The spring is so beautiful this year.  I wish I could somehow bottle it up, and pull it out as soon as the scorching days of summer hit.  The grasses are thick, full, and green all over the range, and wildflowers are springing up and in full bloom.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  The greenest even Ryan has ever seen.  But the scorching sun is coming, and it will scorch everything brown.  That is ok...the cows will still eat it when it is brown, and we will always remember the beautiful spring we have had this year.
     Another week, and seriously it flew by me.  It has been a busy one.  Our sabbath was very nice and restful.  Chlo and Mo did get into it on the way to church however, and Mo was left feeling desolate because Chloee called him a dying suitcase.  He was way upset, and Ryan just kept telling him that we just could not deal with such a horrible insult...sarcastically of course.  But, to Mo, it was devastating.  The struggle is real.  Church is still a juggle to keep everyone in line, and I try to sit behind Sister Koonradt whose blood pressure seems to rise while sitting behind us.  Dill was also naughty in Oak's class, which made it so she interrupted ours.  I am teaching, and she is whispering to me all sorts of requests...sigh.  Dill is kind of an interruption, but one I love and wouldn't trade. 
     Tuesday, Ryan and I had committed to go to the temple.  We went to a session, and it was great, but with my husband, there is always many other agenda's going on in the background.  First and foremost, is that he had the opportunity to rent out his compactor, and it had been sitting in the field behind Uncle Owen Bundy's home since 2014.  Both tires were flat, the key was missing, the battery was dead, and so this made it kind of impossible to start in my book.  But, Ryan never sees problems, not like I do, he just looks for the solutions.  Owen...bless that guys heart, has been struggling with age, hearing loss, and a case of shingles, but he followed us out to help.  He fished out an air compressor while Ryan and I went to work to pull the flat tires off.  Ryan jacked it up, broke the nuts so I could finish unscrewing them, and we got tires off.  Meanwhile, we drove the van over, but it refused to even jump start.  And of course, there was the problem with the key.  No key...he finally found the key broke off in the ignition, and so somehow he rigged a flathead screw driver to start the compactor.  Somehow he started it by bypassing the battery, but it quickly died...oh because the gas cap was missing and there was a rag shoved into the gas tank...this obviously had not kept out water and debris.  The fuel filter was clogged, and there was water and rust scale in the fuel.  Anyhow, with Owen's assistance we got one tire up.  A tire shop helped with the other one, as the bead was broken badly, and with a new battery, new hydraulic hose, a cleaned out fuel tank, and a new fuel filter, he got it running.  He always figures it out.
     We had worked on the tractor all day, and as soon as we were done he claimed that he had a job to look at in New Harmony UT....I sighed a little at that prospect, but we got on the road.  We met Captain Karl for dinner after in St George and he bought us dinner at Golden Corral.  I must say that I love Captain Karl...always fired up and always excited to help us out however he can. He also likes to eat out, which we just don't do often, and I kinda enjoy it. 
     So, yesterday was Dentist day...a follow up to dentist day actually and it is probably my least favorite day.  I woke up dreading it, and I was kinda in a bad mood, and it was justified because yeah...yesterday was a struggle and a half.  First of all, I had Jerusha, who we have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on her teeth, and things just are not quite where she wants them yet.  Thankfully she was there because my older kids rarely get cavities, and so the follow up days are usually just me and the littles.  It is hard to juggle them all on my own.  So, we had Jerusha, and Oak on down the line.  Anyhow, they immediately start fighting because of who knows what.  They really don't like to be in each others space, and Oak and Mo pretty much exist to torment.  For example, I observed from my rearview mirror, that Moroni was sitting directly behind Chloee.  He kept sticking his feet in her hair, and against her head and by her face until she would knock his feet.  He would then be all appalled and let me know that she hit him...and usually he would add "for no reason".  Mmmmhmm.  Got it.  You are completely innocent in all matters.
    Anyhow, the kids immediately started fighting over the ancient tv and vcr combo that sits in Dr Robinson's office.The same movies are still there.  Primates or ABC's.  Dill wanted to trace the alphabet, but Oak had already put the video on primates in.  Dill was in the chair first, so yeah...it happened.  But, no one is going to be able to watch the video on primates because it isn't what Dill wants.  She moaned, and bawled, and whined until it was done.  Of course when the abc video went in, Oak got restless.  Pacing, running up and down the stairs, banging stuff...grrr.  Jerusha was next, and was able to take Dill over to the park.  That helped.  Anyhow, it is so difficult to keep them in line and quiet.  As I was waiting for the bill, Dill disappeared, which sent me into a complete panic.  She turned up in the van and by then I needed a room to lay down in.  But no...the girls needed grain for their steers, and Oak had big holes in his shoes.  I could tell my nerves were shot when Oak kept insisting that I take him to Staples...over and over he mentioned stopping at Staples.  Restlessly...mom don't forget to stop at Staples.  Finally I asked him why he needed office supplies, and he insisted that I had purchased his last pair of shoes there....ummm no.  He argued and argued about how he knew and was 100 percent sure that we had.  For whatever reason, I kinda lost my cool at that point, and told him that there was no way we had bought his shoes at Staples because they do not sell shoes.  He looked at me kinda quizzically like, "man...she is really mad about this."  I felt kinda bad, and it wasn't about Staples.  (However, I am  sure we didn't buy his last pair at Staples)  It was just the million pressures building up, and then just kinda exploding where his stubbornness is concerned. He wasn't going to win that one. He always likes to be right, first, and in control.  Because of his genetic make-up (he is so much like Ryan it isn't even funny)  He is very smart, driven, coordinated, and he is a leader.  But, for me he is difficult to parent because of all of that sometimes. Ryan is very good with Oak.  I would have had a very big struggle parenting that kid alone.  His strong and stubborn personality is Ryan through and through.
     So, we get to Cal Ranch, and Oak could tell that Mom had just about had it.  He kindly offered to take the kids to look at the baby chicks while Jerusha and I looked for grain.  And...they didn't have the kind Sage wanted.  So, we went to the Shoe Carnival for shoes.  I kinda love/hate the shoe carnival.  I go there because for Oak especially  needs something that is going to last.  You cannot skimp on quality with Oak's boots or shoes.  But, they always have these ridiculous contests and games going on in there, when I just kinda want to pick out shoes and get out quick.  We got in there and immediately Dill starts insisting on everything she sees, Rooshkie is being a snob when it comes to the pairs I am finding him to try on, and Mo and Chlo started binging all over the aisles.  I finally found him a pair he liked..which he insisted on testing them out be running around and jumping in them a few times.  Dill had a stack of shoes she wanted, and she honestly needed a pair for church, and a pair for town, so I grabbed them, and we got up to the front.  I immediately noticed that Oak's shoes were not in the box, they were on his feet as he binged around.  So, I had to get them off of him.  Because I had pandered to Dill on the shoes she was insistent that she needed socks as well.  She handed me pair after pair, that I would quietly put back.  She was getting madder and madder, and I just kept telling her "no" like a broken record.  Finally we get up to the counter, and we had rung up enough money to "spin the wheel"...I kinda groaned within myself.  They had some wheel of fortune type thing that had different discounts etc.  I asked Oak to spin it, and he sat and inspected it for the best discount, and then manually moved it there...umm, no.  So then he really spun it hard.  They ended up with a "free prize" which happened to be straws that change color in cold liquid.  Once again I sighed...straws are just not good...not good at all.  They all picked one in different colors, and then fought with Jerusha in the car about letting them take over her water bottle with all of their spit-y straws.  She wasn't having it.
     So, next it was on to grain, and I grabbed them a pizza, and headed home.  We had the usual squabbles about who was sitting where, and feet in faces etc.  There was also a bunch of blowing through spit-y straws and bawling about the straws.  It sounds so ridiculous, but when we got home, I was kinda done. 
     So, last evening, Sage insisted that I go to Walmart with her, because she needed supplies for her trip today.  She went to Universal Studios with the yearbook class.  Yearbook has been so good for Sage.  She loves the advisor, it has helped with her photography skills, and they are constantly taking amazing trips, even though I fail to see how Universal Studios teaches them anything about yearbooks.  When we returned, I noticed that there was this humungous PVC pipe strapped to Ryan's truck.  I started laughing and I could not stop.  Every year at the fair, people make pig watering devices out of pvc and a spout.  We have never had one, and we are always borrowing one that belongs to the fair.  My husband does nothing halfway....this pipe is so big that there may not be room for pigs in the pen ha ha!  I love how he thinks.
     This morning, we had the same tussles as all mornings.  Dill had created a statue that she insisted I hold nonstop, and most of the morning I complied spacily with her requests.  I fixed Chloee's hair holding it, walked to the bus stop holding it...she did change it to a 'roly poly statue' which was a little easier to hold, but still awkward and difficult.  Thankfully she got distracted by something else, and I was able to do the dishes while the roly poly statue looked on..eventually it became a stack of pancakes. 
    Jamie is going very well.  Still homesick a bit, but losing herself in the work.  She is seeing signs of spring, and that has her very excited.  I have been feeling blessings lately too.  I know that I kinda dwell on the difficulties of all of the kids on this blog, but truly, we are very blessed by Heavenly Father.  I love my kids.  They are turning into very accomplished people, and although, they are not perfect, they are good.  They are strong, and they try to to do a lot of good.  Oak might be somewhat headstrong, but he does look out for his younger siblings.  In fact, he missed the bus one day because he did not see his two younger siblings on the bus.  Sage and Jerusha have developed a bond lately that just has never been there.  They have fought a lot over the years, and I see them now laughing and talking like good friends.  It makes me so happy.  In fact, they giggled together all too church last Sunday, and I did not want to say a word to quiet them.  I was just so happy they were getting along.  Jasmine is just pure and good through and through.  Yep, I am blessed with good kids, and our hardships made them better people.
      Until next week.