Something Fishy is Going On Around Here . . .

This Afternoon Lamon was getting ready for a Scout Camp Out and was in the garage. He called for me, "Hey Mary, come to the garage."

So I came, and he asked me, "Have you been in the attic lately?"

I'm like, "Are you serious? Why in the world would I go into the attic?"

He then showed me a huge trail of attic insulation going from the attic door down all of the shelves in the garage that hadn't previously been there.

"Now that is weird . . . Why would someone get into our attic?" We were both puzzled. Nothing seemed to appear missing in the shop or garage.

So I go back in the house. The floor in the living room was covered with crumbs and I didn't want the scout leaders to come over and actually see how filthy we really are so I wanted to vacuum really fast. I went to get the vacuum . . . but it wasn't in the closet. I looked upstairs . . . no. I looked downstairs . . . no. Weird!

"Lamon, the vacuum is missing! I've looked everywhere."

"Are you sure?"
"I'll look one more time." And I did. Closet . . . no. Upstairs . . . no. Downstairs . . . no.

"Why would someone steal our cheap vacuum out of anything?"
I was a little nervous about this Attic tresspassing vacuum stealer.

Lamon said, "There is no way someone stole our vacuum." A minute later . . . "Mary . . . the vacuum is right here in the closet."

"What? I checked three times!" . . . And yet sure enough . . . there it was.

I then told Lamon the same thing I remind him everyday and that is that I am going to be senile at 40 years of age and he is going to have to take care of me for the rest of his life. To which he just responded, "No . . . I would put you in a home."

Thanks dear!

"Whock Whock" . . . "Who's There?"

What is it with kids and Knock Knock jokes? My kids have been constantly coming up with knock knock jokes lately that make absolutely no sense at all. And no matter how many times I give them an example of a "real" knock knock joke . . . they never seem to quite get it.

So my little two year old Ada comes up to me saying, "Whock Whock."

I had no idea what she was saying. "What Ada?"

"Whock Whock . . ."

Oh . . . "Who's There?"

"Abby"

"Abby Who?"

"Daddy!" And then she rolls around on the floor laughing hysterically. I have to admit that it is kind of cute. And I say "is" because it wasn't a "was" because she continues to tell the same "Whock Whock" joke multiple times a day. Funny girl!

A Glimpse of my Man . . .

The year was 2003. We were newlyweds both working and going to school. I would wake up early in the morning and catch a bus to BYU where I was going to school full time and also working part time on campus, and I usually wouldn't return until 10:00 at night. Lamon worked and went to school at UVSC. The days were long, and the only times we saw each other it seemed were late in the evenings when it was time to go to bed.

Well one day I came home pretty pooped. I was tired and felt sick . . . (I was pregnant) . . . and just felt like evoking some sympathy and being pampered. Well when Lamon got home he was also really tired after a long day. He came over and sat next to me on the couch and propped his feet up on my lap and said, "I could really use a foot rub."

. . . I took his foot a bit resentfully and started to give him a halfhearted foot rub. I was quiet as I was giving him a pathetic version of a foot rub and the whole time was thinking to myself, "I am tired . . . I have had a hard day and I am pregnant . . . I would like a foot rub . . ." But of course I was a newlywed and I hadn't learned about communication yet. So I just sat there rubbing and stewing.

When I finished his foot rub, I sat back feeling all victimized . . . and Lamon got up and said . . . "Okay, wait here." He left the room for a minute, and when he came back he had a little tub full of hot water and some towels and set it at my feet, and proceeded to give me a full on pedicure. He rubbed my feet, washed, filed, soothed . . . the whole works. I felt awful, and was completely in awe at my selfless and giving husband. It is one of my cherished memories. I learned a lot that day about love . . . Lamon has never stopped serving, and thankfully I have learned from Lamon the real way to "Love."

Recent Haydenisms

Yesterday after church Hayden says, "Mom . . . did you know that Men are people? . . . It's true, they are! I know that."

On the way home from church Hayden told me what he learned in Primary. "Mom, we learned about butterflies in Primary!! First they are an egg, then they are a snake, then a RACOON, and then a butterfly!"
Wow.

Later at home Hayden was screaming, "Mom!! I need a statue!"
"What?"
"I need a statue!!"
"Hayden, I don't know what you are talking about."
"I need a statue!"
"A statue is made out of rock and is still like this . . . you want one of those?"
Smiling, "No . . . I need a statue to blow my nose."
"Oh . . . that would be a 'tissue' Hayden."

Hayden is ALWAYS saying something to make us and our neighbors laugh. A week ago Hayden went to the neighbors house and went up to Sister Hahn and said, "I am ZERO fast, and you don't get much faster than that!" She laughed about that for a long time. She thinks Hayden is so funny, and she is the one who came up with the word "Haydenism."

Inflicting Cruel and Unusual Punishment ?

I consider myself to be a kind person most of the time. I enjoy sacrificing for the happiness of others. It makes me happy. But there is one thing that I admit I have a hard time sacrificing . . . and that is my Saturday morning garage sales.

I try to make it very clear to Lamon that any morning in the warm months of the year that he does not have a scouting trip . . . I must insist on garage saleing. But there are some Saturdays that my wishes are unable to be granted and . . . I just have to bring the kids. Not too bad right?

But I admit that I am a bit disturbed. I knowingly drag my children along sometimes even though I know that there is an extremely high chance that one of the children will throw up during the outing. They were all given weak stomachs from their dear father. I found out about this condition after we got married. I love Amusement parks and one time at Lagoon Lamon wouldn't go on any rides because they made him "sick." I was quite annoyed and kept calling him a party pooper. After that he vowed never to go to an amusement park with me, and even worse he has given this curse to all the children. Almost every time we have gone on long trips, and especially on our garage saleing trips . . . one of them has thrown up. But what do I do? I bring them anyways because I am addicted to garage sales! Aren't I a terrible and deeply disturbed mother? But in my defense I am always prepared with a bucket, and I just pass it back when one of them needs to puke, and then when I am sure they are okay and happy, we continue on to the next sale. Today . . . Hayden was the one making use of the bucket. He wasn't complaining or anything. They are all pretty used to it.
Terrible I know . . . but boy did we find some great stuff this morning! I can't wait until next week :) Hopefully I won't have to drag the kiddies along. Although, I do tend to buy a few more toys when they come. Drew got some pretty sweet fisherprice roller skates today and he hasn't taken them off since we bought them. He cracks me up.

Seeing the Sunny Side of Life

Sometimes you just need a crazy day to appreciate how great life is.

The craziness started when I was supposed to take Ada to the doctors office yesterday, and I couldn't get my key in the ignition. The ignition has been on it's way out for awhile, but we have been able to get the keys in after some manipulation, but not anymore. I tried for about an hour, and ended up having to cancel the appointment and reschedule.

Later while playing outside Drew was riding Ada's bigwheel. He got going really fast and somehow got that bigwheel to turn on it's side and he skinned his knee really bad. He was sad for a few moments but was back to playing after a good cleaning and a bandaid. Then later in the day the kids decided to put up their Cars tent and were playing in it. Ada and Hayden were being a little too rambunctious in the tent so I made them get out, and Ada wasn't too happy about that. She went over to the tent and pushed the side of it. It didn't seem like anything too serious, but suddenly Drew started screaming, "Ouch! Ada hurt me! I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding!" I was like, "Drew she didn't hurt you that bad. You're okay." But he continued, "I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding." "Okay, okay Drew let me unzip this and I can see." I was clearly expecting to see nothing which is often what I find when a kid is saying I'm bleeding. But when I opened the tent up Drew had blood all over his hands and his t-shirt, and it was dripping down the back of his head. He must have fallen back and hit his head on the fireplace. I was like, "Oh boy." I grabbed him up and ran him upstairs and did the only thing I know to do and that was put a towel on the wound and hold it there. I had Drew hold it and went next door. One of the greatest things about where we live is that we have a NICU nurse that lives right next to us. So I went and got him and he came over to inspect it. When he got to our house the bleeding had totally stopped, and he couldn't even get the wound to open up. Lamon has told me how head wounds can always seem worse than they are because they bleed so easily. I am very glad that we didn't have to run to the hospital . . . because the car wouldn't have been able to start anyway.

Later at the dinner table I asked the kids to tell me the good things and the bad things that had happened during the day. Drew responded, "Everything that happened today was good." I said, "Really Drew? What about when you bonked your head? Did you like that?" To this inquiry he shook his head up and down. "Yes." What? He went on, "Well, it was some bad, but mostly good." I was intrigued at this point. Then he said, "It was good because that man came over to help me."

I was pretty proud of Drew for having such a positive outlook on life.

The crazy day ended with the power going out. I always think it's kind of exciting when the power goes out, and it always reminds me how blessed we are to have electricity!!!!

Improving and Fortifying our Armor

A couple of days ago during the Saturday sessions of conference, the kids were running around playing swords with each other. Drew came up to me with some paper and some rubber bands and asked me if I would help him make some armor. It sounded like an interesting idea to me, so I helped him and it was a lot of fun. We started with what you see in these pictures, but at the end of our playing, the kids were pretty much covered with paper from head to toe. Unfortunately as time wore on, their armor didn't last and it all ended up scattered around the family room. I told the kids that we should make their armor out of something a little stronger than paper like cardboard. They liked this idea quite a lot, and they have been looking forward to their new and much stronger armor.
Well could tonight's Family Home Evening lesson have been any easier for me to figure out? We had a blast making some armor together, and then I asked them why people use armor, and Hayden said, "To protect our bodies." I was pretty impressed by his answer. I then told them that I was going to read about a different kind of armor, a kind of armor that protects our spirits. And then I read from Ephesians 6:11-17. I'd like to say that they all sat down like angels the whole time for this . . . but um . . . not so much. Hayden was playing a drum and climbing on the bookshelf, Ada was screaming because she wanted to wear the helmet of Salvation and there were only two. So amidst the chaos I am reading the scriptures to them and there might of been a few intermittent yells from me like, "Hayden! Get down. Get over here! Ada stop whining or you're going in your bed!" And of course times those threats by like maybe 1o. I was like, "Don't you know that this is supposed to be fun?" Besides Hayden and Ada's moments of craziness It really was fun. The kids had a blast and were begging me tonight to play with their armor again in the morning. And I can at least say that Drew might even be able to tell you what some of the armor of God includes.