Egg Drop

At our Elementary school they do an egg drop in third grade. The kids can use any method they want to try to protect their egg from cracking being dropped off the roof of the school building. The principle gets to do the honor of dropping each kids carefully protected egg off the roof.

Hannah worked with her Dad to come up with an idea of how to best protect her egg from being cracked. Actually I mentioned the project to Paul, and that I thought this was probably something he would enjoy working with Hannah on. He quickly stated his idea and was off looking around the house to get all the supplies he needed to prove to me that it would work. When he told me the idea I had a bit of doubts that the egg would not hold up.
Hannah's teacher works very hard to make sure that the kids are listening and doing what they are suppose to be doing.

I was very sad that I didn't take a picture when they dropped her egg, but here is Hannah retrieving her well packaged egg. I think she was pleased that it survived the drop.

If you can not tell very well the egg is placed between three balloons, and the balloons are held together by tape. Paul put one together the week prior to the egg drop to show me that it would work. He took it outside and simply tossed it in the air. The kids thought it was to much fun to each take a turn and through it around. It held up really well until Connor through it and it landed in the grass the balloons popped, but the egg still held together. At that point I told Paul, "well, I guess this should work as long as the surface it is landing on is not grass."

I guess the kids were suppose to learn about disappointment, but lets be honest we all know that life is so much nicer when you don't have to be disappointed. I am sure that Hannah will have plenty of opportunities in life to learn about disappointment. I was pleased to see a smile on her face and a proud Dad who helped make that possible.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I had really considered doing the square foot gardening this year. I am one of those individuals that really does NOT care much for gardening. I am sure I have mentioned this before. I don't care that much about food. I realize that my body needs to eat, but I have NO problem with slim fast or drinking a whey protein shake. It is fast and NO clean up. I do try to be healthy. I make sure to take vitamins. Simply because I am sure my body is in need of more nutrients that what I probably give it. I would not say that I am an unhealthy eater, but food is NOT a priority in my life. I am pretty lucky to have married someone that likes good food, but again it is not a priority. So, when we decided to put our house up for sale. There was NO way I was going to invest my money and time into a garden. However, I thought it would be fun to try to grow something, so I decided to grow some flowers. I gave them extra attention. To make sure they got the water they needed. My kids were very excited to see little buds finally growing. With the direction of our house. Our flowers come out latter than the flowers on the opposite side of the street. For a lot of the summer. We had a very pretty green flower bed. We were all very happy to finally have flowers. I worried about my flowers during the crazy wind and rain storm, but they survived. I realized that the flowers I started outside seamed to be stronger and grow straighter than the flowers that I started inside and then planted outside. I feel like a learned a little and more than anything I feel like I accomplished something. Best of all. It didn't cost me very much, so it was a good way for me to get started growing something.

Looking at my flowers it often reminds me of my Grandma Bonnie. When she would visit my family she enjoyed driving around Salt Lake looking at all the flowers around people's homes. I can not say that I will ever be some lover of gardening, But I did enjoy having flowers outside our house. Who knows maybe one of these years we just might enjoy a vegetable garden to along with our flowers.

One Crazy BUG!

The kids are busy learning another play. They are in the Jungle Book. They have been having such a fun time learning the songs and their parts for this production. One day this last week as we came out of play practice we had a big bug on our windshield. We needed to stop at the store, so I told the kids "Hey, lets see if this bug wants a ride." As we started driving it walked up to the top of the car. At this point we all decided that we would look and see if it was still on the top when we arrived at Walmart. This is a short maybe two minute drive going about 40 mph. When we arrived sure enough the bug was still on top of the car. We only had a couple things to pick up, so we were not very long in the store and sure enough the bug was waiting for us. We drove over to Costco. I quickly little drive across the street probably only like 34 mph. When we arrived at Costco he was still their. Our stay at Costco was a bit longer. Paul decided to meet up with us and get pizza for dinner, but when we went back out that crazy little bug was still waiting for us. I wasn't sure if the bug would make it home, but again I talked with the kids. "Let's see if this bug wants a ride to our house. The drive is probably about a 10 minutes drive going around 70 mph. I will be honest I always go over 65, but I try to keep my speed no faster than 75. When we got home that CRAZY bug was still on top of the car. I guess he just needed to do something a little different today.

Stickng with Insanity.

I am very happy to have finally made it through four weeks of the insanity program. My knees are hanging in there. I am very sure this is not the best program for anyone with bad knees, but I also must say that I am very happy with the results I am getting. My body is getting tighter and my pants are getting looser. I have been working out for a month and half. It feels good to finally be able to watch a movie and not think man I should really be exercising. It is surprising how many movies they have some scene of someone out jogging. It has been so much easier to avoid sweets, and I am sleeping better. More than anything it is becoming more of a routine. This upcoming week is the recover week. I did the workout this morning and was not too excited. You do the same workout all week long and there is one part that I am all ready so NOT looking forward to. I honestly wasn't sure if my legs were going to work the rest of the day. I have been fine, but usually you really feel it the next day. Just thinking about it I really have not been to sore besides the very first week.

I am pleased that I can finally start to feel a difference it makes it easier to keep it up. During the first couple weeks it is a lot of work and the results are so minimal. I had to keep reminding myself that it took more than two weeks to put on the extra weight it is going to take more than two weeks to take it off. Life is good if the only INSANE thing in your life is your workout!

Just a little different

I have survived one week of the workout Insanity. I can honestly say that I don't believe that I have ever been so sweaty after a workout. The eating has gone well. I still plan on eatting like doing "Body for Life" I need to be able to have at least one day a week that I can eat whatever I want. I am a lot more aware of what I am eating even on my off days. One thing I did finally try was to make scrambbled eggs with just the egg whites. They look a little different, but once I got past the look of the eggs they tasted the same. I have been surprised that it has been easier at times to not eat sweets, but the one thing I really want is ice cream. I guess that must be my Muir blood running through my body.

Back to school

It is hard to believe that summer is over and the kids are back to school. I will be honest. I am one of those Mom's that loves to have my kids around, but is very pleased to send them off to school. The house stays cleaner and I don't have to play the role of referee. Bonnie has struggled a little. The first day the kids were gone she told me, "Mom I want to play with my brother or my sister or a friend. I can not play with my Brother or Sister, so I will have to play with a friend. I guess I will be setting up some play dates so one little girl isn't so lonely.

Hannah LOVES school. She would have been happy to go back a few weeks before she had. too. She likes her teacher and is discovering that she knows more of the kids in her class than she thought she did. Hannah's example has rubbed off on Connor. He was really excited to go to school this year. However, I was not surprised that he was done after day one. He thougth is was pretty cool to get to pack a lunch for school and then was excited for a chance to eat schoool lunch. I only let them eat on pizza day because I think they will actually eat the food. The idea of my money being thrown in the trash is very hard for me.
Bonnie has one more year at home with MOM. I hope we can find some fun activities to do together and strengthen our Mother Daughter bond. More than anything I hope we don't drive each other CRAZY!

I love my kids. It is fun to watch them growing up, and I look forward to hearing about their many adventures they have ahead of them this year.

Sometimes Dreams Do Come True

There are some things in life that you dream about doing. Ever since I was probably about twelve I have wanted to do some kind of video. That may sound silly to a lot of people, but for some reason it is something I have always wanted to do. As I have gotten older this dream or goal whatever you want to call it has not gone away. A couple of years ago I decided to get brave and go audition for a musical with the Lehi Art Center. I was very lucky to have a couple of friends to join me on this fun little outing. Singing is not one of my strongest talents, so this was very much out of my elemint, but I was more than happy to dance. I felt very lucky to part of the cast for the production of "Oklahoma". I had a lot of fun getting to know more people in the Lehi area and had the opportunity to be involved in a couple of different productions. With each production I hoped that some new experience would open up to me. Just a couple of months ago I had a chance to direct the Cinderella play. I was thrilled to again have been given a new opportunity to develop my talents. I recently auditioned for the play "Arsenic and Old Lace" I did not get the part. However, was very pleased that I had been considered out of three girls. I could not have been more happy to simply know that I did a really good audition.

Last week a friend of mine sent me an email regarding a company that was putting together a video. They needed a lady between the ages of 25-35 with dark hair with a daughter between the ages of 3-5 with dark hair. I was thrilled that my friend took the time to let me know about it. I figured nothing may come of it, but it was worth a try. I got the pictures together that I needed, with the help of my fabulous husband, and sent off my pictures and resume. They had said that they would reply back to everyone that responded and I was delighted that they followed through. They told me that they had received my email and would forward everything onto the director. I was more excited when they called me and said that they were considering me for the part. They came to our home. They also needed someone with a modern looking home that they could do the shoot at. They were pleased with the house and with us and I got the job!

Yesterday they came to do the shoot. I was very nervous. I have had a little experience in front of cameras, but this was a little different. Bonnie did very well. She is a fun little girl with a beautiful smile, but for this film there were some shots that she was supposed to be sad are upset. That was a little more tricky for her. Our family all got to participate in one or another. Paul was good sport. This is really more of my thing, but it means so much to me that he was willing to help out when needed. I was most worried about a scene that I needed to basically have a melt down. In the end it looked good. The crew seamed very pleased with everything, and I am so excited to have hopefully opened the door to more opportunity in the future.