Sisters-in-Law ROCK!

So today I was at work and got a call from Sara asking if I was going to be home.  She wanted to drop off a book shelf that she was going to give me.  I told her I wouldn't be home until late afternoon.  She asked if she could just let herself in and of course I said sure.  So 4 hours later I arrive home and I walk in to find Sara and Jenn have totally redecorated my entire living room!   

IT IS BEAUTIFUL!  My poor old little room looks fabulous! I LOVE IT!  Sara is such a talented decorator!  I keep walking in and just sighing.  So nice to have a nice room in the house.  What a super surprise!  I felt like I was in a reality show!  Here are some pictures although they don't even come close to doing it justice.  

You should come on by for a visit.  Although you will be limited to this one room.  The rest of the house is a disaster!!  In fact it is so bad that although I appreciate Sara and Jenn I will now have to kill them.  It is that messy.  So, thanks girls!  You ROCK!     

Offer Available for only a Limited Time!

First day of school!   So here in Davis County we just started school today!  We technically had a summer that was 1-2 weeks longer than normal!  And let me tell you I could feel it.  My kids were out of control.  They wanted a late night every night.  They wanted to hang out every possible moment. They were already wearing out their school shoes...

I was SO ready for school!

This is year is unique because all of my kids are in school full-time!  Someone asked me if it was going to be hard to send them all off.  I laughed.  Are you kidding me?  How many years have I been looking forward to this day?  What will I do with all that wonderful time?  Dream come true, right?  Are you with me here?

So today I send the 2 oldest boys off on their way to the high school and the junior high. (No picture of Josh!  Brain not yet functioning that early in the morning.)

Then I take the 3 youngest down to school and walk them to their classes.  They are all greeting friends and talking excitedly.  Alex first into his 4th grade class, Jonathan upstairs to his 6th grade class.  They are pros! Backpacks in lockers, shake the teachers hand, find your desk, greet your friends with a high five, a shoulder bump or a head nod...  pros.  Joe's class is the furthest away from the front door.

We put the backpack in the locker, greet the teacher, find his desk and then the friends start to arrive.  He yells out his excited greetings.  So thrilled to be back at school.

I leave him in good hands and start to walk home.  And then it hits me.

Remember this?  This new 1st grader still calls me 'My love, my sweet, my darling, my princess!' What I realized is that the clock is ticking on that expression.  The clocking is ticking on all my young mother experiences.  It did make me a little wistful.

I spend so much time getting my children to the milestones that mark their lives just to pass it and think "Hold on now.  Let's slow down.  I don't know if I am ready for this."


Joe said it best as we walked into his classroom he tells me "Mom,  I am excited but kind of nervous."


I know buddy.  Me too.

So Summer is over in a matter of days over here in Davis County and it seems like just yesterday that we were wrapping up the end of the school year with...

Field Trips.  
Funny story.  I went on the field trip with Joe and his Kindergarten class.  I had 4 little boys that I was protecting and guarding while attending the very dangerous zoo.  The funny thing is that I had the Kindergarten full-time helper with me to help with one of the boys that is a bit difficult.  Then I had 2 mothers for whom this boy is their firstborn and they felt the need to drive to the zoo with all their younger children in tow and join us for the field trip.  So basically I was in charge of keeping 4 boys, 3 adults and 3 toddlers and 2 strollered babies all together so we could report back to the bus at the designated time.
What a FUN day.
Once again I realized that I was a horrible mother because I never drove to a field trip just to attend with my little ones.  I would go as a volunteer at times but never just as a tag a long.  The most pleasant part was when we sat down to eat our lunch.  (Again,  the school brought a lunch for everyone but the Mom's supplemented with treats from home)  So we starting talking and next thing I know I am the old lady giving advice.

"How did you get your kids to sleep through the night?"
"When do you find the time to get to the spa?"
"How best can I help my son adjust to 1st grade?"
"How old was your son before you first left the house without mascara and heels on?"

They were shocked to learn that I don't "request" teachers for my boys every year.  I just let them go where they are placed and adapt to their new teacher.  HORRIBLE!  I know.   (I did request NOT to get a teacher 1 year.)  (That's it, though) (And I felt so guilty about it that I agreed to be the PTA president in exchange)

So I start to see the problem the work place is having with their employee's MOTHERS coming in to complain about their hours or assignments or to get time off for them or raises!

Any who.. the point of this story was actually that I felt very OLD after this field trip.  Joe and I still had a great time and amazingly enough I got the other 3 boys back to the bus on time with our large support staff following us! 

Back to the end of the school year...

 Concerts: Josh

 Concerts: Aaron

 Awards Assembly: Alex (Perfect Attendance!)

 Last Day of School: Alex with Mrs. Williamson

 Jonathan with Mrs. Wigren

Joe with Mrs. Menlove.

Welcome Summer! 

We are so ready for this! 

2 Down 3 to Go!

So this last Sunday night was a fabulous night for the Rollins clan!

Josh and Aaron both received their Eagle Scout Awards at a fabulous court of honor.

They were lucky to have four of their good friends get their Eagles the same night so it was quite the party.

  Both of the boys were so excited and they talked about it well into the night.  They even made Dave dig out all his Scouting paraphernalia so they could see the "old" patches and pins.

Speaking of old.  Here are my two boys with a bunch of old guys who also happened to be Eagle Scouts.  B. Rad, Mark, Andrew, Paul, and Nate are pictured here with Dave and my boys.  We are missing Bryan and Mitch who were also Eagle Scouts.  We have a strong scouting tradition in both of our families.  My dad was a scouting enthusiast to put it mildly.  I am sure he is thrilled with his grandsons accomplishment.

It was a delightful night.  When you have 4 families involved you are able to do some fun things.  We had a fabulous video of all the boys in their scouting adventures.  

I loved the giant flag that we used as our backdrop for this event.  

We also had a fabulous Eagle presentation that the boys couldn't stop talking about. 

They got to be up close and personal with the Eagle who was named Liberty.  Josh claimed that it bruised his chest with its beak and Aaron said its wing bopped him on the nose.  These are the stories that I am sure will get bigger and better as time goes on. Someday I will hear them say remember at our Eagle Court of Honor when the Eagle attacked us and tried to peck out our eyes? 

Good Times.

Congrats boys! You pretty much rock!

A Day Off

Today Joe is home from school because of end of year Kindergarten testing.  He has been playing a very extensive game of make believe.

It all started with this line.. "Mom pretend you are a Grandma and I am your son."  OK.  He proceeded to go into the explanation that he has come over to give me a TV for Mother's Day. (Can you tell what Dave got his mother for MD?)

He then also proceeded to tell his wife that he didn't get her anything. (Hmmm. I wonder where he heard that one!!)

I yelled from the other room to get his wife a gift for heavens sake!

He bought her a football and proceeded to tell me she was playing on a women's football team.  I started  laughing and started asking more questions and got an entire family history from this little guy.   Here is my family in 25 years...

• Josh married a girl named Taia and they have 4 kids.  3 girls and 1 boy.  He is a police officer.  They live next door to me. Josh served a mission to Russia.  He graduated from a college in Greenland.? 
• Aaron married a girl named Savannah and they have 5 kids.  3 boys and 2 girls.  He makes movies.  They live next door to Joe and his wife.  Aaron went on a mission to Chicago and he graduated from BYU!  Savannah is a Primary President. 
• Jonathan married a girl named Taylor and they have 6 kids. 3 boys and 3 girls.  He is a computer guy.  They live in China and they don't speak English.  Jonathan went on his mission to Venezuela and went to the U.
• Alex married a girl named Hannah and they have 2 kids.  1 boy and 1 girl.  He is a zoo keeper.  They live in Texas.  But he comes and visits all day every day.  Alex went on a mission to Peru and he went to BYU. 
• Joe married a girl named Grace.  They have 2 boys named David and Andrew and 1 girl named Madison.  Grace is a doctor and Joe is a worker and he works next door to his dad, Dave and they go to lunch together everyday.  He took the day off today to be with me but Dad wouldn't.  (typical) Joe went on his mission to New York.  He graduated from BYU.  His wife went on a mission to Argentina and graduated from BYU.  They are pretty happy right now because they are going to have another baby soon. 
• Dave did take some time off from work to go on a mission with me to Africa.  We are very happy and we love go shopping together and buy flowers. (We hate shopping and we don't buy flower very often so things are obviously going to change.)   We also like to go out to dinner and go to church.

So that is my future according to Joe.  I can't believe how fast time has just flown by!  It seems like just yesterday they were all running around driving their mom insane!

All in all it sounds pretty nice except I don't really want Jonathan to live in China.  Maybe he is just there temporarily.  I miss him and his family.  It makes me a little sad that I don't see them very often.  I appreciate that Alex comes in from TX to see me every day.  All day.

So now you know what Joe does on his day off.

I gotta run.  I am suddenly interested in learning Chinese.

Day by Day.

So a good friend of mine "gently" reminded me that I should probably update my lonely blog.  I replied that I have nothing exciting to talk about.  However I must admit I am sick of seeing my big ole tree on my blog every time I come to my blog.  (It is strange because sometimes I visit my blog to see if someone has written something witty and interesting for me on my blog.  I am sometimes very annoyed nobody has updated it.  Is that strange?)  So I decided that I wouldn't look for something witty and interesting.  I will just write about what I did today.  No apologies for the past 4 months.  (OK I am really sorry). 

So today was an unusual day because today I spent a few hours doing genealogy. Yep today I got wrapped up in the world's 2nd most popular hobby (1st place goes to gardening, FYI).

 I was working with my mom on my dad's side of the family. She said "Wow, you have a lot of work to do on this side of the family."  Then she laughed wickedly because she is like that.   So here are some of the things that I noticed while working with my mom.

One observation to you people who are naming your kids made-up- funny- sounding- one- of- a- kind names.  Be warned. You are setting your child up for pure mockery.  Maybe not necessarily in his or her lifetime but eventually when their great-great-great-great grandchildren find them on FamilySearch.  They will laugh.  No disrespect to my ancestors but let me tell you.....

Nobody should be named Nimrod or Alethestan. Hello Nimrod! (Doesn't that sound insulting?) He does look a bit peeved.

 If you name your daughter Rassemine or  Henrietta nobody is going to use her name as a cute middle name.   Hey Henri!  She was pretty.

I hate to break it to you but Mads is ending with your son.  Here is old Mads now.  Guess what? He had a son named Mads so I lied.  It didn't end with your son.  It ended with your grandson.

Sophronia may be shortened to something cute but I can guarantee that Umpstead is not cute shortened in any way shape or form.  I mean really, Umpy?  Stead?  I guess you could go for Ted.

Speaking of Umpstead.  That poor man is so miss-named on FamilySearch.  Here are a few.  Umstead, Unstead, Upstead, Hempstead, Umpsteel, and my personal favorite Nimpstead. Poor guy.  That wouldn't have happened if his name was David.

Here are some of his children.  Have you ever noticed that people with unusual names usually opt for more traditional names for their children.  Here are Umpstead's children's names, Caroline, James, Mary, John, Peter, Abram, Elizabeth, William, Benjamin, Joseph, Emma, Ammon, Thomas.  Not a strange name in the bunch.   Ok Abram is strange.  But he was my great grandfather so back off.

So that is what I did today.  What did you do?

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Today was quite the adventure.  Good ole Davis County had HUGE winds today and it wreaked havoc on our neighborhood and our little home was no exception.  Our home was apparently fine at 5:00 am when Dave left.  At 7:00 when I was kicking my high schooler out to catch the bus he opened the door and said "Hey, our tree fell down."  I honestly thought it was a procrastination attempt so I said in my lovely cheerful mother voice..."Whatever, go catch the bus."  He was so shocked that I didn't believe him that I actually went to the door and looked.  According to my kids I gasped and said my traditional "Oh my stars!  Call your father!"  So here is what our house looked like.

My house is behind that tree.  If you look closely you can see the garage on the left and the roof on the right. So just in time for Christmas we have a new Christmas tree!  If only we could get out of our house we could throw some lights on it and call it good!  

But wait!  There's more!  In the true spirit of Christmas we shared our joy with our neighbors by gifting them a beautiful tree also!  You are welcome, neighbor!

Here is the another view of the tree.

Our fantastic Emergency Crew and our Amazing Neighbors took great care of us and after the wind finally died down they came and helped clear the one tree from the front of the house!

They were so helpful and we were so appreciative of their kind service and strong muscles. 

And here is the spectator gallery.  Just teasing they worked hard also!  It was a huge job but they made fast work of it!  What a grand adventure!

We are out of power at my house so I came over to dry some clothes at Mom's.  I will write more later!  

What does this mean?

I am not exactly sure what to do.  or think.  Today after I got the kids off to school I did dishes and laundry and straightening. I then sat around and watched movies and ate bonbons because that is what Dave thinks I do every day.  (By the way you will be happy to hear they now sell bonbons at Costco.) 

Then I showered, brushed my teeth, did my hair and very carefully applied some makeup. I got dressed in somewhat fashionable clothes.  I did this not only because it is important for hygiene and my mental health but I had a meeting with at the Jr. High with the counselor. 

 Today was a very important day for Aaron because today at the ripe old age of 13 we proceeded to plan out his entire life including high school, college and future career.  I didn't want you to be in suspense for the next 15 years so I thought I would just announce it now.  He is going to be a Dentist,   Or a Sports Trainer. Or an Investigator. Maybe.   

I would like to tell you that I went into this interview having discussed with him before all of his desires, talents and interests thoroughly.  But I didn't.  I just tried to get there on time, be in the right place and be presentable.  I just needed them to know that I am a "concerned, loving and stable" parent.  I thought that was sufficient even for this very important occasion.  

When I got home I was shocked to see that I failed to even meet those simple goals. 

This was what I had on.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!  
Don't even ask about the next 3 THREE places I went.  I am not ready to talk about it.    

So I must ask.
Does this mean that my next step is to go out with curlers in my hair and wearing a house dress.
Do they even make house dresses anymore?
What is a house dress?
Do I wear a kerchief over the curlers or just go?
Should I just prearrange that my skirt is tucked up in my pantyhose?
Blouse inside out or right side in?

These are the fashion decisions that I must ponder.

PS I think I will blame my counselor in 8th grade.  She should have seen this coming. She should have prepared me better.

Dirty Dash!

A few weeks ago Dave, Josh and most of my siblings and my mom had a unique Saturday morning.  They participated in the Dirty Dash.  The Dirty Dash is a 10K race.  Now it is not your typical race because this race is all about the dirt.  Wet dirt to be exact.  MUD.   

The course is mud, slides, water, marshes, snow, and other obstacles all wrapped into 6.2 miles of fun!  The race took place in beautiful Soldier Hollow where some of the Olympic events took place 9 years ago. 

  

Mitch and Haley were voted most creative for their costumes.  Of course I was the only one voting.  

 Here is Mitch as Superman!  Notice the cute curl!

Here is the clean crew at the beginning of the race.   The t-shirts say We're Great but No One Knows It.  It was our family theme about 30 years ago.  It came from a Girl's Camp song.   Please notice Jacob's short shorts.  Very 1980's Jacob. 

 You start the race by hiking up a huge mud hill which was very slippery.  Apparently Josh was tackled in the first few minutes by Andrew.  At the top of the hill they sprayed all the racers with a fire hose.  So you were cold from the very beginning.  

Not too dirty yet.  The middle kids.  B. Rad, Alli and Andrew.  (Tricia doesn't count as a middle because she thought she was my twin from the very beginning)

 Tricia is doing some kind of Dirty Dash strut here.  They were hiking through one of the muddy rivers.  

 A big mud hole in the road.  Part of the fun was you never knew how deep the puddle was at any given point.  You could be walking next to someone and they disappear up to their neck.  See how muddy Andrew is compared to Brandon.   

 Alli with some stylin glasses.  She was the brave one who took a camera in several ziploc baggies so we could have some pictures of the actual race.  Thanks Alli.  

 Here is one of the least favorite obstacles.  You had to climb through the mud filled tube.  That wasn't the bad part.  

The bad part was that on the other end they were spraying out snow from their snow maker machine. They were freezing cold at this point.  

 They look happy here.  You will see that in the background there is a woman running.  Some people took this race very seriously.

 Here you had to either climb over or under these walls.  This is Alli going under but trying to keep as clean as possible. 

 Here are the boys.  You can see that even when it is not an obstacle it is still a big mud slop of a road. 

 This was their least favorite part of the course.  These are sewer pipes that they are crawling over.  Thye determined this by the horrible smell all around them!  Of course this is the place that Alli slipped into a hole and went in over her head!   NAAAASSSTTTYY!

 Here is the snack station.  Yum!  Muddy jello.  

One of the last obstacles is the giant slide.  Only Dave flew down this thing.  Everyone else had to inch their way down.  (This isn't actually Dave flying.  People can't fly.)

 The kids waited at the big mud pond at the finish line. 

 They collected water balloons to throw at their parents.  They were so excited! 

The racers all waited for each other at the slide so they could finish together.  The first ones in were Josh and Jacob.  (Of course)

 Jenn, B. Rad, Tricia, Andrew, Brandon and Dave were next.  I love how Tricia seems to be trying to be careful going in.  She didn't want to get dirty I suppose...

 The last ones in were Haley, Alli, Mom and Mitch.  

 Wow.  Mom.  You really do not fit in with this crowd!  They are all smiles though except Dave.  

 You see Dave couldn't see.  He was completely blind.  He didn't even know which way to go to get out.  

 B. Rad, Brandon (Who lost a contact)

 Jenn, Mitch,

 Josh,  my baby,

 Mom and Tricia

 Dave still blind.  Mom.

Mitch, Alli, Tricia

 Jenn, Andrew.

 Mitch and Haley

Here is the after photo.

What a fun day for us all!  Thanks Sara and B.Rad!   

Now I am going to post the full video (3 minutes) on youtube for the family to see how lovely they look.  It is too big for blogger.  But I need to preface by telling you that I was holding 2 cameras.  One took all of the pictures that you see above.  The other was my attempt to film but it was really more of a chest cam.  The video camera just rested on my chest and whatever it captures is what you get.  I edited out my running because it would have just made you motion sick.