of dependents and dependency

Three signs that I'm a Disney channel dependent parent:
 1. I have a Jonas Brother of  preference.
 2. I've got Camp Rock , that is Camp Rock Two the Final Jam dance moves.
 3. I have a favorite line from High School Musical....

Some of you already know I'm prone to line-from-movie smattering.  As I said before, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is good for admonishing, while Napoleon Dynamite thrown in at any random juncture keeps my sanity in question--it's important to keep the kids wondering.

So I really feel that it's Ms. Jarvis, not Troy that steals the show in HSM.  I love a movie line that fits naturally into any situation, particularly Ms. Jarvis's  "That's so disturbing. Go see a counselor."

You know it had to said here.

Sam enjoyed terrifying William and Grant when we went out for a preliminary round of Halloween preparation Saturday evening.

So speaking of counseling, I have a beautiful, funny and  wonderful friend who told me that going to see counselors was one of her favorite hobbies, so I decided it would be safe to try, you know for my dependency and other issues.  I now also recommend it.  I should have paid someone to figure me out years ago.

I was feeling both disturbed and disturbing Friday afternoon when I took all four of the at-home kids to Sophie's appointment with the cardiologist.  All three of the big kids were wailing at once, even prompted a friendly couple to try to come to my aid and compliment me on my "childrens' chorus".  But may I say that I love the new Primary Children's Hospital outreach center in Riverton.  They weren't even phased by our noise and clamor.  The nurse was ready with bubbles, movies, a toy to take home for each of them.  Sophie got her pacifier dipped in raspberry syrup to appease her during her first ultrasound and echo cardiogram. She was quite excited to learn about flavors.

I call her small tumor her "heart light" since the little glow on the ultrasound looks more auspicious than ominous.  The doctor said her heart is functioning fine so we just need to come back for another check-up in six months. Perhaps sans siblings.

Friday was a busy day.  We also got to make an appearance in Mary's class for her All About Me presentation.

So what about sanity? What about this crazy house of laughing and crying, and laundry everywhere, and kids wrestling in the laundry, and its always fun until someone gets kicked in the eye, and honey nut cheerios everywhere and William with his hand submerged in the peanut butter jar, and constant debates over who's turn it is to use the laptop? What about that? What kind of citizens will emerge from this existence anyway? I was thinking about that this morning, hoping that they would just be happy to come home for Thanksgiving in ten years from now. That has always been my goal.

So I have a two fold plan 1) That they always leave the house knowing that they are part of a big team who loves and supports them...even if they did have to dig their clean underwear out of a big pile in the living room that Ben called "cozy" anyway.
 And 2) That they do leave the house.  That's the best way I know to get them away from the Disney channel.

antelope island

So what randomly coincided with my last post was this.  I chose to post that Amazon advertisement for Nacho Libre, not realizing that the kids had been downstairs watching it over and over all day, but wondering why they kept saying "I've had diarrheas since Easters..." and laughing hysterically.  They finished up their baths (we do that from time to time) last night and ran down to watch the final wrestling scene, which I have to admit makes me cry.  And then everyone started in on a relatively friendly debate about which did they love more Napoleon Dynamite or Nacho Libre?  It was a tie.  My vote went with Nacho Libre, such great music, beautiful scenery, so many words to live by..."I am the gatekeeper of my own destiny and I will have my glory day in the sun."  But then again, I've found that throwing a random Napoleon quotation into an almost heated discussion like "You're just jealous cause I've been chatting on line all day with babes..." can turn away  my sons' wrath quickly or at least confuse them into submission.

But back to catching up with July...

Tuesday night, July 27, the Raines siblings started to arrive.  We were out in Grandma's yard eating Chinese food from Master Feng's, that used to be Smith's Chinese to me.  I put us out there so we wouldn't have to sweep up the rice.  I didn't buy so much because the kids always complain about Chinese food.  Of course. this time they remembered that they love American Chinese food,  so when I went in to cut up the barbecued pork, which I don't recommend, too authentically Guangzhou tough, they had consumed the lot of it. Big families....I got stuck with the tough pork. That's when Miriam and Bryan and the cousins arrived from Iowa and not too long after, Grandma and Grandpa returned with Don and Myla, who live in Korea now.

So Wednesday morning the coolers and jugs and grocery bags were out early to be packed with fruit and cheese and drink and crackers, loafs of french bread, cookies and things.  We all left, mostly as scheduled, for our excursion to Antelope Island.  I had mentioned that I wanted to go there to Grandma, then Grandpa picked up on the idea and made a kind of pre-Raines-reunion activity out of it, since one of the family ancestors, Briant Stringham, worked on the ranch out there.

The Great Salt Lake from the causeway...

First we went to the visitors center. When we piled out of the van it was so hot, I thought I was going to catch a weather related death and die right there, in my relative young age, like poor Briant Stringham.

William was most impressed by all the buffalo and kept calling them "horsey horsey."

Bethany admired the brine shrimp.

And, of course, Grant was all about the huge spiders outside the visitors' center windows.

Next we drove around Antelope Island to Garr Ranch where Briant Stringham

spent his time. The farm was established in 1848. We were all so grateful to find a beautiful, shaded area to have lunch.

After lunch Kyle announced that he was bored to death, but cheered up when I asked him to go take pictures of the buffalo with Uncle Joe.

Caitlin and her posse of cousins watching the buffalo.

Bethany took pictures in the museum.

Grant took up semi-permanent residence in this old-fashioned trailer.

More of Bethany's pictures

I took William and Grant on a walk to see this truck and farm equipment.

On the way home, Bethany couldn't get enough of her cousin Julianna, Don and Myla's baby.