Salaygoos Salaymah

Day 7

Curse you Stephenie Meyers!  I failed to take pictures the last couple of days and I feel like I missed out on getting the “first day of green” shot.  I have no idea when the first blades shot up but here they are.

There were some areas of the yard that looked a little thin on mulch so we called Grass Master (our very friendly hydro-seed guys) and they came back and resprayed our yard (mostly mulch, very little seed).  I don’t think that will affect the project.  The extra mulch shouldn’t stunt or delay the growth of the original seed.

Day 7

So far were pretty pleased with what’s happening.

What do Karl Malone, Mormon Pioneers and SJZ have in common all day today?

We went bowling in Heber after lunch today.  We set the game up in order of birthdays: MTN, OMN, SJZ, MTN2 (and HEN bowled with SJZ).  Our first five rolls - one each and MTN’s second - were all strikes!  It was pretty awesome.  All the boys broke 100, and SJZ got ripped off by a malfunctioning gate, so she lost a frame.  Surely it would have been a strike putting her over 100.  On Monday, we went to the skate park here in town.  On Tuesday we went swimming.  On Wednesday we went to the library.  And today, bowling.  That’s a pretty good week for us.  Hopefully, we’ll get our Nashville trip pictures soon and we can post them.

The boys dressed up as pirates after church today. The nice thing there is we can pass off their violence and agression as ‘playing the part.’

One of the big Christiansen twins (who were practically conjoined they were so close to each other) once told me that they had a fist fight with each other every day of their life until they turned 16.

It’s hard to watch Miles and Owen being mean to each other so often, but those big Christiansens give me hope that they’ll figure out eventually how lucky they are to have each other.

Vicki claims that the boy walked last week, but I just saw the first true amble (not just a step step crash). The baby is no longer a baby. Now if we can just get him to strap himself into his own car seat….

You know, car seats are the reason people have smaller families than they did in the 70s. In 1979, if you needed milk from the store (because the milk man could only fit four jugs in the box on your porch and your seven children consumed all of it too soon), you could say, “Everybody in,” and all seven kids would pile themselves into the station wagon. Then you’d leave them in the car to fight over the window seats and wheel wells while you ran inside to get the leche. Nowadays, it takes 30 minutes to get two or three kids strapped into the car (after the 30 to get them dressed and clean). The kids are more unruly (albeit safer) because they are strapped down for the ride. Then when you get there, it’s 90 degrees outside, so you can’t just leave them in the car while you run inside…. Add Global Warming to the list of reasons people are having smaller families. If any of you are anthropologists, a formal study of changes in milk-buying procedures throughout generations would reveal all of these societal shifts and probably many more. For example, handwriting excelled more in agrarian cultures where the kids’ hands were stronger from milking goats and cows. The reason middle schools have such high teacher attrition is due largely to their inability to read student work. All because of car seats. And urban sprawl. I predict that the advent of in-car DVD players will lead to larger families within only a few years. Kids love those things. If Toyota made a ten passenger Sienna with individual DVD players per passenger, prophylactic sales would plunge, and fuel consumption would skyrocket even by today’s standards. Now, if the Sienna were a hybrid…

HEN is walking.

There’s always a parade on your birthday. Today we went to the Kamas 24th of July parade. MTN2 rode his bike (with help getting started each time he had to stop), and Owen pedaled furiously on his big wheel. They both kept up to the float in front of them pretty well and I only feared for their lives (falling under a float or truck) three times. Tonight we’ll have a small barbecue with my parents and sisters. And tomorrow its back to our lazy summer. Happy Birthday.

MTN

We left Karl/Karen at 9:30 pm in Boston and headed south to Shippensburg, PA, where we landed at 6:30 am. A funny thing happened in New York…

So the directions from Boston to Shippensburg are 95 south, then 78 south (or maybe it’s a West…whatever, that’s irrelevant). Easy cheesy George and wheezy. Except that 95 turns into a spaghetti bowl as soon as you get to NYC and it doesn’t intersect immediately with 78. I was sleeping. SJZ was driving. I got a little bit wakeful and she asked for a direction and I just guessed. Next thing you know we’re on FDR in Manhattan instead of in Jersey as anticipated. SJZ is flustered. I’m pouring over our interstate maps which are inadequate for navigating Manhattan. It’s about 1:30 am.

FDR is a fine ride with no traffic in the middle of the night. Brooklyn Bridge was breathtaking. I saw the sign for the cross-island tunnel out to the Lincoln tunnel on the other side…just as we passed it. So we went all the way down to the tip of the Island and started back up the next side…and ran into the remnants of what looked like a Mardi Gras parade. There were suddenly thousands of people, tons of trash and lots of cops. Still pouring over the maps, I try and keep SJZ calm enough to trust my guesses for where to turn next.

Then OMN wakes up.

OMN: Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, I’m going to tell you how to make NEW water.  First you take flour and sugar and yolky eggs and strawberries salt and pepper and then you have to mix it….(nine minutes of utter nonsense)…and then you take it out of the oven and you have new water.  And that’s how you make new water.  cool huh, Mom.  Is that cool?  Mom, is that cool?  Mom, Mom, Mom,…

MTN: But you didn’t even add real water.

Just then, Sara goes through a green light at the same time as an NYPD car with lights but no siren (it was coming from under a bridge and our view of the intersection was blocked by a parked truck, so we didn’t see the lights) so she slams on the breaks.   The day’s accumulation of debris that was stacked neatly behind the carseats has throttled forward onto the boys.  Now HEN is awake.  It is 2am.

The cops stop and stare us down.  I am racing over the scenario to see if we did something wrong.  Is it a one-way street?  Was the light not green?  I am overcome with guilt because I just know we are in the wrong place at the wrong time and now we’ve been caught and there are flashing lights and NYPD beady eyes to affirm that concern - I just can’t quite put my finger on what it is we did, though.  (It seems like the cops are thinking the same thing - this dopey couple from Utah with the humpback VW almost caused an accident here…shall we arrest them?)  Then I realize that WE ARE in the wrong place at the wrong time… We’re supposed to be on I-78 somewhere in Jersey.  The coppers slowly move through the intersection without stopping us.  (Good thing they didn’t see us from behind.  One tail-light is out.)

We make it to the Lincoln Tunnel, into Jersey, and with only a couple more deviations from our intended course, onto I-78 and on down.  SJZ made it until about 5am, I took the reins and brought us in.  She’s a real champ.  When we rolled into the driveway at our pal’s house, I told her if I were driving, we’d be waking up in a motel in New Haven right about now.  Instead we had a fabulous reception from old friends (the best kind of friends), fresh-baked muffins, and the whole day to play…after morning naps.  Moreover, we made the whole trip without any emergency bathroom breaks.  And the Brooklyn Bridge, honestly, it was breathtaking.