Conversation between Jack and Molly

Molly: "Let's go show mama."

Jack: "Mommy bird."

They come in the back door with Molly carrying this . . .



And yes, I took the picture, then sanitized everything!!!! Clothes, hands, house, me, EVERYTHING!!

By the way, I have a baby chipmunk hiding in my kitchen island. My cat brought him in and then let him go. He wasn't dead, so he ran around until he found a safe place. The no mans land under the island. . . . great!!!

And then there were . . .

We put the 5 bigger chicks out in the coop last week. They had all their mature feathers and we excitedly prepped the coop, cleared the area, made a fence around the coop and generally had a fun time working together as a family for our future egg laying poultry.

The kids have not lost their zeal about the chicks. They still run down after school to check, feed and play with the chicks. Molly hugs and kisses them each. She is a pro chicken catcher. We put her in the cage and she quickly rounds them and hands them off to us. Very cute!

Yesterday, I saw our neighbors puppy-eating Russian Husky in our yard. She has never been out of her electric fence yard in the 5 years we've lived here. I panicked! She has killed many a puppy who went into her yard and I would never let my kids out while she was around. She is MEAN!! Her big brother is meaner, but I didn't see him. I told Jeff to run down to the chickens and check on them. They were all malled to death. Brutally killed in their own home. I was TICKED!! The kids were upset!! I haven't been able to talk to the owners yet, but . . . . grrrrrrrrr!! I KNOW their chickens, but their my kids chickens. Mother Bear is out!

And then there were 4. We still have the 4 baby chicks, but still . . .

Marriage Therapy

We figured taking a vaca without the kiddos would be a lot more fun than hours of future counseling. It worked!





Experience something new together . . . neither of us had been in a helicopter before. I was pre-medicated, Ben wished he was. What an amazing ride! It was beautiful!!


Spouting Horn near Poi'pu.


Enjoy the sunset together.


Walk together.


Don't drive off-road together. He had more fun without me and I had A LOT more fun reading in the shade!!


Drink one of these everyday of the vaca.


Snorkel together. We prefer sea turtles to barracuda, but whatever works for you. We've done both and I seem to stay in the water longer with the sea turtles.


Eat breakfast here together.


Eat lots of ice cream and shaved ice together.

Use LOTS of sunscreen, SPF 70, 2.5 bottles to make sure you are not miserable for the rest of the vaca. Time well spent slathering each other. No burns for us, thank you very much!

Can I Combine?

Jack pees in the toilet like a champ. He just has never pooped in the potty. He pooped in the dirt this morning. I don't know if I should consider this progression or digression.

Molly poops in the toilet like a pro. She sometimes pees, but generally prefers to leak in her underwear all day long.

So, my thought was if I combined the 2 together . . . potty trained!!

5 Weeks Old!

Our teenager/dinosaur looking chicks are 5 weeks old. Not as cute, but still fun.

These are our newest additions. Hannah's classroom hatched 15 eggs, we came home with 4 from parent/teacher conference???

Don't Mess With My Momma

My mother NEVER ceases to amaze me. She is a sharp shooter, a motorcycle babe, a nurse, a seamstress, a cook, a counselor, a traveler, a gardener, a housekeeper, a business manager, a comforter, an idea generator, a spelling master, and most importantly a devout disciple of Christ. I love her for all she is to me and my family. Happy Mother's Day! You are amazing!

Women's Conference with Tonya

My dear friend Tonya McDonnell emailed me a few months ago and asked if I'd go to Women's Conference at BYU. I jumped at the chance. I've been wanting to go for years. I enjoyed the speakers, but I LOVED the service projects!!


We didn't know anything about them until the end of the first day. There were 350 infant memory boxes that women had put together that morning. They were made to give to mom's who wouldn't be taking their babies home from the hospital. They said "Always in Our Hearts" and were large enough to put the babies hat, anklets, and footprints in. They also made little tiny bracelets to give the mom's.



We started making puzzles for police officers to use for distressed kids in accidents and such. LOTS of cutting!




Then the tutus for the children's hospitals and shelters. LOTS of fun! They were so cute! We ended up doing those until 10 o'clock at night. We met some wonderful women while we tied the tutus.


The next day we colored the city maps for kids in shelters while we listened to conference talks and finished with wheel chair bags (no pictures of those). It was fun serving and working together. I was so impressed by the amount of prep work that went into putting the service projects together. Women and their families worked for months just to cut, paint, gather, stitch, etc. all the supplies needed for each project. AMAZING GIRLS!!

Tonya has been one of my many "mothering" mentors. I've learned so much from her and realized how much she influenced me AGAIN this weekend. I love BYU, I love serving others, and I love to make things. It was a win, win situation for me.

I finished the weekend visiting Amy Hamblin, my Novell buddy. She is so much fun to chat with and wished I'd planned more time with her. She's great!!

I just wish I hadn't got the speeding ticket at the airport literally feet before the rental car drop off. GRRRRRR!!! Anyone want to show up as me at traffic court in SLC?