'not me' Monday........

 
 

Here we go again. Yeah!! And now it's time for that fun weekly carnival that we all love, 'not me Monday!' Let's all join in and see what we got. I'm sure we have a lot of those 'not me's' just stored up and ready to share.

Wow it's been awhile!  And I really don't have much to share, at least not right at this moment, who's to say I won't think of more as I type.

You all know tailEnd, right?

Isn't he just the cutest?  But then again I guess all of us moms think that way about our cute kids.  This is a photo of tailEnd taken last fall after he forgot to get me the info for school photos, I always do the school photos just so I can get a good one, I'm new at this taking of photos thing, but as you can see not this time.

OK, moving on to 'not me' Monday.

So it was not us who straightened tailEnds hair this past week.  Nope not us. 

And then I did not let him go to school with all of that long hair.  Nope I would never do that, I would never let my child be the big distraction at school.  My boys have always had a neat and tidy appearance at all times, so neat and tidy in fact that they usually get looked over (NOT!!).  I would never ever let my boys just try things just because.

Guess what?  I didn't think of anything else but that's OK.  I hope you all enjoy the quick glimpse of tailEnd because by the time he got home from school he was over the straight hair.  Quick shower and wash and he was back to all curls.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Love to All,

midRae

Football Final

After months and months of hard work, practice, growing, trying to figure it all out, and losing 8 games, the boys of the Cedar High School Freshmen team finally pulled it off and won their last game, with a score of 12-6.   

As you look at their faces, and the joy that is shown there, you can tell that the last game was the one that counted, the one that really mattered to them all.  They played against the other high school in our fair little city, against boys that they have played with in the past years.  I guess it was pretty much for bragging rights and the knowledge that, if they want it bad enough, they can make it happen.  They just needed to believe in themselves.

tailEnd has grown so much this past year, and so much in the past few months.  He has gained at least 6 inches, a few of those inches from the hair, and has developed muscle and strength beyond what he thought was possible.  He has pushed himself and endured the pushing of coaches, teammates, teachers, and parents along the way, only to realize that he really can do more than he thought. 

He has managed to go from a 2.0gpa, failing Honors Algebra 2 & Honors English 9th, to a final grade of 3.188gpa at the end of the season and the end of the quarter, passing all classes and living to talk about it.  He figured out he was smarter than he thought and mom figured out that he still needs her, just a little bit, even though he is bigger than her now.

We love you tailEnd and are extremely proud of you and what you have learned and endured this past football season.  We know it was hard, but you stuck with it, and you won in the end.

A special 'Thank You!' goes out to the coaching staff and the time and effort that they have put in to helping our boys to grow and to learn. 

What do you think, maybe next year we can get a girl on the team? Just a thought.

Love to All,

midRae

Upstaged!

Yes, I said upstaged, upstaged by a 14 year old.

tailEnds contribution to the photography world.

No editing, straight out of the camera.

I refuse to sit in the middle of the truck any more.

I want the window so that I can get the great shots.

He's stealing my thunder.

But man, am I proud of him!

Love to All,

midRae

Freshmen Football

I really do not live and die, like some folks I know, for football. I enjoy watching it, but only if it is in person, not much into watching it on TV except for the Superbowl, and I'm sure that has a lot to do with the food. I went to all of the games in high school, but we all know why girls do that. Yup, we wanted to catch the eye of some cute guy and scream along with the cheerleaders, the whole time dreaming and wishing that it was us down their being the cheerleader. For a couple of years, my high school years number 6 because our school went from 7th grade to 12th grade, I was even on the drill team and a cheerleader.

OK............

Getting back to football, as you can tell I wasn't, nor am I now, a die hard fan that lives the whole year just for fall to come and football to start.

But then something happened. Can you guess what that something is? I bet each and everyone of you, who happen to have a child, could guess. Come on, think real hard. Oh, you already guessed? I knew you would. My baby is playing football and he loves it.

He loves coming home covered in bruises and big old red marks on his arms. He loves the camaraderie with his teammates and friends. He loves the recognition from his coaches, good or bad, because they build him up and help him to find that extra little push in himself which he didn't even know he had. He just loves it and I am so glad that he does.

Football has changed my little boy into quite a young man and has also reinforced our teachings of responsibility and respect. His coaches have also incorporated weight lifting with their practices so tailEnd is getting really strong, I mean really strong. Looking at the teams line this past Thursday, it looked like tailEnd had some of the biggest calves on the team, he's also one of the bigger players. I kid you not, he grew a least a foot in the past year and he wears a size 12 shoe, and he's only 14!

Their first games this past week was a real eye opener and a big learning lesson for the boys. tailEnd is number '77' if you were wondering. He got a few good tackles and he jumped the line once, but as I said they are learning. We have to give them all a break, after all they are only freshmen, and I am sure they will show us all how awesome they really are in the next few years. I'll keep you all posted on how the team progresses. Let's hope for a growing season.


Love to All,


midRae

PS.....Yup I definitely could turn into one of those sports parents, you all know the ones I'm talking about, the obnoxious ones, yup that could be me so easily.

Growing Up.

It was just brought to my attention today that my baby, tailEnd, is growing up. But first I need to give you all a little background.

The past two weeks have been so busy. We have been getting tailEnd to football practice everyday and also getting midMan ready for the bow hunt. Then to add to the chaos my mom and dad have been married for 50 years and we are planning a nice little lunch and remembering for them this Saturday. Then we had to register tailEnd at two different schools and take care of fees at both of the schools. And the icing on the cake was midMan's dad having a heart attack this past Tuesday, and yes, he is going to be just fine, but like I said life has been so chaotic lately that some things just get forgotten.


Yes, I did it, I forgot something in all of that mess. It wasn't anything really major, just money so that tailEnd would be able to eat a little lunch each day. Sooooo, yesterday was the first day of school and it dawn's on me that he has no money and will get no lunch. Now this is tailEnd we are talking about and he is growing into a man. You know how 14 year old boys will down 2 gallons of milk at one sitting and eat the whole package of Oreo's with it, well that would be tailEnd times 2.

So I left work and ran over to his school to get him some money and the girls in the office just sent me to his gym class. Here he sits, listening to his teacher, being such a great kid and in walks, oh no, his mom. He just wanted to be sucked up by the floor. I told his teacher I needed to talk with the kid with the big hair, not even realizing that it may embarrass him. She sent him over to me and I gave him the money that he would need for the next two weeks and explained to him that this was all that he would get and once it was gone there would be no more until the two weeks had passed. He's all serious and say, 'OK, I got it mom.' Then he says in an inaudible whisper, 'No hug.' I said, 'What?', and he said, 'Don't hug me.' He was so cute I really did want to hug him at this point, but I restrained myself, just barely! I realized that the time had come, a little later than normal for most kids, that my baby is embarrassed by his mother. sniff sniff sniff How sad, and doesn't is just make you want to cry. Now that I think about it I should have done cartwheels across the floor to really embarass him.


Just a reminder to all of those parents out there. There will come a time in each of our children's lives when a hug, or holding their hand, or giving them a kiss, is just not cool anymore and we as parents need to resist the urge to just override their feelings. But keep in mind that when they are hurt or sad or just lonely they will always come to you and need that kiss, that hug, or to just be held by Mom.


Love to All,


midRae

4th of July Parade

OK, so this past weekend, as you all know, was the 4th of July. Now we as a family are not really into all of the parades and the all day park activities. We just don't really get into it, our family is usually up in the mountains camping, fishing, and hiking. But this year was different. tailEnd, our youngest, had to march in the parade with the Cedar Middle School Marching Band. One last opportunity for a good picture of him playing his Sousaphone for the last time.

This is the best one that I could get, pretty sad when you realize he will not be playing it ever again. At least not in the next year or two unless he decides to start playing it again. But between the heat and all of the other people wanting pictures and the fact that he was a moving target, I will just have to be happy with what I got.

Now the parade itself was not to bad, it just really seemed to be a great big section of the advertisement page in the newspaper. It was pretty awesome seeing all of the Veterans and to see all of us showing our love for our country but there really wasn't much else to see because of all of the people standing in our way. It was really funny. Here we are sitting there, midMan and I have our chairs, we are ready with water, and we are at what we thought would be a great spot. Then the crowds descended.

At first we were a little taken aback with all of the people standing around us, remember we are not parade people, but then we decided to just laugh it off. I even managed to nicely hand a girl back her balloon, which she was holding, which was bopping me about the head and face, I tell you I almost didn't survive the beating. And security was no help, they were only interested in getting free food from the Quizno's cup.

Then there was the family just to the right of us. Here they came with their 8 chairs and all their other stuff. The husband didn't want to block traffic from the cross walk but his wife insisted that it would be just fine. She then proceeded to leave, along with everyone else except the husband and one kid, left sitting there with 8 chairs to watch over. When another gentleman and his children went to walk through the crosswalk, Familyman decided to inform the gentleman that 'there was going to be kids sitting there, they could not stop there!!!' We though a fist fight was in the making. But the gentleman gave way and proceeded across the street to the other side, what Familyman didn't realize is that the gentleman was only using the cross walk not taking over his spot. When Familyman's wife finally returned with their 3 year old, no one else ever did return, she proceeded to stand in front of us for the entire time we were there and the chairs ended up just taking up space.

After tailEnd was done marching, and acquiring heat stroke along the way. We chose to go home halfway through the parade, which we couldn't see anyways, so that tailEnd could feel better for Fireworks later that night with Jordyn, his friend who just happens to be a girl. tailEnd even managed to throw up on the ride home, yum....... HASHBROWNS! Eeeewwwww!!!

Life was grand at this years 4th of July Parade. And one of the cutest things I saw was this little clown.


Love to All,


midRae

Munk Family Fishing

Aside from braving the 60 mile an hour winds and running from the rain, fishing this past weekend was a very serene and relaxing experience, as you can see in this picture of midMan at sunset. Oh we also caught tons of fish, to bad you can't eat them because of lead poisoning. But overall the time spent fishing at Enterprise Reservoir was so worth it.

Here's Grandma Munk with one of her many many catches. I am pretty sure she caught over 8 fish.

Here's PaPa Munk with one of his many catches. I really believe he was up there in the 2 digit count.

Here's midMan and his mom both with catches at the same time. It was like that all day. MidMan caught a total of 14 fish, and I promise this is no fish story. The second I threw out for the first time I had a fish on the line and I even almost got it to the bank. These fish were not huge, about 10 to 12 inches long, but they loved to fight. It was so awesome.

It hooked me into fishing again. I gave it up when the kids were little because it is definitely too, too hard to fish and keep the kids from getting tangled up in your line, going swimming, and getting pinched by crawdads all at the same time. I mean seriously, why do the men folk run off and leave it to us girls to keep the kids from drowning and eating the night crawlers?

Here's tailEnd with the first real catch of the day. He caught over 9 fish, when he wasn't getting mad at the reel. He really enjoyed himself. I think he got hooked too. We'll have to get him a better reel and pole so that he can enjoy himself the whole time.

Here's another one of PaPa trying to yank the guts out of the fish. We keep waiting, and I am sure that one day he will reel in only the guts, which he will have completely yanked out of the fish. Or go over backwards and split his head open on the rocks. Who can tell with PaPa. I have to tell you it is a blast to fish with the in-laws, they make it so much fun.

As you can tell we all had a great time and are looking forward to a lot more fishing.

Love To All,

midRae

Things to remember..................This first fish I ever caught was a pretty little thing. I thought, "Wow this could be fun." But then my dad decided to chase me up the hill with it. Since then I have had a love/hate relationship with fishing. It looks like we are now moving into another love phase of that relationship. Take you kids fishing. You will definitely have a blast and make millions of memories.

I Got My Fix!

Yeah!!!! I finally got my camping fix. To bad it wasn't long enough or quite as warm as we would have liked. Don't get me wrong it wasn't to cold but we did have to run the heater in the trailer and the tent at night. The one thing I have to say about camping is that it is so peaceful. I love to get away from all the noise of everyday life and sit back and enjoy what God has given us. I would spend my life sitting up in the mountains just taking in the beauty and peace of this world. Nothing can top that. Except for maybe my midMan.

Now on to a different point of view when it comes to camping.

ZOE!!!

Miss Zoe is the worlds sweetest little puppy. We have had her for about 12 years and I just can't get enough of her cute little face with it's big brown eyes that will plead with you for that last bite of your food. She is adorable. This camping trip she reminded us that she hates to be left behind by walking way in front of us when we would go for a walk. Every once in a while she would look back to make sure we were following her, especially when we would hit a road, then off she would go on her merry little way. She also decided on this trip to not listen to us. We think she was just paying us back for bringing Bella, midMan's little blind baby, into the picture.

Now the bad. Zoe likes to eat stuff. Any stuff she finds on the ground while camping is open for tasting. Even while taking walks or gathering wood, anything, and I mean anything, she finds looks good to her and is fair game for tasting and eating. This past weekend we will just say she found something so very disgusting that I almost made her sleep in the truck all alone. Eeeeeewwwwwwww!!! I did make her sit through a really good face washing which she definitely did not like but this was so gross. This girl needs some serious modification to her attitude when it comes to food and what tastes good. I just cringe at the thought of what she did even while I look into her big brown eyes and love her still. See, even midMan found it cringe inducing (holding Bella).

The whole family was able to join us which was wonderful. Here's Dayton and Shannel just before they had to leave. As you can tell by the picture Dayton had been up for 24 hours straight and decided he needed to go home and sleep in his own bed. He was beat. But I was so excited and happy to have them both join us.


Dion and Ada also came up for the experience, although Dion has determined that he would much rather camp over by Enterprise, in the heat, than on top of Cedar Mountain, in the cool. In this picture Dion is going for his best James Dean look, to bad tailEnd found his way into the picture.

Ada had a blast with Emery, as you can see. She would have danced with her all night if Emery's mom and dad would have let her.

And here is Emery's mom and dad, Amanda and Johnny. They are Dion and Ada's friends who came to join us on our camping trip. They brought S'More's!, which we were all thankful for, even Ada, who had never had one before and decided that they were just a little bit to sweet. Fun was had by all burning the marshmallows and eating the crispy remains.



I could have gotten some better pictures but I was always busy cooking or just sitting enjoying the peace and quiet or just taking a walk or just riding the 4wheelers and forgetting that yes Rae you do have a camera now. TailEnd also had a blast. And was so excited because he can now ride the 4wheelers by himself without getting into trouble after he took his OHV training course. Let's all join in his little celebration and dance a jig with him. Emery and Ada thought it was fun and exciting, too.

Over all we had a blast and midMan and I would love to go again this weekend, but alas, life interrupts us and makes us take care of all that other mundane stuff like the yard, and the house, and the bills, and the garden, and the kids, and everything else that life likes to throw in our way.

Love To All,

midRae

A Study In Frustration.

For three years our youngest, tailEnd, has played in his middle school band. We have watched him go from the Trumpet, to the Baritone, and finally to the Tuba. We have enjoyed watching him learn to play each instrument and to excel on them all. Through all of these changes we have managed to be to everyone of his band concerts. And have been so proud to call tailEnd our son.

Now you may be asking yourself, "What is so frustrating about that?". Well let me explain. Throughout the last three years we have never managed to take a camera with us. Either we had no camera, we just forgot the camera, or we figured out that our camera needed a lot of help, as in lets just bury it. We always thought, "Oh well, next time." After all this time I finally talked midMan into buying a new camera in January, a Nikon D60. I am still learning how to use it but I love that we have a great camera with so much potential. Now if only I would reach the same potential.

Now the really frustrating part. About two months ago we went to tailEnds last band concert. I forgot that I had a camera and left it at home. We were so sad at the thought that we would not get any pictures and didn't have enough time to run home and get the camera. You see, tailEnd has decided not to continue his career in band and wants to learn to play the guitar, and this, we thought, would be our last chance for pictures.

Then God smiled down on us and the band had one last concert a week before school let out. I was so excited. I was going to get some pictures of tailEnd playing the Tuba. And he has always been placed in the best position. As we would sit and face the band he has always been on our right side, on the last row, at the very end. Perfect picture position! Yeah!!!

Frustration has arisen. For this last concert the leaders decided to change things up and put the JV band on our right side and the Varsity band, which he is in, on our left. This placed tailEnd in the very back. As far from the camera as you could get. I wanted to scream. The one and only time I have a camera and they put him in the back. AAAHHHHHHH!!!

And then to top it all off, every time I would get him in my sights one of the kids in front of him would move in front of him, as you can see from the great blur in the middle of the picture above. I finally just had to give up. I think I ended up taking about thirty pictures and the ones your see are the best I could come up with.

Good thing he had that big curly head so that I could at least find him in the bunch.

Love Always,

midRae

Things To Remember.......................You all may not know this but back in my youth, 7th grade, I was given the opportunity to learn an instrument. I choose the flute and have loved the sound ever since. It's music just speaks to me and I love to sit and listen and to pick out the sound of the flute. It's music can be so sweet and sorrowful at the same time. It can make you see and feel joy and happiness and then just as easily make you see and feel the haunting sound of loneliness and sorrow. I was unable to continue playing the flute but I am so thankful that I did get the opportunity. I don't think I would have appreciated it's sound if I had never gotten the chance.

OUR GARDEN

15 years ago I tried to grow a garden in the middle of the desert in St. George, Utah. I planted my corn in May when I should have planted it in February. It only grew to be 2 feet tall and the Rolie Polies decided that they would have a feast of the rest of my little garden. At that point I decided that apparently I had a black thumb and I should never ever attempt to grow another living thing outside. Pots in the house are good but getting any where near the outdoors with a living plant and the Rolie Polies line up for a feast. You would think that I would have learned.


But.........

As you can see we have decided to attempt it again. Only this time we have decided to armor plate our planting area. We have planted our garden in an old water heater that had been turned into a trough. I talked midMan into letting me use it. He was planning on putting it in the mountains by a spring so that he could have a good spot to deer hunt. He has two of them so I am hoping I can keep this one. But I digress. We are hoping this will keep the Rolie Polies at bay. But you never know, I have found them upstairs in my house. I really believe that they are my nemesis.


We have planted jalapenos.


And tomatoes. With salsa in our mind. Hot, spicy, homemade and yummy.

We have even planted some Zucchini. We are being quite adventurous here.

Our neighbors gave us a few strawberries last year and they seem to be taking off this year. Hopefully we will get a few good ones.

But I really believe that the saving grace for our garden this year and the only thing that will make it grow and prosper is our youngest son, tailEnd, playing Guitar Hero World Tour to our garden. You know they say that music will make your garden grow. Let's hope it keeps the Rolie Polies (savage beasts that they are) away, too.

Love Always,

midRae

Things to Remember.......................Growing up my mom had a huge strawberry patch. I can remember sitting in the middle of it and eating strawberries until I was sick. I loved that strawberry patch and was so sad the day we sold the house. The new owners got to keep the strawberries and my mom never planted any more. Hopefully ours will prosper and grow and I can go sit in the middle of it and eat until I am sick. But this time I think I will take some fat free whipped topping with me. Yum!!