My First Virtual Game of Tag

My friend Nat tagged me to take this quiz on her blog. justphatnat.blogspot.com Cool! I feel popular! (she is one of 3 people who actually read this blog) So, without further adieu...

List three joys-
1. My family- when we are all laying around, laughing our heads off and everything is clicking. Or when I see them commit random acts of kindness toward one another--there's nothing better than that.
2. Reading an amazingly clever, funny, thought-provoking, hopeful book. (I ADORE Holes)
3. Pondering spiritual things.

Three fears-
1. Worms. Don't laugh. I read once that fear of sliminess is in our DNA. Who am I to fight things larger than myself (or, uh, maybe smaller in this case)?
2. Diving in deep water. Stuart and I decided we could really rock on The Amazing Race, because he's afraid of heights, and I love them, and I'm afraid of deep watery stuff, and he loves that. We've got all those challenges covered! (except maybe gross food...)
3. That ABC will cancel Lost before I understand what the heck that island is supposed to be.

Three goals-
1. Love Exercising!
2. Write something I'm proud of and send it to a publisher.
3. Shift from the G chord, to the C chord to the D chord on my Banjo without stopping.

Three obsessions/collections-
1. I buy a charm for my charm bracelet every time I travel.
2. I collect extra pounds on my body in strategic locations.
3. I'm obsessed with all those Characters on the USA network.

Three random facts
1. I love NPR but I don't become a member.
2. My dream job is to write for a clean, off-kilter show like The Fairly Odd-Parents, or VeggiTales, or The Muppets.
3. We should not eat dirt.

There you go. The deep inner workings of my mind. I think I will be tagging Erin and Heidi next, and my niece Hannah.

What do you do when YOU'RE happy?

This morning, Kendall and I were sitting at the kitchen island, eating our bowls of Special K with Berries for breakfast. We are crunching in silence, when all of sudden she reaches out with her fist and punches the box of cereal. I kind of did a double take. That's not really typical Kendall behavior. One of the boys at her age? Absolutely! But a little off center for her.

She doesn't even react, just keeps on chewing. I go back to my chewing, but a few seconds later she does it again. One quick, but lethal jab to the cereal box that sends it teetering , but remarkably, doesn't knock it over. At this point I can't stay quiet anymore, especially because I am almost spewing cereal all over the counter during an uncontrollable explosion of laughter.

"Kendall," I ask, "What on earth are you doing?"

She comes out of a trance of sorts and says, "Oh. I was singing 'If you're happy and you know it' in my head, and after I did 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands,' I thought I'd do 'If you're happy and you know it, Punch the Cereal.'

Now that I think back, it WAS a very rhythmic punching of the cereal box.

A few minutes later, she picks up the half full milk jug and shakes it vigorously--once, and then a few seconds later, twice. LOL

I'm thinking that tomorrow I need to make something a little more interesting. Who knows what she could do with a waffle iron or a 4-slot toaster!

Bright Lights, Big Fun

How many moms get asked to go to New York City with their 15 year old sons? It's kind of like the question "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?" The world may never know. I do know, however, that MY 15 year old asked ME to go, and we had the BEST time. Seriously, it was like magic.


We saw an "for real" Egyptian temple, complete with engraved graffiti provided by Napoleon's soldiers. And here is Colin and his friend Evelyn walkin' like Egyptians at the Met.

We had a "jolly holiday" with Mary Poppins.

And hung out with Lady Liberty.

She's quite a photogenic statue, don't ya think?

The Art of Avoidance

There are many things for which I strive for excellence. There is one, however, which requires no effort on my part. I was born a genius--a prodigy--an artistic savant--and that is in the Art of Avoidance. Usually, my skill shows up in mundane tasks. I really don't want to clean out the fridge, so I do 4 loads of laundry. I don't want to wash particularly nasty dishes, so I weed the front beds. It's not really a conscience act--I just find that suddenly I am completing the alternate task. This last week, I've discovered another arena that puts my avoiding into overdrive--the nastiness of life.

When difficult things happen, my sweet sister blogs them in eloquent detail and feels so much better for the effort. Note the following blog entry: Tender Mercies. When difficulties rage in my life, I do anything but face them by writing them down. My mom is in the hospital recovering from a severe case of bacterial spinal meningitis (I know that is spelled correctly because I've googled it many times in the last week). She lay in the ICU for seven days in a coma, while we waited for her to wake up. She spent the next three in a highly confused state, having hallucinations and delusions. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than waiting in a hospital for ANYTHING to happen, and waiting for anyone on staff to tell you something besides "We Don't Know." On the other hand, there have been many blessings along the way, starting with my dad flying down to Arizona the night before my mom was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance (the subject of Jen's blog entry). You'd think with my love of writing, that somehow I would feel better journaling the experience, but I can't believe the repulsion I feel to writing while I am in the midst of it all. I think I must put up a huge wall, trying to protect myself from fear and sorrow.

It isn't until the experience is approaching the end that I finally decide to write the account in its entirety.

It's been 12 days with my mom, and I think I finally feel safe looking back on what has happened. She's awake, out of ICU, back to a somewhat-normal mental state, and maybe coming off the feeding tube tomorrow. What a relief. A huge relief.

I've learned so much about faith, hope, and the invaluable relationships I have with family and friends. My family is truly blessed. I've also learned how to deal with doctors and hospitals, but this last lesson is one I hope I never have to use again in real life.

No Longer an Outcast

At 15 1/2, Colin feels that we are parents from the stone age, or another planet, because we have not included him in the family cell phone plan. We explained that because all his friends HAVE cell phones, we could always reach him, but he didn't seem to enjoy that bit 'o' logic very much. Still, we thought 16 was a good age from driving and cell phones (I know, I know, why don't we just give him a beer with those keys and send him on his way...) Anyway, we finally made him a deal: Straight A's at the semester would get him a cell phone 6 months early. Guess what! He did it!!! We are totally excited and just got him the coolest phone, a Sony Ericsson Walkman 580i, with an MP3 player, a 2mg camera as seen above (AND, I saved $30 by purchasing online). Of course I thought that would take care of the problem, but oh, how naive I can be. As soon as we started discussing phones for Colin, Kendall started in on ALL the reasons she needed a phone at 10 years old. And then Colin jumped in about all the reasons she had to wait til she was 16 or the entire universe would be sent topsy-turvy, and the "It's Not Fair" gods would be angered and chaos would reign supreme. Kendall just smiles and tells her friends about the phone she's going to get in "6th grade" when the boys are both gone. I hate to break it to Colin, but she's probably right. Hopefully, by then, there will be some other awesome techno-gadget he'll want and he won't notice the horrible injustice in his life.

We're Going to College!!!

Kyle got 2 coolio emails today--one from BYU and one from BYU-Idaho. Both say that he is accepted!!! Now we just have to hear back from the Music Schools for each one, and the scholarship committees, and then Kyle's got a decision to make. And to think...I knew him back when he was just a Cougar Cub...11 months old...wearing a Ty Detmer jersey to the Miami game with mom and dad...sucking on a football shaped bottle. Look out Ty, there's a new dude in da' house!

Whoa...Two in One Day

Most people have given up on me ever posting, so most people probably won't even know this happened until groundhog day. Still, I was reading my friend Erin's blog, A Blog Named Betty, and she shared a stream-of-consciousness moment with her daughter. It reminded me of one recently, so I thought I would share.

We were eating soup, which had alien looking mushrooms in it.

DD: What are those weird things?

Me: Mushrooms--just try them, they taste kind of like meat.

DD: So, you know, there was this time when we were mad at Japan, and this thing fell and blew them all up.

Me: Huh? What thing?

DD: You know, that thing that blew everybody up--an atom bomb.

Me: What does that have to do with soup?

DD: It looks like a mushroom.

Me: Ahhhhhhh