Weinie Man Song

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Finally figured out how to post videos from outside sources with out just using the links! This is Allison Evans and Allison Staker, 2 of the camp mom volunteers, leading the campfire in a rousing song!! I am glad that our elementary school continues to have the tradition of 5th grade outdoor school. My oldest son went and loved it and Darin had a blast. He keeps asking me to let him watch it over and over! Big thanks to 5th grade teacher Mrs. Griegos for continuing to plan and run this camp for our kids enoyment. Enjoy the short show:)

New words

I have learned some good words from a dear friend-she cracks me up!!! I have never heard the word whackadoo or whackadoodle until I started reading her blog. And you guessed it, now I use the word all the time and am teaching it to my co-workers by putting it on my morning report. Some one has got to spice up our morning report for hospice-so I have decided to do it:)

My favorite is Foo-Shizzle (I think I messed up the first word.) That one had me almost peeing my pants. Found out from my sister in law, Kim, that this is part of a whole phrase. I could not catch or remember the whole phrase but it was funny!!

My son is reading over my shoulder and says I should add "What the flim flam?" What the heck does that mean? So if you have any good new words (that are clean of course) feel free to pass them on. And my dear friend in VA, keep up the good work with the new words:)

Boys

My oldest sons wanted me to post this. I can't believe I am actually writing about underarm noises-ok, really farting if you ask them. I must be very tired or out of my mind to actually post this;)

Brandon, Darin and Dylan think they should get the award for teaching a 5 year old at the dinner table for learning to use his underarm to make farting noises with. I thought I was teaching them table manners but apparently that has not happened!! Instead, they will be able to delight their girlfriends and someday future wifes (no, none of them are dating now!) with this skill. Because we all know it will get us far in life. When they go in for a job interview the first question will be Can you fart with your armpit? And my boys will proudly be able to say yes!!! I am positive they will wow people on their mission with this skill. I mean, how many people can say they were converted by arm farting (I am just joking here). In fact, they are doing it while I am sitting here writing it. Boys-you gotta love them!

Thanksgiving Kickball

Could not resisit putting this video up of the boys playing kickball at the gym at Grandma Rhoton's ward house on Thanksgiving. Dylan is the main one in here and he was not too happy I was filming him. Of course, that makes me want to post it even more:) Brandon is the tall one in the baseball hat and Darin is the mouthy one with the red shirt:) I think he goes flying by me in one of the shots-that boy can run!!!

Ever Changing Thanksgiving Traditions

Whew!! What a day. I am working the next 36 hours straight and unfortunately my partner LPN had to call off sick as her 6 month old baby girl had to go to the ER last night. I of course told her she was not working and I could handle it all by myself-hahahahahaha!! My prayers are with Maria and her baby, Bianca.

I was thinking today about how my Thanksgiving traditions have changed from when I was single until now (married with 5 kids.) When I was growing up, we always would drive down to Tennessee to visit my aunt Becky and Uncle John. We cousins would have fun playing and generally driving our parents crazy while they prepared the full course meal. It was always formal and fun!! I had dish duty after but it was fun to visit with my Aunt Becky. She has since passed away to cancer (way too young) and my Uncle John died of a massive heart attack a few years later. The day after Thanksgiving was spent shopping with my mom and my aunt-I swear we spent more time looking for a parking space:) But those 2 were always giddy to go shopping and I was more than happy to go along.

When I married Rich, I married into a big extended family. His mom is the oldest of 11 and Rich's grandma is still alive-95 and kicking! It would be next to impossible to have a formal sit down dinner with as many people as we have show up. I believe the count today was 60. It has ranged from year to year from 50-80. We used to hold it at a park which was actually alot of fun. The kids would eat and then run for the playground and the cousins would play football. That was always good for some giggles! We now meet in one of the ward buildings as the older adults are too cold outside (it was 70 today!). But that is ok too, as the kids take over the gym. Today they played a rousing game of tag followed by kickball. The competiveness kicked in as the great-grandchildren of Esther Fay Lee (rich's grandma) split into teams and proceeded to make up new rules for kickball:) Kids!

The food is always good and of course served buffett style. One of the aunt's is in charge each year of splitting up who brings what. We had to do the sweet potatoes for 60 people. Caused a little spat at our home last night as my sweet hubby told me he was bringing home sweet potatoes. So I went to the grocery store last night and just bought 7 small cans of sweet potatoes, thinking that his mom had sent plenty home. Went to gather my supplies last night and we had 14 baking sweet potatoes and my 7 cans-oh my!! It somehow worked out and we were able to get two huge pans made of a sweet potatoe casserole-the spat is still continuing as we are deciding who was wrong. No one ever does that, now do they?!

The only problem with the big buffett style is no left overs to munch on when you get home. That is half the fun is to keep going back and sneaking a taste or a piece, etc. So this year I finally got smart and cooked our turkey while we were at the church. We came home to a hot yummy turkey and we also made some of the other side dishes. I think this will be a tradition I will continue.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and watch out, here come the Christmas decorations!!

Camryn's Preschool Thanksgiving day program

Every year Mrs. Billings puts on a Thanksgiving program for the preschoolers. Camyrn is my 4th to be in her class and the 4th to do this program. For the past 3 and a half years she was just drug along no matter what. She was very excited to take part in it. She is the little red head second from the right (with the ever present pink shirt on). It is always fun to watch these sweet little ones sing their hearts out. Now I have to do something for the older kids as we did not have a video recorder (which is on my blackberry that work pays for) when they were smaller. Enjoy!

More outdoor school craziness

I cannot figure out how to load a video on this thing. But, I did figure out how to put it in the video bar to the right-go figure!!
Paul Devine kept his promise and posted 2 of the moms at camp doing "The Weenie Man" song at the big campfire. He actually posted it on Youtube of all places:) The second video is of more moms doing the "Boomchickaboom" song. Reminds me of girls camp all over again. So take a peek at the videos and enjoy some goodnatured outdoor campfire craziness!

Annual Holiday Sickness

Our family always gets sick around the holidays. It is always either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Thankfully, I guess, all but 2 of us have the flu. At least it is better to have everyone throwing up, have a fever and be cranky all at the same time!

It has been a blessing that the 2 little ones did not get it (hopefully I am not speaking too soon!!). The older ones know how to run to the bathroom but the little ones just have to throw up wherever and whenever the urge hits them. Sorry if you are getting sick just reading this.

Another blessing has been great friends that offered to bring us dinner. My initial response was to say "No, we are just fine." But I learned in Relief Society yesterday (one of the few times I have been able to attend over the last 5 years) that we need to be humble enough to accept help. Humility has never been my strong point so I believe Heavenly Father has been showing me lately through life's little trials what true humility is. I don't know if I will ever be able to attain it in this life, but I will remember the lessons learned over the past 6 months. When these trials are over, I want to remember how blessed I was to receive help from so many thoughtful people. It came in the form of emails, phone calls, dinners, other dear friends blogs and learning to instantly chat with dear friends back east on Facebook. See, there can be good in this information age of ours!!

Now we hope for all this sickness to pass and to move onto the fun part of this season. We have to get our lights up on Friday or we will be the losers on our block:)

Outdoor Science School

This is the beautiful nurses cabin I had all to myself for the 3 days I was at the Ishikawa outdoor science camp. The camp either has to have either a nurse or a doctor in order for the kids to go. I had to pass out meds and be ready to attend to any number of things that may happen, i.e. accidents, bee stings, cuts, scrapes and puking kids.

I had the cabin all to myself. I had a full size bed as opposed to a bunk bed like the parents and kids had. I also had 2 twin beds and a seperate examining room. Pretty posh stuff for a camp:)

The dining hall where we had homemade food for all meals. What is not to love about homemade macaroni and cheese, homemade cinnamon rolls and homemade bread at every meal? Worth the volunteering for!

These are my infamous "Bee Girls." They somehow disturbed a beehive at 8 pm at night and came screaming into my cabin with pants and shirts full of bees. Their cabin leader and I stomped all the bees, washed them down, calmed them down and then gave them all Benadryl and Motrin. To top it off, I gave them chocolate from my hidden stash. We have a skit night on Thursday night and the sweet little girls chose to parody me and themselves. They first were all screaming "We are going to die, help us, help us!" One of the girls played me and walked around saying "Here, have some chocolate! It cures everything!" The bee stinkers ratted me out:)

Here is Darin's group doing part of the team building skills. Their team did not do so well as 1 minute after this picture they were all on the ground after they fell off the log.

One of the "Devine" volunteers who was a cabin dad, Paul Devine. I am still waiting for him to post the video on Youtube of Allison at the campfire singing the "Weinie Man" song. Soon I am told!

Helen Taylor, one of the volunteer cabin moms. My son is at her house almost every day playing with her son, Geoffrey, and her stepson, Aaron.

Darin doing the spiderweb teambuilding. Happy to report their teamwork was much better here than at the log!

Darin on the log-you can see the boys just starting to fall.

One of the fun parts of outdoor science school is having the Hot Shot firefighters come up and show the kids how they do their job. Mrs. Griego's, the 5th grade teacher who has been organizing all this for many years, has also been able to get the Hot Shot team up to the camp for the past 10 years. Darin was picked to be the volunteer and I was one happy mom!! He only weighs 70 lbs and has on 150 lbs of firefighting gear in this picture. Imagine having to wear this in 120 degree heat and fighting a fire-wow!

Another shot of Darin getting the gear on.

Darin loved this part. He has a chainsaw over his shoulder. This is just part of the equipment that the Hot Shots use to make a fire line to fight fire with. They also use shovels, a special axe/pick, water packs and also building a fire line to keep the fire back. They travel throughout Arizona and the western states. They said they have to be ready at a moments notice to be gone for up to a 2 week stay.

Outdoor school was fun-just glad I have 2 more years until Dylan is in 5th grade before I go again!

Ishikawa 5th grade outdoor school

Just got back from being the nurse at the Ishikawa 5th grade outdoor school. It was an awesome, tiring, nervewracking, funny experience. My sanity has been left in Payson, Arizona which is 70 miles north of Mesa, Arizona. I am hoping it returns to me this weekend:)

Again, the Arizona weather was being wacky!!! It was 70 during the day (Payson is at a higher elevation) and then 30 degrees at night. So we were either hot or so cold that we could not stand it. The food was great!! It was all homemade and lots of it. It was nice not to have to cook. The kids were so excited the first day and just could not settle down. The second day they were kept busy from sunup to sundown. They had to do skits and cheers-the boys beat the girls for originality and being funny! They actually sang, acted and just did the funniest things. The girls were too busy giggling.

The first night one of the boys woke up throwing up at 2 am with a high fever. I did not get any sleep as I sat by the boy and just kept rubbing his back and taking him to the toilet. It is so hard to be away from home and sick. I wanted him to feel like his mom and dad were with him. I finally called his parents at 5 am. It is hard to find the camp and I did not want the parents trying to find it in the dark. He had the most joyful expression when his dad walked into the nurses cabin and picked him up!

5 girls somehow rattled a beehive and had bees up their pants, in their shirts, etc. I was going to go on the night hike but something told me (the Holy Ghost I am sure) to go back to the nurses cabin. Thank goodness I did as 10 minutes later 5 hysterical girls were screaming in my cabin. I had them stripped to their underwear and their leader and I were frantically stomping all the bees that came out out of their pants. Soon we had them all settled down, covered with Calmaseptine lotion, Benadyl and Motrin. Thank goodness none of them were allergic to bees! They also got chocolate from my secret stash-I told them chocolate makes everything better. Those girls then did a parody of me in their skit the next night and ratted my chocolate stash out!!

My legs ache from all the hills, my eyes want to shut right now and I have a stack of laundry to do. I will post all the pictures and more fun stuff Darin got to do after I have a good nights rest.
Thank goodness Dylan is not in 5th grade for 2 more years. By then, I will have forgotten how tired I am and will happily volunteer to be the camp nurse again. Until then, if anyone finds my sanity, please send it back to me:)

Twilight Almost Here

http://www.mtv.com/videos/paramore/294491/decode.jhtml#artist=1968732

Twilight is almost here! That got me to thinking that I am going to have to redecorate my blog. When I first started this, the movie release was 60 days away. Now it will be released midnight tomorrow and I will have to come up with something new.

I put on the link for the video Decode from the group Paramore. The lead singer wrote the song after reading the first 2 novels in the Twilight series. Haley is a native of Tennessee and the video is shot in rural Tennessee. My kids love to watch this over and over. Camryn has even gone so far as to pick up a box of hair dye at Target and ask if she could dye her hair burgundy, like the Twilight girl. Had to tell her sorry, we do not dye our hair at 3. I did bleach the older 2 boys hair when they were 5 and 8-will not do that again. I thought my mother in law was going to come unglued when she saw their then red hair bright blonde!

Now I have to start thinking of new decorating ideas.......

Memories

http://www.mtv.com/videos/jonas-brothers/294495/lovebug.jhtml#artist=2088128

I know people wonder why I like the Jonas Brothers so much. After all, I am 40 and not a teenager:) But I like them because they write their own songs and keep them clean. Who else sings about modesty being hard to find in our world today? Certainly not Britney Spears!

I finally saw the video for Lovebug the other day and I actually cried when I saw it. It is set during the time period of WW2. Many of my patients that I see lived through or actually served in this war. It let me see what life was like during that time period. Life seemed so simple back then. No internet, no cell phones, no chatting online with friends (which I like to do), and not many television shows. The TV programs actually stopped at midnight and there was just static!! No 24 hour CNN, Discovery Channel or Disney Channel. It was a time period when friends gathered together and actually talked face to face. Wow-imagine that:)

My favorite part of the video is the very beginning with the 2 sweet granddaughters reaching over their Grandpa's head while he is sleeping for the photo albums. Grandma is in the kitchen smiling at them. When my Grandma Cowley was still alive, I loved going to her house during college. I always got out the photo albums to look at pictures of my mom and her family. I would always ask my Grandma for stories of my mom as a young girl and Grandma was always happy to tell me about them. She would also tell me about her 3 boys, my uncles, and how they fought and wrestled in the house. I can honestly say I know how she must have felt now that I have 4 boys of my own. She always told me how happy she was when my mom was born as she finally had her baby girl. And again, I know how she must have felt as my baby girl was at the end. How I wish she was still alive so that she could see my beautiful baby girl (what she always called my mom).

Home Again

Just got back from my trip to the fabulous state of Utah. It was so much fun that now I cannot seem to get motivated enough to get back into my real life. I have been playing with my daughter all morning and ignoring the stacks of laundry that are staring at me.

I had a blast in Utah!! We did lots of eating and I can finally say that I went to the Melting Pot. They have the most fantastic chocolate amaretto fondue and the cheese fondue was awesome. I think I must have gained 10 pounds this weekend from all the food I ate. It was sure great not to have to do the dishes, prepare it or even think about what should the family have for dinner. I had a manicure and a pedicure-pure heaven:) My mom and I talked my sister in law, Kim, into going shopping with us on Saturday. Kim even let my mom buy her a sweater!!! It took much convincing that it was ok for Kim to have something new for herself. And she looked great in it-if I would have remembered I would have taken a picture.

Had a very interesting encounter with a homeless man. I went to a restaurant Saturday night with my parents and my brother Mike and Kim and the kids. The restaurant is right across the street from pioneer park in Salt Lake City. As we were leaving to go back to my parent's house, a homeless man came running across the street straight at me. I was carrying a to go box and he was yelling "hungry." I tried to hand him the box but he missed it and got a handful of my chest instead. My dad, brother and nephew looked as if they were both ready to pound him. I told them it was ok, not the first time I have been grabbed by someone who did not know what they were doing. Working with hospice and dementia patients has put me in plenty of situations of patients not knowing what they are doing. You just realize that they cannot process things the same way we can and sometimes I just have to laugh about it.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip:) Guess I better get started with the pile of laundry as it seems to have grown even bigger in the last 10 minutes!!

A day at the DeWitt Family Farm

Camryn's preschool had the opportunity to go to the DeWitt family farm in Lehi, AZ which happens to be 5 minutes from our house. Colton came also as he was sick the day before so I kept him home from school. He also attended Mrs. Billing's Preschool for 2 years before beginning kindergarten this year. The pictures were taken with my cell phone so not the best quality! That is Colton on the nice slow horse who wanted to stop and eat every 2 seconds as I lead him around the barn.

This is Camryn learning about the difference between flop earred bunnies and bunnies. The farm has baby bunnies for Easter-the kids have already been told no!

We had to hold the bunnies like babies and be very careful with them. As you can see, I cut off half of Camryn's face!

Here is one of 30 chickens on the farm. Colton did not enjoy the smell at all-he kept telling me "it smells so yucky".

Camryn's horse was named El Dorado. He did not like to go slow!! He kept nudging me in the rear end with his head the entire time I led him around the barn. I would purposefully walk slower and he kept nudging me harder! I swear I have a bruise from leading a few kids around the barn with this horse.

Singing the ever famous "5 fat turkey's are we" song. The best part was the goat who was right behind us, bleating louder as the children sang louder-funny old goat:)

This 40 pound turkey has won many contests at fairs and other shows. He has also won many gobbling contests. They showed us how to gobble like a turkey and this one responded right back at us! I can see why he won. The kids just loved it-the turkey eventually got tired of showing off and went inside the barn.

We also got to go on a hayride and milk a goat. We then had the pleasure (yuck!!!) of drinking fresh goat's milk. Mrs. Billing's put me on the spot and said "Sis. Rhoton would love to try the fresh goat's milk" so I had to try it. It was very sweet at first but then had the most horrible after taste...ugg. Camryn liked it and thought it was cool that she had just milked it from the goat. We did have a fun day. Next year I will have to remember to bring my real camera and not the cell phone!

Rhoton Family Mission Statement

1. Our Family is about Love and Kindness to one Another
2. Our Greatest Friendships will be within the Family
3. We will look to serve first and say kind words to each other
4. Show respect for your Parents and Siblings
5. Parents will take an active interest in the Activities of their Children
6. We will prepare our children for missions by builiding testimonies, reading scriptures, and saying family prayers
7. We will not speak with rudeness or unkind words to one another
8. We will all help with chores with a positive attitude
9. We will do our best in school

The best part about the mission statement is that it is flexible and can be added to or amended at any time!

Cleaning

Look at these 2 go!!! They love to help Mommy clean and I will always take whatever help I can get. They did use the whole bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles-was my tub that dirty?
Of course they had to cheese it up for the photo. Colton also loves to rinse off and clean off the dishes. He has become as good as his Grandma Fowkes-and she is a great dish rinser. It is funny that the older kids spend more time complaining and whining then it would actually take them to complete the chore. We try to tell them that but it has not sunk into their brains yet. We decided to write a Family Mission statement on Family Home Evening night-the mission statement was written but after much complaining from the upper 3-can we say Family Fight Night!! Someday they will appreciate all this. In the meantime I will continue to accept any help I can get from the children with cleaning.

Election Night

I cannot believe Obama won so easily. I also still do not like the fact that we go by electoral votes and not the popular vote. Interesting that all the networks were calling the election so early when the polls were not even closed here in Arizona.

Wow is about all I can say at this time. Thank goodness the president has to go thru congress to get things passed. I am glad the elections are over as I am so sick of political ads, propositions, the mudslinging and all the other stuff that goes with it. I also don't think I will be watching Oprah anymore:)

40

I remember when I used to think 40 was sooo old. Now I am here and it does not feel any different. Maybe I feel a little bit wiser...... my kids would probably not agree! I got the best birthday presents-hugs and kisses from all my kids and my husband.
The other great present I got was a clean house!!!! I had to work on my birthday so Rich and all the kids spent many hours cleaning. What a great feeling to walk in after a long day at work and see a sparkling house-love it.
I also get to go to Utah this friday by myself to visit my Mom and Dad. We are going to have a girl's night out on Friday with my sister-in-law, Kim, and my 14 year old neice, Sydney. Then pedicures on Saturday and shopping with my Mom. I got to do this last year and I missed all the noise from my kids. I think this year I am going to enjoy the silence, the sleep and the cool weather. I will miss them but it is nice to have a short break and feel like a kid again with Mom and Dad:)