He Aint Heavy . . .

he's my brother.

There's No Place Like Home

Half my family is in China. OK, technically it's only a third. And while I'm used to my husband being gone on business trips, I am not used to my daughter being gone for 11 days. It's disconcerting. It's like a part of me is missing all the time. Anyway--that's beside the point. The real point is that you would think with less family here, I would have more time to blog. Sadly, this has not been the case. With her gone and my son on a scout camp, all the weeding, watering and lawn mowing was left to me today. I'm very tired. But apparently, also in need of some self-expression since I'm finally sitting down to add something new.

I just finished reading Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons last week. Very touching little book. It's about a little girl who is orphaned and the road she travels to find safety and love. One of my favorite quotes from the book is:

"I open the door to my house and look around for somebody to squeeze. And she is there each day in the kitchen and that is something when you consider she does not have to be there but she is there so I can squeeze her and be glad."

When our first daughter was born, our budget would not balance based on just my husband's income. But we both believed strongly in me being home so I quit my job and we reduced our outgoings to match our incoming. We have had to do without some things over the years, but we have never looked back.

The quote sums up just one of the reasons why I am home--so that when my little kids come home from school or from playing or from wherever they've been roaming, they'll have someone waiting for them. And while I could be somewhere else, I want to be there for squeezing and for listening and for feeding and loving. I know it's a hard thing sometimes for a family to do, and I know that sometimes there truly is no other choice. But for us, it's been a decision we have never once regretted, no matter the trips we couldn't take or the cars we couldn't drive or the houses we couldn't live in. I would never trade any of that for being able to squeeze my children when they come home and have them be glad I'm there.

The Extravaganza!

Our school has one main fundraiser all year--the spring Extravaganza (carnival). As part of the festivities, the 5th graders are asked to each donate a cake for the cake auction and cake walk. How long have I known that my son would be a 5th grader this year and that we would need a cake? A long time. But we've been on vacation. My brain is still on vacation. This has totally tapped my creative capacities for a long while. And they weren't even my ideas! At any rate, they're done and I think they turned out pretty fun. We had a good time working together on them.









You're welcome to come bid on cakes or buy a snow cone or have a little dinner tonight with hundreds or sugar-high, summer-anxious hyper kids tonight at Rock Canyon school between 4:30 and 7:30. I can't wait!

Happy 16th!

We hit 16 years last week! Who'd have thought we'd make it this far?

Things I Don't Get

To steal a title from my good friend at jetsetcarina.blogspot.com, I don't get:

Dogs.

Seriously. They drool.



They're needy.



I also don't get this, but that's not the dog's fault.



But this I seriously don't get. I watched a guy jogging with his dog this morning, stop while the dog pooped, then pick up the poop in a plastic sack and continue to jog with the bag of poop. Now, I'm all for removing your canine feces from innocent grass, but jog with poop? Are you kidding me?

All Earth Day

Is it just me or is "green" simply a code word for "really expensive"??

Assorted Snacks

My favorite appetizer at Bombay House is the Assorted Snacks. So here is an assortment of random thoughts for Monday.



After waking up to 8 inches of snow in our yard Thursday morning (yes, this is mid-April), it was more than a pleasant thing to jump in the car and head south for Spring Break. I think I may have been laughing hysterically at the time. I've so had enough of winter.

So after two flat tires, the back door of our car breaking so you couldn't shut it, the car battery going flat, and backtracking to get the tires fixed, we finally made it to Toquerville, Utah, which is just outside of Zion's National Park. And we found sun! We were originally going to camp in Capitol Reef, but when their forecast called for snow too, you could've lost a limb had you gotten in the way of my frenzy to make a new plan.

Now the first sun of the season is always dangerous for me. It feels so absolutely heavenly to sit in it and drink it up and I never truly believe that I need sunscreen. The secret to sunburns, I've found, is to never sunburn your entire body at once. So this weekend I worked on my arms; my legs shall be next. And I declare a pox upon the people with actual pigment in their skins who can sit in the sun for no longer than 5 minutes and come away with a healthy glow. I've got a glow, all right, but I swear you can see it throbbing right before your very eyes.

So my next random thought regards something funny. I must declare in my most Uncle Albertish voice that, I love to laugh. And this is one of the funniest things I've seen. And it does not get less funny to me the more times I watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJWhw-i8CUo

Happy Monday. And if someone wants to share how I can actually post the link for this, that would be great. I think my brain is sunburned too.