Preschool programs and other drama

This is Pam Wing -- quite possibly one of the best preschool teachers around. We love her. Three of my kids have gone to her preschool and Elle is already signed up for 2 years from now. Pam teaches because she loves to, not because she has to. That's huge.Last week was Paige's final preschool program. The kids sing a sampling of songs they have learned all year. I've been through this progam twice before and can now sing along myself. All of the other parents loved hearing me sing along, I'm sure. It's all good.The child has some facial expressions, that's for sure. And while Paige "oozes with personality" as Pam would say, her little friend Kamille takes the cake....She's the 2nd one from the left. Kamille has been in several plays and is definitely at home on the stage. Something upset her just before the performance so she decided to perform as little as possible during the entire thing. She kept that exact facial expression and didn't sing a note, while doing all of the actions half-heartedly. It was like she was saying, "I'll do this because I know I'm supposed to but I'm not happy about it and I won't do a stand-out job." Little did she know that she stole the show anyway.

The other drama that has been happening all year long involves Paige's best friend, Cameron.Paige adores Cam. Can you tell? She loves him so much that she doesn't want to share him with anyone else, which becomes a problem when you have 10 other kids in school with you who just might want to play with him, too. Enter Keaton ....Cameron and Keaton are friends, too, which frustrated Paige almost the entire year. She called Keaton her "worst enemy" and would report to us at dinner that she'd had a wonderful day when Keaton was absent or that she'd had a horrible day because "my best friend went home to play with my worst enemy!" Drama, that child. She was finally able to come to terms with Keaton by the end of the year and decided that he wasn't so bad after all. We haven't had a 3-way playdate or anything yet but we'll see. Baby steps.

After it was all over, Paige said to me, "Wow. I'm growing up so fast." Yes you are, cute girl. :)

Road trippin'

Last week, the kids and I hopped in the car (more like shoved our stuff and ourselves into the car),... drove 10 hours across the great plains of Wyoming and through the ginormous towns of Thermopolis and Meeteetse, finally to arrive in the wonderful town of Red Lodge, Montana to see the best nana & papa around.My cowboy dad and awesome 2nd mom, Shirlee, come down to see us far more often than we get up there to see them. So it was high time for a road trip. We had such a great time just being there with them. The kids adored their 2 dogs, Duffy & Bonnie ........ loved following nana around the greenhouse/room,
... and loved seeing the horses right next door. Look at my city kids out on the ranch. :)Easily Christian's favorite part was shooting the bb gun with papa, and eventually the girls got into the action, too. My dad is a gun guy and most of his grandkids have had a chance to shoot some type of gun with him at some point.We went to the local zoo, which is actually a rescue center for orphaned and hurt animals. The best part of that outing was Paige announcing on the way there that she wanted to see a "ferocious bunny rabbit." That phrase alone made us all laugh but when you add her inability to say her r's (a fewocious bunny wabbit), it was even funnier.Those are real dead mice by the owls. One had its head bitten off. Even Christian wasn't so sure he liked seeing that.What does a bear say, Elle?This little moment made me cry. Seeing all of my kids with my dad who's in the fight of his life right now. I love you, dad.The kids thought it was great riding around in the back of papa's truck.We played at the park...... and drove to the top of the Beartooth Pass, which heads down into Yellowstone if you keep going.My beautiful Haley at the top of the pass.The kids LOVED the hotel more than I expected they would.Every time daddy would call, Paige would tell him excitedly, "Dad! You should see this place! We have TWO queen beds here!" Clearly, my kids don't get out much. We swam every day and I appreciated having free breakfast every morning. Especially loved maid service. Gotta get me some of that at home.

The drive wasn't anywhere near as bad as I had feared either, thanks almost entirely to modern technology. At any given point during the trip, one kid would be playing the Nintendo DS, one would be listening to an iPod and the other 2 would be watching a movie on the portable DVD player. There was still a fair amount of good old-fashioned fun (coloring, playing with Barbies, reading) but I was amazed at how well everyone did during the long drive. Elle would occasionally get antsy so I would try to divert her. "Look, Elle! A cow!" She'd grumpily reply, "I hate cows!" "Look, baby - horses!" "I hate horses! " Cracked us all up, which I'm sure wasn't the response she was going for.

Other memories: rummaging around nana's kitchen while she was at work to make cookies, showing the kids Remington Ranch (dad's vision and their first home in Red Lodge), making bubble beards with the foam in the hotel's hot tub, shopping with Shirlee in the boutique'y shops downtown, good old-fashioned fried food at the Red Boxcar, Paige asking why I was forcing her to "break the Sabbath day" by suggesting we go swimming on Sunday (she's apparently the morality police), the kids choosing Macho Man bubble gum cigarettes for daddy, giant blueberry pancakes, being pulled over for speeding by a Wyoming cop while Paige asked, "Why were you breaking the law?" (again with the morality police!), my inability to find a fountain Diet Coke in the entire town thanks to a Pepsi plant being up the road, getting up close and personal with a buffalo, having cart blanche in the toy aisle at nana's work (surprisingly hard to make a choice when given so many options), watching the branch president's eyes bug out of his head when he saw a new family walk into church and considering the possibilities as we increased their numbers and then seeing him deflated when he heard we were just visiting, squeaky toy games with the dogs, and just loving and hanging out with nana & papa. We love you guys! Thanks for a great time.

My dad is stronger than yours!

Driving Paige and her friend, Cameron, home from preschool the other day, I chuckled as they got into an argument about whose dad was stronger. To make his point, Cameron finally said, "Well, my dad can pick all 3 of us kids up at the same time!" Paige admitted that our dad had never done that before, which only made her more determined to prove that he could. And never shying away from a challenge, dad was happy to try it out. Here you go, Paige. Your daddy is pretty darn strong.

San Francisco, part 1

I spent the weekend in San Francisco with an unlikely group -- my dentist, his wife & daughter and two of his dental assistants. Not your typical trip, true, but I had a great time and was in great company.

I have had porcelain veneers on my top teeth since I was 23 (boring story) and they have needed to be replaced for a few years now. My dentist asked if I'd be willing to be his sample patient at a dental conference/training for porcelain veneers in San Francisco. Ummm, let me think about that .... Yes, please! It means travelling to SF for 2 weekends -- first to have my old veneers taken off and temps put on and then back a few weeks later for the permanent veneers. This past weekend was the first of the 2 trips.

This is where all of the dentists worked on their patients. If you're scared of the dentist at all (good thing I'm not), this room would definitely be your nightmare. Lots of drilling and shots of novacaine happening here.(Why won't my cute red camera let me turn these pictures??) Dr. Adrian is a master at what he does and I was happy to be in good hands. His two assistants, Cleo (aka Rosario Dawson) and Katie (aka Liv Tyler), were not only fun travel companions but were so great during the 4 hour procedure. Good times. Here's the team:The rest of the time that I wasn't in the chair was spent hanging out in the city. I love San Francisco. It was my second home as a kid. We did some sightseeing, shopping, people watching, good eating and just enjoying the city.These guys were amazing tap dancers. I think we need more street performers in SL.My first time to Alcatraz, oddly enough.Dr. Adrian, Jamie and Holland.This was the best surprise of the whole trip. Paige made me this "paper hug" and she stashed it away in my suitcase. If I missed her and needed a hug, I could wrap this ribbon and her little cut-out hands around myself. :)

M.T.C.

Today is my 16 year anniversary of going on my mission. I entered the MTC on May 12, 1993. I probably wouldn't have remembered that except that my MTC companion, Jenn, blogged about it. Reading hers started me down Memory Lane .... remembering that day and the whole MTC experience.

I was so excited to be going on a mission. A sign language mission, no less! I was thrilled. Sister Williams and I hit it off right away and we had a great time together. We're still friends all these years later, so that says something right there. We had a great district .... some knew sign, others of us knew very little. Being together for 18 hours straight every day for 2 months can test relationships but we survived, and still liked each other in the end.

MTC memories: long, silent days, Celestial Service (seriously - who came up with that name?), "redecorating" the other sisters' room with special sacks :), large group meetings with Elder Belot, front row reserved seating for the ASL missionaries, SYL (Speak Your Language), awesome teachers, Taibjee's cow imitation, 'How do you feel today?' pictures on the wall, weekly temple trips, running stairs to wake up between classes, Stephenson doing "I'm a little teapot,"3 Amigos, last minute changes in mission calls, the Tagalog elders, cafeteria food, discussion practices, signing a song as a district for new mission presidents, mail, dork dots .... Good times.

My mission changed me, made me stronger, tested me, stretched me -- both physically [little weight gain :)] and emotionally ... best thing I had ever done up until that point in my life. And I can't wait to do it again with Mike someday.

Big or small, we'll save them all!

A few of my friends and I did the Race for the Cure last year and quickly realized what a great event it is, so we decided to make it a yearly tradition. So many people are affected by breast cancer and thousands and thousands of people come out in great support of those courageous fighters. The fun part about the race is the lively atmosphere -- lots of pink, outrageous outfits, hilarious t-shirts... Here are a few highlights from this year:"Jigglers 2009 -- Jiggling our way to a cure""Breast Jordan Buddies" instead of West Jordan, for you out-of-towners."Save the man boobs -- big or small, we'll save them all""Bra bandits"And my personal favorite ... "Save second base"I ran into my friend, Crissy. Seriously, Crissy, would you have guessed back in high school that we'd be running a 5k together? Awesome. :)And then we were off .... all 19,000 of us.It was a little comical trying to run with that many people but it was worth it. More fun t-shirts...."Save the ta-ta's" and "Save the hoo-ha's".... grown women wearing pink capes ........ people to cheer us along ....... and remembering the reason that we were there in the first place.Seeing these cards on so many people's backs with names of many who have died and so many who continue to fight made for an emotional day. Seeing women with no hair who are in the fight for their lives, literally, made me so grateful for life and health and the blessing of friends and family.

This was our group at the beginning of the race........and here's who I finished with.N'Lice, Krista and I slowly jogged our way through the race, with only 2 small walking breaks. I was proud of us. I haven't run that far .... hmmmm, ever. The goal for next year is to run the whole thing, no walking, and improve my time. I'm just happy to be part of the whole event. And I plan to be there year after year.