Monday, May 24, 2010

I’ll Give Marc Credit…He’s Always Right!

I was teasing Marc a little bit yesterday. I told him I'm impressed with his willingness to tell Frances that she’s right. Well, I’ll give Marc some credit here. Marc has been making a “Spring in Utah” prediction for about 15 years. And he’s never been wrong.

“Two things always happen in Utah in May…and everyone is always shocked! The Jazz lose in the playoffs, and it snows.”

The Jazz lost to the Lakers in the second round of the playoffs with an embarrassing 4-0 showing on May 10.

Today, May 24, it snowed. In fact, apparently this is the most measureable snow on the latest date in the season. Check out the news coverage story: “Late Spring Storm Surprises Utahns.” It didn’t surprise Marc!

Here’s how the snow progressed in our yard this morning:

Friday, May 21, 2010

Fun with Alice & Claire

As previously mentioned, Marc & Frances are enjoying a well-deserved vacation in Mexico this week. Alice & Claire are staying with Rara & Papa from Friday night to Wednesday morning, then going to stay with Frances’ mom until Marc & Frances get home on Saturday. We have had so much fun with them! Ryan and I have spent most of our time there. Ryan even had a sleepover Saturday night to Sunday, and helped the girls get ready for church on Sunday morning.Papa is still the bishop of a young adult ward (no nursery), so Alice & Claire came to our ward. Since it is the ward where their daddy grew up, friends and neighbors (and Marc’s former teachers and advisors, as well as the parents of his friends) LOVED seeing the girls! They were little superstars! They did great in the nursery, and were so good at sharing! Rara & I stayed in nursery with them. Of course, Alice spent a lot of her time on the horsey and playing ball, and Claire spent most of her time toting around several babies.We spent most of Sunday afternoon & evening at Rara’s & Papa’s, and helped put the girls to bed.

On Monday, I had work and Ryan had school. Rara & Papa took Alice & Claire to the park and to the Main Street Chalk Art Festival during the day.Ryan and I felt left out of the fun, so the minute we were both done with work and school, we were back with the girls. We took them to the park, and had a lot of fun there. They both love the swings, but especially Claire. She spent the ENTIRE TIME in her swing. She would tell me that Alice was on the slide. I would ask her if she wanted to go slide. She shook her little head and said, “No. Sfing.” A few minutes later, she would point out that Alice and Ryan were playing ball. “Do YOU want to go and play ball?” (Shakes head.) “No. Sfing.” Rara took a bottle of bubbles and blew those with Alice. Claire told me that Alice was blowing bubbles. “Do YOU want to go and blow bubbles?” (Vigorous head shaking.) “No. Sfing.”These next two tidbits are especially for Claire’s mommy & daddy, if they are reading the updates. She is developing quite the sense of humor! I guess she got a little annoyed with me asking her if she wanted to get off the swing so many times. She pretended to go to sleep. Actually, we had been in the swing for so long, it was kind of mesmerizing. I had to bend down to look at her little eyes to see if she really was asleep. When I bent down to look at her, she looked up at me and laughed and laughed. Apparently she thought it was really funny that she tricked me! Earlier in the day she helped Rara unload the dishwasher, and apparently took off with one of those plastic leaf plates. She played with it on the princess table and the floor for a while. When I got there, she had it on the floor, and was playing with it. Rara took Alice upstairs, and Claire SAT on the plate and started to spin around on it! I said, “Claire, we don’t sit on plates!” Her response? “Funny!” Yep, it was funny. I laughed pretty hard.

We miss having them around, and we’re excited to see them again on Sunday!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

The End of an Era?

Ryan has been less than enthusiastic about soccer this season. He has been playing well, scoring one or two goals every game. I think he has just explored so many other sports, and likes so many more than he does soccer, that it just hasn’t been the same. We decided a couple of months ago that we would not register for soccer for next year’s season. That made last Saturday, May 16, his last game.

Marc & Frances & Alice & Claire slept over Friday night at Rara’s & Papa’s. Marc & Frances left early Saturday morning for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. So Rara & Papa brought Alice & Claire to Ryan’s soccer game. As soon as they spotted Ryan, they started yelling, “RY-AH!!!” “Ball!” They were so fascinated with what Ryan was doing!The game was especially fun, since they played Ryan’s friend Zachary’s team. I had a lot of fun visiting with Zachary's mom. Ryan played very well, and scored two goals!When the game was over and Ryan came to the sidelines, the girls treated him like a celebrity! “RY-AH!!! RY-AH!!!” They both wanted him to hold them. They love Ryan so much! And Ryan is such a great “big cousin” and helper!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Mother's Day

We had such a fun Mother’s Day! Ryan and I ordered leis online from Hawaii for Rara and me to wear that day. We were going to get one for Frances, but Marc was concerned that either the girls would ruin it if she wore it, or that she wouldn’t wear it for fear that the girls would ruin it. The place where we got the leis also sells stems of orchids, so I bought a few (and a beautiful vase from Michael’s) and made a beautiful arrangement for Frances so she could still enjoy some Hawaiian flowers on Mother’s Day.After church, we enjoyed a great dinner at Rara’s and Papa’s. Marc & Frances & the girls got there before we did, and took some darling pictures of Frances and the girls.And here’s the group photo of the moms and their kiddos (except Rara’s other kiddo, who wasn’t thrilled to participate).Even though I was still feeling pretty yucky (obviously…look at the picture), we had a fun day!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I Didn't Knock on Wood!

I should have known. When I was so miserable a few weeks ago, and discussed my past bronchitis and pneumonia issues, I should have known that it was more than a cold. It’s bronchitis. Since I wrote that post, I’ve been to the doctor (twice) trying to get this taken care of. I’m finally starting to feel better, but it has been extremely frustrating to be so sick for so long, especially with so much I have to do!

Since I’m feeling better, I’ll get caught up with some posts from the past few days. But I wanted to add an update on my obnoxious illness.

Monday, May 3, 2010

I Promise...To Do My Duty

I have not been sick for a really long time. For those of you who have known me longer than a few years, you know how amazing that statement is. I had bacterial spinal meningitis about 17 years ago, and my immune system went bonkers. I caught every cold, flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia that came my way. Even after extended treatments of Vitamin B12 and Gamma Globulin shots, it took a while to get to the point that I could fight things off. So, I really haven’t been sick for a few months. I’m making up for it now. I have had some nasty thing for over a week. I cough uncontrollably, have no voice (tough when I talk all day for work), and have had a horrible time sleeping. I actually even called in sick to work on Friday. As several people have said, you know you’re really sick when you WORK FROM HOME and call in sick! Here’s the real crazy part – today I was driving to do my carpool duties and coughed so hard that I seriously pulled a muscle in my neck! So now it not only hurts my ribs and chest when I cough, it hurts my neck and shoulders! I’m ready to hear some good home remedy ideas for uncontrollable coughing. Please share!

I’ve been trying to stay in as much as possible the past week. But Saturday, it was impossible. We had the baptism of our good friend, Abby. Abby & her parents are some of our best friends. We couldn’t miss their special day. Kristin (Abby’s mom) was sick, too, and her voice sounded a lot like mine. So we hung out together, and I didn’t feel so bad. Ryan & Abby had fun at the luncheon playing with Ryan’s new iPod Touch.
We went home & changed our clothes, then headed for Scout-o-Rama. Our pack does a booth every year, and Ryan and I had committed to the last hour of working the booth, and then taking it down. On the way there (a 35 minute drive) I told Ryan that I wished he could drive so I could nap! We spent a little bit of time walking around the different booths. Many of the booths offered the requirements to earn belt loops, but Ryan had already earned everything that we saw available. So he hit all of the sports booths, of course. He had fun shooting a variety of guns (including rubber band) and bows (including a marshmallow cross bow) and golf.
There was a basketball booth with a very long line. But he wanted to do it. As we stood in line, a teenager and his dad were in line ahead of us. They were trash-talking each other about who would make the most shots. The son went first. He only made about 3 or 4 out of his 10 tries. The dad had a lot of fun with that, but then only made about 5 or 6 out of his 10 tries (after saying, “Let me show you how it’s done.”). They left. Ryan was next. He made his first six shots IN A ROW!!! He missed his 7th shot. He then made his last three shots! I kept thinking how much I wished that the teenager and his dad had stuck around so Ryan could “show them how it’s done.” The man running the booth was amazed! He said that Ryan had BY FAR the longest streak and the highest number of shots for the whole day.
Ryan and I went to our pack’s booth (the Science belt loop and Ooblek) and had a lot of fun working our hour. We have done this for a few years, so Ryan was an old pro. He even let me sit down a couple of times to rest.
Even though I didn’t feel well all day, Ryan and I had fun together. And, as with all good scouts, we followed through with our promise to do our duty.
I have to add that when we got home at the end of the day, someone had mowed our lawn! I assumed it was my dad, but when I called him to thank him, he said it wasn't him. So...whichever neighbor or friend took the time to do that for us, THANK YOU!!! I hope Copper let you mow the back without freaking out. Thank you so much. It meant a lot to us that someone would take the time to do that for us!