Indy's Treasure

You all know that the enclosed porch on the back of our house is more like an indoor gym, housing all of our sports equipment, bikes, small basketball standard, etc. I needed to get some balls and other sports equipment for today's cub scout den meeting. When I stepped onto the porch, I saw this...Yes, that is a toy skull in our snow cone machine.

But also notice how it is so carefully laid out on a towel!!!

Oh, he cracks me up!

Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday was my great uncle Jim’s 90th birthday. Jim is my Grandpa Jensen’s brother. My mom ordered a cake and made arrangements to have a family party in the common room of the assisted living center where he and Aunt Flora live. Uncle Jim had a rough couple of days leading up to his birthday, suffering a fall (thus the bandaged nose) and spending some time in the hospital. We were happy that he was able to be with us so we could celebrate this amazing milestone with him.
Ryan has a huge crush on my second cousin, Amy. Many of you know that she was Miss Utah a few years ago. (Ryan just can’t believe that she wasn’t chosen to be Miss America. “Not even Vice Miss America?!?!”) All morning before the party, Ry kept asking me if Amy was going to be there. I kept answering that she probably would. He waited somewhat patiently. Finally Amy and her brothers came. Ryan poked me and pointed at her as soon as he saw her. When she said hi to him, I thought he was going to fall right over! It was hilarious! Ryan has now informed me that we need to visit Jim and Flora more often – preferably on Sunday evenings when Amy also visits.

With his overwhelming fascination with Amy, Ryan had not realized how much fun Amy’s brother, Andrew, is. Andrew served his mission in New Zealand, and knows the haka! So after a few minutes to coordinate their moves in the hall, Ryan and Andrew entertained the party guests with the haka. (I bet you’ve never seen Indiana Jones do the haka! Yes, he wore his Indy outfit ALL WEEKEND…except to church and to bed. Note: he changed from his tan tee shirt to a white oxford shirt. Early in the day, he only had the bottom two buttons buttoned, exposing his whole chest. I made him button up the rest before the party.)
Many families travel on Memorial Day weekend. Our Memorial Day weekend travels take us to three cemeteries. My brother and my Jensen grandparents are in the Bountiful City cemetery. My dad’s mother and brother are in the Sunset Lawn cemetery in Salt Lake. Saturday after Uncle Jim’s party, we made the cemetery visits and decorated the graves.
One of our favorite Memorial Day weekend traditions is the bagpipe program at Lakeview cemetery on Sunday night. We have gone for years, and always love it. The weather was nice for it, and watching the sunset over the lake while the bagpipes played was wonderful, as always. I know, it’s not a good picture because of the crowds around. Oh well.
Of course, Ryan was still in his Indiana Jones outfit (although, I did make him change his pants). We walked around a little bit in the new expansion area of the cemetery. Here are a couple of the cute pictures of little Indy there.
Our plans for Memorial Day were to work in the garden and the yard in the morning, and then go hiking in the afternoon. It rained – HARD – all day. So much for our plans. Instead, we got some cleaning and organizing done inside. We did have our traditional family barbecue on Monday evening, which was fun, as always.

Answer: Of course we did!

Question: Did we go see “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” on opening day?

What kind of mother would I be had we missed that? And what kind of mother would I be if I hadn’t let my kid go to the movie dressed like this…
Yes, he really did. The funny thing was that about a dozen people (both adults and kids) told him that he looked AWESOME! Another half dozen asked him where he got his cool hat. It was my Grandpa Jensen’s (with whom Ryan shares his middle name).

So, in case you’re wondering, we give it mixed reviews. The kid in our group LOVED it. The adults…not so much. Well, we decided that we liked the first 80% of the show, but after that, it got a little too cheesy. We decided that it was “National Treasure 2” meets “ET.” Sorry if that gives anything away for those who haven’t seen it yet.

Two Sure Things in Utah in May

My brother, Marc, has said for years...“I don’t know why it’s always such a surprise to people living in Utah…two things ALWAYS happen in May. The Jazz lose in the playoffs, and it snows.”

Well, sadly, the Jazz lost to the Lakers on Friday night. That’s all I have to say about that. Please, my Southern California friends, no more. I watched it. Every last miserable second.

Spring weather in Utah is about as frustrating as watching the Jazz. Here is our forecast for this week.

True, there is only rain, no snow...this week. However, it snowed a couple of days earlier this month. Fortunately, we were in Hawaii and missed it all. (Although, here is my backyard during the 40-degree temperatures and hail storm last Monday.)Maybe we should plan tropical vacations every May. We could avoid the snow AND the playoff games!

Carnival, Cub Scouts, Fish, and Rugby

It’s been a busy week! Wednesday, Ryan’s school had their Spring carnival. It was originally scheduled for May 1 (while we were in Hawaii), so I hadn’t signed up to help with anything since we weren’t going to be here. Apparently it snowed here that day, so the carnival was rescheduled. It was great to go and have fun without having to be responsible for anything.

We ran into a good friend of ours who is going through a divorce. We hadn’t talked with her in a while, so we moms stood with her baby and talked while Ryan and her other two kids went on the rides. It was great to see her and talk with her, and Ryan had fun with friends he hadn’t seen for a while.

I’ve never been a big fan of “winning” goldfish or having a REAL fishing pond at carnivals. Some of you may remember a couple of years ago when Ryan “won” two goldfish at the Eaglewood 4th of July carnival. It was on a Saturday afternoon/evening, and we toted those poor fish around with us through eating, games, and fireworks. We found marginally suitable temporary lodging for them when we got home late Saturday night, and then had to run to the store Sunday before church to get food for them. Unfortunately, Nemo and Gil had gone belly up by the time we came home from church. Ryan is convinced that they died due to the deadly combination of the loud fireworks and us shopping on Sunday for their food. We had a small graveside service for them. Ryan said the prayers, sang the songs, and gave the talks. And cried. A lot.

So when I saw that there were goldfish at the school carnival, I tried to talk him out of the whole idea. But he has been trying to convince me for quite a while that we need a pet. A Yorkie has been at the top of his list. Hmmm…let me see…$1300 for a Yorkie or a buck for a goldfish? I let him get the fish. He was extremely thrilled. He named the fish Nemo II. I am certain that local pet stores donate cheap goldfish to carnivals just to get people to come into their stores to get the other “necessities” that come with fish ownership. After I picked up Ry on Thursday, we went to the local pet store to get more suitable lodging. Ry also decided that Nemo needed a friend, so we looked at other fish. I had an amount in mind when I went into the store of what I thought we’d spend. I obviously haven’t set foot in a pet store for a long time. No, we didn’t spend anything close to the $1399.00 price tag on a Yorkie there, but the bill ended up to be about three times what I thought it would be. That’s ok. Nemo now has a beautiful aquarium, some plants and a treasure chest to swim around and through, and a beautiful blue betta-fish friend named Brock (don’t ask).
We ran home from the pet store, had dinner, and set up our yard for cub scout pack meeting. The theme for this month is “Leaf it to Cubs.” We decided to have a leaf identification/collection activity in our yard and neighborhood for pack meeting. My mom was our guest speaker. She did a great job teaching us about the different types of deciduous trees, and then we took a walk to identify and collect some of them.
Ryan also earned his Bobcat and EIGHT belt loops!!! (This picture is Ryan pinning the "Mother's Pin" on me.
We also had a lot of fun this week and weekend having lunch with old friends and dinner with new friends. Thanks! :)

Ryan had an amazing opportunity today (Saturday). Since Uncle Marc now has an “in” with the Highland rugby team (working on “Forever Strong” with them), he was able to introduce Ryan to coach Larry Gelwix and some of the players today! Today was their Pacific Coast Conference tournament game before the national game in Pittsburgh. So they went to the game, and then had fun talking with Coach Gelwix and some of the players after the game. Ryan took his rugby ball and the coach and some players signed it for him. He was in heaven!!! I sent his camera with them, but it apparently had a technical malfunction as they were trying to take pictures of the event. That made me sad. Those would have been great for blogs and scrapbooks. Ry had a great time and was totally star struck!

I’m Overwhelmed by Boy Dirt!

If you are a mother of an eight-year-old boy, or have ever been the mother of an eight-year-old boy, I’m sure you can relate to what I am about to say.

I do laundry and clean the house EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE!!!

I’ve realized how much more I could accomplish in a day if I didn’t have to do so much laundry and clean the same parts of my house every single day. It is amazing to me how many stains and messes one small (well, medium) child can create! Some of you were here on Saturday to witness this interaction:

Melanie: “Ryan, there are two rules for today. First, greet every guest. Second, do not spill fruit punch on that new white Hawaiian shirt.” (I know – what was I thinking?)

Ryan: “Ok, Mom.”

He made it all the way through the party obeying rule number one (I think. Although after Melissa’s comment on yesterday’s post, I’m not so sure). He made it about halfway through the party with rule number two. I had just done all of the laundry that morning, but did another load after the open house to remove the fruit punch stain from the new shirt.

Ryan has two pair of shorts which are appropriate to wear to school, one tan, one navy blue. The tan pair came home from school with horrible grass stains. That’s ok, we still had the blue pair. Nope, the blue pair had some sort of unknown goop stuck to the rear. So Ryan was forced to wear (gasp!) size 7 shorts to school because he refused to wear long pants. Yes, I’ve done more laundry.

As all of this was happening the past few days, I came across this poem on a friend’s blog. I have to admit, although I have experienced most of the not-so-pleasant things mentioned, I definitely experience the tender moments, too. Ryan did bring a bunch of dandelions to the door on Sunday. Oh, wait…then he proceeded to do that timeless and morbid “head popped off” ditty with each one of them. I guess maybe the moment wasn’t that tender after all.

Raising A Boy

I scrub the wall of fingerprints,

Pick up the mounds of clothes.

I sweep the dirt that shoes track in-

Wish I could use a hose!

-

Meals are served from dawn to dark,

Dirty dishes crowd the sink.

Just when they’re washed and put away-

He decides he wants a drink!

-

The washer pulls the dirty grime

From pants worn thin and patched.

They look so very neat and clean-

Yuck, look what the pockets hatched!

-

Broken bones and bloody knees,

I should have been a nurse.

I take it all in shaky stride-

Just grateful it’s not worse!

-

Screams and shouts and arguments

Test the keeping of my cool.

He left the neighbor’s faucet on-

See their new front yard pool!

-

A soothing bath is ecstasy,

A reward at the end of my rope.

Raising a boy isn’t really bad-

But first I must wash the soap!

-

A rose can say I Love You,

Orchids can enthrall;

But a weed bouquet in a chubby fist,

Oh my, that says it all!

~Roberta I. Teague

Ryan’s Open House/Mother’s Day Weekend

We had such a great weekend! It was busy and hectic, but turned out to be a lot of fun.

Friday and Saturday we worked preparing our home and yard for Ryan’s open house. Of course, since there is never a dull moment at our house, we had a few unexpected surprises.

You all know that we chopped down three trees a few weeks ago. Well, the person who could grind out the stumps for us was able to come Saturday morning. So, as we were trying to clean up the yard for Ryan’s open house, we had stump grinding going on. It was an absolute mess all over the driveway and the front yard. A special thanks to my dad for quickly getting it all cleaned up before the party. Ryan was fascinated by the machine and took this picture.
We also had some friends that came into town on Friday, but had to leave early Saturday morning to head to southern Utah for a softball tournament. They have a son who is Ryan’s age, and the two of them are best buddies. He ended up spending Friday night and all day Saturday with us. Both boys were great to help with jobs that needed to be done around the house and the yard.

Oh, I almost forgot. When I went to get the mail on Friday, wasps had started building a nest INSIDE my mailbox. The postal carrier had apparently been so alarmed that he/she just threw the mail in and left the mailbox door open. So I sent Ry as far away as possible and batted the nest out of the mailbox with a rake. I know – you’re all wishing that a neighbor had a hidden camera going for that one. There’s no video footage that I’m aware of. (There isn’t any, right Melissa?)

Ryan’s open house on Saturday afternoon was a lot of fun. We invited about 100 of our closest friends and family to help us celebrate Ryan’s baptism. Thank you so much to all of you who were able to join us! It was fun visiting with you. We missed those of you who weren’t able to come. The weather was beautiful (not like the 40 degrees and pelting hail yesterday), so we were able to have it in the back yard. We had a Hawaiian theme for the party. We put up several tables with light blue tablecloths, and decorated the tables with bamboo plants, sea shells in vases, and framed pictures from our trip. It looked beautiful. Here is a picture of Ry and me before the party started.
The food was great! Special thanks to my mom for helping me put it all together. We had fruit skewers with pineapple and strawberries, coconut macaroon cookies, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, chips and salsa, and bowls of three different kinds of Hershey’s kisses – plain chocolate, vanilla crème, and coconut! The coconut kisses were a hit. My cousin, Nate, dubbed them as “having no structural integrity.” We all told him that our interpretation of that was “melts in your mouth.” They were yummy!

I didn’t take any pictures since I was making the rounds as the hostess. But my mom took this one of Aunt Jean, Uncle Ted, Ryan, Uncle Randy, Aunt Dott, and Nate. We hadn’t been together since Christmas, so it was fun sitting around a table and chatting with them for a while. Thanks for coming!!!
Our Mother’s Day Sacrament Meeting program on Sunday was great. It wasn’t the typical one where I leave feeling depressed about the past few years of my life and guilty about all of the things I don’t/can’t do as a mom. It was pleasant and uplifting, and I really enjoyed it. Our ward gave boxes of Cavanaugh’s chocolates, so even if it had been the typical depressing/guilty meeting, I would have felt better later! :)

We had family dinner at my parents’ house for Mother’s Day. Ryan wanted to make a Mother’s Day card for Frances, so we printed the pictures of the babies and he made a card with the pictures, saying how excited he is about his new cousins. It was really cute. We had a great dinner, and had a lot of fun sitting around the table talking. Marc is feeling better, and spent a lot of time outside with Ryan playing rugby. (In the media kit that Excel sent out for “Forever Strong,” they included rugby balls. Marc brought one to Ryan. He should have known that would require him to play with it for hours!)

Since this is my Mother’s Day write-up (a couple of days late), I want to make sure that I let my mom know how much I love her. She has always been such a great example to me of unconditional love and of thinking of others before herself. I try every day of my life to be more like her, although most days I don’t even come close. She has been such an amazing support to me throughout my life, especially the past six years. I don’t know what Ryan and I would do without her. She does something to help us every single day, and I want her to know how much I appreciate her selflessness and service to us. I love you, Mom! (I love this picture of my mom. I took it while she was giving her “Holy Ghost” talk at Ryan’s baptism.)
Kristin sent me this quote in a Mother’s Day wish on Sunday. I loved it and wanted to share it here. A belated happy Mother’s Day to all of the great moms I know!

“What does it mean to me to be a mother?”

It means that I will never think of myself first in any decision again

and yet oddly enough,

I don’t resent it, it simply is.

I will never view the world quite the same,

forevermore I will not see it from my place in it,

but from the perspective of how it affects my children.

Little injustices that may not have affected me

suddenly have magnitude when I apply them to the next generation

of which my offspring are a part.

-- Kindra Fehr, Catalyst Magazine, May 2008