random life

There are certain joys of having a teenager in your home. For instance, this is what our front yard looked like this morning: Melanie: "Why do you assume it's one of my friends? Maybe it's one of your friends!"
Well, Miss Melanie, . . . I could to some sleuthing around and see what Lezlee was doing late last night, but I doubt I'd come up with much hard evidence against any of my friends.
Fortunately, this was a job using high quality toilet paper which didn't tear as it was pulled out of the trees. The last time this happened in our yard, there was massive amount of cheap paper over 12 feet high that stayed in the trees for much longer than our neighbors could possibly appreciate our landscaping decor.
Speaking of landscaping, Roxanne is re-working her front yard. It was full of unkept, scraggly trees and unkept cactus and gravel. She has removed it all, added a couple of trees, an irrigation system, a truckload of dirt and it's almost ready to plant a lawn. Too bad the summer temperatures aren't conducive to enjoying yardwork. This picture was taken at about 6:45 am and it was almost too hot to work already. I'll bet the neighbors loved the day the dirt was dumped. Every car for 2 blocks had a thick coat of dust on it. Hopefully, they will ultimately love having a nicer looking house on the block.In other happenings around town, my adorable niece just got home from her mission in Florida. Her family orchestrated a huge reception area outside of the security checkpoint at the airport. It was a very entertaining hour as my nephews loudly welcomed complete strangers off the various flights as we waited for Kelsie. Isn't this a happy dad? Speaking of missionaries, I got a text from an unfamiliar out of town number, and look what I got on my phone:Some friends from Idaho are working at the Nauvoo Pageant for the summer and ran into these two fine missionaries. Brady is working at the Pageant 2 nights a week this summer. Aren't they handsome?
I saw another unexpected picture of Brady this week. We pulled out some old half-used water cameras when we went to the river last week. When I developed the film, I found a picture of Brady with his sisters and cousins at the beach two years ago. Sadly he has really grown up in a world of girls. I asked him one time if his life would have been different if he had a brother. He didn't even hesitate -- "YES!!" I miss that kid. Only 5 months left !!

birthday girl

Melanie had a birthday a few days ago. Guess how old she is? If you don't already know, I'll give you some hints that might clue you in to her age. She asked for an Easy Bake oven for Christmas. She uses her "Bedazzler" regularly. She spent spring break at Disneyland. She had a food fight for her birthday last year. She likes to go to the neighborhood park/playground with her friends. She asked for a Robot birthday cake this year.

That's right. She's 17 !!

She wanted to go tubing down the Salt River to celebrate her birthday. I thought she was going to go with friends when she first talked about it so I didn't give it much thought. I realized a couple of days ago, she meant our family. It has been a nearly impossible week with work schedules and deadlines. On top of that Dave has to leave town again in a few days and is working day and night to get on top of his work load so he can leave. And then to make matters worse, he got sick this week and spent Thursday evening at an Urgent Care facility.

Crazy enough, one job got postponed until after his trip, and all the drugs he got at Urgent care loosened us his ability to breathe, so it freed up a few hours on Saturday morning to celebrate Melanie's birthday. I'm not sure a river trip was the best thing for Dave's health, but who can say no to a birthday party on the river?

I don't know how I've lived in the valley for 30 years and had never done this before. Fun Day.

Melanie found a cake she wanted. Luckily she was willing to help make it. I have never been known for making attractive cakes. In fact, quite the opposite. I don't know how we managed to make such a big mess for a simple little cake.

Happy Birthday Melanie!!

melanie-isms

Song on the radio - "Is this Prince? Oh, I'm going to play this at my wedding. NO, better yet, . . . at my funeral!"
"I want someone to pose me before I get buried."
Me: "What, . . . you want someone to sit you up in your coffin as you are wheeled into the church?"
"No, just secretly pose me before I go into the ground. A dance pose so I can be resurrected and come back into the world. . . . dancing!"
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"I was staring at him hardcore with my peripheral vision."
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"I still have your Blue Cross/ Blue Windshield card in my wallet."
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Text conversation Friday night:
Me: River trip is on for tomorrow if you want to start making plans
Melanie: WaHoo!! Okay :)
Me: Tell your sisters and tell me what to plan and take and do
Melanie: Okay. Leave at 8:15. Can we have water bottles, Fresca, baby carrots, and Ritz crackers for snacks?
Me: Yes to all. But Fresca?
Melanie: It's a drink. Just a suggestion
Me: I know it's a drink. It's just a weirdly specific request.
Melanie: haha. Well they are weirdly delicious. OOh!! & those Oatmeal pie things ;) you're the best mom.
Melanie: Also for snacks: grapes from Fresh and Easy.

(I catered to most of her list, but making an extra trip to Fresh and Easy was not going to happen. I'm still not quite sure why their grapes are different from grapes that are sold at every other store in town. But we did have weirdly delicious Fresca, generic grapes and oatmeal pie things.)
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Mothers Day notes, written on hearts and taped up all over the house:

You're the woman with the brains,
You do everything including removing all stains.

mom = bomb.com

If you died, we would all die.
But thankfully you're not dead.

When times are tough
and being a Mom is hard,
you can look at this
and pretend it's a really nice card.