Kelton & Homecoming Week

It is Homecoming week in Grantsville!!!

My wonderful and quiet son Kelton was talked into being part of the male dance team, called the Harriettes (hope I got close to spelling that right.  The dance team is called the Larriettes) for the powder puff game last night.  They have been practicing since Friday and having tons of fun.  I am so glad that he has met so many good friends since moving here and am thankful for his friend Ben who talked him into dancing.

They not only had boys for the dance team, they also had boys as the cheerleaders.  I know none of this is new, I'm just talking my way through the night.  I didn't even go to homecoming when I was in high school let alone any of the football games.  The "cheerleaders" were even doing lifts and I thought it was hilarious that during one of the lifts it was a girl spotting them.  One of the cheerleaders came late and just dropped his pants right in front of us to change into the cheer outfit.  Just as an FYI, white Under Armour is see through.  I feel it is my civic duty to get this warning out there so we are now all prepared to warn our children to not drop their pants if that is what they are wearing.  Also, if you see this happening you now know to look away or you'll see a butt like we did (and we are very happy that we were on that side and only saw his butt).

 I loved seeing these brave boys get dressed and ready for their dance.  They are really wearing the tops to one of the girls outfits.  Kelton told me that he would be wearing this black top with gold sparkles on it and that it hit him just above the waist.  As you can see the top was black and the gold sparkles are the sequins along the top and it did hit above the waist but it was a little higher than a simple crop length, you can really tell on the boys that wore white underneath.

Kelton was "blessed" to have family there to support him in his dancing debut.  My sister Becca came, Grandma Susie was there along with Kenny, Taylor, Seth and me.  I love the pictures that Becca took of her with Taylor and then of the two of us.  I don't have nearly enough sister pictures.

This was an evening full of some of the best people watching.  We laughed so much and had so much fun watching all the high school kids.  It reminded me of my time in high school and (unfortunately) how much I haven't changed since high school.  I sat back and watched the boys showing off for the girls and the girls walking back and forth flipping their hair trying to catch the eye of the boys.  Sitting back and watching was what I did in high school only it was with Michele.  It was so much fun to have a chance to spend that time with my sister this time.  We both had so many fun little moments.  

You could tell all of the boys were anxious about dancing.  None of them could stand still while waiting for their turn to get out and perform.  I loved watching them do their last minute practice moves and see them try to move their hips.  Not all country boys are good at swinging their hips :)

I didn't get the end of their dance.  I thought they were done and stopped filming and then they did their final move.  They all lined up and yelled, "Harriettes (grunt)" and did a final pelvic thrust.  It was great and done only as boys can do it.

They then gathered and stood aside while the "cheerleaders" did their dance.  They were hilarious but not as good as the Harriettes.  I may be biased a little though.

The whole night was so much fun and the girls did wonderful at playing football.  I guess I should at least point that out since it was their game.  I'll admit that I could barely have caught the ball let alone run for a touchdown.  There were some amazing girls that caught the ball and did run the length of the field for a touchdown.  There were others that would just dive to grab the flag and flat out face plant it onto the field.  They were amazing!  

Kelton will be performing again on Friday for the pep rally before the big homecoming game.

Good luck Kelton....I hope you do as good on Friday as you did last night!!

T's Crazy Hair Day

It's time for time to repeat itself and now it is Taylor's turn to have his own crazy hair day.  He wanted to have his hair done in lots of pony tails like how we did Kelton's when he had his crazy hair day a couple of years ago.

Taylor's hair is so much thicker than Kelton's so his pony tails are longer, bigger and look like little palm trees.  He was such a good sport this morning while I was pulling and tugging to get all the little rubber bands in.  He looks CRAZY!!!  hee, hee :)

Taylor Crazy Hair Day 9-26-12

The top view of T's hair for Crazy Hair Day.

First Snow

We had our first snow in the mountains today.  I'm so excited to have these first signs of winter, even though it is only 3 days after the first day of fall.

Found a couple pictures of the dusting that 2 of the ski resorts received today and just had to share.  I love how the snow looks with all the fall color!!

Alta Ski Resort 9-25-12

Canyons Resort 9-25-12

Peek into being a Homemaker

I like to joke and say that I'm the CEO, or maybe more appropriately the CFO, of our family.  As a homemaker, there is a lot that gets done while everyone is away from home that I don't think anyone thinks about.  It truly is one of the hardest jobs that I have done and there is no training, manual or a manager to turn to for help.  You can talk with other people in your "line of work" but everyone is going to do things differently from you so that it suites their situation.  I like to hear other ideas and some of them have helped me a lot.  Others just are not for me.

While I have been doing my crazy Monday morning it made me think of all that I have done and how long it took me to do what should have been a few simple things.  I should know that if I think it is going to be simple then it will take twice as long as it should.

Here is a "simple" list of things that I do (some more than once) most days.

*dishes (by hand, we don't have a dishwasher right now)
*laundry...clothes have to be washed and dried, they don't just appear in the closet clean on their own.
*grocery shopping...food, like clothes, don't just appear.
*pay bills and balance accounts...always takes more time I think it will.
*dust
* vacuum
*cook...this also involves planning a menu, preparing the food and finally cooking.  This is usually followed by some gnashing and gnawing of the teeth because someone is never happy.
*run all errands...grocery shopping fall under this as well as anything else that needs to be done.  Today it will include going to the car insurance agent to sign a cancellation paper, the bank to get lunch money for kids, picking up kids from school, and checking the mail.
*make all phone calls...there is many phone calls that are needed and not just to visit.  Although I can do a lot of visiting :)
*the bathroom....need I say more!?
*doctor, dentist and orthodontist appointments....this includes making the appointments for everyone in the family, driving myself and kids to all appointments and making sure they are all in my calendar so I can keep all of them organized and not overlapping.  I only have 2 kids, I have no idea how I would do that with more kids.  I admire all parents with mad scheduling skills!

There are other times when you get to do fun things like have lunch with a friend, get together and craft with friends or family, or simply curl up with a good book.  Other times I find myself happily in the service of others and helping with things that need to be done whether it is watching kids, running errands, or simply being a listening ear.

Staying at home is rewarding and gives so much to our family to have me home.  It doesn't mean that every day is easy or that I have fully adjusted to being at home, even after 2 years.  However, I see so many positive things happening to my family now that I am at home.  I loved working but am very blessed to be home to take care of my family and myself.

I'm sure there are things that are left off of my list, these are just the things that I am trying to tackle today.  Now that I have had my blog break it's time to tackle my list again.  I hope everyone is having a productive and happy Monday!

A Great Empire

Taylor just got home from school and somehow got on the topic of his hair and how thick and curly it is.  He insists that he has a worse time than any girl trying to do his hair because it is just full of knots and his comb is always getting stuck.  He then started to talk about who is to blame if he goes bald. He is going to blame his dad for one type of baldness and Uncle Steve (Kenny's Uncle) for a different type.  I didn't have the heart to explain that he can't blame Uncle Steve because he is related by marriage, therefore genetics don't come into play.

Either way, Taylor announced that when/if he does lose his hair and start to bald he is just going to shave it off and not try to hang onto "this once great empire" that he has.

What 13 year old even thinks about losing his hair let alone calling it a great empire?

You gotta love this kid!!

Brigham City Temple

This coming Sunday, September 23, the Brigham City Temple will be dedicated.  Our normal Sunday services have been cancelled so that we can all attend (or watch) the dedication ceremony.  We have only been able to attend (at our Stake Center) one other dedication and it was amazing.

Once the Temple is dedicated only members of the LDS faith who hold a current temple recommend can enter the Temple to partake of the blessings, and be sealed for eternity.  With this important day coming and the closing of the open house, where anyone can enter and tour the Temple.  I wanted to share some pictures.

Aunt Kathryn took this picture.

Brides Dressing Room from LDS church website.

Celestial Room from LDS church website.

I love the beauty and peace that is found within each Temple.  I just had to add some of that to my life today.

The Runolfson's from Iceland

A few years ago my mom and aunt Fran spent many hours collecting pictures and putting them together with obituaries, stories and news clippings for everyone in the family.  I love this book and have spent many hours looking through it at each of the different faces hoping that I can learn more about each of them.

The pictures below are my Great Great Grandpa and Grandma. They came to America from Iceland and settled in Utah.  Not just Utah but Utah County.  To me this is huge because if you live in Utah then you know that Utah County has many nicknames and a reputation for being very Mormon (this will make sense in a minute). 

My mom had a collage of pictures hanging in our home for many years and these two pictures were part of that group.  They always stood out to me and being a kid I never really did understand who they were or where these two old people with scary eyes fit into our family.

Great Great Grandpa was named Reverend Runolfur Runolfson.  He was born April 10, 1852 and died January 20, 1929.  He was a Lutheran Reverend and was the first Lutheran Minister in Utah County (it says so on the other picture below).  He was from Storagerdi, Vestmanneyjaysia, Iceland.

Great Great Grandma was named Valgerdur Nielsson Runolfson.  She was born June 1, 1847 (same day as my Taylor) and died April 6, 1919.  She was from Holmahjaleiga, Kross Rangervalla, Iceland. Sadly that is all I know about her. 

For both of these people it had to have taken great courage to travel from Iceland with 6 children to England where they had 2 more children.  From England they came to America and settled in Spanish Fork Utah. Here they added 4 more children to their family.  I have great pride in this part of my family heritage.  To know that they not only had the courage to take upon themselves this journey but to also settle in an area where they were the minority.  There were many obstacles for them to overcome or at least to deal with with being one of the few families in Spanish Fork to not be LDS.  I have heard stories that my Grandma shared about growing up in Spanish Fork and some of what they endured during their childhood.  I am very proud of my Great Great Grandpa for being such a strong man and continuing to be a Lutheran Minister.  I am so blessed to have such strong people in my family tree.  I am also very happy to have pictures of both of my Great Great Grandparents as well as the church where Reverend Runolfson preached.

  

I have just started to dig deeper into my family history and am learning so much about the people who make up my family and have added so much to who I am.  As I learn about them I can feel them with me and it is almost like they are guiding me through the maze of people that make up our family.  I have learned that I need that help, especially when you start to put it together that some of the children changed their last name to Reynolds.

I can't wait to learn more and add to what my mom and aunt has started for me. 

Life Coaster - Faith

This last week has been relatively quiet in my life other than having the same head cold that everyone else has in our County. However, that is not our normal.  I have really liked our last week and will take my head cold with all of it's phlegm and snot included.  I have visited with friends and family and read their postings on their blogs and Facebook and found out that they are all having so much stress that they're just hanging on.  I'm in shock that I'm not part of all the stress that everyone else is facing and it hurts my heart to know that so many people that I love are struggling and hurting.

I normally refer to my life as a roller coaster ride and even found this Thrill Scale and if I use this rating system to rate my normal life I think I'm somewhere between In(tense) and Ex(treme).  I will admit that there are times that this is a self imposed situation.  I know that my decisions impact my life and cause a lot of my drama.

I read a Blog that was recommended by my cousin that is written by her friends husband. He does an amazing job sharing his feelings everyday and most of them are based on his faith.  We belong to the same religion. I was raised within this religion and when I reached adolescence I began to question parts of my religion. Over the years I have had several times when both my husband and I have questioned our beliefs.  I enjoy reading other blogs and other posts on Facebook where people are so sure of their beliefs. I sometimes wonder how they can be so strong and never waver in their faith.  Never (as far as I know) question some of the commandments that we are to follow within our faith.

Why am I sharing this?  Because I am trying to make myself fit within this little box where I should be this perfect little member and even though this is the decision that we have made, I am still sometimes struggling with things. Many people will say that I am going through this because I don't have enough faith. Others will say that I am letting Satan influence my decisions and that is why I am struggling, that he is playing off of my weaknesses.  No matter what anyone else says or thinks about me, my problem is that I let their comments or what I think they might be thinking of me influence my choices.  This is when I start down the extreme life coaster (no wheels, thus life coaster instead of roller coaster) and stress myself out. I also missed church today because we are all still sick and so the guilt starts to set in.

No matter what I chose to do at this stage in my journey, there are truths that I know and will never deny. I know that  am a child of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that Christ suffered, died and was resurrected for me. I know that I need to have God in my life and a way for me to feel his presence in my life everyday. I know that there is a difference between taking a step back and becoming apostate.  I know that the scriptures are here for us to use in our lives. They help us and guide us through each of the ups and downs that we face.  I know that through Christ's Atonement that even when I struggle or question that as long as I'm doing everything I can to become a little better each day he will help me to find answers to those questions and fill in the rough spots.  He will not let me fail.

I spend so much time being so hard on myself and expecting perfection from myself even though I know, somewhere in here, that I'm not that far along in my journey to really expect that of myself. There is still so much that I have to learn and I need to be patient while I go through all the steps to get to a place where I can understand the answers that go with the questions that I have. At some point I need to understand that one of my challenges is that I was absent when patience was handed out.  I may always have some questions and things that I don't understand.  I will probably (okay, most likely) never learn how to ease up on myself.   But maybe, just maybe, if I keep reminding myself of what I do know then one day it might not be so hard to fit within my little box.  I already know that I find much happiness here and as long as I keep moving forward I hope to find more happiness.

What the......

Kenny stopped at a gas station in Salt Lake to grab a drink on the way home from work the other night and saw this car in the parking lot.  He was trying to be inconspicuous about taking the picture but was having a hard time juggling his drink and his phone so he finally just set his drink down and took the picture. I know he already posted this on Facebook, but I had to share it here as well.  

There is a lot on this car, it's just crazy!  Good luck trying to pick out all the stuff that is attached to it. 

He has seen it one more time since taking this picture.  I'm still in shock that someone is out there driving this around.  I guess that's what they're after though, that shock factor.

Jr High Hi-jinks

I met my best friend Michele in the 8th grade.  She had a very life changing move that brought her to Utah and to EJH for 7th grade, I moved there the year after.  With both of us having children in Jr. High now she wrote about her girls starting 7th grade and how hard and horrible Jr. High was for her.  I warned her on her post that I was going to share some of the fun stuff that we experienced, even some of the embarrassing stuff, to remind her that it wasn't all bad and even if she (us) did turn into Napoleon Dynamite it was okay.

This first part was just how we met. We met in math class where our teacher couldn't pronounce either of our names.  Mine was understandable, Shiflett and Rachelle, was always transformed into Rachel and Sh, Sh, Shif by then I would just answer here and let the teacher give up.  I have never understood why it was so hard to just say my name the way it is spelled! Michele's name on the other hand was just a normal name, however, this teacher always changed it to Micheal Beek.  Somehow this made us always look at each other and smile and then she would grab the roll that he set by the door and would change her absence for the teacher since she was there.  He never did catch on or say either of our names correctly that entire year. Sad!

Our next moment of connection was that we were (can still be) fashion police and would take great pride in commenting on all the outfits that others were wearing.  This was the late 80's and early 90's, there was a lot to comment on.  We were however the height of preppy by helping ourselves to her moms closet and wearing pleated skirts with blazers and loafers.  I even have pictures and may scan them in one day.  I could do that since by the time we had group pictures taken with all of our friends my hair was all one length. At least her "bad hair" was only beautiful thick wavy hair and not my crooked hair.

Michele's parents thought she was crazy the first time I came over and met them.  I had unfortunately taken the advice of my moms gay friend and let him cut my hair in a very modern haircut that wouldn't be popular in Utah for another decade or so. It was above my ear on my right side and tapered down to shoulder length on my left side.  I also let him put Henna in my hair at the same time.  Way to draw attention to an already strange haircut by turning it Bozo red.  In his defense, I did like it because I didn't like the whole following the crowd thing and I did keep my hair that way for quit a while.  I did finally decide to conform a little and cut my hair to one length but kept dying my hair red, just a more subtle red and not quit so Bozo.

I also listened to rock music, didn't watch westerns or know any cowboy poetry...her dad still teases me to this day. Especially about the hair!  I was quickly educated in the art of all things cowboy and still treasure those moments and "lessons".

We had lots of sleep overs, Dr. Pepper and cookie dough!  All of these were accompanied by lot of girl talk. Some nice and not so nice and some that was down right snarky.  As it should be for most all teenage girls.

One of those sleep overs consisted of us and one other friend that I will protect her identity because she was the helpless victim in the story. We were having such a good time and we had decided to sleep on the balcony of my apartment.  In our hast to take snacks out to our "anyone under 13" off limits area, my poor friend didn't notice that we had closed the screen door and ran right through it. She went down on top of the door.  Michele and I were laughing so hard we couldn't even help her up.  I know, we are such good friends to have :)  Once the fits of laughter stopped we quickly figured that we had better fix the door before my mom came home.  We tried to straighten the frame the best we could and put it on the track.  We went to sleep and hoped that it would not be noticeable.  The next morning my mom came out to check on us but we had closed the screen door (not the smartest thing to do when trying to hide a broken door). When she tried to open it it wouldn't' budge and so we woke up to her, not quit yelling but speaking loudly, to us trying to figure out what was wrong with the door.  Instead of cowing and repentantly explaining what happened we all started laughing because we were remembering how our dear friend had looked as she went through the door.  Through peals of laughter we somehow explained what happened and that it was an accident.  After my mom got over the initial anger and frustration of how she was going to fix the door, she started to laugh as well.  Okay, who wouldn't laugh.  Just picture it and think about it, someone going through and taking out a screen door.  It was one of the best sleep overs in my life!

We made friends, tortured teachers (not as bad as our husbands did though), and tortured one nameless girl that we will forever tell stories about.  Jr. High was just the beginnings of what we would bring to High School.  And that will entail a whole series of entries that I could start sharing soon since Kelton started High School (and drivers ed) this year.