Bree's latest bout of name-calling

Bree (to Mason): "You're a Lamanite!"

Two unrelated quotes. Or are they?

Bree (to me when I said my watch was broken): "Daddy can fix anything.  He's a righteous and good man."

Chad (to me): "Bree's room smells funny.  You wanna check that out?"

Pinal Peak

This summer I have a list of campgrounds that our family wants to visit, some with the trailer, some with the tent.  There are some beautiful places in Arizona that have wonderful weather even in the summer, and we haven't seen a fraction of them.  Last week we went on our first camp-out of the year.  We've already been to Pinal Peak, although it's been almost two years.  This time we were in a different campground though, and we really enjoyed it.  It was cool and breezy, the trees gave us tons of shade, and we had the place almost all to ourselves.  The kids had a blast.  It's great how when they're this young, if enough time passes between similar events, they experience it like it's the first time all over again!  Bree did remember going to Tombstone last October in the trailer, but she didn't remember the last time we went tent-camping.


We did a little hiking, and had our first experience with geocaching.  I got on the website, entered some coordinates into our GPS, and we were off on a "treasure hunt."  The kids thought it was really cool, finding those boxes filled with "treasure" (really just random things people leave in there; we left some DPS stickers), and Chad even commented after finding the first one, "This is actually pretty fun."  Oh, ye of little faith.


We relaxed on the hammock, let the kids gobble Starburst as quickly as they could unwrap them (they couldn't remember ever tasting anything so yummy), and I enjoyed an alarming amount of S'mores.  Let me just say: dark chocolate bars are the way to go.  This was the first time I've tried them in S'mores, and I'm never going back.  Bree is not a fan of marshmallows, so she just wanted the chocolate and graham crackers.  I made one for her just like I make them for myself, with the chocolate warm and melty.  After she ate that one, she said, "Can I have another smear?  I just want a hard smear this time."  After laughing at her cute pronunciation mistake, I discovered that the melted chocolate was too much of a hassle in her opinion.  She just wanted me to hand over the chocolate and the grahams.  And Mason?  He doesn't really like marshmallows or chocolate.  He does like graham crackers, but he was too busy playing to eat, using his crackers to smash ants.

By the time darkness rolled around, the kids were exhausted, which made for a relatively fuss-free bedtime and a quiet night.  But before that, Bree treated me to a "scary" camp story.

I hate summer: reprise

Today, after working outside for about four hours, only about one and a half of which was strenuous shoveling, I started feeling more exhausted than I normally do after a good day's work.  I was drinking plenty of water, and after I finished the shoveling all I was doing was some light gardening and pruning.  But, as expressed in my previous entry, summer here is awful.  And hot.  And apparently, even though I was drinking today, I must have already been dehydrated from fasting half of yesterday.  As the lightheadedness, fast/shallow breathing, and serious weakness set in, my mind flashed back about six years to me picking Chad up from his construction site because he was weak and his muscles were seizing up.  I drove him to the hospital (as he vomited into a Walmart bag; thank goodness I had just been shopping when he called) to be treated for heat exhaustion.  Oh great.  Did I need to go to the hospital?  I panicked a little as I quickly mixed up some Gatorade and refilled my water bottle, then lay down on the living room floor under the A/C vent and ceiling fan.  I called Chad and told him to come home, that I would surely be needing to be hospitalized any minute (I was trying to keep calm on the phone for his sake).  At least I wasn't vomiting.  I wasn't in full panic mode yet.  But Chad was over an hour away.  In the end, after an hour of lying there sipping my drink bottles dry, the full-body tingling had abated, and I had the strength to sit up and eventually stand again.  Thank goodness.  Because I was seriously dirty and smelly from working outside, and would have been so embarrassed if I'd needed to go to the ER.  Anyway, I have since showered, eaten a long-overdue lunch, and drank a few more bottles of water.  I still have a headache, and a low-grade fever, but I'm functional.  And my climbing roses look amazing.

Have I mentioned that I hate summer?

The Summer Paradox

I have a like/detest relationship with summer.

Summer means that it is hot enough for the kids and I to "swim" in the kiddie pool in our yard without Mason shivering so hard he looks like he's epileptic.  That kid has no body fat to speak of, and unless the water had been sitting in the sun all day and is therefore at least 90 degrees, he can only go about 15 minutes before the shivers set in.  The kids do love being in the pool.  Bree is practicing holding her breath and swimming under water.  She's getting pretty good.  But if it's hot enough to swim (read: at least 95 degrees outside), that means it's too hot to do anything else.  I hate being hot. 


Summer means no school, which translates to no crazy high-schoolers driving recklessly down our street (We only live a few blocks from the high school; which reminds me, I bought some cookie dough yesterday from some kids sporting GHS jerseys who are raising money for their football team.  I told them that I have been fund-raiser-scammed before, and gave them the third degree before I handed over my money.  I better see that cookie dough).  Anyway, kids being out of school also means babysitters who are free to watch our kids late on weeknights.  But it means those kids are more likely to crowd up the movie theater on a weeknight.  I don't like crowded movie theaters, and it's not so much the chatting that gets to me.  Usually I'm angry at the parent of a small child in a PG-13 movie, who won't take their scared and crying kid out.  Or I end up sitting next to someone who smells.  Cigarettes, body odor, whatever; I guess there are a lot of smelly people in this town.

Summer means camping, which we love.  We're excited to take the camping trailer and explore some lakes a couple hours north.  We can escape to higher elevation and enjoy cooler weather.  There's nothing paradoxical about this one, we just love it.

Summer means Amy and I are taking a break from teaching our kids preschool, and we're just doing play dates to continue the pattern and keep the kids from going too stir-crazy.  Actually, it might be so Amy and I don't go stir-crazy.  Probably both.  Summer is a great time to do fun outings and activities, right?  We're racking our brains trying to think of what our great city has to offer in the way of summer activities.  We've already covered the temperature issue, so any outdoor activity that doesn't involve swimming or being at a high elevation is out.  So...um, the library?  How many times a week can we do that?  Besides, even though there is a children's room, I don't think the librarians necessarily love it when our kids are running around playing in there, even when we try to control the decibel level.  Besides, the A/C at the library is really sub-par, which makes afternoon visits uncomfortable.  What else do we have in Globe?  Grocery stores.  Wal-mart (and don't even get me started on the sorry state of our Wal-mart; apparently if you're in a small town and you're the only store that carries random things like printer paper and Brita filter refills, you're allowed to have restocking issues coupled with a major remodel that means the baby items are now outside in lawn/garden, and the shoes are in three different places; you know you can get away with it, and take your sweet time fixing things because everyone in that small town has no where else to go).  I think the city has a history museum, but I don't think the kids would appreciate it.  Where is a good parks and rec program when you need it?  The small town: a paradox in itself.

Summer means my tomato plants are thriving, and my baby corn and strawberries are coming up nicely.  I'm looking forward to harvesting squash soon too.  But summer here also means that the tomatoes will not last long unless I rig up some kind of shade for my plants when July rolls around.

Ahh, summer.  I've heard it said that there are places in the world where summer is a glorious season.  What must that be like?

I couldn't be more proud.

Two weeks ago at church, Bree apparently asked her Primary president when it would be her turn to talk into the microphone (Sunbeams usually just get asked to pray, but not give talks).  Sister Mounce smiled, and, pointing Bree in the direction of her secretary, said, "If you want to give a talk, just ask Sister Miller."  Bree went right over and said, "Sister Miller, can I have a talk?"  So Bree came home with a slip of paper that said she would be giving a talk on May 30th.  She was really excited.  When I asked her what she wanted her talk to be about, she just said, "Jesus and Heavenly Father."  Since we're on our second read-through of the Book of Mormon Stories, I pointed to the first story: "How We Got the Book of Mormon," and asked if she wanted to talk about that.  She got all giggly and agreed.  I printed out enlargements of the illustrations, and she's been practicing telling the story for the last few days.  I still can't believe how well she did giving her talk in Primary today.  The microphone wasn't working, but she talked loudly and clearly.  I only had to prompt her a few times, and all the kids were listening quietly as she narrated the pictures I held up.  It was all I could do not to burst with pride, and my parents who were able to come and watch, said the the drive was more than worth it.  I sneakily took my digital voice recorder up to the podium, so I could record the priceless memories (it's not as good as a video, but I was afraid a video camera would be frowned upon at church!).  I put together a slide show of Bree's talk with her pictures (her closing, "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen" got cut off...must find better editing software).

First-timers

We have really been enjoying our season passes to the Phoenix Zoo.  Our membership allows us to bring friends for free, so I invited my friend Amy and her kids Calan, Cora, and baby Jenna.  Her kids had never been to the zoo, so they were really excited.  We managed to see most of the interesting animals before it got too hot.  And, ironically, Mason was the most excited when he spotted a common bird hopping across the path, and when that rabid squirrel almost climbed into the stroller.  Who needs exotic animals in pens?

We made a stop at the petting zoo, and my kids were familiar with the routine.  Bree always has to make the rounds to ensure that she pets every single goat in the barnyard.  And Mason's not so much into petting them as trying to make eye contact with them and saying "Hey, goat!"

We ended the visit with some play time at the splash pad.  Amy and I tried to stay in the shade, as the day had gotten quite warm by that time.  The kids had a blast.  I was surprised Mason lasted as long as he did, because he's usually too cold to enjoy playing in the water.  Eventually the shivers immobilized him, and we rounded the kids up to drive home.  Great day.