Lilacs and Manure

We live in the country. Well, according to my Uncle Ferrell we actually live at the end of the country road.  The paved road that takes you past our home is one of the few in a 20 mile radius so maybe we do live at the end of the country lane.

Most things I just love.  It's quiet, unless my children are playing ball outside.  I love the deer that migrate through my yard nightly except when I have produce in my garden.  I like the sound of the tractors and the trains and the birds and the wind and the hooting owl every morning in the big Box Elder tree across the field.  My daily running route most people of the world would consider a great place for a mountain hike.

I love that the only time I have ever heard anyone say anything about traffic is when the High School Football game is over on Friday nights in the fall.  The only other time I have ever thought about traffic is when a power line repair truck was trying to get on the main road at the exact same time a string of cars 5 miles long was making its way to the High School after winning the State Football Championship last November.

When I introduce someone as my neighbor they could live anywhere from 1-3 miles away.  Isn't that great.   We have 4 seasons, a 1 room post office, the world headquarters for Papa Jay's Jerky and a 2 pump gas station.  You can even use your credit card to pay at the pump that's how happening we are here.

There is one problem, the smell.  It happens late spring early summer every year.   You open your windows in the morning and the lilacs are blooming. The lightly blowing breeze brings the scent into the house in a matter of minutes. The sweet smell fills your home and you think that surely this is the way Heaven smells.  Then it happens, the direction of the breeze changes and instead of a breeze it turns to wind and the smell that fills your home is from the recently manure fertilized field across the way.  You run around your house closing windows but it's too late your stuck with it.. You complain about it for the entire 3 hours that your house smells like manure.  But in the morning you wake up and open the windows again as the owl hoots and the lilac breeze wafts through the window you are so happy you live in Clifton.  

Lazy or Creative

Okay I always keep club soda on hand.  It has no calories and no sugar so when you have an upset stomach or just want some fizz it is the perfect drink.  My kids would add that it is the perfect drink if you like alka seltzer.

Anyway I haven't been feeling great so I wanted to have a drink of it.  Brigham was wandering around the kitchen.  He is always wandering around the kitchen becuase he is generally "STARVING".  How, I do not know, but he is and on Sunday from the moment we walk in from church he starts eating and doesn't quit until his head hits the pillow.  You get the picture, and just for fun imagine Fast Sundays.

Anyway- - I ask Brigham to bring me some club soda.  He brings me the whole two liter bottle.  It is two-thirds full. I say, "Brigham I can't drink all of this I need a glass."  I expect him to balk about walking back into the kitchen to pour me a class.  Instead without blinking an eye or hesitating for a second, he takes the lid off, hands me the bottle, raises both arms into the air and starts chanting, "Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. Come on mom you can do it!  Drink it all!  Chug, chug, chug!"  I am laughing to hard to chug anything.

The Packing Legacy

Okay, so this was a first for me.  We helped someone move and when I came home I wasn't ready for bed due to exhaustion.  I credit it to the packing legacy and growth.  Brynne and Clark are moving to SLC for the summer because Clark has an internship.  They had finals all last week and this week they prepared for the move.  Brynne talked to her dad Friday night asking a couple of questions and reported that the week of packing was as miserable as finals week.

I concur that both are miserable. But finals is all mental. Packing on the other hard is mentally and physically tiring.  In your head you just keep thinking is this ever going to end while you are maxing out your muscle load.  Packing ends up in my opinion being worse than finals because when you finish finals there is a great deal of personal accomplishment that brings you a small sense of euphoria at completion.  When you get done packing you are just worn out and all you have to look forward to is unpacking!

Anyway, we arrive at Aggie Village promptly at 10:00.  For you doubters that I am prompt that was exactly the time Brynne asked us to arrive.  Clark & Brynne's vehicle was packed, everything except for the refrigerator contents were boxed up, the boxes were labeled, and the apartment was clean.  There were even doughnuts and chocolate milk laid out for those who arrived to help them move.

From 10:00-10:30 we started to take all the boxes to the lawn and stacked them according to their destination, Nanny's or Claudia's.  This of course was easy because Brynne had everything clearly labeled and instead of being the second strongest person there next to LaWrell- - Clark, JD and LaWrell are all stronger than I am, and I am pretty sure both Brynne and Addie beat me in an arm wrestling match.  Hence, Brynne, JD, and Addie's growth made this moving experience easier for me!

Claudia and Scott arrive precisely at 10:30 on schedule with the van and the U-haul.  By 11:15 everything is loaded up and ready to go.  Claudia and Scott and various Evans' are helping with the unpacking once they arrive in SLC.  LaWrell, JD, Addie, Brigham, and I are on our way to buy some seeds to plant in the garden this year. 

Claudia and Scott are good parents and helpful and for this we are grateful.  Brynne learned about organization and hard work from generations of house cleaning, gopher killing, mining, cow milking, weeding, farming, studying, college graduating kind of people and we are grateful for that. So to all you Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Cousins, and Employers of Brynne's out there thanks for your help in teaching Brynne how to pack.  And to those who have gone on before thank you for leaving the Packing Legacy.  Brynne & Clark I am sure Grandpa would have been pleased.  I know that Dad and I were.

JD Is Not My Only Child

So last week was consumed with JD's surgery and prom.  JD only made it to three hours of school this week.  Friday he started feeling a lot better in the evening. He even felt good enough to watch the new Disney Channel Movie, Lemonade Mouth with Addie.

Yes, Addie, I do have other children besides JD.  Some say that JD is my favorite, you know who you are. But JD is just the most time consuming.  Addie, some say, gets lost in the shuffle of our life. She is just practically perfect so no one ever hears about Addie's antics, because she doesn't have antics.  Addie does have  AH HA moments.  You know what an AH HA moment is, when an experience, thought, or conversation all of a sudden makes sense and you want to say out loud, "AH HA I get it now!"


I'll explain.  On Monday Addie comes to dinner completely distraught. She is overwhelmed because she is behind in reading.  I ask how far and she says 300 pages.  When she says this I am immediately not amused.  When you are behind 50- 100 pages it could be excusable.  She was really busy with other classes.  She forgot one day.  She had a hard time finding a good book to read.  But when you are behind 300 pages not many excuses will fly.  At least not with me and Addie knows it.

I give her a lecture on the spot.  I tell her I don't care if she doesn't like to read it is an assignment and she has to get to it.  I tell her a book to read. JD explains simple division, if she would have been reading 10 pages a night it wouldn't be so bad.  Now she has to read 75 pages a night for 4 nights.

Addie doesn't handle correction well, not because she is trying to be defiant.  She rarely gets corrected so when she does it breaks her heart a little.  I try to be nice, but I had to be firm to make sure she understood why she was in this mess.

The week goes on.  Addie reads every spare moment and Thursday night she finishes a book report.

While JD, Addie, and I are watching Lemonade Mouth, LaWrell comes in and asks if she got her report turned in.  Addie says, "Yes and I got 15 extra credit points for my book report."  I asked why, Mrs. Olsen rarely gives extra credit.  Addie explains that on Monday she went into English and  written on the board was 300 pages, report due on Friday.  She didn't see the part that said it was for the 8th Grade.

Addie says, "I really didn't need to do it Mom so she gave me extra credit because  I got it done so early."

Her 300 pages and report probably isn't due for another 3 weeks.

JD is laughing shaking his head and asking how she got so confused.

AH HA - Addie, "Oh, next time I need to make sure it is my assignment especially when she never has mentioned it or talked about it in class."

JD, "Really Addie"

I am speechless.

Addie loves Lemonade Mouth and watches it again with Brigham on Saturday while JD gets ready for prom.

LaWrell's Rebuttle to the Brink

Update on JD.  Yesterday was a lot better than surgery day.  And he slept great last night.  He did have to take another pain pill before bed because, well, he was still in pain.  Oh and we took the dressing off because it was driving him nuts.  It was a lot more swollen and just nasty than I thought it would be.

Three Thing Worth Sharing


First, JD has made it painfully clear over the last two years that he hates to wait.  I don't care how you try or if medical professionals  do try, but there is  a lot of waiting when it comes to solving a health issue.  At JD's last pre-op appointment he was waiting in the check-up chair and I was waiting in a chair behind him.  He turned to me and said, "Mom do you hate waiting too?"  If you could have just heard his voice. Part of me wanted to laugh out loud and shake him.  It was like it dawned on him for the first time that I might not have liked this experience any more than he did.  The other part of me wanted to kiss him becuase it was like it dawned on him for the first time the sacrifices I had made for him and he sounded so grateful.  But I decided to just say, "It's not too bad if I have something to read."  I think he got the message.  It's what parents do.

Second, when JD finally got to us after the surgery he was in a lot of pain.  He was crying and telling us how bad his head and ear hurt.  It is just so sad to see a teenage boy cry.  But it is worse when the tears are just streaming from one eye.

Third, LaWrell said he completely understands about the BRINK.  It's just a long way from him.

The Brink- You Know What I'm Talking About

I love reading Kathryn's blog.  I write my first post to empathize with her.

Tonight I was asking Kristine how Andrea's son Benson was doing on his mission in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami. I am happy to report that Benson is doing great.  At the end of the conversation Kristine said that Jared needs a root canal.  How we got from here to there in the conversation is an art.

This is about the twentieth medical or dental procedure that the Bolton's have needed done in the last 6 months.  The time, money and energy required for all of these procedures are sending Kathryn to the brink.  The brink of what I am not really sure, but I have been there and you know what I am talking about if you have been there too.  The brink is a real place.


I share my brink story so Kathryn doesn't think she's going crazy.
JD's Health History as follows:
*Summer 2009--ongoing physical therapy IT Band (did you even know *August 2009 - - Tumor Surgery
*December 2009-- Torn Meniscus
*January 2010- March 2010- - Nursing Torn Meniscus through B-ball
*April 2010- Knee Surgery
*June 2010- New Torn Meniscus
*July 2010- Knee Surgery
*September 2010- Torn MCL

The doctors assured us that none of JD's injuries had anything to do with the other.  He just had really bad luck.  Bad luck, really, I felt like Heaven and Earth were conspiring against a 16 year old and I was on the brink. The brink, of what, again I am not really sure.

I don't know how it happened just like I don't know how I got there, but somewhere between October2010 and March 2011, I moved away from the brink.  Maybe it was the fact that JD went 6 months with only 2 ear infections and no injuries.  Maybe it was just time.  Maybe it was having good insurance. Maybe it was getting adjusted to having Dad gone.  Maybe it was a great basketball season. Maybe it was I adjusted to the brink and it didn't move but I accepted it.  I dont' really know.

This week JD had a mole removed with a cyst attached to it. It is currently at pathology.  Tomorrow he will have a simple 2 hour surgery to repair the hole in his ear drum that the tumor created in 2009. And hopefully in two weeks he will be done with doctors until he gets ready to go on his mission.   One can always hope.

I feel your pain Kathryn.  I am sorry that you are on the brink.  I don't know how you get off it but I know it can happen.  And just for the record LaWrell and JD don't understand the brink.  They don't know where it is or why I was there. But I do.  And  I write for empathy purposes only.