toes in sand

so i blogged yesterday about an anticipated trip to the beach...and it was heaven. 

even fell asleep in the bask of the glorious noonday sun, the sand a perfect mattress. 

nothing quite like napping at the beach. 

i couldnt help but be reminded of my youth, 

frequenting the sands of manhattan with a bunch of friends...and staying till dusk. 

and a pod of dophins even swam by, 

their bodies surfacing so we could see them in all of their magnificence. 

such the life. 

magic at table rock for sure. 

home sweet home

emma is home for the weekend. 

love that drive to long beach for some reason.

love having almost all of my chicks under my wing.

aenon is in washington state camping...my adventurous one.

hope that turns out ok. 

at least emma gave her mr landcruiser to take care of her.

now i can breath a sigh of relief for some reason.

i know, i am weird about my cars.

and we get to go to the beach in laguna today.

summer is beginning, and i am elated.

the sun is shining and i feel good.

this is going to be a good one, i can feel it.

happy day.

the hands of love

i just ran across this photo and it suddenly dawned on me that my kids had a really good childhood, surrounded by people who loved them. 

and look at grandma carols hands around edens face.

priceless.

dont worry, be happy

yearbook editor II

well, terry and i finished this gosh darn yearbook for
swimming after many sleepless nights, rummaging through numerous,
tedious stat pages, praying a lot while the 

zip is being loaded with about 10,000 pdf files...

thankfully all done, even after i did the scholar athlete page all wrong. 

dont want to leave out any smart swimmers, ya know. 

and my favorite photo of the year posted above.

check out that sky.

and hope i dont have to look at another swim photo for...um...like another month...

cuz i think if i see any more bare chested boys and swim caps i just might throw up.

and ive got 3 more years of this.

what have i gotten myself into?

"we swim because we are too sexy for a sport which requires clothing"

their new motto.

single digit

may 20, 2001 was a good day. 

i finally was able to deliver my baby boy after a "knowing" of sorts that he needed to be born asap. i tried to convey my feeling to my doctor, however my pleas fell on deaf ears. he would not even check me to see my progress. had to wait till my due date he said. such a stupid man.

so i took matters into my own hands.

an ob nurse friend of mine, who will remain nameless, came over to my house...and checked me. i wont go into gorey details, but in a word, she confirmed i was ready to deliver, but we needed a doctor to help with the process since mine would not cooperate.

certainly a feat in itself.

so i found one. and a good one at that.

such a miracle.

he admitted me the next day, broke my water, and realized as soon as the water started flowing, 

there was meconium present. 

not a good thing.

when i heard the gush of water, i also heard an "uh oh"...and things stepped up a bit.

apparently some sort of stress was inflicted on him, 

therefore the meconium situation.

i knew it.

i knew there was a problem.

i could feel it in my gut.

if we had waited till my due date, a week later, dane probably wouldnt be here today. 

 inhaling meconium is extremely problematic and often deadly.

he came quickly with my young girls watching (hunter passed on the experience, as a boy of 6, he was more interested in a play date at matt ghardas house, eating bologna on the trampoline)...an experience which hopefully hasnt scarred them for life (they did witness the WHOLE thing), since they were literally inches away from his birth. i did notice they kept getting closer and closer as his birth progressed. aenon and emma on each side, their arms wrapped around my knees, and eden looking intently over a shoulder.
then the doctor announced he was just a little "peanut"
complete with green goo covering his entire tiny body...

a good day, and one i will never forget.

so glad i have him, even if he wasnt initially in my life plan.
i better get used to the fact that someone else is in charge.

and lesson to be learned...

listen to you gut.

forbidden fruit

so i am not supposed to have any sort of treat at all...some sick form of punishment 

i have decided to torture my soul with. 

however, have found a little fine print in the diet 

i am trying to adhere to...and miraculously found 

these little beauties at my local costco store.

(really, they are not allowed whatsoever, but i am lying to myself, and saying that they are). 

so my daily allotment is 5 little round, succulent orbs 

of fruity chocolate-ness. 

you better run out and get yourself some.

you just might die and go to heaven.

counting edens

i had to document the first eden which showed its lovely head in late april, 

now it is time for the first eden bouquet in all of its pastel glory.

words cannot describe the subtle color or the soft scent.

now, the poor plant just needs a little fertilizer as a reward

for these numerous blooms.

puzzle pieces

its that time of year again...have been given the awesome job of putting together the annual swim banquet program. yes, mini yearbook, complete with all sorts of details and stats and information i need to collect from about 100 other people. and have till wednesday to compile it all. 

i need prayers and excedrin.

and to top it all off, i am not eating anything but broccoli and chicken breast.

what could possibly be a worse scenario?

boys are loud

the competent, responsible supervising team in charge

danes 9th birthday party last night. 

i usually chicken out and have it at some venue where 

i dont have to do anything but pay a large sum and leave my 

big mess behind for someone else to clean up. 

however, this year i got brave.

9 little boys, in my house, all at the same time for about 3 hours.

i know, scary to even think about it.

i was smart though, and engaged my older kids to do all the work,

all the game setting up and remote control managing.

love it when i am standing there in front of the tv, remote control in hand

and one of my older kids grabs it and says, "let me do it mom!"

like i am some kind of idiot.

maybe i am.

when i was a kid, the remote control only had 2 buttons (one for channel changing and one for volume), 

and it made this weird clicking noise when the levers were pressed down.

and as i recall, we were one of the first of my friends families to even own a tv with a remote control.

so, if i dont know how to run the remote control, blame it on my generation.

party was a huge success. 

i stood the continuous chatter, humming and screaming that little boys do.

and no spilled anything, no cupcake frosting smeared on my couch and no one fell in the pool.

no one had hurt feelings, or cross words and dane said the appropriate thank yous at the appropriate time.

did have boys outside throwing lemons in my pool and balancing precariously on the narrow spa wall.

but thats ok. all normal for these little men.

sometimes they just do stupid stuff.

and dont worry, moms who sent your precious children to my house.

they were well supervised...(wink wink).

but all and all this old lady survived.

and dane had fun.

mission accomplished.

such a stupid show

 office marathon going on at our house.

i swear this show has been on solid for like 4 days.

aenon is home, and i have to look at 3 bodies curled up on the couch

mezmerized by such stupidity.

not sure what this says about my kids.

maybe all the ap calculus tests, and pre med cram sessions are taking their toll.

and maybe all of us are really crazy.

happy mothers day

what can i say about my mom?

words do not describe her.

i cannot say enough good about her and her great example to me.

shes the reason i am a decent mother.

shes the reason i know anything about anything.

she has always been there for me, regardless.

and all you people out there looking for mates?

make sure they have a good mother.

in order to be a good man, you must have a good mother.

end of story.

love you, mom.

about 12 years ago

this photo was taken many years ago. 

seems like forever ago. 

one day hunter went missing all of a sudden and the house was unusually quiet. found him upstairs in my bathroom, giving himself a very bad haircut. i still cannot remember if i ever got an explanation out of him, or an answer to my "why would you do this to your darling bowl cut?". unfortunately he ended up in the chair at stews barber shop with a big frown and a buzz.

one of my absolute favorite photos of him.

reminds me of yesterday when he went into stews again and asked them to clean up his "arrows".

he is now very bald, and similar to the above photo, just a few pounds heavier and has man sized feet.

how did this happen so fast?

unsupervised shaving

this unfortunately is what happens when you get a bunch of 

swimmer boys together with shaving cream and razors.

bad day made good

when i am having a bad day, i look at this.
fixes everything.

dog lady

so aenon and i, as we were driving to the airport yesterday, 

were talking about what kind of dog we should add to our menagerie.

we decided a standard poodle would fit in nicely.

a grey one though, because the dog has to match the house.

just like when we had cats...they were always black.

simply a living accessory.

until they became dinner for the hungry coyotes in the back field.

then she sent me this photo...a nice suggestion of how we should clip him or her.

i bet maria at petsmart could pull this off.

i swear, i am going to end up one of those crazy dog ladies.

and on the plane, i watched animal planet...

"pit bulls and parolees"

about this woman and her 2 daughters who have a ranch and rescue pit bulls. 

she employs parolees to help with the care of 200 abandoned dogs.

pretty interesting lady, whose attire is mens rain boots and an oversized grey sweatshirt.

looks like she would have a cigarette dangling from her wrinkled lips, 

and drive a semi truck in her spare time too.

pretty scary when i think i could actually be her.

well, not the cigarette or truck driver part.

but the parolee thing? 

think i could do that.

what is wrong with me?

just a few days of drama...

so i have been gone a few days...delivering emma to byu.

had an uneventful ride through the desert (after leaving california way too late) and ended up staying in lovely cedar city, because when you

are an old lady like me, everything shuts down about 8pm.
had a wonderful time at the hampton inn, and a much needed trip to walmart.

all of this excitement, after a letdown of sorts with the pathetic buffet at the mirage 

(dont ever visit this so called best buffet in vegas). i hate vegas. i really do. 

no offense to any vegas readers out there. 

and to make it even more exciting, emma and i are on this crazy diet. have to gorge for 3 days before the starvation sets in. ate lots of cinnamon rolls smeared in butter, swedish fish, ice cream cookie sandwiches, cafe rio, not once, but twice, gurus sweet potato fries and lots of pasta...never felt so disgusting in my life...and the tale continues.

now we are eating 500 calories and hating life. 

it will be worth it, emma, i promise.

the week just gets better, with a trip to the emergency room for an intense migraine, 

hyper-ventilating episode thing complete with hands that went numb
and tingly lips, and gall bladder attack the night prior. 

(i think this takes the cake for the worst i have ever felt),

all of this complete with an iv and barfing in the little square pink bucket in front of 

emma and the nice fireman helper guy with really nice biceps (he probably could have been my son).

and all that good chicken and broccoli wasted.
what a shame.

darling emma even held my hair back while i puked my guts out.

caused lots of drama with aenon hurrying down from salt lake and my 80 something parents scrambling to the little po-dunk hospital in orem. yes, you heard me right, orem.

or "awrem", as they pronounce it here. 

i guess there was a suicidal guy there too in the room next to me.

i really didnt care who was there, because i was given a nice cocktail of sleepy drugs and when i arrived home to my moms, i literally fell comatose into the bed and slept in till 9am.

never done that in my whole life.

so, all in all, maybe i just needed some sleep and some major drugs.

the perfect cure all.

the next day was a fun filled (and highlight of my week) afternoon filled with little darling shops, and even a junk yard...and then lunch at the blue lemon (only after a tour of ingrids home, whose craft room is the size of my living room and kitchen...ok, i will admit, i officially have major craft room envy).

all of this fun with my spark girls, pictured above.

for a bunch of old ladies, i think we are pretty cute, even if i had barfed the night before, and was seriously still coming down from my sleepy drug high.

and i have decided, girl time is necessary.

so get ready, april and melanie. were going somewhere fun.