Caleb's Birthday

Caleb turned 8 yesterday. I can't believe my baby is 8! Yesterday I picked Caleb up from school and took him to lunch at Iceberg. While we were there, Caleb asked me how much lunch cost, I told him it was $6.43 and didn't think anything of it. Later in the day, I found $6 folded up in my purse. Caleb saw my puzzled expression and said that he wanted to pay for lunch. Oh my heart! That was from his birthday money. He is such a sweet boy!! After lunch, I got to go to his class and talk a little about Caleb. We sat at the head of the class in chairs and all of the kids sat on the floor at our feet. The kids in his class were so cute asking him questions about his likes and dislikes. Then the teacher does "appreciations". For example, his teacher said that she appreciates it when Caleb cleans up the floor around his desk before he goes home and how he usually gets his work done first and then helps other children. Almost all of the kids in his class said things that they appreciate about Caleb like how he always includes someone if they are left out, how he helps them with their work, and he is a really great friend. It was so emotionally gratifying, as his mother, to hear from his peers that he is kind and thoughtful. I was so proud! Afterward, he passed out Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches to his classmates which was a huge hit!
Today after school he had his birthday party. He invited 5 of his best friends.

It was so fun to watch them interact. We had marshmallow wars using 8 inch pieces of pex hose and mini marshmallows. We just let them go to town blowing the marshmallows at each other like blow darts. Hilarious!

Then we had a "dino" egg hunt. Caleb wanted a dinosaur themed party, so we had an Easter egg hunt minus all of the girly colored eggs, and called it a dino egg hunt. I even hid a golden egg with a dollar in it. Caleb was the lucky finder of the golden egg. The boys came in all hot and red faced, so we had cake and ice cream and then sent them downstairs to watch Dino Squad. After the movie, we opened presents and the boys jumped on the tramp until their parents came to get them. Check out Caleb in the orange shirt getting some serious air!

Caleb is also officially a Cub Scout. Look at my two adorable scouts!!

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

We love Jon Schmidt! He and his wife are Katrina's choir teachers at school. Aren't we so lucky?!

Busy Saturday

We had a very busy Saturday. We started with planting our garden. Jim made raised garden beds and I stained them last week. We are trying square foot gardening this year since we sold "the farm". We went from a garden area that was about 75 feet by 3o feet to four 4'x 4' boxes. It has been a little bit of an adjustment, but did you know that you can plant 16 indeterminate, vine type (I planted Better boys and Early girls) tomatoes vertically up stakes, without cages, in a 4x4 box?? And, you can grow 64 stalks of corn in another? I am beginning to like this idea. Plus, there isn't as much weeding and no tilling, which is a little annoying considering we own two rototillers! LOL!
We are using the book All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew as our reference guide. Check out his link here.

We are going to put a 2 foot border of cement pavers around and in between the garden beds. It will provide a weed free walkway and it will look like an extension to our existing patio.

Our other project was to build the shed we bought months ago. It has been sitting in our garage. We were very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to assemble. The only down side was that even though it does come with a floor mat, you have to build a base, which we didn't realize ahead of time. So, we ran to Lowe's, bought a bunch of pressure treated lumber, and quickly built the recommended base. It added 2 1/2 hours to our shed building time, but we managed to get it done. We finished at 9:00 pm by lantern light. lol

The little things in life

Yesterday was Uncle Murray's funeral/memorial. It was a wonderful time to reminisce with friends and family. I love being around my extended family. I got to see cousins, aunts, and uncles I haven't seen in years. It was such a nice memorial and wonderful to remember the good times. I have to admit, some of my family (I won't name names, but they know who they are!)and I were a little irreverent and went to Rite Aid (twice) for Thrifty's ice cream (the Rocky Road, Butter Pecan, and Chocolate Fudge Brownie were DIVINE), In-N-Out (can't you just smell those grilled onions), and of course, Rosa Maria's (a garbage burrito I ate on the spot and 5 chile relleno burritos to bring home)in a 24 hour trip. At first, we felt a little guilty, but then we decided that Uncle Murray would have come with us if he could. He was just that kind of guy. Always the life of the party. It was a day of laughter, tears, and my favorite foods.
This whole experience of losing someone so suddenly has really made me appreciate the little things. I know that eventually I will get caught up again in the daily grind, but for now, I spend more time with my children, I'm a little more patient and tolerant, and I'm making time for the little things. I guess that's one of the lessons we're supposed to learn here on earth. Kiss your kids just one more time before they go to school-whether they like it or not, hold hands as you go for a walk, stop and listen-even when you really don't want to, let the other guy cut in line, slow down a little, smell the flowers, help a neighbor, smile at a stranger. Take time to enjoy the little things.
P.S. Jim was so sweet to find the song "You're so good for me" by Sonnet and play it for me on Mother's Day. I am so bugged that I can't get it on my playlist but click here to listen.

News about Uncle Murray

Here is a link to the article in the San Bernardino Sun about Uncle Murray. http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_12322546

Thanks for your prayers

Yesterday, Eric went up in a helicopter with the search and rescue team and was able to lead them to where Uncle Murray was. They saw his bike on the ground on the road at about 5,000 ft. They lowered a medic who found him sitting against a tree. Unfortunately, we were too late. The family thinks he probably had a heart attack. We all hope that he went quickly. It is so hard to imagine him gone. He was by far, the most fun to be around. We will miss deep sea fishing, dirt bike riding, Disneyland, his smile and laugh. The funeral will be sometime next week. Thank you to everyone who prayed that we would find him. We are so grateful that we did.

Please Pray

Many of you know my Uncle Murray. Yesterday morning he went out dirt bike riding and didn't come home. Search and Rescue were looking for him all night. Mom and Eric flew down to So. Cal. this morning to assist search and rescue. Eric has recently gone riding with him and they are hoping that he can show them where he normally goes. We are especially worried because about two years ago he had a heart attack while riding and crawled down the mountain to where he could get a cell phone signal and called 911. This time, he didn't take his phone. Please pray that they will be able to find him quickly.

Field trips

I have been going on field trips with the kids the past few weeks. Here are some pictures of the fun places we've been. Christopher and I went to the Great Salt Lake. I have never been and thought it was actually very interesting. We got to go in the water and catch brine shrimp in specimen cups and then look at them through a magnifying glass. Very cool. Besides the cold and wind and biting flies, we had a really good time! Katrina and I went to Abravanel Hall to see the Utah Symphony perform. I thought it was really neat that they played some songs the kids would be able to relate to like Star Wars, and then led into other composers with pictures on a big screen. It really made the symphony easier to relate to for a whole hall full of 5th graders.
Caleb and I went to the Utah Botanical Gardens.

They talked to us about the food chain, wetlands, and insect and plant life cycles. The kids got to pretend to be the food chain and they are passing on energy (popcorn) in a relay race. So fun!

This is definitely one of the perks of being a stay-at-home mom.