Corben's Solo

This is Corben's solo at the Syracuse Jr. High Choir Concert.  He is singing with a neighbor girl, Lindsay.  They did absolutely awesome, we get goose bumps when we watch it again.

It is really neat to see all his hard work, and the benefits of it.

Trevor was in this concert as well, in the beginner's choir, he did so good in his first concert, we are so proud of both of them.

I don't understand how some people can get so into Halloween.  We had our neighborhood trunk-or-treat tonight over at the church and I couldn't believe the effort of some of the costumes.  My favorite was Katniss.  This little gal had the mockingjay pin and everything.  I asked where she got the pin and she had no idea, her mom got it.  Well, here are the efforts I went to for my kids' costumes.  Jace wore an adult-sized Angry Bird costume that Jeremy got on clearance after Halloween last year.  Brody wore a Power Rangers costume, about 2 sizes too small, with no mask or make-up so nobody knew what he was supposed to be.  Zack did not dress up at all, I think he was half-heartedly pretending to be a football player because he was wearing his jersey.  Lance was a soccer player, wore the uniform he just wore in fall soccer.  Trevor wasn't dressed up but as I think he is already too old for trick-or-treating I'll be darned if he wasn't going to wear a costume, so he put on a vampire cape and a clown wig over his regular clothes.  Oh, and he was wearing roller blades.  It reminded me of my favorite childhood book, Me and the Weirdos.

In all fairness to myself, It wasn't entirely my fault.  If any of them had an ounce of decision-making skills I would have gladly helped them put a costume together.  But nobody gave any thought or care whatsoever to their costume, and I've never been a major Halloween fanatic so I'm not going to go to all this effort if they don't care.  The problem is I need to come up with something for the school parade otherwise I'll be embarrassed for them.  

On a happier note, Zack was the hero at his indoor soccer game today.  The game was tied with just a few seconds left and the other team was taking a penalty kick with Zack as the goalie.  The second the whistle blew Zack charged the kicker and was able to block the goal.  It was so awesome!  We were standing right by the team and they were so cute erupting into cheers.  One of the boys turned around to me and shouted, "Zack did it!"  CUTE! 

Oooohhh, I hate technology.  Nnooott as much as you you see.  But IIIII still hate technology.  Now and forever.

It's true, I hate it so much.  I first started a blog because I'm real lazy about writing in my journal so I thought oh, it will be much easier to type all of our goings-on.  But all that happened was I stopped writing in my journal all together because I'll record this or that event on the blog "tomorrow."  So now I have guilt about not  writing on the blog OR in my journal.  And it didn't help that when I finally logged on to blog after more than a month that the blog thingy had TOTALLY changed and I had to sit there and figure it out from scratch.  And also, I really like to have photos accompanying my posts but it takes me a good couple of days to figure out how to put a photo on.

Speaking of photos, I am even MORE bitter about the technological advancements in photography.  What I wouldn't give to go back to a 35mm.  I don't even remember the last time I've printed photos.  Hopefully all our photos from the last 5 years are on our computer somewhere, who knows.  And to think I complained about the hassle of deciding on which film to buy, taking it into Kmart and waiting TWO DAYS for it to get developed, deciding if I wanted double prints, etc.  What I wouldn't give to have that back.  When my poor grandkids ask to see old photos of their parents I'll have to gather them all 'round the computer and spend a couple of days trying to find them.

Kids well.  Will write about them "tomorrow."

We had a fun couple nights at our TimeShare at Wolf Creek.  Short drive, two nights, and a nice pool with a slide made it a fun, end-of-summer getaway.  Not to mention that we had a free two-night stay, so it didn't use any of our points or tokens.  Here are a couple shots we took with our underwater camera, the kids had a blast with it:

We really want to believe that he WASN'T flipping the camera off.

They also really loved being able to re-enact the tetherball scenes from Napolean Dynamite.  I didn't know that "Napolean" was a style of play when it came to Tetherball.  It was so neat to see them all cheering each other on when it came to beating the court champion.

However, once Kelly took this type of approach, I had to remind her that she is playing kids...besides, that ball really hurt when it hit your head...ask any of the children you see here to validate that claim.  Kelly showed no mercy.

So this summer got off to a rocky start.  Jeremy went out of town on a business trip the day after school ended, which isn't too big a deal now that there are no babies to contend with, plus it's nice to not have to feel guilty about how I don't keep a very clean house or cook very good meals.  He left last Saturday and the next day as we were getting ready for church Zack was being such a pill.  I finally got very angry at him and next thing I knew he had hit me.  Now I hate to sound all indignant because I've spanked him a million times, but I was probably feeling unsettled with Jeremy gone because my feelings were SO hurt that I started bawling.  A half hour later when it was time to leave for church I was still bawling.  I considered just staying home but couldn't bear the thought of missing out on the 2 hour break I'd get from them during primary, so I tried to pull myself together and we left.  When we got to the church we walked in next to my darling friend Becky.  She cheerfully asked how I was doing and to my horror I started bawling again.  She looked at me so tenderly which only made it worse.  I cried all through sacrament meeting and then managed to pull myself together enough to be able to play the piano in primary.

That was the worst day, but the next couple days didn't go much better.  The kids just want to do what they want when they want to, and if I have the audacity to ask them to do a chore I am the biggest jerk in the world.

I earned several day passes to Lagoon by working there during the school days they were open, so I decided to try and take the kids on Wednesday.  That day reminded me why I love them and why it's all worth it.  First of all it was a very exciting day because FINALLY all the kids were big enough to go on most of the rides.  We kept discussing when we would split up like we normally do so the big kids could go on all the big scary rides, but after several hours I realized, we don't need to split up!  I was excited, so excited that I kept going on rides that I knew I shouldn't due to a severely queasy stomach.  After several wild rides I wasn't feeling too hot, but then we discovered yet another ride we could all go on together.  So we went on the roller coaster and right away we went on it again.  For some reason that's when my stomach hit a wall.  My head started spinning and I was sweating bullets.  I had to sit down perfectly still. The kids went on some rides in the general area where I was sitting.  Suddenly I knew I couldn't hold it in anymore and I hurried behind a planter and puked.  This was the moment when I realized that my kids really do love me.  Trev saw me bent over and came running over.  When he saw the puke he demanded my phone so he could call someone.  In hindsight this was so funny.  I asked who he was going to call and he said he didn't know, but I was really sick and he needed to call someone (I wouldn't give him the phone). He ran and told the other kids we needed to leave immediately.  They all gathered around all concerned.  The little kids, bless their hearts, weren't quite sympathetic enough to be willing to just leave.  So I told the big kids I would be so appreciative if they would just all go together on a few more rides.  So they all stuck together and went on several more rides, checking in with me in between each one.  At one point Trev could see I was chilled from my drying sweat and he draped his jacket over my shoulders.  We finally convinced  the little kids it was time to go (it was 9 at night, it's not like we were being unreasonable!).  The kids were all so solicitous and tender  the rest of the night.  They all got showered and ready for bed and they let me go right to bed.

By the next morning things were back to normal (fighting, crying, whining, lazing about), but I'll always remember that day that they took such good care of me.

DISNEYLAND!!!

This year we, unsmartly (?), went in March. We'd gone in February the past few times and it was perfect weather, no crowds, just perfect. People tried to warn us but we soon found out for ourselves that just because you verify that the area immediately surrounding Disneyland will not be having spring break the week you're going does not mean that every other district in the WORLD won't be having theirs. So while there were still good times, it was my least favorite trip so far. And while there's always fighting on trips, this trip seemed to have a lot more fighting. But it was because there was a lot more boredom from standing in a lot longer lines.

There were some pleasant surprises, like corben making the 85 pbj's that I normally make.
And they were very excited and the buildup was fun. These are our suitcases all lined up and the twins were desperate to get a photo of everyone by their suitcase but no one would cooperate at the same time so we just got this cute one of Brody & Jace.

As is custom, this is the pg-13 rated ride home where no one can keep their clothes on!

When we got home we found that Lance's Nintendo DS was missing. We had looked EVERYWHERE. We finally called the hotel in California and asked if anyone had found it in our room. They hadn't. This is the part that I can't stop laughing about. So Jeremy had to admit to the girl at the hotel, over the phone, that he had ditched our brokendown stroller in their parking garage because we didn't want to pack it back in the van, and could she maybe check in there? Boy was his face red when, sure enough, that is where the DS was found.

Vacations are a funny thing. I always have the fondest memories after a vacation and had wondered if this one would be different since we all got on each others nerves a bit more than normal, but no, it's no different. I got to spend an uninterrupted week on vacation with my boys, just playing and having fun with no outside stresses. I can't wait to go back.

In gym class this morning everyone was oohing & ahhing over this girl who had run a half-marathon last weekend. Well, I am forced to toot my own horn since I ran a self-organized, single person half-marathon a month ago. I decided to run to Zack's soccer game in Ogden. I didn't think I'd make it but figured I'd just have Jeremy & the kids pick me up on their way. Less than 2 1/2 hours later I was at the arena. I wore Jeremy's Garmin & I had gone 13 1/2 miles. I couldn't have been more proud. I couldn't even run a mile until I was 30. I repeated the same run again 2 weeks later. I want to enter an actual half-marathon so I can brag & get all the accolades, but I can't bare to pay the hefty entrance fees. Guess I'll purchase my own trophy.

TOP 10 REASONS I LOVE HAVING 6 BOYS

in no particular order

10. I will get to have 6 daughters-in-law.

9. All the holes in the walls give our home character.

8. I am never bored as every day there are new puddles of urine pooled at the bottom of the toilet for me to clean.

7. I don't have to pay for dance classes.

6. As no one has EVER pointed out to me, I have a basketball team + 1 sub.

5. I don't have to worry about being skinny because I don't have anyone who would want to borrow my clothes.

4. I get to hear about all the inner-workings of the Nintendo 3DS.

3. I'd rather referee physical altercations than emotional drama.

2. I do not have to go clothes shopping all the time.

1. They smell so good.

Happy birthday a month late, Zack! Poor thing, I still feel guilty for having him so close to Christmas. He definitely helps us make the day his own, though! We try to completely forget about Christmas for his one big day & solely focus on him. This year he chose to go to Famous Daves & Nickelcade. We took the whole family & had a great day together. I especially had fun during Nickelcade, since while they were all glued to the video games for 2 hours I strolled the streets & did some window shopping. They didn't miss me at all! We had a family birthday dinner about a week before his birthday. He had asked, begged, for a guitar and a radio control car. Easy enough, so we got him both, and ended up returning both. The guitar had a broken string and the RC car had something wrong with it, so we took the easy road & combined the money from the returned gifts so Jeremy could take him to pick out his own present. He picked out a double edge light saber thingy, which he enjoyed for about 20 minutes before becoming bored with it. He's never really been into toys. I swear he was born with the mind of a 14 year old, he talks like one, sasses like one, plays like one. When I picked the kids up after school today I couldn't find him anywhere. I had long since collected Lance, Brody & Jace, so we started driving around looking for Zack. I finally spotted him at the schoolyard basketball court, shooting hoops with about 15 6th graders as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I had to explain to him that although he thinks he's big, he's still small & a 7-year-old cannot go wandering off wherever & whenever they please.

Zack is currently playing basketball & indoor soccer & LOVES both. He gets so excited for every game & practice. I love watching him, it is so much fun to see his passion. I am so proud of his abilities. Can't wait for him to start football this fall!

Despite his "maturity" in most areas, I like to think he is still a mama's boy. I volunteer as the library helper for his school class. The kids are usually getting lined up in the classroom when I arrive to take them down to the library & every time I walk in Zack's face lights up & he runs over to give me a huge hug. It absolutely melts my heart. I hope he never outgrows that part!

Side Note: First lost tooth, right before he turned 7. Don't know what took him so long. And it still needed prodding via string & doorknob. He was brave!