Bountiful Blessings

Wow am I lucky. I have totally been blessed with many bounteous blessings. Today I spent time taking pictures of four of the greatest blessings in my life. As I looked at them I realized that life is going by so fast and they are growing up even faster.


McKenna is now 14 and about to finish her 8th grade year. She has been on the 8th grade volleyball and basketball teams where she is greatly skilled and so evenly tempered is amazes all. She is so smart and manages to maintain her grades while balancing a schedule that I can't even keep track of. She is currently playing shortstop on her softball team and is looking forward to Student Council at the high school where she will be the secretary.






Kathrynn is now 12 and has entered the world of Young Womens. She is such a good friend and she has tons. Sixth grade has opened a whole new world to her social life. She seems to have a party or a get-together to go to each weekend. She loves to spend time with her little cousins that live a couple blocks away. She has decided she doesn't like competive sports but does like to play her saxaphone. She is looking forward to summer band. If she isn't jumping on the trampoline , look for her in the kitchen cooking up something yummy.











Collin will turn 17 in a couple weeks! Seventeen. Can you believe that? He has totally enjoyed his Junior year. He played football and he wrestled. He participated as an escort in the Jr. Miss pageant. He was selected for the Honor Society and to be in the TATU (Teens Against Tobacco Use) group. He won an award for his solo at a national jazz band competition and the "Best Actor" award at the Honor's English Academy Award ceremony. (Small groups in the two Honor's English classes made movies about something. We haven't seen it yet.) He stays way too busy to do his chores.










Adrienne is also 12 and excited to be out of Primary. She is fun and adventuresome. She too has a social calendar that amazes me. She played on a community basketball team and tried volleyball for the first time. She loved it and did really well. She is also playing softball again. She plays the flute and loves it. She loves to be on the skooter and the rip stick. She has begun doing her own hair and can make it look so cute. She hates to wake up and hates to go to bed. She also has an infectious smile and laugh. She is a talker and keeps us quite informed on the happenings at school.

We sure do love these kids. We are also so proud of them and the choices they make.

The South Fremont Jazz band recently took a trip to Denver and then Greely, Colorado to participate in a Jazz Band Festival. It was a much bigger festival than anyone expected and the band, who are considered to be a fairly big fish in our little pond, found themselves to be a little fish in a much bigger lake. Despite the freezing, cold, rainy, winter-like weather, the trip was a blast. They did respectfully well and came back better musicians. That's all that counts really.

The best part was that Collin, who hates to solo, was forced to do a MAJOR solo because he is the only baritone sax player and that's what the music called for. So, though he didn't want to, he did - and he was fantastic. He never practices. I mean never. I don't know if I can emphasize that enough. NEVER!!!! I listened to him and wondered what would be if.... He received a special award at the festival for excellent soloing. We haven't seen the award yet. I'm sure it is somewhere between here and there, along with his brand new and expensive dress shoes. But, unlike the shoes, we do know that the award exists.

Last week, the band performed a concert. I couldn't wait to hear the solo. Trent's parents drove all the way up from Utah to watch and weren't disappointed. The band is really good. I could listen to them all day. But, Collin's solo (click on the red words for solo) was definitely award winning. I was impressed. It was worth blogging about. You'll enjoy it too. The trumpet soloist is our good friend Connar Moore. He was great too. But, I'm partial to the bari sax - nicknamed Big Bertha.

Just Another of His Many Talents

Collin has been working on a new skill lately - one he didn't want us to know about until it was perfect, apparently. His sisters knew. His friends knew. His friends' parents knew. Did we know? NO!!! And why? BECAUSE ITS DANGEROUS!!!!

Fire blowing is "one of his talents," he announced to me and then he said, "Bring the camera." I did and this is what I got. I didn't know that three lit matches and a mouthful of powdered sugar could be so "freakin' awesome." He tried to convince his band teacher to let him perform his little act at the band concert as part of the big finale of a song. Amazingly the band teacher said, "No." Can you imagine that?

When I found spots of blown powdered sugar all over my kayaks and on the floor of the garage I became a little worried. I approached Collin and he said, "Mom, relax. I'm very responsible with my fire blowing." Of course he is.

Collin - A True Contender for Jr. Miss

Collin, and three other boys, were selected by this year's Jr. Miss contestants to be escorts. In this smallish town that is a nice thing. It means that he is kinder outside the house than in. What more could a mom ask for? His job, and the other boys, was to do all the grunt work on stage like moving props, the piano, closing curtains, walking the girls to the microphone, and look pleasant. He was fantastic. We were so grateful that he didn't step on the skirt of a dress. I suppose all those late night practices (we haven't seen him for over a week) paid off.

When the girls are finished competing and the judges are out tallying, it is the escorts job to entertain the crowd. It was definitely entertaining! The boys did an 8 minute review of the entire two and a half hour program in just 8 minutes and 37 seconds. There was more screaming and cheering going on in those 8 minutes than I have heard at every football game in three seasons. Personally, I think Collin should have won the talent portion of the program. But, maybe I am just biased. Here is the video. (Click on the red word. Be patient. It is huge and takes some time to buffer. then, for some reason, you may need to slide the little play arrow along just a couple seconds. it'll work.)It isn't very good because of the darkness and the spotlight. Collin is the guy dressed as Alice in Wonderland in the opening number - last on the right side of the stage. He performs fourth in the Self Expression number and third in the Physical Fitness number. He comes from the right side curtain for the talents - playing the "violin" and recorder, singing, and dancing (the one that rolls on the floor). He is the one without red hair. Enjoy! It is very funny. We didn't know he had such great moves. Gotta love that boy. And ... we do!

Ah, Spring!

Today was once of those "spring-like" days that make me think of warmer climates and good memories. It smelled like spring and it looked like spring. Water was running down the gutters and torrents of water rushed like waterfalls off the roof. Everywhere you went there was water making the physical change from solid to liquid. AWESOME!!!!!


As I was driving in Rexburg, I saw a group of three women pushing strollers up the hill toward the temple. It brought back a flood of great memories of our days in Provo when we lived in married student housing. I thought of the fun we had pushing our strollers up the temple hill to the park. We had so much fun. Those strollers could be so heavy. Sometimes we could have as many as 12 moms forming our little train. We talked, laughed, and complained. Going back down the hill was so much easier. Wasn't that fun Emily and Diane? Ah, good memories. I could go into deep water aerobics but that's a nightmare.

Spring makes me think of flowers blooming in Provo, when they are supposed to - not 2 months late. My mother-in-law, so generously and kindly, lets me know as soon as her first crocus stretches it's leaves and opens it's purple head. It usually coincides with the day the snowplow comes along to move the slush in the road into my driveway. When the three foot snowdrift melts on my flowerbed, I have the hope that the tulips will awaken to share their spring colors with me. That won't happen until the end of April. By then mom's crocus and tulips will have lost their petals and the summer flowers will be planted. Ah, that's a good yearly memory.

Today I was missing Spring, in its proper place, and not in the summer. Ah, good memories. Hopefully soon, I'll have Spring realities. Can't wait!!!!

Lost in Parker

I love to tell stories. Only true stories. And, I admit that occassionally I will "lace up the details" to make it more interesting. The details are all true, too. But, this story is nothing like that. There is no "lacing" in what you are about to read. It is just straight shootin'.

Tonight I had to take Adrienne and Kathrynn to a birthday party. We had the address but I wasn't sure where it was. Of course, my super smart Trent said to Google it - which I did, but there wasn't an address that matched. But, hey, they live in a really new house and probably on a really new street that wasn't on Google yet. I thought about it and did, what I felt, was some pretty awesome logical reasoning. There was a 2000 East and I figured that as it jogged around a canal or a ditch then perhaps the street would change to 1990 East (the intended target). Sounded pretty good to me.

So we head out into Parker - a smaller town outside St. Anthony. I found 2000 and was feeling so smart. We scanned the numbers on the mailboxes as we drove slowly - through a blizzard, I might add - hoping to find 375. We were in the 400s for a very long time and then started to worry because I figured we were nearing the end of the earth. But yeah! Relief was spotted a bit ahead of us. Through the snow we could see what looked like two people, carrying inner tubes on their backs, heading home from an afternoon of tubing. I figured that we could ask them for help once we got to them. So, we continued our mailbox search. All of a sudden Adri says, "Mom, its a cow!" Sure enough, somehow those two boys had turned into a cow and it was just about 10 feet away. Well, we startled it enough that it bolted right into the middle of the road. Now I was lost and following a cow. When the cow moved we were at the end of the road - literally. No 375. We had to turn around.

On the way back I passed a house where two people were standing on their porch. I decided since the cow couldn't answer, I'd ask them. I backed up to their house. The man was in his boxers and tank top and the woman was in her nightgown (it was 6:00 pm). I asked, "Do you know where the Petersons live?" The man looked at his wife and back at me and said, (It is important to think this and say it in the most Ozarkish drawl that you can possibly imagine) "Well, there ain't no Petersons who live around these parts." He asked me for the street address. I told him and he said, "Well, this here is 2000 and if you head over that a way, 1900 is over yonder." I said, "Ok, I'll just go that way and maybe I'll run into 1990 somewhere between." He said, "There ain't no such 1990."

I gave my thanks and was just about to pull off when the lady shouted out, "Don't you like our cow?" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I couldn't stop laughing. True, there wasn't a 1990 (misprint on the invitation) but heading down 2000 was the best thing I could have done. That was so dang funny! I love living in this place.

Zumba Update

I LOVE Zumba. It is so fun. I've attended enough times that I now know most of the steps to the dances and have started focusing on muscles I'm using or not using. It has been a good thing to start since I turned 40. Turning 40 is rough. I felt very old. Did you know that my mom was a month away from 40 when I got married. I don't feel as old as I thought she was (Sorry mom.) Nevertheless it arrived and I couldn't stop it. But, here's the point to that side note, I'm 40 and I am still coordinated. I don't look like a total idiot when I do the dances (at least that is what people who would be totally honest with me have said). And, when I practice in front of the bathroom mirror, I don't think I look like a freakazoid. Now, if you happen to think that don't tell me because I won't be able to bear it. So, even at 40, I can do somet hings. Also, I have acquired a little bit more energy and stamina. I can make it through one hour of continuous dancing without dying. After the first day I never thought that would happen. I have also lost about half an inch off my waist. I have to say "about" because I have been way too scared to measure. But, my pants seem to fit half an inch better. So, it's been worth the time and the sore knees, ankles, and hips. I'll keep going.