Swimming Graduation

Ian completed level 6 in swimming this week. This is quite an accomplishment since he started at level 1 last year and could hardly swim without sinking. I had started him in swimming lessons when he was in kindergarten but really struggled. So, when we moved here it was nearly 2 years before we signed him up again and he'd pretty much forgotten everything that he had learned, and had to start all the way from the beginning. He was definitely the oldest and biggest kid in level 1, but motored on up through each level and only having to repeat 1 level. Now he has the option to enroll into the pre-competition class and then the youth aquatic team.

All about my Dad

Happy Fathers day to my wonderful Father. When I was little one of my first memories of my father was getting up at the crack of dawn with him before he headed of to work and we'd eat breakfast together. I loved to hang out with dad and go camping and fishing. My dad loved to hunt, but he could never convince me to go with him, I secretly hoped he didn't have any luck finding anything because I really hated to see him bring those dead deer and Elk hanging in our garage and then it was bad enough that we had to eat it. He always told me I should marry a city boy, and that's what I did. Jeff doesn't hunt, but he says he wants to someday. My father was a member of the church when he and my mom were married my mom was not a member. Through missionary lessons my mom was baptized and they were sealed together in the Temple a year later. My sister and I had the opportunity to be with my parents when we were sealed, but I was too young to remember. My father is a hard worker, has never wavered in his faith and is honest in everything he does and says. He is always looking for an opportunity to share the gospel with someone and has a very strong testimony. He's served in many callings from High council to bishopric and later as a Bishop. My father is a person that will tell you what he thinks (even if you don't want to know), and does not mince words.

I Love you Dad!

1975 - I'm on my dads lap

My brothers blessing day

1975

Camping with my dad - he broke his foot at work and was out of work for a couple of months, we had the best time together

Attitude

Sundays are really hard for Ian to control his attitude. Is it because we always stay up later on Saturday night and he doesn't get as much sleep? Is it because he's bored after church and he doesn't have enough to do? Or, is it because it's Sunday and Satan works on him harder that day than any other day?

I believe it's a combination of all the above. This Sunday his attitude seemed worse than other Sundays. It all started when I told him he needed to work on Cub Scout stuff. He didn't want to, so that's when his attitude was just plain awful. He usually only gives me attitude when Jeff isn't around to hear him. Why do kids think they can speak one way to their Moms but they don't dare speak awful to their Dads? By the end of the day he had gotten himself grounded for the whole week (way to start off the summer vacation). He was sent to bed at his "normal" school time. After he was supposed to be in bed he threw this note at me. He's famous for writing "lovely" notes, so I thought for sure this one was going to be a doozey. To my surprise this is what I found:



We made a deal yesterday that if he didn't have attitude at all yesterday then I would cut his sentence down to just one day. He worked really hard yesterday. He helped with laundry, he cleaned the big upstairs bathroom, did dishes, cleaned his room and helped me with Morgan. He was very pleasant to be around. Let's hope it continues to be more pleasant and peaceful around here.

BIG GLASSES

When I turned the ripe full age of 15, like any other teenager dying to get behind the wheel, I headed down to the county courthouse to take the learners permit test. I passed the multiple choice test with flying colors, however I did not pass the eye exam test. They had me look into a big black box. I remember looking into the box and seeing little cars, but when they started asking me questions like "Where is the red dot?" "What direction is car A driving?", I couldn't answer their questions. My dad by my side said, "O, Come one move over let me see in there". I happily obliged. My dad knew what they were talking about and looked up at me and said, "You can't see that?" So feeling dumb I sat down again and tried but miserably failed. They ordered me to go get an eye exam before returning to take the test. So, with tear filled eyes we drove away from the courthouse on down to the eye doctor. We made the appointment, eye glasses were ordered and amazingly I was able to see. I had NO idea that my vision was impaired, it wasn't bad, but things were blurry. We drove home from the eye doctor after getting my new glasses and I was amazed how crystal clear EVERYTHING was. But, why didn't anyone for the love of all that's holy, tell me that my glasses were TOO BIG for my face.

It didn't help that I also had a mouth full of braces to go along with them, and BIG hair. I didn't learn my lesson, because a year later I went from these ugly BIG red glasses to ugly BIG blue glasses
Thank goodness, by my senior year I had come to my senses, and got rid of my BIG glasses for contacts and got my braces off. The BIG bangs didn't disappear until well into college.

Flashback Part 2

After I finished my first post about my newspaper delivery days as a child, there were so many other memories that flooded my mind.

Part of delivering these horrendous newspapers involved collecting money each month from our subscribers. These seemed to have been a never ending process, trying to collect money, and getting everyone home was a huge task. We would hear all sorts of excuses..."I'm sorry I'm on a long distance call, can you please come back another time?", "I ran out of checks", "I don't get paid until next week", the list went on and on and on. We had a couple of people that were memorable in a good way and not so good way. On our route was a couple who owned the A&W drive-in, they would be at the restaurant a lot and they told us that we could go there anytime to collect their money, and whenever we went there they would give us free Ice Cream. There was also the elderly lady that was so generous in her tips and in her Christmas gifts. But, then there was the creepy single guy that always seemed to have "visitors" over whenever we would go, he would always be tipsy and give us creepy looks.

At the end of the month we would have to turn all of our money over to the head lady who would count our money and keep, what seemed to be most of it, and then give us our percentage. I remember this lady as mean and grouchy, she scared me, and then she made us go door to door trying to sell newspaper subscriptions. I remember pretending to knock on the door, pretending to ring the door bell, just so I didn't have to face people and try and sell the newspaper. This newspaper business was my Nemesis. Cold winter mornings, HUGE Sunday papers, creepy customers, mean boss lady = Newspaper delivery is not for a child!

This is a school picture from 2nd grade - about the time I started delivery newspapers

Flashback

I have the following flashback when ever I think of this Movie:

"Watcher In the Woods"

When I was 7 1/2 my family moved across town to a bigger house to accommodate our growing family. After shortly settling in there was a knock on the door that would forever change my life...it was the newspaper sales lady. My parents thought that it would be great for my older sister and I to share a newspaper route. At first we thought that it would be o.k., although I wasn't too excited about getting up in the morning before the sunrise, I thought the money would be really great to have. This newspaper route started out o.k. We would wake up to a bundle of newspapers on the front porch, we would then roll the newspapers, put a rubber band around them and a bag them. Then we would stuff the newspapers into our carrier, my dad would then have to lift the bag filled with newspapers over our head and onto our shoulders. Sunday papers were every child's nightmare to have to carry, they would be so big and bulky we would have to come back and re-load our bags to finish our route. I remember on occasion crying through my whole route because they just killed my poor little back. My dad was a trooper and would often carry the Sunday papers because they were just too much for us. The daily routine of delivering newspapers became all too monotonous until on one particular morning after watching the Disney movie "Watcher In the Woods". My sister had a slumber the night before and we all stayed up watching this movie. This movie freaked me out so bad that I would be in tears while delivering papers and hiding from all cars that would drive by. I don't know how long I delivered papers, way too long if you ask me. Thankfully we quit after my parents realized that it was no longer worth the hassle for the little money that we were paid.

Mother of the Year Award

Check out my latest accomplishement!