Paradox: Episode Three

I'm actually in this one.  But don't blink, or you might miss me!  Oh, and my bestest friend Nicole is in it, too!  It's her debut! :D

Things Are Looking Up (Oh Finally!)

Zach got his cast on on Wednesday.  He finally talked about what happened when he fell out of the tree.  Apparently, when he fell, he landed on his back in the grass, but his elbow hit the sidewalk, and that's how it broke.  Ouch!  He also has to wear his cast for four weeks.  The other doctor told us three, but the orthopedic surgeon said four.  That means he will go to school for three days until it comes off.  Today, he said he was figuring out a way to write with his cast on.  I think that's pretty cool.  I also received good news Wednesday.  After Zach got his cast on, I went to physical therapy.  My therapist told me that is the best he has ever felt my neck feel.  The tightness is pretty much gone, and I can just keep working on it at home with the stretches and exercises he has given me to do.  Yay!  That is excellent news.  Now if I could just find a way to get my kids to stop fighting, and land a three movie contract.  Life would be perfect!  :D

 I asked him why he looked so forlorn because he is not in any pain any more, and he said, "Because there is nothing for me to do!"  Well, that's not true.  He's just upset because he can't play video games.  He's still grounded.

He asked for an orange cast, and it is hunter orange or construction worker orange.  He won't need a flag when he crosses the street!  He can just hold up his arm! :D

We're Not At the End, But Oh We Already Won

Zachary:  "Mom!  You'll never guess what I just did all by myself!"
Me:  "Oh, yeah?  What?"
Zachary:  "I got dressed all by myself!"
Me:  "Good job!  That's super awesome!"

A few minutes later...

Zachary:  "Mom!  I think I will be able to play the computer with my cast on!"
Me:  "Oh, you do, do you?"
Zachary:  "Yes!  Look!"  He puts his arms out and wiggles his fingers like he is typing with them.
Me:  "Well, we'll see.  You're still grounded."  :D

I love that he is so proud of himself for being able to do things we didn't think he would be able to do!  It's awesome. :)  I told him we should get him a waterproof cast so he can still do the dishes.  Hee hee!  He didn't really like that idea. :D

We Are Just The Monkeys Who Fell Out of the Trees When We Were Trying to Fly

Zach went to play at his friend's house today.  It turned out to be quite the adventure.  He left around 1:30 or 2, and around 3, my friend brought him home, saying he had fallen out of a tree.  Apparently, he was trying to pull himself up onto another branch when the one he was hanging onto broke. "Oh, I'm sure he's fine,"  I said.  He has some scrapes, but didn't want band-aides on them, so I put some ice on it for 20 minutes, and waited.  After about an hour, he wasn't feeling better, and it still hurt to move, so I thought I'd better take him to the insta care - just to be sure.  We were there for over an hour.  They x-rayed him and we found out that even though they could not see the break, there was an indication of fluid around the area, so they assumed it was broken.  He was put in a splint and a sling, and we get to see the ortho guy on Wednesday morning.  He was very brave.  Apparently, breaking your elbow doesn't hurt as much as breaking your leg.  The doctor told me that most of the pain associated with elbow breaks is due to movement, so now that he can't move his arm, he shouldn't feel to much pain.  He got two suckers, and on the way out he asked if we could go for Slurpees.  I told him after dinner.  I made good on my promise.  They have a new flavor in honor of Cowboys vs. Aliens called Alienaid or something like that.  I'm sure I spelled it wrong.  But it was delicious.  The movie doesn't look as good, but the Slurpee was yummy! :D

 While we were waiting to get an x-ray, I took a picture with my phone.

 Then, we had to wait some more, so I took a picture of the other side of his elbow.  Ouch!

 Kaleb drew a picture of Zach and his owie.  Zach is crying, and that is Kaleb with him and our dog, Neji.  The dog is sad because Zach got hurt.

 All splinted up!

Well, I suppose I couldn't get him to smile about a broken elbow, but he said he didn't care what his face looked like.  Poor guy.  We love him!

Get Hot, Get Too Close To the Flame

Yesterday, for cub scouts, we took the Wolf Den to the fire station.  Unfortunately, the only problem with having a small number of cub scouts (3) is that when two of them are out of town on vacation, there will only be one that shows up.  That one that showed up was Riley, and since we meet at my house, it's kind of hard for Riley not to be there. 
I made my other kids come with us, so that it wouldn't be Riley's personal tour of the fire station.  Ha!  I was going to make them come anyway!  It was really fun, though.  We walked, and Riley and Zach wanted to ride their bikes.  Unfortunately, so did Kaleb.  He got about half way down the street and decided to just walk his bike the rest of the way.  Oh, man did that ever make me mad.  I didn't want him to ride his bike in the first place because I knew that would happen.  Then he whined and cried because I made him push his own bike.  Maybe next time, he will listen when I tell him that I don't think that is a good idea.  I was telling Kurtis about it and he said I should have made Zach take the bike back.  That sounds so logical when you say it out loud like that.  I didn't think of that.  Nor did I want to walk his bike all the way up the street again.  We had to be there at a certain time.
When we got there, though, that's when they had all the fun.  They learned about fire safety and we practiced crawling on the floor and feeling the door to see if it is hot.  We watched a video of Timon and Pumba talking about fire safety as well.  It was really cheesy.  Then, the cool part happened.  We got to see the trucks!

This is the truck they use when they go fight forest fires.

This is called a fire truck because it has the big ladder on it.  Riley had fun pretending to fight fires.

This is a rescue truck.  Those are the jaws of life!

 These are the fire engines.  The firefighters ride to the fire in them, and they carry the water to the fire.  They hook the hoses up to the fire hydrants, but they don't pump water very fast, so they are also hooked up to the engines in order to pump the water out faster.  Even I learned stuff! :D

Kaleb is sitting in a fire engine.  He's getting hooked up to one of the oxygen tanks the firefighters wear.  The tanks weigh about 35 pounds.  Kaleb weighs 37 pounds.

Zach tried it on instead.  He said it was heavy, but not too bad.  Yeah, we'll see if he still says that after wearing it for ten minutes. :D

He put on all his gear for them.  Zach asked if it was hot in there.  He said it was, and when he asked if they wanted to try it on, they declined.

But Riley did try on his hat.  Which apparently he thought was pretty cool.

Our tour guide is also a paramedic, and he showed the boys all his medicines that he uses.

Our tour was pretty cool.  They even got to see where the firefighters on call sleep.

Kaleb wasn't very happy that I made him drag his bike all by himself.  Consequences aren't always fun to deal with are they?

Oh, and the tour guide asked Zach what he wanted to be when he grows up, and apparently, Zach is considering a career in the Army.  I wonder where that came from...

Paradox: Episode Two

I know you have been dying to see it!  Well, here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/user/paradoxSeries#p/a/u/0/3UW5TbihUsA

I seem to have some technical difficulties getting the actual video to show up on my blog, so just click the link above, and enjoy!

Paradox: Episode One

Today was super fun.  I took my kids to the set of Paradox (Kurtis came after work), and we all watched the entire episodes of season one.  They are currently uploading episode two, but here is the revamped episode one: 

It's much better now, and they added music.  Which rocks.  I'll post again when episode two is up.

Oh, and for the premiere party, I made a cake!

Pretty sweet, right?

But What Would It Be Without You

Today, Zachary ran off to his friend's house and took Kaleb with him.  I thought it was nice of him to let his little brother tag along.  After they were gone, Riley tried to call one of his friends to see if he could play, but he is still out of town, and his other friend is also out of town.  He couldn't think of anybody else that he wanted to play with, so we decided that after I did my physical therapy stretches, we would bake some cookies.
Zachary keeps asking me to make the recipe on this pot holder I got the time he and I went to Minnesota (just the two of us), so I thought it would be fun for Riley and me to finally try it out.  I always forgot about it until I pulled it out of the drawer to take the cookie out of the oven.
We started to get out all the ingredients, but discovered we had no butter for baking.  We decided we would walk to the store and get some.  Well, I walked, and Riley rode his scooter, but he made sure to stop once in awhile so I could catch up.  We got back, got out all the ingredients, I measured them out, and he dumped them in the bowl.  I let him crack one of the eggs, too, but he got a little nervous when I told him to try not to get any eggs shells in the batter, and had me finish the job.  I think these are some of the best cookies I have ever made.
We make a great team, Riley and I!

The End of an Era

I went to bed at five am this morning.  What?  Am I crazy?  Well, yes and no, but  I had fun!
Ever since last year, my bestest friend Nicole and I have been planning on going to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  We went to the premiere party for part one, and decided it was super fun and should come to the next one.  So we did.  They called it Harry Potter Palooza.  Aptly named if you ask me.  We checked in and were given a back pack with a t-shirt, a mug, a VIP pass, and a bunch of advertisements.  The first activity was the Horcrux Hunt.  We were given crossword puzzles and anagrams and riddles to solve in order to find the nearby stores we should go to in order to find them.  When we arrived, they gave us pins with the horcruxes on them.  Awesome.  After the Hunt, we watched the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one.  It was awesome.  Then we went to the party upstairs.  We went to Potions class, Quiddich practice, got the dark mark put on us, and had butterbeer (well, Nicole chose pumpkin juice, but I didn't care for it).  I got my fortune told at Divination class.  Money is coming my way, my love is strong, I'm going on a trip, and I am lucky.  Awesome.  My fortune telling fish also told me there is jealousy in my life.  Either someone is jealous of me or I am jealous of someone.  Heck yes, I'm jealous of someone.  All those skinny people out there!  Duh!  Oh, yeah, and how can you not be jealous of me?  I'm fabulous.  Also, you'd better believe I am lucky.  Nicole purchased our VIP package, and didn't see the disclaimer that said we needed to buy our tickets separately.  We went and asked about where our tickets for the movie were told this neato piece of information.  The awesome lady in charge of the event went into her office and checked to see if there were any tickets available.  Sure enough, two volunteers had not shown up, so we were able to purchase those tickets.  Come rub my head.  You might be able to absorb some of my luck.  But I'm not giving it up.  I need all the luck I can get.  I loved the movie.  I loved the books.  I don't think the movies ruined the books, but I do think the books are better.  I'm going to miss those kids.  They did an excellent job of saving all muggles (and wizards) everywhere.  After the movie, there was an after party.  I had another butterbeer and ate a cupcake.  I'm going to save my chocolate frog for later.  I also bought a wand with some of my birthday money.  The kids want to play with it, but Nicole told me not to let them.  ;)

Nicole and Harry.  He's such a nice boy.

I was so excited to meet him!  I could hardly contain myself! :D

 Hichiking to Hogwarts.

We missed the train. ;)

The snake and reptile people were back.  Nicole said the snake was squishing them together.

 Just a couple of witches! :D

I also learned last night that not everybody can be as beautiful as me.  Interesting...

The jealous fish in Divination.

 

Don't mess with us!

Muwahahahahaha!

Something You Don't See Everyday

Due to technical difficulties, and the fact that I had other stuff to do today, this post was written on a different date than it was posted.  The original words I have written are unchanged.

So Sunday was my birthday.  It was awesome.  I went to my mom's to share my birthday cake and drop off two of my children for a sleep over.  But Monday and today (okay, well, technically it is the 13th, but I haven't gone to bed, yet.  So let's pretend it is still the 12th) were better.  Let's start with Monday.  Because Monday came before today.
Monday, I got up insanely early.  5:00 a.m.  I woke Riley up insanely early also.  5:51 a.m.  We got ourselves ready for the day, and headed to Camp Fife with the other kids and leaders in our Wolf and Bear dens.  What a freaking fun day!  There was BMX bike riding, rock climbing, craft, zip line, nature walk, lunch, a visit to the trading post, bb guns, and archery!  The only thing I didn't do was the bike riding.  Those bikes were just too small for my giant body. :D  Riley didn't want to go on the bike ride, so we convinced him to go with the Bear leader.  He got on the bike, and she held onto it while they went together.  It was awesome.  I think he was afraid of going over the small hills and the twists and turns in of the course.  When he was done, he realized it wasn't so bad.  The other thing he was afraid to do was the zip line.  I asked him if I did, it would he do it, too.  He pinkie swore, and when I was done getting pictures of all our boys going, I went up to put on my harness and have a go.  Seriously.  So fun.  Riley did it, and later told me he wished he hadn't waited so long to go, so that he could have gone more.  He only got to do it once because our time at the zip line station was almost over by the time he went up there.  He got himself a pocket knife at the Trading Post.  He was really excited.  After Camp Fife was over, I took Riley to Grandma's on the way back home.  He was jealous of his brother's getting to sleep over, so I arranged for them all to sleep over one more night.  As we left town, I drove the rest of the boys in my car past the temple being built.  They seemed quite intrigued by the idea of a temple in the process of being built.  I think it was good for them to see it.  After I got home, I got ready for my date with Kurtis.  We went to dinner and a movie.  We saw Super 8.  I will have to review it for you later, but I really enjoyed it.

 My birthday presents from Kurtis and the boys. :D

 Yes.  Yes, I did set off the smoke alarm. :)

 BMX bike course.  Go, Riley!

Riley and the rock wall.

 Riley enjoyed the craft.

He was nervous to jump, so he sat down and slid off.

 Wheeeeee!

 

Our awesome Wolfs and Bears!

Checking the sights.

 I hit the target twice!

 "Pull your elbow back far enough that you hit my hand."

Riley only shot the arrows once.  After that, he was done, and spent the rest of the time explaining the game Minecraft to one of the Venture scouts.

 I have excellent form.

Check out my target.  Not bad for not having done that for about 20 years.

Today was really awesome as well.  I drove back to my mom's house to pick up the boys and take them to see something you don't get to see every day.  They put the Angel Moroni on the top spire of the Brigham City temple.  It was quite the experience for me.  When I got to my mom's the boys said they didn't want to go.  I said, "Fine.  I don't want to make you."  I was actually kind of disappointed.  This is an amazing thing happening in the place where I grew up.  I don't think I will ever get to see something like this again, and it's quite likely that my children won't either.  But I went with out them any way.  My mom dropped me off and left me to go walk down the street by myself.  She wanted to go to a nearby church building to watch due to the pouring rain.  As I was walking down the street, I saw an old friend that I haven't seen in years.  It was so fun to catch up with her for a few minutes.  But I really wanted to be closer to the action, so I said farewell, and went on my way.  The rain soon stopped, and I closed my umbrella.  As I got nearer to the temple, I could see the statue of the Angel Moroni hooked to its crane.  I almost burst into tears at the sight of it.  It was a reaction I wasn't expecting.  I guess I still can't believe it is happening.
My brother, Rodney came up to see it as well, and so we found each other, and sat together to watch.  But it was too windy.  They took a crane up to test the wind, and the ropes hanging from the bottom were flying at a near 90 degree angle.  That's just far too dangerous.  So we waited some more.  The original schedule was that the angel would be placed on the temple spire at 12:00 p.m., but they weren't able to put it up until 2:00.  Rodney and I killed time by talking about anything and everything.  You know, that is what is so awesome about Rodney.  He has this way of making you feel at ease.  Like you could tell him anything, and your secret is safe with him.  He's very non-judgmental that way.
Then the sun came out, and the wind died enough, and the heat sat on us, threatening to smother us, so we hid under my umbrella again.  It felt like we were in a really small nylon tent, and my legs are so sunburned right now.  They feel like they are really close to an electric heater, and I can't turn around and warm up the other side or move myself further back so the radiant heat isn't so intense.
It was worth waiting for.

 The men are going up in the crane to check the wind.

 I walked down the street and suddenly, I saw him.

 After waiting two hours, they finally started to lift him in the air.

A shot of both cranes.

 

 

They almost have him.

 He is facing east.

 

The men go down for a minute.

 He is majestic.

 

Here, they are putting something inside the statue.  It looks like a really long caulking gun.

 Later, as I was driving to rehearsal, I looked up at the spires and saw that a ball had also been placed on the other spire.  I didn't see that happen.

What an amazing day.  

The temple should be completed in late 2012.