It's Maturation Day at Valley View... You've gotta love it!

Ok... so we all remember our 5th/6th grade maturation. I remember going one evening to the lunchroom with my mom and watching this totally corny movie, being so embarrassed and laughing at the little kit I got.

My mom had already had the "talk" with Jenn and I -- but honestly I didn't understand one word my mom was talking about and I was too embarassed to tell her I didn't know what she was talking about. Cheryl Pope and I used to compare notes and between the two of us talking I think we finally figured out the real story. (That definitely changed later -- my college roommates and I used to call my mom when we had any questions -- I know I totally embarrased her sometimes but I was really glad I knew I could go to her with our questions.)

I went to Maturation with my niece Kerri (cause Lorie couldn't go that day) and remember just laughing at the girls and their moms.

Well... Lauren and I had our turn today. Those of you that know much about Lauren and I know we are both pretty open (ok... so maybe a little too open). We have had multiple discussions already about this topic -- funny ones, spiritual ones, and teary/spiritual ones when they involved adoption.

Between she and Kenzi I've had multiple discussions and nearly every question possible already.

Kenzi is quite fascinated by everything, very practical and asks some incredibly deep questions about it. Lauren on the other hand asks lots of questions but gets very embarassed. She was really nervous this morning.

My observations after attending this morning:
#1. The lady that did it was hilarious, very open and did a great job... I would love to have heard it explained the way she explained it. And I think every newlywed man/husband should hear her explanation of mood swings around PMS.

#2. The movies they use now are way, way better than the one I saw.

#3. There is nothing funnier than watching the girls (and moms) squirm, giggle, turn red throughout the whole thing and then taking their little "sample bags" back to the room after.

#4. Although Lauren was embarrased, and she and her friends were so funny after, I'm so glad I have an open relationship with her and we've already discussed this many, many times. Lauren is really easy to talk to and althought moving to these next "steps" as a mom makes me teary (yes she told me that I was totally lame this morning when I teared up at breakfast and told her there was no way she was old enough to go to maturation) I quite enjoyed this new phase of parenting this morning.

Annie ... not sure who misses it more, Cam or Kenzi

Kenzi had the chance to be an orphan in Bountiful High's Annie in January. As with Les Mis she loved it and the high school kids were so great with her. Although she was a little sad that she didn't get to sing a solo like Les Mis or Power in His Touch -- she loved the play and had a lot of fun learning all of the dances and songs. As far as "having fun" goes -- I think this was her favorite play so far. She even got to have her blanket and toys on stage and had several scenes where they were just supposed to play and talk on stage... what could be better! Because they were supposed to be acting like little girls, no one even knew it was real when she and another little orphan girl starting sweetly fighting on stage over one of the presents.

They had a read dog as Sandy and the little orphans loved her! The 2nd the curtain call was over she and another little girl would run to see the dog.

Cameron loved it as much or more than Kenzi I think. I believe he has his 2nd crush (his 1st being his preschool teacher Mrs. Wing). He LOVED Annie -- the music and Annie herself. We had a poster at our house and he picked it up one day and starting kissing it saying "I love, love, love you -- you are so cute Annie."

Whenever he went (which was 8 times) he would sing out loud -- it actually got a little embarassing and we had to "sush" him several times each night. "The sun'll come out tomorrow..." and his other favorite songs were definietly loud enough people around us could hear.

He loved Waggy the puppet in the radio show and walked around repeating his lines. The last night Kenzi took him over to meet the guy who played Waggy and he was speechless. He couldn't even talk he was so excited.

Cameron has always adored Makenzie, but Kenzi being in Annie has greatly increased his adoration for her.

Great job Kenzi -- cute as ever!!!

The Hess Family's Contribution to Stimulating the Economy and... Goodbye car from Well... you know where!

After 3 1/2 years of way too much money spent... Dave traded in his Audi and bought a new car! Don't get me wrong, I loved the Audi. Ok... that isn't true, but when it wasn't in the shop it was a great car. It felt nice, drove nice and was fabulous in the snow. We generally have great luck with cars -- my niece still drives our 1994 Honda and my dad still has the 1995 truck... not sure what happened here.

My disdain for this car started 2 weeks after we bought it on Ebay and I received a call at 8:30 am in the morning.

"Is this Mrs. Hess? This is Bob Smith from the car transport company and I was parked in a lot last night to get some sleep in Ohio when a fluke hailstorm hit. Unfortunately your new Audi was on the top back of the transport and received the worse damage."

"Excuse me... is this a joke... is this a radio show?"

"I wish it were ma'am. The back windshield was blown out and there are 1000s of dings all over the car."

When we finally saw the car 2 days later the entire inside was covered in shattered glass, the back was covered with duct tape and cardboard and yes there were 1000s of hail dings all over the car.

Because this was "an act of God" the cost was not covered by the transport company.

One month and $5000 later (fortunately our insurance paid for most of that) Dave got to drive his new car.

When the engine check light wasn't on (which was probably 2x during the 3 years) it was great! We had two fun road trips to the Las Vegas Bowl in it and Dave did like driving it around.

I can't even remember all of the problems but after being the in shop this summer for over a month to do the most extensive repair possible, two other 2 week repairs ... several thousands of dollars (I'm not even going to admit how much) it finally passed emissions in November and we decided it was time to say goodbye.

We decided to trade it in -- to avoid a repeat of the used car stalker guy from our BYU days (yes... he did stalk me at my office and showed up at our apartment in tears at 11:30pm one night and said his wife would divorce him if we didn't buy our car back) we traded it in.

So -- goodbye Audi and hello Maxima (with the heated seats that I LOVE)!!! Let's hope we have better luck this time.

25 Random Things

Thanks to my friend Becca my blog is my journal to be printed once a year... so although this is on Facebook, I thought I'd add this to my blog as well.

1. I cry when I’m happy – I cry when I’m sad. I believe that no one should ever cry alone so I also cry when anyone else is crying.

2. My favorite vacation in the whole world is a week on a houseboat at Lake Powell. Unfortunately I haven’t done this since Lauren was one. Our family got a little too big for 1 houseboat – someday we will go again though.

3. My new favorite vacation is anywhere we go as a family. We love our St. George trips, Disneyland/San Diego/Aunt Cathy vacations, road trips to see Nat and kids and anyplace we go together. Hawaii last December will definitely be one of our best family memories – surprising the kids like we did was soooo fun!

4. My favorite weekend getaway is definitely the cabin in Midway. I love biking Provo Canyon in the spring or fall and then BBQ and sleeping on the deck with the kids -- nothing is better than falling asleep watching the stars. (I also love watching Dave long board up and down Provo canyon. All of the other long boarders are teenagers who look the part and then there is Dave… with his wife and kids following him.) In the winter I love to sled with the kids, watch them jump off the deck into the snow and over eat and play games all night. I love New Year’s Eve at the cabin with all of our cousins!

5. I am a hopeless romantic! I love Hallmark Hall of Fame sappy movies and have watched my favorite love stories too many times to mentions… Roman Holiday, Sabrina, While You Were Sleeping, You’ve Got Mail… you get the idea.

6. One of my favorite books is Pride & Prejudice and I love every version of the movie out there – A&E Pride & Prejudice and the Bollywood Bride & Prejudice are my two favorites.

7. My niece and sister-in-law and I have a thing for Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight.” If it ever comes on the radio I have to call and sing to Cathy and Katie. Rarely in my life do I laugh as hard as I do when we “re-live” the funny story behind this song.

8. I love NPRs “This American Life” radio show. If you’ve never listened you’ve got to tune in one Saturday. It definitely has some liberal leanings (it is NPR…) but I love the stories they tell. (One of the greatest stories I’ve heard on this is the Phil Collins love story segment – part of #7 above.)

9. I always wanted to marry my best friend… I wanted to be walking down the street with him one day, look over and realize I was in love with him. That is exactly what happened with Dave – except we were up at a snowy cabin, with a full moon at a work party.

10. Dave and I talk about a hundred times a day.

11. My kids mean everything in the world to me! They were all miracles and the results of lots of fasting/prayers/tears -- I get sick at the thought of what I would do without them.

12. My mom was the most amazing person I know. She was my best friend throughout my whole life. When she died I really didn’t think I would be able to go on. I take comfort in knowing that she did have something to do with getting my girls to me so for that I am grateful. I can honestly say even after 14 years a day doesn’t go by when I don’t miss her.

13. I think all of my boyfriends kept dating me because they liked my mom so much and wanted her as a mother-in-law. Although I have the worlds best/funniest/kindest/wackiest dad – I think some of my boyfriends just about stopped dating me because of my dad. He always told us “All a boy will ever want you for is your body!” He never trusted anyone we dated and was out on the front porch in his robe if we were in the car in front of the house longer than 10 seconds!

14. I’ve excercised since I was about 12 years old. My mom started taking me to a Jazzercise class at twelve (I remember dancing/excercising to the song 9-5) and I’ve always gone to aerobics/walked/lifted weights ever since.

15. When I was growing up my mom would always have my dad stop and drop us off about ½ mile from home after we went out to dinner so she and I could walk home… she said there was no way she could go home or sleep being so full. I’ve carried on this tradition thanks to my friend Val. We take late night walks on weekend nights in the fall/spring/summer since one of us has usually gone out to dinner and overeaten. It isn’t uncommon for us to go out at 10:30 pm when it isn’t so cold out. (We actually did a late night walk last Wednesday after our families went out to dinner together and I was so full I thought I would barf. It was a little cold but I felt much better.) Sometimes we get other people or our girls to go with us and I can always count on Lauren running out to the middle of the cul-de-sac to greet us when we get home even if it is 11:30 pm!

16. I’ve always been blessed with great friends! I had good friends growing up and in High School, I had the world’s best roommates at BYU and great friends who helped me make it through Business School, and I’ve always worked with wonderful people who became lifelong friends. And now as a mom I couldn’t ask for better friends for me and my kids!

17. On any given night your guess is as good as mine as to where my kids will wake up the next morning. Tonight they are all in Lauren's bed, last night Cameron started in Lauren's room and ended up on our floor, and sometimes they all sleep in Makenzie's bed. Last week Kenzi was in her bed and Lauren slept on the floor of Cameron's room. If Cameron is having a night terror and comes in our bed I sometimes leave him with Dave and go and sleep in his bed. And unfortunately there have been a few times when I wake up and find all 5 Hess family members in my bed!

18. I love all four seasons – including winter... who doesn't love driving in the piles of snow on the side of the street? I love the changes in the weather and I love the activities that come with all of the seasons.

19. In a weird way I even like the inversion… ok only because I love to go skiing when the inversion is in the valley. There is nothing better than being in the gunk, driving up one of the canyons and about ½ way up breaking out of it and seeing beautiful blue skies and the thermometer jumping up 20 degrees. That is one of the reasons I plan to ski until I can’t walk anymore.

20. When I have PMS I can’t decide if I need salty or sweet… so I generally just go back and forth and back and forth until I’m so sick I have to call Val and Lisa and go for a walk. (In college my good friend introduced me to Peanut Buster Parfaits at Dairy Queen and that became a winner for lots and lots of years. Dave could always sense when it was time to take me to Dairy Queen.)

21. Dave is a better cook and cleaner than I am. He makes the best grilled Turkey at Thanksgiving, the best ceviche and gazpacho and mastered curry a few years ago. He can get any stain out of a kitchen sink and at least once a quarter I like him to clean the bathrooms. I’m not sure what he does but when he is finished it looks like the entire bathroom went through the world’s best carwash.

22. I love going to BYU football games. This started as a family tradition when I was growing up and I married someone who loves it as well. Some of my best road trip memories are me and Dave and various family members heading to the Holiday Bowl, Vegas Bowl, BYU/U of U games (except when Toph and Dave about got me beaten up – I think I’m done with the U of U/BYU games at the U thanks to them.)

23. I have the best brothers and sisters. Although we are all really different, I have a great friendship with each of them. One of the reasons I made it through Jr. High and High School as smoothly as I did was because of my brothers. Although I don't think I realized it at the time, they had a tremendous impact on how I felt about myself.

24. A professional massage, a late night walk or a candlelight bubble bath while watching a sappy romantic comedy are my 3 favorite ways to relax.

25. Although we don’t camp much (ok… so hardly ever… once we got the cabin Dave decided that the days of tent camping were over) but I love campfires. I love to watch the flames. Dave built a fire pit last summer and although I’m a little freaky about the trees around it catching on fire, I love having it. (I am going to plan a camping trip this summer. I get to still enjoy camping at least at girls camp, but my kids are missing out!)