Tagged, of course

I told Deanne that I didn't want to be tagged, so of course Keri got me, but I will be a trooper and put my info in, although it is not much to read.

4 jobs I have had
- Pizza Factory (best food ever)
- Data Entry (most-boring ever)
- Narrows Glen Retirement Home
- Bread by Rebecca

4 movies I could watch over and over again
- Princess Bride
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
- Thoroughly Modern Millie
- Almost anything Disney Animated

4 places I have lived
- University Place, WA
- Kiev, Ukraine
- Deseret Towers (it's a world of its own)
- Here

4 TV shows I watch
- American Idol
- So you think you can dance
- Friends (back in the day)
- Scrubs/The Office

4 favorite vacations
- San Diego with Tricia
- California with my parents
- Anywhere with Tyler
- Washington D.C. with my class

4 favorite restaurants
- Carrabas
- Cafe Rio
- Tucanos
- Red Lobster

4 favorite smells (I don't really do daily websites (except maybe my blog now) and I was intrigued by Deanne's smell question, in fact I was up until midnight last night discussing smells with my husband--thanks Deanne)
- Coffee Beans (no this is not a confession)
- Glue (neither is this)
- Citrus anything
- Baking bread

4 places I would rather be right now
- Taking a nap
- In a perfectly clean house
- With Tyler
- Shopping

4 people I challenge to do this
- Kari W.
- Camille N.
- My Mom (I know you don't have a blog, you can email me)
- Becca H. (although I don't think she has my blog address, I'd better give it to her huh?)

That's it people. Do you know more about me?

It Pays To Read

I always sign up my kids (and myself for that matter) for the Summer reading program, but we usually don't turn in our reading sheets. I usually will fill out some book summaries, and I have won a prize each year during the weekly drawings. This year, I noticed that they have a party with their grand-prize drawing, so I thought I would check it out with the kids.

We turned in their reading sheets first, and I was impressed with the prizes. There were over twenty coupons to local businesses and the girls got a flashlight to boot. (I think it goes with the Get a Clue mystery theme for this year). Ivory, being younger, got a free board book and a free portrait at Kiddie Kandids. Pretty cool I think. Then we moseyed on up to the Grand Prize Drawing party. They had popsicles for everyone and a door-prize entry. They started with an entertainer, but it was probably one of the weirdest things I have heard in a long time. He had his computer on stage and would do loop recording, adding a new sound every few seconds, and you could hear them all blended together. It was very techno, and for all you Friends fans out there, it was pretty much the same as Ross' music, although maybe not as good (scary huh?). His last song talked about how cupcakes can kill you (I thought my kids were going to be traumatized). But then he finished (whew) and it was on to the door prizes.

They had a quick activity where people could come up and talk about a book they enjoyed and get a candy bar. June was thrilled about that, so we volunteered and told about a few books we read this summer. Then they did the drawing--they must have had about 35 or more prizes, and it seemed most everyone got something. They called my name and Tyler's but there is only one prize per household so we left with a gift certificate to Brick Oven. Sadly, we did not win the Laptop Grand Prize, but I wasn't expecting that much.

It was still fun to attend and have the library award you for reading. I love to read anyway, and I hope I can keep doing programs like this to inspire my kids. I don't know if we will attend the pool party they have at the end since my kids are young, but we might check it out one of these years. I challenge all you mothers out there to do the summer reading program next year with your children. Maybe I'll see you at the Grand Prize Drawing? See www.provolibrary.com for more information.

Tender Moments

Robyn said her prayers with Dad tonight but she often wants to say them again when I come to kiss her and tuck her in. Tonight, (and you have to imagine this with a sing song voice) she said...

Dear Heavenly Father
I love you
Mommy too
Name of Jesus Christ
Amen

It was so cute. Since I just bought a new camera (and it is red-so hot) I naturally had to take a picture of her smiling in bed. Sometimes kids do the sweetest things.




June on the other hand makes me laugh. Whenever she wears her flip-flops, she comes home with the dirtiest toes. She must drag her feet everywhere she goes, but I don't seem to notice her walk funny. Regardless, her toes are filthy. I thought she should take a bath, but Dad suggested just a foot bath. Well, if you are going to go that route, you may as well do it right. We have Mary Kay's Satin Hands products, but Tyler likes to use them on his feet instead (doing his hands takes off his hard-earned guitar calluses), so I offered to do June's and Tyler's feet. So they sat on the tub and washed and soaked their feet. Then they swiveled around and I pampered away. We told June they were three potions we were using on her feet to make them magical (Too much Harry Potter recently...). I think she liked it since her prayers included a request for doing magic feet again. I don't mind since their feet are clean first and by the end, my hands feel super soft too.

Pioneer Day

Even though we live in Utah, I have never been very big on celebrating Pioneer Day. Plus, I don't think of myself as coming from pioneer stock since both my parents were converts. To me, they are the true pioneers for our family. In the meantime, I do think the girls should understand about pioneers and the sacrifices that were made to get people out west. So for family home evening we talked about one of the rare pioneer ancestors on my side and then we made a covered wagon (design, compliments of The Friend).

Both the girls were great builders. Robyn helped put the covering on top and the axles on the bottom.



June helped put the wheels on our wagon. Somewhere along the way, I realized that I was probably only supposed to use a quarter of a graham cracker instead of the whole thing. That may be why we ended up with a double covering.




Ivory tried to help out as best she could. I would periodically toss a marshmallow her way and she would scramble to make short work of it.




And so we created what may have been more useful to the Pioneers in the long run--an entirely edible covered wagon. See, back then, they could only eat the oxen when they got hungry...




Happy Pioneer Day!

Picture Practice

I need to learn how to use pictures



Okay, so now I know how to move pictures, but can I get one farther down in the text?
Okay, since I am playing with pictures, I'll put a few on here that make me laugh. This one is Ivory after mashed potatoes. And I think it is a good shot of her belly. We make fun of her all the time since her belly sticks out farther than anything else. We may have to stop soon before she has a complex.
I apologize about pictures being right and left but I am practicing. These next ones just show how patient and...pretty Tyler can be.






























These last ones are Lyncoln and Ivory. I was watching Lyncoln and after I put her on a pillow, Ivory decided that she needed to share in the excitement, so she plunked down next to her. They are cute, and amazingly almost the same size. (although they are almost a year apart)

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was fantastic this year. For the first time, we actually made our Cazier annual t-shirt. Tyler designed it and we transferred the design to t-shirts and even a little onesie for Ivory. I thought about taking the kids to the parade, but Tyler opted for softball instead. We invited whoever wanted to come and we had a fair turnout. The Mack's were there of course and Shannan managed to break our wooden bat and slice open his thumb. We will not argue about the power of his swing anymore. (I think someone else actually cracked the bat first, but Shannan finished it off).
After a leisurely game, we headed home and just relaxed the afternoon away as you should on a holiday. In the afternoon we had invited the Wright's to a park to play water games. We also invited the Barben's at the last minute but I was so glad they came. We barbequed chicken and cabobs and feasted on water melon(can you actually have a summer party without water melon?), potato chips, and an amazingly salad with vegetables out of Kerly's garden. After stuffing ourselves we played water games. I think the kids liked 'Duck, Duck, Goose' the most. You fill a large sponge and tap it on the head of each player saying 'duck'. When you find your 'goose' you wring the sponge out over their head, soaking them thoroughly, then run. Or you can play like Tyler Wright and soak everyone along the way (I can't say that he had a lot of water left when he got to the goose part). The other game everyone really enjoyed was having one person lay down and place a water bottle on his/her forhead. Then the teams takes cups of water and see who can fill the bottle first. The less precise you are, the better the game. We had the Dad's go first and the Cazier's have much better aim. Then again, I wonder if Seth and Liam were really aiming for inside the bottle on their Dad? Steve Barben even took his turn with the bottle. I think his glasses helped keep his eyes dry, but that was about it.
Somewhere in there we used up about 150 water balloons, but we learned the hard way that if you don't have enough air in them, you get a welt, not wet. The ones I had filled were smaller, with no air. I thought they would be easier for the kids to hold. I'll know better next year. After the water works, we busted out the cake. Emilie gave me the idea of adding pudding to the baked cake and it was so moist. It disappeared in minutes. Liam grabbed a fork and was just digging in. It was hilarious.
Everyone went home to dry off and clean up and then we met over at the Barben's for fireworks. It wasn't quite dark since we had bedtimes to think of, but the kids loved them regardless. They took turns picking which one would be next, and although they were all basically the same shower of sparks, it didn't seem to get dull.
I felt very fulfilled as the evening ended. I even managed to talk to June about why we celebrate this holiday and she could tell you that the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. She probably doesn't remember it now, but there is always next year again.

Sorry about the pictures. I haven't figured out how to put them in the text as you go. It's a work in progress.

Girls' Camp

I was so happy to attend Girls' Camp this year, although I am not in the Young Women or a Camp Director. I missed my opportunity last year, since my baby was so young, and I promised myself that I would go this year, if there was a chance. Tyler was kind to take the day off from work, and I went up in the morning and spent the whole day with the girls.
There were more girls than usual since Tayshia brought a friend and the Littlefields just moved back into the ward, so we had a good showing with 10 girls. This really is amazing for our sparse Young Women. It was a usual day with crafts (Tie-die pillowcases and button necklaces), wild-life sightings (prairie dogs, chipmunks, deer, and a bear-not sighted in person), fabulous skits, many laughs and spiritual moments. I read scriptures with Ellen and really enjoyed discussing the Savior with her. Charity had us memorize scriptures at lunch time and I think that I can successfully quote four now. It was just great being with the girls and sharing that experience with them. The weather was interesting--one moment it was sunny and the next we would huddle under the canopy while it poured. There was some thunder cracks that sent us all jumping. And then, it would be sunny again. The weather decided to end the evening on a sour note, along with my body, so I left the camp with lightning flashing and a splitting headache.
These are the times when you really wish it was not a hour and a half drive to get home. I said a fervent prayer and headed out. I barely made it past the gate sentries as they were closing up for the evening. By now, my head hurt so badly, that I was controlling the urge to throw-up. Anyone who has had a migraine knows those two can unfortunately be connected. I opened the window for fresh air (and rain) and stoically headed on. The deer were in full force and I drove slowly (that's all I needed was to hit a deer). I passed one so closely that if someone in the passenger seat had reached out their hand, they could have pet the deer out the window. She was standing on the white line on the right hand side of the road. The other three were less obstructing, but I took it slow none the less. I finally made it down the mountain (ears popping all the way). I wonder if the altitude was adding to the head pounding and I was hoping that coming down and the strong dose of Tylenol I took would do the trick.
Time passed and I was finally in Spanish Fork Canyon back on Highway 6. I could feel home just around the corner and I was thrilled. I coasted down the canyon only to be stopped by bumper to bumper traffic. Turns out that at night they close the whole highway down to one lane and let the traffic take turns coming through. I apparently came on the scene while it was Southbound's turn. So I sat in my car for half an hour thinking about a hot bath and being thankful that my head was hurting less.
At last it was our turn and I was finally out of the canyon. 'I'll be home momentarily,' I mentally said to Tyler. That was about the time I heard the scraping noise. Reluctantly pulling over, I found my muffler had fallen off and was dragging on the ground. "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!" As many of you know, we don't have cell phones, so I resorted to turning on the hazards and trying to flag someone down. Now if waving your arms doesn't mean 'damsel in distress' than I don't know what does. Regardless, my knight in shining armor was slow in coming. I bitterly thought, "I hope these people feel good about themselves as they drive by a poor stranded girl waving her arms at 11:30pm on the highway" (I may have been a little tired by then). Finally a nice gentleman came back and offered a cell-phone which I gratefully accepted. And yet even while I was talking to Tyler trying to describe the problem, he jumps our of his car with wire (don't we all carry some of that in our car?) and proceeds to tie up the scorching muffler with his bare hands. I guess this boyscout was worth waiting for. He wouldn't give me his name or number and told me that the wire should get me home, and like that, he was on his way. I was so thankful.
So in the end my prayer was answered. Both the car and I got home in one piece (relatively speaking) and I even felt rejuvenated after this stranger's kindness. It makes me believe all over again that we are here to serve others. The Lord gives us opportunities to step in and take his place. I am very thankful for this man showing some compassion and I hope I will look for chances to do the same. I didn't expect Girls' Camp to be quite this eventful, but I was thankful for all my experiences.

I apologize that there are no pictures. I didn't take a camera to camp and the girls aren't back yet.