Tub Phones

What a week. What a week.

There is much to be learned as a parent, and much, I am convinced we will never learn, no matter how many times we are given the opportunity to do so. One of those lessons is patience. Don't tell me you are a patient parent - you are fibbing - perpetuating a lie that has been passed on from generation to generation. Don't tell me that as you watch in silent horror as your three year turns your $300 phone into a bath-time U-boat you are able to keep it together. I don't call your 3 seconds of stunned I-have-lost-all-voluntary-muscle-control patience. I call that divine intervention. God knows that your initial knee jerk reaction is to reach out and take hold of the little perp and try your best to turn him into a human satellite. So he has built into you a small window of time for two purposes, one, so your child can register the signs of imminent doom spelled out on your face and make a hasty retreat, and two, washing your person over with such a strong dose of apoplectic rage that any energy you may have had to cause bodily harm is instanly lost into the comos. It is at that point that my "patience" has taken over. My jaw is working madly to produce the words that my mind hasn't been able to come up with allowing me to only croak a defeated "Why?"... At this point, from a semi-safe distance, the child, we'll call him Tyler, suddenly is able to produce near teenage sophistication and sass, folding his arms while exclaiming. "Don't talk to me! I'm having some hard of times". Indeed, we all had some hard of times at that particular moment.

Does anyone out there have a cheap old T-mobile phone that is sitting around that they might be willing to sell me? I am not buying anything nice or fancy until my children are a bit older - say, out of the house. I am serious about the buying a phone part though.

As the last post stated, we have all had our moments of illness this last week. Most of us are on the mend now except for the lingering cough and runny nose. We have been enjoying the warmer temperatures and break from the snow though. Maybe there is hope of spring right around the corner after all this winter.

On a darker note, one of my co-workers passed away suddenly this week. She was only in her 40's and was found by another one of my co-workers who was going to her home to pick her up for work. I was standing next to my boss, while he was on the phone with the guy who found her at the moment it happened. It was a sad traumatic experience for everyone in my office. I wish her family the best at this difficult time.

Tate is crying in the other room and since Deanne and the boys are out sledding in the slush, I suppose I had better be a responsible father. Take care all.

The "Meanest Parents at the Circus"

So... On Saturday about 2:00pm we arrived at the Jordan World Circus who was performing in Ogden at the Golden Spike Arena. We went with our good friends Amy and Aaron Hancock and Kids. We had been talking about going all week. Amy had recieved a coupon in the mail that said, "your whole family can see the amazing circus for only $16.00!" So, we thought, "Wow that is a terrific price. Let's go!" So I began to search through all of our mail and even go through the garbage to try to find this beloved coupon. I had no luck in finding it, so Amy said that her coupon said you could get this same coupon at any Walgreens. So, I packed up the kids and headed to our nearest Walgreens store. We walked through the doors and Tyler announced to the whole store, "We are going to the circus. Can you give us our tickets now?" The lady at the counter completely broke Tyler's little heart when she said they did not have the coupons and had not even heard of them. So, I called the Golden Spike Arena. The lady who answered couldn't tell me a whole lot more other than we might find these coupons at a Stop-n-Shop or we could arrive at the arena 3 hours early to get tickets but that they would be full price. It was the day of and I had still had no luck in locating a coupon. I started calling all the Walreen and Stop-n-Shop stores in the phone book only to find that they had each given away their last coupons the night before. So I called Amy to tell her of our bad luck. She said that she had just been talking to a neighbor who had seen some coupons for this very circus at the 7-Eleven up the street just last night. So I called and they had 10 left. So... we were good to go. So back to when we arrived 1 hour before the circus was to begin. We get there only to realize that our coupons were only for the kids to get in free but adults would have to pay full price at $16 each. Good thing we had the coupons however, because the kids would have been $10 each. So we begrudgingly paid our $30 and headed in. When we get inside, the kids are instantly so excited because there are pony rides, elephant rides, big blow up slides, and face painting. What more could a kid want? We get down into the arena only to find out you have to purchase more tickets to do these things. So we head to the ticket booth and are told that the tickets are $6 each. "OK we'll take 2." The lady then asks which ride we want it for. "What?" "It is $6 per ride." "$6 to ride 1 pony, or 1 elephant? How many time do they get to go down the blow up slide?" "They can go down 4 times." "Are you kidding?" How do you explain to your kids why every other kid there is having fun and his parents are too "cheap"? So we took our crying kids to their seats and told them the show would start in just a few minutes and that it would be awsome. So the show began, and it was definately entertaining and the kids really did seem to enjoy it, that is until they saw that every other kid was waving a glow in the dark Light Saver sword. So we say, "OK, we will check it out at half time. At half time, I leave to feed Tate and Dan takes the boys to check things out. I come back just before the show is to begin again to find that the boys did not have any coveted Light Savers but were happily sitting in their seats excited to see more elephant tricks. I looked at Dan, who looked at Tracen who said, "The Light Savers were $10 so we got this yummy bubble gum and Daddy said we would get some cotton candy when the show starts again." I still do not know what magical spell Dan put on our children, but I guess it proves that kids really can be happy with the simplest of things. The rest of the show really was entertaining for the kids. I however, came home from it with a terrible cold, fever, and a massive headache from the sinus pressure and loud music. My loving husband put me right to bed and even called substitutes for both of my resposibilities at church the next day. Yeah I was pretty pathetic. So now we all have very yucky coughs, stuffy noses, and sore throats. Our house is quarantined until further notice.
***So the moral of this story is: Do not be as uneducated about the circus as we were. IF you decide that the circus would be a life changing event for your children, DO NOT leave home without several hundred dollars in your pocket. Or.. at least ask Dan which magic spell book he used and the type of feather he has in his wand.
P.S. We also forgot our camera,(in true Dan Dee fashion) so there are no pictures of our kids doing... Oh wait, they didn't do anything to take pictures of. So...never mind.