First Day of School

So the school year began. Fun times, for parents and children alike…Fun times. I get butterflies in my stomach the first day the kids go back to school. I feel so nervous, until I see them walking to the car and can get a "read" on their face. I can make a pretty accurate guess on how they are doing, by the look on their face. Once they give me their report, I am relieved and feel much better. I was pretty uneasy about Aaron starting middle school. Middle school is usually not a good place for any child. He seemed to do pretty good the first day. He told me that he had to help a lot of other kids open their lockers, on account that he was so good at opening his, and they could not open theirs. He did this so many times, that he temporarily forgot his own locker combination, due to the many “random numbers” floating around his brain. I hate to brag, but, apparently I am an expert on teaching the mechanics of opening a locker. We had to have a little practice session on orientation day. Megan is in the student council again this year. It is a big commitment, she stays very busy with that. It is strange to have Ariel starting the new school year in another state, but she is adjusting very well. Megan has missed her so much. I never thought I would have the privilege of typing those words; they really do love each other when they are apart. A week after Ariel had left for school; Megan woke up in the night around 1:30 a.m. She looked around the room and was surprised to see Ariel was not home yet. She walked downstairs and searched all over the house for her (which took about two seconds.) She started to get nervous and think she might have been in a car accident, so she called Ariel’s cell phone. As soon as she heard her voice mail, she realized that she was in Cedar City and quickly hung up the phone. Lucky for Ariel, she was sleeping soundly at 2:30 a.m. and was undisturbed. A few days ago, was the two week mark of Ariel leaving home. I was shocked when I realized it had only been two weeks. It felt a lot longer than that. We miss her very much. We are happy for the new experiences she is having. She comes home this weekend for a visit. Yea!

Move in Day

Wednesday we moved Ariel into her apartment at SUU. We left Vegas at 9:30 in the morning, which was too late to leave but as early as we could manage. We stopped at Pizza Factory in St George and had lunch. It was good, we were starving. Todd went to the bathroom and I picked a piece of each of the girls bread sticks off the end to eat. They said I should get my own, I said no dad wouldn't want me eating that big bread stick. Ariel said, "dad's getting worse and worse...pretty soon you guys will be grazing in the backyard." I had to include that comment because I laughed so hard about that one. I am sorry just the mental picture of being down on our hands and knees and grazing on the mostly dead grass in the backyard (thanks to our dog) was just such a funny sight. The van was packed completely to the ceiling and we removed one of the captain chairs in the second row. Meg was on the teeny tiny seat in the middle. She did not like that. She had a giant basket of shoes at her feet, Ariel had a case of water at her feet and I had a case of water under my feet. We were so crammed in there, we didn't even have room to bring Aaron. He was left home to babysit Zoey for a very long, long day alone. Ariel and Megan slept all the way to St George. I spent the whole time typing recipes into Ariel's laptop that she wanted and making her menus and other mother stuff like that.

We arrived at the school housing around 2:30 p.m. It was a very hot day in Cedar City. We had a ton of unloading to do and of course Ariel's apartment was on the top floor. There was one elevator, one very slow elevator, and there was a lot of competition for it because everyone was moving in at the same time. Lucky, for us there were volunteers (they were employees and faculty from SUU) that wandered up to the cars and said do you need help? We were so glad when a group of 5 or so "helpers" would walk up to us and we could load them up with stuff. The dean of the business school was helping us once, while we were waiting for the elevator he asked Todd if we were moving in a son or daughter... we laughed because we had already made about 50 trips with arm loads of stuff...Todd said a daughter...if we were moving in a son..we would be carrying in one suitcase. Her roommates seemed really nice. The girl she shares her room with is from Wellsville and she graduated from my high school (a few years after me) Mountain Crest. Go Mustangs! I was so excited when I learned about this. I promised Ariel that I would not break out singing the school song when I first met her. Maybe I can on my next visit.

We worked for about 3 1/2 hours unpacking and organizing things before I found out Ariel had to be to a meeting in an hour. We hadn't done her grocery shopping yet and she was really stressed to think about having to do that alone another day. I felt really bad so we said we would get the groceries and leave them in her apt while she went to the meeting. We went to Wendy's and got dinner and brought her back to her apt to drop her off. It was time to say goodbye. I gave her a hug goodbye and she felt so small and frail and so young.. I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. So then I got her all upset and she was starting to cry, which she did not want to do. I had to compose myself as best I could until she went inside and then cried some more after that. We went to my favorite store (typed with extreme sarcasm) Wal*mart, which is the only store in Cedar City for them to shop at. We spent an hour buying all the junk food that was on her list. Todd bought her a jar of pickled pig's feet. It was a disgusting sight. I tried to get him to put it back on the shelf but he wouldn't hear of it. He wrote her name with a pen on the lid so I couldn't try to take it out of the cart when he wasn't looking. He also bought her a Hannah Montana birthday card and crossed out the birthday and wrote in "move in day" we wrote some funny messages in there and quoted a few Hannah Montana song lyrics. We got back to the apt and unloaded all the groceries up to the 4th floor in the slow elevator, we put them into three big Rubbermaid containers so we only had to make one trip to unload groceries. We crammed the fridge stuff into the fridge, she was obviously the last to buy groceries there was no space left for her. The rest of the bags we left in her room for her to put away as she could. It was after 9 p.m. by this time. We still had a three hour drive home and Aaron had been alone all day, so I was a little anxious. Ariel texted us when she got home and got the groceries...she was excited and said she didn't think she'd ever run out. When she found the pickled pigs feet...she was pretty put out though...she said, "Also that joke pigs feet is not funny. I'm embarrassed." I told her it was a funny story she could tell her kids one day...you know the day you found the pigs feet in your groceries. She said, "It's really gross and I can't throw it away because they are all watching." I told her to hide the pigs feet under her pillow till her roommates fell asleep. It was pretty funny. We arrived home about 11:30 completely exhausted. We had been gone for thirteen hours. We accomplished a lot. We were glad Megan came with us to help us.

It was much harder for me the day after "move in" day. I woke up at 6 something and couldn't sleep and that is when everything caught up to me and I spent a lot of time crying at that point. I am very happy for Ariel and the opportunities that are in front of her. I am so proud to have a daughter going to college. I know it will be a good experience for her. I know this is a very long post with a lot of babbling but this was a pretty big deal!

Ariel's off to college...

How does a person go from this....

To this... in a blink of an eye?

I have been having a hard time accepting that Ariel is leaving tomorrow. I have had a few "break downs" and she is not liking my "drama." She tries to explain it to me in simple terms. She says, "Mom, you just need to think of it as if I am going off to Hogwarts...that's it." She has left a daily reminder on the white board on the fridge for the past few days on how many days left until she leaves for "Hogwarts." She told me today when I was feeling a little down... "First, just think of Cheri (my sister) her daughter is going on a mission. She won't see her for a year and a half... Second, it's not very far away and you have a car to drive to visit me... Third, be thankful we have phones to call each other... Fourth, you have that new web cam now so we can see each other when we talk... Fifth, be glad you have the money to send me away to college... and Sixth, I will be back in three weeks for my birthday." So I felt a little better after her "pep" talk. I am thankful she is not actually going to Hogwarts, I've seen those movies and it is pretty dangerous there. One thing for sure is I cannot believe that she is really going. She is an amazing person with such a wonderful personality. She always makes me laugh. She is so caring and smart... She is going to do wonderful, but I will miss her fiercely! Have fun Ariel, and only remember the good things I taught you...

How can I have lived 39 years so fast??

Yesterday was another one of my birthdays... Ariel brought me breakfast in bed and then she woke up her sister and brother and made them come in here and sing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was only 8:00 a.m. so they were stumbling a little and their eyes were closed and they sang it while they plopped themselves down on the bed, but they didn't complain. Ariel had stayed up the night before very late and decorated with streamers and sequins. She told me she "risked" her life decorating on account of the rickety stools she had to stand on to put the streamers up. It looked very nice and I was so happy for the "extras" she did to make it a special day. We worked on getting things wrapped up for school for her, most of the day. When Todd came home we went to dinner, Mimi's Cafe. I had the chicken tenders salad, which was a little dissappointing this time. Oh well...you can't have everything...where would you put it? We picked up a double lemon pie from Marie's and went home to eat it. I was relieved when we cut into the pie and found out it really was a lemon pie. Last year, my birthday was on a Sunday. We picked up the lemon pie on Saturday night and put it in the fridge. The next day, when it was time for birthday pie, I sliced it up to find it was really a banana cream pie on the inside and a lemon pie on the outside. Well that was the end of my birthday pie. I don't eat banana's....ever. The pie last night was delicious. I only got two candles though...I said I don't know what that means. Ariel explained it meant "forever and always." I got some very nice gifts from everyone, including a web cam from Megan, so Ariel won't forget what we look like...it was a very nice birthday.

Aaron's First Scout camp out

On August 7th, Todd went with Aaron on his first scout camp out. They went up to Mt Charleston. I had fixed them some tinfoil dinners, I guess it must have been Aaron's first. He thought the steak and potatoes with a little A-1 drizzled over it, was one of the best meals he ever had. When Aaron and his friend, Evan, saw one of the scout leaders making a "walking stick" as they sat around the fire, they decided they had to make one too. The leader showed them how to do it and the boys ran off to find the "perfect" sticks. Aaron made one for himself and one for Todd and sanded them down really smooth. After Aaron was done with Todd's knife and handed it back to him, Todd waited a few minutes and then gave the knife back and told Aaron it was his now. Aaron's wide-eyed response..."seriously??" He was so excited and as they walked to the tent for the night, Aaron said, "I had a feeling you were going to give me your knife." They had a great time together. Of course when they came home and I saw that the knife was now Aaron's, that made me a little uncomfortable...this is a serious knife. I guess I need to have faith that Aaron has been sufficiently educated on knife safety by the boy scouts.

Dinner with my friends

Some of my best friends took me out for a little early birthday dinner. It was an extra bonus that my sister, Michelle, was on a layover in Vegas and got to come along. We went to Memphis BBQ, it was delicious and we laughed and had a lot of fun. Of course they made the waiters sing to me which I hate, but it was worth the big piece of strawberry shortcake they brought me. They are the greatest!!

Summer vacation to Utah

In July we left for Utah for a 12 day trip. Our itinerary was packed, more than normal. We enjoyed seeing family and friends. We got to celebrate my dad and Jennifer's birthdays together. We got to meet our new niece, Nikole and see her blessed. We got to spend a day with some of my siblings and their families at seven peaks. We took the kids through the Oquirrh Mt temple open house. We spent a day with our best friends in Highland. I got to see some high school friends. We spent three days in a beautiful condo in Heber with most of the brothers and sisters and their families. We spent a day fishing, which turned out to be one of my most favorite things of the trip. I realized I really like to fish. No, I did not catch a fish but I fully expected to. Aaron and my mom caught fish and let them go again. I really just loved the peacefulness of being out by that beautiful lake and the "quiet" of it all. It was a great time. We loved spending time with our family. I can proudly say, "I survived FFG 09." That according to my little brother stands for "Freebairn Family Get-together." I feel a little sad about not getting the T-shirt though.