Vacuums

A few months ago I discovered that my vacuum was not sucking!  This is a problem, because sucking is pretty much all a vacuum is good for!  There are some things in this world that are just not that reliable, or at least the ones that I've purchased haven't been.  Vacuums are one of them, blow dryers are another.  It seems that I go through WAY too many of both of those.  Maybe I'm cursed when it comes to blowing/sucking.  No comments from the peanut gallery, thank you!

See, it wouldn't suck!!

No matter how many times I took that bless-ed thing apart and cleaned out the filters, it still wouldn't do it's job!!  I'm going to take it to a repair place and if it's not too expensive, I'll have it fixed and pass it on to Sarah.  Hey, it will be more useful then an old shawl or a crystal figurine.

I decided that I was going to research vacuums on the internet by reading the customer reviews and then make an educated choice on which one to buy.  Most of my research (that was in my price range) pointed to the Hoover, something, something model.  Too bad my price range didn't include a maid service.  Oh right, I am the maid service!  And the cook, the taxi, the laundry girl, the referee, the cheerleader, and the shrink.  I like to think of myself as a "kept woman"... it makes my life better.  Actually, I've rediscovered great joy in cooking for my family, but that's another blog.  Right now, it's about the vacuum.

"She" came with a little helper, for the same price

New vs. Not so Old

My new little suckers!!

Long may they live!

Let the games begin...

Amanda is in her final season of volleyball, which means...more bleacher butt!!  No, I'm just kidding.  I love to watch our kids play their respective sports.  It gives me great joy and it still astonishes me that they have as much athleticism as they do, considering that I have zilch, zero, nada of that stuff.  They must have gotten it from Dave's side of the family.

I actually think that I could have been athletic, because I have really good hand/eye coordination but I never had the confidence to try it, plus mine is not an athletic family.  The only sport that was done at my house was wrestling our dad, on Sunday afternoons, which usually ended up with someone hurt or "wronged" by a push or a shove.  We never knew when to stop.  

I hope that when my kids look back on their lives, they will appreciate why I did things like, push them in the pool, made sure they were committed and strongly encourage them to pursue athletics.  The oldest three all had some degree of doubt, coupled with a longing to try and all they needed was a swift kick in the be-hind to go for it.  And go for it they did!  Becca is the only one that seems to have a desire to do everything!  In fact, just yesterday she asked if she could take a jazz/hip hop class.  Her Aunt Marcia (the dance teacher) would be very proud!  I'm not sure where that kid got her confidence but I'll take it. 

Sarah is a beautiful swimmer and if our little town had had more than just a city league and had her shoulder not given out, she could have gone on to college swimming.  She also played volleyball and softball. 
Amanda swam for a few years but decided that volleyball was her sport.  She also played basketball and softball.  
Jeffrey has done something a little unexpected.  He swam on the city team (but didn't like it) then tried a little football, basketball and then jumped into golfing.  He played for the Jr. High team last year but this year, he's back to swimming for the High School.  This means that he is required to be at the pool in Springville (15 minutes away) by 5:00AM Monday-Friday!!  This has required more of his parental units then usual because he doesn't have his driver license yet.  This wicked schedule goes like this:

Dave gets up at 4:15am ( Oh, how I love that man! He's such a good dad)

Jeffrey gets up at 4:30am 

They leave the house by 4:45am

Dave drops him off and goes into work (his boss was kind enough to let him 

arrange his schedule for a few months)

Jeffrey swims for 1 hour

I get up at 5:45am

Drive to pool & pick him up at 6am

While he gets showered and ready, I make breakfast and lunches for Becca and him.  Amanda is not a breakfast eater unless we have some desirable leftovers from the night before.  

I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it when he is a champion swimmer!  Even if he's not, it will be worth it because he will make sacrifices for his kids, plus he is learning self discipline.  I will post pictures after he has his first meet.  Until then, here's a few pictures of Amanda and her team.  They are having a great season so far...hope it holds.

Blocking

Serving the ball

Egg-cellent!

I'm going to put this under the heading... I'm and Idiot!  Yes indeed.  A full fledged, card carrying, bonified, idiot! 

This morning I put a pot of eggs on the stove to cook so that I would have hard boiled eggs for dinner tonight.  The plan was to make a chef salad with all of the fixings, which includes hard boiled eggs.  I then proceeded to get side tracked, which never happens (haha...NOT) and when I was stepping out of the shower, I heard a POPPING sound!  I thought perhaps I was hearing things or that maybe it came from outside.

Then I heard another popping sound, and then another, and another.  The sound seemed to be coming from the direction of the kitchen.  The light bulb finally turned on!  My forgotten eggs where exploding all over the kitchen!!!  

I wish I could turn blog spot into a scratch & sniff experience because the smell was, well, amazingly bad!  I would NOT recommend this to anyone.  I cleaned up the mess, opened all of the windows, lit a candle, plugged in some plug in's, and got the heck out of the house. 

All is well and the house is back to normal and we will be having chef salad after all.

Sprayed the floor...

Sprayed the ceiling...

Sprayed the cabinets...

Bless the person who invented these!

Jeffrey's Brain

Jeffrey had some homework this week and part of it was MY homework.  In this particular instance, I was actually glad to be part of it because it was real life questions about our family dynamics.   One page consisted of communication questions and it let me get a glimpse into what sorts of things go on inside his head.  Most of it was really accurate, which is a good thing, right?  You be the judge.


What is the reason for or what is our family "rule" on:

     Curfew:  "So you stay out of trouble"
     Chores & Neatness:  "We don't want to live in a pig stye!"
     Telephone use:  "We always ask if we can call a person before talking on the phone" (Mom's note...???? I've never said this, but okay).
     Music:  "We aren't aloud to get the dirty version of any song cuz it puts our minds in bad places."
     Car use:  "If you get bad grades or do something stupid, you get to have your parents drive you everywhere!"
     School work:  "Get it done, get it in on time"
     Television use & movies:  "It really doesn't matter as long as you're not grounded" (Mom's note...I don't really ground the kids that often but apparently it has made an BIG impact.  Also, it DOES matter what they watch)
     Meal preparation & clean up:  "If you help make the meal, you don't have to clean up."  (Mom's note...Then I should be the only one that doesn't have to clean up!)
     Dating:  "Not until you are 16"
     Dress & Appearance:  "Modest is Hottest!"
     Tobacco & Alcohol use:  "If you use it your an idiot AND you have to find a new place to live!"  (Mom's note...Hahahahahaha)
     Money, budget, etc:  "Tithing first, then you can spend it."
     Other:  "We have to get good grades, or your grounded!"  (Mom's note...again with the grounding?)

Oh how I love this boy!

Ten Years Ago...And Texas

The news has been filled with 911 memorials, speeches, pictures and everything else you can think of, so it has jogged quite a few memories for me.  In fact, as I have listened to the radio, there have been moments that completely take me back to that fateful day.  Everyone has their own stories about that day, but for me it goes something like this:

We lived in Las Vegas at the time, and as I usually do, I turned on the TV in our bedroom, to have some background noise before I got the kids up and running for school.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing on the screen!  I remember having to sit down on the side of my bed because everything I was watching and hearing was just too surreal.  I must have turned on the TV just before the second plane hit the tower because I saw it in "real time" even with time difference (3 hours).

It wasn't but a few minutes later that Dave called.  He had been in Texas for a few days, teaching classes but he was at the airport with his teaching partner Mike.  When they heard that the FAA had shut down ALL air traffic, they knew that there was no chance of catching their flight so they ended up renting a car and driving.  Both of them just wanted to get home so they took turns driving 24/7 for almost 3 days straight.  Texas is a BIG state!

While we were talking on the phone, he told me that he wanted me to keep the kids home from school that day.  We had no idea what was happening in the world or if we, as a country, were going to get hit again.  Emergency, is what he does so he immediately went into that mode of thinking.  Within minutes we had our "plan".  He told me that if something were to happen in Vegas or California that I was to gather the kids, food, water, clothes, guns, and gas and start heading out of town to our "meeting spot" and he would meet me there when he could.  Our safe place was at my grandparents farm in central Utah.  It is no where close to anything that would attract terrorists.  It is not highly populated, it's not the hub of financial prosperity, there is no airport to speak of, etc.  Also, there is plenty of food (deer) to find, there is fresh water and family around.  There is only one way into and out of Vegas (I-15) and if something happened, thousands, possibly millions of people would head our direction, so he wanted us to be in front of the crowd.

I remember feeling like I just wanted my family gathered together.  I let the kids sleep in and when they woke up, I tried to explain to them what had happened.  I'm sure they must have thought I had lost my mind because I was glued to the TV for hours and I didn't leave the house for a couple of days.  My whole body felt numb and my brain was over thinking what I saw and heard.  Dave called a few times during his travels and when he finally made it home, I was extremely relieved to have us all together again.
Ironically, Dave was back down in Texas (for a BYU football game) over this 10th anniversary of 911.  I'm just grateful that he made it home...on a plane this time.

Sarah was 9, Amanda was 7, Jeffrey was 5 & Becca was 2 1/2.  That is really young to understand something of such magnitude, but I didn't feel like I should shield them from the truth of it.  They had quite a few questions but mostly, they just knew that something was really wrong and that I was really sad.

I remember feeling so proud to be an American in the following weeks and months.  Proud that the greatest scenes of humanity were unfolding before our eyes.  Proud that we would rebuild, bigger and stronger.  And I felt great pride when I watched as Pres. Bush stood on top of the rubble and said, "I hear you.  America hears you, and soon the people that took these buildings down will hear from ALL of us!"  


The passion and conviction of that day has dimmed a little over the years and we've had our ups and downs as a country, but the fact remains that we are a blessed country.  There is no other place that offers the freedoms, the beauty, the promise, the hope or the history that we have right here.  I believe it is no mistake that we have been given this birthright.  Where much is given, much is expected.