Joyful Sounds = Heaven?

When it comes to kids that are three and four years old, one must not mistake joyful, happy sounds as being angelic.

I had agreed to watch my dear friends kids for 24 hours because they had this fantastic opportunity to go to New York City. All I had with me that day were our two little boys because the rest of the kids were at school. I figured the day would be a cake walk because they always play so well together and are really easy going.

I'd been trying to catch up on laundry and other household tasks and had been keeping my ears open. In passing by the front door, I noticed that the boys had finally emerged from the loft bedroom and I asked, "Hey buddies, sounds like you've both been having fun?" They nodded and then approached the front door and attempted to open it. I asked, "Um, so why are you trying to get out the front door? Do you want to go outside and play?"

"No, we want to go get our stuffed animals." Well, of course. Silly me. I looked at them quizzically and asked "What do you mean? You know we don't take our stuffed animals outside, so surely, they wouldn't be there and anyhow, why would they be out front?" I paused and searched their angelic little faces that were staring blankly at me. "You're kidding me aren't you?"

At this point, Dillon smiled and nodded his head, and began to head upstairs. His buddy, though persisted. With a determined expression, he changed direction and headed towards the garage and Dillon amicably followed. I said, "hey guys, if you want to go play outside you can just go out the patio doors to the back yard!" No response. The garage door thudded so I took that as my que to move in that direction too. Didn't want the kids wandering around outside unattended. No kids were in the garage. Man, they moved fast, like Don Diego sprinting for a strangers ankles! I threw on some shoes and headed out out through the man door and was shortly greeted by one child stumbling around the front corner of the house with an armful of said stuffed animals. It was at that point that I realized they weren't kidding and started to put two and two together. I rounded the corner and was met with a not so pleasant surprise.

A two foot by several foot span of miscellaneous toys, books, clothing, game boxes, stuffed animals lay in a heap below the window of the loft room. I gazed in horror at the pile, then looked up at what could have been a tragic ending to those small ones lives. Aghast I then turned and faced them. I could see by their faces that the realization that they were going to get the chewing out of their young lives, was just dawning on them. Which I then proceeded to give them--in spades. Phase one.

I turned into Corporal Call of the 10th desert division barking orders--"pick up this...no, not just one thing, go back and fill your arms..." and so on. Mac showed up on his bike and exclaimed, "What the heck?!" Sometimes that kid sums things up nicely. I said, "Don't ask because I'm sure you can figure this one out." Like the sometimes sweet and helpful 8 year old that he can be, he replied, "Mom, I'll ride herd on these kids and help you get this picked up!" For the first time in 10 minutes I smiled. We were now comrades. "Thanks son, we could sure use some help here". Phase two, pick up takes us at least 30 minutes. From the yard, into the house, from the laundry room up to Mac's room and then to their appropriate room places. It was quite the pick up process and way too overwhelmingly large of a mess for just two little kids to deal with.

Last but not least, time out. Phase three. What we'd all been waiting for because I took one too. Four minutes of crestfallen silence. At the end of that I approached them with another lecture; which made very little impact. What really made me almost laugh was when Mac chimed in with the "trust box" analogy that his teacher at school had explained. Making motions with his hands "Mom had this much trust in you (big box), now she has this much (teensy box)" thank you, Mac. Then I said "because of what you both did, I can't trust you both to sleep upstairs together tonight. Dillon will sleep with mom (weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth) and Jake will sleep upstairs with Jessie." Tears. I had achieved the desired result. Now they were sorry. Not half as sorry as I was, or should I say...would be. We had hugs and kisses and reassurances of my undying affection and finished the rest of the day happily.

So, they didn't get the sleepover that they had wished for, but I thought that the punishment fit the crime and stuck to it. The thing with these punishments though is that sometimes they backfire on you. At 11:20 I was awakened to his buddy's night terrors. I thought I was having a night terror myself. I jumped up from the bed, which left me reeling from getting up too fast, moved as quickly as possible through my room without waking Dillon up and ran up the stairs to find his buddy standing by his bed, screaming incoherently. I finally got him and his older sis back to sleep. Got myself back to sleep, then Dillon started in and woke me screaming "Jake!" Ever see the movie "Bandits", in which Billy Bob Thornton shouts in his sleep "Beavers and Ducks!"? These kinds of outbursts have such a startling effect on light sleepers, like myself. All night long this continued til Mac woke me up at 1:47 a.m.. Apparently he didn't make it to the restroom in time, but was trying as hard as he could to deal with it himself. I retrieved the wet sleeping bag (mine, no less) and stuffed it into the washing machine. Tucked him into the sofa and retreated to bed.

Dillon didn't sleep well for the rest of the night. Maybe they were both having nightmares of falling out the window, probably due to my efforts to terrify them into never pushing the screen out again. Nicely done, mom.

Parenthood, as I "C" it...

I'm right in the middle of parenting. I'm up to my elbows in toys, pets, school, sports, part time work and heaven forbid a little grown up time squeezed in between all that. Parenting is the hardest job I know I've had and now I'm a lifer. But it has also taught me the most about myself and forced me to grow in ways that have been, are and will be painful yet rewarding in the process.

I have always and will be pretty type A about my life and my surroundings. I like it clean, organized and tidy. Ever watched "Glee"? While I am not as obsessive-compulsive as Emma, I am pretty darn close and much less charming. Maybe if I had her doe eyes my personality would go over better with people, but sadly, I have small and squinty eyes which does not help my cause. Being a mother of two boisterous boys and 3 very furry dogs and two small but very untidy guinea pigs has tested my limits of chaos and mess tolerance to the extreme. I now give my house and yard a lick and a promise. Many of which promises haven't been fulfilled going on almost 9 years now. So I celebrate the small accomplishments in life, like finishing the last load of laundry before I start all over again with the next, those first 3 minutes after I vacuum and mop the floor and the first few months of my new shrubbery before neglect does them in. I've learned to let a lot of things go and to tolerate more untidiness than I have ever allowed in my life before.

One might ask of parents after hearing a tirade like that, "Well, what's the rewarding part?" Here it comes. When I'm feeling most grumpy about life Dillon pipes up and says "Mom, I want to give you a hug!" and then proceeds to deliver the best bear hug that turns my frown upside down. Seeing my boys accomplish something they've worked hard at and/or have shed some frustrated tears over, break into a big smile and announce "I did it!" Can't even begin to describe that feeling. Sharing what we love and watching them tackle it and become so good at it that you begin to realize that it won't be long before you're the one saying "hey, wait up!" Yeah, those are just some of the amazing parts of being a parent. Truly rewarding. Those moments have to be, to balance out all the other ones that make you think you're going to go crazy and get hauled away to an institution.

Ah, parenthood. Glad to be a part of it. (99.8% of the time)

Sharing the love...of skiing

My goal for this ski season was to bring back the Junior Nordic Ski club that I started 12 years ago. And it came back in full force with twice as many kids as I had when I first started. We're about 20 some odd, three instructors and we're figuring it all out as we go. All the kids in the club are full of enthusiasm from the youngest of 6 to the oldest of 15. I'm glad that the club is up and running again and it's so fun to see the sport grow.

Sometimes I take up friends with us and these last couple of ventures out we took the Weaver kiddos with us. Our kids are good friends and enjoy playing together so it was a great outing for all. Look forward to many more to come!

Yea skiing!

Newest Member of the Family-Lulu, the guinea pig

I need to say first that when I was giving her a bath I said that she was 6 wks old, but actually she was only about 3 weeks old when we brought her home. Lulu was born November 27, 2011 and we brought her home with us around December 19th. Lulu was Betsy's Christmas present and she has adopted Lulu as her own. She had just barely been weaned, so when we brought her home and introduced her to Betsy the first thing she tried to do was nurse and Betsy was having none of that. After a few days she realized that she better start eating solids or starve. Things have been fine since. She is an abyssinian guinea pig a.k.a "crazy hair" guinea.

Holiday Memories

Our annual SLC extravaganza began at Little America this year. We've been staying overnight and attending the symphony for three years now and were thrilled when Matt's sister decided to join us with her kids. Our kids are close and really enjoy hanging out with each other, so the boys were so excited at the prospect of an overnighter with them. We checked in on Friday afternoon and took some pics in the front lobby with our crazy kids.



Then we trekked to our hotel room. We decided to stay in the tower rooms this year and we were not disappointed. The rooms are bigger and nicer, we got a meal voucher and a treat bag (which we immediately consumed). The boys did their usual jumping on the bed, which they look forward to. I also like how they arrange adjoining rooms. I wish we would have gotten a pic of that. You enter your rooms through double doors that open up to a mini foyer with the doors to your rooms on either side. The kids thought that was very cool. The boys spent most of the time calling each other on the hotel phones and running back and forth between the rooms. We got changed and headed to the pool. Wendy and her fam would join us a little later, since they got stuck in accident traffic.

The pool is awesome. Nothing bad to ever say about the pool. It's always clean, well kept and we all have a great time. They have a hot tub and a dry heat sauna too. We took advantage of all the pool amenities. Chels and Tess liked the sauna so much they went back for more heat later that evening. We all had a lot of fun splashing around in the pool. But, like all fun activities, they must end when everyone gets hungry.



We had dinner in the room, which Matt and Wendy were so kind to step out and retrieve. I was admittedly a little grumpy about Matt's selection, but none the less, we all got fed and full on their overpriced food. Next year we will be getting pizza delivered. Mark my words. :) We were all starved by then and most of us can be bearish when hungry (especially me!)

After a pretty good nights sleep we rushed, rushed, rushed to eat, get ready and make it to the symphony on time. We missed the train to get there, but the boys were mollified by taking it back to the hotel and especially thrilled to have beat those of us who drove. The symphony started out so fun by getting to see Santa up high through the top floor windows of Abravanel Hall. The music was lovely and all of us older crowd enjoyed the singers. I was admittedly a bit disappointed that it wasn't more geared to the younger set like it usually is, but luckily it lasts 45 minutes, which was just right for Alex and Dillon.







Post symphony we walked to the Olive Garden and had a great lunch there. It's always a fabulous after symphony treat!

We all met up at the Little America and then walked across the street to the Grand. We were expecting the usual (Teddy Bear room and Gingerbread House display), but were pleasantly surprised to find a new treat awaiting us. The Grand America commissioned local writers/artists to write a book for their around the hotel treasure hunt. At various window displays around the Hotel, there were life size, 3 dimensional pictures from the book. Each of the kids got a blue card, which contained a map of the 18 locations and clues to help you find the particular star in each window. You had to match up the number of the display with the clue to get your prize, which you could redeem for a star cookie from the bakery. We all had so much fun walking around and reading snippets of the story as we went. Wendy and I bought the book "Maurice on Holiday" for a remembrance of the fun event.

To top the whole fabulous weekend off, we all got to meet Brandon Mull, which initiated us buying another book, his new picture book called "Pingo". He spent some time talking with and getting pics taken with Chels and Mac. He's such a nice man! We were so glad that we could see him and have him sign our new books. :)

Til next year! Can't wait to see what Grand America does next! :)

So Where Do You Work?

Inside a yurt and out. It's cozy in there, but I'd much rather be outside teaching or working on the trail. That big red machine to the right of the yurt is what Matt drives around in. I'll work during the day and Matt will come up with the boys, ski for a bit and then we'll go home while he stays to groom. Brett, Matt's brother, took up learning how to drive it this year and will be up there this year as well grooming the trails.


Sundance Nordic Center is a place where you can ski and snowshoe all in a day (which we did that particular day) Our kids have been skiing since they were about two. I'm so grateful that we can all ski together as a family because that is something Matt and I are passionate about.


I love that not only do I have a great place to work, but also that I can play there with my family too. The boys get a fair amount of both Nordic skiing and Alpine skiing during the winter months. Mac will be trying out snowboarding this year. He wants to board like Dad.


Breathtaking mountain scenery.


Visits with owls.

Move Over Scentsy...

Here comes "The Lotus Ultrasonic Diffuser". Uses any of the great essential oils you'd like to diffuse and a little bit of water. Three drops of oil and your house smells AMAZING! With no harsh side effects (headaches and nausea) like myself and my family members have experienced with other home scenting products. No bueno. My friend let me borrow hers and I am currently diffusing DoTerra's Holiday Oil (which is mostly aromatic). The cinnamon in it will cleanse your air though, which is a bonus. :) It has two settings-run it for an hour or run it 30 seconds on/15 seconds off. When it is done running it will shut off by itself, so you don't have to worry about burning up your diffuser or your house! Smart little gadget!

Can't wait to get one! Dillon asked me "Can I have one for my room?" It's so nice to not only have great smelling air, but to also know that it's doing both your air and your body good. That is something that those other smelly gadgets cannot boast of. Thanks again DoTerra!