Oh, Those Talented Britons!

We don't watch TV in our house. We do watch our favorite, carefully-selected movies at home, but real TV . . . nope. This started when we lived in Tennessee and we just couldn't get any signal at all unless we paid for cable. Well, TV wasn't a big enough priority to pay $25 a month when we were "starving students." When we got back to Utah, where the broadcast towers are on the mountain-tops and the signal was better, we were shocked at how stupid and rather depraved TV really was. So we just gave it up.

This means I've never seen any extreme make-overs—of houses or people; I don't know who "survived," or who the next American Idol will be. And I don't really care. But a couple of years ago someone emailed me this link to see Paul Potts on Britain's Got Talent, and I am hooked.

So let me share my little, guilty pleasure. You may have heard of Susan Boyle, who is all over entertainment news these days (and who is my current favorite). But how about Andrew Johnston from last year's competition? I cry almost every time I see these three performances. And I'm really impressed with Julian Smith, too.

Flawless (watch this one full-screen) was awesome—although the camera-operators are idiots (let's see more dancers and less audience reaction); and I get an absolute kick out of the Greek-Irish Dancers, but you probably need to see some "Lord of the Dance" first to really get the full effect of this one.

Then there's the incredible Hollie Steel, Shaheen Jafargholi, and Charlie Green.

So, this is what I do when I surf the net: I either look up new recipes, or I watch those talented Britons.

Enjoy!


p.s. She's not British, and she hasn't been on a talent-search show, but do a Google search on Emily Bear. She is adorable!

Molly Mormon, Incarnate

Have you ever heard of Molly Mormon? That amazing LDS woman who has half a dozen children, and does everything perfectly? Apparently, I am she.

I've never seen myself that way but to hear Bruce tell it, everyone else must. He tells me that other women must be jealous of me. At which I scoff and say, "Yeah, right." And then he says,"Are you kidding?! You're the ward organist, you sing in the choir, you have eight kids, you are a great cook, you wrote a music program and got a stake choir together to perform it, you sew, you bake bread (which, in my opinion, counts as cooking) . . ."

Well, yeah. I sound practically perfect if you say it like that. But do people really see me that way? And if they do, is that really flattering, or is it kind of a drag?

Because I don't know if I'm really cut out to be Molly Mormon.

Determination vs. Technicalities

Try this out:

Sit cross-legged on the floor, with a box that's about six to eight inches high in front of you. (Dimensions are approximately 24" L, 10-12" W, 6-8" H.) Now keep your hands on that box for 24 hours; you can't put the box on your lap; you can move your hands around but not even one finger can come up off of the box.

This is what Jason and 135 other contestants were trying to do last night.

Jason and I got to the music store at 5:45 last night and got him all signed in for the trumpet contest (they ran two contests simultaneously; trumpet and saxophone). The Summerhays people went over the rules at about 6:30. The game is played like this: You must keep all ten fingers on the case at all times; if the judge sees you lift even your pinky just 1/4-inch, you are disqualified; the judge's ruling is final. For the first 24 hours no pillows, blankets, chairs, etc. are allowed (space limitations; fire codes). Contestants would get one ten-minute break within a six-hour block of time (so ten minutes any time between 6 and midnight; another ten minutes any time between midnight and six, etc.)

And at 7:00 the contest actually started. I made sure Jason was settled in, and then ran home to get the other kids so we could run to the store for supplies: chips, candy, drinks, a big mug with a straw, a sandwich, a cushion for him to sit on if he needed it. We got back to Summerhays at 9:00, just as they were doing a roll-call; Jason was hungry, but doing great! I left Michael there to feed Jason and keep him company, help him stay awake, etc. They were both in great spirits when I left, and there was no doubt in my mind that Jason would win. He is a determined young man, and if it was simply a question of will-power I knew he would do it.

Michael was awesome! He willingly and cheerfully stayed there to keep Jason going last night.

Back at home, when we went to bed, Bruce set his alarm for 3:00 a.m. so he could go and give Michael a break. When he arrived at 4:00 Jason was one of only 19 people left in the trumpet contest; tired, but toughing it out. But at 5 a.m. the unthinkable happened: As Jason was shifting his weight, one thumb slipped over the top of the other and he was disqualified. Oh nooooo! What a total bummer!

Jason said, "It's not as easy as everyone thinks!" (But really, I thought it sounded pretty difficult.)

I am so bummed out that it turned out that way, because I know Jason would have won otherwise. But I am really proud of him for his determination, and his good attitude. Good job, Jason!!

Support for Jason

Summerhays Music Store is holding a "Hands-On" contest this Friday (April 24) beginning at 6 PM. Whoever can keep their hands on a saxophone or trumpet case the longest will win a very nice trumpet or saxophone.
The catch?

Apparently this contest will last all weekend (the Summerhays people said that going through Sunday is not unusual). Contestants get a ten-minute break every six hours, and they can have family and friends there to support them (feed them, tell them jokes, help keep them awake), but they must keep both hands—including the thumb and all fingers—on the case the rest of the time. (If even one pinky comes off the case, you are disqualified!)

Well, Jason really wants his own trumpet, so he's registered for the contest. It should be quite the weekend!

Neither Bruce nor I will be able to stay the entire weekend at the music store with Jason. So I'm asking any and/or all of you Salt Lake City friends to pop by Summerhays Music at 5450 S. Green Street (just west of I-15) some time this weekend and help us support Jason! :-)

The 2009 Calendar

Yes, it's taken a while—we are 1/3 of the way through 2009—but our family calendar is finished at last! Well, almost. Some people still haven't drawn a picture for it, and no amount of nagging has gotten them to do it yet.
Hmm. Maybe we should start on next year's calendar today.

For three years running now, we have made our own family calendar. Besides having the regular, ordinary holidays on it, we print it up with all our birthdays on it. It also has school and church activities, as well as special North Family days printed on it, like Library Day, and Family Movie Night and Decorate for Christmas Day. But the really fun part is that each member of the family draws the picture for each month. Except I'm still waiting on two people (who claim they are either too busy or just don't know what to draw).

Anyway, here is our wonderful artwork:

"Snow Falling on the Grass"
January 2009 by Jessica

"Tree and Different-Colored Sky"
February 2009 by Rachel

"Clover Hallway"
March 2009 by Kaylie

"Playing in the Rain"
April 2009 by Loralee

"April Showers Bring May Flowers"
May 2009 by Kaylie

"Cats"
June 2009 by Rachel

"Dangerous Fireworks"
July 2009 by Ryan

"The Coal Hauler"
August 2009 by Brandon

"Back to School"
September 2009 by Michael

"Ghosts and Halloween Costumes"
October 2009 by Jessica

"Mountain Morning"
November 2009 by Lindsey


"White Bunnies Throwing Snowballs at Polar Bears in a Blizzard at the North Pole"
December 2009
and January 2010
by Bruce and Jason

(I am hoping for revisions of the last two pictures. Major revisions!)

But, so far, that is our calendar for this year. Cool, huh?

Hallelujah! I Can Walk!

Melanie and I have started taking a body-conditioning class that is being offered by a lady in our Stake. I was pretty excited on our first day, April 11, to find out that "body-conditioning" is really a dance class! It's a one-and-a-half hour class on Saturday mornings.

As I said, the first class we went to was on Saturday, April 11. I have lost a LOT of flexibility over the years, but I have good muscle-memory for the things we were doing, and I felt really good—that I'd get it all pretty soon. We were both soooo sore after that first class, but it was a good soreness—the kind that says your body has been moving and working.

But the next day, Sunday, was another story. After a full day and night of resting, my body stiffened up and did not want to move at all. The good part of the soreness was long forgotten—a thing of the long, long ago, and far-distant past. Walking was hard, climbing stairs was nearly impossible; I couldn't get in or out of my van without using my arms to hoist myself up. Oh nooooo!

Well, after all, that was to be expected. I figured with some good stretching I'd be OK by Monday.
Nope.
By Thursday I was pretty much back to normal, although my legs still knew that something unusual had happened to them recently. Still, I was looking forward to the next class (this past Saturday).

So we went to the class and Bethanie (our pretty, young, flexible teacher) started us warming up and stretching, and I was so stiff and everything was so painful that I was thinking, "I hate this! I am not coming back again next week!" (What a baby, huh?) But by the end of the class I was warmed up and loving it again—my body really is made to move. Melanie and I stayed after the class and stretched out quite a bit.

And, Hallelujah! I was able to walk yesterday! I think I'm going to like this. :-)

Wednesday's Child is . . .

Well today is the day! Before I post the entries, I'll just start in by listing some of the ideas I came up with (with the help of an online rhyming dictionary):

Wednesday’s child is the C.E.O . . .
Wednesday’s child looks like a Van Gogh . . .
Wednesday’s child is not status quo . . .
Wednesday’s child walks to and fro . . .
Wednesday’s child's a tennis pro . . .
Wednesday’s child’s sweet from head to toe . . .
Wednesday’s child enjoys Thoreau . . .
Wednesday’s child has gifts to bestow . . .
Wednesday’s child can win a game show . . .
Wednesday’s child has eyes that o’erflow . . .
Wednesday’s child likes Curly and Moe . . .
Wednesday’s child wins best of show . . .
Wednesday's child is just so-so . . .

Some of those do have a few extra syllables in the meter, but mostly they work. (My personal favorite is "Wednesday's child enjoys Thoreau.")

All right. With the preliminary preliminaries out of the way, I will give you my own entry:
Wednesday's child is rollin' in dough;
Thursday's child is on the go.
Not too fantastic, but for good measure I also changed Saturday:
Saturday's child is full of thanksgiving.
(Why must Saturday's child work hard for a living?)

But let's get on to the real contestants' entries:

Tami's:

Wednesday's child is always true.

Thursday's child has much virtue.

A good answer to the second challenge; definitely in keeping with the spirit of the original poem. My only problem here is the accent falling on the "chue" sound of virtue (virtue).

Becky's:
Wednesday’s child is clever and smart,
Thursday’s child is true to the heart...

Very sweet; again it keeps with the original. There are more syllables than the original poem, but because of the way the words fall, it doesn't actually sound like too many syllables.

Ann's:
...Wednesday's child is full of trust,
Thursday's child is good and just...

The feeling fits very nicely into the original, and with perfect meter.

Ben's:
Wednesday's child is full of dough ($$$$) . . .

Perfect meter again. And, funny enough, it is the first thing I thought of too (without the rhyming dictionary)—although I think "has lots of dough" clarifies that it's money and not food.

Brad's:
Wednesday's child's softly aglow . . .

Pretty good; the idea fits nicely into the original poem, with the right number of syllables. But, to my brain at least, it reads with the accent on the "lee" part of softly (softly aglow) which seems weird. Stretch the meter a tiny bit to say "is softly aglow" and I like it better.

Jason's answer to challenge 1:

Wednesday's child learnt to row

Add the word "has" and the meter is perfect. We won't talk about Jason's answer to challenge 2.

Kaylie's:
Wednesday's child has no sorrow.
Thursday's child has 'till tomorrow.

For a seven-year-old I think this is Fantastic!! I might have said "Wednesday's child will have no sorrow" and I might have changed Thursday to "no need to borrow." But, wow! It really fit well with the spirit of the poem. Good job, Kaylie!

And here is Bruce's:
Monday's chile ain't nevah shy,
Tuesday's chile ett daddy's pie,
Wednesday's chile don't feel too well,
Thursday's chile will give 'em hell,
Friday's chile likes huntin' an' fishin',
Sattaday's chile just a sets there a wishin',
But the chile that wuz birth't on the Sabbath day
Don't nevah fuss 'less he's fixin' ta pray.

I really could say a lot of things about Bruce's. First of all, he went way beyond the mark here, although it all does rhyme and is in meter. I don't think he paid attention to any of the rules of the challenges. I also suspect he spent too much time in the South, and probably stayed up too late at night thinking of this. However, I find it very entertaining—and probably of equal value to the original poem. :-D

So it's kind of a toss-up. Well, maybe not really. Anyway, if I choose Bruce people will say we've been sleeping together. ;-) So, I declare Ann the winner! (wild applause here) As for the fabulous prize—I'll have to think about that, since it has to make it to Illinois.


I will post our new and improved poem in the sidebar as the poem of the week.

Thanks for playing!

It is better to look good than to feel good, dahling!

I am Monday's child!
Yep, fair of face . . . that's me! ;-)

And now, today I have become the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

So, any takers on the Poetry Challenge?

A POETRY CHALLENGE:

I have already posted this challenge in my comments, on the post titled, "Which Day?" But now I'm making it an official contest:

Since Wednesday's child has a bummer line, "Wednesday's child is full of woe," and Thursday's child is kind of iffy, "Thursday's child has far to go," see if you can help them out by answering either of these challenges:

CHALLENGE 1: Change the Wednesday line so that poor child can have a happier life. It has to rhyme, and keep the same meter as the original poem.

CHALLENGE 2 (the slightly easier challenge): Change both Wednesday and Thursday to make them have a happy, rhyming couplet. But the meter must be the same as the original poem.

You may post your poetry in the comments, or email them directly to me. My panel of judges (OK, probably just me—or should that be I?) will choose a winner, who will receive a *fabulous prize!

Send them in ASAP! I'll post all entries and the winner a week from this Friday, on April 17.

For your convenience, here is the poem again:

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child must work for a living,
But the child that's born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe and winsome and gay.

[*fabulous prize to be announced later—when I decide what it will be ;-)]

In your enthusiasm to gain the fabulous prize, don't forget to guess which day belongs to me!

Good luck!

Which Day?

My birthday is coming up—this Friday, to be exact. All gifts and compliments, large and small, will be cheerfully accepted. ;-) (Don't applaud, just throw money!)

Well, anyway, I am bringing out this old rhyme:

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child must work for a living,
But the child that's born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe and winsome and gay.

1-year-old Me. Awwww!

Can you guess which child I am? (Yes, this should be ridiculously easy for those of us with internet access.)

p.s.

And for the last joke of the day, I short-sheeted my bed; yes, my own bed. Bruce went to bed last night thinking that I was a very silly girl. :-)

APRIL FOOL!

You know, I kind of like kid holidays. I like to surprise my family; and I like how clever I feel when I do it well. :-) (Yes, that is the real me.)

So I've been planning for this April Fool's Day since last year. Seriously; that is not a joke. I really have been planning this day for an entire year. I'll give you the run-down:

Unfortunately the first joke of the day was on me. Yes, I woke up to a gray, snowy, ucky mess outside. A slippery mess that I had to drive in first thing this morning. Bruce and I had a lot of running around to do this morning. First I had to take the kids to school, then go pick up Bruce from the mechanic, and then go to my cousin's house to get our hair cut. That would be 35 to 45 minutes of driving on a perfect day. It took an hour and fifteen minutes on those slick, slick roads. UGH!

my view out the front windshield this morning

But I delivered the first joke of the day to my kids. I woke up at 7:00 a.m, as usual; this is the time that I normally get the kids up to get ready for school. But I was inspired this morning; today I ran to every room and hollered, "Get up quick! Dad and I slept in—it's ten minutes to eight!!" Then I ran back to my room; after I was dressed I did the rounds again, "You guys! Hurry!!! We have to leave in five minutes!" Lindsey did catch me and say that her clock said it was only 7:15. "Well, your clock must be wrong." I said—almost with a straight face.

When Michael (usually the last face I see in the morning) came upstairs, he said, "Mom, it's not even 7:30 yet."
Then I had to laugh. And, "APRIL FOOLS!" say I. ;-) Michael tried not to, but I caught him with a little smile on his face.

Well, after the timely joke of the morning, we had the fun driving adventures. And after that it was pretty calm until dinner time—time for the joke I've been planning for a whole year. See, last year I was looking around online, at the last minute, for an April Fool joke to play on my kids and I saw this terrific dinner idea. The trouble was that I had to order one of the food items online; no way I could do it for last year. So I bided my time.

Check this out: This may look like an ordinary TV dinner, but no . . .


. . . The mashed potatoes are vanilla ice-cream with caramel topping; the peas are from a bag of "peas-n-carrots" candy; and the chicken nuggets are Hostess donettes, sliced to the appropriate size.

I saw the whole dinner on the Family Fun website last year. While I liked the looks of the mashed potatoes and peas (I could only get the peas-n-carrots online); I couldn't find peanut-butter logs to use for the chicken nuggets. And it took a long time for me to come up with something that would really look like chicken nuggets; I was pretty tickled when I thought of the donettes.

On the Family Fun website they just served the whole thing up on dinner plates—the TV dinner trays were my own idea. (And it was a neat trick to save ten TV dinner trays without my whole family getting suspicious.)

To top it off, I actually made real breaded chicken, real mashed potatoes and gravy, and real peas for dinner—er, dessert. Bruce, who saw me breading the chicken before dinner, thought that my joke was simply to put the meal I'd prepared on the TV-dinner trays. No one was prepared for the "dinner" they got.
Surprise! APRIL FOOLS!

(But now I may need to start planning for next year.
Who's the real April Fool?)