These Weeks

The past few weeks in pictures:

Spring is upon us. 

Noble planted a little peach seedling in the corner of our garden a few years ago and has nurtured it even though I told him I wasn't sure it would produce anything. This spring for the first time it blossomed. It is beautiful.

I see this little tree as a metaphor for Noble's life. We have been trying to teach him a lot of things in his life about what is true, how to live and find joy. I hope like his peach seedling he will give place for those teachings and nourish them...and see them miraculously blossom and produce good fruit.

 Thank goodness for the two little boys who live at our house! They bring so much joy, and excitement, and wonder (and sometimes exhaustion). We all love them so much! I am forever grateful that Heavenly Father had two more in store for us.

Asleep in the same bunk.

Lunch time with Abner and  his buddy (the Kemp's youngest) and big sister.

Climbing the hammock in the warm April sun. 

Showing off his work from preschool.

One of the things I will sorely miss when my kids are all grown - little kids' soccer games. Here is Abner with his team. (Notice the kid with the pirate hat.)  While our other kids have ramped up slowly when it comes to sports, Abner is already a force to be reckoned with on the field. He scored a hat trick (3 goals) in his first game.........after he'd finished crying for half the game on the sidelines about not wanting to play (first-game-ever nerves).

 It is the sweetest thing in the world to still have a couple of kids who want to snuggle up and sleep.

 Our animals are fat and happy.

Literally, Pluto is fat from her winter of leisure (mostly spent in the house and garage, eating). With the weather warming up she is on the prowl on the easement once again...keeping the rodent population at bay.

River has made a miraculous transformation (coinciding with the acquisition of his new shock / vibration training collar). He is now able to roam with relative freedom around the house and yard, and behaves himself around little children and new people. He has learned that life is MUCH better when he's not constantly on a leash or in a kennel.

Nature appreciation

We had a couple of moon rises this past month that were sublime. Here is one I tried to capture with my phone.

A Near-Miss

Last night Noble had a run-in with the neighbor's dog line (like a zip line for dogs to exercise). It was dark and  he was running full-tilt across their yard. Next thing he knew he was thrown to the ground by the throat. Today his throat is swollen and his tongue too where he nearly bit it off. Ouch.

 More Reno With Roy

A few boulders had to be moved to finish the back patio. We had to transport them to a new home in the yard. This was Roy and Mike's genius solution to moving them. It was pretty effective.

The Vampire Room is officially gone! Demo day in the basement.

More demo. Roy rented an industrial sized tile remover and the boys went to work chipping up all the tile in the basement kitchen. Roy says that he found the one thing the previous owners did that was built right: the tile floor. Unfortunately for us. It was a bugger to remove. And it made a TON of dust. I hate that part.

Mike spent about 6 hours yesterday grinding / buffing the residual mortar left from the tile. What a mess. But we are now down to the bare concrete floor. Our plan is to make a finished concrete floor in the kitchen / soon-to-be game room.

Meanwhile Upstairs...

While the grunts worked away in the mud and the dust downstairs, Jessie was upstairs getting ready for prom. Thanks to Holly, who helped us line her dress. It was lovely. 

Jessie didn't get out of work scott-free though. She started her day pulling weeds. Her date told us later that in between morning and evening sessions of prom (ha ha - one of the things I love to hate about high school dances is the all day activities they plan with it) he was home pulling weeds as well. Our respect went up for this kid...or at least for his parents. 

Prom 2016

This Week

I began last Tuesday anxiously waiting for the A/C repairman to come. We had spent the previous 3 days a little warm. But my YW lesson on Sunday was all about being grateful in any circumstance - so I was determined to practice gratitude - even if I felt cranky. The guy was about an hour and a half late (another chance for me to practice gratitude) - and then (finally), just as he was about to arrive, I got a phone call from the school. Grace was on the line and informed me that Sully had fallen from the monkey bars at recess, hurt his wrist, and the teacher thought he should see a doctor.

Super bad timing.

I was stuck. Couldn't leave with the A/C guy just getting there. But what kind of a mother tells the office people to just hang tight with her injured son until she gets around to picking him up?

Priorities.

I told them I couldn't get there right away and that I would see what I could arrange. I called my sister Holly and asked if she could go check him out and at least bring him home so I could comfort him until we could get him to the doctor. She was awesome and came to the rescue.
Turns out, we were the one-in-a-million household annually to have their A/C compressor brought to a screeching halt by a hapless earwig taking refuge between connector points on the circuit. Not kidding. The repairman showed me the charred remains of our little earwig friend in the control panel. I was gobsmacked. Could anything more random have caused this? Brought to our knees by an earwig. With odds like that, I figured we should have won a prize or something. As it was, we had to pay him. He was nice and only charged us the $79 service evaluation charge. And I tell you I was thrilled to pay it. Only ten minutes and $79 (plus tax) to once again feel cold air flowing from the vents?  SOLD!

It was also fortunate that the A/C was so easily fixed so that I could get Sully to the doctor sooner. Although...from the moment he walked in the house with Holly he was downplaying the whole thing, saying in a matter-of-fact tone that he felt much better, that it didn't even hurt. Still, when I asked him to squeeze his hand into a fist for me he couldn't do it, so I decided we were definitely going to have it x-Ray'd.

Sully was the SWEETEST.  He talked and talked to the doctor and nurses, and x-Ray techs. He was so animated, telling them that it didn't hurt (until the doctor touched the one spot that did hurt, "Every place on me feels good, except RIGHT HERE", pointing to a spot on his wrist). After taking a look at the x-Ray the doctor walked in and announced, "It's broken", and then explained that they would splint it then and put a hard cast on after a few days. At the word "cast" Sully started to tear up. Sully had high hopes that he was just fine, and now the doctor said he was going to have to wear a cast for a month. (Later on he explained that he was crying because it meant he couldn't play on the playground for a month.) Waiting for them to come back to fit the splint, he paced back and forth repeating to himself over and over, "Having a broken arm isn't the worst thing. There are lots of things that are worse" - with tears just under the surface. I wish I had taken a video of it. It was so sweet to watch him pep-talking himself.

By contrast, when I took him to get his hard cast on yesterday he was beaming with pure JOY. With a few days of one-armed experience under his belt he was full of confidence in his ability to adapt (and to still have fun at recess). He was stoked to get the new cast (and to wash his hand again). Sully is like sunshine.

We treated ourselves to a mother/son lunch at Chick-fil-a afterward. Look at that happy face!

Later that day with a few signatures. I got first dibs...

On Friday Mike packed up the youngest three and headed to St. George to be there early enough to get a good night's sleep (sort of) before the marathon. I stayed behind with the older three until after Noble's race. 

This race was in Park City, and the coolest course they've done all year in my opinion. They ran all over the hills. Noble was taken out early on when a kid slipped on a rain-soaked hill and knocked down a bunch of runners. This loosened one of Noble's shoe laces, which later caused him to loose his shoe, forcing him to back track to get it and then he had to put it back on. He still finished with a decent time (17:26) - but finished last for Bingham in the varsity race - and was sure he'd lost his place on varsity. He was pretty upset after he crossed the finish line. The coach reassured him that he still held his place - and would run varsity at Region on the 13th. Adversity is good for the soul. It made Noble want to try harder. He told me he will be duct-taping his laces before his next race. He is learning a lot.

A pre-race prayer

As soon as we had finished talking to the coach we got in the car and headed south to St. George. It was a late night, past midnight, when we got in. But traveling with teenagers is a lot easier than traveling with little kids - we drove straight through, no stops.

Mike was up at 4:00 the next morning - and his dad drove him to catch the race bus for the marathon. He was trying to meet up with a guy from the neighborhood so they could run together, but they never found each other in that sea of people (they actually ended up running almost the exact same time - even though our neighbor finished about 5 minutes after Mike. If that doesn't make sense - let me know and I'll explain). He did, however, run into Sister Brewer (who's son is the "other freshman varsity kid" from my previous post) who walked right up to him and smiled and encouraged him (this was probably her 10th St. George marathon). It was a tender mercy for him and helped ease his nerves. (Thank you Diana!)

His goal was to match or beat his dad's time from 1984 (3:40). His splits until about mile 23 were more than fast enough, but he slowed up his last few miles. He ended up finishing 6 minutes slower than Howard (the speed demon) - still not too shabby for a first marathon at 40. Howard reminded Mike that he had been five years younger and two-kids less (they add mileage) when he ran it in '84. :)

The Melton men...

What an awesome experience! I am so impressed that Mike set himself a difficult challenge and went and did it -- without anyone else pushing him or even anyone training with him. He is amazing! He's also in phenomenal shape now. He told me he stopped by the health fair at work today and they told him his BMI was "desirable." Ha ha ha ha. Go Mike!

Overdue

The past two months in review (lots of pictures):

Noble's school Capstone project - he and some of his school friends played games and played music with residents at the Herriman Beehive home

Jessie started a job at Fiiz drinks of South Jordan

Noble started his summer job - washing windows in the neighborhood with his business, Bluesky Windows

A visit to the Payson Temple open house

Grace celebrated her 13th birthday with all of her buddies

We said good bye to the Henderson's who moved to Louisiana 

We had the opportunity to go on Trek with Jessie and Noble. Mike and I were a Ma and Pa. We went on Trek once before with our old stake 8 years ago. This was a totally different experience. Part of what made it special was being there with these two - even though we only saw them here and there over the 4 days. Here we are on the morning we left - still fresh and clean. Thanks Mom and Dad for sending the sweet Amish hat for Mike.

Mike and I with our Trek family - 2 from our ward

we did about 30 miles at Deseret Land and Livestock. 

Our kids - last night. 

Post-Trek - only a little worse for wear. 

We finally finished the backyard boulder wall. The kids ripped out the old retaining wall.

Sean and Kim came down to lend a little cat driving expertise.

With the rock wall finished, we sodded the hill at last! Mike put Noble, Jack and a bunch of the neighborhood boys to work.

Jack making breakfast for us his last morning with us. We enjoyed having him visit!

River helping Mike pick up a load of hay cubes. I have often been very frustrated with River over the past months - but he is finally starting to become a pretty good dog.

For Father's Day Tillman composed this tribute. We figured the 3 wishes pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Abner. This kid keeps us all on our toes.

An evening with the Utah Symphony

Sully turned 7!!

We heard the news that our little trailer - so happily situated in Torey, Utah for these past 15 years - burned down last week. So sad.

Noble's ingenuity: He and his friends rigged up this trampoline sprinkler with some sprinkler pipe, duct tape and zip ties.

Mike and Noble started the 4th of July by running the Riverton 5k. They placed 2nd and 3rd in their age groups. We thought this picture of Mike sprinting past these ladies at the finish line was awesome. Mike said it must have been REALLY embarrassing to have him pass you because the mom was saying to her daughter as he passed, "Don't worry. Its ok - we're just doing this for fun."  :)

4th of July festivities - we had about 30-40 people at the house for water games, a BBQ and fireworks. Big crowd. Big fireworks show. With the Bishop's firework connection, the whole neighborhood was alight with spectacular aerials.  It was awesome. I think Roy was the only one who was hit by shrapnel. Sorry Roy.

Baby E's ear protection

Some of the tamer fireworks

Mike arranged to have some of the Melton cousins over for dinner on Sunday night. We had a great time catching up! It was about 11:00 by the time we broke the party up.

For Abner's 4th birthday we spent the day at Seven Peaks, SLC. These two sharks had a great time!

Grace shopping for Abner's birthday presents in style. :)
She had a little incident at 4H this past week when her horse reared, then fell over backwards on her. It broke the saddle but Grace came out unscathed.

Which is more than Sully and I can say. We came away from our Seven Peaks day with a few battle wounds.We flipped the tube on one of the slides and Sully landed under me. After I righted the tube and we got back on, he spent the rest of the ride telling me, "Keep it safe, Mom. Keep it safe." ha ha haha He refuses any pity over these gashes - when I shook my head and said, "poor Sully", he immediately stopped me and said, "NOT poor Sully!" Love this kid.