Sunday, May 31, 2009

welcome

Did anyone else double check the calendar when they realized that yesterday was June 1st ?

June is like a big content sigh. 

June is birthday's, visits from family not seen in a long time. June is about cook-outs, big slices of cake, running in sprinklers and watching the popsicle juice drip down toddlers' arm. 

June is staying up late and drive-in movies. June is sitting outside first thing in the morning and reading the paper before everyone else is awake. 

June is about running in the grass with bare feet, giggling, letting your hair grow long, and getting sun-glass face tan lines. 

June is about drinking a cold homemade drink, smelling the rain on the pavement, and wearing nothing but flip-flops.

June is about telling Dad how much you love him, watching the plants grow and throwing the ball for the dog. June is writing with chalk and the smell of hot pavement. 

June is riding bikes until your legs start to ache. June is fresh strawberries and a slice of rhubarb pie.

The groan of the lawn mower. 
The greasiness of the sunscreen. 
The dirty feet.
The afternoon naps.
The tank tops.
The late afternoon sun hitting your book.
The music.
The freedom of not doing anything at all.
The open windows.
The drinking from the hose.
The quietness from being content.
The slap of the screen door behind you.

I have needed you June. I am so glad that you are finally here.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

coke rewards

$3.05

That's it.  $3.05 is what I paid for MY portion of this SWEET jacket from nikestore.com.  I needed a new jacket since my other favorite one went for a trip after our last run together.  It was carelessly put into the bed of the truck, without thinking about the possibility of having it go for a flying adventure without me.  Some hobo that scrounges the side of the freeway for s
tuff will find a way to stay warm on his run.

The OTHER portion of the jacket was paid for with my coke rewards.  Well, ok... maybe not MY coke rewards.  I have had my students collecting their coke lids and box ends and bringing them in to me for about a month.

When I got my jacket in the mail today (I love getting treats in the mail), I opened it and on the inside tag hung the price tag:
  

$110.

SCHWING!!

That qualifies as my deal of the week, I do believe


Thursday, May 28, 2009

nature boy

Next week... for 3 days... Hayden gets his first dose of "nature" for the summer in the form of his first trip to Lake Powell with my family.  Having been before, I know that it is MY version of what heaven must be.  My kids agree.  Brenden called today asking if I can pick him up next week early so we can get down to Lake Powell sooner.  Hayden is not familiar with L.P. so therefore doesn't share the love like we do.  Why?  Well... it's a long story.

My husband is no Davy Crockett.  The "wild frontier" has never been his thing.  At the ripe old age of 7, he went for a picnic with the family up Daniel's Canyon.  He stayed in the car, refusing to come out.  When further questioned as to WHY he wouldn't join them at the picnic table, he stuck his head out of the car and declared "I 
HATE NATURE", and proceeded to spend the rest of the lunch time in the car.  Al-righty then.  (now I am beginning to see where Aspen's little stubborn streak comes from).  Several years later when asked if he wanted to join family members swimming in a lake, he asked, "Is it a heated lake?"  (Ummm... I promise that my husband IS CURRENTLY a very intelligent man... CURRENTLY)

Since then he has managed to avoid just such NATURE-istic adventures.   With Hayden's last days of working for someone else quickly approaching (June 12), we have BIG plans to change ALL of that.  Sorry Hayd.  You will be initiated this summer. You will be BLESSED enough to sleep on the ground, in a tent!!!  You will be Fortunate enough to dine on stick roasted hot dogs and S'mores with more ash in them than chocolate.  You will be Amazed to see how much fun and adventure a day of kayaking on the lake can be.  And we will all be there to witness it.

Better bring some bug spray  :)



Wednesday, May 27, 2009

crazy ~ busy

Long weekend was a productive weekend.  

6 mile run, while pushing the baby jogger.  Followed by 5 hours in the garden: FINALLY getting everything in just in time for the 2 days of RAIN!  yay!  Hopefully the ants don't eat ALL of my garden before it has a chance to start.

Aspen left on Monday for Ephraim... and her TONKA truck she left on the lawn makes me miss her every time I go outside.

It looks lonely.

I miss her (however, she probably doesn't even know I'm gone)


Sunday, May 24, 2009

This week... in a nutshell


Been a bit of a crazy week.  Aspen's last day with her regular sitter was Tuesday (because they went on vacation).  Wednesday I got to sneak her to school for an hour or so until her Grandma Deb picked her up.  She was a hit at school!  The girls doted, teachers took pictures of her (it's gotta be the hair!), and she LOVED all the attention.

Wednesday she and Grandma went to the Salt Lake city library,Thursday was the Tracy Aviary, where she got to feed the pelicans some fish, and Friday they met Morgan for lunch.  Spoiled little Aspen.


I had meetings on Thursday along with an awards assembly, but Friday brought the annual FRESHER TAG for all my classes.  It has been an yearly tradition since I taught PE back even before I taught full time.  The kids loved it then, and it just kinda stuck.  So that's what we will be doing on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.  Rough life of a teacher :)

THANKS to Sneb for taking such great care of our baby this week.  LOVE YOU!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

playground EQUATION

A little math equation (since we are rapidly approaching the end of the school year).

Transitive property says:
if a=b and b=c then A=C.

The FRASER version of this equation is:
if We (love) Aspen and Aspen (loves) parks... then WE (love) parks.

The weather was sweet, there were a few little boys on the playground... and Aspen made sure she got her flirt on a few times before we left.

Monday, May 18, 2009

playin'

THE best part of the day is when I get home from work and Aspen and I get to hang out and play for awhile.  We read, lay on the couch and read books, PUSH PUSH her stroller everywhere... and occasionally she figures out strange things for us to do.  This past week, she came out of the bathroom with Q-tips in her ears and 2 more in her hand for me to put in my ears.  
Silly SILLY girl.  Easily entertained.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

what it's all about

Nothing like spending time with loved ones doing something you love... especially when they love it too!

Brenden loves running... and I was super glad to have him along for the race today.  Especially since he WON!!  Thats right... THAT"S MY SON... the one at the front.

Hayden brought Aspen along and she thought the doves that were in the cages before the race were much cooler and more interesting than anyone running.  

I did however put my shirt on after the race, and she looked at the front of it and said "RUN RUN" to the picture of the 3 runners on the front of it.  hmmm... makes me think they just might have to have a running category for 3 year olds by next year.  We could have her trained by then.

Friday, May 15, 2009

letter

ok... so I think I have figured out that my "love language" is words of affirmation, and Brenden hit the nail on the head with his little poem he wrote me for mothers day.

One little background note: Brend has always had the job to sit behind me at football games, sporting events, or watching tv and pull my grey hairs out.  He informed me last month that there are too many to have to try to keep up with anymore.  

Thanks buddy... 

Thursday, May 14, 2009

out of her element

For being my clean freak, spending an hour in the garden helping put in some squash was VERY out of her comfort zone.  Bare foot in the dirt, with rocks and dirt... and with BUGS (ants) all over the place she wasn't sure how to deal with it at first.  After putting in seeds, and using her little rake to put dirt on top she starting thinking differently about the whole ordeal.

The end result was 5 rows put into the garden, and a VERY messy girl.  Wet pants caked with dirt and mud... and mud on face and hands.

At least I'm training her early.  She should be able to put the entire garden in for me by the time she is 5.


Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Old Mother Hubbard lives @ our house!

Shopping + Tonia = NO fun.

Shopping + Tonia + ASPEN = HAHAHA... NOT going to happen.

Needless to say, it is way past time to go grocery shopping.

MAMMA!!!

What a great mother's day weekend!  Saturday was FULL of fun stuff.  During the morning, I got to go pick up a trunk load of perennials from Slick & Dave.  I planted most of them this weekend, and most look like they are going to make it!  YAY!  Brenden went with me to SLC and rode his long-board around the campus of the U.  I am surprised he could stomach it, considering he is an avid BYU fan.

We went to a BBQ at a neighbors house Saturday afternoon.  Hayden is out of his element when it comes to these things, but he was a GREAT sport.  It was fun, and Aspen loved sitting at a table like a "big girl".

Sunday I had to give the lesson in Relief Society... and I survived!  Not sure why teaching 13 year olds seems alot easier than teaching a class with adults.  

My mothers day gifts were actually pretty hilarious.  From Aspen (or TO Aspen... depending on how you look at it), was WALL-E.  From/to Wade was a Playstation 3 remote, and from/to Brenden was X-Men boxed set.  Made me wonder what I had "got for Hayden" for mothers day when he handed me the last package: Really cool running headphones.  I love my family... they make me laugh!

We eeked out a picture or two before the boys left... which, as the pictures show, are always Brenden's favorite things to endure.  I'll let him get away with it this time... he wrote me a cool mother's day poem that I LOVED!
Thanks guys... You spoil me!


Sunday, May 10, 2009

mom

Thinking of my mom on this mothers day, and wanted to share 5 things I love and admire about my mom:

1. She is a great artist, and as I child I always wished I could draw like her (especially the horses she used to draw for me).

2. She plays the piano and the ACCORDION!  One of my favorite childhood sounds was while laying in bed listening to my mom play the piano.

3. She inspires me to be ORGANIZED!  

4. My inspiration for running was my mom.  She used to get up and go running with friends before we were even up.

5. She loves her grandkids, she loves us... and we love her!

Happy Mother's Day mom ~


Friday, May 8, 2009

{PR}

Yesterday we (Aspen and I) traveled to Morgan High to watch Brenden run the 3200 meter (2 mile) at his region track meet.

I'm so proud of this kid!  His personal record, which decided which heat he ran in, was 11:17.  This placed him in the slower heat by one second.  This was tough for him because being at the top of the heat meant he had no one with a time that would push him to improve.  Yeah... like that stopped him. 

He beat him PR by 20 seconds, and got 10:58.  He lapped several of the kids in his heat, and best of all... beat 5 of the people's time that were in the FAST heat.  

Way proud of you buddy!!  You're going to be hard to catch by next year!  

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

obsession

Aspen is her mother's child.  

She and I find something that holds our interest and THAT becomes our obsession.  Well... until the next thing comes along.

Mine have ranged from cleaning, scrap-booking, sewing, YARD WORK (yes... to some people this is our version of RELAXATION).  Notice "doing toilets or showers" is not on that list.

Aspen's current THING is pushing her silly stroller around.  It isn't enough to just push it... but her two favorite bears have to be IN the stroller and positioned JUST right.  First thing in the morning, before she has even had a chance to sit up in bed, she is saying "PUSH"... and off we go to push the bears.  It's a little annoying when I try to run errands and she thinks those bears need to come with us (yes... still attached to the stroller).  

The good part of it all:  I have learned that there are some things I can finally bribe her to do when she wants something bad enough.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

before & after... finally

My spring break ADVENTURE (ha ha ha) was to paint the kitchen.  Thinking this was only going to take maybe a day, I had made other big plans for the rest of my break.  

Yeah right.

Tip to the wise... estimate the time it will take you to paint a room... and TRIPLE it!

At least it is done.  The yellow I painted it a few years back really didn't go with the earth-toned tile.  The kitchen has never had trim around the baseboards, and the door casings were made of plastic pretend wood.  Now our sand-grey walls MATCH (thanks to our $5 gallon of Home-Depot mismatched paint), our baseboards are up, patched (and will be painted before Christmas... I promise Hayden!), and the french door is finally touched up and painted.

Good thing I have all summer to work on nice little "projects"

What 2 looks like...


Unfortunately... the terrible 2's arrived early at our house this year.

Maybe this means it will LEAVE our house early as well.

Probably not, but a girl can always hope.





This is what happens when you SIT on (or touch... or sometimes even LOOK at) the toy of the PRINCESS of our house.

Friday, May 1, 2009

adventure


Headed this weekend down to the blessed land of milk and honey... and Snow College Badgers.  We have a birthday party to go to on Saturday, but mostly I am looking forward to a little hike in the hills with them.  Haven't been out hiking (especially around Sanpete County) for almost 20 years.  Ok... a little more than 20 years.

Wish me luck.  May I just be able to keep up... running skills and hiking skills are NOT the same.

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