"A boy is the only thing that God can use to make a man."

I'm a mom to three boys. So I say things like: "Why aren't you wearing any pants?" "Farting isn't as funny as you think it is." And "Who brought the catapult to the dinner table?"

My mudroom's always disgusting, there's never enough food in the pantry to keep them satisfied, and it's not fun unless someone gets hurt.

My kitchen currently has a fishing pole in the corner, a football on the table, and three uneaten vitamins sitting next to candy wrappers.

I would never complain though because raising boys has been the joy of my life. Little boys love their mommas in a way that little girls don't. Just the other day Carter said to me: "Mom please don't leave us alone with dad anymore. He picks us up by our skin."

I have no idea what that is referring to. But I love that he knows I'll keep him safe.

I also found this on my bed.

I'll translate.

"Mom Mom

you are the bomb.

So, so

what is wrong with your toe?

Why I am giving you the little white rose

Is because I like you so much."

I won't bother trying to figure out where he got the little white rose. Sorry neighbors.

It's no where near Mother's Day but Thanksgiving is next week and these three rugrats are at the top of my list of things to be grateful for.

Being someone's Superman

"What I do is based on powers we all have inside us; the ability to endure; the ability to love, to carry on, to make the best of what we have - and you don't have to be a ‘Superman' to do it." ~Christopher Reeve

Jamon lives in his own little fantasy world. And in his world Spiderman, Superman, Batman, and the Hulk really exist. Or at least they should as far as he's concerned. In fact, on more than one occasion he's said to me: "I just don't understand why Superman can't be real."

I've never had a good answer for that until today. And the answer is: He can. YOU can be Superman Jamon.

Today I stopped at Subway on my way out of town (yes, Kuna now has a Subway. We got a Les Schwab and a Walgreens too. It was a big month for our little town). Anyway, the Subway used to be a drive through coffee shop, so the dining room is really small. When I walked in there was only one other customer. Okay, there were three, but two boys were sharing one sandwich and the other boy brought his lunch with him. While the two sharing were waiting for their sandwich to be built, they were teasing the young man who brought his own. Now obviously they were friends so it wasn't like bullying....it was just good old fashioned tease- your -friend type of stuff.

I can see why because his lunch was a dried up hamburger patty, raw broccoli and plain noodles. Of course cold. They were saying things like: "Nice lunch. Did your Mommy make it for you?" and "ooohh delicious! I'm jealous that I'm stuck here eating Subway."

The young man was taking it well and at that moment I decided something. I was planning on ordering a footlong because they're only five bucks, but I wasn't really planning on eating the whole thing. I was hungry enough for about 8 or 9 inches but not 12. So, rather than cut the footlong in half, I had the girl cut me 3/4 and wrap up the other 1/4 separately. As I walked out of the restaurant I set the 1/4 sandwich at the table in front of the boy who brought his own lunch. I simply said: "Have a nice day" and walked out of the restaurant.

Before the door shut I heard one of the boys say: "Who. WAS. that?"

I heard Jamon's voice in my head saying "Who was that masked man?" and smiled to myself.

You see Jamon- you don't have to be able to fly, spin webs, use laser vision, or save the world from enemies to be a hero. That's not what people really want anyway.

They want to be cared for when they're sick, helped when they're in trouble, and they want a friend when they're lonely. There are opportunities to be heroic all around you every day. You just have to watch for them.

Now giving this kid some of my sandwich might not be heroic, but I guarantee I made his day. I bet I made his mother's day too because he was a pretty good lookin' kid and that sandwich had onions on it. Stay away girls! You're welcome mom.

Actual Conversations, Part 1

"Ordinary people can be drop dead funny."

In fact, I'm learning why so many teachers have blogs. Writing about your students and their families is a no- brainer. It's free material right there at your fingertips.

Stuff you couldn't make up if you tried.

Now regular readers of my blog know that my three kids can be pretty dang funny. They have been, up until now, my sole source for writing material. But now I have 180 kids. So, my middle-schoolers have inspired me to come up with this new segment:

"Actual Conversations"

Please enjoy part 1:

I taught a "Life Skills" class with the counselors today. The following is an actual conversation. You are entering part way as we're learning about self-image.

Me: "What kinds of things help make up our self-image?"

Ranger: "How about how many sacs you get on the quarterback?"

Me: "Yes definitely! Our skills and abilities help make up our self-image."

Serena: "Your friends and family?"

Me: "Yes definitely! The quality of our relationships with others help make up our self-esteem."

Ysenia: "Where we come from?"

Me: "Yes definitely! Our background can help make up our self-esteem."

Colton: "You're all crazy! It's girls man! That's it! Just girls...that's what makes up your self-esteem!"

Heaven help us.

"Whoever said money can't buy happiness didn't know where to shop."

First of all you should know that Jamon is the most grateful person I know. His positive attitude is to be admired. At least three days a week he can be heard saying: "Today was the best day of my whole life!" I love that about him. He's so grateful for every little thing in life and he's so easily pleased.

For example: October came and went and our oldest boys turned 13 and 11. My mom just sent them gift cards this year because they're kind of to the point where it's just easier to let them pick their own stuff. That way no one's disappointed and no money is wasted on something they'll refuse to wear, use, or play with.

So, I took them out shopping one night to spend their birthday money. As is consistent with his personality, Camdon thought through his purchases with much diligence and prudence. He budgeted and made a list of most important needs and wants. He got a fishing pole, some football gloves, new headphones (ones that couldn't accidentally be put in a pocket and washed) and a new jacket.

Then there's sweet Jamon......the one who thinks every little thing in life is the best thing that ever happened to him. He saw these bad boys and thought he'd hit the jackpot! This is what he chose to spend his birthday money on.....

It was the "greatest day of his life" until I invoked my power to veto. I told him he would not be spending his birthday money on a giant tub of fake cheese balls. Someday he'll thank me.

"Just before the death of flowers,
before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season

When nature is all aglow."

Jamon and I just love the fall season. He told me the other day that he starts getting excited as soon as October gets here and stays that way through Christmas. Me too! I've had fall decorations up since the end of September. There's such a cozy feeling in the home. And never mind how excited everyone got when they saw I pulled the witch out! (she holds a goodie bag full of Hershey kisses) Who wouldn't be excited about that?

Anyway, one of our favorite fall traditions is to go to Linder Farms. It's owned by a family we go to church with and it's practically in our own backyard. My brother and his wife love it just as much as we do. They came over for conference weekend so we took them along with us.

Justin and Camdon went to the Priesthood session of General Conference so they weren't with us, but Jamon and Carter were thrilled to show my niece a good time.

The llama was thrilled to show my sister-in-law a good time.....

What is it about hot, stinky, fly-infested petting zoo's that makes everyone so happy? Maybe the cute baby animals.

Maybe.

Jamon did end up leaving the tent early because he couldn't take the smell anymore.

He stuck around long enough for me to get a pose....

But doesn't he look like he's about to hurl?

We went through the corn maze and took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. It was so fun we decided to go back the following weekend. This time with Justin and Camdon. The quality of the pictures is so much better when Justin joins us.

Yep, Camdon got glasses, and yep, we love us some good old fashioned "agritainment." Happy fall y'all!

Devil's Vomit

"A weird and scenic landscape peculiar to itself." ~President Calvin Coolidge

Every time we go to eastern Idaho for a visit, we pass by Craters of the Moon, and I tell myself "someday we'll stop." Well, someday never showed up so we did it Labor Day instead. Ha ha...I know. As we paid our fee and entered the park, Jamon said in wonderment: "Wow! What happened here?"

I never got the chance to answer because Carter, my budding scientist, already knew.

"Duh! Volcanoes happened." Boy was he in his element! I've never seen him sit so still as when we were in the visitors center watching the movie about the history of Craters of the Moon. He hung on every word...lava....magma....caldera of fire.......molten liquid. He couldn't take it any more and we raced out of the visitors center and began our exploration.

A pioneer traveling the Oregon Trail in the 1850s looked at the blackened earth and described the land before him as "Devil's Vomit." This seems an accurate description. Carter led the way as we hiked and explored caves. I think he had the time of his life.

I think we all did.

Being down in the cave was so much fun!

Scary. But fun.

The opening of the cave was nice and wide.

Not true of the exit. In fact, as we were leaving, I said to the boys: "I should've come out first and taken a picture of you guys. No one would believe the tiny hole we just crawled out of." Just then this guy popped his head through. He said I could take his picture to prove where we had just been . Thanks kind sir.

We couldn't have picked a better day to stop.

See Facebook. Isn't this so much better?

“If Facebook were a country, it would now be the 6th most populous in the world.”

It was pointed out to me today that I no longer seem to care about my blog. This is so not true, I've just become a bit of a Facebook junkie. When a friend of mine begged me to join Facebook, I declined telling her if she wants to know what's going on in my life, she need only check my blog. She must've known I have no backbone because she kept nagging and I caved. So, I set up my Facebook account but announced that those checking my page often would be disappointed, because I only care about blogging.

That was then......

Now I seem to be content to write about my life in one or two sentence snippets that the whole world can see. Unless they don't "do Facebook." Like my parents who would never, ever in a million years "get it" let alone use it. Some of the biggest fans of my life are missing out because I've chosen to believe that the status of my life can be summed up in fifty words or less. This simply isn't true. Over Labor Day weekend I posted to Facebook that I was taking the boys to Crater's of the Moon. There are so many details of that day that I want remembered. Shame on me. And to my loyal fans~

Thanks for reminding me why I started blogging in the first place. And maybe by now that Chinese fan will have given up and gone away. He annoys me.

"Organize your life around your dreams - and watch them come true.”

It was a big week at our house. I guess I'll start at the top and work down from there.

Justin got a call from Ryan Ringel this week announcing the tickets have arrived. That's right~the tickets to BSU's season opener~ all the way across the country which Justin will be attending. Lucky. Dog. Ryan was kind enough to purchase the $92 ticket. Justin only had to get himself to Virginia. A bit more than $92, but the dream of watching an away game somewhere other than Utah has come true.

Camdon took my beloved camera to scout camp and it came back broken. I'm not placing blame. Not really anyway. I was sad because this month won't be a cheap one for us what with the plane ticket across the country and all the school supplies and Middle School registration and new football cleats and you get the picture. I knew a new camera wasn't in the budget. Then today I got something in the mail. It was a new camera. It was from Justin. My dream of having a newer/better camera has come true.

Camdon was asked to speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday. He did great! I realize that being asked to speak in church isn't anyone's dream, but when you're nearly 13 and you have to speak in front of a congregation of 300+, the dream is not to fail miserably or do anything to completely embarrass yourself or your family. He DIDN'T make a fool of himself. His dream of still being able to look the girls in the eyes has come true.

Jamon had Jamboree at Boise State on Saturday. He's playing tight end this year. He had two great receptions and although he didn't run for a touchdown, he did run. Long and fast. As a result, the coaches have made a few more plays just for him! Justin captured the moment perfectly. Here's a picture of him hauling in a catch.

His dream of making it big on the blue has come true.

The biggest dream, however, came from the littlest Kay. You must first know that I don't keep a ton of junk food around the house. And we certainly don't stop at the gas station for treats. Except this one time. I told Carter I'd take him to get a slurpee on Friday night. He's been patient all week as the boys started football and we sat through hours of practices. So, as we were leaving the football field (to go get his slurpee) he very cautiously stopped at the curb. He looked both ways before stepping into the road. In my most excited mother voice I said: "Look at you Carter~ Checking both ways before crossing the street!"

He said very matter-of-factly: "I usually don't. But I don't want to get killed before I get to taste my treat!"

Dream big little one!

“Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.”

You know the old saying: "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone?" This is how I've felt this week.

Camdon's been away at scout camp and I didn't realize how much help he is to me until I didn't have it anymore. From what I hear they are having fun despite getting dumped on for two days.

Today was especially difficult without him. I work Fridays from 12-4 and Camdon, of course, babysits for me. He does a great job but I knew Jamon could do good job too. He's really jumped in this week and been so helpful. He wanted the chance to prove himself. So, I agreed to let him give it a whirl. Carter's 6 1/2 so it's not like I'm leaving him alone with a baby or anything. I knew they'd be fine with a few movies and some popcorn.

Or so I thought.

I got a phone call at about 1:45. It was Jamon. He had a confession to make.

"There's something I have to tell you." Make it quick. I'm busy.

"Uuuhh...I really wanted to go play at Patrick's house so I had Jordyn (the neighbor girl who's 14) come over to watch Carter." What?! He hired a babysitter to get out of it himself? Clever.

"I was there for about an hour and then I started feeling really guilty that I just left Carter. So, I came home. Is that okay?" Good. You should feel guilty.

I asked if he felt better now that he'd confessed.

"Yes. Am I going to be in trouble?"

Well, let's think about this. I said he was in charge of Carter today. Quite frankly, he was very responsible by getting someone else to be responsible while he chose NOT to be responsible. Jordyn said he even called the house to tell her he hadn't bothered to feed Carter lunch and would she mind doing it. I guess if you think about it, he took very good care of Carter.

"No," I said. "Thanks for telling me the truth."

I can't wait until Camdon comes home!

Who: Us

What: Company Picnic

When: Last Friday night

Where: Boise~Municipal Park

Why: Because company picnics are awesome. Sometimes. This particular one was anyway.

I LOVE this park. It reminds me of when we were newlyweds and living down by campus. We didn't have any money so we spent hours on our bikes cruising the greenbelt. Ryan Ringel lived just down the street from this park and we spent a lot of time at his house as well.

The food was excellent, the games were fun, the company was okay. It's hard when Justin's the only one that knows these people. I know a few names but that's about it. I know that the guy who looks gay isn't, and the guy who doesn't look gay is. Once he told Justin that if he wasn't gay he'd be a mormon with a family. This strikes me as odd since the two concepts are fundamentally different.

There was a little girl there who was on the rather chunky side for being only fourish. As she ran past us Camdon said to me:

"She looks just like a girl from pre-school. On the first day I sat next to her and the first thing she says to me is 'Don't even THINK about it. I'm taken!" This strikes me as odd because number one...she was only four & number two...she was fat. Not that fat people can't find love, but I think you know what I mean.

After the party we walked over to the MK Nature center.

We were just leaving the nature center when Carter announced he "really had to go poop." I told Justin I'd take him on ahead since the older boys were enjoying the big fish. As we headed down the greenbelt towards the bathrooms I heard Justin yelling my name from 50 feet behind me. I looked back just in time to see a buck run RIGHT past us. He was weaving in and out of traffic along the greenbelt and barely missed Carter. This strikes me as odd since you don't normally see wildlife in the city.

Sometimes we think about moving back home to eastern Idaho. It's nights like these we're glad we're here.

Kay Family Reunion 2010

"There is fun to be done"~Dr. Seuss

Meet the Blair Kay family. In case you get lost, there are 31 of us.

Thirty-one people for three days looks something like this:

17 grandkids in tents....

Just as many in the bounce house.....

And just as many in the pool.......

This black sled was supposed to be used to wash grass off of feet, but the kids decided it made a perfect hot tub instead.

And of course, no family reunion is complete without some Dutch oven cooking & smores....

The theme this year was "Generations of Champions" and we certainly had our fair share of Olympic hopefuls...

We had plenty of gold medal winners.....

And plenty of hungry Olympians....

We also took the kids to Warm River........mostly to give Grandma & Grandpa a break, but also to feed the fish. The trout swim in droves just waiting for a bite of bread.

Then Broc took us to the headwaters......thankfully he knows the back country like the back of his hand:

We always tease when we go home that we're "in God's country." It sure felt like it this day.

That night we all went out to Craigo's for pizza and then watched a movie on the side of the house. Yes, I said the side of the house. It was awesome. Cold. But awesome.

The family talent show deserves it's own post, but let's just say it will be remembered forever.

"Welcome to the Kay's where we do it your way...but don't get crazy!" My niece Kaylie was the best Bon Qui Qui that ever there was.

Carter showed off his mad scientist skills. The oohhs & aahhs from the crowd as he made a volcano explode made it all worth it.

Camdon and Jamon were Pedro and Napolean Dynamite. Jamon nailed the dance.

Broc (our resident cowboy) roped a cow. It was pretty awesome.

Mom always comes up with the best stories. She had 'em eating out of her hand...

She even had a musical number to go with her story......

It was a wonderful three days. I'm so grateful for my father and mother-in-law. They went to a lot of trouble to make this event memorable for everyone.

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family:

Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."

I couldn't agree more.