Freaky Friday: Monday Lilac Edition

April 29, 2015 By

We somehow survived our craziest week ever juggling Jamie’s parents and an insane schedule, exacerbated by tech week for Hadley’s play.

To add fuel to the fire, my 1-year-old laptop died. Not only did the hard drive crash but my backup drive did as well, losing a full year’s worth of photos and articles. I’m in mourning over their loss but when I see the problems the world is facing right now, I have perspective. Nepal’s earthquake has hit me particularly hard because that beautiful country has been at the top of my bucket list for years and it pains me to see the mass devastation. If I had the means, I’d be there in an instant.

I’m thrilled we only have a month left of school and I had an epiphany after publishing our plans: this will be my family’s final summer really together. Next year, Hadley will be 12 and will go to our church’s Girl’s Camp and a whole new world of overnight travels, babysitting and camps will be opening up to her, followed by Bode. Before we know it, they’ll both have summer jobs and then missions and college and…can you tell I’m prematurely freaking out? Many of my friends are already at this stage so I’m seeing second-hand how quickly it all slips away.

After a miserable/hazy few weeks, my allergies have subsided and I’m finally enjoying spring.  Denver’s lilac bushes are currently in bloom everywhere. My parents have the most glorious, huge lilac bush  so my sweet husband planted one in our backyard that is finally taking off. As I was mowing the lawn yesterday, I was shocked to discover ours was in bloom–I’ve been so busy admiring everyone else’s that I forget about the beauty in our backyard.

Though lilacs are a slice of my childhood, my only complaint is they don’t bloom nearly long enough and very quickly after they are cut off the bush, they whither and die.  Maybe that’s why I’m trying to capitalize on today with my kids. I fully recognize these are the golden years for our family. The kids are happy, healthy and thriving and I couldn’t feel more blessed with the time we’ve been given.

(Speaking of which, be sure to read this amazing article Notes from the Child-full Life, written in response to a New York Times article about couples who forgo parenthood).

As I was driving Hadley home from school yesterday, I saw the biggest lilac bush ever. I had to jump out of my car and, for a moment, stop and smell the lilacs.

“Mom, what on earth are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? These lilacs are only in bloom this week! I just had to stop.”

[Insert tween eye-roll.]

“Hadley, you’re like a grumpy grownup.”

“And Mom, you’re like a crazy kid.”

Carpe Diem.

 

 

Filed Under: Hadley

Cub Scouts R Us

April 28, 2015 By

I can’t stand fundraisers. Of course, when most people get that “butter braid” handout, they don’t exactly leap for joy but Bode is sucked into the hype every single time. “But Mom, if I sell X amount of dollars, I’ll get my very own Frisbee!”

I’ll tell you what, Son. How about I just go buy you that Frisbee and then we don’t have to sell anything?

Usually, I’ll just write a check as donation but when money is tight, you don’t have that luxury. Bode has Cub Scout Twilight Camp this summer and we had the opportunity to defray the cost by selling camp cards with some awesome coupons for just $5 at our local grocery store. I reluctantly volunteered to take him and was delighted to discover my friend Dawn had signed her twin boys up as well.

We gave them the overview of what to say, how to present the camp cards and how to politely respond when people declined. Then, I hid in the shadows (like any bad fundraising mom would do) and reappeared when they closed the deal or needed additional help.

At first the boys were hesitant and sales were slow but something happened as they became my comfortable: Bode was one heck of a salesman! Bold. Confident. Kind. Cute. Irresistible. OK, that last adjective was my own but as the mother, he was pretty darn impressive.

Of course, most people walked by and kindly declined but that kid closed 30% of his sales and was completely fearless by the end.

When asked if they had fun, the boys enthusiastically responded “yes!” and didn’t even mind when people turned them down because they were all very nice about it.

“Look at it this way,” Dawn joked. “At least this rejection is preparing them for when they’re teenagers and start dating.”

Watch out, ladies.

 

I’d buy it from him

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Counting down to summer (is it here yet?!)

April 24, 2015 By

Broadmoor pool

On social media, I recently asked if I was the only person who has our summer pretty much planned out. I was only kinda kidding. Though April is  really busy for us, I generally try to limit the kids to one activity at a time during the school year. But when summer rolls around, that is our time to play and travel! Most of our friends do the opposite: over-schedule their kids during the year and give them the summer off to do nothing. Whatever works for you!

I’ll be juggling travels with work and believe me, all of this takes a tremendous amount of blood, sweat and tears on my part because there is a lot of promotional backing, planning and writing that goes into every trip and campaign. But I’m so darn grateful for the opportunities.

I won’t be sleeping a lot but it’s highly overrated anyway. And I’m trying to ignore the fact that Denver’s searing temperatures + an overheated upstairs keep me up all night anyway. Here’s what we have going down:

The Broadmoor. For the third year in a row, we’re going to this 5-star resort in Colorado Springs for Hadley’s birthday. I feel so fortunate to write for their magazine and the perks that come with it. Pool-side cabana and gourmet brunch buffet, anyone? Insider tip: The Broadmoor acquired the popular Seven Falls and will be launching an amazing Soaring Adventure in July.

Avid4Adventure. This is, hands down, the best outdoor summer camp for kids in the Denver-area. My kids are going on their third year with Avid4 Adventure and are thrilled to spend a week climbing, biking, kayking and hiking. P.S. I’m giving away a free week of camp at Mile High Mamas so be sure to enter if you’re local!

Camp Chief Ouray (CCO). Great things come in threes and this is Hadley’s third year going to Camp Chief Ouray, Colorado’s longest-running overnight camp on 5,100 glorious acres in the rocky mountains. Its traditions and outdoor activities have seeped into Hadley’s DNA and she cannot wait for a week of overnight camp (read: no parents) and horseback riding every day.

Twilight Camp. While Hadley is at CCO, Bode will be attending his Cub Scout day camp for a week of buddy bonding and good old-fashioned boy fun. I am required to volunteer and I suspect I’ll be on boy overload by week’s end.

YMCA of the Rockies. We’ll be picking Hadley up from CCO and will be spending the night at Snow Mountain Ranch (located on property) where we’ll finally be able to try their summer tubing hill that opened last year. The next day, we’ll stop to play in Grand Lake, drive into Rocky Mountain National Park and over Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved roads in any U.S. National Park that crests at 12,183 feet. We’ll play and overnight at YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park Center.

Summer hiking group. We’re hoping to fit in at least a few hikes with our friends to enjoy Colorado’s mountains! In all our spare time, of course.

Swim lessons. We hope to spend a couple of weeks doing daily swim lessons with our besties. This is a tradition that is going on four years and is like a pool party every day!

Fish Creek’s mud pits

Oh Canada. The details are sketchy as to when the kids and I will drive to the Motherland in July but a few things are certain: We’ll party at the Calgary Stampede again, get mucked up in the mud pits at Fish Creek Provincial Park and play with family. Jamie will fly into Calgary and we’ll spend a couple of nights in Canmore with friends and play in Banff National Park. We’ll then drive into B.C. and spend a week with my family on the lake in Vernon before Jamie flies home.

Utah. From B.C., the kiddos and I will make our pilgrimage to Utah, stopping in Idaho to visit friends. Hadley and I will enjoy a few days with Jamie’s family in Salt Lake City before driving home. Bode will stay an extra week for some Grandma TLC before his second ever solo flight back to Denver. Score: We snagged a crazy-cheap ticket during Frontier’s Spring Sale.

Kids Adventure Race. My kids are both obsessed with American Ninja Warrior and this race (offered between August 5-9 in Vail, Colo.) will be an awesome way to expose them to adventure racing. They’ve teamed up with friends and will be ziplining, hiking, biking, mud-pitting, slip ‘n sliding, tubing and more.

Mudderella. I’d be jealous of the kids’ adventure race if I wasn’t doing one of my own on August 22. I’m dropping the kids off at school and going on a girl’s weekend to Aspen/Snowmass with awesome friends (who’s in?!) Our condo is booked, now I just have to get off my butt and start training for Mudderella.

Me thinks the mud pits in Canada will be a great place to start.

Here’s to summer!!!!!

 

 

Filed Under: Colorado, Family travel

Accidental disobedience

April 23, 2015 By

“Hey Mom. Remember last night when we accidentally disobeyed you?”

“I don’t think that was accidental.”

“Oh yeah.”

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor

The Man. The Myth. The Legend

April 22, 2015 By

I’ve been working with the Cub Scouts for about six months. I’m still rather clueless and despise the record-keeping element of it but really enjoy hanging out with 9-year-old boys every week, probably because they’re around my same mentality.

On the way to Scouts the other day, Bode and his buddy Bryan were having a belching contest which, had it not been so disgusting, would have been impressive. Bryan observed, “Bode, your belches are louder but mine are juicier.”

I don’t even want to know what that means.

We’re in charge of a carnival for our entire Pack so we’ve spent the last few weeks preparing our carnival games. Because it seems like we’ve been working on these projects forever, I wanted to give the boys something else to look forward to so listed off some of our future activities.

“And then we’re going to the Majestic View Nature Center and also going on a one-mile hike. The week after, we have a very special field trip: We will be visiting with the Pumpkin Man who will teach us about composting.”

A new boy Jacob queried. “What the heck is the Pumpkin Man?”

Acting insulted, Seamus retorted, “YOU DON’T KNOW THE LEGEND OF THE PUMPKIN MAN?”

It won’t be for much longer.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor, pumpkins

And so it begins

April 17, 2015 By

The Johnson Family’s Sixth Annual Giant Pumpkin Season kicked off on April 15 with much excitement and fanfare.

Well, as much fanfare as you can muster when soaking a pumpkin seed in water, filing it down, placing it in a moistened paper towel and transferring it into a pot with bacteria-rich soil.

A few weeks ago Cheerleader Jamie sat the family down to watch Rise of the Giants, a (you guessed it), documentary about growing giant pumpkins.

One of the men in the video said something like, “Yep, my wife knows she’s played second best to my pumpkins for the last 20 years.”

I pointedly glared at Jamie.

“Look on the bright side, Amber. You only have 14 years to go.”

Filed Under: Humor, pumpkins

Jamie Meets Zoolander

April 15, 2015 By

Next week kicks off my road to the insane asylum. Hadley has dress rehearsal every night for her play at Colorado Acts, we’re juggling soccer, volleyball, Cub Scouts (I’m in charge of the carnival) and Activity Days. Not coincidentally, Hadley’s teacher pushed back her class play to the same night as her final dress rehearsal for the other one, all of which is causing me a major anxiety attack and wishing for our winter OFF from all activities.

Summer break will be here before we know it, right?

In the middle of it all, Jamie’s parents are arriving next Wednesday for a week-long visit. That’s about the only thing I’m looking forward to!

I’ve also been seeking out additional employment–nothing full-time at this point but as much as I love Mile High Mamas, it’s just not paying the bills. Turns out, free tips and perks won’t pay for Hadley’s braces or another car because we desperately need to replace our 12-year-old one.

I really wanted to buy Jamie something nice for our anniversary in February but money was tight. He always buys me the nicest presents and really has a gift (pun intended) for it. A few months ago, he casually mentioned how much he loved a burnt orange Arc’teryx jacket from REI. If you’re not familiar with this brand, it’s like the Rolls Royce of outdoorwear. I looked up the jacket and, quite predictably, it was $550. I mentally bookmarked it, hoping to find it on end-of-season clearance sale. REI offers its members a dividend at the end of the year and I was thrilled to receive that a couple of weeks ago. I snagged it up and, with a $50 gift card some recent houseguests gave me, started trolling REI’s website. The jacket was 40% off, REI was having a 20% off sale, and with the dividend and gift card, I scored that $550 jacket for $75.

I LOVE surprises but almost couldn’t contain myself. I was so excited to give it to him because he’s so darn deserving and I wish there was more I could do to thank him for how hard he works and for being an all-around awesome husband and father.

If the weather wasn’t 70 degrees, I think he’d sleep in it. He’s the only one in Denver still praying for snow days.

Filed Under: Jamie

The Bunny Came Back

April 13, 2015 By

When Jamie and I were first married, he waged war with one of most treasured possessions: Mr. Bunny. When I went away to college, my mom started the tradition of sending me decorations for every holiday. This has continued even today and I have quite the collection.

Mr. Bunny has been with me for years. Not only is he cute and fluffy but he wiggles his cottonball tail while singing “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.” Who could resist that?

As it turns out, Jamie. Since those early days, he has developed a veritable hatred for rabbits partly because of Mr. Bunny but mostly because they are neighborhood pests who eat our garden. He has waged war to keep them out of our yard and has had the children in on the action from an early age. Whenever t Hadley would see a bunny, she was instructed to chase it out of the yard and if she caught it, she was going to “break his neck!”

Imagine this coming from a sweet 3-year-old’s mouth; obviously that was her father talking, not her. (Though her bestie Alex accidentally did that to her sister’s bunny when she was young. Jamie has never praised her more.)

The lowpoint of our newlywed years was after a particularly charming performance from Mr. Bunny, he went missing. I was worried sick…until I received a ransom letter from my new groom. Pictured on it was poor Mr. Bunny, bound and blindfolded with an encrypted message.  I don’t remember how his torture chamber played out but Mr. Bunny eventually returned but he never sang again. It was like his very fluffy soul had been stomped upon by the Enemy of the Easter Bunny Spirit.

Fast-forward to my recent visit to Canada. I haven’t been home for Easter in years so it was fun to bring out the multiple storage bins of Easter treasures from my youth.

Imagine my sheer delight when I was unpacking them to discover my mom had not one but TWO Mr. Bunnies, who were sting singing that beloved song. I begged my mom to take one home with me and she generously acquiesced. I would surprise Jamie and I knew just how excited he’d be!

I called home to give him a teaser. I mentioned we’d been decorating my parent’s house for Easter and that I had a special surprise for him.

“It’s not that ##$#$* rabbit, is it?”

Little did I know he’s also a soothsayer.

Filed Under: holidays, Humor, Jamie

April updates (nevermind that I’m overdue for Jan., Feb. and March)

April 10, 2015 By

I’m at the point I’m so woefully far behind on blogging that I’m never going to get caught up. And it’s too bad because we had a fantastic winter of travels–I mean, Canada, Colorado skiing and Mexico within a one-month span? Talk about amazing!

After taking several months off, both kids are back in sports. Hadley started volleyball this week and Bode is well into the soccer season. Everything seems to fall on Thursdays: piano lessons, Cub Scouts (for Bode and me), soccer practice, Activity Days at the church for Hadley and also volleyball games. Usually I handle all after-school activities but I’ve had to recruit Jamie because I can’t be 10 places at once.

Hadley has been taking a drama class from Colorado ACTS and their big performance is in a couple of weeks. We’re delighted Jamie’s parents will be joining us from Utah. I hope having extra bodies will help spread out the chaos. A few things:

Easter

Making Easter cookies

Our Easter was probably one of the most low-key we’ve had and not coincidentally, one of my favorites.  I forgot about our community Easter egg hunts and we didn’t get around to dyeing eggs but we didn’t miss them one bit. The kids are getting older and though they enjoyed our family’s Easter egg hunt on Sunday, they didn’t get caught up in bunny festivities like in years past.

Something we did do better was put Christ back in Easter. We did a “Holy Week” countdown, watched these awesome Bible videos and also A.D. The Bible Continues on NBC (I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see the networks picking up religious-based shows). On Easter, we made cinnamon rolls, watched General Conference, went to Jamie’s sister’s for brunch, took a long walk where we boomeranged and jumped over the serpentine stream about 100 times. At least Bode and Hadley did while Jamie and I leisurely strolled along as they accused us of being “anti-adventure.” Then I reminded her of the back-flip they all dared me to do on the trampoline last week and she shut up (’twas my first black-flip in 20+ years).  The girl barely figured out how to do a somersault.

School

After all the drama this year, we’ve decided to pull Hadley out of Mountain Phoenix Community School and put her back in our public school for sixth grade. It’s not a done deal yet–I’m meeting with the principal next week to talk through everything. Not the interim principal at her charter school who spews poison darts whenever she sees me but the new one at her old-new school.

Hadley was at our public school for K-2nd grade and still has a lot of friends there. I still don’t feel like it’s the best place that really taps into her talents and style of learning but for now, it’s our only/best option. I’m feeling a lot more peace since coming to that conclusion but that doesn’t mean I’m going to leave our charter school quietly. It has the potential to be great (and it was for a while) but the administration and governing council are driving it into the ground and the result, as one of the parents voiced, “I feel like this school has lots its soul.”

Kids

I have a pretty strict rule on sleepovers: not until after you’re 8 years old and even then, rarely and we have to know the parents really well. I’ve heard too many horror stories and frankly, my kids haven’t been invited to many sleepovers because most of our friends don’t allow them. So tonight, Bode is having his first sleepover at his friend Sean’s house while Hadley was invited to enjoy court-side seats at the Nuggets basketball game with her friend Alex. Tomorrow, it’s a boy’s night out as Bode and Jamie go to the Avalanche hockey again (tickets courtesy of Uncle Chris) while Hadley and I will have an adventure up in the mountains. Basically, their social lives are better than ours.

Jamie

It’s pumpkin season. His will to live has returned.

Me

It’s pumpkin season. My will to live is gone.

 

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, Jamie, LDS

An oldie but a goodie

April 6, 2015 By

It’s that time of year that I dread: allergy season.

Actually, the ironic thing about fall and spring (when my allergies are at their worst) is they are my favorite seasons. But since I moved to Colorado, I am lambasted twice a year with miserable allergies which almost always lead to a sinus infection. I went to an allergist a few years ago who ascertained I’m allergic to pretty much every grass and weed in Colorado.

As an outdoor lover, this is not a badge I wear proudly.

I’ve done allergy shots but had to stop when our insurance changed and since that time I’ve found very little reprieve. A few years ago, I hit my limit when my daughter was sent home from preschool with pink eye. I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and made an appointment with my general practitioner. Now, let me preface this by disclosing I was in my second month of these mind-numbing allergies. I hadn’t slept in weeks and I was on my third sinus infection. CLICK TO KEEP READING

Filed Under: Humor
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