Yummy Brownie's

Okay... If you are doing the lowfat thing...look away now. But if you are like me and having been looking for 'the perfect brownie recipe'... the ooey, gooey, put icecream and whip cream on top of me brownie. My friends.... this is it.

2c. sugar
1c. butter, softened
4 eggs
2t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2t. salt

preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar together. add eggs and vanilla, mix well. In a separate bowl mix flour, cocoa,and salt together. Slowly stir into cream mixture until well mixed. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Balancing act.... gone wrong.

Ryan: " oh, Colby it's bleeding...."

Ryan: "MOM, Colby is bleeding!"

I slowly place the book I was reading on the back of the couch and make my way downstairs, to see Ryan racing from the bathroom with toilet paper for Colby.

Me : "WHAT HAPPENED??????"

Colby: howling.......

I then observe that Colby is holding the tissue on his forehead....not the nosebleeds we usually encounter.

Me: "WHAT WERE YOU DOING?????"

Colby: (he is stark naked ,mind you, because he had just gotten out of the tub.) "I was standing on that basketball and it slipped and I hit my head on the dresser."

Me: "Let me see the cut. WHY WERE YOU STANDING ON THE BASKETBALL?????"

I carefully pry the tissue of his wound.

Me: " Ryan, please go get your Dad... Tell him Colby cut his forehead and I need to know if I need to take him for stitches."

I'm standing there, I had washed my face for the day.... I'm wearing cut off shorts and an old t-shirt.... my hair has definitely seen better days...and I am on the brink of sheer exhaustion... I know that the cut is bad enough that he probably should get stitches... but I am hoping with all that I am that Wade will come to the rescue and tell me it isn't that bad. By now Colby is really howling and upon hearing the words stitches and emergency room.... has all but started to hyperventilate.

Wade walks in... fortunately he is, and always has been, the calm in my storm. Somehow he can remain calm and even witty under these kinds of circumstances.

Me: (annoyed) " He was trying to balance on his basketball and ...look, does he need stitches?"

Wade: "Ah, that's not too bad..We are done with this emergency room thing... I am going to stock up our first aid kit... and we are not running to the emergency room anymore. He's a boy... scars are cool when your a boy."

And with that Colby stopped howling... because he realized he wasn't going to have to go get stitches and I was relieved that I didn't have to make another trip to the emergency room looking like something the cat drug home. Wade doctored him up and we all went to bed.

Colby was a little concerned about hving to go to school the next day... until Wade convinced him how cool his scar was going to look.

These are the moments I wonder if I was cut out to be a mother of boys.

Colby...thinking about having to go to school with his fresh wound.

Colby after his Dad convinced him 'scars are cool'

Back in the Saddle again.

While I love, love, love Summer and the freedom from schedules it brings... I have to admit... by the end of August I am ready for a little routine and scheduling back in my life. I mean one can only handle the 'no structure' lifestyle for so long.

This time of year (more than January) is my goal setting time... my time to evaluate my life and set challenges for myself and design my new list of 'projects'.

Ryan and Colby started school on August 21st. Ryan was thrilled to move to a new school that is closer and gives him the freedom to ride his bike to and from school . He has a group of 4or 5 other boys he meets up with each morning. He loves his new teacher and the excitement of being at a new school.

Colby loves riding the bus and is glad to be in school all day as a 1/2 day just wasn't enough for him. He loves being able to have lunch at school and being able to have computers, music and art classes added to his curriculum. He too, loves his new teacher.

Taylor loves spending his days playing with Jace ( the little boy I watch during the school year). We have finally reached the point where the hard work of having two tiny ones all day has paid off. The hardest part of my day now, is the hour between when Ryan and Colby leave for school and Jace arrives, and the two hours when Jace naps and Taylor doesn't have a buddy to play with. He comes in every 5 minutes for the whole two hours and says "Jace awake yet".

We spend one morning a week doing an excercise class for little kids while their moms go to aerobics at the recreation center here in Smithfield, and have made several trips to the park and library.

Ryan and Taylor both celebrated their birthday's this week. Ryan enjoyed his birthday dinner at Golden Corral (his choice) with his family and Grandpa and Grandma Lindley. Then we came back to our house, opened presents and enjoyed banana split brownie sundae's. Then Saturday he enjoyed a friend party, where Wade took them miniture golfing at the Celebration Center.

Taylor celebrated his birthday having lunch at the park , waiting for Dad to come home so he could open his presents, and then eating his favorite dinner, chicken alfredo, followed by cake and icecream. They both had enjoyable days and like being one year older.

What's the Price for Honesty

On this particular occasion... I feel I got off pretty easy... it was only $7.99.

It all started innocently enough. It sounded like a great idea at the time. Go to this new store in Logan and check out their 4th of July clearance stuff. So I loaded up the boys and headed to Hobby Lobby. I was having a great time looking through the leftovers, when a cute white basket caught my eye. I reached for it to take a closer look and in all my excitement knocked this eagle off the shelf. I was just standing there dumbfounded and of course my first instinct was to just pick it up and set it back on the shelf...but I knew that wasn't good.( I know I really need to work on myself.... If I was truly a good person that wouldn't have been my first thought)... and then I look over and see six pairs of eyes on me... just watching in awe. I think part of them was relieve that they hadn't done it. And then I hear Colby" you break it, you buy it"...Now where in the world would he have heard that. I scoop up the eagle and, with the 'shopping moment' now ruined carry it to the check stand. Half of me was hoping the lady at the registrar would feel my plight and not make me pay for it....but alas.

lady : "oh, this got broken"

me : " Yeah, I accidentally knocked it off the shelf" (I couldn't even blame it on one of my kids)

lady: "Well, did you want it?"

me: "No, not really, but I broke it..."

So she rang it up and I paid for it.

I left completely disgusted with myself... If I had to break something couldn't it at least be something cute.

It now sits proudly in Ryan's room on his shelf.

I told my friend of my incident and she laughed and said..."That will probably be the thing they all fight over when you die."

Meeting Baby Emmett

The Boys and I were able to take a quick trip to Las Vegas, to play for a few days and to meet one of our new nephew/cousins...Emmett. We had a great week with lost of loving and kissing on Emmett and a few adventures in Las Vegas. Our week included an afternoon at Chucky cheese ,where the kids had a great time eating pizza and playing games. The next afternoon Grandma Scott treated us all to a movie... we enjoyed eating popcorn and watching Wall-e. That evening their Uncle Daniel came over and built rockets with them that they were able to go to a park and launch the next afternoon. It was hard to tell who had more fun...Daniel or the boys.

Then Thursday we took the boys to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. They had a great time seeing all the different sharks and fish then searching through the gift shop for souvenirs with the money Grandma Lindley had given them.


Before leaving for Las vegas we had been preping Taylor for the airplane ride. Everytime we metioned the airplane he would say " I don't want to ride airplane it's too high....let's just take our van." Because I was traveling alone with three kids and we were checking bags I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to check in. So we arrived at the airport with two hours before boarding and it took us all of about 30 seconds to check our bags and get our boarding passes...then about 1 minute to walk through security. Then our flight was delayed an hour. But the boys managed to entertain themselves playing in the play area, watching planes land and take off and playing with items in their backbacks. We eventually boarded and they all loved the idea of being able to watch T.V. on the plane. Then when the plane took off I was a little nervous about Taylor.... but decided he would be fine when he turned to me and said "wheeeeeeee, let's go up again."


They plane ride home we incurred some turbulence and Ryan started getting sick about 20 minutes before we landed. I looked in all the seat pockets for a barf bag... but there weren't any. I tried fanning him and looking through our bags to see if any of us had a grocery bag... about two minutes before we landed he puked all over the floor. This poor teenage boy that was sitting next to him, reached over, started patting his back and talking to him. All I could do was smile and say thank-you.

Colby, Taylor and Ryan watching the planes while we wait for ours.

The Plane Ride to Las Vegas

Las Vegas airport

Ryan, Iris, Colby, Taylor, Koben and Grandma Scott with Wall-E

Building Rockets with Uncle Daniel

Taylor playing at Grandma's house.

Mother of the Year Award (NOT)

My friend posted on her blog this morning about what a 'bad mom' she is. So in the spirit of good company I thought now is the time to share my latest 'bad mom' story. This is just one example from the long (and still going) list I have accumulated over the years.
Ryan and Colby had a great summer with coach pitch baseball and tee-ball. When I got their schedules at the begining of the year I made sure to transfer them to the calendar that hangs by my phone so that I could keep better track of the times. Well, I tought I had done a good job in the transfer and we kept busy with games monday through thursday. We spent most of our evenngs at the ball field and it quickly became a routine in our summer schedule. Then Ryan's last game came.... We had gotten into this great routine of eating first if the game was at 7:30...and going to the game and THen eating if the game was at 6:30. So as had been the majority of the summer we enjoyed dinner then rode bikes to the ball field. As we rode up to the field Ryan said " look . Mom they already started." I look at the kids on the field (Ryan's team). But then I say another team off tto the side throwing the ball back and forth.. so I said" They're probably just warming up, Get your stuff and go over with your team." I parked my bike and proceeded to look around for a place to lay our blanket out when Ryan cam running back over to me crrying, mind you, and saying the game wasn't just starting but was just ending. Me, being the bright, intelligent person Iam said " Well, It was you turn to bring drinks lets at least go give those out." He just cried more and said 'I'm going home" So I went and gave the drinks out myself... rode home alone... feeling like dirt. As we rode by a neighbors house they called at to me" Well that was a short game" I was trying to think of something clever and commical to say, but all that came out was. "yeah"
When I got home Wade suggested I take Ryan and Cloby to see Kung Fu Panda... We drowned Ryan's sorrows and my guilt in a big tub of popcorn.
Mother of the Year... I think not.

This place is becoming WAY too familar

The boys have been bugging Wade for sometime about going fishing. Wade has been procrastinating. One, because he knows what fishing really entails ( rising long before sunrise, sitting for long periods, completely quiet, with no action, IF you finally do catch something you have to then bop it on the head and de gut it(I know this isn't an actual word but...) Secondly, our boys struggle to sit through sacrament meeting. Knowing that our boys love the idea of fishing and not wanting to disappoint he decided a great compromise would be to take them to a fish farm that is only a few miles away...where the fish are always biting and (here's the best part) when your done they will fillet and package them for you.
Since I was at home enjoying the serenity of having a couple hours to myself .... the rest of the story will be from Wade's perspective.

We had a nice relaxing weekend without much news to speak of. But we had some excitement tonight. I promised the boys that I would take them fishing down at the fish farm sometime this summer. I talked Dad into going so he could help me as I'm an idiot when it comes to fishing. We ended up getting one pole and it took about an hour for each of the boys to catch a fish. It really isn't fishing because when a small fish would come to eat the bait we would just lift the pole as we were holding our for the bigger fish. The reason it took an hour was that the fish are a little wary of that hook in the bait and they seem to be pretty familiar with the process.
Anyhow after catching 3 fish we went into the small building to pay and to watch Leland fillet the fish.It was tremendously hot in the building and also accounting for the hour we spent in the sun we were pretty hot. As we were getting ready to leave Taylor fainted on the floor. I picked him up and ran him outside. I began to panic but he did begin to cry a little bit. I ran to the truck to get the air conditioner on and Ryan and Colby mentioned there was a soda machine in front of the building. I ran with Taylor in my arms to get him a soda and he began to drink some lemonade right away. I was an idiot and set him down and he fainted again. I picked him up and he was lifeless. I screamed to Dad that I needed some help. Taylor's eyes were rolled up in his head and he was completely out of it. I ran to a shady grass area and laid him down and tried to get him to come around. He was pretty lethargic and I took his clothes off and we got some water from a near by hose and began sprinkling his body with some water. He wasn't even flinching with the cold water but he was awake. I called 911 and the operator asked if I wanted an ambulance. I froze for a second and said that I'm not sure, but was wondering if she could help me. She said she couldn't unless we wanted ans ambulance. I told her I didn't and that I may call her back. I worked on Taylor for another 10 minutes with the water and with me trying to keep him awake and attentive. Ryan and Colby were freaking out and crying but they did come around and were great help in getting me some water. Dad was giving moral support I guess. Anyhow, he came around and was drinking some lemonade so I was relieved that we were in the clear. When we got home Deanna called the hospital---since it was now after 7:00. the doctor there said it is very rare for a small child to pass out from heat and that it would be wise to get him checked out. Since he really wasn't talking much now and seemed he wanted to go to sleep I caved to Deanna's request and we took him to the ER. Mom and Dad came and stayed with Ryan and Colby. In conclusion, the ER didn't do much to him except give him a popcicle. He seems completely fine now, but I'm still a nervous wreck now that the adrenaline has worn off. Sleeping might be difficult tonight. It is a sick feeling to have a child go completely limp in your arms.
p.s. I will have to add that I teach about heat related illnesses 3 times a year in one of my advanced PE classes. So that means I've taught about heat stroke at least 36 times over the past 12 years. i should have known what to do but in reality when it comes to heat stroke I just mention, " At this point medical attention will be needed."


All I know is we've been to the emergency room more than I like and that popcicle is going to be an expensive one. And I don't think this little episode has helped Wade's opinion of fishing.