General Conference Awakenings

I always look forward to General Conference weekend. It's like a free weekend in my head. The perfect excuse to cancel anything I want so I can stay home with my family and be spiritually fed. It seems like six months goes by so slowly sometimes at which point I find myself grateful for the Ensign--to rejuvenate my soul and recapture the true purpose of life as it seems to escape me every now and then.

We prepared by getting all our cleaning done Friday. I was really proud of the kids efforts to get all the Saturday chores done early so we could enjoy the rest of the time during the weekend. I say we but I mean me--I suppose the kids could have cared less if the toilets were dirty and the floors left unvacuumed. But troopers they were and by Friday night we were set for a great weekend!

Saturday we did squeak in Bradley's soccer game. (It was conveniently played in between sessions). But the rest of the day was great. It is so fun to see Bradley and Bryson be more attentive each General Conference. They love to play Conference Bingo but the way I knew they were really listening was the food for the Bingo chips was still there at the end of the session. That my friends is a true sign of maturity for a boy! Scott went off to the Priesthood session with Chris, Dad and Grandpa and said it was a really great session. Can't wait to read it next month.

As luck would have it, our luck ran out at that point. Blake woke up Sunday morning with Pink Eye. We were set to go to Chris and Cassi's for breakfast before the Sunday morning session started. Fortunately, (our last bit of luck) Blake was the last one up so his only interaction with people was giving Brock a hug from behind--which is when I bent down to say "Good Morning" and screamed inside my head instead. After changing Brock's pajammies (as Blake calls them), Scott shuttled everyone else to Chris & Cassi's and I stayed back with Blake. And that is where my quiet Conference weekend came to a brief end. The laundry was inevitable--sheets had to be washed, towels from the previous night had to be washed. Suddenly I looked around my house and saw germs crawling everywhere. Determined not to have this break to epidemic proportions (every mother's nightmare which I have lived through before and would not care to repeat) I sent Scott to pick up the perscription of eye drops and Lysol disinfectant spray. At this point I should do a shout out to Dad for a) answering his phone early Sunday morning from his yet again needy daughter and b) calling in the script so quickly so we could start the drops as early as we did. Love you DAD!!!

When Scott returned with the eye drops and spray I first pinned Blake down telling him this would tickle his eyes. He laughed a little during the first eye but the joke was over for the second. (Only one eye showed symptoms of conjunctiveitis but this momma was taking no chances!) But we lived through it and that's when I began to spray every available surface of the house. If it didn't kill the bacteria I at least wanted to hurt it a lot!

I quarantined Blake downstairs in his room where he remained for the next 48 hours except to eat. We washed hands so much both our hands were dry and cracking! At the time, I felt bad for him having to be downstairs by himself so I watched what was left of the morning session down there with him. Hindsight tells me he didn't have it too bad because he was in his room playing his v.smile for a hour and a half and didn't complain once. I'm not sure he even noticed I was down there with him.

Smart Mommy tip: give kids with pink eye something to play with where their hands are totally engaged--like a v.smile. I'm sure that kept him from rubbing his eyes, face and everything else and spreading germs like the plague!

Everyone came home for lunch and the afternoon session and we discussed with Bradley and Bryson the precautions of Pink Eye. This led to them yelling out everytime they saw Blake "Mom! It's Blake! He's got germs! Get him away! I don't want his germs!" Nice. We got everyone settled down again (even Brock was kind enough to take a nap for us) and enjoyed the last session. Ok, I was so exhausted I slept through part of it--but I didn't snore like Scott did. When I did wake up I was again so proud of Bradley and Bryson. There they were with their Conference Bingo sheets and papers Chris had copied for them paying much better attention than their parents! When conference was over I asked Bryson what President Monson said and he said "He said for us to pray for him." That was a conference miracle. It wasn't just about the bingo game. That one little part was internalized and my son had a spiritual awakening. He knew that the Prophet had asked him to pray for him. And that alone was worth all the hassel of Pink Eye!

I had my own "Awakening" moment Sunday. Putting Brock down for his nap it all came together for me. That overwhelming feeling of family, love and purpose. This is what it is all about. Helping one another, comforting one another and sharing with one another. The laundry and Pink Eye will come and go but hanging on to special memories is eternal. For many reasons I will remember and cherish this Conference Weekend always.

P.G.E. Gets New Employees

With grapefruit the fun never ends--mostly because the citrus trees seem to never end! Here's part two of our grapefruit saga with new employees hard at work!

Partridge Grapefruit Extraction--2nd Generation

It comes around every year weather we want it to or not. Grapefruit picking time. This year the parents enlisted the help of the 4B's: Bradley, Bryson, Blake and Brock. The process has come a long way since the summer of over 3 tons of grapefruit (please correct me if I got that wrong)! Dad had very handy Home Depot bags to load up the fruit and then haul it to The Giant Box to be deposited--or thrown as the case might have been a few times. The kids had a good time. It's that whole spoonful of sugar thing. In honor of memories of the past I had to do a video of the 2nd Generation Grapefruit pickers.

Spring Break

This week was Spring Break for the kids although the 90 degree weather had us almost convinced it was really Summer Break! We started out by celebrating cute cousin Megan's 3rd birthday with a round of goofy golf at Golfland! 5 adults, 6 kids and we all made it out alive and well. Everyone had a great time and the only casualty was a ball Bryson hit waaayyy out of bounds. Lucky for us, Uncle Chase rescued the ball (or that's what he told Bryson) and maybe one or two extra just in case. . . After golfing we rounded the troops and headed to their favorite place to play--McDonalds. I know, it's so gross and germ infested but the peace and quiet is worth price of hand sanitizer! They were exhausted by the time we left so everyone had a great "quiet time" when we got home!

Unfortunately, I caught my annual winter sinus cold late and spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday trying to rid myself of it and at the same time keeping the kids entertained so their vacation wasn't a total disappointment. By Thursday I was feeling well enough to let the older boys invite some friends over and came up with a plan for Friday. WATER DAY--The Grande Finale for Spring Break.

I roped in Aunt Kaley and Uncle Chase to help with the fun and we had a blast! We even added in two more cousins of Katelyn and Megan's who came into town for the weekend. It was great to even out the boy/girl ratio a little bit! Thanks for coming Zoe & Emma! So without further ado, here's a little drizzle from Water Day!

Leprechaun Traps

In first grade at the kids' school there are a couple of teachers who have the misfortune every year of having leprechauns cause a lot of mischief in their classrooms looking for gold. Over-turned desks, green footprints everywhere, trash all over the floor. . . So the teachers send home an S.O.S. for the kids to build traps to catch the leprechauns.

Two years ago, Bradley's trap almost caught the little guy. Only his hat was left in Bradley's trap and the class decided to hold it hostage along with a note.

Bradley's trap was a Jelly Bean Glitter Island with honey and wads of gum to trap the leprechaun once he got inside.

This year another leprechaun found its way into Bryson's classroom. Bryson said he was lucky because his desk did not get dumped over! With Bradley and Blake's help, Bryson and I worked hard to finish his trap last night. We put some final touches on it this morning.

Complete with carmel stairway this Jello and Candy trap is sure to catch this year's culprit! (We hope Uncle Chase is proud of our construction work!)

Some features of this trap include: bright colored industrial strength jello cubes, mulit-colored licorice with Karo syrup to get leprechaun hands stuck, pennies inside some of the jello cubes to lure the leprechaun into the trap, glitter everywhere to entice him to explore the trap and glass jars laced with Karo syrup inside so he can't climb out once he's inside.

I think this would be the trap of Uncle Brett's (or any of the GEAR'S) dreams as it is a Leprechaun Pool of Jello! You have to know I'd be the first to build one! Ha Ha Ha!

My Name in Lights!

It wasn't exactly on Broadway but for Valentine's Day I got to see my name in lights!

It was late Wednesday night and I realized we hadn't picked up a birthday/Valentine's Day treat for Blake to take to school the next day. (His B-day is V-day and his school is Mon, Tues, and Thurs--hence the early celebration). So I sent Scott to Krispy Kreme to pick up a dozen chocolate, cute sprinkled friends for Blake to take to school. When he got home there was a flyer on the box for a "Message of Love" contest sponsored by Krispy Kreme and Shamrock Farms. The basic details were you write a 100 word essay (I call that a short paragraph) explaining why your 36 character Message of Love should be chosen to be posted on the Shamrock Farms time and temperature sign on Valentine's day. The contest had started on the 9th and the deadline was 11th (Wednesday) at midnight. So I thought, what the heck. The prize: Three winners will receive Free Krispy Kremes and milk for a year! So by about 10pm I had my entry sent in--2 hours before the deadline.

To my recollection, I have never won a contest like this before. Probably there were only 3 people that entered but Thursday night by the time I got home from work there was an email announcing I had won.

Scott was surprised to say the least and I'm not sure if my family thought it was cool or thought I was totally lame. I do know they're all gonna be coming for Krispy Kreme goodness soon!

THE GREAT FLOOD OF '08

If you've never Googled "category 3 black water" before, you should. This is what flooded in our basement thanks to a backed up toilet upstairs. I'll spare the gruesomest of details and just say that the toilet was backing up into our shower and bathroom upstairs. The shower pipe broke and thus began THE GREAT FLOOD OF '08.

(Is that totally gross or what? And this is after Scott rinsed part of it down!)

For a moment (before I went downstairs to survey the damage) it sounded very tranquil like I had my own private waterfall newly installed. Waterfall yes, not the kind you want to splash around in. Six or seven 5-gallon buckets full and several hours later the disaster people (I liked to think of them as the HAZ-MAT team) told us anything the water touched had to be thrown out.

I much prefer the waterfalls along the Road to Hana on Maui to the one in our basement!

Fortunately, Scott and I had salvaged a large collection of children's books, the kids bean bag chairs, other pictures on the walls and the TV and entertainment center. Toys on the floor, carpeting, a couch, the ceiling, those six or seven 5 gallon buckets, light fixtures (but they were ugly so good riddance), various beach towels to mop up the mess were all taken off by my HAZ-MAT friends and in came 6 de-humidifiers and fans servicing the basement and also our bathroom where the problem initially surfaced. Did I mention the kids' bedrooms are downstairs? You can see this did not take anyone to a happy place. Blake kept asking to go to a hotel--which was not a bad idea for a 3 year old!

The kids were amazing at adapting to the new rules in the house such as: Brock could only be put on the carpet in certain "Clean" areas (he had just learned to walk so this was a HUGE challenge), flip flops were a must everywhere (especially because there was no flooring downstairs and with the construction going on there were nails and drywall etc. everywhere) and always wash your hands! They especially loved sleeping upstairs in "The Clean Zone" while the de-humidifiers and Air Scrubbers were drying the walls and floor and cleaning the air.

We decided to go a head with the construction during Christmas Break which was another challenge but Scott and I both felt like waiting longer was going to drive us all into the looney bin! By this time we all had been bouncing in and out of there anyway. So with a Ho Ho Ho, Christmas Eve came and we barely got our tree and stockings up in time for Santa to arrive.

I think Brock was totally confused by the time Christmas rolled around. He had the weirdest 1st Christmas ever but it doesn't look like he'll need therapy. . . for this at least!

Here's the rainbow at the end of our cesspool: because of all the damage and yuck that was tracked all through the house we were able to re-carpet everything! Bathrooms got new tile, up and downstairs got new carpet, 6 rooms got new paint, a new ceiling of course and we expanded the downstairs bathroom making it possible for 4 boys to function there. Without the help of our Cat3 H2O we would not have been able to do all these renovations for several more years--So in the end, we were very grateful for THE GREAT FLOOD OF '08.