Words

Swear words have a gray history with me. My parents are known to let one slip every once in a while. My brothers in particular have taken this on in their lives, especially when they think it will be funny. Well, it must have skipped a generation with me and gone to some of my kids, because I have never sworn in my life (insert sarcastic tone here). Don't gasp, although it is rare for me, it has happened. Why am I admitting this in public? Well, something pretty funny happened.

Last night for Family Home Evening we decided to work on a Personal Progress experience. For those of you who read my blog and are not familiar with Personal Progress, it is a goal oriented program for the teenage girls in our church that help them make progress in spiritual areas of their lives. Now that I am working with the 14 and 15 year old girls in my ward, and also as a mom of teenage girls I am eligible to work on the program and earn my Personal Progress Recognition Award. Anyway, so we decided to work on Personal Progress. We each took turns reading verses in the scriptures about gospel topic. It was Ashley's turn. A little side note about Ash, is that she demands complete attention of everyone as she reads and if anyone is making noise she will stop reading until all are quiet again. Anyway, she stopped at a particularly good place, right before she was about to read the word hell. A child who shall remain nameless, says, "go ahead, say it." Then starts to giggle. I can't help but giggle with her, as I remember my childhood feeling like I was somehow doing something wrong if I was reading forbidden words out of the scriptures. Just a little bit of allowed naughtiness. Then my giggling child asks, "who goes to (whispered) hell?" I know what she is getting at, and I can't help but laugh more. This FHE was not dull, and hours later I am still giggling about it.

A Good One For Halloween Week

Bob Hill and his new wife Betty were vacationing in Europe... As it happens, near Transylvania . They were driving in a rental car along a rather deserted highway. It was late and raining very hard. Bob could barely see the road in front of the car. Suddenly the car skids out of control! Bob attempts to control the car, but to no avail! The car swerves and smashes into a tree.

Moments later, Bob shakes his head to clear the fog. Dazed, he looks over at the passenger seat and sees his wife unconscious, with her head bleeding! Despite the rain and unfamiliar countryside, Bob knows he has to get her medical assistance.
Bob carefully picks his wife up and begins trudging down the road. After a short while, he sees a light. He heads towards the light, which is coming from a large, old house. He approaches the door and knocks.
A minute passes. A small, hunched man opens the door. Bob immediately blurts, "Hello, my name is Bob Hill, and this is my wife Betty. We've been in a terrible accident, and my wife has been seriously hurt. Can I please use your phone?"

"I'm sorry," replied the hunchback, "but we don't have a phone. My master is a doctor; come in and I will get him!"
Bob brings his wife in.

An older man comes down the stairs. "I'm afraid my assistant may have misled you. I am not a medical doctor; I am a scientist.. However, it is many miles to the nearest clinic, and I have had a basic medical training. I will see what I can do. Igor, bring them down to the laboratory."

With that, Igor picks up Betty and carries her downstairs, with Bob following closely. Igor places Betty on a table in the lab. Bob collapses from exhaustion and his own injuries, so Igor places Bob on an adjoining table.

After a brief examination, Igor's master looks worried. "Things are serious, Igor. Prepare a transfusion." Igor and his master work feverishly, but to no avail. Bob and Betty Hill are no more.

The Hills' deaths upset Igor's master greatly. Wearily, he climbs the steps to his conservatory, which houses his grand piano. For it is here that he has always found solace. He begins to play, and a stirring, almost haunting melody fills the house.

Meanwhile, Igor is still in the lab tidying up. His eyes catch movement, and he notices the fingers on Betty's hand twitch, keeping time to the haunting piano music.. Stunned, he watches as Bob's arm begins to rise, marking the beat! He is further amazed as Betty and Bob both sit up straight!

Unable to contain himself, he dashes up the stairs to the conservatory.

He bursts in and shouts to his master:

"Master, Master! .....

The Hills are alive with the sound of music!"

(I am soooooo sorry......But you really should've seen that one coming)

The Life of a Mother

I wonder if anyone has actually tried to figure out approximately how many hours a mother spends each week running kids here and there. I am amazed by the amount of time and miles I put on my vehicle each week. I am sitting outside Ashley's symphony practice again, faced with the next three and a half hours with not enough to keep me occupied. I bring my computer, ipod and kindle every week and I try to be busy, but mostly I get to listen to a group of talented kids make beautiful music. I find it hard to not think about all the things I could be doing at this moment, and yet it is completely worth it. In fact, all the time I spend doing and going for my kids is worth it. I remember my sister saying how rich they would be if they did not have kids. It is true, but again completely worth it. I would not trade a single penny or a single minute for the experience I am having being the mom of six pretty terrific kids. Sometimes I look back and think I wish I had done certain things before having children, but then I can't really regret anything because my life would be different and I don't want different. Love and laughter and hugs and mess are a huge part of my life, and I love it all.

My Van

After about six weeks, I have a working van. The air conditioning compressor seized up, and unfortunately on my van, it is attached to the serpentine belt so even if we did not use the a/c, the engine would not work without it being fixed. Seriously annoying. Anyway, knowing that a/c replacement repairs are completely expensive, James decided he would try and fix it first. He found out about an auto center on base that allows you to rent a bay in a repair shop. You pay $3.50 for the bay and use of all their tools. They also have experts on hand to give advise when you need it. After about twenty hours of work, James did it. I am impressed that he even tried. I now have a van again, and we can stop begging rides off of anyone that would help. Thanks to everyone that helped us out. You should have heard my response when I found out it was fixed. As a friend pointed out, you really appreciate something after it is not available. James and I had only one vehicle for the first nine years of our marriage, and after being down to one again for six weeks I have no idea how we did it.

Thanks James!

My Daddy's Birthday

Yesterday was my dad's birthday. I talked to him on the phone to wish him a happy birthday. He told me a story that just made me laugh. He was walking in wal-mart, with his cane that he now has to use, when walking toward him was another man using a cane. When they got close to each other, the man asked my dad how old he was. My dad told him he was 81. Then my dad asked the man how old he was and the man answered he was 81 also and then he said isn't it heck? (only he used the other word). They just had this little moment of absolute understanding. After my dad told me this, he then said he has had a very good life.

The truth is, I have had a very good life and one big reason for that is my dad. I have very tender memories of growing up with him. Here are just a few of those.

My dad is a pretty big tease. I remember him telling me, "I like ugly girls, and there is no one uglier than you." Then he would chase me around until he caught me (I did not try very hard to get away) and rub my face with his whiskers.

Another vivid memory from my early years, is him cradling me in his arms and singing rock a bye baby in the treetop, in only a way my dad could do it. When he would get to the end of a phrase in the song, he would say it repeatedly while giving me a very good rock. I loved it, and I sang it to all of my kids in exactly the same way.

One year, I received a Chrisy doll for Christmas. I loved that doll. That next summer, some neighborhood friends were over playing with us. It was while my dad was irrigating the yard. One of the girls stuck my Chrissy doll in the irrigation water and ruined her hair. I was so angry, and I bit her. Well, when my dad found out, he picked me up and was going to make me go in the house and not be able to play any more. I remember feeling so abused and completely justified in what I had done, and dad wouldn't listen to me. So, I bit him too. This was not just any little bite. He has a scar on his shoulder from this bite. I am telling you, he was pretty mad, but instead of doing anything about it right that minute, he had the control to put me down and walk away from me without one word. As a parent, that is pretty impressive. I am not sure I could do that. I knew I was in major trouble because no one was talking to me. About an hour later, I got the spanking of my life, and boy did I deserve it.

I remember going out on photography trips with my dad. One in particular sticks out to me. He took me to the Petrified Forest. He would let me pick some of the things to have him photograph and he told me if Arizona Highways picked my picture, he would give me the money. On that trip, we stopped at the gift shop, and he bought me a beautiful turquoise bracelet.

Another very vivid memory is when my grandmother died. There were only three children left at home at this point, and he had us all come in on his bed. I watched him cry as he told us his mother has died. I think this was the first time I had ever seen him cry. She had suffered with strokes for about four years, so it was a blessing to have her go, but it was still hard for my dad to lose his mom.

In my teenage years, he was a pretty cool dad. I never had to fill up my own gas tank. He and mom provided me with a vehicle to drive, and every weekend, Dad would drive it to the gas station and fill it up for me. He never made any comments about the boys I chose to date until after I stopped dating them, then he had plenty to say. Like, "Boy am I glad you got rid of that one, he was annoying."

My very first date was to one of the school dances, I think it was homecoming. Anyway, mom was too busy to take me shopping for a dress, so the task fell to dad. We went into the mall and the very first dress I tried on, was the one we bought. It took us all of about 15 minutes to get the dress. To this day, he has never let mom forget how easy it was to pick out a dress when he was doing the shopping. When shopping with mom, it took hours, not that I am complaining I loved it almost as much as she did, it's just that dad could never understand why it took so long.

At the beginning of my freshman year, my dad was called to be the ward bishop. My brother Craig was 19 and getting ready for his mission in Massachusetts. We had to get up really early to drive down to Mesa. Dad woke us all up at 5 am and told us to come into the front room. We were a little groggy. Dad said he had some news. He then said, "your mother is pregnant." I remember just being completely confused. Craig said, "that's not possible is it?" Then dad told us he was going to be the new bishop.

I was very lucky to be the last child. For my senior year, I had my mom and dad all to myself. It was great. One of my favorite things from this time was Saturday mornings. My parents would still be in bed, and I could hear them talking. So, I would come in their room and climb in bed with them. I don't remember what we talked about, probably just life, but it always ended with a tickling match started by dad. I just remember a lot of laughter during these times.

As I have grown older, my respect and love for my dad have grown. He is an amazing father, and I count myself as one of the luckiest girls to have him as my dad. He is not an outwardly social person, although he is with his family. He is not a big talker, but when he does say something, nobody wants to miss it. I have been in rooms stuffed full of people and heard complete quiet when dad starts to talk. His life has been dedicated to service, and I am one of the recipients of that service.

When I asked him on the phone yesterday if he was having a good birthday, he said yes, and then he told me that he and mom had gone to the store and bought a big pizza for dinner and he was pretty happy about that pizza. Instead of a cake he wanted banana splits. I asked mom if she was going to light up the pizza with candles, but she did not think dad would appreciate having to blow out 81 candles.

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you.

What A Week!

This week has been just amazing. Wednesday, the flying in began. First to come in was Jenni. It was so great to be able to pick her up at the airport. Then came the Young Women in Excellence that evening. The girls did an amazing job of planning the entire evening. It was a smashing success. Ashley played a solo on her viola that night. I think I was more nervous than her. She was so poised and did a great job. After a little clean up and getting all my family home, I went to Corinne's house to pick up Jenni. It was so fun to sit and visit for a minite before heading back to the airport to pick up my sister Julie. It was so exciting to have her here. Cami called to say she was in and heading to her sister's house. We headed to my house to get settled for the night. All my girls kindly gave up their bedrooms for guests to sleep in. They settled into the basement with Bongo, and all were happy. After getting the kids off to school Thursday morning, we headed for a breakfast at Eggspectations. Yum! Then we headed to Costco to pick up some umbrella's. That evening we all headed to La Madeline for yummy food before the concert.

The So You Think You Can Dance concert was so much fun. This is the third year that I have been able to go with Cami, Corinne and Jenni.

It was a great concert. There was a row of teenage girls sitting in front of us that really made the concert more fun. They were in love with Jason, and every time he was on stage they were screaming. I thought they were going to faint when he kissed the girls as part of his dancing routines. This concert was super funny with my favorite being the dancers making fun of the Russian Folk dance, and the advertising of workout DVD's. It was seriously funny.

After the concert, Cami spent the night at my house. It was so fun to talk to Cami and Jenni way into the night.

Friday, after getting a late start, we headed down to DC to see Emily and her beautiful triplets. We got to hold each baby. I am in awe of Emily. She has her hands full with these little ones. I was tired after just watching all she goes through just to feed them. They are so sweet. We were going to head into DC and catch a Smithsonian or two, but after trying to figure out where to park, and eat and the time growing short, Jenni had a great idea. Her idea was to just pick a nice resturant and eat a lovely lunch. We headed to Cheesecake factory and enjoyed their amazing food. We sat and just leisurely ate for over an hour. Ending with a fabulous red velvet cake and cheesecake combo. Wow, was that amazing.

Friday night was a girls game night. Julie and I decided to head home and just watch a movie. Saturday, everyone headed home. It was a whirlwind trip, but so fun to be with everyone for a few days.

Today, Ashley played her solo again in Church. It took some guts to play by herself with about 300 people watching. She did a great job.

Blogging, What's That?

I am seriously acting like I forgot how to blog. I really didn't, I am just a little crazy right now. We had a wonderful visit from my sister and brother-in-law. That was such a treat to see them for a few days. They are on my dream trip. Just traveling around together, going where the wind blows them. It just sounds like so much fun, and it is great for us because the wind blew them our way. I should have taken some pictures with them here, but I only got one. It is kind of funny, but we were laughing because James and Spence were sitting on the couch with their computers, and I snapped a picture.

The other thing that happened that I have not blogged about is Nicolaas received his arrow of light and also his webelos badge. He worked hard for both of these things. I missed it because the young women were at a different building, but James took pictures. I appreciate so much the men and women that have worked with my boys in the scouting program.


We are getting ready for more visitors next week. It has been great to have people coming. Amanda and Ashley wanted to paint their room, so we have been doing that. It has been fun to work with them. They picked colors I would not have picked, but it is their room and they are happy with them. They decided they both wanted to pick a color. So two of the walls are blue, Ashley's choice. The other two walls will be green, Amanda's choice. I will put up pictures as soon as it is finished. We are half way done, and they have done a lot of the painting. I have helped with taping and trim, because that is difficult. We are working on figuring out how to make the corners look really sharp, because the tape is peeling the paint. I think we have it figured out, and will start today with the trim work on the final two walls. It will not be a perfect job, but as long as they are happy, we are good.

Another Good One

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