Emptying My Head

Quite frequently I have blog posts running through my head.  Sometimes they are in the form of a blog, sometimes a letter to a long lost friend, or a phone call with a friend, not so lost.  Occasionally, I have conversations going on with people I haven't seen or heard from in years, only to realize as I'm walking down the street or changing the laundry, that I'm actually talking almost out loud.  And I'm sure the facial expressions are out in the open also.   I always think that I'll write a post or a journal entry and get all that minutiae out of my head so it will quit bouncing around in there and maybe give me some peace.  But, alas, I don't.  There's always an excuse, a reason, a streak of pure laziness or 'not interesting enough', 'nobody cares anyway', 'you're just bragging', or my favorite, 'really, nobody is in terested, give it a rest.'

Isn't it sad that we let an inner dialogue dictate so many of our actions, or in my case in-actions?

So these are the things that I can't seem to get out of noggin today - I'm just going to put it out there and let it go where ever it may.

Ben has a cross country meet today, but I don't know any details, like where (Sugarhouse?), what time or how does one watch a cross country meet?  Did he take snacks?  Are they stopping for dinner?  Does he have money?  Did he take his shoes?  Is he WEARING the new million dollar shoes to school, that I told him ONLY to wear at meets?

Kinsey has early-out.  It's my turn to pick up kids.  I forgot to change cars.  I hope I have enough seatbelts.

Oh, yeah, it's my day off.  I should see about making some visiting teaching appointments.

I have a batch of tomatoes waiting to be made into salsa.  This HAS to be done today.  And the peaches, too.  Why did I plant a garden?

The porch is full of cobwebs and dust.  Can I just leave it until halloween and call it decoration?

I heard from an old friend a week or so ago.  I'd love to respond back to him and find out how his life is going.  BUT - did he really try to friend me or is facebook just seeing that we have a mutual friend and assuming that we want to talk.  I don't want to appear anxious or over zealous.  But, I would like to know how he's doing.  So, if you stumble across this, Bryan.  Hi, back from Utah.  How are you?

I would love to ask other friends from high school - Does anyone know what happened to Kelly Smith - Willis - Johnson?  I last talked to her in 1991 when I was expecting child #2 and she and I both had  3 year olds.  I would love to see how she is.  Also Kim Register, the one whose mother owned the Children's Whistlestop Daycare in Bartow.  I 'd like to know where/how she is.  Last I talked to her, she was thinking about living on a boat. or something like that.

Today is my day off and I'm supposed to be paying bills, making salsa, cleaning house, etc and here I sit at my computer just trying to empty my head.  On the plus side, I'm home alone (almost) and have control of the radio, thermostat and lighting.  The sun is shining in the sliding glass door, which really needs to be cleaned.  

Can you see all those hand, finger, face and nose prints?  Trust me, they look worse in real life.  The grass outside is looking good, though' the leaves are green and pretty, right before the fall changes.  The weather is just right for almost any activity.

I just got home from a vacation last week to Lake Powell.  It was a very different trip, not having any kids along.  At first, I was put out because, hey, if I don't have any teenage boys with me, who's going to carry all my stuff to the houseboat.  Well, I carried my own stuff - got all of it in just two trips with the cart.  And, I say teenage boys, but I only have one teen boy left and a teen girl.  The rest are all grown up.  Insert sad emoji here.  The water, weather, stars were beautiful.  We all slept up on top so we could see the stars. One of the most peaceful feelings in the world - a quiet house boat in a quiet canyon where the stars are close enough to touch, watching shooting stars and discussing all manner of ideas from the head and heart.  So quiet, tranquil and peaceful.  Until the snoring starts.  One of our clan is a photography enthusiast, so I counted on her for pictures.  These are the only ones I got this trip.

One more thing.  See these two guys -

Yeah.  The one on the right is mine.  The one on the left just got home from his mission. They have been best friends since, well, birth, I guess.  His mom and I were Cub Scout leaders together when they were just little.  Then they went to primary, school, mutual, scouts, high school and swim team together.  They've been apart for two years while they served their missions.  I came home from work last week and this is where they were.  It took me ten minutes watching from the (dirty) sliding glass door, before I could go out and hug him, because it was such a tender moment for me.  I have SOOOOOO missed these two faces together.  Glad to have them back.  Yeah, he's giving me that, 'oh look, I made her cry' face.

Well - that's it for now.  I've emptied my head sufficiently to get at least a few things done now.  I'll leave you with a few pictures, just to make things interesting.

Avoiding the very appearance

Yesterday I cut some cucumbers to mix with red onion and red wine vinegar.  I didn't have enough vinegar, so I borrowed some from my mother-in-law's kitchen.  One of these pictures is of my vinegar, the other is the view of her vinegar which was faced on her whirl-i-gig in her kitchen. 


This is the bottle one would find in my pantry.

This is the bottle from Gma's Pantry.
 

 This just made me smile.  If you come to my house, you will find this

empty vinegar bottle in a place of honor.

 

Swim Season Begins

It's that time of year at our house.  When the leaves change color and the weather gets cooler our family starts with swimming.  J was on the swimming team for four years before A started swimming for four years, then L started and N year later.  So we're on our 13th straight swim season year.  This year they are S E R I O U S about their swimming.  After the initial Parent meeting, that's the one where they tell you how hard they are going to work your children, how much sleep they are going to need, no more junk food, no more soda, and take vitamins, blah, blah, blah.  The boys asked gma to make her homemade wheat bread.  She obliged by making a double batch on Tuesday.  Today is Friday and we have one, count them: ONE, loaf left.  This is a picture of what I came home to after my workout this morning.

Please forgive L - he has never been a morning person, so 5:50 is the hardest part of the day for him.  Any way, look at that, five swimmers eating breakfast at my house before the morning workout.  All of these boys live fairly close, within two blocks.  The two on the left are brothers, JN and BN.  Next is BB and then my N and L.  They apparently have worked out a schedule amongst themselves to have breakfast at each other's homes on the days that the swim team parent's don't provide breakfast at the school.  This is the best group of boys EVER.  All Eagle Scouts.  They have worked so hard together and supported each other in scouting and biking and hiking and service projects and now swimming.  I can't wait for the swim meets to start.  I'll keep you posted.

What could these boys possibly be watching that has them so engrossed in the television?

Is it Myth Busters?  Psych?  NCIS?  Will It Blend?  1000 Uses for Colored Duct Tape?


Why, look at that...

It's Veggie Tales.

Christmas Day 2011

We had a lot of Hale Family over for dinner today. Great times, Great food.

Sure missed this guy...

Family Picture taken in January 2011 at the Brigham City Train Depot.

Photo taken by Annette Anderson.

This is my kids favorite climbing tree. It is in Grandma & Grandpa's front yard. It was a beautiful maple tree until it got a disease and started dying limb by limb.

Levi, Adam, Ben, Nathan and Kinsey - the last climb in the maple tree.

Grandma & Grandpa are getting their house ready to sale, so they can move with us into the new house we designed together. The tree had to go.

Levi decided he deserved a little rest.

After lots of hard work, cutting and digging and cutting and digging some more, only a little swearing, and alot more digging and cutting, using the truck and a chain, the stump finally came out.

Kinsey: Mom, I think I want to be a tomboy.

Me: Well, you can be anything you want to be.

Kinsey: Good. I'll be a tomboy today. (Runs upstairs, takes a shower, comes back downstairs wearing a pink skirt, pink shirt, pink sandles, and pink clips in her hair)

Me: I thought you were going to be a tomboy today...

Kinsey: I was, but I just like too many girly things.

I just love having a girly-girl.

Expressing Appreciation

So, last night I told my husband, "I don't think you appreciate me as much as you should." To which he responded, "You're right, I don't, but I do really appreciate you." To which I then had to respond, "Well, I don't express my appreciation for you, like I should either." And that was that. No tears, no silent treatment, no tantrums...I guess we have now officially been married a long time.

Life is full of questions...

Will my son graduate? Will we get to build our house? Where is the remote? Is that MY phone ringing? Why doesn't anyone answer their phone? What is THAT? Why do they have late start days? Why are there four more days of school AFTER Memorial Day? Do they even DO anything in those four days? Have you brushed your teeth? Is there gas in the car? When will you be home? You're going where? with whom? doing what? who are their parents? Why doesn't someone invent laundry that does itself? Have you checked on mom and dad? Is it REALLY that late?

Put pizza business up for sale, Sold pizza business, Got pizza business back, Working pizza business, Pizza business for sale...again, trying to start rebuilding the house.

I know everyone says this but, "Where does the time go?" So much has happened since I decided to start this blog. And now I don't even know where to begin. Several big things have happened since September. My house burned down. We decided to put the business up for sale. We designed a new house, drew up the plans, then changed our minds. Moved into a rental (which is nice) moved into a new ward, got new church callings, been through another swim season (State is next week) finished up another soccer season. My kids are growing like crazy. So much, so much, SO MUCH. Can we make it stop? Just for 24 hours?



Okay, on with the update. My 100 year old house burned down...to the ground... lost everything...pictures, momentos, piano music, journals, books, clothing, dishes, cookbooks, DVDs, CD's, birth certificates, immunization records, school papers, tax records...everything. If I had one piece of advice for everyone, it would be... Make electronic copies of everything. Then (and this is the important part) store it somewhere else. Your parent's house, a bank box, a sibling's house, anywhere that you can retrieve it, if the unthinkable happens.



On the up side...we have amazing family and friends, and live in a totally unselfish community. I am amazed and terrribly humbled at the outpouring of love and help from our lovely little Brigham City and Perry. Before the smoke cleared, people came by with clothes, blankets, pillows, toys for the kids, and money. Luckily we had family to stay with until things could be worked out. We were so tired that night, we went to Mom and Dad's just wanting to lay down and go to sleep, then realized we had no pj's, no toothbrushes, no contact lense solution, (all the little things you take for granted) The next morning at 7, we got a call from a friend with a scanner. Our home had re-ignited during the night. Anything that was save-able, was now toast. My wonderful hubby, told me to go back to bed and rest, he would go check things out, and let me know if anything was needed.



So, we had nothing, except what people had given us. We took care of immediate needs first. You know, clothes, toothbrushes, medications. Then some friends approached us. They wanted to take the boys shopping. Let them buy whatever they wanted. Reminding us that sometimes kids need things that are not necessarily needs. I was so touched. People, some that didn't even know us, were looking out for my family. Making sure that this hardship was just that, a learning experience for all of us, a bonding time, yes, a difficult time, but hardly a tragedy. How grateful I am, that when I drove up to my burning home, I could tell the firemen, that Yes, I know exactly where my family is, and it is not in that house. No one had to risk their life. Everyone was safe.



I am sure I will be blogging more about the fire and details, especially when we begin the rebuilding process. For now I am still overwhelmed at the kindness and generosity of others that I get all choked up, just thinking about it.

I have known for a long time that writing is a good therapy for me. I started writing letters to myself when I was in junior high. Just a way to get all the voices out of my head, and sort thru all the thoughts. I haven't done much writing in my adulthood until recently, and then I lost my journal. I keep thinking I'll come across it, but that hasn't happened yet, and it's been over a month. My sister keeps a blog, and I love to read hers, so I thought I'd try it. I'm sure things will be alot just hit and miss, but hey, this is for me.