Saved.

This past Saturday I almost killed my good friend and her sweet 12 year old as we drove through the SLC's 'spaghetti bowl' on I-15 at 75 mph on our way to the YW general meeting at the Conference Center.

We came within inches of being crushed from the front and the back by two huge trucks as people slammed on their brakes while an accident happened about two football fields in front of us. I don't know exactly how we got out of it, let's just say my guardian angel must have been a Nascar driver in his previous life. I sat through most of the meeting stunned that we weren't in the ER and that I hadn't killed my friend Kathy or her sweet Whitney.

Today I'm very grateful for divine intervention.

Cush

Since today is my sister's birthday this post is for her.

11 and 1 things I love about my sister Cush (a.k.a. Chantel)

1. She is funny.
2. She is adventurous.
3. She accomplishes anything she puts her mind to.
4. She is astonishingly beautiful.
5. She sounds like me on the phone.
6. She has a killer golf swing.
7. She has her nieces and nephews wrapped around her finger.
8. She likes to cook gourmet style.
9. She will tell you what she thinks-straight up.
10. She is a genuinely nice person.
11. She doesn't judge.

and hanging out with her is just fun.

This is Cush. Happy Birthday!
Wish I was there to hug you.

Love you,
Your older sister.

sunday afternoon

while my very dedicated13 year old diligently performed his Sunday duties as a deacon...









this cute little monster and I made cupcakes... and not just any cupcakes, these cupcakes were 'kathy cupcakes' (a.k.a. Raspberry's cupcakes for my her friend Kathy) with...

chocolate batter, white frosting and stabilized coconut whipped cream pipped into the middle.

Yum.






Afterwards, she hid the bowl and wouldn't share the spoon.
How rude.

Thou shalt be NICE!

My incredibly talented younger brother has a CD coming out about chickens and teens.

Here is the link.

Good job Hank! and don't worry. I'm here to keep you humble.

Don’t waste the pretty.

I read this book a while back and recently watched this movie.



I liked them both… felt almost enlightened really...so when
raspberry told me that a boy named Jack was being mean and
pushing her at school, did I lovingly tell her that he
pushed her and was mean to her because that’s how boys
act when they like a girl?

Not a chance. I said, ‘Shove him back and say in a big-mean-voice
Leave Me Alone!
He will cry or he will run away but he will leave you alone.’

Her reply was, ‘But mom, teacher will turn my card to orange.’

Sweetheart, that is okay with me.



Follow up that evening…

So how was school? Was Jack mean to you?

‘I just played with Rhett and ignored Jack.’

Who is Rhett?

‘He’s in my class and he is nice and he shares his crayons with
me. So I’m going to play with Rhett. I told Jack to go away and
he had to sit in his chair because teacher saw him and now
he gets in trouble.’

So no more Jack.

A Valentine Birthday

Birthday smiles


Birthday presents


Birthday brother, cousins, and cupcake set


Birthday blowing

The cell phone that was given a mind of its own.

This morning this cute little thing:



dropped my cell phone into this:



It was quickly dried off and I hoped for the best, but by the time I arrived at work my cell phone had made 6 calls to my brother Hank and 2 calls to my brother Randon. It had also called my home, office, and Nichole, a student who works for me. It made all these calls while it was in my bag.

It had to be destroyed.




So now I am going to try this:



My goal is to keep it out of harms way (a.k.a. this)...

So Jenn, what's with the tree?

If you will look a little closer, you will realize that it isn't exactly a Christmas tree...I know it is February and I know Christmas is over, but sometimes you have to make a soon-to-be six year old happy and decorate a tree in honor of her Valentine's Day birthday.

so the Valentine's Day tree is staying up until February 14.

Poor Representation

My 13 year old feels that he has not been properly represented on my blog. Apparently, the five year old 'diva' has 'much more than me'.

This may be true.

So my dear, here's to you. My very cute, very TALL, fun, extraordinarily fantastic kid.

You rock.
Mom.

New Art.

I saw two new paintings over the Christmas holiday that I love and I thought I would share.

The first is by David Bowman called 'my child'. It is for Raspberry's room.




the second by Greg Olsen entitled 'walk with me'. This one is for me.

Why not?

Raspberry's bed time ritual usually includes a bath, sometimes a shampoo (if I can get her to hold still). Her bath time ritual is fun to watch. She has all sorts of bubble potions along with her drowning assortment of plastic animals that she periodically 'saves', if she feels they deserve it. However, now she has a thing for showers. So yesterday when I told her to jump in the bath she asked if she could have a shower.

'can I wear my bathing suit, I want to have a swimming party'

I gave the typical mom answer of, no. No swimming suits in the shower.
Both she and CC looked at me at the very same time and said,

'why not?'

Well, I don't know.

Because a normal parent is supposed to say no to things like that.

I didn't have one good reason.

They just looked at me. I just looked at them.
Really. who am I to squelch a pretend swim party in the bathtub?



Go at it babe. Have a fun time in the shower...



she did.

Bless this Food

CC asked for Hawaiian Haystakes for dinner. It isn't Raspberry's favorite, even when I leave off all the vegetables (mom! they aren't cooked!).

It was raspberry's turn to say the prayer. It went something like this:

'please bless us to have a fun night, help us to be kind. Please bless this food for nourish and strength, and please please bless that tomorrow we can have room service'

amen.