Oliver

Oliver is still missing. We hope someone is taking care of him and that he is safe. But, we really, really want him back. We placed him on the lost section of craigslist.com, called animal control and placed a flyer in the local market. Hopefully someone will get him home to us. He missed his appointment to get declawed this morning. Darn cat. He has a new one to get declawed on Wednesday morning. I hope he is back for it. Maybe he doesn't want his claws ripped out???

Please come home, Oliver!

Prayers Needed

Our beloved kitty, Oliver, has gone missing. He was last seen Saturday morning around 8:30 am. Please pray that our kitty will find his way home or to a shelter where his microchip can be read.

Enough!

These pictures were all taken within a 60 minute period...

A woman can really only take SO much help before this happens....

Signs of Tiredness

Two conversations you might have heard if you were in my house today...

#1
s: sunni
j: janet jones, one of my camp people

s: i finished buying the food today.
j: oh, good, are you going shopping again?
s: (really?) nope, that should be it. i got the food for the bishopric to eat with us on thursday.
j: they are going to be with us wednesday evening, too.
s: i have to feed 3 extra men for 2 meals?? (sadly, i really said that.) oh, that will be nice to have the bishopric for two nights. it will be great. well, i guess i will go shopping again, after all.
j: oh, good. could you pick up some aluminum foil?

#2
s: (yup, sunni)
c: chris

c: did you see that wreck today?
s: nope.
c: that wreck in front of costco?
s: nope.
c: it happened right after we left. (he was on his motorcycle since he decided to put in 6 hours at work today)
s: nope, didn't see it.
c: man, i could have sworn it would have happened right in front of you.
s: oh, THAT wreck. yeah, i saw it happen.
c: i thought you did.
s: i wonder what happened?
c: i thought you saw it happen.
s: oh, yeah. it was right in front of me. one car slowed down and the car behind him ran into him. i even heard the swear words uttered.
c: seems like you would have remembered that.
s: yeah, you would think.

i love the bishopric and please, please, please, do not call me to be a witness in court for that wreck. by tomorrow, this post will be news to me!!!

calgon...take me away.

Oliver Going on a Walk

The kids have been wanting to take Oliver on a walk. So, today I bought a harness in the dollar section of Target. We put it on Oliver to test it out. The above video was the result.

THIS is baseball?

We signed Luke up for summer baseball. His spring coach, Troy, told us he was coaching a "coach pitch" team during summer. During the spring, Luke played "player pitch" with most of regular baseball rules. But, we love Troy, so we followed him to this team.

Tonight was the first game. Our first indication that something might be "off" was that Luke had to put away his "real" baseball. They don't use real balls in this league. They are rubber balls. Luke gets warmed up and the game starts.

Luke's team starts in the outfield. Luke is playing first base. One of the first plays is of the other team hitting, one of Luke's teamates catching it and throwing it to Luke. Luke runs up to the player who isn't quite and home and tags her. Hurray for Luke!! But, she just stays there on base. I was like, "Hello, Luke tagged her out. She is out. Luke got her. What is going on?" Chris calmly tells me there are NO OUTS in this league. Crap, what did I sign my baseball player up for??

Here are a few more of the rules:
1. Each batter gets 5 chances to hit the balls from the coach pitching. (5? really?)
2. If they can't hit off the coach a T is pulled out. (Luke had nightmares about the T being pulled out for him!)
3. Everyone on the team hits in each inning. (Right, no outs)
4. NO stealing bases. (What? I mean really? Why steal in baseball? Stealing is GOOD in baseball)
5. You don't have to slide into home. (We told Luke if he did NOT slide into home, he was grounded for a week.)

I am not sure what kind of baseball this is!! Hopefully Luke will stay baseball ready and not loose any of his actually baseball skills!!

NBA Finals

Ok, I might give up my Laker fan status. I don't think they tried very hard to win for us. Last night was a disgrace! My sister in law, Morgen, has taken down their Laker's sign. If I had one, I would take it down, too. Jazz fans are not going to be nice to us about this!

I am sure Chris' love runs deeper for the Laker's than does mine.

There is always next year.....

Comment Verification

Ok, true confessions. It drives me crazy when I have to enter a verification code when I want to leave a comment on someones blog. I now, call me crazy cause I am. But, it drives me insane.

Imagine my horror when I found out MY very own blog required that verification code crap. My sister-in-law, Dana, brought this horrible truth to my attention. Well, we took care of it. You can now leave all the comments you want on my blog without having to enter the verification code!!

Hurray!!

On Being a Mommy

We have finally been able to swim at the local outdoor pool. That is because it has gotten over 60 degrees for the past week. Heaven. Such a different kind of heat than Texas. Last week, after we got out of the pool and started to head home, Luke said, "Mom, I am getting dry." You never dry out in Texas :)

Last year, I guess there was a huge problem with contagious "bugs" in the Utah swimming pools. It got so bad, I hear, that all public pools were closed and they also recommended private ones also be closed. Our local pools is taking many safety precautions this year. One of the precautions is that everyone has to get out of the pool the first five minutes of every hour. This is to encourage potty breaks.

These five minutes seem magical to me, for some reason. The previously loud and crazy pool is so still. So very still. No one seems to talk (or go the bathroom.) They just all sit on the side of the pool with their eyes riveted on the lifeguards waiting for the sign to get back in the water.

I love to watch my kids during those five minutes of each hour. I can just see them thinking, planning, plotting what they will do with the next 55 minutes of their life. These five minutes are the only time I have ever seen them so still at the same time.

My kids are at such pivotal ages.

Ali is trying to become a young woman and find her place in her church and school family as well as her family here at home. She needs more space, more freedom (to get A-s), more choices and more allowance. Her musical ability astounds me. Sometimes I forget how good she is cause I hear her practice everyday. It takes her playing in public and hearing other's feedback to remind me she is musically gifted. Her mind is one of a kind. She can even seem to justify those A-s she got this past term :) Speaking of terms, she will take life on her own terms. I hope and pray she keeps that self esteem in tacked at she heads into these horrible teen years. I also pray that I can be the mother she needs to help her through those times. I also hope, as I fall short, that those other adults around her will help keep her steady and pointed toward her goals.

Kat is in a crazy in between age. Not quite a young lady but not a child any more. Kat has wisdom well beyond her years. She amazes me daily. And keeps me in line, daily. She is in a very impressionable stage. She soaks up everything around her. We have to be so careful to keep good influences around her. Her wit and quick thinking will take her far in life.

And Luke. He has always been my baby. Well, he is growing out of being a Mamma's boy. At the exact moment that it breaks my heart, it excites me to see glimpses of what he will become. He is crazy good at math. I think that makes him good at so many other things in his life. Like baseball. He has NEVER overthrown a ball. I think he sees the world mathematically. He can calculate distances and and make great throws each time. He can calculate change before the cashier can. He is always the banker in Life and Monopoly. He gets baptized this year. That will be a bitter sweet day for me. After that, all my precious children will be baptized.

Can you believe I think all of this in a five minute swimming break? I love my children dearly.

Kat on Indiana Jones

For Father's Day we gave Chris the Indiana Jone's Trilogy. I guess it would actually be a Quadology once the new one is released?? Please stop the insanity. OK, sorry about the tangent...

Anyways, we were watching the Lost Ark. When we finished, Kat announced, "I feel like I just sat through three hours of church."

Cat and Mouse

I now know why the computer mouse is called a mouse. Oliver has spent the past 30 minute pouncing my hand as I use the mouse. I swear, "night crazies" might give me a heart attack on this early morning!

Meeting of Rufus and Oliver

Rufus is my parent's dog. It has always seems his sole mission in life is to eat cats. We decided to take our new kitty, Oliver, to Provo to meet Rufus last weekend.

The meeting of Rufus and Oliver went quite well. They did not fight at all. Rufus tried to love on Oliver as only Rufus can love, though! Oliver brought a smile to Rufus' cute canine mouth.

(Another) New Addition to the Family

OK. The time came. It was time to buy Ali a new flute, or pull her out of band. Just to test the water I asked how she felt about not doing band anymore. She cried for 48 hours. So, we decided that it was time to invest in her future.

We called the flute store that Ali's private teacher recommended. They were very kind. I told them we needed to test drive some flutes and they arranged to have almost $20,000 worth of flutes at her disposale to try out.

The only downfall about the afternoon was they had us in this teeny-tiny room. It was Ali, Kat, Luke, myself and the male band specialist. If it had been in Victorian time, I would have been forced to marry this man because he brought my honor into question.

I had horrible visions of her falling in love with each flute she played. But, that didn't happen. She fell in love with the Jupiter 750. "Just for fun" he had her play one more, a Pearl. I asked him what the differences where between the Jupiter and Pearl. I could see her heart was made up for the Jupiter and just wanted to make sure that was a good choice.

He said, "There isn't much of a difference. It it purely personal choice. It is like deciding between a Toyota and Honda." This coming from a man wearing a Ducati belt buckle.

After that, and being locked in that small room for an hour, Kat told the guy, "Alright, we'll take the Honda, please."

He assured me that this flute will last through high school, even college if she doesn't major in music. I told him that was ok since she wasn't majoring in music. Which earned me a,"MOM." I was like what, you changed your major from biology? Of coarse, she hasn't. So, the Honda, I mean, Jupiter, it is. I will upload videos of her playing it later this weekend.

http://www.jupiterflutes.com/jbi_instrumentDetails.aspx?cId=16&lId=15&sId=4&pId=267

We are actually taking a prolonged test drive of it. It is hers to try for 7 days. Pretty cool, right?

P.S. The music store is owned by a family who's son served a mission down in Victoria, Texas right after we had Ali. Small world, huh?

Kat's Reasoning Skills

Took the kiddos swimming at the rec center's outdoor pool tonight. Luke was jumping off the high dive. Kat and I were sitting beside the pool, on the grass, in lawn chairs. The lifeguards change posts every 15 minutes or so. At the shift change for the tower watching the diving boards, a lifeguard, who looked to be 12 (not kidding!), climbed up on the tower. Kat watches the kid climb up there and sit down. All the sudden, she announces that she doesn't feel safe any more. I asked her why. She said that lifeguard iss too young to save her life.

Just to clarify, "You don't feel safe, sitting on the lawn, in a chair, 20 yards from the pool?"

"That's right. Don't feel safe with him on duty."

"Well, stay out of the water then."

I swear. Not in a million years could I follow her logic.

Shu Fu's Hair Cut

We tried to get a great picture of Shu Fu, but he is afraid of the camera. He thinks it is lightening. Near the end, Oliver jumped on Shu Fu and effectively ended the photo session!

Foliage of our Yard

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Today is the 8th day of summer vaction.

We still have yet to go swimming or turn the air on.

Today it is 43 degrees. We are drinking hot cocoa and sitting by the fire.

This leads me to ask, "Where is summer?"

Time Difference

Last night after we finished dinner, I told the kids we should call Papa. Papa is down in St. George directing at Tuacahn.

Me: "Let's call Papa, I think he is on his lunch break."

Kat: "Is there a time difference between Salt Lake and St. George?"

Me: "No, there is a time change between normal people and theatre people!"

Love ya, Dad!!!

Kat's Quote of the Day...

"Why talk softly when you can yell?"

Oliver's Babies

Oliver has some toys, as any good kitty should. He has two that we call his "babies." He, however, has developed issues with his babies left eyes. So...he has bitten them off!

Come, Come Ye Saints

Ali played in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. It was beautiful. Since I can't actually record during Sacrament, I recorded a practice. She did sound better during the real thing. This run-through, she hadn't warmed up yet.

Also, I put roses in her hair for the real thing :) She looked and sounded beautiful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuO4M55e7SY

Spring Band Concert

Recently Uploaded videos of Ali's Band Concert on May 21, 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1XllSspQts&feature=user

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKP58wIbW_M&feature=user

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N4O_LLGz8g&feature=user

Closing Day of Baseball

Closing Day was a touch warmer than opening, but not much!!!
Run, boy, run! Someone might take your trophy!
The video is of Luke in the dunk tank. Let me tell you, you could not have paid me to get in that cold, germ infested water. But, wait, maybe if it was cold enough, it would have killed all the germs?!?!?

Don't be sad Spring Baseball is over...Summer baseball is just around the corner. It is coach pitch so the boys can work on hitting. I guess they don't think 7 year-olds pitch very well? Hee-hee. Luke and Daddy are working on pitching. I guess Luke is going to be a pitcher next year. Stay tuned.....

True Definition of Sun Bathing

Oliver enjoying a few moments of warmth on Saturday. And I mean, very few moments! The has been the coldest Spring/Summer ever!!!

Sun = Sunni Freckles!

Ya gotta love what the sun does to my face...FRECKLES!!!

I love my kids...

and this is why...

Alyssa-A couple of Sunday mornings ago, I put on a "new to me" dress. I actually bought is when we first got to Dallas. It was new at a consignment store. It is a cute pink flower summer dress. Anyways. I finally decided to wear it, back during out 2 days of warm weather a few weeks ago. I had it on and my normal orthopedic shoes. Ali told me I could not wear those shoes with a cute dress. She took her cute summer sandals off and had me wear them.

Katelyn-On Monday morning I was cleaning the house before I walked the kids to school. Kat walked into the bathroom and told me I had until 7:58 am to get the house shiny and be ready to walk out the door so she would not be late for school. (You might wonder if she is often late for school. The answer to that is NO. She has been late ONE day in the past 2 years!) After her 7:58 ultimatum, a few things went through my head...
1. Do I should like that when I ask her to do things?
2. How did I ever get my college degree without her bossing me around? And finally...
3. Will I get the house shiny by 7:58????? I sure hoped so!!

Luke-The other day the kids were having a conversation in the back of the van about swimming at the local rec center. They haven't been there yet and were excitedly planning their first trip. This rec center has big, tall water slides. Kat was about to ask me if I was going to go down the slides with them. Luke told her I couldn't go on them cause the last time I went down them I broke my knee saving his life. (Yes, I fractured my knee cap in two places that time. The slide we were going down at Seven Peaks had spit Luke and I out funny when he was on my lap. He was about 3 or 4. I knew he would hit the bottom on the pool if I didn't push him to the top and let myself hit the bottom.) He was quiet for a minute after that. Then he said he thought everyone was always having to save his life. Kat asked him who else saved his life. He said, "Some lady in Arizona saved me from choking." Funny, he makes it sound like some stranger. But, my good friend Amy did save his life when he was choking on a water bottle cap. I was in the shower at the time. Kids say the darnedest things in the back seat of the van!

Forgotten Moments of May

This month, as usual, has been C*R*A*Z*Y!! Delightfully wonderful, all in all, but crazy. I think the end of year signals the craziness to begin in earnest.

Here is a wrap up of items I forgot to blog about. I actually started this before I read my sister's blog. But, you can still think I copied her if you want!!!

Luke's 1st Grade Field Trip

I went with Luke on his field trip to Salt Lake City's Children Museum. Now, when I took the kiddos to this museum before we moved to Dallas, it was in a different location. It is now located in the Gateway. And I must admit, I liked the old location MUCH better.








Luke and buddies rock climbing. All I have to say is WAY too many kids that day. I think there were 3 schools in attendance. I finally just game up trying to keep track of my little boys. I watched the exit and prepared to jump in I saw anyone familiar trying to escape.








This was a water exibit. They had fun, but I think if you put toys in the toilet little boys would have fun.










Life Flight Chopper. I don't know if you can tell,but it was cold and rainy. Something very stange happened to our spring here. Something like WINTER!













Legos. Need I say more?












Very cool pipe exhibit.

Rediscovered an Old Love

When the girls were little, I made a lot of their clothes. Over the years, I have gotten out of the habit. Thanx to motivation from my mom, I remembered how much I enjoy it. I made this dress for Luke, I mean Kat! But, Luke is the only one that would try it on while I was altering it!! I absolutely love this pattern. It was the perfect pattern to "get back on the saddle again" with.

A Trip to Disney Land?

Last summer we went to Disneyland with the Sorensen side of the family. It was the best trip ever. Dana and I have discussed this and she knows how I feel. For months I couldn't even look at the pictures cause it sent me into a Disney-depression! Finally, this month, I downloaded the pictures from my memory card. Until this point, it was my Disney memory Card!!

American Idol Wrapup Thoughts

OK, American Idol has finished for another year. Our hearts belonged to the home-town boy, Archie, but total rocker, star quality goes to David Cook. After my sadness ended over Archie loosing, I went back and watched the last couple of shows again. Cook rocks and Archie will be a great EFY presenter!!

A Visit to my Homeland of Ireland

All my life I have wanted to see where my ancestors hailed from. Finally Chris took me over there. Just kidding! We went to Park City for Memorial Day. But I could have sworn, as I looked at the pictures, that they were of somewhere exotic like Ireland!!

I hope you have enjoyed my forgotten moments of May. For some unknown reason, this post has taken roughly 6 hours to write. I swear, there is something wrong with Blogger.

Consider Yourself...

Well, as most of you know, our beloved Duchess died just over a week ago. It completely broke my heart. I still have moments of profound sadness. Not just over the loss of a beloved pet, but just the whole, incomprehensible idea of death. I know that we will be with Duchess again. President McKay said that he didn’t want to be in any heaven that he couldn’t have his horse. So, hands down, he is my favorite prophet!!

Saturday morning I was out running errands for Girls Camp and found myself near Petco. I decided just to run in and look at the kitties. I know, bad idea to start with! But, guess what. They had the cutest kitty, named Mutt. I held him for a while and then told the guy I would be back with my family and dog.

Actually, Saturday was a crazy day for us with Activity Days for Kat, baseball for Luke and a party later in the evening for Ali. I knew the only real time to go look at Mutt was right after Kat left for Activity Days. So, got Kat out the door, loaded the rest of the family and the dog up in the van and went off to meet our potential new family member.

We arrived at Petco and the kids went straight to Mutt. Shu Fu was sure he was going to be fed to the crickets and walked with his tail between his legs the whole time. I swear, that dog is definitely not a guard dog!! They got Mutt for us and took us to the break room so Shu Fu and Mutt could meet. Everything depended on that first meeting. We decided to jump right into it. We placed them both together in the center of the room. And what do you know…they acted like they had known each other FOREVER. They smelled each other, rubbed up against each other and walked around the room together. It only took a few minutes after that to decide Mutt was meant for us.

The guy helping us was very nice. He got a cardboard pet box and proceed to try to put it together. Well, he actually gave up and went out to the floor to get a box that was already put together. He came back, picked up Mutt and tried to put him in the box that he gave up on. I told him that I thought that was the unfinished box, and he didn’t listen/hear. He kept trying to get him in the box. Then Luke told him he was putting him in the wrong box. Didn’t hear/listen. Finally, he got Mutt in the box and lifted it up. Of course, Mutt fell out the bottom! Luke loudly told the guy, “I told you it was the wrong box.” Too funny. Well, while I filled out the adoption papers, Chris took Mutt to get his nails trimmed. We are definitely declawing people and will get him declawed pretty soon.

Duchess HATED the car. But Mutt didn’t cry at all on the way home. Good Kitty. But, we still miss you Duchess!

When we got home, we put him in the bathroom as that is where his litter and food are. We gave him a few kitty toys and he seemed to be in heaven. He loved to chase his toys around the bathtub. Even when we left the bathroom door open, he just stayed in there. I think the bathroom seemed like a palace compared to his cage.

We realized Kat would be returning soon and that we needed to figure out a way to surprise her. So, we closed the bathroom door and watched for Kat on the balcony. When she got home, I told her to go wash her hands in the bathroom. We all followed closely behind. I totally expected a scream from her, but she was speechless. When she saw the kitty, she just stood there pointing at it. I am pretty sure the kitty was thinking, “What, another one??”

We quickly realized that “Mutt” would never do for a name. After many ideas, we settled on Oliver. We originally arrived at the name based on the Disney movie, Oliver and Co., but then we decided he was more like Oliver Twist. But, upon completing the research for this blog, I realized that both Olivers are actually the same character! Shows how much I know, I never watched Oliver and Comany!!

Unfortunately Oliver smelled horrible and was shedding like a mad-man. So, it was soon decided that he needed a bath. I was a little worried about bathing a kitty, but remembered that Dana bathed her cat all the time. And whatever Dana can do, I can do!!! He was actually pretty darn good for his bath taking into consideration that he is a cat and cats hate water!!! You could tell he wasn’t too thrilled, but he endured it.

I have learned this from reading Oliver’s file….he is 10 months old. In January, he was picked up by animal control in West Valley. He was there until Summit County Friends of Animal rescued him. They had him fixed and gave him his shots. Sometime after that, he was moved to Petco to try to find him his “forever family.” So, all in all, he has spent 50% of his life in a shelter. Poor Oliver. I think we named him well.

From living with Oliver for 24 hours I have learned this….he is so happy to have a family he can hardly stand it. He tolerates the kids hauling him around. He, however, was eternally grateful for church today. He said that he really needed that 3 hour break! Oliver is deathly afraid of ceiling fans. I have racked my brain trying to figure that one out, but I got nothin’. How can a cat, from a shelter, develop a fear of ceiling fans I ask you?? It is hilarious to watch him get out of a room with a ceiling fan. Even if he knows there is one in the room, that isn’t going, he is pretty untrusting of it. Who knows? Oliver loves to play. He plays with the kids for hours on end. But, he really, really, really wants to go outside. He sits at the door and cries. He wants to chase birds SO badly. But, we are keeping him in for a couple of weeks.

Tonight he made his way into the fireplace. In the beginning it was cute. But, then he decided to try to climb UP the fireplace and I barely saved him from falling down into the basement fireplace. Silly cat. Tonight he also walked onto the middle of our Risk game and tried to take the armies off.

Luke is happy to have another boy aroud!! But, he continues to call Oliver "her."

All in all, we love Oliver already but miss Duchess still. I am glad they are very different cats. It will be easy to see them as two different kitties.

Oliver….consider yourself at home!!!!