Last Thursday

Last Thursday, I fell sucker to the pleas of our 9 year old chickeepoo, and consented to bring Jaguar the Cat to school for Show and Tell'. Not so sure that this was a good idea, I attached a leash to his collar, in the hopes that I'd more effectively be able to control the kitty while at the school, or at least wouldn't lose it. . . As luck would have it, naturally the little bugger hated that leash, and refused to move while so tethered. Also didn't like the car ride, I discovered on the way over, and certainly not the bulldog who happened to be out front with it's owner, waiting for school to be let out. At this point, Jaguar was pretty on edge, and sure didn't need to be pawed by 25 8/9 year olds in an unfamiliar environment. I was a little nervous to let them pet our kitty, as nervous as he was. . . To add insult to injury, when the kids were finally finished with him, and he'd found a nice cool spot behind a plastic drawer, I was forced to drag him right back out of there, in order to beat the rush, and get him back home. Tooth and nail does not accurately describe the protest exhibited by that 'feline fur-ball', as Eric likes to call him. I'm gonna go with his other favorite name: "Bad Luck on 4 Legs". When the final bell rang, I was disastrously still in the classroom, and just barely made it out, hurriedly, with Aleia in tow. . . just ahead of the rush. We did still encounter quite a few eager children on the way out, all of whom wanted to pet the kitty.

"Awww, so cute! Can I pet him?" was the request 50 x over. I had to keep repeating the same line: "Well, he's a bit nervous right now, (as he climbed up my shirt and clawed frantically at my neck), he might scratch you, and I wouldn't want anybody to get hurt. . ." complete with a big smile.

How do I get myself into these situations? It's unbelievable. That kid bats her eyes at me, and I melt and go along. . .

When, oh when, will I ever learn?! The next time somebody wants to bring a pet to school, it's either gonna be in a wire cage of some sort, with the door latched securely SHUT, or stuffed! : )

I Can Go The Distance!

When our son Clinton was maybe 6 or 7, his favorite movie was Hercules! He loved that show, and sang along with some of the songs as they came up. Well, more than sang. . . he performed! The little bugger got up and struck a pose, and belted it out like only a 7 year-old-boy can. . . It was so much fun to watch!

One song in particular he loved more than the others. . and that was: "I Can Go The Distance", sung by Hercules as he's heading off into the sunset to find his calling. It's darn near inspirational, especially when you hear it performed by your own child, with almost unflinching faith and optimism. : )

Sniff. How I wish we'd gotten that one on video. So adorable!

Twitter

Tweet, tweet! Sigh.

A few months ago, my brother Hyrum talked us into signing up for Twitter. This is the extent of my activity so far:

Amy Tanner Mason is mildly curious about this twitter thing. Bird like communication. . . What's the fascination? : )

Amy is twitterpated!

Amy says bring on the weekend!

Amy is all about Fresca!

Amy would like to get this show on the road!

Amy can't resist the fruity, fruity birthday cake!

Amy is cleaning the kitchen.

Amy is just not that excited about Power Rangers!

Amy is excited about Charlie's Lasik surgery tomorrow!

Amy is a big fan of Jason Chaffetz!

Amy is amazed that she actually got all the big kids out the door on time this morning!

Amy is twitterpated.

Amy is also ready for a good night's sleep!

Amy had fun with the kids at Skate Night!

http://tinyurl.com/az3cy6 Too funny. : )

Amy enjoyed her date with Glenn Beck and Jason Chaffetz!

Amy had great fun at the St. Patty's Day parade! : ) Disney on Ice and the wedding reception weren't bad either.

Amy can't believe it's snowing. I guess that whole 60 degree Spring thing last week was just a big TEASE!

Amy is blow-drying the stroller, and wondering why she signed up to teach this class. . . 

Amy thinks it's cool that Eric wants to be a wildlife photographer for National Geographic.

Amy just had to break into her own room again, after being locked out by the 2 year old. . .

Amy woke up to 6 inches of fresh powder and swirling snow. Lot's o' homework, no money for skiing, ha ha, April Fool's indeed!

Amy still needs a little Jane Austen.

Amy is still looking for her sea legs. . . Will I ever get a good night's sleep?

Amy is lovin' this weather!

Amy doesn't believe in Spanish. : )

Amy is convinced that the Pie Pizzeria will be her undoing.

Amy really likes the movie Spirit!

Weightier Matters

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6647

This is a fantastic article by Dallin H. Oaks, addressing issues of our day. Very well put together.

Random Observations

Yesterday Aleia stayed home from school. I haven't really seen her in a week. She drew pictures and we made oatmeal cookies, I worked on some homework, and at lunch we picked Laena up from school and took her to the doctor. Turns out she has an ear infection, which would have been annoying at Prom. . . .

Last night, Charlie and I drove over to the mall, and walked around for a few minutes. We haven't been on a real date in a couple of weeks! Laena and Diego babysat. She put together a little picnic blanket pizza dinner there in the backyard. It was so cute! : ) Ah, the shenanigans of those crazy kids!

Charlie's been working out a lot lately, training for the marathon and half marathon later this summer. He's in fantastic shape, which means that I've gotta get it together and follow suit. I need to get back in the swing of things. It's so hard to find time to get over to the gym! But I really should face facts. . Easter is over, and summer is on it's way! Mama needs to synchronize her schedule, and get some exercise! Tommy's even caught the bug, and is working out hard with videos that Charlie brought home from work. He's way gung ho, drinking protein shakes for breakfast, reading up on martial arts. . . Go Tominator!

Eric's got a Track Meet today, out at Copper Hills. I hope one of us can make it! He's so cute in his black and blue track uniform! : ) And he's so disciplined, with the rabbit food, and the no dairy to speak of. . . The rest of us can only aspire to someday be in as great o' shape as Eric!

Bye-Bye, Baby!

The day before we left for Seattle, Lea and Jeffy were helping me pack. Aleia was very upset about not being able go with, and Jeffy wanted me to pack just about everything in the closet. Eric had brought me home a sprig of cherry blossoms that he'd run across on the way home from Track. As I was giving my suitcase a final check, I discovered that someone had slipped a framed picture of Aleia, Jefferson, and the Binky under the first layer of clothing, with Eric's spring flowers laid on one corner, and getting slightly squished.

Good Night! What's a mother to do? Earlier that day, Jeffy had handed me his miniature baseball, to put in the duffle bag with the snacks. He wanted us to take it along on our trip, so we'd 'remember about him.' Gyah! They were killing me! Aleia didn't want to be the only girl left at home, but she knew we couldn't take her with us, and Jeffy is the cutest little bugger that ever graced the halls of Kindergarten. . .

Sure. Good thing the baby was distracted, or we'd never have gotten out the door. Thankfully, Charlie was able to take a couple of days off, so I could make this trip at all! He was really great, taking kids to practices and games. . . Tech Center exhibitions, Track Meets, work. . . CHURCH. What a guy!

Oddly, the five days went by surprisingly fast! We were back before we knew it. : ) I'm really glad that I was able to go with Laena on her field trip. We had a great time up there in Seattle, eating fish and making memories.

Sunrise, Sunset

Last night about dinner time, as I walked in the front door of our home, I noticed . . that right at that moment, most everybody was gone. Laena was over at Trevor's, supposedly for drum lessons, Clint was heading over to the Dance Company performance at the high school, straight from work, Eric was still at Track practice, and Tommy was working out downstairs. I'd just dropped Aleia off at soccer practice, Jeffy was with his dad at the big T-ball game, and I was left with one irritable 2-year old, and a lot of semi-foreboding, pseudo-quiet.

Is this what it's like your children grow up, and slowly phase out of your personal space? I don't know if I like it.

Change.

That's what it's called, and I don't know if I'm prepared. When we got back from the big Choir Tour field trip late Sunday night/early Monday morning, I realized that this was Laena's . . last . . one. Sigh. Talk about a sense of closure. Graduation's coming up, Prom is this weekend, college, summer camps, soccer and swimming. . . It's all part of the adventure, but I'm still torn. I get the feeling that our kidlets are slowly pulling away from us, and there's nothing I can do about it. I suppose I should just sit back and watch, and enjoy the show, but it sure is hard some days. . . I mean, who knows! It's not too unrealistic to assume that our Laenabug could be hitched up and settled down sometime in the not too distant future. Heck, in 5 years time, we could be grandparents! Aaaaaahhhhhh! So what do we do now? Do we have a couple more kids and continue with the game, or do we accept the fact that we're older than trees and just deal with it.

'It' being the coming of age. Yike!

I'm not sure that I'm ready for this. . . I'm still getting used to having teenagers, for Pete's sake! Just yesterday, we learned that another one of Laena's friends had gotten married! Pictures and everything, staring us in the face. It's just disturbing. And time marches on. . . seems to be speeding up, in fact! The older you get, the faster it goes. I guess that's the way it was all set up, in the great wisdom of the Universe, but some days I want to grab the reigns, and pull back hard. I just figured out how to enjoy my babies, and now they're, like, BIG!? Are you kidding me? We've gotta figure out some way to slow it all down. Big sigh. Hey, if you hear of anything, out there on the market, let me know. Time is flying by. . . We should probably just pick up some lawn chairs, settle down on the front porch, sit back and enjoy the ride. . . but you know I'm not that kinda gal. : )

Come and Get It!

Here's my FB post for the afternoon. Tell me what you think.

"Amy watched her boys snarf down chimichangas, pancakes, salad, eggs. . . and wondered if this could all still be classified as an 'after school snack."

Huh? : )

Pretty typical, actually. By the time we get around to having dinner, those teenagers will have eaten the equivalent of a 7 course meal. It's traditional, I know. To be expected. . After all, these are growing boys! : ) But it sure does make a dent in your wallet.

Jefferson!

Jeffy got a library card yesterday. When asked what name he would like on the card, he said "Jefferson!"

"Are you sure you don't want 'Jeffy'?" his dad inquired.

"No! JEFFERSON." he clarified. "I'm named after the President!"

What a cute kid! : ) I recently showed him the painting of Thomas Jefferson, hanging in the entryway at the school. Evidently he was impressed. 

Track Meet

Eric has another Track meet today. . . He told us about it last night, but then mentioned to Laena this morning that he hoped we'd forget. : ) Probably embarrassed him taking all those pictures last week.

Eric's such a good kid! He goes to Track practice every single day, essentially without complaint, and then walks home by himself, about a mile and a half walk, every afternoon at five. What a guy!

This will be Eric's 3rd Track meet of the season. He's in fantastic physical shape, always partial to rabbit food, exercise, and fresh air, I suppose it would be almost impossible for Eric to do or to be anything else! : ) But I do hope to fatten him up a little, this Easter Sunday. . .

If we could just get him to eat a couple of rolls, with butter. . .

Eric's been in Track since 7th grade, so I guess this would be his 5th year now, and he's steadily improving. . . I hope he enjoys it as much as his Dad did. Charlie went to State his senior year in HS, and in my estimation, easily could have made the BYU football team at the time. The boy was fast!

And, I might add, still is. . .

He and Eric may 'meet' at the track, so to speak. . . cross paths, if you will. Like Father, like son! : ) Anyway they have that in common, and I think it's great!