Bear Adventures

This fall right before Halloween, David was here with his family, so I decided our family needed to go to Bear World. I wasn't sure if I could get them all to go, but I didn't worry too much about it.  I just thought whomever would like to go, can.  And I would pay for the whole thing.

I decided to take them all on Saturday, the last weekend of their season.  I happened to hear on the radio that you would get a pretty good discount if you went during their last couple of days, so I told the fam......

I knew David and Emily and their boys would want to go and I was fairly certain that Joni would want to take Ledger. Beyond that I wasn't sure if anyone would bother.

Boy was I surprised!  Lisa AND Tyler came (I was kind of surprised about Tyler) Joni, and her 2 little kids, and shockingly, at the last minute, Mike and Andy decided to also go. (We really felt badly that Abby, David and Asher were not in town and therefore unable to come.)

We piled into 2 cars, both filled to the gills.  As the 2 cars play a part in my little story I have to tell you who was in each car.

Car A:
David's Explorer with David driving.
Also inside: Emily (front seat) Sorren and me in the middle seat, and Nathan and Zach in the back.

Car B:
Joni's car, with Joni driving. 
Also inside: Mike (front seat), Andy, Ledger, London in the middle seat, and squishily seated in the very back, Lisa and Tyler


We arrived at the gate  with Car A in front.  I was quite impressed with the lady who sold us the admittance tickets.  I told her I was paying for both cars.  She asked how many people total and the ages of each.  She worked her magic and we all got in for less than a hundred.  I was amazed.

She told us to go ahead and drive through the animals and that we could go as many times as we wanted until 5:00.  Having never been there before I wasn't really sure what she meant, but we headed through the gate.

It was pretty awesome!  It was so fun to see the white elk and buffalo, all the deer and other animals just lounging around. In our car (Car A) Sorren was so excited!  We let him get out of his carseat so he could stand up next to the window and really look. He kept making really cute little growly noises.  Nathan and Zach seemed to also love looking around and commenting on the animals.  It would have really been a fun relaxing time, but David happened to notice, as soon as we drove through the animal gate, that he was almost out of gas!

Meanwhile back in Car B they were having their own kind of fun. I wasn't actually IN car B so I'm just related the facts as I heard them.  Ledger was also let out of his carseat, I presume so that he could also have a closer look.  He promptly began to climb all over the place, including the front seat.  Mike was starting to get agitated because of Ledger's acrobatics.  At one point in time Ledger was actually climbing around on the dash in front of Joni, the driver.

In Car A we finished driving past the tamer animals and then proceeded through another more secure gate, (which kind of reminded me of the entrance into Jurassic Park) into the bear enclosure.  It was very exciting to see bears everywhere we looked.  They had lots of little "caves" for them, but mostly the bears were out in the sun watching us as we drove past.  I guess there were signs all over showing which way we were to drive, but at one point we saw a great big bear ambling across the next road over, so we skipped an entire loop to drive directly over to where the bear was to have a closer look.  The entire time I'm thinking in the back of my head "this would not be a good place to run out of gas, but I'm sure we're okay".

Meanwhile, back in Car B Ledger also got very excited about all the bears and wanted to take a closer look.  He kept trying to open the car door to do just that.  Mike was pretty calm about that little development. Just kidding.

When we finished driving through the bear enclosure I was kind of surprised to see that there was a kind of amusement park with activities and a petting zoo up ahead.  I had no idea that was there.  I was ready to stop and check things out when we got a phone call from Car B.  "We're going around again cause we didn't see everything."  And I could see that they were already heading through the gate back into the animal enclosure.  Without a second's hesitation David put Car A into gear and we were through the gate right behind them.  It was only after we went through the gate that I remembered, we were out of gas!

The second time around was pretty similar to the first with 1 major difference.

There was a Bear World truck right in front of us, with the back full of paying customers, that kept stopping for long periods of time while all the people in the back threw out food to the bears.

 This time Car A kept speculating about if we ran out of gas who would come first, Bear World employees with a gas can or hungry bears wanting a human snack.

Car B was having there own excitement.  Since the bears were all being fed they were out on the road and surrounded our cars.  Ledger thought this was an extremely good time to see one up close and personal and actually opened the door!  Mike was very calm. Ha. Ha. Ha. His agitation rubbed off on Joni who tried to escape from the herd of bears by putting her foot on the gas pedal.  She's pretty sure she might have run over a bear toe or two.

All's well that ends well, though.  We made it out of the bear enclosure without running out of gas (Car A) or getting eaten by a bear (Car B).

This time we actually did stop and enjoy the fun at the petting zoo.  A few of us used giant slingshots to catapult potatoes at some targets out in the field, a straw maze was run,  animals were petted in the petting zoo, rides were ridden in the amusement park.

It was a very fun outing.  I can't wait to do it again next year.  This time I'm going to ride in Car C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little of this and a little of that.

 

People are so nice.  When you have a baby they bring you food. Sometimes the food is awesome!  I love it when you get a meal that looks like something your mom would make for you. 

Good old comfort food. 

 

It's probably not the greatest idea to try out a new recipe for the first time and then announce that fact when you take the "first-time-you've-made-it" food to someone you're trying to help.

Although you put a lot of effort, resources and thought into this meal,

maybe, just maybe,

it would have been better to use the old tried and true Shepherd's Pie, or Lasagna.

 

Then maybe, just maybe,

the recipient of all your hard-cooking-work

wouldn't have to guess as to the edibility of the food in question.

 

 

Is that melted saran wrap?

 

 

Late Saturday afternoon I got the phone call.

"Mom, can you babysit?"

I loved that phone call.

Ledger and I had a great time.  I threw a sheet over the play mat and made him a tent.  He loved it and kept going in and out

in and out.

 

 

Grandpa took him for a stroller ride and  I fed him dinner and put him to bed at 7:30,

per his mama's instructions.

 

I told Grandpa to listen for him because I was off to buy a pop.

When I got back home I was greeted by a smiling happy Ledger, playing with his Grandpa.

"He was crying." said Mike, sheepishly.

 

Ledger bought himself another hour. 

I put him back to bed at 8:30 and he fell asleep immediately.

 

 

 

Andy tries really hard to ignore Ledger.  His tough guy image won't allow him to show his softer side to a baby.

Ledger doesn't know this about Andy.

Ledger just LOVES Andy and

smiles at, climbs up on, watches,

and does his best to win Andy over.

From the looks of things, I think Ledger is winning.

 

 

It's been hot here.  Joni has taken Ledger to the splash park a couple of times.  Today Lisa and I stopped by to see the fun.  Poor little guy has such tender skin that he has to wear a hat outside, but it just added to the cuteness factor. 

He had a great time!

for about 5 minutes.

 

 

I fell in love again last week.  He only weighs 8 pounds, but he's gripped my heart as tightly has he gripped his mama's necklace right after he was born.

Love you Asher!

 

 

 

Ummm, How Many More Days?

I'm losing track. It's not February yet, so I'm probably okay.
Andy's passport was approved and has been mailed to us. We'll probably get it Friday. I just ordered a second suit for him and we spent $100.00 on a good, nice looking pair of shoes. I taught Andy how to fold shirts today for packing in a suitcase. I did one, he did the rest. They weren't perfect, I really resisted the urge to "straighten them out a bit". He's going to have to do it on his own for the next couple of years so he might as well do it now, too.

It's been snowing today, really pretty flakes drifing slowly to the ground. I hear we're in for more. My foot is still getting better. One day I walk without a limp and then I limp for a couple of days. I'm very grateful for my handicapped parking pass. If I had to walk 1/2 mile every morning to get to work I would be hurting every day. I only have the pass until the 15th of February, so hopefully I'll heal up quick.

I've been using my exercise bike and am getting some sore leg muscles. I'd rather be walking. My big goal is to be all healed up by spring. I didn't get to hike last summer because of feet problems, but I'm going this summer. I will. You just watch me.

29 Days to Go

Andy had 6 shots today, 3 in each arm. I had to pay over $200.00 for them to do it. If you're reading this and your child is under 19 I would recommend you go have the shots now! You'll probably only pay about $12.00.

We haven't done much else in the way of missionary prepping. I've had bronchitis and just haven't been feeling up to it. I really need to kick it up a gear or two though.

I just returned from my podiatrist where he checked out my toe progress. It still looks pretty bad. It looks like I have two big toes on my left foot. My second toe, the one that he fixed, is red, puffy, and floppy. He assured me that when the swelling ever goes down it will be much shorter and not as floppy. I really hate that floppy feeling. It feels like it is boneless, like a little vienna sausage stuck on my foot. Weird feeling.

Something I Wish I Knew 10 Days Ago

If you take your child in for an immunization booster 1 day before he turns 19 they get to pay the cheap prices. If you wait until that magic 19th birthday, then you pay through the nose. Dang. I wish I'd known.

Andy had his recommend signed by the Stake President tonight. Now we have to schedule with the temple.

It is cold cold cold. I am knitting my little buddy and very warm canine coat. I don't think the Santa coat will cut it after he gets shaved.
Hopefully I'm smart enough to make this thing. I'm definitely not a master knitter like my mother. But at least she close by if I get stuck.

New Clothes - 35 days to go

We finally talked Andy into trying on his suit for us. Of course I took photos, and of course he told me "don't put those on facebook". So I didn't. I put them on here instead. Don't tell.

He's lookin' mighty fine.



Joni and I went to Walmart tonight to pick up a few necessary items before the below zero temps start back up. While we were there we wandered down the mark-down aisle and found Oscar a very awesome coat. It was marked down 75% so we only paid about $2.00. What do you think?











Andy's passport and mission home papers sent out today. Wow, nothing is as easy as you think it's going to be. Yesterday we arrived at the passport office about 10 minutes after it closed. They changed their hours, closing earlier than they used to, because of the "increased number of passport applicants". Does that make sense to you. If you have more customers you shorten your business hours? Oh well, $100.00 poorer, but it's done now.

A Helpful Tip - 36

My son-in-law, Tyler, gave me this good tip.

Make sure that Andy takes only light colored washables.
his towel
his P-Day t-shirt
his sheets

and of course his regular missionary white shirts.

That way when he does his laundry, and throws in a red towel with the rest, he won't end up with a bunch of pink dress shirts.

Very good tip.

However I'd better make sure his dark socks are colorfast. I don't think his mission president would appreciate Andy dressed in a black suit and white gymn socks.

Not a good day at work. Can I just say I hate the new "My Byui". I swear, it better get better. It can't get any worse.

Not As Productive As I Planned.....37

Tomorrow I think we're going to take care of mailing a copy of his driver's license and driving record to the mission home in NY and send off the paperwork for his passport. I think I may push to have him get his immunizations caught up, too. And maybe have him run a load of laundry, just to keep his skills up.

Wow! I was ambitious wasn't I.
Today didn't pan out as well as I'd hoped. Andy was able to get his H1N1 flue shot (even though he was sick with it for 3 weeks in Sept/Oct) and had his passport photo taken. He filled out a couple of pages of paperwork and made a call to the New York mission home about another matter.

Tomorrow he will HOPEFULLY get the rest of his immunizations, submit his passport documents, and mail off the info to NY.

Things I would like to get accomplished this week:
Order a second suit from missionarymall.com
Order 2 pair of shoes from same place.
Have Andy scrub the bathroom "just to keep up his skills" :)
Start packing a box to send to NY with stuff he won't need in the Provo MTC.


On another front,
WORK WAS STRESSFUL!

Classes start tomorrow. I went to a "1 hour training meeting" that ended up being 2 1/2 hours long. They were teaching us how to use the new and improved system. Ha ha. That's a big sarcastic ha ha, not a laugh cause it's funny ha ha. The meeting lasted so long because the system kept crashing and we all had to restart. When I finally got back to my office so I could get everything done for classes, which start tomorrow, the power went out! It was out for almost 2 hours. I couldn't do anything. About the time I decided to go home 'cause I was being totally unproductive the power came back. Then I had to stay late to finish everything for the first day of class.

and I thought it would be an easy week. HA.

Missionary Prep - T minus 38 days

So much to do and so little time.

After Andy received his call to the New York South mission we kind of got lost in the Christmas shuffle and bustle. Now that the holidays are over I'm starting to feel the time squeeze. There is so much to be done. I counted everything up and divided it by 38. According to my calculations, if I do 395 things a day I'll make it. Ha ha, that's a joke. I'll bet I can get everything done if I do 39 things a day.

I can hear what some of you are thinking. "It's Andy's mission, HE should get everything ready."

You who are thinking those really loud thoughts have obviously never had a teenage boy. Of course in theory Andy will be doing the getting ready. But in reality it will be his mom who makes sure everything gets done. That's just the way these things work.

Of course we have a good head start on the job list. Andy picked up a lot of his clothes last week. He is now the proud owner of:
~ 1 two-pants black suit (and looks mighty fine in it, too)
~ 10 white shirts, half with short sleeves, half with long
~ 10 ties, assorted colors
~ 1 very fine waterproof overcoat with removeable lining. (Andy like this so much he wears it all the time now.
~ 10 pair dark socks (new and unopened ready for 2 years of hard wear and tear)

There are a lot of things we still need to get, but this is a good start. Andy paid for all the above items himself. I'm proud of him for working hard for the funds to do this.

Tomorrow I think we're going to take care of mailing a copy of his driver's license and driving record to the mission home in NY and send off the paperwork for his passport. I think I may push to have him get his immunizations caught up, too. And maybe have him run a load of laundry, just to keep his skills up.

The list goes on.........

New York, New York

Andy has been waiting almost 19 years for the letter he received yesterday. A letter to change his life. As a young boy he would say that he hoped the letter would tell him he was going to New Zealand. Why New Zealand? "Because there aren't any snakes in New Zealand." I don't know if that's true, but it always made me smile.

Andy has taken Seminary for 4 years, Sunday School for 16, scripture study, (although that could have been better)and good clean living for his whole life. He was preparing to go serve the Lord, help people in need, and spread the good word.

He was very anxious waiting for THE letter, the one telling him where he was called to serve.

Yesterday it came. Last night the family gathered together to watch him open it up.
He started to read,
"Dear Elder Mitchell:

"You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the New York New York South Mission." Basically all of New York City except Manhattan.

When I heard where he was called I immediately thought, "of course, yes that is where he should go." He leaves Feb. 10. and will be gone for 24 months. It will be a tremendous growing experience for him. Kind of like the "right of passage" to manhood. He will pay his own way, work 6 days a week, and only call home 4 times for the entire mission. We hope he will forget himself and grow to love serving those around him. I'm so happy for him.

How exciting.

Some of my favorite September pictures

I'm Getting Cranky.....

Andy's sick and I'm tired. Together we're sick and tired of the Swine.

and the pneumonia.

Andy's been on antibiotics for the pneumonia for 48 hours now and he's no better. He had a temp of 101 a couple of hours ago. If he's not better in the morning I'm calling up the Doc. Maybe he needs some breathing treatments or something.

The Swine came a calling 14 days ago. Blecht.

At work I'm having an issue of another sort. I am in charge of 20+ student employees. When they don't do their job I feel like it reflects on me. Tonight I'm quite unhappy. I just sent 2 buses full of students to hike the Menan Butte. Normally I have 2 of our more senior students lead each bus's field trip. I couldn't get enough to sign up, so I only had one student scheduled per bus. The busses leave 1 hour apart, so as one group gets done, the other starts. The rest of the time is driving to and from the Butte. Well.....I had a no-show student leader on the second bus. One student had to handle 2 busses normally handled by 4 students. I'm disappointed in them. I feel like kicking some butts. It's a good thing I have all night to calm down. By tomorrow I will just be ticked off. By tomorrow I don't think I'll draw blood.

An Apple a Day Doesn't Work

All Andy's eaten for about a week is an apple a day. According to folklore this is supposed to preclude any doctoral visits. Not so.

We ended up taking Andy to the doctor this afternoon. They poked, prodded, listened to, asked questions of, and gave him the royal once-over and stated that they believe he has the Swine Flu. It's just what we believe he has. They had to draw blood for a confirmation. Andy said, "good luck with that". Doc asked him if he was afraid of needles and Andy said, "nope, I just don't have any veins". I think the doctor thought he was exaggerating. After all Andy is a huge 6'3" 230 pound guy. Usually guy's his size have veins that virtually pop out. 30 minutes, 4 tourniquets, 2 warm wet cloth wraps, and 3 needle sticks later they believed. The Doc and nurse both said he was built for self preservation. If a bear attacked he probably wouldn't bleed much. He veins would just dive for cover under his bones and cower there until it was safe to come out. But the Doc did perservere and got a blood sample. We'll find out tomorrow whether or not he has a confirmed case of the Swine.

While doing the body check the Doc noticed he had one lung that was not sounding too good. He sent us for x-rays. Before we got home we got a phone call telling us the x-rays showed pneumonia. Now he's on antibiotics for that. Poor Andy. He's not liking the Swine.

He hates the Swine,
It ain't so fine,
Can't work his job,
Feels like a slob,
When will it end,
When will he mend?

Sorry. I got carried away........

Snippets

How long can the flu last? I keep thinking he's over it, but no dice. I guess he needs to build back up his strength. He hasn't had anything but apples for days. Don't ask me why he just wanted apples. He said it was the only thing that appealed to him. I did manage to entice him to eat about 2 ounces of steak tonight. He also had a heaping bowl of jello.

Well, that's not quite accurate. He heaped his bowl with jello, and then ate about half of it. I think his eyes were bigger than his tummy. And this is the kid I could never fill up.

It was my kind of day today. Rainy! I went for a walk in it. It was invigorating. Then I came back to a stifling hot house. Joni got at the thermometer again. I swear that girl needs to move to Arizona. Or the equator.

I enjoyed conference. The last two days were full of peace and comfort. I'm glad I could listen to most of it. I finished a necklace I started making yesterday. It's pretty good I think. Joni liked it and she's my fashion consultant, so I guess I did okay. Maybe I'll even post a picture of it. Maybe.

I decided to tackle my drawing again and turn it into an illustration. I scanned it and brought it into Photoshop. Wow! I really forgot how to use Photoshop. I worked on it for an hour, cleaning up the lines and designing it a bit better. Then I printed it out. My big plan was to transfer the pattern to a piece of Bristol paper and ink it. Then I was going to watercolor it. Now that it's on the paper and inked I almost think I might put it back in Photoshop and paint it in there. Who knows, maybe I'll do both. I'm just plugging away at my art, trying to get my groove back. I guess it will get easier, but right now I feel like I'm stuck in mud, straining at each step as I pull my galoshed boot from the sucking mud. I can't wait to get back on the little forest path that winds around in effortless and interesting ways.

It had to be Swine

I found out how they keep the Swine Flue numbers so low for this area.
They don't test anyone to see if they have it!

Andy has been sick for over a week. I've never seen anyone so sick for so long. He really got bad last Friday and Saturday. On Sunday morning we decided we'd better take him up to the hospital. Mike called first and was told, "we wouldn't do anything for him that you can't do at home, and we'd just cost a lot more money".

So we kept him home.

When he first got sick I asked him how he felt.
"I'm dizzy everytime I stand up, I can't quit sweating, I ache all over, my stomach hurts, and it feels like I have tobacco in my throat."
Huh? I said, "I didn't know you knew what having tobacco in your throat feels like."
and he said, "I do now!"

He's had a high fever and a hard time breathing all week. He's sweated buckets. One night he lost 7 pounds. All the blankets sheets, and pillows he's used have been washed and rewashed. Every time I touch something I think, "Andy probably touched/breathed on/coughed on this" and I go wash my hands. My hands feel like dry sandpaper. The house smells like Lysol. I've got 4 cans that I continue to use in copious amounts everytime I think Andy has probably touched/breathed on/coughed on anything. I'm not known for my stellar immune system, but so far I haven't caught anything (knock on wood).

He's looking a lot better this afternoon. I'm glad. I just hope his fever doesn't spike again tonight. Just one morning I would like to wake up and not see a pile of sweat-soaked blankets and Andy-sized clothes strewn all over the bathroom.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go wash my hands and spray down the keyboard.

The Hike

Upon finding out that Lagoon was closed on Friday........

Joni: (texting Lisa) "what should we do? we could hike Tablerock."
Joni: (immediately upon sending text, thinking) "please say no, please say no..."
Lisa: (upon reading Joni's text, thinking) "how do I get out of this, I don't want to go, its so hard, and hot.."
Lisa: (texting Joni) "sure! Let's do it."
Joni: (reading text from Lisa, thinking) "crap!"

Joni, Abby, Andy, and Lisa and Tyler go hike Tablerock on Friday.
Joni and Andy only got about 3 hours sleep the night before.
Joni kept reminding Andy to prepare, get food ready, Etc.
Abby didn't really want to go. Didn't feel good that day, wanted to go shopping instead. She decided to buck up and go anyway.
I asked Joni to make sure Andy wears shorts and eats breakfast before they leave.

Lisa and Tyler pick them up at 7 am.

Tablerock is a very strenuous hike. My family once took my brother-in-law on it. He is an extremely experienced hiker. Currently he is in Iceland hiking. He couldn't believe how hard it was, and how unprepared he thought we were. He said most experienced hikers would consider it a two-day hike. He insisted they all eat cookies and sugar to avoid altitude sickness. Not only is it an extremely long hike, but it is, in some parts, almost straight up, or straight down depending on which way you're going.

Friday morning arrives.

Andy had 2 pops for breakfast, filled 2 ziploc bags with fish crackers, and pronounced himself ready. He did wear shorts without any prodding from Joni, and was quite offended that I thought she would have to tell him. As he said, "you must not think I have any common sense."

It took them 5 hours.
Just to get to the top.
Andy, being a bit short in the common sense department, has to beg water off of everyone. He didn't bring any. He is sweating buckets. He tries to take shortcuts and instead of doing the switchbacks goes straight up the mountain. I'm told that it's a good thing I didn't see him do it. They all thought we'd have a funeral to plan before Andy got off the mountain.

Joni, being short on sleep, experienced extreme vertigo. She had to look straight at her feet only, crept along, hugging the mountain at times and refused to move. She started to wonder how freaked out she would have to get before they called a helicopter to come and pluck her off the top. When the breeze would gust she felt like the entire valley was swelling up and down, just like the waves of the ocean.
She would most likely still be up there if Tyler hadn't given her his walking stick and helped her along.

Abby was probably one of the smartest people in the group. She went on most of the hike, but then decided she couldn't do the last most difficult part. She stayed back and rested and waited for them to ascend and descend. She felt very badly that she didn't do the whole thing. I'm thinking Abby was one of the few who actually used a little bit of intelligence that day.

The very tired, very sore, hiking group got home about 13 hours after starting.

Walking looked painful.
Toenails may come off.
Sunburns hurt.
Blisters and rashes ached.
Joni's foot had a blister so large it looked like she had a sixth toe.


They all looked like they had so much fun.
I'm really sorry I didn't go with them......NOT!

Pictures from Lisa and Tyler, probably the only 2 who really enjoyed the day.

Thank You, NOT!

On their way home from church Abby and Andy saw a stray dog on the freeway. Being from a crazy-for-animals family they stopped and picked it up. It had a tag on it with a website address and a ID number.

They carted the dog home and put it in the garage. Oscar went CRAZY in the house. Abby got the number and Joni looked up the website. After calling the number listed on the site and giving the ID number they got an address. They Googled the address to find out where to return the wayward pup.

Meanwhile Abby had taken out a dish of dog food. No one will ever accuse the Mitchells of cruelty to animals.

As Joni was looking up the address Andy was saying that he should get the reward for picking up the dog. Abby laughed at him and said, "the dog probably was only missing for an hour. I doubt you'll get a reward."

With address in hand they packed the puppy back into the car and went to return him to his family.

They went up to the door, dog on leash, and rang the doorbell.

The door opened.....

A woman looked at them holding her poor lost puppy dog and said.......



"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!" (to the dog, not to Abby and Andy, thank heavens)

She took the dog and Abby and Andy returned home,

without even a thank you,

let alone a reward.

Graduation and other family pictures

Andy graduated from high school on Thursday. He surprised us all when he was given the honors cords. We're pretty proud of him.






David and Emily stayed with us for a couple of days before they went home. Nathan was fascinated with the horses in our back yard and kept wanting to go back to see them. Whenever we took him back there, though, he leaned as far away as he could. I think they were a little more intimidating than he thought they would be.


We gathered in Lisa and Tyler's back yard to celebrate Mike's mother's birthday. We took a group picture before the cake and ice cream.








David and Andy showing a little brotherly love....

Poor Andy

The third trimester for the school district just started yesterday. Andy seems to like his classes. His final semester in high school will be a bit on the easy side. He's got a computer networking class where the teacher told them, "You'll never have homework in this class, you'll probably have about 20 minutes of free time every day, and every Friday is make-up day." I sure hope Andy doesn't strain himself in that one.

The last class of the day is golf. This will be Andy's 3rd year on the varsity golf team. Andy's been a golfer since he was about 4 years old when he swung the club at a ball on our front lawn and broke a 2nd story window in our house. A couple of years ago he came up to me and said, very seriously, "I've been thinking about golf. Golf isn't like work, and it's not like play either. Golf is life."

I'm glad he loves it so much. It's a good thing to love; something that will give him pleasure for the rest of his life. It's a good thing he enjoys it so much because their first meet is tomorrow. He has to be at the school at 6:00 am. They will drive about 150 miles to a golf course that isn't still buried in snow and then play 18 holes before driving another 150 miles home. It's supposed to still be cold. Very cold. It's supposed to be in the single digits for a low overnight and warm up to the teens during the day.

Dress warm, Andy.

Dress very warm.

Thoughts on a Saturday Morning

As I sit here typing I am serenaded by a flock of hungry songbirds clamouring for the seed in my bird feeder. They jostle and jockey for position and squabble and chirp. It's very entertaining. I love to watch them. There are often 20 or more birds at a time fluttering around my deck. The bird seed goes quickly. I must refill it every day. On the mornings when I am slow I step out onto the deck and wonder where my little friends are. It is quiet. Then I look up. The large cottonwood that hovers overhead is filled with birds, all silently watching me. I pour in the seed and then give my little whistle as I head back inside. Almost before I can return to the window overlooking the feeder the feeding frenzy begins. The fray lasts for a couple of hours at least. It keeps me, and my cat, very entertained.

My son, Andy, is a die-hard WOW player. It has been a source of worry and contention for a year now. Andy wants to play all the time. His parents would be happy if he never played again. There has been a lot of give and take in the compromises that allow Andy to play. For a while it simply involved keeping his grades up, and doing one thing with friends during the week. Then one day Joni came to me concerned. She had Andy do a push up and he struggled. He could barely do one pushup and he's supposedly in the prime of his physical life. I was also concerned. We struck a new deal. When Andy came to me to ask for playing time (yea parental controls, at least I can control how much he plays) I said "sure as soon as you do 100 pushups. I thought for sure he would not even attempt it, but he dropped to the floor and started doing them. The first few were very shaky and his form was terrible. He butt was high and he sure didn't lower himself very much. He kept trying to do them, and by the time he got to 30 I thought he would kill himself trying to get to 100. Finally I said he could stop at 30 if he also did 30 sit ups. He agreed. The situps were as ugly as the pushups, but he was doing them. The next day he could hardly move.
A new pattern was set.
Every day before play he would do 30 pushups and 30 situps. He gradually got better and better. When I could see that they were getting easier for him I would start to demand better form. He had to have a straight body. He had to touch his chin to the floor at least once. Currently he can pump out 20 straight pushups without stopping and then he will do 10 with his chin touching the floor. They are getting easier for him. I can see he is starting to take some pride in his physical accomplishments. He told me that one day in PE the losing team had to do 10 pushups. He ended up doing 50 pushups during class because his team kept losing. I asked him if he was glad he started doing pushups at home 3 weeks before. Yes, he was very glad.

I'll keep pushing him on the exercises, but today I had an epiphany.
The reason I want him to keep his grades up and do something with friends and to exercise is that I want him to be well-rounded. He needs to not neglect any one area of his life. There was one area that we had not been working on. Spiritual. So we added a requirement today. After his exercising he must read one chapter of scripture. He's studying the New Testament in Seminary, so I told him he could read that for his scripture time. He must read the chapters successively though. No skipping around looking for little chapters. He agreed. And he read his chapter this morning. That boy will do almost anything for a little WOW time.

My New Years Resolution:
Try a little harder to be a little better. President Hinckley used to say this often. Since he died this year I want my resolution to be in honor of him. I lost two of my favorite men this year. President Hinckley and my father. I know my dad would approve of this resolution too. The biggest thing I want to try a little harder to be a little better at, is keeping my big mouth shut. I've gotten myself into a little trouble this year saying things that I've later regretted. I was looking through my book shelf the other day for something to read and found a book I didn't even know I had. It's called "Me and My Big Mouth". I think it was written just for me. It is a scriptural approach to controlling your tongue. I'm reading it. I hope I can learn from it.

I've been trying to keep up my calendar journal. I hope to post a picture of December's here soon.

Cheers! and have a great weekend.