Privileges

Meridy despises basketball games on tv. Mention the Jazz game--her grey/green eyes will narrow, her regal brow will furrow, her beautiful lips will frown and her saucy shoulders will fall.

The problem has come to a festering boil with the onset of the playoffs. Fortunately, we have come up a workable solution.

Since we don't have cable, I get to visit my parents' house for the games. For the new routine, I take the kids with me and call Meridy at halftime. This gives her some alone time before she joins us. Unfortunately, she has begun to abuse her alone time privileges. She has been taking more time getting over after halftime. For the latest game, she conveniently left her phone downstairs and didn't come at all.

She must be desperate for some time away from those children. We'll see how this develops.

The Jackpot

I'm sensing that parts of my last post might have been a little too "extraordinary" for some of you. Not to worry this post is much less extraordinary at the sacrifice of being more boring. However, people are neither boring or extraordinary all the time, so I guess it's okay to keep posting no matter what the weather of life dictates. Wow, what a sentence that was. I leave it up to you to decide if it was profound or just "interesting"....

The point is: I hit the jackpot today. I found a box of old clothes LOVE. Happy Day!! And it was free.....if you don't count the original cost of the clothes. But the happiness was free. I found a few darling shirts that I forgot I even had. Do you know what this means? I have too many clothes. I love clothes. I've always loved clothes, but didn't have the ability to really explore it until college, and I think for the past few years I've been a little crazy. Good think I get a lot of my clothes at Ross and thrift stores...

Speaking of clothes....I've decided that women who have two 1-4 year old children should not have to wear dresses to church. You mothers know what I am talking about. Nearly every Sunday is a struggle to promote modesty when your two year old is pulling at your skirt. If you see me coming to your ward, watch out. If I thought I could get away with it, I would lobby for a change with a good case I think. However, I'm sure I'm missing a point somewhere. There. I'm glad I finally got that said.

Speaking of children at church......Do any of you other mothers feel like you just survived a battle of immense proportions after sacrament meeting? It takes me nearly half of Sunday school to recover. That William. He crawls all over me, messes with my skirt as discussed in the previous paragraph, chucks his cars half way down the aisle, and when he is finally holding somewhat still and resting on the ground, he is kicking the wall.

Extraordinary Measures

It being "earth week", I shall answer a question posted to our blog quite awhile ago: What can you honestly say you are doing to help the earth?" Or something to that effect. I have pondered on this. This is what I have come up with. I swear I am not making any of these up.

1. I helped plant a tree in my backyard.
2. We throw our fruit and veggie hides and carcasses as "compost" for our struggling "garden".
3. I put a stop to my husband and children "feeding" the pigeons sand. (I must admit I am guilty of thinking it funny to see all those cute pigeons come running for their "food." But I didn't let it last longer than five minutes....)
4. I use biodegradable tampons. All you who use plastic ones should think twice about what you are doing. All you men......get off easy.
5. I try to keep the lights off as much as possible because I am cheap, but I will count it in my list because it so conveniently fits in.
6. We keep our empty freezer unplugged, except on special occasions.
7. I buy almost all of our clothes second-hand. Not only am I recycling, I'm getting highly-fashionable, very-sturdy, name-brand clothing for much less!
9. I taught two nine year old boys about recycling. Actually I taught one boy, I don't think the other one was paying too much attention.

Well there you have it. It's insanely late, and I am going to bed.

The "Geezer" Advantage

Our ward's young men thought they would "own" the Elders' quorum in ultimate Frisbee. As an experienced participant in the ways of young guys vs. old guys match-ups, I had a pretty good idea how it would turn out. We destroyed them. So I'm wondering which variable most strongly accounts for the geezer advantage--matured bodies, experience, or fully functioning frontal lobes?

I read a description of the teenage problem recently that said teenagers have a hole in their heads. That is to say, their frontal lobes are immature. They have a harder time making sound decisions and maintaining focus. We definitely had the mental edge, and I'm not sure experience can account for all of that. They were unable to function as a team. They were scatterbrained, looking where they might throw the Frisbee before they had caught it. Now, old guys did that a couple times, but we seemed to learn from it. We also developed strategies, noted player tendencies, and exploited tactical advantages.

It also helped that we were taller and could knock them over to win position.

I like Frisbee, and Ultimate is fun. Does anyone have a league I can join? Oh yes, they have leagues and even a national governing body.

NATHAN PASSED THE UTAH BAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks be to God!

Catfishin' with Aunt Helga

My 10 year high school reunion is coming up this summer. I guess a lot has happened since then. But we won't get into that right now. Right now I'm kicking off a mini-series of anecdotes and trips down memory lane that should lead up to my reunion. If anyone reading the series has any related or competing recollections, I'd love to hear about them.

So, Monday night we were driving through Leeds by way of I-15, and I was reminded of our adventures with Catfish Charlie's. Ok, this story is actually post-high school. That's ok, I think of anything pre-mission (can somebody please set me straight on the proper use of hyphens?) as a high school memory. Back to the story. One day I was in Leeds, probably accompanying my family as they indulged their yard sale fetish, when I saw a small restaurant called "Catfish Charlie's." Slowly, a mania grew within me. I had to eat at Catfish Charlie's. I had never eaten catfish. I wanted to try it.

I summoned the posse (in this case that would be Seth Gubler, Alex Gubler, Kelcey Loveland, Danny Frost, Cole Blair, Dalyon Ruesch...am I missing anyone?) who collaborated with me on a racquetball/Catfish Charlie's outing. The racquetball was fun, and Catfish Charlie's was quite an experience. Once we got in there we couldn't speak normally. Some force settled upon us, forcing us to speak like hillbillies. Somewhere between the hush puppies and the Louisiana Sauce tales of an unforgettable character began flowing from the warped minds of Seth Gubler and Nathan Reeve. Her name was Aunt Helga, and she had...issues. The entire ride home and the subsequent weeks were filled with tales of the incredible Aunt Helga. We had to keep her in whenever the moon was out. The bears were scared of her. She went a courtin' from time to time--beaus beware.

I think we visited Catfish Charlie's once more before I left on my mission. They did have good catfish and hush puppies, though I got reports as time went on that the gang was getting disenchanted with the place.

Catfish Charlie's is long gone, but the memories live on.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Six best years of my life ago, I woke up, got ready, grabbed my temple bag and got married.
That was an amazing day, spring had sprung out just for us. There were some blossoms out and the air was warm with new sunlight. I'm sure they must have taken us aside and tried to give us some advice, but neither Meridy nor I can remember a word of it. I still remember the way the celestial room looked with the sunlight shining in on friends and family assembled to witness something special happen. Magic, the atmosphere was absolute magic. I had never been so high. The Sealer actually began to tremble and quake as he performed the ceremony. I remember them showing us the corridor to the exit. They left us to ourselves for a time. There was a mirror we looked at for a while; something about that moment was very special for me. Then we opened the temple doors to find friends and family awaiting us, supporting us.

Thanks for making me so happy Meridy and for always being my vision. Thanks friends and family for continuing to support us. Thank God for such a mysterious, holy and joyous institution.

Finished

Nate is finished with the Bar (hopefully forever). He feels pretty good about his performance, but we have to wait until April to see the results. Thanks for your prayers and kind words!!!

To Conquer

Nate just left to take the Utah Bar in Salt Lake City. It is on tomorrow and Wednesday. Good luck Nate!!

What Gender is Sheri's Baby: Please Cast your Vote

My friend Sheri finds out what color her baby is today, but she's not going to say what the gender is until more people give their gender vote on her poll on her blog. I want to know what she is having! So if you would like to participate in helping ME (gosh I'm selfish :) )find out what her baby is vote on Sheri's poll: click here.