Day of rest

My son Jacob turned three at the end of December, just in time to graduate to the Sunbeam Class for kids at church. Yes you heard me right, I said "class" like, with an actual teacher and an actual lesson...for three year olds. And in his case, a just barely three year old. Well, the first week went about like I expected. Jacob spent his time drawing on the chalkboard, jumping off his chair, twirling his head up in the curtains and helping the pianist with the accompanment. Everytime the music leader looked around to call on a child for help, he was yelling "Pick Jackie!" And he wandered around the room whenever he was bored to sit on a different teachers lap or sit by one of the kids he recognized from the neighbornhood. I'm sure he was wondering where the slide and the basketball hoop had gone (yes, we have them in our nursery), and "Where are my snacks?" and "Where are those couple kids I'm bigger than?". It was a tough week, but everyone kept telling me he would get better. So a few months have gone by and a month or so ago I asked Jacob about it on the way home from church.

Mom - "What did you learn about in Primary today?"

Jacob - No response. I tried a different approach.

Mom - "What did your teacher tell you in class?"

Jacob - "Get down".

Exactly what he was climbing on I don't know.

And then, there is Eddie. Who oddly enough, gets possessed the second we step in the chapel doors. He gives everyone at church who smiles or talks to him some kind of sad, crusty expression - usually like this. And even though he wants Mom and Dad, he doesn't cooperate for us too well. It must be funny, to sit behind us and watch Eddie dive, wiggle, wrestle, bite and scratch his way out of our arms, only to be put down and immediately do the go limp baby trick where they pretend they have no muscle control and could not possibly stand, sit or even lay down without parental assistance. It's a not so enjoyable game of...So you want me to hold you... So you want down... OK I'll hold you...Ouch, I'm putting you down...Well you spazzed out and hit your head, now you need hugs...Fine I'll let you run around the chapel...Anything if you just stop freaking out...OK you can sit on my lap...Here's some honeycombs...You want to lay on the floor?...Lets go out in the hall...No, that's not working...Go to Daddy...Stop ripping the hymn book pages...etc.etc.etc. for three hours! I don't know how I could do it without Dave. He ends up with Eddie most of the time because of my primary calling and I do not envy him. The best thing about the day is that both of my kids are so tired when we get home that we all get to take a much needed, lengthy Sunday nap. All that spiritual nourishment is tiring.

3 feet tall

It was a week to remember as Jacob went in for a check up and has now broken the three foot threshhold, or at least reached it. He hasn't been on the growth chart for height since he was under a year old so we are excited! Who knew all that macaroni and cheese was actually good for you? Now, I can't help but wonder if the nurse really measured him correctly. Here is Jacob with one of his cute friends from our neighborhood, who is just a tiny bit taller.

Castle Country Pride

Reading Petie's favorite things about life in

Oregon inspired me to write a few of the things I love about living in Price. So, for my inaugural blog...here are the best things Carbon County has to offer.

The DMV

Lines? What lines? We don't have to come to the DMV too often, but when we do lose our drivers license or need to register a car - it's glorious. There is a certain euphoria that comes from being in and out of this building in less than 10 minutes. And it's a joy I would never have understood without taking a number and waiting for two hours at other DMV's chock full of crazies just to get my stupid license renewed.

The "Commute"

Even though we live in the cute little suburb of "Westwood", work for both of us is only about 2 or 3 miles away. It is awesome. I remember the days of horrible traffic jams, idiot drivers and wasted time - and those days are happily over. Dave can even run home for lunch for a quick visit with the kids (which is almost always a good thing). Now we feel horribly inconvenienced if we have to make the grueling 7 mile drive to Helper (which oddly we occassionally do) or wait to make a left hand turn for more than a minute or so. Booyah!

Living in the sticks

The gas station we frequent, where Dave gets his usual 64 ounce diet Pepsi, recently posted a sign that says "We will no longer accept no personal checks". How awesome is that? It makes me smile every time I stop. And where else can you find these treasures of hickdom? Pretty much everywhere in Carbon County. When the new Super Walmart was built, they painted the parking lot with several giant "YEILD" signs. Sadly, these were pressure washed and repainted with "YIELD" signs after only a couple of enjoyable weeks. And who can forget, the wonderful little, short lived mom and pop store in "downtown" Price creatively called "Most Blankets $25.00". I never went in to see what else they sold, but I'm pretty sure they had shoes too.

Football

Yes, we do get excited about our high school football games in this little town. In fact, the rivalry between Carbon and Emery county high school sports is legendary around here. Sadly, unlike the Dillon Panthers, the Carbon Dinos suck, especially at football. But it doesn't stop us from dragging our boys out to the high school, several times a season to watch the games, listen to the annoying high school kids talk about annoying high school stuff and eat some cheap $1.00 hot dogs prepared by people who might be in the PTA but most certainly do not have food handlers permits. These games are so fun, we can't even be kept away by the dreaded touchdown cannon! I digress...every year, I forget about the stupid cannon - because you can go for so many weeks and never hear it. But, sure enough, a few times a year - somehow the Dino's will put up 6 points and the excited cannon operator ( I don't know what his official title is) will excitedly jump up from his chair and proceed to ruin my kids eardrums. The deafening boom makes all the children in a 5 mile radius startle, grab their ears and scream in terror. And then, no matter how much fun they were having, they are nervous the rest of the night just waiting for another painful blast from the cannon. So we go home and wait for a week or two, until the nightmares of the cannon have ended, to go back again. Go DINOS!

Country Life

This weekend, I had to go to the metrolpolis of "Lawrence" Utah to see a hospice patient. Having been to Lawrence before, I knew I probably needed directions as street signs and numbers are not so important to this town. Thankfully, I called a coworker or I never would have known that I needed to make a left hand turn at the intersection with the little barn and the huge tree on the right. And on my nice little drive to Lawrence - I saw beautiful scenery, a bald eagle flying along the highway and nearly stopped to let a stranger know their cow was in their driveway, until I noticed it was actually tied there and apparently suppossed to be grazing in their driveway. Who knew?

These are a few of my favorite things. Not to mention..

Groggs Brewery and the best, chewy rolls in the world (granted it is the only good place to eat within 60 miles).

The Dinosaur Museum

Reading our local paper "The Sun Advocate" to check out the divorce petitions and court appearances and actually knowing many of the people involved (kind of fun in a sadistic way).

The Saint Patricks Day Parade which is 15 minutes long. (Plenty of time for my kids to get their parade on without me getting too annoyed).

Annual Kids Day

Seeing people we know everywhere we go (interestingly this is also on the top 10 list of things I hate about living in Price).

In general, we have come to the conclusion that most people do who live here. You cry when you move here and you cry when you leave. It grows on you. And although our initial plans were to leave after a few years of saving money and paying off student loans, we don't have any plans to be anywhere else anytime soon. So all our friends living in the city - enjoy your restaurants, your culture and your shopping, and we will think of you while attending the next Demolition Derby/Mullet sighting event. You know we will be there.