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!