The Nephi song, I Don't Feel Like Singing, and many more

So we can't have a story session about Summer without mentioning her songs. Remember how much time Summer spent on the piano composing her music? And remember how much time I spent singing along and making up harmonies to her songs? Ah, yes. Those were good times...

To Go Shopping With Tara...

The other day I came home from the store with a few items more than were on my list. Chris' remark when I showed him the merchandise was, "You are not allowed to go shopping while you are on the phone with Tara!" You see, when you go shopping with Tara, she has a way of making items you might otherwise say weren't in the budget seem justified somehow. Its great and scary all at the same time. My favorite phrase of her persuasive jargon is "Sometimes you have to get something for yourself. If the mom is not happy then nobody in the family is happy." This is, of course, the one that usually makes it seem alright; the one that makes me say, "She's right! I do need this." And, of course, once the purchase is justified in my mind, I do feel happy.

Watch for Flying Nails!

I remember when I finally was old enough to play cards with the rest of the girls. In my first few games I learned that nearly every game was about speed, not much about strategy or thought, just speed. And things got pretty intense sometimes - playing Nertz on the floor and the next thing you know, everyone's hovering over the cards yelling and slapping cards as fast as they can. And there was one very important rule - no nails. Mom never followed that rule. So the more actively we got into the game, the more hands got sliced on Mom's nails. The more violent the play, the more brutal the cut. Mom gave out bandaids for any major injuries, but the rest of us got some sweetly spoken, sugar-coated, insensitive remark like, "Well you should have just let me put MY card there...."

Polls

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45 thousand Big Fat Monster - Tara's version

It was a hot day in....Wait that is the beginning of another story. I was in Utah in the Summer time. We were on a "Girl's trip" to see Bean in her opera "I'm Loooossst". While we were there, we decided to see if we could find brides maid dresses for Jannie's upcoming wedding! We were at the mall and trying on dresses and clothes. Well Everyone could fit into the same dress and we were trading the dresses from stall to stall. Everyone, that is, except ME! I would squish into a dress that Sundee had just tried on, and she looked great in it by the way, and all I looked like was a sausage, all plump and rolley. So I tried on the dress that Charity had tried on. I couldn't even get the dress past the shoulder seam of the arm holes. My fore arms were way too buff! So I tried on a dress that o' scrawny one had (that being Jo-my-mother) and that was just a passing fancy. Pretty soon, I realized that everyone was just the right size, except ME! And every time I looked in the mirror, I got fatter! By the time we were done trying on clothes I had become the 45 thousand Big Fat Monster. Jannie, Sundee, Bean and Mom all laughed at me for being frustrated with my roundness. And believe me... they all Laughed, lots! "but what is life if we can not make a little sport for our neighbors. And we will laugh at them in our turn" to quote Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) I am not quite so irritated about it now, but I am also not quite 45 thousand Big Fat monster any more. "Whooa!" -Tara

Etiquette Snob!

Summer... O how you Choose to remember only select items! As many of you have already read, Summer gets or got truly offended by other slurping their food. Well may I remind you of a little story. We were in the house on Quailbrook drive in Utah. You remember, the one with the split entry and enormous front yard. Interestingly enough, the back yard was quite small in comparison. Anyway. We were making s'mores. Melted Chocolate and marshmallow heaven laid very unceremoniously on a graham cracker and squished from the top with another graham cracker...Yum! Everyone who was home was having one or three, what ever the case may be. Summer purposely made a mess of her face. She would take a bite and pull the marshmallow strings away from her mouth with a flourish. The strings would drip from her chin. Summer would giggle under her breath at the way the strings would land everywhere. She would then take another bite with a giggle and end up with chocolate and marshmallow kissed upon her cheek. She would take a last bite, leave half of it hanging out of her mouth and shake her head, similar to a doggy trying to shake off the water after a bath. Her lips looked like a three year old took brown marker to it. When we complained that Summer was making a mess, she burst into fits of Silent laughter. Summer, the etiquette snob was the messiest. So you see, manners and s'mores do not work harmoniously together. By the way, Summer was in her late teens, about seventeen or eighteen, and I have pictures to prove it!

The Flat Tire

I remember when Tara had asked me to fly out to Missouri and help her drive to Arizona. Actually we did this twice. Once we were driving along the Texas panhandle and got a flat tire. The car was very loaded with suitcases and things to keep the kids busy and happy. We had unloaded lots of stuff trying to find the crow bar and jack, which were NOT to be found! So we were trying to figure out how to change the tire. It was getting late and we were starting to get a little nervous. After a while a man stopped to help us. As he changed the tire, he told us that he had driven past us already and turned around. He was going to help another person, but she was already being helped. So he stopped to help us. We definitely knew he was sent to us. He said before he started on his trip he had intended to help someone along the way. I think he always did that. Anyway, he had passed us the first time because we looked like two strong women that could handle it and he had intended to help the older woman (who already had help by the time he got back). Anyway, we had no way to change that tire without help. So we were definitely watched over that time.
Mom

The $300.00 WINNER!

When Summer was in high school, she was in a show choir. And she seemed to do quite well. This high school always held a talent show and offered a money prize. The neat thing about this was that it brought people out of the woodwork to try for it. There were kids trying out that weren't in any of the music classes, etc. Anyway lots of good stiff competition was to be had! I remember telling our kids that the piano players win.

Summer auditioned with "Summertime.". Dad worked with Summer and her accompanist to perfect the song. Well, the night came and as I suspected the piano players were very good . The favored male singer was very good! Then Summer got up and stood by the piano in her beautiful white dress and no shoes. She was very striking with her bright red hair and blue eyes. And then she started singing!
"Summertime, and the living is easy…
It was low and rich. It had a beautiful intensity.
That was it! There was no turning back! The audience was captivated! There was even some guy in the audience that later claimed that she "melted" him.

She brought the house down! The judges thought they'd see her name in lights one day.
She surprised all the "would-be" winners. She won the $300.00 !!!
(and her voice just keeps getting better!)
Mom

twins or not ...that is the question!

Tara and Summer looked enough like twins to fool people. When they were little, I dressed them alike often. As they grew older they would accidentally do it to themselves. Right girls? Remember the brown leather jackets? How many times did people get them mixed up or think they were twins? It was fun ... for me:)
Don't you think they look even more alike than Arnold Swartzenegger (SP?) and Danny Divito (SP?)
the Mom lady

Little Miss Independent

Thoughts about Tara
When Tara was a little girl say two or three at the most (I think) she was already showing signs of independence! We were at Grandma Tryon's and we realized Tara was missing! Scary!!! They lived just off Stapley on 2nd place. So we frantically started looking. Someone found her up on University. She was following Missy, Grandma's little dog. That was nearly a mile away. Little Miss Independent!
Mom

OK, so post already!

You know, there are a few of us who actually read these blogs.  Maybe because we're far away and this is our only link to family at 9 in the morning, 'cause no one else is awake so you can't call them yet, plus, you don't have enough minutes on your phone anyway to just chat (bummer), so you check the blog just to see if, maybe, just in case, someone has posted another story Jannie has so politely and entertaining-ly asked for, which by the way, the ones that are up are downright hilarious and thoroughly a joy to read and remember (so, Jannie and Tara, you are exempted from this kindly-meant censure), maybe it's because of that that we out-of-towners check the blog so frequently, only to find that no new posts have been added since the last time we checked, and we hang our heads in sullen pouting, wishing for more memories from home.  Whew, there was a lot to say there.  So, anyway, just post already.

45K Big Fat Monster

Tara and I (and probably someone else) went clothes shopping and it just wasn't the day for Tara. Nothing seemed to fit right - the store never had her size, it may even say it's her size on the tag, but then it was too small in the arms, or the ribcage was too tight, or whatever. Everytime she found something cute, it didn't quite fit - mostly because Tara has an athletic build, but she was NOT feeling athletic that day. After a while, she got discouraged and everytime she found something cute she'd say, "But of course they don't have my size... because I'm size 45 thousand big fat monster!!!" I tried not to laugh out loud, but all that does is turn a smile into a wide open dropped jaw, happy eyes go buggy and eyebrows jump high trying to stretch the smile out of your cheeks. And that only makes the laugh far more draumatic than it would have been in the first place.

She still to make jokes about being size 45 thousand big fat monster...and it still makes me laugh out-loud.

Squirrels, Teddybears and Bedtime Stories

Summer used to tell the best bedtime stories. When Charity and I shared a room, Summer would come in, sit on the bed, and begin with "Once upon a time, there were two squirrels - one named Charity and the other named Jannie..." and we were hooked. ANY story that involved an animal that had our names MUST be a good one!

I also remember her telling the story about this picture Mom had on the wall. The picture was a victorian style painting of a teddybear and a trumpet. I don't remember what else was in it (except it was mostly pink), but I remember the teddybear and the trumpet. Summer started with the usual, "Once upon a time..." and continued into the most fantastic journey about a young boy who had a teddybear and saved a kingdom with the use of the trumpet. It was exciting, full of adventure and twists and humble glory. One time I asked Summer to retell it and she didn't even remember that she told me a story about it. But I really liked that one - I still wish I remembered the details. It was a cool story!!!

Slurping and Clinking

I remember several mornings sitting at the table, peacefully eating my cereal with Summer and most of the younger sisters - when out of nowhere Summer would rudely and deliberately SLUUURRRRRPPP her food and glare at us all. Stunned by her sudden abrasive gesture, we all stopped and looked at her. After brief silence or a "What?" from us younger girls, Summer would say, "Would you ALL please stop slurping your food?!? It's rude, it's gross, and it bothers me!" At first, she would get a non-apologetic "Sorry" and we'd keep eating, trying not to eat loudly.

After a while of her immitating our slurping we got mad and tried to nit-pick back. One of us piped up: "You may not slurp, but you clink your teeth on the spoon when it goes in your mouth and that bothers us." I don't remember who first said it, but all of us younger girls got on board! From that moment on, clinking bothered everyone who was in trouble for slurping. So each morning at the table, we'd pick on each other. Summer would clink her spoon on her teeth as she ate and we younger girls would slurp louder and longer. Soon, Summer would just put the empty spoon in her mouth and chew, Chew, CHEW just to bug us - but there were lots of us slurping and only one of her clinking. Sometimes the noise was so obnoxious that a few of us would start laughing, but we'd quickly be back to the serious business of attacking each other with slurps and clinks.