Wal Mart Bathroom Adventure

Three little boys accompanied me to WalMart this morning. That's an adventure on its own, right?
Well, it gets better.

During checkout the older two boys decided they needed to go to the bathroom and ran off before I knew what had happened.
As I was putting bagged groceries into the cart I could hear screeeeeaaaming and crying echoing across the store. Of course, it was coming from the restroom.
I anxiously waited for the cashier to finish up, swiped my card and hurried over to the restroom.
Of course... they had gone into the Men's Restroom. Now what was I supposed to do?
So, I stood in the entry way talking to the boys.

What's wrong?
Levi tinkled on me.
Why did he tinkle on you?
I don't know!
What do you need?
I need new pants.
Well, I don't have new pants for you. Why is Levi crying?
I don't know!

A couple of men walked out and I asked them if they knew what was going on.
Well, it looks like the littler one peed on the the bigger one. I'm assuming they're both yours.
Is there anyone else left inside?
Yes.

So, I stood in the entry way waiting some more. Trying to talk the boys into getting paper towels and cleaning themselves up. That was a no go.

Eventually I got the all-clear and hesitantly walked into the men's restroom.

There they were. Standing at opposite sides of a urinal. Pants around their ankles. Levi is dripping with tears, and Ashby is dripping with...you know...other stuff. Completely saturated from tummy to toes. Woh.

I grab a bunch of paper towels and start wiping them off. Trying to comfort and reassure them that we will quickly change clothes as soon as we got home. Levi was easy to wipe off. His pants were just a little bit wet. Poor Ashby. It took me two trips to the paper towel dispenser. Plus a few more trips to sop up the puddle on the floor (sorry WalMart, you had quite a mess to mop up today).

I think the boys learned a few good lessons today: Don't go to the bathroom without mom. Don't try to teach your little brother how to use a urinal when he usually sits to go wet. And most important, move out of the way if there is a stream of urine pointed at you.

Mama called the doctor and the doctor said

Yesterday I went the doctor. It was an epic 2 hour appointment.

I never go to the doctor.
Who has time for that?
My list of ailments just gets longer and longer.
But I finally checked some things off...or least in the process of checking them off.

• Coccydynia (tailbone pain) - broke over 6 years ago.
• Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (tingling in my fingers) - dealt with for 7 years.
• Torn meniscus (knee joint) - popped 2 months ago.
• And my yearly woman exam - which I've put off for nearly 2 years.

I walked out of the office with one prescription and 5 radiology orders that will be completed next week. I'm pretty excited to get some answers.

My Personal Progess

Tonight I received my Young Womanhood Recognition award!

I completed my personal progress requirements last September, but tonight I finally got the medallion to go with it. :)

As a youth I received my medallion, but never felt like I really earned it. I did it because I was supposed to do it, and I would procrastinate the goals until the last minute and pick and choose the very easiest things to do. I did personal progress because my parents expected me to do it.

This time I wanted to do it right. I wanted to do it for me. I wanted to feel the power that came from the personal progress program.

Young women leaders are not required to complete the same goals that the girls have to to finish. But I decided to do all the goals and projects that the young women do because I wanted to, and I knew it would be good for me.

It took me 5 years. Some years were easy to focus and stay motivated, and some years were not so easy. Those goals that say to do something for two-weeks or so were killer. I felt like I was constantly starting over because I was always forgetting.

I loved the 10 hour projects. They were the best. I loved figuring out what would be good for me to do and tailoring the projects to my needs and my family.

My favorite project was learning how to make home-made bread and then providing the bread for the sacrament each week for a couple of months. Man! That was some good sacrament bread! (I miss it).

Another favorite project was learning to play the harmonica so I could take it girls camp. Its such a fun skill to know. I hope to continue to get better at it.

The personal progress program is indeed powerful. I love it! I feel so privileged to have taken part in it. I love how it makes you get out of your comfort zone and try new things. I love how it builds confidence.

I love how it lets you make and reach good goals. I love how it makes you find ways to learn to love yourself.  I love how it increases your testimony. I love how it brings you closer to your Savior and Heavenly Father.

As I look through my personal progress book, I see some of the things I've done and realize - its been a long time, I need to do it all again!

Everybody Dance Now

Paige performing in her after-school jazz dance recital. She loved it!

Lucky me!

I can't believe I got to go skiing two times this winter! Especially since I haven't gone for several years. The best part was that both times were free! - which is really the only way I'd ever get to go skiing. 

The first time I took Ashby with me to Sundance to teach him how to ski because Brian got a free pass from work. Much of the snow had melted and the slopes were pretty slushy, but it was a beautiful sunny day and we had a good experience.

The second time was up to The Canyons in Park City with one of my best friends. It had just snowed the day before so the scenery was beautiful, the snow was nice and the company was great. It was Elizabeth's first time since she was a kid, so it was fun to share that experience with her. ANd I didn't mind an excuse to go slow. I skied the first half of the day and then snowboarded the second half. And I'm happy to report I didn't fall down the whole day! I was surprised how well I remembered how to snowboard - I even tried a couple of jumps!
It was fun to ditch all our kids and have an adventure on our own!
 
I feel so lucky!

Mummies

The other night we got free tickets and took the kids to see the Mummies of the World exhibit in SLC. It was very interesting and a little creepy. It was also very crowded and very dark (which is very difficult when you've got lots of little kids to keep track of). The oldest mummified remains were from an infant born around 4500 B.C. Woh! I don't know how much the kids got out of the exhibit, but I don't think they had nightmares.

Easter Egg hunt

Happy Easter from the Blumer kids!

I spy the last Easter egg that didn't get found. Can you?

Paige was hoping that the Easter bunny would give her more of a challenge than the easy neighborhood egg hunt. Must have worked because it took longer than 5 minutes to find every egg. The kids had a great time running around the backyard. It took a while for Cody to get the hang of it. He of course, had to open and eat each egg he came across. And he was only happy if he had one egg in each hand as he ran around. :)