How To Impress Your Kids

This came in the mail:

Our daughters are SO AMAZED about the fact 

that their parents must be such Celebreties, 

that THE DANBURY MINT 

has made a Special Edition "Suzanne & Matt" ring to sell

and that it is featured in their exclusive catalog that they send out to millions!!!

(I'm sure it'll be flying off the shelves - or the internet!)

We chose NOT to correct their assumptions!

We gotta take any admiration and respect we can get from them!  ;)

In Case I Want to Hang Out on My Porch All the Time....

I'm all equipped with a microwave out there....

...ya know, for popping my popcorn, making hot pockets, melting cheese, and heating water for my cocoa.

Heck!  I'd never have to leave the porch!

But, wait!  WHY is there a microwave on my porch?!?
The truth is....it just randomly appeared there this afternoon.

At first I thought, Oh no!  Is Kyle getting asked to a dance?  He's not 16 yet - he won't be able to go!  (We don't date until age 16).  No, that's not right - the next High School dance is PROM, and that's boy's choice....

But then I saw the tag was addressed to, "Kevin" and I was like, Oh...they got the wrong house!

But then Kyle informed me that he goes by that name sometimes.  WHAT?!?  Well, that's news to me!

So, I'm standing there looking out onto our porch in utter dumbfoundedness, and Kyle is completely amused by it.

He said this microwave was definitely for him.  (Apparently, it's a inside joke.)

It looked all clean and new, though - doesn't somebody need this?  Is some teenager's parent wondering at this very second, as they're trying to make some cup-o-noodles, Hey, what happened to our microwave?

So, Kyle attempted to explain.....it has something to do with him wearing yellow jeans and a whale tie to school, a fictitious business he owns selling microwaves (with a partner), discussions about the proper name to call your boss, and another family renovating their kitchen due to a short in their [faulty] microwave.

{Huh???}
CLEAR AS MUD, right?!?

Anyway, I guess it doesn't need to be returned (he figured out the 3 girls who did it, and they said they don't need it) - so we're now officially the proud owners of a porch microwave to make our house look REAL NICE (said in Cousin Eddie's [from Christmas Vacation] accent/voice!) and white trashy.  ;)

Be Mine

We had a great Valentine's Day -- even though it was Friday the 13th that weekend, too!! 
And since it was on a weekend, we spread it out and celebrated dates on both days!  :)

The girls had their Valentine's parties at school on Friday.  I had purchased their valentine cards & treats for their classmates a while ago and they were on a shelf in our storage room.  Well......when I got them out for the girls to sign, one of the boxes had been opened - and 11 of the treats were missing!!!  It seems Brookelle helped herself to some treats whenever she felt like it over the last little while!  I told her I wasn't going to go out and buy more valentine treats since she's the one who caused the problem of not having enough for her whole class now.  She thought for a minute, then informed me she'd decided she would just be EXTRA NICE to some boys in her class as their "treat" from her, instead of giving them a candy to go along with her valentine card.  ;)  That girl is thinkin;! 
And, ya never know, maybe the boys would like that "treat" better anyway?!?

Matt & I went out to Sushi Monster on Friday night

Katelyn got creative with the Valentine's morning breakfast she made me!

Messages for Matt

Matt took me up to Taggart's Grill.  This has been on our "bucket list" but we've never made it happen, yet, because it's out of the way and there's always a wait - not exactly the type of place you can just drop by when you're passing through.  But, we planned to make the journey up there for V-day!  It was kinda weird going on that long drive up the canyon in FEBRUARY and having the sunroof open!  Instead of our surroundings being covered with snow, it was all brown & barren.  Taggart's is a popular place, I tell ya.  We thought we'd miss the crowds by going at 2:00p.m.  Nope!  Still an hour wait, so we went hiking in the hills behind the restaurant while we waited.  (I needed steps for my Fitbit!)  There's many more things on the menu that I want to try, so we'll definitely be back!

Matt surprised me with a new treadmill!

So I won't have trouble getting my steps in the snowy winter......WHAT WINTER this year?  ;)

He had put it in the front room, but I hadn't seen it.  Katelyn kept trying to get me over there.
She'd call me, telling me to "Come here."  Saying she had to show me something, and I told her to just bring it to me!

Then they finally got me to go up the stairs (that are by the front room) but I

didn't even look in that direction.

(They were trying - I was just oblivious!)

Eventually, Matt had to say, "Just go look in the front room!"  ;)

We finished it off with our traditional HEART pizza from Papa Murphy's and red drink with Valentine-y dishes and table (and Cherry Ju-Ju hearts!).  

Then we watched our traditional movie: "Sleepless in Seattle" (Empire State Building on V-Day!) together with the girls.

  (Kyle went to a didn't-go-to-the-school-Valentine-Dance-party instead of hangin' at home with us!)

#LOVEISINTHEAIR

What are THESE?

The temperatures have DROPPED way low here in our neck of the woods.  Thanks to the November-that-feels-like-January we're having due to the Arctic Chill that has come from the North, affecting most of  the U.S.

(Yet, ANOTHER rude awakening in returning from our Eastern Caribbean cruise.  The Islands, high 80's.  Utah, 30's.)

So, Brookelle was complaining she didn't have any warm clothes to wear.  It's true - I hadn't done the official [season changing] closet/drawer clean out project, changing all the short sleeves/capris/shorts/lightweight fabrics and replacing them with the winter clothes - it was still in the 70's when I left!

So, I pulled the big Rubbermaid tote of "Size 6 Winter clothes" out of the basement that I'd been storing ever since Katelyn outgrew them 4 years ago (AND which had many hand-me-downs of Haylee's from before then, too!)

Usually this ritual is like "Christmas," opening up a plethora of  outfits to wear; an instant "new" wardrobe!  The girls & I get all sentimental, while gushing, "Oh, I loved this!  This is soooo cute!" remembering the clothes they used to wear, and what event they wore them for, etc.

THIS TIME when Brookelle started pulling out all the long pants (the main thing she was looking for), it was NOT like that.  She was NOT thrilled or impressed or even grateful.

Her response was more like......

What are THESE?!!?

When I answered, "pants," she started to giggle.

SHE SERIOUSLY THOUGHT I WAS JOKING/TEASING (like I frequently do, and she's become pretty good at discerning when I am, based on the absurdity of what I say)
so she responded, "No, they're not!"

To which I replied, "Yes. They ARE."

She retorted, "What's wrong with the bottoms???"

I said, "They're flare jeans."

Brookelle:  "Flare???  WHY would they make them FLARE?"

Me:  "Because they're cute!"

Brookelle:  (giggling, thinking I'm joking again) "No, they're not!"

They're not?????  

But, your sisters wore them!

They used to be!

And then I realized that sometime between the last 4-6 years and the modern day, flare jeans must have gone the way of the dust.  In Brookelle's [short!] lifetime, she has never been exposed to flare jeans and, therefore, has absolutely NO understanding/attraction to them.  In her opinion, they belong in the costume box, categorized under, "clown pants" MORE THAN they belong in a sane person's closet!!
Skinny jeans are acceptable, though!  ;)

(Weird to think that I'M living through style changes!  Isn't that just for old people?)

CRAP!  Now she still doesn't have any warm bottoms to wear!  

Is Christmas too far away to wait to get new clothes?!?

The First of Many More to Come and Thoughts on D-Land

I've been looking forward to and making plans for various Mother/Daughter outings that I will do with my girls [when they are old enough] for years.   Well, I think we officially started this past week.  We went on our FIRST "Girls Trip."

Matt actually had a work conference at the Grand Californian Disney Hotel - and we tagged along.  

Why not?  Hotel room paid for?  Check.  Per Diem money provided for Matt & I by his company?  Check.  Discount Disneyland tickets offered by the conference?  Check.  Private Dinner Party/Evening of Entertainment/Priority viewing of World of Color included for the entire family?  Check.  

Fly for FREE on jetBlue?  Check.

 Matt spent all day in classes - poor guy!  :)

This MAY have been a mistake to start out so BIG.  Will the girls be satisfied with "Chick Flick" night out at the movies in the future now?  ;)

Now, a list of my random thoughts:

1. If I were RICH, I would always opt to stay at a Disney property.  We were spoiled to be there by "riding on Matt's work conference coat tails."  Not only was it such a nice resort (inside & out) but it came with "privileges" like Early Entrance at 7:00 EVERY morning.  The best part, though, is that we literally walked out our hotel room door, turned two corners, and we were right IN Disney's California Adventure!  To get to Downtown Disney, we walked out the hotel the other way...with Disneyland just a bit further up the way.  SOOO convenient (but also expensive!)
2. I have to say that I have officially "graduated" from the Tea Cups ride.  No more.  I really can't handle it anymore - I lose my equilibrium.
3. I LOVE my Disney Dream Reward Dollars.  I have the Disney Visa and earned about $150 to use anywhere in the park - no need to worry about packing in food.  But, we DID use it ALL in 3 days!
4. August is NOT my favorite time to go to Disneyland.  I've been at several different times through the years, and August probably lands at the bottom of my list.  (The HEAT.  The lines.  The crowds.  Even the cast members are a bit less "on their [magical] game" having to deal with all of the above.)
5. I need to wear "hospital shoes" or some other kind of super-duper orthopedic-bionic shoes while there - my feet were KILLING ME!  Seriously, I COULD NOT WAIT to get off my feet at night.
6. Dole Whip and Frozen lemonades are like manna from heaven!  (See #3 & #4)
7. We Americans are INSANE!  The first day we were there, the line to see Elsa & Anna (from Frozen) was a three HOUR WAIT.  3 HOURS!  So, I told the girls we would come the next day for our Early Entrance.  We were lined up outside the entrance gate at 6:45 IN THE MORNING to go in - and we still weren't the first in line!  What is wrong with all of us?  Who does this?  Isn't this a vacation?  Once the gates were opened, we walked directly to the Elsa/Anna house.....and the line was already starting - we ended up waiting 1 hr. 40 min!
8. Times have CHANGED!  Now, every ride is posted with a sign stating that children under the age of 7 (Brookelle) must be accompanied with a person 14 or older (neither Haylee or Katelyn) or they couldn't ride.  And they enforced it - our girls were denied entrance once!  Which meant, if Miss B wanted to do ANYTHING & EVERYTHING, I was the ONE to go with her.  Now let's go back 34 years, when my dad took me (then age 10), my older sister (age 13) and my younger brother (age 4) to So. Cal with him once on a business trip and he just DROPPED US OFF at Disneyland for the whole day.  I'm not sure, but I think that would be grounds for getting Child Protective Services involved these days?!?  Just a hunch.  ;)  AND, on that trip, my older sister (the one in charge???) got separated from us (the 10 & 4 yr. old) for HOURS!  We spent all that time looking for her - we eventually found her later and learned that she had just kept on going on rides the whole time - after all, she didn't want to waste her day looking for us! 
9. My bum sure doesn't fit the same in some of those seats as it used to!  Dang it!
10. I think it's time Disneyland establishes a "modesty standard" of some kind.  There was WAY TOO MUCH boobage (a lot more than just cleavage), backs, bras & bum cheeks showing!  For that reason, I was glad my teenage boys were not with us to see that.  It was still a bad example for my girls, though.  If the guests don't have enough common sense to cover themselves adequately, they should be policed.  No, seriously, they could make rules.  When we were at Hershey Park last year, this "warning sign" was out in the parking lot:
    

The fact that they even have to put up a sign.....Really?!!?

Can He Take the Hint(s)?

Here is my child, "Kylee"...er...uh...I mean, "Kyle."

 And this is how he has chosen to wear his hair lately.

 Much to my mom's and some adults from church disgust & disturbance.....

I don't say anything, unless I'm asked.  I just let his experiences tell him all he needs to know/learn.

*Although, I do have to slip in a joke when the situation presents itself; like when I got an email from the Jr. High saying that they were going to have a bunch of different themed days at school that week.   "Crazy Hair Day" was one of them.  I asked him if we was going to participate, and then followed it up real quickly with the comment, "Oh, you don't need to do anything.  You've got 'crazy hair' EVERY day!"  ;) 

So, these experiences started two months ago we were down in St. George for Thanksgiving and we (Matt, Ryan, Kyle, me, my brother & sister, their spouses, and my niece & nephews) all went to the St. George Temple together to do Baptisms for the Dead. 

When it was Kyle's turn, Matt was in the font with him, and he looked at the monitor to start reading the name of the person he was going to baptize Kyle for and he noticed that the Officiator had put a pink card of names up.  (Female names are printed on the pink cards, male names on blue cards).  Matt told him he needed to change the card.  The Officiator looked up from his desk and down into the font, and looked completely confused - and hesitant to follow Matt's suggestion.  He did doubtfully trade out the pink card for a blue card so all was right, although he couldn't figure out why Matt had made that request. 

Later, I took Kyle aside and said, "Just so you're aware......." and proceeded to explain to him that he was mistaken for a girl that day in the temple -- because of his hair!  And it was something to consider.
Well, he got pretty testy about that and argued, "Just because some 189 yr. old guy, who is CONFUSED and has BAD VISION, makes a mistake because he's OLD, you think I should cut my hair?!?"

Nope, I replied.  It's just something to consider.

*And just for the record, the temple worker was not even half that old!


THEN, fast forward just three weeks later......our youth group from church went to the Bountiful Temple together to do Baptisms again.  I was there, accompanying the group, including Ryan & Kyle, as an adult leader and was watching everyone get baptized. 

The names of the people they were doing the work for was from a foreign country, with some of the last names spelled with a t-s-z-j all in a row, and very hard to pronounce.  On the monitor at this temple, I could not tell the color of the card - they looked white to me.  So, it became Kyle's turn, and I noticed the first person he got baptized for was a "Maria" with one of those really tricky last names. 

I even leaned over to the girl next to me and said, "I guess in that foreign country, 'Maria' is a boy's name!"  And we smiled together. 

THEN the next name came on the monitor and it was "Julianna."  I started to think, What are the chances that this [girl name in America], too, is a boy name in their country?!? 

So, then I looked up and over the monitor and onto the desktop and saw that it was, indeed, a pink card that was being used!  At that point, I interjected out loud, "Are these girls' names?"

Again, all the workers looked back & forth between Kyle and the pink card.  And because he had actually been baptized [for a girl] already, his hair was wet and looked even longer in the back at that moment!
Some more baffled looks and mumblings about what was going on.  His brother, Ryan, was more than happy to blurt out, "He's a guy!"
And Kyle moaned, "Not again.  That's TWICE!"

They fixed it all, switched out the pink card for a blue card, and the rest of us ward members in there had to try SO HARD to control our giggles!  ;)

After that experience, the universal question people were asking was, "Is he getting the hint, yet?"

Well, he FINALLY did - after another month went by!

He claims it did not have anything to do with his "mistaken identity" but rather because it was too "high maintenance" of a hairstyle.  And it was.  He took a l-o-o-ong time to get it to flip up just so in the back, and to gel up the front.  I would be waiting for him to go somewhere, in the car out in the driveway, as he was in the bathroom doing his hair still! 

Tonight, he just asked me to cut it off!

{He's put that "precious memento" in a baggie and saved it!}

I've had tons of people come up to me and tell me HOW GOOD his hair looks, now!  Yep!

But, he says he's had mixed reactions at school. 
The boys are saying, "Dude, WHY did you cut off your mullet?" 
And the girls are telling him they like it!  ;) 
So, then he's having second thoughts.

To which I asked him, Who would you rather want to think you look good; the boys or the girls?

Oh....yeah....that makes sense, he realized, as my comment put things into perspective for him.

The Dance Phase

After spending Thanksgiving with my extended family, and visiting with my niece from TEXAS (a freshman at BYU now), I realized that not ALL High School teenagers ask one another to the school dances in the "creative ways" I was accustomed to growing up in UTAH. (and that my own son and Young Women are also doing now, in UTAH.)

That's kind of sad - and BORING - for my niece not to have had that experience.  I think, the asking and the answering was sometimes MORE FUN than the actual dance!  Sssshhhh - don't tell any of my old dates that!  ;)  But, having a son, I have also realized that maybe the GIRLS enjoy this zany tradition more than the BOYS.  Ryan says he can't ever think of any good ideas, and that it's stressful (what?!?).....let's just say that at dance asking/answering times, he comes to me [repeatedly] for advise more than at any other time!!  ;)

So, which parts of the country DO ask creatively, and which parts just get straight to the point and ask face to face, or over the phone (but hopefully not via text!)?  Based on an Arizona-based blog I read out there in blogosphere, I know they ask creatively.  But, my SIL grew up in a teeny, tiny town in southeastern Idaho, and she says they did not.  I even saw some of it happening in Disney's movie, "PROM."  
Everyone who lives somewhere other than Utah, give a shout out and let me know what happens where you live.  I'm curious!

My children are each 3 years apart in school, so after Ryan graduates High School this year, then Kyle will enter High School next year.  And then when he graduates, Haylee will start.....on down the line to Brookelle.  (Hopefully, they let me out of the nursing home to attend her graduation in 2026!)  So, we are definitely in "The Dance Phase" now - and for the next 13 years.  Yea!

I went through my photos to see what I had taken of  "the dance phase."   I realized I only have photos of all the creativity that has happened at OUR home, but not when he has taken it to the girl's house.

{Which is a shame since all my "advise" that magically turned into his ideas, and he actually executed. were really great!} ;)

VALENTINE'S DANCE
Although, I had warned him that girls will sometimes do something to their bedrooms in the asking/answering, and that it would be a WISE CHOICE to keep it clean for about a month before the dances, he chose not comply with THAT particular advise.

And then he came home to his pig pen bedroom with an unmade bed, complete with covers wadded in a heap in the middle, to find THIS on his bed. 

He was horrified, "This is embarrassing!  Why did you let her see my room like this?"
To which I replied, "Why did you leave it like this?"

(There was a "Y", an "E" and an "S" written on three different strips of paper somewhere in that pile.)

PROM
Another time, Ryan had asked a girl during The Masters, so in honor of that, he used golf balls and wrote an invitation using a bunch of golf terms.  It also worked out nicely that she lived on Fairway Circle!

So, then she played off of that golf theme and answered him like this.

And then on our front "lawn"  (this was pre-sod days), she used golf balls to spell out her answer. 
(I found out from her mom that she kept having to chase the balls that kept rolling away on the dirt since there was no grass to hold them in place!)

A funny story about this answer was that one night the girl Ryan had asked to the dance texted him, "I have a feeling you should go look out front."
So, Ryan went and looked out front.
NOTHING.
And then he had the thought, Oh no!  She went to our old house!  (We weren't in the current phone book, yet.)

So we got in the car and started driving up there - just 3 blocks away, hoping to get to it before the new owners.
In the meantime, he texted her, "I don't see anything."
She texted, "What's your address?"
He texted, "We moved" and added our new address.
She texted, "Woops!"

At about that time, we got to our old house and we saw a car parked across the street, and a person moving around the front yard, picking things up......I just drove on by while Ryan ducked down in his seat.  :)
The next evening, she came back to our real home, and left the answer again.



HOMECOMING
The girl had called me and asked if she could come decorate his room.  She only had time to do it when I wasn't going to be home, so I told my daughters that she'd be coming and to let her in.  THEY were nice enough (or stressed about the state of his room) to at least make his bed for him before she came.

She left a bunch of starbursts and this note on his bed.  When I was on my way home with Ryan in my car, Haylee called and told me the girl was late coming and she wasn't done, so don't come home, yet!

So, what should I do?

I remembered my friend had texted me earlier, so I called her and asked, "Did you need me?"
She was like, "Not anymore."
And I said, "OK, I'll be right over."
And then I went over there, while Ryan waited in the car, and "bought us some time."
When Matt texted me, "The coast is clear", I returned home with Ryan.
He entered his pig pen bedroom, and even from upstairs, I heard him exclaim, "Oh No!"
Later he asked me why they always come when he has a messy room.
Uhhhhh.......because he ALWAYS has a messy room?!?

He first looked at all the starburst wrappers to see if her answer was written on any of them.
NOTHING.
So, then he unwrapped most of them looking for any writing on the insides.
NOTHING.

Exhausted, he fell backward onto his bed, and declared, "I'm never going to find it!  
And then he looked UP.

On the ceiling, he saw his answer written in glow-in-the-dark STARS.
(his family was IN on the location of this answer!)  tee hee ;)



HARVEST DANCE

He found this on our front porch one day. 

No "adventures" accompanied this one, but in the weeks leading up to the dance, as the kids were texting each other and they discovered that I grew up in the same home ward (church congregation) with this girl's mom!  (small world!)

The girl texted Ryan, "Ask your mom about the time she stopped to see a boy on the way back from Girl's Camp."  So he did.

She would have to remember me for that incidence!

(Hey, I was VERY fond of this boy who lived in Cache Valley, and we were "in the area" on the way back from church Girl's Camp, so it would be a waste if I didn't have THE BISHOP stop by his work, wouldn't it?!?  The bishop obliged, and I had the boy paged to the front and he unsuspectingly came out to see a dozen or so [un-primped, post-camp] girls waiting for him in the lobby.  Well, I was waiting, the rest were standing behind me spying.  After we "visited," we went on our way.  Makes total sense, doesn't it?  At least to my 16/17 yr. old self it did.  I guess it was so surprising to this girl's mom, she hasn't forgotten it after 26 years!)  :)

CHRISTMAS DANCE

Ryan was actually studying in our front office  one evening, and he got a text from his friend, "I think you should go downstairs and look at your baseball trophies."  Ryan thought it was a weird request, but he went downstairs, anyway.
Meanwhile, Matt came into the kitchen where I was and told me he thought Ryan was getting asked to the dance right then - he'd seen a car and someone out the front windows when he was carrying Brookelle up to bed.  When the doorbell actually rang, I purposely left some "getaway" time, but it happened to be a snowy night, which made it so she wasn't able to run very quickly, so they hadn't driven away, yet, when I opened the door.  Woops!

There was a couple of weird things about this.  

1st - Ryan didn't even know this girl who had asked him.  In fact, her friends had done the actual asking for her. 

2nd - a day or two later, she actually texted him that her mom said she couldn't go anymore.  

So, he got "unasked."   
That stinks!

That's OK - the girl doesn't even know how to spell our last name anyway!  I've written about that before.  (And my hang up with other misuses of the English language.)  ;)

CHRISTMAS DANCE - part 2
We got the "Cookies for Santa" Encore on our front porch a few days after the "unasking."
Uh Oh - was that a bad omen?
But all I had to do was look at the adorable details:  a real RED platter, a glass milk bottle with a straw, Christmas Oreo cookies with red filling, a letter tied up with green string, and baby carrots, too!  I was feeling better about this one, already!

AND THEN I SAW THAT SHE KNEW HOW TO SPELL OUR LAST NAME, AND I WAS SOLD!  ;)

Anti-Girly Girl

I was SOOOO excited to finally get my first girl when Haylee was born 11 1/2 years ago.  There was WAY TOO MUCH testosterone floating around our home and I was the lone female in the middle of it up until  that time.

Yes.  She is a girl.  As in female.  But, by NO MEANS is she "girly."  In fact, she is turned off by all girlyness.

(although, like all three of my daughters, she DID go through a "dresses only" wearing stage around age 3.)

She still can not believe she wore them.

But I've got proof!  ;)

But that was THEN, this is NOW:

She STILL has never worn the pink jeans I gave her as a Christmas gift last year.

She NEVER wants to get her ears pierced.

She hopes she remains relatively {ahem} "flat."

I know she is like this.  But this latest thing she did really left me shaking my head, dumbfounded.

One thing she for sure is decided about is that she doesn't like to wear make up!  In fact, she has REFUSED - even for her dance recitals when it was strongly recommended by her teacher.

Case in point:

 And this was taken in the darkened auditorium....BUT the stage lights really wash the color out of their faces even more.

Here's one where you can see the comparison to her sister, who is 2 1/2 years younger, and is pleased to wear it, but not Haylee.

But that was like 4 years ago - she quit dance, too - it wasn't worth the fight.....AGAIN, it was too "girly".....she had to wear tights and stuff!!

So, most recently.....like yesterday, Haylee had decided she wanted to dress up like a "Hobo" for Halloween.  She was asking me what we would need to pull this costume together.  I told her we could put brown make up on her face to make her look dirty.

"WHAT?!?" she shrieked.

"Yeah, they have dirty faces.  It's just dressing up - a disguise - it's not who you REALLY are."  I tried to reason.  (Tried being the operative word there.)

"NO WAY!!" she protested.

"Then you won't even look like a Hobo," I informed her.

"Why can't I just put REAL dirt on my face?" she challenged back.

{huh?}  Me, silent, mouth open, trying to make sense of that.

"I can get some dirt right in our back yard!" she pleaded her case.

"So, you would rather rub your face in DIRT than wear make up?" I inquired.

"HECK YEAH!" she grinned.

{WHATEVER!!!}

So, that's exactly what she did.  She went and got dirt out of our still-flowerless-flower beds and applied it onto her face!

Complete with a little {real} dirt clod stuck to the side of her nose there.

AND....she just didn't "quite feel like" changing back into her regular clothes after the Halloween parade that she had taken to school .....so she just spent the rest of the school day in her very holey hobo jeans!!

I guess the "suitable" jeans she had packed were too "girly" after she got a taste of the grungy...?!?

S.T.A.N.D.

Right after I got back from Aspen Grove, I headed to Girls' Camp at Camp Aerie somewhere in Utah.

I hadn't even unpacked yet and had to get another bag.

But, what's worse....is that I hadn't unpacked from when I flew down to St. George from the week before Aspen Grove.

So, at one time, I had 3 different bags from 3 different trips on the floor of my bedroom still - I just couldn't catch up.


BUT, back to Girls' Camp.  Our theme was S.T.A.N.D. (Stand Together As Noble Defenders).  These two awesome camp directors did most of the work - and planning and preparation and work and organizing and shopping and thinking and work  - THANKS KATIE & SHAYLA!!  You're awesome!

Since I didn't work, all I had to do was:

Be crazy.

Hang out.

And cry with my fellow YW leaders!

{We had an AWESOME guest speaker, author Laurel Christensen.}

Oh, and I got to act as "Chaperone" directly, with my advisor, Heidi, to our six Mia Maids (girls age 14-15) who came.

Here's the "Cast of Characters"

(hopefully they don't kill me for posting these "selfies")

Jordan

 Breanne

Savana

Marissa

Annie

Ashlyn

Here's a more accurate - as accurate as it can be after camping for 4 days, all natural - photo of our Mia Maid class.

There were 13 other girls of different ages, and three other women leaders, too, in attendance.  (See group photo towards the beginning of this post.)

And then I came home and did my much needed laundry........
But that was the last load that ever worked - our washing machine went ka put afterwards, and we've been without ever since.
And I've had two boys go to Scout camp during that time = tons of dirty, stinky stuff!!

This is what my laundry room now looks like:

And this is a familiar scene around here:

When we finally get it fixed or buy a new one, it's going to take me a YEAR to catch up....after I get around to unpacking all those suitcases, of course!  ;)

Bwa aaah haaaa!  (that's how you type out crying.)