Psycho Toilet

Last night Jonathan was invited to solo with the Wasatch Chorale during one of their pieces.  They sang the Rutter arrangement of When the Saints Go Marching In and Jonathan played some Dixieland while the choir sang their part.  It was fun!  Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to record it.  However, I do have a video to share... Before going in for the concert, I had to use the bathroom.  Sparing all unnecessary details, I flushed the toilet and was astonished.  So astonished that I flushed a second (and third) time to video the event.  Holy Waste Water!  It went on and on and on...

District Science Fair

Jonathan entered his school science fair with a project exploring the plant biodiversity in the field behind our house and how the diversity was correlated with soil pH.  His entry was selected for the district science fair, which was last Thursday, the same night as everything else.  Jonathan missed Nolan's Eagle Court because of the Science Fair.  As soon as the Eagle Court finished, Dan went to the Science Fair to see Jonathan.  Jonathan was happy because his entry was selected for the next round- the Central Utah Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held next month at BYU.  Way to go Jonathan!

Eagle Court of Honor

Nolan earned the rank of Eagle back in August, but we finally was awarded his Eagle last week at his Court of Honor..  When I asked Nolan what kind of an Eagle Court he wanted, he decided he wanted to have a bald eagle brought in.  Since that is what we did for Jonathan, I knew how to plan this event.  I called SkyKing birds and Debby came with their new bald eagle, Freedom, to do a presentation.  Nolan's Eagle Court was Freedom's 6th or 7th public appearance.  The bird was injured a few years ago and lived with a rehabilitater for a year before residing with SkyKing.  SkyKing has had Freedom for a year and has just recently started bringing him out in public.  Most of the time, Freedom was well behaved, but a few times, he tried to escape and fly off (which doesn't work well when tethered to his handler).  After the presentation, Nolan was presented his Eagle Scout award and he took the Eagle Charge.  The evening concluded with remarks from one of his leaders, Hugo Parra, and cake.  It was a good evening for Nolan. 

Debby and Freedom

Freedom

Nolan and Paul Thorley

Eagle Charge

Nolan and Russ Stay

Freedom seeking freedom

A Favorite

Dan puts Miles to bed.  He gives Miles a bath, does the jammies, brushes the teeth, and reads the stories.  I go in after their ritual and give Miles a kiss and leave.  The other night, I caught the sweetest picture of the two of them.  Miles loves story time and loves his Daddy.

Whoa! Posting Drought!

Well, I've had a busy last while.  It's catch up time.  My parents have been here for the past week, and at the end of the day, I've been too tired to post.  They came primarily for Nolan's Eagle Court of Honor, which will get its own post shortly, but they have been busy installing flooring at my sister's house, skiing, visiting, etc.  Last Thursday was the craziest-

• Miles School- 9 a.m.
• Last minute Court of Honor errands- 9-10 a.m.
• Blue and Gold Decorating- 10 a.m.
• Get Miles off the bus- 12 p.m.
• Set up for the Eagle Court of Honor- 12:30-2 p.m.
• Drive Junior High carpool- 2:15 p.m.
• Garage Door Man appointment- 2:30
• Parent Teacher Conferences at Oak Canyon- 3-6 p.m.
• Blue and Gold Banquet- 6 p.m.
• Eagle Court of Honor- 7 p.m.
• District Science Fair- 8 p.m.

That day killed me and I'm just now ready to play catch up on what's been going on.

I am SO Not Perfect...

Today was a work day- a cleaning out closets and taking carp to DI day; an attacking the massive mountain of laundry day; a dealing with the basement day.  Yuck-beyond-all-yucks to the basement.  Undeniably, I've been really bad at putting things away downstairs.  I rarely go downstairs so I generally don't care how it looks, but even I couldn't ignore the mess any longer.  I bucked up, set a stopwatch and got to work.  In my disaster were Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving decorations, sewing stuff, food storage, and all sorts of random things.  It was quite a task, but 1:53:34.3 later, I finished.  The basement pit went from this

to this:

Such an improvement.  Dare I say, "Never again will I let stuff get so out of control"?  Maybe; but past history indicates that perfection in this area will be long in coming.

M-I-L-E-S

After getting my Valentine's gift from Miles, I wanted to see him write his name.  I got him a piece of paper and a marker and asked him to write "Miles".  He happily complied. 

Gotta work on that pencil grip and those curvy letters!

Valentine's Day

Happy day of love, flowers, candy, over-crowded restaurants, and commercialism.  May the day be everything you ever dreamed of.  Happy Singles Awareness Day to those whom that applies as well (although the specific date of this "calendar holiday" varies; internet sources indicate that this holiday is celebrated between February 13-15, depending on who you ask).  I've always like the idea of Valentine's Day more than actually celebrating the day.  In all reality, today is just another Thursday, filled with getting the kids ready, school, clutter attacking, music lessons, nagging, etc, with a small token of "I  Love You"- it's a book-and-treat year for all. 

I did get an awesome present from Miles.  Recently his schoolwork has come home with writing on it that has made me wonder if Miles is doing the writing, line tracing, picture matching, etc. by himself.  Last year (and the first half of this school year) the letters and lines on his schoolwork have been dark and fairly "correct", and the works "with help" or "hand over hand" were written across the top of the paper; but more and more I've noticed that those words aren't on the paper and the "writing" is much fainter and squigglier (wow, that's actually a word!).  Today I got a card that Miles signed himself.  100% by himself, as witnessed by Dan.  His letters are very shaky, formed incorrectly, and variable in size, but I love it!  Using a bit of imagination, you should be able to see his name...

Those curvy letters are so tricky!

So Incredibly Picky

Miles' eating is a nightmare.  He will eat only a few "foods" and isn't willing to try new things.  A few years ago I tried the "5 bite-sized meals a day and introducing new foods daily plan", and it had a few successes.  Then life got in the way and I found the program personally taxing, so I stopped it.  Perhaps it needs to return...

Saturday was a crazy day.  Jonathan had to be in Sandy at 8:30 a.m. for his UWSYE rehearsal.  It was a snowy day so he wasn't allowed to drive.  Dan and Nolan dropped Jonathan off at Jordan High, then headed up to ski.  Jonathan finished his rehearsal at 10:30, but had his school of music audition at the U at 2:50; I wasn't about to go get him then take him back to SLC, so I gave him Trax fare and sent him up to SLC to kill time.  He went to the Leonardo museum, then up to the U for his audition (which went fabulously; he's already heard back from the School of Music and has been accepted as a music minor and is encouraged to be a major- which isn't his current plan).  After the audition, Jonathan got back on Trax, and Miles and I picked him in Sandy.  Jonathan informed me he was starving so I took him to his favorite place to eat--- Sweet Tomatoes, and the skiers met up with us there.

Sweet Tomatoes, while it is not on my list of places I'd choose to eat, has tons of food choices.  I figured that Miles would find a few things to eat.  I got him a tray and put bits of lots of things on it- lettuce, cucumber, carrot, celery, green pepper, mushroom, noodle, raisin, crouton. I got him a blueberry muffin, a brownie, and a rectangle of pizza; I got him a bite of mac & cheese.  I got him a blob of chocolate pudding and a square of blue Jell-o.  He had a sip of milk and no food.  Eventually, I got him a mini-frozen yogurt cone of which he ate most of the yogurt.  I went back to get him a second cone when I spied something I knew he'd eat.  I got bowl and put several scoops of sprinkles in it.  He eyed me suspiciously as I handed him the bowl.  After peering inside, he happily grabbed a spoon and got eating...

Snipets of Thoughts and Things

Jonathan's acceptance to Oregon State came yesterday.  I'm not sure what his fascination with that school is, but unless a huge scholarship is offered, he's not going... that out of state tuition, ouch!

Lately I've been thinking about being a mom.  The best thing about being a mom is that no matter how much I fail at it one day, I get to try again the next day.  That's also the worst part.

Jonathan isn't practicing his clarinet much; I wonder why... He auditions for a U of U music scholarship tomorrow.

This week I've had a couple of opportunities to "be still"; meaning I had things on my check-off list to get to, but I felt pulled in a different direction and when I set my agenda aside, there were people who needed me to listen more than I needed to check things off my list.  It's been good.

I'm not feeling particularly motivated to make Eagle Court of Honor invitations.  Nolan's big night is in less than 2 weeks and I finally bought the stuff I need yesterday, but I don't feel assembly inclined.

My "I'll put it away later" pile has been ignored lately and I don't want to attack it.  But, it's becoming a tripping hazard and needs to be addressed.  Tomorrow...

I am in an "I love Asian pears" phase and get bugged when I have to share them.

Nolan is on day 2 of his junior high band "tour".  I laugh that it's being called "tour".  It should be called recruitment visits as the band goes to the elementary feeder schools, performs, then back to the junior high for the rest of the school day.

Miles is learning the letter sounds.  Yesterday he told me, "P. puh-puh-puh, Pig'; puh-puh-puh, Poop."  He was so proud of himself.  Yes, the potty humor has started.

Jonathan has been thinking about his political stances a bit lately yesterday.  Yesterday he sighed and told me, "I think I'm a democrat."  

It's a Krispy Kreme sort of day.

Snowbird!

Saturday was a beautiful day!  I planned to take Miles up for his first ski lesson, but he spent a good part of the night coughing so I kept him home.  I sent the boys and a camera up to Snowbird instead and told them to have fun and to get some good pictures for me.  Grumble, grumble about the camera...

The next 3 pictures are on a run called "S.T.H."- Steeper Than H...  The first one gives a pretty good idea how steep the terrain is. 

Sunday Dinner

Once upon a time there was a chicken dish that went through a metamorphosis of names.  Initially it was known as Chicken Salvadore, then it became Chicken Marinara, then Chicken Marijuana, and now is known as Pizza Chicken.  On Sunday, Nolan wanted it for dinner.  I told him that I'd be happy to make it, if he'd help out.  To make Pizza Chicken, the breasts must be pounded thin.  I told Nolan that was his job.  He wasn't thrilled with that assignment.  He doesn't like touching raw meat (and who can blame him?- raw chicken is the worst).  So, Nolan donned a pair of surgical gloves and started pounding the chicken.  I looked over and saw that he had his lips turned inward.  Obviously he was concerned about bits of chicken flying on his face.  Solved that problem too!

Nolan did a great job prepping the chicken.  The final result was fabulous.

My Favorite Sound

I got a video of one of my favorite sounds.  Can't ever get enough of it.  Love it! 

Snowventures!

I know I live near the mountains and in a state that is famous for its snow, so I'm not whining; I'm musing.

This past week has been snow laden.  I shoveled and shoveled and shoveled until my arms, shoulders, and upper back were tired; 4 shovel sessions in a 30 hour period.  I moved about 21" of snow.  The first day and first 13" of the snow was light and fluffy.  I thought about sweeping it aside rather than shoveling, but I shoveled.  Actually, at Oak Canyon, the custodial staff was using a leaf blower to clear the snow from the sidewalks.  Day 2 of the storm brought a heavier fall and about 8" that I shoveled in one session.  The mounds of snow piled up on the retaining wall and parking strip are impressive.  They are, however, melting quickly as today it was 40 degrees.

This storm brought another adventure.  I let Jonathan drive to school while it was snowing and before the plows had cleared the roads.  It was before 6:30 a.m. so there were very few cars out and therefore, less things to hit.  Jonathan needs to learn snow driving skills, so I sent him on his way.  He didn't enjoy the experience, but he didn't wreck either.  A happy ending to a new adventure.

Snow in the valley means snow in the mountains... lots of snow awaits the boys tomorrow as they look forward to a ski day.  The question is... where to ski?  Snowbird is calling, but Solitude finally opened all of Honeycomb Canyon... hmmm, nice first-world problem.  I think I'll send a camera up with them tomorrow.  Perhaps Miles will get his first lesson as well, but I'll have to decide tomorrow and see how his cold is sounding (cough, snurf, sneeze)...

My Amazing Talents

I recently realized that I possess (I misspelled that word 3 times before I got it right, and no, that's not one of my amazing talents) amazing and unique talents; talents that no one else in this house seems to have.  Let me list a few...

1. I can throw away empty shampoo bottles.
2. I can start the dishwasher.
3. I can empty the dishwasher.
4. I can fold laundry.
5. I can throw wrappers away.
6. I can turn lights off in the basement.
7. I can open the blinds in the morning and shut them at night.
8. I know how the outside lights work.
9. I can run the disposal.

I think I'm pretty awesome.