Practice makes Piranha

I can't remember which Howe brother in law use to call me the PE Nazi (Peter, Aaron hey it could of even been Jeremy?). I have the belief that just like academic classes in High School are graded on how well you perform, PE should be the same way. I don't think that a student taking Biology should get an A just because they dressed appropriately and showed up 90% of the time. No it all comes down to tests and a performance of their Biology knowledge, if they can't run a lab test well, they don't get an A for showing up. The same should be for PE, A's go to the kids who perform outstandingly. They win the badminton tournament, they run the mile under 7 min (OK maybe 8 min.) Well maybe my theory has changed a little bit. Olivia my very precocious 5 year old, has wanted to be a Palo Verde Piranha since her sister swam last year on the team. She had yet to swim a 25 without stopping a requirement for joining the swim team. But I had talked to the coach and as long as the team roster wasn't full what would the harm be letting her workout with the team? The coach was on board for letting her participate. The first meet came....and went she didn't compete. But we knew at this point she could do it. The day of the second meet she was really nervous but she said she wanted to do it. It made me nervous watching herself sike up to it. She was to do one event freestyle. She got up looked like she was going to run away and then the buzzer went off and she jumped into the pool and swam her heart out not stopping once to grab onto the lane lines, she was awesome. She finished! She didn't get first but she didn't get last a real A performance. I cried at the finish line because I knew how much she really wanted to be on the team, it was beautiful a real Rudy moment. Once I knew Liv could do it and wasn't in jeopardy of being replaced , I began to recruit for Bella's relay (hey I maybe willing to give an A for effort but I am still competitive). The recruiting was a success. They now have an awesome medley relay and a freestyle relay. Incidentally Bella has an awesome backstroke, she has gotten first place every meet, not that it matters ;)

Not even a shelter dog will stay in this place.

Like every smart house seller should do, we decided to buy a dog. This was not a whim decision. We have for some time wanted to buy an Australian Shepherd dog. They are dogs that need to work, like to run, and are protective and even like to herd children. We think they would be the ideal dog for us when we move out to the land. They will run around with the children and warn them from danger a real Lassie dog. They also like to herd goats and since Suzie and I will be making homemade goat cheese, (look for it in classy health markets), we thought it would be perfect. Anyways, that bread can be expensive so we were delighted to find out that six such puppies were at the Pound. We went down there with the kids to pick out the dog that best fit our family, a social non aggressive one. We decided which one we all liked and ask to be able to play with it in the Pound yard. The Pound lady asks will this be an outside dog. Yeah, we have five acres of land for the little guy to explore. She then says well this is a puppy and it can't be outside for at least 6 months. Then I say well after that it can be outside, right? She says no then it will be displaced because it will have gone from a little cozy house to being thrust outside. Then she says you can go back to the kennels to look for a dog that is primarily an outside dog, look for one with a yellow tag. She wouldn't adopt out the shelter dog to us. The kids were so sad, we had known this was the kind of dog we had wanted. I was dumbfounded are you kidding me? The whole car ride home the kids were so sad and I was fuming. She would rather keep the dog in the Humane Society instead of adopt him out to a loving family. When I got home I called the Humane Society up to ask who they would adopt out the dog too. Unfortunately I got connected to the same ridiculous lady. She said she would adopt the dog to someone who would have it as a primarily house dog. So I tell her that we have researched this breed and they enjoy a job to do and prefer a farm like lifestyle ie a place to roam. She then tells me too many people put their dogs outside and buy them to be a yard ornament. I told her we did not drive all the way to the humane society to buy a yard ornament. Next time I get one of those flyer's in the mail asking me to donate to the Humane Society I won't feel a twinge of guilt when I throw it directly in the recycling bin. I know it is not the best time to buy a dog, but when providence knocks you open the door.........or have it get shut in your face by a mean lady who prefers to spend her days smelling cat urine and wet dog hair than learning how to interact with decent folk.

Ponies and naked girls

I love that Suzie loves summer and some days I do too, but some days it feels like they are twice as long! we don't have a TV hooked up to watch television, we still watch TV but it is on the Internet or we pop in a video. Some days like today I feel like all I am doing is telling my kids to 1)get off the computer 2) get out of the cupboard and 3) stop changing your clothes! On Monday our pool is closed so no swim team, no lessons, great more time to relax, yeah right. Finally I am able to pry the kids off the computer after watching way to much big kid Disney on line and I am happy to see that Olivia is playing with her barbies, Holman desperately wants a buddy to play with so he tries to join in any way he can. He grabs his horses and gallops up to Livvey's undressed barbies who are waiting patiently for a home made dress made out of dish clothes, and Holman says to Liv, "the ponies are watching the naked girls." At three he means nothing by that but let me tell you those barbies are getting some permanent clothes or they are hitting the trash. We don't get live TV in our house to avoid such perversions :) Ahhh the summer boredom......... And yes I have read to my kids today :)

They are great you store them in the dishwasher and they pop out to help!

For some reason our dishwasher doesn't close properly, it is really annoying. You have to close it at just the right force to make it stick. For the life of me I just can't figure out why????

"Sometimes your the windshield sometimes your the bug"

My mother always calls my Dad a blooming genius, more on that later....

Sunday morning after attending my ward choir where I perform my no-talent talent that of singing soprano I got in the car with my boys and headed home. Benjamin had the girls in his car and had beat us home from choir. They were standing in front of the house waiting for us to back in and unlock the front door. As I was backing in I thought to myself "Man I drive really well in reverse" just than my foot slipped and I don't really know what happened and I accelerated right into the front of the house. Full force right into the bricks. I hate those shoes that I was wearing. I bought them on an impulse buy and have regretted my very non characteristic decision of buying them in the first place. Anyways back to the awful wreck. The girls and Benjamin stood by and watched the whole thing absolutely stunned. Benjamin said he was just seconds away from walking behind the car to help me unload, but on an impulse (tender mercy or prompting from the Spirit) he hesitated just long enough to see me accelerate into the house crushing the wall where he would have been standing. Yikes....When you are trying to sell your house it is not good to have your brick wall completely bowed by five inches in the center, also if you have a seating area it is not good to have the seats slanted and on seatable. Benjamin assures me that he is not mad at me for as the girls put it, for almost killing him. He also says he is not mad at me, he is mad at the situation, I don't know how those two can be separated but beggars can't be choosers.

Benjamin took out the non functioning window benches, love that handy man and waited for my dad to arrive to basically save the day. Now for the blooming genius. Dad and Benjamin hauled these massive beams that Dad had had left over from a job site ( before Dad worked for IBM he was a general contractor and apparently a very good one!) . Dad braced the wall with a beam and had another beam in the center with a jack at the end, braced with another beam on the good wall. He basically forced the bowed wall (and bowed windows which amazingly did not break) back into place nearly five inches of movement. The wall looks incredible it still has some unsightly cracks do to well be running into, but we are planning to hire a mason to hopefully replace the bricks. Dad saved us a ton of money and relieved some of my heart ache over my untimely mishap! I think one of the reasons I love Benjamin so much is his ability to do all things handy just like my Dad. Thanks to Dad he gave Benjamin a new thing to add on his list of things he now can do. Blooming genius!

P. S. I wish I would have taken before and after photos but my faith was pretty small I was just at the hoping things would be better stage.

The no-talent talent show

Bella comes home from first grade today and told me about the school talent show that she watched. She said a girl from her class "performed" she tried to do a headstand to a Hannah Montana song. Bella said she was really embarrassed for her. I said well you love Hannah Montana was listening to the song good, she said no because it wasn't really loud, they just had it up a little so she could find the beat. I was totally smiling because I remember all the horrible no-talent talent shows that I was apart of in elementary school ( you know what I am talking about Alex). What were my parents thinking when they let us dance to "You gotta have Faith" by George Michael......I guess it would be nice if I could.....I mean where were they for that one. Bella said another guy attempted to jump rope but he kept tripping. Of all the performances we go to as parents and I miss the talent show. It doesn't get better than an elementary talent show. Don't worry I asked Bella if she told her friend she did a good job, she said of course I did she is still my friend. It starts so young.

A new Career .....

Lindsey with Ryan, baby Owen and her real mid wife

Me the mid wife in training with baby Owen

Lindsey with her crew, it now has 7 members now!

I received one of the most notable tender mercy's of the Lord that I have ever gotten. And it all happened after I turned thirty! To me the definition of a tender mercy is the witness that our loving Heavenly Father knows who each of us are personally and because of that, He knows how to individually bless us in ways that my seem insignificant or not note worthy to other people. But it is His godly timing that lets you know that such events occur because of Divine intervention.
Stated more eloquently by the Apostle Elder Bednar, "Some may count this experience as simply a nice coincidence, but I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord's timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them."

Last weekend I flew up to Utah to go to Women's Conference with Lindsey, I would have just the weekend to bond and be kid free, we both had been looking forward to this for weeks. On Thursday,we attended various uplifting speeches. It was amazing to walk into a stadium full of 15,000 plus women of all ages attending this conference . We took part in a huge world wide relief service project (we loved the assembly line putting together hygiene packets that were getting sent to hundreds of locations around the world). The next day Friday would be the same, speeches service projects that good feeling, but Heavenly Father knew otherwise.

That night on Thursday evening there was a concert for the conference, it was basically a rock concert for mommas, it was great! The last performer commented how earlier performers had moved the audience to wave their cell phones in enthusiasm and how he had never seen the audience do that for him, I turned to Lindsey and said get your cell phone out, She reached down with her pregnant 37 weeks self and leans over to tell me her water broke! Yahoo I would be able to be there for the delivery. After laughing so hard we left the concert and drove back to Bountiful were she lives and almost 19 hours later she gave birth to her beautiful baby boy Owen Ryan Wallace Smith 7lbs 1 oz . Her husband Ryan was gracious enough to let me help coach her natural delivery...yes 19 hours worth! It was like cheering her on in the 2 mile tack meet event or rather our Marathon that we had run together as teenagers. It was great, I cried more than Lindsey and Ryan combined. Heavenly Father knew how special that weekend would be and helped with the timing, seriously one of the most blessed weekends. I even got to cut the cord! I think his name should be Owen Ryan Lesley Smith :) but I will settle for my Scottish heritage in Wallace! Great fun here are some picks. I think I need to go back to school for Midwifery !

PS Suzie got us a great souvenir of the Conference a CD of all the performers and a signed autograph of the last Singer who put Lindsey in a labor! Too Cool!