Carson's rocket

 

The 6th grade makes a rocket every year and shoot them off. Carson has been so excited, for about 5 weeks solid he has drawn designs, put it together, changes this or that. It seemed like every minute of everyday he had that rocket at the table adjusting something or another.

 

He had me come to when they set it off. It must have been a big deal because I was one of the only parents there and once I got there his teacher had him do his. Everyone in 6th grade said hello and seemed excited to see me. It seemed like I was everyone' audience.

 

The first attempt something went wrong, it just flopped over. I think Carson was so devastated. I was sad for him because Carson had worked so hard and part of their grade is if it will lift off, and everyone only gets 1 try. His teacher, Mr. Brough explained that something went wrong with the compressor. The second time Carson's rocket flew really, really high. I don't know for sure how they could tell, but I thought his flew the highest. His teacher said the one before flew just a bit higher. I'm sure it is just mother prejudice, but I thought his flew higher. But Carson's rocket separated and his parachute deployed the best. Most of the ones that flew high didn't have their parachute deploy.

 

When they were done the teacher said anyone who's parent came gets to launch theirs again, which was only Carson by that time. His 2nd time it even went higher. It was fun to see all the kids come up and congratulate him. Carson was walking on air and so excited.

 

It's my own fault

I love to search around my friends blogs and see what they have written and am always so excited when they have. People haven't been blogging as often as my fix demands and I get so excited when I see a new post. I should respond more often when they post things and I was thinking that probably for that reason and the fact that I don't blog very often I really don't have an excuse to complain so I am going to do better. (hahaha, at least that is what I'm telling myself).
We have been crazy busy and I have a self-imposed deadline of having the house done by the time to kids go back to school . . . well they go back on MONDAY, like in 4.5 days!!! UGH, where did the time go. Actually I know where some of the time went, driving kids to work and to the park for lunch and laundry and dishes.
Now that I've come up and got a little frustration out I can go back down and wash more wall-paper off the walls so I can finally paint Carson and Heber's room. They picked green and silver (they weren't trying to pick Slytherin colors, even though upsetting Taft is a happy by-product for them).

BJ's senior year

I lost my mom when BJ was 3 and since then I have had huge pressure (self imposed) to make sure that I have the house done, letters and memories and scrap-books for my kids done and to be prepared just in case.
I haven't finished hardly anything and here I sit with my baby about to turn 18, his senior year and as he likes to remind me "depending on what happens after my mission, this could be my last summer at home, my last birthday at home, my last 4th of July (fill in the blank).
I am so not ready and don't have things the way I would like them and I'm out of time. We went to get his senior pictures taken.
None of my kids like their picture taken and they aren't very good at it. The last time I took them to get their pictures done was when Heber was a baby, it was such a disaster I had to drag all 5 of them out of there fighting, crying and screaming (the boys, that is).
BJ and I had a such great time together, just the 2 of us.
While BJ was getting his picture taken he would look at me each time they snapped a picture and I kept thinking that for the rest of my life when I see these pictures I am going to know that while he was looking ahead to the future he was also looking at me. It was my own personal feeling. He had his picture taken in about 6 different rooms and in a few different outfits. In between each room we would have to go back into the waiting room. While we were there we would talk about all sort of different things and how bored he was.
By the time he went into the final room which he put on a cap and gown I was gone into my own little space of thinking of my mom, thinking of my memories and thinking of him as a little boy. I was very discreet and he was none the wiser but as he put on his cap and gown I just bawled. No one saw and I was very careful not to embarrass him (although I may have because I snapped a few of my own pictures) but I'm so not ready for my babies to grow up.
That being said, I am very proud of them. I am very proud of BJ. He is his own man. He sometimes is difficult because he knows what he wants and doesn't succumb to pressure, but in some ways that is a good thing. He has really matured and is very good with little kids. He knows what he wants out of life (which I am sure will change and mature).
Now if I could just get him to work on his hand-writing, not being the biggest procrastinator and clean his room it would be great.
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR SENIOR YEAR BJ . . . I LOVE YOU!!
The greatest thing in the world is to be a mom.
Now I need to really get busy on finishing the house and scrap-booking and not being a procrastinator myself (I wonder where he gets it from?!?!)

My helper Ammon

Thanksgiving was awesome this year. All the boys had a different assignment and we were all making different things. I had Ammon help by taking some pictures since I was really busy going from person to person helping. It wasn't until the next day that I looked at the pictures he took. There was one of me that is hideous, one of Bill that was a little better but then tons and tons of up close pictures of food. mostly food in the preparation state not even done . . .

 
 
 
 

. . . and one very important picture of himself. A self portrait.

my little boys think they are big boys

The problem with having a big span of kids is that the little boys get exposed to things much earlier then the older boys do. They have good examples for the most part, but they do enjoy all the movies the older boys do. I think that other kids their age would be scared by Harry Potter for example, but they love it.
Our family really enjoys watching Hawaii 5-0.



It is on Monday and because of Family Home Evening we don't watch it until a later day. It is Carson and Heber's favorite show. They were playing police today and I asked them if they were Hawaii 5-0 and who was "Dan-o and who was Steve" they both informed me that they were on a "swat-team" not "HPD" or the "5-0 group" but if they were in 5-0 Heber would be Dan and Carson would be Steve minus the tattoos and they wouldn't be swearing.


So even though they are way too grown-up at least they pay attention in family home evening.
I love being a mom!!

A pile of mushy goo

Bill has been doing very good on his diet and exercise. I'm really proud of him. We don't have enough to buy new suits so we need to hit the lottery, he needs to be released or I need to learn how to tailor suits (right now I don't see any of those things happening).


I have NOT been on a diet or an exercise routine, but as a side effect of Bill's efforts and turning things down and being more active I have lost about 10 pounds. You CANNOT see it. We all went to the pumpkin patch last week with my in-laws and I was in some pants that haven't fit for a while, feeling rather good about myself and WHAM I download the pictures and UGH I look just as terrible as always.



Anyway, this morning was my big plan. I ran all the car-pool kids around; 9 different kids, 4 different schools, 8 trips (you do the math, it doesn't quite add up but forgotten lunch money etc makes up for the extra) and afterwords I headed for the gym.

This is my first trip to the gym in a long time (probably a first by myself).
I began with a lesson in technology, I first had to learn how to request a machine and guess how much time I would use said machine, there wasn't a button for out of shape have no idea what I'm doing or how long I will last before I fall on my face.

I selected 15 minutes thinking that would give me enough time to learn how to work the machine. I tried for almost 10 of those minutes to get it to turn on when Miss Perky Gallore next to me showed me how, I think she set it for Schwarzenegger mode and I began. I lasted 3 minutes and 41 seconds including my cool down period which consisted of trying to turn the machine off because Miss Perky had left the building and trying to locate something to wipe down the machine while Mr. Big muscles waited impatiently.

I headed to the pool and swam 1 lap, midpoint I realized I was in the deep water which normally wouldn't worry me, but since I couldn't breath and felt like my heart was swimming a few lengths ahead of me I thought I might drown.

I started singing the "Dory" song just keep swimming and finished. Bobbed in the water for what seemed like forever and swam back. I could probably swim better if I put my face in the water but I have to take a deep breath to shower and just can't put my face it so I tried the back stroke and made it back to the other side. Sat in the hot tub for a bit and then finished up with a total of 6 laps, showered and took my tomato face out of there.

I was way too hot and sweaty to put my shoes on (I'm not a fan of shoes and my feet are claustrophobic) so I walked out in the freezing rain to my car, which was parked about a million miles away.

I didn't realize there were a ton of other moms that hit the gym after dropping their kids off at school. By the time I got to the car my feet felt like they had frostbite.

If anyone needs anything I will be the pile of mushy goo laying on the floor with a bright red face.

Sometimes over confidence doesn't pay off

Ever since I have know Bill and his family they have talked about the time that Bill's mom made a mixture of flour and water to make Bill and his friend Mike a mummy. Bill's mom was so worried at the time that she had caused permanent wrinkles in Mike. She would laugh about it.
Saturday because we are in such a huge mess at our house trying to finish the basement I couldn't find our Halloween costume box anywhere. I even ventured up in the attic, which is something I've never done. It was no where to be found and Carson and Heber had a Halloween party. Carson isn't easily swayed to something he has his heart set on and wasn't having the old stand-by "sports fan" and didn't like my idea of going as "smiley-boy" so I jumped right in.


I ripped apart an old table cloth and while Bill wrapped him all up I made a mixture of flour and water. He looked great and was really happy with it.

Heber went as Batman (the last year that costume is going to fit anyone, he practically had to be poured into it).



They had a great time, but Carson had a fake smile on his face and seemed a little distraught. Once I started questioning him I discovered why. Without moving his lips or unblinking at all he said he couldn't move his face at all. He hadn't been able to blink at all in the 3 hours he was at the party and could only eat part of a piece of pizza and when he drank it ran down his mouth because he couldn't move his mouth.


I'm sure the neighbors are going to turn me in for child abuse. He had to take a long bath to get it off and his face was red for the rest of the night. I should probably do research before I try out something I just heard about.
He sure looked cute though.