We started planting melons, and have been planting over the last few weeks. With that, the temperature has risen to uncomfortable highs. That never stops Ryan, but man, it can be difficult to be in a melon field all day, when there is no shade whatsoever. I have spent as much time out there as I can, but Mo and Salem get pretty miserable. I take that back, Salem tries to smile through it all, but Mo will screech and scream over petty things, but really he is just overheated. When everyone is thinking about crawling under the truck for shade, it is time to put some shade up. One good thing about our melon field is the ditch. It is always good to cool us off. I do want to heap some praise on my Sager and Oak. They ended up planting melons with Ryan and our business partner for several days. His daughters also helped out, but on one day in particular, they left at the crack of dawn, and did not return until 10 pm or so. They didn't complain or fuss at all. I bought the both of them a snow cone for their efforts (and their dad is paying them a wage) and my cute Oakers fed most of his blue snow cone to his baby sister who went wild over the blue sweetness. When all is said and done, my kids are incredible people. I am a lucky mom.
Moroni, Oak, Chlo, and Salem caught a horrible cold virus a few weeks back. It was awful to the point that I thought Moroni had pertussis again. He would go on coughing fits that would last like 20 minutes or so. This caused for some long and sleepless nights. He would wake up coughing and he would cough and cough for long spurts of time. For a few nights there, I was up with him like every 20 minutes between fits. It was pretty awful. I finally took him in because he had also been throwing up because of all of the coughing. Luckily, it was just a virus, but it brought all of those horrible memories of his fight with whooping cough. It has been going around the valley too. It makes you realize that mortality is fragile, and can end at any time. My kids are everything to me, and I would be completely devastated if something happened to any one of them.
We had a lovely time for Saggers birthday. She basically told me she wanted to go to St George shopping, and so that is what we did. We went to the Olive Garden, and we bought her a new outfit, along with some books she had been wanting to read. Mo and Chlo were decent until we tried the clothes shopping thing. They would squeal and giggle, loudly as they ran around loudly dodging in and out of clothing racks. Mo also went on a coughing jag that went on and on and on. He finally threw up in the middle of Bath and Body Works much to my embarrassment. Whenever he would get happy and running around like that, his body would want to cough a ton. It was a fiasco, but for the record, the store was really good about it. I felt like a horrible parent, but there was no one to leave him with, and it was Sagers birthday. Some days I feel like I don't juggle very well.
I was really torn at the end of the month because my little Mo just kept getting sicker, we had Brandon's graduation, and Sage had some end of the year stuff at Gateway that was really important. To top it all off, our melon plants had showed up that day and needed to go in the ground ASAP...thirteen thousand dollars sitting and wilting in trays. It was one of those moments, that no matter what I chose to do, I was going to be neglecting someone. I knew that Sage had worked with Cliven for six months on her school presentation. It was on grazing rights and how it benefits public lands. She had also practiced for about three months on all of the music for the final band and orchestra concert. Jams had practiced quite a bit too. Moroni had been sick, and I felt like he needed me. It was all so horribly important. I finally consulted with Ryan, who really needed help planting all of the melon starts. He finally told me that we couldn't just let Sage miss her final days of eighth grade...she had worked too hard. We had to pull Jerusha out of school to keep the sick kids at home, Ryan recruited our hard working nephew Brett Roy to help with the melons, and the rest of us headed north to Cedar. Jams and Sags attended a band and orchestra practice in Cedar, and then we went over to Panguitch to the graduation. It was quite enjoyable to watch Burndon graduate. He had worked really hard, and in a lot of difficult circumstances to get his diploma. And, I got to hang out with my family, which just doesn't happen often enough.
Something disturbing happened during the graduation. Little Salem got restless and hungry and needed to be taken out. I decided to just try to find a classroom that was close that I could nurse her in. I was surprised that all of the classrooms nearby were unlocked. Usually as soon as school is over, the classrooms get locked up tight. Anyhow, I slipped into the nearest room and began scanning the darkened room for a chair. I could see that there were plenty of hard chairs, and as I looked right in front of me, what appeared to be a dead body upon the table under a sheet. Yep, a dead body. I did a double take, and decided that I didn't want to nurse in the dark room with the deceased person after all. In fact, I decided to get as far away from the dead guy as possible. I have heard of classes studying cadaver's and this must have been the situation. In fact, Gary went and did squeeze a toe for good measure. I am thinking it probably was just a body that the school used for a health class of some sort. Possibly a purchased one. Either which way, it was kinda creepy. I like creepy from time to time.
We enjoyed my family a ton that evening. Troy and Brandon had a final concert, which I actually walked in late to, and we had dessert at Deeb's. We left the next morning, so that Jams and Sags could practice for the concert, and so that Sag's could do her presentation for her Science teacher, and for her English teacher. Ryan drove the remaining kids up, and after spending an enjoyable day with with Gary, we met up to attend the concert. I figured that the concert with all of the kids would be a fiasco, and it certainly was. In the kids' defense there was one song that lasted 20 minutes. It was a nice Disney medley that went on and on and on. It made for fidgety children. Jerusha and Jazz had found some of their secret Cedar friends and were socializing in the hall of the theater. Jams was balking about playing all together and I was sending her very threatening text messages. Mo at one point slapped the cheeks of the gentleman sitting in front of us. Luckily he was good natured about getting his cheeks slapped from behind. Oak was extremely restless and kept wondering loudly when we could finally leave. He also wanted to go and socialize with rooshkie which is always a fiasco, because he insists on insulting her friends all the time. I really enjoy getting to hear my girls play, I just wish the other kids would try to sit still and enjoy it too.
After the concert, I could tell that Ryan was dragging and extremely tired. He had been working around the clock to get that huge crop of melon plants in the ground. I was extremely worried that he was going to fall asleep at the wheel. And according to Oak, he had about fallen asleep at the wheel on the way to Cedar that day. He also felt like he was coming down with something. I fixed him an Airborne, and he made all kinds of promises to just pull over and sleep if he got tired. I figured there was no way that he was going to make it home until the next day. He seemed way drained. For that reason, I piled all of kids in the van and had them come with me in case he pulled over to sleep. Ryan can sleep in a brickle brush when it comes right down to it, but everyone else was wanting their bed. Anyhow, I stopped to get fuel at KB's. Jamie had forgotten her contact case which had caused all sorts of headaches on this particular trip. We had already thrown her contact away once because hello...she had put it in a plastic cup with a little bit of solution. That had already caused me to sift through the contents of a garbage sack. Anyhow, she again placed the contact in a paper cup with solution. Mo, came up to the front and had still been suffering from his horrible cough. He begged for a drink of water, and before I could even respond, he drinks the contact solution. Immediately he began foaming at the mouth and gagging all over the place. I was kinda shocked at his behavior, because contact solution is just salt water I believe. For whatever reason, that stuff made him really sick. He threw up all over the car the whole way home. At one point I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Oak huddled uncomfortably in an odd spot. I told him to go and find a better spot, but he informed me that there was throw up everywhere, but in that one teensy spot. It was awful. I saw no other solution, other than to just get home, where everyone could go to bed and clean up. Moroni was fine after that, he got over his cold, and his horrid response to the contact solution. What a horrible trip home!
We have also had a few other family gatherings that I should take note of. Wyatt got his call a few weeks back and we will be serving in Calgary Canada for the next two years. We had the opportunity to attend the temple with him, and go to his farewell. I am so proud of Wyatt. The first time I saw that kid was my first time ever at the ranch. He was running around the corrals in a diaper. Flash forward 15 years and you have got my Mo boy. Anyhow, we got up early on Sunday, so that we could make it there by 10:50. I thought we would have plenty of time to get there, but Ryan got telling mission stories on the way and completely missed our short cut. For this reason, we were about twenty minutes late. Moroni was completely awful the whole trip over there. Bawling, screeching, and making demands. To try to avoid him, at one point, I went and got on the very back seat. It was seriously a horrible ride because of him. When we got in to the meeting, he wanted to be on my lap. There was nowhere to sit, but the stage because we were so late. Chlo, and Oak went to the back of the stage and started playing in the curtains. The curtains were hung on squeaky rods that made a loud noise whenever they shifted. There was also a table behind the curtains that they were climbing on, and so they squeak squawked the curtains, as they giggled and climbed all over the table Mo wouldn't quit wallering on my lap, and Dilly finally made it clear that she wanted her mom. The meeting was great, but I kept getting distracted by the kids and their naughtiness. I took one look at Ryan, and I could tell, that between the car ride, and the horrible behavior at the meeting, he had had it with the kids. He waited until the congregation had cleared after the meeting, and then sat all of the children down. One by one, he began asking them questions about the various speeches. Sags is one kid, that always can learn what is being taught, but it was interesting to see how very little they had paid attention. What was sad is that the speeches, which were given by Duke's parents and Wyatt, were really good. All of them were able to prove that they had heard something that was said. All except Oak. Oak did not hear one word of any of the talk. Not one. When asked he would give some vague response about how the Gospel was discussed. There was a joke about a golfer on an anthill that Mel Cox told that was an attention grabber that was pretty funny. All of the kids had remembered it, but Oak. I tried to help him with all sorts of hints, but he seriously didn't hear one word of any of the speeches. I asked him about where the golf ball had landed and he mentioned that it had hit someone in the head. Seriously???? Ryan allowed all of the other kids to go off and play with their cousins, but he told Oak that he had better listen better next week, or there would be consequences. We enjoyed the lunch at the park, and the kids rolled down the grassy hill that one way. Duke had smoked some meat that was just to die for. Mo got a big plate of watermelon and that was it.
Rooshkie received an award from the Elk's lodge for an essay that she wrote on the Constitution. She won first place in the valley and they gave her a hundred dollar check. They even invited her to a dinner where they presented her with her check. The school also honored her. I was very happy with my Rooshkie. We had gone to that dinner, and had a very busy weekend with the farewell, and temple day and all. Then, Aggie the dog got into trouble in the night. She started barking at something, and it woke me up. She barked at whatever it was most of the night, and I woke up to a stench that reminded me of something burning. I finally figured out that she had been sprayed by a skunk. Yep...her night escapades had caused me a nights sleep, and now she was a stinky skunky mess.
Another few lessons learned this week. Oak was supposed to bring a car made out of a box. We, of course were late in sending the prop to all of the practices, but the day had come for the performance. I kept trying to get Ryan involved because of his abilities, and his track record of doing nothing half-way. Sure enough, he and Oak came up with a tractor made out of boxes that turned out awesome. Needless to say, that their first performance with the box tractor went very well. This was the performance that Ryan and I attended, but the second one got him all upset because the wheels came off. It was still an awesome tractor. Anyhow, because we had waited until the last minute, and had not sent the prop to the practices we didn't anticipate the wheels falling off like they did. We always do that. We wait until the last minute, at which point, it becomes a whole family effort, but this time it kinda backfired on us. Jazz said that Oak got all kinds of upset at the tires coming off because people laughed at him. This has also taught me that I need to prep Oak to laugh when things go wrong. He takes everything way too personal and serious.
Mo has been having a few issues today. He and Chlo have fought long and hard over a Pluto stuffed animal. It really is Mo's toy, and so I finally told Chlo to just give it to him. She did, but this just caused him to throw a tantrum, because he wanted to pick it up himself. I hate the three year old stuff...that is what we are dealing with. He also demanded Nutella toast first thing this morning. Of course, this got a little messy, and a dab was wiped on his finger. He figured that he needed a band aid for this. I told him to just clean it off...no band aid required.
Rooshkie also gave me a scare the other morning. I went down in her room to wake her up for the day, and she was not in her bed. This didn't shock me a ton, because my kids like to sleep on the couch, and in all sorts of odd places. However, when I checked the couches, and all the other bedrooms I started to get that panicky feeling. I even checked the coat closet, because she had been hanging out in there reading quite a bit lately. No Rooshkie anywhere. I finally peeked in the storage area under her bed....yep. She was in there. Ryan made a toy storage area under their beds. Yep...I never would have guessed. It was kinda coffin-like. It has been her new sleeping spot.
Our good friends the Litmer family sent their son Caleb to help us at the farm and ranch for a few weeks. We have really enjoyed his company and his help. There have been so many good hearted souls who have just popped in and dedicated all kinds of talents and abilities at the Bundy Ranch. We are so grateful to every one of them.
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