Jump Rope Rhyme

So I found this great site through Twitter: Mamakatslosinit.com. I love that because I immediately started singing the Mama’s & the Papa’s song “Ain’t no one getting fat except Mama Cass”. I know her name is Cass but I grew up singing Cat. “Ain’t no one getting fat except Mama Cat.” She was always Mama Cat to me. So this web name made me start singing that old favorite.
Mamakatslosinit had a writing workshop about jump roping. I later discovered she was inspired by the Jump Rope for Heart organization which is associated with the American Heart Association. Jump Rope for Heart is a great program for kids and schools. Their motto is: “Learning how to take care of your heart, jumping rope, and helping kids with special hearts.” They raise funds for research. They work with scientists and health care providers. They are making a difference and saving lives. I was inspired so I decided to try out the Jump Rope Rhyme challenge. Hope you have fun jumping and I hope you have a healthy heart!  Here it is…

Write a poem about your childhood to the beat of a Jump Rope rhyme.
By: Kristen R. Sweeney ©2011

One, Two… live in a zoo
Monkeys jumpin’, fish a swimmin’
Don’t cry, you can try
You can try or you might die

Three, Four… fly out the door
Don’t be late, church is great
Don’t you sleep… dreamin’ deep
Preacher says your sins will keep

Five , Six… Legs like sticks
Like to play, lets play all day
Daddy is tall but Mama is small
Keep on climbing you’ll never fall

Seven, Eight… life is great
Homemade ice cream, Mama don’t scream
Kids who run, lots of fun
Daddy always has a pun

Nine, Ten… Let’s do it again
Some are winning, heads are spinning
Brothers, sisters my best friend
Now this game is at the end

The Joy of the Masterpiece

It was a typical cold, foggy, fall day in London. The moisture in the air was thick and heavy. I wasn’t sure if the chill I felt was from the moist fog or from the dreary feeling of sadness that hung over me.
My youngest daughter had left a few weeks earlier for college and I couldn’t seem to shake my feelings of gloominess. I really had no reason to be sad. My daughter was a brilliant student. My sons had served honorable missions for our church, had graduated themselves, and were well on their way to successful careers. My children are happily married, have deep faith and are raising their own young families in the gospel.
“So why the tears?” I asked myself. I didn’t know the answer. And as I sat on my couch, curled up in a quilt, sipping a cup of hot cocoa and looking through the family photo album I allowed the tears to generously flow down my cheeks.
Finally I had had enough. I got myself dressed, sloppily indeed, but dressed well enough and headed across town to my mother’s flat. She was pleasantly surprised to see me on her doorstep. She took me in her arms. My mother is a sweet old woman, just half my size, but her soul is enormous. She is strong and sometimes even fierce, but her touch is gentle and kind. Even at this age in my life I still sometimes need my mother’s touch.
I lamented to her my situation, forgetting that she herself had gone through the very same thing with me and my siblings as we grew up. She gave me warm hugs and kind words of encouragement. Then she suggested we take a walk in the park.
We walked through the neighborhood to Hyde Park. I always loved Hyde Park. I remember going as a little girl and being fascinated by the jugglers and musicians. I took my own children to Hyde Park as well. We spent many wonderful afternoons flying kites and having picnics. Our favorite thing was to find the chalk artists. They would create the most beautiful masterpieces right on the sidewalk. They would color skiers racing down the Alps, or brightly trimmed sailboats floating on the river, or woman in fancy dresses with feathered hats and parasols, sipping their tea on Sunday afternoons. Their pictures rivaled the masters ~ Renoir and Monet.
Mother and I strolled through the park enjoying the day even though it was cold and cloudy. We came upon an old chalk artist. He had been sketching his chalk creations for as long as I could remember. His face was weathered and wrinkled and his hair was thin and grey. But he was a friendly old artist and he often had an exciting story to tell about his works of art.
On this particular day he had colored a beautiful scene. It was families at the park. The grass was dazzling green, children chased their kites, mothers held their babies, and fathers threw the ball. The sun was shining in a brilliant blue sky and all the illustrated characters were truly happy and thoroughly enjoying their lovely animated day on the sidewalk.
The scene of happy picnickers at the park suddenly made my sorrow return.
“If only our wonderful days at the park could stay just like that forever.” I lamented to Mother. Our old artist friend overheard my wishful thinking.
“Ah, but if this one stayed forever, I wouldn’t get to draw the next.” He said as he bowed his head, lifted his cap and smiled.
Just then the cold and threatening clouds crashed. Drops of rain began to fall and people began to quickly scatter. Mother and I pulled out our umbrella for shelter. We stood near the old artist and watched the raindrops slowly fall on his masterpiece. Each drop of rain blurred the happy families little by little.
“It’s so sad” I said as I watched the little children in the picture turn into colorful sweeping streaks of chalk.
“Oh no, it’s not sad at all.” The old man assured me.
“But how can you just watch all of your hard work wash away?” I asked pointing to the wet, blurry figures that were now hardly recognizable.
He could see that I did not understand. His eyes looked into mine and I could see great wisdom.
“Don’t you spend hours and hours on each one of your pictures? And now they are gone!” I insisted in feeling wretched about it. The raindrops splashed against the ground and his masterpiece was now just a distorted smudge of colors.
“Look!” I said. “How can it be worth it to spend so much time and effort on something that is so easily gone? You spend time on your hands and knees taking care of every detail.”
“Yes.” He smiled and showed me his calloused hands and his worn trousers. “I do spend hours and hours on each one of my masterpieces. I labor over every line, every color, making sure every detail is just exactly as it should be.”
“Is it worth it?” I honestly wondered.
“Of course. Everyday it is a joy to create such a masterpiece. I love every splash of purple in my lilacs. I thrill at every brilliant blue sky. I rejoice in every leaf I color in different shades of green and every pebble I color different shades of brown. I delight in creating the family on a picnic or the king at his feast, or the carousel at the fair. Every brilliant color and every fine detail brings me great joy. And,” he said smiling at Mother and me “it brings me such pleasure when people, like yourself, stroll by and stop to look and enjoy the picture I have created.”
“But it’s so much work. And now it’s gone. Is it really worth it?” Tears filled my eyes and the words caught in my throat. “How can you keep on working and working and working just to watch it all go away?”
The rain continued to fall around us but suddenly I wasn’t cold anymore, my heart began to burn, and I realized I was no longer talking just about sidewalk art. My heart, my sad mother’s heart, wanted to know if all the hard work, all the time on hands and knees, all the careful thought, and all the careful focus on every detail… was really all worth it? Because now it was gone.
The sweet, wise, old artist saw my sadness and understood, even if I did not. He took my hands into his and gently said “Of course it really is worth it, because the joy of creating the masterpiece is worth the pain of letting it go.”
Tears, mingled with raindrops, ran down my face. Now I knew why my mother brought me to the park on that cold, wet day. She smiled a reassuring smile with a comforting wink of her eye. I finally understood. I was still a bit sad, but now I understood. The joy in creating a masterpiece, the joy in every detail of my children’s lives, every soccer game, every skinned knee, every piano lesson, every first date, every late night, every tear, every triumph… every detail was worth it. It was the joy in creating that I needed to remember.
On that cold, foggy and rainy day in London I finally understood and I was thankful for the joy I had in creating a few masterpieces of my own.

Bit By The Travel Bug!

I was born and raised in Arizona. I have lived here all my life. It sounds pretty boring. Right? I know. However, it has been a wonderful place to grow up and then raise my own family. No regrets there. From the earliest time I can remember, though, I have loved to travel. As a little girl I loved road trips. Still do today. Most people moan and complain when they have to drive long distances. But I enjoy this strange past time. As a little girl I loved packing my bags: what clothes to bring, what shoes, what toys can I pack? And what food and candy and snacks are we bringing? It was all very exciting for a little girl. My siblings and I would cram in the back seat. For the most part we would get along fine. But there was definitely a few “You’re taking up too much space!” or “It’s my turn to sit by the window.” or “Ohhh… You’re stinky!” Dad would give us fair warning before his great, big arm would fly over the seat and whack a few naughty kids. Don’t get wrong. Dad was very patient. We got more warnings than we probably deserved, and although his arm was big and long – he was 6’5”, he was a gentle man. But it was effective. For most of the drive we would play games and sing songs.

The big travel bug bit me in High School. As a family we spent 2 weeks in Alaska one summer and twice we went to Hawaii. Alaska was incredible. We enjoyed staying w/cousins, camped at Mt. McKinley, watched Salmon swim upstream, we’re awed and amazed at the beauty of it all, and we saw big, brown grizzly bears- up close! My brother and I had nice, new cameras and we wanted photos of the bears. We crossed the street and started crossing the meadow to get closer. Dad, a daredevil himself, was with us. Mom was screaming from the car “Jim, get back here. You’re too close. Get those kids back here!” We did get some great pictures and no one was eaten alive! Hawaii is, of course, Hawaii. Breathtaking and simply heavenly. It was on those trips that I realized I really loved to travel.

Well, many years later, married with children and raising a family one gets busy. And actually, busy is an understatement. But I love my family and we had lots of great family trips. The traditional trips were to Utah to see relatives, to Lake Tahoe to ski each winter, and every summer to California to enjoy the beach. But we have also had the opportunity to go to some really remarkable places.
These are a Few of My Favorite Places... (see additional posts)

A Few Favorite Places in Central & S. America

Argentina! 2 1/2 incredible weeks traveling and meeting the people. Oh, we miss Argentina. We miss the Asado's, dulce de leche, Florida street, the Tango, empenadas and more! We don't miss matte. Well, some do but not me. They could always get the grass clippings from the lawn mower and mix that up.

Go Boca!!
Iguazu Falls: on the Argentine/Brazilian border makes Niagra look like small potatoes! Took an INSANE boat ride to the foot of the falls, "You want go in more?" the little Argentine boat driver would ask in his broken english. We were sopping wet, but we all laughed and screamed "Uno mas! Uno mas!" Hiking through the jungles and seeing the falls from every angle, it was like being in an Indiana Jones movie.

Peru! Darling, kind, generous and TINY people and Llamas everywhere. We kept quoting: "Llama face." and "Oh, good, I'm a Llama again." :)

Then on to the lost city of the Incas: Machu Pichu. Words cannot describe. Awesome, magnificent, majestic, ancient .This time we went back in time 1000’s of years.

Palanque, Mexico. We loved this spot! Ancient Mayan ruins hidden deep in the jungles of southern Mexico.

Agua Azul - Mexico. A hidden paradise! We had never seen such beautiful, crystal clear blue water.

Teotihaucan. The golden city of the Aztecs. We climbed to the top of the Temple of the Moon. Then a few thousand more steps up to the top of the Temple of the Sun!

A Few of My Favorite Places in Europe

Rothenburg, Germany! Like stepping through a time machine and going back in time! Where history still breathes from every corner. Cobblestone streets, quant old shops filled with dolls, linens, flowers, cheese, wine, all kinds of knick-knacks and, of course, Nutcrackers!

Paris, France. Big, busy & beautiful! “The City of Lights” they say. True. It’s magical.

Rue de l'Alma where Princess Diana was killed. We were there just months after the accident. The streets and bridge above were still covered with flowers & photos & messages of love. We could see the skid marks and broken concrete where the cars made impact with the walls of the tunnel. It was sad. But we loved the Eiffel Tower – to the very top. We loved the crepes – a family favorite. We loved Notre Dame, the Louvre, Place de la Concorde, Versailles and more.











Salzburg, Austria. So beautiful and quant. My son’s wouldn’t be caught dead in the Lederhosen but Ashley thought the Dirndls(dresses) were cute. I loved it all. Old buildings and castles, fortresses, gardens, alps and convents. “The hills are alive with the sound of music”!














Hampton Court Palace. This was my favorite stop on a trip to London, England. England’s finest Royal Palace – 500 years of Royal history by the Thames. And, oh, how I am fascinated by the Tudor’s & King Henry VIII, his many wives and their intriguing, exciting, yet tragic lives. Divorced-beheaded-died-divorced-beheaded-survived. Not a great pattern!

A Few of My favorite Places in the U.S.

Mammoth, California. We thought we were back on the Alps!





















Washington DC. Been here several times and never tire of it!

New York City: One of my favorite shots on the ferry ride back from the Statue of Liberty. Obviously before 9/11. Here's another picture: very same shot... several years later. Different kids and painfully different skyline with missing Twin Towers!

Spring Break

SPRING BREAK: lots of fun skiing/snowboarding in Utah

James with his darling Emma.

My Grandkids are the cutest in the world. I love this photo! Carden, Brooke, Rhead and Halle having fun in Nana's pool.

Me/Nana with Rhead & Brooke at the Zoo

STATE PLAY-OFFS

* * STATE PLAY-OFFS * *

Jaren led his team through an exciting season. We were anxious and excited for the State Play-Offs. We felt confident that we would do really well. 4 Games. Just 4 critical, single elimination games! Everyone is playing for their lives. You lose – you’re out!

Play-Off Game #1: Mt. View vs Mesquite. I wasn’t worried about this one. We easily won by 27 points! It was fantastic

Play-Off Game #2: Mt. View vs Corona. People said “This will be tuff. We beat them once but they beat us once.” I reminded them that Corona only beat us because that was the game Jaren sprained his ankle. Jaren is back and he and the team are playing better than ever. Sure enough, we killed them! We won by 25 points! Some were surprised. I was not.

Play-Off Game #3: Mt. View vs Buena. Again, everyone said “Oh, this will be close.” Because Buena was undefeated and ranked #1! However, they play in an easy region. Again, I wasn’t nervous at all. People were amazed that I wasn’t nervous. But, honestly, I felt so good and confident in the boys. Something inside me knew we were going to win it all. Even about half way through the season, I knew. I never spoke it out loud, because I didn’t want to jinx them or sound crazy. But something inside of me knew. And sure enough, poor Bueno was destroyed! We won by 27 points again!! They didn’t know what hit them. They walked off the court in tears. It was so sad!

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: against Brophy. Brophy is good! They play a lot like Mt. View. No one could predict a winner. Everyone looked forward to a CLOSE, nail biting game. I thought it would be close, but I still was so calm and knew we were going to win. What I didn’t

know, and what no one else ever guessed in their wildest dreams, was that we would beat them by 21 points! It was said in different articles that this was probably the most dominating run through a Play-Off series ever in Arizona history! We beat our teams by: 27-25-27-21! It was simply amazing. Our boys were awesome and play so well together. They truly are a team. Jaren was for sure the best player, but he was no hot-shot super star. He led and shined in such a subtle way. Even though he was almost always the high scorer or high rebounder he always made sure everyone was involved, everyone was shooting. I think that’s part of what makes him a great player. My heart swelled and tears filled my eyes as the buzzer buzzed and I watched Jaren celebrate, hugging his teammates and coach. Jaren and the other 3 starting seniors were whisked away for a TV interview. So cool. I’m just so proud of him, for all his hard work. He deserves the win! He deserves a spot on the BYU team! I’m just so, so, so thankful that his dreams are coming true and it’s because he has been willing to work so hard and make big sacrifices.

Solid As A Rock

Our trip to Yosemite and hiking Half Dome

We're going to the TOP! Yes, to the top of that!!

Hike Day: Up at 4:00am! Quick breakfast of hard boiled eggs, bagel and oranges. On the trail by 6:00am. We filled our water bottles & packed granola bars, trail mix, apples, sandwiches & more. It's going to be a long day and we can't be hungry on the mountain. We also packed band aids & good old handy duct tape. Off we go... With Half Dome - in the back ground, we're well on our way!

Michelle wants to make sure everyone see the warning sign! "DANGEROUS - SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH" Why are we going to the top?? Because we can! Because we're amazing! :) Nothing can stop us. We read our scripture theme again: Helaman 5:12

“And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”

I LOVE that!

They are called the “Granite Stairs”. But we called them “the CLIFFS OF INSANITY!” :) The photo does not do justice to how incredibly STEEP these “stairs” were. People warned us that they were difficult and they weren’t exaggerating. These stairs are carved out of the granite; they were straight up and went right along the edge of cliffs that dropped 100’s of feet below!

We finally arrived at the top of the Granite Stairs… relieved & exhausted but so proud, only to find ourselves facing the giant, daunting, yea, even almost threatening Half Dome! It was 

crowded the day we were there, which made it even more difficult, as we had to wait to go up and then while, literally hanging on the mountain, holding on for dear life to the cables, we had to wait more for people who were too weak or too afraid to move forward. It really added to the difficulty.

We all grabbed onto the cables and started our climb up. Again, the photos don’t do justice, because what these photos fail to show is that on every side around us the mountain drops to steep cliffs 1000’s of feet below. There were several times where I had to focus and not allow fear to enter into my head: once someone dropped their water bottle. It went tumbling past us dropping over the edge. And you seriously thought “Oh my gosh! That could have been a person!” Then someone’s camera went flying by crashing over the cliff. Oh boy!

Yipee! We made it to the TOP! We think we’re pretty studly. We are! It was a TUFF climb, a long hike, but worth every painful step, every scary thought, every strenuous, grueling stride. The view was spectacular! Heavenly

Back down the mountain we went… Jaren ran most of it! He darted between the trees and the trail like an elk. :) Oh, to be 17 and in great shape! Doug and I actually ran a bit, but we’re old so we didn’t last very long and we certainly could not keep up with Jaren. We finally reached the half way point again. This time we took off our shoes and soaked our poor aching feet in the cold river. It felt soooo good! You can see all my duct tape, trying to avoid blisters. Our feet were sore and dirty. We were working and hiking hard!

Surprisingly, the hike down was almost as difficult as the hike up! Perhaps, partly, because we were tired & sore & blistered at this point! But in spite of the pain it was incredible and absolutely beautiful! We wouldn’t change a thing, well, except maybe a few blisters.

10 Hour… 18 miles… 4800 steep feet gain… 8850 feet elevation… blisters… sore feet… and tired legs later, we were done! Impressive! What a great accomplishment.

Grandchildren

Here's sweet little Halle, she belongs to Ashley & Mike, at our home in Provo, Utah.




Justin and Marin have Carden (3yrs) and the adorable twins: Rhead and Brooke.





James & Erin have their sweet "Baby Emma". Who isn't really a baby anymore. She is having fun in Nana's pool.