Random...

Questions
*If a "smart phone" is SO smart, why didn't it call me when I put it in the washing machine?
*Why don't below freezing temperatures kill weeds, instead of crops?

News
*The birthday party was a success! ... I think.
*I placed my VERY CLEAN phone in a bowl of uncooked rice for about three days, paid my tithing, and it works again!!

Pictures with explanations/stories
James is training for a half-marathon. He signed up to run a 5k the morning of Ben's birthday. I, ever so smartly, thought, "hey, the kids and I could walk the 5k, rather than just sit around waiting to cheer James on as he crosses the finish line. And it would be something healthy we could do as a family!" Great thinking, right?
Well, in my defense, it could have been a great family activity. Unfortunately, it had rained a bunch, and was still raining. As we left the house, we thought, "o.k., rain. That's no big deal. We can walk in rain." However, when we arrived we found that the 5k track was unpaved. It went around some planted fields, and the mud was like clay. It was truly SO HEAVY. And slippery.
Well, I realized that I had to make a choice, knowing that how ever I chose to handle this situation, it would teach my kids a lesson (whether positive or negative). So, I acknowledged that it was muddy and gross, but that we could do it. The mud didn't change the distance, and we knew we could do the distance. Ok, so technically the mud didn't change the distance, but walking with 10lb weights on each foot did change the dynamic. So, while James did run the 5k, and actually came in 3rd in his division, the kids and I finished approximately a 3k, and were very proud of ourselves for doing that. As we walked to the car, the mud finally won and actually sucked Ben's shoe right off of his foot! He was very upset, and complained that it was the "worst birthday of his entire life". We tried to help him to understand that, while it had been pretty miserable, it was only an hour out of his life, and besides, his day could only get better from there!
At the end of the day, Brianna asked Ben if his birthday had been terrible, and he said that it had been great, except for one hour. :)
Here is Ben, at the abandoned soccer field, with one of his "treasures" that he found in the garbage can.
Here is the rickety old swingset that our backdoor neighbors gave us when we moved in. It was so rickety, and Brianna swings so hard and high, that I was always worried that the joints would finally come apart, and the big bar would fall on her sweet head. (The whole thing would swing from side to side as she swung back and forth.) So, I listed it on CraigsList for free to whomever would come and haul it away. I called it a "vintage metal swingset". You would never believe how many calls I had for that baby. I even disclosed that it was very rickety. It was gone within 48 hours!
And, last but not least, I sent the kids upstairs to change their clothes the other day. When they came back down, they had indeed changed their clothes. Ben changed into Brianna's clothes, and Brianna changed into Ben's clothes. It's hard living with a house full of comedians! :)

I'm not ignoring you ...

it's just that I put my phone through the washing machine.

Good thing it was only an iPhone, right?

I Seem to Have More Issues than Time magazine

I am having major birthday party anxiety. Ben's birthday party is coming up this Saturday.

A couple of years ago, when we were still pretty new here, and Ben was having trouble adjusting, I decided to throw a Star Wars themed just-for-fun party for him and some boys from school and the neighborhood. It was AWFUL!! Two guests showed up. That is fine with me, except for these two decided that ANY planned game or activity was STUPID and BORING, and were VERY RUDELY VOCAL ABOUT IT.

Next, came Ben's birthday party. Well, after that fiasco, I wasn't about to be responsible for another party FLOP, so we planned it at Chuck-E-Cheese's. Perfect for a seven-year-old birthday party, right? NONE, I repeat, NONE of the invited guests showed up. We literally ended up recruiting a kid from our ward, a younger sister of one of Ben's friends, and some dear friends who happened to already be at Chuck-E-Cheese's for a birthday party which had just ended, to be Ben's "guests". It was great that they stepped in and helped to save the day. It sucked that none of the friends he had invited came. I felt just sick inside.

So, last year, we planned it at Banana's Fun Park, with laser tag, bumper boats, mini golf, etc. We did have a great turn out, and I think everyone had fun. It cost a small fortune, and I had anxiety the whole time, because I kept worrying that I'd lose a kid. Fortunately, we did not lose anyone.

This year, Ben decided that he wants to take his friends to a movie and then have pizza, cake and ice cream and open presents. He has had three RSVPs. Two can't come, one will miss the first half of the party. I'm worried about getting to the movie with everyone, including the best friend, who is the guy coming late. I'm worried that maybe the movie will stink. I'm worried that no one except the late best friend will be coming. I'm worried that if I hear how STUPID or BORING anything is, I might lose it. Mostly I'm worried that Ben is going to have another birthday party FLOP, and that my poor birthday party planning skills are going to scar him for life.

(Btw, one of the fiends, oh, I mean friends, that he handed an invitation to, wadded it up and threw it away without even reading it. Now, I know this kid, and honestly, he seems nice. But seriously, even if he didn't mean to hurt feelings, that is just plain MEAN. Ben handled it well, He got the invitation out of the garbage, smoothed it out, took it out of the envelope with that boy's name on it, and gave it to a different friend.)

So, do you think I can get a prescription for xanax just for party situations?

The Next Thomas Edison? Thomas Jefferson? Einstein?

The other day, Ben's soccer game was cancelled due to rain and wind. James and Ben were already at the park, which was hastily evacuated by everyone else. They practiced soccer together for a while, and then, Ben began checking the garbage cans around the fields. He found two umbrellas that had been blown inside out and destroyed by the storm, and therefore abandoned to the trash. Ben claimed them as his own, as he explained to his dad, "you can get good things by looking in trash cans." One man's trash, is Ben's treasure!

Brianna's 3am Prayer

After beginning, "please keep me safe from monsters, and bad guys, and ... um, ... pirates. And, um, .... Mom, what udder bad fings are in this world?"
I told her I thought she'd pretty much covered it. She wasn't satisfied, so I helped her pray for safety from anything that would scare or hurt her. She also asked for angels to watch over her. Afterward, she said she knew there were bad guys, because one of them had killed a policeman. This she picked up from a 30 second news sound byte on the radio a week or so ago.
Then, she was satisfied that there were angels in her room, watching over her, and she was able to go back to sleep.

Some random videos for your enjoyment.

Gymnastics Song

First of all, when I arrived to pick Brianna up from pre-school today, she was busy shooting baskets outside. Her teacher informed me that "She's Jimmer today."

(Jimmer Fredette)

So, on the way home, Brianna says to me, "Do you want to hear a song?"

"Sure!"

"It's a gymnastics song. It goes like this:
I want to be good at gymnastics!
I have to work very hard,
Like Jimmer.
I want to be good at soccer
oh Yeah!"

Her daddy will be so proud!

Should I Be Worried?

The first plans Ben ever shared about his future were these:

Cut down trees,
use them to build a house,
and a couch,
marry some woman who will work all day
while he lays around on the couch.

The next plans he shared were these:

Find a deserted island.
Become king (aka, DICTATOR)
Build up armies in case of attack.
Make lots of laws.

Then he decided to:

Become a movie director,
So he could boss people around
and yell at them.

And, his current plan?

Be a worker
at a store
like Albertson's.

A Rare Peek at the Elusive Ben

So, why don't I write about Ben much lately? Is he boring? No. Is he in Italy as a foreign exchange student? No. Is he less entertaining than Brianna? No. Is he almost nine, and likely to read anything I write about him? YES. I'm always afraid that I'll cross some line in his mind by sharing things that he does or says with all of you.

But, today I'll risk it with one quick story.

On Valentine's night, when he really should have been in bed, he came down to me with a Valentine in one hand and his scriptures in the other. The Valentine was a religious one from a girl in his class. On the front, it said, "God made us friends." And on the back it had the scripture 1 John 4:16.

"Can you help me look up this scripture, mom? I didn't really look through my Valentines before, just got all of the candy. But I just saw this one, and I want to read that verse."

"Sure, honey." So, together we looked up the verse. 1 John 4:16, "God is love".

"Huh. I didn't know that was in the scriptures," he said.

"Yep." I said.

Then, as he's headed back up the stairs, "I didn't know Ch***** (the girl who gave him the Valentine) was Mormon!"

"Oh, she's probably not. She's probably Christian, but not Mormon."

"Ya, I think you're right. Probably Christian, not Mormon, because it said 'God MADE us friends' and God doesn't MAKE us do stuff. He lets us choose."

My Point Exactly

Brianna: Everyone loves Valentine's, right?

Me: Well, no. Some people feel sad on Valentine's.

Brianna: Why?!

Me: Well, Valentine's Day is about feeling happy about love, and some people feel sad because they don't think anybody loves them. (Sensing an opportunity to teach a lesson.) But there is always somebody who loves us, right?

Brianna: Yes! Q****!


Brianna and Q! BFF

Have YOU been to China?

Out of the blue today in the car, Brianna says: China. ... I've been to China.

Me (who had just been forced to turn right out of a parking lot that I wanted to turn left out of): Hmm.

Brianna: Ya, I went to China when I was a baby with Jesus. Ben did too. We all held hands and walked to China.

More and more we are finding out about Brianna's history before birth, and some things that we should have been aware of after birth, such as her little walk to China. It's nice that she can open up about these things.

*******

Another time, Brianna was sitting on the couch looking at a book quietly, when I hear her murmur in frustration: I can't hear the words in my head!!

She thought that she should be able to read to herself; that by opening the book and sitting quietly, she would hear the words in her head. That's what it must look like to her when the rest of us are reading to ourselves. :)