june

Its been a busy week, moving preparations, papers, tests.   Last week  I had a paper to write on "Research a pathology an how it relates to massage therapy.   Wasn't sure where to start so I googled "what's your favorite pathology/" " I got a med-student survey.  Hematological pathologies turned up number one, but not as interesting to a massage therapy student as neurological pathologies, which turned up number two.

Neurological pathologies seemed like a good choice to me. I don't remember why I ever became interested in massage therapy.  About twenty years ago when I was in college it just occurred to me that it might be some way that I could be helpful to people.  My hands have a slight tremor, which kind of drives me crazy at times. Massaging other people seemed to sooth my hands as well. So before too long I had a small core of volunteer clientele, including some athletes.  I looked around for a massage therapy school, but at that time the only campus was in Salt Lake City and I didn't think I had time to travel back and forth.  Enough about that for now.

So I wrote a short paper on Parkinson's disease.  It was interesting to learn that Parkinson's disease patients muscles, because of the constant tremor, experience the same intensity of muscle contractions as many athletes, so of course massage therapy can be beneficial, both in soothing the central nervous system and in lengthening and relaxing the muscles.  It would also be interesting to research whether or not massage can affect the dopamine production at all.

So aside from school, the younger kids are adjusting to summer camp at the daycare center. Even Sophie goes now. She is very social with the other babies. The teacher said she tries to take their toys away.  I'm not surprised.  William adjusted too and is shy in the morning but acting like the big man on campus in the evenings.  The girls keep busy with their friends swimming and playing dance games on the x-box.  They are asking me about playing soccer in the fall.

Here's a night the kids made dinner for us.  Sam made some amazing bread sticks and bbroccoli soup. Bethany and Ben helped with that too.

Sam spent the week on the stake Pioneer Trek in Wyoming.  I was grateful to see him get off the bus with a huge smile on his face.  It turns out he loved pulling a handcart. The youth leaders were calling him "the Clydesdale."

And here's a picture of  Sunday evening two weeks ago . Ben and William and bowls of ice cream.

Ben

It felt great to do some celebrating last weekend.  Ben turned thirteen.  I'm grateful for Ben in my life.  His help around the house, with the cleaning...my dish expert, with the little kids, his company and charming, fun personality...our music lover and artist... are my survival.  I am grateful for his nightly hugs, one-armed,  teenager, mom-might-have-cooties hugs, but predictably I get offered two or three before bed each night and I love them.

Festivities began the day before at the movies.  The girls saw Judy Moody and the big boys and I saw Super 8.  Sam had been following every bit of  Super 8 Internet news possible for the past year.  We all loved it.  I cried. That's not so surprising.

I was grateful that I happened to have the day off from massage therapy clinic on Ben's big day.  I made the kids help me out with our move preparations in the morning, because I'm mean.  At noon Ben opened presents and then went off to lunch to celebrate joint birthdays with Granddad.

In the evening we used our Pass of all Passes at Trafalga in Lehi.

Judy and Jeremy and the cousins met us there.  They have the Pass of all Passes too, so I'm excited about fun prospects for the summer.

I'm not sure Sam will fit in that boat next time we go.

Quick dinner.

This might look more fun than it was.  After dinner Grandma Martha and I took the kids to Orem Summerfest. We had been watching it go up for days.  We bought a bunch of tickets and stood in a line that was only moving imperceptibly.  Too many people was the consensus so we started back to the van, just as the fireworks began.  Then to find out that I half of my children are terrified of fireworks at close range.  They claimed post-traumatic stress syndrome from living with haphazard Beijing local Chinese New Year pyrotechnics.  We tried to explain that there was surely more mathematical calculation involved with these, to no avail.  So my kids don't all have my carnival loving, firework loving, crowd loving gene. The things I impose upon my children.

We got home late but made time for sparklers and Ben's request, Oreo Pie.  Happy birthday Ben.

last week of school

The last week of May was also the last week of school. There was a lot going on for everyone and school going on for me, so this year I missed out on most of it.  Tuesday Olivia's class presented songs.  I picked up Sam at lunch and dropped him off so he could attend.  Olivia was happy to have Rob there as well.  He took the big kids to the U2 concert in the evening.  They said it was amazing.

The kids had field day Thursday and it was Sam's last day of middle school and his eight grade trip to Lagoon....twice in one month! Lucky. 

I thought Friday morning was beautiful.

This was the last mad dash to the school bus of the year.

Friday was early out for the kids and I didn't have school so we had lunch in the park.

Friday evening we were all back to baseball.  I love that we all go together.

up-do, weather, william love

More of Ben's pictures. I can't resist.

It's my blog, so I indulge in William love.

This one looks so much like Ben when he was two.

Sunday May 21, a fun day for the girls.  The home teachers bought them a make-over at the ward auction.  Thier friends' mom was the artist.  We planned it for Sunday morning so they could show off at church. I almost cried when I saw them!

My poor girls are lucky to get a ponytail out of me.

In the afternoon, the weather was wonderful.  Finally something like spring.

It was a happy day.

Back to breakfast night made us happy too.