Give it a TRI

I had the fun experience of watching my dad, brother-in-law (Brent), and his uncle (Dee) compete in a triathlon this past Saturday. We went over to the SHAC (Sand Hollow Aquatic Center) just before 7:00 a.m. for the start of the race. Dee was first. He did the swimming portion of the race, which consisted of 8 laps (or 16 lengths) in the pool. He was an amazing swimmer. He glides in the water, does the fancy turns, and really makes swimming look effortless. Since I am a drowner by nature, I can really appreciate his skills in the water. I only got one picture of Dee in the water... and it is of his butt as he is making a turn. I will save him any embarrassment since I just met him. However, I may save it for future use, just in case he and I get better acquainted and I need a little coaxing to get him to teach me how to swim. I am not above using blackmail. Hehehe! Here is a picture of Dee after his swim, running to exchange chips with my dad.It is not the best picture. It was still very dark outside and he ran by me VERY fast. Good Job Dee! He swam his part in under 7 minutes.

Dee handed his ankle bracelet to my dad who did the cycling portion of the race. My dad had not slept one wink the night before the race. He was so nervous. We were all nervous for him. He took off without crashing and headed out on the course. He had to complete two 5 mile loops. As he passed by us after one loop, he yelled out, "I lost my shifter on the first hill!". The poor guy had just had his bike worked on the day before the race. He had to ride in a low gear the entire time. Despite the malfunction, he did very well. He looked strong coming into the finish of the cycling portion.Dad handed off to Brent, who took off running. Brent had a 3 mile run, which he finished in 22 minutes. Good job Brent!

Overall, they captured 3rd place in their division. Whoo-hoo! Glad I could be there. My parents are always so supportive of all of my family's various activities. It is nice that I had the opportunity to reverse the role and be there to support my dad and Brent. Plus, I got to hang out with my sisters and mom while the men toiled. It was fabulous.

In Stitches- No Foolin'

Every April Fool's Day, Russ gets me. I have been a sucker to his pranks for 15 years now. This year I was ready. I was just waiting for the call to come in. Then it did...

Garrett had a school field trip that day to our new ice skating rink here in St. George. I had been teasing him all morning because he was wearing shorts. I told him he was going to be laying on the ice more than skating and that he should consider wearing pants. He of course didn't pay any attention to me, because the boy refuses to wear pants (except to church on Sunday). I sent him off to school with his sack lunch for their picnic after skating, I took Grant and Gracie to school, then I was off to work.

It was about 10:30 in the morning when our phone rang. It was Russ. I was ready...

Russ: Hi Hon. I just got a call from Tonaquint Intermediate School. Garrett fell ice skating and needs a couple of stitches in his chin.
Me: (Not believing a word of this) Um, okay... sure.
Russ: We need to go and get him and take him to the hospital.
Me: Uh-huh. (acting bored by his game)
Russ: I can leave work right now and get him. Would it be better for me to take him to Insta Care or the emergency room?
Me: Uh-huh (still acting somewhat bored, but beginning to wonder).

Finally, I catch on that Russ is not joking. Garrett had really fallen, hit the ice with his chin, and split it open. We decided I should go and get him. I called our pediatrician to see if he could stitch him up. They said the P.A. was available and could get him right in. I picked Garrett up and could see the questioning look in his teacher's eyes- wondering how this parent was going to react. I started to laugh as he approached my car and said, "Of course it would be my child that has the accident". I was trying to let the teacher know we were okay with what had happened and that we weren't going to sue the school. Well, Garrett thought I was making fun of him and got pretty upset. He had been so embarrassed because all of his classmates were gathered around him as the management questioned him about the accident. He was mortified! I got him settled down and to the doctor's office.

The doctor took off the small butterfly bandage that they had put on him at the rink and put some numbing gel on the cut. After the gel had been on for about 15 minutes, Garrett still had quite a bit of feeling in his chin so the P.A. decided to shoot him up with some Lidocain. As he was injecting it into the cut, Garrett's chin split wide open. The P.A. said, "Oh, this is a lot worse than I thought". Garrett ended up with 9 stitches. Two deep stitches that will dissolve and 7 on the outside that he gets out on Tuesday.

As the P.A. finished (I watched the whole thing by the way... pretty cool) he told the nurse to put a bandaid over the stitches. She told Garrett that she only had glitter bandaids or crayon bandaids. Garrett shrugged and said he would take a crayon bandaid. He was very quiet as we finished up. As soon as we walked out of the door of the doctor's office, Garrett's eyes filled up with tears again. He looked at me and said, "SERIOUSLY, A CRAYON BANDAID?"!!! He was already so embarrassed and that just added insult to injury. Being the good mom that I am, I took him downstairs to my office and put a normal bandaid on him, took him to Honolulu Grill for lunch, and didn't make him go back to school. He said it turned out to be a good day.

Fun with the Forrest's

We were so lucky to have our dearest friends come and stay with us last weekend. We have been friends with them since BYU. Kellie and I were pregnant with our first babies at the same time. When Isabel and Garrett were about a year old, Kellie and I would put them in their jogging strollers and she and I would roller blade up Provo Canyon to Vivian Park. We would have a picnic lunch and the kids would throw rocks in the water. When Garrett was 18 months old, Gary had just graduated with his Master's degree and took a job in Colorado. It was a VERY sad time in my life. Fortunately, we have remained in contact and our families get together almost once a year. They are such good people and we consider them some of our very best friends.

I am sad because the only good picture I took was of the twins, Jack and John. I wish I had gotten a picture of their family. Maybe I will steal one off of Kellie's blog and pretend I took it! Anyway, thanks for a good time! We loved having you here and hope to see you in October (if not before) for the Marathon.

Oh NUTS!

Well it has happened. We got our first note sent home from school for bad behavior. I was devastated. Grant and a few of his buddies we using the phrase "son of a nutcracker" as they tried to actually crack each others nuts... if you know what I mean. I was so embarrassed. I sat Grant down and we had a long talk about the seriousness of such behavior. I took away his DS for two weeks and assigned him some extra chores. Then Russ got home from work...

We were back in the bedroom and I told him about the note from Grant's teacher. The man seriously could not stop laughing for 20 minutes. All night long I had to listen to NUTTY phrases from him. I swear, I don't think boys ever grow up!

Say What?

Help!

Little Lou has lost her hearing. I am getting so worried. I took her to the doctor 5 weeks ago because we noticed that she could not hear a thing. She had ear infections and tons of fluid behind her eardrums. Our pediatrician put her on an antibiotic and scheduled us to come back in a month for a follow up. A month later she still couldn't hear. We went to the follow up appointment and the doctor said she still had tons of fluid behind the eardrums. He said to bring her back in 6 weeks if she still couldn't hear. It is getting so frustrating. She misunderstands everything we say to her. For instance, I will say, "Lou, pick up your shoes". She will respond, "I'm not acting like I'm two". I will say, "Go brush your teeth". "No, I don't have mud on my feet". The other part of the problem is that she talks very loud! She screams when telling me a story. I have to keep saying, "I am right here. You do not need to yell at me". Anyway, we are praying she gets over this and that it really is just fluid behind the eardrums. Until then, anyone got any ear plugs for her mommy?

Demolition Derby

Our dear friends, Chris and Carie Homer, recently bought the beauty shop where Carie has worked for years. Carie has been anxiously waiting for spring break here in St. George so she could remodel her shop. Last week Russ called Chris to see if they needed any help. Chris told Russ that if he was serious they could use some help on Satuday. After Garrett's baseball games, I took the kids to the DSC conference championship basketball game and Russ went over to Fanci Hair to help the Homer's (He is such a good guy). After the basketball game, the kids and I stopped by the shop to see how things were going. They were just beginning the process of ripping down the partitions in the shop. I thought my boys had died and gone to heaven. Brad, one of Chris' assistant football coaches, was there helping as well. He would cut the walls in sections and then let Garrett push them over. Grant and Garrett were each given hammers and helped destroy, rip up, and break down various parts of the shop. Russ was on the muscle crew, removing furniture and shelving (which Carie was trying to sell to the church in the shopping plaza). I was on the clean up crew, and Gracie was the shop cheerleader (typical cheerleader... always in the way and cheering at the wrong times). After we got to a stopping point, we all went out to dinner at the Pizza Factory. It was such a fun night. We can't wait to see the finished product! It is going to look fabulous.

Who's your mama?

For the most part, I think I am an okay mom. My life revolves around my kids. I would rather be with my husband and kids than anyone else (my parents and sisters run a tight race with them). I have many faults as a mother. I do not like to be touched. I have very little patience. I am not that great at getting stains out of my kids clothes. I yell a lot in the mornings when we are late. I am not a good cook, and cook the same terrible meals each week because I have very little desire to look for new recipes. I could go on and on!

Garrett has turned 12 and I know the day is coming when he is not going to want me around. He will be entering those teenage years when he will think I know nothing. He will be embarassed if I walk next to him in public. He will ask me to drop him off at school several blocks away so that his friends won't see him with me. I am absolutely dreading these years. It is going to be very hard on me. But right now, he likes me. He is not yet embarassed of me. He doesn't mind if he is seen with me. So I try to take advantage of every second I can spend with him (and Grant and Gracie too, because they are not far behind him).

While we were in Mexico, Garrett missed two days of baseball practice. We got home really late on Monday night. On Tuesday, I took him over to the baseball fields right after school. He didn't have another practice until Wednesday, so we decided to do a little batting practice of our own. There are two fields where the little league games are held. They are popular and it is sometimes hard to practice there. One field was being used, but we were able to use the other. I began pitching to Garrett. I am not that good! Most of the time he is ducking to avoid my pitch nailing him in the head or jumping before it beans him in the feet. It is a great workout for him. We have a bucket of about 50 baseballs, and I MAYBE get 15 good throws across the plate. But, I try. I am there. I threw him about 8 buckets of balls.

As we were there, some of his teammates showed up and a couple of his coaches. The teammates were working with a batting coach, getting quality instruction. And Garrett was on the other field getting pitches thrown at him by his mom. His coaches would watch us occasionally, I am sure shaking their heads at my feeble attempts to coach my son. I was pretty embarassed, but Garrett didn't seem to be. He kept asking for just one more bucket. We batted for close to three hours (Grant and Gracie took turns as well). I could hardly lift my arm by the end. It felt like a wet noodle.

Well, Garrett had a tournament this weekend here in Washington. During their first game they had loaded the bases. Garrett was up with two outs. I get so nervous when this happens. First pitch he swung and missed. Next pitch he cracked the ball over the center fielder's head, to the fence. He got a double and two RBI's. All of the parents kept coming over to me saying, "I heard you were pitching to Garrett this week. I guess it is working". Garrett batted pretty good throughout the tournament. Maybe he will keep me around a little longer. All I know is that I will probably be having shoulder and elbow surgery in a couple of years, but I will have had some quality time with my kids while they still think I am cool to be around.