Mom-N-Jr

embarrassing?

2009-05-20T06:33:00.014-06:00

so a couple of days ago, at 645 in the morning, junior was getting ready for school. i had to look through his binder and sign some stuff and since it was getting hot (and the weirdos that we bought this house from didnt bother to have central air installed when they built the house), i told jr that i was going to go sit outside on the front porch for a few minutes while i did this. now let me tell you something first...jr and his friends have the "leaving for school time" thing down to a science. they leave and walk all the way down to the farthest south end of swan hill drive to be able to catch the bus at the first stop, so this way they can sit where they want and avoid the potty mouth 9th graders. they did this last year as well and also had to get permission from the school to do this, since they are supposed to get on at the last stop. so anyway, they used to leave at 700, but in the winter i guess they got tired of waiting in the cold an extra few minutes, so they switched their leaving time to leave to 709... not 708, or 710, but 709. you can bet you life that when our clocks say 709, kyle, michael, and sometimes terrick are standing on my porch at that moment. the first day of the new time switch, i could hear them discussing the time standing out there trying to figure out whose watch/cable/satellite/atomic clock was the most accurate and therefore the one to go by... nerds lol... ANYWAY.... so i am PERFECTLY aware of when these boys come to pick up jr and WHAT TIME they will be there... so when i tell jr that i am going outside, he gets a little panicked look on his face, and says.... "um, do you look embarrassing?".... HELLO? ok. so i AM wearing my pjs which are blue and white plaid boxers and a white tank and my black fuzzy slippers and my hair is pulled up in a clip that i put in without looking (heh) and OH PLEASE like i want people to see me?, but its freaking hot in my house and i was only going to be outside for less than 5 minutes... he can tell by MY face that i was thinking "did he just ask me that?" and quickly said... "you know that that is a perfectly legitimate question...." WHATEVER!!! just for that, i went outside til 708...

ok not really, but i thought about it... =) so everyone with cute little new babies, just remember that someday those cute little new babies will think that you just might be embarrassing no matter what you do and thats OK... this just caught me off guard because when there is stuff at juniors school, he always comes up to me and acts glad to see me and introduces me to his friends so who woulda thought he would worry in our own neighborhood.... ::shrug::

catchup3

2009-04-18T03:41:00.023-06:00

april 4-april 12

My brother Jon and his wife Sam finally had their baby~! YAY~! They named him Andrew. He was born 3 weeks early but he is doing great. He has awesome parents and is very loved by all of the family that he has... Jr is loving having a new little cousin to look out for and love...

After we left the hospital visiting the newest addition to Jon's family, we went to Gmas house because it was the Priesthood session of Conference that night. Another Hastings tradition is that all the guys meet over at Gmas house for pizza after the meeting and so it has been fun for the younger boys that are just old enough to start going to the meeting to finally be able to go with their dads and see what all the fuss is about.

Grandpa, Uncles, Cousins

My sister and her kids came and hung out with me and my mom this time which was fun. These are some of my favorite pics I took of her kids when I was tending them when she went out for her anniversary in Feb...

Katie
Carter
Ben Syd

After dinner, my uncle brought out a little parachute that my dad had sent him when he was in Vietnam that he had tried to use by jumping off the roof of his house when he was little (even though my dad says in his letter when he sent it to him, he is pretty sure he told him NOT to do that lol). They used these parachutes during the war to drop mini bits of supplies to the soldiers. He gave it back to my dad to keep and Jr was seeing how big it opened so of course, out came my camera.... (I think it looks like a jellyfish...)

April 10

Jr won a lift pass at Brighton at the State Science Fair, so off we went to take him snowboarding... Luckily, this was the same place that he went for his first time last year. He had a blast. We got there at 930 in the morning and he finally tired out around 300 in the afternoon. The snow was actually perfect and there wasn't any avalanches when we were there, which was my main concern. Oh yeah, always get your kids to wear helmets when they are skiing and snowboarding, no matter what~! If you start them in them, there is never an issue on it... I'm jus sayin... I saw too many little kids without them, and it was making me crazy...

Where'd we park again? Oh yeah, look for the blue SUV... right, right....

April 12
On Easter, my mom was giving a talk in church and she asked us to go listen to her talk. She did a great job. I wish I could talk in front of people like she and my dad can. After church, we had a delicious Easter lunch and sat around visiting and watching basketball. My parents had been cleaning out their attic earlier in the week and found some of my dads clothes from when he was a medic in Vietnam. My mom was so surprised at how skinny my dad's medic whites were and wanted Jr to try them on... (my dad is insisting that they aren't his, maybe my mom shrunk them in the wash, but I can totally see my dad that thin in the military)... Then we just had to hide some Easter eggs in the front yard even though Jr is getting a little old for that, he played along like the good son that he is... It actually has been too long since the Easter bunny has hidden any eggs outside at our house because of the weather, so this was fun for me too lol

Now, consider yourselves all caught up~! *Whew*

catchup2...

2009-04-18T03:01:00.010-06:00

march 11-march 26

Jr did an cooking project for french class and had fun learning how to make quiche lorraine. He doubled the receipe and made an extra one for my parents and my dad asked me later if we had bought it (because it was so good?)... Jr has always liked to cook and it was fun to take pictures of him doing this...

As you can tell from these ingredients, this is NOT fat free....

Hey, my little bro suddenly grew Jr's afro~! =)

Finished product......

If you insist on taking any more pics of me, this is what you are gonna get =P

On March 21, Real Salt Lake had a free game at their new arena and so my brother Jon took Jr and his brother in law to the game. They got some new shirts which was perfect since Jr's old one was getting a little small on him...

After they got back, Samantha was still working so I had decided to make dinner... It is fun to cook for other people. I made some parmesean chicken, twice baked potatoes, salad and it turned out pretty good. The only bad thing that happened was when Jon was cutting up avocados for the salad, he tried to cut off his finger... Luckily Sam was there to kiss it better...
It is tradition to play pingpong at the Hastings (Gpa Hastings and Jon Hastings too lol) so Jr rep'd the Hines' fam while Sam and I watched the boys duke it out...

Before we left Jr showed off all the features on his new itouch while I took a pic of us all together...

catchup...

2009-04-18T02:27:00.006-06:00

I am a blogger slacker~!! Here is my catchup for the last two months...

march 3
Junior has been getting treatments up at Primary Children's Hospital and University of Utah Hospital for his EE. He has a thing with his esophagus where he can get food caught in it randomly and then he can't swallow anything at all; sometimes for up to 8 hours. He will end up having to spit into a cup for that whole time and it is very uncomfortable and can be painful and scary for him... This has been an ongoing problem for him for the past 4 years and we are hopeful that this treatment will be something that will prove to be an improvement for him. So anyway, he gets iv treatments every month and bloodwork done and also egd's done every 4 months. Here he is getting his iv treatments:

Here he is getting ready for his last egd on March 3rd which was also the same day as the district science fair. Tyler had to go set up the project since Jr was still trying to recover that day...

The next day, they went to pick up their project and found out they had got blue ribbons and had advanced on to the state science fair. Way to go boys~!
You can see Jr's blue bandages on his wrist from his being in the hospital the day before...
I had to post this pic cuz I am obviously too proud of my son...2nd year in a row~!

My Dad...

2009-03-01T02:01:00.035-07:00

Today is my dad's birthday... He is 64 years old today. He is such a great example to me of a good father and husband. He always puts my mom first and when we were young and sassing my mom, he was very quick to say "Don't talk to your mother like that!" (I can appreciate that more now - lol.) He always helps my mom, especially now that most of us kids are out of the house. He is the chief dishwasher and whenever there is a big family getogether and the dishes outnumber the dishwasher, he is right there standing over the sink doing the dishes till they are done and with a happy smile. * Dad doing dishes while overlooking his estate =)

* I was born while my dad was in Vietnam. I remember reading his letters to my mom when I was in college and him saying when he found out I was born, how glad he was to have a baby daughter and how much he missed being with his family. My dad got his first hug from me when I was 9 months old. *

Me and my Dad - Nov 1971

My brother Gregg, me, and Dad - 1971 in Yuma, Az

* My dad is awesome at all sports. When he was 16 years old, his church softball team played at the U of U at the All-Church Softball Tournament in 1962 (which was the worlds largest softball competition and had teams from all across the United States and Canada). The games were broadcast on the radio and their team of nine players from the Hurricane North Ward, wearing their official team uniforms of levis and a plain white t-shirt, took 2nd place. *

* He got a basketball scholarship to SUSC and and went there after his mission to Canada. He still plays church ball with his ward and he seems to have more energy than the 25-30 year old dads on his team =). *

My dad making a layup while everyone else just watches in awe of his mad skills... - 2005

* When my husband was killed in August 1998 and we were living in Arizona, he and my mom jumped on a plane immediately and spent that first crazy week helping me try to get to see Kevin, figure out financial stuff, get my car registered, and just be on the phone with the military and made me lists to help get organized with everything that I would need. I was a complete mess and it was such a reassurance to know that my parents were both there to help in all ways. *

* My dad was the one who blessed, baptized and ordained my son. *

Junior and Grandpa - 2003

* He has given countless blessings and been an example to Junior of a worthy priesthood holder... *

Dad with sons, uncle, cousins going to priesthood session of conference... - 2004

* He always has time for the grandkids, whether it be attending their recitals, soccer games, teaching them to climb up the trees in his front yard, helping them to build awesome snowmen, wrestling with them in the house (even tho' his dad would have said "hey you kids, if you want to wrestle, you need to go do that out on the front lawn! lol) or just sitting in his lap and reading a book. *

Gpa at Jr's soccer game - 2004

beginning the perfect snowmen... 11:16 am

Gma, Gpa, Mom and Jr snowman family ... 11:58 am - 2003

Jr and Gpa roughhousing - in the house! hehehe - 2004

* He has taught my son how to barbeque and how to use the squirt bottle at just the right time. *

I see Jr has the squirt bottle handy - heehee - 2005

* He is the best at the hard puzzles that I would never attempt alone but if he is sitting at his puzzle spot working on one, you can have the funnest time sitting down and visiting while he makes you feel smart when you actually find a couple of the easy pieces. *

* He goes out to my Grandpa's farm (my mom's dad) and helps out with stuff that reminds me that my dad grew up different than I did: riding horses, taking care of animals, driving a tractor and building barns... *

Trimming some branches off of Gpa Losee's huge trees... - 2003

Puttering on one of Gpa Losee's tractors (I think they had pulled down a dead tree...) - 2003

I could not ask for a better dad~! Happy Birthday Dad~! Get home from Texas quick so we can celebrate your birthday in person~! We love you~!

Jr and Gpa on Gpa's birthday 2005

Jr and his favorite Grandpa - Jan 2009...

my son cracks me up

2009-02-27T21:41:00.007-07:00

This is just a quick note on what Junior and I did tonight... (i know i am soooo behind on blogging and i promise to catch up on stuff soon). He had seen a preview on t.v. for the movie "Push" and thought it looked like it would be full of some cool special effects. I didn't look up any reviews online first, but since he had won a gift card at school for having been voted the "favorite science project" by all the students, that was what he wanted to see, so off we went. First off, let me ask, what the heck is up with the upcoming movies?? Let me give you a rundown of the first three previews we saw: #1: movie called "Fighting" about some 20-something year old kid fighting in fights that people bet on (not in a ring or anything like that) and of course, everyone, including the "girl" and the guy who "discovered" him bet against him in the "big fight". Really? I am pretty sure this movie has been done before but to actually call a movie "Fighting" and attempt to make it look cool just bugged me. #2: I can't remember the title of this one, but it was about a delivery guy who mis-delivers a package that was full of drugs that the dealers track down to him and the people at the apt he delivered it to and well... again....REALLY? A whole entire movie about this? I can see a lame SNL skit, but a 120 minutes? #3: I think was "Crank 2" or something like that (about that guy from "Crank 1" I suppose) who gets hurt and then has some body part snatchers steal his heart and replace his with an artificial one that has like one hour of juice left; we get snippets of him hooking jumper cables to his chest/tongue and also rubbing up against an old lady in a fuzzy sweater to make a static charge... so...um...WHERE ARE THE MOVIE PREVIEWS OF MOVIES I WANNA SEE????? I admit that finally there was a Nic Cage one that I did want to see called "Knowing", but now after seeing the extended preview, it just might be too depressing... Anyway, "Push" was too long, and just ok to me; Jr rated it 3/5. We went and ate dinner after and oh yeah, here is the part (in the car on the way home) where he cracked me up...

Jr: Mom, I gotta tell you something about tonight...
M: What's that son...
Jr: I am pretty sure our waiter got bonus points for touching you...

So embarrassing right? I mean he has been noticing when guys try flirting with me for a while now, but that was a new way to put it... Usually when the guy at RadioShack or GameStop or the video store won't stop trying to get my attention, he will just say real loud "Wow, he does know that I am your son, right mom? I mean, he is doing this RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!" It doesn't stop the guys, but it makes me laugh... He is a great kid...

Science Project / Grandmas / Scout Hike

2009-01-31T23:17:00.002-07:00

So this week was way too busy with Junior trying to get a science project finished. It was assigned sometime in December I think, but way back in December, January 30th seemed to be so far away... The 8th graders could team up with another student and Tyler H. and Jr decided to work together this year, last year. They met a bunch of times to make stuff for their project, but most of the time I think they ended up thinking they still had PLENTY of time to finish it. So here we were the last week, dropping chutes at the school on Wed and getting all the final data and research typed up on Thursday. It really wouldn't have been that bad if only Jr was working on it alone. Now Emily knows that we wait till the last minute on projects and that for sure I am not supermom. I forgot to take any pictures of the final display of their project, but here are some pics of Jr and Ty at the school...Jr and Ty getting ready to test their parachutes

Jr dropping a chute at SRMS

Can you see the one Tyler dropped?

FRI

We were able to go to my mom's house on Friday night so that Jr could play with his cousins who were getting tended while my sis and her husband went to a viewing. It was fun for Jr to play with them and for me to spend more time with them also. They are so cute and are growing up so fast. My nephew Ben was wanting some cereal for a late night snack. As I was pouring him a bowl, it was funny because the "free toy inside" was this little race car that you could stick stickers on. The cereal was at least half gone, but the car was still inside the box. That would never happen at my house, even with only one kid. First bowl, find that free toy! I suppose that is the fun of eating cereal at Grandma's; you have a pretty good chance of getting whatever the toy is inside... He took putting those stickers on that car pretty seriously and wanted me to take his picture with the car later that night. He looked at the first one I took, and then said, "I really want it to look like the car is racing toward you in the picture..." He seemed so sure of what he wanted, so I just had to try again, and this is what he ended up liking...

Go speedracer GO~!

My sisters oldest daughter is growing up so fast.... What a sweetie~!

My two yr old niece snapped this pic of me and my mom...

See my mom there on the right?

SAT

Saturday Jr was tired from staying up and watching a movie with his Uncle Jared (wait, actually he fell asleep during the video, but hey...) so he had been trying to decide if he was going to go to the scout activity which was a winter hike. I had gotten a lunch packed and his backpack with his ski pants/gloves/hat/extra socks/all that stuff kids need the night before, but I wasn't going to make him go. I've "strongly encouraged" him in the past to go to things that he really wasn't 100% on, and you don't want to know how that has backfired on me. It seems like on those occasions, there was always some unforseeable problem that he would not of had to deal with if I hadn't "made him go". I woke him up and he decided that even though not every single one of his little posse of friends were going, since he knew for sure that Ty and Brit were going, he would go too. I was hoping that this would turn out to be fun, since when I went over to the church to drop him off, it was already freakin FREEZING, or maybe that was just me but I couldn't imagine going hiking around in the snow for hours... (So glad right now that the guys do Scouting and the most pressing thing the women hafta worry about is the Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouting.) When he got home, this was our conversation....

M: how was it?

Jr: IT WAS GREAT!!

M: it was? oh i mean, of course it was! so you are glad that you went?

Jr: Yup!! Mom, it was scary though, there was like these cliffs, with a canyon and it was icy and muddy and slippery and if you would have slipped off of the trail, you just would have DIED instantly!

M: um, maybe you shouldn't be telling me this part...

Jr: Well, I kept one hand on the side of the mountain at all time... I'm telling you mom, that mountain was my best friend walking up the trail!!

Then he told me all about the piles of snow they slid down, and how much fun (again) they all had, and I was glad again that they had good leaders that watched out for them today. (Of course he did not bother to put on his ski pants to play in the snow, so he came home soaking wet, but at least he was happy, so how was I going to be mad?) Fun way for him to spend 1/2 a Saturday~!

Scouts and leaders on the mountain

If you look in the center of the pic, then a little to the right, you can see Jr keeping one hand on the mtn on the way up (look at the mtns in the far back; pretty peeking up over the inversion we have out here...)

Scouts again (crossing a bridge it looks like)

Jr is at the top of the hill and this is the snow they were sliding down

P.S. thanks for the scout hike pics that were taken by jared price sent to me from cindy whitehead =)

Read my post first for pics to make sense...

2009-01-27T23:15:00.007-07:00

Jr's birthday

Kevin Sr and Kevin Jr, couple hrs old

Chubby baby~!

So when we were at my mom's house for New Years Eve, we were playing this cool card game called "Pounce". My dad was keeping score and was asking everyone their team names... My little brother (who was married in Feb 08 and is expecting his first baby in Apr 09) looks over at his teammate, his wife, and says: "the BABYMAKERS~!" His wife busts up laughing and my dad says, "Hey now, who is the one here who has made seven babies? That's who should be the Babymakers..." My brother says they are just getting started and may have even more than seven so nah nah nah boo boo etc etc ... It was pretty funny at the time and it just made me remember how that first year of marriage was and also how when you are pregnant it seems like everything you do and say revolves around that subject (as well it should). They are just so cute together and don't seem to hardly be able to be more than an arms length away from each other. If I ever did get married again, I really would want to be with someone that I felt like that about with. I think I had something like that with Kevin, and now after 10 years of it being just me and Junior, I just wouldn't want to ever just settle with someone that I didn't feel that strongly about again. (Ok now, seriously, I DO need my space and I don't like to feel smothered or checked up on since I'm pretty independent, but the point is, if I WAS with someone 24/7, I'd hafta want to be with them; even when I wasn't.) So being excited for my little brother having his first baby has just had me thinking about the days when Jr was born and so little. Dang, don't our kids grow up so fast~!?! When he was little, he used to want to look at his baby book and photos all the time, but apparently, when they are almost 14 years, that is not really something that they find on the same level as playing Halo online with their friends... Maybe if there were younger kids in the house, then I could be going "OH hey, look how much fun your little sister/brother and I are having doing this thing that you used to find SOOOO fascinating to do with me!", but then he'd prolly just be thinking, "Whew, now I don't hafta do that anymore"... GRRR -- I swear I'm not that overprotective (at least not super-overprotective) mom, and I swear I won't follow my son on his mission to BFE, or to college, but I can't promise since he is my only child that I won't move to at least 30... err... 20 miles from wherever he eventually settles down and starts raising my grandkids and I DO promise that I won't make him go on a reality show called "Mama's Boys" and make him let me choose his girlfriend/wife for him. For now, I will just be grateful that I have this great kid named after the only person I liked enough to marry and will share a couple pics from his baby book with YOU~! =)

p.s. if anyone knows how to put pics at the end of a post (or in the middle) instead of at the beginning, call me... I tried searching the help stuff, but couldn't find the answer...

Why I am still Awake...

2009-01-23T01:31:00.007-07:00

So I am hoping that 145 in the morning is not going to be my new blog time... It seems like everyone else somehow manages to blog at normal times. Am I a bad mom if I did not make my son go to scouts? Wednesday night was the season premire of "Lost" and well, at least I went to YW... Someone had to stay home and watch to be able to give me the update. If you are not a Lost fan, then please don't lecture me on how it is only a tv show, honest, I am aware of this... I swear that I won't let him miss every week... Today I had to get Junior a key made for the house since tomorrow I am going to the dentist and of course since I have such crazy, nonlogical(?)anxiety about this, I am getting sedated. My mom is kindly driving me and bringing me home after, but I'm doubting that I would be awake enough to unlock the door for Jr after school. I know that at least my sister is wondering why I don't have another copy of the key to my front door already, and oh yes, there has been more than one made in the past 7 years, trust me... Someday in Jrs room, or in the laundry room, or in one of Jr's old jackets or in a box of his toys, I will find like 5 house keys I am sure. Does everyone else change their locks if they lose a key? Oh, something fun I did do today was watch my friend I have had for the last 29 years play on Wheel of Fortune for teachers week. He made it to the final round, but then didn't get the phrase "true value" which was completely lame. The phrase, I mean, not that he didn't get it. He at least won 13000$ and a cruise which was very cool. He is a bishop in Hawaii now and is still a great friend to me. Is it weird that I am still friends with boys that I completely made out with? =) I remember that like at least a couple of my old boyfriends came to my wedding and my husband was complely fine with that. I don't know why my thoughts are so random right now... I think I am just completely stressed about tomorrow and I am thirsty and I can't eat/drink for 12 hours before and my appt is at 1030 so I'm going to be soooo dehydrated because people that know me know that I am the water bottle queen... grrr... I am going to go pretend that this is a normal, one subject post like everyone else's blogs for now~! Bye~!

p.s. I think Jr used a house key for a fishing lure in that pic...

dont be too hard on me, this is only a test

2009-01-21T03:48:00.005-07:00

Hmmmm... what cool, great thing do people write about for their first blog entry? i think it should be nothing really but rambling type to test the layout of the new and poor blogger who really should not be awake at 4 am anyway and keeps on hearing strange sounds coming from the backyard and is now wondering what the temp is outside and if what i am hearing is actually the fog / haze / pollution slowly turing to ice... Oh, pfft.... that strange sound is NOT coming from outside...it is my virus scan starting at the 4 am start time that i set long ago when i thought that really what would the chances be that i would be awake err on my computer doing anything that a virus scan wouldnt slow me down... i am wondering if a start to blog for real if i will have to actually start to punctuate and capitalize my writing... ugh... im so lazy... ok nuff rambling on, where is that publish post button~? wait i shall add a pic for no other reason but to see if i can =)