Top 3 Reasons Father's Day Doesn't Exist Publicly

3. Our ward didn't have a Father's Day talk (Which is, in fact, preferable to the usual topic assigned to situations such as this, namely, "The Father's Day Lecture").

2. There were no little gifts at church for the Dads. I once went to a ward in Monterey that has a tradition every Mother's Day to set up brunch in the gym served by all males young men age or older in the ward. Ward Father's Day tradition: none.

1. Wal-mart didn't have a Father's Day display anywhere, and if Wal-mart doesn't recognize it, does it really exist? I happen to know that every single other holiday is represented at Wal-mart, since I am always there, with huge displays, including non-holidays such as St. Patrick's Day. The obvious conclusion is that Father's Day is an underground movement and not a publicly recognized day.

I'm sure there are more reasons, but I think I've made my argument pretty well. The question I am now asking is this:

Is it really that hard for us to show appreciation for our hard working Dad's once a year? Maybe we should make the holiday a tri-anual event so we don't over-tax ourselves. I mean this constant ordeal of wrapping a box and signing a card... Are we expected to do this yearly? Apparantly not, since the holiday isn't real anyway.

Wonder Child

Well, Alli has graduated from Pre-school. She loved every minute of it, even though she already knew how to read two years ago when she started. That's one of the things I love so much about her. She is insanely smart and yet has no qualms about learning letters with the rest of the kids. I don't think she really understands how amazing she is, and, frankly, I'd like to keep it that way.

The other day I walked into her bedroom to find her finishing up the last page of a Nancy Drew book my Mom bought her. I told her Alli liked the elementary school version called ''The Clue Crew" but apparantly she didn't know what I meant and bought the "Mystery in the Old Clock Tower" instead. It was 135 pages of old english. Well, not like Chaucer old, but you know what I mean. Being of a skeptical nature, I sat down and quizzed her. She told me all about the secret passage way and the ghost that wasn't really a ghost. Where did this kid come from? She is five right? I didn't mistake her birthday? Or maybe she is related to Benjamin Button.

Anyway, she astounds me. I don't know what to do with her, but I love her to bits.

Mendel visits my Garden

Purple Pea flowers? Every other pea plant I have ever seen has white flowers. What the heck? My snap peas have white flowers and pea pods everywhere, but there are only two tiny pods on this entire purple plant. So the question I am asking is, what am I growing? I guess all Mendel can really tell me is that the hybrid of my two plants cannot have pink flowers next year. Great news. I was so worried.

At least my strawberries are producing this year after a pesticide mishap last year that nearly killed them off. I don't want to name names, but... Okay, it was me. I did it. This year they are healthy, although I'm not exactly getting buckets of berries. Next year will be awesome...

I'm tyring some new things this year as well, like corn and pumpkin. The weather has been so rainy, so I hope they do okay. Almost everything I planted loves heat. Still waiting for the heat-75% above average rainfall is not my idea of an ideal summer either. Here is Maddie helping plant the garden earlier this year:
And here is the carrot, broccoli, and onion box a few months later: Gardening is so fun, but it really tries my patience. I can't believe it takes so long! I think it's the anticipation that makes the vegetables taste better when you finally eat them.

My Belated Easter Post

I broke our camera, so I took some pictures with my Mom's camera and then had to figure out how to transfer them to my computer. There were too many cords to keep track of... We spent Easter at Ty's house this year, and Jack bought lots of candy for an egg hunt. Ty filled and hid the eggs on the front lawn and did a spectacular job, if I do say so myself. Jim and Tamara came down, and I brought a ham. It was a lot of fun to spend the day with everyone.We did the Easter photo shoot at my Mom's house on Saturday and colored some eggs. The Easter bunny brought sunglasses, which Alli is modeling below:

Attacking Squirrels and other Misadventures

After a much needed break from society (no offense to those reading), I feel like myself again. My alter ego, "Mean Mom" is gone, replaced by a kinder, gentler person who I forgot existed. Vacations really are the best.

We spent the first two days in St. George with our friends the Nelsons and the Andertons and then drove to Zion for the last day of our trip. I love hiking in Zion so much. It's not really strenuous, and that's why I think I like it so much. The girls were ecstatic playing in the dirt and climbing up on the rocks. Every time we go to Zion, we have to hike up to the trail head of the Narrows so Ty can jump in the frigid water and re-prove his daringness. It was a little chilly this year, so I wasn't sure he was up for it. Plus, five minutes after we got there, the river claimed one kid's flip flop and no one was brave enough to jump in and fight for it. That little shoe is still out there somewhere, probably making a new home for an attack squirrel, but I'll get to that. After lunch, yes, Ty did get in the river.

Here he is keeping tradition and going all the way under:
But, wait! There go his flip flops. He's got to swim now, but me and about thirty other people watching know they're goners.

Look how fast that water is moving. You can see Ty up in the left corner climbing out in defeat. Oh, how little faith I have. Ty found the flip flops after all! I could not believe it.

Some of you are wondering why I couldn't get one shot of Ty and his feet together, and that is a very good question. Like I said, I was in shock and still planning my "you're hiking barefoot because I am not going home" speech.

Other entertaining misadventures of the day included lunch cave-man style. We had to hover over the food and keep a constant watch. The squirrels in Zion, you see, are well fed on trail mix, and they have gotten very brave. I was kicking them away from my lunch all day, and I swear one of them figured out how to unzip my backpack and pull out the crackers I hid there. I came over to find the guilty little guy with his head four inches deep in cracker heaven, and the funniest part was that he didn't run away in shame and fear when I nudged his head with my foot. Doesn't that violate some sort of squirrel code? Absolutely no human contact from closer than two feet. The ones in the real wild seem to abide by it.

Anyway, we had some good laughs. Now I'm wondering where we can go next for cheap.

Something for Nothing

Today I would like to make a tribute to free stuff. I love free stuff! When I first started couponing, it seemed to take forever before something was free. Finally, after two months, excedrin went on sale and it was free. I had to go to three stores to find it in stock, but I was determined to get something for nothing. That was almost a year ago, and I still have three of them sitting proudly on my shelf. I can't bear to use them because they've become sentimental to me. I'm a nut, I know.

But last week I could barely keep up with all the stuff that was free. I even missed out on some things because I just couldn't get to the store to "buy" them. In conference last week they called the "something for nothing" attitude prideful, and it's so true. But honestly, if you call driving around to eight stores and fastidioulsy storing away coupons like a certified pack rack nothing, then so be it. Judge me how you will. I can take it. I'll just be at home eating my free stuff and thinking about how much money is still in my grocery budget.

Pictured above:
$30 worth of albertson's deli meat
8 croissants
2 dozen eggs
5 quaker rice cakes
3 dial hand soaps
5 bags of halls cough drops
8 mentos gum packages
5 wrigley's gum packages

Plus there were the six boxes of post cereal, the $18 ham, and the 4 packages of diapers, but I ran out of room on my table... All free, free, free.