Thanksgiving Jello Wars Entry 2011

I know everyone KNOWS that I am the Jello Grand Master already, but if you can believe it, someone challenged me on this. So naturally, we had to war it out.

Here's my entry! It's my personal favorite and my best. That's count them...20 Layers! Yes TWENTY!

So there are three main Criterion upon which an independent panel of judges will score each Jello creation.

Number of Layers

Presentation

Emotional Response

Each criterion can earn a total of 30,000 points. Totaling 90,000 points (I think...math is hard).

As a bonus, each "Like" I get on my facebook Thanksgiving Jello Wars Entry 2011 album photos will earn me an additional 100 points per like. I am hoping to get 100 likes totaling 10,000 bonus points.

So if you're a facebooker than please take the time to find my pics and like it. If you're not a facebooker, this might be the time to re-evaluate your life.

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving Holiday. I have more to say about this Holiday, but I’ll save that for a post in the near future. This one is just about Jello.

here's how Jello Wars work...

Tragedy

Doesn’t it seem like there has been too much tragedy lately. I mean, even just with the amount of train accidents there have been in the last two months. Have you been watching the news? Those alone are almost more than I can really handle.

Then there was this week’s tragedy on I-80 where the mother and two children were killed when their van slid off the highway and submerged into an icy river. They were survived by their father who was taking care of their other child, a son who received severe burns the week before and was in the Burn Center at the U. I saw the story on the news and the desperation in his eyes. He hadn’t even told his son what had happened. He said he just didn’t know how to do it. I’m sure I wouldn’t either. Sad.

How can these things happen? It’s just not right.

Then there was today.

I have been working for several years with a Migrant Headstart Preschool Center collecting items and connecting them with people and resources that bring some relief to struggling families trying to build a new and better life in Utah. Working with them has brought me a lot of joy.

This year, I was able to connect them with an opportunity to receive an unbelievable amount of money. Alyssa’s former preschool teacher, who has helped me collect new packs of socks and underwear in the past, has a son who is a student body officer at Riverton High School. The high schooler’s there are known for their Christmas generosity and amazing fundraising ability.

Each year the student body raises more money than the last. Last year they raised over $80,000. Yes, Eighty THOUSAND dollars. Said student body officer remembered his mom had helped this preschool and nominated them to be the recipient of the money from this year’s money drive. The school I have been working with was one of six charities that nominated for the money.

My friends at the Centro de la Familia jumped at the opportunity and prepared a moving presentation about the organization and the families they support. I attended the presentation and must admit that I sobbed through the entire presentation. It was a little embarrassing. I was not prepared, even after working with them for several years, for the poverty and sadness of some of the family’s life circumstances.

We waited and waited to hear from the High School to see if we had been selected and dreamed of how a sum like that could work to perpetually support these families for years and years. Weeks went by with no word. Finally I did hear through the grapevine that letters had been sent to each charity. Several more weeks went by and Centro de la Familia never got a letter. At this point we figured that we had not been selected, but were still baffled as to why no one had ever contacted us to let us (and by us I mean them) know.

Part of me still clinged to hope that maybe the student body officers would march into the preschool unannounced Publisher Clearinghouse style with balloons and everything and present them with a giant check for $80,000.

Today I finally broke down and hunted down the mother of student body officer who had nominated us in the first place (Alyssa’s former teacher) to see if she knew anything. She reluctantly told me that The Christmas Box House had been the recipient of the money this year. Despite my vain imaginations, I really already knew that it wasn’t their money, but it still made me sad. She also said that it was really close between the Christmas Box house and this preschool. She told me that they wanted them to apply next year and maybe they would get it then.

You might think that’s the tragedy I am talking about, but it’s not. I called the school after I found out the news to put them out of their misery waiting for an answer. Amanda, the family needs specialist, who I have been working with a lot, answered the phone which is really unusual.

I chit-chatted with her for a minute and finally got brave enough to break the news. She was disappointed, maybe even a little mad about it. Not that they were counting on the money, but still. It’s disappointing to come so close to something big and not get it.

I asked to speak to the director Tom who I have also gotten to know as I have been working on the project this year. He is such a delightful, caring, compassionate man. The moment I met him he made me feel so comfortable and like I had known him for years. We found that we had friends in common and really struck up a good friendship in our united effort to bring relief to these families.

Anyway…Tom was not there. Amanda asked me if I hadn’t heard. About what? I had not heard anything. Then she proceeded to tell me that Tom’s wife, the mother of his six children ranging in ages form five to 18, passed away suddenly last week. She apparently had a stomach ache and stayed home to rest. When Tom got home from work he found her in bed, but it was already too late.

That’s the last tragedy I can really process for the rest of 2011. Enough sad things have happened now.

I really just can’t bring myself to understand how a mother of six kids can just die. Tom has five sons and one daughter. Well, I have five brothers and I am telling you, we just couldn’t have made it without our mother. And I know for a fact that my kids could not make it without me, not to even mention Steve. I cannot imagine his world without me. We’re crazy about each other in case you’ve never noticed.

Plus, I remember being five-years-old and sitting at the breakfast table watching my brothers run out to catch the school bus after mom had got us all out of bed, dressed, fed, hair combed and out the door.

I remember throwing up in the middle of the night and my mother holding my head over the toilet, keeping my hair out of my face.

My mother made me a book bag on my first day of Kindergarten.

My mother told me that someday someone would want to marry me when I was 25 and I was sure no one ever would.

My mother was there when my first child was born.

How can these six children just one day have a mother and the next day, she’s gone.

I cried all day long about this. I bet you’re crying now too.

The whole reason I have been helping this school is because I want to do everything I can easily do to ease human suffering, even if it’s just a little bit. Now, there is this whole other arm of suffering that I can do nothing about. Sad. Helpless.

It’s just so sad. It couldn’t happen to nicer people. Someone who lives their life to help underprivileged people? Really?!? Shouldn’t there be some kind of invisible force-field protecting these kind of people?

I mentioned that I cried all day about it, but I did have one peaceful moment, actually two peaceful moments that I am kind of clinging to right now.

I took a shower in the middle of the day which is unusual for me. As I was fixing myself up, I was shamelessly listening to fm100 because I start listening to Christmas music as soon as it’s available (don’t judge me), and because I mostly listen to fm100 year round anyway. Anyway…the Jewel version of Silent Night came on the radio.

“Silent night Holy night. All is calm, all is bright…” You know how it goes. Well right then, I was completely calmed. Maybe for the first time in my life, I really felt like I had a reason to celebrate the birth of my Savior.

About an hour later I heard this on the radio… “Joy to the world the Lord is come, let earth receive her King.” Again then, I felt it again. This time again I felt the same stillness and sense of relief.

I have always celebrated Jesus’s birth, I mean, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? But I have never really, really thought about it.

I don’t consider myself to be a major sinner. I'm probably just an average sinner. No one is perfect right? I know that Jesus was born for us, suffered for our sins and then died for us and was then resurrected. I know all this. I even know how and why it applies to me.

But today I felt DESPARATE for a Savior. Maybe for the first time. Not because I wanted to be saved from sin, but because I felt so desperate to help this family be reunited with their mother and wife.

I’ve done a lot of little things to help a lot of people, but I can’t do this for them. But I know someone who can and already did. I think I have forgotten about how awesome the whole resurrection part of the Atonement is. Especially in a “died too young” situation.

My own mortality has been on my mind a lot today. If this tragedy can strike them what’s to say it couldn’t happen to me. That thought makes me feel desperate for security.

So today I am clinging to my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings and his gospel and his covenants and his promised blessings. The alternative is pretty bleak.

The other thing I can do is help. Help everyone. Help connect people with what they need. Sure, I can do that. Even if that thing is helping them get new underwear or socks. I can do that.

I guess He’s promised us a lot of things, so I’m just going to keep doing it, because I need him to have mercy on me when I die. Not just because I am an average sinner but because I just really NEED to be with my family forever and I NEED to know that everyone else will be too. I just can't be happy when I know others are miserable. It just can’t all end when someone dies. Especially if they die early.

Joy to the world, it doesn’t end when you die. What a great time to celebrate the birth of the Savior.

Merry Christmas.

If you'd like to help with Operation Undies which supports this Migrant Headstart Preschool and after school program, let me know. I'm always looking for donations.

Soccer girl!!

We had a great fall season with USA Soccer on Team Cheetah’s! Our team rocked it and rocked it hard all season. We even won a game or two, not that anyone was keeping score.

We joined up with my brother Jason’s neighborhood team. I must say, my brother has great neighbors. They really are a special group of really fun and nice people.

Alyssa’s coach John Coons was seriously the best coach anyone could ask for. He showed up to every Wednesday night practice and ran the kids hard teaching them drills and playing games.

Alyssa was noticed by all the other parents as having a smile on her face the ENTIRE time she played.

She had an absolute ball under Coach Coons.

Speaking of the Coach, his son is on our team too. His name is Atticus. He is the tiniest little person I have ever seen. I must say despite his small size, the boy has an incredible knack for moving the ball. I enjoyed all season long watching him run up and down the field his big uniform drowning his little body. He looked like a running pile of laundry moving up the field. Adorable. Atticus wasn’t the only adorable player. We got to know and love each of the nine member team.

Best photos of the season:

Kicking Drills before the game.

The huddle where they call the plays...

Proud of herself after stopping the other teams goal. She proved to be quite the little defender.

Playing hard. Always running after the ball.

The highlights of the season for me where when, A. Alyssa scored a goal (her only goal for the season) at the first game. No parent could have ever been prouder. I seriously went ballistic over it. Looking back it was a little much probably. 2. This was really a low point, but it proved to show Alyssa just how tough she could be, so I’m still counting it as a highlight…so this BIG boy from the opposing team, who was huge by the way, like so big I almost asked to see his long form birth certificate. I hear those take a long time to round up though. Anyway. At point blank range, he kicked the ball as hard as he could right into her face (this was unintentional I’m sure). It hit her right over the eye and ricochet off her and smacked her cousin right in the face too. Both girls came off the field bawling. I can’t blame them.

I held her for a few minutes while she cried. The coach came over to check on them and congratulated them for having the first “headers” of the season. A few minutes after that, both girls despite saying they’d never play again were back on the field running and seeking the ball. It was great.

And D. Was when we were playing the best team in the league and they were smearing us. One of their two incredible players made a dirty move and pulled Alyssa to the ground just as she was about to kick the ball. I loved her reaction. She went down, but she took the big boy down with her. Not only that, but she knew he was the best player, so she held him down so he couldn’t get back up. She had an enormous smile on her face the whole time. She knew exactly what she was doing. Her illegal hold gave little Atticus enough time to go and snag the ball away and head down toward our goal. After the game was over she volunteered to me that she held him down on purpose because she knew he was the best player and she was a good “defender.”

We had several family home evenings where we played ball and practiced some skills in the backyard. It was really very fun for the whole family.

I am so glad that the soccer season is only half over. We get another season this spring. Everyone pray for warm weather and an early spring. These games and practices are too fun to miss. I'll miss our Wednesday night practices now that it gets dark at noon.

Moab 2011 Wrap-up

Oct, 22 2011

All-in-all, I’m not sure we could have had any more fun on this trip. Everything was really rather perfect. I would love to repeat this trip over and over and over if I could. The only thing I would add is nine more children and four more adults. If you can believe it, that’s how many of our family members we left home due to scheduling conflicts and newborn babies. Next year guys, next year.

We began our check out process and left the hotel never to return (until next year) for a quick hike to Landscape Arch, the largest in the park. It really was a very quick walk. Despite that, Sunny was generally pooped from being marched around from place to place for the last three days. She really was a good sport, so I can’t really blame her for not being 100 percent on board with Landscape arch. Steve and I basically took turns carrying her in some form for the 1.2 mile round trip.

The arch really was impressive. We got a better view of it that we did last year. It was raining then and the whole trail was a muddy mess. We turned around as soon as we got our picture of the arch.

This time we toured around and saw it as up close as you can get. They like you NOT to play under and around this one since several tons of the rock came crashing down in the 1990’s.

It was a beautiful arch and a beautiful day to be there.

Our kids weren’t the only ones to poop out. Randy’s two youngest crapped out too. Double D who had been TOTALLY independent during the whole trip now insisted that he be carried by his mother who under duress took the assignment and carried him as far as she could. Then my brother Randy volunteered even though he was already plus one. Double D finally agreed about about 10 minutes of crying about it. It was either that or he stay here in the wilderness forever.

We made it back to the car and this is what happened with Sunny immediately. I guess she was actually tired. I guess I know why. We did make a quick stop at the Park Avenue section. Where me and my nephew Jake enjoyed each other’s company and shouted “Echo!” It was very cool to hear the echo. Like real cool.

Then we headed back into Moab to use the bathroom and get a bite to eat. We dined together at the Moab Diner. Would I go there again, probably not. Was it bad, no. It was like one of those places that serves the exact same kind of food you can make yourself at home.

We ceremoniously changed our shoes from hikers into something else. I guess the fun is over, bummer.

We made one last stop at the Colorado River Pedestrian Bridge. It was fun to cross over such a massive river. We did get to walk down and touch the water too, which was fun for the kids.

We did decide to make another last stop at the Arches Park Visitors center mainly because they had nice bathrooms and we had a lot of kids. Alyssa enjoyed very much pushing the button and listening via telephone receiver about different areas and things users need to be aware of before enjoying the park. Too bad this was the last thing we did. She'll be prepared for next time. Sunny and Alyssa also both enjoyed the bronzed wildlife statues in front of the center. They both claim this as the FUNNEST thing that happened on the trip. Even over swimming in the gross Super 8 pool.

With that we piled back into the cars and headed back toward home.

We made a brief stop in Green River. If you’re even in Green River you should stop and get yourself a Watermelon. They are SO delicious. Not like the crap ones you can buy at our grocery stores where half the time they are yum and half the time they’re mushy. They save the best melons for the townies and the travelers through like us.

We stopped again in Price to let the kids stretch their legs and to use a potty. We tried to get into some of the campus buildings since we were traveling with some College of Eastern Utah alumnus, but no luck everything was all locked up. So we settled for a family leaf fight instead. It was actually as fun as it looks. My brother Scott is such a good sport and let the kids chase him all over. They did eventually catch him too.

We piled back into the vans and made it to Spanish Fork before we had to stop and eat. We all traveled with a Happening’s book and had a coupon for Magleby’s Fresh deli. It was a great place to stop. The kids took their own table and wouldn’t sit with us, which was weird and fun.

After our meal it was a short ride back home where we were relieved to be after a long drive in the car. It’s always amazing how BIG our house seems upon returning home from vacation.