Olympic Gymnastics Gone Wrong?

I am annoyed and angry for those amazing girls on the USA girls gymnastics team who are being judged very unfairly in Beijing. Watching the girls a couple nights ago in the All-around finals and then tonight watching last nights vaulting finals, I can't help but wonder if there is something jaded going on in that judging panel. At first, I thought, maybe I'm just an unexperienced eye in this and there is more to what they are judging. But after I had thought something was done wrong in the judging, the more experienced commentators make the same comments and are mad themselves, I felt like I had in fact seen something go wrong in the judging. I wonder, if one of the higher up judges had not gone over to the panel of judges in the all-arounds, would Nastia and Shawn been in gold and silver? I don't know. Something seemed to be in the Chinese favor over USA even though the Chinese keep making mistake after mistake. And my heart just aches for Alicia tonight who lost a medal, even though she had superb execution and landing on the vault, and every other person who competed stepped out of bounds, fell on their knees, missed a hand on the vault, and THEY get placed above her?!! It's just wrong and it makes me mad. In my mind, Alicia was the gold medalist tonight, I'm just so sad for her...

Anyway, my apologies for those who aren't as into the olympics as I am and may not know what I'm talking about. I love the summer olympics, this has been such a fun week to watch these amazing athletes do amazing things. They make me want to be better and do better at everything! This week they have round about inspired me to be a better mom, do more and be better in music and keeping a clean house. But it makes me so sad to see something maybe political or maybe just bad judges, making mistakes that cost young girls their dreams which they rightfully deserved to win.

It's War.

This is the Enemy: The Squash Bug.

This is the location: My Garden.
As you can see they are breeding and moving very quickly! I want them all DEAD!

If you have never had to deal with squash bugs before, let me fill you in. They are the smelliest, most nasty garden bug I have ever seen. I came home from Utah last week and found my squash, all dead. My canteloupe trying very hard to survive. And I found THOUSANDS, and I really mean thousands, of these tiny nasty bugs and their offspring everywhere. Some have told me to just give up. Its the end of the 1st summer season here in Phoenix, but I have one canteloupe vine still very green, with many little budding canteloupe on it, and one near ready to pick. So I am fighting for them! The past three days I have spent filling jars full of these nasty bugs and pouring nasty chemicals on them and then leaving them in the sun to boil to death. Today, however I got tired of my hundreds of slow dying pests, so I plucked them off by the handfuls and stomped on them. And another interesting fact about these bugs, they let off the most horrific smell when stepped on, and turn into a greenish gel (some have been bright red, I've wondered if they were the breeding ones), almost like an alien for of some sort that turns into green goo when it dies. Amelia came over to me and said, "mommy, what are you doing?" and before I could come up with an answer, she said "are you dancing?" I said, "yes Amelia, I'm doing the squishing dance." She however, didn't want to join in my dance. If anyone out there knows of a better way to get rid of this nasty pest, please let me know. I did some brief research and found that NO pesticides will pennitrate to kill this one, basically everything I read said squish em till their dead. So that's what I have been doing. And anyone who knows me, knows that I am very squeemish about touching bugs of any kind. But like I said, THIS IS WAR!!!

Water Babies

We spent the last two weeks in swimming lessons, and let me say it was the best Arizona summer investment ever spent. Lucy loves water, always has, but I needed guidance for not getting nervous whenever my baby tried something new in the pool. And Amelia fed off my nervousness when she was small I'm sure, and was scared to get her head in the water. So I had a goal for swimming lessons and that was to get us all more comfortable around water. It's a necessity here in Arizona with constant 114 degree weather, you gotta spend the day in and around water to stay cool! We went swimming tonight at our neighbors house for family night and, GOAL MET! Yea! Lucy is now TOO comfortable in the water (I had to jump in after her fully clothed after she dove into the water before the rest of us!), but she has learned to kick, paddle, pull herself up on the wall, float and we found out LOVES to be thrown into the deeper parts of the pool. Dallan sat out because of his dental visit earlier today, so he'd throw her in, she'd go under and I'd catch her. She was all smiles and swam frantically back to Dallan to do it again. I was so proud and amazed watching Amelia swim around, jumping in, going under the water. Swimming lessons were the best money ever spent!

Little Girls and their Dolls

I love having little girls. They are so loving, so motherly right from the start. Today at church someone was impressed when they heard Lucy say "baby" quite clearly. Let me just say, she's learned from her sister, we love babies! Lucy got her very own doll for her birthday and she loves to feed it, to give it kisses, and have us give it kisses. She hugs it, pats its back, takes wet wipes and gives her baths. It's so fun to see her and Amelia nurture their little dollies. In the picture of Amelia in the stroller, that is Binky Dolly in her very own carseat, and yes, Amelia is shading Binky Dolly from the sun using a map of the Botanical Gardens! Lucy's baby is yet to be named other than Lucy's Baby. We'll let you know when it gains its identity further. (Be sure to watch the video at the bottom. It's quite cute...)

One of those weeks!

Well, in case you were wondering, the week didn't improve. I love playing the oboe. But sometimes I just have to ask myself, why am I doing this? Why do I keep playing? Every time I have an opportunity to play, it seems to follow the rule "when it rains, it pours". Christmas, Easter, ect are very high in music job opportunities, so I can usually anticipate those busy seasons, prepare for them, but they are still stressful. This week was a fluke in the system for me, busy off-season. I have started playing with a woodwind nonet, and our first concert was this afternoon in a beautiful cathedral in downtown phoenix. About two weeks ago I agreed to also do a musical production of Secret Garden, which meant I had dress rehersal with the nonet Tuesday, dress rehersals for the musical Wednesday and Thursday (with two different casts) and performances Friday, two on Saturday, and the nonet today. On top of that I had previously scheduled for Amelia to have her 3rd year photos to be taken as well as an updated family picture Saturday morning. AND swimming lessons every morning except Friday this last week and next. Just CRAZY, CRAZY schedule. And then on top of all of that... Dallan mentioned Thursday night he has had a major toothache all week, but hasn't said anything because there wouldn't have been time to do anything about it with work and everything else going on. By last night he couldn't move, and described the pain as a 10 on the pain scale. Drugs didn't help at all yesterday, but I was gone all day, he had to take care of the girls all day, so it was a really rotten day for him. We got cute pictures though, on the bright side... I just want to cry! I love to play my oboe, I love to take these opportunities, but everytime I do my family suffers. (Dallan quite literally this time). Poor Amelia got sent to time out in nursery for kicking another child today. She is never a violent child! She just reacts so badly when there is stress in our home, I know thats why she reacted to whatever, like she did. Is it worth keeping this talent, this passion of mine, while raising my family? How do other people do it, keeping something they hold dear to their heart while keeping up with family, home and children? And this is something I feel like I need to keep, my music I mean. I just need to find a way to balance and deal with the stress better. Anyway, Dallan is going to a dentist tomorrow, I'm vowing to let my house go to the pits this week, at least while kids are awake, and see if I can't renew some stability in these poor little girls lives (and my own).

One of those days

Have you ever just had one of those days where you wish you could crawl in a hole and hide from responsibility? Today's one of those for me. Everything that has gone wrong has. We had a tire blow out on our van last night. Dallan was taking his scouts hiking and on their way, it blew. The saddest part, was we were already needing new tires on our other car and it was in my plans today to take that car in and get those tires. Not knowing a lot about tire replacement, Dallan and I forgot that you have to replace two at a time, they won't just sell you one. So today we had to buy four new tires. Ugh! I really have a love/hate relationship with cars. Gas is so pricey its hard to go anywhere, but without a car I don't know how I'd manage, and THEN there are the repairs, insurance, blah blah blah... the costs feel endless! This week is already crazy for me, so Dallan decided to take the cars in for me allowing me to keep the girls on their schedule, get them to and from swimming lessons, and hopefully just have an easier day. I'm playing in "The Secret Garden" at Chandler Gilbert Community College this week and next, tonight being my first rehersal with them. It was supposed to be quick to get all the tires replaced, but the place Dallan took the car of course was out of its specific tires, so they sent him to another store further away from his work to get it. So his morning was shot, he will most likely get home in time to high-five me out the door, and now I'm feeling guilty for pawning that responsibility off on him. Ugh! Money, Time... there is never enough of either one. And the painful realization of responsibility and choices made and their consequences is just rough some days. Se la vi.

Happy Birthday Little Buckethead!

Happy Birthday Amelia! My little girl is 3 years old today. I can't believe I have been a mom for 3 years. You know, its interesting celebrating an oldest child's birthday, its a celebration of survival for the parents as well. Hooray! We survived 3 years of parenthood and our children are still alive! Anyway, I think (THINK being the optimal word in this sentence) I'm going to enjoy having a 3-year old. It was fun today to have her truly recognize it was her birthday. She's always been so smart and quick with thinking and words, but for some reason she seemed older in her dialogue this weekend. For instance, at dinner tonight, we were all so hungry and tired Dallan and I started eating and forgot to talk. Don't worry, Amelia reminded us. She said, "I know! We could talk!" Wow! What an amazing idea. So she started a conversation and we talked about nursery and she informed me she had pretended to be a puppy and the lady told her to not be a puppy anymore. Or like last weekend, we went to Wilcox AZ to visit Dallan's sister and Amelia got to have a sleep-over with her cohort in crime cousin Meghan. We caught those two at 3 in the morning chatting about the dreams they had had and about our kitty Tula, and who knows what else. But those are such big girl things to do, my little girl is no longer a baby in any way. I love how smart she is, how grown up but yet childlike she feels, I absolutely love the conversations we have. I have learned so much from that little buckethead, I'm very grateful to have her as part of my family and to have her be my oldest. She is truly the best big sister in the world to Lucy. Anyway, enjoy the pictures from all our birthday festivities!
Since her birthday was on Sunday, we told her she could invite a couple friends over on Saturday for cake. She said "five friends". So we told her to start naming that many friends and she named "Max, (we insert his mom's name and brother), yeah, and Ashlyn (we insert her mom and brother) yeah." Ok! Five friends! This is Amelia with Timothy and Ashlyn Laughlin, her favorite girlfriend.

At Amelia's request, a pink cake, with pink frosting with a mother bird and her babies in a nest! Voila! I thought I did pretty good!


Best quote of the night, "Look mom, I'm dressed as a shoebox!" A box still proves to be the best present a kid can get. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! The toys inside are pretty fun too.