Photos

Seatbelt Security

I have posted before about some of our family’s seatbelt dialogue.

Here’s another one that happened the other day.

LG: ” Girls put your seatbelts on.

Do you guys want to know why you need to wear your seatbelts?”

Me: “Because you don’t want to die if we crash, that’s why. Now put them on.”

Abigail: “We know mom. You’ve told us that a million times.”

LG: “Yeah, but there’s another reason. I was reading a Reader’s Digest article the other day and it was talking about people who die in car crashes. 90% die because someone wasn’t wearing their seatbelt. And lots of times the person that was wearing their seatbelt died, and the person who wasn’t wearing their seatbelt lived. The person who wasn’t wearing their seatbelt shot out of their seat like a missile and killed the other person. Wouldn’t you feel bad if you killed mom?”

Abigial: “O.k. o.k. I am putting my seatbelt mom. I don’t want to missile you.”

Me: “I don’t want to missile you or miss you either Abigail. Thank you.”

My mom’s advice for the day is:

Scare your kids into wearing their seatbelts.

And, please, please, teach your kindergartners how to take off and put on their own seatbelts, so that I don’t have to wait longer in the school pick up line while you secure your child properly.

How to make the Grand Canyon more grand

As you know my husband’s name is LeGrand.

Many people get confused over the name.

I tell them it’s a French name,

and the best way for them to remember it is to think of it’s meaning.

LeGrand means “The Big.”

In fact, one of my favorite nicknames that LG was given is

The Big and The Mighty.

And you can all decide for yourself if that describes my hubby.

So, what does the name definition have to do with my post?

It was pure coincidence that we visited The Grand Canyon

on LeGrand’s birthday.

In honor of LeGrand visiting The Grand Canyon,

you all should know that our girls have renamed

The Grand Canyon to LeGrand Canyon.

It’s very fitting I think.

Don’t you think LG looks just like this Native American

who claims to be The Grand Canyon?

And, to make the visit even more grand,

we made sure our rental car was a Grand Caravan.

I think the train is due for some updating

along with all the other signage at the Grand Canyon.

It shouldn’t be hard, just add the “Le” at the front.

For me, The Grand Canyon, was just another evidence of God’s majesty!

What is possibly more grand than that?

Except maybe the scriptures.

If you think of The Colorado River as Willy Wonka’s chocolate river,

it’s automatically more grand.

I thought it a grand coincidence that the Arch from the Arches National Park

showed up in clouds right over the Grand Canyon.

I think that maybe God was trying to tell us that he

approved of our name change.

If you decide to hike, make sure that you read the signs so you can get back up.

Stop at the shop and gets some Dreyer’s Grand ice-cream.

Hide from mom in the tower and make her panic for a good twenty minutes

that you may have fallen into the canyon.

That’s always grand fun.

Especially when dad is in on the game.

Doesn’t it look like they are touching a painting?

Nope just pointing out the grandness.

Put yourself into the painting.

Because you are part of God’s grand creations too.

Tease your mom and wife some more by laughing at her

as she hollers for you to step back.

Then laugh some more as she eats crow for freaking out for no reason.

Take time to notice the very few flowers in the area.

Show your children that you are just as grand

as any of those overpriced toys that they want.

Camp…you gotta camp.

Find something very small to remember the grand occasion.

This is our baby owl.

Her name is Paquito.

We let dad name her for his birthday.

Enjoy a grand hike or two or three.

Sit right at the grand edge.

It’s so much fun.

Notice all the grand fossils.

And the grandest layering ever.

Can we call this a grand bee?

And, make sure you visit at the grandest times of the day.

Sunrise and sunset of course.

Take notice of the grand calves. Nothing less would be worthy.

Lean over just once and ponder the

grandness of your own mortality.

The horizon is endless and so is the land.

What’s more grand than that?

Add your own caption here. I can’t think of one.

On your drive home, take a grand minute or two to realize that the

grandness of God and his creations are really never ending.

You just have to keep looking.

Ward Star Search

On Saturday evening,
the Gold family won the “Funniest” prize at our church talent show.

I think people just voted out of a sense of duty.

After all, I am the only ward member with a blog named imsofunny.

It really wasn’t that funny.

But isn’t Litte Miss Goldilocks so darling?

If I can ever get LG to actually finish the movie and download it,

I will share it at a later date.

It’s pretty entertaining, in a bad sort of way.

But, I have to say that for me the most entertaining part of the night was when the Bishop transformed from a daytime attorney to the SuperBishop at night.

He was wearing two suits….one over the top of the other.

He took his top one off.

Yeah, a Bishop taking his pants off in front of his whole congregation

is something that I hope to NEVER see again!

But, the shock factor worked. We all had to laugh out of pure horror.

Off to school

Last week marked the beginning of another school year for the Gold Family.

It is a little historic for us, as Bella, our baby, finally gets to go along with her sisters.

So, now I am left filling my days without children in tow.

I think that this Wild Thing will be o.k.

When I started getting a bit sad, I decided I needed to embrace the change.

I gave myself a treat on the first day of my new found freedom.

I went to Panera Bread and got whatever I wanted.

I sat and ate and read my book just to make sure I could still enjoy some quiet.

I sure hope the girls enjoy school as much as I enjoyed my date with myself.

I also hope that they will find and be the kind of friend that is illustrated in the following story by Susie. And, they will always remember that prayers are answered.

Bella can attest to prayers being answered herself. All summer, Bella repeatedly told us she wanted Mrs. Nitz, and we told her that any teacher would be just fine and that she wasn’t going to get to choose. It ended up that she had been assigned a teacher other than Mrs. Nitz, the one Sophia had last year. Bella was bummed out during the first week of assessments, but didn’t complain. She just kept on saying, “I really really really want Mrs. Nitz.” To our pleasant surprise, when Bella reported to her second day of school, Mrs. Nitz was waiting. Bella had been changed to her class. You should have seen that smile of an answered prayer.

WET PANTS

Come with me to a third grade classroom…..

There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It’s never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives. The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, ‘Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat.’

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy’s lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, ‘Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!’

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy.. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else – Susie.

She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You’ve done enough, you klutz!’
Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, ‘You did that on purpose, didn’t you?’ Susie whispers back, ‘I wet my pants once too.’