The saddest news of the week is that Tuesday we had a continuation of warm beautiful weather which caused me to think leaving the chickens out for the afternoon in their box would be great.  Unfortunately I left the lid on because Macho was prowling and in three hours it got really warm and Spencer's chicken Artemis died.  By the time we found them Allison's was in pretty sad shape but after giving shade and lots of water to the remaining three they rebounded.  The kids spent the afternoon laying on the grass crying and remembering when.  (The really gross news is that Artemis is still sitting on our porch in a bag but he is going to mysteriously be buried tonight :) )Spencer was quite sad and depressed for the afternoon but it made me proud of how well he handled it.  He didn't blame me, yell and scream etc.  He just tried to wipe away the tears without anyone seeing and stroked his dead chicken while he looked at photos on his touch of his six weeks of life.  A traumatic event but he is doing just fine now.  Especially when Jeremy pointed out we will need 3 more chicks to fill up the coop!

The coop is almost done.  I feel like I keep saying that but it is true.  It needs to be done this week as we are leaving and I need them out of the house.  The chicken are getting tired of being cooped up in a little box.  Jeremy has all but the tin roof and ramp done.  I caulked it Friday and got all the paint.  So a few days of painting and some tinkering by Jeremy and next time I will show you a picture of the finished project.  Jeremy did an amazing job on it.

Saturday was my big century bike race in Salt Lake with my friend Carol.  Friday I stopped to buy a lightweight cycling jacket in case it rained.  It poured.  I mean buckets, storms, barely can see, water dropping in sheets of your helmet with it staying at 40 degrees.  I was so glad I had my jacket but wished that I had packed artic gear!  At 40 miles right before you go across the crossway to Antelope Island they had a rest stop.  The firemen of Syracuse who seriously were amazing opened up the firehouse to people could warm up.  We were shaking so badly by then we could barely move.  The organizers were telling everyone to quit and take the train home and they strongly suggested we not do the causeway.  After regaining feeling, getting our clothes to a damp versus soaked state, my friend Carol taking a warm shower and seeing the rain stop we decided to skip the causeway and do the 40 back.  It was gorgeous going back but I think I expended more energy than I thought with the cold and rain as muscles were pretty sore.  But we did it and were quite happy that we made it.  Best part was that the lines for the bathrooms were maybe 1 or 2 deep for the women's side and 30 deep for the men's side.  It was definitely a male dominated race.  In fact it made me feel a lot less wimpy to see all these guy athletes shaking so violently at the fire station as they tried to warm up.

Now while I was away having all the fun, Jeremy held a priests service project here to pad Taylor's room.  I felt badly that I said here is my vision, here are the supplies and left him to perform a miracle.  And he did as this is what I came home to:

I think it looks so good.  We still need to put some molly's in, patch up nail holes, caulk and touch-up but that is all small work we can do over the next few weeks.  We have a great priests quorum.  Jeremy talked to them about how to interact with Taylor and how they can serve him.  It sounds like it went really well.

Taylor is doing much better.  Home clean-outs are working, lets leave it at that.  The grossness of being a mom gives me so much scope for stories of things I never thought I would do.  When we got married the hardest gross thing I had to do was reach into the garbage disposal to clean it out.  At some point it hit me that my mom or dad were not going to magically appear to do it for me!

On Monday Robyn had her music program for 1st grade.  I forget sometimes how important it is to her that I go to all these little events but she was quite anxious till I got there.

She sang one of my favorite songs, I like being me and kept looking to make sure I knew that she knew I would be so happy.  She is in the back row with the tall kids as she is still getting tall and lanky.  She and Allison helped me this week at the Pinewood Derby to make twinkie race cars.  Robyn loves being the helper and with my girls making oreo tires and running around the church it made me remember helping my mom with so many primary activities.

Spencer had his Shakespeare festival at school on Friday.  Robyn wore her Cinderella dress for it so she could be a princess.  They set up this whole village and all of the 8th and 9th graders dressed up in costume.  Spencer helped run the archery shop - he was in heaven.  On Monday he went to a Lord of the Rings party and with a bunch of boys dressed up played hobbit, dwarf and orc for hours.

Allison had a babysitting job Friday night where she took care of a 2 year neighbor girl for 5 hours.  She felt so old and cool.

The girls were supposed to go a swim clinic all week in the afternoon.  We showed up Monday all suited up with a 93 degree sun shining down to find the clinic cancelled for the week with the pool broken.  So with Robyn in tears I ran home to grab a suit for Taylor and me and we went to a different pool for the afternoon.  Taylor can no longer fit into his floaty.  His hips and thighs are just too wide.  But he was giddy laying in the shallow end with me.

Jeremy has been working hard with photos in the evening lately.  He seems to have a photo shoot most nights as everyone wants spring photos.  And his temple picture was used in the LDS Living 2014 Temple calendar which he was happy with.  And LDS create has been using some of his photos.  It has made him a busy guy.  Throw in a back that keeps popping out of place and laying him flat in pain he has a lot on his plate.

This week we get to have my two nieces and nephew stay with us for a few days while their parents go to Denver.  My kids are sad they still have to go to school during the day but they are currently running around like banshees having a great time.  I am making cheesecake for dessert so I have a big smile on my face.

17 year's ago on Mother's Day we were in the hospital with a 4 day old Taylor wondering if he would make it through the night.  And now 17 year's later, here he is with us still!  Our Mother's day has a history of being cursed with hospitalizations but this year Taylor moved up the schedule a bit so we could all be home together today.  He is slowly getting back to his usual self and returned to school on Wednesday.  I brought Costa Vida to school for his lunch on his birthday and he still passionately likes horchata and all things Mexican.  On Saturday night we had his annual BBQ where we roasted hot dogs, ate cake and visited with friends.  Summer has finally poked its head around the corner so we enjoyed a beautiful warm evening with flowers and trees blooming and kids running everywhere.

On Monday Spencer had his end of the year guitar recital.  He did awesome and sang for the first time in public, ever.  You can tell that he enjoys guitar much more than piano but I am too stubborn to let him quit piano yet!

Spencer started a cross-fit class this week, three times a week for an hour.  The first day after we just laughed as he was unable to lift his arms, or even to sit without groaning.  But he likes the class a lot and comes home happy and very tired.  He is planning to do it throughout the summer and I think it will be a good thing for him.  I have to remind myself of that as I drive him there and back and wait for him three times a week!


Life with Taylor has taught me that sometimes you just have to drop everything and let it go.  I am grateful that I have a family and friends who pick up the slack when I just have to say I can't do it.  Robyn was sad I couldn't come into her class Monday to teach them how to make tortillas but two friends instead came and taught them the Mexican hat dance.  I wasn't able to take around invitations last weekend for Taylor's party so I just emailed people and my daughters ran a few invitations around.  While taking Spencer to a class I totally spaced unlocking the church for scouts.  So Allison braved a huge thunderstorm (I literally mean huge as it split a tree a block over where lightning struck) to go unlock the church.  The list is endless really and I am glad for the safety net that always seems to be around me and my family.  If its really important it gets done, if not it won't.

The kids have been dying to try out the RV so they all agreed to spend Thursday night getting the yard cleaned up.  Spencer ended up working on endless math assignments instead but my girls pulled weeds like maniacs.  It always amazes me that they can actually dramatically decrease my work load now when they pitch in.  The yard wasn't close to being weed free but it looked like a yard and not a weed fest when they were done.  Friday afternoon the girls packed up the trailer and we were off to the canyon on our maiden voyage.

The RV was super comfortable and everyone was able to sleep with plenty of room.  I froze at night because I forgot we had the ability to turn on a heater and just pinned Jeremy into a corner all night long being in full heat sucker mode.  Kids ran around, ate constantly, Spencer strummed his guitar with a camp song he had been practicing for us, girls did a "show" with wood sticks as violins and Taylor was mesmerized by the fire.  It was just a great over night get away.  And we learned when we realized that we forgot syrup for our pancakes that pieces of Jeremy's candy bar stash melt great onto pancakes!  We camped right next to a prime rock climbing place and I was amazed at watching people go up and down what looked like a sheer rock face.


Now it wouldn't be a true Mother's Day around here if everyone was bursting with good health.  Jeremy enjoyed a beautiful day golfing this week with work and has been stretching his back into place ever since while fighting off major allergies.  Despite all this he got up early this morning to make everyone an amazing breakfast before heading to church to teach his class and to help with a primary class.  Kids all had little treasures they made me that they were very excited about.  Robyn's card said I was awesome, even when I was mad.  But I got quite choked up with her present.  She had a list of questions to answer about me and for one she said, "My mom is so smart that she even knows...that we will be together forever".  I couldn't have asked for a better answer and made me feel that somehow I can't be messing up completely in the mom department.  I have had several friends who met my mom say to me that now they understand why I am the way I am.  And I just reply, yep if there is anything I do right, its because I learned it from my mom.  All the mistakes are all me.  So a shout out to all the moms out there and all my pseudo-moms who have helped raise, teach and inspire me.  Being a mom doesn't come with a manual, but instead it comes with examples that surround me all the time.  Happy Mother's Day!

This week I was blessed to have my mom and sister-in-law Griselda come into town for BYU Women's Conference.  My mom came a little early to spend a few days visiting and then she and Griselda stayed at BYU in the dorms and I met them there for the classes.  Friends, family, BYU brownies and amazing inspirational speakers - really what better way to recharge oneself.  My only complaint was that I didn't have enough time to visit!

Taylor wasn't doing too good Wednesday.  Thursday, Jeremy had to knock him out to get the seizures to stop.  Friday morning he seemed to be doing better so I sent him off to school before heading to BYU.  But he went quickly downhill during the day.  So I left to come pick him up, drop off kids from school and go up to the Primary Children's ER.  By the time we got there he was constantly seizing, he had over 100+ that day, had a high fever, high heart rate, trouble breathing etc.  It took two more anti-seizure emergency meds to slow the seizures down.  Figured out that constipation was the problem...again.  So he spent the weekend in Primary's getting a clean-out.  Lovely process.  Now we have a better game plan from the GI doctors to try at home to hopefully prevent this from happening again.  It involves a home clean out every two weeks.  I will buy some new air fresheners!

On the plus side I caught up with some wonderful books.  My mom and Griselda stayed the night at our house and provided some much appreciated children support.  And I got to be at Primary's for Fast Sunday and attend church there.  They have a thirty minute sacrament meeting every Sunday and you cannot imagine a more spiritual place to be as people testify of the reality of the resurrection and atonement and how they will be healed someday but can receive comfort now.  Wow, pass the tissues.  Taylor got to come home today.  He is not back to normal yet but he is to the point I am comfortable having him home.

Friday night I missed it but Spencer had a piano recital.

I was grateful the Jeremy and my mom cheered him on.  His teacher and Spencer's playing is more in the fun level.  I am working on this as my goal is to get him to be able to play the hymns and then he and I will gratefully quite this piano business!

My mom was able to help me host my last Just Desserts for the year.  I am not sure if I will repeat it again next year but I have loved getting to know my neighbors better and solidifying some friendships.  Plus its a great excuse to make something yummy and know I won't be eating all the leftovers.

Jeremy had a busy week.  He had work.  He worked on the coop.  He had two different photo shoots.  He had a convention he helped with Thursday through Saturday.  Plus he had to be Mr. Mom.  We are all going to bed early tonight!