American Idol

Well, here it is American Idol time again. That means that every Tues night my family gets together. We eat dinner (just like we have for the past few years) and watch AI. Last night I fixed homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. The grandkids decided that american cheese tastes like plastic and they don't like tomato soup so as you can see it was a disaster. It was a good thing Miss Natalie brought doughnuts because that is what saved the kids. Well, as time goes on we will post our favoirtes and well compare them to yours and see how we do. we don't have a great track record. Maybe you do.

I'm sure I have mentioned that each Friday around my house we have something we call "Grammy's Daycare". I invite each mother (my daughters and daughters in law)to bring her children by and drop them off and I will tend then while the mother goes off to remember who she is independent of motherhood. Years ago when I was raising my children it became so overwhelming at times that I almost forgot who I was as a person I wanted something different for my children when they became parents. Yesterday was so much fun because all the grandchildren were here. That doesn't happen all the time but when it does it is fun, chaos, laughter and fighting all the way around. My food budget goes sky high because little ones are always hungry . I want to make a new banner for the park so I took some pictures of the grandchildren. Justice is the youngest at only 3 weeks. The only one missing from the picture is our perfect little Lizzie. So here are all 13 of the grandchildren.

Easter and the wii

Many weeks ago, Liam asked if he could borrow our wii. We loaned it to him and he asked how long he could keep it. I told him he had until Easter and then it needed to be returned. Well, Easter came and went and the wii was still sitting at his house as he was learning to master Guitar Hero (he's 6). Each time he has come to the house since then I ask him where the wii is and amazingly it is still at his house because he forgot it. Well, last night at our weekly AI party he returned the wii. Along with the game came a Happy Easter card. I thought how funny that they thought if they gave me an Easter card at the same time I wouldn't know they were returning the wii late. How clever are kids.

Today I finally entered the 21st century, I joined facebook. I still have no idea why except when you hangout with the youth of the world you had better know what is going on in their lives. I was amazed to find out that it seems everyone is on facebook. My own children are there. Soon it will be my grandchildren. Won't that be a blast? It is nice getting older. I like the gray hair and wrinkles that make one look like they have lots of wisdom.

Haiku for mothers

Yesterday while I was getting ready to post my blog I was reading the "the meanest mom" blog and she had written some Haiku poetry. I haven't even thought of Haiku since I was in high school and had to do it for a project. I didn't have anything to say at the ripe old age of 16 and if I had there was no way it would fit into the haiku formula. Funny thing happened this morning when I couldn't sleep I decided to try my hand at it.





For Lizzie 1/29/2007-2/14/2007





The dress hangs ready
Lovingly sewn by old hands
All for the new one.



Untouched baby clothes
an empyt, heirloom crib, but
eternally ours














Ode to the Laundry
In heaps on the floor
Waiting for someone to wash
shirts, socks, pants and towels

Still it piles up
a never ending supply
keeping the floor warm.

Someone should wash it
Their responsibility
not mine! not yours? whose?

Here is just a short one

Husbands

Man, looking for food

there in plain sight in the fridge

can't seem to see it.

Lately my family has been giving me guff because I never update my blog. I read other people's blogs and realize I have nothing funny to say.

American Idol has started up again. We always look forward to Jan and the return of American Idol. It's not that the show is so great but we use it as an excuse to get together as a family. It is like a family home evening for the less active Mormons. Last night we ate taco salad and laughed at the antics of those that somehow think they can sing and get upset when someone tells them they can't. Where are these kids MOTHERS? Isn't it a mothers job to tell her children they can do anything in the world they want to do but if they want to sing on national TV they had better be good enough not to embarrass the whole family? (not to mention the people watching) Apparently some mothers missed the memo. When I was young I sang with the church choir and my mother was the choir director. My mother would always ask others to sing the solos in the programs never me. When I asked her why, she told me I didn't have a solo voice, mine was more for a whole choir where I could blend in. I listened and when I was asked (on several occasions) to sing a solo I was so terrified I did badly. So I ask again where are these kids mother????? If everyone had a mother like mine only the kids that really knew how to sing would be on tv and they would be nothing funny about the show at all, so I guess it might be ok that their mothers were different than mine.

Even more of the same Summer

Sijing and her mother left and we packed our bags and headed for Moab. Courtland planned a family reunion for our family in July in Moab!? What was he thinking? Yes it was hot but it was so much fun that I think in the long run no one cared. All but Beckett and his family had access

to a jeep and they have their 4X4 truck so we all went on the trails. If you read my blog you know that we bought a new Jeep on Memorial Day and by the end of the family reunion we had the necessary "Rocky Mountain Pin stripping" to prove that this Jeep isn't just a pretty face. It is tough to know that our new Jeep is all scratched but such is life.

We went to Gemini Bridges on Friday and on Sat we took the LaSal Mountain Pass. Friday we cooked and Sat by the time we got to the top it was 61 degrees and the kids were all freezing. We had them wrapped in blankets and sweatshirts and finally put them in the car with the windows rolled up. The adults were cold as well. I even went places I never imagined I would go. I drove up Baby Lions Back. I had Courtland with me and he was a wonderful co-pilot. My husband wouldn't drive it so I felt obligated to do it to show I am a "real" woman. It worked. Joseph said he could now brag that he sat and watched his wife drive it.

Thank you Courtland for all the time and effort you put into making this family reunion one that we will remember forever. Don't ever think that your family didn't invest in the activity.

More of the Summer

I came home from Wasnington DC to find my husband standing at the airport with a 16 year old Chinese girl and her mother. My flight had been delayed so Joseph picked up Sijing and her mother Yangyang and then waited for me. Sijng is our little girl who was coming to compete in the Gina Bachauer Piano Competition. (For those of you who don't know about the piano competition you are missing out on a lot. ) These young kids know how to play the piano. The following week turned out to one of the highlights of my life. Sitting everyday listening to the kind of music I love most played by someone live in my house was a blessing I will never forget. They were the perfect house guests. They don't smoke or drink. they didn't even drink tea. They were very respectful and very appreciative of everything that was done for them. They liked my cooking and preferred to eat at home rather than go out. They loved watching the birds in the back yard and loved walking in the rose garden.

The fact that Sijing won the whole competition was the grand payoff. To see her face and her mothers reaction was priceless. Sijing plays with such passion that you can't help but feel the music. I would keep her if it was possible.

Here is Sijing with one of the other competitors.

Summer!!!

This summer for me has been one for the record books. It started the middle of June when my mother, sisters and I donned our trusty tiara's and headed for our nations capitol. Imagine 3 middle aged women and 1 elderly Gran wearing tiara's all over Washington DC. We went to places like the capitol building, Arlington, Mt Vernon, and government briefings wearing our goofy little crowns. We have learned that the 4 of us together wearing them is OK. People think we are a little strange but we get a lot of funny reactions. But one person alone just looks out of the sanitarium crazy. (like when you have to go to the restroom and you have to go alone) One thing that has become a standard for our retreats is the picture of nothing but our feet. So here we are standing in the absolute middle of Washington DC and our feet prove it. (can you imagine if you were there that day watching 4 old ladies standing in the middle of the rotunda wearing tiara's and taking a picture of their feet what you would think?)

Inanimate Objects

We have a small area in our front yard that is fenced off and is called "Arch's National Park With Benches" It is a place the grand kids (and unknown neighbor kids) like to play and look around. The micro-gust winds blow the pine cones out of the trees overhead and make it hard to walk around in the park. This morning I was out raking the pine cones and other junk out of the area when I bumped into one of the little figurines. I found myself talking to the little object and apologizing for having tread on it with my adult feet. As I realized what I was doing I started to laugh thinking if the neighbors were listening they would think I was nuts. (Actually they already know I am) I tried to figure out why I was talking to this little thing when I realized that after many years of having a family I have spent most of my time talking to inanimate objects. They are so busy doing their own thing that they can sit and ignore you while you are talking right at (not to) them. So I felt right at home in the park with all the metal, resin, glass and plastic do dads that make the park a pleasant place to be. You should come for a visit if you promise not to step on the little decorations.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a day to rememeber loved ones who have passed on and this we do in our society by buying hot house forced blooming mums and trecking off to some distant cemetery. Well this year we decided to do something different. We were going to stay home and weed the rose garden. I had gotten Joseph to agree to help for a few hours and I was excited. I was actually getting help from my husband in the garden! Well we awoke to the heavens playing a joke on me by sending rain. There would be no working in the garden! We called Gran to see if she wanted to go to lunch, but alas she was busy. We ran a few errands and were done for the day. Joseph called a friend who was working a tent sale for used cars and invited Joseph to come over for a free hot dog. Joseph loves free hotdogs so we decided to go. I am unable to explain how we got from eating free hot dogs to signing papers on a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Sahara, 4-door, 4x4. Oh how I wish Gran had been available.

American Idols

For several years now our family has gotten together to watch American Idol. It is our FHE. We rarely know the names of the contestants. We refer to them by such names as "Shower Curtain Girl", "Dreadlock Boy" and "Comb over Boy". We have fun critiquing the singers, eating good food (it used to be great food but that ended when D'nita moved away) watching the little kids play together, and just spending time together.

One never knows how many people will show up for dinner. We have gotten good at throwing another potato in the pot and making it all work out. We don't own a boat or a cabin. We don't go camping or to Europe but you can count on the street in front of our house being filled with cars on Tues night come 7:00 PM. These are my American Idols. I hope that you and your families are making memories as well.

Family!!!

At the end of the movie Nicholas Nickleby by MGM the character Mr Crummles (played by Nathan Lane) makes a toast to the brides and grooms and says " In every life no matter how full or empty ones purse there is tragedy. It is the one promise life always fulfills. Thus happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it but to a delight in it when it comes and to add to other peoples store of it. What happens if too early we loose a parent, that party on whom we rely for only everything? What did these people do when their families shrank? They cried their tears, but then they did the vital thing. They built a new family person by person. They came to see that family need not be defined mearly as those with whom they share blood, but as those for whom they would give their blood."

And so it is with this quote we introduce the Carbone Family Characters. We are a family of wide interests and even wider beliefs. We laugh together and we cry toghether but in the end we have proven that we are bigger than the blood that binds many families. We embrace those that will come and accept us for who we are.