thanksgiving 2011

Wednesday evening, I was grateful to spend time with Sam in the kitchen. I was making stuffing and pear and jello salad. He was working on his Twin Peaks Cherry Pie.  Wednesday day we took care of two kids with cavities at the dentist, lost lots of time at Wal-mart, something else there must have been as well, I felt tired and discouraged by the end of the day.  I prayed that I could know just one thing I could do to make the kids' life better. I prayed to understand what is life about anyway. What is just one thing that makes life worthwhile.  So the answer came the next day, as answers do in small ways. 

Cousins.

We were excited and grateful to see Raines cousins we haven't seen for a while,

and  Grandma Julia and Great-Grandma Hammond who was visiting from Arizona. There were so many cousins Grandma Julia decided to hold dinner at the church. Grandma Martha came with us too.  Then some of the kids came back to our house with a few of the Mangum cousins, and Bethany and Ben went to the Mangum house to spend time with Alex and Samantha and accompany Kayla to a midnight Black Friday laptop run.  Friday we all met up again at Trafalga in Lehi. Another chance to use our Pass of All Passes.

Grant and William played miniature golf with Sam.

friday clinic

Yesterday was my first day of Friday clinic.  I don't know why we were all so terrified.  Now that we are third quarter students, ten or so of us were selected to attend on Fridays with the clients who bother to set up appointments.  I guess we were intimidated by a more discriminating public.  Didn't turn out to feel any different than Saturday, but it did give me cause to think about the quotation by Eleanor Roosevelt "Do one thing every day that scares you."  What to do today?

Here is a picture of the mountains that I am  grateful to see every morning as I walk into school.  They remind me so much of Ecuador.

I felt  grateful when I got my Friday clinic letter. Honestly, I don't know if I am a very good therapist at all. I have shaky hands. Everyone who knows me notices that in about five minutes. And I have never really been a hand coordinated person anyway, if I were I would be a pianist and I wouldn't be here at all, right? I'd be off at Julliard...maybe.  But I put my best into the ten weeks of Saturday clinic. Didn't sleep at all Friday nights, sat up every half hour to check the clock, worried I would sleep through my alarm and miss my early morning shifts. I always showed up an hour before start time because I was so eager to see another human being after a night of insomnia. So I tried my best, raced through my breaks, tearing off sheets, wiping down the table, racing down the hall for the next client.  And here I am sometimes still wondering why I am doing this, but seeing God's hand in it all enough to reassure myself that it is where I belong for now.

The hard part about Saturday was waking up at four-thirty in the morning, doing five massages in five hours and then coming home to a stir crazed family ready to get out and have some fun.  Seven Peaks or the movies.  Here was two weeks ago, back to Trafalga.  I love my kids.  I don't think there is a person alive who loves the Frog Hopper as much as Sam.

Proprioception.

Everything about Mary is year of the monkey. She loves the climbing wall.

Just like Great-Grandpa Alden.

Sam and Caitlin.  Sam is refusing to break at all because he wants to show me the proper way to drive the go-carts.  Apparently I am an embarrassment to the family because the other cars lap me like three times.

Ben and Bethany.

William contemplating Vikings.

Ben

It felt great to do some celebrating last weekend.  Ben turned thirteen.  I'm grateful for Ben in my life.  His help around the house, with the cleaning...my dish expert, with the little kids, his company and charming, fun personality...our music lover and artist... are my survival.  I am grateful for his nightly hugs, one-armed,  teenager, mom-might-have-cooties hugs, but predictably I get offered two or three before bed each night and I love them.

Festivities began the day before at the movies.  The girls saw Judy Moody and the big boys and I saw Super 8.  Sam had been following every bit of  Super 8 Internet news possible for the past year.  We all loved it.  I cried. That's not so surprising.

I was grateful that I happened to have the day off from massage therapy clinic on Ben's big day.  I made the kids help me out with our move preparations in the morning, because I'm mean.  At noon Ben opened presents and then went off to lunch to celebrate joint birthdays with Granddad.

In the evening we used our Pass of all Passes at Trafalga in Lehi.

Judy and Jeremy and the cousins met us there.  They have the Pass of all Passes too, so I'm excited about fun prospects for the summer.

I'm not sure Sam will fit in that boat next time we go.

Quick dinner.

This might look more fun than it was.  After dinner Grandma Martha and I took the kids to Orem Summerfest. We had been watching it go up for days.  We bought a bunch of tickets and stood in a line that was only moving imperceptibly.  Too many people was the consensus so we started back to the van, just as the fireworks began.  Then to find out that I half of my children are terrified of fireworks at close range.  They claimed post-traumatic stress syndrome from living with haphazard Beijing local Chinese New Year pyrotechnics.  We tried to explain that there was surely more mathematical calculation involved with these, to no avail.  So my kids don't all have my carnival loving, firework loving, crowd loving gene. The things I impose upon my children.

We got home late but made time for sparklers and Ben's request, Oreo Pie.  Happy birthday Ben.

trafalga

We bought the Pass of All Passes this year, since I'll be too busy with school to take any road trips (Sadly.  I love roadtrips as much as I love school.)  But here we are at Trafalga.  I had clinic hours in the morning, then after a mid-day house clean up we loaded up in the van and headed here. The Pass of All Passes gets you admission to Trafalga, Seven Peaks, Orem Owls, and Utah Flash games for the year.

Grandma Martha was more addicted to this basketball game than William.  We decided we should never take her to Las Vegas.

William threw his golf club in the pond.

Miniature golf by a freeway.  Reminded me so much of when we lived right next door to Castle Park in Riverside California.  They had a castle themed miniature golf course and roller coasters so all day long I could here people screaming happily.  Sam was fascinated by it but I don't think we ever went in. Probably too expensive to take little ones to.