The Death of Summer

It is the day that has spread dread through our home for weeks now. It has caused moans and whines out of seemingly brave children. It has even caused my normally chipper Lauren to stop smiling. Yes, it was the first day of school.

Normally, the kids and I look forward to school. It sounds sick, I know, but it breaks up the boredom of summer. The kids get to start sports and see their friends. But for some reason, no one was really looking forward to it this year. We had such a fun and relaxing summer that it is difficult to force ourselves back into a routine.

The kids woke up early. Cade had to be to early morning football practice at 6:15, so he was out of the house pretty quickly. The girls and I got up to read scriptures, get ready and take pictures. Cade got home about an hour later and grudgingly let me take a couple pictures of him.

Lauren is starting second grade with Mrs. Moreno. She is so excited to have her as a teacher. She wasn't too concerned about who was in her class, as long as she got the teacher she wanted. Things went pretty well for her, until the bus ride to my class. She ended up riding the bus for a full hour before they brought her to the Jr. High. But we think we have it worked out for tomorrow. Lauren gets pretty freaked out about change, so we have to rehearse tough situations like bus rides. Luckily, she knows the bus driver so things should go well. I don't know who I am trying to convince-her or her nervous mother.

Sydney is in 8th grader now. She thought the day was incredibly boring. She figures that they are eighth graders now and everyone should know the rules and we should just get on with the program. She does have friends in all of her classes, so she should survive. Actually, she will probably never look up from her book to even talk to anyone. She caught the reading bug about the end of sixth grade, and hasn't stopped ever since. Cade is a Junior this year. I can't believe it. Only two more years to have the kid at home. It makes me sick to think about, so I just try to ignore it. In typical boy fashion, he didn't have much to say about school. He likes his schedule this year, having most of his hard classes in the morning so that he doesn't miss them when he leaves for sports. He did have a few things to say about practice like, "I hate Morgan." (the coach) but I think he is just sick of running.



I'm just as ornery as the kids about starting school this year. I've got a busy, rough year ahead of me. But even more so, I just miss watching Law and Order reruns. Oh, the injustice of my life. . .

Flowers, flowers, flowers

Boy, I have had a surprising week. On Monday, I returned from a trip to Flagstaff to find a bouquet of flowers in my front room. It was going to be my birthday on Wednesday, so I thought maybe my sweet dad had them sent. When I opened the card, all it said was "Heavenly Father wants you to know that he loves you". Nothing else. I was so shocked and touched. I have know idea who sent them. And I'm not sure I even want to know. It seems like it is one of those things that you just have to promise yourself that you will "pay it forward".


Wednesday, which was my birthday AND the my first day back at work (Rrrrr!) I was presented with another beautiful bouquet of flowers. This time it was from my dad. He always remembers special occasions. I sure appreciate him.

I've got skills

In fact, I've got crazy, mad skills in the fine art of night crawler hunting. I honed those skills as a young girl, pouncing on the fat suckers down at the old High School. My dad would keep an eye out for irrigation day, and then that night, he would take me and Kellie down to the school. He was in charge of finding them with the flashlight and then one of us would slam our hand down and then slowly pull the worm from its hole. Actually USING the worms for fishing wasn't high on my list of things to do-but night crawler hunting-that was one of my favorite times.

So tonight, Ryan and I headed out to hunt night crawler so that we can go fishing tomorrow. We had a rough time finding a place that had been irrigated, but we lucked out when we drove past Quinn and Michelle's house and heard the water pouring through the garden and out on the lawn. (They were out of town--sorry guys. But I did check to make sure the water was going where it needed to before I looked for worms.) Anyway, it was as fun as I remember. Even Ryan had to bow down to my superior skills.


We took Syd and Lauren along with us. It took a little while, but Syd caught on, and was even doing the two worms at a time maneuver. Lauren was in charge of collecting the worms and putting them in the jar. We all had to admit that it is addicting, pitting your skills against such a small minded creature-which is probably what the worms are thinking. . . But, finally, we tore ourselves away. When we got home, we put them in the fridge where all good fishermen keep their worms.

Which brings me to a horror story of my poor mom's. When she was newly married, my dad got some worms and put them in the fridge to keep until he went fishing the next day. Well, sometime in the night they escaped their container. So when my mom got up the next morning to make breakfast, she opened the fridge door to find worms hanging from every nook and cranny! Needless to say, I checked the lid on our worms a couple of times already. Now we just have to see if they will catch some fish.

UPDATE: Let's just say that the night crawler hunting was more successful than the fishing. . . but I did get a nice tan.

Alaska

Looking at the Tanana River from a hill above Fairbanks.

Backing up to the very beginning of July. . .

On July 1st, Lauren and I began our adventurous trip to Alaska. My sister, Cortney and her husband, Mark live in Fairbanks. It started out on an ominous note. As we were heading up the Salt River Canyon, our car began to make loud warning signs and a large sign on the dash said, "STOP NOW! TURN OFF MOTOR!" Well, being married to a mechanic, I've always known this is a bad thing. I've heard horror stories of people who ignored these warnings and kept driving. So I pulled off to the side of the road and turned off the car. Unfortunately is was 106 degrees and I didn't have any cell services. I thought there is no way I'm going to hike to the top of this hill, so I let the car cool down, turned it back on and slowly made my way the mountain. So far so good. But still, I could hear Ryan freaking out in my head. So once I got to some shade, I pulled over again and tried to call home. I was able to get to Cade and we ran through checking the oil and the water. Everything seemed OK. I called my dad and we did the same thing. So I crossed my fingers and on we went. We made it safely to Phoenix--crisis averted.

The next day, we flew out of Phoenix, headed to Fairbanks, with a stop in Seattle. Lauren was pretty excited because it was the first plane ride she would remember. It was all great until we started to descend into Seattle and she got a little sick. We were looking forward to the Seattle-Fairbanks leg of the trip because we had planned on renting a movie. I settled her into to "Nim's Island" and thought everything was OK. The next thing I know, she is throwing up into her drink and then turns and throws up all over me! Luckily, we were sitting next to an ex-elementary school principal, who in one swift motion jumped up, and swept us right into the bathroom. By the time I had Lauren and myself cleaned up, this lady had cleaned up after all of us and got Lauren some crackers and 7-up. I'm telling you, God looks out for me on these Alaska trips (I've had some other experiences traveling up there when Cade and Syd were little).

Anyway, Lauren was a little weak the next day, but soon recovered and we started getting down to the business of vacationing. The first day, we went to the North Pole. Actually, it is not THE North Pole, but a town named North Pole Alaska. And corny as it is, I love it. My mom and I took Cade and Sydney there a long time ago, and Lauren was always fascinated with the pictures of the older kids sitting on the REAL Santa Claus. Yes, it is the town were Santa resides during the summer months. He and his wife are at the Santa Claus House, where you can buy souvenirs and take a pictures with the big man himself. In fact, Lauren and I were browsing around the shop, when Santa came along and talked to her about her age (he guess it right on) and the beauty of the White Mountains of Arizona. She was completely star struck. But as luck would have it, when I whipped out my camera. . .the battery was dead. So I was left taking pictures with my cell phone. Talk about a rough start to my trip! Lauren was also fascinated with the reindeer. Comet, Cupid and Blitzen were on hand for photo opportunities as well.
So, the very next thing for me was to actually charge my camera battery. Then we spent a wonderful week visiting Cort and Mark, and enjoying Alaska. Fairbanks is a neat old mining town without a lot of history behind it. I love the Chena river that runs throughout the town. The people of Alaska use of every spare minute of the summer. My favorite site was a couple of teenage boys who had put a cooler in a small raft, tied it to an air mattress and were floating down the river on the mattress. Not even a paddle to guide them, but what the heck?! Tom and Huck on an adventure!

We went on a lot of hikes. Some, Lauren didn't like, but after soaking her in DeepWoods OFF, she enjoyed our hike at Creamer's Field. We watched a baseball game between two teams in the Alaska baseball league. It is a lot of fun to watch baseball, at night, without any lights. Lauren thought we had drug her into her own personal hell having to watch baseball when there wasn't even the excuse of "you have to cheer for your brother". We enjoyed getting ice cream and snow cones at "Hot Licks", a little shop that makes its own ice cream every day. My favorite was Raspberry Truffle.

Lauren leaned to skip rocks on the Tanana River (her favorite activity of the week).

We also did the tourist-y thing and took a trip down the Chena river on a big paddle boat. It was a lot of fun, and they cram in a lot of Alaska sites into 3 hours.

For example, there is an exhibition of a float plane landing and taking off from the river. One of my favorite sites. . . When Cade and Syd were young, we spent so much time in Alaska that they could yell out "Floats" or "Wheels" whenever they saw a small plane.

Another one of my favorite stops is at Susan Butcher's house and kennel. She wasn't the first woman to win the Iditarod, but when she did win it -she won it four times. She recently passed away from cancer, but the kennel is still run by her husband, and Jessica Royer, another Iditarod racer, helps out during the summer.
There is also a brief stop at Chena Villiage where we got to see various aspects of Native life, including fish camp, and how the various animals are used for food and clothing.

Not a part of the boat ride,but pretty cool anyway, is the pipeline. While I can't explain it to you, I was amazed out how intricate and insulated it was.
Thanks to Cort and Mark for such a great week. We are grateful that the are willing to brave the cold, dark winters so the rest of us can vacation in the summer! We'll see you next year!
And by the way, I doped Lauren up on Dramamine for the the trip home.

Not a single problem. . . .

Salem Ward Drill Team

For the 24th of July parade, our ward's Young Men formed a "Drill Team". (Notice the drills in the boys' hands). They invited a few extra kids, the missionaries, and any leader that was willing. The Young Mens' President had his wife choreograph a simple routine and a few (and I mean a few) practices later, they were ready. They marched down main street to the tune of "Life is a Highway", while performing their routine. It involved lots of flexing, the macarena and a "gun battle". Now I am certainly biased, but I thought it was quite clever and possibly the hit of the day. One of my friends even commented that she felt badly for the politician behind the boys because everyone was watching tthe drill team and never noticed the candidate behind them. The boys seemed to have fun, and I even noticed Cade winking at the spectators as he danced by.

Tagged

Tagged~
I was tagged!How to play this game. Post these rules on your blog; List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.
3 Joys:
-Ryan- I love the quote at the top of my blog because it reminds me of him.
-The kids-Corny or not, but I love being their mom
-Coming home. I love to go places and see new things, but nothing beats coming home to my own house.

3 Fears:
-Talking on the phone
-Something happening to my kids-you know those vague unidentifiable "things" that keep you up at night.
-Weird noises during the night. When I was a teenager I had to deal with a peeping tom and it has made me very nervous about unknown noises. I have to know where every noise is coming from before I can go to bed.

3 Goals:
-To be organized enough that I'm able spend time on the things I love.
-Keep watering my plants (ok, pretty low goal, but I kill things once school starts)
-Become John Bytheway. He not only knows the scriptures, but can relate them to the lives of the kids he teaches.

3 Current obsessions/collections:
-Reading which is always at the top of my list.
-Primary, because I was just called to the the President and I having lots of catching up to do!
-Teaching- I start in less than two weeks, and I have completely ignored it this summer. My brain is trying to catch up because I keep having "school" dreams about the kids I'll teach this coming year.

3 Random surprising facts about myself:
-I love useless trivia and own just about every "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" published.
-I love Stephen King. I'm amazed at the range of material he has. Even though I think he may be a bit off. . .
-I love Disneyland. I would go at least once a year if I could.

Ok~ I tag..........
Kellie Platt
Cortney Skolnick
Terry Jackson
Bruce Jackson
Lori Ashton -if you are reading this :-)
Only Kellie has a blog-so if the rest of you want to do it-just do it as a comment.

The Luckiest Man Alive

So most of you might think that Ryan is pretty lucky just being married to me. (hee-hee) But truthfully, I've never seen anyone get so lucky when it comes to hunting. It started about 4 or 5 years ago when he applied to hunt for Desert Bighorn Sheep in Arizona. He had only put in for one year prior to that. The morning the results came out, he found me at my mom's house and told me that he had drawn a tag. For those of us who don't really care--it's like winning the lottery after only buying two tickets. The hunt was successful, and I now have a full body mount of a bighorn sheep in the my front room. (You can see how he is pretty lucky). Then last year, he was able to go on a Dall Sheep hunt in Alaska at only half of the price because someone had paid the down payment, and then backed out of the hunt. As a side note--I don't know where that mount is going to fit in the house . . .
A few weeks ago, Ryan bought a ticket for a raffle called Arizona Big Game Super Raffle. What happens is that the game and fish donate 1 tag for each of the big game species in Arizona. The proceeds go towards conservation and preservation programs. In three years, they have raised over 1.5 million dollars. Anyway, on Friday, Ryan was visiting his taxidermist, Richard (some people have financial advisers-Ryan has a taxidermist) and told him that he would love to get a buffalo tag. Once again, the chances were like winning the lottery, but hey, a man can dream. So Saturday, as I'm driving to Las Vegas I get a phone call from Ryan saying that someone has just called and told him he won the tag for buffalo. Ryan didn't believe it. He thought that someone was pulling a sick joke on him. He called up his friends, Richard, anyone he could think of to see if this was legitimate. Everyone assured him that no one would be so cruel as to make it up. Finally, the results were posted on the game and fish website on Monday. Yes, Ryan had won. As the letter he got said, "Every once in a while someone hits the jackpot or wins the lottery. In this case, it was you!"

The tag allows him to hunt for a full year, starting on August 15th. The buffalo are up near the Grand Canyon and on the Kaibab. Ryan has already talked to ANYONE who knows ANYTHING about the hunt and has a lot of ideas. He is going to hunt it with a bow rather than a gun, so hopefully when it comes to life and death, he will continue to be a lucky man. As another side note-I've refused to allow this one in the house. . .