"Remember the Time when the Pinewood Derby Track didn't show up?"

Tonight was our annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. I am definitely re-evaluating whether we should do this annually.

I am cubmaster. I am in charge of this event. I delegate much of the duties out to my awesome committee, which usually works out better for all of us. Then each of us just have a few things to do and it gets done. I make lists. I check things off. I have people report back to me on their duties. Somehow, it all works out usually even though I fret and worry beforehand because everyone has ownership of their part and they all do a great job. Somehow it failed tonight. It was set up work out great at least.

I had delegated to Fred Flintstone to reserve the track of his friend Barney Rubble for our race. I confirmed with Barney on Saturday the time AND location of our event. We were set. Barney had a great method for running the track and keeping score so were were going to use his system for the race. Bam-bam, his son was actually going to run the race for us since Bareny was engaged elsewhere. Bam-bam would train us when he got there 30 minutes early for the race on how to use the system and score it and determine winners. He even was going to bring some contraptions for us to let the siblings race bananas down the track during down time. Barney told Bam-Bam “Take the track to the church building Fred Flintstone meets in.” I think Fred met in the building he took the track to 20 years ago, or at least Fred did meet in it at one point in his life I am sure. That building was not the one Fred currently meets in. Bam-Bam was sitting in the parking lot over there at that building wondering where we all were. He was trying to call us and find us, but to no avail. Meanwhile we are trying to call Bam-Bam from a totally different building. It turns out that there are no less than 5 LDS chapels on Bengal Blvd, a short 2 mile stretch of road, and Bam-bam was at a different one from us. No one is getting anywhere with the phone method because by golly none of us have the right phone numbers we need. Racers are arriving on time, early even (BLESS THEM FOR THEIR PUNCTUALITY!) and they are all noticing that weirdly enough, there is no track. They are wondering if they had the right place… Oh my.

In the end the story gets a little better. But it doesn’t feel like it gets much better. At least not right now as I still suffer through the aftermath of emotions that go with being the person in charge when a big problem arises.

The event is supposed to begin at 6:30. At 6:25 or so I retire into the kitchen with a bunch of den leaders so we can discuss what to do. We had no Plan B for what to do when the race track does not show up. That plan just was not in my PDK (Personal Disaster Kit as Alvin Ho would say). We called Wilma Flintsone even to see if she had contact info for Bam-Bam. CoulWe could not get a hold of her. Nor Fred. It was a mess I would say. I believe in God, this was an event for boys at our church in a church sponsored cub scout pack, all I could think to do was pray. I felt we certainly deserved an answer to a prayer right then of the question “what in the world do we do?” Should we find a long board and just use that? Go out in the parking lot and race the cars from the upper parking lot down to the lower and hope they all go straight enough to reach the finish line? We closed the door and I said this is the point where we NEED TO PRAY, but I was in tears and could not say it. Louise then offered up a wonderful simple prayer and within moments it all worked out. The cell phone of Bam-Bam was reached by Wilma, he knew where to go, and we had a track within five minutes of the prayer being offered. I will tell you right now, PRAYER works. Sometimes really fast too. My testimony of prayer has just been greatly strengthened. Why in the world did we not think to pray earlier?!!

There were plenty of people there to help bring in track parts and we put it together lightening fast, but alas and alack, the event did not run smoothly thereafter. The track owner did not have the luxury of time to tell us how he liked to run the event and train us so it could run smoothly. People were milling around, kids were getting bored, little siblings were running around like little imps creating mischief. Bored children cause much trouble, we had to hurry. We plodded forward with a broken mixture of what we did last year and what Bam-Bam wanted us to do. It was messy, it was slow, it was awkward. No one was happy with what we had going. Somehow the boys had fun. Though I am sure that parents will groan about this event for a very long time.

If I get asked to be released from this calling of Cubmaster sometime soon because so many parents complained, I will gladly bow out gracefully. Tonight was a night that will live in infamy. Oh my. It was bad. I really would like to crawl under a rock and never see the light of day again right now. At least I know that I will be able to laugh about this someday. At least I hope I will. Oh my. I surely hope I will.

Memorable Father's Day weekends

This week I have done some reflecting on past Father’s Day weekends. Some of the things I have pondered are because of what my friend’s have posted on Facebook. Even though Facebook is a bit of a time sucker, it has led me this week to ponder some sweet, sad, and wonderful things.

• Father’s Day weekend 7 years ago. Bryan had just spent a Thursday evening out with guy friends to celebrate the marriage of his friend Trav Story before the big event. They went out for Pizza and played video games most of the night- totally boring as far as bachelor parties go, but fun with this crowd of friends. For some odd reason, each time Bryan goes and does something fun without the rest of the family, one of us gets sick. I think there is some bad curse going on there. I can go out on a girls night out and no one gets ill, but Bryan goes out and the family suffers. It is really strange!

The unlucky person who got ill this time was Micah. He was a toddler. He spent the evening throwing up. I can remember both of us sitting together on the bathroom floor, being stripped down to our underwear so there would be less laundry to clean, and him cradled in my lap and every now and then him throwing up on me, me changing AGAIN, cleaning him up, and waiting for the process to repeat again all night long. Bryan came home really late and found us looking pathetic in the bathroom. We finally made it to bed.

The next morning we were supposed to drive to Boise for the wedding of my friend Jandy. I was exhausted from dealing with a sick kid, so was Bryan from staying up late playing video games with the groom and friends, and we decided to ditch the trip. But then Micah woke up feeling as good as new. Weird. Bryan convinced me to try the drive, even though we were both tired. We made it halfway there, stopped at a rest stop at the top of Cabbage Hill just outside of Pendleton, OR to exercise a bit and use the bathroom. When Isaac said he did not want to get out and burn off some energy, I thought “how strange…” He just wanted to sit in the car. We decided to drive on… and then we learned why so many people insist on leather seats in their cars. Isaac threw up all over. We futilely clean for a while. It smelled horrible. We turned around and went back Down Cabbage Hill to Pendleton. We thought about going to Bryan’s parents who live 40 minutes from Pendleton, but did not want to get them ill too. So we found a hotel, cleaned everyone up, tried to clean the van some more, tried to rest, then Micah threw up all over the bed. We called the hotel front desk and asked for another blanket and were told they did not have any more. What?! isn’t this a hotel, aren’t we staying somewhere that specializes in changing bedding regularly?

To make a long story short, there was more vomit, even less bedding, and our van smelled so bad we could not drive all the way home without really cleaning it out- it was too toxic to ride in. We decided to just go to Bryan’s parent’s home, use their carpet cleaner to really clean the van, air it out for the weekend, and hope no else got sick, and then head home without ever reaching the wedding of my good friend Jandy. Amazingly, everyone was well again once we hit Kennewick, Bryan’s hometown. We cleaned out the van and had a pleasant time with Bryan’s parents, and it turned out to be Father’s Day weekend and we got to spend it with Bryan’s Father. It was actually really fun in Kennewick that weekend. And no one else threw up. (For the record, the next van we bought had leather interior. We will never go back to something non-wipe-able!)

• The next memorable Father’s Day weekend was 6 years ago when Reece was born. He came into the world as cute as can be. Bryan almost missed his birth because he was down in the gourmet hospital cafeteria eating some divine food because this was a really REALLY nice hospital. Nurses went down to search for Bryan because I was having trouble and progressing fast and ha, ha, but he had stepped into the restroom, or was out in the pretty garden… He was only gone for 30 minutes or less, but man a lot happened in that 30 minutes. He got back in the room just barely in time for my 1 1/2 pushes to get Reece out.

• Another Father’s Day weekend that I will never forget was 2 years ago when my dear friend Cinda had a premature still born baby girl who she named Marguerite. I myself was pregnant with Davis and 6 weeks from my due date. I was already nervous about my own pregnancy due to my placenta being previa and feeling the most miserable I had ever felt while pregnant. I was so sad about her loss. I had thought I would like to drive up to Canada with the kids to be there for the funeral and show some extra love to Cinda. The day before I was going to leave though my water broke. So I had to have a pre-term baby myself. Davis came 5 1/2 weeks early. I spent lots of time worrying over whether he would be ok being premature. He was however the biggest Preemie I have ever seen. He came out 6 lbs, 10 oz. Amazingly he did well. He came home 5 days later and thus began my worst summer ever. But that is another story.

• One year ago around Father’s Day we spent some time reflecting on how we had made it through a rough year with our hardest baby who ended up having much discomfort due to acid reflux. We were so amazed we had made it through that tough year. Medicine changed Davis from being the grumpiest, most colicky baby, to the happiest little guy. He was in so much pain from the reflux, he was so skinny because eating hurt, he was so sleep deprived because laying down was uncomfortable- but medicine changed all that.

• We have found that this year Davis is still a joyful little boy thanks to medicine. We have tried to ween him off the medicine, but it is very apparent that he still needs it. This last Father’s Day weekend, we found ourselves grateful that we made it through another year with 4 good kids.

Bryan is such a good dad, I am so glad to have him as my partner in crime as we try to wrangle these kiddos of ours and teach them how to be good little people. I could not ask for a better man to be my best friend and companion!

Christmas is coming

We are decorated for Christmas. The new door looks great with a wreath, and some garland. The tree looks great even though only the top half is decorated since the baby keeps running off with those bottom decorations. We have lights hanging in the windows out front since we did not feel a need to buy a ladder tall enough to reach the roof to actually hang the lights there. It turns out the green dining room looks very Christmasy with red and white stuff thrown around. The led candles on a 5 hour timer I impulsively bought at Costco that turn on everyday in the evening make my mantle look cozy and pretty. Christmas cards are arriving in the mail and being displayed on the wall. It feels much more festive inside than our first Christmas here when all of our decorations were in some warehouse in Seattle waiting to be delivered to us until 4 days before Christmas (and who wants to unpack decorations when you have a zillion boxes to unpack so you can have other essentials instead?).

The hardest part of this season has to be getting addresses for everyone we want to send Christmas cards too. Then finding time to write a letter to go with the card is a bit hard too. We did have a great time today getting our cards ready for mailing. The assembly line technique we used for getting Christmas cards ready was fantastic! Mom doing addresses, Reece doing stamps and return address stickers, Micah stuffing the card, Isaac stuffing the letter, Bryan sealing the envelopes, Davis creating messes for us to clean up later…

I think this will be a nice Christmas season for us. Hopefully we will sleep for more of this season than we did last year (Davis hardly slept and was so miserable with reflux that we even took him in to a doctor on CHRISTMAS DAY- that is desperation I tell you).

Brighton Meadows Campout 2011

Amazingly, the Brighton Meadows Campground had spots open on this Labor Day weekend. It’s owned by The Church and is available for free* first-come first-serve. I think most people just don’t know about it, because it’s a great place to camp and it was Labor Day weekend and all. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and camped there last Friday night.

It was a busy week with us and we didn’t really start getting ready to go until I got home from work Friday. It took us a while, so as we left town at about 6 pm we stopped at Sonic to get some dinner. So much for cooking over the fire. When we got there it was starting to get dark and it was already chilly. As Ily and I worked on getting the tent set up, the boys begged us to start the fire. To get them out of our hair I told them they had permission to go start it themselves. I wasn’t sure if they even knew how to strike a match, or what to do with it once they had. They worked pretty hard at it though, and by the time the tent was set up they had actually produced some flames. Frustratingly, the flames weren’t staying lit. With the tent done, I walked over to the fire pit and gave them a couple pointers. Isaac found a greasy paper bag from Sonic, which I crumpled up and handed to Micah, who stuffed it under a nice little teepee he had made out of some sticks. Micah lit the match and set it ablaze and the sticks caught on fire. We carefully put a bigger log on top and it became a real campfire. Micah will make a good cub scout in 4 months, and Isaac a full-fledged boy scout when he turns 11 tomorrow.

We used the fire to make smores for dessert. Davis was fascinated by the fire. He would reach his hand out towards it and we would say, “hot!” and pull him back. He thought it was a game and started to reach his hand out and say, “ha!” himself. This was his second time camping (we went to Clover Springs in June, I think we forgot to write about that), but his first time camping and being able to walk. He loved putting the biggest rock that would fit in his mouth and just walking around with it there. Nature’s pacifiers? We would pull the rock out of his mouth and he would immediately crouch down and grab another. It was a losing battle for us and the activity left a nice ring of dirt around his mouth like a painted-on clown smile. Painted on with dirt. He was a little dirt ball the entire trip. It was really cute.

Davis slept horribly. He wouldn’t hold still or stay in one place. I guess in your crib you can just crawl around like that, but in a crowded tent he kept bumping into us and waking us up. He also crawled away from any sleeping bag or blanket that might have kept him warm, and it did get a little cold that night. As scoutmaster I long ago I gave up any expectations of actually sleeping well while camping with kids. I avoid a lot of disappointment that way, and sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised. This night wasn’t surprising.

In the morning we had planned a simple cold breakfast of yogurt and muffins. The muffins never happened though, so it was actually going to be yogurt and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Because it was still cold in the morning the boys opted for the hotdogs that Sonic had replaced the night before, cooked over another fire. Hotdogs for breakfast. I couldn’t do it. I shared a yogurt with Davis (he’s pretty demanding) and ate a PB&J. Ily made us hot chocolate too, and even put some in a bottle for Davis to drink. I think everyone was satisfied.

After breakfast it was time for the highlight of this campground, the lake. They have some canoes and a zip line for all to use. We figured it would be crowded with all the other families camping here, so we brought our own little blow-up raft to paddle around in too. It actually wasn’t that crowded after all, but we still used it. Reece had fun in it paddling around with me for a while, but Davis liked the raft more than any of the other kids. Isaac and Micah both did the zip line a couple times, but they didn’t have enough mass to carry them all the way across the lake, and had to drop into the cold water each time and swim to shore. They paddled canoes around a bit and eventually ended up helping Reece make his mud pies on the dock. We all enjoyed the lake.

When everyone was hungry enough we helped clean up a bit at the lake shore and then headed back to our campsite to make lunch. We heated up burritos made with Ily’s famous refried beans on our butane stove. Then we packed up the car and noticed that we had remembered my Father’s Day present, my bow and arrows. At this point I think everyone else had left to go watch the BYU game (it wasn’t the usual Salt Lake crowd of Ute fans) and we were the only ones around. We didn’t have a hay bail or anything to put the target on, so we just shot towards the hill that the dirt road climbed. It was fine for our meager skills, and we all had fun. I put the quiver that the arrows came in on my back and the kids told me I looked like Robin Hood. There ain’t much better than that.

Unbelievably, it was 4:30 by the time we drove out of there. I tuned into the BYU game as we drove and the second half was starting. BYU was down 0-3 and Jake Heaps threw an interception that Ole Miss ran back for a touchdown. The kids were whining that they didn’t like to listen to football and I figured the game sounded hopeless anyway, so we turned on their book on CD instead. I was shocked when we got home to see that BYU had won it.

Just about every time we camp with whole family we wonder if it’s really worth all the trouble. Hopefully the kids remember more than than just Mom and Dad grumbling about how it wouldn’t kill them to help carry a sleeping bag or two to the car, or how their baby brother cried all night. I think overall we did OK this time.

Behold, some pictures (taken with phones, one thing we did forget was our real camera).

Brighton Meadows Campout 2011

• You do have to clean the bathrooms before you leave

First week of school-Done!

On Monday the oldest two boys returned to school. Reece will start tomorrow. It has been nice to have a quieter house this week and enjoy time with him. Reece has actually happily done things like play with playdoh for hours, build with legos quietly, and help me bake instead of whine about how the older boys won’t let him play with them. The older boys were looking forward to school until it actually happened. Then they were sad that they did not have an extra week home like Reece does. They have “The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side Syndrome.”

We are so lucky that our school has A/C. And more lucky that it is actually working! Several schools in our district do not have A/C and they have actually had to excuse kids from school because it is just too hot to be in the building. Methinks that our school district should not have started school so early. A typical Utah summer is really HOT in August! We actually hit 100 degrees a few days this week. I wonder if these people who run our district are educated, but not very smart? They should have waited a few more weeks to start just so that the kids and teachers won’t die of heat exhaustion.

Davis is getting very busy these days. I feel like I am fighting fires with that kid. I clean up one mess he has made to find the next one that he has moved onto while I was cleaning up his last disaster. He is very curious, which shows great intelligence and is great until you have to clean up after him. His favorites include fishing in the toilet and splashing water everywhere, unrolling entire rolls of TP, emptying drawers of their contents, hiding remotes, finding legos to eat, climbing in the dishwasher, and other busy baby things to do. We have gotten so much better quickly about keeping the bathroom door closed and other such preventative measures. He really is cute in all his inquisitiveness. I can keep him occupied for almost a whole 30 minutes just playing with pencils and an old drink cup with a matching lid that has a hole for a straw. He will put pencils in the hole forever! He is still trying to figure out just where the pencils disappear to. When I open up the cup and dump out the pencils for him, it is like magic! I gave him a haircut last weekend to make him look a little less unkempt and it did not turn out so well. He is a moving target. By the time I gave up that first day, his hair was trimmed in some places and not in others. It has turned into a many day long event to cut his hair because I keep pulling out the scissors to edit his hair a little bit more each day. He looks pretty good a week after the haircut was started.

This weekend we took the boys up the canyon to find a creek to wade in so we could cool off. We had to train Davis in the art of throwing rocks into the water. He took to it quite well. We spent quite a long time watching all 4 boys throw rocks together. I think you cannot be a boy child without throwing rocks. It is in the agreement you sign before you are born or something.

Bryan hurt his back last weekend so we have been taking it easy with him all week. The poor guy hurts himself once a year. He is feeling much better this weekend.

On Tuesday we had ward temple night and we found someone to babysit so we could go. Bryan drove so that he could anticipate all the turns and things and not hurt his back more. He did make the mistake of choosing to drive his car instead of mine though. His little Powerwagon II is a stick shift which saves son gas $$, but is not so comfy for a guy to drive in stop and go traffic with a hurt back. Needless to say, he stayed quite awake and alert through the whole temple session because of his discomfort!

We have been doing mostly well otherwise. That is about all I have to report for this week.

"Bye John!"

“Bye John!”

Those are the words yelled out a car window by a little boy as he waved at my son, his new friend. I don’t have a child named John you say? Well, that is mostly correct. I do have a silly little son who is so cute and hilarious and changes his name frequently. Reece has started introducing himself as John now. John is his middle name so this IS a step up from introducing himself as Diego or Batman. That is legally one of his names.

We debated whether to name him John Reece (I preferred that combo because it flows so nicely) or Reece John, knowing full well that I planned to only call him Reece. So many friends who go by their middle name said that it was a bit difficult to do that. They did admit it was really easy to tell who telemarketers were when they called asking for them by their first given name instead of their preferred middle name. They all agreed that that was the only bonus about going by their middle name rather than their real first name. I decided to just name him Reece John so he could go by his first given name and avoid the confusion of being J. Reece Murdock.

Now five years after that debate he has decided to do the opposite? Now I have R John Murdock.

For the better part of the last year he went by Diego. For a few weeks, he went by Batman. I could choose to be offended by his apparent dislike of my name choice for him, but instead it makes me giggle profusely. What a silly kid we have on our hands!

Dreadfully far behind

I know we have not blogged enough for the longest time. Sorry. I do have a few brief stories from this week to share though:

Our boys have decided they really want to earn money so I said I would pay them $5 per bathroom if they wanted to clean the bathroom (to my specifications of course) and we have various other chores that can earn them money too. The other day they wanted to earn some money so I told them to go clean the bathroom because it really needed it. They decided they would rather not earn the money.

I was eating breakfast the other day when Davis got grumpy in his high chair and I got him out and sat him on my lap instead. Then he shared everything he had just eaten with me by throwing it up all over me. Twas adventurous.

Today I got my dinner ready in the crockpot and then we went out for a hike to find nearby Bells Canyon. I came home to realize I had set the crock pot onto warm, not high, so our dinner is now going to be ready at bedtime. We will eat it tomorrow I guess. Whoops. I am also too tired to cook now thanks to the hike. Out to eat we go.

I told my boys Tuesday they cannot play Wii after 7:30 am on Wednesday because I was tired of hearing it all day and them fighting over it. They got up before 5 am so they could get their time in. We were all grumpy all day thanks to the early start.

My AC is working like a champ. Love it. The basement is practically Antarctica. The upstairs is just lovely though.

We have been slowly working on our sprinkler system to fix the leaks from the winter and Bryan repaired a leak to find the next one 6 inches away from the one he just fixed. Oops. Once he finally had time to fix all the leaks we had to check the sprinkler heads. Amazingly, they all work. We just have to figure out again how to program the system and then I will no longer have to remember to actually water the lawn with the hose. The hardest part of using the hose is remembering to turn the water off again. I had to pay Isaac a dollar to run home and turn off the hose sprinklers when we left for a few minutes to visit a neighbor that turned into a few hours… Oops.

Davis has four teeth now. Tooth number three was his first tooth on top. It was not a middle front tooth, but one next to it. It totally looked like a fang. It was hilariously cute.