How to Stand Up to a Bully...Primary Style

Our ward Primary Presidency is awesome!  At the beginning of the year they asked the Primary children what topics they wanted to learn about.  Each topic has been assigned as a talk each week.  I love the thought of teaching the kids to apply the scriptures to everyday situations that arise in life. This past Sunday was Ethan's turn.  He was assigned the topic:  How to Stand Up to a Bully.

On Friday, during our usual scripture scavenger hunt, I had Ethan write his talk instead...all by himself. Wanting to help him and to get him started, I told Ethan that I had the perfect scripture story for him.  One that I love.  But I didn't get that far because he just as excitedly told me that he had a story he wanted to use, his favorite:  David and Goliath.   I guess my story of Nehemiah and Sandballot will have to wait for another day.

He was a cutie and sat at our computer and didn't ask for my help once.  I was a little surprised by this.  Actually, I think I helped him find the story in the Old Testament.  That was it.

So, as I tend to do, I got distracted and went about my stuff that day.  It wasn't until I sat down at the computer later and saw his talk saved on the desktop that I read it.  And boy was my mommy heart smiling.  The way he applied the story was phenomenal and I had no idea he could make those connections.

Here was his connection, I mostly left them in his words:

"David stood up to a bully, even though he was smaller, because he was bigger on the inside because he had faith and goliath didn’t.  If you get bullied tell a adult because an adult is like your faith and your faith can beat a bully. Think of the story of david and goliath."

For a 10 year old, I thought this was ah-mazing!  

You Weren't Raised in a Barn

That was a phrase I heard when I was growing up.  Oh, it was never directed at me of course, but for sure at my siblings.  lol.

The funny thing is that I have heard myself saying that exact same thing to my kiddos.

Manners.  I truly believe they are the greatest service we can do for others.  Manners really don't impact ourselves but are for other people.  I mean, if I chew with my mouth open I can't really see the food.  But, you, sitting across from me would see the food.  See, it's for you not me.

We have been teaching our kiddos manners since seriously before they could speak.  Truly.  I know because I taught them a few sign language signs that included:  Please, Thank You, More, Milk.  (Because my boys were so close in age, I needed my oldest son [still a baby himself] to be able to communicate with me after his brother was born.)

Fast forward about a decade later and I still was wanting to pull my hair out at some of their "social graces" at the dinner table.  I couldn't take it.  Most especially the open mouth chewing.  Really they aren't that bad, but I can.not.handle.the.chewing.with.your.mouth.open.while.you.have.food.in.there!!!  (That also applies to gum.)

I honestly once stopped dating a guy because he didn't chew with his mouth closed.

To say this is a pet peeve is understated.

So, I read an idea online and knew I had to try it.  

I pulled out this little guy from our Pass the Pigs game.  I told my kiddos that for every eating infringement they would get the pig passed to them.  (Only Mom and Dad are allowed to determine that the pig gets passed.)  And, the person left holding the pig at the end of dinner has to clear the table.  

Of course they wanted to know what would happen if I still had the pig at the end of dinner.  I told them that I would happily clear the table and smile the whole time because it meant they were learning manners.

To my great surprise, the "game" has worked.  And it worked quickly!  I don't think it even took one full week before I was left with the pig at the end of dinner.  And, now it happens consistently.  I am so excited at the progress I have seen in my kiddos.  Unfortunately, if they aren't paying attention they revert back to old habits.  We need to make manners the new habit.

And, Laney for sure loves it and is always getting the pig out if I forget.

Hopefully, my kiddos will never have to be asked if there were raised in a barn again!

In Case of Fire

People always say, "What would you grab in case of a fire?"

Now I know.

Thanks to some people who decided to go target shooting in the dry brush on the mountain right by my house, now I know.

I grabbed my scrapbooks and clothes and makeup.  Scrapbooks because I don't feel like they can be replaced and clothes and makeup for our immediate needs.

On Thursday, June 21st, on my way home from a brunch with a friend, we noticed a fire.  It surely hadn't been there when we left.   It was hard not to be distracted by the fire and it's dancing orange flames for the rest of the day.

This is my friend's picture.  By the time I got my camera out the flames were gone.  

Maybe I felt a little tinge of worry; I am a worrier after all. But no one else seemed worried.

In fact, my friend who lives at the bottom of the street across from the field on fire set up a lemonade stand: her boys, and some neighbor kids including my daughter.  Because she lives as the bottom of the street, she had a great vantage point to see the fire and people kept coming there to see what was happening.



She had all the kiddos split the money.  I was shocked when Laney came home with $3.25 for her portion.


 The next morning after aerobics, the flames and massive black smoke made it impossible to ignore.  Still no one seemed worried.  I came home and went about our normal Friday morning routine.  The boys were doing their Scripture Scavenger Hunt and I was helping Laney with her math when the phone call came.

We were being evacuated.

A mandatory evacuation.

Word on the street is that had the fire headed in the direction of our houses, it would have been here in 9 minutes.  (I found this out later.)

We all jumped into motion.  I had the kids put their scriptures in the car.  And from there they were pretty much the most amazing children ever!  They did what needed to be done, without fighting.  And they were so helpful to me.  I loved it and took a moment to watch their teamwork with my mommy heart smiling.  It was really fun to me to see what they brought and thought was important.  I loved that Ty reminded everyone to get church clothes.  I also loved that Ty was the one who reminded me of our non-member neighbors that should be told.  And, he was the one who grabbed my wedding picture off the wall.  Laney grabbed my jewelry.  And Ethan was the one who grabbed clothes for Steve.

Having the church in this situation was amazing.  I received a phone call from my Visiting Teacher (a sister assigned to visit me once a month) checking on me to make sure I knew and I also called the sisters I visit teach in turn.  A system.  I love it.  Ironically when I moved to Utah about 17 years ago, I didn't realize we were right on a fault line.  But, I would ask myself, "Who is going to come find me in an earthquake?"  I think because I didn't have any family out here at that time, I was always assessing.

During the time we were packing up, I was able to see the gospel in motion.  People kept stopping by to make sure we knew and to see if we needed anything.  One of my neighbors even thought to ask me if I knew how to turn off our gas because it had been recommended.  I saw neighbors checking on other neighbors.  It was great to see.  And, it was my 11 year-old son who remembered to go tell our non member neighbor.  I was so proud of him.

Silly me, I know, but I had to shower first before we left.  I knew we weren't in imminent danger. So, it took us a lot longer to leave the neighborhood than everyone else.  Did I  mention that I did the dishes and made my bed.  I thought if I were going to imagine flames engulfing my house, I wanted to know that my bed was made.  It seemed like a ghost town as we were on our way out:  kids were no where to be seen, mom's weren't out watching their little toddlers play, there were no cars in the driveways...it was a little eerie.

This was the string of cars on the road as we were trying to leave.  I usually don't see this many cars on this road ever!  And, especially not at this time of morning.

After talking with Steve, we decided to meet up at Red Robin's for lunch.  While we were there he surprised us with tickets to see Disney's new movie Brave.  Afterwards we went to his parents house (who were out-of-town) until the evacuation order was lifted.  Officials recommended keeping cars packed in case of a middle-of-the-night evacuation.  We did.  I actually went to bed that night fully expecting to be evacuated during the middle of the night.  Around 11 p.m., Steve and I stepped outside to see the flames and they were amazing.  And higher than I thought they would be.  And closer, than I thought they would be.

I went to bed that night praying for a boring night.

I have decided boring is great.

This picture was taken by my friend from a house on my street.

This was quite the experience.  Over all it took four helicopters, an air tanker, five hand crews including three "hot shot" groups, numerous fire engines and 200 firefighters to battle the fire.  And even more firefighters were expected to join those already fighting.  A big thanks to those men and women who worked tirelessly and around-the-clock to ensure the safety of our lives and our homes.


Now I know what I would grab in case of fire...

Birthday Manna

My husband has the best sister-in-law ever!

It also doesn't hurt that she kinda looks like me!

Look what she sent him on his birthday:  Georgetown Cupcake!!!

Our family loves to watch the cooking shows and Cupcake Wars is one of our favorites.  Well, the owner of the Sweet Tooth Fairy won one of the episodes from our very own state of Utah.   Thus, Steve wanted to try them.

After one trip home to Maryland where Paige had treated us to these sweet treats, I asked people on Facebook what cupcake bakery they liked in Utah.  The Sweet Tooth Fairy seemed to be the popular choice.  So I tried them.  I thought they in no way compared to DC Cupcake (aka Georgetown Cupcake).

Steve wasn't with us in Maryland at that point in the trip so he missed out for sure.  But, fast forward about two years later, Paige wanted to know what Steve thought of DC Cupcake.  So, with a magic click of her mouse a dozen of these sweet treats showed up on our doorstep!

Yea sis!  You get the sister-in-law of the year award.  I had to keep telling myself they were for Steve, for his birthday.  Luckily he loves me and shared with me.

He thought they were good and that some flavors he liked better from DC Cupcake and others from The Sweet Tooth Fairy.   But, he says he really thinks he needs to taste DC Cupcake fresh.

Ummm....I am sure that can be arranged sweetie!

DaMudEaters

It was a giant playground for adults.  And, our little ones too.

On June 2nd, we had so much fun participating in our first Dirty Dash.  DaMudEaters was our team name.

I seriously couldn't capture the spirit of the race the way the website did.  So here are their words describing the race:

ABOUT THE DIRTY DASH

Have you ever said to yourself, “Marathons are too easy, and Triathlons are for sissies?”

We haven’t either…those races are really hard. Think about it…the first person to run a marathon actually died.  HE DIED!...and he probably didn’t even have fun along the way!

Well, welcome to a new kind of race: THE DIRTY DASH.  This race that puts all other races to shame.  The Dirty Dash is a mud run obstacle course where a military boot camp meets your inner five-year-old’s fantasy and subsequently converts boy to man and then man to swine. 

You’ll need endurance to trudge up mountains of sludge, courage to overcome uncompromising obstacles, a complete lack of shame to wallow in pits of mud and a smile to show through at the end!

So let this mud run obstacle course become your new guilty pleasure. Go solo or with some of your dirtiest, filthiest, & uncouth friends.  Either way, you’ll be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I am a Dirty Dasher!”… and then proceed to clean yourself off.  

Here is the beautiful race course in Soldier Hollow (where the cross country skiing was during the 2002 Olympics).  The kiddos were watching some of the early runners during the Dirty Dash.

Trying not to fall in the slippery mud.

Tyler, Ethan, and Alayna ran the Piglet Plunge.  And they LOVED it! They ran it according to age, so Steve ran with the boys and I ran with Laney along with the camera.  Laney did a fabulous job!  She ran so much of it with her mom yelling, "Laney, wait!"  Her little agile body could weave in and out of the other runners.    She wanted to run the whole thing.

 After running the course with Alayna, I thought to myself that the boys might be a little disappointed that it was short and not a ton of obstacles.  Luckily for them, some of the kids running in front of them veered off course and they ended up running far more than they were suppose to.  They didn't mind.

I am pretty sure I heard them asking if they could do it next year.

Making the race even more fun was meeting up with my friend and her family.  We ran most of the race with them.  I loved it.  Her boys were hilarious and their costumes too.  We didn't get to see them at the end, because Steve and I had taken the "shortcut."  We were a little worried about leaving our children.  And, then we realized how hot it was and how sunburned Ethan was getting so we left to get some water and sunblock before Kelly and her family were finished.  How did we not have those with us?

There was no salvaging the clothes or shoes.  So you can donate them.

They actually do clean up the shoes before they are donated.

"Reentry" into Summer

Reentry of the space shuttle is tricky business.

Reentry into summer with kids is also tricky business.

If not done properly, both could have disastrous results.

And so far, ours has been disastrous.  I am not sure why the transition from school to summer has been hard so far.  Was it this way last year?  I honestly can't remember but I am telling myself it was and that the kids settled in because I remember being sad on the first day of school.  Being sad that they were going to be gone and that I was going to miss them.

So far we have had a real lack of kindness and patience mixed in to our days.  And so, I keep telling myself that they have to learn how to be summerites.  That it will come.  But, maybe, just maybe they need my help a little.  In fact, I know they need it.  They need to be busy.  And, without me, they would watch tv all day and do nothing productive.

But, I have a plan.

• We have a checklist.  The checklist has been around since the boys were very little.  Being that I was at home and that there was never consistently a place we had to be, I was having a hard time making sure the important things like prayer and brushing teeth was getting done.  So, I invented our morning checklist.  The checklist consisted of:  getting dressed, brushed teeth, and morning prayer.  I would call down the list and the boys responded with a resounding check if they had done it.  And they loved it.  It worked for us.  We are still doing the "checklist" all these years later. Now I have added cleaning room before playing with friends.
• "Summer school".   Knowing that studies show the elementary children can lose up to 1 and a half years of reading development over the summer, I wanted to help prevent that.  So we have a math and reading part of our day.  In the morning.  
• Scripture Scavenger Hunts.  As with most families in our church we read the scriptures with our children and wonder if they are getting anything out of it.  We usually read by dividing up the chapter with each member reading our assigned number of verses.  At times Steve or I take turns discussing what the verses mean.  Because let's face it, sometimes you can read scripture and think, "What did I just read?"   And, I am not sure they are enjoying it.  I love the scriptures and love learning about them and I want to pass this on to my kiddos.  So, trying--key word is trying--to make it fun, I have created what I call Scripture Scavenger Hunts.  Basically it's a 10 question quiz with fill-in-the-blanks, true/fasle, matching, and one thinking question to help them learn the layout of the scriptures and to think about gospel principles.  We've only done one so far and they loved it.  Ethan wasn't quite used to my questions--and maybe they weren't developed enough for him--so he struggle a little bit in finding the answers.  I am not trying to be intense or make this hard for them.  I tell them exactly where to look to find the answers and if he couldn't find it, I was right there to show him how. 
• Friends.  I have been collecting the phone numbers of my children's school friends all year.  I want to make sure they have plenty of opportunities to play with friends.  
• Legacy Center.  Luckily we have been blessed to afford passes to the Legacy Center where the kiddos can go swimming.  I remember as a kid being so content swimming all day.  

I know we are bound to hit some "air resistance" or "drag" along the way.  I am going to do my best to be patient with that as well.  But, having a plan in place makes me feel so much better.  Like I can jump into summer with both feet.  I know my kiddos are growing so fast and  I want to enjoy this time, not endure this time.

Being Six Means...

Being 6 means my children get their first friend party.

 And, this is the year for my little sunshine girl!  Boy was she happy.  She was excited as each friend would knock on the door.  She would open it to see who was on the other side and then dissolve into happy laughter as she saw who it was.  Overall, we had 7 of her friends here to celebrate with us.  Only 1 friend couldn't make it.

This picture is just so her....Little Miss Sunshine.

These girls are all so sweet.  It was really interesting to see which girls wanted to help me, which girls loved playing the games, which girls loved the crafts, and who wanted to sit by the birthday girl.

We invited them for lunch.  I went easy and fed them pizza.  My plan had been to go to Little Caesar's but when I was shopping at Walmart I saw their pizzas and thought that would be easier because then I could control when the pizza was ready.  You know what, I actually liked the Walmart pizza better than Little Caesar's.  I thought it tasted like Pizza Hut pizza.

Then of course it was time for cake and ice cream.

Blowing out the Candles

It's a good thing from these pictures you don't know how the cake tastes.  I was devastated when I realized that my frosting tasted horrible...that the shortening I had used to make it had gone bad.  The girls were funny!  I gave them total permission not to like the cake.  They each one--except one--tasted it and said, "This is horrible!" Instead, they ate the ice cream and cookies that we had.  It all turned out okay.

After cake, the girls finished up the last thing for their gift bags.  The princess candy necklaces.  They came in a kit and were perfect.  This was my favorite thing of the party.  The girls were all talking together and singing songs.  I thought it was darling to see the camaraderie.  Because of the distractions making the necklaces took a lot longer than I had planned on which meant less time for the games.

Cousins

We only had time for two games.   The first was Musical Chairs which the birthday girl insisted upon.  All the girls seemed to love it and having my ipad made it so easy to do.  The other game was called the Missing Slipper.  We gathered one shoe from each girl and placed them into a pile.  Once they were divided into teams, a girl would have to hop on one foot to the pile, put their shoe on and hop back to their team high fiving the next girl so she could go.  They loved this one too.  I heard lots of giggling as they tried to get their shoes on in a hurry.  

Happy Birthday to my Little Sunshine!