Open Mouth, Insert Foot

The people we were leasing from went into bankruptcy, and the house we are living in went to auction on Monday. DEl called that morning and told me some prospective buyers from a real estate firm wanted to walk through it. He recommended I make an extra effort to be nice, as they expressed interest in letting us work out a deal to buy it from them.

When I opened the door, three gentlemen walked in - all with the same last name. There was an older gentleman, one who appeared to be middle aged, and a young guy.
I instantly grabbed my first opportunity to be friendly.

"How nice to have three generations working together," I said with a smile.

The middle guy shook his head. Instead of waiting for the answer, I plunged ahead to correct my mistake.

"Oh, do we have some uncles and a nephew?" I asked. This time, the youngest guy laughed out loud.

"No," he replied with a huge grin while pointing to the middle aged fellow, "He and I are brothers. He hates it when people think he's my dad or uncle."

Well, at least the I wasn't first to make that mistake. I could still salvage the situation if I were careful.

"I know how that is," I told the middle guy, "I'm the oldest of eight kids and am fifteen years older than my youngest sister."

"Well, there's only five years' difference between the two of us," he informed me.

So much for being nice. I humbly shut my mouth - after removing my big fat foot from it.

Our Olympian Takes the Gold!

Our science olympian, that is.

Jefferson competed in the Regional Science Olympiad yesterday and won gold in two events. The first is called "the eggonaut." Each contestant had to build a rocket that would launch off of an air compressor, have a parachute that opened upon descent, and land the rocket without cracking the egg that was riding inside. Jefferson built his rocket with a few personal modifications; whatever they were, they worked because his rocket flew the highest, had the overall best descent, and his egg "passenger" escaped unscathed!

Jefferson and a fellow student were entered into another event literally at the last minute (right before it began). They'd had no training or preparation in this area, but their teacher felt they could do pretty well; this hunch proved true as Jefferson and his teammate took first place! This competition was called "Write It, Build It". The team members were split up, put into separate rooms, and the first student was given about 40 items to make something from. That student built an original contraption from the items, then wrote down specific instructions on how to build it. These instructions were given to the second student on the team, along with the 40 items to see if they could accurately replicate what their teammate had built. Of the pair, Jefferson was the "builder" and replicated the contraption almost perfectly from the written instructions.

The entire Sunrise Ridge team qualified for the state competition, which will be held later next month. We can't wait to see how our science "superstar" does at the next level :)

Every Family Has One

One reason I've been so interested in photography lately is to help me better document our family's journey through pictures.

However, there is one member of our family who always seems out to foil me.

Bronson hates having his picture taken, and seldom makes an effort to put on a happy face when it's picture time. As a result, of the few photos I manage to snap of him, many turn out like these:

dissatisfied

bored

disinterested

impatient

painful

Here is the latest picture to be added to the group:
This was taken two days ago, when our family went to Snow's Canyon on President's Day. The real kicker is that Bronson had a great time during our outing, but the moment I wanted to take his picture, he wiped the big smile off his face and went as rigid as a robot (the way the shadows lie on his face make him look like he's smiling).

As for me, I'll just continue to click away...hoping I can catch his elusive smile more often. I'm always up for a good challenge!

By Any Other Name....

Mathison and I were walking to a nearby park last week, when I spied some construction going on a couple of streets away. Mathison absolutely loves any kind of big trucks and construction equipment. Excited by this find, I turned my son around and told him to look at the backhoe.

"Where is it?" he asked.

I pointed it out to him. Mathison looked in the general direction, then turned back to me with a puzzled look on his face.

"I don't see it, Mom."

Again I pointed, a little impatiently this time. There it was, directly in front of us and quite hard to miss. As Mathison continued to search for it, I began to feel a little concerned - was there something wrong with his eyesight? Our other kids needed glasses at a young age; maybe it was time to take Mathison in for an eye exam.

Frustrated, Mathison turned to me and said, "I still can't find it. Is it behind that track excavator?"

Oops, my bad. The piece of equipment I'd been calling a backhoe was actually a track excavator.

It's said that a rose called by any other name would smell as sweet.

Apparently, this philosophy does not extend towards construction equipment.

At least, not to my three year old :)

Great at State!

Sorry for the delay in posting; I caught a sore throat/sinus/flu bug mix just prior to leaving for state swimming that really hit me hard. I was finally able to drag myself out of bed today.

Anyway, state was great - other than the fact that I was sick. Krissia did really well, earning two silver individual medals and 2 PR's in her events. Each race was so close, with often only tenths or hundredths of a second separating the top times.

The Desert Hills' girls team took 4th place overall, up two places from last year's ranking (6th) which is pretty impressive for a school that's only in it's second year of competition. They are hoping to break into the top three next year :)

Here are some pictures from the meet:

Krissia at the start of the 100m Freestyle:

Showing how the top swimmers were so close, virtually swimming in a straight line:

Less than half a second separating 1st and 3rd place:

Krissia on the podium stand getting one of her medals:

Congratulations, Krissia!!

A Hard Habit to Break

State swimming begins today.

And, as in past years, Miss Krissia is fighting another sinus infection.

She is making quite a habit of being sick for state competition; what is it about this time of year that is so unlucky for her?

However, this time around we took her into the ASAP and got her started on an antibiotic right away. I'm hoping it makes a difference this year.

In related news, Krissia was named athlete of the week by two other organizations: Sportsradio (out of Salt Lake City) and the local publication "Kids and Family" magazine.

In unrelated news, Krissia had a great time at Junior Prom last weekend:


We'll let you know how State goes!

Go Grease Lightning!

Jefferson recently auditioned for a youth production of the musical "Grease".

He really, REALLY, REALLY wanted the part of "Danny".

As Jefferson checked the internet posting of the parts yesterday, a very loud whoop let us know he'd gotten the part.

Go grease lightning!