MaeLyn's Musings

This month has seemed really crazy busy. I've blogged about most of the big events, but here is the entire month at a glance: Josh and Peter went to cub scout day camp for three days. It was supposed to be four, but one day was cold and slightly sprinkling, and they cancelled it. I went on one day to help. Hannah got her hair cut . John attended the swimming portion of his 11 year old scout camp, while I attended a parent meeting for it. Steven and I scrambled to get the name tags for the Trek ready in time. Even the kids helped to type some of the pioneer stories. Steven had his last day at his contract job with GHX.  Steven and Hannah went on a Pioneer Trek for four days. While Steven was at Trek, our 15th anniversary came and went quietly. Josh and Peter got to help our scouts put up flags on Flag Day . We pulled out the LEGOs from hiding to play with.  (They went back into hiding yesterday.) We celebrated Fathers Day.  Steven continued his job search. ...

John says that at 11:00 tonight, he will be    11 years    11 months    11 days    11 hours and    11 minutes old. Today he and Steven returned home from 11 year-old scout camp. While he was there, he ate two grasshoppers live! He learned a song called "Three Blind Jellyfishes". He learned about knife safety, did lashing, went on a hike, built a monkey bridge and had a lot of fun. At the camp, each of the patrols was named for a Book of Mormon prophet. John was in the "Samuel" patrol, as in Samuel the Lamanite. Their patrol yell was, "Repent!" They did a skit at the campfire where Samuel was attacked by the evil Nephite horde and the evil Nephite minions, first with rocks and arrows, then with spears, then with automatic weapons, then with phasers set to 'kill', but Samuel avoided them all and eventually all the wicked Nephites were "smoten" and fell down. The moral of the story is "Listen to the prophet." Last...

I was playing around with the idea of age progression, wondering what my children would like when they got older. In playing with the top three images, I discovered that they fit together quite nicely. There is definitely a family resemblance! Daughter Mother      Grandmother   Three generation composite

...for this. We've been making a lot of these lately. The alternative is to find a lot of the substance from which these are made scattered everywhere - the furniture, our clothes, the floor, in the very air we breathe. Do you know what they are?

In the movie, Song of the South, Brer Rabbit has a laughing place. I don't remember much of the movie, but I do remember a part where Brer Fox and Brer Bear had Brer Rabbit tied up, ready to roast, and Brer Rabbit starts laughing. Brer Bear asks, "Why you laughin?" "I's thinkin' about my laughin' place!" replies Brer Rabbit. Brer Bear wants to see this laughin' place, but Brer Rabbit asks, "How can I show you where it is when I'm all tied up?" Although Brer Fox is sure it is a trick, they allow Brer Rabbit to lead them to his laughing place, which happens to be a clump of bushes containing a bee hive. When a sore Brer Bear complains that he isn't laughing, Brer Rabbit replies, "I didn't say it was YOUR laughing place; I said it was MY laughing place!" Brer Bear and Brer Fox get into a fight with the bees, and Brer Rabbit manages to escape, laughing. I thought about this story this morning, while I was in...

How would you like to live in a world where everything is two dimensional? There is a world that my children and I like to visit. Everyone there has a big head, a small body, can jump really high and never gets hurt. With a name like Quick Runner, Funny Brain, Silver Noodle or Bendy Bubbles, we solve mysteries, fight crime, and find hidden treasures.   We can travel through time to the old west, ancient Greece or the middle ages. We can explore space, visit the moon or get shrunk to the size of a mouse. In this world, we can talk to ghosts, fight zombies, and explore dreams, while using cool tools like jet packs, time stopping stop watches, a grappling bow tie or a chameleon suit that makes us almost invisible. We explore volcanoes, jungles, factories and haunted houses. We can fight robots, monsters, ninjas or even super villains. We can participate in Olympic games, or be on a reality TV show. We can film a movie or visit a giant. We occasionally even explore sewers, du...

Ten years ago, my wonderful, talented husband passed all four parts of the Colorado CPA exam on the first try. He has fifteen years of accounting experience, both in general accounting and in the home building and construction industries. He has worked as a controller, managing entire accounting departments. He works very well with others, and is a great motivator, as shown by his experience as a scoutmaster for six years, helping teenaged boys achieve rank advancements and progress to Eagle Scouts. While he is no longer a scout master, he continues to mentor the boys that were in his troop. He has experience managing adults as well; he served as president of our HOA board for several years, and was responsible for major renovations including replacing the decrepit sprinkler system as well as replacing several hail damaged roofs. He most recently helped with the planning of a youth trek, researching and procuring mementos for over 100 teenagers to help them remember the experien...

This is what Peter wanted his cake to look like. Yesterday was a big day for birthdays in our family. Not only was it Peter's 8th birthday, but it was also his cousin Natalie's 6th birthday, and his cousin Danny's 2nd birthday. We had a fun day. Peter requested and received waffles for breakfast. After breakfast, the kids played with LEGOs. (This is becoming standard procedure this week.) The boys went to the school for a free lunch (It was supposed to be turkey hoagies but ended up being pb&j sandwiches - not quite as exciting.), and then played on the playground for a little while. On the way home, they explored a trail through the park that they hadn't previously explored. In the afternoon, we went to the pool while Hannah decorated the cake she had made that morning. Peter's birthday wish list Dinner was homemade pizza that Steven made. After dinner, Peter got to go on a treasure hunt compliments of Hannah and John. He followed clues (su...

Last night, Hannah went to a bridal shower for one of her Young Women leaders who is getting married in a couple weeks. When we picked her up, she was wearing a gorgeous dress - made entirely of toilet paper (and some tape)! I had to take a picture when we got home. I didn't get a picture of the train, and by that time it was coming apart, but it was pretty cool anyway.

On Monday, Josh tried to dress just like a character from a favorite movie. Can anyone guess what movie?

While Steven and Hannah were gone for Trek last week, the boys pulled out the LEGOs (which had been confiscated for having been left out...) and the boys were entertained. The LEGOs are still out, and the kids are still having a blast.   John's building, designed to be in a desert with many sand storms, had one story which was so high it required an elevator to access. John also made this horse land. The horses are on the roof. Inside is a piano, which the horse on the left plays. The white and red thing on the front right is a voice activated food maker that they bought from Josh. Josh's construction was a crane with a box at the end, which was the house.   Josh also made this house. In the back is a chemistry thing. The sign on the door says, "No trespassing". On the left side there are stairs to nowhere and a counter. When Hannah returned, she joined in the fun and made an apartment building with three stories. When it broke, she took ...

For the third morning in a row, I was awake at 5am. Wednesday morning, it was to take Steven and Hannah to the church for their Trek. Yesterday, it was because Hannah's alarm clock went off again. (Luckily once I figured out how to turn it off and make sure it would stay off, I could go back to sleep.) John, a friend, and Peter loading some flags into a car This morning, it was because today is Flag Day. Our scouts have a fund raiser where they put up flags in people's yards on certain holidays: Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Veterans' Day. There are probably more, but I can't remember what they are right now. (My brain doesn't wake up until at least 7am.) Usually Steven, who is more of a morning person than I am, is the one who takes the boys. On Memorial Day, because John had to be elsewhere at the same time to meet his group for the Bolder Boulder , I got to take Josh and Peter to do flags. Due to a shortage of drivers with...

Fifteen years ago today I married my best friend. Our second date I have mentioned before how we met. (See here , here , and here ) We were in the same seminary class before school our Sophomore year in high school, and in the same math class at the end of the school day. We started talking after school. From the very beginning, I found him a fun person to be around. He would tell me funny stories, and I would laugh. We went on a couple official dates during high school - Junior Prom, Senior Winter Formal, seeing Aladdin in the theater the night of our Senior Prom. Mostly we talked on the phone on Friday nights, and slow danced at dances that were held once a month at our church building. I counted him one of my best friends. When I went to BYU in the fall of '93, we lost touch. He thought I was going to get married really quickly; I was looking for opportunities to meet other guys. He worked and went to the community college and eventually left on a mission to South Afric...

I got up at 4:30 this morning to take Steven and Hannah to the church. Right now, they are probably on a bus headed for Wyoming where Hannah will be assigned to a temporary family and will get to push and pull a handcart, walking in the footsteps of the Mormon pioneers for the next four days. Steven has gone along to help with the cooking and such. In a way, it's kind of a relief to have them gone. The last week has been a frenzy, trying to prepare for the Trek - not so much getting their personal equipment together, but working on other things. Steven has been on the committee to plan Trek. His subcommittee was in charge of the "experience", and a few months ago Steven bought bandannas (each family group will wear a different colored bandanna) and journals and pens for each participant. Another committee member has been working on making sacks of flour, each holding 4 oz. of flour (which was what the rations of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies were reduced to...

Summer heat has finally arrived. Yesterday I think temperatures reached almost 100 degrees, and I turned on our swamp cooler for the first time. For FHE last night, we wanted to go swimming, but got to the pool only to find a sign saying it was closed due to chemical imbalance. Instead, we set up a sprinkler on the lawn and let the kids run through it. It cooled us off and gave the lawn some needed watering. Here are some pictures: John jumps over the sprinkler Josh runs over the sprinkler Peter jumps over the sprinkler Hannah leaps over the sprinkler   Hannah got a bowl and the kids played water tag, filling the bowl with water and flinging it at each other. It was fun!

Just over a year ago , I cut several inches of hair off Hannah's head, giving her the shortest haircut she had ever had in her life. Over the past year, it had grown out to chin length. On Saturday, Hannah had decided that she preferred it shorter, so we cut it again. I really like it this length. It isn't quite as short as last time, but it is short enough to stay out of her face and keep her cool for the summer.

For my birthday last week, I received a couple gift cards to JoAnn , one of my favorite places to browse and shop. I came across a book called Build Your Own Wire Pendants that really interested me, and I bought it along with a variety of beads, wire, and yarn. Since then, I have had fun creating necklace pendants using wire and beads in ways I hadn't thought of before. Here are some pictures of what I have made: The first two were begun by following step by step instructions from the book, but finishing in my own way using beads that I had on hand. I really like the different textures in this one, as well as the balance between the different elements.  This one was kind of fun. It is 2" long.  This one was not in the book, but uses similar techniques to the first one I did. I got the idea for it here . Both the circle pendants are about 1 1/2" in diameter.

Josh and Peter had their 2nd day of Cub Scout Day Camp today. (Yesterday was cancelled due to precipitation. Today was sunny and warm.) I got to come and hang out with them today. I didn't take many pictures, but here are some that I did take. Joshua Peter standing in line at the BB gun station. Josh shooting his BB gun Peter loading his BB gun Peter listening to a first aid instructor. Josh applying a tourniquet. The boys also made wind vanes, made leaf pictures with photo sensitive paper, played capture the flag and sharks and minnows, built bird houses, and got to see some search and rescue dogs - all today! By the time we got home, I was exhausted. (The kids - not so much.)