Millie and I kept ourselves busy yesterday making this t-shirt rug. We used one of our hoola-hoops and the directions we found here.
Our cousin Kimber started us off. She's quite the pro. After she left, Mill and I kept at it and only had to re-do a couple of parts. Luckily we caught them early and didn't have to unravel more than one layer. While we weaved, we watched Rachel's favorite movie, "Horses." Its a documentary and she LOVES it. She affectionately calls it "Blackie" in honor of her favorite black horse in the movie.
Back to the rug. Kimber will be happy to know that the rug went to a neighbor who needed a pick-me-up. We didn't realize it either until we had been talking for a while and realized the spirit had guided us to her house. I love how the Spirit will take our simple efforts and transform them into blessings. We didn't even know we wanted to give the rug away until after it was made. We used our desire to create, and made a rug. We listened to quiet promptings, we might not have even recognized as such, and gave the rug away. God used our offering to bless someone else. That is what I call "God's Orchestration." Its always a privilege to be an instrument in His hands.
I have a new calling at church. I am soooo EXCITED!!!! Excited enough to put it in ALL CAPS!!!! I am the junior primary pianist. I took over for Brother, excuse me, Elder Fugal, who leaves for his mission this week. He going to be a wonderful missionary. What an exceptional young man. Seriously.
Anyway, now I get to be part of the primary music and this is why I am so excited. Brother Johnson leads the music and he is AWESOME! You have no idea. Unless you've stopped by during 15 minutes of singing time in our ward, well, you just haven't experienced all that primary has to offer.
Take, for example the time that he was talking about the signs of Christ's crucifixion in the Americas. Earthquakes, darkness, and volcanoes. Yes, he brought in a volcano that actually spewed forth lava that ran down the sides of the mountain, about the size of my then, 9 month old son.
And then there was the time he found a smiliarity between two songs and used one to introduce the other. Can you see the similarity? Then, he brought out a board with tissue paper holes as the target, blindfolded the children, gave them a lightsaber and let them have at it. Then he would say, "Sister Brown, the force is strong with you. You may sit down."
And we can't forget earlier this month when he brought in confetti fireworks. He also brought in a vacuum. I guess you get the picture.
So yes, I am way excited to be a part of music time in primary. Even if it is behind the piano.
We recently tagged along with Sterling to a work conference in Price. Its not too far from our home. At least several hours closer than Cheyenne. I took that as a good omen, looked up a few tourist attractions and eagerly anticipated our departure. Driving through Spanish Fork canyon was beautiful but once the canyon fell into the distance, the beauty did too. I usually like a change in scenery and can see the beauty in different environments. For example, I love the drive to Arizona, through high desert, low desert, mountain, indian reservation. I love each environment for its own uniqueness.
But Price. Now that's a different story. The landscape in Price is desert. We're talking dirt and sagebrush. No tall saguaro cactus to break it up. No dunes. Just flat dirt and sagebrush. Even inside the city, dirt and sagebrush. Every once in a while, we would see a landscaped yard or parking strip and the occasional park. But for the most part, the land, although capable and desirous of beautification, was left unused and desolate. Did I mention a lot of dirt and sagebrush?
Regardless of the landscape, we found a few fun things to do. We went the CEU Prehistoric Museum. It was great. Really well put together and fun for the kids. Here is a sample of what we saw.
This is what Hash saw.
There was a hands on section with coloring and a place to brush the sand off of fossils.
There was also a cage with an alligator and a turtle. The caretaker stopped by while we were looking at it and got the alligator all riled up, just for us. Sweet.
It was really interesting talking to him. He was more than just a caretaker of animals. I forget his title but something about display and education. But he really is an animal caretaker at heart from a very young age. He bought 8 cows when he was about 10 years old and took care of them, sold their babies, etc. He would capture snakes in the fall, care for them during the winter and let them loose again in the spring in the same spot he captured them. Now he has a degree in zoology and biology and is working in Price. Interesting fellow. So glad we had a chat.
After the museum we went to the hotel for naps and workbooks and reading. I know, mean mom. Tell me about it. Then we went 5 miles north to Helper and swam in their new swimming pool. But Sydney forgot her swimsuit at home. So we went shopping. Boy howdy! $70.00 later we had a new swim suit and few other things and we were ready to go.
Funny story: Helper is a small, blink-and-you'll-miss-it sort of town. One main street, no street lights, one gas station, but two freeway exits, one on each end of main street. Anyway, we took the first exit and followed the main street to the next exit and didn't see any signs for the pool. So I pulled into the gas station and asked for directions. The gal behind the counter told me to get on the main road and follow the signs and I couldn't miss it. "Just go under the train tracks," she said. I didn't want to admit that I had just come from the mainroad and must have completely missed the sign that I couldn't miss. So we went back the way we came and Sydney saw a tiny sign and the hidden road that led us under the train tracks and lo and behold, a way cool swimming pool appeared before us. We had lots and lots of fun there.
We also found a big discovery type part. You know the sort, that look like a big castle. A big jumbo, uber-fun park. It was called Dino-mine Park. We went back a second day because it was fun and free. I played hide and seek with the kids. If you haven't done that lately, especially at an uber-cool, jumbo park like the Dino-mine, you ought to try it. It was fun finding the kids in the most interesting places and body-positions.
Here's my observation. Our trip was a perfect example of the landscape of Price. The places we went were fun and entertaining. But all the in-between places were miserable. It seemed like every time we entered the car, someone was crying and someone else was hitting someone else and the other one was complaining. Lots of complaining. LOTS. Every single time. Getting from one place to another was hard and I admit, I lost my temper a few times. I can only take so much complaining. We need an FHE on gratitude ASAP!!!
My take-home lesson from our trip to Price, in this one stand alone instance was the joy was not in the journey. Bummer. The whole trip kind of left me feeling like this.
So as not to end on a downer, here is Hash Brown eating Hashbrowns.
Sydney has always been a huge animal lover. She has wanted a dog for-EVER! She's been saving money for a very long time for a guinea pig. A few week ago a neighbor found a lost rabbit. It was love at first sight for Sydney. She spent the afternoon loving on that bunny, hoping that the owner would never show up. But she did and the rabbit was returned. And Sydney returned home, long faced but with a new love in her heart. She decided that she would save her money for a rabbit rather than a guinea pig.
Sydney's dream of having a pet just came true with the purchase of a baby bunny. Her hard-earned money has been redeemed and she is now the proud owner of "Pegasus." Pegasus is small and white and female. She was the runt of her litter. We also bought another bunny, for the other kids to share. She is a little larger, gray and also a female.
Sterling was just as excited as she was. Not to have a bunny, but to be able to build a bunny cage. Cage is an understatement, though. This thing is HUGE! We love it. And we do have two bunnies so they have plenty of room. We have had lots of neighbor visitors and the bunnies are sure loved. But nothing can beat the look and enthusiasm on Sydney's face.
FUNNY STORY:
The night we got the bunnies, Sydney kept checking on them and made sure the light was on in the garage the whole night so they wouldn't be scared. The next morning, Ster jumped out of bed around 5:30 am. After a little while, I heard the garage door shut and then he came back to bed. I asked him what was going on? He told me he heard the kids downstairs. He went down and they were up, watching a movie with the bunnies on their laps! 5:30 am! He only saw Bella and asked if she was the only bunny downstairs. Sydney said that yes, she was. At that very moment, Pegasus hoped right between her feet. CAUGHT! Ahhh the love!
When Rachel was a little past 2 years old, a ward member asked me if I’ve ever had Rachel’s eyes checked. One of her eyes seemed to “wander.” Another friend had just started to patch her 4 year old’s eye and mentioned she noticed Rachel may have the same problem. After these two mother’s had mentioned the same thing within a month of each other, I promptly made an appointment for Rachel to see a specialist. She had Strabismus, commonly known as lazy eye. Both eyes were affected.
We started patching her eyes, 2 hours a daily, alternating eyes each day. Everyone was excited to begin with. They reminded me every morning and Rachel had fun picking out her decorative patches. After more than a year, no progress had been made. One of the dangers of lazy eye is that the depth perception is lost. Rachel was ok but was certainly headed that direction with no progress being made with the patch. I had also noticed that she would close or squint one eye when pointing to something far away. So we decided to have surgery done on her eyes.
The same-day surgery was performed at the Primary Children’s out-patient facility just 20 minutes from our home. I talked with Rachel for several days to prepare her for what would happen and I think she was ready.
Bright and early, on my birthday, we headed for the hospital. They treated her like a queen. Our first stop was talking with a nurse and changing into cute P.J.s .
The next big decision was what to ride in. A car, a bed or a wagon. Rachel chose a wagon. I wheeled her over to a waiting area where they set us up watching “Tangled.” We could have watched a number of different movies or played video games. I’ll tell ya, Primary Children’s totally knows how to make kids feel at ease and like the queen of the castle. Rachel was loving every minute of it. We were also visited by another nurse who would be in the surgery helping the doctor and the anesthesiologist.
Dr. Chen, the anesthesiologist was the one who took her through the doors to the surgery room. Rachel was a champ and went without complaint. Of course she really had little idea about what was going to happen. Then we talked with the doctor who told us the surgery would take about 45 minutes and then we were excused back to the waiting room where do-nuts, bagels and juice were waiting for us.
I don’t remember the name of the surgery. The doctor cut the outside muscle of the eye, slid it back and reattached it. He did it on both eyes. Very intricate. While we waited we did a lot of reading and talking about how to parent our children more effectively.
After almost an hour we were called back to talk to the doctor again and he told us everything went great and she should be waking up in about 20 minutes. Before we even sat down again, they said she was already waking up. Only one of us could go back so I went to be with her.
It wasn’t a pretty sight. She was scared and confused and in pain and crying, A LOT. Poor thing. I didn’t even know if she knew I was there. She wouldn’t keep her hands away from her eyes and had to be restrained in the beginning. Boy is that a hard thing to see. After a few minutes of gut-wrenching wailing, I asked her if she wanted me to hold her. She nodded yes, which was her first indication she heard me and knew I was there.
I picked her up and tried to keep her hands away from her eyes. The nurse gave her a cold, wet washcloth and I.V. meds. The meds must have been pretty strong because within a couple of minutes she was sleeping again. They moved us to the recovery room, where Sterling met us. She was still pretty uncomfortable and was beginning to cry more and more. But she would communicate with us so I felt good about that. They offered a slushie and she ate the whole thing. Then she really started up the crying again. So we decided to just take her home instead of more hospital meds.
The drive home was intense. She didn’t cry too much but I was so worried about her. And I hadn’t filled her prescriptions yet so I had to do that on the way. She sat patiently, whimpering, in her carseat, trying to hold the washcloth to her eyes. I walked into the house with Rachel in my arms and was greeted with balloons everywhere. Tied on strings, hanging from the ceiling, scattered around the floor. After all, it was my birthday. Lunch had been delivered by a wonderful wonderful lady. (Have I said thank you yet? THANK YOU!) Rachel also had her own set of Get Well balloons and other cards and gifts. Especially one very soft stuffed kitty from Grandma. But she wouldn’t open her eyes to see it. She sure kept her arms around it though.
She was happy to be home but wouldn’t take the washcloth off of her eyes. I changed it every so often but she refused to open her eyes. I kept her on a schedule with her meds, which helped and she ate a good lunch, which helped as well. It was like feeding a baby bird. She would sit or lay, with her mouth wide open, waiting for me to drop something in it. I loved every minute of it, actually. The surgery definitely did not affect her appetite. She also slept a lot during the rest of the day, getting the anesthesia out of her system. She still refused to open her eyes or be without a washcloth at all.
She slept well that night. Not a peep. In the morning she had a post-surgery appointment with the doctor. So I gave her a do-nut for breakfast and told her it had pretty sprinkles on it and let her eat it on her own. She opened her eyes just a little to see the sprinkles. She opened them a little more to eat her cold cereal. By the time we left for her appointment (8:45 am), she would open her eyes, gingerly, behind some star-shaped sunglasses she received at the hospital.
At the appointment, the doctor said everything looked ok and Rachel was doing fine. Just what I wanted/needed to hear. We went home and by the end of the day, she was very nearly her usual self. And now, 4 days later, you would never know she had been in surgery unless you looked closely at her eyes and saw the red after-math of the incisions.
Phew!
Primary Children’s is an amazing facility. I hope I never have to be there again and thank heaven it was such a small procedure. I can’t say thank you enough to everyone who helped. Thank you for the cards and balloons. Thank you for the lunch and dinner. Thank you for being with the children, Mom. I love you!!!
In order to record this next summer activity, I need to give a little background but not too much right now. So, I’m going to start this post out with some thoughts that I want to expand on at another time. Background (Abridged): For a while I’ve felt like I was in the middle of an identity crises. I felt like I had lost myself and who I was before I became a mom, and I missed that person. A Lot. (There is soooo much more to this story). So, in an effort to find myself again and reclaim some of the things I used to love to do, I put together a performing arts camp for the kids in my neighborhood. One of my “best buddies” as my daughter calls her, Diahan, directed the camp with me. You may remember Diahan from when she arranged for this fabulous birthday surprise. You may also remember her from this outstanding performance. Yes, we do have quite a lot of fun together. The camp was only one week, Tues-Fri 9-11am with a final performance Friday night. Each day we spent some time learning about a principle of performance, played some theater games and worked on a few songs and 2 short plays. We had a blast. This is me trying to remember how to play the guitar, one of my long lost talents I’m trying to rediscover The night of the performance we had quite a crowd of parents and supportive neighbors. This is Diahan, one of my bestest buddies, starting us off. On the right are all my 7 dwarves.
And this is my Snow White.
I was the director for “Snow White and the Mixed-Up Morning” I had many of the younger kids which was a challenge and I was up for it.
After the 1st play, Diahan choreographed a cute song, “You’re You and I’m Me”. She did a great job. We couldn’t get the music to work the way we wanted, thus me on the guitar. But I never got a good video of it. Diahan also directed “The Fastest Drawer in the West” and I choreographed the song for that one.
Sydney was “Tasha the Kid” and her friend, Hannah, was “Sheriff Pablo.”
We (meaning Diahan) even made props, like this awesome train.
Working on the Railroad.
We were all exhausted by the end of the day. I was tired and the kids were tired. But it was soooo worth it. I mean, look at the faces of my kids. So happy and confident and proud of themselves. They learned speaking parts, choreography, and worked together as a cast/team to pull off something really fantastic. I’m just so proud of them. And it was absolutely fulfilling for me too. Win-win all the way around.
For this yearly tradition, the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. We got up early. But not early enough because we missed most of the balloons blowing up. Next year, we leave at 5:30am.
We were having a fine time looking at the balloons and texting Audra to try and meet up, until Bryce saw something extraordinary. Dun Dun Dun... Dun DaDun Dun DaDun....
The Darth Vader balloon. Complete with Storm Troopers and other characters I don't know because I never saw the new movies.
We met up with cousins at the Darth Vader balloon and sure were surprised to see Kimber with the Ellsworths. We are excited to spend time with her this month! After the balloons lifted off, we proceeded to Y mount to hike the "Y". Rachel, bless her heart, hiked the entire way!!!
We were all tuckered out. Then we headed to BYU Creamery on Ninth and loaded up on ice cream. With our tummies stuffed, we waved good-bye to cousins and headed home. After a quick afternoon of work in the yard, we headed back to cousins for a delicious dinner and visiting.
I say that to my kids a lot. It helps remind me (and hopefully them) that I am not superwoman. I did not grow an extra pair of arms with each child. I only have 2 arms and most days it feels like my brain is putty. But I do my best and somehow we make it through the day.
Power of Moms just published my article about using my children to help balance responsibilities in the home. I may not have 4 arms, but if I include my children in the chores, I have 8 more arms to help (not including Hash ;) ).
