Something from Sara

I got a new calling. I am Tyler's primary teacher. Well when I accepted this call I didn't know that I would be teaching half of the primary. Yeah that's right. They have combined three classes and I am the teacher. So yesterday was my first day. There were about 10 kids in the class and they were all boys except for one 4 year old little girl. Things were going about how I had expected, noisy and wiggly and not much of a lesson, when I was hit with this comment...
Me: Let me tell you a story about when Jesus healed 10 lepers.
Little Girl (Who is grabbing herself): Oh, I wish I had my cream that makes my vagina stop itching.
Boy you never know what you are going to get when you go to the primary. Can't wait until next week.

I was reading my friend (and Shane's cousin) Christian's blog and he had just added music to his blog and mentioned that he often wondered why people choose the music that they do and I know exactly why I have chosen each song on my blog and most of them have a funny memory attatched to them. Today I added Whitney Houston's I will always love you. I added this for all the campers in the Cottonwood Campground at Rockport. When I worked there it seemed that this song used to come on B98.7 every Sunday Morning around 8:30 am (right as I was getting set up in the booth) and since I know every word, I'd crank it up and belt it out. I don't know how many people I would wake up, but who cares, it was Sunday morning and I was at work.
As for the Cher songs If I could turn back time and Just like Jesse James, Susie gave me the tape when I was like 8 or 9 years old. I can sing every word to every song on the whole album, I wore out the tape, and I have also wore out a CD, and now I just settle for downloading my favorite songs. But the other Cher song with Peter Cetera... Now that one is for my old roommate and good friend Sara. One morning her alarm radio came on and it was that song and it was just starting. I was already up and going and I started to sing to her. "Well here we are again, I guess it must be fate" and she looked up at me and says "Well I guess it must not be." and she slams her hand down on the snooze button and rolls back over. I laughed about it all day while I was a school and when I came home and told her about it...she had no idea that it had ever happened. I still like to tease her about that sometimes.
Anyway, I chose Drive by Alan Jackson, because it reminds me of my dad and how he used to let all of us girls drive the old red truck down in the field and even sometimes on the road between our house and the field. And he would tell us to turn left and we would crank the wheel hard and the next thing that we would hear is him yelling from the back of the truck "NO! THE OTHER LEFT, THE OTHER LEFT!!" I still have trouble with left and right, maybe that's why.
All for Love by Bryan, Rod and Sting is for my sisters. There are four of us and Rose would play the sheet music on the piano, Susie and Erica would sing Sting and Bryan, and I would sing for Rod. I love Rod Stuart, and so I would always get his part.
9 to 5 and Rodeo is for all the fishing trips that we would take as a family. Dad's old truck didn't have a good radio in it and so instead of listening to the radio we would make our own family music and we would sing at the top of our lung every song that we knew all the words too.
And my favorite of all...The gambler by Kenny Rogers. In 1999, my dad had knee surgery and was laid up for a while. I got out of school around the middle of April (Gotta love BYU) and I moved home before anyone else, and Erica was still in high school and so in the daytime it was just me and him. While I was at school I got hooked on the Donnie and Marie show and I would make Dad watch it with me and one day Kenny was the guest. Marie kept begging him to sing the Gambler (Which I'd never heard before), and finally he agreed. Dad who had been complaining the whole time because I was making him watch a stupid show, suddenly became quiet, and Kenny started to sing, and soon Donnie and Marie joined in and then Dad started to sing along with them. By the end of the song, Dad was all misty eyed. He'll deny this of course, but I know the truth and all I can say is that he doesn't remember it because he was on a lot of pain medication.

Me and Chris riding the Alpine slide at the Snow King resort, Jill took Brooklyn, and Shane took Tyler. I'd never been on one of these before, but it was definately fun, and resonably priced. And all the kids got to ride on a ski lift which was pretty fun for all of them. Chris and I were the last in line to go of our family and when Jill and Shane and the kids got on the slide he kind of looked at me like "When is it going to be our turn, I am so excited to go." and when it was finally our turn to go, he tried to lift the sled onto the slide for me like "come on mom, what's taking so long." He really loved it. Brooklyn loved it too. From what I hear, she threw a major crying fit when they had to take the sled off the slide and put it away at the bottom of the hill. Tyler is still talking about how he and Dad didn't put the brakes on the whole time down the hill and they were going "super fast."

Bear World was fun

And you actually get to see some bears

The kids holding hands (Tyler refused to follow the crowd, and Tracen was in his stroller, otherwise this is all the grandkids)

Brooklyn in her hat that she made at Grandma and Grandpa's room

Family picture on the Gondola ride at Teton Village

Chris talking to some friendly Jackson Hole Strangers

Family Picture by the antler sculpture at Jackson Hole

Jill and I rode the zip line at the Grand Targhee resort, you had to climb up a telephone pole, then get harnessed up to the cable while you balance on a two foot square platform, then jump off the platform. It was really scary but once you jumped off it was a lot of fun. I'd definately do that again.

So we left for vacation on Friday morning. The plan was to meet at the gas station at 8:15 am. I was so proud of myself, I got all the beds made and the house actually looked clean, and we were at the gas station and had the car all gassed up by 8:13 am. Nobody else showed up until around 8:30ish, but we were there. Anyway we drove for a ways and around Malad ID Jill's car called us and said they were going to stop for sodies and a stretch, we decided that since the kids were still quiet and happy we would not stop...Big Mistake...about 4 miles past Malad, they started to fuss and it was getting to be close to lunch time, and so I broke out some crackers. White Cheddar Cheese Nips to be exact. The kids calmed down. About six miles past Malad, Brooklyn (who had consumed around 25-30 crackers by now) choked on one and threw up all over herself and her carseat. So we had to pull over and clean everything up. Anyway the rest of the vacation went pretty smoothly. I still need to shampoo the upholstery in the car, but we didn't have any other major mishaps. We stayed in a really nice condo called the Targhee Creek Resort and it was a really beautiful place to stay. I also really loved driving up over the Teton Pass into Jackson Hole. What a pretty place.

In an effort to make our vacation more enjoyable, I started to make the twins sleep in their pack and play's for their naps. Monday was the first day and they both screamed for about five minutes before going to sleep. Well they take up the rest of the bedroom so before I could put them in the crib for bed Monday night I had to fold one of them up which was extremely hard on Brooklyn. She started to scream "Bed! Bed!" and cried when I put her in her crib instead of the playpen. Yesterday was better. No screaming before naps and we folded up the bed before she was in the room so that it wasn't so traumatic for her. Today, since they were so good yesterday, I moved them into my room. Brooklyn was not so happy when she saw me folding up her bed to fit it through the door but neither one seemed to mind sleeping in my room. They wouldn't lay down and I thought that it would take them forever to go to sleep, but to my surprise I never heard them. So they must have laid down. Anyway, they seem to be sleeping ok in the beds so I hope that my little experiment helps when we are in Jackson this weekend, because so far our vacation experience with the twins includes them waking up at all hours of the night, and us sneaking around trying to get to the bathroom without making any kind of noise, so that we don't wake them up. And then usually after a mostly sleepless night we all get up around 5:30. We usually only go for overnighters, but this time we leave Friday and don't get home until Monday. We'll have to wait and see how it goes.
We went to storytime today and the "reader" was reading books about Ladybugs. Then the kids got to do a craft and they made a doorhanger with a ladybug on it. It was fun and on the way home we listened to Brooklyn practice her new word...Lady....Bug....Lady....Bug. It was so cute.

My mom and dad went on their trip to Europe yesterday morning. Grandma Gogo took them to the airport around 4:00 am. Things were going well. They had six scheduled layovers until they finally would land in Rome. Well they got to Phoenix ok. Then they went to Chicago I think. Then they were off to New York. Except the plane ran out of gas and they had to stop in Boston. While they were waiting for the plane to refuel in Boston, they missed their flight to Germany. Which consequently they also missed their flight to Rome. So they called me this morning. They were still in New York, their new flight to Germany didn't leave until 5:30 this afternoon which means that as of this post time, they are still in New York. They will miss their whole first day of touring Rome. They are at least not alone, there are 18 other students and adults with them. Boy is my mom glad that she is NOT the organizer of the trip this year. And who knows where their luggage will end up. Before my mom's phone died she mentioned that they had spent the night in the chairs at the airport, and that everyone was walking around like zombies. Have a fun two weeks guys!
Brooklyn said her first sentence today "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." She said it with her nose plugged, mostly because that is what Tyler was doing at the moment and everyone has to do whatever Tyler is doing.
Chris got up to party last night and I was watching a little Martha Stewart (it comes on from 2-3 am). Rosie O'donnell was the guest and Martha said something about when she was in jail, only she called it by its real name and it sounded like a fancy place, and Rosie says "When you were in the Clink?" It made me laugh, and Rosie wanted to keep talking about Martha being in Jail and it was making her visibly uncomfortable and Rosie wouldn't let it go. But Chris doesn't like me to watch Martha, his favorite show at night is Roseanne. It comes on on Nick at Nite pretty much all night. My dad never let us watch Roseanne when we were little. But do you know that the blond girl from scrubs played Becky for a while. And that George Clooney played Roseanne's boss for a while. And last night we were watching and a guy that is new on One Life to Live was on there playing Jackie's boyfriend. Anyway, sometimes we watch the Fresh Prince too but it has been coming on at times when we are usually asleep.

Tyler and Baby Lilly

Brook and a frog that Josh and Madison caught

Tyler with a frog on his head

The Frogs

Brook and the frogs, and a cheese stick

The new patio

The kids out in the sunshine watching Jed finish up the cement work

Bouncing on Grandma's trampoline is so fun


Shane told them that they had to hold hands

Shane's Father's Day presents

More sitting on the porch

This is the cement truck finishing up the pouring of the cement

What a crazy week I've had. I just haven't seemed to have time to do anything, so here I am now adding pictures to my blog that should have been added days ago.
Just now as I was typing this stuff in, I looked over and saw the funniest thing. I left my People magazine on the kids' snack table and Chris was standing up to it flipping through the magazine while he drank his bottle of milk (out the side of his mouth of course so that he could see the pictures).
On a final note, my mom and dad's dog Mick died today. It is pretty sad, but she was old and in a lot of pain lately, so in a way it was a kind of good thing, but we will miss her, she has been around for a really long time.

P.S. Dear Jess, I'd love to be invited to read your blog, think about it, if you decide that it is ok, my email is sarajsargent@yahoo.com. I'm so glad that you found me. I love to keep in touch with all of my old friends.
Sara

On Saturday we went up to see the new baby. She is so cute, and it was so fun to see Susie, and the kids love to play with their uncle Justin. So there I was holding the baby, and as the kids would run by, I would try to get them to stop for a minute to check out their new cousin (since that was why we were there). I got Tyler to stop and he looked at her and I said "isn't she so cute" and he says "Yes, she is so cute. Are her eyes still sealed shut?" Now she was sleeping, but where does he come up with this kind of stuff? He's been around babies before. Anyway it was pretty funny.
I finally got my computer problem figured out and the books are on their way. I suppose that I owe an appology to Clayton, I finally got a hold of him and he is actually a pretty nice guy. I still think that he needs some sort of a helper. And I didn't get a hold of him until after I had been up half the night being angry at him, and thinking of new ways that I could curse him and everything that he does.
Yesterday Mom and I went shopping in Salt Lake and she had to go to the bank downtown to get her Euros. So since all of downtown is under construction we had to park about a block and a half away and it was cold so I stayed in the car with the kids while she went in. It was fun because we were parked on Main Street and we got to watch trax go by about 5 times. And it would go by just at the perfect time for the kids to be wondering when it would be coming again. We got to watch a fire engine go by. And Tyler kept saying "Where are we with all of these tall buildings around us?" So maybe I should take him downtown more often. We went to Babies R Us and looked at fun things to buy for Erica. And we went to Wal-mart Supercenter and got Shane's Father's day present. It was a pretty fun day. I do have to mention that while it was still cool in SLC we went most of the day without a jacket on. When we arrived home and tried to unload the car it was so cold that I had to either put my jacket back on or freeze to death! What is up with this cold weather? It is totally ruining my summer! Did I mention the blizzard that I woke up to yesterday morning? Jodi (Saeland from Fox 13 news) promises a big warm up for next week and she had better be right, because I can't take much more of this.

I hate it when I have a problem that I can't take care of myself. And then you call "customer service" and there is apparently only one guy that can handle a problem such as yours. And then you call him a dozen times and you never get a response, and you email him and you never get a response, and so you call him and leave a voice message but by this point your voice has a tone of annoyed sarcasm, and anger in it, so now for sure you won't get a response. I just wish that companies would hire like two IT people so that when one is out and a customer has a problem with a little urgency, someone will be there to help you. I mean this is not that bright of an idea. The first guy could train the second guy. And maybe they could have a cell phone so that if the trainer was out for the day, and the new guy came across a problem that he didn't know how to handle, he could call the other one and still get the problem taken care of in a timely manner. Am I asking too much? One day when I run things, this is how my customer service department will work.

Well this morning around 6:45 am Gordy showed up to do our back patio. I love people who love to get an early start! The cement truck and Jed showed up around 7:15 and they were pouring cement for about 45 min. It was wonderful. They worked all morning really hard and they finished our patio at around 11:45. I have lots of pictures of it but I don't really have the time today to post them, so I'll work on that for later. They came back this afternoon and pulled all of the boards off and it looks so good. I am so happy to be finishing our yard this summer. Later we are getting a load of topsoil (courtesy of STS Trucking) and Shane is headed to the Home Depot to get some more cement so that he can do some edgework for where the grass is going to go. Hopefully (if everything goes according to my schedule) we will be done before the end of the month! I love GRASS! Maybe after it is in the babies won't get so dirty when I take them outside to play.

So yesterday I was gone all day long. I had a book party at 11 and I didn't get home until 2:30 they we packed up all the kids and went to see Susie's baby, and we didn't get home until 9:30ish. So somewhere along the way Shane mentioned to me that he had added some songs to my blog, which I thought meant that he had added them to my playlist and I would have to remove them before they ended up on my blog. But no, he must have contacted someone and figured out how to add them to the blog. I am so sorry if you came to read and had to suffer through "I can only imagine" by mercy me. I hate that song, and he loves it. Ugh. Anyway, I am removing it and you can once again visit my blog worry free. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused any of you.

So that is what has been going on for the last couple of days. I am so stoked about getting our backyard in. It has been a long time coming. I can't wait until we can enjoy the cool evenings of summer in our shady backyard. I can't wait until we can remove our BBQ from our garage and set up a picnic table out on our patio. The possibilities are endless. They were going to pour the rest of our patio today as well, but the sky has turned pretty dark to the west and it looks like it might rain, so they aren't going to do it today. Rats! But it gives us some excitement to look forward to for next week. When it finally gets done I guess that I'll finally have to paint the back door, it's only been 4 1/2 years.

Here is the picture that my dad sent me of my Sister's new baby! She was born sometime this morning, Susie thought that it was around 10:30, but she didn't know. Anyway 9lbs 3oz, and she is SSSSOOO CCCUUUTTTEEE!

Congratulations Susie and Miner and Sierra, We Love You!

This morning I decided to let my kids sleep in. So what did they do? They woke up at 6:30. Well actually only Brooklyn woke up that early, but the good news is that if I let Brook play in her bed for a while she is happier for the rest of the day. So I got up and got in the shower and got dressed and about 7:30 I went in to her bedroom to get her out. Well there she was sitting in her crib, butt naked, and sitting in a pool of pee. She had taken her jammies off, pulled off her diaper, thrown it across the room, and then peed her bed. Was she happy about it? Oh yes, she thought that she had done something really great, and she was laughing about it. I know that my neice Lachlan has done this before, but why? What makes them think that taking off their diaper is going to make everyone proud of them?
Anyway in other news Gordy and Jed showed up at 7:45 this morning to do our cement! It is so exciting, although it has now started to rain and they've left. But at least they got a good start.
And finally last night on the 5:00 Channel 5 news they reported that someone stole the bag that held Kurt Kobain's ashes from Courtney Love's house and she was now feeling suicidal. Hasn't she been suicidal pretty much since he died, and since she started drugs, and since she quit drugs, and pretty much every day of her life no matter what happens? Maybe that is just me that thinks that, I don't know. I just didn't think that it quite deserved one of the top stories of the day.

My Sister Susie is having her baby on Wed. June 4th and she wanted to have a big family BBQ up the hills before it happened. So we went on Sunday and it was a lot of fun! Well Lillian looks like she might be a big baby, I guess that we will soon find out.

Brook says "Wato mama, wato"

Carolyn and baby Cade

Hopefully Pepper didn't go home with a case of Jiardia, he drank half the creek

Dad cashed out after dinner, but awoke refreshed and ready for a 4-wheeler ride

Shane and Tyler cleaned out the creek so that it could free flow once again

Chris had a good time fishing with Sierra's fishing pole

Shane and Aunt Jill had to make Tyler a fishing pole with a stick, a string, and a lifesaver.

Brook and Go-Go taking a creekside walk

We had a great time BBQing with the family this weekend. I love going up in the hills, it is so peaceful and it was the perfect weather for being outside. If only we could spend everyday as if there were nothing better to do.
Today, I had to go to the car dealership and try to figure out why the airbag light is coming on in my car. It of course is not on anymore, and thus they could find nothing wrong with the car. However they took it for a little test drive to see if they could get it to come on, and I watched the mechanic pull back in to the dealership, park my car, go into the service area, wander around for 5 minutes with his hands in his pockets, talk to the service guy who was going to come and tell me what was wrong with my car, then they both wandered around with their hands in their pockets for 5 more minutes, and then the guy came in and told me that the next time the light comes on, I should come in and they might be able to figure out what is wrong with my car. What was with all of the wandering? It is not like they were discussing what was wrong, or trying to figure out why the light is coming on. They were just wandering aimlessly around this jeep that was parked in there. I hate mechanics. At least I wasn't paying for any time that it was in there.