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July 24, 2009
I admit I'm not much of a camper. I hate the dirt. The bugs. The campfire smoke. And the fact that I can't turn a light on to see where my flashlight is to go pee in the middle of the night. Not to mention my crazy mothers-only-understand paranoia about Pearl falling in the fire or drowning or getting eaten by a bear. But there is one good thing about camping... the wienie roasts. The wienie roast has become a staple tradition to the Peacock Family reunion the past few years and every year it gets bigger and bigger. At first I think it was a way to keep the hungry "city relatives" (aka, us) out of the house until the real reunion started the next day and a venue for the men (really just my Grandpa and Great Uncle Paul) to have an excuse to revert to Boy Scouts again and experiment with diesel fuel, wooden pallets, and matches. It's now evolved into quite the feast with relatives coming from all over to enjoy the hot dogs, sausages, salads, chips, desserts, and even some cowboy singing. Even though my idea of camping is in a trailer with running water and a light switch, I sure can't pass up the chance to have a burned-to-a-crisp dog over an open flame!
July 23, 2009
A big first today... Pearl's first hair cut! I wanted to cheat and put a whole bunch of pictures up but figured the after shot would be the best one so you could all see how adorable my baby, well big girl, is! I decided to splurge and go to the expensive place - Cookie Cutters - because one, they have movies to keep the kids entertained, two, the kids get a balloon afterward, three, the ladies there should know how to cute kids' hair super cute, and four, we are getting family pictures taken in a few weeks (thanks to Brooke Snow Photography who needed models for a shot) and I wanted to make sure we were all looking HOT! It was well worth the $16 for the hair cut and style because my Pearl is looking fierce (as Ms. Tyra Banks says)! Pearl wasn't too sure about the whole thing at first and had to hold my hand the entire time but at least there wasn't any screaming involved. She really didn't like the blow dryer (we only use it to dry her fingernails after we paint them) but I'm afraid I will probably start styling her hair with it more often now that I can see how cute she looks with her big girl hair cut. Once it was done though Pearl didn't want to leave. She was having too much fun playing on the slide and with the computer games and kept telling me "10 minutes Mom." I have no idea where she picked up this new phrase or her apparent understanding of time or shall I say misunderstanding of time, but she's been telling us "10 minutes" all week when she wants to keep doing something. So, 45 minutes later I convinced her it was time to leave but only after promising a picnic on the front lawn followed by making "cookies" (peanut butter play dough) and swimming in her pool. Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?!!!
July 22, 2009
I'm not sure anyone takes the fire alarms at work serious, otherwise we'd all be out of the building faster! This afternoon we got a surprise as the alarms started blaring, the lights flashing, and all the doors closing on us (still don't get why this is safer than leaving them open...they are heavy and cause more stress getting them pried back open than potential smoke from another part of building). Everyone let out a collective "Oh great!" and "Do we have to leave?" Now that I have a kid in daycare, I always slightly panic at the thought of an emergency and my worst nightmare coming true that I can't get to Pearl in time. But I also know that it's a chance to play with Pearl. Normally the daycare has the kids out before anyone else makes it out of the building but today all the parents were standing around the exits waiting and waiting and waiting. A slight panic started to build until I realized it was nap time and all the kids were sound asleep. Pretty soon we saw the teachers hauling out half-asleep kids into the bright sunlight. Pearl was sound asleep on her teacher's shoulder, blankets in hand, and messy hair to prove that she was more interested in finishing her nap than getting out of the building. I scooped her up and started walking to my designated "zone" all while Pearl was crying "go home Mom" and trying to figure out what in the world was going on. She even laid down on her blankets outside, which if you know Pearl, is really unusual. It wasn't until a girl in my program (thanks Christi) pulled out some gummy worms that Pearl started to perk up a little. Good thing someone was prepared for an emergency because not only was it the end of nap time but fast approaching snack time when the fire alarm went off. And it was a good thing Christi didn't care if Pearl's "only take one" instruction from me for taking the gummy worms was more like a huge handful of them! By the time we got back inside, the sugar from 15 gummy worms she shoveled down had taken effect and she was bouncing off the walls. I guess now I need to add gummy worms to my long list of stuff for our 72 hour kits!
July 21, 2009
I sent out a news release today to all the Utah media agencies on water safety...basically reminding parents to never be more than an arm's length away from their kids when they are around water, in the hope that everyone will have a fun and safe Pioneer Day weekend. What I didn't anticipate, besides realizing how ghostly white I looked on KSL (I really need some better eye makeup too), was that our evening fun would consist of us practically drowning our own child with a water bottle. It started out like any other innocent evening with a picnic on the front lawn (seems to be the ONLY way we can get Pearl to eat dinner now). But what was to supposed to be a calm evening suddenly turned into a water fight, or shall I say a Jeff-soaks-mommy-and-Pearl fight. The next thing I know, Pearl and I are running around the front lawn screaming at Jeff to not get us wet. Ok, so I was the only one screaming for mercy while Pearl was yelling "More?!" and "Again?!" over and over. Considering that Jeff is faster than me and had the advantage of actually holding the water bottle, I think my screaming was totally justified, even if I did sound like a wussy girl. By the time I ran in the house to take cover under the auspice of washing the dishes, Pearl was naked and soaking wet but having a great time. We took the water shenanigans to the backyard where Pearl was more fascinated that the water would puddle up on her chair than she was by the actual squirting. She had so much fun that the only way we could convince her to come inside and dry off was to bribe her with a frozen custard treat from Nielsen's. We'll have to think of some new entertainment for tomorrow's picnic because I am now banning water bottles!
July 20, 2009
Jeff's nephew moved in with his parents over the weekend to go to auto mechanic school so Jeff had to move the last of his stuff out of his room. We are now the proud owners, well storers after seven years, of a train set, several thousand baseball cards, and some old-school hot wheels. Jeff let Pearl get her hands on them tonight and she was pretty excited about the trucks and helicopters. Jeff told her "he might make a man out of her yet" with these toys. I think he's still bitter that his "man/Wii room" has been over run with a kitchen, dishes, dolls, stuffed animals, and a cedar chest that weighs about 600 lbs. I guess I can't blame him...he is outnumbered by females and all our estrogen charged emotions around here.
July 19, 2009
I get along with most folks just fine but the bathroom towel rack and I, well let's just say we aren't on speaking terms. Several months ago I pulled the right side of the towel rack straight out of the wall as I was trying to grab a falling Pearl in the tub (no one seems to acknowledge that I was probably saving her life or at least a goose bump) and instinctively grabbing the nearest solid object for balance. We suckered our neighbor into fixing it for us since we don't own any tools and quite frankly, needed someone's expert guidance through the process. Then I nagged Jeff for another few months to texture the wall and repaint over the now-fixed hole. We finally got around to fixing it and Jeff spent all day texturing, sanding, repainting, and rehanging the pictures in the bathroom in preparation for the "woman party". That was Wednesday night. The bathroom looked beautiful! Then Friday night came and the towel rack and I had another run in. I honestly think the stupid thing is out to destroy my marriage single handedly! All I remember is going in to fix my pedicure, turning ever so slightly, and losing my balance just enough to make me reach out for the wall. I promise I wasn't intending to grab the towel rack, let alone rip it from the wall! When I felt the towel hit my wrist and a clank on the floor I exploded! I'm actually surprised Jeff didn't wake up to my yelling of a few choice words (hey no one's perfect here!). Not only did I successfully ruin Jeff's hard work 24 hours after he finished it, but I now have put two holes in our bathroom wall, on opposite ends of the stupid thing!!! URGHHHHHHH!!!!!!! To make matters worse, I spent double what I had anticipated at the grocery store (which comes out of Jeff's account) Friday night and was already prepping myself for that explanation come morning. I tossed and turned all night debating on which was going to get me in more trouble... the grocery bill or the towel rack. Jeff FREAKED and hasn't let me hear the end of it since. Apparently I will be calling my dad tomorrow, while crying in the middle of Lowe's, staring at the endless isles of tools, sheet rock, wood, and screws to try and figure out how to patch this myself.
July 18, 2009
The thought of attending my 10 year high school reunion this summer spurred a lot of memories, questions, and even a few regrets. I'm still not sure if I'm going to actually go to the HS reunion or not, but when I realized how long it had been since I'd seen some of my friends I was kind of sad that I hadn't kept in touch with them better. But even more pressing on my mind was that the girls whom I really loved and wanted to have in my life again weren't even the ones I'd see at my HS reunion. Who I really wanted to re-connect with again were the girls I had grown up with, my Young Women's group (leaders too). They made me a better person, made me laugh, cry, and learn to love and sacrifice for others. They were the ones who were there with me on those long, horrible, legendary girls' camp hikes, sitting around the campfire sharing their testimonies with me, talking about boys, life, and our dreams. They listened to me when no one seemed to care and could see the real me even when I was totally lost in my life. I remember as Laurel President feeling like a mother hen must with her chicks. I wanted to shelter them from any dangers and didn't want them to ever feel like they weren't of worth. I loved them and called them "my girls" even though I was only a few years older than most of them. When Carri died, those of us at her funeral made a promise to not wait until the next one of us died before seeing each other again. Thus began the months of searching for the "core" YW group. On Saturday we had our first, of hopefully many, annual YW reunions (next year we're going to expand though and have a "anyone who was ever in the 6th ward YW/YM reunion... that is if I can find everyone). I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen most of my girls since I graduated high school and now they are all grown up! We've got married, had babies, gone to college, started careers, teach Primary, battled cancer, traveled around the country, and had so many life adventures! You know it's a special person in your life if you can go years without seeing each other but then pick up right where you left off. It was like we'd never grown up, moved away, and lost touch with each other. I just wish everyone would have made it to the reunion because I felt so refreshed, so alive, and ready to be a better person after seeing my girls again. Here's to next year!
July 24, 2009
