Tuesday's Tip

My tip for today is this:

If you ever decide to introduce a bit of specific structure to your blog, say for instance a "Tuesday's Tip" or a "thoughtful Thursday," you must either be much more organized and structured than I am, OR you should NOT introduce it at the beginning of the crazy, busy, days of summer. WAIT until fall, when kids are back in school and life slows down just a teeny tiny bit...

(maybe it doesn't really slow down all that much, but school forces quite a bit of structure into the lives of people like me... and I think that is probably not all bad, if ya know what I mean.)

crazy weekend part 1 - the wedding

Our sweet niece, Jenny, was married in the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday, June 20th. (yes, this is a week late...) It ended up being a bit crazy, since we had lined up someone to watch the kids while we were upstairs for the sealing, and that person had to cancel at the last minute due to sickness. We just went up as planned, and Tim stayed downstairs with the kids and I went up to the sealing.

Jenny looked beautiful. The sealer said some inspiring things that I am hoping will make it into my next "thoughtful Thursday..." It was a beautiful ceremony and we wish Jen and AJ a very happy life together.


Here are some photos:




Tim and the kids took some photos while they were waiting too...

Crazy weekend part 2 - the museum

Since Jenny's wedding (see part 1) was at 12:20, and the reception was at 6pm that evening, we opted to take all the kids up to the temple, then we spent the afternoon at the Discovery Gateway. (the childrens' museum.) Unfortunately, Tim wasn't able to come to the museum with us, since he had to show some houses in the afternoon. The kids and I had a great time. Aaron had been to the museum before, on a class filed trip, plus the fact that he's older - so he kept getting bored and wanting to move along. Bryan and Caleb on the other hand, were NEVER done when we finally made them move to the next area. When Tim was done with this real estate stuff, he picked us back up and he headed out to the reception. It was a garden reception, and the weather DID NOT cooperate. it was raining a cold, but they had set up a bunch of lawn canopies and that allowed people to be outside, until they got too chilly. Here are some pictures:

Father's Day

Father's day was a good day. The primary children did a GREAT job singing their songs during sacrament meeting. They really sang out loud and strong. They were so cute and I was super proud of them. We had a pretty quiet day at home, then after dinner we drove over to visit my grandparents and then on to my parents - to wish great-grandpa and grandpa (respectively) a happy father's day. we got home late and the kids are extra tired and crabby today. Oh well. - it's summer, we can make it work. (This was written last Monday, but I wanted to wait until I had the pictures to post...)

Caleb and Great-Grandpa Fugal.

Bryan and Great-Grandpa Fugal

I am blessed to have many amazing men in my life. I have a wonderfully kind, patient, and loving husband TIM. I have my father, who is always laid-back, mellow, and always willing to pitch in help to get a project done. I have my father-in-law, Bob, who is sweet, kind, and totally accepting of others. I have 4 biological brothers, one adopted brother, and 2 brother in laws, all of whom teach me so many things and are such great examples to me (and my 3 sons) of what REAL men are. I truly am blessed, and I have the greatest Father of all, MY HEAVENLY FATHER - to thank for it all.

Late night Dr.'s visit.

Thursday night provided yet another adventure. It was late - 9:30, and the kids were up past their bedtime. Everyone had been sent off to bed - but Bryan picked Aaron to come in and listen to his "personal prayers." (usually my job, but I was okay with having a break...)
Soon we were hearing playing/chasing sounds instead of praying/bedtime sounds. The sounds of chasing and laughter quickly escalated but before we intervened, it turned into screaming/crying sounds. Tim and I hurried in, to find a bleeding Bryan. He had apparently tripped and fallen, hitting his head on one of the metal bolts on the bunk bed.

We were both uncertain about if I should slap a bandage on and see how it goes, super glue it shut, or if he needed stitches. (If it was MY head, I would have just glued it shut, but when it is my child, I tend to play it a little more safe.)

After talking to the pediatric office that was on call for after hours, I took him in, just to be safe. (Aaron was feeling SUPER guilty - felt like it was his fault and all that, so I let him come along.)

The nurse that initially looked at the cut said, "oh yeah, this isn't too bad, the Dr. will just glue this one shut." After she cleaned the cut and looked a little more closely, she changed her mind. "Well, maybe not. The edges aren't really coming together. I think it might need a stitch or two to help it close."

So then the Dr comes in. "Definitely needs stitches," she said. "I think maybe 3 or 4."

After the numbing gel had some time to work, and the Dr. sees about a million other late night patients, she finally came back in. Bryan ended up getting 7 stitches, since the cut had some turns in it - as opposed to a straight line cut. (the hexagon shape of the bolt will do that you know...)

Anyway - at MID-NIGHT - we finally got home! I was exhausted! Now I need to schedule ANOTHER appt to remove the stitches. I can only hope they won't charge me another co-pay. I have paid $75 in co-pays already this month... plus another $150 in other medical charges that aren't covered since we haven't hit out yearly deductible yet. (Not lots of sickness, just regular run of the mill stuff... Caleb had his 18 month well - child checkup, I took Katrina in to have them diagnose some strange growth things on her neck, then had to take her back 2 days later for her "kindergarten' check-up" (they just couldn't do them together - don't ask me why...probably so they could get another co-pay out of me))

CRAZY BOY!!!

MIA - again...

Good Grief! It's been over a week since I've posted. It's not that I haven't been doing anything - rather the opposite. I feel like the past week has been CRAZY! I've actually written out a couple posts that are sitting in my "draft" folder, just waiting for the accompanying pictures... I suppose I really need to learn to upload pictures from the camera myself... Oh well. Tim got them onto the computer downstairs, so tomorrow I'll go down there and get a couple new posts up.

SO... Until tomorrow.

NOT so totally cool

I think it's funny that my last post was all about loving the NATURE in my backyard. Well, today I was up there pulling weeds, and I came across this little bit of nature that I didn't love quite so much.
We caught him, drove across state street, down into the undeveloped area, down a dirt road and across the railroad track, and let this little guy go in a field down there. (I don't know scorpion habits, but just in case they have big homing signals and he thinks MY backyard is HIS home, I wanted lots of deterrents to his returning.) All the way back from dropping him off in his new home, Aaron kept saying, "I miss him already." ( we only had him about 20 minutes... OR LESS) "Is he going to be okay?" "will he have food?" "What if he has a family? he'll never see them again." "I really really miss him already." etc... Funny kid!

I'm just thankful that I'm the one who found him, (not one of the kids bare feet) and that I saw him before I grabbed the weed he was hiding under. It kinda creeped me out a bit, so I was done pulling weeds for the day...

The whole experience today brought back a funny memory - when I was a teenager, my family went camping down in southern Utah. (I don't remember if I actually went with them on that trip or not, it is all a little fuzzy now) Anyway, one morning when they took the tent down, they found a scorpion. They caught it brought it home. We named it Sandy and kept it as "pet" until it died. (purely an observational pet, not holding, snuggling, or petting, in case you are wondering)
I remember being really sad when Sandy died. I buried him/her in the flower bed outside my bedroom window and carved a headstone out of a piece of broken cement from the ditch bed. I used one of my dad's flat head screwdriver and a hammer as my carving tools. Maybe I should be more patient with Aaron and his "pet requests" and his "improper use of tools." Apparently, he may have gotten them from ME!!!!