Who's Birthday is it?

Chuck and the kids had fun today with our webcam. Jared and Ruth wanted to look just like their dad for his birthday picture. We celebrated by opening presents, eating cake and homemade ice cream and playing Chuck's favorite game.

You know you are getting old when your favorite game is: "take a nap." (really, that's what he wanted to play - so we figured it was his birthday, so we left him alone - evidently this is a one player game).






Dinos!

The kids and I visited our local Dino museum, which also happens to be the largest dino museum in the USA (or so they say). It is a very nice museum and is usually $10.00 a person, but this month they were having $2 Tuesdays, and so we went. It was very crowded but we had a great time.


Back to School for Chaz and Kaitlin

The older kids went back to school this week.

Chaz now rides a school bus for the first time in his life. His bus comes and some unearthly early hour and lets him off at school 40 minutes early. The bright side is that Chaz has extra time to work on forgotten homework in the a.m. Chaz has already take his first test (on a summer reading book) and has his new (old) french horn to start practicing on again. On Friday Chaz went to his first ever football game with some friends. He had a great time and his team won.

We are amazed at how much money high school is costing! It cost us 75$ to get him registered, another $40 to rent his instrument, and a payment to his lunch account. Those fees we expected. What we didn't expect is that every day he came home to inform us of a new fee that he had to pay. $10 for Chemistry, $12 for a workbook, $20 for "band participation" and then another $5 for I don't know what. That isn't considering the optional fees - yearbook, PTA, etc... Wow! Forget collage, we will have to start a savings fund just to get our kids through high school.

Kaitlin stressed a little this week getting the hang of 7 classes and her first locker. She said that all her friends "freaked out" over the summer. I told her that it was that puberty thing, it wreaks havoc with everyone at this age.

I don't have first day pictures of the older kids because they go to school way to early for my mind to think of taking pictures. So you'll just have to imagine seeing pictures of them smiling, backpacks and school books in hand, in front of their new schools.

Skype

We've been on Skype a long time but I haven't used it much. A while ago I talked to my brother in TX using my webcam. Now that I know that I can do that I'm going to try logging onto Skype a lot more often. If you have a webcam you can sign up for Skype for free and then we can talk with you.

Camping at Rock Cliff

This week Ruth and Jared were off-track from school and Kaitlin and Chaz hadn't started yet so we decided it was our last chance of the summer to go on a family camping trip.


We went to a place called Rock Cliff State Park on the Jordanelle Reservoir. We chose that place because we wanted to go somewhere close, with hot showers, swimming and trees (hard to come by around here).


We had the whole camp ground and river to ourselves.





Here are the kids swimming in the Jordanelle Reservoir





I added this picture to show you the "beach" at the Jordanelle. We pulled into a place called Hailstone, where we had heard there was a public swimming area. We asked the man at the booth if there was a beach and he said that they had a really nice beach there. Here is the "beach." I guess that is nice to Utah standards, but to this Florida gal, well, that's not really a beach at all, is it.







The Provo River was running through the middle of our camp ground. We enjoyed swimming a boating with our little rubber raft. There were plenty of little fish and snails that Ruth enjoyed catching. For awhile Chuck dragged the boat up the river so the kids could float down the "rapids." At the deepest it was about 4 feet.



Lagoon

On Saturday we went to the best (the only) theme park in Utah, Lagoon. It was eBay day at Lagoon so we got in for only $10 each and that included and all you can eat dinner. Not bad.

We had a great time riding the rides. Chaz went on all the thrilling rides, sometimes by himself because no one would go with him. Chuck did go with Chaz on the new ride "Wicked." You can see a video of Wicked on YouTube.


Ruth enjoyed the kid rides with Jared. However, she did get frustrated with the slowness of the loading and unloading of some of the rides. She saw that the "key" that the attendants used to unbuckle the kids seat belts after rides was really just a metal rod that you shove in a hole on top of the belts. So Ruth found a stick, broke it down to the right size and carried it in her fanny pack. Whenever a ride stopped, she would take out her stick and release herself and Jared. Pretty clever I thought (and so like Ruth).


Kaitlin discovered that she loved the Tilt-a-whirl, an old ride from the 50's, which is my favorite as well. Jared just liked going on anything that wasn't too frightening.

We have a family rule that as long as the children stay in good spirits, and don't fight and whine, we can stay at any theme park until it closes. We made it until 10:15 at Lagoon, when all the children, exhausted, decided it was time to go. Today we are all moving slowly. Luckily we have one day to recover before Kaitlin and Chaz start school tomorrow.

My Soapbox

That Could Never Happen in the USA

I've been following with interest the news about the Chinese Gymnasts and if they are all truly old enough to compete. This is a controversy that would never happen in the USA and I'll tell you why. Let's say for the sake of argument that the Chinese gymnast He Kexin, is in fact 14 and not 16 as they claim. How many people has this young girl come in contact with in her life? Hundreds right? School mates, neighbors, relatives, teammates, club mates and teachers. How do you silence hundreds of voices? Think about it. How do you keep all those people who know her true age silent?

Could you keep hundreds of voices in the USA silent. No way! If any US athlete tried lying about their age (even with all the government paperwork to prove it) the talk radio stations and blogs would all be a buzz with eye witnesses to that persons true age. I can't imagine what sort of influence it would take the US government to keep all those voices silent and yet, this is exactly what we see happening in China.

Have you seen interviews with family and friends of the gymnasts? Have you seen them talk to classmates, teachers? Surely there are neighbors that can remember the year these girls were born. But all the Chinese government offers is more "official" documents. Where are the people? Where are the witnesses?

Some local news this week in our city has been a pizza delivery woman's blog. A local pizza delivery woman blogged about delivering pizza to the majority house leader of the Utah Senate. The politician gave her a really hard time when she said she couldn't take his check saying basically "don't you know who I am??" She blogged in detail about her experience with the politician's temper tantrum, thinking he small blog readership would get a kick out of it. Little did she know that her little blog that generally gets 20 hits a week started to get hundreds and then thousands of hits. Then the news stations were calling. One reader of the blog said "I just now saw a pizza delivery woman become more powerful than the "majority leader of the state senate."

I saw an interview with Shawn Johnson. When asked about the Chinese gymnasts she said that she wasn't angry with them. She said that if they are lying about their ages that they are obviously being forced to do it against their wills. I think that is probably true. And how sad for these girls and their families. Even if they are never proven, the knowledge of their deceit will always canker their memories of the games.

I am glad to be living in the USA. In many ways it can be very bad and destructive, the way the media gets into people's lives and tears them to shreds. But at least here I have a voice. I can blog about this, and those of you that are still reading are free to read it. In China I would not be free. My voice would not be heard.

Schedules and Shot Gorillas


On Tuesday we went to register Chaz at Riverton High school. His high school is the largest in Utah. His Sophomore class alone has 1200 students! They assigned all Sophomore students to register in a four hour window. "1200 students in only four hours?" I said to myself "this registration must be really fast." But oh it was not so! When we got there the line to register was out the door, down the sidewalk and almost into the parking lot. I suggested to the administrator there that with modern technology they should set up their registration online. His snappy response was that they were also taking yearbook pictures and that you can't do that online now can you? Nice.


On Wednesday before the mail even came we got the phone calls, Kaitlin's friends wanting to compare schedules. So when the mail came Kaitlin was the first to the box (somehow the Jr. High manages to register by mail - amazing). She opened the manila envelope but rather then a schedule there was a note telling us that Kaitlin was "noncompliant." It took a visit to the school to learn that Kaitlin needed one more shot before they would give us her schedule. My doctor was nice enough to squeeze her in the next day (evidently you can walk in the door of a doctor's office and just get the shot you need, you have to make an appointment for a "well child visit" (Kaitlin does take offence at the label "child")). After looking over her immunizations we learned that Kaitlin actually needed 2 shots and had the option of 2 other shots. Kaitlin agreed to all the shots and she was totally fine with that until.... the Shot Gorilla Nurses appeared. After a 15 minute wait two nurses stormed in the room, rolled up Kaitlin's sleeves and gave her all 4 shots all at once in two arms. Kaitlin told them that she wanted them one at a time all in one arm, but the bigger nurse told her it was easier this way and then they poked her quite abruptly all at once in two arms with no further discussion. Kaitlin was more angry about the Shot Gorillas then about the shots themselves.


Gym first period!!!!

Yes it is sad but true, both Kaitlin and Chaz are cursed with 1st period gym this year.


Salmon with Cranberry-Lime Sauce

One of my friends needs to start eating more seafood. We tried this new Salmon recipe this last week and it was easy and pretty tasty!

From "The Family Dinner Fix" by Sandi Richard

Sauce
2 c cranberry cocktail juice
2 tsp lime juice

Combine cranberry and lime juice in a wide-bottom pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to med-low. Simmer until juice is reduced to half.

**meanwhile**

1 1/2 lb salmon
1/4 Mrs. Dash Original seasoning (per fillet)

Spray a pan with cooking spray. Wash salmon under cold water, pat dry with a paper towel and season one side. Cut into 4-6 equal pieces.

Saute spice side down, over med-high heat until nicely seared, approx 2 minutes. Season top, turn and saute other side for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. cover and let simmer for 4-5 minutes.

Serve sauce on plate and place salmon on top. Serve with rice and a veggie.

1st Day of Kindergarten

I had a great first day at Kindergarten. I got to follow the bears on the wall to find the bathroom. Then I got to try it all out. Then I got to measure Jared and we got to cut and glue. Jared got to stick his hand in blue paint and I got to help him wash it. We got to look around the room together to count how many times we could find Jared's name. And then just as it was getting really fun the teacher told me that all parents had to leave. So it was with a heavy heart I left Jared, my baby, sitting at a table with three other kids that I'm sure were some other women's babies. Jared didn't seem to care. "Bye Mom" he said nonchalantly as I kissed him on the head. Although I felt sad I mostly felt satisfied. Just a year ago Jared was so petrified of new situations that he would have been kicking and screaming if I left him alone in a new place. He learned so much last year in preschool. I'm sure he will learn a lot this year in kindergarten. At least Jared's kindergarten teacher didn't read us the" goodbye" story before the parents left like in the classroom down the hall, the more moms in that class were crying then the kids.


Kaitlin took many pictures of the flowers in our garden (and our neighbor's garden). This was my favorite!

New Iraq Flag Suggestion:

Upon hearing the news about the controversy surrounding the Iraq Olympic team and their country's need of a new flag that all factions would approve of, a flag that dismissed the old government and reflect the new united Iraq, I humbly submit my idea for the new Iraq flag.

This flag includes the original slogan "God is Great" but goes one step further to encompass the love that all Iraqi factions hold for one another and the world. Please note, that there is no blue on the flag at all, so there is no possible connection or resemblance to the flag of a certain "undesirable" country. Surly this would be a design accepted by all factions and parties. If adopted quickly it could even be used in the Olympic closing ceremonies.

Back to School

Ruth went back to school. She really likes her new teacher and is meeting some new friends in her class.



We Finally Shot Our Rocket

It took us three weeks to get our rocket finished but we finally shot it off. It flew strait and true but unfortunately it broke on it's first flight and we have to glue the engine mount back in before we can shoot it again.

Some Movies We are Excited About

The release of the movie trailer for the next Harry Potter has gotten us thinking about all the new movies that we are excited about. Now normally we aren't movie going people. The last three movie we saw at the theater were Prince Caspian, Enchanted and Harry Potter. That is about two movies a year. But this fall we may have to break our record and see more then one. Here are some movies we are excited about:

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince


Of course we are highly anticipating the next addition to the Harry Potter saga. The preview looks good. Though there is always the problem of fitting a 700 page book into 3 hours (I'm sure it will be at least that long).

The City of Ember


If you haven't read the book The City of Ember I would highly recommend it. It's in the youth fiction area and was a Beehive award winner in Utah. I first listened to it on CD and it is still among my top 5 favorite books. I'm excited to see what the movie will be like. It's always iffy when they make a movie out of a book you love. One thing that concerns me is that one thing that I loved about the book was this huge reveal of a mystery near the end of the book, however, they give away the mystery from the word go in the movie so I wonder how that will affect the movie. Anyway, the trailer looks awesome and I'm excited about this one.

Twilight


If anything, this newest trailer for Twilight makes me more nervous then ever about this movie. I'm sorry but I think the acting in this new trailer is atrocious. Can Bella be more emotionless? Ug! I hate when they ruin good books with bad movies! But I will keep crossing my fingers. I mean, the acting can't be as bad as "Attack of the Clones" can it? ("I love you deeply, madly" gag me!)

The Tale of Despereaux


I loved this Newberry Book and the cartoon looks very cute. Emma Watson does the voice for Princess Pea so it will be fun to see how that goes.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua


Now there is no chance in Hades that I'm going to pay money to see this film in the theater, but Jared loves the trailer so I've gone ahead and added it here. Just yesterday Jared had a bad dream he wanted to tell Chuck about. In the dream Jared saw a monster and tried to tell the rest of us about it but we couldn't see it. Chuck asked Jared what the monster looked like. Jared said that it wasn't a big monster, it was a little monster, and it looked like a Chihuahua, but it had wings and it stood on only two legs. I think he had a vision of Disney's next movie "When Chihuahuas Go Bad."


Minesweeper: The Movie
Warning! This trailer has some not nice words - not bad words exactly - but not words I want my kids saying at the dinner table either.



Okay, so this isn't a real movie. But I thought it was funny.


Enchanted


This movie has already been released but it is still a favorite at our house. Kaitlin is pretty much enthralled with this movie right now and she can be heard singing the songs throughout the day.



I'm adding this Enchanted Trailer because I think it's funny. It is just done so well.

Kaitlin's Artwork

Kaitlin has been filling a few of her long summer hours with practicing art. Here is a painting she did yesterday called "Bengal Cat." It's watercolor and ink.