Mothers Day!!

I am not a big fan of the holidays.  They seem like they have all been taken over by the greeting card companies and the spirit in which they were created is gone.  That being said...my husband did an amazing job with mothers day this year.  He created an album, online, with every usable picture he could find of just me and my boys.  He then had a company create this album.  It has over 40 pages and over 100 pictures all bound in a linen book.  He even had the boys pick their favorite memory of us together, write a note to me about it and placed it under that picture.  It has to be one of the coolest and most thoughtful gifts I have ever received.  He has to work today, so he had us come to the station for breakfast.  Chocolate chip waffles, my favorite, was what was on the menu. 

Today I am thankful for being a mommy.  It is the most rewarding job in the world and I wouldn't trade it for anything:)

NIco

Last September my oldest boy decides that he would like to start volunteering.  His dad and I thought that it was a great idea, but could only think of one place for a 10 year-old boy to volunteer at.  So off to the animal shelter we went.  He signed some papers and started immediately.  He was to walk dogs and pet cats.  Easy enough. The downside to volunteering at the animal shelter, you want to bring your work home with you.  And we did.

We already had a dog named Chase.  We have had him longer then we have had the kids, he is pushing 13, and knew that a pup would help in the transition when Chase leaves us.  In comes Nico.  All of us fell for him immediately.  What a lover.  We doubt he was a year old when we got him, but already house trained, knew basic commands and was very submissive.  Who knew he was going to be so much work.

We have an awesome dog run lined with lilacs that our older dog never complained about.  It is big, shaded and you have a view of the world.  Will Nico stay in it???  I wish.  Who knew a dog could climb so well.  We added a cable run to the inside of his dog run.  He still would jump the fence.  Then he would be stuck on the other side in need of rescuing.  He learned to pull out of his collar.  We tried a harness, he chewed it off.  A couple of weeks ago we noticed him getting out a lot more.  We would go out to the run and find his collar hook to a branch and him gone.  Four times he did this and always on the same branch.  We cut the branch off.  We caught him hooking his collar to another branch, backing out of it and over the fence he went.  After having the mail lady complain, the police leave notice on our door and multiple trips around the neighborhood looking for him we had to do something more extreme.  Yesterday we put up an invisible fence with a shock collar. 

As you have probably already figured out, this dog is smart.  We showed him the collar and then put it on him.  He got zapped almost immediately.  While we were fine tuning it, not wanting to hurt him, he kept finding places he could get through.  He also was willing to just risk it and run.  By the end of the evening he was understanding his place was in our yard.  Lets hope that this continues to work.

Today I am thankful for pound-puppies.  We have gotten two of the best dogs from the pound and wouldn't have it any other way.

Making phone calls....

I don't know about you all, but I hate calling people I don't know.  I have always been like this and I am doubting that it will ever change.  I hate calling for pizza, I hate calling to make appointments, I just plain hate talking to people I don't know on the phone.  I think it is the feeling of having to over explain who I am so that they know who they are talking to.  I don't want people to go "who"???

Lucky me, I was asked (over a month ago) to call all the other fifth grade parents and see if I can get them to help out with teacher appreciation week.  I am tasked with getting volunteers to bring dessert for all the staff at my kids' school next Friday.  This afternoon I finally sucked it up and started calling parents.  So far, fingers crossed it continues, everyone has agreed to help me out.  Crazy.  Of course, at this point in the list, I have been picking and choosing the parents that I know who are.  I haven't necessarily met them, but would know most of them if I were to see them out in the world.  I have this funny thing about knowing who I am talking to on the other side.

Wish me luck...I must continue with this awful task.  I am hoping that I get enough confirmed yes answers that I can stop before I make it to the bottom of my list.  So far I have seven, and yes that includes me.  UGH...........

Today I am thankful for typing class.  I never really understood why they made me take that class until I entered college.  It is the one high school class that has really paid off:)

Whatcha Reading???

One of my most favorite things to do is read.  I never really was a reader when I was young, but now I complain that there will never be enough time in my life to read everything I want to.  My goal for the year is to read 50 books.  I am sure I managed this last year, but I am off to one slow start.  I have only managed to read 4 books so far this year.  I think my troubles started with my book choices. 

The Book Thief was the book that consumed so much of my time.  If you like books that grab hold of you and just insist that you finish them, this one isn't for you.  If you like books that teach you to look at the world in a new way, this book is for you.  This book is wrote like no other I have read.  The author told a story, during the time of Hitlers rein, like no other I have ever read.  Death is the narrator.  He tells the tale of the Book Thief.  He talks of his job and how it intersects her life.  He talks of colors and the way he looks at the world.  It was well worth my time.

I have also read the Hunger Game series.  If you know anything about young adult literature you will quickly realize that everyone of my book choices thus far are wrote for young adults.  I love young adult literature.  I originally bought the Hunger Games for my oldest son.  He loved it so much he had me read it.  We were hooked.  Who knew that a book about our country in the future, where kids are required to fight for their lives (literally) could be such an amazing read. 

I am not sure what I am going to chose next.  I am thinking about Water for Elephants.  It has been on my list and I now see it is a movie.  A movie that looks quite good.  I will try to get my homework done for the week so I can put in sometime with a good book. 

Today I am thankful for my love of books.  I know that it has been a huge part of why my boys love to read so much.

Busy, busy...

Today is going to be such a busy day.  I was up at 6:30 making coffee.  Got the boys up, even though they had ideas of sleeping the day away.  Made them breakfast, pancakes for Ryan and two birds nests for Dylan.  Got a load of laundry going.  Took the boys to school.  Just posted my homework.  Now I am going to get ready for work, I am subbing at noon.  Get the boys' uniforms cleaned and set out for them.  Off to work.  Home for an hour, hopefully the boys will be able to get their homework done quickly.  Then we have soccer practice from 5:00 to 6:00.  We will get a bite to eat on our way to the baseball field.  We need to be there by 6:00 for a 7:00 game.  Late game means late to bed.  I am hoping that we make it home by 9:00, so the boys can attempt to get a decent nights sleep.  Now I am off to clean the kitchen and do more laundry.  

Today I am thankful for weekends.  I would never get caught up without them.

Goal!!!

Yesterday was the first day in the valley it has really felt like spring as arrived.  It was beautiful. 

We started our day out watching Dylan play soccer.  When you watch little kids play soccer there are always things you can count on.  They don't pass on purpose, they all want the ball and in certain moments time stops.  For example, we were at the opposing teams goal.  A young man was about to shoot and everyone froze.  They almost always do.  It is like they just see that moment as his and don't try and stop him.  I am watching this moment and thinking they are about to score when this blurr come out of nowhere.  He kicks the ball away and the young man doesn't score.  I am excited by this moment because our team has succeeded in maintaining the score, I am ecstatic about this moment when I see it was my son that kept moving when everyone else stopped.  What a block!!!  Dylan comes up to me later and describes, just like I saw, how his team just stopped and how he didn't.  He was very proud of himself.

hmmmm

Well I am back to reality.  Who knew that I would be on such a down coming back from vacation.  I guess eleven days in a place where nobody knows you, you don't have to go to work and the sun is shining could do that to a person.  Hopefully I can get my grove back soon.


I have to say that I had the best time.  It is such a privilege to spend this kind of quality time with my family.  To be able to show my boys the sights, especially the remnants of dinosaurs, amazing.  These are memories that will last them a lifetime, memories that they will share with their own children. 


We loved our vacation so much we are already planning backpacking trips around here that we can do this summer.  Places that we have always talked about going or going back to.  We are thinking maybe an overnight trip to Fish Lake.  My husband and I made the seven mile trek up to Fish Lake before we were married.  Carved our initials in a tree overlooking the lake.  Might be fun for the boys, would be really cool for me.  We are also thinking about exploring Hells Canyon.  The deepest gorge is right outside our door and we have spent very little time getting acquainted with it.  Maybe it is time.


We will see.  The cool things is that we have all discovered that we love to hike and collect rocks together.  Pretty simple pleasures. 

Today I am thankful for space.  Being in a car and hotel room with 3 other people, males at that, can be draining on this mom.   

Day 3

Today we took our time getting going. Our plans were to visit a couple of lesser known spots. We fueled the car up, got a coffee from Starbucks and we were off. We drove north out of Moab. Stopping just outside the entrance to Arches. There is a huge sand dune there the kids played in. It happens to be right on a fault and a good place for hunting rocks, so we did that as well. We found a lot of cool rocks and one little fossil. Then we continued north to a little dirt road. Down that road we were able to view dinosaur fossils sticking out of the side of the hill. They were left there for people to view them in their natural setting. It was so cool! Then we drove a bit farther north and up another dirt road. Here we hiked up a million year old, dried up, river bed. After looking and looking we finally found million year old dinosaur foot prints. They were captured in the mud and are still there for us to see. After that we ate lunch by the Colorado River and then took the most amazing hike up Negro Canyon. It was about 4.5 miles and amazing. We had the best hike. Utah keeps surprising me every day.

Today I am thankful for Ryan's love of dinosaurs. His love lead us to some amazing things today!

Days 1 and 2

I have been so busy I forgot to tell you all about yesterday. So tonight I will fill you in on the adventures of the last two days.

Yesterday we visited Arches National Park. We hiked and drove until we were exahasted. This little corner of the world is simply amazing. We saw arches galore. Played in the sand between fins. Hiked in huge canyons. And much, much more.

Today we took a drive south of Moab. We knew we wanted to go towards Blanding, Utah but had no plans from there. We ended up driving some 300 miles, and for lack of better words, were simply amazed. We saw three different sets of ruins, from three different Native American tribes. We saw more arches. We visited Natural Bridges Monument. We hiked and drove. The best was when we dropped off a 1100 foot Mesa. They carved the road into the side of the Mesa. It was so steep, but the view was incredible. When we made it to the bottom and looked back we couldn't even see the road. So crazy steep and so amazingly gorgeous.

Today I am thankful for my new video camera. I can't wait to share the drive down the Mesa.

Utah

We left Boise at 9:00am and landed in Moab, Utah about 8:00pm tonight. It was one of those drives that took all day, but there is so much to look at it didn't feel as long. The boys did great. They each had an IPad loaded with movies and games. At one point, using the cell phone as a hot spot, they had Internet and were surfing the net. What I wouldn't have done to travel like that when I was a kid.

We have seen some beautiful country already. Arches and Canyonlands National Parks are less then five miles up the road. Depending on the weather we will spend time hiking in both of these places and visiting and biking in many more. Hopefully I will figure out how to get pictures on here. The IPad doesn't like to cooperate with the downloading process.


Tonight I am thankful for safe travels. We saw three wrecks on our way here, so glad we made it.