Brigham's Dance

There was a tri stake dance on Saturday, which I learned about from Hannah.  The last tri stake dance Brigham refused to go to, but I told him this time that I wanted him to go.  I think he's spent entirely too much time on his computer this summer.  He agreed quite cheerfully.  The theme was fifties and he let me dress him up, the nice boy.  He wore Craig's letterman jacket and we rolled his jeans up to show his white socks.  He looked pretty good, if I say so myself.

I went at 11:00 to pick up Brigham and Hannah and found the kids enjoying themselves.  According to Hannah, Brigham was surrounded by a swarm of girls the whole night.  He said that there were some friends there from his play last year and he was glad because he doesn't get to see them very much.

I watched him dance with Rachel and remembered all the good old days when I went to tri stake dances.  Not quite back in the fifties, but almost.

Heart, Health, Hands, and..... What's the last H? Happiness? Horses? Hemorrhoids?

I will deny ever having said this.  I have bad feelings towards 4H.

Well, maybe that's a bit too strong.  I have mixed feelings towards 4H.  I like the summer classes.  Every month we get a flier in the mail with different classes that the kids can take.  These are the classes I can remember my kids taking: geocaching, rocketry, crochet (by Brigham, funnily), cooking,  cake decorating, bicycling, paper crafts, archery, and scrapbooking.  They were good classes taught by dedicated teachers.  I can't imagine volunteering to teach a group of ten children a skill.  Horror.

But I have some other feelings as well.  I think most of them stem from Hayes's experiences with his bucket calves and Ellie's with her lamb last year.  Craig has always been of the opinion that if our kids want to raise an animal for 4H, that's fine, but they're going to have to take care of it and feed it and walk it by themselves.  And if they fail to do it, he's not going to take up the slack.  Which I agree with in theory.  But then it comes down to showing an underweight, sickly calf who didn't get fed half the time and it gets a white ribbon and the calf buyer refuses to buy any white ribbon animals (and it was the only calf who didn't get a red or blue ribbon so it's the only calf who doesn't get sold) and so your kid feels terrible and Mom feels terrible.  That's what happens.

And none of that is the fault of the 4H program, but somehow I have made it theirs.

So today was the day Ellie had to make her cake to take to the fair.  She took cake decorating from Carol Beutler this summer.  I always like it when the kids are in Carol Beutler's cooking class.  Until it comes time for the fair and it's time to do a project.  Then I wish I could go back to the beginning of summer and refuse to let them join.

Last night I realized that the next day was the day to turn in cakes so I made a special trip to the store for a cake mix.  And then I made the cake and froze it so it would be ready to decorate today.  This morning Ellie and I went to Carol Beutler's to borrow her cake decorating tips and bags and food coloring.  Then I made the frosting.  Two different kinds.  Then we colored it three different colors.  Then Ellie frosted her cake.  Then she threw an uncharacteristic fit because she couldn't get it right.  Then I helped her get it right.  Then Mac and Josh wanted to frost their own cupcakes.  Then Josh threw a fit because he put too much green food coloring on his white frosting and there was no more white frosting.  Then Ellie said the frosting I made was too runny.  Then I pretended to not be having a nervous breakdown.  Then Aunt Heather called and asked me to watch her five kids and I said why not, join the chaos.  Then I watched them and they weren't too bad and Hannah helped Ellie finish her cake.  Then Heather came back and offered to bring Ellie to the fair to turn in her cake.  Then they left.  Then I sat on my recliner to blog and complain.

Ah, 4H.  Thank you for the opportunities to develop patience.  I so appreciate it.

The Man of La Mancha

Last night Craig and I left kids and responsibilities, just threw them to the wind, and went on a date.

I like dates.

We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and reconfirmed to ourselves when it was over that we don't like Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  My dad had sent me a gift card for my birthday so we thought we'd save a bit of money by using it, but we should have gone somewhere else.  Oh well, free dinner.

Then we we saw The Man of La Mancha at the Utah Festival Opera.  Craig had seen the movie before years ago but I hadn't so I really didn't know much about it.  Michael Ballam was playing the part of Don Quixote.

Oh it was so good.  It's still with me this morning.  I am envious of Don Quixote, walking around slaying his dragons and windmills and not listening when everyone tried to tell him he was crazy.  He was a romantic dreamer.  I would like to be more like that.  I would like to see in my kids, especially my older kids (okay, maybe just Hayes) their potential and not so much their real-life screw ups.  If I could view them and treat them the way they could be and not the way they are, I think it would not only help them but it would help me.  Don Quixote seemed pretty content in his own little hazy, made up world.

And isn't that what love is?  Seeing all the good in a person and focusing on that?  How can I do that more?

Girls Camp at Moose Springs Lodge

I was camp director for two years, in 2013 and 2014.  I loved it.  I didn't think I would but I did.  I loved the girls.  It was so much fun.  Craig came with me both years and we had such a great time.  Last year was supposed to be my last year because that's how they do it in our ward.  The first year you are assistant camp director, then the next year you are camp director, then you're done.  After last year, though, I called the Young Womens president, Marni Bowles, and asked if I could extend and she said absolutely.

Then in January, I was called as Family History Consultant, as well as still being Sunday School teacher for the 16 and 17 year olds.  I felt like camp would have been a little much so I told Marni I didn't think I would be able to do it.

Apparently the girls in the ward still thought that Craig should come even if his wife wasn't involved. Young Women camp is supposed to have a priesthood leader present at all times and Craig has become the default guy.  He has a reputation for fun and niceness and a love of swedish fish.

This year they had camp up Oxford Loop at Moose Springs Lodge.  They were only having it for one night due to the trek this summer.  I was pretty disparaging of that plan.  That's not camping.  But I asked if I could come up for last night's evening activities.

It was a good time.  Rachel and Aspen and Misti and Dan Sharp taught me a new game, Mouse.  And then we had the most delicious dutch oven potatoes for dinner.  And then we walked aways from the lodge and built a fire and had testimony meeting.

Testimony meeting at girls camp is always good.

And then after I left the girls convinced Craig and Dan to let them paint their toenails.

Sunday School kids

I teach the sixteen and seventeen year old in Sunday School.  Some of them I've taught a long time.  I used to teach with Aneesa, which was a dream come true for three years.  There are three youth Sunday School classes and we taught the middle one.  Then Brother Fuller left for a mission and the Sunday School presidency split us up and had her teach the middle class by herself and me teach the oldest class by myself.  I'm glad to have stayed with the kids in Sunday School, but I sorely miss teaching with Aneesa.

The kids are Hayes's group.  Ethan, Jeffrey, and Cecci Porter, Chalese Jensen, Savanna Roberts, Jordan Jolley, Jason Wedel.  I used to have the kids who were a year older, also - Misti Swann, Madi Moser, Mindy Weeks, Wyatt Bowles, Brennon Henderson, Niels Stegelmeier, Carlton Baird - but they're mostly gone now, off to missions and college and the singles ward.  Only Carlton is left and he'll be leaving next month to go to college.  And I'm kind of looking forward to it because he always refuses to participate and is on his phone the whole time.  I don't even know why he comes.  His parents probably make him.

I love these kids.  They are so great.   They come up with the funniest things and such good insights.  I have enjoyed teaching them so much.  I like to think I'm a good teacher and I think most of the time I am.  It's a stretch to teach every week.

I've been worried about the kids this summer.  Jason Wedel hasn't come to class for four weeks in a row.  And he's been avoiding me.  He saw me and refused to look at me when we were both at Makayla Holliday's reception.  I saw him after church this last Sunday and tried to talk to him but he didn't want to.

And I'm worried about Cecci.  Something is up with her.  She posted a picture on Instagram of some punk kid, talking about how much she loved this "man", and how grateful she was that he had come into her life.  And she's always posting pictures of herself in different poses, and a lot of pictures with her sister Anyssa and brother Oscar, who I think are NOT good influences on her, especially her sister.  I think Anyssa is aspiring to be some kind of striptease dancer, from the pictures and video she posts.  It's appalling.  And it's especially appalling because I've watched Cecci grow up from this little, sweet thing with bangs and glasses into a really beautiful young woman.  She's so quiet and shy in class.  I don't know if she knows her own worth, and is thinking that a hot dancer is the best and most valuable thing she could be.

It worries me.

I know these are terrible pictures but I like them.  I took them when I was teaching my class as well as Aneesa's because she was gone.  It was sometime this last spring.  I asked if there were any volunteers for the opening prayer and they all raised their hands.  I had to get a picture of it.

HOTT MAMAS

In January I was looking into starting to lift weights.  Aneesa had told me numerous times about how Aaron had become so much more healthy, had lost weight, and had strengthened his back since he started to lift weights in the mornings three times a week with his buddies.  I asked him if I could come too, and Aneesa tactfully told me that I couldn't join that group.  Turns out it is an elitist, snobby, Westside-graduates-only, sports-enthusiast weight lifting group.  Not her words.  

So I decided to form my own group and I convinced Aneesa that she should do it with me.  I told her that it would be called the Westside Non-Elitist Weight Lifting Club but she hated that name.  She told me to come up with something better.  After some thought, I came up with HOTT MAMAS, which stands for Her Own Time To Meditate And Modify her Amazing Shape.  HOTT MAMAS.

Aneesa always encourages me in my little weird eccentricities.

So we met Tuesdays and Thursdays - almost without fail, for six months.  Aaron kindly made us some routines and printed them out and taught us how to do them. It really helped that we were about the same fitness level and strength.  We could set the weights for one level and both of us do them.  Dumbbells, barbells, planks, lunges, pushups, crunches, bench presses...we did it all.  We were amazing.  

And then I broke my collarbone.  

The doctor said no lifting weights for twelve weeks and maybe even sixteen.  I envisioned HOTT MAMAS fizzling.  

But after a week, we hit upon walking the track.  We still meet at 5:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays and we're usually able to walk twelve laps and sometimes thirteen in an hour.  That's three miles.  

It's great.  We talk and talk.  Sometimes Aneesa calls it her therapy.  

The above picture was taken one morning when it started to rain just a couple laps into our walk.  It drizzled and drizzled and pretty soon we were soaked.  One of us suggested bagging it and going home but we toughed it out and finished our hour.  A rainbow came out and we took a selfie, with both of us looking extremely goofy.  I don't think either of us has mastered the art of selfies, a fact which I think neither of us cares about.  

It's wonderful.  What would I be without Aneesa?  This is what I would be: fatter and grumpier.  Thanks, Hott Mama.

Happy Pioneer Day

Todd and Cec's son Loclan is soon going to be a big brother!

Ellie and Tati in the bouncy castle

The flip flop piñata - or in Craig's words, the thong.

                                           

Deana made an appearance but didn't bring CaileeMae, much to Ellie's disappointment.