BYU, sunset, rocks, and a really cute fishie

What I wouldn't give to be at a game in provo this fall. Just love it. The crisp air, the crazy fans, cougar chants. sigh. So today we just had to settle for watchin' it on the internet, (which I didn't actually, too much to do, which could qualify as a whole post explaining that i am still a huge sports fan despite the fact that having four children, and a husband has put said sports way down on my list of priorities, sigh again.) Here's some more stuff we did this weekend.

We took a drive last night around the Air Force Base land. This is six mile lake. It was filled with silver salmon that had turned pink just in time for spawning, it was way awesome and it reminds me of my favorite deep thought by jack handy. Ahemm. ...... "As I sit here watching the sunset turn from salmon to flint, I think of my pet salmon that I named Flint."

One day I will name a pet Flint.

Today we went to a giant rock pile to scavenge for lawn ornaments. The kids had a bawl and got really dirty, just the way I like 'em.

See the tiny rocks on the edge next to the big rocks? Those are Jace's contribution. He just stood there and carefully put them in.

Speaking of Jace, he was really dirty after all that rock haulin' Can you tell he loves to have his hair done? I did it myself, I call it "fish gills" and it is "shear genius" if I do say so.

oh my gosh i bet you are just squishing your screen aren't you? that's pure joy people. it only lasts until yer two.

how to get rid of six bucks.....and be glad you did.

Star Spangled

I'm not a cryer. I can count the number of times I've bawled like a little kid, in the last 10 years, on my two hands. Plus maybe a pinky toe. It sounds like I'm bragging, but it can be a problem. I hope I don't implode into a puddle of salt water someday. I just can't seem to let the all important liquid stress reliever flow. I've stubbed my toes, and lived through long nights of mulitple children throwing up multiple times. Long labors, epidurals that didn't quite take, (my afghani back just absorbs that stuff ya know). I've been so exhausted I just thought I was dizzy. But I don't really cry much. I swear.....(also not bragging, just keepin' it real) but I don't cry.

Unless I'm listening to the Star Spangled Banner. I love the olympics. Every four years, I cry like my dog just died. It helps me to avoid that salty implosion I mentioned. From Michael Phelps to that happy fencing chick, they all make me get weepy when the old stars and stripes are hauled up in glory and the familiar strains of the national anthem pick up, oh and if that lucky gold medalist is singing along? it's all over people. You'd think wylie coyote just dropped an anvil on my toe.

It's the last line that does it. "Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave? Ore the land of the free and the home of the brave." Images of battle fatigued soldiers, in yankee blue, to omaha beach green struggling to fight and survive flood my mind. Men and women who leave their families for years to protect that flag, men who died on a dusty roadside in a faraway country, soldiers who come home missing parts of themselves. That's why it's the home of the brave. And it's those words that make me think that all of our own individual battles can be won with that quality we've all inherited.

I think an athlete can serve their country too. It's probably why the singing brings me to tears. It's great to see a physical battle, were the victims are only standing in awe and admiration for the usurper. Not fear and hopelessness. Poor little Lazlo Cseh is thinking, "I wanna be like Mike." The olympics are the best of us all. Wouldn't it be so much better to take out all our competitive drive on the handball court? To aspire to great power by who can swim the most races? Too bad somebody doesn't say, "hey Kim Jong Il, you can have nuclear weapons if you can preform a balance beam routine better than Nastia Luikin. " I'm sure if we could take away his power like that, he'd be weeping like a baby.

Presents

From: Quinton, an eraser thank-you note left on my bedroom floor.

From: Avery. She said, "They are stripes mom. When it dries mom you can cut them out and play babies with them."

From: Austin. He said, "Have you ever seen a leaf that color?" The berries weren't really for me. He told me he picked the berries because they are poisonous and he would throw them in a bears mouth if one was going to get him and it would die from the poison.

Winner... or perhaps I should say the biggest loser.

And the Winner is ..... Kim!! She wins some of these. That I will be making. I'm pretty sure that getting lots of extra shots has earned you a win. Poor girl, I hope your not still numb.
Also thank-you all for commenting. I think I need to come up with some kind of reward for you all.......hmmmmmm..... interesting. Stay tuned.

Also check the comments section in the previous post, for some commentary.

Burning Question of the Week #6

Let's push the rewind button for a bit.......zooming back over spring hikes, Grandma and Grandpa's may visit, yucky april snowstorm, valentines, christmas, thanksgiving(yum),.....etcetra etcetra.....long road trip, three weeks of packing, kids in utah.....ahhh here we are.... laboring with Jace. June 2007. We'll start there. So I'm on the edge of the devil hospital bed (what the h*%$#? why would a bed be so excrutiating?) in deep painful, mind numbing labor waiting for my best friend, my hero, the only person I want to see at this point, yep Mr. Anesthesiologist. He finally arrives to slay the horrible dragon of my pain with his hideously long needles and bottles of iodine.
Dear, dear, wonderful man. He is short, bald, hairy knuckles....let's just hope those knuckles have some serious experience here. Which, as the polite conversation soon reveals, is exactly the case. It seems Mr. Anesthesiologist has just returned from Afghanistan, (this is an Army hospital experience mind you, ps thus the swearing) and has been doing this sort of thing long enough to put my jumpy heart at ease.
So as the good Dr. is poking around my back he keeps making funny questioning noises. You know like "hmmmmm" or "interesting" which I'll admit I'm kind of ignoring and thinking "let's get this show on the road eh!" and then finally he says, " Do you work out alot?"
Which is the last thing I expected to hear as an extremely chubby pregnant woman. Mike snickers under his breath. Then remembers where we are and whose fault that is and apologetically strokes my arm. So I say, "umm I walked alot in my pregnancy.... I lifted 5 lb hand weights a couple times." I left out the embarassing pregnancy salsa video I bought on Amazon, no one with 8 lbs of fat and baby up front should be doing the salsa.
And he says, " I mean do you lift heavy things alot?" Well my babies are always fat, I'm not wussy in the moving stuff around department, I can even hold like 10 sacks of groceries in one hand if it's really cold outside.
"It's just that your back is so strong," says hairy knuckles, "You have the back of an Afghani man!" He smiles.


I cringe. "uhh... thank-you?"

Which leads me to the burning question of the week. What is the weirdest compliment you've ever received? And the person who can top that, is gonna get a good prize, and no it won't be my afghani "how to get a muscular back video."

Deep Thoughts

As soon as Mike gets home from work everyday, the boys start wrestling. My theory is testosterone is contagious.