Nelsons Nook

Just a re-cap

2011-10-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Goodness....how do you briefly recap 6 months of goings-on???

Maybe just a few highlights.

Bear with me here.

Tyler turned 14. Tanner turned 16.

I am that old apparently.

Here they are the Sunday they were ordained a Teacher and a Priest. So good to have both Grandpa's there.

The boys are now old enough for this (just for the record....I totally FOUGHT this one. I didn't want them to start.) (However....Tyler's got more of a 'stache' than any 14 year old should have........which, also just for the record, frustrates Tanner to death. He only has enough hairs on his face that you could mostly count them on one hand) (but....he will remind you that you can see them.....and that's what's important, right?)

We had a combined birthday of indoor soccer for the boys - with all their best buds. Fun times for sure.

Tanners birthday fell on a Sunday this year.But, rest assured that bright and early Monday morning (no kidding people.....we were THERE at 7:00 AM)....we were pulling in to the Utah DMV to get this:

Now he can drive his car.... (which he bought at a yard sale for $150 bucks) (kid you not).

Jason and I have been able to run several races this year. The Salt Lake half marathon.

TheOgden Marathon (Awesome. Hard. But Awesome.)

And the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay, which runs from Logan to Park City. Had a fabulous time! (Thanks Aunt Carol for letting our whole gang hang out with you for the afternoon!)

Jason was also "Spartan" for a day - running an 8 mile obstacle course with everything from fire, mud bogs, 9 foot high walls to scale, barbed wire to slide under, and of course Gladiators to battle. He said that the 8 miles seemed harder than the full marathon. (Having run the entire 26.2 miles......I don't actually believe him though) :)

And I ended the summer running the top of Utah half marathon.

I'm not a real runner. Those of you who are my neighbors know that. You see me plodding down the road at my turtle-pace with my non-runners legs. In the middle of these races I am asking myself over and over "why oh why am I DOING this??? This is NOT one ounce of fun". But as soon as the finish line is in sight, and then behind me, I know the answer.

It's the feeling of accomplishing something you didn't think you could. Slow as it may be, I can DO hard things. And I love that feeling.

Life is good. And hard. And did I mention busy?

Grateful for opportunities and reminders to not only DO hard things, but more importantly to Enjoy the Journey while we're here.

Hushpuppies, cancer, and ice!

2011-04-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

Goodness - this was going to get updated a little faster I thought......however, life just apparently 'happens', and then all of a sudden it's been a couple of months. So once again, this is a slightly old-ish update, but for family history sake - now it's a documented old-ish update :)

A few days after Christmas, we got a phone call from Jason's mom. She was diagnosed with Multiple Myloma, a type of cancer.

WHAT???? Back up a second. We were Not prepared for that announcement. That isn't something we were planning on. At all. Cancer is something that happens to other people. For the first month or so, it seems fairly surreal.

However, 3 months later - What a remarkably positive attitude Carol has about this whole thing. And how well she's responding to treatment. Truly inspiring to all of us.

Nearly 5 rounds of Chemo down, and soon a bone-marrow transplant (and WHO KNEW the miracles of modern medicine?....She is actually going to be her OWN DONOR for the transplant!)

Truly a blessed time we live in, and what a remarkable woman she is!

With in just a few days of mother in law being diagnosed with cancer, we got another phone call that her mother - Grandma Britt had passed away (my mother-in-laws- mother) (got that?)

So last minute arrangements were made, Chemo was put on hold for a week, kids were shuffled around, and thanks to many wonderful friends picking up our parental duties - we were able to spend 5 days in North Carolina with some remarkable people.

GrandpaWoody Britt is quite sincerely the cutest southern man you'll ever meet. There's a sparkle in his eye, and the best southern accent you'll ever hear! He spoke at the funeral and it was truly touching.

Almost all of Jason's siblings were abletomake the trip, and we had a fabulous time experiencing a little of NC and just visiting together. Some of the NC highlights were visiting the U.S.S.North Carolina, eating at Captain Ratties (best darn clam chowder I've ever had !), and of course eating authentic North carolina barbecue and hush puppies with the whole fam! Husband and I both agreed hushpuppies could become a staple at our house, AND that we'd weigh much MUCH more if we lived in North Carolina!

The day before we were to leave there was a big storm on the weather front. Stores were closing early, gas stations all but deserted,and you've never seen the canned food isles at Walmart so bare! And honestly, there was no more than a few flurries in the air. We spent a good chunk of the night chuckling at everyone's apparent terror about the impending storm, which we were certain would be no more than a 'light-dusting' of snow.

So.....imagine our surprise when we woke up the next morning, ready to head to the airport and this is what we saw:

The pictures may not do it enough justice, but the ENTIRE van was completely ICED over - 1/2 inch to an inch thick. (it sort of looks like water in the picture - believe me, it was ICE). Completely.

We then embarked on the scariest 2 1/2 hour drive of my life. If you've never driven in an ice storm, then there's absolutely nothing to compare it too. The roads don't do that here where we live. Thick thick ice - not black ice - just plain old thick ice covering every part of the roads. I think we lost count of cars that had gone off the roads after 20 or so.....and that was in a relatively short distance too. My heart was a pounding! Just having experienced a crash in poor weather the month earlier, I think I was a little hyper-sensitive to the driving conditions, and quite honestly I don't know if I had ever been more relieved in all my entire life than when we FINALLY reached the airport.

It's always good to find your way back home again.

Me, Stef, and Heather back at the airport.

Much ado

2011-02-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

Sheesh! So much has happened in the last few months, I'm truly not even sure where to start.

This post should probably be 4 separate posts.....but we'll try and condense it as best we can.

I think Chronologically is probably the bestway to go here, so here it goes....

Thanksgiving weekend (I KNOW that was a long time ago, and this is technically very OLD news. But news none-the-less, and since this blog is serving as a bit of family history project for me......it's better documented later than never, right?).

Thanksgiving weekend. Winter storm. En route to a family vacation, we were involved in a car wreck. Roads were super slushy and slick, and the visibility was poor.

Just coming down from the summit of a mountain pass, the car startedsliding, spun around, and hit the concrete barrier in the middle of the freeway head on. Spun around again, and hit again- this time in the back.

After first assessing that there were no injuries, we offered a prayer of gratitude.

The car sort of limped off to the side of the road where we hopped out in the snow to see the damage. The front end of the car was quite literally DRAGGING on the ground. Back end a bit squashed as well.

Realizing that we were most definitely not in a very safe place on the side of the freeway, and realizing that the car, for now at least, as still somewhat drivable, we decided that our best option would be to try andmake it to Beaver (the next town which was about 11 miles away). A prayer wassaid, and we literally plowed snow with thefront end of our car as we s l o w l y made our way into a Beaver gas station.

It was a Sunday, and our insurance agent informed us that for 'some reason' it appeared that not only was there no rental car place open any where close, but all the auto shops were also closed (only in Utah....). Our only option was to stay in a hotel in Beaver until the morning, or somehow get to the St. George airport, where there was rental caravailability.

The van was becoming a spectacle. People were gettingout of their cars to take pictures. Seriously. Embarrassing.

Jason wrangled up some tin-snippers, and with the help of the boys they were able to cut OFF the front end of the car so it looked like this:

Said another prayer, and headed s l o w l y again out to the freeway headed for St. George.

There's no reason we SHOULD have made it all the way to St. George. After the van was looked at by the auto collision center and declared a 'total loss', we were again reminded of angels watching over us.

All the engine mounts had been broken. The frame of the car was bent. Radiator smashed in. Every sensor and light ON (check engine. Check brakes. Check oil. No airbags. Low tire pressure. Seriously, you name it, the sensor light was on).

The trip was slow. Andloud. There were a few 'stray' pieces of the front end that husband couldn't quite cut away with the snips, so things were rubbing against the tires the whole way down.

It looked pathetic I'm sure.

But, we made it. All the way to the St. Georgeairport.

And rented a newer van.

The kids loved it. And wanted us to buy it. It had TWO TV screens. Awesome.

The crash was inconvenient. And expensive. My heart started wishing that the concrete barrier hadn’t been there in the first place. Wouldn’t it had been better to just slide into the median and gotten stuck in the snow, instead of hitting a slab of concrete? There wouldn’t have been near the damage (if any) to the car. Perhaps we mighthave needed a tow-truck to pull us out, but other than that - that damage would have been minimal, and we could have continued on our trip much easier and cheaper than we are now.

Of course as we were coming home from our vacation later that week, - children and parents alike were eager to see the ‘site’ of our crash earlier in the week (remember, it was stormy, and visibility was not good. We knew about how many miles outside of a certain town we were when we crashed, but that’s about all)

Imagine our audible gasps as we approached the crash site. We hadn’t realized that the place we wrecked into the concrete barrier was a place where the Freeway is divided. The North bound lanes lie 30 - 50 feet BELOW the South bound lanes.

That same concrete barrier, the one that I complained about causing somuch inconvenience and trouble, was the same one that saved our lives.

I was much humbled that day as we drove the rest of the way home. Thinking about a loving Heavenly Father, who kept our family safe with a concrete barrier. And couldn't help but think of how muchsafety there is in the gospel.

Well goodness....that story went and got a little wordier than I had planned (is that a sign that I talk too much????). If I tackle everything else that has happened since then, this could potentially be the longest blog post on record.

So......I think I'll end there.

Stay tuned for more adventures coming soon :)

Oh BTW....just for the record - even after all that - we still had a fabulous vacation. Disneyland was fun as ever. And the beach was completely awesome.

Pathetic...

2010-12-08T20:36:00.001-08:00

Here's just a sad sad commentary on life at the Nelsons.

It's seriously December 8th.

And this is seriously what is still on the mantle.

'nough said?

40 year old miracles

2010-10-24T20:27:00.001-07:00

So.....Jason officially turned old this month. FORTY. That used to seem so ancient to me.

I remember many moons ago being a nanny to a family of five children. The mom was 30. Thirty seemed SO MATURE. So put together. And, I'll admit it - to a 17 year old nanny, it just sounded down right OLD.

But here we are, far surpassing the young age of 30. And sincerely, not feeling much more mature or put together than I was way back then.

Jason had this great idea to run a marathon for his birthday, and so......we TOTALLY did it!

It was awesome! And horrible. And a little bit of everything in between. I hated it, and absolutely loved it - all at the same time. But we finished it. It was somewhat of a miracle I think.

Thanks for great running buddies who somehow made it easier to get up at 4:00 in the morning to do long runs. You guys are awesome!

Thanks for such wonderfully supportive friends - you MADE my day!

Thanks Jason's parents for coming to support us, and for lunch afterwards. Golden Corral never tasted so good!

Thanks Jason for taking a risk and signing up.

Mostly I feel overwhelmingly blessed that, although it's not speed-record-breaking, my body was healthy and able to run 26.2 miles. Our bodies are amazing things, and what a blessing that is! Jason and I figured that as long as we are healthy, we might as well take advantage of the situation. So.....we just signed up for another one!

Can't wait for May 2011!

Golden Birthday Shoes

2010-10-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

So it was that time of year again. Birthday time. HOORAH for Birthdays that make you closer to more and more wrinkles and 40 years old.

We've got a couple of big ticket items needing attention from the budget in the next few months (i.e; house taxes, etc.). So we have had sort of an un-spoken rule (of which we thoroughly discussed) which states that hewill NOT buy me a birthday gift this year. The big day was a couple of weeks ago, and I had a fabulous day - even in all it's 'Tuesday-Glory'.

You see, Tuesdays at the Nelson household - once the kids get home from school, are nothing short of organized-ish chaos. Boy #1 gets home, get's snack, 25 minutes to do homework (which, incidentally, is no where NEAR enoughtime to get it done), get's ready for work. Boy #2 gets home, changes into work clothes, grabs something to eat on the way out, and then both boys are headed for their work on the farm. Child # 3 arrives home. Church activity days at 3:45 for child #3. Boy #2 Check in at soccer 4:45. Soccer game at 5:30. Dad home 5:30. Dad scouts 6:00. Child #3 soccer practice 6:30. 2 boys Scouts at 7:00. Pick up child 3 at 7:30. Dad home. 9:00 boys home.

But....um......NO ONE'S EATEN DINNER YET!

Seriously, not sure why it all chooses to be on that one very day, but it definitely makes for an adventure each week. I have to admit here.....I actually really DO enjoy Tuesdays. Everyone is doing the things they love, and although it always proves to be a little bit of mayhem, I love it that everyone is busy doing good things. Does my heart good.

Anyway, I digress....

it was my birthday......

Not expecting any sort of birthday packages this year, I was surprised when one was brought in for my to open. That's JUST like him, I think to myself. Arg. Thinking he apparently wasn't listening to our 'budget' discussion, I was, I have to admit, not thrilled that a box was being brought in.

Slowly I open the package, and then my eyes - I have to admit, are brimming with a few tears. Here's what I found:

Hum.....Are those really actually......Golden shoes, you ask?

Why yes there are. Here's the deal.

Many of you know I like to run. I am NOT a runner by ANY stretch of the word. But I like to run. Someday, when we can ask for wishes to be granted, I will ask to run a 6 minute mile. JUST to know what it feelslike. That would be heaven. But until then, I will have to be satisfied with my slightly slower pace.

A couple of years ago I had a desire to do something I'd never done, nor did I ever think possible for someone like me. Run a half marathon. The first one I ran, I was crying as I crossed the start line (yes, I really did say START line....not 'finish' line - like most people). Just BEING there. BEING at the START of a HALF MARATHON was HUGE to me. Never ever even in my most crazy dreams did I think that would be a possibility for me, but here I was!

The race was tough. It was slow. But we finished. And signed up for another one. And another one.

After a while, that got a little discouraging for me because even after doing 4 of them, they didn't seem to be getting any easier, nor did I seem to be getting any faster.

Fast forward to August of this year. Jason and I signed up for the Provo River Half and started training again. For 2 weeks before the race my feet and legs seemed more sore and achey than normal, but I figured it was just the extra miles.

The night before the race, I was packing up our stuff to head down to In-laws house so the race morning drive wouldn't be quite so long. Grabbed my shoes, looked at them from the back, and gasped! Where the HECK did the SOLE of my SHOE GO???? On one shoe the back sole was missing. Seriously gone. That shoe was 1 INCH shorter than the other shoe. Worn right down to the squishy under-sole part. NO WONDER MY FEET HAVE BEEN DYING. Apparently 2 years running in the same shoes isn't so good for the shoes.

Panic starts to set in as I think that there is no cotton-pickin' way I can run a whole race on those shoes, and no cotton-pickin' way to quickly buy new ones at 8:00 the night before the race. To say thatI was panicking might be an under-statement.

Alright, I think you get the gist....

But, thanks to a very calm and reassuring husband, and a little divine intervention from above, the race turned out fine. It turned out better than fine. My best time ever.

On our way back to the car we joked that those shoes should be bronzed.

A few weeks later Jason and I signed up for a full marathon.

Again.....NEVER EVER EVER thought that would be something I could do.

What a journey this has been for me the past several years. 17 to be exact. I've been running since we got married. It took me YEARS to get beyond one short mile. Then two miles. And now seventeen years later we just completed 26.2 (but I think that will be a whole different blog post)....

As I pulled the shoes out of the box, I noticed that he had written my PBRE (personal best record ever) on them, with the date of our Provo River race. The race HE came back and helped me to finish.

The shoes are tattered and the sole is missing, but now they are spray-painted gold, with my time on it, and on my shelf they will stay as a reminder for me.

They represent my journey. They represent doing hard things. They represent setting goals and working toward them. They represent being a 'finisher'. They represent progress. And they represent a kind husband who pushes me to become something better.

Thanks for the best golden birthday shoes ever!

We (and You) can TOTALLY do HARD things

2010-08-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

I love the challenge of a good challenge. Striving to enjoy the challenge whilst in the middle of it, and loving the feeling of making through to the end of a good challenge.

Saturday #1, Provo River half marathon.....truly one of the most beautiful runs ever!

AND.............my very own PERSONAL BEST RECORD EVER PEOPLE!

Not horn tooting. Just sayin.

My PBR is still loads slower than a truck load of people, but the fact that I beat the time that my last 4 races have been, made my whole entire live-long day. Smiles were a plenty that day.

Mucho thanks to fabulous husband who gave up a chance at gaining his own PBRE (Personal Best Record Ever) to runright along side of me and cheer me on. Husbands rock!

Thanks Stef for the invite, and Stef's dad for the pre-running pep talks. Sister-in laws and their fathers rock!

So....last Saturday Jason and I were planning our annual hike to the top of mount Timpanogos. NOT to the cave, people....but to the shed that's on the tip top of the WHOLE ENTIRE MOUNTAIN. 11,700-ish feet or so.

It's a bit of a monster hike - but OH so worth it. You'd think after doing it once or twice the hike would get a little easier, but it's still a tough one to do.

We had a great idea this year, husband and I. Let's invite the teenagery boys to join us. One of them agreed, so long as his cousin would come with. But boy number 2 said no thanks, not interested, and WHY would anyone want to do that anyway?

Preparations were made. More Nelsons decided to come. Some came all the way from St. George to make the hike. Hooray for more people!

Son #2 made a 'night-before' surprise announcement that he'd actually be joining us for the hike. Hooray for son #2.

We went. All 11 of us. From age 13 to 50, and headed to the Timpanooke trail head. 5 of us made it to the summit. Breath taking and spectacular!

3 more made it to the Saddle. and 3 made it to the meadow just below. Absolutely beautiful!

We headed down in the dark, and even had a chance to practice some scouting skills. Ran into 2 girls, one injured, and neither with a light - trying to navigate their way to the bottom (minus a good foot, and minus any sort of light source). All the boys considered their "good turn daily' done for the day. Returned missionary cousin even donated his sweatshirt to be sacrificed in the name of bandages to wrap the girls foot in. Quite an adventure - 13 people hiking in single-file down the trail.

Challenge #2 conquered: Making it to the summit with Husband, and 2 teenagery boys. Completely Awesome.

What a blessing that we CAN do hard things. And that sometimes we even CHOOSE to do hard things. Isn't that what makes us grow? Truly a lesson I hope my children learn (and me too actually), that life isn't meant to be all-easy-all-the-time. It's alright to take a risk, set a goal, and work to accomplish it, and smile while you're in the middle of it. I know that not all 'hard things' are physical things, those just happened to be the things we've done here over the last couple of weeks. But sure has reminded me of 'other' hard things we each deal with in life. Everyone has them. And in a way that's comforting. Everyone has a struggle, or two, or ten. We're all here doing the best we can, and hopefully striving for better each day. Hooray for good people to cheer us on. Hooray for divine intervention that seems to come right when it's needed. Hooray for easier days (cause truly, everyone needs one of those every once in a while too, right?), and mostly.....a BIG WHOPPING hooray for just doing hard things.

GO FIGHT WIN!

2010-08-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

Me too.

My Mantra.....

2010-07-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

So....it all happened quite by accident, me - finding a new mantra. A few months ago, the night before the last half marathon we did, I looked at my running attire...and realized that quite frankly it was all in a state of blech. So, in true 11th hour fashion, I made a trip to Walmart, hoping to find SOMETHING suitable to wear for the race in the morning. Something suitable, and cheap, that is. We're working on a budget here.

Nothing says cheap like a good clearance rack, so that's where I headed and found this little beauty:

The message on the front was a little cheesy "wonder mom"?...............I think it was a left over Mothers day T-shirt from last year, actually.

But.....it was 5 bucks, it fit, and so there you go - race shopping done.

As it turns out, it's seriously the most comfortable shirt ever, and I love it. (and I loved people cheering for 'wonder mom' during the race!, but that's a complete side note to the story)

So, I actually went BACK to Walmart the next week, and bought the only other one in my size on the clearance rack.

Every morning as I lace up to go running (really it's more of a plodding along....but let's not be technical).....I look down and see "Wonder Mom", and it's sort of rubbing on me, becoming something of a mantra for me.

Not in any prideful way, mind you. Heaven knows (and all you that know me know) that I am quite possibly as far away from Wonder Mom as I can get. But, it's given me a little extra mental oomph or something, knowing that I really CAN do it (whatever that IT happens to be for the day). I CAN run a half marathon. I CAN choose to eat healthy. I CAN learn a new song on the piano, I CAN keep things somewhat organized, I CAN learn to let it go when it happens not to, I CAN do the most important things first, and I CAN keep a better perspective on things.

Thank heavens being a 'wonder mom' doesn't mean doing all those things every day. But every day I CAN strive to be better than the day before.

Maybe the reason this is all so 'on my mind' as of late because in just a couple of weeks is my 20 year high school reunion, and it's made me reflect ALOT on the struggles I had as a youth. And the struggles were a plenty.

Just ask my mother.

And I would dare say that the vast majority.....no, I think I would say every last one of those struggles was a result of my lack of knowing 'who' I am. Oh how I would love to re-live some of those years. But that's not the plan. The plan is learning from those mistakes and experiences, moving on, and striving to be better.

So.....Wonder Mom is moving on. Moving forward. Leaving old insecurities behind, and realizing that while I am certainly not perfect by any stretch of the means.....I am me, and someone Greater than I has a purpose for me.

This new Mantra "Wonder Mom", for me is not about who I am, but more what I can become.

So, I owe Walmart some thanks, for creating a cheesy, yet somehow inspiring Mother's day shirt.

"Record-keeping" randonmness.....

2010-05-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

This is more an 'for record keeping' sake post, than anything, so bear with me here.
Just felt a need to document a couple of Nelson goings-on before I forget them....time has a way of doing that you know.

In no particular order either, but we'll start with most recent:

14 year old (almost 15, he'll tell you) WENT TO A DANCE.
For reals.
And danced with girls.
And liked it.

This is all a tad bit new at our house. I know, I know....he's almost a SOPHMORE, you say -
but up to this point, he's had a 'not-very-interested' take on girls. Actually, I don't think 'not-very-interested' is quite accurate.....It's probably more like 'scared-to-death-and-don't-know-what-to-say'. Which I have to admit has been FINE with me. No sense rushing these things, right?

But for what ever reason tonight, he summoned the courage to go to a regional dance with some friends and not only did he have a great time, but he danced 'lots', he said, and was brave enough to ask 'lots' of girls he didn't even know.

Dang. He's growing up.

Thing two I wanted to record are the two effective ways of catching monsters at night found here at the Nelson household. The girl nine year old has always, ALWAYS had a thing for making sure the closet doors are shut. Tight. No gaps allowed. This way the monster will either suffocate, or at least if the monster were to come out, you'd hear the door opening, and have time to make a run for it. Also the hall light should be left on, and the bedroom door wide open. So far as we can tell, she's been successful at keeping any monsters or boogie men at bay.

About 3 weeks ago, we noticed something funny after every time we'd tuck the 3 year old in bed. It's a mothers ritual to go in and check on the kids before I hit the hay. When 3 year old is tucked in - we take great care to make sure the closet doors are shut, and things in the room are tidied up. But for the past 3 weeks, when I go back in, we find (this is a TOTALLY CONSISTANT ritual with her, which cracks me up all the more).....The closet doors WIDE open, as WIDE as they can possibly be, and the rocking chair has found a new home right smack in the middle of the floor.
I guess that's her way of saying "ha ha on you......if the doors are open, you can't hide in there in the first place!"

(honestly, most of this is probably not very interesting, but if I don't jot it down, there will come a day that I don't remember, so - I'm jotting........for posterities sake...)

So......this one I almost HESITATE to share. But, it truly was a funny moment for me. Please please do not take any offense at the following story - no offense is intended. Seriously.

Here it goes............I finally bought my first........um........Coke. Ever.

Didn't drink it, but I bought it.

It was an ingredient for a recipe "Cafe Rio Pork"....and WHO could possibly resist that recipe? Now you have to understand, we were not allowed to drink caffeine growing up, and although I did plenty of things that would not be on the 'good' list, drinking caffeine was not one of them. (Alright, if you want to get technical here, I HAVE had Barg's Rootbeer, many a times - before we realized it had caffeine going on.)

Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Dr. pepper, Coke, diet Coke.........never had them. And at this point in my life I figure why start now?

So, back to the Walmart story. I'm grocery shopping, knowing that I have to buy COKE to go in this recipe, but fretting about it the whole ENTIRE time I'm walking up and down the isles. Panic is setting in, I'm wondering if someone will SEE me pick up a coke. Worried at what they might think. Wondering what they might say. (I realize now how ridiculous this is all sounding. It's a COKE, for heaven sakes - not an R rated movie!)

I proceed to the check out, still coke-less. Looking to the left, looking to the right, making sure know one is watching, quickly open the coolers at the front of the store, pull out a quick coke, pop it in the basket (UNDER a couple of items), and hurry to be checked out. Whew. I think I made it.

Then the checker scans the coke and sets it out for me.

I TOTALLY panicked again, like there were spotlights flashing and someone comes over the loud speaker to say "LOOK AT THE LADY BUYING A COKE ON ISLE 5!...................

"Uh........it's just for a recipe" I say as I quickly toss it into a bag like a hot potato.

She gave me the funniest look, and then I think it really (finally) dawned on me that I was OKAY. It wasn't a horribly horrible and rotten thing to be buying. And, no one thought a thing of it.

Certainly there are far better things I could spend my time worrying about and correcting. But for what ever reason, I had a 'moment' buying Coke the other day.

So there you have it. Randomness from the Nelson household....

And, other than that......32 soccer games, one sisters wedding, a basketball tournament, soccer try outs, half marathons, primary leadership meeting, piano recital, band concert, and Emma's Showstoppers shows.......

that's where our crazy May went.

Hooray for almost Summer!

Microscopic AHA moments....

2010-04-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

So.....It was a lucky day for me. 7th grade field trip chaperon. Ah, you laugh - but really and truly, it was a treat to be there.
A treat that my 12 year old son wanted me there. And even let me hang out with him a bit.
Applied Technology Career Days at the fair grounds was the destination. Every which way you turned there were booths about every which company and school in Utah that had anything to do with applied technology. A good share of the booths had some sort of 'hands on' activity for the kids to do to hopefully interest them in that field (however, truth be told, I think the vast majority of those 7th graders came 'for the food' so to speak..... lots of the booths had freebies, light up pens, water bottles, pins, candy........and THOSE were the booths where the masses were gathered. A little reminiscent of sample day at Costco if you ask me.)

One of the displays there was from a company who does work and research of things at a cellular level, so as part of their display, they had this portable, light up, hand held microscope. You could put it on your shirt, and the image you'd see on the screen was each individual fiber that made up your shirt. Same with hair. Super cool. The lady suggested we put the microscope on our hand, which I did - waited for a few seconds for it to focus, and then looked in a little bit of horror at what was on the screen.

Old, cracked, crevicey, wrinkled, nearly-dead-person-looking skin, with several black dots though out.
Blech. And ick.
Tried it again on the other hand.
Same results.
Looking at my hand with just my eye, it looked fine. Yes, a little wrinkled (I AM getting older, you know..) .....but still looked alright, no big black spots at least.

As we moved on from there, I kept thinking about that darn microscope. Then it dawned on me.....THAT is exactly how I have always seen myself. Deep dark crevices, old, wrinkled, and spotted with black dots (trying to be 'figurative' here.....)
Instead of focusing on any 'good' that there might be, more often than not my focus is on the black spots and the wrinkles, and because those things are what I see, it's hard to see anything beyond.

A good friend once said that she is her own biggest fan - not in any prideful sort of way - but she is able to see the good in herself, accept her shortcomings and flaws, and even be grateful for them.
I've always admired that quality in her. Envied it too.

I know in the grander scheme of things there is one who sees beyond the wrinkles and spots. Some days I remember that better than others.
For what ever reason, that image on the microscopes screen has crossed my mind much since that field trip yesterday, and it's sure made me think. A little bit wishing that my 'wrinkles and black spots' weren't quite so many. Wishing perhaps for the ability to 'step away' from the microscope when looking at myself.
Hum.....maybe that's a healthy step in the right direction.

Alright, thanks for bearing with my psychological moment there.....

On some funner notes -
here's some of the fun that was had at Career days:

The rock wall (how cool of the ARMY to bring that for their 'display' - the kids all loved it, and said they would all definitely join the army:)....

....and who WOULDN'T want to be a plumber? They got to unclog the clogged toilet (plastic poop and all....totally NOT kidding!)

Good times with the 7th graders :)

Best cure EVER...

2010-02-24T21:20:00.000-08:00

So I've decided that the best cure for the winter blahs (and let's face it, is there REALLY ANYONE who absolutely LOVEs the cold, dark, and gray that drones on????).....is a trip to St. George for a soccer tournament!
The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

Here's some highlights:
Soccer (of course)....so fun to be playing outside again. We were a little ill prepared for the 72 degree weather. Tanner started to feel the 'burning' on his winter white skin, and actually cracked open the mini packet of sunblock from the first aid kit. (he really was so concerned.....and I was trying not to laugh :)

This was a view of the soccer field in mesquite. Makes you totally want to don your flip flops and capris, huh?

The boys and I were able to go to the St. George temple and do baptisms with some good friends down there, and I KNOW we took pictures....but I'm wondering if a certain 3 year old who shall remain nameless accidentally deleted them.
It was awesome.

Swimming.....and more swimming....
Hey wait a second.
Those pictures are gone too????
You will just have to take my WORD on it - everyone was having a great time (even if we don't have the pictures to prove it)!

Cove Fort on the way home. Cool little church history sight built by Pres. Hinckley's grandfather.

When we left Mesquite the temperature gauge in the car said 72 degrees. Not even kidding here people.

For every hour north we drove coming home that day, we lost about 10 degrees.
Lame.

I'm trying to find a love in my heart for the winter. Will have to dig deeper apparently. In the mean time though, I think my flip flops are here to stay.

Ta da!....and other stuff.....

2010-02-08T20:36:00.001-08:00

Much been happening.
I'm sure you're lives are the same.
(Wait a second....we interrupt this post to holler ***HELP!....I can't click and drag pictures around in this blog anymore. In fact, when I'm editing a post it doesn't even show up as a real 'picture' anymore, just computer jibberish that I can't even cut and paste to move it. That's why all the pictures are at the top, in random order. Any blog geniuses that have had this problem before?****)

Alright....back to the post.....

Here's a couple of highlights from the past few weeks at the Nelson hut....

Bye Bye Binkies! (I know I know we're probably WAY over due on this one. But I had a sneaky suspicion that as soon as the binkie was gone, so would be the naps. And for an added bonus - not only does she NOT take naps, she also wakes up BEFORE the crack of dawn every day).

See how happy and excited she is to throw them away...all THREE of her favorite binkes ever. She realized she would be getting a little 'gift'. Which made her happy.
However, subsequent nights have proved that Little Mermaid Polly Pocket sets do not make up entirely for missed binkies.
Drat.

(And on a mothers side note - I have to admit, I shed a tear or two while rocking her to sleep that night, realizing that she's growing up.) (Alright, I realize that she's only THREE....but still)

Fun to-do's and ta-dah's number 2:

Remember WAY back....several posts ago......I was working on making the family room a little more 'hip' and 'hang-out' worthy?
Well....it's about 98% finished now, and here's what we came up with:

Woohoo for cheery family rooms :)
Much better than the drab blah that was there before.

And most recent ago was Grandpa Berry's birthday party. I love that man. He's kind, he's gentle, he's endured many hardships, his smile lights up his entire face. And he has the best darn 'veterans' hat ever.

I usually dread the cold, grey, dark of January - but I have to admit - it's been good. Eventful, busy, and good. NOT to say I'm not absolutely looking forward to March. March means the start of some REAL green.
And green is happy news.

Here's to January!

...the Very bad, no good, horrible year...

2010-01-24T11:41:00.000-08:00

How could someone so cute have such a rough time, you ask???
It's been a rough couple of weeks for daughter #1. Her ear drum ruptured. She missed New Years eve. Two weeks later she got braces and a mouth expander put in (which....I know isn't such bad news. She was actually pretty excited for it. Until they gave her the letter. The dreaded letter of what NOT to eat. For the next whole entire year. Almost EVERY SINGLE one of her most favorite and prized treats is ON THAT LIST. And who wouldn't be sad about that is what I'd like to know?)

The very next day brought a big ol' GASH on her thumb.

So, this normally very happy girl is sitting in the middle seat of the van, we're driving to the doctor so he can assess the damage done to her thumb, starts crying. Not a weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth sort of a cry - just the quiet sniffley sort. She must have been thinking about the past couple of weeks.....
"Mom....this has been my worst year ever."

Well drat. We're only 20 days into it.

We made it to the doctor, and he said definitely stitches were in order - 6 of them. 6 HUGE stitches. I've never seen such THICK stitching thread. Her cut was so deep that anything thinner just wouldn't have held up, he said. It hurt. Super bad I'm sure. She was brave. Very brave. (much braver than the mom...who nearly passed out herself). She was rewarded with 2 suckers, 3 stickers, and an ice cream cone for courage.

Luckily her horrible no good very bad year only actually lasted about an hour.
Once she realized how fabulous it would actually BE to go back to school, even though she was officially "tardy", and have her turn to be the "Big Cheese" (that's the line-leader for the day..and it really did happen to be HER day to be it). A Big cheese WITH braces. AND STITCHES. Life is good in 3rd grade.

Kids are resilient thank heavens. Many days I wish I was so resilient. The 8 year old is back to her regular old happy self now.
I love that girl!

This years top 10....

2009-12-31T21:34:00.000-08:00

Well here I sit.....it's 10:35 New Years Eve. Most of you are having a fabulous time getting ready to bang the pots and pans to bring in the new year. But the girls and I are quietly sitting at home thanks to a ruptured ear drum from Emma, and a tad-too-runny nose from Addie.
I'll admit, my insides were pouting as I ate my can of Progresso soup for dinner and thought of the fabulous nacho bar we were missing at Mema's house (I've been thinking of Velveeta-Ro-tel cheese dip ALL WEEK. I LOVE that stuff!).

Could she not have TIMED the rupturing of her ear drum any better than New Year's eve? Really people.

As we snuggled up together and watched Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph (just a side note - I KNOW Rudolph is a classic. Burl Ive's rocks.....but it seemed kind of creepy and a tad bit scary the other night. And the music? Let's not get started on the music. I've been singing "We're on the island of misfit toys" all night long.....and that's simply way too long to be singing that song.)

...sorry...I digressed again. So, as I was saying......we were snuggled up watching some fabulous Christmas classics, I realized that really - this is where I should be, and at that moment, there wasn't anywhere I'd rather be. Yes we were missing out on some fabulous Nelson family company, and awesome ro-tel cheese dip. But spending time with the girls, with nothing else to distract my attention? Felt good.

Alright, so the real reason of this post was just a quick wrap up for the Nelson bunch.......So here's just a quick wrap-up of our top 10 from 2009 (in no particular order):

Disneyland - love love love that place.

Emma getting baptized.
(it was bright, okay?)
Tyler receiving the prieshood

Tanner becoming a Teacher

Jason running his first half marathon

Addie wearing princess panties (hooray for no-more diapers!)...woops....sorry, no pictures for this one yet :)

The "Thursday" pool (Thanks Sis. Stevenson)

July 24 Camp out in the back yard....rain, wind, and all.

Cruise to the Carribbean

Tanner's wall of glory: (This one may need some explaining.....back in July Tanner one day said "hey, I totally feel taller"....so we measured, and by George, he was. It thrills him to no end to be measured now. Monthly. And gloat in his height. And that he can wear Jason's shoes now. And that he buys clothes in the Men's section. Probably his most thrilling accomplishment on the wall of glory is the top 2 dates, if you'll notice they are 2 days apart. I'm not kidding when I say we measured and remeasured thinking it must be some mistake. Hooray for teenage growth-spurts that very well may eat us out of house and home.

....as I was looking through pictures, I realized that we have much more than a top 10 list. This has been a fabulous year, always an adventure, and like I'm sure is the same for all of you - there have been struggles, triumphs, lessons learned, lessons still working on being learned, and many many many blessings.

Life is good. No. Life is awesome.

The happy place :)

2009-12-13T18:57:00.000-08:00

It is I tell you. It truly IS a happy place.
Not intending to bore anyone with a travel log.....but - just so it's documented.....here it goes....
8 days lapping up the 50's and 60's while you people were suffering in the 20's and snow (not to rub it in or anything :)....

...and on another triple happy note -
Son #2 FINALLY conquered a piece of himself! He has NEVER, ever, ever (did I mention EVER) liked rides. Any kind. Except the slow ones like the sky ride at Lagoon. Truly, you think I jest. Not so.
From the time he was 2 and we took him on the tilt-a-whirl at the city fair - he hated every minute of it. We've bribed him on a few things here and there - very mild things, mind you....i.e., Puff-the-dragon-roller-coaster-in-the-kid-zone-of-Lagoon, and the like. He tenses up like nothing I've ever seen, and we've all just kind of come to grips with the fact that he just does NOT like motion.
Now, giving the kid some credit - we've been to Disneyland 4 times, and even bought Lagoon season passes one year, and he's always been pretty darn patient at waiting (because when you don't like to ride rides, you mostly just wait). But this year was his year - he did it - he actually TRIED 5 new rides, and loved them (well, most every part of them....except the downhill parts - but he persevered people!)
It made the whole darn 12 hour drive down there completely worth it just to see his "I-just-CONQUERED-it!" face.
Kudos go to Son #2!

Third happy thing.....Never thought I'd say it, but princesses totally rock. What could make a 3 year old happier than meeting Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Belle, and as a bonus - Mulan???? It was a slice of heaven for the 3 year old.

And not that I don't love my life here in Layton.....but honest-to-Pete it was awfully hard to drive back, losing 10 degrees every couple of hours. Driving from palm trees, to the snowy 30 degree Wasatch front road slush. Ugh.
Blessed be you fabulous neighbors who shoveled our walks and driveway. We owe you brownies.

I totally could have taken another week or so of vacation..... but apparently the 8 year old was ready for our 8 days of fun to be end. As we were unpacking, I came down the hallway carrying a suitcase full of things to put away, and heard some sniffling sorts of sounds.....and there she was - crying in her bedroom. "What's wrong?" I asked.............."I'm just so happy to be home, mom".
Wow.
There's no place like home apparently.

Blah blah beige....

2009-11-14T22:12:00.000-08:00

I've tried to like it people, really I have. But Beige? It gives me the blahs.
I've given it my best shot in every form: Tavern taupe, Sand, Beautiful beige....you name it, I have probably painted it on some wall in one of our houses.
Lest I offend someone, don't get me wrong here.....I have walked into umpteen hundred homes all painted with some form of beige and thought they were beautiful. Hence, I've tried to re-create that beauty-ness in my home.
But it's just not working for me.

Maybe it comes from growing up in a nothing-but-white home (well, okay....unless you count the dusty rose/country blue floral wall-paper from time to time), and living in several stark white apartments.

Beige is not too far off from white. It's kind of a non-color color.

I remember a couple of times as teenagers giving our parents a gift of home-make-over...poor mans style. One Christmas (or Mothers day, I don't remember which), my brothers and I thought it would be a great idea to pool all of our minimum wage job earnings together and fix up the upstairs bathroom that was starting to look quite dilapidated - a project we knew my parents would have loved to do, but couldn't afford. So, off to the home project store we went. Kmart, actually. Looking for paint. We brought home a can of stark "bright white". I did see the rows of different color chips there. But, I walked right on by - I thought they were for rich people.

No joke.

I figured we couldn't afford color.
(no one ever mentioned that color was FREE!)

So, white it was. And stark-bright-white that bathroom was painted.
I'm not sure how on earth my parents allowed us to do what we did, trying to fix things up. Looking back, I'm absolutely positive our work would not have qualified for any home-show awards, and in fact - coming from teenagers who had no direction, and absolutely no idea what we were doing - the work was I'm sure sub-par at best.

Anyway, I digress.
The point is, I think my life has been filled with an over-dose of white.

This basement of ours has been a "mochachino" version of taupe, (once again....really trying to love the neutral-ness of it). However, I decided that what I was really hoping for was a fun teenage-slash-family-hang-out-sort-of-a-room. So, just for the record - here's what the family room has looked like:

Can you say BLAH. And Blech. And Boring.

....and now drumroll please.....???? (Well, actually, it's not COMPLETELY finished yet, so I shouldn't ask for the WHOLE drumroll.....just a half drum roll.....a drumroll-in-progress-sort-of-a-drumroll).....

Too much......or getting better? I know it may be drastic for some, but - me thought the room was a bit pizazz deficient.
With any luck this project will be done by weeks end and I'll post real true live finished product pictures.

Hooray for color....I think.

Be nice..........or else

2009-11-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

Being nice is good. Right? It's nice to be nice. Everyone should do it. I've always loved the idea of people......families, neighbors, everyone included.....just being nice. Someone once told me I live in an unrealistic "Pollyanna" world. (really people, is that SO wrong.......to WANT everyone to just be NICE?)

So the two year old has a thing for 'nice' too. Not personally, per se - she can boss the best of us, throw a hefty tantrum, and has even been known to occasionally grab, scratch, and kick innocent bystanders who happen to have what she wants at any given moment. Definitely not nice.

But as of late I've noticed a trend with her. While waiting in the dentist office a few weeks ago, she decided to play with the dinosaur set they had available. First time for a little dinosaur play for the girl, so I thought I'd show her what dinosaurs do.
"Roar" I said, in my best dinosaur voice.
"No mom" two year says, "they're nice."
"Roar" I said again.
"No. They're happy."

So we played happy dinosaurs.

Playing Sequence-for-kids (a board game with animals), she chose the lion card. "What does a lion say?" I ask.
She answers nothing.
"Roar" I say, in my best lion voice.

"They're nice mom".

Oh.

In the past month we've experienced lions, tigers, bears, cheetahs, dinosaurs, skeletons, and even played with the boys old castle set with the evil vs. good knights.

They are all nice.

The 'bad' knights were invited to eat soup with the good ones.

And if you ever wondered what a nice lion sounds like (because roar is not nice), I'll tell you what the two year old told me:

(put on your sweet-princess voice here):

"Hello. My name is lion. Come to my house for noodles."

Well put.

Be nice. Amen.

Conference weekend....were you listening??

2009-10-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

So....this year for our conference listening tactics, thanks to the idea of a fabulous friend.......we invested in some sticky note pads, and a picture of the Prophet and apostles - which was taped onto the family room wall. As they spoke in conference, the kids (who mostly are 'too old' for bingo charts, word searches, and all the other creative things you can print out) - were supposed to listen, jot down something that was said and then post it on the wall under their picture.
Just in case some of you missed it, OR just need a little uplift-ment, Here - just for you - are some excerpts from the first session.....

(he talked about hell)

(never-ending life with family)

Do you feel enlightened already?

Apparently my instructions were not so clear.
OR maybe 8 year is trying to TELL me something.....
about the never-ending life with our family, and about hell.

I had better straighten up apparently :)

By the end of the last session we had a few more 'happy' notes:
"Henry B. Love is special"
"Russell Nelson: Heven is loving!"

And this one was one of my favorites - I think because I absolutely loved the talk too:

Conference is truly one of my MOST favorite things EVER. Loved every minute of it!

Wanna new ring???

2009-09-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that my brother and his wife have a fabulous business making fabulous Titanium rings - Jason and I both wear them (and LOVE them!).
...........So.......they are giving away 3 rings - made to order, and all you have to do is check out their blog (and make sure to comment) (to read the official contest rules - they are 2 blog posts back....on her blog)(don't worry, they aren't long reads....I promise) - Just comment, and then your name will be put in the drawing. Check back each day (be sure to comment each day) (just until Wednesday, though) - and you're name will be put in additional times.
The lucky winners will be drawn on Thursday.

p.s.
My sister in law is a triple-great blogger - so you ought to check it out just because anyway!

GO HERE FOR A FUN READ AND A CHANCE TO WIN A GREAT RING!

From bad...to worse?

2009-09-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

Really?
Okay, I think that some Heavenly people are trying to teach me a lesson. That I have to keep relearning. And relearning.
It's this:
STUFF doesn't matter.
I get so hung up on the trivial things in life sometimes that I can't get beyond it, see beyond it, plan beyond it, and (like Martha) - I am "cumbered about".

So.....we built this house about a year and a half ago, right? It's a blessing. I KNOW it's a blessing. I also KNOW it's bigger than any house I've ever lived in. It's bigger than the home my parents live in. It's bigger than most of the homes in Argentina apparently too (we were shown some pictures of their home shacks today in the primary I got to visit). We have been TREMENDOUSLY blessed.

Why oh why when I know how much we're blessed JUST BY THE FACT THAT WE HAVE A HOME, AND CARPET, AND BEDS, AND LIGHTS, AND RUNNING WATER, AND A BASKET OF FRUIT ON THE COUNTER...why oh why do the little things bother me?
All the unfinished projects in the house, like the paint drips on some of the molding. Like the few places in the wood floor that isn't QUITE finished, like the 3 walls of baseboards that aren't caulked and painted yet, like the no-back-splash in the kitchen either.....

I REALLY REALLY really do NOT want these things to bother me. But they do. Much mental energy is spent worrying about it. More than I'd like to admit actually. So I won't.

Shortly after we moved in, we noticed that the finish on the kitchen cupboards was scraping off - really easily. After a couple of months it was starting to look noticeably awful, and starting to happen on nearly every door and drawer in the entire house. Ick, huh?

A call was finally put in to the guy who did our cupboards, who said they must not have cured properly or something so he would replace all the door and drawer fronts in the home. Hallelujah!
So we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
The cupboard guy is a family friend (which seems to complicate things), who doesn't actually build cabinets for a living. Just on the side. His regular job takes him out of town about 2/3 of every month.
......meanwhile we're still waiting. (patiently, I might add)

All I can think about is the day that we get the new cupboard doors, and life will be so great, and I will no longer be embarrassed when someone comes into the kitchen and heaven forbid, has to throw something away (that particular cupboard is the WORST). It will be WONDERFUL to have cupboards that look beautiful. And finished.
I can't wait!

An ENTIRE year later, we finally we get the call. The cupboard doors are done.
HOORAY!!!
He'll be up Friday to install them.
My heart is leaping. Life will be so good.

Cupboard man comes. Carries in loads of doors & tools and starts installing.
Woohoo I'm thinking!

After a few hours I notice something not quite right.....

AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
Not only are they NOT the same color as the previous doors, but the drawer fronts are a completely different shade that the door fronts, and they are ALL a different shade than the molding and trim. From the kitchen, to the 3 bathrooms, to the kitchenette downstairs.

Stand back. Take a deep breath. Laugh Ange, just laugh - I keep telling myself.
I'm trying.
It's sort of a laugh-cry thing for me at this point.

As the cupboard man left that night, completely and totally unsure of first of all - how the heck that even happened in the first place, and secondly - how on earth to fix the problem....
I hoped that perhaps someday I would find humor in this situation.

It's been 2 days since Friday now, I've had 2 days to look at all the different shades of brown we have going on all over the house. And 2 days to percolate on what to learn from this situation.

Here's what I've come up with so far.....

the MOST important things in life (insert your favorite Sunday school answers here) can STILL be done with mismatched cupboards, paint drips, unfinished master bathroom, missing baseboards, and even with out cute throw pillows & decorations to match. (hard to believe, I know.)

It (ie; stuff) doesn't matter in the bigger scheme of things. Well, it shouldn't matter.

My heart is REALLY trying to get the message through to my head.

Maybe once I figure that out, I mean REALLY figure that out - just then, maybe the cupboard man will figure out how to fix things :)

Who knew running errands could be so fun???

2009-09-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Had a few errand to run down south. Right near our old stomping grounds. So a deal was made. The kids (including Emma's friend Kora) had to 'suffer' through 'mom's' stuff, then the rest of the day was up to them. Here's how it turned out.....

First stop....(after the boring errands, of course) :)

Spanish Fork Reservoir!

TRIPLE GOOD TIMES!!!!! Love that place!
After a couple of hours sunnin' and swimming, a drive through our old neighborhood in Springville was next on the list - just to see how things were. We all waxed nostalgic for a few minutes. The kids realized that the BIG GINORMOUS hill they used to ride their bikes down wasn't all that big anymore. We waved at our old house, and remembered the 'good old days'. (just for the record....We ALMOST stopped at a few of your houses....just to say Hi.......we were SO close to dinging those doorbells..............but my better judgement decided we were wet, sandy, looked atrocious at best, AND it was just about dinner time.....so much to the kids chagrin, we forged on........)

Third stop? BYU creamery. Truly a happy and delicious place. (Well worth the stop.....if you ever happen to be on 9th in Provo).

Our final destination for the day was to hike up to Bridal Veil Falls - which is always fabulous! Walking up Provo canyon reminded me that I truly do miss Utah County (not that Davis isn't FANTASTIC, mind you.....)
Good times climbing up the falls, and the medal of courage be awarded to them all for daring to take a full body dip in the icy icy water!

Brave brave Tanner! (They were ALL brave....but the battery ran out.....darnet.)

I wish all errand days could be so fun :)

Deacons and Teachers and Priests....oh my!

2009-08-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

Alright, well maybe the Priests part was a little bit of an exaggeration....but honestly - I can hardly believe we're old enough to have a teacher AND a deacon living right here! Can someone please refresh my memory to when I happened to get old enough to have boys THIS old?

An ODE to the boys.....

Best buds! (Probably just about my MOST favorite picture ever of them!)

Hee Hee Hee!

Tyler made the BEST girl ever

Napolean, Pedro, and....the Snow princess?

With Dad, Papa Nelson (doesn't he TOTALLY look like an FBI agent?), and Grandpa Walker

You boys are awesome - thanks for being part of the adventure!

It's a Dirty job.....

2009-07-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

But SOMEBODY'S got to do it!
....so why not the boys?
When you become 'young men' age, you are officially invited to the scouts week long camp, which is always a good time. Who wouldn't love shooting rifles, swimming in sub zero temperature water, passing off your first aid skills, and eating delicious scout food? The boys totally love it. And I love that they love it.

Of course all this fun scout camping costs money, and most scout groups do a fund raiser to cover a portion of the cost, but not all. The boys are supposed to earn the difference. And........we're realizing that it's a little more difficult to find avenues for teenage boys to earn money. Girls have it easy - they can babysit. But boys......boys have to be a little bit more creative.

They sent out a flyer boasting their skills as trained garbage can washers, and the rest will go down forever in the Nelson history books as probably the grossest (yet somehow very rewarding) day of their lives.

1 large can of Pinesol, 1 can of Lysol, 2 scrub brushes, 1 sponge, a pressure washer, and 7 hours later........

They had successfully picked up, washed, disinfected, and delivered 23 garbage cans.

Do I even need to mention people how dirty they were?

If YOU happened to be a recipient of the garbage can cleaning service, please rest assured they took their garbage cleaning responsibility very seriously.
Those teenage bodies climbed personally INTO EVERY SINGLE CAN to scrub them into a shiny hunk of green.

Ew.

Total amount of mula made that day: 192$.
Scout camp cost: $160.
Minus a charitable contribution
......and they each came away with a few extra spending dollars.
7 hours well spent.
Never was a hot soapy shower so deserved.

Dumb ol' recession

2009-06-22T07:38:00.000-07:00

So.....in the middle of an economic recession, money is tight for many of us - I know that. We are surely not destitute by any meaning of the word, but we are moving ahead a little more cautiously, and little more thrify - like alot of people.
As of late there have been many a conversation about trying to be more frugal, and "that's a little too expensive", or "we probably won't be doing that this summer". It's good for kids to know that money doesn't grow on trees, right?
So, when Jason opened his fathers day card from Emma.......I somehow wondered if we've been a little too over-zealous in our financial discussions?

Happy Fathers day Jason!........minus the Reeces Pieces apparently.

Calling all cap and gowns.....

2009-06-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

So it's graduation time for a lot of people. Kids graduating from kindergarten. Sister in laws graduating with their Masters Degrees (congrats Stef!). Tyler graduating from 6th grade. It's a big move. He's in the big leagues now. Well....he's in the littlest part of the big leagues at least.
Something was said at his graduation ceremony that I thought was profound enough to share. The assistant principal was giving his short little 2-cents worth, and said something about reaching our goals, you know - typical graduation stuff. The quote he used was perfect. He said something like "We've all been given two ends by birth - one at the top and one at the bottom. Which end you use more will determine just how much you get out of life".
I loved it!
We DO try to keep the couch sitting to a minimum, but sometimes - that's just what they gravitate to. HOWEVER, I have to give a big kudos to the kids. We have successfully gone for officially over a month now with no TV reception. None. Zippo. We decided for budgetary reasons to turn off the DirectTV the beginning of May, with the intention of just getting the rabbit ears antenna for the local channels - which, just hasn't happened yet. So, we've had no DirecTV, no cable, not even any local channels. So if they want to watch something it's either play a wii game or watch a DVD.
.......and they HAVEN'T EVEN COMPLAINED!
I thought for sure we'd hear whining every day about what they were missing on the Disney channel. I thought I'd whine about missing the news.
Actually, it's been quite fabulous thing! I'm don't feel like I have to compete with what's 'coming up next' on the screen.
The boys have asked if we could PLEASE turn it back on before the next Jazz season starts.
We'll see. For now we're going to enjoy some commercial-free time :)

Reach for the clouds...

2009-06-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

...so we were jumping on the tramp - the girls and I, when two year old started jumping and reaching with all her might. "I got it!" - she said, and came and handed me a handful of..well...air.

"Thank you SO much!" I said, with as much enthusiasm I could muster.

"you welcome" she said, grinning from ear to ear.

"What is it?"

"clouds" She says (...oh....Clouds......of course!)

And why not?

Why on earth shouldn't we reach for the clouds, or the stars, or whatever you feel might be a hard thing - a little out of reach........and not always, but some lucky (and hard earned) days, actually reach them?

Whoa....that's a whole lotta stuff goin on!

2009-05-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

It's about cotton pickin' time - I know. Long time no post. Hey - it's been a bit busy round these parts.
So, this may be a tad random, but this is a small record of the goings-on around here....
First of all - WE DID IT!!! Jason and I ran a half marathon together - his first! He was a complete stud about the whole thing. It was super fun running with him, and the scenery and weather couldn't have been any better - it was beautiful running down Ogden canyon! I tried several times to encourage him to run on ahead - this was his first one - go see what you can do! (He's LOTS faster than me). But he insisted on sticking with me, so we crossed the finish line together - which was awesome for me.

It is still a super challenging distance for me to run, so we're going to hopefully sign up for a couple more this summer and work for a faster time. (that would be ME working for a faster time....he can already DO a faster time :) ...just for the record :)
The kids came up with this great poster for Jason - it was awesome!

Next big item....Piano recital - one of my MOST favorite things about teaching! The kids time to shine! It's always fun to let them pick out some super fun music and go for it. In the process of letting the students choose their recital songs, one of my students in particular chose two pieces that were well above the level she is playing at - but she REALLY wanted to do them, so the challenge was given, accepted, and worked for. Then I watched as student after student took challenges and worked toward them. For some reason it really touched me this year, and I decided that it had been way too long since I took a challenge in that area. It had literally been nearly 20 years since I polished and memorized a piece. So - gave myself a challenge to learn and memorize a Jon Schmidt song - and I did it! I played for the kids at the end of the recital, and although I flubbed it up quite a bit, it felt fabulous to do it - set a goal and work towards it. Wahoo for goal setting!

Tyler, Tanner, and Emma all did well with their songs too. Tyler especially took on a difficult piece and nailed it! It was a duet we played together, and the looks on his face as we were playing were priceless! (this picture doesn't do it justice for sure...) He was doing great and he could totally tell!

Next goings on have been OODLES of soccer games (which we love!). In fact, 2 weeks ago we had 5 games and 4 practices (3 of which were from Highland, Park City, and Salt Lake) all in a 5 day span. Combine that with the homework, scouts, young mens, piano lessons, dinner, homework, and laundry - and that's about all we could do that week.

2nd grade extravaganza - triple amounts of fun! 4 second grade classes singing about all the things they learned this year.

Also, 2nd grade mothers literacy tea - This year in second grade they have really been focusing on the writing process. The kids have all written and "published" 6 or 7 stories, and they chose their favorite to share with all the mothers at the other literacy tea.
So, the first girl in our group shares a cute story about a little stuffed animal she found at the park and how she named it, and bought it a play toy. It's name was Sniffles, and she loved the dog. Cute, sweet story.
Yellow post-its were handed out and we were each to write something we loved about the story for the 'author' to put in her literacy scrapbook.

Then it was Emma's turn. She had chosen to write a 'true story' that happened to our family. It went something like this...

"Our family wanted a dog, so we went to the pet store and chose a black dog. Our dad named it Bentley because of his bent tail. He was a good dog, then he bit our friend Jilly really bad. Then my cousin came over and he bit her. He nearly bit half her arm off. So we had to take him back to where we got him, and our family has lived sadly ever after."
The end.

I think the book is going in one of those year-end binders with all their 'to-keep' work, so she wasn't able to bring it home. Otherwise I would include some pictures of it in this post.
My favorite picture was the one of an arm bone (you know, the one that was nearly bitten off) - it looked like something you'd see on an X-ray - only in color and with blood. (and I was thinking that only boys could come up with pictures like that). Oh my.
As the post-its were passed around there was an awkward silence. What are the mothers supposed to say to that? We couldn't honestly say 'loved the illustration of the blood and bones'. Hum.

As she was reading this story it was all I could do not to stand up and shout 'LISTEN TO ME PEOPLE! THAT'S NOT REALLY HOW IT HAPPENED AT ALL!"
Let me clarify (just in case some of you are wondering)....

First of all, Santa brought the dog. There was no pet store involved here people.
Secondly, the mom named the dog. Not that I'm having a pride issue about that - but it was a fairly fitting and cute name.
Thirdly, yes he did bite - BUT IT WAS NOT HALF OF HER ARM OFF PEOPLE!

So, I'm left wondering - was she just embellishing the story a little, or is that really her recollection of how it happened?
I wonder if some of my child hood memories are a bit skewed like that? Actually, I'm pretty sure they are. Even as an adult, we don't always see things as they really are, or as others see them. Sometimes our perceptions of things are much different.
Mental note to self - remember that.

Tyler finished up the requirements for his Faith in God award, which he got today. Super proud of him! Jason is a BIG stickler for not 'pencil-passing' things off. Meaning - unless he's REALLY done it, done it well, and understands what he's done - it's not passed off.
Articles of faith included. It doesn't count if you recite it once with out looking in the book. As of 2 weeks ago he had 2 that were still giving him a hard time - 10 and 13. (I have to admit, # 10 STILL gets me.....it's the one about the 'literal gathering' and 'paradisaical glory' .......you know the one :)
So - he finally took the CD player down to his room and started singing along to the primary songbook articles of faith songs - and LO AND BEHOLD HE GOT IT! Both of them. Every day since then at some random point through out the day he'll come up and say "hey - I still have it!" and recite them both. He was spot lighted in primary today for it, and was just beaming....so congratulations Tyler!

Well....that's like I said, a small portion of what's been going on at our house the past couple of weeks......sorry for the extra long read :)

Here's a tag....

2009-05-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

I was tagged.....so here you go!

8 things I'm looking forward to:

1. Half marathon on Saturday

2. Green grass. Why is it that ours is still the sick looking grass on the street?

3. Piano recital next week - it's one of my favorite things about teaching!

4. Sunshiney sunny weather - day in and day out!

5. Vegetables from the garden

6. Hiking. Can't wait for it!

7. A few sizes smaller

8. Great big giant hole in the driveway being fixed

8 things I did yesterday:

1. Ran 3 miles with Jason

2. Crossed about half of the things on my to-do list off

3. Taught piano lessons

4. Talked about Articles of Faith for family night

5. ALMOST did a front flip on the trampoline....just can't quite land it!

6. 3 loads of laundry

7. Listened to kids talk about their day

8. Returned some wood at Home Depot.

8 things I wish I could do:

1. Run faster (not than I have strength...) just something faster than a 10 minute mile :)

2. Be consistent (with ANYTHING really.)

3. Love healthy food (more than my love for Swedish fist, cinnamon rolls, alfredo sauce, and other fabulous foods like that)

4. Speak a foreign language

5. Fiddle

6. Play the guitar

7. Be even a teeny tiny bit athletically inclined (okay, I'd really love to be COMPLETELY athletically inclined...but I definitely wasn't blessed with it, so I'm trying to be good with what I've got) :)

8. Have the ability to STAY organized

8 Shows I watch:

1. The news.

2. Um......Cosby show or Mash re-runs

3. um...

4. ...

5. did I mention the news?

6. .....

7. .Oh, General conference every six months....

8. (just not much of a TV watcher apparently)

Good intentions...

2009-05-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

Drat. I had such good intentions for today. Finish the laundry. (oh wait....who am I kidding...START the laundry might be more accurate here). Clean the embarrassingly messy master bedroom and bathroom. Do the dishes (yesterdays AND todays). Put away all the stuff from a big primary meeting last night. Get the ironing done. Write some over-due thank you notes. Take the 2 year old to the park. Buy a new toothbrush. Have the house "Sunday clean" because we won't be home on Saturday to make sure that happens.

.......So........Welcome to my day!

There's more pictures to be seen of the tornado-like rooms in the house. However, the camera battery died so you are all spared having to look at it, and I am somewhat spared of the shame that would be attached to those pictures.
I know having a clean home is not everything. HOWEVER.....here's some few differing cents on the matter.....

Cleanliness IS next to Godliness.

Cluttered house...cluttered mind (my mom used to say this one, and BOY is it true for me!)

And for whatever reason, I feel like the current condition of the house is in direct correlation to how I'm doing as a stay-at-home-mom. So, if it's been quite a week (which it has been), and the living conditions are less than spectacular - It makes me feel somehow lacking in the art of housewifery.

It will NEVER cease to amaze me how QUICKLY things fall apart here. It seems to be a problem that perpetuates itself, too. For example, if the kitchen counter has not been cleared off for whatever reason, it's as if the whole of the kitchen magically transforms into a barn, and it no longer matters what happens there. You could be wearing an apron, for example, (because you were perhaps cooking in your easy bake oven). (But I'm not pointing fingers). And when you are done, the quite logical thing to do would be to drop your apron on the floor. You're friends apron should also go there. And if you drop some garbage a bit before you actually reach the garbage can, well, that's alright, because apparently as you look around - things aren't in the most spectacular order anyway. So either a)no one will notice, or b) no one will care, or c) you really truly forgot that aprons and/or garbage don't actually GO on the floor....in which case we would forgive you readily.
.....Then this self-perpetuating problem bleeds into nearly every room in the house, until suddenly - less than 48 hours since your last fabulous cleaning, it looks as if you may have 22 messy little gnomes living in your house.
DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE......OR IS IT REALLY TRULY JUST OUR FAMILY??????

Off my to-do list I will cross "buy new toothbrush". I did get that done. And we did go to the park for 45 minutes or so. And as soon as I post this blog I will go atleast start the first load of dishes. I don't know that I could even tell you what happened to this day, it just didn't quite happen the way I set out for it to happen.

Joy in the journey. These kind of days are the ones that I think that statement is HOLLERING at me to stop, and re-visit my priorities, and where I'm spending more time than I should be, where I'm not spending quite enough time, and mostly just learning to find the joy - in a clean kitchen or not, picked up family room or not, mopped or sticky floors, dirty or clean laundry.

I love how President Monson added "Now" at the end of that statment - "Find Joy in the Journey now". Too often I think "I'll find joy as soon as the dishes are done." or when this section of the house is organized, or when this is clean. That's not how it works, and I know that - I truly do.....I just haven't been able to get past it yet.

So that's my goal this week - finding joy right now. Where-ever and what ever situation I happen to be in.

Wish me luck :)

Go ahead and TOOT!

2009-04-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

...Now I know what you're probably thinking from the title.....this is going to be some sort of boy humor blog post or something. Not this time people.
This is some real honest to goodness horn tooting. Not mine, mind you. That would be rude.

But it's okay to toot our kids horns every once in a while, right?
Maybe for me it's a little bit of vicariously living through my children. You see, when I was a teenager, much to my mothers shagrin, I was not the most studious student on the block. Or the whole neighborhood for that matter. In fact, I was pretty lousy, by choice, which made for an unending amount of heart ache for my parents.
....So years and loads of regret later, it makes me more happy than you'd ever know to see this on report cards....

4.0!!!!!!

(I think they should add the exclamation marks on good report cards)

Tonight was the induction ceremonies for the Junior National Honor Society, and it's was awesome! Most of you probably know all about that because you were all probably members back in the day. However, that whole experience escaped me for all the years I was in school. To be a member of course your GPA has to be above 3.75, but you also have to do at least 15 hours of service in the community - which is SO GOOD for kids (what am I saying....it's SO GOOD for adults too!) So, they had a few kids talk about what they did for their service hours, then spoke about the importance and origins of education. Tanner got called out of the audience for an object lesson by the keynote speaker, and - not being a lover of being in front of people- he was pretty beet red - but he still did great!

We're super proud of him, and hope he keeps it up next year when grades 'really count'. (who-ever came up with grades DON'T count before 9th grade is silly. Of course they count.....don't the habits they form NOW affect what will come LATER?)

Alright, I hope this hasn't been too much horn tootage, but I really just had to get a big WAHOO off my chest!

Just wondering......

2009-04-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

For the last little while I've been paying attention to all the questions that seems to pop up all in a days work here at home. Some are great questions. Some make me smile. Some make me completely shake my head and think 'are we serious people?'.....Here's some examples.....

1. Where's the socks? (this is kind of a funny one, because - due to my lack of inconsistency (in SO many areas of my life), the pile of unsorted socks may be in any number of places.....the laundry room, my bedroom, the master closet, under the clothes the need to be ironed......so.....the poor children never know from day to day just WHERE on earth to find their socks!)

2. Is Heaven an actual planet somewhere.....or does it just sit right above the clouds?

3. Why don't we have anything to eat? (I'm shaking my head at this one.....let's see son.....we have gogurt, string cheese, apples, pudding, grapes......what other choices do you need?) (said child STILL mumbles and leaves the kitchen with out eating anything)

4. Does Heaven have neighborhoods like Layton, and do people up there come to the middle of heaven and look down at us here? (this one took me by surprise, and I think I said 'what?'...so the child replied "you know mom, like, if YOU were there, would you come to the middle of town and look down at your children?) (that's one of my favorites) (except that it DID make me a little worried at first - you know how a mom's brain works......'is this a sign of something? Is this child trying to tell me or prepare me for something????

5. Where is the phone? (as if my body is any more able to push the 'phone locator' button and follow the beeping sound any better than the person asking)

6. Could you get me a fork? Doesn't seem like a bad question......except when the child is 20 feet CLOSER to the fork drawer, and the mom is on her way OUT of the kitchen with a full load of laundry in her arms. After this question I honestly just stood there and must have looked a little dumb-founded, because the child quickly realized how silly this request was, and hopped up to get themselves a fork.

7. What dessert do we have the ingredients for? (this is a somewhat embarrassingly re-occurring question........)

8. How many carrots do I actually have to eat?
(given that the same child probably asked the question about dessert, my answer should have been 3 heaping scoopfuls...however, they were let off by only 5)

9. Can we read one more chapter please? (this one happened twice - 2 different children...2 different settings. One was at scripture time - the chapter we read was fairly short, and one child wanted to KEEP GOING (this one made my heart happy....that doesn't happen hardly ever!) The next was reading to another child at bedtime, which happens to be one of my very most favorite things to do ever. Glancing at the clock that is getting closer and closer to 'far BEYOND when you should have already been asleep child!'.......but reading is one thing I LOVE when they want MORE!

10. Did you hear THAT? This happens when any child (I think I've heard it from all 3 olders this week) as they are preparing for piano recital and finally 'getting' their songs. Another one I LOVE to hear!

Children definitely make life interestingly fabulous, don't they? Some days I wonder if I'm really up to the challenge of motherhood, and if I'm doing any good at all. But most days I'm truly humbled and grateful for the opportunity!

RANDOM

2009-04-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

For lack of ideas or interesting things going on here.....but still with a desire to blog about
SOMETHING....
here are seven completely random, and in no particular order, things about me that you may or may not know....

1. I've been deported from a foreign country (not a super fun experience).... (I was INNOCENT I tell you......really.) (A long story for another day....)

2. When I was younger (much younger), I could play a few piano pieces while sitting backwards.

3. I am a LIST-MAKING FANATIC! I love lists, and make a to-do one every day, including anything and everything I may do that day - just to have the satisfaction of crossing things off. It's pathetic, I know....but I will include things like "shower & ready", "kids ready", "lunches made", "pray". And if I've done something that I happened to NOT write on the list....I will quickly write it on the list, and just as quickly cross it off the list. (that really IS pathetic, I know!) But yet, somehow - it's a fabulous thing!
There truly is something gratifying to me about crossing things off my list.

4. I am somewhat claustrophobic. Elevators are mostly fine (unless the door takes too long to open). Caves are an absolute no-no (although, I hope to overcome this fear at some point in my life).

5. Because of #4...the sheets and blankets have to be UN-TUCKED at the end of the bed, or else my feet start to feeling completely TRAPPED! (this is much to the shagrin of Jason...who prefers his side tucked in!)

6. I OFTEN feel very socially awkward. (I don't have to expound on that one, do I?)

7. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Chips and salsa (the good homemade kind....), chocolate milk, and swedish fish. Oh, and breadsticks dipped in alfredo sauce. Also you could just go ahead and add anything else that is creamy and full of starch and carbohydrates. It's kind of a problem I'm having.

There you go. 7 random things about me.
I'm realizing that's probably too much of me for one post! Sorry people.

Big Yawn.....

2009-03-31T20:13:00.000-07:00

NOBODY PANIC.
But our once mild and so sweetly mannered (but more recently turned dr. Jekel (or would that be Hyde? I can never remember which is the evil one) two year old, has started NOT taking naps.
Okay. Mind is racing again. Heart is starting to beat faster. Palms are sweaty.
It's not the end of the world, right? No, not quite the end of the world. But.....how do they say it in "Over the Hedge"?.....
Just the end of the suburban peace and TRANQUILITY!

Here's the daily routine, you know - the one I'm used to. Wake up, have a nice normal morning, do normal stuff that we all do, eat lunch, put said two year old down for nap, read scriptures, do a little cleaning (or a lot of cleaning....depending on the day and the mess), work on primary things, prepare for piano lessons, make dinner, exercise if needed, and take a shower if necessary (note: not ALL of these things happen everyday. That would take some sort of super powers that I definitely do not possess)......
It's a selfish schedule, I know.

When two years olds don't take naps, here's the routine..... Have a nice morning, do normal stuff that we all do, eat lunch, put said two year old down for nap. Said two year old has LONG conversation with self. Two year old sings. Two year old jumps in crib like trampoline. Talks to baby. Pushes the buttons on the Little Einstein fishy music thing in her crib. Makes more conversation. Sings more songs. Jumps a little more. Meanwhile, mom is not being a lick of productive due to the sounds and wonderment of still awake child, and a tinge of guilt over leaving obviously not tired two year old in crib. Looks at the clock... could an hour and a half really have gone by and she's still singing?

AREN'T YOU TIRED YET???

She's not a bit interested in a little shut eye apparently.
So, mom retrieves child and all is well. Until 4:30. Then Mr. Jekel arrives for the remainder of the evening.
Actually, the temperment is probably more comparable to Dr. Jekel with a paper cut, a headache, and a moderate case of pms.
Love her as we do, this self-prescribed no nap taking child has been slightly less than pleasant to be around....mostly after 4:30. By 7:00 we're ready to give her to the Gypsies.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Oh wait....maybe I am. Sorry.
I love her none the less. We all still adore her. We're just not sure what to do when two yeard olds decide not to nap anymore.

From This.....to This.....

2009-03-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

Wasn't it just yesterday she was this cute chubby cheeked, blond hair 3 year old?????? Where did the time actually go??

Alright, before I haul off and start singing a fairly sappy rendition of Sunrise Sunset, let it suffice to say that really truly and honestly....I can't hardly believe she's eight.
Her birthday (which she has LITERALLY been planning and talking about for 9 months now) was a big success. From our traditional birthday breakfast in bed.....a tradition that had a fairly fancy beginning years ago - waffles with strawberries & whip cream, bacon, and orange juice....or WHATEVER the birthday person requested for breakfast. However, the past 3 years, the kids have all opted for a box of cold cereal.
Of their choice.
The sugary kind.
And it's not Chex. Or Honey bunches of Oats either.
Cookie Crisp so far has been the standing favorite. (Why they'd choose that over waffles with strawberries and whip cream is beyond me....)

Swimming that night was triple amounts of fun! How could you go wrong at the Bountiful pool - that place is awesome! And top the weekend off with a her Baptism on Saturday (Thanks for our fabulous family and friends for coming to share that day with her!)

Emma is our very independent, wants to do things her way, but still tender hearted, mostly girly-girl -(but occasionally a Tom-boy....she'll remind me) - who quite often reminds me of spiritual things that are far more important in the bigger scope of things!

Here's to you -
Happy 8th Birthday Emma!

Kid funny

2009-03-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

We were talking about baptism in that thing we do on Monday nights.....seeing as how Emma will be doing that in a couple of weeks.

So....she asks if they FOR SURE drain the font of ALL the water after someone is baptized, then fill it up with fresh water for the next person?

Not sure where she was going with this one.... was she worried the water would be cold? Our faces may have looked a little puzzled. She noticed we weren't quite getting her question and simply said....

"I don't want anyone elses 'washed out' sins all over me!"

What made it even cuter was the fact that she was completely sincere and very WORRIED about this...If you are 'clean' after being baptized, then surely your sins must somehow fall into the water, then the next person being baptized in that same font would absorb all the residue of sins floating around in the water....

or something like that.

She gets the cute comment of the day award!

It's a MIRACLE!

2009-03-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Maybe some of you 'stay-on-top-of-it-house-wives' will not have an appreciation for this post because you..well, stay on top of it. Not so much at the Nelson house. I hate laundry. I know hate is a fairly harsh word, and we teach our children not to say it. But, I think I really am feeling that emotion for the laundry. period. And I'm not afraid to admit it.
I do love empty laundry baskets. And I love the smell of clean laundry. But the laundry it's self is probably one of my worst re-occurring nightmares.
Maybe because it's never done. Done done. The moment the laundry bin is empty, you look at the clock - realize it's 8:30 p.m., the kids will be putting on their pajamas in 10 minutes or so - which means the clothes that were ON their bodies - will be going into the laundry bin. So....you spend the next ten minutes standing in your laundry room - for a moment of peace and tranquility, admiring the empty baskets that will be empty no more.
Argh.
As of late, I've not been all too fabulous at keeping the laundry circle moving. I can get it washed and dried pretty good, but once I'm one or two loads behind in folding - well, I might as well be 100 loads behind. Good Husband has rescued sad wife (more than I'd like to admit here) by holding late night family folding sessions. And sad wife always has load of guilt hanging over her head at her inability to stay on top.

But...brace yourselves people......for 14 days straight......
I HAVE DONE IT!!!! WAHOOOOO!!!!
Say it with me.....THE LAUNDRY CAN BE DONE!!!!
I know our mothers taught us not to toot our own horns, so consider this a non-tootage shout out that for the past 2 weeks there have been clean socks, underwear, and pants readily available for all to wear.
Let me hear a WOO-WOO!
Okay, lest I take all the credit and become lifted up in pride, I best digress a little. It might be helpful here to mention that for the past few weeks the boys have been doing their own laundry in order to pass off a line in their Faith in God and Duty to God.
So, maybe I shouldn't be quite so ecstatic about this situation - seeing as how the amount of dirty clothes I single handedly handle has been minimized by two bodies. OR maybe I should be completely thrilled at the seaming solution we have inadvertently found here.

I think I'm liking this arrangement.

Crazy eights

2009-03-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

8 Item Tag

Here are the rules:

1)Post the rules on your blog.

2)Answer the six '8' items on the tag.

3)Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

8 Favorite TV Shows: Hum....I'm really not a TV watcher. But I guess if I am going to watch anything, it would probably be
1. 10:00 News - KSL please
2. Mash re-runs
3. Cosby Show
4. ....um
5. .....
6. I really am not kidding...I don't watch TV
7. .....
8. Oh, how could I forget the Jazz games? I do watch those and they are awesome!

8 Things I did Yesterday:
1. Helped at kids school
2. Ran 2 miles....huffing and puffing the whole way!
3. Made Freezer meals (hoorah.....I love these freezer meal groups!)
4. Taught piano lessons
5. Went to Tyler's futsol game
6. Spent nearly 2 hours on the phone between primary phone calls and a call to my mom
7. Watched Emma show me her new tricks on the bars at the school playground
8. Read bedtime stories - my favorite!

8 Things To Which I'm Looking Forward:
1. Blue sky and 85 degrees!
2. Nelson family trip to Disneyland...hopefully this November :)
3. Emma getting baptized
4. Hiking
5. Running a half marathon with Jason (well...I'm KIND OF looking forward to that :)
6. Green grass, and the smell of a freshly mowed lawn
7. A garden - fresh tomatoes and fresh peaches
8. Serving a mission

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. PF Changs - the lettuce wraps are to die for!
2. Dragon Hill
3. Olive Garden (just for the bread sticks, alfredo sauce, and salad)
4. Applebees (they make a killer oriental salad)
5. Osaka - a little Japanese place in Provo
6. Subway (okay, boring selection I know.....but sometimes a good Veggie sub just hits the spot!)
7. Wingers wings are pretty good. Tyler LOVES wingers celery. Go figure.
8. Tempanyaki

8 Things on My Wish List:
1. A good thick head of hair - oh what I wouldn't give for that!
2. Grand piano (I'd even settle for a baby grand)
3. A finished, fully functional master bathroom....oh what the heck - how about ALL the house projects finished.....and while we're wishing, how about some extra money to decorate as well?
4. A mouth with out major dental issues.
5. To be financially secure. Completely.
6. Confidence
7. perfectly manicured yard (I know I copied from Mechelle....but I LOVE perfect yards!)
8. A college degree (someday....)

Confessions of an OCD mother.....

2009-02-25T21:51:00.000-08:00

Our seven year old daughter LOVES her stuff. Displayed everywhere. Little chotsky trinkets of all shapes and sizes. The eraser she found on the floor of the school. The peanut can of green air-soft BB's picked up from the nearby park (these are special you know!). The rocks that were collected from the pathways in the old neighborhood - each with it's own name (likewise, just as important). Paper flowers that someone in school made in art. Dry-erase markers from the dry-erase board that we no longer have. 47 stuffed animals.
Not to mention the 3 soccer trophies, a coloring book, some random Littlest Pet Shops, the empty paper cup from her dad's work on Saturday, and a few of her latest drawings, along with a few assorted pens and pencils.

So.....where in tarnation do you suppose we put all this stuff? If you guessed mostly on the nightstand next to her bed, and the rest strategically placed on the windowsill, bed, and floor -
then you guessed absolutely right!

Here's my problem. I'd like her room to look something like, oh, let's say - a Pottery barn catalog picture.
She loves her room with all it's fabulous displays of every wonderful treasure a seven year can find. And most often - her idea of a perfectly tidy, clean, organized room looks something like this

A few days ago, I knew we'd be having company over that night. So while Emma was at school I took the liberty of tidying up her room a little bit. Now - I DON'T USUALLY DO THIS . (But there ARE somedays I just can't help it people). Let me tell you what I did do. Moved the two outfits she had laid out on her chair (for the next two days, of course) back to the closet - nicely folded - where they belong (surely she could remember which two outfits she had already chosen with out having them laid out, right?). Straightened up the nightstand, threw away a few pieces of garbage from the nightstand, put the stuffed animals in the hot pink Ikea stuffed animal holder hanging from the ceiling, and arranged the pillows on her bed in a somewhat normal way. It looked something like this :

When she arrived home from school that day, instead of sounds of praise and thanks for completing one of her daily chores for her, thus making her load a little lighter that day (which, truly I didn't expect......I just didn't expect the reaction I got either)......There were TEARS, people. Loads of them. Then even a comment or two about how I seem to "ruin everything". Why would you put my stuffed animals there? I don't like my pillows like that. ...and I hate the brown bamboo thing you always put on my nightstand!
Wow. Harsh.
More tears. Then door shuts quietly, and I can hear one-person conversation going on, as well as things being shuffled back to the way they were. Before.
The door opens.
"THAT'S how I like it mom".
And she is happy now.
And that's how the room will stay apparently.

I will not kid you and say the temptation isn't there to go in and move things around to a more clutter-less look (Husband refers to it as the 'museum' look). And maybe I will from time to time. As long as I change it back BEFORE she returns from school.

3 Thankful fors:
1. Relief Society - just a good place to be on a Sunday afternoon.
2. Swedish Fish. Who wouldn't be thankful for those?
3. Free tickets to the Jazz game Saturday night.

SIXTH Challenge....

2009-02-17T20:39:00.000-08:00

Thought this was a fun (if not a bit random) challenge (Thanks Laura!).....so here's the rules, and the comment on the fairly random picture that's posted.

1. Go to the photo folder in your computer

2. Go to the 6th folder of photos.

3. Go to the sixth picture.

4. Put the picture on your blog and description of it.

5. Invite six friends to join the challenge.

This is the bag piper at my Grandpa Cookie's funeral. He must have been freezing, in the middle of December wearing just his kilt!

Now I tag.....Amy, Mechelle, Lara, Maren, Holly, Heather, Stephanie, Sherry, Emily, and Kristen (okay - I KNOW that is TEN....I CAN count you know....) Just thought it would be fun to see what everyone's got in their 6th folder :) ! (unless you've already done it, that is :)

Monday Monday....

2009-02-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

From the get-go, the signs of a struggle were evident. Waking up thinking "Best day ever!" (for those of you who went to Womens conference!), I'm going to eat FABULOUSLY healthy today, I'll even have time to exercise BEFORE I volunteer in 6th graders class this morning. To-do list is quite long, but it's a do-able long list - I think it can ALL be accomplished. Hooray.
Then, said 6th grader says "It's my day to bring treats to Student Council meeting, which is in....1 hour". Hmph. Making peanut butter fingers at 7:00 in the morning is not my favorite thing, apparently. How can you NOT taste them? And the frosting? Eating fabulously healthy goal is already blown by 7:45 am. Not good.
Couldn't exercise before volunteering because of making student council treats. However, son left for early morning meeting happy, and with treats - worth it. Mom, went to school happy to volunteer in 6th grade, knowing she was doing at least something good, and could exercise right after. No such luck. Power goes off while volunteering. And stays off for many hours.
Mom realizes she uses electricity for pretty much just about everything. No vacuuming, no blow drying hair, no microwaving 2 year olds lunch, no laundry, no piano practicing - it's electric too, no computer, no email, no blogging, no treadmill, no phone, no checking KSL.com for the latest news updates.
Let's run errands, she thinks. Roads are WAY to slick and slush packed. Husband advises against this idea. What's a mom to do?
After the initial inner panic that sets in, I have to admit......it felt kind of NICE and kind of QUIET. Really quiet. Especially after 2 year old laid down for a nap. How else to describe it? Kind of like a pondering sort of quiet. I wish I would have written "ponder" on my to-do list. Then maybe I would have taken more advantage of the disconnected-from-everything quiet time I had, instead of fretting over the many things on my list that will be staying on my list until tomorrow.
Tomorrow I'm writing 'ponder' on my to-do list, just in case the power goes out.

....And the sun was happy.

2009-02-06T21:18:00.000-08:00

Even though the cruise we went on in January was only about 3 weeks ago, it sure seems like it was a whole lifetime ago. Funny how time does that to you!

So as not to bore you with TOO much of travel details, I'll try to keep this short-ish. The sun was sunny, the sky was blue, the water was bluer......and we were happy.
Snorkeling was awesome - it was Jason's first time, and he was as giddy as a 4 year old boy at Christmas time! The puffer fish were GINORMOUS!

We swam with and held Sting Rays - they were a little too friendly for my taste (kind of gave me the heebie-jeebie's, actually), - yes - that's me holding a slimy squid for them to eat. Blech.
There was zip-lining through the rain forest (one of our two most favorite excursions!), jumping off cliffs into the ocean (well...Jason did that. I opted to be a non-participator on that one), boogie boarding, banana trees, midnight meals at the cafe with great friends, only one night of dramamine (hooray!), and an adventure with sea turtles.
Jason's absolute dying wish on this cruise was to see a for-real-live sea turtle. No such luck at the first 4 ports. So on the last day, we hopped into a taxi and Jason explained how we really just wanted to see a sea turtle. For 10$ each, he would take us to a good place, he said. Trusting in the taxi driver (his name was Ishmael....how can you NOT trust someone named Ishmael?), off we went. He dropped us off at Monkey Beach, and gave instructions to swim straight out about 100 yards. Sure enough! There were some sea turtles......GREAT BIG HUGE sea turtles! I felt like Nemo's dad. Jason took some amazing pictures of them - and he was happy.

There was quite a lot of poverty on the islands, which also has made me more and more grateful for the many, many things we are blessed with here. Contrary to the 'I need this, and I need that' mentality that I, more often that I'd like to admit, display, I DO have the things that I need, and I have alot of things that I want, too. We definitely do not lack for anything here.
We are ever grateful for willing parents who watched the kids, and Sprinkler Supply, from which the cruise came.
The break from the smoggy ick and cold was a welcome and fabulous patch of heaven!

Laughter IS good medicine!

2009-02-02T21:25:00.001-08:00

So, I truly WISH I had a picture for this one....but, I didn't think to grab the camera fast enough darnet.
As of late a some member(s) of our family have been having a bit of a hard time laughing at ourselves - and tend to get frustrated and angry quite quickly. Tears usually flow quite freely and easily over situations that tears should not flow quite so freely and easily over. Someone recently told me they had it from a good source that the cycles of PMS can actually start as young as 4 years old. And I'm a believer.

As a family we discussed a conference talk from Elder Wirthlin, about learning to laugh at ourselves and lifes' situations. Not too long after that, our home teacher was inspired to share with us that same message. Very inspired. And just a few weeks ago the same talk was the subject of family night given to our kids by an inspired Grandma while we were away on vacation. Again, very inspired.

And yet some days I am left wondering if any of it seeps in?

So, it's Friday night.....we're eating dinner. There are two friends over eating dinner with us as well (usually we try to be on good behavior when this happens). Daughter has been sitting at the island, then walks over to dad- who is sitting at the table, holds out her hand and asks for some cottage cheese please.
Said Dad looks at her outstretched hand, (and just for fun) scooped out the largest scoop of cottage cheese he possibly could (she looked hungry)....and put it......right in her hand. Silence. Then tears....and wailing.....and gnashing of teeth. (mind you - the rest of us were rolling by this point).

Here's the miracle..... Two or three minutes later it finally happened. She laughed!

She's getting it! Hooray!!

Here's my thankful 3 for today:
1. Plants - especially fake ones that look great, yet need minimal care.
2. Great soccer game tonight - Tyler made 2 of his teams goals!
3. Getting together with BOTH sides of the family this weekend.

Woops...

2009-01-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

Look see....here it is - only Blog # 2 and already I've forgotten the one thing I wanted to include in every blog. My Thankful-fors. So, here they are - for the last blog....

1. Oldest son gave a GREAT talk at a fireside last night!

2. Fiber-one bars. They aren't too bad....for something with so much fiber :)

3. The best Chinese-new-year dragon parade today by the 2nd graders.

Girly Girl

2009-01-25T20:18:00.000-08:00

How many basketball games have we been to? Well, in just our daughters life time....probably more than a hundred. No kidding. Between both boys Jr. Jazz games, some occasional church ball, and all the Utah Jazz games we watch (she, not so willingly watching) - I'd say we have seen quite a bit of basketball, and should have a pretty good handle on the game.

So, Saturday, we're at the oldest sons' Basketball game when the White team calls for a time-out. She looks at me and says "Where's the hard chairs?"

I look at her completely puzzled.
It takes me a minute.
Then I get it.
Time-out. Hard kitchen chair.
She's wondering why the coach is putting them in time-out.....what did they do?

Our efforts to have a well-rounded girl have been fruitless. She's a girly girl through and through.

It starts......

2009-01-20T02:30:00.001-08:00

Alright.....I know it's about time I start this thing up. So....here we go! It's officially 3:30 am, and suffering from a very stuffy head and clogged up ears - sleep is eluding me. So, after checking my normal web-sites - i.e.; Ksl.com, the bank, & my eighth graders grades, a thought occurred to me. Hey! Why not blog! It may not be anything profound....considering that it's 3:30 in the morning. But it would be a post none the less.

Actually, I'm not quite sure what to do or where to go with this blog. It may just be random tidbits from our home and my head. Nothing profound, mind you. Or witty. Sometimes maybe even boring. Hope that's okay.

I also hope it's alright to copy a little bit. For a long time the idea of jotting down things we're grateful for has hung in the back of my head. I think I heard about a gratitude journal first from Oprah (one of the four times I've ever watched the show). That was probably 10 years ago. It's been mentioned in conference many times over. We have been incredibly blessed, and sometimes I forget that and dwell on the 'don't haves' of my life. So (here's the copying part....thanks Maren!) I'll try to jot down 3 things each post I'm thankful for. More for me than anyone else.

So, here it goes.....my three for today - then I'm signing off.

1. Sinus medicine (10 more minutes and it should be kicking in!)
2. Good kids who missed us while we were gone.
3. The sunshine in the Carribean (I'll blog more about that later) :)

2008-12-09T21:22:00.002-08:00

Testing....testing.....one, two, three. Is this thing on?
Just checking.