I Am Not A Farmer!!!

Yep, Last fall Travis brought home baby chicks! They were so cute and fluffy and little balls of tiny soft down fur! I loved them! We all did!
 And then it was time to move them outside! And of course they had to be free range but that was okay because they were cute!!!
And then he brought home more. Adult chickens who have an attitude. They were mean to our little ones, but they gave us eggs. So we kept them, although the meanest we secretly named Dinner! And this went on for a while.
And then Travis got to missing those little cute fluffy things and brought home three more babies. Well. those three were picked on my the other small ones. There was a pattern!!!
The very little ones grew up and one of them happened to be a rooster. I figured this out one early morning while he was working on his CockAdoodleDoo! He worked and worked on that thing, sometimes 25 or more times before 6 AM! Well, you can imagine his cuteness quickly flew out the window, or the coop, which has become their new home. (And they don't like it!)
Did you know that chickens fly? And over fences? And they love to eat grass to where there is none left?  I learned that the hard way!
Meanwhile, I woke up one morning to a surprise! I was at a meeting the night before and I completely missed the excitement of the evening. I received a text from Travis asking me if I was mad. I said I didn't understand. He said to go look outside. And there sat a rabbit. It was white and I thought it was cute!!! Until I tried to touch it! Turns out it was a wild thing and the owners finally caged it and got rid of it. Of course they found Travis!!!
So in my backyard I have 9 chickens, one a rooster who has already taking an interest in my hens and a mean wild rabbit who thinks it's going to build a tunnel under the house to the front yard. What is a person to do?
Yep, cage them in. Except farmer Travis bought plastic chicken wire and the bunny likes to chew it. We shoo the chickens into their yard only to have the rabbit chew a hole for them to leave. Why? Because the chickens have the best food!
I fix a hole and there is a new one! I fix that one and there is one where the original one is. I get them all shooed into their yard and a knock on the door saying there are chickens in the front yard. If I were an Indian my name would be Crazy Chicken Shooer! All I do in a normal day is babysit chickens!!!
And the rabbit! It got out of it's cage and we can't catch it! We have tried to set trap, lure it with food, but it seems to laugh at us! I hate that rabbit! I feel like I have become a bad rendition of Elmer Fudd from those Bugs Bunny cartoons. (I have a whole new outlook on that cartoon!!! Who knew Elmer was the real hero?)  I finally told farmer Travis that it was me or the rabbit. He's working on giving it a new home. He better and soon because one of us is going crazy and the other is laughing while eating all of the chicken feed!!!
And I need to step away from my poor computer now because I am getting carried away and I will tell you the fate of my poor rooster tomorrow!

Joey in trouble at school

Joey was suspended from school. He was playing soccer and a big kid, one who has been picking on him for a few months, got into his face demanding he be goalie since the last three balls made it in. Joey was cornered and he hit the kid. Then two other boys stepped in and Joey started swinging at them too! (I don't think he hit them) A few other kids separated them and the substitute came and sent Joey to the principals office. He stayed there and had a discussion with the principal and vice principal. He was suspended for two days, It should have been 5 days but considering the other kid was bullying him he got off with only two.

We had a very busy weekend with decorating for Stake activity Day and then the funeral of Grandpa Jensen Yesterday so it went by really fast. I took him in this morning and we met with the Vice Principal again to make sure he was allowed to be on campus. He explained how Joey needed to come and tell someone when he was being bullied and let the authorities take care of it from there. Joey wanted to go to a different school next year but he has since realized it will be the same in anywhere he goes. This is something he will need to get used to.

I got the impression that the vice principal's opinion was that Joey did good. Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself at least once and the kids leave you alone and maybe even respect you a little bit. But because he broke school policy he had to be disciplined. I think Joey will go into the next situation a little differently and will hopefully have a clearer head. And I also hope he grows a little taller this summer before he comes back next year!

I left campus a little overwhelmed. I was leaving my little man there with someone who might hurt him if given the chance. I had to have faith the teachers and administration would have his back. I knew they would but for that one moment I really struggled walking away from him.

Sometimes Parenting sucks !

Lion King Jr.

Well, I can't mention Peter Pan and not mention The Lion King Jr! Yep, my little man jumped onboard the musical bandwagon and tried out for Taylor Jr High's musical! He got in! Yep, I am just as surprised!!!
 But really, he is very dramatic, squeals like a girl, and has facial expressions even Norman Rockwell would envy! But he only made it in the ensemble. And let me let you, that is where he needed to be! Acting in front of a lot of people really isn't his thing, Shell shock comes to mind. Sometimes I wasn't sure if he knew the songs or the dance moves but he did and he was cute! He was a cheetah, a blade of grass (one of my favorite songs, actually) and a wildebeest.
They were only in production for three nights and I got to help strike the stage Friday night and the drama behind the scenes would rival any showing they had! The girls were crying, carrying on as if they would never see each other again, ( the cast pool party was the next night!) Even Joey was getting misty eyed (his glasses were fogging up, geez, mom!)  In all my years of band and winning 1st, and not winning 1st, I have never seen so much tears!!! Gotta love Jr. High!

 

this was Zazu! She was the entertainment before the show! The Hyenas would chase her and the kids would growl at them and they would run! So cute!!!

Times, they are a changin'

I think the hardest thing about getting older is that the kids do too. Ashley is contemplating moving out within the next few months, Britt has made a few bad decisions that lead to consequences beyond her control, and Cortney is struggling as well. Zach is finishing up his junior year and getting serous about saving for his mission this summer. This leaves me with Joey and Mackenzie. Mackenzie just turned 12 and recently had her ears pierced. That was so fun and also hard to watch as well. She is moving on to Young Womens!! So proud of my girl!

Joey also has some fun times ahead! He is officially a staff member for Camp Raymond! He reports the first week of June for training and then three weeks later he gets to spend three weeks helping boys pass of merit badges and overall helping the camp to run smoothly! I am so excited for this opportunity for him. Normally I would be all sad hat he will be gone so long but my little man needs to learn the value of serving and what better way than serving in this capacity. I think I will be visiting every weekend, though. I will tell him I am extremely hot and needed to cool off but really I will be going to check on him. In the meantime, I need to help him brush up on doing his own laundry and cleaning up after himself! Yep, a harder task I will not have for the next 5 weeks!

Exciting bit of news! Cameron Farr, Debi Farr's oldest son, is the camp director at Camp Raymond! I am so excited!!! I love Debi! She has been a dear friend for the past 20 years and knowing that her family will be up there helping to take care of Joey is such a relief!!! And maybe I will get a chance visit with her at the end of it all! It is so hard for her to travel back and forth from Connecticut so who knows? Carly and Cheyenne will be there too so it will be pretty cool!!!

Peter Pan

Zach tried out for the musical and he made it! He was so excited! He was a pirate.

 He has decided he is done with band. He was never a strong sax player and he never really fit in so he has moved on to other things, drama!

Drama students are so different than band kids. They are loud. obnoxious, and not afraid to be different. And that is a perfect place for Zach. I think it was brave of him to stay with it as long as he did and also brave to know when to walk away. He is much happier and is having a lot more fun! Mrs. Stones is keeping him very busy and I think he is looking forward to next year and continuing on with the class!!!

I had a lot of fun helping with costumes. It was weird making them look different as opposed to being the same as with band uniforms. I think I could get used to this!!!

Anyway, Peter Pan was wonderful! The kids all did a great job! There were little Schneblys running everywhere! Okay, just Sadona and Sarah, although Landon was in it and Judy was Wendy! So much fun! Danni was an Indian! I did not see it as many times as Tami but it was great when I did and I am stinkin proud of my boy!!! And, as always, thanks to Tami for taking the pictures!!!

Our weekend in St George

 Ashley's convert, Brant McDormant , went through the temple for the first time on Saturday. We were able to go as well! We had originally planned for Ashley to go away for her graduation but things didn't go as planned so we went up to St George instead. We took Mackenzie with us. She had just turned 12 and wanted to go do baptisms so where better than the St George temple!

We also received a call from the first counselor in the bishopric and thy wanted her to give the youth speaker talk on Sunday. She could prepare it on the temple grounds!!!

The ride up was very nice! We found our hotel and had dinner! It was Mongolian BBQ! A lot of fun! Ashley went on her mission and wanted to share it with us! We loved it!!! The people were so nice and made origami birds for Mackenzie!!!

It was weird being there without the rest of the family but we still had a lot of fun!

The temple was beautiful! The roses were in bloom and it smelled heavenly! The Baptismal font was so pretty! I had never seen it before! While we were doing the confirmations they said they had extra and I got to help with that! We left our family names and in Mesa endowed members need to bring them. I just assumed it was the same there.

It was so cool watching her experience that for the first time. He little feet would hop up and the priesthood had to catch her before the next one. It was fun to watch. And then while getting dressed she made a friend. And it was fun watching her become independent, although I did have a hard time at first!!!

 

 

 

 

Dancing

Ashley's new pasttime is dancing! She loves to country swing dance and she spends three nights a week, if not more, dancing her little heart out. She has made a lot of friends doing this and some are even boys! Not sure how I feel about that one. Oh well! Can't keep them young forever!!!