Sydney

Soon, Sydney will be turning sixteen.  I am amazed by her kindness, talents and beauty.  Recently, she had to fill out an application for the National Honor Society.  Part of the process requests that you list the volunteer hours that you provide.  She struggled to name specific activities or organizations that she has served.  However, just yesterday I complimented her on her willingness to give up hours at a time to help those around her.  Friday she spent quite a few hours editing photos for a friend.  Yesterday she hid Easter eggs for my mom and then spent a couple hours providing a pitching lesson to a young girl who attended our picnic.  Syd may never be recognized for formal volunteer achievements.  But I will always be grateful for her quiet acts of thoughtful and meaningful service.

Girls Only

Lauren and I were the only two home this weekend.  So we planned a few fun activities.  We went to the school's Spring Carnival, tried out the new Subway, roasted marshmallows and made these fancy-shmancy eggs.  If you'd like to try them out yourself, (and see much cuter examples) check out this link:  Here! 

I Cracked

You know me; I'm not one for following the crowd.  I'd like to think that makes me some sort of rebel, but really it just makes me a day late and a dollar short (so to speak).  I was kind of late jumping on the whole blogging craze.  I refused to go to Alco on opening day (although the second day I was all over that).  And I have steadfastly refused to get a facebook account.

In fact, just saying the term, "facebook" causes me to get a touch of social anxiety. Good night, I can barely be a good friend to the people a see on a weekly basis-the thought of all sorts of additional "friends" just makes me break out in hives. While I think I'm generally "friendly", I am not particularly "open". If I'm your friend, I'm your friend for life. It just may take a long time to get there.

I know, I know. Kind of strange for one who happily blogs away without any sort of "privacy" controls.  Maybe it's the horror stories I hear of being asked to substitue a Primary class through facebook.  Maybe it's the fact that I have one friend who insists that facebook is for the under 25 crowd.  Maybe because it's one more thing that I won't get around to managing.   I don't know. I can't explain it. The only explanation I can give you for the crack in my armor is this:



(Sorry for stealing your picture Jorden)

Seriously?  How could I go through life knowing there were more pictures of Griffen out there?  All I had to do was sell my soul...

You've Never Lived Until...

Yesterday, Lauren was rubbing a wet towel across her teeth, making an unexplainable noise.  "Hey mom," she asked, "What does this sound like?"

"Ummm" was about all I could come up with.

"It's the sound two pickles make when you rub them together." She answered for me.

"You've rubbed two pickles together!?! What for!?!"

"You've never lived the life of a kid if you haven't done that mom," she said disdainfully.

Who knew I was missing out on so much?

A Look at the Week

Softball, softball and more softball.

I Wish

I wish I could show you the beautiful, sunny (no wind) day that we enjoyed.

I wish that I could show you the little hike we went on in order to find pottery, arrowheads and cool rocks.

I wish I could show you the arrowhead I found amidst a cache of pottery.

I wish I could show you Lauren and my dad examining the rare black on red pottery.

I wish I could show you my mom and Lauren extracting teeth from an old cow skull.

I wish I could show you a picture of me diligently packing my camera through sagebrush and carefully taking shots of each event.

Oh yes, all of those things happened.  Oh yes, I did take those pictures.  But oh no, I failed to remember/notice that I had removed the compact flash card a few days ago!

A Glimpse of Things to Come

That could be a positive sort of title.

But it's not.

This week has been Spring Break.  It's been pretty nice-if you don't count the snow, rain and wind.  But that's pretty much expected this time of year.  The real eye-opener has occurred in the later hours of the afternoon/evening.  During the day, the girls have been home.  They've had friends over, but later in the evening they have had other options.  By seven o'clock, I know that Ryan will be falling asleep soon and there will be a long stretch without responsibility.  A couple of evenings, I went running.  I've gone through old magazines.  I've edited some pictures of Griffen.  Mostly, I've just flitted around, accomplishing nothing.  I must admit, it has made me a little nervous about my future without kids.  I'm going to need to get some sort of plan. 

Or maybe I need to just get some sense and enjoy these quiet, (slightly boring) days.  Let's be honest, come Monday I'll be wishing for another week of vacation...