My boy is a Star

My 15 year old son is the star of his Jr. high school play...

He did such a good job. He was in the play "Annie" he played the part of Sandy, Annie's dog. He really is a very good actor in all the plays he has been in he has always had a major role. I was very surprised when they cast him as the DOG! The boys who were cast as "Rooster" and "Daddy Warbucks" rubbed it in quite a bit. I believe he was a little insulted but, he decided he was willing do do the part. I thought that was very impressive, especially because he also took the risk of being ridiculed by the students at school for playing the part of a dog. But he did it wholeheartedly and he did a wonderful job. He received several compliments, several even told him he stole the show!, and he really enjoyed doing it. I am very proud of how well he acted and sang, yes they did have him sing a little, and I am proud of him for doing it at all.

My 15 year old son is the star of his Jr. high school play...
In my opinion anyway.

My son gets the bird

My oldest son just "got the bird".

He has known since he was a little tike that he would not get his drivers licence until he got his Eagle Scout award. He is well past his 17th birthday, he has had his Eagle Scout project completed for over a year, he just had some forms to fill out and turn in.

He finally did it! he is, as of Sunday, an Eagle Scout.

He still does not have his drivers licence, it turns out that he does not want his drivers licence. He does not want to pay for gas and insurance. I informed him that as of June 1st I will not drive him around anymore. I understand how he feels. I never wanted a drivers licence either, my Dad had to trick me into getting my drivers licence. Nonetheless I am very proud to be an Eagle mom. I thought I might never be the mom of an Eagle Scout. Now I need one of those" proud mom of an Eagle Scout" bumper Stickers.

Now I need to get my 15 year old to "get a life"

Mindstorms competition

On Friday, my 17 year old and two school mates entered the ITT 2009 Mindstorm Robotics competition. My son’s team entered the “King of the hole” contest. They built and programed a robot to find and drop 15 randomly placed paper cups into a hole in the center of 10 foot round arena, without the robot the robot falling into the hole. Out of 25 teams from 3 different School districts, my son's team took 1st place! Each team got three tries to get the robot to drop the cups in a three minute time limit, they did it every time. No other team even dropped all of the cups!

The team had to build the robot and program its moves. Once started, the robot ran on its own, no remote control. It has 2 light sensors to detect the hole, and two ‘push’ sensors to see if the robot runs into a wall.

My son said, “The other two guys built the robot, but I programmed it.” He was even interviewed for the news. Of course they did not use that footage. But they did use lots of video of his robot.

They had 2 weeks to work on it, and their School, Jordan Academy of Technology, pretty much swept the competition and took top honors.

Photo Tag

I got photo tagged by Angel, I think she is trying to make me look bad in comparison to her. (Little does she know, she is so pretty anyone looks bad in comparison to her) She does not think I have the courage to show my face in public.

I haven't seen this tag before....and since it's been a while since I've done a tag, I thought I'd play along.

Here are the rules:
Take a picture of yourself right now.
No primping or preparing.
Just snap a picture.
Load the picture onto your blog.

No primping? I picture of me right now? *gulp* here goes...

good thing my camera is right here on my desk.

here I am in all my makeup-less, scruffy paint clothes, sleep deprived glory.

Oh wait! it said "no primping", It never said "no photoshoping"...

so here I am after a little photoshoping, you know, just softening wrinkles, adding a little color etc.

I don't look all that bad after all.

Lessons from an Easter egg hunt

"Winners Never Quit" Detail 11x14 acrylic

Busy, busy, Easter. The Kids had spring break starting Thursday and went back to school today.

We went to a improv show and an Easter party, flew kites, tore down a fence, built a chicken coop, (with the lumber from the fence), added insulation to the attic, and started painting the living room. I was so busy I kind of forgot about Easter. I had just finished picking my 17 year old from work late Saturday night when I realized that I didn't have any Easter grass for the baskets. Too tired and too late to go to the store, so the Easter bunny put out the Easter baskets "naked" with out any Easter grass. It worked great! none of the kids even noticed, and I had no Easter grass to clean up before company came for dinner.

We went to an Easter egg hunt Saturday, they had the Easter bunny there. I always worry about Jimmy in these Easter egg hunts. They had him in the age group that was 8 and up, he is just barely 8 and visually impaired. I know if I asked them to they would put him in a younger group or let me help him, but I don't want him to think he should get "special treatment" so I didn't say anything. He went on the hunt with the other kids, he did not see when the egg hunt started so he was a little behind the other kids and of course he could not see many of the eggs and passed them by. He found less than half the eggs that any of the other kids had. He was looking in his Easter basket and ran over to the Easter bunny with an angry look on his face. I ran after him , afraid of what he might say. As I got there I could hear him say "You didn't hide the eggs very well, look how many I found and I am blind." That made the Easter Bunny laugh, which he thought was cool because Bunnys aren't supposed to talk. I was impressed because I thought he was going to complain about his lack of eggs, instead he was proud of himself for finding so many eggs without help. I saw the glass as half-empty he saw it as full. The kid is always teaching me lessons.

Getting my kid to sing

I am always telling my fifteen year old he has a fabulous singing voice, he seems to think I am only saying that because I'm his mom, I have been trying to convince him that I am saying it because it is true, but to no avail.



Last weekend was the cornerstone dedication of the Draper Temple. My fifteen year old was invited to sing with the youth choir way back in December and they have been practicing for it for every Sunday evening in preparation for this event. It was a great honor for him to be asked to sing, only 5 people from our stake were asked to sing. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. They sang beautifully, It was absolutely fabulous! They sounded like a professional singing group or better. He was also asked to sing a duet at Jimmy's baptism and upon hearing him sing, the Stake president asked him to sing in a quartet for Stake Conference, and he has been asked to sing a solo in church.



I think he is finally starting to believe me now when I tell him he has a great singing voice.

Jimmy's Baptism

Me and Jimmy

Jimmy got baptized on Saturday, he was so excited! His baptism was the day after his eighth birthday. I asked him if he was more excited for his baptism or his birthday; he said his baptism. I asked him why, after all he gets presents for his birthday, so why is he more excited for his baptism? He told me "A guy has a birthday every year but, you only get baptized once." he was so cute! I am so very glad he is still with us. 3 years ago we did not think he would make it. We are having his birthday party in a couple of days and he wants to invite the entire school , we'll see how it goes...