doing work

we watched the mavs win the nba championships two days ago. i always love a good sports battle. over the years, my love of sports has taken a back seat to taking care of kids, doing the dishes, normal mom stuff, but every once in awhile, i'll take the time to watch some of the big game.
sports center is a regular presence in our home. when asked, dirk nowitzki talked about how good it felt to have all that hard work pay off, how they worked. so. hard. for. so. long.
lebron and dwain wade talked about how hard it was to work. so. hard. and come so far, and fall so short. (dear lebron. i am one of those people who hoped you failed. so sorry to be a downer, but when you think your awesome so very publicly, i can't help but jump on the "you are full of yourself, so you need to be taken down a notch" bandwagon. ) it got me thinking about how trivial the life of a sports hero is. if they are hoping for sympathy or tears of respect for their hard work, they must have had only pampered rich people in mind. millionaire athletes will get no such respect from me. good for you lebron. you get paid 20 million dollars a year (or rather in a 9 month period) to play a game. sure you run ladders, and lift weights, and shoot baskets over and over and over. you are good what you do, I will concede that you "work hard."
even so, you don't have a clue what hard work is.
i am a mom. i once went on a 9 year spree of poopie diaper changing. 9. years. my body is scarred and battered from growing 4 people inside of it, and then trying to get them out. also, not sleeping through the night for nearly 11 years, and wiping boogers with my bare hands. i have scrubbed buckets of vomit out of the carpets, hosed off gallons of pee from the bathroom floor, and the poop. have i mentioned the poop?
i settle countless arguments without using a weapon. i have made thousands of meals, to the sound of a thousand complaints. made beds, folded clothes, vaccumed floors, canned fruit and vegetables, clipped coupons.....blah blah blah.
the other day my kids and i were pulling weeds, and austin asked me, " mom do you ever wish you weren't a mom? " i must have looked a little stunned, because he added, "you know like when you get sick of us cause we are onery and stuff?" i brushed aside my shock and managed to say, " austin, being a mom is the hardest job in the world, but it's the best job, and i wouldn't ever wish you away."
i have dried tears from soft cheeks, i have laughed at a toddlers jokes, taught my kids to swim, ride bikes and forgive. quinton gave me a thank-you card on sunday. once he gave me a rusty washer he'd found on the road. "it's treasure mom." he'd said. avery draws me as a beautiful princess. austin still wants to hold my hand. and jace....jace has learned to poop in the toilet.
i don't have 20 million dollars, the accolades of winning a hard fought championship tournament, or the adoration of the free world.
but i have four little people, and doing that work is reward immeasurable.

important things we've missed......

in november we went hiking with grandpa, and found some lovely ruins and enjoyed the autumnal sun.

we ate giant peaches from grandpa j's tree. this one wasn't even the biggest.
we got all the judi cousin's together for a wonderful reunion in august.
we dressed up for halloween.
and austin dear sweet austin, got baptized in blanding utah.
it was a wonderful day.
we frolicked in the fall leaves and on the golf course.
it was a wonderful fall......

burning question of the week.....it's been so long....so very long.

do you remember this? the question of little relevance that i like to ask once a week? i decided to dust it off and try it out again, cause it's just so darn fun to waller in some irrelvance once in awhile.
so here it is:
What is one or two things that have inspired you lately? and what are you going to do about it?

a: (1) the fields around my house are green as can be. (despite the AW.FUL. weather) and my first garden is coming to life in my kitchen. i've got tomatoes, (a boatload fave food ever ya know) 5 kinds of peppers, califlower, cucumbers, and herbs already started. can't wait to see if i can acutally harvest something.......


and (2) so i am sitting in relief society one day, trying really hard to pay attention and not let my mind wander, which is ironic, because the lesson was really good and i think i have religious ADHD....anyway. i was trying to focus my wandering gaze by dragging it back across the room to the teacher and along the way my eyes caught hold of this saying on the chalkboard.
"what would you do if you could not fail?"
holy crap i know exactly what i should be doing. but i am afraid of failing. i am afraid i will, quite frankly suck at it. i've been writing a book that has been in my head for about 5 or 6 years. i have finished 5 paragraphs. but those words hit me so hard that day. and so i've been writing more, and wasting time less. i'm playing around with the idea of posting the chapters here for my good friends to read as i go....SCARY!
ahhhhhahahahahah!!!
so any way....answer away! what is inspiring you?

thrifting

for the first time ever in our marriage, we live in an actual single family house. it is our first home to buy and it is really lovely. i am in possession of hundreds of paint samples and dreams in my head of which room will be painted what color.
home ownership however, is not just that easy. with a mortgage to pay and lots of other monetary upkeep, not all decorating dreams can come true immediately. which actually i think is kind of a good thing cause if everything is fabulous........then what would i do?
so i've been accessorizing on the cheap. thrift stores are my fourth favorite place to be. and i've found some bargains!






I am in love with glass cheese domes. you can buy them online and on ebay for like 40$. but i found this one in castle dale for 2$. add a candle pedestal thingy, a cute plastic plate from target and some fake fruit. vwalllla!

i also love to cover syrofoam spheres with stuff. cheapy orange blossoms from michaels liven up these blue china bowls. bargain center in kentucky, i think they were like 1$ each.


i found this cute garland at the thrift store in park city (thrifting gold, people in park city are loaded ya know) any way it was all bent and stuff so i covered a ginormous stryofoam sphere with it. it took several episodes of downton abbey to finish, but it was worth all my hard labor.

this giant built in is in my kitchen. i accessorized it as i unpacked and i could not figure out why it just bugged me. one day i was looking at it and realized it just had too much going on. and so...


i detirded it and it looks soo much better!

easterness.

we were so lucky to have family for easter! mike's sister, her hubby and there three boys came along with g & g judi. We had an easter egg hunt at our house, good food and lots of laughing. uncle norm brought his helmet cam. we put it on various children for the easter egg hunt and for riding our plasma car down the steep and scary drive way. it was awesome.








this rainbow happened on monday, but i thought it was a small glimpse of spring in an otherwise cold and annoying spring. look for the positive. right?

mike judi won the green jacket today......

.....which is amazing considering he was on the couch the whole time....

k-i-s-s-i-n-g

you know that quote i have over there? the one that talks about laughing after tragedy. well it's been 16 or so years since this particular embarrassing event happened, i think i'll air it out and see if it makes me laugh. here goes:

so i am 16 and all my friends have been kissed. it starts to be kind of a big deal in my head. i've built it up until i've thought about it so much that it scares me. and i equate kissing with crazy axe wielding murderers encountered in the dark. basically i'm terrified. so like many teenage girls i go on dates. and like many teenage girls i know what happens at the end of dates. in mormondom most dates are platonic. just practicing for when we are older you know. but some dates, i am pretty sure that the boy kind of likes me. and i am pretty sure that the boy probably expects a kiss for his troubles.
like that's happening.
so i come up with ways to avoid the door step thank-you kiss. hi fives for starters. it sounded good in my head, but you should have seen the kids face when i pulled that one. i might as well have just said, "you smell." which in all honesty he didn't but if it was a last resort i would have said it. my next great avoider: the turn away. i just waited until he was coming in for the kill and i'd quickly turn away and call over my shoulder, "thanks! i had a great time." that one however proved to be too obvious, and i started getting a reputation attached to me. one kid offered the victor 50$ . anyone who finally pinned me down with a good ole wet one would also find himself a little richer. i think that kid really thought that i'd never cave. I did come up with a better way of avoiding kisses. I stood on the very edge of the top step to my front door. which made me taller and no boy wants to kiss a girl whose hovering 2 feet above them. it's affeminate. teenage boys are very sensitive about their height. it worked pretty good. so good, i started selling my advice to other scared teen girls. (just kidding, let's face it, i'm the only teenage girl in history dumb enough to AVOID kissing.) *sigh of regret and a head shake*
but it started to get old. and that kid and his 50$ made me mad. so it's homecoming. and my dress is a lovely shade of peach and my date is a good friend who i like. and so i decide to stand on the bottom step. and keep my high fives to myself and not under any circumstances turn away.
the door step scene arrives. i smile, (a half crazed with fear kind of smile) and jabber on in nervous conversation. until i have to stop for what seems like eternity. don't talk, don't move, don't run away to honduras. and in he comes for the kill.
next thing i remember is shaking like a leaf in my mom's bedroom. and she is laughing her head off cause she knows i finally gave in and the ensuing adrenilin rush has rendered my brain useless. somewhere between the kiss and finding myself inside, i had blacked out, muttered goodbye and wandered off to find my mommy. *shaking head again* even my dad is chuckling behind half closed sleepy eyes and snores.
so that's the story of how i turned a regular teenage right of passage into a shock inducing night of blackouts. the end
ps that nice boy never got his 50$.

and nope, i'm not laughing. just shaking my head and rolling my eyes.