Pets

My kids know they'll probably never have pets. It's not that I don't like animals, I just don't want to take care of one more thing that will never learn to use/flush the toilet, bathe itself or clean up its own mess. At least with kids there is hope... When my kids ask why we don't have a dog I say, "We do. Our dogs live at Grandma and Grandpa Palmers house." That works for awhile. Then when they start asking for Chameleons and chinchillas I know it's time to stop watching Dora and Diego. For most of the other pets they ask for, I can come up with some sort of excuse why we can't have them. But I have discovered there are some childhood dreams that can't be stopped. Rockwell has found a way around the system and has found his own pets. We had 11 frogs and one egg-protecting lizard as pets for a week until the lid was left off and all the frogs got away. The now tail-less lizard lives on. I'm sure the frog and lizard count will increase as the summer goes on. Then Rockwell discovered more pets. Many off you will recognize the wreath in the following picture as the one on my front door in both Utah and Florida. (I like this wreath. It's a nice, bright, happy yellow and it tells me I'm home. )



One day while the boys were bird watching (we get some amazingly beautiful birds in our yard) they noticed one coming up to the front door a lot. Well there was a good reason for it.
Yep, 5 new pets.


These are the most perfect little blue speckled eggs I've ever seen. And the funny thing is, the place where I bought this wreath actually sells wreaths and other decor that have small nests filled with these same little blue eggs! I could have paid extra but mine are free!! We have to look at them every day to make sure they're safe and sound. I'm sure we'll HEAR when our new "pets" have arrived.

So to all you mothers out there (you know who you are) considering getting pets despite your inner self telling you not to... I have discovered there are plenty of ways to let your children have pets without having to take care of them yourself. Give yourself a break: Let Mother Nature take care of your "pets", they're her children :)

Two Funerals and A Wedding

No, it's not a bad remake of a film, it's actually been our life this last week. Right after we got home from vacation last week, we learned that Brad's grandfather, Warren McNear had passed away. This was his mom's dad. Brad's mom, Dee, had been taking care of her father and mother (who has Alzheimer's) for a long time and put a lot of heart and soul into their care. Although his death was slightly unexpected, we believe he's where he wants to be. This might also give Brad's sweet mom some rest she deserves after all her work, care and heartache. One can only hope when it's time to be taken care of by your children, whether you "deserve" it or not, they will get the love, attention and care that Papa got from Dee.

Then two days later I got a call that my Grandma had passed away, Larae Cheney Anderson Smith. This was my father's mom. She has had a disease that has been taking her life for decades and has been mostly incapacitated for years, not even able to feed herself and in endless pain. Her mind was still completely coherent so I think it was extra hard to see the world around you pass, a world you had been very much involved in at one point, and not get to participate now. Her husband died unexpectedly last year and we all hoped she would soon follow to escape her sick prison and be with him. It is sad that she is not here with us, but the funeral for the most part was a pleasant experience of good memories and a strengthening of family relationships.

Now before all this happened, Brad's sister, Tayna, already had a wedding reception planned for the same week. So we looked at all the family activites piled into one week and decided we would go out to Utah, again, and be with our families. Then when we got out there, we were able to take care of some of our own "housekeeping" like rent one of our units in Springville and find a happy home for our motorhome that we have been missing terribly. We were also so excited to be in Utah for our dear friends' 5k event for their daughter Elle who passed away several years ago. This is always such a wonderful and inspiring day and we felt it was a blessing to get to attend. Seeing this family always reminds us how the gospel strengthens us and can help us through what seems like the hardest times in life. So between the funerals, celebrations and memorial events we came home better people, and feeling blessed for all the relationships we have in our lives that make us better people.

What my kids think of me

At church, for Mother's Day, the boys were given a quiz to answer questions about their mom, me. Rhett thought I was 25, whereas Rock came a little closer with 34. (I'll be 36 in less than two weeks.)
"My mom is prettiest when..."
Rhett said, "When she wears her wedding dress." Rhett has never seen me in my wedding dress, except for the picture on our shelves. But apparently, that was when I was my prettiest. (I agree.) Rockwell answered the same question, "When we go to church." That's probably pretty accurate because that's the day I actually put forth the most effort to not just look like a stay-at-home mom. But of all the questions and answers, one struck me as the funniest and perhaps a little sad as well.
"My mom always says..."
Rockwell said, "Luv." But Rhett's answer made me realize I need to reevaluate some of my responses and behavior with my kids. "My mom always says... 'No.' "

I'm the Biggest Loser

Last night I watched the Finale of The Biggest Loser interlaced with the songs of the final 3 Idol contestants. (Adam is obviously the most talented and the most-likely winner, but for some reason I just can't get behind him. I think it goes back to the week when he turned an innocent country song satanic...) Back to the reason for this post. As I watched all the contestants and their amazing transformations it made my eyes tear-up with pride at how significant the change was in these people's lives and how hard they had worked. I was sincerely proud of them and frustrated with myself that I can't put forth the effort to lose just 10 measly pounds. It should be so easy. Nothing compared to what these individuals have gone through. So why am I the biggest loser? Because I did all of this while polishing off a 1/4 of a Key Lime pie...

and enjoyed every minute of it.

M-I-C-Key West

I guess you could call this a destination wedding, but we did it without the happy couple! After the wedding all the Palmers went to DisneyWorld and then headed down to Key West. The kids were exausted after a long wedding day and then a long Disney day. Drake is out cold in the stroller and Rhett isn't too far behind here.

Key West had beautiful weather this week. The boys spent about 8 hours the first day in the swimming pool with eating breaks every so often. Rockwell became a very good swimmer this week and loves snorkeling. Drake spent a lot of his time in the hot tub even though it was 90 degrees outside with a bold humidity. Rhett will float anywhere and do anything in the water as long as his floaties are one. He did ask me once, "Mom, do these floaties make me look fat?" Holy Cow! It looks like I may have a metrosexual on my hands because later he asked me to not reapply his sunscreen because he wanted to get a nice tan.

Anyhow, here are some photos from our trip. It was a wonderful vacation!

We went to several beaches that had beautiful warm water. The boys would have stayed in the ocean all day if we would have let them.

I know we have a lot of pictures with London in this pose. But it's the surefire way to get her to smile. She loves doing "tricks." Oh, and to all my sisters: look at those pony tails on that 8-month-old!

Here she is in her princess pajamas going to DisneyWorld.

The kids LOVE going to the butterfly museum. You're not supposed to touch the butterflies, but if one lands on you consider yourself lucky and loved. They always seem to land on Rockwell because he is very patient and holds very still and doesn't flinch at all when they come near him.

London would try to grab (and probably eat) the butterflies so we had to watch her carefully. But she would just laugh and giggle as they flew by her.

Here we are at a secret garden that was made from an old Civil War era Naval base. A Naval base in Key West back in the Civil War days you ask? I asked too. It was made to try and keep down the pirate problem that was brewing in that area of the country. The base was never finished because the Civil War started and the soldiers were needed elsewhere. (Just a little random history for you.)

Here is the most famous tourist picture you can take in Key West. It is the marker for the Southernmost point in the US, only 90 miles from Cuba.

My boys love to fish!

They'll always pose for a picture when its not meant for them. But if its for the official family photo we have to torture them to get them to even cooperate!

Again, posing when its convenient for them.

Mom and London on the sunset cruise.

This is Drake walking on the Sandbar in the middle of the ocean.

Drake had a love-hate relationship holding sea critters.

Rockwell loves holding any and all critters.

Rhett finding some shells.

Rhett Dancing on the boat. He does this funny little techno thing with his hands. Look closely and you'll see what I mean.

Mom and Drake on the front of the boat.

There was a point in our boat ride, about an hour in to it, that the water got super shallow and we got stuck in the sand. All the men had to get off the boat to make it lighter, then gently try to ease it out of the sand. There is something thrilling about getting out of a boat in the middle of the ocean and being able to reach the bottom. Plus the water felt really nice!

The Dolphins seemed to want to come right up to the boat for us. They would swim around the boat and gave us plenty of spectacular photo opps.

The cousins getting too comfortable with the dolphins and the edge of the boat.

These boys enjoyed every minute of this trip.

Rockwell posing as Grandpa Anderson

The Wedding

May 2, 2009

It was a perfect day for a spring wedding in Florida. After the wedding in Orlando we all went down to St. Petersburg for the reception dinner. It was a Hawaiian themed dinner with the kids favorite part of the day at the end: the fire dancer! We are still trying to explain to our kids that its never okay to put fire in your mouth or on your feet!

Tayna, Kody and all the kids.

The ever-growing Palmer family. This picture will be out-dated by the fall with two more Palmers/Leavitts on the way.

Our attempt at a family picture on the beach...

My visit with a Paratrooper and a State Trooper

April 30, 2009

We decided to go to my brother's Airborne graduation in Georgia because it was relatively close, about 5 hours away. It was the day before Brad's sister's wedding so it was going to be a quick trip! London and Rockwell went with me and we had a great time. I loved seeing my long lost family, especially my "little" brother who I hadn't seen since he left on his second tour of Iraq a year and a half ago.

I use the term "little" loosely. It's not hard to find him in a group of people who all are dressed the same.

Rockwell had an especially good time since he got to see Logan.
I don't think he stopped talking the entire time we were there. Talon looked great and I couldn't help but feel this huge sense of pride that I always get when I see him. Now there's one more thing to add to his list of accomplishments: Paratrooper.

Here's one of the places he was "trained" on how to jump out of a Black Hawk helicopter. It looked like some sort of torture chamber to me, but he said it taught them how to jump, although it did feel like torture at times...

The second half of my story is when I got pulled over for speeding on a remote road in Georgia on my way there. I had no idea what the speed limit was and I knew I was guessing high. Ironically I got pulled over when I came around a corner and saw the speed limit sign a split second before I saw the trooper:. 55 mph She wasn't the friendliest of troopers and had a script and was sticking to it. I nervously did the small talk thing as she looked over my registration (that Brad had just updated that morning) and mentioned the irony of being pulled over for speeding 2 feet behind the speed limit sign. She did her thing and eventually came back with my ticket (which I totally deserved!) and said, "Here's your ticket for going over the limit in a 45 zone.)
"45?" I asked.
"Yes, 45. You don't reach the 55 zone for another 2 feet where the sign is, so you are still in the 45, so I'm ticketing you at 45."
I couldn't believe it. Tacking on that additional 10 mph was going to make this a very ugly situation. There was no changing the situation and you could tell she was happy with the terror that spread across my face. Power is an ugly thing in the hands of the wrong person. I can't help but think maybe she would enjoy jumping out of a helicopter...

Wedding Photos-more details to come

I'm just going to put up a couple new photos from the wedding since I haven't been on a computer in a week and a half. I went to Georgia to see Talon's Graduation from Jump school, then drove from there straight to Orlando for Tayna's wedding (Brad's sister) and then from there to Key West for a Palmer Family reunion. I will tell all in the next couple of days. I have to unpack, get my kids back in school and get reorganized.