Jedi Choices and the Sleeve-Whacking Factory

Noah: Why did Anakin train to be a Jedi and then just get with a girl?

Me: For your talk tomorrow, you're supposed to talk about when you chose the right. When did you choose the right?
Noah: When the choice was placed before me.

Josh lost the Utah charm from his charm necklace of states he got at school. He dropped it down the cold air return vent, and went and got a screw driver so he could remove it from the wall and save his charm. Good idea, and I was willing to help him, but it turns out the thing is very securely painted on the wall. When I told him we weren't going to be able to do it, our conversation went like this.
Josh: I know who can help. (Holds up the fingers for 9, then two 1's)
Me: They wouldn't be able to help with this. You only call them when people are in really bad trouble.
Josh: But I thought it was for emergencies!
Me: It is, but it's for when people are hurt really bad or something.
Noah: Yeah, Josh, it's like if this was a real light saber (holds up his toy light saber), and I put my finger on it like this, then we would need to call 911.

Josh and Noah decided they'd like to watch the BYU fight song on youtube today. This might be easy for kids with lots of computer time, but my kids don't get any these days. I let them for a while, but now two keys are missing and my Google Chrome icon is a white paper named koko. Today, though, the computer was open, and I was busy, so I thought there would be no harm in watching them try to get their goal. Somehow they got on youtube, but then the trouble was knowing how to search what they wanted. So, Josh went upstairs and got his BYU hat, and used it to type in "BYU Cougars," and he already knew how to write "song." Voila, they were watching what they wanted. Maybe they could have gotten it anyway without the cougars part, but it was so cute watching them negotiate the hat idea together.

Andrew: (Speaking of his eczema) Don't put a lotion on it, put a scratch on it.

Noah found a Toy Story muscle tee in the pajamas box he thought was awesome, so he put it on. Then he said, "I'm trying to figure out why they cut off the sleeves at the factory. I think they designed it for summer." Then later he started chuckling and said, "I'm just laughing about my arm pits showing."

This is What Recovery Looks Like

Gary broke his overtime record this winter . . . we are so glad he has the job, but he sure was gone a whole lot. I heard one of my boys say, "Well, my dad works until my mom is sleeping." In the midst of Gary's super-busy season, we all got sick. Lissy and I got really sick. Lissy ended up in the hospital for two weeks, including 5 days of intensive care. Also in the midst of the busy season and around the hospitalization, we have been involved an effort to prevent the marching band from drumming our babies and ill neighbors out of bed at 6 a.m. Also in the midst of it all my parents moved really far away. To east Texas. We have been really blessed through it all; I feel lucky in so many ways. But we needed a break.

So . . . last weekend we visited Gary's parents in St. George. It was sunny, we were together as a family, and we could not see any of the problems in our house that need fixing. Aaaaaah . . . As a huge bonus, we got to see my mom and sister as they passed through town on their way down south. My mom saved me in a moment of idiocy, hooking Lissy up with more than a vacation's worth of stuff when I left her carefully-packed bag at home. I'll make sure and tell her where those things come from so she can remember you, mom. We also got to see Gary's sister for a moment, and spend lots of time with Gary's mom. The kids LOVED their grandma time, and begged to stay longer. We couldn't stay the 7 days they were asking for, but we did relent when Noah asked to stay at grandma's house "just an hour 67." And another bonus, Kristen and Shane, the kid mega-favorites, live in St. George and came to play with us. Yep, the company and the sunshine (and probably the antibiotics) did their job, erasing away the stress little by little . . .

Kristen discovered that Lissy really likes to lick the juice from the inside of a grape. As long as that grape was around, Lissy's stranger issues were just fine. (Yeah, she has had stranger issues since the hospital.)

All 3 of the boys rode their scooters for hours. And hours more. There were plenty of sidewalks in a cul-de-sac, a long driveway, sunshine all over . . . perfect. On Sunday Andrew just couldn't quit, and did extra scooting. I asked him if he wanted something inside, and he said, "Not yet, I gotta finish my scooter."

Josh could have spun on this all day. He almost did. Giant sucker courtesy Uncle Shane and Aunt Kristen. Those lasted the boys a while.

Gary and his mom were the swing-pushing champions. I don't know how long they pushed Noah and Andrew, but it was a significant portion of the more than 3 hours we spent at the park. At one point Josh took a a turn pushing Andrew. At another point Andrew was pushing a random girl. There was a lot of cute teamwork going on.

Lissy LOVED the suckers. (Don't talk to me about germs and sugar, please. She was adorable.)

Josh was literally all over this rock climbing wall. I was really impressed with his ability to find holds and not be afraid of  climbing in a new way. 

Josh did this pose every time he got to the top of the wall. Gary said it was inspiring.

Noah had been playing like he was Diego saving sloths, but I didn't get my camera out until this.  Still cute.

This kid is really adventurous. There is a toddler area that he did not frequent. This is the most tame thing he went for the whole time.