asphyxiation? not today.

the day started out like any other normal day, children trying to drag me out of bed begging for cereal and cartoons, scrubbin' toilets, forceing 8 year olds to clean out the trash can that is actually the underside of his bed, asking the six year old to please not pee on the toilet but in it, and reminding my little girl, that shorts and alaska don't mix. no black friday shopping, no early morning lines, and darn it, no cat fights in the aisles of target for the last star wars lego destroyer. oh but things did get interesting. We piled on our snow clothes, packed up the kids and some hot chocolate and headed out for the traditional day after thanksgiving.....tree hunt!! We took the sleds and found a hill on our hike to sled down, ate snow, poked each other in the eye with sticks and even spied a family of bald eagles crooning in a near by tree. too cool. oh, and yes cut down a crazy alaskan christmas tree. (more to come later)

but that's not the interesting part. interesting came after the tree hunt. it went like this. came home, extricated children from snow essentials, threw dirty snow coats and gloves in the washer and went downstairs to relax. oh but like usual the relaxation was short lived as we were jolted into focus with the mind numbing sound of co2/fire alarms blaring in our house. we made a mad dash to see what was burning (i know i know bad idea) found nothing, fiddled with alarms, no stopping, called housing were the nice lady on the phone told me to get out of my quarters as she was callind the FD! I said, "seriously" and she said, "m'am you need to get your family out of your quarters" yikes! well coats are in the wash, it's cold, so we turn on the car and park in front of the house and wait for the Firemen. they came and discovered that the washing machine was leaking and the water dripped down the ceiling and right into the fire alarm, quite alot of drama for just a little dirt!

happy austin

our sled hill

quinton daring the backwards run



jace had a great time eating snow.

the logger and son.


me, the boys, and fish face

opposable thumbs

Avery: (wiggling her thumb in my face) Hey Mom, Heavenly father forgot to put one of THESE on my foot!

garden

the only picture of the backyard in my possesion + lilly

Ode to my Momma

My mother has a wonderful and beautiful yard. Many hours of digging, moving hoses, unloading bolders, fortifing against deer, pruning, weeding and harvesting have been spent there. it's a place were the light seems to shine a little brighter, the rain must poor a little harder, therefore things grow a little better in the red clay of south east utah. Not true really, Monticello's is a harsh climate, my mom has done all the things nature should have done for her. even so, nature has rewarded all her hard work.

I remember as a little girl when our back yard was mostly just dirt. I loved it. Mom carved out a little "house" for us in the dirt, complete with a floor plan. We each had a room and there were stairs and even little chairs made out of the hard packed terra firma! One of my most cherished memories is mom making us a similar dirt house for our little holly hock dolls she made from the flowers. Purple blossoms were turned upside down for a skirt and the stems became a head of sorts. Then mom uprooted various wild flowers and weeds to make "trees" and gardens for our little dirt houses. It maybe took her 45 minutes. But the memory of it has lasted me 25 years.

Mom can grow anything in that garden of hers. I remember running out to the garden in my bare feet to pick corn, cucumber, tomatoes and peppers right before dinner, warm butter oozing down my chin and tomato juice stinging my chapped lips. We ate the peas right out of the patch. Standing to eat, then bending to pick more. My kids always get up early when we visit Grandma, to water the garden and eat some peas.

Of all the things my mom has grown, I'm sure she would say us four kids were her best harvest, and maybe so, but then again, have you ever tasted a juicy, perfectly acidic tomato grown of blood, sweat, tears and love in the red clay of southern utah? I sincerely hope that one day you will.

Burning question of the week #8

i've been inspired lately by quotes. most recently from songs on my ipod shuffle.
i love cake, the dessert and the band. saying that sounds like i follow them, really i don't know any new songs, just old 1990's ones. my new favorite quote comes from the song
"love you madly"
"....the ornaments are pretty but they're pulling down the branches on the tree."

two reasons for my new found love of cake:

it reminds me for some reason my old brain can't quite remember of these two.

em, because i think she used this song as fuel for her "i don't wanna get hitched" fire. which i'm sure she is glad, inevitably and thankfully burned out anyway,
and kell, because she was into cool music 12 years ago when i was in my pious, self righteous stage. self righteous maggie was not fun. i'm talking serious, sinful, self-righteousness. be glad you know "nicely balanced" maggie. anyway kell's cool music choices have stuck with me and now give me reason to contemplate some wisdom. yes people i do believe i've found a shred of wisdom in some rock music.

so let's get back to the quote. i like it cause it reminds me to be authentic, it reminds me to let go of dwelling on all the lists of goods i want, and focus on what we really need, it reminds me that i am at my best when i am stripped of all my make-up and beauty aids and am forced to find what really lies underneath it all. it reminds me to find the good in myself again.

so burning question: What totally random, thought quote or scripture refrence is inspiring you?

And because i am not totally stripped of piousness, here's a lovely scripture that has inspired me as of late. because, really, what could be more inspiring than that? 3 nephi 12:45

typing this has stirred up old memories of other songs that remind me of old pals.... i may have to list them someday. or maybe we'll make that a burning ? for the future.

birthday boy or the last leg of the birthday marathon

Whose decision was it to have everyone born in the fall?

I am wiped.

Luckily birthday season ends at our house with sweet Austin, who always makes me smile and is anything but demanding.

He's 6 whole years old and very proud. He got a foosball table, and says "foosssball" not foozball.

We had a b-day party last night with his buddies and went mini golfing and played Xbox.

To celebrate i thought i'd list a few of Austin's greatest quotes. The kid is a joke book.

Q: Mom how many pounds are in a ton?

M: 2000

Au: How many pounds are in a bunch?

Au: Mom, I can't wait until me and Q are 18 and then we are going to join the army and we'll never have to do what you say again.

Gpa J.: Austin what are you going to be when you grow up?

Au: A night watchman

GJ: what does a night watchman do?

Au: I'll watch lots of tv shows all night long.

Mom: austin do you want some doritos with your pb&j?

Au: I'm not really in the doritos business anymore

We were reading this book about a mouse. the pictures were drawn somewhat haphazardly. at the end it says, "all the wishes of the little mouse came true!" and austin said, "She must have wished to be ugly."

dear maggie: no more homemade costumes.

I have this deep rooted need to make Halloween costumes. Inevitably i spend most of Oct 31st(starting at 12:00 a.m. halloween morning) sewing, hot gluing, dying, ect, ect. I am an onery woman by the time trick or treaters start ringing the bell, and at least one costume is a disaster. This year only my little chicken was a winner, and it was mostly because of the little guy IN the chicken suit. Austin wanted to be a spider, i made a fabulous outfit complete with numerous eyeballs and large bloody fangs, but when we put it on Austin, he looked like Bjork on a good day. Needless to say we both refused doning the thing. so austin had to resort to the much used spiderman costume. Quinton looked faulous as a mummy for about 10 minutes, then he walked and the carefully wrapped fabric (it took me an hour to wrap him) began sliding from his scrawny frame. (which is something i can't comprehend since he eats 3 boiled eggs, two bowls of cereal and 3 pieces of toast everyday and that's just breakfast) He ended up being a ninja. Only avery made it all through the day in one costume. She loved the red hair. Not that costumes even matter up here anyway, we had to wear coats, hats, and gloves as Halloween night temperatures were in the teens! I hope next year some one will take pitty on me and smack me before i take out the sewing machine.