Safe and Sound!

Dallin's school was evacuated yesterday. The school district received a bomb threat - a phone call saying that a bomb would go off at a certain time. The caller didn't say which school was the target, so as a precaution, all the schools in the district were evacuated. Bomb-sniffing dogs swept the schools, but didn't find anything. It turns out it was all a prank.

Now I'm not one to dwell on the what-might-have-beens. Nobody was hurt. There was no bomb. Nothing happened yesterday that is going to scar any of those kids for life. But today I've still been thinking...

I've been thinking about Dallin's first day of Kindergarten and that that sick feeling I had in my stomach as he walked through the doors of the school building. Somehow over time that feeling went away and I don't even think twice when he rushes through those same doors. I've always trusted the school, the teachers, and the administration to watch out for him. And so far they've done that. I have no complaints.

But after the events that took place yesterday, I've been thinking that something like this could happen here. Bad things could happen in this small town that are out of my hands. I guess it shouldn't take a bomb threat for me to come to this realization, but I've always felt so safe here. Apparently I've been too naive.

It was so nice to give Dallin a hug and bring him back home again. I guess the bottom line is that it really does feel good when we're all home at the end of the day - safe and sound! Now will someone please remind me that I said that the next time the kids are fighting or running around acting like maniacs? Please? Because I guarantee I'll forget all about it the next time they're acting like this:

Easter Recap

Sundays are usually a madhouse around here. It was so nice to take a break yesterday and actually enjoy our "day of rest" for a change.



The Easter festivities began last weekend at Grandma & Grandpa 'Drickson's egg hunt. Then Grandma 'Gumry had her egg hunt on Saturday. The kids had both had parties at school during the week, so by the time the Easter Bunny hit our house the last thing they needed was another boatload of candy. Of course, that's exactly what they got. I've decided I'm going to send the big bunny my dental bill for all the cavities he's so generously provided. He he he.

Since our church wasn't until Sunday afternoon, we had plenty of time for a little egg decorating in the morning. We decorated some at Grandma's on Saturday, but the kids wouldn't let me forget that I had promised we could do some at home...and a promise is a promise you know.

Dallin went to work with his big box of crayons, carefully planning what each egg would look like beforehand. He even drew lines showing where one color would end and the next would begin.



Gracie was all about the stickers. She had to dye each egg to perfectly coordinate with the color of the chosen sticker.



Something about Dallin's two front teeth and the bunny's lack of those same teeth made me smile when I saw this picture. (You may have to click on the picture for the full effect.)



The finished works of art. Look at all those pretty colors. I hope Adam appreciates it since he is the only one around here who will actually eat them. Bon apetite!

Happy Easter!

This will be a quick post. I just wanted to say:



My morning meetings were cancelled, so I got to stay home and spend time with my family before church today. I could get used to that! We were even early for our church meetings. That never happens!

I have some photos to post tomorrow, but for now I'm off to spend some more time with the fam.

I Was SOOOO Mad!

Earlier today, I was so mad! I really was. And it was over something so silly. Then I saw Gracie's book sitting in a basket in the kitchen and it made me smile.

I felt just like the little critter in the book. He wanted to run away from home, but then his friends invite him to go play ball. He decides that maybe he'll run away tomorrow...if he's still mad.

So I put on some of my favorite Sunday music, snuggled the kids, and read stories to Gracie. Then I decided to stay up late and scrapbook. While I was at it, I decided to give the old a blog a makeover. I'm feeling MUCH better now. Maybe, just maybe I won't run away after all. At least not today.

Adam bought me a laptop for Christmas, but it has taken me a while to get it up and running so I could scrap on it. I still have a couple things to work out, but it looks like I'm back in business. These are the first pages I've scrapped since November or December.

Gina at Digital Design Essentials sent me her newest kit this morning and this is what I did with it:



Then I did this one:


This was the parent observation day in karate class. The kids got to break boards for the first time while we were watching. Dallin broke his on his first try. Shocking, I know.

It's now the middle of the night. I should really be sleeping since it looks like tomorrow is going to be another crazy day. I've got to get some eggs early tomorrow morning. Gracie needs hard boiled eggs for school and when I went to boil some, I discovered we had a single egg in the carton. Yay! It's also my morning to go to help in Dallin's class. He was home from church sick today, but I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be better tomorrow. We just received "the letter" from his school about his attendance record since we took him out for a whole week to go to Disneyland. What kind of a parent am I anyway?

Yup, I really needed that "scrap therapy" tonight.

Back to Life....Back to Reality!

We returned earlier this week from a 9-day vacation to Southern California and Disneyland. We had a blast, but now it's back to reality...laundry, grocery shopping, dinners, bills, homework, Relief Society, etc.

I came home to a few too many messages on the answering machine. DH just laughed when he saw how many there were and said, "Have fun with that. They're all for you!" Nice!

Then early this morning a sweet lady from church lost her husband, so now I'm busy planning a funeral luncheon for her family of 150. I love her dearly and I'm happy to help her and her family, but funerals always have a way of turning my life upside down.

Dallin finished almost all his make-up work from missing 5 days of school. He's working on a book about his trip to California, but he needs me to print some pictures before he can finish. I'll post some of them here and give a little update on our trip when I get them done. I've gotta get this funeral luncheon under control first.

It looks like I'll need another vacation soon to recover from the week I'm having. The to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer.

The weather in CA was unusually warm for this time of year...mid 80's a couple of days and upper 70's the others. That gorgeous sunshine made it that much more difficult to come home to our frigid 30 degree weather.

I took these pics before we left. This is the kind of weather we're enjoying back home. (Insert rolling eyes here.)

The snow is taller than our trampoline and almost as tall as the top of the slide on the kids' swingset. I was already wishing for Spring, but that warm California sunshine has made these freezing temps feel even colder than they did before we left.

Well, I guess I better get back to that growing to-do list.

As they say on the Winnie the Pooh ride, "Ta ta for now!"