Adventures in Girls Camp

I spent the last two weeks at Girls Camp and Youth Conference. So yeah, I'm tired and a little stinky, but I had a great time and learned some valuable things.


For example, it turns out that I have been wasting way too much time on sleep--I can get by on much less than I thought. A cold shower in the morning is as good as 2 hours of rapid eye movement, and a handful of red vines equals at least a good 45 minute nap.


Also, it's a stretch to call what we did at Girls camp, "camping." Anyone who has had the privilege of staying at the LDS-owned Heber Valley Camp will tell you that you ain't exactly roughing it. Cabins with electricity and heaters, hot showers, refrigerators and sinks don't really qualify as rudimentary necessities. But in all fairness, we did eat outside...near dirt...and trees. I even got a few mosquito bites and had to hike a good .02 miles to the nearest icemaker.


And it turns out that sleep deprivation and Spartan accomodations make me a little punch drunk. So maybe I did a one-woman show about a synchronized swimmer's dream on top of a picnic table. And perhaps I may have shared an impersonation or too..(hey, those girls wanted to see me do Elvis!) and there may or may not have been some beat-boxing. But fortunately what happens at Girls Camp stays at Girls Camp. Just don't go poking around You Tube.


I learned that "I can do hard things."


Getting 36 girls to go on a hike is hard.


Really hard.


Totally worth it though...someday I might post about the pep talk I gave to get us out on the grueling 1.5 mile death march. Really...college football coaches would be proud. I hear they might even make it into a movie...Jennifer Garner is in talks to take on the role.


But ultimately, the lesson I came away with from my week in the wild is that I love these girls! Every single one of them...even the whiney, hike-hating ones. It is a privilege to spend this time with them; I hope I get to go again next year. Cross your fingers that I don't get released when the bishop gets wind of those unfortunate you-tube clips.

Love,

Esther

Piano Lesson Day

6:45 a.m. Alarm clock rings. Groan. Assume it's ringing for husband. Remember that friend is waiting at the corner to run with you. Decide to fake sick.


6:46 a.m. Kitty taps face and begins purring. She heard the alarm and she's ready for breakfast. Roll over. Push kitty away....Kitty is persistent...and sharp.


6:47 a.m. Get up. Feed cat. As long as I'm up, put on running clothes. Start first of about 37 loads of laundry. Off to the corner.


7:55 a.m. Back home. Sweaty. Husband gone to work. All kids sleeping. Ahhh....quiet. Wait a minute! It's piano lesson day! I have 20 minutes to get someone ready and dropped off for a lesson!


7:56 a.m. Wake up least grouchy child. (I'm not naming names, but he knows who he is.) Watch his tedious, bleary-eyed, 18 minute progress from bed to dressed to in the car. Hand him nutritious, home cooked breakfast. Pop-tart. Drop off at piano.


8:20 a.m. Repeat previous step with second least grouchy child. Allow 25 minutes for bleary-eyed progression.

8:50 a.m. Repeat project "wake and annoy" for 3rd time with most grouchy child (or least grouchy teenager if you want to look for the positive side of things). Stand well clear of all thrown objects. Allow 40 minutes for out of bed to in car with pop-tart progression.

10:15 a.m. Piano done. Phew! One more week of lessons behind me with limited casualties.

10:16 a.m. Now to get 3 boys to practice the piano for the next 7 days.

10:17 a.m. Remind myself why I put everyone through this week after week.

Ahhhh..summer

A few nights ago I woke up from a horrible nightmare. It was the first day of school and I was frantically wrangling my children in the vain hope of getting them to their different schools on time. We somehow had forgotten to calendar this important date and it had caught us unprepared and completely by surprise. So I was slapping together lunches one moment-(It seems we hadn't been to the grocery store in a while so mostly "lunch" consisted of stale pop-tarts, and food storage apples)-searching under beds for lost shoes and uniforms the next.
I was desperate for some help, but for some reason Cory was out of town for work and I was running solo. My teenager was refusing to get out of his bed and my baby was in tears with first day jitters. I was at my wits end. You know that hysteria that accompanies really bad dreams? Then, to make matters worse, I looked out the window to see if the carpool had arrived just in time to see the SNOW PLOW drive past my house. That's right, it was the last week of August, but a freak snow-storm had dropped 4 inches in the night. (I'm desperately afraid that this might somehow be a freaky premonition.) Luckily, as I pulled myself from the window in a panic, my alarm clock started beeping my reprieve.

Summer is busy..I find myself running around like crazy getting ready for scout camp, girls camp, youth conference, cub day camp, my in-laws return from their 3 year mission, 2 family vacations...not to mention my regular every day business of life. But there is a special freedom that comes with no homework, later bedtimes, and 9:00 sunsets.

I love summer.

Kinder-goodbye

After 8 years of Kindergarten and Kindergarten anticipation, I turned the page on another chapter of my novel of Motherhood. Anna is officially a big girl, moving on to those grades that have numbers instead of names.

All 4 of my Kindergartners were the "afternoon kind" to quote Junie B. Jones. I confess, I won't miss the multiple drop-off and pick-up schedule next year, but I am mourning mornings spent with children come Fall.

Anna had a wonderful year with some of the most darling little girls in her class. Her favorite friend is Annie...of course. They have more in common than just a similar name. It has been such a change to get to know little girls this time around...to go to little girl parties, to hear little girl woes and worries, to see how little girls play. It's definitely quieter when Anna's friends come over than it was with her brothers. And nothing has ever been accidentally broken.

Anna had two fantastic teachers...Mrs. Tyler and Mrs. Sandgren. I loved going to help in her class every week to hear how well her teachers communicate with 5-year-olds and how effectively they open up their little minds and fill them to overflowing. Anna can read just about anything now and she knows all of her addition and subtraction math facts. It has been so exciting to see the light go on in her this last year.

She is so excited for 1st grade and misses her little friends already, but I'm willing to let this summer crawl by more slowly. It's sad to let go of this special Kindergarten world; there were more tears on the last day of school than the first for me.

What Rhymes with Smitten?

We have a new member in the family! Born March 13th, we adopted her in May.

She is furry, funny, and feisty...we named her Oreo. We figure if we keep giving our cats the names of snack foods, eventually Nabisco will get wind of it and offer us some kind of endorsement deal.

And although, she doesn't really replace the kitty we lost, it didn't take long for us to think of her as just another Talbot. Even when she is naughty. Like when she won't let us take her picture.

A place to Start

You know how when you start putting something off how it just gets easier and easier to keep putting it off? That's how I have felt about my blog lately. I know I need to write. I want to write. But somehow, I just can't make the time to write.

It could be because...

The last few weeks of school bludgeoned me with their last-minute projects, class parties, concerts, fundraisers, programs, awards, recitals, lacrosse games, field days, and graduations.

Or it might have something to do with...

planning and executing a massive fundraiser for the Young Men and Young Women in our ward. Success comes at the price of more hours of preparation than I care to confess.

And then there was...

the genesis of an honest-to-goodness teenager in my home...shortly followed by my baby's graduation from Kindergarten. A mother's heart can only stand so many milestones at once!

Oh and did I mention...

the 4 weeks straight of family coming to stay with us for the weekend. Visitors are always cheerfully welcome here, but they do cut in to my blogging minutes.

So when school ended...

I loaded up the fearsome foursome and made the trek west to visit my family and hometown roots. We looked for golf balls...we played pool...and we ate lemonade porkchops. All in all a successful outing, with the added bonus of Daddy flying out later in the week to surprise us. How many times does a husband get to pull off something like that?

So in the end...

the problem is I have too much to write about and I don't know where to begin.

But enough excuses! Summer is here and the perfect time for a fresh start. Oh, but time's up..I've got to get the boys to their track meet. I'll try again tomorrow.

May Day! May Day!

I have so much to blog about, but I'm still up to my eyeballs in end of the school year mayhem and foolishness. I honestly think that May is busier by far than December. I am on my way out the door to Dodgeball/Pack Meeting/Ballet Recital, but thought I'd drop a little line just to remind myself in some future day how crazy life is in this wonderful stage of life. And as a reminder to get caught up on this blog at some hopefully soon date. But then again, I haven't read anyone else's blogs for weeks...so what are the chances that when I finally find a minute I will spend it catching up on my reading instead of my writing. Hmmm...