Washington D.C. History Day (by Zach)

This summer I went washington D.C for History Day. History Day is a required project in my school. I was just trying to get it over with when I won 2nd place in my school competition.  I was pretty happy because I got it over with, but later I found out that because I won I was able to go to the District competition and what do you know, I got in the final 3 again. At this point I thought I actually had a shot. I thought states would be a little hard so once again I had to do more researching. This time I was nervous because I actually cared. When I won I was so happy, I couldnt wait to go to Washington D.C. It was also pretty cool that my sister and two of my best friends got to go, so I thought the best prize was just going to D.C. I thought it would be impossible to win anything at the Nationals anyway. Washington D.C. was amazing. I had a blast seeing all the memorials, like the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson, but what really got me was the Holocaust Museum. It was so sad to see their shoes. I can't really explain the feeling, you will have to see for yourself. I also enjoyed staying at the University of Maryland but that wasn't the best part. I got 5th in America and I also won a special award which included a cash prize. And Tatum won 3rd place with her group. That pretty much sums up my summer.

Photographic Evidence

Today, for your viewing pleasure, I thought I would provide some photographic evidence of my cute family (and Zach's first attempt at making musubi.) Alan with Olympic fever, Tatum embracing her natural curls, Zach playing with the itouch purchased with his History Day winnings, Wyatt recovering from Lepto, and Garrett taking too long to get ready for school.

Practice

 Today I got my trombone mouthpiece. I have to practice at home until I get it right. And I am practicing tying my knots for scouts.

The Problem with Dinosaurs

I just realized that pen and paper are like 8 track tapes.

What if books are next?

So Dumb (by Wyatt)

Today is a holiday. I'm just going to play. That's all I'm going to do. I want to play with my friends, but first I have to make my bed, brush my teeth, cut my fingernails, put sunscreen on, do a chore and get a hair cut, which I don't want to do. And read which I don't want to do either.

This is so dumb. My mom says this in only worth a quarter. This is sooo dumb. This is poo!

That's all I want to write. 

My First Ever Blog Post (by Tatum)

My mom forced me to do this blog so here goes.

I'm doing two soccer teams and one tennis team. I'm doing speech and debate for my first year. I'm also on my school dance team. I'm horrible at it, but hopefully I'll get better! I'm in algebra 2 and learning Spanish. I can barely speak English and now I'm trying to learn a second language. It's not working too well!

um.. Micheal Phelps rocks!!!

I'm very busy, but I'm excited to do better and learn a lot!

Thats my life!

Batman 2 (by Zach)

Currently what is hot is Batman 2. I saw it a week ago and it was awesome. It has more action then Matrix and better action than Matrix. I thought it was the best movie I have seen in a long time. I also thought the best character was the Joker. He made the movie a movie I was glued to my chair. Even though I had to go to the bathroom I couldn't miss a second. That's why I thought it was the best movie in America.

by: Zach Frampton

Surprisingly Bedazzled

Is it just me or do anyone else's jaws ache from hitting the floor while watching the Olympics? Is there no limit to the bedazzling things the human body can do? (Under aged and over aged bodies alike).

This is the question I was actually pondering while sitting on my couch eating cheetos and watching the finale of So You Thing You Can Dance. It was the night before the Olympics so I had no idea that the story of humankind was about to come to a climax in a birds nest in Beijing. Did anyone else sense that as you were scraping your chin off the ground during the Opening Ceremonies?

I mean, did we just peak or what? You know, We. Us. The collective whole. Civilization as we know it. Phenomenal things are being accomplished while I am sitting on my coach eating cheetos and watching So You Think You Can Dance. People are thriving, pulsing, reaching higher, spinning faster (this was my epiphany as I watched men's gymnastics and got the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge my stomach from my throat).

To borrow a phrase and drive the point home . . . I stand all amazed! (well, sit all amazed, actually--while eating cheetos).

Okay, enough about cheetos (notice I always use one key concept at least 3 times in each post--that's the first rule of being a writer. I learned that at writing school). ;)

So Zach has been outed as a BG (band geek). He's been assigned to play one of these most subtle instruments known to man, you guessed it, the TROMBONE! Hard not to be conspicuous when you and your instrument take up one whole seat on the bus. But there is some surprisingly good news; last night Alan and I went to Parent Night where we got to attend all of Zach's classes for 15 minutes. We took this opportunity to scope out teachers and other parents. It seems Zach is still riding the coat tails of good fortune as the band is full of non-geeky parents, an outstanding teacher (who says if you want to get a scholarship to college, learn to play the trombone) and one very lovely girl, who also happens to be Zach's partner in English class. Fancy that. (No wonder he hasn't complained about band yet.)

Other surprisingly good news:

1. Though I still miss you all, I am surprisingly bored no longer (maybe because I put the house on self-clean).

2. Tatum and I had a girls day out and enjoyed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 a surprisingly surprising amount (have I used that word 3 times yet?). We learned something about each other. We are both ashamed of crying in movies about traveling pants and choose to deflect our shame by poking fun at others who cry about traveling pants.

3. Wyatt is now fully capable of swallowing a pill--one of the upsides of laying in bed for 4 days straight with a high fever and a wicked bout of diarreah (too bad I already used up my quota of poo jokes) Alan treated him for Leptospyrosis, which we suspect he got from that thirsty waterfall we hiked a week ago.

4. I have not yet been excommunicated after voicing my desire for low-rise garments!

5. Tatum has embraced her hair and is letting it go au' natural. She now looks more like a Hawaiian Tropic model (Modbe style) than a Disney Channel rock star.

6. Garrett met proficiany on the state math test!

So far, it's been a surprisingly good week!

Everything Comes Down to Poo

Just as I'm snapping out of my mid-life boredom, AKA, PSFFRB (post super fun family reunion boredom) Garrett starts displaying symptoms of it. I began suspecting it when I found him up at 7:30 am writing sentences that aren't due until Wednesday.

He came out with it just as we were getting ready to go to the pool.

"I'm BORED! I want to go 4-wheeling! I want to buy a 4-wheeler right now!"

We chuckled, but he was serious. "It's not funny! I want to go to town and buy a 4-wheeler!"

"We're going swimming. That will be fun," said Alan in his motivational speaker voice.
..
"Swimming? That's BORING! I want to go to town and buy a 4-wheeler."

So Alan gave him the let's-start-planning-and-saving speech and threw out a target date of a year.

"I have to save for a WHOLE yeeeeeear!?? That's POO!!!"

Check the poo flashback. Are my kids the only ones that use that superlative to express their discontent? Tatum has been using it on a regular basis. "My hair looks like Poo!" or "This peanut butter tastes like poo!"  

I feel like my kids need some perspective. 

Tatum recently cashed her $83.00 History Day winnings to take shopping. She put it in her wallet, which she put in her purse, which she put in the car, which we took to the mall. She forgot to take it into the mall and when she went back to get it, it was gone. All that hard earned cash. 

Now that's poo!

And Zach received a letter from the National History Day expressing their deepest embarrassment and regret to inform us that they made a mistake on the amount of Zach's prize money. He really only won $500. One extra zero. Sometimes a zero is nothing and sometimes it's everything. Zach took it hard, as you can imagine. Afterall, he lost $4,500. 

Now THAT's poo!

Seriously, So Bored

I've been thinking lately about documentary I watched called, Happy Valley. When the woman the film followed through rehab got clean, the camera panned in on her rolled up in fetal position like a deflated balloon--no air, no angst--and asked her how she was feeling. She replied, "I feel just like everybody else . . .  boring." And that honesty hung in the air for a poignant pause before she asked the camera man, "Is this how you feel every day?"

That's how I feel today.  (Do you think it would help if I went out and got myself a Mountain Dew addiction or something? ;)

Do you think mid-life crisis and mid-life boredom by any other name would smell the same?

Maybe I'm just experiencing mid-week boredom or mid-morning boredom.

Or maybe it's PSFFRB (Post Super Fun Family Reunion Boredom)

At any rate, it's not like I'm sitting around playing solitaire and doing Sudoku puzzles all day. I've got far too much to do, it's just that . . . (between me and you) . . . I'm bored silly doing it.

Okay, okay, I'm obviously overstating the obvious, but, for the record, folding laundry, scrubbing toilets and preparing dinner and coordinating carpool doesn't hold the same charge as talking story and eating chalupas on the back porch at Island Park with 50 people you love.

What I'm trying to say is I miss my family.

Besides the boredom we are doing great.  The twins are having a challenging time staying awake in the 4th grade because their teacher is so sweet.

Zach is learning how to organize his time and energy to meet the homework demands of Junior High and he has expressed fear of becoming a "band geek" since we strongly suggested/borderline forced him to sign up for band.

He passed the sacrament for the first time on Sunday, with his extraordinary deer-in-the-headlights focus. And he's getting into basketball. Alan has been asked to be his coach, so he will not be doing color at the BYU-Hawaii basketball games this year. 

Tatum is in High School and sporting that Disney-Channel-teen-rock-star kinda vibe. In schizophrenic fashion she has joined the debate team, while still juggling dance team, 3 soccer leagues, the Koolau Choir and the tennis team.  And she has the nerve to say she's not good at anything.  Rumor has it she is slated as the best girl on the varsity team.

Alan has had next-to-no transition back to reality after reunioning with the Framptons in Yellowstone. He's pleasant and content and ever so happy to slip right back into action (except when it comes to scout mastering). His biggest thrill was patching our Sante Fe's flat tire all by himself. (He finds such joy in the little things. ;)

Me? I reorganized the visiting teaching list. YAWN! Oh, and I did have a GNO (girls night out) for Creme Brule' at Turtle Bay, where I got super wild and convinced the other girls to petition for more form fitting garments. I also took the family on a hike to a massive 100-foot waterfall. 

It's so beautiful here that it hurts. (And sometimes I just want to hurt it back.)

Alan makes sure we tread water for an hour at the pool a few times a week, take our early morning walks on the beach, and smack the tennis ball around as often as possible. He's been dragging the kids to the tennis courts a lot since we've been home and is getting ready to coach the twin's soccer team. 
 
On the movie front: Hellboy II, is an awesome family flick, despite it's name. (We are trying to get Tatum over her I'm-NOT-going-to-see-a-movie-with-a-swear-word-in-it mentality). Batman II was also pretty darn powerful. That Joker said some eerily ironic lines that made me go Hmmmmm. . . A lot of complexity to contemplate.

That's all the nothingness I have to say.