i'm off

I'm headed to Women's Conference tomorrow. Hope the boys survive without me :) Jake's mom is headed to help out for a couple of days so I'm sure they will be fine. If anyone happens to see Brennen making the long trek home from school with his 50 lb. backpack feel free to offer him a ride. I'll post our adventures when I get home!
I'll miss Jake's birthday on Sat :( but to get me back he'll be in Mexico fishing on mother's day. (It helps with the guilt)

a little "M.I.T."

Yesterday after I picked Brennen up from school we grabbed a late lunch and he told me this story. I'm so proud of him...
He said that in one of his classes they were divided up into groups and he was in a group with two of his friends. One of the boys says, "pretty funny we are sitting here a Jew, a Christian and a Mormon." So Brennen responded with, "That is pretty funny since Mormons are Christian." The boy (who is "the" Christian) said, "No your not." Brennen said "Yes I am". I'm sure this went back and forth a few times and then Brennen said, "Well what is a Christian then?" The boys response was, "Someone who believes Jesus lived and died for our sins so we could be saved." Brennen said "I believe that." The boy said "Well you have to believe in the bible." Brennen said, "We believe in the Bible." His response was, "No, not your bible the real bible." Brennen's like, "It's the same bible." Then the boy pulled a fast one and said, "You can't believe in the Book of Mormon." Brennen said that they finally agreed to agree to disagree. (I'm sure the Jewish boy was relieved)
Then later he was sitting with his friends at lunch and the boy walked by and jokingly said "Your wrong." And Brennen's like, "No your wrong." So his table was like what was that about. Brennen explained that the kid didn't think Mormons were Christians. His table that consisted of 3 or 4 Christians 2 Mormons and 1 Atheist got into the same little discussion. It ended with his good friend who is Christian saying, "One good thing about the Mormons is that they have to pay their tithing." Brennen's like "We don't have to pay our tithing. The bishop just calls us in at the end of the year and chews us out if we don't." (he's trying to keep the conversation light) Then the kid says, "And they are highly organized." Brennen responded with "Maybe a little too organized I'm teacher quorum president over myself because I'm the only teacher."

I was so proud of my little Brennen sticking up for himself like that. I told him that this is all part of his M.I.T. (missionary in training) I also pull that one out when we are having something for dinner that nobody likes. I also think it pretty cool that he is friends with "Christian", Jew, Atheist, whoever, something I missed out on by growing up in Utah, (not that that's bad, I'm not bashing Utah and I'm sure Utah is a little different now.) But.....
Go Brennen!

boys?!? part II

My boys, well Caden and Dillon, keep asking when I'm going to do the funniest things they said. Although the two of them have tried to stage some funny stuff, which is pretty funny in itself, this is what I've come up with.

Brennen: (this one is only funny if you like to laugh at someone else's misfortune, which I do on occasion)
His Wii got tipped over while playing his new Smash Bros game and his disk got scratched. So since he has such a nice dad he got another game which also got scratched because the wii is malfunctioning. So he called nintendo and handed me the phone. The conversation went a lot like this... nintendo guy "what does the scratch look like" me "Bren, what does the scratch look like" brennen "dashes" me "dashes" nintendo guy "continual dashes" me "Bren, continual dashes" brennen "yeah"...anyways you get the picture. Who needs me I don't even speak their language and since I'm already running late to get Dustin to swimming I decide to hand the phone over to Brennen. So as I'm telling the guy that I'm just going to let him talk to my son he's like ok but how would you like to pay for the repairs. So I hand Brennen my Visa and head out the door. Brennen said he got a sweet discount because he has a my nintendo account. We'll see when the bill shows up. So Brennen has no wii for 11 business days. ( : Whatever will he do? homework!

Dustin: as we are out for dinner on a Saturday night.
Jake, "Dustin did you comb your hair today?" Dustin, "Nope." Jake, "I'm surprised your not still wearing your pajama's." Dustin, "Mom made me get dressed."
I count this as a blessing. If they don't care what they look like you know they aren't worried about girls. YEAH!!!

Caden: coming home from a baseball game.
"Mom, I won the game for our team! It was the last inning we were tied the bases were loaded we had two outs and I was up to bat and the pitcher hit me on the head!"

Dillon: As I pick him and Caden up from school and inform them that they are starting piano lessons (the first for Dillon) in ten minutes so hurry. "But mom, remember, I'm going to play the triangle."

"POP"

My sil Michelle worked at Anthropologie for a season. It was great fun and I totally enjoyed it while it lasted. She let me in on a little secret that they tell their employees... that each outfit should have a "pop" piece, something that your eye is drawn too. So I've been trying it and wearing fun shoes or jewelry I've bought and never thought I had the right outfit that matched. Nan you might want to sit down for this but... apparently you don't have to match. It tons of fun although I do realize my wardrobe has to expand to have more fun. I will say I get more comments on my shoes when they pop out of my outfit. (and yes I do realize that not everyone is sincere, some respond from shock because they don't match) So try a little pop it's actually kinda fun to think about as your getting ready each day! If you need a little insight I'll include a web site that my friend gave me. Most Parisians have no pop but keep looking you'll find it. CLICK HERE

april fools

As the boys minus Dustin, who was the only one who had to go to school today, were in the car driving I was reminded it was april fools day. So I had to think fast and this is what I came up with....
"Oh, I forgot to tell you guys that someone at work offered to take us all to Mexico for two week." no comment from the back but Brennen started in with we don't even speak spanish and that doesn't sound fun. To which I responded "Well we have to leave on Monday and dad needs to know right away so what do you think?"
Brennen response was "you know what I think, I think that it is a stupid idea I just can't miss two weeks of school, I'm in honors classes and I will totally flunk." (or something to that effect)
Thinking fast I said "I know but dad and I think that it's a once in a lifetime trip so it probably would be worth it even if you all had to repeat this school year."
This one perked up the ears in that back but they let Brennen do the talking. And talk he did with "you know what no, I'm not going" and a whole lot of other stuff he was getting pretty mad.
So I added, "I know Brennen but I'm having dad look into a foreign exchange program for you. I'm sure everything will work out."
His response was a lot of the same but with more force so I said, "April Fools" to which he responded "that was the lamest ever, I don't think your funny at all!"
"Of course you don't because you got played!!!" I said.

So am I a terribly mean mom or what?
And who wouldn't want to skip school for two weeks to play on the beaches of Mexico. Oh I know, the Marshall boys. You should have heard the fit they threw when I told them we were checking them out of school for 3 days to go to Disney Land a couple of years ago.