One of the Few Sports I Love

This is why I love skiing.

Where else can you get these views without the massive physical exhersion of hiking it all the way to the top. Okay, I take that back. I do like hiking.

But, I do like taking the tram up to get these views again, and again, and again all in the same day.

So, with this being Kimberly's second year of skiing, she got good enough to ski the back side of Snowbasin where this fabulous view is at. It was thrilling. Too bad the snow wasn't so thrilling - slush galore. Let's hope next year's skiing is a little better. Only next year Kimberly won't get a freebie ski pass anymore from the state of Utah. But Alicia will!

If you look close enough, to the right is Hill Air Force Base, where John works!

Ant and a Gun.

Really.

Here's the ant part -

Alicia made a cute ant puppet for her drama play at school. The girls wrote it themselves. It was so cute!

Here's the ant she made.

And here's Alicia with the other two girls she wrote the play with - albeit a blurry picture (I blame the camera, not the camera operator, of course)

And now for the gun portion of our entry.
Now that Kimberly is 12, she is old enough to go shooting with John and Grandpa Rimington.
They started her off with a gun safety class, then got to do this:

Being her first time and all, she did really well:

Let the pain begin...

Lucky Kimberly gets to enjoy these lovely things for the next couple of years...

The poor girl has zilcho room in her mouth for some of the permanent teeth she has coming in. We finally found an orthodontist with a plan we liked. The first guy wanted to pull 4 of her permanent teeth and put her in braces for 3 years!

No, we did not reschedule with that guy. This orthodontist had a plan for making more space for the teeth - no pullage of teeth whatsoever, and could do it in only 2 years. We were definitely on board, though our pocket book is in serious rebel mode paying for them babies.

Speaking of changes for Kimberly, she is now registered for junior high this fall. Can we say....Aaacckkk!!! I had some serious panic attacks when I realized she is that much older. She also started attending young women's. That certainly didn't help things.

So, if you see me staring off into space trying to come to grips with how fast time is flying by, you'll know why...

{St. Patty's Day}

I never - and I do mean never - get into the spirit of St. Patty's day.

That is, until this year. I decided to make green pancakes. The girls were thrilled, as I repeat, this never happens.

I thought I would record this for my posterity to see so I have actually proof that it occurred in case it never happens again.

My ever-so-helpful pancake-making assistants.

I'm ALIIIVE!!

There have been some murmurings that I haven't posted in awhile. A great while apparently, so here I am with another post...

In a nutshell, we've done a lot of blog-worthy things, but I haven't posted because some of them would be repeat blog posts from years-previous, so in a nutshell:

* Kimberly and I have been skiing a couple of times, taking advantage of her freebie 6th-grade pass. Fun-times as always. Except the last time, the ski chair totally rammed into the side of my head because duh, I didn't turn to see it fast enough. Don't worry - they patched me up good with lots of band aids, and I signed all the paperwork saying I wouldn't sue them.

* Kimberly has been a busy lady of late - I'll post more about that later.

* And of course, the usual help with homework, cleaning the house, laundry, cooking dinner, making lunches, writing stories, grocery shopping...you know, the fun-things that generally take up most of my days.

What I did want to post about specifically, was this...

Have I mentioned that I love my job? I love being a stay-at home mom, taking care of my girls, while also getting to write about unique stories from the computer desk in our family room. Often though, a story will require actually going to the event. Thankfully, my editor allows me to take my kids with me - with Natalie in preschool, often it's just Megan. This was one of those stories where I got to bring both girls to a regional robotics competition down in Salt Lake with 43 schools from 9 different states where they used their $5,000 to $10,000 robots to shoot basketballs and teams with the most baskets garnered the most points.

Due to the nature of balls flying through the air and very expensive robots in the pit area, I had to have a press pass, a personal authorization from the regional director, and of course, sexy goggles. I had to chuckle when the guy handing me the goggles looked to my two 'writing assistants,' and not-so-happily informed me he would try and find some smaller goggles for them. Oops. Guess this was one of those stories I should have left them behind with my dear friends.

Anway, I didn't come out of that experience thinking I would write a blog posting, but as I have reflected on my experience, I am amazed at the things I learned from the high school students that I now want to share with you.

If you want to bypass my post and just read the story, here is the link: http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/03/15/woods-cross-high-team-calculating-how-win-robotics-contest

Otherwise, feel free to read on:

Here's the thing. These teams are competing against each other. You win, you move on to nationals, so you have the upper hand if your opposing team's robot isn't working, right?

This is not how they think. As I stood and watched the Woods Cross High School team frantically working to drill holes in their robot to drop it's weight so they could compete, I found out they were borrowing another team's drill. A team that might lose to this Woods Cross High team thanks to their help.

Last year, one team was missing a critical piece to get their robot to work, so a call was placed over the intercom, and another team happened to have a spare critical piece they shared. That very team borrowing the spare part succeeded in beating the team who lent them the part.

I love that story of pure Christ-like service and the ability to give of all you have. It was happening all over the place as these teams madly tried to get their large financial investments working. A call for duct tape, screws, you name it was being announced over the intercom, and you better believe that the teams got what they needed in a moments notice - all from other teams.

The story went even further. In the competition, three teams with their robots compete against three other teams' robots. So in one round, you might be working with one team, and in the very next round be competing against them. At the end of each round, they had to try and balance their robots on a see-saw-like platform. If they could work with the opposing teams well enough and get both sides robot's on the platform, they earned oodles of extra points.

Now that is what I'm talking about when it comes to a healthy sporting competition.

Here's one of the teams working on their robot in preparation for a competition - you can see the baskets the robots shoots basketballs towards.

I love my job. It makes me see how many wonderful Christ-like people are out there - and you know what? It's usually kids I learn the most from. Remind me to post about the two high schools I covered last Christmas who each raised $10,000 for a local charity. Talk about Christ-like service.

Adventures in a Piercing Shop

It had come time for me to take my oldest daughter in for the obligatory rite of passage for many young girls - that of getting her ears pierced. Being the strict parents that we are, we made her wait until turning 12.

The day of tortuous waiting finally arrived for Kimberly last Saturday. I did my homework to determine the best place to get the procedure done, so I did what I do best and made a list of the options.

1) The obvious jewelry store in the mall.
2) Um, .... I guess I'll go with the jewelry store as I can't think of any other ----
3) WAIT - I wonder if a pediatric doctor would do it?
4) Nope. Just got off the phone with the dr. office. Of course they didn't come right out and say it, but I know what they're thinking. I'm one of those mothers.
5) Okay, so that brings me back to option one (and 2), though I seemed to recollect reading somewhere that piercing shops will pierce ears - and they're better at it than the jewelry shop, so I heard.

Three tattoo/piercing shop phone calls later, I was directed to 'the pros' in Salt Lake at the Koi Piercing Studio- apparently the oldest piercing shop in the area with the finest piercers around. Music to my daughters un-pierced ears.

After packing up all forms of id, birth certificates, and notarized forms of consent (okay, maybe not that one, but we did need the other two), we were off to one of the more interesting sides of town in Salt Lake City.

Okay, at this point, especially for those of you who know we're Mormon, where tattooing and piercings other than one on each ear is not really up our alley, why the heck (yes, I do use Mormon slang at times) didn't I just take her to the jewelry store in the mall - wouldn't that have been much easier?

I know, i know. When we set foot in the shop, I was wondering the same thing too, but only for about a second because I had some very good reasons for having her ears pierced at this particular place. Mind you, my ears aren't pierced, so I have nothing to compare it to, but over the years, I have heard horror stories of inexperienced jewelry shop employees getting the piercings crooked, and the plethora of infections that have come from said piercings, not to mention the extreme pain of a piercing gun. Now why in the world would I expose my daughter to that?

I was sold the moment I found out this piercing studio doesn't even come close to using a piercing gun. Just the thought of it makes my ears tingle. Instead, they use a far less painful version: razor sharp needles they sterilize right in the room. They also use implant-grade titanium, leading to far less infections over the ones used at jewelry shops. I would expect they know a thing or two about, um, piercings in a wide variety of places, right?

The moment had arrived.

Wa-La! Finally, Kimberly has the pierced ears she has been dying to have over the years.
I would go back to this place in a heart-beat.
If you need your ears pierced, I know just the place...