It has gotten hot as all get out.  I am, and will be forever grateful for this home that we are renting.  It has air conditioning.  It is absolutely lovely in every sense of the word.  I compare my attitude last year, to this year, and it amazes me how much the unforgiving desert heat affected my mood.  Shame on me in so many ways, but, I don't mind even going out to work in the melon field, as long as I know that I can escape the heat when I'm done.  It even makes the work enjoyable, because I know the rest will be so well deserved.  I also made a wonderful purchase last August.  It is a really well insulated water bottle.  Cold water to drink is amazing.  I love whoever invented air conditioners, I appreciate Mikkelsen's for thinking of us when they considered renting their house out, and I love ice.  So many things to be grateful for.
     Before I begin, I would like to remind myself and anyone else who might ever read my history, that most of the stuff I discuss here are the extremes.  I see so many moments when my children are behaving normally, and that stuff isn't interesting enough to post about.  Moroni is gonna look bad after this post, and I feel bad about that.  I also want him to be able to read this one day, because chances are, he will have a kid that acts just like he has.  I want him to be able to look back, and realize that he turned out well, in spite of his three year old self.  I also want to make it clear that even though he has tantrums, I cannot bring myself to ever hurt him.  I get really frustrated, don't get me wrong.  Sometimes a swat to the behind is quite necessary, but I would rather go and jump off a mountain, and hurt myself, than hurt my kid.  When I get really mad, I want to go and slam my car into a bridge empartment (reference to Tommy Boy).
     With that said, Moroni has had many difficult moments lately.  The trouble usually begins when he gets tired or hungry.  Just a word to his future wife and family.  If he is acting up...feed him.  It seriously makes all the difference.  The problem is, because he is three, sometimes he makes all of the components and requirements of feeding him next to impossible.  I have also learned as a mom, that if I pander to all of the outrageous demands of a three year old, then well, we are done for.  I have to ignore the behavior and demands at first.  They always get it after awhile.  They figure out that mom doesn't play the "I will only eat out of the gray bowl " game.  I hate this game.  With Moroni sometimes it is how the food is displayed, who gets it for him, what kind of a dish it is in...etc.  It is three year old stuff at it's worst.  Because we are trying to ignore these demands at lunch time, and any other time when we are eating, he throws full on fits.  It isn't pretty now, but I know that he will learn that he just better eat what is given him.  The other day, he was hungry, and we were on our way to Hatch.  I stopped at McDonalds and ordered a whole bunch of Chicken McNuggets.  Yes, I know all about the pink slime thing, and we think that pink slime is yummy.  Anyhow, we only eat out once every million years.  Moroni threw a major tantrum because there were some fries missing from his package.  MAJOR kicking, screaming, bawling.  He did not want to share he wanted all of the fries in the world all to himself.  I pulled over and tried to decide how to deal with him.  I know that if he eats even a little, that I can reason with him.  I finally told him that we just share and that is that.  After he ate for a minute, he decided that he wanted to share with Dilly.  When we stopped for our next break, I counted eight nibbled on nuggets that Mo had shared with Dill. They had little Dilly nibble marks. This means that after all of the kicking, screaming, and bawling, he kept two to himself...two.  I also found his fries dumped on the floor, so yeah....I am pretty sure that fit wasn't worth all of the trouble.  I also praised him up and down for sharing with his sister.  When all was said and done, he was extremely generous.
     He also threw a fit the other day when I wouldn't put his food in a gray bowl.  You would have thought that we had a real crisis going on.  He howled and bawled and refused to eat...oh well, I don't care if he doesn't eat, I wasn't about to hunt him up a gray bowl.  I recall a time when Jerusha refused to drink a pop that my mom had purchased because it had a picture of a boy on it.  Yep...Moroni is a typical three year old x 10.
     Another time I caught him happily playing with his truck.  Our friend Kinzley was over and he was playing with "Trudy the Truck."  He and Chlo will play quietly and happily for hours.  Chlo can either make or ruin his day.  If she is in the mood to play pretend with him...our day is great. They will get a group of stuffed animals, toothbrushes, nail polish bottles...and play happily all afternoon.
     We have also had some drama going on in the Rooshkie department.  She really likes to choreograph dances to the latest and the greatest songs.  Taylor Swift came out with a new song a few weeks ago, and Rooshkie has been happily making up a song to go with the music.  She is quite talented...anyhow, the other night she had borrowed my phone to record the dance so that she wouldn't forget it.  She started recording, and started the song, but no one else in the family was on board with what she was doing.  Jamie walked in and commented loudly on how much she enjoys Cookie Crisp cereal...Rooshkie just ignored her and kept dancing.  She also began banging cupboards loudly looking for the coveted cereal.  Oak, just happened to be playing a computer game when the computer burped loudly.  She frowned but still kept dancing.  When the computer game belched a series of loud burps...I just couldn't help it.  I started laughing.  She finally hit pause, and admitted defeat.  It isn't pretty or graceful to dance to burps....sorry Rooshkie.
     Rooshkie and Jazz have also got a secret sign language back on the home front.  We have had a friend from the stand-off staying with us, to help us with the cowboying and the melon planting.  His name is Caleb, and he is thirteen years old....awesome young man.  Anyhow, they are especially communicating secretly in front of Caleb.  I am sure all of this is quite intriguing and mysterious to him.  Anyhow, it is always kinda amusing to have them secret signing in front of anyone.
     Last week we had a rabbit feast.  My kids, Cliven and Ryan all get craving Rabbit.  In fact, when people sell rabbits for Easter gifts, Ryan sizes them up for dinner rather than a cute pet.  It always kind of offends people when he comes in and asks how fat they are etc.  Apparently Ryan's Grandpa had rabbit raising down to an exact science.  He would have cages and cages of rabbits that they would butcher and eat year round.  Anyhow, they had a big rabbit fry the other night.  Ryan fries them up like chicken.  He fried up way too much though and we were eating rabbit for days.  The other night Ryan and Caleb went out late in the evening with Arden to push some cows down the river.  It is so hot these days, that all of the cattle working has to be done early in the morning, or late in the evening.  Anyhow, I wasn't a very good hostess because I fell asleep before they got home.  I wasn't up to get them dinner.  In the morning, I apologized to Caleb and asked if they had eaten anything before they went to bed.  He said that he and Ryan had eaten Cereal and Rabbit ribcages for dinner.  I kind of paused a moment....rabbit ribcages??? I asked him about the rabbit ribcages, and he just explained that the only leftover rabbit that was left were ribcages....apparently ribcages are a less desirable piece...obviously.  Sager has had volleyball camp this week...I asked her if I could pack her a rabbit ribcage or two in her lunch.  She politely declined.
     Jamie had camp Ruth last week. Camp Ruth is a camp that is for the older girls only, and it focuses on building their testimony.  They had decided to do a faith walk, and have the parents show up at the end.  The girls were not to know that their parents were going to come.  This was all being held at a cabin at Duck Creek, so I figured that I could stash the rest of the kids at my mom's for awhile.  Man...living in the desert makes me appreciate the beauty of the mountains of Utah in the summer.  It was so gorgeous and cool up there. We watched as the girls were brought out blindfolded.  A member of the Stake Presidency would counsel with the girls for a moment, and put their hands on the rope.  The rope was long, windy, intricate, and had many side ropes going off into dead ends.  It was all quite symbolic.  All of us parents would watch for our child to be put on the path, and then would quietly follow them and hope that they would stay on the rope without a hitch.  They also had many people placed strategically that would try to get the girls to let go or go the wrong way.  If they messed up, they were removed from the rope, and sat down close by the rope.  Their Bishop was then located, he would counsel with them, and then they were put back on.  I was really touched as we silently watched Jams as she tried to stay on the right path so to speak..Ryan and I followed her closely, along with our Bishop and her Young Women's leader....very symbolic...anyhow, when the girl completed the course, she was standing there in front of her parents when the blindfold was removed.  Most of the girls began to cry.  Wames was excited and felt the spirit and all, but she had been tipped off by Dilly.  She had coughed and made noise, and according to Wams, she knew we were there at that point.  "No one else in the Stake that has a kid my age, are still having kids," was her reasoning.  Well, ya got me there Wames.  It is totally true.
     We also had the opportunity to party it up for Oak's birthday.  My oldest boy turned eight this week, and we are still making plans for his baptism.  Anyhow, I took all of the kids to the rec center for the evening, along with Oak's best friend Hayden.  I love our little Hayden friend.  His dad is Tongan, and his mother is a really cute little blonde.  Anyhow, Oak and Hayden are kindred spirits.  They act so much alike, it isn't even funny.  I was quite concerned about taking all of the kids by myself because Ryan was too busy to help me, and Wames was at drill team camp.  Anyhow, luckily Mo got hooked on the slide and went up and down it over and over and over.  He stopped briefly only to go off of the diving board a few times, at the amazement of everyone present.  It wasn't too bad because the kids just took turns going around and around the slide with him.

     I need to take some time to write about all of the crazy happenings over the last few weeks.  It has been difficult and busy to say the very least.  After my last post, we had a terrible cold virus move through the kids that was awful too.  I am glad and grateful to say, that no one is currently coughing or puking.  What a great blessing!
     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.

     I have so much stuff that is going on in my head, that it is going to take a miracle to make sense of it all.  Chlo and Mo are currently being puppies, and so I am dealing with a bunch of loud yips and barks, which doesn't exactly help my concentration.  I am grateful that they are happily playing though...that makes all the difference.  I hate the way that the whole atmosphere in our home changes when there is fighting and contention.  Today, it is peaceful play.  I love it.  We actually had a rainy Saturday last week too, and the clouds have rolled back in.  I love cloudy days.  Any break from the stifling heat is such a blessing.
     Another whirlwind of a week is zooming by, and I would like to take note of some of the stuff that the children are doing.  Mo has officially entered the dumping phase.  I hate the dumping phase.  Chlo was a dumper too, and it isn't kind to our finances.  Last week after the bubble bath dumping incident, Mo has gone on a wasteful spree.  The logic of his spree makes no sense to me.  All I see is waste.  One of the first things he did, was get into my deodorant and dig large holes all over in it with his fingers.  Then he smeared the stuff he dug, on the floor.  This proved problematic to me when I needed to use my deodorant after my shower.  It crumpled all over the place.  He also begged and begged for Ramen noodles that day.  He did eat for a while, but then he let the ramen sit and get greasy and cold.  At this point, the baby was happily playing in the cupboard under the counter where his forgotten ramen sat.  He climbed up on the counter and proceeded to fling all of the gummy, greasy noodles all over the baby's cute head.  She didn't seem to mind the ramen shower, but I did mind.  It was a mess to try and get all of the gummy, salty, goo out of her fine hair.  Another, mess, more waste.
     Mother's day was this past Sunday, and I must say that it was one of the best Mother's days ever.  My kids are getting quite good at trying to make a big deal out of those special days.  Oak made me a nice flower pot with grass growing out of it at school.  This was given to me, along with a kind letter from my Oakers.  Rooshkie's class had done something similar, and Jazz also gave me a nice letter that they had written at school.  At shrsh, more Mom's day gifts were created for me.  The bishopric gave all of the Mom's a bag of white chocolate covered popcorn.  Jazz was given a nice candy bar to give to me, and all of the kids got a little container with conversation starters to give to their Mother's.  Mo's class made the little hand print gift, and my older girls surprised me with homemade cookies.  Rooshkie and Jazz had an elaborate candlelight dinner planned for Ryan and I.  It was all very thoughtful.  Mo, on the other hand, stole most of my gifts.  He begged and bawled for Jazzerz candy bar.  When I got to the car after shrsh, Mo was just beside himself with grief.  Jazz had told him, that the candy bar was for me, but that I would probably give it to him when I got to the car.  And I did, let Mo-ster have the candy bar.  He stole my popcorn, which he shared with everyone, and he stole all of my containers with the conversation starters because he thought that they contained candy.  He wouldn't even let me have his handprint picture because he had made it.  Little Mo...it isn't Mo-s day...it's Mothers day!
     The next morning, after all of our Mother's day partying, I was met with a buttered countertop.  What is with Mo, and the butter lately?  I just don't know.  Anyhow, he had taken a cube of butter and put a thin film of grease all over the counter.  I wasn't sure how I could salvage any of it.  I was making pancakes that morning, and caught myself telling the kids that if they needed butter, they just needed to rub their pancake on the countertop.  I started laughing before I even got all of that information out there.  Sags thought it was funny too. After I mentioned that people needed to rub their pancakes in the buttered countertop, Mo woke up and seemed proud of his handiwork.  He climbed on the counter, got into the butter and slid rapidly back and forth on his hands and knees. I get it now...he was putting the butter to a good recreational use. Needless to say, that stuff was not easy to clean up at all.  I scrubbed and scrubbed and the counter still ended up looking shiny.
     For FHE, Ryan and I had decided that we should read the story of Moses with the kids.  We had watched a new version of the movie, and although the portrayal of the bible story was interesting, it was largely inaccurate.  As we read the account of Moses and his ventures, Mo interrupted Ryan with a bit of pertinent information.  "Dad!"  he yelled...."Satan is weally bad!!!"  We all agreed to Mo's additional information and went on with the lesson.
     This week we had kindergarten registration for my Chlo.  She was so excited.  Chlo is definitely ready, I could have sent her last year, but she barely makes the cut-off, and they have all day kindergarten here.  I didn't think she was ready then, but I think she is now.  Anyhow, I got up earlier than usual, just so I could get away with my Chlo for an hour.  While I was out hanging pants on the clothesline, I got the distinct impression that I should get in the house and get my shower over with.  Unfortunately, I ignored the spirit, just so I could get the pants flapping in the wind while I got ready.  I figured I had tons of time.  I had worked out pretty good that morning and did need to get clean, and I wished I would have obeyed the spirit.  By the time, I went in to take my shower, a backhoe from the city had showed up to fix a waterline, and had shut all of the water to my house off.  This made me frown a huge frown.  I know better than to ignore the spirit, and it is my belief that our loving Heavenly Father wants to save us from all kinds of trouble....even the little stuff.  At this point I was just trying to decide how I could wash up.  I recalled that I had set a bucket under the swamp cooler faucet.  It had been leaking a week ago, and Ryan fixed it, but I had not moved the bucket.  I figured I'd be fine if I could just wash up a bit.  I took some face cleanser out, and washed my face first.  I ran back in to check the baby, who was at the time eating pages out of my scriptures (adds new meaning to the words "feasting upon the word of Christ").  By the time I got back out to grab my precious bucket of water, and take it up to my bathroom, I found it dumped in a upside down splash on the sidewalk.  WHY???? I mentioned I hate the dumping phase....I was really hating it then.  Mo, of course had no explanation as to why he had dumped my bucket of water...none at all.  He needs to read about his Bundy ancestors out on the Arizona strip for sure.  Not a drop was ever wasted out there, and look at him, wasting butter, dumping water.  They would be disappointed in their grandson for sure.  At that point I was scrambling for any water whatsoever.  The Mikkelsen's do have a bunch of water stored, but I didn't want to tap into such a big resource just to clean up a bit.  I finally found the dumped bubble container.  When he dumped the bubbles last week, he filled the container with water.  It was small, but perfectly soapy to freshen up with.  Next time, I have got to listen to the spirit. 
     When I went to get the baby dressed that morning, I kept noticing brown streaks on her little white onesie.  I scratched my head at this, because it had been washed and placed clean in her drawer.  I finally figured out that Mo had painted streaks of eye shadow in her hair....nice brown eye shadow.  He really needs to take a break from all of his hard work. 
     Thankfully, my Sags was around that morning, practicing her flute for her upcoming concert.  She wasn't really given the option of watching the other kids as I went with Chlo to her registration.  Every once in awhile I think its important for each kid to get a little one-on-one time.  Mo was extremely ticked off, but I left him at home.  Registration went just fine.  They went through an evaluation  with her, and basically told me that for the most part she was ready for kindergarten.  They did ask that I allow her to have access to scissors more, because she seemed to struggle with that part of the evaluation....the part where they get to use scissors and cut things out.  This made me start laughing...which just got me a confused look from the school teacher who was consulting with me.  I explained that Chloee had given herself quite a few haircuts that were all pretty awful.  Hence her need to practice using the scissors I guess.  I just hope that she doesn't choose to whack her hair off again with all of that practice that needs to happen before August.  They sent her on her way with a nice bag of pencils, and markers, glue, and activities.  The rest of her day was spent happily working on various paper projects with her new supplies.  She got way upset at one point and explained that she could no longer concentrate with Mo and his "making noise, and chewing up stuff!"  What is he, some kind of deranged animal?
     When I returned, Sags was quite clear that she was unable to get any of her work accomplished because of little Dilly (Salem's new nickname that Mo gave her)...shocker Sags!  Welcome to my world!
     I want to make it clear, that my little Mo is not all bad...he is actually quite a loving little guy.  He really loves and cares about his baby sister.  I get reading some of these posts, and he sounds worse than Dennis the Menace.  I realize that three is the hardest stage...a four year old, is way easier to reason with, but two and three is way difficult.  I know this, and this phase will pass.  I love my little Moroni.
     With that in mind, I move on to the next Mo and his wasteful ways example....I went to make the kids sandwiches for their lunch one morning, and noticed we were almost out of bread.  This surprised me because we had like three loaves the evening before.  However, if the kids get into a toast making fest, a loaf is gone pretty fast, so I wasn't all that surprised, but just made a mental note that I would have to run into town, and grab bread, or make bread.  I am not one that loves running into the store.  I really hate shopping and avoid it if I can.  So, when I entered Chloee's room a short time later,and noticed the whole loaf of bread displayed on my step aerobics step, I was relieved and kind of confused.  Relieved because the loaf was not yet crusty, and it was on a clean surface...kind of...but confused as to why it was there.  Mo was of course, my first thought....why Mo?  He explained that he needed that bread to feed his animals....end of story.  There was no talking him out of it or convincing him otherwise.  I went downstairs and put the loaf of bread back in the bag...ignoring germs or anything else because hey...it saved me a trip into town, and probably $200 at the store.  He of course was way mad.  I finally gave him a few heels for his animals, but this was not good enough for his animals....he wanted the nicer pieces of bread....sorry Mo...too bad, because I am not bending on this one.  His animals were lacking because of me.  For some reason, I still don't feel bad about it.
     He also took two or three effervescent Airbornes and threw them  in with his cereal one morning.  And it was no surprise that he wanted nothing to do with his breakfast after that. Sags came down with a confused look and asked why there was something "fermenting" on the counter top...I was all kinds of nervous about this because I had just cleaned the kitchen nicely the evening before...things that sit out for days ferment.  But, no it was Mo and his airborne cereal.  Pretty gross indeed.
     Another somewhat disturbing story is that of an electronic toy that once belonged to Oak.  It had buttons with all of the letters on it, along with a number of animals and the sounds that they make.  It had also come with six books or so, and the device would read the book to a child, if the right button was pushed.  We have had it several years, and it has been a great toy.  It was a great thing to give little Dilly if I needed her distracted.  Unfortunately, Mo and Chlo left it outside, it got sprayed by the sprinklers, and now it seems to have an eerie mind of its own.  The other morning I was up really early, because my Oakers needed some pants wershed and dried before school.  I think it was like 4 when I started the laundry, and at this point it needed to be hung on the line.  I went out and kept hearing a rooster crow.  I was seriously thinking that there had to be a long lost rooster roaming the hills.  In fact, I was just going in to tell Ryan to go and find the Rooster, and we would take it to the ranch, where at least he would have some chicken friends.  It was kinda ironic how appropriate it seemed...the early morning sun, hanging clothes out on the line, the remote location, and the lone rooster crowing.  I finally figured out that it was just the electronic toy stuck on the rooster sound...seriously crowing over and over just like a regular old rooster would do.  The next story is what gets me a little spooked.  I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.  I decided to go down the hall to the bathroom because Ryan and my baby wake so easily.  I opted for even leaving all lights off.  Anyhow, as I was leaving the bathroom the electronic toy gave a loud R....a lone letter in the dark stillness. I hadn't touched the dumb thing, and it hadn't been making any noise before that. What is ironic about that one random letter, is that my older brothers call me R...they have called me R for years. It repeated itself just for good measure. That crazy thing was starting to have a mind of its own, and so I set it back outside where it squawked random letters and sounds the rest of the night.  Thankfully it died sometime soon thereafter.  That ought to teach the kids about leaving their toys outside.
     On a very positive note, Doug and Larissa were blessed with their baby boy.  Little Zachary is as cute, and as little as they come.  Jams, Sags, and I went down to deliver their show steer meat to their buyers, and so we had the opportunity to stop in and hold him.  He is all sorts of little and wriggly...so congrats to them!

                                               

     I am craving some rain.  I know very well, that our chances of getting any rain around here are slim to none until July.  It is so hot and dry here, I am not sure how people settled here and carved out an existence.  Cedar was/is dry and all but nothing like this.  I love this place though.  I love the people that live in this happy valley.
     This week has been a little bit busy and hard.  I need to remember that when taking care of a family as large as mine, nothing ever goes as planned, and someone is usually out of kilter.  This can throw the whole family off to a large degree, and usually does.
     We had an extremely busy schedule on Saturdee.  We were in charge of taking care of Ryan's Grandma, Ryan had scheduled us to clean a bunch of ditches with the scouts, Wams informed me that she had a parade that she needed to be in as well.  Anyhow...Carol was also taking care of Hannah's six girls because little Nephi had been up in Salt Lake getting his surgery.  Because of that, Wazz was at the ranch, and we had Emma.  Well, Jerusha caught wind of the ditch digging program.  I guess I need to explain the ditch digging story.  Ryan has leased several large fields of farm ground from a nice family in Mesquite.  They used to own a large dairy, and haven't used these fields in quite some time.  Anyhow, we have a market for melons this year.  Last year, we had tons of melons and no market.  This year, Whole Foods in Vegas wants melons and is begging us to grow some.  So, this year, so far, we have a market and no melons.  We leased this ground because Cliven has already put most of his fields into hay.  Because these fields we have leased haven't been used, sand has filled a lot of the ditches, and bushes are growing out of them.  I noticed that the scouts in the ward had been asking for ways to earn money for scout camp.  They were eager to clean ditches for wages.  Anyhow, Rooshkie volunteered loudly and insistently upon taking care of Grandma Great.  I have no doubt that she wants to spend time with Grandma.  I also have no doubt that my Rooshkie is smart and knows that if she is at Grandma's, then she won't be digging ditches.  Grandma requires a lot of care these days, and I just did not think she and Emma could handle it, but I left them with the understanding that they should call me if they had any problems whatsoever with Grandma.  With that in mind, I took the rest of the kids and met Ryan and the scouts at the shrsh.
     We only had three scouts show up.  One of them is a relative, and I had no doubt that he could probably keep up with Ryan's grueling work habits.  The other two, were younger, and I was a little worried.  Ryan and I had put scouts to work in Cedar before, working on our garden....they didn't last five minutes before they were whining for breaks and water.  Well, this is way hotter, and way more involved than a dinky row of peas on a quarter acre lot.  Thankfully.. Arden had grudgingly decided to come with a few of his football buddies too. The digging was actually quite easy and enjoyable. I was impressed with all of our workers.  The scouts, were great help, and never complained...Arden and his buddies, didn't stay long, but were powerhouses while they were with us. Loose sand came out easily, and everyone was in pretty good spirits in spite of the sizzling day.  Of course, I just got working when Rooshkie called.  I guess Grandma had woken up and wanted a big person there to take care of her.  She was also complaining to Rooshkie about her aching legs.  I told Jerusha to give her some morning meds in hopes that it would help with the aches.  Mo was also having issues right off the bat.  He had somehow peed his pants, and his shirt.  He does pretty good when we are at home, but anytime we leave, he has issues with his potty training.  I went and got Mo situated in a pair of clean underclothes, and tried to assess the problems Rooshkie was having with Grandma.  Needless to say, that I had to leave the ditch digging party to go and take care of Grandma. 
     I must say, that taking care of Grandma is difficult, but a blessing.  She is very confused these days, and forgets everyone and everything every five minutes or so.  There are some advantages to this though.  I learned that I can tell her the same story over and over, and she never gets tired of hearing it.  I also learned that she is a great listener, and if I ever need to share secrets about anything...she is the one to tell.  She still gives great advice, and she will forget the whole secret in a few minutes anyway.  There is much to be learned about taking care of Grandma, but I always walk away feeling better about myself, and I always examine the way I am living, and realize that our lives are short, and very important.  I am usually reminded of the importance of treating people with kindness and respect.  This is what I learn from Bodel Bundy.  She forgets every 5 to 10 minutes that her spouse is gone, and when she is reminded she cries and cries.  I have struggled with this, because I cannot imagine how it would feel to lose your spouse over and over again over a days time.  Apparently, Ryan's Grandpa,  used to work out of town a lot, and would only return on Friday's for the weekend.  Davey coached me into telling her that it was Tuesday.  This would seem to settle her down into thinking that he was just away at work for the week.  That way, she wouldn't inquire about him all day, and wonder when he was coming home.  I felt guilty for lying to her, but at least I didn't have to feel bad about her crying and mourning him all day.  Maybe next time I hang with Grandma, it will be Tuesday, and I won't have to lie.  Thanks for the tip Dave!  It did make our day happier.
     Saturday was so crazy with kids scattered everywhere, and me at Grandma's.  Ryan did come to take my place to sleep at Grandma's so that I wouldn't have to juggle a baby and Grandma.  Sometimes she struggles to sleep too.  Anyhow, I kept thinking it would be fine because at least Sunday, we would all be together.  I love Sunday's for this reason.  Dave and Marylynn were also blessing their baby, and I looked forward to seeing all the family.  Oak got up at four am throwing up...yep, all my plans of family togetherness on Sunday...gone.  Also, no one showed up to take care of Grandma, so I ended up taking care of Oak and Grandma, and Salem.  Everyone else went to the blessing.  I felt bad that I missed it.  Nothing ever goes as I plan. Ever.
     According to Sagger, Mo was awful at shrsh.  At one point, Ryan grabbed him by the tie to try to catch his attention...it is a clip on, and just came off easily in his hand.  According to Sage, he then placed the tie over Mo's lips in an attempt to stifle his  noise.  Apparently it didn't stifle the noise much.
     So, the rest of this week, we have been juggling the yucky virus Oak introduced to the family, and all of the normal crazy stuff that we normally deal with.  Sags has been coming up with some outlandish requests lately.  She wants me to take her to Bora Bora, and she wants a pet Narwhal...really simple requests.  I was a little taken by her pet request.  She just really thinks Narwhals are cool, and that we should purchase a big tank to accommodate one.  Ummmm...not going to happen, but a creative thought anyway.
     We had a brief power outage on Monday night.  Those are rare, but kinda cozy.  Chlo and Mo were quite scared at first, but once we broke the candles out, they were quite happy about the situation.  They have been so excited about the situation, that they have drug those dumb candles around all week.  They have played in two boxes with the candles...they have asked, but have not been allowed any matches with their play.  I gave them a empty lighter so that they can pretend to light their candles.  They have also made some interesting play out of a toilet paper keeper.  This is a long cylinder tube that holds probably four spare rolls.  It also comes with a nice lid.  Well, Chlo has been hobbling around with the tube on her leg, and Mo has been wearing the lid like a cap. 
     Another thing that they have been doing is candy towers.  They found some salt water taffee in a box and constructed some interesting twisted towers with them.  This was a sticky and yucky mess because Chlo tried to soften the candy by wetting it.  It turned into a situation that required me to toss their towers when they weren't looking.
     We have had more drama coming from the Rooshkie and Wazz corner.  Rooshkie has been choreographing a dance.  This requires my phone for the music, and Wazzerz camera.  zxwz23...sorry that was Salem's contribution...anyhow, the removal of the phone from Mo or Chlo causes a lot of bawling and howling.  I wish I could say that I never let my kids watch devices, but at night, Mo and Chlo insist on watching Little Einsteins, Curious George, or Scooby Doo on my phone.  When Rooshkie takes it away they are way upset.  What Rooshkie is doing is developing her talent, and so I tell them to pipe down about their inability to watch their cartoons.  Wazz isn't usually really thrilled about her borrowing the camera either.  Well, last night Rooshkie was on a roll...music was on, and the camera was set.  Wazz, for whatever reason, just couldn't resist coming in an doing a quick donkey kick on the couch during the performance.  This messed up the whole recording.  Jerusha was way mad and let Wazz have it.  Of course, Wazz forfeighted her camera from the whole choreography operation.  They had quite the loud fight over this.  It went on and on as I tried to settle little Salem down for the night.  Finally they had some kind of a truce worked out when Oak came strutting across the camera with the baby's Bumbo seat on his head during her next recorded attempt.  Poor Rooshkie...she is just trying to improve on her dancing abilities. 
     Mo, is also causing troubles.  This afternoon he took a whole bottle of bubble bath, and dumped it into the bathtub that had not been drained from his last bath.  Of course it was hard to warm things up and make things pleasurable for him. I hate the dumping phase....Chlo was a child who dumped a ton of products down the drain...now it starts with Mo...I will have to lock everything up.

     Today's post is dedicated to the fact that I am somewhat of a joke as a parent.  Really.  Well, maybe I should rephrase that.  I am a joke as a disciplinarian.  There...it's out there. Now I will explain why.  I think that I am really good at the part of parenting where we reassure and love on the kids.  I love my kids, and I am constantly saying it, and showing it as much as I possibly can.  I love it when my kids (especially my little ones) wake up in the morning, and they have that bright and clean blue eyed freshness.  My little Mo requires me to sit and do nothing but rock him in the morning.  He still likes me to hold him while he falls asleep.  I am always genuinely happy to have my kids around.  I enjoy them, and I love to hold the baby of the family whoever that might be at the moment.  I love to rock the babies and hold their little bodies while they settle and dream.  I know that my kids know that I love them, and that they are a huge priority to me.  My teenagers know that if they call me, anytime, anywhere, I will come and get them.  If they want to do something I will try to get behind them, and help them with whatever, even if I have no clue how to do whatever it is they want to do.  However, when it comes to discipline...I require the assistance of Ryan.  He is really good at sticking with discipline and teaching my kids to be responsible, and dependable.  He is also good at teaching them how to work with their hands, and work hard.
     Well, this week Ryan has been gone.  This has left all of the discipline up to me.  Ryan had to leave at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning.  Because he isn't really good at being quiet, he woke little Salem up as he was getting ready.  I love my guy, and this is in no way complaining, because I wouldn't change him, but he does everything in a big way.  He walks loudly, talks loudly, and he laughs loudly.  What can I say?  He lives large, works hard, and does everything to the extreme.  Anyhow Salem got up so early, and then didn't nap very well during the day.  She likes me to sit and hold her while she sleeps, and most days, I just cannot do that all day.  Needless to say, by bedtime, she was exhausted and crabby.  I got her to sleep in no time.  In fact, everyone seemed to be settling in nicely.  We had had our scripture study, and people were going to bed nicely and quietly.  I began drifting off myself, when I heard a huge ruckus downstairs.  Complete with name calling, shrieking, and slamming doors.  I groggily came staggering down the stairs to find Rooshkie and Oak engaged in a huge fight.  Oak was so upset he was bawling and shaking.  Jazz, thankfully had witnessed the fight and told me what was going on.  Apparently, Oak had drawn something that he was very proud of.  Jerusha had sat down and drawn on top of his drawing.  Naturally, this made him mad, and she just proceeded to tell him that his drawing was horrible and didn't matter anyway.  This little fight has been building for awhile.  She has been embarrassed by Oak and his appearance on the bus, and has called him a Hobo in front of her friends.  In her defense, I am sure that he has insulted her back, and her friends just for good measure.  Anyhow...all of the pent up anger came out when she insulted his drawing.  According to Jazz, he kicked her, and she slapped him across the face.  After the slap he picked up a chair.  According to Jerusha he was planning on throwing the chair at her, but according to Oak, he was merely planning on poking her in the eye with the chair.  Either which way...the chair was not a good idea.  Luckily I intervened at that moment.  (How do you poke someone in the eye with a chair?)  Anyhow, I grounded them both, tried to calm them both down and sent them to bed.  Oak didn't seem to care either way about the grounding.  He was still seething about her insults.  Rooshkie, however was very upset about the grounding.  What if my friends call?  She kept asking..."too bad if they do" I kept telling her.
     Well, the next day rolls around and about the time that school is getting out, I get a friendly phone call from Rooshkie.  "Hey Mom, you need to come and get us because we are all going to come to the house and go swimming."  Of course, it took me a moment to process that information and to remember that she was grounded.  When I tried to remind her of this she just brushed it aside and explained that she had thought of all of that and was prepared to serve out her sentence tomorrow...so no problems right?  When I tried to tell her no, she basically told me that it had all been arranged with her friends and their parents.  They had their swimming suits, and were all geared up to come and swim in our water trough.  Somehow as they all swam and splashed, I knew that I had been fast talked and duped to a large degree.  She swore up and down, that she would not only be grounded the next day, but would also clean up the whole basement and their party.  I still felt and feel fast talked and duped by my Rooshkie.  Today as she has had to clean and be grounded, there has been a lot of wails and bawling...but hey, at least I made her serve out her sentence.
     Another example...the other morning, I was up banging around the kitchen, fixing breakfast, and packing lunches for the kids.  Mo came staggering in and wanted me to hold him.  I did for a short time, but the clock was ticking, and I needed a lunch for the elementary kids.  Because Ryan was gone, we were just having cereal.  I pulled out some sandwich stuff and some Doritos to go in their lunch.  Mo spotted the chips and began demanding some.  I offered to cook him an egg, or make him a piece of toast.  He just kept insisting on "Weedos"  Finally I knew that the weedos weren't going to do lasting damage, and that I just didn't have it in me to fight him on the issue.  There's got to be some cheese and wheat in the weedos right?  Something good...aren't we supposed to look for the good?  Anyhow, yep, he had a cup o weedos for breakfast.  This made him happy and made his breath weedowy for the rest of the morning.
     Another thing Mo did that made me frown...he tried to make himself a treat out of a cube of butter and a half cup of sugar.  He combined the two and mixed them up a bit.  He then began eating his concoction.  Chlo came tattling, but at the moment I was busy and figured hey, all he has is the makings of cookies really.  I found his abandonded treat the next morning, and have been guiltily trying to utilize it all week.  I cooked Ryan's French toast in it and I have made cinnamon toast with it....maybe Mo is onto something.
     The other day, I noticed that Mo and Chlo had been awfully quiet for awhile.  I finally crept down the stairs to try to eavesdrop on their activities.  I finally opened the bathroom door to be about knocked over by a rush of incompatible fragrances.  It smelled heavily of perfume in the air.  I guess that they were dumping all kinds of mixtures of perfumes into the toilet.  This was making Mo all sorts of happy.  In fact, when I caught them, he seemed kinda proud of their activites.  Chlo was sheepish, but Mo was quite enthused about what they had been doing.  When I had to run in to town to pick up Jams and do a little shopping their fragrance was quite overwhelming...obviously they had gotten the girls' perfume all over themselves too.
     Mo has also been impatient during prayer times this week...whenever someone is praying, he will just cut whoever it is off with a loud and boisterous AMEN!!!!  This is supposed to end the prayer so that we can eat, or go to bed etc.  Needless to say, I really want him to learn to be more reverent.  He has been saying most of the prayers so that he can control their length, but when anyone else says it...they get cut off with a rude and loud Amen.
     Salem has acted and felt much better this week, I can tell.  She is crawling and climbing, and pulling herself up to things.  She is quite happy for the most part.  The other night, when it was bedtime, she got quite upset and impatient.  She was crying loudly in Jazzerz arms, when Oak came up and was snapping rapidly in her face.  While he snapped he would say "Daddy's girl" loudly over and over.  This seemed to calm her down for some unknown reason.  It kinda reminds me of the time that he would try to calm Mo by saying "Tico Taco yah, yah, yah" over and over.
     Another example of my weak parenting...Mo likes to come with me to pick up Jamie everyday...I tell him no everyday, and yet he comes begging and bawling every day, and I always give in.  Usually I don't want to bring him because well, he is usually scantily clad.  Today he bawled and of course, I gave in.  He came and had to have a frozen yogurt when I stopped at the health food store.  He fell asleep in the melting frozen yogurt.  When I stopped, he had become fused to the seat in a small pool of frozen yogurt and I had to peel him off.  Then I wonder why he wants to come...he gets a treat for going against my wishes.
     Jams also got a party going at Bunker's pond the other day.  It was a little cold still, but the kids did last in there for a little while.  We had a few of the Lee kids come too, and a good time was had by all.  Mo was even brave enough to go down the slide.  Chlo was taken over to the trampoline by a very nice Saggers, and Salem was also treated to some splashing thanks to my Sags.
    

     So much time has gone by, and so many events.  I really regret not writing more, but it seems like every day, and almost every minute is filled with so many things that have to be done right now...the dishes, the laundry, the baby needing to be fed, etc.  I know that writing things that go on is so important, and yet at the moment, it seems less than important.
     It has been a beautiful Sabbath day.  We all went to shrsh with the exception of Mo, and a helper...Jazz and Rooshkie traded off to keep him home because he has had some horribly goopy eyes over the last few days.  Poor little Mo.  Thomas Sharpe is also staying with us, and attended shrsh with us.
     Over the past few weeks, there has been a ton going on.  We have had the Bundy standoff party, the Bundy Easter party, the fair, drill team tryouts, a track meet, and we have had Grandma Great a day, we have also had Mo's birthday.  All of this stuff has kept me as busy as all get out, especially the fair.  Really, this fair stuff is all new to me, and it was a ton of work.  Way more work here, than at the Iron County Fair.  The girls have had to keep meticulous records, make crafts, do interviews, and have their steers ready to show.  Luckily, our steers were quite reasonable this year.  The bad part about the fair, was that it was during the Bundy standoff party, and that was a huge undertaking.  I have to admit that I was little to no help, although Ryan worked on it for weeks.  He had to smooth out roads with tractors, fix flags and poles, locate sound equipment and trailers etc.  He had a ton of help from Ammon, and Briana, but yeah, I had to help the girls with steers.  And for the most part, I needed Ryan to help the girls with their steers.  I vow never to do the fair again...or to do something like pigs which seem to be a little easier, even though the girls swear they will not show anything but a steer.  Yep, we have to do the most difficult of all of the choices...so typical of my kids.
     The Bundy Easter party was fun, but was busy.  They held it on General Conference Saturday, and it just happened to be the day that the Bundy hay was needing to be hauled and stacked.  I ended up in trucks most of the day, driving around the hay field, while the men hauled the hay.  Part of the day was spent in Ardeeno's tricked out truck, and wow...it isn't the easiest thing to drive.  Especially in a hay field.  I enjoyed listening to the prophets, and trying not to rev the engine in that truck to the point of distraction.  I regret that I actually missed the cute little egg hunt that the family puts on every year.  I know Sags helped Mo and Chlo, but I believe she got 0 pictures.  This makes me frown, but I have learned over the years not to dwell and regret things that just cannot be changed.  Anyhow, Chlo and Rebecca made a cute "secret lab" in the brush by the pond and had a nice candy fest during the day.  Salem fell asleep while Kirk Sessions was holding her and had a nice long sleep, and I just enjoyed Confrence.  We did color eggs and had a hunt at home the next day.  Usually we color eggs and make deviled eggs out of the colored ones.  However, I was horrified and shocked to catch Mo feeding Aggie the eggs one by one.  He had fed her all of them but one when I found him, and I really wanted to cry.  Boo to messing with our Easter Deviled Egg tradition Mo!
     The wildflowers were out in full force for a very short time too.  That is the problem with spring in the desert....it is so short lived.  Everything is dead and brown now, but for awhile we had a beautiful carpet of green grass with beautiful splashes of wildflowers.  Ryan kept hounding us to get out and enjoy the flowers because in a short time they would dry up and die.  Finally, on a Sunday afternoon, we decided to go out and have a nice cobbler bake in the desert.  We went out to Gold Butte because that is usually where the wildflowers grow the best.  It was a serious fiasco getting out there.  Oak, is seriously a great little guy, but he delights in bugging his sisters.  Loud noises, loud sound effects, and anything to annoy.  It gets really difficult because all of the girls...especially Sage doesn't want to deal with his obvious desires to get them mad...in the process, they get mad.  I really felt like I was going to scratch my eyeballs out by the time we got out there.  We also stopped at a spot called the Devils Throat out there.  It makes me sick to my stomach, because it is a huge sink hole.  I am talking the hole is deep to the point that it is almost impossible to see the bottom.  To have my kids flitting around the Devil's Throat made my stomach tingle.  I couldn't handle the danger possibilities, and so I finally made them get back in the van.
     Our cookout was nice, but we had only brought stuff for a cobbler.  The kids began climbing rocks, and we were by a nice spring.  It was obviously the site of an old homestead because there was an old corral, and an old home foundation.  The cobbler turned out almost inedible, which is surprising to a large degree.  Ryan is an excellent cook when it comes to dutch ovens.  We even did dutch oven dinners commercially for a short time.  Anyhow, he couldn't find the baking powder, and dumped in way too much baking soda instead, and the cobbler was bitter to the extreme.  We ate what we could, and enjoyed the nice evening in the desert though.  The next chance he got, to redeem himself he made another cobbler.  Seriously the best I have ever eaten too.  Anyhow, we enjoyed the flowers and each others company.  The ride home was sheer torture again.  No lie....sheer torture with all of the bawling and fighting.
     The next day Ryan took the three J's and headed to Carson City.  Ammon, had been working tirelessly to try to pass a bill in the Nevada legislature that would take back Nevada land for the people.  He has invested a ton of money and time, and effort.  He had arranged for a bus to get as many people out to show support for the bill that he possibly could.  For awhile it was the most popular bill on the docket.   Anyhow, after our lovely trip to the cookout, Ryan and I knew that we couldn't handle all of the kids on the bus for eight hours up and eight back.  It was good for my girls to see the whole state assembly and it's process.  There were people there to speak for the bill, and against it.  They all agreed after all of their hours of travel, that it was a good experience, but that the ride on the bus would have been too much for the little kids.  Unfortunately, in the end, our bill got hijacked by evil conspiring people.  They changed the whole intent of the bill with an ammendment.  It had to be killed on the floor, and fortunately it was.  We always get so much opposition when we try to make a difference in our freedom.  My kids have learned a ton.  Sage got to watch live the process in the voting, and the killing of the bill.  What a year, we have had as a family.  We have prayed and fasted together on so many issues.  I love the Bundy family.
     The fair was a ton of fun, but extremely busy.  I felt completely out of control, because so much of my focus had to be with the girls and their steers, and yet there was so much for the other kids to be entertained with, that they would scatter and I would spend most of my time trying to locate them in a panic.  Luckily Huxty was there one day, and Gary came up, and they proved to be a ton of help.  Somehow my family always steps in when I have gone past the end of my rope.  Of course Gary spoiled Jazz with an all day pass for rides, and Jazz is still talking about the fun that she had.   We also celebrated Mo's 3rd birthday at the fair.  I tried really hard to make a big deal out of him, and we rode the little train together, and I bought him an ice cream.  He also wanted a strawberry cake, and so I made him strawberry shortcake.  He also ended up scattering strawberries all over the house, and demanding that the "wrappers" (stems) be removed.  Ryan alsotook him to the little fishing booth at the fair, and it is pretty cool because they actually let the kids fish for actual fish, and not some Oriental Trading prizes.  I hope he had a great day because I felt pretty scattered and exhausted.  The girls had to show their steers for market that day, and the steers had to be in beautiful condition.  This fair stuff...wow...new to me, and kind of a trip really.  At the fair Ryan and I kept feeling like we should buy a pig from a young man that is in our Sunday school class.  I kind of argued with the spirit a little on that one, because we aren't big pork eaters, but Ryan follows promptings.  We bought Tyler's pig and we should be getting it back from the butchers in a few weeks.  Tyler was  actually a ton of help during the fair.  He bought a snow cone, and shared it with Mo, and helped me with Salem when she grabbed the ice cream off of my cone with both of her little fists.  Salem, was met up with the cold and sticky mess and howled her little head off.  He took her while she was howling, so that I could go and find some napkins to clean her up with.  There was also some random friend of Jamie's that took Salem while we were frantically trying to get the steers ready for the showmanship contest.  Helpful people who are there when I need a hand.  I don't forget that stuff.  I will always be grateful.
     Since the fair, we have just been trying to get the house work and farm work under control.  The weather from now until July will be hot, super hot, and hot and windy.  Those are pretty much the only choices.  The windy days are kinda taxing for some odd reason, plus we have had the crappy cold with the goopy eyes virus to deal with.  Little Salem has been a little crabby because of these conditions.  I cannot say that I blame her much.
     Jams also decided that she wanted to try out for the drill team.  She had actually heard someone scoff at the idea of a Bundy on the drill team.  Wams has actually been in a lot of dance classes, and did a beautiful job.  She made it and will be a VVette for the the 2015-2016 school year.  Go Wammer girl!
     We ended up at the ranch for a cookout the other evening.  We had decided that we needed to unload the horse trailer of our belongings because there is a round up scheduled next weekend.  We decided to build a fire and throw some tinfoil dinners on while we unloaded stuff.  Well, Ryan ended up irrigating until it was too late to do much unloading.  The kids had swam with Arden all evening at the headgate and everyone was hungry.  I had also brought shmallows to roast.  Rooshkie kept being really sneaky and quiet.  I could see her head peek up out of the alfalfa and I wondered why she was spying.  She had also somehow stole the shmallows and hid them in some hut that she had created in the alfalfa field.  I must admit that I saw her spying but didn't realize that she was wanting to hoard the shmallows.  She finally reluctantly brought back the shmallows.  She also joined us when we were able to pull dinner off the fire.  Chlo on the other hand refused to eat what was cooked.  She just wanted the shmallows.  Ryan finally put his foot down and told her that she couldn't roast any marshmallows until she had eaten some taters.  I knew she couldn't and wouldn't.  She basically ruined the whole evening by bawling out in the toolies the whole evening.  Seriously....it is hard to enjoy family time when one of the kids is bawling the whole time.  Chlo bawled the whole time.  No taters and no shmallows for Chlo.  Just drawn out and forlorn engine noises in the back ground while we tried to actually spend some time together.
     Some generous citrus grower in California has come to the ranch for the past two years, and brought boxes and boxes of mandarins, grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and avocados.  He believes in the Bundy fight and comes to talk with Cliven.  Seriously, I  was needing some citrus and have enjoyed his donation a ton.  I did, however, have to frown at Mo.  He was rolling the mandarins in ketchup and mustard and then rolling them across the table where they would land in the corner.  I have no idea what is going through his head when he does stuff like this.  Luckily, I was able to wersh off the excess ketchup and mustard, and the mandarins were still delish.
     Along with this yucky cold that is going around the family has been a ton of snot....yeah, I know its gross, but it is what it is.  The three little ones especially cannot seem to keep their little faces snot free.  I cannot tell you how many times they have run up to me, and wiped their noses on my pants or shirt.  Salem's little nose has gotten very sore by being wiped over and over during the day.  Sager wasn't too happy the other day while we were riding in the car.  Salem was wiping her own nose and slapping Sage in the arm with her little hand.  Sager didn't appreciate the snot slaps for some odd reason.
     Also, the kids have been kinda cranky all around.  The other morning, Mo and Chlo just kept fighting over all kinds of dumb stuff.  It was a continual round of petty arguments that was accompanied by slaps and kicks.  One of them would end up bawling and upset nonstop.  At one point I overheard Chlo tell Mo that he was following Satan's way....She needed him to follow Jesus Christ's way.  Too true my Chlo bird..we all need to follow Jesus' way.  I finally knelt down with them and told them that they should have a prayer.  Neither one of them wanted to say it, which just shows the amount of contention that they had dealt to each other all morning.  Mo usually  loves to pray, and refuses any help whatsoever.  It is really cute to hear him pray for all of his siblings one by one....please bless Jasm and Roosha, and Jamie...etc.  Anyhow, Mo finally prayed for his siblings and included Chlo, and they played happily the rest of the day.
     We ended up with a bunch of avocados for dinner last night, thanks to our California supporter.  I love avocados by the way....anyhow, all of the kids wanted to take the pits from the avocados and plant them outside.  Oak on down took pits and went to find suitable places to plant their pits.  Mo came in with his pit, that still held a little bit of avocado clinging to it.  He began begging me for a shirt.  What???? It isn't like Mo likes to wear clothing of any kind ever....he had never asked for a shirt before.  I finally got skeptical and asked why he needed a shirt.  His desires were to have a shirt that he could clean his pit off with...are we hillbilly's or what?  I finally handed him a nice paper towel to clean his pit with so that it was ready to plant.  We shall see if we get any avocado trees anytime soon.