Loving Black Bill, a Waterfall, and a Party!

By -
One morning this week I heard Hallee in the backyard sobbing--short sections of silence punctuated by outbursts of uncontrolled sobbing.  I went out to see what the trouble was and found Hallee cradling Black Bill in her arms, carrying the chick around the yard. She was obviously distraught.  Black Bill's neck feathers were pulled into a pink flower clip--the same one that I'd put in Hallee's hair just minutes earlier.  Hallee explained to me that Black Bill had scratched her arm (probably during the beauty treatment) and showed me where it was bleeding, and then said through her tears, "But I love him so much."  Even though this chick had scratched through Hal's flesh, she loved it and cradled it just the same.  I couldn't help but think about the nature of motherhood--how the loving continues no matter what.   And then about the Savior's love for us.  No matter how unruly we are, he still loves us through the tears.

Black Bill looking so fine!

On Saturday morning we picked up Grace and Emory in South Jordan early and headed for Provo Canyon, where we hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls.  What a perfect morning!  We wanted to do a family hike before heading to Shelby Atencio's birthday party. 








After our hike to the falls, we went to Orem and picked up Shelby.  I dropped off Casey and Zeke to help John, Shelby's dad (who Casey met in Florida while he was down there selling pest control after his mission), get things ready for the festivities at a friend's farm in Pleasant Grove.  The girls took Shelby to pick out some much needed new shoes as a birthday gift.  We decided to get the party started with a dozen doughnuts at Target.  Taking a bunch of girls shopping turned out to be quite the fun adventure.  Shelby was so excited to pick out ANY shoes that she wanted.  Emory was concerned about the condition of the shoe section and led the girls in a clean up effort--reshelving all of the shoes left by other customers and taking care to face and organize each shoe box correctly.  It was so cute to watch all of the girls bustle around like little employees. 


Keith's (another one of the guys that Casey sold pest control with) family owns a big farm in Pleasant Grove where the party was staged.  The kids enjoyed the animals--ostriches, cows, sheep, bunnies, peacocks, and the miniature horse.  Bonny, Keith's sister, told us that a group of homeless people saunter over every morning to take care of the animals in return for a small wage.  Just that morning some homeless guy mounted the miniature horse and got bucked off.  Funny.

Casey drove the kids around behind a four-wheeler, much to their delight.  




Zeke, doing a bit of "waxing" beneath the gigantic tree house (a real miniature house built in the trees, complete with couch, TV, and loft)!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wayne's Bar: Update

By -
Image
Six long months ago the kids and I evacuated to South Jordan for two months while Casey demolished Wayne's Bar (aka our basement). That crazy looking mask allegedly offered protection from the asbestos fallout that was our sparkly, cottage cheese textured ceiling.   June 2016--Casey Bert ripping into the bar. Many moons have passed. The basement was literally gutted. Completely. All of the electrical, HVAC, and plumbing were redone. Walls reconfigured and framed, insulation installed (there was none before), windows replaced, and walls sheet rocked and painted. Below is the same view of our basement as the one above. Still a mess, but looking like a place you might want to inhabit. Basement--December 2016 My favorite part of the basement (pictured below) is what will become the kids reading and creating room. Casey and I painted the walls and ceiling to look like the stratosphere. The kids also have a playhouse under the stairs accessed from that same room. I'v...
Read more

Love "Affinity"

By -
Image
Yesterday, as you may have observed, was Valentine's Day, one day removed from a lesser known if slightly warmer holiday--the Ides of February--which I am celebrating today by contributing to our family blog--a rarity I know. Yesterday turned out to be a very special Valentine's for the Sullivans, as we all really wanted to make a mark on the day.  In preparation, everyone came up with their own treasure hunt for the other members of the family, complete with written clues that lead you incrementally closer to the treasure.  In Sophie and Hallee's cases these were hand wrapped toys from their own collection.  How many of you have ever been given a draft horse for Valentines?  Hallee gave me this one.  Hope I can keep it in the back yard (smile). Earless draft horse?--everyone should have one I got Helen a new olive oil decanter.  No, serious it's really cool!  Okay, it's just a plain old bottle with rubber stopper and metal spout, bu...
Read more

Our $16,000 Dollar Baby.

By -
Image
For the past few years, we've had private health insurance. Back in the day when I was teaching school, we had amazing insurance and it cost me nothing . After I had Sophie and quit my day job (in favor of my current 24-7 job), we signed up for a policy through Select Health at a fairly decent price. Every year, however, they'd raise the rate and we'd have to downgrade to a slightly more generic plan to be able to keep it affordable. Somehow in the years of downgrading, we ended up with a policy that had a separate maternity deductible, so although our yearly family deductible is $1,500, we have a $7,500 maternity deductible. Honestly, who came up with that idea? I didn't even realize that we had a separate maternity deductible until this year. Bummer. After paying nearly $7,000 in premiums this year, we paid another $9,000 to have a baby with no complications, no medications, totally natural birth and the shortest possible hospital stay that we could get away with. ...
Read more