the window of irrelevance

Algebra 101 - Again!

2012-02-01T05:51:00.002-07:00

Amber and I have been spending lots of time doing Algebra lately. I think she's starting to understand it better.

It's really fun doing Algebra with Amber. She reminds me of Holly. Every chance she gets, she ducks into the bathroom or finds something else - anything else - to do. She does better when I sit at the table with her and talk her through problems.

One of these days, she's going to understand Algebra. Or at least be able to pass the class with a C!

Every Day It's Getting Better

2012-01-28T06:47:00.024-07:00

Work yesterday wasn't quite so bad. Lorry came in for almost five hours, so I didn't have to do everything all by myself. I ended up only having to work about seven hours and it wasn't nearly as stressful as a regular Friday. Can you see why I ended up working nine to eleven hours every Friday? I don't know how Christopher works twelve hour shifts. I would be a zombie.

Right now, I'm debating going to Yoga Class at the fitness center or working on my MS Office Class. Decisions, decisions. Actually, I'm avoiding both by blogging, aren't I?

I'm taking an MS Office class online because I need to know MS Office better if I'm going to get an Administrative Assistant job at SLCC. I feel like that's the next step in my career. My long, weird, meandering career.

I'm hoping that as an Admin Assistant I'll get to design things, like brochures and charts and presentations. That would be cool. And much more artistic than my current job. Plus, the insurance and other benefits are great. I'd get to take SLCC classes for free! How awesome is that? Especially since I can't get government grants anymore since I have a Bachelor's Degree. Apparently the government thinks that once you've earned a Bachelor's Degree, you've got it made.

I don't think working at SLCC would be as stressful as the inevitable ups and downs of home health. Either we have so many patients we don't know how to fit them all in or so few patients Joe is fretting over having to lay people off. Hopefully they won't expect me to cram a totally unreasonable amount of work into my alloted time (unlike my current job!). I think it would be less stressful to work full time and know I can get my work done, rather than never being able to catch up. I hate having tons of loose ends hanging out at the end of the work day.

Cameron and Jarom are over at Meagan and Zac's at the moment. They probably stayed up all night playing Zombies. Meagan invited Amber, too, but Amber decided not to go. Maybe because Meagan is working this morning? Maybe because Amber wants to play basketball with the Young Women this morning?

Want to know something great? We almost have all of the Primary teacher positions filled. With teachers who actually show up every week or are responsible enough to get subs if they won't be there. And seem to be happy to be in Primary. It's been a struggle getting two teachers for each class. We're almost there - we just need one more Sunbeam teacher and two or three Nursery workers. Oh, and I need another counselor. Tomorrow is Ward Conference, so we'll see how that goes. At least I don't have to do Sharing Time by myself this Ward Conference. Carol (my one and only counselor at the moment) is helping with that.

Hmmm...let's run through the family roster, shall we?

David - has taken up oil painting again. He's on his second or third painting since he started painting a few weeks ago. He's doing a winter scene at the moment.

David's locksmithing skillz saved us $50 on getting our van door fixed. The driver's door kept making a popping noise every time we opened or closed it. Gine's said we'd need to take it to a body shop, since they don't have a spot welder. We took it to K&S Automotive, which is about a block from the library. They told us it would cost $400-$500 to fix it because they'd have to take the door off and take it apart. It ended up costing only $200, and then they gave us an extra $50 off because David fixed the sticky knob on their front door. In the end, it only set us back $150. How awesome is that? And the door works perfectly now.

David wants a bowling ball that smells like birthday cake. Can you believe they make such a thing? When we went bowling on MLK Jr. Day, David spent half his time in the Pro Shop at the bowling alley. Maybe he doesn't really want a bowling ball that smells like birthday cake, but he does want a shiny purple one that fits his arthritic fingers better. I think we'd have to go bowling more often than once every year or two for that investment to be worthwhile.

Meagan - Since Meagan didn't pass Anatomy the first two times around, her grant wouldn't pay for it a third time. She was only going to take a Drawing class, but I reminded her that she has to take at least six credit hours or her grant won't pay for anything. Luckily, she still had enough time to add a Psychology class.

She seems to be enjoying school a lot more this semester. No tough math or science classes. And she's also not training full time for a new job, putting together a wedding, or moving. That may make a difference, too. Through it all, Meagan is still crocheting amazing things. She certainly didn't get that skill from me. Must be from her Great Grandma Baran and her Aunt Tammie.

Zac - is going back to school in March. He's going to ITT Tech and working on an Associate's Degree in - what was it? - Internet Security, I believe. That sounds like a good field to go in to. Zac likes technology and the internet certainly needs security. I hope he likes it.

Cameron - is taking Java 2, Calculus and Drawing. In fact, he's taking the same Drawing class as Meagan, just at a different time, with a different teacher, since they work opposite shifts. They're doing some similar things and some very different things. Every time they see each other, they compare what they're doing in drawing. They are both good artists and it's interesting to see what they end up drawing.

Cameron's Calculus class starts at 7:00 am Monday thru Thursday. He gets himself up every morning around 5:30 and has made it to the bus on time almost every day since class started. I'm impressed. Cameron seems to really like computer programming. I think it's a good field for him. He's planning on transferring to the U eventually and majoring in computer programming with an art emphasis.

Jarom - has been better at getting up in the wee hours of the morning for Jazz Band. He's been pretty much on time since December, when I threatened to pull him out of Jazz Band if he didn't start getting up in the morning. I'm impressed and excited that he's been doing so much better.

Jarom's scheduled to take the ACT Test in February and we need to get him signed up for Engineering Week at USU. Jarom's leaning toward Chemical Engineering, but he's not sure yet. During Engineering Week, high school students live on campus and get to try out experiments in several different kinds of engineering. I think Jarom will enjoy that. Jarom is good at chemistry. Last year when he was taking high school chemistry, he helped Meagan pass college chemistry. I was impressed.

Jarom's art teacher thinks he should major in Graphic Design or Illustration. She's impressed with Jarom's drawings and sensitivity to line and color. His dragon drawings are amazing. He keeps getting better and better. Even Jarom's Physics teacher is impressed with his drawing skills. He had the kids do comic strips about Physics principles and was blown away by Jarom's comic strip.

Amber - goes to Anime Club at the library every month. This week they drew comics and got a free comic book. My, the comics in the book they got were silly.

Amber has been working on improving her grades. She somehow managed to pull 3 D's & F's up to C's, just before the end of the semester. With much urging from David and me. This semester, we're going to keep on top of that better. So far, that's involved sitting at the kitchen table after dinner, doing homework. I usually help Amber with her math. One night Meagan even helped Amber with her math. It was a nice break for me. :)

Amber is taking a Communications class this semester. She finished writing some movie reviews and previews. Next, she gets to record them and add sound effects. I think Communications, Art and French are Amber's favorite classes.

Jetta - poor Jetta is getting old. She's having more trouble getting up and down and she's developed cataracts. The vet told us last summer that Jetta needs her teeth cleaned desperately, and while she's knocked out, he'll remove a couple of tumors (benign, fortunately) she's developed on her chest. I think he told us it’d cost about $400-$500. Somehow, we keep having other expenses/things come up and we haven't taken her in. Maybe when we get our income tax refund?

Thor - is so grouchy, but still so cute. Sometimes he stays out all night in the freezing weather and sometimes he snuggles up in bed with us. He's unpredictable and stealthy and oh so fun to bug. I'm not sure where he is right now, but I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere. Just so he isn't stuck in a bedroom with the door shut...

Well, I guess I’m not going to Yoga Class today…it started fifteen minutes ago. I guess I’ll get back to work on MS Word, figuring out how to do Macros and Mail Merges. Exciting!

My Last Three Posts Have Been Drafts

2012-01-13T22:23:00.004-07:00

'Cuz as I wrote them over the past few weeks, I decided it would be better if I didn't "publish" them.

*SIGH* Not liking my job right now. At least I can get a different one if I want, right? I'm pretty sure I'll have a different job within the next few months. A much, much better job with benefits and paid time off and work I can actually get caught up on. I can't handle my current job much longer. I like Joe and Lorry, but the job is horrible.

So...that's what I've been up to. Writing blog posts that will never see the light of day.

Here's something happy, though: I'm taking Monday off of work. Yay! I think we're going to go bowling for MLK day. Should be fun, huh? I NEED some fun right now.

Speaking of fun, it was nice to go to Bountiful and see Mom and Dad and Sheri on Wednesday. I like visiting them. And I found out stuff I never knew before - like that Grandpa Gambles trained to be a barber when he was younger. Who knew?

Post-Wedding Madness

2011-12-01T21:43:00.003-07:00

Wow. It's been awhile since I last blogged. I thought my life would stop being crazy once the wedding was over. It's still crazy. But I am glad the wedding's over. Any time I see the word "bridal" now, I shudder.

We've been cleaning our house up before we look into re-financing it. I'm beginning to wonder if we're ever going to get done! Wish I could quit my job and focus on other stuff, but that's not gonna happen, is it?

I've been debating what I really need/want to keep and what I won't really care (in the long run) if I get rid of. David brought the movie "Cast Away" home from the library. After watching it again, I started wondering how much stuff I really need. But then I don't want to get rid of a bunch of stuff and then regret it - like half of my clothes. Then again, maybe I won't even miss them? Decisions, decisions.

David and I have been watching the X Factor this season. I don't know why I even care about it. I used to loathe reality tv. For some reason, Master Chef (I know, I don't even like Gordon Ramsey, he makes Simon Cowell look nice!) sucked me in to reality tv. Maybe it's just an escape?

So, from the beginning, I've liked Marcus Canty. Ever since he sang the Stevie Wonder song "I Wish." I love that song and Marcus sang it so well. And I've like Melanie Amaro. Those two have been my favorite all along. But taco-maker Josh was amazing last week. Sometimes I really have to wonder about song choices. Why didn't they have Marcus sing "Thriller" instead of "PYT" last night. And Drew singing "Billie Jean"? That was strange. The judges are all goofy and famous acts they have performing? I don't think I've liked any of them. Of course, I am old school and I have a hard time getting into some hip-hop and an even harder time getting into rap.

David is more into X Factor than I am now. We started voting a couple of weeks ago. Can you believe it? I know, but oddly, it doesn't take off much time from our tracfones. I sometimes wonder if our votes even really registered. Of course, David Jason says the whole thing is rigged from the start. I don't doubt it. The voting isn't very transparent, they don't post it on the internet and won't even reveal the rankings.

Jarom is asleep on the couch. That's what I feel like doing. Maybe not on the couch, but sleep sounds really good right now.

Amber went to Anime Club at the library yesterday and came home with about 20 buttons she'd made. They made shrinky-dinks, too, but apparently those didn't get all the way done.

Cameron is now a permanent sweeper at the elementary school, so he has a regular shift he works. So that's good. Jarom might apply for a job there. Cameron's going to take Calculus next semester, can you believe it?

Meagan and I went and bought her and Zac a used washer and dryer that were delivered last Saturday. The washer worked great. The dryer spun, but wouldn't warm up. Meagan called the company that sold us the set. They told her to check the lint vent, because it was probably clogged. Sure enough it was. I guess their dryer is working fine now. I haven't heard that it's not.

Of Weddings and Cars and ERs

2011-10-15T14:27:00.005-06:00

Apparently I was too busy in September to post anything. I can't imagine why that would be.

So, Meagan and Zac got married on Wednesday. It would have been alot less stressful if Meagan and I hadn't had to do the flowers on top of everything else. But we did them. I thought they turned out quite well thanks to the tutorials by the man in the orange shirt on youtube.

We did have a back up plan if Meagan's bouquet had turned out horribly ugly. There was an already made bridal bouquet with white roses and ivy at Michael's for $50 we would have bought. It's hard to believe that only a week ago Meagan, Zac and I were out shopping for silk flowers and trying to decide what on earth to get. We ended up buying most of the flowers at JoAnn's. I liked their flower selection better and most of their silk flowers were on sale.

We'd thought of having Michael's do the flowers, but what we wanted would have cost about $300. I called a few florists, too. The Flower Patch wanted $460. Can you believe that? Hyland Floral would have been about $210, which wasn't bad, but they needed 2 weeks advance notice to get all the flowers ordered in. Yeah, we didn't have 2 weeks. After having made 6 corsages, 10 boutonnieres (or was it 11?), 4 small bouquets and 1 large bouquet that I understand why they charge so much for flowers. It's alot of work!

The thing that made it all worth it was that the bridesmaids absolutely adored their bouquets. And the girl who dived for the toss bouquet and was excited when Meagan told her she got to keep it. I love gratitude. I can understand the scriptures where God says He loves a grateful person.

I spent most of the night before the wedding finishing flowers and making chicken salad. The chicken salad turned out pretty well, but if I had it to do again, I'd have someone else make it! And I wouldn't have bought nearly as much food. Jo told me about how much I'd need and I didn't believe her! Zac was excited that they got to take some of the extra rootbeer and ice cream home, though. At least we didn't spend a whole lot on the food. :)

Wednesday I spent almost all day running around: dropping Jarom off at school at 6:00 am, decorating, finishing the chicken salad, dragging Amber to Walmart to buy underclothing, wondering when Meagan would show up to the church so I could strap her into her corset and wedding dress, running back to the house for Meagan's bridal bouquet, greeting guests, making sure people got served food, cleaning up...

Thank goodness so many people helped or it never would have happened! I thought it turned out quite well. Quite a few people showed up, considering it was a school night and our ward had 3 other activities/meetings going on that night.

I thought I would have slept pretty well Wednesday night, but I tossed and turned most of the night. Wednesday morning I dragged myself out of bed and returned Meagan's wedding gown to the rental shop. The alterations lady was relieved to hear that Meagan hadn't thrown up in the dress. (She almost did at her alterations fitting!) I had to return the dress between 8:00 am and noon the day after the wedding. I thought I'd be there by 9:00. Try 11:30. I'm glad I had the extra time and I didn't have to be to work until 1:00 pm.

After that, I went to a Chevron and washed "Father of the Bride" off the back window of the Crown. When I was almost done, a teenage girl pulled up behind me to get gas. She climbed out of her jeep and realized she hadn't pulled far enough foward, so she got back in proceeded to ram into the back of the Crown. I was a little surprised. I've never had that happen before. She got out of her Jeep and apologized profusely. I examined the back of the Crown and couldn't find any damage. (It's a tough car!) As I pulled away, I realized that if she'd hit the car just a minute earlier, I could have been between the two cars when they collided. I thanked God profusely for my good fortune. Thank you, God - I still have both my legs!

I just happened to be at the Chevron right by Becky's, so I went over and talked to her for about an hour. Byron jumped on me periodically and jabbered about dolphins and letter crackers. He's so funny. He reminds me of Cameron of many years ago.

Thursday night I slept the best I had in a couple of months. What a relief! I think it's because the wedding was over and I'd returned the dress and it was all over and done with.

Yesterday was my long day at work. Meagan called me about 6:00-ish, stressed because David couldn't stand up or talk and could barely breathe. He was helping her and Zac move and someone was smoking a cigarette. I told her to call 9-1-1 if he couldn't talk. So she did. I finished making my last few phone calls then I headed to the ER.

As I was driving, I thought to myself, "Great, maybe I'll become a mother-in-law and a widow in the same week." Fortunately, I was wrong about the last part. By the time I got the the ER, David could talk again. Apparently someone in the library parking lot was smoking marajuana, then David went to the apartments and someone was smoking cigarettes and he couldn't handle all that smoke. Now he's wondering if it's safe for him to go to public places. He thinks a gas mask might work, but Jarom thinks he might be mistaken for a terrorist. Maybe a surgical mask? Then he could look like Michael Jackson - well, how MJ used to look.

This morning David, Cameron and I went to the 5th Annual Eagle Scout Breakfast. It was nice, but the only things I could eat were scrambled eggs and OJ. That's better than nothing, right? The servers looked at me a little weird when I asked for more eggs and told them that's all I was eating.

This afternoon, I got to see Meagie and Zac's apartment. It's not bad. They're in a one bedroom basement apartment with a small patio with a storage shed. They have washer and dryer hookups even if they don't have a washer and dryer yet. Meagan moved out the last of her stuff about 15 minutes ago and even vacuumed her old bedroom. She's been in that bedroom since she was 6! That's 14 years now. Wow. It'll be weird without her here.

Well, that's my excitement for the last week. I'm ready to go back to bed!

Cameron and Door-to-Door Salesmen

2011-10-04T08:08:00.005-06:00

About a month ago I posted a sign on the inside of the front door directing everyone to tell door-to-door salesmen, "I'm sorry but we don't buy anything sold door-to-door," then shut the door. We already have a "No Solicitors" sign on the front door, but the salesmen don't read it, don't know what a solicitor is or just plain ignore it.

The day after I put up the notice, David knocked on the front door because he wanted to show us something in the front yard. The door was locked, like it usually is. Cameron answered the door and told his Dad, "I'm sorry but we don't buy anything sold door-to-door," then he shut the door. It was hilarious.

Last night just as David and I got home from delivering the last of Meagan and Zac's wedding invitations, we noticed Cameron was at the front door with a door-to-door salesman. David and I came in through the back door as Cameron was telling the salesman goodbye. I asked Cameron if he told the salesman we don't buy anything sold door-to-door. He told me, "Yes, I told him that, but I also asked him if he wanted a drink of water. He did, so I got him one." Cameron was still holding the cup he'd taken to the salesman.

Cameron is so thoughtful and sweet, how proud I am of him!

Back to School Again

2011-08-22T07:57:00.002-06:00

Jarom and Amber start school today. Jarom's all alone in high school now since Cameron has graduated. Jarom's in 11th grade now. He's going to be in Jazz Band again this year. Maybe tomorrow we'll get to start getting up at 5:30 am again. We are so looking forward to it!

Amber is starting 8th grade. Amber is excited for art and French, they're her two favorite classes.

This summer we were in the kitchen and I looked at Amber and said, "Can you believe you're going to be in 8th grade this year?" She rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, Mom," in the tone of voice that meant she thought I was an idiot for thinking that she couldn't possibly be that old yet. Amber is officially a teenager now, attitude and all. Wait til she gets her own kids and they grow up much too fast.

Meagan and Cameron start SLCC on Wednesday. We have to go set up a checking account for Cameron and buy him a bus pass. Then Meagan is taking him to SLCC to get his OneCard and show him how the bus system works. I think she's taking him to buy his textbooks, too?

Today is Meagan's last day working in skate. They gave her tomorrow and Wednesday off, so she's got a day to get ready for school, then on the second day of school she starts her new job at HC. The first 6 weeks she'll be working full time because it's training, then she'll have a regular schedule of 8:00 to 12:30, from what I understand.

Meagan has found a car she wants to buy - a '95 Olds Cutlass Ciera with 101,000 miles on it. As soon as the owner gets a new title for it, I guess she'll have a car. The owner's daughter cleaned up his house after his wife died and now he can't find the title - he thinks his daughter threw it away. So, he's applied for another one and should get it the middle of this week.

Cameron has found a job as a substitute sweeper. I think all he has to do is finish filling out the paperwork, then wait for someone to need a substitute. After a month of being a substitute, he might get a permanent part time position. It's better than no job. He's applied about 20 places and hasn't heard back from any of them. Today would probably be a good day to call them all and check on his status with them. The sweeper job he got through a man who lives in our neighborhood. Jarom might start working as a sweeper, too.

The Primary Sacrament Meeting Program practice yesterday went quite well. If I could ever find out how much money we have left in the Primary budget, that would be great. I've been asking for months and haven't ever been given a print out or told any concrete figures. Apparently the church changed their financial software and no one knows where to find anything. I promised the Primary kids pizza at our last practice this coming Saturday. The Bishop approved me buying pizza, so I guess it will all work out somehow.

Now it's time for me to head out to work...fun, fun work. I worked almost 10 hours on Friday and still had to make 2 hours of phone calls from home on Saturday. Some of the patients I called were a little hesitant to answer the phone, until they realized who I was.

Oh, the Drama!

2011-08-15T07:50:00.008-06:00

Summer is almost over and I'm happy about that. Until it starts snowing. Then I'll realize I didn't spend enough time outside during the summer.

Most of my summer has been spent dealing with gallbladder issues. Thank goodness I've pretty much recovered from surgery. Still a bit tired, but I'm feeling better than I did before surgery and immediatley after. That surgery hurt way more than my nose surgery. I wasn't expecting that much pain. Thank goodness for ibuprofen!

Last week I got a letter in the mail from Davis County. I'm not sure how many people applied for the Children's Librarian job, but I came in 15th of all the applicants. That's not bad considering I've never worked at a library. Of course, having to have a bachelor's degree to even apply probably whittled down the field quite a bit.

Everyone had to take a test on "current general library knowlegdge." How do you study for a test like that? I spent 3 days memorizing the entire Dewey Decimal system. Guess how many Dewey Decimal questions were on the test? None. The upside? I bet I can find books in the library faster than most people now. In any case, I think I did pretty well on the test. The first question was: "The current governor of Utah is ______________________." I would have been embarrassed if I hadn't known that one!

I've decided I'm going to spend the next 2 months learning MS Office, then I'm going to apply for administrative assistant jobs. Or any other job that I'm qualified for, pays enough, has benefits and sounds fun. I don't want another boring job I dread going to. Two months from now, Meagan's wedding will be over and done with and I will have worked for Lorry while she's helping her daughter with her new baby - the baby is due the last part of September. I feel like I owe it to Lorry to work for her since she worked for me while I had my surgery and recovered.

Now I'm just trying to figure out how and when to break the news to Joe and Lorry that I'm leaving. I think I'll try the very valid angle that I need decent health insurance I can afford. My current job has no benefits.

Once I've settled into my fun, new job and gotten Cameron off on his mission, I'm going to start taking web design classes. I've wanted to be a web designer for the last 10 years now and I've found a place I can learn the skills I need for a reasonable price of $1800 dollars - less if I work for SLCC or someplace that will help pay for education.

Several years ago I went to an orientation for a web design school in Sugarhouse called PC Training West. They wanted $40,000 for 2 years. There was no way I could afford that. They're out of business now. Big surprise.

More drama? On August 6th, the Primary was in charge of our Ward's Summer Pool Party. Someone told me she could get some stuff for the party at a great price. I said "OK" and didn't think much of it until I priced the same items at CostCo. We could have saved $100! Ack! Luckily the items didn't make us go over budget. Now this person is not talking to me - even though she got paid the total amount she asked.

So, I've learned my lesson. Next time I'm in charge of a party, I'm buying EVERYTHING at CostCo. I'll have everyone on the committee figure out what we need, I'll go to CostCo and have them figure out the total price, then I'll have the Bishopric (or whoever) make a check out for the total amount. Way - less - Drama!

Even more drama? Apparently about $700 has come up missing from the change machine and vending machines over the last couple of weeks at Meagan's work. Meagan's one of 3 managers that has the keys, so all 3 managers are under investigation. If they don't figure out which of the 3 it is, all 3 get fired.

The good thing about this? They don't really suspect Meagan. The even better thing? Meagan got a job at Harland Clarke. She'll get paid better and I'm sure they'll treat her way better. Thank goodness!

I think that's enough drama for now. My next projects are helping Meagan find a good car in her price range and helping Cameron find a job.

I Survived Surgery

2011-07-24T17:56:00.006-06:00

Wow. Getting my insides cut up hurt more than I thought it would. I'm on the mend and mostly better, but I did not think it would be this tough.

I asked the surgeon if I could see my gall stones after they came out. She said, "No, they're a bio-hazard, but I'll try to remember to take pictures of them." I got 4 lovely full color photos of my gall bladder and stones. Even after doing the gall bladder cleanse in April where I got a couple hundred pea-sized and smaller stones out, I still had a gall bladder jammed full of stones. Big marble-sized stones with sharp edges. No wonder I hurt so much!

Fortunately, Mom and Dad let me stay at their house for 4 days while my pain, grogginess and nausea were at their worst. It was nice being there and being well taken care of. Mom and Sheri made sure I ate and Dad made sure I walked a little every day.

I think by the time I have my follow up visit, I'll be pretty much back to normal. By then it will have been 2 weeks and 1 day since my surgery.

I really, really don't want to go back to my yucky stressful job, though. If I didn't need the money, I would quit. Mom found a children's librarian job in the Clipper that sounds fun and pays $2.12 more/hour than I'm making now and more than likely has benefits. I'm totally applying next week.

Benefits would be nice. I probably wouldn't have to wait 2 months to have surgery, like I had to this time around. Thank goodness surgery finally happened! I have a feeling that once I recover, I'll feel 100% better than I did with a gall bladder and I'll be able to eat many more foods than I've been able to.

David brought me home yesterday and the house was pretty clean. David even cleaned out the bedroom and had each of the kids clean a room. I was impressed. I'm glad to be home now, with a few more days off before I have to go back to work.

I'm going to go take a nap now...

What Everyone's Been Up To

2011-07-15T21:37:00.010-06:00

I haven't done this in awhile, so I thought I would do it now.

David - mostly chatting to strange people around the world on facebook while playing several games at once. I think the person he chats with the most is a particularly entertaining transvestite in England. David and the kids cleaned up the driveway the other day so it no longer looks like a junkyard. We can actually pull the minivan all the way in the driveway now. He also vacuumed the living room yesterday before my very long Primary Presidency meeting. How nice of him!

Meagan - starting to get around to planning her wedding. I really haven't been into it. I gave her a budget of what we're willing to spend and told her if she doesn't have a car by the time she gets married, she only gets half of the money to spend on her wedding and the rest is going toward a car. She needs a car if she's going to be working odd hours!

Cameron - mowed the lawn yesterday - and I only had to ask him once! It looks so much better than it did. Cameron's also searching for a job. He's applied at the BSA Camps, Harland Clarke, WinCo, Smith's, ShopKo, Walmart and few other places I can't remember. He keeps calling Media One about a job at the newspaper, but no one has returned his calls. It's a tough time to be looking for a job right now - especially a first job. Cameron hasn't gotten a single return call. I keep telling him to go around to the fast food places and ask if they have any openings, like Meagan's friend Brianna did - she got a job at Taco Bell on the spot. But Cameron doesn't seem to want to do that. Right now Cameron's making snickerdoodles for his Eagle Court of Honor on Sunday.

Jarom - has spent most of the summer sleeping. I guess working so hard all year during school and getting up early for jazz band wore him out.

Amber - went to Oakcrest in June and just got back from our Stake's YW Camp today. She's been camping almost 2 weeks this summer. I'm glad I didn't get to go this year. YW Camp was exhausting the last few years I went! Amber's also been happily going to the library once or twice a week all summer long. She checks out very strange anime dvds and books.

Jetta - got most of her fur shaved off last week. She hardly puffs and pants at all now. We're all much happier about that. Without her fur, she's half the dog she used to be. Kailien noticed a tumor on Jetta's leg when she chopped off her fur. I didn't think much of it until she started gnawing on it. Then we got an immunization reminder in the mail, so Cameron and I dragged her to the vet. She needs to have surgery to remove the tumor and she also needs her teeth cleaned. The vet says she actually needs her teeth cleaned worse than she needs the tumor removed, but we only have to pay for anesthetic once, so it's a better deal if we get it done all at once. I told Jetta she has to wait til I recover from my surgery before she gets to have hers. She seems OK with that.

Thor - spends most of his time outside these days. Every once in awhile he comes inside and sleeps on a recliner in the cool of the basement, but most of the time he stares at me like I'm insane when I ask him if he wants to come in the house.

Me - well, that's mostly what I write about, isn't it? Mostly dealing with gall bladder stuff - getting registered for the hospital and all. Last Saturday David and I went to "Bye, Bye Birdie," a city Arts Council Musical. Lorry, who I work with, plays the Mayor's wife. Lorry is a bigger ham than I ever imagined. She's hilarious what with her fainting, her red polka dot underwear and her freaking out over a rock star. Silly. Her daughter, husband and grandson are in the musical, too. I was impressed with the quality of the singing, dancing and acting. Some of the lighting was a little dodgey, but it was opening weekend, so maybe they've worked it out by this weekend.

Finally!

2011-07-15T20:42:00.007-06:00

After almost 2 months of waiting, I finally got to see a General Surgeon Monday. PCN finally came through for me! Frighteningly, I couldn't get an appointment with a surgeon until PCN set it up for me. What do people with no insurance do? I guess they wait until something is life-threatening and go to the ER. I tried that, but the ER didn't think my problem was life threatening. My gall bladder problem certainly is quality of life threatening, but I guess that doesn't count in the ER.

I'm scheduled to get my gall bladder removed on Tuesday July 19. I am happy, happy, happy! Maybe right after the surgery I won't be, but in the long run I'm positive I will be. Maybe I'll even get to eat normal food again. Wouldn't that be awesome?!

In any case, once I recover I'm sure I won't be awake all hours of the night in so much pain I wish I could die. And that's a very, very good thing. Who knew a stone-filled gall bladder could be such a trouble maker?

Dr. Nolan told me gall bladder cleanses are a scary thought for a surgeon. "I'm sure lots of people do cleanses without any problem, but surgeons see the cleanses that go wrong. We see the people that end up in the ER with a stone stuck in their bile duct - and that can cause inflammation, jaundice or worse."

So, no, I won't be doing another gall bladder/liver cleanse. Not that kind, at least. If I do any, I'll be doing the more gentle kind, like Flor-essence. I'm hoping I get to see my stones before they get tossed. My sister Becky says they won't let you keep them because they're a bio-hazard. She didn't get to see her gall stones, but Dad did. Maybe I'll have David take a camera so he can take a picture of them if I'm too out of it to look at them. I want to see the little critters that have caused me so much pain...

When I did the cleanse in April I got some hard stones about the size of a pea that looked like little chunks of cement. I wonder how big my biggest stone is? Yeah, this is kind of gross, isn't it?

Fourth of July in the Canyon

2011-07-04T21:43:00.009-06:00

This morning we loaded the kids, the rubber raft and a cooler of food in the van and headed up Parley's to Smith-Morehouse. The van made it up Parley's and back just fine - yay!

When we got to the canyon, we drove around the lake, then up to the campground. The streams by the campground roared down the mountain so swollen they almost overflowed. Three or four campgrounds close to stream were blocked off with yellow caution tape and the road further up was closed. I don't think you could go to the trailhead we used to camp by.

We drove back down the bumpy dirt road to the lake and pumped up the rubber raft Mom and Dad bequeathed to us several years ago. This is the first time we've used it. Mom and Dad weren't sure the raft would inflate after all this time, so we bought a patch kit just in case. Despite our concerns, the raft proved seaworthy - not a single leak. The raft says it has a 650 pound capacity, but I think you'd have a tough time cramming more than two people in it. Comfortably, at least.

Jarom and Amber ventured out first. Amber was confused about paddling the oars, but she and Jarom made it back just fine. Cameron and Meagan went out next. Meagan sat so far back, she was in the middle of the raft. David didn't want to go out, so Cameron was nice and went out with me. I knelt most of the time. It's hard paddling while sitting down in a raft, especially with a lifevest on.

Sitting by the lake in a camp chair under the clear blue sky, surrounded by quaking aspen and emerald green pine trees with a gentle breeze blowing across the lake felt heavenly. Snow still capped several mountains in the distance. I heard that Snowbird's ski season closed today. What a beautiful day, though.

As we sat by the lake we munched on grapes, potato chips and baby carrots. When everyone had paddled enough, we squished all the air out of the raft and rolled it up. At 3:00, we headed up to the campgrounds to see if we could use one for a couple of hours. They campground hosts told us we could stay until 5:00. I guess it's a good thing we didn't wait 'til 5:00 to go to the campgrounds!

We found out you can use a campground for the day rate of $7 as early as you want as long as there's a camp site available, but you have to leave at 5:00 pm unless you're camping overnight. Overnight camping is $19 for 1 car. We might have camped overnight, but David's oxygen supplier no longer has vacationers. Not sure how we're going to go on vacation for longer than 12 hours... David may have to switch oxygen providers!

Once we chose a campsite, we lugged everything to the brown wooden picnic table and ate a late lunch of cold fried chicken, potato salad, strawberries and string cheese. During lunch we discovered we'd chosen the only vacant campsite with a damp firepit. An hour and a half and an entire book of matches later (from Caesar's Palace, no less!), we had a roaring fire. After the fire burned down, Meagan and Cameron discovered a triangle of logs that created a little oven that roasted marshmallows toasty brown all the way around.

At quarter to five, re-dowsed our lovely fire and packed up. Back at the lake we walked on the gravel road along back side of the lake. Cameron and Jarom hopped from boulder to boulder along the side of the road. Jarom found a gigantic ant he named "big executive ant" and snapped a photo of it. At the end of the road, thousands of gallons of water gushed down the cement spillway in a light brown waterfall.

Eventually, we meandered back down the road to Oakley. We stopped at the little convenience store planning to get drinks or ice cream, then I realized it was already 6:30 and we were starving. On the way up, we noticed a diner in Oakley made from a traincar, so we'd stop there - til I saw the prices. Something like $8 for a sandwich. We changed our minds and drove to Park City and ate a Wendy's.

I don't think the Park City (Kimball Junction? David claims it's Kimball Junction) Wendy's gets much action most evenings, at least not inside. They had 3 adults running the drive through and one rather flustered teenage boy running the counter. He did a pretty good job dealing with us all. I think it's the 6 of us ordering all at once that really threw him.

With our bellies full of tasty food, we raced down Parley's, seeing if we could get home before David ran out of oxygen. Actually, it wasn't that bad. If we'd taken the turn off to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for fireworks rather than going home, David's oxygen would have run out before the fireworks were over, but David still had about 1/2 hour of oxygen left when we got home. We made it home about 8:30 and by the time we unloaded everything, it was almost 9:00. David and I were tired, so we stayed home. I passed out on the bed not too long after 9:00.

I promised the kids we'd go to Grandma and Grandpa's on the 23rd for fireworks - unless I'm recovering from surgery. If that's the case, maybe just David and the kids will go. Unless I go to Mom and Dad's to recover from surgery - then I might already be there...

Just Tired

2011-06-25T18:40:00.005-06:00

I'm exahausted. Meagan wants us to all go to West Fest tonight to search through the booths and watch the fireworks. That sounds fun, but I just want to finish getting Amber packed for camp and drop in bed and pass out until tomorrow morning!

Someday PCN is going to come through for me and I'm going to get my gall bladder out so I can actually eat fat again without being miserable. Or I'm going to switch jobs so I have insurance that will allow me to get my gall bladder out without all the red tape. Only problem is, I'm not sure I'm going to have enough energy to work full time until my gall bladder is taken care of and I can eat semi-normal food again.

On the plus side, David and the kids have been cleaning, cooking, washing dishes and fixing the car door so that when I come home from work I don't have to worry about all that other stuff. That makes me happy and relieved! On Thursday when I came home from work, David and Cameron were stuffing manicotti. I couldn't eat it, but the kids sure seemed to enjoy it - especially the manicotti with white sauce.

Also on the plus side, Greg at Mark Miller Toyota's service department told us that he got authorization so they'll pay for the airbag repair for our Sienna. Yay! Greg told us if we'd had to pay for the repair it would have cost $1,000, but they're covering it all under our 30 day warranty because it's a safety issue. Whew, that was close! David took the van in on Wednesday and they would have repaired it then, but they had to order in a part. So on Tuesday we'll take the van back in and it'll be all taken care of.

Meagan, Zac, Cameron, Jarom and Amber are heading off to West Fest and David and I are going to the dollar store for camp stuff. Then I'm going to bed and watching Harry Potter and not thinking about my guts.

Minivans & Cabers & Moving On

2011-06-20T05:27:00.015-06:00

Well, we finally bought a minivan. Glory, Hallelujah! I'm so glad we don't have to shop for minivans anymore. It's tough to get a good minivan for a decent price in Utah.

After searching the entire valley and test driving 15 different minivans, David and I were down to 2 minivans - a white one at Mark Miller Toyota and a beige one at Smith Family Auto. We decided to take the white one to our mechanic, if Mark Miller Toyota would let us. Dealers are so weird about letting you take a car to your mechanic. I don't know why - if you want to take a car to your mechanic, you're probably pretty serious about wanting to buy it aren't you?

So David and Cameron took it to the mechanic - I had to work. The mechanic even checked the van's engine with his computer and said they hadn't tried to erase any codes, so that was good. I didn't know they could do that. The mechanic said it was great and if we didn't buy it, he would. Can't get much better of an endorsement than that, can you? So, we went through with it.

Man, Mark Miller is really tough to talk down on prices. I finally talked them down to $225 below the NADA price. They thought they were giving us a deal (or so they told us), but I knew better. It was a fair price, I was just hoping to get it a little lower. We just happened to buy the van on my birthday - totally unplanned, but we figured if we didn't move soon, someone else would buy the van, then we'd be out looking again - unless the beige van checked out OK with our mechanic. When David and I were almost done buying the van, another sales rep came up to me and said, "You just bought the van, I almost sold to someone else." So I guess we were right.

Two days after we bought our van we loaded everyone up in it and went to the Scottish Festival. They raised the price from $10/person to $15/person and didn't have a group rate anymore. David and I decided if admission goes up to $20/person, we're going to find some other way to entertain our family that weekend.

The Scottish Festival was fun and the weather was perfect - unusual for the Scottish Festival. Becky and Ray and Mom and Dad and David's sisters didn't go this year - in fact, the only family we saw there was Devon and Debra. I think Linda was there, too, but I didn't see her. The bagpipe bands played as energetically as ever and the Highland games were fun to watch. For some reason, only about half the usual vendors were there. It wasn't quite as crowded as usual, either - probably the higher admission prices, I'm guessing.

And I had a headache - probably because I was relieved to have gotten a van, finally? Well, that and I worked 11 hours the day before because we'd just moved to our new office and I had to sort everything out AND call everyone with their appointments. I like jobs with set coming and going times, not, you have to stay there til it's done cuz there's nobody else to do it if you don't.

So, now we've had the van for a week and a half and the driver's arm rest isn't catching like it should and the airbag light keeps flashing. Hopefully this is covered under the 30 day warranty Mark Miller included with the van. It still drives great and I still like the van, but at the same time, it's a little annoying. The good thing, though, in any case is we've still got a great mechanic that will make everything all right. I'm convinced of it. And that's a very good feeling to have.

Now, if I could just figure out the rest of my life...

I finally got all the paperwork filled out for my insurance so I can *hopefully* get my gallbladder out and start feeling better. And start eating fat again. After surgery, I'm going to give myself a couple of months to recuperate, then I think I'm going to go look for a different job. I plan on working full time so I can get benefits and have decent insurance so I won't have to go through this waiting game again if the kids or I should happen to need medical attention. Our insurance covers primary care doctor's visits, dental visits and eye exams, but that's about it. Better than nothing, but not by much if you should happen to need to go to a specialist or a hospital.

My current job is too stressful and has no benefits. I don't think it ever will. Plus, I don't like Medicare's new rules - they've made my used to be OK job almost unbearable. So, here's to greener pastures and less stressful jobs. I'm sure there's a better one out there, and this fall/winter, I'm going to find it!

Did I ever say that Cameron finally got his Eagle? His board of review was a couple of weeks ago and he passed that just fine. What a relief that he finally got his Eagle! He's also graduated from High School and the Institute of Technology at GTI. He did great!

Jarom got to play with the band at Cameron's graduation. Cameron and Jarom also had end of year concerts for band and chorus. It was fun going to those - even though I didn't get to stay for Cameron's concert because I had a class to go to. That was sad. It would have been fine, but they changed the concert night from Wednesday to Tuesday.

After graduation, we went to Millcreek Canyon and had a graduation party for Cameron. David and I made dutch oven chicken, which surprisingly turned out quite well for us not having made it in ages. From my count, 32 people showed up for the party.

Well, I think I'm going back to bed for awhile. G'night!

Oh, the Gall!

2011-05-29T21:17:00.012-06:00

Last Sunday my insides ached. I made it through Cameron's Seminary Graduation, but I asked Dad and David to give me a blessing. Dad gave me a very nice, comforting blessing that made me feel emotionally better, if not physically - at least not at first.

During the blessing I got the feeling that I needed to go see Dr. Nelson the following day. I normally avoid doctors, so that was a switch for me!

I called the doctor's office first thing Monday morning and I got in that afternoon. David was surprised because it usually takes him days if not weeks to get in. Dr. Nelson asked me a bunch of questions, had me get my blood drawn and set up an ultrasound appointment for Tuesday morning - because I didn't want to go another 4 hours without eating.

After my doctor appointment, I felt the best I have in years. My guts didn't hurt even a little. I remember thinking to myself: "This must be what it's like to feel normal."

Thursday morning Dr. Nelson's MA called and said all my bloodwork was normal (even though she couldn't tell me what tests they were!) and that my gallbladder is full of stones. So, Dr. Nelson wanted me to set up an appointment with a general surgeon. I called the general surgeon's office and the soonest appointment they had was next Tuesday. But, oh, neither of the surgeons in the office take my insurance. So, I called my insurance and they said if I got a referral from Dr. Nelson, they'd pay for the specialist visit.

That would have been OK, but I'd been in a ton of pain since about 2:00 am Thursday morning. I'd eaten some salad dressing and some somewhat greasy meatloaf the night before - I'll explain more about that later. I didn't know if I could wait til next Tuesday to see a doctor. So, I decided on the way home to have David take me to the ER. I would have driven myself, but then David would have been stuck at home for who knows how long without a car. By that point I was in so much pain I didn't care if I got to keep my gall bladder or not.

Two hours after I got into the ER, most of my pain had subsided. I guess that's good? The IV stuck in my arm hurt worse than my guts by that point. The good news was that no gallstones were stuck anywhere (other than my gallbladder!) and I didn't have an infection or blockage. So, the ER Dr told me to go home and eat a no fat diet ("Basically, if it tastes good, don't eat it. Even 1/2 teaspoon of ice cream is too much fat!") and see a surgeon next week.

Apparently when you eat fat the stomach signals to the gallbladder to squeeze out some bile so you can digest the fat. That's all good unless your gallbladder is full of stones. In that case, it's painful!

So, I've been on a no fat diet and I've felt really good, until today when I had one slice of 98% fat free turkey. I guess that 1 gram of fat was too much. Woo hoo - back to my no fat diet. At least it's a holiday tomorrow and I don't have to go to work.

Unfortunately the gallbladder cleanse I did a couple of months ago was too little, too late. Plus, did you know if you have calcified gallstones (which some of mine are), you shouldn't do a liver/gallbladder cleanse? Sheri did muscle test, surprisingly, I thought, that getting my gallbladder surgically removed would be best at this point. After Thursday, I'm OK with that.

The good thing, though, is now I know what's making me feel so awful and I know what to do about it - don't eat any fat until I get my gallbladder out! And knowing what to do to feel better makes me happy. :)

NOTE TO SELF: Eat every 2-3 hours. Did you know that waiting too long to eat can cause gallstones? Also - once I have my gb out, I need to remember to eat HEALTHY fats. A low or no-fat diet or the wrong fats can cause gallstones, too - but probably not over a 2 week period... which is when I hope to have my surgery at the latest.

The School Year is Winding Down - and I'm Trying to as Well

2011-05-19T07:47:00.007-06:00

I've been up half the night feeling bloated and icky. I think I need to start talking bitters or something. Or quit my job :) If only that were an option. My job is stressing me out. I told myself I was only going to do what I could do, then I was going to go home. Problem is, I'm pretty sure the work computer has a virus and it makes everything take 3 times longer than it should. Ack!

I think I'm going to tell Joe he either needs to get the computer fixed or I'm going to restore it to 3 months ago before we started having all these problems. And hope we don't lose any important files. It's getting riddikulus!

So... in happier news:

Cameron and Jarom had concerts on Tuesday night. I got to see Jarom's play with the band and jazz band. Mom and Dad even made it even though Cameron and Jarom only told them about it the night before. Right before the choirs started their concert, I had to leave to go to a class David and I are taking to try to figure out how to cut our food budget way back so we can afford to buy a minivan. David video recorded Cameron's songs, but I still haven't watched them yet.

Last night Jarom had another concert - the jazz band played two songs with the Madrigals. So, essentially, Jarom was in about ten minutes of an hour long concert. I liked "Lullaby of Broadway" and kept humming it after we got home. Jarom told me he hates playing that song because for the trumpets it's mostly just a bunch of random notes. Unfortunately the last twenty minutes of the concert was a Stephen Sondheim medley. Not a big fan. Probably because of a bad experience I had at Tandem doing a program for "Into the Woods." OK, not probably, totally.

At Jarom's concert, I was also successful in taking some of the world's worst photos ever. Sheri would be so proud.

David and Amber went to the spaghetti dinner fundraiser for YW Camp at the church yesterday while Jarom and I were at the concert. I donated a couple of plates of rice crispy treats (of course) and David and Amber came home with a bunch of gluteny things I couldn't eat - angel food cake, cinnamon rolls and brownies. Good thing I bought extra rice crispy treat stuff.

Today Amber is going to La Caille for dinner with her French class. She saved up $28 so she could go, which is pretty impressive for a twelve-year-old. We ended up paying half of it for her because we did the same thing for Cameron earlier this year, so Amber got to keep $14 to spend on something else.

Amber is doing her IP project presentation today. The school invited the parents to come, but Amber refuses to tell me what time her presentation is. Because she doesn't want me to go. Fine. She's probably afraid I'll make sure she does the power point with photos if I go. She's not very happy with me lately because I insist on her doing her homework and turning it in or she can't check out anything from the library. Poor Amber.

Meagan and I are both stressing out about the whole wedding thing. When is it going to happen and all that. I hope she puts it off until after she buys a car and we buy a minivan. I think I need some xanax...

Getting Good Deals on Holiday Items

2011-05-13T19:57:00.007-06:00

I saw this in Your Weekly Guide to Savings & Entertainment, so I thought I'd blog about it so I don't have to save the paper and actually remember where I put it. (Like that's gonna happen!)

Everyone knows holiday items are less expensive AFTER a holiday, but what are the best days to buy after a holiday? According to the article by Melea Johnson (of freebies2deals.com) retailers use the "3-3-2 Rule." Basically, that means:
- the first 3 days after the holiday items are 50% off
- the next 3 days they're 75% off
- the last 2 days they're 90% off
- after that, the stores clear off the shelves.
This holds true for major holidays. For minor holidays, mark downs usually occur faster.

So, now you know when to go shopping for holiday stuff. Of course, the best stuff usually disappears the first 3 days after the holiday, so it depends how long you want to hold out. I'm not one for shopping any more than I have to. I haven't tested this out (and probably never will!) but it is interesting to know.

On Being a One Car Family

2011-05-12T13:43:00.000-06:00

We've had at least 2 cars for so long that adjusting to having only one car has been interesting. But we're getting used to it. At least our one car is big enough to fit all of us. It's squishy, but it works - especially if we aren't going farther than a mile or two away from home.

If we want to take just one extra person, though, it doesn't work. We've tried to talk the kids into riding in the trunk - it's nice and roomy, right? - but none of them have taken us up on it. Just kidding. I wouldn't let anyone ride in the trunk anyway.

The interesting thing is how much money it has saved us in just the last couple of months. Our insurance has gone down $90/month. And yesterday we got the Chevron bill - usually it's $350/month. For last month? $140. Wow. That means we saved $300 last month. And that's not including not having a $200-$250/month car payment.

That said, I wish public transportation were better. I would probably ditch the car and take the bus/train to work. Which has gotten me to thinking that it might not be a bad idea if I got a job at Granger Medical Clinic. It's right on the bus line and probably a 5 minute bus ride from my home. And, I would be forced to walk to and from the bus, which would be good. Even though it was a pain to ride the bus to and from MSC a few years back, I did get more exercise!

We would still need at least one car, though. David can't walk very far - not even to the bus stop a couple of blocks away. Maybe if he took his walker and started out a half hour before the bus was due. Plus, not many busses run on the weekend. I can't imagine using the bus for grocery shopping. And taking the bus when it's dark out? Scary. Of course, even in daylight it can be scary, when you're stalked by psychotic men. But that would never happen, right?

I guess at least the trend is going toward busses and trains. The Trax hub in our part of town will be done this August, I think? Meagan and Zac are getting pretty good at navigating the bus/trax system.

That said, David and I are still planning on buying a minivan. Just probaly not til sometime this summer. The options I'd most like on the minivan? A tow hitch and a back-up camera. Unfortunately, not many minivans come with the back-up camera - and if they do, they're the way expensive minivans.

A Couple of You Tube Links

2011-04-30T14:32:00.010-06:00

As Jarom, Amber and I were surfing the web, well youtube, really, we found a couple of things actually worth watching, here they are:

Top Secret Drum Corps Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2009
Honestly, it doesn't get really interesting until about 5:59, but the rest of it is pretty good, too. Except the cheesy narrator talking about all the drummers having day jobs and such.

Peep Microwave Disaster
I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It made me think of Becky and her love of peeps. And Ghostbusters. I feel like I need some peeps... (I have to admit, the second time wasn't nearly as funny. I already knew what was going to happen.)

BTW, David and I are on hiatus from our minivan search. Looks like Tim Dahle Nissan is still trying to sell the salvaged minivan we almost bought. Even after we told them about it. They're still trying to sell it for above the top NADA price for a Sienna in excellent condition that's never been in a wreck. Figures. I feel like turning them into the BBB, but you can't get much lower than and "F," can you?

And, did I tell you about the minivan we test drove on Monday that smelled like it had a dead animal in it? Turns out they detailed it and rolled up all the windows before the upholstery and carpet dried completely. Mildew. Ewwww...

All's Well that Ends Well

2011-04-19T21:46:00.009-06:00

Last weekend was stressful, to say the least. After a week of researching minivans on the internet, David and I went out to test drive a few. With no intention of actually buying a minivan that day. We were just looking, that's all.

The first lot we went to was very low-key, no pressure. We test drove an '04 Odyssey and an '04 Sienna. David likes Odysseys better. I'm OK with either, but the seats in that Odyssey seemed very uncomfortable to me. And the interior was very, very light gray. I could just imagine it looking horrible all the time. The Sienna's seats were more comfortable and the interior slightly darker, but it had probably 20,000 more miles on it and was $2000 more.

The next lot we went to was little higher pressure, but they only had one Sienna and no Odysseys. The Sienna they had was an '03 and it had practically no legroom in the back. They must have redesigned the Sienna in '04 so it had more legroom.

The third lot we went to had a very nice '04 Sienna with 77,000 miles on it. David's not really crazy about Siennas, but somehow the salesmen twisted our arms into buying this one. They started out wanting $14,000 for it and we talked them down to $11,300. We did get a contingency that if our mechanic rejected it, we didn't have to buy it.

David drove the van home and I drove the Crown. I was too freaked out to drive it. I was happy, we've never had a car that nice before. We got home and wanted to take the kids on a test drive - see if they had enough legroom and all, since our 2 boys are almost 6 feet tall and the girls are not much shorter than I am. Meagan was at work, but Cameron and Amber came outside pretty quickly. Jarom had locked himself in the bathroom and didn't come out for another 20 minutes. Ah, teenagers.

Finally, we got everyone in the car and drove around a couple of blocks. Just after we got home and David was still sitting in the driver's seat with the engine idling, I looked over at the dashboard and noticed the check engine light was on. Great.

Then I went inside and was debating whether to pull a car fax on the car. But $30 a shot seemed pretty pricey. Fortunately, I found a free website (nicb.org) where I could look up the VIN number. What? The van was salvaged? It had been in a wreck last November? Great.

Then I looked up the car dealership on bbb.org. Guess what their rating was? An F. I could have sworn I looked up all the dealerships we were going to visit and they'd gotten a B+ or better. Not this one. Crap.

I didn't sleep very well Saturday night.

Sunday morning I got up early to go religion hopping with Cameron, Meagan and Becky. Not that I slept much Saturday night anyway. Becky was nice enough to chauffer us around town, since we only have one car and David needed it so he could give his High Council talk at 11:00.

Becky picked us up at about 7:30 and we drove to the Cathedral for Mass. It was as pretty as I remember it being when Meagan and I went there a couple of years ago. We had to leave Mass early because it dragged on and on. I thought mass was supposed to last only 1 hour? Maybe it was longer because it was Palm Sunday? We did each get a palm frond and we got holy water splashed on us. We sat on the bench directly in front of the ushers. I think they were annoyed we didn't know what was going on. We tried. The ushers did have nice singing voices, as did one of the priests. Becky and I think that must be a qualification to be a priest.

After that, we drove over to the Buddhist Temple, which was not very far away, just on the other side of the Salt Palace. When we disembarked from the car and walked around the corner, I smelled what I thought was smoke from a pipe. The temple looked traditional Japanese. I think Meagan said it was on Japan Street. Or something. We got there for the end of meditation, which didn't seem like meditation to me. More like an informal speech.

We sat near the back of the chapel (?) on one of several wooden benches. I was glad the seats were cushioned. Three large red and gold shrines lined the front wall. I liked the little golden chimes hanging from the roofs. Inside the shrines were pictures of people who I suppose are important in the Buddhist church?

After about 20 minutes of a cute, perky reverend, who must have grown up Catholic leading us in "meditation," Dharma school began. We attempted to sing along with their songs and repeat their chants and poems. They were all very lovely saying about peace and love and gratitude, so I was OK with repeating them. Most of it was in Japanese, but they had English translations in the book, so we knew what we were saying.

About the middle of the service, a jack-hammer started up outside. It was not terribly loud, just a little distracting. It reminded me of the yoga class I had where there was a karate class upstairs. The yoga instructor said something like, "The sounds around you will not distract you, you will focus on your breathing." I love yoga instructors. That's about the time I realized the smell was not pipe smoke, but incense. I could have done without the incense.

Near the end of the service, when everything was rather quiet, a big "bong" rang out through the room. I jumped. Then I realized it was the sound of "om." The next two times I was expecting the bong and I rather enjoyed the resonance of the sound.

After that, Becky drove us home. I got to show Becky the salvaged van in our driveway and how the check engine light was still coming on every time you started the car up. Sigh.

Then, we went to our own church and I wrangled Primary kids. I kept thinking about how weird it was to sort of be in charge at church after I'd been to other churches where I had little idea what was going on. Going to another church and having friendly people greet me always reminds me of how important it is to be friendly to people at my own church, whether I know them or not.

So, after stressing out about the stupid van all weekend, David and I took it to Autozone and Gines' around 7:00 am Monday morning to have it checked out. Yep, it had been in a wreck. Bad enough that the frame had to be welded back together and the driver's airbag had more than likely deployed. Gines' didn't even bother checking why the check engine light came on.

Somehow I made it through work, then David and I picked up my cousin John, a Hertz mechanic, to go to Tim Dahle Nissan with us, just in case they wouldn't take the van back. John knows Mark at Gines - they used to be in the same ward - Mark was John's bishop for awhile, so they teased each other and talked about Scouts.

Finally, after almost two days, we made it back to Tim Dahle. When David saw the salesman who sold us the car, he held out the keys to the van and said, "You can have it back." The salesman was stunned, but he got someone else who could help us (it was his second day on the sales floor, poor guy) - after about 15 minutes.

I was so relieved when the guy who did all the finance paperwork signed a form saying we were released from the contract. Whew. That was close. I'm glad that's over!

Taxes, Snow and Gall Bladders

2011-03-26T22:06:00.005-06:00

I finally filed our taxes this week. I did as Becky advised and used Turbo Tax free file. It took about an hour and a half, which was longer than I thought it would since I'd already filled out the paper form. Turbo Tax came up with the same refund as I did - which makes me happy. I helped Meagan get most of her taxes done this morning, so she's just about set as well.

All in all, it was easier using Turbo Tax because I didn't have to find and fill out all the worksheets, sort through the tax tables or try to guess what did or didn't apply to me. Next year, I guess I'll just start out doing Turbo Tax. Especially since the IRS isn't sending out booklets anymore.

Sadly, we didn't go to Holi Fest with Becky this morning. But who wants to throw colored chalk to celebrate the beginning of Spring in snow and rain? Cameron was going to go on a bus with his Humanities class, but he couldn't remember when they were leaving. And he overslept, so he didn't go either.

This morning Joe called and wanted to know if David would come pick a padlock for him. It's the same padlock David picked for him a couple of months ago. Joe lost the keys again. He'd sold his scooter to a couple from Bountiful and the title was locked in a cupboard in the office. So, David and I went over.

Oddly enough, the couple who bought the scooter graduated from the same high school I did. And they know alot of the the same people I do. She was even a dental hygienist for Dr. Olson and worked (works?) with Lynnette. She's only 1 year older than me. How weird is that?

After that, David and I travelled all over the valley collecting stuff for my gall bladder/liver cleanse. I'm glad I'm doing the non-starving version of the cleanse. I don't think I could live on apple juice and water for 3 days - especially while I have to work. I convinced I'm going to feel way better after this cleanse. Otherwise I wouldn't bother with it!

Oh, I got an e-mail response from the AppleSeeds editor. She said she liked my Viking article idea and they would let me know in about a month if they can use it or not. So, we'll see. It will be several months before I know anything about the Kindergarten stories.

Well, I guess I'd better go. Meagan is waiting for me to help her finish her taxes. Woo hoo! Should be fun!

This is going to be fast...

2011-03-22T21:57:00.001-06:00

Famous last words.

Work is stressing me out. Medicare is changing the Part A rules on April 1 and I'm WAY stressed about it. It's going to make more work for me and I already have too much work to do. Ack!

Well, Jetta is standing by my side huffing and puffing and even growling because she needs to go outside, like NOW. So I guess this really IS going to be short!

Lone Post for February

2011-02-28T20:34:00.007-07:00

Wow. I must have been busy in February. Or delinquent.

Today I submitted two stories to a kindergarten writing contest. One was about puddles and the other was about crayons. We'll see what comes of that. Now I need to finish the research on my Viking article and submit my query to Appleseeds. I've already decided that I'm depositing any money I earn on writing in to either Cameron or Jarom's missionary fund 'til they have enough money.

Cameron and I went to the community college campus to submit his scholarship application. Strangely, there was absolutely no line at the financial aid office. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. Meagan and I have waited for hours in the financial aid line in the past. It took longer for me to park the car (parallel parking, bleck!) than it did to submit the scholarship application. Yay, that's done! And only 1 day before the final cut-off.

Next on my list is getting our taxes submitted. I figured them myself the first part of February, but I'm debating filing them online or having someone figure them for me - just so I know if I got them right or not. Last year I missed a $600 refund that the IRS caught, so they increased the amount of our check. I'm thinking if I pay someone $100 to catch a large refund (if the IRS isn't as thorough this year) it will probably be worth it. Now I'm just wondering who to take our taxes to. I guess I'd better decide soon.

Meagie's bf Zac got at job at the call center working with time shares. Sounds vaguely like my hotel call center job. I hope he enjoys it. :)

This weekend I spent 8 hours in Scout training. And a couple of hours in other meetings. Then I spent a few more hours collecting Primary news for the Ward Newsletter. Whew! It took longer than I thought it would, but I learned a lot of good information, so it was worth it.

I even called the women Meagan and I are supposed to be Visiting Teaching. I've been a bit of a slacker at VT. It took the RS President calling me and getting me to promise I'd at least call the women on the list to break me out of my complacency.

In the last month, I've been trying to decide whether I should change careers/go back to school/etc/etc. I'm still undecided. I'd love to learn how to be a web designer, but I'm not sure I want to spend that many hours away from home in the evening. Plus, financial aid won't cover that program. Something about it being too new. Decisions, decisions.

Last week I went to Mum and Dad's and hung out with them, Sheri, and David. Sheri, David and I danced to the MJ experience. Afterwards my knees hurt. MJ was sure limber! My knees kept popping and cracking the whole time I danced. How did MJ do it? He was older than me!

Our old dishwasher died and now we have a shiney new one from Sears. Good thing we waited for the President's Day Sale, we saved over $200! It's nice to have sparkling clean dishes now. David loads the dishwasher every day now - his back hurts too much for him to stand at the sink scrubbing dishes for more than a few minutes.

Oooo...my sixth post in one month!

2011-01-30T22:03:00.003-07:00

Not sure I've ever done that before. Now if only I could remember what I've done lately.
Thought about going back to school. I officially finished my ICL course. I should be getting my graduation certificate in the mail any time now.
What I mostly discovered from taking the ICL course is that I don't think I want to be a professional writer. It's stressful, time consuming and not very high-paying. :(
Well, David's here, so my blogging must end for the moment. Probably the month.

Math Books and Such

2011-01-18T19:31:00.007-07:00

Cameron and David are off procuring the Math 1050 book Cameron needs this quarter. I found it on the web for half the new price, which is awesome after paying full price for his Math 1010 book last semester. No one at the high school who had Math 1050 last semester seems to be selling. Maybe they have younger siblings who may or may not be taking the same class next year? We're still not sure what math Jarom will be taking next year until he takes the placement test this spring, so we're holding on to the Math 1010 book for now. If we'd known Cameron would be taking it, I would have had Meagan hang on to hers.

Ah, college textbooks. I can't believe how expensive they are. I couldn't believe it when my new college math book cost $40 back in the 80's. Now new college math books cost $160. At least they include a solutions manual. I wish mine had. Maybe I would have done better in Calculus. Then again, maybe not. Calculus is mind-bending. I still don't know how Newton ever came up with it. I think he may have been slightly insane.

This weekend was not my best. I felt sick Friday. Saturday was a little better and I made it to yoga Saturday morning. It was not quite the nirvana it usually is, but it was nice. I even got quite a bit of house cleaning done for a change. By the end of the day I was exhausted, but I'd complete four loads of laundry and the bedroom and kitchen were much cleaner.

Sunday morning I felt good. Then Sunday afternoon I just happened to eat some poisoned sunflower seeds that left me writhing in pain most of the night. OK, they weren't actually poisoned, just laced with MSG, which may as well be poison as far as I'm concerned.

Yesterday all I ate was a box of nut thins crackers, two slices of toast and a bunch of gatorade. Nothing else sounded good. I'm amazed I made it through 6 1/2 hours of work. After work, I stopped at Harmon's long enough to buy said crackers - and meet Amber and the Bahrs in the parking lot, much to our mutual surprise - especially Amber's. Then I came home and ate an entire box and passed out on the bed around 5:30 pm.

This morning when I woke up I felt lightheaded, weak and nauseous. Somehow I dropped the boys off at school, but I didn't make it to work. Tomorrow's gonna be a better day. And I'm going to read labels much more carefully.

The good thing about today is that I got to lay on the couch all day and read The Titan's Curse. And David cooked me a very tasty hamburger. Sometimes it's good to slow down and do nothing - even if it's forced on you!

Feeling Better Today...

2011-01-11T08:09:00.005-07:00

So, I've given up cheese - and all other dairy except butter, for some reason I'm OK with butter. I only had 1 small piece of dark Belgian chocolate yesterday (no American chocolate!). I'm feeling much better.

I've also made it priority to exercise every morning for about 45 minutes. I go downstairs, fire up the Wii and slide Just Dance 2 in the glowy blue slot. Fourty five minutes later I'm sweating and my insides are happy. Maybe not my knees, but at least my insides are! :)

And now for something completely different...

Friday I loaned Jarom my cell phone because he was going to the high school basketball game and to play his trumpet in the pep band. Cameron didn't want to stay for the game (no surprise there) and we needed to know when Jarom needed a ride home. Michael C gave Jarom a ride home, so he didn't need the cell phone after all.

The next morning, when I was conscious (and Jarom was not) I asked him for my phone back. He said he gave it to me last night when he got home. I didn't remember it. I looked everywhere - under the couch, under the couch cushions, in my purse and work bag, etc, etc, etc, - and couldn't find it. Sadness. I even made Jarom check his backpack, coat and jeans pockets. Nothing.

So, on Sunday, just when I've given up on finding my phone, I slide on my blue fuzzy bathrobe and slip my hand in the pocket. Guess what's there? My cell phone. I'm glad I didn't wash my bathrobe on Saturday like I was going to. Whew!

Friday

2011-01-07T21:38:00.006-07:00

Work was long today. Fortunately Lorry came in and helpd me or I would have been at work until 9:00 tonight.

We got four new patients, I had to download and fax all the OT documents, set up a new OT, make sure patients got Evaled in time and try to keep everyone happy. And call patients with their schedules for next week. Calling with schedules is supposed to be my number one priority on Fridays, but sometimes it gets pushed to the back burner. Only problem is, it HAS to get done on Friday.

Lorry came in at 2:30 and I went to lunch - at Panda Express. While I was eating, I thought to myself, "I hate being in charge."

Panda doesn't normally make me feel ill, but today it did. Not overly ill, but enough that I'm curling up with the Rife machine now. Actually, now that I think about it, I was feeling sick before Panda. Hmmm...I've been eating too much cheese and chocolate - both are no-no's for me.

Sigh. Tomorrow's gotta be a better day. And if it's not, I'm going to stay in bed all day.

Except I really want to go to Saturday morning yoga. I really don't want to go to an all-day Scouting training meeting though. Or find a sub for the Valiant 9-10 class until a permanent teacher is called.

On the plus side, I've written 3 kindergarten stories for the ICL contest. And the deadline's not even until Feb. 28. And I met the 150 word limit. That's amazing for me! Now that I've mailed in my last assignment to my instructor, words seem to be flowing out of me. I even wrote a rough draft of a story for the Friend magazine tonight. Will I ever submit any of this stuff? Maybe...

WOW

2011-01-06T21:03:00.004-07:00

Nope, it's not about World of Warcraft, but it is about video games.

Last year the only thing Jarom wanted for Christmas was the PS1 game Legend of Mana. The old one we had was scratched and didn't work. I bought it used from Amazon Marketplace for $37 dollars. It had a scratch on it and kept getting stuck during the intro. Somehow (after I already bought the game through Amazon!) I found out that a gaming store at the mall resurfaces video game discs for $5 a disc. I took our old LOM game in to be resurfaced. It looked brand new and worked perfectly. We never did take the "new" LOM in to get it resurfaced. I probably should have complained about the non-working game, but I never did...

This year Cameron wanted us to get Final Fantasy VIII resurfaced. I totally forgot until Christmas Eve morning. David and I took the game in, but only one guy at the shop is allowed to use the resurfacing machine. I guess because the machine costs like $3,000 or something, but still! The one guy was not there, so we'd have to leave the game and he'd resurface it when he came in. We could pick it up Sunday morning (the day AFTER Christmas). Well, we kind of wanted it for Christmas, so we didn't leave it. We still haven't taken it back in. :)

Today David told me we needed to get two games resurfaced. I was like, what? FF8 and what else? Oh, yeah the other copy of LOM. Then Jarom mentioned that LOM is now going for $300. For a used game! What?! I look it up on amazon.com and wow. He's right. Mostly. A used LOM game in is anywhere from $60 to $1000. Although I think the $1000 game is a typo. They're never going to sell that one.

How much is a brand new LOM game? Anywhere from $150 to $350. Wow. I can't believe someone would pay that much for an old video game. Wow!

2010 in Review

2011-01-03T22:17:00.028-07:00

Ok, Becky, I did it. You inspired me. Mine isn't as concise as yours, but oh well.

January - Banished Thor’s kennels from the TV room and started exercising again. Thor still tooth-crafting boxes. Meagan dating Jason. David recovering from the pneumonia and strep. Cameron considering attending BYU in animation for college. Jarom created a UK game “Kingdom to Kingdom” for history. Amber wrote: "Now I guess I'll go make some carrot peels and eat them" at the end of her English paper. My ICL instructor liked my second assignment (“West Valley Christmas Parade”), which surprised me.

February – We all had colds in February. That could explain my lack of blogging. Mailed in my 3rd ICL assignment (“Timber!”). Watched the Olympics almost every night - mostly snowboarding and ski jumping. David and I blew a $75 Market Street Grill gift certificate on one meal. Meagan took anatomy the first time. Cameron signed up for his last year of high school, Jarom his first and Amber junior high.

March – Brother David decided to join the Navy. Jarom was Crusader of the Month. David, Cameron, Jarom and I went to the temple. Meagan, Becky and Amber went rollerskating. Amber fell down five times and resolved to never rollerskate again. Jarom job-shadowed Steve and was sad when it ended - unlike Cameron's job-shadow a couple of years ago. Going to Mrs. Bean’s writing group and loving it. My ICL instructor said my third assignment was brilliant and ready to send out to magazines. That freaked me out. Still haven't submitted it to any magazines. Dragged my family to the dollar movies to see “The Blind Side” - which they ended up enjoying. Amber read “To Kill a Mockingbird” just for fun.

April – Jarom got his braces off and said his teeth feel fake because they’re too smooth. Amber sang and Jarom played his trumpet at Heart of Hunter. I changed my work schedule in hopes that I wouldn’t get so exhausted. Unfortunately it didn’t work. Becky made me a cd with a Tiny Tim song on it and drove my family crazy playing it over and over again. After researching and struggling for hours and hours, finally finished ICL assignment four ("The Mystery of the Ivory Lance") and mailed it in.

May – Amber attempted to recreate a solar eclipse with a racquetball. Meagan got whiplash when an errant white SUV crashed into the Crown. My little part-time job turned into an almost full-time job - it was so busy I had to stop going to the writing group. *sniff!* Lorry started working in the office with me – Yay! Jarom exhibited 3 drawings in the school Spring Art Show. A woodpecker moved into the apple tree in the backyard. At the Quest End of Year Program, Mrs. Silletto predicted that Jarom would grow up to be “the screamingest infomercial announcer on TV.”

June – Amber’s last elementary school choir concert after five years. Jarom and Amber earned several scholastic awards at school. David took me and the kids to Chinese Gourmet for my birthday. Thor peed on David’s side of the bed and David still loves him. Cameron took the ACT the day of the Scottish Festival. Cameron and I made it for three hours of the festival and missed the caber toss and the massed bands, but not the rain. The woodpecker had three tiny babies. Thor patrolled the apple tree incessantly.

July – Mom and Dad’s 50th Wedding Anniversary - big fun party, with lots of semi-squishy strawberries from Costco and a huge chocolate splatter mess on the Relief Society’s pretty white table cloths. Saw lots of people I hadn’t seen in ages. Cameron and Jarom marched with the junior high marching band in several parades. Went to David's wild cousin’s wedding at Rocky Mountain Raceway. Cameron and Jarom had a blast at EFY in Sandy. Brother David decided not to join the Navy.

August – David and I celebrated 22 years of marriage by going to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner. Went to cousin Jenny’s wedding. Pretty sure I’d never met her before – she was born and grew up in Virginia. Jarom started Jazz Band, which means getting up at 5:30 am every other morning. Meagan started going out with Zac. Got drenched in a monsoon running from Smith’s to my car with a bag of grapes. Thor killed our woodpecker. Sadness.

September – Our computer monitor thought it was a geiger counter, complete with annoying noises. Put up with megalithic old monitor for a month. Got addicted to City of Wonder for two weeks. Stayed up all night one Thursday reading “Hunger Games.” Dislodged the lint monster from our bathroom drain. Stayed up until 2 am forcing Amber to finish her Utah ABC book. David and I suffered from temporary insanity and signed up for Monavie. I liked the juice, but it was too expensive...

October – Finished and mailed in my 6th ICL assignment – Cha-Cha-Cha. Started taking yoga classes again. Jarom and Cameron biked 25 miles with John Newsome. Amber cut up a pair of her levi’s to make a zombie costume. Without asking me first, of course. Sheri and Dad discovered a computer Rife machine program and my guts are happier than they've been in years!

November – Mom had hip surgery - her second major surgery of the year. Because major surgery is so much fun. David typing his Xant book into the computer. Meagan taking Anatomy for the second time. And still dating Zac. Jarom drawing elaborate dragon pictures for his friends. Amber banished from library until she gets her grades up. Whole family except Meagan went to Stake Temple day - she had to work. I got “promoted” from Primary Secretary to Primary President. Our electricity went out for 14 hours my first Sunday as Primary President. Is that a sign? Went to TITP on Black Friday - four hours of heavy labor for Cameron’s Eagle Project. Went back the next day because it was so much fun!

December – Survived Primary Nativity Play at the Ward Christmas Party, my first full month as Primary President, mailing in my 7th and final ICL assignment, several snowstorms and Christmas. Thinking maybe writing professionally is not my thing - it stresses me out. Maybe writing for fun is better. Addicted to Just Dance 2. Avoided WinCo on Jarom’s birthday and didn’t get stranded. Maybe because I have a cell phone now? The Bahr’s celebrated New Year’s Eve with us playing Scattergories, Just Dance 2 and Nerf Dart War. And we ate seven layer dip, crab cheese ball and Martinelli’s.

Now I'm going to bed like I should have two hours ago! Good night!
(No, I don't usually go to bed at 8:15, although that might not be a bad idea. I actually finished this and posted it for the final time at 11:45!)

Jarom's Birthday

2010-12-29T21:37:00.002-07:00

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.

I LOVE 4WD

2010-11-29T14:55:00.003-07:00

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.

Prelude to Black Friday

2010-11-25T20:16:00.009-07:00

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.

HalloOoOween

2010-10-30T19:23:00.014-06:00

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.

October...so far...

2010-10-16T20:54:00.007-06:00

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!

Drainage

2010-09-29T19:14:00.002-06:00

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.

Let the Games Begin!

2010-09-22T21:26:00.003-06:00

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?"

See You Dark & Early in the Morning

2010-08-30T20:52:00.003-06:00

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.

Wedding Du Jour

2010-07-24T21:20:00.006-06:00

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.

50 Years and Beyond

2010-07-03T20:38:00.006-06:00

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.

ACT? Scottish Festival? ACT?

2010-06-12T08:34:00.004-06:00

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. :)

Whew! Hell Week is Over!

2010-06-11T22:10:00.007-06:00

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.

New Office Manager and Other Delights

2010-06-05T12:23:00.013-06:00

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.

End of Year Program

2010-05-17T20:53:00.008-06:00

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.

Stomach Cramps & Whiplash

2010-05-14T06:12:00.004-06:00

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!

Haircuts, Crazy Music & Eclipses

2010-05-01T10:50:00.005-06:00

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.

I Don't Know What to Call This...

2010-04-26T21:50:00.003-06:00

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.

Death & Taxes

2010-03-25T19:52:00.004-06:00

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?

Movies & Magazines

2010-03-16T10:33:00.016-06:00

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.

Here Comes the Sun

2010-03-12T21:20:00.010-07:00

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!

My Kids are Awesome!

2010-03-07T21:13:00.003-07:00

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.

Olympic Colds and Other Stuff

2010-03-01T20:51:00.010-07:00

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?

Post-Christmas Recovery

2010-01-29T21:50:00.012-07:00

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!

It's 6:20 am...

2010-01-28T06:21:00.002-07:00

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?

Silly Kids...and Cat

2010-01-01T23:40:00.004-07:00

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.

Last of the Christmas...er..."Holiday" Concerts

2009-12-16T21:51:00.005-07:00

Amber had her second choir concert tonight. The one last night was at the mall, but that one isn't fun because the accoustics are bad and there are never enough chairs. I like the concert at the school much better. We almost missed it tonight because we started dinner kinda late for making it to a 6:30 concert. Amber and the other kids were very cute, though. I can't believe it's Amber's last year in elementary school.

David made a fantabulous dinner tonight. He roasted a turkey - his turkeys are the best! He also made baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing and olives. I got to make the gravy, which I thought was a pretty good deal. For some reason David doesn't like to make gravy. Gravy is way easy if you remember to keep stirring it. Too bad I had to wolf dinner down so fast.

Jarom had his band concert last week. He got to play a trumpet solo on a Jazz Band song and he did a really good job. Meagan recorded a video of it. Maybe she'll post it on Facebook or something. Jarom also 2 moles cut off his back this week. Poor Jer-Jer. We have to be very careful when we hug him. He also FINALLY got his colored pencil drawing done and turned it. Yay! I guess he gets to use the computer again.

I got to Katelyn's choir concert the week before that. Long story. Holly called me at the last minute looking for a ride. At least I was able to take her. I decided to stay so she and Katelyn would have a ride home. The junior high's choirs are quite good. I especially liked Carol of the Bells, but that's always been one of my favorite Christmas songs. The choir director was cute. She reminded me of Becky. When she directed the choir she was almost dancing and was very jazzy. She looked like she was having a good time.

Lots of Firsts

2009-11-29T18:13:00.007-07:00

Friday Meagan finally bought a laptop. She ended up getting it at Costco, because the lenovo website didn't have anywhere you could ask questions or call anyone. I think she likes her computer. She found out she needs to burn some recovery dvd's before she's supposed to connect to the internet. You'd think they'd include the formatting cd's/dvd's with the computer. Oh well.

I finally downloaded Windows 7 yesterday. That took forever, then I had to put new security software on the computer. At least Qwest lets you download anti-spyware and security software for free, so that's cool. I'm not sure if I like Windows 7 better than Vista or not. I haven't used it enough yet to know.

Yesterday, before I got a chance to put the security software on the computer, Cameron got on the internet. I guess I forgot to tell him not to get on the internet yet and he kind of freaked out at me freaking out at him.

I'm not sure how he shut down the computer, but when I tried to re-start it, it wouldn't start up. I was afraid I was going to have to install Windows 7 again. Ack! Fortunately I didn't have to. Somehow the computer resolved it on its own.

Yesterday - you're not going to believe this - we finally let Thor outside. It was a rather emotional experience for the entire family. We all had to say "Goodbye" to him in case he didn't return.

We actually had to put him outside, he wouldn't go out on his own. Once he got outside, he had to sniff everything in the driveway. He must have been in shock, not believing he actually got to go outside and we weren't going to chase him outside and drag him back in the house. Eventually, he wandered under the trailer and we shut the door because we couldn't see him anymore.

He came back about a half hour later. We were surprised. He was in and out the rest of the day.

Today we let him out again and he lost his collar. Goofball. Less than two days and he's already lost his collar!

Yesterday Jason came to hang out with Meagan for her birthday. He lives about an hour and a half drive from us, so I don't think Meagan will be seeing him every day. Jason seems nice. Meagan has actually found a boy that both she and her father like. Shocking!

Jason ate dinner with us after he and Meagan went bowling with some friends. David made his specialty - Chicken Curry Salad. Jason, a self-proclaimed picky eater, liked it. Even Jarom ate some of the chicken.

Well, I'd better go. Jarom's got to work on his temperate zone project that is due tomorrow.

Black Friday

2009-11-27T20:56:00.004-07:00

Meagan and I went Black Friday shopping today. I don't think we'll try it again - at least not at more than one store in a day!

A couple of the things we had on our list were in stock by the time we got to the stores, but most were not. Of course, we were not crazy enough to leave the house at 3 or 4 am like some people. And we did go see Jarom's last Christmas Parade with the Jr. High band, so it was all good.

AND... Meagan finally got her laptop, so she was very, very happy!

Conversation at Dinner Tonight

2009-11-24T19:52:00.003-07:00

David to Amber: "What was President Eisenhower before he was President?"
Amber pauses, so Jarom answers: "I don't care who you are, before you become President you're a human."
Me: "Does that mean you're no longer human after you become President?"
Jarom: "No, after you become President, you're a gopher."
Me: "A gopher?"
Jarom: "Well, actually I think you become whatever your party's mascot is."
Me: "Like a donkey or an elephant?"
Jarom: "Yeah, or a leaf."

Yay! It's Friday!

2009-11-20T19:27:00.002-07:00

And that's all I've got to say, 'cuz I'm too tired to say anything else...

OK, you know I couldn't really stop at that.

We got our car back from the shop today. It has 4 new tires on it, so now we should be able to get through the snow better. I'm soooo happy about that!

The kids didn't have school today, but I had work. Glad it's over.

Not Happy with Mr. Stripey

2009-11-11T19:34:00.003-07:00

So, this morning I go into the bedroom to get some clean clothes out of the laundry basket and the clothes smelled weird. And they were wet. Apparently Mr. Stripey got back at me for having Cameron bring him back in the house after his escaped. Dumb cat!

Maybe I will like him better tomorrow if he doesn't do it again. In the mean time, I'm locking him in his cage tonight and not letting him in the bedroom. I was about ready to throw the cat outside. Of course, that's exactly what he wanted.

Who Needs Sleep?

2009-11-08T19:43:00.016-07:00

Here's what we've been up to lately:

David - is still writing his book. He's on his sixth notepad. He's read me some of it. It's interesting. Some parts are quite silly.

David, Cameron, Jarom and I did baptisms at the temple last night. The Stake had a dinner for adults and youth. It was nice, except the Stake didn't expect so many youth and didn't schedule the baptistry. A couple of scheduled groups were there already, so it was crowded. The dinner started at 6:00, then we went to the baptistry and didn't leave until 10:15. At least the temple is a good place to hang out.

Meagan worked last night. Holly was nice enough to let Amber hang out at their house. Amber loves spending time with Katelyn. Thanks Holly!

Meagan - finally recovered from her wisdom tooth ordeal. She can eat normal food now. She's ecstatic about that. She's also trying to buy a laptop with windows 7 on it. She found the one she wanted, but they're not selling it with windows 7 from what we can tell on the website. Maybe she'll have one by next semester?

Meagan loves Halloween more than anyone I know - other than Becky. Meagan dressed up for Halloween 5 or 6 times and was way excited about each time.

Meagan also loves Michael Jackson - maybe even more than Becky - which is almost impossible. Meagan, Becky and I saw "This Is It" Thursday night. The movie started at 9:40. Well, 10:05, after all the commercials and previews. We got home about 12:30. All these late nights are getting to me.

We got to the theater at 7:30 and had to wait until the next movie. David had a good point. With 25 minutes of previews, etc, we probably could have made it to the "7:00" showing right as it started. We waited, though. Meagan got 3 point cards, so we went on all 5 rides. Then we went on the bumper cars and the roller coaster again. And again. Then we sat in the lobby. Then we watched some of the very boring hockey game. Then we sat in the theater for a half hour. We were afraid the theater would be packed. We shouldn't have. By the time the movie actually started, there were only a dozen people.

I could have done without one of Michael's dance moves (if you've seen him dance, you know which one I'm talking about). That aside, he was an incredible dancer, singer and songwriter. He was in incredible shape for a 50 year old. Professional dancers half his age struggled with the moves and he barely broke a sweat - and he was singing and directing while he was dancing. Amazing.

Too bad he had such a severe anxiety disorder. That's all I can figure. Why else would he need anesthesia to get any sleep? Anxiety is no fun. Unfortunately, I know from experience.

Cameron - told me the other day that being a physicist might be an interesting career. I almost fell on the floor. Cameron? My writer? Cameron did like his physics class last year - which shocked me. He did really well on the ASVAB - especially in science. Overall he got a 98. Meagan says the military is gonna be hounding him now. That's probably true. Meagan got a 68 on the ASVAB and recruiters were calling her all the time. Until David answered the phone and told a recruiter to stop calling because "Meagan thinks the military sucks." They stopped calling.

Jarom - we finally paid off his braces. Not sure when he gets them off, but we're done paying on them now. Yay! Jarom also finished reading "A Tale of Two Cities." He let me read the 12 page synopsis his teacher gave him. The synopsis was way more interesting than the actual book. That book has an interesting plot, if you can find it through all the wordiness.

Amber - finished her social studies project exactly 15 minutes before 7:00 on Halloween. I told her if she wasn't done by 7:00 she couldn't go trick-or-treating. I was glad when she finally got done. She did a book about 10 ancient Greek gods/goddesses. I really liked her picture of Artemis. She drew a cute deer and two adorable hunting dogs with little tiny fangs. I want her to draw me a picture like that.

Cameron and Jarom were nice enough to take Amber trick-or-treating. I guess Amber didn't line up any friends to go with because she wasn't sure she was going. I was glad it snowed Tuesday instead of Halloween. The weather on Halloween was warmer than I thought it would be. We got about 130 trick-or-treaters. About 100 people came between 6:30 and 7:30, then it died out.

Me - I got my first assignment for ICL done and mailed in. I also entered a story in their Fantasy/Folktale contest. We'll see what comes of it. I'm starting to work on the second assignment now. It's amazing everything I didn't know about writing. The good thing is, I'm writing again. Considering I hadn't really written for a year and a half, that's amazing.

Wednesday wasn't my greatest day. I locked myself out of the office and Joe didn't have his cell phone, so there was no way to reach him. When I went home for lunch I tripped on the back step and banged up my knee. (My knee is ok, I only got a bruise, thank goodness!) Joe didn't get my message on his phone until 6:00. He told me later that he kept calling the office from patients' homes. When I didn't answer after repeated calls, he thought, "Oh, no, Heidi's quit!" I didn't quit and luckily he wasn't mad at me. I went in Thursday morning and finished up what I didn't get to Wednesday. It all worked out...

My work had a dinner Thursday night, so I got to meet Melissa and Steph for the first time. I met Donna when I worked at MSC, but I only vaguely remembered her. Of course, I already knew Joe. What a fun group of people! It was nice to be able to talk to all of them.

Well, I think I'm going to bed!

Curiouser and Curiouser

2009-11-06T15:02:00.004-07:00

I wrote this a week ago, it's taken me that long to post it. I've probably told most of you about it by now, but I thought it would make an interesting post anyway:

Yesterday I got a phone call at home from Gary Graves. Right out of the blue. I thought it was really weird he was calling me. When I left MSC, he basically shooed me out door, never told me "Thank you for the 3 years you worked here." Nothing.

Then he tries to make small talk and pretend he cares what I'm up to, like he's my friend or something: "So, is there anything new happening in your life?"
"No."
From there he was all business. "I was wondering if you would like to come back and work for me a few hours a week."
Silence on my part.
"I'd pay you $15 an hour."
Really, I think. Funny how you wouldn't give me a raise above $10 an hour for 2 1/2 years. He wouldn't even give Georgia or Lisa a raise the entire time I worked there. Or even after I left.
"I'm not sure. I'd have to think about it."
"OK. I'd really appreciate it if you would."
Yeah, whatever.
So I thought about it over night and talked to David about it. He said, "You should tell him you'll go back Stratton never works there again."
I thought that was a good plan until I realized I'd still have to deal with Gary and Sue. Ack! What was I thinking? Why did I even say I'd think about it? Because $15 an hour is a lot of money to me right now. But enough to get me to go back? Nope.

Today I called Gary to tell him my answer. I got his voicemail. I left a nice little message. "Thanks for thinking of me, but 25 hours a week is all I want to work right now and I already have that."
And I think that's the end of it. Whew! I don't have to talk to Gary again after all.

Then Gary calls me back.
"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. Your answer may still be the same, but let me clarify what I wanted. I don't want you to work for me on a permanent basis. Just for 2 or 3 days until I can hire someone else. It would really help me out if you could answer the phones while I did interviews and then passed along some of your knowledge when I do hire someone."
I thought about it for a few seconds, then told him, "The answer is still the same."
"Oh. Okay. Good-bye," and he hangs up. No "thanks for getting back to me" or anything. But, what did I expect? This IS Gary Graves we're talking about.
"Jerk!" I say after I hang up the phone.

If he's worked himself into a corner by mistreating all of his employees, then let him deal with it! I'm so glad I don't ever have to go back there again! Good Riddance!

Glad It's Over...

2009-10-17T20:12:00.004-06:00

I went to volleyball for 4 hours this morning. Glad volleyball's over with for October. I even tried a few serves this morning to see if I could get them over the net. I got about half of them over, which, for me, is good.

I signed up for the Institute of Children's Literature, hoping to get over my writer's block that has lasted almost 2 years. (Sad, huh?) The good news is, I'm writing again. Yay! I wrote 2 stories over the past week. Now I just have to decide which one to mail in for my assignment. I've had several people read both stories and vote for the one they liked best. As of now, the vote is split. I'm undecided. I guess I'm gonna have to decide soon. It's due this Wednesday!

In other news, here's what's going on with the rest of the crew:

David - has started writing a book. It's amazing, really. I never in my wildest dreams thought he'd write a book. He started just a couple of weeks ago and already has almost 3 notebooks filled. I think the note books are only about 40 pages each, but still, that's alot of writing. He says the book "Rell" that one of the members of our Stake wrote is what inspired him to start writing.

Meagan - can almost open her mouth wide. At least she's not complaining about pain so much and she's off the lortab. She seems to be doing well in school. I don't know because I can't check her grades, but she's in college now, so that's up to her. This semester she's taking Biology, Chemistry, College Algebra and Social Dance. Her favorite class is Social Dance.

Meagan is such a trooper that she didn't miss any classes - even the Algebra class they cancelled the Monday after she had her teeth pulled. She wasn't so happy they didn't tell her about that and she went all the way out to the airport for nothing.

Cameron - is his classroom encyclopedia. Whenever the teacher wants a definition, he asks Cameron. He told me that one day his Biology teacher asked them why they should be studying Chemistry and Physics along with Biology. His teacher liked Cameron's answer so well he asked Cameron if he wanted to teach the class. I keep telling Cameron he needs to be a professor. I can imagine that - especially if he were an English professor.

Jarom - has been reading "A Tale of Two Cities." I tried reading that book and could not make it all the way through. I told Jarom's teacher that and she said it's only because I didn't try hard enough. I think it's because it was sooooo boring! As of midterm, Jarom was doing the best in the class on the quizzes, so I guess he's doing better with the book than I did. Jarom's also been drawing some very nice pictures. He is quite the artist.

Amber - is supposed to be making a picture book about Roman gods and goddesses for her social studies project. She's really been dragging her feet. Last Sunday she made a Halloween diorama out of clay in about an hour. It was really cute - ghosts, a scary tree, headstones, a werewolf and a skeleton. I'm thinking she may have to switch her social studies project to making a diorama.

Jetta - is hanging out. Probably wishing the Mitchells would come back and visit her. She loves them. Other than that, she's been following me around the house and occasionally sniffing the cat. For the most part she leaves him alone. I'm glad because she used to harrass him.

Thor - keeps jumping in and out of window sills. It's probably not the best for his leg, but I don't know how to make him stop without keeping him in his cage forever and that just seems too mean. Now that Jetta's leaving him alone, we need to call the vet and make an appointment to get the pin out of his leg.

Sore Mouths and Stuff

2009-10-11T20:42:00.004-06:00

Meagan's mouth is almost healed now. She can chew on soft things. Jarom just got his braces tightened on Friday, so now he can't eat much. My poor kids. Meagan has a friend who got his wisdom teeth out about the same time she did. He tried eating a piece of roast beef the day after he got his teeth out and got an infection. I'm glad Meagan didn't do that!

Amber made a Halloween diorama out of clay this morning. It was cute. It had ghosts and headstones and a haunted tree. Maybe I'll have to take a picture of it and post it. Have I ever posted a picture on my blog before? I don't think so.

Well, my computer time is almost up, so I'll have to say goodbye! BTW - thank you, Becky, for bringing pumpkin whip to my ailing chillins. They loved it! And Jetta still loves Ray, of course.

Wow, it's been like a month...

2009-10-03T19:51:00.007-06:00

David talked me in to signing up for Pet Society, which I thought I would NEVER play and I've kinda become addicted to it...so that's where most of my computer time has gone. That's why I refuse to sign up for anymore games on facebook. Now that we've made up a schedule, I only get about an hour a day on the computer. Meagan and I are sad that we no longer have free reign of the computer. A good computer and high speed internet have attracted the rest of the family to spend much more time on the computer. Oh, well.

Thor is actually out of his cage now. It's pretty weird. Our biggest concern is him sneaking outside, which he does every chance he gets. The vet will probably be taking the pin out of Thor's leg in a couple of weeks and we'll see where it goes from there. Thor is limping a little bit now, but I think it's because he's walking more. He was in a cage for 2 1/2 months, which is a long time for a wild little kitty.

Meagan survived getting all 4 wisdom teeth pulled. They were all still pretty deep in the bone, so she's had quite a bit of pain. I think things are starting to get a little bit better.
Saturday morning she said, "I hate David."
I'm like, "What? Which David?"
"Uncle David," she replied.
"Oh, yeah, I said. "Would you like some potato chips?"
"No!"

Uncle David had no problem getting his wisdom teeth pulled and was eating potato chips the next day. Meagan is still eating mush. Poor Meagie. I hope she survives school tomorrow.

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-08T12:12:00.004-06:00

Sunday we went to Matthew's blessing. It was nice. We went to a park afterward and ate lunch. There was actually quite a bit I could eat. Shocking. The weather was perfect and it was nice to visit with family. Matthew was very cute. He sure is a sleepy baby. It's only the second time I've seen him since he was born.

We went to the canyon with David's family yesterday. The picnic areas were not so crowded, but the parking sure was. We were lucky David has a handicapped parking tag or I don't know where we would have parked. Kailien had to park in a non-parking spot and move when someone left. Everyone cleared out from breakfast about 11:00 am and about noon a bunch of people started showing up for lunch.

It was nice even though it was a little crowded. The picnic tables are far enough apart that nobody really bothered anybody else. We left about 1:00 pm and I hated to go. It's so pretty in the canyon.

At least this time we didn't have a ton of sugar! We had pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon and fruit salad. All I could eat was the eggs and fruit. At least I could eat that! I thought about taking up stuff for gf pancakes, but it seemed like too much of a hassle, so I ate a piece of toast before I left home. It worked.

If you want to see pictures of it, Meagan has some posted on facebook. We had a huge fire for a while. After it died down, Cameron and James poured water on it ashes spewed all over us like we were by a volcano. That was fun.

I was so confused yesterday. On the way home I was thinking, "Now we need to go put flowers on the graves. Oh, wait, wrong holiday." Not that we got around to it on Memorial Day. Maybe we should have yesterday.

Maybe my side of the family can go to the canyon on a Saturday morning later this month. I just gotta figure out when I have volleyball and when I don't. I think the last Saturday will work.

Meagan got up this morning thinking she had class at 9:00 am. Nope, it starts at 1:00 pm. Maybe I shouldn't have pointed it out to her? She would have been hanging around at the campus for a while, wondering where everyone in her class was.

Kitty Update

2009-09-01T11:51:00.002-06:00

David and I took Thor to the vet this morning, hoping his leg would be healed enough that we could let him out of his cage. The vet said the cat's leg is healing pretty well, but he'd leave the cat in the cage another month or two. He said, "Of all animals, cats do the best in cages. Cats don't like to move around if they don't have to. Some cats live quite happily in cages their entire lives."

The vet wants us to keep Thor in his cage for another month or two. He has another appointment on Sept. 29. Poor kitty. He looks so bored. He was doing flips in his cage again last night. I guess he can live in his cage another month or two. Better to err on the side of caution...

Back to School Again

2009-08-31T09:17:00.004-06:00

All the kids have started school and we are kind of getting back into a rhythm again. I got to go to the Jr. High with Jarom on Wednesday morning to change him to Mrs. McBeth's for advisory so he can be in Jazz Band again and see why he didn't get into French 2, like he wanted. He got moved into Jazz Band, but French 2 didn't work. He would have had to trade it with either a Quest class or Geometry and he didn't want to do that. I guess he'll have to take French 2 next year.

It's a good thing we went on Wednesday morning, because he got really sick that night and threw up several times. He didn't go to school on Thursday or Friday. By Friday afternoon he was feeling better. He thinks it may have been something he ate, but I didn't ask him what he thought it was.

Cameron is taking 3-D animation and pottery at the High School and likes those. I guess he likes his other classes, too? David said Cameron came home from school the first day and told him, "I hate English. I'm going to have a TON of homework in that class." I don't doubt it. That's the class he had to read a book and write 3 essays for over the summer that were due the first day of school. The book he had to read wasn't too bad. It was "My Antonia" by Willa Cather. I finished reading it Saturday night. It was a classic that wasn't terribly depressing. And it even kind of sort of had a happy ending. Amazing. I'd hear of Willa Cather before, but never read anything by her before.

Amber gets to get a ride home with her friend Kyleen every Monday and Wednesday because Meagan has the car at school and I work both those days. I'm glad Kyleen's mom is willing to help out. I don't like the idea of Amber walking a mile and a half home all by herself. Amber hasn't had any homework that I've seen. I think I'm going to have to start checking grades online to make sure she's doing her work and turning it in.

We got a flyer from the Elementary School urging the kids to walk to school more safely. According to the flyer, Amber is half a block outside of the boundaries. David made a big deal about it, but I told him I'm not going to worry about it. If they really wanted Amber going to a different school, they wouldn't have assigned her a teacher at her current school. Besides that, she's in 6th Grade, so it's her last year there anyway! Meagan said, "But I had to change schools my last year of Elementary School!" I said, "That's true, but they told us about it long before school started." "That's true," she conceded.

Meagan's first day of college was last Wednesday. She came home from school and said, "It was long and boring." She did kind of spread her classes out, but she's got to go from the main campus to the airport campus and back again, so she needed a little extra time to do that. Plus, she was lucky to get the classes she needed, by the time she finally figured out what classes to take. I'm glad that's over with! I'm sure she is too.

September is going to be a busy month. We're in charge a Stake YM/YW Activity this Thursday, YW Volleyball starts next week and I'm in charge of Standards Night on September 20. I get to make invitations and flyers and such. At least Cindy will be helping with refreshments and I guess Jen will do decorations. I need to remember to ask Mary Ann if she'll do the music. Alot more stuff goes into these things than meets the eye, that's for sure!

Whew!

2009-08-19T09:21:00.003-06:00

Meagan, Amber and I had a long day yesterday. First, we started out talking to Meagan's counselor at school. She told us Meagan should take Math 1050 or she'd have to take the math test again in a year and hope she passed again. If she took Math 1050, she wouldn't have to take math again, even if she decided to get a Bachelor's degree eventually. She also told us Meagan should take Chemistry 1010, not Chemistry 1110. Apparently Chem 1110 is a really hard class. So that totally changed Meagan's schedule, which we thought was pretty much set for this semester.

Then, we went to the main campus and Meagan got her *FREE* student bus pass. I wish they'd had free student bus passes when I went to school. We couldn't get the parking permit because we kinda forgot to take the suburban registration... Guess we'll do that Thursday morning.

We also checked out textbooks. If Meagan had to buy all her textbooks new it would cost about $600. That's about half of her tuition and fees!!! Man, textbooks are expensive.

We were going to go meet with the research company about Meagan's wisdom teeth right after that, but I kinda forgot to tell her that, so we had to go home and get the address. At least it gave us enough time to grab something quick to eat.

Then we went to the research company and had to read through 2 research studies, which took about 2 hours, by the time their staff consulted with us. The first research study required Meagan to have an iv in her arm for 24-30 hours and that kind of freaked her out. The consultant was nice and found Meagan a study where she'd just have to wear a monitor that was similar to a wrist watch, no iv. That made Meagan SOOOO much happier. Then we found out they didn't have any Friday openings until Sept, so we're going to have to go back for her screening on Sept. 1. At least we'll save lots of money by not having to pay an oral surgeon to extract her wisdom teeth, plus she'll get paid for her time... so I guess it's worth it.

Meagan's friend Brianna and her sister had their wisdom teeth pulled out by the same company and were pleased with the results, so that makes Meagan and me feel better about going to a research company for this...

Anyway, we got home and were able to trade Meagan's schedule around to the classes her counselor recommended. I was relieved, until I realized, right after Meagan left for work that her new schedule wasn't going to work with having her wisdom teeth pulled out! Ack!

After Meagan got back home, we went back to the drawing board and moved her schedule around for, oh, I don't know, the tenth time? We got it to where she'll only miss one biology lecture when she gets her teeth pulled. AND, even better, all of her classes except one are now at the main campus! Yay! Before, they were all over the place. I swear, every class was at a different campus, which was rather unnerving.

So, Meagan and I are both relieved and I am just about ready to hand the college reigns over to Meagan. Maybe I should have from the start, but she seemed to need and appreciate the help, so I helped her. I did tell Cameron that he HAS to decide which college, if any, he is going to by the end of the third quarter of his senior year! He looked at me kind of weird and said, "Okay."

The one thing I did learn from all of this is I'm probably not as stupid at chemistry as I thought I was, I just took too hard of a class in college. No wonder I was so lost. I'm glad Meagan's taking the easier chemistry class first.

School is Almost Here Again

2009-08-16T20:42:00.005-06:00

Thank goodness Meagan is almost ready to go back. This college thing has been a little hard for her to grasp. Hopefully after the first semester she'll have it down and she can do it on her own. I've spent a lot of time helping her figure out grants, schedules, etc. We're almost there...

I strongly encouraged Meagan to go take the math placement test last Monday. She was glad she did. Hoping to do well enough to make it into Math 1010, she exceeded our expectations and tested out of it! Wow, Meagan is pretty smart.

Today I overheard Jarom tell Cameron he was a little bit excited to go back to school. "Well, just so I can see my friends, mostly," he told Cameron. Cameron and Jarom both have their schedules now. They both got what they asked for, so that's good. Jarom got Mr. Owen, who is the best math teacher at the jr. high. I was so excited when I saw that, I did a happy dance right there in the kitchen. Meagan had Mr. Owen twice. She had an awful pre-algebra teacher in 7th grade and almost failed it. She got Mr. Owen for algebra and geometry and got straight A's.

Amber is starting 6th grade this year. David and I have one kid in elementary, one in jr. high, one in high school and one in college. Wow. This is going to be quite the year.

Thor is getting better, I guess. We've pretty much kept him in his cage the last 2 weeks. Every once in a while the kids aren't fast enough moving him from cage to cage and he escapes and runs around the house. They catch him pretty quickly. He has calmed down enough that we don't have to give him tranquilizers all the time.

Last Tuesday our family finally made it up to the canyon. I've been wanting to go all summer. It was fun. We roasted hotdogs and made s'mores and dutch oven chicken. We left the potatoes at home on a kitchen chair, so we had chicken and carrots with biscuits on top, with no potatoes. The biscuits never really browned, but they did get done. Jarom said they were his favorite part.

We attempted a dutch oven apple cobbler, but put it on the coals too late, so we had to finish cooking it at home in the oven. We had banana boats, too. And Cameron brought up a box of 24 fat boy ice cream sandwiches. We way over-sugared ourselves. Next time we're only taking up ONE dessert, not four! And, if we do another dutch oven cobbler, we'll know to put it on the coals at the same time as we do the main dish.

We didn't have enough time to hike, but we did walk around the picnic area. Amber and I waded in the creek, in Quintin's honor. He told me last summer that he liked to go up to that canyon and soak his feet in the cold water. I swear he was still a little kid at the age of 78. Even in August the water is ice cold. Cameron managed to fall in the water, but didn't seem to mind much. It was still pretty warm in the sun.

I love being up in the forest "away" from civilization. A tree squirrel smelled our dutch oven chicken and came sniffing into our picnic area. She hopped up on one of the picnic tables trying to figure out where the food smell was coming from. She even climbed onto the fire pit and sniffed. She finally realized the food was too hot to get to and ran away. Cameron felt pity on her a tossed her a slice of bread, which she promptly grabbed and ran away with.

I doubt we'll make it to the canyon again this summer, but at least we made it once. Maybe Labor Day weekend?

Thor-Thor Wild Cat Visits the Vet

2009-08-04T11:43:00.003-06:00

So, we took Thor to the vet for his 2 week check-up. The vet said that Thor's leg seems to be healing fine, but was alarmed to know we had let Thor out of his cage and he has been jumping around the house. "That could re-break his leg!" the vet emphasized. Oops...

Then we explained to the vet WHY we had let the cat out of his cage. The cat kept meowing incessantly and would not stop. Like for HOURS on end. Then he started climbing on the gate of his cage and falling on his head. We figured that couldn't be good for him - or his leg. So at first we just let him out to wander around in the basement with a gate up. That was ok for a couple of days. Then he tried to jump the gate - and succeeded a few times. Then we tried putting up two gates. Then the cat tried climbing or jumping them.

Finally we just gave up and let him go upstairs. Then he started jumping onto the window sills. This morning he tried jumping onto the bathroom window sill and biffed it. I didn't see it, but I heard it. Trying to keep a wild cat down is not easy. He also kept trying to sneak outside. He made it a couple of times, but luckily we were able to catch him. He's getting faster, though, so it's not so easy to catch him. Except for Meagan, that Thor loves so much he'll just walk right up to her...

The vet said he could put a splint on the cat's leg, but most cats don't do well with splints. Some of them try to chew the splint off and they're a hassle and cats hate them. Thor would not do well with a splint, he hated his stitches so much he chewed them out himself a few days after his surgery. The vet said the cat HAD to stay in a cage for the next month with no chance of getting out. I asked him if we could get some tranquilizers for the cat. He thought about it and agreed. His assistant gave Thor a tranquilizer and gave us a bottle with few to take home.

All the way home, Thor meowed and meowed in his pet carrier. He was not a happy cat. Thor got the tranquilizer at 10:45 and finally at 11:15 it kicked in. I was so happy!!! Maybe we can keep him in his cage for the next month or two without either him or us going crazy!

YW Camp

2009-08-01T13:42:00.006-06:00

Well, Meagie and I survived camp. It was fun, but it was alot of work. Now I remember why we don't go camping - well, that and David's whole oxygen thing.

Meagan and I didn't leave home until about 11:30 on Tuesday. I felt really sick Monday night when I was going to pack. I laid on the bed and moaned felt horrible and wondered if I was going to make it to camp. Luckily, after saying lots of prayers, David giving me a blessing and taking some vitaminerals Nox, I felt well enough to go by Tuesday morning. Then I had to pack.

It was a good thing I had Meagan along as a navigator. I didn't get lost even once going up to the campground. That is unusual for me.

The first day was the Stake Day where all the girls in the Stake play games and eat dinner together. Sherry, our Stake Camp Director, really goes all out for camp every year and the rest of us just follow her lead. Our theme this year was B.U.G.S. (building up gospel standards - and enjoy the journey). The games we played were the Bug Olympics. There were 8 different events - the grasshopper jump, dirt and worm eating contest, a bee relay, metamorphosis, fly swatting . . . I can't remember them all.

I helped set that up for a while, then I helped Cindy (the Stake YW Pres) decorate cakes for dinner. Dinner was an "Ant Picnic" so we were trying to make several little ants on each cake, but they looked more like spiders, so we started doing one big ant on each cake. It was not my best work ever, but it was passable, I guess. Several of the YW tried piping ants on the cakes and said, "Wow,this is harder than I thought."

Tuesday night was relatively warm and I didn't freeze while I was sleeping, which was very nice. This year I took a big flannel lined sleeping bag instead of a little nylon one. Sleeping bags are hard to roll over in, even for me, and I'm not that big. I like sleeping in a bed with blankets and sheets much better. I went to bed at about 9:30 pm on Tuesday because I was exhausted.

Wednesday I went with 3 other Stake Leaders to Heber City to get some ice, etc. There was a hail storm in camp while we were gone. Meagan took a photo of the hail stones. Maybe she'll post it.

After that, I mostly sat around wondering what to do with myself until Sherry needed some help setting up the spiritual hike. Me, Sean (the YW 2nd Counselor's husband) and two girls from my ward that got in trouble for pulling a prank went to help set up. The hike was based on Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life, so we built an "iron" rod in the woods that led to the tree of life. We were late getting back for dinner - and I'm the one who did the meal assignments. We were really bad at getting to any of the meals on time.

Wednesday night I stayed up with the Stake and Youth Leaders and ate lots of stuff I shouldn't have (mostly sugar!) and went to bed about 11:30 pm. It was alot colder - my feet never did get warm, but I slept pretty well in spite of it. I had several strange dreams, like David and I driving our car around the inside of the fitness center and something about panhandling and how the laws had changed. It looked more like NYC than my city.

Thursday after breakfast, I packed up all my camping gear so I would be ready to go home after the spiritual hike and not have to pack in the dark. After that, it was mostly finishing setting up the spiritual hike. At one point I almost felt like I had heat stroke. That, and I really regretted the 2 pieces of bacon I had for breakfast. It tasted good, but I didn't feel so good. Maybe I'm supposed to go kosher? After sitting in the shade for a while and drinking some propel water, I felt better.

We got finished just in time to go back and eat dinner with our wards. Our ward had pulled pork (yay, more non-kosher food!), funeral potatoes, green beans and dutch oven cobbler. Technically the only thing I could really eat was the green beans, but I ate some of the other stuff anyway. It tasted good.

I walked over to East Camp, where the spiritual hike was, by myself. I somehow got to be in charge of running the ipod at the end of the hike by the "tree of life." It was a song Sherry found about Lehi's dream, which was fitting, but the song was really long - almost 5 minutes. Between that and technical difficulties with the ipod, alot of groups got backed up and had to wait for a while. The "fruit" on the tree of life was little temples made out of clear beads. Several of the leaders (not me) spent hours making them by hand. The tree looked pretty cool with little bead temples and white flowers and clear Christmas lights on it. Until the converter box connected to Sherry's van started sparking and burst in to flame. Luckily Sherry was standing there at the moment, so she got it stopped, but that was the end of the lights and music. There was only 1 1/2 wards left, so we almost made it. I think it turned out okay in spite of it all.

After that, I went back to camp and headed home. It was already 9:30, so it was dark. I only made 2 small wrong turns and made it home by 11:00. Driving down Parley's Canyon at night reminded me of playing Mario Karts - Bowser's Castle specifically. I kept expecting a stone column to stomp me. At least there were no flames. I was thinking - Meagan would be good at this - she's better than me at Mario Karts.

I was glad to get home and see my family. The house was still messy, but what was I expecting, really? At least everyone was ok. I didn't go to bed until about 1:00 am because I stayed up talking to David.

Yesterday morning I got to go back to work and it was very busy, thanks to me taking Wednesday off. I'm tired today and haven't done much. Thor is a little happier today because we let him come upstairs. He still wants to go outside, but that's not going to happen for a while.

Thor and More

2009-07-21T12:58:00.005-06:00

Last Friday David called me at work and said he found Thor limping across the backyard very slowly. It took Thor two or three minutes to make it half way across the backyard. Thor got mad and howled at anyone who touched him because he was in so much pain. David and the kids took Thor to the vet. The vet said he had a broken leg, a fever of 104 degrees and was dehydrated.

The vet kept him Friday night. I went in Saturday morning to talk to the vet about Thor while everyone else went to the Youth Parade. The vet said he thought a dog had attacked Thor and broken his leg, because there were a couple of puncture wounds on his leg. Thor's high fever, injury and dehydration on Friday made the vet wonder if he was going to make it through the night. Thor's fever had gone down by Saturday morning and he was re-hydrated, so the vet said his prognosis was good. Thor is a tough little cat.

The vet showed me Thor's x-ray. He had a compound fracture in his leg. He needed surgery to get a couple of pins put in his leg bones so they would heal correctly. Luckily, his nerves were not damaged or his leg may have had to be amputated. I saw Thor for a couple of minutes. I've never seen him as still as he was at the vet's that morning.

Yesterday the vet operated on Thor and we got to bring him home. His left leg has almost all the fur shaved off of it and it looks quite pitiful. Thor is sleeping now in a kennel Kailien loaned us. It's fairly big, but not really big enough to fit his "bed" (Cameron's pillow) hedgebe...i want food whoever's reading my mom's blog..now mom's gonna get mad at me.. Amber is apparently helping me with my blog. You'd think I never feed her! Just because she didn't want any puffy oven pancake this morning! Oh, I guess she did have some. Maybe it's time to feed her again. She wants to go to Holiday Oil and spend her birthday money on junk food. She can get a slushy with two bucks, she just told me.

OK, now that that's over, the kennel isn't really big enough to fit a cat bed, a litter box and some food and water. I checked on Thor earlier and he was sticking his neck in his water. I moved him around so his head wouldn't be by his water and he moved right back to where he was before. Oh well. This morning I took him out of his kennel to give him his anti-biotics and he hopped right back into the kennel as soon as I let him go. This is strange behavior for a "jungle cat".

Well, I've gotta go clean. That's what we've been doing for the past week. I think we're all tired of it, but we're still not done. We moved Cameron and Jarom upstairs and Amber downstairs. Holly and Gary were nice enough to give us a bunk bed they weren't using anymore. It's in MUCH better shape than their old one that had been modified to fit in the basement. The downstairs ceiling is not tall enough for a regular bunk bed, so we moved the boys upstairs. Amber's room was very, very dirty. Moving her was a project and a half! Her new room is much cleaner, since she got rid of quite a bit of stuff.

The day after we set up the "new" bunkbed for Cameron and Jarom, our airconditioner went out. David overheard Jarom telling Cameron, "Why did mom and dad move us up to this inferno?"

Luckily, this morning the bishop came over to go to the temple with David and got the a/c running again in just a few minutes. After 4 days of living in a sauna (the highs have been around 98 degrees outside), we are very, very, very happy! Jetta's happy, too. She's no longer having to do her kundalini yoga "breath of fire" so she can stand the heat. It's a good thing she got her fur shaved off before the a/c went out. David and I think getting insulation blown into the outer walls of the house would be a good idea...

Okay, I'm going now...

Shiny New Computer and High Speed Internet!!!!

2009-07-07T16:37:00.003-06:00

Woo Hoo! I have a nifty new computer and 7mbps high speed internet and it's all up and running now. That's about it for now, because I have promised Amber for a while that she can get on the internet. She has been waiting for days.

Poor Meagan has been languishing because she hasn't been able to get on the internet. I guess I should go call that dial up internet company and cancel with them before I forget. The really good thing about them was that they only charged $4.95/month. Can you believe it? The bad thing was that it tied up my phone line and it was so slow it wouldn't let me download anything. It would freeze up after a minute or two. I can't even imagine how it will be to be able to watch you tube now. Before it was sooo slow. So, yeah, I'm excited!

Oh, yeah, thanks David, for building my computer! It was fun, wasn't it? I've decided it's complicated enough just hooking the thing up once it's built and getting the internet running on it. I don't think I'll take up computer building any time soon.

My Son, The Contortionist, and Other Stories

2009-06-25T22:31:00.003-06:00

The other day only Cameron, Jarom and I were home. Cameron and Jarom kept hiding from each other. I went into the upstairs bathroom. I knew Jarom was hiding in there somewhere. I thought he was in the shower. I opened the door and no Jarom. Where on earth could he be? There aren’t that many places to hide in the bathroom – it’s not that big. So, I start opening the cupboard doors. He’s hiding in the towel cupboard, which is about 4 feet off the ground and not very big. He had contorted his 5’8” frame into the tiny cupboard.

“I didn’t know you fit in there,” I told him.
“Not as well as I used to,” was his response.
“I take it that’s not the first time you’ve been in there,” I said.
“Yeah.”

All these years and I never knew. Of course, I couldn’t say much because there was a time in my life that I thought the funnest thing in the whole world was swinging from the rod in my closet. Yeah, I don’t know if my parents ever knew that. At least I wasn’t very big (maybe 5 years old?) and the rod was pretty strong. I also liked to clear out everything in my closet and “camp out” in it. I guess Jarom and I ARE a lot alike.

David is doing better every day, but still tired. He told me this morning, “My energy level drops about 3 or 4 times a day – it used to drop only about once or twice a day.”
“You’re still getting over being very sick!” I told him.
Oh, yeah, I guess he forgot about that.

Meagan found out that she got a Pell Grant so she can start college in the fall. Yay! I guess now she just needs to sign up for classes. They wouldn’t tell her the amount of the grant over the phone, just that she got one. It’s a relief. I just heard the door open, I think Meagan just got home from bowling with her friends.

Cameron, Jarom, Amber and David went out to Bountiful with me today. They played D&D with David (confusing, I know) while I muscle tested with Sheri. Then David guided me through buying components for a new computer. I’m so excited! We’re going to have a decent computer that will actually be worth getting high speed internet on. Woo hoo!

Meagan is very sad that MJ died today. Poor Mikey. Meagan and I have been reading articles about him on the internet. Michael Jackson is one of Meagie’s favorites. He is pretty good. Better than a lot of stuff that’s out there. His music and videos hold up amazingly well even years later.

David Update

2009-06-19T23:56:00.006-06:00

The day after Meagan's graduation, David started feeling sick. Maybe Cameron gave it to him? Maybe it was all the stress of his little girl growing up? Who knows. For just over a week, he moped around home, feeling sick. I took him to two different doctors and they each gave him a prescription for anti-biotics (my favorite!). The first doctor said it was bronchitis. The second said it was pneumonia. He also said that David eating grapefruit made the first anti-biotic not work. That was probably the first time this year David had eaten grapefruit. Anyway, for whatever reason, the bronchitis progressed to pneumonia.

Finally, I took David to the ER on Sunday morning because he just wasn't getting better. Sunday morning must be a good time to go to the ER. We didn't even have to wait. They took David right in. There was NOBODY in the waiting room, which, if you've ever been to the ER before, is amazing. The ER doctors said they didn't know anything about grapefruit rendering that particular anti-biotic invalid, but perhaps it was possible. They ran lots and lots of tests on him and decided to check him in to the hospital. We figured as much. David packed a hospital bag before we left.

I hung around the hospital until Sunday evening, then came home and soaked in the tub. I went to work half a day on Monday, then went back to the hospital. The official diagnosis was that David had pneumonia, influenza A and a fungus growing at the back of his throat. Like our neighbor said, "Hey, if you're going to get sick, you might as well get it all over with at once." He ought to know. He's been in and out of the hospital a lot the past few months between surgeries and recovery. They gave David the same drug they've been giving the patients with swine flu, even though he never tested positive for it. I guess they've had enough false negatives, they're being overly cautious now?

I hung out at the hospital for several hours on Monday, then decided I should go home and see what the kids were up to. Meagan started her externship with Dr. Ferre the Monday after school got out, so I've been getting her up early most weekday mornings. She's worked there 5 days now, I believe, so she's about 1/3 of the way done. I got to wear a mask my entire time at the hospital on Monday. That was fun. I hate masks. Meagan did not feel sorry for me. "I've been wearing one at work all day," she told me. "You get used to it." I guess I didn't wear one long enough to get used to it. It was really annoying when I had it adjusted wrong and it steamed up my glasses.

Tuesday I didn't have to work, but I stalled going to the hospital because I didn't want to wear a mask again. Turns out, I didn't have to! When I got there at about 1:00 pm, David greeted me with, "You should have been here an hour ago, they were going to let me check out!" Of course, checking out of a hospital is never a quick and easy prospect. Even when they say, "Oh, sure, you can check out now," it still takes a few hours. At least David got to eat lunch at the hospital. I knew he was getting better when he was complaining about being hungry and bored. We spent most of Tuesday afternoon looking out the window at the cars, people and the helicopter moving around the hospital parking lot. David was on the 8th floor, so he had a good view.

Tom, the nurse who checked him out of the hospital reminded me of Christopher. When he came in to take out David's iv, he had 2 rolls of coflex. "Which color do you want, bright green or bright pink?" "It doesn't matter," David replied. Tom came over with the pink coflex and a big smile. "Of course you chose the pink," I told him. "It's funner that way!" he said. Yup. I can see Pherphy doing that.

I think David's favorite person in the hospital was Natalie. She was his CNA Tuesday night. The dinner they gave him was not very big and he was starving. He asked her if she could get him a hamburger and fries. "I guess I could go downstairs and get that for you," she said. A half hour later, she was back with a burger and fries and David was very, very happy. Of course, the next day, Tom came in and told David he needs to eat a low-fat, low-sodium diet. I'm not sure he's doing that.

When I checked David out, I had to buy him a bunch of prescriptions. That's when I noticed I'd lost my checkbook. No big deal, I thought, I'm just not looking in the right spot in my purse. So I paid with my credit card. When we got home and I still couldn't find it, I panicked. So did David, because he was starving again and I wouldn't go buy food until I'd found my checkbook. Good news is, I found it. (I even cleaned up the bedroom a bit and took a big box and 3 bags of stuff to the DI. Are you shocked, Sheri?) It took me a couple of hours, but I found it. Tuesday also happened to be Amber's birthday. She didn't get much of a celebration, but we did manage to cook some frozen pizzas and have cake and ice cream.

I'm really glad June is almost over. This has not been my favorite June. I am glad, however, that we are all doing much better now. I may even catch up on my sleep soon!

Meagan, High School Graduate

2009-06-05T22:25:00.006-06:00

I can't believe my cute little Meagan is a High School graduate. She made it! Actually, I knew she would. She is a good student and a very intelligent girl.

We had a family party before her graduation and I ate WAY too much food. It was all really good, but I ate too much! Now I’m eating ginger chews to calm down my stomach. It was fun, though. Most of her aunts and uncles, several of her cousins and her grandparents and adopted grandparents came. It was nice to see everyone.

We left kind of late for her graduation and traffic was crazy. Most of the way it was almost a standstill. I was beginning to think Meagan wasn't going to make it to her own graduation. She was supposed to be there at 6:30 and got there about 6:50. Apparently a lot of graduates made it there after Meagan did, because they were in order of their arrival and Meagan was about the middle of the girls.

We almost didn't find a seat. We had to sit near the front by the curtains. It was a good thing we got seats, because David ran out of oxygen about half way through the program. He did make it home ok. I even backed out the suburban without smashing into any cars in the crowded parking lot. I was soooo proud of myself! Thankfully mom and dad searched for Meagan after graduation and brought her home so I could get David home to some oxygen.

I couldn't believe how many leis some of the Polynesian students had on. One of them, you couldn't even see her face. I told David we'd have to start our own tradition. I'm just not sure what...

Meagan's friend Radley (she had her Dental class with him) gave a very random talk about perserverance. One of the examples he gave was the Black Knight from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." I'm not sure he's really a good example of perserverance, but people did pay attention. Ray would have been proud that he quoted Harvey Dent from "The Dark Knight." Too bad Harvey ends up being a bad guy...

Whew! It's over. Now I can breathe! I have no idea how I'm going to survive my kids’ weddings, mission farewells and so forth. I told David we're hiring a caterer for the weddings...at least we can have the receptions at the church...

Shruberies

2009-06-03T22:55:00.005-06:00

Here's what I've found out about landscaping:

When you go to the nursery (or Home Depot or wherever) to buy plants, make sure you get all the other stuff the plant tag says you'll need at the same time. Like soil amendment, mulch, fertilizer, etc. etc. Otherwise you make lots of trips to the store and it takes forever to get your plants planted. We bought a shrub a week and a half ago that I have yet to get planted. Now that I have everything, I'm going to plant it tomorrow.

I learned something a couple of years ago, too, thanks to Anna. When you plant a new plant, you've got to water it every day for the first summer, or it will die. No wonder the crimson pygmy barberry bushes I planted all died. And the little pine trees. And lots of other stuff.

I like flower bulbs. They're pretty hard to mess up. You don't have to water them every day. The only thing I don't like about bulbs is that they look really pretty for a few weeks, then they die and look bad and weeds grow up and take their place. Ack! That, and you have to dig them up every few years and thin them out.

I'll have to tell you what Bro. Tuia told David and me about growing grass (as in lawn, not drugs) and fertilizing gardens. But that's for another day. Guten nacht!

Sunday Doings: "New" Ward, Seminary Graduation, Cameron's Ordination

2009-06-02T08:42:00.008-06:00

On Sunday our ward got combined with another ward. Now my cousin John and his family are in my ward. We haven't met together yet, that's this coming Sunday. Should be interesting.

We're wondering what's going to happen to our "assigned" seating. We have been sitting in the same pew for years. I wonder if we'll get to keep it? I guess it depends on how early we get to church. Since church is at 9:00 am, there's not much chance of us getting there early. When church was at 1:00 pm we got there about the same time as the organist - about 20 minutes before church started - but now we're lucky if we get there during the opening hymn. Especially on days David has an early morning meeting and I get to herd all the kids out of the house by myself. I'm pretty sure Cameron's not going to get to sit on a pew all by himself anymore. He usually sits on the pew in front of the rest of us.

Meagan graduated from Seminary and Cameron was ordained a priest the same day our wards were combined. It was quite the Sunday. Seminary graduation was good. The Stake President spoke about Joseph Smith going to the grove, thinking the only answer he was going to get was what church to join, not that none of them were true. He also spoke about not leaving the church, because that's where safety is. The CES representative spoke about horseback riding and that living life is going to bring you challenges, but the gospel can help you face those challenges.

Meagan was the only graduate from our ward at the graduation. There was one other graduate from our ward, but she wasn't there. Meagan barely made it through this last year of seminary. There were a couple of girls that sat next to her in seminary that really bothered her. Luckily her teacher changed the seating chart so Meagan could stand to go.

Cameron was ordained a priest under the direction of our brand new bishop. The new bishop (who is from the ward we combined with, so he doesn't really know us) had Cameron go around the room and introduce everybody. Aunt Holly mentioned that whatever you do, don't let Cameron hug you.

After Cameron was ordained, he went around the room and shook hands with or hugged everyone in the room. He hugged our recently released bishop, looked at the new bishop and said, "Oh, why not? I'll give you a hug too." Then he proceeded to hug the bishop, lift him up off the floor and swing him around. The bishop is probably in his 60's, so he's not exactly young. He was a bit surprised, but seems to have survived Cameron's wild hug.

You have to remember that this is the same boy, who, when Meagan was having her Baptism interview with the bishop, blurted out his own answer to, "Do you know what happens when you get baptized?" The question was directed at Meagan, but Cameron answered before she could: "First they take you in the water, then they grab your feet and pull you under..."

The bishop started laughing (this was Bishop Hymas who pinched one of the Wisemen on the bum at our ward Christmas program) and wanted Cameron to continue. I think Cameron was sincere, but with the bishop's reaction, he froze up and wouldn't tell the rest of his answer. I think Meagan was kind of scared. I had to assure her that wasn't really going to happen.

This is also the same Cameron who told me several years ago that the Pilgrims invented the lightbulb. I asked him how they did that. "They went to the beach and got lots of sand. They stuck the sand together with scotch tape and made the very first lightbulb," he replied. Very creative. I miss that boy! (But the Cameron who's around now is pretty entertaining, too. I guess I'll keep him.)

Testing, Testing…

2009-05-23T22:52:00.005-06:00

Meagan took her dental benchmark test and passed on her first try. She was one of only two students at all of GTI this semester that did. Yay, Meagan! (Isn’t she so smart?)

Speaking of tests, Cameron took his driver’s test today and got 90/100, so he passed. I’m a little more scared about that one. OK, Cameron is a pretty good driver, but the whole having 2 teen drivers in the house… ack! (OK, Meagan’s good, too, but still!)

Cameron turns 16 in a couple of hours. Well, technically at 6:50 tomorrow morning. I can't believe it's been that long. I remember it like it was yesterday. There were two big movies in town that had long lines going out into the streets: "Jurassic Park" and "Legacy." I'm pretty sure he was born on a Monday. It was the second (and last) time I took castor oil to induce labor. At least he was only a week late...

Today we spent most of the day digging up part of the front yard. That was fun, let me tell you. We have really heavy clay dirt in our yard, especially when it’s wet. Of course, when it’s dry, it’s like trying to dig through a rock, so somewhat wet is better. We didn’t get nearly as far as I had hoped, but we did make progress. I can’t believe how many flower bulbs and “octopuses” we dug up. Meagan calls daylilies “octopuses” because of the way their roots look.

I asked Jarom if he thought we should be farmers since we are so good at physical labor. He said, “Oh, yeah…” I think that meant, “No.”

Amber has been reading 20 minutes every morning, so she’ll remember to read. It’s been working out better than reading after school.

Amber got to perform with her school's choir at Abravanel Hall on May 5. I’ll have to post pictures as soon as I have Meagan help me figure out how. She has a concert at the elementary school on Thursday May 28 at 6:30 pm if anyone would like to come. That concert is funner than the one at Abravanel Hall because Amber gets to sing a lot more songs, the parking is easier and the concert only lasts about 1/2 hour instead of 2 1/2 hours. Oh yeah, and it's free.

David has started painting again. I came home for lunch one day and saw him painting. I said, “What is it, the end of the world?” It’s been over a year since he last painted. In a way I like it better when he’s not painting. Oil paints are smelly. Maybe that’s why I never got in to them. At least he’s enjoying himself, though.

Cars and Reiki and Jump Rope

2009-05-15T10:30:00.011-06:00

Tomorrow's Senior Ball and Meagan is excited. She's been having trouble getting her friends to decide what they want to do other than go to the dance, but I think they've finally got it figured out. I hope so.I'm pretty sure Meagan's got all of her graduation announcements sent out or delivered. I'll have to check and make sure.

Meagan and her dad found a 1995 Ford Taurus for $500 that Meagan wanted to buy. I told her she needed to talk to her Aunt Becky before she bought a Taurus. We did sit down and figure out about how much it would cost her a month to keep a car on the road. I think she was surprised how expensive owning and operating a car is. That's why I didn't have one until I got married. The bus isn't great, but it is inexpensive...

I went out and muscle tested with Sheri yesterday, like I usually do on Thursdays. It's a lot funner muscle testing with somebody else than doing it on my own. David (brother, not husband) even got in on the action and helped us out a bit. Thank goodness for Sheri and David. I don't know what I'd do without them since Dee's not practicing anymore. Thank goodness we had Dee when we really needed her, though!

David (my brother) is going to start school at SLCC in the fall. I told him maybe he'll be going to SLCC with Meagan. Maybe they could even take a couple of classes together. Wouldn't that be fun!

Amber and I took Jetta for a walk last night. I figured it would be a good way to get a little exercise. I saw Anna and talked to her for about 20 minutes. She says she's been taking intensive Reiki classes and completed 1 of 3 levels. Reiki sounds pretty cool. She's working toward becoming a Reiki Master.

Amber is interested in jump roping lately, she even got Anna and me jumping rope. Anna is better at it than I am. Of course, Anna can jump on a pogo stick, which is something I can't do. Speaking of pogo sticks, did I ever mention that Meagan got to choose a founding father to do a report on a few months ago. Guess who she chose? Alexander Hamilton, of course. I laughed.

Jarom has been swamped with homework. He was up until midnight last night studying. I told him he'll be sad during the summer because he won't have any homework to do. He says he doesn't think he'll miss it.

Cameron is still giving very strong hugs. He hugged me last night and almost knocked the breath out of me. "Oh, did that hurt?" he asked. "I wouldn't make a noise like that if if didn't," I responded. That boy doesn't know his own strength. Either that, or he likes showing it off... At least he'll still hug me, though. I guess I should be grateful for that!

Flew, Floo, Flu

2009-05-03T14:50:00.008-06:00

Today at church, Bro. Davis got up and was talking about swine flu. That got me thinking about the flu epidemic in the early 1900's that Grandma Gambles used to talk about. The one that killed lots of people. I didn't pay much attention to what she said about it, 'cuz hey, it happened forever ago and it wasn't relevant. Bro. Davis said it killed about 50 million people worldwide. Wow. That's a lot.

I was thinking, didn't it happen around the same time as WWI? Bro. Davis said it happened during the 1918-1919 school year. All the schools were closed that year. Grandma must have been about 8 or 9 when the epidemic hit. I wonder what I'd do if my kids had to stay home from school for a year? I bet they'd have everyone take classes online. David would LOVE that!

After Bro. Davis, Bro. McBride got up. Bro. McBride is old. Very old. I was thinking, I bet he was around when that flu epidemic happened. I wonder how old he was?

So, Bro. McBride started talking. He was 4 when the influenza epidemic hit. I guess that would make him 95 this year. His brother and his cousin went to Europe to fight in WWI. They didn't get sick, but they brought influenza home and he caught it. He survived (obviously) but says it must have weakened him because he's been tired ever since. He said, "I think that's the reason I've lived so long. I've been tired my whole life so I've rested alot."

I didn't know the flu spread because of WWI. I guess it makes sense. I have no idea what's going to happen with the Swine Flu outbreak, but I hope it's nothing like the 1918 flu. I think we'll all be OK, if we deal with it properly. Like not panicking and staying as clean, healthy and positive as possible.

Meagan told me she's heard that people said we would get a black President when pigs flew. Then within the first 100 days of Obama's presidency, the swine flu broke out, so it happened: pigs flu! Oh, that's bad, isn't it?...groan...

Babysitting and Such

2009-05-02T22:00:00.004-06:00

Meagan graduates from high school on Friday June 5. So, if she never sends out the nifty graduation announcements we bought, now you know!

Meagan has seemed to handle the Tyler break-up better than I thought she would. She's been hanging out with Brandon - the silly boy that talked her in to signing "Ugly Girl" with him in ASL. I actually got to meet him today. He seems quieter than Tyler, but then I only saw him for about 2 mintues, so who knows. He seems nice enough. Ah, Meagan and her boys...

Last night Amber and I went and watched Dana and Byron so Becky and Ray could go out for Becky's birthday. It seems like I forgot everything I ever learned about being a parent. Well, of small children, at least. I'm sure it would all come back to me, but, wow... I am not so good at baby wrangling anymore. It must have taken me 5 minutes to get Byron's blanket sleeper on him.

Byron and Dana are very cute, but it took a while to get them to go to bed. Not that I'm all that great at getting my own kids to bed. Speaking of which, look at the time! It's already after 10:00. I'm glad Amber went with me to help me entertain the wee ones. She is very helpful.

Cameron and Jarom are downstairs playing Super Smash Brothers. Amber's in the living room with me listening to "Pirates" on the cd player. Meagan is at work. David is in the bedroom. He's probably the only smart one who is going to bed on time. Maybe he has an early morning church meeting tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised.

Down Dog

2009-04-26T21:59:00.007-06:00

Yesterday I spent lots of time with Becky and her cute family. Becky and I went to yoga at 24 Hour Fitness. Man, am I sore today! I wasn't this sore yesterday. I must have done 100 down dogs! I wonder if Becky is sore, too?

Becky, Dana and I went to World Market. I was surprised to discover that they sell mostly furniture. For some reason, I thought they sold mostly food.

Becky and Ray had me watch 3 episodes of "Flapjack and Captain K-nuckles." What a weird show! Kinda gross for little kids. It was silly, but a bit disgusting. I did end up telling the kids about 2 of the episodes today. Meagan and Amber have seen it before, but not the boys.

Becky, Ray, Dana and Byron came over last night to bring David his birthday present. His favorite part was the "plexiglass" toilet candy that Becky bought at World Market. It was a plastic toilet with powdered candy in it and two "plunger" suckers. Silly.

They got here while we were putting together our 72 hour kits. We still don't have everything in them, but at least we found a permanent spot for them and I know what we need to get next.

Jarom, Cameron and Amber played outside with Dana. Meagan was at work, so she missed out. Jarom took the bubble gun he got for Easter outside and blew lots of bubbles for Dana. She was thrilled, except she wanted to be in control of the gun and Jarom wasn't too excited about that. I took Byron out and he liked the bubbles, too. We found out that Thor is terrified of bubbles. That surprised us. He hid under the Suburban for awhile then ran across the street.

Byron had to check out everything in our living room. Fortunately we still have a baby gate, so we were able to keep him in one room. Our living room is now mostly baby proof. I got out the plastic Noah's ark. Byron played with that for awhile. He also had to check out an old glow stick, the bread machine (doesn't everyone have one of those in their living room?), a power strip, all the books and papers on the hall tree, the printer (he figured out how to turn it on), the filing cabinet, David's oxygen...

When we thought we had picked up everything he could possibly stick in his mouth, Byron found a clump of dog fur on the floor, which rather delighted him. He liked the dog, too. So did Dana, Becky and Ray. And Jetta loved them. In fact, she followed them out to the car. When Ray told her to get in the car, she obediently jumped in and took his spot. After we got her out, she jumped back in again. I think Jetta would go live with them, if she could. We would miss her, though!

I guess Meagan and Tyler are officially over after almost 2 years. Poor Meagie. She's tough, though. She'll be ok. Hopefully she waits awhile before she gets another steady boyfriend. A couple of years, I'm thinking.

Mom said that Holly went to the doctor and found out that her liver tumors are actually shrinking. That is awesome! I hope it continues until the tumors are completely gone. I guess fasting and prayer do work. Of course, God does answer prayers in His own way. Sometimes it's in the way we hope for, like this time, it seems.

Food Storage and Polyjuice Potion

2009-04-19T15:16:00.012-06:00

It has been a while since I blogged. It doesn't seem like that long. I have taught both of Amber's primary lessons I promised to. I hope Sister Huff is really coming back now. I know why I am not a primary teacher at the moment. Every other week David has to go to a 7:15 am meeting with the High Council and I get to make sure the kids get up and go to church by myself. True, it's not as difficult as it was when they were little, but they really aren't morning people - except maybe Amber. I wish we had 1:00 church again!

This morning it wouldn't have been so bad, but I had totally forgotten I was teaching primary until I looked at the calendar at about 7:15. If the kids and I had been ready and eaten breakfast, that would have been ok, but I had just barely gotten out of bed. As Sister McCombs pointed out to me later, "It's a good thing you had a calendar to remind you." Yes, it is - at least I did show up to class. I had a few minutes to throw something together - even if we were 15 minutes late for Sacrament Meeting. Hopefully I don't get asked to teach primary again until we have a later church block.

My big thing this week has been organizing the kitchen. I found some web sites about food storage and one of them had a couple of short videos about organizing your kitchen and food storage room so they're easier to use and you actually want to cook. I can use all of that I can get!

I am pretty much done organizing the kitchen, which has been a BIG job. I have driven my family crazy, moving everything around - especially Cameron. I think he's still mad at me. In the long run, I think it will be much better. Our fridge is the cleanest it's been in a long time. Now I've just gotta finish the kitchen and then figure out the food storage room. The hardest part of the food storage room is going to be figuring out exactly what to store, since I can eat hardly anything and Jarom will eat hardly anything.

I found a food storage web site that has a picture of what a year's supply of long-term food storage would be for 1 person, according to LDS church suggestions. It really didn't take up as much space as I thought it would. According to the web site, everything pictured would allow 1 person to eat 1 loaf of bread and 1/3 of a cup of beans a day. Jarom thought the loaf of bread sounded ok, but he wasn't too excited about the beans. Me, I'm not too excited about whole wheat bread. I could do rice and beans, though.

David and I went to Emergency Essentials yesterday to look around. David bought 3 emergency ration bars - the type that are 400 calories with lots of vitamins, some protein and a tiny bit of fiber. Mostly they're white (wheat) flour and shortening with a bit of wheat gluten - yum! David chose three flavors: orange, coconut and vanilla. David and the kids tried the orange flavored bar. David and Amber thought it was all right, Cameron thought it was edible, Jarom said it was slightly better than beans and Meagan ate the corner of her piece and let Amber eat the rest. I guess we won't be stocking up on those. I don't think they're very nutritious anyway. Lightweight and will keep you alive - if you're not allergic to them - but that's about it.

On Friday I decided to be brave and attempt to make a green drink for myself. Sheri and David (brother, not husband) make them all the time. Sheri even made one for me a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty good. The directions Sheri gave me were pretty general, and I think I messed them up.

I think I crammed the spinach into the blender too tightly and didn't add enough frozen fruit. It turned into a very, very green drink, not pink like the one Sheri made me. It was kinda hard to swallow, but I did because it was my breakfast and I didn't have enough time to make another breakfast before work.

On my way out the door, with the cat, my very green drink and all my work stuff in my arms, David asked me, "Who's hair did you add to that?"
I said, "What?" and tried to figure out why he would ask me that.
"Oh, I said, "Because it looks like polyjuice potion?"
"Yes," he said.
"Well, not the cat's," I answered.
"Why not, Hermione did," was his reply.
"Yeah, and she hid in the bathroom all day and wouldn't come out," I said.
"That's true."

The cat did sniff the drink like he was interested in having some of it. I didn't let him. I drank all 3 cups of it and felt kinda sick to my stomach all morning. I think overall, though, it was very healthy for me...

This morning I tried making another green drink that was more similar to what Sheri made me. It was a bit closer, but still rather green. Actually, it was kind of brown - "chocolately" was Meagan's word for it. Amber's wasn't nearly as appetizing. I don't know why I couldn't talk any of the kids into drinking some of it.

The funniest part was when I stopped the blender, took off the lid and a big air bubble blurped up through the green drink. "That's pretty polyjuice-ish," she observed. "Have you been brewing it for a month yet?" I drank the whole thing, again. Maybe the third try will be the charm? After I finished the drink and put a little bit of water in the blender and whirred it around, Jarom came upstairs and said, "Hey, it's a Hulk drink."

Friday night Holly and Katelyn came over and took Cameron, Jarom and Amber to the dollar movie. They saw "Bedtime Stories" with Adam Sandler. They seemed to like it. I was glad I didn't go because I was falling asleep on the couch before they even left our house. Holly brought the boys home and Amber slept over with Katelyn. I can't believe Holly stayed awake that late. She did have to go pick up Gary, though - at about 1:30 am.

A Wii Bit Sore

2009-04-04T17:27:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I felt kind of sore and couldn't figure out why. I think I figured it out - I've done the wii fit twice this week - for about 1-1/2 hours total. I'm not used to working out that much any more. I used to go to the gym three times a week and work for about an hour and 15 minutes each time. Now that I've got to do kinesiology for myself, I don't have as much time to go to the gym. I miss it. I guess the wii fit will have to do for now.

Mostly what we've done today is listen to conference on the radio. We can't get channel 5 on the downstairs tv to work. It does work on the upstairs tv, though. I have enjoyed the talks and music.

David - caught Jarom and Amber's cold. He's in bed sleeping right now. He turned 43 on Wednesday. All 6 of us went bowling on Thursday because that's what David wanted to do for his birthday. We didn't go on Wednesday because I had to work. And I was so exhausted I came home from work, ate a bowl of cereal and crashed on the couch.

I think David had fun. I don't think we've ever gone bowling as a family before. Jarom was upset because he was the only person that didn't get at least one strike. He did get a spare, though.

The nice guy at the counter drilled the holes in David's and my bowling balls bigger for free. David needed one of his holes bigger because he's getting arthritis in his ring finger. I needed mine bigger because I don't think the holes were drilled big enough in the first place. It always freaked me out to use my bowling ball because I thought (psychologically, at least) that I was going to get my fingers stuck.

David's blue bowling ball and the orange ball from the bowling alley that Meagan and Amber were using got stuck twice at the end of the lane. David thought they had something going on, because it was always just those two balls that got stuck - together.

Meagan - bought David and MP3 player for his birthday. Now he just has to figure out how to use it. Meagan has been looking all over for her graduation photos and cannot find them. I'm sure I put them in a very safe place. If only I could remember what that safe place is. Meagan xeroxed off a copy of her Seminary General Conference assignment for everyone who wanted to do it. It was a word tally, which I found confusing, so I just started taking notes.

Meagan is heading out for work. She just came by and hugged me, then she "healed" me by putting the heal of her hand on my forehead and pushing. That's what they did in NC on David's mission when he went to other churches, so he taught it to the kids...

Cameron - just went and spent all his hard saved cash on a copy of the "Legend of Dragoon" video game. He's playing it now and is glad that it works because he bought it used from Game Pedlar. Meagan was nice enough to drive him to the mall. Or did he drive? I'm not sure. He says his driver's ed teacher says he's getting to be a better driver.

I came home from work last night and Cameron was shaving David's head. I used to have that job, but I guess it's Cameron's now. That's ok with me.

Jarom - is very happy because we have bagels again. And we had double chocolate cream pie and vanilla ice cream for David's birthday. Because we took so long bowling and buying David's birthday dinner (pizza) at Costco on Thursday, I was helping Jarom with his math yesterday morning before school. David was driving us crazy because he kept saying he didn't understand what I was explaining to Jarom. "It doesn't matter!" we both told him. Of course, David probably would not have been interested at all if we weren't in a hurry. Or maybe he would have.

Cindy and I had a discussion about this Tuesday morning on our walk to the Conference Center. She teaches Algebra at a Jr. High. She told me she tried to teach her husband algebra when they first got married. He didn't understand it and it only irritated him. Finally he said, "You're just going to have to live with me not understanding algebra."

I told her I had determined when I was a teenager that I would never marry a man who didn't understand AT LEAST algebra. Boy, was I wrong. I never tried to teach David algebra other than trying to explain why x and y and other variables are used in algebra. He just didn't get it, so I gave up. I eventually realized that David is smart in alot of things I'm not (sports, strategy, locksmithing, etc, etc), so it's all good. We balance each other. I did have to tell the kids to NEVER ask their dad for help with their math homework. He can help them with anything but math...and maybe science.

Amber - slept over at Kyleen's last night. She almost snuk out of the house without doing her missing homework assignments, but I got home just in time to make sure she did them. She was not happy with me, but she did do them.

Amber had good citizenship, so she got to play her DS for an hour or two at school yesterday. That was the reward for the well-behaved kids in the 5th grade.

Amber's primary teacher came over yesterday and asked me if I would teach Amber's primary class for two weeks. I thought about it and said, "Yes." The first week is Easter and the second week we have lots of YM/YW stuff going on, but I guess it will be ok. I told Amber she could teach the class. She said, "OK, as long as I can have the book." Maybe I'll have her help me. And the other kids in her class. I don't even know who's in her class anymore. We've had several families move out of the ward since the last time I taught her class.

Amber's teacher also had to show her the amber jewelry she's collecting. She told Amber she's glad she can collect something that reminds her of Amber. Awww....

YW Training Downtown

2009-04-04T16:45:00.003-06:00

Cindy and I went to Young Women Leadership Training downtown. It was soooo good. I can't believe I didn't make time in the past to go. The spirit in the room at the Conference Center was so strong, so good and so soothing. The YW General Presidency are so cute and fun. They all have such a glow about them.

Sister Dalton, the YW General President, talked about how going to the temple makes her feel like she just got a "teflon" coating. The cares of the world and people getting mad at her for doing dumb things just bounce off and she's happy no matter what's going on. She said it lasts about a week, then she has to go back for another coating. Also, the guardian angels that have been following her around for past week have left because they've gotten sick of her and she has to go get a new bunch.

They talked about lots of other things, but that is what stands out in my mind the most. Maybe I'll have to try it...

Mostly Doin' Church Stuff Lately...Oh, Yeah, and Work...

2009-03-31T10:15:00.004-06:00

Our family went to the Draper Temple dedication at our Stake Center. It was nice. Lots of good talks and so forth. The time went really quickly. I should go to the temple more often.

I went to the YW Meeting for General Conference on Saturday. Our Stake got tickets to go downtown. It’s crazy going downtown during a big event like that, especially with all the construction. I went with Cindy and Mary Ann who are in the Stake YW Presidency. I found out on Sunday that I was the only one from my ward who went downtown. Everyone else watched it on TV. Meagan probably would have gone downtown with me, but she had to work. The talks were good and the weather was still pretty nice.

On Sunday, we went to Mom and Dad’s for a long overdue Family Home Evening. We never did have FHE in January ’cuz I got sick. David and I were supposed to be in charge. We didn't have it in February because we decided we should wait until Holly had her surgery and recovered. Jarom and Amber didn’t get to go on Sunday because they had colds. I hope we’re all over being sick for a long time.

I’m so glad I have Tuesdays and Thursdays off. Yesterday at work was long and semi-crazy. Not as crazy as Friday, though. I don’t like having to deal with the schedule and everyone wanting to change their times. People just don’t seem to get the idea of a “house call.” You can’t be too particular about the time because the therapist is traveling, not the patient. Maybe that’s why doctors stopped doing house calls???

Right now I am listening to the crazy cd that Becky burned for me. It is hard to think about what to type when I’m listening to the silly D&D boys. This is the second time I’ve listened to it today. Thanks for the cd, Becky!

That’s about it. I’m about to go to the Training Meeting downtown at the Conference Center with Cindy. I guess I should go get ready.

Webcrawler

2009-03-24T17:11:00.005-06:00

Sheri gave me a pdf file of a book that I want to print out. Lo and behold, it requires adobe reader to open the file. Does the adobe reader on my computer work? No. So I am attempting to download it. So far it has downloaded 6% of the program and it says it is going to take another 2 hours and 11 minutes to download the rest. It seem like I have done this before only to have my computer crash when the program was 95% downloaded. And then it was an older version. I can’t even find adobe 4.0 or 5.0 anywhere on the internet to download. Only 9.0 or later. Sometimes I hate computers.

I am blogging while I am waiting for adobe to download.

Yesterday I came home from work, curled up on the loveseat with the cat and fell asleep. I got up once to switch to the couch so I could stretch out more and didn’t wake up again until 6:00 am when my alarm went off. It felt like I had only been asleep an hour or two.

David – and I went to Dr. Poku’s this morning. The doctor said that David’s stress test looked ok and he was not going to order an angiogram because it would probably be clear just like it was 5 years ago. David says he never wants to do a stress test again. So, David gets to take another drug that is supposed to strengthen his heart. We’ll see. At least his blood pressure seems okay without medication. After that we went to the DMV, Costco and Chinese Gourmet. We picked up Meagan and Cameron from school and David came home and passed out on the bed. He’s still asleep.

Meagan – switched out of her Auto Shop class for 4th term and is going to be a TA in Humanities for Mrs. Christensen. She had the class last semester and liked the teacher, so that will be good, I guess. At least we don’t have to worry about her needing to take the car in to do something to it when we need it.

Cameron – just finished reading “Lord of the Flies.” I hate that book. I had to read it in school and it is one of my least favorite books. It’s up there with “The Old Man and the Sea.” Cameron didn’t like it either. He wrote a good paper about it, though. He also read “Congo” by Michael Crichton and got to write a paper and draw a picture about that.

Jarom – is doing a colored pencil drawing of a sunset. He’s not very far on it, but he likes the rocks in one corner of the drawing the best so far. This morning I told Thor to wake up Jarom. I finally got him to jump up on the bed, but then he just curled up next to Jarom and started purring. “This is not what I am paying you for!” I told Thor. He didn’t care.

Amber – got to go to JA Biz Town yesterday. JA stands for Junior Achievement. The 5th graders got to go and pretend they were grownups. They filled out a job application and got assigned a job in the “city.” Amber got to be a Savings Officer at the bank. Ick! Being a Loan Officer was one of my least favorite jobs ever. I guess she had fun. She said she would have rather been a Teller, CEO or CFO. They got to use computers, the Savings Officers only got to use a stamp. Her friend Kyleen was the CEO of the Restaurant and Charity was a Reporter for the TV Station. Amber did get a pb&j, carrots, an apple, doritos, a rice crispy treat and chocolate milk for lunch, though. So it wasn't a total loss.

Well, now adobe is 30% downloaded and I only have 2 hours and 3 minutes to go...awesome...

Dog and Kitty Show

2009-03-15T16:29:00.015-06:00

Okay, here's the update:

David - as far as I know he hasn't heard back from the doctor on his stress test, so I guess that means he's not in any imminent danger. I hope. I guess he got the results of the sleep study. He gets to have his c-pap adjusted up 2 notches.

What else? He's been playing the same video game for about the past month. I'm not sure what the name of it is, but he plays a character that looks like Link in an orange poncho. He can also turn into a girl genie, a cat-girl and a caveman. Mostly the game consists of running around, opening treasure chests and going fishing. I don't like games that take forever to win, so I'm pretty sure I'm not ever gonna be playing that game. Whatever it is.

Meagan - and I went to a meeting during Parent-Teacher conference. We found out she doesn't have to do an externship to pass her dental class and graduate from High School. She probably DOES have to complete it in order to get her Certificate so she can work as a Dental Assistant. The good thing is she can do her externship during the summer which will be much easier for all of us. I think she's going to extern at Dr. Ferre's. She should like that; he and his staff are nice.

Cameron - participated in a History Fair last week. I didn't even know there was such a thing. A large share of Cameron's history grade depends on this project. Cameron and 3 of his friends (Michael, Nephi and Braden) made a video about William Wallace and why he was important to the history of Scotland. David and I took Cameron to the History Fair and hung around because we wanted to see the video. Michael says he wants to put it on youtube, so maybe you can find it there. I haven't looked.

Cameron got to be William Wallace because he was the biggest of the group. It was kind of like Monty Python in that most of the actors had to play more than one part - and it was kind of silly. Michael got to be the King of England, the entire English army and the judge that sentenced Wallace to death. He also played the soundtrack on the electric piano. Nephi got to be William Wallace's army and the guard that watched over Wallace while he was awaiting his execution. Braden was the narrator, cinematographer and video editor. Cameron wrote and typed up the process paper.

My favorite part of the video was when Michael chased Cameron across the park with a wooden sword. Cameron turned around at the last second and waved his hands in the air like he was scared, but not really. Cameron hid his face in his coat collar when the camera closed in on him after the sentencing. Cameron said he had to because he was laughing. Fortunately you couldn't really tell.

Cameron's friend Nick did his project on William Wallace, too. He did a display board like most of the students there. He knew more info about Wallace than Cameron and his group did - probably because this is the 3rd report he's done on Wallace. At least he was giving Cameron pointers on what to answer questions the judges might ask. I saw the second judge trying not to laugh as he left Cameron's group. I guess at least he found their film entertaining.

Nick and Cameron kept wrestling each other in the school cafeteria, where the History Fair was held. They were doing it for fun, but finally I had to tell them to stop. Boys are silly.

Jarom - has dishes this week as his chore. He is not happy about it. Whoever has dishes always makes a big deal about it. Other than that, Jarom's spent a lot of time sleeping on the couch. Maybe school's been rough. David thinks it's because Jarom is growing so fast. I swear he's grown 6 inches in the last year. Maybe more. Personally, I think it's because Thor has rubbed off on Jarom. Once Thor gets in the house about all he does is sleep on the couch.

Amber - is watching "O Brother Where Art Thou." It's one of our family's favorite movies. I like the music. The kids like the part where they're in the movie theater and Pete whispers, "Do not seek the treasure!" Delmar whispers back, "We thought you was a toad!" and Pete looks at him like he's crazy. Sometimes the kids will wander around the house saying, "We thought you was a toad!" in a loud whisper. They also like where the guy running for guvna keeps yelling, "Is you is or is you ain't my constitchency?"

Amber spent half of yesterday at Katelyn's doing who knows what. Probably playing the wii. And harassing the cats. I'm glad she and Katelyn have fun together. Amber thinks Katelyn is awesome.

Jetta - still freaks out over Thor sometimes.

I think Thor hates me now. He doesn't like me picking him up or holding him. As soon as I do he tries to wriggle out of my arms. I swear he spent most of last night glaring at me. He doesn't love us, he loves our couch. Oh, and the fact that we feed him.

Thor does seem to like the kids better than he likes me. Okay, maybe he only dislikes me, which is sad, because he used to be such a cute, friendly cat. Cameron says he's surprised Thor likes him since he hit him in the head with an apple not too long ago. He added quickly, "I didn't mean to!" This is good (sort of) because even if Thor is being obnoxious, he still doesn’t deserve to be hit in the head.

I started calling Thor "Mr. Snootypants" last night because he was so aloof. Jarom didn't know what snooty meant, but he thought the name was funny. I explained it to him. "Oooh, now it makes sense," he said.

I appreciate Jetta even more than I did before because she's always happy to see me and follows me around the house and loves me - unlike Mr. Snootypants. I told Jetta, "Now I know how you feel when everyone pays attention to the cat and not you." That got me thinking, maybe Jetta told Thor that he'd better not like me any more, or else...

If she did, it's working.

Cameron's Bridge

2009-03-09T22:05:00.002-06:00

I just have to tell you how much weight Cameron's shakey looking bridge held: 906 pounds. Amazing! I think the first one I built only held 650 or something and the second one held about 550 before it slid out of the machine. Maybe Cameron SHOULD be an Engineer...

Quint's Funeral

2009-03-09T20:49:00.009-06:00

Since mom wants to know and Georgia couldn't stay, I thought I would re-cap Quint's funeral. Quint liked to dress colorfully. Some of my favorites were his penguin tie and his all-white shirt with one red pocket. When I talked to his family, I found out that all of Quint's sons and grandsons had raided his closet and were wearing his loud ties, shirts and jackets. One son even had on a pink sports coat. I found out why Quint dressed so colorfully and why he wore penguin ties. His family said he didn't want to go to church in a dark suit and tie and a white shirt and look like all the other penguins. Quint must have gotten a kick out of his family raiding his closet in his honor.

The first speaker was Gordon - Quint's brother. He gave the life sketch. Gordon said that he was the oldest, then Quint, then Patricia, then Russell. They lived in Salt Lake City until they lost their house due to the Great Depression. Their family moved to Idaho and lived on their uncle's farm for a while. Their mother was a nurse and she got a job before their dad did - in Walla Walla, Washington. They lived there 3-4 years until their dad was able to get a job, then they moved back to Salt Lake City. They were able to buy back the very house they had lost years earlier.

Gordon said that Quint was always the favorite and he could prove it. When Gordon got engaged, he brought his girlfriend home to announce his engagement. When Russell heard the news, he looked at Gordon's girlfriend and said, "You're going to marry him? You could wait a few years and marry Quint. Quint's a lot better." Sad. I can't believe Gordon would tell that story. In spite of it all, Quint and Gordon got along. Gordon said, "Quint was everything you could want in a brother."

Three of Quintin's grandchildren and his one and only daughter spoke. They all told funny stories about Quint. They told about how Quint loved to cook and would make his family dinner and "brekkie" when they would come to visit him. One grandson said that Quint would set the table days in advance when he invited people over for dinner. It wasn't normal table setting, it was more like you were going to the circus. Instead of glasses, he would have glass jars or pitchers. Instead of silverware, he would have salad tongs or wooden forks. When his grandkids would try to re-set the table with normal silverware, he wouldn't let them. He made them eat with the weird utensils on the table.

Another grandson said Quint added something unexpected to almost everything he cooked. Once when he was cooking a pot roast, he looked through the fridge for something to add to it. He found a jar of jelly and started putting big spoonfuls of jelly over the pot roast. "Grandpa, what are you doing?!" his grandson asked. "Shut up and eat it!" Quint said. So they did. And it was good.

Quint's daughter, Kris, said he would call her up and ask her what "soss" would go with the meat he was cooking. Apparently there were some words in the English language he liked to massacre. Kris was never his "daughter" she was his "dawhta."

His grandkids said he had a playhouse out in his backyard. When they came over, he would go out and play house or dolls or whatever the grandkids wanted to play. He would even let them put his hair up in little pigtails all over his head and paint his toenails.

Quint loved to go dirt-biking. His family was relieved when they finally converted him over to riding a quad, but he still drove crazy. He'd go up all the steep hills and tip his quad and do things his full-grown sons were scared to do. Quint told his family he wanted to die on a quad with a big smile on his face. They were relieved that didn't happen.

The last person to talk was Quint's Stake President. Eighteen years ago, the Stake President was Quint's Bishop and Quint was the first counselor. The Bishop/Stake President was long-winded and their meetings would go on for hours. Quint always told him to "keep it short." Apparently that didn't work. Once Quint got to the Bishop's office first before a meeting. He had a big tray with a two pound salami and some really strong cheese on it. By the end of the meeting, they'd eaten all the cheese and salami, but the room stunk for the next two weeks.

Quint's favorite calling was being a Primary Teacher. A few years ago the Stake President called Quint into his office and called him to be a High Councilor. Quint told him, "No." The Stake President almost fainted from shock, because that was not like Quint. "It's really not that bad," the Stake President told him. Quint looked at him and said, "I want to stay a Primary Teacher for the rest of my life. I've been on a mission to Finland and a mission to Austrailia and I feel like I didn't convert anyone, but I feel like I'm converting these kids. I'm making a difference." With that explanation, the Stake President told him he could be a Primary Teacher the rest of his life. "Don't release me," Quint said. And they didn't - even after he died.

Quint loved the Primary kids and they loved him. The Primary sang a song at his funeral. There must have been 30 or 40 kids up on the stand singing for Quint. I imagine he loved that.

This is an aside by me: Sometimes at work I would hear Quint whistling songs - usually they were Primary Songs or Hymns. I wonder if he even realized he was doing that. Once he asked me if I had a dog. I looked at him weird and said, "Yes, why?" "Because you talk to yourself a lot," he said. Later that week I caught him talking to himself and pointed it out to him. "Of course I talk to myself," he said. "When I talk to myself I know I'm going to get an intelligent answer." I had to agree with him.

At the very end of the funeral, when the pallbearers were taking the casket out, the organist was playing "Quentin's Theme." Apparently Quint heard it years ago on a tv or radio show - I think it had something to do a with a superhero? I can't remember what they said the name of the show was. When Quint heard the name of the song, he said, "That's the song they have to play at the end of my funeral." So they did. It was much more somber of a song than I thought it would be. Fitting for funeral, I guess. I would have forgot that's the song they were playing, but Steve leaned over to me and whispered, "Quentin's Theme," and I remembered.

After the funeral, I had to tell Steve the story about Georgia taking Quint to the hospital several times when he was sick. Georgia went to pick up Quint and the nurse (or someone) asked, "Oh, are you related to Quintin? Are you his granddaughter?" Georgia started to answer when Quint piped up and said, "She's my mistress." (If I told that wrong, you can correct me, Georgia.) I told his sons about it later and they just nodded and said that their dad having a mistress was a long running joke. They'd tell him that's why he went on so many business trips to Montana.

After the funeral, I made David drive past the cemetary so I would know where to find Quint's grave. Quint's grave is just across the walkway from David's parents' graves. That's convenient. David laughed when I told him I wanted to see Quintin's grave. I said why are you laughing? Because his last name is "Graves"? Yes. Silly David.

So, there you have it. Quintin's wonderful funeral. Oh, and there were so many people there to talk to Quint's family that the funeral started at 11:20, not 11:00 like it was scheduled to. There were lots of people there. The entire chapel was full and half of the gym. One grandson summed up Quint the best: "Quint lived in his own little world and everyone was invited. The thing is, once you went in to his world, you never wanted to leave."

Remembering Quintin

2009-03-07T05:50:00.003-07:00

My friend Quintin from my last job died on Tuesday. I was surprised to hear it. I thought he would live to be 100. I knew he had heart problems, but he seemed to get through them ok the 3 years I was working there. From what I heard from Lisa, Quint had a heart attack on Monday night when he was out with his family. They took him to the hospital and he was put into a drug-induced coma. By Tuesday they decided he wasn't going to get any better, so they took him off life-support.

Quintin had more life in him than I do. He was always talking to people and travelling the world and riding his 4-wheeler - at the age of 78! He acted more like a 50 year old. Or maybe even younger. If it wasn't for his snow-white hair you would have thought he was alot younger than 78.

Quintin was what Georgia and I called "semi-retired." He came to work when he wanted to, which was usually from about 10 or 11 am until 1 or 2 pm. Or somedays not at all. Sometimes he would be gone for weeks travelling to Montana, California, Hawaii, China, Singapore, Greece, Turkey... We didn't care, we figured if we were his age we probably wouldn't go to work at all. Well, that, and he was his own boss.

The funny thing is, once I told Quintin that I wished I were working because I wanted to be there, not because I needed the money. He looked at me like I was crazy. "Nobody goes to work because they want to," he told me, "they go to work because they have to." I don't think that was true of Quint. I think he went to work because he wanted to. Of course, Quint could make almost anything fun.

I didn't get to see Quint my last day of work. On my last day of work Lisa, Kenny, Stratton and I went out to lunch for my "going away" party. Quint came into the office while we were gone and left before we came back. He left me a really nice note about how much he liked me and how he would miss me. It made me cry. I wrote him a note and put it in his box. That was the last contact I had with him.

Last weekend I was thinking about going and buying some vitamins from him this week. I was even thinking about him the day he passed away. Ironically enough, when David and I were at the cardiogist's on Tuesday there was a treadmill that said "Quinton" on it. Wrong spelling, but same name basically. I said, "I know a Quintin." I had no idea he was in the hospital in a coma at that moment. At least I get to go to his funeral. I'm glad Lisa called and told me because I never read the obituaries.

Quint was funny, he told me stories about what a horrible musician and dancer he was. He went to Arthur Murray Studios to take dance lessons when he was young. He said the instructor told him not to bother coming back because there was no hope for him learning to dance. He said, "You think they would have wanted my money." He told me about inheriting a violin when he was young. His mother found him a violin teacher close to home. After the first lesson, the teacher told him to find a hobby that had nothing to do with music. Quint may not have been musically talented, but he had so many other talents it didn't matter.

Quint even told me stories about sluffing school and that he and his friends would sneak off to a swimming hole. He grew up in the East Millcreek area and knew just about everything about it.

I'll miss Quint and his stories and his smile. He was a very kind person who was fun to talk to. He was one of my favorite people. It is sad to know I will not be able to talk to him again in this lifetime. I am glad that I had the chance to know him and work with him. I suppose he's up in heaven telling his stories to the people he loves that passed on before he did. I'm sure he's happy because I never saw him any other way!

Elvis is Everywhere...

2009-03-03T16:05:00.005-07:00

...except not commenting on my blog. And neither is anyone else it looks like. Sometimes I wonder if anyone reads this.

Anyway...

David - went and took his stress test this morning. It was the drug-induced type, so he didn't have to jog on a treadmill. It still made him breathe hard and have a sore chest. After he got done he told me I should try it, just for the experience. I said, "No thanks!" They had to put radioactive dye in him. That does not sound at all good to me. He should find out the results in a few days.

David checked out “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” episodes 7-9 at the library for me. It has the Blancmange episode. It was even funnier than I had remembered. David and I were shocked when we heard the name of the first person to be zapped by the aliens and turned into a Scotsman: “Harold Potter.” Hmmm…David is sure that’s where JK got the name from. I’m not so sure, but it was funny. The really shocking thing is that David watched Monty Python of his own free will. He even put it in the DVD player. Amazing!

Meagan - is still looking for a dental externship. She has called at least 20 dentists. A couple look like possibilities, but with the hours dentists are open and the hours Meagan is in school, she's wondering how she's ever going to get 90 hours in by the end of the school year. Maybe she'll get 40 if she starts next week. Most of the dentists she called already have 2 or 3 or even 5 externs already.

Meagan and I finally got her financial aid form submitted. I guess we'll hear back sometime this week or next on that. I'm glad that's over with and so is Meagan.

Cameron - got to build a bridge for his Physics class. He finished it late Sunday night and had to turn it in on Monday. They are testing them tomorrow to see how much weight they hold. I remember building bridges for Physics and Calculus. I never could understand why they have students build them when it’s really cold outside. I got high on the glue even though I had the window open. I think I had to wear gloves. Ugh. I don’t think Cameron liked building a bridge much, either. At least he did it – and all by himself.

Jarom - signed up for 9th Grade this morning. He is taking French 2 to get his foreign language out of the way before he goes to Hunter High. He found out this morning that they have an Intro to Engineering Class at Kennedy. He wanted to take that, but the prerequisite is an Intro to Technology Class. He didn’t have enough room for both, so he’s taking Intro to Technology.

Amber - Is reading the fifth Harry Potter book so she can take the AR test for it and get enough points for the whole quarter. Harry Potter books are pretty long. She owns the 7th one and has Kailien’s copy of the 6th one on her shelf. I guess we should return that one. Amber told me the other day that she thinks she wants to be an Artist when she grows up. If she does, I hope she does better at it than I did. I guess it’s possible. Of course, she still has plenty of time to change her mind. We’ll see.

Jetta - gets freaked out every time we let Thor in the house. Last week Cameron and Jetta bumped heads. Thor was in the house and Jetta started licking Thor's head and wouldn't stop. I told Cameron he had given Jetta brain damage. Cameron said, "I didn't bump her head, she bumped mine!"

Me - I went to lunch with Georgia last week. It was nice to see her and find out what's going on with her. I hadn't seen her since last summer. Other than that, I haven't been up to much other than the usual - except that I got another cold in less than a month. It's kind of strange because I've been getting a lot fewer colds the past two years until just now.

I'm Fed Up with Facebook, So I'm Blogging!

2009-02-25T09:50:00.004-07:00

Facebook is a good idea and kind of fun, but it loads so s-l-o-w-l-y on my computer, I can’t stand it! While I am waiting for it to load, I am typing my blog (on MS Word).

So here’s what’s going on:

David – went to the cardiologist yesterday. I went with him. The cardiologist is way out in West Jordan. 90th South and Bangerter. David’s cardiologist’s name is Dr. Kopu. Or is it Poku? I think it’s Poku. He’s from Ghana . He speaks English really well, but David and I could only understand ½ of what he was saying because of his accent. Maybe the more we go to him the better we’ll understand him?

Anyway, he said that David has heart disease. Myocardio-something. Basically he has a weak heart. David has lots of ancestors with bad hearts. Weak hearts – bad hearts kinda sounds wrong, doesn’t it? – he is related to Ghengis Khan way, way, way back, so…maybe? Anyway, I guess it shouldn't be a surprise - his mom, grandma and both grandpas all had heart issues.

David gets to go back next week for a stress test, then in 3 weeks for a follow up. Should be fun. Dr. Poku was cute – asking David how many years young he is and who this young lady with him was, etc. And he did take the time to explain everything to us until we understood it.

After the cardiologist, we went to several stores (Smith's, Costco, RC Willey, the Dollar Store) and spent all our money. At least we had money to spend! We came home and were exhausted.

Meagan – had to sign a song in ASL with a partner. Brandon, her partner, chose the song “Ugly Girl” for them to perform. It’s a horrible song. It’s based on the “Barbie Girl” song but Barbie “looks like a train wreck” and Ken is not very nice to her.

It took Brandon so long to take the lyrics and music to school that Meagan was getting a “D” in ASL. I told Meagan if Brandon didn’t get the lyrics and music to school soon, I was going to choose a song for her. I chose “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne. I actually like that song when I’m awake – David is shocked that I would like anything Ozzy. I am, too, to tell you the truth! I also found “Blackbird” by the Beatles – I figured she could choose mellow or rowdy. In the end, they chose icky. Yup, they performed “Ugly Girl” this morning. Silly teenagers.

Other than that, Meagan is looking for a dental externship. She gets to work 90 hours at a dentist's office. Hopefully one that is close to home. The trick is, she's got to get the 90 hours in before the end of the school year, so she'll graduate.

Cameron - turned in his class registration for next year last Friday. He's decided he wants to take some computer classes at GTI. That should be fun. He's going to take 3-D Animation where they do drawing, color theory, story boarding and lighting. He should like that. He's also going to take Visual Basic programming. At the end of that class they get to create a simple computer game. Sounds right up Cameron's alley. Our school district really has a lot of neat programs. David and I keep talking about what classes we would have taken in High School if we had all the choices our kids have.

Jarom- gets to turn in his schedule for 9th grade next week. He could actually take classes at GTI next year, too. The only thing is, he'd need to find a ride to and from the high school to the junior high. Since he's already got a full schedule next year, we've decided it would be better for him to wait until 10th grade to go to GTI.

Jarom's also decided that he is going to be in the junior high's marching band this summer again. That's a good thing - it will get us out to the parades again. I will let you know when they are. I think he has a spring concert, too.

Amber - is the only one that doesn't have to decide on a schedule for next year. I'm kind of glad. Just figuring out Cameron and Jarom's and meeting with their counselors and trying to get Meagan ready for college is enough! Just think, though, only one more year then Amber's off to junior high. Ack!

Amber spent last weekend at Kyleen's and went to see the new Disney movie "Coraline." I have no idea if I spelled that right. She said it was, "OK, but kind of weird." Something about Coraline going through her closet into another dimension where everything is the same except the people have button eyes. Maybe I'll have to go online and read a review.

I guess that's about it for us!

Recycling and Trash - Did You Know?

2009-02-07T16:34:00.012-07:00

I didn't know this. Well, some of it I did and some of it surprised me. I saw it when I was logging on to Yahoo to look at my e-mails.

5 Things You Shouldn't Recycle
(you should throw them in the trash instead)
•Pizza boxes
•Napkins and paper towels
•Sticky notes
•Plastic caps
•Wet paper
Here's Why

5 Things You Shouldn't Throw in the Trash
•Batteries
•CFLs
•Electronics
•Motor Oil
•Paint
What to Do Instead

Enriching Gluten

2009-02-07T15:43:00.006-07:00

Meagan and I went to a Stake Enrichment meeting together this morning. It was nice. They had 4 mini-classes everyone got to go to, then they had lunch. The only thing they had that I could eat was vegetable soup, but at least I could eat that. I came home and ate some more lunch.

My favorite part of the whole thing (other than hanging out with Meagan and other women that I like) was Sister Blunt's story about the Spanish translator. They made sure that all the Spanish speaking women were in one group and they had a Spanish translator go around with them. Sister Blunt grew up in South America speaking Spanish (can't remember which country). She was speaking English and letting the translator translate, because half of the class was English-speaking. At one point she and the translator got mixed up and she started speaking Spanish and he started speaking English. I find that humorous after having worked with translators before. Unfortunately I am only fluent in English. I know enough Spanish that I can figure out about 1 out of every 5 words, which doesn't make for understanding it very well.

Other than that, we got to make cards. I barely had enough time to get mine done. They gave us all of 10 minutes to make a multi-layered card. Then we had lessons about becoming a Zion people and that we are important and special and should be nice to everyone. Pretty much what I already knew, but it's good to hear it again.

David - is making lasagne at the moment. We've got lots of cottage cheese and I'm not eating it anymore, so he has to do something with it so the kids will eat it. He is obsessed with a PS2 game called "King's Field." I don't even like watching him play the game - it has rather bad graphics and annoying music, but he likes it. Alot. Last night when we went to a wedding reception, instead of turning off the game, he had Jarom play it for him. Then he went back to playing it until 2:00 am when I went downstairs to see what he was doing.

Meagan - went to Enrichment Meeting with me this morning. She was really hungry and was glad they had seconds. She kept bugging me about wanting to eat cheese bread and sugar cookies. "There's lots of yummy gluten in there," she said, waving it in my face. All the women at our table wanted to know if I was allergic to gluten. We took some extra cookies home to David and the kids. Amber said they were really yummy. Meagan is now off with Tyler (of course). I don't know where they were going. Probably to watch a movie. They both get to work tonight.

Cameron - is annoyed with me today. I'm thinking he didn't get enough sleep last night. I saw a note on the piano about signing up for classes next year on the internet. I asked him if it was his, he said he didn't need it and kept scowling at me when I asked him why. Finally he started talking to me. I think we need to go meet with his counselor and make sure he is taking the right classes so he can graduate. It would be good if he graduated with the rest of his class.

Jarom - got a note from AMES Academy inviting him to apply. I asked him if he wanted to go and he said "no," so I tossed the note and didn't think much of it. Last night at the wedding reception one of the moms that has a daughter Jarom's age was raving about AMES. If students go to AMES they can earn 30 hours of college credit and get 75% off tuition at any state owned college. That sounds kind of tempting. I came home and told Jarom, but he didn't seem too impressed. Of course, he was playing "King's Field" for his dad at the time. I think he's kind of addicted to that game, too.

AMES Academy, if you are wondering, is a charter school that is held at Cottonwood High. The acronym stands for Academy of Math, Engineering and Science. (Which makes calling it AMES Academy rather redundant, doesn't it?) Jarom says he wants to major in Engineering, so it might be just the thing for him, but he gets to decide, because he's the one that's going to have to ride the bus to school and do all the homework. Meagan had a chance to go when she was finishing up 8th grade, but she wanted to stay with her friends.

Amber - has been bugging me about getting her gameboy back. I guess I should see if I have it. I thought she'd never want to play it again now that she has a DS. Guess I was wrong. Amber has been doing pretty well at reading every night. During most of the month of January I had to remind her every night - and take away her DS during the week until she'd read at least 4 days. I may have to start doing that again, though. I wish I had someone begging me to read. I'm not sure if I could stop at 20 minutes, though.

Kids Say the Darndest Things...and So Do Their Parents

2009-01-29T23:35:00.005-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was in the kitchen at my work. I asked my boss, Joe, to sign an insurance paper for me. His 8-year-old son was there (not surprising since my work is at Joe's house). He looked from me to his dad and back again and said, "Heidi, are you my dad's boss?" I looked at him and said, "No, your dad is my boss." Joe looked at his son, winked at him and kind of whispered, "Yeah, that's what all women will tell you." I totally wasn't expecting that. It was funny.

Well, lots else has happened since then, but since it's 11:39 pm, I'm going to bed. I do have to say this whole Holly/cancer thing has taken me by surprise. I think I'm still in a state of shock/denial about it all. Someday it will hit. All I can say is Holly and her family are in my prayers. Hope she heals very quickly--from the surgery and otherwise.

Holly did say she saw John and Myra at the surgeon's office last Friday. She has the same doctor as John. How crazy is that? And that they'd be there at the same time.

Homework, Work and Going Back to School

2009-01-09T19:45:00.005-07:00

I guess it's about time to update again. Let's see what everyone's up to:

Amber - has been reading alot lately. I haven't even had to bother her about it. In December it was like pulling teeth to get her to read, which is strange because usually she likes to read. I "borrowed" her library book the other night and she was rather miffed with me that I had to read two chapters in it. I guess that's because it was 10:00 on a school night and the book was due the next day. I just had to read the last 2 chapters of "The End" by Lemony Snicket to see if the rest of the book was worth reading.

Amber spent one night at Kyleen's over Christmas vacation and one night at Katelyn's. She was happy about that.

Jarom - stated last night that he is not going to take hard classes in high school because he is tired of all the homework. He does have alot of homework. The last few nights he fell asleep really early - like about 7 pm. I guess going back to school this week has worn him out.

Jarom is downstairs now directing his dad how to play a game on the wii. Maybe, if he's lucky, his dad is even letting him play the wii. Who knows.

Cameron - is asleep on the living room floor as I type this. I guess tonight's his turn to be tired early. Cameron is frustrated that I have not been very good at helping him with his math or physics. It almost feels like another lifetime that I took (and understood) those classes. I told him he needs to ask me questions on my non-work nights and give me a bit of time to figure out what is going on. I can't dust off the cobwebs that fast!

It was kind of funny because last night Jarom kept asking Cameron for help on his math. Cameron tried helping him, but Jarom was annoying him. I told Cameron that now he knows how I feel. Cameron said, "That's different, he's not my son!" I am not sure how that's different, but in Cameron's mind it is.

Meagan - is at work right now. I guess she is liking work now. The other night I went to pick her up and got there early. They sure are busy on Tuesday nights. That's because it's $2 skate night, instead of the usual $6. Meagan says she likes working Monday nights better, when it's not so crazy.

Meagan is getting ready for her last semester of high school. I have been trying to figure out how to sell her Humanities textbook and buy her writing textbook. Still working on that. Hopefully she can sell her book to one of the kids at her high school. Probably make more money than selling it back to the college book store - if they'll even buy it back! They're discontinuing that textbook after this school year. At least that's what we hear. It's crazy how often colleges change textbooks.

I am sure glad I don't have to pay for her other textbooks - or any of the other kids', for that matter. Expensive! Hopefully she can make enough off of last semester's textbook to pay for this semester's. At least it's a less expensive book - $80 new for the writing book as opposed to $102 new for the humanities book. I have been wondering how different the humanities textbook will be in a couple of years as opposed to this year's if Cameron decides to take that class.

David - still the wii. He loves that thing. At least he's getting some exercise, huh? David and I have started trading off cooking dinner. I cook dinner on my days off and he cooks it on the days I work. So far, so good. That makes me happy!

Me - starting to get used to my job. Man, it is alot of stuff to remember. I had to make myself several checklists just so I can remember to do everything. I do really like only having to work 3 days a week. This week I worked Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I don't like working 2 days in a row if I'm going to work 7 to 7-1/2 hour days. That's just too much for me.

Going out and spending the morning with Sheri was much more fun than going to work. We were going to muscle test, but instead, I helped her edit some of her book and permission letter. And in return, she made me some almond milk in the vitamix.

We did get the tires on the Suburban fixed. Actually, the garage we took it to had to put 2 different tires on it. Apparently 2 of the new tires were really out of balance, so they had to put extra heavy weights on them. The tire weights were so heavy, they fell off the tires while we were on the freeway. It's all good now, though. I knew it would be. Thank goodness we found a really good auto shop to take our cars to. We've been going there several years now and I can't imagine going to anyone else.

The Best Thing that Happened to Me in 2008

2009-01-02T21:19:00.003-07:00

Well, 2008 has come and gone. Yet another year begins. I was trying to think of what I would write if I wrote one of those Christmas letter kind of things. I don't even do Christmas cards. I think about it every year, but December is so hectic, it never gets done and then it's January and oh well.

Yeah, what did I do this last year? I got a new job. On Wednesday I was not liking it so much because the passenger side rearview mirror on the suburban got cracked while I was at work and I am not sure why. Pretty sure it wasn't cracked before work because it just passed safety and i/m the day before. Oh, well. Work today was better, so I guess it's all ok...

In other suburban news, we got 4 new tires because the old tires wouldn't pass safety. Apparently the new tires weren't balanced very well because once we got on the freeway, we were bouncing all over the place. It was almost like being on the road to the Bear River Bird Refuge. Never been to the bird refuge? It was really cool, but the road was so bumpy that things were falling off the inside of the car - like the trim on the doors. I was beginning to wonder if the car was going to make it there without a wheel falling off or something.

Let's see. What's the best thing that happened to me in 2008? Oddly enough it was that I learned to muscle test for myself (because i was forced to!) and found out that I could do it! I'm still not big on testing for anyone other than myself, but on occasion I do. I did not fall apart after my kinesiologist visits ended like I feared I would, mostly thanks to Sheri and, how do I say this?, quite literally God and angels and well, let's just leave it at that. They DO exist and are ready to help anyone willing to ask for help. Sometimes you just gotta know how to ask and how to get the answers. I guess that's why Sheri's writing/publishing her book, so other people will know how to ask and get answers, too.

Every day I am so glad that I was able to meet and learn from the amazing kinesiologist who quite literally saved my life and helped me believe that life was worth living. I can never thank her enough for that. She helped me in ways that scores of doctors, therapists and counselors couldn't. God works in mysterious ways. I also can never thank my parents enough for paying for my visits 'cuz I don't know how I would have afforded them without their help. Thanks mom and dad!

Well. That totally was not what I was expecting to write! I don't think I would have put that in a Christmas letter. Hmmm...probably not.

Anyway, Happy 2009!