of it on your nice silk shirt. Saturate a towel with the other half of the mixture.
4) Attempt to clean your shirt with the saturated towel.
5) Do NOT change. You have no time.
6) Go directly to work.

Lesson 15
Go for a drive, but first....
1) Find one large tomcat and six pit bulls.
2) Borrow a child safety seat and put it in the back seat of your car.
3) Put the pit bulls in the front seat of your car.
4) While holding something fragile or delicate, strap the cat into the child seat.For the really adventurous.... Run some errands, remove and replace the cat at each stop.You are now ready to have kids!

Am I brave or what?

Not only did I give birth to 4 children *brave*

Not only did I decide to do a triathlon when I did not know how to swim *brave*

Not only did I drive myself to the hospital in full blown labor *brave*

I totally out-braved myself this time.

This time I double-braved! First, I got into a swimsuit, 3 weeks post baby.

And while I was at it, I took 4 kids including my 18 month old, AND my 3 week old, to a water park, an hour and a half away from home. Yup. I am brave.

Last summer, with all my triathlon training, my kids got to spend a lot of time in the water. And they loved it! So they have been dying to go swimming this summer. Daniel has been traveling pretty much non-stop since Jayden was born, so when he got home Thursday night, we told the kids we would take them to Lava Hot Springs this weekend before he flew out again. Truth be told, I was not looking forward to sitting in the sweltering sun, covering up a fussy newborn for hours on end, while my family marinated. Jayden was 1 day post circumcision so his mood was unstable at best.

It must have been my lucky day. Savannah was just tall enough to ride the slides. Jaxon was having a blast in the water. Jayden slept most of the time and contentedly sucked on his pacifier. Some shade opened up for us to sit in. And Daniel took a turn with Jayden so I could play in the pool with the kids as well. It was such a fun family day!

Here are some pictures- of everyone in the family- but me. I may have gotten into a swimsuit 3 weeks post baby, but there would be no capturing of that image for posterity. I said I was brave-not crazy.

Savannah, Daniel and Jax in the pool

Jayden lovin' the bink

Mason shivering

Jaxon upping the cool factor

Savannah practicing hopping on one foot- a skill we all should master

Jax and Daddy, hangin' like boys do

Some hot guy I took a picture of at the pool (and incidentally, got to come home with me *wink*)

Savannah eating a protien bar

He's loving that water

Mason and Savannah walking up to the water slides.