Brace Face, Metal Mouth, Tin Grin, Tinsel Teeth…

What an exciting week Ryan is having! The day after the district science fair, Ryan got braces! I couldn’t resist – I snapped a few pictures of him with the interesting gadgets in his mouth.




After we finished at the orthodontist, we went to Rara’s & Papa’s to show them Ry’s new look. Alice & Claire were there, so all of the kids “showed their teeth” to Rara for a photo op.


We went home, got Ryan into his swimming gear, and headed to our rec center for a swim meet. Luckily Ryan only had one event on Thursday – the 200 IM. In true Ryan form, he swam through the mouth pain, finishing 7th overall, and beating his own best time by 6 seconds! (I was on deck as his timer, so we don’t have pictures of this event.)

Challenges and Blessings

The past few weeks, it seems like several people we know have been struggling with very serious life challenges. I mentioned Gates in this post. On Sunday, May 22, we found out that our good family friend, and Ryan’s scout leader, has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Our ward and his ward (next to us) had a fast Sunday to Monday, and then had a two-ward prayer together on Monday, May 23. It was a good experience for Ryan to participate, especially since he loves his scout leader. Ryan immediately started to include him in his prayers, and has a very tender and sincere faith about the situation. It will be difficult for Ryan to have his scout leader released and a new one come in, but we will continue to check on the family and do what we can for them. We’ve already taken a couple of opportunities to do things for them. (I forgot to mention when I originally posted this...Ryan pulled out a tooth at the prayer service! Friends, family, and loyal readers know that Ryan pulls out his loose teeth in interesting and unexpected places. We were sitting on our church bench listening to Ryan's scout leader talk for a few minutes before the prayer. All of a sudden, Ryan showed me that he was holding his tooth!)

That same week, we found out that the 11-year-old (now 12) daughter of a friend of ours had collapsed in her PE class on Wednesday, May 18. The PE teacher had to do CPR for 7 minutes until the ambulance arrived. The ambulance transported her to the hospital, where it was quickly determined that she would travel by life-flight to Primary Children’s Medical Center. Doctors discovered that she has a very serious heart defect, and she was immediately put on the heart transplant waiting list. She has since been released from Primary, but goes back several times a week for testing, can’t do the activities and sports that she used to love, and must stay within minutes of Primary, just in case a heart is located for her. Again, Ryan quickly added her to his sincere, faithful prayers, and we have had the opportunity to do a couple of things for them. Here is a story about her that aired on the KSL news tonight.

On Sunday, May 22, we also learned that the home of a family we know was completely destroyed in the tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Even as I write, the family is still searching through the rubble for any items that can be salvaged, and just trying to clean up. We also include them (and all of the hundreds of people affected by the Joplin tornado) in our prayers, and we were able to contribute some items to a humanitarian aid delivery for the people in Joplin.

It was somewhat overwhelming for us to learn of all of these things within a matter of days. But we quickly remembered how blessed we are. I think it has been good for Ryan to specifically pray for so many different people in so many different challenging situations. He has always been a very compassionate person, but these experiences are developing that characteristic even more deeply. We know how blessed we are, and are grateful for everything we have.

You Can’t Handle the Truth!

Ryan and I had a conversation this week which reminded me of the courtroom scene in “A Few Good Men.” Although our exchange wasn’t as angry, it was just as emotional, if not more so. The discussion went something like this…

Ryan: “Mom, I have a question for you. And I want you to tell me the truth, no matter what.”

(Normally when this sentence is uttered in our house, it is me saying it to him. I worry what may be coming when he says it.)

Me: “Okay.”

Ryan: “Are you the tooth fairy?”(I paused, trying to think of how to answer it.)

Ryan: “Well…are you?”

After talking all around the question as much as I possibly could, I told him that I was. There was another very long pause.

Ryan: “Where do you get all of those two dollar bills?”

Me: “At the bank.”

Ryan (in a VERY disappointed tone): “Oh.”

About an hour later, when it was closer to bedtime and he was much more tired and cranky, he started sobbing. I asked him what was wrong.

Ryan (very dramatically): “I wish I had never asked you if you were the tooth fairy!!!”

As much as I love to see Ryan growing up, it makes me sad to know that he's not a baby anymore when we have discussions like this.

I’m dreading the Santa question.

Scout-O-Rama

Ryan and I had a fun weekend. Thankfully, it was considerably better than last weekend. By the way, a BIG thank you to all of you who helped us through the challenges of last weekend. A special thanks to Kristin and Abby for the awesome “ladies’ (and kids) night out” distraction on Saturday night, and to the whole Ulmer family for your perfectly-timed visit on Sunday. We know we are very lucky to have all of the great family and friends that we have.

So…today was the much-anticipated Scout-o-Rama at the South Towne Expo Center. Some of you know the drama of last year’s Scout-o-Rama – Ryan went with me, as he has to most scout events for the past two years. However, even though he participated in all of the booth activities, he was not able to earn any of the awards (including some that were given on the spot) because he was not an official scout. As you may have guessed, to a seven-year-old, that seemed very unfair. He has been looking forward to this year’s Scout-o-Rama ever since. Needless to say, we spent the WHOLE DAY there today! Imagine…thousands of enthusiastic cub scouts and longsuffering leaders and parents as far as the eye can see from 9 am to 4 pm. Isn’t that how you’d choose to spend a whole Saturday?

Our pack had a booth – we taught everyone who came by about the scientific method, the properties of solids, liquids, and gasses, non-Newtonian fluid dynamics, colloids, and polymerization. In order to illustrate all of those – my teacher friends will all know what we did – we made ooblek and glurch with the scouts as they visited the booth. It was obviously very messy, which 8 – 11 year old boys (and their older and younger siblings) LOVE! We helped each boy that visited our booth complete the requirements for the Science belt loop.

Ryan was quite motivated all day. There were a lot of booths that offered either all of the requirements for a belt loop or most of the requirements, with just a couple of additional things to do at home. Ryan wanted to do ALL of them! He got so excited every time we rounded another corner and there was another belt loop booth. It was really cute. He earned eight!
There was also a pack that had their own “sport court” created. Ryan did the football throw and got five out of five! He did the basketball throw and got ten out of ten! I stood there absolutely amazed! You should have seen his grin! He also enjoyed digging for fossils, panning for gold, golfing, and a variety of other fun activities.

I had a fun experience there, too. We ran into the family of a guy that I dated for quite a while about 18 years ago. I haven’t seen them for a long time, but, interestingly, had just been thinking about them the past couple of days. Ryan and I were walking along, and I heard a very loud, “Is that Melanie Inman?” (You know not many people refer to me that way these days.) It was great to see them and catch up with them. I always enjoyed being with them and traveling with them, and always thought very highly of them. And I'm not just saying that because they may be reading this. :)

It was a long day, but it was a lot of fun. It will be exciting for Ryan to receive all of his awards at next month’s pack meeting.

Oh, yea…and Ryan pulled another tooth!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I am so lucky to have such an awesome dad! Being that I’m his only daughter, we have always had a very special relationship. He has always provided me with the guidance, direction, support, encouragement, and love that I have needed. Especially the past six years, I have relied on his wisdom, his insights, his blessings, and his unconditional love. I don’t know how I would have made it through the past few years without him. I am so proud to be his daughter.

Here are the highlights of the day:

As most of you know, Ryan has a talent for pulling his loose teeth on special days or in cool places. Last year he pulled a tooth on my dad's birthday. Well, this afternoon we went to Deseret Book to grab a couple of books for my dad. As we were walking in, Ryan said, “Mom, did you know that I have another loose tooth?” He went to look at some of the kids’ books while I got the books for my dad. A few minutes later, Ryan came up to me holding his tooth in his hand, with this big grin on his face. He immediately called Papa to tell him that he not only pulled ANOTHER tooth on ANOTHER birthday, but that he pulled it in Deseret Book. What a crack up!

Our family celebrated Papa’s 67th birthday at Ruth’s Chris Steak House for dinner. None of us had ever been there before. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. Normally, steak is not at the top of my favorite foods list, but this was good stuff. If that’s how steak was every time, I’d definitely eat it more often. I, of course, had the “surf and turf.” I got my steak “Louie” style with crab, asparagus, and béarnaise sauce, with shrimp on the side. Mmmmmm!!! It’s always fun to be together as a family and to catch up with everything that is going on with everybody.

I hope you had a great day, Dad! I love you!

My All-Boy Boy and His Chipped Tooth

From the time Ryan was just a baby, he has been SUCH a boy! He was drawn to any ball, truck, car, tool, or thing that made noise from the time he was tiny. He has also always been very physical, athletic, and competitive. When we made our first trip to the emergency room at about 15 months of age for a gash in the forehead (yes, Melissa, we’ve also done the Harry Potter scars), I had the feeling that was just the beginning of my trips to the emergency room with him. Luckily, we’ve done pretty well so far.

Ryan loves to wrestle with anyone who is willing. No, let me rephrase that…with anyone who will allow it. Most of us aren’t exactly willing. (Although Marc and Ryan have played “Smash the Baby” – their version of steamroller – since Ryan was about 2, and Marc seems to enjoy it as much as Ryan.) Ryan’s latest show of love for me is a new addition to his bedtime routine. After we say his prayers, while I’m still kneeling, he says, “Mom, be strong!” Then he gets a running start, hits me full-on, and tries to knock me over. I’m not kidding. I’ve been going to the gym pretty regularly for quite a while now, so I can usually stay up. Unfortunately, this only encourages him to try another run at it. This fun little activity is then repeated until I finally fall over in agony. This has been going on for about a month now. Don’t ask me why I didn’t stop it the first time. I guess it didn’t occur to me that it would become part of our nightly routine!

So…in P.E. at school, Ryan’s class was playing a team relay game with bowling pins. Again, let me mention how competitive Ryan is. Apparently he was the last person on his team to go through the relay. He ended up winning the game for his team. Several of his friends then dog-piled him in celebration. In all of the celebratory roughhousing, one of his front teeth got chipped. He didn’t notice until later, when the sharp edge gouged his tongue. It’s a good thing our bishop is our dentist! It looks like we'll be making a visit soon.

2007 in Review - December

Ryan and I always enjoy the fun events around Bountiful during the holiday season. One of our favorites is “Christmas at 2600” at Colonial Square. We love the carriage rides, roasting marshmallows over the bonfire, and going from store to store sampling their goodies. Oh, and of course, Santa.
An exciting event for our family was a reception held Friday, December 7, at the Rio Grande building honoring the Utah Arts’ Council “Emerging Artists Award” winners. Marc won the award for film! I teased him about his “major award,” hoping that he’d win a leg lamp (from “A Christmas Story” for those who are lost). Sadly, that was not one of the prizes. The evening was a lot of fun. The Rio Grande gallery was set up with sections for each artist. Marc had his film playing while people strolled through the gallery. We could tell that most people who watched it really enjoyed it, but there was one couple who watched it all the way through three or four times. They laughed hysterically all the way through it! We all enjoyed watching them enjoying it! Ryan was given the job of keeping the free copies of the DVD stocked in the bin on the wall. He did a great job!
Friday, December 14, we went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. Every year they invite special guests – always well-known musicians. This year was The King’s Singers. It was amazing! For most events in the Conference Center, tickets are just for a particular section, not assigned seats. They usually open the doors between 60 and 90 minutes before the event, and seats are on a first come basis. We got there about an hour early and got some great seats. I took a notepad and colored pencils for Ryan to draw while we waited. The Conference Center holds something like 22,000 people. It was pretty loud with people talking until about 7:15, when everything went absolutely silent. Having been in the Conference Center for General Conference, etc. before, we knew what that silence meant. We looked to the side door, and President Hinckley, President Monson and his wife, and President Eyring and his wife were entering. Ryan LOVES President Hinckley, and always asks me to lift him up so he can see him (I’m not going to be able to do that much longer!).

The concert was wonderful. The King’s Singers are so talented. There were some very powerful musical numbers with them as the lead and the choir in the background. Lloyd Newell made a short announcement before the concert began that it was the one being recorded for the CD and DVD, so it will be fun to purchase it next year, knowing it is the one we attended.

As we were sitting waiting for the concert to begin, Ryan was wiggling a loose tooth. (Please refer back to March and June – Ryan has a fascination with pulling his teeth on important days or in unique places.) Of course, with a tooth that loose, he couldn’t resist. He worked on it the hour before the concert, and pulled it out about 3 minutes before the concert started! He showed the grandparent-couple next to us, the family behind us, and the family in front of us. It was hilarious. He actually asked if he could go and tell President Hinckley. He was very disappointed that he couldn’t.
After the concert, we walked through Temple Square and the Main Street Plaza and looked at the lights. It was about 20 degrees, but it was a lot of fun. It’s always so beautiful that it’s easy to forget how cold it is.

Christmas time also means it's time for potica! Potica is the Polish nut bread that the Cieluszak family (and other Polocks) have been making for generations. The grandkids used to love helping Grandma Jensen grind the walnuts and "pound" the dough. Now Mom and Aunt Dott lead the all-day potica-making marathon. Here are Mom and Frances rolling everything up before swirling it into the pan. I have taken on the responsibility of ordering the "Kronskis" (Polish sausages) for the whole family since Auntie-Anne died. I have done my part, so we are set for breakfast for the month of December!

Saturday, December 15, was Mom and Dad's annual "Orchard Place" open house. Ryan and I have become such good friends with so many of their neighbors, that we always join them. We have a great time visiting with all of our friends in that neighborhood.

Ryan is still enjoying creating art projects in different ways. Here is the "Winter Masterpiece" created by my little artist in MS Paint:

Marc and Frances spent the week of Christmas in New York City with Frances’ family. Her grandparents are serving a mission in the Manhattan Temple, and it is their 50th wedding anniversary the week of Christmas. The whole family traveled to New York to be together for the celebration of that wonderful milestone. Since Marc and Frances weren’t in Utah for Christmas, the Inman family had our celebration together for Family Home Evening on Monday, December 17. It was fun to have dinner together, exchange presents, and just hang out and have fun together. Most of us gave each other gifts relating to our upcoming return to Hawaii. It’s always fun when we have a family trip planned – we always give each other stuff relating to the trip.
As you can see from the above pictures, we have a new addition to the family – Max. (Gee, BYU fans, who could he possibly be named after?) Ryan has been asking for a little sister for quite a while. Since that obviously isn’t happening anytime soon, I caved and agreed to the other thing he has wanted for a long time - a Build-A-Bear. I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that Max has really become a real member of the family; he and Ryan received matching Christmas Eve pajamas and Miami Dolphins jerseys (I know – I’ve gone too far.)

My friend, Julee, sent me a pretty funny e-card from her family this year. I went to the site and made a few adjustments. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1168499620

As we look around our living room at the nativities that we’ve collected over the years, we are constantly reminded of the true meaning of Christmas. We are grateful for the birth, the life, and the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, and wish you all the love, light, and peace that He brings to our lives.

2007 in Review - June

We took Ryan out of school a couple of days early for our trip to Oregon, Washington, and Canada. We drove to Boise the first night and stayed there. The next morning, we drove into Oregon. I love the Columbia River Gorge. I hiked Multonomah Falls about 12 years ago with some friends. No one else in my family has ever been through there (my parents have been to Portland several times, but always flew). I suggested that we drive through the gorge, then head north out of Portland. We had a great time hiking the Falls trail. That's us waving from the bridge.

Being that we’re all educators, we gathered several Lewis & Clark/Sacagawea books for Ryan to read. I also got on the National Park Service website & printed a bunch of stuff. We stopped at several places through the gorge that were significant in their expedition.

We made it to Port Townsend quite late that second night. Our condo was in an area called Kala Point, and was absolutely beautiful!
Saturday, June 2 - Went to the Port Townsend farmer’s market, and then an art walk in a nearby town, Quilcene. It was fun to explore both of those great towns.

Sunday, June 3 - Went to the Port Townsend ward, and then walked around Port Townsend, exploring a little bit more. We went to Fort Worden and went to a couple of the museums and explored a little bit there.
Monday, June 4 – Took the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle, first stopping for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in the world, Ivar’s. We had a great time at the Pike’s Place Market, the Pacific Science Center, and the Space Needle. Ryan had a loose tooth, and thought it would be cool to pull it on top of the Space Needle. He worked and worked on it, but didn’t pull it.
Tuesday, June 5 – Took the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Again, Ryan thought it would be cool to lose his tooth either in Canada or on the ferry to Canada. Didn’t happen. On our bus ride to Butchart Gardens, we were the only passengers! Our driver was a fun guy to talk to. As soon as we said we were from Utah, he said he knew about the Mormons. He started asking us all kinds of questions about our beliefs, and just clarified several things he had heard. It was fun talking with him. We didn’t have any Books of Mormon with us, but asked if we could send him one when we got home. We did. We had a great time at the Butchart Gardens. They are absolutely beautiful! What a stunning transformation from an old cement plant to what it is now!

Back in the harbor area, we walked through the famous Empress Hotel, and then walked a few blocks for dinner at a restaurant called Earl’s, which was recommended by our bus driver.
Wednesday, June 6 – Spent more time at Fort Worden. Hiked to some of the old bunkers and explored those.
We spent the afternoon and evening with Dad’s cousin, Mimi McCooey, in Sequim. She took us to dinner at the Three Crabs restaurant right on the Dungeness Spit.

Thursday, June 7 – We had fun in Sequim with Mimi. We visited a couple of different lavender farms, and enjoyed buying all kinds of things made with lavender – including honey! She also took us to a fun place called Railroad Bridge Park, and we did a long walk on a trail there. We also visited an Audobon Center there, and enjoyed learning about the local birds and wildlife.
Friday, June 8 – Left Port Townsend, and stopped for breakfast in Sequim with Mimi. Then we drove north-west to Neah Bay and the Cape Flattery trailhead. Cape Flattery is the north-western most point of the continental U.S. It is only about a mile hike, but it is so muddy that most of the hike is on wooden planks. It is also pretty much straight down getting to the point, and then straight up coming back.

Ryan was still working on his loose tooth, and decided that the northwestern-most point of the continental U.S. would be a very cool place to lose it. Having already missed the Space Needle and Canada opportunities, he was not going to let this one slip by! He worked on that tooth the entire time! Papa even helped a little bit! Sure enough, he pulled it! He proudly told (and showed!) everyone on the trail back that he had pulled his tooth. It was hilarious!
We finished driving down the Washington Coast, stopping at various points to hike down to see some of the sea stacks. They are so cool!
Drove to Astoria, Oregon, where we spent the night.

Saturday, June 9 – Left Astoria, and went to a couple more Lewis & Clark sites – Cape Disappointment and Fort Clatsop.
We stopped in Tillamook to visit the cheese factory. Ryan thought it was really funny that he could say "cheese" for a picture in front of the cheese.

We met my friend, Mark, and his daughter, Kaitlyn, in Tillamook. Ryan and I rode the rest of the way down the coast with them. We stopped in Lincoln City for dinner at Kyllo’s, and then drove the rest of the way to Corvallis to spend the night. (That is also where Mark and Kaitlyn live.) My cousin Stephen and his wife Susan also live in Corvallis. We talked with them for a while.

Sunday, June 10 – We drove home from Corvallis, getting home pretty late that night.

Yes, for those of you that tease me about this, I took my laptop on my vacation. But I was teaching a class that started on June 1! I tried to get a wireless signal in the condo and in the clubhouse, but it didn't work. I couldn't ever find the network that they said was available, so I spent some time almost every day in the parking lot of a coffee shop with free wifi down the hill from the condo.

Ryan started baseball the week we got home. He's now at "coach pitch" level instead of tee-ball. They still only let them run 2 bases at a time, though. He had a couple of hits that were easily home runs, but they stopped him at second base. He is a great little batter! I love this picture - he is getting ready to jump and slide home!

Monday, June 25, was scout day camp at Tracy Wigwam. Nicole and I took our 5 boys together in my car. One of my boys is autistic and is deathly afraid of bugs. Any bug. Day camp was outside. In the woods. Lots of bugs. About 10 minutes into the day, Nicole and I decided that she would be in charge of the 3 Bears (ha - that's funny) and my other Wolf, and I would be Alex's "buddy" for the day. I consider myself to be a pretty patient person. But he wore me out. He clung to me the entire day. I literally had to pull him along with me everywhere we went. During most of the activities, he was practically on my lap instead of paying attention. I'd have to tell each new leader of each new activity just to go on without us - either physically or verbally. It was not a fun day for him, which is too bad. It was a CSI theme (Cub Scout Investigators), and was really a lot of fun for the other boys and Nicole. It was really sad to see that such a fun experience for the other boys was so traumatic for him.
Dad was in Chicago the last week of June for a convention, and Mom was diagnosed with pneumonia! (Now, before you accuse me of giving it to her, I had it 3 months ago! Weird.) Ryan and I checked in on her several times a day while Dad was gone.

Our house looked so cute with all of the wildflowers in bloom. One of Ryan's daily jobs is to water all of the flowers and the garden. I thought this picture was so cute!
We lost another close friend on June 29. We have known Martin and Jean Thomas since we moved into this neighborhood when I was 4. Martin was our Bishop when I was little, then in our Stake Presidency, and is now one of our Patriarchs. When my mom went back to teaching about 25 years ago, she was the aide in Jean's classroom. I remember the day I was baptized, they gave me a card with a brand new one dollar bill in it, and a note that said, “Here’s a brand new dollar for a brand new member of the Church.” She has also been very cute with Ryan, always wanting to know the latest happenings in his life. She treated him like a little man. She always had profound words of wisdom for me, personally, as well as some she has shared in meetings. Jean and I share a favorite hymn, “How Firm a Foundation.” On the last day she was able to attend Sacrament Meeting, we had a testimony meeting about our favorite hymns. I had gone up right after Jean, so I just sat on the front bench while I listened to her. She looked right at me as she bore her testimony of the words of that hymn. That experience added even more tender feelings to those I already have about that hymn. I will really miss Jean and her loving encouragement.