Lost Puppies (by Garrett)

Today I found 2 puppies that were so cute and I carried them so much that I wanted to keep them so bad that I builded a house for them and we gave them food and steak and I petted them so much that I thought it was my own dog. Then we put up signs and then the owner came to our house and got them.

Silver Medal (by Wyatt)

Posted on Wyatt's Born to Be Wild blog on 8/22/08

Today at school we got to meet a guy from the Olympics. He's a pro skiier and he taught me golf lessons at Turtle Bay. In the winter Olympics he won the silver medal and he let us feel it. And we got to ask him questions. I just shaked his hand and said, "I remember you from Jr. golf" and he said that he remembered me too. His name is Joe.

Did you know that the silver medal is soooo heavy! I didn't even get to hold it, I just felt it and it was so heavy. It was heavier than a gun.

In school we got in so much trouble. We didn't even get to do P.E. The whole class just had to sit on the floor and write a half page essay about obedience. I didn't even want to do the writing assignment. The best part of the day was tetherball. It's fun.

From Mom:  I found this drawing in a book Wyatt made at school called ALL ABOUT ME. I wonder which one is me?

The Parable of the Evil Cactus

See this King Kong cactus? I'm afraid of it. And when I'm afraid of something I close my eyes and turn my back.  

Alan chopped it down for me in June of 2006 so I could sleep at night, but AHHHH, it's BACK! It's stalking us. And I'm not just being paranoid. The stalks have multiplied. (The better to stalk you with, my dear. insert evil cactus laugh.) 

It started small as a thoughtful birthday gift. My friend Elaine Mccarthur snapped a piece off of her cactus and I innocently, and carelessly, tossed it into the corner of our postage stamp yard. I ignored it. I neglected it. But it took root, and grew and grew and grew. People walking by asked me who had sold me the magic beans.

Before long it had turned into a monster so Alan threw on his red cape and got after it with a machete. But it returned with a vengeance. (I'm baaaaaack! insert more evil cactus laugh.)

There's a moral here. There's a definite moral here:

Beware what you carelessly toss around. it just might take root. Beware what you close your eyes to and turn your back on. It just might grow.  And beware of what you chop down with a machete. It might come back to haunt you.

(You have my permission to use this wisdom in your next Sacrament meeting talk). 

Fifteen years later . . . UPDATE: We went back to Hawaii for Tatum's wedding in 2017 and heard a rumor that the family who rented after us moved out because the cactus had gotten out of control. 

(Insert evil cactus laugh . . . heh heh heh)

Deep Questions by Deb

Why is it so hard to keep beautiful things growing? Even if you water them. And yet other things grow freakishly fast without any water at all.

Find Your Grail!

Me and Wyatt are up early because he had a bad dream that he couldn't shake. He slipped into bed between Alan and I for comfort and, in a quivering voice, asked, "Can you stay awake with me?" We decided to come downstairs and watch Avatar and blog about it, but when we opened his blog Jordan Sparks was singing about Tattoos at the top of her lungs! It was a deer-in-the-headlights moment. I completely froze up, mostly out of sheer soundwave shock, and couldn't figure out how to pump down the volume. Sorry Perry and Martha (and GOOD MORNING)! I bet that song will be tattooed on your brain for a bit. 

As we watched Avatar, he blogged about what was on his mind. And now I am going to blog about waht is on my mind. 

The Olympics are coming to a close and I'm reflecting on one of my favorite Broadway shows--Spamalot, that playful rip-off of Monty Python's Holy Grail. Somewhere in all the silliness was a profound point:

Find your grail!

Dara Torres is back home from China after winning a silver medal, (or should I say losing herself a gold medal by a fingernail. Yesterday, on one of the. morning shows, she was asked why, after dropping her daughter off at pre-school, she still goes to the pool and works out. As if she should stop swimming. As if she should be done now--or at least take a break.

DUH! of course she's back in the pool working out. That's her grail. There are no breaks from your grail!

Seriously, are you ever done with your grail? You spend half of your life trying to find it and the other half trying to hold on to it. You just got chills, didn't you?  You know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you?

Your grail is your magic! The thing that gets you through your teenage angst and your new-mom melancholy and your mid-life boredom. It's the thing you do and think about and try not to do and think about in between the dishes and the laundry and bringing home the bacon. Oh, and the years of homework and practices and games with your kids. Oh, and the bazillion hours racked up doing your duty to God and your country. It's that thing you're willing to lose sleep over, and your job over and your baby weight over. It's that thing that gets you through your bad hair days. That super sweet spice that makes all the hard stuff and the ho-hum stuff easier to swallow.

That's your grail!

Find it!

Then hold on to it for dear life!
(Swim, Dara, SWIM!)

Shhhhhh . . . Wyatt finally went back to sleep.

Jr. Olympics in Chicago (by Zach)

This summer after my vacation in Utah, I got to go to Chicago for the Junior Olympics-skills competition. I got to compete in rapid rally tennis where you hit as many balls as you can against the wall in 35 seconds. I got the bronze medal. We got to bring someone in our family for free and I brought my dad. We stayed in the Embassy Suites. It was one of the nicest condos i've ever stayed in. We got to see lake Michigan. We also got to go to Soldier field. In the locker rooms it was really fun. I got to see the Brian Urlacher's locker and the locker Brett Favre uses when he plays in Chicago. After we ate there we got to run across the field with our name being called out so that was a memory I'll never forget. I also got to go to my first pro baseball game and I saw some of my favorite baseball players like Derrick Lee, Alfonzo Soriano. I never thought I'd be at a Chicago Cubs game. It was so fun, we got to eat those hot dogs and see Wrigley Field. The Cubs lost in 3 extra innings. We also got to go to Dave & Busters and I got a lot of free tokens to play games all night. We also got to go to the Chicago zoo and it was fun because they had a lot more animals than over here. My favorite animal was the polar bears. I made a lot of friends there and we went to the pool together. It was awesome.

Guitar Hero Rocks OUT! (by Zach)

One of my favorite things to do is to play x-box 360. My favorite games are the sports games like Madden 06,07,08 and 09. I also like the more popular games like Halo 1, 2, and 3. I also love call of duty III and IV, but guitar hero and rockband are special because me and my family rock out big time playing those games. Another thing about x-box360 is the x-box live. I always play Halo 3 with my uncle from New York. (Okay, I just made that up. We don't have x-box live and my uncle lives in Ogden. I also, love the wii. It;s so entertaining, but besides having fun you're getting a work out at the same time. You got my of advice, go get the x-box 360!

How Do You Spell a Snore?

If a peaceful dozing sleep is spelled Zzzzzzz, then how do you spell a snore?

I only ask because I've been laying in bed, wide-eyed, for the past 30 minutes trying to figure it out and I got nothin'. I know how it sounds, and I now know how it feels. In other words, I now know that you don't just hear a snore, you feeeeeeel it too. It's hard to believe after 20 years of marriage I'm just now realizing this. Other people who have stayed with us, or by us, or near us have mentioned the snoring, but I've always shrugged it off with a "hmmmph, I never noticed." When I drop off to sleep you could run a mac truck over my face and I wouldn't stir.

But tonight I noticed!

I realize there are many who might say, "I told you so!" and to you I concede that I now understand. I get it. Snoring is much more than a sound--it's an experience. It's a ride that, once it begins, you can't get off. And you feeeeeel it begin. First as a tingle in your nose, that builds into a steady vibration through your nasal passage before it spreads across your cheeks and crescendos in your brain. Imagine an itch in your brain that you scratch. It feel like that.

Right now my brain could be the poster child for This is Your Brain on Drugs!

But how do you spell that?

Island Park Highlights

Island Park was the super-funnest (not a real word) Frampton family reunion EVER! 

My heart is bursting with all the emotions of a perfect week hanging out with all of the Framptons, laughing, talking, playing, eating and chillin'. I'm so thankful to be part of such a wonderful family and I love them all so much. We have decided that all of the Frampton grandchildren have found and married the absolute coolest people in the world. What are the odds of that?

We thought we would record our highlights, so we don't forget them: 

Deb’s Highlights:

The big bison coming out of the mist; watching Bobbi cut everyone’s hair and paint toenails; downloading 3,000 photos with Ryan, Jeremy, Jen, Bruce, Tyler and Dave; running with Paul, Jenessa, Tatum and Tiffanee; singing around the firepit; driving with Ryan and Jessica through Yellowstone; having Brody teach me to wake board; putting Bri to sleep; high fiving baby Tyler; watching Big Tyler’s enthusiasm over every little thing; teasing Bruce; Kimberpee; talking, talking, talking; staying up super late and sleeping in until 9am; watching Ned play with all the little kids; Paul cleaning and taking out the garbage; watching my kids having a ball with all of their cousins; Shelby and Tatum doing the Pokémon dance; hugging Angie-bear; Jeremy hiding whipped cream under our pillow; Avery and Emily coming into my room and saying Hi, Debbie; Ashlun dancin; Dixie in her BYU PE shorts; Dixie in her cool jeans with the belt; watching Jenessa and Bailey dance; watching Paul sing about how to love a woman ;); watching So You Think You Can Dance with everyone during dinner; Jeremy helping me edit photos; Zach laughing at Bruce's jokes; Sue diving into the lake with all of her clothes on; analyzing mom's snake dreams; Bobbi telling me she loves me.

Alan's Highlights:

Riding 4 wheelers with bro; seeing Kimberly and Colby crash on the wake boards; seeing Paul and Jen's family singing around the campfire; getting a haircut on the back porch during the rainstorm; seeing Jeremy throw the boys off the tube while driving; Susan and her girls all covered in dust after four wheeling; Paul dancing with his BYU PE shorts on; watching Tiffanee and Dave play softball; Kent on the tube with Ash; seeing my boys sing check the poo; watching Tatum and Zach wake board; sitting around outside around the firepit and visiting with everyone.

Island Park (by Garrett)

This summer we went to St. George and Yellow Stone and Bear Lake and what we did at Yellow Stone was we rode four wheelers and we went tubing and we went to see a big smoke (old faithful) and we stayed in this guys house that plays football for the steelers and the bears (Merrill Hodge) and we played pool. The thing we did in Utah was we rode four wheelers and we stayed at my cousin's house and played wii. We played at St. George we played taboo and played basketball and tennis and played at the pool and swam laps. At Bear Lake and we went off the diving baord and went boating.

The End

MAN