Mom vs. Daughter--the story of the light blue Converse low-tops

Once upon a time, there was a loving mother and a loving daughter who lived in Ridgecrest.  The daughter was almost done with her school clothes shopping, but she still needed a new pair of shoes.

So the mom, the daughter, and the son drove store to store looking for some decent shoes.  The first stop was at Big 5.  There were some skate shoes there that the daughter thought were pretty cool, but they were FORTY bucks and the mom didn't want to pay for those, so the group kept looking. 

They went to KMart next with no luck, and then the mom decided to stop by Goodwill "just for kicks."  There on the shoe shelves were two pair, size 8 and size 7.5, of light-blue Converse low-tops.

They were the right size, they looked like they had never been worn, and they were $6 each.  Mom thought she heard angels singing.  The daughter thought otherwise. 

She tried to explain to her excited mother that she would NEVER wear those shoes, mostly because she hated the color.  Why get them if she wasn't going to wear them? she said.  She wanted to go back to Big 5 and get the $40 shoes.  And then she said the wrong thing to her mom:  "What if I wore them to school and my friends asked where I got them? or noticed them as the shoes THEY gave to Goodwill?"  (backstory:  apparently the daughter had something like this happen before with a Mickey Mouse t-shirt...da-da-da.)

The mom was appalled.  On so many levels, she was stinkin' mad.  And on so many other levels, the daughter was just as appalled and quietly furious that her mom didn't understand.

The group left Goodwill and went to the grocery store, both parties still fuming.  Mom was having a hard time keeping her cool, the daughter just stared and frowned, the son wondered if the volcano would go off in the middle of the meat aisle.

The daughter was getting desperate--could they please go back to Big 5 and she'd help pay for the $40 skate shoes?

The mom took some deep breaths and said that would be okay.  They went back to Big 5, got the pretty red plaid US Polo Association skate shoes, and went up to the cashier.

The mom handed over her half along with the daughter's $20 and the cashier said the heavenly words,

"The shoes are on sale and only cost $18.22."

Mom was happy.

Daughter was ecstatic.

Son was READY TO GO HOME.



The End. :)

A journey

Last week a couple things came together for me.  I picked up a random Prevention magazine in the podiatrist's waiting room and saw this:

I was so excited about it that I asked the receptionist if I could keep the magazine! 

The second thing that happened was that I got a clean bill of health from the podiatrist that day.  So long as I continue to wear the orthotics during the day in my shoes, plus the night splints for several more months, and don't have any problems, he didn't need to see me again.  This was fantastic news, especially as I thought about the journey I've been on the last few months to end my foot pain!  I floated out of the doctor's office and picked up some heavier weights at WalMart the next day!

So far I've done the weight circuit twice and the treadmill workout for week 1 twice, too.  They are so fun and I feel great afterwards with a good stretch, though a little sore all over except for my feet, which feel great!  :)  My plan is to alternate the weights and the "running" days and only have one rest day on Sunday. 

Who knows how long I'll stick this out.  Or if it will help me lose some weight.  But for however long it lasts, I am loving it!

A very satisfying ending

   

Jason took me to The Dark Knight Rises this afternoon, the "last" in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy.   Bane's continuous neck cracking got a little old, but otherwise I enjoyed every last minute of it.  Thanks, babe!

Baseball and Bed Angels

As part of our mini-getaway last week, we went to a Lancaster Jethawks baseball game Wednesday night.  We had a great time and GREAT seats right behind the Jethawks dugout!  The sunset was amazing, too!  Thanks, Daddy!

Oh, and here's how we stayed entertained while we were waiting to head to the game:

New windows!

Out with the old windows and patio doors...

And in with the new!  We think they look amazing!

The "waterfall windows" were pretty tricky--they had to be installed from inside the house! 

Kudos to Rhiannon and Wade for dealing with all the distractions gracefully.  They managed to entertain themselves this morning by making mummies out of....eachother!  I had to get a picture of that--they were having a pretty good time wrapping the other person up!

A fun family getaway!

We went on a fun family overnighter last week! Wednesday night we drove down to Lancaster for a baseball game, stayed in a hotel, and got up early the next morning to hit Universal Studios. It was a lot more crowded than our first visit in November, but we had a great time! The Transformers 3D ride was GREAT! I'll add more to this post later...this is just a sneak peek. :)

"If you put that on the blog..."

This morning Oscar the dog and I covertly snuck around the kids' bedrooms taking pictures of stuff.  They were fast asleep and I needed pictures for the blog, so it was the perfect set-up!  Someday they can look back at these pictures and remember what they were interested in at the time and fondly remember the Summer of 2012 when Mom let them sleep in a ton!  Hopefully they'll think about that instead of the fact that I was sneaking around their rooms while they were asleep!

You can tell a lot about this picture.  Quackers the Duck has not made it into the "give away" pile yet. 
Homemade blankets are the gift that keeps on giving.  Wade might need a haircut soon. 
And check out that book!  He's been having lots of fun reading through the Harry Potter series again this summer.

Here's me, looking excited and chipper about sneaking into the kids' rooms.  But it also looks like I forgot to wash my face last night, too.

Oscar was being SO quiet on our little adventure.  Gotta love him! 
I also love this picture because of the random church shoe that hasn't been put away yet, and the baby scrapbook on the bed.
Both Rhiannon and Wade dug out all the scrapbooks they have and had a blast going through them yesterday!

Let's see, here I see another gigantic Harry Potter book, evidence that somebody tried dusting lately,
and the list I printed out for Wade of the top 100 movies, ever. 
Saturday night we watched Citzen Kane, reportedly the "best movie of all time." 
I loved it, while the kids hung in there til the bitter end. 

Nice job on your bookshelf, Wade!!!  I love his display of Lego creations and that super-organized
shelf of books.  A boy after my own heart, heh-heh! :)

Top of his dresser.  What's the Easter bucket still doing out?

The little green and yellow thing is a shovel/rake combo from his Burger King kids meal.
We give Wade a hard time about those kids meals, but they just keep pulling him back in! 
And he's having fun with that little tiny computer that Dad got for "free" with a purchase
a long time ago.  Wade loves to play the Pinball game!

On to Rhiannon's room.  She sensed I was in there after I took the first picture and said,
"If you put that on the blog I will kill you."  So....I took this picture instead. 
Oscar loves to sit by her bed on the rare opportunities that he's allowed in her room in the first place!

This hangs above her bed--it's a fun project she did in her history class this past year. 
She said it was a combination of tracing and drawing freestyle.  She was very happy with it!

Rhiannon drew this poster--the idea came from a story she's writing.  Ask her about it!
Oh, and she's underneat the poster, too.  I was scared to take a picture of her face after her first remark. :)

Snare drum, yeah!  Has she pounded on it this summer? 
Yes, but not nearly as much as she's pounded on the piano. 
That girl LOVES to play!  And we LOVE to listen!

Proof that Rhiannon is giving a talk in sacrament meeting next week on lessons from our pioneer heritage.
Thanks, Mom and Dad Sheen, for some family history stories you printed out for us years ago that I found in a binder!
Rhiannon was hooked!  I think those stories also inspired the morning-long scrapbook fest that she and Wade had later, too!

Rhiannon's bookshelf.  I'm not kidding when I say this changes weekly, if not daily.  She is a voracious reader!

Happy Monday!  We're excited for a fun week--we're going on a mini family vacation to a Lancaster baseball game and a day at Universal Studios.  Should be FUN!!!

A very happy 4th of July!

July 4th was a wonderful day!  We got up "early" and headed to the stake center for the annual 4th of July program.  Several children in our stake performed songs and dances to tell about the history of our country.  They did a fantastic job!   It was fun and patriotic with a lot of heart!  Loved it!

(The activity was open to all kids, but ours weren't interested.  And that's okay, because I wasn't in the mood to force them into it, either!  Maybe another year!)

We enjoyed catching up with friends and hung around to help clean up a bit afterwards, and then we headed to the fireworks stand closest to our home and STOCKED UP!

I think Rhiannon's expressions tell it all!  Sparklers are the BOMB!

Driveway fireworks are where it's at!  Thanks, Daddy, for the fireworks show, and
THANK YOU, Howard and Sandi, for sharing your Wyoming fireworks stash, too!

We enjoyed dinner together with Howard and Sandi, visiting, and enjoying the perfect 4th of July weather. 
And check out those layered 4th of July Jell-O squares!  They took a little time to make, but I had a BLAST doing it!

Oh, hello!

This afternoon I was completely relaxed.

Wade and I jumped in the pool, which was finally cooled to just about perfect after being sauna temperature for a couple days.  We hung out while Rhiannon read a Harry Potter book on the patio, Oscar chilled in the grass, and then I got out for a bit.

After pulling a camping chair into the grass, I started tossing balls for Oscar, back and forth, fetch, fetch, fetch.  Rhiannon's reading, Wade's in the pool lounging around, and I'm sitting there in my swim suit.  Soaking the chair with water, tossing balls, enjoying the heat on my back, and marveling as I feel all the stresses and worries of a lifetime ooze out of me.  I put my head back and thought I was going to fall asleep, I was that zoned out and happy!

Then I heard a sound and Wade said, "Hello!"

I look up and there's this random guy in our backyard.  My first impulse was confusion and slight alarm, and then two things happened fast:

1)  Oscar took off after the dude barking like a crazy fool.  He reminded me of the hellhounds in the Percy  Jackson books.

2)  I realized I did in fact know the guy--he was here for our regular pest control visit scheduled for 5 minutes ago.

Boy, did I feel dumb and awkward, standing there in my sorta modest swimsuit, dripping wet, with our dog barking like he's going to take the guy's head off.  Mr. Pest Control was great, just stood there calmly as I got Oscar under control and tried to ignore that I was in my swimsuit.  Thanks, man!

Don't sweat the small stuff?!

It's hot.  It's humid (don't laugh, it's humid for Ridgecrest!).  Which isn't a fun combination in the high desert because evaporative coolers don't work at all.  For 3 days I've been sweating a lot and drinking what feels like gallons of ice water. 

Don't get me wrong, I am VERY grateful for our ancient A/C units that get the job done when we need to run them.  And I'm VERY thankful for the pool, which helps a LOT, especially if I jump in close to bedtime! 

But you know what finally gave me the most welcome relief?  Yard work!  The kids and I got out for a little while this morning and cleaned up the front yard.  I was sweating like a crazy person the whole time, and that disgusting sweat, combined with a nice, cold glass of water afterwards, has taken the edge off big-time!  The human body really is amazing.  I don't feel like I'm having hot flashes anymore, and I can get on with life!

Christmas in July

I had some fun dreaming about Christmas today. A little email from Shutterfly definitely got me in the holiday spirit--10 free holiday photo cards until Sunday!

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Higher education

This is what I've been working on this summer:

Well, it's not a 100% across the board, but I've enjoyed brushing up on some teaching skills.  The biggest thing I've learned is that I still have a lot to learn!

I've also been reading the Book of Mormon steady this week.  I started on Sunday and have 100 pages under my belt.  My goal is to finish it (again) by the time school starts, and so far I'm off to a great start.  I love the Book of Mormon.  It's uplifting and SO APPLICABLE to the lives we live today.  And, best of all, it's TRUE!  Powerful stuff!

Summer reading

I've got a hefty pile of summer reading from the library.  I have NOT been impressed by the Top 100 lists on my Kindle lately, so the library has definitely been getting more of my "business" this summer! :)

Here's what I'm dabbling in right now:

   


and, finally, don't laugh, .....




 I ran across the How To Win Friends book on a substitute teaching blog I check.  First I laughed, I mean, what an over-the-top ridiculous title, right?  I checked it out only for a good laugh.  Well, I'm a few chapters into it now and it is fantastic.  Most "self-help" books I look at are skim-worthy but rarely do I hang on to the very end--I just get bored out of my mind.  But this particular book is fascinating and very, very uplifting. 

Kudos to Mr. Carnegie.  He got it:  "The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don't like their rules whose would you use?"

Where have you been all my life?

Last week Wade and I broke out the ice cream maker that Howard and Sandi had given us.  We tried the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream recipe and discovered that

a)  the recipe made a LOT of ice cream
b)  it called for 6 CUPS of heavy whipping cream...so, yeah, we'll be careful how often we make/eat it!)
c)  it. was. so. good!

Today I made a little batch of this with the ice cream maker:

Strawberry Sorbet from Our Best Bites blog

I'm going to use it as part of our 4th of July "special dessert" tomorrow--YUMMY!  The idea is to put a scoop each of the sorbet and vanilla ice cream over broken sugar cookie pieces, then top with blueberries.  I'm a little excited about it--can you tell?

Here's the link to the recipe on the Our Best Bites blog:

Strawberry Sorbet Goodness

Happy 4th of July!

Cub Scout Camp 2012

Hi, this is Wade.  I'm talking and Mom is typing.

For Cub Scout Camp we shot BB guns, did archery, made picture frames, made rainsticks, tribal masks, did an obstacle course, and played games. 

(What was your favorite thing?)  BB GUNS AND ARCHERY! 

(What was your group called that you were in?)  We were the Burmese Pythons.  We did this cool song called Boa Constrictor, but we called it "I've Been Swallowed by a Burmese Python."  It went like this:

I'm being swallowed by a Burmese python, a Burmese python, a Burmese python.
I'm being swallowed by a Burmese python, and I don't like it one bit.
Oh, no, he swallowed my toe.
Oh, gee, he's up to my knee!
Oh, my, he's up to my thigh!
Oh, fiddle, he's up to my middle!
Oh, heck, he's up to my neck!
Oh, dread, he's up to my...
(make a sound like you're being swallowed--gulp!)

(Did you  make any new friends?)  Yes, there was Max, Sean, Derrick, and some others.

(Did you make life easy on your den leaders?  Did you wish you'd been in your mom's group?)  Yes.  And yes.

(What was your favorite thing on the last day?)  The giant water blow-up slide!  It was HUGE!  It was the only thing I wanted to do on the field.

(Oh, one more thing.  How'd you do on the bb guns and archery?)  On the last time I got to shoot the bb guns, I hit the 10!  And for archery, the two times I did it, I got bulls eye both times!

The End.

Girls Camp

This is Rhiannon speaking.  And Mommy typing.  LOLZ! 

Girls Camp was pretty awesome.  For the most part it was very spiritual and fun, but....drama.  There were two drama queens in my cabin, and they always found a way to irritate each other in some little way.  But that was the only bad thing.  (Mom asks:  how'd you deal with the drama?)  Me and my friend often got away from "it" by hiking in the woods.  :)

(Mom asks:  did you get homesick?)  Maybe for like 5 minutes on the second day.  But otherwise no!

(What were some of your favorite activities?)  We played games in the woods.  Oh, Mom, I forgot to tell you, we played, "What's the Time, Sister Wolf?"  And we also did this game called Signs that was really hard.

(Tell me about the hike and what you and JenAi did.)  It seemed like a lot longer hike than it actually was.  It was 2 and a half miles there and back.  But it seemed like forever!  LOLZ  Oh, the YCLs (youth counselors) did a first aid thing where they all pretended that they'd been attacked by a bear in the forest.  We all practiced first aid for first aid, snake bites, and falling out of trees and dying.  There was somebody who "died!"  It was pretty awesome.

(Tell me about your leaders.)  Some of our friends from 3rd ward, Sister Ricks and her daughter Rosie, were our cabin leaders.  And they were awesome because they knew how to deal with the drama and it made our lives really easy!

(What did you eat?)  Oh, we had some very good cooks!  So I ate all kinds of yummy stuff, including hamburgers and hot dogs, sandwiches, oh, enchiladas, and I can't remember the rest.

(What about pranks?)  Ugh..  (Loud Sigh.)  My cabin was full of jokers besides me and four other friends.  The other five went around pranking almost every single night.  And let's just say they weren't quiet at all.  (How come you didn't join them?)  I was TIRED!  I mean, who wouldn't be tired! 

(Tell me about new friends that you made.)  I'd say by the end of the week I'd strengthened bonds with most of my friends and I made a friend from Mammoth who was my bunk mate.  Her mom came up to me later and told me that she wanted me to visit their family sometime, which is "score" for me!  They were really nice.

(Tell me about the skit you helped create.)  It was awesome!  Me and my friend, who are Harry Potter addicts, came up with a Harry Potter Goblet of Fire skit about the scriptures because the theme for Girls Camp this year was "Arise and Shine Forth."  So all the skits had to do with some kind of light.  In our case it was Harriet Potter and the Book of Light (scriptures).  (Mom says, "COOL!")  LOLZ

(How 'bout the famous Girls Camp testimony meeting experience?)  Holy Cow!!!!!!!!!  It was emotional and very spiritual.  And most of the people who usually didn't say testimonies were crying for at least 30 minutes straight, including myself.  LOLZ  I bore my testimony on a weird subject--for some reason I was inclined to talk about music. (Mom says, "That's not so strange--it means a lot to you!")  (Shrug by Rhiannon) 

(Do you want to go again?)  YES. Times Five!  That's all!

A good man

This morning Jason and I went to the usual ward council meeting.  Our bishop got us started with a song and prayer, and then he told us that the meeting would be very brief.  Today he'll be released as bishop, after serving our ward for almost 6 years.  He said he wanted to gather us all together so that he could thank us for our service in our various callings, saying we made his job much easier.  He shared how his calling as bishop has blessed his life and his family's life.  "The most important calling you'll have is the one you've got right at this moment," he said, meaning our callings as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and our church callings.  And he also asked us to "go easy" on the new bishop as he got adjusted and made the transition.  There was a very strong, quiet spirit felt in that meeting--I was glad to be a part of it! 

We're excited to see what changes will be made during our regular meetings today, but I am very sad to see Bishop Moran released, too.  My calling as Primary president these (almost) 3 years has been pretty smooth because of a VERY supportive, caring bishopric.  They let me do what I need to do and are always there to help me over the rough spots.  Bishop Moran has always been so complimentary, never harsh, always patient, and always excited about the youth and children in our ward.  I've felt his love for us, but it hit me today how much that quiet enthusiasm will be missed.  I wish him all the best and am very grateful for his service to me, our family, and our ward!