A New Pet?

So this evening Jake came running in the house saying he needed a paper cup. Then he left, and came back a few minutes later saying he needed a bowl.

He came in a few minutes later and said that he and his friends had found a lobster in the canal.

About 10 minutes after that he came back and said that they found another lobster, but it was pregnant so they left it in the canal.

By this time it seems like every kid in the neighborhood is gathered in my front yard to see the "lobster".

Then Gage came in and said he had made it a home, could he keep it? I said - probably not, but decided I better go see what he had. It was a crawdad, but a pretty big one. I tried to convince them that it would be happier back with its family.

(Just a quick side story on that - Yesterday Brooke and her friend found some baby birds. After they "rescued them" into a box - they walked about a mile back to our house to get a medicine dropper to feed them with. When I said I was too lazy to drive them back to where the birds were Jake said to Jeff and I "We are talking about four lives here, four baby birds lives!! What would you say if those were your kids?" - Have I mentioned that we live in a drama free zone - Yikes)

So I tried to convince them to put the "lobster" back. But Gage just couldn't bear to part with it, and using some sand from the new sandbox he "built it a home".

After he went to bed, I went out and got some pictures. (Not to be gruesome, but I am pretty sure these pictures are post-mortem!)

And how do you like that "house"? I have set that stupid thing out by the road about 15 times so the real owner could take it home, but it keeps finding its way back to my garage. (My youngest girl is 10!!)

The Sandbox (alternate title - I am a member of the paparazzi)

So we have this strange little patch of grass in our backyard because Jeff has a "thing" for concrete and as the basketball court has expanded, it has left this little patch all by itself. I told Jeff that this would be a great place to have a sand box. Well I think Jeff's philosopy for life is "Go Big or Go Home!". He didn't think that little spot was good enough for a sand box. So he decided that we should use some space in the vacant lot next to us (no one will be using it any time soon - we are fairly certain).

He had his friend (and business partner) Mike come and smooth out a spot for the "sandbox" and also a garden spot for me - Hey, I said no one else was using it!! Then he called for a load of sand.

As you can see, this was not a pickup load of sand.

This is where the alternate title comes in. I realized that there was a huge dump truck of sand being delivered as I got out of the shower. I didn't know how long it would take to empty a load of sand so I decided I needed to hurry and take some pictures. So I stood in my bathtub (yes still naked) an stuck my camera lens through the CLOSED blinds to take pictures. (I felt like the exact opposite if the paparazzi (not that anyone would ever want to take naked pictures of me, I just thought it was funny that I was taking pictures, while naked, through the blinds) I guess you had to be there - only you are probably grateful you weren't there! ;)

I will shut up now. Enjoy more pictures, and know that every kid in the neighborhood is loving the new sandbox!

And just a word about boys and their toys - those two guys in the distance are the delivery men, and one is holding a little remote control box that he moves around that chute thingy with. Boys never grow up, they just get bigger toys. ;)

Perspective

I am actually going to update twice because I don't want this at the top of my blog ;) - it is important to me to be funny (even if it is only fun in my own mind) and this was in no way funny! On April 22 Jeff was told he had Bladder Cancer. We then got to spend 4 long days before we knew anything else. These were days filled with tears, fear, praying, fasting, questions. I think there should be a law that whenever a doctor gives you news like that, he should have 48 hours to give you as much information as he possibly can. He should not be going home and hanging with his family all weekend like he didn't just shake the foundation of your world to its very core! So Jeff had a CT scan the next Monday, but again fabulous Dr. referenced above didn't call us with the results. He has surgery scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. The Dr. came in about 10 minutes before the surgery and said that he wouldn't be removing the whole tumor because it was through the bladder wall and on the urachus. Which is an umbilical cord remnant (which is something most people don't have). He went ahead with the surgery to do basically a biopsy because he hadn't done that the first time they had been in there. (hindsight is better, but we would have done some things differently with this information) The good thing about the way things happened, is it finally jolted me in to action. So while Jeff was in surgery I called the Huntsman Cancer Center and got some recommendations for doctors and made an appointment for 3 days later. This new Dr. was about a million times better and he had the same sense of urgency we did. So a week ago - yesterday, surgery was performed and all the cancer was removed. It was all contained inside the urachus and the portion invading the bladder was able to be removed with clear margins. It was also not found in any lymph nodes. Before the surgery we were told it was a very rare urachal adenocarcinoma (which is less than 1% of all bladder cancers). Googling this was not a good thing at all. This cancer has a very bad prognosis. However, once the pathology came back, (last Thursday) it turned out not to be that kind of cancer. It is an even more rare type of cancer (which has made google not really informative, which I have decided is a good thing). The Doctor is leaning toward no further treatment at this time. However because of how rare it is he will be presenting the case to the Huntsman Tumor Board. This board meets twice a month to discuss rare cases and recommend treatment plans. He is holding off making a final decision until he gets their input. The doctor did tell me, though, that he feels fairly confident saying he doesn't think it will return because it started in the urachus and all of that tissue is now gone. Jeff did get to keep his belly button - which we weren't sure would happen when the surgery was first discussed. I am not sure if he is happy, or disappointed by this - everyone needs a claim to fame! ;) This has brought some perspectives into our lives and we will be spending more time making memories - and hopefully I will be better about taking pictures (maybe the quality will even improve). It has also strengthened our testimonies of fasting, prayer, and temples. We have already started letting go of little concerns and cherishing moments more. Thank you to everyone who participated in fasting, praying, and sharing good thoughts with us, and giving time, food and other service to us. I believe with all my heart we have experienced divine intervention.

Brooke's Orchestra Concert

Last night was Brooke's Orchestra concert. The kids did a great job. The teacher picked mostly music from popular movies and TV shows so that was really fun. The concert was only 35 minutes (big plus).

Now - you can enjoy all the lovely pictures I took, because yes, I am THAT good of a mom!!

(if it helps you, she is just about dead center in the picture) I am available for weddings, births, and any other special events you would like documented!

Who is in charge here, anyway?

So the kids woke us up this morning all excited about the fort they made and how we just had to come and see it. So this is what we found in the living room:

Normally this kind of mess would put me over the edge, but you know, Jeff coming home and telling me he has cancer has sort of changed my perspective - who the heck cares!! Right. I could clean this up in about 5 minutes if I really wanted to so "Let them be little!"

My Grandma is 80

My grandma Von (Yvonne) turned 80 April 10th. We had a big family party for her. I chose not to attend, because it was the same day as the funeral for my friend, but I thought I would honor her with a blog post and some pictures that Brooke took at the party.

(Isn't it great to have kids that are old enough you can give them jobs. Now I just need to find her camera.)

This is the gift idea I had for my grandma - Kim helped a lot with the actual execution of it. We framed it in a black frame.

Easter

So contrary to popular opinion - I am a really bad mom!! I was so lazy this Easter because we ended up not going camping (grrr SNOW!!) that I barely got around to doing anything traditional.

The Easter bunny usually comes to us on Saturday - but she was extra busy (or hadn't gone shopping, I forget which) so instead he came to our house on Sunday. However Sunday we awoke to - you guessed it, more snow - so it was a good thing we had left the door unlocked so he could come in and warm up. While he was warming up, he hid our eggs and baskets downstairs.

Now to the really bad mom part. I told my kids we would color our eggs between conference session. Then come to find out I had no coloring - but they had already forgotten by the conference break. I had already boiled the eggs so I thought I would make Deviled Eggs to go with dinner. Surprisingly enough, I was too lazy. Then - I thought - I really should let Gage color them, but other things kept distracting me on Monday (it was a sad day - but that is for another post). On Tuesday when I took Brooke to orchestra at 7:30 I decided to run by Wal-mart to see if they had any good Easter Clearance. They had these COOL egg spinners. So for $2.50 I was all in!

Then the rest of Tuesday morning - I was lazy so Gage and I still didn't get around to coloring. Wednesday was busy with appointments and such, but I am leaving town tomorrow (Thursday) at noon - so finally at 8:30 at night - right before bed I said, let's color these eggs!! So I brought out the spinner and we went for it.

Courtney is super gangster - right!

I was going to fake this post and back date it like I had done this actually when I should have, but what would be the fun in that - and you know me too well anyway!! (And don't you just love the way I cropped those pictures and made them all cutsie for you - I will be offering classes soon!)

April Fools/Courtney's Birthday

So, my sweet little Courtney was silly enough to let me do her birthday party on April First - crazy kid!!

We had lots of fun! First we played stick the booger on the nose.

Then we played take a dare or pie in your hair. (She really did choose the pie in her hair!!) It was a shaving cream pie - I am too cheap to use whip cream.

Then we had a crazy menu dinner at Chez Andrez. It was quite the menu, but I can't share it here just in case I want to use it again - I don't want the key floating around out there. But I would be happy to share it if anyone is interested.

We finished out with a lovely "cake" made by Aunt Alicia. This was actually made with Courtney's Giant Cupcake Mold, but it was actually rice crispie treat so she couldn't really cut into it. Pretty funny.

**Just a side note: Last year for April Fools breakfast I made giant ostrich eggs for breakfast. That was marshmallow cream and a peach half. So this year I went the opposite and did tiny eggs made with melted white chocolate and a yellow M&M - Way fun!!

***Yeah and FYI Courtney is now 12 and enjoying YW. (Mom is a little freaked out!)

Rules for Eating

Kim's mother-in-law sent this in her weekly newsletter and I really liked it, so I decided to post it here so I could always remember it and try to live by it. Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry. Avoid foods that have sugar listed in the first three ingredients. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third grader cannot pronounce. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature. Buy your snacks at the farmers market. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't. It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car. Eat your colors. Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk. So there is the good advice of the day!

Song Writing Duel

So this morning on facebook, I wrote this song: ♫♪♫Saturday is a special day, when I wish that my house was much smaller ♪ We clean the kitchen and scrub the toilets and we say that our mom's into torture ♫♪♫ My friend Rachelle completely topped me in AWESOMENESS by responding with this song: ♫♫♫If you torture and you know it clap your hands, (clap clap) If you make your kids clean go on clap your hands (clap clap) If you torture and your mean,say oh well, our house is clean, Tell your kids guess what, we'll clean next week again!! (Horray!!)♫♫♫ How AWESOME is she!! I bow to her greatness!

The Boob Nazi Read My Blog!!

It is so not like me to post twice in a month (or really even once a month - you all know that I re date my posts, right) but I am so excited. I always wonder if I should admit to stalking blogs or if I should just lurk in creepy silence. Well, since so many people ask me which ones I read I decided to just take all the ones from my google reader and my favorites list and update my blog list on my blog. Well today one of those that I creepily stalk commented on MY blog!! I love the Boob Nazi. She is so hilarious that I sometimes wonder if we are twins separated at birth (about 10 years apart!) I have secretly been considering us e-BFF's and wondering if she wants to go on the girls trip with us this year, because she would SO fit in with the family! So now I feel famous because I always see her comment on the BIG blogs I read (which, by the way is one of the main ways that I find new blogs to stalk. If you make a funny comment on someones blog, I will click on your name to see if you have a blog.) I am so happy! My life would be complete if I could get TAMN to read my blog!

ABC's of Me!

A- Age: 35 (good thing you asked before my birthday, or I might not tell you! B- Bed size: King (sleep number, but do you think it keeps Jeff from crossing the line onto my side, NO!! It turns out we both like the foam strip down the center, go figure!) C- Chore you hate: All of them! Folding laundry, bathrooms, cooking etc. But if I wasn't a stay at home mom, I would hate my job too! So whatev ya know! D- Dog's name: Don't have one. Never will! Sorry kids, no matter how much your dad talks about it, I just sit back and quietly let the storm blow over. No way am I taking on responsibility for a creature who (in my neurotic opinion) has more germs than a bathroom! E- Essential food/item: I don't know if I can narrow it down - anything carbolicious (That is why I am off sugar, and soon to be off bad carbs too!) F- Favorite color: Denim G- Gold or silver: Either, not picky, depends on the mood H- Height: 5' 8.5" I- I am: losing my mind! (Why am I even doing this? Oh yeah, cuz Melinda asked nicely!) J- Job: Holding down the couch - and I am a seriously underpaid professional! Oh and I also do real estate and mortgages on the side, so if ya need one ;) K- Kids: Four too many! Courtney 11(going on 25) Brooke 10, Jake 8, Gage 5 L- Living arrangements: Just shy of qualifying for hoarders!! M-Mom's name: Lois N- Nickname: Cyn, Cyn-O-Dee-O, that &%*$ witch! ;) (You know who you are!) O- Overnight Hospital Stay: Only for the kids! P- Pet peeve: To many to even start to name! Q- Quote from a movie: it is a tie between "Toe-pick" and "I carried a watermelon" R- Right or left handed: Depends, I write and eat with my left hand, but do everything else right handed S- Siblings: Kim (Warren), Rebecca (Felipe), Chad (Kim), Beau (Alicia) T- Time you wake up: As late as possible, but usually 7:30 Which is at least half an hour earlier than I need to get up most days. Dang body clock - so not looking forward to daylight savings on the 14th! U- Unique thing about your car: It is a H2 and most days, that is unique enough!! I feel pretty lame in it, but hey, you can't hate paid off right! V- Vegetable you hate: All of them and I do it with a passion. I only "like" green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers - oh and Corn, but all of you who have ever dieted know that corn is not a vegetable! X- X-rays you've had: Teeth and thumb. That is all I can think of. The thumb thing is kind of funny though. I was walking along the top of our pole fence and the pole turned. I fell off and landed on my thumb. I am cool like that! Y- Yummy food you make: All of my food is just freaking amazing!! NOT - I don't really enjoy cooking, but once in a while I come up with a good idea, and I am killer at tweeking a recipe to be edible, but less that 5 ingredients and less than 15 minutes prep time! Z- Zoo favorite: I love the monkeys the most, but lately the tigers have been cool too. And I LOVE any trained animal shows, like the elephant, reptile and bird show!! I am supposed to tag someone, but most of you are good bloggers anyway so how about I say - whoever doesn't already have a cool post for this week!

Grandpa Trent

So, it has been a bad winter for my grandpas. My sweet grandpa Trent passed away on February 11th. I just happened to be in town when he got sick and I was honored to get to spend hours by his bedside holding his hand, combing his hair and providing whatever comfort I could as he made the journey to his heavenly home where by beautiful grandma Bev was waiting for him. This was my dad's dad so he was waiting there with open arms too, I am sure. I never would have said before this that I would love being with someone in their final days, but it is one of the best, most loving, most spiritual experiences I have ever had. I had some very neat experiences that I will write in my private memory collections! Here is his obituary, and one of my favorite pictures that I stole from my cousin's blog. (thanks again Jess) Trenton Hulet Jones February 15, 2010 Enterprise - Trenton Hulet Jones passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family, February 11, 2010. He was born September 4, 1927 in Enterprise, Utah to Arthur Pidding and Edna Hulet Jones. He married the love of his life, Beverly Bunker, September 1, 1948 in Veyo, Utah. They were later sealed in the St. George Temple, September 23, 1961. She preceded him in death and from the gift of the smile on his face at the end, we know they had a very joyful reunion. Trenton (Finney) was raised in Enterprise and attended school there. He served in many different church callings; elders quorum, high priest group and bishopric, but next to his work with Beverly in the Temple, his favorite was with the scouts. He took them on many, many trips and they loved him dearly.He was a very hard working man and a great provider. He was a farmer, railroad worker, mine worker, a petrolane gas man and a truck driver. When I finally get around to it, I will share with you my portion of the talk that I gave with my cousin Russel at his funeral. (Yes, you read that right, I spoke again, I am becoming quite the extrovert!) I love you Grandpa Trent (and Grandma Bev) until we meet again. ps - I am still working on my memory book that I started when grandma died, so feel free to send me memories you have of either one of them!

My Wonderful 2nd Born!

Brooke is now 10

I know, I am shocked too!!!

We were in St. George for her birthday so I let her choose between Pirate Island Pizza and Dixie Igloo Ice Skating. She picked the ice skating. I would share some super cute pictures if I ever took my camera anywhere. I think Jeff may have gotten a few with his phone so I will find out and share if he did.

Everyone did pretty well and there was no complaining which is an amazing thing considering we had about 12 kids with us. I was not really happy to pay so much money and be limited to 2 hours, but it turned out that 2 hours was plenty of time at the rink.

Brooke, you are such an amazing part of our family. We are so lucky to have you. Thank you for always being even tempered and easy to get along with.

**Updated: More good stuff about Brooke

Our vacation turned into a very extended one (see the next post), and since Courtney went home with her dad before we knew it was going to be extended Brooke got stuck babysitting quite a bit the week after her birthday so that I could spend some good quality time with my grandpa and the extended family at the hospital. She was such a sweet girl about it and never complained.Thanks again for your sweet personality.

January

So I decided not to make big resolutions this year, just try for small changes. Let us call them baby steps on the road to where I want to be at the end of this year. I thought that one of those should be going from promising to post monthly, to trying to post quarterly! What do you think? I am going to try to break my sugar/carb addiction as a step on the road to weight loss. But again, baby steps. I am going to try to exercise again on that same road as above. I am even toying with the idea of signing up for an organized race. Not a marathon or anything, but I wll keep you updated as I work on things. But really, if you want to keep up on my life, you should friend me on Facebook. I am much better at snarky one liners than I will ever be at the long heartfelt posts. So for the year - be gentle on yourself! Cindy

New Christmas Jammies from Grandma

visualize a really cool picture here, and when I finally find the card reader for my camera, I will post said picture - Thanks for tuning in!

Haha- I told you I would find the right camera card!! (Okay so it is April!!)

And as always - you are welcome! (for all the effort I put in to cropping and scrapbooking these pictures all cute for you)

(Hehe, you only thought I missed November)

I did this on facebook, but I thought it pretty well summed up the year!!

Moab Pictures (2 posts in a month!)

Hey, someone said they wanted pictures from Moab, and I remembered that Jeff emailed me the ones from his phone. So I can share!! The depth perception isn't really great on this one. I was completely freaking out as Jeff took this picture. That is like 800 feet down and they are right on the edge! This was actually the only bad part of the ride, and it wasn't even the ride that was bad. The trail was called Chicken Corners. So that made me a little nervous, but then when we got to the end I realized it was called that for people who ride pedal bikes. At the end of the trail you can ride your motorized equipment on there is a walking or bike trail. It is literally less than a foot wide, and again about 800 feet down - straight down! I was sick to my stomach when our party started walking out and I finally had to ruin the fun and make everyone come back because all I could think about was one of the kids slipping and all of the dads dying trying to save them. Luckily we made it back, no worse for wear, but now Jeff knows why he doesn't take me on the rhino rally. And I am really sorry I now have some visual of what happens on the rhino rally! Don't you just hate when your little sibs mess up the picture of you acting all old for your age, Courtney does! This month was also Jake's first real hunting trip with dad (mom decided Gage was still too young and made him go on the 'girls trip' to St. George)

And just for the sake of more pictures, and knowing where they are in the future, here are some from our labor day family reunion trip to Moab.

October

Okay, someone said that I "never" update my blog. I defended myself by saying that I update at least once a month. Well, the month is almost up and I haven't updated yet so I thought I better.

The first weekend in October we loaded up the family and went to Moab for some Rhino and 4-wheeler fun. It was actually mostly fun. That is always good. I have to say that for trips, Redbox is becoming one of my favorite things!

(but no pictures because I suck at that!)

The next weekend we were pleased to have the blessing of my nephew, baby Marcus

(Yes, the rocking, awesome photographer was me!)

Sadly, that same weekend we said goodbye to Grandpa Lloyd. I know that I have been very blessed to have my grandparents around for so long - I mean how many people have all 4 grandparents still here when they are 30 (I think Heavenly Father was cutting us a break for taking dad so early!). But life must keep ticking. We lost grandma Bev a few years back. She was the first grandparent I lost. Grandpa Lloyd was the second. (We have already told grandpa Trent and Grandma Von, they need to keep sticking around for a while, because we are selfish and this is really not very fun for us!)

Isn't he so fun and cute!

This is him touching the ocean in Florida!

We will miss him, but we understand that is just another step in life that we must take. I did get the opportunity to speak at his funeral (an opportunity I don't really wish to repeat - but how could I say no - don't tell the others, but I was his favorite!) His funeral was held the third weekend this month.

All the details of that are on Facebook, which is really why I don't update the blog, I give up to the minute reports there and I don't have to sit down and put it all together.

Thought I would share a gratuitous picture of me with grandpa and grandma

See - the look of adoration he has for me is already there - of course, according to Becca, I am scared of the mustache (which was shaved off for most of my actual memories of him!)

By the 4th weekend of October, I was just happy to have some downtime!

And as you all know the 5th weekend is Halloween. (Luckily I can save that for my November post!)

We will miss grandpa, but know that grandma is missing him the most. So if my cousins do actually read this blog give your grandma a call or drop a note in the mail (by the time you read this she will be in Yuma though, so use the correct address) - (and if you are on the other side of the family - grandpa Trent would love a call!)

Do you like to read?

I found this blog that is a fictional novel. The author posts a new chapter twice a week. Just thought I would pass it along. http://thejellobelt.blogspot.com It is kind of a cheesy LDS novel, but I think it is pretty good so far.