15 Tons of Rock for my Birthday

The night before my birthday Blair left for Catalina Island with Mariah and her 6th grade class. The morning of my birthday I decided I was sick of not having rock in our front yard. I had waited and waited (13 years) and I was going to do something about it. So I called MDI Rock and ordered 15 tons of Black Cherry rock. It would be coming the next day and I was excited. After the phone call in which I ordered the stuff, I started to get a bit nervous. Worried what Blair was going to do when he came home to 15 tons of rock sitting in front of his house that now he would need to lay. I started kind of laughing (don't know if it was because of joy or nervousness) at the thought of Blair's face when I picked him up Friday night at 11:30 pm after spending 3 days with all those kids and chaperoning etc. I started thinking that some of our friends and family would get a kick out of what I had done and also start laughing at the thought of Blair's face. So I emailed a few people. Oh, and in the email I kind of was joking around (because one of the people I sent it to was the Scout Master) that if any scouts needed any service projects I knew of one. Word got around and the Young Men's president called and had set up the project for 5pm on Thursday. I was excited at the thought that maybe I could get all the rock laid and Blair would be even more shocked, however I was a bit concerned at how irrated Blair would be at having us be a church service project. I knew that he would be more upset with me about that than the rock. The idea of it being all done was too great and I said okay, I'll provide the pizza.
Thursday morning I got up and started digging a trench along the sidewalk of our house (3 inches deep by 2 feet wide) and at the last minute I thought how great it would be if I had all of the pipe down and watering system down for the flowers. I ran got all the stuff and a neighbor came out to help me install the major pipe/hose whatever you want to call it. We were just finishing it up when the first crew started showing up. My neighbors said it was like watching bees. At first there was a few and then the swarm came.




Joshua and Aaron worked hard as well and I was very proud of them. Ethan and Jessah even tried to help where they could.




My mother in law came over and helped. She brought the pizzas and ran a got some more plastic. After awhile, and those of you that know and love her, know this about her, but she could not just stand there and watch while others were working. She had to work. I wish I had more of her drive to work.
After all was said and done, from 5 to 7:20 all of the rock was laid. I could not believe how hard people worked. One neighbor of mine said that she was thinking maybe she should join our church! We had neighbors watching the whole time and even taking pictures. They were really surprised that I wasn't paying anyone to help us. The were impressed that many of the people were young men and how they would be willing to give service. I told them that is what our church teaches. As I look at our front yard now and definitely do see how nice it is but the first thing I see our the images of all those that came and helped me. I look at my front yard now and see and feel love and kindness. I was very humbled by the gift that was given to me. The rock I got was very dark and the dirt that is around it was a dark red/orange color that seemed to stain your body.
Jessah said, 'Mom, how did you get your legs to turn colors?' 'Did you paid that ring around your foot?' I don't know if you can see how dirty my face is in this picture or not but I scrubbed my face and feet (and of course everything else) for 45 minutes in the shower. That was some of the strongest staining dirt I have ever seen. Okay, so I am sure that you are all wondering how Blair reacted when he got home on midnight the following evening. He got out of the car and grinned and then said, 'You got rock.' I said, 'Are you shocked?' He said, 'No, not shocked, maybe surprised and that it's all done.' 'Who laid all this rock?' I said, 'you don't want to know.' He said, 'yes I do.' Again, I said, 'no you don't.' He said, "OH NO, YOU LET THE CHURCH DO IT!!!" This is where I was really expecting to get chewed out. But he just shook his head and said, 'how embarrassing.' He hates to ask anyone for help and this was very difficult for him. I tried to help him see that they were helping me too. After awhile he realized how much work it was and really appreciated not having to do it. I think it was good for him to let others do something for him. He was very grateful to all those that helped.

Mariah Uses her Nose to Catch a Softball & Breaks Her Nose

While Blair was out of town I had several things I had to do with different kids. One thing was Mariah's softball practice. Her coach said that he would be happy to pick her up for me and take her, so I thought great, one less thing to try and figure out how to accomplish. About an hour into the practice I get a text from Mariah saying that I need to call her immediately. So, of course I am thinking, why doesn't she just call me? Anyway, I call and Mariah says (in a nasally voice) talk to Coach Deb. Deb proceeds to tell me that Mariah was playing 3rd base and run over to short stop to catch a ball that the coach had hit, and well, the ball hit her right in the nose. They all swear they could hear it break! And of course it bled. They immediately put ice on it and I dropped everything else for that evening and went and got her.

When I saw first saw her she was tough, not much tears at all. Her nose looked BAD! I thought, "Why do these things always happen to Mariah, if it has to do with the face, it's gonna happen to Mariah!" I hugged her and told she it was okay, her head hurt really bad and she felt a bit nauseous so I got a little concerned. Mariah started to cry a bit and I felt bad for her until she said, "Mom, I can't finish practice!" Then I just laughed and told her of all the things to cry about that wasn't it." Her coach said that of all the players, Mariah needed practice the least, which made her feel better. She also cried because she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to participate in Field Day the next day. So, we left practice and I didn't know exactly what to do with her. Do I just watch her all night, do I take her to the emergency room?? I called Karen, my sister in law because she is a nurse and she called the doc. office for me and they told us to take her to the emergency room just in case there was any other damage.

We were lucky enough to take the last children's bed at the emergency room, she was being seen by a doc. within 10 minutes of us going to the hospital. They took X-rays and said that her nose didn't move, it was still straight but we were to watch it carefully for the next 7-10 days and if we observed any crookedness in her nose to take her to an ENT specialist. So far, so good! She really hasn't had to bad of a black eye either.

The next day, her nose her a lot but she was not about to miss school and participate in Field Day. She is one tough girl! If it had happened to one of the boys they would have milked it for all they could and they would NOT have gone to school the next day.

Last night she played softball again (first practice game) and she didn't worry about being hit by the ball, she did just fine with catching. Mariah usually plays catcher, 1st base, and short stop. Oh, and she hit the first home run of the season.

Aarons Fist Fight

Yesterday I got a call from the nurse at Aaron's school. She told me that he was alright but that he had been in a fist fight at school. I was pretty calm and cool about the whole thing as she explained what happened.

The principal got on the phone and spoke to me. I don't think I like him just because he gets an attitude when you question what he says.

Anyway, Aaron was standing in the cafeteria line and 2 bratty kids come up and cut in front of him. Aaron tells them to not cut in line. One of the boys starts cussing in Aaron's face and calling him horrible names. Aaron pushes the kid away from him (Aaron is very sensitive to bad language) and the kid halls off and punches Aaron in the cheek. Aaron punched him in the forehead and then took a hit to the ear. Aaron hit his arm and shoulder (Aaron said he didn't want to hit his face, he was aiming for his body so that he wouldn't hurt him so much). It was broken up and Aaron was sent to the principal. The principal has to say that Aaron started it because he got physical first. Big difference between a punch and a push to get the guy out of his face!! I think that verbally attacking someone should be the first offense and after that Aaron was just trying to protect himself. The school system stinks with teaching our children about real life. Everything has to be politically correct and crap. Makes me a bit angry, can you tell!! So now Aaron is suspended from school until Wednesday. We didn't get mad at him, there was no punishment from home, well, except that he had to go to work with Blair today.

I called my Mom (Aaron's grandma) and told her what happened. She said, "You tell that boy to aim right for the other kids nose!" Aaron's uncle Jack said the same thing, well, okay first he said, "You don't want me to teach him how to defend himself cause I'll tell him to stick his fingers in the kids eyes and then shove your fist through his nose." If you can't tell, Jack wanted the rotten kid to hurt too. And then I ran into Darren, my nephew and told him about the fight, to which he replied, "Do I need to go talk to some kids at Aaron's school?" For those of you that don't know Darren, he is BIG and he can be scarry, of course not to his family. Okay maybe his brothers have been a little scared of him but that is different! I thought it was sweet that everyone cared and I felt the love and support from family, even if some of that support was words in a violent nature!!! lol
I think that I was more traumatized that Aaron. As his Mom my heart just broke. I thought of the pain he must of felt and being scared that someone was wanting to hurt him. My mind flashed back to when he was little bitty (okay he was 10 lbs 14 oz at birth so it wasn't when he was a baby okay) and his dimples would jump out at me when he smiled and he was so sweet and loved to cuddle. I thought of my baby hurting and scared and wanted to scream at that other kid AND his parents for not raising their child in a more respectful way. Unfortunately kids today aren't taught to respect others, they are taught (by not being taught) that whatever they want is good and no one else matters.

I still get sick thinking about it and Aaron seems to not even worry or think about it. I was on the verge of tears all day yesterday, but Aaron had this kind of silly grin on his face. He spoke of what adrenaline really feels like and that it was a crazy feeling and kind of cool. I am afraid he may become an adrenaline junky if we aren't careful. I am hoping that this fight will have done some good for him in that the other boys that harrass him at school will see that he isn't afraid of them and maybe they will leave him alone, or . . . this will be the first of many fights???? I am truly hoping for the first senario.

Blair and Joshua go to Washington D.C.

Blair went with Joshua's chorus group to D.C. for the Presidential Inauguration. Joshua's high school chorus group sang for some of the festivities that went with a new president. They also were able to see the play, "West Side Story". They lived off of 4-5 hours of sleep each night (and Blair less than that). It was eventful, not well organized, but Joshua has some good memories. I am so grateful that Blair went with the group to watch and protect our son of course but also the other kids.


It was very cold there and they have many stories about freezing, of course we are from Phoenix. Blair and Joshua actually were dressed for the weather but alot of the kids weren't. Blair and Joshua didn't actually get to see the Inauguration because there were several kids that were so cold they were crying and curled up into a ball on the ground so Blair took them to a museum to keep them warm. He ended up watching 16 teenagers by himself in a museum cafeteria for a couple hours. It's not like he was excited for Obama exactly, but he figured he'd come all this way and spent all this money he would have liked to seen it for the sake of seeing it but he wasn't going to stand around and watch these kids in actual pain. That is why I love him so much because he cares about other people and it shows.


They went to the Vietnam Memorial and one of the other chaperones was looking through the book and had some tears in her eyes. They asked her if she knew someone whose name was on the wall and she said her Dad's name was there. Blair asked her if she had ever done the pencil thing over his name and she said someone had a long time ago but she didn't have one so that got the group looking for her fathers name. They found it but it was like 8 feet high and so Blair knelt down and Joshua stood on him and made a pencil thingy (I don't know what you even call that) for the lady of her Dad's name. It was pretty neat. They (the chorus group) sang the National Anthem while they were at the memorial as well. Blair said it was neat and it was great to see that Freedom isn't free and it costs.

On a lighter side, they saw Muhammad Ali and Glenn Close. Joshua wasn't impressed much, he didn't care about that.

Joshua was so glad to be home that when he got off the plane at Sky Harbor Airport he kissed the ground, to which Blair rolled his eyes and pretended not to know him!