Bode | Life Elevated Mom

Enemy Territory

November 21, 2016 By Amber

One of the things I love about living in a small town is how the community bands together. For Spirit Week, there is a huuuuuuge rivalry between the University of Utah and BYU and “The Holy War” got downright heated.

The schools had “Red Ribbon Week,” to educate kids about saying “no” to drugs. Several businesses offered freebies and deals to celebrate…the kids just had to wear a wristband.

As I was reviewing the daily theme for Red Ribbon Week, there was a dress code for one of the days.

“Bode, you need to wear red tomorrow.”

“Why red? It’s the color of the enemy.”

I’ve trained him too well.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Small Town Livin’ Updates

November 16, 2016 By Amber

I’ve never lived in a small town. Sure, I went to college in Rexburg, ID and served as a missionary in several small villes in France and Switzerland but it’s just not the same. I find it rather humorous that when I was single, I was the PR rep for a popular musician who lives in the Heber Valley…and I remember thinking “why on earth would anyone ever live out there?”

Park City has many of the amenities of a big city (Home Depot, Walmart, numerous franchises) so it’s been interesting to adapt to our little hamlet with a population of just 4,000.

A few observations thus far:

The mountains, views and sunrises. When we sat on our front porch one evening before we moved in, it was complete stillness and peace under a blanket of stars. It took me exactly 20 seconds to get used to it.
Whenever I hear Salt Lake City’s traffic reports, I give a little chuckle of gratitude and am SO glad I don’t have to deal with that on a daily basis.
There are very few radio stations out here so KPCW public radio in Park City has become my go-to station in the mornings. I love all the evidences of small-town life including their lost and found reports.
There are a few private Facebook groups for the Heber Valley that crack me up on a daily basis as people sell, swap and ask any question under the sun. Takeaway: people in small towns are ready to help their neighbors. And sometimes get snippy with them, too.
The kids’ recreation guide included gems like “hunter safety, concealed weapons class and wilderness circuit rodeo finals.
Bode’s teacher “rodeos” and she was absent from class because her husband won the lottery…for a sought-after hunting permit.
Bode missed the competitive soccer tryouts and by fifth grade, most kids are playing competitive. We’ve found out why on his rec team this year. Some of these boys have never played before (which is fine) but our frustration is the league’s horrid policies on rules…as in they don’t enforce them. Offside? No problem. Let’s teach kids to cherry-pick. You’ve stepped three feet over the line for a throw-in? Throw away! I’m surprised how much it has bugged me. I don’t expect perfection but my gosh, can we please teach the kids how to play soccer? The good news is not only was Bode the oldest but he was the superstar of the team–he scored more goals this season than he did the last few years combined in our city league. It’s been great for his confidence but not his skills. Better luck next season!

We were given a stipend from our builder for our front lawn so we immediately hired someone to do the sprinklers and sod. The problem was there was no grass to be found this late in the season so we are lucky enough to be the only house in the neighborhood who will have a mucky lawn all winter.
There are so many things we need to buy for this house in order to truly fit–cabinets for the laundry room and garage, an end table, lamp, rug and an addition to our too-small couch (that’s just the tip of the iceberg) but my top priority has been getting these kids skiing. We can’t afford season passes this year so are biting the bullet to do the skiing through our rec program. For just $350/kid, they get six weeks of half-day ski lessons and passes to Sundance Ski Resort and transportation up there. There goes our entire budget but really, all I want for Christmas is to get these kids of ours on the slopes.
Juggling my new job with Mosaico Travel along with all my other gigs has kicked my can. The good news is it’s been baptism by fire and I’ve been literally thrown into their busy Christmas travel season.
I look forward to life calming down a bit so I can actually get out and explore this glorious place we get to call home. Soon, right?

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Uncategorized, Utah

Hardworking Kids, Proud Mama

November 15, 2016 By Amber

Moving is hard but I could not be more proud of these kids for working their butts off in school. They came home with their report cards and both mostly received Straight As except for Bode’s A- in flute (a minor miracle because he couldn’t even make a sound the first several weeks).

Things come more easily and naturally to him but he is a hard worker. That’s his talent: to put his heart and soul into everything he does. His teacher recognized this in her comments: “Bode is such a great kid who has a love for learning. He’s so fun to have in class and he’s always striving to do his best.”

Hadley got straight As except for a B in math. Some parents might be sad about that but for years, all I’ve wanted is for her to be at grade level and for years (and lots of tutoring) she has fallen short.

To put this in perspective, at the beginning of sixth grade I had her tested for learning disabilities and now she’s almost got straight As. I still feel like the public school education is geared to linear learners like Bode and not visual-spatial, experiential kids like Hadley so in some sense, she might always struggle. But she’s figuring out how to make it work for her. Never once have I had to remind her to do her homework, a huge departure from elementary school.

Two of the people who were instrumental in getting Hadley on the right path were her teachers last year. I sent them this note at the beginning of this school year:

Mr. Lewis and Mrs. McLean,

With the new school year upon you, I have to thank you for last year. My daughter Hadley came to sixth grade at Vanderhoof struggling in school and doubting her academic capabilities. By year’s end, she was a completely different person, thanks in large part to both of you. She fell in love with learning and most importantly, came to realize that she is good and smart enough.

We moved to the Park City-area over the summer and she has delved head-first into her new middle school, joining both the science club and taking a journalism elective to write for the school’s newspaper. Neither of these things ever would have happened had she not had such rock star teachers in sixth grade.

Thank you for opening the doors to her future. Sixth grade is a year we’ll never forget.

To reward the kids, we went out for ice cream. And not just ice cream, but Jamie proposed ice cream for dinner, which was about the best reward EVER.

I personally in hoping they perform just as well next term for that very reason.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley

Our first Utah soiree

November 9, 2016 By Amber

We had so many wonderful neighbors help unload our PODs that I wanted to thank them sooner than later…so concocted an informal caramel apple dipping soiree for FHE. It was fun, casual and oh-so delicious.

Now, when I say “informal,” I mean it. We had only been in the house for five days, had been hanging the insulation all morning (horrid) and our big farm table was camped in the garage because it was too big to fit through our front door. My mother-in-law was reupholstering our chairs (read: nothing to sit on), our accent chair wasn’t finished yet and we had a gazillion other projects. Bonus: We finally got the table into the kitchen at the last minute.

In Jamie’s words: “WHO PLANS A PARTY WHEN YOU’VE BEEN IN YOUR HOUSE LESS THAN A WEEK?”

In Amber’s words: “MEEEEEEE!”

It was so fun to have the Seversons, Frisbys, Collettes and Noonans as our first official guests. I made five batches of caramel, which is a nice way of saying we’ll be eating caramel for weeks (a.k.a. winning).

Bode had a blast with his buddies Cole, Andrew, Charlie, Jonas and Eli while Hadley and Zoe?

I think they had more fun than any of us.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Utah

A family that speaks together, stresses together

October 27, 2016 By Amber

Last Sunday, we were asked to speak in church on the talks of our choice from the 2016 General Conference. In my past congregations, children 12 and older give talks in Sacrament Meeting in front of the entire congregation so Hadley was expecting to give her first talk in our new ward. What surprised us is that younger children are also called upon to speak so our entire family shared our testimony on Sunday.

The crazy thing is Facebook’s timehop memory of the day was from six years ago when the kids participated in the Arvada 2nd Ward’s Primary Program. This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of them:

What a difference six years makes!

Bode based his talk on President Monson’s talk The Perfect Path to Happiness. Bode was so cute as he joked around while the microphone was being lowered lowered lowered and did an awesome job sharing our his personal path to happiness. My favorite lines from his talk:

I was baptized when I was 8 because I wanted to follow Jesus’ example. As I stepped into the font, I felt peaceful. When I was underneath the water, I felt like nothing could hurt me.

A few minutes later, my dad put his hands upon my head. When he said “Receive the Holy Ghost,” my head felt like it was lit up with fireworks. I felt the spirit charging through my head and body!

I’ve just started on this Perfect Path to Happiness but I know that no matter how old you are—if you’re 10 like me or 90 that you can feel the spirit. And that God knows who you are and that you are an important part of His plan.

I was really proud of Hadley because she wrote her own talk. She based her remarks on Elder Juan Useda’s harrowing experience at Machu Picchu in The Lord Jesus Christ Teaches Us to Pray.

Unfortunately, I realized that recently I have a very similar experience to Elder Useda. A few months ago my parents decided I should go to both this wards girls camp and my previous wards girls camp. I moved here from Denver and it happened to be high adventure week. We did a whole lot of really cool things but the big one that was really shaking every one up was the fourteener we had to climb. Colorado has 54 peaks higher than 14,000 feet—pretty amazing! To put this in perspective, Utah’s highest mountain is King’s Peak and is around 13,500 feet. The leaders did a very good job with making it high adventure!

This was the second fourteener I had climbed and I was with the faster group so I summited fairly quickly, and was in the very first group to come down. At the steepest and most dangerous part of the trail it started to hail. A lot of the people with us were crying and really scared! I didn’t have the proper gear for hail so I used my friend’s bandana for protection—that didn’t work so well. After a few minutes of wondering if I was going to die my thoughts tuned to the slower group, and realized that they were at the very summit of the mountain. I said a prayer in my heart afraid that if I took my hands down from my head that I would get hurt, but after only a few minutes the hail lessened.

Once everyone got back to the car, their side of the story was that they were literally in the cloud getting pounded by the hail and electrocuted by the shocks. Screaming and crying someone suggested they say a prayer. Not too long after that a group of experienced hikers helped them get to a safe spot until the hail stopped. It makes me wonder what would have happened if no one prayed!?

I’d like to share my testimony that I know that prayer can help us through big and small things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I based my talk on Elder Schmutz’s General Conference talk “God shall wipe away your tears,” a super powerful talk for anyone who has ever wondered why bad things happen to good people and why we have to go through hardships in our lives. I spoke about some of the struggles we had the last 10 months during our move and some of the miracles along the way (which is another post for another day).

The kids and I wrote our talks shortly after receiving the assignment. The Master Procrastinator a.k.a. Jamie waited until the morning of church to start pulling his talk together. As he walked into the bedroom, I asked him how to pronounce “Schmutz,” to which he held up MY topic.

“You can’t steal my talk!” and I proceeded to go through his papers, crossing out everything I was planning to talk about.

Procrastinators never prosper…or do they? He ended doing an amazing job winging it, talking about some of his miracles in our move as well as giant pumpkins. because (in his words) is God not the Master Gardener?

At least there is full disclosure of our craziness in our new ward.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, LDS, pumpkins

7-Eleven Day at Play

July 28, 2016 By Amber

One of the things I’ll miss the most about Colorado is our posse of friends. I love that when I get one of my hairbrained ideas, I can send an email out and my friends respond. In droves!

July 7 is the hallowed day when 7-Eleven offers free small Slurpees. The kids and I wanted to bike over to get one so why not make an event of it? I invited our peeps to come hang out and then play in Van Bibber Creek with us afterwards.

Best. Friends. Ever!
The girls look sweet but they were actually plotting a movie party at our house the next night. Sucker that I am, I obliged.

We introduced many of these friends to our secret spot in Van Bibber Open Space and I was surprised so few knew about it. In fact, my friend Amy rides through there a lot and didn’t even know there was a creek. I felt honored to pass the torch to the new generation.

Of course, a Van Bibber adventure isn’t the same without a Bike-off where we compete to see who can make it through the creek without falling off. Shockingly, everyone made it through multiple times without incident, even when I did a couple of runs as The Mom Representative.

Bode’s crossing

Kids being kids, they decided to up the degree of difficulty and had splashers on the sidelines.

But in the end, they were the ones who got sprayed the most…and none of us minded one bit.

Filed Under: biking, Bode, Colorado, outdoors

Our Summer Pool Party Tradition

July 27, 2016 By Amber

Every summer since the kids were little, I have enrolled them in two weeks of swim lessons. About six years ago as I sat bored out of my mind watching other moms having a great time with their friends, an idea was borne: invite members of our ward to participate.

So the following summer, I sent an email to a bunch of ladies with kids of similar ages and I was pleased to get a great response. And every year, participation has exponentially increased and has become a beloved tradition. Following swim lessons, we also stay after for public swim where even more friends come join the fun.

This year, Bode was a “Shark” with his buddies Carson and Noah.

There were probably about 12 moms with over 30 kiddos in swim lessons for a veritable pool party every day. Here we are celebrating Averi’s birthday!

Yes, I am expecting kick-backs from the community pool and hope the tradition continues long after I’m gone.

Filed Under: Bode

Busted: A visit with the cops

July 20, 2016 By Amber

My brother Jade arrived with his boys late last night. We always look forward to their arrival with two exceptions: 1) We get booted from his dark, cool room in the basement for our stuffy. 2) Cousin Jaxson. Don’t get me wrong, we love cousin Jax but he’s a hilarious kid with a quirky, unfiltered personality and has about five things he’ll eat in this world.

My childhood bedroom is the loudest and stuffiest in the house so I heard them when they arrived around midnight.

Then, after a near sleepless night, I heard something that sounded suspiciously like the Wii next to my head. Sure enough, Cousin Jax (on East Coast Time) was up before the crack of dawn playing video games in the family room. So I did what any loving aunt would do: I gave him a hug and punched him in the face.

The good news of my early wake-up? I went on a killer bike ride.

Fish Creek

Upon my return the whole clan was awake so the kids went on rides in my parent’s golf cart. An hour later, the cops pulled up to our house.

Oh, hell.

I was the only adult in the near vicinity so I had to deal with it. I saw them walk up the door and waited. And waited. A false alarm?

And then the knock came.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes.”

“We’ve had a complaint from a neighbor about a certain golf cart being driven by two boys through the gully.”

“The Gully” Venue of my childhood and now, the cops

They didn’t bother to ask if we had a golf cart; the evidence was parked right in front or our house. The delay at the door was probably due to them checking the engine to see if it was warm.

Truth be told, the cops were really cool about it and said they wouldn’t even be there had the neighbor not called to complain. Talk about a killjoy ruining the kids’ summer fun!

My brother’s observation when I posted our experience on Facebook?

We have been in Canada for 9 hours mostly sleeping and we already brought the cops here for driving the golf kart recklessly.

The coincidence? Just two days ago, I posted this picture on Instagram on Bode’s birthday talking about him narrowly missing running into our car while driving with Grandpa.

Turns out he’ll be needing that Get Out of Jail Free Pass sooner than later.

Filed Under: Bode, Canada, Humor

Bode’s Canadian Birthday

July 19, 2016 By Amber

The kids and I are in Calgary. I’m going to be bouncing around a lot on this blog over the coming weeks, alternating between Canadian fun and our final Colorado adventures. Normally, we’d be at the lakehouse in B.C. this week but I begged my family to push back the date with all the uncertainty with the sale of our house. It worked out pretty well. Of course, nothing has been ideal this summer but when we return early-August, we’ll have a couple of weeks to pack up the house and move. So, we’re trying to enjoy a bit of downtime with family while we have it.

Traveling to Canada for 2.5 weeks in the middle of a move is certainly not prudent but this is the only time I see my family all year and my Mom’s MS has grown from bad to worse. Undoubtedly this will be the last summer she will still be able to travel so it was especially important to be here. I’m just grateful for Jamie who made it possible and is holding down the fort at home.

We’re usually in Canada for Bode’s birthday and this year was no exception, except that we’re generally at the lakehouse. So, this year, he had a rather leisurely birthday at my parent’s house. I went on the hunt for his beloved Tim Horton’s Timbits (tougher than usual; who knew several franchises only carry a few varieties? The horror!)

He went on a golf cart ride with Grandpa.

Just minutes before, he informed me that he’d dropped his iPod at our hotel in Great Falls a few days ago, shattering the screen. Then, he narrowly missed Jamie’s car when he was driving.

Way to get it all out there when you can’t get in trouble on your birthday. Well played, Birthday Boy.

Since it was his day, I let him have free reign on what he wanted to do, which mostly involved video games. For a 10-year-old boy, that is the best birthday ever!

Later that night, we went over to my brother Pat’s house for a a pizza party and Kung Fu Panda 3 movie night in their home theater room. He and his wife Jane spent a minor fortune on a gorgeous outdoor pizza oven and they made the most amazingly delicious pizzas. Their family just got back from a European vacation where they took a legit pizza-making class in Florence, Italy and that crust was out of this world.

Dessert was several different kinds of cheesecakes, a chocolate caramel cake and homemade Gelato.

I’m not sure what he wished for but at least one wish came true when he blew out the candles: no girlfriends.

Filed Under: birthday, Bode

Happy 10th Birthday to Bode!

July 18, 2016 By Amber

Dear Bode,

Happy Birthday! It’s a big day for you. Not only are you turning double-digits but your life is about to drastically change with our move to Utah. I know this is hard for you because, like the rest of us, you have loved the only home you’ve ever known. You don’t ever ask for much, which is why we splurged and bought you a cool electric motorbike to putter around our new neighborhood and Dad’s old BB Gun. Talk about perfect training for our new lives as country bumpkins.

We’re currently in Canada indulging in pizza from Uncle Pat’s new wood-fired outdoor oven, followed by a movie of your choice in their fancy basement theater room. For your “friend” birthday, we played Bubble Soccer at the Apex Field House, which involved a lot of laughter, sweat and Sumo knockdowns.

Fourth grade was a great year for you with Mrs. Trapp as your teacher. You had loads of friends, did Student Council, cross-country, were in the advanced math program, performed in the schools’ talent show and also the most adorable stage production on “Colorado.” I wish we could have gotten settled in Utah prior to starting fifth grade at your new school but everywhere you go, you make friends easily. You always get chosen among the first when kids are selecting teams; not because you’re the best athlete but because you’re well-liked, encouraging and fun.

Talent Show

Speaking of which, you and I competed in our first adventure race together at Copper Mountain a few weeks ago. We each had our strengths. Me: mountain biking, glacier climb. You: Running, cargo net, obstacle course, Tyrolean Traverse, Darwin Dash, blow darts and the ropes course. This is just a nice way of saying you dominated the course and I was so proud to be your partner…even if I was usually a few (wet) steps behind. My only request for our mother-son adventure was that you didn’t throw up, which is exactly what happened–not once during our ski trip to Beaver Creek but twice when we rescheduled it a few months later.

6th grade kids vs. teachers basketball

You and your neighborhood friend Nicky have been inseparable this year and you’ve had plenty of adventures with church friends Porter, Carson, Seamus and Noah. I loved meeting you for lunch at school and playing Four Square with your buddies, though I am remiss we are moving before I can truly humble Brody from his smug position in the head square.

This was a big year: You skied your first double-black diamond at Sunlight Mountain Resort and rocked the Kids Adventure Games in Vail with Seamus. You love soccer, The Broadmoor, snuggles to start and end the day, Fat Kitty, listening to Fablehaven, Cub Scouts, video games, summer swim lessons, riding your bike with your friends, piano, and catching crawdads. We had plenty of ski trips, Christmas in Utah, a media preview of “Season of the Force” at Disneyland, a weekend with friends at YMCA of the Rockies Snow Mountain Ranch, summer fun at the Calgary Stampede and boating at the Lakehouse in B.C.

I especially appreciated your help when it came to our miserable 2+ months of house showings and you frequently asked me “what can I do to help?” Of course, no one is perfect and neither is your room but you did a great job keeping it picked up and gave me hope that slobbery is not in your eternal future. But you’d better believe that very day we went under contract, your room quickly returned to its original (condemned) condition.

You were born with an extra ray of sunshine. Being happy, having faith and obedience come so easily for you and you truly want what is best for those around you. In a world that encourages boys to be competitive and tough, you reminds me everyday that kindness counts (along with a healthy dose of silliness). You’re such an easy-to-please bloke that sometimes it’s tough to figure out what you really dislike (beyond the obvious food choices like peppers and seafood) so on our recent hike to St. Mary’s Glacier, I asked you “Bode, what kind of things do you hate? I mean, Hadley really hates math. What would be on your list?” You took a long pause of consideration before responding “you know, I really hate mean people. Why can’t everyone just be nice and kind? I want peace for the whole world.”

St. Mary’s Glacier

Jamie joked “”world peace?’ You’ll be a great beauty contestant with an answer like that.”

All kidding aside, your sincere answer so beautifully demonstrated your role in this world as a peacemaker. Every day you teach me about love and patience. I got weepy writing this letter because Colorado has been a wonderful dream for you full of friendships, developing your testimony in the gospel and fun…and I hope you will always look back upon your single digits with wonder and magic because that’s exactly what they were.

Love,

Mom

P.S. For a stroll down memory lane, see birthday letters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, 8 and 9.