Ethan in Chicago

Ethan has spent the week downtown attending a day camp at the Shedd Aquarium. He and Scott stayed in a hotel and Scott worked from his downtown office. Noah and I have missed them, but I think they're having a great time. They'll be going to an airshow before they come home Friday night.

Potty Training Videos Can Be Hazardous To Your Health!

In retrospect it was foolish of me to think that 1 or 2 weeks would be enought to potty train Noah. He really is very willing but he honestly just doesn't seem to get it. I'm going to make an appointment with a urologist on Monday to see if anything else is going on. We checked 4 potty DVDs out of the library and Noah has been watching one of them non-stop. The tunes are horrific and catchy. In church today I found myself singing "I'm a hottie for the potty" under my breath. Several people came up to me and asked how the training was going (word has gotten around). I appreciate the concern. Anyone who thinks potty-training shouldn't be a matter of prayer hasn't tried training Noah.

A Great Story

I wanted to post this video but I couldn't figure out how so here's the link. http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4e7679f8a731d6cce58a
It's a story from the today show about an amazing father and son team, very inspiring.

Potty Training

This is it, we're throwing away the pull-ups. After changing diapers for over 11 years I've finally had enough. Those of you who know Noah know that potty-training him is no easy proposition. I've wondered if he even can feel if he needs to go. He's exhibited some signs of readiness (he's dry all night, for instance) but in other ways he seems completely unprepared. He almost never says he needs to go, and he's never done #2 on the pot. There's a woman in Chicago who does consulting, she teaches 5 hour "booty camps" for $250. We spoke with her, but she's booked up until August 16th and I don't think we can wait that long. Plus one of the "testimonials" was less than encouraging (13 days in the kitchen and still not completely trained). So we decided to try it on our own, I'm just planning on staying in the basement until we're done. Noah is now in underpants, and we have 4 potty training DVDs (guaranteed to cause nausea within minutes to anyone over 9). I may be doing a lot of blogging this week, because I don't think I'll be going anywhere. Wish me luck! I may need to be hospitalized after this . . .

My Parents

I have the best parents in the world. Sometimes I take for granted all they have done for me, but I try to tell them and show them how much I appreciate them. The older I get, the more I realize the sacrifices they made for me. My mom is one of the most talented people I know. She can make just about anything - - I remember growing up how teachers would always say how lucky I was to have such an artistic mother. She made so many clothes for me, often staying up all night to finish. I know I wasn't grateful enough at the time, but I am now. (Especially since I don't make any of my kids' clothes and I hardly ever stay up all night doing anything!) My mom also has incredible stamina. She works so hard every day in the house and yard, and like the energizer bunny, she just keeps going and going. I remember when we catered a dinner for OneHeart and by the end of the day I thought I was going to just die from exhaustion. But Mom had been working right along with me and she was still going strong. Of course anyone who can give birth to and raise 6 children has to be pretty tough.

My dad can strike up a conversation with just about anyone. He has an exuberant love for people and they can feel it when they talk to him. I think his job at Ricks/BYUI was perfect for him, because he got to work with people constantly. When he retired I helped put together a scrapbook of letters from fellow employees and students he had worked with and it was wonderful to see how many lives he had touched. Dad is so fun to be with, I love talking to him about everything. He is always supportive of me, and always expresses his love for me and Scott and my kids.

The best thing about my parents is their love for the gospel. It is the center of their lives and the way they live is a beautiful example. They worked so hard to teach their children correct principles, by their actions and their words. I am so thankful for that, and for the fact that our relationship is so loving. I know they've always wanted the best for me, and they've done so many things to make a good life possible for me. As a child I thought all adults made good choices. Now that I'm "grown-up" I see so many other parents and adults making selfish decisions that negatively impact everyone around them. How lucky am I that my parents put their children's needs first - - and realized what those needs really were (not so much material things, but spiritual, intellectual and emotional things). Well I'm ranting and I'm not as eloquent as I'd like to be, but I did want to express my deep love and endless appreciation for great parents. Thanks Mom and Dad!

My Garden

We didn't plant veggies this year because we knew we'd be gone so much. Actually we ended up not being gone as long, so I might plant some now. But I did do a lot of flowers. Here in the front are my pots with bacopa, petunias, superbells, supertunias, osteospermums, begonias, and nemesia. I love the colors. We have a nursery nearby that is just like nirvanah. In the picture on the bottom you can also see my asiatic lilies (yellow, from Costco about 3 years ago) and my green hydrangeas which will turn white later in the summer. My peonies finally bloomed this year, after 3 years of waiting, but unfortunately the blossoms were so heavy that they just flopped over. Next year I plan to use them for cut flowers because they're so pretty and they smell wonderful. The picture on the top shows our back yard. We put in all of those flowers in one morning, Memorial Day (so the yard would look nice for our barbecue). I just ran through the nursery grabbing plants left and right, but we had exactly the right amount and I think they turned out very nicely. Now I have quite a bit of weeding to do but it's been so hot that I've been avoiding it. Also we have very bad mosquitoes this year. But I do love to garden!

Summer (thank goodness!)

School's out! I'm so glad for Ethan's sake, he did not have a great year. He's a good student and a hard worker, but his teacher was terrible. Sarcastic, mean, belittling and unfair. Lest I sound completely biased, let me add that every parent of kids in his class I talked to felt the same. The principal has been contacted several times because of the teacher's behavior. Ethan would get back papers he had written with totally arbitrary corrections on them (seriously, he took off 10 percent once because Ethan hadn't tabbed over far enough on a letter he wrote). Anyway I just hope the experience hasn't soured Ethan on school! Fortunately he is done at the elementary school and is moving on to middle school in the fall. And although his teacher told him, "You're going to drown in middle school" I think he'll do just fine (and Ethan got the last laugh when he was one of only 2 students in his class to receive the presidental academic achievement award).

Now Noah, on the other hand, had a great year at school and was very sad to say goodbye. He loves his teachers and friends so much! I'm really thankful for all the hard work they put into teaching him, and he has really come a long way. He's much more understandable when he talks, he can read quite a few words, he learned to tell time to the half hour and do some basic addition. So we're making progress! He also can write his name and spell "Mom" (best Mother's Day present ever!) Most importantly, he's happy. And we have lots of great activities planned for the summer to keep him busy.