Softies

Grandma Nancy made both Calvin and Lily several blankets when they were born. But they both have their special blankets that she made and we like to call them Softies. I thought it was about time I put a picture of them with their softies on the blog. They love these blankets and it is hard for them to go to sleep without them.

Calvin the photographer

I got my hair done the other day and Calvin volunteered to take my picture. He also took this picture of his stuffed animals, he posed them and everything. I think he has some talent.

Lily's prayer

Lily was so sad when Calvin went to school on his first day that I decided to take her to the library to pick out some new books. She brought in her little magnifying glass and was looking at the words on all of the books. But then she decided it would be more fun to drop the magnifying glass between the stacks of books. Luckily, I saw where it fell and picked it up and put it in my purse. She got into my purse and got it out when I was looking at some books and she hid it again. This time I could not find it. It was time to go and still no luck. So I told Lily that we would say a little prayer for help to find it. She helped me say the prayer and low and behold 10 seconds later it was found. Amazing how both of my kids have had similar lessons with prayer, Calvin with his hammer when he was about the same age as Lily. We didn't forget to say a thank you prayer.

One more random thing Lily bug does these days. She will be very quietly thinking and then she says ,"dea" with enthusiasm, which is her way of saying "I have an idea!" I just love it.

School has started

I can't believe Calvin has started his second year of preschool. It seems like summer gets cut shorter every year. I think that summer break should be from Memorial day to Labor day.
However, it has started and Calvin goes to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:30-12:00. This year he is going to Miss Cheryl, she lives a couple of miles away. We chose to go to her because we are car pooling with Ethan and Dallin in our ward. I only have to drive on Mondays. It will be very nice. Lily was so sad when Calvin got out of the car on Monday. She cried and cried, "where is my Calby?" " I go to school with Calby." They are best friends so it has been hard on her. But Lily bug and I have been able to spend some time together which has been so great. Calvin has loved school so far. He got a school bag from Miss Cheryl with his name on it. And he was so excited to wear his new Handy Manny school clothes that Grandma Nancy gave to him. He loves learning and he is so excited to have friends in his class and to ride in the carpool.

Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple 130th operating temple

We made it back from Palisades in time to go the the temple dedication. My parents watched the kids while Jon and I went with Joe and Jaime. My parents went to the earlier session. It was wonderful, the spirit was very strong, the talks were awesome and we left feeling very uplifted.

Sleep is overrated. Let's go camping! Part 2

Saturday morning, we left Yuba and set off on our pilgrimage to Palisade Lake. We only got lost once. Palisade Lake was actually quite enjoyable. We met our friends, Joe and Jeri and their two munchkins at the lake. We swam, canoed, rode bikes and paddle boated about in a paddle boat with feeble steering. No one got any Quagga mussels attached to them. Joe and his kids even caught a few fish.
After engaging in so many rigorous activities we fabbed up some dutch oven spare ribs, cobbler and made some real man fried potatoes in order to nourish ourselves. The kids play so hard, they exhausted themselves and were both asleep in the tent by shortly after nine. Chrissy and I decided to make a run to the restroom before climbing into bed ourselves. This proved to be an unwise decision.
While in the restroom the wind picked up and flipped our tent upside-down, with the munchkins still inside. Jeri and Joe heard Lily screaming and rescued her from the wreckage. When we returned, they asked if we had Calvin with us since they couldn't find him in the tent. I dove into the tent in search of Calvin only to find him peacefully sleeping under a pile of backpacks, clothes and sleeping bags.
We staked the tent down again and climbed inside, except Lily, who wanted nothing to do with our tent. She and Chrissy hung out in Jeri's tent until they heard both of our tent poles snap (and of course we decided to take the scout tent instead of our own this weekend). At this point the wind was still quite ferocious, so Chrissy convinced me that we should take the tent down and sleep in the truck. We stuck Calvin in Jeri's tent and he slept next to Parker. It was quite hilarious that Calvin never once awoke from his slumber while all of this was happening. Chrissy, Lily and I spent the next six hours in the truck until I couldn't stand it any longer. About five AM, I set the tent back up, broken poles and all, and tried to get a couple hours of decent sleep. I think the freak windstorm was punishment for all of us who were not at home spiritually preparing ourselves for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication, but that's just my opinion. Chrissy doesn't think this is so because we did make it back to her parents house in time for the dedication. By the end of the weekend we only accomplished to get a couple hours of sleep and I had to go work a graveyard shift Sunday night.

The miracle and the out of control School Bus

Yesterday started off pretty normal. We ate breakfast, played games, cleaned up, ate lunch, put Lily down for a nap and Calvin asked to go play with Ethan. Ethan lives in our Cul-de-sac and he is Calvin's best friend. They are back and forth between the two houses ten times a day. Jon decides to wake up from his graveyard slumber and we sat at the table to chat while he had his "breakfast." It is now about 3:30 and I finally decide I have enough time to go upstairs to read my scriptures and hop in the shower. Yes, I know pathetic, afternoon showers happen more often than they should around here. I finally sit down to read when I hear the front door swing open and Calvin sobbing. I run downstairs to see what is wrong and Ethan's mom, Jill, explains what has happened.

Calvin and Ethan were playing in the front yard by the big tree and the mailbox. Jill was enjoying her piece and quiet when she felt like she should go and get the boys to come back in. She wasn't sure why, but she called them inside. Not a minute after they were in the house she heard a school bus in the cul-da-sac, so she said "Hey boys come and see the school bus," they all watched through the window as the school bus plows straight onto the sidewalk right where the boys were, and continues through the neighbors fence, shed, and two more yards and fences. Jill told the boys to stay in the house as she grabbed the phone and called 911 and ran out to see if anyone was hurt. When she got back in the house Calvin was scared and he was crying because of the accident and so she brought him home.

After calming Calvin down we went out to see the damage. And oh my, there were a ton of people in the circle. Police men, the school district people and all of the neighbors. The bus completely demolished the shed and the fences. Supposedly the bus driver took our street instead of the next one up and thought it was a through street, so he hit the gas and by the time he realized there was a house in front of him it was too late to stop OR he had a seizure? No one really knows what happened. He had just made his last stop, so there were no students on the bus thank goodness and he was okay, just very shaken up. And yes our neighborhood made the 10:00 news.

It is a miracle that no one was injured. There are always a lot of kids in our cul-de-sac and in the backyards that were hit. And everyone who would have been hit had gone in just a little while before it happened. It is amazing. It is so easy as a mom to say, oh I'll check on the boys in a minute but I am so grateful that Jill called the boys in when she was prompted. I can't even imagine what could have happened.

Other off things that happened yesterday: three people I know were in accidents, and my listing in Springville was broken into and burglarized. The night did have a good ending though, I got to go to the relief society salad social and chat while Jon put the kids to bed.

Sleep is overrated. Let's go camping! Part 1

In keeping with our usual style of trying to please everyone and cramming the most possible fun into a single weekend, we went on not just one, but two camping trips last weekend. Friday started off by waking up early at 1:00 PM (I've been working graves) and packing up the truck.

I decided to check the engine oil on the truck since we would have a long weekend ahead of us and discovered, to my limitless delight, that it had no oil in it. My lovely Ford had used five quarts of oil since the last oil change, which wasn't that long ago. Even black folk who eat nothing but fried chicken don't consume that much oil in that short of time. A quick trip to AutoZone and an oil change later and we were off like a prom dress. We headed to Yuba Lake for the Pontious family reunion. When we arrive in the arid wasteland known as Painted Rock, it was easily over one hundred degrees and there were no trees in sight. But that's ok, right? We were, after all, at a lake were we could swim about and escape the summer's heat. To our dismay, Yuba Lake was in the middle of some sort of algal bloom rendering the water green, slimy and stinky.

The high note of the evening was a scrumptious meal of cheeseburgers and corn-on-the-cob. I would have gone to sleep feeling satsfied with a belly full of corn and cow, but Lily decided that sleep was not an acceptable activity. She woke constantly throughout the night and made sure Chrissy and I were acutely aware of it. She slept for a little while nestled between Chrissy and me, but then ruptured her diaper and soaked our sleeping bag. Mmm. I love urine, but not at much as Calvin and Grandma Nancy do.

That morning, after we exited the tent (I won't say woke up, since we never really slept,) Calvin and Lily went to visit Grandma Nancy in her camper. Calvin found a SoBe bottle on the table and asked if he could have a drink. After he reported that it tasted funny, Grandma Nancy also tasted it to confirm its unpleasantness. Only then was it discovered that during the night, Papa Coach had found the journey to the out house far too daunting and, in a moment of environmentally friendly thought, opted to refill the SoBe bottle with used SoBe. We have not told Calvin what it was he ingested and would prefer that you also refrain from doing so.