IF IT'S SUMMERTIME IN UTAH...

You MUST have a lemonade stand! This year I "strongly encouraged" the kids to earn their own spending money. The girls sold cookies, Otter Pops, soda pop and lemonade.
They had a GREAT turn-out too!

THANK-YOU to nice friends who stopped, purchased and supported the girls!

END OF AN ERA

I wasn't crying, as I usually do on the last day of school, (Yes, I'm a dork!) until I walked past Ms. J's classroom and saw everything packed up. It was right then I realized this is the END OF AN ERA! Both of my girls were lucky enough to have Ms. J as their first grade teacher. She is an AMAZING teacher. The girls have absolutely LOVED her. In fact, last year she won Teacher of the Year for the school because she is THE BEST!!

The girls said their favorite things about Ms. J are the funny jokes she tells, when she reads them The Boxcar Children books, and when she tells the story of when she got stuck on the Matterhorn at Disneyland. And, they said she is SO funny and SO nice!
When I picked Abby up today she was crying and I was trying not to start because I knew once I started, there would be no stopping my tears. It reminded me of the first day of school when I picked her up and she looked like this:

And this: (See the post from August 2009)

Even though there were tears today, there were also a few smiles:

Ms. J gave Abby her address and she has already started writing a letter to her...only 2 hours after school is over because she misses her SO much!

Thanks Ms. J for 2 wonderful years! All "The Bloxham Girls" love you!

TOUGH BREAK

Monday Morning
Tanner: My foot hurts.
Me: You'll be fine.

Tuesday Morning
Tanner: My foot really hurts when I walk.
Me: What did you do?
Tanner: Don't know, just woke up like this yesterday morning.
Me: You're fine.

Wednesday Morning
Tanner: My foot REALLY HURTS! I can hardly walk on it.
Me: I will call the doctor. (Maybe in a few days I thought)

Wednesday Morning Text From School
Tanner: I can hardly walk...my foot hurts SO bad!
Me: Ok. Hello doctor's office? Loser mom here...and I guess something is wrong with my son's foot.

Wednesday Noon:
Doctor: X-rays foot, broken sesanoid, boot cast for 4-6 weeks.
Tanner: Heartbroken, lacrosse season will now be officially over for him!
Me: Major guilt for making him walk around since Monday with a broken foot.

Not happy with me for taking his picture and

not happy he can't play lacrosse.

Last night I caught him trying to figure out how to pass the sacrament with his crutches. I know I am the world's most embarrassing mom, but Tanner you are a wonderful young man and I'm SO sorry I didn't listen on Monday.

RELEASED

For 9 out of the last 10 years, Daren has held different church callings that have required him to attend Sunday meetings before and/or after church. Whether it be Bishopric, PEC, Welfare, Ward Council, etc., these meetings have become a staple in our Sunday.

But now for the first time in all these years, he has been released from his current calling and does not have any meetings on Sunday! When we went to bed last night, he had strict instructions from me to celebrate his first Sunday with no meetings.

1. You WILL sleep in. Yeah for afternoon church!
2. When you wake up, you WILL enjoy breakfast in bed!
The girls and I had a lot of fun making him waffles and fruit this morning. We are happy to have Daren home on Sundays now. It's pretty weird having him around though. I have my routine of getting myself and everyone ready for church so it was strange, but very nice to have him here.

MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND

For the past 10 years, Daren and I have had a debate.

Which is it?

Mother's Day Weekend

-OR-

Mother's Day

My vote is always the same, Mother's Day Weekend. It begins on Friday evening and ends on Monday morning.

This year it was complete with vomit, because it couldn't be Mother's Day Weekend without some sort of puke from these 2, right?
This one gets car sick and came a nano-second away from puking in my neighbor's car.

This one, on the way home from a dance competition and only 30 minutes later, puked only seconds after getting out of the our car. Thank goodness for a trash can only a few feet away from the car.

Lucky for me, actually Daren, (because it is Mother's Day weekend) we weren't cleaning puke out of our car OR the neighbor's car.

All joking aside, so far it has been a GREAT MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND!

ANOTHER MOTHER LIKE ME

Tanner takes piano lessons. He has for several years. He HATES taking piano lessons. But since he has the meanest and most annoying mother in the world, he takes piano lessons. I told him when he learns how to play 10 hymns that people can sing along to, he can quit. Why 10 hymns, he asks? Because when he is on a mission and they have an old rusty piano that nobody knows how to play, he will be thankful that he knows how to play the piano.

Insert his eye rolling here.

Last week he had to stay after school for math. When I came to pick him up, he told his teacher, Ms. W that he had to leave to go to his piano lesson because his mean and annoying mother makes him go and he HATES it!

Ms. W said, (not knowing anything about the 10 hymn rule) "Tanner, when I was growing up in Virginia my mother made my brother take piano lessons until he could learn 5 hymns. Then he could quit." Instead of Tanner rolling his eyes, they almost popped out of his head! THAT'S WHAT MY MOM SAYS...only she's mean so she is making me learn 10!

Then Ms. W continued and said, "She would tell my brother that he needs to know how to play 5 hymns so when he is on his mission and there is a rusty old piano that nobody knows how to play, he will be able to play it."

By this time, Tanner couldn't believe it! There was another mean and annoying mother somewhere in the world...living in Virginia! He said to me, "Did you go to the same Relief Society meeting as Ms. W's mother did? How do both of you know that boys need to learn how to play hymns and about a rusty old piano?"

My response--There is another mother out there as mean and annoying as me! And, I think I love Ms. W's mother, wherever she is in Virginia. Hopefully one day you will thank your mean and annoying mother for making you learn 10 hymns.

So far, 1 down...9 to go!

HAVE I DONE ANY GOOD IN THE WORLD TODAY?

I was asked this year to be the project leader for the Newborn Kits at Womens Conference. It was A LOT of work but one of the greatest experiences of my life. In the end, we assembled 7,584 kits. Most of these kits will go to new mothers in 3rd world countries or even here in the U.S. or anywhere there is a need. Each kit contains a blanket, 4 washable diapers, a layette gown, booties, soap, a cap, and diaper pins.

This is one of 6 stations

Our strong boxing team with cut fingers. They laughed and smiled the entire night.

All 6 stations:

Have you ever worried about this crazy world we live in? Do you turn on the news only to hear of troubled youth and their problems? Let me share with you some of my heroes. They are the young men in my ward.

In less than an hour, they built 960 boxes.

They moved all of the boxes on the left side of this picture from one end of the Smith Fieldhouse to the other. Not ONE of them was not working. In fact when they were finished, they were asking to help assemble the kits. They gave me a renewed hope in the youth of our world. They are ALL amazing young men and truly my heroes.

Some of my other heroes are in these 2 pictures:

These people worked for hours setting up, cleaning up, and organizing. They all had smiles on their faces and were happy to serve.
And these 2 ladies on my left and right...I am in awe of them. They are heroes to me too. They spent countless hours helping me put this project together. We have had a lot of fun laughing, counting 30,000 diaper pins, planning and organizing.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED WITH THIS PROJECT.

May The Lord bless you for your efforts to Scatter Sunshine!

Our team and the General Relief Society Presidency