Made My Day

The other day, Mathison had climbed up on my lap while I was trying to watch television. Soon he began touching my eyes, making it difficult to see.

I found myself growing irritated, but before I could reprimand Mathison he blurted:

"Mommy, you eyes are so bootiful!"

Awww. Totally made my day.

And I'm so grateful I didn't get angry with him first!

A Letter to My Son

The following letter was written 12 years ago as an assignment for a collegiate child development course. I rediscovered it during our last move, and gave it to Bronson after his graduation on Thursday:

To My Dear Bronson,

It's difficult to believe how quickly you've advanced into your childhood; you have just begun first grade now, and it won't be long before you will depart my sheltering wing, eager to fly on your own. This letter is for that day when you'll be leaving us. It really seems mere moments ago that your father and I received the unexpected news that you were "on the way". I was thrilled; I had always wanted to start my family soon after marriage and could hardly wait to become a mother.

I hope that you can look back fondly on your years at home, and also hope that you won't be too critical of my parenting skills. I believe that good parents work towards achieving what is best for their children through teaching them responsibility and demonstrating an unconditional love. I have tried to do the same for you. Besides these elements, I have tried to tap into my better qualities by providing an atmosphere of creative fun, love of the arts, and respect for others in our home. I know that being firstborn isn't easy, for I am also an oldest child, and I vowed to never expose my eldest to the strictness with which I was raised. However, I often find myself tending to set my expectations too high for your age and abilities. I also know that I tend to lose my patience easily at times. I hope you are able to look beyond these shortcomings and arrive at the realization that I was trying my best, and that I love you very much.

With your future shining bright before you, I would hope that you are happy with your life and are able to recognize and capitalize on those special talents that make you such a wonderful person. In Shakespeare's "Hamlet", the character Polonius offers this advice to his son as he prepares to seek his fortune: "This above all: to thine own self be true, and it shall not go false with any man." I would encourage you, Bronson, To remain true to yourself; to preserve your self-integrity, and to remember and hold true to those beliefs, morals, and ideals you know to be right. In doing so, you can never go wrong.

Goodbye, my son. I love you very much.

Mom

A Whale of a Tale

Yesterday, I needed some alone time. So I grabbed a pole, and went fishing in one of the two community ponds in town.

There were two other fisherman there (both men), and none of us was having much luck. I'd finally been able to reel in an albino trout that was too small to keep and was just about to call it quits when I saw a MONSTER swimming in the shallows. I grabbed my net and scooped THIS out of the water:

Yep. By myself. No pole. Off the bank. In the dinky community pond.

The other two fisherman couldn't believe it, either.

I almost let it go....almost. But, since it was the biggest fish I've ever personally seen, I decided to keep. I knew no one would believe this story without some proof!

I'm guessing it was about 4-5 pounds, and it measured a whopping 22 inches long.



The only part I feel bad about is the fish turned out to be hugely pregnant - stuffed with eggs from throat to bottom. This probably explains why I was able to net it so easily.

However, my big catch certainly made my day :)

Con"grad"ulations are in Order!

WARNING: This post contains MANY photos!

As you might have guessed from the title, Bronson graduated from school this morning.

I'm not quite sure what I'm feeling right now. It's a strange mixture of pride, relief, sadness, and nostalgia.

I'll post more on that later, but I wanted to get some pictures up of our exciting day.

Bronson showed a wide range of emotions himself throughout the ceremony:

impatience

interest

humor

pensiveness

The ceremony was short and sweet - just the way we like them! All too soon, it was time for Bronson walk on the stage and get his diploma:

Bronson seemed pretty happy with himself afterwards!

Grandparents were in attendance to show their support:

Of course, Del and I were extremely proud:

With his favorite teacher (English), Mrs. Lowe:

Our two oldest children:

Bronson and his good friend, Joe:

After the ceremony we went for lunch at Chuckarama, where Aunt Paulette and Grandpa Gubler were able to join us. However, we couldn't celebrate for long; the students attending the senior trip had to be back at the school by 1:30. They are traveling to California, where they will be spending time at places like Disneyland, the beach, and Magic Mountain.

Truthfully, I think Bronson was probably more excited for the senior trip than he was to be graduating :)

What Would Jesus Do?

Or more accurately in this instance, what would Jesus say?

Mathison gave us a two-year-old's perspective on this topic very recently.

Last Saturday, Mathison, Krissia, and I were out doing errands. We happened to pass the pool and hydro tube at Dixie High School, and Mathison immediately began begging to go "swimming on the slide". We were only able to placate him when Krissia reminded her brother that we didn't have any swimsuits with us.

A few minutes later, we drove past the temple. This began a new round of pleading - "Mathison wants to get out, Mathison wants to go see Jesus" (There is a large statue of Christ in the visitor's center). Again, his requests were denied due to our time constraint.

After passing the temple, Mathison said, "Jesus talked to Mathison, Jesus wants to tell you something." That certainly caught my attention....what bit of wisdom was I about to hear?

"Jesus says we should go swimming and play on the slide, so much fun!"

Shaking with laughter, I was barely able to deny his request yet again.

He almost got me with that one :)

Sweet 16

We're not talking NCAA basketball.

My only daughter turned 16 yesterday. My, how time flies.

She can now drive.

Even scarier, she can now DATE.

We tried to make this special birthday a memorable one for her. All through the week, a mystery person has been leaving white roses and rhyming clues to ask her out on a date on her birthday. Soon after school yesterday, a "chauffeur" came and picked up Krissia so she could meet this unknown person. The last rose had come with a Target gift card, and the chauffeur had instructions to drop Krissia off for a little shopping before delivering her to their final destination - the bowling alley.

Krissia found this waiting for her inside:

And her mystery date?


(I promise they did not coordinate their clothes to match the bowling alley!!)

DEl had been so excited to plan their date, but it also had a two-fold purpose. While they bowled and went to dinner, several of Krissia's friends came to our house and prepared a surprise party for her.

She was definitely surprised. And very happy.


It was a great group of kids; they seemed to really enjoy themselves by having some good, clean fun. They hung out in our basement playing games for a bit until it grew cool enough to take the party outside in our backyard.


The last guests left about 10 p.m., except for a few girls Krissia had invited to spend the night.

Have you ever wondered what your house might look like after 20 teenagers have been hanging out for several hours?
Actually, most of Krissia's friends - boys and girls - stayed to help clean up.

Did I mention that they are a really good group of kids?

Happy Birthday Krissia....We love you!!!

The Poor Waif

Or ragamuffin. Or orphan. Or motherless soul.

At least, that's what the teachers and students at Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School might be thinking about Jefferson right now.

We discovered yesterday that he ran out of lunch money about one week ago - but he kept forgetting to tell us. So for several lunchtimes, he has begged food off of people or asked one of his friends for a quarter so that he could buy a candy bar.

And to top it off, we realized that Jefferson wore the same shirt to school at least three times last week.

Not only are we the parents who can't afford to feed their kid, but we obviously don't have enough money to buy him extra clothes.

We're lucky that some well-meaning teacher hasn't called social services on us!

Heartbreaker

Bronson's graduation is coming up very soon (next week), so I thought I''d better take a few pictures around our yard and call them his "senior photos".

It's amazing what a haircut, shave, and a little Photoshop can do.

What a heartbreaker!

This is Bronson's favorite.









Check out those killer eyes....why is it that guys always get the long eyelashes ?!

Coming Clean

Did anyone reading my blog stop to think that the reason I didn't share the whole story in my last post was to keep my embarrassing moment private from the few people who actually haven't heard it yet?

Having said that, I've decided to swallow my pride.

And air the entire story.

Star 98 FM (a local radio station that serves Washington County, Iron County, and Mesquite, NV) is holding a Mother's Day contest by giving away a spa package worth $2500 to a deserving mother. All you have to do is submit a happy story about your mom and tell why you think she deserves the prize, and if they read your e-mail on the air she'll be qualified for the drawing.

Instead of "happy", Krissia decided to opt for a FUNNY story.

In spite of my hair color, I pride myself on not acting like a typical "blond". However, I do have my moments from time to time - and when I do, they're usually big ones.

The one Krissia decided to share went something like this:

A couple of years ago, I was standing in the kitchen when Bronson and Krissia came running in excitedly. They proudly told how they had just played a great joke on their Aunt Shawnee, who was attending SUU and living with us at the time.

"That's right, it's April Fool's Day - I totally forgot!" I exclaimed. I quickly looked down at my shirt and added, "Good thing I remembered to wear green."

Um, that would be ST. PATRICK'S DAY, not April Fool's. My teenagers busted up laughing and have never let me forget that "wonderful" moment.

This past Wednesday, Krissia submitted this story without my knowledge to the radio station, who read it on the air. How did I find out? I was passing one of our guy neighbors on the street with our van windows rolled down, when he called out from his vehicle, "Hey, I heard an interesting thing about you on the radio today....is it true?"

I turned to Krissia in confusion, who had the strangest look on her face. I began quizzing her, and the entire story tumbled out.

To her credit, Krissia also said several nice things about me in her e-mail. I know she was just trying to be her usual helpful, thoughtful self by trying to win a spa package for her mother.

I just hope she'll go with "happy" next time!

Disowned

This looks like the face of a sweet, innocent teenage girl:
Don't be fooled by the smile.

Today she spilled one of my most embarrassing moments to the citizens of Washington County.

All 80,000 of them. Through radio.

Of course, she claimed it was to qualify me for a $2,500 Mother's Day spa giveaway.

If I win, I'll consider forgiving her someday.

Maybe:)

Third Time's the Charm

One of the highlights of spring is adventuring at Grandpa Beatty's ranch.

It is a treasured Easter tradition, but the weather was too cold and rainy this year.

We decided to wait a few weeks and try again.....with no luck. You guessed it - cold and rainy.

So when Eva and Jason came to town this weekend and expressed a desire to have a family picnic at the ranch, we didn't hold our breaths.

The weather forecast? Cold and rainy.

However, we collectively decided to chance it and headed out Saturday morning - in spite of a few dark clouds. I'm so glad we did; the weather cooperated wonderfully. It was a little windy, but that is par for the ranch.

We had the typical "Beatty ranch experience". This includes:

Riding the four wheelers,

Hanging out with cousins (you gotta love the matching braces!),


Horsing around with Grandpa,


Exploring the farm machinery,


Bringing along a trusty gun for some hunting,


Working in the kitchen with Grandma,

....and getting so tuckered out you fall asleep on the drive home!

The only thing that would have made it better is if Bronson and DEl had been able to come. Bronson was at work, and DEl spent the weekend in Reno preparing for the Miss Nevada Pageant.

I guess this gives us the perfect excuse to plan another ranch excursion soon :)

Victory!

Last night, the Beatty parents won an important battle.

The Battle of the Bulge.

We're not talking weight. We are talking about the growing bulge of hair that Bronson has been sporting the past few months.



We've desperately been trying to honor Bronson's wishes for "free expression" while subtly trying to sway his position with arguments like "Shorter hair is easier to take care of" and "Summer is coming...long hair will be hot". We'd recently doubled our efforts, especially since Bronson finally got another job. It's not that we personally have anything against long hair....when it's well-groomed.

This week, Bronson finally admitted that having long hair was a lot more work than he thought it would be. Yea! We immediately jumped on his admission, and arranged for a haircut by our good friend Jessi Gurney, who is in town taking her cosmetology boards. Jessi did a great job, and Bronson was happy that he didn't have to foot the bill (he's very miserly).

Bronson's new 'do:



The HUGE pile of hair left behind:

If he'd waited a few more months, I think Bronson could have made a donation to Locks of Love :)