Escape Artist (My Film Festival Submission)

Yesterday, we got Zach ready to leave for Scout Camp.  Then, I told Kaleb we were ready to go shoot the film for my sister's 2nd Annual (Just For Fun!) Film Festival.  When I re-explained to him what he needed to do, he decide that it was too embarrassing and he wasn't going to do it.  Luckily, Zachary is less-easily embarrassed.  He took the part of "Painting".  We climbed in the car and I told him we were going to the park, and he could play on the swings while I filmed him dressed up as a painting.  He said, "Will there be people there?"  Well, I wanted to do it while everybody was still in church (by everybody, I mean the majority of the population here.  Not everybody would be in church today, duh.), which would cut the likelihood of people being at the park down quite a bit.  I looked at him and said, "Most likely."  "Then, I'm not going to play on the playground."  Every location we filmed at, had to have minimal amounts of people who would see him dressed as a painting.  But hey, at least he did it.  The rest of the short film was filmed in my home.
Our first stop was Castle Park.  Then we went to the Botanical Center (wetlands area).  We saw a pelican.  It was really cool.  I need a new tripod.  I got some really good footage of it, but it's jumpy because my tripod is hard to work with these days.  And it's lopsided.  All my videos lean to the left a little.  It's annoying.
Any way, I used the not shaky bits in the film.  After that, we went to an alley behind the Kaysville Theater and then the sidewalk in front of it.  Then I scrambled up all the locations during editing to make the story flow better.  I think it turned out really cute (in a good way), and I think it's funny, too.
So I must give a big huge thanks to Zachary (who is now off to Scout Camp until Saturday), Riley and Kaleb.  They did a great job in their parts.  I love those guys so much!

I'm No Doctor, But Headache + Throwing Up = Migraine (In My Book)

Am I wrong?  I mean, I could be wrong.  I hope I'm wrong.  Migraines suck and I don't think my eight-year old has enough stress in his life to be experiencing migraines.
This morning, Kaleb woke me up with his quiet crying.  I woke up Kurtis and asked him to go find out why he was crying (What?  It was practically time for him to wake up and get ready for work anyway).  Kaleb said his head hurt really bad.  Sometimes that happens (and let's face it, with him any pain is really bad pain -he just doesn't deal well with it).  I asked him if he wanted to eat something so he could have some ibuprofen.  He doesn't like to take medicine.  It's a battle that sometimes isn't worth fighting.  I figured this was one of those times.
Then after about an hour of being in my bed with me, he threw up.  After he threw up, he said he felt fine and got dressed for the day.  Things seemed normal again.  Then, about an hour later, he threw up again.  And then said he felt fine again, and asked to play Angry Birds on my phone.  He hasn't thrown up since and says his headache is gone.  I even finally got him to eat something.  He's even fighting with his brothers like nothing ever happened.  That's the part I can live without.
Well, we will have to see if this is a one time occurrence or if it becomes something chronic.  I hope not.  I hate doctors.  They always treat me like I'm crazy, or as though they are some sort of superior being here to look down upon me rather than help me.

I Just Don't Really Understand Why They Make Such a Big Deal About It These Days

On June 7th, Zachary graduated.  From grade school.  So they had a graduation (sort of) to celebrate complete with a slide show of the whole school year.  It was long.  Too long.  I think all grade school productions should be kept to a half an hour or under.  Just my personal opinion.  It's pretty much all I have the attention span for.  I asked Zach what his feelings about having a sixth grade graduation are.  "Should we have them?"  "Yes!"  "Why?"  "Because it's fun!"  "You enjoyed that?  You liked listening to all the speakers and everything?"  "Yes!  I really did."  Well, if I was in sixth grade, I probably would have liked it, too.
The last day of school was pretty awesome for Zach.  After the "graduation", we got to eat a cookie and then go home.  But we didn't go home.  I made him run some errands with me and then took him to lunch to celebrate.  He liked that.
My little man is moving on to the Jr High School in the fall.  How exciting!
No more homework for a little while!  Woo hoo!
To celebrate, I made him run a few errands with me and then took him to lunch at Dairy Queen.

Yeah.  That's cooperating (I told him to smile and be happy school's out).

I video taped the entire One hour and seven minutes of Zach's graduation.  I've condensed it down to Nine minutes and fifty-five seconds which is still way too long, but if you want, you can watch it any way.  Or just skip to about 6:19 where they do a cute song and dance number.  You'll miss the slide-show, that was half an hour, but I cut it to three minutes.  ;)

In Which Summer Finally Arrives!

Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Where did the time go that it's been pretty much two weeks since I blogged?  Well, I guess being busy with a play and the end of the school year will do that to a girl.  We are getting ready for scout camps, too.  I bought Zach his first pair of hiking boots and told him to wear them in.  He also needed regular, everyday shoes and guess which ones he has been wearing.  Nope.  Not the hiking boots.  The stinker.  So nervous and excited for his first trip to scout camp for a whole week.  What am I going to do with him gone that long?
My play, The Curious Savage opened Friday.  It's going well.  Saturday night, I forgot to put my hat on after my third costume change.  Yeah.  I think I got distracted.  Kaleb is also in this play with me, and I make him get ready and do his hair like the boys in 1950 did their hair.  Then I have to finish getting myself ready. Things are likely to be forgotten in that situation.  He comes on at the very, very end and hugs the woman playing Florence.  He was really unsure about hugging a weird lady he'd never met before, but he's getting used to it and realizing that she's alright.  You'll have to come see it.  If you need ticket information, click here.  But unfortunately, you won't be able to purchase them online.  It's alright, though.  You can always get them before the show, too.
I am so glad that it's finally summer!  We haven't done much fun stuff yet, but we will!  I have to get the car fixed though.  It needs a new timing belt.  I suppose it's time.  When I registered it, the mechanic gave me a laundry list of things it needed done and told me it would be around $730 to fix it.  Please kill me.
I took some pictures during rehearsals.  Here's a few.  I didn't get as much as I wanted, though.  I will have to take some backstage on Monday and get some of Kaleb, too.  He's so cute in his Converse shoes!

 This is Mrs. Savage and Fairy Mae.  Fairy Mae doesn't really understand what personal space means.

 This is Florence.  Her doll is her son.  John Thomas (Kaleb's part).

 Mrs. Savage is telling them about the play she wrote and starred in.

 Our gorgeous Dr. Emmett and beautiful Miss Willy (not in her wig).

 Hannibal (the statistician turned violinist), Florence, and Jeff (the war hero who believes his face was injured, and keeps his hand over his face the entire play) play cards.

Mrs. Patty has given up electricity for Lent and will only tell you what she hates.

In Which I Photograph A Dead Mouse At the Request of My Child (You Have Been Warned)

Riley got really upset with me last year.  "You never go on field trips with me!"  It was true.  I never had been able to go on a field trip with Riley because I couldn't go on field trips when Kaleb wasn't in school (no on to babysit him), and then, I babysat other peoples' kids for two years.  Sometimes, if a field trip was on a day I wasn't watching kids, I could go with one of the boys on theirs.  Riley's just never fell on a day off for me.  So this year, because I am no longer working during the day, I promised Riley that I would go on one of his field trips with him.  In the end, I actually got to go on two with him.
The first one was last month when we went to the Utah Museum of Natural History.  I hadn't heard from his teacher about whether he wanted me to come on this one or not, so I said, "Am I going?  I never got an email from your teacher asking me to."  "YES!"  He said enthusiastically.  So I showed up.  His teacher told me he wasn't actually planning on me coming, but I still could.  That made Riley happy.  I was perfectly willing to go home and not come that time, but his teacher is really nice and let me anyway.  It was a lot of fun, too.  We got to explore the entire museum.
Then today, we went to the Wetlands.  In Layton, Utah, there is the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve.  I love it there.  There is a mile long boardwalk where you can look for birds and bugs and frogs.  I need to go there more often.  But this time, we had a tour guide and he talked about the different plants that were there and about water levels and habitats.  We ate lunch and then the bus took us over to USU's Wetland Discovery Point in our hometown.  The kids had fun looking for macroinvertebrates, and looking up close at some of the plant life we found at the preserve.  By up close I mean under a not microscope, but I can't remember what it was really called.  It was just cool and I want one.

 Summer is the best time to come to the preserve because right now, last year's growth is still covering up this years'.

 I just love this building.  It's so cool.

 Our guide pointing out some awesomeness.

 A nest under the stairs.

 I don't know all the names of the birds I took pictures of, but this one is a red-winged blackbird.

 It's our bus!

 They called our group the Snowy Plovers.

 Riley and his friend told us about the Wilson's Phalarope.

"They pretend to have a broken wing to protect themselves from predators."

Which means if there is a fox or a skunk that wants their eggs or is getting too close to their nest, they will pretend to have a broken wing to lure them away.

 I don't' know what these birds of prey are called.  But they sure did a number on that mouse.

 Some of the kids were really excited to see this half eaten mouse.  Some were grossed out and said things like, "I'm not hungry any more."  Most of the latter were the boys.  I only photographed this because Riley asked me to.  It reminds me of the time I photographed a dead mouse (it wasn't torn apart though) at youth camp one year.  He really does take after me.  :D

 At the Wetland Discovery Point.

 These ducks are juveniles and they are hybrids of white domesticated birds and wild ducks.  Pretty cool.

 A coot.  Which is basically another duck.

 An awesome bird built a nest on the building.

 This is where we saw our plants up close.

 Our guide told us what this is, but I forgot before we were even out of the parking lot.  A long-tailed something.  It's related to magpies.

I don't know what this is either, but it's beautiful.