Another pet bird

You might remember the story of Wenzie, the pigeon, who stayed here at the Jones Rehabilitation Center for Crippled Birds. (Perhaps against her will. Definitely against mine.)

Yesterday Sara called in a panic for Mary. A bird emergency. An abandoned nest, two babies, and a cry for help.

The amateur rescue crew divvied up the fowl; one stayed at Sara's, and the other took up residence in a cardboard box at our house.

Her name is Onesie.


(Because she's a baby.)

I believe she is a morning dove.

Onesie is pretty much the most exciting thing to happen to the kids, well, since Wenzie.

I don't know how the story will play out.

But I know that for Mary, every day spent with Onesie is a happy one.

My summer hair

Party in the front, business in the back.

(I have no idea what that really means.)

Do you catch the idea though?

If not, call me and I'll schedule a face-to-face.

And then we'll get ice cream.

'Cuz it's summer, of course!

And I have the hair to go with it.

You know you talk about Young Women a lot....

When you have this conversation with your son.


Me: What did you do at Mutual tonight?

Tyce: Personal Progress.

Me: Personal what? Projects?

Tyce: No, Personal Progress. [The young womens' program]

Me: Do you mean your Young Men's booklet "Duty to God"?

Tyce: Umm, yeah. That's what I meant.

The Weekend

How is it that a long weekend is rarely long enough?

Tyce went to Spencer's birthday party . . . swam and got sunburned . . . he loved it.

Kids got "track break cereals" . . . Cap'n Crunch and Frosted Flakes . . . they devour it.

I got my hair summerifyed . . . cut and highlights . . . I love it.

Bryce and the big kids saw the new Star Trek movie . . . "Live long and prosper" . . . they raved about it.

Went miniature golfing as a family . . . Harrison got two holes in one! but some of us melted down . . . parents did not love it.

Had a BBQ mostly prepared by Bryce . . . grilled tri-tip beef, grilled shrimp, potatoes, corn, watermelon, and strawberry shortcake . . . we all happily ate it.

Family Home Evening about obeying, honoring and sustaining the law . . . even the twins paid attention . . . we enjoyed a great improvement.

Season finale of "24" on the DVR . . . folded laundry while watching . . . B. and I liked it.

And that is the weekend in a nutshell.

I also have a girls camp meeting this morning. Did I tell you I'm in charge of the play we're doing? And did I tell you that I have absolutely NO experience in putting on this kind of production, as in, I never even act in plays, let alone cast and stage them, and . . . oh yes, now I remember.

Sorry.

I will survive.

(You know that. *I* know that.)

Now I'm being paged to pour some cereal.

Something I know how to do!

Woo hoo!

Memorial Day letter

Written by Mary Rachel Jones
3rd grade

(I found this in the kitchen, which looks to be a very heartfelt first draft of a school assignment. I think she says it better than I could.)

source

Dear Army People,

I just don't know how you do it. I don't know how you don't run away when you see the blood, hear the screams, and smell the smoke and fire. We all owe our lives to you brave people. I know you hate war, I just know it. You care about our lives more than your self. I am thankful for you, all of you, the nurses, the air craft people, the boat people and land. There would never be any way to thank you. I will cry for those who are lost. I promise, we are thankful and I hope the people, all the people, will learn that people are people and there's nothing so important to start World War One over it.

Sincerely,

Mary

The Weekend

Bryce took the three boys camping this weekend, along with the other men in the stake. The little boys drank a lot of soda, per their animated report. I'm pretty sure that was a highlight of the trip. That, and riding four-wheelers.

Do you remember last year's incident at the Father-Son campout?

Or the year before, when Tyce locked the keys in the car?

Oh boy.

I'm seeing a pattern here.

Is that the very picture of sadness?

Cameron was sitting in a camping chair when he leaned over to get his flashlight. His chair tipped over and Cam face-planted into the gravel. His forehead bled like a faucet. Luckily Brother Stolworthy, a paramedic, was on hand to assess the damage and clean our little guy up. Cameron didn't need stitches but I will say that the wound is pretty impressive.

I think Tyce might argue that we should get a quad and throw out our "dangerous" camping chairs.

Well Cameron slept a bit on the way home but was ready to play that afternoon. He and Harrison played outside, and then . . . WAILING . . . Cameron tumbled off the slide and gave himself a black eye!

Bryce has a good point though . . . it's amazing that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.

Well Mary Rachel and I had a much quieter time.

We ate at Subway, saw the Hannah Montana movie, got pedicures, and went to the mall. We both got new earrings.

Skittle toes.

And Sunday was church. In the spirit of being positive I won't tell you how the three younger children acted during sacrament meeting. Let me just say that I'm glad today is a school day.

Oh, Sunday was my mom's birthday! She is the BEST and I love her. I wish I could have been there to celebrate her special day.

I'm Mother of the Year!

I took this off because I couldn't remember how to make it look right, like a video. Then I put it back on because I thought it would be mean to tease those of you who have blogger updates; I mean, I would totally want to know if YOU were mother of the year.

(To me, you are. For real.)

So here it is.

Thank you to Kim for "nominating" me!

And somebody please tell me how to make it look video-licious.

The bright side

I've been a bit negative lately and I don't like it.

All the "stuff" I mentioned before was getting me down . . . like I said, none of it was IN my life, but it was AROUND my life and most of it not my business anyway. But I kept hearing a little voice saying, "Wow, isn't that annoying? Can you believe that? That's horrible. What a shame."

And then I started thinking that way about my own household.

"What were they thinking? That's a terrible idea. They need to budget their time better. I hope they pull themselves together."

And that's not the way I want to live my life.

Today I'm going to accentuate the the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative.

(Note to self: cancel lunch date with Mr. In-Between.)

1. What I really want to say is that I have a new chicken.

And I think she is awesomely adorable.

I got her on Easter clearance at Pier 1 for $1.98. Positively a score!!!

She sits on my counter and I talk to her while I cook. Well, sometimes. Plus she is very soft.

Yesterday I watched Emily and Camille. Camille brought a Barbie over, which she accidentally left on the counter.

When Mary came home she asked about the new addition. When I explained that it wasn't part of our kitchen's permanent decor, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good, because I thought with the new chicken AND a Barbie, that was overdoing it a bit."

Don't you agree?

2. Young Womenhood Recognition night was this Wednesday and we had two beautiful young women receive their medallions. I am going to finish the program again by next spring. Go me!

3. Mary and I are having, as she calls it, a "special day" this Saturday. All of the men in the house are going to the father-son campout, which is a very POSITIVE benefit of having three boys and only one girl!!!

We will see a movie, go to lunch, get pedicures, etc. I am really looking forward to it.

4. Tyce wanted modeling clay for a project, which I highly discouraged. Why? Because once in 6th grade I made a castle out of salt dough for a history exhibit. It was not my finest accomplishment. I am still embarrassed that I worked hard on it and only got a C.

I am happy to say that Tyce is much more capable than I was or am. I was completely impressed with his finished product:

It's the claymation version of PonyBoy from the book "The Outsiders" by S. E. Hinton.

I'd totally give him an A.

And I think clay PonyBoy would agree and give him a hand . . . if he had any.

(Ha cha cha cha!)

5. And last on the list for today, I have an awesome husband who loves me and supports me and thinks I'm funny. He even almost laughed at this:

How did the horse know he was in hell?

I don't know.

He was in the gulf of misery and endless WHOA.

What more could I ask for?

***

So I'm looking forward to a good weekend, focusing on the bright side of life. Because you know what? Life is good.

It really is.

Entry for the Naughty File

There are no words.




I'm assuming you can tell that's permanent marker on the computer screen.

I 'm reading your thoughts right now.

(I know. Seriously. That's what I said too.)

Mother's Day

A tale of two fortunes.

FORTUNATELY, Cameron and Harrison look like angels when they are sleeping.



UNFORTUNATELY when they're awake, they do things like this.




FORTUNATELY, they learned all about Mother's Day at preschool. They really wanted to make me breakfast in bed . . . even though it was Friday.

UNFORTUNATELY, Cameron poured me a huge bowl of Cheerios and sloshed it all the way up the stairs.

FORTUNATELY, I held my tongue about the mess.

UNFORTUNATELY, they weren't through making me breakfast. Cameron decided to make me cinnamon toast. For the first time. Without supervision.

FORTUNATELY, I ran like the wind when the boys charged upstairs yelling, "Mom! Fire! Fire!"


UNFORTUNATELY, Cameron buttered and super-sugared the toast BEFORE putting it in the toaster oven, where it ignited and caused a small blaze.

FORTUNATELY, I'd read that week what to do in such an event. I extinguished the tiny fire without a problem.

UNFORTUNATELY, I had a huge mess to clean up--all in my honor.

But on Sunday--the "real" Mother's Day--Bryce was on hand to make sure the show ran smoothly. The twins were still set on making breakfast in bed, so I was treated to this:

and it was delish.

The twins made me a handprint and poem, Mary wrote a lovely letter, and Tyce carved a heart out of wood for me. I felt very loved. My wonderful husband Bryce bought me two blank books to write my ideas in. Oh, I have ideas.


I love being a mom. I have four of the most beautiful kids on the planet.

And I love them every day.

Even when one of them throws a coloring book 10 aisles away at church. Even when another one refuses to go to class because the negative attention from NOT going is more powerful than the positive attention from going. Even when one pretends not to know where the normal class is and attends instead with the much younger kids. Even when one collects candy doesn't share with others, causing major meltdowns.

(All of this happened this Sunday.)

Yes, even then.

I am happy to be a mom.

Win-win

Last night Tyce babysat the kids while Bryce and I went to "The Music Man" (loved it!).

We came home to find this promissory note:

"Tyce said if I go to bed then on Monday he wold give me Red gaterated [Gatorade] and Gumie bers on Monday aficaly [officially] decred by Tyces name and a hard math fact to prove what he relly said"

The note ends with a happy face and the closing "Your bully, Mary".

He signed it.

And included a hard math fact.

7 - 2 + 19 / 3 x 19 - 5 =

(It's so much better to make up problems you don't have to solve.)

When we came home, she really was in bed.

Like I said, win-win.

Question

Stuff has been going on. Do not mistake my silence for lack of material.

(Or lack of stress.)

Sometimes I feel like a female Atlas--to a small degree.

artist: Heather Blakey, Soul Food Cafe, www.dailywriting.net

Will the world fall apart if I can't keep it balanced?

Will I?

What the kids have been up to

This is the grandparents' most-asked question.

Tyce: There was a stake Court of Honor this week. As a senior patrol leader, Tyce was able to give out the awards for his troop. He did a great job.


Mary: She completed her bag in sewing lessons this week. Notice the "M" made of ribbon echoes the "M" design at the top of the bag. She modeled this on her way to school. Today is field day!




Cameron and Harrison: They love playing with their friends. Emily and Camille are on the tire swing, Cameron is on the playhouse, and Harrison is demonstrating his latest trick--climbing up and sitting on the trapeze bar. (He hasn't figured out how to get down yet.)


In general, our apricots are starting to grow and the star jasmine is blooming. The grass needs to be mowed. The yard is filled with ladybugs, and hunting them down and making them "pets" is how our kids commune with nature.