Sunday, August 22, 2010

Mother Nature, I Apologize For Whatever I Did

Last year I was getting frustrated because my kids were bringing home unfinished work from school on a daily basis. I tried every tactic with them: kindly reminding them on a daily basis, punishing them, nagging them, threatening them....it was exhausting. Finally my dad came up with an idea: The warm fuzzy jar.

I took 100 cotton balls (AKA fuzzies) and placed them in a "Fuzzy's to earn" jar. I then had a second jar titled "Warm Fuzzy Jar". Each day when the kids came home from school, if they finished their work, they got to take a warm fuzzy and put it in the "Warm Fuzzy Jar". As soon as they filled up the jar we could do something fun. They decided they wanted to go to Hollywood Connection, which is a local miniature golf, arcade, bumper cars.... place. Some days the jar is a great incentive and works really well. Other days my kids just didn't care and we'd go days at a time without putting a fuzzy in the jar. Finally with the start of this new school year, my kids have been recommitted. We put the 100th warm fuzzy in the jar this past week. It was a happy time!




Looks like we get to head to Hollywood Connection sometime this week. I've already started the warm fuzzy system over. Let's hope it doesn't take another 8 months to complete it this time! ha ha!! Who am I kidding....

Yesterday we went to "This is the Place Heritage Park" for the Jackson family reunion. Sam's mom's maiden name is Jackson. It was fun, but oh-so-hot. When we got in our car to come home the thermostat read 100 degrees.

We rode the train around the pond:



We panned for gold:





And we rode a trolley around the village. It was a good time had by all. But seriously though, it took a good couple hours after leaving before I felt my body temperature cool down enough to where I didn't feel like freaking out all over the place. :)


However, today wasn't hot. Nooooooo, today was Mother Nature's way of playing a practical joke on us. It started out like a normal Sunday....Sam had meetings, I got kids ready for church....went to church, it was great....After church I could tell we had a storm brewing because the wind was CRAZY!

We got home and saw several neighbors in our yard. I thought "hmmmmm, this can't be good" and then I noticed that our HUMUNGO Cottonwood Tree was not towering above the crowd of people. OH, and then I noticed a big mound of grass mixed with roots laying on the ground. Houston, we have a problem. And then the rains came down (how many are singing a Primary song right now???!!!)!

Let me tell you about the way this tree fell. We are so extremely lucky and I knew it the minute I saw the fallen tree. This huge tree could have fallen directly East. If so, it would have smashed right into my bedroom. Or, this tree could have fallen slightly northeast, if so, it would have smashed into Cameron's room. As luck would have it, it barely hit the roof on the corner of the house, smashed our ghetto chain link fence, and into a tree in the backyard (which is still standing). Seriously, as my neighbor said "It could have been a lot worse, this is the best case scenario for a tree to fall" and he was absolutely right. I'm really going to miss the shade this huge tree provided, but I'm so thankful nobody was hurt. I'm also so thankful to wonderful neighbors and family who put their dinner plans aside to help us cut the tree up so the pressure was off the house, fence, and backyard tree. We have our work cut out for us tomorrow night to clear everything away, but it won't be as bad as it could have been due to the help we received today.

Good thing we had a lesson in Sunday School today about only saying kind things to others and keeping a positive attitude because that was on my mind as we discovered the tree today. I'm pretty sure that's why I could be so calm about everything. As I've said before, Sam's quotable quote comes to mind "It just shakes up the day"!







11 comments:

laura said...

holy cow that is CRAZINESS! i was telling tom that day how it think it's so amazing that the wind can blow down these huge trees!

gross story: the one and only time i've ever been to this is the place park is back in spring when we went to the march of dimes walk for tom's work. i was sitting on a bench by the little village and barfed everywhere!

Sam said...

Ahhhhh...good times. I don't know what we're going to do with the gigantic hole in the yard but I'll be amazed if we don't have any sprinkler line breaks. I guess we'll see how things pan out tonight.

Holly Strong said...

I love the way the grass and roots come out like that. It's so amazing to see something like that. I was floored when Davis told me and patiently waiting for pictures...I knew you'd get them up today. :) I can't wait to come help clean up tonight, we're exited. Your house sure is going to get warm on that side in the evening...lame. Sam I vote you fill that hole in with another tree. :) I think you can call West Jordan City and they will give you one.

Ambyr said...

Crazy! I'm so sorry about the tree, I know you loved it. Wind is truly amazing and a force to be respected. Mother Nature played a very similar trick on us at Lake Powell this past week and scared the daylights out of all involved. I have never seen a boat actually tip up on it's side compltetly and smack into the house boat 3 feet higher in the air before! Wind is scary stuff! I'm glad that your house is safe and that all is well. Looks like the neightbors treated you good and helped out! Good for them! We miss you all there! Maybe we'll have to get together again soon.

cathy said...

I seriously have to tell Ed what Sam said, b/c he just has the best attitude. Ed would be cussin up a storm!
Next time there's a storm you need to pull a "Lieutenant Dan" and climb up a tree and scream: "Come on! You call this a storm? Blow, you son of a b****, blow!"

Nicole Marsh said...

Oh my heck that is crazy. I am glad that it didn't do any damage to your house.

Rose said...

Very impressive!

Whitney said...

Holy crap.

Natalie said...

I like the lieutenant Dan idea. That is crazy! It's a good thing you went to church yesterday. Can you imagine if you would have skipped? Maybe that tree would have crashed a few feet to the right. . .

michelle c. said...

H-O-L-Y C-O-W!!!!!!! What an impressive sight! I'm with Holly, if you are taking votes, plant another tree in that big old hole!
(Rachel just said you could put in a sand box!:))

DJ and Gin Family said...

I see the beginnings of a swimming pool or hot tub. Get digging Sam!
That is crazy! It is a good thing you went to church...