Jakie Pooh

While this kid is a handful, he's still a great kid. I don't know if I have ever seen a kid that's in such a hurry to grow up. This gives him the drive to succeed at work. As far as I can tell, he's really responsible there. That makes him an asset to the company.

He works for Ink Screen Graphics in Spanish Fork. He is the guy to talk to if you need a bunch of t-shirts printed up. He is pretty good at designing the shirts, but really good at printing them. The biggest complaint that I ever hear from him about work, is the heat. But, he really enjoys it anyway. (They are always looking for business, so if your thinking about getting some shirts...call, email, or comment on this blog, and we'll try to get you going on it!)

I have a hard time believing that he is a Senior in High School already. Time has flown by way too fast. I remember when he was little, maybe two years old, driving past any large willow tree, and him cringing in fear of the "monster tree!" Dawn and I still call the Bobcat tractors "sghettios," because that's what he called them. I miss the little boy that asked the thousand questions about anything that popped into his head. I didn't always appreciate them then, but... I'm thrilled that he is my oldest is a boy, because there were many fun times while he was growing up.

He'll be a great man. Anything that he truly puts his mind to, he can accomplish. A good example of that is the pick-up that he is fixing, or having fixed. When he decided he could do it, he did it. When he decided he couldn't, he earned the money for someone who could do it for him.

The age that Jake is at right now, is a trying age for parent/child relationships. But regardless of how hard it is, I hope that Jake realizes, that we love him tons. As we have watched him grow, and go through some hard knocks, our hearts have been right there with him. And as we have watched the things that he has been able to overcome, and many of his accomplishments, our hearts have pounded with pride.

I guess I could ramble on forever, but I'll stop here. I love my son! And now the whole world can read about it.

Gazette #20 i think

Alright, alright, i've finished the Gazette! Daddy was giving me a hard time about it, so i got it posted! Aren't ya' proud?? Anyway...enjoy!!
~Meg~

The Garrett Gazette
9/21/08
Dear Family and Friends,
Sorry it’s been so long. I promise I’ll be more on top of it, especially now that we have a blog. We are going to be posting these all on our blog then send the web address to you so that you can go see it. Well…here we go!
Mommy has been doing upstage stuff for the past week or so. Auditions for Willy Wonka Jr. were on Saturday the 13th. All of us (except for Jake) tried out. Mommy was at Peteetneet all day from about 8 am to 6 pm-ish. She was exhausted when she got home. On Monday she went to Peteetneet again for Call-backs where she taught a bunch of kids how to dance. She was there from 3:00 pm to about 12:00 am. So she’s been busy doing parent meeting stuff, and finances for upstage and all that. On top of that she still is working, cleaning the house, being our taxi service and yeah! We love you mommy!
Daddy hasn’t been quite so busy. He’s been working on Jake’s truck (yes Jakie got a truck) and helping us all with homework. Daddy made us our blog and…yeah! I can’t think of anything else for him.
Jakie got a truck as I mentioned. It is big and white. He can’t drive it, so I don’t understand why he even has it, but he does! Jake goes to work all day so we don’t see much of him, but this weekend he and Jessica spent time at home!
I made it into Willy Wonka as Grandma Josephine. I’m not exactly sure what I get to do in the play. I just know that I get to be weird and goofy and make fun of people! I have been doing great in school! I’ve actually studied for most of my tests and so I got good scores on those! YAY! Umm…yeah! I can’t think of anything else. On September 11th I sang the National Anthem for my school with five other girls. It was so cool! I was scared, but I think I did fine. It was a good experience.
Emily has been not feeling good for the past couple days. Just a sore throat I think. She made the play as an Oompa Loompa. She’ll have a blast!! Em has been GREAT in school. She’s got fabulous grades.
Bekah boo made Wonka as an Oompa Loompa also. She is gonna be so cute! Bekah is doing well in school also! I am proud of all my sisters!
This year is Hannah’s first year in full day classes. She loves her teacher and she is doing so well! She writes little stories all the time. Usually just one or two sentences long, but it’s fun to watch her sound things out. She made Wonka as a SQUIRREL! Ooh, she’ll be ADORABLE!!
I think that is all for now! We love you all a bunch!
Hugs and Kisses!!
Love,
Kirk, Dawn, Jakie, Me, Emily, Bekah and Hannah

Blog Intentions

Alright! I'm a bit tired, but that can't stop me from rambling on. I'll go to bed, and when I get up and read this, I might wonder just how tired I was. But, it might actually be somewhat entertaining this way.

I have e-mailed a bunch of people to let them know about this blog. And they actually looked. Now, I am thinking something like, "oh crap, now I have to think of things to write every now and again." But, who knows, maybe I'll get better at typing. Miracles can happen! Maybe I can get Megan to actually finish the most recent Garrett Gazette!!

So I think I will start soon by taking some time to tell the whole entire world what I like about each of my children. That should give me some good topics for a while anyway. But that gives me some pressure too. Because I will be writing about topics that are very dear to may, and they may decide to actually read this too! Yikes! Yawn...I better get to bed, because the sun is up and everything.

Coping Skills

It seems to me that it is very difficult to learn how to cope with disappointment and failure. It isn't just me and my family that has a problem with it either. And other's failure to cope increases the need for us to learn how, and teach our children how, to deal with peoples lack of coping skills.

I have the choice right now to stay vague, and everyone reading this will just say, "huh?" Or I can give a specific example of what I mean. I am trying to decide how I want to handle this. I'm not trying to be suspenseful. I have to wonder if I am writing this blog as a coping tool for myself. If it is, then maybe I won't post this. I better get back to the point.

Upstage Theatre for Youth is a valuable asset to my family...most of the time. I have been able to see my girls grow and either blossom, or begin to blossom from it. I have seen Dawn develop some great skills, and get out of her comfort zone. I have been able to feel like our family is more of a part of our community. We have been able to meet, interact, and become friends with great people. And all of this is invaluable to me.

Now here is a but, and it's a big but. The politics involved are horrible. It seems with this play, it's even worse. Because Dawn is on the board, she often feels a huge weight and responsibility, to the point of it often seeming overwhelming. While she loves helping all of the great kids, she has frustrations, and heartache that keeps it from being always fulfilling. She is a performer at heart, and understands, and shares the desire of all these kids to amaze the audience. She wishes that she had the ability and time to perform more often. So, instead, she is facilitaing this opportunity for our kids. I love this devotion.

This devotion, responsibility, and love makes it difficult when politics pollute this program. It's for our kids that we do this. There are people who don't know how to deal with failure. So they try to find ways to cope with it. Many of the kids and parents handle it well. But there are a few parents and kids that spoil the whole experience. I think that they are more interested in focusing on how they were wronged than figuring out what they can do to improve their own situation.

In order to better communicate with kids in our area who want to be a part of Upstage, our friend, and fellow boardmember Michelle, maintains a blog. Unfortunately, this seems to be more of a forum for frustrated parents to unload on the Upstage Board. It affords anonymity, and some parents are taking full advantage of it. They make accusations, twist facts, and vent their frustration. The hard part, is that because it is anonymous, we can't respond directly to them. So they stay frustrated, as well as the board. I think that if parents keep doing this, they should'nt allow anyone but the board comment on the blog. That, in some ways, defeats the purpose of the blog.

The thing that has me the most frustrated is an experience that Emily had at school today. I need to preface this by saying that I am assuming that this is related to Upstage. I don't know for certain, but some of the things said seem to indicate it. I know that these children are having to learn to deal with the crushing heartache of not being in the play. It feels like a failure, that they're being excluded, and that life isn't fair. But there are appropriate ways to cope with these feelings. Talking behind people's back isn't appropriate. One of Emily's peers over heard two kids saying that Emily is ugly, that she hates all the Garrett's, and specifically mentioned Megan. That peer than told Emily, and broke her heart.

It seems like there is no reward for anyone when these kind of actions occur. The parents of children who weren't cast, and those children, feel anger, jealousy, rejection. Then they react in a way that makes my family feel anger, rejection, and confusion. Now I worry how my family will react, and what will come out of that. This is also making it difficult for Dawn to want to continue this service. I wish that we all just understood the full situation, and could learn to cope with it.
I know that some of these parents think that it's easier for me to say, because my kids are all in the play. But, if those parents are willing to put in as much effort as Dawn does, wouldn't they expect that they could have their kids there with them also. Do they really feel that their kids should be excluded just because they are helping? I don't know.

I hope that I can teach my kids better ways to cope. If I haven't...I'm sorry, and will keep trying.

Me, Jake, and the Green River

As I was adding all the copies of the "Garrett Gazette," I read the one about when Jake and I went canoeing on the Green River. Megan didn't write much about it, They had their own excitement going on at the time. So I thought I would write a bit about that, even if it's been a while.

The part of the river that we went down wasn't what you would describe as swift, adventurous, dangerous, or exciting. That late in the season, it wasn't even deep. It was almost a lazy river. I do think that the person who named the river is color blind. It is not a very green color at all. It's more of a brown color.

So Jake, a bunch of our ward's boys, those boy's leader's, their father's, and I got into that river with a bunch of canoes. I guess I'll back up a bit. We drove down to Ruby's Ranch, just outside of the town of Green River. I hadn't slept since the day before, so I was a bit worn down by the time we got there. It was already dark. So we ate dinner, and I threw down a tarp, put a sleeping bag on top of it, wrapped the tarp over the top of me, to keep out bugs, and went to sleep. I am glad that we slept fairly close to some diesel powered irrigation pumps, because I think it may have masked some of my snoring. I believe Jake slept on the trailer with canoes over head. He found out that bats think upside down canoes a couple feet up in the air is a nifty resting spot.

The next morning, early, a few of the adults took the trucks and trailers to the spot we were going to get out of the river. I think we all underestimated the amount of time that would take. But it wasn't bad hanging out with those boys while we waited. We played horseshoes, and gave a few of the younger boys the opportunity to practice in the canoes. We dragged them upstream about 15 yards, and sent them down. But they were antsy by the time everyone got back. We ate lunch, loaded a raft with all the food and general gear, and left in the afternoon.

As I might have said earlier, this part of the river, at this time of year, is a bit slow. I was in a canoe with Brandon Springer. He is a great kid! I guess it was a lot more fun in the water, because he was in it, by choice, more than in the canoe. I think it was a great way to stay cool. Most of the boys thought it was a great idea. But the laws of physics show that a canoe is faster in water than bobbing bodies, so we didn't make a lot of progress that first day.
As the afternoon was progressing to evening, we stopped for the night on a sandbar. It was dry, and had minimal bugs. Just before the dry sand, there was sand under about two inches of water for about fifty yards. I have to admit, that I have eaten that well while camping. We ate grilled steak, salmon, ice cream, and homemade rootbeer.

After dinner, those who felt so inclined, went and played football in the two inches of water. From what I saw, and heard, it wasn't all that shallow. There were pockets of deeper water to cool you off in a hurry. To round off the night, we had a spiritual thought from Brother Ostler, the Young Men's President, about being steadfast and immovable. It was fitting, considering the rock cliffs that line both sides of the river. I again threw down my tarp, Jake grabbed his sleeping, I grabbed mine, and we slept under a sky of stars.

The next morning, after a good breakfast, we headed out again. We learned some lessons from the previous day, and kept everyone out of the water. The canoes went pretty fast after that. We made up the time that we had lost the day before. Brandon and I did pretty well together. He may have been a bit disappointed to be with me. His biggest ambition, was to water war with everyone. While I don't mind getting wet, I had a different agenda.

I am fair skinned, I am white. I have often said that I am a vampire. The sun burns me. If I think sunlight, I'm burned by it. So, he would start paddling as hard as he could to catch up to this canoe, or that one. If we were in the shade, I would paddle backwards. And the poor kid would start paddling harder, while I sat in the back paddling the other way. Once he figured out I was doing it, I think it was a challenge to him. I am a lazy vampire, so then I just turned the canoe backwards. He, being a great kid, handled it well.

The only reason that this vampire is still alive, is thanks to Heavenly Father taking pity upon me, and the regular, liberal, use of sunscreen. I think the sunscreen was supposed to last an hour and thirty minutes, so I put it on every hour and twenty minutes. I didn't even get any pink.

The next night we camped on another sand bar. We had a great dinner of fajitas. And my favorite part of the night was a talk by Brother Humphries about God creating everything, but knowing each individual. He talked about the billions of stars in the Milky Way, which I think were just about all visible. Yet God knows each of his children, and their needs, and loves them as individuals. My paraphraing isn't doing any of his talk justice.

After that I threw down my tarp, gave Jake my sleeping bag, threw on my blanket, and went layed down to sleep. (Earlier, Jake had capsized his canoe, and his gear was wet.) There were millions of stars that night, maybe a few planes, maybe a few satellites, but no moon. I only know of a few constellations, but spent a few minutes with Jake looking at Orion, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and the North Star. I appreciated that.

Jake had shown me how great of a kid he was that day. He had fun, and acted in many ways like all the priests his age. There was a time that all the priests were back rowing the raft. The canoes are naturally quicker, so it was hard work. All the canoes were way ahead of the raft, which was pulling a water trampoline. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, they decided to untie the trampoline. I was so proud to see that when the raft came up, my son was counted as a worker, and not one of the boys just drifting down on the trampoline. And when there was something to be done for dinner, he was there helping. He gave me great pride to be his dad!

The last day was pretty uneventful. I paddled Skyler and brandon around for half the day, and then helped on the raft until we got off the river. While I was on the raft, I got to know Brother Boyer, Brother Ostler, Brother Hinton, and Brother Springer better. I was again impressed by Jake in how he tried to help as we loaded up to leave. Brother Yama lost his keys, and the broke into his truck, but he had to go back and get it later with some spare keys.

I have to say that this trip, was worth every bit of the time and money. I appreciated seeing that side of Jake. I am grateful for the young men leaders that took the time for these boys. This was great for me!

Gazette #19

The Garrett Gazette
9/7/08
Dear Family and Friends,
I'll start with Monday I suppose. Monday was Labor Day or Onion Days or I don't really know. I know there was something to do with labor and onions. Anyway…there was the Onion Days parade. Bekah boo was in it as one of the little Centennial Dancers. She was a cutie in her outfit and her curly hair. It was also nice and cool so we were all relieved that we wouldn't be baking. A little way into the parade it started sprinkling, then pouring. We got home and went straight to the fireplace, but Bekah was still out on the parade route with nothing but her t-shirt and shorts. She was pretty much frozen when she got home. Poor Bekah boo! She lived though and we're happy. I also got to see Beauty and the Beast again at the high school. It was as good as the first one and I loved it! I loved being able to talk to my friends. Mommy and Daddy's anniversary was on Monday. They went out to eat and watched The Dark Night. Mommy didn't like it much, but I think daddy did.
Tuesday we went to school. Nothing really exciting happened I don't think.
Wednesday we didn't have Young Women's which was nice. I made Manicotti and it was probably the bestest tasting Manicotti I've made yet. I had my first Show Choir rehearsal. We are singing a song called "Sir Duke" it's a fun song and I LOVE it!!!
Thursday was Emily and My first piano lesson for this school year. I got assigned some fun songs that I'm excited to learn. Bekah is thinking that she might want to do piano instead of dance, that may be fun. I got to be transferred out of Mr. DeMille's math class and put into Mr. Smith's. That makes me super happy because I really didn't like Mr. DeMille and I had Mr. Smith last year and I love him! He's so cool!
Friday a couple friends came over that I haven't seen for awhile. It was weird to see them just pop up, but it's nice to know that they don't hate me. We played dress up and they had a blast. Emily made an adoption paper thing and had people sign it, and now her BFF Jessica is my adopted sister…according to Emily. Emily is really having fun with that.
Nothing really happened on Saturday, we just mostly watched TV and cleaned. I babysat and yeah.
This week was pretty boring except for Monday. I love you all and hope to see you soon! Hugs and Kisses!
Love,
Kirk, Dawn, Jake, Me, Emily, Bekah and Hannah.

Gazette #18

The Garrett Gazette
8/31/08
Dear Family and Friends,
Sorry it's been so long! I forgot to do it last Sunday because of school and all that! Anyway, I'm here now, and I'll do better.
So, on August 20th school started for us! We were all quite nervous but we survived the day! I am ready for Thanksgiving break that's for sure! Hannah loves her teacher Mrs. Kirk! I don't know much about her, but Hannah likes her a lot. Bekah likes her teacher I think, and Emily likes her teacher. Emily is sick of tests and homework. Her teacher has made her take test after test and every night she's had homework. I feel bad for her! I don't really know about Jakie. All he ever does is work so yeah! For me…there are only two teachers that I don't like. My math and Biology teachers. Most everyone else I like though! I get to take Sewing, Perfect Harmony, Show Choir and Honors English this year. I'm also in Biology, Geometry and all the other stuff that's required. I haven't had too much homework luckily!
We got to go to see Beauty and the Beast on Friday the 29th. It was a PCT play and they did fabulous! I loved it a lot. The actors were great and the guy who played LeFou was really good! A lot of my friends were in that so it was nice to be able to see them again!
Yesterday morning Bekah was in a children's parade for dance. She was cute in that, but I only saw the beginning. I had to go play for a baptism. I don't even know the kid being baptized but they asked me to be their pianist, so that's what I did. It worked out pretty okay.
Mommy hasn't been feeling the greatest for the last couple of days. She has a sore throat or something. Keep her in your prayers for the next couple days!
Willy Wonka Jr. Try-outs are coming up in a couple weeks! Our family is excited for that! I can't wait!!!
I think that is all that I need to say! We love you and I can't wait to see you all again! Hugs and kisses!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRI!!!
Sorry we missed your birthday! We love you a tons!!!
Love,
Kirk, Dawn, Jake, Me, Emily, Bekah and Hannah