4-22-08 After our trip to the park, I snapped these pictures of the boys with my Spring bulbs. Most of these flowers are now past their prime, but I have more tulips coming up now. I love the low-effort, high-results quality of Spring bulbs.

The boys had a great time at the park, and I love how the colors in my pictures turned out.

The boys played a brief game of Scrabble tonight and Marcus used his creative spelling skills to come up with this word/sentence--"UBETEDI" which he pronounced "You bet, Eddie!" That's worth 10 points in "Scrabble: The Text-Message Edition".

April 24, 2008 When I was called to be cubmaster, the single thing I dreaded most about the calling was the Pinewood Derby. As with most things in life, it wasn't as horrible as I feared, but it was a lot of work, I'm glad it's over, and I will definitely do things differently another time. The top picture shows Marcus's car in lane 1, and Sheridan's in lane 2 just before one of their races began. The pictures of the boys didn't turn out too well, and Sheridan was dealing with feeling quite disappointed in how his car performed (he had a bad wheel). The bottom picture shows the plaques I made for each of the boys (with considerable help from both Dad and Guy and a neighbor with a nice router. Also, I had Marenda's neighbor do the vinyl lettering for me and she gave me a deal). These were designed to hang on the wall and hold the cars on the little shelf. I used my label maker to print the "awards" each car won, and put the label on the front of the shelf (Marcus won "Best Racing Stripes" and Sheridan won "Best Paint Job"). This was my attempt to bring the focus back where I think it should be--on the cars the kids built, not on how fast they went.

Alternatives I'm Considering for the Next Pinewood Derby I'm In Charge Of:

1. If Den leaders are willing, build the cars completely at Den meetings and not allow the parents to touch them at all. (This, however, defeats one purpose of the derby which is to get the boys to work WITH their parents in building the car. It would prevent certain Dads from becoming TOO involved.)

2. Let the kids build them at home, but have a "BOYS ONLY" of at least "DADS NOT INVITED" derby.

3. (My favorite option right now) I got this idea from the SuperScoutGuy who came and set up the track and ran the race and gave me a computer print-out of the results (for the well-worth-it fee of $50). He once ran a derby that was composed of 4-5 different "events" set up around the room. Each boy was given a score card and allowed to go to whatever events they wanted. One was the derby track and they'd just race whoever happened to be around (they'd get points for how they finished to add to their card). The other events included "straight as an arrow" to see how straight the cars could drive, and "bullseye" where the boys would try and drive their cars to stop on a certain point. Again, points would be awarded for how well they did on each. I'm not sure what he did with the points in the end, but there was no overall race winner, and he said the boys had a great time. Liz added that it would be fun to also allow the boys to vote on some design awards as part of it.

Overall, the derby went well and the plaques were a really big hit, but I have yet to actually ENJOY one of these events.

April 20-21, 2008 Guy's birthday was Monday, and I managed to pull off a pretty good surprise for him. I had wanted to take advantage of the fact that I'm not pregnant or nursing and that my parents live close by, for Guy and I to run away for a short time. I'd looked online for some kind of cabin rental nearby where maybe we could do some hiking, and because I thought Guy would appreciate that the most. I wasn't having any luck, though, and brought it up at a visiting teaching appt., asking where the others would recommend. They mentioned some of the "theme" hotels around, and a couple other places, when I told them that I'd really been thinking about a cabin. At this point the gal I visit teach said, "well, why don't you go stay in one of ours?" (her husband has two cabins he's trying to get set up as time-share vacation homes, I believe, but they aren't "ready" yet, which means they aren't fully furnished and decorated, I guess). The dates worked out, and she and her husband generously gave me keys and directions to the place (this cabin was in Sundance).

So, on Sunday, Mom and Dad came over for dinner (I do have to backtrack here and say that I hounded Guy pretty good to get his Scouting responsibilities taken care of on Sunday BEFORE dinner, and I think he was getting annoyed with me--but they were done), and at the end of the meal they gave him their present for him (though they really needn't have brought one), and then I told him that his next present was that Mom and Dad were going to watch the kids for us while we went for a little ride. I'd managed to clandestinely pack the car (it's awfully challenging to surprise someone who is home all the time--but that's too long for this story), so we started driving and Guy started trying to guess where we were going. He noticed I'd put some DVDs in the car, so he thought we were driving into the canyon to watch a movie on our portable DVD player (we've actually done that before on a date--we also got Thai take-out that time--and it was really fun), but he was thrown by the fact that I had a garage-door opener with me. At any rate, he was very surprised when we got to the cabin and found we were staying the night. (Thanks SO MUCH Mom and Dad for your wonderful help with the kids!)

It was a nice place, to say the least, and we made good use of the hot tub and the nice AV equipment. I'd packed snacks and breakfast food, and it was wonderful to just be leisurely, to relax, and to have a conversation (several, actually :-) without being interrupted. I was thrilled that the surprise worked, Guy was floored by it all, and we both felt greatly rejuvenated to have had our little get-away.

The moral of the story: It pays to do your visiting teaching :-) Any suggestions on what kind of "thank-you" I can do for my VTee and her husband, or for my parents?

(The pictures show us on the front porch, Guy in the Theater room, the main living area--taken from a loft, and a view of the back.)

Saturday, April 19 We had a family party to celebrate two birthdays-- Guy's (the 21st) and my niece, Addie's (the 26th). Top to Bottom: Kalen and her friend, David decorate Mitchell for the party; Addie blows out the candles on the doughnut cake my mom made for her; Mitchell helps Guy blow out the candles on his carrot cake (Mitchell was actually very upset and wanted us to re-light the candles); Mitchell enjoys some of Addie's "cake."

And then Change Back Again! (4-7-08) This was the scene a couple of weeks ago after some of the schizophenic weather we've had lately. Guy took these pictures of the snow that had collected on the slide, frozen into a sheet and then slid down.

During General Conference (April 5, 2008) During Elder Ballard's wonderful talk to mothers, he said he wanted to address his remarks specifically to the young mothers. I don't feel particularly "young" these days so I turned to Guy and asked, "Am I a young mother?" Before he even had a chance to respond, Sheridan offered his opinion--"No." "So, am I an old mother?" I asked. "No. You are a moderately aged mother."

March 25, 2008 Mitchell tries out my new (and as-yet still un-filled) music cabinet.

This was in response to my friend Zina's blog post ("Some Days You Feel Like Cinderella")earlier this week:

I could so completely relate to this post it was almost freaky. We were having a great Sunday morning, everyone was getting ready in good time–but me. I have a really dumb-looking sunburn on my face from being out Saturday without sunscreen (and with sunglasses), and I was feeling self-conscious. I too thought I’d like to bear my testimony, so that made me more self-conscious. I also had issues with panty hose–namely that I didn’t want to wear them, and I felt it was too warm to wear boots, but my bare legs are just a frightening sight, so I was trying to find a longer skirt, etc. etc. This process took a ridiculously LONG TIME, and I ended up just going with what I was wearing in the moment I decided I’d really pushed the limits of wardrobe reason. So, because I’d spent so long deciding what to wear, my hair was an unfortunate afterthought, and I hadn’t finished putting my makeup on. I tried to grab what I needed while the boys were getting in the car (Guy was already at church for a meeting), and my mascara was NO WHERE to be found (I still haven’t found it). I so wanted to just give it up and crawl back in bed, but you can’t do that when you’re the mom. I had determined that I would NOT be getting up in front of anyone, but I really felt like I wanted/needed to bear my testimony (primarily in light of our experiences with Mitchell this last month), and thinking about Mitchell put my morning in perspective. I swallowed my pride and got up in front of the congregation with sickly-white legs, an outfit I didn’t feel comfortable in, dirty hair pulled back in a barette and no mascara. So, not quite a Cinderella story, but for me it was an important victory over vanity and self-consciousness.

Since Marcus was born and I first began writing about him (journal, websites, scrapbooks, now blogs), I chose to write "Marcus's" when I needed to use the possessive, basing this on what I remembered from Grammar classes, etc. Now, eight years later, my self-confidence is not what it once was, and before I wrote these last several posts, I did a web search on the issue of possessive nouns ending in "s". According to englishrules.com, at least, my decision is "correct." But the Macmillan College Handbook adds that if a noun has 2 or more syllables, you have the option of using only one apostrophe on the end. I think I'll stick with my way for now.

Also interesting to note: "Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is [such as Achilles' and Isis'], the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake." (Strunk and White, The Elements of Style)

The website also had this puzzle (which I didn't figure out before I saw the answer):
"What word can be a plural when an "s" is added to it, and when an additional "s" is added, it becomes singular again?"

(I'll post the answer in the comments)

Some Highlights:
*Guy's dad flew out from Omaha to be here.
*Mitchell entertained us while we were waiting for a few last people to arrive (he was really determined to write on the white board also).
*Marcus asked all the Primary kids in attendance to sing "If The Savior Stood Beside Me" that they've been learning at Church.
*Sheridan and Drake gave the two talks and they were wonderful. (Deren said later that in Drake's first draft he included an opening joke: "Marcus asked me to talk on the Holy Ghost. OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Thankfully, though, parental influences prevailed. :-)
*Much of the food for the get-together afterwards came from my cousin Jean, who had greatly overbought for a baby shower the night before. They were really fabulous leftovers!

"Special" is often over-used to describe times such as this one, but I think it fits. It is certainly an exceptional experience to see your child in a sacred moment. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a great day.

March 23, 2008 I really wanted to get a picture of Mitchell in his cute new (not handed-down!) outfit BEFORE church because I knew it wouldn't look so cute after the three-hour ordeal. As you can see, however, Mitchell was not such a willing model.

March 22, 2008 The local family gathered at my parents' house for a picnic (it was a little chilly, but we made it happen) and egg hunt. I have to take all my pictures before the hunt begins (first three pics here) because once we say go, I can't get the boys to stop or go slow enough for me to get any good ones. Mitchell actually cheated a little in that he claimed one egg before the hunt officially began (picture 2). In fact he really didn't get the concept this year, but thought all the fuss was pretty fun.

March 22, 2008 Guy was on a Scout campout so I enlisted the help of my niece Kalen with the Saturday morning sports craziness (she went with Marcus to his game while I took Caleb to his). Then we went back to our place and Kalen helped the boys color eggs. This was actually the first year the boys really got into coloring eggs. In previous years Sheridan especially would color two or three and say, "I'm done." They tried out some different techniques, Marcus tried to create the darkest blue Easter egg ever (appetizing, yes?), and they ended up asking me to boil more eggs. The highlight of the activity, though was Mitchell's pure joy at repeatedly dropping a hard boiled egg. He kept trying to put it on his big spoon and when it would fall off, he'd giggle uncontrollably.


* An interesting outcome when you have boys decorating the Easter eggs--all but a small handful (mainly the few that Kalen and I got to color) were either blue or green.