Free Zoo Trip #2

Today the oldest daughter and I took the grandbaby on his second trip to the zoo. Perhaps you remember that his first zoo trip was rather boring, in his opinion, and he slept through the entire visit. The baby enjoyed this outing a lot more. He loved looking at everything. Here he is looking at all the cute kids looking at the elephant.

Now he is checking out the really nice fence surrounding the same elephant.

In this picture he is completely intrigued by the water bottle on the stroller.

He loved looking at everything - except the animals.

Try as we might, we couldn't get him to look at a single animal.

As we were heading for the exit, at the end of our visit, we paused in the back of an animal show for a few minutes. All of the sudden the grandbaby started squealing and throwing himself around with excitement. I momentarily thought he was impressed with the snake on the stage, but then I looked around. Nope, it definitely wasn't the snake. It was an entire stroller full of water bottles.

Now, that is something to get excited about.

It was a good thing that the daughter and I had decided right from the start that we were going to the zoo for our enjoyment, to get some exercise and to bask in the beautiful spring weather and not for the baby. The trip definitely met our criteria and was worth every penny we paid for it and a little bit more. Free is hard not to enjoy.

Coronation 2010

Tonight the youngest son went to Coronation. He enjoyed himself a lot and score - he got another new purple tie. (I'm glad that boys can wear their dance attire even after the dance is over).

Here is the cute couple,

and the handsome boys,

and the whole happy group.

Today I am grateful for

a friend who made a corsage for my son's date, as well as her son's, and took pictures of my son and his date, as well as her son and his date, so I would look like a good mother.
good kids for my son to spend time with.
siblings that support each other in their activities - even at 8:00 on a Saturday morning.

Righty-Tighty, Lefty-Loosey

I have a room in my house that use to be my girl's bedroom. When they moved out I intended to turn it into a craft room, but they left behind some stuff that needed to be dealt with first. I started moving all my scrapbook, sewing, needlework projects into the room anyway and quickly it became the home of anything in the house that didn't have a spot. The piles just kept growing higher and higher. Every once in a while I would make an attempt to dig it out, but with little success.

Fast forward a few years and one of the daughters has returned home and would like a bed to sleep on (there were actually two somewhere in the room) and a space to call her own. I became determined to clean out and organize my mess and not just shove it all to one side in a massive mountain. I should be determined to box it up and give it away, but I'm not quite to that point yet. Anyway, I have been working on this never ending project for a while now and am slowly making progress. I am finally ready to start figuring out where to put things away.

Today I decided to use my carpentry skills and assemble the shelves and other storage items that I have collected with the hope of someday being organized. I grabbed my screwdriver and my hammer and went to work. Lots of righty-tighty and a little lefty-loosey, to fix a few missteps, and then some bang, bang, bang with the hammer. I ran into a snag when my 6 cube shelf, that was purchased for $5.00 from a thrift store, was missing the hardware, but I went online and found some assembly instructions and then headed to Lowes for a dowel and some screws.

Now all that's left to do is to determine where to put them in the room and decide which of my choice items will finally have a place to call home.

The grandson thinks all my stuff is pretty exciting. Here he is helping to sort stickers.

Grandma's house may have a lot of "stuff" but tonight it was lacking an extra pair of clothes and a clean diaper. I guess it's time to restock some of the really important items.

Today I am thankful for

online assembly instructions.
our neighborhood Lowes with helpful employees.
a teacher who taught me my ABCs - attach A to B with 2 CCs would make no sense at all if she hadn't.

Wordy Gratitude List

Today I am thankful for

a son who feels and follows promptings that help keep him safe. The youngest son was driving home from school after he had dropped a friend off. He usually goes out onto a main road from this house to travel home, but today he had a feeling that he should go a different way. As he was driving past our church the car started blowing really hot air and suddenly died so he coasted into the church parking lot, parked the car and assessed the situation. He couldn't get the car to start so he called me and I went and got him. A few days ago a woman's car stalled on the freeway and before she could get out of traffic she was rear ended, her car burst into flames and she was killed. The son was sure he would have ended up the same way if he had been on a busy road. I'm not sure that the situation was that dire, but I'm glad he acted upon his feelings and that all turned out well -for him at least. We're still not sure what is wrong with the car.
happy surprises at the grocery store. Today I went to Safeway to buy some groceries. Cheese was one of the items on my list because they had their 2 lb blocks on sale for $4.49. When I got to the dairy department some of the cheese had a .30 cent coupon on the package. I was happy because that made them even a better deal. When I checked out they quadrupled the coupon to $1.00. 2 lbs of cheese for $3.49. Happy day!
one woman who works really hard so a lot of women can have fun being crafty together. There is a sister in our ward who loves to make wooden crafts so she has taken it upon herself to plan a monthly Relief Society Craft project. She cuts all the wood herself and collects all the supplies for us so all we have to do is show up, pay our money (cost of materials only) and create. She is also very willing to accommodate all of the out-of-the ward daughters who want to come with their mothers. It is always a fun evening. Tonight we painted, papered and decorated letters to spell the word LOVE. The sister's husband came home toward the end of the evening and announced that he was going to tell all his buddies in the High Priest's Quorum on Sunday that a whole bunch of Relief Society women came to his house this week and made love.

If the Stake President hears about this our craft nights might be a thing of the past.

Today I am grateful for

big mouth baby kisses.
no more baby Teancum.
an extra nice checker at the grocery store.

Today I am thankful for

a son who lets his brother make banana bread mess at his house.
the opportunity to partake of the sacrament.
leaders who love me and make me feel appreciated.

Today I am thankful for

oranges from the Orange Patch and a husband that went and bought them.
a clean van, thanks to the youngest son.
a quiet Saturday afternoon.

Baby Teancum

The youngest son is taking a child development class at school this year and this weekend it is his turn to "try out parenthood" by caring for a mechanical baby day and night. This son had the opportunity to be a "father" before when he was in middle school and I have always had mixed feelings about these fake baby assignments. I do think they can be an eye opening experience concerning the responsibilities and realities of having a child, but I'm not sure how realistic they really are. According to the son these babies are much harder to care for than a real baby. His big complaint is that the mechanical baby requires the parent to be the only person who responds to the baby's needs (he is required to wear a bracelet with a computer chip that links him to the baby and it cannot be removed). This son knows all too well that a real baby can be left with any number of babysitters. I tried to explain to him that often in real life a young parent doesn't have a strong support system and a surplus of willing care givers like his sister has and there isn't anyone available to care for the baby besides the parent. I'm not sure he bought my explanation. I don't think this son would think caring for his nephew for 52 hours straight would be that big of a breeze either if he really had to do it, especially since the fake baby diapers are a lot more pleasant to change than the real baby's sometimes are.

The son chose to name his son Teancum, one of his favorite baby names. His teacher asked him if this was a Native American name. He told her it was an Ancient American name and that it came from the Book of Mormon. She then told him she had a Book of Mormon at her house, but she had never read it and he suggested that she read it because it's a pretty good book.

Tonight we were invited to a birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza for an extended family member. The son didn't enjoy all the attention he and his baby got from his Aunties, Uncles and cousins as well as a number of strangers. It is a little embarrassing for a 17-year-old boy to rock a doll in a public place. This is another reason I don't believe this assignment is very true to life. All too often it seems to me that in real life young parents receive lots of positive attention and they aren't embarrassed at all.

I guess the doll is accomplishing its purpose though. As early as Monday the son was already complaining that this baby was ruining his life. A newborn to care for makes going on a scout camp out and playing church basketball a little difficult. If he can remember that a baby puts a big crimp in his carefree life, and conduct himself accordingly, then I will be grateful for this experience.

Today I am grateful

for good friends to laugh and craft with.
that my 17 year old's "baby" is a school assignment and not a permanent addition to our family.
for events that gather our extended family together.

Today I am grateful for

a husband that got up early and showered so I would have time to take a shower too.
a daughter that woke up early to take care of the grandbaby while I went to a doctor appointment.
lunch with friends.

The Sexy Beast Gets His Driver's License

The youngest son has been after me all evening to blog about the exciting happening in his life today. I told him I was still trying to come up with a fitting title and he immediately told me what my post should be called. Apparently when the son looks in the mirror 100 times a day he sees the reflection of a sexy beast, but the official driver's license just says his name. I do have to say that his new picture more closely resembles a sexy beast than the old one did. He's changed a lot since he was 15 and 7 months.

I'm not sure why they passed him though. It's obvious from this photo that he was clearly driving the wrong way through this parking lot.


Today I am grateful for

a husband who took half a day off of work to take the son to the MVD. He should have never told me he had to use up some of his leave time.
the woman who gave me her coupon in the grocery store line and saved me a dollar on my toilet paper. I think she felt bad for making me stand in line behind her for 20 minutes while they worked on her WIC transactions.
a daughter who washes dishes without complaining.