One Really Crazy Family

Happy Birthday Ty

2011-06-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Ty.

Sorry for the belated post.

Thanks for being such a great kid

You have become a beautiful, caring and smart woman

It has been a great 21 years and I am looking forward to the next 21....... and beyond-

Lots of love

And many more birthdays to come!!!!

Happy Birthday Bee!

2011-05-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Today is my baby's 12th Birthday-

Where did the time go-

I am excited to see the young woman she is becoming but I am sad to see my baby gone-

Independent, brave, beautiful, smart, loving and caring-

I love you Bee!

Happy Birthday!

Games, Games and More Games Along with Lots of Snow

2011-04-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

April showers bring May flowers unless you live where the snow continues to fall

Mountains at super high snow levels and the worry begins that we may see some flooding if it all decides to come down at once. Let's hope not.

Boo, Ty and D went to D's brothers and had an all night video game playing with several of D's brothers and assorted other people. I think it is neat that they all still have this in common and like to spend time together and play. I know many of the wives get tired of the computer games and the the extreme amount of time that they spend playing, I do as well as I still have an unfinished basement and backyard. I do think that it is good for their relationship as brothers that they spend time together doing something that they all enjoy. They all played various computer and x-box games, ate pizza and snacks sent by the assorted wives. I think this time it was especially important as D has one brother who will be going into a combat zone soon so it is good for them to spend time with him before he goes. Later that next day we met with several of his siblings and spouses for a dinner out. It is really nice to see everyone and spend time having fun with them even if it still snowing.

We do feel bad, we had been housesitting for my sister on vacation and between thursday evening when we checked their house and Friday afternoon their sump pump quit working and their crawl space flooded. Boo had gone over to check on the dog and heard a beeping noise coming from downstairs. As she went down the stairs and peeked into the crawl space she stepped into a puddle of water. She ran home and got her dad and he went back over, got the pump working again but we felt bad that we did not catch it sooner. Sorry Sis about not catching it sooner, but cool monitor for water. If you had not had that we would not have caught it when we did and it could have been much worse.

well sorry for the boring post.

attack of the mutant teenager - oh wait it's only G-Bear turning 13

2011-03-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

Yes it is true he did live to be 13. We sure wondered many a time if he would make it to be a teenager but here he is. G-Bear turned 13 on March 2nd and I just can't believe that he is that old. It seems like only yesterday that he was born to much fanfare and excitement being a boy after two girls. Now here he is almost as tall as his big sisters and growing every day. It looks like he takes after my dad and is going to be a tall one. Too bad his coordination sucks otherwise maybe we could make a basketball player out of him.

G-Bear loves to play any type of video game, he is his fathers son and is very good at all of them. For his birthday we took him to the local fun center with his friend and his cousins and they all played lazer tag, mini golf and bowled. It was a lot of fun. He got the Pokemon game he wanted and money to spend on more video games so he was a happy boy.

Happy Birthday G-Bear!

We love you!

Life Stages

2011-02-21T11:02:00.000-08:00

We got together this weekend with two of D's best friends from high school and before. We try to get together with them at least once a year but often it stretches to two years. It is interesting to see the three of them together, each in a different stage of life despite all being the same age. One still has little kids, one has almost an empty nest and us who are still in the thick of parenting but with kids who are starting to be independent and not as reliant on us as parents.

They talked, ate pizza and played games told stories of when they were young and also what has been happening in each others lives over the last couple of years. As the outsider or someone who did not know them until they were older it is interesting to see what is of value to each. One lives in a home that needs some attention but is more involved in seeing the world and experiencing life not seemingly worried about what happens in 20 years but more where they are day to day. We live in a nice home and value the stability of jobs that offer us a future and the possibility of retirement someday. The other friend that you don't really get much from. He has had some pretty big setbacks in his life and doesn't share as much about where he is or where he is going.

A group of friends with similar upbringing, beliefs, values and goals in high school but through life's trials and experiences has moved down different paths. It does show how strong a solid friendship can be that despite it all and while each is on a different path and in a different place that they all remain good friends and value each other.

cover your head!!!

2011-02-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

No lightning is not going to strike and the world is not coming to an end (it is not 2012 yet) and yes this is a new post.

So I hope everyone out in the world is good

sorry for the lack of information but what can you say, no news is good news or something like that?

What, may you ask, has brought about this surprising post?

I guess I just got tired of the Boo birthday post..

so what has been happening.....

Everyone is good

G-Bear is finally on the mend after a nasty bout of the flu. 103 temperature for almost a week and he is still not eating very well. But at least he is back to school and teasing his sisters.

Bee finally cleaned her room so she could have a sleepover but then had to move it to her friends because her brother was sick.

Ty is still going to school and working at the movie theater.

Boo is the same, working at the library and being an independent teenage with a car and money. She will be going to Seattle in a month for orchestra so she is getting ready.

D and I are the same, working and doing our best to keep heads above water and everyone as happy as possible.

Random events

Trip to Vegas to see LOVE (LOVED IT!!) it was awesome! We took Boo and it was so cool to see the look on her face when the music started! it will be something that I will always treasure.

20th wedding anniversary - can't believe it has been that long!

Christmas at the crazy house - we managed to find a cool electric scooter for Bee in our budget and she was so excited... sometimes you win.

D's 45th birthday, on the downhill slide to 50 scary huh.

I will try and be better about posting but I promise nothing!

a birthday and a bit of sadness

2010-11-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

This past week we celebrated a birthday and and a passing. Boo turned 17 on Monday. It is hard to believe that she is 17. Boo is becoming so independent, she has a job and a car and while she loves her family she is discovering the fun of having her own money and the ability to go out with her friends without having to beg Mom and Dad for money. I miss my little girl but I am so proud to see the wonderful woman that she is becoming. We spent some time today with all of D's family it is interesting to see how our dynamic is changing. Having the oldest youngest kids we have a different perspective than most of the others. While they still have babies and small kids we are not many years away from an empty nest. Having some of the oldest grandkids I see Boo holding her infant cousins and I see a glimpse into the future with her kids (hopefully a good many years away yet)

Now for the passing and the reason we were all together today. D's Grandpa Mark passed away on Boo's birthday. He was 91 years old and was quite a firecracker. We knew he was ill and failing and unfortunately did not make it to see him before he passed. Today was his funeral and while he had lived a full life it was still a sad passing. It was a strange gathering as the family dynamic with that side of the family is challenging. D's Grandpa divorced his wife many years ago and then remarried a wonderful lady that D calls Grandma. They both brought children into the marriage but many were older and I do not think that there was a lot of bonding that was done between the families. D's mom was very hurt in the divorce her relationship with her father was strained so as a kid D did not really have much to do with many of the cousins on that side of the family. He did see his grandpa and He and I have tried to visit them as often as we could as they were such an incredible couple that truly loved all of their grandkids and family.

I had met only a couple of D's uncles and aunts before and only a few of the cousins. Grandpa Mark left quite a legacy with 60+ grandkids, 96 great-grandkids and even some great-great grandkids and he and Grandma Reva were married for over 50 years. I hope D and I can be as happy as they were when we get to be their age. We will miss his humor and his wonderful stories and sitting in his backyard watching the hummingbirds.

One of the neatest things at his funeral was the American Legion Color Guard who came to honor Grandpa. Grandpa served in the Navy during World War II and so he was given the military funeral with the flag ceremony, the shooting of the guns and the playing of Taps. It was such a emotional experience to watch and to know that he was a hero for our county and a great man. Grandpa Mark we will miss you and Grandma Reva know that we all love you and are sending you comfort in this sad time of mourning for Grandpa.

miles to go on tired feet

2010-10-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

So - how many people can fit into one theme park? All I know is more than I ever want to see ever again. Disneyland, the happiest place on earth, land of the giant strollers and electric scooters with no regards to toes or feet. Where you stand for hours to get into the attraction and then stand for hours just to watch the show with a disney host yelling at you if you sit down because then they can't shove in the 200 more people with no regards to personal space.

Enough complaining it was a fun trip. We are all exhausted and it will take days to recover. I will say that the kid were great. they put up with hunger and exhaustion and still, i think, had loads of fun. Bee was such a surprise willing to ride any ride we put her one including Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Railroad. She totally shocked us. G-bear rode everything we asked him to as well and really enjoyed Haunted Mansion and the Gadget coaster in Toon Town. We got great pictures with Jack Skelllington, Capt Jack Sparrow, Stitch and many other characters. Trick-or-treated in Disneyland and had an overall fun time.

We played at Balboa Beach and both G-Bear and Bee got soaked by waves in the ocean covered in sand and wanted to spend even more time at the beach. Traffic was good we only got stuck in Vegas in bad traffic. Weather wast cool and rainy but a misty rain. It was humid and if I don't see a plate of hashbrowns and scrambled eggs in the next month it will be too soon.

Learned that while staying further away is cheaper, it is really not worth the fact that you are at the mercy of the hotel shuttle and UEA week is not the best week to go. But I loved halloween at the park. The decorations are awesome, the fireworks were cool and seeing the Disney Villains is well worth the trip.

Enough time to get into trouble?

2010-10-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
-- H. Jackson Brown

Isn't it funny how we always say that we don't have enough time. Time to accomplish all of the goals we set for ourselves in one day, one week, one month. That is my excuse for the lack of posts that have happened over the last little while. It is funny when I was truly busy going to school and working I seemed to have time to post yet now that I am not in school i have the hardest time fitting in the time to do it. Maybe it is not a lack of time but desire to share what is going on or maybe it is just that what is going on is so boring or simple that to take the time to write about it seems wrong.

We are all fine here at the crazy house. Ty and Boo are currently attending Banzai anime festival and we have all seen very little of them over the last two days. D and I are trying to get ourselves ready to take the kids on a vacation and it is amazing how hard it has been to find six matching Disney type shirts to wear on our little trip. We even went to Orem tonight to see if we could find some at the only Disney store in Utah but alas we were unsuccessful in our quest. We still have tons of stuff to do and only 3 days to do it in.

Puppy is doing well. She is such a trouble maker that often I think we should have gotten the calm puppy but it is fun to watch her run around. We did finally settle on a name and our little white girl is named Rayne. She looks just like our other Shiba except for being white.

Boo has her first job and we see much less of her as she is busy with school and work. She ended up working for the library, like me, except at a different branch. I think she enjoys her job but misses the free time she used to have. I worry about her keeping up with work and school but she is determined and seems to be doing alright. I know she enjoys the paycheck and having her own money instead of having to ask mom and dad all the time.

so as we end remember this about time and having enough to do all that we do-

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. ~Louis Hector Berlioz

Libraries Will Survive (long version)

2010-09-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

I know I know I just can't resist a library who pokes fun at themselves. I also tend to have days like the poor girl in the video. It is a long video, sorry about that but worth seeing it to the end. There are several people in the video who I swear I know. I also have staff who would totally make fun of themselves just like this. Fortunately my library is not suffering from these types of budget cuts, at least yet. We remain hopeful that it will not happen to us.

Anyway enjoy!

New Spice | Study like a scholar, scholar

2010-07-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

This is a great way to promote a library. LOVED IT!

One of the few good things to come out of BYU, them boys had some skills. Made me laugh til I cried, especially the celestial sandwich!

Oops! We Did It Again

2010-07-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

Say Hello to Denali, Sitka, Aneira, Neva, Yuki, Akira or any other cute suggestions-

Yes it is a new little puppy

She is a Shiba Inu and American Eskimo Cross ( I know in the old days this would be a mutt)

She is eight weeks old today, very fluffy and cute. We are having a hard time naming her as you can see. It is hard to get six people to agree on anything. The really funny thing is that her mom is a sister to our Shiba Inu, Kimiko. When we went to pick her up the lady who had her said that her mom came from a breeder in Wyoming. This of course made us curious because we got Kimiko from a breeder in Wyoming. As we talked we realized that it was the same breeder and if you see the two dogs together they look a lot alike even though this little girls mom is a cream Shiba and Kimiko is red.

Small world

Anyway put in your two cents worth on names, we would love the input. (D is motivated toward Sitka or Denali, I like Aneira which means golden snow and the girls like Akira which means intelligent). The lady we got her from had named her Richard which just doesn't work for me.

Happy Belated Birthday Ty!

2010-06-22T22:28:00.000-07:00

While on our vacation Ty celebrated a milestone birthday. She is no longer a teenager as she passed kicking and screaming into her twenties. It is so hard to believe that she is already 20. I don't feel like I should have a kid that old.

Happy birthday Ty!

And many more birthdays to come!

Mountains, Men and Windy Plains

2010-06-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

Well the Crazy Family just got back from a whirlwind trip to the badlands of South Dakota. D wanted to get out of town and so we did. Of course it was a long trip (10 hours there, 14 hours home) but worth the drive. We all saw carved mountains, caves of jewels, an alien mountain, and a crazy theme park with Fred and Wilma (although, only from a distance).

Mount Rushmore was great. It is truly an awesome sight to see these heads that were carved by men hanging off the side of a mountain.

Here are the kids in front of the Utah flag as you walk up to the mountain. We walked around the monument taking pictures of the faces from different angles. We then walked down to the studio where the man who created rushmore lived and worked. They had a cool model of what the mountain was supposed to look like when it was done.

After Mount Rushmore we went to Crazy Horse which is what will be a huge memorial to the Native Americans. When it is finished all of the heads from Rushmore will fit in the head of crazy horse. It was very neat. They have a museum and native american cultural center and during the day artisans sell their wares inside the buildings. We missed the booths as we went just before dark as they do a lazer light show on the mountain which we wanted to see. Boo got a couple of cool pictures of the mountain at night but my camera did not like the dark. We went back the next day so that the kids could shop at the booths. They had some really nice jewelry, carvings and blankets for sale.

This is a model of what the mountain will look like if they ever finish it. It is three dimensional and will be the biggest statue or carving in the world. There is no government funding for the monument it is all funded by donations and gate fees that they charge to see the monument.

We also went to Bear Country. I was disappointed in it as we did not see much wildlife but the kids really liked it. It is a big drive through park with animals and then at the end there is what they call "babyland" where they have cute baby animals. There were a lot of bears and this is one just sunning himself on a big rock. Bears walk right up to your car and wander around this huge enclosure.

This is a shirt that D and I wanted at Bear Country. Ty bought herself one but it was a bit expensive for me.

South Dakota is also full of really cool caves. We toured the second longest cave in the world called Jewel Cave that they have mapped at over 150 miles so far with no end in sight. It was a great tour and we saw some neat formations. This time I forgot the camera so I don't have any cool pictures from inside the cave.

The Flinstones theme park was across the street from our hotel. We did not go in but took some pictures of it.

On our way home we detoured to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We did not actually make it into the park but took some cool pictures just outside. I loved all of the alien stuff in the gift shops.

We had tried to stop at Independence Rock on our way to Rushmore but it was so windy that we did not get out of the car. On the way back the weather was much better so we stopped and walked to the rock.

The little dots at the top of the rock are Boo and Bear who climbed to the top of the rock. They saw some of the signatures and said the view from the top was great. Of course Boo forgot a camera so we don't have any pictures from the top.

It was a fun mini vacation that was very needed. There was a lot of stuff that we did not get to do. We wanted to tour more of Custer State Park as there are some neat stuff to do there and there was activities at Deadwood and Lead that we did not get to do. Rapid city has some fun stuff to do and we did not make it to Wall Drug. I guess we will have to go back some day. All I know is Wyoming is a really long state with a whole of nothing but wind and grassland. After driving across it I have new respect for my pioneer heritage.

We've been hacked

2010-05-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Imagine the frustration of trying to get into you email to find that your password has been changed and that you security question is now in Chinese. Not a lot of fun. D has had trouble with hackers, first his Aion account was hacked into and all of his characters stolen and then yesterday he found that his Warcraft account had been hacked. The trouble multiplied as he tried to get into the email today to do the Sunday program that whoever got into his Warcraft account got our email address as well. We are in the process of trying to recover our old account so that we can close it but we all know how helpful Microsoft is. So those of you who read this blog that we email regularly or email us, please call D on his cell so that we can update you on the new email and get you back into the old/new address book. I guess this is one more reason (as if we needed more) why we should be careful when working online.

Happy Birthday Bee!

2010-05-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well little Bee is growing up

Tomorrow is her birthday

I can't believe that she is already 11

and just as feisty as ever

as the youngest she is, of course, spoiled rotten

loved and always wished to stay young

It is hard each year to see her grow up

one year further away from the memories of

wrapping her in cuddly blankets

dressing her in frilly little dresses

smelling that delicious baby smell

Now we get disaster area of a room

homework not finished

teenage hormones around the corner

but becoming a beautiful young woman

Happy Birthday Bee

Many more to come

I love you!

A fun bit of historical fiction

2010-04-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

With the plague running rampant in London in 1797, Mary's parents and sister are soon counted among the dead. Left alone and penniless, the eight-year-old is taken in by a gang of orphans and learns survival skills. However, when their leader is killed, Mary decides to try her luck elsewhere. She strips the dead body, cuts her hair, renames herself Jack Faber, and is soon employed as a ship's boy on the HMS Dolphin. When the vessel sees its first skirmish with a pirate ship, her bravery saves her friend Jaimy and earns her the nickname "Bloody Jack." Told by Mary/Jack in an uneven dialect that sometimes doesn't ring true, the story weaves details of life aboard the Dolphin. Readers see how she changes her disguise based on her own physical changes and handles the "call of nature," her first experiences with maturation, and the dangers to boys from unscrupulous crew members. The protagonist's vocabulary, her appearance and demeanor, and her desire to be one of the boys and do everything they do without complaint complete the deception. This story also shows a welcome slant to this genre with an honorable, albeit strict Captain, and ship's mates who are willing and able teachers. If readers are looking for a rousing, swashbuckling tale of pirates and adventures on the high seas, this title falls short. However, it is a good story of a brave ship's "boy" with natural leadership abilities and a sense of fair play and humanity.

I actually listened to the book on cd of this novel because we had a patron who wanted us to move the audio from the young adult area into the adult area due to some of the situations that young Jackie finds herself in. I have to say I was not excited to read the book but found myself sitting in the car to find out what happens next and I really enjoyed the story. Jackie is quite a character and I was rooting for her to survive all of the interesting scrapes she seemed to get into. I have now finished the next two books in the series and find that they are exciting and fun to read as this one. It is meant for older teens ( 11 and up) due to the fact that Jackie and the other ships boys are all entering into puberty and there is a near rape towards the end of the book. Not many pirates but still a fun adventure story of a young lady doing what she needs to survive. Loved her sense of humor and fun.

A Little Bit of Steampunk

2010-04-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Carriger debuts brilliantly with a blend of Victorian romance, screwball comedy of manners and alternate history. Prickly, stubborn 25-year-old bluestocking Alexia Tarabotti is patently unmarriageable, and not just because she's large-nosed and swarthy. She's also soulless, an oddity and a secret even in a 19th-century London that mostly accepts and integrates werewolf packs, vampire hives and ghosts. The only man who notices her is brash Lord Conall Maccon, a Scottish Alpha werewolf and government official, and (of course) they dislike each other intensely. After Alexia kills a vampire with her parasol at a party—how vulgar!—she and Conall must work together to solve a supernatural mystery that grows quite steampunkishly gruesome. Well-drawn secondary characters round out the story, most notably Lord Akeldama, Alexia's outrageous, italic-wielding gay best vampire friend. This intoxicatingly witty parody will appeal to a wide cross-section of romance, fantasy and steampunk fans.

I enjoyed this book. It did take me a bit to get into the story. I brought it home, read the first 10 pages and then had it promptly stolen by Ty and D who both read it before me. It has an interesting prefix with Alexia having no soul and therefore she is like the anti supernatural being. Her power negates those of other creatures. If she touches a vampire he (or she) loses the ability to be a vampire. The play between Alexia and Lord Maccon is good, although you are pretty sure that the two of them will eventually get together. I just started the second book in the series "Changeless" and I am enjoying it so far. Not reading it every second like some of my favorite novels. I do like the addition of the steampunk elements using the victorian setting with technology.

Be aware there is a small love scene at the end and some foreplay situations in the story as she and lord Maccon dance around each other. Other than that the book is pretty clean.

what possesses people

2010-03-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

This is totally yucky story so many of you may want to turn away. We have had a couple of instances of a group of young teens (13-14 yrs old) that have decided that it is fun and cool to leave a present on the floor of the mens room and then spread it all over the bathroom stall. I am talking all over including floors, walls, light fixtures, toilette and everywhere. I know, gross huh, I do not know why they would think this is appropriate let alone fun. It happened a couple of weeks ago and one of my poor staff members had to clean it up. It happened again last Thursday although when the group came in we had suspicions that it was them so we did watch them so when they got into the bathroom they had to do a rush job. Let me tell you I have never cleaned up anything so gross in my entire life and I am a mom! I mean what would possess someone to even think of doing such a thing and in a library to boot. Well we called the police and they were less than helpful about the situation although they did take a report and let us know that if the boys come in again to call. I had hoped when I caught a couple of the kids in the group last time and threatened them with police action that they were done but they came in again tonight. Police were called and I am not sure what was said or how this will all turn out as I was not at work tonight but I guess I will find out tomorrow. I have to say that this has really made me worried about those who we are looking at to run our country in the future. We think things are bad now what will happen when the "Poop Bandits" take over. These kids look like good kids. Not rag tag but well dressed and clean cut. I guess you can't judge a book by its cover because look at the result in this case. It really makes me sad that this is what things have become and that I may have to start locking our bathrooms and have a key on a toilette seat that patrons have to ask for to use the facilities.

Lets hope this is the end, I have doubts, but a glimmer of hope remains.

how do you let them go?

2010-03-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Those of you that have read Boo's blog you know that she is leaving to go to California tomorrow for orchestra. It is hard as a mom to let her go. When Ty went as a sophmore I went with her and was a chaperone. I couldn't go this year due to work and having several people off, one for maternity leave and one with a family emergency in Georgia. I can't say that I am not worried about her going. I know she will be safe but I worry, will she have fun? Will she run out of money? Ty went to New York as a senior but we were able to get her a visa card tied to our account so if she ran out of cash she had another source of money. With Boo this trip crept up on us and we did not get her a similar card so we are sending her with cash and hoping she doesn't run out. She is really excited to go but starting to feel nervous as none of her really good friends are in the orchestra or band and are not going. She has a few friends in the orchestra they are not the people she hangs out with much. Boo also hates rollercoasters and is worried people will not be nice if she isn't as willing to ride as they may like. I guess I just let her go with lots of prayers and trust in the leaders and chaperones that have been chosen to go and miss her while she is gone. It is not easy to see your kids grow up.

Work has been insane. I feel like I just get things figured out and have enough people to work when another catastrophe strikes and I am working the desk alone again. With many library staff going to Portland this week for PLA there is not a lot of help to be found. I was scheduled to go as well but some sort of inner voice said not to go so I backed out a couple of months ago. I am glad now that I did as I don't know what the staff would have done this week. I will be happy to have a full staff and hope that at least for the next four days that no one ends up calling in sick.

Crazy family is all good, I guess. D is starting into the busy time at work so he is working extra days. The overtime is nice but it sure makes him grumpy. Bee is hormonal. She is becoming a young lady and I do not know if I am going to survive her. G-Bear was ordained a deacon two weeks ago by D. He passed sacrament last Sunday for the first time. It is neat to have a husband that has a strong testimony and can pass this great gift on to his only son. While my testimony waivers often D is our rock and I love that he is so willing to get up early on a Sunday and make sure the G-Bear and Bee make it to church and can continue to grow and learn. Ty is working and taking a couple of classes. She seems to like it but you never know with her. She lives in her own world and while we tease her about living in the basement for the rest of her life we are so proud of her by taking the risk of going to college and to keep working at a job she seems to like. Boo cut her hair (12 inches) and is doing so well at school. I am so proud of her and the determination she has shown to keep up her grades and to participate in school as much as she does.

I am not going to be sick......

2010-02-19T20:42:00.001-08:00

I know I know I have not updated for forever. It is not because of being busy but lack of anything to blog about. We seem to be in that winter rut of just having the blahs. I have no energy and am lucky to make it through work only to come home and want to just curl up and sleep. I did get my bathroom painted and one wall in the great room. Touch up still needs to be done but I am waiting for D to fix the calking so the paint will stick. He has a touch of the procrastination bug which strikes all the males in his family it seems.

Valentines was crazy. we had house guests for the weekend due to a lovely dinner prepared by D's sisters husband. He is one of the best chefs and he made us all filet mignon and shrimp for dinner. All of D's brothers and sisters were there. We then watched D's brothers kids so that they could have a night out for their anniversary. It was kind of unsettling as they have a toddler and we have not had to deal with young littles for ten years. We are a bit rusty.

D bought a new microwave as the one they installed with the house was crappy. It worked but was so noisy when on that you could not hear the t.v. when it was on. D finally tired of the noise and when we scored a brand new Bosh for over half off we went ahead and bought it. It is so much quieter and does all sorts of fancy things.

As I sit here watching the olympics trying to convince myself that I am not sick but swallowing is becoming increasingly uncomfortable and the chills and sweats are coming more frequently....I am not sick, I am not sick, I am not sick. (if I say it enough times will it work?) I cannot be sick there is no one to work at the library. I came home early and crashed hoping to convince this to go away. Increasingly worrisome is that I am about three weeks off an infusion and I have no immune system to speak of so this could turn ugly really quick.

Wish me the best, I have to work tomorrow....

Good news is Boo scored a 3.98 for term 2 at school, way to go! I have been so impressed this year with her determination to do well at school. She has worked really hard to keep these grades high. She is enjoying the freedom of a newly minted drivers license (hard to believe that she is already 16) and her own little car to drive around. It is a little blue Metro that was given to us. Ty won't drive it because it is a stick shift and totally beneath her standards. All the better for Boo, she doesn't have to share only with her dad.

By the way for those of you who live locally the Davis County Library is having a big booksale tomorrow from 10 until 5 at the north branch in clearfield. Lots of really great stuff at good prices. Check it out you won't be disappointed!

The City of Lost Wages

2010-01-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

D and I decided to celebrate our anniversary the week between christmas and new years. D has been wanting to see Penn and Teller for a long time so we got tickets, reserved a hotel room and went to Las Vegas for a couple of days.

I have to admit Las Vegas is not one of my favorite places. I hate all the cigarette smoke and not being any sort of a gambler at all I just don't see the point. I do love the cool buildings and the shows but you always feel a little dirty after walking around with hispanic men shoving pictures of naked women in your face as you walk down the sidewalks.

Penn and Teller were awesome. We had excellent seats and enjoyed the show. It is amazing what they can do. Penn (the tall one that talks) does have some interesting political views which he expresses throughout but the show is well worth the money to see. Our hotel room was nice. D sprung for the view room so we were on the 17th floor with an beautiful view of the strip. We stayed at the Rio as that was where the show was. I do not know if I would stay there again. While it was all clean and the room was big and roomy the hotel reeks of smoke and even in a non-smoking room you still get a lot in your room.

We had hoped to get tickets to see Cique's Love at the Mirage but the show was sold out. We settled for looking at cool stuff at the Beatles store and taking pictures. We did go to the secret garden at the mirage and saw the tigers and dophins. We also stood in line (seemed to be the one thing we did everyday) at the Luxor to get tickets to see the Titanic exhibit. It was cool but I was very offended by the "Photo Opp" in the middle of the exhibit when they took your picture on the re-created grand staircase. I thought it was very tasteless and wrong when they took your picture when you went in the exhibit and then to spoil the mood of the exhibit by taking your picture in the middle. The best part of the exhibit was the "big piece" which is the large part of the hull of the titanic that they raised a few years ago and have preserved. I think the exhibit that came to Salt Lake a few years ago was a better exhibit with more artifacts and a better done set up.

Coming home was interesting we drove from Cedar City to Scipio in a major snow storm. It took us eight hours to get home. It was a fun trip but I did not like all of the long and slow lines. We spent so much time standing in line we stood in line for dinner, lunch to buy tickets to ride the shuttle back to the hotel. For a city that wants the tourist to come back (especially the adult tourist) they really don't seem to want to make you want to come back. I told D next time we were going to stay in the new hotel with no casino and such. I am willing to pay the extra!

luck of the family strikes again

2009-12-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

D was on his way home from work yesterday morning

It was very slippery and snowy

Unfortunately he and a Semi had a meeting of the bumpers

He lost

The semi won

This is the car that we just put $2,500 in a new transmission

It is currently at the repair place and we hope that the repairs are not more than what the insurance company will total the car at because we just put the $2,500 in the transmission

D is fine

The car

well,

let's hope for the best

Who Needs a Cat When You Have Kimi!

2009-12-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

Our dog is a mouser. In the last three weeks she has caught 9 mice. Unfortunately she loves to leave their little bodies in pathways where people walk (I know icky). The first one she caught she placed right by G-Bear and Bee as they were watching t.v. as if to say look what I have caught. A little friend to share with you. G-Bear looked over and screamed liked a girl and jumped up and down. Poor puppy hid under the table wondering what was wrong or what she had done. Yesterday she left a mouse on a sock on the floor like an offering to her masters. Because we wish to encourage her to catch the little critters we praise her and give her puppy treats while we dispose of her little friends. Boo just stepped on one while checking the fridge for milk. She was not pleased. We wondered if they were frozen mice that she was just finding but we found that they are in fact fresh kills as the last few have still been twitching when we have found them.

Good Puppy

Maybe we won't have mice in the garage this year!

Puppy Pics

2009-11-14T20:21:00.001-08:00

Watching t.v.

Just chilling with the peeps!

Looking for trouble

An Echo in the Bone

2009-11-10T18:51:00.000-08:00

I love the Outlander series I think the first three books were the best and the last couple of the series have not been as successful. However I think she did redeem herself in this latest offering. While not up to the storytelling of Outlander or Dragonfly in Amber I think she is moving back in the right direction. Her books can get very tied up in the history of the era sometimes to the detriment of the story. In this latest book she gets back into the story of Jamie and Claire who are facing the beginnings of the revolutionary war. Claire, being from the 20th century, knows what is coming and tries to decide how best to use the knowledge that she posses. Brianna and Roger are back in the 20th century living in the family home Lallybroch and trying to adjust to modern life after living in the 18th century for so long. Roger, with the loss of his voice through the terrible injury he sustained in the last book is left without a clear idea of what he wants to do. He was once a great singer and musician an now has to find a new identity. We also get the story of Jaimie's illegitimate son William, who has been raised by Jamie's good friend, Lord John Grey without knowledge of who he really is. He has no idea that he is the son of a scottish rebel he believes he is the son of an earl that died the night he was born. William is in the English army, a part of General Gages forces.

Gabaldon has such a gift at storytelling and makes you love each and every character. I loved her introduction of Benedict Arnold into the story and how she is able to weave those real characters from history into the world of Jaimie and Claire. The love between Jaimie and Claire continues to grow and you truly love these two and read deep into the night to find out how they will survive their latest adventure.

I love these books and re-read the series at least once a year. There are some love scenes in the books and once you start the series you will not be able to put it down. These are hefty books over 700 pages for each.

Happy Sweet Sixteen Boo!

2009-11-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

Yes people it is time to stay off the sidewalks

Boo is sixteen today!

Happy sweet sixteen

and many many more

Woo hoo! Way to go Boo!

2009-11-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

Yes!

It can be done!

That, my friends, is a 4.0

in her first term of High School

Boo, You Rock!

Her Fearful Symmetry and halloween

2009-11-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

From Amazon.com

"The endurance of love animates this gothic story set in and around Highgate Cemetery, in London. When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her estate, including an apartment overlooking the graveyard, to the twin daughters of her twin sister, from whom she has been estranged for twenty years. When Valentina and Julia show up to claim their inheritance, they soon discover that Elspeth is still in residence, in ghostly form. Niffenegger’s writing can be wearyingly overblown, but she has a knack for taking the romantic into the realm of creepiness, and she constructs a taut mystery around the secrets to be found in Elspeth’s diaries and the lengths to which she will go to reunite with her younger lover. It’s no small achievement that the revelations are both organic and completely unexpected."

I finished this book last week and it has taken me since then to decide whether or not I really liked it. I read it specifically because I did not like the time travelers wife as much as the popularity at the library would dictate so I wanted to see if the author had improved and that this book would be better. The book was very interesting but it felt like so much time was spent leading the reader up to the big event of the book but then minimal time was spent on the big event and the ending which made it somewhat unsatisfying. It was a ghost story and that part was very interesting, her take on what a ghost could or could not do, and I like supernatural stories. I thought she did make some interesting characters but I did not see the point of one of them. His story felt very out of place within the story. It took me awhile to read the book which in my case is a sign of disinterest, I usually devour books and will finish them very quickly (I read very quickly). This one took me the whole two weeks that I got to have it checked out from the library to actually read it. I let other, less important books pull me away. I am glad I read it as I can give an honest opinion on the book to patrons who ask but I am still on the fence as to whether or not I really liked it.

Halloween was interesting. I have kids getting older and trying to find fun things to do without the trick-or-treating. Boo ended up staying home instead of going out with friends. She often gets frustrated at being the one who gets everyone together and us having to be the driver to all of the activities. She did go to a birthday party on Friday for a friend from school and dressed up for that. G-Bear was a dark reaper, basically a skeleton in a robe. I painted his face and got to get a big sword (I think that is why he wanted the costume). Bee was a ninja, I know no princesses for my girls, so we got her a cool red ninja costume. Ty had to work but she did dress up for work. She was a elf (like lord of the rings, not christmas) with the pointy ears and everything. It was interesting because she bought white hairspray to make her hair white but her hair is so dark it just ended up looking like she had grey hair. She ended up washing it out before work.

The fun part of halloween is that D usually gets soda to hand out to the kids. It is so fun to hear the kids as they run back to mom and dad "I got pop! These guys are giving out pop!" it is really fun.

G-Bear and Bee

Bee as a Ninja Hero!
G-Bear as a Dark Reaper. His face looked really cool. I am improving on my face painting skills. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of Ty as an Elf or Boo as a vampire.

Book suggestions

2009-10-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

Since people tend to ask me what I have read lately that I liked I decided to add some book recommends to my blog (also because I seem to live a boring life and have nothing much to say lately)

"The Girl Who Could Fly" by Victoria Forester

Piper McCloud comes from a household that does what they do because doing otherwise would break tradition—they don't handle change well. When her conservative parents realize that Piper has the ability to fly, they forbid her to do it since it's just not their way of living. It's not quite so easy for Piper to give up flying, however. Once her "gift" goes public, news crews from around the world camp out in her family's fields in the Low Country. When a government agency comes to take Piper away, saying that they help all sorts of children with exceptional gifts, Piper does not realize that she will be attending a place that has harsher punishments than her parents could ever enforce—and she still isn't allowed to fly. It is in this underground clinic that Piper determines to find the truth, while helping the others, and herself, escape the evils that entrap them. This novel is an unforgettable story that will challenge many adolescents in their quest to decide between right and wrong, good and evil. The bravery and courage of Piper McCloud will give confidence to anyone, no matter how extraordinary or ordinary their gifts may be.

This book has a horrible cover but inside is a great story. I loved the book and even though it is a children's book it has a great story about being true to your gifts and celebrating what is unique about all of us. Be aware that while the main characters in the story are children there are some scary instances. I read the book because we had a question as to whether the book should stay in the children's collection or be moved to the Young Adult area. After a group of us read the book we decided that the situations in the story did not warrant being moved. Piper is a courageous heroine that really shows some spunk and determination in living her life the way she wants and being a true friend.

not much to say

2009-10-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

It has been a boring few weeks at the crazy house. With school going on and not a lot of extra money we have been staying pretty close to home. My first student loan payments came due this month and I feel so guilty about it. I got a raise when I switched positions that will cover the payments but I still feel really bad because for the last few months we have really had some breathing room with finances and now we are back to budgets and I am very worried about christmas. I know the loan was necessary to getting the new job and so it all had to happen it still does not stop the guilt of the costs. D keeps saying don't worry but that is an impossible task.

The older girls are at an anime convention this weekend. Last night they rode the train back home (first time for them) I was proud that they were brave enough to find a way to get back and forth to the convention without driving but I worried about them getting home okay. It is hard to see them growing up and becoming more independent. I took Boo and her friends to the convention yesterday after school. They have been so excited about this for the last few months.

G-bear is in a funk. He had a swimming party for scouts this morning that we missed. He did not get the time from his leader so when he went to find out what time this morning they had already left. He was very sad and depressed. He was looking forward to the party all week.

D is outside trying to get areas ready for sod. The issue is that he is alone and with no-one to help he is feeling overwhelmed which makes him grumpy. I know he really wants to get some sod laid on part of the backyard but no-one wants to come and help or he just doesn't know who to ask for help.

D's sister offered us two buddy passes on jet blue to go wherever we wanted. The sad thing is that there is no where to go. New York would be fun but we would need to convince my sister and her husband to come as well. Maybe if we split the buddy passes so that each would only have to pay for one ticket ($246 round trip) we could get them to come? It could be fun. We will leave the kid with auntie Ty and maybe grandma?

Work is work. The library has been busier than usual due to the sucky economy. People are really watching their money and using the great free services that we provide. The bad part is that while we are busier and that is nice people are grumpier and tend to take it out on poor underpaid workers like us. Really we are doing are best and people need to chill a bit. Traffic to get to the library is horrible. They have all the roads tore up and so by the time a patron gets to the building they are already mad and then we don't have exactly what they need they seem to get a bit more angry than usual. Of course I would too having to drive through the construction mess.

And I Saw Her standing there-

2009-09-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

All I have to say is amazing graphics and way cool music. We just got and have been playing Beatles Rock Band. The game is way cool and if you are even a little bit of a Beatles Fan you will find yourself singing and bopping along with each song.

By the way if you were like us when we tried to decide which platform to buy on a band game we liked the guitar hero stuff better not knowing about the future release of the Beatles Rock Band (which may have swayed our decision) so when this new rock band game came out we were afraid that we would have to buy another set of guitars and drums. All is well, the makers of rock band got smart and made the game cross compatible. All of our guitar hero stuff works fine on the beatles game despite being a different brand (at least on the Wii) so thank you Rock Band makers!

You are all invited to come and play!

It's my job?

2009-09-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

As many know I work at a library, these are some of the classic questions that I have gotten asked. It does make we wonder at the state of the world.

phone call-

patron- do you have any books?

Patron "why do I have a fine?"

Library clerk "it is for such and such (lost book)"

Patron "it's not lost I know exactly where it is"

Patron (different patron) "you mean I have to bring those items back?"

Patron on phone "Hi, I was wondering if you had some dinosaur sounds"

Librarian "like dinosaur sound effects"

Patron "no, actual recordings of dinosaurs"

Librarian " Well no, I might have sound effects"

Patron "Why not, I figure dinosaur recordings would be popular"

Librarian "because tape recorders did not exist when the dinosaurs were around"

Patron "do you have a picture of george washington?"

librarian "I have some pictures here of famous paintings of george"

Patron "No I need a photograph of george washington for school"

Librarian "Sorry no pictures of george of washington exist"

Patron "why not? he was really famous"

librarian "there were not any camera's around when George Washington was alive"

Being careful

2009-09-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

I was mumbling the other day about having to be more careful about what I post due to the fact that there are more people that I know that read my blog. It was a lot easier to get mad vent frustrations or feelings when I knew that only a few people, mostly just my family, that read my blog. Now I have family from both sides and friends that read it so I often feel I must censor what I say. D told me that I could always take the blog private and then I could muss and fuss all I want without worry. I have thought about this since then but I have decide to keep my blog just like it is. I like letting people read it, I don't have too much interesting to say but it would be boring if it was private. This being said I may rant and rave and take out frustrations but be aware that this is my blog and if I offend I am sorry. It is a way for me to let go sometimes and blow off steam. I love my family and I love D's family but there are times I may get frustrated and say something I shouldn't. If you don't like it don't read it.

Another note to my blog. As my wise younger sister said on her blog the internet is a scary place. This being said I am very careful to not mention names on my blog or mention any addresses or locations. I do this for a reason. I love my kids and my family and I want to keep them as safe as possible. Those of you who know us and comment on the blog please respect this and do not use names. If I include pictures of your kids with my kids you will notice that I will also not use their names. If you do mention names I will delete your comment and re-post it without the names in it. I do not do this to make you mad. Please keep commenting it is nice to hear from you I just want be careful. I know not many people read my blog but all the same I just want to be as safe as I can. (thanks Meemer for the inspiration for this, I stole it from your blog, love ya!)

family times and a long hike

2009-09-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was D's family reunion with his brothers and sisters. I of course had to work as no one had thought to call and see if there was a better weekend to do the reunion. I guess I should be used to it by now after almost 20 years but sometimes it still bugs me to be excluded from events just because I am the only wife and mother who works full time. Anyway I am rambling and this discussion is better served for another time. Friday the family went to the zoo and Saturday they went hiking up to Timp cave in American Fork. I did catch the last little bit of time at the zoo but I missed the hike which was sad because I have always wanted to see the cave.

This is the way cute new baby giraffe at the zoo, we did not get good pictures of the 3 baby tigers or the snow leopard as my camera batteries were low

Here is a picture of Boo at the Zoo, notice her way cool t-shirt (I got this when I was 16 at an A-Ha concert) she found it in a box of my stuff and stole it. I think it is cool that she likes it.

Group shot at the zoo with kids and one of D's little brothers and his wife. The zoo was fun and it was nice to see everyone although part of the group I did not see until we were leaving as they were all at the playground. After the zoo a group of us went to Cafe Rio and had dinner (love the pork enchiladas.)

Saturday D took the kids and went up Provo Canyon to have lunch with the Family and then they all had tickets to the cave. This is Bee with two of her cousins from Idaho who she was so excited to spend time with. I love the picture because it was so funny. Bee shows up and immediately is covered in cousins. They have so much fun together and they miss each other so much when they don't get to see each other very often.

One of D's best friends is a ranger at the cave. She made arrangements to take D and the kids through as their guide. She has worked in the cave for almost 20 years so it was great for them to have such a great guide. She did rib D about how long it took him to get to the cave. I guess it took them almost an hour and she climbed it that morning in 32 min. The trail is 1.5 miles to get to the cave but it is straight up and not an easy climb. G-Bear in the cave. He looks not so excited but when they got home I asked what he thought about the cave and he said that he loved it and wants to go back. He had lots of fun and thought it was really neat.Just some great shots of the beautiful scenery from the trail. It is a long way up!Bee and two of her favorite cousins
All in all I think that they all had fun. I wish I could have gone.

Shopping with a boy versus girls

2009-08-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

School clothes shopping with G-Bear is way different than with Bee. Case in point. We go to the ever evil Wal-Mart since that is the only place to take him since it is in and out, quick and dirty. Of course there is only 4 pairs of pants in his size in the whole store (not three different styles just four pairs period) we go to the dressing room to try on two different pairs of pants. First pair great he likes them we put them in the cart, they are the same as his old ones, by the time we are to the second pair there is now a line at the changing room so I ask him to let me in so I can see without him leaving the little room (we have issues with length versus width of pants, my kids are very skinny with long legs so to get them long enough without drowning them in width can be tricky). He lets me in once he has them on I ask do you like them, "no the belt is stupid" well you can take the belt off, they look nice. He of course still doesn't like them because he likes the other pair better, I told him we were going to buy two pair of pants so do you like them now "no, the belt is stupid" so we take them back to the area and I find one remaining pair of size 12 pants hold them up to the other pair they look about right and I ask him do you like these? "no I like the other ones" I told him again we are going to buy 2 pairs, do you like them now? " Okay whatever"

With Bee we try on everything, hope to find something small enough to fit her and that she likes. It has to be cute and sparkly and have lots of embelishments. G-Bear Okay whatever. He just wants in and out of the store as fast as possible. I picked out a shirt for G and that is fine. I pick out a shirt for bee and she hates it. Sometimes I really wonder if mothers of boys don't have it easier. With Bee we spent three hours shopping in just one store. G 20 minutes tops. In fact he did not want new clothes it was me that felt he should have something new to wear to school. Backpacks G picks the blue one just like last year. Bee we are still looking for just the right one and she is pouting because I would not go to 15 stores today for her to find that right one.

It is great to have cool cousins

2009-08-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

The crazy family just spent 4 great days playing in the mountains with cousins. Kids ran around creating games, swimming and hiking in the mountains. At the place that we go there is a big old crane left from when the ski resort was first built. It was very cool to see these four kids make up a game around the crane. At one time or another it was a pokemon, spaceship, crane, dinosaur, dragon and a car. It was great to see g-bear do something other than sit in front of the t.v. playing games he actually got out and played. We love spending time with our cousins at the condo and are always happy to go up and play.

I wish we could have spent the whole week up there as it is really nice to get away from phones and the stress of home. Thanks to Meemer and Big-D for allowing us to crash their vacation.

This is my favorite picture showing the kids up on the ski lift. It just shows how much fun that they do have together. It

is really great to have cousins your age that you enjoy spending time with. While I have way cool cousins myself now that we have gotten older, when I was a kid none of them were close to my age. My brother and I are the oldest by quite a few years so we missed out on having kids our own age in our family to hang out with. I am so glad that my kids have kids close to their age that live close and that they love to play with.

Alone on a holiday

2009-07-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

D just left with Bee, Boo and G-Bear for a trip to his parents. Boo needs to get some hours logged for her learners permit so when she turns 16 she can get her drivers license. Since I start my saturday shifts tomorrow for the next 8 weeks D decided it was a good weekend to go to Richfield, letting Boo drive from Provo on. Ty is at work so I am at home alone. It feels strange, the house is very quiet, the puppy is asleep at my feet.

Summer has been going really fast. We bought the kids a pool a couple of weeks ago and all they have done since is swim. It was a good investment as it has kept the two younger kids busy. Work has been very busy. The library is feeling the economic conditions as we have been busier than usual. As a library system our circulation is up over 30% over last summer. People are cutting back on their spending and finding things to do closer to home. Makes for busy times. While the days go faster as we are running around like crazy people it sure makes me tired once I get home.

I can't believe how fast the summer has gone. Soon the kids will be back to school. Since our San Diego trip turned into a transmission we have been trying to think of something to do with the kids that is less expensive and closer to home. Yellowstone was an option until we priced hotels and decided that it was more than I was willing to spend. I think we are going to just go and spend a few days with my sis and her family in the mountains and then have a huge yard sale for two days, hoping to make some extra cash that we can possibly turn into a mini-vacation. I would love to clean out my garage so that I can put bikes away and D can work on the basement once the weather changes in a few months. I would also like to have a backyard someday so D has promised to get the sprinklers finished in the backyard so we can get sod. We have spent so much money cleaning up the weeds in the back and leveling but to look at it know it is as bad as ever. It is amazing how fast the weeds grow versus the grass or flowers.

How do they know?

2009-06-22T20:56:00.001-07:00

Why is it that cars always know when you have money "socked" away for a family vacation?

D's car had bad day last week when it would not go into reverse. I thought oh know here we go again. Ty got into it the next day and it seemed fine. She drove it too work and while it made some funny noises it seemed okay. D took the other car to work for the next two nights but by Friday he felt it was okay to take it to work. At 9:00 pm he called saying he was stranded. He got as far as the Golden Corral in Layton before the transmission exploded all over the freeway. Boo and I hoped into the car to go and save him. When we got to where he was he had been on hold with the insurance company for over 20 min trying to get the okay to call a tow-truck. After another 15 min he finally got ahold of them and they called a tow-truck to take the car to the repair shop. Today he called the shop and they said they could put in a new one for $2000 (this is transmission #3)

So now comes the decision. Do we sink that kind of money into a car with 200,000 miles on it? logically how many more miles can we get out of the car before anything worse breaks. Do we spend the money hoping to get another 100,00o miles or do we find the money in the budget to purchase a newer car with fewer miles? I wish I had a crystal ball that could foresee the future. It is tough to decide. We know the car, the engine seems okay but I am scared that we spend the money, we drive it for six months and the engine blows up. Lately it has been a couple of hundred dollars every other month to fix this car. It is like having a car payment without a new car.

We had planned on taking the kids to San Diego this August for a week. We have not been on a family vacation for many years. I guess I must have thought something might happen because I had not booked hotel rooms yet. Who knows what will happen. The last time we had to replace the transmission it took the majority of our tax return. Same now. I just feel so bad that the kids have to miss out on something fun because of a dumb car that we need. How does it know?

Oh and to top off a great weekend the HOA from hell sent us a lovely letter saying if we did not take down the temporary fence that is keeping my dog from escaping they would begin to fine us by the day. I now have to pay for vinyl fence so that we can keep the dog in the backyard. Talk about kicking us while we are down.

Lottery anyone?

Okay Okay Here they are -

2009-05-31T19:29:00.002-07:00

Here are some pictures from our trip to San Francisco

One of the biggest reasons for the trip was to be able to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan Town. We were there on Sunday which was the last day and had the costume contest and the big parade.

These guys were the winning entry in the cherry blossom festival. There is a person in the wolf costume.

The announcer had said that this group has won the last three years and were not going to compete again but then changed their mind. They are characters from the game Zelda and the Twilight Princess

This person wore this and walked in a parade and all around the festival for several hours in 90+ heat.

This costume was way cool because the cat could actually talk and the mouth moved and everything. He is from the movie the Cat Returns
Most of the kids at the festival love to pose so here were a couple while we were at the big mall in Japan Town.
This is one of the really cool costumes I thought. It is a nintendo DS and was funny.
Ty and Boo at the cable car museum - Very cool museum and also free. If you get a chance to go to San Fran make time to go. It is on two of the cable car lines and easy to get to.

This the the entrance into the administration

side of Alcatraz. If you look close you can still

see where the sign was changed in the 70's

when the indians were living on the island

This is one of the cells at Alcatraz. It is one that they have fixed up and made to look like they did when there were prisoners there. The cells are very small, in fact that was the one part of Alcatraz that surprised me. It was very small. The area that actually had the cells was not a large space and there were not a lot of cells. Boo went into the cell in solitary that was the worst in the prison. The picture did not turn out very good because it was so dark. It was a creepy cell and gave you goosebumps to go into it.

D, Ty and Boo walking down from the cellblock. They were all feeling Johnny Cash that day and dressed in black (D's sweater is actually blue) I thought it was a neat picture and shows how steep it is to walk around Alcatraz. It is like climbing up a thirteen story building from the bottom where the dock is up to the cell block. It is really steep and not for the faint of heart.

This is the building where the prisoners went to work everyday. They made all kinds of stuff in this building. You could not get very close to it as it is not safe but is one of the areas that they hope to open someday. The only areas you can tour on the island is the cellblock building at the top and in the old fort at the bottom where they have a cool museum set up and a movie about the history of the island.

There were also some cool burned out buildings from when the indians had taken over the island. I did not post them because the picture thing on the blog drives me nuts trying to make them all work.

This is from the cable car looking down one of the really steep streets

Memorial Day

2009-05-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

We look so forward to Memorial Day as it is the first official day off from work for several months. It seemed like this year the time from presidents day to Memorial day both speed by and dragged. It has been such a crazy couple of months catching up seems to be the mode of the days.

Yesterday we met D's parents at the cemeteries in Ogden to put flowers on his grandparents graves. As we drove into the very busy cemeteries we were somewhat taken back by seeing hot dog trailers. Thinking these places had sunk to new lows to sell hot dogs at the graveyard! We were much relieved to find that in fact the wagons were simply giving away free drinks. Still somewhat weird but at least they were not selling something.

D's parents 47th wedding anniversary is this thursday and to celebrate they are going on an Alaskan Cruise this coming weekend. I hope that they have a nice relaxing trip. My parents anniversary is a day later and I apologize for not remember the year exactly. I think is it either 43 or 44 years. I think it is a great example for my kids to see that marriages can last and to have both sets of grandparents who have both been married for many years and still seem to like each other.

Short update pictures to follow

2009-04-30T16:46:00.001-07:00

I know I am bad. I have not updated in many days and I am sorry. So much has been going on in our days that by time we have a chance to breathe it is too late to do anything.

To start

Boo is back in track and playing soccer two games a week and three practices a week. She is really busy and because she can't drive yet, we are really busy driving her to various practices and games. There is not enough hours in the day to get her to everything.

Two weekends ago we took the older girls on a trip to San Francisco for the weekend. The four of us rode cable cars, went to the cherry blossom festival and alcatraz island. We also hooked up with my way cool cousin and her parents and had dinner. It was a fun trip, very busy. It was Boo's first plane trip and she seemed to handle it just fine. We left the younger two with my awesome sister who graciously babysat for four days. Thanks sis we appreciated it and hope to be able to pay you back. That is the pictures will follow. We took some good pictures of the festival and alcatraz. By the way it was the hottest ever in san francisco at the festival and D and I got a bit of heat exhaustion.

Graduation is Saturday and to top off the busy week I just went through grueling three hour interviews for the new position at work.

I promise to post pictures (as soon as i figure out how to get them off the camera)

Oh and I got the job

How do you say goodbye?

2009-04-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

It was a tough weekend at our house. Our beloved Izzy passed away yesterday of kidney failure. She has been failing for several weeks and we had been back and forth to the vet with her. The response of the PA over the last month has been simply - she needs to lose weight, she will be fine. By Tuesday of last week she was very lethargic and had not eaten for several days. By Friday she was loosing fur and D got mad enough to take her back to the vet in insist that there was something really wrong and they needed to find what it was and now. After several hundred more dollars worth of tests they finally determined that she had been suffering from kidney failure for the last year and her kidneys had finally failed completely. There was nothing that could be done her body was full of toxins and infection. This must have been a genetic problem because they don't see kidney failure in dogs until they are usually ten or eleven. Izzy was almost eight.

D brought her home Friday so that we could all say goodbye. The kids took some great pictures of her and gave her love and hopefully made some good final memories. D then took her back to the vet Saturday morning and had her put to sleep and out of her misery. The Vet had said that she would not make it through the next week. We had her put to sleep to prevent her from suffering any further. D brought her home she was put to rest in our backyard. We plan to put a tree over her this summer so as we can all remember her.

We are all sad and feel like a part of our family is gone. I walked into the kitchen all weekend and missed seeing her laying by the couch. I miss her greetings when we would come home and she would run to the door with her tail wagging. I miss her love of treats and how she would play tug of war with the puppy. I miss her coming up under my hand and wanting to be scratched. I miss her getting in the way when I tie my shoes and how she would push and get in the way so that you would have to scratch her.

This has been the first big loss for the kids and I am glad that we do have Kimiko to help them not feel the loss so badly.

Izzy we did not want you to go, we all loved you so much. I hope you are happy in puppy heaven and getting to chase balls and toys until your hearts content.

We love you!!

AWWWW!

2009-03-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today started out to be a let down. I took the day off work because class finished last night.

I had hoped either mom or my sister would want to do lunch or go celebrate. D had said that he would take me to lunch but then he just slept. When he got up nobody really said much about school and I was feeling pretty down

D said take Boo to soccer practice and I will cook dinner. This was not really what I wanted to hear. I wanted to go out to dinner since D has to work tomorrow. I sucked it up and took Boo to practice.

On the way home Boo asked to go to meemers house for just a minute to show off her learners permit. I was cranky and tired and mad but after a couple of miles of puppy dog eyes and quivering lip I turned into Meemers street.

To find that my family had planned a surprise party to celebrate school being done.

We had yummy chicken and salads and my mom bought a cake and there were presents.

Thanks family, you are the best!!!

I got a really cute frog planter and an awesome Jack sparrow shrunken head to hang in my car.

I love you guys and thanks for the surprise and to know that I am loved.

by the way

YOOO HOOO I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!!!!!

sad puppy and tired mom

2009-03-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well it is the home stretch. School is done on thursday. I have one big team project due on thursday and then I can hopefully become sane once again although I think sanity may be overrated. I have been working Saturdays for the last couple of weeks and I have one more to go. I hate working Saturdays because nothing gets done at home and I come home to mess cause the kids are home all day, no dinner because everyone is on the computers and forgets. It really sucks.

The sad puppy is that Kimiko got fixed or broken, however you choose to look at it. She went into heat early and we were scrambling to get her to the vet. She missed puppy school graduation because they did not want her to come and be a distraction to all of the little boy puppies. Poor girl.

Work has just become interesting. One of the branch librarians is leaving and going to St George to be an assistant director which opens up his job. This is why I have gone through the last eighteen months of school so that I could qualify for this level at work. I am a little freaked because I did not expect this for a year or so. I am stressed because I don't know if I can get my transcripts and such all updated in time to apply. I am one of the only ones qualified for the job but the library insists on putting you through horrible interviews so it is not a guarantee that I will get it. I have hope but you just never know.

Boo has her learners permit and I really feel old. How did I get to have two kids old enough to drive? We finally move Bee into her own room and we have had fun decorating it. It is purple with pink and green accents and is actually turning out cute. Her dad bought her a cute canopy to go over her bed and I did some fun letters that spell her name on the wall. Next we will put G-Bears room together, paint it and make his cool loft bed again. Slowly I will start to decorate my poor little house. It has only taken two and half years to get this far.

Happy Birthday G-Bear

2009-03-02T10:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday G-Bear

I can't believe that you are already 11

Thanks for being such a good kid and I hope you have a happy birthday

I still remember the day you were born. We had such trouble getting you here.

lots of close calls and worries and we were so excited when we found out you were going to be a boy. After all of the problems we were excited to round out our family with a boy. When the Dr decided that it was time I remember going over to the hospital from his office and getting already thinking it would be many hours of labor. Instead you decided to rush things along and the Dr almost missed you.

When we brought you home we kept saying you looked like baby Elvis with your sideburns and black hair and you used to curl your lip.

Happy birthday

Last First day of class

2009-02-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

Here I sit.

The Last first day of class

six more weeks to freedom

I am looking very forward to no homework, posting, papers, presentations.

This may be the hardest class yet because I am so ready to be done.

Let's hope I do not screw it up.

Wish me luck

Final Crazy lady update

2009-02-19T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well she did not get fired but is on probation and has to be nice to everyone. If she does anything negative to anyone or tries anything funny she is gone. She has a personnel action letter in her file and so work life goes on hopefully with less drama. She still won't talk to me but that may be a good thing. If anyone remembers the song "your so vain" Well that fits.

Valentines rememberance

2009-02-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

Ty is a funny girl. She found an old movie that I used to watch in college for the hot lead actor. I used to have a picture of Dolph Lundgren in my college dorm room hanging on my bathroom door. You know (those of you who are old enough to remember) Dolph as He-Man in Masters of the Universe in his skimpy little outfit. That horribly acted and terribly scripted movie from the late eighties. Ty bought me the movie on dvd.

Thanks Ty, it brings back memories.

It was weird that you found it and bought it.

Cute but weird.

Rights of Passage

2009-02-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

Oh how time flies.

We are currently in the process of filling out Boo's high school sophmore schedule. Time passes so quickly it seems like only yesterday that we were filling out the papers for her to go to kindergarten. Boo will be a Titan next year. She seems to have found some fun classes to take including ceramics, PE (Boo loves PE, unlike her mom), orchestra, and the traditional english, math, biology, world civ. I keep forgetting that in nine months she will be sixteen.

I feel so old.

Puking Kids

2009-02-18T18:53:00.001-08:00

Well we have officially caught the puking flu. Boo started Monday morning early. Poor girl tried to go and play soccer at her tournament but could not play due to being in the restroom most of the game. D finally gave in and brought her home. Boo feels better today but did not go to school yesterday. Bee was also sick yesterday but how much of it was actually being sick or not wanting to go to school who knows. Bear woke up today green and sick so he has been home all day. I am not looking forward to catching this horrible bug. I do not think that it was from the trip last weekend. You cannot catch the flu in 2 days. D's brother, you are officially off the hook for spreading the sickness. I think we had already been exposed before we came to visit. lets hope we didn't spread a new version to you guys.

I hate tummy flu!

Crazy Psycho lady update

2009-02-16T10:45:00.001-08:00

Well

Last Monday the bosses sat each of us down alone and told us the incident was over and done. It happened not on work time and we were not to talk about it or let it interfere with work. We all had jobs to do and we needed to get them done.

Fine with me. I continued to say hello to her and she ignored me.

Wednesday she continued in her crazy behaviors and did something that has since sent the Director and the crazy lady's supervisor to personnel. I think that there are to be severe repercussions to the crazy lady. When the Director tells you to leave something alone you best do it.

I will keep you posted.

Freezing Cold and Great Curry

2009-02-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

So we went to Rexburg to visit D's brother and go play in the snow. As we were driving there we were a bit worried as we seemed to have more snow than they did. Once we reached Idaho Falls did we finally see big snow and in Rexburg they have lots of snow. We checked into our hotel and were surprised to find a empty swimming pool. We had planned this vacation with time for the kids to swim as it is one of their favorite things. Of course the hotel decided to do their pool fixing this weekend when we had planned our trip. The kids were very bummed and I felt bad as we had chosen this hotel to save a little money instead of going to the more expensive ones that had, of course, pools not being repaired. It is our luck 2/3 of the time we go somewhere with a pool the pool ends up closed. I guess we should really make that a question when we book hotel rooms.

Rexburg is cold. The girls had fun watching the thermometer in the car drop lower and lower. At one point it was at 4 degrees. BRRR. The hotel room was warm except by the big window where I was sleeping.

We spent all day Saturday at D's brothers and had a blast. The kids played in the deep snow and pulled long and tall icicles off of their house. Boo drove the snowmobile and got lost in the big field. The snow is white it was snowing and the clouds were low. It is very scary and D and his brother had to go and find her. I did not participate in the outdoor fun but stayed inside and watched the baby. After a fun day in the snow we snuggled the kids up in front of a movie and we went to a nice dinner with D's brother and his wife. Keri no worries about Jessica and the throwing up. Clothes wash and she did not mean to. I felt bad that she was sick.

Thanks Rich and Keri for all of the fun this weekend. We will have to come again to play in the snow. The kids had a blast and so did we. Thanks for letting us come.

We came home on Sunday because we had planned a nice dinner with my sis and her family to make up for the birthday dinner that did not happen because of sick kids. Big D was making us curry and Japanese food for dinner. We were all very excited for the fun.

The curry was yummy and wonderful and we had lots of fun. The kids always play pretty good although I think my kids were a bit tired and grumpy. Fussy was so cute we brought over his birthday present of a nice cars blanket and some hot wheels. One of the hot wheels had a roof that came off and he kept pulling it off and then insisting that you "fix it". He is getting so big and fun to be with.

The girls got big D and Meemer watching a video on the computer and my D thought it would be fun to sneek out. I tried to stop him but he was determined. Sorry Meemer, he did not mean to be mean. Thanks for our really nice dinner. It was fun. We will have to do it again in a couple of weeks for Bears B-day.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful fella

2009-02-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

I have been very busy and lax about posting and I missed his actually birthday...but

Happy Birthday to my great husband.

Thanks for putting up with all of our craziness and being the great guy that you are.

You are the best and I love you more everyday.

Happy Happy Birthday

and many many more!

He took me to Disneyland on my birthday and I wished I could have taken him somewhere cool for his birthday but maybe in a month when I get done with school. We did take him to one of his favorite restaurants and he did get some cool gifts.

Anyway

Happy birthday honey

Love you!

Crazy Psycho lady at work

2009-02-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

Okay

many of you know I work at the library and I love my job. I mostly love everyone I work with but we have a lady who works at our building that truly scares the crap out of me. I has been rumored but nobody could prove that this person would send threatening letters to you at your home and has caused many people to be very uncomfortable around her. On the outside she seems like a nice lady but I think she is psychotic. She works part time and has everyone so bullied that she in some respects rules the roost.

Example, a group of us used to always go out to lunch on Wednesdays. We used to include her in this until she started a war against another of the ladies for no reason and made everyone uncomfortable to have her go. The lady she hated has since retired and so much was made of us going to lunch and including her that we very rarely go and we almost have to make it a secret. It is just so uncomfortable to go with her because she is so vindictive against everyone.

Three of us decided to go to lunch today last minute. We planned today because she is usually not working on fridays but low and behold she was there today. We decided to go anyway and three of us went to lunch. We got to the place we decided on, got our food and were almost done eating when this lady showed up. This is not a coincidence. She had already gone to lunch and was at work when we left and we did not even know when or where we were going until we got there. She lives in the opposite direction of where we went so it was not on her way home. There was no real logical reason that she would have been at that restaurant at that time. This woman would have had to drive around until she found the car we drove and then come in. It was way scary and creepy that she would stalk us like that........

Of course she accomplished her goal, she ruined our lunch and now has everyone worried about how she will get us back. We came back so upset that we felt we had done something wrong that we told the bosses exactly what was said and done in order to protect ourselves.

Is this not crazy behavior?

I have to say that I am not looking forward to work on Monday. I hate the fact that she made me feel wrong about something I did on my own time. Our lunches are not paid time and we should be able to eat where and with who we want ...... right?

January Blahs

2009-01-23T20:10:00.000-08:00

I had someone say to me that the third week in January is the worst week of the year and I would have to agree. The air is mucky and the sun doesn't shine through all of the gunky air. It was a short week for work as we had Monday off but the rest of the week seemed to drag. Of course it did not help much to get sick again on Thursday and I am home from work today again with the flu. I mean really. I have not even got over the cold from earlier and I am sick again. D, Boo and I made a trip to the Dr yesterday to see what they think it is. No strep, and they tested for flu, it was not the one they tested for but the Dr was pretty sure that we have some flu strain and I have a nasty sinus infection as well.

I hate being sick. I have way too much homework and papers to write to be sick like this. It was sorta funny all three of us being squashed in one exam room and it became a contest as to who had the highest fever and the highest blood pressure. D won for fever I won for blood pressure. That was okay because he was the one who got the q-tip shoved up his nose for the flu test. Boo has missed way to much school already and I feel bad that she feels bad. D has been a trouper going to work despite feeling like crap. I am a wimp but when I go to work they send me home.

The positive is one more week and then only one class (yeah) I end the dreaded hated class of the last little while. Because of the holiday break this class has been two months long. I am very excited to finally have it over with. I just keep thinking 9 more weeks and it will all be done.

Hurray

Have to go watch Tucker and write a paper on it.

wish me luck

I hate those three words

2009-01-16T18:21:00.000-08:00

What's for dinner?

I cannot tell you how much I hate those three little words. I am up to my eyeballs in homework and work and I no sooner walk in the door and hear what's for dinner. Come on guys help a mom out a little. They are up there with, sorry mom I did not mean to and Oh crap as one is looking at the checkbook.

I admit I have not been the best about planning out dinners and such in the last while. I used to be such a good mom and would make sure I had something defrosted every night when I got home to make a nice dinner for my family. I feel like such a mom failure.

I promise I will be better after March, will Martha Sewart come and take away my mom license before then? I hope not.

Mac and Cheese again

oh well

Hot dogs are food, right?

Sick Sick and Sicker

2009-01-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

Well the cold that has been passed down and around and up and all over has finally struck. I have been sick for about three weeks and really wish it would go away but now poor boo and D are both fighting the yucky stuff as well. Both are a little testy and already tired of being sick after only a couple of days (try three weeks). I think I will go and spray the entire house with lysol. Bee and Bear already had the cold, they passed it to us. Ty seems to be immune (curse her). So lots of sneezing, coughing, whinning going on at the crazy house.

what a crazy month

2009-01-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

I have been chastised by cousins and such about not posting for over a month even though I know of others who are as bad so here is our update.

Thanksgiving was nice, my mom is the greatest and always makes a good feast. I finished one more class and am in the middle of another one and start another one tonight so I may not post again for awhile. I am still pulling an A average although now I said that I will jinx myself.

Christmas was great. Smaller than normal due to all the craziness in the world we played it a little safe this year. It was really nice when D got a big bonus for christmas which allowed us to finish up without using credit cards. The kids got some awesome stuff including guitar hero world tour for the Wii, Wii fit and a bunch of other computer games. I think everyone got pretty much what they had asked for and had fun.

D and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary in December. Of my family excluding my mom and dad we have been married the longest. I also have to say that I love my D as much today, probably even more, than I did 19 years ago. He is a great and wonderful guy to put up with all of my craziness for so long. Love you D

Ty is still at the theater pushing popcorn. She seems to like it and has taken advantage of the perks having seen many of the new movies.

Boo has had a couple weeks of no soccer and cello and is now working her way back into shape.

Bear and Bee are still fighting and making huge messes.

Nothing too exciting at our place other than no time to do and a hyper puppy running amok.

Happy 2009

Happy Birthday to the best sister ever

2009-01-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't blogged in a bit. Life has been crazy and I caught the really bad icky cold and have been sick for a couple of weeks so sorry everyone.

since I am sitting in class right now and won't get a chance to call her until tomorrow I wanted to wish my sister Meemer a happy birthday. You are the coolest sister ever and I love you. I hope you have a good birthday and many many more to come. We will have to get together and do something fun in the next couple of days. I would love to take you to lunch! And just because it is cool happy 74th birthday to Elvis as well.

So happy birthday sis!

Bad luck always comes in threes?

2008-11-29T11:09:00.001-08:00

It has been one of those weeks that you wish you could rewind time and try it again without the drama.

Monday my new car was hit in the parking lot at work. I came out to go home and there was a note on my car of a person who apologized for hitting my car and to contact her. It was lucky that she left a note but it still is really frustrating that my pretty new car now has a bashed in front fender. The first estimate was $1200 to fix it.

School is frustrating me. Maybe it was just this week but they are adjusting the assignment for the classes and the new templates are very confusing. I spent six long and miserable days trying to figure out how to do this last paper and I know I blew it. I just hit a wall and could not think. I worry about my grade and hope I can redeem myself over the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday I start another class on top of the existing one. So far the reading looks interesting and seems to be stuff I can actually apply at my job. That will be a change as most of what I have learned is not as helpful in my job as it is for most completing the degree.

Nothing is getting done at home. No christmas decorations no yard cleaning up or cars licensed. I hate the four day state workweek as D's day off is usually friday and the offices are all closed so my cars are still unlicensed.

I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop as we had the car bashed, bad luck at school and what do we think the third thing will be?

I keep you all posted.

Always the last to know

2008-11-29T10:40:00.000-08:00

D comes from a big family. He is the second to the oldest of six boys and two girls. Needless to say the family has gotten bigger as you add in wives and husbands and kids. I love his family but when compared to mine it is so very different.

My parents are always willing to help. Whenever we need help or even just a shoulder they are always there. They never forget a birthday, anniversary, event or whatever is going on in our lives. They call weekly if they have not heard from us just to make sure that we are all okay. The kids love them and I know I can depend on them.

D's parents are much different. Granted they are a bit older but they never call and we seldom hear from them. We do not see them very often, even when they visit D's sister who lives 30 min away from us. They remember the kids birthdays (usually) sometimes D's but never mine. His siblings are all over the place but nobody really keeps in touch other than the guys who play some dumb computer game together on-line. It just feels like you are not important to them. I am sure that they love D and the kids in their own way but so often it is really hard when D needs that family connection and so often he is left out.

Why am I musing, many would appreciate the lack of interest from their inlaws. I guess it was the traditional we need money request that happens this time of year. D's siblings go together for a gift for his parents each year. I do not mind going in on a gift it saves me time trying to figure out gift I can get them (D is no help) that they will hate this year (I try to be creative, it never works). My problem is that his siblings are all about asking for money but yet we never get to participate in the choosing of the gift. It feels so much like all we are good for is the cash. D did say his brother asked him for suggestions but I think it was more an afterthought when the decision was already made.

I get angry and frustrated because his mom and dad are missing out on so much of four really great kids. They have never seen either Ty or Boo play in a concert, Boo play soccer or participate in any thing with my kids. They did not come to Ty's high school graduation. These are such memorable and important things and just makes me feel bad that they miss out on these great events. I know they live three hours away but it is still tough to see them miss out by their own choosing. In doing so they are also missing out on a really great son. A caring wonderful guy who tries so hard to be a good dad, husband and friend.

I guess this teaches me to be a better parent, to treasure each moment and as my kids grow up and embark on the next steps in their life, the parent or grandparent I want to be in their future.

To my parents, Thank you for always being there. For all the times you have bailed us out come to our rescue moved our furniture and loaned D tools. For all of the great things you share with us and the time you are willing to give. Thank you for all of your love support and being you. You guys are great and I am so glad that you are my mom and dad. I love you both.

lack of interesting material

2008-11-23T16:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry for no post lately. It is not that anything hasn't happened it is just taking the time to put together a post has not been in the cards. We seem to always be going in six million directions and with indoor soccer having started it makes for busy weeks.

Boo's indoor season is officially started. They have played three games all against teams bigger and older and have not done as well as they would like. One of the teams they have played twice. Boo is doing well in her playing. She enjoys pushing the other team around. Those who have never seen an indoor soccer game it is like soccer and hockey put together. You play the ball off of the walls around the field and can push and shove a little more than in regular soccer or maybe you just notice it more because the field is smaller. Anyone who would like to come her games are on thursday nights, give us a call and we will give you more details.

A couple of weeks ago we had the great privilege to see my sister and her son in Savior of the World. It was really great and we all enjoyed it. It was really neat to get to see the show and it was fun to see them performing. Thanks for the opportunity to attend. They both did a really good job and I know it has been a lot of work for both of them.

Ty is loving her job except that she has some late nights and early mornings and seems to get tired and grumpy. We scored our first couple of perks of her job. She got us twilight tickets for Friday and we got to see the movie. Our showing was nice we did not have to wait in line and theater was not too crowded unlike the next day when she got her dad tickets to Quantum of Solace (he is a big 007 fan) that theater was very full and crowded. It was a great movie and Twilight was okay, not as good as the book(they never are)

Everyone else is doing okay. School is tough and I will have two classes together starting in two weeks and I am worried about getting all of the work done. I just keep saying four more classes.

Happy Birthday

2008-11-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Boo!

Today at 4:40 pm you were 15! I can still remember when you were born. The doctor figured we would have you by noon considering you were a 2nd baby but you refused and were born in your own good time. You were so cute with your hair standing straight up. In the hospital the nurses would put gel in your hair to get it to lay down but as soon at the get dried it was standing straight up again.

You had the most beautiful blue eyes and all of this black hair that soon after turned blonde. You were so much different from your big sister. You were all sass and hated to be carried down stairs frontwards. You were always so full of life and wanted everything your way. You loved sports, soccer and running and hated to be inside the house. You spent every hour you could outside playing.

I love you and I am so proud of you. You work really hard and it shows. You are so talented and beautiful and I am proud to be your mom. Happy 15th birthday.

Happy birthday......

and many more to come

Just think next year sweet sixteen.

booksale this weekend

2008-11-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

All of you friends and family who live in the area, the big library booksale will be this weekend the 7th 8th and 10th at the library in clearfield. Lots of really great stuff. Prices are on friday $1 a hardback book, $.50 a paperback, Saturday $.50 a hardback and $.25 a paperback, monday $3 a bag or $5 a box. Times are from 5-8 on friday, 10-2 on saturday and 6-8 on monday. I will be there working all three days so if you have questions give me a call.

It is a great opportunity to get some great books at incredible prices. Some may be in tough shape but there is a lot that were donations. There will also be video's dvd's and other a.v. items as well.

check it out!

First Paychecks

2008-11-04T14:32:00.000-08:00

Ty after much pushing and shoving from her dad and I got a job a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that she could have got a good job working for the library she decided that she wanted to work for a movie theater. She applied to all of the theaters around and finally got a job at the Tinseltown in Layton. Her dad and I were very excited for her and have tried to support her as much as possible.
Last Wednesday she got her first paycheck. It was for a little over $200 (minimum wage sucks). When she told me she had gotten paid I gave her the little talk about not spending it all at once and making sure she left enough money for gas and such for the next couple of weeks.

Well she is a teenager and she went out the next day and bough a PSP. She now has 18cents in her account, a car on empty and no money to buy gas. D tells me I am being too hard on her. It was her first paycheck and she got excited. When I talked to her after she didn't think that I was being serious on not spending the whole thing. Oh well. the sad thing is that a check that D wrote out last april for a soccer uniform got deposited this week so we are financially in the same boat as her. Oh well. I hope she saves some of the next one.

I have four cars in my driveway, one won't start (stitch), one on empty(Max), two not registered (max and big car), and my car (roxie) working toward empty since it was the only one with gas and everyone keeps driving it.

Payday is thursday.

election crazy

2008-10-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

So far I kept my feelings and comments to myself about the elections and all that is going on in our world. When people would discuss, often heatidly, about who is who and what is what and what crazy man picks a running mate who has no experience I have shook or bobbed my head in accordance with their views. I know of people who get daily multiple emails about who they should vote for according to religion. It is all just crazy.

We are all individuals and the right to vote is our right. Who we decide to vote for whether it be Super Dell for Governor (not likely) or which of these two guys running for president, is our own personal decision and truthfully no one needs to know. I don't believe that anyone has the right to make my decisions for me or tell me what to do. We fought a war to gain these rights and as citizens it is our duty to make use of them.

I admit that this is a very important election. The country is in a mess that whoever we choose is going to have to find a way out of. This will not be an easy fix as it is going to take a long time to get though the current financial trouble and get us back on a positive track. No one, even Obama or McCain has a magic wand that they are going to wave and poof we all are happy and weathly and wise and our houses are worth millions again and anyone can get credit. It is not going to happen.

Choose who you think will do the best job, read up on the issues, be and informed voter, do not let any one group sway your decisions, make up your own mind, and most of all get out and vote. It is your right and responsibility.

adigators and family dinners

2008-10-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

D's little brother moved back to Utah last winter from Arizona. They built a beautiful (huge) new house out in Stansbury Park. I had not yet seen the finished house so they invited us over to dinner yesterday to see the house.
Bee has been driving us cookoo (not that it is a far trip) to go to the zoo so we combined the two activities. We took the kido's to the zoo for a quick trip around (we have season passes). Caught the elephant show looked at the animals and of course the obligatory trip to the gift shop. Well to everyones surprise all of the white alligator stuff was 50% off so the kids (except boo) got little white adigators (Bee's word).
We then got lost in Salt Lake because D thinks that I-80 East and west are joined. Luckily we did not get too lost it just took an extra fifteen or twenty minutes to get to his Bro's house.
Dinner was nice, the house is beautiful and spacious, I would love to have their master bedroom closet. It was a fun day except for the no homework getting done but it was really nice to get the invite and to see family. These are bee's closest geographical girl cousins almost her age so she was in pink pony heaven and it was hard to pull her away to go home.

Thanks Ken and Steph- We will have to have you over to our house next.

Oh and D's littlest bro proposed to his g-friend and they are getting married in April. Congrats Matt and Crystal.

To my sister

2008-10-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

You are the best and I do love you more than you will ever know. I love to spend time with you and your great family. I did not mean to make you sad or feel bad or like I didn't like you because I do, you are my sister.

You are beautiful and I appreciate all that you do. I know we are a bother and you probably wish that we had not moved so close. Sometimes it is just hard to be around everyone and yet inside ourself feel not a part of what is going on. It is nothing on you but all on me.

I envy your commitment, your spirit and light. That through all of lifes troubles you seem to stay strong in the faith and committed to your family. Others of us are just not that strong. We just don't have the ability to fit in and always feel the outsider no matter the situation.

I have the problems and the issues for I am so far from perfect. It is hard to be me sometimes, in a family of such beautiful people and you are the only one overweight and not beautiful. Like the ugly duckling who never got to be the swan. Maybe I am just in a funk with so much pressure that this was the outlet. but as you once said about your blog this is my outlet and if you don't like it I am sorry but it all can't be happiness and light all of the time.

My Meemer, take heart, I do love you and I respect all that you do. You are my best friend and I did not mean to hurt your feelings. You are so beautiful, fun, interesting, loving and most of all the best sister I could have ever wished or hoped for.

Forgive me-

Where do I fit?

2008-10-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered where you fit in your family? As we get older I think we loose that place where we once fit. I feel so alien with my family some times. Like I am the one that it is easiest to forget or to not ignore exactly but gloss over, like an afterthought. I blend in with the furniture and seem to dissappear. I have two very beautiful and outgoing sisters who seem to be so vivid and so full of "look at me" I feel so frumpy and old and fat next to them. They both have beautiful little babies that along with a niece and her beautiful little baby always seem to steal the show. I have no cute little baby (not that I want one) or that ability to make everyone want to spend time with me.
I was always the good kid. I got straight A's, I did not date. I was the peacemaker and spent my time doing school work or reading. I loved cars, like my dad, so he would take me places and I felt a connection with him. I did not have a lot of friends as I was shy and had a hard time moving outside my comfort zone (I still do).
My mom and sister get to spend time together as neither of them work. They seem to have so much fun and I feel so left out. My other sister just has a lot going on in her life and demands the attention. My brother is always knee deep in problems that need solving. I am just me.
My mom tries to involve everyone and I love her even more for her efforts but when you have the choice of beautiful and interesting over frumpy and fat I know who I would choose.
This is not a pity me party (mom don't freak out), just mussings over how, as we get older, our place seems to shift and adjust. When we once felt like we mattered in the grand scheme we now find that we are less than we thought.
If we do get to come back, once this life is done, I want to be pretty and interesting.... not frumpy and fat and boring.

Just a thought

Soccer Update

2008-10-12T17:39:00.001-07:00

Okay friends and family

Boo's truly last La Rocca game for the season (the makeup game) will be this wednesday the 15th at 5:30 at Ellison Park in Layton. (this park is on the road by Sam's Club in Layton that runs east west and is by the swan lakes golf course)

If you can make time to come you are very welcome. The weather is supposed to be better and I am sure that she would love to see anyone that can come.

Indoor will start in about three weeks. They are looking at playing at the Sportsplex in Kaysville.

Please come......

Support our soccer girl

Anyone for Octember?

2008-10-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

We woke up to an interesting site for october 12.

SNOW

not just a little snow but almost a foot and it has snowed most of the day.

these pictures are after most of it had already started to melt

the kids have been in and out all day building snowmen, building a snow fort and having snowball fights

The puppy loves the snow and she has been bounding in and out and through all of the big piles all day as well. She comes in wet and cold and jumps on uncovered legs...

They are predicting highs in the 70's later in the week

welcome to Utah.......

Begging Pleading Asking

2008-10-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Boo's final LaRoca fall season game is tomorrow morning at 10:30 at North Layton Jr. High (this is the jr high on antelope drive accross from Chili's and Lowes). Any of you who can come we would very much love it. She could really use the support. She has worked so hard practicing twice a week and has improved so much. It does not even matter if you only stay for half of the game or come for the second half, it would still be nice for her to see her family and friends supporting her. The games usually last about an hour and a half so it will be done by 12:00.

So if any of you can clear some time and come support my super soccer girl please do!!!!!

They do not have a playground at the school but anyone can drop off kids at my house and they can play with G, Bee and the puppy.

PLEASE PLEASE COME, IT WILL BE FUN !

Puppy Crazy

2008-10-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well the kids have found out how much fun puppys are. I would think that they would have remembered Izzy but I guess you forget after a few years. We named the puppy Kemieko (I know I am not spelling it right) Sakura (I know the kids did it). I call her CoCo for short but she is a little fireball. Her greatest joy is to tease Izzy. She will stand in front of her and bark and bounce and do all kinds of crazy things trying to get her to play. Izzy growls. The puppy loves to jump and chase and bite, like puppies do, and the more the kids scream and yell the more excited the puppy gets. The pupply likes to chew and although she tries to tell the kids that she needs to go out they sometimes don't get the hint in time and we have to clean up after her. Ty has been really great and has been sleeping on the couch up stairs in order to listen and take out the puppy at night. The downside is that the puppy gets excited when D comes home in the morning and jumps on Ty's head. Little claws, ouch!

This is what we did

2008-09-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

She is a nine week old Shiba Inu puppy. She does not have a name yet so we are looking for suggestions. She hops like a rabbit and we are leaning toward something japanese so all of you cool people who speak japanese suggestions are wanted or anyone else who wants to. We are waiting to hear from you. All we ask is that it be clean and easy to yell at a puppy when she escapes.

Izzy seams to be tolerating her so far. It was very cute tonight to see her bouncing around Izzy like a crazy rabbit trying to get Izzy to play with her.

D says we can't take her back so we are stuck with her.

The kids wouldn't give her back anyway, they are all in puppy love

have you ever done something..........

2008-09-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

Have you ever done something.......crazy

without really thinking about it

just on the spur of the moment

and then wondered

am I crazy?

Who's idea was this?

But then again if you have to drive for 2 and 1/2 hours to do the crazy thing is it really spur of the moment?

Hmmmm...............

I know nothing

2008-09-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

It is really sad when you have no idea what is going on. I have been so focused and stressed for the last six weeks that I have no idea what is going on around me. I don't know how the kids are doing in school, what is on in the news, except of course all of the financial crisis because we have had to study that in class oh and the hostage situation in Farmington since I work three blocks away from it.
It is very upsetting to think that you can become so out of it that you just shut down everything else. I can say that I am really tired and feeling somewhat strange. People talk to me and tell me things and I have probably forgotten to do things for people so I apologize ahead of time if I have forgotten to do something for you. I plead insanity.

The lights are on

2008-09-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hello
you have reached my brain
we are sorry to inform you that the brain has packed up and left for sunnier locals
Please leave a message and if we find the brain we will be sure to answer you
Have a nice day

Garage Heaven

2008-09-16T14:47:00.001-07:00

When we moved from the old house in North Odgen to the new house in West Point we lost some much needed space. Our old house had an almost finished basement with a family room and a couple of bedrooms. The new house has a basement but only one room is almost finished so, needless to say, we have a lot of excess stuff that has no where to go until we finally get the basement finished. D had hoped to have it finished within six months of moving in, I was a bit more skeptical. Well almost two years later we still have no basement finished. I give D a break because he does work an awful lot and does not have the stamina or drive that he did when he was younger. So where is all of the excess stuff - In the garage.
When we first moved in we had a large storage shed with all of our stuff in it because we sold our house in five days and did not have a house to move into. We had to store most of our stuff while we rented an apartment until the new house was finished. Eventually we had to move the stuff home as rent got to be expensive. So all of went in the garage and the cars moved out.
This past few weeks we have slowly gotten rid of a few things and D, being very sweet, cleaned and organized the garage enough that MY CAR NOW FITS, IN THE GARAGE!
I was way excited. It is really nice to have the car in the garage. It will be even nicer when it snows, or rains, or freezes as I won't have to scrap the car every day. D hopes to clean the rest out in a couple of weeks when we have a big yard sale and sell a lot of the extra stuff. As for the basement he has Boo's room almost sheetrocked, Ty's room is sheetrocked and she actually lives in it and he hopes by October to have both rooms done all the way ready for paint and then we can tackle the family room.
I am looking forward to having more room and the kids having more room and being able to seperate the two youngest again. Bee is a messy packrat and Bear is almost a neat freak so they do argue about who made the mess and who gets to clean it up. Besides boys of ten do need their own space without their nosy messy sister in it.

Disney Pics

2008-09-11T11:59:00.001-07:00

Since my wonderful and loving daughter sent me all of the pictures off of the camera I thought I would share some of our Disney fun. The trip was great. We did a lot of fun stuff and saw many of the little shows and such that you usually do not have time for when you go with kids. Any one planning a trip to Disney really needs to check out the show at the Golden Horseshoe - it was so fun and we saw it twice, The Muppet's 4-D, and It's tough to be a bug (this will scare the little ones but was really neat). D's favorite rides were Soarin over California, Space Mountain, California Screamin and the new Toy Story Ride.

This is the Mark Twain riverboat which goes on the river around Frontierland. We were sitting on the top deck waiting for it to start when the captain came down and asked if would like to join him in the wheelhouse which is the little room you see at the top of the boat. D got to blow the whistle and ring the bell. It was very neat and I think D really enjoyed that part. Orlando was our driver and he was very nice and talked to us all about Disney.

Our trip home was a nightmare. Since we were flying standby there is always that fear that you won't get on the plane. We were flying from Long Beach to Vegas and then to Salt Lake. Our initial flight out of Long Beach looked like we would not get on but we did. The Long Beach airport is really small. You board and unboard the planes outside and the luggage returns are outside, very strange. We got our tickets and got on the plane and were on our way to Vegas. The flight to Vegas was really bumpy, there were storms between California and Nevada and the pilot tried to go around them so we went a ways out of the way. On our first approach to Vegas he had to abort because the weather was too bad. We finally landed, thank goodness, before both D and I lost our cookies. We were on the same plane to go to Salt Lake but they made us de-plane and go pick up new tickets (standby rules) and then get back on the plane. We were supposed to land in Salt Lake at 7:15 pm but due to the storms and such we did not leave Vegas until 8:00. We sat on the plane for almost 2 hours. Fortunatly the trip to Salt Lake was smooth and we landed without incident at 9:15 got in our car and drove home very thankful to finally be home.

my feet will never talk to me again

2008-09-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

Three days,

Two parks

90+ degree heat

humidity

a long walk from the hotel to the park

a long walk back to the hotel from the park

meeting many strange people (some even from utah, originally)

one spectacular fireworks show

four times of the same parade (dang that song is still stuck in my head)

five times soaring over California

five times magic mountain

three California Screaming

lost count of how many pirates

very tired

very soar

lots of fun

Ready to come home

It has been a fun three days. We rode lots of rides and discovered today the really nice shuttle that we should have been riding from the start but were too stubborn to get tickets for (D). We had really good crowds friday, we were able to ride rides will little or no wait. It got a little busier yesterday but still we could ride things pretty quick. Today the park was much busier and the crowds were a lot heavier. We wanted to do the toy story ride again but the wait was over an hour so we did not. We did decide that we do need to bring the kids again because there are some things that we did not do with them last time that they all would love. We will have to save our pennies and bring them, maybe next year. It is a really long walk from one end of disney to the other end of california adventures. Our really special treat is that we had dinner yesterday in the restaurant that is the one that you go by in the pirates of the caribbean ride. It was good but very very very very expensive. I have never paid that much for dinner, ever. Now we can say that we did it. It was fun to sit and watch the boats go by but I would not do it again. D big wish is that he wants to stay in the grand californian hotel (we walked around inside of it today, it is very cool).

home tomorrow

I've been tagged

2008-09-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

If you get tagged, you have to list 10 things that make you happy. What are the things that tickle your fancy, make you smile or still give you that butterfly sensation? What things do you seek out and truly enjoy? The only rule is that you can't say your kids or your spouse...it's too easy.

My sis tagged me to answer this so here goes

10 - watching a great game of soccer played by my kids. I love to watch Boo play soccer, kick some butt and get better and better every game. Her team has so far won two games and tied one so way to go La Rocca

9- Finding that special book that connects with someone - I know it is my job but there is something special when you help someone find a book that they really connect with and I love it when they come back and tell me how much they loved it. It is especially cool when it is a kid who hates to read.

8- really good music, I love music and I will listen to about anything. I enjoy sitting in a quiet room with my ipod listening to not only the songs I grew up with but some of the new cool stuff my kids listen too. I love instrumental music, soundtracks, oldy goldies, hair bands, you name it.

7- A really good book, nothing better

6- Movies - I love to go to the movie. I don't get to very often but I love the smell of the popcorn and the excitement waiting for those previews to roll across the screen

5- A new car - this does not happen very often but I love the smell and how much fun it is to drive a new car that doesnt rattle, that no one has puked in yet and is just a little cool

4 - An A. I love it when I worked really hard on an assignment at school and I finally get what the teacher wants and end up with an A. Nothing is better than opening up that grade book to see that I was rewarded for all of the hard work

3- Listening to my girls play Cello or Violin. I love to hear them practice and play and get better all of the time. It just makes me feel so good to hear them.

2- Going on vacation - Getting away from home and seeing new and fun things with my family.

1- I know you said no spouses but I really love spending time with my Husband. With our totally different work schedules I love having free days that we can spend time together even just grocery shopping.

I tag my lovely daughters, my cool california cousin and my sister in law in Idaho.

Your turns-

Hello from the land of MIckey Mouse

2008-09-04T22:18:00.001-07:00

I am sitting in a hotel room in Anaheim California typing away on my 'puter isn't technology great. We have run away from home for a few days sans children and are going to go play with pluto, mickey, goofy and various other cartoon characters. We will take lots of fun pictures and hopefully have lots of fun although we just found out no haunted mansion (bummer).

Dan decided I needed to get away and after calling in favors of family flew us to california to spend a few days at the happiest place on earth.

Our hotel is okay, we have a lovely view of a large brick wall and the hallways are like a sauna but the room seems to be okay it is clean and cooler than the hallways. We are next door to a seven eleven (can you say slurpee heaven). The flight was full and we did not get to sit together. D sat between two guys who managed to down two vodka's each in our 90 min flight. I sat next to a large, rather smelly lady and a young hispanic kid. At least it was Jet Blue who has inflight t.v's so I could watch x-men the whole way.

Tomorrow it is off to Disney where we will hopefully ride rides til we are sick and have a great time.

Scary Neighbors

2008-08-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

We live in a what is trying to be ritzy neighborhood. It is a mix of very big fancy houses and then a few smaller less ostentatious homes. We live in one of the smallest in the neighborhood and basically keep to ourselves. There are, however, some people who take advantage of their positions and such and feel obligated to push others around. Case in point. Last night we were running late to get Boo to her soccer game. There were some last minute changes and we had fallen behind. As we were leaving and trying to get to the soccer field two of the neighborhood ladies had decided to talk in the middle of the road. One was in a big SUV and the other was standing outside the suv and they were talking. In the middle of the road. We pulled up behind and they continued to talk. We sat there, without really enought room to go around and they continued to talk neither one making any notion of moving out from the middle of the road. We sat some more being very frustrated they continued to talk. Finally we tried to go around and we may have gone around a bit quick but that was due to the frustration of waiting for these two women to move out from the middle of the road. We got to the game a little late watched Boo kick but and win and headed home forgetting the incident.
We had no sooner pulled into the driveway when this womans husband pulled into my driveway (very quickly i might add) and began to yell at me for driving fast around his wife. I tried to tell him that they needed to not be talking in the middle road. He was very rude and mean and of course D is standing there like a lump letting this man yell at me. D to his defense did not know what happened but he could have said something - oh well
The rude very mean man finally drove off and said something to the effect of I will get you if you do that ever again. I did not sleep at all for being one scared of this man beating me up and then pissed for the fact that they can stand in the middle of the freakin road and talk and not let anyone pass who needs to go somewhere. Today I am just mad for making me feel like I cannot even use that entrance in or out of my neighborhood for fear of this man coming over and yelling at me again or worse. In talking to my daughters I find out that his older daughters are as rude as he is and act like they own the world and have been very pushy and rude to my girls. This guy also parks tons of cars on the street and considers the grassy area next to his house as his private property despite the fact that it is part of the whole neighborhood and we all pay a maintenance fee to take care of it but if someone else wants to use the area he kicks them out and if anyone else parks on the street he has their cars towed. I guess I should not let this bother me but it does. Oh and he can write people up for not having their yards in yet and he doesn't have his in either.

What a jerk

The Rites of Summer

2008-08-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

There are always those things that you do every summer without fail. We go to the zoo go swimming at the surf and swim eat dinner at the fair and go to Lagoon. Because it has gotten to be so expensive we only go to Lagoon once a year when Coca Cola has their company Lagoon day. The company pays and the employees get in at a very reduced price and they provide lunch for the families. The kids look forward to this every year and lucky for us this year we convinced my sis and her family to come with us. It made for a fun day of riding rides and spending some quality time together.

We were very lucky this year the weather, which has been so hot, was actually really nice. Lagoon was way crowded which made riding some of the cool rides hard but I think we all had fun. Meemer and her family are always fun to do things with and it gave Ty someone to ride on the rides with. Bee loves to hang out with her cousins and with Fussy along it is nice to have lots of hands to help out.

It was really funny to see Meemer, Big D, Chilly, Harry and Ty racing to get back on the tidal wave ride after ride, it was late enough that the crowds were gone and they basically would ride the ride, get off and then race around to get back on before the next ride started. I rode twice in a row and got sick, after five in a row they all looked a little green.

Thanks sis for coming and lets make a date to go again next year.

zoom zoom zoom

2008-08-22T14:04:00.001-07:00

I thought I would introduce our small blogging world to the newest member of our crazy Family.

This is Roxey Zoom Zoom (yes, we name our cars) which we purchased a mere 2 weeks ago. She is a 2008 Mazda 6 and both D and I are very excited about her. We have been car shopping since January when we knew that we needed a car with much better gas mileage than the Durrango. We have looked at Honda's, Nissan's, Toyota's and Hyndai's but we seemed to gravitate toward Mazda's. D and Ty share our old 2000 Mazda 626 and Roxy makes the fourth Mazda we have owned. We were going to buy a Mazda 3 in copper red mica but the dealership was able to give us a better deal on this one since the new 2009 mazda 6's are all redesigned and very pretty. My only request was that it look sporty and have a spoiler (shallow, I know).

Boo says she is not really sporty and D kept saying at the dealership that she wasn't sporty and why didn't I tell him I wanted a 6 instead of a 3 (that was the all important question of money and the budget. I did not think we could find a new 6 in the price range I was given)

Anyway she has lots of cool features and is very fun to drive and has that lovely new car smell.

Downside is that we have a car payment again. We haven't had a car payment for awhile so that is a pain but it is nice to have something with less than 100,000 miles on it and a warranty.

The pictures are hard to see but the car is a silver gold color with black interior. The color changes depending on the light and what is around. It does have a spoiler (yeah) and in my humble opinion fits the sporty just fine.

Hamster Heaven

2008-08-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

Boo has a hamster named something weird in japanese. If you did not know it my girls are all Japan crazy and love all things Japanese. Their main goal in life is to save enough money to go to Japan.
Boo has this cute little teddy bear hamster named hakarao or something to that nature and today while out school shopping she found another one. Of course she begged and pleaded to please let her buy this new little cute black hamster, she had two cages and could take care of two as well as one so we said okay.

I now have two little rats running around the house. She is thinking of naming the new little hamster Kuma which we think means little bear in japanese (rather appropriate considering it is a teddy bear hamster)

D thinks the critters will soon take over the house.
They did have a cool cat at the petco that I tried to talk him into but he said no.

Just a zoo at the crazy house.

Join the text generation

2008-08-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

I did it
I caught up with the technology of the day and got a cell phone.
I have resisted up til now but it was really hard to keep track of kids and husband and work without one. I do not know how our parents did it all of those years without cell phones. Mom and Dad I envy the simpler life when we were kids. How you did it without being able to call someone I do not know

I got this new nifty little toy and the day I got it I went to the store to pick up a few things. I was walking around the local wally mart and as I would round corners I would hear music. I could not for the life of me figure out what it was. Well it was the kids calling me on the phone to let me know that my sis needed me to watch fussy while she did school stuff with Harry and Chilly.

I hope to get more used to having it. I keep leaving it places because I am not used to carrying it around.

Sorry Mom

2008-08-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

We went up to the parents house this evening to drop off a couple of things that we had borrowed as kids are known to do and show them our new member of the family and one of the first things that was said was why we haven't updated the blog in a while. So here you go Mom-

The last couple of weeks have been very busy at home, work and school so I apologize for not updating as regular as I should.

Anyway her is a quick update of the crazy family-

Boo has had a soccer tournement this week so she has had three games in the last three days. The team one the first game and then lost the last two. Boo got a ball in the nose and smacked her elbow hard and is feeling the three games worth of impacts. She did good, played hard and I hope had fun. Someday I will learn to take pictures and be able to post more on the blog. Boo also got her first cello last weekend. We had promised her when school got out that we would find her a cello and we finally succeeded so we hope to hear great things from her.

D has been busy at work. His new position requires him to be at work a lot more and we have not seen a lot of him this summer. There have been stretches when he has worked fourteen days straight. It makes it hard to spend time as a family but we do try to squish in some stuff. He is a great soccer dad and has not missed any of Boo's games so far.

I have been crazy. This statistics class wrapped up last night. It has been a long six weeks with lots of homework and hours spent trying to figure out formulas. It is a tough way to learn stats and I do not reccommend it. To compress five months worth of learning into six weeks with no face to face interaction makes it especially challenging. I did very well in the class and I am very glad to see it done. Next class is accounting and finance and that is almost as hard so we will keep our fingers crossed for the next six weeks to go smoothly.

Here is Izzy in our destroyed back yard. We finally got our air conditioning fixed (yeah) it has been a long couple of weeks in our too hot house. The new cement looks great and we are enjoying the additional parking. Of course our backyard now looks like they are testing missles in it as it is all tore up and full of big piles of dirt. The neighbors overwater their lawns so much that my backyard is a swamp and we will not be able to do anything until they quit watering for the year. Oh well at least we can sit on our new patio and look at the piles of dirt and dream of grass.

At my work they do employee appreciation days and have some activities for the employees and their families. They rent out the local surf and swim and let the employees and their families have a swim night. They have a golf tournement for those who golf and they have a bbq dinner at the fair. We always have fun at these activities and the kids look forward to the swimming and the fair every year. It has made for a busy week. Tomorrow we have Coke Lagoon day so the kids are very excited to spend the day riding rides and getting sick.

I am so bad at pictures and I should be better at taking fun shots of the kids. I do have a few from our recent trip to Idaho falls -

Here is our tiny hotel room -

here is the kids at the falls-

I would show you more but I can not get the pictures to flip the right way -

I will update more later hopefully with some better pictures.

Back to work

2008-08-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Ever take a week off of work
It is fun while you are gone
but then you get back to a burried desk
lots of questions
things to catch up on

Makes you want to take another vacation

Hi from the land of Idaho

2008-08-05T14:44:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a little mini-vacation to Idaho Falls and Rexburg. The reason behind the trip was that D's brother Richard was blessing their new little bundle of joy. We decided to make a trip out of it and stay for four days. We packed up the old durrango (to the hilt i might add) and off we went.
We spent thursday night getting aclimated to our tiny hotel room (six people one bathroom, with two teenage girls not the best idea) and the kids went swimming.
Friday we spent in Rexburg where the little bro lives and went bowling with his family and then the adults went out to dinner and to see the new mummy movie (it was okay, not as good as the first one. I hated the new Evie)
Saturday was fun. We spent the day at Rerie lake waterskiing, tubing and having fun in the sun as all of our sunburns can tell you. Boo decided to try waterskiing and actually got up on the skiis after much determination. She only lasted about a minute but she did get up. Way to go. We also watched Keri's dad waterskii. The man is awesome. He at 60+ years put to shame all of the kids out on that lake. This is a guy that refuses to get old. Keri is pretty good too and Richard is good at wakeboarding which is what Boo wants to try next. The day was hot and fun and tiring. The kids then came back to hotel and went swimming.

Sunday was the baby blessing playing with lots of cousins and then the long trip home.

it was fun but I think we need to start getting two hotel rooms, too many kids squished into one. We also did not get to see some cool stuff in Idaho falls that we would have liked but it was very nice to spend a couple of days with family that we don't see very often.

Sorry kids that this is the extent of our summer vacations this year. Too many needs at the old homestead, too many car repairs. Next year we will have to go on a big trip.

Thanks sis for watching the dog and hamster

Nothing much more exciting than that in our boring old lives.

No air conditioning totaly sucks!

2008-07-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

My house is hot

My house is muggy

who ever thought it would be a great idea to put in concrete in the middle of freakin july and unhook the central air for a week, and now it seems like no air until first of next week if the little man working on my concrete actually does something more than make a mess and actually finishes the job.

Not fun

Surprised and excited

2008-07-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated the blog in a few days (okay a week) when I logged on today to see if my sis had posted comments like I love her to do I found a comment from my cousin who I haven't talked to or seen in forever. It was really great to once again have that connection with someone. Thanks black sheep it is great to hear from you. You totally rock. This blog thing is pretty cool and thanks to meemer for getting us all started. It is neat to be able to talk to people, piss people off (only sometimes on purpose) and feel like you reconnect with family and friends. I love to check out the blogs of my niece and my cousins and it is fun to see a little piece of their lives and stay a little caught up in what they are doing and so wrapped up in our own little worlds. I live probably two whole miles from my sis and yet I know more about what she is doing by reading her blog and I get to see really cute pictures of her kids.

so thanks meemer for all you have done

black sheep keep posting and by the way Boo thinks you are very cool and would love to meet you in person some day.

By the way Boo totally rocked at her first tournament game today. Although the team lost I am so proud of how well she did. Way to go!

In class

2008-07-10T16:32:00.000-07:00

Here I sit waiting for the next six week oddisey (wow, i am falling apart already, i can't even spell) of learning to take place and let me tell you I am somewhat scared of the latest proposition. I am in a statistics class and might I add not looking forward to it. Like finance and accounting which happened several months ago it deals largely with math. I hate math. Math sucks. I became a librarian just so I did not have to do math. This class is required so here I sit.

Wish me luck all of you math wizzes.

I wish I were one of you

Washing machines and teenagers

2008-06-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

My washer was very old and when you put too many clothes in it the basket was so rough it would put holes in the clothes. The dryer quit last year and I had hoped for new ones then but crafy D fixed it (dang). With our tax return this year we bought a fancy new washer and dryer pair. We bought the nice new front loaders so that we could stack them in our tiny wash room giving us some much needed storage space.

Yesterday poor Boo went to wash a load of her clothes and the washer wouldn't work. Knowing how expensive the washer was it put her in a bit of panic thinking she had broken my new washer that I had waited for a long time to get. Poor girl. She did not dare call and tell me that it wouldn't work so she waited for dad to get up hoping he could fix it.

Well apparently there is a little arm at the back of the soap dispenser that gets stuck every now and again and you have to take out the soap drawer and push it until it gets unstuck. ( thanks to all of those who figured out this problem). All is well with the washer. I hope this doesn't scare her away from doing laundry, it is sure nice to have the help.

comp soccer What the Heck?

2008-06-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

As many have read both in Boo's post and in the previous one of mine Boo has made a comp team in soccer. Boo has played soccer since she was six and we discovered AYSO. She loves soccer and has consitantly played for eight years but it was not until three years ago that we heard about Comp Soccer, up until then she had only played AYSO.
The first year we found out she was too late to try out for any team so we promised her the next year that we would make sure to keep tabs on tryouts so that she could make a team. AYSO was just not challenging enough for her and she needed something harder to develop her skills. The next year we watched for tryouts and I still missed the team she wanted but she did try out for the Rampage team in Roy and became an alternate but never actually got on the team.
This year I promised her that we would do our best to make tryouts. During her indoor season we found out that one of her indoor coaches was started a comp team so we were very excited because she would have a good chance at this team. We kept tabs with him and he knew Boo was interested and when tryouts came he made sure that we knew so Boo could tryout.
Since we knew she had a great chance at this team we decided not to try out for any of the other teams.
The first day of tryouts went great and Boo looked like a shoo-in to make the team. Second day of tryouts all was not so well. In looking over everyones applications the coach made a discovery that Boo is too old to play on his team. Despite the fact that she has played on a U-13, 14 team all year with comp soccer she is actually a U-15 player because her birthday is in November. BIG BUMMER so we made a mad scramble to find out which teams were still having tryouts.
She missed the tryouts for the team she really wanted and there were only two teams locally still having tryouts once we discovered our error. La Rocca and Wasatch Soccer. Of course both second day tryouts were on the same day. She hit La Rocca first day and did very well but was told that the teams were pretty much set and she would probably not make the team, Went to the first day of Wasatch and there were fewer girls there so she decided to hit their second day figuring she had a better shot. Well she did not make Wasatch and was very upset thinking we had, again, missed the boat. Imagine her surprise when she actually made La Rocca. Good job.

She is on the La Rocca classic U-15 Team (this is the lowest of the teams but gives her the chance to move up if she does really well this year)Her dad and I just paid out a small fortune for her to play for the year (just under a thousand dollars with team fees, uniforms and training fees I know pick your chin up off the floor, I know I had to pick up mine). but I hope that this gives her the opportunity to improve and become a really good player and feel like she belongs. Coach seems really knowledgable and she made a few friends on the team already.

So good luck and we will post game times and such for her so that if people would like to come cheer her on they can.

The week from Hell

2008-06-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry not to have blogged but the last week has been one of too many things all in a four day period.
Tuesday Boo had soccer tryouts in ogden at 6:30, Tuesdays I work late so it was up to dad to get her to tryouts and back in time for him to go to work at 8:30. Needless to say he was late for work.
Wednesday we had Bee's birthday and more soccer tryouts for Boo in Kaysville. We went to dinner in Kaysville at the artic circle and then took Boo to tryouts took everyone else home so Dan could get to work and then I went back to pick her up at 8:30 after tryouts were over.

Thursday was the worst day of all-
We had Graduation for Ty - YaHoo! at 4:00 in ogden, Boo had tryouts at 6:30 in Kaysville and I had Class at 6:00 in Layton. Needless to say we were only on time for graduation. Why so many things in just one day, I have no idea. Boo was 45 min late to tryouts (sorry Boo) and I was an hour and a half late to class. Good thing I had cleared it with the Prof in advance.

Friday was the day we had our new couch delivered but unfortunatly it came in two different colors I would think that they could see the difference between brown and red. I had to go find stuff for a birthday party the next day

Saturday was the day to get ready for Bee's first all-girl birthday party. We had invited six little girls from the neighborhood and then we found out another girl in the neighborhood had her party the same day so we did not get all the girls we had invited but I think she had fun making bracelets, dream-catchers, decorating little bags and hats. I think everyone had fun.

Sunday was the day for the family party with my sis and my parents. We had a bbq and opened presents with Chilly and Bee, played the wii and had a good time until Fussy fell down my stairs and hurt his head. Poor baby.

After all of this Kelsey did not make the soccer team she wanted instead she made the other team that she tried out for and only went to one day of tryouts. More about that latter.

In others words a busy week with more stuff than we all should have to do.

Graduation is over Congrats Ty- we are very proud of you
Bee is Nine going on 20
Boo made a comp team (Yeah!!!)

May be crazy, but it is our life

Happy Birthday

2008-05-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

Today my baby is nine years old. She was our little bundle of surprise after being told that we would not be able to have any more children after the birth of her big brother but she showed all of those doctors. Born a mere 14 months and 25 days after her big brother she has been our stubborn little diva. She refused to turn around in-utero so she was our only c-section and even then it took the Dr. a lot of firm convincing to get her out. She was six pounds 11 ounces of pure fire.

Even now she knows what she wants and expects everyone to fall in line to get it for her. She loves to talk, loves horses and tries her best to convince both of her parents that she needs a horse desperately. She loves making friends and is rarely at home once summer hits as she and her friends all run around and play every day.

Happy birthday to my little fireball, you may be small but you are mighty. You are usually always the smallest in the class but you don't let that stop you from doing anything. You are so cute and smart and loving. You never let your dad go to work without a hug. It is hard to see you grow up because you are my last baby but it is so much fun to see you discover all of the cool things that you can do.

I look forward to seeing you continue to grow up. To get involved school, soccer and achivement days. I look forward to seeing you as a beautiful young woman, strong, sure of yourself, smart, kind and a wonderful person. Your family loves you including all your grandparents, your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. You are the sunshine in my life and I love each day I get to spend as you mom. Have a super day and many many more to come

Happy Birthday -

Love Mom

Tagged

2008-05-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have never been tagged before, It seems rather silly

5 things I was doing ten years ago-

having our third baby, the only boy

Trying to sell our first house

baptising the oldest child

getting pregnant with 4th baby

taking a great trip to New York to see my younger sister who had moved there

5 things on my to-do list

clean my messy house

get ready for a birthday party for my youngest

plant flowers in the front yard before the neighbors boot us out of the neighborhood

find a cello to purchase

graduate my oldest child from high school

5 favorite snacks/foods

prime rib at the Timbermine (honestly to die for)

moolate at Dairy Queen

baby carrots

peas fresh out of the garden

reeses peanut butter cups

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire

buy a new car

pay off my house and build a bigger one

pay off my parents house

pay off my in-laws house (just to be nice)

travel the world especially egypt, china, japan, australia, new zealand, italy

5 bad habits

taking on too much

letting people take advantage of me

doing things myself instead of giving others opportunities to learn

not making my kids clean their rooms

being a pessimist instead of an optomist

I also don't spell so well

5 places I have lived

Hyrum Utah

St George

21st street Odgen

North Ogden

West Point

(also preston Id, Garden City, Logan Utah)

5 people I tagg

My Crazy Daughter

My Niece who blogged a couple of times (come on Amber, time to update that blog)

Big-D because I am tired of the weekend update too and if both Meemer and I tag him maybe he will change it.

Crazy Daniel from work who also bloggs

Teenage Girls

2008-05-23T07:43:00.001-07:00

Is there anything more moody and hormonal than teenage girls? I have three girls, two of which are between the ages of 18 and 13. Usually they manage not to kill each other. Last night they fought, one took off to cool off. I came home to one gone, one upset knowing that she had made her sister take leave and then mom in a panic because we all know how scary this world is and to have a 14 year old girl wandering around in the dark is more than a little scary.

It all ended up okay. Mom had her heart attack added many many new grey hairs and today they are friends again (well almost).

I feel bad for the younger one. She is experiencing the nature of friends of that age than can be your best buddy one minute and hate you the next. It makes my heart hurt that she feels so left out and like nobody is her friend. She is such a loyal girl and tries so hard to be a good friend that I feel bad when others treat her wrong. 14 is such a tough age. I think the pressure from those last few days of school, friends, soccer, track and then a sister who wants nothing more than to sit and do nothing leaving the majority of the work to her she finally had had enough.

To my sweet girl boo - it will all get better, stay true to yourself. You are such a talented beautiful girl. We love you and will always support you and be there in your corner. You have great ambition and you will accomplish so many things and I treasure each day with you. You make me laugh, you make me angry at times, you make me marvel when you show such fierce loyalty to your younger brother and sister and when you show such gentleness with you little cousins.

To my other beautiful girl - remember that you are also a talented beautiful girl and we only push because we want the very best for you. You have such potential that we know what great things you can accomplish when you put your mind to it. Remember that your family will always be around to pick you up when you fall, to be your friend, mentor and shoulder to lean on. We will be with you to celebrate you accomplishments, and to help you through the tough times.