Sunday quote of the day

I was hoping for something spiritual but this just came from Raspberry, who is upstairs, and I had to write it down.

"ooowwww!!! Mom! I think I broke my bottom."

We made it one year!

Today is the 1st year mark for our family blog. So, in honor of our blog being 365 days old, we (CC, Raspberry and I) are going to list 100 things we are grateful for. I wanted to have them list 365, but they are moaning, so we are only going to 100. So in no particular order, here we go.

1. CC & Raspberry
2. Mommy!
3. Daddy!
4. A sister that makes me laugh (mom and CC).
5. Blessings
6. Our Savior
7. The Gospel
8. Heavenly Father (we are on a theme here)
9. Hugs
10. Sleepovers at Daddy's
11. Family plus Grandpa and Grandma
12. Mom's friends
13. Chelle - Raspberry insisted you get your own line.
14. Kathy - you too.
15. Kari, Nicole, Amanda, Chuck, Bri, Anna, Suzy, Ann and Jean
16. Our cousins (especially Ryan)
17. Maddy and Heather!
18. Aunt Tanya and Uncle Dave (and their family)
19. Music
20. Raspberries
21. Cheese and apples
22. Scriptures
23. Flowers
24. Kindergarten
25. Our President Monson
26. The Bishop
27. Our Stake President
28. General Conference
29. Kindness
30. Our ward
31. Primary Teacher
32. YM Leaders
33. My kindergarten class
34. Being out of elementary
35. My toys
36. Our house
37. Wind
38. Stars
39. Sunny days
40. Rain (I think they are on another theme)
41. Musicals
42. Golf
43. Kisses
44. Rocks with mom
45. Swimming
46. Our car
47. Family Home Evening
48. Crayons
49. Walking
50. The sacrament
51. Temples
52. Birthdays
53. Scriptures
54. Raspberry's big innocent eyes
55. Playroom
56. Disneyland and Disney World
57. Dancing in the kitchen
58. Tears
59. Butterscotch (stuffed animal)
60. Bluey
61. Visiting Teachers
62. Home Teachers
63. Laughing until it hurts
64. Trials (they don't agree)
65. Forgiveness
66. Reading
67. Balloons and kites!
68. Sleep
69. Warm blankets
70. Our dryer - because without it, well, no warm blankets
71. Whip cream and strawberries
72. Jumping
73. Sliding down the stairs
74. Shadow and Soda
75. Pillow fights
76. Fireworks
77. My bike
78. My braces coming off.
79. Christmas!
80. Halloween and the corn maze!
81. Video games (mom does not agree)
82. Football
83. Computer
84. Yummy food and cold water
85. CC's strawberry shakes
86. Apple juice!
87. Popcorn
88. Going to the movies
89. Running
90. Raspberry is grateful for her shoes
91. Lightning and Thunder (Raspberry says no)
92. Fall colors
93. Our friends!
94. Hot chocolate
95. Dark chocolate
96. Our family blog
97. Tithing
98. Sundays
99. Blessings
100. You.

There really was no hope.

Yesterday, CC tried out for his junior high school golf team. I went to the golf course early to watch him come in. As he came off the 9th tee and walked down the fairway I watched him for signs of dejection, sadness, maybe some hostility (emotions I saw prevalent in most of the other groups before him) but all I saw was a happy kid sauntering down towards the green.

As he walked off the 9th hole, he was counting up his strokes on his scorecard and he had this huge grin on his face. He said 'Mom, I shot a 60, so I won't make the team, but that was so much fun!'

Dang it. He was hit hard by the golf gene. I was really hoping it might skip a generation, but it didn't happen. There really was no hope to begin with. Between his Dad who plays, his aunt who is a 1st assistant in Florida and his Grandpa who is a swing coach at the Y, the kid was bound to get some type of golf gene. I tried to prevent it, but it just wasn't possible. His aunt, Grandpa and Dad are thrilled. He is such a cute kid, who is just happy to be able to play. I'm so lucky.

Okay. Last golf story. While I was watching the groups come in, a Dad of another player came up on the balcony where I was waiting. He was quite the friendly guy (and --my students will love this--kind of handsome). We chatted for a while while we were waiting. He seemed quite nice. When his son walked off the green, he called out to him and asked him how he did. His son did this thumbs down thing and yelled back a high score at his Dad. This Dad then yells out a string of profanity at his son. I think I just stood there with my mouth open staring at him with evil mother eyes. Uh. Yuck. I should have pushed him off the balcony.

Quote of the day

This quote of the day came from one of the students that work in our office.

"But Jenn, he had really good qualities on Facebook!"

What apron strings?

So the other day I was harassed a bit by some friends who accused me of being a bit overprotective toward my 12 year old.

I'm trying hard not to be 'that mom', so I sent him off with a hug and a 'be safe please' to Mt. Olympus on Saturday with his deacon quorum. A short hike up and back that started at 6:00 a.m. and was supposed to end at 2:00 p.m. (which somehow meant 5:00 p.m.) I wasn't panicked since he did call me at the point (9,000 ft.) and said he was having a great time and the view was 'amazing mom'.




He only had a few blisters and was filthy when he returned, but then 'the moms' got to me on Sunday. Apparently they all ran out of water when they got to the point, he had some "alone" time on this 7 mile trail (he and another deacon took a wrong turn), he jumped over a rattlesnake, and one of his friends has heat stroke.

And people wonder why mothers are overprotective?

The ambulance ride was fun!

This latest post comes from my sister-in-law. My sweet, tiny niece took a huge tumble on Friday and scared us all, but thankfully she is doing much better today. Hank said her favorite part of the whole ordeal was the ambulance ride, which she loved. Here is the email from my sister-in-law...

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We have had quite an eventful weekend, and want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for our sweet little M.! She is now back to her normal high-energy self, and is miraculously not feeling any pain whatsoever. We truly appreciate all your help through the last few days, and definitely have felt the effects of all your prayers. It's great having family members with a "direct line" to Deity! ( Sometimes our own lines don't receive clear reception in the heavens. :) )

She fell (along with the stroller she was trying to climb into) down the steep embankment by our driveway, to the asphalt by the basement door. After untangling her from the stroller, it became apparent that she could not see. She then in turn went to sleep. After some intense hours of waiting for x-rays to be read and cat scan results, we were made aware of the fracture in the back of her head. She was then transported by ambulance to Primary Children's.

Long story short, Primary Children's Hospital was great! I feel so lucky to have it just across the valley. They fortunately found no internal bleeding and continued to monitor for swelling. She enjoyed her sleep-over at the hospital, eating milkshakes, and watching movies. She did not enjoy the sticky electrodes or the IV tape.

She is on a reduced activity regimen with no high speed activities...which for her is only when she's asleep. Her little brother has been assigned a no-sister wrestling month, and we have hidden his bat. Again, we appreciate all your help and prayers through the last few days. We love each of you very much!

To find out who you really are... go to this Web site.

I have discovered THE WEB SITE. It will tell you what type of personality you have. All you have to do is type in your name and there you go! So what I should have done, is typed in my favorite names before they were born and picked the name with the best descriptions.

This is what it said about me (and the thousands and thousands of women who have the same name). (It is too bad my parents didn't have this available).

What Jennefer means (along with a few short comments):

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you. That's nice to hear.

You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries. Sure...

You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. It's called 'over analyzing'

You are great at giving other people advice. Mostly to my siblings who don't want it.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. So true...

You work hard not to rock the boat. Well...

Your easy going attitude brings people together. Can't argue with that...

At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. Hey!

But for the important things, you pull it together. Glad somebody noticed.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. Nice.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. No comment.

You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. I gave up on trying to interpret signals long ago.

You are loving, compassionate, and ruled by your feelings. Didn't it just say I was wise? Who wrote this anyway.

You are able to be a foundation for other people... but you still know how to have fun. Not sure if they would want a flake to be a foundation.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. That's me. Rebel mom.

You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. Oh brother.

You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. oh please.

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. I don't have time to be intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. Give me a break!

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! This is the stupidest thing I've ever read.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. blah.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. There's that red in me coming through...

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. Ha! Michelle will love that!

You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. Oh yes, they all bow down when I walk in the room.

People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. Because most stubborn people usually go with the flow...

You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Light hearted and accepting, that's me. I'm going to read this to my kids. See what they think.

Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. Somebody asked me that at church yesterday...

You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. No fencing here.

You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. A great challenge while I'm being headstrong AND going with the flow..

You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care. What!

Who are you?

Three things I won't do again

1. Let my daughter hold a fork while sitting next to a bag of powdered sugar.

2. Leave the front door open when I go outside for a few seconds after daughter has taken off powdered sugar clothes (little streaker).


3. Leave my lipstick in the kitchen.

The Essay Punishment

The essay punishment came from my friend Jolene. When her boys got into 'serious enough that I had to call them on it' trouble, she invoked the essay punishment. They would have to write a page about what happened, why it was wrong, and what they learned from a gospel perspective, including quotes from church leaders, and a few scriptural references. Then, along with mom, they would pick their punishment. She said that their personal punishments were far worse than any she could dish out (sometimes she actually felt guilty and would reduce the sentence).

Well, the other day, without getting into specifics, I caught Raspberry lying to me. I didn't have to prod too much; the child wears every feeling she has on her face – including guilt. Yelling at her would have been pointless, so I implemented our first essay punishment. I told her to write me a letter saying sorry for what she did and then we would talk about it and pick her punishment. After receiving the note, we talked about lying and then decided the punishment. She thought about it and came up with these:

No more salt at dinner.

Only one more red popsicle.

Have to put away my shoes in the basket.

We ended up canceling our movie and popcorn night. She cried and then fell asleep. The next morning she said, 'I'm hungry and starving from lying. That is so dumb!'

I'm not positive, but I think she might be writing a lot of essays.

Photoshop Playtime

I am back practicing again. I haven't for a while, so I've lost some of my skills. Which, sad to say, weren't many to begin with. However, I remember my friend Al talking about filters, so here are my latest creations practicing with filters.


I couldn't figure out how to make Raspberry's nose more prominent and I cut CC out way too fast so there are a lot of little mistakes. I guess I will have to keep practicing (darn). How ever rough my photoshop abilities are though, the captions fit perfectly.

Why can't I be more like MacGyver?

Yesterday, we went to the school play ground for Family Home Evening. It was a cool evening and we had the playground to ourselves most of the time. When we came home the garage door would not open and I, of course, didn't bring my keys, or my phone. My kids looked at me like I was the village idiot. Hey! The garage door always opens! I didn't know.

CC and I punched in the code over and over, but alas, we were locked out. Raspberry cried and tried to bang down the garage door. I considered all the possibilities and costs of breaking in to my own house. CC looked at me and said, "Mom, we really need to put a key somewhere outside of the house." Yes. Thank you. I got that.



As we sat on the porch in the dark and I contemplated broken windows, I suddenly wished I was MacGyver. MacGyver was my 80's hero. If I was more like MacGyver, I could have opened the door with a paper clip, some chewing gum and some wire thing from CC's bike. When MacGyver was locked in a room he saw the key in the other side of the locked door. He took out a map, unfurled it and stuck it under the door. He then pushed the key out of the lock using his Swiss Army knife, which landed on the map. He then pulled the map back under the door, thereby getting the key to unlock him from the room. A true genius!


He also saved people from buildings: To help rescue a group of people trapped in a building, he ties a fire hose shut, places it under a girder in the way, and turns on the water. Using the water pressure to lift the girder, he pushes it out of the way.

He stopped acid leaks: MacGyver plugs a sulfuric acid leak with chocolate. He states that chocolate contains lactose and sucrose (chemically C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁), which are disaccharides. The acid reacts with the sugars to form elemental carbon and a thick gummy residue.


AND he could deal with insects: As a way to hold off killer ants for awhile, MacGyver makes a flamethrower out of a hose, pipe, and tank of gasoline. He also uses some "kitchen ingredients" as a fuel-thickener to prevent the contraption from simply exploding. (The vagueness about the "kitchen ingredients" prevented potentially dangerous recreations of the stunts by younger viewers.) See, not only smart, but also in tune to possible dangers for children. Moms love that.

What a guy.

We eventually got back in through the garage door. The one thing I know that MacGyver didn't, is that a garage door opener is like a PC. It will freeze when it doesn't like what you are doing to it, (for example, having your 5 year old pushing down all the buttons at the same time), but if you wait it out, and be patient, it will boot back up and let you in.

oh, and just in case it doesn't, have a nice neighbor nearby with a lock pick. That will work too.

boycot junior high

My baby boy started Jr. High today. I'm 2 steps from officially freaking out. Everything about Jr. High and a 12 year old boy makes me nervous. I stared at the girls walking in, secretly zapping them with lasers from my eyes. Stay away from my child! I don't trust them, I don't trust anyone else. I want him to be six again, and I want him to play outside with his trucks and his best friend. I want to see him roll down hills and get his clothes dirty from climbing over anything and everything that has dirt. I don't want him to be 12 or turn 13 in 3 weeks. I don't want him in gym, or at his locker, or at the computer looking up his homework.

Body issues at age 5.

Raspberry: Mom
Mom: Yes?
Raspberry: I have a big head
Mom: What???
Raspberry: Oh forget it.