Sunday, July 23, 2006

Jack and Jill went up the hill...

to fetch a couple of pictures,
Jill and mini-Jill took a spill,
and Jack and W(ill) rushed them back down the hill,
to see if anything was broken.

Today we went up to Sandia Crest for our routine birthday "photo shoot". We went up with a camera and bright happy faces ready for a great time. We came back down the mountain with Sy gushing blood from her lip and chin needing possible stitches and me with a big scrape to my shin and a major wrist and elbow sprain or possible break. Being that it was a Sunday afternoon we rushed back to the city looking for an urgent care that was open and that would accept our insurance.

Little Sy got her chin cleaned up and glued shut, wasn't bad enough for stitches. I got x-rays of my wrist and elbow to see if there was a fracture, couldn't be sure so wrapped it in a splint with instructions to go see a specialist tomorrow if it still really hurts bad.

Oh and there's a chance I might have broken my camera and/or camera flash in the fall. My hubby has cheched it out and thinks its okay but we'll have to wait and see. Oh and I only took two pictures of Sy before the accident.

I wrote this all with one hand, pretty impressive huh?

P.S. Our fridge went out this weekend, after 3 1/2 years, got a new one. Won't be delivered till 8/01/06! Eating out every day for a week isn't something I'm looking forward to. yah.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 7/23/2006 08:18:00 PM :: 6 Comments:

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Saturday, July 22, 2006

"You Might Be a Music Theory Geek, if..."

I was given this when I was in college and I just found it in a drawer and HAVE to share it! Non music majors might not get this, but then again I would wonder how many music majors would get these let alone remember some of these terms, I've always kept it for some reason so I might as well share it.

1. Your favorite pickup line is, "What's your favorite augmented sixth chord?"

2. You can look at a piece by Back and say, "You know, I think he could have gotten a much better effect this way..."

3. You like to march around your room to the rhythms of Stravinsky's Le Sacred du Printemps.

4. You love to quote Walter Piston.

5. You long for the good old days of movable G-clefs.

6. You like polytonal music, because, hey, the more keys the merrier.

7. You dream in four parts.

8. You feel the need to end Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony with a picardy third.

9. You can improvise 16th century counterpoint with no trouble, but you frequently foreget how to tie your shoes.

10. You enjoy the tang of a tritone whenever you can.

11. You lament the decline of serialism.

12. You like to deceive your friends and loved ones with deceptive cadences.

13. Instead of counting sheep, you count sequences.

14. Your find free counterpoint too liberal.

15. Moussourgsky's Hopak gives you nightmares.

16. You wonder what a "Danish Sixth" would sound like.

17. You have ever told a joke that had this punchline: "because it was polyphonic!"

18. You only sing tunes that make good fugal subjects.

19. The Corelli Clash gives you good bumps.

20. You can hear an enharmonic modulation coming a mile away.

21. You have ever done a Schenkerian analysis on "Three Blind Mice".

22. You have hosted a "Gurrelieder" party.

23. You have ever pondered what an augmented seventh chord would sound like.

24. You have ever trained your dog to jump through a flaming circle of fifths.

25. You know the difference between a Courante and a Courrente.

26. You have composed variations on a theme by Anton Webern.

27. You keep a notebook of useful diminutions.

28. When you're feeling particularly prankish, you transpose Mozart arias to locrian mode.

29. You suspiciously check all the music you hear for dangling sevenths.

30. You have ever heard a wrong note in a performance by a piece by Berio, Stockhausen, or Boulez.

31. You can name ten of Palestrina's contemporaries.

32. You know the ninth overtone of the harmonic series is off the top of your head.

33. You like Mendelssohn's Scotch as well as Beethoven's Fifth!

34. Every now and then you like to kick back and play something in hypophrygian mode.

35. You wonder why there aren't more types of seventh chord.

36. You abbreviate your shopping list by using figured bass.

37. You always invert your countpoint, just in case.

38. You know dirty acronyms for the order of sharps.

39. You consider all music written between 1750 and 1920 to be "rather elementary".

40. You can not only identify any one of Bach's 371 Harmonized Chorales by ear, but you also know what page it appears in the Riemenschneider edition and know many suspensions it has in the first seven bars.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 7/22/2006 09:59:00 PM :: 3 Comments:

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Friday, July 21, 2006

Rule of Thumb

When we got engaged we made a couple of rules that we would always strive to follow in our marriage.

1. Never go to bed angry.

2. Never talk badly about your spouse to your parents.

3. Never discuss your financial situation (specific #'s) whether good or bad with family members.

4. Always kiss your spouse goodbye before leaving the house.

5. Never tell embarrassing stories of your spouse to your friends or family.

6. Keep your marital problems to yourself. As far as your family is concerned you live in marital bliss and always have.

7. Make all decisions together.

8. Never let your children play you against your spouse.

9. If your spouse makes a decision support them in that decision regardless of how your really feel about that decision. You may not like it, but as far as anyone else is concerned you are completely onboard with the idea.

It's #9 I want to discuss. I always assumed this was a rule of thumb that went with every marriage. It's a rule of common respect for the one that you married and promised to love and be a partner in everything. So its interesting to me that there are those out there that would try to get us to tell our spouse that they are wrong.

If my husband makes a decision to do something, I'm going to support him. Telling me to tell my husband that he's stupid and wrong is not what I'm going to do. First of all if you know me you know that telling me what to do invokes a stubbornness button, I will set out to do the opposite of what it is you want me to do. Second, telling me my husband is stupid doesn't make me think less of him, it makes me think less of you.

Understand that if it's his decision it automatically becomes my decision as well. And that doesn't make me weak or subservient, that makes me a strong helpmeet that supports her partner. I will not argue with my husband through the dark of night through loud words, mean names and tears till he drops his idea and accepts mine instead. That is not what a couple does. If there is a disagreement you discuss it like civilized adults, you listen while your spouse tells their side and you wait till they are done before stating your own opinion. You summarize your spouses statement and then talk about your own. If you still don't agree with one anothers viewpoint you try a compromise, find something in the middle that you CAN agree with.

We have been married for 6 and half years now. I do not think that either of us would ever say that we gave up our dreams for the others. We have somehow found a way to make each others dreams and ideals our own or we have found avenues that neither of us thought of originally that we both agree on. Going into a marriage does not mean settling, or letting your own ideas be blown by the wind it means finding something that you can both be happy about and agree on.

Marriage is about having mutual respect for each other, not telling the other to "get off their high horse" because they have an ideal they would like to live up to. It's part of becoming a responsible adult regardless of whether you're married or not. Have enough respect for someone else to allow for them to have their own ideas and keeping your mouth shut if you don't think it's exactly the smartest or "coolest". It's okay to go off on a tangent every so often, go off the beaten road so to speak. If you always stick to the common path where's the adventure?
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 7/21/2006 09:16:00 AM :: 6 Comments:

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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

All in a day's work!

The first weekend of June 0ur little family was preparing for a trip. We were going to Provo, Utah for my hubby's parents' 30th wedding anniversary. It was just a short weekend trip but anyone who has traveled with children know that packing for a weekend trip might as well be the same as packing for a whole week or longer. We got the kids to bed and my hubby and I began to pack up the car. We made numerous trips from the house through the garage out to the car. Finally the car was packed but I couldn't go to sleep yet.

I stayed up and fixed the kids' necklaces and bracelets. They needed to be restrung. I watched the 10 O'Clock news, then Letterman. (I'm a Letterman fan over Leno ANY day!) The restringing of beads wasn't going as quickly as I would have liked and Letterman ended. Then the Late, LATE show with Craig Ferguson came on. I don't usually stay up late enough to watch him but I have caught it a couple of times and I'd say he's pretty funny.

As I'm sitting on the floor stringing intricate beads and watching tv I heard a small rustle come from the garage door. The door was open just a crack for the evaporative cooler. I looked over and saw this small brown tuft scurry across the floor. I didn't know what it was at first and my imagination got the best of me. Was it a mouse? We don't have mice in our house! I looked again just in time to see it move. It was a baby bunny! Oh it was such a cute baby bunny! I could tell it was scared out of its wits. It had ventured into the garage while we were packing the car and then got trapped inside. I tried to capture the little bunny so I could put him back outside but he was super fast. He ran down the hallway and right into my son's room. (My daughter's crib had been moved into the other room so they could go to sleep at the same time). The little ball of fluff scurried into the closet. I had to turn on the bedroom light in order to find it and finally shooed it into a box. I walked out the front door and let him loose in the flower bed. I was so glad I had stayed up late because if I hadn't he might have stayed trapped in the garage the whole weekend and might have died and then I would have been really sad.

When we came back from Provo sunday evening I went out to the backyard to check on my daylilly seedlings. To my utmost shock and horror a bunny had been killed in my backyard most likely by a cat. All that remained was a hindleg! I almost cried right there on the spot. I didn't want the kids to see it so I quickly ran inside and got a plastic bag, picked up the leg and threw it over the wall into the arroyo. Only a week before we had seen 4 different rabbits in our front or backyard. For the next couple of weeks I hadn't seen any! They were all scared of ending up dinner for a neighbor cat like their friend.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Saturday July 15th.
I woke up, and went in to the bathroom. As I was sitting there I looked out the window into our backyard. Right there by our backdoor was another cottontail. He was the original visitor. I could tell because he favors his left hind leg. He had an injury that he's still trying to heal from. I hurried into the living room to tell my husband. Just then he hopped past the main sliding glass door by the dining room. Our whole family was excited to see him jump into the flowerbed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This morning.
7:25am. I woke with a start, I thought I heard my daughter wake up. I sat there in bed for a moment trying to figure out if she was a wake and I needed to get up or if I could doze for a few more minutes. I looked out the window to see an orange cat in my yard. He was jumping around in the mint like he was trying to catch something. I sat amused by it's antics and wondered what it was trying to catch. My first thought was a lizard. The cat must have found a lizard. Just then I saw a little animal jump out of the mint bush. It definitely wasn't a lizard, my next thought was a toad. We've seen toads frequent our flowerbeds from time to time. The cat jumped into the grass right behind the little animal and thats when I realized that it wasn't a toad but the little baby bunny I had saved almost 2 months earlier.

I jumped out of bed and ran out the door yelling "Don't you DARE eat that bunny!" As soon as I had opened the door the cat jumped the wall into the neighbor's yard that happened to be the home of two big dogs! And the frightened little bunny jumped back into the mint. He was so scared he just hid in a corner which made it easy to catch. I felt so bad for him, he just sat there in my hand scared to death. I gently stroked his ever so soft fur and brought him inside. I immediately called my husband and told him of the daring rescue. He was shocked and surprised that the little creature was sitting so calmly in the palm of my hand. We didn't know what to do with him though. If I set him free he would just fall prey to some other cat that wanted to eat him for dinner. Just then my kids wandered out of their rooms sleepy-eyed. Quickly my daughter saw the cute snuggly little ball of fur in my hand and began to make cutesy noises at it. That caught the attention of my son who then began to ask many, many questions. We put the little bunny in a box and W set to work to pick grass for the bunny's breakfast.

I knew we couldn't keep the little bunny in a cardboard box but I still worried about setting him free into the backyard where there could be lurking cats. I put my mind to work and came up with a plan. I got a laundry basket from the house, took it and the box with the bunny outside and let the bunny go into the grass. The laundry basket was turned upside down to protect the bunny but so it could be in the lawn. He immediately curled up and went to sleep, the poor little thing. I know he can't stay there forever, eventually I'll have to let him go, but I just worry about the poor little guy. There are so many big mean cats ready to jump on him when he isn't expecting it. My kids have gone out to check on the bunny numerous times already this morning. Just to make sure he's still okay under the laundry basket. And to be honest I have too.

Posted by ABQ Mom :: 7/19/2006 08:13:00 AM :: 5 Comments:

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

When did I grow up?

Examples I found while visiting my parents in Washington and my In-Laws in Idaho:

1. I can no longer walk across the gravel driveway barefoot. I'm amazed my kids can do it. I think it has something to do with the amount of weight per square inch or something.

2. I now inspect my mom's flower beds for ideas and plants I might want cuttings for my own flowerbed instead of weapons of war to use on my brothers.

3. Raspberries are no longer to be eaten off the bush. They must be taken in the house, washed, mashed, a little sugar added and put on shortcakes with cool whip.

4. Climbing up on top of the monkeybars is impossible. No seriously, to stand on the steps and jump/pull myself up wasn't an option, all I could think about was jumping short and hitting my boobs on the bar! There was always the hook the legs on the bars and shimmy up between the spaces like when I was a kid. That no longer works either. I could barely get my legs up on the bars, and there was no way my booty would fit between the bars!

5. Sitting in a chair and watching the kids play in the wading pool is more fun that actually BEING in the cold water in the wading pool.

6. Washing the car is for getting the car clean, not for sun-tans or water-fights.

7. Flowers look better on the plant then picked.

8. Bathtime is for getting clean, not staying in till you're a prune and shivering.

9. Mowing the lawn is fun.

10. Taking one minute to put on sunscreen is SO much better than spending a week nursing a sunburn and peeling skin.

11. Sandpits are just dirty.

12. Confetti party poppers just make a huge mess that has to be cleaned up.

13. When did the swings get so small and low to the ground?

14. Parades are crowded.

15. Getting stuck in a whirlpool in the middle of the river is scary, not fun.


I'm sure I'll think of more later. Oh and this is my 200th post!
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 7/11/2006 06:33:00 PM :: 7 Comments:

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Sunday, July 09, 2006

I'm Back!

Hey! I'm Baaack! Maybe you've noticed maybe you haven't. In any case here's a quick over-view.

Sunday, June 17th -Drove with W and Sy to Provo, Utah and stayed with my sister-in-law. The drive went well, no problems, went by really quickly. My SIL was surprised that I arrived as early as I did. Called her brother over and we had dinner together. My kids are the only neices and nephews so their aunts and uncles were really excited to see them.

Monday, June 18th -Drove from Provo to Kennewick, Washington. Got stuck in rush-hour traffic in SLC. Stopped for Breakfast. Drove to Boise, stopped for lunch. W and Sy both fell asleep in the car just outside of Boise and slept till Baker City, Oregon. A mountainous area about an hour and half from Kennewick. W cried bloody murder till Hermiston, Oregon. About 30 minutes from Kennewick. The whole time I didn't know whether to push on through or pull over. I felt that if I pulled over I would be giving in to his fit. My mom called the cell phone and said she'd get pizza for when we arrive. That point I was able to talk to W about the wheat fields, and the river, and the dam and the big barge, and apple fields. He finally calmed down and was excited to be "in town". He even said Kennewick.

Tuesday June 19-Tuesday June 27th - I hung out at my parents house. The last 3 days I was there it reached above 100 degrees every day. It's so odd because when I arrived it was in the nice comfortable 80's. We visited with my grandpa, we took the kids to see "Disney/Pixar Cars". They both loved it. The kids played in the wading pool in the backyard. We went in to my grandma's house to visit and W & Sy got to play with my cousin's kids. They had a great time. The last day I was there I invited my aunt, her two daughters, and their kids out for a barbeque. I made a home-made BBQ sauce and we cooked chicken and hotdogs on the BBQ. The kids played in the little pool and my cousin's and I had a nice time chatting.

Wednesday June 28th - Drove from Kennewick, Wa to Shelley, Id. My sister-in-law Brooke was getting married on June 30th and her bridal shower was Wednesday night. I was under stict orders to be there! :-) The drive went very well, W & Sy slept for the first 3 hours, which left only two hours till Boise. We had planned on meeting up with my old roommate for lunch but that didn't work out. We left Boise, the kids watched a DVD for a few hours and then slept the last 2 hours till my In-Law's house where they were greeted with open arms from their grandma. The bridal shower went really well, I won the prize for getting the fewest trivia questions wrong about my SIL Brooke.

Thursday June 29th - My hubby arrived with his brother and brother-in-law. He had planned on riding the bus but last minute bought a bus ticket and flew to SLC where he was picked up by Sterling and Gilbert. Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner was thursday night. W & Sy played hard and long all day with their Aunt Juell (12). Plum tuckered out the fell asleep during the 30 minute drive from Shelley to Idaho Falls. W=Ringbearer, Sy=flower girl, were so tired they didn't wake up when we arrived at the wedding hall. They even stayed asleep being put back in the car to go to the restaurant. Great food at the restaurant. Sy loved my teriyaki shrimp.


Friday, June 30th - Wedding Day. All the men went Golfing. My hubby, his Dad David, his brother Sterling, and his BIL Gilbert were together. None of them besides David had golfed before. Sterling bent down to try to blow the ball into the hole. David purposely stepped on a golf ball to push it into the ground on the green. The group behind them chewed David out thinking that Sterling was leaving divits in the ground with his kneews. My hubby, would hit the ball and instead of going down the green would go 90 degrees from the target and almost peg Sterling who was sitting in the golf cart!

I was on high stress mode hoping W & Sy would behave during the wedding. They both looked so good in their outfits for the wedding. But neither of them would have anything to do with the photographer. At one point W pretended to be asleep standing up so he wouldn't have to smile for the picture. During the wedding party picture Sy through her white rose at the photographer and an petal that had fallen off at me. When it came time for the actual ceremony to begin I was on the verge of tears hoping that they wouldn't freak out during the wedding. Brooke and Nathan were a little concerned about letting the rings be walked down the aisle with a 3 1/2 year old so W got to through flowers with his Aunt Juell and little sister Sy. They were doing so well till that darned photographer got down on the aisle to take their pictures. Sy had a melt down right there, but once the photographer was out of sight she came down the aisle without problem.

Saturday July 1st - We went rafting down the snake river. Brandi and Gilbert on a paddle boat, and my FIL David, BIL Sterling (19), SIL Juell (12) and my hubby and I rode on a homemade raft made of inner-tubes. It was a lot of fun, too bad my hubby broke one of the paddles in the first 10 minutes so with only one paddle we were at the mercy of the river. It was still a lot of fun. We ran into low-lying cottonwood trees, got stuck in a whirlpool, and when the river split to go around an island and we want to go on the branch with the rapids and the river wanted us to go the other way we all bailed ship, pulled the raft onto the island and drug it over to the other branch. All in all it was still a lot of fun. I had put sunscreen on myself, Juell and Brandi. But forgot to do our legs. I offered it to Gilbert but her refused. I got 3rd place for the worst sunburn. It was only on my legs and not too bad, Brandi came in second, again only on her legs, but her stubborn hubby Gilbert took 1st. His whole entire body was one big sunburn!

July 4th - We went to the 4th of July parade in downtown Idaho Falls and out to lunch. Brandi and Gilbert left in the afternoon to go back to Provo. Sterling hung around to play cards and eat dinner. Home made hamburgers and potato salad is always worth staying for. He also had me take his pictures for his missionary papers. He left later on and then we went back up to Idaho Falls and watched the fireworks over the Snake River that night.

July 5th - My Idaho grown hubby thought it would be fun to go to the Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho. We took all the farmer backroads between Shelley and Blackfoot instead of the highway. We came to the intersection of 00 N./00 E!

The Potato Museum was fascinating. Did you know potatoes originated in South America? It then went to Europe and came to America from England. The largest potato ever harvested was 18 pounds 4 ounces, in 1795 in England. There was even a copy of a letter written to Vice-President Dan Quayle from the Governor of Idaho after he misspelled Potato. ...here is a box of potatoes for your Mr. Quayle. I know your boss really likes them. You can cook the potatoes any way you want to, as long as they are a true Idaho. P.S. Idaho doesn't have an 'e' in it either."

We then took the backroads back to Shelley. We went in the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, and it was during that time that David called wanting us to go rescue Gail in Idaho Falls. She is working on her Master's Degree and works 3 days a week at a school in Idaho Falls that teaches limited english students. She had lost her keys and couldn't get home. We went back to the house and got the spare key and drove up to Idaho Falls. The key would unlock the door but wouldn't start the car. We piled 6 people into our Focus and went back to Shelley. We were there for about 30 minutes when Gail's friend called her to ask if she was missing her keys, that she had picked them up by mistake. We then drove BACK to Idaho Falls to get the keys and go back to the school! As thank you for the many trips to I.F. in one day Gail bought us all Jamba Juice!

Thursday, July 6th - We decided it was time to travel back home. We weren't going to go the normal way through SLC either. We went through Soda Springs, over to Bear Lake were we spent an hour playing in the water, then went through Evanston, Wyoming where we say two Moose, and then down to Vernal, Utah where we say lots of Dinosaurs.

Friday, July 7th - We traveled from Vernal, Utah to Grand Junction, Colorado. We then went on to Durango, Colorado. We took the million dollar freeway that goes through Silverton, Colorado. We drove passes that were 11,000 feet elevation, and 10, 476 feet, elevation, and 10, 358 feet elevation. We got to Durango, checked into our hotel room and went swimming.

Saturday, July 8th - We drove the final 4 hours from Durango, Colorado to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a nice drive, it had pretty much rained on us since leaving Shelley, Idaho on Thursday. It had rained the whole day on Wednesday as well. It was nice to have some moisture. The southwest sure needs it. When we got to the house I couldn't believe how much everything had grown in the yard in 3 weeks.

I left my husband home alone for a week, I have a lot of cleaning to do. :-) Not to mention all the unpacking and laundry from the trip. My hubby has tomorrow Monday July 10th off as well. We'll be doing some cleaning, and weeding, and lawn-mowing tomorrow I'm sure.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 7/09/2006 03:53:00 PM :: 6 Comments:

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