My Latest Creative Inspiration

Last night I realized that tomorrow was the last day of the month, and we had not gotten to visit all of the people we are supposed to Visit Teach.  I decided I'd just make treats and drop them off today, in a  feeble attempt to show that we care.  (About the person, and our record for 100%)   This morning when I woke up the first few lines of this song were running through my head.  I didn't even try to make them up, they were just there.  I revised the rest of the song, and felt pretty pleased with myself.  I'll print it on a card and deliver it with a bag of fancy chocolates, or flowers or something.  (I'm not even making treats because I'm so tight on time, and I don't want the kitchen mess!  The dishes mess is the worst part of making treats -- that and the fact that the kids and I end up eating the rest of the batch for snacks and lunch and snacks the rest of the day!)  Anyway, I'm digressing!
Here it is -- just to make you laugh.  I hope no one else needs to use this -- but feel free to if you do. 

The tune is "Your Happy Birthday" in the LDS Primary Songbook.  Pg 283. 

This month was such a hectic one;
It’s summer time, that’s true.
We really wish that we had come,
and spent some time with you.
Zip-a-dee-ay and heigh-dee-ho,
Here’s something we can do.
We’ll drop off treats and next month hope,
We will do better for you!

Bunny Rescue

Background information:  There are tons of wild rabbits in our area.  Since it is spring, there are even tonser of wild baby bunnies running around.  Duma (our 1 year old cat) is in predator heaven.  He has already caught one baby bunny, 4 or 5 birds, a mole and a frog.  All of these have appeared on our back porch steps in varying stages of deadness.  Also, our neighbors have a kitten. Duma has taken it upon himself to teach Farley how to hunt.  Both cats roam freely between our families' yards.

The story:  Over the weekend, our yard was full of small children.  There were probably 10 kids, most of which were age 6 and under.  They were all happily playing, while Duma and Farley hung around as well.  Suddenly Dallin noticed that Farley was attacking something.  Unfortunately, a lot of the small children noticed too.  Upon investigation, they realized that it was a baby bunny that Farley had gripped in his teeth and was shaking it around.  Such violence did not go over well with the young children.  They were screaming in horror.  Fortunately, since Farley was still small, the bunny was too heavy for him, and he dropped the poor thing.  The bunny was in a daze and couldn't make a run for it quickly.  Jillian was able to scoop up Farley and take him away before he had a chance to go after it again.  Dallin got out the leather gloves and went back to retrieve the bunny who had slowly crawled under a nearby bush.  They were all relieved to find that the bunny was still in one piece, with no blood or obvious damage.  The bunny struggled in Dallin's hands for a bit, but then must have realized he was safe, calmed, and retreated farther inside Dallin's grip -- trying to be completely hidden.  Dallin showed all the kids that the bunny was ok, then took him to an area with dense bushes where we know that several bunnies live.  Hopefully it was the right family group.  For the rest of the day, everyone kept a close watch on Farley to make sure he didn't try to go near the bunny hide-out.  Farley has lost an immense amount of favor with the neighborhood children, while Dallin has been elevated to the respectable position of Brave Bunny Rescuer. 

March Point Fun Run

Every year Tesoro hosts a "Fun Run" for the community.  I know some people cannot understand how we could use the word fun to describe the concept of "run", but for us, it is a fun little event to participate in.  Dallin ran the 5 K (3.2 miles) with a friend his age.  Maddo and Bryce ran the 1/2 mile run for kids.  Kaylee captured this cool shot of Dallin sprinting through the air at the end.  He was very tired, but happy at the fact that he ran the whole way.  

Here is Bryce headed toward the finish chute.  He also ran the whole way.  He placed 6th in his age group.  

Here is Maddo right after coming in.  She placed 5th in her age group, but didn't think it was fair that she (as a young 9 year old) was racing against 10 and 11 year olds.   She has not learned to pace herself.  She is like a shooting star -- she takes off with an amazing burst of glorious speed, and then burns out and walks.  After a minute, she takes off at comet pace again and continues until she gets some sort of pain, and then walks again.     She still had fun though, and shortly after the race was asking if she could go run some more. Possibly she needs to sign up for the 5 K next year!  

Matt's knee has been bothering him, so he declined running.  He helped with recording runners numbers and times as they came in.  It was amazing to see 2 men aged 81 and 82 years come dashing in ahead of a 28 year old guy.  And that was for the 10 K (6.4 miles!) I hope that we can be like that when we are 80!  Instead of paying $15 and competing in the race, I decided to run from home out to the refinery.  I left early and made it all 6 miles in 1 hour and 7 minutes.  Matt had suggested that I ride with the family to the race and then run home, but I adamantly refused.  The route to Tesoro was predominantly down hill. I didn't want to give up such a great opportunity to run down hill without ever having to climb back up!  It was a great run!  I had forgotten how much I like distance running.  

This was the first truly glorious day of spring/summer, and it was so wonderful to be outside!  I am thankful for the blessing of health, and that we can run!  

Our Personal Lake

It has been raining, and raining, and raining. We have all felt very sunshine-deprived and irritated about all the lovely spring weather that we have NOT been having.  The gray drizzle has dampened (soaked) not only the ground, but our spirits as well.  After more than week of daily rain, the kids were desperate to be outside.  On Saturday they noticed that the drainage area in the front of our neighborhood had filled up and become a lovely little pond.  Shortly after commenting on the fact that we now had a lake in our own neighborhood, they began plotting how to take advantage of the situation.  First, they started asking if they could go look for frogs.  I said yes.  After the fun of that wore off, someone got the idea to get out the inflatable boat and see if they could paddle it around.  I believe I was on the phone, or only half paying attention when they asked if they could do that, because the next thing I knew, there was a great commotion of dragging the boat out of the crawl space, hooking up the air compressor, finding puddle boots, etc.   By the time I really realized what they were doing it was too late.  I was a bit worried about what the neighbors would say.  I wondered if paddling around in the decorative drainage area was allowed in the homeowner covenants.  Then I realized that Matt was involved in the process, and so I happily left it in his hands.  Here are some pictures of their big adventure.

The boat had a slow leak, so eventually they had to come out of the water.  Sadly, by the next day the water had drained away.  Although I do not ever wish for it to rain so much again, I do have the hope that if it does, at least there will be something good for the kids to enjoy outside.  

Do not leave these children unattended.

Matt and I went to the temple yesterday. (a six hour minimum absence)  It is bad to leave our children home alone. Their creativity gets a little out of hand. I know they do naughty things and don't tell us, but the funny thing is that sometimes they are so proud of their creations or adventures that they take pictures. Don't they realize that they are creating incriminating evidence? I am always surprised when I download the pictures on the camera as I prepare to blog. I never know what I will find. Today I found pictures like this one:

I guess I should be glad that they were getting along.  Kaylee said the neighbor came out and comented that Kaylee looked like one of those elephants that provide rides for people.  She thought maybe she should be offended at being called an elephant, but decided to let it slide.  I think she gave a ride to every small child in the neighborhood.   I am thankful that at nearly 15 years old, she is still willing to play with her siblings.  She stays very busy with her teenage life, but will periodically take time to assist her siblings in their endeavors.  Probably that heartwarming fact is what helps me overlook the mess and danger that happens everytime I leave home.

By the way...   Matt just saw this picture, and commented that the Honda in the driveway was in the garage when we left for the temple, and was also in the garage when we returned.  The kids fessed up to giving rides by taking it out of gear and pushing it back and forth.

Announcement: A Name Change

I'd like to announce that Kadin will no longer be going by his name. He has decided that "Kadin" is not suitable. We have frequent interactions with 7 other Kadins in our life, and our little guy is tired of being confused. For a while we tried calling him his old nick name, Hunkey, when other Kadins were present, but he has repeatedly told us that he'd like to be done with that stage of his life as well. So, we were talking about other names that he could choose.  I told him about how when we were in the hospital when he was born, Matt and I could not decide if we should name him Kadin or Bryce.  We were sitting there all packed and ready to go home, but we couldn't leave until we had filled out the birth certificate information.  (Otherwise we would have had to go to the courthouse later and pay $ to make an official change from "Baby Boy Tanner" to his real name on the birth certificate record.)  Anyway, after his siblings and I suggested countless other names, he said that Bryce was what he liked best.  Then we had to show him all the different ways it was spelled, and he chose to spell it with a y, "Because I already had practice writing lots of "i"s in the middle of my name"  is what he explained. 

Not everyone in the family is cooperating with this change, and some of us try to comply, but forget.  I don't know which will happen -- either we will get used to the new name, and it will stick, or he will get over this little whim, and go back to being Kadin.  I'll keep you posted.

Also, as if changing his name is not drastic enough, he has also decided that he wants to grow his hair out.  He has told me repeatedly how he wants it to look.  (All one length and slightly above the bottom of his ears.)  Everyday, Matt askes him if he is ready for a haircut, and Kadin Bryce just ignores the teasing.  He is very determined to accomplilsh this hair style.  In fact, he has started combing it out himself every morning, and is more faithful about brushing his hair again at night than he is in brushing his teeth at bed time.  Matt tells him to go brush his teeth, and then in a few minutes comes into the bathroom to check his progress and finds the child combing his hair.  I'm a bit worried about his teenage years.  He is already very particular about what he wears, and has very definite fashion oppinions.  Kaylee says he is going to be really vain.  I'm just pleased to have a child that actually cares about thier appearance.  I have had to beg and/or threaten the first 4 to shower, wear clean, matching clothes and brush thier hair.  Some of the older ones still couldn't care less about clothes and hair.  It is hard to look like a perfect mother when your children look like urchins.  Maybe Bryce will help to  restore my image.  (But I fear it might be too late.) 

I just thought everyone would like to know about this important new identity development.  Has anyone else ever been through this?  What was the outcome?