Tulip Festival

Last Thursday, I went to work in the morning and then I hung out with one of my friends. We went to Target because I had a baby shower and a bridal shower to go to in the next couple of days. We were also going to go to Kohl's but we got worn out at Target and the kiddos were sick of shopping, for sure. So we went home and parted ways. But I had plans to buy a cute sweater at Kohl's and I had a $10 off coupon and it was going to expire soon. I started to think of when I could make it over there before the coupon became trash. I had 30 minutes before Sam needed to be picked up from school. So I headed to Kohl's.
As I pulled into the parking spot I saw something there so I was careful not to drive over it. When I got out there was a dirty little purse right outside my door, on the ground. I picked it up and opened it and it was stocked full with a wad of cash. At first I thought I was on that What Would You Do show with John Quinones. Have you ever seen that show? Anyway, I headed into the store and after looking at the ID, had the owner of the purse paged. She didn't come over. So I went to grab my cute sweater, which had been marked down another 15% so it was down to 65% off. Then I went back over to where I had her paged and paid for the sweater. With the $10 off I got if for $8!!!! What a deal!!! So I asked if the purse owner had ever come over. The clerk said no, so I asked if I could leave my name and number for her since I found her purse in the parking lot. She called her manager who called the loss prevention dude because the two girls thought I should leave it there with them. I wasn't about to do that. It would get stashed somewhere and I know they are busy so it wasn't guaranteed that they would have time to try and contact her. And since I found it in the parking lot I thought there was a good chance that she never even made it into the store and so wouldn't think to check there. The loss prevention dude couldn't have cared less, so I walked out with the purse.
Once home, I rifled through it and found a clue. This clue led me to believe she worked at Thanksgiving Point. First, Matt looked up her name and address and found me a phone number to try. By the message it didn't sound like it was her number but I left a message anyway. Then I looked up Thanksgiving Point. There are 47 phone numbers for that place.... Which to choose.... I chose wisely and the first person I spoke to knew her and took my number to give to her. She called right away and came to pick up the purse. When she got here she told me she didn't even go to Kohl's... Like I thought. I'm glad I stuck to my gut instinct and kept it with me. Agatha Christie would have been so proud of my investigative skills!
She was really nice and gave me some passes to the tulip festival. We are so grateful to have been able to go for free. I think we'll have to make it a yearly event. Though it would have cost us a pretty penny to get 6 of us in there. I'll start saving now for next year, or maybe I'll find her purse again! Be sure to look below at the pictures I took. And then scroll down even farther to see my brother Peter and his fiance, Whitney, rolling down the grass amphitheatre. It's kinda weird.....

Tulip Festival - A Photo Essay

Rolling at the Tulip Fest

The Graduation Girl

My mommy graduated from BYU today!!! She earned a Bachelors of Arts in English and a standing ovation from the Faculty, who know and love her because she is their Graduate Secretary. She walked with the students she works with from the College of Health and Human Performance. Well done, Mother.

If you would like to read a fun post about my mom go here.

Convesations with a Four Year Old

4yo: Is today tomorrow?
Me: It was yesterday.
4yo:Why do people have different germs?
Me: Because they touch different stuff and live in different houses.
4yo:Do you and Sam have the same germs?
Me: Some of them.

Sometimes I can see the wheels in her head turning.

My mind wanders.

This morning, I hung out in my bed trying to avoid the start of another day. I busted out my library book, Murder On The Orient Express by Agatha Christie. The main character's name is Hercule Poirot* and he is from Belgium. I'm pretty sure they speak French in Belgium. I'm not sure how to pronounce the name. It shouldn't be a problem for me since I'm not reading the book out loud but I-read-every-word. Some people can skim and understand, some people don't have to say the words in their head as they read.... That's not me. I read every word and say it in my head and then the book plays out in my head like a movie. But I stumble every time I get to this name. In my head I've been saying Hercule (her-Q-lee) like the Greek guy - Hercules only without the S. And Poirot (Pair-O) like that dude with the tiny head and big ears named Ross who tried to run for President way back when. Or, maybe he did actually run.... I don't know.
As I read and stumble my mind wanders and I stop thinking about what I'm reading, even though I continue to read and eventually find myself three pages on and no idea what's going on. I back track and read it all again, sometimes finding that my mind has wandered again, probably triggered by the same phrase in the book as the time it wandered before.
Today as I thought about this strange name I started to think about my own. Specifically my maiden name because I have always thought it an odd name and Becky and I recently had a conversation in which she expressed surprise that we aren't the only Algers in the world. There are others and we don't know how we're related to them. I was wondering where it came from.
So I busted out the baby name book. (OK, I confess, I made Sam bust it off the shelf because I wasn't ready to get out of bed. And I'm lazy.) 35,000+Baby Names by Bruce Lansky. (We bought it for around 50cents at a garage sale way back when I was pregnant with Sam. Why? I don't know. We didn't use it to name him. And why do we still have it? I don't know. Everybody knows we don't get to name babies around here.) (Am I aloud to use parentheses every time my mind wanders during this post?) [I should go to college to find out.(Or at least take a refresher course.)] (Ooooh, parentheses inside of brackets!... tricky!...)
Where was I? Oh, the name book. First, I looked up Julie. It said:
Julie (English) a form of Julia.
So I went to Julia. It said:
Julia (Latin) youthful. A feminine form of Julius. See also Giulia, Jill, Jillian, Suli, Yulia.
OOOH, YOUTHFUL! I like that!
On to my middle name which I get from my Amazing Aunt Alicyn. Of course this spelling version isn't in there. In fact, what ever you do, don't google it. It's just not appropriate. So, I went to:
Alison, Allison (English) a form of Alice. See also Lissie.
Alice (Greek) truthful. (German) noble.
And then listed below, among others, Alicyn! Yay!
Truthful and Noble.... I like that.... (HEY! I confessed about saying I busted the book out when it was really Sam who did it.)
On to the last.
Not there... Oh, I'm in the girl section...
Here it is:
Alger (German) noble spearman. (English) a short form of Algernon.
Algernon? Great. Remember that book they made you read in Junior High called Flowers For Algernon, and it was about a mentally handicapped guy who is scientifically experimented on to be made smarter because hey, it worked on the mouse, and then the mouse dies and so you know whats coming for the guy.... Yeah, I remember it too. And with a last name like Alger, in JUNIOR HIGH, those are a few weeks I'd like to forget. Thank you very much. Anyway.
Algernon (English) bearded, wearing a moustache.
OK, NOW I'M JUST MAD!** WHY ARE WE HERE?! TALKING ABOUT THIS?!

* I asked my beautiful,brilliant, and bilingual employer how to pronounce it this morning when she dropped off her baby. She said it's HERR (emphasis on the first part)Qul (spoken gently) the E is silent. I have been pronouncing Poirot correctly with the silent T, but it sounds so much prettier when she says it.
** If you know what's good for you, you won't tell me that you clicked here.

The Fallen Tree

Thanks to one of my awesome neighbors there is a picture of the snow and damage.

Photo courtesy Erin Hughes. Thanks!

Fooshnicken Cold Spring Break

We tried to feed the ducks but it was too cold for most of them (the ducks I mean).
Even after we took shelter in the pavilion, it was still too cold for the mom's and the babies.
But it wasn't too cold to get a Sasquatch sighting.... Is that Sasquatch?

It sure moves, sounds and smells like Sasquatch.

Despite the cold it was fun and we have vowed to go back to the beautiful park on a warm and sunny day in the near future.

The next Day:
What is Wrong with this picture?!!!!!!!

It only got worse from here. On Thursday we woke up to over 7 inches of snow. It was heavy wet snow and it took down hundreds of branches all over American Fork. As far as I noticed our neighbor hood lost one whole tree and several branches. Sorry no pictures of the destruction.

Nominate Me

Okay, so maybe I'm starting to take my own blog too seriously..... Or maybe I want a free laptop and a new blog design by thepixelboutique.com. I think we can all agree I need both. Those are the awards for the grand prize winner of The Mother Of All Bloggers Contest, plus the Mother's Day lead story spot on Momlogic.com. To be eligible I need 10 nomination by April 19th at 11:59pm. If you feel I am deserving of such a nomination or such fabulous prizes please visit my profile in the Momlogic Community and write your nomination on my wall.

Once I have 10 nominations it will all be up to a panel of judges, who I'm sure are super smart and witty people, as well as beautiful and charming.

The Egg Survived!

It was a beautiful day. I charged the camera battery to be sure to catch all the great shots, loaded up the kids, and left a few minutes early to get a good spot. We arrived just as Sam and his class were walking out with their chairs. I busted out my camera as soon as the janitor started up the ladder with the first basket of eggs. I snapped a picture so we could remember every part..... CANNOT RECORD..... NO MEMORY CARD....

I had left the memory card in the computer. I'm not kidding when I tell you that I started to cry. This is why the update to The Egg story has been delayed. I had to get over the emotional trauma of not getting the awesome pictures I had in mind. Luckily, Sam's sweet teacher had her camera and she got a great shot of Sam holding his Egg triumphantly. She promised to email it to me. I'll post it when she comes through.

Below is a picture of Sam on Easter Sunday with his Great Grandma Bea. She came to our house for some Easter Dinner.

We hope you had a wonderful Easter full of love, worship and the Spirit testifying of the Miracle of Eternal Life.

The Boy and His Egg

This is The Egg.

This is the Boy and his Egg!The Boy Loves His Egg.

But the school was having an EGGSTRAVAGANZA and told all the children to protect their eggs so they wouldn't break when dropped off the school roof. The Boy and his BEAUTIFUL MOTHER got to work protecting the BELOVED Egg.They wrapped it in 25 pieces of two ply Puffs Plus which contains more soothing moisturizers than ordinary tissues. They Gently taped the tissues around The Egg. Then they transferred the other 16 eggs left in the carton over to the "egg holder" in the refrigerator door. (They rarely use this "egg holder" because inevitably an egg or two will roll out and fall to it's demise every time the door is yanked open by a starving person looking for something to eat. Which is pretty often around here.) Once the carton was empty, they cut out a couple of the choicest pieces and gently taped them around The Egg.
The Boy decided that the Scooby Doo bucket acquired from Carl's Junior several years ago would be the perfect vessel of protection for The Egg. But, of course, not without a soft bed of Easter Grass to lay upon.

And, of course, a soft blanket of Easter Grass to cover and protect.

The Boy went to work decorating the sides of the bucket, because we all know that Scooby Doo is the perfect decoration for a Halloween Egg Vessel, but not an Easter Egg Vessel.

It says: BY SAM MISS.G (yes he put the period before the G - He's so cute!)

HAPPY EASTER BONSI!

By this I think he meant:

ban⋅zai 

–interjection
1.(used as a Japanese patriotic cry or joyous shout.)

2.(used as a Japanese battle cry.)
–adjective
3.leading to likely or inevitable death; suicidal: a banzai attack by Japanese troops in the last days of World War II.

That (I guess) is exactly what The Egg will be screaming as it is dropped from the school roof in this: The Finished Product. (Do they even celebrate Easter in Japan?)

The Boy and the Finished Product

Tune back in later to see how our friend and loved one - The Egg fared.

Mine smell like roses.

One evening, someone, who shall remain nameless, farted. (OK, it was me.) About one second later Sam, who was sitting right by me, and I got up to get some ice cream. We walked by Matt on our way to the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, Sam whispered to me, "Mom, I carried your fart over to Dad so he would have to smell it."

I said, "How did you carry it?"


"I held it in my nose until I got by Dad and then I blew it out towards him."

The Post in which I type the word "Titty"

Sam walked over to me and said, "Mom, what is this called?" He then proceeded to give himself a titty twister.

A little surprised, I said, "What do you think it's called?"

"A boob twister?"

"No, it's called a titty twister."

"Charlie* gave a twitty twister to Diego* today at school."

I laughed a little and then explained to him that that is red flag touching and I better not ever find out he does that to people.

He asked, "If it's red flag, then why did you laugh?"

"Because you said "Twitty"! Ha Ha!"

*The names have been changed to protect the innocent - except for Sam because we all know he's not.

I Love General Conference!

If you're not sure what this is about and would like to know more, click here.

Repetition

I am not a fan of repetition. I don't like repetitive conversations, repetitive noises, repetitive touching, etc. (Even that sentence was too repetitive for me.)

For the last two days Sam has been singing the same thing over and over.

Sung to the tune of Black Sabbath's Iron Man:

"I am Ice Cream Man,

Runnin' over fat kids

In my van."

At first I was intrigued by this little ditty.Unfortunately, he doesn't know anymore of the lyrics so he keeps repeating this over, and over.

Book Order

Sam brought home a book order today. He circled the books he wants, which I don't think he has done before. I liked to order books when I was a kid, but I don't remember getting to order that often. But I do remember that my mom signed me up for Sweet Pickles which was a book club that sent me a new book every couple of weeks or once a month. I loved that.

Here are the books Sam circled, the description, price and my feelings about his choice. (Just because I know you're dieing to know.)

Ferocious Sharks - See inside a Great White's jaw, get a close-up look at the weird hammerhead, and more! $5.00 Not worth five bucks.

The Bailey School Kids: Vampires Do Hunt Marshmallow Bunnies - A Vampire is sucking sugar out of all the candy in Bailey City! Will the Easter Egg hunt be ruined? Comes with Glow In The Dark Fangs! $3.00 Sounds like a fun book but I'm pretty sure he just wants the fangs.

Fingerboard Tips & Tricks - Make this Mini skateboard (for your fingers) do eight AWESOME ticks! Includes Fingerboard, 2 Sets of Extra Wheels, Mini-Wrench, Mini-Screwdriver, 2 Extra Screws, 2 Extra Rivets, and a 32-Page Color Booklet. $8.00 Forget it. Nobody needs a skateboard for their fingers. At least an actual skateboard can get you somewhere. Where are your fingers going that they need a skateboard to get there.

Barack Obama: Our 44th President - The first biography for kids of the newly-elected President of the United States! $6.00 Let's wait and see if he does anything in the White House worth reading about.

Transformer Workbook Set - Transform your reading skills! Tons of activities and reward stickers, too! 2 Full-Color Workbooks-Only $8.00 Workbooks? So, let me get this straight. You want me to buy you extra homework?

iCarly: iWanna Stay! - Carly and Freddie get trapped in Miss Briggs' house! $4.00 Probably because they were doing something either disobedient or disrespectful. No way. (Small rant: What is up with Nickelodeon and Disney Channel and their tween shows teaching my kid how to be disrespectful to grown ups? I'm on to the them.)

Wizards of Waverly Place: Spellbound - Rotten Gigi is planning a trick on Harper-so Alex uses her magic to get Gigi first! $5.00 First, I find it interesting that a Nickelodeon book is worth and whole dollar less than a Disney Channel book. Second, see above rant.

Since I vetoed all of his choices, I'll offer to get him the $1 book - Horrible Harry Bugs the Three Bears.