Cool enough?

Today is "church day." Carter is wearing a really cute blue dress shirt with little pictures of pirate skull and crossbones. As you notice, he is miserable. Apparently, the shirt is, as he put it, "not cool enough for me." The pirate pictures are, "not big enough and it doesn't even glow in the dark or anything." The pants are torture because he "hates the button". He did keep the clothes on, but is currently wearing bright blue crocs with his church outfit. They were the only things cool enough for him.

I am months behind on any posting. I think that is a good sign though. Being too busy living to write about it seems like a life well-spent.

In May we went to Hawaii. While there, we visited Pearl Harbor. It would be a lie to sa Carter enjoyed it. He LOVED it. Interestingly, he didn't love it in a "let me be an army man" sort of way, but he seemed to have a quiet reverence about it. I think this is, in part, due to the fact that he experienced it with Gil. Gil has a way of making history feel very real and special to Carter. For that I am thankful.

On Memorial Day (AKA Decoration Day) we drove to the Midway Cemetery. Carter instantly noticed that there were flags on the many of the markers. We told him that the flags signified the graves of soldiers. Upon learning this news, Carter begged to walk through the cemetery and learn the names of every soldier. At first I was irritated. It was late and cold and all I wanted to do was stop at the family plot and show our respects. As usual, Carter persisted. "Mommy, I want to know the name of those soldiers!" At that moment, Jeff and I both realized that Carter had the spirit of Memorial Day that we were both missing. He didn't want to look at flowers or decorations. He didn't want to comment on how beautiful the cemetery looked, he wanted to learn about the people who were there. What greater respect is there, than to take the time to learn the names of the men we never met, who sacrificed so much to serve our country and their families? We didn't see every marker that day, and we didn't spent as much time at our family's resting spot as we had planned. Somehow though, I don't think they minded. A four year old and his parents learned the names of a few of our country's heroes. I think it was the best Memorial Day I've ever spent.

Princess Gloves

I used to be a princess. As in, I was the kind of girl I pray my boys don't marry. I did nothing. I didn't shovel snow. I didn't work in the yard. I didn't do a whole lot around the house. I know I didn't help with the sprinklers or fill trenches at the last house. I would remember that kind of torture. I'm not sure when it happened, but my gig is up. It happened slowly, over several years. So slowly, in fact,that I was unaware what I was giving up. I asked Jeff why it ended and his simple reply was, "well, you actually started helping." hmmmmmm..... Usually I'm grateful to have traded my princess gloves for work gloves, but after a week of working in the yard every day, I find myself wishing for my princess days. Here are I few things I've learned this week:

1. Don't pick a rock pit as the spot for your gardens
2. Rocks will torture us for the rest of our lives.
3. Wheelbarrows (especially cheap plastic ones) are really hard to drive when they are full.
4. It REALLY sucks when you tip over your wheelbarrow of rocks.
5. Ash and Mike are lifesavers!
6. Spike at Grandma's = MUCH more work accomplished.
7. After your 4th trip to the nursery in 3 days, with two wild kids, they start giving you free things....just so you will leave.
8. Double what you think a project will cost...you might be close.
9. No matter how much RAID you spray, the damn ants will still steal your seeds after you plant them.
10. If you work outside long enough, you WILL see HUGE spiders and have to be brave. I've killed the biggest spiders I've ever seen this week.
11. Having the fence installed to contain Spike is money well spent.
12. Backing a 4 wheeler trailer is harder than it looks. (I know, I suck)
13. Having Carter bring me a drink of water, all by himself, because "mommy, you look firsty" makes the water taste extra sweet.
14. Watching little boys play diggers in the piles of dirt, makes all the work seem worthwhile!

Post-it

So this is not really a post...more of a post-it note. Carter was sick this weekend and this is how it went down. He entered my room about 6:00 AM, looked at me with a total "deer in the headlights/panicked face" and yelled, "Mom, I don't think I'm healffee (Healthy)," and then he threw up. It cracked me up. Only Carter would announce sickness in that way.

In other news, Spike is now obsessed with monster trucks. He asks for "ucks.." (trucks) as soon as he wakes up in the morning. Between reading the monster truck program, watching Monster Jam recordings, and sending his trucks down the slide, he has as full schedule. As a note, Carter has had the same Gravedigger monster truck for the last three years. It was in perfect condition. Until this week when Spike started playing with it. It now has lost the body and has a bent axle. Go Spike.

Yay for Me

This weekend I did something I never thought I would do. I ran/walked the SLC Half Marathon. I have never been an athlete. I have never been a runner. I have been thin before, but I have never been strong. Probably my most vivid memory of high school (I don't have many...most of high school I have blocked) was knowing that my death was almost certain as I tried to complete the 16 minute mile for Coach Stuart's PE class. I barely made it...like by seconds...and I can honestly say it was one of the worst experiences of my life. Last May I started a Mommy and Me stroller class and was so tired I had to lie down on the cement because I again thought I was going to die. Both experiences sucked.

In honor of turning 30, I decided this year was the year to change all that. I started "running" for the first time in my life in October and have slowly worked my way up. My only goal for the race was to finish and to hopefully not be miserable during the process. I have tolerated my training runs, but I haven't ever enjoyed them. So, imagine my suprise, when I couldn't stop smiling through the race. I LOVED it! I achieved my goal of finishing and enjoying the race, Two days later my legs feel good and I'm mobile. My time wasn't great, but I've come a long way from the 18 year old who nearly died of exhaustion on the streets of Randolph. Yay for me!

The picture above is of Jeff, me and my friend Janelle. Janelle is an inspiration as I don't think she has missed a workout in years. I'm glad to have her to motivate me! Thank goodness for peer pressure!

Cow Part II

I was hoping the cow was a joke. I was hoping it, like so many other big ideas, would not come to fruition. I wish this was an April Fools Day joke. It is not. There is a cow in the corral. It's name is Dinner. Carter calls it a "steak cow" and is counting the days until we can kill it. Jeff and I have tried to be gentle about the eventual demise of the cow. Jeff suggested that it would go to a place, where it would "put it to sleep" and they'd turn it into meat. Carter's reply was, "that won't work, they need sharp things." He then asked when we would "shoot it". If you ask him now, "we are trying to see if we can keep it alive until Thanksgiving and then we'll turn it into steak. I love steak so much." Good for Carter. I, on the other hand, am not sure I'll ever be able to eat steak again.

Ewwww

What a week. It began with our washer having a meltdown. Suffice to say there was a flood, some swearing, a call to the repair place (who couldn't fit me into their schedule for 2.5 days...WHAT!!!), more swearing, and then Jeff came home. Thank goodness for Jeff, who insisted on working on it until late that night and getting it fixed. THANK GOODNESS...because at 5:30AM the next morning I heard the sound all parents dread, the sound of your child vomiting. I'm not going into the details, but let's just say it was bad...really, really bad. I washed everything we own on the sanitary cycle. I sprayed Lysol everywhere, multiple times. We washed and "Germ X'd" our hands until they were raw. Carter recovered and we all seemed well. We saw the much anticipated Monsters vs. Aliens. We visited friends and family. It seemed we had stopped the spread of the disease. Nope, it was not to be. Six days later Spike and I and woke up feeling, let's say, less than ideal. Cindy called, she was sick and praying for her death. Gil had to come home from work to help the lot of us. What a mess. The laundry/lysol/cleaning continues...Apparently though, there is a silver lining. Jeff told me to be thankful, I "got a cleanse that people pay hundreds of dollars for for free." I will remind him of that if, and when he gets sick.