Mane Event

What is it about humans--I believe mostly of the female variety, that place such importance on the outward appearance? Why must the value of a woman be measured by the size of the dress, shape of the eyebrows, length of the legs, or beauty of her hair?

And, a more important question might be--do we as women do this to each other, or do we just do it to ourselves? I hear many a female complain about this or that in relation to their appearance that I too have noticed on them, but unlike them, have not seen it as an imperfection but just a difference--and this difference makes them simply different--beautiful even.

Regan has beautiful hair. It is long, thick, and blonde. She is known for this long, thick mane. She hears all the time how beautiful her hair is--it is uncommon for her to show up anywhere when someone does not comment on it. It has become an important part of her outward appearance--I dare say even her inward value. Did her peers/friends place this perception on her, did I do it as her mother, or did she do it herself?

Today Regan cried over her hair.

As she was weeping the words were muttered: "Isn't this silly, it is just hair, it will grow back!"

Yesterday Regan went to school with this hair:




Today after school she looked like this:




Then she did this:




Now her hair looks like this:



Regan was brave and cut off her beautiful mane. Brave in the fact that so much of her identity was confused with her hair.

Even with the shorter "do" Regan is still sweet and fiery, smart and innocent, loving and sassy--she is still Regan!

Wouldn't it be a great if we valued our differences--or imperfections as much as we value the optimal?

I love Regan's hair even more now, but that is how a mother is--my favorite "do" will be the one she is sporting in the present time--short or long, straight or curly--the one she has when I see her first thing in the morning, or the one she has when she is loving her brothers, or the one she has when she crosses the finish line of her races, or the one she has when she is sitting across from me at the dinner table retracing her day for me.

Why can't we all look through our Mother's eyes and value ourselves--not our appearance?

For the record, her disappointment in her hair was short lasted. She stated to me right before I dropped her off at XC practice after the cut: "Mom, this wasn't about the hair, it is all about running, that is why I did it." Then she trotted off to join her team.

To follow tradition the girls on the XC team cut their hair before Regionals that they run today. The boys shaved their legs--funny that Alec is not missing his leg hair as much as Regan is missing her blonde locks.

On the plus side: Locks For Love will recieve a substantial donation from Regan. Maybe her hair can help some other girl feel better about herself. Hmmm....

What a DAY!

Alec turned 18! Yes, 18!

Will went to Preschool! Yes Preschool!

Killer Conversation OR Conversation Killer

William is just shy of being 3.5 years old. He started doing this right around the time he turned 3--so almost 6 months now.

Mom: "William, its time to go get something for breakfast."

Will: "Why, why, why?" (He seems to stutter when he asks why--as a matter of fact one time Austin counted up to 15 "why"s before Will actually asked the question.)

Mom: "Because you haven't had anything to eat since last night and I bet your tummy is hungry."

Will: "Why?"

Mom: "Because your body used up all the food you ate last night so it could grow strong."

Will: "Why?"

Mom: (at this point I figure I can either delve into the Kreb's Cycle with him and explore how the body uses calories....OR I can resort to the old standby, which is what I do this time--with my fingers crossed) "BECAUSE! Now lets go upstairs and eat."

Will: (This is the word I have been waiting for) "Alright." (Not only is the tone of the word priceless as well as the body language that comes with it, but it finally means that THAT conversation can end.)

Sometimes the "Why, why, why" can go on until it cycles itself around again--where the answer actually becomes the question. Sometimes the "whys" just have to end in the "Because" statement, follow up by "Arghh! BECAUSE I SAID SO!". Sometimes he NEVER--no matter how many times a answer has been given, will voice the "alright", but SOMETIMES--in a truly rare, delicious moment, after only asking "why" once will he utter the end: "ALRIGHT".

Before I hear how this is how he learns and that being curious is such a "good thing", I ask you: Have you been asked "WHY?" you do everything and anything ALL day long?

Tell me again when we hit that "girl crazy, car crashing, no homework doing" phase--the one where they don't ask "Why?" (because they already know the answer). I am READY for it!

**I am mostly just kidding, I love (no, not really love--um...find amusing) this phase. It is great to see him learn and explore everything. It is even more fun to see Alec, Regan, and Austin answer his constant questioning. They spend a lot of time and effort to satisfy his curious nature. **

(Yes Leslie, you do have it recorded--it is labled: William July 2009. You just don't want to take the time to upload it.)

While some things remain the SAME......

Bear Lake 2009 happened without pictures taken this year (our camera was lost--until we came home and Ryan remembered where he had "put it away"). In a way, it seems as if I could just use pictures from the last time we were there (2008), or even the time before that (2007), or really any other year. It seems as if not much has changed.

I (and now we) have been camping in the same little canyon for 30 years with little variation to the original camping trip.

After my little brother died (Cody, 2 years old), and we had dealt with all the tangible things you have to deal with, my Dad packed us up and took us camping. He took us to St. Charles Canyon where we would return year after year. (We would be camping on the anniversary of Cody's Birthday/day he died/my Birthday--but as a child I never put this together, I think this was a good way for my parents to deal with this day).

And now we return year after year. We still take rice krispie treats, graham cracker cookies and homemade strawberry jam. We still play hours and hours of card games. We still make a daily voyage down to the lake with blow up toys. We still wash our hair in the freezing cold mountain water. We still use the same red table cloths (that my Mom made to fit the picnic tables at the campground). We still sit around the campfire and talk for hours into the night while watching the stars. We still hike.

My Granddad would often take me for a hike. I loved hiking with him, he would sing some crazy songs and tell me some even crazier stories and we would just enjoy each others company and our surroundings. In 1981 we reached the top of the mountain that we spent so much time hiking. I don't know what Gramps reasoning was, but he gathered a bunch of rocks and started to make a big solid rock pile. Gramps had picked up an old plastic soda bottle (Coke to be exact) off the trail on our way up. He tore the wrapper off of it and on the backside wrote:
July 9-1981
Leslie Austin
Les Austin
Then he rolled it up, tied a piece of grass around it and put it in the bottle. He buried this bottle in the rock pile. Then we started down the mountain. I don't remember if I told anyone of that at the time, but the next year we returned to the same spot and dug out the bottle, as we would do year after year.

Of course the hikers would change, in 1982 Brian's (brother) and Eric's (cousin) names appeared next to mine and Gramp's. My Dad's first trek up there was in 1983. Sometime we used scraps of paper found on the trail or out of someone's pocket, once we used a comic strip, another year is a wedding invitation (Eric and Stephanie's), my favorite is a piece of paper out of the notebook that we were keeping score of a Rook game on (yes, Gramps and I won!).

A few years ago, instead of leaving the names in the bottle on top of the mountain, I carried them back. I have them in my drawer now, with the intent to return them to the bottle once I had photo copied them.

This year we took the hike up the mountain. (By the way, this is an awful hike, straight up--never a break, fallen trees over the so called trail, and lots of nasty bugs. When I was a teenager I called it a Rambo Run, NOT a hike.)

This is where the picture would have to be a new one. The rock pile no longer stands. It seems as if nature has finally triumphed over Gramp's monument. We found the fallen tree that it was built next to, we even found some of the rocks, but it was clear that the rock pile had slid down the mountain.

In the immediate years following my Father's and Grandad's deaths I was worried that I would be crushed if nature took my "bottle". But I am glad to report no such thing. It was an amazing time with amazing memories. And luckily I have the bottle and all the year's messages (except for maybe a 1 or 2 of the most recent years) tucked away safe and sound at home.

Life changes.

We have added to the fun up St. Charles Canyon. We have an all day beach day and go like crazy on the wave-runners. We hike to the "mossy place". We play hide and seek when it gets dark (and scary). We eat chili and scones and make bad jokes about eating beans. We play Hearts. We have added new people to the family (I hope Tim had fun!). We eat smores, and more smores, and more smores.

We left a new bottle this year--a plastic water bottle. Maybe next year we will add our names.

My bro THINKS he is funny

It was my birthday yesterday. And like usual this kind of event inspires my brother.

He is a bit like my mother with his dramatic writing flare and then mixed in with that is the same sense of humor that my Dad and his Dad (my gramps)had--he just doesn't have the years experience they had to fine tune it--but he is getting there--he is OLD for his age! NICE TRY BRIAN.

http://briansmisadventures.blogspot.com/

Loving This:

I love the switch frow T. Swift to Coldplay.....

Life Lessons Learned from the Wasatch Back

1.Do all you can to BE PREPARED—then realize there are just some situations that you can NEVER be fully prepared for.

2.When you have questions—refer to the BIBLE, it tells ALL. Also, it is a bonus when you or someone around you has read it a number of times and can quote it verbatim.

3.Seize The Moment: Sleep when you can, Eat when you can, Drink when it is offered and Visit a Honey Bucket when available--these opportunities may become few and far between.

4. Laugh, Cry, then Laugh some more!

5. Realize that sometimes there are just more important things than personal hygeine, although deoderant is always required.

6. You will always feel a little better about the tasks in front of you after a little food, a little rest, and a trip to the Honey Bucket. If all of that fails--try a Coke slurpee!

7. Surround yourself with the BEST people. Teamwork is REQUIRED! Include in your team: An ORGANIZATIONAL WIZARD--someone who knows where you are, where you need to be and how to get you there; a CHEERLEADER--someone who will cheer you on and tell you how great you are doing (even when you are sucking wind); a HERO--someone that makes YOU want to become better just by watching them perform; a TRASH TALKER--someone that can get you psyched to PUNISH your next trial; a COACH--someone who can navigate you through the rough spots; a BEST FRIEND--someone who knows exactly what you are feeling (most likely because they are/have been feeling it too) and knows exactly what to say/do to help you get through it (even if those words go something like: "you really don't have a choice--you have to finish" or "do you want me to give you something to cry about?") . The ABSOLUTE BEST TEAM MEMBERS rotate through ALL these roles effortlessly depending on the needs of their team.

8. Appreciate your SUPPORT SYSTEM. The race is not worth running without these people.

9. Make the best of a bad situation-- this is more than making the Honey Buckets like your HOME AWAY FROM HOME--it is also cheerfully(?) conquering the muddy, wet, muscle crushing mountain that stands in your way.

10. ENJOY your surroundings. Even if the surroundings come to you at 3:00 am.

11. PUsh yourself--you will be suprised how far/long/hard you can go.

12. Celebrate the small things--even those can be challenging.

13. Some of the VERY best "fill-ins" are right in front of your eyes.

14. Endure to the end. The finish line is SO WORTH IT!


Ragnar was an experience, one that I cannot fully give justice to. It was harder than I thought it would be--but having said that it was also so much sweeter than I thought it would be. So many details that I hope not to forget, but at the same time so impossible to write about.


Fun Memories: "Hey Janet, YOu are doing AWESOME.", Jollie Ranchers, Immodium, Spaghetti, sleeping bags on trimmed lawn, "Dig Deep and when you find it--dig deeper", "I have to go to the Honey Bucket", "I made that mountain my *itch!", "Ride that donkey", "Runner 571....571....where are you 571?!" "I am soo over this!" Pancakes, changing sports bra in gas station parking lot, 3 freakin hours AHEAD of our schedule, "Water or Gaterade?", heave/hurl then run, never catching that girl, makin whoopy.....

Would I do it again?..........OF COURSE!!!