Erocka Spreens Wyoneen

Long time no blog! Have you missed me? Don't answer that. Ha ha. Those of you unfortunate enough to follow my life on Facebook know that I've started dancing with the Utah'ko Triskalariak (Utah Basque Dancers). Sidenote: Don't know what a Basque is? Look here. No, I will not show you how our dances look, you can see one here. It's sometimes fun, mostly a valuable lesson in humility. But I've made some great friends!  So, once upon a time (um, 2 days ago) I left with 3 other dancers (another dancer, Sophie, rode with family members who provide the amazing live music that we get to dance to) to go to Rock Springs, Wyoming for their International Days festival.

The guys from our group went last year and were a HUGE hit with the crowd! What can I say? We're a whole heap o fun! This year is was the girls' turn to represent, unfortunately only a few of us could get away to go. So we drive 2.5 hours and arrive at Wyoming Trucks where Martin Goicoechea had a huge barbecue waiting for us. We were sitting around coveting the classic Mustang (Well, Alise had her eye on the Kia) when I suddenly realized I had forgotten my dancing shoes!! My heart just sank and I was so stinkin mad at myself.  The only shoes I'd brought were my super comfy but half a size too big canvas crocs and I knew I couldn't dance in those.

I can't tell you what a sick feeling I had. I sent Scott a text that said, "Guess who has two thumbs and forgot her dancing shoes???" He called and asked if I was going to come home for them. This made Alise and Antonia laugh out loud when I replied, "No I am NOT coming home for them!" Apparently Scott does not take kindly to being mocked by a few girls so he began the process of learning me a lesson. I hope you enjoy the text messages he sent as much as we enjoyed seeing them all weekend (You'll see what he texted at the bottom of each picture):

Dancing the Day Away

These are some things that might have gotten in the way of remembering the shoes

Gilmore Girls...ah! Such an escape!

I give..the laundry wins!

Horizontal house chores are always the toughest!

(These were sent Saturday)

Good morning my beautiful Dirty Hobo (Dirty Hobo is my fancy cocktail name for a Diet Coke--and I've discovered that you can add Pina Colada mix and make it even more delish. Try it. You won't be sorry!) Have a great day!

Ummm..a little privacy please?

Ugh. The things a girl has to do to be beautiful!

10 o'clock snack. Ummmm..Ben did it.(We blame everything on Ben! Poor baby!)

(At this point Jack is in on the fun. This text is from him) So, um, Mom isn't the only one who forgets (They took my shoes up to a thing Jack had to do with the Boy Scouts and Scott FORGOT THEM ON THE TOOLBOX OF HIS TRUCK! They got about 28 miles before Scott saw them in the rearview mirror. Like, freeway and EVERYTHING. Oh my gosh, it makes my stomach turn just thinking about it.

So caring! (Also from Jack)

This can't be happening! (You know it's happened to you!)

Interesting! (From Jack)

Um, yeah, I need a Diet Coke bigger than my head? (This is a direct quote from me, by the way. Can you believe he actually got OUT of his truck to put them next to the sign?)

Ewwwwwww! 

Um, are we out of gas?

Luckily I made it home before any more pictures could be taken. I have to give Scott mad props for creativity. And I pinky swear promise to NEVER forget my dance shoes again! 

I will end with one more picture for your enjoyment. Here is adorable Alise trying to protect our Zagi (it's a large leather wine bag that someone brought us from the Basque country) from the downpour that we experienced literally RIGHT after we stopped dancing.

Hope you enjoyed Scott's clever editorial! Blog ya later!

A Pinterest a Week...

...keeps the doctor, um, weak? No, not where I'm going. Okay, nevermind. So let's talk about Pinterest. (LOOOOVE IT!) I love it. I especially enjoying browsing at night after I've taken Ambien. Things always seem so much more interesting. So I've decided to do more of what I love and I have to say, I love creating. I love making something pretty out of nothing. I like getting paint on my hands and I just super heart glitter. So to combine my love of all things Pinterest and my goal to do more of what I love, I'm going to attempt to make one Pinterest project per week. I hope to get it published on this here blog--but who knows? Accomplishing goal number 1 already seems a scosh daunting. So anyhoo--look forward to Pinterest posts, people!

Some Pretty Priceless Passing Points...

Once upon a time, this blog consisted of 10 random things on my mind. In an attempt to keep it real (read: procrastinate loading the dishwasher) I thought I'd share 10 things that are floating around in my head. Be afraid.

1. I'm currently working on 10 (more) Things I've Always Wanted to Do. So far, I have created a piece of art to hang in my house and this week I am delivering a bouquet of balloon flowers each day to a friend of a friend. This has been a very cool experiment in living with purpose. There is something to waking up each day knowing that I am going to be serving someone and knowing how I'll be doing it. I think most people provide service every day and maybe that's more commendable because it's just a part of who you are that you serve, but I have REALLY enjoyed serving on purpose. Next week I am learning how to decorate cakes. Can't wait!!

2. True Confession: I think I might be a Hoarder. Not like an "Everything Hoarder" where I have piles and piles of crap everywhere. (Oh dear. I may be that kind of hoarder too. Which leads me to wonder..how many hoarders are actual HOARDERS and how many are like me and are just too lazy busy to put that stuff away?) Anyhoo...I hoard boxes. I currently have a pile of probably 5 or 6 boxes nested inside each other that, for some ridiculous reason, I am afraid to throw away. Boxes are just one of those things that I never need until I don't have any.

3. Speaking of hoarding ridiculous crap...I may officially have a Pinterest Problem. Now please do not confuse this with a Problem with Pinterest. I heart Pinterest. Big time. It may be my very favorite invention ever. But here's the problem. I have always been a thrower awayer. I don't keep anything because I hate clutter (except, as it turns out, boxes). But ever since I've learned all these fancy ways of reusing random crap, I am afraid to throw something away because, "What if I can use it to make something cute I saw on Pinterest??" I literally have to force myself to throw away used toilet paper tubes. This is not who I am. I'm a monster. Look away!

4. So let's talk about television. I love television, especially trashy Reality TV. However, we have these children now who hear EVERYTHING. Little sponges, they are. So these days, if our television is on we are probably either watching Johnny Test or My Little Pony. This is my excuse for having no clue what is going on in the world today. An entire nation could be swallowed up and I wouldn't know unless someone posted something about it on their Facebook page. This leads me to my point. I am ashamedly unaware of the issues surrounding the Presidential campaign. Now, this doesn't cause me to lose TOO much sleep since I basically think all politicians are in it for what they can get and as a result will promise pretty much anything. Who knows? Maybe if it were me, I would also use my influence for evil. And by evil I mean, free Diet Coke. It just makes me sad that you just can't believe a word either of these men--who are probably really actually GOOD men--are saying. I say we pay them the same amount of money we pay teachers and see who still wants to be President. That'd sort the wheat from the chaff! 

5. I try to be a nice girl. I suck at it, but I do try. I try to be as open minded and non judgmental as possible. Having said this, I just cannot comprehend that there are people in this world who can afford tattoos, but not teeth.

6. Do you believe in Karma? I do. Therefore, I gleefully await what Karma has to offer the guy I called today who owns a limousine company. I asked him if he could donate an hour of his limousine time to our elementary school to take 4 kids and a teacher through the drive thru at McDonalds as a prize for our school's fundraiser. His response in his exact words, "Lady, you're killing me." You, sir, are going DOWN.

7. I'm tired. Always. Always, always tired. I like to think that one day, I'll wake up and feel rested but I am smart enough to recognize that will probably NEVER happen again. Even if I'm not being woken up by sweet little children, I will probably lie awake worrying about them, waiting for them to come home, praying for them...and when the day comes that they grow up and leave us (not that I'll ever allow that. They have been instructed to stay little and let me cuddle with them forever) I will probably lay awake worrying and praying for my grandchildren. This is why they say, "You can sleep when you die." 

8. Let's talk about beautiful children. Namely, my beautiful daughter Elisabeth (also known as "Lizzy" "Lu" and, more often than not, "I Swear Little Girl You Are Going to Drive Me to Distraction." This is her:

(This is the day she picked her own clothes. There was NO convincing her she looked like a psycho.) She's beautiful (despite her tragic fashion sense) and sweet and wonderful and I love her. Except...she will not eat dinner (unless it's one of the 4 things she'll also agree to eat for lunch) and she won't sleep in her room. Now, I am a super picky eater..I get it. But DUDE. And I will not make her something special just to get her to eat dinner because I have two other children and I am not a short order cook. I have done the whole, "Well, sorry. That's dinner, you can eat it or go to bed hungry." thing. She's gone to bed hungry..and then woken up at 2 in the morning crying because she's starving. Ugh. Help? Also, she won't sleep in her room. It takes her like 2 hours to finally fall asleep because she keeps stalling and coming out of her room. When Jack went through this phase, we put a baby gate up to keep him in his room...we've tried that with Lu and she just stands at the gate and screams. Then the baby wakes up. So now it's 2 AM, our entire family is awake and she's not looking as beautiful and sweet and wonderful. In fact, I'm mostly just trying my best to not Google "Band of Gypsies" and call it a day. We tried telling her if she was going to sleep in our room she had to sleep on the floor and guess what? She's fine with that. She just doesn't want to be in her room alone. Afraid of the dark? We leave a lamp on all the time and she has a little flashlight. Her room has been organized and cleaned so it "feels" good and like her's. She has her very own favorite blankets. We've tried not letting her take a nap and she crashes wherever she happens to be by about 6PM and that makes the problem worse. We only let her nap for like an hour. (We've tried an even shorter nap and it leads to her alter-ego Devil Lizzy coming out to play for the entire evening.) Sage women who have raised amazing, if not simply functioning, children: please tell me what to do with this sweet stubborn little girl who isn't going to do a dang thing she doesn't want to do? 

9. I heart pumpkin pie. I think I need to make pumpkin pie.

10. I think I'm getting a cavity. Is anything in the world worse than getting your teeth worked on? Especially when you have a cavity and you go in to have it checked out and the dentist has to see how deep it is so he sticks the metal sticky thing in it. GAAAAA! Why are we not providing free dental work to terrorists? That'll get em to talk but they'll have a winning smile and maybe they'll stop being evil. Maybe the source of their hatred for us as a nation stems from our exemplary dental care. I'm just sayin...

Until next time!

Sno Cones 4 Safety Update (Or, Please Keep Your Hands and Feet Inside the Ride At All Times!)

Oh. My. Gosh. You guys, I can't even tell you how crazy this sno-cone thing has been! We started out with Jack wanting to do good for our local K9 unit. We were selling about $20 in sno cones a week so we set what we thought was a lofty goal to raise $300. Then the press came. We're now just over $1500 and we still have a week left to sell sno cones (although the excitement has died waaaaaay down!) Here are some links to his stories:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54523010-78/jack-snow-stevenson-cones.html.csp
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/07/19/sunset-boys-snow-cone-sales-benefit-clinton-k-9
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865559623/7-year-old-sells-snow-cones-to-raise-money-for-Clintons-K-9-unit.html
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=21437906

He's been on the news and even on the radio. We've gotten checks and cash in the mail and even people knocking on our door giving Jack money.  Every experience we've had with someone giving Jack a donation has been so special. We hear stories of dog owners' favorite dogs, people applauding Jack for thinking of someone other than himself, each person helping us teach Jack lessons that I can only pray will last forever. I hope when he gets older and finds himself in the middle of something hard he can remember that he's made a positive impact on the lives of strangers, leading them to do good themselves and I hope he never forgets the power he has make this world better. I've said it before, but I'll say it again..these are not things we could teach him by ourselves as his parents. Him experiencing these things again and again is what will make the impact, we can only reinforce them with our own examples of service and selflessness. I hope we can follow Jack's example and keep doing this as a family.

Having said that, here's another article for you to read: http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/orem-police-dog-dies-dept-seeks-donations-for-replacement/article_640c2e0f-2e07-5215-a26a-fe01988364ad.html
Orem City lost their K9, Rudy, on Friday. This just broke our hearts in our family as we thought not only about the loss to the community but the loss to Rudy's family since these dogs live with their partners' families. Jack and I talked about how sad it would be if our dog Ginger were to get sick and suffer through cancer. Still emotional and crying, I called their captain and asked if we could help. We are so grateful that Officer Glommen is kind enough to support us sharing Jack's earnings with Orem city to help towards the cost of a new police dog for their city. Like Jack said, these dogs keep us safe.

We only have one more week left to sell sno cones but are working with even more fervor to try and help not just Delta, but also another worthy organization. If you haven't made a donation yet and think you can maybe help, please come buy a sno cone from us on Thursday or donate your 50 cents via Paypal so we can rock this thing in this final week.

Jack has been asked to present the money to the city in a city council meeting. He asked the manager at Wells Fargo what he needs to do to get one of those "big checks" and they are being kind enough to provide that for him, in addition to the employees of our local branch also making generous donations. Pictures, of course, will follow.

Thanks for your love and support. Can I interest you in a sno-cone? ;o)

..And a little child shall lead them. Or, Bwaaa! (snort!) (sniff!) gaaaaa (sniff!)

These are the sounds I'm making as I sit at my computer and cry because I'm just so dang grateful! I know it sounds so hokey but when Jack came home and told me he wanted to sell snocones to raise money for Delta I didn't think I could be more proud. However, now seeing that so many people--people we don't even KNOW are catching a glimpse of this AMAZING kid that he is makes my mommy heart so full all I can DO is cry. So thank  you friends, family and Internet Crazies. Thank you for supporting my sweet son in this project that he has been working so hard on and that matters so much to him.
This has been something our whole family has worked on. It's brought us closer together and it's been really fun. It has taught Jack some great lessons that a lot of 7 year olds would benefit from learning--he's learned to communicate as he's had to explain to people what he is doing and why. He has practiced his letter-writing skills as he's written thank-you cards to people who have donated via PayPal. He is learning about sacrifice as he sits in the sun in the middle of the afternoon making snocones instead of being in the air conditioned house conquering the next level of Lego Batman. These are such great lessons and those of you who are donating and spreading the word are teaching him that people care and when he makes good choices, those choices can influence people he doesn't even know. I don't know that we alone as parents could ever teach him these lessons and this is what makes me cry. Thank you for being good people. For sharing Jack's story, for making donations but really most of all, for helping Delta. Police dogs DO keep us safe and we SHOULD do something to keep her safe. Thankfully she already has a Kevlar vest but we're so honored to be able to help with the cost of her maintenance. I don't know that our $300 will go terribly far, but it is enough to show that we appreciate her and her partner, Officer Glommen. One of my heroes was a police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty and so safety is something that is VERY close to my heart. How blessed we are that we have a little sno cone machine so we can help, we have neighbors who donate materials and who come buy sno cones, that we have friends and family who support us by spreading the word and donating and that Internet Crazies have heart enough to help a 7 year old kid learn something I hope he will never forget.

Here are some shots of him getting his SnoCone on:

Sno Cones For Safety--update

Hello friends/family/Internet Crazies! Just popping in to give you a quick update about Jack's super awesome Sno-Cone project. We're having so much fun with it and we're so thankful for friends and family who have helped us work on it. Even the Basque Club of Utah pulled some money together to donate to the cause and we're just so grateful for your support!
I've had a few people who aren't local ask how they can help Jack raise money. I'll tell you that so far, we've raised about $105 and we've set a goal to raise $300 by the end of summer. We will definitely need some help achieving this goal--here is how you can help: we are selling SnoCones for .50 so all we ask is a .50 donation (although we obviously are not going to turn down larger donations, we know that times are tough and right now most people are using their money to do things like pay their mortgage and feed their families.) If you can at least donate .50 to SnoCones for Safety, it'll be like you marched down our driveway with your two shiny quarters and purchased some icy cold goodness. And we'll be so grateful.
There's a button on the top right hand side of my blog (see it there?) and click the "Donate" button. Make your donation and sit back and wait for the Universe to heap loveliness upon you. It may not happen right away, but know that if nothing else we'll be ever so thankful and you'll be helping the Clinton City police department fund their K9 unit. The K9 officer spends a lot of money out of his own pocket to take care of Delta, let's help him out shall we?
Thank you for your love and your support. I can't wait to see how much money we can raise!

P.S. If you're reading this and you're all, "SnoCones for Safety" what is she talking about? Shame on you for not keeping tabs on my wildly fascinating comings and goings. I'll let it slide this once if you donate. Here's the original post that tells the tale of how this came to be.

Think I'm Gonna Read...

I have approximately 6 million projects all going on at the same time right now. Okay, maybe not 6 million. But like 5 or 6. And so many more that I'd like to start. Basically, all of this responsibility business is seriously cramping my style. However, in addition to the 12 berfillion (that's a lot) projects I have in the back of my mind, I'm feeling this desire to read. I miss it. I miss getting lost in a story and staying up way too late to find out what happens. I miss learning new things and experiencing life through someone else's eyes. And so I vow, this summer among everything else going on, to read more. I have flooded my Goodreads account with books "to read" and have put like 12 books on hold at my local library. I'll keep you updated as I go along.

What Do You Do in the Summertime? (Part Deux)

Last year, I posted a big fat list of things for my kids to do during the summer. I had a jar that said, "I'm Bored" and I put little slips of paper in the jar with these activities. I also had another jar that said, "We Did That!" that we put the slips in when we were done. It was really fun and we did a lot of great things.
I wanted to do something similar this year, but didn't want to do the same thing. Something about variety being the spice of life, or whatever. So a couple of months ago, I pinned this from Pinterest.

 I just really liked the idea of the themed days so my kids know what to look forward to during the week. Now, we're going to be gone a lot this summer, vacationing and dancing at Basque festivals and stuff, so I only planned stuff during the week. And it's helpful that every Tuesday is Library day. Not only because it involves less planning on my part, but because our kids read voraciously and we will NEED to go weekly just to keep them busy when they've finished their books!
Also, there's something else that I'm really excited about this summer. (To be read in your best "proud mom" voice) Jack came home from school a few weeks ago talking about a book he'd read about a girl in Florida who raised enough money to buy bullet proof resistant vests for all of the K9 dogs in the state. He thought this was awesome and wanted me to call our friend who works for a neighboring police department to find out if their dog needs a vest and if so, he wants to sell sno-cones in front of our house to raise money. I was so touched that he would want to do that! He said, "They keep us safe, Mom. So we need to keep them safe too!" Then he decided that he would call his endeavor "Sno-Cones for Safety." Who is this kid? Love him! So we contacted our friend who got permission from the Chief and we are going to do this! The dog DOES have a vest, but they can always use money for training, food, etc. so we're going forward. If you would like to make a donation to Jack's "Sno-Cones for Safety" campaign email me your info at jackjacksmom@gmail.com and I'll tell you how you can donate if you're too far away to stop by for a sno cone. So every Thursday (Thoughtful Thursday), we'll be selling Sno Cones to raise money for Delta, their K9. Can't wait!
So here is the list of things we have planned for this summer..


MAKE SOMETHING MONDAY

• A scrapbook
• Use Vinegar and Baking soda (or something like that) to fill balloons instead of helium
• Decorate T Shirts with bleach pens
• Dot-Tree on Canvas
• Nature collage
• popsicle stick picture frame
• coffee filter wreath
• TP roll bird feeder
• Rock candy
• friendship bracelets

WHAT'S COOKING WEDNESDAY

• Kool Aid Playdough
• Pigs in a Blanket
• Ice Cream in a Bag
• Microwave Strawberry Jam
• Marshmallow Caramel Popcorn
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Homemade Frosties
• Monkey Bread Muffins
• Octopus hotdogs
• Mozzarella Sticks

SOMEWHERE FUN FRIDAY

• Discovery Gateway
• Roy Splash Pad
• Kangaroo Zoo
• Dollar Theater
• Police Station (we'll do this after our last day of selling sno-cones so we can give Delta the money we've raised)
• Fire Station
• Construction Company (this is still a work in progress..I need to find a company that will let Jack visit and sit in their big diggers and stuff. This is his version of Graceland!!)

I also wanted to do something to reward good behavior so I'm thinking of doing the whole "put a marble in the jar if you're good, take it out if you're not" thing and giving them a reward at the end of the week if they have a certain number of marbles. Good behavior will be rewarded with marbles, and days spent without any sort of video/computer games will be rewarded with 2 marbles. Here are some rewards I've come up with:

• Sleep out on the trampoline
• Have a "late night over" with a friend
• Wet sponge fight
• Go to the movies
• Roy Aquatic Center
• Surf N Swim
• Clearfield Aquatic Center
• Play in the sprinklers
• Take a family member to lunch
• Roast marshmallows
• Have ice cream sundaes for dinner
• Play at Boondocks

I'm thinking these will just be in a jar and they can pick the activity out if they earn it.

We'll still have the jars available for the "I'm bored" moments, especially if I have something to do and can't entertain them but I'm pretty excited to do some of this stuff this summer! I can't wait for school to get out!!!