Circulating email...

OK, this is an email going around right now. I thought it was pretty creative. I really, really like the last line about our men not wanting another wife. I have heard that sentiment from my husband MANY times. Too funny!!!

I do feel for the FLD persons. They are in our prayers.

For those of you who have been watching the news and may have wondered....


Some Mormon women sing...
Some Mormon women dance...

Some Mormon women write scary stories...


Some Mormon women have lots of money and really great hair...



I know hundreds of Mormon women. They do all kinds of different things and live all different kinds of lives.



This woman served as a leader in the Mormon church. She recently spoke to teenage girls worldwide. She encouraged them to stand up to peer pressure, strengthen their families and serve others. (Click here for more.)
None of the Mormon women I know look like this...
None of them are marrying off their teenage daughters and-- although some may joke about wanting a sister-wife (preferably one who is really fat & ugly, does bathrooms and changes diapers)--none of them really want to share their husband with anyone.

Furthermore...


Some Mormon guys can throw a ball...

Some Mormon guys yell at the ball...

Some Mormon guys make scary movies...

Some Mormon guys have a lot of money and really great hair...

I know hundreds of Mormon guys. They do all kinds of different things and live all kinds of different lives.


This is one of the leaders of the Mormon church. Last Sunday he spoke about honoring women, especially mothers, and gave advice to husbands and children about how to treat the women in their lives. (For the whole story, click here.)


None of the Mormon men I know look like this...

The Mormon men I know are honest and hard-working. They don't cheat, smoke, drink or gamble. And TRUST ME....the last thing any of them want is another wife.

You know they aren't interested in buying the house when....

We are currently renting a home that is on the market. I really do love this house, but it needs a lot of renovations. I know this because I watch TLC. And TLC has laughed at the orange floral drapes that are hanging behind me as I watch it!!

Anyways. I have come up with a few ways to tell if someone is NOT interested in buying the house you are living in....

1. You see them pull up, but they never get out of their car.
2. They enter the house at 5:21 and leave at 5:23.
3. They don't actually get past the entry way.
4. The realitor is the only one left in the house as their clients run back out to their car.
5. They won't look you in the eye when they ask you why you are moving.
6. When you ask them if they want to look at the backyard, they tell you they will get back to you about that.

I keep our lovely little house nice and tidy because I love it. And, in the beginning, we always left during the appointed appointment time. But, after 3 months of them showing up anywhere from 1 hour to 1 day after the appointment, we gave that up. Now, we just hang out in the "Sound of Music" room. That would be the room with the orange floral drapes I told you about. They are drapes, not curtains. If my dad doesn't use them for his production of Sound of Music, I will use them to make Ali's prom dress.

Like I said, we do love the house, but TLC says it will take $40-50,000 to renovate it. So, that means our landlord would need to give us a great deal!!!

Bargain of the Year

How did you spend $12 this week? I spent it on 16 boxes of cereal!

Say What?

Conversation between Kat and Mom on April 14, 2008.

K: Kat
M: Mom

K: (crying) I hurt my foot.
M: I'm sorry, baby. What happened?
K: I hit my foot on the wall by the kitchen.
M: What part of your foot hurts?
K: Right here by my ankle bone.

The next morning, on the way to school, Rite Aide opened early so I could get Kat an ankle wrap before school started.

Monday, April 21, 2008 Kat said her foot hurt worst than ever. Ali chipped in, "Remember when you waited 2 weeks before you took me in for my hurt foot and I had a fractured growth plate?"

45 minutes later....

MD: Doctor
K: Kat
M: Mom

MD: (Line delivered in baby-talk) So, cutie, what seems to be the problem?
K: (Deciding if she would talk to an adult talking baby-talk) I hurt my foot.
MD: How did you hurt it?
K: I fell off the curb in the front yard.
M: Say what?
MD: Where does it hurt?
K: Down by my baby toe.
M: Say what??
MD: How bad does it hurt right now?
K: Not very much, it was worse last week.
M: No comment.

She did tear a ligament and is in a walking boot for 3-4 weeks.

Butler on Broadway Videos

Here are the videos from Butler on Broadway. They aren't super due to strange stage lights and people in front of me trying to get their heads in my way!

Luke is in the far back, right corner in both songs. The first one he is a dancer. The second one he is sitting down by a cute red head named Abby. Kat is in the bottom left hand corner area for both of them. The second one she gets up to the mic on the bottom left side.

Luke's Can't Wait to be King:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRLpDrWFSFc

Luke's He Lives in You:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwCSCHZWF70

Kat's Singing in the Rain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O782AzCDyA

Kat's Consider Yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlU-EqC_-3U

On Becoming 36

I was born on April 21, 1973. Today, I become 36. Yes, take a moment to do the math. You will discover that I am turning 35, but, becoming 36. I decided a good many years ago, that I do not like the odd number birthdays. So, when I hit an odd number (like this year), I jump to the next even number. I will tell you now, this drives my mom crazy. She thinks if I am going to lie about my age, I should lie to become younger. However, I feel it is LESS of a lie if I am making myself older. Go figure. Maybe when I hit 50, it will all change!!

I would like to take this moment to thank my mom for giving me life. You should all thank her also, if it weren't for her, you wouln't be reading this! It only took until 9:20 am today for her to call and remind me that I broke her back. Actually, her back must have been hurting her pretty badly, usually she calls around 7:00 am to remind me how I ended her ice skating career. (There is a new story you can tell people, Mom. Run with it!!)

So far today, I have Ali home sick FROM school. Not to be confused with homesick FOR school. I think she isn't so much sick as just worn out. She has a busy weekend. I have been in the doctor's office with Kat. Who, as it turns out, tore a ligament on the side of her foot. She will be in a walking boot for 3-4 weeks. I had to reschedule Ali's dental and ortho appointments that were later today. So, all in all, it looks to be just another day in life, which I love very much!

Thank you mom, for bringing me into this world!!

Calling all Friends!

I am linking my friend's blogs on my blog. If you have a blog, and I don't have you listed, please let me know!!

Butler on Broadway

The elementry school has been working very hard on a spring performance called Butler on Broadway. They are raising money for a Art Masters program for next year. If I heard correctly, they raised $10,000 over 2 evenings of performances.

I am currently working on uploading 4 vidoes from last nights performance. I will add them here as I get them uploaded.

Here is what our Lion King dancer looked like...he wanted to look like a baboon, but I fear I made him look like he was headed tail-gating at the Denver Bronco's game!!!

I am proud to say, Papa watched with rapped attention, between naps. He was a very good sport about watching little people butcher, I mean, perform, all the songs that he has either watched on the real Broadway, or set to stage. In all honestly, it was a great little show.

After the show, Nana and Papa took up out to dinner at IHOP. Nana offered ice cream, and Luke somehow turned it into a full meal at IHOP. I love the power of children. It was such a fun evening. I could not have planned a more perfect even for the kiddos. Oh, wait. I forgot. Kat had major singing section in both of her songs and she lost her voice. So, she had a voice double for the sections they couldn't just out and out cut.

Ok, I am going to work on YouTube....

Orphans, homesickness and me without a shirt

Orphans...

Growing up, my mom told us we looked like "orphans" when our hair was unkemped or our clothes were a mess. Which, in our younger years, was probably a lot of the time! Well, like so many other things from my youth, I have brough the same practice into my little family. But, I learned yesterday, I might have said it one too many times to Kat.

Kat and Luke's school has been working on a production called Butler on Broadway. Each grade level sings a couple of Broadway numbers. Kat's class is singing Singing in the Rain and Consider Yourself. Kat is actually Oliver in the Consider Yourself song. Last night was night one of two. Yesterday morning I was doing her hair. I told her I wasn't going to flip it up because Oliver probably didn't have his hair flipped. She told me, "Probably doesn't matter mom cause we both know I will look like an orphan by tonight anyways." So, note to self, don't call Kat an orphan quite so often!!

Homesickness...

Yesterday I was amazingly homesick for our Texas weather and friends. I was keeping my sadness pretty undercontrol until I saw the pool toys at the store. Then I started crying! I want to move all our Texas friends and our beautiful pool here to Utah.

Me, without a shirt...

(Note to my brother...you can keep reading, there are no photos...)
My Mom left a comment after my last blog about Luke getting my coat and not Ali. For a brief moment, I felt like a horrible mother, but, then I reminded myself I am an amazing mom!! Last January, we were living in Dallas. (Moment to cry....) Ali was playing spring soccer. Usually Texas weather is beautiful at all times. But, this particular Saturday in April turned out to be pretty darn Utah-like. Durning warm-ups, it actually started snowing. All Ali had on was her soccer uniform: shorts and a short sleeved shirt. Well, being the awesome mother that I am, I went into the port-a-potty (which in and of itself qualifies me for mother of the year) and took off my shirt. Yes, the only shirt I was wearing. So, Luke would have been out of luck that day cause I HAD to keep my coat on!!! I gave her my long sleeved, white shirt to wear for her game. Luckily she is a great player so she played most of the game to keep her legs warm.

Kat is usually overly clothed and packs around extra clothes, so I will be hard pressed to think of a time that I had to disrobe for her!!!

Where does the time go...

We are currently without the internet at home. We are too cheap to pay for it when we can use it at work or at the library. Once we are settled in a house that isn't being shown to perspective buyers every other day, we will get a land line and quite possibly, internet service.

So, let's see what has happened in the Olson Family in the past 17 days since I last blogged....

Opening Day of Baseball

This is Ali and Kat trying to be supportive of Luke. Ali was heard saying, "The mayor didn't come to the first day of the soccer games." I was heard replying, "That is because soccer isn't America's Past-Time and nobody cares about soccer." To which a got a lot of dirty looks from surrounding people. So, I quickly added, "But I, personally, care about soccer very, very much. I won't miss even one of your games." That quieted the angry soccer mob a bit. Shortly after I took that picture of AliKat, someone loaned Ali a jacket. I told the lady thank you but quickly added that I DID tell her to wear her sweats and her coat. I guess the nice lady didn't feel as though Ali had a lesson to learn :) I will give my kids just about anything, but not the coat off my back. Keep reading to find out if I lived to eat my words....

Here are the cutest little baseball players ever listening to the National Anthem. After Opening Day, Ali had a soccer game. Let me try to explain how cold it was this day....Ok, I give up. It was very, very cold. Daddy was working, of coarse. So that left me on baseball and soccer detail. The deal in the beginning was that I would handle soccer and dad would do baseball. Well, so far I am handling them both. But, we hope he job settles very soon! So, we had opening day, soccer and then back to the baseball field for team pictures. Well, as it turns out, Luke was supposed to have brought an extra shirt to change into of after pictures so the coach could get their names put on the jerseys. Well, nobody told ME that!! When the coach told everybody to take their shirts off, Luke looked at me a little nervously. I told him just to just take it off and not worry about it and I took off my coat and put it on him. Never say never, especially if you are a mommy.

Band Festival 2008

Last week I went on two of Ali's field trips. The first one was to Fort Herriman Middle School for the band festival. The band director had ordered one bus with an undercarriage for the equipment. What the district decided we needed was one bus with NO undercarriage. So, we had 60 students, 2 adults and enough instruments to outfit the symphonic band on ONE bus. Very brilliant. The band director and I gallantly gave up seats in order to enjoy the floor. All was well with the world until this hit me in the head. I was happy I took those headache pills before I left my house that day.

Ali's band played pretty darn good. They got the highest score, hurray Ali!!!

I have realized...I am one HOT Mama

On the morning of the band field trip, we were deciding where everyone would sit. I made a comment about the bus driver having the last seat on the bus and something about sharing it. Like FIVE minutes later, the bus driver told me in his dreams I would sit on his lap.

Really?

I haven't been hit-on on a school bus in, like, 2 decades!!!

But, wait.

Yesterday, I was subbing for the elementary school. We had to walk to the middle school (about 4 blocks) for a program practice. As we were walking pasted some parked buses, a bus driver asked me if I was a teacher. I told him I was only substituting. He told me he wished he had a sub like me when he was in school.

OK, good news, I could get a bus driver to take me anywhere a Jordan School District bus goes!!! I told Chris he better step it up or I was going to hang out at the bus garage from now on!

Ali learned to frost a cake

For mutual a couple of weeks ago, she had to bring a frosted cake to decorate. I took 45 minutes out of a crazy day to bake and frost her a cake. By the time she got home from school, she was trying to convince me that she really didn't need to go to YW that night nor did she need to learn how to frost a cake to get into the celestial kingdom. I was just happy she didn't announce that she wish Aunt Dana was her mother.

As I let her out of the car I told her not to let anyone give her crap about her cake...(well, other than me)

Luckily, she made it beautiful. She has the makings of a relief society president!!

Boys are dirty

Mom, I had cleaned this tub the very morning of the picture. Cleaned it with bleach and actually got down on my hands and knees, honest, Mommy!!!

This is what the tub looked like after Luke bathed. Any, no, it hadn't been 2 weeks since his last bath, only one!!

Wiikend

We also got a Wii, thanx to Dana. Josh, thanx for marrying her! We played all weekend and Josh dubbed it our Wiikend. Thanx, Josh. I didn't need to see your test results to know you are brilliant!!!