More about Summer

Ok, I know it's not Summer. In fact I know it's not even close to Summer. Well, actually I have no idea when the first day of Summer is. But suffice it to say that with the time change and longer days I see Summer on the horizon. Today started out brisk but ended up beautiful. Now I'm not sure about any of you but I've got this problem. When it's Summer time I have such a hard time being motivated to cook dinner because the kids and I never want to come in the house. I suppose I could live on bowls of soup and salads but that wouldn't work with my family. Which is exactly what happened today. The weather was nice, neighbors were out, the sun entranced us in conversation on the lawn, and thoughts of cooking dinner seemed painful. So it turned into a "whatever night." Yes, that's what we call it around here when I have not been on top of things and planned a menu or started dinner earlier in the day. The kids actually love whatever nights and if they don't like what I'm cooking will often say "Can we have a whatever night?" Anyway, back to my story. We all mingled into the house slowly. Dustin didn't want left overs so settled for eggs and toast. Daria and Ken ate chicken left overs. I settled for my favorite oyster salad. Now every time I make this it's usually on a "whatever" night and the same thing happens. Everyone chooses something different and then when I sit down with my delicious salad my kids eyes get swirly and they flock around me like a bunch of seagulls around a school of fish. Then I hear moans and groans about "why didn't you tell me we could have oyster salad?" (as if!!! They know they can have one but they chose something else). Then the begging begging begins, "Just one bite, please" Sounds funny really but my kids do have strange food tastes. I ate what I could of the salad and Dustin gobbled down the rest. How many kids do you know like oysters? On top of that last week I found out that both of my kids like brussel sprouts to my pleasant surprise. I don't cook them because Ken doesn't like them. I did however buy a bag for myself to snack on. As you mom's know anytime a mom snacks on something the kids automatically want to try it. Before I knew it Dustin hogged the brusselsprouts. Strange days in our home for sure, and now I'm sure all of you feel better knowing our eating habits.

I did it! I finally finished our taxes. It feels a bit liberating to have them done. For most of our marriage we had someone else do our taxes because we had so many complicated scenarios that we would rather someone else figure it out. Last year however we didn't have anything out of the ordinary so I did the taxes on my own which were fairly easy. This year however was not a easy. The company Ken works for had some changes last year forcing the sale of certain stocks. No problem I thought. Well, if it was cut and dry it wouldn't have been a problem, but after several weeks of phone calls, research, and finally a call from the nice Turbo Tax man, I finally figured out how to report the information. It's mind boggling and reminds me that I still have no desire to be an accountant or CPA.

So yesterday, just like last Monday I did laundry again. (Obviously my Saturday cleaning day is not working out so well thanks to soccer games and choir practices) I realized that after finishing ALL the loads of laundry that I never saw Dustin's soccer shirt or muddy soccer pants from Friday nights practice. So later I asked him if he knew where they were. He happily replies "Oh, their in my drawers." I sat there with a smile on my face of course, not knowing what to say. The idea is to put clean clothes in the drawers and dirty clothes in the basket. Well, at least he got part of it right!

Daria has been practicing with the our church's Stake Children's Primary Choir this past month. This weekend our church is hosting a Palm Sunday Choir Concert so Daria will be singing with the children's portion. It should be pretty good and it is fun to watch Daria because she loves to sing. The group she is in will be singing the descant portion to "Beautiful Savior".

One thing I forgot to post last month: As many of you may remember, as a young boy Dustin spent most of his time dressing up as various people; firemen, Spiderman, Helaman's warrior, Luke Skywalker, doctor, Batman, Power Rangers, Davie Crocket, race car drivers..... Ok, ok, the list could go on forever. Most of that has faded now and sometimes I miss the funny things he would come up with. So last month Dustin came down the stairs clearly dressed as someone other than Dustin, and said "Mom, do you know who I am?" by the look of it I was going to say Joseph Smith, but instead said I had no idea. Then Dustin says "I'm George Washington!" It was so cute! Because of Presidents day they had been learning a lot about good ole George and honest Abe. Anyway, Dustin even slicked his hair back. When he came out again he said with a discouraging voice "don't you have a wig I could wear??" of course he was referring to the type of wig that George Washington would wear. "Uhhh, Dustin, no I don't happen to have a colonial wig laying around for you to wear." The fun never ends around here!