Oh, the Places You Will Go...

by Dr. Seuss
Congratulations
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You're on your own....

We visited Grandma and Grandpa at their farm yesterday. Crew is going to love summer this year. I followed him around the farm pretty much walking and wandering and meandering. He was loving every minute of it and I thought of the Dr. Seuss book, "Oh, the Places You Will Go". We don't own it... maybe we should.
Today, we started our second week of baseball. I love baseball! Unfortunately, I was all tied up in knots over it last week when I came to the realization that the teams were clearly stacked. Things are getting evened out a bit and I think S is having fun! Really, I hope they win a few 'cause I'm not sure I can stand another season of solid losses.

We live in a gorgeous part of the country- don't we!

MOTHERHOOD

Honestly, Mothers Day has never been a favorite of mine. I've noticed this year, from reading various blogs, that I am not alone. Typically, we mothers go to church where we hear well scripted talks on the "IDEAL mother" and are left feeling inadequate in one way or another. Last night when talking to my husband, I declared that maybe I would make it a tradition NOT to attend church on mothers day. We laughed about it because we both know that it would never happen.

Much to my surprise, our Sacrament Meeting talks were not focused on THE MOTHER and at the end of the meeting the Bishop got up and explained that he had been instructed to be careful in choosing speakers. In a round about way, I got the impression that he decided NO talks on mothers is better than leaving someone hurt in some way.

One of my favorite blogs, How Can I Keep From Singing, shares her thoughts on losing a child and how "this" day can sometimes only bring pain. Since moving here I've become good friends with three individuals. One who lost her 6-year old daughter, one who lost her mother, and one who's mother is in a mental hospital. I mourn for them... I really do. Yet, with all their pain I know that they do find great joy in their individual journeys as Mothers... as do I.

Being a mom has always been top on my dream list and my most satisfying and rewarding role in life. Motherhood is hard but equally fulfilling- for me. I loved BlackEyedSue's perspective on having children in the home so I stole her idea for today.

Children live here....

FOR WHICH I AM GRATEFUL!

Little Sis is a Graduate!

D is the youngest of my six siblings and she graduated with her Bachelors degree this last Saturday. Yippee... all seven of us have completed college!

There was no way I was going to drag my 3 boys to the actual graduation but we did manage to attend the family picnic:) LOL.

Dallin- my cute nephew who doesn't know his Aunt Mel very well... but hey, he's warming up!

D and our Daddio.

S and my hawt sister-in-law, K!

Oh, and I just had to take a picture of my 6'6" little brother pushing Crew in his wheelchair so I can have a break. I love my brother!

And last but not least... good lookin' H with some cake on his face.

RUNNING 4 THE KIDS

Saturday was a busy day... we started off bright and early with the Primary Childrens Medical Center benefit run.

All three of us got a PR. H ran the mile (7:30) and S and I ran the 5K (25:58 and 26:40).

S and I ran together for about the first half of the race and then he pulled away from me. I followed about a block behind for the rest of the way.

It was fun... really really fun. We will be running more races this summer. For whatever reason, Carl is going to start training for the 4th of July 5K. Maybe he's getting the running bug too:)

P.S. the picture is horrible... one can never find any shade at these events:)

Eleven

S is my May baby. We celebrated his Eleventh Birthday last week!

The family enjoyed dinner at Wingers and we surprised S with his very own Shuffle... which I will probably steal a time or two. LOL.














S took his friends to the driving range. Some of the boys hadn't ever been before but I was impressed with how quickly they caught on. After that they played basketball and ate cupcakes. Ten and Eleven year old boys are easy to please:)

2nd Bloggiversary

It's been two years and 300 posts since I started this blog. Thanks for sticking with me through all of this. I've enjoyed getting to know so many great bloggers worldwide. You have uplifted and inspired me in ways you will never know.

I'm going through a really hard time right now and it feels like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. Leave me a comment... if you will:)

WE did it!

S and I have been in this together since he was a WOLF. Tonight, he earned his Arrow of Light. As a Webelo, he also earned 19 out of 20 badges. I'm a little bit sad to have him move onto 11-Year Old Scouts. I will miss having him in Cubs.

Ah, but the truth of the matter is... Scouting has just begun:)

Bragging Rights

For those of you who have never met S, let me tell you that he is an amazing kid! I really can't take credit because he is just one of those blessed with some really neat traits.

His Sunday School teacher can't talk to me without mentioning how impressed she is with him and his classmates. They are excited about the Gospel and quite knowledgeable for such youngsters.

Last week was the school Pentathalon. S competed in the 40-yard dash, 400 meter, High-Jump, Long-Jump, and Shot Put. Overall, I think he was disappointed in his performance which is really quite silly if you ask me.

Grandma took it upon herself to let S drive their 4-wheeler. Um yah, whatever happened with asking the Mom. I'm not sure I'm ready to let him grow up like that. He seems to young to operate such things...

Tomorrow night, S will receive his "Arrow of Light" award which is Cub Scouts highest achievement. Yeah, for you S!

The Next Step

Crew had his 2-month follow-up visit with the Ophthalmologist to see how the patching went. Unfortunately, it didn't. I wasn't able to keep the patch on long enough to make a difference and his right eye is still turning in. The Dr. prescribed an eye drop in place of the patch. One drop in his left eye each day... causing his good eye (the left one) to become blurry which forces the right eye to work harder. Oh, and his left eye is constantly dilated too. How sad is that!

We are on day two of the drops. He seemed fine with it today. I'm sure everything will be all right- I really just hate holding him down to administer the drop. We follow-up again in a month. The Dr. is talking eye surgery again but for now we just need to get those eyes straight.

He's coming along with the walker. Tonight I had to pry his fingers off the handholds to get him in bed. LOL. Last summer he couldn't move the thing through the grass and now he's climbing rocks. What a boy!

Oh, the rock pile is a work in progress. Hopefully, I'll be posting pictures soon of our latest attempt to improve the backyard.

Southern Utah Getaway

My big sis, Sheri, had some work to do in Southern Utah and I tagged along. It was great to get away without children and do something for myself.

We drove down on Thursday and she worked for a few hours. We decided to go to dinner with her co-worker, who recommended a family owned Hawaiian Restaurant but for some reason it was closed. We decided to try a new place in town called "Orleans Cafe". When the menu came we were surprised at the prices and the menu led me to believe that the portions would be large... so Sheri and I decided to share an entree'. I'm so wishing I had my camera there so I could have taken a picture. Our $22.00 meal came and there were 5 shrimp, some veggies and a small piece of garlic bread. LOL. We left that place starving:) I was really glad that we split it because the food totally wasn't worth the money and I would've been mad at myself if I had spent that much.

A couple hours later, Sheri and I went to Chiles because what we really wanted was to share a plate of fajitas. We ordered it "to go" and told the cashier we were so grateful to get some "real food" because we had just been to dinner and were still hungry. She was so cute- gave us free drinks while we waited and extra tortillas to go with our fajitas. Ah, I'll have to say I enjoyed every single bite while watching TV in our hotel room. I'm not a TV watcher but I did enjoy the time in front of the tube.. eating good food and enjoying time away.

On Friday morning we found a fun park with a paved trail. After I dropped Sheri off at work I changed into running clothes and took a little run. Its been months since I've gotten outside to run and I loved every minute of it. The scenery was beautiful with a little river running alongside the trail, waterfalls, and gorgeous red rock. The trail was 2 miles up and 2 miles back with little hills here and there.

Later in the day we spent several hours hiking in Snow Canyon. I had never been there before and I loved it. The weather was perfect and it felt really great to get out moving. I think Sheri wanted to do another four mile hike but at that point I was getting tired. We checked out the Tuachan Amphitheatre but there wasn't anything playing at the time and added it to our list of things to do next time.

The rest of our trip was spent at the outlets and IKEA. I loved every minute of our getaway and will definitely be doing it again... and I'm not waiting another 15 years:)