I can't believe Jarom is another year older. We celebrated his birthday by going out in the snowstorm to see Tron. Our electricity went out about 2 minutes after Meagan put Jarom's birthday cake in the oven, so we took it back out again and put it in the fridge. With the electricity out, we were kind of glad we were leaving!
Donavon and David S went with us to the movie. We ended up seeing it in 3-D, which David V and I don't like. I fell asleep part way through. Hmmm... guess it's just not my kind of movie, and the 3-D didn't help. Maybe if I didn't already wear glasses it wouldn't be so bad. The kids seemed to like it, though, so I guess that's the main thing.
After the movie we came home and, yay, the electricity was back on. David, Meagan and I threw together all sorts of stuff for nachos and we ate. We have yet to frost the cake. I think everyone was so full with nachos, we didn't really care.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
I LOVE 4WD
In the winter when I'm wading through knee-deep snow, I love the Suburban because I don't get stuck in places I would totally get stuck in the Crown. Like my driveway.
The rest of the year, I'd rather drive the Crown. Ask Meagan. She calls the Suburban the "big green monster" because I don't like driving it because it's gargantuan. It's hard to back out in parking lots. I'm glad I'm not a truck or bus driver. I'd be the bus driver that runs over all the curbs going around the corners.
This morning when David took the boys to school, he zoomed past all the neighbors whose vans or cars were adrift in snowbanks. When I went to work, I zipped past the same neighbors who were still stuck in the snow. David was nice and tried to help the next door neighbor get his truck out of his driveway.
And I'm very glad we still have electricity. Nice, warm, lovely electricity.
The rest of the year, I'd rather drive the Crown. Ask Meagan. She calls the Suburban the "big green monster" because I don't like driving it because it's gargantuan. It's hard to back out in parking lots. I'm glad I'm not a truck or bus driver. I'd be the bus driver that runs over all the curbs going around the corners.
This morning when David took the boys to school, he zoomed past all the neighbors whose vans or cars were adrift in snowbanks. When I went to work, I zipped past the same neighbors who were still stuck in the snow. David was nice and tried to help the next door neighbor get his truck out of his driveway.
And I'm very glad we still have electricity. Nice, warm, lovely electricity.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Prelude to Black Friday
I really hate Christmas shopping. It stresses me out. I want to get just the right presents for everyone and get good deals on what I buy, but that's easier said than done. I'm debating going BF shopping tomorrow. If I do, it will only be one or two stores and it certainly won't be at 5:00 am! Of course, with Cameron doing his Eagle Scout Project tomorrow morning, I may not go BF shopping at all. And maybe that's a good thing. :)
I did most of my shopping online thru Amazon this morning. I'd rather shop local, but all the driving around and fighting the crowds and the snow and the cold make Amazon very attractive, so I usually give in. The thing about Amazon is, their prices keep yo-yo-ing up and down, up and down. It's like gambling or the stock market: Do I buy now? Do I wait? Will the prices in my cart go up overnight? Will they go down? Ack! I'm glad I'm not a stock broker - it would drive me crazy!
The whole Santa thing was magical when I was little, but now that I'm in charge of buying tons of gifts on a budget, it's not so amazing. Oddly enough, even when I was little, I identified more with the Grinch than the Whos. Everytime "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" came on tv (which in the era before VCRs was the only option) I cringed every time the Whos circled the tree, held hands and starting singing. At least I got everyone to write up their Christmas list by Halloween. That has helped.
All right, here's what everyone's been up to:
David - started typing his book up on the computer. Could it be he's finally getting bored with FB? To his credit, David sat down with me this morning and helped me decide what to buy on Amazon. He was my moral support when I finally, finally clicked the "order" button. Thank goodness.
Meagan - still going out with Zacky. How long have they been going out now? Since the middle of summer? The beginning of summer? I think this may be her longest romance since BF#1. Still taking anatomy and tiring of it. I think when she passes anatomy, we're gonna have a huge party. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's gonna be this semester. Sad. :(
Meagan is at Zac's right now watching "Scott Pilgrim." They didn't want to bring it back here to watch it. Meagan said they had to preview it first to make sure it was OK for us to watch. There goes Meagan thinking she's the Mom again. But then again, she's thought that since she was two.
Cameron - is doing his Eagle Project this weekend. Woo hoo! This may be even bigger than Meagan passing anatomy. David's been urging Cameron to do his project for 3 or 4 years now. David and I will be ecstatic when this is done!!!
Jarom - has been drawing dragons and dragons and dragons. He's graduated from Kirby. Actually, he may still draw Kirby from time to time, but I haven't seen it lately.
Amber - is struggling with jr. high. I finally had to tell her that she can't check out anything from the library until she starts turning in ALL of her homework and getting at least C's in all of her classes. She went from getting a Presidential Scholar Award last year to getting an F in science and a couple of C's in other classes her first quarter of 7th grade. On the bright side, she did get some A's and B's.
Jetta - is freaking out about the kitchen floor again. I got tired of the long rug running down the middle of the floor and took it up. Mostly I got tired of the foam pad duct taped to the floor and how difficult it made sweeping and mopping. I think we're going to get Jetta a long rubber backed rug for the kitchen for Christmas. We can't figure out why the kitchen floor freaks Jetta out. Cameron thinks it's fear of open spaces because Jetta hides under the table when she's in the kitchen. I think it's that she doesn't like the clicking sound her "claws" make as she walks on the floor. Maybe it's a combination of the two.
Thor - has been scritching up the couches again. Had to spray them with scratch stopper again today. Thor likes hanging out in the house when it's cold like this. I don't blame him. I can't imagine how he survived 2 1/2 winters outside, especially when he was a tiny kitten. Thor is one tough cat.
Thor just popped out from under the desk. I was wondering where he was and he was laying right next to my feet the entire time I was typing this.
Me - almost done Christmas shopping! Also, I'm now the new Ward Primary President. Hmmm...not so sure about it, but I figure if my Mom can do it and survive, so can I.
Can't believe how much it snowed last Saturday night. Almost a foot in our neighborhood. Our electricity went out 7:00 am Sunday and wasn't back on until 9:00 pm. Thank goodness it wasn't longer. Good thing: Our neighbors were very nice and invited us to dinner. Bad thing: I didn't tell them about my food allergies and they had chicken noodle soup, rolls and brownies for dinner. Good thing: They have people in their extended family that have celiac disease so they were understanding. They made me scrambled eggs, carrot stick and applesauce. Other good thing: I got to hang out with their cute little boys and talk about Super Boy and his diet of bugs, spiders and anteater brains during dinner. Really - it was hilarious. Plus, I know their names now. Which is good, being Primary President and all.
Also can't believe how little it snowed Tuesday. The meteorologists made a big deal about Extreme Weather hazards and how big a storm was coming in and then it snowed, what, 4 inches? Yeah, it's turned really cold, but storm of the century? Hardly.
K. Gotta go now. All the early morning Amazon shopping has gotten to me. Sometimes I wish I were a Pilgrim. I wonder if they did Christmas presents? Then again, I do like having enough food to eat, a warm house and, most of all, hot running water. What would I do if I couldn't soak in the tub every other day? And I do like being able to travel several miles to my parents house in 30 minutes rather than several hours - just one more thing to be thankful for. It was so nice spending the afternoon visiting and eating tasty food with my parents and siblings and their families today. Oh, yeah, and that my Mom's hip is on the mend. Very thankful about that.
I did most of my shopping online thru Amazon this morning. I'd rather shop local, but all the driving around and fighting the crowds and the snow and the cold make Amazon very attractive, so I usually give in. The thing about Amazon is, their prices keep yo-yo-ing up and down, up and down. It's like gambling or the stock market: Do I buy now? Do I wait? Will the prices in my cart go up overnight? Will they go down? Ack! I'm glad I'm not a stock broker - it would drive me crazy!
The whole Santa thing was magical when I was little, but now that I'm in charge of buying tons of gifts on a budget, it's not so amazing. Oddly enough, even when I was little, I identified more with the Grinch than the Whos. Everytime "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" came on tv (which in the era before VCRs was the only option) I cringed every time the Whos circled the tree, held hands and starting singing. At least I got everyone to write up their Christmas list by Halloween. That has helped.
All right, here's what everyone's been up to:
David - started typing his book up on the computer. Could it be he's finally getting bored with FB? To his credit, David sat down with me this morning and helped me decide what to buy on Amazon. He was my moral support when I finally, finally clicked the "order" button. Thank goodness.
Meagan - still going out with Zacky. How long have they been going out now? Since the middle of summer? The beginning of summer? I think this may be her longest romance since BF#1. Still taking anatomy and tiring of it. I think when she passes anatomy, we're gonna have a huge party. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's gonna be this semester. Sad. :(
Meagan is at Zac's right now watching "Scott Pilgrim." They didn't want to bring it back here to watch it. Meagan said they had to preview it first to make sure it was OK for us to watch. There goes Meagan thinking she's the Mom again. But then again, she's thought that since she was two.
Cameron - is doing his Eagle Project this weekend. Woo hoo! This may be even bigger than Meagan passing anatomy. David's been urging Cameron to do his project for 3 or 4 years now. David and I will be ecstatic when this is done!!!
Jarom - has been drawing dragons and dragons and dragons. He's graduated from Kirby. Actually, he may still draw Kirby from time to time, but I haven't seen it lately.
Amber - is struggling with jr. high. I finally had to tell her that she can't check out anything from the library until she starts turning in ALL of her homework and getting at least C's in all of her classes. She went from getting a Presidential Scholar Award last year to getting an F in science and a couple of C's in other classes her first quarter of 7th grade. On the bright side, she did get some A's and B's.
Jetta - is freaking out about the kitchen floor again. I got tired of the long rug running down the middle of the floor and took it up. Mostly I got tired of the foam pad duct taped to the floor and how difficult it made sweeping and mopping. I think we're going to get Jetta a long rubber backed rug for the kitchen for Christmas. We can't figure out why the kitchen floor freaks Jetta out. Cameron thinks it's fear of open spaces because Jetta hides under the table when she's in the kitchen. I think it's that she doesn't like the clicking sound her "claws" make as she walks on the floor. Maybe it's a combination of the two.
Thor - has been scritching up the couches again. Had to spray them with scratch stopper again today. Thor likes hanging out in the house when it's cold like this. I don't blame him. I can't imagine how he survived 2 1/2 winters outside, especially when he was a tiny kitten. Thor is one tough cat.
Thor just popped out from under the desk. I was wondering where he was and he was laying right next to my feet the entire time I was typing this.
Me - almost done Christmas shopping! Also, I'm now the new Ward Primary President. Hmmm...not so sure about it, but I figure if my Mom can do it and survive, so can I.
Can't believe how much it snowed last Saturday night. Almost a foot in our neighborhood. Our electricity went out 7:00 am Sunday and wasn't back on until 9:00 pm. Thank goodness it wasn't longer. Good thing: Our neighbors were very nice and invited us to dinner. Bad thing: I didn't tell them about my food allergies and they had chicken noodle soup, rolls and brownies for dinner. Good thing: They have people in their extended family that have celiac disease so they were understanding. They made me scrambled eggs, carrot stick and applesauce. Other good thing: I got to hang out with their cute little boys and talk about Super Boy and his diet of bugs, spiders and anteater brains during dinner. Really - it was hilarious. Plus, I know their names now. Which is good, being Primary President and all.
Also can't believe how little it snowed Tuesday. The meteorologists made a big deal about Extreme Weather hazards and how big a storm was coming in and then it snowed, what, 4 inches? Yeah, it's turned really cold, but storm of the century? Hardly.
K. Gotta go now. All the early morning Amazon shopping has gotten to me. Sometimes I wish I were a Pilgrim. I wonder if they did Christmas presents? Then again, I do like having enough food to eat, a warm house and, most of all, hot running water. What would I do if I couldn't soak in the tub every other day? And I do like being able to travel several miles to my parents house in 30 minutes rather than several hours - just one more thing to be thankful for. It was so nice spending the afternoon visiting and eating tasty food with my parents and siblings and their families today. Oh, yeah, and that my Mom's hip is on the mend. Very thankful about that.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
HalloOoOween
Early this morning in the pre-dawn darkness, I drove to the fitness center. Today was my second Saturday morning yoga class since I started going back to the gym two weeks ago. This morning the instructor came to class with a ripped dress, teased up hair and white zombie makeup with stitches. Spooky music by Berlioz and Wagner played as we stretched to renamed yoga poses: mummy, zombie, scarecrow, witch's cauldron, goddess of devestation and werewolf. Some poses didn't have to be renamed like cobra, scorpion and corpse. The instructor encouraged us to moan and howl and cackle, which a few of us did, but mostly didn't.
The sun rose during class, tinting the clouds purple and pink. By the time I left class, the sun was up. The clear blue sky and puffy clouds hovered above the orange and yellow trees in the park. Several years ago when I used to take the kids to swim classes we'd go to that park for free summer lunch. The park was new and the trees were tiny, like my children. Now the trees are 20 feet tall, Meagan is in her second year of college, the boys tower over me and Amber is on the verge of being a teenager. The memory was bittersweet.
Upon arriving home, I urged Jarom to get out of bed for the young men's bike ride. Nearly an hour later, when John came to pick him up, Jarom was still snoozing and his scrambled eggs and toast were getting cold. While John waited for Jarom, we talked Cameron in to joining the bike ride - once I told him he could ride his dad's bike and I'd make him a couple of turkey and cheese sandwiches. John had packed a bunch of PB&J's, but Cameron hates peanut butter. Eventually Jarom pried himself out of bed.
I told the boys we'd wait until noon for them to get home, then we were going to Grandma and Grandpa's. Since they didn't leave until almost 10:00, I didn't think there was much chance of that, but we waited. After their 25 mile bike ride, John dropped them off at my parent's house. I didn't know they were riding on a bike trail that far north. In the end, everyone except Meagan ended up at Grandma and Grandpa's. Good thing the Crown holds 5!
Yesterday Amber cut up a pair of levi's and made herself a zombie costume. I was rather miffed about that. Amber enjoys cutting things up, but I thought she'd stopped cutting up her clothes. You'd think she would have asked me first! I asked her, "Amber, what am I going to do with you?" She shrugged sheepishly and said, "Come over here and hug me?" I did, about a half hour later.
She and Jarom both went to Halloween parties last night and Meagan spent the night at Kasey's house. Cameron was a lone boy at home, but didn't seem to mind. Meagan has dressed up for Halloween several times this year - as a nerd, a 50's girl with a poodle skirt and a superhero. She loves her job that encourages dressing up for Halloween.
This evening Amber went trick-or-treating in the rain with Kyleen for an hour. This is the first year Cameron and Jarom haven't gone trick-or-treating. Not too long after Amber got home Gary and Katelyn picked her up to go trick-or-treating again. Because of the rain, we haven't gotten many trick-or-treaters, probably 120. Last year I think we got 300. I'll have to look at last Halloween's blog and see. Hmmm...guess I was wrong. We only had 130 trick-or-treaters last year. It must have been the year before that we got so many and ran out of candy.
The sun rose during class, tinting the clouds purple and pink. By the time I left class, the sun was up. The clear blue sky and puffy clouds hovered above the orange and yellow trees in the park. Several years ago when I used to take the kids to swim classes we'd go to that park for free summer lunch. The park was new and the trees were tiny, like my children. Now the trees are 20 feet tall, Meagan is in her second year of college, the boys tower over me and Amber is on the verge of being a teenager. The memory was bittersweet.
Upon arriving home, I urged Jarom to get out of bed for the young men's bike ride. Nearly an hour later, when John came to pick him up, Jarom was still snoozing and his scrambled eggs and toast were getting cold. While John waited for Jarom, we talked Cameron in to joining the bike ride - once I told him he could ride his dad's bike and I'd make him a couple of turkey and cheese sandwiches. John had packed a bunch of PB&J's, but Cameron hates peanut butter. Eventually Jarom pried himself out of bed.
I told the boys we'd wait until noon for them to get home, then we were going to Grandma and Grandpa's. Since they didn't leave until almost 10:00, I didn't think there was much chance of that, but we waited. After their 25 mile bike ride, John dropped them off at my parent's house. I didn't know they were riding on a bike trail that far north. In the end, everyone except Meagan ended up at Grandma and Grandpa's. Good thing the Crown holds 5!
Yesterday Amber cut up a pair of levi's and made herself a zombie costume. I was rather miffed about that. Amber enjoys cutting things up, but I thought she'd stopped cutting up her clothes. You'd think she would have asked me first! I asked her, "Amber, what am I going to do with you?" She shrugged sheepishly and said, "Come over here and hug me?" I did, about a half hour later.
She and Jarom both went to Halloween parties last night and Meagan spent the night at Kasey's house. Cameron was a lone boy at home, but didn't seem to mind. Meagan has dressed up for Halloween several times this year - as a nerd, a 50's girl with a poodle skirt and a superhero. She loves her job that encourages dressing up for Halloween.
This evening Amber went trick-or-treating in the rain with Kyleen for an hour. This is the first year Cameron and Jarom haven't gone trick-or-treating. Not too long after Amber got home Gary and Katelyn picked her up to go trick-or-treating again. Because of the rain, we haven't gotten many trick-or-treaters, probably 120. Last year I think we got 300. I'll have to look at last Halloween's blog and see. Hmmm...guess I was wrong. We only had 130 trick-or-treaters last year. It must have been the year before that we got so many and ran out of candy.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
October...so far...
Yesterday I finished my sixth ICL assignment and mailed it in. I wrote a humorous teen romance entitled "Cha-Cha-Cha." I got a one month extension for my assignment, and - whew! - I'm so relieved it's in the mail. Now I get to wait and see what my instructor thinks of it. In the meantime, I'm revising my third assignment and submitting it to magazines.
Work has been crazy busy. Again. Yesterday I worked for 8.5 hours - and that was with Lorry there. I hate to think how long it would have been with just me. And we're bringing on 3 OT's soon. Oh boy, I'm soooo excited. I hope Joe gets another office person. I don't think Lorry or I want any more hours. I'm already working about 30 hours a week, which is enough for me!
Tonight our entire family and Zac went to our Ward Potluck. I made gluten free chicken noodle soup. GF noodles take a long time to cook. I used rotelli noodles and they had to boil 1/2 hour before they softened up. As soon as I finished the soup, I dumped it in a big bowl and sealed the lid. Before we left the house the steam popped the lid off. I've never had that happen before.
This morning I finished listening to the first Leven Thumps book on CD. Clover, who looks like a large gray cat wearing a robe, with his happy-go-lucky attitude was my favorite character. I noticed several spots where the book could have been edited better, thanks to my lovely ICL course, but - wow - Obert's crazy imagination makes up for his wordiness. All the strange candy and food Clover pulls out of his void "pocket" and the way Leven and his group travel across the ocean are crazily inventive. And turning an all-powerful ruler from another realm into a walking, talking toothpick? That's imagination!
Now I'm listening to the second Fablehaven book on CD. I made this deal with myself that I can listen to books on CD if I do housework or cooking while I listen. Because of books on CD, I finally got my bedroom cleaned up. Do you have any idea how long I had boxes piled up in my bedroom? So, I'd say the books on CD thing is working. Of course, I'd rather curl up with a good book and ignore cooking and housework, but...
I guess the only other thing that's been going on is Cameron and Jarom are actually working on their Eagle Scout Projects. David and I (especially David) are overjoyed. Maybe they'll even complete their projects by the end of 2010!
Work has been crazy busy. Again. Yesterday I worked for 8.5 hours - and that was with Lorry there. I hate to think how long it would have been with just me. And we're bringing on 3 OT's soon. Oh boy, I'm soooo excited. I hope Joe gets another office person. I don't think Lorry or I want any more hours. I'm already working about 30 hours a week, which is enough for me!
Tonight our entire family and Zac went to our Ward Potluck. I made gluten free chicken noodle soup. GF noodles take a long time to cook. I used rotelli noodles and they had to boil 1/2 hour before they softened up. As soon as I finished the soup, I dumped it in a big bowl and sealed the lid. Before we left the house the steam popped the lid off. I've never had that happen before.
This morning I finished listening to the first Leven Thumps book on CD. Clover, who looks like a large gray cat wearing a robe, with his happy-go-lucky attitude was my favorite character. I noticed several spots where the book could have been edited better, thanks to my lovely ICL course, but - wow - Obert's crazy imagination makes up for his wordiness. All the strange candy and food Clover pulls out of his void "pocket" and the way Leven and his group travel across the ocean are crazily inventive. And turning an all-powerful ruler from another realm into a walking, talking toothpick? That's imagination!
Now I'm listening to the second Fablehaven book on CD. I made this deal with myself that I can listen to books on CD if I do housework or cooking while I listen. Because of books on CD, I finally got my bedroom cleaned up. Do you have any idea how long I had boxes piled up in my bedroom? So, I'd say the books on CD thing is working. Of course, I'd rather curl up with a good book and ignore cooking and housework, but...
I guess the only other thing that's been going on is Cameron and Jarom are actually working on their Eagle Scout Projects. David and I (especially David) are overjoyed. Maybe they'll even complete their projects by the end of 2010!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Drainage
So, I remembered I posted a while back about cleaning out the bathtub drain. It seemed like it was about a year ago, but I thought I would check my blog and see how long ago it really was. November 2008. So I guess we have to clean out the tub drain about once every 2 years.
This time I used the plunger on the drain before I took any pipes apart. Not much came out before I pulled the pipes apart (with David and Cameron's help) except some globs of lint, but when the pipes were pulled apart, a huge (as in an inch in diameter and a foot long) glob of hair and lint came out really easily. Now the tub drains. Yay!
I'm not sure what's with all the lint in our drain - Cameron said it looked like a lint monster had taken a shower in our tub. I'm just glad that it's done. And, yes, it was as stinky as ever. Why does stuff in drains smell like the solution they use in perms? I can't figure that out.
I did get the RMA number for the computer monitor and shipped it back to HannsG, so I should have it back as good as new in a couple of weeks. Excited about that!
Now it's time to go make sure Amber gets her Utah Studies term project done. It's due tomorrow. She's making a Utah ABC book.
This time I used the plunger on the drain before I took any pipes apart. Not much came out before I pulled the pipes apart (with David and Cameron's help) except some globs of lint, but when the pipes were pulled apart, a huge (as in an inch in diameter and a foot long) glob of hair and lint came out really easily. Now the tub drains. Yay!
I'm not sure what's with all the lint in our drain - Cameron said it looked like a lint monster had taken a shower in our tub. I'm just glad that it's done. And, yes, it was as stinky as ever. Why does stuff in drains smell like the solution they use in perms? I can't figure that out.
I did get the RMA number for the computer monitor and shipped it back to HannsG, so I should have it back as good as new in a couple of weeks. Excited about that!
Now it's time to go make sure Amber gets her Utah Studies term project done. It's due tomorrow. She's making a Utah ABC book.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Let the Games Begin!
I was going to post this forever ago, but every time I wanted to use the computer, someone else was on it. Then the monitor went out. Not really out...it was making loud clicking-buzzing-geiger counter noises so I had to switch my lovely flat screen out with the old bulky monitor that I am sure emits radiation. Or something. I've been waiting a week for an RMA# so I can ship my monitor back to Hanns-G for fixage. Boy, will I be glad when it's back!
I think I'm going to buy my next monitor at Best Buy and buy the extra coverage so it won't take a month for my monitor to get fixed. At least I saved the old monitor though, or we wouldn't be using our computer. What would David do without his Facebook games?
Speaking of Facebook games, about a month ago I got really in to City of Wonder. I set up my whole city, recruited 37 allies, kept making my boundaries bigger and bigger. My city's population grew from 0 to 33,000. I bought 3 vegetable gardens, a farm, 2 ranches, a quarry, a mine and a vineyard. And a castle, a basilica, a couple of temples and bunches of other things. And it was way fun. For about 2 weeks. I haven't played it in over a week now. The excitement wore off pretty fast.
When I was just getting immersed in City of Wonder, I read The Hunger Games. Yes, Meagan finally talked me in to reading it. I wasn't too sure because I don't particularly like such dark subject matter - kids being forced to be gladiators and fight to the death. Sounds icky, huh?
Anyway, it was so well-written and spell-binding I had to stay up all night to read it. Literally all night. I slept for a total of 30 minutes that night. Which was a REALLY stupid idea because it was a Thursday night and Friday is my BIG day at work.
Friday afternoon I went to Panda Express for lunch. I got Dr. Pepper with my lunch, but the Dr. Pepper was nasty so I dumped it out. I haven't had Dr. Pepper much, so I wasn't sure if it tasted normal, but I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be almost clear. So then I went for Pepsi. The Pepsi tasted like dish soap - but it was better than the Dr. Pepper and it was dark brown, so I drank it anyway.
About an hour after I finished lunch I felt really good. Bright-eyed and full of energy. Wow, I thought, maybe I should drink caffeine more often. Then I started feeling jittery. Not so good.
Saturday I felt exhausted but I had to go to This is the Place with Cameron to check out where he's planting flowers for his Eagle Project. I got a huge Diet Coke/Cherry Coke from the fountain at Holiday. I used to love Diet Coke. Fortunately/unfortunately the Coke mixture tasted about as awful as the Pepsi from the day before. But it kept me awake. After 24 hours of massive caffeine intake, my mouth started to feel parched. That convinced me. If caffeine is going to dehydrate me, I'm not drinking it any more.
So, guess what Meagan asked me today?
"Do you want to read the second Hunger Games book?"
I think I'm going to buy my next monitor at Best Buy and buy the extra coverage so it won't take a month for my monitor to get fixed. At least I saved the old monitor though, or we wouldn't be using our computer. What would David do without his Facebook games?
Speaking of Facebook games, about a month ago I got really in to City of Wonder. I set up my whole city, recruited 37 allies, kept making my boundaries bigger and bigger. My city's population grew from 0 to 33,000. I bought 3 vegetable gardens, a farm, 2 ranches, a quarry, a mine and a vineyard. And a castle, a basilica, a couple of temples and bunches of other things. And it was way fun. For about 2 weeks. I haven't played it in over a week now. The excitement wore off pretty fast.
When I was just getting immersed in City of Wonder, I read The Hunger Games. Yes, Meagan finally talked me in to reading it. I wasn't too sure because I don't particularly like such dark subject matter - kids being forced to be gladiators and fight to the death. Sounds icky, huh?
Anyway, it was so well-written and spell-binding I had to stay up all night to read it. Literally all night. I slept for a total of 30 minutes that night. Which was a REALLY stupid idea because it was a Thursday night and Friday is my BIG day at work.
Friday afternoon I went to Panda Express for lunch. I got Dr. Pepper with my lunch, but the Dr. Pepper was nasty so I dumped it out. I haven't had Dr. Pepper much, so I wasn't sure if it tasted normal, but I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be almost clear. So then I went for Pepsi. The Pepsi tasted like dish soap - but it was better than the Dr. Pepper and it was dark brown, so I drank it anyway.
About an hour after I finished lunch I felt really good. Bright-eyed and full of energy. Wow, I thought, maybe I should drink caffeine more often. Then I started feeling jittery. Not so good.
Saturday I felt exhausted but I had to go to This is the Place with Cameron to check out where he's planting flowers for his Eagle Project. I got a huge Diet Coke/Cherry Coke from the fountain at Holiday. I used to love Diet Coke. Fortunately/unfortunately the Coke mixture tasted about as awful as the Pepsi from the day before. But it kept me awake. After 24 hours of massive caffeine intake, my mouth started to feel parched. That convinced me. If caffeine is going to dehydrate me, I'm not drinking it any more.
So, guess what Meagan asked me today?
"Do you want to read the second Hunger Games book?"
Monday, August 30, 2010
See You Dark & Early in the Morning
So, it's been about a month since I last posted. In the meantime, I went to my cousin Jenny's wedding. I don't know if I'd ever met her before her wedding, but her parents have lived in Virginia or North Carolina her entire life and I've never made it out there. I figured we had better go to all the wedding related activites we could because we don't get to see Roger and Sue much now that they live across the country. My kids didn't remember ever meeting Roger and Sue before, not even Meagan. I'm pretty sure they have met him before, but it was probably several years ago.
That said, Jenny was very cute and her new husband and his family seemed very nice. The wedding was nice, too. David and I went to the temple for the endowment session then Mom, Dad, Aunt Norma and Uncle John went to Chuck-A-Rama for dinner. Chuck-A-Rama is my favorite place to go to dinner because I can always find food to eat there that tastes good and doesn't make me sick. In my book, that's a very big accomplishment.
The next day I went to the wedding at the temple with Holly. David couldn't go because he had to wait for his O2 to be delivered. The big helios tank was down to one light. Parking underneath the Conference Center was quite the experience. It's a good thing Holly wrote down our parking spot or we may have never found the car again. I was almost tempted to park in a handicapped spot (not that I ever do), but we couldn't even find one of those. We had to drive around about 15 minutes to find an empty spot. Then, we had to follow someone else to find our way out of the parking garage.
I came home after the wedding and picked David and the kids up and we went to the wedding lunch. We sat next to Jenny's entertaining new grandfather-in-law. He told us his entire life story - from being a military paratrooper ("The first airplane I ever got on, I jumped out of. I was too young to be scared.") to being a building contractor ("We moved wherever the jobs were. From California to Alaska and everywhere inbetween.") to harassing Cameron about making sure he graduated from college ("You don't want to be like me and end up in a job where you have to move all over the country. What are you going to major in? You must have some idea. Do you want to be a surgeon? What? We didn't need to hear THAT right before we ate...").
The next day we went to the party at Wilma and Devon's. It was fun, except for Uncle John's MJ rant. Debra was as silly as ever and even Sheri and David made it. Will miracles never cease?
School has finally started up again and I am really not liking the early hours. Jarom made it in Jazz Band and has to be to school at 6:00 am every other day. Which means we have to get up at 5:30 am every other day. Not my idea of fun. Saturday night I tried going to bed at 9:30 pm. I laid there for 2 hours before I finally fell asleep. Meagan came home from a BBQ at Zac's new apartment at about midnight and gave me a good night hug. She said I was giggling when she hugged me. I vaguely remember it, but I have no idea why I was giggling.
Speaking of Zac, yes, Meagan has a new boyfriend. I think we met him for the first time about 2 weeks ago. He ended up homeless for a few days because the people living in his new apartment didn't move out as soon as they said they were going to. So, he spent a Saturday night in our lovely camp trailer. I'm glad it wasn't raining, because the roof has a few holes in it.
Speaking of rain, can you believe the weather this morning? When the boys and I went outside early this morning, big swaths of sky lit up in a strange flashing patterns. A few drops of water hit the ground, but nothing much. I dropped the boys off and went to Smith's to buy some grapes. By the time I came out, it looked like a monsoon. Huge raindrops splattered from the sky in torrents. Two Smith's employees decided to wait out the rain before heading back to their semi. I made a run for it. One of the employees kindly said he wished he had an umbrella for me. When I got home the rain was still pelting down and I had left Jetta in her kennel. I stepped into a huge puddle and soaked my socks. Jetta was soaked, but I guess she doesn't need to take a bath now. Thor was nowhere to be found.
Most of the back to school stuff has been taken care of, but I still need to find a Math 1010 book for Cameron. Sadly, it's exactly the book Meagan used last fall. We had no idea Cameron was going to need it or would have had her keep it. I've looked on ksl.com and found several of them, but all the people I've called have already sold their book by the time I call them. I may have to order it from Amazon or go to PJ's. At least Cameron doesn't need it until a week from tomorrow. I also get to go pay the class fees for Cameron, Jarom and Amber. I think back to school is as expensive as Christmas. And not as much fun. (And I don't even like Christmas that much!)
Paying for expensive textbooks makes me appreciate all textbooks public schools provide at no charge. I think the whole textbook thing is a racket. How can a textbook possibly be worth $160 new? How on earth could a textbook become outdated in a couple of years? I think Meagan's nutrition teacher has the right idea. She lets her students use the old textbooks. Then again, there's the issue of finding one because most college book stores won't buy them back if they aren't current. We have a Writing 1010 book hanging around the house because PJ's wouldn't buy it back.
That said, Jenny was very cute and her new husband and his family seemed very nice. The wedding was nice, too. David and I went to the temple for the endowment session then Mom, Dad, Aunt Norma and Uncle John went to Chuck-A-Rama for dinner. Chuck-A-Rama is my favorite place to go to dinner because I can always find food to eat there that tastes good and doesn't make me sick. In my book, that's a very big accomplishment.
The next day I went to the wedding at the temple with Holly. David couldn't go because he had to wait for his O2 to be delivered. The big helios tank was down to one light. Parking underneath the Conference Center was quite the experience. It's a good thing Holly wrote down our parking spot or we may have never found the car again. I was almost tempted to park in a handicapped spot (not that I ever do), but we couldn't even find one of those. We had to drive around about 15 minutes to find an empty spot. Then, we had to follow someone else to find our way out of the parking garage.
I came home after the wedding and picked David and the kids up and we went to the wedding lunch. We sat next to Jenny's entertaining new grandfather-in-law. He told us his entire life story - from being a military paratrooper ("The first airplane I ever got on, I jumped out of. I was too young to be scared.") to being a building contractor ("We moved wherever the jobs were. From California to Alaska and everywhere inbetween.") to harassing Cameron about making sure he graduated from college ("You don't want to be like me and end up in a job where you have to move all over the country. What are you going to major in? You must have some idea. Do you want to be a surgeon? What? We didn't need to hear THAT right before we ate...").
The next day we went to the party at Wilma and Devon's. It was fun, except for Uncle John's MJ rant. Debra was as silly as ever and even Sheri and David made it. Will miracles never cease?
School has finally started up again and I am really not liking the early hours. Jarom made it in Jazz Band and has to be to school at 6:00 am every other day. Which means we have to get up at 5:30 am every other day. Not my idea of fun. Saturday night I tried going to bed at 9:30 pm. I laid there for 2 hours before I finally fell asleep. Meagan came home from a BBQ at Zac's new apartment at about midnight and gave me a good night hug. She said I was giggling when she hugged me. I vaguely remember it, but I have no idea why I was giggling.
Speaking of Zac, yes, Meagan has a new boyfriend. I think we met him for the first time about 2 weeks ago. He ended up homeless for a few days because the people living in his new apartment didn't move out as soon as they said they were going to. So, he spent a Saturday night in our lovely camp trailer. I'm glad it wasn't raining, because the roof has a few holes in it.
Speaking of rain, can you believe the weather this morning? When the boys and I went outside early this morning, big swaths of sky lit up in a strange flashing patterns. A few drops of water hit the ground, but nothing much. I dropped the boys off and went to Smith's to buy some grapes. By the time I came out, it looked like a monsoon. Huge raindrops splattered from the sky in torrents. Two Smith's employees decided to wait out the rain before heading back to their semi. I made a run for it. One of the employees kindly said he wished he had an umbrella for me. When I got home the rain was still pelting down and I had left Jetta in her kennel. I stepped into a huge puddle and soaked my socks. Jetta was soaked, but I guess she doesn't need to take a bath now. Thor was nowhere to be found.
Most of the back to school stuff has been taken care of, but I still need to find a Math 1010 book for Cameron. Sadly, it's exactly the book Meagan used last fall. We had no idea Cameron was going to need it or would have had her keep it. I've looked on ksl.com and found several of them, but all the people I've called have already sold their book by the time I call them. I may have to order it from Amazon or go to PJ's. At least Cameron doesn't need it until a week from tomorrow. I also get to go pay the class fees for Cameron, Jarom and Amber. I think back to school is as expensive as Christmas. And not as much fun. (And I don't even like Christmas that much!)
Paying for expensive textbooks makes me appreciate all textbooks public schools provide at no charge. I think the whole textbook thing is a racket. How can a textbook possibly be worth $160 new? How on earth could a textbook become outdated in a couple of years? I think Meagan's nutrition teacher has the right idea. She lets her students use the old textbooks. Then again, there's the issue of finding one because most college book stores won't buy them back if they aren't current. We have a Writing 1010 book hanging around the house because PJ's wouldn't buy it back.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wedding Du Jour
David, Meagan, Debbie and I went to his cousin Miki's wedding this morning. David and his siblings call her Teeny, which David says is short for Christine.
The wedding was in the clubhouse next to the motorcycle racetrack at the Sports Park. Several bikers were racing around the track when we got there. Every time one of them zoomed around a curve, their knee skimmed an inch or two above the ground. It's amazing they didn't wipe out.
Miki's new husband Daniel seems nice. Her sister Vikki's husband Nick of 13 years was nice, too. David and Debbie call Vikki "Lizard," which is short for Elizabeth. I'm pretty sure we went to Vikki and Nick's wedding, too, but it may have been Miki's earlier wedding. Between them, Miki and Daniel have 7 kids.
Daniel gave Miki a Marc Chagall print of a woman in a veil and a goat playing a fiddle. He talked about a Julia Roberts movie that said something about life isn't complete until you have a picture of a fiddle playing goat in your house. I must have missed that movie.
Daniel said Marc Chagall was a Russian painter. I thought Chagall was French. When I got home, I looked him up in the encyclopedia. Turns out Chagall was Russian. But he lived in France half his life, so I was kind of right, but Daniel was more right. So, there's your Art History lesson for the day.
Lizard and Lita talked to us during most of the luncheon after the wedding. We figured the last time we saw them was 8 years ago at David's Mom's funeral. It's sad we don't see them very often.
We got to meet Aunt Lita's 22 year old boyfriend who looks like a blonde Donavon. He seems nice enough. And we got to see Lita's tatoos and ear gauges. She told us she took out her nose and eyebrow piercings for the wedding, because Miki doesn't like them. Aunt Lita certainly lives life on her own terms.
Aunt Lita totally loves David. Every time we see her she tells everyone about the first time she and David met. David was 4 or 5 when Uncle Wayne brought Lita to the house. Everyone else held back and stared at her but David ran over and hugged her and said, "I love you!" Ever since then, David can do no wrong in Lita's eyes. David totally loves Lita too.
When we got home, Meagan and I went to the credit union to deposit our paychecks only to find out it was closed. Oh yeah, it was a holiday today, wasn't it?
Yesterday I worked 9 hours. I spent about an hour putting together a checklist of everything that needs to be done for the next 2 weeks. At first I put names on the checklists and assigned things to each of us. My list was 4 times longer than Lorry's. Then the light came on. That's why work's still overwhelming! I took the names off the checklists. From now on I'll get as far as I can on the checklist, then when Lorry comes in I'll hand everything off to her and she can get as far as she can.
After my 9 hour workday, David, Amber and I picked up dinner at Panda Express, then headed out to pick up the boys from EFY. The boys absolutely loved EFY and were sad to leave. They had fun and made lots of new friends. I'm glad Christy talked us into sending them.
After that, we drove to Mom and Dad's to watch fireworks. We got there about 5 minutes into the show, so we got to see most of it. Amber, who supposedly wanted to see the fireworks the most, watched them for a couple of minutes then disappeared inside the house with Katelyn.
We got home around 1:00 am. I was exhausted. This morning, someone knocked on the door and rang the doorbell at 7:00 am. It was the scoutmaster, wanting Cameron and Jarom to help put up flags. I got them up. Sort of. They opened their eyes but didn't actually get up. After the scoutmaster came by 2 more times, I couldn't sleep.
I took a nap this afternoon, after I sat on Thor who was sleeping under a blanket on the couch. I thought someone had left their bathrobe under the blanket until I looked down and saw a pair of green cat eyes staring up at me. Oddly enough, he didn't make a sound when I sat on him. Luckily, I didn't hurt him. I apologized several times, but he was a bit wary of me the rest of the day.
The wedding was in the clubhouse next to the motorcycle racetrack at the Sports Park. Several bikers were racing around the track when we got there. Every time one of them zoomed around a curve, their knee skimmed an inch or two above the ground. It's amazing they didn't wipe out.
Miki's new husband Daniel seems nice. Her sister Vikki's husband Nick of 13 years was nice, too. David and Debbie call Vikki "Lizard," which is short for Elizabeth. I'm pretty sure we went to Vikki and Nick's wedding, too, but it may have been Miki's earlier wedding. Between them, Miki and Daniel have 7 kids.
Daniel gave Miki a Marc Chagall print of a woman in a veil and a goat playing a fiddle. He talked about a Julia Roberts movie that said something about life isn't complete until you have a picture of a fiddle playing goat in your house. I must have missed that movie.
Daniel said Marc Chagall was a Russian painter. I thought Chagall was French. When I got home, I looked him up in the encyclopedia. Turns out Chagall was Russian. But he lived in France half his life, so I was kind of right, but Daniel was more right. So, there's your Art History lesson for the day.
Lizard and Lita talked to us during most of the luncheon after the wedding. We figured the last time we saw them was 8 years ago at David's Mom's funeral. It's sad we don't see them very often.
We got to meet Aunt Lita's 22 year old boyfriend who looks like a blonde Donavon. He seems nice enough. And we got to see Lita's tatoos and ear gauges. She told us she took out her nose and eyebrow piercings for the wedding, because Miki doesn't like them. Aunt Lita certainly lives life on her own terms.
Aunt Lita totally loves David. Every time we see her she tells everyone about the first time she and David met. David was 4 or 5 when Uncle Wayne brought Lita to the house. Everyone else held back and stared at her but David ran over and hugged her and said, "I love you!" Ever since then, David can do no wrong in Lita's eyes. David totally loves Lita too.
When we got home, Meagan and I went to the credit union to deposit our paychecks only to find out it was closed. Oh yeah, it was a holiday today, wasn't it?
Yesterday I worked 9 hours. I spent about an hour putting together a checklist of everything that needs to be done for the next 2 weeks. At first I put names on the checklists and assigned things to each of us. My list was 4 times longer than Lorry's. Then the light came on. That's why work's still overwhelming! I took the names off the checklists. From now on I'll get as far as I can on the checklist, then when Lorry comes in I'll hand everything off to her and she can get as far as she can.
After my 9 hour workday, David, Amber and I picked up dinner at Panda Express, then headed out to pick up the boys from EFY. The boys absolutely loved EFY and were sad to leave. They had fun and made lots of new friends. I'm glad Christy talked us into sending them.
After that, we drove to Mom and Dad's to watch fireworks. We got there about 5 minutes into the show, so we got to see most of it. Amber, who supposedly wanted to see the fireworks the most, watched them for a couple of minutes then disappeared inside the house with Katelyn.
We got home around 1:00 am. I was exhausted. This morning, someone knocked on the door and rang the doorbell at 7:00 am. It was the scoutmaster, wanting Cameron and Jarom to help put up flags. I got them up. Sort of. They opened their eyes but didn't actually get up. After the scoutmaster came by 2 more times, I couldn't sleep.
I took a nap this afternoon, after I sat on Thor who was sleeping under a blanket on the couch. I thought someone had left their bathrobe under the blanket until I looked down and saw a pair of green cat eyes staring up at me. Oddly enough, he didn't make a sound when I sat on him. Luckily, I didn't hurt him. I apologized several times, but he was a bit wary of me the rest of the day.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
50 Years and Beyond
Thursday was a long but fun day. We celebrated Mom & Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary with about 150 people.
Just after noon we set up tables, chairs, decorations and sound equipment at the church and Becky assembled the cake. Then we took Mom & Dad to Chuck-a-Rama for lunch/dinner.
After that we set out refreshments and figured out the chocolate fountains. Thank heavens Lila was experienced in running a chocolate fountain. There's more to it than just dumping a bunch of chocolate in the fountain and waiting for it to melt. Who knew?
Lila spent the night melting chocolate, David (Jason) spent the night running to the store for more milk chocolate and Sheri and I spent the night watching over the refreshment table. The chocolate dippers we set out were: strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pretzels, oreos, cinnamon bears, orange slices, rice crispy treats and vanilla wafer cookies (the rectangle kind with frosting in the middle). Some things we brought twice as much of as we needed (or more - sprite, strawberries, marshmallows, rice crispy treats, oreos), some things we figured just about right (cinnamon bears, orange slices, vanilla wafer cookies, bananas). The only thing we were short on was the milk chocolate. Who knows what people are going to like or how much they are going to eat?
Sheri & Becky made a bunch of very tasty rhubarb slush. Even people who don't usually like rhubarb liked it. Several people asked Sheri for the recipe.
Becky made a huge, beautiful cake with white fondant, edible pearls and gold stars, gold ribbons, a sparkly broach and a gold and diamond-y 50 on top. The 2 top layers were carrot cake and the huge bottom layer was chocolate. Apparently the carrot cake was more popular, because we brought half of the chocolate layer home at Becky's urging. Today I gave 1/2 of what we brought home to Tammie when she came by to get some rhubarb Meagan procured for her.
David (brother) and Becky found some cute glass and metal lanterns at Ikea with star cut-outs for the tables. Then David and Meagan looped gold ribbon around the lanterns and sprinkled sparkly gold star confetti on the tables. The final touch was a white star-shaped mylar balloon tied to each lantern. They searched for gold and silver balloons, but nobody was selling those. It would have looked nice, but it looked fine without them. Sheri had Laureen to make a corsage, boutonniere and a couple of fresh flower arrangements.
Dorian Mirth played lovely Renaissance music in the background. Over the course of the evening Becky sang Mom and Dad's wedding theme song "Stardust" three times. Besides talking to all their guests, I'm guessing that was their favorite part of the evening.
From what I could tell, Christopher spent the evening taking photos of the event. He also put together a very nice video with photos of Mom, Dad and the family. I watched it in the hallway while I rested my aching feet. I'm not used to standing up that long!
Holly furnished all the plates, cups, etc. and spent the night doing what she does best - socializing! Speaking of socializing, I saw tons of people I hadn't seen in ages - most notably Cori, our next-door neighbor who practically lived with us until she turned 12. Sheri had told me Cori hasn't changed much, and she hasn't. She's still as goofy as ever, which I always liked about her. I told her I still have the plastic dinosaur she gave me for my birthday years ago and named Alfred. Cori laughed at that. I tried to give Alfred to the DI once, but my kids wouldn't hear of it. "You can't give Alfred away!" They were right, of course. My heirlooms are not going to be crystal and china, but plastic dinosaurs and plush hammerhead sharks. Which is just about right for me...
David ran out of oxygen around 8:00, but Cameron got him safely home to an oxygen refill. Thank goodness we have kids who can drive now. In fact, Cameron spent the morning chauffering Sheri and me around to various stores.
After we cleaned up the church and loaded everything into the car, we stopped by Mom and Dad's for Tammie's rhubarb and Meagan's clothes. Dad regaled Mom, Meagan and me with stories about his Army days. I've heard them before, but I never get tired of hearing how he outsmarted his obnoxious CO several times over the course of two years.
Unfortunately, I had to work a full day on Friday. Friday is schedule phone call day - my least favorite day because someone always has to change the schedule once we gone to great lengths to set it up. Usually more than one someone. I felt like laying on the floor and going to sleep, but somehow I made it through. Thank goodness.
This morning we got up early for Cameron and Jarom's parade. The Murray parade is always longer than the West Fest parade. West Fest only had one float - ironically, it was the Murray float. The Murray parade had at least a dozen floats. My favorite parts were Cameron & Jarom's band (of course) and the bagpipe band. I love bagpipe bands in the great outdoors. Made me long for another Scottish Festival.
After the parade, we went to Becky's house for treats and hamburgers and Wii games. Amber was reluctant to play "Just Dance" at first, then she kind of took over the game. We played "Rabbids TV Party," too. Becky let us take that game home so we could play it longer.
Becky and I took Dana and Byron outside to feed the ducks corn tortillas. I tossed a whole tortilla in the water - one duck snapped it up with his bill and the other ducks chased after him. I tossed another one to a mama duck and her babies and accidentally hit one of the babies with it. The mama duck quacked at me, but the baby ducked under the water and was fine. Byron kept chasing the ducks trying to hand them bits of tortilla and couldn't figured out why they kept running away from him in droves. Dana thought it was hilarious that they kept running away from her, but I put at stop to that.
Now I'm on the internet looking for a strawberry freezer jam recipe. I've got to do something with 4 pounds of strawberries before they go bad. Becky said Dana and Byron ate almost an entire 4 pound box yesterday. My goodness - that's alot of strawberries for 2 little kids! At least it's something healthy, I can't believe they could eat that much in one day. Wow.
UPDATE: Apparently Holly and Gary spent the entire Anniversary Party manning the guestbook and nursery. No wonder I rarely saw them. From what I heard the kids in the nursery loved Gary.
Also, the man in charge of the church was shocked to not find even one gold glitter star in the church the next day. Sheri heard that he, who is particularly hard to please, wishes all party throwers cleaned the church as well as we did. That, and Mom got every single chocolate and rhubarb slush stain out of the white table cloths. Impressive if you saw the chocolate fountain table cloth. I had no idea Mom is a stainmaster.
Just after noon we set up tables, chairs, decorations and sound equipment at the church and Becky assembled the cake. Then we took Mom & Dad to Chuck-a-Rama for lunch/dinner.
After that we set out refreshments and figured out the chocolate fountains. Thank heavens Lila was experienced in running a chocolate fountain. There's more to it than just dumping a bunch of chocolate in the fountain and waiting for it to melt. Who knew?
Lila spent the night melting chocolate, David (Jason) spent the night running to the store for more milk chocolate and Sheri and I spent the night watching over the refreshment table. The chocolate dippers we set out were: strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pretzels, oreos, cinnamon bears, orange slices, rice crispy treats and vanilla wafer cookies (the rectangle kind with frosting in the middle). Some things we brought twice as much of as we needed (or more - sprite, strawberries, marshmallows, rice crispy treats, oreos), some things we figured just about right (cinnamon bears, orange slices, vanilla wafer cookies, bananas). The only thing we were short on was the milk chocolate. Who knows what people are going to like or how much they are going to eat?
Sheri & Becky made a bunch of very tasty rhubarb slush. Even people who don't usually like rhubarb liked it. Several people asked Sheri for the recipe.
Becky made a huge, beautiful cake with white fondant, edible pearls and gold stars, gold ribbons, a sparkly broach and a gold and diamond-y 50 on top. The 2 top layers were carrot cake and the huge bottom layer was chocolate. Apparently the carrot cake was more popular, because we brought half of the chocolate layer home at Becky's urging. Today I gave 1/2 of what we brought home to Tammie when she came by to get some rhubarb Meagan procured for her.
David (brother) and Becky found some cute glass and metal lanterns at Ikea with star cut-outs for the tables. Then David and Meagan looped gold ribbon around the lanterns and sprinkled sparkly gold star confetti on the tables. The final touch was a white star-shaped mylar balloon tied to each lantern. They searched for gold and silver balloons, but nobody was selling those. It would have looked nice, but it looked fine without them. Sheri had Laureen to make a corsage, boutonniere and a couple of fresh flower arrangements.
Dorian Mirth played lovely Renaissance music in the background. Over the course of the evening Becky sang Mom and Dad's wedding theme song "Stardust" three times. Besides talking to all their guests, I'm guessing that was their favorite part of the evening.
From what I could tell, Christopher spent the evening taking photos of the event. He also put together a very nice video with photos of Mom, Dad and the family. I watched it in the hallway while I rested my aching feet. I'm not used to standing up that long!
Holly furnished all the plates, cups, etc. and spent the night doing what she does best - socializing! Speaking of socializing, I saw tons of people I hadn't seen in ages - most notably Cori, our next-door neighbor who practically lived with us until she turned 12. Sheri had told me Cori hasn't changed much, and she hasn't. She's still as goofy as ever, which I always liked about her. I told her I still have the plastic dinosaur she gave me for my birthday years ago and named Alfred. Cori laughed at that. I tried to give Alfred to the DI once, but my kids wouldn't hear of it. "You can't give Alfred away!" They were right, of course. My heirlooms are not going to be crystal and china, but plastic dinosaurs and plush hammerhead sharks. Which is just about right for me...
David ran out of oxygen around 8:00, but Cameron got him safely home to an oxygen refill. Thank goodness we have kids who can drive now. In fact, Cameron spent the morning chauffering Sheri and me around to various stores.
After we cleaned up the church and loaded everything into the car, we stopped by Mom and Dad's for Tammie's rhubarb and Meagan's clothes. Dad regaled Mom, Meagan and me with stories about his Army days. I've heard them before, but I never get tired of hearing how he outsmarted his obnoxious CO several times over the course of two years.
Unfortunately, I had to work a full day on Friday. Friday is schedule phone call day - my least favorite day because someone always has to change the schedule once we gone to great lengths to set it up. Usually more than one someone. I felt like laying on the floor and going to sleep, but somehow I made it through. Thank goodness.
This morning we got up early for Cameron and Jarom's parade. The Murray parade is always longer than the West Fest parade. West Fest only had one float - ironically, it was the Murray float. The Murray parade had at least a dozen floats. My favorite parts were Cameron & Jarom's band (of course) and the bagpipe band. I love bagpipe bands in the great outdoors. Made me long for another Scottish Festival.
After the parade, we went to Becky's house for treats and hamburgers and Wii games. Amber was reluctant to play "Just Dance" at first, then she kind of took over the game. We played "Rabbids TV Party," too. Becky let us take that game home so we could play it longer.
Becky and I took Dana and Byron outside to feed the ducks corn tortillas. I tossed a whole tortilla in the water - one duck snapped it up with his bill and the other ducks chased after him. I tossed another one to a mama duck and her babies and accidentally hit one of the babies with it. The mama duck quacked at me, but the baby ducked under the water and was fine. Byron kept chasing the ducks trying to hand them bits of tortilla and couldn't figured out why they kept running away from him in droves. Dana thought it was hilarious that they kept running away from her, but I put at stop to that.
Now I'm on the internet looking for a strawberry freezer jam recipe. I've got to do something with 4 pounds of strawberries before they go bad. Becky said Dana and Byron ate almost an entire 4 pound box yesterday. My goodness - that's alot of strawberries for 2 little kids! At least it's something healthy, I can't believe they could eat that much in one day. Wow.
UPDATE: Apparently Holly and Gary spent the entire Anniversary Party manning the guestbook and nursery. No wonder I rarely saw them. From what I heard the kids in the nursery loved Gary.
Also, the man in charge of the church was shocked to not find even one gold glitter star in the church the next day. Sheri heard that he, who is particularly hard to please, wishes all party throwers cleaned the church as well as we did. That, and Mom got every single chocolate and rhubarb slush stain out of the white table cloths. Impressive if you saw the chocolate fountain table cloth. I had no idea Mom is a stainmaster.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
ACT? Scottish Festival? ACT?
I am at home right now. Cameron is currently taking the ACT. The rest of the family + Brianna & Katelyn are on their way to the Scottish Festival. I made them take rain ponchos just in case. There's a 70% chance of rain in Lehi today.
When Cameron gets done with the ACT at 1:00, we'll decide if we're going to join the rest of the family at the Scottish Festival or go out to lunch somewhere. I'm going to miss massed bands and the caber toss. *sniff* so sad... I guess there's always next year.
Am I too nice? Maybe I should have had Cameron drive himself to the ACT and back home? He didn't sign up early enough to take the April ACT, so he's missing the Scottish Festival. And so am I.
I'm logging off the computer now and I'm going to do an hour of yoga. :)
When Cameron gets done with the ACT at 1:00, we'll decide if we're going to join the rest of the family at the Scottish Festival or go out to lunch somewhere. I'm going to miss massed bands and the caber toss. *sniff* so sad... I guess there's always next year.
Am I too nice? Maybe I should have had Cameron drive himself to the ACT and back home? He didn't sign up early enough to take the April ACT, so he's missing the Scottish Festival. And so am I.
I'm logging off the computer now and I'm going to do an hour of yoga. :)
Friday, June 11, 2010
Whew! Hell Week is Over!
This has been quite the week at work. Melissa was sick on Monday. Then on Tuesday. Then on Thursday... I had to keep rescheduling all her patients and it was tough! So glad this week is over... Hope Melissa gets feeling better soon!
In the midst of all this, David told me Tuesday afternoon, "You need to be home from work at a decent hour tomorrow."
I asked, "Why?"
He looked at me weird and I had to think hard about why he would care what time I got home from work on a particular day. Then it dawned on me, "Oh, yeah, it's my birthday tomorrow. I forgot."
So, David took me and the kids out to lunch for my Birthday. We went to Chinese Gourmet and I got to eat lots of yummy food that agrees with me: a big salad, a plate of Mongolian Stir Fry, green jello, strawberries and a couple of tiny macaroons. We all ate and talked for a couple of hours. David and the kids are fun to hang out with.
Handing out Wedding Anniversary invitations on Sunday and hanging out with everyone at Mom and Dad's was fun, too. And keeping Sheri up past midnight. (Sorry,Sheri!) Thor was not happy about us leaving him in the house with Jetta while we were gone. When we got home there was a BIG wet spot on David's side of the bed compliments of Thor. And David still loves him.
Thursday we watched the movie "Meet the Robinsons." It's about a boy living in an orphanage who wants to find his birth mother. He can't remember what she looks like, so he attempts to build a machine that will find his memory of her and transfer it from his brain to a screen so he can find her. He thinks his life is horrible, but it will be perfect if he can find his mother and have a family. At the end the thought popped into my head: "What if I'm already living the life of my dreams and I just don't realize it?"
Cameron, on the other hand, loved the T-Rex in the movie and now wants a T-Rex for a pet. Not that he hasn't always.
All in all, I guess the week wasn't so bad. It had its good points, too.
In the midst of all this, David told me Tuesday afternoon, "You need to be home from work at a decent hour tomorrow."
I asked, "Why?"
He looked at me weird and I had to think hard about why he would care what time I got home from work on a particular day. Then it dawned on me, "Oh, yeah, it's my birthday tomorrow. I forgot."
So, David took me and the kids out to lunch for my Birthday. We went to Chinese Gourmet and I got to eat lots of yummy food that agrees with me: a big salad, a plate of Mongolian Stir Fry, green jello, strawberries and a couple of tiny macaroons. We all ate and talked for a couple of hours. David and the kids are fun to hang out with.
Handing out Wedding Anniversary invitations on Sunday and hanging out with everyone at Mom and Dad's was fun, too. And keeping Sheri up past midnight. (Sorry,Sheri!) Thor was not happy about us leaving him in the house with Jetta while we were gone. When we got home there was a BIG wet spot on David's side of the bed compliments of Thor. And David still loves him.
Thursday we watched the movie "Meet the Robinsons." It's about a boy living in an orphanage who wants to find his birth mother. He can't remember what she looks like, so he attempts to build a machine that will find his memory of her and transfer it from his brain to a screen so he can find her. He thinks his life is horrible, but it will be perfect if he can find his mother and have a family. At the end the thought popped into my head: "What if I'm already living the life of my dreams and I just don't realize it?"
Cameron, on the other hand, loved the T-Rex in the movie and now wants a T-Rex for a pet. Not that he hasn't always.
All in all, I guess the week wasn't so bad. It had its good points, too.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
New Office Manager and Other Delights
Joe hired another part-time office manager. I've been training her for the past two weeks. We've worked together 7 days with the holiday weekend and whatnot. I will be ecstatic when she is trained and I only have to work 4 hours most days. Maybe I'll have the time and energy to clean the house, make dinner and work on my writing projects.
I've done no writing for the past month and a half. I wasn't able to go to the writing group the last 2 times because I had to work through it. I haven't even started on my next writing project that's due June 21. Maybe I should get started?
By the time Saturday rolls around I feel like I've been hit by a Mack truck. I think I should convert to Judiasm, then Saturday could be my day of rest and I could get some work done on Sunday. Then I'd have to be done with work and be home by sunset on Friday, wouldn't I? Maybe I won't convert.
OK, enough complaining. Since the last time I wrote:
Amber - had her last elementary school choir concert. The choir sang songs Mrs. Robinson, the chorister, likes because she's retiring this year. Miss Marchant, the pianist, is looking for someone to be the chorister next year, so the choir can continue. I hope it does. Amber has sung in the choir the last five years and enjoyed it. Meagan and Cameron were both in the choir for a couple of years, too.
Yesterday Amber got 2 awards at school: one for perfect attendance and the Presidential Award for Scholastic Achievement. David and I had no idea Amber had perfect attendance at school until she got the award. Amber didn't get an award for reading the insane amount of minutes she read during the school year because she never turned in her minutes. The top reader got an award for reading 14,000 minutes (233.33 hours) during the school year. I'm sure Amber read at least that many minutes. Silly Amber.
Jarom - got to go to the Jr. High's Awards Ceremony. He got the Presidential Award for Citizenship, the Presidential Award for Scholastic Achievement and Top 9th Grade Quest Social Studies Student. He is quite the scholar. Jarom also got 3 of his pictures in the Art Show: a pastel parrot, a colored pencil seascape and a colored pencil mountain. Not the dragon picture he posted on Facebook, he didn't get it done in time.
Wednesday Jarom went to 9th Grade Lagoon Day. His friend Cody didn't go, so he hung out with Rachel, Justin and Lincoln. Jarom's favorite ride was the Wild Mouse. He had $13 to spend on food and spent $6 of it. He got a soft pretzel and a cinnamon roll. Can you tell what his favorite food group is?
The High School Seminary invited the 9th Graders to breakfast on Thursday, so I dropped Cameron and Jarom off at the High School at 7:20am. Breakfast supposedly started at 7:00. By the time Cameron and Jarom got there, only 10 other students had arrived and they were just setting up. Cameron and Jarom walked over to the school to pick up Cameron's yearbook and by the time they got back, all the pancakes were gone. Luckily another teacher had pity on them and gave them some doughnuts. Cameron and Jarom stayed at the High School until 2:00, spending most of their time in the courtyard. They both got sunburned. Friday they planned better and put on sunscreen.
Cameron - I'm glad Cameron likes hanging out with Jarom now. They're best buds. Looking back, it seems Cameron finally decided Jarom was OK after Amber was born and Jarom was no longer the center of attention.
A couple of weeks ago Meagan and I went to a RS Brunch at Sister Baron's house. Sister Baron, who I hardly know (she's from the new part of the ward), told me, "My daughter says that your older son is the most intelligent person she's ever met, and that's saying something because she's pretty smart herself." I came home and told Cameron and he blushed. Apparently Sister Baron's daughter knows Cameron from riding the bus to GTI, but Cameron's not sure if he knows who she is.
Cameron's friend Chris who lives across the street is moving this summer. They usually walk home from school together. Walking almost 2 miles everyday has been good for Cameron. I'm glad Cameron will have Jarom to walk home with next year.
Meagan - is still recuperating from her car wreck 3 weeks ago. Yesterday the physical therapist told her, "This is about the point where I tell patients they're going to survive. We're not going to have to take you out back and shoot you." Meagan laughed. Meagan's feeling better and taking half the ibuprofen and muscle relaxants she was taking right after the accident.
Today we got the check in the mail from Am Fam for the damage our car got. A couple of days ago I found out I could have gotten a rental car paid for by Am Fam. Since my car is still driveable, I don't know why I would have gotten a rental car. One of David's friends told him we should hire a collision attorney. I told David, "Why would we want to do that if the insurance company pays for Meagan's medical bills and the damage done to our car? That's all we want." David agreed with me.
Meagan is also being very crafty since school got out. She's made 2 tote bags, 2 quillows and a bunch of headbands. I told her she should open an Etsy shop. She told me one of the blogs she follows has a list of what to do when you open an Etsy shop - things she learned the hard way. I guess Meagan has already been thinking about it.
David - is waiting for me to get off the computer. So I guess I better. It's his turn now.
I've done no writing for the past month and a half. I wasn't able to go to the writing group the last 2 times because I had to work through it. I haven't even started on my next writing project that's due June 21. Maybe I should get started?
By the time Saturday rolls around I feel like I've been hit by a Mack truck. I think I should convert to Judiasm, then Saturday could be my day of rest and I could get some work done on Sunday. Then I'd have to be done with work and be home by sunset on Friday, wouldn't I? Maybe I won't convert.
OK, enough complaining. Since the last time I wrote:
Amber - had her last elementary school choir concert. The choir sang songs Mrs. Robinson, the chorister, likes because she's retiring this year. Miss Marchant, the pianist, is looking for someone to be the chorister next year, so the choir can continue. I hope it does. Amber has sung in the choir the last five years and enjoyed it. Meagan and Cameron were both in the choir for a couple of years, too.
Yesterday Amber got 2 awards at school: one for perfect attendance and the Presidential Award for Scholastic Achievement. David and I had no idea Amber had perfect attendance at school until she got the award. Amber didn't get an award for reading the insane amount of minutes she read during the school year because she never turned in her minutes. The top reader got an award for reading 14,000 minutes (233.33 hours) during the school year. I'm sure Amber read at least that many minutes. Silly Amber.
Jarom - got to go to the Jr. High's Awards Ceremony. He got the Presidential Award for Citizenship, the Presidential Award for Scholastic Achievement and Top 9th Grade Quest Social Studies Student. He is quite the scholar. Jarom also got 3 of his pictures in the Art Show: a pastel parrot, a colored pencil seascape and a colored pencil mountain. Not the dragon picture he posted on Facebook, he didn't get it done in time.
Wednesday Jarom went to 9th Grade Lagoon Day. His friend Cody didn't go, so he hung out with Rachel, Justin and Lincoln. Jarom's favorite ride was the Wild Mouse. He had $13 to spend on food and spent $6 of it. He got a soft pretzel and a cinnamon roll. Can you tell what his favorite food group is?
The High School Seminary invited the 9th Graders to breakfast on Thursday, so I dropped Cameron and Jarom off at the High School at 7:20am. Breakfast supposedly started at 7:00. By the time Cameron and Jarom got there, only 10 other students had arrived and they were just setting up. Cameron and Jarom walked over to the school to pick up Cameron's yearbook and by the time they got back, all the pancakes were gone. Luckily another teacher had pity on them and gave them some doughnuts. Cameron and Jarom stayed at the High School until 2:00, spending most of their time in the courtyard. They both got sunburned. Friday they planned better and put on sunscreen.
Cameron - I'm glad Cameron likes hanging out with Jarom now. They're best buds. Looking back, it seems Cameron finally decided Jarom was OK after Amber was born and Jarom was no longer the center of attention.
A couple of weeks ago Meagan and I went to a RS Brunch at Sister Baron's house. Sister Baron, who I hardly know (she's from the new part of the ward), told me, "My daughter says that your older son is the most intelligent person she's ever met, and that's saying something because she's pretty smart herself." I came home and told Cameron and he blushed. Apparently Sister Baron's daughter knows Cameron from riding the bus to GTI, but Cameron's not sure if he knows who she is.
Cameron's friend Chris who lives across the street is moving this summer. They usually walk home from school together. Walking almost 2 miles everyday has been good for Cameron. I'm glad Cameron will have Jarom to walk home with next year.
Meagan - is still recuperating from her car wreck 3 weeks ago. Yesterday the physical therapist told her, "This is about the point where I tell patients they're going to survive. We're not going to have to take you out back and shoot you." Meagan laughed. Meagan's feeling better and taking half the ibuprofen and muscle relaxants she was taking right after the accident.
Today we got the check in the mail from Am Fam for the damage our car got. A couple of days ago I found out I could have gotten a rental car paid for by Am Fam. Since my car is still driveable, I don't know why I would have gotten a rental car. One of David's friends told him we should hire a collision attorney. I told David, "Why would we want to do that if the insurance company pays for Meagan's medical bills and the damage done to our car? That's all we want." David agreed with me.
Meagan is also being very crafty since school got out. She's made 2 tote bags, 2 quillows and a bunch of headbands. I told her she should open an Etsy shop. She told me one of the blogs she follows has a list of what to do when you open an Etsy shop - things she learned the hard way. I guess Meagan has already been thinking about it.
David - is waiting for me to get off the computer. So I guess I better. It's his turn now.
Monday, May 17, 2010
End of Year Program
So, we went to the Quest End of Year Program tonight. Amber and all the incoming 7th graders were welcomed in to the program and it was Jarom's farewell. Mrs. Silleto always makes predictions for the outgoing 9th graders. She said that Jarom is "going to be the next Willie Hays - the screamingest infomercial announcer on TV." Yup, sounds just like Jarom.
I told Mrs. Silleto after the program that we keep telling Jarom he's going to get an engineering degree then become an actor. She thought that sounded about right. Jarom said, "They keep saying that because of Rowan Atkinson." It's true.
Two years ago Mrs. Siletto told Cameron he was going to write and illustrate books with big words in them. I looked through my tags and can't believe I didn't put her Cameron prediction on my blog...
I worked 7.75 hours today. Can you believe it? It was supposed to be one of my "short" days. It's cuz we had a ba-zillion visits the last two weeks with one of the home health companies we are contracted with. OK, only 115. I got to "bill" last week's visits and invoice all of the visits for the last two weeks. Plus all the fun scheduling and re-scheduling. Fortunately, Joe is getting someone to help me in the office. I guess we'll be co-office managers. Which is just fine with me. And, Joe is interviewing 2 new PTs. Joe is even more swamped than I am. Poor Joe.
In other news (and I thought this was going to be a short post!), we have a woodpecker living in the apple tree in our backyard. The hole it literally drilled into one of the branches is perfectly round. It's amazing how round it is. It looks like somebody took a hole-saw and drilled in the tree - except a hole-saw couldn't weave into the branch in the cool way the woodpecker hole does. Amber took pictures of it. Maybe I'll have to figure out how to post them. That would be cool.
Meagan got to deal with the other insurance company today. She said the insurance adjuster kept asking her the same questions over and over again. He mostly asked if it couldn't have been someone else other than his client that ran into our car and did she leave it on the side of the road unattended. Good heavens! How silly.
I told Mrs. Silleto after the program that we keep telling Jarom he's going to get an engineering degree then become an actor. She thought that sounded about right. Jarom said, "They keep saying that because of Rowan Atkinson." It's true.
Two years ago Mrs. Siletto told Cameron he was going to write and illustrate books with big words in them. I looked through my tags and can't believe I didn't put her Cameron prediction on my blog...
I worked 7.75 hours today. Can you believe it? It was supposed to be one of my "short" days. It's cuz we had a ba-zillion visits the last two weeks with one of the home health companies we are contracted with. OK, only 115. I got to "bill" last week's visits and invoice all of the visits for the last two weeks. Plus all the fun scheduling and re-scheduling. Fortunately, Joe is getting someone to help me in the office. I guess we'll be co-office managers. Which is just fine with me. And, Joe is interviewing 2 new PTs. Joe is even more swamped than I am. Poor Joe.
In other news (and I thought this was going to be a short post!), we have a woodpecker living in the apple tree in our backyard. The hole it literally drilled into one of the branches is perfectly round. It's amazing how round it is. It looks like somebody took a hole-saw and drilled in the tree - except a hole-saw couldn't weave into the branch in the cool way the woodpecker hole does. Amber took pictures of it. Maybe I'll have to figure out how to post them. That would be cool.
Meagan got to deal with the other insurance company today. She said the insurance adjuster kept asking her the same questions over and over again. He mostly asked if it couldn't have been someone else other than his client that ran into our car and did she leave it on the side of the road unattended. Good heavens! How silly.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Stomach Cramps & Whiplash
I have been up most of the night because Magic Wok put MSG in our food after I told them 3 times I wanted NO MSG. Oh well... I'm not going there again. I guess I need to learn to cook my own Chinese food. Problem is, I really hate cooking. Sheri and I discovered a few months back that her idea of hell is having to exercise and mine is having to cook. Of course, my FAVORITE thing is exercise and Sheri's is cooking. LOL.
The Crown got smashed in to by a white SUV on Wednesday while Meagie was driving it to pick Amber up from school. I guess I could have been worse. Meagan's neck is sore, but other than that she seems to be OK. The car is still driveable, but the rear passenger-side door is dented in about 6 inches. The entire door. It's amazing the window is still in tact.
Funny thing is, I was talking to a guy at work earlier on Wednesday who was at the ER because his face got smashed in during a car wreck that morning. Better the car door than Meagan's face, that's for sure!
What I want to know is how did my part time job that was supposed to be 22 hours a week turn in to almost a full time job? I guess I should be glad that I've got a job in this tough economy, but I'm just tired.
We went to Jarom's art show at the Jr. High on Tuesday. He had 3 pictures in it: a pastel parrot, a colored pencil seascape and a colored pencil mountain. He is getting to be quite the artist. He is working on a colored ink dragon now.
Guess that's about it. Maybe I'll try to go to sleep for 10 minutes before I start the day...Did I mention that Meagan left her cell phone in the living room and it kept buzzing every 5 minutes for about an hour. Apparently some boy is trying to get in touch with her in the middle of the night. Ah, youth!
The Crown got smashed in to by a white SUV on Wednesday while Meagie was driving it to pick Amber up from school. I guess I could have been worse. Meagan's neck is sore, but other than that she seems to be OK. The car is still driveable, but the rear passenger-side door is dented in about 6 inches. The entire door. It's amazing the window is still in tact.
Funny thing is, I was talking to a guy at work earlier on Wednesday who was at the ER because his face got smashed in during a car wreck that morning. Better the car door than Meagan's face, that's for sure!
What I want to know is how did my part time job that was supposed to be 22 hours a week turn in to almost a full time job? I guess I should be glad that I've got a job in this tough economy, but I'm just tired.
We went to Jarom's art show at the Jr. High on Tuesday. He had 3 pictures in it: a pastel parrot, a colored pencil seascape and a colored pencil mountain. He is getting to be quite the artist. He is working on a colored ink dragon now.
Guess that's about it. Maybe I'll try to go to sleep for 10 minutes before I start the day...Did I mention that Meagan left her cell phone in the living room and it kept buzzing every 5 minutes for about an hour. Apparently some boy is trying to get in touch with her in the middle of the night. Ah, youth!
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Haircuts, Crazy Music & Eclipses
I was thinking about going to Bountiful today for haircuts, but Mom and Dad are gone to Downey today. Cameron is glad because he got to go to his friend Chris's house. Not that he didn't want to go to Grandma and Grandpa's, but he's been planning all week to go to Chris's and I forgot.
Meagan was up all night with the Girl Scouts. She got home around 7:30am and regaled me with stories of her exciting night - especially the girls that kept screaming about spiders at 5:00 am. I'm OK with spiders as long as they don't bite me. I just scoop them up, take them outside and tell them not to come back in the house. So maybe I'm Buddist as well as Jewish.
David is waiting to get on the computer. I have taken it over. Which is kind of hard not to do if I'm on it. It doesn't really work for two people at a time.
Last week I changed my work schedule. Now I work Mon - Thu from 8:30 to 12:30/1:00 (depending on how long it takes me to get everything done). On Friday I work 8 hours because that's schedule day. Calling everyone and shuffling appointments around takes a while. I like this schedule better - I'm not stuck in Joe's basement doing paperwork for 8 or 9 hours a day (except Friday). About the time I'm getting really tired of it, it's time to go. Yay!
My cute sister Becky made me a Spring cd. I listened to it at work a couple of times yesterday. The first song on the cd is by Tiny Tim. For some reason I thought he was a midget and lived in the late 1800s/early 1900s. After googling him, I found out he was about 6'3" and born the same year as my Dad. Who knew? I played the Tiny Tim song for David and the kids. They were kind of freaked out by it. I think it's called "Living in the Sunlight, Loving in the Moonlight." I thought it was silly and kind of catchy. That and the song "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga have been stuck in my head.
David said, "Why does Becky keep making you cd's with weird songs on them?"
I said, "Because she knows I like weird?"
David rolled his eyes. I think he is disgusted with our taste in songs...
This morning I told David that the Robby Benson movie he has (on VHS, I'm sure - I can't remember the name of the movie) where Robby is up against a punk band in a talent contest, I liked the punk band better. I'm pretty sure the point of the movie is for everyone to say, "Oh, that punk band was horrible, Robby totally deserved to win!" David thinks I'm crazy, but that's OK. As you can tell, we don't have exactly the same taste in music - except that I'll go to a Styx concert with him and he'll go to an Oingo Boingo concert with me...
Amber just came in from the kitchen. "It's too small," she said, holding up a racquet ball.
"Too small for what?" I asked.
"Too small for a solar eclipse," she replied.
"A solar eclipse?"
"Yeah, I tried to block out the kitchen light with it, but it was too small. I could still see the light. Or is that a lunar eclipse? What is a lunar eclipse?"
So then we had to google "lunar eclipse." We decided what she had tried to recreate was, in fact, a solar eclipse.
"Maybe you need to use a basketball," I suggested.
She just looked at me like I was a bit crazy. Yup, my whole family thinks I'm crazy. And I think that's not a bad thing.
Meagan was up all night with the Girl Scouts. She got home around 7:30am and regaled me with stories of her exciting night - especially the girls that kept screaming about spiders at 5:00 am. I'm OK with spiders as long as they don't bite me. I just scoop them up, take them outside and tell them not to come back in the house. So maybe I'm Buddist as well as Jewish.
David is waiting to get on the computer. I have taken it over. Which is kind of hard not to do if I'm on it. It doesn't really work for two people at a time.
Last week I changed my work schedule. Now I work Mon - Thu from 8:30 to 12:30/1:00 (depending on how long it takes me to get everything done). On Friday I work 8 hours because that's schedule day. Calling everyone and shuffling appointments around takes a while. I like this schedule better - I'm not stuck in Joe's basement doing paperwork for 8 or 9 hours a day (except Friday). About the time I'm getting really tired of it, it's time to go. Yay!
My cute sister Becky made me a Spring cd. I listened to it at work a couple of times yesterday. The first song on the cd is by Tiny Tim. For some reason I thought he was a midget and lived in the late 1800s/early 1900s. After googling him, I found out he was about 6'3" and born the same year as my Dad. Who knew? I played the Tiny Tim song for David and the kids. They were kind of freaked out by it. I think it's called "Living in the Sunlight, Loving in the Moonlight." I thought it was silly and kind of catchy. That and the song "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga have been stuck in my head.
David said, "Why does Becky keep making you cd's with weird songs on them?"
I said, "Because she knows I like weird?"
David rolled his eyes. I think he is disgusted with our taste in songs...
This morning I told David that the Robby Benson movie he has (on VHS, I'm sure - I can't remember the name of the movie) where Robby is up against a punk band in a talent contest, I liked the punk band better. I'm pretty sure the point of the movie is for everyone to say, "Oh, that punk band was horrible, Robby totally deserved to win!" David thinks I'm crazy, but that's OK. As you can tell, we don't have exactly the same taste in music - except that I'll go to a Styx concert with him and he'll go to an Oingo Boingo concert with me...
Amber just came in from the kitchen. "It's too small," she said, holding up a racquet ball.
"Too small for what?" I asked.
"Too small for a solar eclipse," she replied.
"A solar eclipse?"
"Yeah, I tried to block out the kitchen light with it, but it was too small. I could still see the light. Or is that a lunar eclipse? What is a lunar eclipse?"
So then we had to google "lunar eclipse." We decided what she had tried to recreate was, in fact, a solar eclipse.
"Maybe you need to use a basketball," I suggested.
She just looked at me like I was a bit crazy. Yup, my whole family thinks I'm crazy. And I think that's not a bad thing.
Monday, April 26, 2010
I Don't Know What to Call This...
We went to Heart of Hunter tonight. Amber's choir sang and Jarom's jazz band played. It was crowded and noisy as usual, but no fire alarms went off tonight. I ate oatmeal before I went because I am kosher and do not eat hotdogs. Or potato chips. Or cookies.
This morning we had a staff meeting for work at Village Inn. I had an omlette with cheese and broccoli. I was glad I found something *kosher* to eat. This is the first time I've been to a staff meeting at a restaurant.
Well, the computer is going to kick me off in 3 minutes. Oh yeah, Jarom got his braces off today. After 5 years, he finally got his braces off. He says his teeth feel fake because they're too smooth.
This morning we had a staff meeting for work at Village Inn. I had an omlette with cheese and broccoli. I was glad I found something *kosher* to eat. This is the first time I've been to a staff meeting at a restaurant.
Well, the computer is going to kick me off in 3 minutes. Oh yeah, Jarom got his braces off today. After 5 years, he finally got his braces off. He says his teeth feel fake because they're too smooth.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Death & Taxes
OK, really, it's just taxes. I am REALLY tired today, so maybe the "death" kind of applies...
I finished my taxes and mailed them in today. Yay! We're getting a big refund. Double yay!
I even helped Meagan with her taxes. We were confused by the phrase, "Can anyone else claim you on their taxes?" Well, yes, but they're not going to, so what then? We had to call Dad/Grandpa and ask him. He said if no one else is going to claim you as a dependent, then answer that question "No." That gave her a refund, rather than having to pay and didn't make a bit of difference in our refund.
I went to Amber's SEP Conference and both of her teachers agreed that Amber is a wonderful girl and student. They said she's kind, friendly, polite, smart and gets along well with the other students. She got straight A's and they're impressed she chooses difficult books for her book reports.
Amber finished reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" yesterday. I didn't read that 'til Jr. High, and then only when my teacher made us read it. Amber and I discussed "Mockingbird" last night - because I stole the book from her over the weekend and read the first several chapters before she realized I had taken it. The kids hate it when I take over their books. Don't they know if there's an interesting new book in the house, I HAVE to read it? It's an obligation.
David and I took the Crown in for Safety and I/M today. It passed I/M, but the rear brakes had to be repaired. I didn't even hear them scraping - I guess it's a good thing we got them checked. Luckily, I got paid yesterday, so we had the money for it.
Cameron volunteered to help us grocery shop. What did we do to deserve such a great kid? He was a BIG help.
After we got home I cooked chicken, rice, cauliflower and broccoli for dinner. I managed to burn the rice a little. Yummmm . . . crunchy rice. I'm exhausted. Perhaps I should go to bed?
I finished my taxes and mailed them in today. Yay! We're getting a big refund. Double yay!
I even helped Meagan with her taxes. We were confused by the phrase, "Can anyone else claim you on their taxes?" Well, yes, but they're not going to, so what then? We had to call Dad/Grandpa and ask him. He said if no one else is going to claim you as a dependent, then answer that question "No." That gave her a refund, rather than having to pay and didn't make a bit of difference in our refund.
I went to Amber's SEP Conference and both of her teachers agreed that Amber is a wonderful girl and student. They said she's kind, friendly, polite, smart and gets along well with the other students. She got straight A's and they're impressed she chooses difficult books for her book reports.
Amber finished reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" yesterday. I didn't read that 'til Jr. High, and then only when my teacher made us read it. Amber and I discussed "Mockingbird" last night - because I stole the book from her over the weekend and read the first several chapters before she realized I had taken it. The kids hate it when I take over their books. Don't they know if there's an interesting new book in the house, I HAVE to read it? It's an obligation.
David and I took the Crown in for Safety and I/M today. It passed I/M, but the rear brakes had to be repaired. I didn't even hear them scraping - I guess it's a good thing we got them checked. Luckily, I got paid yesterday, so we had the money for it.
Cameron volunteered to help us grocery shop. What did we do to deserve such a great kid? He was a BIG help.
After we got home I cooked chicken, rice, cauliflower and broccoli for dinner. I managed to burn the rice a little. Yummmm . . . crunchy rice. I'm exhausted. Perhaps I should go to bed?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Movies & Magazines
Saturday morning our entire family cleaned the house. I didn't even have to talk the kids into it. David was the only one who complained about it. "What?! Who decided I was going to clean a bathroom?" But, to his credit, he did it anyway. He huffed and puffed most of the time and acted like he was going to die, but he did it.
I began wonder if maybe I shouldn't have assigned him a bathroom. I don't know why he got down on his hands and knees to clean the floor. We do have a mop, I reminded him. But, the bathroom is clean and the house is clean and it feels great!
OK, it's not totally clean, but it's way cleaner than it's been in a very long time. We're kinda slovenly around here... The good news is that I intermittently have more energy and actually feel like cleaning the house. Plus, six people cleaning goes way faster than one person cleaning the house!
As a reward, we went to see The Blind Side. No one wanted to see the movie but me, but it was the only decent (ie, not weird or R-rated) movie playing at the dollar theater. We could have gone to HC and seen a first run movie, but on the weekend we can't get in for free, which is pretty close to the price I'm willing to pay.
We got to the theater about 20 minutes after the movie started. I had to scrub just one more cupboard in the kitchen, plus I got my edited Institute of Children's Literature (ICL) assignment in the mail and had to read it. The suspense of not knowing my instructor's response would have killed me! I read somewhere that writers go from thinking they've written the most brilliant poem/story/article to thinking it's crap in about the space of 60 seconds. That pretty well sums it up. Especially for aspiring writers who aren't really sure what they're doing.
After searching in the dark a bit, we found six seats mostly together in the packed theater. I'm used to watching a half hour of previews on a weekday in a sparsely populated theater at HC. The movie had already started, but we only missed the first five or ten minutes. The kids laughed and oohed and aahed at all the right times. David seemed to like it, too. It was refreshing to go to an uplifting, inspiring movie all of us enjoyed that didn't have any shudder inducing moments. Well, not the kind of shudder that made me want to cover my kids' eyes or ears.
When we got up to leave, they all said, "That was a lot better than I thought it was going to be."
If you're not familiar with the movie, it's based on a true story about a homeless black teen named Michael. He's attending an expensive private school because he's huge and the football coach has plans for him. After school volleyball games, he goes through the stands and picks up all the leftover popcorn bags so he'll have something to eat. He washes his one spare pair of pants in the sink at the laundromat then finds a dryer that's already running to put his wet pants in because he doesn't have any money.
A wealthy white family notices him and takes him in. Their daughter and son attend the same private school. The actor who plays the son reminds me of a young Macaulay Culkin. The actor who plays Michael reminds me of Katelyn. He's quiet, kind and funny - and likes to cover his face a lot. He looks enough like Katelyn that he could pass as her brother. Sandra Bullock plays Mrs. Touhy, the mom. You probably already know that, since she won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her performance. If you want to know the rest of the story, you'll have to go see the movie - which I highly recommend.
Anyway, back to my edited ICL assignment. Shockingly, my instructor said the article I wrote was really strong and is almost ready to be sent out to publishers. I didn't expect that. Wow. I guess my next step is to polish it up a little, write a query letter and start sending it out to magazines. That, and write assignment #4.
This morning Amber and I went to talk to her 7th grade counselor. I almost forgot about it, so from the time Amber and I got up we had 15 minutes to get ready and get to the school. That's the fastest we've moved in a long time. The only change Amber made to her schedule was taking French instead of music and an extra semester of art. She's taking choir, so it's OK. The counselor asked Amber what she'd like her career to be when she grows up. Amber told her "a fantasy author." I think it runs in the family. That and art.
Meagan's on Spring Break, so she's got the whole week off. I don't think she's running off to Fort Lauderdale or anything. If she is, she hasn't told me about it. The other kids don't have Spring Break until the first of April. Odd.
OK, I've put it off long enough. I'm gonna get off the computer and do my taxes. I can't believe Becky actually enjoys doing taxes. What is wrong with her? Maybe she should work for H&R Block or something.
I began wonder if maybe I shouldn't have assigned him a bathroom. I don't know why he got down on his hands and knees to clean the floor. We do have a mop, I reminded him. But, the bathroom is clean and the house is clean and it feels great!
OK, it's not totally clean, but it's way cleaner than it's been in a very long time. We're kinda slovenly around here... The good news is that I intermittently have more energy and actually feel like cleaning the house. Plus, six people cleaning goes way faster than one person cleaning the house!
As a reward, we went to see The Blind Side. No one wanted to see the movie but me, but it was the only decent (ie, not weird or R-rated) movie playing at the dollar theater. We could have gone to HC and seen a first run movie, but on the weekend we can't get in for free, which is pretty close to the price I'm willing to pay.
We got to the theater about 20 minutes after the movie started. I had to scrub just one more cupboard in the kitchen, plus I got my edited Institute of Children's Literature (ICL) assignment in the mail and had to read it. The suspense of not knowing my instructor's response would have killed me! I read somewhere that writers go from thinking they've written the most brilliant poem/story/article to thinking it's crap in about the space of 60 seconds. That pretty well sums it up. Especially for aspiring writers who aren't really sure what they're doing.
After searching in the dark a bit, we found six seats mostly together in the packed theater. I'm used to watching a half hour of previews on a weekday in a sparsely populated theater at HC. The movie had already started, but we only missed the first five or ten minutes. The kids laughed and oohed and aahed at all the right times. David seemed to like it, too. It was refreshing to go to an uplifting, inspiring movie all of us enjoyed that didn't have any shudder inducing moments. Well, not the kind of shudder that made me want to cover my kids' eyes or ears.
When we got up to leave, they all said, "That was a lot better than I thought it was going to be."
If you're not familiar with the movie, it's based on a true story about a homeless black teen named Michael. He's attending an expensive private school because he's huge and the football coach has plans for him. After school volleyball games, he goes through the stands and picks up all the leftover popcorn bags so he'll have something to eat. He washes his one spare pair of pants in the sink at the laundromat then finds a dryer that's already running to put his wet pants in because he doesn't have any money.
A wealthy white family notices him and takes him in. Their daughter and son attend the same private school. The actor who plays the son reminds me of a young Macaulay Culkin. The actor who plays Michael reminds me of Katelyn. He's quiet, kind and funny - and likes to cover his face a lot. He looks enough like Katelyn that he could pass as her brother. Sandra Bullock plays Mrs. Touhy, the mom. You probably already know that, since she won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her performance. If you want to know the rest of the story, you'll have to go see the movie - which I highly recommend.
Anyway, back to my edited ICL assignment. Shockingly, my instructor said the article I wrote was really strong and is almost ready to be sent out to publishers. I didn't expect that. Wow. I guess my next step is to polish it up a little, write a query letter and start sending it out to magazines. That, and write assignment #4.
This morning Amber and I went to talk to her 7th grade counselor. I almost forgot about it, so from the time Amber and I got up we had 15 minutes to get ready and get to the school. That's the fastest we've moved in a long time. The only change Amber made to her schedule was taking French instead of music and an extra semester of art. She's taking choir, so it's OK. The counselor asked Amber what she'd like her career to be when she grows up. Amber told her "a fantasy author." I think it runs in the family. That and art.
Meagan's on Spring Break, so she's got the whole week off. I don't think she's running off to Fort Lauderdale or anything. If she is, she hasn't told me about it. The other kids don't have Spring Break until the first of April. Odd.
OK, I've put it off long enough. I'm gonna get off the computer and do my taxes. I can't believe Becky actually enjoys doing taxes. What is wrong with her? Maybe she should work for H&R Block or something.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Here Comes the Sun
Today was Jarom's last day at his job shadow. Steve was cool and let Jarom help him make stuff and run errands with him. Jarom's sad it's over.
Sheri and I went to writing group again this week. Mrs. Bean had so much stuff to look at we had hardly any time to really look things over. Booklets of poetry, recipe books, life stories, all sorts of booklets. Most of the other people looked at the poetry. Sheri and I were oohing and aahing over the typefaces, hand stitched bindings and crinkly handmade paper with dried flowers and juniper "leaves" pressed into it. And the full bleed recipe book with color photos. Are we graphics geeks or what?
I did read a few of the poems and writings. One of the stories I liked the best was about a woman who - I can't remember her name - LeeAnn maybe? Anyway, when she got a copy of her birth certificate years later, she noticed the Dr. had written "Gertrude" as her name. Later she discovered he was drunk when he filled out the birth certificate.
Mrs. Bean told a sad story about one of her favorite students. He was in her junior English class several years ago. The summer after his junior year, he drowned in Bear Lake. She had collected his poems over the school year and presented them to his Dad when she found out about his death. His Dad was so excited to have something that represented his son's thoughts and feelings that he made a booklet of the poems and handed them out at the viewing. Wow. How sad, but how great that Mrs. Bean had that to give him.
What's the deal with people dying over summer vacation? My friend Paul and my favorite math teacher both died the summer after my sophomore year. Too bad our English teacher didn't have us write poetry. Maybe Paul's dad could have made a booklet. Who knows what's going to happen, though?
Meagan and I went to the RS Birthday party on Wednesday. We were only an hour late. I thought we weren't going. The next thing I know, Meagan is all ready to go, so we went anyway. They actually had food I could eat - meatballs, rice and green salad. They had vanilla ice cream, too, which I ate even though I shouldn't have. For me, going to dinner parties is like walking into a minefield.
We get to sign Amber up for 7th grade next week. Wow. No more kids in elementary school. We've had kids in elementary school for the last 16 years. This is going to be weird.
Amber wanted to walk home from school today. I told her she couldn't unless she had someone to walk with. "But Mom, I need exercise!" she replied. She's right about that. Don't we all? Maybe Amber and I will have to start walking together now that the weather is warming up - which I'm really excited about!
Sheri and I went to writing group again this week. Mrs. Bean had so much stuff to look at we had hardly any time to really look things over. Booklets of poetry, recipe books, life stories, all sorts of booklets. Most of the other people looked at the poetry. Sheri and I were oohing and aahing over the typefaces, hand stitched bindings and crinkly handmade paper with dried flowers and juniper "leaves" pressed into it. And the full bleed recipe book with color photos. Are we graphics geeks or what?
I did read a few of the poems and writings. One of the stories I liked the best was about a woman who - I can't remember her name - LeeAnn maybe? Anyway, when she got a copy of her birth certificate years later, she noticed the Dr. had written "Gertrude" as her name. Later she discovered he was drunk when he filled out the birth certificate.
Mrs. Bean told a sad story about one of her favorite students. He was in her junior English class several years ago. The summer after his junior year, he drowned in Bear Lake. She had collected his poems over the school year and presented them to his Dad when she found out about his death. His Dad was so excited to have something that represented his son's thoughts and feelings that he made a booklet of the poems and handed them out at the viewing. Wow. How sad, but how great that Mrs. Bean had that to give him.
What's the deal with people dying over summer vacation? My friend Paul and my favorite math teacher both died the summer after my sophomore year. Too bad our English teacher didn't have us write poetry. Maybe Paul's dad could have made a booklet. Who knows what's going to happen, though?
Meagan and I went to the RS Birthday party on Wednesday. We were only an hour late. I thought we weren't going. The next thing I know, Meagan is all ready to go, so we went anyway. They actually had food I could eat - meatballs, rice and green salad. They had vanilla ice cream, too, which I ate even though I shouldn't have. For me, going to dinner parties is like walking into a minefield.
We get to sign Amber up for 7th grade next week. Wow. No more kids in elementary school. We've had kids in elementary school for the last 16 years. This is going to be weird.
Amber wanted to walk home from school today. I told her she couldn't unless she had someone to walk with. "But Mom, I need exercise!" she replied. She's right about that. Don't we all? Maybe Amber and I will have to start walking together now that the weather is warming up - which I'm really excited about!
Sunday, March 07, 2010
My Kids are Awesome!
But I already knew that. David and I went with Cameron and Jarom to Parent-Teacher Conferences last week. It was nice going from teacher to teacher and hearing what great, smart, kind, wonderful kids we have. The teachers love having both of them in their classes.
Jarom won Crusader of the Month. Mrs. McBeth has nominated him a couple of times before. At PT Conf she told him, "I hope you win it this month, because of all my students you deserve it the most. Not only are you a great student, you are an all-around great kid!"
Cameron, Jarom, David and I went to the temple yesterday and did baptisms for the dead. It had been a few months since I last went to the temple. I really need to go more often. David and I want to start going at least once a month. So, if anyone wants to go with us, let us know. It is so peaceful and calm at the temple. I feel so much better after going there for a couple of hours.
Meagan and Amber went roller skating with Becky yesterday. I think Meagan had more fun than Amber did. Amber said she fell down about 5 times. I think that's the first time she's ever gone roller skating. Wonder if she'll go again? She was brave to try.
Meagan also bought a new cell phone she can take pictures with. She's been wanting one for awhile, but had to wait until she'd had her phone for a year so she could get a $50 credit for turning in her old one.
Jarom won Crusader of the Month. Mrs. McBeth has nominated him a couple of times before. At PT Conf she told him, "I hope you win it this month, because of all my students you deserve it the most. Not only are you a great student, you are an all-around great kid!"
Cameron, Jarom, David and I went to the temple yesterday and did baptisms for the dead. It had been a few months since I last went to the temple. I really need to go more often. David and I want to start going at least once a month. So, if anyone wants to go with us, let us know. It is so peaceful and calm at the temple. I feel so much better after going there for a couple of hours.
Meagan and Amber went roller skating with Becky yesterday. I think Meagan had more fun than Amber did. Amber said she fell down about 5 times. I think that's the first time she's ever gone roller skating. Wonder if she'll go again? She was brave to try.
Meagan also bought a new cell phone she can take pictures with. She's been wanting one for awhile, but had to wait until she'd had her phone for a year so she could get a $50 credit for turning in her old one.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Olympic Colds and Other Stuff
What have I been doing the last month? Getting over a cold. Our whole family had colds and we missed "Family Home Eating" a week ago. The kids was bery sad. Mee two.
Mom ended up in the hospital with chest pains. It was acid reflux, not a heart attack, thank goodness. I didn't know acid reflux could get bad enough to make a person pass out. I'm glad she's feeling better now!
Becky told me that David is signing up for the Navy. That kinda surprised me. My boss told me he was in the Navy 4 years and loved it, so that made me feel better. That, and the Navy probably won't end up in Iraq or Afghanistan, since they hang out in the water, not the sand. Becky thinks David chose the Navy because of the Village People song.
I mailed in my third ICL assignment a couple of weeks ago. I wrote about beavers and how they use their teeth to chop down trees and build dams and so on.
I don't know what to do with myself in the evening now that the Olympics are over. I like watching all sorts of different sports. I didn't watch much curling. That is one weird sport. Why is it called curling? I watched figure skating, speed skating, ice dancing, snowboarding, nordic skiing, cross country skiing and ski jumping - cuz that's what they showed on prime time. I watched bobsled a bit, too.
Maybe my favorite part of the Olympics is hearing the different names of athletes from all around the world.
I tried watching the Closing Ceremonies, but it was boring. I didn't watch the Opening Ceremonies, so I can't comment on that.
David watched the end of the hockey game yesterday. I wasn't too sad we didn't win gold. Maybe I'm not very competitive? I think silver's still pretty good and I don't really care that much about hockey. Maybe because Amber got lost at a hockey game when she was 3? That may be it. And every time a fight broke out, I was in the lobby. I mean, really, why else would I go to a hockey game?
David watched the Stanley Cup while I gave birth to Amber. She refused to come out until the game was over. Just as they were awarding the trophy, she was finally born. Maybe she doesn't like hockey either?
OK, here's what the fam's up to:
David - and I used the Market Street Grill gift certificate I got for Christmas. We were debating blowing the entire $75 all at once or stretching it out over 2 meals. It was crab fest, so we blew it all at 1 meal. No wonder we only go there if I get a gift certificate. The crab was really good (I got snow, king and dungeness) but the clam chowder was my favorite. I was bad and even ate the potatoes (gasp!). David got the fisherman's platter with shrimp, scallops, halibut and kalamari. He also got the stuffed mushrooms.
David actually cleaned up his side of the bedroom. Wow. I guess I'm going to have to clean up my side tomorrow. Somehow anything in the house I don't know where to put ends up on my side of the bedroom.
Meagan - is having uber fun with the cadavers in her anatomy lab. She comes home and complains about them. I was going to go into the gory details, but then I remembered Mom will probably read this, so I will spare you. Meagan doesn't talk about chemistry or communications much, mostly anatomy and her gym class (stretch and tone).
Meagan helped me teach the 8-10 year old primary class a couple of weeks ago. Actually, she was moral support. The kids were cute and it went pretty well. We talked about Enoch. They were amazed that people used to live to be 900 years old. That is amazing. I can't imagine living that long. The whole Enoch story is pretty amazing. Did you know the Old Testament tells about Enoch in 4 verses? The Pearl of Great Price version is about 130 verses long.
Cameron - signed up for his Senior year. I talked him into taking Choir. He likes to sing, so I think he'll enjoy it. He's also taking the 3-D Animation portfolio class and C# programming. Right now he's taking Creative Writing. He says they're writing poetry and he's good at writing poetry. He has yet to show me any.
Cameron is so sweet. He scrapes the ice off the car windows for me in the morning and always gives me a hug before he hops out of the car and heads in to school. I love that!
Jarom - is signing up for 10th grade. I think he's taking Band instead of French 2. He wanted to take both, but Band is easier and he's already taking a bunch of tough classes.
Jarom is doing his job shadow. I think he likes his job shadow better than Cameron liked his. Jarom hangs around with Steve (who I used to work with) and sets stuff up for testing. Testing what, I'm not quite sure. Explosives? I know they do military contracting and they blow stuff up - probably mostly out in the desert. Jarom probably won't get to help (or even watch) blow anything up. Who knows?
Amber - is signing up for 7th grade. How did she get to be that old? She doesn't get to choose very many classes, but of the ones she got to choose, she's taking choir and art.
We went to New Beginnings a couple of weeks ago. Amber gets to go to Young Women's Camp this summer. The first one in years that neither Meagan or I will be at. I suppose she'll be ok, though. She seems to get along pretty well with most people.
*Sniff* What am I gonna do when all my babies grow up? I guess it won't be all bad, though. As long as they come to visit me. Often. I guess I have a few years left before they all bail on me...
Do you like how I don't post for a month, then I kinda go crazy with a reallllly long post?
Mom ended up in the hospital with chest pains. It was acid reflux, not a heart attack, thank goodness. I didn't know acid reflux could get bad enough to make a person pass out. I'm glad she's feeling better now!
Becky told me that David is signing up for the Navy. That kinda surprised me. My boss told me he was in the Navy 4 years and loved it, so that made me feel better. That, and the Navy probably won't end up in Iraq or Afghanistan, since they hang out in the water, not the sand. Becky thinks David chose the Navy because of the Village People song.
I mailed in my third ICL assignment a couple of weeks ago. I wrote about beavers and how they use their teeth to chop down trees and build dams and so on.
I don't know what to do with myself in the evening now that the Olympics are over. I like watching all sorts of different sports. I didn't watch much curling. That is one weird sport. Why is it called curling? I watched figure skating, speed skating, ice dancing, snowboarding, nordic skiing, cross country skiing and ski jumping - cuz that's what they showed on prime time. I watched bobsled a bit, too.
Maybe my favorite part of the Olympics is hearing the different names of athletes from all around the world.
I tried watching the Closing Ceremonies, but it was boring. I didn't watch the Opening Ceremonies, so I can't comment on that.
David watched the end of the hockey game yesterday. I wasn't too sad we didn't win gold. Maybe I'm not very competitive? I think silver's still pretty good and I don't really care that much about hockey. Maybe because Amber got lost at a hockey game when she was 3? That may be it. And every time a fight broke out, I was in the lobby. I mean, really, why else would I go to a hockey game?
David watched the Stanley Cup while I gave birth to Amber. She refused to come out until the game was over. Just as they were awarding the trophy, she was finally born. Maybe she doesn't like hockey either?
OK, here's what the fam's up to:
David - and I used the Market Street Grill gift certificate I got for Christmas. We were debating blowing the entire $75 all at once or stretching it out over 2 meals. It was crab fest, so we blew it all at 1 meal. No wonder we only go there if I get a gift certificate. The crab was really good (I got snow, king and dungeness) but the clam chowder was my favorite. I was bad and even ate the potatoes (gasp!). David got the fisherman's platter with shrimp, scallops, halibut and kalamari. He also got the stuffed mushrooms.
David actually cleaned up his side of the bedroom. Wow. I guess I'm going to have to clean up my side tomorrow. Somehow anything in the house I don't know where to put ends up on my side of the bedroom.
Meagan - is having uber fun with the cadavers in her anatomy lab. She comes home and complains about them. I was going to go into the gory details, but then I remembered Mom will probably read this, so I will spare you. Meagan doesn't talk about chemistry or communications much, mostly anatomy and her gym class (stretch and tone).
Meagan helped me teach the 8-10 year old primary class a couple of weeks ago. Actually, she was moral support. The kids were cute and it went pretty well. We talked about Enoch. They were amazed that people used to live to be 900 years old. That is amazing. I can't imagine living that long. The whole Enoch story is pretty amazing. Did you know the Old Testament tells about Enoch in 4 verses? The Pearl of Great Price version is about 130 verses long.
Cameron - signed up for his Senior year. I talked him into taking Choir. He likes to sing, so I think he'll enjoy it. He's also taking the 3-D Animation portfolio class and C# programming. Right now he's taking Creative Writing. He says they're writing poetry and he's good at writing poetry. He has yet to show me any.
Cameron is so sweet. He scrapes the ice off the car windows for me in the morning and always gives me a hug before he hops out of the car and heads in to school. I love that!
Jarom - is signing up for 10th grade. I think he's taking Band instead of French 2. He wanted to take both, but Band is easier and he's already taking a bunch of tough classes.
Jarom is doing his job shadow. I think he likes his job shadow better than Cameron liked his. Jarom hangs around with Steve (who I used to work with) and sets stuff up for testing. Testing what, I'm not quite sure. Explosives? I know they do military contracting and they blow stuff up - probably mostly out in the desert. Jarom probably won't get to help (or even watch) blow anything up. Who knows?
Amber - is signing up for 7th grade. How did she get to be that old? She doesn't get to choose very many classes, but of the ones she got to choose, she's taking choir and art.
We went to New Beginnings a couple of weeks ago. Amber gets to go to Young Women's Camp this summer. The first one in years that neither Meagan or I will be at. I suppose she'll be ok, though. She seems to get along pretty well with most people.
*Sniff* What am I gonna do when all my babies grow up? I guess it won't be all bad, though. As long as they come to visit me. Often. I guess I have a few years left before they all bail on me...
Do you like how I don't post for a month, then I kinda go crazy with a reallllly long post?
Friday, January 29, 2010
Post-Christmas Recovery
Sometimes I write in my journal and think I've written on my blog and vice versa. Sad, isn't it?
Maybe I'll have to go look at my journal so I can remember what I've done? Ummm...let's see. I remember writing about how I'm going to boycott Christmas because it's too much work. Amber saw that and was sad. I suppose I would have been sad, too, if my mom had wanted to boycott Christmas when I was 12. Who knows, maybe she did but I didn't know about it?
I need to stop stressing over Christmas, but it's not easy! I'm so glad Christmas is over.
I've actually been exercising lately. I stopped last summer when all of Thor's kennels took over the tv room. I started again Jan. 7 and I've exercised 18 out of the last 24 days. I feel so much better when I exercise!
Meagan - found another boyfriend. One from the internet that actually materialized this time. Yup. Jason. Or Pooky. Take your pick.
Meagan's thinking about going to school part-time next year so she can afford to buy and maintain a car. Of course, working for a dentist while she's getting her required courses completed so she can actually apply for her major might be what's best for her career right now. Plus, she'll need a car when she starts her major. All the dental hygiene classes are taught at a campus that no busses go to.
David - made a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for us tonight. It was yummy. The only thing missing was pumpkin pie. Maybe I'll make some tomorrow? Or not?
David got pnuemonia and strep right after Christmas. He's mostly recovered, but he's still really tired most of the time.
Social Security sent him a review he had to fill out and send back before Feb. 10. I guess they review all the disability cases every 6 or 7 years just to make sure the recipient is still disabled. Unfortunately, David still is. We filled out all the paperwork and dropped it off at the post office on Thursday, so we didn't forget. Not having that income would be disastrous for us, so I'm glad that's done.
Then we took a coupon we got in the mail and got lunch at Golden Corral. Aren't we romantic? Lunch was good, though. The two best things I had were chicken in gravy (it was amazing!) and fresh pineapple. I love fresh pineapple.
Cameron - His favorite school class is 3-D animation. He's thinking maybe he'll major in that in college. Maybe he'll go to BYU. They have a really good film/computer animation department. I've heard they work with Pixar. I told him if he loves that and wants to major in that, to go for it, but he may have to move out of state to get a job. Then again, maybe he won't. I guess we'll see.
Jarom - is going to be starting high school next year. I can't believe it. And Amber's going to be starting junior high. Wow. It was weird enough having Meagan start college this year.
Jarom's last history project was making a game based on a country. He chose the UK (of course!) and made an Apples to Apples type game. He called it Kingdom to Kingdom and packaged it in a Pop-Tarts box. The class split up into groups and played each others' games. I guess his teacher and class liked it, he got 172.5 out of 200.
Amber - had to write down her New Year's resolutions for a writing assignment. She chose reading more books and spending less money. She reads almost as many books as Holly, so I don't know why she chose that. She told me she needs to finish the books she starts. Mom said maybe Amber wanted to choose a goal that she knew she'd do. That would make sense.
As far as money, she said she needs to spend less of it on junk food. Yeah, I'd agree with that. At the end of her paper, she wrote: "Now I guess I'll go make some carrot peels and eat them." What?
Me - (Not like this whole blog isn't about me anyway!) I joined a writing group with Sheri. Mrs. Bean (as in my school friend David's mom) is leading the group. She taught English at the Jr. High I went to, but I never had her. Now I wish I had. She would have been way more fun than any of the Jr. High English teachers I had. I take that back, Mrs. Crockett in 7th grade was fun, but the other 2? Not so much.
Anyway, Mrs. Bean is a kick and I love going to her writing group. Especially with Sheri.
I got my second assignment back from ICL. My instructor said it was "very strong." I had to describe a scene children would enjoy. I chose the Christmas parade, since I was going to be there anyway - to see Jarom play his trumpet. I felt like a reporter, standing there taking notes on everything. I think just watching a parade is funner, but hey, I got my assignment done. It does force you to pay more attention to details and what's going on.
Now I'm struggling with my third assignment. I'm writing a children's magazine article. I wrote one, but I don't really like it. I'm thinking of shifting it so I only write about 1 animal instead of 3. I only get 500 words, so that seems like it might work better.
I've written tons of reports and essays for school, but they didn't really have to be entertaining. They just had to make sense. Usually when I'm going for entertainment, I write fiction so I can let my mind go wild.
Well, I gotta go run errands I've been putting off for the last month.
There - are you happy now, Becky? I actually posted!
Maybe I'll have to go look at my journal so I can remember what I've done? Ummm...let's see. I remember writing about how I'm going to boycott Christmas because it's too much work. Amber saw that and was sad. I suppose I would have been sad, too, if my mom had wanted to boycott Christmas when I was 12. Who knows, maybe she did but I didn't know about it?
I need to stop stressing over Christmas, but it's not easy! I'm so glad Christmas is over.
I've actually been exercising lately. I stopped last summer when all of Thor's kennels took over the tv room. I started again Jan. 7 and I've exercised 18 out of the last 24 days. I feel so much better when I exercise!
Meagan - found another boyfriend. One from the internet that actually materialized this time. Yup. Jason. Or Pooky. Take your pick.
Meagan's thinking about going to school part-time next year so she can afford to buy and maintain a car. Of course, working for a dentist while she's getting her required courses completed so she can actually apply for her major might be what's best for her career right now. Plus, she'll need a car when she starts her major. All the dental hygiene classes are taught at a campus that no busses go to.
David - made a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for us tonight. It was yummy. The only thing missing was pumpkin pie. Maybe I'll make some tomorrow? Or not?
David got pnuemonia and strep right after Christmas. He's mostly recovered, but he's still really tired most of the time.
Social Security sent him a review he had to fill out and send back before Feb. 10. I guess they review all the disability cases every 6 or 7 years just to make sure the recipient is still disabled. Unfortunately, David still is. We filled out all the paperwork and dropped it off at the post office on Thursday, so we didn't forget. Not having that income would be disastrous for us, so I'm glad that's done.
Then we took a coupon we got in the mail and got lunch at Golden Corral. Aren't we romantic? Lunch was good, though. The two best things I had were chicken in gravy (it was amazing!) and fresh pineapple. I love fresh pineapple.
Cameron - His favorite school class is 3-D animation. He's thinking maybe he'll major in that in college. Maybe he'll go to BYU. They have a really good film/computer animation department. I've heard they work with Pixar. I told him if he loves that and wants to major in that, to go for it, but he may have to move out of state to get a job. Then again, maybe he won't. I guess we'll see.
Jarom - is going to be starting high school next year. I can't believe it. And Amber's going to be starting junior high. Wow. It was weird enough having Meagan start college this year.
Jarom's last history project was making a game based on a country. He chose the UK (of course!) and made an Apples to Apples type game. He called it Kingdom to Kingdom and packaged it in a Pop-Tarts box. The class split up into groups and played each others' games. I guess his teacher and class liked it, he got 172.5 out of 200.
Amber - had to write down her New Year's resolutions for a writing assignment. She chose reading more books and spending less money. She reads almost as many books as Holly, so I don't know why she chose that. She told me she needs to finish the books she starts. Mom said maybe Amber wanted to choose a goal that she knew she'd do. That would make sense.
As far as money, she said she needs to spend less of it on junk food. Yeah, I'd agree with that. At the end of her paper, she wrote: "Now I guess I'll go make some carrot peels and eat them." What?
Me - (Not like this whole blog isn't about me anyway!) I joined a writing group with Sheri. Mrs. Bean (as in my school friend David's mom) is leading the group. She taught English at the Jr. High I went to, but I never had her. Now I wish I had. She would have been way more fun than any of the Jr. High English teachers I had. I take that back, Mrs. Crockett in 7th grade was fun, but the other 2? Not so much.
Anyway, Mrs. Bean is a kick and I love going to her writing group. Especially with Sheri.
I got my second assignment back from ICL. My instructor said it was "very strong." I had to describe a scene children would enjoy. I chose the Christmas parade, since I was going to be there anyway - to see Jarom play his trumpet. I felt like a reporter, standing there taking notes on everything. I think just watching a parade is funner, but hey, I got my assignment done. It does force you to pay more attention to details and what's going on.
Now I'm struggling with my third assignment. I'm writing a children's magazine article. I wrote one, but I don't really like it. I'm thinking of shifting it so I only write about 1 animal instead of 3. I only get 500 words, so that seems like it might work better.
I've written tons of reports and essays for school, but they didn't really have to be entertaining. They just had to make sense. Usually when I'm going for entertainment, I write fiction so I can let my mind go wild.
Well, I gotta go run errands I've been putting off for the last month.
There - are you happy now, Becky? I actually posted!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
It's 6:20 am...
and I'm waiting for Cameron to get ready so I can drive him to school. I was trying to get on Pet Society, which doesn't want to load. It didn't load last night either. I hope all my vegetables don't go rotten. Isn't is sad that I care that much?
Friday, January 01, 2010
Silly Kids...and Cat
On Christmas Day we were finishing up unwrapping presents and had just presented Thor and Jetta with their presents. Thor jumped into his box and started ripping bits of cardboard off the box with his teeth. Jarom chimes in and speaks for Thor, "I gotta hurry and make Christmas presents for everyone!"
I'm still laughing about it.
Tonight Cameron, Amber and I were driving around delivering New Year's Presents. This is because I am a very good procrastinator and did not get the neighbor Christmas presents delivered before Christmas. Or even New Years. At least they were calendars. (And they were even 2010 calendars. I'm not that much of a procrastinator!)
So, we're driving through a neighborhood where all the street names have "wood" in them somewhere. Not just a few streets, but like 15 streets all with wood in the name. We finally drive out of the neighborhood onto 4700 and Amber announces, "We're finally out of the woods!"
Silly Amber.
I'm still laughing about it.
Tonight Cameron, Amber and I were driving around delivering New Year's Presents. This is because I am a very good procrastinator and did not get the neighbor Christmas presents delivered before Christmas. Or even New Years. At least they were calendars. (And they were even 2010 calendars. I'm not that much of a procrastinator!)
So, we're driving through a neighborhood where all the street names have "wood" in them somewhere. Not just a few streets, but like 15 streets all with wood in the name. We finally drive out of the neighborhood onto 4700 and Amber announces, "We're finally out of the woods!"
Silly Amber.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)