The Wright Stuff

The Cost of Doing Business

2012-01-27T18:15:00.001-07:00

Two Large Mason Jars and Four Packages of "Fuzzies" - $30 (steep, I know, but Jay didn't exactly bargain shop for the fuzzies).

Money Collected for Bad Behavior - $14.25

A Week Without the Word "Idiot" - Priceless

When You Love Someone...

2012-01-18T09:18:00.003-07:00

...Set Them Free. Especially if that "someone" is your very favorite video game console and a beloved member of the family.

Yesterday we were driving our Wii to the FedEx office. It is acting up and Nintendo promised to fix it and try very hard to save our data for a good bit less than a new Wii, so we packaged it up to send to their repair place.

As we were driving, William said, "It must be true. They say 'If you love someone, set them free. If they love you, they will come back.' Kind of like our Wii."

The world according to William, ladies and gentlemen.

January, Schmanuary

2012-01-16T16:23:00.002-07:00

Ah, January. My least favorite month of the year. I shouldn't even complain because it's been suspiciously warm this winter (I say suspiciously because I have a bad feeling we will get dumped on later this winter). Still, I am grumpy about January. The warmish weather makes the intermittent cold, wet and windy days feel even worse. The only good thing about January is that it morphs into February, which is one month closer to spring.

I take it back. In January we have basketball to look forward to for the boys. They both play Jr. Jazz basketball and they love it. Henry is playing on a 5th and 6th grade team this year and they actually play, you know, basketball. They run plays and rebound and there is an actual point to it. William plays on a 1st and 2nd grade team. Sigh. They have fun. They pass the ball. They travel and foul each other. Alot. But they shoot and score and enjoy themselves. Here is a shot of William making a basket:

OK. I promise it's William. You can kind of see his white sleeve behind the tall, blond kid with the glasses. Also, I am a terrible photographer. I should not be allowed to take pictures of my kids.

January also brings the NFL playoffs. We typically don't care about the NFL that much around here. Back in the day, Jay used to care. Alot. He studied the teams and players and even won his Fantasy Football League one year (1998, I think). But since we have kids now and no longer have unlimited time to fool around with stuff like that he hasn't followed the NFL too much. This year, however, his "team" - I put it in quotation marks because he only likes them because a former Ute quarterback plays for them - is in the playoffs. Since the game was on a Saturday afternoon and we only have one TV, I opted to avoid conflict - meaning Tessa throwing a tantrum about sports being on TV - by taking Tessa to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D. It was very fun and we got popcorn. And the 49ers won. Everyone is a winner.

Even in January.

Resolved

2012-01-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

Jay and I have resolved that our children are going to be nicer to each other this year. I don't know how kosher it is to resolve something that you, by yourself, cannot accomplish but we are bound and determined to help our little family get along better.

The kids have seemed to get gradually worse about picking at each other, calling each other names and just being frustrating. There are many evenings that I have gone to bed at a loss as how to get to a place where things are generally peaceful.

The solution - they pay. Money. They will be charged for being mean to each other, calling each other names and excessive teasing.

Jay bought two big Mason jars. Each child has a different color puffball. Each time they violate current family policy, the jar with the frowny face gets a puffball matching the color of the offending child. Each Monday night during Family Home evening, they pay up. Tonight, William owed $2.25, Henry owed $1.75 and Tessa owed a quarter. They cannot earn this money back and we haven't exactly decided what to do with it yet. However, in the week we have been doing this, I have noticed a difference. Contention has decreased, which is the whole point of the exercise anyway.

Also, because we want to catch them being good we have a reward system in place. The second Mason jar has a smiley face on it and any time we catch them being good - being nice to each other, helping each other, doing a good deed without being asked - they can add a puffball. Once we fill up the "good" jar, we will do a fun family activity together. So far they are doing things like taking out the garbage and recycling without being asked and helping each other at school.

So basically we are taking money away from the kids for being naughty. We honestly didn't know what else to do and they seem fairly reluctant to part with their not-so-hard-earned allowance. We shall see how it all turns out.

A Good Year

2011-12-31T13:15:00.000-07:00

2011 has been a good year for us.

Henry was declared cancer-free. The best news a parent can hear. Yes, I know it was only thyroid cancer (the "best" kind to have) but even thyroid cancer can cause serious complications so the fact that his treatment was successful is worth celebrating. Other than that, we have been pretty healthy, random stomach flu attacks not withstanding.

Jay has a good, stable job that he likes and allows him to use his talents and education. We love where we live and we love our neighbors and friends and ward family.

I love my calling in Primary, although today I'm stressing a bit because tomorrow 83 little people are getting new teachers and it's all on me. Hopefully no one will cry. Sunbeams can cry - we expect some transition issues with them since they are only 3 - but I'm hoping everyone else will be OK. I also love helping out at the kids school. This is the only year that they will all three be in the same school so I'm maximizing my time there, although helping with three Christmas parties on the same day (one at noon, one at 1 pm and one at 2 pm) left me twitching a bit.

Speaking of school, the kids are doing well. They all have their strengths and weaknesses but in general are happy and smart and enjoy learning. They are also enjoying the extra activities that they participate in, from Scouts to basketball to piano to dance.

My only hope is for another good year in 2012.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from Hyde Park

2011-12-26T19:48:00.002-07:00

We had a lovely Christmas here in Hyde Park, Utah. It was cold but clear(ish). The kids were out of school starting Thursday but Tessa and Henry were felled by the stomach flu so we were quarantined until Saturday. We spent alot of time watching TV, playing on the Wii and trying hard to get along. On Christmas Eve everyone was well again so we made cookies for Santa and had a nice day together.

Christmas morning came early, but that's OK. The kids had a nice Christmas. We went to church and had a nice sacrament meeting with a lot of music and scriptures about the birth of the Savior and how we can honor His life by emulating His example. The kids were exhausted Christmas night but rallied on Monday to have a fun Christmas party with the extended Wright family in Ogden.

Here are a few pictures:

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Dancing Queen

2011-12-19T20:34:00.001-07:00

Tessa's dance school has a cute little holiday recital for the classes. The girls show off a couple of dances to family and friends who come and applaud. It's way more low-key than the big spring recital and a fun way to spend a dark, cold winter's evening.

Here are two of Tessa's dances:

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

The Bad Guy

2011-12-15T18:47:00.001-07:00

I often play the role of the Bad Guy in our family. Jay does too, but I'm home with the kids more so I'm typically the one who has to reign them in.

Tonight I played bad guy again and boy are they mad at me. My kids love to watch Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader. It's a fun show and they like to show off how smart they are. They turned it on tonight and found themselves smack in the middle of "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Week". The audience was full of Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders shaking their pom poms and the contestant was a cheerleader as well. In uniform, of course.

I don't consider myself a prude or uptight about clothing in general. My kids watch plenty of sports on TV and and in person and see plenty of cheerleading action. But really? I mean, I turn the channel when Victoria's Secret ads come on TV because my 10 and 8 year old sons don't need to see half naked women prancing around and, quite frankly, my 5 year old daughter doesn't need to see that either. I'm certainly not going to sit and watch a 30 minute game show featuring women in clothing that barely covers what needs to be covered in public. So after I picked my jaw up off the floor I made them turn the channel. Their laughter at my reaction changed to outright indignation at the gall of a mother who is censoring their viewing for the evening. Hopefully they'll be placated by the Charlie Brown Christmas special that comes on later this evening.

Although, as Jay just said, we are a bit curious to see if there are Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders who are smarter than 5th graders. Hmmmm. I guess we'll never know.

Tessa the Other Reindeer

2011-12-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

Today was Tessa's Kindergarten Christmas program. These programs are exercises in cuteness, as you can see from the video below - sorry for the quality.

They seriously sang a dozen songs but the program only lasts about 25 minutes. Tessa is the reindeer in the middle of the video with the ponytail. She doesn't seem to love being onstage or in the spotlight, which is funny because she loves dance and her recitals. Maybe the Summit Elementary stage is just too much for her.

Here is a picture of her before the program.

My favorite thing was the matching reindeer tshirts. I would never think to do something so cute with tshirts. I guess it's a good thing that I don't teach kindergarten.

The Ugly Truth

2011-12-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

This evening after dinner William asked me if I thought I would have any more children. After hemming and hawing my way through the typical "Well, William, Daddy and I like our family just the way it is. We think it's just perfect", I took a deep breath and waited. I figured the response would be something like, "yeah, I wouldn't want another baby sister, anyway."

Not so. William's response - Yeah, you are getting a little old to have babies.

William's Wild Weekend!

2011-12-04T16:33:00.002-07:00

William has had a busy and fun weekend.

On Thursday, he went to Cub Scouts for the first time. He is already working on his Bobcat and hopes to get it at his first Pack Meeting after Christmas. He had a great time!

Friday, William had his 8th birthday. He opened his presents from us before school on Friday.

We gave him a coin collecting book, Season 3 of Star Wars - The Clone Wars on DVD, and the new Lego Harry Potter game. He also recieved birthday money from Grandma on Friday. That night, we went out to dinner and bowling for his birthday. I bought two games for all six of us to bowl and, I have to say, one would have been plenty. We aren't very good and it took forever! But the kids had fun.

On Saturday, William was baptized. It was a great day! We are so proud of him for following Jesus' example and being baptized. He was really nervous about getting baptized, mainly because he doesn't like getting his face wet! I have teased Jay for weeks that he needed to get the baptism prayer right so he didn't have to do the whole thing twice. So what happened? He did the prayer fine, but forgot to say Amen before he dunked William. For a split second I worried that William would freak out but he didn't - he trusted his dad and was baptized a second time, this time including the Amen! Poor kid, but he sure handled it well. He later told us that it "wasn't as bad" as he thought it would be. I think he had a lot of people praying for him!

After his baptism, we had a fun lunch for our family who traveled to be with us on William's special day. We had his birthday cake and he opened some more presents - he got a fun game, some Lego's and some more birthday money. Later that day, we went shopping and he was able to buy two big Lego sets - Star Wars and Harry Potter - with the money that he was given and had saved. He now has quite the collection and is already planning on saving for more!

All in all, he had a great weekend dedicated to all things William. He is a great kid and we love him so much!

A Gangsta Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T20:44:00.001-07:00

This is what I get when I try to take a picture of the boys at Thanksgiving dinner:

No, we haven't installed a banquette in our home; we went out to dinner this year. All of the rest of the Wrights of Utah had bigger and better plans and so, left to our own devices, we bailed on the prep and cooking and used a gift card to Elements. I wasn't so sure about the whole thing but it was lovely. We showed up, ate our food, and left. There were even a few leftovers to take home. The food was yummy and the kids were well-behaved. I'm not sure I'd want to go out to dinner every year, but it was nice.

This is how polite people look when out in public:

We did get some bad news on Thanksgiving, however. Jay's grandmother died, just shy of her 97th birthday. She lived a wonderful life and we will miss her. We love you, Nana!

Snow Buddies

2011-11-25T20:20:00.001-07:00

Tessa has been excited for it to snow this year. For some reason, she really wanted to get out and play in it. I find this funny because in the past it has taken longer for her to get into her snow clothes than to actually play in the snow - she seems to take after her mom and prefer a climate-controlled environment.

Last Friday it finally snowed enough for her to get out and play in it without getting all muddy. She coaxed Jay into attempting a snowman, but the snow was too powdery and not good for rolling snowballs. So they moved onto the next activity - snow angels.

First up was Tessa. She did a good job of making a cute little snow angel.

Jay decided to join in and make a larger, Daddy-sized snow angel.

Here they are - the two snow buddies.

Tessa still seems to prefer me for lots of things, but there are two things she can count on her Dad to do with her - cook and play in the snow. Thank goodness because I'm not too good at either one of those things.

Question/Answered!

2011-11-14T10:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday in Primary William's class had two substitutes. They are two wonderful ladies in our ward and I'm grateful to them for filling in for their regular teachers. One of the ladies is married to a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Whenever we see the Choir sing, we play a game of "Spot Brother Jensen" just for fun. I'm not sure we've ever even pointed the Jensen's out to the kids - they just know that Brother Jensen is in our ward and sings in the Choir.

Anyway, yesterday William apparently asked Sister Jensen if she was married "to the guy in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir". She answered in the affirmative and I guess they went on with their lesson. William didn't even mention this conversation to us - he talked more about the yeast object lesson that they did in their class.

Last night after dinner our doorbell rang. It was Brother Jensen! He introduced himself to William (his name is William as well, but he goes by Bill) and said that he heard that William mentioned him in class today so he thought he'd bring William one of the Choir's new CD's. William was so thrilled. He carried the CD around all evening and listened to it before he went to bed. He asked me if he could write Brother Jensen a thank you note for thinking to bring him the CD. Then he said, "well, now I'm really glad I asked Sister Jensen that question!"

I'm so grateful for good, thoughtful neighbors who we are blessed to know. I'm grateful for people who go the extra mile to make little boys smile and feel important. It's a cliche to say that it takes a village to raise a child, but we are sure grateful for our little village of Hyde Park, Utah.

Fall Pictorial

2011-11-05T18:06:00.001-06:00

Tessa and I had our annual "Jay takes the boys down to Salt Lake City for a Ute game" Girl's Day Out last week. It was a lot of fun. After the boys left for pizza and football - the Ute's won, which was nice - we went and had a little spa day for her. She got a haircut and cute braided hairstyle and something called Glitter Toes. I thought it would just be shiny toenail polish but no, they actually shook glitter onto her toes. She was looking quite snazzy.

We then went birthday present shopping for a few people we know and then went to dinner at the Olive Garden. We topped it off with a Barbie movie and cheesecake at home. It was quite fun and as much as I like a good college football game, I also like doing girl stuff with my buddy.

For Halloween, the kids were Cinderella, Harry Potter and Charlie Brown Dressed Like a Ghost. I don't know if you can tell that William's ghost costume has lots of holes cut into it, just like in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". The idea was better than the execution and he got frustrated with the sheet pretty quickly but a good trick-or-treating time was had by all.

Like A Fish?

2011-10-29T19:55:00.001-06:00

We finished fall swim lessons today. Jay and I were pleased that the kids pushed their way through them. I guess our definition of success is different from some people's. No one passed off their level. Not one of our kids went off the diving board, the supposed reward at the end of a month of lessons. William and Tessa barely got their hair wet, as a matter of fact.   But we were happy, for several reasons:

- No one cried. Our kids don't love swimming. We go a few times a year but no one gets that excited about it. This bout of swim lessons was not met with any kind of enthusiasm except from Tessa, who for some reason insists that she loves swimming even though she refuses to do much more than blow bubbles in the water. So to make it through 5 lessons with minimal complaining and no crying was an accomplishment in and of itself.

- Henry showed real improvement. He didn't pass off Level 3, but only because he didn't jump or dive into the deep water. He is actually pretty good at swimming across the pool and he enjoys playing in the water as long as he is able to touch the bottom.   He tried but didn't succeed at the diving part of his level. Honestly, I don't care about that. He'll probably retake Level 3 at some point but as long as he can swim around in some fashion, I'm pretty happy.

- William and Tessa went and tried. That's about all we can ask of them at this point. Tessa actually fancies herself quite the swimmer, although she doesn't do much more than get towed around the water by her teacher. William is so tense; his main problem is his anxiety about swimming. William is an anxious kid in general, though, so he did OK knowing him and his background and approach to swimming. To give you an idea, as we were walking into the Rec Center this morning he told me he'd rather swim in the sewer. Nice, huh?

After swim lessons they were all smiles. William was invited to a birthday party so I dropped him off and took Henry and Tessa to purchase their celebratory Wii games; William wants a Wii game that is out in two weeks so we'll get it then. Why Wii games? We promised the kids that if they went to swim lessons with good attitudes and tried their best they would get Wii games as a reward. Yes, we bribed our children with video games to go swimming.   Between the cost of the lessons and the cost of the games, this turned out to be an expensive exercise in.....what? I'm not quite sure. Perseverance, maybe?

Either that or the power of a good incentive.

The Peanut Gallery

2011-10-19T15:06:00.001-06:00

Tessa wandered down into the basement this morning while I was exercising. I alternate between walking on our treadmill and doing some light weights/Pilates type exercises. She caught me just as I was starting some lunge/squat type things that really kill my legs, so I mentioned to her that I hated doing these particular exercises because I find them hard.

She sat on a bench and watched me until I got to the fourth rep and said, "Do you hate them yet, Mom?" I nodded and kept going, counting silently. A few reps later she said, "Wow, you really do hate them, don't you? I can tell."

And I was only on 10. I really need to make sure she's occupied before I start exercising.

S is for Smart Aleck

2011-10-18T12:38:00.002-06:00

Every week we get a progress report home from William's 2nd grade teacher. It's nice - a quick snapshot on how he's doing with behavior, homework assignments and classroom work. So far this year, he has received all E's for Excellent in all areas. Yesterday, however, he had an S (for Satisfactory) in behavior. In the comment section she had written a note explaining what had happened.

Last week his regular teacher was gone for four days so they had a substitute. Apparently on Tuesday William walked into the classroom, saw the substitute and said, "Oh, it's you again." The substitute teacher talked to him and resolved the issue. I wasn't happy, however, because I expect my kids to be well-behaved and respectful. When I asked William about the incident, he swore up and down that he hadn't said it.

The dilemma - it sounds exactly like something that William would say. He has a quirky and often sarcastic sense of humor and I'm sure he was trying to be funny but he is still learning about when it is appropriate to manifest his cleverness. It would be his passive/aggressive way of showing that he wasn't happy that his regular teacher was out of school for another day. When I told Jay about it after the kids were in bed he said the exact same thing - that it totally sounds like William. Yet William insists that it wasn't him. No matter what I said to him, he wouldn't back down. I ended up having a generic talk with him about showing respect to his teachers at school, even substitutes, and doing a better job of evaluating when it was appropriate to be funny.

It's not that I don't want to believe him - I do - but I can literally picture William walking into the classroom and spouting out "Oh, it's you again" to a substitute teacher (to say he doesn't do well with transitions and changes in routine is a slight understatement). Hopefully we'll be back to all E's from now on. Until his teacher leaves in February to have her baby. Something tells me William won't be too happy about this development either.

Maybe S will stand for Sigh. Or Save Me.

I Got Nothing

2011-10-07T19:18:00.004-06:00

I was perusing a blog that I follow the other day and noticed that the author hadn't updated in a while. As I really like this blog, I was disappointed and thought, "It's been almost two weeks since the last update." I then ventured over to my blog and realized that I had likewise not updated for a bit. Since I'm using this blog both to journal and to keep family and friends updated on the Wrights of Hyde Park and all our exploits, I thought I should make an effort to blog sometime this month. The problem - I couldn't think of anything to write.

Nothing exciting has been going on here lately. We are fully ensconced in school and that keeps everyone, including me, busy. The kids are all doing well. Henry is in Webelos now - his last year in Cub Scouts. He is doing well in 5th grade and is working towards completing the requirements to earn the Great American Award. There are several things that he needs to accomplish; right now he is working on memorizing the Gettysburg Address. He's plugging along and hopes to complete everything for the award by Parent/Teacher conferences in January. William is rocking 2nd grade. He is looking forward to starting Cub Scouts in a few months and getting baptized (December 3rd is the big day - mark your calendars!). Tessa is settling nicely into kindergarten. She is learning how to read and spell words and likes her teacher alot. She is continuing dance lessons this year and has started piano lessons as well. She doesn't seem interested in playing any sports yet, but we'll see what the summer brings.

All the kids are taking swim lessons on Saturday mornings this fall. I was so excited to see them offered since this past summer didn't work too well for us getting into swim lessons - between Tessa's broken arm, the stomach flu that hung around for several weeks, and our vacation we just couldn't fit it in. Unfortunately our kids are the ones who really need the lessons - William and Tessa hate getting their faces wet and just haven't taken to swimming too quickly. I'm a little worried that when William gets baptized it will literally be Jay dunking him forcefully so as to get his whole body covered. It could be ugly. Henry is a bit better - he isn't the best swimmer but he tries and can get himself around OK. We'll do fall lessons this year and hope that nobody has any limbs encased in plaster during the summer next year.

So, there you have it. An update. No funny stories. Nothing earth shattering to report. But we're still hanging in there up in Cache Valley.

I just wish that Schoolhouse Rock had done an episode on the Gettysburg Address. I loved Schoolhouse Rock as a kid and have some of them on VHS tape. Henry also has to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution, so I eagerly pulled up the "We the people..." episode on You Tube for him to watch. He was more interested in the musical version of the Gettysburg Address set to Katy Perry's "Firework". And no, I'm not joking. If only I were.

Signs of the Times

2011-09-26T20:14:00.002-06:00

The first month of school is officially over. As much as we are all ready for school to start again, the transition can be painful. I try so hard to be patient because I really do understand that it's hard to go from Party All The Time in the summer to 6 hours of school a day. There are, however, only so many times I can watch Tessa burst into tears because her princess water bottle wasn't put in the refrigerator and now IS NOT COLD ENOUGH after school. The other day it got so bad that William actually ran to his room and threatened to run away from home. It took me 30 minutes to talk him down off the ledge. I know, I know - conventional wisdom says to call them on their bluffs when confronted by a clearly irrational outbust, but trust me when I say that this particular strategy wouldn't work with William. Sigh.

Anyway, I got tired of the drama so the other day I posted a sign on the door for the kids to see when they came home. It said Grumpiness Not Allowed....Enter Only If Smiling....This Means You! And you know what? It kind of worked. They came in the door laughing. And they seemed to be in better moods all the way around. The next day I posted another sign - this one had a smiley face with the question Is This You? If not, go away until it is. That day I heard them running up the stairs to see what the sign said. I've decided to continue the sign trend - they seem to think it's fun and so far I have remembered to post something on the door. Today's sign was a suggestion from Jay - The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves. There was a little confusion about the meaning of the sign but once I explained it - teaching irony to a five year old can take a while - they laughed and asked for a snack. They seem to look forward to seeing what nonsense their mom can post on the door so who am I to deprive them of a daily sign?

If you have any suggestions for good door signs, feel free to share. I have a feeling that my ideas will run out fairly quickly.

The Nickname List

2011-09-17T20:40:00.000-06:00

Tessa can be a funny little girl. She has recently begun compiling her Approved Nickname List, which are all the nicknames that Jay and I (mostly Jay, it seems) are allowed to call her. On the list are the usual suspects, like Princess, Tessie and Lou Lou (which is my preferred nickname). Surprisingly, Rose seems to be one of her favorites. She really wants Jay to call her Rose, apparently. Or Sweet Pea. The poor man can't keep them all straight.

He had plenty of time to practice this weekend as I took a little road trip with some friends. We had so much fun. We shopped, we ate, we laughed. We made stops at stores from Target (laugh if you will, but since we don't have a Target in Cache Valley it's a rare treat) to Janie and Jack and many, many of the outlet stores in Park City. The only hitch in the weekend came when an unhappy sequence of events that included a ride to Park City in the backseat of a minivan combined with what much have been a little more heat than I could handle resulted in me becoming car sick. Apparently I'm 5 years old.

I wasn't actually sick in the car, thank goodness. I wouldn't go around inspecting the bushes in the parking lot of the Hampton Inn in Park City, however, if you know what I mean. The real tragedy is that I was unable to finish my Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. And I may never eat cheesecake again. Sigh.

A good nights sleep had me feeling right as rain and I managed to do my share to stimulate the economy. Thanks for a great weekend, Melissa, Kristina and Kim. And thanks to Jay for taking the kids so that I could go have a bit of fun. It almost makes up for him missing Tessa's broken arm/surgery fiasco while he was in China.

Almost.

A Conversation with William

2011-09-10T20:35:00.001-06:00

Today we took a bittersweet trip to Ogden. We went to see Jay's grandmother. We call her Great Nana. She is living in a rest home now and is showing her age quite a bit (she turns 97 this fall). We took pictures with her and spent a few minutes with her. She seemed happy to see the kids running around and playing. We hope she is comfortable and peaceful during this time of her life.

This isn't the best picture of our little family but I love the picture of Nana.

We hung out in Ogden for a while and then Tessa, William and I headed home while Jay and Henry stayed to watch the Ute game with the rest of the family. I like college football but Tessa isn't the biggest fan so keeping her out long past her bedtime for something she barely tolerates at home didn't seem like the best idea.

We had quite the conversation on the way home. I'm not sure what they had been thinking about, but we went from "Mom, when is the world going to end?" to "Are there aliens that are going to come and blow us up?" I was a little flummoxed by the strange conversation but tried to be as reassuring as I could that the world wasn't going to end by alien attack.

Then, when we were almost home, William asked, "Is it hard to get married?" He further clarified that what he really wanted to know was if it was hard for me to get a boyfriend. Seeing as I didn't get married until I was 29, most people around here would say that yes, it was hard to get married. But I just said that Jay and I met and decided we liked each other and fell in love and got married and no, once we decided that we loved each other it wasn't hard at all. Tessa, the little romantic, was making puking noises in the backseat. William then asked me what kinds of places we liked to go on dates. When I mentioned dinner, he asked me if we went to Wendy's for dinner. I said that it just depended on what we were doing for the rest of the date or if dinner was the main part of the date. At that, William wisely said, "Yeah, I guess if you were just going to dinner on a date, you'd want to go somewhere more romantic than Wendy's. Like Chick-Fil-A."

Bless his cute little heart.

Away She Goes!

2011-09-05T16:55:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my friend Stacy, who took pictures of Tessa on her first day of kindergarten. Doesn't she look grown up?

Waiting for the Kindergarten Bus

Tessa's First Bus Ride

She has really enjoyed school so far. They have spent alot of time learning rules so hopefully it will get even more fun as time goes by. She seems excited to go back to school tomorrow so that's a good sign.

And I don't think I'll spend any time watching the clock this week. With all the things that I need to get done, I'll be lucky to remember that the kids are coming home at all.

The Loneliest Number

2011-09-01T14:16:00.000-06:00

My baby started kindergarten today. Sniff. Sigh. I'm not normally a very sentimental person but I surprised myself as I was walking home after putting her on the bus. I started crying. I didn't sob or anything. But a few tears leaked out as I walked home and began what will be my daily 3 1/2 hours of.......whatever I want.

I wish I could post a cute picture of her but I had a major parenting fail and neglected to recharge the batteries on my camera. We got out to the bus stop and my camera chirped and died. Luckily my neighbor took a few pictures of Tessa getting on the bus so I'll try and post them when I get her my email address.

Today I feel lonely. I'm used to Tessa just always being around, even when the boys aren't. Luckily the loneliness won't last - I'm hoping to volunteer in the kids classrooms a couple of times a week and I have plenty of church and home projects to keep me busy. I can go to the dentist and get my hair cut without worrying about making it back for the preschool pickup. Christmas shopping will be a breeze. I've got lots of time to do lots of things. But today my free time has been spent checking the clock to see when Tessa will be home from her first day of kindergarten.

A Whole New World

2011-08-23T11:33:00.000-06:00

Henry has been asking most of the summer if he could learn how to mow the yard. This past Saturday Jay decided to start teaching him.

They only did the front yard and it took him a while but Jay said he did fairly well. I don't think it was as fun as he thought it would be. We certainly don't expect him or even want him to take over doing the entire yard at this point but he'll get there over the next little while. For now, he can just help Jay out as needed.

Besides, what in the world would Jay do with him spring/summer/fall Saturdays without the yard to mow?

Favorite Things (The Pictures)

2011-08-20T13:48:00.001-06:00

I am so bad about taking pictures in our everyday lives, but I did manage to take some pictures during our vacation to southern California earlier this month. Here are a few:

We visited the California Science Center with Uncle Philip, Aunt Carol, Emily and Sydney. We had such a good time hanging out with them!

We tried to get a good family picture outside the Science Center at the Rose Garden. I think we missed the roses by a bit but it was a pretty area.

We took the kids to the Griffith Park Observatory. In the background is the Hollywood Sign, but you can't see it because of the fog/pollution/marine layer/whatever they call it.

On the way down to San Diego, we took the scenic route and stopped by the San Diego temple.

One of our favorite exhibits at Sea World was the Artic Exhibit, featuring the beluga whales.
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We saw Blue Horizons, which featured dolphins and pilot whales, at Sea World.

We also saw One Ocean, the show featuring Shamu.

William and Tessa enjoyed panning for (fool's) gold at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center near Old Town in San Diego.

We paid a short visit to Coronado Beach. William and Tessa picked up a few shells but we didn't stay long - it was pretty windy and cool. In the distance you can see Point Loma, which was our next stop.

This is Henry looking off Point Loma to the North.

All in all it was a really fun vacation. We've decided that we like taking our little trips in August. It's a nice way to break up the remaining few weeks of summer vacation and escape Cache Valley during the dog days of summer. By the time we got home there was only one full week of vacation left until the kids go back to school (they go back on Thursday, August 25th), so a week away in early to mid August was just perfect.

Favorite Things

2011-08-15T11:53:00.001-06:00

We are back from a fun family trip to Southern California. On the last day, I asked the kids what their favorite parts of the vacation were. Their answers were as follows:

William - Seeing his cousins. All the us enjoyed hanging out with the Royal family of Yucaipa, California for a few days. We had a blast with them. The kids stayed up late every night, we played games and we played on the Wii. They have a cute little dog named Belle who my kids loved. Tessa found a kindred spirit in Sydney and they played Barbies for literally hours at a time. On Tuesday, we all went into Los Angeles for the day. We went to the California Science Center and saw some of their exhibits, including a cute IMAX movie called Born to Be Wild. We also went to Univeral Studios City Walk and ate lunch (Jay really wanted to go to Pinks, a hot dog place) and shopped for treats. To wrap up our day we went to the Griffith Park Observatory and saw the giant telescope and enjoyed the planetarium exhibits. Although we were sad to leave their house on Wednesday (William actually cried), we are so grateful to them for playing host to us for a few days! We had so much fun.

Henry - Sea World. On Thursday we went to Sea World and the kids really enjoyed it. Henry found his favorite ride - Journey to Atlantis - which is a cross between a water ride and a roller coaster. He would have ridden it all day if we had let him. We saw all the fun exhibits, rode some cute rides and saw three shows - One Ocean (the Shamu show), the Dolphin show (I can't remember the name of it now), and Pet's Rule. Tessa and I saw Pet's Rule while the boys were riding the water rides and I thought it was silly but Tessa loved it. Anyway, Sea World is a great way to spend a day in San Diego. On Friday, our last day in San Diego, we hit a few sights around town. We went to Old Town, saw the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center (we highly recommend it) and had lunch. Then we drove to Coronado Island and went to the beach for a bit. Finally we drove to Point Loma and saw the old military base and took in the view and the lighthouse. San Diego is a beautiful area and we would definitely head back there someday.

Tessa - The hot tub. Yes, of all the things we did, Tessa's favorite thing was swimming in the hotel pool every night and hanging out in the hot tub. I think she had fun during the rest of the activities as well, to be fair, but this is the first thing that came to her mind.

All in all, we had a great trip. Poor Jay got home from Australia at 3:30 pm Friday and we left for California at 6 am Saturday morning but he seemed to recover from his jetlag well and had fun hanging out with the family. I celebrated my 43rd birthday while we were there and it was nice - Carol even made a carrot cake to mark the occasion.

I'll post pictures in the next day or so when I get a chance. For now, I've got laundry to catch up on. Lots and lots of laundry.

When The Cat's Away.....

2011-08-01T19:25:00.002-06:00

....something unusual happens. Not bad. Well, sometimes bad. Not catastrophic. Just unusual.

The last time Jay left the continental United States, Tessa broke her arm and required minor surgery. It wasn't a pleasant experience. The day before he was scheduled to come home, William became the first victim of what I like to call Vomitfest 2011. Good times.

So he left last week for Australia. "It's another beautiful day in Queensland," he crowed to me on the phone the other day. It's winter in Australia, but winter in Queensland means highs in the low-70's with lows in the 50's. He's loving it. Our weather is a bit warmer, but doable. Today was quite pleasant. It only got up to the low 80's, which for early August I'll take any day of the week. It stayed cooler today because of the rain we had this morning.

So, now to the "unusual". It doesn't usually rain quite as much as it did in August. April, sure. May and June even. But August 1st? We had what can only be described as a deluge for a good part of the morning. I put on my thinking cap and plugged in our sump pump, thinking that with all the rain in such a short period of time I should be proactive. Good, right?

Well, yeah. The sun came out around 1 pm and it was fine. I needed to use the outlet for something - you see where I'm going with this, don't you? - so I unplugged the pump. I didn't give it a second thought until about 5 pm, when I asked Tessa to go down in the basement to our food storage and pick out a package of pasta for me to make for dinner. The conversation went as follows:

Me - Tessa, how come you didn't get the pasta:?

Tessa - Because of the water.

Me - What water?

Tessa - The water in the basement.

Sigh. I quickly plugged in the pump again and it promptly went off and has continued to go off every few minutes. We had water in our cold room and storage space. Luckily our basement isn't finished so it was just concrete. I was able to soak most of it up with towels and I'm letting the rest sit and hopefully I'll be able to dry it in the morning. There isn't enough to really try and use a wet-vac on and since there is no carpet it should be fine. I had to move around some stuff in the cold storage room and in the crawl space but I only threw away a couple of things that should have been thown away a while ago anyway. Crisis averted.

But seriously? I sooooo need a vacation. To Southern California.

Oh yeah. That's next week.

In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't actually sigh when I realized we had water in the basement. I'll let you use your imagination as to my actual response. I don't think the kids heard me. At least I hope not.

Double Digits

2011-07-31T16:10:00.001-06:00

Henry has officially hit the double-digit club. A decade. Ten years old. Sometimes I look at him and think, "how is this kid 10 already?" Then he does something Henryish that drives me absolutely nuts and feel like he's been around for a lot longer than that.

He has had a nice birthday. Since his birthday (today) is Sunday, we had his party on Friday. In years past, Henry's birthday parties have been easy. I just get a Slip N Slide, a pool, or a blow up water slide and throw the kids out in the back yard, give them a snow cone and some cake and call it good. Not this year. He wanted an Amazing Race themed party. Our friends Melissa and Trevor hosted an Amazing Race for adults about a month ago and Henry thought it was awesome. He got to ride around in Trevor's truck and help clean up or organize some of the tasks and he felt incredibly grown up and cool. So we invited about 10 kids, divided them into teams and had them race around our little neighborhood. They had do do things like count the windows on our house, solve a secret message, complete a 60 piece puzzle, and fill up a cup with water using only spoons. They had pizza and cake and ice cream. They played basketball and had a Nerf war. A good time was had by all.

On Saturday Henry asked if we could go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch so we did that and got cupcakes that we had after church today. Jay called from Australia and spent some time on the phone with him. The kids at church sang Happy Birthday to him. He's getting Happy Birthday phone calls today and I think he feels special.

He wanted a cake commemorating the University of Utah's foray into the PAC 12, but I couldn't find anyone who had a license to make a cake like that. He had to settle for this:

It's actually quite a good replication of the Utah logo. He was happy with it. His little cake-loving friends got over their initial reaction to it being a Ute cake (most folks around here pull for Utah State or, gasp, BYU) and devoured it it short order.

So Henry celebrates another year of being on this planet and in our family. He's healthy (still cancer-free as of a few weeks ago), loves sports and Webelos and school, and is generally a great kid.

Happy Birthday, Henry! We love you!

40 What?

2011-07-22T19:09:00.000-06:00

Jay turned 45 today. He doesn't like it - it feels just a smidge too close to 50. But he's generally a good sport about his birthday so it's all good.

He had to work today (summer at his job is crazy with a capital C) so we did a quick celebration when he got home from work.

As you can see, he is excited for his noise-cancelling headphones. Hopefully they'll allow him a little sleep on his 15 hour flights between LA and Sydney.

Today William saw an older type truck in the parking lot of a store and said it was a classic, from the 80's. Then he thought Jay and I were born in the 90's. When I corrected him to the correct decade, he thought I said 16th Century instead of the 60's. I guess to him there isn't much difference. They both seem really long ago.

Happy Birthday, Jay! We love you!

Life, Normalized

2011-07-16T19:37:00.000-06:00

I like to think we are back to normal here in the Wright household. We haven't had any medical issues in over a week, which isn't something that I could have said since early June. Jay has been in town. Summer is progressing. Life is good.

The boys both finished baseball. I missed William's last game due to the stomach flu, but he has had an awesome first year of coach-pitch. He got alot of hits and is getting better defensively. Henry's team finished 9-3. He had some nice hits and nice defensive plays as well. It was his first year of kid-pitch so it was a bit of an adjustment but he had a great time, which is the most important thing to me. Unfortunately they lost their first tournament game but he seemed happy with his season. Baseball is definitely the boys first choice of sports to play and we're happy to attend their games.

Today was the Hyde Park Pioneer Day Celebration. Our Primary kids rode on a float and had a good time throwing candy to the crowd. I was a little nervous, being a first-time Primary President in charge of the whole activity but the kids in our ward are awesome and no one fell off the trailer or anything. Jay was thrilled to be able to walk the parade with us and help monitor the float from behind for any shenanigans. I heard a rumor that he spent most of the time picking up candy from the street and eating it, but I have no independent confirmation of this report.

Henry and I went to see the last Harry Potter movie today as well. It was really good and we both enjoyed it. Poor William - he really wanted to go but I felt like I needed to see it before taking him, seeing as he's only 7 and quite a sensitive boy at that. It was a good choice. It was pretty intense and I think a few parts might have scared/bothered him. He's reading the books right now (on book 6, can you believe it?) and I think I'll let him watch it on DVD when it comes out.

Next week the boys start a two-week sports camp at a local high school. I need to sign them up for swim lessons as well. Now that Tessa is cleared for water activities, I'm going to try and get them in a session before we head out on our SoCal vacation. Which is after Henry's birthday and his Amazing Race-themed birthday party. Which I haven't even started planning yet. Which will occur while Jay is in Australia for work. What? You don't think Jay has had enough international travel this summer? Apparently neither does he. After this trip he will have missed a whopping 26 days of summer vacation.

Not that anyone is counting.

Dear Stomach Flu

2011-07-09T09:49:00.000-06:00

I get that you come to visit twice a year or so. Really, it's not a problem. You are not fun but typically come and go quickly so we just stay home and deal with you over the course of a few days. So what's up with camping out in my house for the past three weeks? You are seriously making every weekend a downer and I'm not happy about it.

William and Henry had you on Father's Day weekend. The next weekend you decided that Henry's case was too mild to let him off the hook so you came back, causing him to miss some fun activities with Grandma. The next weekend you bothered Tessa. She was already grumpy with the whole cast/broken arm thing, but you hung around her for a few days as well. Then, to put the icing on the cake, you decided that since you'd pestered the kids enough, Jay and I were next. For the record, the past four Fridays have seen a member of our little family throwing up.

I could understand if you came to visit in the fall and/or winter. We expect it. But summer? Really? You are seriously cramping our style.

So you won. We've all had it. Can we please have a break now? Just for a little while? I'll expect you again sometime after school starts. Until then, get out and stay out.

Sincerely,
Rhonda

Cast Away

2011-07-07T15:59:00.000-06:00

Tessa got her cast off yesterday. She's been looking forward to/dreading it ever since she broke her arm. On one hand - yay! No more heavy cast to drag around - bike riding will commence - swimming will be a possibility. On the other hand - how are they going to get the pins out? Turns out, they just pull. And from Jay's description (he rallied from his bout with the stomach flu to ferry her to the "bone doctor", which is only fair since by the time he got home from China she was hitching her cast around like she was born with it and he missed the misery that was her surgery and the immediate recovery from said surgery) it was ugly. They actually sent the pins home with us! My only question - why? Jay asked me if I wanted to keep them and I looked at him like he was nuts and threw them away. I mean, I don't keep cute things like baby teeth and locks of hair. Why would I keep a long, thin piece of hardward that resided in my daughter's arm for a month?

Anyway, I had high hopes for the days after Tessa was free from her neon pink cast. I thought we'd finally be able to talk her into going outside at least. Yet.....no. It's almost like we're back to square one. She's sooooo careful with it - she walks around holding her arm like it's made of glass and she spent most of yesterday lounging around with her arm on a pillow. She's moving it more today and I'm confident that she'll be back to using it in a few days. Perhaps I can bribe her with some Wii time if she promises to only use her right hand.

I knew the Wii would come in handy some day!

Mission Accomplished

2011-06-30T15:37:00.000-06:00

Today I did something momentous. I finished Tessa's baby book.

Yes, she's 5 years old. Yes, the scrapbook supplies and pictures have been organized and sitting in my bedroom for literally years. Yes, I should win an award for procrastination for putting off this project for this long.

The problem is that I hate scrapbooking. Scrapbooking was all the rage back in 2001 when I had Henry. I tried, oh I tried, to like it. I bought all the cute paper and embellishments and supplies. I even went to a weekly scrapbooking night that some women in our ward in Ogden organized. But it just wasn't me. I would finish three pages in the time it took them to pick out coordinating papers for one of theirs and I didn't even enjoy the execution all that much. The problem was that once Henry got a nicely scrapbooked baby book, I felt compelled to do the same for my other children. I dutifully put William's together, finishing just before Tessa was born - she was my deadline. Since no other babies came along after Tessa, however, my self-imposed deadline of finishing the previous child's baby book before the next child was born dissipated. So all that stuff just sat there. And sat there. And sat there.

Today, however, I was perusing my To-Do list and realized how sad it was that for years the first thing on my list has been "T BABY BOOK". Since I had gotten roped into watching Tessa's dance recital for the 2000th time in the past few weeks, I figured I should do something constructive. So I pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and went to work.

Now it's done. And I have a headache and a burning desire to set fire to any and all remaining cardstock and glue sticks in my house.

101 Ways to Use a Pink Cast

2011-06-17T14:51:00.002-06:00

1. Threaten your older brothers with bodily harm if they bug you.

2.

Hmmm. So far she hasn't come up with any other uses for her cast. She did tell Henry and William that if they bothered her, she would "bonk them on the head". If only we allowed violence in the home she'd be in business.

She's actually pretty much back to normal - all except for her newest fashion accessory. Luckily it goes with most of her wardrobe.

The Things We Do

2011-06-11T20:07:00.003-06:00

I was thinking today about the things we do to make our kids feel better. Or entertain them. Or make them do something that they absolutely, positively do not want to do. My list from just the past few days includes:

*Telling Tessa that the doctor told her to eat ice cream three times a day to help her bones heal. Since I've been hiding ibuprofen in her ice cream, this gets her some pain medication without the tears.

*Telling Tessa that chocolate pudding has lots of vitamins to help her heal and be healthy so she could have some for breakfast. See above re: the hiding of ibuprofen in food.

*Playing Justin Bieber videos from You Tube as Tessa lounged on my bed and bossed me around. Hey, she wanted to hear music!

*Watching Daddy Day Care on Netflix.

*Playing Sequence - State and Capitals - with a 5 year old who can't read.

*Going to multiple stores looking for the DVD versions of The Little Mermaid and/or Sleeping Beauty. FYI - Don't Bother. They are apparently IN THE VAULT. Hmph. Tell that to Tessa.

*Buying a Barbie music karoaoke DVD and singing along.

*Promising a trip to Build a Bear in Salt Lake City so that Tessa can pick out a new friend. Of course she remembers this promise, made about midnight after her surgery. I barely remember making the promise - how does she remember it?

It's been a long week.

Deja Vu

2011-06-09T19:42:00.005-06:00

I spent Tuesday night in room 101 in the Cache Valley Specialty Hospital. This is the same room that Henry spent a few days almost exactly 18 months ago to the day following his thyroid surgery. I think room 101 must be the designated pediatric room or something - they have more beds in this hospital but it's close to the nurses station and has easy access to the recovery room so maybe they just put all the peds patients there. This time it wasn't Henry in the hospital, though, it was Tessa. She fell off a swing set and fractured her arm, right above the elbow. She needed surgery to insert some pins and they kept her overnight. This unpleasant experience was made more unpleasant because Jay is currently in China for work. I'm sure from his perspective it isn't the kind of call you want to receive when you are halfway around the world, away from your family. It wasn't really the kind of call I wanted to make either. Thank heavens for good friends in our neighborhood to took the boys for an impromptu sleepover and came to sit with me at the hospital. I have the best friends!

She came home Wednesday morning. Wednesday wasn't a good day. She threw up off and on all day and could barely keep water down, much less pain medication. She slept fairly well Wednesday night and made marked improvement today. She stopped vomiting and started eating. I was able to figure out how hide her ibuprofen (thank heavens for my garlic press) in a spoonful of ice cream so I was able to get three good doses of pain medication in her without any tears (since she was terrified to take anything after throwing everything up the day before, the ice cream trick is being kept a secret). She perked up and moved between the family room and my room, watching TV and movies and just hanging out.

She probably could have used a nap but didn't take one today. By the end of the day she was wiped out and sobbed at the thought of a bath, even though she desperately needed one. We compromised on a sponge bath and hair washing, accomplished by having her sit with her back against the bathtub and leaning her head backwards over the side. I'm going to have to find some button up tops for her to wear because switching out her shirts is guaranteed to induce tears. But we made it through the day and she went to bed around 7:30. Her friend Easton brought a balloon over and I hung it on her doorknob so that she could see it. She's got some good friends who have brought over balloons, treats, Rapunzel jammies (sleeveless ones - hooray!) and a stuffed animal, whom she named Dork and is sleeping with tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow I can coax her into her sling (she's not a fan) and out of the house for a bit, at least to sit in a chair and get some fresh air. If all goes well, we'll be at the baseball fields tomorrow night, cheering on Henry and William as they play their games. Nana and Aunt Laura are coming for a visit on Saturday, which will cheer her up.

Let's hope we don't spend any more nights in CVSH. I've seen enough of room 101, thank you very much. Come on William, we're counting on you!

Sayonara, Soccer

2011-06-05T22:39:00.006-06:00

Soccer season is over for the year. Thank goodness. Neither of the boys enjoyed it this year and they were both glad to see it end. The weather was bad. I mean really, really bad. As in "Let's play soccer in the rain/wind/snow/sleet/hail/thunder and lightning" bad. You know it's bad when you are hoping it will start lightning during a soccer game so they'll cancel. Seriously, it was bad.

And it wasn't just the weather, unfortunately. The Wright boys went a combined 0-20 in soccer this year. Henry is competitive enough that he still went out there and gave it his best effort. William, not so much. He complained about leg cramps and the weather. He stood around. We gave him the whole "your team is counting on you to try" speech. He stood around some more. So we bribed him. I prefer to think of bribes as incentives. Whatever. The "incentive" was that if the boys both tried their hardest for their games, no matter what the outcome, we would buy them a game that they had been saving to buy themselves. The key word was Effort. Hey, it got us through the soccer season.

The season was so crappy that I didn't get a single picture of either boy playing soccer. I was too busy worried about coats and umbrellas and such to remember to bring a camera, believe me. Luckily our neighbor took this picture of William for us:

It's a great picture and it makes William look like quite the soccer player, doesn't it?

Anyway, so it's over. And it's over forever, as neither Henry nor William plan to play soccer (officially, on a team) again. I think with Henry it has just run it's course. He has played for five years and he just prefers other sports, especially baseball. William played for three years, but this was his first year playing positions and he just didn't enjoy it. It was enough of a chore to get him out there playing that we don't plan to offer him the choice next year. Lest we forget Tessa, she only likes to play soccer if she can use a pink ball so I'm guessing the rec league is out.

Jay and I were absurdly happy after the last soccer game of the year. Just the thought of not having to deal with soccer next year made us almost giddy. It's not so much soccer itself, although it's not our favorite sport to watch. It's the fact that soccer is played here in April and early May, when the weather is, to put it nicely, unpredictable. Although who knows? Maybe we'll have an early, warm spring next year with sunny, 65 degree days beginning in late March. The memories of huddling under an umbrella in a downpour or being pelted with sleet or getting wet just getting out of the car will fade. We'll wax nostalgic about signing our children up for spring soccer and all the good things that it teaches them.

Nah.

Geezer's Night Out

2011-05-25T18:11:00.002-06:00

Last night was the long awaited U2 concert at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. The concert was originally scheduled for June of last year but Bono had surgery in Europe and the band had to postpone their American tour until this year. I wasn't sure I even wanted to go. The timing wasn't great - it was a school night, the weather was predicted to be stormy and we live over an hour away from the venue. We debated about going off and on in the week leading up to the concert and eventually just decided to do it. The kids had a sleepover at Nana's house (as did we, although we didn't roll in from the concert until well after midnight) so that problem was solved. The weather looked promising and turned out to be lovely, if a bit chilly. The fact that we are old and grumpy gave us pause - did we really want to lose out on sleep for this? Would it be worth it?

The answer was a resounding YES! It was a fantastic concert. They played a nice mix of newer music, lesser known songs and the classics. The only song that they didn't play that I missed was Desire, but they played the heck out of everything else that I really wanted to hear. The show was a nice mix of entertainment and social awareness. We had a wonderful time. We even managed dinner out with Andrew and Melisa, which was a nice way to start the evening.

Here are a few pictures:

So hooray! Jay and I had a grown-up night out. We stayed out late. We splurged.

Just don't call us tonight after 9 pm, because something tells me that these 40-somethings will be asleep. Gotta pay the piper after all.

Dancing Queen

2011-05-23T10:15:00.004-06:00

Tessa's dance recital was Saturday night. The boys weren't thrilled to go sit in an auditorium for 2 hours and watch 38 dance routines, only two of which featured their sister. They complained more than I thought they would beforehand, actually, and it really bugged me. I pointed out that over the years Tessa has spent more hours than I can count at basketball, soccer, baseball and cub scout activities and she rarely complains. Oh, she'll complain about having to sit out in the rain during a soccer game, but I'm right there with her on that one so I can't blame her. And I believe she got a little antsy last fall at Henry's 4th grade class poetry reading. Again, I kind of can't blame her; watching 31 4th-graders read two original poems each wasn't the most exciting hour-plus I've ever spent either. My point was, however, that she has gone to plenty of their activities so once a year they can suck it up and watch her dance, darn it!

Her class did two dances. The jazz/ballet number was to True Love's Kiss, from the movie Enchanted. It was really cute and they did a good job. During their tap number they got a little confused. It was to a song called April Showers and they had umbrellas that they had to put down and move around and pick up again. Apparently it was a little too much for them because they got confused and just ended up grabbing random umbrellas to finish the number. Again, however, cute. As soon as I get the DVD I'll try and post the videos. Until then, the only picture I got of her that day is below:

She looks flushed because the finale involved all the classes on stage at the same time, doing sign language and dancing to a song that was pretty long. With all the bodies on stage and the lights, she was really hot.

After the recital the boys were good and told her that they liked her dances and had a good time. I didn't sit by them (I had to sit by Tessa in the back with her class so Jay, the boys, Nana, Great Nana, Laura and cousin Boston sat closer to the front) so I'm not sure how sincere they were but they were nice and sweet to her so that's all I care about.

She's already talking about taking dance next year, which is just fine with me. It's fun for her and gives her a fun activity outside of school to enjoy. Henry and William are already gearing up for next year's dance review, I can tell.

Pinkalicious

2011-05-15T20:30:00.004-06:00

Tessa, like many 5 year old girls, loves pink. So when she requested a pink bike for her birthday, I took it in stride. Jay commented that it was "awfully pink" but she loves it so what can you do. When she's in full pink mode, however, it's truly spectacular:

The day I took this picture she was riding around the cul-de-sac when our neighbor came home. Tessa was trying to ride her bike while looking backwards, which is a recipe for trouble, so I tried to explain to her why she had to look where she was going when riding her bike. Her response - "I was worried that she wouldn't see me on my bike." Not to worry, I told her. I'm fairly sure that astronauts on the International Space Station could see her in all her pinktastic glory.

I personally think that the bejeweled sunglasses are the best part!

The Taste of Crow

2011-05-10T12:04:00.002-06:00

I'm eating crow this week and I have to say it doesn't taste as bad as I thought it would.

Let me explain. I've never been a technophile. I like technology, don't get me wrong, but I don't salivate at the latest and greatest innovations. I still have the same iPod Shuffle that I bought a few years ago. It works fine for what I use it for (to pass the time on the treadmill). I have no desire for a newer/bigger/more expensive MP-3 player. Our computer is older than Tessa. My cell phone is probably the most basic model you could ever own at this point, but it's fine. It makes calls and texts - what else do I need?

Jay, on the other hand, likes his technology. Every so often he gets new stuff via work and he's typically exposed to the latest and greatest. He got a new phone a while back and it reminded me of that commercial where the woman asked her husband if he needed to be alone with his new phone - he spent the entire weekend fooling around with it. I teased him about loving a phone (or an iPad or iPad or whatever). And now we come to the "Rhonda is eating crow" part.

Because I now have a Kindle. The perfect techological innovation for a reader. I've been snobbish about them in the past. I like reading "real books". And I still do. But can I just say how nice my Kindle is? I quickly downloaded a bunch of books - lots of them were free, although I have to say that I'll have to watch how much I spend on this thing because it's waaaayyyy too easy to click "BUY". And although I only read one book at a time (just my preference) I love having a stack, or in this case a list, of books ready to go as soon as I finish what I'm currently reading.

Plus there are games. I've become addicted to this game where you have to find all the words possible with a group of letters - I can't remember the name of it. But last night when Jay went to bed he said, "Don't stay up to late playing with your Kindle". "OK", I said as I kissed him goodnight. Then I triumphantly found the longest word that I needed to fine (GADGETS) and unlocked the next level. Let's just say I was up for a while longer.

So I love my Kindle - a great surprise for Mother's Day for me. I also loved the homemade cards that my kids gave me, the bouquet of flowers from William made of pipe cleaners and cupcake liners, and the "#1 MOM" shirt from Henry (that I have threatened to wear to all his baseball games). It was a good day.

Now I just have to learn to continue to be a good mom while I balance time with my Kindle. Because believe me, it's more fun to read or play games on it than it is to play checkers with Tessa.

Sakes Alive, Tessa is Five!

2011-05-03T14:46:00.004-06:00

How did this happen? Almost exactly 5 years ago today - she was born just before 3 pm - she was born. We were so happy to have her join our family. She wasn't exactly easy as a newborn, but we've had harder (I'm looking at you, Henry). She was just beautiful and had a headful of hair:

Now she is sassy, sweet and opinionated. She is pretty easy to please, actually, and although a big part of me is looking forward to having her in kindergarten next year - I will have almost 4 hours a day to do....whatever I want - part of me will miss the time we spend together. Oh, and she still has a lot of hair:

She's had a nice birthday. Actually, she's had a nice string of days devoted to her birthday. On Monday we opened her presents and had her cake because today Henry has a soccer game out in Timbuktu, I mean Newton. She was thrilled with her Tangled-themed cake and her gifts. She got a new big-girl bike; it's pink and has tassles on the handlebars and she adores it. Did I mention it's pink? She got a few other things as well, including some books, a new pair of sunglasses, a Rapunzel Barbie and a unicorn pillow pet.

Today she took treats to dance class and the other girls sang Happy Birthday to her as she passed out brownies. Jay and I took her to lunch at A&W (my least favorite place to eat, yet the first choice among my children of places to eat out). Tomorrow she gets to be the Special Friend at preschool and take birthday treats to share. By the time Wednesday evening comes, she will have had a few days of celebration dedicated to her. Hopefully those memories will ease the pain of her Thursday doctor's appointment, at which she is scheduled to get her kindergarten booster shots. That'll be fun.

Happy Birthday, Tessa. We love you!

Seasonal Confusion

2011-04-21T13:32:00.005-06:00

This spring has just been stupid. We haven't been warm at all and it's been incredibly wet, so much so that for the first time in 6 years our sump pump is plugged in 24/7 and goes off with disturbing regularity. It's grey and dingy and if it wasn't above freezing I would mistake it for February. Soccer games are hit and miss - last Saturday William's game was played in what can only be described as a deluge and other games this week have been cancelled because the fields are in terrible condition.

Tessa seems to think it's December, however. She has been wanting to watch Christmas shows (Barbie in The Nutcracker and How the Grinch Stole Christmas were the last two DVD's that she chose from the library) and today she insisted on listening to Christmas music in the car. Luckily I still had the Glee Christmas CD handy so as drove to Sam's Club we sang along to "Jingle Bells" and "Baby It's Cold Outside".

As we got out of the car at the store, Tessa astutely commented that Christmas songs were supposed to talk about Jesus. I pointed out that lots of them did - as a matter of fact we had just been listening to one (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen). She thought for a minute and said that I was right, that the song said that Jesus came to save us from sin and the power of Santa (not Satan, as the song says). Maybe we need to have a few more lessons on Christmas? Not sure Easter was the time I thought I'd be doing that, but whenever the opportunity presents itself, right?

Interview with a 4 Year Old

2011-04-10T16:59:00.006-06:00

My friend Lori (hi Lori!) recently posted an interview that she did with her 4 year old daughter, Sophie. It was adorable. So I decided to steal the idea for myself and interview Tessa. Here are the results:

1. What is something Mom always says to you?
No (OK, this answer made me a little sad because I really don't think I say NO that much but maybe I do)

2. What makes Mom happy?
Singing Firework on the treadmill (Not so much - the only thing that makes me happy on the treadmill is watching the minutes tick down so I can get off)

3. What makes Mom sad?
When we don’t do the things that Mom wants us to do (Ding, ding, ding - we have a winner)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
By telling funny stories (I can't imagine where she got this because I don't really tell funny stories but whatever)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
I don’t know because I wasn’t there (True enough)

6. How old is your mom?
I don't know (Good answer - The boys will gleefully tell people that I'm 42)

7. How tall is your mom?
Maybe 50 Feet long (Obviously we need to work on units of measurement; Maybe they'll cover this in kindergarten)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
To make us happy (Another winner)

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Fun things like go out for lunch or the grocery store or hang out (Obviously some of those things are more fun that others)

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Being lucky (???)

11. What is your mom really good at?
That’s a hard one to know. She is good at making us pasta. (Yes. I make an excellent pasta - penne, angel hair, you name it. It's my special way of boiling water.)

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Making biscuits (The only reason she thinks this is because Jay has spent way too much time on Saturday mornings perfecting a buttermilk biscuit recipe. My regular old drop biscuits are perfectly fine)

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Be on the computer and do what she’s supposed to do (OK)

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Dumplings and beignets that are from New Orleans (A little esoteric, but pretty close)

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
When she plays with us (Well, I'm proud of me when I play umpteen games with Tessa too, since she tends to make up rules as she goes along)

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
I think I know….a mom (Probably. Or a superhero.)

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Go to lunch, sometimes get haircuts, and we also love each other (Awwwwww)

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Our hair is the same and sometimes we match and we have the same last name (We won't discuss how much it costs for me to have the same color hair as Tessa)

19. How are you and your mom different?
Because we have different colored lips (Again, this costs a bit but not as much as the hair color)

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Because we are her kids (Obviously, but there are all the times I say and show it)

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
To Chick Fil (Well, not really top 10 but maybe top 20)

Spring? Break

2011-04-07T16:14:00.003-06:00

This week is spring break for the kids. The week started out well. The weather was pretty good - not great or as warm as I'd like it but April in Utah is a mixed bag so you take what you can get. The kids played with friends and spent time outside. William had a soccer practice. It was a little cool and a little breezy but doable. On Wednesday my good friend Melissa and I took our kids (5 between us) to Ogden to the Nickel Arcade. You pay an admission but then all the games are a nickel (or two or four, but you get the idea). Tessa and Easton liked the rides best - you know, the kind of rides you can ride at the grocery store? They had a ton of them and most of them were just a nickel. Score! Henry and William played some games and at the end we cashed in our tickets for some incredibly well made merchandise (insert sarcastic face here). It was a lot of fun, however, and I'd post some pictures but neither Melissa or I remembered our camera. Lame, I know. Trust me when I say it was The Best Day Ever. Today it looks like this:

Sigh. We decided to go to a movie. There were a few options to choose from in the theaters. The kids have seen Tangled and I just got it in the mail from Netflix so we'll watch that this weekend at home. We don't have Beiber fever enough in our house to brave the Justin Beiber concert movie (actually, we don't have Beiber fever at all). I refuse to see Yogi Bear - I already saw Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 a few years ago and am still regenerating the brain cells I lost during that 90 minute time period and Yogi Bear seems like it would be worse (if that's possible). So that left Hop, which got a D in Entertainment Weekly magazine, or Gnomeo and Juliet. Since Gnomeo and Juliet is playing at the discount theater, we opted for the 2:10 pm showing today. I don't think I'd recommend it. It was basically the story of Romeo and Juliet, except with garden gnomes, set to the soundtrack of Elton John. The music part confused me. After a while I started thinking, "why are all the songs in this movie by Elton John" and wondering when the song "Benny and the Jets" was going to come on because there was a garden gnome named Benny. So I looked it up when I got home and it was produced by, you guessed it, Elton John.

Anyway, it wasn't even that funny. No laughs, Tessa was in my lap the last 20 minutes and Henry said it was one of the worst movies he'd ever seen. Take that for what it's worth (for the record, Henry loved Alvin and the Chipmunks 2) but if you have any other options, I don't think I'd see this movie. Or rent it. Or Netflix it. Or buy it. But it passed the time on a snowy April day. So that's something.

Only one more day of spring break. The forecast - Rain/Snow Showers. Hop is starting to look pretty good about now.

Scenes from a Conference Sunday

2011-04-03T17:45:00.004-06:00

Here is William, getting ready for the Sunday morning session of General Conference: A favorite activity is Conference Bingo. The kids each get to choose a treat to use as bingo markers and they get to fill in their cards as they listen to the talks. This years treats were Pretzel M&M's for Henry and Tessa and gummy bears for William. This activity loses it's appeal after an hour or so, but they do listen pretty well.

Here is the clan, trying desperately to be the first to get BINGO! Jay is either helping Tessa or doubling as her jungle gym for the morning.

This year we asked the kids what their goals were for General Conference. Henry's goal was to listen to one full session of Conference, William's was to listen to President Monson's talk, and Tessa's was to get a Bingo. They all accomplished their goals this year. Generally they do pretty well on Sunday mornings - they get antsy around 11:30 but they do a good job listening. We find coloring pages and word puzzles to keep them occupied once the allure of Bingo wears off.

They are now watching Where The Red Fern Grows, per Henry's request. He read the book at school with his class and they watched the original movie; this movie is the remake that was done several years ago. I refuse to watch it because, well, you know. Oh, and funny story. Last month Jay was driving Henry home after a dentist appointment and they got on the subject of school. The conversation went something like this:

Henry - We're reading Where The Red Fern Grows in school.

Jay - Have you gotten to the part where the dogs die?

Henry (stricken) - The dogs die?

Oops.

Registering for Kindergarten

2011-03-24T18:37:00.003-06:00

Today I registered my baby for kindergarten. She was so excited. They do a quick assessment with each child and while she was waiting her turn she said, "I'm so ready to start kindergarten. I already know how to sit criss-cross applesauce!"

During her assessment she wrote her name "the kindergarten way", counted crayons, talked about letters and numbers and colors and shapes, and cut out a smiley face. We left with some new crayons and a silly band, pink of course. We won't find out her class assignment until August and they'll do another assessment of her readiness before school officially starts. But she's ready. Of all my children, I feel the most confident of her readiness to start school. Part of it is her, because she is really ready to start more formal schooling. Part of it is me, because we've done this a few times now and I realize that I tend to worry about them more than I need to. At any rate, come September we'll have our youngest in kindergarten.

To celebrate I took her out to lunch. She chose Olive Garden. She had salad and breadsticks and cheese ravioli. She sat with her napkin in her lap and was so polite and well mannered. She even told me that she's not nervous to get her kindergarten shots because she knows that they will keep her healthy. We'll see how she feels when faced with the reality of a couple of booster shots in May, but for now it was a nice, calm - dare I say grown-up? - conversation.

Where in the world has the time gone?

Quotable

2011-03-22T08:49:00.002-06:00

William - "I'm not going to kiss on the lips until I get married. Or go on my first date."

Hmmm. Nothing like setting a goal for yourself, I guess.

Also, can I just say how much I love having kids at the ages they are now (for the record, 9, 7 and almost 5)? They all sleep and go to the bathroom independently. They don't need me for Every. Tiny. Little. Thing. Oh, don't get me wrong, I love the baby phase as much as anyone. I don't even mind getting up at night with babies to nurse them, unless they are Tessa and still want to nurse multiple times a night at 13 months. But that's another issue entirely.

This morning Jay went to work early - 5:30 am - and I didn't wake up until 7:30ish. The kids were all up and downstairs and just hanging out. They did come up to see if I was awake, but they don't need me to be up with them anymore.

We're definitely in the Golden Age of Parenting. We'll see how long it lasts. Maybe until Henry decides to act all teenagery and want his own cell phone or something.

Dance Party USA

2011-03-13T17:25:00.003-06:00

I finally got some video of the kids playing Just Dance. It's hard to catch them unaware but it's much more fun. Once they realize I'm taking a video they start preening for the camera, as you will see towards the end of this stellar dance performance:

Henry's favorite song on Just Dance is "Viva Las Vegas" and William's is "Rasputin" (don't ask). I'm not sure if Tessa has a favorite song but she sure likes to play the game. Of course Little Miss Drama Queen then lays around the house, saying that she's "exhausted" from all her dancing.

Imagination Movers

2011-03-03T19:01:00.003-07:00

It's a wet, cold and snowy March day. Your mom has decided that today is THE DAY to catch up on cleaning and laundry. You don't have preschool or dance class and there are no friends to play with at the moment. You have already watched a bit of TV this morning while your mom was on the treadmill and you just need something to do. You put on your thinking cap and come up with what?

Apparently, if you are Tessa, this:

This game went on for quite a while. After I finished with my cleaning and sat down for a minute, I became the passenger and she and Tiana Bear flew my sisters (three Barbies who look absolutely nothing like me) to Hawaii. It was OK, though, because I read a book during my flight and my captain thoughtfully provided me with a pillow and a blanket to make me comfortable. I was even able to fold a load of laundry. Who knew flying could be so productive?

Who Are You and What Did You Do With My Son?

2011-02-24T12:30:00.002-07:00

Henry had bloodwork done today. I've dreaded it all week. Telling Henry that he has to go to the hospital and get poked with a needle is about as fun as it sounds and his reactions generally aren't good. His last visit to the lab was in December and it was ugly. So generally we steel ourselves for the reaction and the fight and the cries of "I'm Not Going!" and just know it'll be over at some point.

Today, however, he surprised us. Jay told him that he needed to get some labs done today and his response was "OK". I wasn't there but didn't believe it when Jay told me. A bit later I thanked Henry for not throwing a fit about the need for a blood test today and he said, "It's OK. It's the anticipation that is bad. It's not as bad as I think it's going to be. Besides, I get a doughnut." Kid, I'll buy you a dozen doughnuts if this is your new way of dealing with getting bloodwork done.

Jay said that he didn't cry, not even a bit. The lab techs were a bit wary of him, though, and two of them asked him if he'd done this before (yes, he said, with a world-weary shrug) and if they needed to hold him (no thanks). They chatted about the Jazz with him and boom - done. No drama. No tears. Just a chocolate doughnut and a wave goodbye as he got out of the car to head into school.

Will wonders ever cease?

Just Dance

2011-02-21T20:36:00.003-07:00

You've heard of this Wii game, right? I had heard of it and thought it sounded stupid, to be honest. But Henry has played it at a friends house and talked William into saving his money so that they could buy it. I knew then that they were serious - it takes something pretty special for the boys to actually save their allowances for more than a few days after getting it. Anyway, they finally got enough money saved (minus a few bucks for tax, but I'm not completely heartless) so we got it on Saturday.

And it's fun! I'm shocked, but there you have it. It's fun to watch the kids play it. Even Jay got in on the action and Jay doesn't dance. Seriously, I think we have danced together once in all the time we have been together. But he decided to show off his moves for the kids and, well, lets just say there is a reason that Jay doesn't dance. :)

We had a dance-off tonight for Family Home Evening and I dominated! On my first try! I guess all those practices when I was on the high school dance team payed off. What? You're going to remind me that I graduated from high school 25 years ago? I challenge you to a dance off! I rock at Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go!

If You've Seen My Motivation, Send It Back, OK?

2011-02-11T18:54:00.005-07:00

I have been feeling soooo unmotivated lately. Don't know why. I'm not being lazy - that just isn't the right word to describe it. I mean, I get up and get things done every day. I exercise. I feed my family. I do laundry and vacuum. But all the little things that I thought would get done this winter are still languishing on my to-do list. This blog, if you follow it to any degree, hasn't been updated nearly as much as it used to be. I don't think it's solely because we're past all the Henry-Cancer-Crazy part of life, either; I used to have plenty to blog about pre-January 2010. There's just no motivation here.

So I thought, in the interest of updating and recording our lives, that I'd do a quick, bullet-point type of entry. At least I'll remember what life was like in the Wright household in early and mid February 2011 when I eventually format and print this blog as a Family Journal. Oh yeah, that's on my to-do list as well. Sigh.

*The kids are really into playing games lately. We play Uno, which I like because it's quick and everyone can legitimately play. We play Monopoly, which William is obsessed with. We play Pretty, Pretty Princess, which is quick and easy and relatively painless. And we play Sequence - States and Capitals, which is excruciating to play because the only person who wants to play is Tessa, who is 4, can't read, and doesn't know her states and capitals at all. So she just puts down random chips and it's all I can do not to beat her in about 5 minutes but then I'll just have to start over so I try my best to make the game last a decent amount of time. She whispers things like, "I'll play New Hampshire, Louisiana" and plays her Add cards at the most random times and in the most random places on the board.

*Valentine's Day is coming up on Monday. Tessa already had her little parties for preschool and dance. William's is on Monday and I think I'm in charge of Valentine bingo - at least I was asked to bring enough conversation hearts for an army of first graders. Henry is having a two hour party at 9 am - he has to wear church clothes and learn to dance and hold chairs for girls and is generally not too excited about the whole thing. I think we'll celebrate with our usual heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's.

*Tessa went to a little Valentine party at her friend Easton's house today and I don't think I've ever seen her so excited. She was ready to get dressed at 8:30 am - in a red sweater with a heart-adorned scarf, Mardi Gras beads, a costume jewelry ring, and a crown. No, I'm not kidding. Lame mother that I am, I didn't get a picture. But she was all decked out and ready to party. I did talk her out of the crown, but she promptly put it on when Jay got home so that they could dance together. That's another story for another day. With accompanying video, if I'm sneaky enough.

*Basketball is still going well. Henry hit a game-winning shot last week and was a little excited. He has two games left. William has a few more games left and is enjoying it, although I don't think he's made a basket yet. It's a little hard to score when you are triple teamed by other first graders desperate to strip the ball out of your hands. Still, he told me today how much he was loving it.

Gosh, we're just boring around here, aren't we. But now we're boring and documented.

Happy February, everyone.

William Rocks

2011-02-04T17:44:00.002-07:00

William got to Rock the Halls today at school. He earned the required number of AR points for 1st grade and was able to run through the halls with some of his schoolmates and the principal, proudly sporting his medal. He was especially glad to see Jay:

I know, I know - it's one of those Blink And You Miss It moments. But he was proud of himself and we are proud of him! Great job William!

Derby Day

2011-01-28T16:29:00.004-07:00

Last night was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. The kids always look forward to it. I do too, to a point. The buildup is huge - they do a weigh-in the night before where all the boys can scope out what other people have done for their cars. There is always drilling and scooping and sanding to make sure that the car is as close to the allotted weight as possible. They walk into the cultural hall and the track is all set up and ready to go. They can barely sit through the business of Pack Meeting. Finally, finally, the races start. And......it's over. The boys all get a chance to race multiple times but when each race lasts less than 5 seconds it seems a little anticlimatic. I missed about 90% of it because I was supervising Tessa and a few of her little friends as they colored. Henry's car won the first heat he was involved in but I think he came in 9th overall. He did, however, win a special award for Best Design, which involves the Assistant Cubmaster picking the car that he liked the best. Henry's car got a few goodnatured scoffs when it was announced because he painted two big red U's (for the University of Utah) on it and most people up here in Cache Valley pull for Utah State. But he used bolts and washers to add the weight to it and they gave it a distinctive look, which you can kind of see here even though it's a pretty poor picture.

Henry also got a spacer at the dentist yesterday, so if you talk to him and something sounds a bit off, you know why. It's a good thing that he tested out of speech earlier this year - he spent all of third grade and half of fourth mastering the S sound and now one dental appliance has him back to square one. His speech teacher would probably cry because she worked so hard to get him "graduated" from speech. Anyway, it's a temporary thing to hopefully allow his teeth to come in more easily and straighter.

Just don't ask him to say Mississippi anytime soon. Take my word for it.

Music to Our Ears

2011-01-21T18:36:00.002-07:00

We heard the words we have been waiting for today - Henry is cancer free. His last bloodwork showed a thyroglobulin of 0, which means that there is no thyroid tissue, cancer or otherwise, detectable in his body. His latest chest CT showed that the spots in his lungs that were metastatic thyroid cancer were gone. At his doctor's appointment today I asked, point-blank, if we could consider him cancer-free. The PA smiled and said, "yes!" So we'll go with that.

We have periodic - say every 4 months - blood work and follow-up appointments with our pediatric endocrinologist. But the active phase of his cancer treatment appears to be over. He'll be monitored for the rest of his life - both for a good TSH number (his needs to be low) and an undetectable thyroglobulin (a rising number could indicate a recurrence). We'll take that kind of medical monitoring and be grateful for it.

We celebrated by letting Henry choose where we ate lunch. He chose The Pie, a pizza place near the University of Utah campus. Then we made a quick trip to Ikea to buy a new TV stand. We could have stayed for hours there - I seriously could have gotten lost in that store - but Henry kept asking if we were done yet. Turns out browsing in furniture stores isn't his preferred activity on a Friday afternoon, even a Friday on which we had great news. He perked up with a Slurpee and a doughnut on the drive home.

Other than that, things are going well for the Wrights of Hyde Park. The boys have basketball on Saturday mornings and are having fun. The weather isn't too terrible or too cold. The Pinewood Derby is coming up this week. All in all, January 2011 is OK.

War Eagle!

2011-01-12T14:19:00.007-07:00

I'm a college football fan. When Jay and I were dating he invited me to a college football game (1996 - Utes vs Utah State - the Utes got beat). My response was something like, "oh, I love football!" Later he told me that he thought, "yeah, right - all girls say that." But then we went to the game and I was able to talk intelligently about football and he was duly impressed. I tease him about that being the night he fell in love with me. Anyway, we watch college football alot in our house, our favorites being the University of Utah and Auburn.

In Alabama (the state, not the university) college football is a different animal than it is here. I grew up an Auburn fan. I'm not sure why - you just are an Auburn or an Alabama fan and my family went with Auburn. I actually lived in Auburn for a year when my dad was working on his doctoral degree. It was my first grade year and I remember going for walks around campus and seeing the mascot - War Eagle - in his giant cage. It's a nice place, Auburn.

Today Auburn fans everywhere are celebrating Auburn's first national championship since 1957! I even managed to watch the entire second half, although it was a nail biter at the end. I know lots of people around here were rooting for Oregon for whatever reason, but I don't care.

War Eagle forever!

Anniversary

2011-01-06T13:05:00.003-07:00

Today is the first anniversary of Henry's surgery and subsequent thyroid cancer diagnosis. I was thinking about it this morning and trying to remember details of the day. Honestly, it's kind of fuzzy. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally. I hadn't slept well in the weeks leading up to his surgery and the anticipation of the cancer diagnosis was just so emotionally draining. I remember Henry laying on our bed all morning, playing with his borrowed DS game system. He had to fast so we just had him stay upstairs so we could make sure he wasn't tempted to eat or drink anything. I remember dropping William and Tessa off at my friend Nicole's house and how she hugged me. I remember sitting in the waiting room and Jay saying to me, "you know that it's going to be cancer, don't you?" I remember knowing that there were so many people that I needed to call and tell the news but I just couldn't because I knew that if I started crying I wouldn't be able to stop and I needed to hold myself together to take care of Henry.

Mostly, though, I remember the kindness of those around us. There were doctors and nurses who checked on Henry even when they were off their shifts. Henry's teacher came to visit him every day in the hospital and even came to our house to check on him. My friend Nicole took my kids for hours and hours at a time, effortlessly folding them into her daily routine so that I wouldn't have to worry about them. My friend Melissa didn't know it, but when she walked into Henry's hospital room early in the morning the day after his surgery with hot chocolate and a smoothie and a smile for Henry and a hug for me she was a literal answer to a prayer, because I was floundering and wasn't sure how I was going to make it through the morning until Jay came back to the hospital. Those are my main memories from early January of 2010 and I'm grateful for them.

On this first anniversary we are feeling positive. We know his latest bloodwork is good. We're waiting for a call back regarding the results of his chest CT from last week. We have a doctor's appointment in 2 weeks. But things are good.

I don't think Henry even realizes that today is significant to him in any way. He got up at his normal time and asked for his thyroid pill. He complained about the Jazz loss last night. He talked about how excited he is to start playing basketball on Saturday - his first game of the year. He bundled up and went to the bus stop with his brother. After school he'll come home, have a snack and watch TV or play on the Wii. He won't even think about the fact that a year ago he was in the hospital. It's just not something that he thinks about too much.

Life is as it should be.

Anatomy of a Cave-in

2011-01-04T13:05:00.003-07:00

Jay and I try to be responsible about money. We have a budget and we do a pretty good job of sticking to it. We don't go out and buy the latest and greatest of anything, no matter how tempting it is. Jay certainly likes his technology, but he gets a pretty good fix at work where they provide new products on a fairly regular basis. He has a cool phone with all kinds of applications; I have a silly prepaid phone that is a few years old. The other day I accidently hung up on a member of our bishopric who had called to talk to me about Primary. He incredulously asked me, "did you hang up on me?" when he called back. And I had to explain about my lame phone that likes to hang up on people.

Anyway, we've resisted getting newer "stuff" for a while. We caved on getting a Wii last winter, but that was after Henry's cancer diagnosis and we felt the need to overcompensate for his lack of fun during January, February and March. We have an old-school DVD player that still plays VCR tapes as well. Our computer is older than Tessa and I pray every morning that it makes it a little while longer. And until Saturday, our TV was one of the older, boxy 27" TV's. We bought it a few years ago and it worked just fine. No immediate plans to replace it. Until.....

....we awoke to no sound from our satellite TV. Well, there was sound, but it was static. We tried a bunch of things to narrow down the problem and figured out that it was something to do with the satellite TV - the TV worked fine with the DVD player, the VCR and the Wii. But could we be sure? What if there was some kind of compatibility issue that was rearing it's ugly head? We didn't wait to find out - by late afternoon we were the proud owners of a new, larger, flatscreen TV with HD capability. The satellite guy came yesterday and the sound problem was just a cabling issue. If we had been patient, we would have been just fine. But we weren't and honestly maybe we were looking for an excuse to buy a new TV. It didn't take us long to jump on that purchase.

The kids love it. Tessa said that, "it was the best day ever" and kept hugging the box. Henry and William just stared at it, even with the sound not working on the TV. Jay and I like it, too.

Welcome to the 21st Century, Wright family.

Undetectable

2010-12-29T08:33:00.005-07:00

Lots of things are undetectable at some point in time - my sense of humor and my patience level are two things that seem to dip into the realm of undetectable more often than I would like. Yesterday we got word that Henry's thyroglobulin level is now considered 0, with thyroid tissue in his body undetectable. Another thing on our list of undetectable, but this one made me cry with relief.

This is incredibly good news for him and for us. Since any thyroid tissue left in his body since about March was cancer, this is a huge step towards declaring him cancer-free. He has a chest CT scan in Salt Lake on Thursday to check the spots in his lungs but we anticipate it being clear as well. I don't want to jinx anything, but I really think we are close to putting this behind us, at least for now.

Henry will have to deal with periodic blood tests for the rest of his life to monitor his levels. If his thyroglobulin starts to go up, it could indicate a recurrence. Since he is so young, there is about a 30% chance of a recurrence over his lifetime. We also have to check his TSH levels - right now they are a bit too high. They aren't too bad and actually in the low normal range for the average person but thyroid cancer patients need to have their TSH hold steady at a below-normal level. This will happen every so often as he grows and gains weight so we are going to up his dose of thyroid hormone and retest in two months to make sure it's back down to where it needs to be. He was a little bummed about this at first but really it doesn't change anything for him - he still has to take a pill every morning so he'll just take a different color pill. No big deal.

However, the threat of additional treatment and the possibility of having to travel out of state for further treatment is significantly decreased now. We meet with the doctor in about a month and we'll get the lowdown on further monitoring.

But today we breathe a sigh of relief! I'm starting to have a good feeling about 2011.

Only In Utah

2010-12-24T09:50:00.002-07:00

Only in Utah does a dance studio use a Primary song for their recital. Not complaining, mind you. I just thought it was funny. And as cute as can be.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

For Your Entertainment...

2010-12-22T19:01:00.002-07:00

...we present a Hawaiian Christmas!

Nutcracker Lite

2010-12-21T19:50:00.002-07:00

Tessa had a mini-dance recital today. Her little class performed four dances for family and friends. Jay was able to leave work early to watch. The girls were so cute and did a great job. Here are two of her dances.

This was one of my favorites. They've been working on it for a while. My friend Melissa was there and commented, "she's sure got the shaking part down." Yes, yes she does.

This recital was pretty laid back. The girls wore their favorite dance outfit (hers was a gift from Grandma) and we were literally there for 15 minutes. The "big" recital is in May so mark your calendars now if you want to be overwhelmed with cuteness.

Oh and I was going to post another video but the second one wouldn't upload to my blog. Don't despair, however - I'll try again tomorrow.

Comfort and Joy

2010-12-20T15:35:00.003-07:00

There is so much going on this time of year that it can seem overwhelming. Shopping to do, gifts to wrap, treats to prepare, deliveries to make. I'm guilty of starting the season with the best intentions to simplify and enjoy Christmas and then letting things get out of control. We do pretty well with budgeting and not overspending for Christmas but it's hard. I want my family and friends to have a good Christmas if it kills me!

Yesterday, however, I was reminded of the true spirit of the season. We did a little reader's theater production in Primary - the kids had parts to read and then we sang some songs. During the presentation I really felt the Spirit of Christmas and was so thrilled to be able to share that message with the kids in our ward. I took a deep breath and remembered the reason we celebrate Christmas. I felt peaceful. I want that feeling to last through this week and throughout the coming year.

Today I was back to busy, busy, busy. But I still remember the way I felt yesterday and I hope I can take a few minutes to replicate that peaceful feeling every day this week. I have hopes that if I'm feeling the true spirit of Christmas that my family will feel the same. I'm not sure if it will work, since this is prime Christmas-crazy time. But we'll do our best.

We Are Family!

2010-12-08T18:21:00.004-07:00

I have been meaning to post these pictures for a while now. My good friend Melissa took them and I think they are amazing. She got these pictures in about 15 minutes of shooting, compared to the insane amount of time that we usually spend coaxing some semblance of a smile out of them at Kiddie Kandids. I also love that we were able to do them outside. I can't wait to pick up my enlargements!

Happy 7th Birthday, William!

2010-12-02T13:40:00.006-07:00

In honor of William's birthday, here are a few pictures of him through the years.

Newborn William (with Aunt Elizabeth):

William at 1 - he was soooo chubby and thick:

William at 2 - love the dimples:

Here he is at 3, in the thick of his construction truck/builder phase:

Here's William at 4, looking more grown-up:

William at 5:

This is William at his 6th birthday party - the icing on the cake was blue, as you can see:

And here he is today (well, about 6 weeks ago):

Happy Birthday, William! We love you!

Snow Days

2010-11-29T18:48:00.003-07:00

What's up with all the snow we've gotten this November? Seriously, in recent years we've had good Thanksgiving weather. This year we left the house and the temperature was 0 degrees. It felt absolutely balmy to hit Ogden, where it was in the low 20's. Sigh. Not much to do about it, though, except bid a fond farewell to the grass until March.

So Thanksgiving was nice. We had a great sports weekend - Auburn beat Alabama (War Eagle!), the Jazz beat the Lakers, and the Utes beat BYU. Everyone was happy in the Wright family. We mostly stayed inside - played some games, read some books, watched some movies, decorated for Christmas. When the temperature doesn't get above the teens, it's hard to be motivated to do much else.

A few pictures from our weekend:

The boys enjoying some downtime on Sunday night.

Here's Tessa, standing in front of the sliding glass doors leading out to the deck. You can kind of see how much snow we've gotten - it's almost up to her waist.

For Family Home Evening we decorated a gingerbread house. Thanks for the kit, Nana!

Lots of fun things coming up, first and foremost being William's birthday! Perhaps a "History of William" pictoral is in order. Stay tuned.

Thankful

2010-11-24T18:57:00.002-07:00

I've been thinking alot about the things for which I am thankful. There are the little things, like chocolate and warm socks and a good book. There are the big things, like my family and friends. There are the material things, like medical insurance and reliable cars.

Then there are the intangible things; these are the things that are hard to list. The pleasure that I get from watching my children learn and grow and improve. The happiness I get from serving my friends and family and watching them as they serve those around them, including me. The love I feel for a wonderful husband who I love more than I thought possible. The knowledge that I have of a loving Heavenly Father who has a hand in my life.

I am so thankful for the life that I have, even when it's hard and even when I just want the day to end so that we can start over the next day. This past year has been a hard one for my family and still I'm overwhelmed by all the things with which we have been blessed. I am truly thankful for all of the blessings, big and small, that we have been given.

I'm hopeful that one day I'll be thankful for the hard things, too. I want to be able to recognize them as opportunities for growth, not just as crappy things that happen to everyone. I realize that it's up to me to get there, so I'm trying.

But for now, I'll stick to being thankful for all the good. That seems like a nice place to start.

Thanksgiving in February?

2010-11-23T08:52:00.003-07:00

We have a Blizzard Warning for late today into tomorrow. Yes, a Blizzard Warning. Not just a Winter Storm Warning, but a Blizzard Warning. I didn't know that they even used the term blizzard anymore, but apparently you get a blizzard when there is a combination of artic cold (think below zero at night), wind (30 mph winds with gusts of higher) and lots of snow (we are forecasted to get 8-12 inches over the next 24 hours). The schools are getting out early today so that the kids will be home by the time the worst of the storm starts. I'm trying to remember if that has happened in all the time I've had kids in school and I honestly don't think that it has. I guess we'll hunker down until Thanksgiving Day, which is forecast to be sunny with a high of a whopping 15 degrees in Cache Valley.

Where's my Indian Summer?

Movie Time

2010-11-20T20:02:00.003-07:00

Henry and I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 today. It was the first Harry Potter movie that I've seen at a theater and we both really enjoyed it. Henry is excited to see Part 2 when it comes out next July. It was nice to have a little Mom and Henry time; it doesn't happen that often.

We are also gearing up for Jay's big vacation week. He always takes a week's vacation the week of Thanksgiving and we really enjoy having him home. He loves to cook so he's usually making fun food, including homemade rolls and caramel popcorn. Once Thanksgiving Day is over we get the house decorated for Christmas. I'm able to get a little shopping done. And Jay gets a break from work. The timing this year is good because he's still a little sore from his surgery last week and I think it will be good to get a little rest as well.

We are also getting ready for William's birthday. His birthday always seems to sneak up on me, maybe because it seems so busy around this time of year with Thanksgiving and then, bam, all of the sudden it's his birthday. I don't think we'll do a party this year. We had one last year and it was really kind of crazy. It was fine; the kids were all great but we don't have a good space for entertaining half a dozen extra kids for a few hours and December in northern Utah isn't conducive to any kind of outside party. We may just do something fun like bowling or the Fun Park or a movie instead.

I kind of felt bad leaving William at home during the movie. He likes Harry Potter and has seen the other movies on DVD, but this one is rated PG13 and the book is definitely darker than the previous books. It just didn't seem like a good idea to take him, although there were lots of kids that looked to be his age in the theater so I'm sure plenty of kids in the 7 year old range do fine - just not William. He saw Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief last summer and confided to Jay that he thought the movie "should have been rated PG13" after one particularly realistic scene with Medusa. He didn't seem too bothered with missing the movie, actually, so I probably worried about it for no reason at all. Isn't that usually the case?

Bucket Lists

2010-11-15T12:25:00.005-07:00

Jay went on a minor home improvement tear last week. All these little things that kept getting pushed aside apparently moved their way to the top of the list early last week. Why? He had minor surgery on Thursday and would be unable to lift or move around too much for a while. Theres a good chance that we'll have snow on the ground before he is cleared to go back to full activity so he was digging and climbing and doing all kinds of things. It was nice but I was a bit confused about the urgency. I mean, we've lived without the garage door opener light bulb working for a while now; surely it can wait. But Jay doesn't like to leave things undone so the night before his surgery was spent on his version of a Bucket List. He even asked me if I wanted him to put the Christmas tree up early so I wouldn't have to lift and/or drag it by myself. Since it was only November 10th, I said I'd try to manage on my own after Thanksgiving. Which is coming up next week. How did that happen?

Anyway, Jay is fine. He went back to work today, although he's planning to come home early. He's sore and it's hard for him to get up and down but he's better. I feel bad for him, though. He was looking forward to sitting on the couch on Saturday watching the Utes play Notre Dame. But they got killed - again - and he was kind of a captive audience. It was like he couldn't look away. Oh well - maybe he'll get his coveted Rose Bowl trip next year.

In other news, I have a new calling at church. I'm the Primary President. If you are LDS, feel free to pause and laugh at the thought of me as the Primary President. If you aren't LDS, Primary is the organization in the LDS church that serves the children ages 18 months to 12 years old. It's basically Sunday School - we have lessons and classes and music. It's a big responsibility to be over this organization and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. There is a reason that I chose to specialize in Secondary Education when I was contemplating a teaching career; I just don't feel like teaching or working with young children is a strength of mine. But I have great people to work with and lots of resources to draw from and I'm sure it'll be fine. It'll probably end up being fun. At some point. Right now I have a headache just thinking about it.

And to be clear, being Primary President wasn't on my bucket list. Not even a little.

Scenes from a Saturday

2010-11-08T19:17:00.004-07:00

Despite the crushing loss to TCU, the boys had a nice day at the University of Utah.

Here is the view from the field before the game - Jay was able to wrangle some sideline passes from a work buddy.
This is the view of the field from their seats. The weather was fantastic and perfect for a football game, especially considering it's early November in northern Utah. Notice the fans in white to the right of the camera - those are the TCU fans.

William got up close and personal during warmups.

Our Ute fans!

Sugar and Spice

2010-11-06T15:30:00.003-06:00

I was not in a good mood this morning. The boys were all excited to head down to Salt Lake City to watch the Utah/TCU game. Tessa isn't a fan, however, and a little young for games so I took one for the team and stayed home with her. Honestly, I was a little bummed. I was feeling left out. Tessa is pretty easy but I spend most of the day with her alone as it is so a solo Saturday with Tessa didn't sound that exciting.

How wrong I was! We have had a great day so far. She got a haircut, we went to lunch (Chili's - her choice), picked up cupcakes for a treat and went to the library. She hasn't been whiny or demanding. She's been a pleasure. Sugar and spice and everything nice.

Jay, on the other hand, is having a rough time. The Utes are getting worked at halftime. Jay's tickets are by the visitors section and Henry got pretty upset after the third touchdown when the TCU fans started chanting whatever it was that they were chanting. No swearing, thank goodness. William was happy until a box elder bug got into the popcorn he was having; freaking out ensued. Henry is grumpy because the Utes aren't doing well. I'll be shocked if they stay for the whole game. I'm sorry that they aren't having a better time.

Now I'm off to eat my cupcake and wait for Jay to text me that Henry has attacked a TCU fan and William is crying for treats without insects in them. I think I am definitely having the better day.

Trick or Treat

2010-10-30T18:11:00.004-06:00

It's Halloween! Well, kind of. It's October 30th, but since Halloween is on Sunday this year everyone in our neck of the woods is trick-or-treating tonight. It's cool and rainy but the kids (and Jay) are perservering and out begging for candy as I type. This year we had Harry Potter, Princess Tiana (from The Princess and the Frog) and Anakin Skywalker (pre-Darth Vader). Here they are:

We've had a crazy week. We started with the stomach flu. Always fun, the stomach flu. Everyone but Jay was felled by it this time but at least it happened pre-Halloween this year so no one missed any festivities. Tessa had a party at dance class on Tuesday, there was a carnival at Cub Scout Pack Meeting on Thursday night (and Henry got his Bear award - yay!), and all three kids had Halloween parties at school on Friday. There was lots of fun to be had in Hyde Park and we enjoyed it all.

The kids were pretty hyper today in anticipation of the big night. Luckily we were able to layer everyone up with jackets and hoods and Jay has an umbrella in one hand and an iTouch in another, trying to keep everyone dry and check the Ute football score at the same time. Never let it be said that we don't spend quality time with our children!

Happy Halloween!

Walking with Pumpkins

2010-10-22T15:10:00.002-06:00

I went with Tessa's preschool class to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk this morning. It was really fun! The theme this year had to do with Animation and they had lots of cute displays, including Finding Nemo, Dr. Seuss, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Polar Express, and The Princess and the Frog. Not that I got any good pictures of them - I was busy sheparding 13 preschoolers around. I did get a few pictures of Tessa, though.

Miss October

2010-10-17T19:35:00.004-06:00

I wish I was better about taking photographs. Not just quantity, but quality. I typically remember the camera for most major events in our lives and manage to get pictures of what is going on. But I wish I was better at it - more artistic, more creative. Creative, I'm not. I blame it on my left-brainedness. I am super-organized and can do calculus like nobody's business, but my sense of color and what looks good is lacking.

Luckily I have a wonderful friend and neighbor who more than makes up for my lack of creativity. She has enough for both of us. Anyway, she took some pictures of Miss Tessa last week. Here are a few of my favorites:

Just thought I'd share.

Rock On!

2010-10-14T19:44:00.002-06:00

Henry got to Rock the Halls at school yesterday. What, you may ask, is Rock the Halls? Well, as a reward for getting a certain number of AR points (AR = Acclerated Reader, where the kids take tests on books that they read and earn points for their correct answers), he got a medal and was able to run the halls of school with the principal. Clear enough? No? Here, I'll show you:

So about 500 students and teachers lined the hallways of the school while music played on the intercom. As the principal and the honorees ran through the halls, everyone clapped, cheered and danced to the music. It lasted less than 30 seconds. But it was fun. It is probably a little more crazy when more kids earn the award, but as it is the first AR period of the year, only 6 kids in the school qualified to Rock the Halls. Still, we're proud of Henry for being such a good reader. And for Rocking the Halls like a pro.

Dear Tooth Fairy

2010-10-12T12:43:00.002-06:00

William's teacher called me yesterday. Can I just say that I hate it when I see the words Public School on the Caller ID. Who is sick? What's wrong? Did I forget something? My heart races a little bit while I answer the phone with a tentative "Hello?"

Anyway, she was calling to let me know that William had lost a tooth a school in a fairly traumatic fashion. It was knocked out while he was playing at recess. I'm sure that this happens all the time, especially in first grade. This tooth has been loose for a really long time and frankly I was glad to hear that it had come out. She did want to warn me about his reaction to this event, however, because she found him in the hallway sobbing with blood streaming down his chin. He wasn't hurt but he was incredibly upset because he couldn't find the tooth. And no tooth meant no visit from the tooth fairy.

Good first grade teacher that she is, she helped him clean up and told him that he had options - the easiest and best being to write the tooth fairy a note letting him know what happened. Our neighbor Melissa told him that the same thing happened to her when she was a kid, which perked him up and had him talking all evening about how "Melissa got some money when she didn't have a tooth so I'm sure I'll get some." Melissa also told him that if he felt someone checking out his teeth overnight to pretend to be asleep - that it was probably just the Tooth Fairy verifying his story.

So, before bedtime, I wrote the following note:

And guess what? It worked! William walked around waving his 2-$1 bills like a fan, showing us all that the Tooth Fairy came through. He also said that he felt the Tooth Fairy checking his tooth. I don't want to say that my son is making up stories, but I know for a fact that the Tooth Fairy didn't touch his mouth while leaving his reward. Just saying.

Lucky Number 13

2010-10-11T08:43:00.006-06:00

13 years ago today Jay and I were married. I was going to post some pictures and realized that we don't have any on our computer - 1997 was before the widespread use of digital images, at least for personal use - so I went through our wedding album and scanned a few (which is why they all have a band at the margins of the picture).

We were married at the Salt Lake Temple. It rained all day long so we don't have any pictures outside the temple, but we got some nice shots at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. They let us walk from the temple to the JSMB via an underground tunnel that no longer exists (I believe it's a parking garage now) so we wouldn't get wet.

We had our wedding reception at Caffe Molise, still one of my favorite restaurants in Salt Lake City. We chose Caffe Molise because it has yummy food, a great downtown location, and some sentimental value - we had our first date there in June of 1996. Our wedding cake was carrot cake and it was delicious.

Eventually the rain stopped and the sun came out, allowing us to take a few pictures outside. The other picture we have outside is of a homeless guy serenading us on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. We listened politely and Jay gave him a few bucks to move along so we could take this picture:

It's fun to remember our wedding day, but a marriage is so much more than a wedding. I am so thankful for a wonderful husband who loves me and our family. Even though we haven't had the easiest year, I'm grateful that we had each other. We made it through together. I guess that's what marriage is all about.

B.I.N.G.O.

2010-10-04T19:44:00.004-06:00

I have a love/hate relationship with General Conference weekend. I love the obvious things about it - getting to hear uplifting talks from LDS church leaders, listening to beautiful music from the Mormon Tabernacle choir, having "church" in front of the TV in my jammies on a Sunday morning. The hate part (and I use the term loosely) started around 9 years ago. What happened 9 years ago? Jay and I became parents.

Being a parent complicates General Conference. When you have babies and toddlers, it seems next to impossible to hear more than snatches of a few talks. Now that our kids are older, we want to encourage them to pay attention and learn something from the speakers. However, there are four 2-hour sessions of Conference. That's 8 hours of church over two days. It's wonderful and we love it but it's alot to ask for the kids to listen to all 8 hours of General Conference and take away much more than irritation from it. So we compromise.

Saturdays are a little more laid-back. We don't make them sit down and listen to Conference. We cheated a bit this year and took the kids on a drive to Brigham City for milkshakes during the afternoon session. The results were mixed - they liked the milkshakes but didn't love driving 40 minutes to get them. Still, we listened to Conference on the radio.

The Sunday morning session is the session that we all watch/listen to as a family. To make this more palatable for the kids, we buy them treats and let them play Conference Bingo, where they put an M&M or other candy treat on a square on a Bingo card (squares include things like Family, Prayer, Jesus, Scriptures); when they get a Bingo, they get to eat the treats. This activity gets us through a good part of the session and encourages them to listen to what is being said. The Sunday afternoon session is iffy - the kids might be around and half-listening, but Jay and I try keep in on and watch/listen to it.

They seem to be slowly getting better about sitting and listening to General Conference. Jay remarked that the Sunday morning session seemed to go more smoothly this year and that the kids seemed to listen to the speakers more. I'm not sure about that. But if we keep plugging away, hopefully as the kids get older it will get easier. Until then, we'll stock up on M&M's every October and April. Whatever works.

Finis

2010-09-29T11:39:00.003-06:00

Henry finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this morning. He was so excited to see how it ended that he came up to read at 7:30 last night so that he could read for an hour instead of the required 30 minutes. When he went to bed he still had 50 or so pages to go so he got up this morning and, instead of watching Sportscenter, hunkered down to read. Jay said he kept hearing him laugh and react to the climatic battle in the book and when I got up this morning he was excited to have finished and talk about what he had read. I love when books get my kids excited!

Now that he's finished the Harry Potter series, he's earned a ticket to see the new Harry Potter movie when it comes out in November. I'm excited to go as well; I've seen all the Harry Potter movies on DVD but never in the theater. I'm looking forward to taking him to see a movie based on a book that he enjoyed reading so much. And he's hopefully learning how enjoyable reading can be. One of my goals is to help instill a love of reading in my kids and so far, so good. When Henry tells me that he likes the Harry Potter movies but likes the books better, it makes me happy.

Culture Shock

2010-09-23T13:27:00.003-06:00

Jay is in Panama. Random, I know. He is there for a South/Central American retailers meeting. I think he's supposed to be getting them pumped up to sell treadmills and other fitness equipment. Either that or he's on a really extended golf outing. Nah.

If you know Jay, you know a few things about him. He loves to try new foods and restaurants and enjoys learning about new cultures. He was excited for this trip; well, as excited as you can get over a work trip, I guess. He bought a book about the Panama Canal. He downloaded a show from iTunes about the Panama Canal. You could probably quiz him about it and he'd get all the answers right. Anyway, he tried (and failed) not to show that he was excited to go on this trip because it's hard on me and the kids when he's gone for a longish (6 days) trip. I know that he was interested to try some authentic Panamanian cuisine.

He's on day four of his trip and so far has eaten Generic Airport and Airplane Food, Generic Radisson Hotel Food, Popeye's Chicken, Pizza Hut, Quiznos, and Bennigans. I don't know why I find this so funny but I do. When Jay goes on business trips he takes his food very, very seriously. He keeps a running list (I think it's a mental list but he may very well have an actual list somewhere) of places to eat in big cities. He makes reservations. He plans how to get from his work location to his restaurant of choice. He'll have appetizers at one place and dessert at another. He makes the most of work travel by eating as well as he can. Except, apparently, in Panama.

So send happy food vibes a few thousand miles south if you can. I think Jay could use them.

Tri School Trot

2010-09-17T19:03:00.003-06:00

We are settling into our new elementary school quite nicely. The boys seem to enjoy their teachers and classes and the school in general. I'm involved in the PTA and we just had our one and only fundraiser for the year - the Tri School Trot. It is a fundraiser that Summit Elementary has done in the past but with the boundary changes that were made, we combined with two other elementary schools in the area (hence the Tri School part of the Trot).

Basically the kids collected pledges for running laps around the Sky View High School track. There was no selling involved and 100% of all pledge money goes directly to the schools. They announced that over $26,000 was raised between all three schools, so it seems like a pretty successful event. And I don't have to buy any unwanted wrapping paper, candles, pizza kits or cookie dough. Score!

Here are few pictures:

Mountain Retreat

2010-09-12T19:24:00.002-06:00

We spent this weekend in Park City with the Wrights of Utah, celebrating Aunt Laura's birthday. We had so much fun. I would post pictures but we have very, very few. Why, you may ask? Because a-I forgot the camera and b-we bought a new one but didn't really use it very much. We needed a new camera anyway - our old one was slowly dying and costing us a fortune in AA batteries (between that and the Wii remotes we go through a lot of batteries) but we were busy and didn't get to play around with the camera too much. Jay got a good picture of William sitting on my lap crying after he bonked his head on a metal bar at the park and I tried to get a few action shots of the family soccer game but that was about it.

The lack of pictures is not representative of the amount of fun that we had. Among the fun things that we did:

*We played lots of card and board games, including a familiy SkipBo tournament. Congratulations to Melisa, who takes home the trophy!

*We watched movies and had treats and stayed up late every night. Which is why our kids will all be in bed by 8 pm tonight.

*The weather was beautiful and we took advantage of it, playing at a really fun park for several hours and having a picnic and going up to the Park City Mountain Resort for a ride down the Alpine Slide.

*We had a fun party for Laura, including a yummy ice cream cake. Jay even picked out and bought her present himself (and considering that I'm the designated present-buyer in our house, that's saying something).

Tessa got a little car sick on the way to Park City. OK, she got alot car sick, necessitating an emergency stop at a Wendy's to clean her up and change her clothes. Thankfully it was an isolated incident.

The kids were pretty good and had fun spending the weekend with their cousins and aunts and uncles and Nana. Thanks for a great weekend, everyone!

And Happy Birthday, Laura! We love you!

Preschool

2010-09-08T14:12:00.007-06:00

Tessa started preschool today. She was very excited to wear her new shoes (they are Twinkle Toes and have sequins and sparkles and I don't care for them but she loves them) and carry her backpack.

She was pretty matter-of-fact about going to school this year. It's her second year in preschool and she knows the ropes - the routine, the teacher, the classroom and the kids. She told me that she made some new friends today, which is always good.

One of my favorite things about preschool are the Scholastic book orders. I love to buy books and they have some really good deals. Tessa's preschool teacher sends lots of flyers home so there is usually something that Tessa is interested in reading.

Last week we had Back to School night for preschool and her teacher sent home a book called The Kissing Hand. We were supposed to read it before school started so that she could reinforce the ideas in it on the first day. It's about a racoon who doesn't want to go to school and how his mom kisses his palm so that he can carry her kiss with him during school if he gets lonely. It's a sweet idea and lots of teachers use it at the beginning of the school year; William mentioned that his teacher read it to them as well. What I didn't count on was how emotional it made me. I actually got choked up reading this book to Tessa. She didn't notice, of course. She hopped off my lap and went about her business. Apparently she doesn't need me as much anymore.

I think I need a kissing hand.

Unofficially Fall

2010-09-06T18:39:00.003-06:00

Labor Day always seems like the start of fall to me, even though it is still officially summer for a few more weeks. There is a distinct chill in the evenings and it's quite lovely out during the day. School has started and we back into the swing of routine. Things are good.

Tessa starts preschool this week. She will go Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Add dance class on Tuesday mornings and she's a busy little girl. It's good practice for kindergarten next year and she's happier when she's busy so I think things will work out well.

The boys are settling into school nicely. Henry is finishing up Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and looks to easily make his goal of completing the Harry Potter series by mid-November. William lost another tooth and seems to be doing well in school. I have to say I'm surprised, but I often don't give my kids enough credit and they constantly surprise me. He likes buying school lunch and having multiple recesses during the day. Homework is going well for him; this weekend his homework was to catch a bug, so he and a friend spent some time trolling the cul-de-sac for bugs. We let the bug go later - the purpose of the assignment was to have the experience for a writing workshop his teacher is having this week.

So things are going well. Happy Fall, everyone!

Check Your Neck

2010-09-02T19:08:00.002-06:00

Did you know that September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month? I didn't either, until Henry was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that has increased in incidence over the past few years. Statistics show that just over 37,000 people will be diagnosed in the United States each year. Even though thyroid cancer is incredibly treatable, roughly 1600 people a year die from thyroid cancer.

One of the difficulties in diagnosing thyroid cancer is that it is typically asymptomatic. Most people who are diagnosed with thyroid cancer feel fine, with the only sign that anything is wrong is a lump in their neck.

As far as children go, thyroid cancer accounts for less than 1% of all pediatric cancers in the 5-9 year old age group. For a child under 10, the chance of contracting thyroid cancer is about 1 in 1,000,000. Children with thyroid cancer typically respond very well to treatment, although the cancer tends to be more aggressive and faster-growing.

If you see or notice a lump in your neck, get it checked. Please.

For more information about thyroid cancer, check out www.thyca.org or www.checkyourneck.com.

One Dancing Princess

2010-08-31T19:02:00.006-06:00

Is there anything cuter than little girls in dance outfits?

Tessa started dance classes today. She seemed to enjoy it. It takes her a while to warm up to new situations so she seemed to hang back a bit when they were taking turns doing tricks. She's always been like that, however, so I'm sure in a few weeks she'll be jumping in there with the other girls.

They do a bit of tumbling, a bit of ballet, and a bit of tap. Jay is already looking forward to the recitals and the money spent on dance gear. Even he has a hard time saying no to The Dancing Princess.

Stalking the Sidelines

2010-08-28T19:34:00.005-06:00

When Henry was in the hospital last January, he was having a hard time. He was in pain but didn't want to take his pain medication, he felt terrible (rightfully so, I think) and he was just being contrary about stuff like getting out of bed and eating. So the hospital nutrionist, in an attempt to cheer him up, had her husband come to visit him. Turns out her husband is the coach of our local high school football team and he brought about a dozen of the players with him. They brought Henry a helmet, a tshirt, and a lot of good cheer and motivation. They stayed for a while and talked football with him. He loved it. Before they left, the coach asked Henry if he'd like to come on the sidelines during one of their games during the next football season. Jay and I were grateful that they took the time to visit Henry in the hospital and wrote them a note to tell them so.

Henry never forgot the offer to come down on the field during a game and started asking about it as this summer progressed, so a few weeks ago Jay called and left a message for the coach to see if that was something that he could do. He didn't return the call before the first game so we told Henry that he probably just got busy and forgot and Jay took the boys to the game anyway. But last week, he called. He invited Henry to come on the field during warmups, into the locker room, and watch the game on the sideline during Friday night's game. Not many things geek Henry up more than live sports, so having an insider's view was pretty special for him.

Here is a view from the sidelines. He looks thrilled to have his picture taken:

This was during the "Moment of Silence" that they had before taking the field:
The players were so good with Henry. Lots of them remembered him from the hospital and they all made a point to chat with him throughout the course of the evening. As you can see, they were happy to have their picture taken, unlike Henry:
He even got to go onto the field with the captains for the coin toss. He's the short guy in the hood - it was raining before the game:
He had a great time. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a victory for Sky View (well, not having a 45 minute lightening/rain delay would have been nice). We are so appreciative to Coach Ahnder and the team for giving him such a great experience. Go Bobcats!

Back to School

2010-08-27T08:18:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was the first day of school for Henry and William. It seemed to go well. William did fine at lunch and seems interested to try school lunch. He had two recesses. His teacher is funny. He sits with Spencer on the bus. Henry was very nonchalant about the whole thing, as is typical with Henry. He liked the science experiment that they did and is excited to try out the challenge words in spelling this year. His teacher is nice. He played kickball at recess.

Things went a bit downhill as the night wore on, though. You could tell that they were both really tired. William said that being at school all day felt like he was spending his whole life at school. He perked up a bit when I reminded him that the first day is always the hardest and he'll get used to it and hey, isn't tomorrow Friday and an early out day? He seemed happy to trot off to the bus stop this morning. Henry was grumpy that his teacher requires him to not only read 20 minutes a night (that's not a big deal - both kids read for 30 minutes at night) but also write a three sentence summary about what he has read. "How will I come up with three sentences?", he moaned. Then, once he did it, he realized that it's not a big deal.

It felt so quiet around the house yesterday. Tessa and I got a ton of errands run. It was nice. Almost too quiet really. Something tells me I'll get used to it.

Routine, Routine, Routine

2010-08-22T20:00:00.003-06:00

If you know me well at all you know that I'm all about the routine. I have my daily housework and cleaning routine that I am really good about following - it makes me feel organized and like I can get things done in a timely and efficient manner. I love my calendar and marking things down on it. We have a pretty set bedtime routine for the kids that I'm convinced makes our bedtime go more smoothly. I love a good routine.

This part of my personality is one of the reasons why I look forward to school starting again in the fall (just a few more days). It's a good chance to rethink and refine our daily routine. Getting everything done that needs to be done after school requires some organization on our part and it always feels good. We still have our routines in the summer but we're not as strict about them because, to some degree, isn't that what summer is all about?

My love of routines collided with a lesson that we had at church and I'm all gung-ho about getting back into the swing of things. I know that some people set new goals around the beginning of the new calendar year, but I find that the beginning of the school year is a great time to do this as well. So tomorrow night's Family Home Evening lesson is all about getting back into some good routines. Some of them are school-related - when homework will be done and what time lights will go out, for example. But some of them are things that we haven't been good about doing recently, like reading the scriptures together as a family. We did well for a while about doing our family scripture study at 6:30 every night, right before the kids' snack time. But then stuff happened and before we knew it, the habit was broken. So starting this week, we're back at it.

The only part of the routine that I'm worried about implementing is William's bedtime. William is a heavy, hard sleeper. It's a great quality and I love that if he stays up a bit later for whatever reason he will sleep in a bit the next day (unlike "I don't need an alarm clock to get me up at 6:45 every morning" Henry). But the bus comes at 8:25 this year and he has to be on it. If he isn't waking up on his own by 7:30, things will be ugly. So instead of hanging out a little later with Henry (who is typically in bed around 8:45), he will really need to be in bed about 8:15. Which means reading and bath and all that stuff needs to start at 7:30. He won't like it one bit. But a well-rested William is crucial to a good start to first grade. So to bed he'll go. Reluctantly, I'm sure.

Wish us luck. We may need it.

This and That

2010-08-18T17:02:00.003-06:00

I wish I had something great and wonderful and fun to report, but alas, no.

Last weekend the boys (Jay, Henry and William) went camping with our ward. I don't camp so Tessa and I stayed home. I mentioned that maybe next year she could go camping too and she said, "I'd rather stay home with you." Sweet, but I was kind of looking forward to a few EveryoneButMomGoesCamping kind of trips.

William was sick (stomach bug) on Sunday. Henry ended up with it last night and today. Poor kid was up and down every hour or so for most of the night. He is better today - slight fever, but better. Unfortunately a tired Henry is a grumpy and mean Henry. He finally fell asleep on the couch a while ago. Thank goodness. Hopefully he'll wake up in a better mood. Now I'm just half-waiting for Tessa to start throwing up.

We had planned a fun picnic/park day today which had to be postponed. Tessa tried to talk me into getting a babysitter for Henry so she and William could still have a picnic. Way to throw your brother under the bus, Tessa!

School starts a week from tomorrow. Can I hear a Hallelujah? They are ready. I am ready. It'll be a good thing. We've bought new backpacks and a lunch box for William. I worry that he'll have a meltdown at school if he can't get his little straw into the Capri-Sun or juice box. These are the kinds of things we worry about with William.

Tessa is starting dance classes in two weeks. Her dance outfit is darling. I can't wait for her to start. She's also doing preschool three mornings a week. Next year she'll be in kindergarten. How did that happen?

Status Quo

2010-08-11T18:50:00.002-06:00

Henry had another doctor's appointment in Salt Lake City today. It went well. Henry's mood ranged from quiet and mopey (as we walked into the examining room) to chatty and giggly (once he found out that there would be no blood work required at this appointment). He did have a neck ultrasound but it was easy. Anything that doesn't require needles is considered easy in our house.

The neck ultrasound was good. Nothing suspicious looking, other than a leftover staple from his surgery. Did you know that they just leave those in there? Apparently they do.

Since his last thyroglobulin was low but still detectable, we can't call him Cancer Free yet. And according to the doctor it may be a while until we get there. We go back in December for more blood work and a CT scan on his chest (to check the spots that showed up last March, indicating lung metastases). Then we see the doctor again in February. It looks like we're in long-term monitoring mode - probably biannual blood tests with a yearly neck ultrasound, CT scan and doctor followup visits.

It's good. Not clear yet but about as positive as we can be right now. It's hard to believe we are only eight months out from his diagnosis; it seems longer. But he's good. So we're all good.

Forty-Two

2010-08-09T21:29:00.002-06:00

So I'm 42 today. I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, which is good. The hair continues to grow in gray - pretty soon I'll need to up my coloring appointments to every six weeks. I still have the laugh lines and little crows feet that have gradually crept up on me.

But I have a wonderful family and great friends who have made me feel cared for today. We had cake and I didn't have to cook dinner. It was a good day.

Water Party

2010-08-05T14:20:00.007-06:00

One of the things that I love about Henry's birthday is that it's easy. The party, I mean. It's summer. We invite a few boys his age over, they play outside, generally in some form of water, and they basically entertain themselves. Throw in some food, cake and snow cones (thanks to my good friend Melissa's snow cone machine) and you've got yourself a fun little party. At least I like to think so.

This year we decided to take things up a notch and rent a water slide for the kids to play on. Again, my good friend Melissa came through. She gave me the number of a woman who rents out their water slide. It came in a big rubber tote with a motorized fan to blow it up. Even without the instruction book, I managed to get it up and running in about 30 minutes. And judging from the exclamations of "this is awesome" coming from my backyard, the boys enjoyed themselves.

(Hmm. I don't know why our grass looks red in this picture. But really, it's green.)

The only thing that I didn't like about it was that it didn't get really firm like I thought it would so the kids had to be really careful when they got to the top - they couldn't touch the sides or it would list a bit to the side. They were good about taking turns and going up one at a time so it wasn't really an issue but still, I wish it wasn't so squishy.

The party was from 2-4 pm, so after Henry's friends left (most of them, anyway) I invited the other neighborhood kids over to play on it for a bit. They were all younger than Henry but I figured, why not? It was already up and running and everyone might as well enjoy it since we had it for the day. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

As for me, I sat on chair in the garage and monitored the festivities from the shade. Occasionally I called out "No jumping!" or "Be careful, boys!" but for the most part I stayed out of the way and let them have their fun.

It's too bad we can't do something like this for William's birthday. Unfortunately, December doesn't typically lend itself to outdoor activities around here, much less a big, blowup water slide. We'll have to think of something else.

Staycation

2010-08-01T18:39:00.005-06:00

A few months ago the kids started asking us where we were going on vacation this year. Last year we went to southern California. We saw my brother and his family and did all kinds of fun things, including the beach, Disneyland, and a Yankees game. Our plan was to do some kind of getaway with the kids every summer. Unfortunately our cash flow is a bit tied up in paying off some of Henry's medical bills so a big trip was out. We settled on a weekend trip to Salt Lake City. We stayed in a hotel and did all kinds of fun things there. We can categorize them as follows:

The Good

Temple Square - The kids loved walking through Temple Square and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We walked through the visitors centers and the gardens and had a nice time checking things out.

Boondocks - How can you go wrong, really, with mini golf, laser tag, bumper boats, go carts, batting cages, and arcade games. We spent about 4 hours there on Friday and the kids had a blast.

Despicable Me - We know we can see movies in Cache Valley, but it seemed like a fun, cool (as in not hot), inside thing to do when the temperature was hovering close to 100 and we had spent a few hours outside at Boondocks that day. The movie was cute. And did I mention that it was cool in the theater?

Mayan Adventure - This restaurant was really fun. The food was OK - nothing fabulous - but every so often there were cliff divers and fire dancers that kept everyone entertained.

Clarke Planetarium - We spent Saturday morning at Gateway and saw the IMAX movie "Under The Sea". It was really good and just what a 3-D movie should be. The exhibits in the planetarium kept us occupied for a while as well.

Utah State Capitol Building - The kids didn't want to browse through the new Deseret Book store so Jay took them up to the Capitol Building. They had a fun time checking out all the ins and outs.

The Bad

William's Fear of Heights - This manifested itself more often than you might think - walking up the rounded ramp to see the Christus at Temple Square, during mini-golf at Boondocks, dinner at the Mayan (we had an upstairs table right by the lagoon and William wouldn't even walk over to watch the divers), going up a level on the escalator at Gateway. For a kid whose favorite ride at Disneyland was Soarin Over California, which even freaked me out a little, he sure doesn't like anything that requires you to go UP.

Sleeping 5 to a Room - This really wasn't bad the second night, when we moved "I sleep like a log but move around a ton" William to the sleeping bag on the floor and let Henry and Tessa share the other bed. But having that many people in one room just made everything stuffy, so Jay and I kept waking up and throwing covers off because we were hot.

The Ugly

Chinese Gourmet - This place to eat (I hesitate to call it a restaurant) is on State Street about 45th South. We figured - buffet, Chinese, should work for everyone. Uh, no. Seriously, I don't ever think I've had a worse meal than this. It was terrible. The food was either tasteless or tasted horrible. Even the desserts were bad. The worse part was watching William shovel food in his mouth like he had never eaten anything so good. We finally made him stop eating because we were worried that he'd be sick. This will go down in history as the rare time that Jay makes a bad call regarding an eating establishment and why I was in charge of picking a place to eat on Friday night (see above, Mayan Adventure).

So there you have it. Staycation 2010. We'd do it all again, minus the trip to Chinese Gourmet of course.

Happy Birthday, Henry

2010-07-31T08:48:00.005-06:00

Henry is 9 today. This past year has certainly been interesting. He was baptized the day after his 8th birthday. He started 3rd grade and Cub Scouts. He went to Ute football games, Ute and Jazz basketball games, and Yankee baseball games. He played basketball, soccer, and baseball. He became interested in Star Wars and Harry Potter and all manner of books.

He also had a major surgery, two CT scans, a couple of whole body scans, a radioactive iodine treatment and multiple blood draws. He had a cancer diagnosis.

It's been quite a year.

He's a great kid and we love him so much. We're hopeful that this coming year will be the year we can say he is cancer free. Until then, he is going about his business. He's still reading Harry Potter, because I told him if he finished the entire series before the next movie comes out I'd take him to see it in the theater. He's looking forward to 4th grade and another year of Cub Scouts.

We are celebrating his birthday with a party on Monday for his friends. Today we're in Salt Lake City (we've been here since Thursday having fun) and we'll let him choose where we eat lunch. Hopefully he'll have a nice day.

Happy Birthday, Henry. We love you!

Raspberry Patch

2010-07-26T19:27:00.003-06:00

Our garden is finally coming in, slowly but surely. We had a very cool and wet spring so it's taken a while for the plants to really start growing and flourishing. This time last year we already had corn and onions and peppers and tomatoes - we're still a few weeks away on most of that stuff, although we've gotten a few little tomatoes and our lettuce and spinach did really well. I think our potatoes are a bust - again. They seem to be growing up, with big leafy tops. I thought one was a weed and pulled it up and, well, things aren't looking good. Everything else looks fine.

The raspberries are coming in well right now. The other day William and Tessa kept running out into the garden to pick and eat them. Tessa even took a bowl to gather some to share with Jay after work. We will have lots to freeze for cereal and oatmeal and smoothies this winter. If I feel adventurous, I might even attempt some jam.

Here is Tessa showing off a raspberry that she picked. You can see William in the back, right in the middle of all the raspberry plants. All of the big, green bushy area is raspberries.
William really, really loves to pick raspberries.

If anyone wants some raspberries, come on over. We seem to have lots this year. Just don't ask for potatoes. At those we've failed.

Happy Birthday, Jay

2010-07-22T13:43:00.003-06:00

Dear Jay,

Happy Birthday! Thanks for indulging your little family and enjoying the mini-birthday party that we had for you last night. We tried to come up with some gifts that you would enjoy and we are looking forward to the day when you break out the beignet mix from Cafe DuMonde and make us some yummy treats. We were all glad that you chose cupcakes for your birthday treat, since it allowed us to make another trip to Temptation Cupcake and everyone got to choose their favorite. Rhonda is also happy that there isn't leftover cake to tempt her for the rest of the week.

We're sorry that you spent most of your birthday on an airplane to New York City. It's no fun to have to be up and out the door before 6 am. We refuse to feel sorry for you, however, as you will be enjoying a Yankee game tonight. Catch a foul ball for us, eat a hot dog, and enjoy your birthday in style. We'll see you on Saturday.

We love you!
Rhonda, Henry, William, and Tessa