Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Old Gray Mare

I know this is a strange title. There's a very old folk song with the same title; in fact, the chorus goes "The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be". DEl likes to sing it to me occasionally as a reminder that I'm growing older. It really bothers me when he does that, but I'm beginning to wonder this week if it finally does apply to me!

We had visitors this week; DEl's brother Troy and his family came to stay a night with us. They live in Washington D.C. and we don't get to see them very often. Needless to say, we decided to cram in as many activities as possible. First on the list was swimming at the wave pool. Normally I just hang out in the shallow end with Mathison, but I decided to live it up a little and tread water in the deep end while the waves were going. It was very fun, but the waves lasted for about 10 minutes and it took a lot of effort to stay afloat. By the time the waves ended, I was breathing pretty hard and my muscles felt a little heavy - but I was little worse for the wear.
After swimming we had a BBQ with Troy's family, then Troy's wife Denise and I took the kids to the park. For the first half of the time, I followed Mathison as he wandered around the playground. However, I started growing restless (or maybe it was reckless) as I watched the older kids running, jumping, and swinging around. I decided to join in the fun; I found a railing to use as a balance beam, took a shot at the climbing wall, then tried to run and pull myself up on a bar while flipping over it. I feel confident that I could have done it if the bar had not been 10 FEET OFF THE GROUND. I came so close that I had to try it again. And again. And again. I probably tried at least twenty times, but would just miss getting it each time. When I finally called it quits, my muscles were no longer heavy - they were sore.

After putting the younger children in bed, we had a DDR tournament. It was so fun - but again, I couldn't just sit back and watch. About 30 songs later, the adults decided it was time for bed - for the kids, at least. Troy, Denise, DEl, and I broke out the games until 1:30 in the morning. Of course, the little ones didn't get the memo about sleeping in so we were up earlier than we'd planned.

As I tried to get out of bed, I realized that perhaps I'd been a little overzealous the day before. I was beyond pain; my muscles were in agony. Especially my upper arms, shoulders, and abs - the muscles I'd used when I tried to flip over the stupid bar. It's taken me three days to finally feel like I might recover!

It's little depressing to realize that I might being "slowing down"; I guess I'll have to start pacing myself. Next time, it's the kiddie slide for me :)

These wonderful photos were taken by Denise:





Notice how happy and relaxed I look; this was taken before trying to prove I still "have it"

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Richfield Championships

One week ago, Krissia and Jefferson competed in the Richfield Summer Swimming Championships. This is an annual event that we've attended since Krissia was 9 years old. Both kids did quite well; Krissia swept all of her events and even managed to get 2 PR's, while Jefferson cut 4 seconds off of his personal best in each of his 2 events. The only downside of the day was that DEl was out of town, so I was left alone to wrestle with Mathison for the 9 hours we were there! But, we made it through.

Here is a collage of some of the pictures I took that day:

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

You Gotta Love It

I had one of "those" experiences this evening; you know, the kind that seems terrible as it's happening but funny once it's over.

I've needed to go shopping for a few days. I hate to grocery shop and had put it off as long as possible, but I finally decided to bite the bullet. I loaded Mathison in the van and drove to Wal-Mart, picking Krissia up from a friend's house on the way. Mathison started fussing about this time, but the sun was in his eyes so I attributed his crying to that.

As we entered Wal-Mart, everything seemed great. I loaded Mathison into the shopping cart and headed for the milk. A few aisles later, he seemed really fussy again and wouldn't settle down. I stopped in the middle of the meat section, reached down, and lifted him out of the cart....and then it happened. He threw up ALL over me. And himself. And the floor....it just kept coming! I sent Krissia to find an employee while I headed to the restrooms with Mathison. Of course, I was nowhere near a bathroom; I had to walk through several aisles and past the crowded checkout stands with puke plastered all over me and my child. Once in the bathroom, I ended up stripping Mathison down to his diaper and tried to salvage what I could with my shirt,but Mathison had been very thorough. At this point, Krissia entered the bathroom and asked what we should do. I told her to take the grocery cart to the customer service desk and ask them if we could leave it there while we went home to clean up. I handed Mathison to Krissia, then held my purse in front of me to help hide my stained shirt from other shoppers as we walked out. Unfortunately, I couldn't hide the smell; I got more than a few odd looks as we hurried out to the van!

A half hour later, I gathered my cart from Customer Service and continued my shopping with clean clothes - and without Mathison, who was at home getting bathed by Krissia. As I passed the meat aisle, I noticed that the evidence of our misadventure had been mopped up. I guess this was the trade off for my public humiliation; someone else got to clean up the floor.

Ah, the joy of parenthood....you just gotta love it!

Friday, July 18, 2008

My Day at Miss Utah

In past years, this blog title would have read "My WEEK at Miss Utah" but things just didn't work out that way this time. Oh well - a day spent away from my duties as a mom is better than nothing at all!!

I got up early last Saturday morning and drove into Salt Lake City to attend the Miss Utah breakfast. I picked up DEl at his hotel, as he'd been gone from home all week going to a conference for work during the day and attending Miss Utah at night. The breakfast was a very nice affair, giving the contestants a chance to relax with their directors and families after a week of stressful preliminaries. Traditionally, the outgoing Miss Utah and her family speak to the girls at the end of the breakfast. When it was Jill's turn to speak in her final role as Miss Utah, she did something quite unexpected. She credited much of her pageant success to the person who believed in her from the very beginning - DEl. Jill called him up to the front and gave him a touching tribute.

Many of you know that Jill is a soldier and served a year in Afghanistan. A military tradition of showing honor to an officer at the end of a campaign is to give them a coin engraved with special symbols. Jill had some coins specially made to give to those individuals who have made a positive impact in her life, and the first one she handed out went to DEl.

It's hard to see the details of the coin in this picture, but the front has a flag in the middle, with a crystal in the very center of it. This stone is from Jill's Miss Utah crown - and was the only coin to have one in it. Around the edge are the words "Miss Utah 2007 - America's Choice", and the backside has digital camo print, a medical sign (Jill is a nurse, and the words "Sgt Jill Stevens - Lock and Load".
It is a wonderful keepsake, and I know it meant a great deal to my husband to finally receive recognition for the countless hours he's devoted to helping young women in the Miss America system.

We had a few hours to kill in the afternoon, so we went to the Gateway. We shopped, then watched a movie. At 5 p.m. we went to Olive Garden to have dinner with some pageant friends. The "few" friends ended up being a party of 20, so we had quite a wait! It was worth it; we had a fun time making our predictions of who was going to be in the top 10, and the food was delicious.

The pageant began at 7 p.m. We were specifically rooting for two girls - Dani Tremelling, who is Miss CEU, and Shawnee Gubler, who is Miss Washington County and my youngest sister :) Although neither one made it into the top 10, both young women represented themselves and their communities very well and each won a special award.

DEl and Dani at the luncheon


Me and Shawnee after the pageant


The new Miss Utah is a cute girl from Sanpete County; I think a lot of the contestants from the bigger cities were surprised when she was announced as the winner - although DEl had her picked as one of his top two.

After the pageant, I made the 2 hour drive home. It was a quick trip, but well worth it as I was able to spend time with my husband and support my sister. And who knows - maybe I'll get to spend all week at Miss Utah next year!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Armpits and Acne

Earlier this week, Jefferson noticed he had several small, red bumps on his face. He asked me what I thought they were and I replied that they looked like mosquito bites to me. This seemed to be the most likely explanation, especially since he'd spent a night camping outside on my parents' lawn during the Gubler reunion.

However when the bumps hadn't faded by the next morning, Jefferson was convinced they were pimples. He excitedly examined his face rather closely in the mirror several times that day, checking for any changes or the eruption of a new bump. After his evening bath, I caught Jefferson looking in the mirror yet again - this time, examining his armpits. He was sure he was growing armpit hair!

Holding back my laughter, I told him that I couldn't see any hair and that the bumps on his face were nearly gone and were definitely not acne. Jefferson seemed to shake off the brief excitement at the prospect of puberty; he shrugged his shoulders and casually replied, "Well, if it was acne, we'd need to start buying Proactiv." He paused for a minute before adding, "Refining mask." Those infomercials certainly do their job well!

As my son skipped back into his regular routine, I realized that our carefree childhood days with Jefferson are numbered. What he perceives as the glamours of growing up - greasy face, sweaty pits, and raging hormones - are going to be thrust upon us before we know it. Time marches on, and when the inevitable does happen - which it surely will - thank heaven for deodorant and Proactiv!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

A Very Fun 4th


Our family had a wonderful time over the 4th of July holiday!

We left Price on Wednesday afternoon and arrived in LaVerkin just in time for Krissia and I to attend a family baby shower for my sister, Missy. She is due to have a baby girl next month and looks so cute!

On Thursday, our family drove to St. George and visited with Ben and Cathy Ford and their eight children. The Ford's are the very first friends we made while living in Cedar City, and although our families have now moved away from each other, we still try to stay in touch. We swam in their pool, then the kids enjoyed pizza while the adults went out to eat. We had a very nice time - although we tried really hard not to melt in the 111 degree heat!!!

While in St. George, we also able to visit our special foster daughter, Kenna. She immediately recognized who we were and ran straight to Krissia, giving her a big hug.

Kenna's become quite the talker, and shared all sorts of cute things with us. She looks like she's doing well and seems to be quite happy. As always, it was hard for us to say goodbye.

We spent Friday morning at the LaVerkin City 4th of July celebration.


There were all sorts of fun activities for the kids, including races and a dunking booth.

At noon, the Kerry Gubler Family Reunion officially began. We met at a church for pizza, then participated in a "family olympics". It was so fun, and everyone was a good sport about participating. Nicole and I were over this part of the reunion, so I was too busy to get any pics :(

When we finished, everyone headed over to Micah's house to swim in their family's pool. We splashed around for a while, then Martha had prepared some water games for us (in case you hadn't guessed, our family is quite competitive). I even "took one for the team" by doing a belly flop - on purpose, mind you - off the diving board. Unfortunately, my sacrifice was in vain as our team ended up losing.

Dinner was held at my parents' house that evening. We had a BBQ, followed by a talent show. There were both traditional and non-traditional talents showcased.

My two favorites were when my sister-in-law Martha showed that she "still has it" after having five kids by whipping out two cartwheels that ended in splits, and when my brother-in-law Eric came out in a Darth Vadar mask and cape to "battle" with his son, Cooper. At dusk, we had fireworks. Mathison loved it for the first five minutes and then fell apart. Del and I took him over to the Beatty's for bed, but the majority of the adults stayed at my parents' house for movies and a camp out on the lawn with the kids.

The next morning, we ended the reunion with a yummy breakfast of muffins, fruit, and eggs. Our family loaded up and left for home as soon as we were finished eating, as Krissia had to be at work at 3 o'clock that afternoon.

Although exhausting, we had a great time with my family. After we've recuperated, we look forward to doing it all again with DEl's family in another few weeks :)